Chapter 17: I've Long to Discover Something As True As This Is

So they laid him to rest in an old castle in France. And they stood tall, even though they felt like crumbling.

Erica was crying.

Irina had disappeared into solitude, she had kissed Sydney on the cheek and had left to go get the supplies they would need to get out of France and back to the States. They had mourned together, her mother and her, but Sydney let her mother go, knowing that Irina needed the time to mourn for herself.

Erica was crying.

Vaughn had been there and still was there. He had held her in her tears and he had cried too. He had rubbed her back, he had held Erica, and he had buried Jack. He was gone now too, getting Erica something warmer to put on.

Erica was crying.

Sydney finally glanced down at her child. Sometime during the night, Vaughn had taken her and washed Jack's blood away, as he had done for Sydney. Sydney remembered her wail that night; the wail was a vocalization to what they were all feeling. Now her cries were of hunger. So Sydney gave her baby the only thing she could give her, herself.

She cuddled the little girl after she was done eating. Vaughn came back and sat down next to her. He handed her some blankets to cover Erica with and then he covered her with the largest blanket. Sydney snuggled in close to Vaughn and couldn't help but wonder if her father and her mother had ever done this with her. Just sat together as a family. Vaughn was talking to her, telling her about the emails he had sent her mother, how he used symbols of Alice in Wonderland and boy scouts to convey his message since his emails were run through a cipher.

Sydney didn't listen, she couldn't listen. She was still too numb. And then she felt Vaughn. He turned her around so she was facing him and then lifted Erica from her arms.

"Sydney, listen too me, I love you. That hasn't change, I, well I wanna marry you before we go back to the States. And then we can honeymoon here in France. It really isn't healthy for Erica to be on a plane this early in life. And it will give me time to clear up the double agent thing. Sydney, are you listening to me?"

Sydney was speechless. He wanted to get married right now, right after her father died?

But then again it made sense. They were shown mortality last night and it frightened him. He wanted to make sure that if they were going to die at least they went out married.

"I think I would like that Vaughn, it would be nice to take some time off."

"I love you Sydney and I love Erica, more than life itself"

"I love you too Michael."

Their child began to coo and both of them looked at their daughter. She was smiling at her parents, with her father's eyes, her mother's hair, and most importantly, her entire family's love.

And that's the end. Maybe more will come of questions left unanswered but for now, the story's over.