Sydney was still trying to process why Sark was behaving so out of character. It was almost as if he thought himself her friend. "Which is ridiculous," she muttered to herself. Noticing something in the distance, she paused. "Aren't those the railroad tracks that you so cleverly utilized to flip the car?" Sydney said pointing a few yards in front of where they were standing.

"Nothing escapes you, Agent Bristow."

"So now we're back to Agent Bristow? No more Sydney?" she inquired. She started walking towards the railroad tracks again.

Sark smirked. "These are the same railroad tracks that neither one of us saw coming before. I saved us about thirty miles of walking by cutting through the desert instead of following those tracks."

"But we're following them now?" She couldn't help but be confused by his logic.

"Now they're going to lead us straight into Al Fayyum. From there you can call the CIA to pick you up."

"You probably aren't going to want to stick around for the CIA to capture, huh?" Sydney said.

"Not today. I have more important things on my agenda." Sark noticed out of the corner of his eye Sydney was starting to stumble slightly. "If I come closer to you, do you promise not to bite me?"

"My father taught me to never make promises I know I couldn't keep."

Sark ignored her comment and jogged slightly to catch up to her position. He slid his arm underneath hers and placed his hand on her back. "I want you to lean on me for a little while. Consider this another rest stop."

"A convenient rest stop which lets us keep moving," she commented. "I may hate you with all my heart, but I'm grateful to have you here at the moment."

"Why, Sydney! I do believe you're starting to warm up to me."

"I take it back. I wish that you were a thousand miles away."

"Good," Sark said smiling down at her. "For a second there you had me worried."

Sydney let Sark carry her weight in silence for a few minutes before her mind went back to something he had casually said. "What did you mean by having more important things on your agenda?" she asked.

"You don't want to know. It will only make you mad."

"I want to know, Sark. I didn't believe any of the bullshit you fed me before about me being such a good adversary that you couldn't just sit back and let Simon Walker kill me."

"That was the truth, Sydney. But I will admit that it wasn't all of the truth." Sark bent down, grabbed Sydney's knees, and swooped her completely into his arms. "You were stumbling again. I'll just carry you for a few miles, then you can try to walk on your own."

"Nice distraction tactic, but I'm still waiting for an answer from you."

"Honestly this whole thing is mostly about your sister, Sydney. I've never cared for someone as much as I care for her. I mean, I'm the guy that doesn't have emotions. I know that's how everyone sees me. I was starting to believe it myself. But then I met Kaylee, and now she is my whole world."

"You mean, she was your world. You've been out of her life for two years, Sark."

"That's painfully obvious by the new presence in her life."

Sydney was slightly put off by his off-hand comment on Kaylee's son and had to take a second to remember what she was trying to get Sark to tell her in the first place. After a few moments, she remembered. "What does saving me have to do with my sister?"

"The easy answer would be that I know she wouldn't want you dead. But nothing in our lives is ever the easy answer."

"If you insist." The duo walked in silence a few yards before Sark felt a small trembling come from Sydney's body. He looked concern for a moment until he realized she had started laughing hysterically for no apparent reason.

"Please don't tell me that the blow to your head hurt something inside your skull," he sighed. "What's so funny, Sydney?"

"I was just thinking. You're the yin to my yang." She started laughing again.

"We really need to hurry. You're starting to treat me almost like a human being. And that can only mean that you're slipping."

Sydney stopped laughing at that comment. "I don't treat you that horribly. I mean you are one of my enemies so it wouldn't exactly be right for me to express my eternal love for you every time you punch me."

"Actually, you're usually the one doing the punching. I just meant that you let yourself put me into the easy stereotype of an unfeeling killer. You never really seemed to want to give me a chance to prove that I was otherwise."

"And you want to prove that you're different than the stereotype? I would think that you liked to be portrayed as a killer. It certainly helps to intimidate people." Sydney felt her eyes begin to droop shut.

"Eyes open if you know what's good for you," Sark commanded as he shifted her slightly in his arms. "Maybe to other people I want to be intimidating. But what I really want from you, probably all I've ever really wanted from you even before your sister got involved in the mess that is our lives, is a little respect and maybe a chance at being accepted for who I am."

"You're talking strangely, Sark. Maybe you're the one who ruptured something in the brain."

"Sydney, I love your sister. I'm trying my best to change myself into someone she feels comfortable raising her son with."

"I don't think that Will would be very happy hearing you're plotting to steal his life."

