Shaddyr's Eclectic Collection > Pretender Fanfiction > N.R. Levy > A Matter of Blood

 

A Matter of Blood
Part 20
by N.R. Levy


I swear, I am making a vow to never write a complicated story again in my life! You all know I'm lying, but it makes me feel better to say it. Anyway, here's part 20. Feedback welcome. Thanks and enjoy -- and thanks to Trish who held my hand through the forever it took me to write this.




The Cessna sliced through the air, putting distance between its passengers and the town of Blue Cove. Jarod was more grateful than ever that he had simply gone to the airfield near Elizabeth's house and rented a plane rather than drive back to the Centre. If he'd been even a few minutes later...God, he didn't even want to think about it. She had needed him, and he had almost let her down again.

The sound of Cox's voice rang in Jarod's ear, and he had to fight the urge to turn around and look back in the cabin to see what was happening. He knew that right now the only thing he could do for Parker was to get her somewhere safe. Still, he wasn't sold on the transformation of the Centre's hired gun, and the thought of anyone taking care of Parker but him made Jarod's stomach knot up in a tight ball.

Of course, she wasn't alone with Cox, and that helped. Angelo was there, watching over her as she had watched over him just a few short months ago during his own life and death struggle. And there were others caring for her. Though his own relationship with Sam had been strained at best, Jarod knew the man's loyalty to Parker was unwavering. And of course, there was Will. Somehow, Jarod couldn't yet manage to think of Will as his son. He could wrap his mind around Matthew being his and Parker's, but this boy...for one so young, he had caused so much pain to those that Jarod loved. It would take time and work to forgive him for that, and silently the Pretender hoped he had it in him to do so.

Back in the cabin, Cox and Will were working under Sam's watchful gaze to stabilize Miss Parker. Once they'd settled onboard, the older man had instructed the teen in what to do. After checking on the IV line that they had established in the car, Cox had used a syringe to tap the fluid in Miss Parker's lungs. For Will, this was the most difficult moment to endure. The rasping sound of his mother's breathing was bad enough, but to see the needle slip into her and pull back the forbidding fluid-it had almost been too much.

After checking the fluid, Mr. Cox had explained to Will that Miss Parker had been exposed to freezing cold water, and that a large portion of it was still trapped in her lungs. Sam listened as the doctor told Will all about the antibiotics that were already flowing into her body, and the young man nodded, thinking through each piece of information and comparing it to the medical knowledge he himself possessed.

While Cox and Will performed these medical tasks, Angelo held his sister's head in his lap, stroking her forehead in the same gentle way she had done to him at times when she had thought he was asleep. Some of those times had come even before she'd known he was her brother. This was a secret that made him love his twin all the more. He knew there were others he needed to be concerned about now as well - namely, his nephew. Still, for the moment, he remained focused only on his sister.

The truly worrisome part of Miss Parker's condition was that her body temperature was still dangerously high. Despite the wracking tremors that made her resemble a shivering little leaf, her fever had climbed to 105. Cox knew that if he didn't get the fever down soon, she could suffer irreparable brain damage or worse, it could kill her.

While Cox took a new set of vital signs, Sam noticed that Will's composure was beginning to slip. The sweeper felt a definite battle going on inside himself regarding this kid. Part of him couldn't help but blame the boy for what had happened to his boss, and seeing her suffering there in the cabin wasn't helping. But the other part of him knew that Sydney and Broots would never have said the teen was Miss Parker's son if it wasn't true, which meant Sam was, in a sense, morally obligated to look out for Will. It was what she would want.

Clearing his throat, Sam took a step forward and put his hand on the kid's shoulder. Will nearly jumped out of his skin at the contact, and he whirled around to face Sam. Sam motioned toward the cockpit.

"He's probably worried sick up there, kid. Why don't you go tell him what's going on."

Will's eyes shifted from Sam up toward the cockpit and then down at his mother. Nodding to no one in particular, Will headed slowly up toward where Jarod was sitting. It was only when he was within one or two steps that he thought about what he was doing. He was about to confront a man who probably hated him. Somehow, the fact that Jarod was his father seemed irrelevant.

Seeing the concern on the younger man's face, Sam began to think his idea had been a bad one. Those doubts were quickly erased when he saw a smile of approval cross Angelo's face. As Will made his way toward the cockpit, Angelo brought his face up so his eyes locked with Sam's.

"Good friend. Good idea."

Sam smiled in return, and he hoped that the brief feeling of ease that
had come with Angelo's approval of his actions would soon turn into a
permanent sense of peace...because if that happened, it would mean that
Miss Parker would be all right, and right now, that was all any of them
wanted.

As he entered the cockpit, Will thought back to the day he had spent with Jarod last year. Even then, he'd felt a certain trepidation, a nervousness that he didn't understand. He'd never felt that with his mother. Even now, despite the terrible guilt he carried over her present condition, Will felt an undeniable connection to her. So why, even before everything had happened, had he felt so much distance between him and his father?

Jarod's eyes moved from the instruments to the horizon and then back again. Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement and he glanced over to see what it was. Will had stepped into the cockpit, his eyes darting around in a nervous pattern.

"Uh, Jar...um, Da...I thought, I mean, Sam thought I should..."

Despite the continued anger Jarod felt toward Will, he couldn't help but be touched by the hesitancy in his son's voice. The boy was clearly remorseful about what he'd done. And even if he wasn't, Jarod knew that Parker would hate for him to be unkind to Will.

"Why don't you slide into the other seat."

The offer surprised Will, and for a moment he couldn't move or think. Then he glanced back into the cabin and saw Mr. Cox placing another blanket on top of his mother, and he suddenly found himself again. Will slipped into the chair, his eyes turning toward his father.

"Mr. Cox thinks Miss, uh, I mean, he thinks that Mom was exposed to cold water somehow, and it's still in her lungs. Her fever is 105. He's got her on IV antibiotics, though."

Will offered the information in monotone voice, and Jarod took it in calmly, forcing himself to keep his emotions in check. Despite his reservations about what kind of reputation they might develop, this boy was his child...more importantly, he was Parker's, and so Jarod had to do what he could to alleviate Will's worries.

"I mean, that means she'll be okay, right?"

He heard the tears in Will's voice before he saw them on his cheeks, and that suddenly, Jarod saw Will for who he was...a scared boy who had found his family and was now terrified he was going to lose them. Jarod let the cogs of his mind begin to turn. There had to be a way to bridge the gap between them. After all, he was the grown up here, wasn't he?

An idea began to take shape in Jarod's mind, one that would let him extend an olive branch of sorts to his teenage son, and, perhaps, it would give Will a chance to prove himself. A slight flush of shame ran through Jarod as he thought about the latter. He shouldn't feel like this about his own child. Then again, maybe Will being his child was why he felt he needed to give the boy something to do, some way to atone for his mistakes. Because if Will was anything like him, he was presently consumed with guilt, and he thought no one would ever forgive him for what he'd done. Jarod knew those feelings well...hadn't he been afraid that Parker would have that same reaction when she'd found out about Thomas, not to mention the hundred other times his actions had harmed her?

