A/N: Haha second update in one day! Hope you like it. And thank you so much for reviewing, they made me smile today. And yeah, hope you like this new chaper. Oh yeah, if you've got any suggestions for this story, or anything you want t see, then please tell me and I'll try and work them in. R/R, please!

The look for Allison's murderer came up fruitless. Other than the fact someone had gone to such great lengths to alter her appearance, there was no evidence that she had, in fact, been murdered. The autopsy had concluded that she had died of heart failure. So they were going on the fact that someone had altered her appearance before dumping her body. The Florence police had handed the investigation over to the CIA's office in Florence. As they claimed it was a matter of the US intelligence.

They also had no leads. No one that they thought would want to kill her. Save one, a Sydney Bristow, but the problem there was no one believed that it could have been her. She had only recovered her memory four weeks ago, Allison had died five, unless that the person Syd was pretending to be had a vendetta against her.

It had been five long hours from when Michael and Eric had found out that Allison had been murdered. And they still refused to talk about their suspicions that Sydney had something to do with it. Not their Sydney, she would never cold-bloodily kill someone just because she didn't like them. They still thought that she would only kill someone to save her own life, and otherwise, it wasn't an option.

Michael left his office and went looking for someone who would know how to get into contact with Sydney, a cell phone, or another way. The first person he came to was Jack. Stopping him as he was entering the Rotunda.

"Mr. Bristow, do you know how I can get into contact with your daughter," Vaughn asked the man who would most likely know. But one could never tell with Jack, he was just too cold, Vaughn and most other people in this office were afraid of him.

"She had her cell phone," replied Jack coolly. "You of all people should know that, Agent Vaughn, you being her handler and all." Jack smirked at him before walking away, leaving Vaughn to glare at his retreating form.

It took him a minute before he lost sight of Jack and walked back to his office, closing the door behind him. He had to talk to Sydney, she had a right to know that the person who killed her best friend was dead. Sitting down at his desk he pulled his phone closer to him and picked up the receiver. Dialing a number that he had memorized, he waited as the phone rung.

"Hello?"

"Syd, it's me, Vaughn." Well, duh, who else would it be.

"What do you want?" She sad, her voice changing from when she had picked up the phone. It was more distant, colder, but Vaughn pushed that away, he needed to tell her.

"Earlier today, Weiss got some information from Florence. Allison Doren," he paused, "The woman who-"

"I know who she is," Sydney cut him off.

"Right, well she turned up dead in Florence. Someone murdered her." There, it was out, now all she had to do was react.

"Was that all you wanted?" Sydney asked him, which threw him off, he thought she would be happier than that.

"Yeah," he said in a defeated voice.

"Right, then I'll see you tomorrow." And that was it, she hung up, leaving Vaughn to listen to the dial tone, thinking about how things had gone horribly wrong somewhere. The woman he loved was not supposed to act like that towards him. But then everything changed, something happened and he lost his Sydney. The day before he was going to propose to her.

But no, she disappeared and he gave the ring to Lauren. What a great idea that turned out to be, Michael thought to himself before setting the phone back into it's cradle.


Sydney flipped her phone down and threw it own on the table. An annoyed look on her face.

"Have an argument with Agent Lover-Boy?" Sark smirked at her expression. Which was rewarded by a look that could possibly kill.

"Ever call him that again and I shoot you," she warned him. And he lost the smirk on his face, knowing it was true.

"Well then, who was it? I mean, you don't usually get that annoyed when answering your phone, Jules," Simon told her after he had stopped laughing at the other two bicker like kids.

"It was Vaughn, wanted to tell me they had found Allison's body." She shrugged, it was no great matter to her. She had killed her, what did she care if they found her body, she was done with her now.

"Ah," Simon nodded, apparently he had played some part in her death as well. Sark had asked him about it on the plane ride, wanting to know what had happened to his former girlfriend. He had told him what happened, and was now viewing his partner in a whole new light. After hearing that story he could now fully believe that this partnership was real, and that Sydney Bristow was a fully changed woman.

"Now, for my next question," Simon continued, "are you going to tell us what you found on that disk that upset you so much?"

She looked up from her laptop, at which she was currently making a copy of the disk for the CIA. "Oh, that." She said simply, not wanting to answer the question, and trying to find a way out of it.

"Yes that, and don't think you can get out of answering, I know when you lie, too, remember that, Jules," Simon told her, frowning at her.

Sighing she closed her laptop half way as it copied the disk. "I knew most of the information on the disk, but only a few things were new to me. I had gotten to the last one, and it wasn't named like the rest, I opened it, it was someone I knew." She said, she didn't say who.

