Sydney pulled off the black sweater she had been wearing since two days ago and made her way into the bedroom. The early morning light was blasting through all the windows, bathing the apartment in a golden light. She was pleased with the homey feeling she got every time she returned from a mission. It had been slightly altered over the last few months, but it still gave her the same tug of happiness in her gut.

Francie had moved out, with Sydney's permission, so that she could find a place closer to her restaurant. True to karma, Will suddenly needed a place to stay. Turns out the boss wasn't too happy when he found out that one of his employees was sleeping with her daughter. And not just any employee but the one who had been fired from his previous job for heroin use and story fabrication. Not a good combination.

Sydney settled down into the bed and felt Vaughn's arms unconsciously slip around her waist. "And there was that," she thought. He had moved in shortly after the takedown of SD-6. Making up for lost time, he claimed. Sydney didn't mind it in the least. It was extremely comforting to have his close by whenever she needed to hear his voice.

"You were gone on your mission an awful long time," Vaughn mumbled in his half-asleep daze.

"It took me a while to find the right time to sneak into Kaylee's cottage."

"How'd it go?" Vaughn asked. He sat up and quickly rubbed his eyes to wake up as much as possible.

"As good as can be planned. Of course she didn't come running to this side. But I think I'm making progress. I know I definitely planted some seeds of doubt into her mind." Sydney stood up and began to change into sweats.

"About what exactly?"

"About Sark." When Sydney saw Vaughn's surprised look, she elaborated. "He was the easy target. Her emotions are written on her sleeve, and they were screaming Sark at me loud. I knew that they were having a relationship. That was painfully obvious in Madrid, as I stated in my report about that incident. Well, Sark doesn't really do relationships, definitions, attachments, etcetera. I let Kaylee know that, and her mind took over the rest."

"Did you learn anything useful besides the fact that Sark is your sister's Achilles heel?"

"You could say that I picked up on a few things." Sydney motioned for Vaughn to follow her into the kitchen. She took two bowls from one of the cupboards and wasted no time filling them with her favorite sugary cereal.

"This is my kind of debrief," Vaughn said with a smile. "So you were saying you figured out something while in Paris?"

"There is definitely something my mother isn't telling Kaylee. And she's not telling whatever it is to Sark either. I couldn't figure out what was so important that she was keeping both of them in the dark. But I'm sure the CIA will figure it out just about the time that they finish deciphering Rambaldi's real prophecy. How's that going?"

"Slow. If we're lucky, there'll be something concrete in about a year."

"Syd! You're home," Will exclaimed as he entered the kitchen. "Vaughn."

"Hey, Will."

"So can you tell me where you were or is this top secret government stuff?" he asked as he grabbed Sydney's bowl away from her and poured himself some more cereal.

"Hey!" she cried.

Will took a few more bites out of the bowl and pushed it back to Sydney. He smiled at her. "Please don't beat me up."

The three sat there eating in silence. Will's unanswered question hung over all of their heads.

"Go ahead and tell him," Vaughn said. "Will, you may just want to sit down somewhere a little more firm than a kitchen stool."

"Big happenings, huh?" he said as he sat down on the coach.

"Will," Sydney started. "Your dreams just came true. I have a sister."

"No way!"

"My mother raised her in France. She was pregnant with Kaylee when she staged her own death twenty-four years ago. Kaylee's been impersonating me on missions to steal specific documents and objects for my mother. When the CIA learned of her existence, they brought me in on the case. I've spent the last month or so feeling out the situation and trying to get her to come to L.A. for a more in-depth questioning."

"If she's as stubborn as you and your father, I'd guess that she isn't coming to L.A. anytime soon," Will commented.

"That's an understatement," Vaughn added. "The investigation is at a standstill, though. So you'll be seeing a lot of Sydney around the house."

Will sent Sydney a mischievous smile. "What?" she asked.

"I think I'm going to wish that you had a twin next," he said.

Sydney chucked a pillow at him. Before she could move to start hitting him with her fists, her beeper and Vaughn's beeper began buzzing simultaneously.

"That's never good," Will said through the pillow that was being held on his face.

"No, it never is," Sydney admitted. "We should probably get dressed and head in. I'm willing to bet that Marshall made a break-through."

