The phone echoed through the house. It had been ringing non-stop all morning for no good reason, and this time Sydney was too tired to answer it. After ten rings, it finally quieted.
Sighing, she relaxed, slumping down a little farther in her chair where she was comfortably positioned for a morning of recreational reading. This was something she hadn't done in years. She was quite looking forward to it.
But her body stiffened as she realized that the house didn't quite return to complete silence. She could hear Lily chattering away.
"The phone," she growled, pulling herself up and trudging downstairs.
When she reached the kitchen, she found Lily standing in the middle of the floor grinning at her in a rather guilty way. "What did you do, young lady?" she asked her suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.
"I told Uncle Will that he could take you and me to the beach today."
Sydney smiled. That wasn't as bad as it could have been. "Is he on his way over?"
"He said that he was just down the road and would be here in ten minutes."
Sydney gave her daughter a sly look and cracked a smile. "Do you know what that means?"
Lily giggled. "That means we have to hurry."
"Right!" Sydney yelled. "Race you to see who gets ready first!"
Both Bristows ran through the house like madwomen trying to pack their bags before the other one was done. Naturally, Lily was done a full two minutes before Sydney.
"It's because I had to pack all the Mom stuff like sunscreen and aloe vera," she complained.
Lily just shook her head. "You lost fair and square, Mommy. Accept defeat at the hands of the better man." Sydney gave her a funny look. "I heard it from Uncle Eric."
She rolled her eyes as the sounds of tires moving gravel echoed in the driveway.
"Uncle Will!" Lily screamed and made a beeline for outside.
Sydney watched her daughter go running into the arms of her best friend. Smiling, she just stared at the two of them as they started to play wrestle on the front yard. The last few weeks had been nice with Will being around so much.
An outsider would assume that he was just making a play for Sydney's affections after what he had determined was a long enough period of mourning and celibacy. But she knew better.
Simply put, Will had just missed being around her as much as she missed being around him. And he really was a godsend with Lily.
Sydney smiled at Will caught her eye through the window and waved. She waved back, grabbed the two beach bags, and headed out the door.
Like clockwork, the second they were all in the car and had retreated into a comfortable silence, Lily made a request. "Can I hear a story on the way to the beach?"
Sydney smiled at her ever-persistent daughter and nodded. "What do you want to hear about? The time I rescued Will from some people who were trying to hurt him? Or maybe the time I had to bail him out of jail because he got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or how I first found out that he still loves eighties hair bands?"
"Don't knock Poison and Kiss," Will muttered mostly to himself.
"I want to hear about the day Daddy proposed to you."
"That's a long story," Sydney warned.
"You have all day to tell it," Will pointed out. "Besides, I kind of want to hear it, too. I never did find out just how he got you to say yes."
"Well, he didn't hold me at gunpoint if that's what you mean."
"Why would he hold you at gunpoint?" Lily asked.
Will and Sydney exchanged a knowing look. "No reason, sweetheart," Sydney said a second later. "Where to begin... I know! Your father and I had been fighting for most of the day."
"Typical," Will mumbled.
"Shut up," Sydney warned. "I don't even remember what it was about..."
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off was hands down the best movie of that came out of that decade," Sydney said. She was sitting in the passenger's seat of the BMW Sark was currently racing in and out of the small country road in Italy that they were driving and cleaning her favorite gun.
"No way," Sark said, without taking his eyes off the road. "You're overlooking John Hughes' best work. I mean, come on. But what we found out, is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. That's genius!"
"Oh for crying out loud. If we're going to get into the Brat Pack movies, Sixteen Candles was so much better than the Breakfast Club."
"That's blasphemy."
"That's the truth." She clicked her gun back together with a satisfying snap. "Are you trying to get me to shoot you or does it just come natural to infuriate me this much?"
Sark pushed his sunglasses down his nose an inch so that she could see his eyes as he glanced over at her. "You know, I think it's all part of our charm. I mean, who else spends their one-year anniversary chasing down wanted criminals through the Italian countryside?"
"Speaking of," Sydney pointed at the road in front of them, "I think Giovanni and Marcello are getting away."
"Your father and I were on business for the bank. If I remember correctly, it was some conference held in Italy. Your father had surprised me with tickets a few days earlier."
"How exciting," Will said, not enthused at all.
Sydney shot him a look. "For someone who worked at Credit Dauphine for so many years, being able to leave the country was a very exciting thing. Plus, there were a few men that I had met at previous conferences that I wanted to track down."
