The contentment took her by surprise when Sydney woke up lying next to Sark. She had expected the feeling of satisfaction and even the small tingle of pure intimacy. But contentment was not something she had planned on.

For the first time in years, she was content with where she was in life and the direction she was heading.

Smiling to herself, she turned over and poked Sark lightly in the ribs. "Are you awake?"

"No," he grumbled while pulling her into his arms. She continued to poke him. "Are you always going to be this annoying in the morning?"

"Are you planning on waking up with me a lot of mornings?"

His eyes popped open. "Yeah, I am. Didn't you know that?"

"I could have guessed," she said placing a few light kisses on his chest. There were a few moments of quiet peace between them before something occurred to Sydney. "When you showed up on my doorstep, you said that we needed to talk. I assume since my plan to end this relationship shocked you, that what you wanted to talk about wasn't us."

"No, it wasn't," Sark replied. Sighing, he sat up in bed, pulling her along with him. "You know I've been on assignment this past week."

"Yeah, and you didn't call," she said, remembering one of the reasons she had been angry with him.

"I didn't have time to call. Anyway, I was thinking about you the whole time."

"And how am I supposed to believe that claim?"

"Because everything I was doing was for you, Syd. I was on more of a personal assignment than a professional one. I was looking into Stephanie Harling."

"I don't like it when you meddle in my life when it's not needed."

"I know. But this time it was worth it. I found out a few details about Agent Harling that you're not going to like. She worked for SD-2."

"I already know that. I worked with her in the field when I was at SD-6."

"No, you're not understanding me. Stephanie Harling worked for SD-2. As in, not the CIA."

"You're not making sense," Sydney said. She pushed away from him and stared at him. "I know that she worked for SD-2 just like I worked for SD-6."

"There's nothing similar about your situations, Syd. Unlike you, Agent Harling knew that she wasn't working for the real CIA. She understood the actions that the Alliance and the SD cells were taken happened to be illegal. She didn't care."

"I don't believe that. I know Stephanie. There could be no way that she would work for monsters like the Alliance."

Sark sighed and stood up. This conversation was not going to happen while they were still in bed. He picked up his pants off the floor and slid them on.

"Are you leaving?" Sydney asked, the hurt evident in her voice.

"No, I'm just getting dressed so we can finish this conversation. I advise you to do the same."

"You advise me, huh?" Sark felt a small headache begin to form as he registered the anger in her voice. "Well, I guess I should follow your orders considering you seem to know everything."

"Don't be like that," Sark said as he threw on his shirt. "This is hard for me to say to you. I know that Stephanie is your friend. But you've encountered this kind of thing before. You thought that you knew Noah Hicks, too, and he turned out to be a assassin-for-hire."

She cringed noticeably at his words. "Why are you bringing Noah into this?"

"Because he's involved. You met Stephanie Harling on a retreat that the different SD cells set up as a way to give their agents more training. At least that's the normal reason they're held. This one was set up specifically for you to attend, though."

"Why would they want me there? There was no real profit in the whole seminar. Nothing changed. Nothing was accomplished."

"Nothing was accomplished that you were aware of. If you asked Agent Harling, she would tell you otherwise." Sark sighed and rubbed his face in a sign of exhaustion. "Stephanie was sent to the seminar to test your loyalty to SD-6 and to also prod her way into learning the nature of your relationship with Noah."

"I was loyal to SD-6," she said truthfully. "I had no idea of the truth at that time."

"Which is what she reported back to Sloane. She also told him about your extracurricular activities with your sometimes partner."

Sydney chuckled to herself. "I always wondered how Sloane figured out that I was seeing Noah."

"Agent Harling was also able to murder a spy the real CIA had infiltrating the organization."

The humor was wiped off her face immediately and replaced with confusion. "I don't understand. I would have noticed if Stephanie had found time to murder someone. We were roommates."

Sark paused a second to think over how he was going to phrase his next statement. When he realized there was no easy way around it and no way to spare her feelings, he just said it. "You helped her murder him."

Realization dawned on Sydney. "Paul."

"Yes, Agent Riley was working undercover to gather information on how strong the Alliance was and whether it was a feasible option to destroy the organization at that time. He never had a chance to report back his findings."

Sark watched Sydney mull over this new development. He hadn't expected her to accept it for truth immediately. However, he also didn't expect to see the shift in her demeanor that he did witness.

"It's not possible," she said in a careful, surprisingly cool tone. "Agent Harling is working for the CIA now. There's no way they wouldn't have known that she was an informed agent in SD-2."

