The characters of Alias and CSI do not belong to me. I wish they did but they don't.

Three hours Later. Grissom's Townhouse

"Sara, I told you I'm fine. You don't have to hover over me like a mother hen." Grissom told Sara. Though truth be told he was happy she was there with him. After today he wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear about Rambaldi and the men with tattooed hands. The investigator in him wanted to know of course. But he realized that Grissom the man could without the knowledge.

"I know you're fine. Just..." Sara paused looking at Grissom with tears in her eyes. "You don't know. You don't know how close you came too..." With that statement she started crying uncontrollably.

"Shh. Sara, It's ok. I'm fine and I'm not going anywhere." He let her over to the couch while he tried to calm her down.

"You don't understand Gil." She looked sadder than he had ever seen. She leaned in and kissed him making him forget the world. They made love and went to sleep before he had a chance to ask any of the question on his mind. When he woke up the next day she was gone.

CIA LA office

Sara Sidle walked into the LA office wearing the only alias she could come up with on short notice. After leaving Grissom she only had 2 hours to get a disguise together and hop a plane to LA. Today she wore a black Armani skirt suit with 4 inch heels (she had missed the CIA expense account that came with being undercover). On her head was a black wig cut into a bob with bangs. Completing the look was a pair of wire rimmed glasses. She held a briefcase that was full of all the documents pertaining to the case that she could copy and transport from the CSI lab. She took another deep breath trying to mentally prepare herself for what was to come. She walked over the CIA seal at the entrance of the building hearing her shoes clack against the hard floor and echo throughout the lobby. She walked through security and into the center of the building. Ah yes she thought to herself looking at the hustle and bustle within the controlled atmosphere. She sensed something behind her and turned to find her father walking towards her with a smile or at least what passed for a smile on Jack Bristow's face. They shook hands. "It's good to see you again Sara. I just wish it was under better circumstances."

"It's good to see you too Jack um Dad" Sara answered nervously, unsure what to call him.

"Call me whatever you like Sara. I won't get offended."

"Well than since you just read my mind i think I'll call you dad." They smiled at each other and Sara could tell he was pleased with the development.

"Sara! Sara!" Sara turned around the see who was calling her name. She smiled as her half sister Sydney jogged towards then. Sydney enclose Sara in a big hug and surprisingly Sara hugged her back without a thought to being uncomfortable at such close physical contact. She hadn't known about Sydney for most of her life and had only met her a handful of times. It was safer for them to not be scene together in public often. They both had too many enemies willing to exploit the girls close relationship.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sara, "I thought you quit?"

"I could say the same about you Sara." answered Sydney with a smirk.

"I'm just back for this one case" Sara laughed as Sydney finished the sentence for her.

"I say that every time I come back too." Sydney raised her eyebrows and kissed her father on the cheek. "Hows it feel to have both your daughters back at the same time?" Jack was actually grinning and his smile only got wider when he watched a man walk in with two small children.

"Grandpa, Grandpa! Aunty Sara" Sara turned around to pick up her niece Isabel. She was surprised to see that the CIA would allow children inside the inner sanctum.

"Marshal and his wife are going to watch them while we are on this op" Sydney explained.

"Vaughn's coming too?"

"Seems like Jack is getting the whole band back together for this one"

"Weiss!" Sara exclaimed. Weiss walked over to the group and gathered Sara into a giant bear hug.

"You know I always wanted you to come back. I'm just sorry it was like this. I know you have a life out in Vegas and you don't want it tainted with this." Weiss looked apologetic

"Well if all goes well, Sara will be able to go back to her life without so much as a bump in the road." Dixon's voice boomed from his office. "Come into my office." They walked up the stairs to Dixon's office, leaving the children with Marshal's wife in op tech. Sara saw Marshal sitting behind a large conference table with gadgets lay before him.

"Moving up in the world." Sara and Sydney spoke at the same time and than giggles. Sara couldn't help herself. Even under these circumstances being around her family and old friends made her feel somehow happier and protected.