"Will, I was thinking-Broots and Sydney will be doing all they can to give us some cover, but it would sure help them if we could plant a few false leads of our own. My laptop is in my bag back in the cabin. Think you could do something to help them?"

Jarod would have never guessed that someone's face could change so completely so quickly. His son went from a look of total despair to one of absolute confidence. Then a slight tinge of worry found its way into the furrow of Will's brow.

"Of course I can. I...you would trust me to do that?"

"You want to make sure your mom is safe, right?" Jarod waited as Will nodded in response. "Well, so do I. And I know that you'll do what you can to make that happen."

And there it was. He hadn't falsely stated that he really trusted Will, because the truth was, he wasn't yet sure he did. But he had opened a door, and now, hopefully, he and Will could walk through it together, and Parker would be waiting for them on the other side of it.







Mr. Parker's rage was equaled only by his fear of what might happen once his tirade was completed. Currently, he was bellowing at Lyle, Raines, a dozen sweepers, and Sydney and Broots, who had been thrown in for good measure. But what was really on the Chairman's mind as he ranted was what Mr. Garvey would say about recent events. In the matter of a few days, the Centre had lost Major Charles, William, the baby and, perhaps most ludicrously the Chairman thought, his daughter. She had been secured on a remote sublevel with two-dozen guards, yet somehow she had walked away without a trace.

His mood darkened even more as reports began to trickle in claiming that Mr. Cox had somehow been involved in her escape. It seemed to be a ridiculous claim-the two of them had been enemies since Cox's first appearance at the Centre. Yet several sweepers swore that it was the strange, blue-eyed man who had told them to run for their lives, thus vacating Miss Parker's sublevel long enough for her to escape. Confusing matters more, both Sydney and Broots claimed that Cox had filed an itinerary that had taken them off in pursuit of Jarod more than two hours before the escape. Cox couldn't be chasing Jarod and freeing his daughter at the same time, Mr. Parker surmised, and, unfortunately, the data records from the security cameras were providing no help at all. It didn't appear that they'd been tampered with, but inside the Centre, who knew.

For their parts, Lyle and Raines sat fuming at the situation and at each other. Each was quick to blame the other for "losing" Centre merchandise; Lyle claimed that Raines had assured him Miss Parker could not escape The Machine without assistance while Raines reported that Mr. Lyle was in charge of securing SL-17, and that any breach of that security should surely fall on the younger man's shoulders. Just as both of their contrary arguments were about to fray Mr. Parker's last nerve, his office phone rang, momentarily paralyzing him. He answered it after four rings, his heart pounding as he contemplated a meeting with Mr. Garvey.

"Yes?"

"Cox here. It seems our lead on Jarod came too late. He's already left, but I have an indication that he rented a plane and flew out of state. I'm going to download the information to you and Sam and I will stay in pursuit."

"Just a moment, Cox. What time did you leave the Centre?" Mr. Parker furrowed his brow as he waited for an answer to his question.

"I left just after 4:00. Why?"

Mr. Parker quickly clicked a few keys on his computer and found that, indeed, the Centre security cameras showed Mr. Cox's car leaving the parking area at 4:08 p.m.

"No reason. I'll expect the information on Jarod's pursuit within the hour."

"You'll have it in a few minutes. Mr. Parker, is anything wrong?"

"No, nothing." With that, the Chairman disconnected the phone and turned back to the rogue's gallery that currently occupied his office. After a moment, he buzzed an intercom button on his desk, and the door to the office opened, revealing a crew of five sweepers. One of them, a man Broots had once heard Miss Parker refer to as Daniel, stepped forward.

"Yes, Mr. Parker?"

"A T-board is convening in one hour. Take Mr. Raines and Mr. Lyle to the holding facility. Make sure the sweeper teams on duty at SL-17 today are also held in the containment area."

Just as Broots' knees began to knock together as he wondered what would come next, Mr. Parker turned and leveled his gaze at the technician and Sydney. The doctor reached out his hand and placed it on his friend's forearm, steadying Broots long enough for him to collect his nerves again before the chairman spoke.

"Mr. Broots, Mr. Cox is downloading information on his search for Jarod. I want you to verify it. Check on every last detail, do you understand?"

Broots responded in the affirmative as best he could as his stammer betrayed the fear he was dealing with. He stood and, followed by Sydney, quickly exited the room. The sweepers escorted a bickering Raines and Lyle away, and after a moment, the office was empty save for the man who had occupied it for most of his adult life. Alone again, Mr. Parker reached out and picked up the photo of his dead wife and his infant daughter. He would have liked to say that at that moment, staring at the image forever preserved in black and white, that he felt some regret over what had happened to the two women in his life. But he had long since released the veil of hypocrisy that he had lived under for the better part of the last 30 years. He had made the choices he had made, and they had paid for it. He'd known they would, and Mr. Parker could do nothing now but accept the truth -- power had meant more to him than they had.

The sound of his phone ringing again broke Mr. Parker from his reverie. He replaced the photo on his desk, and answered the phone.

"Yes, Mr. Garvey. I'm on my way."






It was nighttime when the ragtag group of Delaware escapees reached Elizabeth's home. They arrived tired and worried about their precious passenger, but they were glad to have finally reached their destination without anymore contact with the Centre. That was due in no small part to the information Will had fabricated and sent under cover of Mr. Cox's e-mail after their uneasy ally had phoned Mr. Parker's office and delivered the inaccurate report on Jarod's pursuit. He had turned in the performance so well that Sam had almost pulled a gun on him, but Cox had stayed true to his word so far, and done nothing but help Miss Parker. The work of Cox and Will, coupled with Broots' "replacement" of the SL-17 security DSAs had bought the group valuable time, and if Miss Parker didn't improve soon, they were going to need it.

Parker's temperature was still up at 103 as Jarod picked her up to carry her from the car to her room. Will and Angelo followed closely behind, and as Elizabeth took notice of the boy, she let them pass unfettered. One glance at her niece told her that Little Cat needed to be settled in and taken care of immediately. She saw the man she had met in Blue Cove, the one named Sam, as he grabbed several items from the car and headed for the door.

The sudden surge of activity in the house had Elizabeth unusually distracted, and after Sam entered the house, she almost shut the door without realizing there was still one more person headed into her home. She reopened the door, about to apologize for her rudeness when she froze completely, her eyes locked on the intense blue ones staring back at her.

