With a heavy sigh, Sydney pulled the keys out of the car's ignition and stepped out of the car. It wasn't that she was unhappy to be returning to her apartment. She had just been so happy to get away from her life that it was hard to push herself back into the daily routine. Plus, she was well aware that there were a great number of difficult conversations to be had in the coming days.

As she took the spare key out from underneath a potted plant by the side door, she glanced back at the car and shook her head in disbelief. It wasn't every day she got a chance to drive a BMW without worrying about a car behind her trying to shoot her. "I think I finally understand Sark's fascination with them," she said to herself as she pushed the door open.

She had been surprised when he offered his personal car to her for her drive home. He had been extremely accommodating to her in every single aspect, but this was almost above and beyond what anyone would be expected to do. When she initially refused, he had told her the only other option was having him drive her there himself.

"And that wasn't an option." She slapped the spare key onto the kitchen counter. For a few brief seconds when he offered, she considered letting him drive her home. She would have been given more precious time to keep herself from focusing on seeing Vaughn and her father again. Knowing that was a rather cowardly move, she had shaken the fantasy away and told Sark no.

One quick breath was all Sydney allowed herself before launching into her routine of getting ready for work. She had about twenty minutes in which to shower, change, and figure out a new mode of transportation.

"First things first." Sydney picked up the phone and dialed Weiss's home number. "Eric?"

"Sydney. Thank god. I was wondering when you'd be calling me. I've been worried sick."

"And why would that be?"

"Michael told me that you two had a fight and you walked out on him."

Her blood began to boil at the idea that it had been her doing the abandoning. She hadn't expected Vaughn to leave out such an important detail when he told Weiss what had happened. "Not exactly. Listen. I don't have much time to talk. I'm running a little behind this morning. I need you to drive me to work."

"Because you left your keys and your car at Vaughn's."

"Exactly."

"I'll see you in twenty."

Sydney slammed the phone done in a rush to move on to the next item on her list. She did pause a few seconds to realize how nice it was to have a good, reliable friend as a neighbor. "But sometimes it's a little annoying," she said, realizing she had a definite problem now that Weiss was going to give her a ride to the CIA facilities.

Taking the quickest shower in her life, she threw her hair back into a bun and threw on a pair of shorts and t-shirt that were on the floor. After grabbing Sark's car keys off the counter, she ran outside barefoot and launched in the car. She had as much nerves running through her stomach as on any mission while she pulled the car out of view from her house or Weiss's. It took all her control to focus on what was in front of her instead of constantly staring at the rearview mirror's reflection of Weiss's home.

She got out of the car and jogged quickly back to the open door of her house, swearing slightly at her silly decision not to waste time putting on shoes. Barefoot was okay when you were just walking to the end of the driveway to get the mail, but it wasn't so much fun when you had to run full out down the street.

After making it inside, she leaned up against the wall to take a small breather and rub the balls of her feet. A knock on the door snapped her out of her break.

"Syd? It's me."

"I'm running late," she said, hoping to god that he hadn't seen her running around like a madwoman outside seconds earlier. She opened the door, and her heart jumped slightly at his leisurely smile. He hadn't seen her.

"You are running late," Weiss said with a laugh. "Or were you planning on showing up at headquarters wearing your jammies?"

She just gave a quick glare before running back to the bedroom to get dressed. As she threw on a pair of black paints and a sweater, Weiss called out, "So where have you been this weekend?"

"What do you mean?" she called. She hoped her tone sound convincingly clueless to him.

"I mean, you haven't been here. I would have seen you at least once or twice. So where did you run off to?"

She slid her glasses on while entering the living room. "That's none of your business."

"I didn't say it was any of my business. I just said that I wanted to know."

"I went somewhere I felt safe, somewhere where I could think. Let's just leave it at that." She grabbed her briefcase and cell phone and was walking out the door before he could respond. "Besides, you don't want to know."

"Oh, I think I do," Weiss said, poking her lightly in the ribs as they walked side by side to his truck.

"I'm not telling," she teased, keeping with the light-hearted tone their conversation had begun to take.

The drive downtown after that was mostly in silence, although there was some polite conversation. Weiss didn't want to pry into something she obviously wasn't willing to discuss quite yet, and Sydney didn't even know how to explain that, at the first sign of turmoil, she went running straight into the arms of the one man all of her friends hated.

When they got out of the car in the parking garage, Weiss finally chanced another question. "Did you find whatever you were looking for when you disappeared?"

He was happy to see a genuine smile on her face. "Yeah, I really did."

Sydney knew that she should wipe the smile off her face, that it would only cause Eric to have more questions about her whereabouts, but she just couldn't find the determination to go through with it. Her weekend had been a complete and total break from the hardships she had been facing for years while she worked with the CIA. Sark had somehow managed to single-handedly begin to heal years of damage to her psyche.

The smile did get wiped off of her face the second she set foot into the rotunda and remembered the impending doom of facing the men who had caused her breakdown. She had almost made it halfway to her desk when she was cut off.

