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Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: The Characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots and The Center are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and are used without permission. Blah, blah, blah, yea, yea just get on with it. No money has been involved here and no infringement is intended.
Angels Hope
A New Genesis
It was late in the morning hours. The room was dark except for a computer monitor glow that illuminated a small area of the desk that it sat upon. A woman with long brown curly hair sat there looking at the screen intensely. It had been a long day, her 43rd birthday. What a festive day it had been. A party with all the trimmings. Cake, balloons, and more food than anyone could imagine. Everyone at the commune had a good time, but she had other things in the back of her mind. She had been cordial and enjoyed the festivities, but all she wanted was nothing more than to get back to her computer. She thought back to earlier that day when her friend, mentor and mother figure, Joan Stedman, had scolded her.
"Lily, hello. Are you among us?" asked Joan annoyed.
She had been looking at the crowd, but her mind was elsewhere. She smiled a smile that could have lit a hundred cities. "Yes, Joan. Stop worrying about me."
"This is supposed to be your birthday celebration. All I see is your body here, but your mind is a million miles away. I can just guess what you are concentrating so strongly on. I've known you for thirty-nine years and you can't fool me. So don't even try to make some sad excuse."
"I received some information early this morning about the Centre. I want to go and study it." Lily replied.
"Lily. What am I going to do with you? You are no longer a child, looking for answers from fairytales. Haven't I told you before that the time is not right yet to confront the Centre? Your training all these years will be in vain if the confrontation takes place too soon." Joan frowned. "I swear. You have been incorrigible since you found out about that place."
"You and everyone here at Angel's Hope have protected and trained me for years for this ultimate confrontation with evil. But you never gave me a name, a face, an entity. Now I finally find out who I am suppose to fight against and you tell me to forget about it." Lily stomped her foot as if she were that child that had been brought to this refuge of safety all those years ago.
"You have a stubborn streak regardless of your gift for genius." Joan added.
"Why have we been doing all this work over the years if we are going to let a place like the Centre destroy the good in the world?"
Joan decided to change strategies. "Would you be willing to risk the others, including your own twin sister, to satisfy your curiosity?"
Lily shot her a look, then closed her eyes. "Of course not. I would never put the others in danger. And stop playing psychiatrist for just a moment please. "
She continued ignoring the last comment. "Well that's what you will do if you keep pursuing this. Now let it drop and enjoy the festivities. You are going to upset your sister, Rebecca. Remember that it's her birthday too and you know how she can pick up on your emotions."
Lily let out a great sigh. "Fine. You win. I will enjoy the remainder of the day and not think about the Centre." She put her two fingers up in the air, while crossing her fingers behind her back.
Joan started walking toward the other group of partygoers. "I saw that." She just smiled as she continued walking.
"How does she do that?" Lily thought to herself as she followed Joan back to the party.
******
It was hours later and the party had gone well. She did all the standard birthday traditions - blowing out the candles and opening presents. Now she was sitting in front of her computer reading the information she had wanted to study all day. The head of the Centre was a Dr. William Raines. Under his direction was a man named Mr. Lyle. He had a very sinister past. He was the son of Raines' partner, Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker was missing at the present time. Mr. Parker also had a daughter who worked at the Centre. Governing the corporation was a group called the Triumvirate. She needed to learn more about these people if she was going to defeat them.
"I need to leave Angel's Hope." she said out loud for the first time since seeing the information. It had been strictly forbidden without protection. Protection that she had had since she was four years old. Never alone and always watched. She had been told for their safety. They were very special children who had remarkable gifts. Gifts that had been nurtured and cultivated over the years. The founder of Angel's Hope had saved them from the horrible evil. They had been told this story over and over since she was a child.
"Always give back to the world what you take from it." Joan had said. It was Angel's Hope's motto. "Do unto others what they do unto you." she had also said.
"I'm trying Joan. This place has given me so much; I need to give back now." Lily said to herself. She laughed, she was once again talking to herself. But she would not be able to do her research if the guards were with her. They would immediately tell Joan and that was unacceptable. She hated that her life was under constant scrutiny. She started planning on how she would exact her escape. So she could research the Centre and find out who exactly sent her this information that unlocked the key to her past.
*********
Baltimore, Maryland
February 2nd
Jarod sat in a lonely hotel room eating candy out of one of his many Pez dispensers. He had gotten back from the Island of Carthis tired and confused. He had decided that he wanted a vacation. Correction, a new life. So much had happened.
"Parker" he whispered. His feelings for Parker and what he had hoped were her feelings for him. But in the end, she had rejected him. Rejected the proposition of possibly having a relationship other than he runs and she chases.
