Oakview Lodge, Near Stone Mountain

This. Was not. What I had in mind. "I trusted you, Jarod," Miss Parker said roughly. "I said you could analyze me. Not drug me and leave me in the middle of who knows where!"

"Home." Jarod smirked. "This is home. It's the closest thing I have. I wanted to share that with you. My parents stayed here. I can feel them around me."

"Sentimental and nice," Miss Parker said dully. "Your mom is watching our kids, and you can visit your dad in Africa whenever you want. Especially since the Triumvirate all went off the deep end." Which she might soon. How would she beat distraction? Positive mental attitude. I must make it. I intend to make it. Then anyone that is left as a single crumb of the old places, I will annihilate. "Jarod?"

"Neither of them are in a 'home'. They don't see it as a 'home'. They are temporary places," Jarod remarked. "This? This was home. Something I have that is the closest to home."

Hm. Miss Parker looked around. It looked vaguely familiar. "Have I been here before?"

"Yes," Jarod answered. "On a day that proved to me that you were more human than you wanted to let on." He smiled at her. "I don't want to mess up anymore, Miss Parker. I thought you and the kids were dead, that I blew it. I need to tell you something."

Miss Parker ducked her head slightly. Oh. Don't tell me this, Jarod. I am not in the right state of mind to handle this.

"I love you," Jarod admitted. "Having you be the one to have my children? In my own heart. I would never have chosen anyone else." He gently held her hand. "Triumvirate is gone. The Centre might as well be, their power source is demolished. There's no reason to turn me down."

Miss Parker didn't jump to an answer right away. When she did speak, she was deliberate. "You're right. I have no qualms with the Centre anymore. I did have your children, and I plan on staying with them for as long as I'm alive." She glanced toward him. "My feelings aren't any stronger than the island and I didn't push it then."

She watched him gesture a finger at her. "You can't just brush me aside anymore, Parker. How long do you have to deny this?"

"I didn't in that Centre car back then, and I don't feel the same now!" She rubbed her temple. "I am not what you need. You are not what I need. We were turned into parents, together, Jarod." She tried to be as convincing as she could. "That's what we are. From the ground up. Parents, not lovers. Just parents."

"Even the simplicity of that, that there's no child issues between another parent isn't enough?" Jarod questioned her. "You're not evil. You're not part of The Centre. You are the mother of my children and the woman that I love. Can't you just accept me as this, as your love, into your life?"

"You are getting love confused with friend and compassion," she said again. "I care a great deal for you, Jarod, as my Boy Genius. Not my Boyfriend." Please, he had to quit pushing it. Why didn't he get it? "I know that you are obsessed with a notion of family, and you have always been that way. You'll always be that way. I'm momma to your kids." She gestured to him. "You are daddy to my kids. That doesn't make mommy or daddy compatible in any other way except that we were matches that made our children. Stop fantasizing."

Props to her. She got him into his upset state. "I'm not trying to play perfect daddy with perfect mommy. I am expressing feelings that I have, and I am trying to get you to express yours."

"I can't express what I don't have," she said again. "You want me to lie? Is that easier for you, Jarod, to say I have feelings for you? Do you remember who I am and where I came from?" she asked. "Even when I became an enemy of The Center, I still felt like part of the Centre. I've never strayed from that, and even at the brink of its destruction? I still reject you. What does that tell you?"

His innocent, hurt face came into her view. "I love you."

"I know." She accepted that. She had for some time. She knew that. "I like you as a friend, Jarod, how much more complicated do you have to make this?"

"Are you going to stay with me but sleep with Thomas then?" Jarod asked her. "Is he the one you pick?"

Thomas? "Thomas was wonderful. I thought the perfect man for my life," Parker admitted. "It's been a long time since then. Things change. We would have to . . . give it time. Reconnect. Or. Sex, lots of sex, then reconnect." She did that on purpose.

She needed to get him off of her back.

"That's not just an option with him."

