Sydney lifted her shirt up and stared at her stomach in disgust. She lightly fingered the scar that she couldn't remember getting. "It's all bumpy and gross," she said squinting up her nose.

"What's all bumpy and gross?" Kaylee asked as she entered the room.

"This." Sydney turned towards her sister and pointed at the scar. "This stupid scar that I know I got sometime in the past two years, but I can't remember the actually getting of it."

"That's a beauty." Kaylee bent down to take a closer look at it. "Wow. Now that's something to be proud of."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are slightly different than a normal person?" Sydney poked her scar again. "It's like it stares at me saying I know something you don't. And then it taunts me with the fact that I haven't told the CIA it's there. It laughs at me."

"And I'm the one who's strange?" She sighed and flung herself on the bed. "I don't see any eveningwear lying out on your bed. You promised you'd come with me tonight, Syd."

"I don't know if a party is what I'm in the mood for tonight."

"This isn't any party, Syd. It's Michael and Lauren's one-year anniversary. Your whole office is going to be there, and it will look strange if you're absent. You know you have to go."

"I know," Syd said as she flung herself down on the bed next to her sister. "But don't you need someone to watch Gray?"

"No, I hired someone to do that. Don't try to make excuses."

"It's just so strange. I mean, their whole marriage wouldn't have happened if I weren't dead at the time. I feel personally responsible for all the pain and misery in my life."

"If you think I'm going to feel sorry and let you out of going with me, you're wrong."

"It was worth a try." Sydney sighed softly. "I was telling you the truth though. My relationship with Vaughn is so strange now. He's been avoiding me rather deliberately. Ever since the whole Cairo mess."

"That was three months ago, Syd. He can't have been successfully avoiding you for that long a time."

"So I didn't really try to seek him out. When two people are avoiding each other at the same time, it's actually quite easy."

Kaylee groaned and thrust herself up off the bed. She flung open Sydney's closet doors and began rifling through. "Here. You're wearing the red one. It's not too trampy that people will think you're making a play for Michael."

"But isn't that what I was going for?" Sydney joked. "People will expect it of me. I can't disappoint."

"Put it on. Do your hair and makeup. I'm going home to get ready. I want to see you ready and excited to go in an hour when I come back. Don't disappoint me, Syd."

"I won't. If it's that important to you that I go, I'll go." Kaylee smiled and made her way to the door. Just as she was shutting it behind her, she heard her sister call, "But I don't have to like it!"

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

Kaylee grasped her sister's hand as they entered the ballroom where Vaughn and Lauren's party was being held. She knew that this whole thing was hard for her sister, but in the back of her mind she knew that it would almost have been worse if Sydney hadn't come. She couldn't avoid Vaughn forever. "She shouldn't avoid Vaughn forever," Kaylee mumbled.

"What did you say?" Sydney asked.

"I said there's Vaughn. Go talk to him, Sydney. Before Lauren realizes you've shown up and swoops in to block."

Sydney shot her sister a dirty look and made her way to where Michael was talking to a few people from the office. It took her close to fifteen minutes before she finally reached him. She had run into Marshall and Tom Atkins, an agent she had just gone on a mission to Buenos Aires with. Both of them were babblers, and Tom was also a stuttering man. So it took quite a bit for Sydney to disengage herself from the conversation. She did eventually make it over to Vaughn, though, and Lauren still wasn't in sight.

"Where's Lauren?" Sydney asked as she tapped Vaughn on the shoulder.

"Sydney!" he cried. "I can't believe you came." He sighed and started again, realizing she was probably going to interpret that comment wrong. "I mean, Sydney, I'm glad you came."

"We've been acting like little kids lately, huh? With the avoiding," she admitted.

"Yeah. It was just the awkwardness after Al Fayyum was a little too much for me. It was easier just to stop paying attention to you. It made the hurt a little less."

"I know what you mean. Listen, Vaughn. I know that you're happily married and that having me around complicates your life. I think we're both strong enough people to get past that. Both of us have mentioned in the past that we work well together. That's still true. You're still the one I would chose to have my back on any mission."

"And I still worry about you when you're out on a mission. Especially the ones I have no part in."

"So do you think we can get past this whole amnesia mess I brought back with me and go back to the normal partner thing?"

"Yeah, I think we can." Vaughn smiled at Syd and held out his arms. She gave him a quick hug and then stepped back. "I thought we were going to try to get back to normal."

"Yeah. Except a few things have to change. I mean you're a married man." Sydney winked at him and walked away. As soon as she was sure he wasn't watching her anymore, she ducked behind a pillar and let out the breath she had been holding in. That conversation had been one of the hardest aliases she had even had to become. She knew that there was no way she could ever want to just be friends with Vaughn, but it was hurting him too much to know that she still loved him. And hurting him was hurting her. And that was just hurting him.

