Sydney couldn't believe that she had to sneak through the hedges to see her boyfriend, but that was exactly what she was doing. She was outside of Vaughn's house trying to figure out a way to get in without being detected by anyone. The CIA wasn't above setting up cameras on one of their agent's homes.

Doing a quick scan, she crept to the back door of the house and was surprised to find it unlocked. She had always pictured Vaughn as a three padlocks kind of guy. Immediately when she set foot in the house, a small dog came yipping up to her ankles.

"Donavon, what are you doing?" she heard Vaughn's voice yell from the other room.

She bent down and petted the small dog. "So, you're Donavon. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." The dog didn't even have time to smile before he was being scooped up and carried to his master. "Look who he found," she said as she entered the room.

"Syd! You're back." Vaughn stood up and leaped over the back of the couch. "What are you doing here?"

Sydney set Donovan down. "If you want me to, I'll leave."

Vaughn grabbed her arm and pulled her to his body. "No way."

She should have expected him to give her a hello kiss, but this wasn't what she expected. The heat and passion between them went right back to the massively high level it had been during their "frustration" stage. She let herself surrender to the familiarity of it for a moment, but the memory of where she had been made her pull away.

"I missed you, Syd," Vaughn said with a smile.

"I missed you, too." She tried to push all other thoughts out of her head. "It's hard being without my guardian angel."

"So, explain. Where were you this whole time?"

She quickly debated about whether or not she should tell him the truth, finally settling on a half-truth. "I haven't been telling you the whole truth about what's been going on. Yes, I have been trying to uncover the truth about where the past two years went. Yes, I went to see my mother to see if she could help. But there's something else to it."

"You can tell me, Syd."

"I told you that I've been having these dreams. They're about my missing two years, and you…" She paused before continuing. "And Sark."

"You have been dreaming about Sark?" She could read the shock on his face. "Unbelievable."

"I know. It's been really working me over inside. Anyway, that day I met you for lunch, you said I seemed distracted. It was because I had had a conversation with Sark just before that. He pulled me into his car. Vaughn, he knows where I've been the past two years."

"How could he know that? No one we've interrogated has had a clue."

"He knows that because I was with him the whole time. It seems that I wanted a vacation from the CIA, and he… well, he wasn't the man you had in custody."

"If this wasn't so unbelievable, I don't think I'd believe it." He sat down on the couch, and Sydney curled herself up next to him.

"He had a double made of himself and that was the man you had in CIA custody the whole time I was missing. I lived with the real Sark in Berlin and then in Los Angeles."

"You were in Los Angeles?"

"Yes." She could see anger building up inside of him. "Don't get mad at Sark. It was my choice to stay hidden."

"Do you remember making that choice? Or is that just what he told you?"

"Both. He told me it, and then I felt the truth in my heart. When he grabbed me out of the parking garage, he left me with a business card. He said it was a clue to where I've been. And that if I was ready to find out, I should go there."

"So that's where you went. That's the reason you wanted a sudden two weeks off." Vaughn sat back on the couch and rubbed his face with his hands. "What was at the address?"

"It was the home I built with Sark." She paused, wondering one last time if she should be telling him all this. "He was there. He didn't mean to be, but he was."

"And you've been staying with him this whole week? Sydney, I can't believe the words that are coming out of your mouth. What's happening to you?"

"I haven't changed just because I wanted to stay and find out more about the two years I can't remember."

"But you chose to stay with Sark. You hate Sark."

The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I don't hate him."

She could see Vaughn struggle for a reply to that comment, but no words came out.

"I don't love him," she mumbled.

"But you did stay with him. For a week. In a house that you once lived in as a couple."

Sydney looked at his eyes and saw the hurt deep within them. She knew that she couldn't tell him anymore of the truth, not now. It would kill him to know that she had agreed to marry another man. And, no matter what happened, she loved Michael Vaughn. He could never know what went on between her and Sark the past week. Never.

She felt Vaughn's hand wrap around her wrist, and he pulled her over to him. "I'm sorry, Syd. You must be overwhelmed with everything that's happened the past few weeks. Honestly, I'm just glad that you're back."

"Me, too," she said honestly as she snuggled down next to him. "Things are so much clearer when I'm with you."

Vaughn didn't say a word in return. He just turned on the TV to whatever hockey game was on primetime ESPN. Sydney felt herself drift off thinking about the normalness of the situation. "This was how it felt to be home," she thought.

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

Before she even noticed a change, she could feel the cool, ocean water lap up against her ankles and the grainy sand between her toes. The scenery around her had changed once more. She was standing on the most beautiful beach she had ever seen. The sky was a vibrant aqua-green color that went perfectly with the deep blue of the ocean. There was not a cloud in sight.

Sighing, she reached down and dipped her hand into the ocean. She lifted her fingers up to her lips and tasted the saltiness. This was part of a ritual she had done since she was small and her father had taken her to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

"You have the strangest habits," she heard Sark say from behind her.

"And you don't?" she said back without turning around to face him.

He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "So, do you like it here?"

"It's not exactly our little house in Los Angeles, but I can get used to being a citizen of Belize. It's gorgeous here."

"It doesn't compare to you." She turned around and smiled at him. "How is your hand doing?"

