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.
Sydney uses the time away from the hospital room to
give Jarod a call and make sure he's alright.
He worries a little when the phone continues to ring with no one
answering. 'They caught him' echoes
through his mind as fear grips his heart.
But, his fears are put to rest when Jarod finally picks up.
"Jarod," he whispers loudly, trying to
keep his voice low in case of sweepers lurking. "You made it. Parker
was starting to worry."
"Tell her I'm fine. And that she doesn't need to worry about me."
"I already tried, but I don't think she'll
believe it until she's in your arms," Sydney says with a laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, just this. The whole situation with you and Miss Parker," Sydney
chuckles. "It just sounds
ridiculous based on how the two of you spent the past 4 years. In your arms was the last place I expected
to find her."
"There's no place I'd rather her be,"
Jarod smiles as sweet thoughts about the woman he loves dances around his
head. "Any word from the doctor on
when I can bring her home?"
"Nothing yet," Sydney tells him. "Right now, Lyle's in there with
her."
"Lyle?
He's there? It would be
interesting to know how he found out she was in the hospital," Jarod
wonders.
"Well, I'm sure his father told him. Because he's the one who knew, according to
Broots anyway."
"It's a good thing I had the office
bugged. I can just listen to the
recording from earlier to find out what's going on at the Centre. Sydney, keep an eye on Lyle. And keep me posted on any changes."
"No problem, Jarod. I've got it all under control here." He hangs up the phone and chuckles
again. He still couldn't believe that
the two children he raised as his own had finally figured out they couldn't
live without each other. He just prayed that the Centre wouldn't do something
to split them apart again.
After Jarod hangs up with Sydney, he goes back to
his pile of research. There were so
many leads to follow, he didn't know where to begin. He needed to listen to the tapes from Mr. Parker's conversation
with Lyle because he needed to know how much about Miss Parker's life they knew
about. He also was close to figuring
out the identity of the other woman raped by Raines. If he could find her, maybe he'd be able to find his brother or
sister.
The computer search he left running beeps to let him
know that it found something. Just a
name and few details of the woman's life.
Lillie Mae Simmons. Fifteen
years old. Rape victim. Died during childbirth. It wasn't much to go on, but it was a
start. He opens the file on the woman
that came from Mr. Parker's office and jots these notes down on a piece of
paper inside of it. He would look at it
later and try to find out more about the woman. Right now it was more important to find out what Mr. Parker and
Lyle talked about that morning.
He rewinds the tape to the beginning and starts to
listen. About two hours into the tape,
he reaches the point with the conversation with the mystery attacker. The conversation that upset Miss Parker so
much it sent her to the hospital.
Jarod's barely able to listen without the anger boiling up. These people have taken to much from him
already. And this morning they came
close to taking all he had left. He's
more determined now to stop them for good.
Eventually Jarod got through a few more hours and
then finally, Lyle's voice sounds over the recording.
<'You wanted to see me, Dad.'>
<'Where have you been? Your sister's been back for hours.'>
<'I know.
She left when I was asleep. Have
you spoken to her? Did she say anything
to you? Is she okay?'>
<'Why? What happened? You sound awfully concerned all of a sudden.'>
<'Nothing,' Lyle lies, deciding to keep the
attack to himself. 'But I am
concerned. About the Jarod chase. I think Miss Parker is just a stumbling
block for us. I'd be better off
searching for him on my own. Is it
possible to transfer her somewhere else?'>
<'Another department? Back to Corporate maybe?' Mr Parker asks.>
<'How about another state? Or country even. She's been distracted with that little girl. It would be better for them both to be away
from the Jarod chase. We'd all be
better off. You know what happened to
my mother when she started a family.
Miss Parker may start to develop noble intentions where Jarod's
concerned.' Lyle suggests.>
<'You're right, son. Your sister has been a hinderance to finding Jarod. I always knew they were attached as
children. I just thought she'd grow out
of him. But not even the brainwashing
seemed to help. She still has this
connection that's getting in the way.
So, we need to break the connection.>
<'Just what I was thinking,' Lyle smiles. This was easier than he had expected it to
be. 'Where are you going to send her? The office in Chicago? Philadelphia? Rome?'>
<'I was thinking a little further away than
that,' Mr. Parker says with an evil grin.
He was about to see just where his son's loyalties lied. He had one last chance to prove
himself. Otherwise, he'd face the same
fate as his sister.>
The constant ringing of the doorbell distracts him
from the tape. He stops the tape and
walks towards the door. But the
doorbell keeps on ringing, over and over.
Only one person he knew did that.
She just couldn't resist the shiny button.
"Imani!" he exclaims opening the door to
his impatient daughter. He scoops her
up in his arms and plants little kisses all over her face. "What are you doing here? I thought you wanted to stay with your
Granny for a little while."
"I wanted to see Mommy," she says.
"We tried calling this morning," Miss Dee
explains. But the phone just rang and
rang. Imani was insistent on seeing
Victoria. I don't know what got into
her. She kept on saying that something
wrong and that she had to get here. I
thought it might just be a tantrum, but the poor little thing was truly
terrified about something."
