Equilibrium: Sydney/Vaughn (Alias)

[surrexi.livejournal.com]

Title: Equilibrium
Author: Liz
Spoilers: Seasons 1-3, vague season four impressions
Fandom: Alias
Pairing: Sydney/Vaughn






“Well, this could be very interesting.”
“Does that mean I’m in?”
(1.01 - Truth Be Told)

Sydney Bristow is at once a very complicated and a very simple woman. In a sense, it is the world she lives in and moves through that makes her complicated. At her core, she wants simple things: love, trust, loyalty. When she entered the world of espionage, she did so for the best of reasons. She felt honored and excited to have been approached by people she thought were from the US Government. She needed something to give her life meaning, and she found it in her job as a spy.

Sydney was shattered when she learned the truth about SD-6 – that it wasn’t actually part of the CIA, but a covert branch of The Alliance – an organization she thought she was fighting in the first place, not only because of the death of Daniel Hecht, her fiancé, but also because of the death of her illusions – illusions she didn’t even realize that she had. Her trust was broken, her belief in things like honor and loyalty battered. A lesser woman might have crumbled under the strain. But not Sydney. Instead of crumbling, she vowed to make things right. She promised herself that she would avenge Danny’s death. And she was going to do it by getting a job with the real CIA, putting her life on the line and her dreams on hold for a cause that mattered to her.

Which brings her to Michael Vaughn’s office on October 1, 2001.

“So, if you really had one already you most likely wouldn’t tell me until I was authenticated.”
“Unless I had an instinct about you.”
(1.01 - Truth Be Told)

Michael Vaughn is a Good Man. He joined the CIA both to serve his country and to honor the memory of his father, who was killed in the line of duty while working for the CIA himself. He values honor and integrity and considers himself a company guy. He plays by the book, but understands that sometimes you have to toss the book out the window and just play the game, just follow your instincts.

Vaughn possesses a strength that appears quiet and unassuming when he’s not in the field. He is a man who looks at home behind a desk flipping an old coin of his father’s between his fingers; he is a man who looks equally at home holding a lighter up to a man’s whiskey-soaked face demanding the location of a boy and his mother. He operates under a code of morals based on honor and the truth. He is the shoulder you always wanted to cry on, and never felt embarrassed doing so.

But beyond being a strong, honorable, and intelligent officer in the CIA, Vaughn is much like our girl Sydney in that underneath it all – like her, he longs for a normal life. This is something he will tell multiple characters on multiple occasions throughout the series, a lifelong dream he will keep coming back to when things get crazy.

“I’m not trying to play you.”
“Yeah. We’ll see.”
(1.01 - Truth Be Told)

--

And so it is that two extraordinary people leading extraordinary lives are thrown together on an October day in Los Angeles. Sydney is snarky and Vaughn is businesslike yet open and caring. When the audience is first introduced to Vaughn, he is already putting something off in order to see to Sydney’s needs by bringing her coffee and doughnuts. “I’ll get to it, I promise,” he assures a random non-speaking extra, as he passes by without stopping. And he will. But from the very beginning, Vaughn establishes a pattern of putting Sydney first, and the possibility is very real that this pattern is the only reason Sydney managed to live through a season and a half at SD-6. He ends their first meeting still looking out for her above and beyond the call of duty, by offering to give her the name of his dentist, since she’d had a few of them rather unprofessionally extracted on the mission. He leaves the room to see to some detail of getting her out of the building undetected and she glances after him, hope warring with the tearing grief in her eyes.

The sparks are flying at Sydney and Vaughn’s second meeting as they struggle to find a power balance in their relationship. Sydney has some very set ideas about the scope of SD-6 and the timetable of her work to take them down, and she steamrolls over several attempts by Vaughn to break into the stream of names and places.

VAUGHN: Okay, stop. You have to listen to me, okay?
SYDNEY: You said you wanted to talk about the plan. I'm giving you the plan.
VAUGHN: It's not your job to give me the plan. I'm giving you the plan.
(1.02 - So It Begins)

Sydney snarks back at Vaughn some more and then declares that she can hand the CIA SD-6 in “two months, tops.” Vaughn just stares at her for a moment, and a mixture of frustration and worry and pity crosses through his eyes. He tells her, much to her annoyance, to draw him a map of SD-6. After much snark and protestation, she complies. Her map is small, consisting of only a few branches. Vaughn nods slowly as Sydney tries to get in the final verbal blow. Silently, he takes down a large roll of paper. Unrolled, it reveals a huge map of SD-6, with hundreds of names and connections. Sydney stares at it, shocked into reality. “This is not about cutting off an arm of the monster,” Vaughn says, calm now that Sydney’s listening. “This is about killing the monster.”