For the first time, Sydney realized that there was something wrong with her hand. There was scar tissue covering up what had once been a massive gash from the base of her index finger to halfway up her forearm. "It doesn't hurt that much today. And the throbbing hasn't been that bad."

Sark smiled at her and knelt down in the sand, putting his face parallel to her stomach. He lightly placed his palm on her abdomen. "And how is my little man doing?"

"He hasn't kicked all morning. It's a miracle."

"You don't regret your decision, do you?" he said, standing up and looking at her seriously.

"Not at all. I can't imagine anything different."

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

Sydney woke up with a start and immediately placed her hands on her stomach. Nothing felt different. But the dream had been so realistic.

"Is everything okay?" Vaughn asked groggily from his half of the bed.

"Just another dream." Sydney took in her surroundings. "How did I get in your bedroom?"

"I carried you. You feel asleep on the couch five hours ago." He turned over and smiled at her. "You could have told me that hockey always puts you to sleep. I would have changed the channel."

"I'll have you know that I love hockey. I find it incredibly exciting when I'm not completely exhausted." She stood up. "I should get going. If Kendall found out that I spent the night here, we're both dead."

Vaughn grabbed her arm and yanked her back down onto the bed next to him. "Well, if we're both going to get in trouble for this, we might as well make it completely worth our while."

"Michael Vaughn! I am appalled. Are you actually asking me to sleep with you? What kind of woman do you think I am?"

"The kind I can't resist," he said while trailing kisses up and down her arm.

She hit him lightly on the head. "I'm leaving. A cold shower might do you some good."

Vaughn smiled at her sleepily, and she let out her breath. He hadn't felt her tense up at the mention of a cold shower. She gave him a quick kiss and made her way to the back door, stopping to pat Donovan on the way out.

Instead of turning right out of Vaughn's driveway in the direction of her house, she turned left. For some reason, she felt the need to talk with her mother about what was going on. It seemed that if anyone could help her sort things out, it would be Irina Derevko.

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

"Mom," she whispered lightly. The cellblock was engulfed completely in darkness, what with it being three o'clock in the morning. Sydney could see her mother lying on the small cot and knew instinctively that she wasn't sleeping.

"What are you doing here, Sydney?" Irina asked as she turned over to look at her daughter. "Does Kendall need some more intel from me?"

"No. This is a personal call." Sydney took a seat on the floor next to the glass cell wall. "My life's even more of a mess than before. And it's all my fault."

"What did you do, Sydney?" Her mother looked at her strangely. "You didn't do something stupid like run off and marry that CIA handler of yours, did you?"

"No. Something far worse. I slept with Sark."

Her mother tried her best to hold in a laugh. "What is wrong with that, Sydney? You were perfectly content to sleep with him in the two years you were away from the CIA."

"You knew where I was!" she hissed. "And you never told me? Unbelievable!"

"Sark asked me not to."

"When have you been in contact with Sark? You were in this cell before I disappeared, and you were in this cell when I came back."

"When Sark took you in while you were experiencing amnesia, he was still my employee. And he also knew that I was a worried parent. He sent word." Sydney nodded. Her mother was telling her the truth. "Imagine to my surprise when I didn't hear from him in eight months. Then, all of the sudden, I get a communiqué from his saying that he had found a wonderful life and no longer wished to be in my employment." Irina looked at her meaningfully. "I didn't learn out until much later that his decision was because of you."

"He was going to give up his life for me?"

Irina smiled wickedly. "He didn't tell you that bit, did he?"

"No," she mumbled, lost in her thoughts.

"So I take it that things between you and Sark have changed considerably now?" Irina asked, drawing Sydney's mind back to the conversation at hand.

"He just seems so different than I remember. I can't even comprehend the changes he's gone through in the two years that we spent together, the two years I can't remember at all."

"So, is that why you're really here? You wanted to admit to someone that you 'cheated' on your boyfriend, your handler, with a man to whom you were engaged? And I was your safest bet."

Sydney looked at her mother. "I don't know why I came here. I just knew that if someone could understand what I was going through, it would be you. You understand this whole weird double soul mate thing that is controlling my dream. I thought maybe you would know how to stop it."

"Sydney. Can't you see the answer?"

"No. I've tried, but I have no idea how to straighten out my life."

"It's simple. Just pick one of the men."

Sydney glared at Irina. "You think that's simple?"

"No. I know it's not simple." Irina stood up from the cot and walked over to the glass. "Which is why I'm going to urge you to follow your heart. Do what your heart's telling you. It won't steer you wrong. You might find yourself in a hard position, but at least you'll be happy."

"Where is all this coming from?" She couldn't help but be shocked at her mother's kind and considerate words.

"You forget that I had to make a difficult choice between two men once." Sydney shook her head in confusion and looked down at her feet. "I had to chose between Alexander Khasinau and your father."

Sydney glanced up at her mother and realized that she was crying.

"I didn't listen to my heart, Sydney. And look where I am. In a prison cell labeled as an enemy of the state."

Sydney put her hand up against the glass in the only show of understanding and sympathy that she could manage. Her mother placed her hand up against the glass in the same spot. They sat there for a moment just looking at one another before Sydney's beeper went off.

Sighing, she turned to her mother. "It's Sloane. He must have heard that I was back from vacation. Looks like he has yet another mission for me." She was almost completely out of sight before she turned back to her mother and called, "Thank you, Mom."