Sydney stared down the hallway she was walking. There was a door at the far end that was painted completely black, and then there was a door right next to her that had a deep blue coat of paint on it. The rest of the hallway was painted a very vibrant white that hurt her eyes. In the back of her head, she felt something urge her to choose a door.

Remembering how tired she was most of the time, she chose the door that was closest to her. Opening it, she saw a small Irish pub that seemed to be bustling with activity. That voice in the back of her head was urging her to step through the doorway. Curious, she went along with the voice.

As she crossed the precipice, she felt a small jolt in her body. It was as if someone had shocked her with electricity for a millisecond. She could feel her skin buzzing slightly, and her body felt a little more tense than normal.

Sydney stared at her surroundings again. This little pub didn't seem strange anymore. It seemed almost familiar, like she had been here before at some point. She shook away the idea that it almost felt like home. That was impossible. She knew her home didn't involve a small pub in Ireland. "I must be tired," she thought.

She walked across the floor to a small table in the back. A lot of the people, upon seeing her, shouted Catherine and held their glasses up to her in an informal salute. She nodded shyly at each person who said her name. "My name?!?" Sydney thought to herself. "Where did that come from?"

The table seemed odd in its surroundings. Every other inch of the pub was filled with activity and shouting, but this table seemed to be in a quiet little corner. No one was even coming near it. In fact, now that she had sat down, no one was even paying any attention to her.

In the back of her head, she identified this table as the one she always sat at because… because… She strained to remember. Because she met someone extremely important here. The people in the pub were keeping some kind of secret for her. She came here to meet this person almost everyday.

Sydney was almost sure that it was a man she was waiting for. This man met her here because they weren't allowed to talk with each other in the public's eye. It wasn't proper. "Where is this coming from?" she thought.

She looked up when the pub became quiet as a man in a cloak entered. After a moment, the people seemed to purposefully try to make noise and keep from looking at the pub's newest arrival. It was almost as if they were trying to cover something up, and they weren't too good at it. The man shook the rain off of himself as he pulled back his hood.

Sydney gasped softly when she saw the man's face. It was Vaughn.

Vaughn seemed to hear the small sound she made and turned to look at her. His eyes and face seemed a lot colder than she had remembered. He had a large, jagged scar along his left cheek bone that she wanted to say was caused in a duel for her honor. "Duel for my honor?" she thought. "Where am I coming up with this crap?"

She began to feel uncomfortable at the way he was looking at her and stared down at where her hands were folded in her lap. She half hoped he would come over to talk to her and half hoped that he would just turn around and walk out of the pub.

Seeming to read her thoughts, he hesitated before walking over to the table where she was sitting. He sat down across from her softly without uttering a word.

"Hello, Sir Francois," she whispered without making eye contact.

"Lady Catherine, you asked me to meet you here."

"As I do every day I see you. I wanted to tell you that I'm engaged to be married to our neighbor, the Laird Sinclair." She paused to hear his reaction. When he didn't say or react in any way, she reached out and grasped his hand. "Don't you have anything to say to this news?"

While all this was happening, Sydney was slightly freaking out. Words were coming out of her mouth and her body was doing actions that she never intended. It was almost as if someone had taken over her body. Or this scene had been scripted and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't stray from the concrete actions and words.

"What do you want me to say, Cat? We knew that you would be married off someday. It was inevitable."

"I don't want to marry that horrible man. I want to stay on my family's land with you."

"That's impossible. If your father knew about our romance, he would kill me on the spot. A lady is not permitted to fall in love with her protector. I am just a simple farm boy who happens to be good at the art of combat. If I didn't have that, I probably would never have met you. You can't be allowed to fall in love with a commoner."

"But I did," Sydney said with a smile.

"I can't protect you forever. God, I want to. But I cannot."

"Won't you just take me away from here? I hate this life that my father forces me to live. I hate everything about it. Except for you. Every day, I thank God that I have you in my life. You are my life."