Despite this initial power struggle, or perhaps because of the mutual respect that comes out of it, Sydney is shocked and disappointed in the following episode when Vaughn informs her that he is being removed as her handler because the higher-ups are concerned about his lack of experience. Vaughn, for his part, can’t get Sydney off his mind and vents to Eric Weiss, his best friend, about the unfairness of the situation. “You’re starting to get a little too emotional about this,” Weiss tells him, the first of many to accuse Vaughn of this. “I’m scared for Sydney,” Vaughn admits. “I know I’m off the case. But I want her to come back.”

Sydney and her new handler don’t get along – he seems to view her as “the little spy-woman,” sets up gratuitous meets, and is all-around slimy. Sydney quickly decides she’s had enough, and tells him that if Vaughn isn’t promoted and made her handler again, she’ll walk and the CIA won’t get anything. When she turns on her CIA communicator and finds Vaughn on the other end, her smile is immediate. “My guardian angel,” she quips. Thousands of shippers are spontaneously created in the following second, as Vaughn laughs. “I was going to say the same thing to you. Thanks for the promotion.”

In the fourth episode, A Broken Heart, Vaughn is firmly established as Sydney’s go-to shoulder to cry on about anything and everything. She goes to him partially because she doesn’t know who else to call – there is no one else to whom she can speak about all the things that trouble her, from the death of a treasured colleague on a mission to her tenuous and fragile relationship with her father. At the breaking point, Sydney calls Vaughn to meet her at the pier. Though it is clearly outside of his job description, Vaughn goes without hesitation. The following scene takes place, and I’m posting it all because it is the perfect example of what Vaughn is to Sydney, and vice versa.

SYDNEY: (sobbing) I'm sorry to call you, I just didn't know who else to call. My father and I were supposed to have dinner tonight. The first time since I was a kid. I can't even remember the last time. (sobs) He just didn't show. He said he had work. He didn't have work. This isn't just about my dad. When I was in Morocco, the man who died... he was a friend of mine. He was a good man, who thought he was fighting for the right side, that he was working for the C.I.A.! He was lied to, and now he's dead. I had his blood on my hands!
VAUGHN: Sydney...
SYDNEY: I feel like I'm losing my mind! Like I don't even know who I am anymore, or what I'm doing, or why I'm doing it!
(Her pager suddenly beeps. Sydney grabs it, and throws it in the water below them. It splashes.)
VAUGHN: You just threw your beeper in the Pacific.
SYDNEY: (laughs through tears) I know...
VAUGHN: Okay, listen to me. There's something you need to know. When you first walked into my office with that stupid Bozo hair, I thought you were crazy. I actually thought you might be a crazy person. But I watched you, and I read your statement, and I've seen... I've seen how you think, I've seen how you work, I've seen how you are. In this job, you see darkness, you see the worst in people. And though the jobs are different and the missions change and the enemies have a thousand names, the one crucial thing, the one real responsibility you have is to not let your rage, and your resentment, and your disgust darken you. (Pause) When you're at your absolute lowest, at your most depressed, just remember that you can always... you know. You’ve got my number.
(A few seconds pass. Sydney grabs Vaughn's hand, and holds on tight.)
(1.04 - A Broken Heart)

Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” plays throughout this entire exchange, subtly reminding us that Vaughn is Sydney’s guardian angel, subtly underscoring exactly what kind of strength Sydney is drawing from Vaughn now. It’s only been a few weeks, but Sydney already depends on him, already needs him.

The pattern of conflict marked with mutual respect, admiration, forbidden affection, and the ability to depend on each other emotionally that is established in the first four episodes continues throughout the first season. There are a million moments, large and small, throughout the first season that mark the growing feeling between Sydney and Vaughn. I could go through every episode and tell you how every scene between the two of them shows the complex feelings they develop for each other, but in the interest of space and not boring you with fangirly raving, I’ll hit some highlights.

Throughout the season, Vaughn assists Sydney in her quest to find out more about her father and her mother, despite the fact that his own father was one of the CIA agents killed by Sydney’s mother, Laura Bristow, aka Irina Derevko. He rips open old wounds for Sydney, soldiering on in helping her with her quest for the truth because it matters to him, but more importantly because is matters to her.

