Absolution- Alias Fanfiction

34) Vaughn Proposed Sydney

AN: Music of this chapter (on repeat): Carol of The Bells by George Winston, Believe by Josh Groban, O Holy Night by Susan Boyle

THIRTY-FOUR

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When dinner was finished they all moved into the Throne Room again, feeling full, free and easy after a few shots of vodka and when Jack deposited Irina on the piano bench instead of the chair everyone stopped conversation.

"Jack..." She looked at him with wide eyes and flustered with nervousness.

"Mom, you can play again?" Sydney's eyebrows shut up in surprise, immediately getting emotional.

"Yes. She can." Jack replied softly, staring into Irina's big brown eyes with nothing but love and support.

"Mom, please..." Sydney begged seeing the resistance on Irina's part and desperately wanting to hear her mother play, "I haven't heard you play since I was six years old."

Irina turned her eyes from Jack to her daughter with Sydney's plea, knowing she wasn't going to be able to resist the 'puppy look' on Sydney's face.

She also knew that Sydney had still felt guilty over the fact that she had saved Sydney from her injury and this was her chance to relieve some of her daughter's unnecessary burden.

The others in the room, stared at her with hopeful wondering eyes as they had never heard Irina play and were fascinated to do so, save Katya.

"And I haven't heard you play since I was fifteen...before you left for America." Katya added softly with tears already pooling in her eyes as she held Lena in her arms. "Please Rina."

Irina's own eyes started to tear and she had to blink them back looking from her daughter to her sister.

"Ok." She agreed softly, seeing how much it meant to both of them. "Let's see." She turned her attention back to the piano looking at the keys with no music in front of her thinking about what to play.

"Doesn't she need music?" Weiss asked quietly to Sydney in wonder.

"No." Sydney shook her head feeling her own tears coming before Irina played her first note staring at her mother at the piano and seeing flashbacks to her childhood that she'd thought were lost forever because of Project Christmas. "She plays from ear, by memory. Always has."

Irina placed her hands above the keys hovering for just a moment before she started to play something she hadn't played since her last Christmas with Jack and Sydney.

*Carol of The Bells*

The song started slowly at first and was instantly recognizable to them all as Irina continued to play, her fingers moving faster and faster as the tempo picked up and the melody changed.

Sydney and Katya both had tears streaming down there faces from the moment she began playing her first notes both at the memory and sight of Irina playing again and relief that her injury hadn't ruined her musical genius for the rest of her life.

Mikhail had heard the faint sounds of the piano coming from downstairs behind his closed door and opened it a crack to listen. When he realized it was Irina that must be playing he moved quietly to sit next to the wall in the hallway and listen to beautiful sounds coming from the room below him with a smile on his face. He hadn't heard her play since she was sixteen, if he remembered correctly.