Note: These stories were written way back when and I'm not at all fond of them. I've edited them a little. You know, put commas in places and such. Read at your own peril. I sinerely appologise for the poem. I was 13 years old, not that it's really a defense, but still.


Omen.
Formerly known as "The Beginning of The End" and "I See" before that.

By Lyn.

That's the trouble with omens. You never know if they're saying "Yes, you will have a great victory", or for the other guy, saying "You will slaughter them with gusto". - unknown.


Prologue


Another day of searching, another day of turning up nothing, another day of my life wasted, thought Miss Parker as she drove home from the Centre. The day had been particularly tiring; Lyle had been assigned to her team permanently after Raines’ new rules and Cox had hinted he’d happily deal with anyone not playing along.

Miss Parker arrived home and slammed her car door. The front door rattled in its hinges when she slammed that one too - just for good measure. She considered going to the shooting range in an attempt to work of some of her anger, but decided she would just be a danger.

She glanced around her living room; everything was in its place, no clues or secret messages or presents from Jarod today. Good. Maybe she could have one night to herself.

Lying down on the couch with her heals kicked off Miss Parker felt more relaxed than she had all day. Looking for something mindless to do, she reached across to the coffee table for her laptop and logged into her personal email, only to find she had a message.

She got up for a drink while trying not to notice the lack of Sender details on the email. When she came back the email had loaded.

It was a poem, and she didn’t need three guesses to figure out who had sent it.

I see a life I should have had,

I see a smile I should have worn,

I see the one I could have had,

I see the face I should have known,

I know what I see is what would have been, had I gone down the other path,

I would be just watching as the family we could have,

would have,

should have

laughs and smiles.

My eyes are filled with tears as it fades away.

I tear my eyes off that happy scene and wish, with all my heart, that the road I'm on leads there one day,

and one day soon.

Don't we deserve that scene?

- J

The shrill sound of her cell phone interrupted the uncomfortable silence that had settled on the room.

"What?" she said wearily.

"Did you read the email?"

"Yes, who knew you were such an awful poet. Guess your genius never extended to love poems, but where did the inspiration come from?"

"A dream," he said simply.

There was silence. Miss Parker fingered with the glass in her hand, shaking it slightly and listening to the ice clink against the side.

Suddenly: "Yes.”

"What?" Jarod asked, confused at the sudden turn.

"We deserve that scene," she replied sadly, but before Jarod could respond, she was gone.

"We deserve it as much as anyone, maybe more."

Disconnecting the call, Jarod lay down on what his rented accommodations called a bed. It was hard and uncomfortable but he looked forward to sleep regardless. Lately the nightmares had abated, replaced with a vivid dream of Miss Parker bouncing a happy baby and himself playing with two young children. As he started to drift off he became all the more certain it was an omen for the future. “Someday, Parker, someday,” he murmured as his eyelids closed.

Miss Parker saved the email, making note to print it off as soon as she could, and then went to her own bedroom. The exhaustion, which had momentarily abated during her conversation, returned in full force. She got changed into her most comfortable nightclothes and was asleep as soon as she got under the covers. That night she dreamed, like Jarod, of a baby and two children, all happy and Centre free.

When she awoke in the morning the words, “Someday, Jarod, someday,” were on her lips.

Chapter One
By Lyn


It had been six months, over a hundred phone calls, and there was no end in sight.

Not that she wanted it to end; she hoped he felt the same way.

Ever since he’d sent her that letter, things had changed. It had freed them in a way after the near kiss on the island, and the incident in the car never had. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and for once it wasn’t an oncoming train.

There was a saying that if you took hope from a man you would drive him insane. She had been without hope for so long, but here it was. She felt younger, more rejuvenated.

The phone rang at 10, just as it had every other time. She picked it up on the third ring, just as she had before. Then, just as every other night he answered with a question, the same question.

“So, have you caught me yet?”

It was an unspoken rule, that's all of the subject we’ll touch, no ‘you run; I chase’ just Jarod and Parker, as they had been when they were children.

Once - just once - he called her by her first name. And once - just once - she didn’t reject it.

When they finally came face-to-face, a week after their first social call, Jarod didn’t hesitate to tell her she looked better than she had in years. That her face glowed with a new life and asked her what was it. The reply she gave before she was ‘accidentally’ left behind in traffic was it was called ‘new hope’. She’d never forget his grin after she said that.

Her glow lasted six months, abruptly ending when she was dragged into her father’s office.

“Miss Parker,” he greeted his daughter.

“What am I doing here?” she growled.

He gave her a look of pure satisfaction that made her want to bathe. “You’ve been talking to Jarod lately.”

Miss Parker blanched, and then asked what that had to do with anything. Of course she talked to Jarod, that's how they gathered clues as to his whereabouts, that's how he directed her to what he wanted her to see. It was all part of the game, remember?

