A/N: Well, I gotta say, I am thrilled. I've gotten a lot of good reviews on this story so far and it's just beginning. Thank you so much for your review (you know who you are :) ). It was acutally the reason I typed this up now. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well and you look forward to the next one. ;)

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I leaned back in my seat and slightly sighed. "So, you were off to a rough day?" Sydney relaxed her shoulders a bit and nodded at me. "I see," I said. "Well...tell me how the mission went."

Actually..." Sydney began.

"It went well?" I asked hopefully.

Sydney smiled a bit, "I didn't say that..."

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Sydney and Dixon were walked down a long marbled titled hallway with a slightly little tiny man. He reminded Sydney of the Sloane double so very much she shivered at the thought. "So," Sydney said. Instead of her normal accent though, it was an Italian accent, to go along with her Alias. "We need to deposit something big. Something, that our enemies cannot know about."

"Oh, that's fine," the little man said. "We are known very well for keeping 'special' deposits like that."

Dixon frowned at the man and replied, "We need to be sure that you have top-notch security here." His accent was also Italian and the little man thought it was out-of-character. But given his size over Dixon's...he didn't say anything.

"Oh, no," the man said, "The moment you entered this building, we did a full back round and weapons check on you. As a matter of fact, you have just undergone about seven different security measures."

Dixon glanced over at Sydney. "So...the security back here...?" Sydney said

"Oh, there is none. No need for it," the little man replied. Sydney smiled briefly at Dixon, both thinking the same thing. Too easy...

All three of them reached a door on the corner. "Ok, here it is," the little man said.

Sydney turned and looked down the hall. At the far end of it, there was a big metal door with the words 'Danger. Do Not enter'. Sydney glanced over at Dixon and saw that he was looking at the door as well. "Uh, what is down there," Sydney asked, casually pointing to the door down the hall.

"Oh, that's our 'very very special deposit. Have no idea what's in it. Maybe..."

Dixon hit the little man from behind, cutting his sentence off, and knocking him out. "We found the door," Dixon confirmed. On the other end of the comms Vaughn came back. "Copy that. Locking on your position now." Both Dixon and Sydney ran down towards the door at the end of the hallway. Sydney stopped as she noticed a keypad. She took out the key scrambler and placed on the key pad. Sydney peered closely at it and rolled her eyes. She pressed in her ear piece to communicate with the team. "Marshall," she began, "This key code has three different ones."

Back in Los Angeles, Marshall listened to Sydney through the comms and started typing on his keyboard. "Uh, ok. There is one sequence made out of three? Um..."

"Marshall!" Sydney pressed.

"Ok, um, give me the codes."

"Ok..."

"No wait. Give me the first three numbers of the first code."

"6, 5, 8."

Marshall wrote down the numbers, "Ok, now the second to last of the last four codes."

"1, 2, 9, 0."

"And...now the last two codes of the third one."

"7, 8"

"Ok," Marshall quick wrote down all the codes."

"Marshall...?

"Ok, the code is, 1 9 2 0 5 8 8 7 6."

Sydney typed in the code and the door unlocked. "Got it," Sydney said. Marshall sighed and sat back in his chair. Dixon and Sydney entered the room at the same time, and both stopped. Weiss noticed the silence and looked at Nadia, "What is it?" he asked. Sydney looked stunned looking at the bomb. "It's a nuke," she answered. "It's huge...can take out five major cities with one shot..."

"Do we know whose deposit this is?" Dixon asked.

"No," Vaughn said, "But we're downloading their files now. Chances are, because it's off the books, there won't be a record."

"Figures," Sydney muttered. She took out her small camera and began taking pictures of the bomb. Within a minute, she was done. "Ok, let's get out of here."

"Wait," Weiss said. "You have ten heavily armed guards approaching your location. You must have tripped an silent alarm."

Sydney rolled her eyes at Dixon as he pulled out his weapon, and she took off her coat, pulling out her gun. "Guess we'll have to go out the hard way."

"Syd," Vaughn said.

"Yeah?"

"Be careful."

Sydney paused for a moment, letting her husbands touch of concern for her sink in. She smiled and nodded. "I will," she assured him. She glanced at Dixon. "You ready to rock and roll?"

Dixon smiled at her. "I always am."

