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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
As we post this part, we'd just like to restate our initial dedication to the inspiration for this little odyssey. Lois, you've always gone above and beyond in your dedication to The Pretender, and you've clearly never had more on your plate than you did during the months it took to organize the Living the Dream convention. Thanks so much for all your hard work! We hope this new part will give you back some of the pleasure you helped to give to all of us!
The Road Taken
part 6
by Renewal Wing
Parker's eyes were locked on the sleeping form of her brother, but her thoughts at the moment centered mostly on her brother's condition, more specifically on who had caused that condition. Jarod. Then again, when wasn't it Jarod? Whenever some major change occurred in her life, the Pretender seemed to be knee-deep in whatever was going on, and this time had proven to be no exception.
Parker wasn't allowed to let her attention wander for long. Lyle was rustling in his sleep, muttering to himself, so she rose up out of her chair and eased herself onto the mattress as gently as possible. The pressure of the mattress dipping startled Lyle, who, forgetting his injuries, tried to sit up. He groaned loudly from the sharp pain emanating from his lower back as he did.
"Don't." Parker said, a soft undertone to her voice, but the message was clear when he felt her hand on his chest. He lifted his head groggily from the pillow and looked over at his sister.
"Oh," he said, "It's true."
"What's true?" asked Parker as she glanced at her brother briefly before reaching for the water glass that sat on the nightstand.
"I had a dream that all this was a dream. Or rather..." he wet his lips, "but no it's all true, isn't it?"
"What's all true, Lyle?" Parker positioned the straw between his lips.
"You know that Thane is your nephew, you're not thinking of me as the enemy, at least not as much of one...and yet..."
"There's always an enemy, Lyle," Parker said, with a shrug.
"Okay. You've depressed me," Lyle responded.
"How about I cheer you up, then? Thane is sleeping peacefully. Today's events didn't seem to faze him in the least."
"And Jarod?" Lyle asked, trying to keep the bitterness from his voice.
"Corinna's keeping him company," Parker informed him.
"And?"
"As far as I know," Parker chuckled, "he's being very cooperative. Restraints tend to do that to a person."
Lyle tried to laugh but it was cut short by a sharp hiss and a grimace. "Thank you, " he whispered.
"For?"
"A few more minutes could have made a great deal of difference."
Jarod leveled a stare at the woman holding the gun on him. Her long, thin fingers and their commanding grip on the handle let both of them know who was in charge.
"Lyle thinks you're an interfering pain in the ass," Corinna said softly, her emerald eyes flashing with something that belied the somewhat gentle tone of her voice.
"I think highly of him as well." Jarod threw back his head and chuckled, then his face grew serious and his heart slammed inside his chest.
"Jarod, you are such a child. You test the limits, irritate and provoke. He's right. You are a pain in the ass. You always this predictable?"
"Creature of habit," Jarod responded. "He's charmed you, hasn't he?"
"Lyle?" Corinna shots him a look that he knew would leave a bruise.
"Who else?"
"Oh, that's right. Lyle monster, Jarod angel of deliverance." Corinna's expression darkened as a swell of rage crashed against the base of her skull. Even her fingers clenched tighter on the gun's butt. "Look beyond, Jarod."
"Beyond what, the snake's skin?"
"Back off, Barnum, this isn't a sideshow. Lyle's been vilified by both the Centre and the Agency so that he could accomplish the tasks given him. And you continually pop up like toadstools after a warm summer rain just to annoy and destroy everything he's worked on." Her response came as a measured, low snarl, and yet behind the outburst, there was a pain in her voice that caught him off guard.
"Look at the man who faced life with courage, given the circumstances," she continued. "He's unique in his own right and beneath that so called monster exterior that's been created for him, he's passionate in his beliefs. He's also a survivor."
"You make him sound like Mithridates."
Corinna smiled, amused by his response.
"I like that, comparing him to the guy who survived assassination by eating a little bit of poison everyday so that once they attempted to kill him with it, his body was already immune. He has been affected by all this, and he'll still have to eat the poison, unfortunately."
"I still think that it's a ruse. Once a snake, always a snake."
"You don't sound convinced, Jarod," came Corinna's sarcastic response. "So, I guess I'm going to have to put a little more effort into this. Up for a long night?"
"I'm not going anywhere, remember," Jarod looked her and rattled the bracelet attached to his right wrist as well as the brass headboard. There was barely a breath in the room.
"I've known him a lot longer than you, Jarod." Corinna relaxed her grip on her gun, and both it and her hand came to rest on the chair's arm.
"But not as long as the Centre and Raines..." he'd drawn in his breath and started to argue, but after the first few words he realized the futility of it and stopped.
"Really, you think so?" Corinna was amused, "Well then, let me throw out another bit of truth for you, Jarod. All this information that implicates Lyle..."
"What about it? Information is information. Sooner or later it begins to fit together," his response was full of attitude and came along with that smug smile.
"Did it ever cross that genius brain of yours that whomever fed this information to the Centre had access to Centre archives? He or she knows things that almost no one else does." Corinna watched his smile turn into a knitted brow of consternation. For an instant, the beat of a heart, Jarod was astonished. Then the beat passed and it all made perfect sense: his discoveries of Lyle's past, his warnings to Parker. He'd been used.
"I need to think," he muttered and turned onto his side. It was a brutally honest answer.
