Out of Hell

Chapter 1

A silent, dark figure crept through the ventilation shafts of the Centre. Oddly, they were the only safe way to travel invisibly through hell’s castle and these tunnels had been used for decades. The figure’s face was obscured by dark hair, but this silent vengeful figure knew exactly where to go. The route had been mapped out a week ago and now, a Sunday, two days before Christmas Eve, was the perfect time to strike. With the dark of a moonless night to conceal this intrusion into the bowels of Hell, the lack of people and security created the perfect moment for this strike at the Centre’s future.

Reaching a grate, the figure stopped and singled for the cameras in the room beyond the grate to begin their pre-ordained loop. Once sure, of the camera’s inability to see the truth, the dark figure removed the rate and slipped gracefully into the room. Moving quickly to a high crib, the figure removed the sleeping bundle and left a surprise behind. This done, the figure returned to the vents and singled for the cameras to begin recording once again.

With the still sleeping bundle tucked into a sling across the figure’s chest, the dark figure moved quickly through the ventilation maze toward freedom.

Ten agonizingly slow minutes later the figure stood beside an old slightly banged up car. The figure grinned at the man who had helped in this night’s strike. The man had found the information that had corroborated the figure’s information, had controlled the cameras, and procured all the DSAs the dark figure would need to help the sleeping bundle and all the DSAs the figure would need to understand the painful past of the three children of the Centre.

Placing the sleeping bundle in the car seat in the backseat, the dark figure whispered a quiet “Thank you” one last time before driving off, away from the hellish prison on the Delaware coast to safety.

Chapter 2

An old man sat at a desk surrounded by pictures and the past. To the old man, it seemed that the past was engulfing and drowning him. When he was startled out of his thoughts by the shrill ring of the telephone, he quickly composed himself. He knew who was at the other end of the line and with a steady hand and voice raised the receiver to his ear and said, “This is Sydney.”

“Why is Miss Parker’s phone disconnected? Why won’t she answer her cell?” The voice of Jarod came quickly, his words rushing together in his panic over his oldest and best friend.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to try to contact her. Her phone is disconnected because no one lives in that house anymore. Her cell, well, it’s probably long gone by now.”

“What! She loves that old house, it would take a lot to get her to give it up.”

“Jarod,” Sydney began, surprised only that his protégé who always seemed to know all that went on in Miss Parker’s life, didn’t know. “Jarod, Miss Parker disappeared nearly three months ago. Just before Christmas, about two weeks after you went incommunicado. Both she and young Master Parker vanished two days before Christmas Eve and nothing has been heard from either. The Centre is hunting her and Master Parker with even more fervor than they have ever hunted you.”

“She’s gone?” Jarod’s voice sounded smaller and quieter than Sydney had ever heard it. Even after Kyle had died, Jarod had not sounded this completely lost.

“I’m sorry Jarod. Perhaps when it is safe for her to do so, she will contact you.”

“Sydney that requires that she find me. And I have no intention of being found again. The game is over.”

“My boy, do not underestimate Parker. I have long believed that you and you’re family have remained in the outside world for as long as you have simply because that was how she wanted things to be. If she had ever actually wanted you at the Centre again, you would not have had any say in the matter Jarod.”

“Sydney, she tried for six years and never caught me. At least, never long enough to return me to the Centre on any permanent basis.”

“Jarod, you forget that Parker is no ordinary woman….”

“You’re telling me.” Jarod interrupted.

“Jarod! She is a Red File for a reason. Parker not only has her mother’s gift, but is also the Pretender gene. And if I am not mistaken, her father made sure she had the training to use her ability as a Pretender. She never caught you because no matter what she said, she didn’t want to. Remember this Jarod, as you search for her. She traded her freedom for yours.”

With that, Sydney returned the phone to its cradle. And returned to gazing at a picture of a young Miss Parker and her mother, it was the last time they had smiled at a camera together.

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Hundreds of miles away in upstate New York, sitting at the kitchen table of a renovated farmhouse, Jarod stared at the phone in his hand. There were few constants in his life since leaving the Centre and he clung to those constants like a drowning man to a lifesaver. He always ended conversations, he was the one to hang up, not the other way around. Miss Parker chased and he ran, no matter what he wished, that was how the world worked. He ran, she chased, even though it had seemed that after the Island she had visibly given up the chase and only participated because she had to.

But then six months after their experiences on the Island he had found what he thought was the missing piece.

He had found his mother.

And then he had ended the game from his end, and done what the Centre had dreaded he’d do for years. He disappeared.

But he had discovered something in the last months. He had found that it was harder to be Jarod Russell than it was to be just Jarod.

He found that he missed moving from place to place.

He found that he missed meeting new people.

He found that he missed pretending.

But most of all, he found that he missed calling them. Sydney and Miss Parker. He realized how much he missed them when Ryan, his young clone, and his mother commented on how often he reached for the phone when he need help with something and on how often after a nightmare (a nightly occurrence) they found him eating a bowl of ice cream and staring at his cell phone. Sometimes they even found him dialing the numbers, but he never finished the sequence that would connect him to her voice. Until tonight. And now he found that she was gone. Disappeared and hunted. But he still wanted to talk to her. Maybe now she had reached that turning point, after all she had taken her baby brother and left Hell.

Chapter 3

Smiling and laughing openly, Parker gazed at the child in the backseat of her new SUV. But even as she laughed at his antics, she scanned the road for anyone following them with an all too practiced eye. They moved whenever the voices told her there was danger, and she had learned to trust the voices implicitly. Not that it had been hard, after all she had always trusted her mother’s voice.

She had enjoyed this last place they had lived. Texas had been a welcome change from Vermont. But then she had been the one to decide to go to Vermont in the winter. They had spent less than a week there, they never stayed anywhere long. Sweet little Ben loved all the travel and was always excited to see new places and meet new people. Parker smiled to herself, there seemed to be very little Parker in him, a fact she was assaulted with every time she looked at him or whenever someone commented that he must look an awful lot like his daddy, since there was nothing of her in him.

Glancing at the rearview mirror she sighed. Texas had been nice, but had proved a close call, they had barely gotten out ahead of the sweeper team and of course, Lyle.

She didn’t know if her psychotic twin also had the Inner Sense, she hoped that if he did then her mother would in some way protect her, but in the last three months Lyle had gotten close many times. Too many for her liking.

Sighing again, she stopped at a cheap motel and for added protection, sold the clerk a story about running from her abusive and powerful husband. The clerk was shocked and horrified, but would keep Lyle and his goons from finding her.

Once in the room Parker allowed herself to feel some guilt over the lie, but the story was a common one that worked well for a woman on the run with a small child, so she kept using it. After tucking Ben into the double bed with his stuffed dog, an adorable created named Snowball, Parker set up her laptop. She quickly created a false trail for Lyle to follow. She couldn’t have him following her for a while. Where she was going they would never forgive her if she led the Centre to their front door. Actually, she wasn’t expecting a great reception anyway, she figured that if they didn’t shoot her on sight then she’d be lucky. But she had to go, for Ben she had to. Even if going was going to break her heart again.

Shutting down the computer she laid down next to Ben to try to get some sleep. Even though she knew a pair of pain-filled brown eyes were only going to haunt her.

Chapter 4

Jarod slammed his hands down on the table he was working at. His levels of frustration were rising and to top it all off he couldn’t concentrate. Only she was ever able to do this to him and the part of him that loved to be in control and even needed to be in control, hated it. Only Parker could make him lose control, and frankly that was one of the reasons he loved her. Only with her did he not need to control everything around him, only with her could he be simply, Jarod, simply himself. Everyone else had so many expectations of him that he found himself exhausted everyday from just trying to be whom they all wanted him to be.

Damnit he just wanted to find her so he could tell her all of this! At this point just hearing her answer the phone with her customary “What” would be nice. But she seemed to be nowhere and everywhere all at once. He the so called “Pretender” the man who could do anything and be anyone, couldn’t find her! When he had been searching for his family he’d had better luck, even if it had taken six years to finally find and bring together his biological family. His adopted family, Sydney, Parker, and even Broots, he’d always known where they where and that fact had always comforted him. That he knew where part of his family was had helped him focus on the missing parts of his family.

Now though the part that was truly the most important, the part that he was finding that he needed to have with him to truly live, was the part that was missing.

Parker.

He was now starting to understand why he was unable to just let her be, why he was unable to see her as just the person in charge of the pursuit team. Previously he had claimed that it was just because of their shared history. Because he missed his first and truly best friend. But it was more and only now, after finding what he had spent so much time and energy searching for, after finding what it was he’d thought was missing from his life that he realized what truly was missing.

Her.

He not only needed her in his life, but wanted her in his life.

He was also beginning to understand what he had put the pursuit team through for all these years. The only difference was she didn’t seem to be sending clues to her Centre pursuers. At the same time though, she seemed to be much better at slipping away without a foot chase than he had been. But, he thought, she had to be, if only because she had a small child with her. Something he had never had with him, at least not when he was running from them.

Having hacked into the Centre mainframe, he found the reports on her movements and her lairs. He also found the names of her pursuers, Lyle, Willie, Gar, Sam, Sydney, and Broots were all part of the team that was hunting his huntress. With Lyle in charge, he knew that if she were to be caught then there would be no mercy for her. Especially because she had taken young Master Parker with her when she left. He was the future of not only the Centre, but the Parker family. The sheer fact that she had found the missing toddler and rescued him was a telling reminder to the Pretender that he had underestimated her.

