Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.

Note: This is the sequel to L.A. Discoveries Read that first, please.


Miami Truths
part 1
by Nelle


Title: Miami truths part1
Author: Nelle
E-mail’s author: nelle_aep@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: S/AV
Spoilers: 1,2,3 seasons
Keywords: JMPR



fifty miles from Columbia
15:22 pm

'Two days that we are driving… And during this -how so wonderful holiday trip- I've just got only a damn cold shower and a damn fucking sheet of wood to sleep in!! I would be treated better in the Centre even in my new glorifying Lab-rat status!'

Parker was in a bad mood. The lack of sleep, her wound and drugs weren't helping increasing it anyway. She was allowing herself swearing like this because she had learnt (she hadn't have anything else to do) how to close her thoughts to Mickael during the drive. however this trip thing wasn't as bad as it appeared after all: they were still all alive and fortunately the Centre had lost their track.

“Miss Parker?"

“Yes, Mickael?"

“Do you think we will reach Miami soon?"

“The drive is boring, isn't it?» she said smiling at the five years old boy.

He nodded, true that in the Centre he never went anywhere but staying in a car all the day wasn't the most exciting thing of the world either.

“I think that if we don't stop tonight, we will arrive in Miami in the morning. You will see there that the hours of drive were worth it."

“For things like sea and beach?» he asked a bright smile lighting his face.

She nodded then frowned when the car slowed down.

“We are filling the tank guys, if you've something to do it's the right time now." said Broots from the driver seat.

Parker freed herself from the security belt then left her seat, stretching her arms and neck while heading to the shop. She was followed closely by Sydney, Mickael and Jarod. Debby, Margareth and Angelo were sleeping soundly in the car.

Parker got straight to the seller.

“I want a carton of Marlboro and a bottle of pure Malt." she asked the young man behind the counter.

Jarod shook his head hearing this, Parker paid the guy then asked to the child.

“Do you want something, Mickael?"

“Could I have some Twinkies again? And a bottle of Coke?» he asked shyly.

“Ok but this time Mickael don't eat all of them in two minutes. Junk food isn't good when you take too much of them in one time.» she replied good naturally.

“… It's just that I've seen Jarod eating them this way. I thought it was the way everybody did…" he answered truthfully.

“I know Mickael, it doesn't matter. Let's just say that Jarod has a problem with sugar.» she explained while watching Jarod paying for ten dollars of Pez.

“Parker, don't you think that quitting wouldn't be a bad idea?» he said while eyeing her new carton then added «You don't set a good example for him with these things” watching this time the cigarettes and the bottle “and what is more it's not good for you and for us.» he stated frowning his eye brows in disapproval.

Parker rolled her eyes “Because you think you do set a good example?!!" she asked sarcastically while waving her hand to his pez' stock.

“Pezs are healthy."

“Tell that to a dentist congregation.» she replied.

“You're just jaleous!" he grinned.

'Continue like this and I'm going to smack you so hard so that you won't wake up before a week!' she threatened him by her ability.

'Try me!' he challenged his grin still plastered on his face.

Parker lifted her hand and pretended to be going to slap him.

Even without the Centre, they were still baiting each-other, the only difference being the distance separating them.

“Children stop playing now, Broots is waiting for us. The sooner we get to the car, the sooner we arrive in Miami." Sydney told them trying to keep his voice stern but miserably failing.

He was a little amazed but mostly happy about the turn of event of the week. First, Jarod has found a part of his family. Second Parker, Broots and him had left the Centre with Angelo and little Mickael. Third everybody was still alive even having Jarod and Parker locked in the same car for two days now!

'Yes, things are going pretty well!' he thought.

True that Parker and Jarod were teasing each-other each time they opened their mouths but who could blame them about it? They've developed this habit for four years they couldn't quit it this soon!

They came back to the car, Broots started again driving.

“What is this song again? I think it's talking about bears settled on something?" said Jarod trying to remember a song he had heard in one of his pretends.

Broots began singing “99 bottles of beers on the wall"

“Broots, you better stop right now or you will sing an octave higher in less than thirty seconds." she snapped.

Broots fell silent immediately, Parker sighed and began unpacking her carton.

“You know Parker, you really are taking away all the fun of this road trip."

“Suffer!» she replied while putting a cigarette in her mouth.

Parker and Jarod finally shut up, Mickael was beginning to get used to their little chit-chat even though he still didn't understand why they did so. The young psychic was enjoying each second of this trip.

'No that's not a trip, I won't go back to SL-30, it's my new life.' he reminded himself.

Somebody was thinking about him he could feel it…

'Sydney?'

The shrink, who was sitting between Parker and Angelo, was a little startled.

'Mickael?' he thought, surprise coloring his thought.

'You were thinking about me.' the little child stated but curiosity was creeping his own thoughts.

'You heard me?'

'Feel would be a better term. What were you thinking about me?'

'I was thinking that you didn't seem disturb by all the sudden changes in your life.'

'Because they are good changes, doctor. Jarod was your protégé?'

'Yes, he was during thirty-three years. Why?'

'Because… I don't understand why he left the Centre but kept contact with it. I felt that for him freedom and family were very important, so why did he jeopardize them so often?'

'That's a really good question and I think that all the people in the Centre, who had known Jarod, have asked themselves this too. For my part, I think that he did kept a kind of contact with the Centre because even for a pretender you can't completely leave your past behind you.'

'I don't understand, I thought the Centre had betrayed him and hurt him.'

'That is true, but Jarod had received some goods from it too.'

'Like what?'

'He has met Angelo and many others people who have become friends.'

'Like Miss Parker?'

“What are the two of you talking about?» asked Parker in a suspicious voice.

“Mickael wanted some explanations.» said Sydney in his usual tone.

“And why did I get into the talking?!"

“I was asking Sydney if you and Jarod had become friends in the Centre." said the little boy honestly.

Parker's eyes widened but settled immediately her icy mask in place. Jarod looked at her then at the boy and his mentor, he was interested in the answer too.

“And what did you tell him, Syd?" she asked, her voice refunding her coldness slowly.

“I haven't had the time to say anything about this topic, Miss Parker. You, too, are able to feel it when someone is thinking about you. It's something not very far from empathy, you know."

“Why don't you want to talk about this?" little Mickael inquired, noticing the change of mood in Miss Parker.

“But what was this all about anyway?!" replied Parker softer but still showing her annoyance about this subject.

“Mickael wanted to know why Jarod didn't cut the contact with the Centre." explained the shrink. He didn't like the change he was seeing in Parker. She was reverting back to the Ice-Queen again and he didn't know why.

“And?"

Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.


Miami truths 2


Title: Miami’s truths 2
Author: Nelle
E-mail’s author: nelle_aep@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: S/AV
Spoilers: 1,2,3 seasons
Keywords: JMPR


Washington D.C
Same night
Jarod's lair

Mickael was sitting in front of the window in the back of the living room, the town’s lights were playing shadows on his face but he didn’t notice it, nor the bursting activity down there. The night had fallen for a quite long time now but the child had been totally oblivious of the time lapse, being closed eyes, sitting in his favorite yoga pose.

Margareth had been watching him for more than two hours like this. She had tried to talk to him, to make him eat something but he refused everything but a glass of water and some soup. She was getting worried about him, she had known the little boy for less than a week. During this short period, he had appeared like a normal five years old child but now she didn’t know what to do with him anymore. He had shut out everything and refused to talk or sleep since Ms Parker’s departure.

“Mrs Russell, you're still up? " asked a yawning Broots, he walked quietly to the table and took a seat next to her.
“I tried to put Mickael to bed but he wouldn't hear any of it… I know that it's because he is worried for them, but still…" she replied in a tired voice, she took a look at her watch, 00:03 am, this was going to be a long stressing night, she thought, as she looked back at the unmoving little boy.
“He still didn't talk? " questioned Broots, watching the young telepath.

Magareth shook her head then let out a heavy sigh, she didn't know what to do. She looked back at Broots, who felt her eyes and turned back toward her.

“I manage to make him eat some soup but beside that he refused everything. "
“He will get better soon." He whispered reassuringly.
“He won't talk until she comes back." Jarod's mother told him, he nodded in agreement. He too had been the witness of the amazing bonding of the little boy with his boss.
“Then he will talk tomorrow. " Broots said self-confidently.
“Yes, you’re right. It’s just … When I look at him, I can’t help wondering if it’s how Jarod acted when he was brought in this hmm facility. ” She spat out the last word with difficulty.
“I can’t tell you, but Sydney showed me once a piece of DSA concerning Jarod’s first 36 hours in the Centre. He was building the Empire State Building model at that time! ”

Margareth’s lips curved up slightly in a sad smile.

“ That’s my little boy. He was always dismantling or building something. ” She told him, still able to picture herself her two and a half years old boy playing with anything he got an hand on.
“ Jarod has become a wonderful man, Mrs Russell. Though my job was about catching him, I always admired what he did since he broke out of the Centre. ”
“ Doctor Green’s education must be the result of it… ” She mumbled bitterly then bit her lower lip when she saw the strange look Broots gave her at her statement.
“ I’m sure Sydney did everything in his powers to secure Jarod’s safety. ”
“ I’m sure he did. But Mr Broots, he was the one to spend the last thirty six years with my son. ”

Broots didn’t speak after her painful statement, he couldn’t even imagine what the Russell family had endured.

“ Don’t get me wrong, I know he took care of my boy in that place, however he is partially responsible of the torture my son’s endured. Doctor Green protected my child, yes, but he didn’t try to save him from the Centre. He didn't try to give me my boy back in all those years. ” She whispered shakily, her eyes avoiding Broots’ ones as she said this.
“ He lost his twin brother and Catherine Parker because of this. I do not know what I’d have done if parachuting in this particular situation, but I can understand what he did. ”
“ … I know my family wasn’t the only one to suffer, I know Doctor Green must have endured his own share of pain … But I can’t help myself but being resentful of him being the one with my son during all that time … ”
“ You have him back now and with some times and a little help you'll find Emily, your husband and the boy soon. ” Broots replied softly, then stood up and headed back to his room.
“ Yes. ” she whispered equally low, her voice refunding her calm and caring quality bit by bit.
“ Mr Broots? ” she called out before he closed the door behind him.
Hearing her voice, he stood in the doorway waiting.
“ Thank you. ” She told him genuinely.
He smiled at her briefly in answer before finally closing the door.


The whispering had ceased, Mickael could tell that it was Mr Broots who had left, being still able to grasp the worries of Jarod’s mother.
He wished he could tell her that he was ok, but if he did so, she would try to dissuade him to do what he was performing for more hours than he was able to recall.

Miss Parker had told him to stay with the caring old woman and he had obeyed her, however she hadn’t told him not to reach her by his ability. And that’s what he was trying to achieve. Finding her had been really difficult, he couldn’t explain how he did it but he succeeded in localizing her. Now he was doing all he could to not lose the precious link, he could feel tiny drops of sweat pearling on his forehead, he ignored them.

Breathing slowly, in and out, while focusing on her …

He fell deeper in the link, being able now to decipher her thoughts, giving him more relief and happiness than he could have imagined by doing so. The bad point in this ability was the headache he procured to his user. And right now he was experiencing a really bad one. The kind of metabolic problem, which meant that he should stop in a few minutes. Once, he had gone over his limits and had blackened out in front of Mr Raines. A day later he had awaken in SL-30 infirmary under the cold gaze of his unsatisfied mentor.

He was going to stop for the sake of Margareth watching over him, but not now.

Breathing in deeply, he forgot about where he was, about his own body or own thoughts, his focusing revolving only on Ms Parker.

Suddenly something really unexpected happen: He could hear distinctly the foot steps she and Angelo were making on the air vent, also feel the concrete rasping her hands and knees, all the while hearing her thoughts and experiencing her feelings.

‘ Could somebody tell me why I decided to wear these high heels today?
Oh yeah, so that Lover boy would have that gleam in his eyes while watching me! '

He heard the soft sounds she and Angelo were making in the air vent as they crawled slowly to Mr Raines' office sub-level.

“ Daughter tired … " Angelo soft voice reverberated in the emptiness of the air duct.
' Yes, but soon we will be in D.C with answers. ' She contacted Angelo, not wanting to waste any breath she had.

The empath was used to crawling in the confined space for years, feeling at ease and surely at home in it contrary to Parker who was experimenting the first edge of claustrophobia.

' And if we don't find anything in the Wheezer hole, what will I do then? '

His excitement and expectation about this particular thought gave him away. Miss Parker stopped crawling all of a sudden, she touched Angelo’s left calf making him turn back instantly toward her.

Mickael was becoming worried, he wasn’t able to hear any of her thoughts and the pounding in his head was making him feel dizzy. He was going to close the link and try to get it back later when he heard her full force, like she was standing right in front of him.

‘ MICKAEL!! What on earth do you think you are doing?! ’

God, he was so much in trouble now! Mickael had never seen her this angry toward him … What had he done? Why hadn’t he just gone to bed and slept like Margareth had wanted him?! Now he was sure he had lost the only chance he had to stay with her.

‘ Oh Mickael … ’ this thought was colored with such love that it brought tears to his closed eyelids.

‘ I’m sorry … I-I just wanted to know how you were, I didn’t want to … I mean I just ’

‘I'm coming back. As will Angelo, Jarod and Sydney. In less than 8 hours we'll be in D.C. Now I want you to listen to me very carefully young man, you're going to bed… No, first you eat properly, ask for an aspirin then you go to bed. And when you wake up I will be there, ok? ’

He couldn't help but laughed softly, she was using this link as well as him, even better, he guessed. At that moment, he couldn't hide anything from her.

‘ All right. ’

‘ Good boy, now go to Margareth and tell her what I have just said. ’

‘ Tomorrow, you will-’

‘ I’ll be there, I promise. ’

He felt her thoughts drifted away from him, in a childish impulse he tried to reach her back but this time his link crashed on a wall making the contact impossible.

After a few others seconds in silence, he opened his eyes and took a shaky breath while whipping his forehead. His headache was hitting him strongly now but he didn’t mind it, it had been worthwhile. He stood up and almost fell down, his legs unable to support him after the long hours of stillness, he took hold on the wall and saw from the corner of his eye that Margareth was coming to him quickly, not trusting his legs anymore he sat back on the sofa. Not five seconds had passed when she reached him, her worried eyes watching him intensely.

