A/N: Thank you so much for everyone who reviewed! I am really surprised that everyone loved this fic, I mean it starts with S/V having an affair. Affairs are bad, so don't do them. Just because S/V did, does not mean you can too, okay?! Now that I'm done with my lecture on how not to cheat on your spouse, thank you again!!
And the twin's names were inspired by Sydney and Vaughn's middle names.(Anne and Christopher), not Buffy characters like some people thought. I haven't seen Buffy in years, so I wouldn't know the character's names.
Also, I am going to try something different with this fic. I like to write things in first person, so you(the reader) knows what the character is thinking, and I also wanted to write this in Vaughn's POV along with Syd's, so it's going to be in both. I'll label when it changes from Syd to Vaughn and back again. But for now, this chapter is in Vaughn's POV.
If this chapter sucked, I'm sorry. I have a cold and I'm not thinking clearly at the moment.
Vaughn's POV
Wake up, go to work, work my ass off, go home, eat dinner, get drunk and fall asleep somewhere between the living room and my bed and then repeat it all the next day.
The story of my life.
Ever since Sydney left three, no, it was four years ago now, I can't seem to shake that habit. That's probably why me and Lauren starting fighting and grew apart. Then she started getting sloppy and her whole operation was exposed. If it weren't for that horrible witch that used me to get information, Sydney and I wouldn't have had our affair, and she wouldn't have left because she felt so damn guilty about it and maybe I would be an actual father to my children.
Oh God, my children. I've been saying that for four years now and it still sounds foreign to me. Like it's not quite right without Sydney with me to say 'our children'. I need her with me to be even able to say that I fathered not one, but two children.
I wouldn't even know that Sydney and I had twins if it weren't for the picture she sent me. Just one picture of her, and Christian, and Anya in the hospital, I'm assuming just after they were born. I haven't had the heart to check that theory. I have no idea what she's doing right now, if she's changed her name, if she's even in the country.
I want to find it out but I can't at the same time. Damn the tricks your mind plays on the rest of you.
"Vaughn, my buddy, my friend, my pal."
Oh shit, I did not have the time to deal with Eric and his whining about the lack of Sydney around. I didn't look up from the report I had to review in front of me, "Not now, Eric."
He understood what I meant and instead of taking the very subtle hint to just leave, he came into my office and closed the door behind him. Here goes the talk again. Every damn day it seems that he comes in here and tries to convince me to go after Sydney. And every damn day, the talk ends the same. "Then when, man? It's been three and a half years."
"Four," I muttered under my breath, "And I know that."
He heard my mutter and corrected himself in his next statement. "And the hateful bitch has been in jail for three of those four years." I swear that Lauren's betrayal of me was like a legend at the CIA. I saw the weird looks new recruits gave me when they transferred to L.A chapter. I heard the hushed whispers around the water cooler that suddenly disappeared when I showed up. Don't any of these people have lives? They have to have something better to do than gossip about the traitorous witch that I used to be married to.
"I know."
"And you've been single for those three years," He continued, very unsubtly hinting about Sydney.
"I know."
He wasn't done, he never was. "A single man that is ridiculously in love with the woman that bore his children, note I said children, four years ago."
"I know." I snapped, finally looking up from the report I wasn't really reading anyway. The picture Sydney sent me lying on my desk near my hand caught my eye and I couldn't help but look at it longingly. Usually the picture resided in my wallet but when I was in one place for long periods of time, the picture would come out and I would just spend hours looking at it, especially on the plane to and from missions.
He noticed me looking at the picture, of course, "Then why aren't you doing anything about it?"
"Did you read the letter?" I asked, impatiently. This part of the conversation we had never had before and I was wondering what the hell he was up to.
"Yeah, about two thousand times," He answered, "And I keep reading the same thing," He paused, "She wants you to go after her."
I wasn't expecting that, "What?"
"Dude, she was practically begging you to go after her."
"Are we even talking about the same letter?" I asked, reaching for my top desk drawer to retrieve the letter but he stopped me.
"Forget reading it again, you could probably recite the damn thing by memory." He shook his head and tossed a folder at me. "Now that, you can read. No, I take that back, you have to read it."
I reached for it, "What is it?"
"You're new mission."
I gave him a weird look before opening the file and skimming the contents. I should've figured that he would have had the research done on Sydney and our twins. It was all there. Every question I had ever wanted to ask but was too afraid to do so. Oh God, I sounded like one of those cheesy books that you see at fairs and craft shows. I wonder if they had one called "Everything you wanted to know about being an idiot who screwed up his life but were afraid to ask", cause if they did, I need a copy.
