Title: If Only Once More
Author: SAG
Rating: Strong PG-13
Summary: Everything is now officially fair game. (But I'm going spoiler free for the finale (god help me) so only as high as Countdown)
A/N: Hehe… I love it when school is really boring… because then I get to write!! PARTY!! So Marty (that's my muse) and I had a great time writing this!! I hope you all enjoy! (And how cute was last night's ep? The ice cream scene!? And the previews!?! GAH!) Please Review and let me know what you think!! - SAG
Ch. 3
"Favorite band."
"What?"
"What's your favorite band?"
"This is the conversation you want to have, now?"
"Yes. Favorite band."
"Is there a reason for this conversation?"
"Yes." He looked at her pointedly. "I wanna know."
He smiled and sighed as she shrugged her shoulders innocently and scooted farther against his chest. "So now we're playing 20 Questions?"
"Yes. Question 1 – What is your favorite band?" She pressed.
"I don't know. I don't think I've ever had a favorite band. I like basically everything."
"Everything?"
"Ok, well, no. I don't like country."
"Huh, and here I was thinking you were a big Vince Gill fan."
"UH! No way. I don't know what it is but something about country music makes me cringe."
She laughed as she looked up into his sparkling eyes. "Ok, favorite color?"
"Blue." She rolled her eyes. "What?"
"Explains the suits." She smiled as she drew lazy circles up his arm. "Favorite…"
"Hey, hey! Don't I get to ask?"
She sighed in mock exasperation. "Fine. Ask away." She gestured with her hand.
"Same two questions; band and color."
"Green. And I don't know. Too many good bands out there today. But I agree with the country music and Jimmy Buffet, can't stand Jimmy Buffet. I had a roommate at boarding school, she was a complete Parrot-head, drove me mad." He smiled at her as she tensed under the memory before relaxing again and began to rake her fingernails across his abdomen. "Favorite moment."
"Ever?"
"Ever."
He leaned over and slipped a finger under her chin, forcing her face up towards his. "This moment right here." He whispered softly before closing his mouth over hers, kissing her tantalizingly slowly. "This is my favorite moment."
"Vaughn." She moaned as he kissed her again, the events from moments before about to be replayed.
He pulled back and looked at her square in the eyes. "Sydney, I love…"
BANG
Her eyes shot open as steel pounded upon steel. Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, she tried to focus on the man moving before her, but the gouge below her left eye forced her eyes to remain slightly closed. It had been easy for her to drift off into a sleep filled with thoughts and memories of him, memories of the way he would kiss her, hold her, make love to her. Too easy. Love was a weakness and the man before her fed off her weaknesses.
"You talk in your sleep." Sark sneered at her as he slowly stalked towards her.
- You talk in your sleep.-
She diverted her eyes to the floor, refusing to meet the cold blue ones in front of her.
"Always the same word."
- No! What did I say? –
"Or, should I say name."
- Don't frost the pie! –
"Vaughn."
- It seemed really important. –
"But then, if memory serves me, you and Agent Vaughn seemed very close. Perhaps…in love?" He paused, letting his use of past tense really sink in. He stopped in mid step to reach over to the table, picking up the lighter and hairspray once more. "After all, you must have loved him if you were willing to kill another human being to save his life. Pity it was all for nothing."
"I would hardly call Arvin Sloane a human being." She spat out viciously.
"Ah… she speaks." Sark smiled, satisfied in achieving his goal. He took the seat in front of her and glared deeply into her brown eyes. "You know, this has been fun. No really it has." He reiterated after receiving a hard eyed glare from her. "I mean, watching the great Sydney Bristow slowly crumble has truly been an experience I didn't want to miss." He ran his hand up her arm, causing her to flinch as his fingers brushed across the burns plaguing her skin.
Tears flooded to her eyes but she quickly blinked them away, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing her break.
"So. Now that I know one way to get you to talk, let's try one more time to use my … original … method."
He flicked open the lighter and ignited it, bringing it close to her skin before taking the hairspray and sending a long stream across her already charred skin, delighting in the scream that emitted from her mouth, she had finally begun to break.
Tears streamed down her face as he pulled away. After several intense minutes of him holding the flame to different parts of her skin, she had lost all of her reservoir and had broken. She struggled to stop the flow of tears as Sark stood, a twisted smiled playing across his face. "Are we ready to talk?"
"No." She shook out.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I really didn't want to resort to this." He spoke with false sincerity as he walked over to the table and picked up something else.
She flinched; scared of what he could possibly do next, before she noticed that he was holding her cell phone.
"Interesting. Speed dials. Hmmm. Where are you?" He mused as he scrolled through her phone book. "Ah yes, here we are. Speed dial "101"." Her body tensed as she realized what he was doing.
"Sark… don't…" She began, but he had already dialed and was listening intently to the other end of the phone, waiting for someone to pick up. He held up a finger to her, as if she was nothing but a child bothering her father during a phone call.
"Mr. Vaughn?... I'm sure you're aware that this isn't Sydney. Not to worry, though, she's still alive, if that's what you want to call it." He listened, a smirk growing wide on his face. "Now, now. I'd watch what you say, Mr. Vaughn. I'd hate for anything to happen to Sydney, least anything more… Now either you come to us, with what we want, or your lovely girlfriend, well I'd hate to spoil the surprise."
Sydney watched as Sark spoke evenly into the phone, the topic of the conversation not even fazing him. She knew what he was asking of Vaughn and knew that nothing this man was saying was truthful. Taking all the strength she had left in her, she did the only thing she could.
"VAUGHN! Don't listen to him! Don't do anything!! Vaughn! Vaughn! MICHAEL!!" She screamed as loud as she could as Sark swiftly turned around to glare at her.
Slamming down on the end button, Sark slammed the phone down on the table. "That was a stupid move, Sydney. Very stupid." He picked up the lighter and hairspray again. "Seems as though you didn't learn from our little conversation earlier. We'll have to fix that." He sneered, stepping slowly towards her as she shrank back into the chair and began to pray.