“ Mickael? Are you all right? ”

“ Yes. Miss Parker, hmmm, she wants me to eat properly and have an aspirin before going to bed. ” He whispered guiltily, knowing he didn’t deserve her gentle caring when he had been this impossible with her.

“ What? ” she said as she stared at him, then it hit her “ Ho! ” she added shaking her head in wonder. Now she better understood what had been going on with the little boy. This ability was utterly puzzling… And obviously very tiring. She took the young child in her arms while making a mental note to talk about this with Sydney and Miss Parker when they would be back.



Blue Cove, Del
The Centre

“ How are you doing, Sydney? ”

“ I must admit that I’m a little too old for this kind of activity. ” Jarod’s mentor answered a bit out of breath but kept the same rhythm as he followed the younger man’s path in the dark air vent.

“ We are almost there, you’ll be able to catch your breath in the Chairman office. ” Jarod said sympathetically. He wished they could stop right now, hearing the tiredness in Sydney’s voice but he also knew that they couldn’t afford it.

Jarod took on the right, at the end of the vent he could already see the grating opening out into Parker’s father office. Looking at his watch briefly, he was relieved to see that they weren’t late on schedule. He was now advancing on the four, there was no light in the room and as he squinted his eyes, he saw that the cameras were turned off. Angelo was really a genius, he thought genuinely.
He pushed the grating and slipped quietly in the room, he turned on his flashlight, waving it quickly around the room to make sure nothing was unusual, satisfied, he returned to the air duct entrance and helped the older man to get out safely from it.

“ I am ok, Jarod. You should go to Mr Parker’s computer. ” He whispered softly.

Jarod did as asked, put on the laptop and began working on the password codes. Sydney took position behind him, watching the screen upon his protégé’s shoulders. They stayed like this a few minutes in comfortable silence then Jarod’s hacking ability got the better of the security system program, Mr Parker’s files were now accessible.
Jarod frowned at what he saw there, important files were missing like his own in particular, then typing quickly a chain of command he noticed that everything concerning the prodigy project had disappeared.

“ Seems that the Parker man lost the one thing he had fought to take control over for the last 30 years. ” Jarod muttered as he rechecked his chain of commands.

“ Are you sure, Jarod? It’s not according to what Angelo told us. ” The calm voice of his mentor cut the oppressing silence.

The pretender thought back of Angelo’s words, then said.

“ You think Mutumbo is trying to dupe Raines? Using Parker has a paw? ”

“ The only thing I am sure of is that Mr Parker didn’t do anything to be put aside from the most important project the Centre ever had. However, this computer shows us something else. ”

“ Mutumbo don’t trust … ” Jarod repeated Angelo’s sentence, then he ventured in a more detached voice “ He is going to test Raines’ loyalty, not toward the Centre, but toward the Triumvirate. And I’m pretty sure Mr Parker is still aware of the prodigy project, Mutumbo wouldn’t risk it by giving all control to the good doctor Billy. He knows from past experiences what results it can cause. ”

“ Can you still find the prodigy files? ” Sydney asked as he squeezed the pretender’s shoulder.
“ Yes, but it will take me more time to do so than I planned previously.
They must be hidden so that Raines techies are unable to localize them. ” Replied Jarod who had turned toward his mentor, his features showing is uneasiness in spending more time than he had wanted in the Centre.

“ You won’t have a such an occasion in a long time Jarod, Lyle and Raines already went ballistic with your last trick. And you have seen like me how the Centre security already changed because of it. ”

“ You’re right. ”

That said Jarod immersed himself in his work, Sydney checked his watch and hoped Lyle reacted as Jarod and Parker had predicted, if not he didn’t want to imagine what could result.

Centre Jet
Same moment

Sam looked around him, the sweepers coming along with him under Mr Lyle’s orders were extremely quiet, each of them trying to get invisible, Miss Parker’s formal sweeper guessed.

Being under Lyle’s orders wasn’t something he really appreciated either but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he did what he did the best: keep his mouth shut and eyes and ears wide opened.

His attention drifted to his new boss. For once Lyle didn’t seem upset, he didn’t seem excited either. He saw him frowned his eye-brows, Sam gathered that the Parker son was thinking about his preys and the way he should process to not let them slipped away from him this time.

Sam wasn’t eager to bring back his formal boss, though he still wished to be under her command, he was actually please that she was far away from this damned place. He himself was preparing his secret departure, being in the Centre under a psychotic case was not really entertaining to say the least.

Still watching Lyle, he was the only one to see the transformation of the man’s features: his eyes widened first, then the hand laying on the armrest gripped it so tightly that his knuckles turned white, his jaws clenched and then came the low predatory growl.

There was a problem but with Lyle it could become Armageddon. Now was it going to fall on his shoulders or not, Sam questioned himself, while preparing himself to get hold of his gun.

“ STOP THE JET!! ” the man howled making all the sweeper's heads popped up in fright.

Lyle stood up and in four long strides reached the cockpit to bark his orders to the bewildered pilot.

The jet made a 180° turn, heading back to Blue Cove. Looking at his watch, Sam estimated that they wouldn’t land off in the Centre before 2:45 am. Lyle sat back in his seat, his jaws still clenched. If he was acting like this, the head of the sweeper hypothesized, it was because the Pretender or Miss Parker were surely back in the Centre for some twisted reasons. The sweeper hoped that whoever might have been in the Centre had left it before 2:45 am.


Blue Cove, Del
The Centre
2:35 am.

Parker and Angelo had reached doctor Billy’s office 20 minutes earlier. Since their arrival Angelo was working on the laptop of his torturer as Miss Parker was going through the files contained in Raines safe. Finding the code hadn’t been too difficult for the Empath, a slight touch on the metal door had been enough, ten seconds later he was giving a series of number to her.
Parker was getting impatient, she couldn’t help herself but thinking that this whole operation would be a waste of time. If she had learnt anything from the past years working for the Centre, it was that even when you found an answer, the Centre machinations would throw 5 more questions in your face. The files she had in her hands were the perfect example, they gave small hints of what old Wheezy had been working on however it never gave you what you really wanted, like an identity, a birth certificate or a death’s one …
She was studying blue files, earlier she found some concerning Kyle and some concerning the balls sucker being her brother. After another reading of what twisted experiment the walking corpse had put his pupils through, she tossed the files back in the safe.
She checked her watch and decided that they would have to leave in 10 minutes. After clearing her head a bit from her previous reading, she came closer to Angelo and put a hand on his tensed shoulders.

“ Anything? ” she whispered, she knew that they were alone on this entire sub-level but she couldn’t help herself.

Angelo shook his head and kept tapping on the key-board, his right hand only leaving it less than a second when in need to use the mouse.
Three other minutes passed in the oppressing silence, Parker was pacing in front of the desk, cursing herself to not have brought her cigarettes along. When she heard a weird sound coming from the Empath, she quickly got back to his side.

“ What is it? ” she snapped as she would have with Broots, this simple fact showing her tension and frustration.

“ Mickael … Here! ” he said as he showed her the screen with his index finger.

“ Make a copy. ” she ordered as she read the page herself. It was concerning the red files, she instantly knew, as she recognized one pattern of number. Reading further, realization came to her in a more ugly way that she had thought possible for something coming from Raines. The rescued children from the prodigy project hadn’t been executed for erasing traces but because of what they could have reclaimed if they had found out.
Miss Parker had a surge of rising bile in her throat, she took a deep breath, forcing the acid to go back to her knotted stomach.

“ Done. ” Angelo told her in a defeated voice, understanding that now the little boy they both cared about would never know his genitors.

Parker looked back at her watch, it was now 2:42 am. They ought to leave already, she thought, but she still didn’t have her answers concerning her mother’s death … She was still struggling with this matter when she saw Angelo’s eyes widened as his whole body began to tremble.

“ Problem … Angry, come back, need leave now! ” Angelo whispered in a more frightened voice Parker’d ever heard him uttered, he stood out of his chair, hands now flying over the keyboard. In ten seconds he had the laptop shut off and the new disk in his pants pocket.

“ What is going on? ” she asked, obliged to take the frantic man by the arm to make him focus on her.

He only said one word next but it was enough to run cold Parker’s blood.

“ Lyle … ”

The mental picture assaulted her as were the feelings associated to it, her breath was caught in her throat as the fear rose in her, leaving nothing but the patent feeling of danger and pure fright.
Lyle was back in the Centre, he hadn’t hooked to their bait in Idaho, and from what Angelo could feel from the sociopath, she was convinced that Lyle knew they all were in the Centre. He was on his way for them and this time he wasn’t going to let them get out alive from the Centre.

“ Let’s get the hell outta here. ” she hissed.

The Centre
SL-2

Sydney was sitting on the right corner of Mr Parker’s desk, Jarod was still working on the search of his family locations, his swift tapping being the only noise in the room.
The Centre psychiatric had had time to think during the last thirty minutes, he’d remembered his argument with his twin brother before his accident, whose words had taken their full meaning after his death. He had also let his tortured mind recalled Catherine’s last cession with him … Ms Parker would think that he was betraying her not telling her what had been discussed between her mother and him. But she didn’t know, and if one day it ever came to light it would do even more damage after all this time, now wouldn’t it?
No, he had already taken this decision a few decades before and he would respect it.

‘Why Parker? Why taking such a risk?? You can begin the life you’ve always dreamed of.’
‘ For the same matter that Jarod has never really left the Centre, Sydney. For Answers, but mostly for revenge.’
‘ And is it worth it?’
‘ It’s all I have Sydney. Unlike Jarod I don’t have a loving family to find. It’s mine who wants me in a cage or right now under five feet earth.’

Sydney shook his head in dismissal, as a shrink he knew that his guilt would pursued him all his life however his life was already much started on. He would keep on dealing with it for the next decade. He knew her too well… It was for the best.
The old man glanced at his protégé and was going to check his watch but stood up quickly when he noticed light coming from under the door.

“ Jarod?”

“ I’m almost done Sydney, just two others files and we’ll go.”

“ I’m afraid we won’t have enough time for that.”

“ What-??”

Now footsteps could be heard, Jarod and Sydney’s eyes locked, reading the same thing in each other eyes: Lyle was back.

“ You go now Sydney, I’ll catch you later.”

“ But”

“ Listen, you take the same way but at the latter turn, you’ll take right.”

“ To where?”

“ You’ll get out in the woods, there is a car there, a half mile right away.”

“ Then take my gun.”

“ I already have one.”

“ I’m sure it will come in handy.”


The Centre

“ Tell me you got them.” Lyle barked harshly in the mouthpiece of his Cellular.

“ No sir. We’re sweeping every rooms.»

“ I don’t want to hear from you before you’ve fund them!”
Lyle cut the communication with Willie, his eyes locked on Sam’s figure.

“ Sam.»

“ Mr Lyle.»

“ Take five of this bunch of larva and bring me the intruders. Miss Parker is not here to cover your ass, so you better do your job for once. ”

Sam didn’t reply, he wasn’t going to give Lyle a reason to let off steam. He just nodded then called out his five favorite men.

“ Jake, Rick, Walter, Will, Andrew. You come with me!”

“ And Sam! You sweep the air vent system first, that’s where rats usually hide. ” Lyle smirked as he headed to his office.

“ You heard him? Come on!” Sam told them while damning Lyle to put him on Ms Parker’s trail. Knowing his formal boss, she would shoot first then ask question. Maybe it was the right night to make his reverence to the Centre, he mused as he and his team entered in the duct.

“ Sam? Where do we go first?”

“ Where do rats go?”

“ Sub-level? Like SL 26?”

“ We’ll go straight to there. If someone is trying to escape, he will have to go through it. ”

------

“ Angelo, Angelo, come on we’ve got to move quicker than this! ” Parker hissed at the trouble man.

Since his contact with Lyle, he was like closed in his own tortured world, sometimes he wouldn’t even hear her. At these moments, she was obliged to use her ability to reach him, which took too much of her focus in their situation.
Lyle and his teams were after them, the only solution of this problem was to put as much miles as possible between them and this social case.
She slowed down their pace at the end of the vent, they had to crawl down two levels then run the rest of the way to reach the exit, the car would be there waiting for them if … She checked her watch nervously 2:51 am. They could make it.

“ You go first, I’ll be right behind you. ” she told him softly but firmly, to her relief Angelo nodded.

“ Escape .” He whispered as he began his descent.

She had known that at a moment or another they would have to encounter some of the Centre sweepers but she wished it wouldn’t have been this soon …
First she had heard the ring of a cellular, a fault that her sweeper team wouldn’t have made in her presence, at that sound she pushed Angelo to the back of a corner. The both of them stayed there waiting in the shadow, a few cursed came to them with footsteps and loud breathing.

“ There is a ventilation cage that has been removed.” Reported one of the sweepers.

“ Let’s go over here.»

She recognized the second voice instantly, Sam was here. She knew this man as well as the back of her hand, he was good at what he did, too good, if he wanted to find them so would he.

“ We slip, two men by team.”

He was doing the right thing covering all the area, she and the empath were going to be surrounded.

“ Rick, you take the right.”

“ But Sam-”

“ Do as I say, you want a personal appointment with Lyle? Now go!”

The footsteps were coming right in their direction, she tightened the hold of her gun and removed the safety. It was something she had done too many times for her liking but that’s what being raised in the Centre did to you, didn’t it?

“ Ms Parker?”

God it was Sam! Alone! She had made the right choice taking him as the leader of her sweepers.

‘ I’m over here.’ She told him by her ability, reading at the same time the surprise then disbelief of her sweeper. She came out of her hiding place and came face to face with him.

“ Ms Parker? What? How?” asked a bewildered Sam.
“ We have no time for this now. How many teams are after us?” she asked him with her usual authority.

“ Us? How many are you?” he questioned again, still not able to picture himself his boss being civil nor teaming with the fugitive Pretender.

“ I thought I was the one to be answered?” she snapped.

“ Well, all the night teams are searching the Centre and Lyle called all the morning ones which will arrive in hmm ten minutes.” he answered her.

