Happy Ever After

Down the rabbit hole

Wherein 2 years have past and there are some unexpected guests

 

Eric Weiss keep up his litany of swear words as he wove his car through traffic.  Next time he had to have a root canal he was doing it without drugs.  He slammed on his brakes as the light turned red.  He probably shouldn’t even be driving in his condition, but he hadn’t seen any yellow alligators driving cars for a while now so he was probably okay.  Unlike when he’d told the purple rabbit with the pink top hat about Sydney living in a fairy tale world that could only be reached via the Rambaldi mirror.

 

The light turned green and he jammed on the accelerator.  Unfortunately the purple rabbit had actually been Vaughn coming to pick him up after his dental appointment.  He’d been dropped off at his apartment and alone for a few minutes when he realized what he’d said.  There was no way Vaughn would believe his crazy ramblings, but he was rushing to the storage facility Jack stored the mirror at just to check and be sure.

 

He sped through the storage facility; abruptly bring his car to a halt at the storage unit, next to Vaughn’s car.  His head dropped to the steering wheel, Jack was going to kill him and then move the mirror and not telling him where or let him visit Sydney.  He lifted his head and peered at the door, it stood open but perhaps Vaughn hadn’t been able to activate the mirror.  Unless it was already open if Jack was off visiting Sydney.

 

Getting out of the car he made his way over to the door inspecting it for damage before entering the unit and closing the door firmly behind him.  “Vaughn?” he hesitatingly called.  The unit had multiple rooms, the mirror residing in one of the auxiliary rooms.  Steeping into the other room he heaved a sigh finding Vaughn staring broodingly at the active mirror, blue and white light flickering over Vaughn’s face, a plain stone wall was all that could be seen in the mirror.

 

“Look man, let me explain—” Vaughn turned to look at him briefly, “Wait—”  Too late Vaughn turned back around and stepped into the mirror with a bright flash of light.

 

Scrubbing a hand over his face he hurried back into the other room, making sure the door was securely locked before hurrying back to the mirror.  He was so dead, and there wouldn’t even be a body to find, at least not in this universe.  Scrunching up his eyes he stepped into the mirror after Vaughn.

 

 

They had been escorted out of the cell into another, mirror-less cell, as the guards reported their unexpected arrival.  They were left for some time cooling their heels and since they had nothing else to do, besides talking with German speaking mice, he elaborated upon his drugged ramblings from earlier, though he didn’t tell Vaughn everything.  He felt bad about not telling him about Sydney and Sark, but he cowardly decided to let him find out on his own, if they were allowed out of the cell.

 

The cell door was unlocked and a man in a livery suit waited to escort them through the castle.

 

He followed a disturbingly silent Vaughn out of the cell, ducking under the archway, “You told Jack about the drugs right?  That’s a rather key point to the whole story.”

 

The liveried man didn’t reply only motioned them to follow him.

 

“Who else knows about this?” Vaughn finally hissed at him as they climbed the stairs out of the dungeon.

 

Eric bit his lip then confessed, “Just Marshall.”

 

Vaughn glared at him.

 

“Sorry man, we were sworn to secrecy or Jack said he’d get us reassigned to a surveillance station in Siberia,” his guilty conscious was eating at him as they moved along the plush hallways now.  “Look, Mike, I haven’t told you everything.  Sydney, well, she may not be the same as when you last saw her.  Well, she will be, but you don’t know everything, and, um, just don’t freak out okay.”

 

“Freak out?” Vaughn looked at him like he was nuts, “I’ve just gone through a magic mirror to an alternate world where Sydney’s been living for the last two years.  I think I’m handling it.”

 

“You don’t know the half of it,” he muttered under his breath, but Vaughn didn’t hear him as they had come to a halt outside of an opened door.

 

Their guide motioned them to stay where they were, two guards standing a short distance away, as he went into the room to discreetly catch the eyes of Jack Bristow and a young, blonde man next to him.  Eric hadn’t ever actually meet King Wendell, but he assumed that was who the young man was, the small crown probably gave it away.  He had met the dark haired woman next to the King, Virginia, and Sydney’s back was to them and the door as she ranted.

 

“They were supposed to be back by now!”

 

“They were just due back yesterday,” Wendell soothed her.

 

“At the latest!” Sydney was un-soothed.

 

Virginia smiled wryly, “You’re just upset you didn’t get to go.”

 

Sydney huffed, crossing her arms, “That’s not the point.”

 

Virginia patted her arm, “Wolf went out to look for them.  I’m sure he’ll be able to sniff them out.”

 

High-pitched, childish squealing interrupted the conversation, Sydney and Virginia both turning their heads.  “Honey, don’t tease him like that,” Sydney moved across the room, out of their view from the hallway.  Virginia followed her.

 

Eric glanced sideways at Vaughn whose brow was quite furrowed.  When Eric directed his attention back to the room both Jack and the King were looking in their direction, the younger man nodding his head at their guide who promptly motioned them to come forward.

