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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
“Gone is the pain, gone are the fears
Left only is guilt that I have caused tears”
Miss Parker woke up craving one thing- coffee. And if Jarod didn’t have some ready, he better hop fast or prepare himself for an execution. She staggered out of bed, and down the stairs, only pausing to tug on a robe. The smell of a rich hazelnut cream assaulted her as she reached the bottom step, and she smiled. Good old Jarod.
She entered the kitchen, and concentrated on pouring herself a cup. It wasn’t until she turned and took her first sip that she saw Jarod- and knew something was wrong. He was drumming his fingers on the table, and the noise ceased when he stood to pull out a chair for her.
“Jarod?”
“Sit down, Miss Parker.” Miss Parker obeyed with a questioning look, and studied him carefully. He took a deep breath, and spoke.
“Lyle was taken from the hospital some time last night, and the people who took him made a rather messy job of leaving several dead- including a young intern. Sydney says there were rumors of a T-Board.” Miss Parker’s hand flew up to her mouth, and she barely managed to set the coffee cup down before she dropped it. “But that’s not all.” Jarod continued. “According to various and possibly inaccurate sources, Lyle made it through the T-Board. But now he’s missing, apparently from the Centre altogether.”
“Why do you care?” The question wasn’t accusing, simply begging an honest reply. “Do you care?”
“Alone, no. But because you care, yes. For your sake.”
“Where do you think he’s going? Who the hell do you think he’s with?” The second question was almost an afterthought, seemingly posed to the emptiness of the cabin, and not to Jarod himself.
“I don’t know.” Was the quiet, unsure answer.
Lyle became vaguely aware of his surroundings, memories of the abduction and the T-Board flooding back. His knee throbbed painfully, and it took several moments of concentration to keep from crying out. Wherever it was, it was moving- there was a rocking rhythm that made him want to drift back off to sleep. But instead, he opened his eyes. As his lids fluttered open, an accented voice spoke.
“Welcome back to the world. I was beginning to think you’d never wake up.” Lyle shifted in his seat, and struggled to sit all the way up.
“Cox? What the hell...”
“Relax, Mr. Lyle.” Cox replied, turning to him briefly with a short smile, eyes quickly moving back to the road. Lyle sat up anyway, and looked around him. The car they were in was small and sporty, and they were driving through what looked like the maple-tree forests of Vermont.
“Where are we going?” Lyle demanded, leaning forward and wincing as the ache in his knee seemed to catch fire. He couldn’t help it- a small moan escaped his lips. Cox glanced over, fleeting worry in his eyes.
“I said relax. Your knee is in awful shape as it is. And as to where we’re going, I’ve tracked your sister to a cabin in Canada. Since the Centre seems to want you dead, I’m giving you the better odds of surviving her.”
“Oh.” Lyle replied, blinking. He didn’t quite trust Cox, but there wasn’t as if he could really do anything at the present time. How exactly Cox had found his sister was a mystery, and one that he wasn’t quite yet ready to deal with. The car slowed down, and pulled into a gravel lot off the road, and stopped.
“Now you’re awake, and I can give you a proper check-up.” Cox announced, opening his door and tapping absently on the hood as he rounded the front of the car. Lyle tensed as his door was opened, and looked up to see Cox motioning to a stone bench only a few feet from them. “Over here.” Lyle unbuckled himself, and swung his legs out of the car- gritting his teeth when his knee once again reminded him that moving wasn’t a good thing. He suddenly realized that in addition to the knee, his was still wearing the loose, gray cotton clothes the Centre had provided for him to wear in lieu of the hospital gown, during the T-Board.
Before Lyle could voice any objections to actually getting out of the car, Cox had pulled him to his feet, and helped him over to the bench. Lyle watched as Cox retrieved a black bag from the car, and returned to the bench, opening it as he walked. Cox pulled out a pen light, and shone it in Lyle’s right eye.
