Here's the next chapter :). However long it may take to update, I try to make it worth the while. I do plan to finish it, so please don't worry there.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. I especially thank Arodluverus2001 and TV Chick, and who have been my number one reviewers. Enjoy the chapter.
Usual disclaimers apply.
Enjoy :-).
Chapter 8- Reservations
While Sydney and Vaughn were sleeping the afternoon away, the day at SD-6 was going on as usual. Well, as usual as SD-6 gets.
Sloane was sitting in his office, believing that Sydney had taken some time off to study for her final exams.
Dixon was at his desk, finishing a report.
Marshall was, as he usually was, in his office, fiddling with a new gadget he had just created, mumbling something about a configuration in the polygraphic matrix.
As the afternoon seemingly went by without anything exciting going on, Julian Sark entered the Alliance facility.
His entrance was immediately met with many suspicious and distrusting glances, most with contempt somewhere in their depths.
Sark smiled to himself, for he knew why they gave him these disapproving looks. They believed him to be an enemy of their beloved United States of America, which he was, in their definition of the term, even if he was now their knew "ally".
Yet the part that amused him so was that while they believed they were serving their beloved country, they were actually working for a powerful corporation that was considered one of its greatest enemies.
Sark had to admit he was impressed with this stroke of genius on the Alliance's part. These agents weren't mercenaries who could be easily bought off, but patriots who were willing to give their lives for their country, or so they thought.
He ignored their looks of distrust as he made his way to see Sloane, for he had something that he was sure would please him beyond measure.
He didn't knock when he strolled through the door of Arvin Sloane's office. Sloane was sitting at his desk, with his hands folded in front of him. Looking, as usual, to be in deep thought.
Sark planted himself in front of Sloane's desk, and waited patiently for acknowledgment.
Sloane looked up at Sark.
"Mr. Sark," he said casually, leaning back in his chair, "To what do I owe this pleasure? I wasn't expecting a report until tomorrow."
"I was aware of that Mr. Sloane, but I had received some information that I thought might be...pertinent, to your interests."
Sloane's eyebrows rose, not in surprise, but in mild interest. "Really?" he answered, "And what what is this information that you say would interest me?"
"Information about the existence, and location of a Rambaldi artifact."
Now that got Sloane's attention. His look of slight interest quickly changed into one of shock. Sark could swear he saw a sparkle of glee in Sloane's eyes.
Sark smiled inwardly. He knew a triumph when he saw one.
There was a pause before Sloane said anything.
"You are sure about this information?"
"The informant, like myself, used to work for Irina Derevko. He came into possession of the location of a warehouse, where Derevko kept many things of value, including, as I understand, an artifact of Rambaldi."
Sloane looked doubtful.
"Why would a woman as resourceful and intelligent as Irina Derevko leave items of value, such as a priceless Rambaldi artifact, in a common, easily accessible warehouse?"
Sark knew that this statement was a question of doubt in Sark's information, which he didn't appreciate, but luckily for him, he had an answer for this as well.
"I said that the warehouse was the location, but I didn't say that the artifact was in the warehouse."
Sloane's eyes narrowed. "Then where is it?" he asked.
"It's in a secure facility below the warehouse, and apparently, still under heavy guard."
Sloane seemed to ponder this for a moment. "And you're sure this information's reliable?"
"I took the liberty of having the location checked out. There is indeed evidence of a secure, guarded compound beneath the warehouse. From this, I believe the intel to be plausible."
That's when Sloane allowed himself a small smile. Information like this was one of the best things he could hope for.
"Good work, Mr. Sark. This is pleasing news indeed. As soon as Agent Bristow returns, I shall send her and Agent Dixon to infiltrate the facility and retrieve the document.
Sark thought about this choice of agents. He himself had his reservations. He knew that Bristow wasn't loyal to Sloane, for she barely had a second thought when he requested Sloane's delivery for his apparent assassination. Sark hadn't had any intention of going through with it, but Ms. Bristow had expected him to. Sark had his own suspicions that her loyalties laid somewhere else.
But Sark was almost as eager as Sloane to find out what secrets the artifact held, and he did believe that Sydney Bristow was their best chance on getting their hands on it. He decided to put his reservations aside.
"Excellent choice," Sark finally said.
Sloane leaned back in his chair and smiled. He couldn't wait to see what else Rambaldi had in store for them.
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Sydney was the first to wake that evening, but it was to Vaughn's tossing and turning with the occasional cry in his sleep.
