Disclaimer: I do not own Pretender. I just wish it. I make no money off of this, it's just written for entertainment.
Jarod Angel tried to keep his mind focused. It wasn't all that hard, and in fact, he seemed to be able to think less of Miss Parker and their loving destiny and more about what was in front of him. Not that he stopped caring. Maybe it was a case of wanting what you didn't have, and then not wanting it when you had it?
Or maybe not. He felt different. More relaxed, less driven about the scrolls and destiny. She was right though about him not calling any of them angels. He wasn't even really enjoying his last name anymore. In fact, he was starting to feel different about his position for everything.
He used to feel superior over Jarod. Like he was just a prototype to him and Hades. He felt his only real competition was Hades. Now, as the days passed with Miss Parker. He didn't feel superior to the original Jarod at all. Even though her mind was getting more rattled like the rest of the world, it became clearer to see the truth.
She had no interest in him. There was no destiny waiting for them. She had one concern, their safety. At best, he might be able to manage friend. At best? Maybe that's what he wanted to. The world was large and exciting, did he really want to be settled with a wife and kids? The other one didn't at first. Not that he wanted to be like the other one.
Hades fate made him even more edgy. Angels and devils were opposites, but parallels. Could he be facing a similar demise? Jarod Angel looked over his work at Miss Parker. "Still very lovely." She was staring straight ahead, almost vacant. Hopefully that was from boredom. "From what I can tell, Miss Parker, this is what you need. Are you ready?"
"Not yet," Miss Parker answered. "I don't have to book anything yet, they aren't even close to one yet. Plus, Jarod will probably want to be there too."
Her mind. Somewhere else still. Jarod Angel needed to be more specific. "Are you ready to be cured like your children?"
"Oh. Oh! Yes," Miss Parker said in a hurry. She came over extremely close. "How does this work. Is it one and done like an old Saturday night date?"
Jarod Angel shook his head. "Still lovely?"
"I'm not lovely," Miss Parker corrected him. "I'm the opposite of lovely. Which eel . . .eelayvo. Eelayvol. It's lovely sounded backwards."
Even her comebacks were falling, though they were a lot better than the cussing and uncaring attitude attached before. Jarod Angel wasn't a very big fan of her attitude all the time. The fire that he once saw the beauty of, it just looked like a burning building of a mess. How did the original Jarod put up with it? "Partly lovely." But wow, was that enough?
What could be destiny didn't feel like a dream come true. Half the time Miss Parker was cussing, clearly concerned about Jarod but not saying anything. She helped with her children, but her minds fuzziness left him to help. Even now, it was like she completely forgot that he was holding her little girl in his hands while he was trying to work.
The little girl constantly wanted held. It was terrible. Whenever they sat her down for too long, she just wanted back up. Day or night. The boy was better, although he didn't do anything. He mostly just hung out as babies do. He didn't see himself in either one of them.
Family. Something he had wanted so bad? Maybe he didn't actually want it. In fact, as soon as he could see Jarod completed his task, they were going right back to him. Wrapped up in a red bow and he'd never mess with him again.
Jarod Angel wanted someone kind and compassionate. How did he ever see a forever with this . . . woman? She was miserable and depressive and dreary. She complained about smoking and alcohol, she cussed without care.
For some reason he thought the reports he read over her were just exaggeration. They weren't. She was, in fact, although he did not like to say the term considering how terrible it was? "Could you please not complain as I do this?"
"If you don't hit my ass with your big wings," she said. "Ow! You ass, that hurt! Can't you be more careful?"
Jarod Angel pulled the needle back out. "I am not trained to be gentle. Miss Parker. I know a little of this, I don't know the world. I have not been out as long as the original Jarod has been in the world."
"No reason to stab a woman that hard," she complained.
Complaining. Again. He tried to smile. He was trying really hard.
"Stop smiling at me you Idiot," she countered his hospitality. "What are you smiling about?" She sat straight up. "Did you willingly poison me?!"
Poison her? "Of course I didn't, I gave you the cure so you didn't die. I was smiling to be nice. Nice," He said more firmly. "Do you know the word? Do you understand the word? Can you be that without being a deceiving . . ." He wouldn't say it. He would not say it.
"This bitch only plays nice when she has to," Miss Parker replied. "Let's see how I handle it before you give it to my kids."
"I already did," he said. "You were too out of it to notice. Somewhere around ball pit birthday lettuce thinking."
"You used my kids for it before me?!" She came unglued again. "You had better not be playing me."
"If I was playing you, I would not have to poison you. You were already dying. Then again? Maybe it would have ended these torturous conversations with you." He practically growled. The woman was driving him mad!
