Chapter 22: "28 Candles"
"Agent Bristow," Kendall acknowledged with a short nod as Sydney walked up to him in the rotunda.
"Hello, Agent Kendall. Agent Miles said that you needed to speak with me."
"Yes, we have a problem. We've been trying to analyze the codes you transmitted from Tunis on Tuesday, but even with all the supposed brain power in Analysis, they can't seem to crack them."
"It can't be that difficult," Sydney said with a disbelieving half-smile.
"Apparently it is, because they're having all kinds of trouble with it," Kendall folded his arms. "I'd like you to ask your mother to take a look at the codes."
"And you had to call me for that? There are any number of people who could have asked for her help."
Kendall sighed and rested his chin on one fist. "As you're aware, Agent Bristow, your mother made it clear when she first got here that she would only speak with you. Since then she's allowed your father and Agent Vaughn to approach her, but that's about the extent of it, and with your father in Jakarta and Agent Vaughn in Washington, that leaves you as our only remaining option."
"What, you couldn't have threatened her with another trip to Camp Harris if she didn't cooperate?" Sydney asked sarcastically.
"That's exactly what I did, but it didn't work," Kendall admitted without even a trace of irony. "Irina Derevko hasn't always been the most cooperative detainee, but she's become even less so in recent weeks. I don't suppose you'd know why, would you?" he asked, studying her closely. Sydney shrank a bit under his gaze and feigned ignorance.
"I have no idea, but maybe she'll tell me when I go speak with her."
"Maybe she will," Kendall agreed, pleased that Sydney had acquiesced to his demand. "She's in Conference Room 8."
"She's not in her cell?" Sydney asked, not bothering to hide the surprise in her voice.
"Cracking the codes could take a while; we thought the conference room might be more comfortable for both of you. Don't worry, she's being heavily guarded."
"Okay. Then, I guess I'll be in Conference Room 8 if anyone needs me."
A few minutes later, Sydney nodded to the two guards posted outside the conference room as she swiped her ID badge in the cardreader and unlocked the door. She apprehensively entered the room and saw two additional guards inside, with weapons in hand. Her mother stood on the opposite side of the room, looking out of a window, as Sydney turned to the one of the guards.
"Would you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes?" she asked quietly.
"Agent Bristow, I'm not sure that -- "
"I'll be fine," she assured. "She won't hurt me, but if I need help for any reason, I'll buzz for you."
"Okay," the agent replied uneasily. "We'll be right outside the door if you need us."
"Thanks." Sydney heard the door click shut behind her, but if Irina heard it, she didn't let on. "Mom?" Sydney asked after a few moments of uneasy silence.
"I never imagined that I would ever be grateful to Agent Kendall," Irina said with a mirthless laugh. She took a final look out of the window before turning to face Sydney. "But I suppose that if he hadn't asked you to come to me with those codes, it probably would have been another three weeks before I saw you again." Irina's voice was neutral but the hurt in her eyes was unmistakable, and Sydney couldn't remember ever seeing her mother look so defeated.
"What makes you think that?"
"I know you've been avoiding me," Irina said matter-of-factly.
"Actually, I haven't," Sydney said, meeting her mother's gaze. "Ever since my week off, Sloane has sent me on one mission after another. I've barely had time to catch my breath, much less come to the ops center. In fact, this is the first time I've been here in almost two and a half weeks."
"Oh," Irina said, trying to hide her surprise. "I just assumed that the reason I hadn't seen you recently was because of our last conversation. I knew you would need time to come to terms with what I told you, and I thought you were still taking that time."
"I do still need time," Sydney acknowledged, "time to figure out how I'm going to tell Vaughn, and *if* I'm going to tell him. My only real concern is how he's going to react. After I thought about it for a while, I realized that it probably won't change how he feels about me, but that doesn't mean that it's not going to be difficult for him to hear."
"No, I suppose not. I know that it wasn't easy for you to hear, either, and I'm sorry for that. But you asked, and I wanted to be honest with you -- for once," she added with an apologetic smile.
"Well, I can't say that I'm glad that you told me, but I did appreciate your honesty, and, in a way, I think I understand," Sydney said softly.
"Do you?"
"In the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time asking myself what I would have done if I had been in your shoes."
"And?" Irina asked, unknowingly holding her breath.
"And I realized that if I were under duress, if someone was threatening my child, I would probably do the same thing that you did. In fact, I know that I would," she said as she began to fidget uncomfortably. "And I know that if anyone ever threatened to kill Vaughn, I would do whatever I had to do to keep that from happening."
"Even if it meant taking another life?" Irina breathed.
"If it came to that, yes. I don't particularly like what that says about me, but Vaughn is the most important person in my life and I would do anything to keep him safe. So I understand why you did what you did, and since it was *my* life that was saved by your actions, it's hard for me to hold that against you."
Irina closed her eyes and brought her clasped hands up to her mouth for a moment. When she opened her eyes again, Sydney noticed them shining with tears. "Sydney, you don't know how much it means to me to know that you understand, to know that you don't hate me for the choice I made. Thank you."
Sydney was unprepared for her mother's display of emotion, and hadn't realized until then how much her opinion actually mattered to Irina. There was a part of her cautioning that it could all be an act, however.
"I don't hate you," Sydney said softly, "but just because I understand why you killed Vaughn's father and some of those other agents doesn't mean that I understand everything that you've done. After you left Dad and me, after you started running your own organization, you did a lot of really horrible things, Mom, things that are harder for me to understand, things that I *know* you weren't doing for my benefit or Dad's. I hope that you're not also expecting me to understand those things, because I don't think that I ever can."
Irina nodded, knowing that everything Sydney said was true. Her more recent activities had been driven by obsession and greed, rather than concern for her family, and she knew that Sydney, the dutiful CIA agent, would never be able to understand how she could have done the things she had.
