What Happens in Vegas...

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: Sydney Bristow simply wants to enjoy her Las Vegas vacation with her best friend, Michael Vaughn poolside with a book in her hand. Sadly, Michael's friends have other plans, especially when betting is involved... [16]

Disclaimer: Sydney, Vaughn, etc are properties of JJ Abrams and ABC.

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Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 16 + Epilogue

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Chapter 11

“Well there they are – the newlyweds!” Andrew announced with a grin when they all met up for brunch later that morning. “How was your night?” he asked suggestively.

“It was just fine; how was yours?” Michael asked casually, his arm still locked around Sydney’s shoulders.

“Jas almost made out with a stripper,” Steve said.

“Male or female?” Michael questioned her with a laugh. Jas gave him an irritated look.

“Male; he’s part of the Chippendales show.”

“Wouldn’t that make him a little old for you?” Sydney questioned.

“No he was twenty-three,” Jas said.

“And what a lovely career path he’s chosen…,” Sydney said with obvious sarcasm.

“Hey those beefcakes make good money! I’m thinking of trying out,” Andrew said while flexing his biceps. This immediately resulted in everyone rolling their eyes; Chippendales would only hire the rather portly Andrew if he was the last male on the face of the earth.

“Anyway, let’s go eat, shall we? I’m starved,” Michael proclaimed. As they walked into the restaurant, Michael ignored a snide, ‘I bet you are’ from Steve, which resulted in the rest of their group snickering behind their backs. Michael did not care though; he was happy and so was Sydney. That was all that really mattered.

“Do we have any plans for today besides tanning and gambling?” Jas asked as they ate.

“You mean you still have money left to gamble?” Sydney asked in an entirely serious tone. Though it was just forty-eight hours since they arrived, Steve, Tammy, Andrew and least of all Jas had not been at all frugal with their cash.

“Actually Jas is up about a thousand dollars,” Tammy pointed out.

“You’re kidding?!” Sydney and Michael gasped in unison.

Jas merely shrugged. “Turns out I’m really good at Black Jack when I’ve had at least one apple martini.”

“Wow…maybe we’ve been going about this thing all wrong. I mean, I sure could use some extra cash,” Michael said to Sydney.

“Yeah but you could also lose all you’ve got,” she reminded him.

“Maybe getting lucky will give you luck,” Andrew pointed out with a smile. Both Michael and Sydney rolled their eyes.

~*~

“So you finally deflowered Sandra Dee, huh?! Who would have thought that would happen!” Andrew exclaimed with a laugh, punching Michael playfully in the shoulder.

“You degrade the whole experience, you know that?” Michael said in a rather bitter way. All he wanted to do was change into his board shorts and meet Sydney out by the pool but, sadly, he had been intercepted by Andrew in the process.

“Just stating fact man. We’re all very proud and shocked. Man, you should have seen Jas’s face last night when she walked in there and saw all your clothes on the floor! It was awesome!”

“You saw us?!” Michael hissed. He was furious that their privacy had been violated in such a terrible way.

“Took pictures too.”

“WHAT?!”

“Kidding, always kidding,” Andrew laughed. Michael gave him an annoyed look before taking his shorts into the bathroom so that he could change.

~*~

“So you’re finally in the club, huh Sydney?” Jas asked when she sat down beside Sydney’s lounge chair, where she was stretched out and reading her novel.

Sydney did not look up from her book and it took her almost a full minute to answer with a sigh, “What club would that be?”

“The club of women with experience. Of course, you’re not a full member yet, but don’t worry you will be,” Jas smiled.

“How lucky for me,” Sydney said dully.

“God, Sydney, how can you say that?! I mean, sex is like the most amazing thing ever. Maybe Michael isn’t that good…which is seriously depressing because look how hot he is! Nah, it couldn’t have been him…I guess it was you,” she determined with significant amusement. Sydney continued to ignore her.

“Sad,” Jas signed in a patronizing tone. “With you and Michael getting your marriage annulled you’ll never have a chance to get better. I guess that’s for the best, though; it leaves Michael open to be with girls more… his type.”

“Too bad you won’t be one of them,” Sydney sighed casually. Slightly singed by this, Jas grumbled under her breath before leaving quickly.

A minute later, Michael walked over and sat down in the seat she vacated after giving Sydney a kiss on the forehead. “I passed Jas on the way here; she looked pretty pissed. Did some guy turn her down?”

“Nah she was bugging me but couldn’t get a rise out of me, so she left,” Sydney told him.

“What she buggin’ you for now?” Michael asked, becoming more and more irritated with his supposed “friends” with each passing moment.

“Not being good at sex,” Sydney said casually.

