Conversation
Sark entered the apartment and looked around for Allison. He didn't have to look far because she came striding out of the kitchen almost as soon as he walked into the living room.
"Hey," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. "So what did Bristow have to say?"
Sark froze for an instant, and tried to recover, but Allison noticed and backed away. Sark chewed on his lip. "She called me when I was at the airport and ended up flying down here." He caught the look of annoyance that Allison tossed his way. "She has an apartment down here now, for the duration of however long she's going to stay. I briefed her on the—"
"You haven't even briefed me," Allison shot back.
"I know, but since she was here, I decided to go ahead and do that. We talked at the safehouse, then I gave her a lift home because she doesn't have any means of transportation."
"She has legs."
Sark frowned. "Alli, I was helping her out."
Allison sighed. "I know. I just don't trust her."
Sark raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"
Allison tilted her head at Sark and gave him a death glare. "Are you forgetting that the bitch nearly killed me?"
Sark bristled at Allison's words, then said through clenched teeth, "Only because you were going to kill her."
"Are you defending her?"
"I'm not defending anyone," Sark told her, then held up a hand when she started to lash out at him. "All I'm saying is, you both defended yourselves and you both survived. End of story."
Allison stared hard at Sark, uneasy about the hints he seemed to be dropping. Especially since he was a spy and obviously trained to conceal even his deepest feelings. Now, he seemed to be on Sydney's side—and Allison didn't know why.
"If I didn't know better," she began, "I'd say that you liked her."
"What are you talking about?"
"The way you're talking," Allison said, "it seems like you don't exactly dislike her"
"Of course I don't," Sark blurted, "and if I did, there's no way that she would be working with us. She would have nothing to do with me."
Allison pursed her lips and nodded slightly. It was becoming a little clearer now. But what she couldn't figure out was whether or not Sark was acting the way he was so that Sydney wouldn't be scared off or if it was because he was becoming her friend.
Or perhaps more.
"Just be careful," she said sincerely, touching the side of his face then trailing a finger over his lips.
Sark squinted, confused with what Allison was saying. "I don't understand."
Allison sighed a bit. "You will—if things go the way I think they might."
She didn't want to explain it. A part of her told her that Sark should already know, unless he thought that he was calling the shots with Sydney. She looked down. That must have been it. He thought that he was controlling the situation. It seemed obvious to Allison that it was Sydney who was afraid that Sark might screw her over and Sark was letting her believe it, when in fact she had the upper hand.
Sark could ruin Sydney and Sydney knew it, but Sydney had the advantage of the entire CIA being on her side who could easily burn Sark.
And right now, it didn't seem like Sark had any worries about that.
"So this mission," she started, "what do we have to do?"
Sydney awoke to the sound of her ringing cell phone. The fact that it was loud told her that she must have left it nearby. She got out of bed, wrapped her towel around herself, and followed the noise into the bathroom. She went through the clothes she had in there from when she had taken her shower and pulled her cell phone from a pocket in her jeans.
It was her father.
Jack had followed Lauren in his car to Weiss' apartment where Weiss and Vaughn were waiting. He planned to tell them everything, since there was no use hiding it now. Lauren, Vaughn, and Weiss were too smart to be fooled any longer.
They entered the apartment and Vaughn and Weiss stood up immediately. Neither Vaughn nor Weiss could hide the slight smirk of accomplishment. Lauren gestured for Jack to go over to the couch and all four sat down.
"Where is Sydney?" Vaughn demanded, not wasting any time.
Jack squinted at him and Vaughn looked down at his hands in his lap. Jack looked over at Lauren. "I'm going to call Sydney, check in with her, tell her that you know what's going on and have offered to help. After, I'll explain exactly what is happening."
Lauren nodded. Vaughn and Weiss also gave nods in agreement.
Jack pulled his cell phone from his coat pocket and dialed.
Sydney swallowed hard and listened to the phone ring a couple more times before she answered. "Hi Dad."
