A/N: There's your daily dose...
Chapter 4
For the last two hours, Vaughn had been watching Sydney sleep. His back to the tree where she had sat before, he could hear her breathe peacefully. It was too dark to see her face well, but he could easily imagine her, lips almost imperceptibly curled into a tiny smile, hair framing her face, looking like an angel.
He felt strangely sad about them soon parting ways. Yes, destiny was a weird thing. Their paths had crossed only for a few hours, but she had made an undeletable impression on him. He already knew what an incredible human being she was. She was strong, courageous, fearless, but she was also a nice, funny, warm person, he could sense it. She had this sadness in her eyes that had him really intrigued. What could have possibly happened to her to leave her so lost and so empty?
«Maybe I like her.», he thought. Or maybe it was just this habit he had of falling for handicapped puppies or to cheer for the underdog when watching sports on TV. Sydney Bristow was a broken person and he wanted to make her feel better. That was probably it.
Vaughn sighed and gazed at the stars above him. He couldn’t like her. After all, he didn’t believe in love anymore. Since he had broken up with Alice, a few months ago, he wasn’t sure such a thing existed. He and Alice had been together for seven years, during which his illusions about relationships had been destroyed one by one. Yeah, at first he thought she was so beautiful, generous, funny and… Everything was so great between them. But slowly, things changed.
He had given this relationship all he had. Seven years later, he was left with nothing. Love was just an illusion. Love is need and need is love, he had once heard in a song. Was love just the need not to be alone? Was it worth it?
Looking at his watch, Vaughn sighed again. The helicopter was scheduled to arrive in ten minutes. He would have to wake Sydney up and he hated it, knowing just how much she needed to rest.
Just as he moved his arm to touch her shoulder, he heard his body heat detector beep. He hadn’t tuned it off, just in case. Vaughn grabbed it and saw it indicated six people in a two hundred feet radius. He hurriedly took his gun and woke up Sydney.
«Sydney! Wake up! There are people coming!»
«What!?!»
But he didn’t have to repeat. A second later she was up, gun firmly in her hand, scanning the area with her eyes.
«There seems to be six of them. It doesn’t look that they know we’re here yet. We have a chance.», he stated.
«Call the helicopter. They can’t extract us now, it’s too dangerous.»
«You’re right.»
Vaughn quickly grabbed his sat phone.
«Base Ops, this is Boy Scout! Abort extraction! I repeat: abort extraction!», he said, trying to keep his voice down.
«Boy Scout, what’s going on?»
«Six men are coming toward us! It’s too risky for you to come down!»
«I copy! Contact us later, Boy Scout!»
Vaughn disconnected and turned to Sydney. She had a look of fierce determination on her face.
«Okay. They’re probably following our trail, but they may not know we’re here. I think we should split. I’ll get them from behind. You stay here and take care of the head of the group. Try to be as silent as you can. Maybe we can get out of here without them giving the alarm.»
She was giving him the plan. His male ego was a little bruised by that, but he had no time to dwell on it. She was right, and they needed to act fast.
«Got it.»
«Let’s go.»
«Sydney, wait. I’ll hide the bag here, behind this tree. If something goes wrong… just take it and go.»
«It won’t happen.», she said firmly, looking him straight in the eyes.
Then, without another word, Sydney disappeared into the forest. Vaughn felt a knot in his stomach. Would she be okay?
But he didn’t have time to think further than that.
He had a job to do.
*****
Vaughn looked at the North Korean soldier lying on the ground in front of him. He was the third one he had knocked unconscious. Like the others, he would stay that way for long minutes, he had made sure of that.
He swiftly got a hold of the man’s radio, just like he had done with the previous two in order to make sure they wouldn’t call back up. He just hoped they hadn’t done such a thing yet.
A second later, leaving the inanimate body at his feet, Vaughn carefully made his way further into the forest, looking for Sydney. He found her just in time to see her elbowing a soldier in the head, causing him to fall to the ground immediately.
«And… three.», she stated when she saw Vaughn coming.
«Are you okay?»
«Yeah, I am…»
«What about your arm?», he asked, concerned.
«It’s okay. Just a little sore.»»
«Gee, I’d hate to see what you can do when you’re 100% well. That poor guy is going to be out of it for hours…», he said, smiling, referring to the last soldier she had taken out.
He could hear her laugh softly in the darkness.
«Have you got your share?», she asked after a few seconds.
«Yeah. We can call the helicopter back.»
«No. It’s too dangerous. They are probably looking for us. It won’t be long until this forest is crawling with a lot more than six North Koreans military. We’ve got to move.»
«I know someone who could help us.»
They quickly got back to the clearing and Vaughn retrieved his bag. Hurriedly, he dug up the sat phone and dialled a number. Almost immediately, he heard a woman’s voice in his ear.
«Hello?»
«I need to speak with Miss Covarrubius.»
«This is she. Who’s speaking?»
«This is Mister X.»
There was a short silence on the other end of the line.
«What can I do for you?», she finally asked.
Vaughn quickly explained to her where they were and what they needed; a place to hide, passports, new clothes. His contact assured him there would be no problem. He hung up and his eyes met Sydney’s.
«It’s okay. A jeep will be waiting for us on the side of the road, about 10 miles from here. Inside it will be directions to get to a safehouse. Passports too. From there we’ll get the CIA to extract us.»
«Great.»
******