Authors Note - I've been writing this here and there for a while now. I hope it is liked, cause I had fun writing it. I played around with the timeline of the show, making Sydney disappear just a little earlier than she did. Its going to work for my my plot a little down the line.

Disclaimer - let me tell you, if I owned Alias, I would be out partying for joy, instead of writing little stories at my PC

Sydney was absolutely blown away. SD-6 was gone. The Alliance was gone. Sloane was no longer a problem. Most importantly, she had kissed Vaughn. It had been the most mind blowing kiss she had ever experienced. The world around them had simply disappeared and only they had existed in their little land of euphoria. She was still floating on thin air from it.

She had half a mind to roll her eyes at herself. She was acting like a fourteen-year-old after a first date, but that was just the way Vaughn made her feel. She giggled. This was getting ridiculous. She was driving, alone, headed for Francies restaurant, giggling over a kiss. This time she actually did roll her eyes.

She finally saw the restaurant up ahead. She grinned. Francie would notice right away that something was up. Then Sydney could relay every detail of the kiss to Francie. Not that she hadn't done that for herself a million times already, but once more wouldn't hurt.

She pulled into the parking lot and hopped out of the car. Her happy floating feeling disappeared and her stomach dropped when she was faced with the scene inside the restaurant. There was a Francie who had a gun pointed at another Francie.

"The second double," she muttered to herself. It wasnt exactly hard to figure out who was the double.

The Real Francie looked away from the double for a moment and flicked over to Sydney. "Syd?" she asked.

Double Francie heard this and whipped around to face Sydney. Sydney took this moment to kick the gun out of her hands.

Double Francie lunged at her, but Sydney duck and made a blow to the side of Double Francie's head. Unfortunately for Sydney, Double Francie barely hesitated before hitting back. She delivered a swift kick to Sydney's stomach, causing her to double over.

Oh, God, Syd thought. This is it. Then she heard a large thud. She looked up to see Double Francie standing with a dazed look on her face and Real Francie with a giant frying pan in her hands. It didn't take long for Sydney to put two and two together and she had realised exactly what had happened by the time Double Francie fell to the floor. Real Francie sighed, thinking it was finally over, but Sydney saw the double stir, so she kicked the head to save time and jumped into action. She practically threw her self across the room and began writing on an old reciept.

"Francie," she said in a rushed voice. "I need you to get out of here. I'll take care of the double. Go home, and if I'm not there in twenty minutes, call this man. Tell him the whole story, Tell him I'm sorry it turned out like this, tell him that the second double was of you, and tell him that I want him to tell you the truth. And unless I do come back, I'm sorry It wasn't me to tell it all. Now go." She said, shoving the piece of paper into Francie's hand. Francie reluctantly backed away, then broke into a run to her car.

Sydney turned to a rising double and prepared herself to fight. "This is most definitely going to be interesting," Sydney muttered to herself.

Francie was going insane. It had been thirty minutes since her and Sydney's "conversation" and she knew she should call, but she hadn't even opened the paper yet. It was ridiculous, but calling this guy would mean that she was accepting Sydney was dead, and she just wasn't ready for that. She let her mind wander back to same two things it had for the past half hour. How the hell there was a carbon copy of her trying to shoot her and what exactly was going down with Sydney and her unsurprised reaction to seing two Francies in one room.

Francie finally hit the edge and grabbed the piece of paper. She read it aloud.

Michael Vaughn

557-6429

Francie hesitantly picked up the phone and dialed the number.

No, No, No. It can't be, it won't be. Sydney's so strong, and things are finally going up. We can be together without being killed. I can look at her and touch her and kiss her anywhere I want now. She's not dead. She's absolutely fine. She has to be. It's my job to protect her. I can't live without her.

Vaughn was going insane. He told himself the same things over and over, as if saying them would make them true. But he knew it wouldn't do anything. But he was addicted. And he obsessed over the fact that she might have escaped before the fire. He knew he was kidding himself. There were two bodies found in the remains. There weren't exactly many options of who it could be.

The night before a disturbed Francie had called him on his cell phone.

"MIchael Vaughn."

"Hello? this is Francie Calfo, A friend of Sydney Bristow's. You know her, right?"

He grinned. "Yeah."

"Somethings happened. She told me to call you."

The smile instantly dropped from his face. "What is it? Is she hurt?"

He had felt his heart drop and bounce around on his stomach as Francie began to describe her night. They had found the second double all right. He had sped to the restaurant as fast as he could, only to find it engulfed in flames. And then his heart stopped. He didnt believe it was there anymore. It had simply discintegrated, probably along with Sydney in the fire that that blazed before him. He felt distinctly hollow, and wasn't really able to move. Thats when the tape started. This isn't really happening. I'm having a nightmare. I'll wake up and She'll be fine. She's ok. I know it. Don't I?