A/N: Bet you guys thought you'd never see this, huh? At long last, there's a new chapter, and I want to thank all of you for being so incredibly patient and for all your messages telling me how much you missed this story. I missed it too, and it's nice to finally post a new chapter. After such an extended period of not being able to write, however, I felt a little rusty, so hopefully this doesn't suck too much. It kind of spun off in a direction that I wasn't expecting, and I hope it's not too terribly fluffy. Also, there's a *cough* smuttier version, which can be read at: http://sd-1.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=21082&st=100&.
Hope you enjoy, and thanks for all your support!
Chapter 37: "Lyon"
Vaughn let out a sigh of frustration as he set down the book he was reading -- or not reading, to be more accurate. After trying in vain to read the same page for the past hour, he finally resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't concentrate on the book at all. He stood up and stretched, wincing slightly as his muscles briefly groaned in protest. Although it had been ten days since the accident, the bruises along the left side of his body were still making their presence felt every time he moved.
After the initial pain subsided, he moved over to the French doors leading to the balcony of the small apartment he and his mother had been sharing ever since Jack left them in Lyon. Through the door's windows, he watched the hustle and bustle along the busy street outside, and he wished that he was out among the people going home from work, shopping or having coffee at the many streetside cafes. Jack made the decision to hide Elise and Vaughn in France because he thought it would be easier for them to blend in there, but he warned them to keep a low profile, "just in case." That was why Elise had left the apartment only long enough to shop for food and other essentials, and Vaughn had barely set foot outside in the past ten days. To say he was going stir-crazy was, therefore, an understatement of epic proportions, and he would have given anything to be able to go for a run or even just to step out onto the balcony without drawing unnecessary attention to himself.
As he looked out into the dusky evening, he realized that the frustration and mental claustrophobia of being stuck inside the small apartment was compounded by the fact that he missed Sydney more than he ever thought possible. Each morning he woke with a dull ache in his chest and it took all the energy he could muster to get out of bed and face another long day without her. He had been so morose that he was starting to wonder if he was on the verge of clinical depression, but his mother had smilingly assured him that he was simply lovesick. And though he never would have believed that it was possible to *physically* ache from missing someone so much, he was now a firm believer.
Even so, the physical pain of his separation from Sydney was nothing compared to the toll it was taking on him mentally and emotionally. In the three days since he stopped taking the pain medication that usually made him fall fast asleep, he estimated that he had probably slept for a total of ten hours. Each night, he lay in bed wondering what Sydney was doing, wondering if she was safe, hoping that she didn't miss him so much that it made her lose sight of the challenge looming in front of her. The SD-6 raid was scheduled to take place in exactly two days, and the faster it approached, the more he worried about her.
Thanks to a couple of short phone calls from Jack, Vaughn at least knew that Sydney was fine so far. After learning of Vaughn's "death" and seeing how devastated she appeared to be, Sloane had given her some time off to deal with her grief -- time that Sydney had actually spent at CIA headquarters with Jack, Weiss, Kendall, Agent Miles and the other agents coordinating the raid. Jack assured Vaughn that things were going according to plan and that Sydney was okay, and even though Vaughn believed him, it still wasn't enough to assuage his fears. So, in the final analysis, he found himself facing the knowledge that in forty-eight hours, his life would either end or finally, gloriously begin, depending on whether Sydney made it out of the Credit Dauphine building alive.
*****
Sydney closed the door to her hotel room and pushed her rolling suitcase into the corner before she flopped down onto the bed with a restless sigh. Three weeks ago, this would have been the absolute last place she expected to be a mere two days before the Alliance was expected to fall, but here she was. Everyone at CIA headquarters had been so busy planning and preparing for the raid that it never occurred to any of them that Sloane might disrupt their plans by sending her on a mission. Sure enough, however, that's exactly what he had done. When he called her into his office to give her the mission, she wanted to protest vehemently, but she knew that it would only make him suspicious. Despite the fact that she knew he was an evil bastard, he had been surprisingly understanding and kind when she told him about Vaughn's death, and he had given her almost an entire week off -- not knowing, of course, that she would spend that week plotting his downfall.
In any event, when she finally returned to work, Sloane believed that it was in her best interests to get back to work to take her mind off of her grief. To that end, he assigned her this mission, and tomorrow, she was supposed to steal yet another Rambaldi artifact from the home of a wealthy collector, though she had absolutely no intention of doing so. Because her return flight wasn't scheduled until the day of the raid, Sloane would never know that she hadn't completed her mission. So essentially, for the next few days, she was on an SD-6 funded vacation, and she figured that was the least she was owed after giving the organization the last eight years of her life.