"I know that, Sydney, and I'm not expecting your forgiveness for those things. For now it's enough to know that I haven't ruined all hope of having a relationship with you."
Sydney shifted uneasily, unsure of how to respond to her mother's obvious pleasure and relief. She wasn't sure that they would ever have a real relationship, and if they ever did, it was going to take a lot more time for it to develop. So instead of acknowledging her mother's statement, she cleared her throat and gestured to the chairs in front of them.
"We should probably get started on this," she said, laying a folder on the table as she took a seat opposite her mother.
Irina took notice of Sydney's discomfort and sat down in her own chair, deciding to quit while she was ahead and change the topic. "I'm surprised that the agency's analysts haven't been able to figure this out."
"So am I. I guess that's why Kendall felt that he needed to consult an expert," Sydney said with a slight smile.
Irina briefly returned her smile before picking up a pencil and beginning to take notes. Sydney watched in fascination for almost a half hour as her mother scribbled furiously on a sheet of paper, wearing a look of intense concentration on her face. She was so consumed by her work that Sydney was startled when she spoke without looking up from her paper.
"Where is your father?"
"Jakarta. Sloane sent him there to get intel from an SD-6 asset. Why?"
"If he had been here, I doubt that he would have let Kendall talk you in to bringing this to me," she said with a wry smile. "I know that he still wants to keep you as far from me as possible, so I figured that he must be out of town, though I'm surprised that he would agree to go on a trip that would cause him to miss your birthday." She glanced up at Sydney and saw the surprise on her face. "You didn't think that I would forget your birthday, did you?
"Sydney," she said as she set her pencil down and folded her hands, "I know that I haven't been the best mother in the world, but every year since I left, for almost the entire week before your birthday, all I could think about was the fact that you were spending yet another birthday without me. And on April 17th of every year, I would stop to reflect on the one truly good thing that I ever did in my life -- giving birth to you.
"So anyway, Happy Birthday," she said with a smile as she tried to force the sadness from her voice. "I'm sure that your father will make it up to you when he returns. Do you have any plans to celebrate?"
"Not really," Sydney said slowly, still reeling from the flash of genuine emotion she'd seen from her mother just a moment earlier. "I think I'll probably just go out to dinner with Will and Francie when Francie returns from visiting her parents. To be honest, though, I'm not really in the mood to celebrate a lot this year," she shrugged.
"Perhaps you would be if you were celebrating with someone else," Irina said with a knowing smile.
Sydney looked away and blushed slightly as she imagined all the ways she'd like to celebrate her birthday with Vaughn. After a few moments, she turned her attention back to her mother and forced herself to stop imagining licking frosting off of his body.
"I can't deny that I wish Vaughn was here, although it would be even better if I was in Virginia with him."
"Why is that?" Irina asked as the smile quickly dissolved from her face.
"Because being in Virginia felt like being a world away from Sloane and SD-6, and that was definitely a good thing. Besides," she said with a far-away smile, "it would have been nice to celebrate my birthday with him and his mother."
"You're saying that on your birthday, you would want to spend time with Agent Vaughn *and* his mother?"
"Sure, why wouldn't I?"
"I just find it hard to believe that you wouldn't want to have Vaughn all to yourself."
"Well, I didn't say that," Sydney smiled. "Of course, I would love to be alone with Vaughn, but if I was in Virginia with him, yeah, I'd want to include his mother in our plans," she said nonchalantly. She couldn't help but notice the subtle shift in her mother's body language, and she wondered what she had said wrong. "Why do you seem upset by that?"
"I'm not upset," Irina said as she picked up the pencil and began to write again.
"You certainly look upset. In fact, the look on your face right now is the same look that you had when I was talking about how difficult William's death must have been on Elise," Sydney said as the realization struck her. "Do you have some kind of problem with Vaughn's mother?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Sydney. I don't even know Mrs. Vaughn. Why would I have a problem with her?"
"I have no idea. I was hoping you could explain it to me."
Irina sighed deeply and set the pencil back down on the table. "I know that I have no right to be upset. After being absent from the last twenty-two years of your life, the last thing that I should do is begrudge a connection between you and someone that you care about. But the fact that you would willingly choose to spend your birthday with Mrs. Vaughn . . ." she shook her head with frustration. "You haven't known her for very long, but you already have a bond with her, and I can't help but be envious of that. It's obvious that you like her a great deal, and it hurts to realize that you have a connection like that with another woman," she admitted.
Sydney looked down at the table for a moment as she struggled to reign in the emotions that were quickly rising to the surface. "I hope you're not trying to make me feel guilty about the fact that I got along so well with Elise when I went to visit Vaughn," she said in a low voice.
"Of course not, I just -- "
"Because frankly," Sydney said, raising her voice slightly, "having a good relationship with her is very important to me."
"I know that, Sydney, and I understand. I do. Your father's mother never liked me very much. It was as if she could see right through me and tell what a liar I was, but, nevertheless, I tried so hard to get her to like me; I always wished that things were different between us. I couldn't risk blowing my cover, of course, so I was completely cut off from my family, and it would have been nice to have felt like I had a family here in the United States." She paused to take a deep breath.
"But the main reason that I wanted to get along with her was because I saw how much it meant to your father. He desperately wanted us to like each other and have a good relationship, but it just wasn't meant to be. Apparently your grandmother was an excellent judge of character," Irina said with a sad smile.
"I never knew that you didn't get along," Sydney said quietly. She had never known any of her grandparents, and her father had never mentioned the strained relationship between her mother and his.
