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.
Miss Parker wakes up the next morning with a little
arm draped across her face. She opens
her eyes to see a still drowsy Imani yawning.
Even though Lyle was out in the guesthouse, she didn't want to take any
chances. Imani slept with her last
night and the door to the bedroom was locked securely. She even considered putting a chair under
the doorknob, but decided against it.
"Good morning, Mommy," Imani says
excitedly, already starting to get her first spurt of energy.
"Hi Baby Girl," she says, giving Imani a
kiss on the forehead. "Did you
have sweet dreams?"
"Yep," she smiles. But then her smile turns into a little scowl
and her face scrunches up as if she's deep in thought. "Can I ask you a question, Mommy?"
"Of course, Imani," Miss Parker replies,
starting to worry over what's got the little girl so perplexed.
"If Mr. Lyle is your brother, that makes him my
uncle, right?"
"How do you know about me and Lyle?" she
gasps slightly, trying to keep her shock under control.
"I just know," Imani says nonchalantly,
climbing over Miss Parker and jumping out the bed. "I'm going to get some juice," she says before running
out the door.
Miss Parker sits in bed, wondering how the little
girl could have figured out something like that. But, she finds that it's too early in the morning to try to
think. She decides to go take a shower
and get ready for work. The sooner she
gets Lyle out of her house the better she'll feel.
Imani runs downstairs and barrels into the kitchen,
almost running into a sleepy Lyle struggling with the coffee maker.
"Good morning, Uncle Lyle," she chirps at
the surprised man.
"Um, hi," he mumbles back, just staring at
the little girl quizically before he can finally find some words to say to
her. "Did you just call me
'Uncle'?" he asks in a confused, but kind of harsh tone.
"I'm sorry," she says, assuming from his
tone that he was angry at her. She
tries to fight back her tears, but a few manage to escape. "I thought that since you were Mommy's
family, that you were my family too.
But I won't call you Uncle anymore if it makes you mad." Her lip quivers as more tears storm down her
face.
"Don't cry," he begs, bending down until
he's eye level with her. He couldn't
believe he made a little girl cry. It
made him feel awful. But he was more
surprised that it made him feel anything at all. He thought his heart had long been hardened. But this little girl was bringing feelings
that he's never known before.
"Please don't cry," he pleads again, just
as Miss Parker walks into the room.
"Lyle, what did you do to her?" Miss Parker storms across the room and
scoops up the sobbing Imani into her arms.
"I'm sorry," he apologizes and sincerely
means it. "She called me Uncle
Lyle. It caught me off guard. I've never had anybody call me by a term of
endearment. And her little voice almost
sang it to me, like a sweet little love song.
The thought of somebody caring about me was a bit unnerving. I was shocked and didn't know what to say,
so I just kind of stared at her wondering if she had some kind of angle.
Wondering if she was about to pull the rug out from under me. Then she started crying," he says
quickly, trying to get his explanation out in a hurry as his sister looked like
a ferocious mother lion protecting her young cub.
"You weren't mad?" Imani sniffs. "You weren't mad at me because I called
you that name?"
"Imani, I'm not a very nice person. I've done so many bad things to so many
people. And now nobody likes me very
much because of all those bad things I did," he tries to explain. "Nobody is ever nice to me like you
were because I don't deserve it. I
wasn't mad at you. I was mad at myself
because I know how bad I've been and that I don't deserve for you to care about
me."
"I don't think you're bad," she
smiles. She manages to wiggle out of
Miss Parker's arms and runs over to Lyle.
She hugs his leg and looks up at him adoringly. "You just misbehave sometimes. My teacher tells us that we can be good if
we work harder at behaving ourselves.
That's all you need to do. Work
a little harder at being a good boy."
"Speaking of your teacher, I should probably be
getting you to school," Miss Parker says, interrupting Imani's little
lecture on the virtues of behaving oneself.
She sees that Lyle was feeling uncomfortable and rescues the man from
the inquisitive little girl. "I
left your clothes on your bed. Go get
dressed so that we can go."
