SarahMichelle
Cadet
And Forever 21
Something was still bothering her though, she was sure that there was some small detail somewhere that she was missing that was important. By the time she got to her driveway, she still couldn’t figure out what it was. She got out of her car, gathered Annette from the back seat and went inside.
“Hey,” A voice from the living room welcomes her. “How did it go?”
Vaughn gets up from the couch and walks over to her and kisses the baby on the head.
“Fine. It went fine.”
She wasn’t quite sure why she doesn’t tell him what her mother told her.
Her instincts tell her not to.
*****
Four days.
That’s how long he had been sitting in this damn chair. He was only able to keep track of the days because he knew that his daughter would be four days old.
Four days of sitting in the dark. No one had come into the room since he had woken up the first day. That he knew of, anyway. He has been drifting in and out of conciousness from the blood loss on from the wound on his head.
Suddenly for the first time in days, the door opens. Wincing from the sudden flash of light from the outside, he can’t see who walked in the door.
“Mr. Vaughn.” A voice he knows very well says loudly from behind him.
“You bastard.” Vaughn gasps out, cringing at the weakness in his voice.
The man laughs. “Well, I suppose I deserve that. But I had to double you, Vaughn. That was the only way to get close enough to your wife.”
“You touch her and I swear…”
He laughs again. “You swear what, Vaughn? You’re chained to a chair.” A sudden resounding snap echoes through out the room as he wrenches Vaughn’s hand back, breaking his wrist.
Unprepared, he screams.
He turns back to door, leaving it open longer than necessary as light glares into the room.
“Goodbye, Vaughn.”
*****
She doubled over as pain shot through her head like a bolt of lightning.
“Syd?” Vaughn rushed over to her. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”
The pain suddenly went away as abruptly as it came and with Vaughn’s help, she stood up and he guided her to the couch. He sat down first and pulled her so she could sit right next to him, wrapping his right arm around her. She looked absently down at his lap and sees the glint of gold on his left hand.
All the sudden she could remember what had been bothering her before.
The memory of the day at the hospital come to her. The day that Vaughn left on the mission.
Vaughn seemed hesitant. Then he glanced down at his left hand his wife held tightly in hers. He carefully guided his hand out of hers and pulled his wedding band off. Sydney seemed to understand what he was doing, and opened her palm so that he could his place the ring there, and folding her hand back up so that she held it tightly in her palm.
“If I can’t be here then at least that part of me will.” He whispered, leaning his forehead against hers. He kissed her softly and entertwined their hands on her stomach. He broke the kiss, got up looked at Eric and without another word, he walked out of the room.
Vaughn had given her his wedding band before he left. So where had he gotten this one?
Her instincts told her not to say anything just as her intstincts told her not to tell him what her mother had told her.
“Just a really bad headache. I’m going to go get some aspirin. I’ll be right back.”
He nodded and she went to the bathroom, discreetly grabbing her phone that was lying on a counter by the kitchen. Going into the bathroom, she closed the door quietly and turned on the sink to mask her voice on the phone.
She dialed her father and waited eagerly for him to answer.
“Hello?”
“Dad!” Sydney rushed. “In about 30 seconds, I need you to page me.”
“What? Sydney are you—“
“Please, dad. I’ll explain everything, promise. Just call me, ok?”
“Ok, Sydney. Thirty seconds when you hang up.”
“Thanks.” She said, before hanging up the phone and leaving the bathroom.
“Everything ok?” Vaughn asked from the couch.
“Yeah,” she said softly, moving to the couch, setting her phone back on the counter on the way.
“Ok,” but before he could say anything more, her phone rang.
Vaughn frowned as Sydney went to answer it. “This late? Who would be calling this late?”
She sighed. “Don’t know. Probably Kendall. Hello?” she answered.
“Ok, Sydney. What is this about?”
“Oh hey dad.” She said, looking toward Vaughn.
“Sydney?”
“You want to see Annette?” she asked pointedly.
Jack seemed to get the point. “Bring her to Ops.”
“Ok. I’ll be right there.” She hung up the phone.
“Syd, Its ten o’clock at night. Why can’t he wait until morning?”
Sydney frowned, her suspicions growing. “He says that he is working late and could use a pick-me-up. I’ll be back soon, K?” she said already heading towards her daughter’s room.
“Do you want me to come?” he asked, following her.
“No, Michael. Its late. You have been working pretty hard. You should just rest. I’ll be back soon.”
And she was out the door.
*****
Panic.
