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Will You Forgive Me?
By AngelWings
"Jarod!" Miss Parker screamed after him as he turned another corner ahead of her and out of her sight. That was Jarod all right, always one step ahead of Miss Parker and her team. "Stop!" she screamed again.
It seemed like an eternity of zigzagging in and out, around and through this abandoned warehouse. She was becoming sick of it. She had lost Sydney and the sweeper team a long time ago and now it was up to her to catch the lab rat.
Ahead of her, she saw Jarod barge into one of the warehouse’s doors and disappear inside. She did as well. Once inside, she carefully studied every dark hall and room. He was no where in sight. Where could he have gone?
Suddenly, she heard a crash from down the hall and she quickly followed it. She came to a room at the end of the hallway and peered inside.
It took a while for her eyes to focus on the dark room, since it was a lot darker than the hall. With her gun drawn, she slowly made her way inside.
"Freeze Jarod!" she shouted at the figure on the far wall. Even in the dark she could see him smirking at her.
"Why Miss Parker, you are getting better at keeping up with me," he teased.
"Don’t move, or I’ll blow off your head!" she threatened.
"Ouch, that would be painful."
"Yeah, and I will be ever so happy to show you!"
"Sorry, but I have other things to do! Thanks anyway," and with that he ran passed her. She reached blindly into the darkness and grabbed his leather jacket, but he easily ripped out of her grasp.
"Damn you Jarod!" she yelled after him. This is it, she thought. I am going to end this now! With that thought, she leaped into the hall again and saw just glimpse of his back as he turned the corner. She took off for him, full speed and dashed around the corner. She saw him barge through an exit. The sunshine shone brightly through the door as it swung open and almost blinded her. She now wasn’t very far behind him. She dashed out the exit and stopped to look around and saw him running down the alleyway to her left. She turned and took off. As she turned the corner, she realized it was a dead end and came to a skidding stop in front of him. He stared at her through his long eyelashes. She aimed the gun at his chest.
"Gotcha," she simply said with a wicked grin on her face. He grinned back.
"It’s not over until it’s over," he said.
"Oh, it’s over all right," she assured him. She glanced behind her shoulder. Where the hell is a sweeper team when you need one, she thought. He took a step towards her. "Don’t move!" she snapped. He froze and stared at her innocently. She almost laughed at his face, but she forced to keep her icy glare.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Now we wait for the team to arrive," she said in a mocking tone. He let out a deep sigh and then crossed his arms across his chest. They kept eye contact for a long moment. She almost got lost in his dark brown eyes, in their gorgeous glare. She quickly pushed that thought away. What was she thinking? This is Jarod. She finally blinked away. He took advantage of the moment and took another tiny step towards her. "I promise you Jarod, I’ll shoot you!" she threatened.
"Oh really?" he said, almost a daring her. "I believe you wouldn’t."
"Don’t tempt me."
He took another small step.
"Jarod!" she snapped. She hated when he did this to her. He was always playing with her mind. He knew she wouldn’t shoot him. He took another step. "Jarod… so help me god I will blow your head right off your shoulders!" He stared at her with a knowingly grin. He was about to move again when she lost it.
BANG!
The gunshot echoed through the clear blue sky. Miss Parker gasped in horror as she felt her own finger squeeze the trigger. The bullet flew out of the barrel and into Jarod’s left shoulder. The impact of the bullet caused him to slam against the wall behind him. She watched as he leaned there on the wall, staring at her in shock. Then his eyes began to droop and he slowly slid down the wall.
Miss Parker stood there in complete terror. She shot him. She looked down at his limp body that was hunched against the wall.
"Oh my god Jarod," she said softly, her voice trembling with fear. She fell to her knees beside him and dropped the gun in shock. She stared at his lifeless body, like she was frozen in time. She quickly leaned over him and checked for a pulse. None. She pulled her hand back in fear and brought it up to her mouth. What have I done? She quickly and carefully laid him on the ground and began to do CPR, pausing between breaths and pumps to check her progress. She frowned when she had none.
