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Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.



Love Letters - Part 2
By Stefi



Parker went at work as usual. Nobody would have been able to tell what she had on her mind. Her attitude was the same of everyday: cold, hard and threatening. She felt like shit, the last night wasn't as restful as she would have liked it and her mind and soul were in turmoil.

She couldn't stop thinking about Jarod. His eyes so full of pain and love and care. Parker still didn't believe it: he really meant everything he wrote in that letter! He loved her. Really. Parker understood it only when she ripped the letter and she saw him wincing as if he was in sudden, unbearable pain. As if ripping the pages, she had ripped his heart too.

Sydney's voice cut off her sad thoughts. "Miss Parker! Well? Have you seen Jarod?"

Parker turned her back on him. "No. He was gone. That's why Broots located him so easily."

Sydney was not persuaded. "And there was no sign of him?"

Parker turned abruptly. "What part of -NO- didn't you understand?" She snarled and walked away, leaving him standing there.

Sydney followed her with his gaze. Parker said she didn't see Jarod and Jarod said he saw her. "What have you two got to hide?" He asked to himself.







Jarod wasn't aware of time anymore. He had passed the night sitting on the bed, with the torn letter in his hands.

A light knock on the door shook him.

"Yeah, I'm coming." He answered with hoarse voice. Jarod didn't worry about checking neither through the peephole nor to get ready for running away. The Centre hadn't the kindness to knock on the door, but if even it were, he didn't care. Not any more. Jarod opened the door to find Tony and Sammy, with an huge paper bag from that was coming a very good smell.

"If Jarod doesn't go to breakfast, breakfast goes to Jarod." smiled Sammy.

Smiling, the pretender welcomed his young friends. Jarod realized suddenly his disastrous look, the beard on his face, his ruffled hair.

Tony asked shyly "You okay?" Stupid question. He wasn't okay, it was manifesting.

With a sad smile, Jarod shook his head "No Tony. I'm not okay at all." And he put on the little desk the pieces of paper. Sammy looked at them, then at Jarod. Jarod answered before she asked her question. "My... love letter."

"What? Didn't you send it?" Tony was confused.

"I sent it. She gave it back to me. In that way." Jarod said and pointed with his chin to the paper pieces.

"Oh, Jarod!" Sammy held his hand "I'm so sorry!"

Tony patted lightly on his friend's shoulder. "What did she say to you?"

Jarod winced. "She insulted me, she punched me, she pointed her gun at me, she yelled at me, she ripped the letter and then she went away."

Sammy frowned. "Why she was angry?"

Jarod opened wide his arms, as if to say -don't know-

Tony tried to comfort him "Well, my friend, at least you made an attempt."

"But it didn't work." The man sat on the bed, sighing deeply.

A depressed silence passed in the room while Sammy was trying to put together the letter. "Jarod." She began "What else did she say?"

"Why? Isn't it enough?"

The girl seemed puzzled. "The point is... I don't understand why she was so angry! It isn't a reaction... I mean.. if she feels nothing for you, then it's enough to say -thank you, I'm not interested-"

"We are talking about Parker, Sammy." said Jarod.

Sammy kept on talking "- and if she hates you... did she tell you she hates you?"

"No." He admitted. "She didn't but-"

"Then she should be happy to have a tool in her hands, to hurt you, understand?"

"And she hurt me!" Jarod protested.

"Then explain it to me! Why she was angry?" The two guys exchanged looks, then they looked at Sammy with attention. "Because... you struck an aching note"

Jarod closed his eyes, then opened them again. "You are telling me that SHE LOVES ME?" He was almost shouting, now. "SHE PUNCHED ME ON MY NOSE! LOOK HERE!" And he pointed to his swollen nose. "Don't tell me that a woman in love punches her beloved!"

Tony intervened "C'mon you two, calm down! The whole building can hear you!" Jarod sat again on the bed.

Sammy began once again "What I mean is that you have to try again."

Jarod stared at her. "No way!" And he rejected the idea with an hand gesture.

Tony was shocked. "Sammy, are you crazy? That Parker woman will kill him!"

The girl shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Listen, Sammy." Jarod began patiently "You don't know Parker. She doesn't give a second chance to anyone, except for that damn father of hers, and if she says -stay away- she means it!"

Sammy crossed her arms on her chest, stubbornly. "Okay, I don't know Parker. And I am only a teen. But I think I understand women a little better than you two!" The two males stayed silent. After all, it was true.

"Okay." Sighed Jarod "What are you trying to say?"

"That maybe... she's scared."

Jarod's face was a real show "Scared? Of me? Parker? But for God's sake!"

"She really doesn't seem a woman easy to scare." Added Tony.

"Not of you, Jarod." Sammy calmed him down. "Of herself. Of what she feels." The girl searched the right words "Some people are scared of love, love can be so... violent and intense... upsetting, and some people choose to... put it aside, to lock their heart... because... because they don't know how to handle it. Just think about yourself, how you were scared of the idea of writing her a letter."

