Chapter 6 - A Proposition

Sydney sniffled one last time and blew her nose.

"Ready?" Vaughn asked. "I think you've got an inordinate amount of handshaking and paperwork ahead of you."

She took a deep breath and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "I think so...yeah."

They started walking toward the red door across the parking garage. "I believe you get the privilege of starting off with Devlin," Vaughn said. "Just to warn you, the CIA isn't going to want to lose you."

"As in, 'keep in touch, send us a postcard'?"

"As in there's no such thing as a retired spy," Vaughn said, bracing himself.

When Sydney finally spoke, her speech was stilted and forceful. "No. No way. Absolutely no way. This is it. I'm done."

He had expected this reaction, and was prepared. "Look, Sydney. I know right now that you can't even stand the thought of going on another mission. But I've seen you in the field. Hell, you may not know this, but you're practically a legend now at the CIA. You are too damn good at what you do to give it up."

His speech was not mixing well with her current fatigue, and she shouted at him, "What, bringing down SD-6 wasn't enough? 'Here, Sydney, give up a few more years of your life. While you're at it, why don't you risk it a couple hundred more times?'"

"It wouldn't be like that," he said, trying to stay calm and regretting unleashing her stubborn side. "Just an occasional mission, one that requires someone with your level of exp—"

"Absolutely not," she said, loud and firm. "This discussion is over."

"Forget I ever mentioned it," Vaughn said, slamming his hand against the biometric scanner next to the door, which they had long since reached. After he pounded a lengthy code into the numeric keypad below the scanner, the door clicked open.

Sydney was angry, flustered, ready to cry again, and certainly not ready for what was on the other side of the door. The entire CIA, it seemed, was waiting there to applaud her. She forced a weak smile on her face as the clapping died down, and began to shake hands with them.

Vaughn let this continue for a few minutes, then said. "Okay everyone. Agent Bristow really needs to get moving, unless you all want to help her with her paperwork."

A few of them chuckled. "Thank you all," Sydney said, forcing a broader smile. She started walking to Devlin's office. Vaughn nearly had to run to catch up with her. Not that it mattered, he thought. They walked the rest of the way in an uneasy silence.

Devlin's door was open when they arrived. "Ah, Agent Bristow," he said. "Let me start by congratulating you — and thanking you."

She walked in and shook his hand. "Thank you, sir."

Vaughn sensed he wasn't wanted there by either of them. "I'll be in my office," he said, closing the door before he walked away.

When he arrived there, he realized that he really had nothing to do. The coming days would be filled with analysis of evidence and interviews with SD-6 staff, but he had reserved this one for helping Sydney. He was pretty damn sure she didn't want his help now.

So Vaughn settled for twirling a silver dollar between his fingers and staring at the wall, which was what he was still doing 45 minutes later when he heard a soft knock on his door.

"Come in," he said, knowing Weiss would still be recovering evidence, and hoping it wasn't Haladki. I absolutely cannot handle that little asshole right now, he thought.

It was Sydney.

"Hi," he said, too surprised to think of anything else.

This amused her, and she leaned against the doorframe. "Hi," she said softly. "Look, I wanted to apologize."

"You don't need to. I shouldn't have said anything. Not today."

"No. You were just trying to warn me." She sighed. "Devlin did offer me a job."

"What did you say?"

"I told him absolutely not, and he said he understood that I needed some time to think about it."

"Good," he nodded.

"Anyway, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I just...didn't get any sleep last night, and this day has been..." she trailed off, searching for the right word, and eventually deciding that there was no right word.

"Completely understandable," he said, smiling at her. "Although I was a little concerned you were going to kick my ass back there in the parking garage."

They both laughed. "Come on," Vaughn said. "Let's get started on this paperwork so we can get you the hell out of here."

He set her up in an empty conference room with a couple of fresh pens, a large cup of coffee, a plateful of doughnuts and a very large stack of papers.

"We're going to need statements on everyone," he said. "What their jobs entailed, your observations of them, what you think they knew about SD-6."

"What's going to happen to them?" she asked. "Dixon? Marshall?"

"From what I've heard about Marshall so far, I think he's going to be a welcome addition to the op-tech family. And we could certainly use someone with Dixon's talent in the field. But first they'll all have to go through a very lengthy review process. That's where your statements will help. By the way — you can skip Sloane," he said. "We've already got plenty on him."

"Damn," she said. "I was looking forward to that one."

Vaughn chuckled. She picked up one of the pens, slid the cap off, and stared at him expectantly.

Right, Vaughn thought. Staring over shoulder bad. "I'll check back later."

He wandered through the office for an hour, accepting handshakes and a few slaps on the back. The mood was almost festive, Vaughn thought.

Sydney was sitting next to a giant stack of papers, scribbling furiously, when he walked back in. Just like her first day here, he thought, and told her so as she looked up at him.

"Yeah, except without the bubble-gum hair," she said.

"We've got people here that could fix that," he smirked. "How are you doing?"

"I'm done with Dixon," she stated, handing him the stack of papers.

"This is just Dixon?"

"Yeah. I wanted to speed up his review process if I could. Vaughn, he never once indicated to me that he thought he was doing anything besides fighting for his country. Not once."

"His review will probably be quicker than a lot of the others," he reassured her. "Simply because we know so much about him through you and your father. The email he sent the CIA when SD-6 was under siege certainly won't hurt his case."

"Can I see him?" she said, with pleading eyes. "Please?"

"They're still doing initial interrogations on everyone," Vaughn said. "But I'm going to try and get you in later."

It took her more than four hours and 10 cups of coffee to complete the rest of the statements.

"That's it," she told Vaughn. "And it's a good thing, too, because I think I'd need a caffeine IV and a new hand to write any more."

"Great," he said, taking the stack of papers from her. "You can see Dixon now."