After they learn the truth about Jack and Irina, that she married him in order to spy for the KGB, and that it was Irina who killed Vaughn’s father, Sydney is wracked with guilt. She and Vaughn meet in the self-storage warehouse they frequently use for meetings and Sydney is, as has become her custom, unloading her grief and angst on a silently listening Vaughn. She says how she’d had a picture of her mother in her head, made from pieces of memories and stories, and how it wasn’t true. “She wasn't that woman at all. She was... she was a horrible person... who killed your father,” she manages to get out. She stands in front of him, crying. “Vaughn, I just wanted to say... that I'm so sorry.” Vaughn, who must be going through hell just like her, simply takes her in his arms and hugs her close. He cradles her head on his shoulder and holds her while she cries – the daughter of his father’s murderer.

As the season progresses, there are more and more moments where Sydney and Vaughn exhibit clear signs that they feel much more deeply for each other than the average handler and asset. Sydney, while in one of her I’m-going-to-quit phases, asks Vaughn out on a date. The voice of reason, he turns her down. Later, however, he can’t stop himself from admitting that he wishes that they could go out on a date. “I think I wasn't clear about something. That it would be nice to be in public with you, to actually get to look at you. Grab a pizza or go to a hockey game. I just... I wasn't clear that I would really like that, too.” They both smile shyly, and then Vaughn wishes her luck on her next mission in that voice that lets her know that “good luck” really means “come back to me.”

The season one relationship build-up reaches its head in the season finale. Will Tippin, one of Sydney’s best friends, has been kidnapped by the bad guys, and Sydney is forced to go above the CIA’s heads and around their protocols in order to save him. She is unable to hide from Vaughn that she is up to something – master spy that she is, the one person who can always read her like an open book is Michael C. Vaughn. He finds her at the train station, and the following scene occurs:

(Vaughn sits down on the other side of the seats. Their backs are to each other.)
VAUGHN: Hey.
(She looks and then looks away.)
SYDNEY: Hi. How did you find me?
VAUGHN: You told me a couple of months ago that when you feel the need to disappear, you go to the observatory. But the observatory was closed. And then I remembered you said the pier calmed you down. But you weren't there. And you weren't at the bluffs and the palisades, either.
SYDNEY: You didn't really go to all those places.
VAUGHN: Yeah, I did. And then I remembered you liked the train station, too. Normal people going to their normal jobs.
SYDNEY: I can't believe you remember that.
VAUGHN: He's contacted you, hasn't he? Khasinau? And he wants the page. You're going to give it to him.
SYDNEY: (crying) You came here to stop me.
VAUGHN: My father used to keep a diary and when I was a kid I used to say, "Hey, Dad, only girls keep diaries," and he'd just laugh. He was a really good guy, my dad. Yeah. But he was too hard on himself. I mean, he was such a company guy that whenever he slipped up even in the slightest way he took it so personally. There were a few operations -- his last one among them -- that he questioned. Operations he refused to participate in. But only in his diary. He'd write out what he wanted to say to the CIA director. I mean, things he could never say in real life. He was a company man, and I loved him very much. But it killed him, never questioning orders. His blind devotion to the job. If you're doing what I think you're doing, I'm in if you need me.
SYDNEY: Thank you.
(1.22 - Almost Thirty Years)

For Sydney, Vaughn faces demons about his father, breaks protocols he used to live by. And when he tells her he’s doing it, he makes it sound like it’s the simplest thing in the world. “I’m in if you need me.” I can imagine Vaughn visiting all the places he listed off, and more besides, looking for her. Just wanting to get to her so that she knows that despite the distance he’d been trying to establish thanks to the pushing of Weiss and of CIA psychologist Judy Barnett, he is still her guardian angel. He’s still there for her, no matter what.

So he goes with her to Taipei. In a loud club, he territorially shoves a man away from her, causing her to giggle happily, only half in character, just like him. A small moment in the midst of the tension of the mission, not an anvil, but so characteristic of Sydney and Vaughn that it bears notice. She is his, on a mission or off a mission, and he’ll be damned if he’ll let some chump touch her.

Season one, the big cliffhanger was that Vaughn appeared about to drown, thanks to the Rambaldi device being “bigger than [Sydney] thought” and containing a lot of water. Of course, our guy can swim and work a screwdriver, which he dubs the most incredible invention of all time. But before he is found, Sydney is frantic over him being missing. She doesn’t understand why the CIA won’t let her help locate him, won’t keep her updated on his status.

