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Family Ties
by Rebeckah
Jarod ran, holding his left arm awkwardly against his body and clutching his metal case in his right hand, cursing inwardly with every step. The Pretend had gone so well at first! He'd had no problem learning how to scuba dive, even with the extra precautions necessary to diving in the frigid waters off of the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound. He'd inserted himself into the Marine Biology team studying the large octopus breed found only in the waters around Washington State and British Columbia, Canada. In no time at all he'd determined that the man who'd funded the project, Mr. Martin Baker, was also responsible for the near fatal accident that had befallen his ex-wife, Amanda Phillips.
Amanda was one of the junior biologists on the team and had been unaware of her wealthy ex-husband's part in the project. She'd nearly died when her scuba gear developed a series of faults that plunged her to a potentially lethal 300 feet underwater, and then cut off her oxygen supply with a minute explosion in her breathing gear. Her quick thinking, ditching the weights, and doing a rapid "free ascent", had saved her life, but left her with a good case of the bends, or decompression sickness as it is now called.
Pneumonia had developed as a complication, trapping her in a hospital bed where her husband tried once again to rid himself of the wife who'd divorced him and gained custody of their two girls. Jarod had orchestrated an elaborate "sting", trapping Mr. Baker in the hospital's decompression chamber and tearing out a confession of his schemes with the threat of his own imminent demise to lethal atmospheric density. Jarod had arranged for the chamber technician to deliver Baker to the police, along with the videotape of his confession, and had the recovering Amanda set up in a small house in Olympia with her daughters, two nurses and a nanny. Of course, Jarod had paid all the expenses and left the small family enough to provide for them until Amanda was fully recovered, then he had retired to his rustic cabin to retrieve his few precious possessions and head out to the site of his next Pretend.
It was a complete shock to find the Parkers, Miss and Lyle, waiting for him. In a dramatic change of tactics they'd tracked down his hideout, instead of trying to intercept him in mid-Pretend, and waited for his return. He'd barely escaped out the back door with his priceless DSA's and metal case. Even so a lucky, or maybe it was unlucky, wildly fired shot had managed to strike the exact spot necessary to cause an explosion in the gas tank of Lyle and Parker's Towncar. Jarod was closest to the car and literally lifted off of his feet and thrown into the woods surrounding his cabin. He didn't dare check on Miss Parker, not with Lyle so close, so he'd merely picked himself up from the bushes that had broken his fall, barely noticing his dislocated shoulder in his haste to relocate the metallic briefcase, and ran into the lush rain forest of the Pacific Northwest.
He felt the seeping warmth of blood saturating his right arm, and knew a projectile of some sort had cut him, though he felt no pain yet. The hot liquid streamed down his right arm and onto the case, and knew that he was leaving an easily followed trail behind him.
Even as the realization of his injuries penetrated his anxious mind, he burst out of the trees and onto a narrow, two lane paved road that was wet from the drizzle that had been falling since the sun had gone down. Beginning to weave from exhaustion and blood loss, Jarod fell headlong onto the pavement, pulled himself up again, and began stumbling down the center of the road, thinking only of escape and oblivious to the danger of cars.
The loud blare of a horn and unmistakable hiss of tires sliding on slick blacktop startled him, impelling him to leap to the soggy bank rising on the side of the road.
"You idiot!" The angry female tones of the shaken driver drew his attention to the powder blue Sprint that had managed to stop several yards ahead of him on the road. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm sorry." Jarod managed shakily, pulling away from the bank and starting down the road again, towards the woman emerging from her car. "I've got to get away, they'll be here in a minute."
"They who?" The woman asked, moving closer cautiously. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed an instant later when her flashlight beam illuminated his face, scratched and bruised from his precipitous journey into the woods surrounding his cabin hideaway.
"What happened to you?"
"Got to get away." Jarod repeated anxiously, his brown eyes blank with shock. "Please, help?" He stumbled again and fell to his knees, losing his grip on the case
"C'mon." The woman approached him quickly, grabbing him supportively around the waist as he struggled back to his feet, and grabbing the case even as he reached out for it. "I can at least get you to a hospital."
She shoved him into the passenger seat, putting the case on the floor under his feet and buckling his seatbelt before slamming the door shut and hurrying to slide behind the wheel of the car. In moments she had the car in gear and headed back down the road cut into the foothills of the Cascades. Lyle, scratched, dirty and perspiring, emerged from the trees just in time to see the taillights of the woman's car disappearing around a bend in the road.