Cox noticed the older woman standing in the doorway and he immediately found himself staring. She was Miss Parker, aged 40 years surely, but still, it was the same face. He had never heard of Mrs. Parker having any living family, but clearly this woman and the other female Parkers were connected. Still, his surprise didn't account for hers. The woman seemed unable to speak as her eyes bore into him. The stare created a growing sense of discomfort in a man used to being the one who caused such feelings. Something in that look reminded him very much of the way Angelo had looked at him when he'd spoken those mysterious words earlier - 'Confused heart. Good blood.'

Suddenly the woman reached out and, in the gentlest of ways, placed her hands on his arm. Cox was startled, not by the touch itself, but by the immediate jolt of recognition that flooded his being. With it came a rush of thoughts and memories - images of Miss Parker, of all the little looks and movements that had intrigued him and flamed his curiosity about where she came from; he heard his own tiny voice repeating what seemed merely a flight of fantasy a few hours ago; he felt something bloom inside of him, something he had never in his felt before in his life - he felt whole.

Harry happened down the hallway and found his wife and the enigmatic man still standing there, eyes locked, Elizabeth's hand on his arm. Something about the scene seemed frozen, as if both parties involved had no idea what should come next. With no other ideas about what he should do, Harry cleared his throat. The noise seemed to snap Elizabeth and the thin man out of their shared suspended state, and two heads turned to look at him at virtually the same moment.

"Lizzy, is everything all right?"

Elizabeth looked at Harry blankly for a moment, and he was starting to think something was terribly wrong, but then he saw his wife take a deep breath, and just as suddenly as she had slipped into the trance that had held her, she sprang completely free of it. She quickly guided the other man completely into the house and shut the door behind her. The young man also seemed to finally be back in the land of the living, and he began to look around nervously.

"If you could just tell me where Miss Parker is..."

Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly as his voice floated through her being. So familiar, but now wasn't the time for this. Little Cat
needed their help.

"I'll show you. It's just upstairs. Harry, can you check on Matthew please?"

She saw Harry nod, then Elizabeth started up the stairs. A still shell-shocked Cox followed behind her. Harry walked off toward the kitchen, where he had left Emily and Matthew. Major Charles had instructed his daughter to keep the young boy away from Parker until they could figure out what kind of shape she was in. He walked in just in time to see his grand-nephew trying to spin around in Emily's arms, his tiny limbs reaching out toward a presence he could feel as tangibly as if she were in the same room. Tears followed, and soon Matthew was near hysterics. Emily shifted the baby in her arms as her desperate eyes found Harry's.

"It's like he can feel everything that's happening. I don't know what to do for him."

And the truth was Harry didn't either. He was about to admit as much when Angelo entered the room. Emily saw that Parker's brother had entered with one intention, and as he reached out for Matthew, she relinquished her hold on the baby. Angelo pulled the baby close, gently rocking from side to side, his hand stroking the little boy's back.

"Mother needs rest, little one."

And though it seemed impossible to both Harry and Emily, Matthew seemed to understand his uncle completely. The baby slowed, then stopped his tears, and snuggled against Angelo, seemingly grateful for the connection to the woman he loved so much.





Upstairs, Parker's room had quickly filled with a slew of concerned onlookers. Jarod was barely aware of it as he settled her frail form on the bed, quickly taking stock of all the items he had called ahead for. Harry and Elizabeth had done well. All of the equipment was in place and the bed was made up with layers of warm, soft sheets and blankets. After placing Parker beneath those protective layers of cloth, he finally began to let the scene in the room register.

What he saw was chaos, and that was one thing Parker couldn't afford right now. She needed them all to be calm and make good decisions; what she was getting instead was Sam glaring at Cox, who had been escorted in by Elizabeth, who seemed to be a million miles away. Will, who had grown so relaxed while helping to cloak their escape on the plane was newly agitated as he tried to think of what he should do to help his mother.

For the first time, Jarod also saw that his father had joined them. With a pleading look in his eyes, Jarod looked toward the Charles. The elder Russell picked up on his son's thoughts immediately, and he moved so he was standing in the center of the room.

"Everyone, I think what Parker needs now is some quiet and to get settled in."

The nervous chatter that had filled the room suddenly stopped, and Sam was the first to acquiesce to the Major's implied request. The sweeper quietly left the room and made his way to the front porch of the house, taking up a position to do what he did best...protect Miss Parker and those that mattered to her.

Back upstairs, the Major was becoming increasingly aware of his elder grandson's presence, and it was definitely adding to the tension in the room. Though Charles knew the boy was a part of his family, but he was also still the person responsible for the Major's extended stay at the Centre. For his part, Will had also become very aware of his grandfather's presence, and his own guilt was threatening to send him into a flood of tears. Jarod picked up on the difficult feelings between his father and son, and he realized this was a problem he would have to solve.

"Elizabeth, can you show Will where he's staying, please?" Jarod saw the teen about to protest, and he cut off the boy before he could speak. "Will, if you could check on our friends at the Centre, I'd appreciate it."

Though Will still wanted to stay with his mother, he understood the importance of what his father was asking him to do. Broots and Sydney were important to both of his parents, and Jarod was trusting him to help keep them safe. Nodding, Will followed the woman he knew as Elizabeth, momentarily stunned as everyone was by the resemblance of the woman to his mother. Elizabeth, seeing this, smiled, and put her arms around Will.

"Come on, young man. I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about."

That left Cox, Charles and Jarod in the room with Parker. Jarod forced himself to slip into doctor mode as he replaced the IV Cox had started with a fresh one, then he checked her temperature and vital signs. His heart tightened at the sound of Parker's labored breathing, and though Cox had done a good job of draining her lungs, there was no mistaking that there was still fluid present in them. The longer the fluid sat there, the greater the chances she would develop pneumonia, and with her fever already tipping 103, that was something she couldn't afford.

Charles watched his son as Cox slipped toward the back of the room. Here in this home, surrounded by people who genuinely loved Miss Parker, he suddenly felt oddly out of place. He had done what he considered right in helping her escape and in caring for her to this point. Now, however, he wondered what he was supposed to do next. Surely the sweepers at the Centre had told the powers that be about his involvement in the escape. Mr. Parker's calm demeanor on the phone had not covered up his suspicion, and though Cox knew he had placated the Chairman for now, he wondered how long it would last. The thought of Garvey finding out about his betrayal sent a chill through Cox's spine, yet he noted that he despite his sudden fear, he didn't feel any sense of regret. He had done the right thing in helping this family, and he would not allow himself to think otherwise.

Then there was this woman...the one who looked like Miss Parker, but was clearly old enough to be her mother. Why had he felt that connection to her? And her eyes; they were the same eyes Miss Parker carried; the same eyes he carried. Was it possible that what had started as a silly afterthought was becoming a reality? Was he somehow related to Miss Parker? It would explain his fascination with her, his feelings of protectiveness for her. At least, it would if you believed that old adage that blood was thicker than water. Had he somehow found "his blood" through sheer coincidence? He was so concentrated on those thoughts that he missed Jarod calling to him the first time. He heard his name on the pretender's second try.