She sighed heavily, leaving Blue Cove was going to be a bitch in this condition.

“ Angelo is with me, Jarod and Sydney are in another Sub-level. Now tell me, what are you going to do?”

He chuckled at this.

“ The same thing than you Ms Parker, leaving.”

For the first time since they have met she smiled at him, which disturbed the sweeper. He knew he’d a soft spot for her but her smiling at him made him want to, no he wouldn’t go there, he already knew that she was inaccessible.

“ You need-”

“ I’ve already my arrangement. Thank you Ms Parker.»

That’s how they left, they made their way together a few meters then they separated, Angelo and Parker going straight away while Sam got on the first left of SL-27.

Blue Cove.

Sydney was running for a long time now, his exhausted legs were reminding him of his old age every stride he made. During his course, a few times a single thought came to him ‘ Why do you keep running? You stop then it’s over. No more what if, no more secret.’ But he kept running, like he had all his life. After what? He couldn’t even tell! He felt as if he had run the NY marathon! Anyway he fund the car, which Jarod had hidden, he just prayed it would functioned. How long had it stayed in the wood? When did Jarod plan to visit the Centre? Too much questions …

He sighed in relief when he sat down on the passenger side, now all he had to do was wait for his pretender. He didn’t notice a half-mile away on the road a car waiting there, its driver observing him through binoculars.

The Centre
Undetermined Sub-level

Jarod could hear their footsteps and their screams, hunting him the same way they had during his first escape. This thing was really getting old he mused as he increased his speed, passing another grating not taking the time to pull it back behind him.
He would make it. For his mother, for Sydney, but mostly for her and himself. They deserved that much.

Lyle was here waiting for him somewhere, he was still unable to tell where, but he knew it would be at a strategic point so there were three possibilities:
_ The end of the vent.
_ The car he had hidden in the woods, where Sydney had to be at the moment … Or worse
_ The meeting point …

No, Lyle couldn’t have thought about this last location. And if he had, no matter what he had told her, he wouldn’t leave Blue Cove without her.
Stop being this pessimistic Jarod, he chastised himself. They would be okay, now that he had found out the possible locations of his father and the boy.

Soon he would have the family he had dreamed of, he just had to get to the car and leave this God for saken hole. The moonlight was peering at the end of the vent, the fresh air caressing his warm cheeks. He didn’t wait, he got out of the duct and kept running, the Centre lights were following every paths he took but he didn’t panic, the woods would be safe, he just had to reach it first.

“ Jarod!! Stop Right Now You Son Of A Bitch!!”

‘Lyle, God Dammit!’

Jarod increased his speed, clouds of steam coming out of his mouth in the freezing night. Five shot came in his direction, he zigzagged as much as he could while avoiding holes, branches and trees roots. He shot behind him half the clip of his own gun, making Lyle and some sweepers back off and in search of a shelter.

The good thing in Lyle being after him was that it meant that Parker was out of the Centre. Otherwise, this sicko would have just waited for him to go free her from his grasp.

Only a half mile, he thought, as he heard glints of Lyle still cursing behind, yelling at his sweepers to get moving their ass and kill him. He took Sydney’s gun from his waistband and made good use of it, he heard three yells of pain behind him, but didn’t look back guessing it couldn’t have been Lyle. He didn’t care, the car was now into view, he used what little strength he possessed and made a sprint to the driver seat, he didn’t acknowledge Sydney talking, he started the machine which protested against his abrupt way but started none the less. Lyle’s shot blew out the windshield, Sydney put his head between his knees while Jarod increased their speed. Choosing to take his chance, he drove straight to Lyle as he hid his head behind the car board, he heard a muffled noise as the car hit Lyle who flew in the air. A few shots came hitting the back of the car, the new hunter was as obstinate as his sister, Jarod thought while looking quickly as the rear-view mirror. Lyle was laying flat on his stomach slowly lowering his gun down as he accepted the truth of the situation, the pretender had won once again.

The car got through the wood and emerged on the road, only then did Jarod allow himself to break at full speed. However his best efforts, he couldn’t avoid being followed by Centre’s sedans. Neither Jarod, nor the Centre sweepers noticed the blue Ford Taurus tailing them from a secured distance.





A few hours later
Washington D.C

It was eight past 27 minutes and Miss Parker still wasn’t back, Mickael was getting scared. She should already be back, he thought as his eyes locked on the door, willing it to open … Margareth was at her fourth cup of coffee since she had woke up, it was the only thing she could do to occupied herself and her mind …

The little boy sighed deeply, he knew she had left yesterday to find answers about him and about her mother, but all he had ever wanted since he was out of the Centre was to be with Ms Parker, that was all … Why did she think he wanted to know his parents?! If they had cared for him or know about him, they would have tried to free him or contact him, no?
But they never had tried …

The door burst open, he got up from his chair instantly but it wasn’t her, Jarod and Sydney were back. He was happy to see them back without harm, he liked them a lot, but Ms Parker and Angelo were the two people he felt the closest from all he could remember.

“ Mom!” Jarod took her in his arms in a bear hug.

“ Jarod, are you all right?” She inquired as she tightened her hold on her son.

“ I’m okay Mom … Where, where is Mel?” Jarod asked her when his eyes had swept all the room without finding her there.

“She is not here, I thought she was with you … God Mickael must be worried sick about her, seeing you without her…”

“ I’m sure Ms Parker and Angelo are all-right. She knows the Centre maybe better than you do Jarod. She will be here soon.” Sydney replied confidently, he knew her, he had been the witness of her stubbornness and incredible strength. She was going to come back, things couldn’t be otherwise. Jarod’s eyes bored into his owns searching, Sydney hoped his eyes didn’t betray him. She was going to come back, wasn’t she? She had to come back otherwise he wouldn’t forgive himself …

Mickael jumped into the old man’s arms and began to sob brokenly in his neck. Sydney wasn’t prepared for this, he himself was trying to cope with the situation but he soothed the young child nonetheless …

When Jarod was able to refrain himself of thinking some dreaded thoughts about Ms Parker, he took the still sobbing child from the arms of his mentor into his owns. Sydney watched the exchange, then his eyes trailed off in the room and fell on Broots ones. The formal Centre Tech was unsure, from what he could read, Sydney knew he was blaming himself about something, but the old man was too overwhelmed to go to him.

“ Come on Mickael, don’t cry young man … You know she’ll come back, she promised. And Angelo is with her, he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her, right?”

Mickael’s sobbed subdued enough for him to respond.

“ But what if, what if Doctor Raines found her again?”

“ Don’t worry, she is far much too fast to be caught by him! He has to trail an oxygen tank behind him, remember! I’m sure they are on their way.”
A knock reverberated in the room, Mickael rushed to the door and opened it before anyone could tell him anything. A young woman was there, looking at him strangely. He closed his eyes tightly willing himself not to cry in front of a stranger. He felt Jarod came behind him, when he was unable to hide the tears anymore he ran back in Sydney’s arms.

“ What can I do for … Emily? Emily?!”

She nodded, unable to find her voice, after so many years of imagining her brother, here he was: As shocked as she was! Jarod took her in his arms, tightening his hold to reassure himself that she was real.

“ How on earth did you find us?”

“ I followed you … I never dreamed that you’d be in Blue Cove yesterday but you were there. After that I just had to follow you, I must admit I had a really hard time to do so! God I almost lost you five times on your way to D.C.!”

“ Mom is not going to believe it!”

“ What? You, you mean Mom is here, with you?”

“ Mom! Come here!” he shouted excitedly, he was sure he was smiling like a fool but God he was so much happy now that he didn’t give a damn! His sister! His sister was here!!

“ Jarod? What is it?”

Emily hugged her mother before she could say anything else, it had only been two weeks but it’d felt like months to her since their separation.
After a few minutes of hugs and tears, the three came back in the apartment.

“ How is it possible that you too are here together? I mean, Mom and I search you for so long! And just when we get separated you two end together!”

“ It’s a very long story sweetie. It’s all went back to L.A. escape from Lyle.” Margareth told her, her voice breaking a bit from the emotion.

Another knock on the door made her pause, again Mickael was the first on the door followed closely by Jarod who had Sydney’s gun in his hand. If his sister had been able to follow him all the way back to Blue Cove, so could have cars of the Centre. However he put it back in his waistband when he saw a big smile erupt on Mickael’s face. The little boy opened the door and literally flew in the arms of Miss Parker. Jarod watched them and decided that they needed a little privacy.

He and a grinning Angelo left Parker and the young telepath alone. Emily was watching the empath suspiciously, but her brother didn’t notice his sister’s stance, her right hand heading to the small of her back.

“ It’s Angelo. He is a friend.” He explained her as he smiled broadly, at this sight his sister relaxed.

“ Sister fund Friend and Mother!” Angelo told the pretender happily.

Jarod nodded in agreement then went back to the doorstep. Miss Parker saw him as she put down Mickael. The little boy headed back in the apartment, knowing better than to stay between them.
“ You really like to be desired, don’t you?” He told her as he watched her, from head to feet, searching for any kind of injury.

“ As a matter of fact I do. But actually, we had to escape half of the morning sweeper teams!”

“ And I’m sure you enjoyed every minutes of it! I’m surprised, Angelo doesn’t seem to suffer from this ordeal?”

“ On the contrary, he had a lot of fun! Well, when no bullets were flying in the car!”

“ What?!”

She didn’t let him finish, she kissed him hard and felt him responded instantly.

“ Is that your way to tell me I talk too much?”

“ Maybe.”

At this he pouted, she chuckled and went back in his arms. When they were sure each other was all right they separated. Jarod leaded the way, Parker saw a flash a black curled hair on her left, Mickael was back at her side. She took his handing hand in her left one and squeezed it softly.

“ How in the Hell!!” Emily hissed as she drew her gun on Ms Parker who had instantly her gun in her hand. She aimed it at a young woman she didn’t recognized.

“ What is going on here?!” Jarod voiced everybody’s thought.

“ You tell me Wonder boy?” Parker replied anxiously as she put Mickael behind her.

“ Jarod! She is … It’s Ms Parker for Christ’s sake!”

“ Your point being?” He responded harshly as he took two steps in order to stand before Parker.

Emily felt like her jaws had hit the floor, had she really heard a threat coming from her brother!

“ She is working for the Centre! She is the one chasing you!” She hissed, feeling herself tensing a bit more at the mention of the Centre.

“ Not anymore. Calm down, Emily. She left the Centre, all right? Put the gun down.”

“ Don’t tell me you fell for this! At the first occasion she will turn you and Mom in.”

‘ This cold heartless bitch is just waiting that you find Dad again and then … I’m not letting this Centre Cleaner hurt our family more than the Centre already have!’

“ Emily put your father’s gun down.” Margareth ordered coldly.

“ Mom! Not you! I can imagine Jarod’s reason to be fooled, but you?”
Parker couldn’t take it anymore, the thoughts coming from Jarod’s sister were hitting too close. At her first thought of leaving the place she felt Mickael tightening his grip on her pants.

“ How can you think and say these things about Ms Parker?! You witch!”

“ Mickael!”

Parker couldn’t believe what she had just heard from the five years old, using her ability she fund the association of word and picture; right now was the face of Brigitte sneering. She knew how too well who he had learnt that from. She would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so screwed.
She re-holstered her 9 mm slowly then she and Mickael headed to the entrance door.

“ No, Parker. She doesn’t know, please stay!” Jarod pleaded as he took her by the arm, his strong grip preventing her from leaving.

‘You are right Jarod, she doesn’t know. So don’t you think it would be a good idea to explain her, Genius?’ She contacted him, a brief tender smile crossing her lips, too quick from anyone else but him to see it.

‘ Yes, I wanted to but I didn’t have the time… I can imagine what kind of things she had thought about you, but you’re none of it. You well know how I think of you, right?’ He thought back while caressing her right cheek with his index finger.

‘ I know. I won’t be long gone anyway. I’m kind of exhausted, no wonder why?’ she thought back putting as much sarcasm as she could.

He grinned and let her go, when she was gone he faced back his sister intending to make his point clear concerning the most important person of his life.

“ Emily! I hope you’ve got pretty good reason to have acted like this toward this woman!” Margareth barked. It was the first time that Jarod saw his mother raised her voice and showed her anger this openly. She looked pointedly at the gun in her daughter hand in a hard strong stare. Even if the situation was going havoc, Emily handed her father’s gun.

“ Beside her working for the very facility that pursued our family all our lives? And her being the huntress of my brother? I don’t even understand why we’re arguing here!” Emily shouted back, tears of frustration, fear and stress of the past two weeks glowing in her eyes.

“ All right. Everybody calms down.” Jarod said as he raised his hands in surrender.

“ Emily, take a sit. Mom, give me the gun. Please.”

The women did as told, Jarod put the gun in the left drawer of his desk then locked it. Briefly he tried to consider how he was going to explain the four years last events, he knew from this that he would need some help.

“ Sydney, do you mind to…”

“ No problem, I will do as best as possible.”

“ Thank you Sydney.”

They joined the Russell women. After taking a sit and collected his thoughts, Jarod began.

“ I understand why you acted like this, you’re just trying to protect us. The only problem here is that Ms Parker isn’t a threat.”

His sister opened her mouth ready to argue about his last point, Jarod didn’t let her the time.

“ Listen to me, I’ve lived in the Centre for three decades there. I met her when I was 13. I know her better than anybody for the exception of Sydney.”

“ He is right, Ms Russell. He knows her as much as she knows him.” Added Sydney using his calmest tone on the young woman.

“ That is why the Centre decided to put her on the head of the chasing team.” Jarod told her, knowing that again she would try to make her point.

“ So you finally admit that she is your huntress!” Emily snapped not bothering to hide her anger from her voice.

“ Emily Russell, if I were you I would shut up and listen to your brother.” Magareth replied still mad at her daughter.

“ She chased me for more than four years but she had her reasons. Her father and Raines had made a deal with her, one she couldn’t refuse: her freedom for mine. She just had to bring me back there, dead or alive. They had a slight preference for the latter. So she chased me and anyway she didn’t have much of a choice, you don’t say no to the power that be.”

