Author: Has anyone heard from Tiffany lately?

Summary: Sydney said if she'd been the one left behind she would have waited for him. This is what her life could have been if Vaughn had been the one to disappear.

Disclaimer: Same thing!

Author's Note: Again I love all of those wonderful people out there who have reviewed my story! I'm still looking for a beta, so if anyone thinks they could spare the time just give me a shout.

Chapter 4

"What happened to you, Michel?" Amélie Vaughn asked her son over dinner two nights later.

"I don't know. That's my problem. I disappeared for two years and I have no idea where I was or what happened to my life while I was gone," Michael answered sadly.

"That's not what I meant. I mean, what happened to the sweet, mild tempered little boy I raised?"

Michael eyed her suspiciously.

"I heard what happened between you and Sydney the other night. It's not like you to ignore what someone else has to say, especially when that person loves you."

"So now she's tattling on me to my mother?" Michael bit back.

"Don't sass me young man!" automatically Michael hung his head embarrassed by his own actions. "I called Sydney to ask if she'd talked to you, she said she'd tried, when I asked her what that meant she reluctantly told me about your little hissy fit."

Michael blushed deep red under his mother's disapproving stare. "I didn't mean to, honestly maman. I wanted to listen, but it hurt too much. I know I lost her to Billy, that doesn't mean I want to know how."

"I'm not so sure she's lost. She loves you very much. I may have never seen the two of you together, or met her before she lost you, but I saw what it did to her. Billy saved her from that. Losing you nearly killed her, literally."

"What does that mean? Everyone keeps saying that; losing me nearly killed her, but how?" he asked.

"Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this, I promised Sydney I'd let her tell you everything."

Michael fixed her with a glare that could change anyone's mind. His mother ignored it.

"However, I do believe that you need to hear a little bit of what happened before you will listen to her."

Michael nodded slowly encouraging his mother to continue.

"The first time I met Sydney was the day after you disappeared. She wanted to tell me what had happened to you herself. The girl was a wreck, but she was concerned about how I would take the news, how the CIA might tell me you were dead when she knew you weren't.

"When she introduced herself I was completely confused, you'd been talking about her for ages, and I was supposed to be sending you your grandmother's ring to propose to her with. Yet here she was all alone on my doorstep. She told me everything she knew about your disappearance, but with only a day since you'd been missing they didn't have much. All the evidence said you were dead, but something about her, something she said, made me believe you were still alive."

"What did she say?" he asked.

"She said; you couldn't be dead because she'd know. She'd know if you were truly gone. I knew it was true, I'd felt the same thing with your father, I knew before I got the call. If she said she didn't believe that you were dead then I didn't either.

"I didn't see her again for another three months. We spoke on the phone. She kept me up to date on her investigation. Mostly we talked about you, but sometimes we just talked. Then one day I got a call from Eric, Sydney was in a hospital in Paris, they wouldn't release her, and once they did they said she wasn't allowed to fly. I went to get her. I couldn't believe it when I first say her; she'd lost so much weight and looked so exhausted. I've never seen so one unhealthy and without a physical reason.

"The doctors were so worried about her. It took me forever to convince them to release her to me, but I promised to take good care of her. She stayed with me for two months before her doctors allowed her to fly again. By then all she wanted to do was come back to LA, I came with her."

"Sydney is the reason you live in LA?" the question had been nagging him since he'd found out about his mother's relocation. She'd always hated California.

"She was my family all I had left of you. Being near each other made us feel closer to you. She loves you more than you will ever know," Amélie told her son.

"But Billy," Michael protested.

"Now that really is her story. But let me tell you that he saved her life, he is the reason your disappearance didn't kill her. Talk to her. Listen to what she has to say," she ordered softly.

"I want to. It just hurts too much. Losing her hurts so much," a single tear slid down his cheek and his mother wiped it away.

"Maybe it doesn't have to. Maybe you haven't lost her yet," she said sagely.

"That's exactly what Weiss said," Michael told her.

"Then maybe we're right."

After dinner with his mother Vaughn headed back to Eric's apartment, Eric was out on a date, but Vaughn was looking forward to sometime on his own to think about what his mother had said.

