DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters, except for the original ones so please don't sue. The characters will be returned with all their fingers and toes complete. Thank you and have a nice day.

Author's Note/Review Replies (naks, for the first time!) Talia, I assure you that neither Sark nor Ana forgot about that kiss. Nor did Jack (hehe…). Darrel Doomvomit, thank you for the review, I hope you find less grammatical mistakes in this chapter too ;D. And Agent Flamingo, the thing that Jack will find out about Nadia (hint: it's about paternity…. Hehe) will be in chapter 25.

Thanks for reviewing, people. I hope you like this chapter (its kinda long…)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The airplane skidded to a halt in the private airstrip. Sark watched, under his sunglasses as Nadia and Yelena stepped out of the plane. They are talking and laughing.

Sark stopped leaning on his car and started to walk towards them. Yelena recognized him almost immediately.

"Julian. Prompt, as usual." She remarked. Nadia's face quickly turned sour.

"Ms. Derevko." Sark greeted and took off his sunglasses. "And Ms. Santos. Or do you now prefer to be called Ms. Derevko?" He asked, smiling.

Nadia ignored him.

"Ah, I see that you're not in the mood to talk to me. That is too bad. I'll be your only companion for the rest of the day."

Nadia could only gape at him. "You can't trust this person!" She exclaimed at Yelena.

Yelena grinned at her. "Don't worry, dear. Julian is a disciplined young man. Very, very disciplined." Her aunt said and gave Sark a knowing look.

Sark ignored the comment and took Nadia's duffel bag.

"Now, off you go! And remember, Enrique Perez can help you if you get into trouble" Yelena said as she watched Nadia uncertainly walk towards Sark.

They were going to walk off when Yelena called out to him. "Julian, Irina knows what Ana did. She gives you her thanks." Sark, embarrassed with what Yelena said, just nodded his head.

Ana's soft, innocent lips gave him sleepless nights for weeks. And he believes that Ana forgot what she did. But then again, it was Ana who kissed him, not Gabrielle.

"What was Aunt Yelena talking about?" Nadia asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Sark glanced at her. "Nothing fancy."

Nadia made a face at him and stopped talking. She then looked straight ahead and in the distance, she can see a sleek black sports car proudly sitting in the middle of the runway.

"May I drive it?" Nadia asked when they reached the automobile.

Sark cocked a brow. "Later."

Nadia rolled her eyes and went inside. It smells of new leather and… French fries. Sark tossed the duffel bag in the backseat.

"So, how did you find the monster heiress to you evil mother's organization?" Sark asked as he started the car. The purr of the engine is sweet music to his ears.

It took a long time before she answered.

"I was wrong." Sark looked at her. Nadia is looking straight front.

"Really?" he asked, a bit sarcastically.

Nadia sighed. "Stop being so sarcastic. I made very irrational judgments and allowed myself to be corrupted by Arvin Sloane."

"Arvin Sloane? You don't call him father anymore? Wow, Nadia, you really changed after spending a few weeks with Irina Derevko."

Nadia ignored him. She knows her mother's side of the story and the truth about her father. Nothing can change that.

Sark sped through the Argentine countryside with vigilant accuracy.

'A careful speed freak. Is there even such a thing?' Nadia asked herself and took a sideway glance at the driver. 'Hmm… come to think of it, he is cute.'

Her eyebrows knitted together. 'Stop that! He's an arrogant little boy. HE IS NOT CUTE!' she thought and concentrated all her thinking in what she's going to do after she reaches her new home. But she still catches herself stealing glances at him.

An hour passed by and they're still traveling. Nadia can feel her stomach grumbling. But she didn't say anything.

"Are you hungry?" Sark asked the minute he saw gigantic yellow arches a few kilometers away. They are nearing the city.

"A bit." She answered. But she secretly wished that Sark would go faster.

A few seconds later, they reached the fast food joint. Sark parked somewhere inconspicuous. They both went out of the car and stretched a bit.

Sark locked the doors and threw the keys to Nadia. She caught it effortlessly. A perplexed look crossed her face as she stared at it.

"What are these doing with me?" she asked him quizzically.

Sark smiled at her. "You asked me a few hours ago if you could drive the car. I said, later. After we eat, it will be later. Then, it's your turn to drive."

-x-x-x-

Jack, after a long day at the CIA rotunda, opened the front door of the house. The faint smell of fresh paint assaulted his nostrils.

Making a face, he closed the door and walked across of the foyer and into the living room. He saw Ana sitting on the sofa, reading a book.

She's wearing a gas mask.

