Declaimer: I don't own Alias but I wish I did

Chapter 1

1 year later

Sydney felt like it was her first day of school. It had been one year since she had seen everybody, Dixon, Marshall, Carrie, Weiss, Lauren and him... Vaughn.

She stood in front of the mirror and checked what she was wearing for about the twentieth time that morning.

"It's ok Syd. Relax" she muttered to herself. "It'll all be fine"

Sure everything would be fine; she was only worried about seeing her and him again.

It had been a year since she left.

The doorbell rang. She went to answer the door.

She smiled when she saw her father. "Hi dad"

"Hi sweetie, are you ready?" Jack Bristow asked his daughter.

"What I can't go to work on my own now?"

"No, I just want to make sure your ok, and while I'm here I thought I could take you. You know kill two birds with one stone."

"Dad I'm fine, stop worrying about me, I wouldn't be going to work if I still had cancerous tumors, or something else, the doctor would have told me and I wouldn't be going in"

"I'm just being sure"

"I'm fine" Sydney reassured her father, "I just need to get my jacket"

Sydney walked into her bedroom, grabbed her jacket and bag, and as leaving the room checked herself in the mirror once more.

The arrived at the CIA offices 30 minutes later and they got their IDs checked (Sydney having hers restored the pervious day).

As they entered the office Sydney could feel all of the eyes in the office turn onto her.

She felt better when Dixon came up to her and gave her a hug.

"It's good to have you bad" he whispered in her ear.

"It's good to be back" Sydney said with a smile.

"All better then?"

"The best"

"Well that is fantastic news"

At that point Marshall came up to her, "Wow Syd, it's so good to have you back"

"Thanks"

"I even wrote a poem in your return"

"Oh Marshall you really shouldn't of"

"I did it any way"

"No trust me you shouldn't of"

"'Sydney, you are beautiful;

Everybody loves you

It was such a pity that you left us;

Welcome back, we love you so......'"

"Wow Marshall, that was brilliant" she said with a false smile on her face, that is the worst poem I have ever heard in my life, but I guess that the thought was there

Dixon looked strangely from Sydney to Marshall, "You actually enjoyed that?" Dixon asked as they walked off.

"Sure it was bad, but the thought was there"

"Glad you liked it"

At that point they came up to Weiss's desk. "Wow Syd, you're back, hi"

"Hi" she looked at him, "you've lost weight'

"Yep 15 pounds"

"Congratulations"

"Thanks, and you look great, how are you feeling?"

"Great, fantastic, in fact"

"That's good then"

Sydney smiled right as Lauren walked up, "oh hello Sydney" she said coldly, "Welcome back"

"Thank you Lauren, you look fine" Sydney said just as coldly.

"Thank you"

Lauren walked off and Sydney looked at Weiss, "Is she pregnant?"

"Yeah, 3 months"

"I bet Vaughn is happy then"

"Ecstatic"

Vaughn walked up, "Hey speak of the devil"

"Hi Weiss" he said not noticing that Sydney was standing right next to him, "Have you seen Syd yet, I hear that she's back today"

"Ahh Michael, she right next to you"

Vaughn looked to his right, "Jesus H Christ, what are you doing standing there?"

"Not quite the reaction I was expecting, but hi" Sydney said with a smile.

"Hi"

"How are you?"

"Fine, good, wow, you're here." He looked at her for a moment, "I missed you"

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course" he smiled at her, "You look fantastic"

They were interrupted by Dixon calling a meeting in the conference room.

He looked at Sydney, "You too"

Sydney looked quite surprised that she was invited into the meeting as well, considering that she hadn't been around for a year.

Very self-consciously she walked into the boardroom and sat down in her old seat.

She looked around the room. Dixon sat at the front, then there was Marshall and Lauren, Weiss, then Carrie, then Vaughn and the she was sitting next to her dad.

Dixon began talking, "First of all I would like to welcome back Sydney. Now down to the important business" up on the screen came a surveillance photo, "He is Adam Lawrence, we have heard from an inside source that is working within the Covernet that he is in possession of a Rambaldi artifact, Vaughn, you and Sydney will be going to Paris and you will be going to the Golden Hills Charity Gala, there you will enquire the artifact and bring it back. You leave in 10 hours, I will see you two in my office in ten minutes. This meeting is closed."

Everybody filed out the boardroom and I turned to dad, "Dad" Sydney said.

"Yeah"

"Did you tell Dixon that I could go on this assignment on the day I returned back after a year off?" she asked really quickly.

"No, but I guess that Dixon thinks that your fine. If you don't want to go I'll go talk to him"

"No that's fine I'll go"

Jack shrugged and walked off.

Sydney walked to Dixon's office and knocked on the door. He looked up from his desk and gestured for her to come in. She sat down opposite his desk.

He looked at her for a moment, "I hope you don't mind that I went and put you straight into the field, but I didn't know if you wanted to do paper work all day"

"No that's fine" Sydney said with a smile, "I just wanted to know one thing"

"Which is?"