Prior to that he had found out that he had a brother, Ethan. A brother who was also Parker's half brother. "Another tie that binds." Jarod thought to himself. He had almost contacted his Mom on Carthis. He was so close, had it not been for the Centre once again interfering in his life. He would have been able to reunite his family for the first time in over thirty years. But here he was again, tired and alone. He was so tired of being alone. Maybe it was just the fact of the date. He picked up his cell phone and hit the speed dial.
"What." Came Parker's voice over the phone. She had just poured herself a drink and really was not in the mood for this.
"I see that Raines still has you in one piece Miss Parker." Jarod stated.
"Physically yes, but mentally......." Parker trailed off. She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip.
Jarod thought for a second. His anger subsided by concern after hearing Parker's voice. "Quite a lot happened in the last few months huh?"
"Yeah, you could say that."
"Have you heard anything from Ethan?" Jarod asked
"Just a note saying that he was OK, but was going to take some time to sort things out. Find out who he is. I guess he has to purge all the crap that Raines fed him." Parker paused and took a swig of whiskey. "I miss him Jarod."
"Me too. I hope he's safe." Jarod was concerned for his baby brother. He knew that Raines would be looking for him.
Parker heard the voices that she had been coming to know more clearly. Ethan had showed her that they were her guidance. Her mother. "He's fine."
"Your mother always keeps watch over us, doesn't she?" Jarod asked knowing that Parker and Ethan had a connection that he only had read about. He had done research on the phenomena once he learned of Ethan's gift.
"Yes, I like to think so." Parker looked at the picture of her and her mother. "I think we just have to give Ethan some space. He has allot to digest."
"As do we." Jarod added.
"As do we." Parker repeated letting her mind shift to the events of the Island and her father. Or more correctly, who was her father.
He broke the short silence. "Anything surface about your father and the scrolls?" Jarod asked
"No. I haven't heard anything about my father. I don't know how at his age he would be able to survive a parachute jump at that altitude." Parker choked, then cleared her throat. "But he's a Parker and that makes him a survivor. Can't kill a Parker." She repeated the line that her father had said to her in the hospital after she had been shot in the back.
"I know the pain you're going through. I saw it in your eyes when your mother was supposedly killed in the elevator and when Tommy died."
"Damn you Jarod." Parker bit back tears. "You have a hell of a way of bringing up the wrong subjects at the wrong times."
"You're going to have to face your emotions at some point Parker." Now it was Jarod's turn to pause. Should he proceed with his original thought? "I could help you."
"Misdirected emotions lead to madness." She downed the remainder of her drink. "Oh by the way - Happy Birthday." Jarod didn't respond. "Would have gotten you a present, but wasn't sure where to send it. Care to give me your address?" She said in her best sarcastic voice. No comeback. "Hello, Pez Boy, I said Happy Birthday." She waited again for a response. Her sarcasm now turned to concern. "Jarod?"
"I'm here. Thank you." Jarod responded in a low voice.
"Maybe I'm not the only one who needs to face a few things?" Parker responded back.
" Maybe you're right." Jarod hung up the phone. Maybe he was going to have to face a few things. He picked up the donut on the table in front of him and lit the candle sticking out of it. He closed his eyes and made a wish. He opened his eyes and blew out the candle. "But I can keep wishing."
********
Lily looked carefully around the hall. She was carrying light - a backpack and jacket. She took a clicker out of her pocket and pointed it at the camera that spanned the door. She clicked the button, which sent the camera into a picture loop. She approached the door looking both ways to make sure that no one was coming. She took out the device that she had made in her lab that located and programmed the lock codes into the door. She had made both the devices earlier in her life when she had dreams of leaving Angel's Hope just to be able to go out into the world alone for once in her life. She put the card portion in the lock and typed in Joan's name. The machine started to enter the code.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" A figure was standing in the shadows.
Lily spun around in shock. She recognized the voice. "Becky, you scared me to death." Lily was looking at Rebecca. She also had a backpack slung over her shoulder that caught her dirty blonde curly hair.
"Well if you weren't sneaking around at the wee hours of the morning, then I wouldn't have scared you now would I?" Becky responded with that look she always gave her sister when she was doing something she wasn't suppose to. "You know Joan will have a coronary."
The door code entered itself and the door clicked open. "I have to do this Beck. I don't know why, but I know the answers are out there. The answers to the questions I have had my whole life. And just how did you know I was here?"