"Don't touch my children without my permission," she warned him. "Wait. What are you doing holding my little girl?" She yanked her away, finally able to comprehend that.
"She cries if she isn't held. I was trying to be nice." The words were so staccato. Broken up, word by word. "Nice."
"Then I hold her, not you," she warned him. "You're not her father."
"Thank goodness for that," Jarod Angel replied. "Hades might have a better fate than the original Jarod does."
"What?" Miss Parker was confused, then mad. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You are a bitch!" He covered his mouth quickly, realizing he cussed. It just slipped out, he couldn't hold it back. It didn't even feel like a cussword, it was like calling a flower a flower. The color red was red. It was a fact.
"Sure as hell bet I am." Miss Parker sat back down with her daughter. "Let me know when Jarod rages and destroys everything."
"You bet 'cause you are going back. As fast as possible, Miss Parker," he complained. "Where do you find the nice girls?"
"You are asking me where to find nice girls?" She asked back. "Anywhere I'm not."
"I can see that. What color do you want your ribbon when I give you back to Jarod, ASAP? Red, yes?" Nice plans. That would make him cheerful again. "Should I write Here's Your Bitch Back in big letters for him?" No, that word belonged. He didn't need to say any other bad words, but that word was the only one that worked for her. It fit.
"We can't go back until Jarod completes the scroll," Miss Parker muttered. "Are you really going to let us go back? When it's safe?"
"Absolutely. I am not keeping you nor your kids around for even one more hour more than I have to," he told her. "I can't take it anymore. It started nice, then it was doable, then it was less doable but okay, but you are a complete mean person who I don't ever-"
"Thank you," she said to him. "Jarod deserves his children back. Even if I'm not welcomed back. If he saves the world from the hell it's going through now. He deserves his family." She kissed her daughter gently on the forehead as she stood up and carried her back over toward her brother.
A small pang of something hit. That gesture. Those words. Miss Parker did care. She cared for the original Jarod, in her own way. They deserved each other. "As soon as it's all over, I'll deliver you back to him."
For now though, he wanted to know every in he could. He contacted Sydney.
Sydney answered his phone, seeing the restricted number. "Jarod?"
"One of them."
Ah. "Jarod Angel," Sydney guessed. "Do you have some news?"
"I do, but I need to know if Jarod pulled his ultimate move yet? Did he rage?"
"I don't know yet," Sydney confessed. "He only came back briefly. No explanation. What news do you have?" He had to know. He was being nice because he had to know. "Do you have something in particular he would want?"
"Yes."
"Three something particulars?"
"Yes, and one of them is a terrible bitch I can't stand."
Sydney smiled. They were alive. What were they doing with Jarod Angel though? "Are they alright?"
"Now, now, let's not talk about that. I need to know what Jarod has done about the Triumvirate."
Ah. He was doing the same thing Broots wanted to. "I'm afraid I don't know."
"Then tell him nothing, and I am working on something, and that's all anyone needs to know. I'm texting you a number to reach me. Memorize and erase it. Standard procedure I assume."
Sydney nodded. Jarod Angel hung up but he checked the number in the text. He memorized and deleted it. "Margaret?" He called to her. "I'm going to need your phone. I think it's time to contact the others to see if they've heard from Jarod." It wasn't something Sydney often did, but the sooner Jarod could get back to his family? The better off psychologically he would be.
Sydney didn't get any word about Jarod from Kyle or Ethan, but when he hit the big one? "Major Charles." He said his name fast, so he wouldn't hang up.
"Sydney." Major Charles recognized him. "What is it? Did you find Jarod's family?"
"Have you heard from Jarod?" Sydney asked. "Do you know what his progress is?"
"Yeah, I do know what he had to do," the Major said slowly. "It was tough. Jarod will be heading there soon. He needed to take some time for himself. Did things a little faster than maybe he should have, but I understand. I'm proud of him no matter what. My boy saved the entire world. Who can say that?"
"That's good news. Thank you, Major. Could you perhaps let me know how he saved the world?"
"In a way he was far from happy with, Sydney."
Jarod walked steadily to the front door. Last time he was there, he walked in and out without explaining anything. He broke down on Sydney when he followed him. That was it though. He had to be ready now.
Before he reached the front door though, he saw something in the snow. Something large. Very large, in a rectangular box that was wrapped like a present with a great big bow.
He continued to walk forward, albeit a little faster. As he got closer he could see a huge tag on it. As he got even closer, he read it, and his mind started to turn.
Call it early Christmas or late Christmas. I don't care. Your bitch plus two. I cured them. Take them and leave me alone forever!
