Three days later, there was still no improvement in Vaughn and she was starting to get more scared by the minute. She still hadn't been able to make the connection between reoccurring headaches and a potentially permanent coma. It didn't add up. Sighing, she wiped her eyes, trying to make the fifth cup of coffee of the day kick in. She hadn't slept for more than four hours since she found out Vaughn was in the hospital.
"Tired?" Sark said as they walked down the hall.
"Exhausted. Thanks for coming with me today."
"It looked like you needed the extra support."
Pausing a second to try to put a genuine smile on her face, she pushed the door open and entered the hospital room. "Vaughn?" she said softly seeing the man in question sitting up on his bed and talking with Dixon.
"He woke up a few minutes ago, Syd," Weiss explained from where he was leaning on the wall. "He's been asking for you."
Sark saw her balance waver slightly and slipped his hand into hers while supporting her against his body. He nudged her slightly to get her past the threshold of the door and whispered, "He just wants to talk with you, love. Probably wants to make sure you're okay just as much as you want to make sure he's okay."
She gave him a faint smile before letting go to walk over to the hospital bed. "Hi."
"Hey, Syd."
"How are you feeling?"
"Like someone just ran me over with a car repeatedly. But other than that, I'm just fine."
"Do you know what happened?"
"No."
"That makes two of us," she said with a faint smile. "I'm sorry if this was because of me."
"We don't know for sure that it was."
"Come on." She gave him a skeptical look. Vaughn's eyes darted away from her to where Sark stood out of the way in the corner of the room. "I needed him here with me today," she explained. "You were really starting to scare me."
Vaughn looked back at her. "It's all right, Syd. I understand why he's here. I don't like it, but I understand."
She sat down lightly on the side of his bed and grasped his hand. Weiss signaled to Dixon, and they left the room followed by Sark. She leaned back so that she was reclining next to Vaughn. "We're going to be okay, aren't we?"
"I think so," he said with a smile. "Do you want to hear my off the wall theory on what happened?"
"Just jump back into it, why don't you?" She smiled and squeezed his hand. "But then I'm always up for a theory, and you were always good at coming up with the crazy ones. Let's hear it."
"I think it was Lauren."
"You think you're dead ex-wife did this?" She dropped his hand and felt his forehead. "Are you sure you're still not in the coma and I'm just dreaming this all up, safely tucked away in my bed?"
"They never recovered the body," he reminded her, ignoring the sarcasm. "I think Lauren was pissed off at you and hooked up with someone who was equally interesting in hurting you."
"The Covenant."
"Exactly. I think the two of them wanted to keep you distracted because they're planning on doing something big that they don't want you to be aware of."
"Good thing you're tough and bounce back really quickly."
"That's one thing I learned from you."
"Good thing you did or we might have been running around for years with our head in the clouds. Who would have though it was the dead ex-wife?"
He shot her a look.
"Why would they erase your memories, though? I don't understand how they would think that to be effective."
"I don't either," Vaughn admitted. "But you and I are going to figure it out."
She shook her head emphatically. "Oh no we're not, Michael. You're going to stay in that hospital bed until the doctors clear you. And then you're going to take it easy until we understand the full extent of your memory loss."
"I can't just lay here and let you do all the work."
"But that's normal protocol for us," she teased. When he shot her a mean look, she laughed. "Come on. I'll give you the fact that you've gotten the most severe injuries what with the stabbings and shootings and terminal diseases. But I get into a fight on every, single mission I go on. My life is threatened a hell of a lot more than yours is."
"All right. I should know better than to try to argue with you, Syd." He looked around the room. "So, if I can't get out of bed and help, where are you going to go from here?"
"I don't know. I'll come up with something, though. It seems like there's always someone I can rely on to come up with some harebrain plan to put my life into danger."
"You're good at fighting and kicking ass. The rest of us are good at finding situations to allow you to do that."
She rolled her eyes as she slipped off his hospital bed. "I'm going to go and let Weiss know it's his turn to comfort you in his arms. He's been waiting for quite a while."
