<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Where We Were At</span>
chapterSIX
Previously On Where We Were At…
It was her mother, badly wounded with at least a dozen stabs on her body.
---
“Who did this to you?” Sydney demanded – even though she thought she knew the answer - as they settled Irina, who was drifting in and out of consciousness, on their couch, and Vaughn stood there, on the phone with Kendall.
“The ambulance’s coming in five minutes, and Kendall is coming down personally,” Vaughn informed as he placed the phone back in its cradle. Sydney nodded mutely as she looked at her mother.
“Vaughn…”
“Yeah?” He squeezed her shoulders, trying to provide a source of comfort. She stood up, faced him, and took a deep breath.
“Vaughn… In our future… There are some things that I haven’t been open about; to you, to anyone else. There are a lot of things that you don’t know, that I haven’t told you about, and I’m sorry about that.”
“Syd… I hate to say this… but this isn’t the best time for this.”
“No, this is exactly the perfect time for this. Remember what Lauren said to me? As you shot her, she gave me the number for the bank vault in Wittenberg. You’ve prodded me, but I haven’t been able to give you a straight answer. I haven’t been able to anybody, Vaughn.”
“Sydney…”
“I have to do this, Vaughn. In the bank vault in Wittenberg were papers, papers that stated that my father had issued the elimination of Irina Derevko. I think this,” she motioned to her mother, “was the doing of my father.”
Vaughn’s eyebrows shot up like twin rockets launched, but before he could say anything, the door opened and a team of medics and agents walked in, together with Kendall and Weiss.
“Dude, we’ve got to get her to the hospital fast,” Weiss stated as he took an overview of Irina’s wounds. Vaughn nodded to the medics, and they lifted her onto a stretcher, before carrying her into the hospital.
---
“You did this.”
“Sydney. What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Dad, you almost killed Mum,” she snapped, not bothered to mark the disgust and anger in her voice. Jack looked taken aback, but the façade came back on almost immediately.
“I’m sorry, Sydney, but you must be mistaken.”
“Just admit it. All I want to know is why.”
“I really don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I found papers in a vault at a bank in Wittenberg, in the future. Papers that approved of your,” she made air quotes with her fingers, “‘elimination of Irina Derevko’ – ”
“She put a hit on you.”
“Excuse me?”
“She had someone hired to kill you. If not for the fire; or Agent Vaughn’s presence, you would have be taken and held captive, or worse, killed. I had no choice.”
“This is bulls***. She wouldn’t have done that.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe my words, but Irina Derevko will be held in custody once she recovers,” he said, matter-of-factly. Sydney stared at him.
“You only meant to injure her, didn’t you? None of the wounds were even near fatal. You didn’t want to kill her.”
He just looked at her, his gaze steely and focused. There was a moment of awkward silence before he picked a file up.
“Kendall wants the team at the briefing room in 30 minutes. And, for the record, this conversation never did take place.”
---
Sydney sought solace in Vaughn’s arms after the meeting. He looked mildly surprised as he saw the tears roll down her cheeks, and he figured that this outbreak had something to do with her mother. He pressed her closer to his body, and after a few minutes of comfort, Sydney finally raised her head and met his eyes.
”I’m sorry, Vaughn, but all of this has been too overwhelming for me,” her voice breaking. He stroked her hair and held her again.
“It’s okay, Syd, it’s okay,” he whispered. A few moments later, she broke free of the embrace. Using her hand to wipe the tears, she laughed.
“You must think I’m really silly.”
“I don’t. I can only imagine what you are feeling right now.”
“It’s just… My father almost killed my mother. Not forgetting the entire debacle with the fact that we’re rewriting history.” Sydney sniffed. Vaughn just smiled at her and held her hand, then looked around to see who was looking or listening to them. No one was.
“We’re rewriting history for a good cause. For our cause. For the Agency. We’ve got to bring the Covenant down, starting from Lauren. After that, we can do whatever we like. There won’t be anything to stop us anymore. Not Lauren. Not The Covenant. Not anything else.”
“I hope that’s true.”
“It will. We will make that happen.”
So she smiled, her eyes still glistening from the tears that fell down just a few minutes ago, and she took a deep breath before heading out to the door.
“I’m going to visit Will later. Wanna come along?”
---
Eventually Vaughn went along with Sydney to the hospital, but he wandered around the hospital while Sydney went in to catch up with her old friend. He chanced upon the maternity wards, and stood behind the glass overlooking the nursery.
Smiling to himself, he let his mind wander to a far-beyond place; a place that could never be a reality back in the future. But now… He smiled.
One day, he decided,
one day, Sydney and I will have a family of our own. People I will love without any hesitation or questions. He smiled politely at one of the nurses passing by.
One day.
---
“So, I was just telling her how Lynn hired me after that disastrous bump in the elevator, and, well, she’s pretty amused. Syd, I think she has a crush on me.”
“Will, are you sure that’s not your ego talking? Maybe she’s just a really nice person who really didn’t want to listen to your little anecdotes,” Sydney kidded, then gave him a friendly shove to show him that she was kidding. Will managed a fake pout, then broke into a grin.
“Nah, I’m almost sure. Will Tippin, female magnet! I mean, besides all the girls that Amy’s introduced to me, and Francie…” he stopped short. Sydney reached for his hand and squeezed it.
“I’m sure she’s happy.”
He smiled wistfully.
“God, Syd, I miss her.”
“I miss her too, but I’m sure she’d want us to be happy. She wouldn’t want us to mourn for her. You know her, she’d probably want us to name a dish after her,” she managed, choking a little laugh.
Just then, the door opened and his doctor walked in, a little bounce in her step. Will grinned, and sat up straighter.
“Sydney, meet Rae Phillips. Rae, this is Sydney Bristow.”
“Hey, hi, nice to meet you,” Sydney said, her dimples deepening as she offered her hand for a shake. Rae grinned as well, and shook her hand.
“Nice to meet you too. Will’s been telling me a lot about you,” she replied, and as Sydney stuck her tongue out at him, Will held his hand in mock defense. The two women laughed.
“Well, now that your doctor’s here, I guess I better get going. Vaughn must be tired of waiting outside,” Sydney said, moving towards the door. Will waved goodbye and Rae smiled at her; and she turned the knob of the door, though not before she mouthed
‘Go get her!’ to him.
She couldn’t find Vaughn when she stepped outside, and for a moment she felt panicked. She walked around while taking her mobile phone, when she bumped into him.
“Hey,” he said, smiling while pushing a few strands of her hair behind her ear. Her dimples showed again, then looked at where the both of them were standing.
“How did you get to this part of the hospital?” she asked, looking at all the babies in their cots, and smiled. She let out a sigh of contentment, and he put his arm over her shoulders.
“I was just walking around. Wanna go out for a dinner date?”
“Sounds like fun,” she grinned, and they walked out of the hospital, clasping their hands tightly around each other.
---
Jack walked into Irina’s ward in the dark. The unmistaken sound of a gun being cocked was heard.
A/N: Blah. Comment? Yay? Nay?
spymummy's been stabbed!!!!!!!! felgercarb!!!!!!