Damnit! Her movements made no sense, almost as if they were chosen at random. But he knew her, and knew that she, like he, did nothing at random. Like him, she always had a reason for doing something there was a point. Of course, those reasons she kept to herself, and something he thought she didn’t fully understand her reasons, like when she actually listened to her Inner Sense. Either way it make it that much harder for an accurate psychological profile of her to be made.

Glancing at the Centre’s profile on her, he was struck at how inaccurate it appeared to be. They appeared to fully believe her reputation as the Centre’s Ice Queen, even as they acknowledged her obsession with her mother’s death. Only months, even days before, he would have agreed with the basics of that profile, but now…now he didn’t know what to believe about her. And it seemed that the only thing he knew for sure was that she was as good at disappearing as he was.

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Margaret and Charles Russell watched in silence, as their eldest son appeared to go crazy.

Neither of them understood their son well enough to recognize his frustration or to help him work through it to focus on the problem at hand. Actually from what they understood of the problem, that he was trying to find his huntress Miss Parker, they didn’t know if they even wanted to help him, much less for him to succeed.

Charles, of course, had the experience of having Miss Parker have him at gunpoint, and with all the motivation and reason to shoot him necessary, and still letting him go. And while this behavior on her part confused him, he was certainly more sympathetic to her. Even if this sympathy was also based on hearing both Ryan and Ethan extol her virtues, something that, amusingly enough, Jarod never did. Instead his oldest child focused more on her challenging personality, her sarcasm, her sheer force of personality, and of course all the ways that she challenged and exasperated him. And having met Zoë, Charles could certainly say that the perky red-head had never challenged Jarod in any way. Something Jarod seemed to confirm when he described that failed relationship as being “fun” and nothing else.

Margaret, on the other hand, worried about her eldest’s obsession with finding that woman. Her only experiences with Miss Parker were when the Centre operative was keeping Margaret from reuniting with her son, both in Boston and on Carthis. And an much as she still treasured her friendship with Catherine Parker, the daughter seemed to have inherited only her mother’s physical features.

She had met Zoë, only briefly, near the end of the relationship, and frankly, she liked the perky young lady more than she could ever claim to like Miss Parker. But it was her son’s life, and he had grown into adulthood without her influence and she was thus wary of offering motherly advice to him. So even though she didn’t like or understand why Miss Parker was so important to her son’s happiness, she would let him make his own mistakes. And she would prepare to move her family again, because Parkers were tied to the Centre in more ways than one, and none ever truly left that piece of Hell behind.

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Ethan smiled to himself. Just like the voices had said, everything was coming together. Jarod was learning how to chase; his sister, who had always known how to run, was now listening to the voices and trusting in her visions. The baby was safe and everything would be all right soon. Settling back to watch the show, which was bound to be entertaining, his quiet smile broke out into a full grin; very very soon big brother would learn just how good a huntress Miss Parker was. Very very soon.

Chapter 5

Stretching her sore and tired muscles, Parker glanced into the backseat and smiled at the sight of Ben sleeping peacefully, Snowball tucked under his arm. The boy never went anywhere without the stuffed puppy and Parker found the behavior oddly endearing.

Not everything the boy did, however, was as endearing as his attachment to the puppy. There were times when he would cry for hours for no reason. His temper tantrums were intense and like the unexplained crying jags could last for hours. His nightmares were a nightly occurrence that caused him to wake up screaming like a banshee and craving any kind of tactile contact. Hence why the stuffed toy and his freedom were his only Christmas presents that year. Perhaps the most gut wrenching and most annoying of his habits was constantly asking why. Though she knew from the limited experience, she had with small children this was decidingly normal behavior for a child Ben’s age. But he asked about things a boy his age should already know. Like what clouds were, and what candy was, and what a stuffed animal was. But his constant questions were about the only normal thing about Ben or the entire situation.

Sighing heavily with frustration Parker turned back to the road ahead of her and put the SUV back into drive. As much as she wanted to continue to gaze at her adorable little boy that was not something that would help either of them at this time. Continuing to move and stay ahead of the Centre was more important, getting away, far away from Lyle and Raines was more important, protecting her boy was more important.

But to help her little boy as best she could, she had to get to him. She knew her heart would break again; in fact, it felt like her heart had been breaking since Carthis when to protect him she’d been forced to hurt him. Nothing about their situation was fair, all she could do was fair, and all she could do was hope that he would ignore Ben’s connection with her and help the boy anyway. If she had to she would play the “little boy lost” card. She felt no guilt over that, after all how many times had he played the “mother” card with her to get her to do whatever he wanted.

Keeping her eyes on the road, she followed the trail she’d avoided following for six years. When she’d been brought on to lead the pursuit team the Powers That Be had hoped that she would use the gifts that they assumed she had to track him down.

But she hadn’t.

It would have been easy to do so, even in the beginning, but back then, she had wanted to avoid going back to Corporate, despite what she said to the contrary. Then when it had come down to her freedom for his, the final decision had been made. She would chase him, but chasing didn’t necessarily mean catching. After all, one of them deserved to be free, and it sure as hell wasn’t her.

But know there was a new player in the game, Ben. So she was now following the trail that would lead her to Jarod. A trail that only she could follow.

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It was dawn when she arrived at the large farmhouse. The cynical part of her mentally commented on how mush it looked like the house on The Waltons. Stopping the SUV and getting out, she stretched. Except for gas, she had not stopped for the last 16 hours. She had not just been trying to get here, she’d had to also make a few false leads and make sure no one was following.

She couldn’t have anyone follow her here. They already had so much that they would probably never forgive her for; she didn’t need to add more fuel to that particular fire. Taking a deep breath of the cold late March air, she removed a sleeping Ben from his car seat. Accidentally, Snowball fell from the boys normally iron hold on him and once the puppy was no longer in his grasp, Ben woke up. Moving quickly, so as to stop the cry she knew the small boy would emit, she deftly moved him to her hip and grabbed the still falling puppy before it hit the ground.

Once his Snowball was safely back in his arms, Ben sighed and leaned into Parker. Content to go back to sleep for a while. Smiling at this, Parker dropped a quick kiss onto his head before she grabbed the filed she needed. She decided to leave the DSAs for now. She didn’t have the hands needed to carry Ben, the files, and the Halliburton case. If she needed it, she could retrieve it later.

Tucking Ben a bit closer to her hip she nudged the car door closed with the other, and approached the cheery wraparound porch, and the ominous back door. She knew that normal people would knock on the front door, but the driveway curved around the house and lead to the back door. Besides she was a child of the Centre, normal had never been a real option for her. For practical reasons though, she wanted to face the hardest part of this ordeal first.

The back door faced east and the view from the back half of the porch or even what she assumed must be the kitchen would be perfect for watching the sunrise on another brand new day. Sleep was an ever-elusive commodity for those who the Centre had some type of hold on. But especially for those who knew the darker secrets, those who had been or were prisoners of Hell.

She knew him. Better than she knew herself at times. Knew his voice, his grin, the mischievous twinkle that he got in his eyes when he played some trick on her or the Centre, knew the blank look he got in his eyes when retreated into himself fully, knew his harder darker look that he got when he was getting justice for those who had no one else to fight for them, that look he got when the darker more twisted aspects of personality came out.

Taking another, final deep breath, she knocked on the wooden door, painted a cheery red to go with the shutters.

With the red rising sun as her backdrop, Parker smiled lightly at the sleep depraved Pretender who opened the door and blinked at her, as if wondering if he was seeing no more than a mirage.

“So Rat, can a huntress and a baby claim refuge?”

Chapter 6

Jarod had been up for hours when the sun finally began to rise. Actually he had slept for only two hours or so that night, an only because his mother had been worried about him working too hard and not sleeping. He didn’t know how to explain to her that he could go up to 100 hours with no sleep and that normally he needed no more than 4 hours a night. Which was about all he got with his nightmares. Explaining all this to her was difficult, mainly because he didn’t want to remind her unnecessarily of all the years apart.

So after even less luck finding where Parker had disappeared to, he was sitting at the table trying to understand her motivations for leaving the only home she’d ever known, hoping to find a clue as to her whereabouts hidden within her motivations. He was also nursing a cup of cold coffee and watching the sun rise on what looked to be another gorgeous late March day.

When he heard the knock at the back door, he moved automatically to get it, still trying to SIM his missing friend. Blinking against the sudden light in his eyes he also tried desperately to cover his shock. She was standing there in front of him, smiling, and holding a baby.

As always it was her voice that ended her bewitching spell, as still smiling openly she asked, “So Rat, can a huntress and a baby claim refuge?”

Jarod stood there staring at her, trying to get his mind around the idea that she was real, and even harder to accept, that she had found him.

When she started laughing at him, he jerked out of his daze and stepped away from the door so she could enter.

“Refuge is always available Parker, but the real question is do you only want a break from hunting or are you done hunting?” His eyes were hard, it was the only defense he had against the memories of their last break from the game on Carthis.

“I was trained to hunt Pez-head; I’m just changing the focus of my hunt.” Her voice and eyes were just as hard as his. The only defense she had against feeling her heart break again.

“So now that ‘Daddy’ is gone you decide to just leave the Centre? Despite all his lies to you about everything in your life you only leave when he’s gone?”

“Since when do people at the Centre die? A jump from 35,000 feet would normally kill someone, bullets to the chest or even the back point blank usually kill too! Besides despite all his lies to me, and I haven’t actually fully believed anything he’s said since I was 10 thank you, Mr. Parker still raised me, he’s still in some way my father, genetics aside. Just because I don’t believe everything he ever told me doesn’t mean I didn’t want to believe it, to believe him.”

