A/N: Okay, so I am back, as if you couldn't tell by this fantastic new chapter. (seriously though, if you think it is fantastic, let me know. I'm a little nervous about it). So I have bio homework like every freaking night now, but I'm managing because this year I now have a study hall, last year I was stuck with eight straight classes and it sucked. So I am going to continue this fic and see where it goes. I did some planning over my break, so I have an idea now. Tips and ideas are always welcome, hintnudgehinthint. Updates might be a bit spaced out but I'll try my best to get them written and posted.

Hope you like the chapter.

"Oh...my...God..." Sydney whispered.

His head turned towards her and the sunglasses came off, revealing his green eyes. That was all the confirmation she needed. It was him. The bastard himself.

Sydney held her head a little higher and tried walking past him, never thinking of the option of just turning around and pretending that she hadn't seen him. She wouldn't give him that triumph. He didn't have the same idea as her.

In a lightning quick move, he grabbed her arm, whipping her around, and pressing her into the wall, trapped there by his body weight. Before she had the chance to react his lips crashed down on hers.

At first, she didn't react. But as the slow poison of his lips sank in, she found herself kissing him back. He tasted just as sweet as she remembered him and he still knew how to tease her. As it set in just exactly what she was doing and what he had done to her and her child, she mustered the strength to push him and his lips off.

He was shocked that she would push him off but quickly recovered, taking a step towards her. Ready for this, she balled her fist and took a swing at him. With his still lightning quick reflexes, he grabbed her by the wrist, preventing her from hitting him. She tried again with her other hand but was met with the same results. Now he held her by both wrists, keeping her from hitting him, something that she desperately wanted to do, had wanted to do for years.

"I see that absence has not made the heart grow fonder," He commented, as she struggled against his grip.

"Don't touch me, you son of a bitch," She hissed, finally yanking her arms free.

"What happened to 'Michael'?" He asked, referring to her inability to remember to call him 'Michael' instead of 'Vaughn' years ago.

"Michael was my husband's name. You are not my husband." Sydney answered, firmly.

"That's not what the papers say."

"Papers can be faked," She stated.

Vaughn stared at her for a moment, trying to grasp what she had just said, "You think I forged our marriage certificate?"

"I honestly don't know what to think, Vaughn." Sydney answered, suddenly remembering the fact that it would have been near impossible for him to do something like that but she was not going to tell him that she realized it. "I thought I knew you. I thought I knew who you were but then I wake up one night and you're just gone."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her words obviously had an effect on him, but he was trying to stay calm. "I see you had the baby." He pointed out, completely changing the subject for fear that if they kept going with that subject she would burst into tears and break his heart at the same time.

She was momentarily stunned by the change of topic but recovered quick enough, "No, I've just been pregnant for the past six years and I'm wearing a hide-the-bulging-belly suit, it's Marshall's latest creation, you know." She answered sarcastically.

He laughed briefly, "You always did have a sense of humor." His laughter dropped to a small smile, "So, is it a girl? A boy? Is it happy, healthy, and content? Do you think that he or she looks like me or you?"

Sydney studied him for a moment, "No."

"No?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No, I don't believe that you went the past six years not knowing."

"I want to hear it from you." Sydney stared; shocked that he would even dare to ask her any form of a favor. "You seemed so excited when you were pregnant that's all. I just want to hear the happy mother's opinion."

Sydney sighed, not completely understanding why she was doing this. "A girl, she's a girl. Yes, she's happy, healthy, and content and I think that she looks like both of us." Her voice was monotone.

"You don't seem very excited," Vaughn commented.

"Do you want me to run around screaming and waving a baton?"

He laughed at her dry words, "Well you were right. I did know that we had a girl. I did know that she was healthy, happy, and content. And I honestly think that she looks more like you, though she does have my eyes. It's the dimples that give her away." He paused, studying her reaction closely. "And how about a name?"

She had the feeling he already knew the answer to that question, but she answered it anyway, "Corrina Elaine Vaughn, Cory for short." She paused, studying his closely this time around, "But you already knew that."

"Yeah, I did," He admitted, "Well, just the part about her nickname." He smirked suddenly so she had to demand.

"What?"

"Corrina Elaine, that was my grandmother's name."

"I know," She answered, then added, "Your mother told me."

He looked at her surprised, "My mother?"

"Yes, your mother, she actually cares about me and Cory." Vaughn glanced down at his feet at her sharp words, something she said finally having an outward effect on him but Sydney wasn't done. "She hates you, ya know."

His head snapped up, "Who? Cory or my mother?"

"Your mother," She answered, simply. "She says that no son of hers would have ever done what you did."

