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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
See part 1 for disclaimer.
A/N: I realize that the interval between posts has grown considerably but real life has been particularly demanding lately. I'd tell you all about it but you probably wouldn't believe me. Such is my love for you guys that I actually wrote most of this part on the train back from D.C. today when, after the week I've had, any sensible person would have been napping in earnest.
Brand New Year, Part 10
Parker awoke to the sound of whispering and opened her eyes to find Jarod lying on his back beside her with Michael seated on his stomach, the child's chubby little legs stretched out onto his father's chest. She smiled, warmth welling up in her and nearly compelling her to slide over and give them each a "Good Morning" kiss. Fortunately, she was able to suppress the urge. The last thing she needed to do was start planting her lips on Jarod. She would prefer to deal with one emotional upheaval at a time, thank you.
"Morning," he offered amiably then tickled his son's ribs and giggled right along with him.
The urge came back but she again suppressed it. Jarod wore paternal well, damn him. She really needed a cup of coffee.
"I need a cup of coffee," she groaned, hoping it would prompt him to stop being so appealing and get out of bed to fetch her one.
"He's a morning person, like me!" he chirped.
"You're a morning, afternoon and evening person; pretty much a 24- hour pain-in-the-ass," she observed.
Ignoring her barb he said, "I was just asking Michael - who, incidentally, Andi, will pick up his vocabulary from us - how you knew I was eavesdropping when I know I didn't make a sound."
"I can always sense when you're nearby," she replied matter-of- factly, choosing in turn to ignore his remark. "I call it my J-DAR," she added on a yawn.
"A feature of your 'Inner Sense' then," he stated while playing a game of peek-a-boo through his hands.
"Well, maybe, but it started long before the voices and visions did. Had it forever, actually. How do you think I used to find you when we were kids, by going around and asking?"
Turning his head to meet her eyes he answered, "Well, no, I guess not, but it never occurred to me because..."
"I never managed to capture you and bring you back. Amazing isn't it," she commented dryly.
Grinning he replied, "Yes, it is," then deftly swept Michael into one arm, sat up and leaned over.
It was all so fast that she didn't know what hit her, well, except that she had the distinct sensation of warm lips on hers, Jarod's lips. She'd barely had time to process that piece of information when he broke away, set their son down beside her and hopped off the bed announcing, "I'll be back in a minute with coffee. In the meantime, be a good boy and keep Mommy company."
Then he was gone and Parker looked over to find her son blinking expectantly at her. Reaching out to stroke his belly she remarked with a smirk, "I think we need to have another talk with Daddy about boundaries."
* * * *
"Let me help you with that," Parker offered as Emily began clearing the table from lunch.
"No thank you, Miss Parker. You should take it easy," she replied.
"I've had my fat fill of taking it easy and it's Miranda. Parker is not my name anymore," she stated as she stood up from the table and picked up a plate.
"Oh, so that's all it takes," Emily muttered under her breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear as she turned toward the sink.
Jarod frowned and appeared poised to speak but Parker shook her head at him, advising, "It's a sunny day. Why don't you, your father and James take Michael outside to build a snowman or something."
"Good idea," the Major piped in, shooting James a knowing look as he stood up from the table.
"But I..." Jarod began to protest but was cut off by the look Parker shot him and settled for asking, "Are you sure?"
"If I wasn't sure I wouldn't have suggested it," she replied coolly, effectively ending the conversation.
With that Charles and James muttered their goodbyes and left. Jarod wiped Michael's hands and face then extracted him from the high chair and held him out to his mother for a kiss.
"Be good," she advised sternly. "You too, little man," she added with a wink to her son.
"I make no promises," Jarod said through a forced smile then stole a nervous glance at his sister before exiting the room.
What followed were several long minutes of silence as Parker cleared the table and Emily filled the sink with sudsy water. Her task complete, Parker took a seat at the table and waited. More silence followed until it was broken by Emily offering,
"Thank you for your help. I can take it from here so you are free to do what you want."
"What I want is for you to take a seat and say to my face what I know you're thinking."