She immediately jumped from her spot on the couch and ran over to pull him out of the nightmare he was in. At least, his sleeping nightmare.
She took ahold of his shoulders and gently shook him to try and wake him up.
"Vaughn," she said, trying to wake him.
"What have you done to me?" he asked, clearly still asleep.
"Vaughn, you're dreaming, wake up."
"I'm not your puppet, let me go," he said. It seemed that Vaughn wasn't talking to Sydney, but to someone else. Someone in his dream.
"Vaughn!" she finally yelled, putting subtlety aside. She gave his shoulders one final shake.
Vaughn shot upright and lashed out,as if trying to fight someone off. The problem was, when he lashed out, he didn't hit his dream attacker, but he did hit Sydney.
She felt herself fly back, and the next thing she knew she was sprawled across the green couch, which was located on the other side of the room. Also, her chest now felt as if it had been kicked by a horse.
Vaughn shook his head and looked around as if realizing where he was, which was probably the truth, since he had just woken up from what had appeared to be a really vivid dream. He then spotted Sydney, who was starring at Vaughn while quietly rubbing her chest, groaning as she sat back up again.
Vaughn looked down at his hand, and he realized what he had done.
"Oh God, Sydney. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to. I must have been having a-," there was a small pause, "Wait, I pushed you all the way over there?" he asked.
Sydney was now standing, but still rubbing her chest, which was still aching from the impact. She knew why he was surprised, for she was, too. The couch was a good eight feet from Vaughn's bed, courtesy of the second bed having been removed
"Uh," she stuttered, "Um, yeah, well, more like threw." she said, still a little surprised herself.
Vaughn's eyes got a little wider. She saw him mouth the word 'threw', as if trying to understand the meaning of it. HIs face then grew stern again.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'll survive, she replied."
"Well, I guess I, um, still have that strength from, well..."
"From last night," Sydney finished.
There was a small silence, and then Sydney saw Vaughn cock his head was if trying to listen to something. Then his eyes seemed to study her, and then grow wide.
Sydney didn't get a chance to question this reaction when a young nurse popped her head in the door.
"Is everything alright?" she asked, her French accent quite clear. She had obviously heard a noise from outside the room.
"Everything's fine," Sydney answered quickly. "I just tripped, nothing to be worried about."
The nurse contemplated that answer for a moment before seeming to accept it, and nodding. "Okay, well, I'm the only nurse on duty in this area tonight, courtesy of my bosses who think that I have no social life," she scoffed, "as if they would know what a social life is. Anyway, holler only if you need something."
The rude nurse left the room and shut the door behind her.
If she's the only nurse on duty tonight, Sydney thought, this could be a very long night.
Sydney smiled in return.
The nurse left the room and shut the door behind her.
As soon as she left Vaughn jumped out of his bed and grabbed a pair of sweat pants and a sweatshirt from the drawer set by his bed.
"Vaughn, what are you doing?" sydney asked, "You shouldn't be out of bed."
Vaughn continued to the adjacent bathroom with the sweat clothes in hand to change. He had a determined and troubled look on his face.
"If I have that kind of strength, I don't need to be lying around in that bed doing nothing when I need to find out what's happening to me."
Sydney accepted this response, but she knew there was another reason for his apparent hurry.
Vaughn seemed to be right about his physical condition. He was walking fine and showing no signs of needing to be in that bed. Yet that didn't stop Sydney from worrying. She didn't think that he should be out of the hospital before they knew more, or at least until they got the more extensive blood tests back. Also, on top of that, Sydney knew vaughn to well. She knew that there was something else that was bothering him besides his apparent physical condition and strength, and she was determined to find out what it was.
Vaughn emerged from the washroom, now clothed in the sweat shirt and sweat pants, and he headed towards the door, but Sydney got there first, and blocked his exit route.
"Sydney, please move," he said calmly and politely, but the two emotions seemed forced, a and Sydney could tell.
"I think you know how I'm going to respond to that request," she replied sternly, not budging an inch. She knew Vaughn was smarter than to just expect her to move. She crossed her arms in fron of her.
"Sydney, I can't stay here," he said again, also with that forced calmness.
"What makes you think leaving the hospital will help matters any?" she said. She had enough trouble with having to talk to her mother soon, and with helping Vaughn. She didn't need him resisting her while she tried to help.
Vaughn swallowed nervously, as if trying to figure out what to say. Sydney also saw his fists clench and unclench, and him shifting weight from foot to foot. He looked unsettled, and also uncomfortable.
