Right In Front Of Me

I thought when Irina turned herself in 19 years before that everything was alright. Did something happen that they think Irina had a hand in?

Chris
 
Oh my God this is so sad :(
Why did they take her? What did she do?
It's a good thing that she had Michael to comfort her :smiley:
And it was so sweet when he called her honey :D It seemed so natural for him to do and that was really great :D
it was kind of funny too when his mom told him to put a shirt on, I wished I could have seen his face :smiley:
Please update again soon
 
Chapter 5
Amelia watched Sydney, a girl who she couldn’t have loved more if she was her own daughter, shake and tremble and her heart broke for her. She knew that Sydney didn’t know the truth, which made her utterly confused and thus terrified, but she wasn’t sure that Sydney finding out the truth was something that Jack and Irina wanted, so she could do nothing but give her reassuring smiles and squeezing her hand lightly.

Just as Michael came up from his shower (he had a room and complete bathroom in the basement), Sydney’s cell phone rang and she answered it quickly, “Dad?!”

“Yes, sweetheart, it’s me. Where are you?” he asked her.

“I’m with Amelia. Dad, what’s going on?”

“I’ll be home soon sweetheart; everything’s alright,” he told her before hanging up. Sydney whimpered and threw her cell down on the table rather violently.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked her as he walked up behind her and rubbed her back softly.

“They won’t tell me!” she wailed as she turned and buried her face in his chest. “Why won’t they tell me?! What are US Marshall’s anyway?!”

“I dunno,” Michael mumbled as he looked up at his mother.

“They work for the government,” Amelia offered.

“Really? Thanks,” Michael snapped sarcastically. Amelia just shrugged. Michael sighed and rubbed Sydney’s back. “Come on Syd, you’ve got to do something to get your mind off this… you wanna go play Nintendo? Come on, we haven’t done that since we were like twelve. I’ll let you wiiiin,” he enticed in a sing-song voice.

“Okay,” she sighed quietly. Michael led her down the stairs to the basement and dusted off his old video game player before handing Sydney one of the controls. She took it and stared down at it sadly.

“Syd, it’s gonna be okay,” Michael told her as he sat down beside her and put his arm around her. “I promise you.”

“Yeah…,” she said quietly. He kissed her temple and then switched on the game for them to play.

They played a few rounds of the game until they both realized that not only did they suck at it, but it wasn’t very entertaining either. After that Michael, who was determined to make Sydney smiled, began digging through all the old toys from their childhood, trying to find something amusing. Finally, he came across the box of things they used when they played ‘princess’ as Sydney called it. He pulled out the two plastic crowns and beaded jewels and brought them over to her.

He sat down next to her and put the beads around her neck and then the crown on her head. She looked over at him like had lost his mind. He then put the crown on his own head before adding the final, and best, touch – plastic clip-on earrings, which he clipped on his ears. When he did this, Sydney burst out laughing so hard that she nearly fell over. “You look… like… a moron!” she managed between bouts of laughter.

“But I made you laugh, didn’t I?” he smiled as he began to remove the fake earrings.

“No wait,” Sydney said as she quickly took off her jeweled necklace and put it around his neck. Then, she exchanged his crown with the one on her head (the more girly of the two). After that, she crawled over to the table beside his bed and pulled out his digital camera with a wicked smile.

“No Syd, don-” but before he could finish, she snapped the picture. “Great,” he grumbled.

“Come on, lemme take a good one,” she said as she crawled back over to him. She put her arm around his neck and held the camera out at arm’s length to take a picture of both of them.

“Fabulous,” Michael sighed after the picture was taken and he began pulling off the fake earrings.

Sydney grinned and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” he said.

“Okay, I’m gonna go show your mom!” she called out as she raced towards the stairs. Michael reached out to grab her and stop her but he was too slow; she was already bounding up the stairs shouting out, “Amelia! Look at this!”

~*~

Later that evening, Sydney was feeling slightly better as she ate dinner with the Vaughn’s and they were all laughing at Michael’s expense since Amelia had printed out the picture of her son and hung it on the refrigerator.

“Sheesh, ya try to be a nice guy and you get ridiculed for it!” he grumbled.

“Sorry,” Sydney smiled. “I do appreciate it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed. She reached over and squeezed his hand; he winked at her.

“SEE!” Amelia exclaimed. “You two are the perfect couple, I just don’t understand it!”

“Mom,” Michael groaned.

“Amelia quit meddling,” her husband warned.

“I’m not meddling,” she defended. “I’m simply pointing out what they don’t see.”

“Okay, we’re going for a walk,” Michael sighed as he grabbed Sydney’s hand and pulled her towards the back door. Both of them were so used to comments like the one Amelia had just made, they didn’t even bother them anymore; they simply ignored them.

“God… I just wish I knew my mom was okay,” Sydney sighed.

“I’m sure she is. I mean, your dad didn’t sound worried, did he?” Michael asked.

“Michael, my dad has never sounded worried or happy or… anything really,” Sydney pointed out.

“Oh, that’s not true. Remember when we kicked that soccer ball into the gas pipe at the side of your house. He was pretty worried then,” Michael pointed out.

“Michael, he was pissed off and frantic,” Sydney laughed.

“True,” Michael laughed back.

Sydney sighed and they kept walking for a few minutes in silence. “I’m gonna miss this…”

“What?” he asked.

“This… us…,” she clarified.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it softly. “Me too.”

After a few more minutes of silence, Sydney asked cautiously, “Michael… can I stay with you tonight?”

He looked over at her and smiled. “Sure, of course.”

~*~

Later that evening, Sydney went home briefly to change into her PJs. She returned to the Vaughn’s basement, where Michael was arranging the blankets on his bed, knowing that Sydney would get cold, even though it was summer. The Vaughn’s had let Sydney stay in Michael’s double bed in the basement on one other occasion. It had been seven months earlier during their Christmas break when Michael was scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed. When he was younger, he had had an awful experience with a dentist who tried to pull out one of his baby teeth, so though he tried to be brave, on the night before his scheduled surgery, he was terrorized. Sydney, who seemed to be the only one who could calm him down, stayed with him all night.

“She’ll be alright Syd, I know it,” Michael whispered to her once they were settled in his bed and Sydney was whimpering slightly. She rolled over, grabbed onto his arm and held it tightly the whole night.
 
I hope Irina comes back soon and explains everything to her daughter... I'm sure Michael will be there for her then.
Great chapter.
 
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