Damn it, that didn't work. Now she had different thoughts in her head. No, Parker! Jarod is trying to get daddy with mommy. He's confused, and you are so not going to do this to him right now. He's lost enough people, and I'm? Even now, she could feel her mind on the cuff. By saving the world with Distraction, he had now doomed her. You are not going to get sentimental right before you lose any sense of who you are. You will not do that to him or yourself. "That's disgusting, like sleeping with a brother."

She didn't want to hit him so hard with that. She didn't want to hurt him. Didn't Jarod get it? She had made it clear from the beginning, for his sake. For his future. She never attached herself in any way to him besides mother of children.

He could have his red curls if she ever came back. If he ever went down to Oregon, he could be with Nia. His first ever . . . love after he left The Centre. Don't even. 

"Why him? Why not me?" Jarod insisted. "Damn it, Parker! I love you. I am the father of-"

"It doesn't matter," Parker stopped him. "I'm a good mom. You're a good dad. We stay together so we can be with them. It doesn't mean I am yours, or you are mine. You have to get used to that fact, Jarod. Whether it's Thomas Gates or not, mommy is going to move on." Stop. Just, stop. He had done this before. "Definition of insanity, Jarod, look it up. We've done this before." Then, she noticed a slight flicker against his eyes. Something amiss.

" . . . when?"

When? "Are you having problems with distraction too?" When? "Island, Jarod. Nothing's changed. It doesn't matter that time has passed by, and I can't be in The Centre anymore. Nothing has changed except that we’re more friends," she admitted. "You're my friend, Jarod."

Please. Stop. Mommy doesn't want to become an enemy to daddy. Don't push anymore. Why was he still pushing? Was he expecting some romp with her before she went nuts? Regrets. It has to be regrets, sharing his feelings before I go. She wouldn't hurt him like that, giving him that wouldn't make things better for him. But, she would recognize it and honor it. That should put an end to it. "I appreciate your honesty about your feelings. I'll keep them in mind in the future. But just like Broots, Jarod, you are a friend. Only a friend. Please accept that, and let's go home."

That was right. She saw his understanding of that word. "Home isn't a log cabin. Home is with my children, and my friend. Wherever we go, is home. We don't have to be anything more than friends, to be family."

"You're just saying that." He pressed. "You don't want to be with me before you're gone, is that it? That's not right, and that's not fair, to you or me. Are you going to just ignore everyone during this time, or just me? Are you going to not pick up our children? Not see Broots or Sydney? Because it will all hurt, the more and more time you spend with anyone. It'll hurt you. So just? Stop, and accept me."

Why was he still pushing? I thought he'd learned by the Island. Why is he pushing? Why is he doing it like this? Whycouldn't he just . . . "You're never going to get me, Jarod." And if there was any way to get her? Any remote way? It wouldn't have been like that. "Is your analyzing complete?" she growled.

"It can't even start until you accept how you feel for me," Jarod said.

"Excuse me?" No. "Don't, even." He wouldn't! "You have been begging to analyze me since I was just a child, Jarod. You . . ." He wouldn't. Why not? He already lost my trust. Drugging me out, pulling me here, and forcing me into this conflict I do not want to be a part of! Yes, Jarod did push on the island. Yes, sometimes he got a little pushy when it came to family. But there was so much inside of her right now. Her inner sense, even it was screaming.

It was screaming something to her that she did not want to do. She couldn't do. She couldn't believe she could even consider doing. "Clearly this can't work, Jarod." Why? Why did he have to push so hard? "Go back home with the kids. Find someone to be with, that wants to be back with you. You're right. I shouldn't go back," she admitted. "Every moment more with Sydney, Broots, your mother. The children. It's all just going to be harder to let it all go."

She felt him grab her hand, but it was too late. Her mind was made up. The Centre was gone, there was nothing left for her, her mind felt thrashed, but she couldn't bear to stay near Jarod anymore. She gave him so many chances to back out. He wanted something that she just couldn't give.

She got up from the bed and walked out. If there is any hope left for me, then I have to find it on my own.

Life's tough. She was raised knowing that. Just because it was ending, didn't make it less tough.

Oakview Lodge Later

Jarod held his gun steady. He knew Little Angel and Onyssius would be safe with his mom, Sydney and Broots. He didn't visit them first, he went to the closest place that he could think of that felt like a 'home'.

