Chapter 8

After their date had ended, Sydney walked back into her apartment with a smile on her face, that she was convinced would last for days. All the lights were switched off, so Sydney assumed that Francie had already gone to bed, so she headed to her room ready to do the same.

She kept thinking back to their date as she changed for bed and removed her make-up. It hadn't exactly been like any other first dates that she had had in the past, but some how it had managed to be better. Not everyone could say that they had been to see the Ice Capades on a first date. She laughed again at the thought of it as she climbed into bed.

She was just settling down when there was a soft tap on her bedroom door, and in crept Francie. She silently walked over to Sydney's bed, not even bothering to switch on the light, as she climbed into the opposite side of Sydney's bed. Sydney lay with her eyes closed, waiting for Francie to say something, but she just remained silent.

After a couple of minutes, Sydney opened her eyes and sighed. "Are you going to say something, or are you trying to communicate with me telepathically?"

Francie laughed. "I was waiting for you to start telling me about your hot date…" She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at Sydney. Although there were no lights on, there was enough light coming in from the street to allow Francie to see the smile that appeared on Sydney's face at the mention of the date.

"It was different…"

"Different? Good different?"

Sydney nodded and turned to face Francie. "Definitely good different. Although we didn't actually get to see the hockey game!"

Francie gasped and her hand flew over her mouth. "Sydney Anne Bristow! You dark horse!"

Sydney looked at her strangely and then clicked on to what she was implying. "Francie I didn't sleep with him, if that's what you're thinking." She told her, although she was pretty certain that that was the thought currently running through her friend's mind. "If you had let me carry on before your mind immediately jumped into the gutter," she paused and rolled her eyes at her. "I would have told you that the reason that we missed the game was because there wasn't one. His friend had given us tickets to see the Ice Capades."

Francie immediately burst out laughing, but Sydney's serious expression told her that she wasn't joking. "You're serious?" Sydney nodded. "Oh. That's er…different!"

"Yeah but it didn't really matter, you know!" Sydney started to explain. "Although the date didn't exactly go as planned, we still managed to have a really great time…"

"What happened after the game?"

"He drove me home." Sydney stated simply, finding it hard to suppress her smile. She knew what Francie wanted to hear, but she couldn't help but tease her a little about it.

Francie sighed. "And…"

Sydney paused for a minute, stealing a glance at the anxious look that had found its way onto Francie's face. "We kissed." She smiled again as she told Francie all about what had happened on the doorstep.

Michael got back into his car and drove to Weiss's, eager to find out what he was playing at with the tickets. He knocked on the front door a couple of times but there was no answer. Looking through the front window, he noticed that the house was dark and looked like no one was home. Vaughn sighed as he walked back to his car and began to dial Eric's cell, but after three rings his answering machine picked up.

The next morning, Vaughn arrived at the office and asked the receptionist if Weiss was in yet. She nodded and told him that he was currently with his first patient of the day. Without thinking twice Vaughn marched into Weiss's office, not even bothering to knock.

Both Weiss's and his patient's eyes turned to look at the door as it was flung open.

"What the hell were you playing at?" Although the date had turned out ok in the end, Vaughn was still angry about the apparent prank that Weiss had played. Michael stood in the centre of the room; his cold eyes fixed on him.

Weiss put down his mirror and stared back at his friend, confusion written all over his face. He had no idea what he was talking about, but the fact that Michael was making a scene infront of a patient told Weiss that it was serious.

"What are you talking about?" He stood up and walked towards Vaughn, trying to hush his voice so that his patient couldn't hear what they were saying, but Vaughn had other ideas. Instead of talking quieter, Vaughn continued to yell at him while he waited for answers.

"The stunt you pulled last night!"

Weiss studied his face, searching for any clue about what he was shouting about, but there was none. "Again, I'm gonna have to go with, what are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me Weiss. I know you did it on purpose."

"Did what on purpose?" Weiss shouted back. He was started to get annoyed about the way he was being spoken to, especially when he had no idea what he was being accused of.

"Tried to ruin my date with Sydney." He paused, waiting to see some form of reaction from Weiss but there was none. "Why did you do it? Were you jealous or something that I was going out with her?" Weiss excused himself from his patient and dragged Vaughn out of the room and into his own office. Once they were there, Weiss slammed the door shut and turned to face his colleague.

"You want to tell me what all that was about." Vaughn was quiet for the first time in the past five minutes. "First you come barging into my office while I'm with a patient. Then you start shouting accusations at me without even telling me what I've done. What's your deal?"

"My deal? Try the fact that you sent me to an Ice Capades show on my first date with Sydney!"

"What?" Weiss eyes grew as he stared at his friend. "I gave you hockey tickets, how the hell did you end up at the Ice Capades?"

"No, I think you'll find they were Capades tickets!"

Weiss was quiet for a minute as he thought about what Vaughn was saying. Vaughn watched him intently, as his expression went from confusion to shock.

"Oh no…" His eyes fell to the floor as he realised what he had done.

"What?"

"My mother…"

Vaughn laughed for the first time all morning. "I'm sorry, but what has your mother got to do with this?"

"I bought Ice Capades tickets for her birthday when I bought our hockey tickets. I must have mixed them up." Vaughn had been friends with Weiss long enough to know when he was making something up; and this wasn't one of those times. "Oh God, Michael I'm so sorry."

Vaughn finally got the apology that he had been waiting for, but it no longer mattered. He knew that Weiss had made a genuine mistake and wasn't just trying to ruin any chance that Michael had with Sydney.

"Hey don't worry about it." He suddenly started to feel guilty about his earlier outburst.

"No, I'm such a dumbass. I should have checked!"

"Weiss, honestly it's…" Before Vaughn could finish his sentence, Weiss walked out of the room and returned seconds later with a brown folder in his hands.

"Sydney lives with Francie right?" Vaughn nodded, wondering what he was doing. He soon got his answer as Weiss picked up the phone, but before Vaughn could stop him, he had already started to dial the number. All he could do now was wait, and hope that Weiss didn't do anything stupid.

"Hello?" Weiss spoke as soon as the phone was picked up.

"Hi."

"Is this Sydney?" He knew how silly he sounded, but he didn't know what else to do. He had to make it up to his friend, one way, or the other. And considering he had no other ideas, this was definitely the way to go.

"Er…yes. Who is this?"

"This is Eric Weiss from the Dental Surgery, we met the other day at the coffee shop…"

"Oh yes I remember. What's up?"

"I was just calling to apologise about your date last night. It was my fault; I made a mistake with the tickets and I didn't mean to ruin your evening." He looked at Vaughn as he said this, his apology going out to both of them.

Sydney smiled on the other end of the phone. "You don't have to apologise, the date went fine." She tried to reassure him.

"No I wanted to apologise. I didn't want you to hold my mistake against Michael. Last night was probably a first for him, he's usually smooth with his first dates, but I doubt he'll be taking my advice any longer…" He looked over at Vaughn who was running his hand across his neck, indicating for him to stop, although Sydney was laughing on the other end of the phone. "Er Sydney I've got to go, but I'll have Michael call you later."

They said their goodbyes and hung up the phone. Vaughn stared at Weiss who just looked back at him and shrugged. "Well that went well!"