"Thanks," Lyle whispers after the Imani
disappears upstairs.
"For rescuing you from Imani? I know she can be kind of intense
sometimes. She just has a way of seing
the good in people," Miss Parker explains.
"I didn't think there was any good in me,"
he sighs.
"I didn't see any good in me, either," she
admits. "Not until Imani came into
my life. And now, I don't know how I
ever survived without her. She
brightened my whole world. And I can't
imagine going back to live in darkness."
She sees that she's given him plenty to think about
and decides to lay off for a while. The
phone rings, giving her an excuse to leave him for a minute. She goes to answer it while he turns his
attentions back to the task of making coffee.
"Good morning, Sunshine," the deep voice
on the phone greets her.
"Jarod," she whispers, looking over her
shoulder to make sure Lyle was out of earshot.
"Why are you whispering?" he asks.
"We have company. Lyle," she reveals, not even giving him a chance to ask.
"He's there?" his voice raising a little,
but he quickly gets a handle on the anger.
The last thing he wanted to do was start a fight.
"It's a long story, Jarod. But he was stranded and needed a place to
stay last night. I guess it was my
hormones getting the best of me. But I
invited him to stay with us. He slept
out in the guesthouse, though. And I
had Imani in the room with me with the door locked.
"How has he been? Are you guys alright?" he questions, not feeling quite at
ease that the madman was in his house with his pregnant wife and daughter.
"We're fine.
Lyle's been the perfect guest, believe it or not. But, he's acting kind of strange. Not like himself, really. I guess that's a good thing, though. I think Imani's affecting him. But in a good way. He just seems so different whenever she's around. We haven't even fought once. I don't think this is an act. But I'm still afraid of opening up to
him. Even a little bit."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe
it's time to give him a chance, Tori.
You shouldn't let fear stop you from listening to your feelings. You have strong instincts that never lead
you wrong. I trust them. You need to trust them too."
"You're right, Jarod," she sighs. "I can't believe you're saying
this. You have so much reason to hate
my brother. Why the sympathy now?"
"Because of what you just said. You called him your 'brother'. Tori, I know you better than you know
yourself sometimes. If you can see even
a glimmer of something in Lyle that makes you think he's worth saving, then I
know you won't forgive yourself if you don't try. This may just be your chance to reach Lyle. He's never had that from anybody. He had an awful childhood. It's no wonder he's the way that he
is."
"You know I love you, right?" she
smiles. "Thank you. Thank you for understanding."
"I love you, too. Just be careful," he warns.
"I will.
See you soon."
"You can count on it," he vows.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Miss Parker and Lyle walk into the Centre that
morning together, much to the surprise of those all around them. The two never got along. So it was shocking
to say the least to see them both together with smiles on their faces. And especially shocking to their father.
He watches them silently, going unnoticed by his
distracted children. He waits until they're well past them before retreating
into his office to make a phone call.
"I need to see you down here immediately,"
Mr. Parker barks into the phone, before slamming it down. He sits back in his chair and waits
patiently for his guest. He's rewarded
a few minutes later by a light knocking at the door.
"You wanted to see me, Sir?" Willie asks,
poking his head into the door.
"Yes, Willie.
Come in please," Mr. Parker demands. "I need you to do something for me. Of great importance. And of great discretion."
"Yes Sir," he agrees eagerly, aware that
it's just luck he's still alive after almost killing the chairman's daughter at
that airstrip.
"I need to know what my daughter and son are up
to," Mr. Parker says. "They
seem to be quite chummy all of a sudden.
Keep your eye on them and let me know what they plan. Also, do a little research. See if you can find out what brought this
on."
"I'll get right on it, Sir," Willie says,
turning back towards the door and walking out.
Mr. Parker stares behind him and wonders to himself
what the man will turn up. Whatever's
going on between Lyle and Miss Parker had to stop. He couldn't afford for them to team up now.
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