Chapter 5: Vaughn's Story
Vaughn had woken up in a terribly grouchy mood that morning. After Sydney hung up on him the
night before, Vaughn had thrown the phone against the couch in anger and
continued his pacing of the living room floor. After about ten minutes, he
thought that he had heard movement coming from the bedroom. Realizing that
Lauren must have woken up sometime during his phone conversation, he sat on the
couch, putting his head in his hands as he ran through everything he had said
to Weiss and Sydney. Once he was satisfied that he had not revealed anything
damaging, he let out an exasperated sigh and headed towards the bedroom. As he
slid underneath the covers, he glanced at Lauren as she pretended to be asleep.
He knew that she was faking it, because her breathing pattern is different when
she is truly sleeping. Though physically he was crawling into bed with this
woman who he had been assigned to marry, his heart and mind were a couple of
miles away…with the woman that he was madly in love with.
After a fitful night, Vaughn got up early and went for a run. As he ran, he
thought about that day almost two years ago that had both saved his life and
ruined it at the same time. The day he had agreed to go deep cover.
Flashback
"Thanks for coming in Agent…I mean, Mr. Vaughn. I hope it wasn't too much of
an inconvenience for you."
Vaughn was sitting in a chair across from Director Kendall's desk, the owner of
which was currently leaning against said desk with his arms crossed and looking
at Vaughn with a somewhat concerned expression. This expression was probably
due to the younger man's appearance: Vaughn was wearing a crumpled and worn out
pair of jeans with a dark t-shirt, neither of which looked particularly clean.
A well worn pair of brown hiking boots and an Army surplus coat completed his
ensemble. But it was the man himself, rather than his attire, that was the most
disconcerting to Kendall. Vaughn's face
hadn't seen a razor blade in at least a couple of months, and his hair was
three or four inches longer than Kendall had ever seen him
wear it. It was sticking up in all directions and Kendall doubted whether it
had seen a brush or shampoo in a few days. The trademark forehead wrinkles were
now a permanent fixture and his eyes were bloodshot with considerable bags
underneath them. When he had first entered the room, Kendall had caught a wiff of stale alcohol. The man before him was more likely
to be mistaken for a homeless man than for the former top notch CIA agent that
he really was.
"I take it that it was important, considering the fact that you had Weiss
scouring all of Europe for me." Vaughn's
voice was worn and ragged, the after effects from too much drinking and too
much time spent in smoky bars. "Does it have something to do with Sydney's murder?"
"No…not exactly. That's not why I called you here."
"Well then, why am I here?"
"There are a couple of reasons. A month or so ago, the NSC started deposing
everyone in the office regarding our dealings with Irina
Derevko, in a effort to try and glean some new leads.
You were a part of this task force during Derevko's
stay here, so they would like to depose you as well."
Vaughn ran his hand through his hair and then locked eyes with Kendall for a moment. "NSC
could have sent someone to Europe after I was located
and deposed me there. Why was it necessary for me to come here?"
Kendall reached behind him and picked up a folder
off of his desk. He flipped through its contents until he reached what he was
looking for – it was a photo. He handed the photo to Vaughn. "The woman in this
photograph is Lauren Reed. She is the NSC agent who has been deposing each one
of us regarding Derevko. She is also the daughter of
Senator Reed from Virginia."
Vaughn looked at the photo, confusion still being expressed on his face.
"Okay…I still get the feeling that there is a point to all of this. What does
Ms. Reed have to do with me?"
"Well, you see Mr. Vaughn, the CIA was not the only
ones who have been trying to find you. Two months ago we intercepted a
transmission through Echelon that was between a high ranking member of a group
known as the Covenant, and one of their stateside operatives. You were
mentioned by name in this transmission."
"Me? Who is the Covenant and what do they want with me?"
"First of all, you need to know that the Covenant is currently our prime
suspect in the investigation of Agent Bristow's murder."
