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LETTING GO

by Mindwalker78

Pairing: Mulder/Scully. Jarod/Miss Parker

Spoilers: 5th season X-files, The Red and the Black/ 2nd season Pretender

Classification: crossover

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Jarod escapes with Miss Parker from the Center after a assassin tries to kill them. Together with Mulder and Scully they hide in the mountains ...

Disclaimer: I don't own Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They belong to CC, 1013 and Fox. Jarod and Miss Parker don’t belong to me, either. You know that, blah blah blah.....

This is my first story, and I finished it around October 1998. I’m from Germany and I only learned English 4 years in school so please be kind :)

More non-Pretender related stories can be found at http://surf.to/Mindwalker78



Thanks to Susan. You know what you did.

Enjoy and don’t forget to e-mail me!





Author’s second note (2005): This is a re-post of my first story that was written almost ten years ago. *sniff* So many found memories! Missing-pieces.org rules!

I tried to correct all typos I could find and hope it’s easier to read now.



++++



Blue Cove, Delaware

The Center, SL 27




"How did you get here?" Miss Parker asked Jarod, who was standing right before her. He was hidden, half in the dark and half in the light of her flashlight.



"The same way I always come in and out. Someone should check into the alarm system!" he grinned maliciously.



"What do you want now?" she asked coldly walking dangerously a few steps towards him.

She wasn’t as tall as he, but with her high heels they stood eye to eye. She was so close now he could fell her breath on his skin.



"Why do you play with me all the time? Why do you give me only little pieces about my mother and the past?" Her eyes drilled into his.



"I love puzzles. Seriously now, you already lost your mother. I had found mine and lost her in the same minute. While you tried to catch me you also tried to save her life from those sweepers. You could have shot her or taken her prisoner, but you didn’t."



"I only wanted - want - to catch you. Well, what do you really want now?"



"I WANT to offer you a deal..." he said, with a very serious face, no smile on his lips now. “I can free you from the Centre if you do me a favour."



She didn’t know if her chin hit the floor or if it just felt like it. Who the hell did he think he was, her guardian *angel*?



"Why should you *free* me? I’m not imprisoned here like you should be. And why do you believe that I won’t take you to your old room right now?"



"We were both prisoners here for a long time. You’ve got a life ... ‘til I escaped. Now your father has control over you ‘til you bring me back. But what then; do you honestly believe he’ll let you leave? Get away from the Centre?"



She opened her mouth to reply, but the ring of her cell-phone stopped her. "Daddy.....I have..." Jarod got a little nervous. He knew her well, but Daddy Parker would be very inopportune right now.



She continued. "Yes. No, listen, Daddy, I... No! I’m not going to Mr. Raines just because, OK, but what I, Daddy, you still there? Where I am? I’m on my way to Sydney. Nothing important, OK, bye."



Jarod listened tensely and gave her questioning look, waiting. "Why haven’t you?"



"I did nothing for you. I just want to know a few things before I bring you back where you belong."



"Oh. He does not know that you know about SL 27, does he?" Jarod smiled knowingly.



In the same second they heard a noise from the elevator. Someone was coming down to SL 27, someone with the security code for the entrance. They looked at each other a few seconds, turned, ran into the next room and closed the door behind them. Jarod stepped next to the huge filing cabinet and tried to push it against the door. But before he finished, bullets flew through the air and Miss Parker dragged him down onto the floor with her. It would have hit him straight trough the chest, but instead the bullet hit her in the back. She groaned, and Jarod dragged her with him over the floor to the next room and closed the massive steel door behind them.



"It may take him a little time to follow us through this. We have no other choice but for you to come with me if you don’t want to get killed." He helped her to stand up and frowned. He didn’t like what he saw. Blood ran down her back.



"You’ve been shot...."



"I think so. It’s not as bad as it looks like," she finally said and tried to stand alone, but the pain was too much. She faltered and Jarod caught her around the waist. They could hear someone coming quickly towards them form behind.



Jarod lifted her up in his arms and carried her to his, until now, secret escape. He had no chance to think about the fact that she was one of the “enemies"; she was as hunted as him and if he didn’t take her out of here, she would end like her mother: dead.



When he reached a small hole in the wall he said, "You have to crawl through alone; it’s not big enough for me to carry you. Do you think you can do that?" he thought



"I’ll try."

She reached the other end and let herself fall on the ground.

Jarod took a look at the wound through the blouse she wore and tried to stopp the bleeding by pressing his shirt onto it, but right at the moment he couldn’t do anything else for her.



"Wait here. I'll try to stop him and then I'll bring us out - promise." Then, he ran back.





Scully’s residence

2 hours earlier




"Hey Scully, look at this..." Mulder shouted through the whole apartment.



Scully was sitting at her laptop and finishing their report, as usual. Mulder had all the spooky theories and she had to write them down so that they could show it to Skinner without getting fired.



"Sculleeee...." he gave up studying the file an informer gave Scully a few days before. It said that there was an organization named The CENTRE, which kidnapped children, so called PRETENDERS, who were educated to work for them. This was too weird, even for him.



"What?" she sounded a little bit irritated.



"Come here. Leave the reports alone; we can finish them in the Bureau. There are a few good movies tonight. Do you want to join me?" he asked grinning boyish.



"Mmh Mulder, as I remember, this is my apartment and my TV. Give me the remote. Now! I’m not going to watch these lousy movies you choose."



"No, please, this is the Star Wars night on the scifi-channel. Pleeease! I haven’t seen them for three months." Mulder made his best puppy-dog look and waited for her to look at him.



Scully only rolled her eyes and gave up. She never could resist this look. "Sure - Fine - Whatever...." was the last she said before the orchestra blew the theme from STAR WARS out of the speakers.



"Do you want some popcorn?" he asked rising from couch and went to the kitchen.

"Yeah, make yourself at home - that's what my lovely neighbour thinks. She asked me if you don’t have your own place because you always hang around here, even when I’m out. Bring me a beer." This was going to be a long night - why shouldn’t she enjoy it?





The Centre

SL 27




The rooms all looked the same down here. This was the SIM-LAB where Raines *trained* his brother to be an assassin and God knows what else they did there.



Jarod waited behind a wall ‘til someone entered the room. He caught them by the arm and swung them around, giving them one heavy hit, direct on the nose. The killer flew on the floor and then Jarod realized who it was: Brigitte.



She tried to reach the gun but Jarod was faster. He told her to stand up and guided her to a single room.



"They’ll kill you, Jarod. They are on their way here. Give up, and you’ll stay alive, my dear." She tried to offer him a deal and safe herself.



He didn’t respond. He guided her to one of the test-chairs - *hell-chairs* would fit better - and there he tied her up.



"You have no chance to escape this time, and your little friend is wounded. I can see the blood-trail on the floor."



"Shut up, or...." he shouted, and gave her a look that could kill.



"Or what....?" she taunted him. It was well known that Jarod never had hurt someone on purpose before.



"Or I will shoot you in the back and let you die here." he answered, cold as ice and Brigitte gulped.



He turned and ran as fast as he could back, but when he reached Miss Parker, she looked more dead than alive. The wound had stooped bleeding, but only because she had already lost too much blood. If he had not bandaged her, well, she would have died already. Jarod lifted her in his arms once more and carried her the rest of the way out.





Scully’s residence

1 hour later




Some knocks at the door made Mulder wake up and blink. He tried to sit up, but someone lay with her head on his shoulder. He had his arm around her waist and hers on his heart. At the next knocks she woke, too.



"Are you waiting for somebody?" Mulder asked, a little sleepy while he rubbed his eyes.



"Sure, at 4 am. Who is there?" she replied as she walked to the door. Mulder followed close behind her.



"It’s Jarod. Please, open the door. Hurry," a male voice answered from outside.



"Who is Jarod?" Mulder stepped next to Scully when she opened the door. Jarod was standing there with Miss Parker in his arms.



"She was shot. I tried to, the wound but I can’t," he blabbled.



"Calm down." Scully guided him to the bedroom where he laid her gently down and looked for Scully to help him.



"I’ll get the medical bag." Scully walked to her closet and took out the bag she used the last time to help Mulder.



"Who are they?" Mulder did not know what to think of the two strangers.



"I’m Jarod. I’m the one who gave Scully the information about the CENTRE last week," he replied without taking his eyes from the woman on the bed.



While Jarod and Scully tried to take the bullet out and attended the wound, Mulder went to the living-room and took a second look at the files from Jarod. but she did not look like the picture in the file. She was one of the 8 children, a woman named Catherine Parker, her mother, tried to rescue. She got killed before she did so.



In the bedroom Scully eyed Jarod from the side. He looked really worried.



"She’ll be fine. It’s a clean shot through the shoulder. Ask Mulder." who was now standing in the doorframe.



"Oh yeah, It’s just like fun, you know, she" he pointed at Scully "was the one who shoot at me!"



"I just tried to save your ass. Why haven’t you brought her to a hospital? That was stupid." Scully cut him off.



"I couldn’t risk anybody finding her, us, I mean. She is, well, a friend of mine. I took her with me out of the CENTRE because someone wants to see both of us dead. She is Miss Parker." Jarod confirmed Mulder’s thought.



When she had bandaged her, Scully went out of the room with Mulder. "She’ll be fine in a few days. The bullet didn’t hurt anything but muscle tissue." she told him.



"You know how it goes. She needs a lot of rest. She lost a little bit too much blood."



"Mmpf." was all Miss Parker could say when she tried to get up.



"Don’t. Lay still. You were shot, do you remember?" Jarod’s softly spoke with his head near her ear. "You’re going to be fine. And they won’t find you here."



"Where am I?" it was a whisper that he could barely hear.



"Scully is a friend of mine. She is a doctor, a "real" doctor. Now try to sleep." he gently brushed a strand of hair from her face.



When Jarod went out of the room he took a last look at her, but she was already asleep.



+++



Scully and Mulder sat on the couch and looked questioningly over their shoulders to him.



"Well," Mulder began, "you should tell us a little bit more..."



After Jarod told him his own "little" nightmare he went to stay by Miss Parker. She was out of danger, but he did not want to leave her alone. He had had to stay alone after all the horrible simulations and he hated to stay alone.



He sat on the edge of the bed and smiled as he saw that she slept well. Scully stood in the door with Mulder with his hand on her shoulders. They stood there a few moments just looking at the two.



+++



The next morning, when she felt Mulder’s arm around her, Scully woke up and thought the last night might be just a dream, but then she saw Jarod's jacket on the chair straight ahead of her. Mulder moved a little when she tried to stand up and did not loose his grip on her.



"`Morning."



"Don’t go. Nobody will miss us if we aren’t in the office at eight."



"No, but I have to look at my patient."



Right, they had company. He slept well, the first night without nightmares for a long time. He almost forgot that there were some strangers here.



He went after Scully as she carefully opened the bedroom-door. Jarod sat in the chair next to the bed, his head on his arms, which lay on the bedside. Scully gently rubbed his shoulder to wake him. He almost jumped out of the chair.



"Ohho, don’t do that to me unless you want me to have a heart-attack." He smirked.



"Sorry." Scully opened the blinds and carefully removed the blanket from Miss Parker’s shoulder.



"It looks much better than yesterday - I mean, last night."



"Uhh, what... where, oh my head," was the first sound that came from Miss Parker when she woke up.



Jarod went around the bed and knelt down that she could better see him.



"Do you remember what happened to us?" he softly asked.



"Someone tried to kill you ... and ME in SL 27, right?"



"Yup. I brought you here. Scully is a doctor. She’s taking care of your wound."



"Hi, I’m Dana Scully," she greeted her. "And you are Miss Parker, right? From a medical point, I’d say you’ll be fine in a few days. There’s nothing more I can do for you at the moment. Jarod, if it’s true that you were followed it’s better to bring you out of here. She needs one day ‘til we can move her, but better sooner than later. Mulder and I were observed, too. We have made ... let’s say a few people watch what we do very carefully."



Miss Parker closed her eyes and breathed hard.



"Where can we hide?" Jarod only asked.



"Mulder is just calling our boss and telling him we are taking two weeks off. He offered us the same a few days ago, so he will not wonder much. Then we’ll see ...."



Mulder entered the bedroom, phone in hand. "Yes sir, no I don’t know where to go but Scully told me to visit a few friends from her Navy-neighbours and, well I don’t have any case to work on, so, I think I’ll take a week or two, too. .... Yes sir, thanks. Bye."



Scully arched an eyebrow at him. "And....?"



"Everything is all right. Listen, you’ll like this. I have an old friend from Oxford. He lives in England, but he has a cabin in the Rockies. He offered me several times to take the chance for a trip there. I just talked to him and, guess where we go?" he grinned at the three of them. "I’ll drive to my apartment and pack a few things together. I think Jarod could wear something of mine, they must fit," Mulder offered.



"I don’t believe Miss Parker is my size. I’ll go and buy her something when you are back." Scully walked to the closet and began to pack some clothes of her own.





Later



"Here, I brought you some fresh clothes." Scully laid several bags on the chair next to the bed. "When you need help, I’m outside."



