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Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.
part XVI
By Rebeckah
part XVI
By Rebeckah
Emily heard the car pull up in back of the small farmhouse with a sensation of deep relief. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Baker, but their fussing was seriously starting to get on her nerves. If Mrs. Baker pressed one more cup of tea or another bowl of stew on her, Emily knew she would scream. If Mr. Baker asked her one more time if she was sure she could trust these men coming to pick her up, she would scream louder; of this she was sure.
Still, the manners her mother had impressed on her as a child held, and she remained patiently in her seat when the knock sounded at the kitchen door. She listened to the deep voices of Mr. Baker and one of the newcomers, and smiled at the men he finally moved back and allowed into the kitchen with far more warmth than she would have under other circumstances.
Sydney was a tall man with a deeply lined face. Her first impression of him was that he had a lifetime of regrets and sorrow. Her second was that he was a very stable, a very comforting man. She resisted the urge to throw herself into his arms, like a little girl greeting her father after a long trip, with an exercise of will that seemed far too hard. She had to remind herself that he still worked for the very people she was running from.
Broots was a smaller man, only topping her by a few inches, with a nearly bald head and a gentle, perpetually bewildered expression. Emily wanted to hug him too, and then she wanted to comfort him, to see if she could erase that look of apprehension. It was hard for her to believe he worked for the Centre, especially not when her first instincts were to try and ease his fears, rather than to actually fear him.
Sydney returned her smile with fatherly benevolence and a strange air of gratitude, adding to Emily’s contradictory impressions of the two men. She was careful to keep her face calm and her manner confident, however. Mother had always taught her; never show fear, never show doubt, and never, ever let them see that you don’t know what to do next. People, her mother had explained, rarely look past the obvious. If you show them what they want to see, then that is what they will see.
So Emily held her smile and rose to shake Sydney’s proffered hand and then Broots’, although she smiled just a little more warmly at the younger man, flustering him further. She realized, with a touch of impish humor, that she would have to be careful what she said and did around the younger man; he was the type who was easily agitated.
"I hate to rush you, Emily," Sydney had said as soon as the social niceties were over. "But we really must leave right away. It was kind of you two to take her in like this, thank you." He added to the plump couple. Mr. Baker flushed a little and insisted it was nothing, while beaming with pleasure. Mrs. Baker twittered and pressed a package of homemade cinnamon rolls into Emily’s hands.
"Thank you so much for your help." Emily told the couple quietly, but sincerely, as she unobtrusively urged Sydney and Broots out of the kitchen.
Finally they were out, in the car, and creeping down the long, gravel driveway towards the highway. Sydney had ended up in the back and Emily in the front with Broots, which pleased all of them for various reasons. Emily liked Broots on sight and felt comfortable with him. Broots thought Emily was stunning and was now glad that Sydney had insisted that she stay with him and Debbie. Sydney wanted the privacy of the back seat to brood.
**********************
"Wha’ happened?" Far sooner than she should have, Miss Parker stirred in her hospital bed and began making demands. She knew instantly that she was in a hospital. By now she was so familiar with the sounds and smells of a hospital that she’d known were she was while she was still asleep.
"The doctor had to sedate you-----dear." Sam added the endearment as an afterthought, realizing that the staff would expect to hear some loving words between them.
"Dear?" Parker’s face showed confusion and then cleared at the pointed look Sam shot towards the woman taking her vitals. "Uh, when can I get out of here?" She asked quickly, trying to adjust to her newfound relationship.
"The doctor wants to keep you for 48 hours." Sam answered quietly.
"48 hours?!" Parker exclaimed, causing the nurse to turn towards Sam and shake her head admonishingly.
"Hon’," Sam said awkwardly, obviously not liking these expressions of affection. "You started to miscarry when we got you here. They were able to stop it, for now, but it’s still really iffy. You need total rest and quiet."
"Sam." Parker said in an ominously quiet tone, although she spread her hand protectively over her barely curving belly. "If I stay here for 48 hours you know that I won’t rest, and it certainly won’t stay quiet for long either, will it?" The nurse had left so Parker went on, although she kept her voice down.