A knock on the bedroom door interrupted the conversation that Lyle and Parker were engaged in. Pulling herself away from her charge, she opened the door to find Sydney standing there with a smiling Lilli. Allowing them entrance, she placed a gentle hand on Sydney's shoulder, signaling him to stay back and to give young Lilli a few minutes alone with Lyle. Parker questioned him about Lyle's injuries, her eyes never straying from the two figures across the room, the animated Lilli and the captivated Lyle. Since arriving here, Parker kept sneaking glances at her brother and the little girl. In doing so she'd discovered something fascinating. There was an energy around them.
"Parker," the touch of a hand on her arm alerted her to the fact that she had been too absorbed in the interplay between child and man and had forgotten about Sydney. "You need to take a break. I'll stay for a while."
"Are you sure? It's not like he's on your best guest list," she smiled weakly. "I mean he was responsible for Nicholas's abduction."
"All the more reason that I want to stay. Perhaps he'll feel like talking." Sydney walked over to the bed and gently placed his hands on Lilli's small shoulders. "You promised, ma petite fleur."
"Promised what?" Lyle asked raspily.
"That after she wished you goodnight, she would go to bed. She was frantic about you and the only thing that seemed to placate the child was for Leanne to give in and allow her to see for herself that you are fine."
"Just a little battered and bruised, Lil. I'll be fine. Now off to bed, yes?"
" Okay, but...."
"No buts, off to bed with you," Lyle said, a yawn escaping. "We can talk in the morning. Now scoot. And don't give your mother a hard time, or else..." Lilli giggled and placed a quick kiss on Lyle's cheek before she scampered off to find her mother and brother. "You too, Parker. I'm in fine company with Sydney. Go and rest, especially that ankle. As much as you believe yourself invincible, you're not."
"All right. I'll be back first thing in the morning, though," Parker replied as she closed the door behind her, appreciating the break. She needed time alone to take inventory of the past few days, to figure out what she would do next. Her whole life seemed to be depending on the choices she made in the coming days, and she needed to get a grip on the tumult of emotions she was feeling.
As it turned out, what she would do immediately next seemed beyond her control. She had walked down the hallway absently, and looking up, Parker realized she was standing directly in front of the door to Thane's room. Quietly, she pushed it open and a smile broke out on her face as she saw him lying there, wide awake, apparently fascinated by the new discovery that he could hold his toes and pull his feet all the way to his mouth. The new game lost its appeal, however, when Thane saw who had come into the room. As Parker leaned over the railing of the crib, the little boy reached for her. Parker obliged and soon she was staring out the window with the little boy cradled in her arms.
How many times, she thought, had she journeyed to the Centre nursery to do just this? To hold this baby and feel, just for a few moments, a sense of peace. Snuggling him closer, Parker wondered if peace was really on the agenda for their future. Never had she imagined a happy life for Thane. She'd wanted to, of course, but having grown up around the Centre, Parker knew how futile a dream that was. Which was why the way she was feeling now frightened her so much. It was so much easier to live with no hope than it was for her to suddenly have a glimmer of a possibility that life for she, Thane and Lyle could be anything but the nightmare it seemed destined to be only a few days earlier. Some part of her knew how sad a thought that was...to almost wish for the days when there'd been no hope, but Parker was smart enough to know that she'd come by that fear honestly. A few days was certainly not enough time to change it.
Looking down, Parker saw that Thane had fallen asleep as her mind rambled on. Carefully, she returned the infant to his crib, then realizing she wasn't quite ready to go to bed herself, she headed for the kitchen, where she found Leanne brewing a pot of tea. Accepting a cup, she made her way out on to the patio and curled up in one of the deck chairs, her mind replaying the events of the day, trying to figure out where all this was heading.
She knew how close they had come to losing Thane today. Though Parker was certain that Jarod would never hurt the baby, he could have easily disappeared with her young nephew, and Parker knew that that would have finally been the straw to break her. She couldn't help but want to shake Jarod and ask him if he knew that, if he understood what he'd almost done to her today, but she couldn't let those feelings overtake her. That's not what it was all about, she reminded herself. It was about her brother and his son and the chance for them to live a safe, free life. Focusing on that thought, Parker looked up at the stars, praying silently that they or someone could tell her what she should do next to make certain that happened.
Lyle groaned as he tried to sit up more and Sydney looked at him with a look the younger man had seen the doctor level at his sister on more than one occasion. Oddly, the disapproving glance made Lyle feel a little happy.
"Lay still. If you hurt yourself any worse, she'll never get any sleep tonight."
Despite his desire to throw out some quick barb, Lyle bit his tongue. He knew Sydney was right. One yelp of discomfort, and Parker would come running back in the room and never close her eyes, and he knew she needed to rest. Hell, in the space of a few days she'd been blown up in a subway, kidnapped, almost broken her ankle, learned that nothing about her father and brother was what it appeared to be, faced losing Thane both to him and to Jarod's superiority complex, and found her newly allied brother lying in a heap at the bottom of a staircase. It was a lot to ask even the strongest person to take in without any upset, and though Parker put on a good show, Lyle had seen how deeply wounded she could be.
Sydney watched Lyle settle back against his pillows, a look of concern crossing over the face of Miss Parker's twin. Despite himself, Sydney found that he was intrigued. He had seen, of course, several similarities between the siblings over the years, but he'd tried to deny them, not wanting to find anything of the monster he believed Lyle to be in the woman he cared for so deeply. Yet now, faced with the possibility that Lyle was not what he'd believed him to be, Sydney wondered about the connection between twins, about their similarities and about what might have been had Lyle not been ripped away from the mother and sister who would surely have loved him as deeply as they had loved each other.
"Whatever you're looking for, I doubt you'll find it."