"How is a file on Sydney, my new mission?"
"Because we talked it over with Dixon and he agrees that you moping around here is not helping anyone. So you are being given some time off and you are going to River Falls, Montana and you are going to see Sydney and make up with her and marry her and then live happily ever after." He instructed. I don't think I even want to know who 'we' is.
"Are you telling me how to live my life now?" I asked, looking up from the folder.
"Well, someone needs to cause you're doing a crappy job of it." He stood up, making the motions of actually leaving, a minor miracle but still a miracle. "Anyway, the final call is up to you. Just call Dixon and tell him that you accept the offer. A plane is ready at LAX and a car will take you from the airport to her house."
"You really went all out on this, didn't you?" I muttered, glancing at the folder again.
"Yeah man, one of us deserves a happy ending." I thought that he was actually just going to be serious for once in his live before he added, "Besides, you're no fun like this."
"Get out," I growled, reaching for the folder angrily and opening it roughly. I don't even know why I was so mad all of the sudden. But taking it out on the folder was productive and non violent, in some ways.
She was teacher; I should've known that too, an English teacher and she taught foreign languages on the side. Geez, Syd, how small is this freaking town? She and the twins lived in a small two story home, alone. Wait a minute, alone? Why would she ever live alone? She hates living without another adult around. Maybe she's changed. Maybe I've changed.
I leaned back in my chair and continued to study the folder in front of me. It told me that here was this woman, a beautiful, incredible woman who had two children, a boy and a girl. She taught English and foreign languages at the local middle school, made good money and really seemed to love her job and her life. But there was one very big thing missing from the picture. A father, a husband, an male presence older than a four-year-old.
My thoughts turned back to the letter she left for me. I actually did read it in the middle of night on my couch with a beer. I almost choked on my beer when I read what she wrote and dove for the phone but she had ditched her cell phone and was already long gone.
I didn't make any move to hide the fact that Sydney and I had an affair from Lauren and for a time, she pretended to care that I did. Kind of ironic that she was having her own little affair going at the same time, isn't it?
I toss the folder onto my desk and tap my fingers on the polished wood, trying to make up my mind. I want to go after her but she told me not too. But that was when I was married. She didn't know what Lauren turned out to be. Hell, I didn't even know until they took that witch into custody. Sydney didn't know that I wasn't married anymore. Maybe when she did learn of my single status, things could happen, good things, really good things.
Sighing, I reach for my phone and dial Dixon's in-office number, "Dixon?...Yeah, I'm going...I will...Thanks." I set the phone down on the hook before I really even realized what I was going to do. I was going to see Sydney and our children.
Oh shit, I can handle just about anything but the idea of seeing Sydney again after four years of not. What the hell is wrong with me?
I went home, if you call a bare, crappy apartment 'home' and packed a suitcase before going to airport and finding that the CIA really did go all out to send me to Montana. A small private plane normally used by higher ranking officials than I would ever be in the next twenty was waiting to take to me to Sydney and the twins.
After settling into the leather seat and making myself as comfortable as I could on an airplane, -I admit, I have slight fear of planes- I leaned back and waited. Soon enough though, the picture Sydney sent me came out of its hiding place in my wallet and I just looked at it, remembering the day I got it in the mail.
I came home to the sound of Lauren trying to cook something in the kitchen and instantly regretted not taking Eric up on his offer to go to a bar and get drunk. Mentally kicking myself and outwardly sighing, I set my briefcase on the table next to the pile of today's mail.
"Oh, Michael, darling, you're home." Lauren called from the kitchen.
Yeah, unfortunately, "Yeah, what's for dinner?"
"Meatloaf."
Does that woman even know how to make meatloaf? The only thing I've seen her make is macaroni and cheese and even then she messed it up. "Sounds great." Yeah, right, it sounds horrible. So much in fact that I am planning on having four beers tonight instead of my normal three. Maybe if God is merciful upon me, I will pass out before she even gets the idea in her head for bedroom activities.
I picked up the mail and started to sift through it. Just the normal, bills, junk mail, a letter from my mom, and then a plain white envelope with my name and address scrawled neatly on the front, but no return address. Ignoring my better judgment as a spy, I opened the letter and just about passed out from what was in it.