"You know the Centre can’t be more than a few steps behind us."
"Parker, is it Jarod’s?" Sam ignored her comments and cut to the heart of the matter. Parker looked down and bit her lip.
"Yes." She admitted in a near whisper. "So you know why the Centre wants it so badly." Her head was still lowered so she missed Sam’s wince at her admission that the child was Jarod’s. He and Jarod weren’t on the best of terms, particularly not after Jarod’s most recent captivity at the Centre.
"Okay. I know of a place we can go that the Centre shouldn’t be able to trace. When we get there, though, you will go to bed and stay there until there’s no further risk of miscarriage---do you understand?" Sam told her firmly. Parker looked down at her belly, still covered protectively by the one hand.
"I promise." She told Sam sincerely. "I want this baby---I won’t risk it."
"Okay." Sam agreed reluctantly with her need to leave. She was right, the Centre wouldn’t be far behind. "I’ll go collect the boy from the cafeteria while you get dressed. Take it easy, okay?"
"Sure, Sam." Parker promised absently. Her eyes were dark and troubled as her thoughts returned to Lyle and the reason she’d been so upset. Sam’s mention of JJ had brought it all back to the front of her mind---the standoff, her finger squeezing the trigger, Lyle’s final anguished thoughts. But the baby was more important, and she pulled her thoughts away from the memories with an effort. Later she would grieve, now, she had a new life to protect.
Sam knew they were deliberately stalling when the nurses refused to tell him where to go to pay the bill. Parker shifted restlessly in her wheelchair, she hated to sit in them, and JJ patted her hand comfortingly. Everyone looked relieved when the doctor came striding up, rebuking Sam before he’d even reached the little group.
"Didn’t you hear what I told you? Do you *want* her to miscarry?" He demanded furiously.
"Doctor Snider, I didn’t get the chance to explain to you earlier," Sam began smoothly, having worked out his story while collecting the boy. "But my wife has a phobia about hospitals. She was traumatized as a child, you know, when her parents died."
Parker tried to turn her glare into a convincing look of anxiety.
"It would be worse for her to stay here than it would for me to take her to our cabin in Niagara. Trust me, it would be much worse." He added with heartfelt sincerity.
"Mrs. Jamison," The doctor turned to her beseechingly. "Do you understand the risk you’re taking?"
"I understand perfectly, Doctor. As my husband has said, it is truly the lesser risk. I promise to stay calm and take it easy. If you’ll give me prescriptions for whatever medication you think I should be taking and a list of instructions to follow, I promise to follow them all faithfully." Parker said with a convincing tremble in her voice. She allowed her eyes to dart around a little wildly too. Really, it wasn’t that hard to act phobic, what with the level of paranoia she was now experiencing.
"You realize I can’t approve your discharge." He tried sternly.
"I’ve discharged myself AMA before." Parker informed him forcefully.
"Park---uh, my wife never has been good at taking doctor’s advice." Sam added seriously.
"Okay, fill out the paperwork." The doctor sighed, giving in. "Make sure to note her discharge is against medical advice."
Once they were in the Subaru that Sam had traded the Towncar for Parker’s optimistic facade dropped and tears filled her eyes again. They trailed quietly down her face as the car cut through the darkness. She wasn’t getting agitated, Sam noted worriedly, but she looked very lost and alone sitting in the passenger seat. Neither of them noticed JJ in the back seat pull out Jarod’s cell phone and study it contemplatively.
**********************
Major Charles sighed again as he pulled the quilt over his son’s sleeping form. It had taken an hour, and a cup of hot, sweet tea with a ground up Demerol, but he’d finally gotten him to sleep. Any guilt he might have felt over drugging his son disappeared when he looked at his haggard face and sunken eyes. Jarod had been running on nerves for too long, and desperately needed the sleep he had forced on him.
Now, however, the Major was awake, and unlikely to drift off again soon. He went into the living room, turned the radio on quietly, and fed the fire while he brooded. His thoughts, as was usual when he had a few quiet moments, turned to the family he’d lost so many years ago. Margaret, his wife, how was she? Did she miss him, like he missed her? Was she even alive? Jarod had told him that Emily was now separated from her too. And Emily, did she even remember her father? Was she okay? At least he knew JJ was all right. Miss Parker would take care of the boy, he knew that and was grateful.
