-OK, now I know that there really is no plot as of yet, and I am sorry about that. But I have to build up the premise before I put the twist on everything. And it is boring as hell but it must be done. I am going to try and wrap up all the loose ends in this chapter, so it may seem as If I am bypassing some things hastily but it is all in an attempt to get to the good stuff.

-Thank you all so much for the reviews! It is so nice to know that I am not the only one who couldn't sleep Monday night after what happened . . .only four months left. I am doing my best to be optimistic about that, and crossing my fingers that JJ will not let us down.

-Now I am not normally in the practice of sending out shout-outs . . .but Maea, you rock. After reading your review I ran upstairs to my room to start the next chapter : ) You just made my day! Haha . . .

-

-

-

I awake to find no piece of mind . . . I said how do you live as a fugitive . . . Down here, where I cannot see so clear . . . I said what do I know, show me the right way to go . . . -Coldplay, Spies

*

The next few weeks were emotional hell for her. She was above average at everything she had ever done, intelligent, clever and quick, but her mind just would not process the fact that she had been nonexistent for the past two years only to come back and find everything so . . .

Different.

Everyone and everything around her had changed, in the two years stolen from her so much had happened. They all said that nothing had changed, but hindsight was twenty-twenty.

She had been delighted to see Marshall, he was beaming from head to toe when he shared with her the details of his marriage and Carrie's pregnancy, and she had a glow to match. Her father had been right, they were to perfect match. He seemed so comfortable around her, they way his eyes lit up when she came into the room and vice-versa, it was something she missed, something she longed for, but tried not to dwell on.

Dixon was the same as before, nothing had changed him. The moment he saw her he just gave her a smile and a comforting hug, no questions were asked. And for that she appreciated him. He asked her to come eat dinner with the kids and she had accepted, in turn she was rewarded the most relaxing night in days.

She was shocked to notice that she had even been happy to see Kendall again. She had never been particularly fond of the guy, but at the time she would do anything for a familiar smile. He had done what he could to make the experience comfortable for her, and she could not express her thanks for that.

And Weiss . . .Weiss had become her best friend. When she walked into the task force on that first day, weary and emotionally drained, he shouted her name and crossed the floor in mere seconds, immediately pulling her into a hug and spinning her in circles. And she had actually smiled and let out a laugh, a *real * laugh. From that day forward he was there for her whenever he could be.

For the first week she was forced to stay in the cell her mother, Sarah Caplan, Will and Sark had all shared. She had been amused at the irony of it all at first; she finally had a glimpse of what it was like from the inside looking out. And she *hated * it. But she also knew that tests had to be taken, and precautions made; she was aware of the difficulty of the situation. One of their most valued agents who knew more confidential information than most, had been missing for the past two years, presumed dead, and had now returned with no memories of her whereabouts. It was hard, but she dealt with it with reasonable acceptance.

When she was finally released she stayed with her dad, which had been . . .interesting. She had not shared a quarters with the man since she was eighteen, and even then he had not been present the majority of the time, so this was something entirely new. She began to enjoy the comfort she felt in his presence, the new bond that they now shared, but they both knew she could not stay there forever. So when a two-room apartment had been made available in Weiss's complex, she jumped at the opportunity. He had been thrilled, and she had to admit that she was as well.

So after unpacking for nearly three hours, they sat on the floor digging through cartons of Chinese. They sat in silence for a moment, and while it was a comfortable silence there were things she was dying to know. At first she had avoided everything, but it had begun to get to her.

"You know Syd, for a girl who has been gone for the past two years you sure have a heck of a lot of crap."

"Hey, it's not crap, it's my personal belongings!"

"My apologies, mademoiselle."

"Plus, they got rid of half of my stuff, I still need to go shopping."

He let out a small laugh and snatched the fried rice from her.

"So, are you going back?"

"I think so, yeah. They said I didn't have to do field work until I wanted to, that they could use me as an analyst."

"Yeah, right."

"Excuse me?"

"Aww, come on Syd. We both know that you are not built to be a desk jockey. You would miss the adrenaline rush too much."

Sighing in defeat, she grabbed a box of chicken and began to pick through it

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I may not be ready to go back for a while, but I will eventually. At least until we nab Sloane."

"Well, I'm sure they'll be . . ."

She couldn't stand the questions running through her mind any longer, and took the moment to interrupt him.

"I want to know, Weiss."

"You want to know what?"

"Everything that happened. I have been hiding from it for the past three weeks, but I can't stand not knowing any more."

"You're sure?"

He gave her a skeptical look and after a moment she nodded firmly.

"You know I'm not going to mince it for you, right? You're asking for the truth and I'm gonna give it to you exactly how I saw it."

Again she nodded, mentally preparing herself for whatever he had to say.

"All right. Let's start from the beginning then shall we? After the debriefing, which had been measurably shorter than anyone had expected, Mike had practically ran out of the building saying something about a vacation. About twenty minutes later I received a phone call that I could barely even comprehend, all I heard through his shouts were 'missing' and 'blood'.

"Kendall called everyone involved in the Rambladi case into a meeting, where Mike, who look like hell, by the way, shared with us what had happened. When he got to your house he opened the door and was immediately greeted by kitchen drawers and stray silverware. After making it past your disheveled doorway all he found in the living room were pools of blood on either end, and broken glass everywhere. He searched the house and was devastated to find Will in the bathtub but no sign of you or Francie. By the end of the story, he was in tears.