"C’mon Jarod. Don’t leave me!" she cried. She continued to work on him. After a long while of CPR she checked again… none. "No!" she screamed. "Someone help me! Sydney! Someone please!" she screamed to the sky above, praying someone might hear her. She looked down at his pale face as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She didn’t mean to shoot him. That was last thing she would have ever done. She cupped his lifeless face in her hands and gently kissed his cold lips. The feel of him under her mouth was so powerful that it made her cry more.
Just then, Sydney rounded the corner and saw Miss Parker leaning over Jarod, a puddle of blood under his left shoulder.
"My god," he whispered to himself as he took off towards them. "What happened?" he asked, as he fell to his knees beside them. He looked into Miss Parker’s tearful face and got his answer. Sydney couldn’t hold back the tears and panic and he quickly pushed Miss Parker away from Jarod’s body and began to do CPR himself.
"Sydney…" Miss Parker began to whisper.
"Come one Jarod. C’mon!" he shouted to Jarod. Tears ran down the old man’s face as he desperately tried to revive Jarod.
Miss Parker had to rip her eyes away from the scene. It was too much, all too much. She shook her head. Oh god, what have I done? What have I done?
"Jarod please! Come back to me! Come back to me!" Sydney repeated over and over. His voice was cracked form the tears that made their way from his eyes and down his cheek. "Oh please!" he yelled out.
Suddenly, Jarod let out a small gasp of air.
Miss Parker gasped in surprise. Soon, tears of joy were in her eyes.
Sydney let out a nervous sigh as he leaned back on his hunches and stared down at Jarod. He let a happy smile creep over his face as he listened to Jarod breathe small breaths of air. They were weak, but he was breathing.
"Oh, thank you," Sydney whispered as he let his head roll back to the sky and with his eyes. Miss Parker leaned down to Jarod and put her ear by his lips. She listened as he took in and out small amounts of air. She never would have thought that to be such a wonderful sound.
"Call for help," Sydney told her softly. She quickly pulled out her phone from her inside pocket of her dress suit. She quickly tapped in the number. Sydney leaned over Jarod and watched him, as Miss Parker told the 911 operator where they were and what his condition was.
Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots looked up from the magazines and newspapers as the doctor made her way into the waiting room.
"Hello I’m Doctor Elisa. Are you Mr. Russell’s friends?" she asked, with a very serious face. All three nodded.
"How is he, doctor?" Sydney asked, worry flooded his voice.
She glanced down at her chart that she held her hand and simply said, "Come with me."
All three exchanged glances and did as they were told.
"All right, Mr. Russell…" she began, as they followed her down the hall.
"Jarod," Miss Parker corrected her. Elisa gave her a look.
"Right, Jarod. Anyway, Jarod has lost a lot of blood. The bullet was shot into his left shoulder, luckily missing his heart. The problem is, the bullet is so close to his heart, that we might bring damage to it while taking the bullet out."
"Meaning, you can kill him?" Sydney asked.
"Yes. But if we don’t remove the bullet, it can still cause serious damage. So we have no choice but to take the risk," she stopped in front of a door. "Here we are. He is still unconscious right now, but he should wake up anytime." She opened the door and allowed them to enter.
There he was, lying peacefully on the hospital bed, with a monitor beeping steadily, recording his every heart beat. It broke Miss Parker’s heart to see him like that: so pale, so helpless. And it’s all because of her.
They all walked over to the side of the bed and seemed to stareat him forever before Sydney asked…
"When does he go in for surgery?" he asked softly, looking up at the doctor who was checking his IV and recording his heart rate on her chart.
"Tomorrow morning," she replied. Sydney nodded. "Well, I am going to check on other patients. Visiting time ends in…" she started to say as she glanced at her watch.
"I’d like to stay with him, if you don’t mind," Sydney cut her off. She glanced up at him and gave a weak smile.
"Me too," Miss Parker said sharply, while Broots nodded in agreement.
"All right. I will bring blankets and pillows for you tonight," Elisa said, as she walked out of the room.