. "Syd," Vaughn said, stepping right into her path. "We need to talk."

She wanted to refuse and tell him exactly where he could go, but she knew that solution would not solve anything really. It wasn't until that exact moment that she realized the full extent to which he had hurt her. As a rule, she kept a clear, calm head when someone caused her pain. With Vaughn, she couldn't find that control anywhere.

"You know we have to speak sometime," he added when she failed to answer him right away.

"All right. But make it quick. I have to meet with Dixon and my father, and I don't want to blow the chance of catching them while they're both unoccupied."

Vaughn grabbed her arm lightly and directed her into a semi-secluded corner. He held her keys out to her. "I thought you might want these."

"Thank you." She grasped the keys roughly in her hands. "I wasn't looking forward to bumming rides off of Weiss for the rest of my life."

"It's not like you never would have been over my apartment again," Vaughn corrected.

Sydney crossed her arms in front of her. "That remains to be seen."

"Come on, Syd. You can't still be mad."

"No, I'm not mad." She wanted to laugh in his face when she saw him relax slight. If this were a normal situation, she would have felt horrible. "I'm furious. How could you tell me to never come back?"

"I was angry and frustrated. You just told me that you loved another man."

"At the time, I didn't though," she insisted. After she said it, she hoped he didn't notice the change of heart she was insinuating. It was too early to try to define what she had with Sark.

"I realize that now. It was stupid of me to react that way."

"Kicking me out of your life completely is probably the biggest mistake you've ever made, and that's saying a lot." She knew that the unspoken dig at his failure of a marriage was below the belt, but right now she didn't have any of her normal control.

"Lauren's in the past, Sydney."

"She was never in the past. You and I never really talked about her. I forgave you long ago for giving up on our love during the time I was missing. I might not have done the same in your place, but it wasn't out of the question for you to move on." She paused a moment to collect her thoughts. "But you never explained why you refused to believe me when I distrusted her. I wasn't an unreasonable person. I would have believed you knew me well enough to take my mistrust of Lauren slightly into consideration."

"She was my wife."

"A wife who happened to be biding her time until she was given the order to kill you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"And therein lies our problem. We don't talk about the hard parts of life anymore. God knows that most of our time is spent dealing with the worst of life." She threw her hands up as the frustration that had been welling up inside her got to be too much. "It's like you know how tough things have been for me and you want to sugarcoat them."

"I don't want you to be hurt anymore."

"But you didn't feel bad about kicking me out of your home and telling me not to come back just because I had a Freudian slip?"

"I overreacted."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "That's all you have to say? You overreacted?"

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You may be right. That night ranks up there on my list of the worst mistakes I've made."

"I would have thought it might have taken you a little longer to come to that conclusion. You were never one to admit your wrongs right from the start." In the back of her mind, she wondered how many indirect references to Lauren it would take to make him lash out at her.

Vaughn sighed lightly and reached out to grab her hand. He looked openly hurt as she pulled her hand well out of his reach. "I was worried about you, Sydney. I was going to just let you have some time by yourself at your home for the weekend. Weiss almost didn't have the heart to tell me that you never came home, but he did eventually."

She chose her words carefully as she got a feeling that the conversation was about to take a turn in a different direction. "I'm glad that you were worried about me. You were wrong to kick me out of your home."

"You disappeared completely after you left my house Friday night. No one had any idea where you went. I thought you might be lost to me for another two years,"

"I'm sorry that you had to deal with the possibility of that," she said candidly. Her tone changed quickly, though. "If I had disappeared for another two years, would you have actually waited for me this time?"

"I learned my lesson."

"And so did I," she said determinately. "I wouldn't have come running back to you this time."

Vaughn suddenly realized that he was losing control of the conversation. "Where did you go, Syd, since you weren't at home this whole weekend?"

"I went somewhere I felt safe, somewhere I felt protected. You know, for a while there, I thought everyone had abandoned me. It turns out when I really needed it, there was someone I can rely on."

"Who?" he prodded.

"You're in no position to demand that information."

"I have to know."

"I'm not going to tell you."

"If we're gong to work through this, we need to start being honest."

"Oh, that's rich coming from you. Honestly is important now when it comes down to me telling the truth, right?" She rolled her eyes. "I think I'm done talking with you right now."

He grabbed her arm roughly. "We are far from done," he hissed.

Not thinking, she jammed the base of her palm up and connected with his chin. It wasn't a huge surprise when he fell to the floor. That move had saved her from being captured many times. She knew how effective it could be. "We are done in more ways than one."

Sydney walked away from the man she once loved without a backward glance.

As she sat down at her desk, she realized that it might be a little too early to talk to her father and Dixon. The wounds from her "discussion" with Vaughn were a little too fresh, and she was now horribly on edge. Plus, she still wasn't sure she wanted to dissect what exactly was going on between her and Sark. When the day came that she spoke to the two authority figures in her life, she wanted to be able to define her relationship and believe strongly in what it was.