He had fallen unconcious again after his ‘visitor’ and woken up to panic. A panic that wasn’t his. Because he wasn’t panicked, he was down right terrified and pissed off all at once.
He had never felt anything so strong before. He didn’t have long to deal with it though, because his world, once again, went black.
*****
“Sydney what is going on?” Jack asked as she rushed into the office with a carrier holding his sleeping granddaughter.
“Dad.” She seemed to struggle with it for a second. “I th—think.” she couldn’t say it.
Jack grabbed the carrier, put it gently on his desk and guided his panicked daughter to a chair. “Sydney, calm down sweetheart, calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
“Dad, I think that Vaughn is the double.”
TBC
And Forever 22
All Jack could do was stare at his near-hysterical daughter incredulously.
“Don’t look at me like that, dad.” She snapped. “Do you remember the day Vaughn left for the mission to Hong Kong?”
Jack just nodded.
“You remember that Vaughn gave me his wedding band before he left?” Jack nodded again. “Well, earlier, After I came back from seeing my mother, something was bothering me. Like there was something that I was missing. Then I saw the wedding band on Vaughn’s finger. But how could he have been wearing a wedding band when he left his with me . Between Vaughn leaving and giving birth to Annette, I forgot all about the ring. I must have dropped it or something.”
“Ok, but Sydney, that is hardly concrete proof that he is the double.” Jack reminded her softly.
“I know.” She admitted. “But when I came to talk to mom before I left, she told me something about ‘The Telling’…”
Jack cut her off. “That you and Vaughn can feel each other’s emotions. Yes I know.”
Now it was Sydney’s turn to stare at her father incredulously. “You know? How the hell do you know?”
“Your mother told me. I went to see her to. I knew that she was hiding something, but the only way that she would tell me what it was, was if I updated her on your pregnancy.”
Sydney sighed. “Well, anyway, before the ‘wedding ring’ detail clicked, a pain shot throught my head, dad. So far I have only been able to feel emotions but what if Vaughn’s emotions were so high, that he was in pain and I felt it?” She was starting to cry again and Jack went around his desk to comfort her.
“Ok, honey. If this is true, we’ll find him. But first, we should go to the hospital and see if maybe they found Vaughn’s ring. Just to be sure. Do you want to take Annette with us?”
Sydney shook her head. “No, I’ll call Will and see if she can stay there for the night. I don’t want her anywhere near that house if he is the double.”
A half hour later, after she had dropped Annette of at Will’s house, assuring him that they would explain everything later, her and Jack walked up to the reseptionionists desk.
“Hello. I’m Sydney Vaughn. I just gave birth to my daughter a few days ago and my husband lost his wedding band. I was wondering if it was found here.”
The woman looked between her and Jack. “This is my father, not my husband.” Sydney snapped. “Did some one find the ring? It had an inscription in it.”
The woman had the grace to blush at her mistake. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Vaughn. I’ll go check.”
“Thank you.”
A few minutes later she walked back in with something closed in her palm.
“Is this it?” she asked, holding the object out to Sydney. She took it and looked at the inside for the inscription.
She instantly found it. “S.A.B to M.C.V Oct. 1 ’03 Always” she whispered.
“Are you, ok, Mrs. Vaughn?” The nurse asked her, seeing her face pale.
She managed a tight smile “Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.”
Her and Jack turned around and left the hospital.
“I’ll have a full security team at your house as soon as I can.” Jack said. “Be careful, Sydney.”
Sydney nodded and got into her car.
She walked into the door fifteen minutes later and set her keys on the counter.
“Hey. Where’s Annette?” Vaughn asked coming up to kiss her lightly. She managed not to cringe when she kissing him back.
“I decided to leave her with my dad for the night. I thought we could use the night alone.” She whispered, going around him to the bedroom.
He smiled. “Hmm. Sounds good. But,” A sudden click behind her head made her freeze. “Don’t you think that you should tell Will that? When he called earlier, to ask what was going on, He seemed to think he was supposed to have Annette for the night.”
“Where the hell is my husband?” she demanded.
He laughed. “I don’t think that your in any position to demand anything. But I do want to know how you found out.”
“The wedding ring.” She said. She had to keep him talking long enough for the tactical team to get here, “Vaughn left his wedding ring with me before he left.”
He scoffed. “I did panic when I didn’t see it on his finger. I should have known that it would be what got me caught.”
“No sudden moves, Mrs. Vaughn. You wouldn’t want your daughter to live without both of her parents, now would you?”
“You have every intention of killing me any way” It wasn’t a question.