That night, Miss Parker watched Jarod as he laid there. He seemed so peaceful, yet so hurt at the same time. She glanced over at Sydney, who was slumped down in a chair next to the door, sound asleep. Broots had gone to go get coffee. The room was so quiet. Only the steady beeping of the monitor was the sound made in the small hospital room.
She returned her attention back to Jarod. Why did she have to go and do this to him? Why?
As she watched him, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking, if he was thinking at all. She wondered if he knew what was going on, if he knew that she was there with him. She wanted him to know that she was there, that she cared for him. She desperately wanted to tell him everything. Don’t die on me you moron, she thought. If you do, I don’t think I can live without telling you the truth. Telling you how much… I care. Sure it was easy to tell it to herself, but to him? It would mean putting her life in danger as well as his.
She let out a sigh. Nothing is fair anymore.
Just then, she heard a moan escape Jarod’s lips. She sat up straighter and watched in surprise as he began to flutter his eyes open weakly. She waited a second for his eyes to focus before moving. It startled him to see her sitting next to him. He stared at her weakly, with no expression at all in his glare. She gave him a smirk.
"Hi," she said softly, just a hint of her usual icy tone.
"Hi," he said in a hoarse whisper, no expression at all. For the first time, Jarod glanced around his surroundings and studied all the equipment. He finally returned his gaze back to her. They locked eyes and seemed to stare into each other for a while. "Why are you here?" he asked weakly.
"What do you mean, ‘why am I here’? I’m here for you."
"Oh, I see. Waiting until I recover from the bullet wound, that you so happily gave me and then you are going to drag me back to the Centre by my ear?" he whispered angrily and then turned his head the other way. His words hit her like a ton of bricks.
"You know I warned you Jarod, but you kept at it!" she shot back.
"Oh, so I got what I deserved then, right?" he asked weakly, still not looking at her. Damn, I need more painkillers, he thought.
"Yes!" she snapped. She could see the hurt in his eyes, even if he wasn’t facing her. God, I’m a bitch, she thought sadly.
"Well thank you," he said, sarcasm in his tone. She sat back in her chair, still staring at him, and let out a frustrated sigh.
"I didn’t mean to shoot you," she whispered finally. She glanced down at the floor when she saw him start to turn his head towards her again. She could feel him staring at her.
"Then why did you?" he asked, almost in a whisper. She stared at a piece of tile that was out of place on the floor, as if she was talking to it.
"I don’t know," she replied softly. He almost didn’t hear her.
"That’s it?" he asked. "It’s not like you to ‘not know’. Face it, you shot me so that your father would be proud and that you would have power over me again."
She snapped her head up suddenly. "Why is that you always bring my father up? He had nothing to do with this!"
"Nothing?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow. She hated when he did that. It always made him look like a teenager.
"Nothing!" she snapped. He turned his head the other way again. There was a long silent pause that almost made them both go crazy. "Look Jarod…" she began. She looked up at the ceiling as she paused and bit her lip in thought. "I-I was scared that… I might have lost…" She just couldn’t get out the ‘you’ part. "I didn’t know what I was thinking. It was like an instinct to pull the trigger. I’m sorry that I almost killed you."
He turned his head slowly towards her again.
"It’s only in the shoulder, Miss Parker," he replied quietly.
"Jarod, it just missed your heart. You stopped breathing and you didn’t have a pulse. After I tried to revive you for what seemed like an eternity, I gave up. But Sydney came, and he didn’t give up…"
"Wait, wait. You are telling me that I was dead for at least a minute and you did… CPR on me?"
She nodded slowly. She noticed him fighting back a smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth.
"Why? Why would you try to revive me?" he asked, his eyes skipping to one of her eyes to the next in confusion. She looked down the floor again and stared at the tile. She finally shrugged her shoulders.
"I didn’t want that on my shoulders," she replied harshly. She wanted to say something entirely different, but she didn’t have the guts to do so. He let out a sigh and then turned his head away again.
They sat there in silence for a long moment. After a minute or so, she could tell he had fallen asleep again because of his even breathing and the monitor returning back to a steady beep. She sighed and laid her head down in her arms on the bed. She listened to the steady beeping that soon put her to sleep.