Lyle's voice startled Sydney out of his internal dialogue, and he looked over at him. He really had meant to question this man about the day he'd kidnapped his son, Nicholas, in an effort to capture Jarod. But now, watching him, the doctor's mind clicking through the inventory it was assembling, he found he had a new question that more urgently required an answer.
"Why did you do it, Lyle?"
"Sorry, Sydney," Lyle responded, "but despite the fact that I'm not the boogey man you all thought I was, I have still done a few things in my time. You'll have to narrow it down."
"Why did you come back to the Centre after the incident in Arizona? From what you've told us, you could have easily made a case for a new assignment. Yet, you came back, knowing it would mean facing your father, continuing to deal with Jarod despite your killing of his brother...there must have been a reason."
"You don't really need me to answer that, do you, Sydney?"
The doctor smiled slightly, but his eyes leveled with Lyle's own.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
As Sydney's gaze continued to bore into him, Lyle realized what it was the doctor was after. He needed confirmation. He wanted to be certain that Parker wasn't pinning her hopes on and giving away a piece of her heart to someone planning to betray her.
"I knew it was too late to save myself. But she could still be saved, Sydney. She still can be. I can live with who I am, who I allowed myself to become, but I won't stand by and let that bastard of a father of ours destroy her, too. Not her and not my son."
Silence fell between them as the doctor considered what Lyle had said. The words could have been an empty declaration, and a few days ago, Sydney would surely have thought they were, yet now, the well of pain that Lyle was unable to keep out of his eyes...Sydney knew that look so well. It was the same one Parker had each time she'd spoken of the baby. It was the same look Catherine had once had in her eyes as she spoke of trying to save her daughter so long ago.
Parker started, suddenly aware of her surroundings after what seemed like hours. She wasn't sure how long she had been outside, but her tea had gone cold, and so she headed back into the kitchen for a new cup. Suddenly the silence of the house was pierced. Her first thought was of Thane, but she quickly discovered that the sound was not coming from her young nephew.
A rending scream rang through the small house, followed by phrases of French interspersed with English and Thai. The piercing cry startled Corinna, who was staring out the window at the night sky, all the while watching the reflection of the sleeping form of the pretender in the glass pane. The door to the bedroom opened and Corinna turned to find Leanne standing in the doorway, a harried expression on her features.
"Rinna," she spoke softly so as not to disturb the sleeping man on the bed but the fear was there, "it's Lil. She dreams. I can no settle her down. Lyle no can come, please." The desperation was there, as Corinna glanced at Jarod, who seemed oblivious to Lilli's cries of fright. How could they have been so utterly stupid, she thought? They, in their infinite wisdom, had not given one iota of thought to Lil's well being or her state of mind. And because of their selfishness, her nightmares seemed to have returned in full force, which would only cause Lyle to feel even more guilty than he was already feeling.
Corinna stopped at the foot of the bed and after a deft shake on the sleeping pretender's leg to check and see if he was awake and faking, she left the room under the impression that he was securely restrained. The moment the door closed, Jarod relaxed, his breathing returning to normal. The anguished cries had hit close to home, but he had been given an opportunity and he was going to seize it. Taking a page from Miss Parker, Jarod clenched his teeth tightly as the pain of dislocating his thumb coursed through his body.
Down the hall, feeling helpless and trapped, Lyle lay in bed while he listened to the anguished cries of Lilli, pitiful sounds that echoed through the house. Tears welled up in his eyes as the sound filled him. Lilli's pain always touched him deeply, taking him back to those terror-filled nights he had spent locked in Lyle Bowman's shed. That either of them had survived their "childhoods" was a miracle, and Lyle knew it was that bond between them that had replaced his original motive, devotion to Che Ling, when it came to caring for the family. However he knew that tonight there was nothing he could do to help the little girl but lay still and heal. The sooner he returned to the Centre, the better for everyone's sakes, especially the two young children with whom his heart would stay behind.
Parker sat inside Thane's room cradling her nephew protectively. Lilli's nightmare had disturbed the young boy's slumber and since Corinna and Leanne were busy trying to settle down Lilli, the task of calming Thane fell to her. Then she would have to check on her brother. Hearing the distressed cries of both children would have worried him, and she imagined finding him half out of bed, trying to get to them but paralyzed by the pain of his injuries. After all, he was no less stubborn than she was. Perhaps, he was even more so.
"Are you sure you want to risk this, Parker?"
The voice came from out of the darkness. Looking up, Parker found Jarod standing in the shadows, watching her.
"So much for restraints."
"I wanted to talk to you, unencumbered." He grinned, massaging the thumb on his right hand. "So are you sure you want to risk trusting Lyle?"
"There's that unfailing predisposition to be the Boy Scout." It was impossible to miss the fact that she was irritated by the Pretender's statement as she glared at him without bothering to hide her pique. "Isn't that what you've wanted me to do these past five years, learn to trust?"
"Me," Jarod whispered, pausing briefly, "not your brother, the Grade-A quality psycho!"
"God, you're smug," she retorted, her voice becoming a harsh whisper in her effort not to wake the sleeping baby, "but you're right about one thing, he's my brother." She watched his smile flat-line. "So, it's different. Don't you get it? This isn't just about Lyle or me for that matter. It's about giving my nephew the type of life we never had because of the Centre."
"Those are noble intentions, Miss Parker, but again, I ask, are you sure you can trust him? What happens if the Centre finds out what you've done or what you're planning to do? Are you sure he won't be the one to slither away if you get caught, leaving you to face your father's wrath alone, because I'm not." Jarod snapped.
"Oh...you're so..." she said angrily, her control over her tone and her emotions slipping quickly.