"Office aside, I miss the field." Dixon said firmly. "Which is why on this op, I'm coming with you." Jack nodded slowly. He understood Dixon because he felt the same way. At the age of sixty he was still in the field and showed no signs of slowing down. Sark's photo appeared on several display screens around the office. The agents took the hint and sat around the table.

"Julian Sark." Director Dixon spoke firmly, immediately taking control of the room. "Known terrorist, head of a fairly new crime syndicate known as the Directorate.""Sark's never been that original." Sydney interrupted.

"Seriously why didn't he just call it the covenant part two" Sara snickered

"Yes, thats true. May I move on" Or are you and your sister planning on acting like middle schoolers through the entire presentation?"

"Sorry Director Dixon" Sara and Sydney both suppressed smiles and motioned for Dixon the continue the briefing.

"Sark's gone dark. For the last few years he has been doing this for months at a time. This means that while we will continue to look for him, our primary mission will be to take the four Rambaldi artifacts that he is seeking before he or his men can get to him." Dixon changed the image on the screen to four different buildings. "Each of these building hold one artifact a piece. We will hit them all at the same time to avoid the likelihood of Sark catching on and getting to the remaining artifacts before we have a chance." Dixon changed the images again to show them all four artifacts at the same time. "One week from today..."

"A week from today?" Sara shouted, "Are you kidding? We can't wait a week."

"We can and we will Sara. All intelligence data says that Sark won't even try to go after these artifacts for at least two weeks. He has to finalize the deal with his buyer first. Besides, he screwed up in Vegas and he knows it. He going to give him self a little time for things to cool of before he tries anything. The nature of this Op means that everything must go perfectly. One false move and we are over. And with all due respect agent Sidle, you have been out of the field for seven years. Agent Bristow has been out for two. I'm not letting either of you go back out there until you brush up on your hand to hand combat skills and familiarize yourself with new technology, especially with weapons. Do I make myself clear? Dixon's face had turned red by the end of his rant.

"Yes sir." Sara and Sydney answered. They understood his reasons but they both wanted to get Sark and move on with their lives. They were both already upset that the operation apparently had little to do with actually catching Sark. All this would do was pose-pone his plans.

"One week from today we will begin. At 18:00 hours Jack will enter the Louver posing as Preston Montgomery a well known but seldom seen benefactor of the arts. Vaughn will be posing as his son, Peter. They will be led on a private tour of the museum by the director of the museum himself. Jack and Vaughn will use there powers of persuasion to gain access to the sub-levels of the museum.

"People do tend to throw caution to the wind when a large donation is involved." Vaughn spoke up with a smile. Jack just looked at him with a less than amused expression of his face.

"Take care of the director and the guards. Marshal, if you could..." Dixon motioned to the short dark haired man the sat beside him.

"Yes, Sir. Of course. By the way Sara it's so good to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you. Weiss really missed you. Not that your dad didn't miss you but I've heard that you and Weiss used to, you know um, well he's had a hard year and looks happy to see you. And now with Sydney just being semi-retired we really needed someone to help keep your dad in line." Jack cleared his throat and gave Marshal a piercing stare. Weiss was staring at the conference table and his ears were bright red. Marshal looked nervous. "Um yes ok. He picked up a small object from the table. "Looks like an ordinary breath freshener, right? Well one spray of this baby will knock anyone out cold for 30 minutes. They won't even wake up with a headache. They will loose some memory of the day, which for us is good. Cause we don't want him to remember..." Marshal seemed to realize he was rambling and presented the rest of his, "toys" to Jack and Vaughn without any extra information.

"Jack and Vaughn will collect the scrolls from the Louver and grab a plane heading to Spain to meet up with Sydney and Sara. Weiss, you and I will hit the monastery in Portugal at the same time. It has almost no security. We will go in posing as priests and representatives from the Vatican. I'm told that they are already preparing for our visit. The monks seem to be complexity unaware of what they have stored in the wine cellar." Dixon didn't elaborate of what exactly was in the wine cellar

"So what's in the cellar?" asked Weiss. Dixon changed the image on the screen to a close up of a wine bottle that was at least 300 years old. Within the bottle, beneath the wine was another smaller bottle.

