Kaylee looked over at two of her favorite men who were currently napping next to her on the coach. She should have known when she saw someone had turned on cartoons that Will and Grayson would pass out almost immediately. It was hard to understand why cartoons did this to both a grown man and a two-year-old child, but it was amusing at the very least.

Sighing, she stood up and gently removed a sleeping Grayson from Will's arms, intending to take him to sleep in the bed in his room. Usually when he watched cartoons, it put him out for at least four hours.

Will's eyes popped open as the weight of Grayson's body was lifted off of him. "Hey," he whispered. "What are you doing?"

"I'm putting Grayson in his room. I'll be right back," she whispered back to him.

True to her word, a few minutes later she returned and took her seat next to Will on the coach.

"Cartoons again?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah. There's got to be something wrong with you two. Cartoons are supposed to be exciting. They aren't made to put you to sleep." She smiled at him.

"So have you talked to your mother lately?" he asked.

"No. I told her that I still loved her, trusted her, even missed her. But that was a lie. It's going to take a massive revelation to make me want her in my life. And then I'm not even sure if I want her in Gray's life."

"You still love her, Kaylee. I know you do. She's your mother, the one who raised you. You just can't turn that off."

"Can we talk about something else?" she asked.

He just stared back at her and suddenly got a more serious look on his face.

"What?" she asked.


"You want to talk about something else. Fine. What are we doing here, Kaylee? I mean, what is this really?"

She sighed lightly. "I know. This whole situation is so screwed up. I didn't mean to be such a large burden on you and your life, Will."

"Don't give me that," he said sitting up straight. "You know that neither you nor Grayson were ever a burden to me."

"I know. But sometimes I can't help but think that's exactly what we are and you just don't realize it." She paused for a moment. "We're holding you back from having a real life, Will."

"What if the real life I want is right here with you and Gray?"

"It's not. We both know that."

"Why can't it be?" Will was starting to get a little frustrated with where this conversation was heading, and he was also a little confused as to how it went sour so quickly.

"You're not Gray's father. We've always known that. Someday I'm going to have to tell him that. He'll be really confused, and I think it would just be easier if he didn't look on you as a father."

"I could be his father if you would just let me, Kaylee." Will placed his hand lightly on her cheek and rubbed her face gently.

She couldn't help but lean in to the affection he was showing her. Affection was an emotion she hadn't seen much of in such a long while. She found her thoughts drawn to Sark as they were a million times each day. Wrapped up in these reflections, she didn't notice Will lean in close to her and press his lips delicately to hers.

Not thinking or more precisely thinking of Sark, she kissed him back softly but pulled back when she finally realized what she was doing. She was too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

"I know you're telling the truth," Will finally said.

"You do?"

"I've kissed you before. Each time it's exactly the same. I feel the love you have for me, but there's no passion there. There never really was in our relationship. We've always just been friends who would give the world for one another, haven't we?"

"I think we always will be, no matter what changes. And you'll always be a part of Gray's life and mine. I don't think I can live without you anymore."

Will smiled at her. "I guess I'm just not destined to be with a Bristow woman."

"And you tried so hard," Kaylee said sympathetically.

"Don't patronize me, you heartbreaker you. I'm hurting inside right now."

"See?" Kaylee said pointing her finger at him. "If you really loved me and wanted to spend the rest of your life with me, you wouldn't be joking about it."

"You were right about that. I guess I just thought that we've been happy together for so many months now. It's been good. Really good. And I wouldn't mind staying like this for years."

"Neither would I. But it wouldn't be fair to you, and it wouldn't be fair to me, and it wouldn't be fair to Gray. You deserve to find a woman who you feel both passion and love for. You deserve to create a family with her. A family of children that can call you Dad and it would be the whole truth."

"I know," Will said softly. "But it's still going to be hard not thinking of Grayson as my son."

"You've played the father role with him so long. Of course it's going to be hard giving that up. I've always known that we should have had this conversation a long time ago. It might have hurt a little less if we had. But you'll always be a part of his life. He loves you almost as much as he loves me."

"But it's time that he loves Sark, too," Will admitted.

"Let's leave him out of this conversation," Kaylee said. "I should never have confided in you that he was alive and had come to see me. I knew you would bring it up at the exact moment I didn't want to discuss it."

"Yes, you should have confided in me like you did," he argued. "You needed to talk to someone about it. Someone who was more objective."

"Will, you're not an objective observer. Sark kidnapped and tortured you. You hate the guy. That definitely eliminates you from being objective."

"I detest him. That's true. But I've been around you so much that I would be lying if I said I still hated him as strongly as I once did. It seems to me that I don't really know all the complexities this guy has. And plus, if you loved him once, he can't be all bad. Because you are not the kind of person who would love an evil man."

Kaylee just stared back at him in defiant silence. She really didn't want to talk about Sark.

"And I think he does need to be mentioned. You still love him, Kaylee. You know you do. So why don't you just go tell him that? Make yourself as happy as you once were. He's alive, and he's out there. That should be enough to convince you to give it a second chance."