"Of course an ambulance had been called and they rushed Will to the hospital and we were told he had very little chance of making it, but through some miracle he pulled through. When he woke up he requested to see Mike first and explained that it had been Francie, Allison Doran, that was the real double. This was confirmed by the test results from the blood that was found, one set had been Francies', and the other . . .yours.

"From that day on, the entire task force was sent into overdrive, everything that happened was in the sole purpose of finding you. Mike . . .to say that he took it horribly would be the understatement of the year. I don't think he slept for a month. He spent every waking moment in his office, and he was a mess. He didn't change or shower for days at a time; it was painful to watch. We all tried to help, but the only person he wasn't hell-bent on yelling at was Jack. They did *everything * they could think of to find you. The funny thing was, none of it worked.

"It seemed as if Sloane had just disappeared when you did, there was no movement at all. No intercepted messages, no suspicious transfers made, absolutely nothing. We didn't know if he was dead, or alive, or what the heck was going on. The same with your mother, and Sark for that matter, who if you didn't know by now escaped the night you disappeared on the way to Ft. Harris. It was so frustrating; there were no leads.

"As you know, it is standard procedure that this kind of case be terminated after four months, but we pushed it to six. And after that, a lot of people began to accept the fact that you were gone. It was killing Mike, it really was, and you are going to hate me for this . . .but I had to do something. I tried to help him move past it, to try and get his life back. He screamed at me at first, said things that Mike would never say. But then something happened. I don't know what, but he just seemed to get it. After that he . . ."

"Don't stop there Weiss, I said I wanted to know everything, and I meant it."

After messing with his chopsticks for a moment he sighed and continued.

"Emily moved into his complex shortly after you disappeared, and he eventually asked her out. He was never really thrilled about their relationship, but began to warm up to her after a while. She was good for him, I guess."

"You 'guess'?"

"Well, I don't know, she just seemed to convenient. To, perfect, for lack of a better word. She never raises her voice, she never says anything controversial, and she always dotes on him as if he is the world. And . . .

"And what?"

His gaze caught the empty walls in front of them and he just stared for a moment, as if debating with himself weather or not to share it with her.

"I don't know, it's nothing I guess. She was nice enough, no one really liked her because . . .well, she wasn't you, but we knew he had to move on and she was good for him. After about five months they got married, in the smallest ceremony known to man. And their honeymoon lasted about three days, they never left LA. I always wondered why she had accepted that, most women would have wanted some extravagant thing, but she seemed to not mind the hush-hush of it all. About a month after that, he was transferred out of the formerly-known-as-SD-6-now-Sloane-Sark-and-Dreveko office and does analyzing in another LA building. It was just too hard for him."

This part she knew. He had been in and out of the task force regularly but she noticed that his office no longer had his name stamped on it. This had been a relief to her, because she hadn't been ready to face him, she was still furious.

She looked at Weiss and knew what he was trying to say to her.

"Oh, Weiss, I want to forgive him, I really do, but I just . . ."

"Don't Sydney, no one expects you too. This was a major blow to both of you, and it will take a while for it to pass. He understands that. It's just hard for him, knowing you are here in LA and he can't be with you, that's got to hurt. He still loves you, he never stopped and never will, but . . ."

"But he made a commitment to his . . .wife . . .and he would never break that. And I can't ask him too."

"Someday, though, you are going to have to talk to him. You know that right? You can't just bury your past and forget it. The only way whatever you're feeling is going to go away is if you talk to him."

She lets out a loud sigh and gives him a reassuring smile.

"I know. Someday."

"All right then, Miss Bristow, as much as I would like to sit here and devour the rest of this food, I am going to leave you to absorb everything I just said. Try to get some sleep, ok?"

"I will. And Weiss?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you, thank you so much for everything. I can never repay what you've done for me . . ."

"You don't have to, it's been my pleasure. Now give me some sugar before I go."

He says this with a smile and she lets out a loud laugh. It's been an inside joke of theirs and she enjoys recalling pleasant memories of the past. She gives him a hug and they exchange their good-byes.

After cleaning up what was left of the carry-out she made herself a make- shift bed with blankets and pillows, changed into a pair of sweats and a tank top, and attempted to get some sleep.

But after glancing at the clock for the seventeenth time in three hours, she realized that sleep was not going to come. And there was only one way she could find it.

Slipping out from under the blankets she found her cell phone and proceeded to call a number she knew by heart, a number that she had considered her life line and at one point, a number that try as she might, just could not forget.

After listening to it ring for the third time, she thanked God that a male voice answered her, and that voice was expectedly full of confusion.

"He . . .hello?"

"Joey's Pizza?"

-

-

-Don't you love cliffhangers? Well, at least the pleasant kind? I know your wondering where I came up with the notion that it would be Weiss who was at her side. Well, the damned WE network keeps airing Felicity re-runs, and while I never got into the show in the first place I decided to give it a try and I realized how much I love Greg Grungberg. And while I know I will never do justice to the character, I missed him and took it upon myself to give him a bigger role. So there you go . . .be sure to REVIEW!