"I'm not focusing on that problem right now. So could we please try to avoid taking about it? I just trying to get Kaylee to the point that she isn't scared that I'm going to get her child killed just by being around him."

"You know the way she talks about Grayson reminds me of the way she used to talk about you those few days before I was kidnapped." Sydney's face took on a horrified look. "I can't believe I just confided in you. We must be in an alternate dimension."

"She talked about me with you? And you didn't kill her for saying nice things?" Sark asked feigning shock.

"Will gave me excellent advice. He said that you probably weren't going to be leaving my sister's life anytime soon. She seemed kind of attached to you. He said that means I better start trying to adjust to it."

"That's good advice, but I thought we had agreed not to talk about Tippin."

"You asked me not to talk about him, but I never agreed," Sydney said triumphantly.

"Do you want me to bring up the subject of Michael Vaughn again?" Sark stopped to set Sydney down on the ground. After making sure she could support her own weight, the pair began walking side by side. He let his mention of Vaughn hang in the air between them for a few silent minutes before he commented again. "What went so wrong with that whole thing to force you to the point where you don't want to even hear his name? I thought you two had the perfect relationship, forgetting the whole forbidden love affair you two started out with."

Sydney mumbled something unintelligible. "What was that?" Sark asked.

"I said he got married. Which kind of put a damper on our relationship."

"The Boy Scout got married? To another woman? I don't believe it."

"I wish I were lying to you, Sark. I really do."

"So you just came back and he was married to another woman? That had to have hurt a lot."

"He felt guilty as he well should have about the whole thing, but I could tell that he wanted to be married to her. It's like I'm almost nothing to him anymore."

"I doubt that's completely true."

Sydney looked over at him in disgust. "Why the hell am I telling you any of this?"

"My theory? You don't have anyone else you can turn to. Your sister and Will Tippin are too wrapped up in their messy lives to help you figure out yours. Your father is dealing with the issue of your mother. Your mother has her own agenda, and anyways she never really had a relationship with you. And everyone else in your life is treating you like you're made of porcelain. Your subconscious is seizing the moment and trying to relieve the pressure you've put on yourself."

"Thanks, Freud. But I think my subconscious wouldn't willing chose you to confide in."

After a few moments of silent walking, Sark asked innocently, "What's her name? The new Mrs. Vaughn, that is."

Sydney narrowed her eyes at him. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm curious," he said through clenched teeth. She was starting to get on his nerves with her inability to trust.

Sydney gauged his face trying to see past any facade he was trying to create. "Lauren Reed."

"Senator Reed's daughter?" Sark said with raised eyebrows.

"The very one. She's been nothing but nice to me, which doesn't help at all. It would be so much easier if she was a complete bitch. Then I could make Vaughn realize how horrible she was, and he would get a divorce."

"That's another example of the way easy answers don't fit into our lives," Sark said. "I mean, if I had my way, Kaylee would have just come running back to me with open arms. Life doesn't work that way, though."

"No, it doesn't." Sydney stopped talking to Sark as she watched the sun begin to set. "How far do you think we still have to go?"

"We still have at least five hours of walking."

Sydney nodded and went back to her own thoughts. She was still trying to process the whole situation she had landed herself in. The concept of Sark actually being cordial to her wasn't exactly sitting well with her past impressions of him. After a few minutes of trying to find the logic in these new circumstances, she felt her thoughts drifting away from Sark and on to Vaughn. That whole state of affairs was an even bigger confusion than what she was currently dealing with.

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

Sark was willing to let Sydney keep her thoughts to herself for the time being. He knew how it important it was to get her to confide in him. It would help convince her that he wasn't all bad, but he couldn't bring himself to keep causing her pain, emotional or physical. He knew that was probably what asking her more questions would do. Which is why he was surprised when she initiated conversation.

"You know what the trouble with love is?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. "It can completely rip you up inside. It blocks your perceptions of what's real. You know that it's foolish to let yourself fall in love, but you can't stop it. It's stronger than any other feeling. And no matter how proud you are, love is stronger than it. It lets you think that you figured it out and are in control, and then BOOM!" Sydney smacked her fisted hands together to emphasize her point. "You find yourself with a heart that's battered, bruised, torn in two."

"Been holding that one in for a while, haven't you? Maybe practicing it a little?" Sark said as soon as he got over the shock of her outburst.

She paid no attention to his comment and just kept ranting. "And the thing that pisses me off is that you can't say no to love. You just can't refuse that little tingling in the back of your head and the butterflies in your stomach."

