Hey everyone! I just wanted to warn you guys that there are a few naughty words in this chapter. Hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 31: "Twelve Rounds"
Sydney peeked through the small window in the door of the briefing room and smiled as she opened the door and walked inside. Vaughn was bent over a laptop with his back to her and she stealthily snuck up behind him, catching him off guard as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her lips next to his ear.
"Don't move, or I'll shoot," she murmured.
He laughed and placed his hands over hers. "I think you're bluffing."
"Yeah, you're right. I could never bring myself to shoot anyone who looked like you."
He broke free of her grasp and turned around to face her, smiling as soon as he looked at her. "Why are you here so early? The briefing's not for another 15 minutes."
"I know, but Weiss told me that you were in here setting up, so I thought I'd come and hang out with you for a while -- unless you and your power point presentation were having a private moment and would rather be alone," she teased.
"Hmm. Jealous?" he asked as he turned back to type something into the laptop.
"Actually, I am. I wish your hands were on me right now instead of your laptop."
"So, making love on my desk a couple of weeks ago wasn't enough for you?" he grinned. "You want to do it here, too?"
"Like you don't?" she laughed. She sat down on the table next to his computer and faced him. "Vaughn, haven't you ever fantasized about making love right in the middle of a briefing?"
"Seriously?" his eyes widened. "In the middle of a briefing, with everyone -- including your dad -- watching us?"
Sydney looked off into space and smiled innocently, earning a laugh from Vaughn. "You never cease to amaze me, Syd, but I never knew about your exhibitionist streak."
"I'm not an exhibitionist," she lightly protested. "It's just that in my fantasy, we can't control ourselves and it doesn't matter who else is in the room."
"And does that fantasy end with your dad shooting me? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that's how it would end in real life."
"Oh, he wouldn't shoot you now that you guys are buddies . . . pals . . . confidants," she teased.
"Right. We're such great buddies that we're going out for beers tomorrow night," he joked. "Don't be fooled, Sydney. Your dad merely went from disliking me to tolerating me. I doubt that we'll be hanging out any time soon."
"Oh, come on, he likes you," she argued. "I mean, he's never going to come straight out and tell you that, but he does. I can tell."
"I guess I'll have to take your word for it," he smiled. He leaned over to give her a quick peck on the lips and she pulled him back to her as he started to move away.
"Now, is that any kind of way to greet your fiance?" she chided as she drew him into a slow, sensual kiss. He placed his palms flat on the table on either side of her body, trapping her beneath him as he deepened the kiss. She hooked her right leg around the backs of his calves, pulling him closer to her, as they lost themselves in the passion of the kiss until an amused voice interrupted them.
"Geez, you two. Get a room," Weiss muttered.
Vaughn instantly jumped away from Sydney, and Weiss laughed at his less-than-smooth attempt to disengage himself from her.
"You have really bad timing, Weiss," Sydney lightly scowled.
"Are you kidding me? I have great timing. If I was two minutes later, Vaughn would have been giving an entirely different kind of presentation in here."
Vaughn tried to hide his smile, but Sydney made no effort to hide hers.
"I know," she laughed. "He's such an exhibitionist. I keep telling him that we can't have sex in public places, but he insists on pushing the envelope anyway."
"Me?! You're the one who -- never mind," he muttered when he saw Weiss grinning at him. He shook his head and gave Sydney a pointed look. "You're gonna pay for that later," he said in a low voice that only she could hear.
"I certainly hope so," she whispered in his ear. She stood up from the table and dragged her fingers across his stomach, making his breath hitch in response as she left to take a seat next to Weiss on the opposite side of the room. Vaughn looked down at his laptop and smiled, already dreaming up ways to make her pay for embarrassing him in front of his best friend.
As Sydney sat down next to him, Weiss swiveled his chair in her direction and gave her a knowing smile.
"What?" she rolled her eyes.
"I didn't say anything," he innocently shrugged.
"But you obviously want to."
He smiled slyly. "I'm just glad that you're taking care of my boy, that's all. He used to always be so uptight, but ever since he came back from Virginia, he's been like a new man. I think I finally know why."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she sniffed, feigning ignorance as she slid the cap off of her pen.
"You must know a lot of helpful stress relief techniques." He raised his eyebrow and she couldn't help but laugh.
"What are the two of you laughing about?" Vaughn called over his shoulder.
"Nothing," Eric piped up. "I was just telling Sydney that she should think about going into the relaxation therapy business once SD-6 is gone." She sharply elbowed him in the side before they both dissolved into laughter, and Vaughn turned to look at them.
"I'm obviously going to have to limit the amount of time that you two spend together. I swear, you guys are like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum."
"Yeah, and we don't have to guess who's who, do we?" Sydney giggled and Weiss shot her a wounded look before turning his attention back to Vaughn.
"Your girlfriend hits below the belt, man," he complained.
"My fian -- " Vaughn began to correct Weiss before he caught himself. "Um, yeah, she does." He sheepishly turned to see if Sydney had noticed his slip, and she grinned back at him. "She goes like that for all twelve rounds, too. That's why I don't mess with her."
"He doesn't mess with me because he's a really smart guy," Sydney corrected.
"Either that, or he's just totally whipped," Weiss countered, making both Vaughn and Sydney laugh in response.
All of their laughter died down as other agents began to file into the room. The afternoon's meeting was expected to be larger than usual, because it was the first briefing for the team that Kendall had assembled for the raid on SD-6.
Just before the meeting was scheduled to begin, Kendall entered the room with Jack. Even though there were plenty of empty seats in the room, including one next to her, Jack made a beeline for the seat next to Vaughn, an action that Sydney found both surprising and amusing. She shot Vaughn a "told you so" look across the room and he simply shook his head and smiled in response before Jack leaned over to whisper something to him.