Will grinned. "I get it," he whispered.
"What happened next?" Lily asked. Sometimes she got so mad at her mother and Will. It was like when they were together they talked in a secret code.
"Well, we ran into the men that I had wanted to see..."
Realizing he had no option and praying that he would be forgiven for this horrible crime one day, Sark rammed the front end of the BMW into the Volvo in front of them. The car spun out of control and off the road, coming to rest against the guardrail. He pulled their car to a stop. "Do you want to do the honors or should I?"
"I'll do it," Sydney said, stepping out of the car.
Sark watched her cross in front of where he was sitting. She ripped open one of the car doors and dragged both the men out, throwing them down onto the dirt hard. "God, I love watching her work."
"Hold on," Lily said, sticking her head between the two front seats. "Daddy proposed to you at a bank convention. I thought you said he was romantic."
"We were in Italy," Sydney said, as if that made everything okay.
"Aren't they hairy over there? Martina O'Reyers says they don't shave any of their hair and they don't bathe for weeks. She says the whole country smells like someone died."
"How many times have I told you not to repeat what that wretched O'Reyers girl says?" Sydney said sternly. "She is a pathological liar."
"Does she know what 'pathological' means?" Will asked.
"It means caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition. In this case, it refers to a person who cannot help but lie about everything and anything they say," Lily responded matter-of-factly.
"Have you been letting her read the dictionary again?"
Sydney shrugged. "I can't help it. She gets bored."
"Enough about me. Let's get back to Daddy."
"Where was I?"
"You had just met your friends in Italy."
"Right. Well, I visited them real quick..."
Sydney walked back to the car wiping the small amount of blood that had splattered on her face off with the bottom of her shirt. She smirked at Sark's impressed look as she slid back into the car.
"That surpassed anything you've ever done," he said.
"Thank you. It's good to know that I'm not rusty."
Sark shifted the car into drive and spun the tires out as they took off. "Personally, I wouldn't have shot them in the legs, but you've always been soft."
"Unlike some people, I don't take pleasure in killing for fun."
"You should try it. You might get a taste for it."
"Your father and I spent the rest of the day just relaxing on some of the beaches nearby. It was nice."
Lily and Will exchanged looks of disgust as they recognized Sydney drifting off into her happy thoughts. "Are we ever going to get to the good stuff?" Will demanded.
"Be patient," Sydney said with a smile. "I was just getting to it..."
Sydney was standing knee deep in the water, letting the waves hit her gently. She could feel Sark behind her before she felt his arms wrap around her stomach. "Couldn't bear not touching you," he whispered in her ear.
She smiled and turned to look at him. "How much time do you think we have before we have to go back to the States?"
"Enough," he said leaning in for a kiss.
"Is it all going to be as sappy as this?" Will asked as they pulled into a parking space. "Because if it is, I request a subject change."
"No!" Lily said forcefully. "I want to hear about this."
Will patted her on the head lightly. "Calm down, squirt. I was just kidding."
"Are we done with the interruptions?" Sydney asked. When no one responded, she continued, "Your daddy and I had a nice dinner at a nearby beachside restaurant..."
"Did you ever think we would get to this day?" Sark asked.
"What day are you speaking about?" Sydney asked, playing dumb.
"You. Me. Three-hundred-sixty-five days. No one dead."
She laughed loudly calling attention to the two of them. "No, I never thought it would be possible. Good thing you decided to seduce me on that elevator."
Sark grabbed her hand abruptly. "Let's take a walk."
"That's so unoriginal," Will complained. "A walk on the beach? I bet he dropped to one knee and said he couldn't live another day without you."
"What's so wrong with that?" Sydney hissed.
"He did!" Will shouted with glee. "The original Mr. Suave can't even come up with original material for his own marriage proposal.""Are you telling the story or is Mommy, Uncle Will?" Lily asked.
"Sorry," he apologized.
"Continue."
"Yes, drill sergeant. So, your father and I went on a stroll down the beach by ourselves. The stars were out, and it was just the most perfect night in the whole world."
"More perfect than your wedding day?" Lily said remembering her mother's words when she was telling the story of that rainy day.
"Not more perfect. Just perfect in the same way."
"So then what happened?"
"He got down on one knee and told me that he had never loved anyone as much as he loved me. That I was his whole world. He pulled the most gorgeous ring I had ever seen out of his back pocket and asked me to marry him."
"Wow," Lily said. Her naive little mind let her believe her mother's words without wondering why there wasn't that much detail to the story.