"God," he prayed at last, watching the dawn paint the horizon pink and red. "Bring us all together again, that’s all I ask. Let us be a family-----please."
*****************
Sydney started awake when the cell phone by his bed rang in the early dawn hours.
"Jarod?" He asked instantly.
"N-no----" The young voice was so like Jarod as a teen that Sydney had to swallow down a lump.
"Hello," he said gently, wanting the boy to talk to him. "Can I help you?"
"This is the clone. I go by JJ now." The boy answered uncertainly.
"I know who you are, JJ." Sydney infused as much warmth and welcome in his voice as he could. "I’m so glad you called."
"You are?" The boy was frankly amazed. "Why?"
"Because I liked you very much when I met you."
"But I’m not----him."
"No, JJ, you aren’t. You are your own person." Sydney encouraged him. "And I like that person."
"You do?"
"Very much." Sydney affirmed. "Did you need something? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"It’s Miss Parker." JJ sniffed forlornly. "She left the hospital, even though the doctor said she shouldn’t. He said she could lose the baby, especially if she doesn’t stay calm, but all she did on the way here was cry. She cried herself to sleep. I don’t know what to do for her."
There was silence on the other end as Sydney struggled to the comprehend the stunning information that JJ had innocently thrown at him.
"Miss Parker is pregnant?" Even as he said it, Sydney realized that he should have known. Parker was too much her mother’s daughter to willingly have an abortion.
"Yes, but she got really upset when she killed Lyle. She kept crying and shaking and we took her to the hospital. The doctor said she started to miscarry. He said she couldn’t get upset anymore. But she just cried and cried on the way here. Is she going to die?" JJ didn’t sound in the least like a child prodigy at the moment. He sounded like any other young man who was terrified someone he loved was going to leave him.
"No, JJ." Sydney reassured him, while wondering if he was right. "You and Sam are there to take care of her, aren’t you? She needed to cry, she’s had a very hard time lately, but you and Sam will make her feel better just by caring, I’m sure. Does Sam know that you’re talking to me?"
"No, he’s asleep. I didn’t know if he’d let me call you if I asked, so I waited."
"Okay, JJ, this is what I want you to do. When Parker wakes up, if she looks like she’s going to keep on crying, or get upset, I want you to call me again and let me talk to her. Even if she seems okay when she wakes up, I want you to ask Sam to call me and talk to me, can you do that for me?"
"Yes." JJ told him, his voice stronger and more confident now that he had an idea of what to do.
"Good boy." Sydney approved warmly. "Now, I want you to get some rest. You won’t be able to watch over Miss Parker tomorrow---well, today----if you don’t get some sleep yourself, okay?"
"Yes, Sydney." JJ answered, once again reminding him of young Jarod. "Thank you." He added softly before he disconnected the phone. Sydney closed his own phone and sighed as he lay back down. It seemed that he had more to make amends for now. He’d not only let Miss Parker down by not being there for her, he’d also misjudged her. The lines of sorrow on his face deepened as he stared thoughtfully at his ceiling and waited for daylight.
*****************
"Sister Mary Claire?"
In the shelter in St. Anne’s basement the white haired woman approached one of the nuns in the office.
"Yes, Kahtie?" Mary Claire answered serenely.
"I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you for a while. Something has come up." The younger woman told the older regretfully.
"But what?" The older woman’s serenity shattered in an instant. In all the time Kahtie had been with them she’d shown no signs of having any family or friends outside of those she’d made in the shelter.
"I’m not sure. It’s a feeling, Sister. Much like the feeling that brought me here in the first place. I have to follow it and see where it leads me. Someone needs me. She needs me very badly. That’s all I know."
"Well, my dear, you will be sorely missed here." Mary Claire assured her sincerely. "But if the Lord is calling you to another task we can’t stand in His way. I’ve seen His work in your life before."