"Tori said before that she could feel whenever
Imani's in pain or afraid of something.
Maybe it works the other way, too," Jarod hypothesizes. "Why don't you go put your bag in your
room, Squirt. I want to talk to Granny
for a minute."
"Okay, Daddy." She kisses him one last time on his cheek before he puts her
down. She grabs her backpack from the
floor and races to the room.
"I didn't want Imani to hear this, but there
were complications with the baby," Jarod says lowly to make sure Imani
didn't find out. "Tori's at the
hospital."
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine now. They both are," Jarod assures her. "She just had a stressful and traumatic few days. Her blood pressure's a little high, but if
that goes down, she can come home tonight."
"Daddy!" a voice yells from the top of the
stairs. "Can you help me? I can't find my other red cowboy boot."
"I'll be right back," he smiles, just now
realizing how much he missed his little girl.
"Sorry the place is a mess.
We kind of rushed out of here this morning." He turns and goes up the stairs to see what
Imani needed.
"Imani?
Where are you Princess?" He
looks around the room until he spots her little legs from under the bed.
"I'm looking for my boot," her muffled
voice says from under the bed.
"Come on out for a minute. I want to talk to you." He grabs her ankles pulls her from under the
bed.
"Daddy," she giggles. "I was coming. You should stop being so impatient."
"Impatient?
That's a big word for a little girl.
Did Mommy teach you it?" He
watches as she nods her head yes. But
then tears start to form in the little girls eyes at the mention of Miss
Parker. "You're worried about her,
aren't you? She's fine, Imani. She really is. Do you remember how we said that there was a baby in her
stomach? Well, the baby wasn't feeling
very good, so we went to the hospital.
But now, your mom and the baby are feeling much better. The doctors just want to make sure she gets
lots and lots of rest. So, they made
her stay at the hospital to make sure she gets that rest."
"They put her on the time out mat for a little
nap?" she asks.
"Something like that," he says with a
laugh. "And speaking of naps, I
think you should take one too, young lady."
"Do I have to, Daddy?" she complains.
"Yes," he insists. "You and Granny had a long trip. You need some rest, too."
"Okay," she yawns and lays down on the
bed. "Will you stay with me?"
"For as long as you want," he whispers,
placing a kiss on her cheek. But
already, her eyes are closed. And a few
minutes later, he hears a gentle snore that she only could have inherited from
him. He gives her one more kiss before
quietly tipping out of the room.
"She's asleep," he tells Miss Dee when he
gets back downstairs.
"I knew she was tired. She wouldn't go to sleep the whole way here,
though. I'm sure she just wanted to see
for herself that Victoria was fine."
Miss Dee walks around and starts stacking all of the files spread across
the floor.
"You don't have to do that, Miss Dee,"
Jarod playfully scolds her, holding out his hands to grab the stack of files
she was trying to put away.
"You're a guest. Just
relax. Can I get you something?"
"Stop that, Jarod," she smacks his
hand. "I'm here now. I may as well help. Victoria would probably have a stroke if she
came in and saw this living room torn up like this. But, you can help me if that would make you feel better."
Jarod smiles at her and they continue to pick up all
the folders and papers, attempting to make the living room presentable
again. The sheet of paper with the name
Jarod scribbled falls out of one of the folders. Miss Dee bends down to pick it up.
"I know this name. Lillie Mae Simmons.
Lillie Mae Simmons," she repeats, trying to jumpstart her
memory. She stares at the piece of
paper in her hand, wondering where she's heard that name before.
"Maybe the name's similar to someone you know
from back home," Jarod suggests.
"No.
It's not that. Oh, I remember
now. About 20 years ago, my husband and
I decided to do some research and find Billy's family. He was starting to ask questions."
"And this woman, Lillie Mae, was who to
Billy?" Jarod asks, his stomach suddenly dropping. His knees start to wobble, knowing what Miss
Dee was about to say.
"She was his birth mother," Miss Dee says,
putting the paper back in the folder and continuing with the cleaning chore.
"What did you find out about her?" Jarod
questions. Maybe it was just a big
coincidence. Maybe this woman in the
file and Willie's birth mother just happened to have the same name. They weren't necessarily the same person. But something told Jarod that they were.
"Not much.
Just that she was very young when she had Billy. She may have been raped. The doctors seemed to have thought she was
making that story up because she was pregnant and unmarried, but I don't think
so. I don't think a woman would make up
something like that. We found a
statement she made to the police, but back then, they didn't do much when a
black woman was raped. Especially when
she was accusing a white man of doing it.
The only other thing we could find about her was that she died
mysteriously in childbirth. There was
nothing about her or Billy documented after that point. So from birth to about age four when
Catherine Parker brought him to us, it was like Billy didn't exist."
And at that moment, Jarod knew. He only knew of one place that could pull
something like that off. One place that
could make people disappear. The
Centre. The Lillie Mae Simmons in his
file was the same Lillie Mae Simmons Miss Dee was talking about. And that only meant one thing.
"He's my brother," Jarod gasps in
shock. "Willie's my brother."
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