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.
Jarod quietly puts his key into the lock of the
front door, being careful not to make any noise. The whole house was dark and quiet. Something he'd expect at midnight. He had a few hours to think things over, and while he still
couldn't entirely wrap his mind around the turn of events, he knows that he was
wrong walking out on his family.
"It's late," a raspy voice says quietly
from across the room.
"Tori? You're still up," he states.
"Yes, Jarod.
I'm still up," she snaps.
"And I've been here for hours now.
Trying to figure out what to tell our daughter when she wakes up
tomorrow and asks me where her daddy is."
"Don't be angry. Please," he begs her.
"I'm sorry I just left. That wasn't right. It's just that I couldn't . . . "
"Talk to me?
Trust me? Jarod, I'm your
wife. Why couldn't you talk to me about
this?"
"Because you are my wife," he yells. "Because of the way I came into this
world. A man raped my mother and got
her pregnant. And I was the result. What does that say about the kind of person
I am?"
"Absolutely nothing," she says, starting
to calm down and starting to understand the pain he was feeling. She walks towards him and tries to reach out
to him, but he only jerks away. She
doesn't give up so easily this time and doesn't let him get away. She keeps on towards him and he keeps
backing away until he ends up against the wall. She reaches her hands up to hold both sides of his face and tilts
his head down so that he's looking directly into her eyes.
"Don't," he begs. "I could hurt you. I don't want that to happen. But it's in me. The ability to do that kind
of thing. I was born with it."
"That's not who you are, Jarod," she says
slowly and deliberately, to make sure he heard her. "That man is a monster.
He's not your father. Your
father is the man who was by your mother's side everyday of her pregnancy. The man who was there when you were born and
considered you a gift from God. The man
who loved you no matter what circumstances brought you to him. Major Charles is your real father. Sydney is your father. Those two men have loved you your whole
life. Those men made you the man that
you are today. A kind and caring person.
My husband. And Imani's
father."
She wraps her arms around his chest and holds him
close to her, supporting him when the weight of his tears almost breaks him
down. He sobs in her arms for a while,
but soon calms down. She reaches up to
kiss him, but he starts to freak out again.
She can see how truly afraid he is.
Afraid of himself and his feelings.
But mostly afraid of hurting her.
"Come with me," she orders gently. She takes his hand and leads him up the
stairs and to the bedroom. "Don't
be afraid to touch me because I'm not afraid of you."
She takes his hands and places them on her waist,
just under the bottom edge of her shirt.
She gently directs his hands under the shirt and up her chest until
she's able to ease the shirt over her head.
She drops it on the floor with one hand as she uses the other to pull
his head towards hers and places a passionate kiss on his lips. Pretty soon, he starts to act on his own,
finishing the job of undressing her while she reciprocates.
Naked, they lay together on the bed, their lips
still joined in the kiss only separating momentarily for small gasps of
air. He rolls her over until she's on
her back under him. Her arms are
stretched out above her head and pinned down with his hand. He suddenly gets a panicked look in his eyes
and freezes for a minute before trying hastily to get off of her.
She catches his eyes with her own and smiles sweetly
to show him that everything is alright.
"Jarod, I want this. I want you to make love to
me," she says plainly so that there's no confusion in his mind. "It's okay. I trust you. You have to trust yourself. Don't be afraid that you'll hurt me. Because I know that you won't."
She takes one of his hands and kiss the inside palm
of it before raising her own arms over her head again, allowing him to pin them
down again like they were before. She
closes her eyes and sends a silent invitation for him to kiss her. Which he eagerly accepts. Slowly and gently taking his wife in his
arms and fufilling her every need and desire.
Miss Parker wakes up the sound of keys clicking on a
computer across the room. She blinks
away the sleepiness and tries to focus on the source of the sound.
"Jarod," she mumbles, assuming he's across
the room. "Why aren't you in bed,
Honey?"
"Because it's the middle of the day," he
says, putting down the computer and walking to the bedside to greet his wife
with a kiss.
"Middle of the day?" she asks, suddenly
sitting up in bed. "What time is
it? Where's Imani?"
"Don't worry about what time it is. You needed the rest," he says, kissing
her again. "And Imani's fine. She got up bright and early this
morning. We had breakfast. Played for awhile. We had lunch and I put her down for her nap."
"I've been asleep that long?" she yawns
and then smiles. "Thanks for
giving me the extra time. You wore me
out last night," she says with a laugh.
"You look kind of tired yourself.
Were you up all night?"
"I couldn't help it," he admits. "The video clip we saw yesterday opened
a big can of worms. And I have to find
out. The man who raped my mother. I need to know. And we have to find those medallions. Because your mother said they would be the key to our
future."