“Since when have you not believed him? You’ve been spouting his lies like a parrot since your mother died!”

“Well maybe I wanted to keep my head attached to the rest of me! You can’t do anything if you’re dead! And acting like you’ve always wanted me to would have only gotten me killed or worse. Now is there a place where I can put Ben down before we start arguing again? A crying baby is not conductive to any type of conversation.”

Sighing and knowing that she was right, though his brain qualified it with a “for once,” he nodded, “Yeah, you can put him down on the big chair in the living room. I’ll get him a blanket.”

Separating, and finding that he had been standing only inches from her during their initial argument, he stalked off to find a blanket for the little boy who had miraculously slept through the entire exchange.

Once he had found a blanket, he slipped into the comfortable living room of the large farmhouse. The room was painted a light blue and the dominant pieces of furniture were the large couch and large chair with an ottoman.

He found Parker sitting on the ottoman, which she had pulled right up to the edge of the chair. She had placed the baby on the cushions of the chair, after removing the large pillows that could have fallen on the boy. She was smiling down at the boy and gently talking to him.

“Here’s a blanket for him,” Jarod said, his voice and eyes softening not only at the sight of the baby but also at the softer, gentler side Parker displayed with him.

“Thank you. Sometimes he drools in his sleep; I wouldn’t want your parents’ furniture ruined.”

“The fabric of both the chair and the couch is a soft denim, believe me, there’s very little that this little guy could do to ruin the furniture in here.”

“Both pieces look well used considering you’ve only been in this house for 3 months, were they here before?”

“How did you…?! No they were new when we moved in. Both the couch and the chair are extremely comfortable and this early in the morning is about the only time someone isn’t on one of them. Although Ryan and Ethan both have a habit of sleeping on the couch instead of in their own rooms,” Jarod chuckled, trying to figure out how she knew how long they had been in the house.

“It’s just too comfortable to not lie down on and take a nap, right?”

“Pretty much. Mom tends to get annoyed when they sleep on the couch and not in their own beds though.”

“Only those two sleep on the couch. Yeah right Wonderboy, I have a feeling you’re just as likely a culprit as they are. You’re just more sneaky about it.” She smirked up at him. “He’s good for now. We should probably go back to the kitchen before we start arguing again. We’re not likely to stay on the topic of the furniture for long.”

“True,” Jarod sighed, in the last half hour she’d been in the house she had yet to use his name, “Will he be all right alone in here?”

“He knows I’m near by, and I’ve yet to not hear one of his nightmares. If I don’t hear it, well he has Snowball and he knows that I’m coming as fast as I can.”

“Snowball is the stuffed comfort object he has?”

“It’s a stuffed animal. In this case, a puppy. It was a Christmas present.”

Nodding at this as they reentered the kitchen, he quickly made her a cup of coffee, knowing that she would want one and glanced at the files she had placed on the table before she had taken the boy to the living room. Handing her the cup, he attempted civil conversation again. “So, I never heard anyone give your baby brother a name before. You’re calling him Ben?”

“Staying on a supposed safe subject?”

“It seemed best. We don’t want to wake everyone in the house.”

“True. Yes, I’ve been calling him Ben. When I have the time, I was planning to get him a birth certificate, since his like mine is Centre issue, and well, doesn’t actually exist. I was thinking of Benjamin Kyle as a possible full name for him….if that’s all right with you.”

Jarod was both touched and shocked at her suggestion. Both at her wanting his permissions of the boy’s name, but also at her using Kyle’s name for the boy. But this was her, and she, like him, always had a reason for doing something. “Cut the crap Parker, why do you care what I think of his name? Which, by the way I’m fine with, but I have no connection to the boy, after the two of you leave neither me, nor my family will be seeing you or your brother again.” The hardness was back, it seemed like their safe subject wasn’t so safe after all.

“We just got here and you’re already planning on when we’re leaving? Glad to know I’m so repulsive!” She shot back.

“Well leaving is what you do, isn’t it?”

“Me? Ha! You’re the one who broke his promise. You’re the one who left! Who abandoned both Angelo and me! I never left!”

“Yes you did.”

“What? When I was sent off to boarding school and then college? I had no choice in that! Hell you had more choice in whether or not you preformed SIMs than I did about my education and future!”

“Like you didn’t do everything your father told you to do willingly! You were always so anxious to please him you would have jumped off a cliff if you thought he would be proud of you for it!”

“What?! I had no choice in any part of my future Jarod! I didn’t want to go off to boarding school or to law school, and I sure as hell never wanted to work for the Centre any more than you have ever wanted to go back there! Did I want to make my father proud of me? Yes. That’s something every child wants to do. Tell me you’ve never wanted to make Sydney, or Major Charles, or your mother proud? Hmmm? Tell me that isn’t true!” She challenged.

“This isn’t about me Parker, it’s about you!” He snarled back, avoiding her question.

“Really? Wow! We’ve finally found something that’s not about you, that doesn’t involve you being at the center of all things! I was starting to think the heliocentric model and Copernicus were wrong! Because obviously the world and by extension the universe revolves around the ‘great’ pretender Jarod!”

“I have never said anything like that Parker and you know it!” he growled.

“It’s not what you say LabRat, it’s how you say it. And for the last 30 damn years your tone has said that you are the center of the world and for the last six that the lives of me and my team should revolve around you and your life at all times!”

“Well at least you and your precious team all know who they are and where they come from!”

“Really? I thought we established years ago that I have as little clue about where I come from as you do! And leave Broots and Sydney out of this!”

“At least you had a version of the truth to hold on to! I didn’t even have that!”

“Yes you did! The Centre gave you a version of the truth about what happened to your parents, and you held onto that ‘truth’ for 30 years!”

“But that was a lie!”

“Really? Well who is my biological father? Who’s Ben’s biological father? Cause if a man can’t sire a child as a young man he sure as hell can’t do it as an old man! You’re not the only one who was lied to, so why the hell do you act like you’re any different than the rest of us!”

As their argument had gotten more heated, their voices had steadily risen in volume and in intensity. Both were also focused solely on the other and either noticed the assorted members of the Russell household entering the room, and with the exception of Ethan who had seen them together before, stare in both horror and amazement as the normally extremely patient and even-tempered Jarod completely lost his temper and yelled at this strange woman. They also noticed that Jarod, who was normally extremely aware of people’s personal space, not only completely violated this woman’s personal space, but didn’t even seem to notice that he and the mystery woman were practically standing on top of each other.

“When have I ever given the impression that I thought I was different? The Centre did that Damnit the night they stole me fro my bed!”

“Oh boo-hoo! It’s always the same story Rat, when are you going to stop letting something that happened in 1963 define your entire life!”

“It’s my life. What happened that night created the only life I ever knew for 30 years! And what would you know about it! You’ve let your mother’s death define your entire life, so take your own advice Parker!”

“At least I don’t expect people to behave like they are someone else! And how dare you bring my mother into this! She has nothing to do with any of this! At least I don’t traverse the globe playing judge, jury, and executioner!”

“No, you traverse the globe hunting me like a damned animal! Tell me Parker have I ever even been a person in your eyes? Or am I just a Rat? Because in the entire time you’ve been here you’ve used my name once!”

Margaret was startled at not only the sound of her normally gentle son yelling, but also at the tone he was taking. Frankly, it scared her, and after over 30 years of running very little scared her anymore. But she also noticed that the woman who was currently the focal point of his wrath wasn’t afraid of him and also wasn’t about to back down. Which was something Margaret knew had been a trait of Catherine’s and this woman was obviously Catherine’s daughter. Margaret was about to step in and prevent the two from continuing this argument before permanent damage was done to an obviously very old relationship. But before she could, a sound Margaret hadn’t heard in ages shirked through the room, a baby’s cry.

Both Jarod and Parker instantly stopped their argument and both rushed to the living room, the still unnoticed family members following in curiosity. Using a soft, gentle voice, totally unlike the one they had heard her using in the kitchen, the Russell family watched in amazement as she picked up a young baby boy, maybe only 18 or 19 months old and calmed him with the ease of experience.

“Hey there little mouse, what’s wrong? You weren’t asleep long enough to have a nightmare,” Parker said, holding the boy to her in a firm gentle grip.

“Mama was very mad. Snowball and I don’t like it when Mama mad. Mama only got mad at the Bad Place,” the little boy sobbed, clinging to her and Snowball like his life depended on it.

“I’m sorry sweetheart; Mama didn’t mean to scare you or Snowball. Mama and Jarod, well, we get angry sometimes and yell, but we never mean it.”

“Really?”

“Yup little mouse. We’ve been getting angry at each other ever since we were a bit bigger than you and we’re still friends.”

“Me an Snowball is friends, an we don’t yell.”

“Well that’s because you an Snowball are better at talking than Jarod and I are. Right little mouse?”

“Yup, yup!” The boy smiled brightly at her, but didn’t let up his death grip on her.

“Little mouse? At least I’m not the only one you call a rodent, Parker,” Jarod said, his smile taking the sting out of the comment.

“Mama says I’m special. A special little mouse like John’fan Frisby and Mr. Ages,” Ben told the larger man, not scared at all of him, since he knew his Mama would never take him to a place with bad people like the Bad Place, and that she would protect him and Snowball.

“Who?” Jarod asked, his curiosity peaked not only at the fact that the boy not only considered Parker his mother but that she accepted it. He was also extremely curious about who these two mice were that Ben was speaking of.

“They was from NIMH, just like the rats. They and the rats were very smart. Right Mama?”

