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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: I don't own "The Pretender" or any of ist characters. Thanx for not suing! ~Oriana
~~~~~~~~~
Paper Snowflakes
Part V
by Orinana
Out in the cold winter morning, snowflakes sped to the ground, thousands of tiny silvery spots reflecting in early dawn's light. Inside the cabin, snuggled under thick covers, Jarod and Samantha slept on, oblivious to the woman sneaking past their doors. Parker, dressed in thick clothes and ready to face the weather, made her way downstairs, stopping to slip on her jacket, gloves, and a pair of boots before heading on out into the snow. Even though Jarod had laid down a fresh layer of salt on the walk just last night, already a thin layer had begun to form. She reached inside for the bag and tossed out a generous helping of the salt, then replaced the it before closing the door behind her and heading on to the car.
She'd woken up a few minutes earlier, something bothering her but unable to pinpoint what exactly. Then, it came to her--it was Christmas Eve, and they hadn't yet retrieved the PEZ and Twinkies from his car. The cabin was too small for Samantha not to be aware of someone going out to the car, and she'd be so wound up tonight that the slightest noise would probably send her running downstairs. And so here Parker was, barely awake, dying for a coffee fix, and cursing the fact that Jarod had his car keys. The way she figured it, if Sam hadn't seen that junk food, it was most likely in the trunk. She considered her options: either go back in, wake him up, and get the keys, or trudge through snow around the car to the driver's side, and find the button to pop the trunk open. In the end, she decided that forcing anyone else to get up at this god-awful hour was just far too cruel, and crunched around to the driver's side, thankful that Jarod hadn't locked the door.
The snow had already built up about half a foot against the door, but after a few minutes of brushing it away, she managed to get the door open, and found the trunk button without too much trouble. She pressed it, than looked behind her expectantly. There was no familiar click, however, and she shut the door then walked back, finding the trunk iced along the rim. A small groan escaped her lips--of course this would happen! Irritated, she slapped the trunk with a gloved hand. In an instant, the ice fell from the car and the trunk flung open, just inches away from knocking her in the face as it moved up. A surprised yelp sprang from her mouth; Parker slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent anymore noise, and glanced up at a second floor window expectantly. Sam had a bedroom at the back of the cabin, and probably wouldn't hear anything, but Jarod -a light sleeper- had taken the corner room next to the little girl's. After a few minutes, no head had appeared in his window though, so she turned her attention back to the matter at hand.
Jarod, however, had been yanked out of his sleep by the sudden sound, but had remained in his bed momentarily, struggling to clear his foggy mind and figure out just what the hell had woken him. Finally, he realized that the voice belonged to Parker, and had come from outside. Concerned, he peered out his window, just as Parker's eyes returned to the trunk. The relief that rushed up at finding her unharmed was overtaken by alarm as he saw her hand move towards a blanket in the corner, covering a large square-shaped object.
"Oh, no." He threw his door open and raced to the stairs.
Parker's hand clasped the wool blanket, curiosity rising in her, and pulled it towards her. A small gasp came forward involuntarily as she saw what was revealed.
The DSA case. She couldn't believe it. It was the silver DSA case. Her hand released the blanket, which fell forgotten to one side of the trunk, and reached out, touching the case carefully, almost reverently.
The moment came to an abrupt end as the front door swung open, a slight bang echoing as it hit the frame. Parker's head shot up, though her hand remained on the case. In the doorway stood Jarod, slightly breathless, looking at her, then the case, then her once again, never blinking, not speaking a word. As for herself, Parker seemed to have trouble clearing her head enough to think of something to say. The low whistle of the wind was the only sound, as their eyes met, but neither moved.
After what seemed to be hours, but realistically was probably just a minute -two at best- Parker's hand moved right, away from case, feeling around inside the trunk dumbly. Jarod's eyes moved slowly to the trunk, and when she finally came across a familiar plastic form, she picked it up, lifted it high enough for him to see.
