Hope took a look around at her family and smiled before blowing out all ten candles of her birthday cake. This birthday was definitely a lot better than the previous ten. At least this time she was going to make sure she got her birthday wish if it was the last thing she did. She smiled again as her grandparents, her parents, her Uncle Will and Aunt Tessa, and her Aunt Amy and Uncle Noah and all of their children clapped at her accomplishment.

"So how does it feel to be a decade old?" Will asked her.

"The same as it felt to be nine and 364 days," she answered back smartly.

"You know, I think you have your mother's mouth and your father's mouth combined."

"They tell me that all the time," Hope said. "I still can't believe that you and Aunt Tessa flew in from London."

"This is a big day for you," Tessa Tippin said. "We wouldn't have missed it for the world."

"Okay, enough of that mushy talk," Noah interjected. "I say it's about time for the presents. What do you say, kid?"

"I say let's get this party started," Hope yelled.

Sydney and Sark both stood back and watched their daughter tear through each and every one of the carefully wrapped packages. They still couldn't believe how optimistic and full of joy their daughter was after all she had been through. When Irina pulled them out of Denver, Colorado five years earlier, they thought they could finally settle down in one place for a while.

The kidnapping attempts started within days of their settling in. They were forced to move yet again.

The moving hadn't stopped since that day. They knew that Hope didn't like it, but she never really complained once. Sydney was incredibly proud of her daughter in that aspect. She hadn't raised a complainer.

"So, what do you think she's going to ask for this year?" Sydney whispered in her husband's ear. She was alluding to their birthday tradition of Hope asking her parents for one thing on her birthday that they would give her no matter what.

"I would say that new skateboard, but she's about to unwrap it."

"I thought we discussed it and decided not to buy her that death contraption."

"We did. But it seems that we didn't mention that to her favorite uncle. Either that or Will chose to ignore our wishes."

Sydney sighed and leaned her head up against Sark. "I'm going to have to have a talk with him before he hightails it off this continent."

"Just don't mess up his face too much. He has a few professional meetings for Irina in the coming weeks. She'd kill you if you forced her to come up with an excuse why her agent has two black eyes."

"I'll keep the blows restricted to his body," she assured him.

"That's my girl." Sark squeezed her hand before walking over to sit next to where his daughter had just uncovered her new skateboard.

Jack seized the opportunity to have a few private words with his daughter. "How's your work been going, Sydney?"

"Not too bad. No real developments. It seems like the information brought to us by Agent Lennox five years ago is the real thing. However inadvertent, Hope is prophesized to either kill or be killed." She let her breath out in one long sigh. "You know I really thought that my contacts in Tokyo might have made some sort of headway in figuring out why the Covenant is still interested in my daughter and Tyler Vaughn."

"My best guess? They think that which ever one survives this confrontation they're going to have would make the perfect spy. Every agency out there can argue they have a stake in what happens to your child."

"That's ridiculous. And something I really shouldn't be discussing on my child's birthday."

"When is a better time to discuss it then now?" Irina said, entering the conversation. "We can't put it off. There are going to be consequences coming, and they're not that far off."

"I know that. I just still have a hard time accepting that this whole thing is real. Why can't I give my daughter the normal life I never got to live?"

"Because both of you are just too special to be normal," Jack said, hugging his daughter. "Now enough with this serious talk. I think some of your guests are leaving."

Sydney turned to see Amy and Noah herding their mass of children out the door. She waved to them and turned back to her parents. "I'm sure you two need to be leaving also. There has to be some crisis out there that's affecting national security."

"There always is," Irina said and kissed her daughter on the cheek. "I'll be in contact with you and Julian about what I need you to do next. In the meantime, keep digging for information about that Rambaldi prophecy."

Sydney nodded. Once her mother had said goodbye to Hope and left, she turned back to her father. "Any parting words, Dad?"

"No. But you seem to have something to say to me."

"I never understood how you could always tell when I was trying to hold something back. Yes, I have something to say to you. Actually, it's more like I have something to ask you. How is Tyler doing, Dad?"

"Good. He and his parents have had it a little easier than you have comparatively. They haven't really had to move around that much since we relocated them. He seems to be doing fine. He just started high school the other day in fact."

"God, he's getting old. I can't imagine Hope being old enough to attend high school."

"It's not that far off," Jack said. "I'll let Vaughn know you asked about them next time I'm in contact."

"I'd like that." Sydney waved as Will and his newlywed wife said their goodbyes to Hope.

Jack hesitated a moment before continuing, "He asks about you and Hope all the time. Mainly he just wants to be sure that you're okay."

"I bet he's worried about the time Hope and Tyler spent with one another when they were little. I know that I am. Hope doesn't really remember Tyler or either of his parents. She has vague recollections of living with another family, but we don't really talk about it."

"Maybe you should," Jack instructed. "The way you tell it, Hope used to have a fairly big crush on Michael Vaughn's son. Those things don't just disappear into thin air. Especially when he was the first boy she ever took a liking to."

"Kenny Horner," Sydney said, her mind instantly transported to another place and time.

"What?"

"Kenny Horner. He was the first boy I liked. I was four years old, and he lived next to us. I told Mom about it, and she explained to me that he was a little old for me." She chuckled. "He was sixteen."

"You always did set your sights on the unattainable."