"Thank you, Sister, for understanding. I will return if I can." With that Kahtie turned and left the room, her blue eyes troubled and sad. She’d been at St. Anne’s for many years now, and it was hard to leave the secruity of its walls. She knew she had to follow her feeling of unease, though. She just wished she knew where it was leading her.
Still, the manners her mother had impressed on her as a child held, and she remained patiently in her seat when the knock sounded at the kitchen door. She listened to the deep voices of Mr. Baker and one of the newcomers, and smiled at the men he finally moved back and allowed into the kitchen with far more warmth than she would have under other circumstances.
Sydney was a tall man with a deeply lined face. Her first impression of him was that he had a lifetime of regrets and sorrow. Her second was that he was a very stable, a very comforting man. She resisted the urge to throw herself into his arms, like a little girl greeting her father after a long trip, with an exercise of will that seemed far too hard. She had to remind herself that he still worked for the very people she was running from.
Broots was a smaller man, only topping her by a few inches, with a nearly bald head and a gentle, perpetually bewildered expression. Emily wanted to hug him too, and then she wanted to comfort him, to see if she could erase that look of apprehension. It was hard for her to believe he worked for the Centre, especially not when her first instincts were to try and ease his fears, rather than to actually fear him.
Sydney returned her smile with fatherly benevolence and a strange air of gratitude, adding to Emily’s contradictory impressions of the two men. She was careful to keep her face calm and her manner confident, however. Mother had always taught her; never show fear, never show doubt, and never, ever let them see that you don’t know what to do next. People, her mother had explained, rarely look past the obvious. If you show them what they want to see, then that is what they will see.
So Emily held her smile and rose to shake Sydney’s proffered hand and then Broots’, although she smiled just a little more warmly at the younger man, flustering him further. She realized, with a touch of impish humor, that she would have to be careful what she said and did around the younger man; he was the type who was easily agitated.
"I hate to rush you, Emily," Sydney had said as soon as the social niceties were over. "But we really must leave right away. It was kind of you two to take her in like this, thank you." He added to the plump couple. Mr. Baker flushed a little and insisted it was nothing, while beaming with pleasure. Mrs. Baker twittered and pressed a package of homemade cinnamon rolls into Emily’s hands.
"Thank you so much for your help." Emily told the couple quietly, but sincerely, as she unobtrusively urged Sydney and Broots out of the kitchen.
Finally they were out, in the car, and creeping down the long, gravel driveway towards the highway. Sydney had ended up in the back and Emily in the front with Broots, which pleased all of them for various reasons. Emily liked Broots on sight and felt comfortable with him. Broots thought Emily was stunning and was now glad that Sydney had insisted that she stay with him and Debbie. Sydney wanted the privacy of the back seat to brood.
**********************
"Wha’ happened?" Far sooner than she should have, Miss Parker stirred in her hospital bed and began making demands. She knew instantly that she was in a hospital. By now she was so familiar with the sounds and smells of a hospital that she’d known were she was while she was still asleep.
"The doctor had to sedate you-----dear." Sam added the endearment as an afterthought, realizing that the staff would expect to hear some loving words between them.
"Dear?" Parker’s face showed confusion and then cleared at the pointed look Sam shot towards the woman taking her vitals. "Uh, when can I get out of here?" She asked quickly, trying to adjust to her newfound relationship.
"The doctor wants to keep you for 48 hours." Sam answered quietly.
"48 hours?!" Parker exclaimed, causing the nurse to turn towards Sam and shake her head admonishingly.
"Hon’," Sam said awkwardly, obviously not liking these expressions of affection. "You started to miscarry when we got you here. They were able to stop it, for now, but it’s still really iffy. You need total rest and quiet."
"Sam." Parker said in an ominously quiet tone, although she spread her hand protectively over her barely curving belly. "If I stay here for 48 hours you know that I won’t rest, and it certainly won’t stay quiet for long either, will it?" The nurse had left so Parker went on, although she kept her voice down.
"You know the Centre can’t be more than a few steps behind us."
"Parker, is it Jarod’s?" Sam ignored her comments and cut to the heart of the matter. Parker looked down and bit her lip.
