Chapter 1 - Complications

Eric Weiss was waiting in his office, seated with his feet hiked up on the desk, when Michael Vaughn walked in. Vaughn shut the door behind him, fairly certain that this was going to be a conversation he did not want overheard.

"Only 15 minutes late. Nice work." This with an exaggerated glance at his watch. He looked up and raised his eyebrows. "You left without saying goodbye last night."

It was the truth, and Vaughn had no response other than a glare.

"Seriously. That took all of two days," Weiss said. "That's gonna be bad for the office pool."

What? Shit. "There's a pool?"

The usual glint took over Weiss' eyes. "Just kidding," he said. "But if there was, I totally would have won. Or maybe there is and I just haven't heard about it."

"I find that hard to believe," Vaughn said, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk. "You know every little scrap of gossip in this place."

"Yeah," Weiss said. "But this one isn't going to be little once it gets out."

"Who says it's going to get out?"

Weiss stared at him. "I hate to break it to you, Vaughn, but if you don't wipe the goofy grin off of your face, people are going to figure it out pretty quick. In case you didn't notice, we work in intelligence."

Vaughn was well aware of the goofy grin. He had been involved in an ongoing battle with it since he had kissed Sydney goodbye that morning. With Weiss' reminder, he forced his face back to serious again.

"So," Weiss said, pausing as the glint in his eyes grew brighter. "Do I get to hear any of the sordid details?"

That earned him another glare from Vaughn. "No."

"Aw, come on," Weiss cajoled him. "You two put on the greatest public display of affection in history in the middle of that bar and you can't tell me anything?"

Had the kiss been that steamy? That part of the night was a blur for Vaughn. "Give me a break," he said. "It wasn't that bad."

"Ohh, hooo, no. I beg to differ with you there, buddy. I thought Will was going to toss his beer. You could literally see him turning green," Weiss said. "You know, he seems like a pretty cool guy, other than the fact that he wants to rip your guts out."

"Yeah," Vaughn said. "We had a little encounter this morning."

"Ouch." Weiss grimaced. "Fistfight, or awkward?"

"Awkward. The whole thing was awkward," Vaughn said. "Even me and Syd. We've known each other so long, but it still feels like things are moving really fast."

"Well, I could be wrong, but I'd think that being former agent and handler puts you in a pretty slim percentile, as relationships go," Weiss said.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, and a secretary slowly sticking her head inside. "Remember, you've got a meeting in ten minutes."

Weiss nodded, and she closed the door again.

"What meeting?" Vaughn asked.

"Devlin called a nine o'clock to discuss SD-4."

"Oh." It had made him late, but Vaughn was suddenly very glad he'd taken the time to change and shower. "We should probably get moving."

They both stood. "Again, Vaughn, you've gotta lose the goofy grin," Weiss told him.

"Can't this just be an 'I'm happy we took down SD-6' grin?"

"No. That would look like this." Weiss demonstrated. "And you would have been doing it yesterday. That grin, my friend, is the 'I just got laid' grin. Although I'll certainly take it over your usual combination of worrying and moping."

"Shut up," Vaughn snapped, opening the door.

Nonetheless, he found himself closely monitoring his facial expressions as they walked to the conference room. He found this was no longer necessary once they walked in. They were early enough that the room was still empty, save for Devlin and the one man — besides Will Tippin — that Vaughn would have preferred not seeing that morning.

"Good morning," Jack Bristow greeted them.

Vaughn forced himself to keep his voice and heartbeat steady. "Morning." He can't tell. There's no way he can tell. There's no way he knows you just slept with his daughter.

"Agent Vaughn, can I have a word with you?" So maybe Jack's psychic. Jack motioned for him to leave the conference room. Oh, shit.