A/N: So, I'm back! All I can say is that if this fic is half as well received as Meeting Their Match and All That They Need, than I will be one very happy little fanficwriter!
Summary: Sequel to All That They Need. A return of all our favourite characters for the third and final installment to this story, set five months after Syd and Vaughn's wedding.
Disclaimer: I do not own Alias
"Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Eric
Happy Birthday to you!"
As the singing voices came to an end, Weiss looked at all of his friends surrounding him and began to bow extravagantly.
"Thank you," he said. "Thank you, thank you."
"Just blow out the candles, Weiss!" Vaughn called out.
Pulling a face, Weiss bent down, drew in a deep breath and then exhaled. When all the candled were extinguished Ainsley picked up the cake and carried it into the kitchen.
"It will be sliced, diced and ready to eat in a minute," she said over her shoulder.
It was the 11th of July, Weiss's 26th birthday, and everybody had gathered at his and Ainsley's place for a birthday dinner. While waiting for Ainsley to return with the cake, they all scattered. Francie and Craig were out on the patio, engrossed in a conversation about god knows what. Will was off the side of the living room with Olivia, his girlfriend of a few months
Sydney sat herself at the dining table, her head spinning slightly. Vaughn, catching sight of her pale face, walked over, concerned.
"You ok?"
"I'm fine." Sydney insisted, fanning herself with her hand. "It's just the heat," she said, referring to the oppressive weather they'd been experiencing for the past few days. "And everything else."
The last couple of months had been pretty insane for both Sydney and Vaughn. As usual, the end of the school year meant extra workloads, with exams, tests and reports to write. A change in the reporting system at Ken Olin High School had caused even more headaches than usual for Sydney. Organizing a wedding had been less stressful.
So when the summer holidays had finally come around, it had been a giant relief for both of them- yet they weren't as relaxing as originally hoped.
Danielle had spent two weeks at their place before heading back to France for the summer, and while she was not the difficult person she was when staying there the last time, she still had all her new uni friends that seemed to think it was their prerogative to see Danielle 24/7.
When she had left, Sydney and Vaughn barely had a days peace before his uncle Noel and aunt Christine and cousins Eleanore, Marie and Pierce arrived from France. They were staying with Juliette, but seemed to be dropping in at Sydney and Vaughn's every day. And given that Juliette was working, Sydney and Vaughn were assigned to 'showing the family around' jobs.
After going with Juliette to farewell the family at the airport the night before, Sydney and Vaughn returned home and gratefully collapsed on the couch. It appeared that their holidays were finally about to start.
They just had to recover first.
"Oh, ok." Vaughn brushed some of Sydney's hair off her face and bent down, pressing his lips into the top of her head. "Do you want some water or something?"
Sydney looked up smiling. "I'll be right, but thanks."
"Hey Syd!"
"Sydney looked up to where Francie was calling from the patio. "Yeah?"
"What was that guy's name from high school?"
Sydney rolled her eyes. "Could you be any more specific?"
"The quarterback. The one I went out with."
"Um, I think it was Hank or Frank. I can't remember."
"Right. Thanks." Francie turned back to Craig.
Sydney glanced back at Vaughn who was looking bemused. "What are they talking about?" he mused aloud.
Sydney shrugged as Ainsley walked back in with a tray of slices of cake. "Who knows?"
"Why are we playing this again?" Sydney asked later that night. By that point she and Vaughn were the only guests remaining. The two of them with Ainsley and Weiss had settled down around the coffee table with a pack of cards.
"Because I want to, and whatever the birthday wants, the birthday boy gets." Weiss said, turning to Vaughn. "Do you have a seven?"
"No…uh, I mean go fish," he replied, looking at Sydney out of the corner of his eye.
"Did you tell them?" Ainsley asked Weiss.
"Not yet."
"Tell us what?" Vaughn queried, placing his cards down. Sydney followed suit, looking at her friend's expectantly.
"Well, through my incredibly handy contacts at work, "Weiss started, "I have scored a trip for myself, Ainz and two of our friends."
Sydney's face brightened. "A trip to where?"
"Las Vegas." Weiss announced gleefully. "Only a short one- three days and two nights. But hey if you two spent any more time there you would probably overload on the excitement and die."
"Are you ever going to give up on the whole boring married couple thing?" Vaughn asked, exasperatedly.
"Well, can you blame me?" Weiss retorted. "I mean, look at Syd. Five months of marriage and she looks…" Weiss trailed off.
"Smart boy," Ainsley patted his arm. "You'd be a dead man if you finished that sentence."
"He's a dead man for even starting it." Sydney grumbled, looking directly at Weiss. "You know what Vaughn's family is like! Anybody would be wrecked after a few weeks with them."
"True." Weiss nodded. "So, about Las Vegas. Are you two up for it?"
"You haven't even told us when it is." Vaughn pointed out.
"It's this weekend." Weiss replied. "I know it's short notice, but it's not as if you guys have work to worry about."
"Yeah." Ainsley chimed in. "Come please. It'll be a blast."
Sydney and Vaughn looked at each other, conversing silently with their eyes.
Ainsley leaned in towards Weiss. "It's creepy when they do that," she whispered.
"Hmm, I know." Weiss replied, laughing at the looks both Sydney and Vaughn shot in their direction. "So what will it be? Will you be Viva Las Vegasing with us?"
"Well, we'd be stupid to pass up a free trip, so why not?" Sydney shrugged.