"Listen," Emily began as she turned to face Parker. "Please don't pay any attention to me. I guess I must be tired or something. Anyway, I apologize for the remark. It isn't my place to..."
"Bullshit," Parker interjected matter-of-factly. "Of course it's your place. You're Jarod's flesh and blood and you're finally all together... almost. Now you're saddled with a former agent of the organization who tore apart your family in the first place and you resent it." She paused a moment for effect then added with a wry smile, "Am I getting warm here?"
Emily sighed and slumped her shoulders then asked, "Am I beyond evil?"
"Well... since that's exactly how I'd feel in your position then my knee jerk response would be 'yes.' On the other hand, it's probably a very reasonable response to an extremely awkward situation. I will tell you one thing: you've been a hell of a lot nicer than I would be."
Ambling over to the table, Emily explained, "Oh, I don't know about that. It's not as though I really have a choice in the matter. Jarod wouldn't stand for it." Sinking into a chair opposite Parker she added, "He's extremely protective of you, and I have a feeling that the little display we saw yesterday was just the tip of the iceberg."
"Typical of him to expect everyone to become one big happy family just because HE thinks we should. I mean, until this week, the only time I'd ever set eyes on you I was brandishing a weapon and killing a chance for your family to be together."
"You didn't do that alone."
"No, I didn't, but I was there."
"Well," Emily stated with a shrug. "There is that but... for me... it's more about... my own experience with..."
"I assume you are referring to my psychopathic twin brother with whom you now find yourself sharing a nephew," Parker stated with an expression of faint disgust.
"He pushed me out of a window and I almost... didn't..."
"So I heard."
"He murdered my brother, and took away my chance of ever getting to know him."
"I know. I was there."
"And now we're all related. It's all just so... weird," Emily commented on a sigh.
"No kidding," Parker concurred with a nod. "And it's a monumental relief that somebody else notices. Jarod's cheeriness and enthusiasm are enough to make a person with a firm grasp on reality feel as though she's fallen through the rabbit hole."
"He can't help it," Emily observed with a shrug. "Having you here - you and Michael - means the world to him."
"I know it was a bit of a shock at first, to find out that he's a father, but he's really embraced the role the way I knew he would."
"It's not all about him, you know. To me it seems... it's... Shit, how can I explain this?" Emily took a fortifying breath and continued, "When Zoe was with us for a while... Oh, do you know who that is?"
"Vaguely," Parker replied evenly.
"Whenever we'd rendezvous with Jarod they would, you know, be together, and I could sense him trying incredibly hard to be the perfect boyfriend. That is until after his adventure in Scotland when he suddently stopped trying. By the way, I understand that you came face-to-face with my mother. Was she... alright?"
"Well," Parker began tentatively then shrugged and confided, "As I'm sure Jarod told you, she'd had better days. But I can tell you that the last I saw her she was safe, or at least on her way to safety.
Emily pondered a moment then with a wave of her hand went on, "Anyway, even though I'd made that observation about Jarod and Zoe over a year ago, it was only this week that it hit me and it broke my heart: he does the same thing with us. He tries. He tries as hard as he possibly can."
"What could be wrong with that? Your family was split up and, now that it's coming together again, he just wants it to be perfect. Of course, you know that it can't be perfect and I know that it can't be perfect but he doesn't know that. Deep down he's still an innocent who believes in happily ever after."
"You speak with a great deal of authority on the subject," Emily observed. Parker shrugged.
"He doesn't try with you," Emily stated pointedly, adding, "He doesn't have to."
Somewhat taken aback by that statement Parker stammered, "I... he... we've known one another for a very long time."
"Precisely, and we're still in many ways strangers. And now he has a new priority, a family of his own which, obviously, must come first. We have to drop down to second and we haven't even..."
"Found your mother yet," Parker muttered with a nod then averted her eyes. Silence reigned for a time until Emily remarked,
"But I can't deny it; he's happier than I've ever seen him, and I'd be willing to bet that he's happier than he's ever been. He is my brother and I love him so don't worry, Mi... Miranda; I'll deal. Past deeds aside, you did bring Michael to us. And, of course, you make my brother happy."