Her eyes slowly focused onto the empty bed. She quickly sat up in surprise when she realized where she was and who wasn’t there.
"Jarod!" she shouted, leaping to her feet.
"It’s okay Miss Parker. He just went into surgery," Sydney explained quietly, as he looked out the window.
Oh," she replied softly, slowing returning to her seat. "Well, why are we here. Why aren’t we down there with him?"
"Well, you were a sleep and I couldn’t watch Jarod go through that."
"Come on Syd. Jarod would want us down there," she pleaded. Sydney, for the first time, looked at her.
"Why do you want to be down there? To laugh when the monitor becomes a straight line?" he asked harshly. Miss Parker blinked in surprise and was about to open her mouth to ask for an explanation, when Sydney cut her off. "You shot him, Miss Parker! You shot him! Why the hell would you be worried about him! Why?" She stared at him in shock. "Why, damn it! Why?"
"Because…. Because I…" she couldn’t say it.
"Because why?" he asked, not wanting to wait very long. "Why?"he shouted.
She suddenly leaped to her feet and ran out of the room. She couldn’t face him, not now. She didn’t know how to tell him. She was new in that area. She was new at love, because she never would let herself fall in love, and when she did, she wouldn’t admit it. She stopped running when she came to the surgery window. She peered through the glass and only got a glimpse of Jarod before a doctor got in the way. She watched as they circled around him, with gadgets and tools in their gloved hands. She glanced at the monitor and watched it as it made ripples across the screen. She shook her head in disgust. Why? Oh god why?
She tried with all her might to keep the tears in. She slowly lifted her hands and placed them on the glass, still watching the doctors carefully dig at Jarod’s chest. She heard a sad sigh come form behind her and she quickly glanced behind her. Sydney stood there, staring into the active room with a teary-eyed expression.
She seemed to stare at him for a while, until the eerie beeeeeeeeeeep broke through her thoughts. Not wanting to turn back, but had to, she slowly returned her eyes to the scene in the room. The doctors frantically rushed around the room, as the monitor shone a long, steady line across the screen.
"NO!" she screamed, pounding her fist on the glass. "No! Oh God, no!" she screamed, tears pouring down her face. She closed her eyes tight, as she heard Sydney shouting as well. She slowly slid to her knees, sobbing. "Oh, lord, not him, not him!"
"Why are you crying!" Sydney shouted down to her. "This is what you wanted! This is your time to laugh!" he shouted angrily, Tears clouded his voice. Miss Parker shook her head, tears running down her face. "Yes it is! You shot him!"
"Please Sydney!" she screamed. She didn’t know any other way to do this but just to… "I love him Sydney! I made a mistake! I killed him… and I don’t know why. I killed the man I love, Sydney!" she screamed.
Sydney stared at her in shock, tears trickling down his aged face. "What?" he finally asked. She looked up at him through her
blurry eyes.
"I love him Sydney," she whispered.
"Then, why did you shoot him?" he asked, just a hint of anger left in his tone.
"Sydney! You don’t know how hard it is to think of that. I don’t know! I don’t know, damn it! How am I going to tell his parents that their son is dead! He just can’t die! I love him and he needs to know that. He can’t die without knowing. He just can’t die Sydney! He just can’t… leave me! I love him. Damn it lord, I love him. Don’t take him. Not now! Please, not now! Please mommy! Please!" she shouted up to the ceiling. "Please!" She closed her eyes. Now she was shaking from her emotions. Sydney slowly knelt down to her and wrapped his arms around her, as she returned the embrace. He held her, as she cried her hearts desire.
"Catherine will take care of him," he whispered softly. "Catherine knows where he belongs."
Just then, the eerie beeeeeeep returned to a beep, beep, beep. Sydney and Miss Parker glanced at each other, before leaping to their feet and looking through the glass. There on the monitor was a wave of heartbeats.
"Oh thank you!" Miss Parker shouted, now tears of joy clouded her eyes. Sydney let out a happy laugh.
"It’s a miracle!" he shouted.
"No, it’s an angel," Miss Parker replied, flashing him a smile.