“Right little mouse. Absolutely right.” She smiled down at the boy.

“What’s NIMH?” Jarod asked, the boy’s explanation had only confused him more.

“It’s from a children’s story, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I’m almost surprised you haven’t read that book yet. Anyway, think of NIMH as the Centre. They did some experiments on rats and mice to increase their intelligence and not only sis it make them as smart as or smarter than most people, they also escaped. The story is about their struggle t stay free of NIMH and how they help Jonathan Frisby’s widow with a house moving project,” Parker explained to the confused and intrigued pretender.

“And this is a children’s story?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, Rat. It’s also an animated movie and it has a sequel. Other than the fact that you are a rat most of the time, where did you think I got that nickname from?”

“I don’t know, I never really thought about it.”

“There’s the understatement of the century,” Parker laughed lightly.

“Margaret worried another argument would break out, quickly interjected, “Jarod, sweetie, aren’t you going to introduce us to your…..friend?”

Before Jarod could say a word, Ryan spoke up, “Mom, it’s Miss Parker. She doesn’t need an introduction. I’m very glad to see you again,” the boy added before shocking everyone and giving the first person to be nice and to care about him and ex-Centre operative a big hug.

Chapter 7
A few hours, and two more heated arguments later, the Russell household was quickly adjusting to having Parker and Ben in their midst. Although the Major, Margaret, and Emily were still wary of Parker, the fact that she had the baby with her and the gentleness she displayed with the baby went a long way towards making the more comfortable. Also, there was the fact that Jarod was so comfortable enough with them to argue or even begin to loosen his complete self-control. It was bizarre to see that he could do these things with someone who was supposed to be the enemy.

After their fourth fight since her arrival the Major chucked, he’d been right on one thing. Parker did challenge Jarod, and certainly forced him to stay on his toes. With Ben playing quietly with a set of block and his puppy, the Major turned his attention back to the kitchen table, where the rest of the family and Parker sat. All waiting for her explanation of why she was here and how she had found them.

Parker sat completely still, with her back ramrod straight. She wasn’t sure what was more terrifying, a T-board, or facing the Russell family.

“Why’d you leave?” Ethan’s voice was calm and collected. He seemed to be trying to lend her the strength to do this.

“With Raines running things now, the Centre’s evil is out in the open. And he’s starting things again. SL-27 is supposedly undergoing another reconstruction, and experiments are starting again. As much as he wants Jarod back at the Centre, he’s willing to admit that everyone’s favorite LabRat might never be going back. For some reason, the Triumvirate doesn’t like this, but their not replacing him either.”

“Gee thanks Parker. Finally you get it,” the sarcasm rolled off Jarod’s tongue easily.

“Shut up Rat and let me finish for once. With the evidence stacking up that there was simply no way Mr. Parker could have children; I started to wonder who Ben’s father was. There was some evidence that he could be Lyle and Bridgette’s son, but frankly, every time I visited him I looked for either one of those two monsters in him and never saw either in Ben. It was too risky for me to have Broots search for any records on the mainframe, so I asked Angelo to help. He constantly gets into the mainframe and no one notices do it was safer for him than Broots. I also searched my father’s office at his house. It wasn’t hard to get into the safe and sitting right there was a copy of Ben’s medical record. This medical record,” she said, pointing to the file sitting untouched on the table.

“And does it say who the parents of your little brother are?” Margaret asked, feeling only compassion for this young woman.

“It lists two numbers in the place of the genetic parents’ names. ID numbers from the Red Files.”

“A continuation of the Prodigy project?” Jarod asked, trying to control his panic over who was Ben’s father.

“Basically. The idea was to end up with a fully trained Pretender who was completely loyal to the Centre. Raines intended to use family loyalty as well to bind Ben to the Centre. To do what they never quite managed to do with you.”

“So he is a Parker then?” Emily asked.

“Yes. Ben is a Parker,” Parker was now doing all she could to not slump in her chair and burst into tears. She would not cry, not in front of Jarod.

“But are you his mother, or is Lyle his father?” Ethan asked, the voices didn’t tell him everything after all. He was truly just as curious about his sister’s story as the rest of them.

Taking a deep breath and using all the strength she could, Parker lifted her eyes from the table in front of her and as calmly as possible replied, “Lyle isn’t Ben’s father.”

“Congratulations Parker. You seem to make a wonderful mother,” Jarod’s sincerity was evident and his eyes told her that he was obviously happy for her.

“That’s not all though,” her voice was quiet and unsteady, two warning signs Jarod knew too well.

“Who was the other Red File dear?” Margaret didn’t know Parker’s state of mind as well as Jarod did and so she didn’t see how close Parker was to falling apart and also couldn’t tell that Jarod was also terrified of what Parker had to say. But he couldn’t just grab the file and look, as much as he wanted to. He wanted Parker to tell him if Ben was his nephew, or his son.

“Ben’s name, you chose his name for a reason, didn’t you?” he asked, not knowing which of three final outcomes to all this he was truly hoping for.

“Yes, I wanted to use that name for a reason,” Parker began, knowing that only she and Jarod were really in this conversation now.

“And the reason you wanted…”

“Yeah, ummm…..I guess you have some new stuff to think about now Wonderboy….if you think it would…..be best, I can leave. He’s young enough, he won’t remember.”

“No! He’s your son too; you have as much right to be part of his life as……”

“I know. But their searching for me……and him. It would probably be safer for him and…..if I wasn’t here.”

The other four people at the table looked at each other and then back at the two. Never had any of them heard either have this much trouble expressing themselves. Margaret who had found their fighting disconcerting, now found herself more uncomfortable with the fact that her son and that woman seemed to be communicating perfectly without words. She wanted to view this woman as Catherine’s daughter, but she couldn’t. Memories of Boston and Carthis were getting in the way. Fed up with not knowing, Margaret grabbed the file and opened it. “Who is 12-072463-01?” She asked snapping the stumbling pair out of their half-verbal half-silent conversation.

“12-072463-01 is me Mom. It’s my Red File number.” Jarod said quietly, never taking his eyes off of Parker’s.

“Oh dear lord,” was Margaret Russell’s breathless exclamation.

Chapter 8
Shortly after the revelation of the identity of Ben’s parents, Parker slipped away. She had not had the time to fully process all the changes in her life recently, not had she fully allowed herself too.

Protecting Ben and getting him away from the Centre had been the primary focus of her life over the last three months. And then she had noticed it. Ben’s intelligence was too prominent for Raines to not have noticed it. The boy was without guile and didn’t understand the concept of hiding how smart he was. And suddenly the only way to protect him was to go to Jarod. But by going to him, she would lose her son, she knew that. His family, though they felt sympathy for her, saw her as the enemy and they would encourage him to separate her from Ben. He had spent too long searching for them, yearning for their approval, to not do as they suggested. The kicker was, she knew Ben would be better off with Jarod. Even as unstable as he was, she was more unstable. So after her revelation to them, when all were to emotionally spent and shocked to protest, she had slipped away.

Sadly, she also planned to go back. Right now, away from all the confusions and arguments and impossible desires she was simply trying to figure out what was going on in her head. And so she drove.

Driving had always relaxed her and the hundreds of country roads around the Russell farm provided the perfect place for her to understand and comprehend the last three months of her life.

She knew what she wanted. She wanted to stay with Ben, and his father. The idea of not ever seeing Jarod again was as repulsive to her as Raines and Lyle were, put together. In a way, she could not comprehend a life that did not in some way involve the Pretender. The last three months with absolutely no contact with him had served to painfully remind her exactly how much a constant he was in her life, and losing that constant had scared her. And Damnit she hated to be scared!

As she pulled the SUV back into the driveway to the farmhouse, she realized how few of her issues she had worked through in the past three hours. But she was filled with a desperate desire to see her boys, both of them. She had to know that the Russell’s hadn’t packed up and left with Ben in her absence. Part of her knew that they wouldn’t take him, them, from her like that, simply due to their own experiences. Bit the fear that they would, because she of all people knew that she was an unfit mother, propelled her down the long drive.

Once out of the SUV, her first instinct was to run to the door and check to see if they had gone. After all one of the larger vans that had been in the driveway at sunrise was missing. But the voices stopped her headlong rush into the house. They told her to look. And she had spent to long doing as they insisted to stop now. Slowly she turned in a circle and looked. What she saw brought a smile to her face. Under an old oak tree, Jarod and Ben sat. It seemed they were investigating something, and the whole scene looked so touching, so much like a scene in a sappy Hallmark movie, that her first reaction was a quiet smirk and her second was to let out the breath she had been holding. Ben was here and he was safe. Safe with her, and with Jarod.

“He looks happy, doesn’t he?” Ryan’s voice startled her, but years of guarding her reactions to everything prevented her surprise from showing.

“They both do. But the more important question is why are you unhappy?” Parker turned to face the younger and far more troubled version of her best friend.

“Well, I don’t know….no…..that isn’t right, I do know. But it’s just….it’s stupid. You don’t need to bother hearing it,” the teen stumbled and rambled through, not looking her in the eyes.

“If it’s important enough to make you unhappy then it’s important enough for me to hear. Is there somewhere around here we can talk?” Parker smiled, she had a feeling she knew what he wanted to talk about, and she did have a major soft spot for the teen.

“Um, yeah…..come on!” he seemed a bit more excited as he lead her to another old tree, a maple this time, that had a porch swing attached to one of the lower limbs. Sitting down, Parker watched as Ryan began pacing in front of her.

“Well?” she began, “What’s got you so unhappy kiddo? Except for the occasional running, you’ve got a pretty good life.”