"Not intentionally!" Parker insisted.
Chuckling and shaking her head, Emily commented, "And yet..."
* * * *
Parker was pleasantly surprised when, on her fourth morning there, Jarod announced that she could take a proper bath. There were conditions, of course: she was to leave the bathroom door unlocked, could soak for no longer than five minutes, and would have to let Emily shampoo her hair in order to keep her bandage, and the wound beneath it, dry. While finding her helplessness humiliating and generally intolerable, she grudgingly agreed to his terms because she was desperate for a degree of cleanliness that no amount of sponge bathing could achieve.
"I think it's safe to say that we've reached a new level of weird," she joked to Emily then offered sincerely, "For about the millionth time this week, thank you," before heading back to the bedroom.
She entered to find a smiling Jarod sitting on the end of the bed with Michael in his lap. Beside them was a brightly wrapped package. Shit, she thought; she knew she'd been forgetting something.
"Happy Birthday!" Jarod exclaimed.
"Oh brother," she muttered then lumbered toward the bed.
"Here," he advised, picking up the box. "Have a seat."
"Do I have to?" she grumbled.
"Yes," he replied with a smirk that evolved into a full blown grin as she flopped down beside him with an exaggerated sigh.
"Let's see," he continued, this time addressing his son. "What do we have for Mommy?"
Jarod placed the package gently onto her lap. Their son looked on with wide eyes as she tore the paper off the box, clapping his hands and chuckling when she was finished. Smiling unconsciously she removed the lid.
"You always smile when he laughs," Jarod observed warmly.
"It's a beautiful sound," Parker replied as she pulled back the tissue paper to reveal her gift. Furrowing her brow she asked, "An atlas?"
"Turn to page A24," he instructed.
So she did, staring at the page for a while before looking up and turning to meet his eyes.
"Well?" he inquired hopefully. "What do you think?"
"What do I think? Your father can have this flannel robe back, for a start," she replied as a wide smile unfurled across her lips.
# # # #
A/N: I realize that the interval between posts has grown considerably but real life has been particularly demanding lately. I'd tell you all about it but you probably wouldn't believe me. Such is my love for you guys that I actually wrote most of this part on the train back from D.C. today when, after the week I've had, any sensible person would have been napping in earnest.
Brand New Year, Part 10
Parker awoke to the sound of whispering and opened her eyes to find Jarod lying on his back beside her with Michael seated on his stomach, the child's chubby little legs stretched out onto his father's chest. She smiled, warmth welling up in her and nearly compelling her to slide over and give them each a "Good Morning" kiss. Fortunately, she was able to suppress the urge. The last thing she needed to do was start planting her lips on Jarod. She would prefer to deal with one emotional upheaval at a time, thank you.
"Morning," he offered amiably then tickled his son's ribs and giggled right along with him.
The urge came back but she again suppressed it. Jarod wore paternal well, damn him. She really needed a cup of coffee.
"I need a cup of coffee," she groaned, hoping it would prompt him to stop being so appealing and get out of bed to fetch her one.
"He's a morning person, like me!" he chirped.
"You're a morning, afternoon and evening person; pretty much a 24- hour pain-in-the-ass," she observed.
Ignoring her barb he said, "I was just asking Michael - who, incidentally, Andi, will pick up his vocabulary from us - how you knew I was eavesdropping when I know I didn't make a sound."
"I can always sense when you're nearby," she replied matter-of- factly, choosing in turn to ignore his remark. "I call it my J-DAR," she added on a yawn.
"A feature of your 'Inner Sense' then," he stated while playing a game of peek-a-boo through his hands.
"Well, maybe, but it started long before the voices and visions did. Had it forever, actually. How do you think I used to find you when we were kids, by going around and asking?"
Turning his head to meet her eyes he answered, "Well, no, I guess not, but it never occurred to me because..."
"I never managed to capture you and bring you back. Amazing isn't it," she commented dryly.
Grinning he replied, "Yes, it is," then deftly swept Michael into one arm, sat up and leaned over.
