Chapter Three
The next morning, Sydney rolled out of bed at a rather late hour. Usually she got up with the sun to go for a morning job in the Park, but the previous night’s festivities had left her a little worn out. She smiled as she noticed a note for her on the bedside table.
It seemed that Sark had to go into work. The deal he had been so frustrated with the day before had started to work out its kinks. He needed to close the deal that afternoon. At the end of the note, he reminded her to call her offices to let them know she was taking a leave of absence. And said he would be coming home to her as soon as he could manage.
For a moment, she forgot what he was referring to when he told her to make sure she took a leave of absence. But then the previous nights events, good and bad, came flooding back into her mind. Vaughn had called asking for her help in rescuing his kidnapped son. Sydney still couldn’t believe that he had a son and she didn’t even know about it. True, her goal was to keep their lives as separate as she could, but it still shook her up a little.
Because when she had broken contact with him, she had done it right. She had made sure that no news of his life with Lauren came in front of her eyes. She thought that was what she wanted, but it was only now she was realizing what a mistake that had been.
True, Vaughn had been her boyfriend and lover three years ago. But first he had been her friend and the only man she thought she could trust. He had helped her through one of the most difficult times of her life. That perfect relationship had changed slightly when she disappeared for two years. She couldn’t fault either one of them for that.
Sydney couldn’t help but feel a little saddened by the fact that she wasn’t a part of Michael Vaughn’s life anymore. She should never have broken contact with a man who had been so loyal to her through it all. That was becoming clear to her now. And she was secure enough in the love she shared with her fiancé that she knew it was the right time to be fixing this rift.
She made a quick call into the Irina offices to let her assistant know that she was taking an undetermined leave of absence and wouldn’t know when she was going to get back. She called it a family emergency and was pleased to realize that phrasing it that way seemed almost right. She would always consider her old colleagues, Dixon, Marshall, Vaughn, part of her family.
Having gotten her only piece of business out of the way, she dialed a number she had tried to forget so many years ago. He answered on the first ring.
“Vaughn. It’s me, Sydney.”
“You got my message,” he said simply.
“We got your message,” she subtly corrected. She didn’t want Vaughn to forget that when he talked about her, he also got Sark in the deal. “I’m sorry to hear about what happened.”
Vaughn sighed. “Before we get into this whole mess, Syd, I want to apologize.”
“For what?”
“For not trying to keep in contact with you. For letting you faze me out of your life without putting up a fight. For not inviting you to my son’s christening. For not finding some way to let you know that I had a son. There are so many things.”
“It’s all right, Vaughn. It’s not like I kept you informed of the events going on in my life.”
“That’s true. But all the same, I’m sorry.”
“Water under the bridge.” She smiled, imagining that old worry look playing its way across his face. “I called to let you know that I’m at your disposal.”
“You don’t know how much that means to me,” he said.
“And I also wanted to let you know that Sark is coming with me to Los Angeles. You want one of us, you get us both. That’s the way things work.”
“Syd, I’ve accepted the choices you’ve made in your life. When you first made them, I didn’t understand. But I don’t want it to be that way anymore. I know there must be some good reasoning behind them. And the fact that you’ve put up with the guy for two years is test enough to the way things have changed. Besides, it’ll make this whole situation that much better. I may never have liked the guy, but he was always good at what he did.”
“The best,” Sydney said, smiling to herself.
“No. He was never as good as you, Syd.”
“He’s an asset either way. So, I think we can get to L.A. by tomorrow morning. There are some loose ends we need to tie up here in the city before we leave.”
“I heard that you were settled into New York now. And running an extremely successful clothing company.”
“Michael Vaughn, have you been keeping tabs on me?” she teased.
She could hear him laugh on the other end of the phone before answering. “Yes and no. You don’t lead that private a life, Syd. I mean, you’re one of the top executives in the city. Your company is named after your mother. Even if I didn’t know you were living in Manhattan, the sudden appearance of a clothing company named Irina would peak my interest.”
“It was a difficult decision to name it after my mother,” she admitted. “But it was the only name that felt right.”
“Have you heard from your mother these past two years?” Vaughn asked.
She paused to form her response. “Not a word. But I know she’s out there somewhere. And if I ever need her, I truly believe she would be here in a second. Even after all my mother’s done, I know that she loves me. She never intended to have me when she was assigned to seek out and marry an American CIA agent.”
“I can understand that now…”
“Now that you’re a father,” Sydney finished. “How is Lauren doing? I assume that she is the mother.”
Vaughn chuckled. “Yes, she is the mother. Unless for some crazy reason this whole pregnancy has something to do with Rambaldi. Then, I fear that it will turn up that the baby is not even mine, but probably your father’s by Emily Sloane, or something crazy like that.”
