Chapter 38

Sydney threw back the covers as her cell phone started ringing. She hated early morning phone calls; but then again she just hated anything that happened at an early hour.

"Hello?" She asked sleepily.

"Morning beautiful." Sydney smiled as Vaughn's voice filled her ears. Suddenly being awoken at an early hour wasn't too bad.

"Why are you awake so early?" Lying back down on the bed, she pulled the covers around herself, her left arm tucking underneath the pillow.

Vaughn laughed. "Sydney, you do realise that it's almost 11, right?"

"Yeah…that's early!" She joked, realising that she would have to get up sooner or later.

"Well I was just disturbing your beauty sleep, to see if you wanted me to come and help you get things ready for your party tonight?"

Sydney's smile grew. Ever since the misunderstanding with Danny, her and Vaughn had grown closer. They were spending more time together, and their relationship seemed to be much stronger than it had been before. They had both had a taste of what life would be like if they lost each other, and that was something that they both didn't want.

"Yeah that would be great." They talked for a while longer, before finally hanging up the phone. Sydney quickly showered and changed ready for when he arrived. A couple of minutes after Sydney had got dressed, her mother knocked on her bedroom door.

"Sydney? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." Sydney replied, as Irina walked into the room. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to let you know that your father's taking me out for the day. So you'll have the house to yourself for the party…"

Sydney smiled at her mother, although she knew that that wasn't all she had to say. "Sydney, I want you to remember what you promised me. You'll look after the house, and not let any drunken idiots ruin anything." Sydney nodded reassuringly. "I'm trusting you Sydney, don't let me down."

"I won't. I promise." Irina smiled as she hugged her daughter.

"I should be back at about 1:30. Just make sure everyone's left by then!"

Two hours later, Jack came by the house to pick Irina up. She gave Sydney one last warning before leaving with Jack. A couple of minutes later Vaughn arrived, ready to help Sydney set up for the party. He knew that the party wasn't meant to start for another couple of hours, but he thought that once they had finished they could just hang out.

"Ok, so I figured we could just blow up some balloons, put up some decorations…things like that!" Sydney suggested as Vaughn followed her into the kitchen. She stopped at the kitchen table, where she'd laid out all the decorations that she could find lying around the house.

"Sounds good." He replied, standing behind her, with his arms wrapped firmly around her waist. He placed light feather kisses along her neck, and then rested his head on her shoulder. She leaned back against his chest, enjoying the feeling of being in his arms again.

They stayed standing like that for a few minutes, before Sydney walked away, the packet of balloons in one hand, and Vaughn's hand in the other. They stopped in the living room and she gave him half of the balloons, telling him to blow them up. Rolling his eyes, he sat down on the couch and started blowing them up. After a couple of minutes, he handed Sydney a couple of balloons that she could pin up, while he did the rest.

She pinned them all up, except for one. She quietly crept into the living room, and stood behind where Vaughn was sat. Quietly, she rubbed the balloon on top of his head, causing his hair to stick up on end.

"Looking good, spiky!" She teased, laughing at his new hairstyle. Vaughn turned around to look at her, shock all over his face.

"I can't believe you just did that." He tried his best to smooth down his hair, but it was still static.

"I think it looks good on you…" She smiled innocently slowly stepping away from the couch as Vaughn stood up. He walked towards her, a mischievous look on his face.

"You are so gonna pay for that!"

"Oh, what are you gonna do? Mess up my hair?" She teased, slowly backing into the kitchen, Vaughn only a couple of steps infront of her.

He thought for a minute and then shook his head. "I could, but it wouldn't really do anything. You'd still look just as beautiful." Sydney blushed at his comment, but continued to step away from him.

"I think your hair looks good!"

"Do you know how long it takes me to style my hair of a morning?" Vaughn joked, causing Sydney to laugh harder.

"Aww, have I spoilt your pretty boy image?" Sydney asked, knowing that she was getting herself deeper into trouble.

"Yes." He ran towards her, and tried to get her in his arms, but she managed to dodge him and run out of the kitchen. She playfully screamed as she ran into the living room, not knowing where she should run. He stood in the doorway, both of them realising that she was trapped. Sydney smiled sweetly at him, as she looked around the room for somewhere she could run. She was stood behind the couch, and knew that her best bet would be to get to the other side of the settee. He noticed her eyes drift towards the couch and knew what she was about to do.

