Alternate Infatuation

Sequel to Alternate Existence. We all know that certain people are simply destined to be together. When Syd finally gets out of the life of espionage she was drawn into at sixteen, how will she find her own destiny?

Chapter 10: Just The Illusions

Disclaimer: Author does not own most of these characters. Said author does not wish to be sued. However, Jeffrey is all mine! This is also my original plot, and if anything resembling it ever shows up on Alias, I'm suing!

A/N: This is it! My grand finale! Well, not so grand. Not so finale, either. Since...well, read on, you'll see. This is the last chapter of Alternate Infatuation, though. Kinda dramatic...

"Jeffrey's sleeping now," Vaughn said, settling in next to Sydney on the bench as the white coated doctor disappeared back through the swinging double doors. "The doctor said he'll let us know when he wakes up." His voice was gentle, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to say now that the worst of the crisis was past.

Sydney turned her face away and blinked back tears.

"I can't keep doing this," she said softly. "I can't go through this every time I get a friend in trouble."

"Sydney, this wasn't your fault. This didn't even have anything to do with you being an agent."

Sydney turned to face him now, feeling some frantic need to make someone understand. To make him understand.

"They went after Jeffrey because I got away, and they had to find another way to get to me." Her voice shook, but she couldn't help it.

Vaughn reacted more passionately than he liked right off, talking animatedly and waving his hands for emphasis.

"Oh, so if you hadn't been an agent you wouldn't have gotten away and they could have killed you and left Jeff alone?" he said harshly.

Sydney tried to return his anger, but the bluntness of his words struck her.

"Regardless, it was because of me," she said sadly, dropping her eyes and sinking despondently into her seat. "I can't even go two days without the CIA having to interfere in my life."

Vaughn twisted in his seat to look at her face.

"The agency could protect you," he reminded almost desperately.

Instantly her eyes flashed and she sprang up as if someone had just jammed a steel rod up her spine.

"I will not hide! No one will make me cower behind an alias for the rest of my life! Not the KGB and Khasinau when I was sixteen, now not SD-6 and Sloane now, and sure as hell not anyone at the CIA."

Eventually she calmed, then a beat later returned to her seat and resumed her pose of personal disgust.

"What will you do, then?" Vaughn asked finally.

"I have to come back," she said with a half hearted shrug. "I have to have access to the means to protect my friends." She was quiet for a long moment. "After Jessie, and realizing that my mother probably knew about it all along, I never really had a choice. Just the illusions. Everybody in my life let me believe I had choices."

Vaughn moved to put his arm around her before he talked himself out of it and pulled her close. Sydney just rested her head against his solid warm chest; she didn'twant to question why it felt so right or why she seemed to need it so much jsut at that moment.

"I don't even know your first name," she said softly.

Vaughn sighed, content with the comfortable silence and reluctant to break the spell they were under.

"Michael. It's Michael."

Yep, that's all, folks! I thought it was a cute ending, and it leaves it wide open for me to put what ever I want in the third story. I can have Jeffy, or the only-mentioned-once Misty, or Weiss, or Jack, or Sloane, or Khasinau, or Irina…or any body I want!

Review, and I promise to try to get the sequel up soon! But between Algebra II, and Spanish I, and work three or four nights a week, it might take me a while!