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.
True Reflection of Love
Chapter 3
"Tell me that's not who I think it is," she groans. Her knuckles white from grasping the album
too hard.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Miss Parker. But Little Billy Nelson grew up to be your
favorite sweeper - Willie."
"I just can't believe it," she stutters. "How can a monster like Willie come
from such good people like these? He
seems to be so much the product of the Centre.
Almost as if he was born there.
Like it's in his blood."
"It doesn't make much sense to me, either," Jarod
sympathizes. "But Sharisse loved
him. According to her, he was a good
man. She thought enough of him to track
him to the Centre. But she didn't
really know what she was getting herself into.
"She had heard about a study they were doing. Some research dealing with the health
problems of young African American women.
She figured it was a good way to get inside to look for 'Billy', as well
as helping out her fellow man. She
managed to get into the program. But
once she got there, she found out it was more than she expected. For one thing, she turned out to be the only
subject. And when she started to leave,
they drugged her. At least, she assumed
they drugged her. Because she woke up
two weeks later with no memory of the time between when she got there, and that
moment she woke up. All she knew was
that she was still at the Centre. And
that she was pregnant."
"What did they do to her?" Miss Parker cries, a few
tears escaping. "How could they
violate her like that?"
"Raines wanted another pretender. And if he couldn't find me, he figured he'd make himself
one," Jarod spits out.
"But why her? Why
Sharisse? She just sounds like she was
at the wrong place at the wrong time," Miss Parker wonders.
"Because that's how they planned it. See, Raines wanted to experiment. He wanted to try to . . . breed me. But by using different women of different
nationalities and races to see what 'turned out'." Jarod feels his stomach start to churn again
as he vomits the vile words from his mouth.
The very thought of someone like Raines playing around with nature
repulsed him. Knowing that Raines was
so freely trying to reproduce him. It
was sickening. He looks over to see how
Miss Parker is handling the story and sees that she's turning a little green as
well.
"But they couldn't take too many risks," Jarod
continues. "Raines wanted a
suitable mother for my child. Someone
very smart. Beyond intelligent. Practically a genius. And they couldn't exactly use you. I'm sure they realized you wouldn't be too
happy about being impregnated with my child against your will. So they needed someone else. Finding Sharisse was no problem. Willie knew first hand how bright she
was. And he was looking to score some
brownie points with Raines. So he
arranged for her to be the surrogate.
She didn't just happen to be there, Miss Parker. She was lured there. And then they used her.
"Months passed and she had little contact with anyone. They sent doctors and nurses to take care of
her. And they made sure she had plenty
of fresh air and sunlight. But the only
person she really connected with was Angelo.
He knew things about what they were planning with her, and he kept her
informed. He told her about me and why
they'd even want to create my child.
Her and Angelo became really good friends.
"But, the day came when he couldn't protect her any
longer. About 4 months into the
pregnancy, they figured she was far enough along for them to run some
preliminary tests. The amniocentesis
showed that the baby definitely had the Pretender gene. But the ultrasound showed that the baby was
a girl, so the gene was recessive. They
had no more use for either of them.
They made plans to terminate them both.
Angelo found out. Contacted
me. And together, we rescued Sharisse
from that place.
"I had planned to stay with her just long enough to keep her
safe. And to make sure I knew where
she'd be with the baby. But a day
turned into a week. And a week turned
into a month. We were becoming better
friends. And watching my baby grow
inside of her was . . . . let's just say I became attached. I couldn't leave them. I didn't want to leave them. But, Sharisse was still so hurt over
Willie's betrayal. She needed her
family. However, she felt like she
couldn't go home pregnant and unwed. So
we got married."
"Did you love her?" Miss Parker asks quietly. She tries to ignore the small pain in her
chest where her heart was breaking.
"At the time?
No," he admits. "But
things changed. At first, we were just
friends. Really good friends. So it's not like we couldn't stand to be in
the same room with each other. But we also
would have to put on a show for her family and friends. To make them think we were a happily married
couple. You know, holding hands,
stealing kisses. That kind of
thing. But after awhile, it was hard to
tell what was pretend and what was real anymore. When I held her hand even when it was just the two of us, it felt
real. And when I would hold her in my
arms and kiss her. It didn't feel like
I was pretending. And the times we
spent making love all night long was as real as it got." He gets quiet again, but this time doesn't
try to stop the tears from falling.
"We loved each other.
But not in the traditional way.
Because our hearts still belonged to other people. Shari still loved Willie and I . . ."
"Still?" Miss Parker asks incredulously. "After all he did? How could she possibly still have loved
him?"