"Yes!" Weiss jumped up and pumped his fists. "How about some more birthday cake to celebrate?" He walked off, singing loudly.
"Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire
Got a whole lot of money that's ready to burn
So get those stakes up higher…"
Wednesday morning Francie was strolling around the local supermarket, completing a much needed grocery shop. As she was about to turn down the freezer aisle, she heard somebody calling out her name. Looking over her shoulder she saw Craig headed towards her.
"Hey, how are you?" she asked.
"Good, besides the fact that I have to spend my day off here," he replied. "You?"
"I'm doing great."
They fell into an easy chitchat, talking about whatever came to them. It had been a long time sine Francie had found somebody so easy to talk to and was enjoying it.
She got a start when she glanced at her watch and realized what the time was. "I'm going to have to head off," she said reluctantly. "I need to get to the restaurant for the lunch shift."
"Ok. I'll talk to you later." Craig smiled.
Francie was about to walk off when something stopped her. "Hey, I've got these tickets to the local theatre group for Saturday night. I was supposed to go with mum, but she cancelled this morning. Did you want to come?"
For a second Craig looked as if he was going to accept, but then Francie's heart fell when he spoke. "I'm sorry. I've already got plans for Saturday night."
"Oh, ok." Francie forced a smile on her face. To her, it felt as if Craig was lying. "Another time maybe."
When Vaughn woke up on Friday morning, Sydney was already up and in the shower. This had been going on for weeks- Vaughn couldn't remember the last time that she had slept in. Climbing out of bed, he headed to the kitchen for breakfast. Looking at the clock he saw that they had about an hour before they had to meet Weiss and Ainsley.
Ten minutes later, Vaughn was eating his toast at the kitchen bench when Sydney walked out in her dressing gown with her hair still wet.
"Good morning," she said brightly, kissing him on the cheek.
"Hey, you're looking better."
Sydney smiled. "I slept like a log."
"You got up early." Vaughn commented as she opened the fridge.
"Yeah," Sydney turned to face him and stretched up his arms. "I'm going to get dressed. Weiss will kill us if we're late."
"Lady luck please let the dice stay hot
Let me shout a seven with ev'ry shot
Viva Las Vegas!"
"Eric!" Ainsley exclaimed as they walked towards their hotel room. "For the love of Mike, would you shut up with the song!"
Weiss stopped short. "For the love of Mike?"
"It's just an expression," Ainsley laughed, slipping the key into their door.
"It had better be," Sydney joked as she and Vaughn reached their room, next door to Weiss and Ainsley's.
"Ok!" Weiss clapped his hands together. "I give you thirty minutes to familiarize yourself with your surroundings and then we meet back in the casino foyer. We've got poker and blackjack and craps…I love saying that. Anyway, I don't want to miss a thing."
Sydney raised her eyebrows at Ainsley who grinned. "I've got control of all his cards. There will be no risk of Eric bankrupting us this weekend."
They were all late to bed Friday night and so Vaughn was surprised when he woke up alone Saturday morning. The shower in their little bathroom was running, with the door closed.
With a sly grin, Vaughn approached, with the full intention of joining Sydney, but when he got to the door, something caught his ear. It was faint, but he could swear that he could hear the sound of retching. He was about to open the door, but decided against it. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
When Sydney exited the bathroom, her face broke into a grin. "I didn't use all the hot water, I promise."
Vaughn stood up and pressed his lips onto her forehead. "How are you?"
Sydney looked at him, slightly bemused. "I'm fine. How are you?" she asked with a laugh.
But Vaughn just looked at her seriously. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Sydney smiled. She leaned up to give him a kiss. "So what on our agenda for today?"
Vaughn didn't query the subject change. Now was not the time to contradict Sydney. He'd wait until they got home before raising his concerns.
Weiss pushed his dessert plate away and looked at Ainsley. "I'm thinking roulette tonight."
"Sounds good to me." Ainsley said standing up. She turned to Sydney and Vaughn. "You guys up for a game or two?"
"Yeah," Vaughn smiled. "Just give us a few minutes to digest and we'll join you."
Sydney laughed softly as Weiss and Ainsley walked off. "We're going to have real troubles trying to get Weiss home tomorrow," she said. "I think he was made for Vegas."
After awhile, the two of them rose from the table, ready to go and join their friends. But as Sydney stood, she suddenly felt herself get dizzy and had to grab the back of her chair in order to steady herself.
"Syd?" Vaughn was by her side in a second. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," she said faintly. She attempted to take a step, but her head was still swimming and she stumbled as a result.
"Right." Vaughn wrapped her arm around Sydney's waist in order to support her. "We're going back to the room."
He didn't let go until they had got back to their room, and he sat her down on the bed. "I'm calling the front desk to see if we can get a doctor up here."
"No!" Sydney was adamant. "No doctor."
"Syd, you almost passed out."
"I know, but I'm fine now. Seriously, the head spins have gone."
"Fine." Vaughn sat down beside her. "But I want you to tell me what's going on."
Sydney hesitated. "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is why did you almost faint. Why were you throwing up this morning?"
"I wasn't th…you heard that?"
Vaughn nodded. "And given you getting up early every morning, I'm guessing that it wasn't a one off. If I didn't know any better I'd swear that you were…" He trailed off as Sydney looked into his eyes. "Syd?"
Biting her bottom lip, Sydney looked somewhat sheepish as she gave a quick nod.
Disclaimer: I do not own the song 'Viva Las Vegas' by Elvis Presley