"It's the last known bottle of a liquid needed to display the text on the scrolls from the Louver." Dixon continued, "They are apparently the directions for assembling the devise. Sara and Sydney will gather the two remaining components simultaneously in Spain."

"Alone!" Jack interrupted, "Are you out of your mind?"

"No Jack" Dixon sighed, "I am not out of my mind. Sara and Sydney have a better chance of getting in and out of the buildings alone than they do together. Both building have minimal personal and on site security. They are counting on the alarms to keep thieves out. Marshal could you please explain the security system to Agents Bristow and Sidle?"

"Yes, Sir. Ok this is really great actually. Genius work. And I would know because I do happen to be..."

"Marshal!" Sydney and Sara said at the same time.

"Sorry ladies." Marshal looked a bit stricken at being scolded by the two ladies but he didn't miss a beat and kept talking, "We're hitting two storage facility, each 35 miles eat and west of the capital. They are both government building and the security systems were designed by the same man. Now, to get in, we have to cut the power, which is gonna trigger an off-site security response. This gives us five minutes to get in, get the packages and get out. Our target's at both locations is gold box. Each box holds a components of the Rambaldi artifact.

"There are only two components?" Asked Sydney surprised

"No" answered Dixon. "They are twenty components plus the scrolls and liquid needed to read them. Sark already has the other 18 components. You understand now why its important we get these artifacts and get the operation right the first time. And hopefully why, right now we have to go after them instead of Sark." Dixon signaled Marshal to continue.

"Inside the box is a small canister holding the components, which we'll be transferring to this steal case. Now, keep in mind, once you've opened the safe, you only have one minute to remove the canister before it self-destructs, which means the transfer should be smooth…and instantaneous."

"Easy as pie" said Sara smiling grimly.

Everyone in the room nodded solemnly waiting to be dismissed by Dixon. When they were Sydney and Sara headed towards the training facility to re-train. They both knew that the training they had received years earlier had not left them, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Meanwhile at the CSI Lab: Las Vegas Nevada

"Blond hair, about six feet, blue eyes."

Grissom sat with the departments sketch artist tying to correctly describe the British man that he had only seen for a few moments. Sara had stared him down, he thought to him self, she should be here instead of him. But he mused, Sara was not here, and he had no idea where she was. When he realized that Sara was gone, Grissom worried that she would become a suspect in the crime. She did seem to know the assailant. He believed that she would at least be considered someone they needed to interview. However, when Grissom arrived at work that night and informed Eckle that Sara was not coming in, the man surprised him by telling him that he already knew she wouldn't.

"Government Crime Lab requested her presents. Apparently they needed Sidle's expertise involving a case she worked back in San Francisco." As Eckle spoke, Grissom narrowed his eyes at the man trying to figure out what he knew. "This is a great opportunity for the lab to gain credibility with the feds. I just hope Sidle doesn't screw this up." With that Eckle turned and headed towards his office. Grissom realized that Eckle knew even less than he did about what was going on.

A week had gone by and he had no word from Sara. His anger at her for leaving without saying goodbye was replaced with a fear deep in his soul. What was she involved in? As the days went by he realized that he was no closer to figuring out the mystery that was Sara Sidle than he had been seven years ago when she first moved to Vegas.

It didn't help his foul mood that the case involving the Englishman and Rambaldi seemed to be going no where. They were able to life some prints but running them through the computer didn't help. The three prints that they found matches for were dead ends. The database said that the cases involving the men were classified. Calling the feds did nothing to help the case. Grissom felt as though he was being stonewalled at every turn. All they had to go on was Grissom's eye witness testimony. And Grissom knew better than anyone how unreliable that could be.