"We can't control who we love, Miss Parker," he tells
her matter of factly before turning his back to her to stare out of the
window. "To Shari, Willie was
still her 'Billy'. Only he'd gotten
mixed up with the wrong crowd and lost his way. To me, you'll always be that little girl who gave me my first
kiss. The girl who stole my heart. I can't even imagine anything you could do
to make me stop loving you. That's how
Shari felt about Willie." He hears
her sniffle behind him and he knows she's crying too.
"Anyway, despite all of that, we realized we were lucky. We knew that we weren't meant to be, but we
were lucky to have each other. We were
lucky that we made each other happy. So
we decided to make the most of the situation and live our happy life and raise
a happy child. And we did just that. After Imani was born, we bought this house
and got settled. It was a good life and
I took care of my family. I only did a
few pretends and cut off almost all contact with you and Sydney. Because in this house with Shari and the
baby, I knew who I was. I didn't have a
last name to give them, but I knew who I was.
I was a good husband. And I was
a good father. I didn't need to search
anymore.
"Right after Imani turned one, Shari starts to get sick. She had a pretty rough time when she was pregnant
with Imani, so at first she thought we might be having another baby. But she started to get really, really
sick. We went to doctors, but they
couldn't figure out what the problem was.
They just knew that she had something foreign and unknown in her
blood. They just didn't know what. Right then, I knew they had done something
to her. I knew that Raines was still
playing his sick games, even after all this time."
"It all makes sense now," Miss Parker cries
suddenly. "It was the PQ9486,
wasn't it?"
Jarod just nods his head, unable to speak of the horrible fate the
Centre signed for Sharisse.
"That time you called last year. The last time we heard from you.
It was a different phone call.
Not the usual call I'd get from you when you just wanted to torment
me. I didn't realize it then because I
was just so relieved to hear from you.
We were afraid something had happened to you because we hadn't heard
from you in so long. You called and
told us to keep our eyes on Raines. To
see what he was doing with pregnant women and experimental drugs. That's when Broots dug up the information on
PQ9486. Jarod, tell me he didn't give
her that," she says, feeling pretty horrified.
PQ9486 was a death sentence.
Except, it had a delayed reaction.
It systematically alters all of the cells in your body and then triggers
an attack on your system with your cells fighting against you instead of for
you. Raines used it on all of his
subjects so he wouldn't have to worry about missing person reports anymore. When he was finished with them, he'd give
them a dose of the drug and release them back into the public. They'd soon die from what doctors would just
assume to be a bad reaction to a mysterious virus. No way to tie them back to the Centre.
"From what I could tell about the drug, the time it takes for
it to launch a full attack on the body is related to how much of the drug is
administered. Broots said that all
those women got fairly large doses of the drug and we dead within days of being
released. My guess is that they gave
Shari a small amount when she first got there," Jarod hypothesizes. Just enough to make it start working in her
body, but not enough so that any harm would be done to the fetus."
Miss Parker's head was swimming.
It never ceases to amaze her the things that the Centre can think
up. And just when it seems like things
have gotten about as vile and repulsive as they can get. Something like this happens. They knew about Raines' renegade projects
and the experimental drugs that he was constantly developing. But the severity of it all is suddenly
sinking in. And the idea of actually
knowing the outcome of one of his sick 'experiments' was more than she could
handle.
"Jarod, I think I'm going to be sick," Miss Parker grunts. "Which way is your . . . "
"Bathroom? Up the
stairs. Make a left and go all the way
to the end of the hall," he barely manages to get out before she speeds
away.
She just barely makes it to the toilet before becoming violently
ill and emptying the contents of her stomach.
She was never one to have a weak stomach, but all this was just too
much. Too much to deal with at one
time. But when she thinks about it, she
starts to feel ashamed as well. Because
she only had to listen to the story.
Jarod was the one who told it.
He was the one who lived it.
She goes to the sink and splashes some cold water on her
face. Looking in the mirror, she sees
how bad she looks. Her eyes red and
bloodshot from all the crying she didn't even realize she was doing. Her makeup streaked and running. She leans back over the sink and completely
washes off her make up. Then she pulls
her hair up into a ponytail. When she's
more pleased with her appearance, she heads back downstairs. She's distracted, however, by the room at
the opposite end of the hall. In the
middle of it sat Imani. Sitting at a
little table drawing a picture. Miss Parker
leans against the door frame and watches the little girl for awhile, her smile
growing by the second as she listens to the girl talk to what she can only
assume is an imaginary friend.
"Who are you talking to, Imani?" Miss Parker says,
stepping into the room and going to sit down in one of the little chairs around
the table.
Imani looks behind her at the door to make sure no one else was
there. Then she leans over to Miss
Parker and whispers in her ear.
"I'm talking to Mommy," she says quietly before
proceeding with her artwork.