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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the extraordinary wait, but this chapter needed a lot in it for what I'm trying to do. Enjoy!

His laughter was pure evil and it made Jarod's skin crawl. His hand unconsciously tightened around Parker's wrist under the bed covers. Her eyes sprung open and it took only a glance at Jarod's devestated expression for her to realize how terribly wrong things were.

She clutched the sheet around her and turned toward the door to see her brother's smiling face looking back at her.

"Why am I not surprised to see you alive, Lyle?" she growled.

Lyle clasped his hands together, "And why am I not surprised to see you shacking up with the lab rat?"

"It doesn't matter anymore, Lyle. The Centre's gone now," Jarod interrupted, knowing the twins' verbal sparring could go on forever.

Lyle took a step toward them, "Thanks for the newsflash, Jarod, but I'm perfectly aware of your latest stunt. But I'm not here on Centre business."

"Then what," Miss Parker snarled.

"Let's call it personal," he winked.

Jarod swallowed. Centre business was bad enough.

*****

"McDonald's breakfast, you just can't beat it," Broots said, stabbing a bite of pancake out of the styrofoam container.

Debbie looked up from her food, making her best attempt to smile, "Mhm."

"So you ready to hit the road again?"

"I guess."

Broots nodded.

"Dad, where are we going to live now?"

He stopped, and finished his gulp of orange juice, "Well where do you want to live?"

She thought about it for a moment, "Near Miss Parker."

Broots smiled, imagining how Miss Parker would react to that, "I guess we'll have to see then."

He crumbled his wrappers into a ball and picked up his tray, "Let's head back."

Debbie followed suit and the two made their way to the car outside.

*****

"So, I presume there are no clothes under that sheet there, sis."

Lyle made his way to her side of the bed and ran the tip of his gun along the edge of her form. Inside she shivered, but her exterior was as strong as stone, her eyes never breaking away from his cold ones. He licked his lips and she stared at him daringly.

"Have some decency, Lyle," Jarod growled.

The twins' stare continued and Lyle slowly straightened his posture. "You know Jarod is absolutely right. You are my sister after all. Why don't you get dressed?"

"Leave," she said without hesitation.

"Mmm I don't know, the instant I step out of those doors you two will be plotting and scheming against me and I can't have that."

Neither responded because he was obviously right. Jarod shot an apprehensive glance to Parker, but she ignored it. Wrapping the sheet around herself she quickly stood, much to Lyle's dismay whose arm immediately straightened with his pistol pointing at her. She pretended not to notice and leaned to the ground to where Jarod had left his clothes in a loose pile. She threw them at him, who caught them in surprise.

"Men," she muttered, slamming the bathroom door shut behind her.

Lyle looked at Jarod who raised his brows with a knowing expression. The pretender began pulling clothes on beneath the bed comforter and Lyle watched on with a chesire smile, much to Jarod's disgust. When he was done, Lyle approached him slowly, dangling shining metal handcuffs in his hand.

"Let's do this nice and easy now, Jarod. I'd hate for Miss Parker to have to pay for your mistakes."

Jarod grimaced because while taunting Lyle had always been fun and fighting against him had always been okay and satisfying with the knowledge that they would never want him dead and he had nothing to lose, now he did have something to lose and it didn't matter if he died. Not this time.

So he let Lyle cuff him to the bed.

They heard running water from the sink and Lyle hit the wooden door with his knuckles, shouting "No funny business, Parker."

The door swung open and a fully dressed Miss Parker came out, "Quit your whining."

With the cock of his head, Lyle was filled with the joy of control again as she flicked the light switch off. Jarod's eyes twinkled when he saw the look in hers. It was predatory, and he had seen it many a time before.

Before he could hypothesize what she was planning, she had thrown a cup-full of water in her brother's face and while he dealt with the shock and wiped the liquid from his eyes, she had slipped behind him and put a razor to his throat.

"You should have known better than to come here, Lyle," she whispered in his ear. "I've been saving up my rage for you since before we even met."

"What you're forgetting, sis, is that I have nothing to lose here." He cocked his gun and aimed it at the restrained Jarod. "You do."

"I'd slit your throat," her voice cracked.