"Why are you wearing that?" Jack asked. Ana looked up from her book.

"Pardon me?" she asked.

"Why are you wearing a gas mask?" Jack asked again and set down his briefcase. He looked at her a bit amusedly.

"The smell of the paint triggered an asthma attack this afternoon. Eric gave it to me." Ana replied and closed her book.

"Are you okay now?" Jack asked and sat down opposite her.

"Uh huh…" Ana answered, at the same time nodding her head.

"Did you turn on the ventilation before you painted your room?"

Ana gave a small frown. "What ventilation?" She saw an odd expression passing by her father's face. His face seemed to have a mix of confusion, amusement and exasperation. He stood up and left the room.

'What did I do now?' Ana asked herself. They have been civil these past few days since they have gotten tired of annoying each other. She sighed inside the gas mask and saw the lenses getting fogged.

"Stupid gas mask." Ana muttered. A few minutes later, she heard a subtle whirring sound. And after that, Jack walked in the room again.

"That was the ventilation." He said, and looked at her. Jack evaluated Ana's appearance again and then said, "I doubt if you could eat properly with a gas mask on. What do you think about eating out?"

Ana shrugged. "Uh… okay." She said and stood up from the couch.

Jack looked at her. Ana looks really silly wearing a gas mask. She looks like a bug with extremely large eyes.

"Okay. Uh… there's a new place near the Rotunda…"

-x0x-x0x-x0x-

"Thank you." Jack said as he handed to the waiter the menus. Ana was silent throughout the car trip. Yes, they were civil with each other, but not chatty.

Jack looked uncomfortably at Ana, who looked back at him, gray eyes filled with uneasiness.

"So… uh, how was your day?" Jack asked. Sydney, Weiss, Vaughn, together with Agents Michelson and Barone, helped with the painting and rearranging of Ana's room.

"It was… fine. Safe." Ana politely answered.

An awkward pause followed. Ana is looking at her glass of water like it was the most fascinating thing in the world while Jack looked straight ahead.

"You still dream about it, do you?" Her father suddenly asked.

His question caught Ana off-guard. Her cool, polite façade disintegrated bit by bit as she fumbled for an answer.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You dream about your life when you were… her."

She looked at him, a bit afraid that he knows. The dreams are her secret. It takes her back to when she was Gabrielle Rinaldi. Those terrible days of merciless killing. And those days with Julian, the only light in the darkness of slaughter.

"How did you know?" Ana meekly asked. She seems to shrink in her seat.

"You talk in your sleep." Jack answered. Just as then, their food arrived, giving Ana a reason to keep quiet.

Wordlessly, they ate their dinner. It is as if they had lost the ability to talk.

The silence is getting unbearable for her. 'Arggh! You can't live in a muted world! Talk to him! The world will crumble if you're going to keep your mouth shut!'

"Uh… what's your favorite color?" Ana asked, 'Good God! Such inanity!' she thought, as she looked at Jack.

"Favorite color?" Jack asked, a bit puzzled with the question. "I don't know… Red?"

"Oh…" Was Ana's reply when Jack said nothing more. She lowered her head down and concentrated on twirling the pasta on her fork. For the first time in her entire life, she failed in starting a conversation with a stranger.

"What about you?" Jack asked. Ana looked up and Jack continued "Uh, your favorite color, I mean."

"Hmm… It's blue."

"Oh, I thought it was pink." He replied in a straight face. Irina doesn't like the color pink. 'Pink flowers and pink walls are two different things, Jack. Don't color the goddamn walls pink!' Irina used to say that to him.

A wave of confusion pass by Ana but it quickly dissipated. The uneasiness disappeared as she laughed and shook her head. Her mother hates pink but that attitude towards the color sometimes have a bad karma to them. They once visited a house whose motif was pink. Her mom was so horrified that she had a nightmare wherein she was being chased by pink animals.

"Pink? Eew… I don't like pink." She said, smiling at him.

Jack was a bit taken aback with the reaction he got. The laughter is music to his ears. She occasionally smiled and rarely laughed. And this is the first time she did both with him present. Jack intends to keep that smile on her face.

"You know, you should smile more often. It suits you." Jack said. Ana shook her head and smiled wider at him.

"You sound like mom. She hates it when I frown for no reason at all." Ana said and then earnestly looked at Jack. "Does it bother you that I look like her?"

He gaped at her question. 'Is this, what's bothering her?'

"Of course not. Why would that bother me? I still have… feelings for your mother. These feelings are not very easy to erase-"

"You're right about feelings. And I know you're still angry at her. And since I look like her, you're angry at me too." Ana said, interrupting him.

