TEN YEARS AGO

Three months have passed since their little adventure on Carthis.

Everything seemed ‘back to normal’, as Miss Parker has pointed out with Raines and Lyle as soon as she was back from the island.

Parker hadn’t taken that turning point, yet. Apparently she was still trying to catch Jarod, at least as much stubbornly as her twin brother was. She used to reach Jarod’s lairs always a step ahead of Lyle. Parker used her inner sense much more, now that she had started to understand her gift. It helped her to find all the lovely holes where the lab rat had spent some days, always before Lyle even finding out about their existence.

All her efforts, anyway, seemed to no avail. Jarod wasn’t simply interested in playing their game of cat-and-mouse anymore. He still ran, she still chased, as she had told him during their last phone conversation. But he didn’t leave little presents behind anymore, and he hadn’t contacted her or Sydney for three months. He just seemed to be vanished into thin hair.

Lyle was furious and so were Raines and the Triumvirate, that was still looking for Adama’s murderer.

And yet, there were at least three people at the Centre who knew that this wasn’t exactly the truth. Sydney, Broots, and Angelo were well conscious of what was happening between the fugitive and his huntress.

Miss Parker had decided she was simply too tired to deny the truth anymore.

She wasn’t ready to admit her feelings yet, but after her trip to the island she couldn’t lie to herself. She couldn’t take Jarod back to Centre, she would never do it. She cared too much for him to condemn the pretender to a life of loneliness and exploitation. He wasn’t their little experiment anymore, he’d never deserved to be.

---

 

A week after her return from Carthis, she had come back from the last place Jarod had been sighted in. She was so tired after the flight from Los Angeles that when she saw a very weary pretender waiting in her living room, she almost thought it was a dream. Or maybe that she was dead and gone to heaven.

Then she reminded herself that she would never go to heaven, so she realized she had to be very much alive.

“I hope for your sake that you are here to kill me or rob me, because I’m too tired for anything else.”

Jarod saw her gun finishing inside her closet, then she placed the holster on a chair and went straight towards the cabinet where she kept her strong drinks bottles.

She opened it and grabbed one bottle of her favorite whiskey.

Jarod was still standing in the same spot she had first saw him while entering her house. He was quiet and didn’t seem willing to talk not to spoil the moment.

Parker gave him a glimpse and saw tiredness on his face, the same he could see on hers. His eyes were full with blood, as if he hadn’t slept for a while. For the first time, Parker saw pain and resignation on the pretender’s face, and she thought she really missed the cute grins that used to appear on his face during the first months of the pursuit, when everything was different and they hadn’t discovered so many lies, yet.

Of course, she hated those smirks, because she usually saw them when Jarod said goodbye, to point out that he had escaped once again. And they were usually accompanied by smiles coming from Sydney, who always enjoyed seeing his child prodigy slipping through their fingers.

All gone, now. The truth was, Jarod looked exhausted.

Parker took two glasses and poured some whisky inside both, then she approached Jarod and passed him one.

Jarod looked at her with disbelief, he didn’t feel like drinking at all. Well, he had never drunk something so strong, probably. But when he saw Miss Parker nodding with encouragement, he changed his mind. He took the glass and started to drink, just like her.

“We came pretty close today, Jarod. You must keep your wits about you, or they are going to catch you, sooner or later.”

Jarod didn’t need to stress that she’d just said ‘they’, not ‘we’. He nodded, instead.

“I was pretty sure, this time. I thought I’d found him…”

Parker knew who he was talking about. She’d been looking for her brother as much as Jarod, in the last week. And yet, Ethan had become the invisible man. He had disappeared. Or perhaps, he was in the hands of Raines. Or worst, of Lyle.

“Why are you here, Jarod?”

“I thought I knew where Ethan was. Then I followed your movements and realized you were tailing me. Which didn’t upset me at all, ‘cause I know how much you’re trying to help me, these days.”