"Yes?"

"Do you have an answer yet?"

Cox's brow furrowed as he considered Jarod's question, not certain what the man was talking about. Then he remembered. 'Why would you help her?' Cox knew his response had been true if not satisfactory. 'I don't know.'

"I...I did what I thought I should. I'm sorry, but that's the only answer I can give you."

Jarod nodded and turned his attention back to what he was doing, which was preparing a megadose of antibiotics to administer to Parker. Then he would go down to the kitchen and brew the herbal remedy he'd seen the locals in Hawaii use to help near-drowning victims purge the water from their lungs. Thankfully, all the herbs were easily accessed, and Harry had promised to get them.

Charles looked up at Cox, a feeling of hatred for the man mildly tempered by the knowledge that the Centre goon had helped free Miss Parker. With a questioning look on his face, the major moved closer to the man who had so gleefully stolen his freedom a few months earlier. His movement made Jarod glance up and he noticed that his father had a 9mm handgun in the back waistband of his jeans.

"I'm not sure why my son let you come here, but I am sure that you won't be leaving anytime soon. I'll see to that."

The Major pulled the gun out and Cox took a reflexive step backwards, his hands rising slightly.

"Major, if I'd wanted to hurt them, I would have done it already."

"Or you would have 'helped' them so that Jarod would lead you to all of us. It'd be quite a coup for you, wouldn't it, brining in the whole damn family? Well, I won't let that happen. Move."

Cox considered his options and decided that for the time being, it was best for him to go along with Charles' theatrics. It was unlikely anyplace in the house was truly secure enough to hold him prisoner if he decided to try and escape, and he needed time to sort through everything he was feeling and to plan on how he would handle things with the Centre. Slowly, he turned toward the door, the major's eyes on him the whole way.

"Dad..."

Jarod's voice stopped Cox and he glanced back over his shoulder to see that Charles had not taken his eyes off of him even as he responded to his son.

"Jarod, I'll handle this. You take care of Parker."

The part of Jarod that knew people could change wanted to disagree with his father's actions. The truth was were it not for Cox, Parker would probably still be inside the Centre suffering at Raines' and Lyle's hands. He could have stopped there and let Jarod and crew slip away into the night with her, but he had not. Cox had risked his own safety to come with them and care for Parker during the trip home. Still, he could not fault his father for being too careful. Resigned to his father's course, Jarod simply nodded and turned his attention back to Parker as the two men exited the room.

Finally alone with her, Jarod sat back and assessed her carefully. Her pale skin was shiny with sweat, the fever continuing to ravage her body. A new stream of guilt flooded through him. If only he could take back his words about Will, then maybe...

As quickly as the thoughts had begun, Jarod pushed them away. It was selfish of him to feel any of this right now. Parker needed him. He stood, checking the monitors he'd hooked up one last time before he headed toward the door. He was about to call for Elizabeth when he looked up and saw Will standing in the doorway.

"I'll stay with her. You do what you need to do."

Jarod watched his son sit down on the bed beside Parker, his hand reaching for hers and caressing it gently. Satisfied that she would be safe in Will's care, Jarod headed straight for the kitchen, ready to prepare the herbal brew he hoped would clear Parker's lungs once and for all. He was of a single mind, determined to do what he needed to, but his attention was momentarily diverted as he took the last step to the first floor and caught sight of Angelo and Matthew in the living room. The little boy was curled into his uncle's embrace, the blanket his mother had given him clutched in his tiny hands. Angelo looked up and caught Jarod's gaze and let a slight smile cross his face. Jarod returned the smile, then turned and headed toward the task he'd set for himself.




Out in the barn, Harry was keeping an uneasy watch as Charles tied Cox to a support beam inside the structure. A peaceful man, Harry had rarely even see a gun, let alone handled one. Now he was standing with one pointed at this strange man who had earlier held his wife's attention so completely.

Major Charles finished his task, double-checking his handiwork before he stepped back toward Harry and took the gun from him. He kept his eyes on Cox as he spoke.

"Harry, would you please ask Sam to come down here?"

"Sure, Charles."

It was difficult to miss the tremor in Harry's voice, and Charles realized that once again an innocent bystander had been dragged into the Centre's web. Elizabeth had mentioned to him that she had tried to keep her husband's knowledge of the place and its misdeeds to a minimum. Charles knew she'd only been trying to protect him, just as he and Margaret and Catherine had tried to protect those they loved, but she had only succeeded in discovering what they had all found out over the years - the Centre always came back, and it always hurt the people you'd tried to keep safe.

As he settled back against the beam he'd been tied to, Cox surveyed Jarod's father. The man was battle-tested; you could see it in his stance, in the cut of his body, and Cox admired that. He liked survivors, even if this particular one had caused him a great deal of difficulty.

"I'm curious what you intend to do with me, Major."

The older man looked at him with intense eyes, and Cox saw that same determined look he had seen on Jarod's face many times in the DSAs of his sims.

"I'm not sure I intend to do anything except make sure my family is sa..." the words trailed off as Charles' earlier thought returned to him. Safe...he'd tried and failed so many times, yet his loved ones always seemed to end up in danger. Cox noticed a darkening in the Major's mood as he took another step forward in the conversation.

"Well, as I said earlier, if I had wanted to hurt them, I would have done it already. I want Miss Parker to be safe."

"Yes, but you can't seem to answer the million dollar question, now can you, Mr. Cox? You've been circling Miss Parker, setting her up for failure since the moment you got to the Centre. Why the sudden change?"

Footsteps near the front door of the barn caught Charles' attention, and he whirled around to see who it was. Sam was there, waiting for instructions on what to do next. And, to Charles' surprise, Elizabeth was also standing in the doorway.

"Sam, I'd like you to stay posted outside. I need to go and check on Jarod."

Sam nodded and moved to take a secure position outside the barn. Charles followed him out the door, stopping to let Elizabeth pass in front of him. But again, the woman surprised him. She shook her head 'no' when she sensed that he was about to protest. Charles didn't like the idea one bit, but he could see that Elizabeth was as stubborn as her niece, so he gave in and walked out without her.

Elizabeth's eyes locked again with Cox's and both of them felt the surge of familiarity rush through them again. After what seemed several minutes but was probably closer to a few seconds, Elizabeth turned and went to close the barn door. Sam was there in a heartbeat, ready to protest, but once again Elizabeth silenced a man trying to reproach her.

"He's tied up, Sam. I hardly think he's going to pull anything."

Glaring hard, Sam nodded and stepped away from the door. Elizabeth shut it gently, then turned and walked toward Cox. A bail of hay was sitting near him, and she sat down upon it, her eyes staying on him as she settled herself.

