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Disclaimer: Ditto the disclaimer in Chapter 1 (or 8). Same difference.
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Seizing Destiny
Part 12
By Phenyx
10/11/04
“I don’t care, Broots,” Miss Parker snapped angrily. Her long strides forced the balding technician to run to keep up with her. “Find a way. Tell the ambassador that we will meet him anywhere he likes, but it will be at the time of our choosing.”
“Will all three of you be going then?” Broots stammered.
Parker stopped abruptly and cringed at the squeaking sound Broots’ shoes made on the tiled corridor floor. “Yes,” she said between gritting teeth. With a growl of frustration she pushed her way past Broots and continued on her way.
The last few days had been grueling. She and her partners had worked around the clock to establish their new positions in the Centre. Word of the coup was beginning to spread and now, outside forces were bringing pressure upon the new regime. They would be tested, Parker knew. But she wasn’t worried about being able to handle it. They could deal with whatever came their way.
Parker rounded a corner and nearly crashed into Angelo. The wild-haired man whimpered with fright and scurried away in the direction from which Parker had just come. She frowned and looked around for Jarod. The fact that he was not in the immediate vicinity was cause for concern. Angelo had been Jarod’s shadow over the last three days.
After leaving the T-board, Jarod had gone straight to Angelo’s room and had freed the little troll from his cubbyhole. The two had been constant companions ever since. The empath even slept at Jarod’s feet like some oversized lap dog.
“Where’s he going?” Broots asked as he watched Angelo disappear down another hallway.
“I don’t know,” Parker replied. “He looked spooked. More so than usual.”
Parker continued with a quickened pace. She hesitated for only a moment upon reaching her destination. When she threw open the door and stepped into what had once been her father’s office, what she found within caused her anxiety to rise.
Jarod stood behind his desk, his back to the room as he gazed out the huge windows. Lyle leaned against a windowsill a few feet away. In the middle of the room, with his hands clasped behind his back, was Sydney.
No one spoke when Parker and Broots entered. Miss Parker frowned and glanced questioningly at her brother. Lyle simply smiled and shrugged at her. Her twin’s nonchalance did not fool Miss Parker. The room nearly shimmered with tension. Anger radiated within these walls like heat from a blast furnace. To Miss Parker and her heightened senses, it was as tangible as frost in the air of a cold autumn morning.
“What’s going on?” Parker asked.
At first, none of the three men moved to answer. After what seemed an eternity, Jarod turned and gazed at her. “We were discussing locale,” he replied. His tone was flat and hollow as though he’d just been punched in the gut and was still attempting to catch his breath.
“Locale?” Parker frowned.
Lyle explained. “The good doctor seems to feel that Jarod shouldn’t set up shop in here.” He waved a hand in the air indicating the extravagant office.
“Oh?” Miss Parker glanced at Sydney, her eyebrows arched with questions.
Sydney nodded and said, “I think Jarod would be more comfortable in familiar surroundings.”
“On one of the sub-levels I presume?” Miss Parker’s ire began to rise, adding to the tension in the room. “Perhaps even the in the sim lab?”
“I fear what he may become if he remains in the tower,” Sydney said.
Parker glanced at Jarod in concern. He looked stricken. Pain and anger vied for control on his face. His wide brown eyes gazed back at her in confusion. He looked like a puppy that had just been kicked and could not understand why.
Lyle stepped forward to stand at Jarod’s side. Placing his good hand on Jarod’s shoulder, Lyle leaned in and whispered into his ear. Jarod sighed and nodded thankfully. The look in the dark eyes as Jarod turned toward Lyle was one of gratitude, almost worship.
Miss Parker felt her temper snap and rage surged through her. Grabbing Sydney by the arm she viciously yanked him toward the door. “I want to speak with you,” she growled between her teeth.
Shoving the older man in front of her she pushed him from the room, barreling into Broots in the process. In the hallway, she slammed the door closed behind her and glared menacingly at the shivering technician. “Vanish,” she hissed at him. Broots didn’t need to be told twice. He scurried down the corridor as quickly as he could.
She turned on Sydney and unleashed her venom at him. “I should kill you where you stand.” Her voice shook with fury. “How dare you? Of all people in this world, how dare you, Sydney?”
“I only want what is best for Jarod,” Sydney defended.
“Bullshit,” Parker spat.
“This is a difficult time for him,” Sydney continued.