“What?!” Michael squeaked. “How would she know?! I don’t remember her being there!” Sydney laughed softly at this comment. “Ah well just ignore her, Syd. Just another thirty-six hours and we’ll go home and you don’t ever have to see her again.”

“Yeah I know and I’m counting on that,” she smiled at him. “I’ve got a question though… are we still going to proceed with the annulment now that we’re, you know, going to date?”

“Uh…aren’t we?” Michael asked with total confusion.

“Well, actually I was thinking maybe not. I mean, okay say – hypothetically – that things go really, really well for us. Wouldn’t we get married anyway?” she smiled at him.

Michael couldn’t help but laugh loudly at this. “Sydney have you lost your mind? I mean, I know we were a bit crazy to do this, but seriously we can’t continue…can we?”

“Think about it. If we end our marriage now it would be over. And, if later on down the road we find that we don’t work as a romantic couple, we would also have to end the marriage. We’d end up the same place. But if it worked out, then we’ve cut out the middle step,” she said with a slight laugh. He continued to look at her blankly.

“We can still get it annulled if you want,” she backtracked slightly. “I’m just saying that if you don’t want to then its okay with me. Besides how fun would it be to wait a month and then spring it on our parents?!”

“They’d kill us,” Michael laughed. Sydney laughed too, knowing it to be true. “Yeah, okay let’s do it.”

“You have a death wish?” she asked teasingly.

“No I’m serious. It’s gonna be kinda…fun,” he grinned.

“Totally fun,” she agreed.



Chapter 12

For the remainder of their trip, Sydney and Michael were practically inseparable. They spent their days hanging out at the pool, they ate together, and then they would spend their evening curled up together in their bed. On their last night, though, Michael convinced Sydney to go down to the casino with him to do some betting, having a feeling she would regret it if she had done no more than pull the handle of a slot machine a few times. He even gave her twenty dollars worth of his own money so even if she lost she wasn’t losing her money.

After a few minutes on one machine, Sydney was about ready to give up. She had lost half of the twenty dollars already and felt it was stupid to lose even more. Michael convinced her to try once more though, and she did, reluctantly. On that pull, she won five thousand dollars and promptly screamed out, “Holy shit!”

Michael could hardly believe it; all he could do was stare at the ticket that printed out and read $5,000. Meanwhile, Sydney was giddy, jumping around, clapping her hands and kissing him as a thank you for encouraging her to pull that one last time.

After receiving her prize money and tucking it safely away in her suitcase, she and Michael met up with the rest of their group, who seemed to be equally shocked Sydney won such a sum of money. They immediately began encouraging her to splurge on fancy items, but Sydney refused; that money was going towards rent and car repairs when she got home. Naturally, the group did not accept this very easily, but Sydney didn’t care; it was her money and she was going to spend it the way she chose.

It was not until the group of six was boarding their flight back to Virginia that Steve and Tammy pointed out that Sydney and Michael were still legally married. They were not sure if any annulment was in the works, either, since Michael and Sydney had spent the majority of the later part of their vacation away from the rest of the group. When the newlyweds informed the rest of their crew that they were not going to annul their marriage, at least not yet, this news was naturally met with shock and many jeers. Sydney and Michael didn’t care though; they were happy with the decision they made.

“So I guess we have to decide what we’re gonna tell our parents. I mean, do we tell them we’re together but not tell them we’re married…or do we keep the whole thing a secret for a ltitle while? What?” Sydney asked about half way through their flight home.

“Well we’re gonna be like… going out on dates and stuff right?” he questioned. Sydney nodded. “Right and sine we’re living at home odds are at least one of our parents will notice that…”

“Good point…but we don’t have to tell them right away, right? I mean, we can wait a little while…”

“Why are you so against them finding out?” Michael asked with a slight laugh. Sydney never had been particularly secretive in any respect and he was under the impression she did not go out of the way to hide things from her parents, especially from her mother, as she seemed to be doing with their relationship.

“It’s just… you know how protective my dad can be. He freaks out when I have any sort of boyfriend and I just… I dunno,” she sighed.

“Sydney I’m seriously not afraid of your father,” he told her with a laugh.

“No, I know I just… I didn’t want him to be hovering – which he will hover. I’m hoping to start looking for apartments or townhouses – you know, using my winnings,” she grinned. “You can help me if you want.”

“You want my help?” he asked with a smile.

“Well yeah I figure if this goes well…we’ll be moving in together since, obviously, we’re married so you should have a say in what kinda housing we’re living in,” she told him.

“Moving in together… I like that,” he grinned, slipping an arm around her shoulders.

“Slow down buddy – that’s not gonna be for a little while,” she reminded him.

He shrugged slightly. “Eventually is good enough; I’m not in a hurry.

