Title: Handing You My Heart |
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She is making a special valentine, for the boy who holds her heart. His name is Greg and he is soooo cute. He’s got spiked brown hair with a rat-tail, chocolaty brown eyes, and a big toothy smile. He’s popular, and he’s smart, and he’s really good at sports. Sydney gets tingles when she sees him. He’s not in her class, he’s in Mrs. Murphy’s third grade class instead. He was in her class last year, and she’s liked him since then. Sydney reaches for the plastic container of silver and red sparkles, but changes her mind and puts it back down. Instead she picks up a tiny white paper doily. Pleased with her choice, she folds it over and over into an accordion shape. She ties it together with a piece of red yarn and snips off the excess. She looks over the little bow she has made and quickly crumples it and throws it in the trash. Not good enough. She looks at the sparkles again and decides they are the right way to go after all. She uses her glue stick to create a tacky surface on the construction paper heart. Then she gingerly sprinkles the sparkles, watching them fall like little silver and red raindrops. While she waits for the sparkles to dry, she opens her desk drawer and pulls out her class picture from last year. Being a tall girl, she stands in the middle row. She envies the girls sitting in the front row, hands delicately folded in their laps. Greg stands in the back row, behind her and a few people to the left. He looks so cute in his blue and white plaid shirt and blue cords. She looks at this picture a lot. It’s the only one she’s got of him. Sydney gently places a finger on her valentine to see if the sparkles are dry and fully attached to the paper. They are, so she continues her work. She flips the heart over and smears glue on the back. She then picks it up by its edges and centers it on a large white doily, creating a round frame. She is pleased with it so far. Next she picks up her silver sequins. She will use these to spell Greg’s name. She needs white glue for this and opens her drawer to retrieve it. She squeezes the bottle and carefully prints a capital letter G with the sticky white substance. Then one by one she places the sequins on the glue, careful not to let any of it show through. Sydney is nothing if not thorough. She repeats the process for the remaining three letters and admires her work. It needs something else. She looks over her craft supplies, but nothing seems right. It needs something special, a finishing touch that will make it stand out. Remembering something, she rises from her desk and goes to her dresser. She opens the jewelry box that sits in the center, invoking the little ballerina to begin her twirl to the music that fills the air. She digs through the various jewelry and pulls out a ring she got from a gumball machine. A flat red gem sparkles from the middle of it. She easily bends the little tongs back and pries the gem loose while walking back to her desk. She sits down and places a tiny dab of white glue on the back and mulls over where to put it. After careful consideration, she gently places it under Greg’s name, centered between the R and the E. Sydney lifts up the completed valentine and smiles. ~~~ Sydney meets her friend Kelly on the playground the next morning. Her valentine is safely tucked in a large white envelope in her backpack. Kelly asks about it, but Sydney tells her she will give it to her right before they go inside, not wanting it to get ruined. Kelly is in Greg’s class and has offered to deliver it to him. Sydney is nervous about anyone else handling the precious object she spent so much time and care on, but she is too shy to give it to him herself. The bell rings and Sydney takes her backpack off, then slides the envelope out. She tentatively hands it to Kelly, who takes it and looks inside. Sydney can tell that Kelly thinks it’s good, but Kelly just shrugs. Sydney enters her class and sits at her desk. Hanging from the left side of her desk is a pink and red envelope made of construction paper. The whole class made them yesterday to collect valentines in. Sydney spots a platter of pink frosted cupcakes sitting on Mrs. Anderson’s desk, red sprinkles scattered on top. They are for the party they’re having after the first recess. Everyone looks excited, and she’s excited too, but she’s even more excited for recess when she can see Greg and ask Kelly how he liked his valentine. Time creeps by slowly for the whole class, as twenty-five third graders squirm in their seats. Sydney keeps looking at the clock. At last the recess bell rings and Sydney joins the rest of her classmates in jumping up and running outside. She searches the crowd on the playground for Greg or Kelly, and spots them both at once. Greg has Sydney’s valentine in his hand, but it’s his other hand she’s concerned with at the moment. His other hand is clasped with Kelly’s. Kelly beams at him as they walk toward the baseball diamond. Sydney feels as if she’s been stabbed. She stands with her feet rooted to the ground, just staring at them. Her eyes are stinging as the tears are threatening to fall, but she doesn’t let them. She squeezes her eyes shut as anger takes over, pushing sadness and betrayal to the sidelines for a moment. Sydney is very shy, but something happens to her when she gets angry. It’s as if the anger infuses her with bravery. She begins walking toward Greg and Kelly. She catches up to them and stands in front of them, forcing them to stop walking. She ignores Kelly and looks straight at Greg. “Greg, Kelly didn’t make that valentine for you, I did,” she says, sticking her chin out. “Who are you?” Greg asks. That stings. It stings so much that Sydney’s bravado falters and falls away. She’s spent so much time admiring him, and he doesn’t even know her name. “Sydney Bristow,” she says quietly, looking at the ground. “Well, Sydney Bristow, I don’t even know you,” he says. And then her valentine comes into her line of sight as it falls to the ground. “Here, take your valentine back.” And then he stomps on her heart, both literally and figuratively. Kelly giggles and they walk away. Sydney, tears streaming down her cheeks, bends down and picks up the crumpled paper, the brown pattern of Greg’s shoeprint across it. The red gem has fallen off, so she picks that up too. With as much dignity as possible, she stands up and walks toward the school. Inside, she picks up the pace. The tears are falling faster and she’s choking down sobs. Once she reaches the girls bathroom, she enters a stall, locks the door, and lets herself cry in earnest. ~~~ That was the first time Sydney Bristow had her heart broken. It certainly wasn’t the last. Every girl has a similar story, an unrequited crush. But to someone as shy and guarded as she was, it made a permanent impression. She bestows her love very tentatively now, taking every precaution not to get hurt. Her protective veneer is strong and not easy to penetrate. Vaughn did it though, quite effortlessly and somewhat unknowingly. Other factors kept them apart, and as time passed, the wall she’d built was chiseled through. Piece by piece it crumbled until there was nothing left. And now she’s left vulnerable, holding her heart out to him and waiting to see if he’ll stomp on it. She waits for him in the warehouse. There isn’t any point to them meeting here now. SD-6 has been destroyed and Sydney is no longer a double agent. But she is still a CIA agent, and Vaughn is still her handler. Perhaps that’s why he’s asked her to meet here, to give them some privacy away from the probing eyes of the Joint Ops Center. She hopes that’s his reasoning. Sydney hears footsteps and feels a little nervous. Protocol is the only thing keeping them apart now, and they have found their way around protocol before. Being discovered by Sloane is the real reason they’ve stayed apart, the danger that would ensue enforcing their separation. But that’s not a concern anymore. “Hi,” Vaughn says quietly, smiling tenderly at her. “Hi,” she says back, letting her dimples make an appearance. They are both silent, neither really knowing what to say. Both stand there with goofy grins on their faces. “What are we doing?” asks Vaughn, smiling and shaking his head. Sydney decides to make the first move, closing the gap between them. She takes his hands in hers, lacing their fingers together. She feels suddenly shy and vulnerable, as if she’s back in the third grade. “I’m handing you my heart,” she says quietly. Vaughn lets go of her hands and threads his hands through her hair. She lets her hands fall to his waist as he pulls her closer. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he says. Then he takes her mouth in the sweetest kiss she’s ever had, washing away all fear and vulnerability. She loves him with everything that she is, and she knows he loves her with the same intensity. She feels confident, knowing that her heart is safely in his possession. The End
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