“Don’t joke about stuff like that if you don’t want it to come true.”
There was silence on the line for a moment before Vaughn spoke. “I miss talking to you, Syd.”
“I miss talking to you, too. We’ll never be in the place we once were, I know that. But it really is a shame that we let it get this far.” Sydney turned as she heard the elevator doors open into their penthouse. “I’m going to have to go.”
“He just came home, didn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Sydney smiled at the man she loved. He mouthed the word ‘Vaughn?’ to her and pointed at the phone. She nodded. He smiled and went about sorting through their mail without another thought.
“I feel like the other man,” Vaughn said with a laugh.
“Don’t feel that way. He knows all about what’s going on. It’s not like I’m hiding any of this from him.”
“That’s good. I wouldn’t want this to cause even more problems then it already is. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Are the offices in the same place?”
“Haven’t moved. Do you want me to let Jack know you’re coming?”
“No. I can call him later, and anyway, your machine message seemed to imply that he knows you were propositioning me.”
“He told me not to count on you saying yes.”
“Typical,” she said with a laugh. “My father was just preparing you, in case I had changed from the woman you once knew.”
“You haven’t, Syd. You’re still there for me when I need you the most.”
“Always,” she said as she hung up the phone. She turned around and looked at where Sark was sitting on the couch. He didn’t notice her looking at him, which gave her a few precious moments to just observe the way he held himself. This was one of her favorite things to do. The coolness, the assuredness, the firmness of his stature always amazed her. He was such a powerful man, but she knew there were so many more facets to him.
Without looking up, Sark said, “Would you stop staring at me and get over here?”
She laughed lightly to herself and practically skipped her way to sit down next to him on the couch. Without thought, he put his arm around her and pulled her close, not looking up from the newspaper he had begun to read.
“Good day?” she asked.
“The best. I used the good momentum to insure that the organization can be run by a few of my trusted colleagues for as long as need be. How’s Irina doing?”
“My mother or the company?”
“Both,” he answered.
“The company seems to be doing fine. My absence shouldn’t be a problem. My mother, on the other hand…”
“She went off on one of her mysterious trips again, didn’t she?”
“Yes.” Sydney looked up at him. “I started to repair my relationship with Vaughn today.”
“Good. I always respected the way that man treated you.” He glanced up from the paper as he realized something. “Except for that time in Belize when he was jealous of me and actually caused you pain. I could have killed the bastard for that.”
“He was just concerned. I had just switched over to the side of our main adversary. It wasn’t the kind of decision he could just let fly by without questioning.” She sighed and snuggled in closer. “We seemed to be getting back to the old, familiar footing. I would be happy except for the fact that I lied to him already.”
“About your mother?” Sark asked, putting two and two together. He set the paper down on the table to give her his full attention.
“I told him that I hadn’t heard from her in the past two years. That I had no idea what she was up to, but I knew that she wasn’t doing anything that would put me in danger.”
“Now, Sydney, you know you couldn’t have really told him what your mother has been up to for the past two years.”
“I know. It was never easy to blatantly lie to him, though.”
“But you got through it.” Sark kissed her lightly on the top of the head. “So are we going to Los Angeles tomorrow?”
“If the private jet is available, yes. I’m sorry for uprooting your life, even if it’s only for a short while.”
“My life is wherever you are, Sydney. I’ve told you that a million times. That’s never going to change.” He grasped her hand. “Especially not with this on your finger.”
“I didn’t tell him about it,” she stated.
“You will eventually. This isn’t really the proper time.”
“I don’t intend to hide it, though.”
“I wouldn’t expect you, too.” Sark stood up. “Come on. Why don’t you and I take an early flight out to Los Angeles and get reacquainted with the area before dropping in on Vaughn and Lauren?”
Sydney pulled herself out of her arms and looked at him suspiciously. “I just remembered something. Didn’t you used to have a crush on Lauren back when?”
“I admired the lady for standing up to you. Not many people were capable of that at the time. I think she and I could have formed a We Aren’t Scared of Sydney Bristow club, but we would be the only two members. I never had a crush on her, though. No one could take the place of you in my heart. To be honest, the moment you walked through the door, I couldn’t really think of any other woman in the same way.”
“Good answer,” Sydney said as she snuggled back down. “Let’s stay here for a little bit before leaving. I want to remember this moment for a long time. It might take us a while before we get back to it.”
Sark let her cryptic comment go without remark. Her words echoed through his mind, though. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this trip was going to prove to be a little more difficult than anticipated.
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Stephanie Conway hung up the phone and turned to her partner. “It’s done. He called her.”
Weiss smiled at his girlfriend. “Sydney’s back in the game.”