This is Alias, however, and so she ends up finding him anyway, rescuing him from the clutches of a bad guy with a chest saw about to mar the perfection of Vaughn’s sternum. Pumped up on adrenaline and grinning like a madman because he finds himself in France, he thanks her for saving him. Shippers everywhere simultaneously scream “KISS, DAMMIT!” The spies don’t comply, however, since they’re waiting for episode 2.13.

The addition of Sydney’s mother, Irina, to the cast of Alias creates lots of conflict for Vaughn internally and in the way he deals with Sydney. When he becomes ill because of the fluid from the Rambaldi device in season one, it is Irina who tips his hand and forces him to admit, however artfully or euphemistically, that he does indeed have feelings for Sydney.

VAUGHN: I'm trying to live a normal life, which was always hard given what I do but it's gotten harder since I met your daughter. It's not that knowing her hasn't made my life better. It has. But it's also made it that much worse. I think I've said enough.
IRINA: The problem, Mr. Vaughn, is that to the one person who matters, you haven't said anything.
VAUGHN: Listen, this may not mean anything to you. This may not be something you can understand or appreciate, but we have rules. Very clear and important rules that govern the relationship between a handler and his asset.
IRINA: And between a man and a woman?
(2.07 - The Counteragent)

Vaughn goes to talk to Sydney and thank her for getting the antidote to the virus he’d contracted. They hug, Sydney cries a little, and Vaughn looks handsomely stoic. She mentions that she met Alice, Vaughn’s (*coughplotdevicecough*) girlfriend, who he describes as a “good person.” He tries to explain why he’s still with Alice when every interaction he and Sydney have had in the past few months has made it obvious that they have feelings for each other, and she insists that he not explain. She walks away, and Vaughn cuts off his boss in order to follow her, Irina’s words and Sydney’s actions clearly on his mind. He gave her too much of a head start, however, and he ends up smiling at his own thoughts after she disappears around a corner.

After Will confronts Vaughn about what Vaughn and Sydney do or don’t have, Vaughn decides that while he can’t actually come out and say that he loves her, he’s damn well going to say it without saying it. So he shows her his father’s watch, and he tells her about it. “This watch belonged to my father. It's broken now, but it used to keep perfect time. And when he gave it to me, he said you could set your heart by this watch. It stopped October 1st – the day we met.” All that neither of them can say is summed up in a simple yet extremely powerful story. Tears in her eyes, Sydney nods, understanding, agreeing. Once again, Sydney and Vaughn are at their odd equilibrium.

After a few more episodes of the same, as well as a first date in Nice abruptly cut off by gunfire, it was time for “Phase One,” the episode that turned the world of Alias on its head. It was time for the fall of SD-6. The episode was fast-paced, and chock full of Sydney and Vaughn. From their discussion at the beginning of the episode in which they finally truly acknowledge their growing feelings for each other – Vaughn even says in so many words “all I wanna do is kiss you,” to Vaughn’s reactions to seeing Sydney on the plane with the smarmy guy of the week, everything about Sydney and Vaughn’s relationship is amplified.

And then they find themselves standing in the rubble of SD-6. Everything they’ve been working for over the last year an a half is there in front of them. They see each other from across a room, and in their eyes you can see all the words, all the moments that have passed between them until this moment. Critical mass has arrived, and as they stand there amidst the ruin that shows them they are free, they take the inevitable steps toward each other. Slowly at first, then the strides are longer, and then they’re standing there surrounded by broken desks and smashed computers, kissing as if they’d die if they stopped. Somehow, through dust and ruin and Kevlar, they manage to have the most romantic kiss imaginable. Even Weiss’ jubilant declaration that the CIA kicked the Alliance’s asses can’t distract them from the business at hand.

They make love to Coldplay, wake up to Jimmy Eat World, and Sydney wonders how they’re going to stay awake at work. Vaughn doesn’t care. When Sydney can’t believe the atrocities she’s witnessed on the job, Vaughn brings her a glass of wine in the bathtub and gently strokes her face, comforting her. Sydney refuses to spy on him, admitting without saying it that she loves him. They play hockey together, and they work together more than ever on missions, developing even further the easy rhythm of working together that had served them so well during Sydney’s time at SD-6. They talk about going away to Santa Barbara, and Vaughn even books the hotel – “the greatest phone call [he’s] ever made.”

