kidblink83
Cadet
Title: A Series of Stories
Rating: PG
Summary: A father’s life is recalled by his daughter through a series of stories told to her by her mother. S/Sa
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don’t own anything except for Lily... thank you, J.J. Abrams.
Timeline: Post-Counteragent S2.
Sydney could hear yelling coming faintly from the upstairs bedroom of her house. Normally, she would just let it go on for a little bit without answering in an effort to get Lily to tire herself out a little. It was usually only a fear of monsters in the closet or dragons under the bed. But this time the cries seemed almost frantic. Which worried her. This might not be monsters.
Jumping up, she made her way up the stairs and to the first room on the right, trying all the way not to slip into spy mode. Just because Lily was crying doesn’t mean that some evil spy had broken into her home and tried to steal her child. Granted, it had happened a few times before, but that didn’t mean it was what was going on today.
“Hey, baby,” Sydney said, once she saw that indeed there was no ominous figure standing by the bed or hovering in the shadows. “What’s wrong?”
“I had another bad dream, Mommy,” the little seven-year-old girl said from her place in bed. Sydney smiled at her daughter who was the spitting image of herself. The little girl had long, silky brown hair pulled back in a French braid, and her eyes were a piercing blue just like her father’s. She was wearing rubber ducky pajamas that her Uncle Will had bought her for her birthday a few weeks ago. Every time Sydney looked at her, she couldn’t believe how something so perfect had come out of her war-torn life. It was a miracle.
Breaking her momentary trance, Sydney smiled and walked over to the bed, taking a seat on the edge. “Was it about the mean kids at school again?”
“Yeah,” Lily admitted as she lay back down in the bed.
“What do you need me to do, sweetheart?”
“Tell me one of your fun stories.”
“About what? Daring car chases? Massive explosions? Double identities?”
“No!” Lily yelled. “I don’t want to hear your made-up stories. I want to hear something that’s real.”
“Who’s to say that I made up those stories?”
Lily gave her one of her skeptical looks that said she was tired of hearing people try to lie to her. “Mommy, be serious. Tell me the story about how you met Daddy.”
Sydney nodded and leaned back against the wall to make herself a little more comfortable. This was her daughter’s favorite story, and it always took quite a bit out of her, drudging up old memories. “Well, you know that your father and I worked at the same bank.”
“Yeah. That funny French word.”
“Credit Dauphine, Lily. And French is not a funny language. It’s very romantic. You’ll learn that someday.”
“Daddy could speak French, couldn’t he?”
“Like no one else.” Sydney smiled at her daughter. “Now where was I?”
“You were just starting.”
“Oh right. Your father and I knew each other long before the day our story takes place. In fact, we had just been made partners. But let’s just say that Mommy wasn’t too fond of him at the time.”
“Why didn’t you like Daddy?”
“Well, he didn’t appear to be the nicest man, and he liked to ruffle Mommy’s feathers. But I didn’t know him that well then. Now I know that he is indeed a very nice man.” Sydney paused for a second. “Anyway, your daddy and I were riding in an elevator down to one of the bank’s sub-basements…”
Sydney scowled at Sark as he put his hand in front of the elevator doors to keep them from closing. “Are you trying to make me late, Agent Bristow?”
“Yes,” she hissed back. “And it doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Colleagues usually hold the elevator for one another, no matter how much bad blood is between them. It’s common courtesy.”
“I don’t feel the need to be courteous to a man like you.”
Sark took his place leaning against the back wall of the elevator and gave her a complete look up and down. “Your subtle plan to get me fired really isn’t that subtle today. I would expect more of you.” He stopped talking until she made eye contact with him. “You know, Sydney, I like you in blue. It makes your smile seem brighter.”
“Listen, Sark. Sloane might be making us partner up for missions, but that doesn’t mean that I have to start enjoying your company and listen to your slimy come-ons. So, if we could just get through this elevator ride without talking, I would be ever grateful.”
To her surprise, he nodded and pulled out his cell phone to make a call.
“Your daddy really wanted to get some alone time with me,” Sydney explained. “You see, I didn’t know it at the time, but Julian had a crush on me.”
“Crushes are fun,” Lily said with a smile.
“You’re too young to be saying that,” she deadpanned, shaking her head. “Anyway, he caught me going into the elevator and seized the moment to have a conversation with me. There really wasn’t a lot of time during our jobs together for us to talk about more than our assignments.”
“But Daddy wanted to get to know you.”
“Right. Your father wanted to get to know who I was outside of the bank. I didn’t really want to hear a word he was saying because of the whole massive hate thing. Since his goal wasn’t to make me mad, he didn’t say a word when I asked him to be quiet. He just picked up his phone and made a call.”
“Did you say please when you told him not to talk?”
“Of course. Believe or not, your Daddy told me later that he was just pretending to make a phone call. He just wanted to have a little time to watch me without me realizing that was his plan.”