"Doesn't matter. There's nothing left for me, but you can be damn sure I'd get a few shots off before I'm down. Now is that what you want?"

He didn't have to see her face to know it was pained with frustration right now. She looked at Jarod who shook his head back at her, helplessly.

"It's your call," Lyle grinned, imagining the look on her face behind him.

It took all the strength in her to throw the razor at the wall beside her and spread her hands in the air in defeat. Jarod let out a breath of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. She walked over to him and whispered a barely audible apology, to which he also shook his head.

"So what do you want?" Miss Parker crossed her arms, turning to her little brother.

"Follow me," Lyle grinned.

*****

Raines stood by the elevator, watching people walk in and out of the tiled common area he had stood in so many times before. They were all carrying boxes, cleaning out their desks. Nobody knew exactly why they were all leaving, but they had a pretty good idea who was behind it. Willie approached Mr Raines hesitantly.

"Sir, is there anything we should do before..?"

"No," Raines exhaled. Willie nodded and took a few steps backward before turning and entering the elevator. Those bulletholes were still there. After all this time.

Then some people grouped together in dark uniforms caught the attention of the bald-headed man and he wheeled his oxygen tank toward them. Some had notepads and were recording what a one-armed dwarf was telling them.

"What's going on here?" Raines asked.

A woman with light brown hair stepped forward and presented a gleaming badge, "FBI, sir. I'm Federal Agent Sheers. We're just asking a few questions. Can I get your name please?"

"No."

"Then I'm afraid you'll have to come with us as your description fits that of one of our suspects," she said.

"Suspects for what?"

"Well recently our office received a packet of information about this organization with many incriminating files and video recordings to put at least a few people here away for life. We've always been suspicious of this Centre, but all the documents with research updates seemed legitimate so we never felt compelled to investigate, especially with all the aid The Centre has provided us with the superb simulation exercises. However, the independent practices of certain authorities here definitely require our attention." Sheers paused and glanced at her notes. "You. Mr... Raines? I'm nearly certain most half of our information points to you."

"This is ridiculous," Raines protested. "You can't be serious. We have given you millions over the years for the privacy of our research facilities-"

"Yes yes the privacy has been compromised and if there were a way to compensate your organization, patients, and test subjects, we would. Unfortunately, it seems you are packing up shop and we cannot ignore the allegations here," Sheers almost smiled for a second. "And surprisingly, your former employees seem more than willing to share their knowledge with us."

Raines looked at the dwarf next to her, who averted eye contact immediately. They had tipped him over the boiling point now and he turned to walk away, but was met with two stony faced men in suits. Unfortunately, not sweepers.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you're going to have to come with us," one of them informed him.

Sheers nodded, "Cuff him, boys. The rest of you, scan the area. I've been dying to explore this place for some time now."

*****

Miss Parker rolled her eyes at her little brother's arrogance when she entered the living room, where the rest of the house's occupants were all cuffed to different pieces of furniture or walls. How she and Jarod had slept through this she had no idea, but it was a sick thought to contemplate. Then she saw Cade sitting in Emily's lap, staring at her wide-eyed. She supposed it wasn't as traumatizing for him as other children his age, that he was used to this sort of thing. But that made it no better and in fact, disturbed her a little more. Especially seeing the pathetic look on his face. God, he really did have Jarod's eyes. How had she not seen it before?

"Great, so I see you've accomplished a lot here, Lyle. Now seriously what the hell do you want?"

"Well see it's not even about what I want. You've already ruined that," he shouted the last bit, waving his gun around carelessly. "It's more about taking away the things you want."

Her posture straightened at those words, and she hissed "Like I haven't lost enough?"

Lyle smirked, his blue eyes wide with a wild sort of giddyness, "No I don't think you have."

"You people have taken every good thing I've ever had and thrown it down the drain. You killed Mom, you killed Tommy, you especially poisoned what decency was left in my family tree. If I had had a pet canary you would have sent it down a mine shaft!" Her hands shook in tight fists as she inched closer and closer to him. "Don't tell me you haven't ruined enough of my life. I've been trying to salvage it for thirty years and it's about damn time you stepped out of the way and let me."