“Your right. I do.”
A shot went off.
*****
More Panic.
He couldn’t handle it anymore.
But then, a sudden feeling of relief spread over him. It wasn’t strong, but it was there.
He smiled tightly through his blurry vision. He knew he had a concussion and had tried to stay awake, though he had fallen in and out of conciousness for the last few days. She’s ok. he thought, before he lost concioussness again.
*****
A strangled cry from behind her made her open her eyes. In front of her stood Eric Weiss and a team of ten men behind him.
She turned aroud and looked down at her feet to see the double on the floor holding his left hand.
“Syd!” Eric rushed over. “Are you ok?”
Sydney nodded in a daze.
“Eric, Can you hand me your gun?”
Eric looked at her puzzled, but handed her the gun, and was startled when Sydney slammed the butt of it into the double’s hand.
“AH!” he screamed.
“Who the hell are you?”
He looked up at her but didn’t answer.
She slammed the gun down again.
“Answer me, dammit!”
When he didn’t, the gun went into his head and he was unconcious.
Eric looked at her. “So he is the double.” He asked quietly.
Sydney nodded. “Get him out of here.” She said to the men behind him.
“Sydney, you need to get some sleep. Don’t take this personally, but you look like hell.”
Sydney shook her head, breifly catching the clock in the microwave to see that it was 2:30 in the morning.
“No, Eric. He has been around for at least four days. Almost five. We need to find Vaughn.”
Eric nodded. “Ok.”
*****
Sydney had been dozing on and off at Vaughn’s desk for the last hour when Will walked in with Annette.
“Syd, Eric explained everything when he called. Do you know where Mike is yet?”
Sydney shook her head. “No, but my dad is with the double at the moment.” She said, taking Annette from her carrier and holding her close.
Wil got the hint and shuddered, imaging all the things jack was doing to the double to get him to talk.
Sydney looked down at her daughter as the little girls eyes opened.
“Hey Annie. Hey, baby girl.” She cooed softly.
Will smiled at the site.
“What is that smile for?” Sydney asked.
Will shook his head. “It’s great to see you like this Sydney, It’s great to see you so happy.”
Sydney smile faltered a little bit.
“I’ll be even happier,” she said, looking down at her little girl. “When I have my husband back where he belongs.”
TBC
Something was still bothering her though, she was sure that there was some small detail somewhere that she was missing that was important. By the time she got to her driveway, she still couldn’t figure out what it was. She got out of her car, gathered Annette from the back seat and went inside.
“Hey,” A voice from the living room welcomes her. “How did it go?”
Vaughn gets up from the couch and walks over to her and kisses the baby on the head.
“Fine. It went fine.”
She wasn’t quite sure why she doesn’t tell him what her mother told her.
Her instincts tell her not to.
*****
Four days.
That’s how long he had been sitting in this damn chair. He was only able to keep track of the days because he knew that his daughter would be four days old.
Four days of sitting in the dark. No one had come into the room since he had woken up the first day. That he knew of, anyway. He has been drifting in and out of conciousness from the blood loss on from the wound on his head.
Suddenly for the first time in days, the door opens. Wincing from the sudden flash of light from the outside, he can’t see who walked in the door.
“Mr. Vaughn.” A voice he knows very well says loudly from behind him.
“You bastard.” Vaughn gasps out, cringing at the weakness in his voice.
The man laughs. “Well, I suppose I deserve that. But I had to double you, Vaughn. That was the only way to get close enough to your wife.”
“You touch her and I swear…”
He laughs again. “You swear what, Vaughn? You’re chained to a chair.” A sudden resounding snap echoes through out the room as he wrenches Vaughn’s hand back, breaking his wrist.
Unprepared, he screams.
He turns back to door, leaving it open longer than necessary as light glares into the room.
“Goodbye, Vaughn.”
*****
She doubled over as pain shot through her head like a bolt of lightning.
“Syd?” Vaughn rushed over to her. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”
The pain suddenly went away as abruptly as it came and with Vaughn’s help, she stood up and he guided her to the couch. He sat down first and pulled her so she could sit right next to him, wrapping his right arm around her. She looked absently down at his lap and sees the glint of gold on his left hand.
All the sudden she could remember what had been bothering her before.
The memory of the day at the hospital come to her. The day that Vaughn left on the mission.
Vaughn seemed hesitant. Then he glanced down at his left hand his wife held tightly in hers. He carefully guided his hand out of hers and pulled his wedding band off. Sydney seemed to understand what he was doing, and opened her palm so that he could his place the ring there, and folding her hand back up so that she held it tightly in her palm.