“Daddy was a smart guy, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, he was, honey. We were just standing in the elevator, me staring at the closed doors and your father on his phone. And then everything in the world seemed to go wrong…”
The elevator lurched to a stop in between the third and fourth sub-basements. Sydney looked around in confusion but then immediately turned her attention to glaring at Sark. “What the hell did you do?”
“Why do you assume that I had something to do with what is obviously just a mechanical malfunction?”
“Because you always have some hand in everything that goes wrong in my life.” Turning away from glaring at him, she started banging on the door and screaming for help.
After a few minutes, he interrupted her screaming. “That’s not going to work, and you are just going to tire yourself out. SD-6 has encased this elevator in a special type of metal that traps sound and vibration, so what you‘re doing is useless. It was a safety precaution. Didn‘t you read the manual on the facility when you first started working here?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “But that was years ago. And right now we’re going to suffocate to death because of that nice, little safety precaution. No one knows we‘re stuck in here.”
Sark stood up from where he was leaning and walked over to Sydney. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder. “You should calm down. They’ll realize we’re in here soon.”
“Get your hands off me, you pig,” she growled almost on instinct.
“Your father was there to comfort me, which I’m grateful for looking back on it. At the time I was a little mean to him. I guess I was in a little bit of a panic. It was an extremely scary place to be. A tiny space hanging in between floors and no one around to know that we were in trouble. It still makes me claustrophobic.”
“What’s claw-so-phone-nick?”
Sydney smiled at her daughter‘s pronunciation. “Claustrophobic, Lily. It means I’m a little uneasy about small, closed in spaces. And that elevator was exactly that. It also didn’t help that we sat in that elevator for a good hour before anyone got in contact with us.”
“What did you do for an hour?”
“Nothing. I was in a pretty bad mood so I asked Daddy nicely not to talk to me again…”
“If you think for one minute I’m going to sit here and banter with you to amuse ourselves, you have another thing coming. So, unless you want to find out just how much pain I can inflict in such a small space, don‘t say a word.”
“One of the security guards realized the error in the elevator mechanics and called us on the emergency phone. He told us that help was on the way and we would be out shortly…”
Sydney jumped as a voice echoed through the elevator. “Identify yourself,” it boomed.
Sark took initiative and walked over to the elevator panel. “Agents Bluebird and Enigma. ID and class 30408-12696 and 52981-10096, respectively.”
They sat in silence as the man on the intercom verified the information he had just been given.
“How did you know my SD-6 ID?” Sydney asked absentmindedly. “Did you memorize it?”
“I was taught to know my opponents better than I know myself. That includes you, Sydney. But trust me, I would rather you be my ally than my opponent any day.”
She was about to answer when the man came back on the intercom. “Identities verified. We’ll try to get the elevator up and running as soon as possible. Do not, I repeat, do not try to find your way out of the elevator yourself. There may be safety mechanisms preventing you from doing so, and we don‘t want two of the company‘s most prestigious employees being hurt on a fluke mechanical glitch.” The voice clicked off as abruptly as it started.
“So I’m stuck here with you for god knows how long?” Sydney muttered. “Great. Can my day get any better?” She let her body slid down the wall of the elevator until she was sitting on the floor.
“Come on, Sydney,” Sark said as he sat down next to her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. “This is the perfect opportunity for me to really understand you.”
She glowered at him but didn’t tell him to move.
“Your father and I talked for the next hour we were stuck in the elevator after the security guard called us again to say help might take a while. Looking back, I think that was the first really good conversation I’d had in a long time. You remember how Mommy told you that her life was a little more crazy back then.”
“I don’t believe it,” Lily said.
“I know you don’t. Anyway, it eventually got too hot in the elevator to even speak. We were in a really small space, and the air system had shut down when the elevator stopped. Have you ever been that hot, sweetie?” Sydney snuggled in closer to her daughter.
“One time I thought I was going to cook myself alive when I was over at Jacob O‘Reyers’ house. But I just jumped in the backyard pool, and it was all okay.”
“Well imagine that but double it. I’ve never been in such a hot place.”
“And you’ve been to really hot places like Miami and Dallas.”
Sydney laughed to herself. If her daughter only knew all the tropical places she had been in her work with SD-6 and the CIA.
“They should put pools in elevators.”
“Yeah, they should. I’ll suggest that to the person in charge of elevators.” She smiled at her daughter’s innocent mind. “So, I was roasting alive, and then your father did the strangest thing…”
“What the hell are you doing?” Sydney demanded as Sark stood up.
Sark paid no attention to her as he slipped off his suit jacket and began to roll up the sleeves of his shirt. “If you haven’t noticed, Sydney, it’s about a hundred degrees in this elevator. And I am in an Armani suit. Those two things don’t go together.”
“Afraid you’ll get sweat stains?” she joked.
“Exactly. See, no matter what you insist, you do understand me, Bristow.”