"What?"
"Full of yourself, Jarod. This isn't about you. It's not your choice to make. That trust you keep talking about, it's a secret combination to a lock. Two turns of faith, one turn of fantasy, and half a turn of truth. Do you know how hard it was for me to not try and take Thane away from that place? But I couldn't. I had nowhere safe enough to take him, but his father...Lyle risked everything to get his son out of that place and to create an opportunity to tell me the truth. Now you want me to turn my back on that? He did what my mother and your father both failed to do, Jarod, and I'm not willing to just pretend it didn't happen."
His face remained a mask of doubt and concern, and for some reason the concern seemed to make Parker more upset than the doubt. The latter she could truly understand. Lyle had certainly given all of them enough reason to question his motives, Jarod especially, but damn him for not understanding why she didn't have a choice in this.
"Come on, Jarod, this is what you've always wanted, isn't it? For me to see the Centre for what it is?"
Still, there came no response from him, and Parker looked away, her eyes lowering to the small boy she held. Gently, she kissed the top of his head, and though she hadn't meant the words to be spoken aloud, they came out softly, quietly, and Jarod couldn't help but hear them and feel the raw emotion that had given them life.
"They're the only family I have."
He knew then that he was defeated because she was right. So often his anger at Parker had been born partly of her refusal to see what was right in front of his face. This time, it was him who wasn't seeing. Parker loved Thane more than her own life, and she was unwilling to deny her brother a second chance to prove himself to her. Whether she was right or wrong really was irrelevant now, it was the course she had decided upon, and he could either help her or leave her alone to face the dangers it might pose.
"Fine." As he spoke the word, his tone full of surrender, Jarod slumped and leaned against one of the walls in the bedroom. Parker wasn't certain what "fine" meant, but she left the word dangling in the air, unwilling or unable to face anymore confrontation with him on this night.
When Lyle woke the next morning, sunlight streamed through the window causing him to squint. In a rush, his aching body reminded him of what had happened the day before: every joint seemed to creak, every muscle had frozen into unyielding stiffness, every available inch of skin felt torn or bruised. Lack of sleep hadn't helped much. He'd lain awake for hours until his sister had finally convinced him that both Lilli and Thane were safe. Then she'd held his hand as he had finally drifted off into a fitful sleep.
"You look like hell, Lyle," Jarod said, pensively.
Lyle forced his eyes open wider as he searched the room for his nemesis. He found him, his eyes taking in the full sight of the pretender. "You don't look any better," Lyle replied, a small chuckle escaping his lips.
"We can do without the laugh track," Jarod said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. He tried to maintain a good front, but he felt uneasy, emotions betrayed by a slight slump in his shoulders and his eyes quickly looking down toward his boots. He grew very quiet.
"I swear you pushed me into this deliberately," Lyle said quietly, his gaze never wavering from the pretender.
"Right, it's my fault that you put Parker through all of this..."
"I haven't done anything to my sister but tell her the truth."
"Is it the truth? It damn well better be, Lyle, because if you've gotten her involved in something that's going to get her hurt..."
Lyle threw his legs over the edge of the bed, ignoring the burning pain in his lower back as he did so. Laying still had almost let him forget about his tumble down the stairs, but now, he didn't care about the discomfort moving caused him. He used every ounce of strength he could muster to push himself up so that his eyes were level with Jarod's.
"No one has hurt my sister more than you, you self-centered bastard, so don't you come in here and start trying to tell me anything about her."
"I'm not the one who locked her in a mental institution."
"No, you didn't have to lock her in one, you almost drove her to one. I mean, really, genius, do you ever think about the consequences of what you do? Or are you just so wrapped up in the idea of your own brilliance that it just never occurred to you that you've been destroying Parker a piece at a time?"
"Go to hell, Lyle. You don't know what you're talking about."
"No? So then tell me this, Jarod. Why did you have to tell her about Thomas, hmm? I mean, you could have just said that you'd met him later. That you checked him out, ended up being friends with him. You could have bent the truth to protect her feelings."
"I don't lie to Parker, that's your job."
Lyle smiled and shook his head as he realized that his point had been completely lost on Jarod.
"That's exactly what I mean. You couldn't bend your precious code, not realizing for a second how completely violated and manipulated she would feel, and that didn't matter at all to you, did it?"
"Thomas didn't do anything wrong."
"I know that, you idiot. But you did. You are a bastard to her. You break into her house, you torment her with bits and pieces of the truth about her life. You keep walking in, making decisions for her and then you can't understand why she isn't grateful. What you don't realize is that you're just as bad as Mr. Parker, Jarod."
The barb was so sharp that Jarod felt certain he'd felt it lodge deep in his chest. Just like Mr. Parker? It was a total lie, of course, just some mind game on Lyle's part, he told himself. But if that were true, why was a dull ache forming in his gut as the words sank more deeply into his brain.
"And another thing, Jarod..."
The sound of a throat being cleared stopped Lyle mid-sentence. He and Jarod both turned to see Parker and Corinna standing in the doorway. Parker shook her head, whether in disbelief or to shake loose the echo of the words she'd heard Lyle say to Jarod, she wasn't sure. As the thought overwhelmed her, Parker leaned her forehead to rest in her right hand as Corinna flashed a large, fake smile, her voice filling the room.
"Oh, yeah, this is going to go really well. Nice spirit of cooperation, boys."
With reluctance, Lyle tore his attention away from the man standing in front of him. Corinna was right. Arguing was going to get them nowhere. But he was so sick and tired of Jarod's holier-than-thou attitude. A dark cloud sank over Lyle's mood as he sighed heavily, hoping his sister hadn't heard any of the argument that had been going on.