"Ok." Miss Parker had not spoken a full sentence since she was here.



As Scully closed the door behind her, Miss Parker got up. Her shoulder didn’t hurt as much than yesterday, it almost felt numb. Good. She tipped the bags out and raised her eyebrows as she saw what Scully brought her. Jeans, stonewashed, sweatshirts and normal t-shirts. And also some fresh underwear. Not exactly what she usually wore. But, better than nothing. Dressing was more difficult than she expected.



Miss Parker opened the door a crack and looked outside, but Scully and Mulder were not there; only Jarod lay on the couch.



"Where’s Scully?" She stepped half outside.



"She’s out with Mulder. They have to do some things in the office before we leave. They said something about making backups of tapes or files, things like that. Why?" He sat up and turned towards her. She had only the blanket around her. His eyes widened and he looked shyly at the floor.



"Make yourself useful and help me." She turned and went back to the bedroom.



"Help what ... oh," he said as he followed her.



She let the blanket fall on the floor and stood turned with her back turned to him.



She already wore the jeans but nothing else. He heard her put on her bra and moan as she tried to close it behind her back.



Jarod walked slowly behind her and helped. He was glad she could not see his face because he was sure he looked like a tomato. His hands trembled but she didn’t notice.



His fingers were soft and warm against her skin and a shiver ran down her spine. She closed her eyes and tried not to show how this affected her. < I must have had too much pain-killer> she thought. He could not help but stare at her for a moment. It had been a long time since he had been so close to someone. He shook his head.



Then, he took the t-shirt from the bed and put it carefully over her head. He lifted her wounded arm in the side and then the other arm. She felt good under his touch and he was very gentle.



Jarod let his hand linger longer on her back than necessary and waited for her to say something. Then, the phone rang. She looked at him, and he lifted his shoulders. They waited ‘til the machine picked up.



"Hi, Dana. I thought you would come over tonight. Don’t tell me Mulder dragged you out of town again. Call me back. Love you, mom."



Jarod and Miss Parker began to breathe out again.



"You didn’t tell me yet who shot at us." she turned around and pointed at the button of her 501, which were open.



He began to button up. When his fingers connected with the flesh of her belly, she jerked. He kneeled down for better access and his breath on her skin didn’t make it easier. Jarod had to take control again over himself not to move his hand further over her soft skin. He sat back on the floor as he told her more.



"I left her in one of the sim-labs. Someone must have known that you were there. She didn’t seem very surprised to see me. Did you tell someone? Sydney or Broots?"



"No, I haven’t met with them these days. They were both in the computer-room with some simulations."



"But somehow," he began, and searched her old clothes and combed them. "Perhaps, it has something to do with that." He took a small black button out of the wallet.



"It looks like it is damaged - if we are lucky." He carried it to the toilet and flushed.



"Let’s hope it was damaged while we escaped."



"I think so. If not, they were already here, weren’t they?"



+++



When Mulder and Scully arrived back at her apartment, they packed the car and drove to the airport. Later, they took a rental car with Mulder driving and Scully next to him. Jarod and Miss Parker slept in the back. They were both exhausted.



"So...," Scully began. "Who is this friend of yours, anyway? You never told me about him."



"Oh, we were roommates when I was at Oxford. He’s American, but stayed there and comes here only a few weeks in the year. We exchange e-mails, but not much more."



"And you’re sure he knew who was calling when he said you could have his cabin?"



"Hey, what do you mean....? I simply told him, I need., I told him I know a woman and we could use a little time for ourselves." He kept his eyes on the road.



"Aha, a few days. Do I know the poor girl?" she teased, and they grinned at each other.



"Well, what do you think, Mulder? About them?" she said, and pointed to the backseat.



"I ... I don’t know. I read the files Jarod gave you again last night. You told me there was a file about her mother, too. What’s in there?"



Miss Parker woke just at that time, and could hear Scully's answer. "It’s a different file than the police-one. I don’t know who wrote it, but it certainly proves that she was murdered. She didn’t suicide, which is the "official" story. And, there are details about the weapon and some suspects."



That was too much for her. Miss Parker yelled and hit Jarod in the ribs. "You bastard, you knew it all the time and didn’t tell me! You suspected *me* of hiding information about your parents. How could you?"



Jarod tried to save himself from her blows, but without much luck. She was very fast and he couldn’t just grab her because of her wounded shoulder.



Mulder slowed down and parked the car. Scully spun out and opened the backseat-door. She grabbed her on the arms and shouted, "Stop, now! You’re going to hurt yourself. Calm down. Everything is all right."



When the rage was gone, and Miss Parker felt her shoulder freed again, she gasped in pain.



"I had the file with me in SL 27, but before I could give it to you, you know what happened." He tried to apologize.



Scully pulled the sweater back a bit to look at her wound. "It has started to bleed again. Here, press." She took Jarod's hand and laid it on Miss Parker. She moaned, but didn’t say anything.



"Can’t you give her anything for the pain?" he asked Scully, and stroked one strand of hair out of Miss Parkers face behind her ear. She pulled away first but then let him do it she told herself. He let his hand linger a few moments on her neck before he pulled away as Scully answered him.



"I already gave her enough for an elephant. I can’t risk giving her more. Sorry."



"It’s ok, I can stand it. I’ve suffered worse," Miss Parker said and gave Jarod one of her looks.





Meanwhile at the Centre



Sydney and Broots stood in a corner near the elevator as the paramedics carried Brigitte out.



Broots whispered to him, "Someone knew she was down there. No one would have found her in SL 27 otherwise." Sydney only nodded.



"Do you think Miss Parker shot her? We don’t know where she is right now. Besides, I haven’t seen her the last two days." Broots was, as usual, a little bit nervous.



"She hasn’t said anything to me and Jarod hasn’t contacted me either."



Then Mr. Parker came towards them after shortly talking with Brigitte.



"Where is my daughter? Brigitte says that Jarod shot at her and my daughter. WHERE IS SHE?"



"I can’t believe this. Jarod is no killer, and he would certainly never shoot at Miss Parker."



"Her blood was everywhere on the floor. She is hurt." He seemed to lose his normal control.



"Where exactly did they find Brigitte and your daughter's blood, anyway?" Sydney asked, as if he knew nothing.



Mr. Parker turned on his heel and was gone without saying anything else. Sydney and Broots looked at each other and went back to the tech-room.





Somewhere on the road



"Scully, may I borrow your cell-phone?" Jarod asked after a while. "I should inform Sydney that we are safe and sound, well, mostly."



"Sure." She handed it to him.



"Here is Sydney," he answered.



"We are fine." Jarod said, then went to hang up.



"Jarod wait! Where are you and Miss Parker? What happened?"



"Let’s say, we’re taking a little break. Miss Parker is shot, but she is ok."



"You did not shoot her, did you? And what about Brigitte, why did you shoot her?"

"No! Brigitte came down to SL 27 and tried to kill me and Miss Parker. I beat her but Miss Parker got a bullet. I did nothing! How could you believe I could have?" Jarod was upset.



"I never believed that, but Mr. Parker told us so."



"Syd, find out who else was down there, and why they tried to kill Miss Parker," Jarod said, then hit the end-button.



+++



When they reached the little cabin it was almost dark outside. The area somehow looked like where the grandma lived in the movie "Dante’s Peak".



"Wow, Mulder, this is beautiful. Look at the lake and ... it looks simply great!" Scully got out of the car and took a look at the surroundings. Mulder went to the trunk, and he and Scully took some of their luggage and went inside the cabin.



Jarod lifted the sleeping Miss Parker in his arms. She murmured something he couldn’t understand and put her arms around his neck. < I hope she doesn’t wake up now because she’d kill me!> he thought.



He entered the cabin and caught his breath. This was ... he was at a loss for words. Like Scully said before, just beautiful.



"You can bring her up, Jarod," Mulder said from the second floor. "Boys right, girls left, all right?" he asked. "There are only two bedrooms and I think that will be the best choice."



When Mulder and Scully had brought the luggage inside, Jarod joined them in the kitchen.

"She’s sleeping," he informed them. "How long can we stay here?"



"As long as we have to. We can stay here as long as we want." Mulder handed him a cup of coffee.



"Thanks." Jarod sat down, lost in thought.



+++



Two days later, Miss Parker felt much better. She was able to stand up and walk around instead of lying in bed and staring at the walls. Her skin colour had also returned to normal.

For the first time since the fiasco in SL 27 she wanted a cigarette. She dressed and went upstairs.



The cabin was so beautiful. The sun was shining in through the windows and everything was warm and bright. The stairs to the second floor were bright and ended free in the living room. There was a huge fireplace with a large bearskin rug on the floor before it. There was also a table and a comfortable couch.



Mulder and Scully were sitting at the kitchen table, Scully in front of a laptop and Mulder behind no fewer than 10 files. Papers, photos and reports were everywhere.



"Hi." Mulder turned around and greeted her warmly.



"Mhm." Miss Parker went around the table to the sink and eyed the area. From the window she had a good look at the little lake outside and the wood behind.



"I guess nobody has a cigarette for me?"



"No, and I’m sure you won’t find a drugstore nearer than 20 miles." Mulder tried to hide a smile. He felt lucky he was never a smoker.



"Fine." Miss Parker walked slowly to the living room. "Where’s Wonder Boy?" Miss Parker sounded much colder than when she was injured.



"Who?" It took Scully a second before she realized she meant Jarod. She gave Mulder a Why-does-she-call-him-that-look and said, "Jarod’s outside by the lake."



"He doesn’t talk much, does he?" Mulder asked her.



"No," she said, and then she was gone.



"Well, and I always thought Frohike was weird." Scully hit a key and saved the last report.



"Yeah? She’s a rival to you title as the Ice Queen." he teased. Without warning a few of his sunflower-seeds hit him.



"Hey, didn’t your mom tell you not to play with food?"



"Sure, but she also told me to keep away from strangers and weirdoes."



"Mhm. Wait, what do you mean I’m crazy?" Mulder stood up slowly and dangerously.



"That’s what people say about others who believe in the existence of extraterrestrials or in little green, no grey men. I’d say you fit that description."



He tapped her on the shoulder, and when she slowly turned around he stood there with a glass of water in his hand above her head and a goofy grin on his face. "Go on. I’d like to hear more about this."



She jumped up, circled the table and grabbed a glass of water from the sink, too. They looked at each other and grinned.



"Mulder," she warned him, "don’t ruin the reports, I’m not going to write them again."



"Me neither." Then he advanced on her, forcing her towards the living room.



"Mulder. No. I don’t have enough clothes here to change. No." He came closer to her.



"You don’t have to wear ...." he started, but he came no further before the water hit his face. Scully tried really hard not to laugh but it looked too funny. When she saw him blink his eyes, she did not know it was too late. She ran outside, Mulder close behind her.



"You’re going to pay for that!" He grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder. He grinned and walked towards the lake.



"Mulder, you are not going to do what I think you are going to do!" She could not stop laughing. "Mulder, no!"



"Oh YES! You haven’t had a shower today, have you, Scully?" He walked on the little footbridge and tried to throw her in the lake, but somehow she gripped his t-shirt and they both fell with a big "splash" in the water.





Blue Cove, The Centre

The same time




"Sydney, I don’t think this is a good idea." Broots stumbled nervously over some stuff on the floor of SL 27. "You know what happened to him when we brought him here last time."



"Angelo," he said softly to him, "you could help us find out what happened to Jarod and Miss Parker down here."



Angelo began to cross a few rooms ‘til he reached the one where Miss Parker had met Jarod. "Jarod ... Miss Parker ... confused ... Jarod ...." He ran to the next room. "Hurt ... badly hurt..."



"Who is hurt, Angelo?" Sydney tried not to sound too concerned.



"Miss Parker is hurt!" He sounded like a little kid whose dog was injured.



"Who hurt her? Jarod?"



"No! Jarod ... she wants to shoot him ... Jarod confused ..."



"She? Who’s she, Angelo? Did Miss Parker try to shoot Jarod?" Sydney couldn’t believe this. He knew that they shared a special bond and that she couldn’t shoot him before.



"Blonde angry ..." Angelo run to another room.



"Jarod afraid ... try to bring her out ... but blond-head ...Jarod now angry ... they fight ...... I decide who lives ..."



"What? I thought Kyle is dead?" Broots was now completely irritated.



"I think he is but Jarod was in rage and he thought of how Kyle was acting." Sydney’s mind raced.



"So Jarod shot Brigitte?" Broots speculated.



"There is ... there is another one ... he is ..." Angelo began.



"Who is it, Angelo, who?"



"She hurt my daughter, I’ll kill her." Angelo stammered.



"Mr. Parker? Could that be?" Broots stuttered.





The Cabin



Meanwhile, Jarod and Miss Parker walked on the other side of the lake. She had caught up to him and now walked beside him. Neither of them knew what to say at the moment.

When they heard and saw Mulder and Scully, Jarod smiled wistfully. "Sounds like fun, huh?"



