For a moment when she woke up, Sydney allowed herself to believe that nothing was wrong. She let herself forget that Will was tied to a chair in her living room, that Amy was currently recovering from a near-fatal stab wound, that Sark still didn't believe her when she said he loved her...
"Wait," she thought, noticing an extra weight on the bed next to her. She reached her hand out hesitantly and was surprised when it hit something. Peaking out from under one eyelid, she couldn't believe what she saw.
Sark was lying next to her, sleeping in the clothes he had been wearing the night before. This was the image she had been hoping for so long to wake up to, and now, for whatever reason, it was here. She smiled to herself and snuggled in close to him."At least there's something that I can appreciate," she thought to herself. She patted her stomach lightly. "This is a good man. He's going to be the best father to you. I know it. And don't you feel ashamed that I'm not telling him that you're in there. It's just not the right time now. But I'll tell him soon. I promise you."
The movement in the bed caused Sark to stir. Looking down, he realized that the woman he loved was also awake. "How are you doing?" he asked groggily.
"Is that an automatic question? Do you just wake up and say that?" she joked. "I'm fine. Let me rephrase that. I will be fine. Thank you."
"Why do you always sound guilty when I wake up?" He sighed and sat up. "I hope you don't mind that I slept in here. I didn't think Will would appreciate me sleeping on the couch while he was tied to a chair all night. I like to taunt him, but that would be overkill. And I was never one for overkill."
"Good plan." She got out of bed and went into the bathroom. "And just for the record, you don't ever have to worry about sleeping in my bed. You're always welcome."
He smirked to himself and stood up. Glancing quickly into the other room, he was happy to see Will was still safely secured to the chair. "I did my homework. Called Weiss last night."
"I'm sure that went well," Sydney mumbled, popping her head out of the bathroom, toothbrush in mouth.
"It actually went fabulous. I think I really scared him when I attacked Stephanie and made him watch."
"You made him watch? You didn't mention that before."
"Poetic justice. He made me watch you get hurt time and again for the past few weeks. Though I really didn't understand how horrible that was at the time." Sark paused as he fixed his hair in the mirror. "Wait. Maybe it was just normal justice."
Sydney flicked the light off in the bathroom as she came back out and sat on the bed. "So what did the big bad head of the Covenant have to say?"
"Well, after I told him that things weren't going to work out between you and I?" Seeing her amused grin, he added, "Just so you know it seems that you're just too good a person to me. I can't stand to be so straight-laced and good moral-ed all the time."
"I'll commit that to memory." She looked at him as she tied her hair back into a ponytail. "You should have added something about me deciding that you were a pompous ass and throwing various breakable objects at your head."
He looked at her in amazement. "Actually, I did. After he got over the fit of giggles that mental picture gave him, I explained the situation. Then I explained how I would gladly hand you to him on a silver platter. I told him I would need a little help though. And since I knew Tippin was in Brooklyn, I assumed it wouldn't be too hard to get him to offer that aid. Told him last time I saw him he seemed all too keen on hurting you."
She met his eyes in the bedroom mirror. "I'm still not used to the fact that Will is supposedly helping out the Covenant."
"I know. But it gets better. So, Weiss immediately objects to me contacting Tippin exactly like I thought he would. He says that there are certain protocols to be followed."
"What protocols?""Exactly what I said. He demanded that I forget about contacting Will, which peeked my curiosity. At least, it would of if I hadn't already been curious. I mean, what was so important about keeping Tippin isolated from the rest of the Covenant? So I asked him what he would do if I did. He said that he wouldn't do anything, that I would just find Will to be a slightly different person than I remember."
"What does that mean?"
"Come here." Sark grabbed her hand and pulled out into the front room. He poked Will until he woke up. "Good morning, Will. Sorry, this is going to hurt a little."
Sydney watched in awe as Sark backhanded Will across the face and winced in pain as she heard the impact of his blow. "I know you said taunting him from your sleeping location on the couch was overkill. As the voice of reason in this situation, I want to let you know that what you just did might also be classified under that category."
"He has to be dazed," Sark explained. "Though I won't deny that that was a little fun."
"You need to stop hurting people for pleasure."