Sydney stood up and took off her jacket, also, while silently thanking herself for picking the skirt to wear instead of the pants. A skirt was a much better piece of clothing to be wearing when one is stuck with the person they hate most in the world in the hottest and smallest elevator ever made. That was something she had learned already from this experience.
“Daddy and you took off your clothes?” Lily said surprised.
“Not all of our clothes. Just our jackets, honey.” Switching to full-on Mom mode, she added, “It’s not appropriate to take off all your clothes even when you’re locked up tight in an elevator.”
“Just checking. So what happened next?”
Sydney smiled to herself at the memory of what happened next. “Well, then your father said the sweetest thing to me…”
“You know, I think that if you and I were fighting for the same thing, we’d make a good team. We would probably be unstoppable.” Sark sat back down next to Sydney.
She glared at him. “And I bet we’d be lovers, too, right?”
“If that’s what you want, all right. It can be arranged.”
“You are such a…”
“Impeccable dresser? Mysterious man? No! I got it. Cocky bastard! That was the one you were looking for!” Sark smirked at her. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being called that. My mother might object if she were still alive, but I enjoy it.”
Sydney couldn’t help it. She let out a huge laugh. Sark had never been this relaxed around her before. He always seemed so stuffy and… well… British. But it must have been something in the air. The heat, maybe. He seemed almost… normal.
“I’m beginning to think you don’t hate me as much as you want everyone to think. We’ve been in this elevator for a few hours now, and you haven’t tried to kill me. Not once.” Sark turned his head to the left and smiled at her. “Maybe you even like me.”
She turned her head to the right to face him. “Don’t push me. We’re still stuck in here. There’s plenty of time for me to get mad and try to kill you. And you haven‘t factored in the possibility that I‘ve been spending my time wisely creating a plan to kill you so that it looks like an accident.”
“Your father was just full of surprises that day. He told me that he had been watching me, and that he thought I was a very smart, beautiful woman.”
“Was Daddy romantic, Mom?”
“Very much so. But I wouldn’t find that out until much later.”
“But he called you beautiful. All guys who call you beautiful are trying to be romantic.”
Sydney smiled at her naïve, little daughter. “Your father told me some things about myself that I thought no one else would know…”
“So, Sydney,” Sark said with a smirk, “how’s that whole double agent thing working out for you?”
“What are you talking about?” she replied, trying her best to play dumb.
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know. You’ve been working for the CIA for over a year now. It’s as plain as day to anyone who’s willing to look. You’re not that stealthy when you pull your double switches or give the wrong intel. A person as well-trained as me could spot it within seconds.”
Sydney just stared at him. “I wouldn‘t call you well-trained, just paranoid. And I’m not admitting or denying anything.”
“Smart. But that kind of puts an end to our conversation so I think you might have to. I mean, what else do you have to do right now besides tell me all your deep, dark secrets? I promise I‘m very good at keeping secrets.” Sark smiled at her in his normal, devilish way. Then he moved over so that he was sitting in front of her. “Why don’t you tell me about your handler? My intel says that you’re extremely fond of this Michael Vaughn.”
“Leave Vaughn out of this,” she growled before she realized what she had just admitted to.
“See? I knew you couldn’t keep a secret. And obviously, you do care about the man to make such an impulsive statement.”
“Michael Vaughn means a lot to me, Sark,” she said very slowly and intently. “If you do a thing to him at any point in our time working together, you’ll learn the true meaning of pain. And that is a promise.”
“I think that’s the fourth threat you’ve made to my life in the past ten minutes. We’re making progress.” Sark smirked. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Sydney. Honestly. I just want to know more about you. You intrigue me.”
“I noticed that he was acting a little strange. Usually, your father and I just had arguments. We never really talked nicely with one another. In the hectic life of banking, there’s not really any time to get to know your co-workers or to try to make friends. But he was being nice to me. So I called him on it…”
“Why the hell are you being so civil towards me?” she demanded.
“Because, as hard as it is to believe, I like you, Sydney. I find you to be intelligent and beautiful in a naturally sexy way. Any warm-blooded man would realize that within two seconds of meeting you. And I find I enjoy being in your company. Even when you‘re threatening to kill me.”
She didn’t know what to say as a response. She had not seen this one coming. The only thing she could manage to come up with was “SD-6 doesn’t condone relationships between partners in its organization.” And she knew that it was going to be taken completely wrong and out of context.
Sark laughed. “So, you are interested in me?”
“No. I was just saying.”
“Uh huh.” He smirked at her.
“Then what happened, Mommy?”
“Then the elevator started moving again, and the conversation was dropped…” she said quickly.
“There’s no security cameras in this elevator,” he said after a minute of tense silence.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You said that SD-6 doesn’t condone relations between its agents. While we’re in this elevator, they won’t know a thing. It‘s like a safe zone. No spies besides you and me.”
“I am not going to have sex with you in an elevator!” she yelled, completely appalled.
“I never said anything about sex, Sydney. That was your dirty mind making inferences.”
