Thanks so much for reading the story!
(This version is slightly different than earlier versions because I am a
compulsive editor.)
This chapter happens to be my own personal favorite in this story. Hope you will enjoy as well.
Chapter 7: In which we see something not normally found in reality, Alias reality, that is.
Weiss swiped the bottle away from Vaughn. “No way. Forget it. Just go swimming or sit in the hot tub or watch tv. You are not getting blotto tonight. We are on a mission, remember? See ya.”
“Where are you going?”
“I want to talk to Syd.” Without looking again at Vaughn he knocked on Syd’s door. At her muffled, “Come in,” he opened it and saw her sitting on the bed dialing her secure-line cell phone.
"Hey, Syd, who are you calling?"
"My parents."
"The two of them? Why? How?"
"My dad always goes to see my mom this time of night."
"He what? What!"
"Don't ask me!" Sydney threw up one hand and shrugged. "All they do is argue. Why he continues to do it when he could stay at home and watch Letterman or craft explosive jewelry devices or run ballistics tests in his basement, I don't know. But the two of them seem to enjoy it. Anyway, I'm calling my dad on his cell phone so I can talk to the two of them."
"About what?" Weiss asked oh-so-casually. "This mission is no biggie."
"I know. I wanted their advice on.........well, this will sound nuts, on Vaughn."
"Let me get this straight -- you called YOUR parents for relationship advice?" Weiss asked in shock, real or feigned.
"Well......."
"This I gotta hear. Jack and Irina's take on a love connection. Wisdom for the ages. Put them on speaker." Weiss sat down on the bed next to Sydney.
When her father answered, Sydney explained that she wanted to talk to them both. He argued, of course, but did it anyway. Sydney quickly explained what she had done. Irina laughed out loud a few times.
Jack interrupted as she reached the end of the description, "You're doing what? Irina, was this your idea? Did you know about this?"
"As if Sydney needs advice from me on how to engage in payback, Jack? Do I need to remind you that she’s your daughter, too? Hmm? She came up with this on her own. Although I believe that new handler of hers -- that rolypoly man, Weiss -- I think he's probably helping in his own way."
Weiss mouthed, "Roly poly? Roly poly!"
Irina continued, "And besides, she has anger she needs to work out. It's not good to repress anger indefinitely, as you----"
"Irina," Jack began. "I am full of anger, saturated with anger, consumed with anger, and you don't see me---"
"Pardon
me!" Irina exclaimed. "Are you
not the individual who blew up a building in Madagascar to frame me and set me up for execution because you were ANGRY? Was that or was that not you, Jonathan Donahue Bristow?"
"Well," Weiss said, "But he didn't do what he really wanted to do, I bet."
"What's that?" Syd asked absently as her parents continued to sling volleys back and forth. She was starting to wonder about the two of them......
"Nail her."
"HEY! Those are my PARENTS!" Sydney nearly shrieked.
“Oops. Sorry. Sometimes I forget you’re not one of the guys,” Weiss mumbled.
Knock, knock.
"Weiss, Syd? What's going on in there?" came Vaughn's worried voice.
"Oh nothing," Weiss quipped. "Syd's just asking her parents for relationship advice."
Silence, then they heard him whisper, "Oh my god. That’s sick. And I’m so dead."
"Go
away!" both Weiss and Sydney said fiercely.
"Mom, Dad, if you can interrupt your family feud for a second, I need some advice. Remember me?" Sydney asked, rolling her eyes at Weiss.
"Sorry," both of her parents mumbled.
Sydney asked quietly, "Should I stop? Have I gone far enough? It’s so difficult to keep doing this, when I….."
"Sydney, I think he…...." Jack trailed off.
Irina prompted him, "What, what we you about to say, Jack?"
"Nothing."
"Humph. I doubt that. Sydney, while your father is gathering up his courage," Irina began.
They now they heard a male "humph", but Jack still said nothing.
"Let me just say this,” Irina began again. “Agent Vaughn, Michael, loves you. Anyone can see it. He made a huge mistake. I admit I don't really understand why. But don't make the mistake of letting your anger ruin this chance." She stopped for a long moment and then began again. "You have questions about why he acted the way he did. And you will need to ask him, force an answer since neither you nor I could ever devise a reasonable explanation all those times we talked about it. Now, I don't make the mistake of thinking I can understand how the male mind works,
when it works. Maybe your father will be able to explain why Vaughn did what he did. Maybe it's some male idiocy that he can explain."
