SkyGirl5
Cadet
Title: Shades of Blue
Summary: At first, Sydney Bristow finds Michael Vaughn to be the slightly quirky tech support man in her office, but a chance meeting a year later just might change her mind.
Completed: 20 Chapters + Epilogue
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Chapter 1 (below) Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16
Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 + Epilogue
Chapter 1
~ June, 2005 ~
“Oh Michael thank god!” Sydney Bristow sighed with great relief at the sight of her office’s tech support employee. “It’s been beeping at me and… I dunno what to do,” she said in a rather helpless tone, pointing at her computer monitor.
“I got it,” Michael said. He took a seat in the chair she vacated, pushed his dark rimmed glasses further up on his nose and peered down at the screen. “Oh, this is easy. You just hit control, alt, delete, hit end program and then you’re done; all better,” he said after doing the task he’d just explained.
Sydney laughed slightly sideling slowly back to her computer, her absolute least favorite and burdening possession. “Okay, well I have no idea what you just said but thank you!”
“N-no problem,” he stammered slightly at the sight of her cavernous dimples. “I’ll just…,” he let his voice drift off while gesturing towards the door. He got out of her chair, tripping slightly on the way, and made his way towards the exit as quickly as possible.
Michael cursed himself the entire way back to his office. Why did he have to become such a goon around her? Only because she was positively perfect, he answered his own question within his thoughts. For two years he had worked at Xavier Publishing, a business specializing in making flyers, pamphlets and small newspapers for the surrounding area, and for two years he had pined away for Sydney Bristow. Though she wasn’t technically his boss, she was the highest ranking person in their tiny branch office of the larger company. It wasn’t her power he was attracted to, though; it was her, every part of her.
From the moment he saw her sauntering down the hallway on his first day of work, he was a goner. Everything from the way her hair fell gently around her face to the way she’d tap her left foot on the ground while waiting for the coffee pot to finish making a fresh batch of precious brown liquid made him want to hold her. True, they had never had more than a few sentence conversation and, even then, it was about computer related issues, but it didn’t matter. He still loved her. The only problem was, she seemed to be rather indifferent towards him. She wasn’t seeing anyone, though, this he knew. Her secretary was Michael’s closest friend in their office and, when he asked her if anyone seeming to be a boyfriend ever called for Sydney, the secretary had said no.
Despite this knowledge, Michael couldn’t work up the courage to say anything to her. Sure, he could talk about computer issues with anyone from day to night if necessary, but he knew she didn’t want to hear about those. What he had gathered from watching her from afar (in the most non-stalker-ish way possible) was that she loved sappy romance novels. She was almost always reading one during her lunch break along with a tissue clutched in her hand. Also, she only ate red apples, never yellow or green, and she’d eat her yogurt with a fork (something he couldn’t understand, but yet saw her do frequently). He only hoped that maybe one day he’d be able to talk to her, even if it was just about the weather.
~*~
“Michael Vaughn you are the most pathetic twenty-eight year old man ever in the history of the world,” his best friend Eric Weiss told him later that evening. They were sitting on the couch playing video games at their shared apartment, a frequent activity for the two self-proclaimed geeks.
“Says the man in the ducky pajamas,” Michael said with a pointed look towards Eric’s pants.
Slightly miffed, Eric grumbled. “This isn’t about me; this is about you and your sad, sad life.”
“Thanks for the pep talk Eric…”
“I’m serious. You’re thinking about her again, aren’t you? Don’t lie, I know you are. You’ve got that hazy look and you’re drooling,” Eric pointed out.
Michael quickly wiped the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m not drooling and I’m just… reliving the horrible scenario in Sydney’s office today in my mind…”
“What horrible scenario? Did she throw herself down on her desk, begging you to ravish her and then you forgot how to unhook a bra?” Eric asked, obviously finding his joke hilarious due to the fact that he couldn’t even say it without laughing.