“ Ms Parker and I were on the trail of your brother, but that didn’t mean that we didn’t have any contact. Your brother loved to wake her up at three am.”

At this, Jarod Sydney and Margareth shared a brief smile before Sydney continued to Emily disbelief. Had everybody gone totally insane??!

“ But that is not what is going to convince you, right?” he asked her, she nodded curtly her head in answer.

“ A little more than two weeks ago, Ms Parker discovered that Lyle was working on a new project, one her father and brother had been trying to hide from her. So she decided to follow her twin, that drove her to Los Angeles.”

From there, Margareth told her daughter what she could recall of Lyle ambuscade.

“ When you were gone, having … hmm Willy on your heels, Lyle burst in the street. I was trapped, he was aiming his gun between my eyes with his sick self-confidence only a sociopath possessed. But I held my ground. He kept menacing me. That time I was sure I wasn’t going to be brought in the Centre alive. Imagine my shock when I saw him raise his hands to the sky then watched him fall on the ground motionless. Ms Parker saved me, darling, just like she let you run away from the street.” She paused, gauging her daughter’s reactions to her tale.

“ After that, she was shot protecting me. We left L.A. and stayed in a motel. During her short convalescence, your brother happened to call her. She allowed us to meet and left to go back to the Centre. She kept her words never coming back with a sweeper team.”
Sydney took on.
“ When she was back at the Centre, Mr Raines and the Triumvirate had already decided that with Jarod and the boy on the run, she was the last key the Centre could use. After kidnapping her, Broots’ daughter and myself they made her passed some tests and made her do some simulations. During that time she discovered her mother’s gift and the little Mickael, who was a permanent resident of SL-30. Your brother and mother came to rescue us with the help of Broots and Angelo. From that day a new chase has begun. Mr Lyle is its leader.” Sydney finished the explanation.

“ And why wouldn’t she try to buy her place back there, turning all our family would sure make it easy for her.”

“ Because she is more valuable to them than I am. She also is taking care of Mickael and because we are… hmm we’re together. And I won’t let anyone, even a member of my family interfere in this matter.”

With one look in the eyes of her brother, Emily knew he was dead serious. Then she turned her head on her right and held the eyes of her mother. She was not really surprised to see the same look laying there.

“ What is her mother’s gift? Why is she so valuable?”

“ Beside being a pretender like me and surely like you, she is telepath. So is Mickael.”

“ She may be even more.” Added Sydney remembering Raines eagerness in being allowed to test her ESP power.

“ She can read mind? Can we be serious please, I’m definitely not in the mood.”

“ That is true, Emily. Catherine had this gift and so has her daughter.” Margareth told her, her anger had vanished from her voice Jarod noticed relieved.

“ I don’t ask you to become her best friend Emily. I simply want you to let her be. You’ll learn from yourself that Me- ,Ms Parker is trustworthy.”
In perfect timing the formal Centre cleaner and Mickael stepped back in the flat.

“ Talking about me?” she asked smugly as she watched the four people gathered around the table.

“ Only good things Ms Parker.” Sydney replied his lips curving up in his typical smile at her tone.

“ That must have been short then.” She replied and saw the two men shook their heads at her comment.

Emily watched her with chirurgical precisions, the tall brunette bent down to tell the young child she was going to sleep and asked him to stay with Angelo and her mother. Then she looked at Jarod, not moving, nor speaking. A few seconds past like this before her brother stood up while saying that he was going to lye down himself. The two left together without another word.


“ And you agree with this situation?!” Emily hissed leaning over her mother.

“ Emily, listen to me. We have finally fund your brother and he happens to care for this woman. And thanks to her, I’m still alive and the three of us are together.”

“ Don’t tell me you trust her?! Mom we are talking about-”

“I well know who we are talking about. Don’t you get it? She was-is and will be as much at risk by the Centre as us! What more proof do you need? She already saved my life, she brought us Jarod back in our life! I trust her and care for her. And so do your brother.” Her tone showed that the argument was closed.

“ I have heard so many stories about her, Mom… And they weren’t flattering at all! She is a cleaner for God sake! One of the Centre’s bests.” Emily tried in a softer voice, but her mother had already her opinion.

“ I never said she was a saint. And remember that I shot to kill too.”

“ It’s not the same! You were protecting me and yourself from them!”

“ I know you don’t understand but please! Do as your brother asked. He cares for her, more that you can imagine. I have known it even before they were together. Let them be.”

-----

“ It must be silly of me but I think your sister hates me!”

“ So? I hate your brother.»

“ My brother is a sociopath that is understandable.”

“ Look, I know what you think. But that is not going to happen.”

“ And what am I thinking Wonder boy?”

“ That I might come to chose between you and my family. And like I said that is not going to happen! I’ve made my point perfectly clear. And if I may add, my mother likes you very much! ”

She looked at him, he was laying on the bed next to her on his side, wearing his favorite boyish grin. When she didn’t respond and her eyes left his, he came closer and cupped her cheek with his left hand.

“ What’s wrong?”

“ It’s about Mickael. Angelo and I, we fund out his parents… They were two of the children rescued by my mother. From their files, they both had ESP abilities, but only his father was a pretender.”

“ Did they know about him?”

“ No Jarod, they couldn’t have known.” She posed then whispered to herself
“ God those fucking sick bastards…” before continuing “They dye two years before Mickael was conceived… I don’t know if I have to be happy to say that he was the only success of the experiment… How am I going to tell this to him? For God sake, he is only five years old!”

He took her in his arms as he felt the tension increase inside her.

“ I know he is young… However he deserves to know this.” He told her softly, his voice soothing.
“ This? What this? That he is an experiment? That his parents were dead before he… Christ!” She burst out as she swung her legs of the bed, her back now facing him.

“ For now, I think you should tell him that his parents are dead. For a long time.” He whispered as his hand traveled up and down her back trying to ease her tension away.

“ And if he wants to know more?” She forced the words out, and damned herself when she heard her voice break.

“ I don’t know…”

She turned back to him, eyes shining from unshed tears, before replying.

“ I would rather lie to him than tell him this.”

“ I know… I understand…”

On this, they fell silent. Jarod tightened his hold on her waist as she buried her head in his chest.



A few hours past before Parker and Jarod walked back in the living, there sat Sydney listening to a soft music as Mickael was watching a TV show silently. They hadn’t got completely in the room before Broots came to them with a serious look on his face.

“ I need to talk to you. I think I’m going to leave with Debby pretty soon. It’s not good for her to be out of school. And I also need to find a job… I know it must be somewhat inappropriate right now but…”

Jarod spoke, understanding shining in his eyes.

“ We understand Broots. If you don’t mind, I happen to know where you could find these things. Like have a new identity, a lucrative work without risk in a town, which happen to have a pretty good school in it.”

Broots looked at him amazed, he never thought that the pretender would think that way about him, seeing how he had been behaving recently towards them.

“ Parker, can you show him what is in my computer? If you agree, I just have to E-mail three friends and you’ll be able to leave whenever you want.”

Broots nodded and followed Parker to Jarod’s laptop before immersing himself to the pretender project.

Jarod watched his mentor who was sitting closed eyes listening to a French music, the pretender listened to the lyrics.

“ Moi je n’étais rien et voilà qu’aujourd’hui
Je suis le gardien du sommeil de ses nuits
Je l’aime à mourir
Vous pouvez détruire tout ce qui vous plaira
Elle n’a qu’à ouvrir l’espace de ses bras
Pour tout reconstruire, pour tout reconstruire
Je l’aime à mourir »

Jarod opened his eyes and saw that Sydney was watching him with his sad smile that he had learned during more than thirty years.

“ It’s a really beautiful song, sad but beautiful.” The pretender told him as the singer’s voice continued his declaration.

“ Yes, it is. It can depress anyone who is able to recognize himself in these words.” Replied his mentor with a nostalgic voice.

“ Yes, indeed. Are you all-right?”

“ I will be. Don’t worry for me Jarod. I think you should go to your sister. This situation must be really difficult for her.”

Jarod knew him too much to try to made him talk about what was bothering him. Sydney was a really good listener but when it happened to concern him he always dealt with his problems alone.


TBC

Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.


Miami truths 3


Title: Miami’s truths 3
Author: Nelle
E-mail’s author: nelle_aep@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13
Category: S/AV
Spoilers: 1,2,3 seaons
Keywords: JMPR
Summary: see part one



I had a dream last night, which has really troubled me… I am aware it must be due of the past month’s events. Plus it’s not as if I didn’t have nightmares in daily basis however this one had really shaken me.

I was, well, I was dead I guessed and I was seeing from an observant point of view the event happening after my death? Or was it departure? Hmmm I couldn’t really tell… So I watched being unable to interfere, I tried a few times but it was no use. It was like everybody was deaf and blind to me.
Ms Parker kept her search for her truths, the one about her mother’s death and the one about her father parentage. She had always been the stubborn kind, I wasn’t really surprised by that. But what really hurt me was where it would drive her. I had known the possibility of it since she had been back in the Centre, but I had never entirely considered it and its consequences, another mistake on my part… Things had been so easy when she had been head of security in corporate… She had asked questions during that time but there she hadn’t had the possibility to find her answers. But in the Centre…

The search about her father parentage brought her back in that very facility with Mickael… I watched helplessly Jarod died trying to save them. No one was there to help, not even Angelo who was drowned in a world of torture and hate because of Jarod deadly altercation with Lyle. As I said, the both of them were back in this hell because of this secret. And when finally Raines decided to tell the truth she has searched for what four years maybe all her life, I saw what devastation it brought her… God, this nightmare had been horrible…

I woke up in sweat, my tossing had pushed my covers on the floor and I had turned up in the middle of my bed. As I opened my eyes and took on my surrounding, I welcomed the darkness and watched the shadows playing on the walls as I tried to catch my breath. Being a psychologist I well understood the dream and its implications. God! I’d thought that I was tough enough to survive this last secret, this final lie. But maybe I had over estimated myself, again… I wished I could tell how proud I was of her. How much I thought her mother would be if she were still here with us…
If only she had never left us, things would have been so easy. It would have been years she would have known about this and maybe, maybe, she would have been happy with this revelation. But now too much time had passed, too much things had happened… Things I’m sure Catherine hadn’t imagined back then.

I should have done so many things in a different way. A way Parker would now agree with.

I ran a hand through my hair, exhaled all the breath I could before inspiring a big gulp of air. When I fund myself calm enough I laid back on my bed and tried to get back to sleep, but as I looked again at the ceiling I was convinced that sleep wasn’t going to come back to me. As if I deserved it anyway…



The next day was uneventful, if you didn’t consider the happiness shared by the three members of the Russell family. Jarod had been stuck to his laptop all day long trying to figurate which of the fifteen locations he had fund in Mr Parker’s files, would be the good one.

Broots had left with his daughter at the beginning of the evening, the teen was sad but she had got Ms Parker’s promise that she would be able to see her anytime she wanted. That help the teen to not break in tears as they got into their car.

For her part, Parker had decided that she wouldn’t tell Mickael her finding until he was able to not panic when she was out of his sight. And to her surprise Jarod had agreed! The man that would only see the world in black or white, lie or truth! He seemed to have recently discovered shades of gray to her relief. Only one thing made her tick, Angelo appeared perturb by something. She had tried to ask him what it was about, but the empath hadn’t made sense. So she had contacted him, an act she was beginning to get used to whenever she couldn’t understand what he was feeling. But to her surprise she had been unable to read him. She had felt his confusion and the depressing feeling associated but the reason of it had eluded her, in next to no time she understood that this was the same for Angelo as well.

Parker was now trying to get Mickael settled for bed but the little boy wouldn’t have any of it. Though she could see every signs of his exhaustion, Mickael kept telling her stubbornly that he wasn’t tired and didn’t need to sleep for now.

“ What is it, Mickael? Why don’t you want to sleep?”

“ I told you I am not sleepy…” he said but his body betrayed him once again as he finished his sentence in a big yawn.

She smiled at this and talked ever more softly than before while brushing softly his hair.

“ You know, Jarod told me about this great place, where you can find all the possible ice cream flavors you want. Would you like to go there tomorrow?”

“ You coming?” he whispered as his eyes closed for the night.

“ Of course, I will. Good night sweetie.”

He didn’t respond as he fell deeper in sleep to Parker’s relief. She stood up from his bed and left the room quietly. She went back in the living room and let out a sigh as she found Jarod in the same place she had left him two hours before. From his look and his economic gestures she knew the pretender was completely immersed in his work, talking him out of it would be useless. She headed in the kitchen intending to fix herself a cup of tea and if she was lucky maybe she would ever find something better… Like a bottle whisky, pure malt! Jarod had teased her about it the other day, if only she knew where Lover boy had hidden it! Sometimes it was like she was dating an immature teenager, other time she was dating an old wise man… Talk about a stable relationship!

Magareth and Angelo soon joined her.
“ So how are you adjusting yourself?” Margareth asked her as she blew softly on her own tea mug.

“ I think I could ask you the very same question!” Parker answered as she took a sit at the table, finally abandoning the idea of finding the bottle-hiding place this night.

“ My adjustment are happy ones, yours aren’t really the same.”

“ What, you mean me being chased by my own family?” replied Parker in a voice so sarcastic that it shocked her own ears. She really had to get over this, she scolded herself.

“ Yes. And you having to become a mother in less than a month.” Margareth added in a voice tainted with compassion and caring, a mix that always put Ms Parker out of balanced.

She thought she had hidden it well, in deed even Sydney hadn’t seem to notice it. And if Doctor Strange Love didn’t then all the others couldn’t have a clue, right? But Margareth Russell seemed to understand her better than she had thought possible after only knowing each other for less than a month.

“ I don’t know which one is the more frightening…” Parker whispered more to herself than to the caring woman.

“ Why is that?” asked Magareth even if she already knew the answer.

“ I’ve always thought that I would never have children. I had a screw childhood so if I could spare someone of the experience…”

“ You’re afraid to recreate what you endured?”

“ Well I’m my father’s daughter.” Miss Parker answered with a bitterness she again hadn’t expected. God she really had to get a grip!

“ Believe it or not, I only see you like Catherine’s daughter. And the similarities have increased since Mickael’s arrival.”