"That's why I understand why having a good relationship with Mrs. Vaughn is important to you. It's just . . . it's just that it's obvious that you want Vaughn to be a permanent part of your life. And I want that for you, Sydney, because *you* want it, and because it's so easy to see how the two of you feel about each other. But as Vaughn becomes a bigger part of your life, so will his mother, and to be honest, I hate the thought you might think of her as more of a mother to you than I am. You may already feel that way, and of course, you have every right to. I have no one to blame for that but myself, and perhaps this is my punishment for not being a part of your life when you needed me the most. For what it's worth, I resented Emily Sloane as well, but you weren't in love with her son, so she was never the threat that Elise Vaughn is."
"Mom," Sydney began before Irina held up a hand to stop her.
"Sydney, please don't. Don't feel as if you have to apologize or soothe my hurt feelings. That wasn't my intent in telling you what I've told you. It's just that you were right -- hearing you talk about Mrs. Vaughn did upset me. From what you said about her the last time that we spoke, it sounds as if she was the perfect mother, and I can't help but be reminded of my own shortcomings every time you mention her. But that's my problem, not yours."
"Yes, it is your problem. I'm not saying that to make you feel bad," Sydney explained. "It's just that I won't sacrifice having a close relationship with Elise for the sake of your feelings or anyone else's. I can't. I want to spend the rest of my life with her son, and I want her to believe that I'm worthy of him. I don't want her to have any doubts about whether she can trust me to love him and take care of him, or whether I'll be a good mother to her grandchildren one day.
"And it's more than just that. I want to have a good relationship with her for Vaughn's sake, too. He told me once that if he ever had to choose between us, he would choose me, but I don't ever want it to come to that. I don't ever want him to have to sacrifice his mother's love for mine, and he won't have to if she and I are close to each other."
"He's lucky that you love him so much." Irina admired the way that her daughter seemed to place the man she loved above everything else in her life. She only wished that she had done the same with her own husband so many years ago.
"Actually, I'm lucky that he loves *me* so much, and I'm lucky that his mother seem to likes me even though she has every reason not to. I have every intention of making sure that it stays that way, and I hope that you can understand that without thinking that it's somehow meant to punish you, because it's not."
"I know that, and I believe you," Irina smiled. "The last thing that you should be concerned about is me. The only thing that I have ever wanted for you is for you not to make the same mistakes in your life that I've made in my own, but I don't think I have to worry very much about that," she smiled. "I had no way of knowing twenty-eight years ago that you would grow into such an exceptional woman, Sydney, but I'm very proud of you. I hope you believe that."
"I want to," Sydney said with a smile of her own.
"Then I hope you will. Happy Birthday, sweetheart."
*****
"Here are the code translations," Sydney said, handing her mother's notes to Kendall. He took a long look at them and nodded.
"Good, I'll have these sent back to analysis. Thank you. By the way, Agent Weiss asked me to have you find him when you were done."
"Thanks for the message." Sydney went off in search of Weiss and found him a few moments later at his desk.
"Hey, Weiss. I heard you wanted to see me," she smiled.
"Yeah, I did," he said with a smile of his own. "I wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday."
"Aw, thanks. But how did you know that it was my birthday?"
"C'mon, Bristow. I've read your file."
"Yeah, but I doubt that you remembered my birthday from reading my file more than a year ago, Eric," she laughed.
"Alright, you got me," he admitted. "Actually, I remembered that it was your birthday because Mike sent this and asked me to give it to you," he said, handing her a blue envelope. "And if there are more plane tickets in there, I'm going to steal them and go on vacation in your place," he grinned.
"Then I'm definitely not going to tell you what's in here," Sydney smiled as she hid the envelope behind her back. "Have you talked to him recently?" she asked anxiously. She'd been so busy on her SD-6 missions that she hadn't spoken with Vaughn in two weeks.
"Yeah, he's fine, just itching to get back to L.A., as usual. I'm sure he'll call to wish you a happy birthday," he said reassuringly when he saw the anxious look on her face.
"Yeah, I'm sure he will," she smiled. "Speaking of which, I'm going to get out of here and go home, so I'll see you soon."
"Okay. Bye, birthday girl."
Twenty minutes later, Sydney arrived at home, marveling at how quiet the apartment was with Francie out of town. She was grateful for the solitude, though, as she dropped her keys and purse onto the table in the hallway and walked to her bedroom. Once inside, she kicked off her heels and flopped down onto the bed as she looked at the blue envelope in her hands and eagerly ripped it open. It had taken all the willpower she had not to open in it the car on the way home, but she had wanted to be all alone when she opened it, since she had no idea what would be inside. She soon realized, much to her dismay, that the envelope did not, in fact, contain pictures of Vaughn naked. Instead, it contained a standard greeting card, with a note from Vaughn on the left hand side:
Syd,
I wish that I could be with you today to celebrate the day that changed my life forever, but I promise that the next time I see you, we'll have a proper celebration. In the meantime, I've made arrangements for you to receive your gift. Joey's Pizza will deliver it at 6:30 p.m. I hope you like it.
All my love,
- V
Sydney flipped the card over and searched for additional clues as she wondered what in the world Vaughn was up to. She took a glance at her watch and noticed that it was a quarter to six. If she hurried, she'd have just enough time to change out of her work clothes and make it to the warehouse by 6:30.
*****
At 6:33, Sydney walked into the warehouse, unsure of what to expect once she got to the storage unit. As she walked down the hall, it occurred to her that she hadn't been there at all since the day she told her father about her relationship with Vaughn. Everything about the warehouse seemed the same, however, and she felt a flood of emotion wash over her as she began to remember all of the moments she and Vaughn had spent there. She wondered if they'd ever have any reason to meet there again once SD-6 was gone.
As she neared the gate, she saw a man standing inside the storage unit and her heart skipped a beat before she realized that the man was too short to be Vaughn. She silently prayed that he was supposed to be there and that someone hadn't led her into an elaborately planned trap.
"Hello?"
"Miss Bristow?" the man asked as he turned around to face her.
"Yes," she said suspiciously.