"I know you have been unhappy for a while and that you received some information that you just decided you couldn't share with me. Your sister." Becky said with a hurt in her voice. "I felt today that you were up to something, so I decided to join you. Watch your back."
She envied her sister's gift, which she did not possess. "Becky, it's too dangerous. I don't know who or what I'm going to be up against. Plus Joan would have a fit if both of us left." Lily responded. She started out the door.
Becky followed. "I'm going and if you don't let me go I'm blowing the whistle right now." She folded her arms across her chest.
"You are acting like a child." Lily snapped.
"And you're not. At forty-three years of age, you're running away from home." Becky was holding the door open. "So what is it? Do I go or do I turn you in?"
"Ahh, fine. Come on." Both woman left together to find what the future held.
*********
Jarod was just finishing his donut when his computer said "You have Mail." He went to the computer expecting something from possibly Angelo. He opened the e-mail and started reading. After a few moments he looked up. "No, not again." He grabbed his bag and started putting things in it. "They can't do this to another child. Don't these people ever give up?" He grabbed his bag and left the room. He threw the bag into the car and got in the other side. He sped out of the parking lot and headed for Delaware.
**********
Once they had cleared the outer guards at Angel's Hope, the stopped to rest.
"Ok Einstein. Are we going to walk all the way to where we're going? Couldn't we get one of the cars from the car pool?" Becky pleaded.
"If you're not up to this you can always go back." Lily responded half hoping her sister would go back. "We can't get a car from the motor pool because it would be traceable and they could report it stolen. Zap, we're back at Angel's Hope."
"Well then are we walking all the way?" Becky asked
"No, I have this." Lily pulled a credit card from her pocket. "We'll rent a car."
"How did you get that?" Becky asked snatching the card from Lily.
"Anything is possible with a computer." Lily responded smugly and took the card back. "Come on. We have a while to go to get into town." Lily started up the hill.
Becky looked at Lily. "Lil, by the way where are we going?"
Lily turned around and looked at Becky. "Blue Cove, Delaware." She turned and started up the hill again.
"Delaware! That's all the way across the country. We're going to drive all that way?"
"I know. We'll take a plane out of Denver. That's why you better get moving." Lily called back.
"I hope you have one heck of a limit on that credit card." Becky stated as she caught up with Lily.
***********
The funny thing about life is that it always seems to deal you new cards when you least expect them.
Little did anyone know that in the life of Pretenders, there were two worlds with one destiny.
A New Genesis
It was late in the morning hours. The room was dark except for a computer monitor glow that illuminated a small area of the desk that it sat upon. A woman with long brown curly hair sat there looking at the screen intensely. It had been a long day, her 43rd birthday. What a festive day it had been. A party with all the trimmings. Cake, balloons, and more food than anyone could imagine. Everyone at the commune had a good time, but she had other things in the back of her mind. She had been cordial and enjoyed the festivities, but all she wanted was nothing more than to get back to her computer. She thought back to earlier that day when her friend, mentor and mother figure, Joan Stedman, had scolded her.
"Lily, hello. Are you among us?" asked Joan annoyed.
She had been looking at the crowd, but her mind was elsewhere. She smiled a smile that could have lit a hundred cities. "Yes, Joan. Stop worrying about me."
"This is supposed to be your birthday celebration. All I see is your body here, but your mind is a million miles away. I can just guess what you are concentrating so strongly on. I've known you for thirty-nine years and you can't fool me. So don't even try to make some sad excuse."
"I received some information early this morning about the Centre. I want to go and study it." Lily replied.
"Lily. What am I going to do with you? You are no longer a child, looking for answers from fairytales. Haven't I told you before that the time is not right yet to confront the Centre? Your training all these years will be in vain if the confrontation takes place too soon." Joan frowned. "I swear. You have been incorrigible since you found out about that place."
"You and everyone here at Angel's Hope have protected and trained me for years for this ultimate confrontation with evil. But you never gave me a name, a face, an entity. Now I finally find out who I am suppose to fight against and you tell me to forget about it." Lily stomped her foot as if she were that child that had been brought to this refuge of safety all those years ago.
"You have a stubborn streak regardless of your gift for genius." Joan added.
"Why have we been doing all this work over the years if we are going to let a place like the Centre destroy the good in the world?"
Joan decided to change strategies. "Would you be willing to risk the others, including your own twin sister, to satisfy your curiosity?"
Lily shot her a look, then closed her eyes. "Of course not. I would never put the others in danger. And stop playing psychiatrist for just a moment please. "
She continued ignoring the last comment. "Well that's what you will do if you keep pursuing this. Now let it drop and enjoy the festivities. You are going to upset your sister, Rebecca. Remember that it's her birthday too and you know how she can pick up on your emotions."