“As if that wasn’t your implied meaning.” She stood up and started pacing back and forth. “I don’t know what to make of you half the time. First, you’re a complete bastard who could care less about anything. Which is how you’re supposed to act, by the way. That’s who you are.”
“Oh? Do you know for a fact that’s who I am?”
She ignored him. “And then the very next second, you’re being romantic and funny and… well… normal. You’re like the kind of guy I would find attractive outside of this atmosphere. But then you morph right back to the jerk who asks girls to sleep with him in elevators.” Frustrated, she turned and stared at her reflection on the shiny elevator wall.
Sydney was too busy ranting to notice that Sark had stood up and was slowly walking over to the corner where she was pacing. “I did not ask you to sleep with me.”
“Whatever. All I’m saying is I have never, ever met a man who frustrates me more than you.” She turned around to start pacing again and gasped. The man in question was standing inches away from her and slowly closing that distance.
He stared her straight in the eyes so intently she felt herself begin to blush. Before she could move away from him, he had his arms up against the elevator walls, pinning her. He saw her eyes widen in horror as he leaned his head close to hers and whispered in her ear.
“I know that I shouldn’t be doing this, Sydney. That all it’s going to cause me is further pain and embarrassment. A girl like you would never let herself end up with a guy like me. To be honest, I‘m pretty sure that a guy like me shouldn‘t be with a girl like you.” He pulled back and looked her in the eyes again. “But I’m dying to find out what would happen if we forgot about that and just tried.”
“What are you doing?” she whispered, confused and yet perfectly aware of what was happening.
“Kissing you,” he whispered back before gently touching his lips to hers.
Sydney knew that she should probably have kneed him in the groin. That was the sensible and logical thing to do in this situation. Which is why she was so surprised when she felt her hands go up around his back and pull him closer to her. She cursed herself silently for given in to him but was delighted to hear him groan as her lips ground into his.
Later she would blame it on the words he had said to her, but for that moment, she was willing to admit that he might be right.
Sark could feel one of Sydney’s hands work its way up to his chest and slowly begin to unbutton his shirt. He had never thought that they would be doing this when he decided to hop in the same elevator as her and annoy her a little. He ran his hands up along the sides of her arm and was thrilled to feel her shiver under his touch. This is how he had always imagined kissing Sydney Bristow would be. Absolutely perfect.
Which is the only reason he managed to pull himself away from here.
“What?” she asked, trying to pull him back into the kiss.
“We need to stop, Sydney.” He could see the anger flare up in her eyes, and he put one finger to her lips to quiet her before she started yelling. “Listen to me. You know that I want this, whatever this is. That’s obvious. However, I don’t want this to turn out to be just a fun three-hour round of sex in a broken elevator.”
“Three hours?” she said, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “You’re going to have to wait to find out about that one. What I’m trying to say, Sydney, is I’m interested in you. More so than any other woman I’ve ever met. I don’t want this to be a little fling between us in an elevator.”
“Maybe all I want is a little fling in an elevator,” she said defiantly.
“Sydney, we both know that’s not true.”
“Oh, stop being so full of yourself!”
He looked at her intently. “It’s time you stopped being afraid of your emotions and just started saying what you feel. It’s time that you admit that there’s something between us.”
“We were in the middle of a very important conversation. Your father was trying to get me to admit to something really important when there was a big shift as the elevator started running again. I almost fell down from the jolt. You know what a big klutz I am, honey.”
“Yeah, you’re always bruised from banging into desks and doorways at your job.”
“That’s right. This time, though, I didn’t get hurt because your daddy caught me before I hit the floor…”
Sydney was about to admit that Sark might have a point, there was something between them that she could identify quite yet, when the elevator shifted. She saw Sark get thrown back against the wall two seconds before she felt herself being flung in the same direction right on top of him. As the elevator shifted into its normal up and down motion, he whispered in her ear, “In my arms again, Bristow. It must be fate.”
Sydney didn’t say a word to him as she backed out of his arms to her previous position in front of the elevator doors, waiting for them to open. As they opened and she stepped out, she took one last look at the man who had suddenly changed in her eyes.
“He said to me that it must have been fate that I keep ending up in his arms.” She saw Lily jumping up and down on the bed in anticipation of the last part of the story. “And do you remember what I said to him?”
“You said ‘Maybe it is’ and then you kissed Daddy.”
“That’s right, sweetheart. That was the first time I realized that I might actually be falling in love with your father.” Sydney patted her daughter on the head and stood up. “Now, it’s time for you to go back to sleep. Sweet dreams, pumpkin!”
“Good night, Mommy. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Sydney watched her daughter burrow down into the covers. When she was content that Lily was no longer scared and she could hear the sound of her steady breathing, she flipped off the overhead light and closed the door softly.
The second she was out of the room, she pushed herself back against the wall of the hallway and put her face in her hands, finally allowing herself to cry. The words she had said to Sark that day echoed through her mind.