Simon was about to ask who, but Sark answered his question before he could even ask it, "Will Tippin."

Sydney's head shot up, "How did you know?" She demanded of him, a look of fury growing in her eyes.

"I saw the picture earlier, before you closed the laptop," he shrugged. He knew what will looked like, having tortured him before.

"Who's that?" Simon asked, apparently Sydney had not told him who Will was.

"He was my best friend," she answered in a hurt voice, as if the name brought back memories that she didn't want to remember. "Then I disappeared, Allison tried to kill him." She stood up, began to pace before she went further. "He was supposed to be in Witness Protection," she muttered, more to herself than to either of them.

Suddenly, she had her coffee cup in her hand. And before either of the two could stop her, the cup was flying through the wall where it smashed and coffee coursed down the wall. Sark and Simon simultaneously stood up, both walking around the table to Sydney, Sark reaching her first, he grabbed her wrists when she tried to get something else to throw. "Let me go!" She screamed, tried desperately to get out of his grip.

As she fought, his grip got tighter. She pounded against his chest as much as she could, but finally he got it so she was pressed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, Simon watching in amazement, he had never been able to do that, she would have thrown him across the bloody room if her had.

Sydney still fought him, though her attempts go weaker and weaker as she began to cry. Finally she gave up and sagged against his chest, sobbing into his shoulder, and he continued to hold her, though his grip let up a little. He placed a hand on the back of her head and bent his head down to whisper in her ear, "Everything will be okay," he promised her.

After ten minutes she had finally calmed down enough and pushed away from his warm embrace. Wiping her tear stained face she backed away from both of them. "Sorry," she mumbled, to both of them. Not meeting either of their worried eyes.

Even though they would both kill you if it was of profit to them, she knew that they had a heart somewhere in the their body. And they would both care for her as much as they could. And they would worry about her, it was to be expected. Simon credited her for making him as known as he was today, because it was her fault. And Sark gave her the credit for getting him out of jail, and then keeping him alive, knowing what it meant she would have to do.

After a moment she sat down, and motioned for them to do the same, she got tired of standing after a while. Wiping at her face once more, she opened her laptop back up and tried her hardest not to break down crying again. The computer was beeping at her to say that it had finished making the copy of the disk. "Now, to erase," she mumbled to herself. Clicking on random files, most of the new ones. She hovered over Will's file and both men noticed her expression change. She deleted it and the expression was gone. Quick as lightening, it was, and she liked to keep t like that.

"What are we going to do today?" Sark asked her, after a few more minutes of silence. He never was one for waiting, he would rather know what they were going to do.

Sydney thought over this before answering. "Whatever you want. I don't have anything planned. At least not for the rest of the day." She finally brought her gaze off of the computer screen and looked at Simon first then brought her look sight over to Sark.

She tilted her head, as if she was studying his face, his expression, him in general. But when he met her eyes she quickly looked away and blushed, and that startled him.

Simon didn't notice their strange behavior and stood up, "I have some people I need to see," she declared, walking around the table to kiss Sydney on the cheek. "Try and refrain from breaking anymore cups, babe." He joked, which got Sydney to smile.

She's beautiful when she smiles, Sark thought to himself as her watched their exchange. Hell, she's beautiful all the time. Sark quickly vacated those thoughts when he found she was looking at him rather oddly. "What?" He demanded.

Sydney blushed again, "Sorry, you just looked kind of funny there." She looked away thinking that she had made him angry.

"Don't worry about it," he said, in a much softer tone today. "Right, so I don't know of anything that I could do today. It's not like I can just go take a stroll in the park or anything." He commented sarcastically.

Sydney shrugged, "You could if you wanted to, even though the park isn't all that nice these days." She said, not having caught the sarcastic tone in his voice.

"How about you give me a tour instead," he suggested, after all he hadn't gotten one the night before, seeing only his room, her room, Simon's room, the living room and the garage. Oh, and some hallways, but he knew there was much more of the house he had yet to see.

"Sure," she stood, waiting as he followed her example and stood as well. "Well, this is the living room," she said, and laughed. The first time he had heard her laugh in a long time. "Follow me," she beckoned to him with her hand and walked out of the door on the other side of the room.

He quickly followed her, not wanting to loose her so soon.

A few rooms later they had finished the downstairs, which was fully of really big rooms, even a ballroom. Sydney lead them up a different stairwell, one that he hadn't seen before. He was lead into a room that was dark, once the lights were turned on, he could see that it was filled with books. Three walls, floor to ceiling, were packed full of books, on the fourth wall there was a fireplace, and windows. There was a desk with papers and books littered over it, with two old looking leather chairs. "This is the library, the best room in the house," Sydney told him from behind. Sark found himself agreeing with that statement, he liked this room more than any other one he had seen so far. "You can work out of this room if you want to," she said softly, knowing that he liked it.