Oakview Lodge felt peaceful. Even though he was caught there, it was where he met Timmy again, and it was where David had been saved. It was where he saw a spark, a genuine spark of caring inside Parker to help a child like her mother.

His family having stayed there so long. The other place, where his sister was born, his family needed to stay hidden. Out there? They were free to go where they wanted. It felt open and wonderful. If Jarod Angel was empathing him, it's exactly where he'd go.

When he found him, he was alone. Sulking on a bed. Jarod looked around for Miss Parker but didn't see her. "Where's Miss Parker?" He held his gun on him. Not something he wanted to do, but Jarod Angel wasn't himself. If he thought he was Jarod, and Jarod just walked in? Problems could arise.

He turned to look at Jarod. "Jarod Angel I presume," he said. "Not in the mood. What?"

"Miss. Parker," Jarod repeated. "Where's Miss Parker?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Jarod Angel muttered. "Try to give her the world. Nothing in return. All my life, it's the same thing. Only little bits of happiness. Mother of my children, but never a girlfriend. Never a wife. I can't even keep her from dying."

Oh no. "What did you say?" Jarod knew it. His new empath imposter must have pushed Miss Parker. He knew pushing would not work like that, especially right then. He needed to focus on keeping the distraction away from her, not serenading her.

"Like you would understand," the imposter said to him with a sigh. "With your focus, you can't understand much of anything. You see her in some obsessive state."

"No. You do." Jarod cocked his gun, making sure he heard it. "My name is Jarod. You are Jarod Angel, and I bet Raines found you and wanted to use you as his new Angelo, didn't he?"

"Angelo?" The imposter shook his head. "I'm not a child, that would never work."

"Why would they need a brilliant child mind, when they already had the likes of you bent with focus. The Centre kept it off base," Jarod continued. "Raines had to ruin Angelo, and he wouldn't do that, unless he had a new replacement."

Jarod watched the imposter rub his temple. "Jarod Angel, are you really expecting me to believe that?"

"No." Jarod aimed his gun. "You may know me. You may know how I act, and how I feel? But you can't know everything. Focus makes up the rest. Who shot Raines when I first met my mother again?"

"Sydney," he said. "I paid someone to know that."

Okay, that was good. The Triumvirate even had better records than the Centre to give Jarod Angel. Still? There were things even they couldn't know. "How did Miss Parker make me feel better after I lost Zoe?"

The imposter stared at him blankly. "I wouldn't remember every insignificant detail. What are you getting at?"

"She said I could name the boy," Jarod answered him. “That wasn’t insignificant.”

"Angel," his imposter's thoughts went into a different direction. "It wasn't all happy. I had to name my daughter the same thing her father named her."

"That name made her feel better," Jarod said. "I have no ill will against it. Without that name, she would have been as terrible as Lyle. Unable to be the kind of person she really was inside."

"Her father called her it at the treatment," the imposter said. "I know. I'm Jarod. You can't fool me."

"Nice." Jarod looked at the ceiling. "And when exactly did you find out about it?" No reply. "It was on a DSA. When did you watch the DSA?" Still no reply. "Not too long ago, Jarod. You learned a great deal about her. Things you never knew. Things you took for granted that you knew about her."

The imposter still didn't answer. "The distraction just has me a bit confused. I'm Jarod though. Just because my memory isn't perfect, doesn't mean I am not. I'm not falling for your ploy."

"Listen!" Jarod was getting fed up. "You were raised by the Triumvirate, on focus, tried to steal Miss Parker for me, tried to impregnate Debbie Broots, and stole Parker away, making me believe she was dead!" He held the gun out farther. "The only thing going for you is that as far as I can tell, you haven't killed anyone on purpose. Now." He swallowed. "We can play twenty questions all night, it doesn't matter. I will end you with this. You stopped the Triumvirate?" He nodded. "You know Miss Parker is alive?"

"Of course," the imposter said.

"Then I didn't rage, you did. The real you, Jarod Angel. So tell me? How did you take care of her, and do all that?"