"Thanks!" both Weiss and Jack exclaimed.
They heard Jack clearing his throat, then Irina saying, "Jaacck," in a wheedling tone never heard before. Sydney and Weiss stared at each other.
"Here's what I am thinking," Jack began. "I believe that he decided that he and Syd had no future together for the foreseeable future. That even though he loved her, he couldn't have her. Especially after that fiasco in Nice. Honestly, for the love of God, leaving the airport TOGETHER? And while I'm on the topic, Sydney---”
“Jack, focus.” Irina snarled.
“
Fine. So, for once,
once, after that debacle of a date -- about which, I assure you, Vaughn and I will be having a
conversation -- Vaughn decided to use his training, and continue to compartmentalize. Put his personal life in one box and his professional life in a second and his feelings for you in a third."
"Continue to compartmentalize? Put his life in little boxes" Syd queried.
“Yes, honey. Isn’t that what we all do, after all, in this business?” Jack asked gently.
Jack returned the question to Sydney, but Irina answered. "Well, that's an interesting idea, Jack. But why ask her out in Barcelona?"
"How do you know about THAT?" Weiss asked.
"I was there, remember? I heard what they were saying over the com units. By the way, sorry I knicked you that day."
“Knicked me? Knicked me? I had a near-death experience!” Weiss protested.
“You’re making too much of it, Agent Weiss. You were never in any real danger. If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d be dead. Now play like a dead man and be quiet so that we can get back to my family, if you please.” Irina argued.
While her mom was busy scaring Weiss, Syd was thinking for the millionth time, why did Vaughn tell me the watch story, to say nothing of the date in Nice while going out with Alice? "Mom, that's what I really don't understand. If, as Dad says, he was compartmentalizing, then why ask me out on dates, why not just stop everything he was doing---"
"Sydney, honey, just what else was he doing? I'd like to know." Jack asked quietly in that tone of voice that made the hair on the back of one’s neck stand up.
Irina spoke up quickly, "Jack, don't even think what I think you're thinking! Sydney is a big girl, she can take care of herself."
"Oh really? Then why is she on the phone to us right now?"
"Mom! Make him stop."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of your father. I have my ways." Irina paused and Sydney thought she heard her father chuckle. But no, that couldn't be, she must be mistaken. Irina began talking again, "But Sydney, why Vaughn did what he did? My experience tells me that there is no underestimating male stupidity." Both Syd and Irina made identical “Uh-huh” sounds while Weiss and Jack snorted.
Jack asked, "Weiss? You know Vaughn best. What do you think?"
"Truthfully? I think he gets around Sydney and he forgets everything. Girlfriend back home? Who? Washername? National security? Which country are we working to protect? Career? Let me look at my id so I can remember where I work."
"He's blinded by his emotions," Jack said flatly. "Been there, done that. Not good." Sydney remembered her mother's words on that KGB tape about her father, that he had been blinded by his emotions. This was a quagmire from which she needed to extricate----
"Jack, I---" Irina fell silent. And then addressing Sydney, she continued, "The big question is whether you can forgive him."
Jack disagreed, "No, the first question is whether or not he apologizes."
"I am sure he is sorry. I am sure he regrets it. Although you are probably right and ---" Irina asserted.
"Why do you defend him? Does he regret it? Or does he just regret that he got caught?" Jack asked sarcastically.
"Somehow," Weiss whispered, I don't think they're talking about you and Mike anymore.”
"Me either," Syd whispered back.
Jack continued, "Whether or not he was compartmentalizing or not, whether or not he was blinded by his emotions, whether or not he was abiding by protocol, the truth of the matter is that……." He stopped for a moment, "The truth of the matter is that when you hurt someone you need to apologize. You not only need to never do it again, need to prove that you are trustworthy, you have to sincerely, honestly apologize. Without the apology, you can't really forgive. And if you can't really forgive, then there's nothing left because there’s no…."
“Trust,” Irina said flatly. And then silence.
Weiss and Sydney quirked eyebrows at each other. Weiss whispered, "Why don't you say goodbye?"
"Bye, Mom and Dad. You've been a big help. Talk to you later!" Syd said brightly and hung up.
"Your parents?" Weiss muttered.
Sydney shook her head, "I know. That’s a lie. Actually, I don't know.”
“Syd, I have a question.”
She looked up cautiously.
Do you think I’m roly poly?” Weiss asked.
TBC
she's such a funny woman! 