The first thing she realized when she woke up was that she was not on the rocky beaches of the Mediterranean. Instead, she seemed to be on some kind of silk covered bed. Sydney tried to open her eyes but realized the light was too bright for her to keep them open for more than a few seconds.

The little two-second glimpses she got gave her a little more information. She deduced that she wasn't in a hotel room, but rather it looked like a bedroom of someone's house. Whose house was still a mystery. There were no other people in the room so obviously whoever had her wasn't scared that she was going to make a breakout attempt.

Groaning, she sat up and was rewarded with a large thumping pain in the back of her head and in her right leg. She couldn't help but swear loudly.

Without seconds of her swearing, the door burst open and Sark busted into the room. "You're awake," he said, stating the obvious.

"Yes, I'm awake. What the hell happened to me?" She squinted at him as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"You got shot by Cummings' men about three times in your right leg."

Sydney looked down and realized that her leg was in a cast. She looked up at Sark with tears welling up in her eyes. "How bad is it?"

"Not that bad," he said, but she could tell that he was at least partially lying. "The short story is they shot you. I shot at them. They stopped shooting. I picked you up and brought you here."

"Why did you pick me up? I thought you said I was supposed to fend for myself on that beach. That you weren't going to protect me."

"I didn't protect. That's why you got shot. But I couldn't just leave you bleeding on the beach. I may be unfeeling, but I think I still have a heart in here somewhere." He tapped his chest for emphasis. "So, I brought you here."

"Where is here?"

"This is my home in London."

"Your home? You have a home? I didn't know people like you actually had homes."

Sark chuckled. "I'll take that insult as a sign that you're not completely out of it." He took a seat on the bed next to her. "I have a proposition for you."

"I'm not going to sleep with you. Let's get that straight right now."

Sark began to laugh but then quickly sobered up. "You're not joking. You actually thought that I was going to ask you to sleep with me."

"Weren't you?" she asked.

"I was not. At least I wasn't going to at this point in the discussion."

Sydney decided a subject change was in order. "I knew you didn't save me out of the goodness of whatever shard of a heart you have. You have an agenda. What's your proposition, Sark?"

"Your leg. It's not as bad as it looks, but it's still pretty bad. The bullets broke the bone in a couple places and shredded a ligament or two. You're going to need to stay off of it for at least a few weeks, and then it will be at least two months of rehabilitation."

"Thank you, Doctor," she said with a laugh. "When can I go home?"

"That's where my proposition comes into play. I want you to stay here at my London home with me until you get better. Until your leg is completely healed."

"What the hell are you thinking?" she screamed. "I am not going to stay here with you! This is the last place I want to be."

"Listen to me for a moment, Agent Bristow. You know that I've always thought we would work well together. I've propositioned you with a partnership many times. Each time you turned me down. But I still think we would be an amazing team. Now is our chance to figure out if that's true. You stay here until your leg is better and then you're free to go. I just want your help on the project I'm currently working on. In exchange for your help, I'm going to give you access to the doctors I have connections with here in London. They'll help you get that leg healed and rehabilitated in at least half the time it would normally take."

"So if I help you, I'll get out of her quicker?" Sydney asked. She knew that she was going to have to stay here for at least a few weeks. An escape would not be easy with such a bulky cast on her right leg.

"You wouldn't even have to see me," Sark said with a smirk. "Unless you want to." She scowled at him. "I would just leave you some paperwork concerning the project every morning. You look it over, do what I ask, and then give it back to me. It should keep you occupied while you're waiting for the leg to heal."

"The CIA will be looking for me," she stated.

"I'm aware of that. The only problem is I don't think they know you're alive."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, turns out that my assassination wasn't the only big event that Taylor Cummings had planned for that night. There was an explosion in the castle's left wing."

"Where the ballroom was."

"Yes. The CIA assumed that you were in the ballroom during the time of the explosion because you haven't gotten in contact with them. You've been missing for a week now. They declared you officially dead yesterday. Turns out that I'm dead, too," he added.

"My friends and family aren't going to believe that I'm dead so easily this time," she informed him. "And they're not going to believe you got killed so easily. They're going to want solid proof of both of our deaths."

"I'm aware of that. But I don't think their search will lead them to investigate the London home of a man who's supposedly dead. Remember, I was supposed to be murdered that night. The blast wasn't what they would believe killed me. And as far as they knew, you didn't intervene on my behalf. They have no idea that you went against orders."


