Shaddyr's Eclectic Collection > Pretender Fanfiction > Rebeckah > Family Ties

Family Ties

Part 2

By Rebeckah

"Sydney, how many children, how many *lives* did they destroy in the Pretender Project?" Jarod’s face was lined with fatigue. Pain and nightmares had combined to give him a lousy night of rest and he’d awakened with the conviction that he had to do something to help Theresa.

He believed her threat to find the Centre on her own, and he believed she could do it, given a little time and just one clue.

"Jarod, you know I don’t know much about the other children. Could you, perhaps, be a little more specific?"

"I met someone yesterday. She knew about the Centre because they took her brother----her *twin* brother." Jarod announced heavily, knowing that Sydney would be affected by the twin relationship.

"And who is she? Who is her brother?"

"He doesn’t exist anymore, Sydney, but he used to be a little boy named Timmy."

"Angelo has a sister?"

"A twin sister, and she’s got that special link twins sometimes have. She knows most of what happened to him, she’d know Raines on sight, I’m convinced of it, and I suspect her connection to him is the only reason Angelo is functional on any level at all."

"So why call me with this, Jarod? What do you think I can do?"

"She wants to be with her brother."

"That would be a bad idea, especially with Lyle in charge, especially after you’re escape yesterday."

"She won’t be dissuaded, Syd. If I don’t help her she’ll find her way to the Centre somehow."

"And you want me to…?"

"Bring Angelo to a neutral meeting place. She can see her brother, see how impossible a relationship with him would be, and get on with her life." Jarod suggested, his calm tone belying the worried frown between his eyes.

"I don’t think----" Sydney’s budding objection was cut short when he heard the clear voice of a woman speaking to Jarod.

"It won’t work, Doc." Her voice was rigid as steel. "I don’t care how damaged he is---my brother is the last family member I have. I won’t leave him alone again. You might as well tell me where this place is

and save us both some time."

"Let me speak to her." Sydney offered in Jarod’s ear. Wordlessly, Jarod held out the phone to Theresa, who took it gingerly.

"Yes?" She questioned warily.

"You should listen to Jarod." Sydney’s measured, soothing voice filled her ear. "The Centre is extremely dangerous, especially for any of the red-file children."

"I don’t know anything about "Red-File" children. I just know that the Centre has my brother and I want him."

"I work with Angelo, and I’ve worked to repair some of the damage done to him, Miss. I assure you he is well treated---"

"Maybe now he is, but he’s still my family. I don’t know who you are, Mr. Sydney, or why I should trust you. Know this, though, I’m coming. Now that I know the Centre is real, and not a figment of my imagination, I’m going to find it. Talk to your friend Jarod, I’ve got some packing to do." Theresa shoved the cell-phone into Jarod’s hand and stalked out of the room, her back rigid with suppressed fury.

"You tried, Sydney." Jarod’s voice was slightly amused.

"She is strong willed, isn’t she." Sydney responded dryly.

"I think she’s a natural pretender too, Syd. I’m going to test her today. Do you have any advice for me?"

"Don’t let her get lost in the pretend. Remember the "disengage" cue." Sydney suggested, a touch of worry creeping into his voice. "And start with something relatively neutral as far as emotional involvement goes. We lost a few Pretenders before you because they couldn’t disengage from the Pretend. I suppose you know I’m against this?"

"I assumed you might be, but I think she can handle it. If she can, and I can give her a little training, then maybe she can hold her own if she insists on taking on the Centre." Jarod told his mentor. "Take good care of Angelo."

He broke the connection and went to find her. She was two doors down, in what appeared to be the master bedroom, packing a small, black suitcase. Her belongings were as sparse as his, except for a framed picture of a happy family. The mother and father smiled into the camera and two young, tow-headed children grinned cheerfully from in between them. They looked so perfect that Jarod felt a pang of homesickness.

"You agreed to do an experiment with me this morning, remember?" He suggested in a carefully neutral voice.

