A/N: My cheeks are just glowing red with all this positive feedback! I'm glad you're all enjoying this piece. Thanks for everyone who reviewed. Please continue to read!
Chapter 2
The news of Sydney's transfer did not stay a secret long, and many were not happy about it. The information about who had initiated the transfer and reasons behind it were being circulated around the office and formed into different tall tales, including suspicions that Sydney had joined up with her mother. Dixon however, made a quick attempt to squash any views that portrayed Sydney as disloyal. These rumors spread throughout the CIA building, but somehow, the stories never reached the hospital wing.
The white sheets of his unmade hospital bed lay in a heaping mess with no one inside. Vaughn stood near it putting the finishing touches on his suit, which Lauren had brought him from home.
Home, he thought. He missed their two-story brick house with the white shutters and Greek columns. Their overly extravagant green lawn and the little fishpond that Lauren had insisted they install in the backyard. Needless to say, Vaughn was looking forward to the idea of seeing all of it again.
Vaughn straightened out the invisible creases in his suit and prepared to leave the hospital. He had been given the day off, but had decided to hang around the office for a few hours, mainly to see his friends. But he also knew that because he had chose to stay, he would undeniably be put to work.
He proceeded through the automatic glass doors and up the stairs into the familiar bustling workroom he loved and hated. He spied Weiss immediately and headed towards him. Weiss however, spied him during his journey.
"Cheated Death again?" Weiss teased.
"Yeah," Vaughn said with a grin. "He must have mistaken me for a cat and given me nine lives."
"How ya feelin'?" Weiss asked.
"A few moves here and there will trigger it, but I've been through worse," Vaughn stated.
"Worse? What could be worse than being stabbed by your ex-girlfriend, literally," Weiss said with a laugh before he realized what he had just said. "Man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
'It's fine, Weiss," Vaughn said wearily. "I understand that she had to do it, to save both our lives. Speaking of Syd, where is she? I can't see her anywhere," Vaughn asked looking around.
Weiss suddenly seemed uncomfortable and didn't respond.
"Weiss?" Vaughn asked, suddenly looking worried. "Where is she?"
"Maybe you should ask, Lauren, or Dixon," Weiss stated avoiding Vaughn's eyes.
"Weiss, I don't want to hear it from either of them. I want to hear it from you, where is she?" Vaughn asked looking terribly concerned because he wasn't getting a straight answer from his friend.
Weiss sighed. "She's not here," Weiss explained.
"Not here?" Vaughn questioned. "So what, she's on a mission?"
Weiss shook his head.
"Then where—" Vaughn started and then he realized the message he was trying to get across.
"Sydney's missing?" Vaughn whispered.
Weiss looked at Vaughn in horror, "No. She's been transferred, Vaughn, to Swift Field County."
"What?" Vaughn exclaimed. "Why?"
As luck would have it, Weiss's explanation produced herself in front of the two men. "Michael," Lauren said coming over to giver her husband a hug, who accepted it in a dazed state. "When did they release you?"
"A few minutes ago," Vaughn answered.
"Well you should go home," Lauren encouraged. "To rest and relax. It's too early for you to be returning to work."
"I'm just staying a little while, Weiss—" Vaughn said, but when he looked around for his friend, he saw that he had been swept away by another agent. Weiss's countenance was apologetic as another agent held a report in front of him pointing at various sentences as he spoke.
"Would you like me to drive you home?" Lauren asked watching him carefully.
"No, I want to know what the hell is going on around here. Do you know the reasoning behind Sydney's transfer?" Vaughn asked her.
Lauren suddenly looked a little nervous. She hadn't prepared herself with what she was going to say to her husband. She knew that Vaughn wouldn't be happy. "Michael," she started gently. "You must remember that the decision was made to—"
Lauren stopped as her beeper went off.
She unhooked it from the rim of her black pants and looked at the number on the display screen. "Sorry, Michael, I have to take this, but we will continue this later, okay?" She gave him a quick kiss on the check and quickly headed to her desk to make a phone call. Vaughn sighed. He wanted answers and no one was giving him any. Why in the world had Sydney been transferred? Especially since she had hardly been at the agency for a month.
Vaughn headed towards Dixon's office, but upon inquiry, he found that Dixon was in a meeting and unavailable at the moment. Damn, he thought. This is frustrating. Vaughn thought for a moment, and then decided that the best way to answer his questions was to go straight to Sydney herself.
