Chapter Six: The Replacement


"You would have been proud of Sydney at the meeting today."

Irina looked up at Sark disinterestedly, and Sark frowned. He'd thought when she'd announced that he would be helping Sydney run the Organization, it meant that maybe she was ready to treat him like a human being. He should have known better. The only people he'd ever seen her treat with even a shred of decency were Sydney, Sydney's children, and of course, the dear, departed Michael.

"What's the matter, Irina dear?" Sark asked, moving into the chair opposite her desk.

"I don't know," Irina said distractedly, staring off into the distance. "I'm afraid I pushed Sydney into this too soon."

Sark raised his eyebrows in surprise. "She'd hardly been out of bed in a month, Irina."

"I know." To Sark's surprise, Irina's eyes actually filled with tears. Then she said something Sark would never have expected her to say in a million years. "I can't help but feel a bit responsible for Michael's death."

"Irina!"

"I do," Irina insisted. "I knew she was thinking about taking her father's deal, and I made her feel like doing so would be so deadly--"

"It would have been deadly," Sark said roughly. "To the Organization. We all would have gone to prison, Irina."

Irina looked at him as if he were, in fact, the stupidest person in the world. Sark hated how she acted like she was the most intelligent person alive, though, in fact, she might have been. "You know as well as I do that there are ways of avoiding such things, Sark. And as for the Organization folding, well--" she shrugged. "I'm getting older. Maybe I could have stood to say goodbye to all I've worked for if it meant that Sydney and Michael would have been happy."

"And that would have been extremely selfish of you," Sark snapped. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Maybe you wouldn't have gone to jail, but your employees would have. This hardly just affects you."

"I know," Irina said with a sigh.

Sark shook his head in disgust. "I think it's a good thing you're retiring," he sneered. "If this is the way you're thinking. I hope Sydney hasn't gone so soft."

Irina shook her head sadly. "That's just it, Sark. This thing that's happened to her, losing Michael-- it will only harden her. Make her think there's nothing good left in this world." She stared off into the distance, a soft smile spreading across her lips. "I was awful to Michael in the beginning, you know."

Sark smirked. "If you think having Brooke Banning throw herself at him was awful, yes, I suppose you were. A lot of men would have been thrilled to have a roll in the hay with her."

"A lot of men have been thrilled to have a roll in the hay with her," Irina pointed out derisively. "No, but-- things had been better with us, in the past few years. When I went to see Sydney, after I knew her father had contacted her," she reminisced. "Michael kissed my cheek, and Sydney got this flickering of a look on her face, just for a second, as if to say, when did this start? The truth was, he stopped finding me so repulsive around the time Emily was born. He was a wreck, spending all of his time at the hospital with her and Sydney. I was the one who convinced him that he needed to come home once in awhile, that his son needed him. He was always grateful to me for that. Much as it pained him to see that there might be some good in his evil mother-in-law, he was grateful to me for that."

Sark wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. He decided it best to stay silent.

Irina rose from her chair, pacing to the window and gazing out. "It never mattered what he thought of me, though," she said, staring out at the courtyard below. "It only mattered that he loved Sydney, and he did, Sark. He loved her so much."

Sark shifted in his seat uncomfortably. While at some level, he knew he should feel badly for Sydney, for what she had lost, he just didn't. He'd meant what he'd said when he'd told Sydney that Michael had kept her from reaching her true potential as a leader. He wouldn't miss him.

"I was the one who pushed her out of bed, pushed her to start living again," Irina continued. "But the truth is, I have no idea how she's going to go on without him."

Sark rose from his chair and moved to stand behind her, planting his hands on Irina's shoulders. "I'll help her."

Irina stared at him, her eyes showing an odd mixture of repulsion and acceptance. "Please don't try and take his place."

Sark felt an odd stab of anger and jealously, knowing that no matter how much time passed, he'd always be in Michael's shadow. He could only comfort himself with the fact that Michael wasn't around anymore.

He was. And everyone had better get used to it.