Title - Saying The Words (2/?)
Author - Nicky
Rating - PG
Category - JMPR
Summary - Jarod tries to say good bye, but ends up coming back to 
rescue Miss Parker and finds her in a surprising predicament.
Disclaimer - The characters aren't mine.  I'm just using them for 
my own entertainment purposes.

* * * * * * * * * *

The Centre
Wednesday Morning

Broots knocks nervously on Miss Parker's office door.  He found 
something incredibly unbelievable in the Centre archives.  
Something she had to see right away.

"Miss Parker?" he calls out, peeking his head inside the door.  
He looks around and sees that the office is empty.  Which is 
strange considering how it's almost noon.  Miss Parker should 
have been in by now.  But it doesn't even look like she's been 
there yet.  He turns around and closes the door behind him, 
heading towards Sydney's office.  Maybe he would know where she 
was.

"Broots," Sydney calls from down the hall.  "I was just coming to 
see Miss Parker.  Is she busy?"

"I was just coming to see you, actually," Broots tells the man.  
"You won't have much luck talking to Miss Parker because she's 
not even in there."

"Is she in a meeting with her father or something?"

"I don't think so.  It doesn't look like she's been in yet today.  
You don't think anything's wrong, do you?"  Broots' voice takes 
on a concerned edge.  He considered Miss Parker a friend, no 
matter how she treated him.  He knew that deep down she cared.  
She just had a funny way of showing it.

"Let's not jump to any conclusions.  Call her cell phone and I'll 
call her home.  If we don't get an answer, we'll go by and check 
on her," Sydney suggests.  "She's got to be some where.  I doubt 
she's disappeared."

"I hope not.  Although, anything can happen here at the Centre.  
I never underestimate them."  Broots looks down at the folder of 
information he has for Miss Parker.  It held the perfect example 
of what happened when the Centre was underestimated.  It was a 
mistake he didn't intend on making as well.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sydney knocks on the door to Miss Parker's house one more time.  
He listens for signs of life inside, but doesn't hear anything.

"Her car's still in the garage," Broots informs him.  "I think 
she's in there."

"Maybe we should go in," Sydney suggests, his worry now becoming 
evident.

"Do you have a key?" Broots asks as he jiggles the knob.  
Surprisingly, the door opens.  The men look at each other, not 
even trying to hide their fear.  "The door's unlocked. Now I know 
something's wrong."

"Miss Parker!" Sydney yells as they charge into the house.  "Are 
you in here?"

"Over here, Syd," Broots alerts him.  He was standing by the 
fireplace next to an unresponsive Miss Parker.  She was sitting 
on the floor, staring vacantly at a fire that had long ago been 
extinguished.

"Miss Parker?" Broots gently taps her on the shoulder, but gets 
no response.  "What's wrong with her, Sydney?  Why won't she 
answer me?"

"I don't know," the older man sighs.  "Help me get her on the 
couch."

The two men gently carry her to the sofa and lay her down.  
Sydney pulls the chair next to her and starts murmuring soft 
assurances to the young woman he's grown to love like a daughter.  
Soon, she squeezes his hand and a sob escapes her lips.  But her 
eyes are still closed.  It was almost as if she were trapped in a 
bad dream.

"Miss Parker?" Sydney whispers.

"Don't go, Jarod," she cries in her sleep.  "Don't leave me.  Not 
like this.  I don't want to be alone."

"Shh.  It's okay," Sydney reassures her.  "You're not alone."  He 
tucks a few errant locks of hair behind her ear and her eyes pop 
open in surprise, unaware of her previous distress.

"Sydney?"  She stares at him with some confusion.  "What are you 
doing here?"

"You were late for work.  Broots and I came to check on you."

"Late?  What time is it?"  She sits up quickly and checks her 
watch.  "12:45?  It's already past noon?  How did I sleep this 
late?" She gets up and makes a move to go upstairs when she 
notices the strange looks that pass between Sydney and Broots.  
"What is it?  You two are looking at me like I grew a third eye 
or something."