For his part, Jarod regarded Lyle with renewed interest, scanning his enemy's face intently, studying it as if the man were part of a new pretend. It was not a face he liked, but both Corinna and Parker were right, there was no mistaking the intelligence in it, or the immense strength of will. Could he believe that all that passion he'd just seen was real devotion to Parker? Jarod shook his head. He just couldn't imagine it. He couldn't see Lyle as Parker's protector. But he faced the hard reality that he was going to have to learn to deal with the man on some level.
"I need to shower," Lyle said, breaking the silence that had fallen in the room. He strode, or rather tried to appear as if he were moving easily when in fact he was terrible pain, toward the door. He was almost out of the room when he turned and looked the pretender directly in the eyes. "Because of your exaggerated sense of self importance, you've placed yourself at the center of this, so you can't sit around anymore and wonder what if, you know that, right?"
Jarod stood silently, but Parker's voice, taking in the intense tone of the gaze between brother and, what should she call him, she wondered, enemy, ally? At any rate, she voiced what seemed obvious but what bore saying. "Then I guess it's better to have him on our side and working with us instead of plodding in like a bull in a china shop and causing everything to crash like he normally does."
Corinna almost smiled at that remark. The dynamic between these three people really was terribly fascinating, and some part of her was going to enjoy watching it develop over the course of their plan.
Jarod, who had fought down his urge to deliver a snappy retort to Parker's words, instead spoke with his eyes still locked on Lyle's. "Do either of us have a choice in the matter?"
"No, not really." Parker replied.
"That's what I thought," the pretender and Lyle said in unison.
In response, Parker looked at both men.
"One must make adjustments as necessary, Sis. Despite assiduous planning, not everything can be foreseen. And you, Jarod were not part of my equation. My mistake. Seems I forgot CIA Spook Rule 12."
"We'll have to tell Cyrus what's happened, Lyle, you do realize that?" Corinna said softly, trying to steer him away from his current train of thought. She knew that he would see Jarod's involvement as a failure of some sort on his own part. That was just how Lyle was wired, but they couldn't afford it right now, and she needed to try and distract him. Lyle thought about her statement for a moment, and then shook his head and started toward the door again.
"Maybe when this is all over, Jarod, you and Cyrus should meet. You two will probably have a lot to talk about."
Something in Lyle's voice struck Jarod and almost flared up his anger again. How could he seem so damn placid?
"You're taking this rather calmly," Jarod replied. Lyle met his eyes.
"Only on the surface."
Lyle headed for the bathroom at the end of the hallway, and now, free to let his emotions wash over him, a mixture of anger from his argument with Jarod and guilt from his participation in yesterday's brawl quickly put him back into the dark corner of his soul that so much resembled that horrible shed on the Bowman Farm. It was a place he knew all too well. When he was there, he felt alone, separate from everything. He was a renegade, with allegiance to no one. It was so much easier that way, wasn't it? But it would never really be that way, not ever again. Ever since he had felt his connection to Parker take hold, he knew that he would never feel alone again. Even when she had hated him, just knowing she was in the world made the layers of masks and cloaks he wore seem easier to bear.
Lyle stuck his head under the showerhead, wishing he could stand under the hot water for at least a month or two. This was where he would purge the dark feelings that were trying to build inside him. Someday, he hoped he could do this, sort through his emotions, anywhere and anyplace he wanted to, but for now, he accepted that he was still in some ways that scared little boy in Lyle Bowman's shed. He needed the confined space of the shower to think.
The truth was he was having trouble with Jarod's presence here. Theirs was a bitter rivalry that had lain unacknowledged in words, yet it had been exploding in deeds for some time. The feud would rage out of control if they let it. Suddenly a fleeting memory of Red Rock crossed his mind. As often happened when he remembered those confused days, the guilt started to boil to the surface. He winced, then shook his head and rubbed his temple to try and expunge the memory, but as he moved his fingers, Lyle was suddenly aware of...what was it? Some sense of something, some change that seemed to echo through his being.
He climbed out of the shower and stared at the mirror, expecting to see the same tired eyes and guilty countenance he always saw when he faced these memories, but instead the truth was staring him in the face. It took a few moments, but as the reality of it sunk in, Lyle almost felt lightheaded. For the first time since learning who he was, the familiar gut-wrenching guilt that hit him every time he thought about Kyle and Red Rock, it had disappeared. In its place was a simple, bittersweet sadness.
It was a revelation. Sadness. Simple regret. They were normal feelings. He hated what he had done, but for the first time, he didn't have the time or the energy to hate himself. Lyle almost smiled as he stood there staring at his reflection. He had not sunk to the depths of the dark place. It was too much to hope that it marked some permanent change in how he saw the world, but today, for this moment, he knew there were more important things in the world than his past. His fears about what might happen to him in the coming months were also irrelevant. Parker had come with him. Thane was safe. And for the first time in his entire life, Lyle knew what it meant to have hope.
Lyle left the bathroom and made for his room as quickly as possible to dress. He had been aware of Corinna's eyes watching him earlier, and he knew that she was always able to detect it when he slipped into his dark place. He couldn't make her worry, and he didn't want to waste any more of the time he had with both she and Parker. They couldn't afford to. Tonight they had to set a course.
