Shaddyr's Eclectic Collection > Pretender Fanfiction > Aftermath
Part 8:
Aftermath
by N.R. Levy
Jarod slammed down the lid of the laptop as he stood and moved toward the door of the New Mexico cabin he had shared with his father and brother the past six weeks. He was vaguely aware of Charles looking at him as he stormed off up the well-worn path he walked each and every time his frustrations built to the breaking point. But he couldn't bring himself to stop. He needed to move the quicker the better.
Part of him knew that he was being too hard on himself. He had been almost completely broken down by Raines' psychological torture, and it was only due to the determination and ingenuity of his friends and family that he was alive and functioning again. Still, it wasn't enough.
There were gaping holes in his memory. He could clearly remember helping George Harper and his son in the Silicon Valley two years earlier, but then he had no recollection of where he had traveled for nearly three months. He could remember Sydney's favorite color, but it had taken him nearly three weeks to remember the name of his mentor's twin brother.
The truth was it made him feel powerless and that was something Jarod was very unused to feeling. The past three years had empowered him, made him think he was capable of handling any situation. And it wasn't just because he had his pretender skills to fall back on. He knew he had grown up, become a man during his experiences in the real world, and Raines had tried to take all of that away.
Worse still, he had tried to take Parker away.
Jarod had walked nearly two miles as his thoughts turned to her. God, he missed her. He had understood when, just two days after he'd regained consciousness, Parker had insisted on returning to Blue Cove. She had been worried about leading the Centre to him, and though he hated to see her leave, he had let her go without causing any great scene.
It had taken him less than a day to realize that he no longer knew how
to separate his own life from hers.He supposed now, in retrospect, that he never had known how to do that, he'd only been able to create the illusion that his distance from the Centre was distance from her. Now he could see that had never been the case. If he had been apart from her, unconcerned about her welfare, he would have never spent so much energy trying to help her see the truth about herself and the people around her.
That was why he was working so hard to complete his recovery. Parker was entering her seventh month of pregnancy, and Jarod knew that she was about to endure the hardest weeks of her life. She needed him, and he had to be certain he could be there for her. But he wasn't certain, couldn't be until he found a way to counteract the lingering affects of Raines' "treatments."
The rage was the hardest thing to control. It came out of nowhere, and it scared the hell out of him. He had felt something like it before when he had nearly killed Patrick Harper's kidnapper, when Lyle had killed his brother but this was a far more intense, illogical feeling. He knew it came from his fear the fear Raines' had fostered in side of him during his captivity, and he knew rationally that the fear was false. But his mind couldn't seem to stop reacting to it.
What, he feared, would happen if that rage exploded around Parker? Was it possible that he could hurt her? He knew that during his illness, Sydney and his father had been fearful of letting her near him, afraid of just such a thing. Part of him knew that the thought was ludicrous he would die before he hurt her. Yet he had battled the onslaught of emotion enough times these last weeks to know that he might not be able to stop himself from hurting anyone or anything in his path when it struck.
Just two weeks ago, Jarod had left young Jay paralyzed with fear when he tore apart his bedroom in the cabin. He had been working at the computer, watching DSAs to help him fill in some of the gaps in his memory when he suddenly "saw" Parker lying dead in the elevator again. Part of him had instantly rebelled at the vision, yelling in his mind that it was a lie. But the inevitable eruption of rage had come, and he had broken every stick of furniture in the room before he looked up into the scared face of his younger self and finally snapped out of the episode.
Jarod shuddered as he imagined the same incident happening with Parker She was far more fragile than she realized. She would have tried to help him, and he God, who knew what he would have done. What he did know was that he wasn't yet ready to take the chance.
Besides, he still had to get the damn stuttering under control. That also came out whenever he was stressed or frightened, and it drove him insane. It was happening less, and he tried to remind himself of that. Still, it was frustrating him to feel so damn vulnerable. He needed to heal, to be whole again. He had a promise to keep.
Jarod looked at his watch and calculated the time in Blue Cove. Sydney would still be at the office. Then he turned and headed back to the cabin.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sydney fought the urge to jump out of his chair and run to Parker's side. He watched carefully as she fought through the pain that gripped her as she headed out of the conference room on her way back to her office. He released the breath he'd been holding when she stood up a little straighter and finally made it out of the room.