He was at the top of the stairs when his phone rang.

"This is Vaughn," he said raising it to his ear.

"Hello Agent Vaughn, this is Dr Radcliff from Medical Services. We were wondering if you would be available at ten o'clock tomorrow for some follow up tests," came the voice from the other end.

"What needs to be done?" he asked.

"A little blood work, nothing serious. Will you be there?"

"Of course. Goodbye," he said hanging up. "Damn! Damn! Damn! I'm not a freaking lab rat," he muttered to himself.

"You OK, Michael?" asked a female voice from the other side of the hall.

He turned and saw Francie stepping out of the apartment she shared with Sydney.

"Yeah, just a little tired of being the CIA's latest pin cushion," he said with a half smile.

"It sucks, I know, but it's never long before some new emergency makes them forget all about you. Trust me!" she grinned.

He shot her a confused glance.

"Do you remember that guy Dr. Markovick and the whole Project Helix deal? The search for the second double?" she asked.

He nodded. Of course he remembered; he had about two weeks' memories since that. The question was; how did Francie know about it?

"Well they found the second double not long after you disappeared. Turns out the bitch stole my face! I was the second double, or the second double was me? Damn after all this time I still can't find the right words to say it. Either way, there were a lot of freaking tests. The CIA seems to love the human lab rat deal."

Wow! He'd had no idea. It was so weird to hear about real things that happened while he'd been gone, made the missing time so much more real then Weiss' crappy movies ever could.

"That's rough, couldn't have been a nice introduction to the Agency."

She shrugged. "The hardest part was learning that Will and Sydney had this whole other life I'd never known about, but by the time they'd actually told me I'd already figured it out."

"That obvious?"

"Not really, but with the bank trips, and then the new bank with more trips. The secrets Will was keeping. And I never really wanted to believe he'd been a junkie," she said sadly. It was still hard to think of the way her two best friends in the world had been forced to lie to her. She understood, but it didn't stop the pain.

"I've got to go solve some minor disaster at the restaurant before the debrief," Francie said pointing towards the stairs.

"Debrief?" now he was in flat out disbelief.

"Eric's date. After his last serious girlfriend, we try to keep a close eye on who gets too close," she smirked.

"What happened last time?" Vaughn asked. Eric hadn't said anything about a heartbreak or serious girlfriend.

"Oh it's a wonderful story! But I've been paid never to tell it."

"OK, well I'll let you get to it," he said turning towards the door. Then suddenly he turned to face her again. "Hey Francie, do you think Sydney would give me another chance at the talking thing tonight?"

"Of course. Just give her a call and she'll meet you at Eric's." With that she was gone.

It had been a really long day. All Sydney wanted was to pass out for a good twelve hours. And if she went to sleep now she might get eight, before Billy inevitably woke her up. No matter how hard he tried, the moment he woke up she was awake too.

At the moment she was sitting on her couch with Will watching the news. Nothing interesting, but it was a way to kill time before Saturday Night Live, usually she avoided it like the plague, the sketches really sucked lately, but that hot guy from 'Never Been Kissed' was hosting and she wanted to watch. Plus she knew she wouldn't sleep well tonight. She hadn't since Vaughn had come back. She wouldn't until he let her talk to him.

"You OK Syd?" Will asked.

"Just tired," she yawned as if to prove the point.

"You don't have to stay up to interrogate Weiss, we'll tell you all about it in the morning," he promised.

"Thanks, but that's not why I can't sleep."

"Vaughn?" he asked

"Vaughn," she agreed.

Will was glad he'd gotten over Sydney a long time ago, because seeing her like this over another guy would have broken his heart. "He'll come around Syd. Just give him some time."

"I know, but I want him to meet Billy. I want him to be OK with everything!" she told him sadly.

When the phone rang Sydney gave Will a look and he reached over to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Will?" came Vaughn's voice from the other end.

"Vaughn?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, do you think I could talk to Sydney?"

"Of course," he replied handing the phone to Sydney.

After a few brief words, she hung up and told Will she was going to go talk to Vaughn at Eric's.