"Sydney, I need to leave, for safety reasons," he said slowly and quietly
Sydney's brows furrowed in confusion.
"You're concerned you're not safe here?" she asked, although that reason didn't seem right.
"Not my safety," he answered, "Yours."
Sydney was slightly taken aback by this answer. Oh, she thought, he must feel guilty about hitting me.
"You woke up from a bad dream. It was my fault for-"
"That's not the reason, Sydney," he said through gritted teeth. Vaughn looked like he was trying to restrain something, or block something from his mind.
"God damn it Vaughn, then what is the problem?"
"Sydney, I can hear your heartbeat!"
Sydney's eyes widened, and she also felt her chest tighten. Vaughn hadn't meant to yell, and he certainly hadn't meant to yell that, but he couldn't hold it in anymore. The steady sound, along with all the other things he could now hear, was eating him up inside, quite literally, in the form of a strange hunger.
"Ever since I woke up, Sydney, I've been able to hear everything around me, like someone has turned up the volume. I can also smell everything. I could smell you when you were sitting on that couch. I could hear and smell that you were shocked, even scared of what I did."
He could see that Sydney felt guilty for the feelings that he had disovered, but he wasn't finished. He gave Sydney a second to process that information. He figured that he might as well disclose everything now. His eyes saddened as he told Sydney the rest.
"There's also been this growing feeling inside me," he said in a lower voice, a voice that almost frightened Sydney, "and it's like a hunger, but worse, and it's getting worse, and if I don't leave I think something bad is going to happen."
This information stopped Sydney cold, but she still needed to ask the obvious question.
"Before what happens?"
Vaughn looked as if he was considering how to answer when the young nurse once again opened the door behind Sydney.
"Agent Vaughn," she said in a derogatory tone, "What are you doing out of bed?"
Sydney sighed. This nurse was quickly becoming annoying. The young woman, rather rudely, pushed past Sydney and started pushing Vaughn towards the bed. Sydney was getting rather annoyed, and began to protest along with Vaughn as the kept nudging him back further into the room.
"Ma'am, I don't need-"
"I don't care."
"Nonsense," she interrupted, "your file specifically says that you shouldn't be out off bed until further notice, and if my only patient is caught out of bed I'm going to catch hell for it, and I'm not going to let you get me into trouble."
The nurse, although she couldn't be more than thirty, sounded like an old, bitter woman admonishing a child, probably resulting from all the people she had to deal with in the hospital, but Sydney needed to finish talking with Vaughn, and no cranky French nurse was going to stand in her way.
She made a reach for the two of them, but Vaughn beat her to it.
Vaughn, as quick as a cobra, snatched the wrist that was, the moment before, pushing at his shoulder. The nurse let out a little "eep" of surprise, and tried to pull her arm away, but Vaughn held it firmly. The nurse looked up at Vaughn in confusion, but instead of trying to break free, she seemed to relax, as if falling asleep.
"Vaughn, what are you doing?" Sydney asked, as she started to move towards him, to break up whatever was happening.
She didn't make it there before she froze.
His eyes.
Once again, they were midnight black.
Vaughn was looking into the nurse's eyes with his own, and the woman seemed to be hypnotized. Sydney could see that her eyes were looking at Vaughn's but really not focused on anything.
Sydney was about three feet away, but she didn't want to make any sudden movements. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. With all her training, she was unsure how to handle a situation like this. Not until she knew what was actually happening.
"Vaughn..." she said tentatively, holding her breath.
He didn't seem to hear her. His black eyes trailed down to the nurses neck, and lingered there.
Sydney still didn't move, she wanted to know what he was doing before she was doing. Analyze the situation before taking action, so to speak.
But analyzation was the last thing on her mind when Vaughn opened his mouth to reveal long, pointed fangs.
Sydney had no breath left to hold. "Holy-. Vaughn?" This time her voice quaked with shock and emotion.
The nurse still seemed to be hypnotized as Vaughn lowered his head towards her neck, his teeth bared in apparent hunger.
"VAUGHN, NO!"
That was when Sydney took action, she wasn't one much for analyzing situations anyway. She jumped at Vaughn and tackled him to the ground.
Vaughn grunted with the impact and went down, but regained the ground and soon had Sydney pinned under him as he let out a guttural growl. He was on top, holding her wrists down, and she stared into his much too black eyes.