“ I don’t know if I’m ready for this…” she admitted, she trusted her abilities and never doubt of herself when it came down to Centre business. But motherhood? What did she know about it? Hell nothing! Not a God damn thing!

“ You are not alone in this journey.”

“ We are always alone, Mrs Russell. No matter what or who. I thought you had found that during the last forty years.”

“ Loneliness is a security.” She answered matter of factly, surely talking out of personal experience, before adding “ I know where you come from, Jarod told me about the death of your mother and sister and also the one of Thomas Gates.”

Parker looked away at her formal lover mention, she felt it weird to hear his name from this woman. It felt as if she was judged and condemned.

“ Jarod talks too much sometimes.” Parker replied in a low voice while promising herself to kick Romeo’s ass for this.

“ Does he? Or is it you who doesn’t talk enough?”

“ I can deal with my problems alone.” She told her iciness coming back to shield her.

“ I know that.”

“ So what?”

“ I listened to your mother when she needed to talk, I thought I could help you the same way.”

Ms Parker sighed, she didn’t know if she was still able to let her guard enough down to talk to someone beside Jarod or Sydney.

“ I will think about it.”

------

A week later
Blue Cove, Delaware
The Centre

“ William Raines.” The ghoul hissed in his cellular.

“ It’s me. We have fund Charles and the replica. We have been watching them for 24 hours and they don’t seem to have noticed us so far. Do we get to them now or do I wait for your ‘Lab-rat to be’ to join them?” Lyle smug voice greeted him.

“ How many people do you have?”

“ Two teams of sweepers plus a cleaner of mine.”

“ Then wait three days. If Jarod doesn’t reach them by that time, bring them back to the Centre.”

“ All right. After that, I think I will have the right to ask for my formal position.”

“ The Triumvirate will decide that. And Lyle if by some kind of miracle your sister shows up there. Take her and the child.”

“ And the others?”

“ Terminate them. Jarod and the clone included. They are too much trouble.”

“ My pleasure, Raines.”



Washington D.C.
Jarod’s lair

Jarod was somewhat feeling happy and stable for the first time of his life. His mother was partially like he had imagined, she was caring and beautiful. But she also was pretty protective till becoming really really short tempered, something she put on her Irish origin. And he wouldn’t want her any other way.

He also was at awe at how Parker’s maternal instinct was taking over her, she was axing her whole world around Mickael.

But mostly, what really made him want to scream his joy to the world was that she was axing it around him as well! It was more than he had ever imagine getting in his lifetime.

Now everything would be perfect in his world if he was able to determine between the three locations that rest, which one was the hiding place of his father and Steven.

Better yet, if his sister would stop treating Parker like a plague victim.
He knew that sooner or later a fight would burst but what really frightened him was that it was well going to happen right now.

“ There is no question of it!” Emily hissed at the Centre Ice Queen.

Ms Parker chewed her bottom lip, trying to control herself however this woman was really getting on her nerves, always showing her fangs like a pit bull toward her.

“ Look, we have to separate if we want to find which one of these locations is the good one! And sorry to hurt your feeling sweetie but you and your mother aren’t going to be enough if Lyle pops up there!”

“ We have been able to survive ten years like this!” Emily retorted indignant at the arrogant brunette.

“ Yeah, and what about what happen in L.A. a month ago?” Ms Parker sneered, then grinned triumphant when she saw Emily’s eyes widened in rage.
Ice Queen 1 – Hard ass girl 0

“ Enough of it. Emily, I will go with her. She knows what is to expect from this kind of situation.”

“ Oh she knows, all right! I’m not going to leave you alone with this…”

“ Watch your word Emily.” Jarod growled as he came up beside Parker, his right arm circling her waist protectively. His hard gaze made the red head realized that if she didn’t keep her anger in check she would surely lose her brother to that woman.

They were stopped in their argument by the bip of Jarod’s computer.

“ Any news?” Parker asked him, figuring the answer when she caught the sight of his lips curving up as he read the screen in a matter of seconds.

“ Actually yes. My software has been able to reduce the possibility to two locations.”

At this Emily snorted, this couldn’t be happening… She didn’t want them to be separated again!

“ I think the best way is me, Sydney and Mom to be together on the Richmond’s place while you, Emily and Angelo will investigate NY one.

“ No way!! No way in hell that I go with her!!” Emily shouted insulted.

“ Then what do you want? You’ll have to chose anyway.” Parker replied coldly. And she had thought Broots had been paranoid but this woman was even worse! A real crack pot!

“ Emily, you’re coming with me, Mickael and Ms Parker. Period!” Magareth finally lashed out exasperated by this childish argument.
At this, Emily didn’t argue furthermore. Thinking Sydney couldn’t be a threat to her father and if she was with her mother she could keep an eye on the Centre bitch.

‘ You’re sister is really a…’ she contacted Jarod by her ability.

‘ Pain in the ass!’ he thought back.

‘No that would be your definition, Wonder boy. She is more like one of the Seven Egypt Wounds!’

***


‘God, sometimes I want to shout at the sky:
WHY?? WHAT DID WE DO TO YOU?? CAN’T YOU JUST LEAVE US ALONE??
Life can be so exasperating… I know, I know, I have to stop this pitying on myself thing but you have to admit that searching for my father and my new brother beside this … Arghh! Just thinking of her and I want to hurt someone, especially her! How can anyone expect me to remain calm?! Perhaps I could bare, and I have said perhaps, to see her once or twice every ten years but noooo she’s got to be my brother’s girlfriend! Has everybody on this earth gone completely blind?! Or I am just hallucinating? No… It would be too easy.

So here we are driving to NY, I already know that today is going to be a very long and very exhausting day, but I will do my best and remain calm for my mother and brother. Well as much as I can but if this slut try anything against us, I’ll make her pay! Girlfriend or not! You can be sure of that!’

After five hours of searching the location while trying to lose potentials followers, Ms Parker, Mickael, Margareth and Emily left the security of the car and headed in separates ways to the possible address of Major Charles hiding place.

Ms Parker and her wanna be five years old bodyguard coming from the south entrance, Emily and Margareth from the north’s one. The four of them joined back in front of the reception, where Margareth took the lead.

“ Excuse me, but I believe my husband is staying here.” She told the young clerk while showing him a snapshot of Charles.

“ Mr Harrison? Of course, he is staying with his son in the room 34, I will give you a key.”

“ He is still staying here?” asked Parker skeptic, thinking things were going too well. If Charles were half as smart as her Wonder boy then they would have a lot more difficulties than finding him like this.

“ I couldn’t really say. He paid for two months, next week will be the last one. Thinking about this, a week ago a strange man came here asking for them. As he seemed to well know them, and said he was a friend of your husband I lead him to their room. Two hours later he was gone alone. I haven’t seen them for quite sometimes… But you know how it is with your husband’s work! During their time here they left two entire weeks just like that!” the man snapped his fingers for emphasis before finishing “ They may come back for two days, so I keep their room.”

At the mention of Charles’ visitor, Parker’d stood straighter. It smelt the Centre from miles.

What if they were still here? What if they were watching them?

“ Why do you say strange man?” she asked her voice refunding her coldness as she slowly slipped back in her Ice Queen mode. This being the best way she had ever been able to fight against the Centre.

“ Well, he was hmm an albinos, really with white hair, red eyes and all.”

Parker nodded in acknowledgement before quickly immersing herself and Mickael in the crowd stationing in the hall, knowing that Margareth was following them with Emily in toes.

Standing on the two sides of the door, Parker and Emily waited for Margareth to insert the key. Parker checked their surrounding before slipping her gun out of her holster to the disbelief of Emily.

“ What do you think you are doing?!” she hissed her eyes throwing daggers to Parker.

“ We don’t know who is behind this door. I am not taking any useless risk when the Centre is concerned.” She replied darkly then focused back all her attention when she heard the opening click of the door.

She kicked in it strongly then moved in the room in a one fluid motion, her gun staying in front of her, free from its safety.

Nobody was here, the room had been already cleaned. After checking the two rooms and the bathroom, Parker came back to the doorway.

“ No one here.” She replied in a neutral voice.
“ It means that Charles must be in the second location Jarod fund.”
Parker didn’t reply anything, keeping her thoughts to herself.

‘If White was here before us and fund no one… Shit! Jarod, you damn fool…
We are in a complete fucking mess! The Centre all ready knows where Charles and Steven are, they may already have been brought back there! If that wheezing ghoul does anything to his father and brother Jarod’ll go completely ballistic!

God Damn It! Damn it to hell!
Lyle has Jarod. This sicko has in his hands people Wonder boy would give his life for… Sydney! No … They are going to kill him for his betrayal!

STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!!!!

I must calm down.

Think Parker! If I’ve got some pretender skill, it’s the damn right time for using them!’

“So what are we going to do?” Emily asked her mother.

“We could call you brother and ask him how things are going in Richmond. What do you think Ms Parker? Ms Parker?”

Hearing no answer from Catherine’s daughter, Margareth joined her in the second room.

‘What is going on?’
Mickael was sitting on the coffee table in front of Ms Parker, watching her. His face and eyes reflected his worry. Margareth was about to voice her question when she noticed Parker stillness. Besides the arrhythmic movements of her eyes under her eyelids, the young woman wasn’t moving a muscle. She had seen Jarod like this only once, but she recognized immediately the state Parker was in. She was doing a Sim, but why?

“ Mickael? Since when Ms Parker is hum unresponsive?” she asked the child choosing her words carefully.

“ I would say ten minutes… Is she all right? I-I can’t reach her…” His voice broke on this last statement.

In two strides the old woman was next to him, her hand caressing his hair, soothing him.

“ Don’t worry, Mickael. She is right in front of you, right? She is just thinking about something. But she is focusing on it so much that she is deaf to anything or anyone else.” She explained him in her softest voice.

“ You are sure?”

“ I am. I have seen Jarod doing the same thing too.”

“ Mom? Is there a problem?” asked Emily as she walked in the room.

“ Yes, I think there is one. A big one.” She whispered in answer as she watched Ms Parker opened her eyes.

Parker’s dazed eyes watched first Mickael then Jarod’s mother. After opening and closing them three times, piercing blue eyes locked on Margareth’s ones.

“ Ms Parker? Why did you do a simulation?”

“ Lyle has them.” Parker whispered darkly, shocking everyone in the room.

“ How? How is it possible?” Margareth asked out of breath as panic grew inside herself despite all her efforts.

“ Remember what the man at the reception told us? An albinos came here. I know who is this man, it’s Mr White. Last news I got, he was in Africa but it was 4 months ago. If that snake was on the trail of your husband and if he came here before us then…”

“ Then he has been able to check all the others locations before us!!” Margareth concluded horrified.

“ Exactly.” Parker replied in an unreadable voice.

“ You can’t be sure 100% about this! So stop this melodramatic thing, will you! I am going to call Jarod then we will know their situation!” Emily sneered as she took her Cell.

“ God damn it, I’m fed up with your shit! If you call him, they will know that you have contact with Jarod, Dumb-head! How hard is this for you to grasp?! Right now, all the Centre has been able to figure out is that Jarod, Angelo and Sydney are working together. They’ve suspicion that I’m as well. But if you fucking call him, then they will have more cards than they already have against us! And some people will be expandable! Is that what you want?!! Don’t trust me, I don’t give a Rat-ass! But if you put them in danger, I Promise you I will give you real reasons to hate me!” Parker finally exploded as she took Emily by the collar of her shirt, taking the younger woman out of guard and a few inches out of the ground as well.

As soon as she realized what she was doing she released the red head and stormed out of the room.

“ Can’t you just leave her alone?! She is worried for them! And you keep hurting her!” Mickael told her in a tone a five years old shouldn’t have possessed.

“ He might be a child but nobody could have found better words. Emily, she is right and you know it.”

“ No I Don’t.” she replied crisply.

“ Emily… Still as stubborn as your father, aren’t you? I will ask for you what I always protected you from. For once in your life, put yourself at her place. Try her life. Maybe after that you will revise your judgment.”
On this words Margareth left her daughter to join Catherine’s one.

“ I don’t know her life.” Whispered Emily to no one, her words fading away in the empty room.

****

“I’m sorry. My daughter is-”

Parker didn’t let her finish, she was familiar with that type of behavior. She and Jarod had been acting like this towards each other during the past three years.

“She doesn’t trust me, contrary to you or Jarod, and I didn’t give her any reason to. It’s not as if I have ever be known as Ms Congeniality, Margareth. Anyway, we don’t have time for this right now, we have to move.”

“ To Richmond?”

“ I am not sure, maybe we will have to stop sooner.”

“ To where?”

“ To Blue Cove’s special asylum. I will try to contact them while you’ll drive. From the information they’ll give me we will try to formulate a plan. ”

“ I want to help.” Mickael told Ms Parker in a determinate voice, his eyes searching approbation in hers.

“ Mickael, I can’t let you do this. It’s not the place of a child, do you understand?”

“ I know I’m five years old. But don’t you think that with my help, we can be quicker? And you won’t be as much exhausted by the contacts if you only have two to perform!” he argued his point knowing he was right, his eyes still locked on hers.

“ Generally it’s the mother’s role to protect her child not the contrary.” She replied before realizing what it meant. As she listened to her words, she felt as if the ground had given away under her feet. However she was soon reassured when she saw the wonderful smile Mickael gave her in answer.

“ Jarod is not here, so I have to be the one to protect you.” He replied, his child voice warming her like never before.

“ All right. You will reach Angelo and I will contact Jarod and Sydney.”

“ Ok.”

“ Then it settles. Let’s go.

------

Richmond
Major Charles apartment
Same moment

The sound of the blow and the crushing of bone it conducted reverberated in all the room.

“ For God’s sake Lyle! Stop it!” Sydney shouted revolted by Lyle’s brutality towards Jarod. The pretender was barely conscious, blood was streaming down his face, his left arch eyebrow was opened again, his left eye so swollen that it was practically closed. His protégé couldn’t protect himself from Lyle’s blows, his hands being attached on his back in handcuff. However Jarod was working on it, it wasn’t easy trying to open them with the metal piece from his watch, but the pretender was a patient man.

