"Sydney! Sydney! It's alright, wake up, you were just dreaming," came Francie's voice.
Bolting up, Sydney found herself in her bedroom, tangled between her blankets, her forehead soaked with sweat, and her heart racing. "Hey," said Francie, embracing her friend. "Are you okay?"
"Um...yeah, I've got a major headache though," Sydney replied slowly, her mind still on her dream.
"Well that's not surprising, considering we found you on the couch last night surrounded by what looked like an aftermath of a new year's party," said Will, standing at the door smiling, and wondering what had made her take his advice of drowning her sorrows. "You drank this place dry."
"We heard you yelling, so we came in to check on ya," said Francie, "and who's Vaughn? You kept yelling this name out."
"Francie, stop bombarding her with questions. Come on, let's give her some time to clean up," Will said quickly, changing the subject.
"I'm not bombarding her with questions, I'm just concerned," Francie replied defensively. "Okay fine, just hurry, we're taking you out and putting that smile back on you face, which I haven't seen there lately." Francie added cheerfully, going out of the room, taking Will with her.
Reluctantly getting up, Sydney got herself ready for another day, Vaughn's words from her dream lingering on in her thoughts.
....................................................
"Guys! Bowling?" asked Sydney, not knowing how her friends had convinced her to go out with them.
"What's wrong with bowling?"
"Nothing, it's just that I haven't done it since high school,"
"What? Serious? Well Francie, I guess we've found something Miss Bristow here isn't good at," said Will cheekily, as all three of them entered the bowling alley.
"I said I haven't done it since high school, I never said I couldn't play, get ready to go down buster!"
And Will indeed went down, badly. Though if you asked him, he would have said it was because of the wrong size shoes they gave him or the young woman in the next lane eyeing his butt each time, making him self conscious.
For Sydney, hanging out with her friends made her feel normal, like she had a regular job, normal worries like everyone else, letting her forget for a while, the craziness and darkness that surrounds her work.
"Thanks," Sydney said smiling.
"Syd, you don't have to say it every five minutes, it's what friends are for" replied Will, glad to see that taking her out got the result they had hoped for. But then added "Next time, thank me by letting me win, or at least loose by less." This got him a playful shove as a response.
Lowering his voice he asked, "What happened to your hand?" indicating at her injured hand.
"Oh, it's nothing"
So, how was your trip? Last night wasn't because of something going wrong was it?"
"No, just someone at work," she replied, refusing to give Gibbs the title of being her handler. Only one person could ever be that.
"It's not Paul Gibbs is it?"
"How did you know?" she asked in surprise.
"Well I got a call from him this morning, telling me that he got my message to Vaughn about information I found regarding Project Christmas, and that he would be my contact now. I'm supposed to meet him at the hospital car park in half an hour." said Will. "What did he do to you?"
Sydney briefly told Will what Gibbs had said to her. Although Will hated to admit it, but what Gibbs said about Vaughn - doing everything he could to get into bed with Sydney, was exactly his own thoughts the first time he had met Vaughn. He knew that what he had felt was jealousy, something he had had to deal with when Sydney was with Danny.
Even though, he has accepted that Sydney would never feel that way towards him, Will still loved her, even if he could only love her from a distance. Right now, her happiness was the most important thing, and he was going to make sure she gets it. But before Will could reassure Sydney, they had to break their conversation as Francie came back and joined them.
"Sorry to bail but I gotta go, I'm late for an appointment, I'll see you guys later," said Will, getting up to go to the hospital, adding privately to Sydney "We'll talk more later, okay?"
"Yeah, see ya at home."
.................................................................
Will had ran out of patience and was about to leave, when a tall, medium built man walked out of the hospital lift, straight towards him. Gibbs without apologizing for his lateness said, "Will right? Um... here's the payment for your work," and handed Will an envelope. "But I'm afraid that it won't be need it anymore, if you give me the information you've gathered so far I'll pass it on to the right department," he said, extending his hand to receive the documents.
Instead of handing over the documents, Will thrust the envelope containing his payment at Gibbs, "You know what you can do with that? Go shove it up your ass." Stepping forward, matching Gibbs' height, Will confronted the arrogant bastard, "The CIA won't recruit me cause I have a criminal record, for a drug habit I never had, but if you upset Sydney again, I'll be happy to introduce you to my fist and give them a real charge to reject me on."
'Great another one of Sydney's men' thought Gibbs, and said "Well, it sounds as if she got it out of her system."
"What?"
Taking a deep breath, Gibbs replied "As you're well aware she's a fine actress, in other words – a trained liar, but as good as she is, her grief would have betrayed her, and Jack would have beaten you to the punch, so to speak. I was just giving her an outlet."
But before Will could respond, Gibbs' beeper went off, checking it he said to Will "I have to go, the documents please?" Will roughly handed him the documents and Gibbs quickly left.
........................................................
"As promised. I told ya a week was all I needed. So, should I go ahead with it?" said a male voice, with a strong accent.
After a long pause, Gibbs asked "Are you absolutely sure, it'll work?"
"Positive, he's perfect for the job"
"I'll call you back"
.......................................................
TBC
A/N thanks again for reading, what do u think? Should I be put in front of a firing squad for taking Vaughn away? Anyway, big thank you to my wonderful beta, Melanie, who took time out of her busy life and manage to correct all my mistakes.
luv24Alias – I'm not hurting Vaughn anymore, and as for syd and vaughn you'll have to wait and see.
Zarah – thanks, I'm glad u like it, if it's plot u're after I hope I can provide one that'll keep u reading.
Sara – thanks, I'm so pleased that u found my ending suspenseful, as for gibbs....i've got plans for him....s/v eventually really does mean eventually but his presence will be 'felt'
I love getting reviews good or bad so please don't forget to review!