Sydney's brown eyes stared back at me, while in her arms she held two small babies. I turned it over, gingerly, then read the back. "Anya, Christian, and Sydney. 7/24" was all she wrote. Anya and Christian, that means twins, as in two children, as in Sydney and I had created two lives, not just one. It took me a minute to realize that she had named the twins after mine and hers middle names, or it was just a huge coincidence that she had done that but I would put my money on the first one.
"Michael, what are you doing in here?" Lauren asked, suddenly appearing at my side and snapping me out of my daze, "What's that?"
"A picture," I said, keeping it out of her reach and a view of the picture away from her sight.
"Of who? Did your mother send it?" She asked, reaching for the picture.
"No, actually Sydney did."
She seemed surprised, "Sydney? Why would she do that?" She was still in pursuit of gaining a view of the picture.
"I'm not sure." And I really didn't. What was she trying to say by sending me the picture? Ha ha, see what you're missing? Even that would be a little too cruel for Sydney but then again, I wasn't sure of what to put past her anymore.
"Well, who's in the picture?"
"Sydney," I answered, exasperatedly, "And the twins."
"Twins?" Lauren repeated, "What makes you think that she had twins?" She knew all about my affair with Sydney and the fact that Sydney had gotten pregnant because of it, while Lauren had wanted to have a child for over a year now and still nothing. So she couldn't blame me for her lack of a child anymore. I proved that I can have children, twice apparently.
"Because there are two babies in the picture, Lauren," I said sharply, finally giving her that view of the picture she so desperately wanted, to prove my point.
She was silent for awhile before finally saying quietly, "Dinner's ready."
I shook off the memory and tried to imagine what the twins looked like. The picture didn't give a good view of either baby but from what I could see, one of babies had sandy blonde hair like mine and then other had brown hair like Sydney. I couldn't tell which one was which though.
"Mr. Vaughn?" The pilot asked over the two way speakers.
"Yeah?"
"We've landed."
A/N: And the queen of cliffhangers leaves you all with another one. lol!
adpi24- I know what you mean about ABC being evil. I hate them for making us wait until January for new episodes. I'm bitter too! lol!
maybe-i'm-crazy- Don't worry, I will write more. And I like how you said, "Comprende?" now, i keep saying that to people and they're like, what? lol!
Rach5- I hope you liked how I wrote Vaughn getting the pic, true, it's in a flashback but still there nonetheless.
meg- okay, here's more! lol!
Heidi- I don't really like the affair part either but it was a major part in the plot i have in my head so i couldnt really cut it out, ya know? and of course, he and lauren split up, i dont like them together. S/V all the way!
Sarah- thank you, i love writing AUs cause i have problems accepting reality. could you tell?
CinnaminGirl- thanks.
Fair Cate- Thanks, i am going to continue updating this.
Charmed-angel4- Thanks, you're like my biggest stalker. lol! anyway, do you have Yahoo or MSN messangers?
Jinna- I might have Jack come after her as well. I havent decided yet.
Sydney Bristow- Thank you!!
Miss47- Thank you!!
IloveGartan- Sure, it's beautiful, i was kinda going more for the angst kinda thing but beautiful works too. lol! i'm just messing with you, i really appreciate the compliment.
me- Thank you!! Glad that you like the weird stories that my strange mind comes up with!
alexis- yes, i am writing more. after all the response i got, it would be very hard not to.
raniluver- you are the first to comment on the twin's names and for that you get a hug! ::hug:: lol!
Mossie- And you are the first to guess correctly on the reason behind the twins names! hug for you as well! ::hug:: yeah, the letter was heartbreaking, i even got choked up writing it.
mountaineer143- Thank you!! and i will!
Agent Flamingo- I love the twins, and they're gonna be even cuter in the next chapter, just wait.
syoung- i hear you on that. anything s/v is good with me.
Sugar-Angel73- Thank you!!
EternalSleep- here's some more for ya! lol! it just cracks me up when people write more! repeatedly. dont know why though.
SpyKid18- Okay, so I emailed you. now you have to write back! lol!
wicked-sista- thank you!! i have a lot of spare time to come up with these ideas. sad but true. lol!
DD2- Thank you!!
Gracie- wow...i didnt think that my story would have that much of an effect on people. thank you so much!! hug for you!! ::hug::
Star Mage1- I will, don't worry.
jennycraig10- i will be updating, don't worry.
elizabeth- Yay! I have a fan!! so happy!! and because of that, you get a hug!! ::hug::
Ren201- yeah, of course he's going after her. it's s/v for crying out loud! they belong together!
PassionBob- Thank you and there will be more!!