"When it's good, though, it's really good," Sark corrected her. "You might not have any control over it, but it's nice to not be in control of something for once. Our lives are all about control. Change is good in that department. And love can be the best thing to happen to you. You just have to find the right person to share it with."

"I found the right person," Sydney said throwing her hands up in exasperation. "And he's married!"

Sark laughed. "Hey. I found the right person, too. And she's replaced me in her heart with a bloody two-year-old."

Sydney couldn't help but laugh at loud at his comment. "You know, in another life we might actually have been friends, Sark."

"Progress!" he yelled throwing his arms up in triumph. "If I had known that all it took was almost killing you, I would have done this whole thing a lot sooner."

"It helps that you weren't intentionally trying to kill me this time. Because you've tried that before and it really didn't help me like you."

"I knew I had to change my strategy." Sark turned around as he realized that Sydney had stopped walking. "What's wrong?"

"Do you see that?" She pointed into the distance. "What is that?"

"Headlights!" Sark began to run towards the light, calling over his shoulder, "Stay here, Sydney. You're in no shape to do anything."

Sydney waited for two seconds before running after him. When she caught up, she hissed, "What in our past history together makes you think that I'm going to just wait behind for you to rescue me. Nowadays, I tend to rely on myself to rescue... um... myself."

"I should have known. Don't slow me down," he instructed shooting her a look of frustration as he sped up.

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

"I never thought I would enjoy the feeling of cheap leather seats as much as this," Sydney purred from where she lay on the backseat of a rusted out car. "Who would have thought that there would have been a car in the middle of the desert just waiting for us to steal? It was practically begging us to lift it."

"This is probably the first time I've been appreciative of the fact that there are people out there needing to make drug deals at one in the morning in the middle of a desert in Egypt."

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Sydney said. Sark saw her face scrunch up in concern in the rearview mirror.

"Sydney, we left them with one car. I don't think that anyone will be abandoned in the desert tonight. And now we only have twenty minutes before we get to Al Fayyum."

Sydney sat up and leaned forward into the opening between the two front seats. "She's a lot like you, you know."

Sark sent her a confused look. "Did we have a topic change right there? Because I missed it. What are you talking about, Sydney?"

"My sister. She's a lot like you, Sark. I thought at first that she was just like our mother, but I think I was wrong. Our mother likes to keep her true feelings and intentions hidden. She's cold and unfeeling. She'll do anything to get her way including murder. I thought she would raise Kaylee to be exactly like her. Only it didn't turn out that way. Kaylee's not really like that."

"Really? Continue. I'm intrigued at where you're going with this." Sark gently turned to car to the right.

Sydney leaned back away from the front seat and settled in to the backseat again. "Do you remember what you were saying to me about enjoying the kill while I'm on a mission?" Sark nodded. "That person you described, the one you said I could easily have become? That's Kaylee."

"And what does this have to do with me?' Sark asked.

"Well, you both delight in the thrill of the fight. I've fought both of you. I've seen it in your eyes while we were battling. There was a passion in you that I've never really had for this life. You thrive on the fight. It gets your off."

"That's one way of putting it, I guess."

"I know in my heart that you both would kill if it was necessary to get you where you needed to go. That's something that I never could comprehend before."

"Are you calling your sister a cold-blooded murder? Because that's how you've always affectionately referred to me," he pointed out.

"I'm woman enough to admit that I was wrong. You make it seem like you enjoy the killing so much when you're actually doing it, but I bet when you're all alone it gets to you. It keeps you up at night. I noticed that with Kaylee when she was staying at my house. She would stay up to the late hours of the night and when she finally did fall asleep, she had these nightmares about the things she had done for my mother."

"I know she has nightmares, Sydney. Before she came to you in L.A., I was the one comforting her when she woke up screaming. I know all about the sweating and thrashing, the looks of confusion and the staring at nothing. I know about having to pretend to be brave when she's in your arms crying hysterically and all you can think about is how much you want to just whisk her away from this life and the memories. How you would give your life to take away whatever was hurting her. Trying to convince her that the dreams will just fade away in time when you're scared to death that the pressure of them is going to kill her inside. Yeah, I know all about the nightmares."

Sark waited for a comment on his outburst to come at him from the backseat. He thought that at the very least Sydney would have made fun of his moment of emotional honesty. Looking up at the mirror again, he realized she had closed her eyes.

"Agent Bristow, I thought you had promised to keep your eyes open. Sydney? Sydney?" There was no response. He pressed the accelerator to the floor. "You better not die on me! Shit..."