It was all so fast that she didn't know what hit her, well, except that she had the distinct sensation of warm lips on hers, Jarod's lips. She'd barely had time to process that piece of information when he broke away, set their son down beside her and hopped off the bed announcing, "I'll be back in a minute with coffee. In the meantime, be a good boy and keep Mommy company."
Then he was gone and Parker looked over to find her son blinking expectantly at her. Reaching out to stroke his belly she remarked with a smirk, "I think we need to have another talk with Daddy about boundaries."
* * * *
"Let me help you with that," Parker offered as Emily began clearing the table from lunch.
"No thank you, Miss Parker. You should take it easy," she replied.
"I've had my fat fill of taking it easy and it's Miranda. Parker is not my name anymore," she stated as she stood up from the table and picked up a plate.
"Oh, so that's all it takes," Emily muttered under her breath, but loud enough for everyone to hear as she turned toward the sink.
Jarod frowned and appeared poised to speak but Parker shook her head at him, advising, "It's a sunny day. Why don't you, your father and James take Michael outside to build a snowman or something."
"Good idea," the Major piped in, shooting James a knowing look as he stood up from the table.
"But I..." Jarod began to protest but was cut off by the look Parker shot him and settled for asking, "Are you sure?"
"If I wasn't sure I wouldn't have suggested it," she replied coolly, effectively ending the conversation.
With that Charles and James muttered their goodbyes and left. Jarod wiped Michael's hands and face then extracted him from the high chair and held him out to his mother for a kiss.
"Be good," she advised sternly. "You too, little man," she added with a wink to her son.
"I make no promises," Jarod said through a forced smile then stole a nervous glance at his sister before exiting the room.
What followed were several long minutes of silence as Parker cleared the table and Emily filled the sink with sudsy water. Her task complete, Parker took a seat at the table and waited. More silence followed until it was broken by Emily offering,
"Thank you for your help. I can take it from here so you are free to do what you want."
"What I want is for you to take a seat and say to my face what I know you're thinking."
"Listen," Emily began as she turned to face Parker. "Please don't pay any attention to me. I guess I must be tired or something. Anyway, I apologize for the remark. It isn't my place to..."
"Bullshit," Parker interjected matter-of-factly. "Of course it's your place. You're Jarod's flesh and blood and you're finally all together... almost. Now you're saddled with a former agent of the organization who tore apart your family in the first place and you resent it." She paused a moment for effect then added with a wry smile, "Am I getting warm here?"
Emily sighed and slumped her shoulders then asked, "Am I beyond evil?"
"Well... since that's exactly how I'd feel in your position then my knee jerk response would be 'yes.' On the other hand, it's probably a very reasonable response to an extremely awkward situation. I will tell you one thing: you've been a hell of a lot nicer than I would be."
Ambling over to the table, Emily explained, "Oh, I don't know about that. It's not as though I really have a choice in the matter. Jarod wouldn't stand for it." Sinking into a chair opposite Parker she added, "He's extremely protective of you, and I have a feeling that the little display we saw yesterday was just the tip of the iceberg."
"Typical of him to expect everyone to become one big happy family just because HE thinks we should. I mean, until this week, the only time I'd ever set eyes on you I was brandishing a weapon and killing a chance for your family to be together."
"You didn't do that alone."
"No, I didn't, but I was there."
"Well," Emily stated with a shrug. "There is that but... for me... it's more about... my own experience with..."
"I assume you are referring to my psychopathic twin brother with whom you now find yourself sharing a nephew," Parker stated with an expression of faint disgust.
"He pushed me out of a window and I almost... didn't..."
"So I heard."
"He murdered my brother, and took away my chance of ever getting to know him."
"I know. I was there."
"And now we're all related. It's all just so... weird," Emily commented on a sigh.
"No kidding," Parker concurred with a nod. "And it's a monumental relief that somebody else notices. Jarod's cheeriness and enthusiasm are enough to make a person with a firm grasp on reality feel as though she's fallen through the rabbit hole."
"He can't help it," Emily observed with a shrug. "Having you here - you and Michael - means the world to him."
