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Disclaimer:  Sadly, I don’t own the Pretender, because if I did, things wouldn’t have ended with an almost kiss!  The point is, no profit is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.

The Evolution of Things
By M. Rose

~~~~~~~~~~

Completely disappearing from the Centre’s radar wasn’t a new concept for the wayward pretender.  He thought about it often, especially when things got bad.  He had performed enough Sims to know without a doubt he could vanish without a trace.  But there were always valid reasons to stay connected to the place that used his talents and held him captive.  Truths to seek, a family to reunite and he knew the Center was the key to finding all his answers. 

After the events that occurred on Carthis, all the reasoning in the world could not stop the escalating feelings of despair from bubbling up to the surface.   So close to being reunited with his mother only for fate to take a cruel turn.  The scrolls, which might have held the answers to who he was, slipped away by a manipulative madman.  A moment of truth he had only dreamt about shattered, by an innocent interruption.  But it was the excruciating pain of rejection that he focused on the most. 

He wanted to forget the feelings that began to stir within him the moment he saw her behind that screen, but it was too late.  The damage had been done.  The image her perfect naked body was forever burned into his retina.  But it was their intimate conversation in front of the fire to him that fueled a flame that had been buried deep within him for longer than he cared to admit.  But that flame quickly extinguished the moment she pulled away from him in the limo.  The pain was so acute he found it hard to breathe.  DAMMIT!  THEY DESERVED A DIFFERENT ENDING THAN THIS!  WHY COULDN’T SHE SEE THAT? 

After time, the anger and disappointment dissipated and what he was left with was complete sadness at an empty future with no one to love and a lifetime of unanswered questions.  If he were anyone else, he would have ended his pain and suffering long ago with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  But he wasn’t just anybody; he was a genius with an ability to help others in need despite his own anguish.  It was a flaw in his character as Alex painfully pointed out once, but he continued one pretend after another, helping out the weak and abused seek out their rightfully deserved justice. 

Then one day he found himself back on that island replaying the moments he had with Parker.   Over and over again, analyzing every gesture, every look, every word until a revelation hit him so hard he nearly fell off his chair. 

She was scared. 

He saw it in her eyes.

And in her voice. 

Scared that she might actually have feelings for the very same person she has been trained all her life to distrust, to hate and as of the last five years, to capture. 

Scared that there was indeed someone she could have a future with. 

Someone she could love. 

She had to have some amount of feeling for him, otherwise, why was her hurtful comment masked with so much emotion?  Had he not been caught up in his own distress, he would have noticed it sooner. 

This realization gave the Pretender something he thought he had lost when it came to his own life … hope.  He smirked as an idea began to form and knew when he got his mind wrapped around something, he wouldn’t quit until he reached his goal.  Which led him to his latest habit, calling his huntress.  It took all his strength not to call her every time he wanted to hear her voice, which was becoming more and more frequent. 

His heartbeat quickened as he picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number. 

She always answered after the third ring. 

He hated to interrupt her much needed sleep, but it was in the middle of the night when her defenses were down, when the wall she meticulously put up so long ago, cracked, letting in a vulnerability rarely seen by anyone.  And he had access to this secret world of her private thoughts … her real thoughts, not the ones that appeared in the light of day, masked by loss, anger and fear that came with the daily grind of the Centre. 

It was this vulnerability he was counting on to listen to his suggestions so that maybe one-day she would be ready to take that turning point.  And as selfish as it sounded, he wanted to be the person she turned to. 

But that had to be soon.  Truth of the matter was, Jarod was concerned.  He knew that Parker had yet to show Raines sign of her loyalty and in grotesque fashion, Lyle had given back the thumb he stole from Raines in proof of his. 

She was in trapped a no-win situation, if she didn’t bring him in, no doubt an “accident” would happen to her.  There was no question that she could handle herself and as much as he loathed Mr. Parker with every fiber of his being, he at least afforded her a minuscule of protection against the evils of that damned place, but now she was left completely open and exposed to their manipulation and deception. 

And if she did bring him in, the chances of finding the truth they so desperately craved would vanish and they would both be prisoners in that hellhole for the rest of their lives.  As if thirty years wasn’t enough.  

There was no way he was going back. 

His troubled thoughts retreated to the back of his mind when he heard that sultry, sexy, all be it sleepy voice that saturated his dreams. 

“What?”

He may not know who he is yet, but he knows without a doubt what he wants … or rather WHO he wants.  And no one was going to stand in the way … not even her 9 mm.










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