The bed beside him was empty when Sark woke up the next morning. He groaned and rolled over, shoving a pillow over his head. "What did I do?" he thought, trying to throw the memories of the past six hours out of his head.

Frustrated, he flung the pillow back onto the other side of the bed and got up. He picked his discarded boxers up off the floor and slipped them on. Rubbing a hand through his hair, he tried to find Sydney.

She was sitting in the living room working on her laptop. He had to admit that she looked incredibly cute with her glasses on and her hair pulled back in a bun. It was almost what he would have pictured as his ideal vision of settling down. Now, that unnerved him.

"Now is not the time to be fantasizing," he scolded himself.

"Hey," she said, looking up and smiling at him. "How'd you sleep?"

He flung himself down into one of the chairs and looked at her. "That is not going to happen again."

"I'm not giving any promises," she said as she shuffled through a stack of papers. "I have a bad habit of causing moments of weakness in people. We won't even get into the total lack of self-control that I have. And nice hair by the way. I missed the horrible bed hair while you've been away."

Glaring at her, he got up from his chair and sat down on the couch next to her. He ripped some of the papers out of her hand and looked at them. "What are you working on so intently?"

"You might be back, Julian, but I still want to know which one of my friends has been betraying me. So, I had Marshall borrow a few CIA files for me."

"Borrow? Is that what they're calling blatant theft these days?"

"Ha ha. Very funny." She looked through her papers. "Marshall seems to think that the mole isn't leaking any CIA information to the Covenant. It looks like they were specifically targeting me."

"So what does that mean?"

She flung the papers down onto the table. "That's the problem. I have no idea. This whole thing is so frustrating." She looked over at him. "So what do you want to do today?"

"Don't you have a business to run or something?"

"And don't you have some shady double crossing to do? We all make sacrifices." She smiled at him. "Seriously. Are you all Sydney-ed out or can you take another day of me?"

He smirked. "I don't think I'll be tiring of you anytime soon."

"Good."

"Have you heard any more news on Amy?" he asked.

"Why, it's almost sounding like you care. How strange." She pushed the files into a neat pile and stood up. "Will called about an hour ago. There's no change. The doctor's don't think she'll wake up until a few days from now. They said her body had shut down to try to heal itself up."

Sark nodded and was glad when Sydney didn't push the fact that he was concerned. He didn't want to have to come up with another lie to cover the fact that he had all the answers she was searching for. And he didn't want to dwell on the fact that a slow urge to tell her the truth was creeping up on him.

His urge was interrupted before he could get a handle on it. The pains racing through his head signaling a recalled memory were swiftly becoming bothersome and unwelcome. These memories only served to confuse him more than before.

"What's the matter?" Sydney asked, concerned as he grabbed his temples.

"Dancing on the Eiffel Tower at midnight with no one else around?"

"That would be your present to me on our one year anniversary. It was the first time I had ever truly seen Paris for the beautiful city that it is. One of the best nights of my life."

He nodded, not really knowing how to respond to that. It was a memory that was supposedly real, but he couldn't connect the emotions with it just yet. And until that point, he didn't want to discuss them too in depth with her.

"I'll be free in about an hour. There's just one quick phone call I have to make." Sydney excused herself and walked out of the room, leaving him alone once more with the television.

He grabbed the momentary opportunity he had been given to clear his head. Sydney had sent his whole life into a downward spiral, and he really needed a moment to think about what had happened between them. And try to understand why his heart was telling him not to fight her. That staying here with her was the one thing he wanted to do above all else.

Irina could tell something was bothering Sydney when she called her twenty minutes earlier. Which was the exact reason she had hopped in a cab and paid the driver double to get her to Park Avenue in half the time.

Sure, Sydney had made all the normal inquiries. How has the past few days gone? Is the organization shaping up? Does she need any help?

But Irina couldn't help but notice her daughter's subtle attempts to keep the conversation away from the subject of Anna Espinosa and, by association, Sark. She had only recently gotten close to her daughter, but she didn't need years of experience in mothering to know when her daughter was hiding something from her.

And Irina Derevko did not stand for lying. Especially not from her own daughter.

She nodded hello to William and got into the elevator, pushing the penthouse button and swiping the key card Sydney had made her a few months earlier. It was time to get to the bottom of why her daughter wasn't telling the truth.

The elevator dinged, and the doors slipped open. She stepped out, scanning the penthouse. It appeared as if no one was home. Usually, Sydney was right at the door to great her when she came over.

Irina took the opportunity to scan over the changes Sydney had made to the penthouse. There was a newly framed picture up on the wall of Sydney and Sark on one of the many piers around Manhattan. It always pleased her to see her daughter looking so happy. Never in her wildest dreams would she have believed this happiness would have come from a man like Sark.

She had always respected Julian for the great spy that he was. His coldness was always an asset to her organization. But she never would have pegged him as the guy who would finally give her daughter someone she could love and depend on without the fear of betrayal.

Irina had always kept a close watch on Sydney's life. She had seen her daughter get involved with Noah Hicks when she first started working at SD-6. If she could have, she would have warned Sydney that Noah was the kind of man you were warned against.

Then, there was Daniel Hecht. Irina actually approved of him. He was smart and had a life of his own. If only Sydney could have taken a hint from her father and learned how to keep a secret. Irina knew that everyone always tells you that you should be completely honest with the person that you loved. But frankly, who really believed that load of bull?

She was hesitant to admit that she might have pushed Sydney and Michael Vaughn together a little too hard. When she spent all that time locked up in a CIA cell, there really wasn't anything more to do than observe everyone who came to see her. She could tell almost instantly that Sydney and Michael cared for each other, maybe even loved each other. She had encouraged both to tell the other what they were feeling.

