A/N: There may be an epilogue after this, but I'm not sure. So, please review and let me know if you want one. Enjoy.

The Double Escape

"Syd, behind you!" Vaughn exclaimed upon spotting two agents bearing guns coming into the restaurant towards them.

Sydney and Vaughn escaped through the back, running down a flight of stairs in to an alley. They started making their way to the front of the building to where their car was, but they were cut off by a car heading straight towards them.

They turned back the other way, and were soon stopped by an agent from the restaurant shooting at their feet. They raised their arms in surrender.

"Gun – toss it over," the agent said to Vaughn.

Vaughn threw it to him, and he kicked away.

"On your knees, hands behind your head!" the other agent shouted at them. "Get down!"

One of the agents was in the process of contacting Kane, while the other secured Sydney's hands behind her back.

As the agent moved to tie Vaughn's hands, Vaughn whipped out his knife that was strapped to his ankle and sliced the agent's neck. Using his body as a shield, he fired the gun at the other agent who went down.

Vaughn retrieved his knife and cut Sydney's bonds. They both heard Kane on the phone wondering why no one was answering her. Sydney ended the call as Vaughn checked the agent's pulse. He was dead.

A siren wailed in the distance.

"We need to get out of here," Vaughn said. "Come on."

They both ran to their car out front and were immediately on their way. The only thing that permeated the silence in the car was the heavy breathing of both Sydney and Vaughn, not just from their sprint to the car, but from escaping certain death again.

Sydney glanced over to Vaughn. His brow was furrowed in worriment, and he gripped the steering wheel like a vice.

"We were so stupid," Sydney whispered.

"It's all my fault," Vaughn growled.

Sydney shook her head. "That's not true."

"I invited you to dinner. I brought you with me."

"Yes. And I accepted your offer. I came willingly. Don't try to steal all of the blame for this," she chided him."

"I should have prepared for this more. We should have been tracking those agents. We should have brought back up…" Vaughn berated himself.

"Vaughn, stop beating yourself up. Yes, we made a mistake, but we've fixed it."

"Not entirely," Vaughn answered. "We have to abort the counter-mission."

"What! Why?"

"Two of Kane's agents are dead. SD-6 is going to investigate. Now, they can't prove anything, but this is the one time we can't deceive them."

"Vaughn, there have to be other options," she said desperately.

"We have to give SD-6 what they want. As dangerous as that is, you know that."

Sydney looked down at her hands in her lap. "I can't believe this. SD-6 wins because we had to break protocol again. We never should have gone to dinner," she frowned as she shook her head.

"I wouldn't say that, Syd. I rather enjoyed our meal," he said with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"I did too – that is, until those two goons appeared and destroyed everything."

"I know. I would have really enjoyed our night together in that cozy inn."

"Yeah, you were practically jumping on me to say yes," she teased him.

"Hey, you knew you wanted to say yes. I was only trying to encourage you," he answered innocently.

"Sure, whatever," she said, rolling her eyes. She paused for a moment. "Vaughn… Thank you for tonight." She placed her hand over his, bringing his eyes to hers.

"It was my pleasure," he smiled.

They made it to the airport, and Vaughn dropped Sydney off before he drove off again to circle around so that they wouldn't be seen entering the airport together.

The next day, they met in the warehouse. Sydney had been pacing anxiously hoping that Vaughn hadn't done anything to affect their partnership before she was able to give him the news that she had.

"Hey," Vaughn said as he entered the dark room.

"Hey. What did Kendall say?" she asked nervously.

"He told me about you father. He didn't mention anything about our… date, if that's what you mean."

"Have you written your mission debrief?"

"No. Not yet." He paused. "If I tell the truth, at the least they'll remove me as your case officer. But despite what we did, how stupid we were, I know we do good work. We need to stay together," he nodded to emphasize his words.

Sydney smiled. "I agree. We do good work." She pulled out the gyroscope and handed it to Vaughn.

He looked at her confused. "I don't understand."

"When I got back to SD-6 and saw my father," Sydney began, "it was clear that no one would be asking questions about Kane's missing agents. So, I gave Sloane the counterfeit gyroscope."

Vaughn's face registered astonishment.

"This is the real one," she finished. "We win."

Vaughn looked at her in amazement and smiled. "At the airport you took them both."

"Always be prepared," she responded.

He laughed lightly. "I've been thinking, Syd. We never did take up the restaurant host's offer. We should go back sometime." Seeing that she was about to protest, Vaughn continued, "Not now. I mean once we've destroyed Alliance. Now, you can't pass that up can you?"

Sydney smiled and blushed a little. "All right. It's a date."