Lily let out a great sigh. "Fine. You win. I will enjoy the remainder of the day and not think about the Centre." She put her two fingers up in the air, while crossing her fingers behind her back.
Joan started walking toward the other group of partygoers. "I saw that." She just smiled as she continued walking.
"How does she do that?" Lily thought to herself as she followed Joan back to the party.
******
It was hours later and the party had gone well. She did all the standard birthday traditions - blowing out the candles and opening presents. Now she was sitting in front of her computer reading the information she had wanted to study all day. The head of the Centre was a Dr. William Raines. Under his direction was a man named Mr. Lyle. He had a very sinister past. He was the son of Raines' partner, Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker was missing at the present time. Mr. Parker also had a daughter who worked at the Centre. Governing the corporation was a group called the Triumvirate. She needed to learn more about these people if she was going to defeat them.
"I need to leave Angel's Hope." she said out loud for the first time since seeing the information. It had been strictly forbidden without protection. Protection that she had had since she was four years old. Never alone and always watched. She had been told for their safety. They were very special children who had remarkable gifts. Gifts that had been nurtured and cultivated over the years. The founder of Angel's Hope had saved them from the horrible evil. They had been told this story over and over since she was a child.
"Always give back to the world what you take from it." Joan had said. It was Angel's Hope's motto. "Do unto others what they do unto you." she had also said.
"I'm trying Joan. This place has given me so much; I need to give back now." Lily said to herself. She laughed, she was once again talking to herself. But she would not be able to do her research if the guards were with her. They would immediately tell Joan and that was unacceptable. She hated that her life was under constant scrutiny. She started planning on how she would exact her escape. So she could research the Centre and find out who exactly sent her this information that unlocked the key to her past.
*********
Baltimore, Maryland
February 2nd
Jarod sat in a lonely hotel room eating candy out of one of his many Pez dispensers. He had gotten back from the Island of Carthis tired and confused. He had decided that he wanted a vacation. Correction, a new life. So much had happened.
"Parker" he whispered. His feelings for Parker and what he had hoped were her feelings for him. But in the end, she had rejected him. Rejected the proposition of possibly having a relationship other than he runs and she chases.
Prior to that he had found out that he had a brother, Ethan. A brother who was also Parker's half brother. "Another tie that binds." Jarod thought to himself. He had almost contacted his Mom on Carthis. He was so close, had it not been for the Centre once again interfering in his life. He would have been able to reunite his family for the first time in over thirty years. But here he was again, tired and alone. He was so tired of being alone. Maybe it was just the fact of the date. He picked up his cell phone and hit the speed dial.
"What." Came Parker's voice over the phone. She had just poured herself a drink and really was not in the mood for this.
"I see that Raines still has you in one piece Miss Parker." Jarod stated.
"Physically yes, but mentally......." Parker trailed off. She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip.
Jarod thought for a second. His anger subsided by concern after hearing Parker's voice. "Quite a lot happened in the last few months huh?"
"Yeah, you could say that."
"Have you heard anything from Ethan?" Jarod asked
"Just a note saying that he was OK, but was going to take some time to sort things out. Find out who he is. I guess he has to purge all the crap that Raines fed him." Parker paused and took a swig of whiskey. "I miss him Jarod."
"Me too. I hope he's safe." Jarod was concerned for his baby brother. He knew that Raines would be looking for him.
Parker heard the voices that she had been coming to know more clearly. Ethan had showed her that they were her guidance. Her mother. "He's fine."
"Your mother always keeps watch over us, doesn't she?" Jarod asked knowing that Parker and Ethan had a connection that he only had read about. He had done research on the phenomena once he learned of Ethan's gift.
"Yes, I like to think so." Parker looked at the picture of her and her mother. "I think we just have to give Ethan some space. He has allot to digest."
"As do we." Jarod added.
"As do we." Parker repeated letting her mind shift to the events of the Island and her father. Or more correctly, who was her father.
He broke the short silence. "Anything surface about your father and the scrolls?" Jarod asked
"No. I haven't heard anything about my father. I don't know how at his age he would be able to survive a parachute jump at that altitude." Parker choked, then cleared her throat. "But he's a Parker and that makes him a survivor. Can't kill a Parker." She repeated the line that her father had said to her in the hospital after she had been shot in the back.
"I know the pain you're going through. I saw it in your eyes when your mother was supposedly killed in the elevator and when Tommy died."