"Your name isn't really Mr. Cox, is it?"

Cox narrowed his eyes and regarded the woman carefully. No record on file at the Centre revealed that he had ever had any identity other than that of Mr. Cox. Genius or not, he refused to believe that Jarod had been able to find out that information, and that left Cox wondering how in the hell this woman knew that he, in fact, had a whole life completely unrelated to the infamous Centre figure he had become.

"Your father's name is Elias Morgan, isn't it?"

She saw his eyes widen, and Elizabeth felt a deep pain in her heart. Betrayal wasn't something she was unfamiliar with - her own father had destroyed her family in order to get what he wanted. Still, some part of her had always idealized her teenage love affair as the one truly honest and real thing in her life other than Catherine. But it wasn't true. The look on this man's face - hell, his face period, told her it wasn't. Because the man who called himself Mr. Cox looked exactly like Elias Morgan except for his startling blue eyes - and Elizabeth knew whose eyes those were.

When he finally spoke, Cox didn't recognize his own voice. He knew the truth as plainly as if it were written on a stone tablet before him, yet his mind was frantically trying to push it away. The photo on the mantle of his "mother" had always been a near sacred thing to him. She'd died in childbirth - that's what his father had told him. That is what he'd always believed. Yet he knew that in recent days, his own suspicions had been heading to this very discovery.

Elizabeth moved closer to him, and she reached inside her pocket, extracting a folded piece of paper. Carefully, she opened the time-worn white sheet, her eyes closing momentarily as she took in the face that was sketched upon it.

"I made this 36 years ago. I did it so that time wouldn't steal his face away from me."

The woman extended the piece of paper toward him, and Cox, whose own hands were secured tightly behind him, leaned forward to see what it was. His mind, which was already reeling, dropped off of a cliff, and his whole being seemed to be spinning on a previously unknown axis. There was no mistaking it, despite the more than three decades of age that had come to rest on the face of the man he knew, this drawing was of the same person.

"How do you know him? How are you connected to Mr. Garvey?"

"The man you call Mr. Garvey is really David Jamison. He was my father. And, if I'm right about who you are, he's your grandfather."







There were few phrases that sent fear surging through Broots like the phrase "T-Board." His one experience with the process had left him scarred for life. So he was more than grateful to only be watching this one via the security monitors. He could see four men sitting on the "good" side of the table. One of them was Mr. Parker, but Broots was uncertain who the others might be. Across from them, the hot seat remained empty, but Broots knew that wasn't going to last long.

Raines had already been interviewed. Not surprisingly, he had lain as much of the blame as he could at Lyle's feet. Then, with a wave of Mr. Parker's hand, the man had been taken away. Broots didn't know where to, but he had a feeling he wouldn't be seeing Mr. Raines in the hallways anytime soon. After a few minutes of conference between the T-Board members, three sweepers approached the table with Mr. Lyle in tow. Mr. Parker leaned back in his chair and leveled his eyes at his son.

"Mr. Lyle, we have a few questions for you."

The Chairman's voice was gruff and as cold as Broots had ever heard it. Good, he thought. It was time for Lyle to know the kind of fear that Miss Parker had lived under for so long. How many times had she, unfairly, had to face that tone in her father's voice? Knowing that Lyle wasn't facing his real father didn't diminish the effect either. Father or not, Mr. Parker still held Lyle's fate in his hands.

"Dad, It was Raines who..."

"During this proceeding, you will address the Chairman as Mr. Parker or Mr. Chairman."

Lyle looked around, his eyes trying to decipher from what location the voice had emanated, but he could not detect its source. The shadows in the room where too heavy to see through. Turning his eyes back to Mr. Parker, Lyle took a deep breath, trying to steady his fraying nerves. He was not supposed to be in this position, damn it, and he would make everyone who'd put him here pay for it.

"Okay, Mr. Parker, it was up to Mr. Raines to secure his facility."

"I didn't ask Raines to control your sister."

He considered his response carefully. Lyle knew that he had screwed up, but the question was how could he minimize the damage to himself, while casting Raines in the worst light possible? He'd also heard rumors that Cox might have been involved in the escape. If he could push that theory to the forefront, perhaps he could even manage to bring down his rival, too.

"I realize that my security measures proved insufficient. For that, I am willing to accept that responsibility. However, you have to admit that if Mr. Raines "machine" was as effective as he proclaimed it, Miss Parker would not have been in any shape to escape. Even if she had help, which I hear she may have, you have to admit that it does bring the good doctor's methods into question."

Broots watched on the video screen as silence overtook the room and Mr. Parker listened to whispers from the men on either side of him. Then from nowhere, the androgynous "person" whom he remembered from his own T-Board experience walked up and handed a note to Mr. Parker. The Chairman unfolded the paper, read it quickly, then dropped it on the table in front of him.

"Miss Parker's escape isn't the only thing we're here to question. What do you have to say regarding the failure of Retrieval?"

"Retrieval failed for the same reasons that Miss Parker is now free. We were betrayed."

The statement was a calculated risk, and Lyle waited to see if it would pay dividends. Certainly someone inside the Centre had helped Parker escape. The fact that her two cronies Broots and Sydney had been cleared didn't mean someone else hadn't been involved. Lyle would have suspected her half-wit brother Angelo if he were still inside the walls of the Centre - but that freak was, thankfully, long gone. Though he could think of no reason why Cox would want to help the Centre's infamous bitch escape, he was as a good a suspect as Lyle had. After all, no one knew exactly where he was, and he wasn't here to defend himself.

Mr. Parker glanced up into the shadowed gallery, and the androgynous figure nodded once. Broots saw all of this unfold on the screen as he typed away at his own keyboards, carefully dropping bits and pieces of the information he was receiving from Will and Jarod into the mainframe so he could "magically" piece it all together in a few hours and produce a report for the Triumvirate. His attention was pulled back to the monitor, however, as he Mr. Parker cleared his throat, indicating the action was about to pick up again.

"You were saying, Mr. Lyle?"

"Clearly someone inside the Centre helped Miss Parker get away. You have a half-dozen sweepers who all say that Mr. Cox was seen on SL-17 during the time the escape occurred. Mr. Cox was also in charge of Project Retrieval. The fact that Miss Parker's initial disappearance ruined any hope of Retrieval working seems to me to be a bit too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"

As the members of the T-Board considered Lyle's accusations, Sydney walked up behind Broots, his eyes falling to the screen.

"How's it going?"

"Well, you were right. Lyle can't seem to shift the focus to Raines, so he's targeted Mr. Cox. Too bad for him we were expecting that." With that, Broots clicked "send" on his computer, routing a message that would, with the help of young Will, bounce through 1,200 servers in less than two minutes before it arrived in the mailbox of the Triumvirate's androgynous stalwart in the T-Board room.

