Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. Well, some of them are. But the important ones are all property of MTM and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this . . . . Blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.

 

One Wish

By Nicky

 

Part I:  Anything For You

 

Miss Parker throws her keys carelessly on the table next to her front door.  She had just spent another unsuccessfully long and frustrating day at the Centre trying to track down Jarod.  It's been a month since her shooting.  She had healed.  Jarod had escaped.  And she was back again trying to find him.  But this time, there is a sense of urgency.  She doesn't have time to play his mind games.   She has to find him soon.  Her time is running out. 

 

Without bothering to turn on a light, she walks through the living room and towards the bedroom while kicking off her shoes, only looking up when she feels a warm breeze. 

 

"Did I leave a window open?" she wonders to herself, looking around to see if that was the case.  Her eyes focus on a tall, dark shadow with it's back to her standing in the open doorway of her patio.  The figure seemed entranced at the view out of her back patio.  So entranced that he doesn't seem to notice when the barrel of her gun is suddenly pressed into his back.

 

"Turn around slowly," she commands.  "Unless you want to leave here with more holes than you came in with."

 

"Don't shoot," the figure whispers.  He turns around and Miss Parker finds herself face to face with someone very familiar.

 

"Jarod!  What are you doing here?  In my home."

 

"You know this isn't the first time," he admits with a little smirk.  "How else do you think I get those little gifts in here to you."  He quickly wipes the little grin from his face when he sees that she is not amused.  "Okay, here's the truth.  I wanted to check on you.  I've been talking to Sydney, and he says that you've been keeping some pretty late hours at the Centre.  And, it's no fun calling your place late at night and chatting with your answering machine."  He tries the smirk again, but gets the same frigid glare from Miss Parker as the last time.

 

"As long as you're out there, I have to look for you.  And I'm going to keep looking until they have you back at the Centre where they want you."

 

"But you look really tired.  Have you been taking care of yourself?" he asks with sincere concern.

 

"Listen, Jarod.  I don't need for you to pretend to be my doctor, so just quit the act," she snaps.

 

"What do you want from me, then?  I just want to help.  We used to be friends.  Remember?"

 

"What do I want from you?  Are you serious?  What do you think I want from you, Jarod?  All I want is for you to be a good little boy and run on back to the Centre.  That way, they'll have what they want and I could get what I want.  My freedom."

 

Her words take him off his guard a bit.  Her freedom.  He never thought of it before, but she was just as much a prisoner of the Centre as he was. 

 

"You feel trapped," he states.  "You can't get out until I come back."

 

"Bingo!  Give the genius a cookie."

 

"I never realized," he says.  "I'm sorry."

 

"Whatever.  I don't really feel like this outpouring of emotions right now.  So I'm just going to call the sweeper team right now and save us both some time."  She picks up the phone, not so much to have the sweepers come get him.  She knew that he'd be gone before they got there anyway.  But she wanted him out of her hair.  She was too tired to deal with Jarod, her father, sweepers, or anything related to the Centre that night.

 

Placing her gun on the coffee table, she turns her back while placing the phone call, totally expecting him to slip out the back door while she wasn't looking.  She'd just explain to the sweepers that he simply got away again.  It's a story they're all too familiar with anyway.  Jarod is about as slippery as they come. 

 

But instead, after calling the sweepers, she turns back around to see that Jarod has taken a seat on the couch.  He leans back calmly and she can feel his eyes go up and down her body.  But not in a creepy, perverted kind of way.  He appeared to be making a mental assessment of her physical condition.

 

"Come sit down," he says, holding out a hand to her.  "You look like you can barely stand up anymore. “I’m fine," she bites back, slapping his hand out of the way.  "What are you still doing here, anyway?  I was sure you'd be gone by the time I got off the phone."

 

"Were you serious when you said that all you really want is for me to be back at the Centre so that you could be free?"  He looks at her with the innocence of a child sincerely worried about a friend.  "I mean, would you really leave if you had the chance?"

 

"In a second.  I have to get out of there.  As soon as I can.  And you're my ticket."

 

"How much time do you have?  I mean, before the baby is born?"

 

"What . . . How did you . . . Who told you?" she stutters.  Nobody knew about the baby.  How could Jarod?  Her knees start to give out and she has to take him up on his offer to sit down. 

 

"Nobody told me," he claims.  "I just found out on my own.  I told you tonight wasn't the first time I'd been in your house.  The last time I was here, I accidentally knocked over a bottle of pills you had on your nightstand.  When I picked them up, I saw what they were.  Prenatal vitamins."

 

"Oh," she says quietly, almost in a whisper.  He knew this much.  She might as well tell him the rest.  "I have just a few weeks before someone is bound to notice.  Two months at the most.  I found out after I woke up from my surgery.  At the airstrip, Lyle, Raines, and Brigitte were so preoccupied with getting you back to the Centre, that they forgot about me.  Dad, Sydney and Broots took me to the local hospital.  The wound wasn't as bad as it seemed.  I had just lost a lot of blood.  But while I was in there, they ran a lot of tests and found out I was pregnant."