"It was so hard to find happiness the first time. I don't know if I have the strength to fight for it like that again," she answered truthfully.

"I know you have the strength. You're one of the strongest people I've ever known, and it's what you really want. And I think you wouldn't be the only person fighting for it. He still loves you as much as you love him. He wants you as much as you want him. Can't you see that by now? I mean, he made the effort to get Sydney to accept who he was. He saved her life in Cairo. That has to give you a hint towards how he feels about you."

"Honestly, I don't know why I tell you practically everything that goes on. It always comes back to bite me in the face."

"You're still avoiding the situation, Kaylee. Admit that he's who you really want to be raising Gray with you, not me. Then get off your lazy butt and make it happen."

Kaylee smiled at her friend. "Why are you always right?"

"It's a gift," he said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "Plus I've had years of practicing on Sydney."

"Where do I start?" she asked.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," said a voice from their front door. "But it looks like your little reunion with your lost beau is going to have to wait for a little while, maybe even indefinitely."


"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?" Kaylee yelled. She was cursing herself for not having locked the door when she let herself into the house earlier.

"My name's Anna Espinosa. You can call me an acquaintance of your sister's. A business rival, if you must. I'm not here to cause you any trouble. I'll just run upstairs and kidnap your child and leave."

"Like hell you will!" Will yelled. He got up, not knowing what he was going to do, but knowing that something needed to be done.

Before he could register what was happening, Anna had drawn a gun and shot him in the arm. Instinctively, he grasped his arm to slow the bleeding as he lay on the floor where the gunshot had kicked him back.

"Your fist mistake was actually telling me you were here to kidnap my child," Kaylee said as she stood up. "Your second mistake was shooting my best friend. Your third, and largest, mistake was going for him first before you took me out. He's not the one you need to be worried about."

Anna started to shoot at Kaylee, but Kaylee managed to duck behind the kitchen counter. She scanned the kitchen for the signs of a weapon. Her eyes came to rest on a butcher's knife that was sitting in the knife block on the counter. Hoping that Anna wasn't that great a shot, she took her chances and stood up to grab the knife.

Anna let loose a few more shots, one which grazed the top of Kaylee's hand. She quickly ducked back down into her hiding position and wiped the blood off of her hand. Wasting no more time searching for weapons she would never be able to get to, she sprang up for her hiding position, vaulting over the counter in the direction of Anna.

A quick kick to the knee and then to the back sent Anna face first into the floor and the gun flying across the room. Anna recovered quickly and kicked Kaylee's feet out from under. Then she swiftly positioned herself on top Kaylee, effectively pinning her down. She leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Looks like your best friend is already passing out from loss of blood."

Kaylee turned her head and looked over at Will. He had passed out. His body was losing blood even faster now that he wasn't conscious to keep pressure on the wound. She knew Anna had pointed this out to make her feel like no one is around to help her out, but then Anna didn't know her. This only made her want to fight harder.

She turned her attention back to Anna and smirked up at her.

"What?" Anna asked.

She was answered by a head bunt straight to her face. Grasping her head in pain, she fell off of Kaylee. Kaylee took the opening and proceeded to land a few more punches to Anna's face. Anna backhanded her rather aggressively, and Kaylee found the momentum pushing her over the back of the coach.

When she stood up, she saw that Anna had fully recovered and had pulled another gun out. Before she could think of how to disarm her again, she felt something pinch her neck. She put her hand up and yanked out a dart.


"That would be a tranquilizer. It should numb your body completely, but you won't lose consciousness," Anna informed her. "Fun, right? So, listen. I lied to you. I don't just need your son. I need you, too. So you just sit tight while I get little Grayson, and we'll be on our way."

Kaylee slumped onto the coach as she began to lose feeling in her legs and arms. She watched as Anna disappeared up the stairs. Knowing this is her last effort to get help, she tried to reach her cell phone which was sitting on the coffee table. Her arm was inches away from it, but the feeling had completely left her hand.

"Don't do that," Anna said as she returned with Grayson in her arms. She picked up the cell phone and put it in her pocket. "I'll be right back."

She walked out the front door and returned about one minute later. "We're going to have to take you out through the back door. I think a grown woman carrying another grown woman might alert the neighbors that something suspicious is going on."

Anna picked her up and made her way through the kitchen and out the back door. As she placed Kaylee in the back seat next to her sleeping son, she smiled. "Don't worry about Will Tippin. He's not going to die. Your sister and the love of your life will probably bust in there guns blazing a few minutes after we leave. See, they both knew I was on my way to get you. Looks like we know who the better spy is. Doesn't look like they're going to make it here in time to save you."

Anna started the car and pulled away from the house. She was surprised to pass a familiar BMW not even halfway down the street. "Good thing I remembered to find a car with tinted windows," she said with a laugh. She waved at Sydney and Sark knowing that they couldn't see her.