"I couldn't," the imposter said. "How could I?"

"Where did you come up with the cure for her and my children?"

"I just knew it," the imposter said. "I got it from someone that I got the distraction from." Jarod paused. The imposter paused. "I didn't cure her, Jarod Angel did. I had the resources."

Jarod watched him carefully. "What's the one word that comes to your mind when you think of Miss Parker? Cold? Annoying? Hard to get along with?"

"Bitch," the imposter admitted. "Which Jarod Angel would never say."

"Unless the focus was changed in him when he was exposed to distraction," Jarod said. "That over focus, the stress of knowing what you just did, what you just went through? Do you want to hear my theory?"

"A theory is just a theory," the imposter said. "It won't prove anything to me."

"I think Raines knew where you were. You stayed close enough to get any information on Parker because you were obsessed with her. I know Raines knew where Parker had been," Jarod started. "I think Raines nabbed you, got you, and tried to change you. I don't think it worked at first, it was a slower process. You weren't a kid. Eventually, it started to take a toll. You started to change. You went to Africa and started the chain of events as Jarod Angel. Mad about what happened to you. What you felt. What was happening to the woman of your dreams. You felt like hell, and there was no Hades to blame. To pick up the slack. You felt a new kind of rage take over."

Jarod started to walk slowly toward him, his gun easing but still ready. "Jarod Angel isn't supposed to feel like that. The treatment Raines used against you, it was seeping in. You returned, knowing where and when you were supposed to get your Angels back. You save them, and everything is great. Except the beautiful, perfect girl you fantasized about was nothing like you dreamed of. The focus was corrupted, and you couldn't see her as your dream girl anymore. You couldn't wait to give her back. So you did."

The imposters eyes were starting to stare at his. Weakly. Fragile. "Such a bitch. I was trying to save her and her kids, and she just . . ." He looked to the ground. "I wrapped her in a big present. I felt such relief that she was gone. And then. As I walked through the snow and heard her voice. Yelling in the cold. I imagined I didn't succeed. I didn't save her. I couldn't save her and then . . ."

"You became me," Jarod finished for him. "Jarod Angel's role was finished. He had no other part to play, he saved the day but was going to be paying a big toll to do it. That wasn't him. You couldn't be that guy, so your mind went back to Raines."

The imposter reached in his jacket. He pulled out a new copy of an old photo of Jarod’s mother. "Not mine?" He looked at it. "Even she doesn't love me. No one does." He let the photo drop.

Jarod looked at the photo on the floor. "Someone will one day. If you can get through it."

"I thought I was you," Jarod Angel said, accepting who he had been. "I'm so crazy now, I know who I am, but I still feel like you." He wipes his eyes quickly. "I told Miss Parker I loved her. I pushed her too far. When I confronted her and said she was just stopping because she was dying, things escalated. I ended up convincing her not to come back at all. To make a clean break."

"Damn," Jarod muttered. He looked back at Jarod Angel. "You can't stay like this. You'll need someone to look after you now."

"I'm Jarod Angel," he said loudly. "Angel. I was the hero, like I always knew." He looked to Jarod's eyes. "I miscalculated my revenge, and it's killing the one thing Jarod Angel cared for. Go, Jarod."

"Parker has more relatives, she can be found." Jarod said, trying to encourage him. “This isn’t over. I’m going to stop it. I am already on its trail.”

“The innocent lives? My miscalculation?” Jarod Angel asked. “You can’t stop it. The numbers that are affected are so much higher that they should be. Thousands die per day and it’s all just started. It might even be my cure . . . that’s the real ending to the world.”

“No. We’ll reverse it. We’ll balance it,” Jarod said. “Time is all we need to wait for now.”

