That Summer

SkyGirl5

Cadet
:hi:

Title: That Summer
Genre: S/v, AU, angst
Summary: The summer he was twenty-seven years old changed his life when a former classmate named Sydney Bristow blows back into his life.

20 Chapters [plus eppy & prologue]
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Prologue(below) Chapter 1 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, 19, 20 + Epilogue



Prologue
The summer I was twenty-seven years old was one I’ll always remember. That summer was both the best and hardest summer of my live thus far. Now, at my old age of sixty-nine, I believe it’s safe to say it will continue to be the best and hardest of my life. I learned important lessons about life in those short months, up until that point having been a rather jaded young man who was waiting for an ivory life to begin. Mostly, though, I learned something important about myself that year.

Until then, you see, I believed two things were indisputably true about the world. First, that love doesn’t last forever. Second, that no matter how much you pray or wish, in the end, it’s only a waste of time and you’ll only be let down when, at the end of the day, your wishes and prayers fade away, never even close to coming true.

How did I become so cynical, you may wonder? Well, it’s simple really. When I was younger - much, much younger – five, maybe six perhaps, I believed that my family was the best in the world. I thought my parents were so in love and perfect for one another. I thought that’s how it would be forever. I couldn’t have known it at the time, being so young, that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My daddy was a drunk, an abusive one at that. He never hit me, though I suspected he’d try to on occasion; for some reason she was always his target. As I grew older, I’d notice the bruises and cuts and I’d wake up during the night to hear their screaming. Finally, when I was eleven, it all came to a head when my daddy was arrested for assault – not on my mama, though, on someone at a bar where he was getting wasted.

A few years later, he was released from jail, came back - still drunk, mind you - and attacked my mama once more. That’s when I realized that love doesn’t last forever. It can’t; it’s not possible. This, you see, is how I came to my second belief about life.

All those nights I’d pray. I’d pray for the screaming to stop. I’d pray for my daddy to stop hurting my mama; hurting us. I’d wish he’d go away and once he was gone I’d wish he’d never come back. A lot of good that did me…

Praying doesn’t work. The town where we live has a lot of those crazy religion preaching people who think everything can be solved, as long as you pray enough that is. Well, that’s all fine and dandy for them, but what about the rest of us? Those of us who live in the real world? You can pray to God every night and every morning until you’re old and grey like I am now, but He isn’t always going to listen, how could He? There are six billion people in this world (well, there were less back then) and He couldn’t possibly listen to them all.

That’s what I thought anyway, but by the end of that summer I knew for certain that at least one of my beliefs about the world was utterly wrong. Now, only a few month’s shy of my seventieth year on this earth, I know, without a doubt, that both of them were wrong.

So, what about that summer was so earth shattering? Well, I’ll tell you. Her name was Sydney Bristow.


so, incse you didnt figure it out from that, this fic is a little sad/angsty ;)
 
Hum... Is Sydney dead?
Vaughn was not a happy person back then, but I don't think he sounds very thrilled right now.
 
for the first time, i have absolutely no idea where you're taking this, which is why i'll be stalking you tomorrow night waiting for your update! intriguing :P
 
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