"Fun? What’s that?" Her voice sounded a little bit too sarcastic, but she gave him a rare smile.



"In the Centre," he began but she stopped him.



"Jarod, please, no Centre, no Syd or anything like that now. I’m not up to that yet."



"But, is that the only thing that holds us back?"



She gave him no answer to his question because they both knew that wasn’t true.



+++



"Great, Mulder, really great. You’re going to pay for THAT!" Scully said. Then she grabbed Mulder by the shoulders, threw his leg with her foot under him, and before he knew what she was doing he was under water. He curled with his arms and tried to come up again. he told himself.

She held him so skilfully that he couldn’t keep his balance and she could easily beat him.



+++



Jarod and Parker walked closer. "Want to join them?" he teased.



"Not really." The temperature between them slowly rose from "frost" to "low warm". they both thought.



"Let’s sit down on the little rocks over there." She pointed to two small stones near the shore. There theyy sat down side by side when Jarod turned towards her. "What are we, uhm, you going to do? I mean, when we leave here?"



"I don’t know. I’ve had a lot of time to think these last days, but I didn’t get any answers. What about you? What will you do, when you find your parents?"



"When you have an answer for yourself, could you please tell me? I have no idea." Then, they smiled at each other. Really smiled.



"What about your father? Did he tell you more about the death of your mother?"



She shook her head lightly and her eyes drifted towards the lake. "No, not since we were at her grave, you know, the anniversary of her... well...



"You knew I was there, didn’t you?"



"If I were to say yes, that would that mean I lost a chance to bring you back to the Centre." She paused. "This is weird. I can’t just forget that I’m the hunter and you are my hunted...."



"I know what you mean. It’s the same for me. As I saw you walking after me, I had to remind myself where we are and that there are no sweepers behind the trees." His lips formed a little smile.



"At the moment, I don’t know what to believe. My father, the Centre and ...." She stopped when she felt her eyes fill with tears and turned away from him. He took her hand and gave it a little squeeze.



"I’ve often thought about what it will be like, when I find my family. My mom, dad and my sister. Do you think we could live like a family after all these years? It’s hard to imagine."



"We would make a great couple, huh. We could go together to therapy." She meant it as a joke, but as soon as the words were out, she realized how true they were.



"Someday, we will have our own families. You just have to keep believing." He gave her hand another squeeze and pulled her up with him. "Let’s go back and try to find something to eat. You hungry?"



"Yes, but let’s walk round the lake once more before it gets dark. It’s so lovely here. I was trapped in the house long enough!" Miss Parker slowly walked ahead.



Miss Parker let go of his hand as it started to get too comfortable. This was dangerous territory and she knew that. It seemed like he liked it too, and that was enough for her to keep away a little.



+++



Meanwhile, Scully and Mulder fought a water battle, and it was obvious that Mulder had to try hard to breathe. Most of the time his head was underwater. Finally he gave up. "Ok. Ok. I've drunk enough!"



"What, you give up that easily? I didn’t even really get started... Ok, then say it."



"No," he said, and she pushed him under once more. "Uncle, uncle. You won."



"Thanks. That’s what I wanted to hear." Then she released him and swam a few feet away.

He looked really cute with his tousled hair and the clothes clinging to his, from what she could see, muscular body. He must have thought the same about her because he stared at her too. She was a little bit embarrassed because the t-shirt didn’t hide much now. she thought.



"We’re lucky that it’s so warm outside. The water is just right." Mulder swam behind her to the footbridge.



She turned while swimming. "Yeah, but it would have been nicer to be in a bikini than in these clothes. It’ll be days ‘til my shoes are dry again."



"I agree, but you started, remember?" He was out of the water before her and offered a helping hand. He lifted her up easily and she was suddenly clasped to his chest.



"Oups, you’re not as heavy as I thought." He grinned, and tried to apologize but could not admit that it wasn’t too uncomfortable for him. When he didn’t release she asked, seduced, "Are you coming on to me, G-man?" he thought, but said "Me?" and put on his best puppy-dog look.



"What would you do if I said yes?" he said, and they walked back to the cabin.



"Well, I surely wouldn’t jump on you, but...."



"But what...?" She turned around and gave him an unexpected and quick kiss on the cheek and walked on.



He wanted to say something but lost his voice. He opened his mouth a few times but nothing came out. Mulder hurried and arrived with her on the balcony.



"I ...." he started, but cut off when she turned and looked him straight in his eyes.



"Mhm?"



"I would say these vacations are good for you, heh?"



"I would say that too. But the wet clothes are not as good for us. I don’t want to get sick."



He looked up and down her body "Well, you could walk around like this more often but I don’t think the wooden floor would like it as much as me."



"I’ll go change," she said and walked upstairs. Before she entered her room, he offered "Do you need a helping hand?"



"In your dreams" she laughed, and shut the door behind her. But she really could use a helping hand. It was difficult to get the wet jeans off. She almost had to lay on the floor to get out of them.





Outside



"You didn’t say anything about the package I send you last week." Jarod stared in the sunset over the trees.



"What package?"



"You didn’t get it? A short time ago, I found some stuff from you and your mother in the house where my parents lived. Baby stuff and things like that. There was an arm ring with your birthday and your name An..."



"Don’t!" she warned him.



"Why, nobody’s around. No one would hear it."



"Just don’t!" she said, and she sounded again like the hunter Parker.



"Ok, as you wish. There were photos of you, too. I think your mom had found my parents already when she wanted to free me and the others from the Centre."



"She.... she knew who your parents were? But how, and why..." Miss Parker was stunned.



"I don’t know. Perhaps she found the parents of the other kids, too."



"Do you think, I mean, do you believe they killed her because..." she began, and trailed off. “Wait, if she knew who your parents are, why didn’t they do anything?"



He smiled wryly. "That’s what I want to know, too. I...." he started, but he couldn’t say anything more. He breathed hard and went on. "Your mom must have met them and hid some private things because she knows they were safe there."



"That sounds logical. Well, as logical as something like that could sound."



"Here." He pulled a photo out of his briefcase. "Lovely. I like that photo. That’s why I kept it by myself." he showed her a picture of a really sweet baby.



"Is that me?" she asked and took it from his hand.



"I think so."



"I don’t know what to say." She said, and gave it back to him.



"No, you should keep it," he said. She looked in his briefcase where a photo of his mom and Kyle was.



"No, please keep it for me," she said. "That’s enough sentimentality. Let’s go back and eat something. I’m starving."



+++



When they climbed the stairs to the balcony she smelled something good. "Great, food!"



In the kitchen, Mulder was carefully taking a casserole out of the oven and Scully was standing and talking on her cell-phone



"I can’t tell you where we are, mom. Let’s say it’s a vacation. Yes, Mulder’s here too. ....Yes, AD Skinner knows about .... he offered us some free time...... NO, mom, how could you...." Mulder looked at her and could see her blush. "No, mom, we’re not.... Ok, bye then."



"I hate it when she talks to me like that." Scully put the phone back in her jeans. "She asked if we have "fun" together."



"She’s just teasing. She knows me, doesn’t she?" Mulder put the meal on the table and saw Jarod and Miss Parker enter the kitchen.



"You hungry? But I must warn you, Mulder cooked." Scully asked, and gave him a smile.



"Ha, ha." He grinned back. "I’m not that bad of a cook."



"I must say it smells good." Jarod said, full innocent as though he didn’t get the little joke. This time Miss Parker couldn’t hide her grin.



"Hey, you’re feeling better, huh? I saw you smile." Mulder teased.



Miss Parker turned to Scully. "How do you endure him all day?"



"Oh, it’s not that easy but I learned how to live with it." She leaned a little closer and whispered loud enough to be sure he could understand her, too. "I learned how to deal with him. Sometimes I just let him go, but other times he needs a strong kick in the ass. That’s why they sent me to him and it works."



"Isn’t she lovely to me?" Mulder walked past Miss Parker and feigned a soft hit in Scully's ribcage. "Let’s eat before it goes cold."



+++



When they had finished and cleaned the kitchen, Mulder and Scully sat down in the living room and played a kind of card-game Jarod did not know. He and Parker watched the first few rounds and then played with them. It was poker.



"You know the rules, Jarod?" Scully gave the cards.



"I think so." he replied.



"I’ll bet." Miss Parker held her cards and was surprised at what good ones she had.



Neither of them won more or less and Jarod was not as good as Miss Parker suspected. She was about to ask him "What happened to wonder-boy?" when he sighed and said good-night for today. She was really tired herself and went with him.



"‘Night."



"‘Night" Mulder and Scully wanted to play on a while. Both had won four games and they wanted to find out who was better.



++



When she opened her door, Jarod was standing beside her, leaning against the doorframe.



"`Night" she said, and wanted to enter but felt his hand softly stroked her cheek. "Don’t!" she said, and pushed his hand away.



"Why?" He sounded like a little kid whose toy you just took away.



"It’s not that simple. Do you think, just because I haven’t hissed at you or shot at you while we are here I forgot everything that happened before?"



"What happened before? Your father gave you only one choice. Bring me back or you could never leave the Centre, isn’t that the truth?"



"I can’t forget who we are!"



"Who are we?" He came closer and stood only a few inches in front of her. "Tell me who I am. That’s what I've been searching for my whole life."



She looked him in the eyes and for the first time for a long time she was the one that looked away first - very un-Parker like.



When she looked up again she saw him staring at her, her eyes then her lips. her inner alarm system began to yell. She had never seen him looking at her like this before.



"Jarod," she sighed. She gathered all her courage together. "I thank you for saving my life, but leave it that way."



"Is this how you feel? We’re just taking a break from our "normal" lives?"



she thought. He was looking at her lips again.



"Yes," she answered, and before he could do or say something she walked inside and shut the door in his face.



+++



"That was close," she whispered and leaned against the door and felt the first tears run down her check right where he had touched her a few minutes before.



He was the only person that made her cry besides her mom and her dad, and she hated him for that. She hated to cry and to feel vulnerable. As she slowly sank to the floor, she heart him slam the front door and she cried even more.



+++



Jarod hurried past Mulder and Scully through the living room outside. He was angry and sad at the same time. On the balcony he hit a beam hard with his fist but couldn’t feel the pain directly so he hit it again and again until it hurt.



He ran away, not knowing what to do. "Why does everything have to end like this? Why do all the people that mean so much to me get hurt? Why do I hurt them?" his mind raced. The picture of his mother, crying at the cab and Kyle dying in the van came like flashes in his mind.



He ran twice around the lake, until his rage was gone, rage against himself. He slowed down when he reached the cabin. The light in the living room was still on.



Then he saw a shadow on the roof besides. The cabin was built next to a little hill, so the roof connected with the ground beside it.



Jarod walked around up the little hill and onto the roof where he sat down beside her. She looked silently up to the sky. It was clear, and the sky had more stars than he had ever seen. The moon was full and lit all the area.

He could see that she had cried. Her eyes were wet and swollen but she still looked beautiful to him.



"Sorry, I didn’t want to...." he started, but she cut him off, looking directly in his eyes.



"You don’t have to be sorry. I’m the one who should be."



"No more sorrows. Swear it. You have to hold your life in your own hands. You just did as your father said. Free yourself from his power!"



"That’s not that easy...."



"Yes it is. Look what I’ve done. I came out of the Centre not knowing what to expect. Sometimes it was and is scary but better to be free and make mistakes than be imprisoned forever. Please try it. If not for you, for the people who care about you."



"I have no one who cares for me." She was getting angry, or was it really sadness.



"Yes you have." He took her face in his hands. "Sydney cares a lot about you...and so do I. Perhaps just because we grew up together; but do you believe I would have helped you just because we knew each other as kids? I’m a Pretender: I know exactly how you feel, and it hurt me like it hurts you."



She freed herself of him and stood up. "Stop that shit, Jarod. Leave me alone! You caused all my problems. If my mother hadn’t tried to save you, she could still be alive, I could live a normal life and everything could be ok!" she screamed, caught between raging and crying.



That hit him like a shot right in the heart, and he turned to the wall. "Why always me?” he hit the wall with every word.



Miss Parker was scared as she saw him in such a fury. She had never seen him like this before and she began to regret the words she said to him.



"Please stop. You’re hurting yourself." She was standing out of his reach.



"Who cares?"



"Me!" Then, she walked behind him and held his arm before he could hit the wall again. He crossed his arms before his chest and she embraced him from behind as he began to sob. She held him that way a long time, until he turned in the embrace and held her even tighter. He buried his face in her neck as she had as she soothed him by slowly rubbing his back.

When he slowly pulled away, she looked at him with so much ... what was that in her eyes; sympathy or something else?



+++



He just stood there as she leaned forward and lightly touched her lips to his. Everything around him seemed to swim. His knees felt like pudding and he had forgotten how to breathe. She pulled back to look at him and smiled. Then she touched his lips again, slowly moving her lips over his.



But before he could respond to the kiss, someone came into her room and turned on the lights.



"Parker, you here?" they heard Scully call.



They jumped apart like teenagers who get caught on the sofa by the parents.