Tony bit his lip and Jarod nodded, both were thinking about Sammy's words. "Maybe your Parker thought that you were kidding her, that you would laugh at her."

"But I... I would never do this. I... it's true, sometimes I tease her, but... but not to hurt her. Never to hurt her. My God, she's... she knows this, she knows me. As I know her."

Sammy knelt in front of him "Maybe this is the point: you know her, how she really is, and this makes her feel... defenseless, vulnerable. And if I understood the kind, she's scared. This kind of woman that, when scared, attacks." And the girl pointed at Jarod's nose.

The man looked straight in the dark eyes of Sammy. To be so young, she seemed to know well the world. Tony looked persuaded by the reasoning.

"What do I do?" Jarod whispered.

Sammy smiled. "You write her again. And if she rips this letter too, you write again. Make her realize that you are serious. That you're not joking. That you really care."







Broots jumped on his seat, hearing the opening door, but it was only Sydney. He didn't remember a day like this, before. Miss Parker was always hard to handle, but today... Boy! What a day! Luckily, it was at the end and tomorrow... maybe...

"She's gone at home" Sydney informed his nervous co-worker. "So you can relax."

"Yeah, and you too."

Sydney had been under fire all day, like Broots. But if the tech was used to the Ice-Queen treatment, the elder man was usually immune to it. Not today. Parker was intractable, Jarod didn't call anymore, it was easy to say how much Sydney felt worried.

"What could Jarod have written to Parker?" Sydney asked.

Broots shook his head "Don't know, Syd. Maybe some other lies of Mr. Parker. You know her, when it comes to her father."

Sydney nodded but something told him that it wasn't so easy. "If only she would talk to me. Or Jarod would only call."







Parker went inside her home. A day to forget! With the thought of Jarod always in her mind, and Sydney who followed her everywhere she went, and Broots with his stammering and Daddy and Lyle and...

She wanted only swallow a dozen of pills with a bottle of vodka and never wake up again. The worst was that she hoped and waited for a Jarod's call all day. But he didn't call. She felt so bad and worried too. Parker would have to change the last 36 hours. A second chance.

At least to not repeat some things. Like ripping the letter. It was a gesture that was absolutely cruel. And childish. Exaggerated. Her whole reaction had been extreme. And why? After all, Jarod only wrote a letter.

(A LOVE letter!) She thought, angry again. Yes, a love letter. A little soppy, nauseating too, but... well... let's say it! Sweet. Not that she liked it, no way!

But no man had ever written to her a letter so sweet, before.

No man had ever written to her, simply.

She wasn't that kind of girl. At least she thought not to be. And one day Jarod writes to her! It wasn't fair! A girl passes all life to keep people, and men, at arm's length, and the attack comes from inside! Hell! She wasn't ready! How could she be it? She never thought Jarod could love her. After all, before the pretender's escape, they didn't see each other for a long time. Why she should have known?

Parker realized she was staring the phone. "C'mon, Wonderboy! Call me!"

A little voice inside her heart whispered [And why he should have to call you! To be covered by bad words again?]

"I wouldn't tell him bad words, I want to know how he's doing."

[Really! No bad words! And you would even apologize, uh? You?]

"I don't know if I... What I want to know is if he's okay and... if he... he was... oh, hell!" Parker grabbed the vodka's bottle and poured it in a glass. "Damn Jarod!" She muttered "Why do you always put me in such mess?"

[It's YOU to make always a mess! He wrote only a letter! What's the matter with this?]

"I don't know! It's only... only that... " Parker stopped. "Great! Now I'm talking to myself!"

The best thing to do was to go to sleep.

(Maybe Jarod will call tomorrow) She thought in her bed.

But sleep didn't come and she found herself staring again the phone. "Shit! Here I am!" She muttered "Awake at night to wait a man's call, like a teen at her first love!"

[And it isn't so, maybe?] whispered again the little voice.

She sat up in bed, abruptly "NO! It isn't absolutely so!"

[Oh yeah? A woman of your age and experience who reacts like a child when a man declares her his love!]

"It's only that... It was unexpected!!"

[Really? You REALLY didn't know about his love, uh?]

"No! I didn't know! Why should I?"

[Because you knew about YOUR love, and a woman in love FEELS her man's love!]

Parker bent her head, blushing "I don't love him." She whispered "And Jarod is not my man."

[Good! Keep on denying! Keep closing your heart! You WANT him as your man!]

"No, it isn't so! I don't... I... " She covered her head with her arms, feeling like doing nothing more than crying. "I don't know what to do, that's all. I don't know." Parker wiped her eyes. "C'mon, give me your advice. What have I got to do?" She looked around herself and sighed. "Oh God, I'm going crazy." She lay on the bed, thinking about Jarod and her pride and his love, just as, somewhere else, Jarod was writing a second letter, dreaming and hoping.



End part 2

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