“Maybe it is.”
Rating: PG
Summary: A father’s life is recalled by his daughter through a series of stories told to her by her mother. S/Sa
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don’t own anything except for Lily... thank you, J.J. Abrams.
Timeline: Post-Counteragent S2.
Sydney could hear yelling coming faintly from the upstairs bedroom of her house. Normally, she would just let it go on for a little bit without answering in an effort to get Lily to tire herself out a little. It was usually only a fear of monsters in the closet or dragons under the bed. But this time the cries seemed almost frantic. Which worried her. This might not be monsters.
Jumping up, she made her way up the stairs and to the first room on the right, trying all the way not to slip into spy mode. Just because Lily was crying doesn’t mean that some evil spy had broken into her home and tried to steal her child. Granted, it had happened a few times before, but that didn’t mean it was what was going on today.
“Hey, baby,” Sydney said, once she saw that indeed there was no ominous figure standing by the bed or hovering in the shadows. “What’s wrong?”
“I had another bad dream, Mommy,” the little seven-year-old girl said from her place in bed. Sydney smiled at her daughter who was the spitting image of herself. The little girl had long, silky brown hair pulled back in a French braid, and her eyes were a piercing blue just like her father’s. She was wearing rubber ducky pajamas that her Uncle Will had bought her for her birthday a few weeks ago. Every time Sydney looked at her, she couldn’t believe how something so perfect had come out of her war-torn life. It was a miracle.
Breaking her momentary trance, Sydney smiled and walked over to the bed, taking a seat on the edge. “Was it about the mean kids at school again?”
“Yeah,” Lily admitted as she lay back down in the bed.
“What do you need me to do, sweetheart?”
“Tell me one of your fun stories.”
“About what? Daring car chases? Massive explosions? Double identities?”
“No!” Lily yelled. “I don’t want to hear your made-up stories. I want to hear something that’s real.”
“Who’s to say that I made up those stories?”
Lily gave her one of her skeptical looks that said she was tired of hearing people try to lie to her. “Mommy, be serious. Tell me the story about how you met Daddy.”
Sydney nodded and leaned back against the wall to make herself a little more comfortable. This was her daughter’s favorite story, and it always took quite a bit out of her, drudging up old memories. “Well, you know that your father and I worked at the same bank.”
“Yeah. That funny French word.”
“Credit Dauphine, Lily. And French is not a funny language. It’s very romantic. You’ll learn that someday.”
“Daddy could speak French, couldn’t he?”
“Like no one else.” Sydney smiled at her daughter. “Now where was I?”
“You were just starting.”
“Oh right. Your father and I knew each other long before the day our story takes place. In fact, we had just been made partners. But let’s just say that Mommy wasn’t too fond of him at the time.”
“Why didn’t you like Daddy?”
“Well, he didn’t appear to be the nicest man, and he liked to ruffle Mommy’s feathers. But I didn’t know him that well then. Now I know that he is indeed a very nice man.” Sydney paused for a second. “Anyway, your daddy and I were riding in an elevator down to one of the bank’s sub-basements…”
Sydney scowled at Sark as he put his hand in front of the elevator doors to keep them from closing. “Are you trying to make me late, Agent Bristow?”
“Yes,” she hissed back. “And it doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Colleagues usually hold the elevator for one another, no matter how much bad blood is between them. It’s common courtesy.”
“I don’t feel the need to be courteous to a man like you.”
Sark took his place leaning against the back wall of the elevator and gave her a complete look up and down. “Your subtle plan to get me fired really isn’t that subtle today. I would expect more of you.” He stopped talking until she made eye contact with him. “You know, Sydney, I like you in blue. It makes your smile seem brighter.”
“Listen, Sark. Sloane might be making us partner up for missions, but that doesn’t mean that I have to start enjoying your company and listen to your slimy come-ons. So, if we could just get through this elevator ride without talking, I would be ever grateful.”
To her surprise, he nodded and pulled out his cell phone to make a call.
“Your daddy really wanted to get some alone time with me,” Sydney explained. “You see, I didn’t know it at the time, but Julian had a crush on me.”
“Crushes are fun,” Lily said with a smile.
“You’re too young to be saying that,” she deadpanned, shaking her head. “Anyway, he caught me going into the elevator and seized the moment to have a conversation with me. There really wasn’t a lot of time during our jobs together for us to talk about more than our assignments.”
“But Daddy wanted to get to know you.”
“Right. Your father wanted to get to know who I was outside of the bank. I didn’t really want to hear a word he was saying because of the whole massive hate thing. Since his goal wasn’t to make me mad, he didn’t say a word when I asked him to be quiet. He just picked up his phone and made a call.”
“Did you say please when you told him not to talk?”
“Of course. Believe or not, your Daddy told me later that he was just pretending to make a phone call. He just wanted to have a little time to watch me without me realizing that was his plan.”