"I know it was a bit of a shock at first, to find out that he's a father, but he's really embraced the role the way I knew he would."
"It's not all about him, you know. To me it seems... it's... Shit, how can I explain this?" Emily took a fortifying breath and continued, "When Zoe was with us for a while... Oh, do you know who that is?"
"Vaguely," Parker replied evenly.
"Whenever we'd rendezvous with Jarod they would, you know, be together, and I could sense him trying incredibly hard to be the perfect boyfriend. That is until after his adventure in Scotland when he suddently stopped trying. By the way, I understand that you came face-to-face with my mother. Was she... alright?"
"Well," Parker began tentatively then shrugged and confided, "As I'm sure Jarod told you, she'd had better days. But I can tell you that the last I saw her she was safe, or at least on her way to safety.
Emily pondered a moment then with a wave of her hand went on, "Anyway, even though I'd made that observation about Jarod and Zoe over a year ago, it was only this week that it hit me and it broke my heart: he does the same thing with us. He tries. He tries as hard as he possibly can."
"What could be wrong with that? Your family was split up and, now that it's coming together again, he just wants it to be perfect. Of course, you know that it can't be perfect and I know that it can't be perfect but he doesn't know that. Deep down he's still an innocent who believes in happily ever after."
"You speak with a great deal of authority on the subject," Emily observed. Parker shrugged.
"He doesn't try with you," Emily stated pointedly, adding, "He doesn't have to."
Somewhat taken aback by that statement Parker stammered, "I... he... we've known one another for a very long time."
"Precisely, and we're still in many ways strangers. And now he has a new priority, a family of his own which, obviously, must come first. We have to drop down to second and we haven't even..."
"Found your mother yet," Parker muttered with a nod then averted her eyes. Silence reigned for a time until Emily remarked,
"But I can't deny it; he's happier than I've ever seen him, and I'd be willing to bet that he's happier than he's ever been. He is my brother and I love him so don't worry, Mi... Miranda; I'll deal. Past deeds aside, you did bring Michael to us. And, of course, you make my brother happy."
"Not intentionally!" Parker insisted.
Chuckling and shaking her head, Emily commented, "And yet..."
* * * *
Parker was pleasantly surprised when, on her fourth morning there, Jarod announced that she could take a proper bath. There were conditions, of course: she was to leave the bathroom door unlocked, could soak for no longer than five minutes, and would have to let Emily shampoo her hair in order to keep her bandage, and the wound beneath it, dry. While finding her helplessness humiliating and generally intolerable, she grudgingly agreed to his terms because she was desperate for a degree of cleanliness that no amount of sponge bathing could achieve.
"I think it's safe to say that we've reached a new level of weird," she joked to Emily then offered sincerely, "For about the millionth time this week, thank you," before heading back to the bedroom.
She entered to find a smiling Jarod sitting on the end of the bed with Michael in his lap. Beside them was a brightly wrapped package. Shit, she thought; she knew she'd been forgetting something.
"Happy Birthday!" Jarod exclaimed.
"Oh brother," she muttered then lumbered toward the bed.
"Here," he advised, picking up the box. "Have a seat."
"Do I have to?" she grumbled.
"Yes," he replied with a smirk that evolved into a full blown grin as she flopped down beside him with an exaggerated sigh.
"Let's see," he continued, this time addressing his son. "What do we have for Mommy?"
Jarod placed the package gently onto her lap. Their son looked on with wide eyes as she tore the paper off the box, clapping his hands and chuckling when she was finished. Smiling unconsciously she removed the lid.
"You always smile when he laughs," Jarod observed warmly.
"It's a beautiful sound," Parker replied as she pulled back the tissue paper to reveal her gift. Furrowing her brow she asked, "An atlas?"
"Turn to page A24," he instructed.
So she did, staring at the page for a while before looking up and turning to meet his eyes.
"Well?" he inquired hopefully. "What do you think?"
"What do I think? Your father can have this flannel robe back, for a start," she replied as a wide smile unfurled across her lips.
# # # #
