"You'll never beat me, Krieger! I always win! ALWAYS!"
Sterling Malory Archer rounds the corner of an ambling spacecraft and stumbles, head first, over exposed wiring.
He reorients himself and looks up.
He sees giant lettering; It reads 'AIRLOCK 6'
"Yes!"
Archer runs over to the panel on the wall and pushes buttons.
The large metal door slams shut.
Over an intercom, Krieger speaks to Archer.
"Hey, buddy…"
"I win, Krieger."
"You don't have to do this, Archer. Think of your mother! Of Lana!"
"I am. I can't explain it to you but this needs to happen."
"I really don't want to watch you go out the airlock though."
"Then close your eyes and pout."
Archer slams the big red button and the airlock door opens.
Archer is sucked out into the vacuum of space.
He expects to feel cold but he feels nothing.
His life starts to flash before his eyes when …
Archer stirs to the sounds of beeping and a slow paced hospital.
His eyes are opening and his mother is sleeping in a small chair next to the bed he finds himself in.
He's choking because he's trying to breathe which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to him until he realizes there's a giant tube in his throat.
He assumes it's his own heart monitor sounding off that brings the entire nursing staff into the room and suddenly he hears her voice and for the first time in a long time, it sounds real…
"STERLING! STERLING! HE'S AWAKE!?"
The nurses are rushing Malory out of the room and doing their best to make sure Archer stays alive. He appreciates it.
The tube comes out with so much discomfort and he's coughing up a vile jelly-like substance, the worst thing he's ever had the misfortune to imbibe. God what he would give to have a drink right about now.
It's when the nurses help him sit up and are finished performing their necessary tests to ensure he is in stable health that he hears his mother.
Malory rushes back in to the room, yelling, because that's just classic her.
"I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL CALL MS. TUNT HERSELF AND HAVE THIS HOSPITAL BURNED TO THE GROUND!"
"Mother."
"Oh, Sterling!" And for what feels like the first time ever in his life, Malory's wrapping her arms around him in the tightest hug she's ever given him.
"Mother, please be gentle. I'm pretty sure I died. Like a lot."
"Oh, Sterling. I'm so sorry."
"What, mother? The shooting? I've had time to think about it and that was probably my fault…"
"What in God's green earth are you talking about? What shooting?"
"LA? Veronica Dean? You know, ugh it makes me sick just to say it, the Figgis agency?"
Malory stares at Archer, concerned, which worries Archer even more.
"Remember? Beautiful Hollywood Starlet Veronica Dean shot me? Like a lot come to think of it."
Archer wonders where Lana and A.J. are when Malory finally speaks.
"Sterling, you drowned…"
"What? No way, that was like 6 seasons—I mean years ago, mother…"
"Nurse!"
Malory yells for the nurse to come to the room and suddenly Archer feels woozy.
It's starting to come back to Archer as he starts to lose consciousness.
"Lana! I love you!"
"I know…"
Archer remembers the feeling of water filling his lungs and how painful it was, more-so than the many gunshot wounds he'd endured during his tenure as the World's Greatest Spy. More than being tied up while rolling down a Colombian mountain side in a jeep truck, more than fighting the CIA at Area 51…
Archer's head starts to pound and he's not feeling too hot.
He hears his mother crying when his vision goes black.
Archer wakes up in the same hospital bed and he's starting to worry he can't remember what's real.
"Mother?"
Lana scoffs.
"I'm here, Sterling."
"Of course." Lana sucks her teeth and keeps her distance from Archer in the hospital bed.
"Lana?" Archer's head pounds at every attempt to open his eyes wider but he needs to see her.
He locks eyes with her, that gorgeous shade of green he'd never forget.
"Oh, my god. Lana! How's the baby?"
Lana goes silent, and suddenly a tear starts to fall down her cheek.
"She's good, Archer…" Malory and Lana exchange a look. Malory steers the conversation.
"What do you remember, Sterling."
Archer lets out a weary sigh. He has a feeling when this all began…
"We were on the Sea-Tunt. We went to stop that guy with...the nerve gas bombs…I can't remember his name though. I want to say Don? Jon?"
"That doesn't matter, Archer." Lana moves closer to the bed as she speaks.
"I remember you were pregnant." Archer stares at Lana.
Lana goes silent and it's alarming and charming at the same damn time.
"You look great though…"
Lana tries to hide a smirk and Archer needs to know…
"So how long was I … gone?"
"Well you had one thing right, Sterling…"
Lana sits down on the bed with Archer and takes his hand. He doesn't pull away because if Archer's sure about one thing in his fucked up life, it's Lana Kane.
Malory pulls out a flask and takes a quick sip before she speaks. Some things never change.
"It's been six years…"