"Ana, my relationship with your mother is complicated. Everything is blurred with… us. There is no fine line between love and hate."

"Then what do you really feel about her?"

Jack looked at her uncertainly. The fiery attitude she sometimes display tells him that she will not drop this matter easily. Sydney is patient, Ana is not.

"And please don't tell me it's complicated. Everything in this world is complicated." Ana said when she saw Jack's hesitation.

"Fine." Jack said and started to tell her everything she needs and wants to know. He told her their history, what happened from the very start until to the current situation, omitting parts that are related but not really important. Ana listened to him, never interrupting and letting him finish. Very much like Irina.

When Jack finished, Ana looked at him directly in the eye. "I think you and mom should talk about this. You think it's complicated and she thinks it's complicated. But it really is not that intricate."

Jack stared at her. "Ana, did you understand what I just told you?"

"Of course I did. That conclusion was just from a third person point of view. Besides, you're the one who's going to decide what to do, not me." She said and finished her dinner and her orange juice.

Jack just looked at her. He couldn't discern whether Ana's serious about her suggestion or not.

"So, are you still up for dessert?" Ana asked suddenly when she noticed that Jack isn't touching his food.

"You're still hungry?" Jack asked, amused. Ana finished two plates of pasta and she seems to be eyeing the steak on his plate.

"Define hungry." Ana replied. Jack chuckled with her response.

"Do you want to go ice cream hopping? I used to do that when I was a kid."

"Ice cream hopping?" Ana asked. "Does that involve going to an ice cream parlor, buying ice cream and then going to another ice cream parlor to buy their ice cream?"

Jack nodded his head. Ana's face broke into a wide smile.

"Okay! Let's go ice cream hopping."

-x-x-x-

"So, I was saying to him, 'Mike, not everyone has the same physique as yours. Do I look like you?' and do you know what he did? He laughed. Your boyfriend surely is a charmer!" Weiss said. Sydney laughed. They are having dinner in one of their favorite restaurants.

"So does that mean you'll not be having dessert?" Vaughn asked. Weiss made a face at him.

"I'll be having a non-fat dessert." He said a bit jokingly. Sydney looked at him with curious eyes.

"Vaughn hasn't told me anything about your crush in the Rotunda, but I think I know who it is." Sydney said, smiling at Weiss. She saw Weiss' cheeks tinge with embarrassment.

"She probably doesn't know me…" Weiss stammered. Sydney smiled even wider.

"Ana told me that your crush likes you too." Sydney said and then looked at Vaughn. Vaughn smiled at her and then smiled to Weiss. He then saw two figures in the distance crossing the street.

"Hey Syd. Isn't that your dad and your sister?" Vaughn asked and motioned towards the glass window.

Sydney could see her father and sister talking. They are eating ice cream and her father is laughing at something Ana said.

Jack Bristow is laughing.

Sydney couldn't believe her eyes. A few days ago, He and Ana were fighting like cats and dogs and now they're talking like they've known each other since the day they were born.

"They are so weird." Weiss remarked when he saw them. "But it's nice. Ana sort of implied before that your dad doesn't want her around. This proves otherwise."

"And their facial expressions were so unreadable you couldn't guess what they're thinking. But now, they're an open book." Vaughn added. Sydney smiled at him.

A few minutes later, Ana and Jack entered the restaurant. Ana saw them almost immediately. Sydney smiled at her and motioned them to come to their table. The two of them were greeted happily.

"Hi dad, Ana." Sydney greeted as she stood up and kissed Jack on the cheek. "Have you guys eaten yet?"

"Yeah. Uh, we're here for ice cream." Jack answered, smiling at her. "This will be the last stop for ice cream… I think." Jack said and looked at Ana with mock disapproval, which is a bit ironic since he was the one who suggested the activity. He didn't know that there are a lot of ice cream stores in LA.

"This will be the last stop, I promise." Ana said earnestly and smiled at him. Turning to Sydney, Vaughn and Weiss she asked, "Do you three want to join us?"

Sydney looked at her two companions and then to her sister and father. "Why not join us here? We're going to have dessert, anyway."

"But we might be intruding your get-together." Jack said.

"We don't mind." Vaughn said. Weiss agreed.

Jack looked at their faces and then turned to Ana. She just shrugged and then smiled at him.

"Well, your sister did say earlier that she's tired walking from one ice cream parlor to another…"

-x-x-x-

A/N-Hello… as you have read, I made a little "love" triangle with Sark, Nadia and Ana and I want to know what you think of it. Should it be Sark and Ana or Sark and Nadia?