Will looked at Sydney suspiciously. She merely avoided eye contact. In response, he pulled a five-dollar bill out of his back pocket and held it out to Lily. "Why don't you go buy some ice cream and take it down by the water to eat?"
She whipped the money out of his hand. "Thanks, Uncle Will!" she called over her shoulder as she ran off.
Will and Sydney sat in silence for a few minutes before she asked him the obvious question. "Why did you just get rid of my daughter?"
"Because I know you and Sark both. And I know what you just told her wasn't even close to the real story. I want to hear it."
She sighed. "It was that obvious?"
"To us grown-ups, yes. To a seven-year-old girl, not so much."
"Well, it was pretty much all the truth up until the proposal part. At least, it was a half-truth with the old business acquaintances, but what mother could actually tell her daughter that her parents used to threaten and kill people for a living?"
"You're forgetting that both of her grandparents did the same thing, too. Eventually, you're going to have to tell her."
"And why is that?"
"She'll need to know what's needed of her to take over the family business."
Sydney slapped him hard on the arm. "That isn't even funny."
"I got that," he said rubbing his arm with a little too much drama than was necessary. "So, hurry up and tell the rest of the story before Lily comes back."
"Fine. We were going on a stroll down the beach, like I said, when, for whatever reason, the topic of a more permanent arrangement came up..."
"So, what do you think about making this permanent?" Sark asked.
She looked at him in disgust. "Okay. That was so not romantic at all. Do you want to try again?"
"I just wanted to know where you stood on this. Because word around the office has been you've sworn off men completely and are now a lesbian. And I would kind of like to know if that was true."
"Why does everyone think I've switched sides?"
"Well, you haven't really had any sort of noticeable relationship in a year. People figure there has to be a good reason why you're keeping your love life secret all of the sudden. I mean, you went from openly pinning for people you couldn't have or people who had died loving you to nothing. You have to admit it is a little odd in retrospect."
"I guess," she said, kicking up a little sand. "That still doesn't give anyone a right to insinuate things about my sexual preferences."
"People will talk."
Sydney glared at him. "This is all a joke to you, isn't it?"
"Before he had a chance to refuse or deny it, there were gunshots ringing through the air."
"In typical Sydney Bristow fashion, right?"
"It just wouldn't be a momentous event if there weren't some sort of gunplay to it..."
Sark pushed Sydney down onto the sand, making sure that his body covered as much of hers as possible. She started to elbow him in the side. "Move. You're making me swallow sand," she hissed.
Scanning the distance, he let her squirm out from under him as the gunshots slowed down to a trickle. "I don't think your job from earlier was finished," he said pointing to a figure down the beach. "That looks like Marcello to me."
"Damnit!" she screamed getting up and stomping towards him. "I told him if he tried to retaliate I would have to kill him. Why do these men always force me to do evil things?"
"Because that's our job?" Sark supplied.
She rolled her eyes and pulled her gun out from where it was concealed.
Will placed his baseball hat on top of his face, which was burning from the heat of the sun. "You know, I don't think I will ever understand where you women put your guns when you wear those skintight dresses we men love so much."
"It's a secret of the trade. I would have to take off one of your limbs if I told you."
"Leg holster would have been an adequate answer to satisfy my curiosity, you know."
"But that isn't the right answer," she said with a sly grin. "But let's not talk about that. Where was I? Oh that's right! I let my temper get the best of me and was chasing after Marcello..."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Sydney screamed as she fired a few warning shots in his direction. He took off almost immediately in the other direction. She looked back at her boyfriend. "Why do they always run?"
"Because they don't realize they can't win." He watched her take off after Marcello. "At least, he hasn't realized it yet." With a sigh, he began to try to catch up to his crazy gun-toting girlfriend.
"When he caught up to me, the fight was pretty much over." She grimaced at the memory. "If I had known what he was planning on doing that night, I think I might have tried to be a little neater about it..."
"Jesus, Bristow! Can't you be normal and worry about getting stains on your dress?" Sark yelled.
Sydney looked down at the few bloodstains that were now soaking into her new Dolce dress. "This always happens when I buy a new piece of clothing," she mumbled as she half-heartedly tried to rub the stain out.
"At least it's not any of your blood."
Before Sydney could respond, she saw Sark's face pale.
"It seems like Marcello wasn't alone in his little escapade of revenge. He brought a number of rather hefty looking Italian men with him."