Jarod A.
Then, Jarod heard something he hadn't expected.
"You conniving little asshole, you can't just leave us out here in the cold! Jarod A. The A is for asshole now, you are an asshole! Let us out!"
"Parker." He barely breathed as he ripped off the simple wrapping and looked inside. Still alive, stuck in a huge cage. She was holding onto each baby in her arms. "Parker."
She didn't say anything at first. Then. "Hey, don't you start with me! You can't beat scrolls, even your mother said that, and it said we were supposed to die before you somehow destroyed the evil. I did what I had to, to make sure everything was fine. Hate me if you want," she threatened him. "I'd do it all over again. Oh, and your cloney angel ass cured us, then dumped us right here in this cage. I wasn't responsible for that woman's or those babies death either, that was Raines. It's complicated." She stared at him. "Well, are you going to stare at us or let us out?"
Jarod looked at the wrapping paper. He pulled it off more, getting to the handle. It needed a key. He looked around in the snow. It was obvious Jarod Angel knew he was coming soon. He found the shiny metal lying in the snow, dusted it off, and opened the door. He walked in.
She looked at him, still like she was half sorry but wouldn't say it. "No hello, no scolding, no smile, and no anger. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?"
Jarod didn't answer. He picked up one of the children from her. It turned out to be Onyssius. In his arms. Again. "It's over now. No one will ever take you away from me again. No one." He glanced toward Little Angel in Miss Parker's arms. Mother and daughter. "Safe and sound."
He looked at Miss Parker. "I ended the Triumvirate, the Centre . . . and you, Miss Parker."
"What do you mean? That last part?" Miss Parker said.
"Distraction. You've noticed it I'm sure. It counteracts the virus. It doesn't hurt those who never took Focus, it's just a temporary side effect. Those who did, will eventually end up like Hades with no return. I had one vial I managed to get for a cure." He remained calm. "I gave it to Broots. I couldn't risk not using it early enough. You won't die, Miss Parker, but you will be driven insane by distraction now."
She looked at him thoughtfully. "Did you know I was alive?"
"Suspected," he admitted.
"I cured myself," she said. "So, I won't die. I'm just going to be driven insane. Well." She closed her eyes. "Jarod." Her voice sounded raw. "Onyssius and Little A?"
"They'll be fine." Oh. How he just . . . "No more regrets." He held his hand out to her. "Come home with me. Make it easy. Please. We have so much to talk about."
"Take them," Miss Parker said as she tried to hand him their little girl.
"You and them," Jarod stated. "Don't go."
"No, Jarod, I don't want to go crazy. I already know it's been affecting me, I don't-"
Jarod backed out of the cage and locked it with their little girl and Miss Parker inside. "I lost you once before the end. I'm not letting it happen again. Besides, I see potential in this."
"Potential in what? Jarod, no!" She grabbed onto the bars and jerked on them. "Are you really just going to leave me in here?!"
"Until I know you won't leave, yes. No more regrets. Relax, Miss Parker." He grinned wide. "I don't think it's completely over yet after all for you."
"So then, what, you are just going to push me inside in this thing? Jarod? Jarod!"
Jarod moved behind the still halfway wrapped gift and started to push with his back. "I know you, Parker! You're going to run off, gun half cocked, and run out anything on your bucket list." He started to push more, and noticed Sydney and his mother coming out ahead. They started to rush toward him. "But you aren't going to do that. You are staying here, with me. I will find the cure, or I won't, but you are not running off! The more severe, the more likely you get reckless. This isn't over. Not yet."
His mother and Sydney helped Jarod as they got over to him. Sydney helped him push while his mother took Onyssius. Jarod wasn't surprised with the words coming out of Parker's mouth. He gave her a chance to see what she would do, but it was as he feared. If she came back, alive and cured, she would still bail to make someone feel her anger. She'd go after someone to ease her pain, but all it would mean is chasing her down if he found the cure, or more missed time.
"Jarod Angel took focus," Sydney said as he helped him push. He seemed to notice what Jarod already figured out. "He took lots of it. Jarod, your clone still must be quite cognizant to manage this! That means there must be a way to save Miss Parker too."
"I know, I realized it too. As soon as I saw the writing," Jarod said as now Broots came out with Debbie. They started to help push too. "Maybe he took something else with it. I need to find out what it is," he determined as he kept pushing. The yelling and cursing Miss Parker exhibited was ringing his ears and Miss A. was crying by the odd pushing, which was making Onyssius cry too. Then, he looked back toward Sydney. Through all the caterwauling. And smiled.
Jarod Angel didn't go crazy and Miss Parker was safely caged.