“Brilliant deduction,” Parker yelled. “I don’t need a degree in psychiatry to figure that one out.”
Sydney pressed on. “Miss Parker, we must remove him from this environment before any further damage is done to his psyche.”
“It’s too late for that,” Parker argued. “The damage has been done. Locking him away from the world won’t ease his pain.” Miss Parker gasped and tears filled her eyes as she thought of the look on Jarod’s face. “Don’t you see what you’ve done? My god Syd, he’s turning to Lyle for support. Lyle!”
“But,” Sydney tried to speak but Parker cut him off.
“But nothing,” she snapped. “Jarod is not your pet project anymore. He is not your experiment. He is your boss.” Parker punctuated each word by poking Sydney in the chest with her finger. “If you are lucky… If you are very lucky, you will find a way to become his friend again. Although how you will manage that after this fiasco, I can’t imagine.”
“But I just,”
Parker ignored Sydney’s attempts to defend himself. “I’ll do what I can to smooth this over with him, but you’ve really blown it Syd. He can’t afford to lose friends right now. He needs us too much.”
Sydney nodded sadly. “I wanted to help,” he whispered.
“Things have changed Sydney,” Parker said. “He has changed. Everything you knew about him before is meaningless. You can’t have the same relationship with him. You’ll need to forge a new one just like the rest of us. Understand?”
“Yes.”
Parker sighed. The anger slipped away to be replaced by fatigue. “Stay away from him for a few days,” she sighed. “Give me a chance to do some damage control.”
Sydney nodded again. He turned and walked slowly down the hallway toward the elevator.
“Sydney,” Parker called after him. “I want you to dismantle the lab. Get rid of everything.”
The psychiatrist’s head practically spun around in surprise.
“Everything,” she hollered. “Understood?”
“Understood?” Jarod and Lyle heard much of the argument between Sydney and Miss Parker. Her raised voice was only slightly muffled by the closed office door. The two men stood and stared at each other as Miss Parker railed at Sydney in the hallway.
“Like a lioness protecting her cub,” Lyle murmured.
Jarod frowned. “I’m not her cub.”
“You are her something,” Lyle smirked. “You belong to her. Might as well tattoo ‘Property of Miss Parker’ on your forehead.”
Jarod made a rude noise.
Lyle laughed. “Scoff if you like, my friend,” he said. “But you are definitely caught in her web.”
Jarod swallowed nervously and sank into the leather chair behind his desk. “What do you think she will do to me?” he asked.
“Honestly?” Lyle sat on the corner of Jarod’s desk and tilted his head quizzically. At Jarod’s nod he answered, ”I think she’ll take very good care of you.”
Jarod frowned and looked up at the piercing blue eyes. “That isn’t what I expected you to say,” he admitted.
Lyle shrugged. “I had my doubts at first,” he said. “Let’s face it, my sister is a class-A bitch. I was convinced that she was putting out so that you would be her ally against me.”
Jarod cringed inwardly as he realized that he and Lyle had shared the same thoughts.
With a sigh, Lyle continued. “But I’m beginning to believe differently.”
“How so?” Jarod asked.
“I think she really cares,” Lyle said in a slightly embarrassed tone.
“I’d like to believe that,” Jarod sighed.
Lyle looked down at Jarod as a frown creased his brow. “I think you should,” he said. “Allow yourself to believe.”
“I want to,” Jarod whispered. “I really want to.”
“I know.”
Jarod groaned and sprang from the chair. “Why do you care, Lyle? I’d have thought you would enjoy playing us against each other. Why the tender advice?”
Lyle blinked at Jarod in silence for a long moment. “We are a great deal alike you and I,” he said softly. “More so than either of us cares to admit. You struggle to suppress the darker side of your personality while I choose to hide the opposite.”
“I don’t understand,” Jarod said.
Lyle smiled. “I think you do.” He added, “I know that Parker doesn’t believe me capable of it. Hell, no one does. But the fact of the matter is that I care about my sister. I want to see her find the happiness that was stolen from us. I am beginning to realize that she can do just that.”
“She can?”
Lyle nodded. “With you at her side, I believe she can do anything.”
Jarod’s answering grin was as bright as a small star. “She is incredible, isn’t she?” he asked.
Lyle laughed. “She is one crazy bitch,” he said. “But if she floats your boat, Jarod, I say go for it.”
“Go for what?” Parker chose that moment to reenter the room.