"Yeah, we’re here outside." Miss Parker was the first to get out a word. Jarod blushed and turned away as Scully leaned out of the window.



"I thought you were already sleeping, but I saw..." She stopped when she saw Jarod beside her. "Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb." Then she went back inside, walked back out of the room and turned off the lights.



"I think that’s how it feels when you get caught by your parents? I skipped that as a teenager" He smiled at her but didn’t quite know what to expect, but she gave him a smile, a real smile with teeth, and then they laughed out loud. Scully must have gone to the boys' room, because they could see the others couple’s shadow on the ground.



+++



"Hi," she greeted Mulder.



"Hi yourself. What’s up? Couldn’t live without me for more than two minutes?" he joked while he pulled off his shirt and went to the closet to search for his night-boxers.



"Oh yes, sure. I planned to kick Jarod out and have you all for myself tonight. No, I just caught them on the rooftop and decided to leave them well enough alone for a while. It’s not really clear to me - I mean their relationship."



"Yeah, me either." He was half inside the little closet and rummaging inside. "Did they have something while he was at the Centre or what?"



"I don’t know." Scully walked around in the room and wondered how the two men could have made such a mess in here in only a few days. Everywhere laid clothes, t-shirts, jeans, and boxers - which were definitely Mulder's. They had little green men printed on them. She smiled at the thought of Mulder in these.



"Great. You found them." he jumped almost on her, grabbed them, and disappeared into the bathroom that connected her room with his.



Scully decided to lay down, just ‘til he came out, and then go back to her room but before her head connected with the pillow she was already asleep.



When Mulder left the bathroom, at first he thought that she was gone without saying goodnight but then he saw her lying in his bed. She slept so peacefully, he didn’t dare to wake her, so he walked to her, lay the blanket over her, and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Sleep well, Dana," he said, and went to the other bed and lay down. He was as tired as she, and slept within minutes.



+++



When Jarod entered his room, he saw Mulder lying in his bed and Scully in Mulder's. He didn’t want to wake them, so he walked back to the women's room. After the second knock, Parker opened the door in her pyjamas - well, they weren’t real pyjamas, just an x-large t-shirt from the FBI.



"Jarod, I think you should really go back to your room and sleep now."



The alarm siren in her head began to wail as she saw him standing again in front of her door.



"That’s the problem. I don’t want to share a bed with Mulder, and Scully wouldn’t be very amused if she were to wake up next to me tomorrow."



Parker raised an eyebrow at him. "I don’t understand..."



"Mulder is sleeping in my bed, and Scully in Mulder's. That’s all. So I think I’ll have to sleep here tonight. I could also take the couch but,"



"No, come in, it’s all right," she said, and closed the door behind him.



Then he saw the problem. "Weren’t there two beds in here?" he couldn’t believe he didn’t saw this earlier.



"Nope. There’s only this one." The bed was double. And then she crawled under the sheets. , he thought,



When she had turned around, he stripped off his shirt and his jeans and crawled in beside her clad in his underwear. Well, they were all Mulder’s clothes, which showed in the boxers – printed with Buggs Bunny.



+++



When Jarod woke the next morning, he lay nearer to her than what was safe. He tried to move further without waking her, but she was already awake and smiled when she realized he was nervous.



"`Morning, and mhm, ... sorry..," he greeted her with an uncomfortable smile.



"Morning. What for? I haven’t shot you. If you would have tried anything I hadn’t agreed to, you would already be up with the Great Boss."



"Who? Oh, I get it."



"You have a really deep sleep for a man who always escaped me during one and a half years. Mulder and Scully already showered and went downstairs. Didn’t you hear anything?"



"No. Normally I’m a light sleeper and wake by the at the slightest sound, I guess I was really tired."



Parker stood up and walked over to the window. The lake in the morning was almost more beautiful than at sunset.



"I can’t figure out why. You didn’t do anything last night." She couldn’t hold this back.



"Well, actually, I ran two times around the lake before, oh...." Then he realized what she was talking about, and he felt a little bit uncomfortable, especially since she stood right in the sunlight, wearing only a thin t-shirt. He couldn’t help but stare at her, and she saw him directly in the reflection in the window, and it pleased her. Then he realized that she observed him, too. He almost jumped out of the bed and hurried to the bathroom. This whole thing was beginning to please her.



+++



Scully sat at the kitchen table with a cup of strong coffee before her. "I’m glad you seem to be enjoying our little trip. It was a long way to get, wasn’t it? After, you know, Emily, I felt like something stood between us, and I couldn’t reach you anymore."



"Mulder, you don’t have to...." she started, but he stopped her with his finger on her lips.



"Please let me. It’s not easy for me to tell you this and I tried often but I just never had the courage. So, please listen. After your cancer went into remission I thanked God. Yeah, you heard right. I gave up believing in Him when Sam disappeared, but when you got even worse every day I prayed to Him and ... it helped. We still don’t know how it worked, whether the chip or something else made you healthy again but I began to believe in Him again. I don’t know what I would have done if you ....." he trailed off, took her hands in his, and went on.



"I couldn’t have stood it. It was worse when Sam was gone, but I know how it is to lose you, and I would not have survived it a second time. Well, and after you were better, I thought things would change and they did. I mean, when we were in the wood and you sung to me. That was a highlight."



"Oh, please, don’t remind me of that, and don’t ever tell this to anyone else, I beg you!"



"That means I shouldn’t have told Frohike? He was so sad because he knew he would never have a chance anymore."



"He never had a chance and no, you had better not have told him.”



He put on his best puppy-dog look again because he knew that always helped and went on. "I was the happiest man in the world when you danced with me to 'Walking in Memphis'. And then Emily was back. I wanted to tell you earlier about what I found in the laboratory, you know. But how? Should I simply tell you 'Yeah, and you can never have any children.' It hurt me as much as it hurt you."



"Mulder, how could you? You can’t ever imagine how it feels."



"Yes, because you never talk to me."



"No. That’s not the point. You say it hurt you as much as it hurts me but how could you?"



He came and knelt beside her. "I know because there is no other woman for whom I would wish as much as you to have a happy life. Children, a husband, chat with the neighbours, a small house."



"Cut the crap, Mulder. That’s not what I want. Not now and not very soon."



"Then tell me what you want."



"I .... I don’t know. But they took from me the chance to decide freely. That’s it. I never planned to get married and have children yet, but now I'll never have the choice..." Her hands began to tremble in his and her whole body too. "Don’t we deserve to be happy?"



"Yes, we deserve to and we will, I promise you." He let go of her hands and took her in his arms. He still knelt on the floor, his head on her heart where he could hear it beat.



"I was very happy, too."



He didn’t understand right at first than she meant the dance.



She softly stroked the back of his head and his neck. "But I’m scared. You were everything I had left. I don’t want to get separated from you just because they know we were....."



"They know you are the most important thing in my life, and they can’t do anything against us. They tried, and it always failed." He pulled back and looked up into her blue eyes.



Then they heard Jarod and Miss Parker coming down, and Mulder sat back on his seat.



"And besides, you’ve been *Mrs. Spooky* since you entered my bureau the first time." he smiled warmly at her.



Her lips formed an "I know".



"This is just as good as a hotel. Every time we come by you've prepared the food. Great! I’m feeling really comfortable here." Miss Parker sat down across from Mulder. "But who’s *Mrs. Spooky*?"



Scully and Mulder changed a look and laughed.



"He’s called *Spooky* because of his work with the x-files and me, you know, they just call me now *Mrs. Spooky*."



"That sounds funny. I have to keep this in mind. What shall we do all day?" Jarod asked as he took some toast.



"I give you a tip. Forget it. But to answer you question: I found an old boat next to the house. Why don’t we fix it and make a little journey on the lake? We could try angling a few fishes." Mulder went to the stove and took another cup of coffee.



Jarod was prompt to answer. "When should we start?"



"I don’t think we get to see them much today." Scully turned to Miss Parker.



"Looks like that. I’m glad we get a break!" Miss Parker replied, and grinned when she saw the face Jarod made at Mulder.



+++



A few hours later, Jarod worked with Mulder outside on the boat. I wasn’t too damaged so they only had to stop up a few little holes. But it was not as easy as they thought at first. They didn’t have the right tools to fix them.



Meanwhile Miss Parker got bored inside and walked around to sit with Scully in the kitchen.



"Hi."



"Hey." Scully looked up from a magazine.



"Do you have something to read for me, too?"



"I don’t think you want to read that, I just got a few medical magazines. Not quite interesting, but I have to be up-to-date." Scully laid the magazine down and looked out of the window.

"How about a walk? I looked at the map of this area this morning and found that there must be a beautiful waterfall only a few miles from here."



"Sure, why not? We don’t have anything to do anyway, have we?" Miss Parker stood up. "And I’m sure the two outside will be busy ‘til tonight with this stupid boat."



"Yeah, you’re right. But this time they can’t get on our nerves!" Scully put on her shoes and they went out.



Jarod sat in the boat and Mulder knelt in front of him. Both had taken of their shirts which didn’t look so bad, the two women thought.



Scully whispered something to Miss Parker and shouted to Jarod and Mulder. "Bye, Fred and Barney. We’re going to explore the area."



"Bye," they both shouted back.



"She looks much better than Betty, I must admit." Mulder murmured, and it was obvious where he was staring. The short jeans didn’t hide more than the short skirts she normally wore.



Jarod looked at him, confused. "Who are Fred and Barney?"



"You don’t know the Flintstones? Oh my. That’s a comic series. There were the two families: Fred and Wilma and Barney and Betty with their children. It’s really funny. You should watch it when we get back to civilization. Well, Betty has dark hair and Wilma is a redhead. I guess I can call Scully Wilma but I don’t dare to call Parker Betty. She has a look like she could kill someone."



Jarod got out of the boat and sat next to Mulder. "She’s not as cruel as most people say. She just had a bad childhood and a really cruel father."



"Welcome to the club," Mulder said sarcastically.



"To which club?" Jarod didn’t get it.



"That’s a phrase. I just meant she’s not the only one with a bad childhood. My father gave away my little sister; I didn’t know ‘til a year ago what happened to her. And you are an unlucky one, too, heh? By the way, what’s her first name? I don’t think I got it yet."

"You better don’t ask."



"Why?"



"I think the boat is ok now. We should try it on the water." Jarod acted as though he didn’t hear his question. He lifted the front of the boat and waited to Mulder to take the back, but Mulder stood there with his hands on his hips and waited.



"Ok," Jarod gave in. "No one has called her by her first name since her mother was shot. Everyone in the Centre only called her Miss Parker and she doesn’t like to be called by her first name. Besides, not many people know it anyway."



"Do you know?" Mulder lifted the back and they carried the boat to the water.



"Yeah." More he didn’t say. That had to be enough, and Mulder let it be that way.

When they let the boat in the water it seemed like they had repaired all of the holes, but when Mulder climbed inside, some repaired areas spun off and the water ran into the boat.



"Shit." He slowly sank.



"I guess we’ll have to make it better." Jarod watched as Mulder jumped out and helped him to pull the boat back onto the beach.



"We’ll have to wait ‘til it’s dry again. Let’s turn it around." Then they laid down next to the boat and let the sun burn them.



+++



Meanwhile, Scully and Parker climbed up a little hill. They had not talked much ‘til now but Scully was curious and asked Parker, "I’m not sure if I got straight your relationship with Jarod? You grew up together and then?"



"That’s no surprise. There is no real relationship." Parker said behind her.



"But yesterday..." Scully began.



"That was, I don’t know myself...." and Parker trailed off.



"Jarod told Mulder and I that as kids you were friends in the Centre, and now you’re trying to bring him back there. Why? You should be glad that he’s free."



"It’s not that easy, dear. Believe me." They could already hear the waterfall. It had to be straight behind the next hill.



"But even your mother tried to free him and...."



"That’s why she was murdered! He is the reason why she’s dead and I can’t leave the Centre."



"But why don’t you just quit?" Scully didn’t understand her motives.



"Because no one quits the Centre! You couldn’t understand that, but believe me I know what I’m talking about. And my father would never let me leave."



Then they reached the top of the hill and looked down on a huge water fall under before them. It was breathtaking.



"It looks like you know each other ... well, you and Jarod. How, mhm, ... close were you before? No, excuse me, that’s really none of my business."



Scully felt like she was just about to look through the keyhole. "No, it’s ok. I couldn’t talk about that to anybody before, and I feel like it has to come out now."



Miss Parker and Scully sat down by the water and took off their shoes to hang their feet in the water.



"When my mother was still alive, she allowed me to met with Jarod and some of the others, well, only with Jarod and Angelo. She thought it would be good if I had some friends there. We often met and played together. He showed me things he built and I offered him things he normally couldn’t get in there like sweets and things like that. Well, I couldn’t admit that I had a crush on him then. Then my mom was gone and my father kept me away from everyone. Only Sydney, Jarod's mentor, sometimes visited me. He brought me letters from Jarod and I gave him some for him. He knew how hard it was for both of us. We hadn’t had other friends and ... well, he managed that we could meet sometimes. The first few times, the tension between us was a little bit cold, but we soon felt comfortable with each other again.” Parker paused.