"Look at that," Sydney nudged Weiss as she gestured to her father and fiance. "My dad has a new best friend."
"I never realized that he had an *old* best friend. He doesn't strike me as the best friend type," Weiss cracked, making Sydney snort as she tried not to laugh out loud. Kendall glared at both of them and she scooted her chair away from Weiss to prevent them from getting into any more trouble as Kendall turned his attention back to the rest of the room.
"As all of you are aware by now, you're here today for an introductory briefing about the imminent raid on SD-6's Los Angeles headquarters, which is scheduled for exactly 17 days from today. I'll be speaking with you, as will CIA Agents Jack Bristow and Michael Vaughn and FBI Agent Brandon Lewis. We don't have a lot of time to waste, so let's get started, shall we?
*****
A half hour later, Jack was wrapping up his presentation, which was meant to familiarize the agents with the inner workings of SD-6. Most of the agents around her were taking copious notes, but since Sydney already knew everything that Jack was explaining, she had spent most of the time during his presentation passing looks across the room with Vaughn, who also hadn't felt compelled to take notes.
Although she couldn't imagine a better way to have spent the past half hour, she almost wished that she hadn't instigated their little game, because she could barely sit still in her seat anymore. Vaughn was looking at her with the same intense expression he wore every time he made love to her, and she felt as if she was melting from the inside out. Any other time, she would have loved that feeling, but not now when she knew that the briefing would probably drag on for at least another hour and a half.
At the moment, she was torturing herself by noticing the outline of Vaughn's shoulder holster underneath his jacket and imagining how much she'd love to hook her fingers through it and . . .
"Thank you, Jack," Kendall loudly interrupted her thoughts, making her even more annoyed with him than usual. "Agent Vaughn," he turned and nodded.
Vaughn stood and gathered a stack of spiral bound reports, then moved through the room to distribute them. When he got to Sydney's table he handed her the last remaining report and gave her a secretive smile as his hand brushed against hers, lingering for a moment longer than necessary.
She hid her face behind her copy of the report as she blushed, and noticed a small piece of paper slip from between the pages. She discretely glanced around the room before opening it, and instantly broke into a grin as she read it: "Try not to jump me during my presentation, okay?"
When she looked up to see Vaughn looking back at her with a cocky smirk on his face, she wanted to jump him right then and there, but she simply smiled and nodded instead.
"I'll try," she mouthed.
He silently laughed and cleared his throat before he spoke. He began by briefly explaining the project that he had worked on at Langley and the resulting plan for a coordinated attack on all Alliance facilities, before moving on to the specifics of the raid on SD-6. As Sydney watched him, it struck her that she was used to dealing with him on a one on one basis when he was her handler, and she had never had the opportunity to watch him in his full capacity as a senior officer. She was impressed by both the smooth way that he delivered his presentation and the way that he had the rapt attention of all the agents in the room.
As she and everyone else followed along with him presentation, she was amazed by how thorough and detailed his report was. He had obviously expended a great deal of time and effort on it, and she suddenly understood why his superiors at Langley had been impressed enough to raise the possibility of a promotion. She wasn't surprised, but it was nice to know that he was as smart and detailed as he was gorgeous. He caught her staring at him and shot her a quick smile, which gave her goose bumps as she realized that he was going to be her husband in the not too distant future.
She was still wrapped up in that thought a short while later, as Vaughn moved on to the practical aspects of the raid, and she along with everyone else, turned to the next page in his report. She read over it briefly, then again, paying more attention as she was sure that she must have missed something in her first cursory glance at it. She quickly flipped around through the next few pages and frowned, ignoring the questioning glances of the agents sitting near her as the pages rustled against each other. After a couple of minutes of fruitless searching, she dropped her pen on top of the thick report, creating a light thump, which could easily be heard throughout the quiet room.
Vaughn looked up from his power point presentation and Kendall once again glared at her for disrupting the briefing.
"Question, Agent Bristow?" he sarcastically asked.
"Actually, yes," she leaned forward in her chair. "I was looking at the attack plan and I noticed that my name wasn't listed with the team going in. Am I to assume then that I'll be working from the inside?"
Kendall turned to Vaughn with a questioning look, and he in turn looked back at Sydney. "Actually, no, you won't be inside."
"Then where will I be?" she asked in confusion.
"We haven't determined that yet, but most likely, you'll be at a safehouse as far away from the Credit Dauphine building as possible."
"Excuse me?" she blinked. "Why won't I be at SD-6 while the raid is taking place?"
"Because it's possible that you could be compromised either immediately before or during the raid, and the CIA obviously would prefer for that not to happen."
"And the only way to keep me from being compromised is to lock me in a safehouse?" she dubiously asked. "That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. By the time Sloane realizes that something's going on, it'll be too late for him to do anything about it."
"There's no way to be sure of that," Vaughn shook his head. He glanced around the room and noticed the other agents watching his and Sydney's exchange with interest, and he mentally urged her to drop it. She knew as well as he did that their rumored relationship had been a favorite topic of water cooler conversation for the past year, and the last thing they needed was for the rumor mill to spin the story that they'd had a lovers' spat in the middle of a briefing. All it took, however, was one look at the increasingly stormy expression on Sydney's face to know that she wasn't about to just let this go.
She stared back at him with eyes so penetrating that he could almost feel her boring holes in his skull. "You need to go back to the drawing board and reconsider this plan," she haughtily suggested, ignoring the flash of indignation in Vaughn's eyes. "I can play an important role in this operation -- I *should* play an important role this operation considering my familiarity with SD-6 *and* the layout of the Credit Dauphine building."
"No one here questions your knowledge of the inner workings SD-6," Vaughn said tightly, trying but failing to keep the edge out of his voice, "but considering your value to the CIA and to the Justice Department in the prosecution of Arvin Sloane and the other Alliance principals, we have an obligation not to take unnecessary risks with your safety."