“Don’t blink.” Was the only instruction Lyle received, as Cox flicked the light on and off several times, before moving on to the left eye. The same exercise was repeated, and Cox stepped back with a low, ‘hmm’. “Roll up your pant leg. I need to look at your knee.” Lyle slowly obeyed, wincing several times as he did so. Relatively new gauze tape covered the sore tissue that the stitches had only been recently removed from. Cox knelt, and carefully peeled the gauze away, and frowned.
“They made you walk on it, didn’t they?”
“Three or four flights of stairs.” Lyle tried to sound nonchalant, but he seriously doubted that he would ever really forget or be able to talk with ease about what had happened on that stairwell.
“Damn.” Cox murmured, gently prodding the knee. Lyle clenched his teeth, and Cox sighed. “It broke open the skin. It almost looks like they removed the stitches too soon, as if someone demanded-” The tone was playfully warning, and Lyle interrupted.
“Fine, I told them to take the stitches out. I wanted to leave the hospital as soon as possible, and I wasn’t expecting a T-Board.”
“Is anyone ever?” Cox retorted, pulling a few items out of the black bag. “I’m going to clean it and tape it up again. I’ll use some butterfly bandages, because it’s going to be a long while before I’ll be able to stitch it back up, so we won’t even bother.”
“Cox,” Lyle began, on an inquiring note, several minutes into the task Cox had described.
“Hmm?”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Helping you? Different reasons. Do you really need one?” He paused, and threw something in his bag. “I’m done. Let’s go.”
Miss Parker had, at Jarod’s insistence, taken a shower, and felt much better as a result. She was worried about Lyle, but Jarod seemed to be able to make that disappear just by looking at her. Miss Parker was enjoying being pampered all the time, for he didn’t act like it was a chore to go the extra mile for her. In fact, he seemed to love doing it, and making her happy. There had been a couple arguments since coming to the cabin, and the last one had ended with her laughing, for in the middle of yelling at him she had a sudden flashback of Debbie Broots asking her what the phrase ‘sexual tension’ meant. So, she stopped yelling, kissed Jarod on the cheek, and went to bed.
Miss Parker traveled down the stairs to the living room, and saw Jarod sitting on the couch, skimming a magazine and eating ice cream. She smiled, and tiptoed over to him. Miss Parker leaned over, and whispered in his ear.
“Want me to show you how to really eat ice cream?” She whispered seductively, making him jump.
“God! Parker, don’t scare me like that!”
“I like the sound of that.” She nodded thoughtfully, and Jarod felt suddenly out of the loop.
“What?”
“Parker. Just Parker.” Miss Parker said, sitting next to him on the couch. “And since we’re alone, and we’ve pretty much exhausted the cabin’s current resources, we need something else to do.” Jarod blushed, and dropped the magazine on the coffee table.
“Like what?”
“Well, we could sit here and stare at each other, or I can show you how to eat ice cream the right way.”
“You mean...have...” Jarod was suddenly at a loss for words, and Miss Parker laughed.
“Yes, I mean have mad sex. Which would you rather do?”
“Umm...whichever...you...feel...like...doing...” Jarod paused after each word, blushing profusely and starting to sweat, as she inched closer to him.
“I like the second one myself.”
“Me too.”
The sound of a car pulling into a driveway awoke Jarod, and he smiled lazily. Something, or someone warm, was lying on top of him, and he realized with a start that it was Parker. A car door slammed shut, and Jarod’s mind snapped fully awake. He wasn’t dressed, Parker wasn’t dressed, the living room was in shambles, and someone was outside- probably going to be requesting to come in within a few minutes.
“Parker, wake up!” He shook her gently. She mumbled, and looked up at him.
“What?”
“Quick, get up and put some clothes on. Someone’s here.” That woke her up- she sat up suddenly, and looked around. The next two minutes were hectic dressing, throwing pillows back onto the sofa, throwing ice cream cartons away, and straightening hair. They weren’t quite done when someone began knocking on the door.
Breathlessly, Jarod flung open the door and froze. Cox stood there, Lyle next to him. Lyle was leaning on Cox’s shoulder to keep the weight of his knee, and Cox smiled.
“Jarod. What a surprise. May we come in?”