“Then I realized that I, I just couldn’t look him in the eyes because I knew we only had these rare times together and that was not enough for me. Also my father sent me to a private school and away from the Centre ... and Jarod. I couldn’t even say good-bye to him."



Scully sat there and listened to her sad story. She felt somehow sorry for her.



Parker went on, "The next time we saw each other I was 18. We meet in a corridor as Sydney brought Jarod to a sim-lab. He looked so different, no longer like an innocent boy. He was a grown man now. But, they brought him away too soon, before I could talk to him. The same week, I begged Sydney to arrange a meeting with him, and he did. I met him in his room. Sydney promised to turn off the security cameras. Neither of us knew what to say. We just stood there and looked at each other. Then he began to walk slowly towards me and his voice was not much more than a whisper:



- How dare you? You left me without a word and now you simply come back?

At first I didn’t know how to react.



- I was sent to a private school. I had no chance to tell you good-bye. I snapped at him. How could he be angry on me?



- Go back where you come from and leave me alone. That’s what you do best, he said. He stood now only inches in front of me.



- Fine, I said.



I stepped another foot toward him to show him he didn’t scare me.

- Then go.



He lightly pushed me away. I lifted my hand to hit him but he caught me and held my hand. The tension between us was more than I could bear. I tried to hit him with my free hand but he caught that, too. Then he put my arms down with his and stared at me. I'd never seen someone look like that. I did not know to be scared or aroused."



She now smiled at the thoughts and continued, "And then it happened. We kissed. And not like the innocent sweet little kiss I gave him years before. Then one thing leads to another ‘til someone came to his room and knocked.



I hurried and gathered my things together when Syd whispered outside that he couldn’t keep the cameras off any longer.



Well, because this was the Centre, and Syd doesn’t know everything, he couldn’t have known that there was another security-camera in there. You can imagine how my father reacted when he saw the tape. His little daughter with lab-rat no. 1."



"I have a vague idea." Scully smiled sympathetically at her. "And what happened then?"



"Well, daddy sent me the same day back to the private school and I didn’t hear from him for over two months. Time went by and I changed. I became what my father wants me to be because I loved him and couldn’t stand to be ignored by him. I went to different schools and learned a lot of things. Later I became the security-chief of the Centre."



"Did you meet again, I mean you and Jarod?" she curious a bit.



"Yes we have but my father swore to me he would kill Jarod if we began something behind his back. And, I don’t say this often, but I was scared. I’m not afraid of many things but against my father I’m powerless."



"So this means you want to leave him and the Centre?" Scully was not sure.



" I don’t know if I dare to. You have no clue what’s happened over all these years. No one leaves the Centre alive! You don’t get it. Nobody who works for the Centre exists officially. Try to check my fingerprints. You’ll be surprised when you don’t find any match."



"But the government ...." Scully began.



"Knows about that. They are one of our best clients. The government pays a lot for our sim-results. No Centre employee has ever been arrested for anything he did. Even if you kill someone, you can be sure your file will get lost and you will be out of prison before the cop that arrested you sits back at his desk."



"Have you ever killed someone?"



"No! But I know what I’m talking about."



"Tell me more about the Centre. I've never heard of such an organization before."



Miss Parker told Scully things she couldn’t believe at first. She had never thought that human beings could be so cruel.



"And you think they still have children in there?"



"I never saw them bring new kids down there but I can’t believe they gave up all those experiments. The people they use 'officially' are there by there own will but, I don’t trust anyone anymore. Not after all I’ve seen. But now enough of all that. Tell me more about you and Mr. FBI ... I saw some of your reports in the cabin. What exactly do you do at the FBI?"



"Well, that’s what I ask myself sometimes. We work for a section that’s called the X-Files. These are cases no one wants to solve because they are all kind of spooky."



"How long have you been working together? It seems like you know each other very well." Miss Parker sat back and let the sun shine in her face.



"I was assigned to work with Mulder in March 1992. They sent me essentially to spy on him. I should have proven that all these cases were just a waste of time so that they could have shut down the x-files, but as soon as we began to know each other better, I realized that the government just wanted to shut him, now us, down because they have a lot to hide. We’ve seen things in the last couple of years I would have never dreamed about when I joined the FBI."



"Par example?"



"That the government tries to make people believe in aliens and UFOs to hide that they do experiments with human beings you couldn’t imagine."



"I think I can."



"Sorry, I meant people, people who find it easier to believe in little green men than in a government that treats them like lab rats." Her voice was now hard and she found it hard to keep calm.



Miss Parker recognized her tension. "You sound like you , well you ...."



"I was used for some tests, too. THEY took me for over three months, only to bring Mulder up from his search for the truth. In this time, they did things to me I can barely remember. I don’t know much, but they implanted a chip in my neck. I let the chip be removed and got cancer."



Parker looked stunned.



"You heard right. I had cancer and was almost dying. Only shortly before it was too late, Mulder broke into a government-building and stole a similar chip. After the chip was implanted again, the cancer went into remission. That was a few months ago." Scully hesitated for a moment and considered if she should tell her everything. She decided that it would be good if she let it all out to somebody.



"I also learned that I had a child, Emily. I didn’t know about her until it was too late. She was killed by the same men who 'created' her." It was not as hard to tell this as she had expected, but now she felt really bad. Tears swelled in her eyes and Scully looked away.



"I’m sorry. I really am."



"You don’t have to be." Scully sighed.



+++



"What should we do now? We can’t say here forever and sooner or later they’ll find us." Parker had been trying not to think about this since they arrived at the cabin.



"That depends on you and Jarod. Mulder and I can’t do much. Let’s go back and see if they are not sunk already and talk with them."



When they came back, they could see them from far away lying lazily near the boat in the sun. Scully shook her head. "So much for hard working."



"That’s going to be a good sun-burn." Parker grinned at the thought.



Scully pointed at the two pails next to the cabin and Parker got what she wanted. They filled them with water and tiptoed to the two sleeping beauties.



When the men heard them coming towards them it was already too late, and the cool wetness hit them. Mulder screamed a little girl’s scream and jumped up. Beside him, Jarod did the same.



Jarod looked at Mulder and Mulder at Jarod and then they both looked at Scully and Parker.

"This means war!" Mulder shouted, and they ran after the women, who were already running away and laughing.



Parker was a bit faster than Scully, but also Jarod ran faster than Mulder. Scully ran left from the house and Parker right up to the hill but they didn’t get far before both got grabbed by Mulder and Jarod.



Scully couldn’t stop laughing. "Mulder, don’t touch me. You’re wet all over."



"Guess who that was," he said, and then grabbed her from behind and lifted her from the ground. She tried to free herself from his embrace but without success. He carried her again towards the lake and she knew exactly what he was going to do.



Jarod had not so much luck with Parker. She was really fast. He couldn’t get her, and she ran on the other side again, down beneath the cabin and to the lake.



On the footbridge, he was just about to jump in her direction when she made a quick move to the left and he fell in the water.



"Well, I would say two points for me," she said, but she didn’t see Mulder carrying Scully. He just pushed her a little with his elbow and she joined Jarod in the water.



"Oops" he said innocently and threw Scully in, but he should have known that she wouldn’t go without any protest. So she grabbed him by the arm and he fell with her.



Parker almost fell on Jarod, who tried to jump out of the way. She was so angry. He would regret this soon. She was about to swim to Mulder when she saw Jarod in the corner of her eye. He shook his finger to say "no" and came towards her, reaching her within seconds. The next thing she saw was underwater. He actually dared to dunk her under, and she wanted revenge. But, as she came up again he was gone and Scully was before her.



"I thought he was used to getting washed!" she said, and grinned.



Jarod came up and caught his air. He was just about to jump after Parker when a helicopter showed over the trees.



All four of them were paralysed with pure fear and they started up to the sky. The helicopter flew over them and away. None one of them could move or say anything for a long time, just stare at the sky. It was just the park ranger. When the fear was gone they got out of the water and went back to the cabin.



"I think this is the right moment to think about what we do now." Jarod stepped inside the living room, Mulder, Scully and Parker behind him.



"You’re right. Next time it could be Raines or the one who tried to shoot us." Parker agreed.



"Let’s get changed and meet again here." Mulder’s wet jeans weren’t very comfortable.



+++



Half an hour later they sat together around the living room table.



"I want to call my father." Parker stood up and took Scully’s cell-phone.



"Stop. Let me tinker with it first. You know Broots will try to check the line." He took the phone and connected it to the laptop.



"What are you doing?" Parker snapped.



"Just let me do it."



"Ok, you are the genius."



When he was finished he gave her the phone back. "Now you can call him."



"Thank you very much." He knew it wasn’t meant like that.



+++



Mulder and Scully sat calmly on the couch the whole time and just watched them.



"Daddy?" she began.



"Angel, is that you?" she heard her father on the other end of the line.



"Yes."



"Where is Jarod?"



"I disappeared without a word and the first thing you ask is where Jarod is?"



"Sorry, Angel. Sure I want to know how you are."



"I’m fine, now. After someone tried to kill *me* and ....., I mean me in the Centre."



"What? Tell me where you are, so that we can bring you back, now."



"Daddy, I can’t..."



"Tell me!"



"Do you know who it was?"



"Come back and we’ll find out."



"No!"



She heard him breathe in and out hard. "I know Jarod was there, too. He shot at you."



"Don’t lie to me. You know he’s not guilty!"



He had nothing to say to that.



Parker hit the end-button and was about to throw the phone at the far wall when Jarod caught her arm and took the phone from her. He shook his head and put the phone back on the table.



"He wasn’t even interested if I’m ok." Parker couldn’t believe that.



Jarod was about to reply when the cell-phone rang. He looked at Parker and then to Mulder and Scully.



"I thought they couldn’t follow the line." Parker said to Jarod who just shrugged one shoulder. Mulder came up and answered the phone.



"Agent Mulder?" a male voice sounded from the other end.



"Assistant Director Skinner?"



"Isn’t this Agent Scully’s number?"



"Oh, yes, she’s ...." Mulder didn’t know what to say.



"I thought she’s taking a vacation." Skinner was irritated.



"Right, Sir. We must have mixed up our phones. Guess she’s mine." Mulder tried to explain.



"Agent Mulder, it’s none of my business with whom you go on vacation and I don’t want to know either. The reason I call you is, are you really on vacation, or are you in trouble again?"



"No, Sir. Just relaxing. Why?" Mulder felt a little uncomfortable.



"Because someone called me and asked a lot of questions about you and someone called Jarod and a woman, Miss Parker. Do you know them?"



"I’ve never heard of them."



"Good, because if you had you would be in big trouble. I have an order from very high to report directly if I hear something about them."



"What have they done, sir?" Mulder asked like he didn’t know anything.



"No one would tell me that, either. Just keep your eyes open and, Agent Mulder, don’t stay too long in one place - it could easily get boring." Then the line went dead.



Scully stood straight behind him. "Skinner? What did he want?"



"He told us to move. Someone is asking questions about us ...... and Jarod and Parker."



"Who?" Scully asked.



"He doesn’t know. I’ll call the Gunmen and ask them to check around. Perhaps they could find out something."



"Let me call Sydney." Jarod came towards Mulder. "He can tell us what’s up at the Centre."



"I don’t know ..."



"Let him," Parker supported Jarod. "We have to know how far they are behind us."



Mulder looked at Scully, and then gave Jarod the phone. He turned around and dialled Sydney's number.



"This is Sydney," he answered.



"What have you found out?"



"Jarod, are you all right?"



"I’m fine, we both are. What do you know?"



"Well, it looks like ... is Miss Parker still with you?"



"Yes."



"It looks like her dad shot Brigitte."



"What? I, do you know if they know where we are?"



"I can’t help you, because no one talks to me or Broots anymore."



"Thanks, Sydney."



"Jarod, wait. What are you going to do?"



"Bye Sydney."





The Centre,

The Tower




Mr. Parker burst into the dark office deep inside the Centre. "Why do you want them dead?"



The man behind the huge desk didn’t move. He was sitting completely in the shadow. The normally so calm Mr. Parker was enraged. "Damn YOU, answer me!"



The man in the dark didn’t say anything. Then, he stood up and came around the desk.



"I don’t have to explain anything to you! Now go back to your work and find them."



Mr. Parker was just out of the door when he came back again. "You didn’t know Jarod was down there. You wanted only my daughter to be killed. YOU didn’t know that your son was there, too, did you?"



But the old man just sat back on his desk and didn’t respond. When Mr. Parker was gone, someone came around the corner and lit a cigarette.



"Well," he began, "It looks like he has no clue where they are. But I do. It’s only a matter of time ‘til we find them and my dearest friends, too." The man in the dark suit leaned back.



"Find them. And bring Miss Parker and my son back, dead or alive. With the other two you can do what you want."





The Cabin



Later the evening, after Mulder called the Gunmen, they sat together in the kitchen and thought about what to do next.



