Sydney had forgotten how much she loved being in places like these. Train stations, bus depots, airport terminals. There were so many people, coming and going. There were happy reunions and tearful goodbyes. It was so real and raw. Something she had never experienced. Her tearful goodbyes and happy reunions always seemed to happen at the oddest places, never something as simple as an airport.
She had been sitting in one of the many areas of airport chairs waiting for her father for two hours. There was bound to be a gap between the CIA's arrival to pick up Will and her father's arrival. Her father would have had to take a commercial flight, while the CIA flew their team out on one of their many jets, probably from Langley, not L.A. Though, the team would be taking Will back to L.A. She had made it clear that he was not to be held in any facility except for that one, the one he was familiar with.
Engrossed in her thoughts and observations, she didn't notice her father until he was right in front of her. "Hi, Daddy," she said absentmindedly, still scanning the terminal.
"What is wrong, Sydney? And don't lie and tell me it's nothing," Jack demanded."Isn't it always something?" she said smiling at him weakly. "Let's go."
She stood up and hooked her arm with his. He let her lead him out of the airport without a word. Whatever she had to say to him, it was clear that she wanted no one else to overhear. They had superficial conversation about the meaningless parts of their life the whole time that Sydney was driving.
When they were safely inside the warehouse she had taken them to on the outskirts of the city, Jack finally lost his cool. "You need to tell me what's going on right now, Sydney."
She sighed and looked at her father. "I would have told you more gently if you weren't so damn demanding, Dad. I'm pregnant."
Jack just stared at her in surprise. The motion of his jaw opening and shutting without a word coming out was priceless. "Weren't expecting that one, were you?" she asked. "And before you get up the nerve to ask, of course Julian is the father."
"Have you been to the doctor?" Jack finally asked.
"Yes. I've been to the doctor. I'm only a little over two months along now. The reason I wasn't telling anyone was at first I wasn't sure, and then when I was sure, Julian wasn't with me any longer. I didn't want to be blaring my problems out to anyone who listened. And I didn't think he'd appreciate being the last one to know."
"Is the baby all right after you getting shot?"
"The baby's fine. The bullet only grazed my side, and before you ask, the exertion of the past few weeks hasn't affected it either. I'm not that far along that my life is a danger."
"Your life is always a danger," Jack mumbled and then got surprisingly silent.
"What's wrong?' Sydney asked.
"It's a little hard adjusting to the fact that I'm going to be a grandfather."
Sydney chuckled to herself as a memory popped into her head. "You should have seen Mom when I told her she was going to be a grandmother. An attractive and well-fit grandma, but a grandma none the less."
"I can imagine Irina just going berserk."
"Actually, she took it rather well. I mean, it might have been due partially to the fact that I was having an emotional breakdown when I told her." Seeing the concerned look on her father's face, she added, "I had a bad day with Sark not remembering anything and all."
"Has Sark started to recover any of him memories?"
"Yes. He seems to be getting back to his normal self. He's not keeping secrets any longer, that's for sure."
"He was keeping secrets from you?" Sydney could practically see her father slipping into his protective mode. "Was he putting you into danger?"
"No. Yes. I don't know. It's a grey area. He considered betraying me to the Covenant, but he didn't. And he knew who the mole was and didn't tell me at first. He told me eventually, though. So that must mean something.""You're too forgiving with that boy."
She looked at her father in shock. "And you're starting to judge him by what he was again. I thought I asked you to stop doing that."
Realizing his mistake, Jack grasped Sydney's hand and looked at her solemnly. "I have something important I want to say to you that I should have said a long time ago. You're my only daughter, Sydney. So I know that I'm protective over you. In the life we lead, I think I have that right. I don't want to see you getting hurt because you've given your heart to a man who doesn't deserve you."
He saw Sydney object and gave her a look that silenced her immediately. "I didn't agree with your choice in loving a known murderer, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt. He earned his chance by contacting me when you got shot. I told him at the time that he had my respect in being able to do something that wasn't necessarily good or convenient for him, but something that needed to be done for your well being. From that point on, little by little, I think I began to see why you care so much for Mr. Sark."
Sydney smiled at her father and squeezed his hand as he continued. "Time and again, he has shown the kind of man he truly is. I don't know what caused him to start out his life as such a ruthless person. As soon as he met you, he changed. I know that he would never admit it, but he gave up the life he was familiar with because of you. You could never survive in that world, Sydney. I think Sark realized that he couldn't survive in his world without you."
At this point, Sydney wanted to hug her father so much. She knew that this was hard for him to say. But she quelled that impulse and let him keep talking. "I think that Sark is extremely deserving of your affections, and I'm not at all displeased that he is going to be bringing a child into this world with you. He has proven himself to me."
"Thank you," Sydney said when she was sure that he was done. "And I want to remind you that he was going to marry me before all this craziness happened. We were engaged. I don't know what we are now, but we were engaged then. And he didn't even know about the baby."
"Just another sign that he's earned this," Jack said with a rare smile. "Now that that's done. Could you tell me a little more about this mole you spoke of?"
Sydney had just finished explaining the whole situation with Will and Amy's stabbing and Noah's resurrection to her father when her cell phone rang. The call came up as being from Vaughn's desk at the CIA headquarters. If it were anyone else, she probably would have let it keep ringing.
"Vaughn. Give me some good news."
"I have news. You can decide if it's good or bad. Will Tippin has been the person sabotaging you. But the CIA did find traces of tampering in his brainwaves. So it looks like the Covenant did force him to do whatever he's done to hurt you. The CIA has cleared him."
