Chapter 9

A/N: I know, I know! It's late! I think maybe I should be a politician, you know making promises that I never keep! I'm sorry! I don't know why I can never put it out on time! Anyway, really sorry, hopefully this chapter will be longer, better, etc. Let me know by reviewing!

P.S.: Half way through this chapter my handwritten story runs out so I am probably making it up on the spot!

Disclaimer: I don't own Alias or any of its characters, but I do own Katie.

As the sun rose over the beachside mansion, which contained two of the greatest agents in the world, they lay asleep on the bed, twisted in each other's limbs.

Just as the clock on the bedside table read 9:28am, the doorbell echoed throughout the huge house.

Both the adults groaned, waking. Sydney untwisted herself from Vaughn and ran to the front door, which happened to be at the other end of the massive house. It seemed like a marathon to get there compared to their old house in LA.

Sydney reached the door, looking through the peephole before opening the door.

"Delivery" the man stated in his Australian accent, "Sign here please."

Syd signed and took the package off the delivery guy, "Thanks," she said.

"No worries, catch ya later mate."

Sydney smiled as he walked back to his van whistling. Just as she shut the door Vaughn walked from the bedroom, his boxers hanging loosely off his hips.

"Who was that?" asked Vaughn, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"The delivery guy, nice guy."

Vaughn nodded as Sydney placed the box on the table before walking over to him and slinking her arms around his waist, looking into his face.

"Have I ever told you how hot you look in boxers?"

"Not nearly enough," he joked.

They kissed briefly before Sydney pulled away.

"Whats wrong? You don't like my boxers anymore?"

"Can you hear that?" she queried.

"Tick, tick, tick, tick,"

They separated and made their way around the house listening for where the ticking was coming from. It didn't take long for them to come to the box that Sydney had placed on the table. It was a shoebox sized cardboard box with their address boldly scribbled across the front.

Syd looked at Vaughn, swallowing hard. She opened the lid of the box……

Inside was not a bomb, as they had expected but an alarm clock, which had started ringing as Sydney opened the box. She gave Vaughn a weird look before taking the clock out of the box. She turned off the alarm and placed it on the table next to the box. She noticed a note at the bottom of the box. It read:

"WAKEY WAKEY! TIME TO SAVE ANOTHER LIFE OR THREE! WE WILL STOP YOU! WE WILL GET YOU SYDNEY, YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER! JUST WATCH YOUR BACK, YOUR TIME JUST MAY HAVE RUN OUT!"

Vaughn looked at his wife, trying to be strong. She was not crying, but looked very upset.

"I want to go home Vaughn," she said quietly, still holding the note in her hand. Tears started forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Sydney, I have told you before," Said Vaughn holding the side of her face firmly, "They will not touch you or Katie before they deal with me." He was trying to be strong, holding back the tears himself. He enveloped Sydney in his arms, comforting her,

"If you like I can ring your dad now and you can talk to Katie?"

She nodded against his chest, the tears falling freely onto his skin. Still holding Sydney protectively against his chest with one arm, he grabbed the phone off the table next to him, dialed a number and kissed Sydney's head, waiting for someone to answer.

"Jack Bristow," he answered.

"Hi Jack, its Vaughn."

"Vaughn! Is everything alright?"

"Well, not really. You see, we were woken by the doorbell this morning for a package. Inside contained an alarm clock and a note." Vaughn read the note to Jack.

"Is Sydney alright?"

"Yeah, she's right here, I'll put her on."

"Here," he said to Sydney handing her the phone, kissing her on the head and walking into the next room to give his wife some privacy.

"Hi Dad."

After a few minutes of light conversation about what Katie had been up to, Sydney asked," Dad can I talk to her?"

"Sure honey, I think she's playing with Laura, I'll just go and get her."

After a few seconds of silence there was some cluttering in the back round before Katie picked up the phone.

"Mummy?"

"Hi Sweetie! How are you honey?"

"Good. When are you come home?" she moaned.

"Soon darling, but mummy and daddy still have to work."

"Miss!"

"Yeah we miss you too sweetie, so much!"

"Made somting you today!"

"Oh really? What is it?"

"Surprise!" yelled Katie. This made Sydney laugh.

"Oh okay. Do you want to speak with Daddy?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Katie, very excited.

"Okay, I'll talk to you soon sweetie!"

"Bye Mummy! Love you!"

"I love you too sweetie!"

Sydney covered the mouthpiece of the phone and yelled through the huge house, "Vaughn! Katie wants to talk to you!"

Vaughn came running in from another room. He grabbed the phone off Sydney kissing her passionately on the lips.

"Hi sweetheart!"

"Hi Daddy!"

"Are you having fun with Grandma Laura?"

"Yeah, help me make cake!"

"Really," Said Vaughn sounding sarcastically flabbergasted, "What flavor?"

"Choco…Chocalete…Choc…"

"Chocolate?"

"Yes!"

"Make sure you save some for mummy and me when we get back!"

"Mmmhmm"

"Well, I better go sweetie. I love you lots!"

"Love you too Daddy. Bye Bye."

"See you Darling!"

Katie hung up the phone, as did Vaughn. He looked at Sydney who was smiling and looking at him.

"How did we create such a perfect child?" asked Sydney.

"Oh, I am quite sure she gets that from you!" replied Vaughn. Sydney smiled and Vaughn hugged her close to his chest, kissing her on the forehead.

"I love you," he stated.

"I Love you too!" said Sydney looking up into his eyes. She leant forward, energy leaping through her as their lips met. It reminded her of old times, in the warehouse, after the takedown of SD-6, their first dinner together, even that night at the pier. All of where she just didn't want to let him go, didn't want to lose contact with the man she loved so deeply. The only thing she didn't have to worry about now is that she wouldn't have to share him with anyone else. Well, excluding Katie of course.

