Chapter Twenty Two

Three Days Later

Sydney awoke in a hospital room lined with flowers. The bunch that stood out were the ones that Eric Weiss was carrying into the room at the moment.

"Syd! Oh my god you're awake! I've been here every day just praying that you would wake up. Vaughn has been too, but he's been called away. How are you feeling?"

"Weak. Nothing hurts though, I just feel like sleeping."

"Well I'll just put these down and get the doctor" he looked at the flowers guiltily and put them down on a free space on the table.

Sydney looked down at her hands, there were three needles in them, and then she saw the IV's that were attached to them. She felt some discomfort around her nose and found tubes there.

She looked at the flowers that Weiss had just put down and realized what they were.

Lilies. Her favourite.

He knew.

Weiss re-entered the room and saw her face, she looked broken and tired. He felt horrible for her, he wanted to take her pain away. "The doctor will be in shortly Syd."

She nodded and a single tear fell down her cheek. "You told him didn't you" she smiled sadly.

Weiss looked at her and frowned, nodding his head slowly.

"It's ok Weiss. I understand." Sydney took his hand and held it in hers. "He isn't coming to see me right?"

"No, he just sent the flowers."

-------- Flashback --------

Right after getting Sydney to the hospital Weiss called Jack, who was worried about Sydney, but said that he was on his way. He then prepared himself to make an even harder phone call.

"Julian Sark."

"Sark, hey. It's Weiss" he said grimly.

"Hello. Is something wrong? Did something happen to Sydney?"

"Yeah, it's about Sydney. Man, she's unconscious. She's in the hospital. They're looking after her. But I think you might have to speed up the search."

"I'm going as fast as I can! I can't do anything else! But I'm getting close. Tell me exactly what happened."

"She woke up this morning and she wasn't doing too well. She was sick to her stomach, feeling tired, weak, and then she sat down in the living room while I was making her some breakfast. It wasn't any more than fifteen minutes and I saw her on the floor."

He heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone. "Please Weiss, tell her I love her, and that I'm trying to help her. Please. She doesn't even have to be conscious."

"I will. Just hurry."

"Weiss, I'm going to send her some flowers. Tell her they're from you. They'll be some white lilies. They're her favourite."

--------- End Flashback ---------

"If you talk to him, can you please tell him that I'm sorry? And thank you for the flowers, they're beautiful."

"You really should let him see you. He's miserable and so worried about you right now."

"Weiss, I'm hideous like this. I have needles and tubes sticking in me, I'm pasty and pale. I'm just disgusting right now. You shouldn't even be seeing me this way."

The doctor entered the room, stopping all conversation. "Miss Bristow, glad to see you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Weak. Nothing hurts though."

"Ah that's good, that means the drugs are working" he checked the folder at the end of her bed.

"We've run some tests on you Sydney and everything came back saying the same thing. You need to rest. This disease is taking its toll on your body and you should really stay in bed as much as you possibly can. We can start running the chemotherapy if you'd like, it might help delay harsher effects."

"No, it's alright."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Ok then. Well we're going to administer morphine for the pain and continue the IV for the next few days and see where it goes from there."

"Sure."

The doctor left Weiss and Sydney alone again.

Weiss was about to ask her why she didn't want the chemo when his cell phone rang. "Weiss, you're not supposed to have a cell phone in the hospital" Sydney scolded as he reached into his pocket.

"I'm CIA, they can sue me" he answered the phone, "Weiss."

Sydney only heard one side of his conversation. "Yeah, what did you find?"

"Really!" his face lit up. Good news, Sydney thought.

"You did it! You really did it! Ok, get him to my apartment as soon as you can. I'll take it from there. I can't believe you did it, man!" he hung up the phone and turned to Sydney smiling like a kid on Christmas.

"Syd. I've got good news!"

Sydney interrupted him. "Weiss, I want you to bring Julian to me now please. I need to see him. I can't die before I tell him how I feel."

"He's coming Syd. That was him" her face lit up, "he's been looking at experimental treatments for advanced cancer and he's found something. They've been doing research for ten years. It's something to do with filtering the blood. I don't know. But no one has died using this treatment. The only thing is that it's not legal in the US yet, so we're taking you to Berlin. Sark has saved your life again Syd. He did it!"

Sydney was crying silently. He had saved her life, again. And she could be with him now. "Weiss, give me your phone."

He handed her the phone and she dialed the number. He picked up the other end and she said "room 457, Riverside Hospital" and hung up the phone. She smiled at Weiss and said "thank you so much Weiss. I can't ever thank you enough for what you've done for me."

"Well, you can thank me by coming to my wedding. In all this chaos, I couldn't tell you that I proposed to Jennifer a couple of weeks ago, and well… she said yes. And since you're going to live and all, if you're all healed up by then, I'd love for you to come."

