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.
After slowly washing and drying each breakfast dish,
Miss Parker begins putting them away.
She was stalling for time. Not
sure what to say to Jarod. Not sure
what she should do. He must be
misinterpreting something. Because she
couldn't believe a monster like Raines could be . . . She stops that thought.
She doesn't even want to entertain an idea like that. Instead, she puts the last plate in the
cupboard and goes to the phone. Dialing
a number she's dialed on several occasions, but never with her hands shaking so
much.
"This is Sydney," the deep voice answers.
"I need you, Syd," she manages to say when
he answers.
"What is it Parker?"
"I need you to come here," she
starts. But then wonders how secure his
line is. Calling him at the Centre had
probably been a mistake. She thinks
quickly to make up an excuse. "My
car just died on me. Do you think you
can come pick me up?"
"Parker, why don't you just call a cab to . .
."
"Please, Syd," she interrupts
forcefully. "I need YOU to come
get me," her tone turning
desperate.
"I'll be right there," he says, finally
understanding that this was all about more than just needing a ride.
"Thank you, Sydney," she sighs. "Please hurry."
She hangs up the phone and peeks into the living
room at Jarod. He was sitting in the
middle of a pile of papers, slowly sifting through them with tears pouring down
his face. The more papers he looks at,
the more upset he seems to be getting.
She knows she has to go to him.
She just hopes she'll be of some comfort.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" she
asks gently. Her heart breaks at the
look of torment and anguish on his face.
"I don't even know where to begin."
"How did you come to this conclusion about
Raines? Is it possible that you're
wrong?"
"All these files from your father's safe. They all have some kind of identification
number attached to them, instead of a name.
The files were pretty much detailing the events leading up to my birth. The RSVP to the party that night. A transcript of the conversation that
occurred after the . . . rape. Even
paternity test results. It's all
here." He spouted these facts to
her but didn't feel anything. No
anger. No rage. No despair.
He was just numb.
"Jarod . . . Jarod . . . Jarod . . ." she
calls to him a couple of times before he responds. He seemed to be in some sort of daze. She realized now that she just had to keep him talking until
Sydney got there. Because he might be
the only one who could help.
"Jarod can you hear me?"
"I'm here," he says distractedly.
"How did you come to this conclusion that the
man in these files was Raines?"
"Because of this." He opens the box from her father's safe and
shows her the rest of what's in there.
She reaches in and pulls out what looks like some sort of ID card or
badge.
"It's Raines' ID card from medical
school," he tells her. "The ID number matches all the numbers
referenced on these files."
She goes to sit next to him and puts her arm around
him. There wasn't anything for her to
say. All she could do now was support
him in whatever way she could. He pulls
her closer to him and begins to sob into her neck.
"It's okay, Baby. I'm here for you," she whispers into his ear. She strokes his back gently and lets him cry
until he's exhausted.
"There's more," he whimpers. "I wasn't the only one. Apparently, this was a 'project'. Your father and my fa. . . Raines," he
cringes as the name passes his lips.
"It's okay," she assures, holding him
tighter. "Go ahead."
"They went to college together. Your grandfather was a professor there. Somehow they became subjects of his own
little project."
"They got the injection like Miss Dee and my
mother," she gasps.
He nods and continues.
"Since they were older than your mother and
Miss Dee were when they were injected, it didn't have the same effects on
them. They didn't really experience any
changes. But your grandfather theorized
that any children they had would be affected.
He arranged for your parents to meet and marry. But, he didn't live long enough to see his
grandchildren. He didn't live long
enough to complete his experiment. So,
your father and Raines decided to finish it.
"With your father finding a wife, it would be
only a matter of time before the children followed. But they also had to find someone for Raines. Your father held those little summer
parties, hoping to introduce Raines to bright, intelligent women who could be a
possible mother for his children. But,
none of the women were ever interested in him.
So, he started to attack the ones who rejected him. My mother was the first to get
pregnant. But she wasn't the
last."
"You have another sibling out there,
Jarod? A brother or sister? Who?"
"I don't know.
There aren't any names in these files.
Just identification numbers. I
recognized my ID number from when I was at the Centre. That's how I knew which records referenced
me. But I don't know what this number
is." He picks up one of the files
to show her the number. "It could
come from the Centre, too. But I can't
be sure until I hack into the mainframe."
"I think it does come from the Centre,"
she says, looking at the file.
"But you wouldn't have had a number like this. It appears to be an employee identification
number. It's structured similarly to
mine. I think these first four numbers
represent the department. Because that
part of my ID number changed when I transferred from Corporate."
"So, my brother or sister works at the
Centre. Or has worked there in the
past. That's a place to start," he
comments, starting to feel a little more hope that this mystery was about to be
solved.
"Or maybe we know someone who could help
us," she hints. Just then, the
doorbell rings. "And I think
that's him right now. Don't be mad,
Honey, but I asked Sydney to come by. I
didn't know if I'd be able to help you through this and . . ."
"It's fine.
I think it'll be good to have an outside opinion on the matter," he
agrees kind of reluctantly. "I'll
go let him in."
He walks nervously to the door and takes a deep
breathe before finally opening it to his former teacher.
"Jarod," Sydney says with some
surprise. He wasn't really expecting to
see the young man at Miss Parker's. Now he understood the sense of urgency he
picked up from her earlier.
"Come in, Sydney," Jarod invites, moving
out of the way for Sydney to enter the house.
He quickly scans outside, just to make sure Sydney wasn't followed.
"What are you doing here?" Sydney
asks. "I wasn't aware that you and
Miss Parker were in touch. I guess I
should have assumed, since she's taking care of your daughter, but . . ."
"We got married Sydney," he blurts
out. "About nine months ago. We've been together since then."
"Married?" the older man gasps. He's completely in shock and doesn't know
what else to say. But he remembers why
Miss Parker called him over. She needed
help with something. And he looks
around at Jarod and Miss Parker's faces and sees that something was going
on. Something that suddenly put a knot
in his stomach. "Why do I get the
feeling that there's more going on here than that?"
"I'm going to let you two talk," Miss
Parker says, excusing herself.
"I'm going to get ready for work."
"You're going to go to work today?" Jarod
asks, turning his attention to her.
"You should probably take it easy after what happened."
"I'm fine," she smiles, touched by his
concern. She lightly strokes his cheek
with her hand before turning to go upstairs.
Sydney watches the entire scene unfold before him
and gets a huge smile on his face. At
first based on the looks on their faces when he first came in, he thought
neither of them was happy with the current situation. But what he just saw was an exchange between two people very much
in love.
"You make her happy," Sydney
comments. "I've never seen her
look that way before. But when I came
in, the two of you looked as if the world was ending. What's going on?"
"The world as I know just might be coming to an end, Syd," Jarod sighs. "And I don't know what to do to stop it."
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