Prologue

Oh, I need the darkness, The sweetness, The sadness, The weakness. I need a lullaby, A kiss good night, Angel sweet love of my life . . . Oh, I need this --- Natalie Merchant

She wasn't sure how much time had lapsed. It could have been a mere moment; it could have been a lifetime of torturous hours. She just wasn't sure. All that registered was that she'd never felt more alone than she felt at that very moment.

Her next thoughts were like a slap in the face as his words, said so long ago but so much a part of her since that night, pounded through her ears. "When you're at your absolute lowest, at your most depressed, just remember that you can always... you know. You got my number." Yeah she did. She had his number memorized, had programmed it as speed dial #2, after her father and before Francie and Will, by the time she managed to stumble into bed that night, completely drained from her life yet feeling safe just because of the warmth behind his words.

He had been her lifeline so many times. Except this time. This time, he wasn't there. He hadn't been waiting on the other end.

Tears trickled down her flushed cheeks, mixing with the storm that crashed down from above. She wondered what would drown her first: the rain or her own tears. A soft sob escaped and she knew the answer: her tears.

She always ended up alone.

It was such a bitter lesson for her to learn - one that she had been living and learning for the past 20 years of her life. Disappointment, deceit, death. It was all the same. It all lead her to the same exact spot.

Sidney Bristow always ended up standing alone in the rain.

* * * *

Michael Vaugn couldn't help the sigh of utter relief that rushed from him the second his eyes registered her silhouette amongst the shadows on the peir. He'd been searching for hours, feeling guiltier and guiltier as the minutes had ticked on. He wasn't sure what she was thinking, almost fearing what her imagination would be conjuring up.

It was pouring and he shivered from the cold that managed to seep through his coat. As he approached her, the defeat in her shoulders almost crushed his heart. He had done this to her. He had broken the one vow he promised never to break and that was to never break her.

But he had. He knew it the moment he caught sight of the mixture of horror and tears on her face, just seconds before she disappeared from the hotel earlier that day . . . running to who knows where.

Until now. He looked upward and thanked the heavens she was safe as his own tears kissed the rain that stung his face.

Inching closer, he tried to swallow past the pain that surged throughout him. The rain fell harder but he paid no attention. He felt cold and empty, somehow knowing deep down that it had nothing to do with the storm but rather the woman standing before him with her back turned, weeping softy, spilling her tears into the tumultuous ocean below.

"Sydney?"

* * * *

She stiffened at the sound of her name. She debated whether it was his voice that registered first or just the sound of him breathing her name in that desperately soft, emotional sort of way she had grown to know so well.

"Syd? Please, look at me." She didn't want to turn around, afraid of what she'd see. In fact, she'd seen enough. She was sure about that as the various images of only hours before invaded her thoughts. She gasped softly, slightly surprised as she felt the slow pain grip her body once again. Even the memories could elicit the same emotions that had bombarded her and chased her out of that hotel.

Another wave of sobs hit as she felt his hand come to her shoulder.

"Baby?" he called, softly pleading.

She jerked away. "Don't call me that," her voice tight, cold . . . unforgiving.

She heard him gasp and wondered if her reaction made him feel as badly as she did. Half of her hoped it did, the other half chastised herself for wanting to inflict such pain.

God, how in the hell did we get to this point? How did we both end up in the rain? Together yet so far apart?

The rush of the rain, falling harder with every shaky breath she took, drowned out the rest of her thoughts and the rest of her strength. She closed her eyes, lifted her face to the raging skies, letting the rain seep even deeper into her.