"Thank god I did," she muttered as she stared into space. "It's what saved my life. I would have been in that ballroom when the explosion happened."

"There's always a reason for everything," Sark said mysteriously. "So, what do you say, Bristow? Partners?"

"As much as I hate to admit it but that's my best, and probably only, option for now. You promise there's no hidden catches to this deal." When he nodded, Sydney held out her hand to Sark which he promptly shook. "Partners."

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

Two weeks later, Sark was still holding to the promise he had given her. She hadn't seen or heard him the whole time she had been staying at his home. Her stay at his home seemed more like a guest than a captive, which was a blessing and a curse. Every morning, there was a folder slipped under her door pertaining to the project he was working on.

The first morning she got one of these deliveries she was surprised to realize that Sark's little project was exactly the same thing she had been working on at the CIA. He planned to weaken the cells of the Covenant and ultimately destroy them. Sydney almost wished that he would break his promise and come and see her just so she could hear an explanation of what exactly he had against the Covenant which would make him want to take it down.

The CIA had always believed that Sark was working with the Covenant since they arranged for his release from CIA custody. Plus, Sark's inheritance was bankrolling the Covenant's current operations. It was interesting to see why all this was true and yet he wanted to bring down the organization.

From day to day, she read profiles on the different members of the Covenant. She devised psychological profiles from the facts she was given. Weaknesses were located, and she created ways to neutralize the agents' strengths. She was becoming very familiar with the inner workings of the Covenant. She could only assume that was all part of Sark's master plan.

Sydney found herself wondering how Sark had known that she was good at this type of work. She didn't think anyone had ever mentioned that fact that she started out as an analyst at SD-6 before Sloane allowed her to be put on active duty as an agent. So how did he know that this was the most beneficial use for her talent?

She was surprised to realize that she had no real qualms or reservations about giving Sark such helpful information. The first day, along with a quick explanation of what he wanted her to do, she received a hand-written note from him saying that in no way was he intending to use the information to cause a coup and take control of the Covenant himself. She had no reason to believe him, but strangely enough, she did believe him.

The fifteenth folder she received came with another note from Sark. She hobbled back to her bed and placed the folder on the nightstand. Sitting on the bed, she opened the envelope that had Sark's note inside. She read it slowly since she knew that whatever he had to say to her was important since he was trying to keep out of contact. When she was done reading it, she read it again to see if she could make any sense out of it.

The note said simply: "I'm sorry, Sydney. I was trying to hold the delivery of this folder off for as long as possible."

"Weird," she muttered as she reached for the folder. The label on the folder read 'Connections To Sydney'. "Even more odd." Opening it, she discovered the reasoning behind the note and the folder's label.

The folder had pictures of her mother, her father, Arvin Sloane, Assistant Director Kendall, Vaughn, Allison Doren, and Will. It also contained a sealed envelope. She set the envelope aside and began to leaf through the profiles of all the people in her life. Nothing was too surprising. Sark had made small notes on each of the profiles.

He called her mother a "brilliant goddess" and agreed that Irina had nothing to do with the Covenant. Her agenda was still unknown, but Sark seemed to believe that it didn't have any negative impact on his life. Her father's was much of the same except for the goddess part.

"It appears like Sark respects you, Dad," she whispered. Sydney set them aside. She was pretty sure that for the most of these profiles she wasn't going to do her normal routine of pulling out weaknesses and strengths. These were the people closest to her and there was no reason if Sark didn't think they didn't have a connection to the Covenant that she should work on them. Plus, she was fairly certain that she couldn't physically or mentally force herself to betray her friends and family.

Sloane's file was the exact opposite of her parents'. Sark had no respect for a man that he called underhanded and a complete piece of filth. Sydney smiled, knowing she wasn't the only one who detested him. She would be extremely happy to pick out this man's weaknesses.

Next was Will's file. She picked it up and smiled down at his picture. She really missed him in her life. She set it aside without looking. There was no way that Will had anything to do with the Covenant. That much she would always be sure of.

She was surprised to see a big Deceased stamp across Allison Doren's face. No one had ever confirmed that Will had killed her in the Gratz Hotel. Sydney had actually begun to believe that Allison Doren had some supernatural, freaky healing power. But obviously it wasn't that great of a healing power since Sark was calling Doren deceased. It was surprising that Sark, the man she had been working with at the time, would be privy to information that no one knew. For the hundredth time that day, she found herself wishing Sark were available for questioning.

