Jarod sat in a comfortable chair, relaxing after his latest dealings with the fanfic writers. Back in the cozy little room with Parker, he was trying to put the unsettling encounter out of his mind, and so was immersing himself in the latest chapter of  ‘Abode of Life’.

 “Trisha certainly incorporates as much angst into her stories as humanly possible,” he mused aloud as he read.

The sound of  nails clicking out an irregular rhythm as Parker’s fingers flew over the keyboard of her laptop alerted him to the fact she wasn’t paying him the slightest attention. Interest piqued, Jarod’s put the story he was purusing down on his stack of yet-to-be-read fics, walked across the room and peered over her shoulder.

After a moment, he realized that she was treading on dangerous ground.

“Parker,” he began mildly, “Do you realize what they might do if they found out?”

There was a defiant devil-may-care grin on her face as she favoured him with a brief glance before returning to the work before her.

“What could they possibly do to me that they haven’t already done I’d like to know?” she queried as she typed in another sequence. As Jarod pondered the truth of her question, he was startled as she suddenly leaned forward, shot a fist in the air, and declared “Yes!”

He leaned forward, intently scanning the screen before her. “Are you sure they won’t know you got in?”

She shook her head. “I’m grabbing this and then I’m outta here,” she informed him, saving file after file before disconnecting from the Internet.

“Exactly what were you hoping to find?” he asked, his own curiosity now at full bore as she began printing out the files.

She slapped his hand away as he went to take this first page. “Wait your turn. You can read them when I’m done,” she scolded grabbing the printout herself, settling back in her chair to pour over the document.

Jarod went back to his pile of stories, trying to pick up where he’d left off.

“What the hell are you doing with it? I should call the triumvirate, Lyle. How many times have you been told to stay out of my business and that of my daughter’s?” she reached for the phone.

Just as he was becoming absorbed in the story, Parker once again captured his attention; only this time it was due to her use of invective. He sighed. “What now?” he asked, not really sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

Parker began to stalk back and forth across the room, one arm wrapped tightly around her midriff, the other holding the offending printout in front of her.

“Can you believe this? They don’t even know. THEY are the ones doing this to us and THEY don’t even know!! DAMNIT!” Jarod imagined if she got any more worked up she’d have smoke pouring out of her ears. It was an amusing mental image, and he made a point of being sure to have the smirk gone from his face as she turned to glare at him, waving the paper in his direction. “I thought if I hacked into some of their e-mail I could get an idea to their motivations. They are always asking each other for feedback, for beta reading, for constructive criticism..” She glared at the wall voice dropping for a moment as she darkly intoned “I’ll give ‘em criticism!” before continuing. “But.. well, read the damn thing for yourself!” she finished, tossing the paper his way and heading over to the wet bar in the corner to pour herself a scotch.

Jarod retrieved the document from the floor and began to read. It was several private e-mails between Shaddyr and KB about KB’s latest story.  He noticed Parker had highlighted sections of it and his eye was draw to those first.

 
> > Sorry, my explanations don't go that far (well, maybe they kind of do). What do you
> > think set her off?

> What do I think set her off? Well, my initial gut level response was to think something had
> happened.. from the way she is repeating "I don't accept failure" I would be guessing
> something has gone wrong. She seems agitated - perhaps Jarod just rubbed her nose in
> something again.  She doesn't mention anything in particular though, so that is suspect.
> However, your final  part still doesn't explain what brought it on, just that she had written
> in her diary the previous evening.
>
> So - I'm not sure, author. You tell me!

 Much as I would like to, she didn't confide in me! Sorry, another loose end!
 

Then, in the next e-mail, there was this;

 
>> Jarod and Sam have some sort of agreement - when did this happen and what brought it >> on?

>I have no idea of the answers to these questions - ask Jarod!

AUTHOR!!!  *stamps foot in frustration*

>> Girl, you ended up stirring up the pot and raising a bunch more questions than you
>> answered.

> Sorry, but I hope I answered some of them above! And besides, to write true fan fic for this > show, you can't tie everything neatly up. They don't, so why should I have to. *sulks quietly*

*snicker* now THAT is the best piece of justification I have ever heard for leaving things hanging in a story. I think I'll give you an A+ for that one!
 

A slow grin spread of Jarod’s face. He could see why Parker was so ticked off. To be looking for the answers and then get this... he chuckled to himself. ‘So much for enlightenment.’
 
 
 

Want to read the Pretender Payback Series in it's entirety?
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Just want to read the Payback story that immediately preceeds this one?
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Want to read "The Abode Of Life", the story that Jarod is reading?
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