Chapter Four

The drive to the restaurant was uneventful. The pair of spies sat in the car staring out at the scenery in complete silence the whole time. Sark was thinking about the wonderful day he had with his ex-adversary, and Sydney was thinking about something completely different.

Actually, she was thinking about the same thing, but her thoughts were the opposite of his. While he was thinking about how he would like to get to know her better, she spent her time scolding herself for having a nice time with a terrorist. Ex-terrorist, she kept telling herself, but it was no use. You can't stay with him for two whole weeks. That would be wrong. The thing that frightened her the most was that she found herself wanting to stay with him. After much mental debate, she finally came to the conclusion that she would not be too nice to him again.

When they arrived at the restaurant Sark got out and walked to Sydney's side of the car, but found that she had already gotten out. So much for being thoughtful and nice, thought Sark.

He noticed that Sydney's cold resolve had returned, and he found that quite sad. He had liked it so much when she had been nice and happy Sydney. She turned and looked

"Look Sark, let's get this clear. We had a nice time today. But that's all that it was. A nice time." Maybe if she says these things to him, she'll start to believe them herself. "I think that I should go to a hotel in the city tomorrow."

A shocked look passed over his face. This look caught Sydney by surprise. "I thought that we had a nice time and maybe we could spend some time together… maybe get to know each other better. Things are different now."

"No, they can't be different. You're still wanted Sark. And I still work for the CIA" she sighed, "Things can't be different" she said softly.

Sark sighed and nodded. He turned and walked to the restaurant. Sydney stood there and watched him leave, then followed him in.

The restaurant would have been romantic if there wasn't so much tension between the two people. The waiter took notice of this and did what he could to relieve some of it. He brought them water, told them about the specials and brought Sydney a beautiful red rose. Sadly, though, it did not work. There just wasn't anything that could be done to help right now.

After ten minutes of awkward silence, Sark decided to speak up, "Why can't things be different?"

"What, Sark?"

"Why can't we change things… make them different."

"I don't know," she said exasperatedly, "because we've done things to make it this way. Things that are really hard to change."

"But they're just hard to change, that doesn't mean we can't change them."

"Why would we want to change them anyways? I mean, things are pretty good in my life right now. I've got a new apartment in a new city-"

"New city? You live in Los Angeles."

"Right… um… we can't change things Sark."

"But why? Is it because of my past? Is it because I'm still wanted? If I got a pardon, would that change things?" he looked into her eyes pleadingly.

"I don't know Sark."

The food arrived at this moment and they ate in silence for a while. Everything that had been said in the past moments was running through their minds.

"If things were different, Sark, what would you want to happen?"

"I don't know," he sighed, "all I know is that I want to be more than enemies."

"I really see that happening right now. I'm really changing my life around."

"Then maybe you could change it so I could fit in… somewhere" he said hopefully.

"How about this. I agree to spend time with you during the next two weeks, I'll still go to the ball / gala / whatever it is on Wednesday, but I won't stay with you. I can't do that yet. But I'll find a hotel of some sort near you."

"Well, you won't be able to find a place tonight, so you can stay with me for one night, and then we'll proceed to find you another room."

"Fine."

They sat that way for a while, not noticing the band begin to play, or the couples beginning to sway like branches in the wind to the music. "Sydney, would you like to dance?"

"No" she said stubbornly.

"What harm could there be in sharing a dance Miss Bristow?"

"I am not going to dance with you."

"Then could you enlighten me as to your change in attitude? We had a wonderful day which was full of enjoyment on both our parts, and now you're acting like a two year old who wasn't allowed to go to the park."

"Will you let this go if I dance with you?"

"Yes."

"Fine then" she said as she got up.

He moved his hand to the small of her back, guiding her to the dance floor. Sydney would have admitted that it was a nice gesture if she could bring herself to be in a more accepting mood, but that wasn't happening.

Sark tried to get Sydney to relax in his arms, but she wasn't having it. She was stiff and not moving too much. "Why don't you try to relax Sydney?"

"What if I don't want to?" she looked into his eyes and saw something she had never seen before… she didn't know what it was that she saw, but his eyes were full of emotion. "What's wrong Sark?" she asked.

He blinked and any trace of the emotion in his eyes was gone. Quickly looking away, he replied, "why should anything be wrong."

"Never mind" she sighed and relaxed a bit, placing her head on his shoulder.

They gently swayed to the music. The moment she placed her head on his shoulder, he regretted the way he had just treated her. He didn't know why though, why he would feel remorse for something that wasn't technically his fault, but he was.

"Sark" she spoke into his neck, the sound muffled against his shirt collar and blazer, "Sark, I'm sorry."

"I should be the one to apologize."

"Why? You didn't do anything, I was treating you horribly. And I'm sorry about that. It's just that, I'm not really used to this 'new you' yet. It's going to take a bit of time."

"Well I'll give you all the time you need."

Their attention was suddenly pulled away from each other when two people slammed the front door of the restaurant open. There were two angry people at the front of the restaurant. Sydney had a bad feeling in her gut and Sark grabbed her wrist, quickly tugging her back to their table. The restaurant hostess went up to the two men and asked them if they needed any help and they said that they were looking for a young, blonde, British man. She replied saying that she hadn't seated anyone going by that description, and then they turned just in time to see Sark move to leave with Sydney.

The larger of the two men pulled a gun out of his jacket and began to walk quickly to the back, where Sark and Sydney were standing. He started firing at them, bullets went flying everywhere and people were screaming, running for cover. Sark shoved Sydney out of the way once he noticed that the shooter wasn't aiming too well. Sydney screamed at him to start moving him, and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards the emergency exit.

Once outside, they ran quickly for the car, "who the hell keeps shooting at us!" she screamed.

"How should I know!"

They kept running, bullets hitting the pavement behind them. Suddenly Sydney screamed and fell to the ground. Sark froze, stopped breathing and stared blankly at Sydney who was unconscious on the ground. The bullet grazing his left shoulder brought him back into this world and tore his gun out of his blazer. He began shooting at the two men and hit both of them within seconds. When he was sure that both of them were dead, he ran to Sydney and lifted her into his arms, running to the car as fast as he possibly could.

He placed her carefully into the passenger seat and sped off into the distance.