"No I didn’t." She contradicted him calmly. "I didn’t answer you one way or the other. Tell me more about what you have in mind and I’ll let you know."

"You remember me talking about "Pretenders" yesterday?" Jarod began, feeling his way into the conversation with care. Theresa nodded her head, putting down the shirt she was rolling into a tube and giving Jarod her full attention.

"Well, they’re more than just geniuses. Pretenders can become almost anyone, do almost anything. I was an Apollo astronaut when I was only thirteen. I’ve been JFK and Martin Luther King. Since I----left the Centre, I’ve been more professions than I can list."

"Just what makes you think I’m like you? Yeah, I’m smart, even if I never went to a regular school, but I’ve never been anyone but me."

"No, I don’t think so. You said last night you couldn’t go into medicine because you felt the patient’s pain, even if the patient couldn’t. That’s Pretender ability."

"I feel their pain because I can place myself in their position." Theresa murmured, feeling out Jarod’s suggestion. "So if I learn how to control that---empathy, then I can go into a more traditional profession. Is that what you’re saying?"

"I doubt it." Jarod answered honestly. "You’re still on the run, aren’t you?" He gestured at her small suitcase and meager possessions.

"Yeah. I’m not sure if I really have to be, but I often feel like someone is behind me, and gaining on me."

"Someone probably is." Jarod answered, thinking of the mysterious, Mr. White, Lyle’s pet assassin.

"Why?"

"They want to exploit your abilities. If they can’t, then they want you dead. It isn’t in their best interests to have potential Pretenders running around where the competition might get a hold of them and make use of them."

"You’re running from Centre trackers." Theresa guessed.

"Yes. They’ve got enormous resources. I don’t dare stay in any one place too long or they’ll find me. They recaptured me once." Jarod’s eyes darkened to black at the memories of those nightmarish three weeks.

"So," He pulled himself back to the present with a supreme effort of will. "Do you want to try it?"

"Okay." She agreed slowly. "I suppose it’s worth a try. But what if I can’t pull away from the mindset of the other person?"

Jarod blinked, astonished at her immediate grasp of the danger inherent in Pretending.

"I give you a code word that you will respond to---mine is "disengage". I should work with you for some time before we try this, develop a working relationship and trust and ideally hypnotize you a few times."

"No. I don’t know you well enough to allow you to hypnotize me." Theresa nixed that suggestion instantly. "And you have today, no more, before I go after my brother."

Jarod exhaled sharply with frustration.

"Okay, lets do this then." He suggested at last. "Do you know anything about Helen Keller?"

"She was blind and deaf." Theresa answered instantly. "But she learned to communicate and even how to talk a little."

"Would you be willing to try and be her?"

"If what you say is true, then I might not be able to hear you tell me to disengage." She suggested thoughtfully.

Jarod took her hand and tapped three times, sharply, on her wrist with the first two fingers on his right hand.

"That will be the signal, okay?"

"Okay, now what?"

"You’re going to have to let me put you in a light trance state. You have to be able to ignore everything else to do a proper Pretend. Do you trust me?"

"Yes." Theresa agreed, looking deep into his chocolate brown eyes. "I don’t know why, but I do."

"Okay then---" Jarod seated her in a stuffed armchair and, drawing on memories of his work with Sydney, slowly worked Theresa into a suggestible state and finally talked her into the mental state of a deaf/blind individual.

Immediately Theresa’s expression changed from that of a strong-willed, confident woman to a confused, lost girl. She began to touch everything around her, bringing some objects up to smell or stroke across the more sensitive skin of her cheek. Gradually her exploration brought her to Jarod, startling her into jumping back and forcing him to grab her when she tripped against the ottoman in front of the armchair. In an instant she turned into a wild woman, clawing and twisting desperately to release herself from the unexpected restraint. She made unintelligible noises, a cross between grunts and squeals.