"Unnecessary risks?" she incredulously repeated. She briefly glanced over at her father, expecting him to back her up, but was surprised to see the impassive look on his face before she turned back to Vaughn. "So am I to assume that *all* of the agency's assets inside SD-6 are being kept from participating in this op?"
Vaughn gave her an irritated look, knowing as well as she did that she and Jack were the agency's *only* assets inside SD-6.
"As a matter of fact, no. Jack Bristow will be with Sloane when we apprehend him."
As Vaughn's words sank in, Sydney sat back in her chair, speechless as she realized that Vaughn's explanation for her non-participation in the raid was nothing more than pretext. She curled her hands into fists and dug her fingernails into her palms to prevent herself from exploding in anger. "So does that mean that he *is* expendable to the CIA and the Justice Department?" she sarcastically asked.
"I think we all know that Jack Bristow is not expendable, so we should end this discussion right now," Kendall barked as he finally entered the fray.
"If you have concerns that don't pertain to the team as a whole, Agent Bristow, we can discuss them later, in a more appropriate setting." Vaughn's tone was cold, but there was no mistaking the flash of anger in his eyes as he addressed her. "For the time being, however, I think we should all concentrate on the logistics of the operation."
"I agree," Kendall nodded as he frowned at Sydney one last time for good measure. "Please continue, Agent Vaughn."
Sydney sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest to prevent herself from shaking with anger. She was used to Kendall's sneering condescension, and she couldn't even say that she was surprised by her father's failure to speak up, because Jack Bristow didn't believe in making a scene or calling attention to himself. But she could hardly believe the way that Vaughn had so dismissively brushed aside her concerns about the raid. It was the first time she could ever recall him doing anything like that and it both infuriated and hurt her. She silently seethed for the remainder of the meeting, tuning out everything that was said following her blow up with Vaughn. When Kendall finally ended the briefing, she hastily scribbled a note on the back of Vaughn's note, and shoved it into Weiss's palm.
"Give that to Vaughn," she tersely instructed. Before an uncomfortable Weiss could say a word, she brushed past him and stalked out of the briefing room.
Weiss gathered up his notes and walked over to Vaughn, who was disconnecting his laptop. "Nice," he said with a low whistle.
"Yeah, no kidding. What in the hell was that?" Vaughn asked in bewilderment.
"I don't know man, but you've got a very pissed off girlfriend to deal with, and you don't look too happy yourself right now. This, my friend, is why business and pleasure do not mix."
"Now you tell me," Vaughn rolled his eyes. "I swear, sometimes, she's impossible."
"Yeah, but that's why you love her, and you know it," Weiss laughed. "You love her fire. Hey, by the way, she asked me to give you this."
Vaughn took the note from Weiss and quickly read it before shoving it in his pocket.
"Well, this should be fun," he muttered under his breath. "Listen, if I don't make it back alive in an hour, tell my mom that I love her. And if *Sydney* doesn't make it back alive, tell Jack he can thank me later."
"You got it," Weiss laughed. "Good luck, man."
"Thanks, I'm gonna need it."
*****
Vaughn opened the gate to the storage facility and found Sydney standing in the middle of the room, her arms crossed in front of her, and her body language undeniably hostile. He moved until he stood directly in front of her and they simply stared at each other for several long, tension-filled moments.
"So, are you going to explain yourself or what?" Sydney finally asked.
"Excuse me? You were the one who asked -- no, I'm sorry, ordered -- *me* here. If anyone needs to do some explaining, it's you."
"Me?" she incredulously asked.
"Yes, you," he shot back. "What was with that scene during the briefing, Sydney?"
"What scene?" she asked, feigning ignorance. "I didn't cause a scene, Vaughn. I was simply trying to get you to give me some answers from you about why I have no role in the raid. Actually, I'm still looking for those answers, because everything that you said in the briefing was bullshit, and you know it."
"Sydney, everything that I said in the briefing was the absolute truth," he countered. "There are at least a hundred reasons why you should be as far away from Credit Dauphine as possible on the day of the raid. Hell, if it were up to me, you would never set foot in that building again starting today."
Sydney stared at him, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in his head. "What is this about, Vaughn? Why don't you want me around when SD-6 finally goes down?"
"Because I'm trying to protect you," he sighed. "Syd, when I was at Langley, I spent almost every minute of every day working with the other agents, trying to formulate a plan. We tried to account for every second of the raid, because the timing is critical. All of our planning is all well and good, but do you know how often these types of operations actually go according to plan? Not very often, and this one, in particular, is going to be incredibly dangerous and I simply don't want you to get caught in the crossfire."
"Well, of course, it's dangerous, Vaughn. But you say that as if the past two years of my life haven't been dangerous."
"I know they have, and that's all the more reason not to take any chances, now that they're finally coming to an end."
"So, what am I supposed to do, Vaughn? Am I supposed to sit around at home fucking baking cookies while all the big, strong men take care of Sloane?"
"Syd, there are women on the team," he gently reminded her.
"Oh yes how could I forget?" she sarcastically asked. "But apparently, the only women that are allowed on the team are the ones that you're not sleeping with."
"No, I've actually made a few exceptions to that rule," he deadpanned.
Sydney stared at him in stunned silence until she noticed the twinkle in his eyes and realized that he was joking. Any other time, she would have laughed with him, but not now.
"You know what, Vaughn? Save the jokes for another time when I'm *not* mad enough to hit you."
"And when do you suppose that might be?" he asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets to avoid touching her. Even when she was furious with him -- especially when she was furious at him -- she was achingly beautiful and sexy and he wanted to shut her up and relieve the tension between them by pressing her against the fence and ravishing her until she couldn't remember why she was ever angry at him in the first place. He knew, of course, that he couldn't and shouldn't use sex to avoid their argument, but damn if he didn't want to.