"Why are you sending me? Considering mine and Vaughn's past wouldn't it be better if you sent Lauren or someone else besides me?"

"Because Lauren is NSC and I would prefer you over Lauren any day, but if you believe your relationship will get in the way of doing the task then I'll send Lauren, but I really want you to go"

"Ok, I'll go. Thanks Dixon"

24 hours later

Sydney entered the gala dressed in a red dress, that didn't leave much to the imagination. It was low cut with a slit up to her thighs.

Vaughn on the other hand looked handsome in a tuxedo, which brought out the blue in his eyes.

They walked into the ballroom arm in arm, considering they were supposed to be engaged.

"Ok Syd," Dixon said in her ear piece, "Lawrence is the guy over there in the corner with that waitress"

Sydney looked over and spotted Lawrence. "Ok I'm heading over there."

She grabbed a glass of champagne as a waiter walked past her. She causally walked in the direction.

She smiled as she looked at him, "God these things are SO boring" she said running her tongue over her teeth, "My fiancée over there drags me to these things I would much rather be at home in front of a warm fire making love, but he has those stupid work commitments"

He looked at her dress, taking in all of the dress, her curves and especially her legs. "That's too bad; if I were marrying you I wouldn't let you out of my site"

Sydney giggled, "Stop it, you're making me blush"

"But it's true"

"Thank you"

They stood in silence for a moment, and then she asked "Do you wanna dance?"

"Wouldn't your fiancée be jealous?"

"I highly doubt it; he's too engrossed in the waitress'"

"And this doesn't bother you?"

"I'm use to it, just as long he stops when we get married"

"Oh well then, I guess one dance won't hurt"

"Ok" with that Sydney grabbed his hand and led him to the dance floor.

Over the other side of the Vaughn heard the whole conversation and was about to get the chance of beating the living daylights out of this guy that was supposedly her fiancée.

He looked over at the dance floor and spotted Sydney dancing with Lawrence, and he was way too close to her, and wait a minute did his hand just touch her ass? He touched her ass!! He was now upset...he looked over HE'S STILL TOUCHING HER ASS!!!!!! She wasn't even her fiancée, and here he was all pissed off, he was more than pissed off...he was jealous, this was all wrong.

He regained his cool, ok Michael relax, you're on an assignment don't stuff it up for Sydney. Once he was feeling like himself again he headed over to the dance floor. Time for action he thought to himself.

He walked onto the dance floor and looked at Sydney who looked like she was having a ball dancing with this prick.

He walked up Lawrence and tapped him on the shoulder, Lawrence turned around just in time to get a punch in the face from Vaughn. A crowd was starting to develop around the fight scene.

Vaughn thinking quickly grabbed Lawrence by the scruff of the neck and dragged him out to an ally next to the ballroom.

"You bastard" Vaughn muttered.

"What the ...?" Lawrence never got to finish what he said as he got a punch in the stomach.

"Vaughn that's enough" Sydney said walking up to him and producing a pair of handcuffs.

"No way" Vaughn said as he gave Lawrence another punch.

Sydney slapped him on the face, "Snap out of it"

"Sorry" he mumbled.

"You are under arrest by the American Central Intelligent Agency. You have the right to remain silent you do not have a right to an attorney" Sydney said handcuffing Lawrence. She turned to Vaughn, "What the hell did you think you were doing just then, I had it under control, there was no need to beat the hell out of him"

"Yeah, well he deserved it"

"No he didn't, if he was with it he could have you up for assault" Sydney said

"And what about what he did to you?"

"We danced nothing more"

"He touched your ass"

"And? Why should that affect you?"

"It doesn't." Vaughn muttered

The two of them dragged the body to the waiting van around the corner. Jack came out of the van and looked at the body of Lawrence that had blood coming from his nose.

Sydney saw what he was looking at and before Jack could say anything she said, "He fell over, had a bit to much to drink"

Jack looked at his daughter with his eyebrows raised, but didn't press the matter any further.

"Are you coming home tonight?" he asked his daughter.

"No, I don't think so, I need some sleep", Sydney said "I'll get the plane tomorrow"

"Ok then, I'll get him to the CIA safe house and then do you want to meet for dinner?" Jack asked his daughter.

"Nah I'm fine. I'll order in with room-service, I'm sure Dixon won't mind"

"Alright, bye then" Jack said as he leaned over and gave his daughter and kiss on the cheek. He gave Vaughn a glace and then drove off.

"Get the car" Sydney said

Vaughn walked off around the corner and Sydney headed back inside the building. It was then when she noticed Sark and some women hanging off his arm. From the look of the women she looked pregnant.

Well, well, well Sydney thought either Sark has changed his ways or he has just knocked some women up and felt sorry for her, or maybe the baby wasn't even his, or maybe she wasn't really pregnant at all.

Sydney was interrupted from her thoughts by Vaughn coming up next to her telling her that the car was ready.

Sydney smiled as Vaughn put his hand on her back and lead her out the room. They were met by the valet who had just got out of the black BMW that the CIA had provided them.