"Where do we start? Did you find
anything?" she's curious.
"No.
Nothing. And I've been searching
all night. We might have to go into the
Centre to get what we're looking for," he sighs, not really liking that
alternative.
"Jarod, you can't! Let me handle things in the Centre," she offers. "You can't go in there. It'll be too dangerous. What am I going to have to look for?"
"Anything you can find regarding your father
around the time period of the rape," he instructs. "According to the video clip, it was
sometime during the summer of 1964.
Maybe he has a guest list from the party stored someplace. Or maybe there's a phone conversation on
file with that 'business associate' who
joined them that evening. He could be
the one who's my . . . mother's rapist," he says, not able to call that
man his father.
"What about the medallions?" she asks,
quickly trying to change the subject, sensing his tension about the subject of
his father.
"My guess is that they're also someplace in the
Centre. I'm sure you father has seen
the same video we've seen. So he knows about the trust. And he knows that it'll
take both of us to get to it. Once
we're of age and married."
"Which is why that marriage contract was drawn
up," she realizes. "He must
know what my mother planned to give to us.
He has the medallions, I'm sure of it.
Even if your mother put it away for safe keeping, he would have made a
way to take it somehow. Probably when
you were kidnapped. And I've never even
seen the one meant for me. He probably
has them both. There wouldn't have been
any need for a contract if he didn't have them. That contract is still the key.
We have to find it and the medallions."
"What about Lyle?" Jarod asks
suddenly. "He's entitled to
whatever your mother left you. Not
me. I can't take his inheritance, no
matter how much I think he doesn't deserve it."
"My brother is a mystery," she
frowns. "I don't know what to
think about him. I don't know what to
believe. I want to hate him, but I
can't. But I also can't trust him. Besides, my mother said that her gift was
for the two of us. She didn't know
about Lyle back then."
"Mommy!
You're up," a voice screams from across the room before a blurred
body races towards the bed. Imani jumps
on the bed and scrambles over to Miss Parker's lap.
"I see you're up too, Baby Girl," Miss
Parker says with a smile, hugging the little girl in her arms and giving her
kisses all over her face. "Did you
have a good nap?"
"For a little while. But then I woke up. Daddy
said I needed to stay quiet so that you could rest, so I practiced my new trick
so that I could show Daddy," she tells them in one long breath, reaching
over to the night stand to grab a quarter.
She crawls over to Jarod and waves her arms around crazily before
holding out her hand and yelling a big 'Tahdah!!!', revealing the shiny quarter
in her hand.
"That was . . . um . . great, Imani,"
Jarod says with a little chuckle, not quite sure what she had done, but he
knows that she thinks she did something big.
"Did Mommy teach you that trick?"
"No, I learned it the other day at her job when
I met Mr. Lyle. He showed it to
me," she tells him innocently, not seeing the horror marring her father's
face.
"Mr. Lyle," he growls through clenched
teeth. He stares at Miss Parker with a
little confusion and a lot of anger.
"Imani, why don't you go in your room and
practice that trick some more and then you can put a show on for us
later," Miss Parker suggests, trying to get the little girl from the
room. Her attempt works and Imani's
little feet patter across the floor and down the hall to her room. Miss Parker waits until she hears Imani's
door closed before she dares to look up at Jarod.
"You took her to that place?" he asks
incredulously. "How could
you? I trusted you with my daughter's
life."
"Jarod, I know you're mad . . ."
"Mad?
Oh, no. I'm not mad. Tori, I'm furious."
"Let me explain . . . "
"Explain what?
How you had complete disregard for my daughter's safety and took her to
the Centre? I didn't think I had to
tell you to keep her away from that place."
"Jarod . . . "
"Did I make a mistake bringing her here? Did I make a mistake believing you would
have her best interest at heart?" he accuses.
"Stop right there, Jarod. You know I love Imani. How could you say such a thing? You can't come in here and accuse me of not
caring about her. Because I do. And you can't come in here and ask me to be
her mother and then take that right from me when you don't agree with how I
handle a situation."
"You're right," he admits. "I'm angry and I shouldn't have said
those things."
"But you did, Jarod," she says, a little
tear trickling down her cheek.
"And it makes me feel that you don't completely trust my actions
when it comes to that little girl. It
makes me feel like you don't think I'm a good enough mother to her. What does that mean for when we have our own
children? If I can't be trusted with
them, then something must be wrong with me.
What kind of mother will I be?"
"I didn't mean what I said, Tori. Don't do this. You're an amazing mother to Imani. She loves you and she knows that you love her. I couldn't ask for a better mother to
her. Or to any kids we have
someday."
"Yeah, someday," she says in a small voice
with more tears falling. "But
Jarod. What if 'someday' is only about nine months away?"
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