Sydney shook her head as she felt herself slip back into consciousness. She knew that she had to get her wits back about her before this Walker guy decided to do something stupid like sell her to the highest bidder under the guise of being the answer to the Rambaldi prophecy. Marshall had told her there was a whole Internet following on that very scheme.

She slowly took her hands off her head and put them on the ground to brace herself as she prepared to get up. The ground was cold and slimy. She could hear random people shouting to one another in a language that she wasn't quite familiar with. Her eyes began to focus on the neon lights that were everywhere she turned.

"This is definitely not Kansas, Toto," she muttered as she sat up. "Where the hell am I?" She looked down at herself. "And what the hell am I wearing?!?"

Sydney was clothed in what looked at best like sweats that had been worn for a year straight. There were rips and tears all over them, and they smelled slightly like road kill.

"I was definitely not wearing this yesterday," Sydney thought. She suddenly recognized where she was. "And I was not in Hong Kong when Walker kidnapped me. So why am I here now?"

She dragged herself over to a pay phone she had spotted across the street. Her right knee hurt slightly, and she couldn't figure out why. She hadn't thought she jarred it in the fight the day before. In fact she was surprised that she didn't feel the normal aches and pains that were usually present the day after a fight.

Sighing she picked up the phone and dialed the emergency number the CIA had made her memorize before her mission began. The line clicked.

"Base ops, this is Bluebell. My location is Hong Kong. I don't know how I got here. I don't know why I'm here. I need to arrange a pickup."

"Bluebell, understood. We'll do what we can," the voice on the other end responded. A few minutes of dead air later, Sydney got her answer. "There's an old safe house disguised as a restaurant two streets to your left. You should be fine there until we can get someone in to brief you on what happened. Base ops out."

Sydney stared at handle that was blaring the dial tone. She knew that the CIA could be abrupt at times, but the least she had expected was a little information on why she was in Hong Kong. "I can wait, I guess," she mumbled to herself. She lightly ran her hand over her abdomen, a nervous habit she had picked up from Marshall.

It wasn't the smooth surface she had expected. She lifted up the sad excuse for a shirt she was wearing and stared in horror at a massive, jagged scar that was ripped across her stomach. "What the hell happened to me?" she said confused as to how a mysterious scar could form overnight.

She tried to center herself to her surroundings and began searching for this restaurant/safe house she needed to find to get the answers to all the questions that were swimming around in her head.

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

Vaughn knocked softly on the door that he had been told Sydney would be behind. He couldn't hold his shock when he heard her voice call softly for him to come in. He thought he would never hear that voice again.

"Sydney?" he said as he pushed the door open. He hoped she couldn't hear the shakiness that was in his voice.

"Vaughn!" she yelled as she ran towards him. She launched herself into his arms. "I can't tell you how confused I am. I woke up here in Hong Kong and called the CIA. They wouldn't tell me what happened. They just said to wait patiently here in this sad excuse for a safe house. And I can't believe that you're actually here. What the hell is going on?"

Vaughn took a deep breath. He didn't know where to start. Absentmindedly, he played with the ring that was on his left hand.

"Why are you wearing that ring?" Sydney asked suspiciously.

He looked at her in horror. He couldn't believe that he had been stupid enough to call attention to the one thing he didn't want her noticing.

"What's going on?" she asked for the millionth time that day.

"Sydney, you've been missing for over two years." She stared at him in panic and fear. "I hate to do this with you, but I can't explain any more until we get back to CIA headquarters in L.A. This safe house isn't the best one the CIA ever established. Please, I wish I could explain everything to you now. But the CIA's priority is to get you home."

Vaughn lifted Sydney up out of the seat she had taken on the coach. She must have lost all strength in her body because she almost immediately found herself stumbling and struggling to keep vertical. Sighing, he scooped her up into his arms and prepared to carry her as far as he needed to.

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

Sydney woke up with the feeling of someone holding her hand. "Vaughn," she whispered, thinking back to the image of him picking her up into his arms in the Hong Kong safe house. Then the rest of the conversation they had came flooding back to her. She sat up quickly.

"Sydney, you're awake," Weiss said. He had been lying in the bed next to her holding her hand. "We weren't sure if you were ever going to wake up. You experienced some trauma to the head."

"Where's Vaughn?" she asked.

"He's close," Weiss promised. He got up off the bed and slowly lowered Sydney back down into a resting position. "Sydney, you've been missing from the CIA for twenty-six months now. We thought that you had died."

"Really? Because I only feel like I've been gone for twenty-six hours. There's no way I could have been gone that long without knowing it."

"Syd, I'm not lying to you. You have been gone for much longer than you think." Weiss paused and then began talking again. "Syd, a lot of things have changed while you've been gone."