Onscreen, Sydney and Broots watched as Mr. Parker, after conferring with his associates, was about to speak again when a faint beeping sound rang out in the room. As predicted, the ghoul read the e-mail, then disappeared up into the shadows as he conferred with some mysterious person that Miss Parker's friends could not see. A moment later, the figure re-emerged, and walked over to Mr. Parker, placing the laptop in front of him so he could see what had so captured everyone's imagination.

"Mr. Cox was helping my daughter, you say?"

"That's the only plausible explanation for both projects to fail so miserably."

"Then please, Mr. Lyle, explain this."

Mr. Parker angrily shoved the laptop across the table and Lyle cautiously pulled it toward him. His eyes widened with what he saw. There, in living color, was a photo of Cox. The man was bound and gagged in some godforsaken outhouse or barn. Sam lay unconscious on the floor beside him. Flashing beneath the photo was a succession of multi-colored letters that continually flashed the message "HA HA."

Before Lyle could speak, a wave of his "father's" hand brought the sweepers forward, and they grabbed him under the arms and pulled him from the chair.

"Wait. It's rigged. It has to be." As he was dragged more forcefully toward the far end of the room, Mr. Lyle's tone turned to a desperate yell. "They're working with Jarod. It's the only explanation."

"Take Mr. Lyle to Renewal Wing." There was a cold, unfeeling tone in Mr. Parker's voice that Lyle recognized. It was a tone of dismissal. "Hold him there until you hear from me."

"No. Dad! Dad!" But Lyle's cries went unheeded, and soon he was shackled to a metal table staring up at blazing white lights. And as hours melted into hours, he was left to wonder how, when he'd had everything in his grasp that he had ever dreamed of, had it all gone so terribly wrong.





The sunrise was breathtaking, and for a short time, its mythic beauty lulled Jarod's troubled mind and heart. But soon, his thoughts and his eyes turned back to the room in which he stood, and he walked back to the bed where Parker lay, still unconscious after twelve hours. Her fever was down, a fact that Jarod attributed to the herbal remedy he'd brewed and, with the aid of a sipper cup Matthew was still too young to use, helped Parker to drink despite the fact that he could not rouse her to full consciousness. One danger nullified, but now Jarod wondered if it had been done in time.

Even with the fever abating, Parker's body was still immersed in trauma. Her body continued to be wracked by torturous muscle spasms, and though her breathing had eased since he administered the treatment, his inability to wake her continued to make Jarod worry.

The problem was that he had no way of knowing exactly what had happened to Parker inside Raines' torture device. Broots had tried to get him the DSA records, but the Triumvirate had sealed them immediately, and despite the information the disks might shed on her condition, Jarod knew Parker would be furious with him if he allowed Broots or Sydney to face any more danger for her. That they had aided in her escape and had, so far, remained outside the veil of suspicion was a credit to their abilities and to the help Angelo and Will had been able to give them, not to mention thanks to a little luck. But luck ran out in the Centre, and he wouldn't have Parker wake just to find out that more people she loved had come to harm.

The problem with making that decision was that it left him without all the answers. It was clear that she'd been exposed to extreme conditions-the water in her lungs evidence of that. But he didn't know what else they'd done, and that meant he might be missing some crucial piece of information that could help her get well. He had considered asking Angelo to empathy Parker's experience in the Centre, but Angelo's talents weren't an exact science, and to put the man through feeling his sister's pain that deeply and fail...well, there had to be another option, and he was going to find it.

"You could pretend it, couldn't you?"

Jarod looked up to see that Will was awake and staring at him. The boy had fallen asleep just under two hours ago, his body crumpled into a chair beside his mother's bedside because he had refused to go back to his own room. Now he sat wide awake, his thoughts somehow keyed into the dilemma that Jarod had been considering. It seemed that clone or son, the two of them shared a bond that was undeniable. That made him both happy and uncomfortable - a concurrency of emotion that Jarod didn't understand.

"I know she wouldn't like it, but if it will help us take care of her..."

Will didn't know what to make of the small smile that crept onto his father's face. They were still strangers, learning to feel their way around each other, and still lacking in the understanding of those little subtleties that it took time to pick up about someone. So Will had no way of knowing that what Jarod had been thinking as the smile broke was that Parker, if she were awake, would be loving the "like father, like son-ness" of this moment. The truth was, he'd been thinking all night about simming Parker's torture.

"I think she'll forgive me, don't you?"

The tone of Jarod's voice and the smile which remained on his face gave away his meaning to Will, and for the first time since he'd learned who his parents were, Will felt like he had a mother and a father.

"Stay with your mother for a minute, okay? I need to take care of a few things, and then we'll get to work."

Will nodded and watched as his father walked out of the room. Turning his attention back to his mother, Will leaned forward so that his lips were near her ear.

"I told Matthew that you loved him, Mom. He smiled when I said it. I think it's because he already knew. And we both love you. We love you, Mom."







Cox had seen, heard and done some shocking things in his life, but nothing had left him as flabbergasted as what this woman had said to him. It seemed silly to him that he was so surprised, yet there he sat, utterly stunned. Hadn't he himself suspected a deeper connection between he and Miss Parker? It was part of what had motivated him to help in her rescue, wasn't it? So why was he finding all of it so hard to accept?

Looking down at the sketch again, Cox knew there was no mistaking his identification of the man. This David Jamison was definitely Mr. Garvey. Younger, perhaps, but the face was, minus a few wrinkles, the same. So Miss Parker's grandfather was the mysterious top man at the Centre? And if what this woman - he had to stop referring to her like that - if Elizabeth was really his mother, that made Garvey or Jamison, or whoever the hell he was his grandfather as well.

"I know this is a lot for you to here right now." Elizabeth chuckled as the words she'd just spoken registered in her own ears. "I said the same thing to Parker not too long ago." Cox looked at her intensely, his face turning into a question he wasn't quite ready to speak. He didn't have to, because Elizabeth could sense what it was he needed to know.

"I was told that you had died. I also thought that your father had simply disappeared from my life. I had no idea that Elias...I didn't think he'd ever do something...hell, I didn't think anyone would do something like that. I never suspected that you were alive, not until I saw you walk through my door."

Elias...his father's name seemed to hang in Cox's brain, expanding over and over again until his head wanted to explode. He had known. Elias Morgan had fabricated a dead mother and a family history and spoon-fed it to his young son, purposely keeping any hint of Elizabeth's existence a secret. That meant that he had to have been working in concert with Garvey. Otherwise, why would he have done such a thing?

"Mr. Garv...your father - why would he take your child -" Cox paused, taking a deep breath, "why would he take me from you?"

Elizabeth looked into Cox's sad, blue eyes, wishing she could spare him all of the terrible secrets she had had to share with Little Cat, but she knew there was no way. Yet it seemed the explanation would have to wait for a later time, for no sooner had Elizabeth thought the thought then the barn door opened, and Jarod stepped inside.