"The stocking stuffers," she smiled reassuringly. "I wanted to get them before Sam woke up." Jarod nodded silently. Parker looked down into the trunk, gathering the rest of the Twinkies and PEZ, happy to find two unused dispensers-Casper and Kermit- among them, still in the original wrappers. Jarod felt an odd sort of pride -mixed with relief and surprise- as he noticed that her eyes remained on the small pile of junk food, never wandering to the case near her hands. She stuck everything into the deep pockets of her jacket and slammed the trunk shut, before stepping onto the salted path and walking up to the door.
"It's amazing we didn't manage to wake her up with all this noise," Parker commented as Jarod shut the door behind them. She kicked her boots off, peeled away her gloves, then headed to the stairs. "But she's got the right idea. I'm going back to bed." She looked behind her at him. "See you in a little while, okay?"
"Right," he smiled, "sleep well." He waited until he heard the sound of her bedroom door clicking shut upstairs, then moved slowly to the couch, sitting down with a sigh. It wasn't that Parker was changing, she was just letting her defenses down, finally allowing him access to the friend he missed so much, the good-hearted girl he'd all but believed was gone for good. And the case...she hadn't said anything, hadn't made any moves to take them. Not that he was complaining.
~~~~~~~~~
"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."
-Phyllis Diller
"It's Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve," Samantha sang in beat with her feet hopping down the stairs. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she was raced around the corner to the dining room, where Miss Parker sat drinking coffee. From past the swinging door came the sounds of Jarod preparing breakfast. "Good morning, Miss Parker," she smiled brightly. "It's Christmas Eve!"
"So I've heard," she laughed. "You excited?"
"Yep!"
"You know, I kinda ate the last of the Oreos the night you guys arrived. What d'ya say we bake today, so there'll be some cookies for Santa?"
"Yeah!" Her face clouded slightly. "Um, Jarod's helping us, right?"
"Oh, definitely."
After the last of the breakfast dishes had been put away, they went to work. One drawer had revealed a cookbook, as well as a pretty good selection of cookie cutters. While standing on a chair and digging through a cupboard she could've sworn held flour, sugar and other baking needs, Parker came across a few items that sparked an idea in her head, but instead of pulling them out, she pushed them further back into the cupboard.
"Hey, here's the flour." She grabbed the heavy, unopened bag, and turned to hand it down to Jarod, but it slipped from her grip at the last moment, hitting the floor with a solid thud. The air filled with the powdery white substance. Parker coughed sheepishly. "Good thing there's another bag."
****
An hour later, there was no sign of the spotless kitchen Jarod had left after making breakfast. Chaos was probably the best descriptor: egg shells lie everywhere, the sink was overflowing with dirty dishes, and they'd eventually given up on sweeping up the continually falling sugar and flour. Of the three, Parker was without question the messiest--flour was smeared all over her hands and face (along with a small dollop of green icing on the tip of her nose), and she'd gained three paper cuts from opening packages and turning cookbook pages.
"I'd say a shower is in order," she laughed. "I'll help with the dishes when I get out." She walked out of the kitchen.
"You know," Sam realized, "I wish we could give Miss Parker a Christmas gift." She looked up hopefully at Jarod. "Maybe Santa will bring her something."
"I'm afraid she's too old for him to bring her anything, but you're right, a gift would be nice..." His eyes lighted up. "Of course! I completely forgot!"
"What?" Samantha asked eagerly.
"You'll see tomorrow morning," he smiled mysteriously.
~~~~~~~~~
The weather was too cold to go out, and Samantha was far too hyper to sit still and listen to a story. The lack of stockings had been taken care by Jarod--they'd spent an hour decorating oven mitts with glitter and ribbon. After that, she was satisfied only with decorating the house more, hopping about, singing the lines from Christmas carols. Parker and Jarod busied themselves in the kitchen, looking around for Christmas dinner-appropriate foods for tomorrow, but mostly munching on cookies.
