A/N: Thanks for reading everyone. Just to clarify, although there is a relationship between Sydney and Sark at the moment, this is by no means a Sarkney story. Sark is an important character but he is not a main focus in the story. And yes, this will end up S/V.

Chapter Six

It had taken him ten years to finally find her, and today was the day when he would be reunited with his daughter. He had spent ten years of his life searching for any trace of Irina, hoping beyond hope that he would find his daughter. Guilt had followed him ever since the night that Irina took Sydney, he had blamed William, but in truth he had blamed himself. He had abandoned his daughter, left her vulnerable to his enemies, to Irina. His friendship with William was no longer the same, they spoke politely to each other but they were no longer the good friends that they once were. Now they hardly saw each other, it pained him at times, to realize how much he had lost because of his stubbornness. He had lost his wife, his daughter, his friends and came close to losing his job as well.

Two days ago he had received a call he had not been expecting. It was Director Devlon, one of the few friends he had left. He had called to tell him that Irina had gotten sloppy, she had left a paper trail and it had led the CIA straight to Sydney. "DNA tests prove that it is your daughter." Devlon had said. They had given a location and today he was finally going to be go to his daughter. He spotted the place they had told him about, and slowly he walked towards it. Finally he had arrived, he knelt down and touched the grass, it was new. The CIA had replaced it, after having dug up what lay beneath.

"Sydney." he said outloud as he extended his arm to retrace the name that had been inscribed on the gravestone. His worst fear had become a reality, he had found his daughter, not a healthy fifteen year old, as she should have been today, but as a corpse buried in a Russian cemetery. He closed his eyes and pictured her in his mind. He saw her dressed in her favorite clothes holding her teddy bear running around the kitchen. He smiled to himself, as he watched her singing and dancing. Finally he remembered the last time he held his daughter, the last time he had told her he loved her, the last time that she had told him she loved him. It was a bittersweet memory. He had abandoned her, when she needed him the most. It was his fault that she was dead, if he had been there Irina would have never taken her away.

"I love you sweetheart and I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you." he said as he began to cry. Jack wasn't a man to show emotion, but today his heart was broken beyond repair and the least his daughter deserved was to be mourned by her father, fully without hesitation. After a few minutes he stood up and wiped his tears away, once more his face was stern He looked at the grave once more. "I promise you, I will make her pay for this."

He woke up to the sound of his alarm, and sat up before turning the alarm off. He realized then that he was sweating, and he knew without having to look at the calender what day it was. Today marked ten years since she had died, ever since the day he found her, on the day of her death he dreamt about her, from the day she was born to the day he found her grave. He looked at the picture next to his alarm and picked it up. It was one of the few pictures he had of Sydney and him, and this one he treasured most. It was on the day of her fifth birthday. Irina had to work that morning so Jack had taken Sydney to the zoo in the meantime. He remembered how happy she had been that morning. She had wanted to take pictures of every animal, and had almost finished the entire roll of film.

"Let's go see the lions!" she yelled in excitement.

"Alright, come on." he said as he took her hand and led her in the right direction.

"I love lions daddy."

"Why is that?"

"Because they're pretty."

"Well here they are." he said as he pointed to the lions.

"Let's take a picture of them!" she said.

"Okay, but this is the last picture we have." he said as he got ready to take the picture.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"I don't want a picture of the lions. I want a picture of you and me."

"But you love the lions." he said

"But I love you more." she said matter-of-factly, Jack simply smiled and looked around for someone to take their picture.

"Excuse me." he told a man passing by.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind taking a picture of my daughter and I."

"Sure." he said.

"Thank you." he said as he walked toward Sydney. He picked her up and put her on his shoulders, they both smiled and the man took their picture.

It was a moment that he would never forget, no matter how many years passed by. The picture was priceless to him not only because Sydney had loved it so much, but because it was a reminder of the love his daughter had for him. He put the picture back to its place and went about doing his normal routine. Although for him, the day had so much meaning, for everyone else, it was as if it had not happened. No one remembered that ten years ago today his daughter had died. It saddened him to see how forgotten she was, but he would never forget, at least he could give her that much.

In A Hotel Room

She woke up expecting to find Sark lying next to her, but as she opened her eyes she was surprised to find that she was alone in the comfortable large bed.

"Julian?" she called out as she looked around the room. She walked toward the bathroom but found it to be empty. It was unlike him to leave without saying goodbye, and his car keys were still on the night stand where he had left them the night before so he couldn't have gone too far.