"Hello Sydney," Jack replied on the other line.
Sydney bit her lip, contemplating what more she should say to her father. She still had no idea why he had called, other than to perhaps check in once again to see how things were progressing. Tentatively, she asked, "What's up?"
"I called to see how everything was going," he replied. "I trust that it's still going well."
"Yeah," Sydney said with a sigh, "things are going great."
"Good," Jack said, "good."
"Was that all?" Sydney asked, not wanting to waste more time with silence on both of their parts.
"No, actually," Jack admitted, "I have something to tell you."
Sydney felt her stomach drop to her toes. She placed a hand over her abdomen, suddenly feeling the urge to retch. She wasn't even sure why, especially since nothing had seemed to be wrong with their plan. She wondered if Dixon had found out somehow and intended to make things difficult for them—to say the very least.
"Dad," she began, her voice shaky, "what's going on?"
Jack was startled for the briefest of moments. He hadn't expected Sydney to take his announcement of an impending revelation like this. He tried to smooth things over. "Sydney, it's nothing for you to worry about," he said gently, "but I do need to inform you."
"Of what?" Sydney asked, her tone hoarse. She cleared her throat, feeling like she had been screaming for ten minutes straight when in fact she had done nothing of the sort. She started for the living room, needing a glass of water.
"Sydney," Jack said, and Sydney stopped in her tracks. "Lauren, Vaughn, and Weiss know the truth."
Sydney felt a shiver run through her entire body. Even though her father had said that the three knew, the only name that stuck out to her was Vaughn's. She hadn't thought about Vaughn since their fight at the hospital. Now she was feeling guilty—guilty about everything. She felt guilty for blowing up at him, she felt guilty for not telling him the truth about what she was doing, but most of all, she felt guilty for not thinking about him—for letting her thoughts be filled with nothing but Simon and Sark.
Sark, she thought. Regardless, she decided, about how she felt about her growing feelings for Sark, she couldn't let him occupy all of her thoughts.
She felt tears sting her eyes and she choked back the sob rising up in her throat. She didn't want to betray Vaughn, no matter what the cost may be. She still loved him and she always would, and she didn't want him to not be able to trust her.
"Vaughn knows?" she said weakly, trying to hide the tears in her voice.
Jack confirmed with a simple, "Yes."
Sydney swallowed and said the only thing she could think of that might redeem her slightly, "Tell him I'm sorry. If you see him, I mean," she added. "Please."
Jack sighed and told her, "It would probably sound better coming from you."
Sydney protested, "But I'm not there to tell him, and I won't be for quite a while. I just need him to know."
There was no answer to Sydney's plea because Jack had already handed the phone to Vaughn.
Sydney paused, waiting for her father to say something. "Dad?"
"No," Vaughn said, and Sydney's heart leaped into her throat. "It's me."
"Vaughn?" Sydney asked softly.
"Yeah," he replied. "Hi," he added, sheepishly.
"Hi," Sydney breathed, a touch of laughter in her voice because the exchange of greetings was suddenly the funniest thing that had ever happened to her. "I'm sorry," she began quietly, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about what my father and I were doing. We didn't even tell Dixon. We didn't want to involve anyone else for fear that we might not be given clearance to do it."
"It's okay, Syd," he assured her, "I understand." Sydney sighed with relief. "And for the record, your father hasn't even told us exactly what you're doing."
"He hasn't?" Sydney asked, confused. Her father had told her earlier that Vaughn, Weiss, and Lauren knew.
"No," Vaughn replied, "not yet."
"Oh," Sydney said, but it was almost inaudible.
"Yeah," Vaughn said, sighing.
"Where are you?" Sydney asked after a moment.
"Weiss' apartment," he answered. "We're all over here." Sydney was silent, pondering why they were at Weiss' apartment, unless "I know what you're thinking," Vaughn said, "Lauren, Weiss, and I all figured something was up, and Lauren questioned your father. He decided to fill us in. That's why we're here."
"Oh," Sydney said again, in the same quiet voice.