~*~

After a very long flight, Michael and Sydney said goodbye to Steve, Tammy, Andrew and Jas, which really was not all that sad; they were glad to get away. Then, Michael drove Sydney home, where they said their own goodbyes, which was a lot sadder.

“How about we go on our first date tonight?” Michael offered with an enticing grin.

“That sounds nice but I think the jet lag is really gonna get me by then…how about tomorrow?” she offered. Michael agreed and kissed her quickly before helping her carry her luggage back into the house. Since it was a Friday afternoon no one was home at the Bristow residence; Sydney’s parents were at work and while her younger sister, Nadia, was off from school, she, apparently, was out somewhere. Because they were all alone, their kisses goodbye became a little heated until Sydney realized that Michael had them both sprawled out on her bed, at which point she put an end to their activities and made him leave, despite the fact that he was making sad faces at her.

Once he was gone, Sydney set to work on putting all her dirty clothes into the laundry and putting away the clean, unworn ones. As she was doing this, her younger sister arrived home and immediately asked, “What’d ya bring me?”

“Well I’ve got some hotel stationary you can have,” Sydney smiled at her.

The nineteen-year-old looked supremely offended. “You didn’t bring me anything?!”

“If it helps I didn’t buy myself anything either,” Sydney told her with a slight laugh.

Nadia grumbled. “What did you do out there?”

“Well…I drank, gambled – oh and I got married,” she told her very seriously.

Nadia snorted with laughter. “Yeah that’s a good one Syd. Who’d ya marry? Michael?”

“Maybe I did,” she said simply. She knew that her sister would never believe her, especially with the ‘drinking and gambling’ lie she fed her. Of course, she had gambled, but just because she happened to win five thousand dollars after a few pulls of a slot machine arm did not mean she gambled.

“Yeah, sure, okay,” Nadia rolled her eyes before leaving her sister’s bedroom. After this Sydney could not help but laugh softly. When her family finally did find out that she and Michael did elope in Vegas, they were all going to have heart attacks and it was going to be hysterical.



Chapter 13

After taking a brief nap to help with her jet lag, Sydney woke up just in time for dinner. When she shuffled into the kitchen, still slightly groggy, she found her parents and sister waiting for her. Of course they immediately wanted to know how her trip was and she told them. “I won five thousand dollars.”

“You’re kidding!” her mother gasped.

Sydney shook her head. “No, I wasn’t really gambling at all… I mean I played a slot machine for a little bit and won like ten dollars my first night there, but I wasn’t planning on doing it again, you know? Then last night Michael sorta talked me into it and gave me twenty bucks to bet…and I lost almost all of it and was about to give up when he told me to pull the thing one last time…so I did and I won,” she said, shrugging slightly.

“Boy I hope you paid him the twenty dollars back,” Nadia laughed.

“Well actually I’m going to use the money to-” She stopped herself short of revealing that she was going to buy a townhouse that hopefully they both would live in. Quickly, she changed directions in what she was saying “t-to buy a present for him… Just something small,” she added with a nervous laugh.

“Don’t you think you should give him more than just something small since, really, if it hadn’t been for him you wouldn’t have won at all,” her father pointed out.

“Well I tried to give him half right after I won, but he refused,” Sydney told him. Immediately after collecting her winnings she had tried to share, but Michael said he didn’t want any; it was her money, he said. “I am going to use it to help me find an apartment or townhouse or something,” Sydney continued. “True, it’s not much; but it’s definitely a help.

“That sounds very sensible,” her father said with a smile. “So how was the rest of your trip? Anything exciting?”

“Oh no, not really,” she lied easily. “I didn’t hang out with the rest of the group too much; I just sat by the pool and read.”

With this, Nadia made a coughing noise that suspiciously sounded like, “loser,” but Sydney ignored it. “Michael’s friends… well, they’re not very nice people,” she continued.

“That’s a shame; I hope they didn’t ruin the trip for you,” her mother said sympathetically.

“Trust me, Mom, the five thousand dollars more than made up for that,” Sydney laughed.

“Well yes I suppose it would,” Irina smiled.

~*~

The following day, after Sydney awoke from sleeping in late, she parked herself in front of the television, wanting to soak up as much total relaxation as possible before starting her full time job, which would inevitably be very stressful. As she was sinking further into the sofa cushions, Michael called to schedule their date that evening. He offered a movie for their get-together, but Sydney refused; she wanted their first date to be something memorable and while a movie was a legitimate first date option, it was typically for two people still trying to get to know one another, not for two who had known each other their whole lives. Instead, she suggested a fancy restaurant where they would dress to impress and the meal would be on her, or, rather, on Las Vegas.