“I know that, it’s just….they all….everyone except for Jarod and you….they all…..”

“They compare the two of you? Expect you to act exactly like he does?”

“Yes! How did you know?”

“People have been comparing you to him for your entire life. And besides, I know how you feel.”

“How can you? No one can! I’m a clone and your not! How can anyone understand?!”

“I look exactly like my mother. For some reason this has lead people to believe that I will make the same choices she did. That in a way, I’m nothing more than version 2.0 of Catherine Parker. So I think I have a pretty good idea of what the constant and inaccurate comparisons can feel like.”

“Oh…well, how did you deal with it?”

“I constantly reminded them that I am not Saint Catherine. I made Mr. Parker believe that I was his daughter in how I handled things……though I think Raines may have figured out that I may be a bit more like my mother than I wanted them to believe.”

“But how do I do that? Even after I’d picked my name, after we found Mom, she kept calling me J.J., or Jarod Junior, for months! She still does it! I’m not him! How can I make them understand that! And besides, genetically I’m as much Ben’s father as he is! Their going to expect me to act like it!”

“Whoa there! Forget genetics Ryan, you are Ben’s uncle. And you are your own unique person who just happens to be related to Saint Jarod. Yes, you look like him, and some of your mannerisms are the same, and some your food choices and preferences are the same. But that’s it. Child development experts all agree nature and nurture work together and nature only gets you so far. You are unique and different and that is what makes you special, not the fact that you’re the only one of Raines’ projects to actually succeed.”

“But how am I different? All anyone sees is ‘Jarod Junior’.”

“Your soul is different. They couldn’t copy that because it has nothin to do with genetics. It has to do with who you are, how you see the world, and the way you react to things. Sydney and I both knew it when we first met you and Jarod knows it too. Probably Ethan as well, but he’s still not so good at relating to people is he?”

“No, he’s not. And you’re right. Jarod and Ethan treat me as an individual. But Dad and Mom and Emily? Why do they…..”

“They spent so long looking for Jarod, but they never really accepted that even though he acts like a child, and is a child at times, he is also an adult who is very complex and extremely unstable. Age wise, emotionally and maturity wise, you are closer to what they were looking for.”

“Oh, but what about Jarod? If it’s hard for me than for him…..”

“Jarod has to deal with not being the 4 year old boy Margaret remembers. He and the Major have some sort of understanding, maybe because of Donoterase and all that happened after that. Margaret hasn’t had that opportunity has she? And Emily has it easiest, or the hardest depending on your point of view, because she only has the stories of Jarod her parents probably told to justify against the reality.”

“How do you know so much? I mean, I get that you have the Pretender gene and that you hear the same voices that Ethan does….but its more than that.”

“I know Jarod that’s all. First, I knew him as my friend, and then it was my job to know him. To know and understand him better than anyone else, even himself. For six years, he’s forced my world to revolve around him. It’s extremely annoying, and if it kills me I’ll get him to understand that the universe isn’t Jarod-centric. But at the same time, it’s not really his fault, it’s the way he was raised. Think we should blame Sydney?”

“Nah, blaming Jarod is way more fun,” Ryan smiled for the first time since their conversation began.

“That it is. I’ve always found it to be extremely cathartic.”

Ryan impulsively gave her a hug, “Thanks for listening….and understanding.”

Smiling she held Ryan tightly, and pressed a kiss onto the top of his head, “You bet kiddo. Us copies have to stick together, right?”

“You betcha!” With that, Ryan disappeared off to the house, where Parker realized, shivering slightly, it was probably much warmer.

“In three years, none of us have gotten that much out of him. Yet you walk in here and within hours he’s telling you all his problems. Why am I not surprised?” Jarod’s voice came from behind her.

Spinning on the bench,, she had to smile at the image of Ben asleep, tucked happily and safely in his father’s arms.

“Ryan and I have a lot in common. And I suppose I’m one of his few good memories from Donoterase.”

“Oh you certainly left an impression. He’s spent the last three years talkin about you as if you’re an angel. I’m not so sure he doesn’t think of you as his guardian angel.”

“Me an angel? You’re the one who’s got the market cornered on the archangel bit. I just clean up the mess. Now are you going to hover or sit? Cause craning my neck like is giving me a crick in the neck,” Parker smirked at him.

Sitting down beside her and placing the sleeping baby between them, he smirked back at her, “Archangel? Me? I’m far too unstable for that job. Besides I don’t think there are any opening in that department.”

“Funny, not cute, but funny.”

“Do you think we can do this?”

“Do what? Raise a child or be around each other for an extended period of time without killing each other? Or….”

“Or what?”

“Or forget all the hurt and manage not to keep hurting each other? We’re experts at that,” she said quietly, looking down at Ben, but not looking up at Jarod.

“We both want similar things for Ben so that shouldn’t be a problem. We’ve always worked well together, we just have to get through the initial snarling. And….even though we know how to hurt each other, we rarely do it without reason. Usually to protect the other.”

“So even after everything we’ve said…..especially after….the island…”

“Parker, I know how I feel about you. And I’m not letting you or Ben go. So stop doubting. We have plans to make if we’re going to keep Ben safe.”

“I’ll stop doubting if you will.”

“Deal, Parker. Now let’s go make sure our son stays safe,” Jarod stood up and after Parker had picked up Ben, pulled her up too.

“Just promise me, you and Ben won’t disappear in the dead of night. Cause then I would have to kill you.”

“Parker, I’ve discovered over the last three months that living without you, isn’t an option.” He smiled shyly at her, not knowing how she would take his words.

“I’ve found the same thing Rat. I’ve found the same thing,” she murmured quietly, almost to softly for him to hear.

But he did, and wrapping his arm around her, they walked silently into the house.

JMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMP

Ethan watching from an upstairs window, smiled when he saw that they walked perfectly in step.

Chapter 9
“So Miss Parker, do you have some kind of grand plan or are you simply going to rely on my son to clean up your family’s mess?” Margaret asked the younger woman later that day, not bothering to keep the sneer out of her voice.

“Mom!” Jarod’s one word admonishment said everything in its tone that he could never fully verbalize to her.

“Actually Mrs. Russell, I prefer to be called Parker. Not Miss Parker, and not by my first name. It’s who I am and besides, my first name is about the only secret I have left. And as to how I intend to keep my son safe, well, I do have a plan. It needs some tinkering, some final work, but it will get done easily enough.” Parker leaned back in her chair at the kitchen table, smiling sweetly at Margaret and trying to keep her temper in check. She would not go telling off her son’s only living grandmother, well she would try not to anyway.

“Maggie, darling, you are being a bit harsh aren’t you? You don’t survive in the Centre without learning a few things along the way. And Parker is definitely a capable Pretender. After all, she found us didn’t she?” Charles attempted to smooth his passionate and fiery wife’s temper. It had been one of the many things he had sorely missed in their years apart, even the times that her Irish temper had been directed at him.

“You’ve been working on a plan for years, haven’t you?” Ethan gasped, as the voices gave him a snippet of useful information, before returning to their usual clamor of noise. “You’ve been quietly working towards the destruction of that place for years!”

Ethan’s revelation caused all of them to stop and stare at her. Even Jarod was giving her a strange look, as if he didn’t know her anymore. All Parker could do was stare back and play with the silver medallion she wore around her neck.

“Is this true Parker?” Jarod’s voice was soft, but it didn’t have the dangerous edge it took on when he was angry or disappointed with her.

Looking him square in the eye, because she owed him nothing less, she said in the confident quiet voice she rarely used with him, “Yes.”

Even Ryan, who had always believed her to be his guardian angel and this squarely on the side of the good guys, was taken aback. As usual though, Jarod was the first to find his voice, “Why didn’t you leave sooner? Why did you never help me search for…? Why the god damned hell did you hunt me like and animal for six damn years if you were working towards the same goal your mother had!” His voice had risen with each sentence and by the time he finished he was literally shouting at her and had even forgotten about the impressionable child who was in a MacGyvered play pen in the unused connected dining room. His family stared at him in shock, none of them had ever heard him shout like that, which wasn’t saying much, seeing as how none of them had ever heard him shout or display any type of anger until Parker and Ben had shown up that morning.

With a definite glint in her eyes, which were rapidly changing from blue to a cold steely grey, Parker crossed her arm and in a voice that had more ice in its tone than Antarctica had altogether, she calmly stated, “Because I had too. Because the universe doesn’t revolve around you, because until now not all the pieces were in place, which they still aren’t by-the-way. And most importantly someone had to keep Sydney’s constant ‘help’ a secret or would you rather he be six feet under or in the Renewal Wing permanently? Someone had to protect Broots and his daughter, God knows they did nothing to invite this; the worst thing that ever happened to my dear sweet moron was being hired by the Centre. Somebody had to watch after Angelo, you know the other person you swore you would never leave behind?”

“Oh no, not again,” Emily put her head down on the table, “not another argument! I thought you two said you actually get along 90 percent of the time?”

“We lied,” Parker stated, eyes still locked in a staring contest with Jarod.

“It’s closer to 87.78921021 percent of the time, and that’s only when neither of us is hiding things from the other,” Jarod finished her sentence, voice just as calm, and just as hard.

“Oh really? Like that envelope you got from the safety deposit box at the Dover Town Bank? I believe you lied then Monkeyboy,” Parker shot at him.

“It had my name on it Parker. It was for me, not you, me.”