Michael gave him an unamused look. “No. I just sorta… tripped on my way out of her office…”
Eric laughed, “See, I told you you’re pathetic.” Michael threw down his game controller and stalked away from the couch into the kitchen. “Man, come on – I’m kidding, well, sort of anyway. You are pathetic but only because you won’t ask her out already. She’d totally say yes!”
“You think?!” Michael asked, sounding very hopeful.
“Well… probably,” Eric said, hedging slightly. Michael’s entire body slumped forward as he muttered something unpleasant towards Eric under his breath. “Well… I mean… you’re a great guy Mike so if she said no it’d be her loss. Seriously, though, you should go for it… but maybe without the glasses?” he suggested with a slight cringe.
“Then I wouldn’t be able to see,” Michael said, pushing his frames further up on his nose.
“Contacts, you idiot…”
Michael shivered slightly. “Can’t touch my eye, ew,” he said. Then, after finishing the bottle of water in his hand, he tossed it into the trashcan and bid Eric goodnight.
When getting ready for bed that evening, he took a long look at his reflection in the mirror. Was he really that hideous? Or, more importantly, was he that invisible? He tried to take a good, objective look at himself, but found it difficult. True, he had the glasses, but he didn’t think they were that bad. His previous pair of frames had been awful, but his new ones, well ‘new’ from six months prior, he really liked. Besides the glasses, he had green eyes, which his high school girlfriend had loved, sandy blonde hair and a chin dimple, which his college girlfriend had adored.
After scrutinizing his appearance and picking at himself for an amount of time Eric would have dubbed ‘chick-like’, Michael decided that invisibility was his problem. He wasn’t vocal enough around Sydney; he needed to start being more outgoing. This, of course, was easier said than done, being that he was a naturally shy person, but he could always try it, right? What was the worst that could happen?
“I could say something completely idiotic and she could laugh at me,” he answered his own question aloud. Sighing, he left the bathroom and went into his bedroom, where he crawled under the sheets of his bed. Tomorrow was another day; a day he was going to try to talk to Sydney Bristow.
Summary: At first, Sydney Bristow finds Michael Vaughn to be the slightly quirky tech support man in her office, but a chance meeting a year later just might change her mind.
Completed: 20 Chapters + Epilogue
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 1 (below) Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16
Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 + Epilogue
Chapter 1
~ June, 2005 ~
“Oh Michael thank god!” Sydney Bristow sighed with great relief at the sight of her office’s tech support employee. “It’s been beeping at me and… I dunno what to do,” she said in a rather helpless tone, pointing at her computer monitor.
“I got it,” Michael said. He took a seat in the chair she vacated, pushed his dark rimmed glasses further up on his nose and peered down at the screen. “Oh, this is easy. You just hit control, alt, delete, hit end program and then you’re done; all better,” he said after doing the task he’d just explained.
Sydney laughed slightly sideling slowly back to her computer, her absolute least favorite and burdening possession. “Okay, well I have no idea what you just said but thank you!”
“N-no problem,” he stammered slightly at the sight of her cavernous dimples. “I’ll just…,” he let his voice drift off while gesturing towards the door. He got out of her chair, tripping slightly on the way, and made his way towards the exit as quickly as possible.
Michael cursed himself the entire way back to his office. Why did he have to become such a goon around her? Only because she was positively perfect, he answered his own question within his thoughts. For two years he had worked at Xavier Publishing, a business specializing in making flyers, pamphlets and small newspapers for the surrounding area, and for two years he had pined away for Sydney Bristow. Though she wasn’t technically his boss, she was the highest ranking person in their tiny branch office of the larger company. It wasn’t her power he was attracted to, though; it was her, every part of her.