He turned to scan the room and make sure no one had seen her difficulties, but found himself sick to his stomach when he realized that Mr. Parker had been too busy fawning over his pregnant wife to even notice his daughter. Not for the first time, Sydney thought how undeserving the man was of a daughter as fine as the one he had.
Standing to leave the room, Sydney headed down the hallway to her office. He peaked in and saw her lying down on the couch, and he quietly pulled out of the room, not wanting to disturb her. He knew that she didn't want to appear weak within the walls of the Centre. It was why she insisted on continuing to work, filling her days with security systems reviews and training briefings. Generally, her discomfort went unnoticed, especially by her family. But to those closest to her, namely himself, Broots and Sam, her pain was a constant presence, and unfortunately, an enemy they could do nothing about.
He entered his own office, shutting the door and sinking into his chair. He was so worried about her. Things were progressing much as Jarod had predicted, and though it wasn't surprising, it was far more difficult to watch than Sydney had anticipated. He knew that the coming months would be even more difficult, and wondered how he would finally convince her to stay away from the Centre, even though he understood the fear that kept her coming.
It had all come from the conversation she'd overheard shortly after returning from her "vacation." Raines had somehow survived yet another huge mistake, though the Triumvirate had subjected him to a 75 hour T-board following Jarod's "escape" before stripping him of several projects and sending him on his way. Of course, that story was only known to them because Broots' had tapped into the Triumvirate DSA files. As far as the majority of the Centre was concerned, Jarod was still dead.
After updating herself on Raines' status, Miss Parker convened a meeting of the pursuit team immediately, and in true Miss Parker style, she had made it clear that "the Jarod Clone" was to be found immediately. She was again in charge, and no mistakes or failures on anyone's part would be tolerated. Sydney remembered the looks of eager competitiveness that had grown on the faces of both Mr. Lyle and Brigitte. They couldn't wait to upstage Parker by bringing in the Centre's prize themselves.
It was after that meeting, when Parker had been walking toward her father's office that she had caught the sound of Raines' voice and to her horror, her father's.
"We had an agreement, Raines."
"Jarod's escape has made our agreement irrelevant. If the Triumvirate wants the child, they will have the child."
"There'll be no need. She'll find Jarod and the clone and return them."
"Even if she does, you know your daughter. She is easily distracted. That's why the child's father is dead."
"I told you, the baby won't distract her, and my grandson is not going to become your new pretender. I'll see to that."
Raines stormed out of her father's office, his new favorite sweeper Matthew in tow. It had taken all of the strength Parker had for her to turn and walk back to Sydney's office and tell him about what she had heard.
He knew that was why she was spending so much energy here, trying to prove that her son wouldn't interfere with her commitment to the Centre. He also knew that her time was running short, and that she was going to have to accept her own limitations soon enough.
The ringing of his phone pulled him from his thoughts.
"This is Sydney."
"Sydney, it's good to hear your voice again."
The joy that flowed through Sydney at the sound of Jarod's voice was as intense as the worry he had just felt for Parker. Still, he knew where he was, and he had to keep up appearances, just as he, Parker and Broots had planned following the completion of Jarod's escape. They had known that he would eventually make contact with one of them. That was when they would "discover" he was alive, and call Mr. Parker on the lie regarding Jarod's death.
"Jarod? It can't be "
Jarod instantly picked up on Sydney's play, and he fell into line, not wanting to put those he cared for most in any danger.
"But it is, Sydney. It seems the rumors of my death have been well, I hate to fall back on clichés, but you get the idea."
"Are you all right?" The lengthy pause that followed his question worried Sydney. He knew the road Jarod had been forced to walk since re-awakening had been a difficult one, and he feared the young man's struggles were far from over.
"I'm getting there, Sydney. You should tell the Triumvirate that they shouldn't let Raines play with toys he doesn't understand. You never know what consequences there might be."
"Jarod, I'm so glad that you're alive.
"So am I, Sydney. So am I." Again there was a long pause, and Sydney remained silent, sensing there was a specific reason for Jarod's call.
"I-I was wondering, Sydney. Well, I had to leave in s-such a hurry and I have been a bit b-busy recovering h-how is everyone doing? I've been so out of the loop."
Despite Jarod's playful tone, Sydney could sense the true worry in his voice. The stuttering had given him away. Sydney also knew exactly what he was asking.