As she stared, everything suddenly became so clear. As she saw her reflection in his eyes, she also saw a reflection of the last day as everything suddenly came together.
She saw Vaughn's incredible strength from the night before.
She saw Vaughn eviscerate one of their attackers.
She saw the thug dead on the pavement, with his throat ripped out.
She saw the miraculous healing of the gunshot wound to Vaughn's leg.
She saw Vaughn relax when the blinds had been closed in the hospital room, blocking out the sunlight.
She saw Vaughn explaining to her about the hunger growing within him.
She saw Vaughn bare white fangs and lean towards the hypnotized nurse's neck.
And it all came together.
She had studied literature in college. She was not ignorant to the folklore of the world, and she now knew what Vaughn was becoming, or had become.
The black eyes that she was now staring at, were the eyes of a vampire.
Sydney snapped out of her revelation and tried to deal with the current problem.
Vaughn was still holding her down, and growling deep in his throat. He was in a defensive mode from what Sydney could tell, so she had to calm him down.
"Vaughn," she whispered, looking at him in the eye, yet her voice shook, not from fear, but from emotion, "It's me, I'm not going to hurt you."
The sound of her voice seemed to have an effect on him. His grip immediately relaxed on her wrists, and the growling stopped.
"I'm right here with you, Vaughn. You're okay."
Vaughn stopped baring his teeth, and his eyes slowly waned back into green. The fangs also seemed to disappear.
Sydney could now see that it was Vaughn staring back at her, and he looked terrified.
He leaped back off of her, as if he was jumping off of something dangerous or terrifying. He pushed himself into the right-hand corner of the room, and was shivering and clutching his stomach.
Sydney wanted to rush over to Vaughn right away, but she had almost forgotten about the nurse. Sydney quickly stood up and walked over to her. She was in the same position, staring off into space.
"Miss?" Sydney asked, anxious to get to Vaughn, but she had to get this woman out of the room.
Sydney gently shook her, and the woman blinked a few times and seemed to focus on Sydney's face, but she still looked rather groggy.
"Hmm?" she said, "Do you need something?"
"Uh, I think someone outside needs something," Sydney said quickly.
"Oh, okay," the nurse said, still looking drunk. "Have a nice day," she said on the way out the door. She didn't even notice her patient shivering and in pain in the corner of the room. Whatever had happened to her, it had been potent.
Before the door even shut, Sydney was at Vaughn's side. He still looked in pretty bad shape. He was sweating and shivering, and still holding his stomach.
"Sydney," he gasped, "I'm sorry. Oh, God, what did I almost do?"
"You remember that?" she asked.
"Yes," he answered quickly as he grimaced. Sydney couldn't tell if it was from the apparent pain or the memory.
"Vaughn what's wrong?" she asked as she took hold of his hands. She couldn't stand to see him in such a state. She had to do something to help him, and she doubted any doctor here could help.
"My stomach," he gasped. "Oh, God," He looked at Sydney, and for a moment his eyes turned black again, and the hungry look returned.
"No!" he yelled, and the black in his eyes receded.
The image of Vaughn's mouth at the nurse's neck returned, and she knew why he was in pain.
"Stay here," she said, "I'll be right back." He nodded, and she quickly left the room.
She ran down the hall. Luckily it was late and there was no one else around. She found the room she was looking for and entered.
She returned about a minute later with what she was looking for. Vaughn was in the same place he was when she left, although he seemed almost unconscious. She hurried over to the bathroom and put her package into one of the cups, then came back out and knelt beside Vaughn.
"Here, Vaughn, drink this."
She put the cup up to his lips and tipped it forward. Vaughn started to drink the liquid. Then he grabbed the cup and started gulping it down hungrily. Tears came to Sydney's eyes as she watched this.
He downed the glass and he seemed to immediately get better. He stopped shivering and was breathing normally.
"Here," Sydney whispered, her throat feeling tight, "let's get you into bed."
She helped him up and into the hospital bed, keeping the sweat clothes on. Vaughn was fast asleep almost immediately, and Sydney watched the steady rise and fall of his chest for about a minute.
She turned around and picked up the glass she had left on the floor, and she looked bleakly at the remains of the liquid inside. The remains of the blood that Vaughn had drunk almost dry.
The tightness in Sydney's throat disappated, and her eyes narrowed in anger. She also started to shake with the potent emotion, along with frustration and sorrow.
She knew what she had to do next.
It was time to go see her mother.
I have a busy college schedule, but the update shall come. Until then, have fun!