Disclaimer: “The Pretender” and its characters don’t belong to me they belong to TNT and NBC and are being used without permission. Please don’t sue because I have no money.

Listening In

By: 24

Jarod walked the lonely strip of beach. He had been here for a day and was just taking a time out from his pretends. He loved to help people, but sometimes he just needed to step away from everything. He sat down and watched the waves. He had lived by the beach his whole life inside the Centre, but had never gotten to seen it. Even when he escaped he didn’t see it because it was night and he was thinking of escaping not sight seeing. Even when he went back there to the boat on the shore by the Centre he couldn’t afford to look around him to take in the sights. He couldn’t afford for anyone in the Centre to see him and take him back. He was lucky that he was in the houseboat when Lyle and his sweepers came jogging by.

He glanced once more around him and got out his cell phone.

“This is Sydney.”

“Do you ever feel alone? Like nobody understands you? Do you think that my parents will love me once we’re together?”

Background noises could be heard and a voice close to Sydney spoke. “Dad, Mom wants to know it’s almost ready for dinner.”

“I’ll be right there Nicholas.” He said to his son. Although he often thought of Jarod as his son he knew that he never could be.

“What’s the matter Jarod?”

Nicholas stopped as he was going to return to the kitchen where his mother was and he started to listen in their conversation. He remembered meeting Jarod when Mr. Lyle helped him. His father never told him who Jarod was and why they should listen to him. He often wondered who he was and how his father knew him, but never asked after that day.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that Nicholas and his mother was there.”

“It’s okay. Yes, sometimes I do feel alone. Michelle understands me because she was there to. She worked with me.”

“I remember meeting her once.” Jarod interrupted.

“I know you do. And to answer your other question. Yes, they will love you. You are a good man Jarod.”

“But they haven’t seen me since I was four. I’m not that little boy anymore. I have nightmares now. Nightmares about the sims that I did and the experiments that were done to me.”

“They will still love you, Jarod. No matter how long you’ve been separated nothing can change that bond.”

“They have a younger me. They don’t need me anymore.”

“Yes, they do Jarod. You are their son and not even Gemini can change that. Yes, he has your DNA, but he is not you.”

“I don’t know what to think anymore. Sometimes I think I won’t even find anyone who will know the real me, I won’t ever find and put back my family and I’ll always be running from the Centre. I want it all to stop. I don’t know how long I can take this.”

Michelle came into the living room and saw her son listening in and Sydney on the phone.

“Jarod. You are strong. You can find your parents and put back what you lost all those years ago. Don’t give up. Didn’t you say I’ll never give up? Don’t give up now.”

“I’m trying not to give up Sydney, but sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes I feel like it’s useless and I don’t like feeling that way. I know I can’t give up because then I know that the Centre will win and I can’t let them do that.”

She remembered seeing Jarod when he was younger and still inside the Centre. At four years old he was the most promising pretender. The best that they had. She had only met him once while inside the Centre, but she had seen him a few other times doing his Sims. Such a bright and lonely boy. She often wondered after leaving when she found out she was pregnant whatever happened to him. She still didn’t know.

Disclaimer: “The Pretender” and its characters don’t belong to me they belong to TNT and NBC and are being used without permission. Please don’t sue because I have no money.

Listening In

By: 24

“I better let you go eat dinner. Have fun with your guests.”

“Thank you, Jarod. And remember don’t give up. You’ll put together your family. I know you will.”

“Thank you, Sydney.”

Jarod hung up and looked around him once more. He stood up and brushed his pants off and made his way to his room He hoped that Sydney was right that he could put back his family together and they will finally be together.

Sydney’s house.

“It’s time for dinner, Sydney.”

Sydney hung up his phone and turned around to find that Michelle and Nicholas were there.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

They sat down and started eating. Nicholas looked at his father and then spoke.

“Who is Jarod, dad? Why did he help me when I was kidnapped?”

“You didn’t tell me that Jarod helped when Nicholas was kidnapped.”

“I’m sorry Michelle, I guess I was happy to see that Nicholas was unharmed and forgot to tell you.”

“I remember seeing him when he was a young boy and always wondered what happened to him.”

Sydney looked at Nicholas who was listening intently to their conversation and then back to Michelle who nodded.

Disclaimer: “The Pretender” and its characters don’t belong to me they belong to TNT and NBC and are being used without permission. Please don’t sue because I have no money.

Listening In

By: 24

“When I first got to Delaware there was an opening for a research job at a place called the Centre. It was there that I met your mother and fell in love with her. She worked right alongside me. She was there the day that I got the call to mentor a young boy that they had brought in a young boy named Jarod who was four years old. I had tested a few of the others that had been in to see if they had the chance to be a pretender, but I’ve never seen anything like the genius that Jarod has. He not only been there for a couple of hours, but I knew that he was the best that we had. She had met him before I started him on the tests that they wanted me to put him through. And molded him into a pretender. A pretender is someone who has a genius I.Q. that can become anyone they want to be. He could be a lawyer, a doctor, or anyone else he wants to be for a pretend.”

“For years he was inside the Centre and did Sims. Sims are simulations that the Centre wanted done and sold them to the highest bidder. Sometimes they would do experiments on him, but only when I was away on business.”

“Your mother had to leave the Centre because she was pregnant with you and they didn’t want me to find out because they were afraid that I would leave to. They couldn’t have that because I had to still mentor Jarod and put him through his simulations.”

“Then when Jarod got older he found that his Sims were used to hurt and kill people and so he ran away. We’ve been chasing him for five years now and only once brought him back to the Centre when Miss Parker was shot and then he escaped again.”

“How is little Miss Parker?”

“She’s bent on getting Jarod back and getting away from the Centre.”

“I remember that they used to be friends when Jarod was a little older. What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened. It’s like she wants to forget that there was never a friendship between them and Jarod keeps on trying to find the little girl that was his friend. The one that cared for him and didn’t care what he was. There have been a few times that I’ve seen her actually care for him like the one time Jarod was in trouble from one of the people he put away.”

“You see Nicholas now that he knows what his Sims were used for he stays one step ahead of us. He helps people in need using his pretender abilities. Those that couldn’t, or didn’t get help from other means. He was the one that gave me your birth certificate and told me I have a son.”

“At first they told me that his parents brought him here because he was special and then told me and him that they died coming to see him. Since then I found out that he was stolen from them and he’s also been trying to find them to put his family back together.”

“How could they do that to a child? Take him from a loving family just because they could make money?”

“That is what the Centre does, Nicholas. They supposedly shot and killed Miss Parker’s mother because she tried to take her daughter, Angelo and Jarod away from the Centre. They couldn’t have that, so they staged her death in front of Miss Parker. It was after she had given birth to Miss Parker and Jarod’s brother Ethan that Mr. Raines killed her. Jarod even did a cloning simulation not knowing that they were using it on him. They cloned him because he was the best and named him Gemini.”

“And you still work there?”

“I have to make sure that Angelo, Miss Parker and Jarod are okay.”

“Is Miss Parker the woman I saw at the helicopter?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t seen her since she was a little girl.”

“She looks just like her mother.”

Nicholas was quiet and picked up all the dishes after they finished eating. While he got what he wanted. He now knew who the woman at the helicopter was and finally knew who Jarod was. He was glad that he knew, but somehow he felt that he was glad that he didn’t know before this. He hoped that Jarod would someday find his family and hoped that he was okay.

The End.