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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Reflections
"Ms. Parker. She smells so sweet. She's telling me a nursery rhyme. Every time I come into her office she tells it to me. She says never to forget it." Lily was smiling as she spoke.
"Lily, what is the rhyme that she is telling you?" Jarod asked anxious to see if it worked.
"Cree Craw Toads Foot" Lily started singing.
"Geese Walk Bare Foot." Both Lily and Jarod sang at the same time.
Jarod looked at Parker with wide eyes. "Lily, when I count to three you will wake up feeling refreshed and remember everything. One. Two. Three." Lily blinked her eyes. Jarod turned to the computer keypad and typed in "Cree Craw Toads Foot, Geese Walk Bare Foot."
The safe lock clicked open. Jarod opened the door and peered inside. There were numerous files, DSA's, and other papers inside. He started pulling the items out and handing them to Parker and Lily.
"Everyone start reading something." Lily said as she started shuffling her papers around on the floor with Parker followed suit. "I don't think we'll have much time left. I can't believe the hypnosis thing worked. And what's with that saying.." Lily looked up at Jarod. His expression was that of fright and concern. "What's wrong?"
Parker looked up from the papers she was deciding to read. "What is it Jarod?" She knew that look and it meant that something was wrong. She got up off the floor and went to take the files from Jarod.
Jarod held onto them with his full strength. "No Parker."
Parker came around him and looked over his arm at the first paper in one the files. "No." She looked at the page again. "That sick son of a bitch."
"What? What did you find?" Lily asked concerned by both of their reactions.
Jarod started looking through the rest of the files. His face showed so much emotion that it was hard for anyone to tell what he was reading. "He couldn't have done this!" Jarod slammed the files onto the floor.
Parker immediately picked the one up that upset Jarod and kept reading. Her face sank as she read the contents. "They've done it again Jarod. Taken another member of your family."
"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Lily demanded.
"Jarod? Should I?" Parker asked going behind Jarod and placing her hand on his shoulder, knowing the pain he was going through.
"I'm so sorry Lily. Maybe Dr. Stedman was right. You shouldn't have looked for answers. Parker and I should have come in here by ourselves."
"Jarod. What is in those files?" Lily asked now angry that they did not want to share their findings.
Jarod motioned to Parker to hand her the first file. Lily grabbed it and started to read it. Her face turned from anger to pure white. Jarod could see as she continued to read she looked as if she were going to fall over. "Lily." He went over and escorted her over to the chair.
Lily grabbed the rest of the files Jarod had on the floor and put them on the desk. She studied the first file more closely. "When you said that Raines was a monster, that was an understatement. How could that man think he could play God? How could he accomplish this without anyone knowing?"
"Lily. We found out a while ago about a place called NuGenesis, a fertilization clinic. Couples went there when they were having trouble conceiving. It's obvious that Raines was performing more than invitro fertilization procedures." Parker explained.
"But to perform genetic sequencing on embryos is beyond contempt. And then placing them with unsuspecting mothers. What was he trying to accomplish?" Lily was sick to her stomach.
"Natural Pretenders." Jarod said his head lowered. He had just read the remaining files he had picked up off the desk.
"But why twins. Each couple was placed with a twin." Lily continued to try and reason it out in her head.
"A redundant system." Parker reasoned. "Two of each sequence to make sure it worked." She was also disgusted. She laughed out of nervousness. "I guess that makes me as much of a lab rat as you Jarod. Jarod? You've found something else?"
Jarod looked at Lily. "There's more Lily. When Catherine Parker was pregnant with Miss Parker she actually had twins. One boy, one girl. He told her that the boy had died at birth. The files indicate that they did this with each of the twins. One stayed with the natural parent and one went with a foster parent."
"So either Becky or Lily were sent to the foster parent. That's why Becky and Lily have different last names on the certificates." Parker surmised.
Jarod's face was still saddened. "Lily the papers, uh, they say......."
"What's wrong Jarod?" Lily was looking into the soft brown eyes and saw pain. "Tell me Jarod, please."
"The papers say that the twins that were implanted were fraternal twins. Male and female embryos." He looked sadly into her soft brown eyes with his soft brown eyes.
"But Jarod that's impossible. Becky and I are..........." Tears welled up in her eyes as the realization of what Jarod was saying sunk in.
"Not sisters." The trio turned around to see Joan Stedman standing in the doorway and looking very angry.
*****************
Broots was working on his computer when Debbie came up behind him.
"What are you working on Daddy?" Debbie asked trying to peek over his shoulder.