She looked at her watch, it was only six thirty in the morning, she had woken up half an hour earlier than usual. She sat down wondering what she should do now. Should she wait for him? Should she eat breakfast, or get dressed and ready for the day? As she sat there contemplating what to do next she became aware that outside her room someone was having a conversation. She walked to the door and listened intently, it was then that she realized it was Sark on the phone.

"I assure you she has no idea. If she suspected something I would be the first to know. I'm telling you that there is no way she would find out. The only people that know the truth are you and I, and we both know that neither of us is going to tell her. I'll do my best to convince her to leave, but you know she's stubborn. I checked out Mr. Vaughn, he's not of any problem to us. It's unlikely that he'll become a problem to us. Yes, well I should be going now. I'll keep you updated. Goodbye."

Sydney immediately took off her robe and ran back to the bed. She pretended to be asleep. She heard Sark come into the room and then get back into the bed. He placed his arm around her, and she wanted nothing more than to rip it off and beat him with it. She now knew he was keeping things from her, and by the sound of it, important things. All she had to do now was figure out how to find out what exactly he was hiding from her.

SD-6

"The CIA has recently discovered the existence of a criminal organization that is currently operating here in Los Angeles. We don't know much about it, but we do know that they are extremely dangerous terrorist and they must be stopped. We have little information on them. All we know is that someone they call, 'The Man' heads this organization. We've received intel that this man, Mark Heath," he said as the picture of a man appeared in the computers of his agents, "is an important part of that organization. Your mission is to follow him, find out the location of that organization, and any of their important players."

"You don't want us to apprehend him?" Dixon asked.

"No. He's more valuable to us if he doesn't know he's being watched. He can lead us to the location of that organization, and to the key players. With that information we can take them down. If he went missing then the Man and his organization would have the upper hand."

"Do we have a location for him?"

"Yes, we have his home address. It's in his file. Just make sure to be careful, these are very dangerous people." Sloane said.

"We will." Dixon replied.

"You're excused." Sloane said as he left the conference room. He walked into his office and saw that Jack was sitting waiting for him.

"Jack, I'm glad to see you." Sloane said as he sat in his chair.

"You said it was urgent." Jack said getting to the point.

"Yes, well I just got word, that there are a few of the Man's agents that can be persuaded to help our cause."

"Really? Persuaded how?"

"Don't worry about that, you just leave that up to me."

"Who are these agents?"

"No one particularly important."

"I'd like to meet with them, if you don't mind."

"Of course." he said as he stood up. "Just follow me." Jack stood up and followed Sloane. They walked past several desks and then entered into a room that seemed fairly unimportant. Sloane walked to a keypad and pressed a few numbers. He stepped back and watched as a secret door opened. They walked down the stairs and continued along a dark hallway passing several doors along the way.

"In here." he said as he stopped in front of a door. They entered the dark room and watched as an Asian man dressed in a suit, wearing a pair of round glasses, was taking off a pair of latex gloves.

"Meet Seth Post and Fernando Sanchez." Sloane said triumphantly. The two men, who were tied to a chair appeared to have been beaten and tortured.

"I see your methods of persuasion haven't changed much over the years." Jack said dryly.

"Did they have any information?" Sloane asked the his employee.

"Yes, they gave us more names of other agents, as well as the name of someone they said is very close to the Man."

"We already know about Sark." Sloane said.

"No, not Sark. A woman." Jack looked up, apparently interested in finding out the name of an important player.

"What did they tell us about this woman." Sloane asked.

"No one really knows her true identity, just like the Man, but she goes by the alias Julia Thorne. It seems that Miss Thorne and Mr. Sark are very friendly. They claim that if you get Miss. Thorne, you can get both Sark and the Man." he said with a smile on his face. "The rest of the information they gave us is here." he said as he handed Sloane a folder.

"Thank you." he said as he took the folder. "Jack, I think we have all we need. Let's go."

Jack followed Sloane out of the room and back into the main office.

"It seems things are going well for us." Jack said as they reached Sloane's office.

"Yes. Once we take over the Man's organization we will be very close to achieving all of our goals. It's only a matter of time Jack. It's only a matter of time."

"Yes, well let's hope that everything goes as planned." he said as he stood up and began to walk away.

"Jack."

"Yes." he said as he turned around to face Sloane.

"How are you holding up?" Sloane asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"It's the anniversary of your daughter's death."

"Yes. I'm fine. Thank you for asking.".

"Why don't you take the rest of the day off." Sloane said.

"I will, thank you. I'll see you tomorrow morning." he said as he continued to walk away.

