Chapter 16

Jack was sitting comfortably on the couch as Irina walked into the living room with two empty glasses and a bottle of wine. Taking a seat next to him, she handed him the glass and poured the wine into it. The stereo was playing one of Irina's favourite Russian Operas, the music soothing the atmosphere making both of them more relaxed.

"The wine's nice!" Jack commented as he took a sip from his glass.

Irina smiled. "Thanks, I picked it up over the summer when I went to Italy!" She too took a sip of her drink, looking over the rim at Jack. Those black trousers and blue shirt make him look handsome. Irina mentally kicked herself for thinking like that. Jack and I are over, end of story...

"Do you remember that summer when we went to that villa in Southern Italy?" Jack smiled as Irina nodded. Before Sydney was born, Irina and Jack used to travel a lot, spending weeks at a time in one place. Their favourite place to visit was Italy, there was just something about that country that they both fell in love with. But ever since they broke up, Jack hadn't returned to Italy; it brought back too many memories of what he had lost.

"Yes of course I remember! We stayed in your brother's villa, and then we met Arvin and Emily who were staying next door to us. Who would have known that we would have stayed friends with them all this time!" Emily had become one of Irina's best friends, Sydney also considered her to be like a second mother to her, she was practically part of the family. "You remember the dinner parties that we used to have nearly every week?"

"How could I forget them! I'll always remember that time when Emily and Arvin were coming over, and you were busy making the potatoes, so you asked me to put the chicken in the oven. I thought you had already switched the oven on, so I didn't bother to check I just placed it in there! And then when we came to get it out, we were stuck with a 5lb uncooked chicken! I've never seen Arvin look so shocked when he only got half of his meal!" They could no longer control their laughter as that certain memory came back to them. Irina had tears rolling down her cheeks, and Jack was finding it difficult to breathe.

Finally regaining her composure, Irina continued with the conversation. "I think that was the last time I ever asked you to help me in the kitchen!"

Jack's laughter stopped and he took on a more serious face. "Wait...that's why you wouldn't let me near the kitchen whenever you were cooking?" Irina nodded. "So every Thanksgiving when I offered to help you with the meal, and you would tell me to go and watch the parade with Sydney, you didn't really want me to watch it. You just wanted me away from the food?"

Irina's smile grew. "Ok, I admit it! Every year I would tell you to watch the parade, even though I knew you didn't like it, because I didn't want the turkey to end up the way the chicken was. But don't feel bad, I'm sure the chicken incident could have happened to any of us!" Irina tried her hardest to make him smile again, but his straight face didn't seem to want to move.

"Yeah right, like you're capable of ruining anything." Jack replied sarcastically, trying his hardest not to laugh. Irina laughed and found herself jokingly agreeing with him.

"Ok, so maybe it couldn't have happened to all of us!" The laughter died down as they both drank some more wine.

"So where did you go for the weekend?" Jack poured himself another drink.

Irina propped her head up with her arm, which was resting on the back of the couch.

"A spa just outside of LA. I go with a couple of old friends every few weeks, it gives us the chance to catch up on everything and just hang out!" She smiled, thinking about the fun that she had had with her friends. Jack remembered how Irina had always loved going to the spa, even back when they were married.

"So, how are things going with Ann Barnley? Sydney said that she seemed nice!" Irina asked him, her tone not too pleasant. She knew fairly well that Sydney didn't approve of his new 'friend', but Jack was totally oblivious to this.

"It's Anna Barnett..." He stated, flashing her a Bristow glare.

"Whatever!" Irina rolled her eyes and gulped down some more wine, not even bothering to apologise for her error. "So what's the deal with you two?"

"We are friends, there's nothing more to it!" Irina nodded and poured herself some more wine. She wasn't entirely sure why she was so interested in his love life...after all she had no right to be; she gave that right up five years ago when they broke up. Jack looked at her questioningly, wondering what was with the sudden interest in who he dated. Things hadn't worked out between him and Anna; it was never going to be anything serious. But after Sydney had come to diner with him and Anna, he had realised just how wrong she was for him. So they had decided to just be friends, although he had a feeling that that would never happen.

"Oh." Irina didn't know what else to say, but thankfully Sydney walked in and interrupted the awkwardness which had filled the room. She stopped in the doorway and was shocked to see her parents in the same room, and it looked like they were actually getting along with one another. "Hi." Irina could hear the surprise in her daughter's voice, which made her smile.

"Hey honey. Your father and I were just catching up. Do you want to join us?" Irina asked putting down her glass and walking towards her daughter.

"No, I just came back to check that you got back ok from your trip, and obviously you have! So I'm gonna go and see Vaughn, if that's ok?" Irina hugged her daughter.

"That's fine! Have fun, but remember you have school tomorrow so don't be coming home too late."