"Good luck Syd," he called as she headed out the door.

This time when she knocked on the door, Vaughn was ready to open it on the other side.

"Hey," he smiled at her.

"Hi."

He could tell she was nervous. Not that he could blame her after the way he'd acted the other night. But it still hurt. He used to be the one she turned to when she was confused or scared, and now he was the one causing those feelings.

"I had dinner with my mother tonight," he offered slightly awkwardly.

"How is she?" Sydney asked with genuine interest.

"Angry. Apparently she didn't raise me to throw temper tantrums like a spoiled brat."

"You weren't that bad," she told him, knowing he was referring to the other night.

"Yes I was. And I'm sorry. She had some other things to say. She told me a little about what happened between the two of you while I was gone."

"Sh-she did?" Sydney stuttered.

"Yes, and I wanted to thank you for taking such good care of my mother."

"She's the one who took care of me. She saved my life," Sydney said, still to grateful to ever explain for all Amélie had done for her.

"She told me that you saved her. She also, in her infinite wisdom, told me to get over myself and listen to you. She said you had some very important things to say,"

"She's right. There are some things I want to tell you, I'm just not sure how to say them. God, I can't imagine what it must be like to wake up one day and find two years of your life missing," tears were already beginning to form behind her eyes and she had no idea how she was going to tell him everything.

"It's OK Sydney, as much as I hate it; I was gone and you had to keep living, I understand that," slowly he felt a part of himself—the one that would do anything for Sydney, the one that had been absent since he saw those rings—stir to life. He honestly did mean it. He wanted nothing more than to see her happy, and if she was happy with Billy then that would be OK. Eventually.

"But I knew you weren't dead. Just missing and Vaughn as much as I didn't want my life to continue it did. You weren't dead so I couldn't let myself die with you. You were just gone, and I disappeared too. For three months I did nothing but search for you. On the slightest intelligence I would fly around the world. I couldn't find anything to prove what I knew was true."

He could see the pain she was in. He couldn't believe how hard it must have been then, if she still felt like this two years later.

"You'd been missing for three months when things changed."

"My mom already told me. She said you nearly killed yourself looking for me. She said that the doctors wouldn't let you leave the country so you went to stay with her." Somehow two nights ago the idea that she had only looked for him for three months had seemed terrible, but now looking at her he knew that she hadn't had any choice but to stop.

"Yeah, but there's more," again she seemed unable to find the words.

"More?" he choked out.

"Those few days in the hospital before I went to stay with your mother, they were terrible, and wonderful and scary as hell. The doctors wouldn't believe it at first. They ran the tests several times before they even told me. Then there were a thousand more tests and millions of question. Still it didn't make any sense.

"OK that I can relate to; the not making sense part. What are you talking about Syd," there was an edge of panic in his voice.

"They told me it was already over. They said there was a zero percent chance of survival, that it was only a matter of time. They said there was no way I'd survive if they didn't do something soon. But I wouldn't let them. I told them I'd gotten that far and they couldn't take you from me."

He couldn't understand. He wasn't sure he wanted to. She had been, she was sick, and she wouldn't let them help her? And what did that have to do with him?

He was shocked out of his thoughts by the sight of her tears. He wrapped his arms around her a little afraid she might resist. She didn't. "It's going to be OK Syd. I love you so much and everything is going to be OK," he whispered softly in her ear.

"I know, but thinking about those doctors. About what I almost lost. All the things they said to me. I just can't believe things can be so awful and so completely amazing at the same time. You know?"

"You're going to have to explain this to me Sydney."

"Yeah I guess I will. The thing is the reason they were all so worried. The reason they didn't think I would survive was because I was pregnant."

"What?" Vaughn finally asked after nearly a minute of complete silence.

"Three months after you left, I found out I was pregnant. I'd been so completely focused on finding you that my baby nearly died."

"Baby?" he croaked.

"William Daniel Bristow Vaughn."

"Billy?" It was more of a statement then a question.

A/N: Surprise! (Like you all hadn't already guessed!) That's all for now folks! I hope you enjoyed it. Please review!