"I hope so." He looked out the window. "It's more than the photo, Jarod. Without focus, we were the same. I'm . . . free. I think, but now I'm not Jarod Angel. That's all I've known. That's all I've ever been." He wouldn’t stop staring at the floor. “I lost them to Hades, and in my anger, I lost me.” He finally lifted his eyes back to Jarod. “I got them at the cliff of heaven. You get to keep your angels from Heaven. You’d better take care of them.” Then, he laughed almost psychotically. “Everyone wondered so much how ‘Jarod’ did everything. Why ‘Jarod’ never had a last name. Maybe that’s why they made us all. You, Hades, Me, and the little ones. We all had a part to play. We were all ‘Jarod’.” He closed his eyes. “Take care, Jarod. Don’t let your angels go.” He sighed. “The competing hand is still at play.”

Thomas. “Do you think she went to Thomas Gates?” Jarod asked.

“She has nothing. There’s only one other person besides ‘Jarod’, that she ever opened up to,” Jarod Angel pointed out. “Go.”

Jarod couldn’t. If he left now, Jarod Angel would find a way to end himself. He wasn’t insane, but he was empathic now while losing focus. “Be me then, but not to my friends or my old pretends. Go try new ones. Get out there and make a difference,” he said. “I have no real life. Pretending is my life. It’s all I’ve ever known. Do you know why you feel like me? Because I’m easy. I’m no one, but someone searching. Searching for what they lost.”

“You found everything,” Jarod Angel accused him. “You’re not a searcher.”

“I found my brother, and I lost him. I found my mom, and I lost her. I found my dad, and I lost him. I found my clone, and lost him and my dad. I had access to them, but I couldn’t be with them. I found lovers throughout the world. I found a sister. A half brother. I found two great children I fathered, hiding in my nemesis. I found my nemesis was my friend. Even now, I have to search for Parker. That’s all I do. Lose, get back, and lose again.”

“It’ll come to an end, one way or another,” Jarod Angel said. “The hunt is almost over.” He got up. “Jarod? Does helping people, does it make the pain go away of those you hurt?”

“No,” Jarod admitted. “There isn’t a 1-1 feeling of saving and losing. Life isn’t math. It does make you feel better to be helping those who can’t help themselves.” That was all the time he could afford to waste. “I have to find Parker. Seek help, if you need it first. Don’t jump without looking around.”

He left. Whether or not what he said was enough to save Jarod Angel was unclear, but he did what he could. Now? Parker.

Thomas Gates Home:

“So now, I find myself at the end of it all,” Miss Parker told Thomas. “I can’t go back home anymore. I won’t stay longer than I need to. I just need a moment to think, and you extended the invitation after visiting me in the cage.”

“Anytime, Missy,” Thomas answered her with a smile. “I’m sorry things worked like that. I can’t believe he pushed that hard.”

“Look, I know I don’t have the best history . . . with being nice or patient,” Miss Parker said slowly. “I tried, Tommy. I didn’t want to leave. I don’t want this happening, why would I?” She looked at her glass of water. “I should have had some alcohol, it would make these confessions easier.”

“You’re still thinking about your kids,” Thomas said to her. “Rightfully so. You’re not ready to put alcohol in your system again, still thinking about feeding them in the back of your mind. You’re a great mom, Parker. I wish you were with them right now too. You aren’t happy here, Missy.”

“How can I be?” She asked him, swirling her water. “I don’t know or understand what to do next. My whole life I knew what I needed to do, and where I belonged. I knew the struggles I would face. Nowhere, in any of it? Did it say The Centre would be destroyed and I would shack up with my worst enemy.”

“Jarod wasn’t that bad,” Thomas replied. “Was he?”

“No,” she confessed. “Not until the lodge.”

“You were dead to him, Parker,” Thomas reminded her. “Then, you were alive. Regrets? Powerful thing. I think you should go back home. I could take you?”

She looked toward him. Still so sweet. Best man. Amazing flannel shirts. After he passed, it was something she wanted to happen again so bad. To have him back. Right now, they were drinking cozily in front of a fire. One of their favorite activities in the old days. To say she didn’t have mixed feelings at the moment would be an understatement. “A part of me wants to grab you, and just have you take me again until I pass away through euphoria.” Subtleness was never her way with him.

He smirked. “Part of me wishes you would, Parker.” He looked at the fire. “You aren’t though, are you?”