"Maybe I'll stop being mad and think you're funny again when you back down and put me on the team," she offered.
"Then I guess you're going to stay mad at me for a while longer, because I'm not doing that," he firmly clipped. "Syd, I'm not going to apologize for the fact that I want to keep you safe, and your father and I agreed that the best way to do that is to keep you away from the raid."
"You and my father *agreed*?" she repeated. "When?"
"The night that we had dinner together."
"So that's when the two of you hatched this ridiculous idea? Since when do you and my father decide what's best for me?" she derisively asked. "I don't need the two of you conspiring with each other and acting like macho men protecting the little lady from danger. News flash, Vaughn -- I'm not good at playing the role of damsel in distress."
"No shit, Sydney," he shot back. "You know what? Don't play that card, because you know that I have never once treated you like you were any less capable because you're a woman. In fact, I don't ever remember being anything other than amazed and proud that you're so amazing in the field."
"If I'm so amazing, then why are you asking me to sit on the sidelines, Vaughn? I can be an asset to the team, and you're acting as if I'd only get in the way."
"This isn't about you getting in the way, Sydney. This is about keeping you safe, and that's completely different. What about that are you not comprehending?"
"All of it!" she yelled. "Why do you think it falls upon *you* to keep me safe?"
"Do you really have to ask me that?" he asked as he grabbed her forearm and forced her to look at him. "It falls upon me to keep you safe because I love you, Sydney, or have you forgotten that I asked you to marry me? I was kind of hoping that you might live long enough to actually make it to the altar one day."
Sydney looked at the earnest expression on his face and couldn't help but smile.
"I walked right into that one, didn't I?" she wryly asked. He smiled back at her, and she had to consciously resist the urge to melt, reminding herself that she was still pissed at him and vowing not to let him off the hook so easily no matter how sweet his words were.
"Vaughn," she sighed as she gently pried his fingers from her arm, "I know that you think you're keeping me safe by keeping me away from the raid, but that's not what you're actually doing. Instead, you're keeping me from finishing something that I've spent the last two years working for. It's like you're tripping me at the finish line."
"Syd, that's not what I'm trying to do," he argued.
"I know, but You are. Vaughn, you know better than anyone how much I want to see SD-6 go down, but not even you could fully understand how important it is to me to physically be there when it happens, to actually see it happen. I've spent everyday since my father first told me the truth about SD-6 waiting for the day when it would finally fall and I can't watch that happen from a distance. I'll never have closure that way. I'll never be able to truly put the last eight years behind me if I can't satisfy myself that I did everything possible to destroy it. I need that closure, Vaughn," she pleaded.
He ran his fingers through his hair, realizing that they were dancing in circles with each other.
"I just don't understand why you have to be there to have closure," he quietly stated.
"But I'm not asking you to understand it. I'm just asking you to accept it." She looked into his green eyes, seeing the same fear, frustration, and love that she knew were mirrored in her own eyes, and prayed that he would see how important this was to her even if she couldn't explain to him the reasons why.
"Syd, I *can't* accept it. It kills me every time you walk into that building on a *normal* day, and now you're asking me to let you walk in there on a day when all hell is going to break loose. We both know that in all likelihood, there are agents who are going to go into that building and not come back out, and the thought of you being one of them makes me physically ill."
"Vaughn, I understand that. I do, but it's not something that either of us can control. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen."
"Great. It's nice knowing that you're so nonchalant about this, Sydney. It's like you don't care one way or another what happens to you, just as long as you get to be the one to slap the handcuffs on Sloane," he accused. Do you know how that makes me feel, knowing that after everything we've been through, after we've waited so long to finally be together, you could care less whether you walk out of that building and come back to me?"
"What? Vaughn, I never said that." She looked at him in confusion, wondering where all of this was coming from. "I never said anything like that, and I can't believe that you would even think it. Do you really have so little faith in my feelings that you think that getting revenge on Sloane is more important to me than you are?"
"What am I supposed to think right now, Sydney? I'm practically begging you not to put yourself at risk, and you're telling me that you have to because you need *closure,*" he said, spitting out the word as if it physically pained him to say it. "Why shouldn't I think that you care more about revenge?"
"Because if that's what you think, Vaughn, you obviously don't know me as well as I thought you did and we really shouldn't be getting married at all. You know that there's nothing in this world that I care about more than you, but if you can't understand why participating in the raid is so important to me -- " her voice cracked with tears and even in the middle of their heated argument, it practically tore Vaughn's heart out.
"Syd, what is it?" he softly asked.
"Nothing, forget it," she mumbled, brushing the tears from her eyes with a frustrated swipe of her hand. There were reasons why it was important to her, reasons that Vaughn couldn't possibly have thought of, but as much as she knew she should share them with him, she simply wasn't ready to do that yet.
"Tell me what's wrong," he gently coaxed.
"I can't, Vaughn, not right now," she said, looking away from him. "I just . . . I can't do this now. I need to be alone for a while."
"Syd, I don't think that's a good idea. I know you're upset, but we need to resolve this. Please stay and talk to me," he begged.
"Vaughn, I -- I can't," she sighed. "I need to go. Please just -- we'll talk later, okay?" She looked at him imploringly, silently begging him to let her go, and against his better judgment, he nodded, silently acquiescing to her demand.
"Thank you," she whispered before she turned and quickly exited the warehouse.
He stood rooted in place as he listened to the sound of her footsteps grow quieter with each passing second. When he could no longer hear anything but the deafening roar of the silence around him, he turned and walked out of the warehouse himself, praying that he could fix whatever was suddenly broken between him and Sydney.