Sydney immediately called the restaurant of her choice for reservations, but since it was a Saturday night, the restaurant was very full. The only time slot available was five-thirty and while that was slightly earlier than she would have hoped, it was better than not going at all. It did however give her a limited amount of time to get ready, so immediately after informing Michael of their dinner hour, she ran upstairs to shower.

“Look at you all fancy…hot date?” Nadia asked when she glanced into her elder sister’s room and spotted her slipping into a “little black dress.”

“Not exactly… I’m taking Michael out to dinner, you know as a thank you for him contributing to my five thousand dollar win,” Sydney explained.

“Oh,” Nadia said, her face falling slightly. “Then why are you getting so dressed up?”

“Well I didn’t want to just take him to McDonalds; we’re having a nice dinner.”

“Whatever. Seems to me like you guys should just have sex and get it over with,” Nadia said matter-of-factly.

“Nadia!” Sydney screeched, horrified that her sister was even remotely close to guessing the truth about what happened in Vegas.

“What? It’s true. What guys and girls are best friends with each other? Um, none. You should at least be friends with benefits; its not like you’re getting any someplace else.”

“Thank you for that assessment,” Sydney said dryly. “Now please go away.”

Twenty minutes later, she walked downstairs, fully ready to go, and was unfortunately spotted by her parents, who asked the same questions as Nadia about her plans for that evening. Once again she explained she was taking Michael out to dinner. Her parents also seemed skeptical of why she was dressed so nicely, but they said nothing about it and simply wished her a nice evening.

“Well aren’t you looking beautiful this evening,” Michael smiled as Sydney approached his car. “Did you escape your parents?”

“Nah they caught me, but I told them I was taking you out in celebration of winning five thousand dollars, which isn’t entirely a lie,” she winked at him.

“Devious; I like it,” he smiled. “Too bad it won’t work every time.”

“Well hopefully I can move out as soon as possible,” she smiled at him. “Tomorrow I’m going to look in the paper for ideas and maybe we can go visit some places this week.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he smiled at her.

Despite the fact that the restaurant they chose was very crowded, Sydney and Michael managed to have a very nice evening together. The held hands across the table, giggled softly together, and even shared a delicious desert. As promised, Sydney paid their check, though she noticed it was very difficult for Michael to watch her do this, since he, the gentlemen, was used to paying.

As they were walking back to Michael’s car at the conclusion of their meal, Michael slipped his arm around Sydney’s waist and gave her hip a gentle squeeze. “So I’d say that was a pretty good first date for us…as husband and wife,” he laughed softly.

“I happen to agree,” she smiled. Then she began to giggle. “I keep forgetting that we’re married…is that wrong?”

“No I forget too,” he laughed. Then, he leaned down and gave her a sweet kiss goodnight, knowing that they couldn’t do it outside Sydney’s parent’s home. “Want to have dinner with me…every other night this week?”

“Well I would…but that might get a little suspicious,” she told him.

“Good point. How about every other night?” he offered.

“Deal.”



Chapter 14

First thing Monday morning, Sydney and Michael set out to explore the list of apartment and townhouse complexes she had found during her Sunday search through the papers. They decided that Sydney finding an apartment was an absolute necessity for them to continue dating both with and without secrecy. With secrecy, they obviously needed a place to meet and kiss – heck, hold hands – without suspicion arising. Even if they told their parents though, they would always be hovering around, leaving them no privacy whatsoever. They were twenty-two – almost twenty-three (in Michael’s case) years old and they needed to be out on their own.

After searching for nearly the whole day, Sydney and Michael finally found a townhouse that they both fell in love with. The community surrounding it was, in Sydney’s words, adorable. It even had its own little shopping center with a dry cleaners, pharmacy, and restaurant.

A few days after filling out the application for one of the townhouse, Sydney received word back that if she wanted it, one would be available for her on June 15th, just twenty-eight days away. Of course Sydney accepted this offer with great enthusiasm. The next day, she took her parents to visit the area and they agreed it was a very nice environment and location. Their only concern was that the price of the townhouse was a little higher than Sydney could afford comfortably. On this point, Sydney partially agreed. The townhouse was more expensive than she would have purchased on her own; however, she was anticipating that at some point in the not so distant future, two incomes would be paying for the townhouse, in which case it could be afforded very comfortably. To keep her parents from worrying, Sydney assured them it was fine and if it wasn’t, she would consider getting a roommate. After all, the townhouse did have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and plenty of space.

Just a few days after signing the lease on her soon-to-be new home, Sydney had her very first day of work. It was both terrifying and very exciting for her. She loved the new environment and the ability to work in her chosen field, but she felt like an utter fool; she knew absolutely nothing. This wasn’t entirely true, of course, but it felt that way for the first few days.