By AngelWings
"Jarod!" Miss Parker screamed after him as he turned another corner ahead of her and out of her sight. That was Jarod all right, always one step ahead of Miss Parker and her team. "Stop!" she screamed again.
It seemed like an eternity of zigzagging in and out, around and through this abandoned warehouse. She was becoming sick of it. She had lost Sydney and the sweeper team a long time ago and now it was up to her to catch the lab rat.
Ahead of her, she saw Jarod barge into one of the warehouse’s doors and disappear inside. She did as well. Once inside, she carefully studied every dark hall and room. He was no where in sight. Where could he have gone?
Suddenly, she heard a crash from down the hall and she quickly followed it. She came to a room at the end of the hallway and peered inside.
It took a while for her eyes to focus on the dark room, since it was a lot darker than the hall. With her gun drawn, she slowly made her way inside.
"Freeze Jarod!" she shouted at the figure on the far wall. Even in the dark she could see him smirking at her.
"Why Miss Parker, you are getting better at keeping up with me," he teased.
"Don’t move, or I’ll blow off your head!" she threatened.
"Ouch, that would be painful."
"Yeah, and I will be ever so happy to show you!"
"Sorry, but I have other things to do! Thanks anyway," and with that he ran passed her. She reached blindly into the darkness and grabbed his leather jacket, but he easily ripped out of her grasp.
"Damn you Jarod!" she yelled after him. This is it, she thought. I am going to end this now! With that thought, she leaped into the hall again and saw just glimpse of his back as he turned the corner. She took off for him, full speed and dashed around the corner. She saw him barge through an exit. The sunshine shone brightly through the door as it swung open and almost blinded her. She now wasn’t very far behind him. She dashed out the exit and stopped to look around and saw him running down the alleyway to her left. She turned and took off. As she turned the corner, she realized it was a dead end and came to a skidding stop in front of him. He stared at her through his long eyelashes. She aimed the gun at his chest.
"Gotcha," she simply said with a wicked grin on her face. He grinned back.
"It’s not over until it’s over," he said.
"Oh, it’s over all right," she assured him. She glanced behind her shoulder. Where the hell is a sweeper team when you need one, she thought. He took a step towards her. "Don’t move!" she snapped. He froze and stared at her innocently. She almost laughed at his face, but she forced to keep her icy glare.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Now we wait for the team to arrive," she said in a mocking tone. He let out a deep sigh and then crossed his arms across his chest. They kept eye contact for a long moment. She almost got lost in his dark brown eyes, in their gorgeous glare. She quickly pushed that thought away. What was she thinking? This is Jarod. She finally blinked away. He took advantage of the moment and took another tiny step towards her. "I promise you Jarod, I’ll shoot you!" she threatened.
"Oh really?" he said, almost a daring her. "I believe you wouldn’t."
"Don’t tempt me."
He took another small step.
"Jarod!" she snapped. She hated when he did this to her. He was always playing with her mind. He knew she wouldn’t shoot him. He took another step. "Jarod… so help me god I will blow your head right off your shoulders!" He stared at her with a knowingly grin. He was about to move again when she lost it.
BANG!
The gunshot echoed through the clear blue sky. Miss Parker gasped in horror as she felt her own finger squeeze the trigger. The bullet flew out of the barrel and into Jarod’s left shoulder. The impact of the bullet caused him to slam against the wall behind him. She watched as he leaned there on the wall, staring at her in shock. Then his eyes began to droop and he slowly slid down the wall.
Miss Parker stood there in complete terror. She shot him. She looked down at his limp body that was hunched against the wall.
"Oh my god Jarod," she said softly, her voice trembling with fear. She fell to her knees beside him and dropped the gun in shock. She stared at his lifeless body, like she was frozen in time. She quickly leaned over him and checked for a pulse. None. She pulled her hand back in fear and brought it up to her mouth. What have I done? She quickly and carefully laid him on the ground and began to do CPR, pausing between breaths and pumps to check her progress. She frowned when she had none.
