Weiss recognized the incoming number as his cell phone began to ring. "Give me good news," he said once he picked up the phone.

"I don't have any. It seems that Sydney deviated from the original plan she told everyone."

"What went wrong?"

"It was fine in the beginning. I made sure that Marshall's communications were blocked so they couldn't get proper aliases. That should have been enough to get her and whoever was her partner spotted the second they walked into the building."

"So what happened?" Weiss said. He looked up to see Stephanie looking at him with concern from the doorway. He rolled his eyes and shook his head no.

"She managed to get to Sark by herself."

"She wasn't with her partner!" Weiss screamed into his phone. "I thought I told you that she couldn't be alone with Sark. Sydney Bristow is too good at spinning words to her benefit."

"I know. I screwed up."

"Yeah. You're lucky that you still have some use, or else I would have Stephanie kill you right now."

"How is your lovely girl, boss?"

"None of your concern." Weiss slammed the phone down onto the table, effectively cutting off the call.

"What happened?"

"Sark didn't finish his mission. Sydney's still alive."

"Well, there's always next time. I mean, I doubt Sydney would be willing to kill Sark to save herself. She's become too engrossed in love to keep a clear head when it comes to him." Stephanie looked over at her boyfriend and heard him cursing softly under his breath. "What?"

"That's not possible. You see, the idiot actually allowed Sydney to walk away with Sark. He's not in our possession anymore."

Stephanie tried to think quickly. "But he still doesn't have his memory of the past three years. Sydney doesn't have it in here to deal with all the frustration that's going to cause. They'll have a fight, and because he doesn't know any better, he'll coming running back straight into our open arms. Simple."

"Nothing is that simple when you're dealing with Sydney. You should know that by now, Stephanie."

Sydney stared at Sark as he was reading a book on the small jet the CIA had commissioned to take them home from Tokyo. They hadn't spoken since he had agreed to go with her. Unless she wanted to count when she handed him a change of clothes and instructed him to get comfortable on their flight home.

She had been staring at him for over an hour now, trying to find some little flicker that the old Sark was in there somewhere. But all she could see was the old brutally mean Sark that she would have loved to kill.

"Would you stop watching me?" Sark hissed from behind the pages of his book.

"You know, this always used to make you mad. Me staring at you."

"Do you honestly think that introducing these little reminiscent memories into casual conversation is going to trigger anything about the years you claim I've lost?"

"Do you honestly believe that your sharp retorts are going to hurt me enough to send me off whimpering and licking my wounds?"

"You're a lot harsher than I remember, Sydney," he said. She was slightly thrown off by a hint of sadness and regret in his voice.

"You're the one that does this to me. I've never really acted completely normal when I'm around you, before or after we got romantically involved. You have this way of making me act all different."

"A lot of women have told me that." He noticed the slight look of hurt in Sydney's eyes at the mention of other women. It didn't surprise him. What surprised him was there was a sudden protective urge inside of him to go comfort her since she was hurting. "Where did that come from?" he thought to himself, shaking his head.

"Something the matter?" Sydney asked.

"Nothing at all." Sark turned to stare out the window, away from her demanding eyes.

"I find that hard to believe. Do you want me to tell you what's the matter?"

"What?" he asked, turning back to her. Something definitely hadn't changed between the two of them through the years. She still intrigued him completely.

"You don't remember what we had. But it's still coming naturally to you." He looked at her skeptically. "Seriously. I've always been a great judge of body language. Whenever you've said something hurtful to me, you were thrown off by seeing your words affect me. It unsettles you, which is why you kept trying to end the conversation and the need to make eye contact with me. In all the time I've known you, the only time you want out of a situation is when it unsettles you."

"Wouldn't you be unsettled by the fact that the most frustrating woman in the world is suddenly claiming she's your soul mate?"

Sydney got up out of her seat across the aisle and sat down in the chair next to him. "You're not just unsettled by all the things I've told you." She reached her hand up to the back of his neck and lightly ran her fingers up and down his spine. "You're unsettled by the fact that you're attracted to me."

"I'm about as attracted to you as I would be to any other pretty woman," he said, trying to shrug away from her hand.

She slid over from the chair she had just sat down in and placed herself in his lap with her legs straddling him. She leaned towards him and, in a throaty whisper, asked, "Is that so?"

Sark knew that the correct response, the one he was searching for so desperately, was just to push her off his lap and back down into the chair next to him. That was the perfect solution.

Which is why he was so confused when he felt his hands trailed slowly up her body until they were rested against her cheeks. He took one deep look into her eyes before she moved in to touch her lips lightly to his.

The second their lips touched, both of them realized they had unleashed something that neither one could harness. It was as if someone had let loose massive floodgates they had been using to dam up their emotions. They just exploded.

Sark tried not to focus on the familiarity of the situation as Sydney plunged her hands up under his t-shirt and onto bare skin. He had always imagined that she was a minx in bed, but he had never actually believed he'd get to see it in action. With a laugh, he realized if what she was trying to convince him was true, he probably knew this already.