As Sydney settled into her new job, Michael continued the search for his. His major in communications with a minor in journalism opened up a wide variety of career paths for him. Ideally, he wanted to write the news that news anchors on television reported, but that was not always possible. Instead, he took a job with a newspaper, knowing that he needed some sort of income for the time being, especially if he was going to be moving in with Sydney and contributing to rent payments. While he worked there, earning a pay check, he would keep his eyes open for another, better job.

Through the end of May and beginning of June, Sydney and Michael continued to date regularly. They went out at least three nights a week and on the nights they did not get together, they spoke to one another over the phone, telling each other about their work days. Luckily, their parents were none the wiser about their relationship. Well, Sydney’s parents did figure out that their daughter was dating someone (which was fairly obvious), but they did not know who, and Sydney hoped to keep it that way, at least for the time being.

By the time June fifteenth arrived Sydney was more than ready to move into her apartment. Since that day fell on a Friday, she could spend that day and the rest of the weekend slowly moving her belongings in. On Friday evening, she just moved a few boxes of nonessential items like CDs, books, and movies. Saturday morning brought the large scale move in complete with her bed, furniture, and other assorted heavy items.

Both of her parents, her sister, and Michael all assisted with the moving in process. Of course, Nadia really was not much help at all and she had to leave early to go to work. Sydney’s parents also left early since they were attending the birthday party of a friend, but Sydney didn’t mind; that left her and Michael all by themselves in her brand new space where they could do whatever they wanted and they certainly intended on doing so…once the unpacking was over, of course.

“God I’m sweating like a freakin’ pig,” Sydney grumbled, disgusted with herself as she pulled her sweat-soaked tank top away from her body. “I think I need to shower before continue with this…it’s not very strenuous anyway,” she said, gesturing towards the boxes of clothes at her feet.

“Alright,” Michael said, still unloading the box of CDs he was working on. “I’ll just finish this box then take a break myself.”

Sydney nodded with agreement before heading into the bathroom to take her very first shower in her new apartment. After making sure all her soap was lined up on the shelves in the shower, ready to be used, Sydney cranked on the water hot and stripped out of her dirty clothes. Then, she stepped under the water spray and shut her eyes as the warm water melted away the aches in her shoulders after a day filled with heavy lifting. Surprisingly, when she opened her eyes after just a minute, there was another figure in the shower with her, smirking.

“Michael!” she screeched trying desperately to cover herself up with her hands though doing so very unsuccessfully. “What are you doing?!”

“I needed a shower too,” he said with a cheeky grin.

“This isn’t funny!” she squeaked out.

“It’s not meant to be,” he said, taking a defiant step closer to her. She tried to back away, but could not because she was already up against the shower wall. “C’mon Syd we’ve hardly been able to spend any time together because of this while secrecy thing. Finally, this is our chance to be together. C’mon please? I just want to kiss my wife,” he said. Then he reached out his arms, and pulled her closer to him and into a kiss.

“But…we’re supposed…to be taking…it slow,” she managed through his kiss.

“This is slow,” he assured her, giving her a longer kiss.

“Michael,” she protested with her hand firmly on his chest, keeping him at a safe distance. “We’ve hardly been together for four weeks. We cannot just start having sex; that’s now how I do things!”

“Are you out of excuses yet?” he asked, amused.

“Well…I’m not sure,” she said truthfully. “I’ve heard shower sex is the most dangerous kind…injury wise.”

“We’re not having sex; just showering,” he assured her.

After just a moment’s hesitation she smiled and added, “Then I guess its ok.”

“Thought so,” he grinned.



Chapter 15

When Sydney emerged from the bathroom after their impromptu shower, she found Michael rummaging through her drawers of clothing - more specifically, her underwear drawer. “Excuse me what are you doing?” she asked annoying, putting her hands on her hips.

“Nothin’,” he responded casually.

“Yes you are! You’re looking at my underwear! Stop that!” she snapped, slapping the back of his hand when he picked up a black thong with an evil grin.

“I’m just seein’ what you’ve got here…getting a feel for what you like, you know, in case I ever feel the urge to buy you some,” he grinned wickedly.

Sydney rolled her eyes. “Don’t buy me any underwear,” she told him seriously.

“Isn’t that my duty as your husband?”

“Um, no I think your husbandly duties are limited to taking out the garbage, changing light bulbs and giving your wife back massages,” she smiled at him.

“Mmm no underwear’s in there too,” he assured her.

“I’m sure,” she rolled her eyes once more. “Now how about you continue unpacking my books and stop undoing the organization I had in place in my underwear drawer? Hmm?”

“Fine,” he sighed helplessly. Then he dragged his feet all the way into the other room looking very, very sad.