From the moment he saw her sauntering down the hallway on his first day of work, he was a goner. Everything from the way her hair fell gently around her face to the way she’d tap her left foot on the ground while waiting for the coffee pot to finish making a fresh batch of precious brown liquid made him want to hold her. True, they had never had more than a few sentence conversation and, even then, it was about computer related issues, but it didn’t matter. He still loved her. The only problem was, she seemed to be rather indifferent towards him. She wasn’t seeing anyone, though, this he knew. Her secretary was Michael’s closest friend in their office and, when he asked her if anyone seeming to be a boyfriend ever called for Sydney, the secretary had said no.
Despite this knowledge, Michael couldn’t work up the courage to say anything to her. Sure, he could talk about computer issues with anyone from day to night if necessary, but he knew she didn’t want to hear about those. What he had gathered from watching her from afar (in the most non-stalker-ish way possible) was that she loved sappy romance novels. She was almost always reading one during her lunch break along with a tissue clutched in her hand. Also, she only ate red apples, never yellow or green, and she’d eat her yogurt with a fork (something he couldn’t understand, but yet saw her do frequently). He only hoped that maybe one day he’d be able to talk to her, even if it was just about the weather.
~*~
“Michael Vaughn you are the most pathetic twenty-eight year old man ever in the history of the world,” his best friend Eric Weiss told him later that evening. They were sitting on the couch playing video games at their shared apartment, a frequent activity for the two self-proclaimed geeks.
“Says the man in the ducky pajamas,” Michael said with a pointed look towards Eric’s pants.
Slightly miffed, Eric grumbled. “This isn’t about me; this is about you and your sad, sad life.”
“Thanks for the pep talk Eric…”
“I’m serious. You’re thinking about her again, aren’t you? Don’t lie, I know you are. You’ve got that hazy look and you’re drooling,” Eric pointed out.
Michael quickly wiped the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m not drooling and I’m just… reliving the horrible scenario in Sydney’s office today in my mind…”
“What horrible scenario? Did she throw herself down on her desk, begging you to ravish her and then you forgot how to unhook a bra?” Eric asked, obviously finding his joke hilarious due to the fact that he couldn’t even say it without laughing.
Michael gave him an unamused look. “No. I just sorta… tripped on my way out of her office…”
Eric laughed, “See, I told you you’re pathetic.” Michael threw down his game controller and stalked away from the couch into the kitchen. “Man, come on – I’m kidding, well, sort of anyway. You are pathetic but only because you won’t ask her out already. She’d totally say yes!”
“You think?!” Michael asked, sounding very hopeful.
“Well… probably,” Eric said, hedging slightly. Michael’s entire body slumped forward as he muttered something unpleasant towards Eric under his breath. “Well… I mean… you’re a great guy Mike so if she said no it’d be her loss. Seriously, though, you should go for it… but maybe without the glasses?” he suggested with a slight cringe.
“Then I wouldn’t be able to see,” Michael said, pushing his frames further up on his nose.
“Contacts, you idiot…”
Michael shivered slightly. “Can’t touch my eye, ew,” he said. Then, after finishing the bottle of water in his hand, he tossed it into the trashcan and bid Eric goodnight.
When getting ready for bed that evening, he took a long look at his reflection in the mirror. Was he really that hideous? Or, more importantly, was he that invisible? He tried to take a good, objective look at himself, but found it difficult. True, he had the glasses, but he didn’t think they were that bad. His previous pair of frames had been awful, but his new ones, well ‘new’ from six months prior, he really liked. Besides the glasses, he had green eyes, which his high school girlfriend had loved, sandy blonde hair and a chin dimple, which his college girlfriend had adored.
After scrutinizing his appearance and picking at himself for an amount of time Eric would have dubbed ‘chick-like’, Michael decided that invisibility was his problem. He wasn’t vocal enough around Sydney; he needed to start being more outgoing. This, of course, was easier said than done, being that he was a naturally shy person, but he could always try it, right? What was the worst that could happen?
“I could say something completely idiotic and she could laugh at me,” he answered his own question aloud. Sighing, he left the bathroom and went into his bedroom, where he crawled under the sheets of his bed. Tomorrow was another day; a day he was going to try to talk to Sydney Bristow.