But Michael Vaughn hadn't been the strong man she had thought he was, not like the man she remembered his father to be.

Sark hadn't let her down. When Sydney finally admitted to her mother that she loved Sark more than any other man she had been with, Irina wasn't surprised. She had met Sark when he was fairly young and new in the spy world. And the kid had charmed her immediately. It must have been something with that smug smirk.

"Hello?" she called as she heard a slight giggle coming from the bedroom. Raising her eyebrow in surprise, she made her way to where the sound was coming from.

When she opened the door, she was tempted to let out a loud laugh. Her daughter and Sark were sitting on the floor playing what appeared to be an intense game of Monopoly. There was paper money and little, green plastic houses everywhere.

"I told you that I would get Boardwalk," Sydney screamed as she jumped up onto the bed and started bouncing around and rubbing in her small victory. She had always been a smug winner. When she saw her mother in the doorway, she stopped.

"Sydney. Julian."

"Hi, Mom," Sydney answered, sitting down on the bed.

Sark turned and looked at this former employer. "This isn't what it looks like."

"I think it's exactly what it looks like." Irina smirked at him. "And this is not the first time Sydney had suckered you into a game of Monopoly. Though why she could fool you into playing is beyond me. I would have thought you were smart enough to learn your lesson the first hundred times."

"He doesn't remember," Sydney said, simply.

"What do you mean he doesn't remember? And could you please explain when you found him and brought him back to Manhattan? I would have thought I would be one of the first people you'd contact with the news."

"In Sydney's defense, Irina, she's been keeping the whole thing rather low key. No one else really knows."

"Except for Vaughn and Lauren.

"And Amy Tippin."

"And Will."

"And whomever the mole is."

Sydney turned to her mother. "But that list didn't include Dad, so you should feel special."

"Mmm hmmm. I'll decide that later. Get to explaining."

"I found Sark at the Tokyo facility where Amy first spotted him. The Covenant had wiped his memory clean. He doesn't remember anything from the past few years. I think it was another attempt by Eric and Stephanie to hit me with a low blow."

"I can say that they really wanted to hurt you, Sydney, for whatever reason. I mean, they wanted me to kill you when we met up in Tokyo."

"You do realize you would have been a dead man if you had succeeded," Irina said as she sat down on the bed next to her daughter.

Sydney ignored her mother's threat. "So, I brought him back here immediately. And that's where we've been."

"You don't seem surprised at finding me here with Sydney? Did you know about our relationship?"

"Did I know? Julian, you were going to be part of the family. Of course I knew."

Sark looked at Sydney in confusion. "What does she mean 'part of the family'?"

Sydney shot her mother a dirty look and got up to get something off the dresser. When she returned, she sat down on the floor next to Sark and placed something in his hand. "You gave me this a few days before you disappeared."

"Is this an engagement ring?" he asked, flipping the simple ring over in his hands.

"Yes. You asked me to marry you, and I said yes. I didn't want to tell you before because I was pretty sure the news would have you running for the hills. I didn't want to chance it. But since you had to spill the beans, Mom…"

"How was I supposed to know that you hadn't told him?"

"I don't know. You're my mother. You are just supposed to know these things."

Irina sighed. "So, if Sark doesn't remember the past three years, how the hell did you get him to agree to play a board game with you? That's not the kind of thing I would imagine him wanting to do with his day. Not when there's revenge to plan or killing to be done."

"Why does everyone see me as a person who enjoys inflicting pain?"

Sydney patted him on the head patronizingly. "Because you are, honey. Don't try to deny it." She turned to her mother to answer the question. "I guess you could say I appealed to his competitive side."

"She told me that she had never met anyone who had a better strategic mind for the game. Tricked me into playing."

"She's good at getting her way," Irina said. "Could you excuse us for a moment, Julian? I want to talk to my daughter in private."

"Uh oh. This sounds serious," Sark whispered in Sydney's ear as he stood up. Smiling he walked over and placed her ring on the dresser before leaving the two women alone.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about? Does it have something to do with Anna?"

"No, it doesn't, actually. Before we get into the hard part of this conversation, let me just say that she's working out great. She's a good agent."

"I always thought so when we were in the field together. Someone once said that in another world, your adversaries could be your allies, so you shouldn't limit your options."

"That's pretty smart. Who said that?" Irina asked.

"You," Sydney answered with a laugh. "Now what did you want to speak to me about?"

"I want to know what you were hiding on the phone."

"You already figured it out. I didn't want you to know that I had found Sark and brought him back to Manhattan. The lesser people who knew, the better."

"Cut the crap with me, Sydney Anne. I know when you're lying. That wasn't the only thing you were holding back. There was something more."

Sydney looked away. "It's nothing I can't handle. Don't worry about it."

"If it's something you can handle, why are you starting to cry, sweetheart?" Irina placed her hand on top of her daughter's. "You can tell me anything. I won't judge you. Does it have something to do with Sark?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. I'm so confused." She looked up at her mother. "It's so hard. I love him so much, and I can't feel his love for me at all. I know it's in there somewhere, but he just won't let me see it. I can't stay this strong for much longer. It's destroying me."

Irina wrapped her arm around her daughter and pulled her close. She could feel Sydney begin to sob as she lay down with her head on her mother's lap. "This has really been hard on you, hasn't it?"

"You have no idea," Sydney answered through her sobs. "I didn't want to tell anyone until we got Sark back. I was afraid that if they knew, they wouldn't let me try to find him. And if I didn't do it, I couldn't be sure that they were actually trying to find him. So I had to keep it a secret. I didn't want to, but I had to. I'm still not even sure I should tell anyone until I can make him come back fully, memories and all."

"Keep what a secret, Sydney?"

"I'm pregnant, Mom."