Jarod started. "Sydney and Broots can’t help us anymore, and we should keep them out. Who knows what they’ll do to them if they think they know anything."



"The Gunmen checked a few unofficial channels and will call as soon as they find something." Mulder explained.



"Let’s tell this right. They are close behind us, and it’s only a matter of time ‘til they find out where we are," Miss Parker began. "And what, what should we, no, I, do? I can’t go back to the Centre. I still don’t know who wants me dead or why. No one’s going go believe Jarod kidnapped me and then let me go."



Jarod stared at the ground. "You’re probably right." He paused for a long moment, and then went on. "Give me a little time. I’ll think about it. Just leave me alone for a few hours." Then he stood and disappeared through the door outside.



"Well, then, we wait." Parker sat back in her chair.





Later



Mulder was still in the kitchen, surfing the Internet. Scully and Parker sat on the couch in the living room. The fire in the hearth softly lit the room. "You are a doctor? You can do autopsies, right?"



"Yes. Why?" Scully asked.



"I was thinking. I can’t go back to the Centre and I don’t want to go back to my father. I never had a choice before but...."



"What do you have in mind?"



"I..." Parker began, but then Jarod came inside and began to babble.



"Jarod, stop. If you don’t speak more slowly, we can’t understand you," Parker stopped him. Mulder came from the kitchen when he heard them talking so loudly.



"Sit, and start from the beginning." Parker stepped beside him and led him by the arm to the couch.



He told them what he had planned, and as far as Mulder, Scully and Miss Parker could see, it was perfect.



"So, it looks like we’ll have a hard day tomorrow. I think we had better get some sleep." Mulder stretched and went upstairs with Scully.



Jarod looked to Parker, who sat beside him and smiled. "What?" he asked innocently.



"Nothing, just..."



"What?" he smiled at her.



"What you had in mind... is exactly what I wanted to tell Scully when you came back."



He raised his eyebrows. "You..."



Parker nodded.



"Maybe they did the wrong test with you in the Centre..."



"Or my mother manipulated the results to ... to save me from ... you know ... what they did to you and the other kids."



"Maybe..."



Parker patted Jarod’s knee. "Come on, we really need our rest."





The Cabin

The next day




"It would help us a lot if you had brought your phone with you, Mulder." Scully gave him a look.



"But I ... it’s damaged, you know, the last case ..." He tried the puppy-dog look again.



"Ok, ok. I just wonder why they keep giving you a new one. They don’t last longer than three months, maximum."



Jarod came in with a map and spread it out on the table before them. "Here, I think this should be the right place."



"Mhm, looks good." Miss Parker eyed the map carefully.



"Do you think you could make it that far?" Jarod didn’t want to make it too strenuous for her.



"I’m fine. I’ll do it."



Mulder grinned from ear to ear and opened his mouth but before he could speak Scully raised a warning hand. "Not one word, I’m warning you."



He put both hands up and bit his lips together.



Neither Jarod nor Parker said anything; they had understood long ago that these two had their own language, which no one else understood.



Later, after they had packed the car and cleaned the cabin, Jarod wanted to talk to Parker, but he couldn’t find her. He went to every room but she wasn’t there.



"Have you seen her?" he asked Mulder and Scully, who were standing by the car, taking a last look at the map and discussing the final details.



"No, we thought she was with you." Scully raised her head and tucked her hair behind her ear.

Jarod went back to the cabin and saw her sitting on the roof by the window. He smiled and went up the hill.



"Ready?" he asked softly.



"No!"



"But I thought you agree with -"



"It’s not that. Everything has changed in the last couple of days. I just feel like I don’t understand anything ..."



He sat down beside her and hesitated before laying his arm gently around her waist. He pulled her nearer to him. "That’s ok. I know how this feels. But if you’re not sure, maybe we should wait ‘til...."



"No, we can’t wait. I waited long enough, but never had the courage to do something. I’m glad that I have help now. We’ll do like we planned. What comes after that, we can decide later." she hugged him back, then stood up and offered him her hand.



"Let the show begin. I never thought I would enjoy one of your plans."



+++



After two day on the road, they reached the west coast. They only stopped to buy something to eat and to change the driver. On their way, they bought everything they would need and brought it to a beach house that Jarod had used as a hiding place before.



"Mulder and I are taking a walk on the beach. Just call when it’s time to start." Scully told Jarod and Parker.



When they were gone, Jarod handed Parker the cell-phone and walked away. He knew that this would be the hardest part for her.



"Daddy? It’s me."



"Angel? Where are you?"



"I can’t tell you..."



"Are you still with Jarod, is he there? ..."



"Daddy, listen! I want to know why someone inside the Centre wants me dead. When they say bring Jarod in, dead or alive, that’s plausible, but why me? Tell me!"



"Tell me where you are and we’ll bring you back."



"Daddy, I know it was Brigitte, but whose order was it?"



He didn’t answer.



"Damn it, answer me!"



"Angel, I ... I don’t know."



"Don’t lie to me, daddy."



"Please, you have to trust me, my darling. Tell me where you are and I’ll have you brought back to me."



It took her a long time to reply to that. "Sorry, daddy, but I trusted you too much before. I don’t know if I want to ... to come back again. Just give me time. Bye, daddy."



"Wait!" he cried, but then line was dead.



"We have them!" Broots shouted from his computer.



"Send a sweeper-team there. I want them back!" Mr. Parker turned to leave.



"But, Mr. Parker! We don’t know if Jarod has her still ..."



+++



Miss Parker let the phone rest in her hand and blinked her eyes. Jarod came up, took the phone from her hand, and put it into his jacked. "Tell me I did the right thing, Jarod."



"You did the right thing!"



"And why do I feel so bad?"



+++



Mulder and Scully sat down in the sand. Mulder was a little uncomfortable because Scully hadn’t spoken much to him all day. "What’s up? You look ..."



"Do you think that will turn out all right?"



"You mean with Jarod and Parker or what?"



"I mean everything. I’m not sure if I want to go on..." Mulder looked concerned.



"You’re not telling me you want to transfer?"



"No... I was thinking about quitting... the bureau." She couldn’t bear to look in his eyes, so she stared out at the sea.



"You? Why? Have I said something wrong or ...?"



"No, but what I told you, you told me, about a second chance ... I want to use this chance, but not like this, no longer. Please try to understand me."



He gently turned her head with his hand, so that she had to look at him. "Like I said, I want you to be happy, and if that’s what makes you happy, I have to live with that," he said, but inside a loud voice was screaming in pain.



Scully took his hand, which still rested on her cheek in her hand, and placed a soft kiss there. "Don’t get me wrong. I’m thinking about a transfer; I didn’t do it already. I just need the time to make the right decision. But now let’s move. We don’t have much time."





Back at the beach house



"You talked to your father?" Scully asked Parker. They were sitting on the small balcony while Jarod and Mulder checked the diving equipment.



Parker nodded. "Yeah, I called him. He said he wants me back." She made a long pause before she continued. "He is my father, for God's sake - and I don’t know if I love him anymore."



At this moment Jarod came by and stopped behind the corner as he heard her say, "I don’t know if I ever loved him. But he was the only one I knew." Jarod thought his heart would break in two.



"Do you think it’s normal to love someone you’re with all the time?" she asked Scully, and Jarod still stood behind them and couldn’t move.



"You mean you thought you loved him because you didn’t know anything. I don’t think so...."

But Jarod never heard what Scully said then. He had heard enough, and stumbled back down to the beach.



+++



Later that day, before they drove to the harbour, Jarod’s behaviour was strange. Everyone noticed, but no one said anything. They drove to the pier, rented a small boat, and talked long enough with the owner to make sure he would remember them.



"So, where do you want go?" he asked.



"Oh, we don’t know yet. We’ll see," Scully answered.





Two hours later, they were on the sea.



"Now there’s no turning back. You sure about this?" Jarod asked Parker.



"Yes, I’m sure. And if you ask me one more time, I’ll throw you in the sea ..." she tried to sound like she did when she spoke with her dad or with someone from the Centre but with Jarod it failed.



"Ok, ok. You know that I know how you are about this. I just wanted to start a conversation. Sorry."



"Why don’t you tell me again how you always escaped me before? I’m sure this is much more interesting," she said, but she sounded a little bit too bored.



"You aren’t planning to try to catch me again, are you?" he teased.



"Don’t stand too close to the edge..." she warned.



“Or what? You are not strong enough to-" She didn’t let him tell her this twice. She pushed him to the edge of the rail, and held him so that he couldn’t keep his balance.



"Or what?" she repeated, and grinned at him.



Jarod swung his arms to try to regain his balance, but without luck. "I take it back, ok? I take it back."



Parker just grinned and let him stand again, but didn’t step back when he came forward. "Never mess with a Parker."



"You’re not starting early without the diving suit?" Mulder shouted when he saw Jarod hanging over the edge.



"No. But I could never hurt a woman, so I let her win."



"It looked to be the other way around," Scully smirked.



Jarod gave her a grin and raised his eyebrows. “Hah, hah..."



"Uh, poor baby. I didn’t insult your manhood, did I?" Parker reached up and rumpled his hair.



"How much time do we have left?" Scully asked Jarod.



He looked at his watch and then up to the sky. "One hour. Then they’ll come."



"We had better get ready." Mulder said.



+++



Exactly one hour later, Mulder and Scully were on the deck and Jarod with Miss Parker below deck when a helicopter came towards them.



Then everything happened at once. Suddenly smoke came from the rear. Mulder and Scully grabbed two lifebelts and jumped over the rail, just as the whole of the boat exploded.



The helicopter circled them a few times. The man next to the pilot held a pair of binoculars. He said something to the pilot, and they flew away. Several hours later, the lifeguards rescued Mulder and Scully and brought them back to the beach.



"Are you ok?" Mulder said to Scully after the paramedics had checked them.



"Yeah." she stepped closer to Mulder and whispered, "Do you see anyone suspicious?"



He held the edges of her blanket together and lowered his head more. "Did the police already interview you?"



"Yeah." She was still trembling.



"What did they say?" He rubbed her arms to warm her.



"Agent Scully, Agent Mulder?" a strong deep voice called them.



They spun around and saw AD Skinner walking towards them.



"Director Skinner. How did you know where we were?" Mulder let go of Scully.



"I got a call that you were in trouble, again. What happened here?"



Scully began to explain that they were trying to hide Jarod and Miss Parker from an assassin.



"Who are they and where are they?"



"We don’t know. After the boat exploded, we never saw them again. We are afraid they ..." Scully trailed off.



Mulder finished "We are afraid they died. They were below deck when it happened."



Then a police officer came up to them. "I’m sorry. We couldn’t find anybody out there, and the water is too deep there to dive for them. No one could live through this." Then he walked away.



"Could anybody tell me what’s really going on here?!" Skinner was annoyed.



+++



Meanwhile, Jarod and Miss Parker reached the beach at a remote area. They made sure no one was around when they walked out of the water. On the boat, Jarod had detonated a smoke-grenade so that they could dive into the water without being seen by the helicopter. Then they swam back to the beach and went quickly up to the where they had placed a car earlier.



They changed clothes and drove a few miles to a motel and rented 2 rooms.



"Let me help you." Jarod wanted to carry the bags for Parker.



"Jarod, I’m fine. You don’t have to help me."



"What if I want to?" he smiled for the first time that day.



"Jarod. What’s up with you? You’ve been acting strange all day, and I don’t believe it’s just because of our plan. So, what is it?"



Jarod handed the key to her door after he set her bag down next to the bed. "It’s nothing. I’m going to the next room." Then he was gone.



Parker shook her head. She couldn’t understand him. A few minutes later, some knocks on the door that connected their rooms distracted her from her thoughts. She unlocked the door and let him in. Jarod refused to look her in the eyes as he spoke.



"I was thinking.... about what we do now.... that they believe we are dead."



"Wait. These have been strange days. We shouldn’t rush deciding something so important." Parker was a little afraid what he might want to do.



"Ok. You may be right. I’ll go and try to rest. `Night."



+++



Parker lay in her bed but couldn’t sleep. She could hear Jarod walking through his room. After a while it was quiet. He must have gone to sleep, she thought, and did the same. Parker woke as she heard someone scream, and it took her a while to remember where she was, and that it was Jarod next door. She hesitated before knocking on his door. He didn’t respond.



"Jarod?" The door wasn’t locked, so she opened it and went inside. "Jarod?" she asked again, because she couldn’t see him. Parker went further into the room and was startled by what she saw. He sat next to his bed, curled into a ball, rocking himself. Parker sat beside him and laid her hand on his arm.



"Jarod?" she asked again, but it seemed like he didn’t even recognize her. He looked so sad, and she didn’t want anything more than to take him in her arms and make the pain go away.

He rubbed his eyes and began, in a trance-like state,



"Nightmares. The hallway .... Sydney holds me back ... they are going to hurt her ... the elevator ..." He trailed off and buried his head in his arms.



Parker stroked his neck gently. "I know, I have the same nightmares. I can’t tell you how often ..." she started, but he lifted his head again and cut her off.