And then comes the Best Girlfight Ever, and then the Lost Years. And Vaughn’s marriage to another woman. Even married to another woman, however, even believing that he loves her, Vaughn can’t deny that he loves Sydney more. Though he tries to do the honourable thing by Lauren, that doesn’t stop him from sacrificing things for Sydney.

The best example of Vaughn and Sydney during Vaughn’s marriage and before they learned the truth about Lauren’s status as a Covenant operative is the arc between 3.07 “Prelude” to 3.10 “Remnants.” At the end of “Prelude,” Lauren reveals to Vaughn that she found out about Sydney supposedly murdering a Russian diplomat during the Lost Years and has reported it to her superiors. Without thinking and without hesitation, Vaughn runs from Lauren to go save Sydney. He spirits her out of the country without a second thought. Before she leaves for Rome, the follow exchange occurs:

SYDNEY: Vaughn, why are you doing this? My life is already a disaster – now yours is too.
VAUGHN: What happened between us…everything…the way it is…isn’t anyone’s fault, Sydney. And even though everything’s changed… some things don’t. (Pause) I’m not gonna lose you twice.
(3.07 - Prelude)

They are both choked up during this exchange, with Sydney crying and Vaughn’s voice thickening with every word. They hug, and as they pull apart it is obvious that they want to kiss, but honor and integrity and the hopelessness of their situation holds them back. But the fact remains that Vaughn still loves Sydney like he always has – some things just don’t change.

In the following episode, “Breaking Point,” Vaughn bullies his way into Jack’s attempt to rescue Sydney from the clutches of the NSA, earning back Jack’s grudging respect and trust. He is unapologetic in the face of Lauren’s anger over his insistence on putting Sydney’s well-being first. By the next episode, “Conscious,” Vaughn is as stuck to Sydney’s side as Jack is, with her through every moment of her memory-retrieval therapy. And finally, in “Remnants,” he shows just how much he still loves her and just how important to him she still is when he informs Sloane that if he harms Sydney, Vaughn will not hesitate to kill him. The dynamic between Sydney and Vaughn in this arc of episodes is very similar to the early season two dynamic, in that they clearly love one another but know that they have to respect the boundaries that keep them apart – in this case, Vaughn’s marriage to Lauren.

Two episodes later, Lauren has been revealed to the audience, though not to the rest of the cast, as being a Covenant operative, and Vaughn is moving closer and closer to admitting that his marriage to Lauren is not working out. The progress towards a separation between Lauren and Vaughn really begins in “Crossings,” when Sydney and Vaughn share a kiss before dying, so to speak, when they are captured in North Korea and believe themselves about to be executed. “We’ll find each other,” Sydney tells Vaughn. “We always find each other.”

His connection to Sydney deeply affirmed and his connection to his wife waning, Vaughn and Sydney spend the next few episodes going on missions together and growing closer. Finally, Vaughn decides to separate from Lauren in episode 3.17 – The Frame. The last straw comes with Lauren has Vaughn’s father’s watch – the one from season two, that stopped the day he met Sydney – fixed. She unknowingly hammers the last nail into her coffin with that single act, as Vaughn realises that he’s letting his indecision over what the “right” thing to do in the situation is get in the way of the best thing that ever happened to him – his love for Sydney. Though Lauren and Sark contrive a way to keep Vaughn by her side until the end of the following episode, when he discovers her duplicity, it is important to note that Vaughn decided Sydney was more important than Lauren before he knew Lauren was Covenant.

After discovering Lauren’s betrayal of both him and his country, Vaughn goes through a very dark phase. He is angry beyond any anger he’s ever felt before. Not only did Lauren marry him under false pretenses – a loathsome thing to do, and not only did she betray the United States – also loathsome under Vaughn’s value system, but she came between Sydney and Vaughn. She caused him to put himself and Sydney through months worth of pain and misery, and this is what he cannot forgive. Everything comes back to Sydney for Vaughn.

Indeed, it is Sydney who is eventually able to pull Vaughn back from the edge. As his vendetta against Lauren rages, it is Sydney who calls him on his obsession. It is Sydney who tells him that the man he has become since finding out the truth is not the man he wants to be, is not the man she wants to be with. She even breaks out his first name, an unprecedented occurance. And it is her words that finally get through to him that he can’t kill Lauren, he has to turn her over to the authorities, no matter what Jack had advised him. “I hate you,” he tells Lauren coldly. “But I love Sydney more. That’s the only reason you’re not dying tonight.” Sydney is Vaughn’s redemption.

