Hey everyone! Thanks for the great reviews! So here's chapter one... Hope you all like it! Please, please, please, read and review. It helps so much to know that there's someone reading this story, lol. Enjoy!


Though the midday sun was blazing mercilessly above the city, a light breeze provided relief to the people below. Many relished the weather and chose to spend the day with loved ones outdoors while others took advantage of the pleasant summer day with a healthy jog. It was because of this that that track was flooded with a plethora of joggers. Among the energized people with heavy prespiration were a lithe, yet fierce brunette and her clueless but cute blonde friend.

"…so Litvack wants me to do a follow-up article on it, and she said she'll think about giving me a front page story soon," Will Tippin gasped out in between short breaths. Though he was fully aware of her superior condition, he persistently jogged every time beside his fitter, stronger friend.

"Will, that's great," Sydney enthused with only a slight trace of breathlessness as they rounded the track for the tenth time. "Seriously, you have to have more confidence in yourself. Your writing's brilliant, and it was only a matter of time before you got a lot of recognition for it."

Will's sweating red face stared at her in disbelief. "Hey, we're not all you like you, Syd - fearless, confident, outgoing…" Syd couldn't help but laugh.

"Will, I'm none of those things," she replied after taking a moment to catch her breath. The trick is to make other people think you are, and you'll do fine. Anyway, do you wanna do another lap, or are you done?" she questioned him with a hardly breathless voice.

"I think I'm done," Will exhaled loudly as they arrived back at the spot where they'd left their bags. He collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily, his white shirt drenched in sweat. "Ugh, sometimes I wonder why I run with you - you make me feel so unfit," he managed to sputter in between deep dreaths.

"It's a challenge," Syd teased with a smile, pulling a sweater out of her bag and over her head. Staring down upon Will's collapsed figure, she calmly stated, "You won't get any better if you don't have people to challenge you."

"So who challenges you then, Syd?" Will countered, struggling to lift himself off the ground. Picking up his bag, he followed Sydney down the bleachers and towards the exit of the stadium.

Looking over her shoulder, she joked easily, "I set my own challenges." Still, she couldn't help but think of the "challenge" she had faced on a mission only two days ago, a challenge that came in the form of a green-eyed stranger who had been occupying, she felt, too large a part of her thoughts recently. Now that she contemplated the matter, she realized that lately she had been distracted with questions about the man she had encountered. Of course, she concluded that the best way to rid her thoughts of him would be to have those questions answered; but that task had proved to be more difficult than expected.

She had been doing some discreet research, attempting to find out all that she could about him. However, her limited knowledge of him - in fact, her only knowledge of him (the fact that he had green eyes) - was proving restrictive. All her searches had so far turned up nothing. She had failed to mention anything to Dixon for fear of worrying him or making him suspicious that she was betraying their country. Obviously she wasn't. She was proud to be serving the United States government, and the mere thought of betraying her nation made her physically sick.

Still, she hadn't tried…

"Syd? Syd, are you listening to me?" Will asked with a concerned tone, waving his hand in front of her face in an attempt to wake her from her reverie.

"Uh, of course," Sydney responded hesitantly, snapping back into focus. "Just, um, remind me what you were saying again." Will shook his head and continued walking towards his car.

"For such an organized person, Syd, you can be completely spacey sometimes," Will stated with a soft smile, his laughter soon joining that of Sydney.

"I know, but what can you do? It's just the way I am," she answered once she had composed herself once again. Looking down at her watch, she remembered her plans for the day. "Argh, I'm gonna be late. I said I'd meet Fran in Starbucks at 1:00, and it's 12:45 now."

"Well, you could run. I mean, you are dressed for it, and I'm sure you won't be that late."

Taking his suggestion, Sydney took off across the field, yelling over her shoulder, "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Quickly entering Starbucks, Sydney didn't have to look far into the crowded room before she spotted her friend, sitting alone at a small table. "Sorry I'm late, Fran," she said apologetically as she slid into the seat across the table from her friend. With a frappuccino in hand and a magazine on the table before her, Francie had already made herself comfortable in the few minutes that she waited for Syd to arrive.

"S'okay. Did you have a good run?" she questioned, closing the magazine she had been reading and focusing on her best friend. Sydney nodded in affirmation.

"Hey, did Will tell you about his article - the follow-up thing Litvack gave him to do?" she asked after buying herself a drink. Her run had left her quite thirsty, to say in the least.

"Yeah, pretty impressive, isn't it?"

"I know. He'll probably be writing for the New York Times soon," Sydney replied before taking a sip of her drink.

"He definitely should be. Anyway, you'll never guess what my latest gig is," Francie stated, a wide smile spreading on her face.

It was obvious through her friend's excitement that whatever it was, it was important and wouldn't be kept secret much longer. "Do you want me to try and guess, or do you just wanna tell me?" Syd queried in an amused voice. The excitement falling briefly from her features, Francie glared sarcastically at her friend.

"Very funny. I'm actually catering for a dinner of some of the FBI big cheeses who are in town on business. How cool is that!" Francie nearly shouted with glee. If there was one thing Sydney loved about Francie, it was her everlasting state of jubilance. She couldn't help but envy her best friend's normal life.