"Damn you Jarod." Parker bit back tears. "You have a hell of a way of bringing up the wrong subjects at the wrong times."
"You're going to have to face your emotions at some point Parker." Now it was Jarod's turn to pause. Should he proceed with his original thought? "I could help you."
"Misdirected emotions lead to madness." She downed the remainder of her drink. "Oh by the way - Happy Birthday." Jarod didn't respond. "Would have gotten you a present, but wasn't sure where to send it. Care to give me your address?" She said in her best sarcastic voice. No comeback. "Hello, Pez Boy, I said Happy Birthday." She waited again for a response. Her sarcasm now turned to concern. "Jarod?"
"I'm here. Thank you." Jarod responded in a low voice.
"Maybe I'm not the only one who needs to face a few things?" Parker responded back.
" Maybe you're right." Jarod hung up the phone. Maybe he was going to have to face a few things. He picked up the donut on the table in front of him and lit the candle sticking out of it. He closed his eyes and made a wish. He opened his eyes and blew out the candle. "But I can keep wishing."
********
Lily looked carefully around the hall. She was carrying light - a backpack and jacket. She took a clicker out of her pocket and pointed it at the camera that spanned the door. She clicked the button, which sent the camera into a picture loop. She approached the door looking both ways to make sure that no one was coming. She took out the device that she had made in her lab that located and programmed the lock codes into the door. She had made both the devices earlier in her life when she had dreams of leaving Angel's Hope just to be able to go out into the world alone for once in her life. She put the card portion in the lock and typed in Joan's name. The machine started to enter the code.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" A figure was standing in the shadows.
Lily spun around in shock. She recognized the voice. "Becky, you scared me to death." Lily was looking at Rebecca. She also had a backpack slung over her shoulder that caught her dirty blonde curly hair.
"Well if you weren't sneaking around at the wee hours of the morning, then I wouldn't have scared you now would I?" Becky responded with that look she always gave her sister when she was doing something she wasn't suppose to. "You know Joan will have a coronary."
The door code entered itself and the door clicked open. "I have to do this Beck. I don't know why, but I know the answers are out there. The answers to the questions I have had my whole life. And just how did you know I was here?"
"I know you have been unhappy for a while and that you received some information that you just decided you couldn't share with me. Your sister." Becky said with a hurt in her voice. "I felt today that you were up to something, so I decided to join you. Watch your back."
She envied her sister's gift, which she did not possess. "Becky, it's too dangerous. I don't know who or what I'm going to be up against. Plus Joan would have a fit if both of us left." Lily responded. She started out the door.
Becky followed. "I'm going and if you don't let me go I'm blowing the whistle right now." She folded her arms across her chest.
"You are acting like a child." Lily snapped.
"And you're not. At forty-three years of age, you're running away from home." Becky was holding the door open. "So what is it? Do I go or do I turn you in?"
"Ahh, fine. Come on." Both woman left together to find what the future held.
*********
Jarod was just finishing his donut when his computer said "You have Mail." He went to the computer expecting something from possibly Angelo. He opened the e-mail and started reading. After a few moments he looked up. "No, not again." He grabbed his bag and started putting things in it. "They can't do this to another child. Don't these people ever give up?" He grabbed his bag and left the room. He threw the bag into the car and got in the other side. He sped out of the parking lot and headed for Delaware.
**********
Once they had cleared the outer guards at Angel's Hope, the stopped to rest.
"Ok Einstein. Are we going to walk all the way to where we're going? Couldn't we get one of the cars from the car pool?" Becky pleaded.
"If you're not up to this you can always go back." Lily responded half hoping her sister would go back. "We can't get a car from the motor pool because it would be traceable and they could report it stolen. Zap, we're back at Angel's Hope."
"Well then are we walking all the way?" Becky asked
"No, I have this." Lily pulled a credit card from her pocket. "We'll rent a car."
"How did you get that?" Becky asked snatching the card from Lily.
"Anything is possible with a computer." Lily responded smugly and took the card back. "Come on. We have a while to go to get into town." Lily started up the hill.
Becky looked at Lily. "Lil, by the way where are we going?"
Lily turned around and looked at Becky. "Blue Cove, Delaware." She turned and started up the hill again.
"Delaware! That's all the way across the country. We're going to drive all that way?"
"I know. We'll take a plane out of Denver. That's why you better get moving." Lily called back.
"I hope you have one heck of a limit on that credit card." Becky stated as she caught up with Lily.
***********
The funny thing about life is that it always seems to deal you new cards when you least expect them.
Little did anyone know that in the life of Pretenders, there were two worlds with one destiny.
