* * * * *
Sydney and Vaughn were immediately flagged by familiar faces. Everyone from Weiss to Vaughn's secretary's best friend's aunt (who surprisingly worked with them). They were greeted with a smile, and a "Welcome back." and they graciously returned the welcome back. Sydney smiled. She had to admit, as much as she loved teaching, it did feel good to be back at the Joint Task Force. Just being in the building made her adrenaline rush. "Wait, stop here a second." Vaughn whispered. Sydney stopped walking and looked at Vaughn. "Do you know where we are?" He asked.
Sydney looked around. "The JTF?"
"No, I meant this very spot. Do you know where we're standing?"
Sydney took a closer look at her surroundings, and bust out laughing when she realized where they were standing. "Oh my God, we're in the flirting corner."
"That's right."
Sydney pressed herself right up against Vaughn. "Do you remember that kiss you stole, when you thought that no one was looking?" Vaughn smiled at the memory.
"Yeah. Only Weiss was looking." He laughed.
"It's a good thing that you kissed me after your birthday."
"The day after is after enough."
Sydney kissed him. "You know what the difference between now and then. This time it's not forbidden. Plus, you are all mine." She joked, kissing him again.
"Somehow I don't think that Devlin will be exactly thrilled at us making out in the flirting corner."
"Then it is forbidden again." Sydney teased, pulling Vaughn closer. "Good, because sometimes, it was sexy to be seeing you when it was all forbidden."
"It didn't matter to me if it was in the open, or forbidden, all I cared about was having you in my arms."
"Always the charmer."
As their lips were about to touch, a voice rose behind them. "God, do you two ever grow up?" He asked.
"So says the man with a yo-yo in his pocket." Vaughn commented, eyeing his best friend.
"Excuse me. Kelsey thinks it's hot." He replied.
"She says hi by the way." Sydney said, passing on the message from her best friend.
"Really?" Weiss begged.
"Yeah."
"What's up man?"
"Apparently you."
Vaughn turned bright red. And Sydney laughed along with Weiss. "Seriously Eric, what did you want, besides to embarrass Michael?"
"Oh so now he's Michael?"
"What is it?" A still very embarrassed Vaughn demanded.
"Geeze, if you're going to get all that way man, Devlin wants you two in his office pronto."
Sydney and Vaughn continued their journey to the office. "Agents Vaughn and Bristow, you have no idea how good it is to see you again." Devlin greeted. Sydney and Vaughn took the seats opposite of the ageing man. Devlin took a quick glance at his watch before continuing on. An act which did not go unnoticed by the experienced agents. "You have no idea how much we have been in need of your services."
"Excuse me?" Sydney interrupted. "Did you expect us to just pick up our missions like nothing ever happened?"
"No. I expected you to return some of your services to this agency."
"With all do respect sir, I'm afraid I cannot do that."
"And why not Agent Bristow?"
Sydney sighed. "I have been out of practice. I don't think I can take on three armed guards with just my hands anymore."
"Agent Bristow, you have not officially resigned yet, you are still obligated to complete assignments that I order you to do."
"Do you have a computer I can borrow so I can type out my resignation letter?"
"And do you agree with Agent Bristow, Agent Vaughn?"
"Our lives are in Greenwich now, not LA."
"You do realize that you won't be allowed to keep the Cryptology, which need I remind you is an agency owned bookshop if you resign."
"I do. But there are other things I can do." Vaughn and Sydney sat there determined not to waiver on their position.
Devlin looked like he was going to explode. His face looked like a time bomb, with seconds left. Sydney grabbed Vaughn's hand, bracing herself for the yelling that was bound to follow. Devlin quickly checked the time again. But instead, Devlin calmly sat down. "You called my bluff." He admitted. "There is no way that this agency can afford to allow you to resign, either one of you. Vaughn, your analysis that you have been doing for us over the past five years has been invaluable, and over the past seven months, your production has almost tripled."
"Sydney has been helping me out." He admitted.
"Sir, I don't wish to resign. I just refuse to do anymore missions."
"Sydney, we have yet to find an agent that even comes close to paralleling your abilities. We need you."
"I'm sorry."
After checking his watch yet again, Devlin looked at Sydney and Vaughn with a disappointed and hurt look. "I don't want to keep you from your other activities, seeing as you both don't actively work here. I expect to see you again tomorrow morning for debriefing."
"Are we keeping you from something?" Sydney inquired.
"No."
"Tomorrow, 9:00."
"Yes sir."
Devlin escorted them out of his office. "WELCOME BACK!" A large banner read. It hung of a large crowd of their old coworkers, who were all cheering for them as they left the office. "We figured you wouldn't do active duty, but this was your work. You two helps as much as the team that raided the cells." He answered upon seeing their very surprised faces.
"Wow. I'm actually speechless." Sydney said, drawing in her breath. "I wasn't expecting this."
Vaughn agreed. "Neither was I."
Weiss approached the couple with a large smile plastered across his face. "We already threw a party celebrating the end of a 20 year mission. And then someone brought up the fact that this was your life work too, and that you guys were coming back to LA, so we decided that one more party wouldn't help."
"Thanks guys!" Sydney shouted to everyone. "It feels great to be back." They soon were surrounded by people they had already greeted, but were able to go into deeper conversations.
"So are you going to tell us the epic tale about how it all happened, or are you going to leave us in the dark?" Vaughn begged Weiss after they got away from many of the agents who had to return to work.
"You know."
"No we don't. My father didn't tell us anything." Sydney explained.
"It was simple really."
"Tell us anyway. And don't leave anything out."
"We discovered that Sloane and Derevko were working together. While they were meeting in Milan, we were able to set up a team, and we apprehended the two. They had some back up, but we had more. They also chose to meet in an open air market. Making the whole thing far too easy. So we came back with them here, and took them to questioning. Sloane broke easy. We got really useful information from him. He told us where server 47 was. But Derevko wouldn't talk to anyone but you. We tried to explain that you didn't have the clearance, and that you had to talk to us. But man, Irina Derevko is stubborn. We even sent your father in. She just watched him like a cat. So she's still here. With the location server 47, we were able to find out the location-"
"Wait a second. My mother is still here?"
"Well yeah."
"Is my security clearance high enough to see her?"
"Of course. We only told her that to make sure that she would understand that you couldn't see her."
"I want to see her." Sydney said, standing up.
"What?" Weiss asked.
"What?" Vaughn demanded surprised.
"I want to see my mother." Sydney stubbornly said.
Vaughn stood up and put his arm around in a "Are you sure that is such a good idea?"
"Yes. I want to see my mother."
* * * * *