~*~

Once Sydney was living full-time in her new townhouse, her and Michael’s dating life changed significantly. No longer were they rushing out and rushing back home to their parent’s houses so suspicion would not arise; they could take their time and they had a place to go if they just wanted to have a night in. Of course, Michael still lived with his parents, but they noticed his whereabouts less than Sydney’s father noticed hers.

Time was passing quickly and soon they had been married six weeks, which was both shocking but not. Shocking because they were not living together, which made it hard to believe they were actually married, but not shocking because of all they had accomplished in six weeks including their new jobs and Sydney’s new living space.

As this milestone was occurring, it was the beginning of July meaning the Fourth of July holiday was nearly upon them. Ever since Michael and Sydney were young children, the Bristow and Vaughn families would have a joint barbeque together on the weekend closest to the fourth – sometimes before, sometimes after, but they would always have it. That year, however, they could not because of a week long business trip Michael’s father was taking. Instead of canceling the event all together, though, they postponed it to the middle of July on a weekend when they could all get together and celebrate.

While their mothers were planning out this event, Michael was doing some planning of his own. He decided that he was going to make his and Sydney’s two month wedding anniversary very special. As an early present, he purchased her a coupon for a massage at a local spa and encouraged her to make it an all day event. He knew Sydney did not like getting manicures or pedicures due to the fact that one time her mother received a terrible skin infection from one, but he knew she liked shopping, so he encouraged as subtly as possible to spend the day doing that while he decorated their townhouse. His form of decorations, of course, was mostly those of the extremely romantic nature: candles, roses, and soft music.

Okay, so he wasn’t being very subtle at all. He was making it very clear that he wanted their physical relationship to continue after two months without. Frankly, subtaly was not his strong suit, but that was alright; he excelled in other areas.

When Sydney arrived home and found her bedroom in its romantically decorated state, her jaw hung open. Michael truly had gone out of his way to create a perfect atmosphere; she had to give him credit for that, but… “Michael,” she said warningly.

“I know, Syd, I know,” he said, taking her hands and leading her towards the bed, where they both sat down. “You want to take things slow and I get that, I really do. But these two months have been great, haven’t they?”

“Yeah they have,” she agreed with a soft smile.

“They have. And, if you think about it, has anything really changed between us?”

“Well,” she began slowly, trying to think it through. “We kiss now…and we had sex…and you look at my underwear a lot more than you used to…”

Michael rolled his eyes slightly. “Yes… but has anything changed for the worse?”

“Maybe the underwear thing,” she told him. He elbowed her, slightly annoyed. She giggled. “No, no it hasn’t; you’re right. This has been wonderful; more wonderful than I thought I could be. I mean, you’re my best friend Michael and I love you…”

“I love you too,” he said, kissing her gently. “So does that mean we can put to use this romantic setting I’ve created here?”

“Well we could…except we can’t,” she said with a slight cringe. Michael’s jaw fell open and he turned slightly paler. “I’m sorry!” she laughed at his reaction. “But its…you know – that time.”

“Ugh damn it,” he growled. “Let’s do it anyway!”

“Michael!” she screeched. “No! You’ve waited two months you can wait two more days.”

“I don’t think I can…”

“I know you can,” she assured him. Then, she gave him another kiss. “You do get major credit points for these candles and roses though.”

“Sweet,” he beamed.

~*~

A few days later, Nadia Bristow decided on a whim to visit her sister in her new apartment. It was a Friday in the early evening and she knew her sister would not have plans. She, of course, had plans, but not until later on that night and even though Sydney claimed she had a boyfriend, Nadia was forever skeptical that her loser sister would ever be able to attract (and keep) a man.

She knocked on the front door, though, interestingly there was no answer. She knocked again and still nothing. She had passed Sydney’s car in the parking lot and knew she was home. Figuring that Sydney was either running the vacuum or doing something else that would prohibit her from hearing the knock, Nadia let herself inside with her key meant for emergencies only.

No lights were on in the downstairs area of the apartment, which confused Nadia even more, until she heard something coming from the upstairs bedroom area. Ascending the stairs, Nadia saw Sydney’s bedroom door open a crack and a soft glow of light pouring through it. Not even in her wildest dreams could Nadia have imagined the sight behind the shut door: her sister, clad only in her birthday suit, beneath a man who was, disturbingly, moving atop her.

“HOLY SHIT SYD’S HAVING SEX!” Nadia cackled, completely unfazed by the activities in the room she was peering into.

“NADIA!” Sydney screeched out, horrified, and frantically grasping for the sheet to cover up herself and her lover. Nadia, however, seemed not to notice this uncomfortable wail from her sister; she was too busy laughing so hard she could barely stand. “Nadia get out of here! What are you doing here anyway?!”

