As soon as the door opened, Kaylee launched herself through the electric field as quick as she could. The shock definitely fazed her for a second, but her determination to leave this prison was fueling her to keep going. She slammed her body violently into the man who entered the cell. Before Sark registered what had happened and recognized the man had entered the cell armed, Kaylee had the man's knife to his throat and was shouting commands.

"You and I are going to go deactivate that nice little electric field. Then, I'm going to let you live. Sounds like a plan?"

Kaylee muscled the man out of the door on pure adrenaline alone. She was happy to see the control panel for the field was located right next to the door. The man moved to work the controls but didn't make it that far. She slammed his head down into the panel three times, effectively knocking him out and causing the panel to spark and lose power from the trauma caused by her blows.

The instant the field was down, Sark was running out of the cell and down the hall. He waved Kaylee to catch up with him. When she got close, he whispered, "I know the vague layout of this building. There should be a stairwell right around the next corner. The second we step into it, no verbal communication. We can't chance an echo. I think that we're in at least the first sub-basement of this building. So start taking the stairs up."

Kaylee nodded and pushed the door to the stairwell open. Normally, she wouldn't trust anyone's plan except her own, but she figured that Sark could be trusted at least to get both of them out of the building. After one flight of stairs, Sark pulled Kaylee through the exit door. They found themselves in another hallway, but this one had a window at the end of it.

"We're obviously above ground level now," Kaylee said. "Do you have a plan?"

"Just hold on to me tight," Sark yelled as he raced to the end of the hallway.

Kaylee didn't realize what he intended until it was too late to stop it. They broke through the window and started to fall to the ground. Luckily, Sark had only been one floor off and they only jumped from the second floor. Kaylee couldn't help but notice he twisted their bodies so that he landed below her and took the brunt of the impact.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, nothing painkillers can't solve. Let's get out of here before they realize what's happening."

Kaylee ran over to a Humvee that was parked across the street from the building in which they were held hostage. Taking a deep breath, she elbowed the window until it broke. She leaned over to unlock the passenger seat and motioned for Sark to get in. He was surprised to see her fiddling with wires below the steering wheel. What was more remarkable was the fact that the car started.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Sark asked as Kaylee drove hurriedly away.

"It's impossible to live in Paris and not pick up how to hot wire a car. Plus, with my mom gone on business trips all of the time, I had to do something with myself." Kaylee winked at him and picked up sunglasses that were sitting in the cup holder next to her. "Not bad. I may keep these when this is over."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

"It's nice to be home," Kaylee thought as she pulled up a driveway in the car she and Sark had rented from Charles de Gaulle airport. Her mother wouldn't be happy when she heard that their vacation had been ended a little earlier than planned. If everything had gone right, her mother should still be setting things right at the London branch and wouldn't be home for at least another week.

"We'll be safe here," Kaylee said.

Sark was surprised to realize that he had never seen the house they had just pulled up to. "Where are we? I thought I knew all of Irina's safe houses here in Paris."

"Oh, I'm sure you do," Kaylee admitted. "But this isn't Irina's safe house. It's mine."

"I'm impressed," Sark said. "Are you sure this is a good place to stay?'

"Absolutely." Kaylee got out of the car and started to make her way to the front door of the little cottage. "I've been renting this cottage every summer since I turned eighteen. My mother thought it wise that I escape 'the dangerous life she leads' every summer. Something about things heating up as the temperature rose. I'm not really sure. All I know is I adore coming to this place. So much in fact that I bought it last year. It stays empty whenever I'm not here."

She picked up the doormat and pulled a key from underneath. "Not very inventive," Sark commented.

"This is just the first phase." Kaylee turned the key in the lock and pulled the door open. Behind the first door was a second one with a digital keypad and handprint scanner. Smiling to Sark, she punched in a ten-digit code and held her hand up for scanning. "Is that more to your liking?" she asked.

He nodded his approval and followed her into her secret hideaway. The whole atmosphere of the cottage suggested that it was Kaylee's own private place. Everything about it displayed the personality and characteristics Sark was beginning to recognize as solely hers. The kitchen he was being led into gave off a woodsy, homey feeling that Sark knew was never a part of any of Irina's safe houses.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Kaylee offered as she began scrounging through the cupboards and refrigerator.

"No, thank you," Sark said. "Can I ask what you're looking for?"

"I'm looking to see if there's enough supplies here to survive on." With a content nod of her head, Kaylee turned to her companion. "I think if you don't mind spaghetti out of the box and canned soup, we'll make do."

"I guess considering the circumstances I can live with it," Sark admitted. "So what can we do to keep ourselves occupied?"

With a smile, Kaylee grabbed his hand and led him upstairs. Sark was starting to get a little uncomfortable with the way it appeared she was taking his comment. She noticed his worried look and laughed silently to herself. "Don't worry. I'm not going to attack you," she said. "I just wanted to show you the room you'll be staying in. Maybe I can find some old clothes that will fit you."

"You happen to keep men's clothes at your summer cottage?"

"No. The men I take to my summer cottage tend to forget about their clothes when they're here. Can't help it if they leave their clothes behind completely."

Sark smirked and began to rifle through the large collection of clothes in the closets. He was surprised to find a rather expensive pair of jeans and a beige Benetton sweater, which he believed he had in his closet at his London apartment.