"Miss Parker, you weren't exactly asleep when we came in," Broots 
nervously stutters.  "You were in some kind of . . . trance . . . 
or something."

"We got you to the couch and you eventually appeared to go to 
sleep.  But that lasted for only a few minutes.  You started to 
cry out in your sleep.  Something about Jarod leaving," Sydney 
gently explains.

It all suddenly rushes back to her.  The strange phone call and 
Jarod's subsequent visit.  He came to say good-bye.  He told her 
he was leaving - for good.  She starts to go numb again, like she 
was before.  

"He's gone," she tells them.  "Jarod's gone and he's not coming 
back.  He said good-bye.  He's never said that to me before."  
She looks down and starts messing with the tie on her robe.  Out 
of all the late night phone calls, he was always the one to hang 
up first, but never once did he say good-bye.  All those years 
ago when she was sent off to boarding school, they never said 
good-bye.  But last night, he finally said it.  And she believed 
he meant it.

"Then I guess what I found really won't matter," Broots says.  He 
hands her the file he's been trying to share with her since early 
that morning.  "I came across this information earlier.  I 
thought you might want to see it."

"What is it?" Sydney asks curiously when her eyes skimming the 
file suddenly start to tear up.

"A back up plan," Miss Parker explains to him, her hands starting 
to shake at what she's reading.  "They have various genetic 
samples from Jarod on file.  And they're ready to use them.  This 
is an outline of the different phases they plan on going through, 
ranging from basic insemination to advanced cloning."

"They want to make their own pretender," Sydney realizes.  "We 
can't let that happen."

"I won't let that happen," she says resolutely.  "The Centre has 
played God for too long.  This is going way too far."

She closes the file and tosses it on the couch.  Instantly Broots 
and Sydney notice the change in her.  No longer is she numb from 
the shock of Jarod leaving.  She's back to her old self.  She 
didn't have time to grieve.  With the icy gleam back in her eyes, 
she turns to go upstairs and dress herself in her war clothes.  
There was work to be done.  

* * * * * * * * * *

Broots, Sydney, and Miss Parker peek around the corner leading to 
the vault.  Jarod's genetic material wasn't stored with all the 
other medical records.  It was in a separate storage space with a 
special freezer vault.  Getting into the vault wasn't Miss 
Parker's goal.  She just needed to shut off the freezer to ruin 
any samples they were storing.

"All right.  This guard is just about done with his rounds.  
After he leaves, we'll have about a 20 minute window to safely 
get in and get out.  The video is looped, so anyone monitoring 
the room won't get suspicious."  Broots says as he furiously 
types commands into the laptop he's carrying.

"You two wait here just in case.  I'm going in alone," Miss 
Parker tells them.  The men gratefully agree with her plan.  They 
didn't like the idea of her going on alone, but somehow it seemed 
safter for them all that way.

"Okay.  You should go now," Broots says after taking one last 
peek down the now empty hall.  The guard was gone and the 
security cameras have been successfully taken care of.  
"Remember.  20 minutes," he whispers after her.

She waves her hand to let him know she understands and keeps on 
down the hallway.  Turning the knob, she's almost surprised when 
the door opens easily.  But it makes sense once she thinks about 
it.  Not many people were aware of what was stored in this room.  
So there wasn't much reason for the door to be locked.

She walks around the room and finds the first vault.  On the 
outside was a detailed description of the materials inside.  This 
one held the basic DNA material probably used for cloning, she 
guesses.  The second vault held sperm samples for reproductive 
purposes.  She finds the plug for both the refrigeration units 
and cuts them.  With a sigh of relief, she turns to leave the 
room, surprised at how easy the task was.  She didn't notice a 
third doorway leading to a lab.  And she didn't notice the 
independent security system and camera catching her every move.

To be continued . . .