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 arrives home early that next morning,
just after daybreak. The house was
quiet and she tiptoes around so she won't make too much noise. She's barely two feet into the house before
she hears a gentle snoring coming from the sofa. She looks over and sees that Jarod's fallen asleep in a sea of
papers and files.
She walks over to him and smiles at the sweet
sight. She loved him so much. And she knows now that she's loved him her
entire life. Even when she barely knew
her own name, she loved him. When they
were apart, she missed him unbearably.
And when she was in trouble, she didn't realize this, but she expected
him to come to her rescue. So it was
most shocking to her that it would be Lyle, and not her husband, to protect her
that previous night.
She feels a little guilty leaving Lyle stranded at
the hotel in Idaho. She just couldn't
stay at that place another minute. She
snuck out early that morning, leaving him on the couch of her hotel suite
asleep, much like Jarod's doing now.
Those two were a lot alike, she notices with a smile. But both would die first before admitting
it.
Jarod's eyes begin to flutter, suddenly getting the
feeling that someone was watching him.
He blinks a couple of times, focusing through the darkness until his
eyes meet hers. His face lights up with
a smile when he realizes he's not dreaming.
"I didn't mean to wake you," she
frowns. "Go back to sleep."
"You're early," he whispers through a
scratchy throat not yet ready to talk.
"I couldn't stay away." She leans down to kiss him, gently running
her hands up and down his chest.
He sits up and grabs both sides of her face with his
hands, pulling her closer to him. He
eases her hair back out of her face and notices the bandage on her forehead.
"What happened?" he asks, suddenly
alarmed. She looks away and won't
answer him. That only gets him even
more worried. "Tori, what happened? Did Lyle do something to you?"
"No, it wasn't Lyle," she quickly
interjects. "He didn't do anything
but save my life. Last night at the
hotel, I got hungry. So I went to the
snack machine at the end of the hall.
Then all of a sudden this guy had this knife on me. I guess he must have nicked me with
it." She holds her hand up to her
injury and lightly touches it.
"Are you okay?" he asks her, realizing she
doesn't really want to talk about it. He just needed to make sure she was
alright. He pulls her into his arms and
holds her tight as her sobs tell him his answer.
"I was so scared," she cries. "Normally, I probably would have killed
him. But I was afraid of what would
happen to the baby. I didn't know what
that guy would do to me, so I just stood there. I couldn't move. The next
thing I knew, Lyle was storming out of the room and he chased the guy
away."
"Shh.
It's okay," he calms her when her sobs get stronger. "You're home. And you're safe. I won't
let anything else happen to you."
"Jarod, this isn't your fault," she
murmurs.
"If I hadn't sent you and Lyle to Boise . .
."
"But I was the one who went, Jarod. Lyle called me, but I could have said
no. I could have ordered room service
or I could have raided the mini bar if I was hungry. But I just happened to go out in the hall at the same time some
crazed lunatic decided he wanted to attack someone. It was nobody's fault."
"But still.
I should have been there for you.
You were afraid. I don't ever
want you to be afraid."
"That's not going to happen until we take care
of the Centre," she whispers, wrapping her arms around him and burying her
head in his chest. They lay down on the
couch and she just enjoys the feeling of him holding her. Making her feel safe and secure. And they both silently vow to that it was
time to take down the Centre . . . before it was too late.
Miss Parker awakens hours later, alone and in the bed.
The smell of bacon wafts through the air making her stomach growl.
"Okay, Junior," she smiles, patting her
stomach. "Let's go see what
Daddy's cooking up."
She slides into her slippers and makes her way down
the stairs, suddenly feeling very pregnant and awkward. Although it wasn't entirely evident to the
world that she was expecting, she certainly could tell the difference in her
body. She felt kind of swollen and
puffy all over. All her bras were too
small and her clothes and shoes were getting tighter. It was only a matter of time before she won't be able to hide the
pregnancy anymore.
"Something smells great," she smiles.
"All for you, my dear." He walks to the table and holds a chair out
for her, kissing her lightly before she sits down. "It's time to start putting some weight on you."
"I've already gained 4 pounds, Jarod. You're going to put too much weight on me if
you're not careful," she laughs.
"Oh, so you don't want any of this?" he
teases, piling a plate high with french toast and waving it under her nose.
"Give me that." She grabs the plate from him.
"You're lucky I haven't eaten your hand yet. I'm that hungry."
"Let me go get the syrup," he says after
placing a couple of slices of bacon on the plate for her. "Or would you rather the warm apple
topping?"
"The apples.
And some ketchup," she adds.
"Don't say a word," she warns when she sees the strange look
he gives her.
He returns with the condiments and they begin to
eat.
"Your morning sickness must be better," he
comments with a disgusted look on his face.
"Because if that doesn't turn your stomach, then I don't think
anything will."
She just laughs as she continues to layer the bacon
and fruit between two slices of french toast and slather it all with the
ketchup.
"I never really liked ketchup much before
this. But now, it's like a required
food group or something. Bite?"
she teases with a little giggle when she sees that he's practically turned
green.
"No thanks.
I don't want to deprive you," he says before taking a bite of his
own, normal meal. "Oh, I almost
forgot. I broke into your father's
office last night," he mentions.
"I haven't really had a chance to look at the stuff yet. I just glanced at a couple of the
files."
"What did you find?"
"Mostly files.
I scanned them and saved them to the computer. We can look at them later.
They appear to be personnel records of some sort, but I don't know who
they belong to. The only thing remotely
identifying in them is some kind of ID number.
We'll have to try and decode that to find out who's records they are. I also found this." He leans over and grabs the box from the
counter and slides it across the table to her.
"It was hidden behind a secret wall of the safe. Whatever's in it, you father was trying to
be extra careful with it."
"Do you think it's the other medallion?"
she whispers, her hands starting to shake a little as she fingers the lock of
the box. "You haven't opened it
yet?"
"I wanted to wait on you. This seems like something we needed to do
together."
"Open it," she says, trying to make her
voice sound strong while inside she was really terrified. Her mind was spinning, wondering what could
be in the box.
Jarod takes it back and pries open the lock. He flips up the lid to the box and just
stares inside for a few moments. He
pulls out just what they were hoping for - the second medallion, still on the
silver chain that it came on. He
reaches across the table and places it in her hands. She too just stares in shock for a few minutes. She's so entranced with the medallion that
she doesn't even notice that he's still staring in the box.
"This is it," she exclaims. "We have both of the medallions
now. Jarod? Are you listening to me?"
She finally sees that something else in the box has his full attention. "What else is in there?"
She has to gently nudge him before he finally lifts
his horror stricken face to look at her.
"Jarod, you're starting to scare me. What else is in the box?" She grabs his hand and feels that it's cold
as ice. Something in that box has him
in shock.
"He was right," Jarod finally says
distractedly. Almost as if he wasn't
even aware of her presence.
"Fenigor was right about my father killing your mother."
"Jarod. Does something in that box say
something about the Major? We know he
didn't kill my mother. It was . .
." Her mouth falls open at the
realization of what she was about to say and what it all means to Jarod.
"You're right.
My father, Major Charles didn't kill your mother. But as it turns out . . . the man who killed
your mother . . . is also the man who raped mine," he cries.
"Raines?"
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