Lyle detached himself from a shadowed corner, “This isn’t part of the game, sis. Your calls of late have more of a social, or some might say … romantic nature.”

Miss Parker looked surprised, then angry. “I suppose you’d be one of them, you canab-”

“Some might say,” Lyle interrupted.

She glared at her brother a long moment and then turned back to Raines. “You tapped my phone?” she asked, angry and stalling, “You don't trust me?”

“No,” he wheezed. “And the evidence is very – damning.”

Miss Parker smiled at the idea rapidly forming.

“Raines,” she explained in simple tones, like she was explaining something to a child, “the reason I’m talking to Jarod so ... personally is because I’m attempting to win his trust. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting rather sick of chasing rat boy.”

The room went silent as they digested this; Miss Parker mentally rolled her eyes. And Jarod thinks I’d make a useless pretender.

Before anyone else could speak or refute her, she Parker continued. “I expect, of course, that you’ll not repeat this outside this office. Jarod has ways of finding things out, in fact he’s bugged this very office at least once before.”

Mr Raines and Lyle both found their voices at the same time. “I knew-” “Surely-”

Miss Parker glared at Lyle and then looked expectantly at her father.

“You’ve brought yourself time, but rest assured, Miss Parker, if the Board finds out you’re lying to them things will be very … unpleasant.”

He left the room, his oxygen tank squeaking behind him.

“From your conversations I’d expect that you’d be pretty close to drawing Jarod in,” said Lyle.

“As long as he doesn’t find out about this little meeting, I am ‘pretty close’,” Parker retorted.

“You screw this up, sis, and you’re personally responsible.”

Then after attempting to kiss her check (which she dodged), he too left.

*

That night at 10 she didn’t play by the rules.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

The phone stopped and her cell phone started. She picked it up.

“What's wrong?”

“The phones bugged,” she said simply.

They both paused.

“This is the end isn’t it?” Jarod asked, already knowing the answer.

“You are a genius,” Miss Parker quipped.

“Parker--” he sighed, “What's the point, they’d just find us, or stop us.”

More silence.

“At least now I know,” Jarod said trying to make light of the situation.

“Know what?”

“The little girl who gave me my first kiss isn’t gone, just hidden.”

Parker sighed, “I can’t go back to the way things were. How could I try to catch you after I’ve poured my soul out to you in the futile hope of something more than this?” She kicked the nearest chair, “goddamn it I wish I could talk to you face-to-face.”

Jarod sighed again, “This time I can’t step out of the shadow and be there.”

Parker shook her head, “There’ll be no more stepping out of shadows from now on, Jarod. They think I’m talking to you so I can get close and bring you in.”

“Bring me in?”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” she continued, “you need to disappear, no more games, no more running, no more secrets.”

“I can’t just leave,” Jarod said incredulously “what about you? What about our dream?”

She ignored him, “Listen Jarod, I have it all worked out, you phone telling me that you found out about my meeting. That way it won’t be my fault, you bugged my father’s office. Say this is the last betrayal, Jarod. Say it for our dream.”

“Parker, I won’t leave you.”

“No you won’t leave the answers, but don't you get it, genius, you won’t find them from a white cell,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “they may even kill you.”

“I gave up my family to save you Parker, don't think I wouldn't sacrifice my life or my answers to save you.”

“Damn it, Jarod, I am not another of your pretends and you can’t save me, this is real!”

“I know!”

They both fell into silence; neither wanting to finish the conversation.

Jarod broke the silence this time.

“I’ll do it for you, for our dream.”

Miss Parker sighed in relief, “Call me tomorrow, about 9 am Sydney, Lyle and Broots should be there.”

“You know I’ll never be gone, Melanie, not really.”

“I’m counting on it.”

*

It was 9 am, Sydney Broots and Lyle where all situated in her office talking about Jarod’s latest clue when the phone rang. Without a second look, Parker put the phone on speaker.

“What?”

“How could you?” Jarod’s hurt filled voice drifted over the phone.

“Could I what, Jarod?”

“I thought it meant something, our conversations, but that was part of the plan wasn't it.”

Now Miss Parker looked up, straight at Lyle whose eyes had widened in shock.

“What plan?”

“To get ‘close’ to me. Tell me Miss Parker, just how far were you willing to go? I thought you were better than them, but apparently I was wrong. You really are your father’s daughter. Take your pick as to which one.”

Sydney and Broots where looking at her with shock and distaste, she immediately wished they could have been let in, but they needed it to be realistic.

“Shut up. How the hell did you get that conversation?” Parker demanded, all the while repeating in her head that he was only pretending.

“I have a nice line of conversation with a certain bug; pity you were ‘exposed’. It nearly worked,” Jarod snarled.