"Yeah, don't you two forget that you have classes to teach in the morning!" Sydney glanced at the bottle of wine, which was now nearly empty. Her mom followed her gaze and smiled shyly.

"Bye mom! Bye dad!" Sydney called out as she walked out of the door.

"Who is Vaughn?" Jack asked curiously. Irina rolled her eyes and sighed. Jack was always disapproving of his daughter's choice of friends, he would always say that they weren't good enough for her, but Irina knew that this wasn't true.

"He's a friend of hers." Jack opened his mouth to question her further, but Irina stopped him. "Drink some more wine Jack!" Her tone telling him that he should listen to her and not object.

Piper and Paige sat on the couch laughing and joking when Phoebe walked in from the kitchen carrying a tube of ice cream and three spoons. "All I could find was chocolate!" She said innocently as she sandwiched herself between her two sisters and gave them a spoon each.

"So how did lunch with Cole go?" Paige asked as she ate a spoonful of ice cream. Phoebe couldn't help but smile, which didn't go unnoticed by her sisters.

"It was lovely. He made us a picnic, which we ate, in his garden. It was just so romantic, and then after we finished we just sat there all afternoon. I'm telling you, that guy is amazing." Phoebe thought herself as being lucky for having such a wonderful boyfriend. Piper and Paige smiled at each other; they loved seeing Phoebe happy like this.

"That's great Pheebs!" Paige hugged her old sister. She wished that she had a boyfriend who was as great as Cole was for Phoebe, or that Leo was for Piper. She tried not think about how she was the only one of her friends who was still single, but Phoebe always comforted her by saying that soon she would find that perfect guy who would sweep her off her feet. "So did you guys have fun at the party last night?"

"Yeah it was great!" Piper and Phoebe answered in unison. They both laughed at how they had said the same thing at the same time. They definitely had spent too much time together; but that was always a good thing.

"Everybody seemed to have a good time, well except for Danny. He's been acting really strange these past couple of days, no wonder Syd's been hanging out with Michael. Having to put up with Danny's moaning would be enough to drive anyone insane!" Phoebe rolled her eyes and took another bite of ice cream. The sound of the door grabbed everybody's attention. Prue walked into the living room, smiling at them all.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" She asked as she took her shoes off and sat on the edge of the coffee table.

"We were just eating some ice cream and gossiping! Come on, I wanna hear about what happened with Andy..." Piper took Prue's hand and pulled her towards the couch, making them all laugh at how squashed they were, but no one was bothered. They were all too eager to find out what went on with Andy.

Sydney had absolutely no idea where Vaughn lived, but luckily Weiss didn't live far from her house so she had gone there first and asked for his address. Weiss had been happy to help her, and soon she was on the way to Michael's house. Spending all that time with Weiss, Sydney regretted that she hadn't become friends with him earlier. They had known each other for years but they had never really had a proper conversation until Vaughn had came to LA. And now that she was friends with Weiss, she decided that she was going to keep it that way, no matter what her friends might say.

Vaughn was sat at home watching the Kings game that was on the TV. He has thought about calling Weiss to come over to watch it with him, but then he kept thinking about Sydney saying that he could see her later. So he never called Weiss in the end. A knock on the front door distracted him from the game, and as there was no one else in the house he had to answer it.

"Hi!" Sydney greeted him as he opened the door. He looked quite surprised to see her, but his smile told her that he was happy that she had came. Sydney noticed that he had changed out of his hockey clothes, and was now wearing black combat pants and a black T-shirt.

"Hey!" Sydney took a step towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Did you miss me?" She asked, a smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah I did!" He put his arms around her waist, and found himself getting lost in her eyes. "I'm glad you're here!"

"Me too." She smiled at him, and then leant up and kissed him gently on the lips.

"You want to come inside?" He asked, his arms still around her waist. She nodded and the two of them walked inside the house. Looking around Sydney could see that Vaughn's house was roughly the same size as her mother's, and considering they hadn't been in LA for long; the house was already decorated and furnished. "Nice house!" Sydney commented, as she turned to face him.

"Thanks! It's not usually this quiet but my dad has taken my mom out to dinner."

The sound of hundreds of fans screaming startled them both, causing them to turn to the game, which Vaughn had forgotten to turn off. Sydney's smile grew as she grabbed Vaughn's hand and led him to the couch to watch the game, where they sat side by side. The Kings scored again, and a smiling Sydney turned to Vaughn to comment on the score, but as she went to speak he kissed her.

She kissed him back, as his hands rested gently on the small of her back. She ran her hands through his hair, enjoying the fact that she could be so close to him without having to worry about Danny. The need for air got the better of him, causing him to break the kiss.

"I've wanted to do that ever since we walked through the door!" He told her, lifting his hand to wipe a strand of hair out of her face.

"I'm surprised that you waited as long as you did!" She replied, pulling his T-shirt to get him closer to her.