Miss Parker didn’t answer. She just sighed and looked inside her glass as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Jarod noticed her discomfort and secretly smiled to himself.

“I decided to wait, I needed to check on Ethan’s last payments. He’s using a credit card I’ve lent him, but it’s difficult to track, even for me.”

Parker chuckled, she couldn’t believe the extremely-brilliant-pretender had problems in finding his little brother, who was using his credit card.

“My program was almost over with the search, but I intercepted a conversation between Lyle and Raines, he’d just landed in L.A. and was coming to get me.”

Parker nodded, “He arrived just ten minutes after we did. He’s getting closer. I guess he’s eventually starting to understand how you think.”

“I had to run, Miss Parker. I could handle you coming there, not Lyle and his sweepers. Let’s just say he’s not very accommodating when it comes to letting me go.”

“He’s not even interested in finding Ethan. Gee, he’s his brother, too.”

Jarod shrugged, “Lyle has never been interested in anyone but himself. He’s getting more resolute, I need to keep an eye on him, I don’t want to underestimate his skills.”

“Funny, I thought that was what you needed me for.”

Jarod smiled for the first time, and so did Parker. A magic moment of trust between them.

‘I’ve been here for five minutes and I don’t have cuffs on my wrists. Maybe the world is changing, after all.’

“So, Jarod. What do you want from me?”

She had asked him that question so many times in the last five years. And yet, this time felt completely different.

It felt of companionship, camaraderie, friendship. Maybe something more. 

“Help me.”

Parker never imagined a day would come with Jarod asking her for something, let alone for help. But she knew that things weren’t what they used to be.

When Ethan had disappeared, everything had changed. Parker often pondered Jarod’s words about their brother. She also had nightmares about the explosion on the train, but memories were still very clear. Memories of Jarod talking and trying to convince her that she had to help him save Ethan.

‘This is your brother Miss Parker, our brother. It could be a beginning, don’t make it an end.’

Jarod’s voice usually sounded booming and far.

‘It’s your mother’s voice he can hear Miss Parker, maybe you can hear it too. Trust that voice.’

Since Ethan’s disappearance, Miss Parker had felt very guilty. She’d left him to go and save a man who wasn’t even her father, and Ethan had been missing since then. She knew Jarod didn’t blame her for that, but she couldn’t help it.

Every now and then Jarod’s words came to her mind and she really wanted to listen to them. She could hear her mother’s voice trying to guide her, trying to make her understand that was the right way to go.

‘It could be a beginning, don’t make it an end.’

Between a drink and the other, Miss Parker had finally come to the conclusion that Ethan could indeed be their new beginning. She’d known him for a very short time, but she felt like she’d known him a lifetime. Ethan was the real brother she’d always wanted, he was like her and also like Jarod. He had all the values she’d always admired in Jarod and the strenght of their mother, too. Parker loved him unconditionally, and she wanted him back.

So, since their return from that damned cursed island, Miss Parker had realized that she really wanted to find Ethan. Both she and Jarod needed their little brother back to their lives. Perhaps, after they’d find him, there would be a new beginning for the two of them, too. And this time without lies, pranks and games, just truth and trust. What Jarod had been asking her since his escape from the Centre.    

“Help me find our brother. I need him. And I have a…gut feeling…that you need him even more than I do.”

Parker didn’t know what to reply. The fact she hadn’t called a sweeper team was enough as an answer, for Jarod. She was willing to help him.

‘Help me save him. Help me save our family. It’s your choice.’

Once again, she remembered Jarod’s words on the train. She nodded to herself, glad for the sudden realization that, eventually, it was her choice. It had always been.

So Miss Parker approached Jarod and looked into his eyes. He swallowed imperceptibly, his mouth all of a sudden became dry. Her closeness was disturbing, he felt like he couldn’t control his arms and hands anymore, they were moving against his will. He put the glass on the near table, his eyes never leaving hers.

“I miss him”, she said.