“Um, while I have the feeling that I’m watching some kind of ritual, don’t we all have other things to be discussing?” Ryan broke in, aware that more than the obvious bickering was going on, but unable to fully understand the incredibly complex and layered relationship between his older self and his guardian angel.

“Guess we aren’t done with the snarling part, are we?” Jarod asked, eyes still locked on hers. His silent question though asked if they could end this round. That he’d chalk it up to a win for her. Just as silently, she accepted the proposal.

“I suppose not. Earlier must have been the eye of the storm,” she offered a smirk, not a smile, but he was willing to take it.

“So Parker, this plan of yours, what needs fine tuning and does anyone need to be contacted?” Jarod asked, the hardness gone from his eyes.

His family breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief, glad not to have to witness another argument between the couple.

Picking up one of the other files she had brought in with her that morning, she spread its contents on the table. “I have all the entrances and cameras covered, security shouldn’t be a problem, except here, here, and here,” she pointed to each location on the most detailed blueprint of the Centre Jarod had ever seen. It even had all the camera angles, positions, and all other pertinent security information on it. Even for SL-27.

“Raines and Lyle are major variables, one of you two Genesis’s will have to SIM one or both of them,” glancing at Jarod, she added, “I would prefer Ryan not do either, but this is a war, and if he feels up to it and wants to……”

“I can do it!” the teen said, “I’m not a baby and I’m not a weakling either!”

“I know Ryan. But I’m as sure as I can be that this SIM would cause nightmares. And I don’t want to add to yours darling.”

“I can help. Let me help,” he asked, looking at his angel square on.

“I will darling. But let your older brother decide about the SIMS, please?” she asked, voice soft, yet still commanding.

“Okay.”

“Wait a cotton pickin’ minute Parker,” Emily interrupted, “You wan to spare Ryan the nightmares from these SIMS and while that is all well and good, in fact you get points for it, you’re more than willing to let Jarod suffer the same nightmares?” her voice was incredulous, she could not believe the nerve of this woman, of this Parker.

“Em, one more nightmare won’t hurt me. Raines and Lyle escaping and one day being able to hurt Ben or other children? That would haunt me more than any nightmare. Trust me to know what I can handle. And trust Parker to not ask more than any of us can give,” Jarod’s voice was reassuring, and Parker recognized the ‘Trust me’ tone, but she also recognized what he was on the “other level,” on their level of communication. That he trusted her, and that warmed her heart.

“What about the sweepers?” Charles asked, pulling them all back into the strategy and planning session.

“Except for Willie, the newly promoted and alive Gar, Cox, and a few of the newbies, all taken care of,” Parker said with a faint smile, fingers once again playing with her medallion. “And that also includes most of the scientists, techs, secretaries, assistants, even the janitors. Oh, I forgot my favorites; about 95 percent of the Cleaners are also with us.”

All of them stared at her not quite believing what she was saying. Charles found his voice first, “Are you saying that you have near complete control of all Centre employees?”

“Even better Major,” she gave him a toothy predatory grin, “I have their loyalty. Oh yes and that of most of the high paying Centre clients. All of the legitimate ones and a fair number of the illegitimate ones.”

“What? How? When?” Margaret could not get her head around the idea that this argumentative, obstinate, selfish, and all-together generally detestable woman had figured out how to bring down the Centre.

“Most of it is based on my mother’s plan, but obviously some things had to be changed or altered slightly. A number of her ideas would never have worked, now or then. As soon as possible I need to contact a number of people, get some thins started, but we should have some time before we have to make a direct strike. And a direct strike at the Centre will be needed. But…” she trailed off, not quite knowing how to explain this part to a family that had just been reunited only months before.

“But what, Parker?” Jarod asked, part of him already knowing the answer.

“Several key locations need to be taken down simultaneously. With the help of my people all of you will be at different locations, paired off with another of your family, except Ryan. And that’s only because I need a guy to deliver a very special virus at exactly the right moment.”

Sighing, because he knew from her files and plans that she had thought all this through, Jarod accepted that his family would have to part ways for all this to come to fruition. “Who’s paired with who and which locations?” he asked, accepting her plans and her reasons.

“The Major and Margaret at Centre-Europe, outside London. Ethan and Emily, Centre-Asia in Tokyo. I have another pair hand picked for Centre-Australia and another to handle the main site in Blue Cove.”

“What about you and Jarod? What about Ben?” Margaret asked, suddenly fearful for both her son and grandson.

“Jarod and I have a date with Centre-Africa, also known as the Triumvirate. The evil started there, we need to take care of it at its true source. Ben will be safe. He will be going to Nowheresville, West-by-God-Virginia. Under the very watchful eyes of Harriet Tashman, Michelle, Nicholas, and Debbie Broots. If it were safe to have Ryan there for his part in all this with the virus, he’s be there too. But it won’t be technologically possible for Ryan to carry out his part there, so he will be at another secure location.”

“You really have thought all this out haven’t you?” Jarod grinned at her.

“What was I supposed to do for six years while pretending to chase an escaped LabRat? Hmm? Play tiddlelywinks?” she grinned back.

“One question sister,” Ethan returned the two to reality, “You have helpers in all this. All these people on your side loyal to you, how do we tell them from the bad guys?”

“Simple little brother. We all wear these,” Parker replied holding up her medallion for all to see, “and we all know the one true secret at the Centre.”

“Whose medallion is that? And what’s the secret?” Ryan asked, patience was not his strong suit and he hated not knowing something. He hated it with a passion.

“I know the secret. The one true secret at the Centre is ‘what is Miss Parker’s first name?’” Jarod smirked, he alone in the room, save Parker herself, knew the answer to that secret. “And the medallion is a….” he grasped it lightly on its long chain, turning it to the light, seeing it, she openly laughed out loud, “St. Rita medallion.”

“Well Rat, you have a better patron saint for the poor smucks trying to get rid of the Centre? Cause something tells me it doesn’t get better than the patron saint of impossible cases!”

Chapter 10

Over the next week, the plan slowly finished its formation, and calls to Parker’s “lieutenants” went out for them to begin their roles. Longtime Centre clients got calls to move their business elsewhere, a number of highly placed government officials suddenly began having major problems in the press concerning reelections, sponsors, and deals they had either created or participated in.

Jarod disappeared for a few days and preformed the necessary SIMS for Raines and Lyle. Pretending was a major part of who and what he was, but he still felt the need to keep it separate form his family. Or at least from his non Centre family, which did not include Ben. He was comfortable going into SIM mode around Parker because she had seen him do many when they were children and had seen several of his later SIMS. But he knew that his ease at slipping into whatever personality the situation called for, disturbed his mother. His father simply accepted it. Likewise his father accepted his ease and comfort around Parker, something his mother seemed unable to do. Of course he didn’t need to defend Parker to his mother. She was perfectly capable of doing it herself, and Ethan and Ryan were always quick to her defense as well. Ben also seemed to understand when someone was being mean to his mother, and the small boy refused to stand for it.

Slightly more troubling to Jarod was the fact that even though Ben knew his “Grandma” and “Grandpa,” or as close as he could pronounce, and all his uncles and aunt, and even called Parker “Mama,” Ben called him by no name. But as he had a million times before with a million different things, Jarod buried how he felt and concentrated on other things.

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Late March had turned to April and slowly the weather began to warm. Everything was nearly ready for the strike at the Centre. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, including, Jarod’s family noticed, the Pretender’s relationship with Parker. It had taken a week before everyone got used to the idea that there were two more people with horrific nightmares in the house. It took Margaret even longer to begin to accept that after her eldest son had his, he sought out Parker, and that Parker sought him out after hers. It didn’t take long, seven days in the same house, before out of convenience’s sake they were sleeping beside each other every night.

If anything, the number of nightmares the family knew about decreased with the onset of the new sleeping arrangements. Emily, Ethan, and Ryan continually noticed how strong the relationship between the two was. Almost as if they had never been enemies, but rather had been friends and partners for 30 years.

Margaret and Charles noted these things as well, and Charles was well on his way to convening his wife that Parker was not only well suited to Jarod, but that she was probably the only person who not only knew but accepted everything about him. Margaret would have argued, except her son did keep her from knowing a great many things about himself.

By the time April 13 rolled around, everyone seemed to either have adjusted to the changes in their lives, or were adjusting to the changes. Still Jarod was keeping a close eye on Parker that day, even closer than usual, considering he was constantly watching her and she had a habit of consuming his thoughts. With the day, being warm Jarod figured he would talk Parker into a walk while Ben was down for his nap. Get her away from the hustle and bustle of the house, and alone, where she could grieve in private.

But like so many plans, this one didn’t quite work.

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“The weather is warm enough now, I want to get those screens into the windows today,” Major Charles announced just as Parker was attempting to get a finicky Ben to eat his cereal. “Jarod, Ryan, Ethan, we need to get the screens from the garage and get the grim off of them first, One of you grab the vacuum, the other two with me,: the Major continued. Jarod sighed and followed his father, hoping that this wouldn’t turn into an all day affair and he’d still have time for his plan for Parker.

Unfortunately, once they had all the window and door screens lying on the grass at the back of the house the major decided they were too dirty for just the vacuum, they needed to be washed first.

Ben, having eaten as much of his breakfast as he was ever going to, sat on the grass nearby and watched along with Snowball, the four men scrubbing, hosing down, and vacuuming the screens.

Inside, Margaret and Emily were smiling and joking as they watched the men, neither noticing Parker’s dark mood.

:Why is my sister sad today Jarod? She seemed fine yesterday,” Ethan asked. He had noticed her mood and had noticed Jarod’s preoccupation as well.

