Caught Up In Reality
Confrontation

Sydney and Vaughn continued to kiss, oblivious to their furious observer. Jack's jaw dropped, then closed and set with anger. His eyes regained their steely complex, in both color and expression.

Vaughn caught sight of Jack out of the corner of his half-closed eye. Blinking twice to realize what he was seeing, he jumped away from Sydney, who stared at him in confusion before opening her eyes wide in horror. Vaughn looked as though he was facing a firing squad.

"Dad... Um, what are you doing here?" Sydney mumbled after a moment of ominous silence. No answer. Her eyes drifted down to the pile of confidential folders that her father had dropped on the floor. She mentally slapped herself in the forehead. She knew she had forgotten something in her rush to get home that afternoon. Looking to Vaughn, she noticed he had recomposed himself as much as was humanly possible.

"Sydney..." Jack started.

"Dad. Wait. Before you blame this all on Vaughn, could you listen for a minute? I know you don't approve. And I know you don't understand our relationship very well, but Vaughn and I... We're in love. We have been for a long time." She saw Jack's face turn even darker. "Of course, we didn't do anything until recently. But Dad. My life before I knew Vaughn was so empty, I was so alone. And now that I have him, there's no way I'm going to give him up. Not for the CIA protocol, not for you, not for anything. So you might as well accept things as they are, because you can't change my mind."

Jack thought about this for a minute. He didn't like Agent Vaughn at all, but then again, he hadn't liked any of Sydney's previous boyfriends either. Maybe it was just the idea of his little girl growing up and having serious relationships. But on the other hand, they were willingly going against the rules of the CIA, something he didn't thing too highly of. He thought that Sydney would have learned the consequences of breaking agency rules with what happened to Danny at SD-6. And he felt like strangling Vaughn with his bare hands for the way he was kissing his daughter.

"How long?" He asked, still in too much shock to be able to form real sentences.

"Since the second Bahama island mission." She replied. He nodded.

"Who else knows?"

"Francie, Vaughn's going to tell Weiss, and Mom."

"Irina knows? You told her before you told me?" He started to get angry again. Sydney had put more trust in Irina than she had in him. And while he hadn't exactly been a great father, he knew he deserved a little more faith from her.

Sydney glanced to Vaughn. He took the hint and began to explain.

"Actually, the thing is, she actually kind of helped things along. When I was sick, on the plane with Sydney, on the boat in the Bahamas." Vaughn counted on his fingers the instances where Irina had poked and prodded.

"And you still persisted with the relationship, even though you knew it was all according to Irina's endgame? You never thought about what advantages she might gain from this?"

"Dad. This has nothing to do with Mom's endgame. She just wants me to be happy. And I thought that's what you would want to. Obviously I was wrong." Sydney stared her father straight in the eye as she said those final words. There was a moment of silence as Jack went over his options, weighing them in his mind.

"I guess I knew it was bound to happen," he finally stated. Vaughn wasn't the worst thing that could happen to Sydney. "And you do seem happy." What more could he want for his only daughter?

Vaughn breathed a sigh of relief.

"So. You won't tell anyone?" Syd asked tentatively, glad to see her father had come to his senses.

"Not as long as you stay safe." He said.

"We will." Sydney said, concluding the conversation. "Are those my files? I thought I left them at the office." Vaughn was grateful for the change in subject; he wasn't enjoying the evil glances Jack was throwing him when Sydney wasn't looking.

"Yes. I thought I'd deliver them to you." He scooped up the papers and handed them to her. Sydney and Vaughn continued to stand in the hall, obviously waiting for Jack to depart. He pretended not to take the hint, unwilling to let them resume where they had left off. A minute passed, and Vaughn, noticing that Jack wasn't going to leave, cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Well, I guess I'll see you at work then, Syd." He made towards the elevator, but he didn't make it a step before Sydney pulled him back for a quick kiss. Vaughn reddened under Jack's cold gaze, and hurried out of the apartment complex.

Sydney was left with her father, and stalled him for a moment thanking him for the papers, giving Vaughn a head start. She didn't think he'd need it, but it couldn't hurt to make sure. Once he had left, she shuffled back into the apartment, exhausted.

Vaughn was lost in thought all the way home. He was glad to get the inevitable conversation with Jack out of the way, though he hadn't intended on having it so soon. He just hoped that Jack wouldn't be so evil as to make his life a living hell at the office.

Opening the door to his apartment, he found Weiss watching TV.

"Hey. I thought you were going to the game?" He asked. Weiss often crashed at his place.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't be any fun without you. I figured we could hang out after you got back from your mystery date." Weiss grinned. "How was it, by the way?"

"It was great. We had an amazing time."

"Wow. I have to say, I'm surprised. I didn't think you would ever have fun on a date again, since you met Sydney. I was beginning to think you couldn't have fun with any other woman." Weiss paused and watched Vaughn, who wasn't meeting his eyes. "Unless..." he began, an interesting idea forming in his mind, "Unless it was Sydney on the date."

Vaughn was given away instantly by the smile that he couldn't keep off his face. Weiss gave a whoop and got up to clap Vaughn on the back.

"Oh, man. I'm going to have fun with this." He chuckled.

"You can't tell anyone." Vaughn said, instantly serious.

"Okay, okay." Weiss laughed, holding up his hands in defeat. "So?" He asked, anxious to hear about the night. Vaughn related the events of the night.

"And then I drove her back to her apartment." he concluded, hesitating on whether or not to tell Weiss about the encounter with Jack.

"And? Did you kiss her goodnight?" Weiss prompted, sensing there was more to the story.

"Yes." Vaughn answered simply.

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming up." Weiss said.

"But her father was there. Dropping off some things she had left at the office."

"And he saw you kissing his daughter? I'm surprised you made it out alive!" Weiss exclaimed.

"He came around. At first I thought I should have worn a Kevlar vest, but he calmed down. Though I admit, he wasn't too keen on seeing us kissing in the middle of her apartment hallway. I thought he was going to strangle me right there. We ended up explaining everything, and I think we won't have to worry about him telling anyone."

"So when did all this start? How long have you been dating? Who can I talk to this about? Does Sydney know I know? What about the CIA?" Weiss was excited about his friend's new relationship.

"Well, you probably have noticed that our relationship was always sort of close." Weiss nodded. "But we didn't start dating until our last mission."

"The one in the Bahamas?"

"Yeah." Vaughn told the story of what had happened on the cruise ship and on the island. "And you can't talk to anyone about this. Only Jack, Irina, Francie, and probably Will are going to know. But Sydney and I trust you not to say anything." Weiss nodded solemnly, a hard thing to do when he was grinning like an idiot. He couldn't help but be happy for Vaughn. He hadn't seen him this happy in a long time. "Now if you don't mind, I'm beat, and I am going to need to get up early for work tomorrow."

"Why? Can't wait to see your new girlfriend?" Weiss teased. Vaughn shoved him good-naturedly, and then headed off to bed. Weiss made himself at home on the large leather couch, and fell asleep quickly.

Hope y'all liked it! Chapter 12 is on the way. By the way, I'm so sorry about not telling you guys when this chapter would be up, so I tried to get it up as soon as I could! Anyway, please REVIEW!

Chapter 12 will be up by Tuesday/Wednesday.