“Daddy was a smart guy, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, he was, honey. We were just standing in the elevator, me staring at the closed doors and your father on his phone. And then everything in the world seemed to go wrong…”
The elevator lurched to a stop in between the third and fourth sub-basements. Sydney looked around in confusion but then immediately turned her attention to glaring at Sark. “What the hell did you do?”
“Why do you assume that I had something to do with what is obviously just a mechanical malfunction?”
“Because you always have some hand in everything that goes wrong in my life.” Turning away from glaring at him, she started banging on the door and screaming for help.
After a few minutes, he interrupted her screaming. “That’s not going to work, and you are just going to tire yourself out. SD-6 has encased this elevator in a special type of metal that traps sound and vibration, so what you‘re doing is useless. It was a safety precaution. Didn‘t you read the manual on the facility when you first started working here?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “But that was years ago. And right now we’re going to suffocate to death because of that nice, little safety precaution. No one knows we‘re stuck in here.”
Sark stood up from where he was leaning and walked over to Sydney. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder. “You should calm down. They’ll realize we’re in here soon.”
“Get your hands off me, you pig,” she growled almost on instinct.
“Your father was there to comfort me, which I’m grateful for looking back on it. At the time I was a little mean to him. I guess I was in a little bit of a panic. It was an extremely scary place to be. A tiny space hanging in between floors and no one around to know that we were in trouble. It still makes me claustrophobic.”
“What’s claw-so-phone-nick?”
Sydney smiled at her daughter‘s pronunciation. “Claustrophobic, Lily. It means I’m a little uneasy about small, closed in spaces. And that elevator was exactly that. It also didn’t help that we sat in that elevator for a good hour before anyone got in contact with us.”
“What did you do for an hour?”
“Nothing. I was in a pretty bad mood so I asked Daddy nicely not to talk to me again…”
“If you think for one minute I’m going to sit here and banter with you to amuse ourselves, you have another thing coming. So, unless you want to find out just how much pain I can inflict in such a small space, don‘t say a word.”
“One of the security guards realized the error in the elevator mechanics and called us on the emergency phone. He told us that help was on the way and we would be out shortly…”
Sydney jumped as a voice echoed through the elevator. “Identify yourself,” it boomed.
Sark took initiative and walked over to the elevator panel. “Agents Bluebird and Enigma. ID and class 30408-12696 and 52981-10096, respectively.”
They sat in silence as the man on the intercom verified the information he had just been given.
“How did you know my SD-6 ID?” Sydney asked absentmindedly. “Did you memorize it?”
“I was taught to know my opponents better than I know myself. That includes you, Sydney. But trust me, I would rather you be my ally than my opponent any day.”
She was about to answer when the man came back on the intercom. “Identities verified. We’ll try to get the elevator up and running as soon as possible. Do not, I repeat, do not try to find your way out of the elevator yourself. There may be safety mechanisms preventing you from doing so, and we don‘t want two of the company‘s most prestigious employees being hurt on a fluke mechanical glitch.” The voice clicked off as abruptly as it started.
“So I’m stuck here with you for god knows how long?” Sydney muttered. “Great. Can my day get any better?” She let her body slid down the wall of the elevator until she was sitting on the floor.
“Come on, Sydney,” Sark said as he sat down next to her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. “This is the perfect opportunity for me to really understand you.”
She glowered at him but didn’t tell him to move.
“Your father and I talked for the next hour we were stuck in the elevator after the security guard called us again to say help might take a while. Looking back, I think that was the first really good conversation I’d had in a long time. You remember how Mommy told you that her life was a little more crazy back then.”
“I don’t believe it,” Lily said.
“I know you don’t. Anyway, it eventually got too hot in the elevator to even speak. We were in a really small space, and the air system had shut down when the elevator stopped. Have you ever been that hot, sweetie?” Sydney snuggled in closer to her daughter.
“One time I thought I was going to cook myself alive when I was over at Jacob O‘Reyers’ house. But I just jumped in the backyard pool, and it was all okay.”
“Well imagine that but double it. I’ve never been in such a hot place.”
“And you’ve been to really hot places like Miami and Dallas.”
Sydney laughed to herself. If her daughter only knew all the tropical places she had been in her work with SD-6 and the CIA.
“They should put pools in elevators.”
“Yeah, they should. I’ll suggest that to the person in charge of elevators.” She smiled at her daughter’s innocent mind. “So, I was roasting alive, and then your father did the strangest thing…”
“What the hell are you doing?” Sydney demanded as Sark stood up.
Sark paid no attention to her as he slipped off his suit jacket and began to roll up the sleeves of his shirt. “If you haven’t noticed, Sydney, it’s about a hundred degrees in this elevator. And I am in an Armani suit. Those two things don’t go together.”
“Afraid you’ll get sweat stains?” she joked.
“Exactly. See, no matter what you insist, you do understand me, Bristow.”