She was glowing, "Of course! Congratulations Weiss! How did you do it?"

"It was really cliché. I planned the romantic dinner at the French restaurant at the pier, and then when we went for a walk on the beach I got down on one knee and asked her."

"That's so romantic. I hope one day I'll actually get married and not just engaged."

"You will Syd, don't give up."

"Well this was almost enough to make me."

"Syd you're going to be ok now."

"How can you really know? There's no guarantee that this will work. It might not work, and then I could die. I'll never do any of the things that I'm supposed to do. I'll never get married, I'll never have kids, I'll never grow old with the love of my life. I'm not even going to be able to tell Julian how much I love him."

She was sobbing at this point and Weiss pulled her to him, rubbing her back soothingly. She clung to him and sobbed into his neck. A few minutes later someone came into the room silently and watched for a few minutes in silence. He was holding a bouquet of roses and lilies.

Both Sydney and Weiss were oblivious to the man in the room until they broke apart. Sydney gasped when she saw him and began crying again. Weiss smiled and left the room.

"How did you get here so fast, Julian?" she whispered.

"When you love someone, you have super speed" she giggled, "I was in the area."

He handed her the flowers "these are for you."

"Thank you" she smelled them, "they look just like the ones from the house."

"I had them flown in the other day. Just for you" Julian bent forward and kissed her forehead.

"I love you" Sydney whispered.

"I love you too" he replied. Tears formed in his eyes.

"Don't cry. You'll make me cry." Sydney pleaded, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I never thought you'd tell me that."

"I never thought I'd have the chance."

"I can't believe that I actually fell for what you had told me back when you left. I didn't even think that this could be why you left." His tears fell down his cheeks, "you know, I think this is the first time I've cried in over twenty years."

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Sydney was weeping, and he kissed her lips softly, tasting their mixing tears. "I should have told you, but I was scared."

"I know, I know love. I'm sorry too."

"You shouldn't be."

"I know. But I still am" he sat in the chair next to her bed. "You're going to make it through this, you know that right?"

"I will if I have you by my side."

"I'll never leave."

"So twenty years from now when I'm married to another man and have lots and lots of babies, you're just going to follow me around?"

He laughed and kissed her again, "I'll only leave if you ask me to." Sydney yawned, "go to sleep my love, I'll be here when you wake. But, you might wake up in Berlin."

"Fine by me," she whispered groggily.

Sark was sitting in the chair holding her hand for two hours after that, just watching her sleep. He had missed her so much.

They were on the plane an hour later, and only then, did he allow himself sleep. He hadn't had more than twelve hours in the past week. But it had been worth it.

She was worth it.

---------------------------------------------------------------

She awoke in another hospital room, she figured that she was in Berlin. Her IV needles had been changed, she could tell because the tape was clean and the end of the needles were a different colour than they had been.

She turned to her side when she felt a pressure in her hand and she saw Julian asleep in the chair next to her. He looked so peaceful.

It was as if he could sense she was awake, because moments after she had awoken, he yawned and it was still the sweetest thing she'd ever seen. "Hello love" she said to him and he smile the most brilliant smile she had ever seen on him.

"You've never said that to me before."

"I know. I thought that it was about time."

"Me too."

A doctor walked into the room with a nurse and he smiled at Sydney. "So I've done the initial tests and everything looks good. We're going to start the procedure in a few minutes, so you'll be asleep for most of it."

Sark looked at the doctor "how long will she be unconscious?"

"About a week. We can't take any risks with her, the cancer is at a very advanced stage. We'll have to put her under. It won't be a coma, but it'll be similar." The nurse took a syringe and tested it to get the air out. "This is Maria, she'll administer the drugs to you every day. So she'll get to know you, but you won't know a thing."

"Doctor?" Sydney spoke "Can I please know your name?"

He smiled and nodded "Nikolai Dubranov"

"You're Russian?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Both of us are half-Russian."

He smirked and nodded. "Well, I'm going to get the transfusions ready. You'll be out by the time they're ready, so I'll see you in a week."

"Wait!" Sydney cried, "How long is the entire thing going to take. Am I just going to be cured after a week?"

"Most of it should be finished within the week, but you will have to come in after that once a month for chemotherapy treatments. You should be perfect again in about six months."

"Ok" Sydney smiled.

"Syd, everything's going to be fine. You're going to be healthy, and then we can be together" Sark said, he was smiling so brightly still.

"I love you. I'm sorry that it took this to get me to tell you."

"Don't be sorry my love."

Sydney's head began to move from side to side and her eyelids were becoming heavy. Sark kissed her forehead and tucked her hair behind her ears and then kissed her palm. "We'll be together forever my love" he whispered when she was asleep.

The nurse smiled down at him and he had forgotten that she was there. "You really love her don't you?"

"More than anything" he replied, "more than anything" he repeated.

-------------------------------------------------