Chapter Two

An Agent

I am so glad Sloane let us use the private jet for this mission. I need the solitude to regroup after the close call while finding the lab. I wonder if I killed Sark; I didn't have time to check after he fell back through the manhole. I at least wounded him severely enough to keep him from coming after me. And that would have to be badly, he's become a very determined person. At the very least he'll be out of the field for months to come. That definately makes my job somewhat easier.

Looking out of the large cabin windows at the lights of LA as they grow on the horizon, I wonder if what I'm feeling right now really is peace. As of this moment, I have basically no worries. I am still alive. Sark is either badly hurt or better, dead. And I can be the normal wife returning to her loving husband.

Yes, my loving husband Michael. Before I learned the truth about his life from Sloane, I missed him. I'd pretended to be over our sudden break-up for the sake of others, but I was still hurt and angry yet I still wanted him back for awhile. What I really hated though, was the fact I didn't even have a chance to face the woman who stole him away. In hind sight, I'd had a feeling it was that Rita from the hospital. His co-worker.

Finally, I gave up on all the nice feelings. I had tried to convince him it couldn't be over just like that but he just didn't want to make it work. So I grew bitter. Bitter against him and his mysterious Rita. How could he love me one day and her the next? What did she have that I didn't? I know the full story now and that doesn't make it any better.

I found out the truth when I read that first folder on my target's background. The man I once couldn't have imagined living without had lied to me our entire relationship. Michael had never worked for the State Department. He was an agent for the CIA. And the woman from work wasn't really named Rita, but Sydney Bristow. His agent.

It all fell into place then. I was furious. He had lied to me and risked practially everything to be with his agent. Sydney had lied to me when she hadn't even known me. And they got together behind my back.

Then I read that she had been presumed dead for almost a year. Things couldn't have been any more perfect from there on out.

I worked on getting Michael back with everything I had, and something happened that I did not expect. I stopped hating him. I saw him go from utterly devastated to relatively normal to quite happy. My bitterness and hate seem to have gone along with Sydney.

The 20 minutes until landing is announced by our pilot. Shaken from my reverie, I pull out the vial Sloane had sent us to recover. It had been scheduled to undergo analysis in an research lab in Peru and Sloane had just found out. The job should have been a quick in and out. Of course, Sark complicated that, but my partner and I are good. Danny got me the lead of seconds I'd needed to reach the lab first. Vaugely, I wonder who Sark could have been working for, but it's pointless to know. He'll be out of commissions permanently, I hope.

Playing with the small glass and metal bottle, I regress in my thoughts towards Michael. I had honestly thought winning him back after she was gone wouldn't be that hard, but watching him struggle with his grief, I thought maybe I'd underestimated him. He was even ignoring Weiss. So I quit all the plans I'd made and just pitched my voice in with Weiss. As I helped Eric take care of him, I think I earned some respect from him and I came to care for him again.

Now, I am comfortable in my role as loving wife. I know that someday, maybe soon, it will end, but until then, I'm enjoying all the time that I can, even if it is a lie. It's a nice one. Sometimes I wonder about him though. He seems very happy with me, but I honestly don't know why he proposed. I'd thought it would take longer to get him to make that step. But he gave this lovely speech about how since I had been there for him after 'Rita' died, he had come to realize how much I'd always meant to him. I'm sure he unconsiously considers me second best, but that's fine, she's dead and it made my job easier.

When he asked, I'd had to tell Michael I would have to think about it, because marriage wasn't necessarily in my orders. I reported the event to Sloane the next day. Sloane surprised me and told me to go ahead and answer whatever I wanted. My job was simply to get close and stay close. He would tell me what he specifically wanted with Michael when the time was right. So I decided to say yes.

The seatbelt lights come back on and I reach to secure my buckle. I glance across the stylish cabin at my partner. Danny is an interesting person. He also has a past with Sydney, but he doesn't know that I know about it. When we were first assigned to each other, Sloane let me read his file.

This is only the second mission we have been on and it seems we work really well together. I wonder how much he knows about Sloane and his plans. He probably knows as much as I do but even us top-level agents are not allowed to talk amongst ourselves about it.

Danny looks up at me and smiles. He is already typing out his report. I should be doing mine, but instead I've just been remembering.

The plane lands on the private, deserted landing strip. It only takes a few minutes to get my luggage and put it in the trunk of my waiting ice blue BMW Z3. Another perk, I got to pick my own car. I leave the top up and turn on the radio but my favorite station is just commercials so I flip it off again.

Driving home gives me even more time to reflect. My cover is that I work for a publishing firm. I'm a publicist and I meet with our small international clients. What I really like is that it's actually a legit job. I do enough real work to cover for my occasional missions. Sloane owns the firm but not under his real name of course.

I pull into the driveway of my two story, country-yellow house. Michael's Land Cruiser is not in the garage like normal. I wonder where he could be. I also wonder again how much longer it will be until I get word from Sloane to start the real reason I'm in Michael's life.

I'm a little regretful it will come to that. I will use the hypnosis I was trained in, but I am sort of sorry I will be using Michael so thoroughly. Yet it must be done if Sloane's plan is to succeed.