"But you like it so much when I do, love," Sark said with a wink. He walked over and sat down next to a slightly fazed Will. "So, Will. There's this quote I came across during a little research session I had last night. I was wondering if it meant anything to you. 'Death is not the worst thing that can happen to men. Living with your actions can be infinitely worse.' "
Sydney watched as Will's demeanor noticeably changed. Instead of hanging his head down like he had been, his posture became more rigid and self-assured. He began to pull violently at the bonds holding him to the chair. His eyes shifted over to look at her slowly. "Is there something you wanted Sydney? All you had to do was ask. Kidnapping was not necessary."
"Will?" she asked hesitantly, not believing the total change in his demeanor. It was almost as if he was possessed or had multiple personalities.
"Yeah, I'm in here, Syd. Doesn't it hurt a little to know that I was the one behind all those actions that hurt you so much? I took your little man away from you, and if it were up to me, you wouldn't have gotten him back."
Sydney looked at Sark, desperate for further explanation of what was going on. He was quick to explain. "It turns out that the Covenant is getting pretty good at this whole brainwashing technique. They implanted a little something extra in Will when he was in Witness Protection a few years ago without the CIA knowing. It seems that he was a sleeper agent. Isn't that right, Will? Came in pretty handy, didn't you?"
"You are going to pay for betraying me, you bastard," Will hissed. He pulled at the ropes and handcuffs again. "Weiss and Conway are not going to be happy with you."
"What are they going to do? Sit there and take another beating from me. I'm not scared."
"What do we do? How do we fix this?" Sydney asked frantically.
"That I don't know. Just relax for a moment, knowing that the Will you know and love didn't do anything to betray your trust."Sydney smiled at him, realizing that he did indeed know the perfect things to say in every situation. She was so put off by what was happening that she hadn't even recognized that the Will she knew was cleared of all malicious intent. "Thank you."
"Now do you understand why I had to restrain him? We wouldn't want him coming after another person you loved. I didn't want him coming after you."
She could feel her heart jump a little. It was nice having this semi-familiar Sark back in her life, the one that would say these little romantic things in the middle of interrogating her best friend about his unintentional betrayal of her trust. She looked over at the man in question. "Can we turn him back?"
"I believe so. Weiss didn't tell me how, but I have a good guess."
She didn't miss the fact that a sly, almost wicked grin had begun to spread on Sark's face. "What are you thinking?" she asked hesitantly.
He just grinned at her as he reached his right hand back and made a fist. "I'm thinking that I need to get this all out before I try to win back all your friends to my side." He delivered a hard uppercut to Will's jaw, effectively knocking him out cold. Rubbing his hand, he turned back to Sydney. "I hope he can forgive me for that."
"Oh, I don't think he's going to. So, your guess was that knocking him unconscious might cause him to revert back to his unbrainwashy state."
"Yeah. I'm hoping I'm right. But if I'm not..."
"...at least it was fun." She groaned and threw her hands up in the air. "You know I thought I wanted the old Sark back, but now that you're remembering, I'm starting to rethink what I wanted."
"Where are you going?" Sark called as she hit the button to call the elevator up to the penthouse level.
"I need to iron out a few things. Stay here and make sure that the Will that wakes up is the one we want."
Sark watched the elevator doors open and then shut with her behind them. He turned to the unconscious body of Will. "I think she might be a little peeved at me. Whoops."
He checked the ropes holding Will to the chair. Satisfied that he was still secure, Sark walked into the bedroom and started searching through Sydney's drawers. When he had found what he was looking for, he relaxed and sat down on the bed.
"I hope she doesn't notice this is missing," he said as he slipped the small ring box into his pocket and took out his cell phone. Like always, he had calls to make.
Sydney took her cell phone out of her pocket the second she stepped off of the elevator. Dialing a number that was all too familiar, she waited for her father to pick up the phone at his CIA desk. When he didn't pick up that phone or his cell phone, she chalked it up to being on a mission or otherwise occupied.
Grumbling only a little, she shoved that little conversation onto a shelf and called one of the other men she trusted at the CIA. "Vaughn. It's Sydney."
"You heard the news," Vaughn said.
Sydney's heart dropped. A few unpleasant scenarios started running through her head, the worst being that Vaughn knew all about Will's betrayal and was in on it, too. "What news?" she asked hesitantly.
"Amy woke up from her coma."
She let out a sigh of relief. "Oh. Yes, I knew that. I was there with--" She cut herself off realizing that she probably shouldn't mention Noah to Vaughn.
"With who, Syd?" Vaughn said. He waited for an answer. When she didn't respond, he started to chuckle. "I know about Noah Hicks. He was the one that called the CIA to let them know that Amy was going to be all right. He's at the hospital under CIA supervision right now."