It was that very sense of resentment that had initially angered about this mission. She couldn't believe that as much as she had looked forward to being a part of the raid -- and as difficult as it had been to convince Vaughn to *let* her be a part of it -- that she was actually going to be a whole world away from SD-6 when it finally happened. She was absolutely devastated at first by the unfortunate turn of events, but she realized at some point during the long flight over that she was actually okay with the idea of the raid taking place without her.
Maybe, she mused, the almost two weeks she had spent without Vaughn had given her some much-needed perspective. Being apart from him, not knowing where he was or if he was safe, had helped her understand why he had been so adamant about keeping her away from the raid in the first place, so perhaps it wasn't a bad thing that she wouldn't be a part of it. Right now, the only thing she wanted was to be with him; at least this way, she knew for sure that she would actually live long enough to see him again, and that was more important than anything -- more important than finishing what she started almost two years ago, more important than seeing the look on Sloane's face when he was taken into custody, even more important than avenging Danny's death. She wanted all of those things, but not as much as she simply wanted to hold Vaughn in her arms and know that her long nightmare was over and that a new life was set to begin for her, one without secrets and lies. So the very minute that she received the call from her father telling her that the raid was successful, she was going to hop on the first flight back to L.A. and count the minutes until she was reunited with Vaughn.
After a few minutes spent imagining their reunion, she sat up and looked at her watch, realizing that she'd forgotten to adjust it earlier for the time change. When she glanced at the digital clock next to the bed, she saw that it was almost eight o'clock, and even though her internal body clock was completely out of whack due to the time change, she was absolutely starving. She quickly hopped up from the bed and spent a few minutes freshening up before deciding to leave her hotel and get something to eat.
An hour later, she sat at a charming outdoor cafe, enjoying both the balmy, summer air and the opportunity to watch all of the people walking by. Couples strolled along, hand in hand, and even though the sight of them made her miss Vaughn even more than she already did, Sydney smiled at how romantic it all seemed. She reminded herself for the millionth time that it wouldn't be long before she and Vaughn could walk down a street together, but that knowledge still wasn't enough to quell the intense longing that she felt for him.
She dropped a few euros onto the table to pay for her meal and left the cafe, strolling down the street with no particular place to go, but not yet ready to go back to her empty hotel room where she would undoubtedly do nothing but think about how much she missed Vaughn. In actuality, however, she could scarcely think about anything else, and she was so deep in thought that she failed to notice the young boy speeding down the sidewalk on his bicycle until it was too late. He whizzed past her so fast that it knocked her off balance and she fell onto her backside in the middle of the sidewalk. Before she could regain either her breath or her bearings, she heard a concerned voice from behind her.
"Mademoiselle,
Hope you enjoy, and thanks for all your support!
Chapter 37: "Lyon"
Vaughn let out a sigh of frustration as he set down the book he was reading -- or not reading, to be more accurate. After trying in vain to read the same page for the past hour, he finally resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't concentrate on the book at all. He stood up and stretched, wincing slightly as his muscles briefly groaned in protest. Although it had been ten days since the accident, the bruises along the left side of his body were still making their presence felt every time he moved.
After the initial pain subsided, he moved over to the French doors leading to the balcony of the small apartment he and his mother had been sharing ever since Jack left them in Lyon. Through the door's windows, he watched the hustle and bustle along the busy street outside, and he wished that he was out among the people going home from work, shopping or having coffee at the many streetside cafes. Jack made the decision to hide Elise and Vaughn in France because he thought it would be easier for them to blend in there, but he warned them to keep a low profile, "just in case." That was why Elise had left the apartment only long enough to shop for food and other essentials, and Vaughn had barely set foot outside in the past ten days. To say he was going stir-crazy was, therefore, an understatement of epic proportions, and he would have given anything to be able to go for a run or even just to step out onto the balcony without drawing unnecessary attention to himself.
As he looked out into the dusky evening, he realized that the frustration and mental claustrophobia of being stuck inside the small apartment was compounded by the fact that he missed Sydney more than he ever thought possible. Each morning he woke with a dull ache in his chest and it took all the energy he could muster to get out of bed and face another long day without her. He had been so morose that he was starting to wonder if he was on the verge of clinical depression, but his mother had smilingly assured him that he was simply lovesick. And though he never would have believed that it was possible to *physically* ache from missing someone so much, he was now a firm believer.
Even so, the physical pain of his separation from Sydney was nothing compared to the toll it was taking on him mentally and emotionally. In the three days since he stopped taking the pain medication that usually made him fall fast asleep, he estimated that he had probably slept for a total of ten hours. Each night, he lay in bed wondering what Sydney was doing, wondering if she was safe, hoping that she didn't miss him so much that it made her lose sight of the challenge looming in front of her. The SD-6 raid was scheduled to take place in exactly two days, and the faster it approached, the more he worried about her.
