I probably should have mentioned that this story was published in another venue (SD1-net) a few years ago. I never had a chance to upload it to Fanfiction-Net. Then I stopped writing for quite a while. But I've gotten back into it. I'm finishing a Vampire Diaries fic which should be published next week, and I'm working on the sequel to the Sleep of the Just. So I thought it would be fitting to publish this story again and have all the fics in one spot. I'll be updating daily (I'm just trying to get used to all the formatting stuff, which is a bit restrictive here.) I hope you enjoy this story again if you've already read it, or for the first time if such is the case. Thank you for reading.
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Part 2: A Wake-Up Call
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From far away, Sydney heard something banging. Some noise she couldn't quite make out through the sound of the running shower. It was all very faint as if her ears were filled with cotton...
Didn't matter anyway. Nothing really mattered any longer. Everything was becoming transparent like the water falling on her. She was fading.
No past; no souvenir box; no one to remember her, with all her friends gone… and now, no future.
A resigned ex-lover. A desperate confession. A final kiss.
And all her illusions of somehow, someday, getting her old life back had crumbled under the certainty that this chapter of their lives was forever closed. No matter how much she wished it weren't... No matter how much Michael did too... Their time had come and gone. And it would never be back.
The realization made her heart numb.
All in all, becoming transparent and vanishing sounded like the best option, the only logical one...
Her body shivered without her conscious mind registering it. Instinctively, she moved away from the cold shower stream and into the corner.
Maybe if she waited long enough, she would just melt and wash away. Every cell would be gone, dispersed, and with them all the cruel prickles of pain would dematerialize. She would cease to feel. Maybe.
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"Bristow? Syd?"
He knocked for the fourth time, harder. Maybe she was in her bedroom and didn't hear him?
No answer.
He frowned. His instinct on the alert, he walked back to his apartment, and exchanged the six-pack for his gun. He was back in front of her door in no time. He knocked again.
"Syd?" He called. "Syd, I'm coming in, alright? Don't shoot me or anything…"
The spare key she'd given him was already turning. Quietly, he stepped inside. A quick look around showed nothing was amiss. In a corner, a couple of medium size boxes were still unopened: a rolling cart he'd promised to help her build this weekend.
"Sydney?"
More silence. By now, all sorts of scenarios were playing in his mind: had he been mistaken and she wasn't home yet? No, he was sure he'd heard her. So where was she? A cold sensation of dread flooded his veins. Oh god, she couldn't be…
He was at her bedroom door in an instant. It was ajar. He pushed it all the way and scanned the room. Still no one there and nothing suspicious. He was ready to concede he'd been dreaming her coming home and that he needed to get a life, a real one, when he heard a faint sound coming from the right. The bathroom… He crossed to it and knocked on the closed door.
"Sydney, you in there? Sydney? Syd?"
The cold feeling of dread overcame him again. Without thinking twice, he turned the knob and walked in.
The shower was running. Everything else was silent. Even the exhaust fan wasn't on. There was no steam to evacuate anyway. Through the opaque glass of the shower stall, he could see a darker shadow that looked human. A shadow that was very still, much too low to the ground...
Weapon drawn, Weiss checked again behind him and around for a possible intruder. When he saw no one, he put his left hand on the shower stall door and gently pushed.
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The sight that greeted him couldn't have been more disturbing.
There was no sign of violence, no gory scene, no mayhem to speak of. Nevertheless, Weiss' eyes widened in shock.
There, in the opposite corner, was a shivering body, naked and crouching, head lowered; face hidden behind damp, limp hair. The arms were drawn around the knees; and the knuckles were so white they made the tile on the wall look gray.
It took Weiss a second to grasp whom he was staring at.
As soon as he got over his surprise, he was in motion. In a couple of movements, he put his gun away in his belt behind his back and turned off the icy shower stream. He took the large blue towel that was hanging outside the door and walked into the stall.
Very gently, he crouched down and touched her left hand. "Sydney?" He said in a soothing tone. "Don't be afraid, everything is gonna be fine. Let me take care of everything for you, alright? I'm going to help you out of the shower… Everything is gonna be fine…"
His voice was soft as if he were speaking to a child. His thumb gently caressed her deathly pale hand. Maybe this simple contact would reconnect her with reality? She was so cold, possibly in shock… Her whole body shook in violent tremors at times.
He would have wrapped her in the towel and whisked her away to the bed and under a ton of covers, but this could turn out to be a fatal move for him if she were to snap out of her daze and feel threatened. In the state she was in right now, who knew if she even had a sense that someone was in here with her and trying to help?
After a couple of minutes, he felt her hand relax slightly under the soft strokes.
Carefully, still murmuring reassuring nothings, he placed his other hand where his right one had been and lightly pulled to help her up and away from the wall.
Suddenly, the very fingers he'd been holding lashed out onto his left wrist. For a hair-raising instant, Weiss stood still as he stared back into the unseeing eyes of Sydney Bristow.
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Something was different… She blinked.
Something had changed.
There was no sound anymore.
No. It was a different sound. More familiar.
And something else. Something touching her…
Her reflexes taking over, Sydney seized the object that held her hand and looked up.
It was so strange. She could see, but it didn't make any sense. It was as if her eyesight was disconnected from her brain, and she couldn't name who was in front of her for a friend or a foe.
She stared more intently, trying to make heads or tails of it all…
That's when the sounds became meaningful again. From far, far away, she heard things, soft musical notes that gradually reached her.
"You're alright, Syd, I've got you... Weiss' got your back... I'm gonna get you out of here, everything's gonna be fine… You're not alone, Sydney; you never have to be alone… Good Ol' Eric is here for you. You're gonna make it just fine…"
She took in a sharp breath and all the memories flashed in front of her eyes at once. The mission, North Korea, the death squad, the kiss, the end, and now the cold…
Her body began to shake continuously. She tried to clench her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering too hard.
Alarmed, Weiss decided it was time to move her. She seemed to have come to her senses a bit. Hopefully, it would be enough that she would recognize him as a non-threat and forget to attack. "Sydney, I'm going to put this towel around you and help you to your bed, alright? Do you understand, Sydney? No Kung Fu, ok? Nod if you do."
It was a good thing he didn't expect her to answer with words. She wouldn't have been able to. Her nod wasn't much of a nod either, but apparently it was enough for Eric to understand she was ok with it, because almost immediately, she felt the rough cotton of the towel engulf her, bringing back a semblance of warmth to her shivering body.
In an instant, she sensed herself being lifted and carried away. A moment later, she was lying down and wrapped in what felt like a stiff cocoon made of cloth. Her shakes subsided a little as some heat slowly slipped back into her icy flesh and bones.
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tbc
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Next time, in Part 3: What Friends Are For…
"Hang in there, Syd." He said in his most caring voice. "I'll be right back."
He tucked her in a little more and headed towards his apartment in a hurry.
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