Chapter 7

Vaughn's (Kendall's) POV

Sydney looks so much like an angel when she's sleeping. There are several times that I have to pinch myself to make sure that this isn't all a dream. I look down at my wrists. The red lines from the handcuffs are still there, and I massage them gently as I sneak out of bed and into the kitchen.

I take the casserole dish from out of the oven, and start mixing together some pancake batter. I locate the chocolate chips easily. (I really need to thank Will for that conversation we had that one time.) Tossing a good amount into the mix, I start pouring the batter onto the heated griddle.

I walk over to the freezer next and pull out a can of concentrated orange juice. After finishing that up, I walk out to the little garden Sydney keeps behind the apartment, and, paying careful attention to the location of the thorns, I cut a rose, and as I walk back to the apartment, I realize the door is locked.

I look around in horror. (I probably should have mentioned earlier that I hadn't yet taken the time to clothe myself.) I rap lightly on the door, a rap that yields no response. I knock harder, but, again, nothing happens.

Knowing I'm going to get hell about this, I sneak over to Weiss's back door and knock quietly. I see some movement, the rustle of the curtain, and then the door slides open. "Vaughn, what the hell?"

"Can I borrow some clothes?"

With a smirk, he shakes his head, as he walks back to his room. He returns a few minutes later with a bundle of clothes.

"You know, Vaughn, I knew quite well what you two were doing last night. Would you mind keeping it down in the near future?"

Considering the situation I'm in now's not the time to crack a joke. "I'll talk to Syd. Thanks."

"What are buddies for."

I dress quickly, and then walk around to Sydney's apartment, grab her spare key, and stick it in the door.

It doesn't work. That's when I remember Sydney having tossed me the new key to her apartment.

I hate to wake her, but I have no choice. I ring the doorbell. She comes to the door a few minutes later, looking completely disheveled, but, in true Sydney style, hot as hell.

"What's going on?"

"I locked myself out." She groans and steps aside, and I let myself in.

"What are you wearing?"

"Some of Weiss's stuff?"

"Why?"

"Because I left my clothes in here." She begins to snicker. "Don't laugh at me," I say as I run my finger along her body. She twitches and cunvulses as I find the spot I know that she's the most ticklish at, and begin attacking it, first with my finger, and then with my tongue. (It's nice to see that I can still turn her into a giggling mess.) My phone rings making me stop what I'm doing.

"Vaughn," I answer.

"Son, you'll never guess who came to visit me last night."

"Jack."

"So you do know."

"Yeah. I told Sydney. She gave him just enough last night on the phone that he was probably able to deduce everything."

"You told Sydney everything?"

I look over at her. "Everything that matters. Yeah, why?"

"Even about that message?"

"What about the message?"

"Remember, back at the DSR…"

"That was just an old wives' tale. Wasn't it?"

He doesn't answer.

"Dad, does Area 51 really exist?"

"Of course it exists."

"You know what I mean. Is it true that they've got an dead alien and a space ship?"

Silence again.

"Dad, what are you saying?"

"Perhaps they're coming back in larger numbers this time."

"Dad, trust me, we've already figured out that the transmission came from a parallel universe."

"What?"

"Dad, it's no conspiracy theory. It's a parallel universe."

"Is it Earth-347, Earth-434, or Earth 452?"

"I believe it's actually a parallel universe we don't know about." Sydney's looking at me funny now. "Old DSR stuff," I mouth to her. I turn back to the phone. "I thought the Parallel versions of the DSR agreed on rules. I thought there was supposed to be no contact!"

"That was the rules, but if this is a new universe, then perhaps they don't know the rules. Listen, I need to be there for the meeting."

"I'll talk to Director Chase. Hopefully she can pull some strings."

"Good. I'll talk to you tomorrow if we're lucky, then."

"All right. Talk to you then." I hang up. Sydney's waiting for me with her hands on her hips.

"What exactly do you know about this transmission?"

"Syd?"

"Yeah?"

"You may want to sit down for this."

She complies, and I begin. "When I started with the DSR, I was just a analyst. I'd receive reports about the paranormal, check the facts, and decide if there was enough evidence to send in an agent. One of my first reports was about the sudden influx of discoveries of communications from other planets. These transmissions were odd. Sometimes they were years behind, sometimes they were…well…we were years behind. There was one transmission I picked up that was from 3125."

"A. D?"

"A. D. So, here we are picking up all these transmissions, and when we start pinpointing their locations, we were able to verify the locations of over 500 parallel universes."

"Five-hundred?"

"Five-hundred. This transmission, it appears to be from a universe that we don't even know about yet, and by the time I quit the DSR, we were up to 511 parallel universes.

"What scares me most is that they're facing a crisis that scientist have been warning is coming nearer and nearer for our planet, and the fact that it's your voice on that transmission means that it's going to happen sometime in our lifetime."

"This is going to happen to Earth?"

"Quite possibly." I sigh. "Plus, we've never actually received a ambassador from a parallel universe before, and with some of the theories going around, if they arrive here, it could very well be the end of the world."

…TBC…