"Agent Vaughn asked me to give you this," he said, handing her a small notecard. She immediately recognized Vaughn's handwriting and quickly read the note, which told her not to worry and to go with the man who had given it to her.
"Is this for real?"
"Yes," he laughed. "Agent Vaughn asked me to drive you somewhere. It shouldn't take too long to get there if we leave now. I'm Agent Jeff Shaw, by the way," he said as he extended his hand. "Michael were in the same class at the farm."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Jeff." Sydney shook his hand and realized that she had seen him a few times at CIA headquarters before Vaughn had been assigned to work at the joint task force center. "I'm ready to go if you are."
"Great." He led her to his car and after a short ride, they were in Santa Monica. Agent Shaw pulled up in front of a hotel and Sydney looked at him quizzically.
"Casa Del Mar? This is where he asked you to bring me? What's going on?"
He laughed. "I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. Mike told me nothing, except to drop you off and give you this one last thing." He reached into the pocket of his overcoat and pulled out a small square box. "Whatever it is, I hope you like it."
"Yeah, so do I," she said with a nervous smile. "Well, thanks for the ride, Jeff," she said as she got out of the car. She watched as he pulled out of the driveway, and then looked down at the box in her hands.
"What are you up to, Vaughn?" she asked with amusement. Whatever his gift was, he'd certainly put a lot of thought and planning into it. She slowly unwrapped the box and was surprised to find a key with a note telling her to go to Room 205.
As she stepped off of the elevator and walked down the hall to room 205, she fully expected to open the door and find yet another note with more instructions. If Vaughn was sending her on some kind of crazy scavenger hunt, she was going to make him pay for it the next time she saw him, she thought with a laugh. The laugh quickly caught in her throat, however, when she opened the door to the room. It was completely dark inside except for the flickering light glowing from what she guessed were twenty-eight candles lining the edge of a small, round cake sitting on a table in the center of the room. She walked over to the table and covered her mouth in shock as she looked down at the cake, which was decorated with pink and yellow flowers. A bucket of ice and a bottle of champagne sat next to the cake, anchoring a dozen ribbon attached to mylar balloons exclaiming, "Happy Birthday!"
"Oh my god," she breathed. She was still trying to recover from her shock when she felt a pair of strong, familiar arms wrap around her waist.
"Happy Birthday, Gorgeous," a voice whispered in her ear. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Please tell me that I'm not dreaming," she murmured.
"Nope, you're not dreaming," Vaughn replied as he placed a soft kiss on the side of her neck. "But you should probably make a wish before the cake melts," he teased.
"I don't know. It seems incredibly greedy to wish for anything else right now."
"It's okay, it's your birthday," he assured her. "Seriously, make a wish."
"Okay." She closed her eyes, made a wish, and bent forward to blow out the candles, smiling as Vaughn held her hair back for her. He laughed when she blew all the candles out in one long breath.
"God, Bristow, you have the lung capacity of a whale!"
"What can I say? It was a really good wish; I want to be sure it comes true," she grinned as she turned around to face him for the first time. "And don't ask me what it was, because it won't come true if I tell you."
"That's just superstition, Sydney. Whatever it is, I'll make sure it comes true," he said with a sexy, confident smile. He took a long, appreciative look at her, and her knees turned to jelly as his eyes slowly traveled the length of her body. "Happy Birthday, baby," he said softly.
"It is now," she said as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her. "I can't believe that you did all of this."
He pulled back slightly and looked her in the eyes. "Surely you didn't think I would let your birthday go by without making a big deal of it. I couldn't *not* be with you, today of all days, Sydney. I told you in my card that the next time we saw each other, we'd celebrate properly. I just didn't tell you that the next time we saw each other was going to be tonight," he said, his eyes twinkling with obvious delight at having successfully surprised her.
"You're incredible, do you know that?"
He shrugged modestly before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on her cheek. "That was from my mom."
He wrapped his arms tighter around her and pulled her body back into his, staring at her intently before slowly lowering his mouth onto hers and slipping his tongue inside. She melted into his embrace and ran her fingers through his hair as she kissed him back, impatiently trying to make up for weeks of missing him all at one time. After a lazy, smoldering kiss that seemed to last for hours, but didn't seem nearly long enough, he reluctantly pulled away from her.
"That was from me," he whispered as he rested his forehead against hers.
"Wow. I love your mom, so don't tell her that I said this, but I think I liked your kiss a lot more."
"Well, I hope so," he grinned as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "How is it possible that you look more beautiful every time I see you?"
"I don't know, maybe you're just really horny," she offered with a laugh. "Though you're looking pretty hot yourself, Mr. Vaughn," she said in a low, breathy voice.
"I wanted to look extra pretty for you on your birthday," he joked.
"Oh my god," Sydney groaned as she self-consciously ran a hand through her hair. "Vaughn! Look at me, I'm a mess right now. If I had known I was going to see you, I would have gotten dressed up, or at least thrown on something other than jeans."
"Sydney, please," Vaughn scoffed. "You didn't have to get all dressed up for me. Besides, they're just clothes, they're not going to stay on for very long, anyway," he teased with a seductive smile. His smile grew bigger when he coaxed a smile and a laugh out of her. "That's my girl. God, Syd, the last few weeks have been torture without you."
"Tell me about it," she said with a happy sigh as she leaned back into him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I've missed you so much, Vaughn. I know I'm going to hate myself for asking, but when do you have to go back?"
"Saturday morning," he sighed. "I know. It sucks, but at least you have me here for the next 36 hours, and I promise I'll make them the best 36 hours of your life."
She laughed. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"Do you have to ask?" When she looked into his eyes and saw them burning with desire for her, she knew that she didn't need to ask.
"Hmm, well. Happy Birthday to me," she smirked.
"Oh, you have no idea, Sydney," he whispered as he planted soft kisses along her neck. "No idea. I have all kinds of birthday presents in store for you tonight."