"I would imagine," Sydney said incredulously. "Please just tell me whatever you can about what happened to me. I need to know where I've been."

"The CIA has no idea where you've been, Sydney. They thought you had died on the mission to Taipei that you were sent on. We found a body a few days after you first disappeared. It washed up on the banks of the Tanshui River. The CIA confirmed through DNA and dental analysis that it was your body. You are just as shocked with what's happening as we are. Every one thought that you were dead."

"Well, I'm not," Sydney said. She was starting to get frustrated with this situation.

"I think you need to rest a little," Weiss said turning to leave the room.

"Please don't leave me," Sydney said. She could feel the tears start to well up in her eyes. "I need to understand what's happened. And you seem to be the only one willing to tell me."

"Okay," Weiss said. He slid back into the hospital bed beside her and took her hand again. "I'll stay right here until you want me to go."

"So, tell me what's happened in my life since I've been missing," Sydney said snuggling into Weiss's side. 'It was good to know that even if you went missing for years, there was at least one friend who would be there for you,' she thought to herself.

"Well, Kendall lost his job with the CIA when you turned up missing. The higher ups couldn't believe that you had been sent out on a mission with no backup. Especially since Vaughn had filed that official request to go with you, which would have been the smart thing. There was a period where the government actually believed that Kendall was working with your mother. How bizarre is that?"

"Extremely," Sydney agreed. She knew that both she and Weiss were dancing around the obvious question of why their best friend was wearing a wedding ring when he came to collect her from the safe house, and she didn't care. "So is the new director as horrible as Kendall was?"

"That's a matter of personal opinion," Dixon said as he entered Sydney's hospital room. "I personally think they like me, but what does a boss know?"

"Dixon!" Sydney said. Her face lit up with the appearance of another one of her friends. "You're the new director of the CIA?"

"Guess they felt bad for all the things they put me through when you were a double agent. Sort of like a bonus, if you want to look at it that way. How are you holding up, Syd?"

"Okay, considering everyone I ever knew thought I was dead a few hours ago." She turned to Weiss. "Please keep explaining."

"Your father's currently on a mission for the government. Otherwise you know he would be right here beside me."

"He may have screwed up the job of raising me, but he's really trying to make up for it," Sydney said candidly. "How is Will?"

Dixon stepped in to the conversation. "Will's in Witness Protection, Syd."

"Why?" she asked. "What happened to him?"

"Well, when you disappeared, the CIA assumed the popular assumption was that we were going to be blackmailed for your return. Then the theory was that someone was trying to get at your sister through the newly created emotional ties she had made. So there was an executive decision that Will was in danger of being abducted like we believed you had been at the time. We couldn't take the chance that the people who took you might interpret your sister's relationship with Will as more than it was."

"That was before we found the body of whomever was set up to be you," Weiss added.

"You told her about that?" Dixon asked. "Is nothing that supposed to be classified ever treated that way?"

"So, Will was put in Witness Protection for his safety?" Sydney asked.

"He's still in the program," Dixon informed her. "I can't decide if we should pull him out of it or not."

"You can't decide? You can't decide?!?" Sydney cried. "It's a man's life you're talking about here. There should be no reason that he would have to stay in the program. You thought that he was in danger because of my abduction. I'm not abducted anymore. I'm safe in CIA protection again. There should be no reason to keep him in a life that was forced upon him."

"Well, the thing is," Weiss said hesitantly, "I think he's happy in Witness Protection, Syd."

"We're not sure if he would want to come back to this life," Dixon added.

"Why not let him be the judge of that?" Sydney said. "I want to see him. Let me go and tell him that I'm still alive. After that, he can decide whether he wants to come back to his life two years ago or if he wants to stay in the program. The man should be able to make his own choice."

"We'll see," Dixon said. He lightly patted Sydney's head. "For now, you need to relax."

Dixon smiled at her and left her alone with Weiss. Weiss sat up slightly from his reclining position next to Sydney. "Do you want me to leave so you can sleep?"

"No," Sydney mumbled as she snuggled in close to him. "I want to know that you're here making sure I don't get kidnapped again. I'm afraid when I wake up I won't know where I am. Or that maybe someone will try to take me again."

"I won't let that happen," Weiss said gently kissing the top of Sydney's head. The pair lay on Sydney's hospital bed in silence.

Weiss figured that after fifteen minutes of silence, Sydney had fallen asleep finally. He shrugged out of her grasp and grabbed his coat trying to make as little a noise as possible. Chances are this was the only sleep she'll be getting for quite a while. He turned back to her though when he heard her mumble something. "Did you say something, Syd?"

"We haven't talked about Michael yet," she mumbled half asleep. "But that's okay. I don't think I really want to know."

Weiss sighed. "No you really don't," he whispered.