“Oh my god! I thought you were still a virgin!” Nadia laughed, gasping for breath at that point.

“Nadia would you get out of here!” Michael snapped glaring over at the doorway.

This immediately quelled Nadia’s laughter. Up until that point, the man in bed with Sydney had been silent, and since his back was to her, she could not determine his identity. With his speech, though, she knew full well who he was and she was utterly floored. “M-Michael,” she croaked out. “You’re sleeping with Michael?!”

“Nadia for the love of God would you get out of here so we can put some clothes on!” Sydney screamed.

“Jeez fine,” Nadia sulked as though she had been asked to do something outrageous and unfair.

“This should go well…,” Michael said with obvious sarcasm as he reached for his boxers.

“Oh. Yeah. Wonderfully,” Sydney rolled her eyes.



Chapter 16

A few minutes later, fully dressed, Michael and Sydney descended the stairs to meet up with Nadia, who was in the kitchen, still snickering. “I gotta say, guys,” she began, “I think this is the highlight of my whole summer. It’s so nice to know little Syddie is no longer a virgin,” she said in a baby-fied tone.

Sydney glared at her. “I’m glad I could amuse you so.”

“Of course…so how long has this been going on because I gotta say you have hid this very well; I’m impressed,” Nadia told them honestly.

“It hasn’t really been going on at all…,” Michael informed her evasively, not sure how much Sydney wanted to reveal.

“It kinda started in Vegas,” Sydney told her. “We’ve been…dating in secret since then.”

“Nice,” Nadia laughed. “It is really sweet though. I mean, my big sis losing her virginity to her best friend… its poetic even,” Nadia sighed dreamily.

“Could we please stop talking about my virginity?” Sydney grumbled. Nadia merely shrugged. “Seriously, Nad, Michael and I kept this secret for a reason so-”

“Well yeah,” Nadia jumped in. “I mean, I totally can’t blame you for that; Mom and Dad would have been all over you guys making sure they knew where you were at every second. Obviously they would have wanted to know for good reason, too,” she smirked. Sydney glared once more.

“Honestly, Syd, I’m surprised at you. You were in Vegas what? Two months ago? Isn’t that a little be soon to be doing the horizontal mambo? I’da thought you’d make Michael wait a whole year!”

“Oh that’s rich,” Sydney snapped. “Getting tips about holding out for sex from a girl who lost her virginity on a first date!”

“It was a third date!” Nadia defended quickly. “And that’s not the point; I’m me and you’re you.”

Sydney was about to retort and say something very unkind, but she stopped herself short. “Look I don’t want to talk about this anymore, alright? What’s done is done and that’s the way it is. Just don’t tell mom and dad, okay?”

“How much you gonna give me for it?” Nadia challenged with a smirk.

Sydney growled slightly at her. “It’s just twelve hours, Nad; we’re telling them tomorrow at the picnic.”

“WE ARE!?” Michael gasped, knowing nothing of this plan.

“Yes…we’ll talk about it in a minute after my nosy sister leaves,” Sydney said, giving her a sideways look.

“Fine,” Nadia said helplessly. “At least I know to bring my video camera for tomorrow when Mom and Dad find out you and Michael have been knockin’ boots… see ya!”

“Ugh I hate her,” Sydney grumbled after her sister slammed the door upon leaving.

“Well she is rather rude… so what’s this about telling our parents?”

“Well its gone on long enough don’t you think?” Sydney said. Michael gave her a “duh! I wanted to tell them right away!” look. “Exactly. Besides, I was kinda thinking that maybe…maybe you could move in here…”

“Really?!” he asked hopefully.

“Well, yeah,” she smiled softly. “I mean, what’s the point of being married if we’re not going to be married.”

“I whole-heartedly agree,” he smiled, locking his arms around her waist. Then, he leaned down and gave her a sweet kiss. “So are we going to go finish what we started before we were so rudely interrupted.”

“I dunno,” Sydney said, scrunching her nose. “I’m kinda not in the mood anymore…” Michael’s jaw crashed down to his chest and Sydney giggled. “I’m just teasin’ you.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” he said in a deadly serious tone.

~*~

When Sydney arrived at the Vaughn’s house, Michael and his parents were there, but her family had yet to arrive. She helped Michael’s mother, Amelia, carry out the snacks from the kitchen to the back picnic table while Michael assisted his father with the grill. The two had discussed it the night before and they planned on waiting until after everyone was finished eating before dropping their atomic bomb-like news.