"What? What about Sloane? Is he involved with them? I've never even heard of
them – why would they have wanted to murder Sydney?"
"We are still trying to figure that out. But right now, you need to know that
the communicae we intercepted made mention of a plan
for a Covenant mole located deep within the U.S. Government to locate you,
seduce you and eventually to marry you."
"Wait, wait. A 'swallow' mission? But I'm not even
with the CIA anymore! And I sure as hell am not looking to get involved with
anyone…not so soon after Syd…maybe not EVER. This
just doesn't make any sense, and I still don't get what this has to do with
this woman." Vaughn waves the photo of Lauren at Kendall.
"After we intercepted that transmission, the whole task force was put on alert
to report any suspicious questions that came out of the blue regarding your
whereabouts or anyone who asked questions about you period. A few weeks later,
the NSC reopened the Derevko investigation under the
guise of looking for new leads on her location. The depositions were conducted
by Ms. Reed and most of them were by the book, covering the basics of relaying
our contact with Ms. Derevko while she was in our
custody and the details of her escape. But two of the depositions she conducted
made obvious turns away from protocol after the basic questioning regarding Derevko. In her depositions with Jack Bristow and Agent
Weiss, Ms. Reed veered off her normal line of questioning and started asking
specific details relating to you and your relationship with Sydney. Due to the
directive issued regarding any questions that were asked about you, Agents
Bristow and Weiss came to me and we held a meeting to determine whether Ms.
Reed was the one sent by the Covenant."
"You suspect the Senator's daughter as being the mole?"
"Well, we knew that we were treading on thin ice when it comes to an accusation
like that. Our next steps had to be cautious ones. We decided that the best
course of action would be to locate you and allow Ms. Reed to depose you. You
will be wired during your deposition and then we will determine whether or not
she is the one."
"Kendall, you may or may not have noticed this, but I am not exactly in the
proper state of mind to be subjected to a deposition that will force me to talk
about my father's murderer, and quite possibly the murder of my girlfriend. You
should have just let me stay in Europe and away from all of
this. It's doubtful that they would have ever found me."
"And just let you drink yourself to death?" Vaughn dropped his eyes from Kendall's glare. "Mr.
Vaughn, you may not currently be in the employ of the CIA, but when you were
here, you were an exemplary agent. You suffered an incredible loss and instead
of choosing to fight back or get revenge, you have chosen to drink yourself to
death and avoid anyone and anything having to do with Sydney. What you are doing
now is not honoring her memory. Is this how you think she would want you to be
handling her death? By seeing how fast you can join her?"
"You don't know what you're talking about…I died the moment I threw her ashes
out to sea. All you see now is the shell that remains."
"What I am giving you now, Mr. Vaughn, is a reason to keep on living. Not in
spite of Sydney, but because of
her…in honor of her. If we determine that Ms. Reed is indeed the Covenant mole,
my directive will be for you to consider taking on a deep cover assignment."
"WHAT?"
"I would want you to encourage a relationship with Ms. Reed, including marrying
her at some point, and provide intel
to the CIA regarding her activities, contacts, anything you can get regarding
the Covenant. We have little to no information on them right now. If you truly
want justice…if you truly want to avenge Sydney's murder, then the best
way to do that is to help us take down the Covenant."
"I could never consider prostituting myself…that's just not something that I
could ever do."
"Not even for Sydney?"
"She wouldn't want me to do that…"
"What do you think she did after her fiancée was killed? She kept going and
then she decided to make SD-6 pay. She was essentially in bed with the enemy,
and she eventually was successful."
"Let me…let me think about it."
"Your deposition with Ms. Reed is scheduled for two days from now. Get cleaned
up, shave, get a haircut. Do whatever you need to have
the appearance of normalcy. After the deposition, we'll review the recording
and make a decision then. But Vaughn, you need to understand that for this to
be a believable deep cover, you will not be allowed to review the true nature
of your relationship with Ms. Reed to anyone besides me."
