Part Four

She is falling to her knees, hands in the air, tears and rain sliding down her face so hard that one is indistinguishable from the other. Around her is her family – marble and engraved words. Parker. Parker. Parker. “This is who I am. This is where I come from.” She shouts against the rain, rails against her past. She is angry, she is hurt, she is numb.

The scene changes as Jarod appears behind her, fading into another image. She is being dragged by sweepers away from an elevator, the world is silent though she knows she is screaming for her mama. Jarod watches, fights Sydney, tries to reach out to her to heal her pain. He could not reach her, and if he had, he could not have fixed what had been broken.

Again, the scene changes, this time to one she does not recognize. An oxygen mask is affixed to her face, the world around her blurry. Her head shifts to the side and the world does too, but with noticeable delay. A doctor sits in front of her, all but his face hidden by her raised knees. Her feet are fitted into stirrups, her hands restrained with plastic safety cuffs to the side rails of the bed. Behind the doctor is a fuzzy image of Raines, wheezing around the tubing that delivers his oxygen. He stares down at the doctor’s hands as he rolls his chair backward, extracting a long tube from beneath the tented sheets. She feels nothing, the world grays, and the scene shifts again.

This time her emotions are felt, her voice unsilenced, her skin tingles. She feels the tug as the infant pulls at her breast, suckling for food. Her child, she knows, the child she has yet to meet. At the corner of the bed, her mother is haloed, watching with a quiet smile as her grandchild struggles for his or her first meal. A girl, she thinks, because her eyelashes are just so long. The baby skin is soft against her own, and the feeling of the mouth working and the long baby eyelashes fluttering against her makes a smile stretch contentedly across her face. Beside her mother sits Jim, who tucks the corner of the blanket at the foot of the bed. NotJarod, she reminds herself, he is his own person. Beside him is Major Charles, whose expression belies an emotion she cannot name. Ethan is running his fingers through her hair, grinning as he looks between her and her child. She thinks he looks so happy he might burst. She has not seen her but knows Debbie is seated on the other side. As she turns to look at her, the door to the unknown bedroom they are in is flung inward, and Jarod is shoved inside with a gun barrel positioned at the base of his skull. Behind him stands Lyle, flanked by Raines and three Centre sweepers. As they near the bed, she pulls the newborn closer and scrambles back against the headboard. The baby lets out an indignant wail and she lets out a scream as Lyle reaches forward to rip the child away. The two cries are the first sounds that she is able to hear.

“Miss Parker! Miss Parker!”

Snapping her eyes open, Parker flies forward in bed. Thrown off balance by her sudden movement, Jim tumbled sideways and into the floor. Chest heaving, she glances at her surroundings.

“Are you okay, Miss Parker? You were talking in your sleep, then you started crying and shouting,” the boy offered, not moving from his position on the floor.

She opened her mouth, closed it and swallowed, then tried again. “You tried to wake me up?” At the boy’s nod, Miss Parker laughed. “Sorry kid, I didn’t mean to send you flying onto the floor.” Hoisting herself to her feet, she reached a hand out to help him up.

“It’s okay. Growing boys like myself have fairly strong bones. Nothing broken, see?” He hopped onto his feet and offered her a grin before sobering. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Jim. Thanks for the rescue, though. Vivid dreams,” the tall woman answered, combing her fingers through her hair. “Any word from Jarod?”

“He called Dad a few hours ago, and Dad is going to go meet Sydney and Broots and his daughter in a town a few hours from here. They’re arriving by chartered flight tomorrow morning. They said they were bringing another man with them, someone named Ben? Jarod said it was okay.”

Parker’s eyebrows surged upward, “Ben was a friend of my mothers, and has been a friend to both Jarod and me over the last few years. He called a few hours ago? How long have I been asleep?”

“Since about 4 o’clock,” Jim answered, “Dad said dinner would be ready at seven.” Bending his elbow, Jarod’s clone gestured toward the door. “May I?”

Letting out a sharp laugh, Parker slid her arm through the boy’s, “At least I know where you got the manic personality…”

--

After dinner, the adults were reminded of Jim’s age when he requested to be excused to read the comic book his father had purchased him at the store the day before Parker’s arrival. Left to their own devices, the three adults found themselves in much the same positions they had been in the day before when Parker had first arrived.

