She was exhausted. The day of tests, and explanations, had worn her out. After Vaughn's story about her disappearance and Caleb, they had all gotten in the car. Vaughn carefully put his son in the car seat and began driving toward the safe house. Sydney was amazed that she hadn't noticed the car seat before. It wasn't like her to be so distracted that she didn't take note of her surroundings But Vaughn had always done that to her. When she was with him she felt safe, she didn't have to worry constantly.

He had just merged onto the freeway, when his cell phone rang. "Hello.yes..I'll be home in a half hour..alright.okay yeah..bye." They were both silent after the conversation.

The arrived at the safe house and Caleb was asleep in the back seat. Sydney and Vaughn exited the car at the same time.

"It's alright you don't have to come in." She assured him.

"No, I want to." He asked Wally to watch Caleb for a few minutes and then followed Sydney into the house. She nodded at the agent sitting on the couch and then walked into her room. Vaughn followed.

"If you want I can stay for a while." He said, wanting more to stay than to go "home".

"No you can't." She looked at him and sat down on the bed. "Take your son home Vaughn." She pulled off her sweatshirt and pulled back the covers. "I'm just going to sleep anyway."

"You must be exhausted." He closed the curtains, and walked to the bed. After she had slipped under the covers he sat down. She rolled onto her side and settled in. He looked down at her and reached his hand out to put a stray piece of hair behind her ear. He let his hand linger on her face, and she closed her eyes as he touched her. She wanted him to stay and hold her until she fell asleep. She wanted him to stay forever. He wanted both of those things as well, but the child in the car was keeping him in check. He stroked her check a final time and then reached to shut off the lamp. She didn't move, not wanting to see him leave. She felt him lean forward and then place the softest kiss on her forehead. Then he was gone.

She wasn't sure how long she'd slept before she was interrupted.

"Miss Bristow, I'm sorry, there's an urgent call for you. There a phone on the table." He closed the door.

She fumbled in the dark to retrieve the phone and almost knocked it off the table when she found it.

"Hello?"

"Agent Bristow, it's Dr. Morgan at the lab, we need you to come back in for a few tests."

"Tonight?"

"Um well..this morning."

"Okay I'll come right in." She hung up the phone, and looked at the time on the clock-radio. It was nine am. She rubbed her eyes, pulled back the covers, and slowly made her way to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later she was in the car on the way to "the lab". She wasn't really sure where that was but Wally drove. They arrived shortly thereafter, and it wasn't long before the doctor was taking more blood.

"What is it you're looking for Dr." She asked as politely as she could.

"Well I'm not certain. We found some abnormalities in some of the blood test we did yesterday and wanted to confirm the results."

"What kind of abnormalities."

"Well, nothing really, just a few mutated cells."

"That doesn't sound like nothing."

"Well that's what we're going to try and figure out today. The cells don't appear to be doing damage, they just weren't there before."

"How did these cells mutate."

"It could be the result of several different kinds of radiation. But to tell you the truth I've never seen this exact kind to mutation before so I can't say yet. Alright, all done here. But there is just one more thing we need from you Ms. Bristow."

"What is that?"

"A full body scan."

"How long will that take?"

"A few hours max."

"Great."

So there she was lying in a life size tube thing, and listening to the best of Jimmy Buffet. Apparently the nurses were infatuated with him. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in the body scan, but considering the number of songs she gone through it must have been at least two hours. A slight breeze flowed through the cylinder and she shivered a little. Finally the music turned off and the nurse came to tell her that it was done. Thirty minutes later she was fully clothed and waiting in the Doctor's office. He finally appeared and sat down behind his desk.

"I'm sorry that we weren't able to finish these tests up yester day Ms. Bristow."

"What did you find?"

"It will still take a few days to fully read the results of the scan, but I had time to run another test on the mutated cells in your blood..it appears that you were exposed to some form of radioactive material. It is not affecting any of your vital systems, actually it doesn't appear to have a affected anything but your white blood cells."

"And.."

"It appears that these mutated white blood cells are enhanced in some way."

"Meaning."

"Meaning they are much more efficient at fighting infection."

"So I'm less likely to get sick?"

"Well you're less likely to get sick, but you're also able to heal much faster than you were before."

"So that's a good thing right?"

"It appears so. But we are still working on figuring out how these cells mutated in this fashion, in the first place. I'll call you when we get the results back. As for now, I am claiming you fit for duty, after a little training."

"Thanks." She got up to leave.

"Oh, Ms. Bristow, one more thing."

She paused and stood looking at him.

"Before your disappearance. Were you in an intimate relationship with anyone?" The question obviously left her dumbfounded. "I don't need to know who, just yes or no."

She looked at his quizzically and then nodded in the affirmative.

"Thank you Ms. Bristow, I'll be contacting you soon."