I reformatted this chapter after reading your reviews…I apologize for the typos and the unrealistic story line…hope this is better now…

Sydney took a slow inhale and tried to muster up enough strength to roll over onto her side. Her body was shaking and sweating, and cold all at the same time. Her hair was still damp from Will washing her hair and clinging uncontrollably to her neck. All she wanted to do was cry but could barely manage the energy to do so. Her body felt strangely weak and if she allowed her mind to do so, it wandered back to the torture that had been inflicted on her. She squinted her eyes as she relived the humiliation that had endured. No, no she was strong than he ever would be. She wouldn't let him take control of her life. The only thing she could do to stay sane was to concentrate on her breath. It was shaky and uncontrollable. One droplet of sweat rolled off her forehead and nestled down onto the white cotton pillow sham.

Will appeared into her line of sight, which was only limited to the ceiling and where her eyes were focused. "Syd…" He sat down next to her and ran his hand over her face, "Syd, I called Vaughn. He's coming."

"N-no." She breathed hard, trying desperately to claw Will's attention. "Please…"

Will kept his hand on her face but looked away, "I had to. I don't know how to deal with this. I'm so sorry, Syd." His heart was pounding in his chest and all he could hear was its resonating in his chest. It hurt him to breathe at that moment. He hated seeing her in this much pain.

"No!" She repeated, wishing she could make this all stop. And make the room stop spinning. Oh G-d, the room needed to stop spinning. She started to blink to regain her focus but her body was destroying itself and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"Sydney, listen to me." Will's voice started to boom in her ears as her vision went dark. He watched her eyes darken and the color change. The color drained from her face and her breathing became more rapid. "Syd…Syd…" And she was gone. Her body slowly slipped away from a state of consciousness. The pain was much too great…the mental and the physical. "Sydney! Syd, c'mon sweetie-wake up! Wake up, Syd!" His heart was pounding in his chest. He didn't know what to do and felt so helpless. He never knew it was possible to love someone as much as he did Sydney. Granted, he knew that nothing could ever really happen with them but she was his best friend. They were always going to be there for each other. And now that one of them was in trouble, there was nothing he could do to help her. He was crying now and barely realized it. His blue eyes, now red from tears watched her body lay still, with the thankful exception of her chest rising and falling with each breath. Thankful for small miracles, Will cried even harder. He sniffed, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. He had to get control of himself. He couldn't fall apart now. Not now. There was no way that he could help her and that just made his heartburn uncontrollably. He covered his eyes with his hands and sobbed mercilessly, wishing she could just be well and escape this life that was eventually going to kill her. He leaned over her body and sobbed, feeling the weight of his soul empty out of his eyes.

Vaughn slammed his car door and ran as fast as he could to the motel room door. He barely remembered driving there. His world had become a blur…all on autopilot. The last thing he consciously remembered was telling Alice how much he loved her. It took him longer to get there than anticipated…he had to make sure he wasn't being tailed and no one was following him. This was a difficult situation. Now, he was here and in all business. Well, all business and caring for a different woman. There was a definite difference between the woman that he loved, Alice, and the woman who he would give his life for, Sydney. His sprinted to the door and knocked repeatedly until he heard Will's footsteps. Feeling his heart pound in his chest, he watched the door with eagerness that could only be released by the opening of the door. His hands were forced into his pocket and he rocked back and forth on his heels.

Will finally opened the door and Vaughn rushed in, "How is she?" Will slammed and bolted the door firmly them.

Will turned to talk to him, his eyes still red and swollen. His words were choked by emotions and he thought he was going to lose himself again. "She's not doing well. She's unconscious."

Vaughn felt his heart drop into his chest. This was not good. "What?"

"She said she was feeling dizzy, so I carried her back to bed and she just slipped away from me." Will responded as he watched Vaughn round her bedside, place on hand on either side of her body, starring intently over her. Vaughn was overcome by emotion and unsure of what to do. He had to let his emotions take a backseat to reality. He ducked his head down for a second and took a slow inhale. "We have to do something." Will finished.

Vaughn could only assume the worse and think of brain damage. Brain damage. What if she never woke up from this? He could never live with himself if she never woke up. In the short time that all of this had happened, he convinced himself that it was the counter-mission that had caused this. This was his fault. His decisions could cost Sydney her life. And he would die if she did. Vaughn turned and faced Will, the poor man who was in charge of her care.

