I still don't own any of these characters, except the few I make up. I don't own the general story line either.

I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long. My FF.net was down and then stuff came up. I hope you enjoy chapter four.

Just as a reminder Syd and Sark were both knocked out while on a mission.

Chapter 4

My head is pounding. Where am I? I try to rub my head but my hands are handcuffed. I feel the cold metal up against my wrists. My vision starts to clear. Sark is handcuffed to a chair next to me. He is still unconscious. He has a bruise on the side of his face. Lying on the table next to us are numerous tools that I didn't even want to think what they could be used for. I try to remember how I got her. The events of last night at least I think it was last night start to come back to me. I'm snapped out of my memories by the sound of shoes clicking on the floor. The door opens. A man probably about six feet tall enters.

"I'm glad you're awake," he says with a sadistic look on his face. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He pauses before continuing. "I'm only going to ask once nicely. Who do you work for?"

If I can stall him long enough until Sark wakes up we have a better chance of escaping. "No the question is who do you work for." He slaps me and I can taste blood in my mouth.

"Very well we can do this the hard way." I watch him as walks over table and picks up a syringe. He slowly and methodically taps it. "I assume you know what this is," he says as he walks over towards me. I figure its truth serum.

"No idea" I lie.

"Well it's an amazingly strong truth serum. I usually don't use it because it is so dangerous. However, since there are two of you I can use it." I feel the needle jab into my neck. I know I have a few minutes before it kicks in. I try to free my hands but it is hopeless. They are handcuffed to the chair. He has walked back over to the table and set's the syringe down. My head is starting to hurt even more and I'm having trouble concentrating. Every thing seems to be slowing down. I can't see clearly. He walks slowly back over towards me every step he takes echoing in my head. "Who do you work for?" His words are slow and I can tell the serum has kicked in. I try not to say anything and everything starts to spin. I can feel my head drooping. Everything in my head seems to be saying the CIA. I can't give in. I can't tell him.

"I don't know," I lie. My words sound like they are shaking. They come out slowly.

He slaps me again this time harder. This time he knocks me over. "It is no use lying to me" he bellows. I see on the ground a barrette that was in my hair. I struggle with my hands to get it. I feel my hands clench it. "I will be back later," he says as he leaves shutting the door. I open the barrette and try to pick the lock. I can hardly concentrate on what I am doing. Everything seems to swirling faster and faster. I hear the click of metal as the handcuff unlocks. I free my hand and then go to free the other. I can't seem to get the barrette into the hole. I take a deep breath trying to focus. I feel my wrist being freed.

"Sark" I whisper repeatedly. I try to stand up and I stagger over to his chair. His head moves and his eyes flicker. I start to unlock him as quickly as I can.

"Sydney" he whispers sounding confused. "Where are we?" His words seem slow and I hear them echo in my head.

I try to make sure I heard him right before responding. "I don't know but we have to hurry." My words slur together as I talk. His one hand is freed and he turns in his chair.

"Are you okay?"

Once again I pause before answering. "Truth serum" is all I say. He takes the barrette from my shaking hand. He picks the lock in a matter of seconds. I hear the sound of clicking heels again. Sark pulls me up and drags me over to the door. He leans me up against the wall preparing for a fight. I try to stand. I know I have to help him get out of here. I hear the doorknob turn as the door squeaks open. As soon as the man steps inside Sark punches him right in the face. He collapses to the ground. Sark then proceeds to take out the guy guarding our door also. I stumble out into the hall. Sark picks up the guard's gun. Then he grabs me by the hand and pulls me along. He guides me too the wall. Everything seems to be slowing down. I can hear my heart pounding.

"Syd" he says grabbing my shoulders "I need your help here. I nod my head and try to focus. "I only have six bullets. We need to take must of them out by hand. Can we do this." I nod.

I try to get ready to help. I see him turn the corner and I follow him. He shoots three of the guards. I hear guards coming from both directions. The truth serum is starting to wear off. As the guards come around the corner I start kicking and punching them. I stagger backwards after getting hit in the head. I can feel blood running down my face. I keep fighting. Two more guards turn the corner. There are six guards out on the floor.

Two guards left I think to myself. As I go to punch one I feel a knife thrust into my side. A searing pain goes up my side. I here the one guard fall as I connect with my punch. Purely out of instinct I do a spin kick to the head of the last guard. I collapse to my knees. I can feel my blood covering my hand. I hear Sark rush over saying my name. He pulls me up to my feet. He then pulls me down the hall. The pain in my side is getting worse. I can barely stand. My back is hunched over.

"Come on Syd, just a little further." He pushes open a door and I can feel the cold air hit me. We hurry towards the woods trying to get out of view. Once the behind the trees he stops.

"Where are we?"

"Just outside of France. There is a safe house near by."

"Do you have the disc?"

He felt his pocket. "Yes" he said. I couldn't believe our luck. Can you make it a little further?"

"I think so." The pain seemed to be multiplying. I knew I needed to keep going. He puts his arm around my shoulder trying to balance me. We hurry as fast as we can. After five minutes the pain is nearly unbearable. Everything seems to be going black. I fall to the ground. My head is spinning.

"Sydney" he keeps repeating my name over and over again. I'm too weak to say anything. His voice seems to be fading. I feel him pick me up before everything goes into blackness.

I feel a sharp pain in my side. Someone is carrying me. I look up to see Sark carrying me. "Where are we?" I ask. My head is throbbing and my side feels like its ready to explode.