She laughed as she plunged over the back of the couch, and ended up laying flat on it. Before she could roll back off it, Vaughn climbed over the couch, so that he was no lying directly above her. Sydney laughed, realising that she was trapped. She looked up at Vaughn, waiting to see what his next move would be. He placed his hands either side of the couch, preventing her from leaving his embrace.

"So Miss Bristow, it looks like you have no where else to run. Are you going to apologise now?"

Sydney smiled and shook her head. "I was going to, but suddenly the consequences don't seem that bad." She whispered as she brought her lips up to his. Her hands rested on his back, bringing him closer to her.

"I love you." She told him as they broke apart. Vaughn looked quite shocked by her confession, he hadn't been expecting her to say that. "I meant to tell you on Christmas Day…and I've been meaning to tell you ever since." She smiled at him, her hand coming up to caress his cheek.

"I love you too."

A couple of hours later, everybody had arrived and the party had started. There were only about 35 people there; Sydney had decided to keep it minimal, so that nothing bad happened.

Sydney and Vaughn spent most of the night by each other's side, except when Weiss came to steal Sydney away to dance, while Paige was talking with her sisters. Sydney couldn't help but laugh at Weiss's unique dancing style, although it wasn't just her attention that he caught. A few other people around the room watched him, as he did the famous 'Weiss dance' in the middle of Sydney's living room. However, Vaughn paid no attention to his friend's antics on the dance floor, his whole focus remained on Sydney.

As everyone began to count down the seconds to midnight, Sydney went to find Vaughn so that she could kiss him at midnight. Everyone else couple off as the countdown got nearer.

"5…4…3…2…1!"

The room filled with cheers as everyone welcomed in the New Year. Vaughn gave Sydney a kiss, which was followed by a hug. "Happy New Year Syd," he whispered in her ear. He had a feeling that this year was going to go better than the last; after all what else could go wrong?

By one o'clock, Sydney managed to get everyone out of the house, leaving her 30 minutes to clean up the house before her mother arrived; although the house was in a perfectly good condition. Sydney told all her friends that they could go, as Vaughn offered to help her tidy.

After they were finished, Vaughn grabbed his jacket and walked towards the door. "I best get going." He smiled at her, stepping forward to wrap his arms around her waist. Sydney nodded sadly, but managed to smile.

"Ok." They kissed for of seconds before Vaughn moved out of her embrace and opened the front door.

Without thinking, Sydney started talking again. "Unless…" She stopped as he turned back around, wondering if she should continue her sentence. His eyes searched her face, waiting for her to finish. "You want to stay over…" She suggested, her eyes falling shyly to the floor. Vaughn wasn't sure if he'd heard her correctly.

"Like on the couch?"

Sydney hesitated before answering. "No…" Sydney could feel her cheeks reddening; she wasn't sure if she should have asked him that. "I don't mean that something's gonna happen," she explained, but found herself beginning to rabble. "But I thought you might just have liked to stay here tonight, but it's ok." She smiled weakly at him.

Vaughn shut the door and walked towards her, taking her hand in his. "Come on." She smiled as she led him upstairs.

Sydney went into the bathroom and removed her make-up and let down her hair. She was suddenly nervous about the fact that Michael Vaughn was sitting in her bedroom waiting for her. She took a deep breath, and splashed cold water on her face before stepping back into the bathroom. She was now dressed in a blue tank top and pyjama pants, but Vaughn couldn't help but thing that she was the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen.

She had given him an old pair of jogging pants, that her cousin Josh had left when he last visited a couple of months before, and a college T-shirt that was way too big on her, but it seemed to fit him perfectly. She smiled at him as she walked around the room, and pulled back the bed covers and climbed into the bed. He did the same thing, and she could tell by his face that he was just as nervous as she was; although they had nothing to be nervous about.

Switching off her bedside lamp, she lay down beside him in the bed; her head lightly resting on his chest, while his arms were wrapped around her. Suddenly all the nerves that they had both been feeling went away; as lying in each other's arms now felt like the most natural thing.