"The CIA are morons. I've been saying that for years. They don't know which end is up."

"There is no way that you could actually think the CIA was that incompetent. I mean, it's ludicrous that they wouldn't have figured out that Stephanie was playing for the wrong side at some point in their investigations."

"They didn't. And don't forget this organization is the same one that your mother used as her pawn for months without them realizing what she was doing."

"That's a special circumstance."

Sark paused and leaned himself against the dresser. "I'll give you that. Irina could outsmart the toughest agencies in the world." He smirked and looked up at her. "As could you, Agent Bristow. But you have to believe me when I say for whatever reason Stephanie Harling fell through the cracks. I think she's been assigned to hurt you in some way."

"Well she's obviously not doing such a great job. I'm twice as happy today as I was two weeks ago."

He lifted his eyebrow. "And that has nothing to do with me?"

"It's because I can tell her about my relationship with you and not be judged."

Sark stood up straight and made his way over to sit next to her on the bed. "You told her about us? And that doesn't make you suspicious."

"She wouldn't hurt me, Sark. There's no way. And before you ask, no, I'm not afraid that she'll tell my superiors the mess I seemed to have gotten myself into with you."

"Mess, huh? For a woman of such skill, you can choose your words very poorly at times."

She rolled her eyes. "My point is that I told her about Noah all those years ago and nothing went wrong because of it."

"Then you weren't listening. She was sent there to find out your relationship with Hicks. She was the one that let Sloane know the inappropriateness of having you two partnered up."

"Even if she was the person you say she is, there's no one for her to report all this information, too."

"She's working for someone, Syd. I don't know who yet, but I'll find out."

"Don't," she growled, throwing him a steely glance over her shoulder as she got up to get dressed. "Don't you dare continue to mess with my life."

"I'm not messing with your life. I'm trying to look out for you."

"I don't need a protector."

"I think you do," Sark said. He reached out to grab her arm and pull her close. "You're not thinking rationally." The fact that she laughed in his face didn't please him.

"Please. We both know that I haven't been thinking rationally for years now. Would a rational person get involved with the one person they've hated with all their heart?"

"I assume you're referring to me. To that, I don't have an answer. All I can suggest is that maybe you should reexamine the feelings you used to have for me. They might have never been hate."

"Oh, I hated you all right."

They lapsed into a silence. The conversation they were having was nothing like what Sydney had expected when she first woke up. They shouldn't be fighting on a night like this. That's not the way it happened in the fairy tales.

"Are you going to keep prying into my business?" she asked finally.

He looked at her and realized there was no way he could lie to her. "Yes. I will continue to look into it until I'm sure that you're safe."

"Even if I asked you not to?" She held up her hand before he could respond. "Forget it. You're too stubborn to change your mind. Julian. Stephanie Harling is my friend. She understands me."

"I understand you."

"Obviously you don't. Like I said before, I don't need someone to protect me. I can take care of myself."

"You're wearing blinders this time. You can't see the contradictions that are right in front of your nose."

"You're right," she said, looking him in the eye. "I can see now that this was a mistake. I want you to go."

He grabbed her hands in his and held on tight. "That's not what I meant."

"But it's what I mean. This thing that's between us could work for a while. But there's going to come a point when one of us has to make a hard choice. I don't think you and I would end up choosing each other over something else."

"Then you're not really understanding me when I say I love you."

"I know you love me. I just also know that you love the spy world. You couldn't stop yourself from running jobs if you tried. I love it, too. And in the spy world, this-" She gestured at him and then back to herself. "-cannot happen."

It hit him like a ton of bricks. "You're serious."

"Yes. If this is the only way I can get you to stop trying to protect me, then I'm serious. Goodbye, Julian." She pulled her hands out from his and walked over to the front door.

With a look of resignation, he followed her. Something made him pause in the doorway. "Will you do me a favor? Just watch yourself around Stephanie. Be a little suspicious of her. Don't let your guard down."

Sydney nodded.

"It was pretty good while it lasted, wasn't it?"

She nodded again, too torn to form words.

He kissed her lightly on her forehead and then headed out the door. As she watched him get into his sports car, she wondered if she had made the right choice. There was no reason why Stephanie would have been able to fool so many people without someone being suspicious of her. And Sark was always trying to shake up her life. A day never went by without him trying to convince her that some aspect of her life wasn't right.

If her brain kept coming up this reasons on why she was right, why was her heart screaming out that she had just made the worst decision of her life?