"Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"You're staring at me!" Sydney growled.

"No I am not." Sark protested.

"Sark, I can feel your eyes on me!"

"Fine, I am, but it's just unusual to see you in my car…"

"You're staring at my stomach. You can't get over me being pregnant." Sydney argued. "I knew I shouldn't have come here! I should have stayed in LA and never told you about this…"

"Sydney, I'm staring at you because I think you're beautiful." Sark answered unexpectedly. Sydney didn't know what to say. She hadn't been anticipating a response like that from him.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

He hesitated briefly and cleared his throat. "I think you look beautiful. Motherhood agrees with you."

"Motherhood." Sydney repeated slowly. The word sounded strange. "I'm pregnant Sark. I'm not a mother."

"Oh." He frowned. "I sort of assumed the two were correlated."

"They don't have to be." Sydney replied curtly. "I'm not going to keep the baby."

"Oh?"

"Stop it."

"Now what?"

"I can tell with that tone of voice that you're judging me!" Sydney lectured. "I know what I'm doing. I've thought about this a lot, and it is the only solution."

"Solution?"

"You wouldn't understand. You couldn't." Her eyes burned with an overwhelming desire to release tears, but she refused to let Sark see her cry. "You don't know what it's been like to spend the past seven months with a child growing inside of me and the most likely candidate for the father being a sleazy bastard I can barely remember. I don't even remember what sort of relationship we had. Did he even care about me?"

"Mr. Walker was very interested in you."

"Interested?" Sydney tried out Sark's word choice. "That's a strange way to put it."

"Well, I'm not sure what to say. I have never been privy to the details of your relationship, except for what I witnessed with my own eyes the first time that I met you as Julia Thorne." Sark told her. "When I observed the two of you together, he was very protective of you, actually he was possessive, aggressively even."

"Aggressively? How so?"

"Well, he was always very firm with you."

"You mean bossy?"

"Yes, and physically." He paused. "I didn't like the way that he treated you, and I could tell that it infuriated you as well."

"Then we clearly couldn't have had a very positive relationship."

"I'm not so certain." Sark decided. "Mr. Walker's attitude could have been for show just to intimidate me. I am unable to tell you the details of your private lives. He could have perhaps been genuinely good to you."

"I doubt it." Sydney responded. "When I returned to him, trying to get information, I realized that whatever we had was purely physical. He never showed me a hint of consideration or gave me any clue that he might actually care." She paused and then added quietly. "And he hit me."

Bastard! Sark looked at her briefly but turned away before she noticed. "What if Mr. Walker isn't the father." He asked suddenly.

"Well, if there is anyone else you think I should be considering for DNA testing then let me know."

I should tell her. Sark tried to convince himself, but it didn't feel like the right time. When Sydney learned about their relationship he wanted her to be able to accept it happily. She wouldn't want to believe it. She won't believe it until she feels for me again like she use to.

"Sark?" Sydney pressed after his momentary silence.

"No, there's nobody else." He answered quietly. "But I still think you might want to reconsider your choice for the baby."

"Why's that?"

"Because I know you better than you might think. You're not the type to abandon your responsibilities." He reminded her. "Besides, I think you would be an excellent mother."

Sydney smiled. "Thanks. Strangely, it means a lot to hear you say that."

"Well, here we are." Sark pulled the car up to the front of Sloane's office building where valet was waiting to take it off his hands.

"Do you have any clue as to what Sloane wants to see us for?" Sydney asked as the valet opened her car door for her and two men helped her out. She noted how gently they handled her and how cautiously they saw to her. Again she hated the effect that her pregnancy had on other people.

"Not at all." Sark circled the car to join her and escorted her into the building with his hand politely on her back. "Though it must be important. He seemed very urgent. Have you told him about your pregnancy?"

"Yes, he was unfortunately present the first time I told a few people." She hesitated. "But I haven't spoken to him very much since then."

"Well, I'm sure he'll be civil." Sark grinned, and Sydney was again struck by how unusually comforting it was to see him smiling so genuinely.

"Sark, please do me a favor…I know I don't have a right to ask you for anything…"

"Sydney, you can ask me for anything." His fingers rubbed her back soothingly and she smiled slightly at the feeling.

"Don't let Sloane talk too much about my personal life. I don't like him acting like he's a part of it." She sighed. "Obviously he knows that I'm pregnant, but he doesn't have to know who the father is or that I don't plan on keeping it."

"It's not my place to divulge your personal information. As far as it is in my control, I will keep this meeting purely business." Sark assured her as they reached the receptionist's desk. "Julian Sark and Sydney Bristow here to see Arvin Sloane."

The receptionist smiled in recognition and stood. "Follow me please." She entered the office through the door behind her and Sark and Sydney followed. "Mr. Sloane…"

Sloane stood as they entered and dismissed his receptionist with a slight wave of his hand. "Julian, Sydney, it is good to see the two of you together again…professionally speaking of course."

"Hello Arvin." Sark greeted formally, quickly diverting Sydney's attention from Sloane's pointed greeting.

"Sloane." Sydney grunted her unfriendly greeting.

"Sydney, may I saw that you are positively glowing! Motherhood clearly agrees with you." Sloane motioned to the two chairs opposite his desk. "But at this point in the pregnancy you should be off your feet as much as possible."

"She also shouldn't be flying across the world, but you insisted." Sark remarked. "So could we please get on with this meeting?"

"Of course." Sloane moved behind his desk and started sorting through documents. Sark led Sydney to a chair and waited for her to get comfortable before taking his own seat. "Have either of you ever heard of the Di Regno heart?" Sydney shook her head, but Sark was silent. "Ah, Julian, I see your Rambaldi knowledge has impressively grown since you and I were partners."