 

"They didn't tell your father about the baby?"

 

"No.  Daddy wasn't around.  Mr. 'Father of the Year' left to go to the Centre as soon as they took me into surgery.  Sydney went with him to make sure you were okay.  But, Broots was there and he made sure my records disappeared from the system.  I was released a few days later and recuperated at home the rest of the time.  Nobody else could have found out about the baby."

 

"And you want to get away from the Centre before they do find out," he concludes.  "That's why you've been desperate and relentless lately in my pursuit.  The life of your child depends on it."

 

"Listen, if you're going to leave, you need to do it now.  Give me some time to make up a story for the sweepers when they get here.  There's no way I can keep you here.  We both know that.  And I'm too tired tonight to even try," she says, standing up and rubbing her back.  She sees Jarod pulls out a pair of handcuffs and opens the ends.

 

"Oh, yeah.  I guess it would make it more believable that you got away if I was handcuffed.  Here." 

 

She thrusts her hands out to him, expecting to feel the cold metal clamp around her wrist.  He grabs her right hand and pulls her back down on the sofa next to him.  He loosely clamps one side of the handcuffs around her wrist, taking gentle care not to hurt her.  And instead of completely binding her, she sees that he places the other side of the cuffs around his own wrist.

 

"Jarod, what are you doing?"

 

"Making your wish come true," he replies.  "For you and you child to be free."

 

 

Part II: Finally Understand Why

 

"Could you repeat that?"  Miss Parker asks incredulously.

 

"I'm granting your wish Miss Parker.  Your baby deserves to be free.  I know that there's no way you'd want your child to grow up in that place like we did.  And I want to make sure that doesn't happen, either.  And if that means I have to go back to the Centre, then that's what I'll do."  He finishes securing the handcuffs, making sure they're not too tight on her wrist. 

 

"Here.  These are for you." He reaches into his pocket with his free hand and pulls out an envelope and gives it to her.

 

She looks through the contents and sees several false passports and identities.  Numbers for anonymous bank accounts with plenty of money to last her for two lifetimes.  Everything she needed for a new life.

 

"What's all this Jarod?"

 

"Miss Parker, for the past three years, I've devoted my time and efforts to helping people.  People who were trapped or in trouble.  For the past three years, I've neglected to realize that you were one of those people. I figured it was time to help you too.  All this will help you get away from this place.  You can be free and nobody will be able to find you."

 

"Why are you doing this?" she asks with tears flowing down her face.

 

"Because we used to be friends.  And what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help the one person I cared the most about in this world?"

 

"This better not be a joke, Jarod.  I can't take any more of your mind games," she sobs.  She couldn't believe this.  Why did he care about her?  Why was he doing this?  He gave up his freedom for her before.  That month ago when she had been shot.  He had his chance to get away.  But instead, he stayed and tried to help her.  And his thanks was a one way ticket back to the Centre.  She had wanted to thank him personally, but never got the chance. 

 

Right when she was about to go tell her father she was leaving the Centre for good, he escaped again.  And she was trapped again.  And once again, she blamed him for her situation.  She became angrier and angrier at him with each passing day.  That anger fueled her hunt for him.  She had to find him so that she could get out.  And not just for herself.  But also for her unborn child.

 

"Do you see me laughing?"  He places one hand gently under her chin and lifts her face up until they're staring into each other's eyes.  Her tears make her eyes look like two miniature oceans of clear blue that he would love to drown in.  They draw him in, closer and closer until his forehead touches her.  His lips follow, brushing against hers in a slow and warm sweeping motion.

 

He pulls back momentarily, staring back into her eyes.  His own eyes begin to tear up at the overwhelming feelings of love and desire racing around his heart at that instant.  Seeing the same feelings mirrored in her eyes prompt him to capture her lips again with his own in a deep and searingly passionate kiss.  They had a lifetime to make up.  From their first, innocent kiss all those years ago, to this moment right here and now. 

 

The slamming of car doors break their physical embrace, but not the emotional one.  The sweepers rush in and loose the shackles binding Jarod and Miss Parker, but they can't undo the ties of their hearts.   Miss Parker finally realizes what motivates Jarod.  She finally understands why he does the things that he does.  She opened her heart to him that night and saw that his was already opened to her.  And it had been for a long time.  All this time, he loved her.  All this time on the run, he never was very far away.  He had to stay close because he couldn't leave her.  But he didn't have a choice anymore.  He has to stay close now.   Once again he's a prisoner of the Centre because once again he gave up his freedom for her.

 

 

The next day, Miss Parker walks into her office to find her chair already occupied by someone.

 

"Daddy," she says with some surprise.  "What are you doing here?"

 

"I came to see you, Angel.  We're proud of you, Sweetheart.  I always knew you'd bring Jarod back."