TBC . . .
Chapter 31: "Twelve Rounds"
Sydney peeked through the small window in the door of the briefing room and smiled as she opened the door and walked inside. Vaughn was bent over a laptop with his back to her and she stealthily snuck up behind him, catching him off guard as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her lips next to his ear.
"Don't move, or I'll shoot," she murmured.
He laughed and placed his hands over hers. "I think you're bluffing."
"Yeah, you're right. I could never bring myself to shoot anyone who looked like you."
He broke free of her grasp and turned around to face her, smiling as soon as he looked at her. "Why are you here so early? The briefing's not for another 15 minutes."
"I know, but Weiss told me that you were in here setting up, so I thought I'd come and hang out with you for a while -- unless you and your power point presentation were having a private moment and would rather be alone," she teased.
"Hmm. Jealous?" he asked as he turned back to type something into the laptop.
"Actually, I am. I wish your hands were on me right now instead of your laptop."
"So, making love on my desk a couple of weeks ago wasn't enough for you?" he grinned. "You want to do it here, too?"
"Like you don't?" she laughed. She sat down on the table next to his computer and faced him. "Vaughn, haven't you ever fantasized about making love right in the middle of a briefing?"
"Seriously?" his eyes widened. "In the middle of a briefing, with everyone -- including your dad -- watching us?"
Sydney looked off into space and smiled innocently, earning a laugh from Vaughn. "You never cease to amaze me, Syd, but I never knew about your exhibitionist streak."
"I'm not an exhibitionist," she lightly protested. "It's just that in my fantasy, we can't control ourselves and it doesn't matter who else is in the room."
"And does that fantasy end with your dad shooting me? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that's how it would end in real life."
"Oh, he wouldn't shoot you now that you guys are buddies . . . pals . . . confidants," she teased.
"Right. We're such great buddies that we're going out for beers tomorrow night," he joked. "Don't be fooled, Sydney. Your dad merely went from disliking me to tolerating me. I doubt that we'll be hanging out any time soon."
"Oh, come on, he likes you," she argued. "I mean, he's never going to come straight out and tell you that, but he does. I can tell."
"I guess I'll have to take your word for it," he smiled. He leaned over to give her a quick peck on the lips and she pulled him back to her as he started to move away.
"Now, is that any kind of way to greet your fiance?" she chided as she drew him into a slow, sensual kiss. He placed his palms flat on the table on either side of her body, trapping her beneath him as he deepened the kiss. She hooked her right leg around the backs of his calves, pulling him closer to her, as they lost themselves in the passion of the kiss until an amused voice interrupted them.
"Geez, you two. Get a room," Weiss muttered.
Vaughn instantly jumped away from Sydney, and Weiss laughed at his less-than-smooth attempt to disengage himself from her.
"You have really bad timing, Weiss," Sydney lightly scowled.
"Are you kidding me? I have great timing. If I was two minutes later, Vaughn would have been giving an entirely different kind of presentation in here."
Vaughn tried to hide his smile, but Sydney made no effort to hide hers.
"I know," she laughed. "He's such an exhibitionist. I keep telling him that we can't have sex in public places, but he insists on pushing the envelope anyway."
"Me?! You're the one who -- never mind," he muttered when he saw Weiss grinning at him. He shook his head and gave Sydney a pointed look. "You're gonna pay for that later," he said in a low voice that only she could hear.
"I certainly hope so," she whispered in his ear. She stood up from the table and dragged her fingers across his stomach, making his breath hitch in response as she left to take a seat next to Weiss on the opposite side of the room. Vaughn looked down at his laptop and smiled, already dreaming up ways to make her pay for embarrassing him in front of his best friend.
As Sydney sat down next to him, Weiss swiveled his chair in her direction and gave her a knowing smile.
"What?" she rolled her eyes.
"I didn't say anything," he innocently shrugged.
"But you obviously want to."
He smiled slyly. "I'm just glad that you're taking care of my boy, that's all. He used to always be so uptight, but ever since he came back from Virginia, he's been like a new man. I think I finally know why."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she sniffed, feigning ignorance as she slid the cap off of her pen.
"You must know a lot of helpful stress relief techniques." He raised his eyebrow and she couldn't help but laugh.
"What are the two of you laughing about?" Vaughn called over his shoulder.
"Nothing," Eric piped up. "I was just telling Sydney that she should think about going into the relaxation therapy business once SD-6 is gone." She sharply elbowed him in the side before they both dissolved into laughter, and Vaughn turned to look at them.
"I'm obviously going to have to limit the amount of time that you two spend together. I swear, you guys are like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum."
"Yeah, and we don't have to guess who's who, do we?" Sydney giggled and Weiss shot her a wounded look before turning his attention back to Vaughn.
"Your girlfriend hits below the belt, man," he complained.
"My fian -- " Vaughn began to correct Weiss before he caught himself. "Um, yeah, she does." He sheepishly turned to see if Sydney had noticed his slip, and she grinned back at him. "She goes like that for all twelve rounds, too. That's why I don't mess with her."
"He doesn't mess with me because he's a really smart guy," Sydney corrected.
"Either that, or he's just totally whipped," Weiss countered, making both Vaughn and Sydney laugh in response.
All of their laughter died down as other agents began to file into the room. The afternoon's meeting was expected to be larger than usual, because it was the first briefing for the team that Kendall had assembled for the raid on SD-6.
Just before the meeting was scheduled to begin, Kendall entered the room with Jack. Even though there were plenty of empty seats in the room, including one next to her, Jack made a beeline for the seat next to Vaughn, an action that Sydney found both surprising and amusing. She shot Vaughn a "told you so" look across the room and he simply shook his head and smiled in response before Jack leaned over to whisper something to him.
