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She could feel their eyes on her. The appearance of her three co-workers was unexpected and unsolicited. The only redeeming aspect of their arrival was the assurance that they did care about her personal life and, therefore, her.

It was never her intent to make friends with them, and she would never admit to them that she thought of them as friends, but that's what had happened. Her previously inflexible self-control had deserted her as of late. She was never able to remain distant to the people she had vowed to avoid. Just look at Jarod.

He was the culprit of her new weakness. Now she couldn't even remain aloof to perfect strangers. If it had been her decision, though, Jarod would never have been far from her side in the first place. That was her father's doing. Placing ideas in her head that Jarod was bad for her. What a crock! Now that she was with Jarod, her life had never felt more complete.

Now ready to face the music, she let go of the door handle and turned around. Jarod was no longer sitting on the couch; in fact, he was no longer in the room. Silently outraged that he would leave her to the wolves, she resolved to get through this, if for no other reason than to ream him out for this.

The two women intent on interrogating her were now perched on the couch, and Owen was making a racket in the kitchen looking for ice.

Parker plastered a calm repose on her face and prepared to address her audience.

"What a surprise! What are you guys doing here?" She asked with feigned delight at their presence.

Ramona narrowed her eyes at her and Claude answered. "We're here to find out who you are." She spoke matter-of-factly. Parker gulped at the determination she saw on their faces. Determination is usually a good thing, something she could admire in people. Not now though. Now their determination was only being used to help clear up the mystery they felt surrounded her.

Her confidence for facing off with them was slowly crumbling, until Owen interrupted the awkward silence.

"You guys, that's Lydia… from work." Owen said from the kitchen.

The Chinese food also served to provide a small reprieve for her when it arrived. She grabbed the bags and shoved the money into the startled delivery boy's hand. She wouldn't get to eat it though, she thought sourly; she had guests to attend to.

After setting the bags on the table and cursing Jarod again for leaving her alone, she grabbed an ice pack from the freezer. She sauntered up behind Owen, and pressed it to his chest, guiding him back into the living room. Owen chose to sit with his friends and leaned his head back on the couch while pressing the ice to his nose. The only seat left for "Lydia" was the chair to the left of the couch.

Parker primly sat down and under the pretense of getting comfortable avoided looking at her co-workers.

Jarod chose that moment to return from his hiatus, carrying a wide-awake Katie with him.

"Honey, we have company." Parker sweetly informed Jarod. She reached for Katie and watched the tension at the mention of company drain from Jarod when he finally turned around and was able to recognize her co-workers.

Forming a plan in her head, Parker tried to make eye contact with Jarod. If he could just tell them their "story", it would make things so much easier for her.

Oblivious to the look she was trying to establish with him, Jarod introduced himself.

"Hi, my name is Jarod." He smiled as he shook each of their hands, genuinely pleased to be meeting the people Parker thought of as friends… not that she had ever said that aloud.

Claude offered her hand to Katie who was now sitting snugly in Miss Parker's lap. "And this lovely little lady would be?"

Parker rolled her eyes.

Jarod noticed and knew instantly that she hated the "baby" voice Claude was inflicting upon their daughter. His idea to tell Miss Parker that she herself still speaks that way to Katie was squashed when he realized she was cringing. That was when it registered to him that Claude was still using the same tone as she tried to strike up a conversation with the baby.

"This is our daughter Katie." Jarod cut Claude off, to which Parker huffed in disbelief moving herself and Katie into the kitchen.

Excusing himself, Jarod followed his wife to the kitchen and found her starting in on the sweet and sour pork. Actually, she was viciously stabbing her fork at the pieces of meat. She wasn't eating it.

" 'She's our daughter.' " Parker mimicked the gushing pride with which Jarod had used to introduce Katie. She shot him an accusing glare.

"That is not what we agreed to tell them." Parker exclaimed.

She held up her hand to silence him, noticing that Katie had started yawning in her arms. From experience, she had learned that a tired Katie was a very rare treat and she must always take advantage of it.

Parker gently laid her child down in the finely crafted crib Jarod had made their first night in the apartment.

"Sweet dreams, baby." She dropped a kiss on Katie's forehead and searched inside the crib for the stuffed bear her daughter needed to sleep with. After placing the bear within Katie's reach, she tiptoed out of the room.

Re-entering the kitchen moments later, she encountered it empty. Even the food was no longer on the table.

Pushing through the kitchens swinging door, Parker gaped at the sight in front of her. Jarod was feeding them her Chinese food. 'Her' Chinese food. The food that he had ordered for her as a peace offering… looks like Jarod's back in the doghouse.

"-caused her shoes to stick to the floor." The group burst out laughing as Jarod finished his tale.

Parker had only heard the end of Jarod's story, but knew instantly he was referring to the 'roach motel' incident. She had almost forgotten about that. Too bad for Jarod that he had reminded her… she had had ample time to devise the perfect scenario for revenge for that particular incident.

She smiled evilly at that thought and cleared her throat. Four heads instantly popped up.

"What's so funny?" Parker played her hand evenly, not hinting that she was aware of Jarod's recounting of the apparently hilarious prank he had pulled on her.