"So, do we want to sightsee today or leave that until another day and just lounge about the house, letting the jetlag settle?" asked Vaughn after they parted.

"Well, I have a sudden spur of energy, so lets go out. Not necessarily sightseeing. How about a surfing lesson on the beach? We wouldn't have to travel far!"

"Absolutely!" exclaimed Vaughn.

They changed into their bathers, packed some snacks and water into a bag, grabbed two surfboards from a room downstairs and made their way across the street to the ocean.

"I love feeling the sand between my toes, I don't get to do it much at home."

"I never would have picked you for a beachy kind of girl," said Vaughn, intrigued by the side of Sydney he had never seen.

"Oh you would be surprised how much I went when I was a kid, before all of this," she said, referring to the new life she had as a mother, as a wife, as an agent.

As they walked along the shoreline looking for a place to dump their stuff they passed many families enjoying a nice hot day at the beach.

"It's so nice here!" said Sydney, "but it would make it a whole lot better to have Katie with us, she would love it!"

"Well, we might just have to take a holiday then," said Vaughn, a smirk spread widely across his face.

"Really? Oh it would be so much fun!"

Vaughn and Sydney smiled excitedly as they put their stuff onto the sand.

Sydney began to take her t-shirt off, revealing her lovely toned body underneath. Her bikini was brown, the perfect color for her, matching her eyes. Vaughn stared in awe, completely amazed at how her body could look so good considering she had given birth to a child.

"What?" Sydney questioned.

"Oh, nothing" Vaughn replied. He took off his shirt, his bear chest gleaming with the sun cream that he had put on earlier.

"Honey could you please put some cream on my back?"

"Sure," he said. He grabbed the bottle of sun cream and put a big droplet into his hand. He rubbed it gently into her tanned skin, going underneath the straps and towards the bottom of her back. After he had wiped all of it off his hands he kissed her tenderly on the side of the neck, causing her to turn around towards him.

"Okay, lets go now,"

Vaughn smiled and followed Sydney with her board into the fresh ocean.

"Okay, well I've never done this before so you are gonna have to teach me."

"Fair enough," replied Vaughn, paddling just into the whitewash. It was the perfect day to teach someone how to surf, the waves being just right, not too big, not too small, just perfect.

"Okay let's just start out with the basics. When the wave come just at your feet, that's when you start paddling, when the wave starts carrying you by itself, you place you hands on the rails," said Vaughn, showing Sydney where on the board to place her hands, "Then you bend one knee and push the front of your body up off the board. Then in one quick movement, you flick up onto your feet, the bent foot remaining where it is on the board, the other coming in front. Once you are standing and have gained you balance, you can put some weight onto your front foot, which will make the board go a bit faster, but I think we will start off by just getting you standing. Did you get all that?"

"I think so, but can you show me first?"

"Sure!"

Vaughn took off on the first good wave he saw. Following his own instructions, he surfed the whitewash into shore. He paddled back out to Sydney.

"Well, you are just good at everything aren't you? Ice hokey and now Surfing!"

"Definitely! Now lets see you have a go!"

"Alright but I don't think I will be very good at it!"

Sydney lay on her board, looking behind her for a wave to come. As one came up to her feet Vaughn started yelling, "Paddle, paddle, paddle!"

She was pumped by the sound of his encouraging voice. She smiled and laughed as she followed what Vaughn had said earlier. She made it onto her feet but lost balance almost straight away, falling into the water. She came out of the water, her hair askew across her face. Vaughn stood on the sand bank laughing. Sydney went under the water again to wash her hair out of her face, grabbed her board and paddled back out to Vaughn. When she saw him laughing she laughed as well, hitting him on the arm, "Shut up you!"

"Sorry," he said, biting his lip, "I'll go put my board on the beach and come back out to help you! You'll own personal trainer!"

"Ooooo, I hope he is sexy!"

"Oh don't you worry, he is extremely sexy!"

Vaughn ran onto the dry sand placing his surfboard gently on the beach. He grabbed a quick drink of water before running back out into the water and swimming out to the sand bank. Sydney licked her lips, admiring Vaughns fine body. As he approached her she looked away, scared that if he saw her looking at him, he would think himself good looking. Syd wasn't going to tell him that. She wouldn't give into him no matter how much he flirted.

After an hour and a half they gave up on the surfing and took the other surfboard back to the beach. Syd and Vaughn grabbed a drink and a snack before jumping back into the cool clear blue water.

Sydney jumped onto Vaughns back. Grabbing her legs, he gave her a piggyback ride out into the deep water. We walked until he could no longer stand with his head above the water, at which time Sydney hopped off his back and started sculling water for herself. Dipping under the water every now and then, they talked for a while, mostly about Katie.

"I miss her so much, is that pathetic or what? I have only been away from her for about thirty six hours and I just want her back!"

"No, Syd, it's not unusual. It's the first time you have been this far away from her for this long since she was born. I miss her as well."

"This is why I love you Michael Vaughn!"

The pair smiled at each other kissing tenderly under the bright yellow sun.

Another couple of hours passed before the pair made their way back to their temporary house, lugging the surfboards with them.

As soon as they walked through the front door, Sydney dumped everything on the floor, collapsing on the couch.

"Ahhhhhh," she sighed.

"No, come one, you need to have a shower first honey."

"I can't be bothered, really,"

"What, even if I come with you?"

"Oooo, okay, I'm up," she said, jumping out of the chair to follow her husband up the stairs to the bathroom.

The pair enjoyed the rest of the week getting to know their surrounding. When the week was over, they knew nearly all the surrounding streets, where all the major places were and the suburb of Carine, of course, off by heart.