"Yeah, that sounds like my mother," He paused, running a hand through his hair in a trademark 'Vaughn' move. "And Cory? Does she hate me too?"

"Not that I know of." Vaughn smirked again.

"What?" She demanded, again, his smirks getting on her nerves.

"I would've thought that you taught her to hate me," He answered.

"I don't want her to hate you because I do," She said, giving him a glimmer of hope but she had more to say, "I want her to hate you because you're the man that abandoned her before she was even born." She knew that no matter what her father did in the past, Cory would never hate him but it wasn't like she was going to tell him that.

Vaughn chuckled, "That would be a good reason to hate me but I don't think that it will come to that."

Not thinking that he knew that Cory would never hate him, Sydney took his words to mean that he thought she was going to take him back without a fight. He couldn't just walk back into her life, say 'honey, I'm home' and expect her to welcome him with open arms. "You don't honestly believe that I'll let you back into our lives."

He shook his head, "No, I don't." At least not without a fight.

"Then what do you think?"

"I think you're either going to laugh in my face or punch me, whichever is more convenient if and when you find out why I left in the first place."

"Do you actually have any reasons for leaving?" She asked, quietly.

"Plenty," He answered. When he paused, Sydney thought that he was going to actually tell them to her. "But none that you're gonna like."

"Try me."

He shrugged, "One: my father."

"Your father?" She questioned.

"Do you remember that research I had done on your mother?" Sydney nodded, fully remembering the time that she had to corner him in a bar so he would confess about his rogue missions. "Well, I thought that I found evidence that he was still alive."

"He's alive?"

"No," Vaughn shook his head, sadly, "He was killed thirty years ago by your mother. But I did find evidence that I have a sister...half sister...older half sister."

Sydney's jaw dropped a little, "You have a sister?"

Vaughn nodded, and reached up to rub at his forehead, another one of his 'Vaughn' moves, "Yeah, I do. She's nice." He paused before adding, "Two: your mother."

"My mother?" She repeated, unconcerned that he refused to talk about his sister.

"Your mother," He confirmed, "She contacted me, saying that she had information on my sister, among other things."

"What things?"

"That's not really important," He snapped at her innocent question. Then softening his tone, he continued, "Three: the Covenant." This time she didn't echo what he said, she wasn't even sure what the hell the Covenant was. "I got Intel from various contacts that my investigation to find my sister and about my father's death were angering people high up in the Covenant. But I couldn't stop you know, she was my sister, I had to find her."

"I understand the feeling," Sydney said, referring to her early searches for her mother. It didn't matter that her mother had been KGB, she was her mother, and she had to find her. And then get shot and betrayed by her.

"Four: the threats," He paused, unsure if he should tell her about the threats. The look in her eyes told him that he did. "I started getting threats. Little things at first but then...then they started getting more serious. They threatened you, my mother, our baby, everything and everyone that I held dear."

"Did you tell the CIA?" Sydney asked, suddenly.

"At first," Vaughn admitted, "But they found out and told me to stop or they'd...they'd kill you. So I did, I kept it from the CIA, you, everyone, except your mother."

"My mother?" She repeated again.

"She and I were in correspondence, though we never met face to face. It was always through front people."

"You were talking to my mother?" She repeated to herself. "For who long?"

"As long as we were married," He answered, simply and truthfully. She sucked in her breath sharply, yet was still unable to breath. "And then I got the final threat and your mother's offer."

"What threat? What offer?"

"I uncovered something, something you really don't want to know about and they were mad to say the least. So to retaliate, they said they were going to have you killed unless I stopped or left. Your mother got Intel from somewhere that there was actually a Covenant assassin on his way to L.A. to carry out the job. She offered to extract me from the equation and to keep a constant watch over you if I did so and that she would help me find my sister safely. God, Syd, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do."

"You knew?! You planned leaving me?!" She yelled, ignoring the strange looks from people passing them on the street.

"Yes," He answered quietly, earning him a slap from her across the cheek. Hard. "I deserved that. Now can I finish?" He didn't give her the option to answer, knowing damn well that she would refuse, "Afterwords, I spent six months flying around Europe and Asia, never staying in the same place for more than two days at a time. Once we were sure that you and the baby were safe, your mother held up her end of the bargain and located my sister. Even more so, she offered me a job, as one of her assets. It gave me something to do and an excuse to fly to Sweden to meet my sister. I did meet her and we talked, several times, still do actually, on occasion.

"So what it comes down to is that you choose to leave and to become an agent of Irina Derevko, the woman who killed your father."

"I told you, you weren't going to like my reasons," Vaughn had to force himself to keep his anger in check. "And I didn't choose anything."