"Oh, everyone's the same here, Jarod. Though I don't think you'll be seeing Miss Parker over your shoulder anytime soon. I'm afraid she'll be having to go on leave any day now."
On the other end of the phone, Jarod shut his eyes tightly. She was getting worse. He gripped the phone a little more tightly and silently swore when he heard his voice break into still more stuttering as he spoke again.
"W-well then, y-you better t-tell Lyle to get some n-new running s-shoes. H-he's in f-for quite a chase."
Sydney wasn't surprised to hear the line go dead following Jarod's last statement. He leaned back in his chair, and let a smile play on his face for just a moment. Jarod was definitely on his way back. The question was, how much time would he have to complete his recovery before the Centre was able to dog his steps once again.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jarod stood in the kitchen, his newly programmed cell phone still clutched in his hand. She needed him. There was no question of that. She would never take good enough care of herself, not out of stubbornness, but out of worry that her father would find fault with her for being weak. And he knew that losing her son would devastate Parker in a way that nothing else had ever before been able to do.
He turned around to find himself face to face with Jay. It was still so strange to him, seeing this boy who was, literally, a part of him. Still, it was clear to anyone who'd spent time around them together that they were very different. Jay was, after all, still a boy, a boy with a chance to experience what it was like to be a kid with a father around that loved you and the freedom to do what you wanted. He would always have to be careful, but he would have more of a life than Jarod had ever even been able to imagine when he was fifteen years old.
There was one thing they had in common, however, and it was plain to see what from the question Jay asked expectantly.
"Were you talking to Miss Parker?" Jarod smiled at the younger version of himself. What was the mysterious power Parker held over the Russell men? Jay had spent five minutes with her in the Centre and four days total since his own liberation, yet he was completely enamored of her.
"No, I didn't think it was safe to call her yet. That was Sydney."
"Oh, well, um, did he say how she was?"
Jarod was about to answer when his father walked in and noticed the two in conversation.
"What are you two talking about?" Before Jarod could open his mouth to respond, Jay did it for him.
"Oh, Jarod just called Sydney." Charles looked to his elder son, an expectant look on his face.
"Really? Did he say how Parker was doing?"
Jarod smiled as he looked from his father to Jay. Yep, devotion to Parker was definitely a genetic trait with the Russell men.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"He changed the will."
That statement had been enough to make Lyle pull out of the delightfully fun Asian prostitute who had been writhing beneath him as he'd reached out to answer the phone. He sat up quickly on the bed, his heart pounding with the expectation of Brigitte's next words.
"And?"
"Not safe to talk about now. I'm on my way over."
Lyle hung up and quickly moved to get dressed. He carelessly tossed several hundred dollars on the bed and with a harsh, "get out," ordered the woman from his home. He vaguely heard the door open and close as she exited a few moments later, his mind teeming with curiosity at what Brigitte would have to say.
She arrived ten minutes later, her pregnant belly straining against the tight black spandex she continued to insist on wearing. The outfit would not have been one he would have allowed her to wear if she were his wife, but of course, there was a very good reason she wasn't. Still, her look left a lot to be desired.
That was one thing he had to hand to his sister. Parker knew how to be pregnant and still look like a damn sexy babe. Brigitte thought it was all about "the tighter the better," but his sis had modified her normal wardrobe of short skirts and tailored suits to outfits made of free flowing silks with longer hemlines and loose waists, making her even more appealing than usual. Not for the first time, Lyle cursed his luck that the sexiest woman he had ever seen was his sister his twin, no less.
He shook his head to force that thought away. He and Brigitte had important business to discuss. He closed the front door and followed her into the kitchen where she was already devouring an ice cream bar taken from his freezer.
"So, what does the new will say?"
"Good news, bad news, luvvie. The good news is that Daddy Parker has now split the estate evenly between all three of his children and me, meaning that you and I stand to inherit three fourths of it."
"And where is the bad news in that?"
"The bad news is that doesn't include his Centre shares. He left his those to Parker to be held in trust for her son." Brigitte polished off the ice cream bar and plopped down into one of Lyle's dining room chairs.
"Damn it! I knew he would do something stupid like that. God, he's felt so guilty about killing the plumber ever since he found out Parker was pregnant."
"Carpenter." Lyle turned sharply, his eyes narrowing as he looked at his stepmother.
"What?"