"C’mon Jarod. Don’t leave me!" she cried. She continued to work on him. After a long while of CPR she checked again… none. "No!" she screamed. "Someone help me! Sydney! Someone please!" she screamed to the sky above, praying someone might hear her. She looked down at his pale face as tears began to roll down her cheeks. She didn’t mean to shoot him. That was last thing she would have ever done. She cupped his lifeless face in her hands and gently kissed his cold lips. The feel of him under her mouth was so powerful that it made her cry more.
Just then, Sydney rounded the corner and saw Miss Parker leaning over Jarod, a puddle of blood under his left shoulder.
"My god," he whispered to himself as he took off towards them. "What happened?" he asked, as he fell to his knees beside them. He looked into Miss Parker’s tearful face and got his answer. Sydney couldn’t hold back the tears and panic and he quickly pushed Miss Parker away from Jarod’s body and began to do CPR himself.
"Sydney…" Miss Parker began to whisper.
"Come one Jarod. C’mon!" he shouted to Jarod. Tears ran down the old man’s face as he desperately tried to revive Jarod.
Miss Parker had to rip her eyes away from the scene. It was too much, all too much. She shook her head. Oh god, what have I done? What have I done?
"Jarod please! Come back to me! Come back to me!" Sydney repeated over and over. His voice was cracked form the tears that made their way from his eyes and down his cheek. "Oh please!" he yelled out.
Suddenly, Jarod let out a small gasp of air.
Miss Parker gasped in surprise. Soon, tears of joy were in her eyes.
Sydney let out a nervous sigh as he leaned back on his hunches and stared down at Jarod. He let a happy smile creep over his face as he listened to Jarod breathe small breaths of air. They were weak, but he was breathing.
"Oh, thank you," Sydney whispered as he let his head roll back to the sky and with his eyes. Miss Parker leaned down to Jarod and put her ear by his lips. She listened as he took in and out small amounts of air. She never would have thought that to be such a wonderful sound.
"Call for help," Sydney told her softly. She quickly pulled out her phone from her inside pocket of her dress suit. She quickly tapped in the number. Sydney leaned over Jarod and watched him, as Miss Parker told the 911 operator where they were and what his condition was.
Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots looked up from the magazines and newspapers as the doctor made her way into the waiting room.
"Hello I’m Doctor Elisa. Are you Mr. Russell’s friends?" she asked, with a very serious face. All three nodded.
"How is he, doctor?" Sydney asked, worry flooded his voice.
She glanced down at her chart that she held her hand and simply said, "Come with me."
All three exchanged glances and did as they were told.
"All right, Mr. Russell…" she began, as they followed her down the hall.
"Jarod," Miss Parker corrected her. Elisa gave her a look.
"Right, Jarod. Anyway, Jarod has lost a lot of blood. The bullet was shot into his left shoulder, luckily missing his heart. The problem is, the bullet is so close to his heart, that we might bring damage to it while taking the bullet out."
"Meaning, you can kill him?" Sydney asked.
"Yes. But if we don’t remove the bullet, it can still cause serious damage. So we have no choice but to take the risk," she stopped in front of a door. "Here we are. He is still unconscious right now, but he should wake up anytime." She opened the door and allowed them to enter.
There he was, lying peacefully on the hospital bed, with a monitor beeping steadily, recording his every heart beat. It broke Miss Parker’s heart to see him like that: so pale, so helpless. And it’s all because of her.
They all walked over to the side of the bed and seemed to stareat him forever before Sydney asked…
"When does he go in for surgery?" he asked softly, looking up at the doctor who was checking his IV and recording his heart rate on her chart.
"Tomorrow morning," she replied. Sydney nodded. "Well, I am going to check on other patients. Visiting time ends in…" she started to say as she glanced at her watch.
"I’d like to stay with him, if you don’t mind," Sydney cut her off. She glanced up at him and gave a weak smile.
"Me too," Miss Parker said sharply, while Broots nodded in agreement.
"All right. I will bring blankets and pillows for you tonight," Elisa said, as she walked out of the room.