"Bullshit. You choose to leave. You choose not to tell me. You choose your life away from me and our daughter."

"I was trying to protect you, Sydney. Why can't you see that?!" He yelled, matching her tone, also ignoring the weird looks from passing people.

"I didn't need protecting, Vaughn. I needed you and you let me down." She shook her head, "And don't tell me that this is all what ever the hell the Covenant is fault. You can't blame you're not being here for the past six years on them."

"The Covenant doesn't exist anymore, Sydney." He said his tone suddenly low and soft. "I didn't want to even open up the possibility for you or Cory to be hurt, so I stayed away. I had a contact keep an eye on you and tell me things about you or Cory or whatever was going on in your lives, but I never came anywhere near you two. Instead, I worked on taking the Covenant down and we finally did, a couple months ago. I wasted no time in coming to find you, Sydney, but I couldn't ever get up the courage to actually approach you."

Sydney was silent, digesting his words. She wanted to punch him and kiss him all at the same time and couldn't decide which one would be better. "I wish you had just stayed away." She said at last, quietly, tucking her hair behind her ear in a 'Sydney' move. "I wish you hadn't come back."

"I don't doubt that," Vaughn replied, taking another step closer to her. He reached forward and softly stroked her cheek before his hand grabbed hers. Bringing it to his lips, he kissed it softly, then whispered, "I love you, Sydney."

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, lifted her chin a little, and stared him in the eye before answering, "I don't love you, Vaughn."

He chuckled softly, releasing her hand, "You never could lie to me."

She felt something in her hand and looked down to see what it was. A note, it was a note. Quickly she unfolded it just once to reveal three simple words, 'From your mother'. Confused, she opened it all the way and another three words that she had learned to hate a long time ago stared back at her. 'Truth takes time'. She looked up from the note to ask him what her mother had meant by it and why he was giving it to her now but he was gone.

A/N: So what do you think? Was Vaughn's explanation up to par? above it? far below it? I'm going to go hide in the hills until someone says that they liked it. Lol, just kidding. There are no hills where I live, just large, pointy mountains.

And look! He spoke more than one sentence!! It's a Christmas miracle, even though it's no where near Christmas but whatever you get it (hopefully). Maybe it's just a regular miracle.

wicked-sista- Thanks for wishing me luck with school, I'm gonna need it. I'm done with school in two years after this one. Not so happy. But I am so happy that you loved the flashbacks. This chapter didn't really have any but I couldn't really place one, ya know.

Agent Flamingo- Thanks for being so understanding. I love when people understand that I have a life away from fanfiction, though I don't usually admit it. lol.

ProvidenceSea- Again, thanks for understanding. I hope your break went better than mine. I admit, I sneaked on every once in a while when I shouldn't have and my math homework died a little but who needs to know what x equals? Nobody. lol.

Carly- Um yeah, the next will be the long awaited confrontation. lol. You probably already know that by reading the chapter but ya know. I know it did take a while to get to it but I'm hoping that it was totally worth it.

Scary-girly- Okay, so now I want to take a class on how to stalk people, though I probably already have that skill mastered. lol. I probably shouldn't be admiting that. lol.

Miss47- Yes, school does suck. But that's how the world turns. My mom says that and I'm like, gee totally not helpful. lol. Hope you got who Vaughn was talking to by this chapter. If not, go read it again but carefully this time. lol.

sugarsnap591- Thanks, and I really will try to update as soon as I can. School = EVIL!

TheUptownGirl- I love the grasshopper joke too! Ah, the great Sydney/Vaughn moments in season two that seemed to mysteriously disappear in the second because of the cow. But now she's gone and I am happy. :) see, me happy. lol.

Erin- I love writing cliffhangers for the end of my chapters. Usually it keeps me writing which gives you more updates. I promise not to do any drugs. Scout's honor. lol.

Grouchy- I liked those sunglasses too and the ones in season 3 also. I wanted to go out and by them just because he wore them even though they're probably really expensive and dude's sunglasses but who cares? it's MV!

Charmed-angel4- I should write a fic about Vaughn's evil twin Bob. I don't know...maybe sometime during a really boring math lecture. so probably tomorrow. lol. Until next time, STALKERGIRL!

Rach5- I know, cliffhanger's are evil but they keep me interested so they can't be that bad, right? Updates usually come sooner when I am interested. I really hope that you like the encounter. Still, really nervous about it.

Ren201- You can decide if you think Vaughn is good or bad. I kinda think that he is a little bit of both at the moment, but's just my opinion.

chooky- Thanks for saying that I have a wonderful writing style. That really makes my day when people say that. So happy!