TBC . . .
"Agent Bristow," Kendall acknowledged with a short nod as Sydney walked up to him in the rotunda.
"Hello, Agent Kendall. Agent Miles said that you needed to speak with me."
"Yes, we have a problem. We've been trying to analyze the codes you transmitted from Tunis on Tuesday, but even with all the supposed brain power in Analysis, they can't seem to crack them."
"It can't be that difficult," Sydney said with a disbelieving half-smile.
"Apparently it is, because they're having all kinds of trouble with it," Kendall folded his arms. "I'd like you to ask your mother to take a look at the codes."
"And you had to call me for that? There are any number of people who could have asked for her help."
Kendall sighed and rested his chin on one fist. "As you're aware, Agent Bristow, your mother made it clear when she first got here that she would only speak with you. Since then she's allowed your father and Agent Vaughn to approach her, but that's about the extent of it, and with your father in Jakarta and Agent Vaughn in Washington, that leaves you as our only remaining option."
"What, you couldn't have threatened her with another trip to Camp Harris if she didn't cooperate?" Sydney asked sarcastically.
"That's exactly what I did, but it didn't work," Kendall admitted without even a trace of irony. "Irina Derevko hasn't always been the most cooperative detainee, but she's become even less so in recent weeks. I don't suppose you'd know why, would you?" he asked, studying her closely. Sydney shrank a bit under his gaze and feigned ignorance.
"I have no idea, but maybe she'll tell me when I go speak with her."
"Maybe she will," Kendall agreed, pleased that Sydney had acquiesced to his demand. "She's in Conference Room 8."
"She's not in her cell?" Sydney asked, not bothering to hide the surprise in her voice.
"Cracking the codes could take a while; we thought the conference room might be more comfortable for both of you. Don't worry, she's being heavily guarded."
"Okay. Then, I guess I'll be in Conference Room 8 if anyone needs me."
A few minutes later, Sydney nodded to the two guards posted outside the conference room as she swiped her ID badge in the cardreader and unlocked the door. She apprehensively entered the room and saw two additional guards inside, with weapons in hand. Her mother stood on the opposite side of the room, looking out of a window, as Sydney turned to the one of the guards.
"Would you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes?" she asked quietly.
"Agent Bristow, I'm not sure that -- "
"I'll be fine," she assured. "She won't hurt me, but if I need help for any reason, I'll buzz for you."
"Okay," the agent replied uneasily. "We'll be right outside the door if you need us."
"Thanks." Sydney heard the door click shut behind her, but if Irina heard it, she didn't let on. "Mom?" Sydney asked after a few moments of uneasy silence.
"I never imagined that I would ever be grateful to Agent Kendall," Irina said with a mirthless laugh. She took a final look out of the window before turning to face Sydney. "But I suppose that if he hadn't asked you to come to me with those codes, it probably would have been another three weeks before I saw you again." Irina's voice was neutral but the hurt in her eyes was unmistakable, and Sydney couldn't remember ever seeing her mother look so defeated.
"What makes you think that?"
"I know you've been avoiding me," Irina said matter-of-factly.
"Actually, I haven't," Sydney said, meeting her mother's gaze. "Ever since my week off, Sloane has sent me on one mission after another. I've barely had time to catch my breath, much less come to the ops center. In fact, this is the first time I've been here in almost two and a half weeks."
"Oh," Irina said, trying to hide her surprise. "I just assumed that the reason I hadn't seen you recently was because of our last conversation. I knew you would need time to come to terms with what I told you, and I thought you were still taking that time."
"I do still need time," Sydney acknowledged, "time to figure out how I'm going to tell Vaughn, and *if* I'm going to tell him. My only real concern is how he's going to react. After I thought about it for a while, I realized that it probably won't change how he feels about me, but that doesn't mean that it's not going to be difficult for him to hear."
"No, I suppose not. I know that it wasn't easy for you to hear, either, and I'm sorry for that. But you asked, and I wanted to be honest with you -- for once," she added with an apologetic smile.
"Well, I can't say that I'm glad that you told me, but I did appreciate your honesty, and, in a way, I think I understand," Sydney said softly.
"Do you?"
"In the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time asking myself what I would have done if I had been in your shoes."
"And?" Irina asked, unknowingly holding her breath.
"And I realized that if I were under duress, if someone was threatening my child, I would probably do the same thing that you did. In fact, I know that I would," she said as she began to fidget uncomfortably. "And I know that if anyone ever threatened to kill Vaughn, I would do whatever I had to do to keep that from happening."
"Even if it meant taking another life?" Irina breathed.
"If it came to that, yes. I don't particularly like what that says about me, but Vaughn is the most important person in my life and I would do anything to keep him safe. So I understand why you did what you did, and since it was *my* life that was saved by your actions, it's hard for me to hold that against you."
Irina closed her eyes and brought her clasped hands up to her mouth for a moment. When she opened her eyes again, Sydney noticed them shining with tears. "Sydney, you don't know how much it means to me to know that you understand, to know that you don't hate me for the choice I made. Thank you."
Sydney was unprepared for her mother's display of emotion, and hadn't realized until then how much her opinion actually mattered to Irina. There was a part of her cautioning that it could all be an act, however.
"I don't hate you," Sydney said softly, "but just because I understand why you killed Vaughn's father and some of those other agents doesn't mean that I understand everything that you've done. After you left Dad and me, after you started running your own organization, you did a lot of really horrible things, Mom, things that are harder for me to understand, things that I *know* you weren't doing for my benefit or Dad's. I hope that you're not also expecting me to understand those things, because I don't think that I ever can."
Irina nodded, knowing that everything Sydney said was true. Her more recent activities had been driven by obsession and greed, rather than concern for her family, and she knew that Sydney, the dutiful CIA agent, would never be able to understand how she could have done the things she had.