"You're not going to arrest him, are you?"
"That remains to be seen. But that's not why you called, Syd. How are you doing?"
"I've been better, but it's been a lot worse. I'm sorry I haven't been in contact with you since Tokyo."
"Come on. You've been a little busy. I understand that. How are things going with Sark?"
"Good. I think he's recovering his memory. I'm not afraid of him betraying me anymore."
"I wouldn't let your guard down just yet. If I remember correctly, Sark was an exceptional liar. He couldn't put on a mission alias for the life of him, but his whole life is practically an alias."
"Maybe to you it is, but not to me. I know him, Vaughn. And I know that right now he is not going to betray me."
Vaughn could sense that she was starting to get upset. "I'm sorry. You called me for a reason, and I just jumped down your throat spouting off warnings."
"It's okay. How is Tyler doing? He hasn't been traumatized by everything that's been going on, has he?" She smiled at William as he held the door open for her.
"No. He keeps asking for that crazy women he met in Miami, though. I think he's developed a little crush on you, which isn't too uncommon here at the CIA. I wish you would visit us a little more often. We miss you here."
"If you're trying to get me to come back to the CIA, it's not going to work."
"I'm not, I swear. I'm just trying to get you to realize that just because Sark is in your life, you don't have to cut the rest of us out of it. I know that most of us weren't too receptive the first time you mentioned him. I think we can all warm up to the idea now, though. We miss you, Syd."
"Thanks, Vaughn. I promise when this whole thing blows over, I'll try really hard to visit." She reached out her hand and hailed a taxi. "LaGuardia please," she said to the taxi driver.
"Why are you going to the airport, Syd?" Vaughn asked.
"To meet the CIA team you're going to send out here."
"And why am I sending a team out to you? What did you do now?"
"Nothing that's put the world in jeopardy, I assure you. At least not this time. Sark and I found out who our mole was."
"Who?"
Sydney took a deep breath. "Now don't fly off the handle. It's Will."
"What?" Vaughn screamed. "Will has been trying to kill you?"
"It's not what it sounds like. Okay, maybe it's exactly what it sounds like. But there are extenuating circumstances. But first, I need you to send a team out to get Will. He's in our penthouse right now."
"Alone?"
"No, Sark's with him. And don't even tell me that I shouldn't have left the two of them alone. For the last time, Julian is not going to betray me." She took a deep breath and exhaled her small frustration. "I need the CIA to put Will into a holding cell for a little while."
"That can be arranged. How did this all happen?"
"Hold on," Sydney insisted. "When the team picks up Will, I don't want them to treat him like an enemy of the state. He's to be escorted all the way back to Los Angeles without being put into handcuffs or restraints. Put him in one of the cells like the one they held my mother in. Give him anything he wants within reason. Treat him like you would normally treat Will. Do you have all that?"
"Yes," Vaughn said hesitantly.
"Okay. Go. Get that team assembled. Give them those instructions. Then, you can call me back, and I'll explain why Will isn't our enemy."
"If this doesn't show you how much faith I still have in you, I don't know what will," Vaughn said before hanging up to do what she told him.
Sydney smiled to herself. Things in her life were beginning to return to normal. She dialed her father's cell phone number again as the cab went across the Triborough Bridge. This time she was happy to hear her father's gruff voice answer on the other end.
"Hi, Dad," she said. "Are you busy?"
"Not right now, no. I just finished writing up the report on my mission in Uzbekistan."
"Good. I was wondering if you might be able to get some time off work to come to the City. I have something I wanted to talk to you about."
"Is anything the matter?"
"No, I just want your opinion on something I'm debating."
"And you can't ask for this opinion over the phone?"
"Not exactly. It would be better if you just came out here. You could see Mom.""What makes you think that I want to see Irina?"
Sydney groaned. "You know you two really need to cut out all the emotional angst and just have it out. I'm tired of you both pretending like her whole betrayal of you was fine and that the six years you spent together really meant nothing."
"That is not the way to convince me to come to see you."
"Just come out here," Sydney said, slamming the cell phone shut. It was so frustrating to talk to her father sometimes. She sat silently in the cab and watched the buildings pass her by as she waited for Vaughn to call her back. This whole situation with Will would have to be explained just the right way if she was going to get the CIA to treat Will with some respect and care.