“ Look Sydney, there is an important factor that you seem to have forgotten about our present situation. You will all go back to the Centre alive, if only you can survive my ordeal. And I can tell you that only few people have been able to do it so far.”

“ You sick bastard, leave my son alone!”

“ My, Charles! I didn’t know you have this in you. After all, abandoning your wife and daughter like you have hmm is that five or ten years before? I thought it was the way of cowards!”

At this Charles stood up from his chair intending to do anything in his powers to make the little shit shut up in the second. However his move only gave an excuse to one of Lyle’s sweeper to hit him right in the stomach making him kneed down, out of breath.

“ Dad, you ok?” Jarod croaked as he feigned regaining consciousness. Even if his head felt like it might exploded anytime and all around him was moving in three exemplars, he would not let Lyle taking more control of their present situation.

Another punch in his right jaw made him groan in pain, it had almost made him lose his precious watch, his only key to freedom. He tensed his hands willing himself to not drift into unconsciousness.

“ When will you learn to shut up, Jarod?” Lyle asked him in his nonsense voice. His knuckles were hurting by dint of beating the King Lab-rat’s face, but God it felt so good to see the Centre priceless experiment at his mercy.

The pain was overwhelming for two endless minutes then it began to subside. Soon a new sensation came to him. He was feeling a slight buzz, like a vibration coming from inside his skull.

‘Jarod?’

‘Parker? Parker?’

‘No, the Queen mum! Of course, it’s me! How are you? We have learnt about Mr White coming in Richmond, is my psychotic mutant twin here?’

‘ Yeah… He is playing the big bad guy, actually.’

‘ How are you? I can feel you are in pain, don’t try to lie to me, Wonder boy.’

‘ Let’s just say that your brother like to think of me as his new personal pushing ball!’

‘ That little bastard… Tell me how many are they?’

‘ 10 for what I have been able to see. Four sweepers plus Lyle are here, five are in search of Steven. He has been able to get away from them, you must find him Mel!’

‘ What about you?’

‘ I’m ok, don’t worry for me, I’ve got a hard head. Find him, please!’

‘ I’m coming and this time the janitor will truly have to wash gray matter from the wall.’

‘ Parker, please don’t do this. All he wants is you and Mickael. You have to stay away from him.’

‘ Like hell I will!!’

‘ You have to protect yourself and Mickael, as well as my mother and sister, please!’

‘ Listen to me Wonder boy. I know you are worried for your family. Now take the place of your mother or mine! What would you do then?! You would just go play hero again!’

‘ I just want you to be safe…’

‘ I know Jarod and I want the same for you. I will be careful don’t worry for me. If there is one person to worry for today, it’s Lyle!’

The buzz disappeared leaving Jarod drained out of energy, he felt like he would puke. If he did, he was going to do it on Lyle’s shoes, he grinned at that thought.

****

Back in the car

Parker was back again conscious of her surrounding, the security of the car, the three steady breathings of her companions, the comfort of the distance separating her from her psychopath of a brother. She turned her head toward the little boy she had grown so fond of over the past few weeks. He looked back at her, his eyes mirroring his anguish, he swallowed with plain difficulty before speaking.

“ I’ve been able to contact Angelo. He is so scared of that man… Ms Parker we must help them! Angelo thought of a boy , he said it was Steven, young Jarod, that we had to protect him so he could help you. Does that make any sense? Angelo thought that he was in a supermarket of sort… ”

“ Yes, Steven is Jarod’s brother. We will find him after that we will be able to help the rest of the gang.”

She’d known Angelo would have protected him from his gift and curse, the fright the little boy had felt was obviously nothing compare to what the empath was enduring there. She would have to contact Sydney now, Freud would know for sure in what psychological state Lyle was and would also concur or contradict Wonder boy’s version. From what she had gathered of the mental image that Jarod gave her, they were sitting in opposite corner of the room, if something hadn’t been in Jarod’s vision area then Sydney had been able to notice it.

She concentrated on the Centre psychiatric face, she already cursed her fate as she suffered from the first impact of the monstrous migraine that was to come. She pushed the idea of pain away as she forced herself to slow down her breathing. She was close, glimpses of his thoughts ran in her mind but it was still too much shadowy. Parker didn’t let go, she pushed away her remaining fear to leave the security of the car and her own body so that she could get completely immersed in Sydney’s mind. But she hadn’t been prepared for this…

‘ Sydney?’

No response. She tried again, feeling the first trace of exhaustion claiming her hard use of her gift.

‘ Sydney?’

‘ Ms Parker?’

And then she felt as if a wall had come between them, what the hell was going on? It could only have been coming from him. Why would Freud close the link? Parker being the stubborn one keep on maintaining the contact.

‘ Sydney? What are you doing?’

‘ Please Parker! Stop this! Don’t use your gift on me right now! Stop!’ he begged by thought, his inner walls were not strong enough compared with her mental power. Despite all his will, Sydney’s control over his emotions slipped away from him, the last month had took too much on him. It’s at that moment that the mental images began assaulting her:
Her mother smiling tenderly at her baby-self under the wistful gaze of Sydney/ Her mother laying in her blood in the elevator/ Herself smoking and sneering at him/ Her mother sleeping on his chest peacefully/ Her father threatening both his life and her mother’s/ Her younger self crying in front of her mother’s unmoving body/ Sydney taking her hand as the two of them prayed silently in front of her mother closed coffin/ Herself pointing her 9mm at him, urging him to get out of her way/Her mother crying while making him promise to take care of her and never let her know the truth to protect their daughter and himself from her husband/

Parker had never experimented anything like this before, she watched his memories played in his mind like she would have seen her owns with her mind eye. When the psychiatric was finally able to get himself together again, he knew it was already too late.

‘ You are … You are my father?!’ she concluded, her thought colored by astonishment, betrayal and anger.

Sydney didn’t have any time to explain himself, she broke the link brutally which Sydney felt like a hard slap on his undeserving father’s cheek.

Parker was back in the car, breathing hard, scratch this she was completely hyper ventilating, she needed to get out of this car. She couldn’t breath, she was feeling a lump the size of the Empire State Building in her throat, her ulcer was killing her, and How Hell she was going to …

“ Stop the damn car! Stop it NOW!” she ordered as she unbuckled her security belt then put her hand on the handle.

Margareth had never heard this tone in Catherine’s daughter, she was completely frantic, her forehead was covered in sweat and her breathing was erratic. Margareth took a quick look at her review mirror, seeing no car behind, she slowed down roughly as she put the car at the side of the road.

Parker flew out of the car and took three , four then a final stride before bending down puking for dear life whatever her stomach had kept from the last six hours.

God! She felt absolutely fucking horrible, the head ache was competing with her worst hang over of her life. She couldn’t help it, she was getting even more panic! She couldn’t catch her breath as she kept on vomiting bile, which was the only thing that was still in her stomach with the chloridric acid. He was her Father, the Goddamn son of a bitch!! How could he? How could he have been able to watch the way Mr Parker had treated her and not say something? Why? God Why?

“ Ms Parker? Listen to me, you need to breath more slowly and fight the nausea otherwise you are going to blackout.” Came from behind Margareth’s soothing voice.

Parker felt a hand on her back drawing slow circles, she focused on it, slowing her breathing till its rhythm became normal again. Margareth watched her silently, keeping her hand laying on her back. As Parker turned her head toward her, the older woman caught her troubled blue eyes streamed by tears. It wasn’t only a physical response to the puking, understood immediately Jarod’s mother, there were too much of them and the pain she could read in their depth was almost unbearable to watch. Tears of anguish kept falling on her red blouse. When at last a sob escaped her throat, Ms Parker broke the eyes contact and tried to get a hold of her sweltering emotions. She walked away from Margareth, needing to be left alone, not able to accept any comfort at the moment without breaking down. It was the only sob Margareth heard, she wished for Ms Parker that others would have followed, freeing her of some part of her pain. But the woman was too strong to allow herself that type of weakness.

The anger soon took the place of the agony, it was boiling in her like never before. Not even Raines himself could convey in her such rage!
How could they? How could they all manipulate her? Take what they wanted from her then left her to the misery that was her life?! God she wanted to hurt them, hurt him! Hurt that Belgium son of a bitch as much as he had hurt her! He had known… For the last thirty years he had known he was her father!

‘You were such a sweet girl, what happened to you?’

That bastard! Then it clicked to her, making her even more blinded in rage. They had both known! Mr Parker, Sydney Green, same bunch of fucking liars!

She was feeling light headed and realized that she had been holding her breath again, she took a big slow inspiration as she tried desperately to contain her anger. As she got calmer by each passing breaths, she felt twinges of pain in her hands, she looked down and saw the mess that were her hands. Her nails had dug so much in her skin that they had pierced it deeply, blood were flowing freely from the ten bruises, falling in two slim streams to the ground.

“ Ms Parker? Melissa?” it was the fourth time she was calling her without any answers or acknowledgement, she used her first name at last knowing the effect it had on her.

“ You know I used to think my life was a mess… And I thought it couldn’t get any worse!” she chuckled wearily but there was no humor in her words.

“ Jarod had been denied his family all his life but took Sydney as his father figure. And me, I have been fucking lied to for those fucking thirty years! The man I call Daddy always placed me in 2nd behind his work in the Centre. And the man who is actually my father had down exactly the same! He has put in 2nd the same way, behind his precious work, his priceless Lab-rat! Why?! GOD DAMMIT!!” she finally exploded as she turned toward Margareth.

She didn’t know what to tell her, obviously she was in no state to have a conversation about that particular subject, nevertheless Margareth was also a mother and she knew that Catherine’s daughter was hurting immensely. She wouldn’t let her suffer like this. She walked slowly to her, not wanting for the younger woman to take this as an aggression. When she was at her side, she first took her right hand and noticed the damage her anger had done. She then looked at the brunette again and saw that Parker was a little disorientated, feeling lost, more like feeling completely alone. Margareth took her gently in her arms and hugged her like she would have comforted her own children.

“ Why?? Why did she make him promise to not tell me? Thirty years living in a lie… I don’t understand. How do you do that to your own child? How can you watch him fell deeper and deeper in loneliness and not blink an eye?”

Ms Parker whispered as she held for dear life on Margareth, the tears were still falling but the sobs wouldn’t break out of her throat.

The redhead knew that nothing she could tell her would satisfy her so she just kept on hugging her while running a hand on Parker’s back, hoping to offer her some solace from her pain.

------

She breathed in deeply as she tightened her hold on the steering wheel, soon they would reach Richmond, in about half an hour she stated as she checked her watch. She had insisted in driving, Margareth had showed her reserve at first then she caught what Ms Parker really needed at that moment. Actions, she needed actions to take her mind of her inner turmoil.

A soft wistful smile crept on Parker’s lips despite herself, recalling Mickael’s reaction after witnessing her distress. The small child had crawled into her arms, hugging her like she was the most fragile thing he had ever laid an eye on. Then he had took her face in his two tiny hands and told her that he would stay with her forever. After that he had kissed her cheek and buried his head in her shoulder. It was one of the most beautiful gesture someone had done to her in all her life. This little boy was a gem and she would do everything in her power to protect him and his innocence, she decided as she slowed down following the traffic of cars trying to make their way inside Richmond’s entrance area.

She returned her trail of thought to her formal subject, it being how to find Steven… After all, she had had a very hard time finding Jarod during the past fours years so how could she find his clone in one day? So ok she knew in which town he was staying and that he was in a Wal-Mart of some sort. But it wouldn’t be enough to spot him. How many supermarket existed in Richmond? And how many dark haired teenagers were strolling in them? Finding him was going to be a bitch. Would she be able to reach him by her ability? She hadn’t a clue. It was worth trying anyway, she settled on.

However she was conscious that she wouldn’t stand more than two attempts, despite all the reassuring words she had feed Margareth with, she wasn’t fine. The migraine wouldn’t leave her alone for a damn second and her ulcer was putting her stomach as well as her esophagus on fire. She couldn’t afford to become much more vulnerable, she was already feeling physically drained out and God there were no senses in gauging her mental health right now! There would be time for that later, after she had kicked her brother’s ass back to the hell hole he had crawled from two years before.

“ So where are we going now, Ms Parker?” the gentle voice of Margareth brought her back to the reality at hand.

They were in the suburban quarters of Richmond already, she noticed surprised. She parked the car before answering her. She felt rather uneasy with Jarod’s mother, her previous display of emotions was something that this woman shouldn’t have witnessed nor should she have tried to comfort her…

It just wasn’t right. She knew what she needed at that moment and as long as they would have to deal with the Centre. Her back straightened, her chin raised, she pushed away all those feelings that were clouding her mind. Soon she felt calm and focused, she was in control again, the Ice Queen was back.

“ First we find your ‘son’ Steven. After that I am going to visit brother dear and give him a piece of my mind.” She replied, her icy voice was back she noticed satisfied.

Hearing the coldness of her voice, Margareth searched the eyes of Catherine’s daughter and was shocked by what she saw there. Gone were the sadness and anger, her blue eyes had turned ice cold and no emotions could be read there.

“ How will we locate him?”

“ I will locate him with my ability and I will be the one to get to him.”

“ But we could-”

Parker didn’t let her finish, her snapping attitude was back as well, coming with the little package that was the Ice Queen persona.

“ No we couldn’t! What part of ‘I will be the one to get to him’ didn’t you understand? This time I won’t take excess baggage with me, I can’t afford this with the sweepers trailing for him.”

“ So you expect us to sit and wait here?” Emily replied snorting.

“ My! You are actually catching on! That must have really exhausted you to use these two neurons of yours!” Miss Parker replied in her sweetest venomous voice.

She savored the way her words were affecting Emily before talking back to Margareth.

“ I’m going to try to reach him now, after that I will leave directly, I am counting on you to protect Mickael during my absence.”

She didn’t wait for her answer, she immersed herself in the task at hand.

------

Two hours later
Richmond


I turned my head and my eyes locked again on deep brown ones, I had been shocked the first time I had crossed them five months before, because of what I recognized in them. At that time all I have thought was : That son of a bitch has been able to do it, to finally had his own Jarod for his dark sickening simulations.