"Nothing. Have a seat Lydia, we're not leaving until you answer our questions." Ramona said it so sweetly; it almost didn't sound like a threat. It was though, and Parker was none too pleased.

She complied anyway, and plopped herself on Jarod's lap… it really was the only seat left available.

"Fine." Parker mumbled her acquiescence.

Claude was suspicious. "You'll answer our questions?" She asked.

"I said I would, didn't I?" Parker snapped back in aggravation. Jarod tightened his hold on her. She sank back to her original position, dialing down the intimidation that leaning forward with her sharp reply had added.

Claude's eyes widened and she nodded her head.

"Well then, can we assume that you two are married?" Ramona blurted, eyeing the ring Parker had replaced on her finger after work.

Jarod grinned merrily and nodded causing Parker to frown in agitation.

"You can assume whatever you would like." She said icily.

"And the two kids that were in the park with you both, are yours? We already know that Katie is, what about the little boy?" Ramona asked.

"Yes, he's ours." Parker answered stonily.

"How long have you been married?" Claude tried to distract the two women who had locked eyes in a staring contest.

"I don't think that's any of your business." Parker responded without breaking her stare.

"I can make it our business." Ramona threatened.

Jarod sensed that the tension was not going to abate on its own and hastily made a decision.

"We've been married for almost a year now." He intervened, delicately offering an escape for Ramona's quickly fizzling stare. She was no match for the Ice Queen.

Claude was confused. "I thought you said they were your children."

"They are." Parker was becoming incensed. If Jarod kept answering their questions with such candor, she might have to break out her 9mm to remind him of the consequences their interaction with others could generate. As it was the two ladies weren't stupid and would soon ask a hazardous question. The one that came to mind was: "So, how did you two meet?"

She could see it now. Of course, they wouldn't believe her if she told them the truth. The more people who knew who they were and why they were there, the more dangerous it would be to stay. And she was very fond of her new life.

"Why'd you wait so long to get married?" Ramona asked.

That was an easy question for Parker to answer… and she would be able to do it honestly too!

"My father never was able to reconcile the idea of me and Jarod together. In fact, he tried just about everything to keep us apart… short of attempted murder that is." She looked down at Jarod for approval. "My brother handled that for him." They ended up sharing an amused smile.

The joking tone she had used was the only reason Claude and Ramona were able to chuckle at the thought. Claude had detected a dark undertone at first, but attributed that to Lydia's earlier coldness. This line of questioning was getting them no where… she needed to get Lydia alone to ask about the man in the conference room… if it was Jarod, then fine. But if it wasn't, she wasn’t going to be the one that caused their presumably happy marriage to fail. Since Lydia had finally conceded that responding to their inquiries was the only way to shut them up, she would still probably be willing to talk tomorrow. They could wait until then.

"Oh, gee, look at the time. We've all got work tomorrow, don't want any of us to be late. Come on Ramona, Owen… Owen, wake up. We're leaving. Thanks for having us Lydia, see you tomorrow." Claude hastily made her retreat after her nervously cheery goodbye, followed by a stumbling Owen, and quizzical Ramona. Ramona's head was still turned staring at Parker; her expression clearly stating that she was not satisfied with the answers they had received.

The door closing coincided with Parker smacking Jarod upside the head.

"Ouch, that hurt." Jarod rubbed the back of his head.

"Trust me, that's nothing compared to what will happen if this inquisition of theirs goes any further tomorrow. Although, I'm almost certain that's exactly what they have planned. I'd watch my back if I were you." Parker threatened, her face serious, her tone lacking any real bite.

"It'll be my pleasure to watch your back… when can we get started?" Jarod smart-mouthed, and avoided her backhanded attempt to thump him on the chest.

"As soon as you can come up with a good reason for telling them the truth." Parker responded snobbishly, raising her nose exaggeratedly into the air.

"Aww, honey, come on. Don't tell me you don't want to be able to talk to those two about your crazy life. You need someone, other than me, to confide in. I have someone who knows all about the Centre. Trust me, it's a sure-fire way to relieve stress; unburdening your soul on someone who isn't or wasn't personally impacted by the Centre's depravity." Jarod preached.

She had been willing to listen to his reasoning. Then he had to go and say he had someone he confided in. 'If it's a woman, he's dead' she swore to herself.

She stood there unfazed and in a lethally quiet voice, slowly asked, "And who, exactly, do you confide in, Jarod?" She had stepped impossibly close to him, and had begun to finger the buttons on his shirt.

He didn't trust his voice to answer; she always gave him the chills when she used that tone… it still didn't intimidate him though. In the past, he would allow her to think it did, but now he could not hide that the husky lilt of her voice was really just turning him on. He rolled forward on the balls of his feet, and snagged her around the waist.

Parker resisted his attempts to drag her into the bedroom easily, and serenely repeated her question.

"Who?"

He knew that she thought it was a woman. He absolutely loved it when she got jealous; she was always more possessive of him then.

"Argyle."

She considered his answer for a second before nodding and smiling seductively at Jarod. In return, he lowered his head to capture her mouth, while simultaneously swinging her up into his arms as he made his way down the hall to their bed.









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