Song: Faith No More: Midlife Crisis; playing

Dixon opens the door and bullets whiz right past them, but both Sydney and Dixon take cover on either side of the wall. Both at the same time, come out and fire and move into the hallway and take cover. Sydney fires at the guards, taking two of them out then her and Dixon run down the hallway, towards the exit, the guards in tow. They come around the corner only to see the exit is completely blocked off. They take cover behind another corner as the guards by the exit fire at them. "We don't have enough ammo to take all of them out," Sydney said, out of breath. Dixon looked over her shoulder and pointed. Sydney followed his gaze as he was pointing to a window. Sydney turned to him, wide-eyed. "Dixon, we're on the fifth floor!" Dixon fired at the guards as others were fast approaching them. "You got any better ideas," he asked her. Dixon fired at them again just as a grenade rolled by their feet. Sydney, without hesitation, ran to the window, Dixon directly behind her. She shot at the window then used her weight and smashed through the rest of the window as the grenade went off.

Weiss, Vaughn and Nadia all saw the explosion from the fifth story window. "Dear God," Weiss whispered. Nadia quickly got behind the wheel of the van, started it up and sped off .

Sydney rolled over and groaned in pain. Dixon slowly got up and looked over at Sydney. "Great plan," she muttered. Dixon offered his hand and helped her up. "We've been through worse," he stated. Before Sydney could reply back, gun shots rang out again at them as the guards were running towards them again. Sydney and Dixon fired back and ran of in the opposite direction. Nadia burned rubber and sped towards Sydney and Dixon and stopped in front of them. Thinking it was an enemy van, Sydney and Dixon raised their weapons as Weiss opened the back door. Sydney and Dixon sighed in relief and jumped in and Nadia slammed on the brakes and sped away from the guards.

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"But the mission was a success?" I asked.

Sydney nodded at me. "Yeah, it was."

"What about on the way back?"

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Vaughn is wrapping a bandage around Sydney's bloody arm. Sydney winces in pain and pushes Vaughn's hand away and wraps it herself. "You should get that looked at," Vaughn told her. Sydney finishes wrapping it and looks at Vaughn. "It's fine."

Vaughn sits down. "Yeah, but still..."

"I said I was fine, Vaughn."

He just sat there and looked at her hurt. Sydney stared back up him, but then got up and walked away.

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"There's always tension between us." Sydney explained.

"What kind?" I asked

"All kinds. It's like, we always want to say something to each other, but we never do. Something always stops us."

"And you don't know what that is?"

"Well...if I did..."

"You wouldn't be here," I finished for her. "I understand."

Sydney nodded and rested her hands in her lap. I watched her for a bit as she avoided my gaze. I gently put my pen and pad down and looked at her. "How often do you two have sex?"

She must have been offended. Well, no, scratch that. If she were offended, she would have killed me. It was a question that Sydney wasn't expecting. I caught her off guard and by her pause. I had to guess, they didn't have sex very often.

"Um..."

I raised my eyebrow at her, "How about we narrow it down to a week. How many times in a week?"

Still, Sydney said nothing. "Uh..."

"Three?" Still nothing. "Two?" Sydney bit her lip. "One?" I asked hopefully. Still...she said nothing. Oh boy...

I quickly grabbed my pen and pad and wrote the note down. 'No sex! Could be a reasonable factor in faulty relationship.'

"It's just, you know, with the CIA, and Isabelle, and...well...you know..."

I noticed that Sydney was extremely nervous and uncomfortable. Sweating, even.

"Do you find him...repulsing?"

"God no!" Sydney exclaimed. "It's just...hard to put in words, I guess."

"Uh-huh. Why don't you try tonight?"

"Try what?"

I blinked at her, "To have sex. With your husband."

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Sydney walks in her bedroom and leans against the wall, looking at Vaughn. Vaughn looks up from his book and sees Sydney. "What?"

Sydney smiles at him. "Nothing."

Vaughn smiles back at her and places the book on the nightstand. "You think it's funny that I'm reading?"

"No," Sydney said smiling.

"Come here." Sydney walked over and sat next to Vaughn and rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "Do you think we need a shrink," he suddenly asked.

Sydney raised her head and looked at him. "I don't know really."

Vaughn sighed. "Me either." Vaughn studied her then moved in to kiss her, and Sydney let him. It felt good to be in his arms again after so long. To feel a connection between them again. Sydney kissed him back and Vaughn took off her shirt and started to kiss her neck. As he was started to get more intimate, Sydney pushed him off her. "No...I can't."

"What?"

Sydney pushed Vaughn off her and she quickly got up and went into the bathroom, and closed the door. Vaughn looked after her and sighed. "No," he muttered. "We don't need a shrink."

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"She threw up, okay? Vomited." Vaughn exclaimed. I studied him very well. Things didn't exactly go very well last night, I took it.

"Many mothers go threw this, Michael," I explained. "After so long of built up sexual tension, it's hard for them."

Vaughn only stared at me. "Isabelle is two," he said.