Brigitte leaned back, her hands stroking her very pregnant belly.
"Thomas was a carpenter."
"Whatever. We can't afford to lose those stocks."
"Exactly. Which means we can't afford for your darling sister to deliver that baby."
Lyle thought for a moment about Brigitte's words, the sense of them registering instantly. If Parker lost the baby, his father would restructure the will again, and with a little influence, he would see that the only fair thing to do would be to split the shares between his family again leaving he and Brigitte with the majority of the spoils should his father suffer an untimely death. He pulled up a chair across from Brigitte, a smile crossing his face.
"We can take care of it tonight."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Moonlight poured through the skylights of Catherine Parker's studio, bathing her daughter in the comforting light. Miss Parker pulled her soft cashmere blanket tighter around her to fight the chill of 3 a.m. and tried to close her eyes in an effort to at least pretend she was resting.
The weeks following her return had found her nights plagued growing bouts of pain in her back and nightmares even worse than those she normally suffered. Visions of Jarod being tortured, of Thomas lying dead, of her baby being handed to Raines that was definitely the worst one.
She could never ever let them get their hands on her baby. She owed Thomas better than that. He had died because of the Centre, she'd be damned if they would hurt his son, too.
For one painful, awful moment, she had considered giving up her baby to keep him safe. She could just disappear before he was born, tell everyone something had gone wrong it's not like that wouldn't be believable considering the bullet that was still lodged in her back and just give him to Jarod in the hopes that he would find the baby boy a safe place to grow up.
It had taken less than a second for her to see how impossible that idea was. She could never give up her son. In fact, she knew she would die trying to keep him with her.
That thought had brought a momentary smile to her face. Jarod had been right. She was, after all, her mother's daughter.
That knowledge didn't solve her immediate problems, however. She was furious with her father for having struck any kind of bargain with the Centre regarding her child. Why, she wondered, couldn't he have just once done the right thing? He could have warned her. Told her to take her son and disappear, hell, he could have even helped her. But once again, he had failed.
Desperate to get her mind on something else, Parker let her thoughts wander Jarod. Sydney had come to her office as soon as he'd gotten off the phone with the wayward pretender, and she had been thrilled to hear that he was on the road to recovery.
After enjoying the good news, however, there had been work to do. She and Sydney had headed straight for her father's office to confront him about the story of Jarod's death. Of course, they'd just been treated to another session of lies from her father about how he didn't know what Raines had been up to, etcetera, etcetera.
God, she was so sick of his lies! And watching him fawn all over Brigitte was enough to nearly induce morning sickness. Parker had, thankfully been spared that horrible aspect of pregnancy, and, much to her delight, it continued to plague Bitchit even though she was in her eighth month.
Parker looked at her watch and saw that yet another hour had passed. Her back began to throb again, and she stood up in defeat, deciding she might as well at least lie in bed and be miserable. She was nearly across the living room when she heard the noise.
Instinct told her to move for her gun, and she circled around, acting as if she had absently forgotten something on her desk. She reached into her briefcase and pulled out the Smith & Wesson handgun, and carefully shielded it behind her back as she tried to figure out where the intruder was. That was when he jumped toward her.
She raised her gun and fired, receiving a groan of pain for her efforts. But the shot hadn't stopped his momentum, couldn't stop the figure dressed from head to toe in black from falling into her hard and driving her into the floor.
The moment she hit the ground, Parker knew something was horribly wrong. Pain radiated from her lower back all over her body through her legs, into her abdomen and up toward her neck. She fought to draw in breath as the pain overwhelmed her, and she lost consciousness before the figure limped out of her front door.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jarod drove steadily down the twisting curves of the Delaware interstate, still chiding himself for how silly he had been. The solution had been so simple. Thank goodness Jay had brought it to his attention.
"Well, if you're that worried, why don't you let someone else take care of her?" Jarod had looked at the boy as if he'd lost his mind. Jay reading this, continued.
"I'm just saying, I mean, you could take her to Ben's or maybe to someone else you know will take good care of her. There has to be someone."
Jarod had been about to say that no, there was no one else and Ben's was too risky after their recent stay there when he suddenly saw the face of a kind, old priest smiling in his mind.