“No, I’ve got this need to try and stop my eventual death. Even though insanity isn’t death, I won’t put up with it,” she said. “So, same thing. The Triumvirate must be weakened with what Jarod did. I should be able to get in there and look around. There has to be some way to stop distraction from taking me out.”

“Then if you find it, then what?” Thomas asked. “Back to Jarod and your children? Or?” He looked at his own drink glass. “I want to come with you. I can’t pretend, I don’t know how to do that but I could stay near. Be a second dad to your children. Maybe even husband to you one day.”

Miss Parker choked on her water a second. “Yeah. Well.”

“Yeah. The thing is, I get this feeling that even though we’re talking about it? It’s never going to happen,” Thomas confessed. “I like the freedom of going where I want to, meeting new people as me, and I might give it up? If I knew that tonight you would be with me.”

“Well aren’t you Mister Tempting,” Miss Parker teased.

“But you won’t,” he said. “It’s more than you need to go to Africa. You love Jarod now, don’t you?”

“ . . . I choked on my water too early.” Miss Parker sat the water down. “I’ve rejected him. That’s why I was told that I shouldn’t come back. What more does anyone want?”

“But that wouldn’t stop you from being with your kids, Parker,” Tommy reminded her. “I know you.”

“Respect, and I have other things to concentrate on. They’ll be fine until I figure things out. They’ll be fine if I don’t.” She picked her water back up. He didn’t seem to change his stance. “What?” She watched him put her glass back down as he gave her a small kiss.

It was everything she wanted. Ever since she was kidnapped in Africa, she hadn’t been with anyone. Her body was ready. And yet . . . her heart wasn’t. She stopped him. “I can’t.”

“Yeah.” Thomas backed away. “I know. You can say it all you want, I know you, Parker. I know those eyes. This isn’t where you want to be right now. You may have loved me, and maybe part of you still does, but your heart really belongs to Jarod now.” He moved back to staring at the fire. “After I came out, I should have called. Should have made contact. I can’t go back in time. Neither can you.”

Miss Parker knew what he meant. Every ounce of her dreamed at having him back, at that moment, by that fire. Kissing him. Being with him for hours on end. But. “Time brings change in people I guess.”

“We didn’t really change too much,” Thomas admitted to her. “We just experienced new things, and we can’t unexperience them. I had your full, whole heart with me back then, Parker. Jarod was at most just a crush.”

“I was not crushing on him,” she said defiantly. “Maybe a little as a kid.” Then there was the island. That was sometime after Thomas’s supposed death.

“Well? Looks like this time, I’m just the crush,” Thomas admitted. “I love you, Parker. That’s probably never going to change unless someone else comes into my life just as great. I need to keep searching for that person.”

“Yeah, and someone not in peril that has a long life of happiness and puppies and all that goody twoshoe stuff.” She held back her tears. “I’d rather.”

“We don’t get to choose, do we?” Thomas asked. “You’re scared to choose Jarod. Why?”

“His sister and his dad are asses that seem to want to kill or sell me,” she said. “I ruined his life, I left him in The Centre, for years he tormented me with my mother, and for years I chased him down to bring him back to the one place he felt was his prison.”

“He knows the truth now, why you did those things,” Thomas said. He stood up from the fireplace. “The only way you’re torturing him now, is by not being with him. And being here is a slight piece of torture too. For him and me.”

“Yeah.” Miss Parker stood up. “I didn’t have anywhere that Jarod wasn’t going to look when he settled down. And I just . . .” She stared at him. She wanted to know how her feelings about him, being there with him, would feel after all that time. “Time changes things, but sometimes things come back. I needed to know, Tommy.”

“Well, it worked with Jarod.” He said it without a smile or a frown. “Went from a cute crush in childhood to the one you really love. So.” He gestured to the couch. “Take the couch. Stay as long as you need to. I’m still here for you, even if it’s not the way I wanted to be.”

“Tommy?” Miss Parker asked him hesitantly. “After all these years, and all I’ve been through with him. The focus, the chasing . . . with Jarod, it’s different. I tormented him. I followed him, I ran after him, I shot at him, I ruined things for him, plans he made. Yes, I had reasons. But.” How could she? “At most, it should be friend with someone who did all that. At most.”