"Not even Weiss? Or Jack? They may become suspicious,
since they were told about a possible mole."
"Especially not them. If we determine that it is her,
then I will let everyone know that the original intel we received was false or that we had thwarted
it in some other way. The fewer people who know about this, the less likely
your cover will be blown."
Kendall stood up and Vaughn joined him. They shook
hands and Vaughn headed for the door. "Remember Agent Vaughn – you are to tell
no one about this."
"Yes, sir."
End Flashback
Vaughn had finished his run and was taking a shower while he finished thinking about
that day. While the idea of doing a 'raven' mission was at first preposterous
to him, the more he thought about it…the more sense it made to him. He had not
been honoring Sydney's memory by hustling
pool halls all across Europe, while trying to
drink his memories away. He accepted the mission and resumed his life in L.A. He took on a
teaching job that Kendall had arranged, thus preventing Vaughn from
having any significant intel
that Lauren could intercept. The relationship moved along quickly, and Vaughn
was surprised at how supportive Jack, Eric, and Dixon had been to his
moving on so quickly. The reason why the Covenant had chosen Vaughn in the
first place did not become clear until Sydney resurfaced.
Flashback
Vaughn was standing up while stacking quiz papers at his desk as the remainder of the students from his last class filed out. He heard someone clear their throat and looked up to see Kendall standing in the back of the room. Vaughn was surprised to see him, since he had been reporting to Director Dixon for the past six months. He had been told that Kendall was overseeing a top secret mission that needed his full attention, and Vaughn hadn't seen him since.
"There's been a development in Sydney's case."
Vaughn froze – there was something about Kendall's demeanor that sent a chill up his spine. "Really? What's that?"
"She's alive."
Vaughn's mouth dropped open. His lips went numb. The numbness spread up his cheeks, past his eyes and to his forehead. His whole face was tingling. His throat started burning and a wave of nausea hit him like a freight train. He leaned to the left side of his desk and vomited into his trash can – the entire contents of his stomach spilling forth in wave after wave. Kendall took a few steps forward, then stopped – not quite sure how close he should get until Vaughn had thoroughly processed the bomb he had just dropped. Eventually the hurling slowed to dry heaves. Vaughn grabbed some tissues off of his desk and wiped his mouth. The numbness remained though and he felt like he was on the verge of collapsing into a heap on the floor. He looked disbelievingly at Kendall, then sank into his chair – elbows on his knees, head falling into his hands. "How…how is that possible? I BURIED her! Where has she been? Where is she now?"
Kendall put his hands on his hips and took a few more steps forward before he spoke. "Agent Vaughn – we have very few answers right now. I can tell you that two hours ago I received a phone call from Agent Bristow from a pay phone in Hong Kong. I directed her to the nearest safehouse, where she arrived an hour ago. We believe that she has no memory of the past two years."
Vaughn's head jerked up and he met Kendall's gaze. "What did you just say?"
"Sydney does not remember the time that she was missing."
"Oh my God…."
"An investigation has been started, but first and foremost we need Agent Bristow transported safely back to L.A. as soon as possible. Due to her apparent memory loss, it was determined that you should be the one to retrieve her."
Vaughn shook his head a couple of times. He squeezed his eyes shut as he began to realize the enormity of this development. "Wait…why me? Why not Jack? No one but you and Dixon even know that I'm still with the CIA."
"Jack Bristow is not available at this time. I can't discuss any further details regarding him. You and Sydney were close – you were from her life before and she trusts you. This has to be handled with the utmost care. I'm sure you can understand that."
Vaughn looked at his hands. Just then a ray of sunlight from the classroom window reflected off the gold band on the ring finger of his left hand. "I can't…I can't go see her! Not until you pull me out of my assignment! I need time to wrap this up so I can explain to her what's going on – why I've done what I've done. Why I'm married to someone else!!!"
"Agent Vaughn – Sydney's reappearance does not affect your mission. It does not equate to the dismantling of the Covenant. You will remain under deep cover and finish your assignment as per our agreement."