Kendall's file was interesting. It noted that he was hiding something which could be connected with the Covenant. Sydney had always distrusted him, but she really didn't think he had enough guts or stupidity to cross the CIA and hide it so poorly. She noted that in the margins of Kendall's profile.

Sydney had purposefully saved Vaughn's profile for last. She wanted to blame that on the fact that she was afraid to see if Sark had come up with any connections between Vaughn or Lauren and the Covenant. In the back of her head, she knew that she was also afraid to see what comments Sark had personally made on the man in question.

The first comment pegged Vaughn as a completely loyal CIA agent who couldn't be swayed. Sark also noted that Vaughn was loyal to Sydney more than the government. In his own words, "Vaughn will do anything for Sydney. I believe that he loves her more than he loves his own wife. This could be used against him."

Most of the comments were as predictable as the first two. However, Sark's last comment floored her. "Vaughn's vision of Sydney is slightly askew. He doesn't know the real Sydney Bristow like I do. She's not the perfect little angel that he views her as. He's not aware of the dark side she has. The same dark side that makes her so similar to me."

She didn't even know where to begin analyzing that comment or the feelings it stirred up in her. She just pushed it to the side and stared at the one thing left for her to review. The closed envelope.

The fact that this was the first sealed envelope she had come across scared her. What was there inside of it that Sark was afraid to have any eyes except hers see? She slid her finger inside the crease of the envelope and ripped it open.

In the back of her head, she had convinced herself that this was going to be information confirming that Vaughn's wife was evil and working for the Covenant. She had wished that so many times that she wouldn't have been surprised if it was the truth. Which is why when she looked at the picture that fell out of the envelope she was so surprised.

"Weiss?" she blurted out. She read the whole profile over at least three times before she was able to form words to reason out what she had just learned. "From this profile, it seems highly likely that Weiss is a double agent for the Covenant. This is what Sark was apologizing for. He wasn't sorry that he had to dig up my past and investigate every person I've had contact with."

She rubbed the tears out of her eyes and stared at the picture of the man she had considered her greatest friend and confidante since she had returned from her missing two years. The man she had come to love and cherish was part of the organization that had stolen two years of her life.

In a burst of anger, she shoved all the contents of the folder, every single one of the profiles, off of her bed. They scattered all over the room. If her leg wasn't still encased in a cast, she knew she would probably have run around the room smashing and kicking anything within her reach. Instead, she just sat on the bed and cried.

When she got a hold of herself, she noticed a small piece of paper that hadn't been thrown off the bed. It was written in Sark's handwriting and must have been in the envelope with Weiss's file because she hadn't seen it in with the other profiles.

All it said was "Just ask. S."

Realizing what he meant, she flipped the piece of paper over and wrote 'I want to see you'. She hobbled over to the door, taking care not to step on any of the scattered files, and slid it under the doorframe. She had just taken a step forward, but she didn't know for sure that it was in a direction she wanted to be gong.

Sydney picked Weiss's file up off the floor and returned to the bed. After reading through it one more time, she began to make comments. As much as it pained her to do it, if Sark thought Weiss was an agent for the Covenant, she needed to provide him with information.

She scribbled quick comments in the margin about Weiss's faults and how unbelievable it is that this man is disloyal to his government. But then something clicked in the back of her head. She flipped the first page of his profile over and began to write on the back.

"Weiss showed some suspicious behavior when I was on my last mission in Nice. I found out about your potential assassination when I overheard the assassins going over the procedure at a sidewalk café. I returned to the United States embassy in Nice to talk with Agent Vaughn and Agent Weiss. Weiss seemed normal at first. Agent Vaughn wasn't willing to listen to me when I said we couldn't let Taylor Cummings kill you. I chalk that up to his complete dislike of you. But what surprised me the most was that Agent Weiss agreed with him. It was very uncharacteristic. I think he was seizing a very easy moment to assassinate you. If you goal is truly to take down the Covenant, then you are his enemy more than you are mine. He pointed out that letting you get killed would be what the U.S. government wanted. That seemed a little odd to me, but I couldn't stand up to both of my handlers at the same time. So I gave it."

Sydney closed the folder and reclined back on the bed. Now all she had to do was wait for Sark to get her message and come to her.