"I know that, Sydney, and I'm not expecting your forgiveness for those things. For now it's enough to know that I haven't ruined all hope of having a relationship with you."
Sydney shifted uneasily, unsure of how to respond to her mother's obvious pleasure and relief. She wasn't sure that they would ever have a real relationship, and if they ever did, it was going to take a lot more time for it to develop. So instead of acknowledging her mother's statement, she cleared her throat and gestured to the chairs in front of them.
"We should probably get started on this," she said, laying a folder on the table as she took a seat opposite her mother.
Irina took notice of Sydney's discomfort and sat down in her own chair, deciding to quit while she was ahead and change the topic. "I'm surprised that the agency's analysts haven't been able to figure this out."
"So am I. I guess that's why Kendall felt that he needed to consult an expert," Sydney said with a slight smile.
Irina briefly returned her smile before picking up a pencil and beginning to take notes. Sydney watched in fascination for almost a half hour as her mother scribbled furiously on a sheet of paper, wearing a look of intense concentration on her face. She was so consumed by her work that Sydney was startled when she spoke without looking up from her paper.
"Where is your father?"
"Jakarta. Sloane sent him there to get intel from an SD-6 asset. Why?"
"If he had been here, I doubt that he would have let Kendall talk you in to bringing this to me," she said with a wry smile. "I know that he still wants to keep you as far from me as possible, so I figured that he must be out of town, though I'm surprised that he would agree to go on a trip that would cause him to miss your birthday." She glanced up at Sydney and saw the surprise on her face. "You didn't think that I would forget your birthday, did you?
"Sydney," she said as she set her pencil down and folded her hands, "I know that I haven't been the best mother in the world, but every year since I left, for almost the entire week before your birthday, all I could think about was the fact that you were spending yet another birthday without me. And on April 17th of every year, I would stop to reflect on the one truly good thing that I ever did in my life -- giving birth to you.
"So anyway, Happy Birthday," she said with a smile as she tried to force the sadness from her voice. "I'm sure that your father will make it up to you when he returns. Do you have any plans to celebrate?"
"Not really," Sydney said slowly, still reeling from the flash of genuine emotion she'd seen from her mother just a moment earlier. "I think I'll probably just go out to dinner with Will and Francie when Francie returns from visiting her parents. To be honest, though, I'm not really in the mood to celebrate a lot this year," she shrugged.
"Perhaps you would be if you were celebrating with someone else," Irina said with a knowing smile.
Sydney looked away and blushed slightly as she imagined all the ways she'd like to celebrate her birthday with Vaughn. After a few moments, she turned her attention back to her mother and forced herself to stop imagining licking frosting off of his body.
"I can't deny that I wish Vaughn was here, although it would be even better if I was in Virginia with him."
"Why is that?" Irina asked as the smile quickly dissolved from her face.
"Because being in Virginia felt like being a world away from Sloane and SD-6, and that was definitely a good thing. Besides," she said with a far-away smile, "it would have been nice to celebrate my birthday with him and his mother."
"You're saying that on your birthday, you would want to spend time with Agent Vaughn *and* his mother?"
"Sure, why wouldn't I?"
"I just find it hard to believe that you wouldn't want to have Vaughn all to yourself."
"Well, I didn't say that," Sydney smiled. "Of course, I would love to be alone with Vaughn, but if I was in Virginia with him, yeah, I'd want to include his mother in our plans," she said nonchalantly. She couldn't help but notice the subtle shift in her mother's body language, and she wondered what she had said wrong. "Why do you seem upset by that?"
"I'm not upset," Irina said as she picked up the pencil and began to write again.
"You certainly look upset. In fact, the look on your face right now is the same look that you had when I was talking about how difficult William's death must have been on Elise," Sydney said as the realization struck her. "Do you have some kind of problem with Vaughn's mother?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Sydney. I don't even know Mrs. Vaughn. Why would I have a problem with her?"
"I have no idea. I was hoping you could explain it to me."
Irina sighed deeply and set the pencil back down on the table. "I know that I have no right to be upset. After being absent from the last twenty-two years of your life, the last thing that I should do is begrudge a connection between you and someone that you care about. But the fact that you would willingly choose to spend your birthday with Mrs. Vaughn . . ." she shook her head with frustration. "You haven't known her for very long, but you already have a bond with her, and I can't help but be envious of that. It's obvious that you like her a great deal, and it hurts to realize that you have a connection like that with another woman," she admitted.
Sydney looked down at the table for a moment as she struggled to reign in the emotions that were quickly rising to the surface. "I hope you're not trying to make me feel guilty about the fact that I got along so well with Elise when I went to visit Vaughn," she said in a low voice.
"Of course not, I just -- "
"Because frankly," Sydney said, raising her voice slightly, "having a good relationship with her is very important to me."
"I know that, Sydney, and I understand. I do. Your father's mother never liked me very much. It was as if she could see right through me and tell what a liar I was, but, nevertheless, I tried so hard to get her to like me; I always wished that things were different between us. I couldn't risk blowing my cover, of course, so I was completely cut off from my family, and it would have been nice to have felt like I had a family here in the United States." She paused to take a deep breath.
"But the main reason that I wanted to get along with her was because I saw how much it meant to your father. He desperately wanted us to like each other and have a good relationship, but it just wasn't meant to be. Apparently your grandmother was an excellent judge of character," Irina said with a sad smile.
"I never knew that you didn't get along," Sydney said quietly. She had never known any of her grandparents, and her father had never mentioned the strained relationship between her mother and his.
"That's why I understand why having a good relationship with Mrs. Vaughn is important to you. It's just . . . it's just that it's obvious that you want Vaughn to be a permanent part of your life. And I want that for you, Sydney, because *you* want it, and because it's so easy to see how the two of you feel about each other. But as Vaughn becomes a bigger part of your life, so will his mother, and to be honest, I hate the thought you might think of her as more of a mother to you than I am. You may already feel that way, and of course, you have every right to. I have no one to blame for that but myself, and perhaps this is my punishment for not being a part of your life when you needed me the most. For what it's worth, I resented Emily Sloane as well, but you weren't in love with her son, so she was never the threat that Elise Vaughn is."