Her face was mere inches away from him and Lyle continued to smile a more sinister smile before whispering, "I think you have me confused with a few other people." His voice grew louder, "In fact, I don't think I'm responsible for 75% of your whining. So don't blame me for what The Centre has chosen for you."

"You're The Centre's golden boy. Of course I can blame you," she shook her head in disgust.

"Now that is just not true. The Centre's precious golden boy is back in the bedroom. And you can blame him for all of your shortcomings."

"No, no, no! Your little manufactured lies don't work on me anymore. I have had it. Shoot me for all I care, I am sick of having to see your face every time I think my life might turn out okay."

Lyle could tell by the simplicity in the statement that she was absolutely serious. And that was no fun.

*****

As soon as Parker and Lyle left, Jarod threw open the drawer to the nightstand beside him. He had scanned the room looking for something to pick the lock with, but saw nothing. In the nightstand was nothing but a bible with a page marked. Jarod groaned in frustration, whacking the side of the drawer as he did so. A pen slid out of the marked page and his brown eyes lit up. He grabbed it and realized breaking the clip off wouldn't help so he dissected it, hoping some part of it would help him. The tube of ink inside was his best bet, so he carefully plunged the thin plastic tube into the keyhole of his cuff. He heard some clicks, and pressed a little harder.

The plastic cracked into two and the ink splattered all over his hands.

"Damn it!"

*****

Broots was whistling by the time she and Debbie pulled into the long beach-front driveway to their cottage. Debbie had her hands over her ears and Broots had assumed, very incorrectly, that she was joking.

"Dad, what's that other car doing in the driveway?" she pointed to the black vehicle.

The whistling stopped and Broots gazed at the car, baffled, "Gee I don't know."

The car was silent as realization dawned.

Debbie continued talking, "Do you think Molly rented this and came here?"

"No, Deb, she wouldn't have come back here. Oh my God it has to be someone from The Centre. They've come for us, and I bet they're pissed. Oh God." He started fumbling with things in the car, loose change spilling all over the floorboards.

"Dad, chill. You're no good to anyone like that," Debbie chastized.

Broots paused and looked at his daughter, "You're right. You're, you're absolutely right. Um, you wait here. I'll- I'll handle this."

"What? Dad, come on, what are you doing?"

Broots opened the door and stepped out of the car apprehensively, "I'm serious. Do not leave this car and if you see someone unfamiliar coming then hide in the back seat."

"Dad!" she protested.

"Shh!" Broots put a finger to his lips and Debbie obeyed, watching her father stumble toward the house.

*****

Jarod had a hand on his forehead, contemplating some way out of his restraints when a sharp knock at the door startled him. Broots stood behind the glass looking disheveled and terrified.

"Shh!" Jarod put a finger to his lips, giving Broots a glare that he recognized from Miss Parker's face on more than one occasion. Jarod waved him in and raised one hand to indicate he should be slow and careful about it.

Broots slowly slid the door open and stepped in, scurrying to Jarod's side, "Oh my God, Jarod. I climbed the porch! I saw Lyle through the window in the living room with Miss Parker and I actually climbed up the side. I'm so glad you're here. What are we going to do?"

"Broots!" Jarod growled. "Keep it down and help me out of these."

"What? Oh! You're locked up!"

Jarod cocked his head at him, "Of course I'm locked up. Find something that I can pick the lock with."

"Oh! Yeah. Okay."

"Check the bathroom."

"Right, good idea, Jarod," Broots turned and rushed to the closest door, throwing it open and stumbling into a mess of hangers and clothing instead.

"Bathroom, Broots, not closet!" Jarod chastized, his voice bleeding with frustration.

Broots nodded and entered the correct door and started searching through drawers and cabinets.

"Check for hair pins. She probably has some," Jarod said.

"Oh, oh I found some!" Broots came running to the bed and dropped a handful into Jarod's hand.

"One will do." He began to pick the lock with an impatient vigor. "Do you have a gun, Broots?"

"What? No."

Jarod sighed, jiggling the bobby pin more furiously than before. The cuff loosened, clicked, and then popped off and Jarod breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now what?" Broots asked.

Jarod looked to the hall door, "Come on."

*****

Lyle flicked open a jagged knife, roughly as long as his hand from palm to fingertip, running his finger delicately along the top of it.

"You know, Parker, I'm getting kind of hungry."