In all the years Corinna had known him, she had never seen Lyle so aloof. She was used to his personality, certainly, after all this time. He could be moody and unjustly hard on himself. She remembered with a slight shiver how the allegations regarding the prostitution ring had tipped him into that darkness from which he had so often struggled to resurface. Standing there in his room, she'd watched him carefully, and from the stiff angle of his shoulders, she could tell he was allowing the events of the last few days to weigh him down. Not for the first time, she wished she could think of a way to console him. Over the years, though, she'd found that the slightest words of encouragement seemed to Lyle to be offerings of false hope.
Still, she hoped that he could see that maybe, just maybe, the tide had finally turned in his favor. What had occurred in the last few days might mean that they were no longer walking that fine line that for so many years could have meant not only failure in their assignment, but, in Lyle's world, the destruction of the one person that had given meaning to his life. Now, with both Parker and Thane's lives in the balance, she sensed a new commitment in him, and she new that she could convince Cyrus to give them this chance. Lyle would not fail--not the agency, and not his family.
"I have a phone call to make, so if you'll excuse me, I'll meet you downstairs out on the deck," Corinna stated calmly, leaving Parker and Jarod standing in Parker's room, where they had seemed to wander with no real purpose following Lyle's exit.
An immediate sense of awkwardness settled between them, and Lyle's words ran through Parker's mind again. She had never really thought about how much Jarod manipulated her. She knew he did it, of course, but she had resisted acknowledging it. And now that she had, she hated knowing it. Still, she felt a small sense of pride at how Lyle had stood up to Jarod on her behalf. God, she wanted so much to really believe, to commit 100% of herself to her brother. She knew no one would blame her for feeling a twinge of doubt...if he were telling the truth about everything, Lyle had worked very hard to make sure she would never trust him.
Jarod watched her as her mind whirled. He felt he should say something, and yet what was there to say? She had made her choice. She was going to follow this path with Lyle, and Jarod knew he had no choice but to go with them. He could not leave her alone, not until he was finally convinced of her brother's newfound sincerity. He only hoped he wasn't letting her walk down a road that would lead to the greatest heartbreak of her life.
Thousands of miles away, distant in his office in Washington, Cyrus answered the telephone on the third ring. His distinctive rumble of a voice filled the transmitter, instantly recognizable to the woman on the other end.
"Hello."
"Cyrus."
"Tell me what I'm dealing with, Corinna?"
"That abduction that's been credited to Jarod. Not true." Corinna cringed when she heard the sharp intake of breath coming across the receiver.
"Well, then, let me take a stab in the dark at this one. Tell me, Corinna, has he gone completely insane this time?"
"No, Cyrus, Lyle's as sane as you or I. Bottom line, it's under control."
"Under control? I did I hear you correctly, right? Because kidnapping his own sister and child sounds more like a bit out of control to me."
"With his son no longer a pawn to be used by Mr. Parker, Lyle's more determined than ever to finish this."
"What about Jarod? If he finds out that Lyle's responsible for Parker's abduction... "
"Jarod already knows, and let's just say that they've worked out their frustrations for the time being. They both look a lot uglier but..." Corinna tried to keep the smile off her face, "And Parker's helping to convince Jarod to stay out of things. It'll be all right."
"Interesting. A lack of interference from Jarod would definitely be a welcome change. So it seems that the playing field has changed and that we might finally have the advantage."
"I hate to sound overly optimistic where Jarod and Lyle are concerned, but I'd say we just might."
"Then it's time to play hard ball with the Centre, Corinna. There's no mistaking the urgency from the director's office. We have two months until the president kicks off his election campaign for the VP. That's our timeframe. Get to work. Oh, and tell Lyle that I'm glad that his son's safe."
Cyrus reached out and disconnected the line, but sat holding the dead receiver momentarily. After a few seconds, he replaced it and hesitated long enough to glance at his daughter Devin's photograph, which rested on his desk. What fathers will do...
When the fog cleared, he snatched up the receiver again and pressed a memory dial button for Channing's private line.
"Yes."
"It's me. Lyle's still in the game. The timeframe has been put into play. I'll call you with a more detailed update in a few days."
"Glad to here it, Cyrus. Despite all the trouble he's been, Lyle is much too valuable to lose."
Hearing the "click" that indicated Channing had disconnected her end of the call, Cyrus returned the receiver of his phone to the cradle and sat back in his chair. Years of work, of his life, and all of the sacrifices that he, Lyle and Corinna had made...it all came down to 61 days. He couldn't help but wonder what would happen to all of them on the 62nd.
Corinna snapped the cellular phone shut, and then sat a few seconds in thought before realizing that Lyle had been standing in agonized silence, watching her and waiting for a summary.
"Wondering how Cyrus took the news, Lyle?"
"Yes."
"He's glad that your son's safe and that you didn't go insane. Down the road named 'a tad bit out of control,' but he considers that an improvement over some of your past episodes." Corinna stated, a smile on her face.
"Seriously?" Lyle remarked, his eyes starting to shine. "Next time I talk to him, I'll tell him that he's never seen me out of control, let alone insane. Like that line? I co-opted it from my sister. Well, kind of." There was something brave and very determined in his eyes that gave her a surge of hope that perhaps the depression that had been weighing him down had lifted a bit.
"So what did he say before he said all that nice stuff?"
"Actually," Corinna answered, stepping closer to her partner, "he said the nice stuff first, then he said that it's time to play hard ball with the Centre. Apparently the director thinks that they've been on the most wanted list too long. We have two months."
"Gee, that long?" Lyle winked at her, and Corinna knew she had not lied to Cyrus even a little bit. Lyle was present and ready, and it was time to move forward. Yet she was not surprised when his face grew serious, not from worry, but from concentration.
"He knows about Jarod?"
