Vaughn walked around the block near his home that he shared with Lauren. He wasn't ready to go home to her and face the questions that he knew were coming about the mark on his face. He replayed the conversation he had with Sydney over and over again in his head, trying to think of something that he could have said to make it end differently. After passing his house for a third time, he still failed to come up with anything else that he could have told her, so he walked up to the front door, ready for the inevitable confrontation.
Once he was inside the house, he walked into the living room and was relieved to see a different person sitting on his couch.
"Weiss, what are you doing here?"
Weiss smiled as he turned to face Vaughn, but his smile immediately disappeared once he saw the hand print on his cheek.
"Well since you disappeared at the gym, I wanted to know where you want. But now, more importantly, I want to know what the hell happened to your face?"
Walking over to the mirror above the mantelpiece, Michael looked at his cheek. "I guess it's really that noticeable, huh?"
"Well d'uh!"
Vaughn sighed and moved to sit on the couch beside his friend. "Where's Lauren?"
"She let me in a couple of minutes ago. She's just gone upstairs to change out of her work clothes." Vaughn nodded at his answer. "So you want to tell me what happened?"
"Let's just say the conversation I went to have with Sydney, didn't quite go as I would have hoped!"
"So she slapped you?"
"No Weiss, I was that frustrated after our conversation that I went outside and slapped myself!" He replied sarcastically, a little harsher than he had intended.
Ignoring his comment, Weiss looked at the doorway, checking that Lauren was no where near before proceeding with the conversation.
"What did you expect? That you'd apologise and then she'd welcome you back with open arms? Syd isn't like that, man. You of all people should know that."
"I know. It just hurts so much to know that I've caused her all that pain, and there's nothing I can do to fix what I've done and stop her from hurting."
Weiss was about to speak again when he heard Lauren walking down the stairs. She came into the living room, having changed out of her work clothes and into a pair of jeans and tank top. She was surprised to see that Michael was home, and she immediately went over to him.
"Hey sweetheart. I didn't realise that you were home." She went to kiss him on the cheek, but stopped as she noticed his cheek. Slowly stroking his cheek, she looked at him with concern visible in both her voice and eyes. "What happened to you?"
He began to stutter as his mind raced for an excuse. His heart was racing in his chest as he avoided making eye contact with him.
"Michael?" She pressed the issue further.
"I er…"
"I slapped him!" Weiss stood up as he made his revelation to Lauren. Her eyes immediately focused on his as she tried to process what he had said. Hers weren't the only pair of eyes set on him, Vaughn was also watching him cautiously, unsure whether he should be thankful or fearful about what was going to happen next.
"I'm sorry, you what?"
"I slapped him." He deliberately spoke slower, knowing very well that she had heard what he said the first time.
"You slapped my husband?"
Weiss rolled his eyes, wondering how many more times he was going to have to spell it out for her. "Yeah, it's just something we do every now and again." He turned to face Vaughn and playfully slapped the other cheek.
Vaughn's eyes widened as he stared at Weiss. He just slapped me…
Lauren glared at Weiss and walked out of the room, ready to go and start cooking dinner. Vaughn sighed as she left, his heart rate finally beginning to return to normal. Crossing his arms over his chest, he turned to face his friend.
"You slapped me?"
"Oh don't you start too. It's like that woman can't understand plain English." He groaned as he sat back down on the couch, ignoring the glare that he knew he was receiving for insulting Lauren.
"But you slapped me…"
"Seriously, stop!" Weiss warned. "I saved your ass didn't I?"
Vaughn sat down and was silent for a couple of minutes.
"Thanks." He finally spoke, laughing a little at what had just happened. "And may I just add for the record, you slap like a girl." Weiss picked up the nearest cushion and launched it at Vaughn's head.
"Well if I was to hit you like I would normally hit you, my slap wouldn't look like Sydney's. And we wouldn't want Lauren to be suspicious now, would we?"
"Yeah, because I'm sure she isn't at all suspicious right now." Vaughn mumbled, his head falling back against the couch, as his eyes shut.
"Speaking of Sydney, what are you gonna do?"
Vaughn shrugged. "I have no idea. There's just so much that I want to say to her, but she won't let me."
Weiss could see how desperate his friend was, and knew that there was something he could do to help. "What's the address of her office?"
Sitting upright on the couch, he stared at Weiss, his heart starting to beat faster again. "What?"
"The address of Sydney's office. Why is it that you and Lauren need things to be constantly repeated to you?" He mumbled the last sentence to himself, but Vaughn heard every word.
"What do you want her address for?"
"So I can go and talk to her dumbass."
Weiss had finally been able to get the address from him, and was actually quite relieved to leave the house, seeing as Lauren had been glaring at him at every given opportunity.
He stood outside the building, looking down at the piece of paper in his hand to make sure that he had the right address. Glancing at his watch, he noted that it had only just gone and six and hoped that she would still be in her office.
He took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do. He hadn't seen or spoken to Sydney for some time, and he was unsure about how time had changed her. He knew from what Vaughn had told him that she was still hurt about what had happened, but he just hoped that she would be happy to see him.
He got out of the elevator on the correct floor and was pleased to see that a woman who he assumed was her receptionist was still sitting at her desk.
"Er…hey. I'm looking for Sydney Bristow?" The woman looked up from her work and smiled at him.
"Miss Bristow is just getting ready to leave. But if you would like to make an appointment, you could come back and see her…" She searched her desk for the appointments book and finally found it, opening it out to the nearest vacant page.
Weiss wasn't prepared to wait any longer to see her. "I'm sorry but this is kind of important. Could you just tell her that an old friend is here to see her.?" He asked, and she considered his question, before telling him to wait where he was, while she went to talk to Sydney.
Sydney was just shutting down her computer when Stephanie appeared in her office.
"Sydney, there's someone outside to see you. He says he's an old friend…"
For a minute, Sydney thought that it may have been Vaughn, using another fake name to try and see her. She quickly dismissed this idea, knowing that Stephanie would have recognised him from his earlier visit.
"Ok." Sydney grabbed her stuff and followed her assistant out of the room, shutting her office door behind her. She looked up at the man standing infront of her and froze.