But a cold-blooded assassin wasn't supposed to like libraries, so he just turned to her and shrugged, "Alright," he said as if it meant nothing to him. She giggled, knowing that he was just trying to mask the fact that it was totally out of character for him to like the room. "Come on," she said, smiling, turning out the lights. Sark was disappointed as he followed her out, but knew he would be spending most of his time in that room.

They had finished the upstairs save one room, which she had avoided. "What's in there?" He asked, she couldn't avoid it anymore. So she just sighed and pulled a key out of her pocket. Unlocking the door she pushed it open and turned on the lights.

She held open the door so he could go into the room first. Once he had stepped through the threshold he stopped. It was a torture room, just like one SD-6 had. He turned to her in shock, not believing that she would ever have one of these. After all, they had both found themselves in a room like this before, and they had not been the one doing the questioning.

She nodded, knowing what he was thinking, "It became necessary after a while," she told him softly, she didn't spend lots of time in here, it depressed her, and there was only one key. But he would need one as well. "It's helpful sometimes," he understood, she had killed Allison in a similar room. "I'll make you a key," she told him before shivering.

Noticing the shiver he walked out of the room, with a grateful look upon her face she turned out the lights and closed the door, locking it behind her. "And that's the house, I think you've seen everything." She nodded, not thinking of anything else that he had yet to be seen.

"I haven't seen your room," he teased her, stepped closer to him, so close they were almost touching. Them being that close made her breathe catch in her throat. She looked up at him and saw something she never thought she would see in his face, admiration. And he was just as shocked to see something flash into her eyes as well.

They both pulled back at the same time, and wouldn't meet each other's eyes. They both would admit that they found the other attractive, but as far as they had known, that was the extent of it. But apparently it wasn't.

"You're right, I've seen everything," Sark said rather hasty. This was an uncomfortable situation they had put themselves in, and neither knew how to get out of it.

Thankfully Mark decided to show up from down the hallway to save them. "Excuse me, Miss Sydney, you have a phone call."

Sydney gave him a warm smile, "Thank you, Mark, I'll take it in the library." He nodded and walked away, and Sydney and Sark made their ways back to the library.

Sydney inhabited the chair behind the desk while Sark sat in one of the seats in front of her. "Hello?" She asked, picking up the phone and leaning back in her chair.

"Jules, it's me."

"Hi, Simon." She said, Sark leaned back into the seat and crossed his legs, and his arms over his chest.

"Listen, we have a bit of a problem. As you know they found Allison's body in Florence." He didn't wait for her to reply, but kept talking. "But now it seems that they have opened your secret room in the Florence apartment, and found some things that have mad them suspect you."

Sark watched as Sydney's face twisted in rage, "What!" She screamed into the phone, "How the hell could they do that? You promised me, when I got that room put in, that there was no way to get into with without the damn key!" She yelled, angry, Sark didn't know what about, but he knew he would know soon enough.

"Jules, calm down, I didn't know they could, the people who put it in assure me that they couldn't break in. But now we have to discuss what you are going to do."

"I'll figure it out," she barked into the phone before slamming it back down in the base. "Damnit, damnit damnit," she cursed, before looking up at Sark. "It seems that the God damn CIA broke into a room in my Florence apartment, identical to the one we just vacated. And now they suspect I had something to do with Allison's death."

"But you do," Sark pointed out the obvious.

"Exactly!" She exclaimed stand, walking around behind her desk, "They can't know that I had anything to do with it. It would ruin anything."

"Then maybe you should have thought of that before you killed her in that room, and then gave yourself up for the CIA to take back," Sark leaned further back into the seat as she shot him a murderous glare at the statement. "I mean no harm," he defended himself, holding up his hands, "I was just saying."

She sighed, "I know, I know." She nodded, before sitting down in the window seat. Sark stood up and walked over to her, sitting next to her. Their legs brushed against each other's and they both looked at the floor for a minute.

Then Sark heard her sniffle, he looked over to see she was softly crying, putting his arm around her, he pulled her close and rested his lips on her hair, "Don't cry, it'll be alright." He crooned into her hair.

She nodded, "I know, but I just don't want to deal with the things I didn't think of first." First the whole killing Sark thing and now this, what was going to be next. These past few days had been hard on Sydney.

"I know, love, I know," Sark told her softly, putting his other arm around her and hugging her to his body. They stayed like this for a few more minutes until she stopped crying.

She lifted her head and looked at him thoughtfully, "What?" he asked her softly as he caught her looking at him.

