Author's Notes: Thanks again to all my great reviewers and anyone who still reads this! Enjoy the chapter and I'd love to hear from all of you!

Disclaimer: The characters of Alias belong to ABC and J.J. Abrams and I never will own them!

**Sydney POV**

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            As soon as we walk into the dining area, we're startled by the person that greets us there.

            "I know you too good, Mr. Sark, I knew you were up to something," Sloane says in his weasel voice. I quickly grab Sark's hand in protection and he looks as scared as I.

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            "And Sydney, it's interesting to see you here," Sloane remarks.

Before I can intervene, Sark pipes up first and defends my honor, or rather, what normalcy that remains.

"We were just having a simple business dinner to help settle some of our differences," Sark tries to explain to him. A plausible excuse that I hoped Sloane would eat up. Who knows, he always seems to believe the ones my dad and I conjure up.

"A simple business dinner?" Sloane questions.

"That's all," Sark replies.

"Sydney, anything to say?" Sloane asks me.

"During our last mission, Mr. Sark and I came to an understanding that it would be better to be friends than enemies, so he simply invited me for dinner to ease the tension," I explained to him, in half truth. The understanding was a lot more complicated though.

"Very interesting you two," Sloane begins. "But as much as I would love to believe your total honest crap, I don't think I can."

I'm a little taken back by his response, but Sark quickly defends our honor, per say.

"I don't know what you're implying here, Mr. Sloane, but Sydney and I are just friends," Sark explains. I hope he honestly didn't mean that, but knowing the situation, he couldn't.

"My only question is why you would have your 'simple business dinner' here at your home, Mr. Sark. You try to keep it's location as secretive as possible," Sloane says.

Knowing that his statement would be true if the lie we had made up was true, Sark seemed to be working quick on his feet tonight. He must really care about 'us' if he didn't mind standing up to Sloane.

"I decided by inviting Sydney to my residence we would able to form a friendlier bond," he explains to Sloane. "Ever since we were trapped together, we've been tearing away our former hate against another."

"I did notice that," Sloane comments. "But…"

He paused for a second and I gave Sark's hand a gentle squeeze of hope that hopefully Sloane wouldn't notice.

"Then, if you wouldn't mind, I'll join you for dinner," Sloane says, inviting himself into the meal.

If Andrew told him no, it was done for the both of us, so hopefully he would say yes. The only downfall was that Sloane would make sure I would leave first and we wouldn't be able to share the rest of the night together.

"If you would like, I think we could make room for one more at our table," Sark tells him.

"How generous," Sloane comments.

Sloane heads toward the dining room first and Andrew and I lag behind. He gives me a look as to say, "Sorry", and we head into the room. Sark heads into the kitchen and a few of his servants make room at the table for Sloane. We all end up sitting down a short time later.

"What's on the menu tonight?" Sloane asks.

"A filet with a side of oriental vegetables and rice," Sark tells him.

"Sounds delicious," Sloane comments.

"You've been awful quiet, Sydney," Andrew says to me. It was obviously hard for him not to add on 'darling' to the end of the sentence, and I only wished he could.

"I suppose I have," I only add in.

"How was the mission?" Sloane asks the both of us.

"It was well," Sark informs him. "Went off without a hitch."

"Yes, it went very smoothly," I add in.

"Well, that's good. I wouldn't want any problems to trouble the either of you," Sloane's wimpy pathetic response said.

"How's your ankle?" I ask Andrew, slightly ignoring Sloane for the time being.

"Well, the swelling has subsided and there's limited irritation or pain," Andrew tells me.

"Oh, good, it would be a bummer to have a lame ankle in this line of work," I reply to him with a smile.

"Indeed it would," he only replies.

"How was the weather in Russia this time of year?" Sloane asks, obviously bored with our conversation.

"Well," Sark replies.

            The rest of the dinner went something along those lines. Rather boring and unamusing, it was obvious that Sloane was getting joy out of seeing our evening destroyed. The man totally disgusted me. I only hoped that Sark's intentions were to someday destroy him.

Our stroke of luck came after dessert. We had moved into the bar area for after dinner drinks, when Sloane received a phone call. He went into another room while he spoke.

As soon as he was out of eyeshot, Andrew came and kissed me quickly on the lips, "I've been wanting to do that all night."

"You and me both," I tell him with a smile.

"Sorry this hasn't been the most enjoyable evening," he says to me.

"It's alright, I understand," I reassure him.

Sloane quickly reenters and tells us his news, "It seems there has been some type of security breach at the Credit Dauphine building. I have to go examine the problem."

"Oh, really?" Sark questions him.

"Yes, indeed, I must be running along," Sloane adds. We follow him to the front door and say our goodnight greetings and quickly shut the door.

"Finally, that fool left," Andrew comments.

"No kidding," I joke.

"So, Sydney," he starts, leading me up his stairs. "Tell me about what you Americans do on your dates."

"What, you're not American?" I kid with him.

"Good one," he adds in. "Seriously, though, I don't want to rush… us."

"Fairly stated," I reassure him. "Well, in my case, we always watch a movie or something along those lines."

"Oh, really?" he asks.

"Or get incredibly drunk," I joke.

"I like the latter better," Andrew says.

"Good, me too," I say.

He leads me back into his game room where I was earlier. I sit down on the couch and he opens up a large cupboard filled with what seemed like a million DVDs.

"What, did you get a discounted rate if you bought out the whole store?" I joke with him.

"Very funny, Sydney," he adds. "I'm a movie fan, I must admit."

"Oh really? You find time to enjoy the finer points of the film world?" I ask.

            "The only thing that possibly keeps me sane," he explains.

"Well, what do you recommend?" I continue.

            "Have you seen 'The Ring'?" he asks me.

"Do you think I have time either?" I question him in joking sense.

"Then, 'The Ring' it is," he says.

            We enjoyed the movie and I found my way cuddled up into his arms. It was very relaxing and comforting at the same time. I never could have imagined him before as the cuddly type, but he definitely was good at it.

            After the film was done, one kiss led to several others and soon we were like two hormone infested teenagers making out like crazy. After twenty minutes or so, I realized it was getting late, so to avoid any questions on Francie or Will's part, I had to be going.

            I sat up after we both pulled away for a breath, "I really have to be going."

            "Sydney," he starts. "I don't want you to go."

            A brave and certainly noble thing to say, I am struck by his amazing, but simple words.

            "You know all I want to do is to stay here, in your arms, but it's too early and I might draw suspicion from my roommate and the CIA," I explain to him.

            His facial expressions drop as he understands, "I understand."

            He leads me to the door, gives me one last kiss before saying, "Here," handing me a package.

            "Wait until you get home to open it, in the secrecy of your bedroom," he furthers his explanation.

            "Okay," I give him a last smile and say, "Good night, Andrew."

            "Good night, Sydney," he says as I step out onto the sidewalk and he shuts the door. I held the small package in my hand, itching to open its contents.

            As soon as I got into my bedroom, I tore open the package. Inside was a small box and inside lay a small bracelet with a beautiful, rare stone I had never seen before as it's centerpiece. Under it, there laid a small note:

            Sydney-

This stone is one of only a few remaining left in the world. I bought it for you because like it, you are one in a million.

-Andrew

            Wow. He was truly amazing. A whole different person than I knew before. Wow, was this going to get complicated or what.

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