Season four has Sydney and Vaughn trying to rebuild their relationship and get beyond the destruction wreaked by Lauren Reed. It is going in fits and starts, but in the end, it’s Sydney and Vaughn. They’ll always be for each other, they’ll always fit together. Even as they work through trust issues and forgiveness issues throughout this season, underneath it they know that in the end they will trust each other completely again, and that they’ve already forgiven each other, they just have to forgive themselves.

SYDNEY: Vaughn! What are you doing? How did you get here?
VAUGHN: I came for you.
(3.22 – Resurrection)

--

I freely admit that Sydney/Vaughn is the main reason I watch Alias. It was the spy drama aspect that made me watch the premiere, but after one S/V scene, I was hooked, a shipper from day one.

I love that Sydney is a strong woman, who can kick ass and take names and then file her nails. But even more, I love that she is strong enough to lean on Vaughn. It takes a strong person to go through life on their own, but it takes an even stronger one to depend on someone for support. And Sydney is strong enough to trust Vaughn to be her rock, to be her shoulder to cry on, despite everything she’s been through.

I love that Vaughn is such an honorable man, and that despite his great respect for rules and protocols, he is always willing to bend and break them for Sydney and for love. I love the respect they have for each other as agents. Though Sydney is, being the star, presented as the most kick-ass of all the characters, they have increasingly allowed Vaughn to be kick-ass as well, and sometimes they even let him save Sydney. They each have complete faith in the other’s ability to do the job. They’re both kick-ass and they depend on each other.

Sydney and Vaughn as a relationship is all about balance. Balance between protocol and need, trust and the world they live in. Balance between love and safety, doing what’s right and doing what’s right. It’s an equilibrium, a give and take, and it’s perfect.

--

Fandom Guide
Liz’s guide to the best art, fic, and miscellaneous other stuff about Syd and Vaughn, with only a little bit of gratuitous self-pimpage.

My Offerings || Art
Something to Believe In – wallpaper (1024x768) from “So It Begins”
Give Unto Me – wallscroll from “Firebomb”
Let Me Feel – wallpaper (1024x768) from “Conscious”
I Still Want You – collage from “Blowback”
She - really long general S/V wallscroll
The Long Road Home - insanely long wallscroll of S/V in Season Three

My Offerings || Fiction
My S/V Fic at Allies
I also have some unfinished long fics (and more art!) at my domain, Muse-Driven.com

Recs || Art
Visual 47 – Although the site hasn’t been updated since July, Abby O. has some of the best S/V (and Alias in general) art that I’ve ever seen. I especially recommend you check out her wallpapers. And ready the drool rags, because her art is gorgeous, folks.
Living Color – Beka’s art is fantastic, I love her wallpapers. She has a way with brown/tan colors that I just can’t manage myself.
Need to Know – Cath’s (JeSouhaite) art site. She has some fantastic S/V art in her Alias section that I highly recommend you check out.
Run Together – Rose Stratford’s art. Awesome, awesome art. Her use of color, texture, and typography never ceases to amaze me. A must-see.
Broken – Jems’ art site. Gorgeous art (and her layouts always rock the house down, too). Check it out!

Recs || Fic
And Never the Twain Shall Meet – by CIAChick711
- One of my favorite AU stories, PG
Chronos – by Jillian R.
- Just read it. Seriously, it’s one I re-read just because I love it. (NC-17)
Five Years and Fifty Lilac Bushes – by Andi Horton
- Probably my favorite of the all the post-ATY fiction, PG
Surmising Alliances – by Jinnie
- Syd and Vaughn get married. And Jinnie wrote it. How could I not love it? (PG-13)
Presages – by Jinnie
- The only incomplete fic on the list, but I loves it I does. Starts during “A Free Agent” and goes AU from there, incorporating elements of S3 and lots of great Vaughn-in-a-hospital scenes. (PG-13)

Sydney/Vaughn filter @ Fanfiction.net
Allies – All Syd/Vaughn fiction, all the time
Sydney/Vaughn filter @ Cover Me

Miscellaneous Links
Worth the Risk || the “official” Syd/Vaughn fanlisting
LJ Interest searches || syd/vaughn, sydney/vaughn, sydney bristow, michael vaughn, vaughn
Alias-Media.com || best site for pics and vid clips
The Safehouse || best Michael Vartan (& old-school S/V) site around (home of the Vartan Hos!)

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Well, I hope I did Syd and Vaughn justice. Feel free to add your fic/art/site/whatever recommendations if you've got any!