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Disclaimer: I don't own "The Pretender" or any of ist characters. Thanx for not suing! ~Oriana

~~~~~~~~~

Paper Snowflakes
Part VI
by Orinana



Jarod lie on his bed, arms folded under his head, staring at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. The walls suddenly reflected a dim green light, flashing on and off. Bringing one arm up and tilting his wrist, he winced as the green light from his Timex nearly blinded him. Turning the alarm off, he got up out of bed and left the room, then moved across the hall to Parker's room and gave one quiet tap to the door before entering.

Parker, who'd given up on sleep quite a while ago, smiled a greeting from the closet, then nodded for him to come over to her, whispering, "Help me with this."

Jarod took hold of the doll house, while she collected the junk food, and headed out the door. Parker stopped to turn out her light and close her door before tiptoeing down the stairs along with him. Once they made it to the first floor, both dropped their things then headed into the kitchen to talk.

"So," Jarod began in a somewhat hushed tone, "what're we going to do for the rest of her stocking?"

"I've got just the thing," she smiled. Wanting to avoid the noise involved with dragging a chair into the kitchen, Parker opted to hop onto the counter, using the advantage to reach the top cupboard. After a moment of rummaging, she began to toss things down to him. Jarod looked in confusion at the items in his hands.

"Pretzels, a bag of white chocolate chips, and two cookie cutters?"

"It'll work out great," she smiled, jumping down to the floor. "As long as we manage to keep the noise down, we can probably get this done in less than two hours."

"Huh?"

Parker sighed. "The cookie cutters are ones we couldn't find earlier--they're shaped like a man and a woman. We'll make gingerbread, and while they're baking we'll work on the pretzels."

"The pretzels."

"Right. Melt the chocolate chips, add a little food coloring, and use it as a coating for the pretzels. They're really good."

Jarod arched an eyebrow and grinned. "Who knew you could be this creative?"

"Who knew I'd be stuck in a cabin, awake at one in the morning on Christmas, playing Santa?" They both laughed. "Well, let's get started on those cookies. Thank goodness for the powdered milk and frozen egg substitute we found, or who knows what we would've done!"

Later, as a large batch of cookies baked and another waited to go in, they went about the tedious process of dipping the bite-sized pretzels, one at a time, into the melted chocolate, then laying them out on a piece of wax paper. They split the job in half, Jarod dying his chocolate green, and Parker dying hers red. They left a little over without coloring, and took turns dipping with the white later.

Parker's estimate wasn't too far off. Within two hours, six plastic baggies sat before them on the counter, three with cookies, three with pretzels, tied up with red yarn Parker had found in the storage room.

"Just put these into those makeshift stocking of ours, then on to the fun part," she smiled, leading him into the living room. On the fireplace ledge, above the oven mitts, was a plate of cookies and a glass of juice (when she realized there was no fresh milk, Sam had insisted on unthawing a can of frozen juice concentrate). Jarod drained the glass in two swigs, and the carefully arranged cookies were soon in their
hands. After the small snack, they took hold of the doll house once again, and placed it in the perfect spot underneath the tree.

Sitting down on the couch, Parker and Jarod admired their work.

"I had fun," she admitted after a moment, "playing Santa and all. I never thought I'd get the chance to do things of this sort, not after Thomas..."

Quiet filled the room, and it was several minutes before Jarod felt comfortable enough to speak up. "It's late, and I doubt Sam will take pity on us in the morning, and let us sleep in. Why don't we get some rest, hmm?"

"Sure."

Neither said another word until they reached their rooms, where Parker stopped and, never taking her eyes from the door in front of her, whispered, "I know this will sound odd, especially coming from me, but I'm glad you're here, Jarod." With that, she slipped inside her room.

~~~~~~~~~

"Miss Parker! Jarod! Miss Parker!" The door to Parker's bedroom swung open, and a small, very hyper child jumped onto her bed. As Parker shot up, Samantha began to bounce about. "It's Christmas, Miss Parker!" Parker smiled patiently -and tiredly- at the girl, although at this rate she might end up with a spot of motion sickness.

As abruptly as she was there, Sam left, running bare-footed across the hall to Jarod's room. "Jarod, Jarod! Wake up!"

A head slowly appeared from under the covers and stared bleary-eyed at Sam. "Huh?"

"Come on, Jarod!" Not waiting for a reply, she bounded out the room. He heard small bare feet race down the stairs, followed by the ecstatic exclamation, "He came, he came! Jarod, Miss Parker, Santa came!"