“Hot chocolate?” Ethan asked, pulling ingredients from the cabinet above the stove. “It always makes me sleep well, plus the milk is good for you.”

At his prodding, both Parker and the Major nodded. “Miss Parker, Jim said you were having a nightmare when he went to wake you for dinner.” His wording was careful, not intended to startle or set off her infamous temper.

Wrinkling her brow, she placed her chin into her hand. “Yes, I think. Some of it wasn’t a nightmare, and I think most of it was memory.” Her gaze drifted toward Ethan, stirring the chocolate into the pot he had placed on the stove. Both men gazed at her, silently encouraging her to continue. “I remember watching Mama get shot in the elevator, trying to reach her but the Sweepers were pulling me away. Jarod was trying to get to me but Sydney held him back. I know I heard the shot, I know I screamed. But in the dream, I couldn’t hear anything. And before that… in the dream, I mean, Jarod and I were on Carthis, in the Parker cemetery. I’ve never felt so betrayed before, sitting there in the rain, but in the dream I felt nothing. Then… then it was different.”

This time Ethan was the one whose expression changed. “You remembered something,” he stated, face open but concerned. She met his eyes, and his hand slowed its stirring of the hot chocolate. “The voices,” Ethan answered the unasked question. “They told me you remembered, but not what.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, hugging herself as if cold, Parker answered, “It was at the Centre. I think I was inseminated by one of the doctors in the Renewal Wing. Raines was there, watching everything.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, repeating dryly, “And I mean everything.”

Grimacing, Major Charles leaned forward and opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, Before he could begin, Parker interrupted. “And then, I dreamt… at least I think it was a dream, it could have been a premonition,” a shudder racked her body, “I saw her, the baby. We were somewhere, in a bedroom. You were both there, and Jim and Debbie. I don’t know who else. I was holding her, feeding her, and then,” she gestured with her hand toward the door, “Jarod burst through the door with Lyle and Raines on his heels.”

Major Charles leaned back into his seat, mouth closed, eyes half-open. The expression on his face was frustrated, uncertain. He did not know what to say to this woman who had hunted his son like a criminal, but was just as much a victim of the Centre herself. He did not know what to say to this woman he did not know, but who was now relying on his help to protect her family, friends, and possibly a child that was either half his or his grandchild. Ethan placed a mug of hot chocolate in front of each of them, then sat in the seat beside her and took her hand into his. Bringing their joined hands to lay on top of the table, he smiled, “If it was a premonition, I would have had it too.”

Her eyes widened, and she asked, “You didn’t? You’re sure?”

Ethan shook his head, “I didn’t.” He glanced up at Major Charles, “So far our premonitions have been linked, sister. I think this was just a nightmare. We’ll find a way to make her – or him – safe. In the meantime, Sydney, Broots, the girl, and your friend Ben will join us tomorrow afternoon. They can help us with whatever we decide to do.”

“What are we going to do?” Major Charles voiced the question the other two had not, as of yet, dared to ask.

“When it was just me, I was going to run. Cover my tracks and hide,” Parker ground out after a few moments, voice low and even. “I’m afraid that doesn’t look like much of an option now that so many people have been drawn into this web of Centre-machination. I have a few ideas, but for them to work, I’m going to need more than just us to pull it off.”

“We won’t be able to stay here much longer,” Ethan added. “Too much activity in and out may draw attention to us if it hasn’t already.”

Nodding, Major Charles broke in, “As soon as I lead your friends here, we’ll move to a new location. Once we settle, we’ll need to make some decisions about how to proceed. Before we can do that, Parker, I think you’re going to need to help fill in the blanks of what has happened so far. The file only gives the details of the initial plan.”

This time it was Parker who nodded. “I’m afraid I don’t know as many of the details as you would expect,” she sighed. “But you are right, Major. If we are going to do this, we need to have as many facts as possible to go on. The only chance we have of fighting – or outwitting – the Centre is if we know what we are up against.” After a moment, Miss Parker’s eyebrow rose and she continued. “Please tell me we aren’t going to end up in some hick town in the middle of nowhere.”

With a roll of his eyes, the older man replied, “I know exactly where to go. Somewhere even my sons do not know about.”

At Ethan’s expression of surprise, Miss Parker’s lips quirked upward and the older man offered them both a wink. “I may be old, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Maybe a few even our friends in Blue Cove haven’t seen.”