Jarod sighed, he didn’t like seeing tears at the corner of her eyes. The pretender’s right hand moved on its own accord and reached a strand of Parker’s hair, putting it behind her ear.

To his – and her – surprise, she didn’t protest. She didn’t even flinch.

Jarod was incapable of moving his hand from her head, on the contrary his other hand reached the soft tenderness of her hair and started to stroke it, too.

“Don’t…” she managed to say, between a caress and the other. She closed her eyes, but she didn’t move from his hold.

“I know you miss Ethan, Miss Parker”, he interrupted her, “We’re going to find him. Trust me.”

‘Trust. What an overrated word’, she thought.

“What kind of trust can you give, Jarod? The one that kills you or the one that sets you free?”

He was really surprised by her question.

“I knew you were listening…”, he scoffed her.

He released her and lowered his arms, then he walked towards the door.

“I’ll be in touch. I’ll let you know as soon as I have news about Ethan’s whereabouts, I promise.”

“Will you call?” she asked him, reaching him again, searching for the warmth coming from his body.

“Phones are dangerous, these days. I believe all of you are controlled by Centre SIS. I’ll stop by.”

“Well, you are the genius. I’m sure it’s less dangerous to come here, at a stone’s throw from the hell, than make a phone call from one of your safe rat holes!” she was almost shouting, but she didn’t care. She was going to risk her neck to help him, she didn’t want Jarod to make stupid things and being caught right outside her house.

He grinned in answer and opened the door, “As you know, I’ve gotten sort of used to taking care of myself, Miss Parker.”

She came closer to him once again and put her hands on his chest, slightly but gently.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

And then she saw that expression of pure love spreading over his face, the same one he'd had on that car in Glasgow when they had talked about turning points and she had rejected him…

She didn’t want to appear too vulnerable, so she continued, “Not before you help me to find Ethan, at least.”

“I’m not going anywhere”, he said, grabbing her hands in his ones. She thought she had to extricate from his held, but she couldn’t. Jarod’s touch was soft and delicate, just as it had been back at Ocee’s, in front of the fireplace. She felt safe, safe as she hadn’t felt in a very long time.   

“I know I probably shouldn’t say this, but you know…the rules of our game seem to have changed a bit. Unless, I’d be watching the barrel of your 9mm right now…”

“Yeah, you probably would.”

“Well, I guess you are starting to take that turning point, aren’t you?”

She sighed, “It’s complicated, Jarod. Don’t rush it.”

He shook his head, “It’s almost thirty years, Miss Parker. I wouldn’t call it rush.”

He leaned in to her, his mouth right next to her ear, “I need you.”

Even if she started to tremble, she didn’t want to surrender. She wasn’t ready.

She really wanted to feel his lips all over her skin, but she knew it wasn’t right, not yet. So she used her hands to push him away, just a few more inches.

When she opened her eyes, Parker saw that Jarod’s were now full of desire.

“I need you too.” she admitted. Maybe more to herself than to him.

This time Jarod sighed in relief. He’d been waiting for these words to come from her mouth since he first escaped the Centre. It was like the end of a nightmare, she was finally admitting that she cared for him.

Parker looked intensely at him, then she said, “One step at a time.”

He nodded in agreement, “One step at a time. Let’s find Ethan, first.”

Jarod turned around and exited, his feet already on the porch.

“Be careful!” the words slipped from her mouth before she could stop them.

Jarod couldn’t stand it anymore. He closed the distance between them and pulled Parker to him in a strong and passionate hug, his hands on her head while Parker folded her arms behind his waist. She was trembling again, so he tried to calm her by telling soothing words. 

“You trust me?” Jarod asked her, his lips brushing against her ear.

Parker nodded fast, she didn’t need to answer out loud. And Jarod didn’t need to hear her.

He released her again and gazed deeply into those beautiful eyes.

“I’m going to be okay.”

Miss Parker nodded again and then she watched him disappearing in the middle of the night.