Sharing a knowing smile, they headed down the stairs. Next to the tree knelt Samantha, her hands moving eagerly through all the rooms of the doll house, and a large cookie in her mouth. At the sound of their approach, she looked up and laughed, one of the greatest sounds in the world, Jarod decided.

After they had taken their stockings down, both Parker and Jarod feigning surprise at all the goodies that lie before them, Sam finally moved away from her doll house, and sat down on the couch next to Jarod, leaning close and whispering something too low for Parker to hear.

"You think this is a good time, huh?" Parker looked at them in question, but Samantha would only smile. "Well, I agree. Back in a minute." He stood up and walked over to the tree, picking out one specific ornament. Parker gave the tinfoil star a quizzical glance as he handed it to her.

She realized that the star was rather heavy, and that the back didn't feel anywhere near as flat as the front. Turning it over, she discovered a small, square gift-wrapped package taped to it.

"What's this?"

"Your Christmas gift. Open it," he urged her. So Parker did, slowly undoing the slim silver ribbon and shiny blue paper, while Sam stood by, hopping up and down impatiently. A deep blue velvet jewelry box was revealed. Casting a raised eyebrow in Jarod's direction, she opened the box, and the smallest of gasps escaped involuntarily from her mouth.

"What is it? What is it?" Sam peered down into the box. "Ohh... it's pretty."

"Yes, it is." Parker lifted from the box a thin chain of silver. Dangling from it was a small delicate angel, no larger than a penny, made completely out of gemstones. A tiny round diamond created the head, and another, this one bell-shaped, created the body. The wings were sapphires, each cut somewhat like upside-down raindrops. She looked up at Jarod, and the jewels reflected the fireplace, creating dozens of small spots of light that danced about her face.

"It's beautiful. Where did you find it?"

"A couple of pretends ago," he admitted, taking the chain from her and bending back to hang it around her neck. It had been perfectly sized, she noted, fitting so well that the angel came to rest in the nape of her neck. "I spotted it in a jewelry store, and decided that it would make the perfect Christmas gift for you. I was planning on getting it to your house after I dropped off Sam, so that you'd find it when you got home, but..."

"Thank you, Jarod. This is one of the few gifts I've ever gotten that I've really loved." She meant it too. Daddy never gave her anything heart-felt, and it'd been awhile since even Syd had bothered to try getting her in the Christmas mood.

"I'm glad you like it," he smiled. A silence hung between them for a moment, and even Samantha sensed that there was something both wanted to say, but couldn't. Grown-ups, she thought, looking at the two. They have to make everything so complicated.

"The sun's finally coming up," Parker noticed, nodding towards the window. Sam ran over to it and looked out.

"Hey! The snow's stopped again!" Jarod's head jerked up. Sure enough, the first rays of sunshine were reflecting perfectly clear skies. There was a surge of disappointment, but he couldn't quite figure out why. You know, you just won't admit it, his mind retorted.

"Oh, shut up," he murmured under his breath.

Parker gave him a confused look. "Huh?"

"Uh, nothing," he mumbled, then stood and headed into the kitchen. "I'm gonna make some coffee." You see, came the voice as he was scooping grounds into the coffee machine, you're just as bad as she is. Rolling his eyes, Jarod focused even harder on the simple task at hand.

~~~~~~~~~

"The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances."
-Martha Washington

It was just after lunch. Samantha sat at the dining room table, cutting out construction paper dolls for her doll house. Jarod grinned at her concentration, how the tip of her tongue stuck out between her lips. A lot like Parker, with the set look of determination on her face. Thinking of Parker, he realized he hadn't seen her for about 15 minutes now. Heading upstairs, he gave her door a quick knock, then went ahead and opened the door.

Parker sat on her bed, and she froze as the door swung open to reveal Jarod. He stared down at the gun in her hands dumbly, and she looked down at it as well, not even recognizing it at first.

"Jarod--" She stopped short, thinking of how to rephrase the question. Quietly, she suggested, "Better shut the door. Sam might see it." He nodded, a brief, weak attempt, and did so, but still didn't say anything. Parker cleared her throat, but her voice remained hesitant. "The weather's cleared up, and if it stays this warm, by t-tomorrow the snow'll have melted enough for us to leave." Her careful eyes picked up how his jaw tightened, and his eyes averted her. A sort of sad smile came to her lips. "You know, usually not a day goes by that I don't clean this thing, but since we've...I haven't touched it since I hid it from Sam."

"I'm glad." Barely audible, and somehow the kind of statement that made Parker want to run out the door, away from this conversation. It was so uncomfortable, like a confrontation, only there was no way for her to retaliate. Hell, he hadn't even raised his voice.

"Jarod, I--" He didn't even bother to listen to the rest of what she said, just opened the door, walked through, and shut it. Parker gave a wary sigh, and glared down at the weapon in her hand. Damn thing. It wasn't fair--that stupid weapon was always popping up at the wrong moments. Just like when Thomas had first seen it...

