Furtive Fragments

Chapter. 6

By : Dru

Disclaimer in chapter. 2

Sydney opened the door to Sark's house because she had just found her key to his house and well, she remembered that she had some stuff here and she needed them. She was trying to tell herself that as she stepped inside the house and wondered if he was home or just forgot to turn off his TV.

She was going to go and turn it off before she saw the feet on the sofa where the head usually rests. And those did not look like his feet. She was going to go and check out who it was, but before she could a door opened from the garden and Sark stepped in.

She saw the girl stand up, she was dressed in a berry colored satin looking camisole and pants that had brown lace trimming, she looked all beautiful and bouncy. Sydney couldn't fucking believe that he had moved on already. After only a month and two weeks?

Son of a bitch. (Of course she had dumped him, but she was blocking out that fact, and she probably shouldn't feel angry about that but she did.)

She started to walk towards the happy "couple" when the girl squeals and hugs him. She almost freaking jumped him. Sydney rolled her eyes and was going to just walk away, but then the girl turned in her direction and Sydney saw who she was being so jealous off.

Gabrielle. Her missing-for-two-weeks asset. What the hell was she doing here? That bitch. Did she come to work for them just to get info for him? Elle dragged him down onto the couch with her and seemed to push a button on a remote control then something started that Syd partially heard :

He was brought across in 1228. Preyed on humans for their blood. Now,

he wants to be mortal again, to repay society for his sins,

to emerge from his World of Darkness, from his endless FOREVER KNIGHT.

God, could it sound more cheesy if it could? And they were going to watch some vampire thing in the middle of the day?But they seemed to be enjoying it. All cosy and crap sitting there on the couch. Well, Syd and him used to do that, not so long ago. She was hating them both now.

"So he's how old?" Syd hears Sark ask Elle, who tells him that Nicholas is 800 years old. 'Wow is the only thing to come from Sark.

Sark stood up as his phone rang again and went out into the garden again, leaving only Elle on the couch watching Tv. Someone drops down on the couch next to her, she smiles and says :

"That was a quick phone..." Her eyes went impossibly wide, as she saw Sydney sitting next to her. "Sydney? Wha...What are you doing here?" She asked, as she looked towards the closed garden-doors.

"How long has this been going on? I thought it was weird that you didn't meet us at the rendezvous point and when you said you knocked out Sark. You probably let him escape." Syd told Elle, who just continued to look at the Tv.

"What do you mean? I told what really happened. It's not like was a damn mole or anything. You're the one who was having a relationship with a wanted criminal." Elle told Syd, trying to keep her voice nice.

"And you aren't right now? Please, like your anything special. Your probably just a fling. Don't expect this to last long." Sydney told her, venom leaking out off every word.

"Oh, please. What you don't want him but no one else can? Well, if I was really having a relationship like you think the at least I'd be closer to his age than you." Elle said to her, before standing up, opening the garden-door and going outside even though it was pretty cold outside.

When Elle came back with Sark, Sydney was gone. Only a single key on the coffee-table. She probably slipped out of there while Elle went to get Sark. It took a bit of time to get him off the phone, and by the time they went inside she was freezing.

"She was being so mean to me. I thought she broke up with you, but then she comes and makes these assumptions." Elle told him, sitting on the couch and her teeth clattering. "I'm soooo cold." She told him, hugging and rubbing her goose pimple-skin up & down.

"Well, you did just go outside in some pajamas. Not the brightest of ideas. You couldn't grab a sweater or something?" He told her, as he grabbed his sweater from a chair close by and handed it to her to put on. She pulled her legs up and hid them under the sweater. She looked weird, sitting there with only a head sticking up from the rich, purple colored sweater.

"I just wanted to get away from her. Who knew she could be so mean." Elle told him, resting her chin on her sweater-clad knees.

"She can be harsh when she wants to. I'm just sorry that you had to fall victim of it and it's really not your fault." He told her, as he draped his arm around her to rest on her shoulder. She layed her head on his shoulder and sighed. She decided to just put that behind her. Get over it.

