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Chapter 5

Sydney picked up the phone and called Lauren's cell number. She sat back in her chair and waited for her to pick up. Thankfully after a few rings she did just that.

"Hello?"

"Hey Lauren. It's Sydney, Sydney Bristow."

"Oh hey Sydney. How are you?"

Sydney grimaced at the way Lauren spoke to her like they were old friends. She rolled her eyes and sighed quietly.

"I'm good. I just called to tell you that I spoke to the church and it turns out they have an opening for April 20th."

Lauren squealed down the phone, and Sydney could feel a migraine coming on. She still couldn't believe that she was going through with planning the wedding, but she figured that the quicker she got it done, the quicker she could move on with her life, and leave Michael Vaughn to get on with his.

"That's fantastic."

"Yeah, it's great." Sydney replied, although she was thinking something completely different.

There was a knock on her office door, as her assistant popped her head through the door. Sydney smiled, thankful for the distraction from Lauren. She quickly told her that she had to go and hung up the phone.

"Syd, there's a Mr. Thompson waiting for you." Stephanie informed her.

"Who?" She had absolutely no idea who she was talking about. She'd never heard that name before.

"Mr. Thompson. He said you'd be expecting him."

Sydney looked at her curiously as she followed her out of the office and into the reception area. She was expecting to see a stranger waiting for her, but instead he was there.

Groaning, she shook her head and walked back into her office, hoping that he would go away. He had expected her to react that way, but he had come this far, he wasn't about to give up now.

He threw her assistant a small smile as he followed her into her office, closing the door behind him. She was sat behind her desk, some papers infront of her, but he could tell that she wasn't really doing any work. She was just staring hard at them, refusing to make eye contact with him, or just generally look in his direction.

"Sydney…"

"So you're using aliases now. How impressive." She replied sarcastically, her eyes still glued to the sheet of paper infront of her.

"Well I knew that if I told her my real name then you wouldn't want to see me."

She finally looked up at him, her eyes just as cold as they were the last time they met. "Even with a fake name I don't want to see you…and yet here you are!" She stood up and walked over to her window, her eyes filling with tears that she was determined wouldn't fall, especially not infront of him.

Vaughn looked down at his shoes. He knew that the hurt she was causing him was nothing compared to what he did to her, but her words still hurt him. He hadn't expected her to greet him with open arms; he would never expect that from her anymore. But he had hoped that he would be able to get some answers from her, but judging by the way this was going, that wasn't looking too hopeful.

"We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about." She replied quietly.

"Yes there is." He stepped further into the room, his hands dug deeply in his pockets. "Sydney, I know you're hurt, we both are, but there are still…"

"No Vaughn!" She yelled, spinning around to face him. "Don't stand there and tell me how I am. You have no idea how I am."

She was being just as stubborn as she was all those years ago. He knew that this was one fight he wouldn't win.

"Fine, but regardless of whether or not I know how you are feeling, we still need to talk, and that fact isn't going to go away. You can't just pretend that the problem isn't here Sydney."

"Well that's funny, I was doing pretty well up until the moment you walked through the door."

The room went silent. Sydney stared down at her desk, not knowing what else to say to him. Over the years, she had played this situation in her mind, and knew exactly what she wanted to say to him, but now that she had the chance, she just didn't know where to start.

"Please leave." She nodded towards the door but Vaughn refused to move.

Folding his arms across his chest, he shook his head. "Not until I get what I came for."

"Which would be what?"

"Answers."

Sydney laughed. "That's rich coming from you. If either of us should be looking for answers then it's me. You've done nothing to deserve anything from me."

"You want answers Sydney. Then ask!" He told her, his arms waving about infront of him. He was growing tired of going around in circles not getting what he wanted. "You wanna know why I did it? You wanna know if the decision I made still haunts me every day? You wanna know if I still think about you? If I'm still in love with you?"

"NO!" She screamed, not caring that Stephanie was in the other room and could probably hear every word that was being said. "I couldn't care less. I've given up wanting answers from you, you're in my past and I refuse to let you affect any part of my future."

Vaughn was taken back by what she had said. His heart was pounding in his chest as he looked at her, searching for any sign of the Sydney that he once knew. He watched as a tear escaped from her eye and he longed to go and wipe it away, to hold her in his arms like he used to and tell her that everything would be ok. But he couldn't.

"Now get out." She was no longer yelling, but anger was still evident in her voice.

Instead of walking towards the door, he walked over to her. "Why did you move back to the city?" He didn't expect an answer from her, but he asked anyway. She stared blankly at him, her eyes once again filling with tears.

"What part of 'get out' do you not understand?"

"I need to know."

Pointing towards the door, she glared at him. "And I need you to leave."

"Tell me."

"That is none of your business." She turned her head to face the window, as the tears continued to drop down her face.

"SYDNEY!" He yelled and the next thing he knew, she snapped and brought her hand down across his face. She froze, shocked by her own actions. She noticed the red hand print that was now on his left cheek, and saw the look of surprise and upset in his eyes.

"Please leave!" She ushered him to the door, not giving him a chance to say anything. Once he was out of the office she shut the door and slid down to the floor.