 

Eric immediately started talking, “Look I had a root canal, the drugs really messed with my head and when Vaughn came to pick me up I thought he was a giant purple rabbit.”  The King seemed amused, Jack not so much.

 

“Eric!” Sydney’s delighted voice was a welcome distraction from Jack’s glare.

 

“Hey, Syd,” he smiled abashedly at her and Bridget who was now in her arms.  Virginia was picking up a dark haired boy from a pile of wooden blocks on the floor and he noticed a white, whiskered nose peeking out from under a near by chair.

 

“Vaughn,” Sydney politely addressed the other man.

 

“Syd..ney,” Vaughn stared at the light brunette haired, two-year-old in Sydney’s arms.

 

“I hope you secured the storage unit before coming,” Jack’s stern voice broke the slight awkwardness.

 

“Of course, made sure the door was locked securely,” Eric rubbed his hands on his pant legs, this was going well considering.

 

Sydney had reached him and leaned over to kiss his cheek, “Nice to see you.  I gather this wasn’t a planned visit,” she eyed Vaughn warily yet pleasantly.

 

“Uh,” was all he got out when an exuberant dark-haired man, Wolf, if he remembered correctly bounded into the room.

 

“Huff Puff!  I found them,” a grinning Wolf danced around Sydney then over to Virginia.  The two women laughed at his exuberance and Sydney glanced towards the door.

 

“Julian!” she happily called and hurried over to the door.

 

Eric turned, keeping one eye on Vaughn as Sydney made her way over to where Sark stood in the doorway talking quietly with someone.  He thought Vaughn made a whimpering noise as Sydney dug her free hand into Sark’s hair and yanked him in for a kiss.

 

Sark’s arms went around Sydney and Bridget, one sleeve looked a little ripped and bloody, as they kissed in the doorway.  Finally parting Sark smiled at Sydney then kissed the top of Bridget’s head.

 

“I think I need to sit down,” Vaughn mumbled as he staggered over to sink down onto a chair.

 

King Wendell spoke up, “Well Jack if you want to handle them,” he nodded not unpleasantly at Eric and Vaughn, “I’ll go see how their expedition went,” he nodded to the small group of people lingering in the hallway behind Sark.  Some of them looked a little worse for wear.

 

“Of course Your Majesty,” Jack gruffly replied while giving Eric a slight glare.

 

He tried to look properly chastised.

 

“Dad, do you mind looking after Bridget?  I want to attend to Julian’s arm,” Sydney carried Bridget back over to Jack while Sark coolly regard both Eric and Vaughn, the latter who had his head between his knees and was breathing rather erratically.

 

“Of course not,” Jack took Bridget while Virginia and Wolf make their excuses and left the room just ahead of Sydney and Sark.  Leaving Eric and Vaughn alone with Jack, and Bridget.

 

Jack set Bridget back down on the floor by the blocks which she happily started stacking.  The white nose under the chair peeked a little further out then the whole ferret scampered out and started jumping and running around the blocks to Bridget’s squealing delight.

 

“What exactly is going on here?” Vaughn woefully wanted to know.

 

Eric decided to join Bridget on the floor with the stacking blocks.

 

Jack slanted his gaze down on Vaughn, “What’s going on is that you’ll never speak of this to anyone, ever.  Sydney’s happily, safely, settled with her family and you will not be upsetting her or them in any manner.  Is that understood?”

 

“Family?” Vaughn whimpered.

 

When it looked like Jack wasn’t going to kill him in the near future he managed to convince Jack to let them stay a bit and visit.  After Jack grudgingly agreed he went back to doing magic tricks for Bridget, distracting her from trying to grab the tail of the indignant ferret.

 

 

Seeing that both Eric and Jack were distracted with Bridget, he couldn’t believe Sydney had a child with that cold-blooded assassin, Vaughn used the excuse of needing to use the restroom to leave the room.  No guard followed him as he was pointed in the direction of the nearest lavatory and it was easy, once he was around the corner, to wander until he found someone to point him in the direction of Sydney’s room.

 

He nervously stood outside the unassuming, pale blue door, his hand hovering over the wood.  Finally he knocked lightly then promptly wished he hadn’t when he heard shrieking and laughter.

 

“Julian!  Don’t!  There’s someone at the door!” Sydney’s voice called out, laughter and giggles under the surface of her words.

 

“Then we’ll just have to tell them we’re busy,” Sark’s voice briskly commented.

 

Vaughn hedged away from the door contemplating leaving, but the door opened and it was too late.  A shirtless Sark, bandage on an upper arm, stood in the open doorway with Sydney’s jean clad legs the only visible part of her from where she was tossed over his shoulder.

 

“Mister Vaughn,” Sark coolly greeted him.