She stared back at him with piercing sapphire eyes, "You mean you didn't stop for Lo Mein on the way here?"

He took a step closer to her and ran the blade vertically from her chin to down her throat along her chest, barely descending below the opening in her shirt. The lower he skimmed, the larger his smile grew.

"You're psychotic," Miss Parker whispered. He winked back at her and she narrowed her eyes, with a condescending demeanor.

A loud crash from outside broke their trance and Lyle turned immediately, facing the back door to where the sound had come from. Miss Parker looked, just as curiously. Jarod was still in the bedroom, but she had hoped that while she entertained Lyle, he would be devising something typically brilliant to get them out of this.

"What the hell was that?" Lyle asked.

"I'm standing right here in case you didn't notice," she quipped back.

He grabbed her wrist, "Shut up." Edging toward the door she groaned as he dragged her along with him, his knife in the other hand. There was another crash to the right and he flung the door open, pushing her out first.

Miss Parker stumbled out onto the porch and looked around her.

*****

Emily watched as Lyle shoved Miss Parker onto the back porch before following her. She leaned over from her seat on the fireplace, careful to clutch Cade tight against her chest. He started to speak but she hushed him and he clearly understood the severity of the situation, sealing his lips once more.


"Everything's going to be fine," she whispered. Sydney watched her calm the child, remembering his surprise when Lyle had woken him at the crack of dawn, with a handcuff already locked around one wrist. He had told him how wise it would be for him to remain silent because others would suffer the consequences if he didn't. Upon entering the living room with the neck of Lyle's pistol in his back, he saw that it was Emily to whom he was referring.

Now, he pondered Jarod's absence. Miss Parker hadn't seemed terribly upset, so he assumed Jarod was still all right. Sydney's first thought on seeing that it was Lyle's cold face was that Jarod's dreams had been leading to this.

His thoughts were broken when suddenly Emily gasped and Jarod appeared, a finger pressed to his own lips. Sydney immediately glanced to the porch where Lyle was nudging Miss Parker down the steps for now.

"Quick, we've got to hurry," Jarod whispered, handing a bobby pin to Sydney and then rushing to Emily to undo hers for her. Sydney started fumbling with his lock.

"I want to help you," Emily told him as he clicked the metal gears until the cuff sprung open.

"No," His eyes met hers and her shoulders sagged. "Protect Cade. That's all I ask."

Jarod straightened and returned to Sydney who was still messing with the lock. He took the pin from Sydney's hands and fiddled with it, releasing him.

"But, Jarod-" Emily protested, standing up with Cade in her arms.

Jarod grasped her free hand with a desperate gleam in his eyes, "Emily, he's my son."

Hers and Sydney's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Our son, Parker's and mine, I-" he stopped, noticing the baffled expression on the child in question's face and his own face softened. "I promise we'll talk all about it later."

Sydney stood up and put a hand on Jarod's shoulder, "Good luck, Jarod. I know you'll do the right thing."

Jarod's face was pained and he nodded, "Go. Be careful."

*****

Officer Sheers tapped her pencil against her notebook. The files she'd been sent by the anonymous sender were terrifying. She'd watched tape after tape of child abuse, most often at the hands of this Mr Raines, formerly Dr Raines. It was enough to put him away for life. The search of The Centre hadn't resulted in much as the computer files seemed to have all been erased. If it weren't for the anonymous tip, everyone probably would have walked away scott free. There were a lot of strange laboratories, but nothing conclusive. They could have been used for anything.

Whoever this Jarod was, she sympathized with him. And Timmy, Kyle, the little girl... so many innocent children. It was sickening. The thought of putting this creep behind bars was satisfying and she intended to push the papers through the courts as fast as possible.

*****

Broots nearly fell over himself when he saw Miss Parker step around the corner of the house. The whole structure was set up on beams in case of floods, but there was still a small shed-like area in the center of the house, and Broots realized Lyle must be on the other side of that wall. Miss Parker gave him wide impatient eyes, chastizing him with a simple expression that he needed to get the hell out of sight before her brother appeared. Broots scrambled around the corner, but tripped over one of the trash cans he had knocked over to make the crashing sound in the first place. Miss Parker grimaced, but Broots was out of sight as Lyle rounded the corner.