"Mom," Sydney began before Irina held up a hand to stop her.
"Sydney, please don't. Don't feel as if you have to apologize or soothe my hurt feelings. That wasn't my intent in telling you what I've told you. It's just that you were right -- hearing you talk about Mrs. Vaughn did upset me. From what you said about her the last time that we spoke, it sounds as if she was the perfect mother, and I can't help but be reminded of my own shortcomings every time you mention her. But that's my problem, not yours."
"Yes, it is your problem. I'm not saying that to make you feel bad," Sydney explained. "It's just that I won't sacrifice having a close relationship with Elise for the sake of your feelings or anyone else's. I can't. I want to spend the rest of my life with her son, and I want her to believe that I'm worthy of him. I don't want her to have any doubts about whether she can trust me to love him and take care of him, or whether I'll be a good mother to her grandchildren one day.
"And it's more than just that. I want to have a good relationship with her for Vaughn's sake, too. He told me once that if he ever had to choose between us, he would choose me, but I don't ever want it to come to that. I don't ever want him to have to sacrifice his mother's love for mine, and he won't have to if she and I are close to each other."
"He's lucky that you love him so much." Irina admired the way that her daughter seemed to place the man she loved above everything else in her life. She only wished that she had done the same with her own husband so many years ago.
"Actually, I'm lucky that he loves *me* so much, and I'm lucky that his mother seem to likes me even though she has every reason not to. I have every intention of making sure that it stays that way, and I hope that you can understand that without thinking that it's somehow meant to punish you, because it's not."
"I know that, and I believe you," Irina smiled. "The last thing that you should be concerned about is me. The only thing that I have ever wanted for you is for you not to make the same mistakes in your life that I've made in my own, but I don't think I have to worry very much about that," she smiled. "I had no way of knowing twenty-eight years ago that you would grow into such an exceptional woman, Sydney, but I'm very proud of you. I hope you believe that."
"I want to," Sydney said with a smile of her own.
"Then I hope you will. Happy Birthday, sweetheart."
*****
"Here are the code translations," Sydney said, handing her mother's notes to Kendall. He took a long look at them and nodded.
"Good, I'll have these sent back to analysis. Thank you. By the way, Agent Weiss asked me to have you find him when you were done."
"Thanks for the message." Sydney went off in search of Weiss and found him a few moments later at his desk.
"Hey, Weiss. I heard you wanted to see me," she smiled.
"Yeah, I did," he said with a smile of his own. "I wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday."
"Aw, thanks. But how did you know that it was my birthday?"
"C'mon, Bristow. I've read your file."
"Yeah, but I doubt that you remembered my birthday from reading my file more than a year ago, Eric," she laughed.
"Alright, you got me," he admitted. "Actually, I remembered that it was your birthday because Mike sent this and asked me to give it to you," he said, handing her a blue envelope. "And if there are more plane tickets in there, I'm going to steal them and go on vacation in your place," he grinned.
"Then I'm definitely not going to tell you what's in here," Sydney smiled as she hid the envelope behind her back. "Have you talked to him recently?" she asked anxiously. She'd been so busy on her SD-6 missions that she hadn't spoken with Vaughn in two weeks.
"Yeah, he's fine, just itching to get back to L.A., as usual. I'm sure he'll call to wish you a happy birthday," he said reassuringly when he saw the anxious look on her face.
"Yeah, I'm sure he will," she smiled. "Speaking of which, I'm going to get out of here and go home, so I'll see you soon."
"Okay. Bye, birthday girl."
Twenty minutes later, Sydney arrived at home, marveling at how quiet the apartment was with Francie out of town. She was grateful for the solitude, though, as she dropped her keys and purse onto the table in the hallway and walked to her bedroom. Once inside, she kicked off her heels and flopped down onto the bed as she looked at the blue envelope in her hands and eagerly ripped it open. It had taken all the willpower she had not to open in it the car on the way home, but she had wanted to be all alone when she opened it, since she had no idea what would be inside. She soon realized, much to her dismay, that the envelope did not, in fact, contain pictures of Vaughn naked. Instead, it contained a standard greeting card, with a note from Vaughn on the left hand side:
Syd,
I wish that I could be with you today to celebrate the day that changed my life forever, but I promise that the next time I see you, we'll have a proper celebration. In the meantime, I've made arrangements for you to receive your gift. Joey's Pizza will deliver it at 6:30 p.m. I hope you like it.
All my love,
- V
Sydney flipped the card over and searched for additional clues as she wondered what in the world Vaughn was up to. She took a glance at her watch and noticed that it was a quarter to six. If she hurried, she'd have just enough time to change out of her work clothes and make it to the warehouse by 6:30.
*****
At 6:33, Sydney walked into the warehouse, unsure of what to expect once she got to the storage unit. As she walked down the hall, it occurred to her that she hadn't been there at all since the day she told her father about her relationship with Vaughn. Everything about the warehouse seemed the same, however, and she felt a flood of emotion wash over her as she began to remember all of the moments she and Vaughn had spent there. She wondered if they'd ever have any reason to meet there again once SD-6 was gone.
As she neared the gate, she saw a man standing inside the storage unit and her heart skipped a beat before she realized that the man was too short to be Vaughn. She silently prayed that he was supposed to be there and that someone hadn't led her into an elaborately planned trap.
"Hello?"
"Miss Bristow?" the man asked as he turned around to face her.
"Yes," she said suspiciously.
