The next Friday Jack and Sydney left for their weekend of Wilderness Girls bonding. That Saturday morning, having the whole house to herself, Laura decided to sleep in and spend the weekend doing what she loved best - or, at least what she loved best when Jack and Sydney weren't there to occupy her time.

Usually the Bristow family spent the weekends alternating between doing "Sydney activities:" trips to the park, soccer games, hikes, whatever made their daughter happy. When Laura heard about Wilderness Guides/Wilderness Girls, she realized she had found the perfect father/daughter adventure. Sydney took after her mother; she was a tomboy from birth, preferring hiking boots to ballet slippers and climbing a tree to hosting a tea party for her stuffed animals. And when Sydney continued to regale her mother with tales of the Wilderness Girls weekends that her friends at school told her about, Laura decided to sign up Jack and Sydney. Laura knew Sydney would have a great time, but she had serious reservations about Jack. With a bit of luck he would overlook the other fathers' lack of basic outdoors skills, much less survival skills - and if he did feel the need to comment, hopefully it would only be to her after they returned.

Laura had planned to sleep in, basking in the rare luxury, but she found it hard to sleep in the quiet house. But no matter, she had the day planned with all her favorite solitary activities. She had managed to persuade her handler that she could not meet with him that weekend because she was behind in her grading, and did not want any problems to arise at work due to students complaining about not receiving their papers back on time.

Laura got out of bed and made herself breakfast, then graded papers for a few hours (she was, in truth, a little behind with her schoolwork). Next, she took a walk around the neighborhood, came back and fixed her dinner, took a long bath (which made her think of her evening in Lake Prothalamion with Jack), and settled in bed with a book she'd bought months ago but had never gotten around to reading.

As Laura opened the book, she began to mull over her day's activities. She had to admit she'd enjoyed the time to herself - but then she began to feel selfish. But as she sat in bed, Laura rationalized her motives for sending Jack and Sydney off for the weekend. Any mother needs a little time to herself now and then, she concluded, and Sydney was devastated every time Jack left for a mission. At least this time, when Jack went on Operation Wilderness Girls he had an excellent partner to help watch his back.

Laura knew the reason behind her motives, to forge a stronger bond between Jack and Sydney and allow them both to reach out to some new friends, would help them in their future tribulations. Laura's thoughts drifted to her own solitary future for a second, but she quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. She would have plenty of time to dwell on those days when they became a reality, but that night she wanted to revel in the present. Laura began reading her book, and several hours later, after having already fallen asleep twice with the book in her lap, she decided to call it a night.

Nights when Jack had been gone used to be especially hard for Laura. During the day she had to keep Sydney occupied and not thinking about her daddy, which took quite a bit of energy and creativity. But at night, after Sydney had gone to bed, Laura would begin to think about Jack. When they had been dating and Jack went on missions, Laura worried incessantly, to the point where she would go whole nights and weeks without sleep. Jack would often return injured, but teasingly comment that she looked worse for the wear than he did. At first Laura summed up her lack of sleep to her fears that her own mission would be jeopardized if something happened to Jack, but she quickly realized that her concern was solely for Jack's safety, not the success of her mission.

After Sydney was born, Laura made a pact with God, the Soviet Union, and any other celestial and/or political powers that might be listening in. Laura vowed that if the higher powers, both spiritual and temporal, would protect Jack and Sydney during their time as a family, and after she left, that when the moment came for her to give them up, she would do so without a fight. Early in her marriage Laura had had fantasies about defecting to the US and leaving her double life behind her. But after she witnessed (and several times herself had a hand in) the types of nefarious activities the KGB regularly utilized, she realized that her "death" would be the only way she could ensure Jack and Sydney lived. Laura had resigned herself after Sydney's birth to the fact that eventually she would have to leave the two things she loved most in the world. But if she believed they would be safe without her, Laura's separation from them would be mollified in some small way.