"You've gotten your panties in a bunch over a cat messing with the trash. Nice one, Lyle," she said instantly.

He looked at her with a crooked smile, "Right, a cat. Did it have green whiskers, too?"

"Okay, Lyle, I'm making the cat thing up. Sydney actually teleported himself down here to knock them over and then back upstairs to lock himse-" she rambled sarcastically.

"Shut up!" he yelled, darting around the same corner where Broots had gone. The wild game of cat and mouse grew as Lyle decided to run around the entire square of building. Upon seeing the door to the basement/shed, his grin grew, "Get over here, Parker."

She sighed and walked over, knowing that cooperation was essential to protecting the lives of her friends upstairs, and Jarod, whatever he was.

Lyle wrapped an arm around he neck and pulled her close in front of him, ignoring her groan.

"Come out come out wherever you are," he called into the dark room. It was small, about the size of the house's living room. But there were enough old ping pong tables and dirty boogie boards for a person to disappear momentarily. Lyle waited, "All right. That's fine. I'll give you to the count of five and then Miss Parker here will suffer you consequences."

Nothing.

"One," he drew out the syllable and Parker rolled her eyes, "Two, three." His voice grew louder and more menacing as he drew the knife closer to her neck. "Four!"

Junk shifted and made a commotion and then Broots appeared, shaking with hands in the air, "Don't. Please."

"Aw," Lyle laughed. "Now isn't that sweet? What do you do to your techs to earn such loyalty I wonder."

He sheathed his knife, and pulled out his gun instead. To Broots look of confusion he answered, "It packs more of a bang!"

Broots jumped slightly. Lyle laughed, and stepped backward, dragging Parker along with him and beckoning Broots to follow.


"Come on out, now," he said in a gentle eerie voice. On the concrete beneath the structure of the house, the morning light cut lines through the wooden slats above them all across the ground and their faces. Lyle leaned in and smelled the soft brunette hair in front of him with a dramatic whiff and Broots couldn't even hide his disgust.

Neither could Jarod.

He came barreling out of nowhere and everything happened so fast. It was all too fast.

The force of Jarod's hit knocked the gun out of Lyle's hand as he felt Jarod's shoulder knock him in his side. Miss Parker was immediately lurched forward and Broots grabbed her, steadying her before she fell. Her eyes were alert as ever as she followed the sound of the gun scraping concrete, ignoring the flying punches and kicking from the two men behind her. She grabbed the gun and turned around with her arms locked straight.

"Jarod, move out of the way!" she yelled desperately. Jarod's body was covering Lyle's as he was on top of him, planting hit after hit into Lyle's face. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration, "Jesus Christ, Jarod, just move!"

The punches stopped suddenly and Jarod jumped a little, the air catching in his throat. He released the grip he had on Lyle's throat with his non-punching hand, and he fell back a little. Lyle grabbed him back though, knowing Parker would shoot him without hesitation.

"Shoot him," Jarod said in an urgent raspy strain.

"What the hell," she whispered, not understanding his strange behavior.

Lyle stood, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, pulling Jarod up with him, a groan emitting from his mouth. That's when she saw the stream of blood, covering Jarod's white shirt and growing rapidly. Lyle held up the bloody knife with a laugh.

"You two are always underestimating me."

There was no hesitation at all as Miss Parker pulled the trigger of the gun. Lyle died then and there with a look of shock in his eyes as the blood from the bullethole in his forehead trickled down his face. By the time his body fell to the ground, Miss Parker had caught Jarod's slowly collapsing one and lowered him gently down. Kneeling by his side, she lifted his head up onto her lap.

"Not a chance, Jarod. You're not going like this. Look at me," He did. "I refuse to do this alone."

Jarod smiled a little and whispered, "You'll never be alone again."

Broots watched in complete shock as she kissed his lips and gave him an expectant look. He had apparently missed a lot in his trip with Debbie and Molly. Her attention turned to Broots then, "Why aren't you calling an ambulance, Broots?!"

There was no real explanation for that, so he ran off, pounding up the stairs as he did so.

"You're a real pain you know that," Parker told Jarod through her tears as he struggled for breath.

And again, he tried to smile.










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