“Today is a hard day for her, Ethan.”

“But why? There seems to be nothing special about it,” Ryan commented.

“For her, this is the anniversary of her mother’s death,” Jarod said simply, glancing at the house where Parker had seated herself beside one of the bay windows.

“But Mother didn’t die today. She died….on my birthday,” Ethan said sadly.

“She knows that, logically. But today is the day that her mother left her, so this will always be the day that she mourns and misses her mother the most. I doubt she would want to turn your birthday into the day that she is the saddest, little brother. Now my birthday, she just might,” Jarod attempted to get Ethan’s mood a bit brighter, hoping he could at least help one of Catherine Parker’s children today.

“All right boys, let’s get these screens in!” Charles had heard none of the conversation.

As the group went around placing screens in the many windows of the old farmhouse, Ben dragging Snowball by the paw, followed after them. After they had finished the second floor windows, which had involved two of them going out onto the porch roof to speed things up, none of them noticed that Ben who was still following them, didn’t have Snowball with him anymore.

As Ben toddled around behind them, Ethan kept an eye on his nephew as Jarod had asked. None of the four wanted the curious 19th month old to get into any kind of trouble, and not just because Parker would kill all of them if something happened to her little boy.

But as lunch time neared, Ethan became distracted and as he thought Ben was playing with his blocks, turned his attention to trying to find a way to make his sister a bit less sad.

Parker stood silently behind the kitchen counter chopping celery for chicken salad, when she suddenly froze in place, the deadly blade she had been wield effortlessly, stopped midair.

“Parker dear, are you done with that……Parker? Parker!” Margaret stopped what she was doing when she turned and saw Parker frozen in place.

Jarod and the others heard Margaret’s cries and were soon all in the kitchen/dining area. Carefully checking her pulse, Jarod found nothing wrong. He was about to dig a penlight out of the junk drawer when Parker suddenly inhaled sharply and dropped the knife she had been holding.

“Ben!” she cried as she dashed out the back door. Jarod, trusting her completely, ran after her, and the others felt they had no choice but to follow. The seen that greeted them was perhaps the most terrifying the Russell family had ever seen.

Ben was climbing the old television antenna tower. He had gotten about six feet off the ground and his goal was plain as day, Snowball hung off a broken single by the gutter, six feet above the boy’s head.

Chapter 11

Deftly plucking her son from his perch, Parker held the boy close as she attempted to control her own shaking body. Jarod, who had been barely a second behind her, wrapped both securely in his arms, effectively shielding her weakness from his family. But Ben was the only one of all the people outside who was not overcome with relief, he was instead quite upset that not only had he been deterred form his goal, but that his Snowball was still dangling precariously from the roof of the porch. His piteous wails quickly altered both Jarod and Parker that something was still wrong and when Jarod saw the problem, he ruffled Ben’s dark brown hair, “Don’t worry little mouse, one puppy coming right up.” With that, Jarod effortlessly climbed the tower and plucked Snowball from his perch. Parker had turned Ben so he could see the rescue of his beloved Snowball and had to smile herself at the dashing figure Jarod cut, even when rescuing a now dirty stuffed animal.

Once Snowball was back in his pudgy baby arms, Ben began checking over his favorite friend. “Cut!” his small voice cut through the still afternoon air.

“What sweetheart?” Parker asked, still clutching Ben to her as if he would disappear if she loosened her grip.

“Snowball hurt!” Ben cried again, showing his mother a two inch jagged tear on Snowball’s left front paw.

Looking critically at the tear, Parker glanced at Jarod who stood protectively next to her and Ben, “I think Snowball will be fine, little mouse. He just needs to see the doctor. And get a bath,” she added dryly.

“Is he all right? What happened?” Margaret asked as the smaller family unit walked back to the door.

“Ben is fine, Snowball will be shortly,” Jarod answered distractedly, his entire focus was on the still sobbing baby who was cradling the stuffed puppy as if he were a baby.

Once inside, Parker sat down at the kitchen table with Ben on her lap and Snowball on Ben’s lap. Jarod quickly rifled through the junk drawer looking for the small sewing kit he knew was somewhere in the drawer. Finding it, he took his seat next to Parker and Ben. “Now let’s have a look at this injury shall we?” he asked the small boy.

Sniffing again, Ben lanced up at his father, “You a doctor?”

“I am today,” Jarod smiled at Ben as he threaded the needle with the white thread and quickly knotted the lose ends.

“That sharp. Snowball already hurting,” Ben was staring at the shiny needle.

“Well, that is why he needs anesthesia. That makes his go to sleep so he won’t feel anything. How about you give Snowball the anesthesia?”

“Okay! How?” Ben sounded more excited now that he knew that the needle wouldn’t hurt Snowball.

“Cup your hand like this,” Jarod demonstrated with his hand, and then smiled at Ben’s perfect imitation, “Now, put your hand over Snowball’s mouth and turn on the gas, which is here,” Jarod pointed to a spot beside Ben, “And now have Snowball count backward from ten, to help him fall asleep.”

At that, Ben frowned and using his free hand, he gestured for Jarod to come closer to him, “Snowball can’t count,” he whispered loudly.

Jarod nodded sagely, as if Ben had just imparted the meaning of life o him, “Well then, how does Snowball fall asleep?”

“Mama tells story.”

“I see, and does Mama have a story for Snowball?” Jarod asked Parker very seriously.

Smiling, Parker told a quick story about a puppy who got lost and when her snort story was over Jarod asked if Snowball was sleeping yet. When Ben indicated that he was, Jarod quickly performed the “surgery” explaining exactly what he was doing tot eh ever curious Ben and within five minutes, pronounced the surgery finished and that Snowball should recover completely. Snowball was then hustled off to the laundry room for a “bath.” Ben refused to leave his puppy for a minute so the yawning boy snuggled in his mother’s arms as the washer and dryer his father had “tinkered” with cleaned his beloved friend faster than would be normal.

By the time Snowball was clean and dry in his arms, Ben was fighting sleep. All three members of the small family were emotionally spent and far more exhausted than would be normal for any of them.

Completely ignoring the babbling questions, comments, and apologies of the rest of the inhabitants of the house, Parker and Jarod carried their yawning son to his room, which had been shared by Parker for a short time, and put the protesting boy down for a nap. Ben was extremely exhausted from climbing the tower though, so he quickly began to fall asleep, especially since Snowball was on the mend. “Thank you Daddy,” he mumbled as the Sandman won the battle and Ben drifted off to sleep.

The grin on Jarod’s face stretched at least a mile wide. “Did you hear that?” He whispered in Parker’s ear as they slipped out of the room and crossed the hall. She didn’t need to speak as she turned her head up toward his, her eyes said all that needed to be said. Moving with perfect harmony, they kicked off their shoes and laid down on the large bed, one of the few in the house large enough for Jarod’s long frame.

Instantly Jarod’s arms went around Parker as their legs tangled together and her head claimed his shoulder as its pillow.

Jarod felt her sobs before he heard them and did the only thing he could do, he held her. Held her against tight against her grief; held her tight against the fear for Ben, not only from today, but also from the fear that the Centre represented in their lives. When she was calm enough to speak, her words chilled him.

“I saw it, Jar. I saw Ben put Snowball n the windowsill to watch the screens be put in. I saw one of you accidentally kick Snowball out onto the roof as you all were climbing in and out of the windows, roll down, and catch on that shingle. I saw him climbing and fall. I saw him lying there with his neck…God, Jarod I saw it, and once the vision ended it seemed like I couldn’t move fast enough. Like I was trying to run through molasses.”

“Jarod heard the fear I her voice, at what her “gift” had forced her to see. He didn’t need his skills as a Pretender to know how she felt. Ben was his son too, and the mere thought of losing him to the Centre or to the Grim Reaper made him feel as it someone had cut out his heart, with a spoon. “Shh, he’s fine. Ben’s fine and we’ll make sure he’s always safe.”

“I can’t get that image out of my head though. That image of him lying on the grass…..it’s like it’s branded onto my mind’s eye. I close my eyes and I see that damned image, and even though I know he’s fine, the only thing keeping me from checking on him this instant are the twin facts that I don’t quite trust my legs to keep me upright, and the fact that I doubt you’d let me up right now.” Parker attempted to joke, but when her voice broke she flushed and tried to keep him from seeing her eyes, from seeing how much the images of her vision were terrifying her.

“He’s fine, I know you’re scared but he’s fine now. We’ll keep a better eye on him, we’ll destroy the Centre. He’s safe right now, and we’ll make sure he stays safe.”

“What if I hadn’t….what id that premonition….that vision….what if I hadn’t seen it?” her voice wavered, but she finally lifted her face toward his, in control enough to allow him to see her eyes.

“I…I don’t know,” now it was Jarod’s voice that broke, “but it didn’t happen and thinking about all the ‘What If’s’ possible won’t do either of us much good,” Jarod was attempting, vainly, to keep himself from SIMing all the possibilities.

The silence that fell over them was not an uncomfortable one; neither needed words at that moment, just the reassuring physical contact of lying there together. Eventually the breathing of both evened out and without adrenaline and fear coursing through their veins, they fell asleep; comfortable and safe, wrapped in each other’s arms.

Chapter 12

By the end of the next week, the family was prepared to separate. Each knew their part and all had received medallions to identify themselves to other Centre rebels. The only thing they didn’t yet know was the “secret,” Parker had not yet told them her first name, a fact that Jarod teased her relentlessly about.

Finally on the last night all would be at the farmhouse, they were leaving in stages over the next several days, Parker revealed her final secret, as they sat at the kitchen table during the midst of another chaotic meal for the large family.