Sydney stood up and took off her jacket, also, while silently thanking herself for picking the skirt to wear instead of the pants. A skirt was a much better piece of clothing to be wearing when one is stuck with the person they hate most in the world in the hottest and smallest elevator ever made. That was something she had learned already from this experience.
“Daddy and you took off your clothes?” Lily said surprised.
“Not all of our clothes. Just our jackets, honey.” Switching to full-on Mom mode, she added, “It’s not appropriate to take off all your clothes even when you’re locked up tight in an elevator.”
“Just checking. So what happened next?”
Sydney smiled to herself at the memory of what happened next. “Well, then your father said the sweetest thing to me…”
“You know, I think that if you and I were fighting for the same thing, we’d make a good team. We would probably be unstoppable.” Sark sat back down next to Sydney.
She glared at him. “And I bet we’d be lovers, too, right?”
“If that’s what you want, all right. It can be arranged.”
“You are such a…”
“Impeccable dresser? Mysterious man? No! I got it. Cocky bastard! That was the one you were looking for!” Sark smirked at her. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being called that. My mother might object if she were still alive, but I enjoy it.”
Sydney couldn’t help it. She let out a huge laugh. Sark had never been this relaxed around her before. He always seemed so stuffy and… well… British. But it must have been something in the air. The heat, maybe. He seemed almost… normal.
“I’m beginning to think you don’t hate me as much as you want everyone to think. We’ve been in this elevator for a few hours now, and you haven’t tried to kill me. Not once.” Sark turned his head to the left and smiled at her. “Maybe you even like me.”
She turned her head to the right to face him. “Don’t push me. We’re still stuck in here. There’s plenty of time for me to get mad and try to kill you. And you haven‘t factored in the possibility that I‘ve been spending my time wisely creating a plan to kill you so that it looks like an accident.”
“Your father was just full of surprises that day. He told me that he had been watching me, and that he thought I was a very smart, beautiful woman.”
“Was Daddy romantic, Mom?”
“Very much so. But I wouldn’t find that out until much later.”
“But he called you beautiful. All guys who call you beautiful are trying to be romantic.”
Sydney smiled at her naïve, little daughter. “Your father told me some things about myself that I thought no one else would know…”
“So, Sydney,” Sark said with a smirk, “how’s that whole double agent thing working out for you?”
“What are you talking about?” she replied, trying her best to play dumb.
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know. You’ve been working for the CIA for over a year now. It’s as plain as day to anyone who’s willing to look. You’re not that stealthy when you pull your double switches or give the wrong intel. A person as well-trained as me could spot it within seconds.”
Sydney just stared at him. “I wouldn‘t call you well-trained, just paranoid. And I’m not admitting or denying anything.”
“Smart. But that kind of puts an end to our conversation so I think you might have to. I mean, what else do you have to do right now besides tell me all your deep, dark secrets? I promise I‘m very good at keeping secrets.” Sark smiled at her in his normal, devilish way. Then he moved over so that he was sitting in front of her. “Why don’t you tell me about your handler? My intel says that you’re extremely fond of this Michael Vaughn.”
“Leave Vaughn out of this,” she growled before she realized what she had just admitted to.
“See? I knew you couldn’t keep a secret. And obviously, you do care about the man to make such an impulsive statement.”
“Michael Vaughn means a lot to me, Sark,” she said very slowly and intently. “If you do a thing to him at any point in our time working together, you’ll learn the true meaning of pain. And that is a promise.”
“I think that’s the fourth threat you’ve made to my life in the past ten minutes. We’re making progress.” Sark smirked. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Sydney. Honestly. I just want to know more about you. You intrigue me.”
“I noticed that he was acting a little strange. Usually, your father and I just had arguments. We never really talked nicely with one another. In the hectic life of banking, there’s not really any time to get to know your co-workers or to try to make friends. But he was being nice to me. So I called him on it…”
“Why the hell are you being so civil towards me?” she demanded.
“Because, as hard as it is to believe, I like you, Sydney. I find you to be intelligent and beautiful in a naturally sexy way. Any warm-blooded man would realize that within two seconds of meeting you. And I find I enjoy being in your company. Even when you‘re threatening to kill me.”
She didn’t know what to say as a response. She had not seen this one coming. The only thing she could manage to come up with was “SD-6 doesn’t condone relationships between partners in its organization.” And she knew that it was going to be taken completely wrong and out of context.
Sark laughed. “So, you are interested in me?”
“No. I was just saying.”
“Uh huh.” He smirked at her.
“Then what happened, Mommy?”
“Then the elevator started moving again, and the conversation was dropped…” she said quickly.
“There’s no security cameras in this elevator,” he said after a minute of tense silence.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You said that SD-6 doesn’t condone relations between its agents. While we’re in this elevator, they won’t know a thing. It‘s like a safe zone. No spies besides you and me.”
“I am not going to have sex with you in an elevator!” she yelled, completely appalled.
“I never said anything about sex, Sydney. That was your dirty mind making inferences.”
