Miss Parker woke with a start just a few hours later as her head slipped from its place in the crook of Jarod's arm. He had jerked suddenly and was now clinging to the sheets, tightening and untightening his fists, moaning and muttering words that seemed to always begin with "no."

"Jarod," she grabbed his good arm and shook him slightly, groaning "Come on, Jarod, it's just a dream."

Jarod twisted his shoulders and continued his scattered breathing. Miss Parker sighed and grabbed his face, turning it toward her. His eyes shot open and he shivered back at first, but let out a deep sigh of relief upon realizing it was her.

"Did I wake you?" he whispered, attempting to regain a steady breath.

"No you just made it so I couldn't sleep anymore."

"I'm sorry. I don't know what to do about them. I just can't ever sleep more than a few hours without one," Jarod sighed in frustration, pulling her back against him.

They remained like that until Miss Parker broke the silence, "What do you dream of?"

Jarod shook his head, "I don't know."

"Maybe if you figured that out, they'd go away. We'll put Freud on the case a-sap because I can't deal with you waking me up every three hours. One day you'll push me right on the floor and I might pull my gun by mistake." She arched her eyebrow slyly.

Jarod exhaled loudly, finding no humor in her words, "I guess we wouldn't want that."

"Hey go to sleep, okay?"

Jarod nodded and closing his eyes, leaned his head against the top of hers until he was sure she was sleeping again. He lay awake for about an hour, fighting the sleep til he couldn't fight anymore.

*****

"Um, Sydney?" Broots peeked his head into the kitchen where Sydney sat alone at the long wooden table sipping on a glass of orange juice and reading a newspaper. Broots stammered a bit, "We have orange juice? And newspapers?"

"Emily and Molly went to the store," Sydney replied in a monotoned voice.

"Oh um well okay. I kind of have some bad news." Broots bit at his bottom lip and when Sydney met his eyes, he quickly sat across from him at the table and leaned in close, "I tried to log into The Centre mainframe to figure out what Miss Parker's been doing--"

"And?"

Broots' voice was hushed, "and it's not there. There's nothing there."

"Has your authorization been disabled?" Sydney squinted his eyes in that inquiring way of his.

"No, Syd! It's different. It's like" his eyes raced back and forth, "It's like The Centre never existed."

"That's impossible. I'm sure someone just took away your access grants and--"

"There isn't even a log in page. It's been completely wiped out. If I were Mr Parker, I wouldn't be able to get in. Something's wiped the system."

Sydney straightened in his seat, "Or someone."

Broot's brow was furrowed and he was visibly shaken, "Who?"

"Who do you think has the capability or doing such a thing?" Sydney questioned knowingly.

Broots spoke in a rushed unnatural pace. "Jarod, he, he couldn't. This had to be done at The Centre mainframe. It's just not technologically possible to do it any other way. I didn't think anyone could even do this. I-I couldn't fathom. I don't know."

Sydney's eyes gleamed, "Nobody's ever been able to measure Jarod's capabilities. Anything's possible."

"I just don't know what this means," Broots mumbled distractedly.

"It means the end is near."

They stared at each other for a while, Broots breathing rapidly.

*****

The sun was barely streaming through the vertical blinds of the hotel window when Miss Parker opened her eyes the next morning. Jarod's arm was still wrapped around her securely. She surveyed the room and noticed that Cade was awake and examining a PEZ dispenser at the small table by the door. She watched him as he explored the toy, startling himself after pulling the head up and all the candy scattered across the table. The sound woke Jarod who groaned at the disruption, opening his deep chocolatey eyes, noticing only that Parker was no longer facing him. He grabbed her waist and pulled her close, settling his face in her hair, inhaling deeply.

The action had not gone unnoticed by the small child and he stared with wide brown eyes at the stranger.

"Jarod," Parker whispered, then returned her voice to normal, "What did you find, Cade?"

Cade eyed them both suspiciously and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. In response to her question, he looked at the mess of orange candies and then back to her, "Oops."