He couldn't be happier.
Back Inside . . .
Jarod tried to not let it bother him. He held Onyssius against him as he rocked in his chair. His mom was slightly biting her fingers, and Sydney kept looking at him. To check up on him. His family was alive. That was all that mattered.
But with him keeping her locked up until they could talk reasonably about options, he just really didn't want . . . Thomas. There. Yet. Especially since he was ready to make a move, but hadn't done so yet.
Thomas didn't mind the cage. He understood. He made small talk with Parker, and she was flustered most of the time. Jarod swore the temperature was colder inside than out with as red as she had been.
"Lots of construction," Thomas went on with her. "Your right. I never changed much there, did I? Little average me."
"I liked average," Parker said back to him. "I didn't mind average, Thomas. You shouldn't have got involved in this."
Jarod hid his small glare as Thomas touched Little A's hand. Instinctive.
"So her name is a little complex?" Thomas asked Parker. "Angel. Little Angel. Little A. Little Miss A. I'm surprised you didn't call her Missy like you. She looks like you."
"Her name is Little Angel," Jarod corrected him. "There's nothing wrong with it. It's been adapting, but there's nothing wrong with that. By the time she's old enough to know her name, it'll be established. She grows into the name that will fit her."
Thomas shrugged. "Yeah, but it doesn't sound like there's any problem with Onyssius."
"Everyone's different." Jarod stopped rocking. "His was just ready. Sometimes people are just ready for things, and sometimes they aren't. Sometimes? They need extra time."
"Her original name was Angel," Parker said to Thomas. "Sweet and simple, but it somehow started to change."
"I like Angel. Sweet and simple. What you're dad used to call you, Missy," Thomas reminded her.
"Maybe, but her mother was a better person," Jarod interrupted. "She called Miss Parker something different." He watched his mother practically throwing the sign language his way.
'Get him out. Get him out, Jarod! You haven't said a thing, she thinks you don't care anymore, get him out or he'll capture her heart. The heart you want. You aren't trapped behind glass, are you?'
No. No, I'm not. Jarod looked back toward Thomas. "I need everyone to go soon. Miss Parker isn't going to want to stay in that cage forever, and she isn't budging until I speak to her."
There. Even Miss Parker liked the sound of that. "I'll see you, Tommy," she said to him. "I want to hear what he has to say so I can get out of this already."
"Okay, but I'll be in touch, Parker." He bowed his head slightly and gave his charming smile to her. He headed out the door along with the others.
Finally. Jarod came closer to the cage. "It won't be for long, I'm just keeping you from making a big mistake."
"You still lose brownie points," She said. "What happened?"
His face. She knew that face. It wasn't Jarod's best face.
"I had two options," Jarod told her. "Save most, or save no one. I couldn't waste time."
Save most. That wasn't something positive to say for Jarod. He wanted to save all, and whatever happened he was feeling guilty. "Talk."
"The virus, having been from the Triumvirate, I looked into it," Jarod explained. "While it isn't only one thing, it has an untampered excessive amount of concentrated focus. The focus you took, as well as several others, works with several small doses before a big one. Those small doses are needed to handle the amount it will spread. Unlike the small doses, the big one has an incubation period. When that time has lapsed, the true focus is released."
"That's why it's smaller doses, before the big one comes on, I know that." Miss Parker said thoughtfully. "They give the big one first because it does nothing until the incubation is over. I know, I took it a long time ago."
"By the time the big one released through you, the body had doses of focus. Primed and ready. Without those small doses, it will kill any normal person. People would have started to die soon. Remembering the distraction and what it did to Hades, I charged ahead and created something similar. My own form of distraction. It was tuned specifically to people who had no focus. It overwhelms them and is set around the same incubation time."
Ohh. "Anyone who used focus, doesn't fit into the plan though." Which meant? "The whole Triumvirate took focus while only the Parkers did at the Centre."
"Right," Jarod said. "Every individual reacts to everything differently though. I can't make a one cure fits all. Even without experiencing focus?" he said. "I did what I could, but I should have waited longer. If I had hit more places, I could have made up for the time. I moved too fast. I could have been more exact. I could never save everyone, but I could have saved more. I just. I was soo . . . I almost forgot about Broots."
The distraction. The disasters. That wasn't the danger, that was caused by Jarod. "Necessary, Jarod. Nobody can blame you."
"Men, women and children alike. All of their systems are different. Every death because someone was stuck in distraction is my fault now. I needed to do better, I could have done better, it's just, in the past, I fell for that. I believed everything was great, and then you snuck up on me. So. I made sure no one could get me. No one. By acting quick enough, no one could stop me this time."
