Vaughn sighed and pushed the food on his plate back and forth. His mind was obviously elsewhere.

"Earth to Michael Vaughn," Weiss said, waving his hand in front of Vaughn's face. "What is wrong with you? You just got cleared to leave the hospital today. You should be practically jumping for joy and enjoying every aspect of the free life."

Vaughn's expression shifted from blankness to concern. "Have you noticed something different with Sydney lately?"

"It always comes back to her, doesn't it?" Weiss shook his head. Sydney had come to visit Vaughn in the hospital every day for weeks except for one about two weeks ago. She had seemed preoccupied most of the time, but that was nothing new when you thought about the context of her life. "No. Haven't noticed a thing."

"She keeps acting like there's something she doesn't want me to know. I think it has something to do with Sark."

"That's what you always say," Weiss pointed out.

"I'm usually right." Vaughn took a bite of the pasta in front of him. His face scrunched up in agony. "Oh god, this stuff is awful. Why is this junk the first meal I end up with once I finally escaped the dreaded hospital meals?"

"I thought you would enjoy a new restaurant."

"I would. If it was a good one, that is." Vaughn sighed, threw his fork down, and leaned back in his chair. "I can't get past the idea that Syd would hide something from me. I know she's done it in the past. But she knows how confused I am about everything since this whole memory alteration thing. I don't know why she would be putting me through this."

"Why don't you ask her that yourself?" Weiss said, standing up.

Vaughn looked over his shoulder and saw Sydney approaching. When she recognized them, she gave a quick wave and jogged across the street to join them. "You're looking well," she teased as she sat down in the empty chair next to Vaughn. "I think it's the real clothes. That hospital gown did nothing for your complexion."

When her stupid joke got no response, she frowned. "Okay, boys. What is going on?"

"Vaughn has a question for you," Weiss said, snickering as Vaughn shot him a dirty look. He merely shrugged his shoulders and feigned ignorance.

Sydney turned to him expectantly. "I'm worried that you're hiding something, that's all," he explained.

"I'm always hiding something," she said, unconsciously agreeing with one of Vaughn's earlier statements. Realizing that he probably wouldn't let up on the verbal badgering until he had a definite answer, she continued, "I know that you probably shouldn't know this and that you probably already do, but the CIA hasn't really been getting anywhere when it comes to figuring out what happened to you."

"So you took it into your own hands," he finished for her.

"Unofficially, yes, I did what I had to in order to get information."

Vaughn nodded. "So what did you find?"

"The contact I saw said that it had something to do with my relationship with Julian." She was surprised when both men just nodded and neither said any sort of 'I told you so' type comment. "He thought that Sark would get at you, Vaughn, to hurt me."

"You don't buy that," Weiss stated-matter-of-factly.

"Of course not. I think there might be a partial truth to it, though. I mean, the Sark I know right now wouldn't hurt a hair on my head, but maybe this thing with Vaughn was set into motion years before I went missing. You two have never been the best of friends. I could understand why he might want to hurt you to get to me. We weren't exactly friends, either, in the past."

Vaughn grasped Sydney's hand suddenly, making her look him in the eyes with concern. She could feel his shift in mood from concern to something else, something indefinable. "What is it, Michael?" she asked.

"I want to thank you for doing that, Syd. I know it must have cost you a lot in some way or another." He took a deep breath. "However, I know that isn't what you've been hiding. Sure you haven't been telling anyone of your extracurricular activities, but that is something you do all the time. So, why don't you just tell me what it is, Syd? Please?"

"I think he might have an aneurysm if you keep him waiting," Weiss pointed out. "So you better do it."

Sydney shrugged her hand out of Vaughn's and pushed herself as far away from the table and the two men at it that she could. "I'm not hiding anything."

"Then why are you cowering in shame?" Vaughn asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'm not cowering."

"You sure aren't telling the truth," Weiss pointed out. "I have to admit that I really thought Vaughn was imagining this whole thing, but now that I see you, you really are hiding something from us. Out with it, Syd."

She shook her head, realizing that there really was no way out of this situation. "I'm getting married," she said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "I didn't know how to tell you, so I just didn't."

"Just to clarify. You're marrying Julian Sark, right?" Weiss asked.

She rolled her eyes at Weiss. "Yes. I've never been found of marrying men I randomly pick up off the street, so he seemed like my best option at this time. Though I have to admit that homeless man across the road is looking mighty fine right now."

"I just wanted to be sure that I had my facts right. You didn't have to get all sarcastic and mean with me, Syd."

"When do you ever make sure your facts are right? You're the one that's always making the mistakes."

"That's harsh."

"You've gotten yourself shot how many times now?"

"And how many times was that because of you or various members of your family?"

"Now that's unfair. I can't control my family."

"No one can control your family. They're like a whole other species."

Sydney rolled her eyes again and turned to Vaughn. "You're awfully quiet."

"It's a lot to take in, Sydney. You just told us days ago that you were dating Sark, and now you're marrying him?"

"It is a lot to take in. I didn't want it all to happen this fast, but that's how it's going. I can't change that nor would I want to."

Vaughn nodded his understanding. "You know, if things had happened differently for us, Syd, you and I might be getting married right about now."