She smiled, removing Jarod's arm and sitting up so she was just a couple feet away from the toddler, "It's okay. Jarod will clean it."

"Right, yeah. Jarod will do it, absolutely," Jarod affirmed, sitting up as well.

"That's what we thought huh, Cade?" she swept him into her arms, "Now where are you stashing the food, hm Jarod? I bet you're starved aren't you, kid?"

Jarod, his head rested in one hand and his elbow on his knee, stared at them from a sideways angle, a faint smile on his lips.

"There's milk in the fridge and some Pop Tarts somewhere," he said lowly, transfixed in his gaze.

Miss Parker walked the few steps to the tiny fridge and pulled out some milk and a hotel-issue paper cup for Cade and let him sip it while she opened a package of Pop Tarts for him. She placed the food in front of him and redirected her attention to the man on the bed who was still watching her complacently.

"I have to tell you something," she joined him on the mattress, sitting on her feet in a knealing position so that she was taller than him. She took a deep breath, "something horrible."

Jarod's expression changed to concern, but was distracted upon hearing a high pitched, almost whimper. Cade was prodding at the Pop Tart, little red crystals falling to the table.

"It's not wheat grass," Jarod stood, cautiously approaching him and knealing to his level, "or oatmeal or protein mix. Right?"

"Yeah," Cade nodded.

Miss Parker observed as Jarod scrunched up his face and poked at the Pop Tart in the same manner as the child had, "It's a lot, harder. And covered in strange crystals. Weird huh?"

"Yeah," he answered, more certain now, relieved he wasn't the only one who found this new substance baffling.

"Well I used to eat the same food as you," Jarod explained, to wide excited eyes, "But then, I found foods like this. It's way better."

Jarod broke off a corner of the Pop Tart and put it in his mouth, "Mmm. I don't know if I like the frosted top or the jelly center better."

Hesitantly, Cade copied him. As the taste settled in, his eyes grew wider and a grin began to form. Jarod mirrored it, and Miss Parker scoffed.

"Now that you've officially addicted my little brother to sugar, could we get back to this please?" she beckoned in a sing-song voice.

"Sorry, I just know how lost you can feel out here for the first time in your life," Jarod returned to sit beside her, noticing how dark her features suddenly were, "What's wrong, Parker?"

"I couldn't find him," she began, her voice emotion-laced, "Cade wasn't in the nursery. But when I got to my car, Angelo had brought him there for me. He knew. Somehow he always knew. He just."

Her voice trailed off, and the concern in Jarod's eyes grew as he mentally noted her change in tense, "It's okay, go on."

Miss Parker whispered, "Briggite came to stop us. She would have killed me, but he saved my life. He took my bullet for himself. Angelo was murdered."

Jarod's face fell into deep despair and his eyes misted, "No."

She nodded, wiping away a loose teare, "Yeah. I still can't believe it. He was. He just deserved so much more."

Jarod was staring at the floor and he gulped slowly, "He did. But I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he was saving you. And that was important to him. He cared about Cade. He, he cared about you."

Miss Parker sobbed abruptly, "Yeah, and he met the same fate as every other louse who put half an effort into caring about me. I swear to God I'm cursed. Nobody lasts. Nobody. Not even poor, sweet Angelo."

"Hey," Jarod grabbed one of her hands, "I've always cared."

"Yeah and look at the hand you were dealt. I don't think anyone would call living from hotel to hotel room any kind of paradise."

"It's not so bad when I'm not alone," he mumbled.

They were silent for a while, remembering their friend. Angelo wasn't just their childhood friend; he had become a part of them both. Always the light in their dark world, Angelo always found a way of symbolizing possibility, hope. Now he was gone.

After a while, Jarod spoke. "Briggite?"

"Dead." Miss Parker stood and wiped the crumbs Cade had made on the table into her hand and took them to the bathroom, disposing of them. The door closed behind her and soon they heard the shower water being run. Jarod sighed and turned his attention to her brother, who was staring at him expectantly, waiting to be told something.