Will took a shaky inhale, "We need to get her to a hospital."

"I don't know if we can." His responded bitterly. "I have to get approval from my superiors before bringing her into a CIA affiliated hospital. Countermeasures need to be taken…and Jack is in Bangkok on a mission for SD-6. He has no idea."

"But she's sick. Screw all of that bureaucratic crap. She's a person. She's one of your agents. I thought you guys always took care of your own. " Will felt his voice rise and he started to get angry.

"Yes, we do. That's why I'm here. There's got to be another way to do this while we wait for clearance. I'll call into my superiors and have them work as fast as possible. But for now, this place isn't good for her. This was a bad move-"

"This was your idea!" Will screamed.

"I know! I didn't know what else to do! You have Francie and Charlie at Sydney's place—and I had my girlfriend at mine. There was no place else to go and we needed to get her out of that warehouse."

"Wait, you know about Francie and Charlie?" Will sized Vaughn up quickly and consciously wondered if he could take him down or not. Anger was so heavy besieged upon him that he just wanted to land one punch on Vaughn's jaw. His fists clenched white knuckles behind his back.

Vaughn looked down sheepishly, "Syd talks to me about other things than work, Will. I know a little bit about what's going on in her life and what's going on in the people's close to her lives as well."

"Including mine?"

He avoided the question, "We need to get her out of here. She needs a place where we can set up full medical and can be monitored." A small light bulb went on. It was from guilt, no doubt. He mentally berated himself for putting Sydney into an open area in the middle of Los Angeles. This was a rookie mistake and if she got made, it would be on his head. Vaughn got to his feet and paced for a moment, "I'm going to get Alice out of the house. I have a full med kit in my apartment. I'm trained in basic medical. We'll pull Weiss in…he was better at it than I was."

Will was livid. "Whoa whoa whoa wait. We're going to move her again? And to your apartment? Isn't that even more dangerous than the hospital? Isn't that more dangerous than here?" Will stepped forward, slightly outraged at the agent's decisions.

"I don't know what else to do!" Vaughn shouted back at Will. "If I don't want for my superiors' clearance of bringing Sydney in, we're declared rogue. Then, that isn't good for any of us involved. Besides, I've got a man on my back as is about my relationship with Sydney. If he finds out about this, I get pulled as her handler. Last time that happened, they gave her to a guy who put her life at risk just to have a meeting with "his girl." We need to do something that will work. This is going to be it, Will." His jaded green eyes watched for a moment as Will digested all of this. There was a long moment of hesitation. He didn't want to move and he didn't want to give into a plan that he knew went against what his gut was telling him to do. He loved Sydney more than he trusted his gut. Will nodded his head, grabbing Sydney bag and the car keys Vaughn extended out to him.

Will took a glance at Sydney and Vaughn, hesitating for just a moment, "This is the right thing?"

Vaughn nodded his head, "I would never do anything that wasn't it her best interest." Will took this as a satisfactory answer and started to gather the bag on the other bed. He turned away for a moment, feeling the emotions overcome him again and went to retrieve the items from the bathroom, leaving handler and asset alone for the first time since the warehouse. Vaughn turned towards Sydney, affectionately wiping her brow, "G-d, Syd, what did they do to you?" He hung his head. His bottom lip began to he tried to come up with a plan. Sure, he told Will that he could get Alice out of the house. Now, he had the question of how. His brain, overwrought with emotion and couldn't come up with a story. The only real conscious thing he could pray for was that fate would step in.

Alice still laid on the couch where Vaughn had left her. She had little desire to move and felt no need to. She called in sick from work and had the entire day to lounge to herself. Part of her prayed that Michael would call her and she could meet him at the hospital or take him out to coffee, something to help. She crossed her ankles and starred up to the ceiling, stretching slightly. The loud buzzing of her cell phone interrupted this cat-like state and sent her to her feet. She answered, unsure of who it was. The number was foreign to her. "Hello?"

"Alice?" A soft male voice came hesitant on the other side.

"Yes…" Alice replied slowly, settling herself back onto the couch, "May I ask who's calling?"

"Alice, it's me. It's Jake."

Alice felt her blood run cold and her tongue swell up in her mouth. In a state of shock, the cell phone fell out of her hand, ending up in her lap. "H-hi." She managed to say at last, retrieving her phone from the couch. Her hand flew to her mouth and she felt like she had been punched.

"Is that how you greet the-"