Parker glared at Lyle, unsure what to say next.

“You still haven't answered my question, Miss Parker”

“Look, Jarod, I want out and you being here is the only way to do that, besides the game’s becoming predictable.”

“No, it’s getting personal.”

The dial tone sounded around the room. Miss Parker slowly reached over and disconnected the call.

At her command Broots left first to find the bug. Lyle was still in shock, so she turned to Sydney. He looked angrier than she’d ever seen him; his jaw and fists where clenched, and his eyes held such anger and pain it was as though it had been him she’d hurt. It made her sick to her stomach to know what he thought: that she was her father’s daughter.

He left before she could say anything.

Lyle was still sitting agape; he had obviously doubted Jarod’s abilities more than even she’d thought.

“Lyle, go to Raines, tell him what’s happened. Also, let Broots into his office. I want that bug.” Still dazed, Lyle obeyed her orders.

Once again wishing she didn’t have to keep him in the dark, she left to find Sydney. She searched everywhere she could think of: the sim lab, his office, Jarod’s old room, even the tech lab and his botany rooms. In desperation she went to Angelo. His simple, easy reply was, “he’s outside, like Jarod.”

She found him on the beach directly in front of the Centre. The turbulent waters had concealed many a lost person, and the crashing waves smothered their voices, but still she managed to hear his pained words.

“How could you, Parker, really, where did I go wrong? I tried to teach you right from wrong, when did you turn your back on everything your mother believed in?”

She grasped his hand and looked into his eyes, trying to some how tell the man she viewed as a father her innocence. “I didn’t.”

Hope hid in the depths of his eyes; he waited, letting her continue. “For six months now Jarod and I have been talking, not just arguing but talking like when we were children. They found out,” she watched the hope flicker even more, “I told them that I was doing it to get close to Jarod so I could catch him, you have to believe me, Sydney, I only did it to save my skin.”

He looked at her for a minute then said, “I knew you couldn’t have,” and pulled her into a hug, she didn't fight it. After a minute he pulled back a bit.

“Does he know?”

“Yes, I warned him and persuaded him to give up the game.”

Sydney looked surprised at this, “I always knew he cared for you, but to give up the game…” he trailed off in thought.

“He’s ringing tomorrow - for the last time.”

Sydney nodded, then with out warning he put his arm around her shoulders and let her lean into him. They stood there just staring out into the ocean, both fighting tears at the thought of losing the person who meant the most to them.

*

The next day came along with the phone call. Miss Parker played on speaker again for all that had gathered in her office to hear. There was nothing extraordinary about it, Miss Parker did as she was ordered and kept the conversation light, occasionally making a joke. Nobody laughed.

As they hung up the people filtered out. They had an even harder job to do. Mr Raines stayed where he was, his loyal sweeper Willie by his side.

“Just a fair warning, Miss Parker, if you speak to him again - tell us, after all we wouldn’t want to once again mistake your attempts at catching him as anything personal.”

Raines got up with the help of his watchdog and delivered one final message, “Of course if what Jarod says is true then myself and others will be ‘speaking’ with you soon. And now there’s no one left to save you.”

*

That night Miss Parker arrived at her home feeling thoroughly dejected. Not only had they taken her cell phone so that any call had to be made to and from her home phone, but they’d also grilled her for hours about what exactly Jarod and Miss Parker had talked about last night. Lyle and Cox (at different times) had also promised ‘consequences’ if Jarod didn’t reappear.

She threw down her keys a little too hard, they hit a metal ashtray with a ‘ding’, but she still heard the scrape of the windowsill.

Pulling her gun and fully ready to shoot anyone who had come to bug her home further she moved towards the hallway window. The window was closed and locked by the time she got there. Slightly confused, she turned around and someone grabbed her from behind. In a second she was disarmed and a familiar voice whispered in her ear, “Is it safe?”

She nodded and spun out of his grasp, wordlessly he handed her back the gun and she put it away.

“Good, because I just needed to slip out of the shadows one more time and say goodbye.”

She smiled, it was all she could do, Raines’ threat was real, as was Cox and Lyle’s.

Jarod seemed to realise this, “No need to speak in words, Melanie, other things can speak for us.”

Parker shook her head at the use of her first name, which Jarod didn’t fail to notice, “You are Melanie, tonight and to me.”

Jarod’s fingers began gently stroking the side of her face, slowly, giving her the chance to say no, maybe we can’t have forever, Parker - no Melanie - thought, but we can have tonight.

Just as with their first kiss, she was the one who initiated it. That night as they lay in each other’s arms they both dreamed a dream of domestic bliss, free of the Centre, secrets, betrayal and lies.

Because for some unlucky few, dreams are the only place they can truly be free.


The End (continued in next part of series)