"Pretty cool," Syd answered, presenting her own infectious smile. "How did you get that?"

"Well, a couple of months ago, I catered for this seriously posh ladies luncheon thing, and apparently one of the women was the wife of one of these FBI guys. She really liked what I did, and so she recommended me," she finished breathlessly from her excited state.

"Wow, that is pretty neat. Soon you're gonna be the biggest name in catering around LA! I'm gonna want to tag along to all your parties and business lunches to meet all the famous people you'll be working for," she declared, though she knew that she was exaggerating in this case. Still, anything was possible.

"I hardly think it'll be like that," Francie remarked dismissively, rolling her eyes at her while taking another drink from her cup.

"Of course it'll be like that," Syd persisted, anxious to increase her friend's confidence. "And I can't wait," she ended with a full-dimpled smile. There was silence at the table as the pair ate their food. However, as fate would have it, Sydney's pager soon shattered the calm and friendly atmosphere.

"Ugh," she groaned, recognizing the all-too-familiar name on the beeper. "I have to go in. I'm sorry Fran; I thought I was actually gonna get an entire Saturday off, but apparently not. I'll see you at home or something, ok?" she said quickly as she rose from her seat and offered Francie an apologetic smile before heading out the door.

"You should quit," Francie called after her rapidly departing friend before standing up herself and heading off.

She just wished she could.

"This man," Arvin Sloane said clearly as pictures came up on all the screens in the briefing room of a finely built fifty year old man, "is Claude Salviere. Mr. Salviere is a connoisseur of fine art, and he is holding an exhibition in his chateau in Southern France, just outside of Aix En Provence." Turning their heads from the screens, the agents in the room focused their attention on Sloane. "He has a painting in his possession which is not part of the exhibition. He acquired it recently from an unknown source, and it is, in fact, a copy of a Renoir painting believed to be lost."

"A copy?" Syd interrupted, a look of slight confusion on her face. "If it's a copy, how do we know it's a Renoir, and where's the original?"

Sloane turned to his best agent and patiently answered, "We are currently unable to find out the location of the original, but the painting was mentioned in the accounts of an art dealer who sold many of Renoir's works. However, this is not simply a copy of a valuable painting; the copy was painted over a map, as unbelievable as that may sound."

"What's on the map?" Dixon questioned, knowing well that, somehow, it was of vital importance.

"We are not certain of the particulars, but we believe it to be something related to a shipment of missiles which went missing a number of years ago. It is quite possible that this map will give us the whereabouts of those missiles, which is why it is critical that we retrieve the map before anyone else is able to. Sydney, Dixon, your plane leaves in an hour." He tossed files across the table to each of them. "Marshall will brief you both on the op-tech, and all the information on your aliases is in the files. Good luck."

Sitting in business class on a commercial flight to the Marseilles airport, Sydney tried to read through the file, but she was finding it impossible to focus. After a few more seconds of contemplation, she closed the folder and looked toward her partner.

"Dixon," she asked suddenly, quietly, either afraid to interrupt his nap or afraid to ask him what really truly desired to ask. He looked up from his file at the slightly distressed woman before him. "Have you ever met someone and had, I dunno, an instinct about them?" Upon witnessing his questioning look, Sydney knew that this conversation would be more difficult than she would have liked. "As if you knew you could trust them, even though you really didn't know them at all." Dixon only continued to look at her quizzically.
"What's going on, Sydney?" he questioned slowly, worried at the sight of his agitated partner.

"Nothing," she said quickly, "Just Francie was asking me the other day. She met someone wondered if I thought you could, you know, know someone before you become acquainted with them, if you know what I mean," she finished sheepishly, completely aware that it was a pretty thin lie, but she hoped Dixon wouldn't be able to see through it. He gave her a suspicious look, but when she shrugged, his gaze returned to normal.

"I don't know. I can't really say I've ever met someone and had an 'instinct' about them, but I suppose that it could happen," he ended with uncertainty, still somewhat curious what was on her mind. They lapsed back into silence for a few more minutes before Dixon spoke again. "By the way, how are things going with Danny?" Sydney almost choked at his question.

The truth was, she realised with a sudden jolt, that she hadn't thought about Danny in almost twenty-four hours, so consumed had her thoughts been by her green-eyed stranger.

Since when had he become her green-eyed stranger?

"Uh, he's good; we're good. Yeah, things are going really well," she declared lamely, adding a fake smile to convince both him and herself of the truth of her statement.

She had to think more about Danny, and less about some random guy she had bumped into on a mission. Danny was her boyfriend - the love of your life. She just had to think: Danny, Danny, Danny, Danny…She wondered what his name is…no, wrong person! Danny, Danny, Danny.

With guilty thoughts of her beloved boyfriend Danny drifting through her head, Syd closed her eyes and fell into a restless, dream-filled sleep.

Would she find him there again?


Hope you all liked it! Don't forget to review! Next post might come sometime late next week, depending on the reviews, lol.