After a dinner of lasagna (Jarod, of course), she settled down a bit, and was content with sitting at the dining room table, cutting out snowflakes from construction paper, then taping them to the windows, while they put the dishes away. Jarod joined Sam after they finished, clipping at the paper and creating intricate designs. After grabbing yet another cookie from the kitchen, which Parker justified by the fact that they'd baked three dozen, she poked her head out the swinging door, and smiled at the sight before her. Jarod and Sam sat, side by side, laughing as they cut out two more snowflakes and added them to a growing pile. Parker sighed, closing the door. Jarod was going to make a wonderful father. She smiled, and grabbed another cookie.
As Jarod and Sam stood at one of the living room windows, taping up a few of their snowflakes, Parker snuck up to the table and looked down at their handiwork. One in particular caught her eye, with it's carefully cut design of six pine trees, surrounded by stars; a small smile spread across her
lips as she brushed it with her fingers, a memory filling her mind.
"Can we hang the stockings now?" Sam's question broke Parker out of her reverie, and she looked up to see them both looking eagerly at her.
Parker laughed. Jarod was getting into this Christmas thing as much as Samantha was. "Sure."
With a hammer from the garage, he got three nails into the fireplace bricks. With a huge grin, Sam hung all three stockings/oven mitts up, as Jarod and Parker clapped from the couch.
As Sam arranged cookies on a plate and wrote a note to Santa, the other two stood in the kitchen, waiting for the teapot to whistle. Jarod grinned, and reached into his pocket. "Hey, Parker, I've got something for you. Nothing special, I just found it in the garage."
She looked down at the small, construction paper wrapped parcel in his hand. "Jarod, I-I don't know what to say."
"Don't worry," he smiled, "you will when you open it." Taking it from him, she carefully removed the tape and peeled back the paper.
Parker burst out laughing. "I don't believe you! Coal?!" He joined in her laughter. Out in the living room, Sam turned towards the laughter coming from the kitchen, and smiled happily. Her eyes brightened in sudden thought, and she raced to the pile of construction paper on the table.
Two hours later, Samantha's head began to nod. Parker gently shook her awake. "Sam, sweetie, I think it's time for bed."
"I'm not tired," she insisted sleepily, sitting up r0esolutely.
"Santa can't come until you're asleep," Jarod pointed out.
"I'm ready for bed!" Sam announced brightly, jumping off the couch and dashing to the stairs. "Come on," she said, stopping and turning around. "He won't get here until we're all asleep!" Laughing, Jarod and Parker stood and walked to the stairs.
"Oh, wait," Sam shouted from the top of the stairs. She grinned. "Look above you." Both did so, and froze as they saw the paper mistletoe taped high up on the wall next to the stairway. Jarod coughed uncomfortably.
"Well, go on," the little girl urged, "kiss." Parker's eyes widened.
"Umm, Sam..."
"You know, I don't think..."
Sam sighed impatiently. "Please?" A small smile appeared on Jarod's face. Placing a hand on her cheek, he leaned closer to Parker, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Happy?" he smiled up at Sam.
"Aw, nuts," Sam huffed, going to her bedroom.
"See you in a little while," Parker whispered, walking the rest of the way up the stairs. She didn't look back, and missed the perplexed look that passed over his face. As her door clicked shut, Jarod headed into his own room, and plopped down on the bed with a sigh. They'd agreed to meet up downstairs around one. Well, that gave him about three hours to figure out just what the hell had happened down on the stairs. Not that the kiss was any huge romantic moment, but Parker's lack of reaction bothered him. After all, he thought, irritated, it was their first kiss since they were kids.
Back in her own room, Parker sighed, and got under the covers. Mentally, she listed everything they needed to do downstairs, a distraction from other thoughts. However, a visual recounting of what'd happened just a few minutes earlier soon appeared in her mind, insistently pushing away the Christmas plans. She thrust her head under her pillow. "Don't even go there."