"No. You don’t know how it is, what I see. You want to know. I’ll tell you: ...I see you, not your mother. I see you lying on the floor in the elevator with a hole in your head! I see you...."



He made a long pause and then continued. "As long as you were like your father, believing in the Centre and in him, you were safe. But now, after all the things I told you about your mom, your father and the Centre and after all the things you saw ... you are no longer safe. And that’s the reason why someone tried to kill you in SL 27. Someone sees how much you are becoming your mother’s daughter. ... I saw her die; I don’t want to see you die."



"And you won’t see me die, because you saved my life."



He made a sound like a laugh. "Yeah, and now. We’re on the run and don’t know what to do next."



"What happened to the Jarod I knew? He would never have given up. He would have told me we’ll find a way. That there is always a way."



he thought and said,

"That Jarod is dead." He began to sob again.



"Why?"

He jumped up and walked through the room. "Why? I thought after all that happened, at the cabin, there would be a way for us together."



She still didn’t understand what he was talking about. She stood up too and laid her head to the side

.

"Why have you done this to me if you ..." He lifted his hand and let it sink again.



"Could you please tell me what you are talking about?"



"Why did you kiss me, huh? Because you pitied me? I don’t need your pity. It would have been better if you had just let me be alone."



"Why do you think so? Do you honestly believe I would have kissed you just to comfort you? I thought you knew me better."



"Yeah, I thought so, too. Until I heard you speak with Scully about me.”



At first she thought he meant the conversation at the waterfall, but that was impossible. “I didn’t tell Scully anything..."



"Don’t lie to me. Better shut up. It’s too late anyway."



"WHAT do you mean?"

He came to her and stood just inches before her. "You told her that you don’t know if you ever loved me. What was that to you at the Centre - you and me, you know what I mean. Was it just? Forget it."



He turned around and was about to walk away when she caught his arm and forced him to look at her again. "I always thought you were different, but you’re just as stupid as anyone else you genius. You don’t know people as well as you think you do. I was talking about my father when I spoke with Scully."



Then she went to her own room and slammed the door behind her and locked it. He stood in his room, alone, and felt like he had made a complete idiot of himself.



+++



Later, Parker was lost in thoughts when he knocked softly on her door. She didn’t answer him, just unlocked the door and sat back on the bed. "What do you want?" she asked him coldly.



"I was thinking about what we said earlier. Maybe you are right. Perhaps the feelings I have for you are not what I thought. Maybe it’s really just a strong feeling of solidarity? But I’m having some problems analysing these feelings. Perhaps you could help me and explain it to me."



He went to the end of the bed and sat down at her feet, facing the wall. "Every time I called you, my heart beat faster, and when I heard your voice my stomach jumped. When I’m near you my heart beats even faster. And every time I called Sydney, I prayed that he would not tell me that something had happened to you. Although you have more than one bad quality I only can see your good ones. When you touch me, it feels like fire and ice at the same time. And now you tell me what these feelings are!"



She didn’t know what to say at first. "Jarod that was the most beautiful declaration of love I ever heard."



Parker came towards him and knelt beside him on the bed. She put one hand gently on his shoulder and the other on his check to turn her towards him and gave him the sweetest kiss she had ever given anyone. He put one hand on her neck and with the other he slowly pulled her into his lap. His hands gently stroked her back and she stroked his. He broke the kiss first, and looked at her for a reaction. When she smiled for him, it was enough to make him fly. He kissed her again, and this time more passionately. His arms encircled her even tighter, and his hand wandered under her t-shirt up and down the bare flesh of her back.





The same time

Somewhere in a Plane




"You called the Gunmen?" Scully asked Mulder who was sitting beside her in a plane back to Washington DC.



"Yeah. Everything is arranged. They just have to keep quiet for a few weeks, and then they can do whatever they want to do." Mulder grinned at her.



"Do you think they’ll stay together?"



"Hm?"



"I mean, do you think they’ll try to live together, or separate as soon as the whole thing is forgotten?"



"Well, Jarod does want to stay with her, but I don’t know if she wants the same." Mulder leaned more towards her, so that the passengers behind them couldn’t see him any more.

"Don’t tell me you didn’t see how she looked at him?"



"How did she look at him?" Scully teased.



Mulder looked past her to see if someone was watching them, then looked back at her. "Like this..." he said, and stared deep into her blue eyes.



"Mulder, you always look like that ..."



"Well, and are we still together or not?"



"Can I bring you anything?" the stewardess asked, and Mulder sat back in his seat.



"No, thanks." Scully could have killed her right then. The moment was gone.





The Motel

The Next Morning




Parker woke late that morning. She lifted her head from the pillow and looked at the clock next to the bed. It was already 10 am. As Jarod felt her move he woke up, too, and blinked.

"'Morning."



"It really is a good morning." She smiled a bright smile to him. He lay on his side and pulled her to him again. Just as they started to kiss, somebody knocked at the door.



"Who is it?" Jarod shouted.



"I have a package for you," a male voice said from outside.



Parker jumped out of the bed and went with the blanket to her own room as Jarod opened the door. Frohike stood there with two bags in his hands. "Won’t you let me in?" He sounded nervous.



"Sure." Jarod looked back to see if Parker was gone, and then let him in. He had brought fresh clothes, money, new passports, and visas.



"Have you found out if anyone is still looking for us?" Jarod asked the man. Mulder had told before he would send someone named Frohike to bring them stuff.



"Yeah. Looks like someone put some pictures up on the Internet and-" He couldn’t speak on, as Parker chose that moment to enter in jeans and a t-shirt.



Jarod introduced them, and Parker felt like Broots' older brother stood before her. He tried to say something, but only some indefinite noises came out. She missed Broots, somehow.



"And you brought us our tickets for a new life?" Parker slowly walked around him.



"I, we have here everything you need to go underground."



Parker stared into his eyes and enjoyed his reaction. Jarod saw how uneasy he felt, and guided him to the door.



"And everything Mulder told you is in there?" Jarod asked, and looked to the bags.



"Yes, I guess. Here’s our phone number. The lines should be safe. If you need anything, just call."



"Ok. Thanks, we owe you something." Jarod patted his shoulder.







Meanwhile

Washington DC




Scully and Mulder drove first to the office to make their reports and then Mulder brought her to her apartment.



"Do you want a coffee or something?" she asked him as they walked up.



"Sure." He placed her bag near the coffee table and went after her to the kitchen.



She had turned on the radio, and the sound of U2’s "If God will send his angels" softly went through the apartment.



"Oh, I love this song." Mulder stepped behind her and turned up the radio, which was standing on the cupboard in front of her. "I never knew you liked such music?"



"Oh, I like a lot of things..." He grinned and stepped close behind her and encircled her with his arms. Neither of them heard Mrs. Scully open the front door. Mulder stroked the hair from her neck and placed first a single kiss there and then another. The coffee was long forgotten.



"Dana? You here? I have a surprise for you."



And it truly was a surprise when she entered the kitchen and saw her daughter and her partner in a much unexpected situation. Mulder slowly looked up and turned around to face Mrs. Scully.



"Hi! I didn’t meant to ..."



"Hi Mom," Scully interrupted her, but didn’t knew what to say next.



"I, mhm, I brought you something, but I should come back later."



"No, No. We were just about to have some coffee. Do you want some?" Scully offered.



"Well, sure." Mrs. Scully still couldn’t believe what she saw. Scully gave her a cup and then took Mulder by his arm.



"Mom, make yourself at home. Mulder and I have something to make clear first." Then she took him with her to her bedroom and shut the door behind them. Mulder started to say something but she cut him off and placed her finger on his lips.



"Wait." Mulder was a little bit apprehensive. She was acting strange.



"Mulder, I ..." she looked him deep in the eyes and then she did the only natural thing she could think of. She placed her hand on his neck and pulled him down to her.



The kiss was gentle at first and when she pulled away first, she searched his face for a reaction, and his goofy grin told her everything she wanted to know. He didn’t wait another moment to pull her close to him and he kissed her again. This time the kiss was less gentle, but much more passionate.



Scully’s mother was long forgotten until they heard the phone ring in the living room. They parted slowly, and Scully breathed a few times before she opened the door and went straight to the phone without looking to her mom.



"Hello, this is Agent Scully." "Hi," She greeted him.



"The package is delivered."



"Thank you. We owe you something," she said, knowing exactly what came next.



"Well, we could go to dinner tonight."



"I’m afraid she’s busy," Mulder said as he took the phone from her, "but thanks again. See ya." He hung up.



Scully eyed him but he shook his head. "He knows how it’s meant."



Mrs. Scully came up and watched them.

"Don’t you want to tell me what’s going on, Dana? And Fox, lip-gloss doesn’t suit you." She couldn’t keep that back and she grinned at them both, now blushing.



+++



A week later

Somewhere in Florida




After Jarod got the DSA’s from his hiding place where he had left them before he went to the Centre and SL 27, he and Parker rented a beach house. If they had to keep quiet, why not in a lovely place like this? They spent almost the entire day on the beach together.



Parker lay on a huge beach-towel and waited for him to get back with the two ice creams, but he didn’t come back. As she turned around, she saw him standing by the ice cream stand with a few other people. She stood up and went over to them. Jarod had just gotten their ice creams, and a girl was flirting with him. It seemed he didn’t get that she was trying to turn him on, but Parker did. She knew exactly what was in this girl's mind.



She went to him, embraced his naked torso, and gave him a long, deep kiss on the mouth. He had a hard time trying not to drop the ice cream on the floor.



"Hi, Honey!" she greeted him, sugar-sweet with a big smile.



"Hi. I was just on my way back." His arms were still around her, and she took one of the ice creams from him.



"See ya." Jarod said good-bye to the others at the stand and they walked back to their towels.

"Looks like I have no chance," the poor girl said to her friend, and they went back to their places.



After they ate their ice cream in silence, Parker began, "Jarod, I enjoy being here with you, but you know that I can’t do this all the time. I was used to working fourteen hours a day at the Centre, and I can’t just sit tight. I miss something. Not the Centre, but doing something. And I still want to know who killed my mother, maybe we could even find those kids she tried to rescue, and you surely want to find your parents."



"You’re right. I was hoping we could just keep quiet for a few days and then start again. You know, we have to be very careful not to let the Centre realize that we’re still alive."



"I know. ... What about Mulder and Scully? Do you have their e-mail addresses? We should tell them that we are OK."



"Yes."







Washingtom DC

Scully's apartment


The phone rang. "Hi, Scully."



"Hi yourself. What’s up?"



"I just got a e-mail from, you know. Everything’s all right. Has anybody asked you any more questions about the "accident"?"



"No, you?"

"After you left the office, someone called and asked a lot of questions. Guess who it was - this Sydney guy."



“Really?"



"Yeah. He wanted to know about Jarod and Miss Parker. How they were together."



"Why don’t you make it a day and come over? You could tell me more over a pizza or something like that."



"Sounds great. I’ll be there in half an hour, ok?"



"Bye."



It was strange. Nothing had changed between the two of them - well, not much. They still worked together like before they just spent more off-time together and had much more fun. They had to be careful, though, because it would be a godsend for the syndicate.



The months passed, and they only got a few emails the whole time from Jarod and Parker. They never told them where they were or what they were doing because no one should find out with whom they were corresponding, but it seemed like they were still together, on the run.



+++



Somewhere in the Desert



Jarod and Miss Parker were caught by two Centre cars. The sweepers threw them on the sandy ground and handcuffed them. Then they lifted them and brought them to the second car.

Before the sweepers pushed them into the car, Jarod and Parker exchanged looks and as he nodded, they fought them.



Jarod knocked the first sweeper out and Parker took the second. She set her thumb again, grabbed his gun and looked around. Nobody was coming out of the first car.



"Uncuff me." He handed her the keys.



"How did they find us here?"



"Just luck, my dear." they both spun around, and Mr. Parker came out of the first car with a gun in his hand.



"Step away from him," he ordered his daughter.



"So that you can shoot him? No!"



"Step away! Or do you want to ..."



"What? Do you have the order to kill us both?"



"I have been ordered to bring him back. And not alive."



Jarod wanted to start to walk away from her, but she grabbed his arm and stepped in front of him. Her father s’til aimed the gun at him and her.



"Let me go!" Jarod whispered urgently to her.



"No. He’ll shoot you."



"He’ll shoot us both if you don’t let me go."



"No!" she took the safety off the gun she held and still aimed at her father.



"You already took my mother. I don’t let you do this.

"

Mr. Parker looked at the ground and then back to his daughter. His fingers tightened around the gun, but then the door of the car flew open and an unknown man in a dark suit came out.



"Shoot, you coward!" he shouted.



At the same time, Jarod took the gun from the second sweeper out of his pocket where he had put it earlier. Mr. Parker looked to the man next to him.



"How can you be so cruel to your own son?" he asked him.



The man took his own weapon and shot at Miss Parker, but Jarod was faster, and the bullet hit the man in the dark suit straight through the heart. Mr. Parker pointed his gun from his daughter to Jarod but before he could shoot, a bullet from her weapon hit him in the head.