"Work honey." Broots hit the button so the secure screensaver would come on. "That's all. Nothing to concern yourself with."
"Daddy, can you please help me run my lines? The rehearsals are two times a week and the dress rehearsal is in four weeks and I need to practice."
Broots shook his head. "Of course honey. What do you want me to do?"
"Can you please take this script and run lines with me. I also have to learn to ballroom dance. Here, you be the Prince."
"I don't know Debbie. I'm not very good at dancing."
"Then we'll learn together Dad. Here I'll curtsey and then you put your arm out. Then I'll move in and take you hand and then we step like this the teacher said."
The next thing Broots and Debbie were ballroom dancing around the computer room. Broots twirled Debbie around and around. They were laughing and having the time of their lives.
A man sat in the car outside the Broots home and watched them through binoculars in silence. He took out his notebook and wrote some notations down.
******************
"No. You told me that we were sisters." Lily shot up out of the chair and approached Joan.
"For all intense purposes you are. I told you that everyone here were brothers and sisters to each other." Joan tried to explain.
"Just not biologically." Lily was face to face. Her anger permeated from her. "How could you do that? Make us believe that we were sisters."
"Emotionally you are sisters. In every sense of the word, except biologically." Lily looked like she could scream, but just turned from Joan tears streaming down her cheeks. "You were so in need of having a family connection. And you and Becky came here together." Joan tried to put her hands on Lily's shoulders, but she rigidly pulled away. "We thought it best that you and Becky believe you were sisters. It gave each of you the support system that you needed."
"Do you know who my twin sister is?" Jarod expressed the words that had welled up inside him.
"You haven't gone through the rest of the files have you?" The doctor asked.
"No. We began with this file." Parker answered referring to the file they had first started reading.
Joan walked over to the stack of files and pushed several of them with her fingers until she found the one she was looking for. "If you all want to know everything, then this is the file you want."
Jarod approached and took the file. He opened it and started reading. After several minutes, he looked up. "You knew who she was? You knew the whole time I was here? "
Dr. Stedman's silence answered Jarod's question.
Parker and Lily approached Jarod. "Let me see that." Lily demanded trying to grab the file. She began to read the names of the twins and whom they had been placed with. She quickly viewed the names and found what she had been looking for. Jarod's name had: Father - Charles, Mother - Margaret. Sibling's name - Lily. Placed with Albert and Peggy Davidson. Lily looked up at Jarod and swallowed hard. "You're my brother."
Jarod looked at Lily and produced a big smile. "You're my twin sister."
Parker looked at bother of them. "The two of you." She secretly smiled inside.
Anger filled Lily. She wiped around to Joan. "You knew. You knew all this time and didn't say a word. You lied to me my whole life!" Lily wiped the tears from her face while her anger continued building. "You betrayed me."
Jarod's smile faded, as he didn't understand Lily's anger since he was experiencing the joy of finding another sister.
"Listen here Missy. I'm not the one who started this. And don't turn this around. This wouldn't be happening if you'd stayed where you were suppose to. You know the rules. Instead, you're going into places that are restricted and not for your eyes. So now you know."
Jarod interjected. "It's my fault Dr. Stedman. I asked her to give us access to the room. Miss Parker and I have been searching for the truth for so long, we never realized that it would hurt anyone else."
"Jarod, she is a grown woman and she knew perfectly well what she was doing." Joan turned back to Lily. "What am I suppose to do Lily? Put a personal guard in the room with you at all times. I thought we had some sort of trust going on......" Joan looked at Lily who had turned around and gone over to the bookcase. She was leaned over as if she were pushing the bookshelves. "Lily? Lily?"
Miss Parker and Jarod turned to look at Lily. There was a look of fire and anger on her face. Jarod had seen this look before in both Kyle and Alex. "I am sick and tired of being your little pawn." Lily spun around. "Who the hell do you think you are to keep the fact that Becky is not my real sister from me!" Just then Lily looked past Joan at the doorway.
Becky was standing there holding some paperwork in her hands. "What do you mean you're not my sister?" She looked around the room at the other's faces and knew that what Lily had said was true.
"Becky." Lily said exasperated.
Becky, looking rather shocked and confused, walked a little further into the office while trying to make sense of what was going on. "Why are you all in Catherine Parker's office? Why would you not be my sister?"
"We found evidence that the Centre manipulated the Prodigy children's genetics Becky. The children were twins, but male/female." Jarod explained with concern for yet another victim of the Centre.