The two men stared at her with wide eyes, as though they had just been caught in the middle of some heinous crime.
“What?” she repeated.
“Sailing lessons,” Lyle answered with a wink at Jarod.
Parker looked from her brother to her lover and back again. Both men seemed to be sharing a joke of some sort, at her expense no doubt. Jarod’s hurt and anger from a few minutes ago seemed to have vanished. It made her more than a little nervous, this camaraderie forming between Jarod and her brother. She would need to keep a closer eye on Lyle.
“Look,” Parker changed the subject abruptly. “We’ve been at this for days. I say we go home and rest. We’ll start fresh in the morning.”
“It’s about time,” Lyle grimaced. “I need a hot shower, a good meal and a soft bed, in that order.”
“We’ll meet back here at eight in the morning,” Parker told him as Lyle headed for the door.
Without looking back, Lyle waved over his shoulder in acknowledgment as he left. As soon as the door closed behind him, Parker strode across the room and put her arms around Jarod. He closed his eyes and leaned his cheek against the top of her head as he hugged her back.
“How does that sound to you, Pez-head?” Parker asked. “Shower, food and bed, in that order.”
“Hmm,” Jarod hummed. “I don’t care about the sequence of events, a long as I can have you somewhere in between.”
“I think that can be arranged,” Parker replied with a smile.
They stood there for several minutes, just holding each other.
“Jarod?”
“”Hmm?” he grunted.
“Are you okay?” Parker looked up at him, waiting for his reply.
Running his fingers through her hair, Jarod nodded. “I’m working on it.” He kissed her lips, nibbling delicately on the lower curve as he went. “Parker?” he murmured against her mouth.
“Hmm?” was the dreamy response.
“Don’t stop asking.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
The End
Author’s Note: This marks the end of ‘Seizing Destiny’. The three Red files have won the right to rule the Centre, which was after all the entire point. But, there is another story to be told here. Now that Jarod has found his destiny, how does he live with it? His relationship with Sydney and Lyle are both morphing into something new. Therefore, I have decided that there will be a “Book 2”. I haven’t chosen a title yet but it will contain the word destiny somehow. So watch for it.
Thanks again for reading!
*****
there is a sequel to this story here: Destiny Unfolding
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seizing Destiny
Part 12
By Phenyx
10/11/04
“I don’t care, Broots,” Miss Parker snapped angrily. Her long strides forced the balding technician to run to keep up with her. “Find a way. Tell the ambassador that we will meet him anywhere he likes, but it will be at the time of our choosing.”
“Will all three of you be going then?” Broots stammered.
Parker stopped abruptly and cringed at the squeaking sound Broots’ shoes made on the tiled corridor floor. “Yes,” she said between gritting teeth. With a growl of frustration she pushed her way past Broots and continued on her way.
The last few days had been grueling. She and her partners had worked around the clock to establish their new positions in the Centre. Word of the coup was beginning to spread and now, outside forces were bringing pressure upon the new regime. They would be tested, Parker knew. But she wasn’t worried about being able to handle it. They could deal with whatever came their way.
Parker rounded a corner and nearly crashed into Angelo. The wild-haired man whimpered with fright and scurried away in the direction from which Parker had just come. She frowned and looked around for Jarod. The fact that he was not in the immediate vicinity was cause for concern. Angelo had been Jarod’s shadow over the last three days.
After leaving the T-board, Jarod had gone straight to Angelo’s room and had freed the little troll from his cubbyhole. The two had been constant companions ever since. The empath even slept at Jarod’s feet like some oversized lap dog.
“Where’s he going?” Broots asked as he watched Angelo disappear down another hallway.
“I don’t know,” Parker replied. “He looked spooked. More so than usual.”
Parker continued with a quickened pace. She hesitated for only a moment upon reaching her destination. When she threw open the door and stepped into what had once been her father’s office, what she found within caused her anxiety to rise.
Jarod stood behind his desk, his back to the room as he gazed out the huge windows. Lyle leaned against a windowsill a few feet away. In the middle of the room, with his hands clasped behind his back, was Sydney.
No one spoke when Parker and Broots entered. Miss Parker frowned and glanced questioningly at her brother. Lyle simply smiled and shrugged at her. Her twin’s nonchalance did not fool Miss Parker. The room nearly shimmered with tension. Anger radiated within these walls like heat from a blast furnace. To Miss Parker and her heightened senses, it was as tangible as frost in the air of a cold autumn morning.