"Look at that," Sydney nudged Weiss as she gestured to her father and fiance. "My dad has a new best friend."
"I never realized that he had an *old* best friend. He doesn't strike me as the best friend type," Weiss cracked, making Sydney snort as she tried not to laugh out loud. Kendall glared at both of them and she scooted her chair away from Weiss to prevent them from getting into any more trouble as Kendall turned his attention back to the rest of the room.
"As all of you are aware by now, you're here today for an introductory briefing about the imminent raid on SD-6's Los Angeles headquarters, which is scheduled for exactly 17 days from today. I'll be speaking with you, as will CIA Agents Jack Bristow and Michael Vaughn and FBI Agent Brandon Lewis. We don't have a lot of time to waste, so let's get started, shall we?
*****
A half hour later, Jack was wrapping up his presentation, which was meant to familiarize the agents with the inner workings of SD-6. Most of the agents around her were taking copious notes, but since Sydney already knew everything that Jack was explaining, she had spent most of the time during his presentation passing looks across the room with Vaughn, who also hadn't felt compelled to take notes.
Although she couldn't imagine a better way to have spent the past half hour, she almost wished that she hadn't instigated their little game, because she could barely sit still in her seat anymore. Vaughn was looking at her with the same intense expression he wore every time he made love to her, and she felt as if she was melting from the inside out. Any other time, she would have loved that feeling, but not now when she knew that the briefing would probably drag on for at least another hour and a half.
At the moment, she was torturing herself by noticing the outline of Vaughn's shoulder holster underneath his jacket and imagining how much she'd love to hook her fingers through it and . . .
"Thank you, Jack," Kendall loudly interrupted her thoughts, making her even more annoyed with him than usual. "Agent Vaughn," he turned and nodded.
Vaughn stood and gathered a stack of spiral bound reports, then moved through the room to distribute them. When he got to Sydney's table he handed her the last remaining report and gave her a secretive smile as his hand brushed against hers, lingering for a moment longer than necessary.
She hid her face behind her copy of the report as she blushed, and noticed a small piece of paper slip from between the pages. She discretely glanced around the room before opening it, and instantly broke into a grin as she read it: "Try not to jump me during my presentation, okay?"
When she looked up to see Vaughn looking back at her with a cocky smirk on his face, she wanted to jump him right then and there, but she simply smiled and nodded instead.
"I'll try," she mouthed.
He silently laughed and cleared his throat before he spoke. He began by briefly explaining the project that he had worked on at Langley and the resulting plan for a coordinated attack on all Alliance facilities, before moving on to the specifics of the raid on SD-6. As Sydney watched him, it struck her that she was used to dealing with him on a one on one basis when he was her handler, and she had never had the opportunity to watch him in his full capacity as a senior officer. She was impressed by both the smooth way that he delivered his presentation and the way that he had the rapt attention of all the agents in the room.
As she and everyone else followed along with him presentation, she was amazed by how thorough and detailed his report was. He had obviously expended a great deal of time and effort on it, and she suddenly understood why his superiors at Langley had been impressed enough to raise the possibility of a promotion. She wasn't surprised, but it was nice to know that he was as smart and detailed as he was gorgeous. He caught her staring at him and shot her a quick smile, which gave her goose bumps as she realized that he was going to be her husband in the not too distant future.
She was still wrapped up in that thought a short while later, as Vaughn moved on to the practical aspects of the raid, and she along with everyone else, turned to the next page in his report. She read over it briefly, then again, paying more attention as she was sure that she must have missed something in her first cursory glance at it. She quickly flipped around through the next few pages and frowned, ignoring the questioning glances of the agents sitting near her as the pages rustled against each other. After a couple of minutes of fruitless searching, she dropped her pen on top of the thick report, creating a light thump, which could easily be heard throughout the quiet room.
Vaughn looked up from his power point presentation and Kendall once again glared at her for disrupting the briefing.
"Question, Agent Bristow?" he sarcastically asked.
"Actually, yes," she leaned forward in her chair. "I was looking at the attack plan and I noticed that my name wasn't listed with the team going in. Am I to assume then that I'll be working from the inside?"
Kendall turned to Vaughn with a questioning look, and he in turn looked back at Sydney. "Actually, no, you won't be inside."
"Then where will I be?" she asked in confusion.
"We haven't determined that yet, but most likely, you'll be at a safehouse as far away from the Credit Dauphine building as possible."
"Excuse me?" she blinked. "Why won't I be at SD-6 while the raid is taking place?"
"Because it's possible that you could be compromised either immediately before or during the raid, and the CIA obviously would prefer for that not to happen."
"And the only way to keep me from being compromised is to lock me in a safehouse?" she dubiously asked. "That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. By the time Sloane realizes that something's going on, it'll be too late for him to do anything about it."
"There's no way to be sure of that," Vaughn shook his head. He glanced around the room and noticed the other agents watching his and Sydney's exchange with interest, and he mentally urged her to drop it. She knew as well as he did that their rumored relationship had been a favorite topic of water cooler conversation for the past year, and the last thing they needed was for the rumor mill to spin the story that they'd had a lovers' spat in the middle of a briefing. All it took, however, was one look at the increasingly stormy expression on Sydney's face to know that she wasn't about to just let this go.
She stared back at him with eyes so penetrating that he could almost feel her boring holes in his skull. "You need to go back to the drawing board and reconsider this plan," she haughtily suggested, ignoring the flash of indignation in Vaughn's eyes. "I can play an important role in this operation -- I *should* play an important role this operation considering my familiarity with SD-6 *and* the layout of the Credit Dauphine building."
"No one here questions your knowledge of the inner workings SD-6," Vaughn said tightly, trying but failing to keep the edge out of his voice, "but considering your value to the CIA and to the Justice Department in the prosecution of Arvin Sloane and the other Alliance principals, we have an obligation not to take unnecessary risks with your safety."