A bit my lip. Well, he's got a point there. "Well, maybe it was too fast then. Maybe you should start off simple. Dinner, for example. Get to know each other again and built up on that love you both already have."

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Vaughn walks out of his office and sees Sydney working over her computer. Vaughn walks over to Sydney and smiles at her. "Hey."

Sydney looks up at him through her glasses and slightly smiles. "Hey. Listen, about last night..."

"Don't worry about Syd, really." Sydney nods and smiles at him. "Listen, I figured, tonight we could go out. To dinner together."

"A date?" Sydney smiled.

"Yeah...something like that," he smiled back.

"That sounds perfect."

"Ok then...it's a date."

"Ok."

Smiling Vaughn left Sydney to finish her work when Eric approached him. "Oh, hey man, I need your help."

"What kind of help," Vaughn asked, worried.

Eric looked around quickly and showed him a ring. "I want to ask Nadia..."

"To marry you, no way?"

Eric smiles. "Yeah."

"Well, I'm not asking her for you."

"No, I need help to do it. How'd you ask Syd?"

"You mean before or after or impending death?"

"Before."

Vaughn sighs and looks at Sydney working, "You just do. You tell her the truth, how you really feel." He looks back at Eric. "You just speak from your heart."

"Ok...but how?"

"Come here."

Vaughn leads Eric into another empty office. "Practice on me."

"What?"

"Come one," Vaughn pressed. "Pretend I'm Nadia."

"Yeah, sure," Eric replied sarcastically.

"Ok, you know what? Fine." Vaughn went to leave but Eric stopped him. "Okay, okay."

Eric knelt on one knee and held the ring up to Vaughn. "Nadia...ever since I met you, you...have been wonderful. And..."

"Weiss, you're trying too hard."

"Ok," Eric sighed. "Um..."

"Just speak from the heart."

"Alright. Nadia, since you came into my life, I've never been happier. You are the most amazing, beautiful, talented woman, I have ever met and I want to be a part of that forever. So...will you marry me?"

Vaughn smiles and nods at Eric.

"Oh my God."

Vaughn and Eric quickly look up and see Sydney covering her mouth from laughing out loud. "I had no idea," she giggled.

"Shut up," Vaughn smiled at her.

Sydney walked in the room and took the ring from Eric.

"Hey!"

"Weiss, it's beautiful."

"You think she'll like it," he asked.

"She will love it." She hands the ring back to him. "But first, I think you two have to get divorced."

"Okay." Annoyed, Eric left the room and Vaughn followed him.

"Wait," Sydney said, following them out. "I want to hear the answer."

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"Your mission to Russia was successful. Langley got the weapon just in time as it was being moved to a different location. The CIA now has it, secured. I just wanted to let you all know the great job you did. Go home, relax. Enjoy today. I'll see you all tomorrow." Sloane finished and smiled at them all.

Everyone got up and left the briefing room. Vaughn walked up to Sydney and smiled at her. "So..."

Sydney returned his smile with her own. "I'll see you in an hour or so. I just have to pick up Isabelle and drop her off at my dad's."

"Ok...see you there."

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Sydney pulls her car up to the preschool and gets out. She hits the alarm button on it and walks into the lobby. Sydney sees a man standing at the desk and looks closely at him. Hello," he greets her.

"Hi. Are, you new?"

The man shakes his head. "I'm just filling in for Carrie. She went home sick."

"Oh." Sydney walks in the classroom and up to Isabelle's teacher. Sydney looks around the room. "Where's Isabelle?"

"Oh," the teacher said. "She just went to the restroom."

"In the lobby?"

"Yes."

Sydney walked back in to the he lobby and found the man gone. Sydney looked puzzled, but ignored it. He probably went to the bathroom too, she thought. Sydney pushed open the door to the woman's restroom. "Isabelle?" No answer. Sydney opened all the stalls, and found nothing. Then she found a stall that was locked. "Isabelle?" She kicked in the stall door, and opened it, and gasped. Carrie was sitting on the toilet, dead, and a sharp knife sticking out from her skull. Sydney covered her mouth and looked around the bathroom. Where the hell is Isabelle? She pulled out her gun and stormed out of the restroom nearly colliding with Isabelle's teacher. The teacher looked at Sydney's gun in surprise. "Isabelle?" Sydney shook her head. "She's not in there." Sydney rushed out of the school and looked around. Save for her car and a few other teachers cars, the parking lot was empty. Sydney looked around though, and spotted a dark tinted van peeling away from behind the school...in too much of a hurry. Sydney pulled out her keys, jumped in car and took off after the van...

TBC