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

Sydney was surprised to find out that Marshall didn't make the break-through, and it had nothing to do with the Rambaldi prophecy, fake or real. The CIA had just figured out the information that Irina had been withholding from everyone.

Kendall looked over the small group of people gathered in his office. Dixon and Marshall were carrying on a conversation about the new gadget Marshall had created. Vaughn was talking a little too intimately with Sydney while her father scowled at them from across the room. And then there was Weiss looking like a fish out of water in the middle.

"Agent Bristow," Kendall began, calling everyone's attention to him, "I know that you probably think that you'll be going on a mission.

"That seems to be the standard protocol with a summons like this," Sydney said.

"This meeting was called because I wanted to let you all know. I'm pulling Agent Bristow off active duty."

"What?" Vaughn exclaimed. "Why would you pull the best agent this office has off of duty at such a critical time?"

"That's the thing," Kendall admitted. "The time right now is not that critical to any of the work we've been doing. One of our undercover agents in Irina Derevko's organization just sent us a crucial report. It appears that your mother, Sydney, hasn't been telling your sister the complete truth about what is going on, just like you suspected. It appears that Derevko does truly cares for your sister. The information she has been withholding appears to be for what she had deemed your sister's own good."

"What is this information?" Sydney asked. She was already tired of Kendall dancing around the point. She really wasn't in the mood to put up with it when the subject of discussion had to do with her family.

"Your sister, as the woman in the prophecy, is going to have to make an extremely difficult decision in the next few months. She's going to have to choose between the two sides of her family."

"So, it's a choice between Sydney and Jack or her mother?" Weiss asked. "Sir, no disrespect to any of the Bristows, but that choice is no contest. She's not going to choose a sister and father she never knew she had over the mother who has raised her."

"That's what Derevko would like us to think. It seems that she wasn't always the most attentive mother to Kaylee. She didn't have time to give her daughter the attention she need. She was too busy setting up a strong foundation for her organization."

"Why do any of these new developments require my partner to be pulled off active duty?" Dixon asked. This change affected him as much if not more than everyone else present.

"I don't want Agent Bristow to be going on missions. I want her to have a stable life here in L.A. And I want her to always be very easy to contact. You need to form a strong relationship with your sister as soon as possible. I want you to do everything necessary to make her inevitable decision easier."

"Do you honestly think that's all my mother is hiding from her?" Sydney asked. She looked at her father for support.

"Irina Derevko is a cruel woman," he said. "There's no way that she would have told our daughter everything that was available to her. I suggest that the CIA keep in contact with those undercover informants for the time being. If we can find more on Derevko, it could be crucial to swaying Kaylee's decision."

"Point taken, Jack," Kendall said. "I won't pull the informants out of their positions for the time being. Agent Bristow, I've arranged a desk for you in the building. I want you to help us in our analysis of the situation with your sister and with the Rambaldi investigation. It should keep you busy until it's time for you to go back to active status." He shut the folder he had been looking at. "I think that's all the needs to be discussed for now."

Sydney stood up quickly and left the room before she started shouting at Kendall for making such a stupid decision. "The only way I've ever been able to help is in the field," she hissed at Vaughn as they walked to his desk. "I don't know how my helping with investigations is going to lead us anywhere."

"Give it a chance, Sydney," Vaughn offered. "I think you're going to be stuck doing it for a while."

"That doesn't mean she has to be happy about it," Jack said as he approached the pair. "Can I speak with you for a moment, Sydney?"

"Sure," she agreed. She gave Vaughn a mostly pitiful smile and followed her father to a semi-obscure corner. "What's the matter?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you were going to be okay with being strapped to a desk for an indeterminate period of time."

"I'll get through it. Listen, Dad. I wanted to ask you something. Why haven't you tried to make contact with Kaylee like I've been doing? I had to make up a lie when I was trying to sway Kaylee to come to L.A. I just wanted to know the truth."

"I honestly don't know if I can see her without hating her. I've seen the pictures of her. She's the spitting image of your mother, and I just can't promise that I won't do something drastic and unwise when I meet her. I need time to analyze the situation."

"That's basically what I told her," Sydney admitted. "Except I threw it a lot more focus on your emotions. I thought it might help persuade her. But nothing seems to work."

"It will eventually," Jack admitted. "Besides, you have a trump card on her now."

"What?" Sydney asked.


"Me."