"And you are mine." He smiled at her. "I will take you away from here if that is truly what you want. We'll be on the run for the rest of our lives."

"But we'll be together." She took her hand out of his and lightly touched his chin so that he was looking her in the eye. "Have you ever felt that someone is your soul mate?"

She knew the answer immediately by the look on his face.

Sydney found herself in the same hallway as her previous dream. There were the same two doors again, black and midnight blue. The only difference was the blue door has a small Celtic symbol etched onto the middle of it. It reminded her of the setting of her Irish dream that had Vaughn as its star.

She decided that since she knew what was behind that door, she'd follow her curiosity through the other, black door. Opening it up, she saw it was just a small room. As crazy and bustling the last scene was, this was the exact opposite. It was a completely serene, calm scene. There was a window open and the light curtains were blowing in the wind. The wind was blowing in sweltering hotness which made the air sticky. She could hear the voices of young boys echoing through the streets as they tried to sell their newspapers.

Using her high school history knowledge, she placed herself in turn of the century New York. Why she was there was anyone's guess? In the back of her head, she found herself hoping it had something to do with Vaughn. Maybe this was another one of her sleep-deprived fantasies.

Not thinking twice, Sydney stepped into the room and felt the same jolt in her body that occurred the first time she walked through one of these mystery doors. The buzzing and tenseness wore off a little quicker now that she was expecting it. Looking down at herself, she realized that she was no longer wearing the business suit she had put on that morning. In its place was a white blouse and long blue skirt. She reached up to feel her hair and discovered that it was about nine inches shorter than she remembered.

Shaking off her weird appearance and the growing nervousness in her stomach, she went to close the window. She stopped abruptly when she saw there was a young man sleeping on the fire escape.

"Benny," she whispered lightly. Inside, the same body snatched feeling she had had previously unsettled Sydney. These weren't her words, and she was pretty sure what she was about to do wouldn't be her actions, either.

"Sarah," the boy said as he awoke and looked up at her. "I didn't want to wake you last night."

Sydney almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Benny's face. It was a perfect copy of Sark's. Thankfully, her mind and body were on autopilot, so the shock didn't show at all. "You could have come in, and you know it. Benny, you're my best friend. I can't have you sleeping with the stars."

"It's beautiful out here. One night we should watch the stars come up. And then you can stick around for the sunrise."

"My mother would kill me if she knew that I was staying out with a ruffian like you all night."

"But I want to show you the one thing that comes close to describing what I feel for you. A sunrise is almost as beautiful as you. Please. Just for one night, run away with me."

Sydney smiled down at him. "You were always such a romantic fool. I love you, Benny."

"I love you, too." He went from romantic fool to complete seriousness without a thought. "Which is why I hate pulling you into all of this."

"I agreed to help you rob that store today. You need the money to settle the gambling debts. I'm not about to let a group of thugs take you away from me."

"I don't like the fact that you won't stay home."

"I'm not going to leave you by yourself to do this. You're not as smart as me and you know it! If you want to pull this robbery off, you need me by your side. I'm the only one that can distract the clerk while you slip into the store and steal the money. Don't you trust my charms?"

"I've seen those charms at work firsthand. I know you'll do well. I just don't want to be the man to drag you down. You belong to a higher class than thieves and crooks."

"I belong with you." She touched him lightly on the top of his head. "We're two halves of a whole. I'm the brains and the looks, and you're the clever, resourceful one."

Sark stood up and grabbed her hand before she could pull it back inside the window. "You've been my best girl since we were seven, Sarah. I think I've loved you since then. I know that I'm a no-good, troublesome bum. And everyone you've ever met has told you to get as far away from me as you can. But I think you can make me a better person if you're willing to keep trying. I want you to keep trying. I know I don't have much money, but I would love it if you agreed to spend the rest of your life with me."

Sydney could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she leaned her head outside the window and gently kissed him. "There's never been anyone else for me but you, Benny."