"So what did you two do?" Will moved the hat away from his eyes.
"The only thing we could do. We threw caution to the wind and attacked them before they could launch any sort of offensive move." She glanced over at him. "I mean, my dress was already ruined so what did I have to lose..."
Sydney and Sark worked without any words exchanging between them. They had been functioning as partners for so long that they didn't need them.
Before anyone could blink, everyone except for Sark and Sydney were down on the ground either dead or moaning in great pain. Sydney stood with her gun in her hand off to the side, making sure that no one moved to attack them again. She looked over to where Sark was on one knee, resting for a moment. The fight seemed to have taken a lot out of him.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine." He looked up at her. "So what do you think?"
"About what?" she asked, not really paying attention.
"Getting married."
She turned to him. "You're seriously asking me?"
"Yeah."
Lowering the gun, she looked at where he kneeled. "Are you crazy?"
"Crazy about you," he said, knowing that she would find humor in the completely obvious pick-up line.
"You're actually proposing to me over a bunch of dead and wounded bodies?"
"What better time is there?"
She rolled her eyes. "I don't know. Maybe after a nice night at home. Or even a quiet walk in the park. Heck! I'd take a proposal over a Big Mac and fries over this."
"Well this is what you're getting," he said, pulling a ring out of his back pocket.
"Typical Sark, right?" Sydney said, smiling to her best friend as her daughter stumbled her way back through the crowd and over to their beach blankets.
"Yeah, typical Sark," Will agreed.
"Are you still telling the story?" Lily asked, plopping down beside her mother.
"Will's a little slow sometimes, honey. I had to start over a few times before he could understand the story." Will glared at her. "But we're right about at the part where you and I left off earlier. Your daddy had just asked me to marry him..."
"Well, if this is all I'm getting, I might have to pass." Sydney gave him one last look and began walking back up the beach to where the restaurant was.
Sark ran after her and caught up rather quickly. "So, is that a no?"
"Of course it's not a no, you idiot," she said, punching him lightly on the arm. "But I just wanted you to know that it wasn't the best proposal ever."
"I thought it fit nicely," he said honestly.
Stopping, she turned to look at him and found herself studying his face. At that moment, she realized something."I decided at that moment that he was right. It did fit nicely. In fact, it was the perfect proposal. I just didn't see it at first."
"I believe that just might have been the perfect proposal for our relationship," she said. She tentatively held out her hand and allowed him to slip the ring onto it. "My father is going to flip."
"Do we have to tell him?" Sark asked, sliding her newly ringed hand into his.
"I'll give you a few days head start, I guess."
Sydney finished packing up their beach stuff and began to walk with Lily and Will back to his car. "And that was how your father and I got engaged."
Lily buckled in. "That was a good story, Mom. Have you ever considered becoming a professional storyteller?"
"What? Like Mr. Rogers?" Will asked as he turned out onto the street.
"Don't knock Mr. Rogers," Sydney warned. "He had a very lucrative career. And those cardigan sweaters never went out of style. The man was a genius."
They sat in silence for a few miles, just listening to the radio. Eventually, Lily got bored and asked, "Will you tell me another story, Mommy?"
"Not today, sweetie," Sydney replied. "It's getting late and you have to go straight to bed when we get home."
"How far are we?" Lily asked, her eyes drooping slightly.
"We're about two minutes away," Will answered.
True to his statement, approximately two minutes later Will pulled his car into Sydney's driveway. Sydney ushered a half-asleep Lily out of the car. Then, she walked around to stand by the driver's side window. "Thank you for today, Will. It's been fun."
"It was my pleasure." Will kissed her lightly on the cheek before placing the car into reverse and backing out of the driveway.
Sydney smiled and walked over to where her daughter was standing before their front stoop. "Why didn't you go inside, sweetie?"
"You got flowers, Mommy," Lily said pointing to a bouquet that was resting on the first step.
Sydney bent down and picked them up. "Why don't you go inside, Lily, and brush your teeth? Mommy will be inside in a minute."Too tired to argue, Lily nodded and went inside. The second she was out of sight, Sydney let herself crumple to the ground. In her hand was a dozen lotus flowers.
Her mind raced with a few specific memories. Nadia, placing the flower in her hair on the day of her wedding. Sark, telling her that it was his favorite flower. Nadia, calling the lotus exotic. The last thing that ran through her head before she found the strength to go inside and get her daughter ready for bed was what shook her up and confused her the most. They were Sark's own words.
"They stand for rebirth."