“So, Parker are you going to tell them? OR do I get to?” Jarod teased.

“Do I go around babbling your secrets Rat? I thought not,” she shot back, smirking when he couldn’t think of a time when she had revealed one of his secrets.

“Still Parker, they need to know, or were you planning to tell them at the last possible second?”

“Did it ever occur to you that I have been putting this putting this off because I don’t like my first name?”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Ryan cut into their good-natured squabbling. “If you don’t like your name then why use it as the password for an underground rebellion that encompasses hundreds of people?” he asked, extremely confused, a state of mind that the young pretender despised.

“Because it’s something that only Mr. Parker, my mother, Jarod, and I knew anyway. I don’t like it, but since only three living people were supposed to know my name, it made it the perfect choice. Besides if people had to guess the password, it’s the one thing they would never guess,” Parker explained.

“I’ll say,” Jarod muttered under his breath.

“I heard that.”

“Heard what?” Jarod asked, putting on his ‘I’m innocent/Trust me’ face.’

Parker glared at him, making him gulp and go pale, Jarod was certain that men had died from those blue-grey eyes alone, and then there was the sharpness of her tongue, which hadn’t dulled in the least.

“So what is your first name Sister?” Ethan asked, his question breaking the spell and allowing Jarod to tear his eyes away from Parker’s.

“Marie,” was her one word answer before she went back to feeding Ben and mock arguing with Jarod.

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With word sent to the necessary people to get into place Parker, Jarod, and Ben said their farewells to the departing members of the Russell family. The three Centre escapee’s would be the last to leave the old farmhouse. Finally with Margaret and the Major off to England, Ryan off to Seattle, and Emily and Ethan off to Tokyo, Parker and Jarod said goodbye to their own small family’s first home. With a quick stop in West Virginia to leave Ben with his caretakers and other family members of the Centre rebels, the huntress and the hunted boarded a flight to Africa.

Once there final preparations were made and jittery nerves on the part of both were calmed. The days of the Centre’s evil were ticking down slowly, and all too soon, or perhaps not soon enough, it was what one of the Centre rebels called “C-Day.”

At all the major Centre locations the key player s lead swift and efficient takeovers, and in Africa, Parker and Jarod walked calmly and purposefully into a meeting of the Triumvirate.

The three members of the most powerful organization in the world, secret or otherwise, stood no chance when faced with the determined parents. All three had been terrified of what could happen if friendship blossomed between the two when they were children when they had seen Parker and Jarod meet in the sexuality experiment that in truth had been so much more than an experiment in simple human sexuality. Now over thirty years later, they faced what they had feared.

The prophecy come true.

A force so strong that nothing could stop it; a force fed not just by friendship, but a complex mix of friendship, love, respect, desire, and need.

Faced with a woman who would do whatever it would take to protect her child. A woman so like her mother but with the strength to not only finish what her mother had started, but the force of will and strength of will to do what was necessary, to go wherever she had to, to complete the work, the Triumvirate were powerless.

Faced with a man who could go anywhere, be anyone, even without knowing who he was. A man who had the strength of character to care about others and fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves; a man who would do what was necessary to protect his family and those he loved, even if it meant he could not be with them, the Triumvirate were powerless.

They had thought that they controlled these two, had manipulated and tortured them since childhood and now faced with the destruction of generations worth of work, the Triumvirate had to bow to destiny. Their creation of a Hell on earth had produced plenty of daemons and horsemen; but it had also produced four beings with the power to destroy them. Four archangels who possessed the power, the will, and the strength of character to destroy the Centre’s Hell. And two of those archangels stood tall and determined, one a vision of angelic beauty and grace in a short white skirt and long tailored jacket, the other a force of determination and power in black leather. Gabriel and Michael stood before them and they knew that Raphael and the oft-forgotten Uriel were out and fighting under the direction of these two.

And so the Triumvirate had no choice but to hand over their power. After all, despite all their attempts to retain their power, they all knew one part of the prophecy perfectly:
“That there should come two being born of light and raised in the darkest corner of Hell. A Genevieve and Arthur who have a bond far stronger than that of the pair of old; a pair who will not only destroy the Hell in which they were raised, but raise in its place a Camelot like the world has never known.

Epilogue

Six months later Parker and Jarod stood in the Centre’s labyrinth of gardens and smiled at each other. The warm September sun was at its zenith as they stood in the shade of an old stand of oak trees. The members of their combined Centre and non-Centre family’s watched as old Father Moore finally got to perform the ceremony he had waited over three decades to perform.

The Centre’s mission statement was truth now, and with Parker as Chairwoman (for the Parker’s had always run the Centre) and Jarod the Chairman of the Ethics Committee that had taken the place of the Triumvirate, the evils of the past had no chance of repetition. Not that either were taking any chances.

Raines and Lyle were gone, both had died the fateful day six months before. The dark secrets of the Centre were slowly coming to light and with times all was becoming more right in the world.

And now under the bright sun the loneliness and terror felt by both Parker and Jarod nine months before was a mere memory as they repeated vows that their hearts had made when they were mere children, lonely and lost in the depths of the Centre.

Margaret wasn’t completely sure of her son’s choice in a wife, but she had to admit they were at least making their relationship, and family, official. A fact which made her feel somewhat better about the whole thing. Besides, she was slowly coming to love Parker as a daughter, even if the exasperating woman did try her patience at times.

For Sydney though, giving away his “daughter” was one of the moments he knew he would always treasure. The vows he had little interest in, he knew that these two needed no vows made here; they had been dedicated to each other for years. But the moment that spoke to him the most of who Parker and Jarod were, and of the long tumultuous relationship they shared, occurred as the couple danced together for the first time as husband and wife, to the song chosen by a perceptive Debbie Broots. The pair danced to a song from the new musical Wicked, a song entitled “For Good,” and as he watched his children laughing and talking quietly as they danced, Sydney knew all was finally right in the world and the Camelot he had dreamed of as a young boy had finally come.

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The ties to Hell that haunted them all were cut. The children of the Centre were free of the Hell that had ruled their lives and were now able to stand in the light and create for others what had been stolen from them.

They were out of Hell and created in its place a paradise where hope was commonplace, and a Rat and his Huntress ruled.

Finite

These are the Lyrics to “For Good,” I did not write them and I do not own any part of the show Wicked, although I would dearly love too.

ELPHABA
You're the only friend I've ever had.
GLINDA
And I've had so many friends. But only one-- that mattered.
(sings)

I'VE HEARD IT SAID
THAT PEOPLE COME INTO OUR LIVES FOR A REASON
BRINGING SOMETHING WE MUST LEARN
AND WE ARE LED
TO THOSE WHO HELP US MOST TO GROW
IF WE LET THEM
AND WE HELP THEM IN RETURN
WELL, I DON'T KNOW IF I BELIEVE THAT'S TRUE
BUT I KNOW I'M WHO I AM TODAY
BECAUSE I KNEW YOU...
LIKE A COMET PULLED FROM ORBIT
AS IT PASSES A SUN
LIKE A STREAM THAT MEETS A BOULDER
HALFWAY THROUGH THE WOOD
WHO CAN SAY IF I'VE BEEN CHANGED FOR THE BETTER?
BUT BECAUSE I KNEW YOU
I HAVE BEEN CHANGED FOR GOOD …

ELPHABA
IT WELL MAY BE
THAT WE WILL NEVER MEET AGAIN
IN THIS LIFETIME
SO LET ME SAY BEFORE WE PART
SO MUCH OF ME
IS MADE OF WHAT I LEARNED FROM YOU
YOU'LL BE WITH ME
LIKE A HANDPRINT ON MY HEART
AND NOW WHATEVER WAY OUR STORIES END
I KNOW YOU HAVE RE-WRITTEN MINE
BY BEING MY FRIEND...

LIKE A SHIP BLOWN FROM ITS MOORING
BY A WIND OFF THE SEA
LIKE A SEED DROPPED BY A SKYBIRD
IN A DISTANT WOOD
WHO CAN SAY IF I'VE BEEN CHANGED FOR THE BETTER?
BUT BECAUSE I KNEW YOU...

GLINDA
BECAUSE I KNEW YOU...

BOTH
BECAUSE I KNEW YOU
I HAVE BEEN CHANGED FOR GOOD...

ELPHABA
AND JUST TO CLEAR THE AIR
I ASK FORGIVENESS
FOR THE THINGS I'VE DONE YOU BLAME ME FOR

GLINDA
BUT THEN, I GUESS WE KNOW
THERE'S BLAME TO SHARE

BOTH
AND NONE OF IT SEEMS TO MATTER ANYMORE
___
[They sing simultaneously]

GLINDA
LIKE A COMET PULLED FROM
ORBIT/AS IT PASSES A SUN/
LIKE A STREAM THAT MEETS A
BOULDER/ HALF-WAY
THROUGH THE WOOD

ELPHABA
LIKE A SHIP BLOWN OFF ITS
MOORING/BY A WIND OFF THE
SEA/ LIKE A SEED DROPPED BY A
BIRD IN
THE WOOD
___

BOTH
WHO CAN SAY IF I'VE BEEN CHANGED FOR THE BETTER?
I DO BELIEVE I HAVE BEEN CHANGED FOR THE BETTER

GLINDA
AND BECAUSE I KNEW YOU...

ELPHABA
BECAUSE I KNEW YOU...

BOTH
BECAUSE I KNEW YOU...
I HAVE BEEN CHANGED FOR GOOD.