~~~~~~~~~

Parker had come downstairs a few minutes later. Neither mentioned the gun, but the thought of it hung between them like a brick wall. When Parker sat Sam down and explained to her that tonight was their last together, the little girl had started to cry. Not fun.

Sam continually refused to go to sleep. Around eleven, she finally nodded off in her bed, following a dry and generic story by Jarod. After being sure that she had enough covers, he crept out of the room. He had to stop and take a deep breath before heading down the stairs. He knew she was downstairs, and knew as well that eventually they'd have to talk about tomorrow. There was no sound when he reached the bottom level, however, and he saw with confusion that she wasn't in the living room. Walking through the dining room to the kitchen door, he popped his head in, but didn't see her there either.

As he turned and walked back through the dining room, he spotted her, with relief, lying on the couch, fast asleep. Jarod tiptoed past her, flicked off the light, and began towards the stairs. It was halfway up, however, that he stopped, a thought coming to him that he couldn't ignore. Walking back down and over to the couch, he knelt down, close enough to feel her slow, steady breaths on his cheek. After a moment of just intaking that sensation, he closed his eyes and softly kissed her, not on the forehead as he had earlier, but on the lips.

"Merry Christmas, Miss Parker."

~~~~~~~~~

Probably one of the greatest shocks of Parker's life was waking up the next morning to find Jarod a few feet away, taking down their Christmas tree. Everything in her had been certain that he would leave, disappear in the night like he did so well.

In a corner, near the dining room, sat Sam, with her knees drawn up under her chin and sniffling as she watched Jarod. Then, she noticed that Parker was awake, and both sat up at the same moment, the smaller running over and throwing her arms around the older.

"Oh, Miss Parker, I don't wanna go!" With a small sigh, Parker wrapped her arms around Sam's small body, and rested her head against the girl's. Samantha's crying grew louder, and she closed her eyes, feeling terrible guilt. Jarod stopped for a moment, feeling a tug as he watched the two, then turned resolutely to his work. Once all of the handmade-ornaments had been removed and tossed into a garbage can, he took the tree and went outside alone, dragging it to the one side of the house and allowing it to roll down the hill, into the woods.

While he was busy outside, Parker realized that Sam was out of her pajamas, dressed and hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. Looking around, she saw that everything was tidy, in fact, cleaned up, much like it had been the night she arrived. With the tree gone, there was nothing to show that three people had spent Christmas here. Even the snowflakes were gone from the windows. Giving Sam a small pat, she moved her onto the couch and headed into the kitchen. The dishes were cleaned and put away, everything sparkled. Upstairs, all three beds had been made, and only her own bags remained to be placed downstairs.

~~~~~~~~~

Three car doors slammed shut. Samantha stared gloomily out her window at the cabin. Up front, Jarod turned the key in the ignition, and everyone jumped at the sound of the motor starting.

"Well," Jarod said brightly, his tone so fake he wasn't sure why he was even bothering, "is everyone ready to go?"

"No," Sam retorted. Parker gave him a look--stupid question. He just shrugged, and turned the wheel, steering them down the driveway and away from the house. Jarod didn't feel like saying anything. He thought of the last few days, and the unexpected events entailed. He'd forced himself to accept the reality that they were leaving, had done every bit of preparation there was to do before one left a stranger's house you'd borrowed for a few days, and hated himself for it. He ran a hand through his hair, and tried to stay concentrated on the road he was driving on. Driving towards town...a town he'd yet to plot his escape from. The fact that he needed an escape, from Parker's clutches and the threat of return to the Centre, brought forth anger, and a sad sort of expectancy. When it came to that hell, some things just never changed.

But he didn't say another word, and neither Parker nor Samantha bothered to speak up. They drove on, in complete silence, towards Bloomfield, Vermont.









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