CIA office

Jack walked past all the agents, hardly taking the time to even look at them. He walked into Devlon's office unannounced and proceeded to ignore Agent Vaughn's presence.

"We have a problem Devlon." Jack said as he shut the door.

"What is it Jack?" Devlon asked ignoring the rude manner in which Jack had come into his office.

"Sloane has in his custody two agents that work for the Man. In addition to that, he's having another one their agents followed in order to find out the location of their LA office. He had substantial information, information that will be very helpful in taking over this new organization."

"What information?" Devlon asked.

"The woman with Sark. She's known as Julia Thorne. Apparently she is the closest person to the Man. If the information that Sloane has is correct, all he needs to do is capture her and he has the biggest bargaining tool."

"Why her?" Vaughn asked, finally making his presence known.

"She is the Man's second in command. Apparently the Man would do anything to protect this woman. If Sloane captures her, he'll have unlimited access to the Man's organization"

"Why would the Man allow someone so valuable to him to work for him, knowing that she would be a target?" Devlon asked.

"Perhaps they're lovers." Vaughn interrupted, sickened by the thought of it.

"No. According to Sloane's intel, she and Sark are... close. This means that the Man probably has a closer relationship to her than that. Perhaps, a younger sister, or a daughter."

"We can't allow that to happen. We have to get find Julia before Sloane does." Devlon said.

"I agree, the question is how?" Jack said.

"I'll put a team to find out anything they can about Julia Thorne." Devlon said. "Hopefully we can get a lead on her from that."

Sark's Office

Sydney opened drawers and looked through folders. Nothing out of the ordinary, information on contacts they had, things they wanted and the people they were keeping tabs on. Nothing here was new to her. She sat on his desk and turned on his computer and much to her surprise, she didn't need a password. She looked through several files but still found nothing even remotely suspicious. She saw a file, it was marked personal. She tried to open it but this time the computer asked for a password. She tried several passwords but none worked.

"Have we really come to this?" Sark asked as he closed the door behind him. She hadn't even heard him come in. "You sneaking off in the middle of the night to break into my office and look through my personal files." Sydney simply stayed silent, she didn't know what to say.

"What exactly were you hoping to find?"

"I'm not sure." she answered honestly.

"You're not sure." he repeated. "I hope you have some sort of explanation for this."

"I overheard you on the phone this morning. I came here hoping to find answers."

"You could have asked me."

"The only people that know the truth are you and I, and we both know that neither of us is going to tell her. Your words exactly."

"Sydney, sometimes people are forced to lie to protect the people they love. If I have kept things from you, it's to protect you from the truth."

"I don't need you to protect me. What I need is to have someone who will be honest with me, who won't give me reason to doubt them. What are you keeping from me? What truth do I have to be protected from? Tell me, I want to know!" she said losing her temper.

"I was talking to your mother. A few years ago she confessed to me that your father was CIA. He died coming back from a mission, they were ambushed after the plane landed. He was tortured and killed. Your mother thought you were too young to know that, and she didn't want you to think that your father had suffered before he died. She was afraid that being in LA, in such close proximity to CIA agents, that you would somehow find out."

"My father was a salesman." she said as her eyes began to fill with tears.

"No Sydney. Your father was CIA." he said. Tears began to ran down her eyes. He had been tortured and then killed, all she could think about was how much her father must have suffered. Sark walked toward her and put his arm on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Don't touch me." she said as she pushed his hand away and stood up to face him. "How could you keep that from me?"

"Your mother asked me."

"And what else has she asked you to keep from me? Huh? What else don't I know?" she asked in anger tears still running down her eyes.

"You're being irrational. I was only trying to spare you from the pain that this has obviously caused you."

"You lied to me. You know how much my father means to me, how much I treasure his memory. You knew I always had questions about his death and you stayed quiet." she yelled at him.

"Sydney, please, be rational about this."

"Who killed him? Who!" she asked.

"I don't know and neither does your mother." he answered.

"Listen to me Julian. If I ever find out that you lied to me, about anything, or that you're lying to me right now. It's over. So if there is anything else, anything at all that you aren't telling me, tell me now, otherwise pray that I never find out." she said her tone of voice serious and angry.

"That's it. There is nothing more." he said. In the back of his head he wondered whether he was doing the right thing. He was keeping things from her, many things in fact, but how could he tell her. If he told her, she would probably shoot him for having kept it from her in the first place. He stood there wishing that Irina had never trusted him with the truth about Sydney's father.

"I hope you're telling me the truth." she said as she walked out of the office.