“What’s going on?” Parker asked.
At first, none of the three men moved to answer. After what seemed an eternity, Jarod turned and gazed at her. “We were discussing locale,” he replied. His tone was flat and hollow as though he’d just been punched in the gut and was still attempting to catch his breath.
“Locale?” Parker frowned.
Lyle explained. “The good doctor seems to feel that Jarod shouldn’t set up shop in here.” He waved a hand in the air indicating the extravagant office.
“Oh?” Miss Parker glanced at Sydney, her eyebrows arched with questions.
Sydney nodded and said, “I think Jarod would be more comfortable in familiar surroundings.”
“On one of the sub-levels I presume?” Miss Parker’s ire began to rise, adding to the tension in the room. “Perhaps even the in the sim lab?”
“I fear what he may become if he remains in the tower,” Sydney said.
Parker glanced at Jarod in concern. He looked stricken. Pain and anger vied for control on his face. His wide brown eyes gazed back at her in confusion. He looked like a puppy that had just been kicked and could not understand why.
Lyle stepped forward to stand at Jarod’s side. Placing his good hand on Jarod’s shoulder, Lyle leaned in and whispered into his ear. Jarod sighed and nodded thankfully. The look in the dark eyes as Jarod turned toward Lyle was one of gratitude, almost worship.
Miss Parker felt her temper snap and rage surged through her. Grabbing Sydney by the arm she viciously yanked him toward the door. “I want to speak with you,” she growled between her teeth.
Shoving the older man in front of her she pushed him from the room, barreling into Broots in the process. In the hallway, she slammed the door closed behind her and glared menacingly at the shivering technician. “Vanish,” she hissed at him. Broots didn’t need to be told twice. He scurried down the corridor as quickly as he could.
She turned on Sydney and unleashed her venom at him. “I should kill you where you stand.” Her voice shook with fury. “How dare you? Of all people in this world, how dare you, Sydney?”
“I only want what is best for Jarod,” Sydney defended.
“Bullshit,” Parker spat.
“This is a difficult time for him,” Sydney continued.
“Brilliant deduction,” Parker yelled. “I don’t need a degree in psychiatry to figure that one out.”
Sydney pressed on. “Miss Parker, we must remove him from this environment before any further damage is done to his psyche.”
“It’s too late for that,” Parker argued. “The damage has been done. Locking him away from the world won’t ease his pain.” Miss Parker gasped and tears filled her eyes as she thought of the look on Jarod’s face. “Don’t you see what you’ve done? My god Syd, he’s turning to Lyle for support. Lyle!”
“But,” Sydney tried to speak but Parker cut him off.
“But nothing,” she snapped. “Jarod is not your pet project anymore. He is not your experiment. He is your boss.” Parker punctuated each word by poking Sydney in the chest with her finger. “If you are lucky… If you are very lucky, you will find a way to become his friend again. Although how you will manage that after this fiasco, I can’t imagine.”
“But I just,”
Parker ignored Sydney’s attempts to defend himself. “I’ll do what I can to smooth this over with him, but you’ve really blown it Syd. He can’t afford to lose friends right now. He needs us too much.”
Sydney nodded sadly. “I wanted to help,” he whispered.
“Things have changed Sydney,” Parker said. “He has changed. Everything you knew about him before is meaningless. You can’t have the same relationship with him. You’ll need to forge a new one just like the rest of us. Understand?”
“Yes.”
Parker sighed. The anger slipped away to be replaced by fatigue. “Stay away from him for a few days,” she sighed. “Give me a chance to do some damage control.”
Sydney nodded again. He turned and walked slowly down the hallway toward the elevator.
“Sydney,” Parker called after him. “I want you to dismantle the lab. Get rid of everything.”
The psychiatrist’s head practically spun around in surprise.
“Everything,” she hollered. “Understood?”
“Understood?” Jarod and Lyle heard much of the argument between Sydney and Miss Parker. Her raised voice was only slightly muffled by the closed office door. The two men stood and stared at each other as Miss Parker railed at Sydney in the hallway.
“Like a lioness protecting her cub,” Lyle murmured.
Jarod frowned. “I’m not her cub.”
“You are her something,” Lyle smirked. “You belong to her. Might as well tattoo ‘Property of Miss Parker’ on your forehead.”
Jarod made a rude noise.
