A/N: Just a one-shot romantic fic...just because!
"Cover me."
Vaughn dashed out into the alley, out from behind the safety of the crumbling stone wall he and Sydney had been crouched behind. Without conscious thought, Sydney stood and began shooting towards the source of the gunfire directed at them, her only thought and aim to keep Vaughn from being hit.
It worked. He was now on the other side of the alleyway, under the cover of a building, invisible to their adversaries in the pre-dawn darkness. Her com burst to life.
"Now you."
Sydney waited no more than two seconds and ran across the alley towards him, knowing he was laying down cover fire for her as she went. The whole maneuver lasted only a few seconds, but it seemed to Sydney like she ran in slow motion and the maneuver had lasted for hours.
"You okay?" Vaughn whispered to her as she fell against him.
"Yeah, you?"
"I'm good. Let's go."
With a quick look to the right and again to the left, almost as if they were doing nothing more than crossing a street at the light, the two got up and quickly worked their way along the wall of the building, out of sight and out of the line of fire. Neither was even breathing hard.
"Cellar," Sydney whispered and pointed. Vaughn pulled up the old, wood trap door on the street and they swiftly vaulted into its depths. The door shut over their heads just in time to avoid being seen by their pursuers.
After waiting a reasonable amount of time, Vaughn turned to Sydney. He couldn't see her face, but he knew she had to be smiling.
"Did you get it?"
"Yeah," she answered. Sydney grabbed his hand and he felt her place a large key in his palm.
Mission accomplished.
At this point, he was so tired he didn't care what the key was for, or how important its retrieval was to the CIA or anybody, for that matter. He just wanted to get Sydney home and out of danger.
That's the way it had been for some time now. His own personal mission was, invariably, to keep Sydney from harm. So far, it hadn't conflicted with the Agency's purposes for their missions. But the day that it did, he knew and dreaded the choice he would make. Because it was a done deal, a given, that Sydney came first.
"Great," he approved, fingering the key. "Let's move."
Cautiously, they pushed open the cellar door bit by bit until they could scout the area. All clear, so they slipped out of their hiding place and now retraced their steps, heading back the same way they had entered the town. Sydney led the way, with Vaughn bringing up the rear, looking ceaselessly for any sign that they'd been spotted by hostiles.
So far so good.
Leaving the populated areas, they headed into the hills north of the small city, still walking stealthily, still watching for any sign they'd been discovered.
This had been a successful mission. They'd recovered not only the key, but a book of original manuscripts that they hadn't expected to find. No injuries, no setbacks, and they hadn't had to kill anyone.
All in all, a good operation.
"Vaughn, where's the Hummer?" Sydney asked him in a whisper, looking for their pick-up.
"Supposed to be here." Vaughn frowned.
"Call them?" Sydney suggested.
"We're not supposed to make radio contact. Maybe we'll see them if we walk up to the ridge and look around some."
"Right." Syd followed Vaughn up the hill and soon they were perched on its crest, surveying the surrounding countryside. That's when they saw the smoke.
"The Hummer," Sydney hissed, pointing at the column of smoke rising from the road below.
"They found it. We've got to find cover, now, Syd. Let's go."
They turned and ran for the edge of the forest. Just as they made the treeline, they heard the sound of armored trucks on the road below. Both agents fled into the undergrowth, keeping an eye on each other in order to stay together, climbing the incline towards rougher terrain and better cover. Finally, just before they collapsed from exhaustion, the two stumbled upon a rocky ravine running along the face of the mountain that provided ample hiding places for the weary refugees. Vaughn picked his way into a sheltered stand of rocks that was almost a cave, being solidly walled on three sides with a sort of overhang for a roof.
"Come on, Sydney," he encouraged, holding his hand out to help her up the last few steps.
"We can't stay here long," she panted in response.
"I know," Vaughn replied in a whisper.
"We've got to get one of those trucks," Sydney proposed.
"Too dangerous."
"Everything we do is dangerous," she retorted sharply.
"Shh...I hear someone," Vaughn whispered. Sydney shrank back against Vaughn's form, trying to make herself invisible. Vaughn pulled himself as far into the recessed rock as he could, taking Sydney in his arms and holding her in closely. They held their breath and instinctively shut their eyes while the sounds of booted feet and scuffled climbing became louder and louder.
And louder.
Vaughn and Sydney's faces were only an inch apart, and now they were staring anxiously into each other's eyes. Neither moved a muscle, nor barely breathed.
This was not the time or the place, but Vaughn was suddenly struck with an overwhelming urge to lay his lips on hers and kiss her for all he was worth. He unconsciously licked his lips as he fought to resist the very unprofessional impulse.
Sydney saw him lick his lips as he watched her and a jolt of longing shot through her, unexpected, unlooked for, even as the sounds of soldiers came from all around their precarious sanctuary.
They were so close. So close.
Sydney looked away. They couldn't afford to lose focus right now. It was a matter of life and death. She felt, rather than heard, Vaughn's sigh of disappointment and acceptance.
Gradually, the two became aware that the sounds around them were fading into the distance as the soldiers worked their way across the mountain. For the moment, they were all clear.
"Now we get a truck," Sydney stated.
Vaughn and she jumped up and headed back down the way they had come, now that the enemy soldiers had passed by their hiding place and their was little danger of running into them.
They found the trucks parked on the side of the dirt road leading to the wilderness area, guarded only by two rather lax men who Sydney had no trouble taking out. Soon they were driving towards the border and safety, dressed in two soldier's uniforms they had handily borrowed from the knocked out men Sydney had assaulted.
"Good work, Sydney, Vaughn," Dixon approved in the briefing room of the CIA. "With this key and these manuscripts, we should be able to figure out where Sloane is going and catch up with him very soon. Go home and get some rest."
Sydney smiled her satisfaction with the success of the mission and picked up her jacket. She walked to her desk, slowly, hoping Vaughn would pick up on the cue to follow her to a more private part of the building.
He did.
"Hey," he called out to her, walking with her out to the parking level. "Back there, in the field, when we were almost caught."
Sydney turned to look at him with serious eyes.
"What about it?" She asked defensively.
"Are we going to be able to do this? Work together, in the field, objectively?"
"I don't see a problem," she returned, watching him carefully.
"C'mon, Syd. I almost forgot what we were doing, I wanted to kiss you so bad. You can't tell me you didn't feel the same. I saw your face too, you know."
"Yes, I remember that," she smiled coyly. "But we didn't, we kept it together and we're home, mission accomplished. See? No problem."
"What about next time?" Vaughn challenged her.
"Well, we'll figure it out. But it's not a problem unless we make it one. We work great together, you can't deny that. We have a level of trust you don't find very often. Our feelings for each other play into that trust."
"Yeah, you're right. But what I felt back there...it almost undid me."
"Maybe we should go get it out of our systems." Sydney ventured with a little smile.
"What do you suggest?"
"Let's... talk about it. Over a cup of coffee. At my place."
Vaughn appeared to be seriously thinking it over.
"Stop playing hard to get," Sydney laughed and grabbed his arm.
"Let's go," Vaughn agreed with an ear-to-ear grin.
Arm in arm, they walked to Sydney's car and got in.
"How am I going to get to work tomorrow?" Vaughn asked playfully, gesturing towards his car sitting across the garage from Sydney's.
"I thought that would be obvious."
Vaughn leaned across the seat and stroked his hand down her cheek. A second later he was kissing her with abandon.
And she was kissing him back.
Fin