"No…no, no, no!!! You can't ask me to do that – not to Sydney! She may have been brainwashed…tortured…GOD KNOWS WHAT! You want me to go see her… then tell her that I met someone else and got married in less than two years after she disappeared? She's going to kick my ass! She's going to think that I gave up on her…that I got over her…that I don't still…love her…" Vaughn's voice fades as images of Sydney's face in various contortions of anger, rage, despair and disappointment flash through his mind.
Kendall walked up to Vaughn's desk and leaned forward, resting his knuckles on the desktop as his glare bores into the younger man's glazed-over eyes. "Your mission is the same now as it ever was – but instead of revenging Sydney's murder, you are now helping to bring to justice the ones who stole two years of her life…and now your life as well. You are still honoring her. This assignment is crucial to our efforts to keep tabs on the Covenant and to bring about their eventual downfall. When this is all over, Agent Bristow will understand that you were doing your duty…to your country and to her as well. I know it may seem impossible, but this is for the best."
Vaughn sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. He was unbelievably thrilled that Sydney was not dead – she was still living and breathing. But he also knew that she would want answers and if it was the Covenant that had her, then he was in the best position to help provide those to her. He'd have to continue with this sham marriage – and he was going to have to break her heart, while breaking his all over again in the process. "If I am going to continue with this charade…for Sydney's sake…then I am asking your permission to tell Agent Weiss what is going on. I need someone to talk to about this or I'm going to explode."
"Permission granted." Kendall picked a folder up off a nearby desk and handed it to Vaughn. "This is all we know at the moment. Go to Hong Kong. Bring her back. Then continue to work your ass off to bring down the Covenant once and for all." Kendall gave him a nod, then headed for the classroom door. At the door he turned around and looked at Vaughn, who was running his hand through his hair repeatedly. "I'm proud of you. Your patriotism in this endeavor is beyond comparison." Vaughn just stared at him.
After Kendall had left and he had had time to process everything, he realized now why the Covenant had chosen him. If they were the ones who had held Sydney, they needed to keep tabs on him to see whether or not Syd would ever try to contact him. They knew that she would seek him out the first opportunity she got. As he got up to leave for the airport, he picked up his secure cell phone and dialed a number. "Weiss, listen. I need to talk to you. Can you meet me at the airport?"
End Flashback
Vaughn had finished breakfast, given Lauren a quick kiss on the cheek as he ran out the door with the excuse of an early meeting, and was just pulling into the parking garage. As he walks towards the elevator, he notices that Sydney's car is there already.
"Damn it, Sydney!" He rushes up to the elevator and mashes the button. When the doors open, he comes face to face with the lovely Miss Bristow herself. She gives him a cold glare and starts to walk quickly towards her car. Vaughn rushes after her and closes her car door just after she opens it.
"Back off, Vaughn. I want to go home." She keeps her back to him, trying not to notice the periodic whispers of warm air on the back of her neck that were coming from Vaughn's agitated breathing. He keeps his hand pressed against the top of the car door frame, preventing her from reopening it, while his other hand rests on his hip.
"Did you talk to Dixon?" His breathing is slowing somewhat as he tries to calm himself.
"Yes."
"Well, what did he say?"
Slowly, Sydney turns around and leans back against her car door. She looks up at Vaughn, whose arm is still trapping her on one side and whose face is mere inches away. "He denied my request. Are you happy now? Does that give a nice little boost to your ego? It seems that my…torture…is not nearly as important as the mission. It's always got to be about the mission." Her voice sounds defeated.
Vaughn looks down for a moment, then meets her eyes again. He can see a tear start to pool along the lower lid of her right eye, and he knows that his resolve will slip soon if he doesn't get away from her. He drops his arm and takes a step back. Sydney breaks eye contact, then slowly gets into her car. As she starts to drive away, she gives him one last look…just in time to see him mouth the words, "I'm sorry."