A/N: Okay, so I've gotten a lot of questions as to where the hell Vaughn is already. I can say this, he is coming. Give me like two maybe three chapters(not including this one) and you will have your Spy!Daddy. Until then be happy with him in flashbacks and the very subtle hints that he is already there.
Also, some of you were wondering why I was trying to make you hate Vaughn. Rest assured, that is not my intention. I don't want you to hate him. I don't hate him (really, I don't, I'm like obsessed with him). I'm just trying to give everyone insight to how Sydney feels. I can stop if y'all want. I just think it adds to the story to have them.
And this chapter probably would have been up yesterday or earlier today if the stupid servers hadn't crashed. I got the screwy end of the stick and was kept out for the longest time.
"Cory, are you packing like I told you to?" Sydney asked, walking down the hall towards Cory's room.
Cory jumped off her bed and hastily hid the photo she had been looking at under her pillow when she heard Sydney coming towards her room. "Of course I am."
"Cory," Sydney said, appearing in the doorway, "What did I say about lying?"
"Do it?" Cory answered.
Sydney laughed, "No, I didn't tell you to lie, you silly goose." Cory smiled at her mother's tease and started throwing her clothes from her bed into the open suitcase. Sydney smiled, and grabbed Cory's hands, gently stopping her. "How about we fold them?" Cory nodded and Sydney proceeded to empty the suitcase and then help Cory fold her clothes and set them in the suitcase nicely.
After a few minutes of silent mother/daughter time, Sydney noticed a frame poking out from under Cory's pillow. She leaned over and gently uncovered the photo and picking it up. "Where'd you find this?" She asked.
Cory looked down sheepishly, "In the living room. Please don't be mad, Mommy. I just wanted to look at it."
Sydney smiled, her eyes tearing slightly, "No, sweetie, I'm not mad. You can look at it all you want." She moved over to Cory's dresser and placed the framed photo of her and Vaughn on their wedding day on top the dresser.
"Tell me about you and Daddy's wedding day," Cory requested, glancing at the photo while making an attempt to fold her clothes with one on them.
"Okay," Sydney took a deep breath. "I remember the sun shining. It was the clearest day in L.A. I had ever seen. And I was a mess, literally shaking..."
"Syd, calm down," Francie said, gently with a wide smile.
"What if something goes wrong? What if the flowers don't arrive on time? Or the ring boy trips halfway down the aisle..."
"That would be actually pretty funny," Francie commented.
Sydney thought about it and nodded, "Yeah, okay, so the ring boy tripping would be funny, centerpiece-less tables would not be."
Francie grabbed Sydney's hands, trying to calm her down, "Syd, look at me." Sydney did as she was told, "Everything is going to go great. The flowers will be here. The caterer will have dinner ready promptly at seven, all the guests are here and waiting for you, your dad's waiting outside to walk you down the aisle to your very-soon-to-be husband. You're getting married."
"I'm getting married." Sydney repeated, with a wide smile, her eyes tearing up again. She reached up a hand with Francie's hand still latched on and wiped at her eyes with the handkerchief in her hand, "God, if I don't stop crying, I'm going to look awful."
Francie laughed lightly, "Honestly, I don't think it would matter to Michael if you were wearing dirty, ripped jeans and a tube top and hadn't brushed your hair in like a week, he's still say you were beautiful."
Sydney laughed, "I think he would care just a little bit. Considering I, with some help from his mother, forced him to wear a tux."
"Okay, so maybe he would grudge you the tux thing but he would definitely forget about it during the honeymoon."
Sydney made a noise that sounded something like "uh" and swatted Francie's arm, "Francie."
Francie shrugged, like she was innocent, "What? He would."
A knock came from the door and Jack poked his head in, "Sydney, are you ready yet?"
Sydney gave Francie a look to stay quiet and looked to her dad, "Yeah, just a second." Jack nodded and closed the door. "I'm getting married." Sydney repeated.
Francie hugged her, "You're getting married." Then Francie released her and gave her a little push towards the door, "Now go get him, you're the almighty Sydney Bristow."
Sydney laughed and shook her head, opening the door and holding it open. Francie got the message and went out the door to take her place in the wedding march, "And be nice to Eric," Sydney hissed.
"I will," Francie whispered back, latching on to Weiss's arm as he was the best man. And with her being the maid-of-honor, they started the wedding march. Sydney could see Will's jealous expression and bit her tongue to keep from laughing.
Sydney took the arm offered to her by Jack and started her walk down the aisle. She looked up at him, "Dad?"
Jack looked down at her, "Yes, Sydney?"
"Do I have your blessing?" Sydney asked, quietly.
Jack glanced at the head of the church towards a very anxious looking Vaughn and then back at Sydney. He nodded briefly, "Of course."
Sydney smiled and squeezed his arm a little as her thanks before finally glancing to the head of the church. Her eyes meet Vaughn's and she could feel the breath slowly leaving her lungs.