"Agent Vaughn asked me to give you this," he said, handing her a small notecard. She immediately recognized Vaughn's handwriting and quickly read the note, which told her not to worry and to go with the man who had given it to her.
"Is this for real?"
"Yes," he laughed. "Agent Vaughn asked me to drive you somewhere. It shouldn't take too long to get there if we leave now. I'm Agent Jeff Shaw, by the way," he said as he extended his hand. "Michael were in the same class at the farm."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Jeff." Sydney shook his hand and realized that she had seen him a few times at CIA headquarters before Vaughn had been assigned to work at the joint task force center. "I'm ready to go if you are."
"Great." He led her to his car and after a short ride, they were in Santa Monica. Agent Shaw pulled up in front of a hotel and Sydney looked at him quizzically.
"Casa Del Mar? This is where he asked you to bring me? What's going on?"
He laughed. "I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. Mike told me nothing, except to drop you off and give you this one last thing." He reached into the pocket of his overcoat and pulled out a small square box. "Whatever it is, I hope you like it."
"Yeah, so do I," she said with a nervous smile. "Well, thanks for the ride, Jeff," she said as she got out of the car. She watched as he pulled out of the driveway, and then looked down at the box in her hands.
"What are you up to, Vaughn?" she asked with amusement. Whatever his gift was, he'd certainly put a lot of thought and planning into it. She slowly unwrapped the box and was surprised to find a key with a note telling her to go to Room 205.
As she stepped off of the elevator and walked down the hall to room 205, she fully expected to open the door and find yet another note with more instructions. If Vaughn was sending her on some kind of crazy scavenger hunt, she was going to make him pay for it the next time she saw him, she thought with a laugh. The laugh quickly caught in her throat, however, when she opened the door to the room. It was completely dark inside except for the flickering light glowing from what she guessed were twenty-eight candles lining the edge of a small, round cake sitting on a table in the center of the room. She walked over to the table and covered her mouth in shock as she looked down at the cake, which was decorated with pink and yellow flowers. A bucket of ice and a bottle of champagne sat next to the cake, anchoring a dozen ribbon attached to mylar balloons exclaiming, "Happy Birthday!"
"Oh my god," she breathed. She was still trying to recover from her shock when she felt a pair of strong, familiar arms wrap around her waist.
"Happy Birthday, Gorgeous," a voice whispered in her ear. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Please tell me that I'm not dreaming," she murmured.
"Nope, you're not dreaming," Vaughn replied as he placed a soft kiss on the side of her neck. "But you should probably make a wish before the cake melts," he teased.
"I don't know. It seems incredibly greedy to wish for anything else right now."
"It's okay, it's your birthday," he assured her. "Seriously, make a wish."
"Okay." She closed her eyes, made a wish, and bent forward to blow out the candles, smiling as Vaughn held her hair back for her. He laughed when she blew all the candles out in one long breath.
"God, Bristow, you have the lung capacity of a whale!"
"What can I say? It was a really good wish; I want to be sure it comes true," she grinned as she turned around to face him for the first time. "And don't ask me what it was, because it won't come true if I tell you."
"That's just superstition, Sydney. Whatever it is, I'll make sure it comes true," he said with a sexy, confident smile. He took a long, appreciative look at her, and her knees turned to jelly as his eyes slowly traveled the length of her body. "Happy Birthday, baby," he said softly.
"It is now," she said as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her. "I can't believe that you did all of this."
He pulled back slightly and looked her in the eyes. "Surely you didn't think I would let your birthday go by without making a big deal of it. I couldn't *not* be with you, today of all days, Sydney. I told you in my card that the next time we saw each other, we'd celebrate properly. I just didn't tell you that the next time we saw each other was going to be tonight," he said, his eyes twinkling with obvious delight at having successfully surprised her.
"You're incredible, do you know that?"
He shrugged modestly before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on her cheek. "That was from my mom."
He wrapped his arms tighter around her and pulled her body back into his, staring at her intently before slowly lowering his mouth onto hers and slipping his tongue inside. She melted into his embrace and ran her fingers through his hair as she kissed him back, impatiently trying to make up for weeks of missing him all at one time. After a lazy, smoldering kiss that seemed to last for hours, but didn't seem nearly long enough, he reluctantly pulled away from her.
"That was from me," he whispered as he rested his forehead against hers.
"Wow. I love your mom, so don't tell her that I said this, but I think I liked your kiss a lot more."
"Well, I hope so," he grinned as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "How is it possible that you look more beautiful every time I see you?"
"I don't know, maybe you're just really horny," she offered with a laugh. "Though you're looking pretty hot yourself, Mr. Vaughn," she said in a low, breathy voice.
"I wanted to look extra pretty for you on your birthday," he joked.
"Oh my god," Sydney groaned as she self-consciously ran a hand through her hair. "Vaughn! Look at me, I'm a mess right now. If I had known I was going to see you, I would have gotten dressed up, or at least thrown on something other than jeans."
"Sydney, please," Vaughn scoffed. "You didn't have to get all dressed up for me. Besides, they're just clothes, they're not going to stay on for very long, anyway," he teased with a seductive smile. His smile grew bigger when he coaxed a smile and a laugh out of her. "That's my girl. God, Syd, the last few weeks have been torture without you."
"Tell me about it," she said with a happy sigh as she leaned back into him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I've missed you so much, Vaughn. I know I'm going to hate myself for asking, but when do you have to go back?"
"Saturday morning," he sighed. "I know. It sucks, but at least you have me here for the next 36 hours, and I promise I'll make them the best 36 hours of your life."
She laughed. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"Do you have to ask?" When she looked into his eyes and saw them burning with desire for her, she knew that she didn't need to ask.
"Hmm, well. Happy Birthday to me," she smirked.
"Oh, you have no idea, Sydney," he whispered as he planted soft kisses along her neck. "No idea. I have all kinds of birthday presents in store for you tonight."
TBC . . .