“As if that wasn’t your implied meaning.” She stood up and started pacing back and forth. “I don’t know what to make of you half the time. First, you’re a complete bastard who could care less about anything. Which is how you’re supposed to act, by the way. That’s who you are.”
“Oh? Do you know for a fact that’s who I am?”
She ignored him. “And then the very next second, you’re being romantic and funny and… well… normal. You’re like the kind of guy I would find attractive outside of this atmosphere. But then you morph right back to the jerk who asks girls to sleep with him in elevators.” Frustrated, she turned and stared at her reflection on the shiny elevator wall.
Sydney was too busy ranting to notice that Sark had stood up and was slowly walking over to the corner where she was pacing. “I did not ask you to sleep with me.”
“Whatever. All I’m saying is I have never, ever met a man who frustrates me more than you.” She turned around to start pacing again and gasped. The man in question was standing inches away from her and slowly closing that distance.
He stared her straight in the eyes so intently she felt herself begin to blush. Before she could move away from him, he had his arms up against the elevator walls, pinning her. He saw her eyes widen in horror as he leaned his head close to hers and whispered in her ear.
“I know that I shouldn’t be doing this, Sydney. That all it’s going to cause me is further pain and embarrassment. A girl like you would never let herself end up with a guy like me. To be honest, I‘m pretty sure that a guy like me shouldn‘t be with a girl like you.” He pulled back and looked her in the eyes again. “But I’m dying to find out what would happen if we forgot about that and just tried.”
“What are you doing?” she whispered, confused and yet perfectly aware of what was happening.
“Kissing you,” he whispered back before gently touching his lips to hers.
Sydney knew that she should probably have kneed him in the groin. That was the sensible and logical thing to do in this situation. Which is why she was so surprised when she felt her hands go up around his back and pull him closer to her. She cursed herself silently for given in to him but was delighted to hear him groan as her lips ground into his.
Later she would blame it on the words he had said to her, but for that moment, she was willing to admit that he might be right.
Sark could feel one of Sydney’s hands work its way up to his chest and slowly begin to unbutton his shirt. He had never thought that they would be doing this when he decided to hop in the same elevator as her and annoy her a little. He ran his hands up along the sides of her arm and was thrilled to feel her shiver under his touch. This is how he had always imagined kissing Sydney Bristow would be. Absolutely perfect.
Which is the only reason he managed to pull himself away from here.
“What?” she asked, trying to pull him back into the kiss.
“We need to stop, Sydney.” He could see the anger flare up in her eyes, and he put one finger to her lips to quiet her before she started yelling. “Listen to me. You know that I want this, whatever this is. That’s obvious. However, I don’t want this to turn out to be just a fun three-hour round of sex in a broken elevator.”
“Three hours?” she said, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “You’re going to have to wait to find out about that one. What I’m trying to say, Sydney, is I’m interested in you. More so than any other woman I’ve ever met. I don’t want this to be a little fling between us in an elevator.”
“Maybe all I want is a little fling in an elevator,” she said defiantly.
“Sydney, we both know that’s not true.”
“Oh, stop being so full of yourself!”
He looked at her intently. “It’s time you stopped being afraid of your emotions and just started saying what you feel. It’s time that you admit that there’s something between us.”
“We were in the middle of a very important conversation. Your father was trying to get me to admit to something really important when there was a big shift as the elevator started running again. I almost fell down from the jolt. You know what a big klutz I am, honey.”
“Yeah, you’re always bruised from banging into desks and doorways at your job.”
“That’s right. This time, though, I didn’t get hurt because your daddy caught me before I hit the floor…”
Sydney was about to admit that Sark might have a point, there was something between them that she could identify quite yet, when the elevator shifted. She saw Sark get thrown back against the wall two seconds before she felt herself being flung in the same direction right on top of him. As the elevator shifted into its normal up and down motion, he whispered in her ear, “In my arms again, Bristow. It must be fate.”
Sydney didn’t say a word to him as she backed out of his arms to her previous position in front of the elevator doors, waiting for them to open. As they opened and she stepped out, she took one last look at the man who had suddenly changed in her eyes.
“He said to me that it must have been fate that I keep ending up in his arms.” She saw Lily jumping up and down on the bed in anticipation of the last part of the story. “And do you remember what I said to him?”
“You said ‘Maybe it is’ and then you kissed Daddy.”
“That’s right, sweetheart. That was the first time I realized that I might actually be falling in love with your father.” Sydney patted her daughter on the head and stood up. “Now, it’s time for you to go back to sleep. Sweet dreams, pumpkin!”
“Good night, Mommy. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Sydney watched her daughter burrow down into the covers. When she was content that Lily was no longer scared and she could hear the sound of her steady breathing, she flipped off the overhead light and closed the door softly.
The second she was out of the room, she pushed herself back against the wall of the hallway and put her face in her hands, finally allowing herself to cry. The words she had said to Sark that day echoed through her mind.
“Maybe it is.”