Thanks to a couple of short phone calls from Jack, Vaughn at least knew that Sydney was fine so far. After learning of Vaughn's "death" and seeing how devastated she appeared to be, Sloane had given her some time off to deal with her grief -- time that Sydney had actually spent at CIA headquarters with Jack, Weiss, Kendall, Agent Miles and the other agents coordinating the raid. Jack assured Vaughn that things were going according to plan and that Sydney was okay, and even though Vaughn believed him, it still wasn't enough to assuage his fears. So, in the final analysis, he found himself facing the knowledge that in forty-eight hours, his life would either end or finally, gloriously begin, depending on whether Sydney made it out of the Credit Dauphine building alive.
*****
Sydney closed the door to her hotel room and pushed her rolling suitcase into the corner before she flopped down onto the bed with a restless sigh. Three weeks ago, this would have been the absolute last place she expected to be a mere two days before the Alliance was expected to fall, but here she was. Everyone at CIA headquarters had been so busy planning and preparing for the raid that it never occurred to any of them that Sloane might disrupt their plans by sending her on a mission. Sure enough, however, that's exactly what he had done. When he called her into his office to give her the mission, she wanted to protest vehemently, but she knew that it would only make him suspicious. Despite the fact that she knew he was an evil bastard, he had been surprisingly understanding and kind when she told him about Vaughn's death, and he had given her almost an entire week off -- not knowing, of course, that she would spend that week plotting his downfall.
In any event, when she finally returned to work, Sloane believed that it was in her best interests to get back to work to take her mind off of her grief. To that end, he assigned her this mission, and tomorrow, she was supposed to steal yet another Rambaldi artifact from the home of a wealthy collector, though she had absolutely no intention of doing so. Because her return flight wasn't scheduled until the day of the raid, Sloane would never know that she hadn't completed her mission. So essentially, for the next few days, she was on an SD-6 funded vacation, and she figured that was the least she was owed after giving the organization the last eight years of her life.
It was that very sense of resentment that had initially angered about this mission. She couldn't believe that as much as she had looked forward to being a part of the raid -- and as difficult as it had been to convince Vaughn to *let* her be a part of it -- that she was actually going to be a whole world away from SD-6 when it finally happened. She was absolutely devastated at first by the unfortunate turn of events, but she realized at some point during the long flight over that she was actually okay with the idea of the raid taking place without her.
Maybe, she mused, the almost two weeks she had spent without Vaughn had given her some much-needed perspective. Being apart from him, not knowing where he was or if he was safe, had helped her understand why he had been so adamant about keeping her away from the raid in the first place, so perhaps it wasn't a bad thing that she wouldn't be a part of it. Right now, the only thing she wanted was to be with him; at least this way, she knew for sure that she would actually live long enough to see him again, and that was more important than anything -- more important than finishing what she started almost two years ago, more important than seeing the look on Sloane's face when he was taken into custody, even more important than avenging Danny's death. She wanted all of those things, but not as much as she simply wanted to hold Vaughn in her arms and know that her long nightmare was over and that a new life was set to begin for her, one without secrets and lies. So the very minute that she received the call from her father telling her that the raid was successful, she was going to hop on the first flight back to L.A. and count the minutes until she was reunited with Vaughn.
After a few minutes spent imagining their reunion, she sat up and looked at her watch, realizing that she'd forgotten to adjust it earlier for the time change. When she glanced at the digital clock next to the bed, she saw that it was almost eight o'clock, and even though her internal body clock was completely out of whack due to the time change, she was absolutely starving. She quickly hopped up from the bed and spent a few minutes freshening up before deciding to leave her hotel and get something to eat.
An hour later, she sat at a charming outdoor cafe, enjoying both the balmy, summer air and the opportunity to watch all of the people walking by. Couples strolled along, hand in hand, and even though the sight of them made her miss Vaughn even more than she already did, Sydney smiled at how romantic it all seemed. She reminded herself for the millionth time that it wouldn't be long before she and Vaughn could walk down a street together, but that knowledge still wasn't enough to quell the intense longing that she felt for him.
She dropped a few euros onto the table to pay for her meal and left the cafe, strolling down the street with no particular place to go, but not yet ready to go back to her empty hotel room where she would undoubtedly do nothing but think about how much she missed Vaughn. In actuality, however, she could scarcely think about anything else, and she was so deep in thought that she failed to notice the young boy speeding down the sidewalk on his bicycle until it was too late. He whizzed past her so fast that it knocked her off balance and she fell onto her backside in the middle of the sidewalk. Before she could regain either her breath or her bearings, she heard a concerned voice from behind her.
"Mademoiselle,