"Yes." She admitted in a near whisper. "So you know why the Centre wants it so badly." Her head was still lowered so she missed Sam’s wince at her admission that the child was Jarod’s. He and Jarod weren’t on the best of terms, particularly not after Jarod’s most recent captivity at the Centre.
"Okay. I know of a place we can go that the Centre shouldn’t be able to trace. When we get there, though, you will go to bed and stay there until there’s no further risk of miscarriage---do you understand?" Sam told her firmly. Parker looked down at her belly, still covered protectively by the one hand.
"I promise." She told Sam sincerely. "I want this baby---I won’t risk it."
"Okay." Sam agreed reluctantly with her need to leave. She was right, the Centre wouldn’t be far behind. "I’ll go collect the boy from the cafeteria while you get dressed. Take it easy, okay?"
"Sure, Sam." Parker promised absently. Her eyes were dark and troubled as her thoughts returned to Lyle and the reason she’d been so upset. Sam’s mention of JJ had brought it all back to the front of her mind---the standoff, her finger squeezing the trigger, Lyle’s final anguished thoughts. But the baby was more important, and she pulled her thoughts away from the memories with an effort. Later she would grieve, now, she had a new life to protect.
Sam knew they were deliberately stalling when the nurses refused to tell him where to go to pay the bill. Parker shifted restlessly in her wheelchair, she hated to sit in them, and JJ patted her hand comfortingly. Everyone looked relieved when the doctor came striding up, rebuking Sam before he’d even reached the little group.
"Didn’t you hear what I told you? Do you *want* her to miscarry?" He demanded furiously.
"Doctor Snider, I didn’t get the chance to explain to you earlier," Sam began smoothly, having worked out his story while collecting the boy. "But my wife has a phobia about hospitals. She was traumatized as a child, you know, when her parents died."
Parker tried to turn her glare into a convincing look of anxiety.
"It would be worse for her to stay here than it would for me to take her to our cabin in Niagara. Trust me, it would be much worse." He added with heartfelt sincerity.
"Mrs. Jamison," The doctor turned to her beseechingly. "Do you understand the risk you’re taking?"
"I understand perfectly, Doctor. As my husband has said, it is truly the lesser risk. I promise to stay calm and take it easy. If you’ll give me prescriptions for whatever medication you think I should be taking and a list of instructions to follow, I promise to follow them all faithfully." Parker said with a convincing tremble in her voice. She allowed her eyes to dart around a little wildly too. Really, it wasn’t that hard to act phobic, what with the level of paranoia she was now experiencing.
"You realize I can’t approve your discharge." He tried sternly.
"I’ve discharged myself AMA before." Parker informed him forcefully.
"Park---uh, my wife never has been good at taking doctor’s advice." Sam added seriously.
"Okay, fill out the paperwork." The doctor sighed, giving in. "Make sure to note her discharge is against medical advice."
Once they were in the Subaru that Sam had traded the Towncar for Parker’s optimistic facade dropped and tears filled her eyes again. They trailed quietly down her face as the car cut through the darkness. She wasn’t getting agitated, Sam noted worriedly, but she looked very lost and alone sitting in the passenger seat. Neither of them noticed JJ in the back seat pull out Jarod’s cell phone and study it contemplatively.
**********************
Major Charles sighed again as he pulled the quilt over his son’s sleeping form. It had taken an hour, and a cup of hot, sweet tea with a ground up Demerol, but he’d finally gotten him to sleep. Any guilt he might have felt over drugging his son disappeared when he looked at his haggard face and sunken eyes. Jarod had been running on nerves for too long, and desperately needed the sleep he had forced on him.
Now, however, the Major was awake, and unlikely to drift off again soon. He went into the living room, turned the radio on quietly, and fed the fire while he brooded. His thoughts, as was usual when he had a few quiet moments, turned to the family he’d lost so many years ago. Margaret, his wife, how was she? Did she miss him, like he missed her? Was she even alive? Jarod had told him that Emily was now separated from her too. And Emily, did she even remember her father? Was she okay? At least he knew JJ was all right. Miss Parker would take care of the boy, he knew that and was grateful.