+++



Parker almost fell out of her bed as she tried to jump away from the fight in her dream. She woke and shook her head. It had been a nightmare, a stupid nightmare. She wished Jarod was there, but he was out to "work". He had gotten a job as a doctor in the little town they were staying in temporarily as she followed a lead to one of the "rescued" children here.



When he came "home", she had already eaten breakfast and left him some toast and orange-juice and of course chocolate-croissants. He loved them. She was about to leave when she met him at the door.



"Hi."



"Hey."



"What’s up?"



"Oh, nothing important. The Sheffield boy has the flu, and I had to drive to their farm tonight. He’s going to be fine." Jarod looked tired and wanted nothing more than to into bed and sleep, but as he looked at her, she looked like he felt.



"What’s up here? You look pretty sleepy yourself."



"I just couldn’t sleep well, I guess." Jarod realized that she was not telling him everything.



"Maybe you’ll feel better when you tell me?" he offered.



"No, it’s ... I had a dream last night, and it was too weird. I dreamt the Centre had found us here and, just forget it. It’s too stupid. I'm going now to city hall to try to find out something about our Joshua. Bye."



Joshua Paul was one of the "rescued" children who had not died yet, or so they hoped.



+++



In the City Hall



"Good morning. I’d like to take a look at ..." she began, but the woman behind the desk greeted her warmly.



"Hi! You’re Jarod's wife, aren’t you? I’m Mary. How can I help you?"



Just like in old times, Parker thought, only this time she had a chance to kick Jarod’s ass later for that. "We’re not married," she simply told her. "I’m searching for documents about boy named Joshua Paul. Can I take a look at the birth certificate?"



"I’m afraid I can’t allow that. They are not for public viewing."



"But it would be a great help for me. You know, it could be that we are siblings and I need to find him to be sure ..." She knew that was a lie, but if she were to tell the poor woman the whole story it would take more time than she had.



"Well, the files are in the last room down the hallway, room 23. As I told you, it’s not for public viewing. I’ll go to the washroom now." She turned and walked away with a smile.



"Thanks." Parker waited until she had disappeared, and then went down the hallway to room 23. She looked around to be sure that no one was around, and entered. She searched in all of the file-cabinets, but nowhere could she find a hint to a Joshua Paul or anyone like him.



And she had been so sure they would find something here.

As Parker walked past the secretary, the woman called after her. "Miss, wait."



Parker turned around and the secretary came towards her. "I just remembered something. You said his name was Paul, Joshua Paul? A few months ago there was a government employee who was searching for the same person. He also went to the archives. Did you find anything there?"



"No." Now it was getting interesting.



"That’s strange. This man said he had found what he was looking for, and then I never saw him again."



"What did he look like, this man?"



"He was black, wore an expensive suit, had short hair, and was huge."



"Thanks a lot. You were a great help."



"I’m glad I could help you. Anything for Jarod’s wife, eh, friend. He’s such a sweetheart. It’s good to have such a talented doctor in town. You know the last one was a, well, you know the story."



Oh yeah. Jarod had played Mr. Help again and exposed the old doc as a dealer who sold steroids and other drugs to the kids from the football-team of the local high school.



On her way back home she drove along the river. Normally it was just a little creek, but because it had rained so much in the last few days it was now a strong river. But was that? She saw something swimming in the high tide. It was a boy, a small boy. She stopped the car and ran down to the water. She took off her shoes and jumped in. The boy wasn’t moving any more. She had to bring him out. The water was wild and she had trouble reaching him. Then she grabbed his sweatshirt and pulled him towards her and brought him to the shore.

As she started to perform CPR some kids ran towards her.



"Billy!" one of them shouted.



"God, is he dead?" the other asked.

As she tried to make him breathe again she asked them, "You know him?" They nodded.



"Call for help and hurry!" she ordered. The boys ran away.



It was nearly too late, but then the lifeless body began to breathe and spit out the water. "Are you ok?" Parker asked softly, and held his head carefully.



"I’m cold." he stuttered.



"I know. Help’s coming soon." She saw a few cars coming towards them.



Jarod hopped out of one car and ran to her. She explained what had happened, and he checked the boy while more and more villagers came to see what had happened here. The mother of the little boy came running up and cried. She thanked Parker warmly for her help and went back to her boy who was now brought to the hospital with the arriving ambulance.

Jarod closed his luggage and came to her. She sat on the back of his car with a blanket over her shoulder and her wet clothes.



Jarod hugged her. "You’re not going to hit me when I say I’m really proud of you?" he teased, then added more seriously, "A few minutes later and the boy would be dead."



She playfully hit his chest and pushed him softly towards her car. "I’ll bring you home." He turned to one of the people and threw the keys to his car to him. "Here, Chris! Could you drive my car back? I’ll drive her home."



"Sure, take your time. We’ve got nothing else to do now." The young man caught the keys.



Neither of them had seen the old man with his home-video-camera who filmed the doc and his girlfriend as they drove away. Then he zoomed back to the little boy. he thought.





Washington D.C. Scully’s apartment, the next day



"Oh shit!" Scully shouted in front of the TV. "Hey, what’s up?" Mulder had just entered her apartment. She just pointed at the TV and as he saw what she meant he said "Oh shit!", too.

On the screen she clearly saw Jarod and Parker. It was the tape from the man yesterday. He had sold his tape to the news station and they had bought it as a big heroine story.



"These two are just doppelgangers of our friends?"



"I’m afraid you’re wrong. Can we contact them somehow?"



"We could send an e-mail, but I don’t know how often they check it. Let’s try." Mulder booted the laptop.





The Desert

Jarod and Miss Parker's house1 hour later




"Shit!"



"What?" Jarod asked Parker, who was sitting at the computer to kill some time.



"Look!" she turned the monitor to him.



"Oh my God! Let’s pack. We have to run."







Same time

At the Centre, Tech Room




"Man!" Broots nearly spilt his coffee as he saw the picture on the TV-screen that sat near his computer.



"What is it, Broots?" Sydney looked up from the desk where he was looking at test results from the last sim’s.



They still worked together since the "death" of Jarod and Miss Parker, only Broots now did other things than follow Jarod's paths through the Internet. Sydney's jaw fell. He couldn’t believe what he saw. Jarod just brushed Miss Parker's cheek and hugged her. Then he saw them drive away in a car.



"Sydney, tell me I’m just stressed and am having hallucinations."



"Then I'm having them, too. But I'm guessing we saw right. I never really could believe they just died on that boat."



"But, but the FBI said ... there were witnesses."



"And we know that they were together for some time before this happened. They helped them to hide."



"Oh my God. What if someone else saw this TV-report?"



"I guess we’ll have company in a few seconds." And then in came Mr. Parker followed by Mr. Raines.



"If you two knew something about that before ..." Mr. Raines began.



"We knew no more than you." Sydney tried to calm them.



Sam, the sweeper, entered and informed them that the helicopter was ready and Mr. Parker and Mr. Raines went out of the room and left Sydney and Broots speechless. Sydney started to walk behind them, but Broots caught his arm and gave him an inquiring look.



"We are going with them," he said and freed himself from his grip. Broots still didn’t move.

Sydney turned. "What? What are you afraid of? We have a chance to find the truth. Don’t you want to know what really happened?"



"I ... no, yes... ok. But I have a bad feeling." He caught up with Sydney and they hurried to the helicopter pad.







Somewhere in the desert, On the road



"How long will it take them to get here?" Miss Parker thought, but mistakenly spoke out loud.



"The report was on TV five hours ago. They could be in town by now, asking questions about us. I spoke with almost everyone, and they’ll tell them all a different story and a different direction. That should give us a little lead and time." Jarod sped the car over the highway.



"It’s about 190 miles northward." She patted the map in her lap. "We should get there before sundown?"



He looked up to the sky and back to the road, then to her and nodded.







In town, On the Main Road



Sydney and Broots spoke with several villagers and then met in the little pub.



"Well," Broots started. "The nice old woman told me Jarod said to her they’re going to Disneyland. The woman with the little child said Miss Parker said something about Alaska. And now the best - to the preacher they said they were going to Las Vegas."



"Oh," Sydney couldn’t hide his grin. "The school principal told me they decided to go on vacation to ... guess where ... Blue Cove, Delaware!"



"Yeah, that’s good. And they definitely are Jarod and Miss Parker. I can’t believe they are together and she hasn’t killed him yet and he hasn’t tied her to a tree." Sydney just smiled ‘til Mr. Parker and a sweeper entered the pub.



"What a nice little town, isn’t it, Mr. Parker?" Sydney greeted him. He was just happy to know Jarod was all right and Miss Parker, too. They had done the right thing.



"Did you find out anything useful?" he asked them coldly.



"No, Mr. Parker." Broots answered nervous. He hoped he hadn’t seen the grin on his face as he came in. As they left the pub a second helicopter landed near the first one. Mr. Parker went over and spoke with the man next to the pilot. Neither of them knew the older man with the dark suit. After a minute Mr. Parker came back and climb in the other helicopter. They flew away and left Sydney and Broots on the main road.



"What ...?" Broots began.



Sydney shook his head and lifted his shoulders.







On the road



"I have the bad feeling we should find some place to hide, and that fast." Parker looked nervously behind her on the road.



"It would be pure luck if they found the car from the helicopter."



"I guess they’re pretty lucky." She pointed behind her.



Two helicopters flew high above the highway behind them. One of them flew over them and sank almost to the ground to stop the car. Jarod had to stop hard so as not to hit the skids of the copter. As soon as the car stood still, two sweepers hopped out of the helicopter and "helped" them roughly out of the car. They shoved them on the hood and searched them for weapons. Sam took the weapon he found on Miss Parker and put it in his pocket. Mr. Parker slowly climbed out.



The sweepers took them off the car and stood them before Mr. Parker. He looked at his daughter and then to Jarod without blinking or moving a muscle. He turned and slowly shook his head. Miss Parker and Jarod meanwhile exchanged looks and she knew exactly what he wanted to do.



Like a flash they fought with the sweeper and knocked them out. She took her weapon back and pointed it at Mr. Parker, who now turned to them again and also had a gun in his hand, aimed at Jarod.



"My dear, put down the gun."



"So you can shoot us?" she asked him.



He didn’t respond but just looked briefly to the ground and back.



"Like you shot my mother?"



"I DIDN'T KILL HER."



Then the older man came from the second helicopter and shouted to him. "No, I did." He looked at Miss Parker directly, with his dark brown eyes challenging her ice-blue.



"And now you have to do it!" he ordered her father.



"I can’t!" Mr. Parker's hands now trembled.



"Then I'll have to do it, you moron!" He turned his gun to Miss Parker.



Jarod blinked at the sweeper on the ground before him. He could see the gun in his holster. He quickly grabbed it and pointed the gun at the older man with the dark suit.



"Oh Boy, you won’t shoot me." He grinned devilishly.



"Give me one good reason not to!" he said, enraged.



"One reason? I'll give you two. Ok, first because I would shoot her anyway. And now my favourite one..." he made a dramatic pause. "Because I’m your dad!"



The world around Jarod began to swim. "You lair! Jarod, don’t believe him!" Miss Parker shouted at him as she saw that he was fighting hard with himself. He then looked back at him and targeted directly at the old man's heart.



"You won’t get a chance to blink when I shoot you." He was now really angry. Jarod saw the muscle jerk in his face and shot before the old man could bend his finger. Mr. Parker aimed at him and was about to fire as a second bullet flew through the air and hit him in his sleeve. He and the old man collapsed onto the sandy ground. Neither Jarod nor Miss Parker could do anything but stare. They could not move or even thing of moving. They were like stone.

Miss Parker came back to reality first and put a gentle hand on his shoulder to turn him around.



He began to mumble something she couldn’t understand and stepped into her open arms, the guns dropped down on the desert ground. They held each other for a moment that seemed like eternity ‘til she softly spoke in his ear.



"We can’t believe them."



"No, but I have to be sure. We have to be sure. ..."



They separated and first cuffed the sweepers on the helicopter where they threw them, then they took the weapons and removed their fingerprints. Not that the police could identify them, but the Centre could. Then Jarod stepped near the man with the dark suit and looked at him for a long time. Miss Parker went around to the helicopter and took the first aid kit from the back to get some syringes. She knelt down beside Jarod and took some blood from the unknown man.



She stood up and went to their car, waiting for Jarod. She didn’t want to see her father again. The picture of her mother’s death haunted her every night; that was enough.



END



EPILOGUE

The blood test Jarod performed proved clearly that this man, the man he had searched for so long, was his father. The man who tried to kill him.

He and Miss Parker really went to Alaska and tried to forget or at least deal with their past. Sydney and Broots still worked for the Centre.



Mulder and Scully made their next vacation somewhere in Alaska. They got an e-mail with the text:

"Thanks for the warning. We’re all right.

Mr. & Mrs. Free"





Liked it? Didn’t like it? Want to talk to me? Just drop me a line at mindwalker78@yahoo.de!

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