“If I can’t be here then at least that part of me will.” He whispered, leaning his forehead against hers. He kissed her softly and entertwined their hands on her stomach. He broke the kiss, got up looked at Eric and without another word, he walked out of the room.
Vaughn had given her his wedding band before he left. So where had he gotten this one?
Her instincts told her not to say anything just as her intstincts told her not to tell him what her mother had told her.
“Just a really bad headache. I’m going to go get some aspirin. I’ll be right back.”
He nodded and she went to the bathroom, discreetly grabbing her phone that was lying on a counter by the kitchen. Going into the bathroom, she closed the door quietly and turned on the sink to mask her voice on the phone.
She dialed her father and waited eagerly for him to answer.
“Hello?”
“Dad!” Sydney rushed. “In about 30 seconds, I need you to page me.”
“What? Sydney are you—“
“Please, dad. I’ll explain everything, promise. Just call me, ok?”
“Ok, Sydney. Thirty seconds when you hang up.”
“Thanks.” She said, before hanging up the phone and leaving the bathroom.
“Everything ok?” Vaughn asked from the couch.
“Yeah,” she said softly, moving to the couch, setting her phone back on the counter on the way.
“Ok,” but before he could say anything more, her phone rang.
Vaughn frowned as Sydney went to answer it. “This late? Who would be calling this late?”
She sighed. “Don’t know. Probably Kendall. Hello?” she answered.
“Ok, Sydney. What is this about?”
“Oh hey dad.” She said, looking toward Vaughn.
“Sydney?”
“You want to see Annette?” she asked pointedly.
Jack seemed to get the point. “Bring her to Ops.”
“Ok. I’ll be right there.” She hung up the phone.
“Syd, Its ten o’clock at night. Why can’t he wait until morning?”
Sydney frowned, her suspicions growing. “He says that he is working late and could use a pick-me-up. I’ll be back soon, K?” she said already heading towards her daughter’s room.
“Do you want me to come?” he asked, following her.
“No, Michael. Its late. You have been working pretty hard. You should just rest. I’ll be back soon.”
And she was out the door.
*****
Panic.
He had fallen unconcious again after his ‘visitor’ and woken up to panic. A panic that wasn’t his. Because he wasn’t panicked, he was down right terrified and pissed off all at once.
He had never felt anything so strong before. He didn’t have long to deal with it though, because his world, once again, went black.
*****
“Sydney what is going on?” Jack asked as she rushed into the office with a carrier holding his sleeping granddaughter.
“Dad.” She seemed to struggle with it for a second. “I th—think.” she couldn’t say it.
Jack grabbed the carrier, put it gently on his desk and guided his panicked daughter to a chair. “Sydney, calm down sweetheart, calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
“Dad, I think that Vaughn is the double.”
TBC
And Forever 22
All Jack could do was stare at his near-hysterical daughter incredulously.
“Don’t look at me like that, dad.” She snapped. “Do you remember the day Vaughn left for the mission to Hong Kong?”
Jack just nodded.
“You remember that Vaughn gave me his wedding band before he left?” Jack nodded again. “Well, earlier, After I came back from seeing my mother, something was bothering me. Like there was something that I was missing. Then I saw the wedding band on Vaughn’s finger. But how could he have been wearing a wedding band when he left his with me . Between Vaughn leaving and giving birth to Annette, I forgot all about the ring. I must have dropped it or something.”
“Ok, but Sydney, that is hardly concrete proof that he is the double.” Jack reminded her softly.
“I know.” She admitted. “But when I came to talk to mom before I left, she told me something about ‘The Telling’…”
Jack cut her off. “That you and Vaughn can feel each other’s emotions. Yes I know.”
Now it was Sydney’s turn to stare at her father incredulously. “You know? How the hell do you know?”
“Your mother told me. I went to see her to. I knew that she was hiding something, but the only way that she would tell me what it was, was if I updated her on your pregnancy.”
Sydney sighed. “Well, anyway, before the ‘wedding ring’ detail clicked, a pain shot throught my head, dad. So far I have only been able to feel emotions but what if Vaughn’s emotions were so high, that he was in pain and I felt it?” She was starting to cry again and Jack went around his desk to comfort her.
“Ok, honey. If this is true, we’ll find him. But first, we should go to the hospital and see if maybe they found Vaughn’s ring. Just to be sure. Do you want to take Annette with us?”