"It's the best you could do," she said, trying to hold him steady.
"1,249 deaths accounted for me, as of this morning," Jarod said. "That number will only grow. The majority will make it, but a large amount won't. That's on me."
"The Triumvirate?" she asked.
"Prestigious dinner in Africa, in a beautiful place," Jarod said. "They lowered the Floating Bed Bridge low enough for people to see and to make the announcement of a new kind of focus. I hit with precision above it." He looked downward. "Do you know how young the next leader was to replace Bhekumbuso? I was so ready to finally take them all down, I didn't notice him. He was on the bridge, toward the back. Just a boy. A very young boy. The first victim. Climbing up the bridge and down." He looked back toward her. "He thought he was on a playground. I was too far away to stop him."
"It wasn't your fault, Jarod. They were the ones who caused it all." Distraction. Jarod did it. It was the only thing that connected the Triumvirate together. Anyone failing focus would be hit? Everyone in the Triumvirate took focus.
The Triumvirate would never survive. "I took a lot of focus over the years," she said slowly. "I don't blame you, Jarod, I think even knowing it would take me out? I'd light that choice up and watch them all burn. I'll just think of it as taking them to hell with me."
"But Jarod Angel," Jarod spoke again. "To do this, to wrap you in a rectangular cage with a note? Not only that, but in a cage that was the right size that it fit through the entrance all the way to this back room. That's not distraction and he had used a lot of focus. If we find out what else he took, we could save your mind. So don't run. Please."
Miss Parker pursed her lips for only a moment, looking considerate for a second. "When I lose it for good, Jarod, let me go or have me shot. I don't want to live my life like that. You can't make me agree to live like that."
"Then you'll stay. If I agree, stay, as long as I have a chance," Jarod said. "Miss Parker, so many are already doomed. Many more will be. Please?"
"Fine." She couldn't bear to see him like that."I'd rather live anyway. So, let my Boy Genius do his thing. What do you need?" Thinking. He was clearly thinking. "Jarod."
"Miss Parker, can I analyze you?" he asked.
"You need to find out about Jarod Angel, not me," Miss Parker said. "Analyze Jarod Angel." He wasn't moving yet. "What?"
"Jarod Angel later. Can I analyse you starting tonight?"
Okay. She said one day maybe. That was true. There was something to it though. "You take days to analyze the simplest things, Jarod. You've got weird . . . things going on."
"My entire concentration is dedicated to one thing only during analyzation. That would be you."
Those words from him. They made her feel strange. His entire attention, on her. Just that thought. What would he even do? She thought back to his many lairs. Studying subjects. "Jarod Angel should talk to you."
"From the look of your progression, I have time. I don't sense much distraction from you. The treatment may have helped. I can have Kyle help fetch him. You're safe enough or I wouldn't recommend it right now."
Miss Parker exhaled slowly and rolled her eyes along with her head. She owed him. She left him thinking she was dead with the kids. She owed that, like it or not. He is now responsible for the lives lost to his distraction cure. Look at him. He's pleading, begging with his eyes like a little puppy dog. I like puppy dogs. I don't want anyone to know that. I don't want anyone to know anything, least of all him.
But, she left him. She left him, and in his anger, his calculations were too soon, and he even missed out on seeing the young boy. Next triumvirate leader or not, that had hurt. Jarod cared for children deeply. No. He needed her. Plain and simple. "Do I get food requests during it and who is playing babysitter?"
"Analyzing her?" Broots asked confused from the doorway. "Your sending Kyle and Sydney to find Jarod Angel? You want your mom to bring you a lot of food and to watch your children? I don't get it, Jarod. Don't you want to spend time with your children too?"
Jarod patted his shoulder. He didn't get it. He watched his mother return back with a stack of junk food and sandwiches and some fruit.
"She won't really like them," his mother smiled at them. "I think she'll make do. Go slow, Jarod."
"Agreed," Sydney said. "You've wanted to analyze her for years. Don't go too far, too fast."
"I know the basics, Sydney," Jarod complained.
"Yes, but you get in a strange state when you are concentrating on one thing," Sydney said. "Try to remember. You are analyzing a human, Jarod."
"I still don't get it," Broots said. "Your kids just came back. You never even liked sleeping away from them, and now you will be away for days?"
"Broots." Sydney learned toward him. "I believe Jarod knows his own mind. He loves his children, but there is a time and place for events. Let this be. Don't disturb him for anything short of a fire or a murder. Understand?"
"Yeah. I guess." Broots walked away.
"Analyze her, Jarod, but remember. She isn't an object. Understand?"
Jarod just smiled. And closed the door.