Chapter Six

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Kendall demanded.

"Well Sir, I took it to mean that if someone touched the hand outline they would be changed into whatever it was they touched afterward," I said.

"So let me get this strait. You want me to believe that Agent Bristow was turned into something else?" Kendall said in a tone of voice that conveyed that he wanted to either roll on the floor laughing or smash my head with something hard, maybe both.

"Sir, I'm not saying for sure that's what happened, but any information we have could help us," I said, knowing full well how insane it sounded.

"Need I remind you that this is not a science fiction movie? An idea such as that defies the laws of physics-" Kendall started to rant.

"Alright! Maybe the device has changed Sydney into something else, though I sincerely doubt it," Jack said giving me a hard stare, " or maybe Derevko is simply playing games with, us or that the document she spoke of was pure fiction, but either way we need to find Sydney as soon as possible! SD-6 knows Sydney is missing and are conducting their own investigation, and with that there is a chance her cover could be blown. I took the Rambaldi device to Sloane, which should buy a couple days time."

Of course Sloane would care more about his precious Rambaldi device than Sydney's life. I felt a bitter anger in the pit of my stomach at the thought.

"Speaking of Sloane, I have a meeting with him in ten minutes. Contact me as soon as you hear anything, " Jack instructed, then excused himself.

I returned Kendall's cold stare and as harshly as I could informed, "The same goes for me. I have to leave. Bye."

When I got home, I dropped my things on the coffee table and rubbed my aching forehead. I was about to head toward the bathroom for aspirin when the door opened behind me. I was surprised to see Alice walk holding Donovan by his leash.

"Hey," she smiled widely at me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I just came by to return your jacket, and thought I'd be nice and talk this one for a walk," she said looking irritably a Donovan. I wondered if I had missed something.

"Thanks," I said with a sigh, regretting my grouchy tone.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said unenthusiastically.

"Ooookay, I don't believe you!" she chirped, "but I can't stick around to talk I have plans for tonight."

I nodded.

"Oh by the way, I think I should give you this back too," she said and got out her key chain and took off the one to my apartment that I had given her a long time ago.

"You see I know we broke up on kind of bad terms but we're at least friends again so I really think she should quit while we're ahead," she explained and pressed the key into my palm, then rose up onto her toes to kiss me on the cheek, "I'm sorry."

"I understand," I said. She gave me a sympathetic smile then left, softly closing the door behind her. I chuckled at the key in my hand and tossed it onto the table. It probably made me the biggest ass in the world but I really could have cared less about her stamping out the possibility of us reconciling our relationship.

To be honest I was relived more than anything.

After two aspirin, a long hot shower, and changing into a comfortable pair of sweats and t-shirt, I felt slightly better about the whole Sydney anxiety.

I opened the door of the steamy bathroom and walked into the other room to find Donovan sitting on the floor staring at an open book, almost as if he were trying to read it. Weird dog. I sat on the edge of the couch next to where he was, and reached down to pat his head. "Hey, Donovan. Having fun reading my nephew's Animorphs book? He left it here last visit... God, he loves those. I don't even know what they're about."

Donovan looked up at me and took his paw off the page, then began to tap the cover repeatedly as if he wanted me to look.

I sighed. "You're a strange dog, you know that? God, like I should really be saying you're strange. I'm the one sitting here conversing with you as though you're going to talk back. It's just that I'm so worried and I need someone to talk to, even if they're not human." Donovan looked up again and cocked his head to the side. Then he jumped up beside me.

"Oh, ok, so you want to listen?" I laughed and then sighed again, "I just don't know what to do. No one can find Sydney anywhere. We don't know what happened to her. We don't know if she's hurt or in trouble, or even alive."

He just blinked and plopped down on his stomach.

"I mean... if anything happened to her... I don't know if I could stand it if anything happened to her. What if she's in pain? What if she's being tortured or something? I'd never know until it was too late. And I couldn't save her. And I couldn't tell her..."

Why was I doing this? It wasn't like Donovan could help me. But I knew I had to get the words out. They'd been lurking only in my mind for too long and if they don't make it out into the open soon, they were going to choke me. I knew it.

"Donovan, I love her. I really love her. I know it's forbidden and completely screwed up... and I know that any feelings she might have had for me like that were probably erased when she met Alice and assumed we were still dating.....anyway, all of that doesn't matter. I'm in love with her. I'm in love with Sydney Bristow," I finally managed to admit.

I was about to get up, but first I looked back over at Donovan. "It feels so good to finally be able to say that to someone, even if you don't understand me and even if you don't care."

But as if to prove me wrong, Donovan reached out a paw and placed it on my hand, staring at me with those huge, seemingly caring puppy dog eyes. He whimpered slightly. "Anyway, thanks for being such a good listener. Now get back to your reading," I joked, then kissed his head, "Night, boy."

With that, I got up to find my lap top so I could review the information the tech guys acquired from the Rambaldi device.