This is my first attempt at a shorter fic. I felt like writing something different to what I normally do, and came up with this. The title's from a song by Brand New, and a few lines from the song will be worked in throughout. I hope you like it.

Please read and review, that way I'll know that I need to update. Any criticism and comments will be appreciated.


Glory Fades

Part One

Sydney stared at the white tiled ceiling as she replayed the past day's events in her mind. She watched as everything happened over and over again, like a streaming move within her mind. She hated seeing it happen, and yet she couldn't help but think about it. What more could she have done? What did she miss? It was all her fault. She couldn't remove the guilt. She was to blame, and she knew it. Syd couldn't stand every one telling her that there was nothing she could have done. She hated the thought that she was helpless. There was something she could've done, she needed to find what it was.

Sydney fast forwarded through the earlier events that had taken place the previous day. The mission to the Russian Military Base, infiltrating the building, retrieving the data disk, escaping from the facility...and then their capture. She couldn't handle seeing it all again, and so pushed the images from her mind. She needed to get out of the bed, and out of the room.

Sydney slowly stood from her bed, pulling along the drip attached to her arm as she moved. She entered the corridor, and went to the nurse's desk. She peered up at the large board detailing the patients within the ward. She scanned through the names and stopped halfway down, Marshall Flinkman. She left the desk and found his room. She took in a deep breath, pushed the door open and slowly entered. Sydney stopped a metre from the bed, and looked down at him. She watched and waited, hoping for his chest to rise and fall, but it didn't. He lay still. Lifeless thought his face depicted an illusion of life. She touched her hand to his cheek, ice cold. Tears rolled down her cheeks, she could no longer keep it together. She fell to her knees, her head in her hands. She had failed him.