He walked to his desk to retrieve the paper Weiss had given him with Sydney's new address and phone number, and then headed outside to where he had parked his car two weeks ago. Something wasn't right. He could understand why Weiss was avoiding the situation. The idea of Sydney being transferred would upset Vaughn; Weiss knew that. But Lauren's reluctance to talk about the situation and her careful diction seemed to say that she was hiding something.
The car sped past beautiful houses that were typical of those in California. Each had its own unique design and architectural qualities that were indescribable. He finally pulled to a stop in the driveway of a handsome white one-story abode with a few palm trees that shadowed the yard.
He stepped out of his car and closed the door and immediately got swept away by the smell of the ocean. And if he listened very carefully, he could hear the sound of waves crashing simultaneously with the blowing of the wind. He understood now why Sydney had chosen this place. It was like heaven.
Sydney's car sat in the driveway, parked in front of Vaughn's, which assured him that she was home. Vaughn continued up to the door and rang it, waiting for her reply. After a few seconds, the door remained closed and Vaughn was still standing outside. He rang it again and called her name. There was still no answer. Vaughn tried the doorknob. It opened easily in his hands.
He pushed the door open and walked cautiously inside. "Sydney?" He called. Light was shining in from her front bay windows illuminating the blue furniture cloth and the red cedar walls that bordered the inside of the house. A box sat on her kitchen counter filled with things that Vaughn recognized as stuff that had been on her desk.
Nothing looked out of place, but he couldn't find Sydney anywhere. He removed his gun from its holster and walked around calling her name. The bathroom and the bedroom were also empty. It was then that he realized that the back sliding glass door was open. A slightly worn path from previous walks by unknown owners lead away from the house, and Vaughn followed.
Vaughn put his gun back into the holster and followed the path as the ground went from hard to sandy. The sand rippled under his feet and the feeling gave him the desire to remove his shoes so he could feel the small grains move between his toes. He held his shoes and socks in one hand and continued on his path. The ocean, not surprisingly, was getting louder as he walked on, and when he conquered the dune, he saw her.
She was sitting close to the water. So close that when the waves crashed onto the sand the spidery waves scuttled up to her feet and touched them before receding back into the ocean. He walked down to her, enjoying the warmness that the sand was spreading to his feet. She did not look up when he sat down beside her, and neither of them muttered a word for one beautiful moment.
It was a moment where Vaughn could image that they were together again; that they were the only two people on earth, enjoying a romantic moment before the tantalizing sea. Nature couldn't have created a bluer more cloudless sky, the sand and ocean a more perfect temperature. Everything about where they were was perfect, except that in reality they were not together. Vaughn had Lauren, and that was the way it was going to stay. Vaughn had told Sydney before that he didn't regret moving on with his life, and even here and now, he was going to stick by those words.
"Why did you come here, Vaughn?" She asked, breaking Vaughn's thoughts and the serenity that surrounded them. Her tone wasn't accusing but it wasn't warm. Her voice held a ring of suspicion and ice that Vaughn didn't really understand.
"Weiss told me about the transfer," Vaughn said. "How are you doing?"
Sydney ripped her gaze from the ocean to look at him. "How am I doing? I think you know how I'm doing. At least, you used to know," Sydney said as an afterthought
Sydney's words cut threw his heart painfully. He was very confused and didn't understand this sudden dose of hostility. "I'm sorry, Syd. Look I know this hard, but you can still treat me like a friend you know."
Sydney's nostrils flared. "Really? I mean I thought you'd be happy that I was leaving. It would mean you and Lauren could be together."
Now it was Vaughn's turn to be angry. "That was uncalled for--"
"Was it?" Sydney asked, her eyes blazing.
Vaughn looked at Sydney carefully. She knew something that he didn't. Something that was fusing her anger. "Sydney why are you being transferred?" Vaughn asked bluntly.
Sydney looked a little surprised by his question, but the anger remained. "You mean your wife didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what—" Vaughn stopped. Weiss's words rang in his head. "Maybe you should ask Lauren, or Dixon." And then there was Lauren's patronizing tone treating him like a child who was about to hear something he wasn't going to like. "Oh my God."
Sydney glared at him. "Yeah, it was your wife who authorized the transfer. Now tell me if my words were uncalled for."
"Sydney, I had no—" Vaughn started.
"No idea?" Sydney spat. "You knew she never liked me. Consider the stabbing incident closure. Congratulations. Your life is finally back to the way it was, Agent Vaughn." With those stinging words she left Vaughn sitting in the wake of a receding wave that had just stolen his heart.