Chapter 3

Weiss was sitting in his office playing with his yo-yo when Sydney came in. From the look on her face he could tell she was not in a good mood, but he knew the mission had gone badly and he was less than pleased with his asset at the moment.

"Ok, so what happened?" Weiss said with a sigh.

"I don't know, things just didn't go as planned. I can't even begin to explain all the things that went wrong," she replied.

"Well you better think hard because I need your debrief by this afternoon," Weiss pointed out.

"Yeah, I know you'll have it, I just wanted to talk to you about it first. I don't want you to be disappointed in me, you're one of the few people I can really trust."

"Syd, I'm not disappointed in you. You're one of the best things to happen to this agency, and I don't want you to get too down on yourself. So we lost one, there have been so many wins and there will be more, we just have to be patient. SD-6 will fall eventually, and it will be because of you," he said comfortingly.

"Thanks Weiss that means a lot," Sydney answered.

"Hey that's what I'm here for," he said. After a short pause he added, "That's not all I'm here for" he said sarcastically.

"Oh my God Weiss, shut up! How many times do I have to go over this with you?" she said jokingly.

"I know, I know, I'm no match for your little internet boyfriend," now he'd done it. Sydney was blushing so bad she was almost purple. "Have you heard from Romeo lately?"

"Actually yes I have, I got an email from him right before I left for my mission," she said with a smile.

"So have you figured out each other's names yet? Or what where he lives? Or anything important?" he inquired.

"No, but I think he may travel a lot, he said in his last email that he was heading home finally but I don't know exactly where home is," Sydney said.

"Well once something important comes up, let me know," Weiss said. They both started to laugh but quickly stopped when the door to Weiss's office flung wide open.

"Oh my God!! I just came from my debrief and I told them that I wanted to give you the good news myself," Vaughn yelled.

Is that the guy I ran into earlier? Sydney thought, was he that good looking this morning?

"Whoa, whoa slow down turbo. Now what's going on?" Weiss asked.

"The information that I stole from my mission was processed while I was on my way back. Apparently, Parelli was a member of the Alliance and he was holding all their information on contacts, SD-cells, and business transactions. But Kendall wants to be sure before we storm the Alliance offices so he wants to send a team to Germany to find a missing file. If this information can get us the file, we could bring down the whole Alliance within the month," Vaughn finished wide-eyed and out of breath.

"Are you serious? Oh, my gosh this is huge!" Weiss exclaimed as he saw Sydney sitting in disbelief. 

"When is this mission going to take place?"

"The mission organizer is still working out the details and they will let us know as soon as possible!" Vaughn explained as he took a look around Weiss's office.  Weiss noticed his friend eyeing Sydney and he took the chance to introduce them. "Oh, Sydney this is Michael Vaughn and Mike this Sydney Bristow." Weiss said.  He had noticed the tension between them and knew that this was not their first meeting.

Both Sydney and Vaughn knew that they had had an "incident" earlier this morning and had gotten off to a bad start.

"Hi" they replied that the same time, unsure of what to say exactly.

"Hey I'm sorry about earlier, I wasn't having the best day," Sydney said awkwardly.

"Oh don't worry about it I should have been watching where I was going," Vaughn said quickly.

"Ok, did I miss something here?" Weiss asked while looking at the two them staring at each other.

"We just had a little run-in this morning in the hall, that's all," Vaughn answered. "So you're the famous Sydney Bristow, huh? They were talking about you in the meeting earlier, you have an impressive record I must say," he noted.

"Oh thank you," Sydney replied shyly.

Wow, she is so beautiful Vaughn thought.

"Well I better get going I need to finish writing my debrief. It was nice to meet you Michael, and Weiss I'll talk to you later," Sydney said as she got up to leave. Vaughn watched her leave and then turned his attention back to his friend who was grinning at him.

"What?" Vaughn asked.

"Ooo, someone has a little crush!" Weiss sang.

"I do not! I was just a little shocked to see her in your office," Vaughn said defensively.

"Riiiight if I know you, you will be all over her within the week!" Weiss said teasingly.

"Well if you have to know, I'm interested in someone right now," Vaughn said.

"O really, and who is this mystery girl? "Weiss questioned.

"Well, I have been talking to her for about a year and she is really amazing," Vaughn said.

"So when do I get to meet this girl?" asked Weiss.

"Right after I do," Vaughn answered. Weiss shot him a weird look, so he continued, "Well, I've only talked to her through the internet."

"Oh my god, are you kidding me? That's so not like you Mike"

"Well when you're alone in Italy you've got nothing better to do."

"Yeah right. You're killing me Mike, you are in love with some girl and you've never even seen her? What if she is really ugly?" Weiss pointed out.

"Ok, I'm not taking this anymore, I'll talk to you later," Vaughn said as he walked out the door.

"Man, people hooking up on the internet," Weiss said to himself, "what is the world coming…" he stopped mid-sentence and sat straight up in his chair. Wait, both Mike and Sydney had met someone on the internet. Could it be possible that they were talking to each other? No, Eric, come on, think of all the people in the world what are the chances? But maybe there is a way to find out…

Sydney sat at her desk staring at a blank screen. She really didn't feel like writing her debrief right now. I wonder if HockeyFan has written me back yet she thought. So she logged on and checked her email, and sure enough she had 1 new mail.

To:  AliceinWonderland

From:  HockeyFan23

I'm back!

Yes well I made it home safely, and everything is good. Funny how much you miss home when you are gone for so long. I never thought I would miss the busy traffic of the 10 Freeway, but on my way to work, I remember how much time I used to spend on it. Then I drove past the huge murals on the sides of the freeway in downtown, and I thought, "Hey, guys long time no see!"

Sydney laughed at his last comment, she always thought those pictures were a bit classic. Then it hit her, this guy is in L.A.!

As for a good homecoming, I didn't get much of one. As soon as I got back I had to head into work, so I haven't gotten to see anyone really, but hopefully that will change.

And one more thing, I've been thinking lately how we've been talking for a whole year and have never met. Maybe we could set up a time and meet somewhere.

Meet? Sydney thought to herself. He wants to meet me?