That night, Miss Parker watched Jarod as he laid there. He seemed so peaceful, yet so hurt at the same time. She glanced over at Sydney, who was slumped down in a chair next to the door, sound asleep. Broots had gone to go get coffee. The room was so quiet. Only the steady beeping of the monitor was the sound made in the small hospital room.
She returned her attention back to Jarod. Why did she have to go and do this to him? Why?
As she watched him, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking, if he was thinking at all. She wondered if he knew what was going on, if he knew that she was there with him. She wanted him to know that she was there, that she cared for him. She desperately wanted to tell him everything. Don’t die on me you moron, she thought. If you do, I don’t think I can live without telling you the truth. Telling you how much… I care. Sure it was easy to tell it to herself, but to him? It would mean putting her life in danger as well as his.
She let out a sigh. Nothing is fair anymore.
Just then, she heard a moan escape Jarod’s lips. She sat up straighter and watched in surprise as he began to flutter his eyes open weakly. She waited a second for his eyes to focus before moving. It startled him to see her sitting next to him. He stared at her weakly, with no expression at all in his glare. She gave him a smirk.
"Hi," she said softly, just a hint of her usual icy tone.
"Hi," he said in a hoarse whisper, no expression at all. For the first time, Jarod glanced around his surroundings and studied all the equipment. He finally returned his gaze back to her. They locked eyes and seemed to stare into each other for a while. "Why are you here?" he asked weakly.
"What do you mean, ‘why am I here’? I’m here for you."
"Oh, I see. Waiting until I recover from the bullet wound, that you so happily gave me and then you are going to drag me back to the Centre by my ear?" he whispered angrily and then turned his head the other way. His words hit her like a ton of bricks.
"You know I warned you Jarod, but you kept at it!" she shot back.
"Oh, so I got what I deserved then, right?" he asked weakly, still not looking at her. Damn, I need more painkillers, he thought.
"Yes!" she snapped. She could see the hurt in his eyes, even if he wasn’t facing her. God, I’m a bitch, she thought sadly.
"Well thank you," he said, sarcasm in his tone. She sat back in her chair, still staring at him, and let out a frustrated sigh.
"I didn’t mean to shoot you," she whispered finally. She glanced down at the floor when she saw him start to turn his head towards her again. She could feel him staring at her.
"Then why did you?" he asked, almost in a whisper. She stared at a piece of tile that was out of place on the floor, as if she was talking to it.
"I don’t know," she replied softly. He almost didn’t hear her.
"That’s it?" he asked. "It’s not like you to ‘not know’. Face it, you shot me so that your father would be proud and that you would have power over me again."
She snapped her head up suddenly. "Why is that you always bring my father up? He had nothing to do with this!"
"Nothing?" he asked, lifting an eyebrow. She hated when he did that. It always made him look like a teenager.
"Nothing!" she snapped. He turned his head the other way again. There was a long silent pause that almost made them both go crazy. "Look Jarod…" she began. She looked up at the ceiling as she paused and bit her lip in thought. "I-I was scared that… I might have lost…" She just couldn’t get out the ‘you’ part. "I didn’t know what I was thinking. It was like an instinct to pull the trigger. I’m sorry that I almost killed you."
He turned his head slowly towards her again.
"It’s only in the shoulder, Miss Parker," he replied quietly.
"Jarod, it just missed your heart. You stopped breathing and you didn’t have a pulse. After I tried to revive you for what seemed like an eternity, I gave up. But Sydney came, and he didn’t give up…"
"Wait, wait. You are telling me that I was dead for at least a minute and you did… CPR on me?"
She nodded slowly. She noticed him fighting back a smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth.
"Why? Why would you try to revive me?" he asked, his eyes skipping to one of her eyes to the next in confusion. She looked down the floor again and stared at the tile. She finally shrugged her shoulders.
"I didn’t want that on my shoulders," she replied harshly. She wanted to say something entirely different, but she didn’t have the guts to do so. He let out a sigh and then turned his head away again.
They sat there in silence for a long moment. After a minute or so, she could tell he had fallen asleep again because of his even breathing and the monitor returning back to a steady beep. She sighed and laid her head down in her arms on the bed. She listened to the steady beeping that soon put her to sleep.