There. She admitted it. She looked at the couch. “Looks cozy. Thanks.”

“I can’t unlock a door for you,” Thomas said to her. “I can’t give you that key, and help you get through the hard parts of it. You have to find and go through that door yourself, or Jarod has to be the one to help you through it this time.”

Miss Parker watched him walk away as she stared at the couch. Go through the door herself. Where’s a lockpick when you need it?

She laid down a couple of hours, but sleep was hard. She was away from her children again, something she didn’t want. She was away from Jarod again, and even though she hated to admit it, he made her feel safe and wanted. They could be anywhere in the world, and she felt better beside him.

When sleep finally took her over, she was only sleeping a few minutes when she felt something brush her cheek.

“You’re on the couch. I didn’t expect you here.” Jarod. Except, he looked lost and confused. “Jarod Angel was taken by Raines at some point and was changed to be empathic like Angelo. He’s the one you’ve been talking to, believing he is me. I’m sorry if he made you feel like you need to go from your family, Parker. Please come back?”

She felt so wiped out. “Jarod?”

“Ask me anything you want,” Jarod said. “I’ll prove I am myself.”

His attitude, calmer. His behavior, normal. His eyes? Sad, about her being confused. That felt like Jarod. Still, Jarod Angel was good at deceiving her then.

“Your first meal in Kansas, before we arrived, consisted of a convenience store sandwich that you made with pasta sauce squeezed on it.” He smirked.

Oh, that smirk. “Yeah. It’s you.” She propped herself up, and found Jarod trying to help her stand back up. “I’ve got to go to Africa, Jarod. I know the Triumvirate is weak, and I know if there’s a shot at beating distraction, it’s there.” She looked at him. “What?”

“Maybe you don’t have to. You seem to be just fine,” Jarod noticed. “Jarod Angel did cure you. Maybe the cure took care of that too. In any case, I don’t think it’ll happen overnight. How do you feel?” He waved his finger from one side to the other. “Parker?”

“Annoyed at following fingers at two in the morning,” Parker confirmed. Still, she followed his finger with her eyes.

“Tired, but you seem fine. I’ll run some tests first before you run to Africa. That’s where distraction is the most intense right now,” he said. “Jarod Angel released the cure. I didn’t.”

“No big hero moment, huh?” She slightly teased. “Yeah, he wasn’t too happy about it. A lot of people are being affected. Wouldn’t step a foot in a big city right now.” She crossed her arms, still in the comfort of blankets. “Did you at least kick his ass?”

Jarod smiled. “He was worked over by Raines. He might take some time to recover.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” she said back as the lights in the room came on. She turned and saw Tommy. All at once, her heart hurt for him. Between the two of them. Understanding her feelings. “He does this,” she interrupted the silence with.

“Yeah.” Thomas looked toward Jarod. “She needed a place to stay and think. She chose the couch.” He didn’t say much else. It was already shown through his use of ‘chose the couch’. “Are you wanting to leave now, Parker?”

“Jarod wasn’t Jarod,” Miss Parker said, trying to cover up her feelings at the moment. “He thinks I might even be okay.”

“She doesn’t seem affected,” Jarod said. “People tend to have little clues. Forgetting memories quickly. Repeating the same things. I think she’ll be okay, but I’ll be looking into it.” Still, there was something rigid in his voice. “I know it’s two in the morning. That’s why I didn’t knock. I just found out her and my family aren’t dead.”

Dead. Death. Real Jarod didn’t know. Explanation time again. “Raines-“

“Don’t,” Jarod stopped her. “I get it. Trying to trick the scrolls to survive, I understand. I forgive you.” He glanced back at her. “Don’t do it again. Please.”

Never again. She gave a slight nod, giving into his demand slash request lightly. It wasn’t something she often did, but things needed to be a two way road. If. If this Jarod feels the same way.

“Have a good life, Parker. Call me if you need anything,” Thomas said. He nodded lightly to Jarod. “Take good care of that family of yours.”

Jarod didn’t answer quickly, as if he was studying Thomas. “I will.”