Sydney smiled and met eyes with her husband from across the room. "Eventually, it worked, though. I think I've attained quite a lot through the years."

Jack pulled his daughter into another hug. "As long as you're happy."

Sydney rested against her father for a few minutes before pulling away. "You have to go, don't you?"

"Like you said, there's probably a threat to national security that I need to attend to. If I don't do it, nothing's done properly."

Sydney smiled and kissed her father on the cheek. "Don't be a stranger. I know I work for an intelligence agency whose existence you're not even allowed to acknowledge, but that doesn't mean you can't call every once in a while."

"I got it," Jack said. "I'll see you soon."

Before she had time to ask what that meant, Jack was out the door.

Her father was the last one to leave, and Sydney finally found herself alone with the two people she loved the most. She flung herself onto the couch next to her daughter and fingered one of the t-shirts Amy had bought her. "You got a lot of cool stuff."

"I know. It's so great. Dad's already explained to me about the necessary safety precautions when using the skateboard Uncle Will got me, so you don't have to go through that."

"Thank god," Sydney said, smiling as he husband snuggled in next to her on the couch. "Well, since we're all right here, I think it's about time that you told us your birthday wish this year, young lady."

Hope's face lighted up with excitement, and she took off out of the room, screaming back at them not to move an inch. "This worries me," Sark whispered in Sydney's ear before nibbling on it slightly.

She swatted him away. "For god's sake, it's your daughter's tenth birthday. Keep your hormones in check."

"I can't help it. You bring out the primal side of me."

Sydney heard the sounds of her daughter barreling down the stairs. "Do your best to keep it inside because Hope is coming back."

Hope ran into the room and held out the papers in her hands. "Grandpa Jack helped me with this a little. He told me to keep it a surprise until you guys asked for my wish."

Sydney reached out and took the papers, which she quickly realized were plane tickets. "Los Angeles?" she said, looking at Hope in surprise. "What do three tickets to L.A. have to do with your birthday wish?"

"I want to move back to L.A."

"What?" Sark said. "You've never lived in L.A."

"Technically, I did for the first few days after I was born. You and Mom always sound so happy when you talk about the years you live together in L.A. and New York. It was a hard decision, but I figured you'd be more willing to move from Texas to California instead of New York. Was I right?"

"We're not moving anywhere," Sydney said determinedly.

"That's what I thought you would say. Which is why I asked Grandpa Jack for help. He told me to tell you that everything's been cleared with him and Grandma. They both expect you in the next coming weeks. He found this really nice house for us to live in. Uncle Will was telling me that it's just down the street from where you used to live with him and Francie."

"Did everyone besides us know about this?"

"Well, I told you I needed help."

"You won't mind if I call my parents to make sure you're not making this up?"

Hope shook her head. "I don't care what you do as long as we move."

"You don't like Houston?" Sark asked. "You seemed happy to me."

"It's all right. The same way that Portland and Tucson and Reno and Dallas and Topeka all were. All right, but not that great. I want to live somewhere where all three of us can be happy and comfortable. I don't really understand why we've had to move so much, but I know it's mostly because of me somehow."

Sydney took a deep breath and pulled her daughter close to her. "We've been putting off talking to you about this, honey. But it's about time. Your father and I have always been trying to protect you from things outside your knowledge. We thought it was best not to burden you with things you couldn't really comprehend."

"But obviously, if you're old enough to organize a move to Los Angeles, you're old enough to hear this," Sark explained. "This Italian philosopher and inventor named Milo Rambaldi that lived over five hundred years ago. He made a lot of prophecies about things that were going to happen in your mother's life. A long time before you were born, your mother found out there was a prophecy about you."

"Really? I was in some old European guy's prophecy?"

"Yeah," Sydney said. "He said that you were going to play an important part to things that were going to happen when you were all grown-up. There are a lot of people out there who are interested in the person you're going to become someday Hope, and your father and I have been trying to protect you from some of these people."

"They're bad guys?"

"Yes, they are. We wanted to make sure that nothing bad happened to you so we kept moving to where this people wouldn't find us."

"But they always seemed to find us," Sark added on. "So we just kept moving."

"But now you've seemed to come up with a way for us to go back home, I guess."

"It took me a long time," Hope explained. "But Grandpa Jack said that there was no reason why we should be running all over the country."

"Your grandpa's a smart man," Sark said with a smile. "All right, kid. Wish granted. We'll move to L.A. as soon as we can."

"I knew you couldn't refuse," she said with a smile. "Now can I go try out my skateboard?"

It wasn't much of a request as she was already halfway out the door. "Be careful," Sydney yelled after her. Realizing there wasn't much more she could do, she settled back down into Sark's arm. "You know she got that ability to frustrate me at the drop of a hat from you."

"Yeah, I was always good at that, wasn't I?" That earned him a punch in the gut. "So, how do you feel about going back to L.A.?"

"It feels weird. After ten years of moving from safe house to safe house, I never really thought going back to the city was an option for us. It's so strange that our daughter would be the one to figure out a way."

"I think it was all just a matter of us deciding that other people weren't going to dictate our lives any longer." He laced his fingers in with hers. "We're going to be okay, Sydney."

She looked up at him and smiled. "You know, for the first time in ten years, I think I actually believe that."