Vaughn had to chuckle. "Syd, you couldn't have honestly believed that we would just accept you giving up so easily. We all know that you would never do that. It's just not who you are."
Sydney had to smile, a rush of warmth spreading across her cheeks. "Yeah," she whispered, "I know." They were silent for a few moments, and Sydney wondered what looks or glances might have been exchanged in the time. She licked her lips nervously and asked, "Can I speak to Lauren?"
Vaughn was dumbfounded, but managed to mumble through his answer of, "Sure. Yeah. Okay."
"Thanks," Sydney replied. She heard Vaughn's muffled voice telling Lauren she had been requested.
"Sydney," Lauren's accent filled Sydney's ear.
"Lauren," she replied.
A pause.
"Look, um, I was just wondering why you would go through the trouble of, you know, all of, um, this," Sydney said lamely.
"Well, like Michael said, quitting isn't what you do, and it seemed too suspicious anyway, so I had to question it."
"Thank you," Sydney said sincerely, and she suddenly thought of how Lauren had given her a number at which she could reach Lauren. Perhaps Lauren wasn't as bad as Sydney once thought.
"You're welcome," Lauren replied. "I'll put your father back on."
Sydney didn't answer, just mentally agreed. Lauren was a good person, Sydney could see that now. She had been touched by Lauren's offer before she had left in the first place, but she had never really considered taking Lauren up on it because she wasn't certain of Lauren's sincerity. Now, Sydney knew, Lauren wanted to make things as easy for her as possible—and she really appreciated it.
Jack came back on the line and said, "I'll call you again later, to see if the situation has changed. Until then, be careful."
"I will," Sydney assured him. "Talk to you later."
Jack said the same and hung up.
Sydney sighed and put her phone on the coffee table. She went over to her suitcase and dragged it to her room. She thought about the conversations she had had with her father, Vaughn, and Lauren. She realized she should have asked to speak to Weiss as well because they hadn't exactly parted ways on great terms.
She shook her head slightly, not wanting to think about the negative and instead wanting to focus on the positive. She and Vaughn had moved past their spat in the hospital, which was definitely a plus. She felt something cold and icy around her heart and realized it was because she was thinking about Vaughn again. No matter how well they were getting along, the simple fact that they weren't together anymore still remained. It hurt Sydney deeply, but she knew that she couldn't wallow in her self-pity forever. She would always love Vaughn, whether they were together or not, and she would just have to deal with that and move on with her life.
She still had Sark to think about.
Jack set his phone down and turned to the three, whose attention was rapt. "I'll start at the beginning."
Sark and Allison were sitting together on the couch in the living room of Sark's apartment. Sark had explained the mission to Allison and they had both seemed to move past the uncomfortable phase that was their conversation earlier.
Sark was still trying to make sense of what Allison had meant, but for now he would just focus on the fact that Allison was in his arms and everything was going well.
Except for that fact that Sark couldn't get his mind off of Sydney.
He wondered if Allison had been subtly accusing him of growing too attached to Sydney or of at least acting as if he and Sydney were the best of friends. He sighed as he ran his fingers through Allison's hair.
He wondered how Sydney was doing. He knew that he could have stayed and they could have talked or they could have done more, if Sydney so wanted. He was ready and willing to surrender to completely to her. His attraction had grown in the time they had been spending together, even thought they had been doing nothing more than exchanging verbal barbs and sarcastic comments.
It was hard for him to believe that he had been falling for his greatest enemy, but it had happened.
There was no way he could deny it.
A/N: Yay! New chapter. Okay, well, I was inspired by the numerous reviews I got for this story after I added a new chapter to 'Scars.' ;P Anyways, I'm gonna get to the mission soon, which should be filled with Sarkney UST and a possible plot twist. Oh, and Lauren isn't evil. At least not in my story. I love Lauren, and I'm really disappointed with the writers for taking the easy way out. Pricks.
Thanks for being so patient while I got a new chapter ready!
~E