Now I looked at him and understood who the boy in front of me really was. He may have been physically Jarod exact replica but the teenager had his own soul, spirit, called it whatever you want…

For example, I was able to contact Jarod the way I contacted Mickael. This process being as easy for me as it was for Broots to babble about virtual dating. However, it wasn’t so with Steven. I couldn’t read him, I could catch a few thoughts but it was meaningless in the big firework that was his thought process. The only thing my gift afforded me was to influence him by placing some of my thoughts inside his owns.

If it hadn’t been for this, I would never have found the elusive teen!

His behavior was also pretty different from what she could recall of Jarod’s behavior at that age. Wonder boy had been a quiet child, even in her company. Of course, he was cocky and a smart-ass even at that time but Steven was…his own self, for lack of better terms. He was adventurous like his old brother but he wasn’t over-confident on the contrary. He liked to analyze things in a clinical way and was not really comprehending the concept of evil and good. That ‘light gap’ was coming from the wheezing ghoul education for sure. He didn’t understand why you couldn’t respond to evil by evil and sometimes she herself was wondering it, like at that moment. He wasn’t as demonstrative as Jarod, Wonder boy didn’t mind showing the world how he was feeling, Steven liked to keep that to himself. I understood why, I had been/was and would always do it.

“ I think I have a plan, Ms Parker.” He told me out of the blue, stopping me in my musing.

“ And what would that be?”

“ I play the bait, the sweepers that still rest will come after me. We get rid of them, the way you like… Then we just have to deal with your brother. That’s where the problem lays. He is a psycho, Ms Parker. And talking him out of this without hurting anyone is like talking to the hand.” He explained me softly.

“ Your family is going to kill me if I let you do this! Playing the bait?!”

“ It’s the best way and you know it. Only your brother will remain in the room, despite the fact that he is armed, I’m sure the two of us can overpower him.” He clarified, his voice as soft as it was serious.

“ And like you said before he is a time bomb, if he feels threatened he will paint the walls in red! There is no way that I let you be in the same room than that wacko!” Ms Parker emphasized, she had seen her brother in one of his demented moment, she knew what she was talking about.

“ Then bring me to him. With you on his side, he will get over-confident and careless.”

“ That’s not that simple, Steven. Lyle and I can’t stand each-other and he damn well knows that I would rather kiss Raines’ ass than help him in any ways.”

“ Well, what about this?…”

I watched and listened to him at awe as he explained me what we would have to do to master Lyle for the last time. Yeah last time, Raines could be taken care of by the authority as was my fath-…Mr Parker. But Lyle, he couldn’t get away this time, I wouldn’t allow it. I nodded in agreement as he finished his explanation, keeping for myself brother dear’s fate.


Major Charles apartment

He watched him paced up and down the room for ten silent minutes then saw him sat on the wooden desk as his hand laid on the small of his back, seeking for the reassuring feeling of the 9mm resting there. After that he checked his watch and greeted his teeth. He didn’t like having to stay that long in the same place, Jarod gathered as he caught the Parker son rubbing his bad hand exactly where his thumb should have been, a sure sign of his frustration. The pretender knew what they were waiting for and it sickened him that Parker really had no one in her family to protect her.

Jarod had gotten rid of the hand-cuff a few minutes earlier, now he was just waiting for his time. Lyle seemed to have gotten bored of beating the crap out of him, not that the pretender was complaining, however he had learnt the hard way that letting Lyle plan his next move wasn’t a good thing either. It could driving him whether to take drastic measures, like eliminate them all, or to let his sadistic part took the upper hand on him. and therefore it would be Lyle’s pleasure to show them all his special ability in torturing them physically as well as mentally.

“ Steven won’t come back, Lyle. He isn’t dumb. So what are we waiting for?” Charles finally questioned, he was worried sick for his new found son, the sight of the fives armed sweepers running after him hadn’t left his thoughts for the last six hours.

“ We are waiting for some company. Priceless company.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ Jarod, I am shocked! How could you not tell your father?”

“ I don’t know what you are talking about Lyle. A new delusion of yours? After being a sociopath you are becoming a schizophrenic. Did you hear voices recently?”

Another blow came crashing on Jarod’s face followed shortly by another greater one in his stomach cutting his breath.

“ You should really watch that mouth of yours, Jarod. Don’t push me too much, remember who you are dealing with.” He hissed at him, his face inches from his prey. He retreated to stand back in the middle of the room and added“ As I was saying earlier we are waiting for my sister.”

“ Ms Parker? I didn’t think you wanted to share with her our capture.” Charles said to him dumbfounded. He became even more astounded at Lyle’s reaction to his words, the sicko looked at him clearly amused then he began chuckling in an evil way.

“ I think it’s the most ridiculous think I’ve ever heard. Me sharing my victory with Parker! My sister isn’t-”

Lyle didn’t bother finishing his gloating answer, he had been facing the window as he had talked to Major Charles and he couldn’t have more luck today, he decided. At first, he had thought he had imagined it, but no, the little brat was there spying on them. Surely wanted to play hero just like his original version.

“ Willie, you and the rest of your sweepers are finally going to be useful. The boy is there, on the other side of the street prying on us. Catch him, now!”

The pretender didn’t understand why Steven would come back, it was a complete irrational act on his part and the boy was everything but irrational.

“ Yes sir.” The tall black sweeper responded before leaving, his four subordinates in toes.

A slight buzz filled his head again, he smiled internally understanding what was going to happen.

‘ Jarod, I’ll be quick. Occupy Lyle for the next fives minutes. Can you do that Wonder boy?!’

‘ Will have I a reward?’

‘ Stop thinking of us like this when a sicko is threatening you with a gun!’ she thought back, amusement and relief coloring her thought before closing the contact.

“ Lyle, you already have me! Leave him alone. Let him free and…and I will cooperate!” Jarod did the best pathetic act he could muster, he got what he had hoped for. Lyle was again totally focus on him, his smug smile widening.

“ Jarod, Jarod… With both know that there is no question of it. You are all coming back. And your clone, being the genius he is, will be the only one to remain alive if sis doesn’t show up.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ If she joins us, like I’m sure she will, the five of you will be dealt with. For the last time.” He replied smugly.

“ We are too valuabl-”

“ How no, you are not. You are a broken toy to them Jarod. And Gemini is as well but he is enough young to be well re-educated. And we won’t talk about that Sponge idiot over there!” Lyle sneered as he nodded his head to Angelo’s direction.

“ And you are completely fucked up brother dear, big deal!” Parker lashed out surprising her brother, who turned immediately towards the door seeing his sister aiming her 9mm at him. She didn’t let him any chance to respond she shot him in his good hand. His gun flew out of his hand and terminated its course in the wall. Jarod stood up quickly and got the gun then aimed it at Lyle’s head while coming at Parker’s side.

“ You just love to have everyone attention on you, don’t you?”

She looked at him a witty replied on her lips, but she kept it there and smiled at him. He had trusted her, on his life and his family ones and that touched her more than her Wonder boy could ever fathom.

“ My sweepers are”

“ Already taken care of. Thanks to Richmond officers.” Parker smiled wickedly.

“ Parker, if it isn’t by me, it will be by someone else. You belong to the Centre.”

“ The Centre days are numbered. I’ll take it down and I’m sure Wonder boy will help, won’t you?”

“ It’ll be my pleasure, Ms Parker.”

A loud crash and shouting coming from upstairs took both Jarod and Parker’s attention, giving Lyle the time to reach for his ankle gun. He aimed it at Major Charles, his sadistic grin coming back on his lips.

“ Leave the gun, Jarod, or Daddy Charlie won’t have the joy to see mama Maggie ever again.”

Jarod’s eyes widened in fear and fury, a little more pressure from his index finger and he would blow the man’s head of.

“ Drop it! You have already Kyle’s blood on your hands Jarod, do you need your father’s one as well?”

His jaws was locked, so tightened he could almost feel his teeth broke from the pressure. He lowered his gun despite himself and let it fall at his feet.

“ Very good. Now Sis?”

“ I will never drop my gun! You little bastard!”

She realized what she had to do, now if only she could find the strength within herself…

“ Then say good-bye to dear old Sydney here.”
The Ice Queen laughed then, there was no humor but pain in it, that mix intrigued her twin, he didn’t understand why his sister would react like this.

“ What is it?”

“ You are as clueless as I was… I’m surprised.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ You are threatening are own father’s life. Talk about dysfunctional family!”

Watching his sister intensely, he gathered that she was serious about it.

“ He is our father? … I’ve never down a Patricide before, what the hell, there’s a beginning for everything!” he replied his eyes still locked on hers.

“ Kill him and I’ll kill you later and if it’s not me it’ll be Jarod.”

“ You don’t care about him?” He asked somewhat doubtful his eyes leaving hers to cross Sydney’s ones. He realized when he met her eyes back that it had made a mistake, underestimating her again as he watched her finger squeezed trigger.

“ Wrong.” She shot, the bullet lodging itself right in his heart then she finished as Lyle’s limp body slumped on the floor motionless “ I don’t care about you.”

Blood streamed Lyle’s chest, falling down his pants and on the floor, Jarod woke up from his daze and checked a pulse on Parker’s twin, he found none.
His eyes told her all she wanted to know, he stood up and in three strides he was back at her side. He took her in his arms hugging her for both his comfort and hers. She had killed that psychopath so that he wouldn’t have to do it, wouldn’t have to deal with the pain nor lose more pieces of his soul.

“ I’m ok.” She told him in a trembling whisper. However she was far from ok, he began to run his hand on her back in a soothing move, making her leaned deeper in him.

“ I’m sorry. God, I wish you didn’t have to do this… I wish I -” She didn’t let him finish, she kissed him needing this soft gesture as much as himself.

“ I had to put an end at… I couldn’t allow him to hurt anyone else…”

“ I love you.” He told her, knowing what she had lose and why she had been willing to do it.

She smiled as a few tears escaped her eyes unable to voice her pain or her relief, she hold him tighter. After a few minutes of comfort, the two separated and went freeing the three other men. Shortly, Steven joined them and was shocked of Lyle’s dead body laying on the floor. He looked at Ms Parker then back at her twin and decided to not make any comment.

Jarod uncuffed his mentor hands while whispering to him in a not so kind voice.

“ Is it true?”
“ Yes… I had promised Catherine that I wouldn’t tell her but her gift was stronger than my inner walls… I never intended to hurt her Jarod, you have to believe me.”

Sighing deeply, Jarod understood all too well what the shrink meant.

“ You will have to explain her, Sydney. Too many people have lied to her in order to use her, she must be feeling betrayed like never before…”

Sydney nodded unable to steady his voice to answer his protégé.

Seeing that everybody was ready to leave, Parker took her Cell phone.
“ Margareth? It’s me, I’ve got three Russell men here who can’t wait to see you again! Care to come?!”

She heard the relieved sigh that escape the older woman, she told her the address then hung up. Her eyes met Sydney’s ones, it took all her might to not put her 9mm on his temple. She threw him her best ‘if looks could kill’ look adding to it a ‘you’re disgusting me’ gleam then turned her back on him never giving him a look back. The shrink didn’t try to talk to her, she was too angry at him and he too engrossed in blaming himself to do anything.


Washington DC
Jarod’s apartment

Parker was feeling conflicted emotions, not that it was really unusual for her, at the sight of the reunited Russell family. Joy of course, but jealousy as well as pain… They had their ‘happily ever after’ end but what about hers? She shook her head at that thought, did any woman who murdered her own brother deserved that kind of happiness? No, that much she was convinced of.

Sydney had known better than to try and talk to her, the old shrink always had had a well developed survival instinct after all.

She was getting more and more sick of this, of this place and this environment. Looking at Mickael, she wished the little boy would accept to stay with the Russell, however she already knew the answer. He would never let her leave him here. He deserved someone better, her conscience kept berating her. That much she agreed with but Parker was selfish, she loved that little boy more than she had expected herself to be able. There was no way that she would let him behind, not now, not ever. She would take care of him but it broke her heart to have to separate him from Angelo. The empath would wish for staying with Sydney if asked, which meant that they wouldn’t see him before a long undefined time.

Again, the laughers came to her ears leaving a bitter sweet smile on her lips. Jarod and Steven held a very important place in her heart, hell she couldn’t think of a life without the former. They already had discuss of this last night in bed, the pretender had agreed with her even if he wasn’t pleased by her future actions. He had tried to talk her out of it and he almost succeeded… The man wasn’t called Genius for nothing however Parker was nothing if not obstinate! There was no way that she would stay here, she didn’t belong there. And if she didn’t leave soon, doctor Frankenstein’s life expectancy would head to 0 by the end of the week. Her Wonder boy would joined her and Mickael after finding and settling a safe place for his family then the two of them would take care of the Centre!

They and the Centre had score to settle down.

------


One year later
Canada

For the hundredth time that day Emily looked at her brother’s house through her car window. She had arrived an hour earlier but all she had been able to do during that time was watch the house and grip the steering wheel in frustration.

What the Hell was she doing here? Of all place?! Well, she knew why. She had the idiotic idea to promise her brother to come this one time! It could be worst, she could be alone here, she reminded herself. Her mother and Steven had arrived yesterday, her father wouldn’t be here before three other days.

Shit! It wasn’t as if she and the Parker woman were friends! They couldn’t stand each others, period.

‘Yeah Em, but she is your brother’s girl, remember?’

She sighed heavily, she could already feel it! This whole idea was a mistake. She shook her head trying to dismiss the foreboding feeling and opened the driver door. As she headed toward her brother’s house, she tried to push away all negatives thoughts concerning the Parker woman. She didn’t want to play enemy here. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door and was welcome by the boyish smile of her older brother.

“ Em, we were begin to wonder if you would ever come?”

“ Who lost?”

“ Steven. He owe me a twenty!” he replied chuckling as he gave her a bear hug. “ Come in, from the smell Mom must have just finished her cooking.”

Emily followed her brother in his house, she had to admit that his house was as comfortable as beautiful. It felt homely! As she entered the kitchen she caught her mother’s eyes. They were welcoming as always, still she could detect an edge in them clearly signifying : ‘ Are you going to play nice here, Emily Russell?’ She answered the silent question by a reassuring smile, which satisfied her mother. She gave her daughter a quick kiss on both cheeks and a light squeezed on her arm.