"I'll leave you to change," Kaylee said. "Make yourself at home downstairs when you're done."

Sark quickly changed and made his way back downstairs. He really wanted to take a closer look at the cottage while Kaylee was busy changing herself. The room next to the kitchen was just as natural feeling, but it seemed a little more comfortable. Sark found himself laughing as he discovered that Kaylee had set up pictures of her and her mother all over the one wall. He couldn't believe that Irina had led this other life with Kaylee without anyone noticing. Figuring that Kaylee would be coming downstairs any minute, he decided to not be caught snooping but rather put his time to good use finding something for them to drink.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Kaylee was surprised to find a fire blaring in her fireplace and Sark lying on her coach with his eyes closed. "I guess you took my suggestion to make yourself at home seriously," she said as she sat down on one of the chairs next to the coach. She had changed into some of her most comfortable clothes, a simple tank top and navy blue sweatpants.

"I'm too tired to be witty," Sark said without opening his eyes.

Kaylee noticed that Sark had helped himself to her stash of liquor. There were two wineglasses and a bottle of one of her favorite blush wines sitting on the coffee table. "Nice choice of wine."

"It's one of the few things I do well," Sark said finally opening his eyes.

"I find that hard to believe. You seem like the type of person who doesn't do anything they can't do well."

"Have you been spying on me?"

"Maybe." Kaylee paused to add a little more wine to her glass. "Why don't you tell me a little about yourself? I wasn't expecting to come here so there's not much to keep us occupied. Anyway, I'd really like to know a little about my mother's top business associate."

"I shouldn't tell you any of this," Sark began. "Irina says that my mystery is the only reason I succeed in life. But maybe you should know a little bit more about me." Secretly, he hoped if she understood who he really was and what he had done in his years as a spy then maybe she wouldn't bring up the whole kiss issue again.

"Let's start with a first name. Sometimes I feel kind of foolish calling you Sark."

"How do you know Sark isn't my first name?" Kaylee shot him an icy look. "Okay, okay. My name's Andrew. Andrew Sark. I grew up in a suburb right outside of London called South Croyden. Before that, I'm not sure where I lived. My father wasn't too fond of the idea of having a child. As soon as I was old enough to survive on my own, he told me to stop causing him trouble and leave. I lived on the streets until I was sixteen. That's when I met your mother. I don't know what she saw in me, but she saw something because she took me to one of her safe houses. She gave me food and asked what I was doing living on the street. I got no pity from her but plenty of respect. She taught me a lot about who I was. Is that enough?"

"For now. But I still have to test you to see if you can actually be my friend."

Sark leaned forward towards her, intrigued. "Ask me anything."

"Um..." She thought for a moment. "Okay. Funniest movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Life of Brian?"

"Holy Grail, hands down."

"Cat or dog?"

"Cat. Only because I don't think I could handle having to constantly let a dog out to do his business. I like my sleep."

Kaylee moved to sit on the floor next to the coach. This game and her guest's answers always intrigued her. "Autumn or spring?" she asked.

"Spring. Who really likes a season that's based on dying?"

"Good answer. Romantic comedy or slasher flick?"

"Romantic comedy. I enjoy a little escapism and that's romantic comedy in its truest form."

"Wouldn't have guessed that one. Blond, brunette, or red head?"

"Can't I have all three?" Sark asked with a laugh. "I'd go with brunettes. They seem real and very grounded. I like that in a woman. Same question to you."

"Blonds. It's true what they say. I always have more fun when I'm with them."

"I have one for you," Sark said. "Finding the one you're meant to be with and dying the next day or living without them for the next fifty years."

"I'd rather love and love well then spend my life knowing what I could have had. That was good. Do you do this with many girls?"

"I have to admit that you're my first," Sark said with a smirk.

"Okay, this one's important. Superman or Batman, who would you rather have responsible to save your life?"

"Batman. Superman's weakness is common knowledge. I wouldn't want to rely on someone that the whole world knows how to defeat. You?"

"I'd go with Superman. Batman relies way to heavily on his gadgets. A true superhero only relies on themselves. I guess that kind of makes you and I superheroes in our own way."

"Saving the world from spontaneous electric fields one by one?"

Kaylee laughed and moved down to sit next to Sark on the coach. "This one's pretty serious. The past or the future?"

"A little bit of both," Sark replied soberly. "You can't run from the things you've done, but you can't dwell on them either. I've seen many people destroyed by dwelling in the past."

Kaylee caught the fact that he was deliberately leaving something unspoken. "Are you are ashamed of what you've done in the past?"

"No. I've done things that I regretted but I am not ashamed of what I've done. I've killed mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, people who had good lives, with no warning. Your sister thinks of me as a cold-blooded killer and I have to admit that she's right."

"You've done what you had to do to stay alive," Kaylee supplied. "I understand that."

"I knew that you would," Sark said softly. He pushed a wayward piece of hair behind her ear and rubbed her cheek. Kaylee was surprised to see desire searing in his eyes and tried her best to reflect the feeling back to him. It scared her how much she had started to care for this merciless killer.

"We should probably go to bed," Kaylee said breaking the silence that was hanging between them.

"In a minute," Sark replied as he pulled her closer to him. And with that, he gave in to his desire and gently pressed his lips to hers.