~~~~~~~~~
Part V
by Orinana
Out in the cold winter morning, snowflakes sped to the ground, thousands of tiny silvery spots reflecting in early dawn's light. Inside the cabin, snuggled under thick covers, Jarod and Samantha slept on, oblivious to the woman sneaking past their doors. Parker, dressed in thick clothes and ready to face the weather, made her way downstairs, stopping to slip on her jacket, gloves, and a pair of boots before heading on out into the snow. Even though Jarod had laid down a fresh layer of salt on the walk just last night, already a thin layer had begun to form. She reached inside for the bag and tossed out a generous helping of the salt, then replaced the it before closing the door behind her and heading on to the car.
She'd woken up a few minutes earlier, something bothering her but unable to pinpoint what exactly. Then, it came to her--it was Christmas Eve, and they hadn't yet retrieved the PEZ and Twinkies from his car. The cabin was too small for Samantha not to be aware of someone going out to the car, and she'd be so wound up tonight that the slightest noise would probably send her running downstairs. And so here Parker was, barely awake, dying for a coffee fix, and cursing the fact that Jarod had his car keys. The way she figured it, if Sam hadn't seen that junk food, it was most likely in the trunk. She considered her options: either go back in, wake him up, and get the keys, or trudge through snow around the car to the driver's side, and find the button to pop the trunk open. In the end, she decided that forcing anyone else to get up at this god-awful hour was just far too cruel, and crunched around to the driver's side, thankful that Jarod hadn't locked the door.
The snow had already built up about half a foot against the door, but after a few minutes of brushing it away, she managed to get the door open, and found the trunk button without too much trouble. She pressed it, than looked behind her expectantly. There was no familiar click, however, and she shut the door then walked back, finding the trunk iced along the rim. A small groan escaped her lips--of course this would happen! Irritated, she slapped the trunk with a gloved hand. In an instant, the ice fell from the car and the trunk flung open, just inches away from knocking her in the face as it moved up. A surprised yelp sprang from her mouth; Parker slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent anymore noise, and glanced up at a second floor window expectantly. Sam had a bedroom at the back of the cabin, and probably wouldn't hear anything, but Jarod -a light sleeper- had taken the corner room next to the little girl's. After a few minutes, no head had appeared in his window though, so she turned her attention back to the matter at hand.
Jarod, however, had been yanked out of his sleep by the sudden sound, but had remained in his bed momentarily, struggling to clear his foggy mind and figure out just what the hell had woken him. Finally, he realized that the voice belonged to Parker, and had come from outside. Concerned, he peered out his window, just as Parker's eyes returned to the trunk. The relief that rushed up at finding her unharmed was overtaken by alarm as he saw her hand move towards a blanket in the corner, covering a large square-shaped object.
"Oh, no." He threw his door open and raced to the stairs.
Parker's hand clasped the wool blanket, curiosity rising in her, and pulled it towards her. A small gasp came forward involuntarily as she saw what was revealed.
The DSA case. She couldn't believe it. It was the silver DSA case. Her hand released the blanket, which fell forgotten to one side of the trunk, and reached out, touching the case carefully, almost reverently.
The moment came to an abrupt end as the front door swung open, a slight bang echoing as it hit the frame. Parker's head shot up, though her hand remained on the case. In the doorway stood Jarod, slightly breathless, looking at her, then the case, then her once again, never blinking, not speaking a word. As for herself, Parker seemed to have trouble clearing her head enough to think of something to say. The low whistle of the wind was the only sound, as their eyes met, but neither moved.
After what seemed to be hours, but realistically was probably just a minute -two at best- Parker's hand moved right, away from case, feeling around inside the trunk dumbly. Jarod's eyes moved slowly to the trunk, and when she finally came across a familiar plastic form, she picked it up, lifted it high enough for him to see.