Jarod tried to smile at him, but it broke his heart knowing how much he shared with this child. How much he had been missing out on in his brief little life, and how accustomed he was to authority and rules and loneliness. It was the loneliness that was the worst. But they could fix that now.

*****

This seemed to be one of the few rooms in The Centre where light could penetrate the cold exterior and break through the great glass windows. The desk stood near the great panes of glass behind it, and most of the rest of the room was empty.

"Willie, Sam, I want you to stay on high alert," a pause for breath, "we're going to find Jarod, Miss Parker, all of them... and when we do I want you both ready with your teams."

Both sweepers nodded.

"Remember your directions regarding our elusive friends have changed."

Raines' last words came out in a hiss, full of venom. His voice then lost all emotion in it, "Were Briggite and Angelo's bodies disposed of?"

"Yes, Mr Raines," Sam affirmed mechanically to Raines' cold nod.

"Sir," a nameless sweeper burst through the doors to what had previously been Mr Parker's office, "We have a slight problem."

"What?" Raines implored, exhasperatedly.

"Nobody knows where Mr Lyle is. He was supposed to head up the search commitee"

The ghoulish man seemed to snarl back at him as he responded instinctualy, "I organized the commitee, I think I'm aware of who is on it. Check the infirmary records to see when he was released. It's not that complex."

"Uh but," the sweeper stammered in a Broots-like way before Raines realized what he'd implied, "The computers they..."

"I know!" Raines inhaled deeply, "Find him, no matter what you have to do."

"Right," the pale messenger quickly left the room and Raines slumped into the former chairman's seat, "Nobody disappears for long."

*****

Miss Parker stared at herself in the bathroom mirror as the steam of the shower slowly clouded it from the edges in, not breaking gaze with the stranger in the glass before her until the square was fully covered in droplets of water.

Shedding all clothing, she stepped into the tub/shower. She hated these things. Be a shower or a tub. Multi-tasking always makes for crap results.

The water pulsed against her chest and she closed her eyes, turning to wet her hair, dark tendrils sweeping forward to cling to her cheekbones hesitantly. The heat was an incredible comfort, always had been. For someone who always felt as numb as she did, the burn of an almost too hot shower was a daily reminder that she could feel. It was a tease.

'It wasn't a tease last night,' she thought, lathering up her hair. Parker allowed her sudsy hands to slide from her scalp down her neck until each arm was hugging its own shoulder, her elbows pinched together. Jarod always made sure she could feel, even if she didn't want to. Somehow, that man always knew when she was ready. And last night she could feel him, overflowing with desire, hell she knew she'd completely reciprocated it.

But life wasn't as simple as Jarod always made it out to be. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and started rinsing her hair out, letting the soapy water cascade over her hair and face. Jarod lived in a fairy tale world, and she'd always known that wasn't the life for her. Happily ever after didn't exist, especially for The Centre's princess. She humored that thought for a moment. Would that make Jarod her knight in shining armor? The cliche was almost nauseating. She may have been the chairman's daughter, but she was no princess. And valiant and pure as Jarod was, she didn't recall any happily-ever-afters for science experiments turned moral crusaders.

She reached down blindly for the little sample size bottle of hotel conditioner and managed to squeeze out enough to distribute into her hair, combing it through with her finger tips. All night long, she had felt so warm and at home with him. Jarod had always been in her life, even when she wanted him out. The little bastard was persistent.

Today it all felt wrong though. Last night was like a dream. How many times had her "father" told her that dreams are just that, dreams. Nothing more, nothing less. Miss Parker swung her hair back into the pouring water, rinsing the slick conditioner out of her hair.

She couldn't deal with this pendulum of emotions she kept experiencing regarding everyone's favorite labrat. She hated how good he made her feel. She knew she couldn't possibly be making him feel those same things. Those good things weren't in her to give, like they were in Jarod.

Miss Parker turned the knob off and reached for the white towel on the rack, draping it around her expertly. She'd lost everyone because they'd tried to care for her. Mama, Tommy, and now Angelo. She knew she wouldn't be able to survive losing Jarod, too.

Mind over matter, mind over heart. Reason always wins.