 

“Vaughn?” Sydney’s upside down head craned around Sark’s body to peer at him.

 

As he shifted uneasily Sark dropped Sydney to her feet and casually slung an arm around her waist.  Sydney brushed her hair back from her reddened face and straightened her shirt, her green ring gleaming faintly.

 

“Hey, Vaughn.”

 

“uh, Hi,” was all he could think to say now that he was here, in front of her, with Sark’s arm around her waist.

 

The three of them stared at each other, Vaughn at a loss of what to say and wishing he hadn’t come at all, Sydney expectantly if a bit impatiently and Sark distantly bored, his hand fiddling with the hem of Sydney’s shirt.

 

Finally not being able to stand the uncomfortable tension any longer he blurted out, “It was nice seeing you again Sydney.  Your father said we could stay a while and visit.”

 

She smiled politely, “Nice to see you again too Vaughn, but now’s not a good time...”

 

“Right, I’ll just…” he nodded and quickly stepped away, then turned to walk briskly back down the hallway.

 

 

Sydney peered puzzled after Vaughn’s departing back, “That was odd.”

 

“Who cares,” Julian pulled her into the room, closed the door and once more tossed her over his shoulder before she knew what was going on.

 

“Julian!” she laughed, “What about your arm?”

 

“Its fine,” he assured her as he moved into the bedroom, turning to lock the door behind them.

 

*~*~*

 

Sometime later she got tired of the piece of hair in her mouth and spit it out then flailed at the sheet over her head.  Finally she could see the ceiling again, glancing around her she wondered how they’d managed to make such a mess of the sheets.  Pulling on the sheet some more it came away from her body and revealed Julian’s blonde head resting on her stomach.  His stuttered breathing tickled across her skin making her shiver.

 

She ran a hand through his hair, “How’s your arm?”

 

Another breath slid across her stomach then he pressed a kiss just above her belly button, another one just below her breasts, then another one in the valley between them, then the hollow of her throat.

 

“Okay then?” she whispered before his lips landed on hers.

 

She tangled her fingers into his soft curls and wrapped her legs around his waist.  At first she didn’t notice with his persistent and consuming kiss, but the fact that they were rapidly sliding off the bed broke through her haze.  He realized it too and they quickly scrambled back, diverting a nasty fall head first over the side of the bed.

 

Sitting up in the middle of the bed she giggled at the near miss while he grinned at her.  Grinning back she slid her hand under the sheet and up his leg.  His eyes darkened and he leaned in to recapture her lips.  He wrapped an arm around her waist, his lips moving to her neck.  She let her head fall back and her eyes close.

 

The wailing of a small child sounded in the other room.  “Sydney?”

 

Julian groaned against her neck.

 

“We’ll be right there Dad,” she called after a moment.

 

“I was perfectly fine with not having any children,” Julian pointed out against her neck.

 

She pulled his face up and pressed a kiss to his lips, resting her forehead against his, “Yes, but you’re the one who wants two.”

 

They quickly redressed and she was buttoning his shirt when he spoke again, “About that…”

 

“Yes?” she didn’t look up from the sad task of covering up all that lovely, golden flesh.

 

“Shouldn’t we start working on a second child?  Before Bridget gets too old,” he squinted down at her.

 

“What right now?” she teased him, sliding her arms around his neck.

 

“Well, not right now, now.  Not that I’d object mind you,” he leered at her.

 

She giggled and kissed him as the wailing went up a notch in the other room, “Later.”

 

 

Once Bridget was settled down the four of them made their way back to the drawing room Weiss and Vaughn were in.  Tea was set up and they all spent a pleasant hour or so chatting and catching up.  All, but Vaughn, he sat apart from the rest of them, hunched in his chair, shaking his head and muttering to himself.  Eric kept shooting him worried and guilty looks and Sydney patted him reassuringly on the arm.  Finally her dad decided it was time for everyone to leave and they all trooped down to the dungeon.

 

Sydney hugged and kissed Eric’s cheek good-bye and patted Vaughn on the shoulder.  He smiled twitchily at her, his eyes flickering from her to Julian holding a sleepy Bridget and back.

 

Sydney hugged her dad, whispering in his ear, “Don’t be too hard on Eric.”

 

Her dad just grunted and turned to follow the other two back through the mirror.

 

Sydney and Julian started back out of the dungeon.  “Shall we head home then?” Julian inquired.

 

“Don’t you have to talk with Wendell?”

 

“The others can initially brief him on what transpired.  I can talk to him tomorrow,” Julian assured her, holding Bridget against his shoulder with one arm and slipping the other around her waist.

 

She peeked at Bridget’s sleepily blinking eyes, “I suppose so.  Bridget really needs to have a nap.”

 

“Excellent,” his hand slid down from her waist to rest on her bum.

 

She giggled as they hurried up the stairs.

 

The End!

Maybe

 

Epilogue ~ Tell us a Tale