"That's good news," Sydney said. "So, have they figured out a way to reverse that process permanently?"
"Not yet. He's still being held in custody until we can figure out a way."
"Good."
"Good? How can that be good?" Like normal, Sydney's words were throwing him off. The girl never did or said anything that could be classified as predictable.
"Because I need him. I've had a goal for the past three years that I never achieved. It's been on the back burner for too long. And I need Will to help me."
"What are you talking about?" Vaughn asked, knowing that he really didn't want to know the answer.
"I'm taking down the Covenant, once and for all." Her father's visibly paled and he got a none too pleased look on his face. She smiled at her father's reaction. "Want to help?"
Vaughn sighed. "As much as it kills me, you know that I'm in."
"Good. I'm going to fly out to L.A. with my parents and Sark."
"I don't think you should bring Irina here."
"I'm not stupid. She's not going to set foot into the building, but she is going to help me plan out how this whole thing is going to go down."
"And I suppose that you don't want me to tell anyone about this?"
"No. Tell whomever you want. See if you can get Lauren, Marshall, and Dixon to help. They're not going to have to put themselves in danger for me this time, but I sure could use help planning."
Vaughn laughed. "I think you're growing up, Sydney. Asking for help was never really your strong suit. If I remember correctly, you liked to act impulsively and blow things up."
"We each do what we're best at. I'll see you in a few hours." Sydney snapped her phone shut. "Ready to go back to L.A.?""I have nothing better to do," Jack said with a laugh. "And besides this gives me the opportunity to intimidate your boyfriend again. I mean, he can't remember all our previous little talks. I guess I have to start from square one."
"If you scare him off, so help me god..." Sydney trailed off, letting her threat sink in, as they left the warehouse and headed home to her penthouse.
Sydney managed to keep her father and Sark from conversing with each other for too long a period. Her dad might have admitted that he respected Sark, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to lose his temper and try to kill him. Calling him overprotective was an understatement.
Like normal, almost immediately after Sydney had convinced Sark that the CIA would not arrest him when they arrived at LA, Jack's cell phone rang, and he told them he had to take the call. To Sydney, it always seemed like her father was receiving these phone calls. His life was so heavily imbedded in the CIA that it was almost becoming unhealthy.
Sydney pulled Sark over to the couch and sat down, leaning against him. "So, we have a private moment it looks like."
"That it does," he said kissing the top of her head.
"According to tradition, that means one of us needs to say something inappropriate that will start a round of arguments and accusations. I, for one, am not up to that."
Sark noticed her tone of voice immediately. "But?"
"But I do have something I want to ask you." She sat up and looked him in the eye. "I know that your memory still isn't that great, but it is coming back to you. So I thought you might be able to explain something I was wondering about."
"I will if you skip the set-up and get straight to the question," he joked.
"When you and I went to rescue Tyler Vaughn from the Covenant, you said something that was slightly odd. We were yelling at one another because you wanted me to take Tyler and run and I didn't want to leave you behind." She poked him hard in the side. "Which, in retrospect, I was right not to want to leave you behind."
"It all worked out, though."
"True. Anyway, you said that Tyler was more important than either one of us. Which was odd. And I wanted to know if you remember what you meant. Did you know something that I didn't?"
He sighed and looked at her intently. "Actually, that I do remember. It seems that the Covenant thought young Tyler was the key to some prophecy. You know how it is with these evil organizations, always trying to figure out some random prophecy and shelving the responsibility of it on some innocent person."
"That wasn't so bad," she said, relaxing slightly.
"There's more," Sark said hesitantly. "It seems that there's another half to the prophecy. But I don't know what it is. All I know is that Tyler Vaughn isn't the only component the Covenant is searching for."
"There's someone else they want?"
"Or something. I really have no idea. I mean, I don't even know the prophecy they're referring to. For all I know, they might actually profit from what's supposed to happen."
"I doubt that if they were so intent on hurting Tyler."
Sark wagged his finger at her playfully. "You forget. They didn't hurt Tyler in the slightest. They only hurt you and I. There could be a reason for that."
"You think the other half of the prophecy has something to do with us?"
"I don't know. You're the prophecy expert. I mean, this will be what your... Eighteenth? Nineteenth?... prophecy you're involved in?"
She smacked him hard. "I have nothing to do with that. I can't help it if some mysterious scientist from the past had a thing with my genetic structures. It's not like I want to be known as the woman in the prophecy."
Jack reentered the room, effectively putting an end to the prophecy talk. "That was just Dixon telling me something about the next operation I have to go on. After I got off the phone with him, I took the liberty of calling your mother. She insists upon coming with us all the way into the CIA facility."
"Why would she do that?" Sark asked.
"She says that she has some business to take care of there."
"Business? In the CIA headquarters?" Sydney shook her head. "Unbelievable."
"It's a very Irina thing to do," Sark pointed out. He stood up and stretched. "Is she meeting us at the airport?"
Jack nodded. "I don't think the CIA will be too happy when they realize they've provided air transportation for two of the people who once graced their Most Wanted List."
"I recall that you were once on that list too, Jack," Sark said with a smirk.
"That didn't count. I was looking for Sydney."
Sydney rolled her eyes and walked between where the two men were standing over to the elevator. "Let's go. And please, can we have a little peace for the flight to LA? I can't take it when you two start trying to play the who's-the-dominant-male game."
Jack and Sark smirked at one another as Sydney stomped into the elevator. They silently followed her.
As the elevator doors slid shut, Sydney said without looking at them, "Anyway, we all know that if anyone's the dominant male, it's me."