"Adequate knowledge is essential in my line of work." He replied. "I've never enjoyed having to rely on others for information."

"Okay, but for my sake, let's pretend like we're not all super geniuses." Sydney piped in. "What's this heart thing?"

"The Di Regno heart is meant to be used to power one of Rambaldi's ultimate creations." Sloane explained.

"Which is?" Sydney pressed impatiently. She hated how drawn out Sloane's Rambaldi discussions could be.

"It's called Il Dire." Sark filled in briefly.

Sloane lifted his eyebrow at Sark as though irritated by the interruption in his explanation. Sark quickly silenced and motioned for Sloane to continue. "Il Dire means 'the telling'."

"What's it supposed to tell?" Sydney asked.

Sloane again seemed annoyed by the interruption, but continued calmly. "Il Dire delivers a message directly from Rambaldi."

"What does that mean?"

"Nobody knows the particulars." Sloane continued, more or less ignoring Sydney's interruption. "But Il Dire is supposed to be so powerful and so true that it is as if Rambaldi himself is reaching through the centuries to deliver a message."

"Metaphorically speaking." Sark piped in.

"Okay, so what is this message?" Sydney repeated.

"Nobody knows."

She sighed. "Well that's a lame ending to this legend." She started to stand.

"Or I suppose I should say, nobody knew."

Sydney glanced back at Sloane and sunk back into her chair.

"A short time ago I witnessed Il Dire performing."

Sark sat up a little straighter. "You saw the message? How? When?"

Sydney glanced at him. "You certainly are interested."

"When I was released from CIA custody a few months ago the Covenant had me working on recovering the Di Regno heart in order to utilize Il Dire. They took me off the project before it happened though. You have to understand I was always a little curious about what the outcome would have been."

She nodded. "Of course."

Sloane lifted an eyebrow, unable to overlook how willing Sydney was to accept Sark's explanation. He could see that Sark had managed to regain her trust, even without telling her the truth about their past together. He cleared his throat to continue with his explanation. "The Covenant removed you from the mission because they were lacking confidence in your loyalty. They retained my services however, and those of Bomani. We finished the quest and saw the completion of Il Dire."

"Arvin what did it tell you?" Sark inquired.

"It gave me one word." He stated simply. "After all my years of searching…all the time that I spent on this obsession with Rambaldi, I couldn't believe that this is what it all added up to."

"What was it, Sloane?"

"The word was 'peace'."

"Peace?" Sydney and Sark repeated together.

"I see you share my surprise." Sloane smiled slightly.

"Okay, so this is all fascinating, but I'm still not seeing why it required me flying all the way out here!" Sydney rolled her eyes. "Are you going to make a point that's worth my while?"

"After passing that simple information onto the covenant, I began my own investigation due to my personal skepticism about a single word being the depth of Rambaldi's message." Sloane continued with a nod to Sydney. "Tell me, have either of you heard of something referred to as 'the passenger'?"

Sydney slumped back in her chair, frustrated that he was asking them questions rather than giving them answers.

"I have heard that term before." Sark nodded. "Through the Covenant, of course." He frowned, trying to remember the details. "As far as I could tell the passenger is some form of weapon, is that correct?"

"That is what everyone assumes, however, upon further research I have learned that the message retrieved from Il Dire is actually a microscopic code of sorts." Sloane elaborated. "A DNA code to be more exact."

"DNA? Whose?"

"A woman, as far as I can tell. But that is all I know."

"So, the Passenger actually refers to a person?" Sark clarified.

Sloane nodded. He noted Sydney's pessimistic frown. "I know, you were expecting something more fascinating, but I'm afraid that is as exciting as my news gets."

"No, that can't be it." Sydney insisted. "What did you want us for?"

Sloane nodded. "I had tests run on the DNA, but results gave me multiple identities. Clearly this woman has been working under many aliases, for some time. It is impossible to discover her true identity, or what her purpose is. Now, what I did manage to find, from medical records, is that she was always treated by the same physician, a Doctor Robert Viadro."

"Perfect, so what did this doctor have to say about her?" Sydney pried.

"I don't know." Sloane replied. "I have only just learned this and I wanted to bring the two of you in on it."

"Why?"

"Because I need your help."

"Sloane, you don't need anything. What do you want us for?" Sydney argued.

Sloane folded his hands. "As you may know, my name has developed quite a reputation in the circle of Rambaldi followers. Dr. Viadro is an adamant follower, and unfortunately he will not meet with me."

Sark frowned. "Arvin I could have met with Dr. Viadro for you. Why did you need to call Sydney in for this?"

"Because she likes to be involved, and when it comes to Rambaldi, she is more innately involved than most." Sloane seemed to think that was a sufficient explanation and didn't offer anything else.

Sydney made a slight grunting sound and Sark spoke up as though he had read her thoughts. "She is not connected to Rambaldi. That bloody prophecy doesn't mean anything!"

"Sark…" Sydney smiled at his defensive tone. "It's okay."

"No, it is not." Sark protested. "He had no right to try and drag you into this."

Sloane poured himself a glass of water, patiently letting the two of them have their spat. He politely turned his back to them when Sark reached his hand out and rested it gently on Sydney's arm.

"Sark, I really appreciate your concern, but I'm okay with this. It's actually kind of nice to finally be included in something again. The agency has already put me on bed rest, more or less. They won't let me help with any of the fun cases. It's good to be included in something."

"Good," Sloane turned around. "Then the two of you should set off for Milan instantly."

"Milan?"

"That is where Dr. Viadro lives." Sloane told them.

"Fine. We'll go. We'll figure out what he knows, and then I'm guessing you want us to return to you."

"Yes, Sydney, that would be best."

"Alright, I suppose we have nothing else to discuss here then." Sark stood quickly and offered his hand to Sydney as she stood as well.