As usual, the Vaughn and Bristow families got along as though they were already related – laughing and joking with some occasional teasing thrown in from Nadia. That day, she was even worse than usual because of the secret information she was already aware of. No matter how many times Sydney shot her evil glares across the table, Nadia still cracked jokes about sex and dating, mostly relating to Sydney and Michael. Luckily, their parents merely shrugged it off as Nadia’s never-ending insanity. Until, of course, the end of the meal, when it all began to make sense.

“Mom, Dad, Bill, Amelia,” Sydney began. “Michael and I…well we, uh,” she paused nervously to glance over at Michael.

Sadly, Nadia took this millisecond break in her speech to jump in. “They’re having sex!”

“Nadia!” Michael and Sydney hissed together. “You are so evil!” Sydney added, her cheeks turning brilliant red.

“Is this true?” Jack asked with a growl. Michael noticeably shrank away from him and swallowed hard.

“It’s not what it sounds like!” Sydney insisted. “Michael and I got married in Vegas.”

“WHAT!?” All four parents gasped while Nadia added a more eloquent, “Holy shit!”

“It just sort of…happened,” Michael laughed softly as he glanced over at Sydney. She squeezed his hand underneath the table. “Actually, it sorta started as a bet…and then we realized that we were in love with one another already so we got married. Originally we planned on annulling it while we were there…”

“Why didn’t you?!” Jack demanded.

“It was my idea, Dad,” Sydney told him, wanting to take the blame off Michael especially when her father was using that tone. “When Michael mentioned the annulment I decided against it because I figured if our relationship worked we’d get married anyway…we were cutting out the middle step,” she mumbled.

“Well if this isn’t the most backwards relationship…,” Jack grumbled.

“You’re right it is backwards, but its working for us so far and now we’re moving in together to give it a real shot,” Michael smiled, putting his arm around Sydney. Nadia gave a muffled laugh, which was ignored by everyone at the table.

“Don’t you think you’re rushing into things just a bit? I mean… it’s only been two months,” Amelia pointed out.

“And they’re only twenty-two years old!” Jack added with a boom.

“But we’ve known each other our whole lives; we’ve been best friends for almost four years,” Sydney explained. Releasing that their parents, most notably her father, were not thrilled with their decision, Sydney continued with a sigh, “Look maybe this is a mistake, but it’ll be our mistake. We want this so we’re doing this and that’s the way it is.”

For a few minutes, no one said anything. Then, finally, Irina found something positive in the situation. “Well it is nice that you two are together after all these years,” she smiled at them. Amelia agreed on this point as well and, after that, their conversation turned to other topics.

Later that afternoon, Sydney’s father came up to her. His angry expression had finally disappeared and he was beginning to look at her confused. “I thought you always thought of him as a brother,” he said, bewildered as to how this could happen right under his nose.

“Only when I was eight, Dad,” she informed him. Jack merely nodded distantly before walking away.

“So do I have to flee the country?” Michael asked softly into Sydney’s ear.

She turned around and laughed. “No, I think you’re good. Boy if we hadn’t been married though you would have had to after Nadia’s comment,” she giggled.

“That’s not funny! Your dad can be very scary,” Michael shivered.

“I know.”

“So,” Michael sighed, snaking his arms around her waist. “You ready for me to start packing up my things so I can move in?”

“Yep.” She grinned.

“Good, ‘cause I packed this morning,” he told her. At this, Sydney simply laughed.



Epilogue

“Daddy are we going to Grammie Irina’s today??” four-year-old Bradley asked his father.

“Yep,” Michael said, crouching down beside his son. “As soon as Mommy packs up Jenny we’ll be leaving,” he said, referring to his five-month-old daughter.

Bradley scrunched up his nose with displeasure. “She’s coming?” he asked, referring to his sister. Sadly, over the five months Jenny had been in their lives, Bradley had not warmed up to her very much. True, he found her interesting the very first day, but that very first night she wailed at the top of her lungs for three hours all of his interest fated into disgust.

“Yes, Jenny is coming,” Michael laughed softly. “Now go get your shoes on so we can leave.”

That day, they were once again celebrating the Fourth of July with their joint families. It had been eleven years since the day the told their parents of their marriage and subsequent cohabitation, and ever since things had been going perfectly. Sydney and Michael settled into married life with just a few fights, but those arguments helped them learn better for the next time around. Eleven years later they were still best friends, still just as in love as ever, and happier than ever before with their two children.

“Okay we’re ready,” Sydney smiled when she appeared with blonde-haired, dark-eyed Jenny on her hip.

“Perfect,” Michael said, kissing them each on the cheek. “Let’s go then.”

“Daddy can we put Jenny on a firework and send her to space?!” Bradley asked as they made their way out to the car.

“NO!” Both of his parents responded immediately.

“Nuts!” Bradley sighed.

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