"Yeah," Corinna said, nodding as confirmation. "He was...intrigued."
"I'll bet," Lyle responded before letting his eyes drop as several ideas ran through his mind.
"We should meet tonight. We need to put a plan in the field if we're going to do this thing in two months."
"Agreed."
"Okay, I'm going check on Thane and then I'm going see what Leanne has in that kitchen. I'm starving."
Corinna couldn't help but laugh at that one. "I guess that's a good sign."
Lyle smiled back in response, then started out of the room before a thought stopped him and made him turn back around.
"He actually mentioned Thane? He never does that."
"Yes, he did. Seriously, Lyle, you of all people know that Cyrus isn't your typical armchair director. He has always hoped that you could do your job and protect your family."
Lyle's only response was to nod, then he walked out of the room and toward the kitchen.
For a house that had seem almost peaceful upon her arrival there, the suburban home was now bursting at the seams and Parker took to the patio in order to get a moment's peace and quiet.
Her mind had been unable to process the onslaught of emotions that had been unleashed by this morning's confrontation between Lyle and Jarod. For so long, Jarod had been trying to defend her from her brother. Now the tables had turned, and Lyle was defending her from Jarod. Yet, if she was honest for even a second, she knew that she needed both of them. She needed her brother so that she could have a family for the first time since her mother's murder. And she needed Jarod because, no matter how much she hated it, she had needed him in her life ever since that first day they had met so many years ago. That meant that she had to get them on the same page, and their reassurances that they both knew they had no choice but to work together didn't really seem like enough of a guarantee. She had to unite them in a common cause, and remembering her own plans before all of this had begun, she knew what that cause should be.
The feeling that she was being watched caused Parker to look up from her chair. She saw Lyle standing there with a mixture of concern and uncertainty in his eyes.
"Sydney and Broots are on their way back from the hotel," he said, then asked in all seriousness, "Can we talk before they get here?" Parker was sure she heard a quiver in his voice, and it shocked her. She motioned for him to take a seat.
"If I recall when this whole thing started, I left the decision regarding Thane's care in your hands."
"You did," Parker replied, nodding and sighing.
"Well?" Lyle was surprised to find a bemused expression on his sister's face.
"You really don't expect me to take him back now that he's got a safe place to stay? Like I told Jarod last night, you did what I couldn't."
Silence was what answered her back, so she took the opportunity to ask a question that had been plaguing her most of the morning.
"On that note, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Your plans for the Centre once you return?"
"Oh, that."
"Yes, that."
"Forgive me, but isn't that why we're having a meeting?"
"I'm not talking about the plan, Lyle. I'm talking about you and the Centre. How are you going to handle them?
"Truthfully, Parker, my gut tells me the only way to beat Dad and the Triumvirate at their game is to adhere to the doctrines of Sun Tsu.
"Sun Tsu?"
"A Chinese philosopher, sort of."
"What do you mean sort of?"
"Let's just say the man was light years ahead of his time in regards to war and how to fight the enemy."
That peaked Parker's curiosity. "Explain."
"According to Sun Tsu," Lyle began, "all warfare is based on deception. Who better to deceive them but me? I am a certified pro at it now. However the more important question he asked is why anyone would fight an enemy on the enemy's terms."
It was at this point that Jarod made his presence known by stepping out onto the porch.
"Sun Tsu asks of the one in charge to choose the road to either safety or ruin," Jarod added.
"Did you have your ear against the door the entire time?" Lyle asked as he turned to look up at the pretender.
"I came to tell you that Broots and Sydney are here. I didn't realize the CIA taught Sun Tsu."
"They don't, " Lyle replied, "A friend taught me about him."
A friend...Parker knew instantly who that friend was. Che Ling. Hoping she could head off any bad memories that might ambush her brother, Parker stood, touching Lyle's arm lightly.
"Let's go inside. There's something I need to tell you..." Parker looked from Lyle to Jarod, "both of you."
The two men, now curious about what Parker had to say, followed her inside. Corinna, Sydney and Broots met them in the living room. As they took seats around the room, the house suddenly seemed oddly quiet to Parker, and Corinna noticed her looking around with a quizzical look on her face.
"Leanne took the kids to the movies as soon as Thane went down for his nap. She knew we needed time to talk."
Parker nodded, then she stood and looked around the room.
"So, if I've gotten all this straight, Lyle you infiltrated the Centre in order to learn about all of its operations so that the federal government could dismantle it? That's the basic idea, right?"
Lyle nodded.
"Then I might know of something that could help."
Lyle narrowed his eyes, more intrigued than ever by what his sister seemed to know.
"Parker, what's going on?"
It had seemed much easier in her head when she'd thought about doing this. But preparing to say it out loud was bringing back so much of the horror she'd felt that day as she watched the DSA of her mother's murder. Her voice broke a bit as she went on.
"After I...after I found out about Ethan and Mirage, I went to confront Raines. It was after you and Dad had him detained. He told me that mother made a DSA before she died. Apparently no one at the Centre knows where it is."
Jarod leaned forward, his eyes eager with anticipation. Even if it meant working with Lyle, a real chance to get to the heart of the Centre, to possibly find his own answers...
"Parker, what's on the DSA?" Jarod asked a little impatiently.
"Raines said it was her plan for stopping the Centre. He didn't say anything more, just that he'd never been able to find it."
"But that doesn't mean no one else did, " Corinna broke in. "I mean, your father, the Triumvirate, someone else could have it."
"I don't think so," Parker answered. Lyle looked at her intently.
"Why do you say that?"
