Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to NBC, MTM and Pretender Productions.

St. Marie’s Hospital

2100 Hours

Jason stood by the phone with the receiver pressed against his ear, “Nia,” he said hoarsely, “It’s all my fault…I shouldn’t have told Raines the location of Jarod and the others, if I didn’t this wouldn’t have happened.” He listened for a few minutes, “But it was my fault this happened, if I knew this was going to happen I would’ve prevented it—“ He listened, “I know, I couldn’t have known, but—“ He stopped responding, lost in thought, “No, I’m still here, but if I couldn’t have prevented what happened, I could prevent this from ever happening to someone else!” He sigh as he heard what the other end of the line just said. “I just want to tell you Nia,” he whispered, “That if anything happened to me, I want to say I love you.” He hung up the phone and walked down the hallway to Jarod’s room, he opened the door slightly to not disturb the family as they sat by his side, his mother and Ms. Parker holding his hands, then closed the door. He walked down the hall toward the sliding glass doors and didn’t look back.

Nia’s House

North Central Oregon

2100 Hours

“No wait! Jason! Listen to me!” Nia cried but the phone went dead. She dropped the phone and went to her bedroom to pack a few things and her passport, this could not be happening, she thought, Jarod’s comatose for life, Raines is dead and now Jason loved her! She thought in awe, but before she could confess her true feelings for him he hung up on her. I need to get there, she thought hurriedly, before Jason does anything, if he’s going to die, then I’m going to die with him, for Jarod.

The Centre

2200 Hours

Lyle changed into his new suit and looked in the mirror, smiling, he walked to his father’s office and sat down on his armchair, feeling the leather and the feeling of power it gave him. Now that Jarod is out of the way, he thought happily, the triumvirate would probably drag his father away and ‘re-educate him’, the Centre would be his since he is the next in line.

The phone rang, Lyle picked it up, “This is Lyle,” he said

“Hello Mr. Lyle, I’m giving you five minutes to start running for your life,” Jason said from the other end.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you don’t think you could get away after what you did to Jarod did you?”

“I didn’t—“

“But you helped, that is, before Jarod knock you unconcious, how long did that take? About a few seconds?”

“I could make a deal with you Jason, we could—“

“Do many things together? I don’t think so, now it’s down to four minutes, better start running for your life,” The phone went dead. Lyle was about to run when a cloud of smoke blinded him.

Jason watched as the Centre became engulfed in flames yet he felt no happiness, only a sense of loss. This was his home for the past thirty years, too bad it had to be destroyed like this. He looked up at the sky, at the moon and walked toward his car, heading back to the hospital.

St. Marie’s Hospital

2300 Hours

“Mom,” Emily said softly, she put a hand on her mother’s shoulder, “We should look for a hotel for the night,” she gazed at her brother, how could this had happened she thought tears forming

“I want to stay here with him,” Margaret whispered, brushing a strand of hair away from his face.

“Honey,” The Major said gently, “Emily is right, you should get some sleep, we could borrow the room next door so we could all rest.”

“Please mom, you need to get some sleep,” her daughter urged, to weak and tired to complain, Margaret nodded and reached for the hand of her husband, the Major held her hand and together they walked outside.

Sydney walked toward the door and then stopped, “If the sweepers—“

“Don’t worry Sydney,” Ms. Parker replied quietly, her hand still covered Jarod’s, “If the sweeper team arrives, I’ll deal with it. I’m going to stay here and look after him.” Sydney smiled and walked out the door, the rest followed. Mr. Parker took one last look at his daughter, sighing, he turned toward the door.

Ms. Parker squeezed Jarod’s hand hoping for response but there was none, “Jarod, please, wake up. I know you can hear me, please…I need you to open your eyes. Damn it Jarod! Why did you have to save me?! Answer me! You could’ve disappeared that day, got on that plane with the boy and your father and left! Why didn’t you?! Oh god, why didn’t you?!” She sobbed, but deep down she knew why he stayed that day, because he loved her. “Why Jarod?! Was I worth losing your freedom for? To lose your life for? Please, answer me! Just give me an answer, open your eyes and look at me! Please….” She rested her head against his shoulder and cried until she was too tired and fell into a deep sleep. Jarod's fingers slightly moved under the covers but after a few seconds it became limp once more.

St. Marie’s hospital

2400 Hours

Margaret listened in tears as the Major and Sydney explained once again the events that happened the past week, only this time everyone heard the whole story. Her husband wrapped her arms around her as she rest her head on his shoulders tears ran down her cheeks and fell to the floor like rain. Emily sat on the bed, tears forming as she frantically brushed them away

“My baby boy, my baby boy,” Margaret cried

“I never thought he lead such a tragic life,” Mr. Peterson whispered, he glared angrily at Mr. Parker, “How could you have let this happened? You were the head of all of this and you stood there while they performed sick experiments on him?!”

Sydney cut in, “Please, Mr. Parker was not aware of this—“

“You stole him from his family and for what? For MONEY!” He was about to throw a punch at the man but Sydney stopped him. Mr. Parker sat on the chair like a stone, the man was right, he thought, it was the truth. “He will never wake up! Do you understand?! He sacrificed his life to protect YOU! A man that never deserved it, the man who ruined him and his family and for what?! He was in love with your daughter, the hunter herself! Your family had torn his family apart, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you do it again.” Mr. Parker remained silent, everything he said was correct, now what the hell was he supposed to do now? He killed their son.

“I believed Jarod made the right choice,” Major said softly, all heads turned to him in shock including Mr. Parker’s, all of them except for his family. His wife squeezed his hand. “In his heart I know Jarod believed that Mr. Parker loved his daughter more than life itself, though he may have a cold way at going about it, he does care for his daughter. And that, along with the love he felt for Ms. Parker, was the true reason why he sacrificed himself to save him.” The room fell silent after that.

The Centre

100 Hours

Lyle opened his eyes and looked around at the rubble, he got up and started walking. Where am I? He thought, a police car pulled up in front of him. Two police officers got out.

“Do you know what happened here tonight sir?” One of the police officers asked him.

“No…” Lyle said confused

“Do you know your name?”

“No, I don’t know who I am, I DON’T KNOW WHO I AM!”