Cox looked up as the door opened, and he, too, saw Jarod enter. The pretender approached cautiously, sensing immediately that there was something going on in the barn he did not understand. A warm smile from Elizabeth did little to comfort him when he also saw the pain in her all-too-familiar eyes.

"Elizabeth, is everything all right?"

She only nodded, then lowered her head. Jarod took her at her word, knowing he had something important he needed to accomplish on this visit.

"Cox, I need your help."

Cox, looking a bit shell-shocked, looked up at Jarod. After a few blinks that seemed to bring him back to where he was, the blue-eyed man cleared his throat.

"This is about Miss Parker?"

"Her lungs are clearing and her fever is down, but the muscle tremors are getting worse. I think they did something to her that we haven't uncovered yet. I need for you to describe for me what you saw when you found her. I need every detail you can give me."

"I can do better than describe it...I can recreate it for you. That is, if you're willing to let me out of this rope for a little while."

Jarod, knowing there was nothing he wasn't ready to risk in order to help Parker, stepped over to begin loosening Cox's bonds. When he was finished, Cox stood, stretching his limbs. The two men started to head for the door, Jarod leading the way. Elizabeth watched them go, understanding that her time with her son would come later. So she was a little surprised when Cox suddenly stopped and turned back toward her.

"Daniel Morgan."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, her brow furrowing as she wondered what he meant.

"My real name. It's Daniel Morgan."

With that, Cox and Jarod exited the building, and Elizabeth allowed herself to dissolve into a puddle of tears as she took in her son's name, making it a permanent part of who she was.





Two hours later, Jarod had all of the information he could possibly gather in order to begin his pretend. It had begun with Cox sketching a detailed rendering of the metal contraption he'd found Parker in. He then described everything he could remember about the room - its smell, the lighting, the sounds - everything that might help to construct the room for Jarod. As the details began to take shape in Jarod's mind, he glanced over at Will, watching the boy pale visibly as he, too, began to think about the ordeal Parker had endured. Seeing this, Jarod held up his hand to stop Cox momentarily.

"Will."

The teen did not hear his name at first, his eyes fixed ahead as if he were seeing something he could not turn away from. The second time Jarod called to him, though, he did hear and he turned toward the place the voice had come from.

"Will, I'm the one doing the pretending here, right? You have to turn it off now. I can't let you be a part of this if you can't do that."

Cox watched as the boy nodded, closing his eyes momentarily. With his lids still down, the boy took three deep, slow breaths. After another brief moment, Will looked up at both men, his eyes now seemingly free of the vision they had held earlier. Satisfied, Jarod turned back to Cox.

"All right, is there anything else?"

"I think I've told you everything."

Satisfied, Jarod turned his attention back to his son.

"You're sure you want to stay? You could go up and take Emily's place with your mother."

Will shook his head, making his intentions clear. He had to do something to help her. It was the only way he would ever be able to forgive himself.

"All right. Cox, you can go."

"I'd prefer to stay if you don't mind."

Jarod considered for a moment, then decided it could do no harm to allow Cox to stay. He nodded his agreement, then turned one last time toward Will.

"Have the connection ready. When I come out, hopefully we'll have something to take to Broots and Sydney."

The boy nodded, and began working at the laptop that sat in front of him. Cox took the empty seat next to Will.

Across the room, Jarod began a series of breathing exercises that he used to help clear his mind before a pretend. He left behind thoughts of his father, pacing angrily outside the door, his fury at Cox's freedom a palpable presence in the house. He pushed aside his worry for Parker and his love for Matthew, and even his trepidation about Will. He put all of this into a closeted room inside of himself so that his being could be turned over to the thoughts and feelings of the person he needed to become - Parker.

He began with the last time Will had seen his mother before she'd become ill. Picturing the room in his mind, Jarod soon saw Will standing before him, his eyes confused and frightened. He saw Parker's hands, his hands now, resting on Will's arms, trying to comfort him. Then it all began to go wrong. Lyle and the sweeper team had entered, and Parker had been torn away from their son.

'I love you, Will. I love you.'

And she did. Jarod could feel Parker's love for the troubled teenage son in the deepest part of his heart because now, that heart belong to her. He felt her fear and her worry and her guilt at having left the boy behind when she had saved Major Charles and Matthew.

Now Jarod sank deeper still into the pretend, using the details Cox had given him about the room on SL-17 to begin to reconstruct what had happened there to the woman he loved. He felt the hatred Raines had filled the air with, and he felt the joy Lyle had felt at seeing her suffer. He felt the pressure in his chest build as Parker had felt it when they had robbed her of the air she needed to breathe, and he felt the cold rush of water filling his lungs.

What Jarod felt deepest, and what he would later carry with him always was the sense of absolute horror Parker had felt, not at the torture she was enduring, but at the very idea that she would never see her sons again, and at the regret she felt for having never told him how much he meant to her. It was a feeling that, if Jarod were allowing his emotions free, he would be sharing with her now.

Then the noise began. Jarod heard it first as a slight hissing, and then it seemed to grow, surrounding him as his lungs began to ache. And suddenly Jarod knew what they had missed. Gas - Lyle and Raines had exposed Parker to some kind of gas, and it was the likely culprit responsible for her continued physical state.

Using the techniques so familiar to him from the Sim lab in the Centre, Jarod began to bring himself out of the pretend. When he finally opened his eyes, it was to find Cox kneeling in front of him, the man's hands holding Jarod firmly into the chair. A brief moment of panic flooded through the pretender before he looked down and saw why it was the other man was restraining him. Jarod's whole body was shaking...the lingering effects of the pretend causing him to suffer the same symptoms as the woman upstairs.

Though his hands were still shaking, Jarod nodded to Cox, and the blue-eyed man released his hold. Wobbling a bit, Jarod rose and made his way to Will, who instantly stood and let his father have the seat he had just occupied.

"Did you establish the line?" Cox and Will instinctively looked at each other as they heard the exhaustion and weakness in Jarod's voice. For his part, the man in question didn't seem to notice, and so Will simply stepped forward, and placed a cautious hand on Jarod's shoulder.

"Just hit send."

Jarod did as he was told, and an instant later the videophone in Broots' office began to beep. Broots and Sydney, who had virtually remained camped out in his co-worker's area in hopes of hearing news on Miss Parker, rushed to answer the call. They both tried to hold back the shock they knew flooded their faces at Jarod's appearance; the man looked suddenly 10 years older than the last time they'd seen him. Broots saw Sydney's hand turn white as the doctor gripped the desk out of frustration and worry.

"Jarod, what's happened? Is everything all right?"

"It will be." Broots could hear in Jarod's voice that the man had been through something terrible, but he didn't know what it was. He only hoped that it didn't mean he had lost the best friend he'd ever had.