"Whatever. Let's finish this, it's a two-parter." She told him, as she re-winded the episode and they started from where they were before he stepped outside to the garden.

A week later :

Sydney walked down the corridor to her desk, and put away her bag. Sat down and had been working on some things she was falling behind on when Vaughn came up to her and dropped down to his knees, kissing her cheek. She blushed and looked at him, and was about to say something when she saw something from the corner of her eye.

Talking to her father in the briefing room was none other than Gabrielle dressed in a charcoal colored suit. She didn't look any different from the first time she saw her. She still looked very young, innocent and a fresh breath of air. Of course, she wasn't. Sydney knew that now, but no one else seemed to find it the slightest bit weird that this rookie disappears for almost three weeks and then just shows up again unharmed.

"When did Gabrielle get here? Did she explain her absence the last oh, three weeks?" Sydney asked Vaughn, who had stood up and was looking in the same direction that Syd was.

"I don't know. She kinda just walked in here this morning and went straight for your father. They've been in there for some time. I don't know what they're talking about. But I thought you liked her. Aren't you supposed to be her handler?" He asked her, as she stood up and narrowed her eyes at the younger woman hugging her father.

"Well, there is something weird about her. And when Nadia came home after she 'disappeared' she found one glass broken on the floor and another on a table near by. Plus, a empty vodka bottle. Maybe both glasses were by her or someone was there with her." Syd told him, as she stood up and started to walk to Elle who was exiting the briefing room.

"Like who? Not everyone that's new is a mole. Syd, you have to trust that not all are out to get you." He told her, as he stopped her and turned her around to face him. He looked worried about her. She just looked at him with no emotions at all and then walked away, towards her father. She wanted to know what the little slut said to her father.

"Hello, Sydney. How are you today?" Her father asked her, when she walked up to him as he was walking to his office. She was in no mood for idle chit-chat. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

"What were you two talking about? What did she tell you? Do you actually believe her?" She bombarded her father with questions, who stopped walking and looked at her with a questioning look on his face.

"Sydney, what is going on? I thought you liked Gabrielle." He told her, as they entered his office and he dropped some files on his desk before looking into her eyes.

"Why does everyone tell me that. Yeah, at first she seemed like a nice person, but that doesn't explain her absence for over a two weeks, almost three." Sydney told him, seriously agitated now.

"Sydney, I think you should maybe go home and rest. There has been no indication of any foul play on Elle's part. You've been a bit high-strung lately. Go ho..." He was telling her, when she just looked at him with that 'I'm not budging look and said "I do not need rest, I need to know what she told you." Her father only sighed and called in Vaughn.

"Mr. Vaughn, will you please take my daughter home. She seems to be a bit under the weather today." Jack told Vaughn, when he walked into the office and saw the way Syd was looking at her father.

"All right. Come on, Syd. Better do as he says." Vaughn told her, as he grabbed one of her arms and tried to pull her away. She snatched her arm from his grip and walked in the direction of Elle & Nadia.

"No, really. I totally think so. You should go for it. I don't think he's one of those macho guys." Elle was telling Nadia, when she was grabbed and dragged to the entrance of APO where no one was at the moment.

"Why are you back here? How did you know I wouldn't tell them about you?" Sydney asked the shorter woman, blazing brown eyes looking into the liquid silver ones of Elle.

"Because then they'd ask you why you were there in the first place. How would you answer that? I mean, how did you know where to look. How did you get in without alerting me or him? Just too many questions you wouldn't be able to talk your way out of." Elle told her, as she pushed her away a bit and Syd noticed the stupidest thing. She noticed that Elle's suit was charcoal with teal pinstripes.

"Okay, so what did you tell me Dad that made him think you were on our side? What lie did you tell him so that hugged you, for crying out loud." Sydney asked her, calming down a bit since she saw she couldn't do anything about it...right now.

"I'm afraid that's need-to-know." Elle told her, smirking and walking away. Sydney just stood there and thought 'Deja-vu', before shaking her head and thinking maybe that rest would be a good idea right about now. Maybe she should go and find Vaughn, have him drop her off. She hoped he wasn't annoyed with her for walking away from him earlier.

To Be Continued...