"Nothing," she murmured before looking down. She had the sudden urge to kiss him. She didn't know where the feeling came from, but she was surprised he she felt hand on her chin, lifting it so she was looking at him. They looked at each other before Sark leaned down to kiss her softly on the lips.


Michael sat on his phone, listening in disbelief to what the person on the other line was saying. "Okay, bye," she said, before placing the phone down. He looked over at his best friend sadly.

"What is it?" Eric demanded, "Was it something about Syd?" He asked, worried that it might be something serious, like she had disappeared again or something.

"Kind of," was the reply. " That was the Florence division. It seems that they have finally broken into the last room in the apartment we found Syd in." Eric looked at him blankly, so he continued. "Do you remember when we took down SD-6, how there was a torture room in the back, a sound proof room?"

Eric nodded, "You aren't trying to tell me that Syd had one f those in her apartment are you?" He asked laughing, but then he saw Michael's face. "Oh, my God, you're seriously saying that?"

Michael nodded solemnly. "Yes, and as it turns out, there is some questionable materials in that room. Sydney is officially a suspect in the murder of Allison Doren." The way he said it made both of them get this feeling in their gut that everything was not going to be okay this time. Sydney was not going to be able to talk her way out of this one. Nor was she going to be able to come up with something. Which wasn't good. They would just have to wait until tomorrow to talk to her themselves.

"I need to tell Dixon," Michael said quietly, not wanting to. He wished he could just keep this between them, but it was different because someone else had found this out. If it had been just the two of them on their own they probably would have kept it hidden, but they both knew hat if one of them didn't tell Dixon that there would be hell to pay. Probably even the suspension of them both.

"Let me come with you," Eric said and they both stood up together. Michael didn't have the heart to turn him down, so he just nodded and walked out of his office towards their Director's.

They both entered to find Dixon talking to Lauren and Jack. Michael ignored the look that Lauren gave him, not wanting to deal with it right now, he had to many other things on his plate right now.

"What is it?" Dixon asked when he saw the looks on both of their faces. Sighing Michael relayed what he had found out on the phone to the other three of them. Dixon's face seemed to fall when he heard that, Lauren showed some smug emotion that Michael could have slapped her for, but it was Jack's that angered him the most. Not because it was the opposite reaction than he had expected but because there had been no reaction to get angry about. There was nothing, no change in hearing that his daughter was currently the only suspect in a murder case.

But what didn't register with Michael at the moment was that Jack never showed emotion. The only person he had ever showed emotion with was he daughter. And even those events were limited. But thoughts like those weren't going through his head, no he was thinking rather of what he knew about this, and why wasn't he surprised.

The anger must have shown on his face because Dixon suddenly spoke. "Sydney gets home tomorrow," he stated, as if reminding himself, "We will bring her here as soon as she gets in, and we will question her. Bu that's it, I must insist that none of you talk about this to anyone who is not in this room. It is imperative that Sydney not feel as if she is being attacked when she gets here.


Sydney had been in a daze since Julian had kissed her. She couldn't believe that it had happened, and expected herself to wake up any second from the dream that she must have been in. But she never woke up, it never happened, she was in reality, and he had really kissed her.

And the scary part was; she had liked it.

It was now midnight. They had made it through the rest of the day without making any mistakes. Like getting to close, as they both knew it wasn't safe if they did.

Simon had come home in time for dinner, and he and Sydney had spent it talking about what she was going to do when she got back. It was obvious that she was going to be taken into custody as soon as she landed, and it was also obvious that she couldn't not go back tomorrow, as that would ensure that she had been tipped off, and would have made her seem guiltier. They decided that it would be best for everyone if she went back as scheduled, with the disk.

After dinner Simon had gone straight into his room, leaving, again, Sark and Sydney alone. Not that they minded, though. Sydney found herself curled up in her chair in her bedroom, Sark found himself lying on the bed. Both of them thinking of the other.

Midnight came around and she needed to get some sleep. She had to fly in five hours back home, she could sleep more on the plane, but she did need some sleep now, it had been a stressful day.

But before she went to sleep she needed to see about something first. Opening her door she crept across the hallway, over to Sark's door, knocking on it softly, she opened it, "Julian?" She called out softly.

"Yes?" He was surprised; he hadn't expected her to come to him tonight, "Is something wrong?" He inquired, now worried, he stood up, walking to where she was standing.

"No," she said softly, "I just," she let her voice drift off before she kissed him hard on the lips, "I just needed to do that." She looked down, away from Julian's blue orbs. "Good night, Julian, I'll see you soon." She knew she wouldn't see him before she left.

Before she back out of the room she kissed him again and then turned and half ran out of his room, leaving him startled at what had just happened.