Jarod was unable to maintain his hold with only one good arm, and she fell over the ottoman. She didn’t seem injured, she just scuttled on her hands and knees until she found a wall. She worked her way to a corner and settled in it with her back against the wall. Crouched low to the floor, her hair in wild disarray around her face and shoulders, and panting with exertion and fright, she looked more like a wild animal than a person.

Jarod felt a warm wetness seeping through his bandage, letting him know that he’d probably torn a few of his stitches in the struggle. He sat on the bed an considered the problem of how to reach Theresa with the predetermined disengage signal and for the first time in his life appreciated the problem Sydney had faced in walking him through his various Pretends for the Centre. Obviously Helen Keller hadn’t been the best choice. Finally his searching gaze fell on a cheerful brown teddy bear, dressed in bright reds and greens, as if for Christmas.

The bear leaned against the pillows of the neatly made bed, obviously placed carefully by Theresa where it could be seen and appreciated. It had seen better days, the dress was stained and faded and the fur had actually worn off in places. Jarod picked it up and approached the wary girl, stopping just out of reach of her shorter arms. He gently touched the back of one hand, moving back when she flailed out wildly. He waited until she quieted and touched her again, and this time she only jumped slightly.

He carefully pulled her hand out slightly and then picked up the bear lying next to him on the floor and placed in the space left by her outstretched hand. Immediately she hugged the bear and began inspecting it by touch. In moments she had a small, happy smile on her lips and she reached out for Jarod, beginning to run her hand along his arm to his face and clutching the bear with the other. Jarod permitted her explorations, noting with fascination that she seemed extremely interested in his bound left arm and the way she examined the blood that had seeped through the bandage on his left arm and spotted his borrowed shirt.

She rubbed her fingers together, assessing the feel of the blood, starting to turn sticky as it began to dry, and then raised her hand to her face to smell the new substance. He watched her cock her head thoughtfully, sniff the fingers again, and very delicately touch her fingertips with her tongue. When she’d finished her face looked sad. She found his arm again, running her hand along it, skipping over the bloodstain and finally coming up to his face. Then she patted his cheek gently, as if she was consoling a small child and offered him her precious teddy bear, bringing forth a smile from him.

He put his good hand over hers, resting on his cheek, and shook his head "no". Theresa frowned unhappily and he took her hand and laid it, wrist up over his knee. She waited patiently, her head cocked slightly as she tried to determine his message. Before she could decide to withdraw her hand he tapped the wrist firmly three times.

The results were dramatic. Theresa sagged back against the wall, closing her eyes tiredly, and breathed in deeply. Then she shook herself and opened her eyes, looking directly into Jarod’s face, much to his relief.

"That was horrible." She told him frankly. "You had to do stuff like that as a child?"

"Perhaps Helen Keller wasn’t the best choice." Jarod told her wryly.

"I think any of it would be horrible. I wasn’t *me* anymore, I was someone else. I’d always be afraid that I wouldn’t be able to find myself again when the Pretend was over. How do you stand it?"

"It’s all I know." Jarod answered simply, dismissing the problem as if it didn’t exist. Theresa wasn’t so easily convinced, but she knew better than to push the issue.

"The point, though, is that if the Centre gets their hands on you they’ll expect you to do stuff like that all of the time." Jarod continued, rising and starting to pace. Theresa followed his example, except the she seated herself in the chair and watched his long legged strides carry him from one side of the room to another. "And they’d question you. What was it like? What did you feel? How did your other senses seem? That sort of thing."

"Then I would have to convince them that I do not have the Pretending ability." Theresa said adamantly.

Jarod sighed, raking his fingers through his still short hair, glared impotently at Theresa and stormed out of the room. A moment later Theresa grinned as she heard the front door slam behind him. She was out of her room and into Jarod’s just instants after he’d left the house. She went unerringly to his metal case and opened it, searching through everything it held for a clue as to the location of the Centre. She located a yellow envelope addressed to Miss Parker care of the Centre in Blue Cove, Delaware almost immediately.