"The stocking stuffers," she smiled reassuringly. "I wanted to get them before Sam woke up." Jarod nodded silently. Parker looked down into the trunk, gathering the rest of the Twinkies and PEZ, happy to find two unused dispensers-Casper and Kermit- among them, still in the original wrappers. Jarod felt an odd sort of pride -mixed with relief and surprise- as he noticed that her eyes remained on the small pile of junk food, never wandering to the case near her hands. She stuck everything into the deep pockets of her jacket and slammed the trunk shut, before stepping onto the salted path and walking up to the door.
"It's amazing we didn't manage to wake her up with all this noise," Parker commented as Jarod shut the door behind them. She kicked her boots off, peeled away her gloves, then headed to the stairs. "But she's got the right idea. I'm going back to bed." She looked behind her at him. "See you in a little while, okay?"
"Right," he smiled, "sleep well." He waited until he heard the sound of her bedroom door clicking shut upstairs, then moved slowly to the couch, sitting down with a sigh. It wasn't that Parker was changing, she was just letting her defenses down, finally allowing him access to the friend he missed so much, the good-hearted girl he'd all but believed was gone for good. And the case...she hadn't said anything, hadn't made any moves to take them. Not that he was complaining.
~~~~~~~~~
"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."
-Phyllis Diller
"It's Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve, it's Christmas Eve," Samantha sang in beat with her feet hopping down the stairs. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she was raced around the corner to the dining room, where Miss Parker sat drinking coffee. From past the swinging door came the sounds of Jarod preparing breakfast. "Good morning, Miss Parker," she smiled brightly. "It's Christmas Eve!"
"So I've heard," she laughed. "You excited?"
"Yep!"
"You know, I kinda ate the last of the Oreos the night you guys arrived. What d'ya say we bake today, so there'll be some cookies for Santa?"
"Yeah!" Her face clouded slightly. "Um, Jarod's helping us, right?"
"Oh, definitely."
After the last of the breakfast dishes had been put away, they went to work. One drawer had revealed a cookbook, as well as a pretty good selection of cookie cutters. While standing on a chair and digging through a cupboard she could've sworn held flour, sugar and other baking needs, Parker came across a few items that sparked an idea in her head, but instead of pulling them out, she pushed them further back into the cupboard.
"Hey, here's the flour." She grabbed the heavy, unopened bag, and turned to hand it down to Jarod, but it slipped from her grip at the last moment, hitting the floor with a solid thud. The air filled with the powdery white substance. Parker coughed sheepishly. "Good thing there's another bag."
****
An hour later, there was no sign of the spotless kitchen Jarod had left after making breakfast. Chaos was probably the best descriptor: egg shells lie everywhere, the sink was overflowing with dirty dishes, and they'd eventually given up on sweeping up the continually falling sugar and flour. Of the three, Parker was without question the messiest--flour was smeared all over her hands and face (along with a small dollop of green icing on the tip of her nose), and she'd gained three paper cuts from opening packages and turning cookbook pages.
"I'd say a shower is in order," she laughed. "I'll help with the dishes when I get out." She walked out of the kitchen.
"You know," Sam realized, "I wish we could give Miss Parker a Christmas gift." She looked up hopefully at Jarod. "Maybe Santa will bring her something."
"I'm afraid she's too old for him to bring her anything, but you're right, a gift would be nice..." His eyes lighted up. "Of course! I completely forgot!"
"What?" Samantha asked eagerly.
"You'll see tomorrow morning," he smiled mysteriously.
~~~~~~~~~
The weather was too cold to go out, and Samantha was far too hyper to sit still and listen to a story. The lack of stockings had been taken care by Jarod--they'd spent an hour decorating oven mitts with glitter and ribbon. After that, she was satisfied only with decorating the house more, hopping about, singing the lines from Christmas carols. Parker and Jarod busied themselves in the kitchen, looking around for Christmas dinner-appropriate foods for tomorrow, but mostly munching on cookies.