"Unnecessary risks?" she incredulously repeated. She briefly glanced over at her father, expecting him to back her up, but was surprised to see the impassive look on his face before she turned back to Vaughn. "So am I to assume that *all* of the agency's assets inside SD-6 are being kept from participating in this op?"
Vaughn gave her an irritated look, knowing as well as she did that she and Jack were the agency's *only* assets inside SD-6.
"As a matter of fact, no. Jack Bristow will be with Sloane when we apprehend him."
As Vaughn's words sank in, Sydney sat back in her chair, speechless as she realized that Vaughn's explanation for her non-participation in the raid was nothing more than pretext. She curled her hands into fists and dug her fingernails into her palms to prevent herself from exploding in anger. "So does that mean that he *is* expendable to the CIA and the Justice Department?" she sarcastically asked.
"I think we all know that Jack Bristow is not expendable, so we should end this discussion right now," Kendall barked as he finally entered the fray.
"If you have concerns that don't pertain to the team as a whole, Agent Bristow, we can discuss them later, in a more appropriate setting." Vaughn's tone was cold, but there was no mistaking the flash of anger in his eyes as he addressed her. "For the time being, however, I think we should all concentrate on the logistics of the operation."
"I agree," Kendall nodded as he frowned at Sydney one last time for good measure. "Please continue, Agent Vaughn."
Sydney sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest to prevent herself from shaking with anger. She was used to Kendall's sneering condescension, and she couldn't even say that she was surprised by her father's failure to speak up, because Jack Bristow didn't believe in making a scene or calling attention to himself. But she could hardly believe the way that Vaughn had so dismissively brushed aside her concerns about the raid. It was the first time she could ever recall him doing anything like that and it both infuriated and hurt her. She silently seethed for the remainder of the meeting, tuning out everything that was said following her blow up with Vaughn. When Kendall finally ended the briefing, she hastily scribbled a note on the back of Vaughn's note, and shoved it into Weiss's palm.
"Give that to Vaughn," she tersely instructed. Before an uncomfortable Weiss could say a word, she brushed past him and stalked out of the briefing room.
Weiss gathered up his notes and walked over to Vaughn, who was disconnecting his laptop. "Nice," he said with a low whistle.
"Yeah, no kidding. What in the hell was that?" Vaughn asked in bewilderment.
"I don't know man, but you've got a very pissed off girlfriend to deal with, and you don't look too happy yourself right now. This, my friend, is why business and pleasure do not mix."
"Now you tell me," Vaughn rolled his eyes. "I swear, sometimes, she's impossible."
"Yeah, but that's why you love her, and you know it," Weiss laughed. "You love her fire. Hey, by the way, she asked me to give you this."
Vaughn took the note from Weiss and quickly read it before shoving it in his pocket.
"Well, this should be fun," he muttered under his breath. "Listen, if I don't make it back alive in an hour, tell my mom that I love her. And if *Sydney* doesn't make it back alive, tell Jack he can thank me later."
"You got it," Weiss laughed. "Good luck, man."
"Thanks, I'm gonna need it."
*****
Vaughn opened the gate to the storage facility and found Sydney standing in the middle of the room, her arms crossed in front of her, and her body language undeniably hostile. He moved until he stood directly in front of her and they simply stared at each other for several long, tension-filled moments.
"So, are you going to explain yourself or what?" Sydney finally asked.
"Excuse me? You were the one who asked -- no, I'm sorry, ordered -- *me* here. If anyone needs to do some explaining, it's you."
"Me?" she incredulously asked.
"Yes, you," he shot back. "What was with that scene during the briefing, Sydney?"
"What scene?" she asked, feigning ignorance. "I didn't cause a scene, Vaughn. I was simply trying to get you to give me some answers from you about why I have no role in the raid. Actually, I'm still looking for those answers, because everything that you said in the briefing was bullshit, and you know it."
"Sydney, everything that I said in the briefing was the absolute truth," he countered. "There are at least a hundred reasons why you should be as far away from Credit Dauphine as possible on the day of the raid. Hell, if it were up to me, you would never set foot in that building again starting today."
Sydney stared at him, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in his head. "What is this about, Vaughn? Why don't you want me around when SD-6 finally goes down?"
"Because I'm trying to protect you," he sighed. "Syd, when I was at Langley, I spent almost every minute of every day working with the other agents, trying to formulate a plan. We tried to account for every second of the raid, because the timing is critical. All of our planning is all well and good, but do you know how often these types of operations actually go according to plan? Not very often, and this one, in particular, is going to be incredibly dangerous and I simply don't want you to get caught in the crossfire."
"Well, of course, it's dangerous, Vaughn. But you say that as if the past two years of my life haven't been dangerous."
"I know they have, and that's all the more reason not to take any chances, now that they're finally coming to an end."
"So, what am I supposed to do, Vaughn? Am I supposed to sit around at home fucking baking cookies while all the big, strong men take care of Sloane?"
"Syd, there are women on the team," he gently reminded her.
"Oh yes how could I forget?" she sarcastically asked. "But apparently, the only women that are allowed on the team are the ones that you're not sleeping with."
"No, I've actually made a few exceptions to that rule," he deadpanned.
Sydney stared at him in stunned silence until she noticed the twinkle in his eyes and realized that he was joking. Any other time, she would have laughed with him, but not now.
"You know what, Vaughn? Save the jokes for another time when I'm *not* mad enough to hit you."
"And when do you suppose that might be?" he asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets to avoid touching her. Even when she was furious with him -- especially when she was furious at him -- she was achingly beautiful and sexy and he wanted to shut her up and relieve the tension between them by pressing her against the fence and ravishing her until she couldn't remember why she was ever angry at him in the first place. He knew, of course, that he couldn't and shouldn't use sex to avoid their argument, but damn if he didn't want to.