"Damn!" He cursed, his brown eyes seeming black as he glared impotently down the road.
"Too late again?" Miss Parker taunted, emerging from the trees only slightly less mussed. "Well, we might as well start walking then, thanks to you the Towncar is toast."
She looked down at her attractive, but inappropriate high heeled sandals and sighed in resignation. "Well, they were ruined in that little nature walk anyway." She muttered to herself, kicking them off and stalking furiously down the road in her bare feet.
"When I get my hands on Jarod..!" Lyle muttered ominously, prompting a derisive laugh from his sister.
"IF, you get your hands on Jarod!" She corrected him acidly, throwing the comment over her shoulder. "So far he's managed to outthink you every time. We're still three steps behind him."
"No, we almost had him this time." Lyle contradicted her, his rage rising as he registered the damage done to his expensive silk suit. "I *will* get him, dear sister, I swear."
"Right." She laughed dismissively. "In the meantime why don't you use your dizzying intellect to find us a ride?"
As the unhappy siblings sniped at each other and hiked for the nearest phone, Jarod roused himself enough to reassure himself of the presence of his all important briefcase, and contradict his rescuer's plans to drop him off at the nearest emergency room.
"No." He told her with remarkable firmness considering the fact that his face was pale and his lips nearly bloodless. "I can't go to an emergency room---they'll be checking the hospitals. Just take me to a motel. A small, out of the way, motel."
The woman pulled her eyes off the road long enough to give him an assessing look, her royal blue eyes seeming to penetrate through his attempt to seem perfectly okay.
"Not a chance, buddy." She responded with more believable firmness, glancing at the blood that had saturated the side of her T-shirt as she helped him to the car. "You need medical attention."
"Look, I'm a doctor." He told her, muttering, "sometimes", under his breath. "I can doctor myself."
"You're about to pass out." The woman pointed out sensibly.
"If you take me to an emergency room I'll just turn around and walk back out." He threatened desperately.
"All right!" She snapped irritably. "I'll take you to my place. You'd better not be running from the law, though. I'll turn you in myself!"
"No, they aren't the law. Just really, really ruthless." Jarod mumbled, his head sagging back wearily as he gave in to his injuries.
by Rebeckah
Jarod ran, holding his left arm awkwardly against his body and clutching his metal case in his right hand, cursing inwardly with every step. The Pretend had gone so well at first! He'd had no problem learning how to scuba dive, even with the extra precautions necessary to diving in the frigid waters off of the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound. He'd inserted himself into the Marine Biology team studying the large octopus breed found only in the waters around Washington State and British Columbia, Canada. In no time at all he'd determined that the man who'd funded the project, Mr. Martin Baker, was also responsible for the near fatal accident that had befallen his ex-wife, Amanda Phillips.
Amanda was one of the junior biologists on the team and had been unaware of her wealthy ex-husband's part in the project. She'd nearly died when her scuba gear developed a series of faults that plunged her to a potentially lethal 300 feet underwater, and then cut off her oxygen supply with a minute explosion in her breathing gear. Her quick thinking, ditching the weights, and doing a rapid "free ascent", had saved her life, but left her with a good case of the bends, or decompression sickness as it is now called.
Pneumonia had developed as a complication, trapping her in a hospital bed where her husband tried once again to rid himself of the wife who'd divorced him and gained custody of their two girls. Jarod had orchestrated an elaborate "sting", trapping Mr. Baker in the hospital's decompression chamber and tearing out a confession of his schemes with the threat of his own imminent demise to lethal atmospheric density. Jarod had arranged for the chamber technician to deliver Baker to the police, along with the videotape of his confession, and had the recovering Amanda set up in a small house in Olympia with her daughters, two nurses and a nanny. Of course, Jarod had paid all the expenses and left the small family enough to provide for them until Amanda was fully recovered, then he had retired to his rustic cabin to retrieve his few precious possessions and head out to the site of his next Pretend.
It was a complete shock to find the Parkers, Miss and Lyle, waiting for him. In a dramatic change of tactics they'd tracked down his hideout, instead of trying to intercept him in mid-Pretend, and waited for his return. He'd barely escaped out the back door with his priceless DSA's and metal case. Even so a lucky, or maybe it was unlucky, wildly fired shot had managed to strike the exact spot necessary to cause an explosion in the gas tank of Lyle and Parker's Towncar. Jarod was closest to the car and literally lifted off of his feet and thrown into the woods surrounding his cabin. He didn't dare check on Miss Parker, not with Lyle so close, so he'd merely picked himself up from the bushes that had broken his fall, barely noticing his dislocated shoulder in his haste to relocate the metallic briefcase, and ran into the lush rain forest of the Pacific Northwest.