The first Jarod knew of her ingenuity was when he heard her Sprint start up. By the time he’d run back to the cabin there was nothing left but a settling cloud of dust. Inside the cabin he found a note.

Jarod,

Please lock the door when you leave. I’ve paid for its rental until the 1st of the month, so feel free to stay a while. I know you can just call a cab when you’re ready to leave, so I don’t feel bad about abandoning you.

I’m off now to join Timmy. I don’t care what the Centre does to me, as long as I’m with my brother again. Thanks for helping me find him---I hope you find your own family too.

Theresa

Jarod wasted twenty minutes with cursing and throwing the non-breakable items in the living room. It looked like a small tornado had gone through it when he was finished, and took him another half an hour to straighten it up again. Then he went to his room and saw the case on his bed. Opening it revealed his letter to Miss Parker, placed prominently on top, not hidden under his DSA cases where he’d had it and he cursed again, although he managed to restrain the urge to destroy this room too.

"Sydney." As always, he turned to Sydney in his distress.

"Yes?" Sydney answered briefly, alerting Jarod to the fact that he wasn’t alone and that his company was someone he’d rather didn’t know about his conversation with Jarod.

"She’s on her way. She got the natural ability, although she seems to become more involved than I ever did. To the point where she can shut off sensory input completely, if that’s the role called for. Don’t let them destroy her, Syd, please." Jarod clicked the phone shut after delivering the terse message and began re-arranging the contents of his case. His next planned Pretend was abandoned as he prepared to return

to Delaware, determined to prevent Theresa from throwing her life away.

"Jarod again?" Lyle asked, his voice amused rather than irritated.

"Yes." Sydney knew there was no point in trying to deceive the darkly handsome man standing in front of his desk.

"What did he want this time?"

"He just wanted me to know he’s following up a lead on his father and the boy." Sydney lied easily. Lyle smiled, but it was merely an exercise of his facial muscles, there was no amusement in it at all.

"If it weren’t for Jarod’s emotional connection to you I’d have you killed tomorrow." Lyle told him, his voice as pleasant and relaxed as if he was chatting with a good friend about an outing. "Don’t tempt me to have you tortured as bait to lure the lab rat in."

Sydney paused, staring intently at Lyle over steepled fingers.

"He warned me about a young woman who is coming to the Centre looking for her brother." He said at last, his voice and face as carefully neutral as he could make them.

"Emily?" Lyle asked with barely concealed excitement.

"No. Angelo’s sister."

"Angelo has a sister?" Broots blurted out, forgetting in his astonishment that he made it a rule to never speak in Lyle’s presence if he could help it.

"Theresa? Coming here?" Lyle showed no surprise.

"You knew Angelo had a sister?" Parker demanded coldly.

"Father has been trying to get his hands on her for years. Even if she isn’t a Pretender he wanted her available to test the connection that twins sometimes have." Lyle answered absently.

"She’s an adult now; you can hardly expect to train her to be a Pretender after all this time. Besides, there will never be another Jarod." Parker dismissed the news with the wave of a perfectly manicured hand.

"Oh, you’d be surprised at what I can expect, dear sister." Lyle whispered, an anticipatory smile on his face. Parker glared at him as he walked out of the office, purpose radiating through his body. He paused by the door, fixing Sydney with a commanding look.

"Make sure Angelo is kept on hand at all times. I don’t want him to miss his sister’s arrival."

"He’s scary when he’s like this." Broots shivered as the door closed gently behind the departing Lyle.

"Broots, you’d be scared of the Tooth Fairy." Parker told him scornfully. "What are we going to do, Sydney? We can’t let Lyle get his hands on this imbecile."

"I don’t think we have a choice in the matter, Parker." Sydney answered sadly. "I know of no way to stop her, if Jarod couldn’t."

"Damn!" Parker cursed.

"And may God have mercy on her soul." Broots seconded, is gentle face masked with sorrow.

"I’d better find Angelo. If they do have a twin connection, perhaps he can dissuade her." Sydney offered with more hope than optimism.

Part 3