"Maybe I'll stop being mad and think you're funny again when you back down and put me on the team," she offered.
"Then I guess you're going to stay mad at me for a while longer, because I'm not doing that," he firmly clipped. "Syd, I'm not going to apologize for the fact that I want to keep you safe, and your father and I agreed that the best way to do that is to keep you away from the raid."
"You and my father *agreed*?" she repeated. "When?"
"The night that we had dinner together."
"So that's when the two of you hatched this ridiculous idea? Since when do you and my father decide what's best for me?" she derisively asked. "I don't need the two of you conspiring with each other and acting like macho men protecting the little lady from danger. News flash, Vaughn -- I'm not good at playing the role of damsel in distress."
"No shit, Sydney," he shot back. "You know what? Don't play that card, because you know that I have never once treated you like you were any less capable because you're a woman. In fact, I don't ever remember being anything other than amazed and proud that you're so amazing in the field."
"If I'm so amazing, then why are you asking me to sit on the sidelines, Vaughn? I can be an asset to the team, and you're acting as if I'd only get in the way."
"This isn't about you getting in the way, Sydney. This is about keeping you safe, and that's completely different. What about that are you not comprehending?"
"All of it!" she yelled. "Why do you think it falls upon *you* to keep me safe?"
"Do you really have to ask me that?" he asked as he grabbed her forearm and forced her to look at him. "It falls upon me to keep you safe because I love you, Sydney, or have you forgotten that I asked you to marry me? I was kind of hoping that you might live long enough to actually make it to the altar one day."
Sydney looked at the earnest expression on his face and couldn't help but smile.
"I walked right into that one, didn't I?" she wryly asked. He smiled back at her, and she had to consciously resist the urge to melt, reminding herself that she was still pissed at him and vowing not to let him off the hook so easily no matter how sweet his words were.
"Vaughn," she sighed as she gently pried his fingers from her arm, "I know that you think you're keeping me safe by keeping me away from the raid, but that's not what you're actually doing. Instead, you're keeping me from finishing something that I've spent the last two years working for. It's like you're tripping me at the finish line."
"Syd, that's not what I'm trying to do," he argued.
"I know, but You are. Vaughn, you know better than anyone how much I want to see SD-6 go down, but not even you could fully understand how important it is to me to physically be there when it happens, to actually see it happen. I've spent everyday since my father first told me the truth about SD-6 waiting for the day when it would finally fall and I can't watch that happen from a distance. I'll never have closure that way. I'll never be able to truly put the last eight years behind me if I can't satisfy myself that I did everything possible to destroy it. I need that closure, Vaughn," she pleaded.
He ran his fingers through his hair, realizing that they were dancing in circles with each other.
"I just don't understand why you have to be there to have closure," he quietly stated.
"But I'm not asking you to understand it. I'm just asking you to accept it." She looked into his green eyes, seeing the same fear, frustration, and love that she knew were mirrored in her own eyes, and prayed that he would see how important this was to her even if she couldn't explain to him the reasons why.
"Syd, I *can't* accept it. It kills me every time you walk into that building on a *normal* day, and now you're asking me to let you walk in there on a day when all hell is going to break loose. We both know that in all likelihood, there are agents who are going to go into that building and not come back out, and the thought of you being one of them makes me physically ill."
"Vaughn, I understand that. I do, but it's not something that either of us can control. Whatever's going to happen is going to happen."
"Great. It's nice knowing that you're so nonchalant about this, Sydney. It's like you don't care one way or another what happens to you, just as long as you get to be the one to slap the handcuffs on Sloane," he accused. Do you know how that makes me feel, knowing that after everything we've been through, after we've waited so long to finally be together, you could care less whether you walk out of that building and come back to me?"
"What? Vaughn, I never said that." She looked at him in confusion, wondering where all of this was coming from. "I never said anything like that, and I can't believe that you would even think it. Do you really have so little faith in my feelings that you think that getting revenge on Sloane is more important to me than you are?"
"What am I supposed to think right now, Sydney? I'm practically begging you not to put yourself at risk, and you're telling me that you have to because you need *closure,*" he said, spitting out the word as if it physically pained him to say it. "Why shouldn't I think that you care more about revenge?"
"Because if that's what you think, Vaughn, you obviously don't know me as well as I thought you did and we really shouldn't be getting married at all. You know that there's nothing in this world that I care about more than you, but if you can't understand why participating in the raid is so important to me -- " her voice cracked with tears and even in the middle of their heated argument, it practically tore Vaughn's heart out.
"Syd, what is it?" he softly asked.
"Nothing, forget it," she mumbled, brushing the tears from her eyes with a frustrated swipe of her hand. There were reasons why it was important to her, reasons that Vaughn couldn't possibly have thought of, but as much as she knew she should share them with him, she simply wasn't ready to do that yet.
"Tell me what's wrong," he gently coaxed.
"I can't, Vaughn, not right now," she said, looking away from him. "I just . . . I can't do this now. I need to be alone for a while."
"Syd, I don't think that's a good idea. I know you're upset, but we need to resolve this. Please stay and talk to me," he begged.
"Vaughn, I -- I can't," she sighed. "I need to go. Please just -- we'll talk later, okay?" She looked at him imploringly, silently begging him to let her go, and against his better judgment, he nodded, silently acquiescing to her demand.
"Thank you," she whispered before she turned and quickly exited the warehouse.
He stood rooted in place as he listened to the sound of her footsteps grow quieter with each passing second. When he could no longer hear anything but the deafening roar of the silence around him, he turned and walked out of the warehouse himself, praying that he could fix whatever was suddenly broken between him and Sydney.
TBC . . .