That had settled things. He had contacted Father Moore, who was delighted at the idea of caring for Catherine's daughter. He then contacted a friend he'd made at the hospital that was just 25 minutes from the priest's cabin. John Adamson had assured Jarod that it would be no trouble getting him on staff there, especially since John who had worked with Jarod at a hospital in New York during a pretend to expose a corrupt pharmaceutical testing program could vouch for his excellent credentials.
The job would allow Jarod to stay close to Parker and make all the arrangements for her delivery and surgery, but would also give him a place to escape if he felt the need to put distance between them, and because it was a research job, he wouldn't be risking any patients' lives with his still healing memory.
Having done all that he could do from New Mexico, he had bid goodbye to his father and Jay and, after determining a set time and place where they would again rendezvous, he headed to the airport. He hated to leave them, but he knew they understood that he couldn't possibly have any peace until he was certain Parker was safe.
He had mulled that thought over and over in his brain during the flight to Delaware. All these years, he had thought he needed his family to find peace, and now he was leaving his family in order to find it.
He felt his heart begin to beat a little faster as he turned onto Briar Road and headed the last two miles to Parker's house. He tried to imagine how different she would look now. Her pregnancy would show far more than it had the last time he'd seen her, but he knew she would still be beautiful. Despite his misgivings about the amount of control he had over his emotions, he couldn't wait to see her.
He turned the lights out and pulled the car around back so that no one would notice his arrival, and so that they could leave undetected once he convinced her that it was time. That would be the hardest part of his mission, and he only hoped that his nerves didn't set off a stuttering fit. He really didn't want her to see him like that.
He headed to the back door and jimmied it open as he had so many times when he'd come here to leave her gifts. He made his way to her bedroom and peaked in carefully, fully expecting to see her 9-millimeter pointing at his face. Instead, he found an empty room and a rumpled bed.
That was a bad sign. It was nearly 5 a.m. and if she wasn't asleep it meant she was up and in pain. 'Well,' he thought, 'maybe that could work to my advantage. Maybe, just maybe she'll put up less of a fight about leaving.'
He walked into the living room and scanned it for her, his eyes now adjusted to the dark. As his vision fell on her body lying on the floor, his heart nearly stopped.
He was beside her before his brain had even fully registered the situation. He heard his voice call out her name, and barely noticed that he stuttered over the P four times before getting it out.
He checked her pulse. It was weak but there. His immediate thought was that something had happened with the baby, and he carefully moved her so he could check for bleeding or signs of a miscarriage.
He was glad to see nothing, and he continued to say her name, trying to rouse her. He touched her face, and almost pulled his hand away when he realized how cold she felt. He quickly pulled off his jacket and placed it over her. It was then that he noticed the gun in her hand, and the smell of gunpowder that still sat in the air.
"P-Parker? P-Park-ker, w-wake up."
He felt a brief sense of relief as her eyes fluttered open, but it quickly disappeared when he saw the fear in her face. She weakly reached out and clutched at his shirt, trying to pull him closer.
"Jarod, something's wrong."
"P-Parker, w-what happened?" He watched as she struggled to find the words. He hated to make her tell him, but he needed to know what had happened to her in order to help her.
"Someone was here. He he came at me and I I think I shot him. He He fell and pushed me "
Jarod's blood began to run cold as the doctor in him took over and began to match her symptoms with the information she'd just given him. He had to get her to help and fast. The fall had caused the bullet to move, and was she bleeding internally, not from a miscarriage but from the damage the dormant missile had done.
He rushed to get the down comforter from her room and he carefully wrapped her in it. His heart constricted at the groan of pain that tore from her lips as he carried her to the car. He ran back in, grabbing more blankets, some water and, almost as an afterthought, her gun. He wasn't sure why he picked it up, but he instinctively knew he would want it later.
He ran back to the car and found that Parker had passed out again. He started the car and drove a mile down Briar before turning on the lights and increasing his speed as he made his way toward the help that Parker and her son needed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sydney awoke with a start as his phone sounded. He groggily reached over and picked it up.
"This is Sydney."
"Sydney, someone broke into Miss Parker's house tonight. I need you to find out who."
"Jarod? Is she all right?"
"No, she isn't. I'll take care of her. I think there's a blood trail from the intruder she managed to get a shot off. I need you to find out everything you can about what happened."
"Of course. I'll take care of it."
The line disconnected and Sydney sat for a moment in stunned silence. It was only later that he realized that Jarod had not stuttered once during the phone call.