Her heart stopped for a moment. She really hadn't thought about her engagement that never really happened. At the time she had been so confused about both her feelings for Vaughn and her feelings for Sark. She wasn't sure that she was supposed to spend her life with either one. And now things were so definite. But there was still the idea that she had been inches away from choosing Vaughn over Sark at so many points. It wasn't that hard a stretch to imagine herself walking down the aisle to where Vaughn was waiting.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think at all, did I?"

"It's okay, Sydney. I accepted the fact a long time ago that as much as I wanted it, you and I weren't going to happen. I'm just surprised that you're jumping into marriage with Sark so quickly."

"It feels like an eternity." She shook her head in frustration. "There's no way I'm going to be able to explain to you why I'm doing this."

"Try," Vaughn demanded simply.

"I feel like no matter if I make this legal commitment or not, I'm going to spend the rest of my life with him. Things just fall in to place when he's around. You would understand if you could have been there when I was missing for two years. He was rock." She bit her lip in frustration. "You two have heard this all before, though. I've given you my speech about why he's in my life. They're the same reasons why I know I want him in my life for good."

"He's still the enemy," Weiss pointed out. "At least officially."

Sydney closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She really hadn't planned on having to do this. "You two have been crucial to my sanity for so long. I can't thank you enough for that. Which is why I'm going to tell you some things that no one else knows, not even my father."

"Sound ominous."

"Julian and I found out a while ago that the reason he was working with the Covenant was because he had a mission he wanted to fulfill. That mission was to kill me."

"And that's the man you want to spend the rest of your life with?" Vaughn asked with a laugh. If it hadn't have been for his light tone, Sydney would have started to feel nervous about continuing with her explanation.

"Well, he didn't actually kill me, now did he?" she said somberly. "Something happened to make him change his mind. As corny as this sounds, he fell in love with me and couldn't do it."

"That is corny," Weiss agreed.

"And so made-for-TV movie," Vaughn added.

"He didn't kill me. That's all that matters. He's been there for me when I've needed him." She sighed and sat up in her seat. "We've been trying to get to the bottom of this whole unknown. It's been so frustrating when neither one of us knows the answers. All we know is that at one point we both lived the answers."

"Sounds very poetic and angsty," Weiss pointed out.

"My whole life is ridden with angst. Sark and I think that his mission to kill me, our missing memories, and your faulty memory all are connected somehow." Sydney sighed and leaned in to the table and closer to her companions. ""So now you know it all. I am going to be Mrs. Number One Most Wanted Spy By the CIA."

"That's a hell of a new last name," Weiss joked.

"Oh believe me. I'm planning on keeping my own."

"So that would be Mrs. Number One Spy?"

"Shut up, Eric," Vaughn said, slugging his friend lightly on the arm.

"You guys aren't angry with me," Sydney said, staring at them. "You know, I really thought you'd be angry."

Vaughn shared a look with Weiss before turning to Sydney. "We both had a feeling something like this was coming."

"You did?"

"It was written all over the way you looked at him when you brought him to the hospital the day I woke up. For a spy, you can be really easy to read sometimes."

"You're not mad?" she asked again, just to be sure she had gotten it right. This was the man who had once believed she was the love of his life.

"It's your life, Syd. Live it how you want to," Weiss said. "We're just along for the ride."

"Where do we go from here?" Vaughn asked after a few moments of silence.

"I'm not sure. I'm still working on the lead that Sark gave me. I've been talking with his old mentor, Peter Connelly on and off for the last two weeks-"

Vaughn interrupted. "I told you she's been different for the past two weeks."

"-and I'm making progress," she finished, ignoring his comment.

"Thank you for this again."

"I'm just as worried about you as you are about me. We're partners, Michael. Always will be." She stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are probably a few more people I should tell about my engagement before you two make it the choice office gossip of the day."

"We don't gossip," Weiss said, feigning offense.

"He's partially right. I don't gossip," Vaughn chuckled. "Only he does."

"Get your facts straight, Bristow."

"I'll work on it, boys." She paused to give both men a quick hug. "You two mean the world to me. Thank you."

They watched her walk out of sight before turning back to one another. "I think that went well," Weiss said.

"She told us the truth."

"And didn't put up much of a fight." Vaughn began to dig into his food. He really was hungry. Now that his worry was mostly gone, he realized that the food wasn't as bad as he first thought.

"First time for everything."

Between bites, Vaughn asked, "So what do you think about her theory of Sark's reasonings for helping her out during their time with the Covenant and the problems inside my head?"

"I think it makes a lot of sense. I knew there had to be some good reason to make Sark keep her alive for such a long time. The whole falling in love thing is a good excuse, but it didn't just occur suddenly. Those things take time. So, obviously, with him wanting to hurt her in some way, they would have had to stay close. But what remains to be seen is what happened when he made the decision not to kill our favorite spy." Weiss shook his head. "All this thinking is making my head hurt."

"I know. There's still a lot that's grey if the theory is true."

"But at least it makes some sense."

"It's all we have right now."

"I know that."

"And it's just too bad that we can't mention it to anyone at the CIA. They'd laugh us straight out of our jobs and into the poorhouse."

"Does anyone really still use that word? Poorhouse?"

"It's vintage," Weiss defended.

"You're strange."

"Why don't you just shut up and eat your horrible food?"

Vaughn laughed and did as he was told.