He felt the seeping warmth of blood saturating his right arm, and knew a projectile of some sort had cut him, though he felt no pain yet. The hot liquid streamed down his right arm and onto the case, and knew that he was leaving an easily followed trail behind him.
Even as the realization of his injuries penetrated his anxious mind, he burst out of the trees and onto a narrow, two lane paved road that was wet from the drizzle that had been falling since the sun had gone down. Beginning to weave from exhaustion and blood loss, Jarod fell headlong onto the pavement, pulled himself up again, and began stumbling down the center of the road, thinking only of escape and oblivious to the danger of cars.
The loud blare of a horn and unmistakable hiss of tires sliding on slick blacktop startled him, impelling him to leap to the soggy bank rising on the side of the road.
"You idiot!" The angry female tones of the shaken driver drew his attention to the powder blue Sprint that had managed to stop several yards ahead of him on the road. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm sorry." Jarod managed shakily, pulling away from the bank and starting down the road again, towards the woman emerging from her car. "I've got to get away, they'll be here in a minute."
"They who?" The woman asked, moving closer cautiously. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed an instant later when her flashlight beam illuminated his face, scratched and bruised from his precipitous journey into the woods surrounding his cabin hideaway.
"What happened to you?"
"Got to get away." Jarod repeated anxiously, his brown eyes blank with shock. "Please, help?" He stumbled again and fell to his knees, losing his grip on the case
"C'mon." The woman approached him quickly, grabbing him supportively around the waist as he struggled back to his feet, and grabbing the case even as he reached out for it. "I can at least get you to a hospital."
She shoved him into the passenger seat, putting the case on the floor under his feet and buckling his seatbelt before slamming the door shut and hurrying to slide behind the wheel of the car. In moments she had the car in gear and headed back down the road cut into the foothills of the Cascades. Lyle, scratched, dirty and perspiring, emerged from the trees just in time to see the taillights of the woman's car disappearing around a bend in the road.
"Damn!" He cursed, his brown eyes seeming black as he glared impotently down the road.
"Too late again?" Miss Parker taunted, emerging from the trees only slightly less mussed. "Well, we might as well start walking then, thanks to you the Towncar is toast."
She looked down at her attractive, but inappropriate high heeled sandals and sighed in resignation. "Well, they were ruined in that little nature walk anyway." She muttered to herself, kicking them off and stalking furiously down the road in her bare feet.
"When I get my hands on Jarod..!" Lyle muttered ominously, prompting a derisive laugh from his sister.
"IF, you get your hands on Jarod!" She corrected him acidly, throwing the comment over her shoulder. "So far he's managed to outthink you every time. We're still three steps behind him."
"No, we almost had him this time." Lyle contradicted her, his rage rising as he registered the damage done to his expensive silk suit. "I *will* get him, dear sister, I swear."
"Right." She laughed dismissively. "In the meantime why don't you use your dizzying intellect to find us a ride?"
As the unhappy siblings sniped at each other and hiked for the nearest phone, Jarod roused himself enough to reassure himself of the presence of his all important briefcase, and contradict his rescuer's plans to drop him off at the nearest emergency room.
"No." He told her with remarkable firmness considering the fact that his face was pale and his lips nearly bloodless. "I can't go to an emergency room---they'll be checking the hospitals. Just take me to a motel. A small, out of the way, motel."
The woman pulled her eyes off the road long enough to give him an assessing look, her royal blue eyes seeming to penetrate through his attempt to seem perfectly okay.
"Not a chance, buddy." She responded with more believable firmness, glancing at the blood that had saturated the side of her T-shirt as she helped him to the car. "You need medical attention."
"Look, I'm a doctor." He told her, muttering, "sometimes", under his breath. "I can doctor myself."
"You're about to pass out." The woman pointed out sensibly.
"If you take me to an emergency room I'll just turn around and walk back out." He threatened desperately.
"All right!" She snapped irritably. "I'll take you to my place. You'd better not be running from the law, though. I'll turn you in myself!"
"No, they aren't the law. Just really, really ruthless." Jarod mumbled, his head sagging back wearily as he gave in to his injuries.