Sydney shook her head. “No, I’ll call Will and see if she can stay there for the night. I don’t want her anywhere near that house if he is the double.”
A half hour later, after she had dropped Annette of at Will’s house, assuring him that they would explain everything later, her and Jack walked up to the reseptionionists desk.
“Hello. I’m Sydney Vaughn. I just gave birth to my daughter a few days ago and my husband lost his wedding band. I was wondering if it was found here.”
The woman looked between her and Jack. “This is my father, not my husband.” Sydney snapped. “Did some one find the ring? It had an inscription in it.”
The woman had the grace to blush at her mistake. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Vaughn. I’ll go check.”
“Thank you.”
A few minutes later she walked back in with something closed in her palm.
“Is this it?” she asked, holding the object out to Sydney. She took it and looked at the inside for the inscription.
She instantly found it. “S.A.B to M.C.V Oct. 1 ’03 Always” she whispered.
“Are you, ok, Mrs. Vaughn?” The nurse asked her, seeing her face pale.
She managed a tight smile “Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.”
Her and Jack turned around and left the hospital.
“I’ll have a full security team at your house as soon as I can.” Jack said. “Be careful, Sydney.”
Sydney nodded and got into her car.
She walked into the door fifteen minutes later and set her keys on the counter.
“Hey. Where’s Annette?” Vaughn asked coming up to kiss her lightly. She managed not to cringe when she kissing him back.
“I decided to leave her with my dad for the night. I thought we could use the night alone.” She whispered, going around him to the bedroom.
He smiled. “Hmm. Sounds good. But,” A sudden click behind her head made her freeze. “Don’t you think that you should tell Will that? When he called earlier, to ask what was going on, He seemed to think he was supposed to have Annette for the night.”
“Where the hell is my husband?” she demanded.
He laughed. “I don’t think that your in any position to demand anything. But I do want to know how you found out.”
“The wedding ring.” She said. She had to keep him talking long enough for the tactical team to get here, “Vaughn left his wedding ring with me before he left.”
He scoffed. “I did panic when I didn’t see it on his finger. I should have known that it would be what got me caught.”
“No sudden moves, Mrs. Vaughn. You wouldn’t want your daughter to live without both of her parents, now would you?”
“You have every intention of killing me any way” It wasn’t a question.
“Your right. I do.”
A shot went off.
*****
More Panic.
He couldn’t handle it anymore.
But then, a sudden feeling of relief spread over him. It wasn’t strong, but it was there.
He smiled tightly through his blurry vision. He knew he had a concussion and had tried to stay awake, though he had fallen in and out of conciousness for the last few days. She’s ok. he thought, before he lost concioussness again.
*****
A strangled cry from behind her made her open her eyes. In front of her stood Eric Weiss and a team of ten men behind him.
She turned aroud and looked down at her feet to see the double on the floor holding his left hand.
“Syd!” Eric rushed over. “Are you ok?”
Sydney nodded in a daze.
“Eric, Can you hand me your gun?”
Eric looked at her puzzled, but handed her the gun, and was startled when Sydney slammed the butt of it into the double’s hand.
“AH!” he screamed.
“Who the hell are you?”
He looked up at her but didn’t answer.
She slammed the gun down again.
“Answer me, dammit!”
When he didn’t, the gun went into his head and he was unconcious.
Eric looked at her. “So he is the double.” He asked quietly.
Sydney nodded. “Get him out of here.” She said to the men behind him.
“Sydney, you need to get some sleep. Don’t take this personally, but you look like hell.”
Sydney shook her head, breifly catching the clock in the microwave to see that it was 2:30 in the morning.
“No, Eric. He has been around for at least four days. Almost five. We need to find Vaughn.”
Eric nodded. “Ok.”
*****
Sydney had been dozing on and off at Vaughn’s desk for the last hour when Will walked in with Annette.
“Syd, Eric explained everything when he called. Do you know where Mike is yet?”
Sydney shook her head. “No, but my dad is with the double at the moment.” She said, taking Annette from her carrier and holding her close.
Wil got the hint and shuddered, imaging all the things jack was doing to the double to get him to talk.
Sydney looked down at her daughter as the little girls eyes opened.
“Hey Annie. Hey, baby girl.” She cooed softly.
Will smiled at the site.
“What is that smile for?” Sydney asked.
Will shook his head. “It’s great to see you like this Sydney, It’s great to see you so happy.”
Sydney smile faltered a little bit.
“I’ll be even happier,” she said, looking down at her little girl. “When I have my husband back where he belongs.”
TBC
