Sydney woke up feeling like she had been blind sided by an eighteen wheeler. As the events of that day flashed through her mind, she realized that it was almost the truth. She tried to work up the courage to open her eyes. Succeeding at getting them to open a millimeter, she swiftly realized that she was definitely upside down in the car Sark had been driving. She felt a faint drumming near her head but couldn't sum up the energy to turn to see what it was. It stopped quickly when she worked herself up to opening her eyes the rest of the way.

"Don't move, Sydney," she heard Sark's voice say from somewhere to her right. "I'm trying to get you out of the car, but the car isn't really cooperating." She heard him sigh.

"What's the problem?"

"The problem is this is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me." She felt his arm reach across her stomach and lightly touch something. She realized that something was her seat buckle as the weight of her body sent her crashing into the roof of the car.

"Can you move at all?" Sark asked her.

"Yeah. Just give me a minute." Sydney slowly rolled herself until she was lying flat on the car's roof. She located the window that was the least crushed in and wiggled her way out through it. Feeling something trickle down her head, she lifted her hand to feel her right temple. "Yeah, that's definitely blood," she said staring at her hand. She felt her eyes begin to roll into the back of head before she lost consciousness again.

"Damnit," Sark said as he saw her crumple to the ground. He rushed over to her side and was pleased to find a steady pulse in under her neck. He looked her over real quick to sum up the damage done. "Well, Sydney," he said to her unconscious body. "I think that you're going to pull through this. You obviously have a concussion what with that gaping wound on your head, and that wrist is definitely broken."

"Why are you playing doctor?" Sydney asked as she gained her wits again and heard Sark speaking to himself.

"Because someone has to."

She heard him sigh again. "That's not good," she said as she tried to sit up. "Last time you sighed at me my body went crashing to the ground."

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to apologize to you again, Sydney." Sark grabbed her broken wrist harshly causing her to scream out in pain. After a few seconds of screaming, the pain caused her to pass out for a third time.

Sark had to admit he did still feel a little joy in the back of his head at causing her pain. Unfortunately, he was doing it for her well being only this time. He had decided almost instantly after seeing her broken wrist that it needed to be set before they could start to make their way to civilization. "And having you unconscious will really help kill the pain that setting your wrist will bring," Sark said to her comatose body.

He quickly went to work realigning the bones in her wrist. She was lucky that it was such a clean break and that Irina had spent the time training him in basic field medicine. He scavenged the area and found a few solid metal pipes that had broken off from his car or fallen out of his truck or something at some point during the crash. He didn't know where they had come from, he was just glad to discover them. With some string he found in the glove compartment of his totaled car, he fashioned together a makeshift brace to keep her fixed wrist from shifting back to being broke.

"Now I just have to wait for you to wake up," Sark told himself. "Something tells me that this one might take a while." Sighing he slung Sydney as gently as possible over his shoulder, taking care not to jar her wrist or head too much. Together, he began to make his way for a few palm tress he could see in the distance.

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

Sydney allowed herself a satisfying groan as she felt herself begin to wake up. She really wished that she wasn't so out of it. It would have make killing Sark a lot easier if she was at one hundred percent capacity.

"Where are you, you stupid British bastard?" she yelled as she tried to sit up. Immediately she knew shouting was a mistake as her head stared throbbing. She felt Sark's hands go around her, and he helped her up to lean against a tree. Realizing that she couldn't kill him quite yet, she tried to take in their surroundings. "How far are we from Cairo?"

"About one hundred twenty kilometers," Sark said staring in the same general direction as her. "The good news is we are not going back to Cairo. Simon Walker will be ready and willing to kill us the second we set foot back in the city." He turned in the opposite direction of where they had been staring which was the direction he had been driving them in. "We need to go that way. And we only have to walk eighty kilometers."

"I don't know if I'll make it," Sydney admitted. She hated to tell Sark that she was feeling weak, but she didn't fancy making it halfway to wherever they were headed and then dying from exhaustion.

"We'll make it even if I have to carry you most of the way," Sark said. He didn't take his eyes off the horizon.

"Who are you and what have you done with Sark?" Sydney said. She took notice of her repaired wrist for the first time. She looked up at Sark in shock. "Am I in an alternate dimension?"