After what seemed like an eternity, Sydney and Jack reached the alter where the rest of the wedding party waited. The minister spoke up and said, "Who gives this woman to this man?"
"We do," Jack, Francie, Weiss, and Will answered at the same time, causing a ripple of laughter through the church.
Vaughn then stepped forward to take Sydney from Jack but Jack stopped him and whispered, "Hurt her and I hurt you."
Vaughn swallowed hard and nodded, solemnly, before mumbling a "yes, sir."
While Sydney glared at Jack lightly, "I heard that, you know." Jack seemed ashamed of himself for like a second, before taking his seat in the front row, ironically directly behind Vaughn.
"Why do I get the feeling he's gonna shoot me right now?" Vaughn whispered in Sydney's ear.
"He won't, at least not in front of so many people," Sydney whispered back.
()
Knock, knock, knock
Sydney stopped and looked down at Cory, realizing that they both had stop folding and packing. She reached for the frame and traced it fondly before handing it to Cory, "Here, you look at this and I will go see who is at the door."
"Okay," Cory answered, happily, and sitting down at the bed to look at the photo again.
"And keep packing," Sydney commanded over her shoulder. Cory didn't respond and Sydney shook her head, opening the front door. She immediately smiled, "Hey you guys."
"Hey," Francie exclaimed, giving Sydney a hug before entering the house.
"Hey," Will said, less enthusiastic as Francie but he still gave Sydney a hug as well.
"Thank you guys for doing this for me. I'm just being a little paranoid." Sydney said, closing the door behind Will. She had asked Francie and Will to housesit the house while she and Cory were in France.
Francie looked around, "No prob, Syd. You're place is so much cooler than ours anyway."
"Okay, you know where the kitchen is and eat all you want, as long as you pay for anything you buy. I'm not having you two stock pile my fridge with Twinkies and pork rinds again."
"Yes, ma'am," Will answered.
"Aunt Francie and Uncle Will!" Cory yelled, coming out of her bedroom, the photo still in her hand. "You were at Mommy and Daddy's wedding, what was it like?"
"Your Mommy was the most beautiful bride ever, for one thing," Francie said, kneeling to give the girl a hug.
"Fran, how about you go help her pack and you can tell her all the stories you want as long as they are G rated if you know what I mean." Sydney suggested.
"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya." Francie answered as Cory grabbed her hand and pulled her into her room.
"So how are things?"
"Fine," Sydney answered simply.
"No special reason for going out of town on a day's notice?" Will asked. It was pretty clear that he wasn't going to give up.
"Nope," Sydney said with a shake of her head. And she made it pretty clear that she wasn't going to talk about it.
"Does it have to do with him?"
Okay, now he's touched a nerve. Sydney inhaled and paused before letting out her breath slowly, "Will, I want you to drop it. I mean it, leave it alone. Now can I trust you to do that? Or are we going to have another repeat of the SD-6 fiasco we had years ago?"
Will nodded, "Yeah, sure, whatever. I just worry about you, Syd."
"Well don't," She answered, sharper than she had intended, "I'm fine. I can handle this."
"Are you sure?"
"I said I could." She said, firmly. No matter how much time went by, Sydney couldn't stand having a man worry about her when she could take care of herself.
"Alight," Will backed off the subject, not wanting to make her any more pissed than she already was.
Sydney checked her watch for the first time in apparently a long time because her eyes widened and she started going into a packing flurry around the house, "Cory! Hurry up, sweetie! We have to be on that plane in half an hour!"
Cory stomped into the living room, dragging her full suitcase behind her, "I'm ready, Mommy!"
Will laughed at her trying to haul the obviously too heavy suitcase behind her, and went over to take it from her, "How about I take this to the car and you go see what's taking Mommy so long."
Cory's face lit up with a smile, relieved to be rid of the suitcase and she nodded, "Okay." She ran into Sydney's room, and stopped short, noticing Sydney's back to her. Even though she was six, Cory could tell Sydney was crying. "Mommy?" She asked, softly.
Sydney whirled around and smiled in spite of her tears, "Are you ready yet?" She asked in the same hushed tone as Cory. Cory nodded. "Come here, I want to show you something." Cory did as she was told and Sydney knelt down on the ground so she was at eye level with her daughter.
"What is that Mommy?"
Sydney smiled and turned the empty frame over in her hands, "This was the very first Christmas present Daddy gave me..."
"You don't ever have to apologize for calling me," Vaughn said, standing up and walking the short distance to where she stood so that they were shoulder to shoulder. He set down a gift bag between them before adding, "Speaking of which, I got you something."
Sydney stopped pretending to be looking at the flowers in front of her, "What?" She looked down, "No, you didn't." She said, unbelieving that he would go out of his way to get her a Christmas present.
"I don't know...I just...I was in this little, um, antique place."
Sydney smiled, listening to him struggle with the words, "What were you doing in an antique store?"
He chuckled. "Don't know," He admitted. "Whatever. If you don't like it, just don't tell me."