"We're almost there," he says reassuringly. "Just relax we are almost there." I see a house. He walks up and opens the door. Gently he sets me down on the bed. He leaves the room and comes back with one of the biggest medical kits I have ever seen. He also has a phone in his hand. He set's the phone down and starts to rummage through the kit. "This is just some anaesthetic." I feel the needle break my skin. "I have to get the knife out." I hadn't even realized the knife was still there until now. I see him pull gauze out. "This is going to hurt." With one hand he held the knife with the other he held the gauze. He gave the knife one quick tug and pulled it out. I couldn't take the pain. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. The sounded wouldn't come out. He covered the wound with gauze. "Can you hold this there" he asked.

"Yeah" I say breathlessly. He put my hand over the gauze and gets up. He grabs the phone.

"Arvin Sloane please. Tell him it is Mr. Sark." He walks over to the window and looks out. "We are at the safe-house outside of Tours." He pauses during which time Sloane asks him the questions. "She's with me. She was stabbed… She's lost a lot of blood. I think she'll be fine. When can you get us out?… Two hours fine. I'll try to keep her stable." He hung up the phone and walked over towards me. "They are sending a helicopter to pick us up. How are you doing?"

"I'm feeling better but tired." He pushes my hair off my forehead. His hands feel cold as ice.

"You're fever is spiking." He stands up and grabs a glass of water. "Take these they should help lower your fever." I take the pills. "You need stitches badly." I feel really tired and my eyes droop. I try to stay awake but I can't.

"Sydney" I hear as someone shakes my shoulders. "We should be leaving any minute." I try to sit up. Sark helps me up. I shiver as I stand up. Sark takes his jacket off and drapes it on my shoulders.

"Thanks." We start to walk out towards the door. I feels my knees buckle. He grabs me before I can fall. I hear the helicopter in the distance approaching. He swings me up into his arms and carries me out the front door. The helicopter lands and Sark and I sit down. He puts me in the seat next to him. I lean my head on his shoulder as I fall back asleep. I wake up when we land. Sark carries me onto the plane that will takes us back to LA. My side feels better then before but there is still a sharp pain.

He sets me down in one of the seats. There is a doctor there and he and Sark start talking. I can't here what they are saying. I feel so tired.

"Agent Bristow, I'm going to give you this it will knock you out so we can stitch you up." He takes my arm and jabs the needle into my vein. A minute or two later I feel my eyes close and I fall asleep.

When I wake my side feels numb. When Sark notices that I'm awake he walks over and sits next to me. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better. Thanks for saving my life."

"You saved mine when we you picked the lock."

"What day is it?" I had no idea how long I had been out for.

"It's Tuesday. Ten o'clock back in Los Angeles.

"Do you have a phone I could use?" He reached into his pocket and handed me his phone. I needed to call Will and Francie to tell them I wasn't going to be home. "Hey Will it's me Syd."

"Hey"

"Listen can you tell Francie that I'm not going to be home till tomorrow or the next day."

"Hang on she wants to yell at you," he said with a chuckle

"Syd you should definitely quit your job."

"I know. But I can't. Listen I'm really sorry I can't be home. Can we please talk about this later."

"Fine, see you then. Bye"

"Bye." I hung up the phone. "Thanks" I said as I handed Sark the phone.

"No problem you should get some rest." He got up and went back to his chair. A minute later I was asleep again. As the wheels touched the runway I woke up. There was still the excruciating pain in my side. Sark handed me his coat and helps me stand up. He slings the coat around my shoulders.

"Thanks you for everything," I say to Sark.

"I did the same thing you would have done. Feel better." He walks away before my father sees him.

"How are you feeling?" he says with a concerned look on his face.

"Much better. Thanks for letting me spend the night at your place." He put his arm around my shoulder and we walked to his car. It was two in the mourning when we got to his house. He took me into the guestroom. I fell asleep almost immediately.

When I woke up in the mourning I felt much better. It really only bothered me when I hit it. It was eleven when I woke up. My dad left me a note saying he was at work and Sloane gave me a few days off. At the bottom he wrote that he had a mission and wouldn't be back all day. I decided to plop own on the couch and just relax. At one I decided it was way to boring here. I picked up the phone and called Francie.

"Hello"

"Hey Francie. Guess what?"

"You quit your job?"

"No, but I just landed and should be home in like an hour. Also I got a couple days off."

"Well I guess that is the next best thing. I'll see when you get here."

"Yep. See you then," with that I hung up. The note my dad left also said he had got my car. I changed into some of my cloths that were at my dad's house and drove home. It took about half an hour with LA traffic. I was glad I was home. I opened the door and saw Will and Francie watching football.

"Hey Syd" Will said rather cheerily.

"Hey"

"How was your trip?" Francie asked.

"It was successful but tiring."

"I'm glad it went well" Will said.

"It's a good thing your boss gave you some time off."

"Yeah you look exhausted."

"Hey come sit down. We need all the help we can get. Stanford is down six with a minute left." Francie and I were both huge Stanford fans. They were playing Will's favorite team, USC. I walked over and sat next to Francie and rooted Stanford. It felt good just to have fun with my friends. With six seconds left Stanford threw a Hail Mary and it got bobbled in the end zone and caught with the clock expired. Francie and were so happy and we hugged. But as we did my side started to ache again. A grimace spread across my face and I'm sure Will saw it. He didn't say anything, which was very good. At five o'clock Francie left to go to the restaurant.

As soon as she left Will asked, "What is wrong?"

"It's nothing" I answered

"Tell what is wrong."

"I got stabbed." As I said this a look of horror spread over his face.

"What? When?"

"The yesterday but I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"We were on a mission and we tripped some alarm and were captured."

"Who is we?"

"Sark and I."

"You went on a mission with him."

"He actually saved my life." I told him the whole story about last night. He was shocked. I felt so bad when I saw the horror in his eyes when I said that I was stabbed.