Lyle laughed. “Scoff if you like, my friend,” he said. “But you are definitely caught in her web.”
Jarod swallowed nervously and sank into the leather chair behind his desk. “What do you think she will do to me?” he asked.
“Honestly?” Lyle sat on the corner of Jarod’s desk and tilted his head quizzically. At Jarod’s nod he answered, ”I think she’ll take very good care of you.”
Jarod frowned and looked up at the piercing blue eyes. “That isn’t what I expected you to say,” he admitted.
Lyle shrugged. “I had my doubts at first,” he said. “Let’s face it, my sister is a class-A bitch. I was convinced that she was putting out so that you would be her ally against me.”
Jarod cringed inwardly as he realized that he and Lyle had shared the same thoughts.
With a sigh, Lyle continued. “But I’m beginning to believe differently.”
“How so?” Jarod asked.
“I think she really cares,” Lyle said in a slightly embarrassed tone.
“I’d like to believe that,” Jarod sighed.
Lyle looked down at Jarod as a frown creased his brow. “I think you should,” he said. “Allow yourself to believe.”
“I want to,” Jarod whispered. “I really want to.”
“I know.”
Jarod groaned and sprang from the chair. “Why do you care, Lyle? I’d have thought you would enjoy playing us against each other. Why the tender advice?”
Lyle blinked at Jarod in silence for a long moment. “We are a great deal alike you and I,” he said softly. “More so than either of us cares to admit. You struggle to suppress the darker side of your personality while I choose to hide the opposite.”
“I don’t understand,” Jarod said.
Lyle smiled. “I think you do.” He added, “I know that Parker doesn’t believe me capable of it. Hell, no one does. But the fact of the matter is that I care about my sister. I want to see her find the happiness that was stolen from us. I am beginning to realize that she can do just that.”
“She can?”
Lyle nodded. “With you at her side, I believe she can do anything.”
Jarod’s answering grin was as bright as a small star. “She is incredible, isn’t she?” he asked.
Lyle laughed. “She is one crazy bitch,” he said. “But if she floats your boat, Jarod, I say go for it.”
“Go for what?” Parker chose that moment to reenter the room.
The two men stared at her with wide eyes, as though they had just been caught in the middle of some heinous crime.
“What?” she repeated.
“Sailing lessons,” Lyle answered with a wink at Jarod.
Parker looked from her brother to her lover and back again. Both men seemed to be sharing a joke of some sort, at her expense no doubt. Jarod’s hurt and anger from a few minutes ago seemed to have vanished. It made her more than a little nervous, this camaraderie forming between Jarod and her brother. She would need to keep a closer eye on Lyle.
“Look,” Parker changed the subject abruptly. “We’ve been at this for days. I say we go home and rest. We’ll start fresh in the morning.”
“It’s about time,” Lyle grimaced. “I need a hot shower, a good meal and a soft bed, in that order.”
“We’ll meet back here at eight in the morning,” Parker told him as Lyle headed for the door.
Without looking back, Lyle waved over his shoulder in acknowledgment as he left. As soon as the door closed behind him, Parker strode across the room and put her arms around Jarod. He closed his eyes and leaned his cheek against the top of her head as he hugged her back.
“How does that sound to you, Pez-head?” Parker asked. “Shower, food and bed, in that order.”
“Hmm,” Jarod hummed. “I don’t care about the sequence of events, a long as I can have you somewhere in between.”
“I think that can be arranged,” Parker replied with a smile.
They stood there for several minutes, just holding each other.
“Jarod?”
“”Hmm?” he grunted.
“Are you okay?” Parker looked up at him, waiting for his reply.
Running his fingers through her hair, Jarod nodded. “I’m working on it.” He kissed her lips, nibbling delicately on the lower curve as he went. “Parker?” he murmured against her mouth.
“Hmm?” was the dreamy response.
“Don’t stop asking.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
The End
Author’s Note: This marks the end of ‘Seizing Destiny’. The three Red files have won the right to rule the Centre, which was after all the entire point. But, there is another story to be told here. Now that Jarod has found his destiny, how does he live with it? His relationship with Sydney and Lyle are both morphing into something new. Therefore, I have decided that there will be a “Book 2”. I haven’t chosen a title yet but it will contain the word destiny somehow. So watch for it.
Thanks again for reading!
*****
there is a sequel to this story here: Destiny Unfolding