"God," he prayed at last, watching the dawn paint the horizon pink and red. "Bring us all together again, that’s all I ask. Let us be a family-----please."
*****************
Sydney started awake when the cell phone by his bed rang in the early dawn hours.
"Jarod?" He asked instantly.
"N-no----" The young voice was so like Jarod as a teen that Sydney had to swallow down a lump.
"Hello," he said gently, wanting the boy to talk to him. "Can I help you?"
"This is the clone. I go by JJ now." The boy answered uncertainly.
"I know who you are, JJ." Sydney infused as much warmth and welcome in his voice as he could. "I’m so glad you called."
"You are?" The boy was frankly amazed. "Why?"
"Because I liked you very much when I met you."
"But I’m not----him."
"No, JJ, you aren’t. You are your own person." Sydney encouraged him. "And I like that person."
"You do?"
"Very much." Sydney affirmed. "Did you need something? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"It’s Miss Parker." JJ sniffed forlornly. "She left the hospital, even though the doctor said she shouldn’t. He said she could lose the baby, especially if she doesn’t stay calm, but all she did on the way here was cry. She cried herself to sleep. I don’t know what to do for her."
There was silence on the other end as Sydney struggled to the comprehend the stunning information that JJ had innocently thrown at him.
"Miss Parker is pregnant?" Even as he said it, Sydney realized that he should have known. Parker was too much her mother’s daughter to willingly have an abortion.
"Yes, but she got really upset when she killed Lyle. She kept crying and shaking and we took her to the hospital. The doctor said she started to miscarry. He said she couldn’t get upset anymore. But she just cried and cried on the way here. Is she going to die?" JJ didn’t sound in the least like a child prodigy at the moment. He sounded like any other young man who was terrified someone he loved was going to leave him.
"No, JJ." Sydney reassured him, while wondering if he was right. "You and Sam are there to take care of her, aren’t you? She needed to cry, she’s had a very hard time lately, but you and Sam will make her feel better just by caring, I’m sure. Does Sam know that you’re talking to me?"
"No, he’s asleep. I didn’t know if he’d let me call you if I asked, so I waited."
"Okay, JJ, this is what I want you to do. When Parker wakes up, if she looks like she’s going to keep on crying, or get upset, I want you to call me again and let me talk to her. Even if she seems okay when she wakes up, I want you to ask Sam to call me and talk to me, can you do that for me?"
"Yes." JJ told him, his voice stronger and more confident now that he had an idea of what to do.
"Good boy." Sydney approved warmly. "Now, I want you to get some rest. You won’t be able to watch over Miss Parker tomorrow---well, today----if you don’t get some sleep yourself, okay?"
"Yes, Sydney." JJ answered, once again reminding him of young Jarod. "Thank you." He added softly before he disconnected the phone. Sydney closed his own phone and sighed as he lay back down. It seemed that he had more to make amends for now. He’d not only let Miss Parker down by not being there for her, he’d also misjudged her. The lines of sorrow on his face deepened as he stared thoughtfully at his ceiling and waited for daylight.
*****************
"Sister Mary Claire?"
In the shelter in St. Anne’s basement the white haired woman approached one of the nuns in the office.
"Yes, Kahtie?" Mary Claire answered serenely.
"I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you for a while. Something has come up." The younger woman told the older regretfully.
"But what?" The older woman’s serenity shattered in an instant. In all the time Kahtie had been with them she’d shown no signs of having any family or friends outside of those she’d made in the shelter.
"I’m not sure. It’s a feeling, Sister. Much like the feeling that brought me here in the first place. I have to follow it and see where it leads me. Someone needs me. She needs me very badly. That’s all I know."
"Well, my dear, you will be sorely missed here." Mary Claire assured her sincerely. "But if the Lord is calling you to another task we can’t stand in His way. I’ve seen His work in your life before."
"Thank you, Sister, for understanding. I will return if I can." With that Kahtie turned and left the room, her blue eyes troubled and sad. She’d been at St. Anne’s for many years now, and it was hard to leave the secruity of its walls. She knew she had to follow her feeling of unease, though. She just wished she knew where it was leading her.