 

"Did Jarod get settled in alright?"  She asks, cringing slightly at the accolades being doled out for her part in imprisoning an innocent man.  Suddenly, it sickened her that Jarod was back at that place.  And she was about to be free from it. 

 

"He's still in a cell.  We weren't really prepared for him last night.  But, today, we're going to get started on deprogramming him.  Maybe even get back to some SIMs," her father says with a smile.  "He'll probably be back in his permanent room by this evening."

 

"I want to see him," she says.  "Right now if that's alright.  Before anyone gets to him."

 

"But Angel . . ."

 

"Please, Daddy.  I want to do this," she begs.

 

"How about you take a few days off.  Clear your head a bit.  Then when you get back, you can see him if you still want to."

 

"Daddy.  I want to see him now.  And if you still want me to, I'll take a few days off afterwards."

 

"Okay, you can see him," he relents.  It's not what he really wanted, but it's better than nothing.  He didn't want his little princess anywhere near Jarod.  He would infect her mind and make her get noble thoughts like her mother.  The last thing he wanted was for any harm to come to her.  But, with her out of town for a few days, she should get him out of her system.

 

They leave her office and walk down to the sublevel containing the cell Jarod was being held in.  When they get to the door, she turns and looks at her father as if to say she's going in alone.  He tries to resist at first, but then gives in to his daughter once again. 

 

She waits until he leaves before asking the guard to open the door.  She had to hurry.  She didn't have much time.  She asked Broots to disable the cameras while she was in there.  He wasn't able to take out the video, but the audio was disabled for a while.  But not for long.  Whatever she needed to say, she had to say it quickly.

 

Jarod hears the clicking of her heels walk across the floor of his dingy cell.  The cell was tiny, so in a few small steps, she was right next to him.  She sat down on the cot next to him, but didn't say anything. For a minute, they sat there next to each other before she finally had the nerve to look at him.  When she did, he noticed tears in her eyes.

 

"I promised myself I wasn't going to cry," she says with a little laugh, trying to cover her sadness.  But it was no use.  The tears betrayed her and fell anyway.  "Don't say anything. I need to get this out and I won't be able to if you interrupt me. And I don't have much time before the sound is back in those cameras."  They both look up at the cameras while she pauses for a second.  She takes a deep breath and continues. 

 

"I came here to say thank you.  Two words that I hardly ever utter, but I think you deserve them.  Thank you for granting my wish and setting me free from this place.  But it's more than just that.  Thank you so much for everything.  You've done more for me than I ever wanted to admit."

 

"Miss Parker, you don't . . . "

 

"Let me finish.  As I was saying.  You've done so much for me.  Twice you sacrificed your happiness for my well being.  The first time, you left me baffled and confused as to why you would do such a thing.  But last night, I finally opened my eyes, and my heart, and saw the real reason.  It's because you love me."

 

He looks away, not sure what to say.

 

"You don't have to say anything.  I know it's true.  But I saw something else last night.  I looked into my own heart and saw that I love you too."

 

"You don't have to say this, Miss Parker."

 

"I do, Jarod.  I have to let you know, because I know you.  You won't be able to stay in here without wanting to die.  And I don't want that to happen.  You have to fight and get out of here.  Otherwise, I won't be able to live with myself.  Do it for me, Jarod.  Do it for us.  Get out of here and fight for us."

 

She raises her hand to stroke his face, but remembers the watchful eyes of the cameras. 

 

"I want to touch you, too.  To hold you right now, but I can't," he whispers.  "I want to take you in my arms and show you how much I love you."

 

"You just did," she smiles.  "I heard you say it.  And I believe it.  I'll keep it in my heart for as long as I have to."

 

They stare at each other for a minute longer, touching the only way they can.  Silently reaching into each other's souls.  Then, she gets up without saying a word, walking to the entrance of the cell in silence, crying silent tears the whole way. 

 

"Thank you," he calls after her.

 

"Why are you thanking me, Jarod?" she asks through the tears she was trying to hide.  "You're the one giving up everything for me.  I have nothing to give in return."

 

"Oh, but you have given me something," he says with a sad smile.  "You've given me your heart.  And that's all I've ever wanted from you.  You thanked me for granting your wish, and now I'm thanking you for granting my one wish - for you to love me as much as I love you."

 

"It looks like we both got our wish," she whispers. 

 

"I guess we did," he whispers back, holding his head down as his own tears start to fall.

 

"Then how come we're both so miserable now?"  She takes one last look at him before running out of the cell and down the hall.  Not stopping until she reaches the outside, till she reaches her freedom.

 

He stares behind her, wanting so much to be able to run after her and kiss her once more.  But he knows that isn't possible.  He just has to settle for knowing that after all these years, she still cares.  She still loves him.  Her love is what will keep his heart free while the rest of him is locked away at the Centre.  Her love will give him the will to do whatever is necessary to get out, so that one day, they could be together again.

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

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