Her eyes slowly focused onto the empty bed. She quickly sat up in surprise when she realized where she was and who wasn’t there.
"Jarod!" she shouted, leaping to her feet.
"It’s okay Miss Parker. He just went into surgery," Sydney explained quietly, as he looked out the window.
Oh," she replied softly, slowing returning to her seat. "Well, why are we here. Why aren’t we down there with him?"
"Well, you were a sleep and I couldn’t watch Jarod go through that."
"Come on Syd. Jarod would want us down there," she pleaded. Sydney, for the first time, looked at her.
"Why do you want to be down there? To laugh when the monitor becomes a straight line?" he asked harshly. Miss Parker blinked in surprise and was about to open her mouth to ask for an explanation, when Sydney cut her off. "You shot him, Miss Parker! You shot him! Why the hell would you be worried about him! Why?" She stared at him in shock. "Why, damn it! Why?"
"Because…. Because I…" she couldn’t say it.
"Because why?" he asked, not wanting to wait very long. "Why?"he shouted.
She suddenly leaped to her feet and ran out of the room. She couldn’t face him, not now. She didn’t know how to tell him. She was new in that area. She was new at love, because she never would let herself fall in love, and when she did, she wouldn’t admit it. She stopped running when she came to the surgery window. She peered through the glass and only got a glimpse of Jarod before a doctor got in the way. She watched as they circled around him, with gadgets and tools in their gloved hands. She glanced at the monitor and watched it as it made ripples across the screen. She shook her head in disgust. Why? Oh god why?
She tried with all her might to keep the tears in. She slowly lifted her hands and placed them on the glass, still watching the doctors carefully dig at Jarod’s chest. She heard a sad sigh come form behind her and she quickly glanced behind her. Sydney stood there, staring into the active room with a teary-eyed expression.
She seemed to stare at him for a while, until the eerie beeeeeeeeeeep broke through her thoughts. Not wanting to turn back, but had to, she slowly returned her eyes to the scene in the room. The doctors frantically rushed around the room, as the monitor shone a long, steady line across the screen.
"NO!" she screamed, pounding her fist on the glass. "No! Oh God, no!" she screamed, tears pouring down her face. She closed her eyes tight, as she heard Sydney shouting as well. She slowly slid to her knees, sobbing. "Oh, lord, not him, not him!"
"Why are you crying!" Sydney shouted down to her. "This is what you wanted! This is your time to laugh!" he shouted angrily, Tears clouded his voice. Miss Parker shook her head, tears running down her face. "Yes it is! You shot him!"
"Please Sydney!" she screamed. She didn’t know any other way to do this but just to… "I love him Sydney! I made a mistake! I killed him… and I don’t know why. I killed the man I love, Sydney!" she screamed.
Sydney stared at her in shock, tears trickling down his aged face. "What?" he finally asked. She looked up at him through her
blurry eyes.
"I love him Sydney," she whispered.
"Then, why did you shoot him?" he asked, just a hint of anger left in his tone.
"Sydney! You don’t know how hard it is to think of that. I don’t know! I don’t know, damn it! How am I going to tell his parents that their son is dead! He just can’t die! I love him and he needs to know that. He can’t die without knowing. He just can’t die Sydney! He just can’t… leave me! I love him. Damn it lord, I love him. Don’t take him. Not now! Please, not now! Please mommy! Please!" she shouted up to the ceiling. "Please!" She closed her eyes. Now she was shaking from her emotions. Sydney slowly knelt down to her and wrapped his arms around her, as she returned the embrace. He held her, as she cried her hearts desire.
"Catherine will take care of him," he whispered softly. "Catherine knows where he belongs."
Just then, the eerie beeeeeeep returned to a beep, beep, beep. Sydney and Miss Parker glanced at each other, before leaping to their feet and looking through the glass. There on the monitor was a wave of heartbeats.
"Oh thank you!" Miss Parker shouted, now tears of joy clouded her eyes. Sydney let out a happy laugh.
"It’s a miracle!" he shouted.
"No, it’s an angel," Miss Parker replied, flashing him a smile.