"Mr. Dowd your car is ready" the valet said.

"Thank you" Vaughn said tipping the guy.

The valet looked at the money that Vaughn had just handed him, "No problem sir, anytime"

Sydney got into the car closely followed by Vaughn; as much as she wanted to drive she knew it would look strange having a woman drive, wearing what she was wearing so she chose the passenger side.

Vaughn hopped into the car and drove off. The silence was strange for Sydney; it made her feel uncomfortable so she tried to start up a conversation.

"How much did you pay that valet, he looked quite pleased" Sydney asked

"A couple of hundred dollars" Vaughn answered not even looking at her.

"How much, is what I asked"

"I don't know, I just gave him some hundred dollar bills"

"God, what is your problem?"

"Nothing, alright" he said dismissing it.

"Fine then, I'll just sit in silence" she muttered to herself.

"Did you say something?" Vaughn asked.

"No, nothing at all"

After 20 minutes more of silence they arrived back at the hotel that they were staying at. Sydney got out of the car and walked through the foyer of the hotel and straight for the elevator, and pressed the 'up' button.

She was just getting in the lift as Vaughn walked into the foyer, "Syd wait..." he started but it was too late as the elevator doors shut.

Sydney breathed easy knowing that she wouldn't be seeing Vaughn again until the morning on the plane. The less time she spent away from Vaughn the better she felt.

Once she was in the safety of her room it was only then that she allowed herself to cry. She threw herself on the bed and cried more than she had cried since she found out that she had cancer.

Vaughn's wife was pregnant, those few words gave her no hope that her and Vaughn would ever be together again. She had to move on; she needed someone else in her life.

Sydney then had a craving for chocolate with mint-chip ice-cream. She reached her arm across the bed and picked up the phone and dialed room service.

"Hello, yes this is Sydney Bristow in room 362 and I would like a block of chocolate, a bowl or mint-chip ice-cream with chocolate sauce and a bottle of tequila."

"Yes miss we'll have someone up as soon as possible."

"Thank you"

Once Sydney hung up the phone she turned over onto her back and got off the bed and went into the bathroom and ran a bath.

She had just removed her dress and put on a dressing gown when a knock was at the door. She opened the door and expected to see a room service person, but was surprised to see Vaughn there with her room service order.

"What are you doing here?" Sydney asked once she found her voice.

"Delivering your order" he said holding up a tray with her food on it and her bottle of tequila. He smiled at her; Sydney felt her insides turn to mushy liquid. "I never pictured you as a tequila kind of a person"

"Well a lot of things have changed"

"Can I come in, please?"

"Well you were going to come in anyway, so yeah" Sydney said as she got out of the way of the door.

Vaughn walked in and sat the tray on the same table, then sat himself down on the couch. Sydney sat on the bed and looked at into his eyes.

Bad Sydney, bad she thought to herself. He's married for god's sake, there is nothing between us anymore, there never will be, again at least.

Over on the couch Vaughn was trying not to look at Sydney. God she was beautiful even in a bloody dressing gown she looked gorgeous.

Stop it Michael, he said to himself, your married think about Lauren and the baby...that baby. How he hated it, for pete's sake it wasn't even his and he had to pretend to be the devoted father. How could he? Here he was sitting across from the love of his life, and he was trying to think about his lying, creating wife.

"Your ice-cream is melting" Vaughn said, smooth Michael, real smooth that's really going to make her look at you by saying that.

"Thanks" she smiled, "But I'm not really that hungry anymore"

"Well I should be going then" Vaughn said standing up.

"Ok bye then" Sydney stood up too walking him to the door.

She was walking so close behind that she could smell his aftershave. She didn't realize that he had turned around because he had reached the door.

"Ok bye then, I'll see you tomorrow" Vaughn said, he then leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

The kiss then moved to her lips and they kissed. Vaughn broke away first.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have" Vaughn muttered.

"Shh," Sydney said putting her finger to his lips.

Then she removed her finger and kissed him again with more passion this time. Vaughn took the hint and moved her towards the bed. It was Sydney who broke away this time, "What about Lauren?" she asked

"It doesn't matter, Sydney I love you I always have"

"But what about Lauren, she's pregnant we can't do this"

"It's not mine" he breathed into her hair.

"What do you mean it's not yours?" Sydney asked confused, "Of course the baby is yours"

"She's having an affair"

"What?"

"The baby is not mine"

"How do you know?" Sydney asked, "If you don't want to answer, I don't mean to pry"

"It's ok, the date the baby was conceived I was out of the country. I was in Japan"

"Oh Vaughn I'm so sorry I know how much having a child of your own meant to you"

"Don't be" he said "I'm filing for a divorce when I get back"

"Don't do that because of me" Sydney said but in her heart it was saying yes, yes, YES

"I'm not; I have been talking with my lawyers for a month about it"

Sydney moved forward to him and kissed him deeply...

A/N-This is my first fanfic, so all reviews and input is required.