In the Moment

The dinner is reminiscent of your first date, but the initial awkwardness is gone, unsure and nervous smiles replaced by knowing, excited grins now that you’ve decided to embark on a journey together that will last for the rest of your lives.

Loved that. I can just picture them. :blush:
Thirty years of work resulted in the production of a single sheet of paper, on it, a printed portrait of Sark, and the words, The Disloyal One’s blood is the key. The Chosen One will show the way. She will bear this man’s child, and the beginning will come again.

Your mother’s help would be your downfall.

Don't love that part! :angry: Eww! Please, no Sarkney. Please let this be S/V!
Great twist on the story though. ^_^
 
ok i had the exact same thoughts as u did lol! That was so good but there better b no sarkney action lol,gotta love jacks poker face! Thanx 4 the pm, update soon!
 
Syd is supposed to have Sarks Child! YEAH RIGHT! Over Vaughn and Syd's dead bodies! And if they are supposed to get married in September, they should delay it to get married on October 1st so it will be more sentimental! Or I bet something will happen so they have to push the date back to October!

Good update!

Megan
 
A/N: Yes, this is what it looks like—an update! More will come; please motivate me with reviews!

Part 6 – Pearls of Wisdom

Blink.

You’re five years old. You know you shouldn’t have, but your mother’s pearls looked too pretty to have just sat there in your mother’s jewelry box. And now you know you really shouldn’t have because you’ve just been caught.

“Sydney, tell the truth. Did you take my necklace?”

Even at your young age, you could tell that your mother already knew that you took the necklace, and that she was trying to teach you a lesson. But instead of cooperating, you try to make a game out of it.

“No, Mommy. I dunno what happened to your necklace,” you say as innocently as possible, hands clenched tightly in their pockets.

“Now, Sydney,” she says more sternly. “Telling lies is not good for little girls.” She scrunches up her face, becoming more facetious. “It turns them into mean, old witches!” she exclaims, throwing her arms around you, starting to tickle you.

You can’t resist laughing or yanking your hands out of your pockets to stop the tickles, revealing the missing pearls, one by one.

“Oh, Sydney!” The look on your mother’s face releases the belated truth from your mouth. “The string broke. I’m sorry, Mommy!” you cry, bursting into tears.

“Don’t cry, my little girl.” She gives you a tight hug. Help Mommy pick up the pearls so we can get this fixed before Daddy finds out. He gave me these to me.”

“Aren’t we going to tell Daddy the truth too?”

“Not now, Honey. There’s something you must learn—that… Truth… Takes…

“TIME!” you gasp, jerking up in bed. Vaughn rolls over next to you mumbling, “It’s only 3:30. Go back to sleep…”

You try to catch your breath as you try to understand the dream you just had. Was it a real memory? Did you ever—no you don’t remember ever having breaking your mother’s pearl necklace, and you don’t remember ever having heard those three words making up that eerie phrase before you discovered that your mother had survived the car accident.

You try to go back to sleep, but the dream keeps you unsettled. Seeing your mother through the eyes of yourself as a child stirs up old feelings that you had buried once your mother betrayed the CIA and you, escaping into hibernation once again. But it appears that your mother has popped out of that hibernation, though not a strong presence, definitely a meaningful one. One meaning more games of hide and seek, more questions of motive, more missions against the impossible. You wonder what truth your mother is trying to take you to this time.

Blink.

Your meeting with Lazarey is successful. Along with the eleven other keys, he produces an ancient map showing the location of the Rambaldi Cube’s vault. There’s nothing left to do but follow the map and retrieve the artifact. So, you forge ahead…

Getting to the vault, however, is an adventure in itself. You think that your code name Mountaineer is all too fitting at this moment, hanging on the side of a steep rock that seems to go up for miles. Lazarey is surprisingly spry for someone of his age, and you have a momentary flashback to the old man who fixed Rambaldi’s clock… Lazarey calls out to you, asking why you had paused in your climb. You shake your head and continue upwards.

Sweating, panting, and aching, you make it to the ledge at the top, Lazarey ahead of you. Embedded in the side of a rock, you find the small vault that is supposed to hold the Cube. Quickly, you and Lazarey fit the keys into the locks that are arranged in a circle around the vault door. As you slide the door open and grab the Cube, shots ring out of nowhere. You see Lazarey fall beside you, a direct hit in his temple just before you run for cover. It seems your flashback to the old assassinated clockmaker did fit too well with Lazarey. But you have no time to think about that now.

You wince as a bullet grazes your arm as you run as low as you can and throw yourself behind a collection of boulders. You shout into your comm. that you need immediate extraction while bullets shower into the rocks in front of you. You stow the artifact into your backpack and pull out what weapons you have. Your feeble collection amounts to a small handgun and a flare gun. Thinking quickly, you load the flare gun and wait for a pause in the gunfire, knowing the shooter would have to reload. You finally hear the silence you need and peek above the rocks covering you. You see the head of a figure in camouflage looking down, tending to his weapon in a patch of dry bushes. Taking careful aim, you fire the flare gun into the bushes just ahead of the shooter, causing him to drop his weapon and fall back, and creating a fire in the bushes which grows quickly. Having lost his weapon to the flames, the man in camouflage flees.

Now, you only have the fire to contend with, which is spreading towards you. You call into your comm. that you need to change the extraction point to the bottom of the mountain, as you rapidly don your harness and propel yourself down the sheer rock. It doesn’t take you long to get down and into the awaiting helicopter. As you fly away to safety you see the blaze you created glowing steadily. The pilot calls to dispatch the nearest fire authority to contain the fire. You sit back and try to relax, cradling your injured arm. You can only guess that the Covenant was behind the ambush that resulted in the unfortunate death of man who had a wealth of knowledge of Rambaldi, and may have been useful working against the Covenant. You had learned long ago how to compartmentalize the feelings that arise from seeing the deaths of the people around you, but a part of you still clings to all those lost, creating difficult feelings that take a while to let go of. Part of you would rather not have to go through those feelings, but another reminds you that those feelings keep you human in the face of inhumanity.

Blink.

Home at last; well, your second home at least. Upon entering the Ops Center, the Cube is rushed into analysis and Vaughn rushes you to the medical unit to have your arm tended to. Insisting to Kendall that the mission’s debrief can wait until the next day, Vaughn takes you home to rest. Riding in the car, he glances at you worriedly when you wince and shift your arm, hating to see you in any kind of pain. Reaching the house, he opens the door for you and you’re soon in bed. Vaughn joins you, wrapping his arm around you, and his statement makes you realize that your face must be showing more pain than you thought.

“Syd, there was nothing you could do for Lazarey. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“I’m not, Vaughn, but—“

“No ‘buts.’ Just rest.”

You sigh and smile a little. “I love that you love to take care of me.”

He smiled too. “It’s my job. You’re my asset. And you’re almost my wife.”

“Three more weeks,” you sigh contentedly.

“Your dad hasn’t killed me yet, so I think we’re good to go.”

You laugh and sink into Vaughn’s embrace letting his warmth ease your pains.

‘This is how it’s supposed to be,’ you think as you drift off into a peaceful sleep.



TBC
 
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