After a dinner of lasagna (Jarod, of course), she settled down a bit, and was content with sitting at the dining room table, cutting out snowflakes from construction paper, then taping them to the windows, while they put the dishes away. Jarod joined Sam after they finished, clipping at the paper and creating intricate designs. After grabbing yet another cookie from the kitchen, which Parker justified by the fact that they'd baked three dozen, she poked her head out the swinging door, and smiled at the sight before her. Jarod and Sam sat, side by side, laughing as they cut out two more snowflakes and added them to a growing pile. Parker sighed, closing the door. Jarod was going to make a wonderful father. She smiled, and grabbed another cookie.
As Jarod and Sam stood at one of the living room windows, taping up a few of their snowflakes, Parker snuck up to the table and looked down at their handiwork. One in particular caught her eye, with it's carefully cut design of six pine trees, surrounded by stars; a small smile spread across her
lips as she brushed it with her fingers, a memory filling her mind.
"Can we hang the stockings now?" Sam's question broke Parker out of her reverie, and she looked up to see them both looking eagerly at her.
Parker laughed. Jarod was getting into this Christmas thing as much as Samantha was. "Sure."
With a hammer from the garage, he got three nails into the fireplace bricks. With a huge grin, Sam hung all three stockings/oven mitts up, as Jarod and Parker clapped from the couch.
As Sam arranged cookies on a plate and wrote a note to Santa, the other two stood in the kitchen, waiting for the teapot to whistle. Jarod grinned, and reached into his pocket. "Hey, Parker, I've got something for you. Nothing special, I just found it in the garage."
She looked down at the small, construction paper wrapped parcel in his hand. "Jarod, I-I don't know what to say."
"Don't worry," he smiled, "you will when you open it." Taking it from him, she carefully removed the tape and peeled back the paper.
Parker burst out laughing. "I don't believe you! Coal?!" He joined in her laughter. Out in the living room, Sam turned towards the laughter coming from the kitchen, and smiled happily. Her eyes brightened in sudden thought, and she raced to the pile of construction paper on the table.
Two hours later, Samantha's head began to nod. Parker gently shook her awake. "Sam, sweetie, I think it's time for bed."
"I'm not tired," she insisted sleepily, sitting up r0esolutely.
"Santa can't come until you're asleep," Jarod pointed out.
"I'm ready for bed!" Sam announced brightly, jumping off the couch and dashing to the stairs. "Come on," she said, stopping and turning around. "He won't get here until we're all asleep!" Laughing, Jarod and Parker stood and walked to the stairs.
"Oh, wait," Sam shouted from the top of the stairs. She grinned. "Look above you." Both did so, and froze as they saw the paper mistletoe taped high up on the wall next to the stairway. Jarod coughed uncomfortably.
"Well, go on," the little girl urged, "kiss." Parker's eyes widened.
"Umm, Sam..."
"You know, I don't think..."
Sam sighed impatiently. "Please?" A small smile appeared on Jarod's face. Placing a hand on her cheek, he leaned closer to Parker, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Happy?" he smiled up at Sam.
"Aw, nuts," Sam huffed, going to her bedroom.
"See you in a little while," Parker whispered, walking the rest of the way up the stairs. She didn't look back, and missed the perplexed look that passed over his face. As her door clicked shut, Jarod headed into his own room, and plopped down on the bed with a sigh. They'd agreed to meet up downstairs around one. Well, that gave him about three hours to figure out just what the hell had happened down on the stairs. Not that the kiss was any huge romantic moment, but Parker's lack of reaction bothered him. After all, he thought, irritated, it was their first kiss since they were kids.
Back in her own room, Parker sighed, and got under the covers. Mentally, she listed everything they needed to do downstairs, a distraction from other thoughts. However, a visual recounting of what'd happened just a few minutes earlier soon appeared in her mind, insistently pushing away the Christmas plans. She thrust her head under her pillow. "Don't even go there."