"Oh god. Can't we just leave him out in the hall? It'll help me recover so much faster if I don't have to deal with his stupid jokes."
Laughing, she shook her head. "Oh, now he is definitely coming in here. He'll keep you on your toes, and the longer you have to deal with him, the more determined you'll be to go back to normal life." She gave him one last smile before stepping out into the hall. "He wants to talk with you, Eric."
Weiss gave her a big smile and stepped past her into the room. She chuckled when she heard Vaughn groan loudly. Dixon was smiling, too. "He didn't really ask to see Weiss, did he?"
"Nope. But no matter how much he complains, it's going to help me get better faster. Eric was great for my morale when I returned from my missing two years."
Dixon nodded. He remembered the pain she had gone through. "I'm going to talk with the doctors and see how long it is before Vaughn is out of the hospital and on active duty. You just relax and take the rest of the day off, Sydney."
She watched Dixon until he had disappeared around the corner before turning to look at the man standing quietly out of the way. "So, you stuck around?"
"Figured you might want to grab a bite to eat now that your worries have been alleviated. I kind of wanted to be the one you grab it with."
Smiling, she slipped her hand into his. "I have a hankering for a greasy cheeseburger."
"Americans," Sark grumbled under his breath.
They walked hand in hand out to his trendy sports car of the week. He opened the passenger door for her, and she thanked him. By the time he shifted the car into reverse, the slight tension was apparent.
"You want to know what Vaughn said to me," she stated, not turning to look at him.
"Yes, I would. But I'm not going to force you to tell me."
"No, you're just going to pout until I do."
"Give me an hour or two, and I'll be done, I swear."
She grinned at him. "No, I think I'll just tell you. He thinks that your old girlfriend is behind this."
"Anna Espinosa?"
Sydney's brow furrowed. "I didn't know you dated her."
"Once or twice a long time ago. It didn't work out."
"Good to know. Although your relationship with a K-Directorate agent has nothing to do with Vaughn being hurt."
"Was it Allison?" he asked.
"No. The other one."
"Your mother?"
"Now you're just being an ass."
"No, I'm keeping the mood light." The corner of his mouth perked up in a slight smile. "So, tell me how Michael Vaughn thinks his dead wife can be behind this."
"First off, he doesn't think she really died. She must have some how survived the half dozen or so gun shots he pumped into her. Vaughn thinks once she was mobile, she hooked up with someone who hated me as an act of revenge. She wanted to hurt him because of our "betrayal" of her."
"That's a pretty fairytale you two cooked up together."
"You don't think it's possible after everything that's happened to me already?"
"Oh, it's possible. I just don't think that it's very likely. I don't think Lauren has anything to do with what happened to your old lover."
"I keep telling you to stop calling him my old lover."
"But it makes you squirm."
"And I look so cute when I squirm. I know." She crossed her arms in front of herself. "So, what's your theory then?"
"I think that it something's I've done."
"Something you've done has caused people to mess with Vaughn's head? Now, that makes no sense."
He pulled up into the parking lot of the small family restaurant that was down the street from the hospital. "No, I think that what happened to Vaughn was done to hurt you. I think I had something to do with the decision to hurt you."
"So, you think you're still trying to kill me just like you were three years ago?"
He put his arm around her shoulder as they began to walk towards the front door. "Not consciously."
"Unconsciously, then."
"I think I might have set up a chain of events that would have kept me from having to do the actual killing. I'm afraid that that chain was never eliminated because the memory wipe I did on both of us."
Sydney slid into the booth in the back corner of the restaurant. "That does make sense." She held out a menu for him.
"Thanks. You know, there's really nothing we can do to find out for sure right now."
"I know."
"So, let's just try to enjoy a meal in peace without frying our brains with these endless questions and scenarios."
She nodded in agreement. There was a lot to think about and plan, but right now, she just wanted to enjoy the normal scene she seemed to be a part of, eating greasy cheeseburgers with the man she loved and planned on marrying.