Tears swelled in her eyes. "I don't want to know. I don't believe you! You just come here and expect that I'm going to trust anything you say. I'm getting out of here." Becky backed out of the office and ran through Lily's office.
"Becky!" Lily began to run after her. "See what you've done." She hissed out as she passed Joan.
"Ladies!" Joan called after them, but they were gone.
*****************
Mr. Raines walked into Lyle's office madder than the Mad Hatter. "What is the progress on the Miss Parker and Jarod search? When I put you in charge of this pursuit, I thought you could cut the mustard. Maybe I was wrong." Raines wheezed.
Lyle looked at Raines and was going to make a snide remark, but decided to use decorum. "I can handle any job you give me. I got the preliminary report from the scene. They have confirmed there was some sort of struggle and sister dear did not come ahead."
"Jarod abducted her?" Raines asked.
"No. They don't think so. There was another set of tracks. And then a large amount of tracks to where they found the tire marks to a van. And it looks like there were people carried from the site. The conclusion is that someone has both Miss Parker and Jarod."
"But have you made any progress then determining who took my Pretender? Two people don't just fall off the face of the Earth Lyle." Raines was impatient and curt.
"I'll find them. We're going to the airport to follow a lead on the van." Lyle retorted growing impatient with the old man.
"Take Angelo with you. He may be able to pick up something that may help. Take Sydney too. He can control Angelo." Raines headed for the door.
"Why don't I just take Broots too and we can have a picnic." Lyle hated Angelo with a passion.
"Don't push me boy." Raines wheezed without turning around and reaching the door. "People have a tendancy to disappear for no reason here. Or take trips to the Renewal Wing." He proceeded through the door and disappeared down the hall.
"You can also be a dead man, for real, old man." Lyle threatened.
*****************
Becky had run to the elevator and got on, while Lily struggled to get past the guards. Lily sucker punched one man in the stomach and right crossed another across the face. The third went to pull his weapon and she flip kicked him squarely in the jaw. All three laid on the floor unconscious. She grabbed the guard's weapon and swipe card. She tucked the gun in the back band of her pants and under her shirt. She proceeded to the elevator and waited for the doors to open. Lily swiped the card and pushed the button. She knew where Becky was going and got off on sub level 6. She went to the music club. It's where Becky always went when she was upset. To play the piano and forget. Lily slammed open the door. "Why did you run away from me!" Lily yelled.
Becky was playing feverously. Concentrating on every note. Tears streaming down her cheeks. Then all of a sudden she slammed on the keys. "All my life we have been together. Through thick and thin. But THEY come and I don't exist. Then I walk in and find out you're breaking into places and finding out information - and you don't include me, I don't exist. Then I find out not only don't I exist, I'm not your sister. Do you think I have reason to be upset!"
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I wanted to know the truth." Lily was yelling louder and louder. She was pacing around and was starting to hold her head as if she had a headache. "I wanted answers. I wanted TO KNOW WHO I AM!"
Becky looked at Lily. "Why are you screaming?" Her anger turned to concern. "Lily what's wrong?"
Lily was growing angrier and angrier. "I'm going to kill Raines. That's it."
Suddenly the alarms started to sound. "Yellow alert? Why are we on yellow alert?"
"Damn her. Damn this place." She punched the piano and headed for the elevator. Lily tried to push the button, but it wouldn't activate.
"Lily the elevator is locked down. We're on yellow alert." Lily slammed her fists and then her shoulder into the elevator doors. "Lily, what have you done?"
"I knocked out those stupid guards who were following us. They were really starting to annoy me." She started looking around. "I've got to get to level 1." She was pacing. Lily folded over in pain, holding her temples.
"What's wrong?" Becky was trying to help, but Lily pushed her back.
"Get away from me." She ran down the hallway to the arboretum. "Just leave me the hell alone!" Lily closed the door and pulled the lock plate off, rearranging the wiring.
Becky tried to unlock the door, but couldn't get the keypad to work. She turned at the sound of the elevator. Off walked Dr. Stedman, Jarod, Miss Parker, and the guards that Lily knocked out. "Where is she?" Stedman demanded.
"She's in here. She's locked herself in and recoded the lock. I can't get it open. She's crazed. Something about having to get out of here and kill Raines."
"This is what I was afraid of." Stedman stated as she and Becky tried to open the lock.
Jarod peered through the glass trying to find Lily. He finally spotted her at the far end of the room, on a boulder with her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth. He put his forehead and hand up on the glass. "Lily."