"It's not Miss...I mean... "

"She's holding her own, Broots, but I need your help to fix the damage that was done to her at the Centre."

"Anything."

"Raines exposed her to some kind of gas. It's probably experimental, and probably one of his own special blends. I need you to break into his records and find out what the components are. I'm downloading a program to you now. When you get the information, start the program and it will connect you to this line."

"I'll find it, Jarod."

A slow, understanding nod was Jarod's only response, and then the line was disconnected. Broots spied a bright red icon that had appeared on his desktop. Not sparing another moment, he launched his cloaking program and began to hack away at Mr. Raines private archives, hoping he could locate what he needed remotely since a sweeper team was currently posted outside of Raines' office. Still, his attention was not completely occupied, and without looking up he asked the only person who could tell him.

"What in the world do you think was wrong with him, Syd? He looked terrible. I mean, I know he's worried about her, but..."

Sydney took a deep breath, knowing all too well what was wrong with Jarod. He'd seen him the same state so many times that he didn't want to think about it. And though he understood without knowing any details that Jarod would only have done such a thing if he'd been left with no other options, he couldn't help but wonder what it would do to the younger man to carry around the pain of this pretend for the rest of his life.





Emily opened the door quietly, bypassing a knock because she was hoping that almost all of the room's occupants were sleeping. Gratefully, she found that Jarod had drifted off to sleep on the bed beside Parker, and Will was curled up in the chair beside them, also asleep. That made it a clean sweep for the men in her family - her father and Matthew had fallen asleep in Elizabeth's rocking chair downstairs. Unfortunately, Parker, who was the lone person she had wanted to see awake, still lay with her eyes closed.

Sighing, Emily closed the door with the same care she'd used to open it, then she padded quietly to her room next door. Suddenly feeling exhausted herself, Emily sank down onto the bed. The day had been such a long one for all of them. A chill ran through her body as she remembered the way Jarod had looked following his pretend. And what he'd uncovered...that had served to literally freeze her marrow. Raines had used some kind of gas on Parker, the problem was the pretend couldn't uncover what it was.

Thankfully, Broots and Sydney had been able to access Raines' computer programs and they discovered the formula he'd used. It was a nerve gas he'd been experimenting with for years, and after doing several blood tests, Jarod, Will and the man named Cox had been able to determine that one of the compounds had broken down inside of Parker's body, basically poisoning her nervous system. It had taken hours, but they had finally come up with a chemical formula that would, they hoped, offset the effects of Raines' gas and allow Parker's body a chance to heal.

They had given her the concoction intravenously over a 4-hour period, and they had no idea when she might wake. Emily had checked on her three times, and each time, it seemed Parker's body was more still than the last, which Emily told herself had to mean the treatment was working. If the tremors were fading, it had to be working. That's what she kept telling herself, what she knew her brother and Will kept telling themselves. She was also worried about Angelo, and she had gone in search of him earlier, but she couldn't figure out where he had gotten off to.

Footsteps sounded downstairs, and Emily glanced downward for some reason, even though she knew who had made the noise. Mr. Cox was in the living room, resting under Sam's watchful eye. It had been quite a scene when her father had gone to take Cox back to the barn and Elizabeth had refused to allow it. Parker's aunt had given no real explanation for her actions, she had simply made it clear that Cox would not be treated like an enemy in her home. Jarod had, in gratitude for the help the man had given, backed her up. So Sam had been brought in to make sure the man's loyalties remained on the right side.

What puzzled Emily as she tried to go to sleep was the way Cox had looked at Elizabeth as she'd defended him...it was a mixture of amazement and something almost like pride. It was definitely something that would need more attention tomorrow. Tonight, though, she was too tired, and she was going to lie down and go to sleep and hope that when she awoke and the sun was up, her family would be happy once again.





Jarod had been too tired to resist sleep, despite his desire to stay up and keep watch over Parker. The remedy seemed to be working, but she still hadn't awakened, and he so needed her eyes to open so he could do the one thing he'd waited too long to do. But for now, he slept. In his sleep, Jarod dreamed. He dreamed of sitting in the sun with the woman he loved, with his sons, with his parents and Angelo and Emily. He dreamed of being at peace.

"Jarod."

The sound barely reached his ears it was so soft, but Jarod's whole body was tuned to Parker, and it reacted quickly. He was fully awake and looking down into her open blue eyes in less than a minute.

"I'm here, Parker. I'm here, and our boys are, too."

She blinked and swallowed, her mouth dry from the ordeal she'd been through. She followed that with a deep breath, then she spoke in the same weak tone again.

"Sorry. Should have told you..."

Before she could finish, Jarod brought his finger to her lips.

"I didn't let you tell me."

Parker smiled slightly, her body trying to drag her back into sleep. Jarod could see her fading, but he wasn't worried. She would need her rest to recover, and now that she had managed to return to him once, he knew she would do it again. Still, there was something he needed to do before he let her drift off.

"I love you, Parker."

That earned him another smile, and though she was far too tired to reply to him, Jarod didn't need her to. Parker had shown how she felt in everything she'd done, from coming to San Diego to save him from Damon to risking her life to save his father and sons. Her eyes drifted shut and Jarod pulled her into his arms, bringing her head against his chest. He was about to close his own eyes again when he looked up and saw that Will had woken up. He smiled widely, and his son picked up on the meaning behind the action, returning the smile.

Will snuggled back down and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep. A few days ago, he had slept in his empty, cold room at the Centre, never knowing he could have more than that. Now he had a mother he adored, a father it seemed he just might be able to get along with - heck, he had family coming out of the rafters now. And as he drifted back to sleep, Will dreamed the most beautiful dream he had ever had in his life. He was sitting outside in the sun, with his mother and father and brother, and all of their family...



The attic had become a home to Angelo during his first stay with Elizabeth, and he had returned there now to do what he needed to do to help protect his family. His fingers clicked away on the keyboard, building the small components of symbols and letters into a piece of work so skillful that no one in the Centre, not even Broots, would be able to pick it apart. His sister and Jarod had risked enough to protect the family. Now it was his turn to do what his mother had been unable to do - save Parker and Jarod.

The footsteps on the stairs brought Angelo's eyes up to find Mr. Cox standing across from him. The man walked toward him, and Angelo felt a small bit of surprise at how unafraid the man now made him. Cox knelt down beside Angelo, whose hands continued to click away. The action only stopped when Cox's trembling hand reached out and came to rest on top of Angelo's. The contact seemed somehow familiar to Angelo, and he read the feelings the man shared with him, judging them as genuine.

"Daniel wants to help family. Help Angelo save family."

Sighing, Cox moved his hand, placing it on Angelo's shoulder.

"Yes, Angelo. I want to help save my family."

part 21