Sark laughed and walked over to Sydney. "No, you're not. I may be heartless most of the time, but I still have my moments. I'm sorry about having to cause you all the pain."

"I'm sure you are," Sydney said squinting her eyes.

"Let's go," Sark said. He began to walk away from the site of the crash.

Sydney sighed and pushed off the tree. She had nowhere else to go, and it seemed that Sark at least knew the general direction they should be heading in. "I refuse to trust him," she vowed in the back of her mind. "He never hesitated to try to kill me before. I don't see why that would have changed."

They managed to walk for at least two hours without saying a word to one another. Sark was surprised that Sydney hadn't complained about the fact that he was leading. "Then again, she always seems to surprise me," he thought to himself.

"How much farther do we have to walk?" Sydney said. She stopped and hunched down a little, bracing herself by putting her hands on her knees.

"We have at least eleven more hours of walking." Sark sat down on the sand beside her. "But it'll probably take longer since we're going to need regular breaks, what with the lack of water and your not so perfect state.."

"Agreed," Sydney said as she collapsed to the ground next to Sark. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Ask whatever you want, Sydney."

"Why are you helping me? You could have left me to die back in that garage with Walker. Again, you could have left me to die in that car wreck back there. Third, you have chosen to walk at the slow pace that I've set. That means you don't intend to leave me behind to die by myself in this desert. Why?"

"I know you think that I'm a cold-hearted bastard, Sydney." Sark lay back on the sand putting himself in a similar position to the way Sydney was lying. "I'm not going to deny that that's probably a good assumption. I know that I'm not as pure and gallant as your dear Agent Vaughn."

"If you know what's good for you, you'll leave him out of this conversation," Sydney hissed.

"Point taken. I'm sure you've met a hundred men like me throughout your years with SD-6 and the CIA. Did you ever ask yourself why I got under your skin so much? I mean, why do I bother you but none of the other people you've come across warrant an extra second of your time?"

"I have no idea, Sark. But I'm sure you're about to enlighten me." Sydney closed her eyes.

"Nope," Sark said leaning over and shaking her. "We can rest as long as you keep your eyes open. I can't have you lapsing into a coma this early in our trek back to civilization."

"All right. I won't shut my eyes."

Sark nodded and returned to his previous position. "I think the reason that I intrigue you so much is because you see a little of yourself in me." He ignored the way Sydney's mouth had begun to open and shut in shock at his audacity and kept on talking. "I represent exactly what you think you could have become if your mother hadn't left you and your father. You could have easily become one of her employees just as I did. That nagging feeling you get sometime in the back of your head? You know, the one that pops up when you get satisfaction out of causing someone pain. That's what I feel all the time. Like me, you enjoy it. Only you're too afraid of it to admit that you like the thrill."

"I'd like to say you're right, Sark. But that would mean I would have to admit you intrigued me." She paused and then added, "Which you don't at all."

"Liar." He leaned over so she could see the smirk on his face. "I'm everything you wish you could be sometimes. I don't really answer to anyone but myself. I'm free. I can do whatever the hell I want. You crave that freedom at the times when your life is a huge mess. I know that because you intrigue me too, Sydney."

"I couldn't have guessed that," she said sarcastically.

"You intrigue me, Sydney, for the opposite reasons that I intrigue you. You are everything I should have become. You're good and respectable. If my life had gone differently, I could be working right by your side."

"At least one of my prayers was answered," she said with a grin.

"You must be feeling better," Sark said sitting up. "We need to keep moving. I'm willing to bet that Walker will be sending some men out soon to make sure that we were killed in that crash. We don't want to be around when he hears the news that there were no bodies in the car."

Sydney sighed and stood herself up. She wavered slightly and felt Sark's arms wrap around her. "If I weren't so dizzy, I'd come up with some witty comment to warn you not to put your hands on me again."

"Don't try to be strong when you're so obviously not," Sark scolded her. He let go of her waist as soon as he felt her gain her balance. "You're going to have to trust me a little if we're going to make it through this alive."

"Maybe I don't want you to make it through this alive," Sydney called over her shoulder as she began walking.

Sark just laughed.