"It's like a vicious cycle," she mumbled peaking out from behind the pillar. Lauren had finally found Vaughn, and it appeared like she had found him in time to see his parting hug with Sydney. She didn't look too happy.

"Ha!" Weiss yelled jumping out from the other side of the pillar. "I found your hiding place, Ms. Bristow."

"So, I was hiding. So what?" Sydney pouted.

"Your sister told me that you were hiding back here. Thought I'd come and see what was the matter."

"How does she manage to keep track of my every move?" Sydney wondered.

"It must be one of her superhero powers. Back to you. What's the matter?"

"I think that I just cut the last tie I had with Vaughn. I told him that I just wanted to be friend with him. That it would be better that way."

"Which is a total lie, I'm guessing."

"Complete lie. But what else could I do?"

"Yeah. At least for a few months, you're going to have to stay just friends with him."

"What do you mean by 'at least for a few months'? Are you telling me that something is going to change all this in a few months?"

"What?" Weiss's face paled at her questions. "I said nothing of the sort. Stop trying to put words in my mouth."

"You've been making little cracks like that since I first got back. You know something that no one is telling me. Fess up now, Weiss. What is going on?"

"I have no idea what you mean." Weiss made a zipping motion on his lips.

"Hmmm. Let me guess this is a matter of national security, and my current position doesn't allow me to know the details. Like I haven't heard that line a million times since I got back. It seems like the CIA is trying to withhold every little bit of information they come across from me."

"That's an exaggeration, Syd. Besides, you withheld information from the CIA."

"My scar is completely different than what you're hiding," Syd was quick to argue.

"Your scar? What are you talking about? I was referring to the anonymous information you claimed to receive three months ago that let us know all that information about your missing two years. I know that you didn't just stumble upon the information. Someone gave it to you, and that was probably someone you know. I still don't understand why you're protecting this person. It could mean your job."

"I know what I'm doing, Eric." Sydney heard the band begin to play a slow waltz. "I guess the dancing has started. Would you care to show them how it's done?"

"Sure." Weiss figured that the dancing would give them ample distraction from the lies they were both feeding each other. He hated lying to Sydney about the issues behind Vaughn's marriage, but he knew that she couldn't handle the truth.

They returned to their normal light, humorous banter for the next few dances. Since they both found comfort in the silliness of their attempts at dancing, they probably would have kept dancing for hours if Sydney's cell phone hadn't interrupted.

"Would you excuse me?" she said to Weiss as she went to answer her phone.

Weiss made his way over to where Vaughn was standing with his wife. "Hey, buddy. Enjoying your big soiree?"

"Not a bit," Vaughn whispered. "You know I hate serious things like this. It's not my style."

"You're more a beer and chilidog, hockey game type of guy," Weiss whispered back. Vaughn laughed softly to himself. "So how's the little lady?"

"She's currently mad at me. Sydney and I sort of came to an understanding. Lauren saw us and got a little jealous. She thinks I'm still in love with Sydney."

"Which you are," Weiss reminded him.

"No, I'm not. Why won't anyone believe me when I say that?"

"Um... let me think. Could it be because you're lying?"

"I'm not lying."

"Well, you certainly don't love Lauren." Weiss saw Sydney came back into the ballroom. "Excuse me, buddy. My dancing partner has just returned. This conversation is not over."

Weiss made his way through the crowd and back to Sydney in time to see her retrieve her coat from the coatroom. "Going somewhere so suddenly, Ms. Bristow?"

"Urgent call," she said shaking her cell phone in emphasis.

"Could that have been the mysterious Andrew?" Weiss asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on, Syd. I'm not dumb. You've been getting phone calls from a mysterious person for months now. Every time he calls, you run off somewhere. I've overheard you referring to your caller as Andrew. You're trying to get over Vaughn by getting back on the dating scene?"

"You have an overactive imagination, Eric Weiss," she said as she slipped on her coat.

"Admit it. You have a secret boyfriend."

Sydney knew that there was no way she could tell Weiss the truth about her mysterious phone calls so she decided to let him think what he wanted. But there was no way she was going to lie to him out right and tell him that she did have a boyfriend. She knew that it was probably stupid, but she still believed if she didn't move on, then Vaughn would eventually come running back to her.

"You think what you want to think, Weiss. I have to leave. Tell Vaughn and Lauren congratulations for me, and make sure my sister knows that I'm okay. Oh! And thank her for dragging me here. It was the right thing to do." Sydney pulled Weiss into a quick hug and turned to leave.

"Give Andrew a kiss for me," Weiss called.

Sydney sent him a dirty look as the door shut behind her.