Sydney ignored the small laugh that escaped his lips and tried to focus on the desire she saw in his eyes. She knew that he didn't really love her at this point, or at least he didn't remember he did. If they were going to sleep together, it was just going to be mindless sex. It wouldn't mean anything to him.

It surprised her that she didn't even care.

Sark felt her hands scrap down his chest and begin to unfasten the zipper of his pants. He reached up and pulled her shirt over her head, wanting to finally be able to see what the real Sydney Bristow looked like. He looked into her eyes and saw vulnerability mixed with pure desire reflected back.

Which was why he was able to push her away.

"What's the matter?" she asked breathlessly as she pushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes.

"I might not have the best morals in the world, Sydney. But I think you deserve more than this." She looked at him confused. "All this would be is sex. There's no love between us, at least not from my end. You've been jerked around in the past by the men in your life. I don't want to do the same thing to you."

"How do you know about my past?" she asked. She reached onto the seat in front of them to grab her shirt and put it back on.

"I…" Sark looked at her confused. "I honestly don't know. You and I have never talked about anything remotely personal in the field before. The only person I know you've dated is your handler. I didn't come across anything else when I was reading up on you."

Sydney smiled at him as she sat back down next to him. "I believe the man you didn't realize you were referring to was Danny Hecht and what Sloane did to him."

"I vaguely remember reading something about him."

Their conversation drifted off, and they began to sit in an inexplicably comfortable silence. Sark fought the urge to grab Sydney's hand in his. "Something's not right with me. That's for sure," he thought to himself. Being around Sydney felt a lot more familiar than it should have. Before, she had always set him on edge. There was something about her that kept him from relaxing in her presence. But, at this moment, he could feel his guard begin to drop. That would have to be fixed.

"You know that I'm not in love with you," he said quietly.

"I know," she said without looking.

"Just making sure."

Sydney knew that comment was meant to hurt her, to make her want to stop putting forth the effort to remind him of what he couldn't remember. That lack of memory was the exact reason why his hurtful comment actually made her more motivated.

When she had fallen in love with him in London over two years ago, he had repeatedly told her again and again that he didn't love her, that he would never love her like she wanted him to. She hadn't given up then. Because of that, he did finally admit how much she meant to him.

"I can do it again," she thought to herself as a smug smile crossed her lips.

"What's so funny?" Sark asked.

"Nothing," she looked over at him. "Were you staring at me?"

"No," he said a little too quickly.

Laughing, she was about to tease him when she was interrupted by the sound of her cell phone ringing. "Bristow," she said.

"Sydney?" said the hesitant voice on the other end.

"Amy? What's wrong? I thought you were supposed to be on assignment with the CIA again."

"I am. I'm calling you from my flight home from Lisbon."

"You're breeching protocol to talk to me during an assignment. You know that right?"

"Yes. Listen, Sydney. I came across something that should concern you. One of your friends is working in connection with the Covenant. I would tell you everything I know now, but I'm afraid my cell phone might be tapped."

Sydney could sense the hysteria in Amy's voice. Whatever she had found out, it was huge. "Just calm down. Are you flying into LaGuardia?"

"Yes, I should be there in about an hour."

"Great. Will's away on assignment. We can meet at his apartment. I'm sure he won't mind. Just be careful and don't do anything stupid."

"Okay. I'll see you then."

Sydney snapped her phone shut and turned to the man sitting next to her. "We're only a few hours away from New York, right?"

"Correct. What was that all about?"

"I called in all the favors I had collected throughout the past few years and brought together all the people I trust to find you, Julian. On our first attempt to find your location, Vaughn and I found intel stating that one of those people were working with the Covenant."

"Really?" Sark said, hoping Sydney couldn't see right through him. He didn't want her to make the connection that he had been working with the Covenant rather closely for the past few weeks. He was well aware that she had a mole and he knew that mole's identity, but he didn't want her to know that quite yet. It could still be used to his advantage.

"That was Amy Tippin on the phone. She stumbled upon the mole's identity on her CIA mission. We're meeting her as soon as we can get to her brother's apartment."

"We?"

"You accepted my proposition back in Tokyo. That makes you my partner. And as much as I'm not sure I can trust you, I know I need your clear way of thinking and analyzing if I'm going to get through this."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Sark said with a smirk.

"I meant it as one. So, what do you think of this situation? I can tell that your mind is already racing with the possibilities of what is to come."

Sark tried to hide his surprise that she was picking up on his thought patterns. "Well, I was just wondering how you know that Ms. Tippin herself isn't your mole. You realize this whole thing could be a setup. The perfect way to eliminate you, Sydney."

"That didn't occur to me," she said, lost in the thought of what would happen if what Sark were saying turned out to be true.

"It's a good thing you have me, then."

"What do you mean?"

"The only people you've told about finding me were Michael Vaughn and Lauren Reed. Amy Tippin isn't aware that when you said we could meet at Will's apartment that you meant you and me could meet with her. She doesn't know I'm going to be there."

Sydney nodded. "That's why I needed you with me."

Sark looked at her skeptically while pointing to where she had ripped his t-shirt slightly in the heat of passion.

"Well, maybe there were other reasons to," she said with a laugh.