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VACATION
Andrea




The Centre

"Any leads on Jarod, Parker?" Lyle asked.

"You'll be the first to know."

"Of course." Lyle replied sarcastically, of course. "By the way, Dad wants to see you."

As she walked to her father's office, Parker wondered what he would want. Entering the office, she called, "Hello, Daddy."

"Angel." He rose as he said this, the usual nonchalant way, not really caring.

"Lyle said you wanted to see me?" she hinted.

"Yes. Your brother had an idea, you and him could go on a vacation together and get to know each other. What do you think?"

Why not, she thought. A vacation from the Centre was nothing to toss away. But still...

"Daddy, I don't want to spend time with Lyle, I know enough about him."

"I think you should go."

As usual, her father wanted to get rid of her. "But, Daddy.."

"No buts, Angel, you are going, and that's it."

"Yes, Daddy."

"I knew you'd say so, and so did Lyle. Good. You leave tomorrow."

"Where are we going?" Parker hoped it was Paris, or somewhere like that where she could get some shopping done.

"Its a surprise, only Lyle knows. Have a good time." With that, Parker left.



Next Day - The Centre

"Hello, Parker."

"Same to you, Lyle. So, where are we going?"

"Africa." He replied, obviously pleased with himself. "To Abuja, to be exact."

"Africa?!"

"Yep, we're going on a sarfari."





12 hours later

Parker woke suddenly. Unexepectedly she'd fallen asleep. Looking out the windows of the plane, she realized that they were in Africa.

"Rise and shine," Lyle called out. "I got us a hotel for the night, and we're going on sarfari tomorrow."

"At least you did one decent thing," she said, getting up.

"Hope you didn't bring too much, you'll have to carry it yourself." Once again, Lyle was pleased, grinning sardonically.

"I didn't." She hadn't. Once she had heard that Lyle planned the trip, thought that he would do something like this. All she had packed was some jeans and T-shirts, plus a *sensible* pair of hiking boots, and a knife, which she wore in an ankle sheath. And her ever present Centre issue .9 mm.

They had a peaceful night, and Parker was ready to deal with whatever Lyle threw.



On Safari

"Quiet, Parker, before you scare off all the animals."

"Scare them off? I've done way better than you have."

"My point exactly," Lyle was seething.

It had been like this all morning, arguments galore. Mad at Lyle once again, Parker stalked silently into the jungle, intending to get away from her infuriating brother. It was a move she would, or maybe wouldn't regret.

Not 10 minutes away from the others, Parker heard the not so subtle click of a gun. Immediately, she turned towards the noise, pulling her own gun as she did.

"Who's there?" she demanded.

Silence answered. Parker looked around, so intent on her target that she never heard the footsteps behind her, never sensed the hands that grabbed her.

Startled, she nearly dropped her gun, but she managed to hold onto it. Once again, she lept immediately into action. She knew that the guy was taller than her, so she kicked him, at the same time squirming free, and ramming her gun into the guy's stomach. She took off running into the forest, never stopping.

But of course she had to stop eventually. Looking around her, Parker knew she was lost. All she had with her was her gun, and her knife, still hidden. Great, Parker thought, lost in the middle of the African jungle, on the outskirts of Abuja, which had rolling grasslands, which gave it a peaceful look. Its all Lyle's fault. She'd make him pay. Really pay. Well, the only thing to do was start walking. Retracing her steps, she started going in the direction of the others, or so she hoped.

Soon her hunch proved right. Parker heard the others, and knew that she had gone the right way. Slding silently up to Lyle, she whispered, "Hello, Lyle."

He jumped. "Why what happened to you Parker?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Of course."

During this exchange, their guide had come up. He asked Lyle who she was. Lyle replied that he didn't know. He claimed that Parker had attacked him.

Surprised and amazed, Parker really did attack him. The guide had to seperate them, but in the time that took, Parker had managed to give Lyle two black eyes.

The guide searched her, and took her gun, which was tucked into the waist of her jeans, where it usually was. He tossed it to Lyle, and tied her hands behind her back.

Lyle exchanged a few words with the guide, this time in Swahili. Parker asked Lyle what he'd said.

To her astonishment, Lyle said that he had told the guide that Parker was his sister, but he had also said that they had better keep her tied up until they were done, or she would keep attacking them.

Enraged, Parker didn't know what to do. She was helpless, for the time being.

During the time it took to get back to the village they had started from. Lyle managed to get a duck, which he was emmensly proud of, and he also managed to light a fire once, after 10 attempts. Parker had a hard time trying not to laugh, but that became easy when she remembered her situation. At night when they camped, Lyle could see that her arms hurt after hours of walking with them tied behind her back, and he would offer to unite her, if she set up camp. Although she was uncomfortable, and her arms did hurt, she wasn't going to play servant to her little brother, and always refused his offers. It was embarrassing enough when Lyle helped her drink or eat something. Lyle, of course, took every opportnity to remind Parker of her predicament, often teasing her when she stumbled, her balance off, or about other incidents.

At night, the jungle teemed with the sounds of elephants trumpeting to each other, and lions roaring challenges, but it was like this during the day, with the songs of birds mixed in.

It took them three days to reach the village, three monotonous days in which Parker suffered at her brother's little jokes and comments.

The last night in the wild, while everyone, including Lyle, was asleep, Parker used her knife to cut herself loose. Moving quietly, she retrieved her gun from Lyle, pausing to do one last thing before she ran towards the village. There the Centre helicopter was waiting.

She woke up the pilot, and convinced him to fly her back to the Centre and leave Lyle. It was a long trip, which gave Parker time to think about her revenge.



Back at the Centre

"Angel."

"Hello, Daddy."

"How was your trip?"

"Relaxing." Parker replied, leaving out the fact that she was not telling him most of what went on.

"Yes, relaxing," echoed Lyle, who had come up behind them,with a the usual smirk on his face. "Parker and I learned a lot about each oher."

"Good." Mr. Parker said, and walked away.

There he goes, thought Parker. As usual, walking away from his children. Does he really care about Lyle or me?

That thought was still in her head when Lyle said, "Happy to see you're okay. I knew not to be worried when you were missing."

"Yeah, I'm sure you knew I was fine."

"Yes. I found your little message." He handed her the empty clip, the one whose contents she had use to leave Lyle a message, a little idea she had picked up from Jarod. "Want it back?"

In reply, she pulled her gun out from where it belonged, in the holster at the small of her back, and loaded it, quickly and easily. Slipping the gun back into the holster, she replied, "Keep it," and walked away. Perhaps, by doing that, she had remined him of where she stood, above him, and Parker hoped he remembered her father's orders to her once, to get rid of Lyle for stealing that computer chip.

"And by the way, lovely trip, Lyle."





Author’s note: I’d like to thank everybody that helped me with this fic, especially Nash.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Pretender.









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