She laughed, "Okay."
He glanced over at her, "Merry Christmas."
She returned the glance, their eyes meeting for a split second, "Merry Christmas."
"...He wasn't supposed to give it to me because we were coworkers but he did anyway." Sydney hadn't told Cory that she and Vaughn had worked for the CIA and probably wouldn't until she was at least eighteen.
"Why is there no picture in it?" Cory asked, reaching out to stroke the silver frame, just to get the feel of it.
"I don't know. I had a picture in it a long time ago but I took it out."
"Why?"
Sydney shrugged, "I'm not sure." She wiped at her eyes with her hand and handed the frame to Cory, "Here, I want you to have it. Maybe you can put me and Daddy's wedding picture in it." Cory smiled at first, ecstatic that Sydney would give her something so precious but then her smiled faded. "What's wrong?"
"What if I break it?" Cory asked.
Sydney laughed, "It's silver, I don't think you'll break it. Besides, it's lasted this long in the bottom of my dresser, I think it'll be fine. I trust you to take extra good care of it."
Cory smiled, convinced that what Sydney said was true and hugged her mother, "Thank you Mommy. Can I take it with us to show Grandmere?"
"Of course," Sydney promised. Any evidence of her crying over finding the frame was disappearing at a rapid rate and she felt that Will and Francie that wouldn't ask any questions, so she stood up, "Come on, we have to go, like now."
neptunestar- I'm not patient either! And I just realized that you and me have the same name. My name's Melanie too. That's cool cause I've never met another Melanie, in real life or otherwise.
kay10197- I love elephants too, that's why I used that animal and not some stinky thing like a giraffe or a lion, who needs them, hehe, i'm just joking, those animals are cool too.
morrisseylover- I can put in more Jack if you want. Strangely, he wasn't really in this chapter, unless you count the threatening of Vaughn. Somehow, I could see Jack pulling a gun on Vaughn for no apparent reason. Though he didn't do it the story, but it would still be funny.
baby le- Yay! more bravo! I told you already that I like that word, so we'll just leave that subject alone for now. Already explained the absense of Spy!Daddy!Vaughn, so yeah.
Olivia- I always take people's points of views into account. That's why I love it so much when people give me tips and ideas and point out stuff they like and dont like, so yeah, yours helped like bunches. And I promise to update as religiously as I can. :)
Illyria04- Ah! New person! okay, I'm done with that, for now. I'm writing more, here's more for ya, see all that writing up above, that's more. lol, i'm in a weird mood.
ninjaturtle- when I was little, I used to ask my parents for an elephant in the backyard, i still do actually, yeah, kinda weird considering I'm fifteen. I already explained it above.
Natalie- Okay, not meaning to sound rude, but what does that mean? "it seems like he had a better reason than what you suggest he had to leave his pregnant wife" I'm kinda confused by the sentence, so yeah, could you explain it for me cause I hate being confused.
Erin- Maybe he will, maybe he won't. Can't say cause it's a secret. I've had people like my friends ask me if what his reasons are and I refuse to tell anyone. And I would freak, also.
Miss47- Thanks, I can say that I hope it's going to be great when he arrives. I really hope it is.
Ren101- I think it's supposed to be "more mean" instead of "meaner" but who cares, i like meaner better, way cooler word. and yeah, "prick" pretty much sums up how i'm making Vaughn look, isnt it? So, you noticed that I've got a lot of reviewers? Not many people have. And course, I'm not sharing, I'm greedy. hehe
Lauryn2- ooh! dang, you're the only one to call him a "bastard" so far. are we angry towards Vaughn? That's okay, Syd is too, at least in this story.
TheUptownGirl- Okay so this confused me, "glad Cory is really wishy washy and immature...Sydney would never have a child like that". um yeah, aren't you kind of contradicting yourself? Sorry, dont seem to sound rude or anything, I just hate being confused.
Sydney Bristow- You talk to the fic? That's...different. Though I can't honestly say that I haven't done the same thing. I'm not in school, yet and won't be for another two weeks, thank God!
wicked-sista- Yes, it was very scary, if it was real. i'm not telling if it was, not yet anyway.
dontyousassmemister828- Gee, thanks, you're one of the few people to comment on Syd and Cory's relationship and that means a lot to me. What can I say? I'm a sap.
AngelicOne- Updating as fast as I can, hun, really, I am, unless the stupid servers crash again. that made me mad.
Sugar-Angel73- I like Vaughn too, dude, I love him. Like obsessed with him, it's kind of a long story and I dont want to bore you, so yeah, stopping myself. I'm not sure if suspense can kill you but the wait can and you can just blame it on suspense. hehe
rainluver- I do have a GOOD explanation, promise. And all the rest of it's explained the in the author's note at the beginning of the chapter.
Charmed-angel4- No, you misunderstand me, I'm not trying to make you hate him, but I've already explained all this in the author's note and I really don't want to write it all out again. hehe, bye Stalkergirl! love the voice thing by the way. hehe