“ So how is everything doing big brother?” Emily inquired as she eyed her brother from her head to toe. He seemed fine, hell she never has seemed him this radiant in the two years she had known him.

“ Life is good here. And Mickael is so well integrated! That kid is a bright one, you know. For example, the three of us went to the swimming pool and in only one day he learned from drowning to excel in five different swims! He is there right now, Parker will pick him up in ten minutes.”

Emily listened intently, she never had noticed how attached was Jarod to this boy… Hearing the way his brother talked about the little boy, Emily could only related to the way her own father talked about his children.

Emily felt as if someone had thrown her in a cold shower, never had she thought before that her brother had his very own family here. His Parker woman was not only his girl but the only mother little Mickael had ever known…

Her brother and mother were talking about Steven new tattoo again; she let them discuss of this on their own, too much busy with her own thoughts. The clinging of keys at the door brought her back to earth. They were back. She heard a child voice first, talking about a boy who was a jerk, from what she could grasp. A woman laugh reached her ears accompany with clinging of stiletto on the wooden floor.

Emily cringed from the inside, she just knew it was a bad idea to be here dammit!

Parker stepped in the room, Mickael at her side thanking her mother for the blue berry muffins.

“ You told me yesterday that you loved them.”

“ But you weren’t oblige to get in the trouble to-”

“ It was no trouble, so how many would you like?”

“ Six?” He whispered as he cast a look at Ms Parker at the same time.

“ Let’s begin with one, now shall we?” she replied an easy smile on her lips as she answered the boy.

“ How was work today?” asked Jarod as he rejoined her. His left hand traveled on her back in a soothing motion as she caressed his cheek before kissing him softly.

“ Quite good. I think I finally found another Broots! An idiot spilling coffee geek who can’t seem to utter more than mono syllable words in my presence. But friendly in a odd sort of way. ”

“ And completely under your spell!”

They laughed together at this, then Parker turned toward the right side of the kitchen and said in her best cool but non aggressive voice.

“ Hello Emily. It’s nice to see you here.”

“ Hello Ms Parker.”

‘Is everything ok?’ The little boy contacted her in a gentle way. Since their escape from the Centre, they had both practiced and increased their skill in telepathy. Now their contacts were like soft whispering in each others mind, nothing like the intrusive ways of their beginning.

‘ Yes. Don’t worry, Mickael. Jarod’s sister didn’t come here to begin a fight. Well, not while Margareth is here.’

‘ She seems lost here.’ He added, his thought colored by his curiosity.

‘ Yes, she does. That’s why I hope you’ll be as friendly and calm with her as with anybody else.’

‘ If she watches her mouth, there will be no problem.’ He broke the contact showing “ his mother ” that their argument concerning Emily Russell was closed.

“ Hey, Mickael? What about you helping me with the barbecue?” Jarod asked him as he picked the meat from the fridge.

“ Help as in lighting it or help as looking at you lighting it while I will be the one to carry the meat and stools?!”

Jarod crossed eyes with Miss Parker’s ones, the look they gave him was pretty explicit.

“ Mickael… You may be five but not until you turn ten will you ever light the barbecue.”

“ TEN!! But it’s twice my age!”

“ Well if it can make you feel any better, I didn’t light a barbecue before my thirty six summer.” He replied as the two of them left the kitchen, heading toward the garden.

Miss Parker grinned despite herself at Jarod’s last reply, that man was unbelievable!

“ Make yourself at home, Emily. Do you want anything to drink or eat?”

“ Thank you, Miss Parker. But at the moment all I want is to put my things away and maybe take a little nap before diner.”

“ Of course. Follow me, I’ll show you your room.”

Parker shook her head inwardly, she didn’t miss the stress Jarod’s sister had used on her name. So little sister was still not believing that she and her brother were involved seriously?! What did she think? That she would send them all back to the Centre? She snorted softly at this, as if the Centre was still functioning! And even if it did, it would be more interested in her than in any member of the Russell family. No it couldn’t be that. So, what was it?! Jealousy? Distrust? Or Hate? Well it wouldn’t be the first time that a woman would hate her.

After climbing the stair, Parker turned on her right and passed three rooms telling Emily that the first was Mickael’s one, the second being a bathroom and the third being Margareth’s one. She stopped at the end of the corridor in front of the last room on the right.

“ It’s yours. Your bathroom’s right here.” She indicated the room on the left to the red head.

“ Thank you.”

Miss Parker nodded then took the way back to the stair. Emily sighed deeply, relieved that the Parker woman was gone. She opened the door, threw her bag on the bed and took off her shoes, smiling in relief. Then she began to range her clothes, there wasn’t much but she wasn’t really expecting to stay more than two or three days. If by that time the formal cleaner and her were still alive, it would be time for her to bed her adieu. She wasn’t going to push her luck!

Still she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was probably the first time that she had seen her brother this calm and happy. To tell the truth, she hadn’t seen Jarod during the last six months, he wishing to stay close to the Parker woman. Yeah, he seemed well and happy, and in love, she thought bitterly as she put her last things in the chest of drawers. Maybe her mother was right? Maybe that Miss Parker was good for him? She shook her head dismissing the thought as quickly as it had come to her. Good for him?! HER?! Yeah right…

She had always pictured her brother marrying a woman who would be blond, petite, caring and patient. This Miss Parker was exactly the opposite!
Shit, she didn’t want to be here, she didn’t want to see them together! Well like her mother said, she should accept this. After all, it was what? A year? Or a little more that this two were together. And all the family, besides her, was happy about their relationship.

Hey she really tried to be nice and accept this, but every time she saw that woman, Emily was reminded of that Hell hole in Delaware and what its people had done to her family. Putting away her bag, she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes. Maybe a little sleep would help her relax…

Things didn’t get too bad after all, the meal had been wonderful and everybody at the table had seemed to enjoy themselves. Even Emily had broken three or four two hundreds watts smiles. Steven had come back with a new leather Jacket and pants, a black turtle neck and a red shirt. Margareth hadn’t commented but Parker’d approached the young man and had whispered something in his ear which had made the younger man smile brightly.

After dinner, Mickael had gone to his room without any complain, maybe because each of his sentences had been followed by a yawn for the last half hour.

Her mother and Parker had proposed themselves for the cleaning, this left her and her brothers alone in the garden enjoying the rest of the warm evening.

“ So, was it so bad, Em?” Steven asked her as he sipped softly his red wine glass.

“ No, it wasn’t.”

“ Oh, I sense a “but” coming, don’t you Steven?” Interjected Jarod playfully.

“ I sure do!”

“ You two are impossible, you know that?!” She grinned as she watched the same boyish smile erupted on Jarod’s and Steven’s face.

“ So what is this but about, Em?” Jarod asked, his voice refunding his seriousness and calm qualities.

“ I feel out of place here but you already knew that.”

“ But what I don’t know is why.”

Emily didn’t have anything to reply to this. She didn’t even know herself,
well she got an idea… But Hell, she just didn’t want to deal with this!

“ It must be pretty difficult for you Em…”

“ What do you mean, Steven?”

“ To hate the only woman your brother will ever love.”

“ I-I… I don’t know if I hate her-I”

Jarod shook his head at her words. He had hoped that time and distance would have help in the matter but things hadn’t changed at all concerning his sister’s feeling toward Miss Parker.

“ Look Em, let’s not discuss about this right now. We were having a nice evening and I hope it’ll continue.” Her older brother told her before leaving his chair and heading back in the house.

“ You know, it really pains him… This situation.”

Emily sighed again, running her right hand in her red curled hair.

“ I know Steven. I try but-”

“ No but, Em. Try HARDER! You should follow mom’s advice.”

“ Which one?”

“ Try to take her place. Try to understand what she went through. Try to comprehend her choices in life.”

“ Did you?”

“ I never resented Miss Parker as you do. She intended to free me from Donoterase, you know. She was the first person to ask me what I wanted and how things were in the out-side world.” He watched his sister rolled her eyes as he spoke, he knew all too well what she was thinking.

“ No, I don’t think she is perfect Em. On the contrary, she has made some mistakes. If she had trusted Jarod sooner, it wouldn’t have taken four years for us to be reunited. And I was also sickened to discover about this deal she had made with her father to gain her freedom if she brought our brother back to the Centre. But you know what? Now I understand her choices. Some are illogical others on the contrary show me what she had to go through to have to take them.”

“ It’s easy for you to understand her, you just have to crawl under her skin, Sim her and you end up with your answers. But me? I am not a pretender like you and Jarod.”

“ Or her? But you don’t have to be a pretender to understand someone. Talk to her, Em. Ask her the things that make you antagonize her.”

“ I guess for our brother I could try.”

****

“ Jarod, you ok?” Parker asked him as she watched him sit heavily on their leather sofa. He was brooding that was obvious and she got a pretty idea about what it was.

“ Not really, but heck, you had warned me.”

“ Sometimes, some people can’t get along. Hell you must know this better than anyone else. You were a shrink a few times, remember?”

“ I know but I feel that it’s not you… I mean, look at Dad. He had more to resent towards you than her and he just fall under your charm despite everything.”

She kneeled down in front of him, taking his cheek in her right hand, her thumb caressing it soothingly.

“ Jarod, do you have an idea how many people can’t get along even if they are family members?! I think half the globe is concerned!”

“ And it doesn’t bother you?” He asked somewhat surprised.

“ I wish things could be better between your sister and I, but I won’t hold my breath… She was never in the Centre, she had the chance to never fall into their claws.”

“ She doesn’t understand.”

“ Don’t resent her for that. Many people wouldn’t understand anyway!” She tried to convince him then pause before continuing in a seductive voice, teasing his ear with her lips.

“ Hey, what about dessert?”

“ Didn’t we just… Oh, I get it!” he grinned then smiled boyishly as the two of them left the living room turning of the light, before heading to the master sleeping room trying as much as possible to be quiet.







Two years later

It had been a long time since she had come to visit her, it had been much too long for her own liking. How long had she been watching her gravestone? She couldn’t say, between pushing away the remembrance of that fateful day she’d lost her in the elevator and trying to remember a more happy time they’d shared together, she had lost track of time.

To make it harder, her subconscious mind recalled her that day when the three of them had passed an entire day and night in company of Jarod…

Even at that time he had been there to watch over her and her mother. Never saying a word too many, never allowing himself the possibility…

After all they weren’t very different, she thought a bitter sweet smile coming on her lips then vanishing almost immediately. She had made a choice, period. Still she missed him as much as she missed her mother, she shook her head at that thought. One had been taken from her and the other one she had willingly pushed away. Talk about a screwed family!

Parker breathed in deeply, reminding her that she was not here to think about him. She was here to pay her respect to her mother. Earlier she had visited her brother’s tomb but only briefly, realizing that she was still too closed to the event of the last years. It was weird really, after all she had shot him and left him for dead two times and still she couldn’t forgive herself of her act, despite all Jarod and his parents had told her…

Her back straightened suddenly despite herself. Someone was here, what was kind of odd seeing it was five in the morning. Even if the Centre wasn’t anymore, she just couldn’t let her guard completely down back here in Delaware. Foot steps could be heard in the cemetery, gravel rolling under shoes softly. The soft noise ceased right behind her.
“ Good morning, Miss Parker.”

She turned toward the intruder, her cold eyes meeting his.

“ It was, two minutes ago.”

A long sigh, then he tried again.

“ I missed you. Angelo too.”

Parker closed her eyes, not wanting to be read by him, he was too good at this.

“ What do you want, Sydney?”

“ I only wanted to see you, I had hoped that you…” He stopped when she didn’t react then he added defeated “A foolish thought… How are Jarod and Mickael?”

“ You already know, right? How would have you known that I would be here today at this hour?”

“ True.”

“ Who talked you into it? Mickael or Wonder boy?”

“ Both to tell you the truth. They are worried about you.”

His gentle voice was music to her hear but it wasn’t enough yet for her…

“ I am still not able to forgive you, Sydney… It’s… You know what it meant for me to discover this, don’t you?”

“ Yes, I know Ms Parker. And if it can make you feel better, I didn’t intend to come here to beg your forgiveness. How are Broots and Debby?”
He asked hoping that this change of subject would make her feel less uneasy.

“ They are doing fine. Broots never earned this much money in his life for that little work and he even got a girl… As for Debby, well I saw her last week and she told me that she’d fallen in love for the humm 25 times since the beginning of the year. So it must mean that she is doing great for a 15 years old girl.” Parker finished smiling softly, picturing herself Debby smiling to the heaven as she told her about her new boy friend.

“ Parker, my proposition will surely be unwelcome but if you change your mind in the future” he paused as he took his wallet from his inner coat pocket. “ Here is my address… If you want to see Angelo or me, you can come any day or night.” He placed the card in her right hand, caressing it softly with his thumb before squeezing it gently, then he turned on his hills and walked back to his car. She watched him for a long minute, unable to decide what to do.

“ Sydney!”

He stopped, turning back toward her, his brown eyes searching hers.

“ Yes, Ms Parker?”

“ I may be not able to forgive you for now, but… As much as I try to convince myself otherwise, I miss you Freud!” She whispered as she took him in her arms. Sydney welcomed the hug and crushed her against his chest.

“ Come with me. You’ll see Jarod and Mickael, I am sure Angelo would be ecstatic to come too.”

“ Only if my presence doesn’t-”
“ Sydney, did you hear what I have just said or are you becoming deaf in your old years?”

“ All right.”

They left each other arms, Sydney saw Parker’s eyes watered, but the tears didn’t fall. Smiling, he caressed her cheek tenderly then took her arm, the two of them walking out of the cemetery.

End

Author’s note: I wanted to thank all the persons that reviewed these stories. You know who you are. You made me finished despite the very long time it took me! I hope my English improved a bit since the beginning of this awesome journey. I also hope that whoever read this story to its end appreciated it, not as much as me that would foolish thinking on my part, but if it brought you a smile from time to time even a laugh, then I’ll be able to consider my author’s mission accomplished! Thanks again.

nelle_aep@hotmail.com