Vertias Odium Parit
Eternal Hope

Three televisions flickered pictures of Jarod's room in black and white. Each screen cycled through a different set of cameras. Some of which Jarod probably had no idea about.

Jarod's room was just one big camera.

The Tower room was brightly lit today/tonight and the sparse room was viewable and stained with nicotine.

The woman with her thin ancient frame and stained teeth looked perfectly at ease - the opposite of the larger balding man whose sallow skin made him look ten years old than … however old he was.

"What a waste," he murmured.

"You didn't even bat an eyelid when the clone escaped, or Kyle died for that matter."

A noncommittal shrug. "After watching someone for forty years you grow a certain fondness for them."

"We watched all of them."

"Him more."

They sat in silence until:

The women tsked, "Fondness. So that's what you call it."

"You preach too much."

"And you don't listen anyway," the woman bit back.

The man's glare was fully visible. "You say that as if you don't know the ending."

In the hotel room she shared, Miss Parker was alone. Broots had taken Debbie, Jarod and Angelo for a walk. In order for her to get some peace, he said. She knew he really couldn't cope with her being in this state much longer.

Sitting on the floral bedspread Miss Parker - or as the registry knew her, Mrs. Jennifer Brown - breathed in deep and listened…and listened…and listened…and threw a lamp in frustration.

There were no voices, just eerie silence. Painful silence.

In this eerie pain she fell asleep and dreamed, if that's what is was.

/Cree craw/

Time was indeterminable in Jarod's room. There were no windows to dictate day from night and a small button above a flimsy mattress controlled the lights.

/Toad's foot/

In the middle of this pink and grey room (it apparently has a calming effect) Jarod sat in stark contrast to the walls. After an order from High Up he wore black jeans and T-Shirt with his leather jacket and socks. He needed no shoes and even if he did they wouldn't have given him the laces.

/Geese walk barefoot/

In the rounded cupboards PEZ, Twinkies and junk food of every type sat untouched. Jarod hadn't eaten in two days.

/And geese walk barefoot/

There were no mirrors in case he did something with the shards, a plexi-glass window made all but the separate bathroom viewable to someone on the other side. The glass on Jarod's side was tinted at his own insistence.

/Cree craw/

And though time was indeterminable Jarod imagined it must have been a few days he head sat there; thinking. Knowing.

/Toad's foot/

His mother had sung that too him, he realized through the haze that clouded his mind.

His mother...

Was searching...

Outside...

The Centre?

For the first time in - maybe - hours Jarod moved, shook the strange hazy thoughts from his mind and the thought obliged, slipping into the pool of whispers.

You could escape?

Which one was that? Sydney's new medication was making it easier to tell but sometimes he still didn't know.

Sydney. He was ... father?

No, his normal self dictated. Sydney was a father figure, the man who lives across the hall. He was a friend and it was his medication that was making it easier to think and remember. He was the one who cried when Jarod remembered his own name.

Perhaps the medication was why Jarod knew as of late.

A feeling had been growing in his heart. It was an excitement that had been slowly bubbling for … sometime - a feeling so full of love.

She was coming.

And soon.

She must be, anymore of this elation and surely his heart would burst.

Sometime ago he tried to explain this to Sydney but he had shushed him with a pointed glance at the camera. The camera that hid behind a glass ever since they'd first moved him in here. Sydney said something about it being for his own protection.

Jarod had stopped immediately, he may have small troubles thinking, but he was still a genius.

She was coming.

And then...

Jarod smiled and hummed his mother's song.

Cree craw toad's foot.

She was coming, everything would be fine.

Geese walk barefoot.

He'll see her soon--

A mere couple of thousand miles away, Miss Parker woke up with a gasp and a grab to her stomach. And she knew too.