"Raines was about to tell me who else might know what was on the DSA when Daddy shot him. Why would Daddy be worried about anything Raines said if he had the DSA secured already?"
Silence ruled the room as everyone mulled over that question. Sydney thought about Mr. Parker's typical behavior and Broots analyzed odds in his head. Not surprisingly, though, it was Jarod who spoke up first.
"I think she's right. Ever since I escaped, Mr. Parker's acted like a man with something to worry about, and it's more than just me being on the loose."
Broots, suddenly very nervous, stood up and began to pace.
"Well, what do we do next? I mean, do you have any ideas where the DSA might be, Miss Parker?"
"No, not really. I know it's not in my house anywhere. I already tossed it upside down looking for it."
Lyle stood now, approaching his sister.
"Make a list of every place you can imagine she might have hidden it, Parker, and then you and Corinna can split them up and go looking for it."
Parker raised her eyebrows, her face turning into a question mark.
"What do you mean? I'm going back to the Centre with you."
"No, Parker. You're clear of that place, and I want you to stay clear. They think Jarod has you locked up somewhere. They have no idea that you're on the loose and looking for the truth. Let's keep it that way."
"Lyle, they're not going to keep believing Jarod is toting me and Thane across the country."
"They will if I help make them believe it."
Jarod's voice seemed loud and flat, and it took a few moments for what he'd said to really register in the minds of his audience. Sydney looked at his former student with interest.
"What are you thinking, Jarod?"
"I can leave breadcrumbs, Parker and baby related breadcrumbs, in my lairs. Or I can leave a bunch of false trails to places I could have them stashed. I can keep them guessing."
"That's not a bad plan," Broots chimed in. "I was actually thinking of something along those same lines for Sydney and me."
"What do you mean?" Lyle asked.
"Well, when we left we didn't give much of an excuse, and I don't know about Sydney, but I don't really want to spend my first day back in front of a T-Board."
Parker nodded, understanding. "So?"
"So I was thinking, what if we make it look like we were sent on a wild goose chase."
"By Jarod?" Sydney asked.
"No, by Mr. Lyle," Broots responded.
The beauty of the plan immediately came into focus for the rest of the group. Lyle was, after all, supposed to be looking for Ethan, and Sydney, who was obsessed with finding Jarod, would assume Jarod would come looking for Ethan. Lyle could always argue that he didn't want the shrink interfering in his search, so he'd planted some false leads on Jarod to keep the two male Stooges occupied, not realizing that it had allowed "Jarod" an opportunity to hide his sister and son somewhere seemingly impossible to locate.
"Mr. Broots," Lyle said, "it seems my sister's constant faith in you has not been misplaced. All right, so we've got Sydney and Broots chasing their tail then back at the Centre, I've come up empty on Ethan and will go face Dad's wrath and Corinna and Parker will go look for the DSA. While you two ladies are searching, the three of us can dig around and see what other dirty little Centre secrets we can hand over to the Agency."
Lyle seemed pleased. They were on their way, in some manner, and once he was back in the flow of things, he could meet with Cyrus and plan further strategy. He was about to suggest they begin working on the false computer trails they needed to lay when he heard Jarod's voice behind him.
"What do you want me to do?"
Lyle turned, facing his nemesis-come-ally. What did he want Jarod to do? Now that the pretender was involved, they couldn't just ask him to lay low and do nothing, could they? Yet other than providing the fake abduction evidence, there really wasn't anything Lyle wanted him to do.
"I...well..."
Parker watched the two with great interest. She had played her ace in the hole, her mother's DSA, as a way of making them see they were, at least for now, on the same side. The question was, had it worked? Jarod was used to being a featured player, and yet Parker sensed that her brother would be most happy to keep him in a cameo role in whatever came next.
"Jarod," Lyle finally spit out, "the truth is, I just want you to let us be for a while. I need to make sure my father is still buying my act. To do that, I just need a little time."
"But there's got to be something else..." Jarod began, only to have his words halted by Parker clearing her throat. He looked at her and saw a plea in her eyes. And damn it, he knew exactly what she wanted him to do...give in.
"Fine," Jarod muttered, albeit unhappily so. Almost pouting, he walked out to the patio, leaving the group of Centre staff and CIA operatives stunned. Had they actually just gotten Jarod to do something he didn't want to do? Lyle shook his head. He wasn't going to waste time analyzing it. There was too much work to do.
"Broots, we should get to work on those computer records."
Broots nodded, moving to boot up his laptop as Corinna and Sydney gathered round him. Lyle moved to join them, but took the time to notice his sister headed for the patio.
Jarod heard footsteps approaching him, but he didn't look up as Parker stopped and stood beside him.
"I know that was hard for you."
"Parker, it's ridiculous. I've been investigating the Centre for five years."
"And gotten no further than I have, Jarod, not really. This might be our chance to finally get the answers we need. Does it matter who does what if that's the end result?"
When they'd been children and Parker would say things that Jarod knew were true yet didn't fit with his own limited scope of logic, it had driven him insane with frustration. As an adult, he found it was no different. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do more, scream or beat up Lyle again.
"There is one other thing you can do."
That finally got Jarod to look at her, and Parker saw the mixture of anger and hope on his face.
"What?"
"The things you've found of my mother's...they were scattered all over the place. You probably know more places I should look than I could ever come up with on my own. Help me figure out where to go."
Supressing the slight twinge of guilt that Parker's words, and the memory of Lyle's accusation, had brought to him, Jarod nodded, then followed Parker back into the house. A few hours later, Broots and Sydney were on a plane to Yakima, Washington in order to cement their "chasing Lyle to get to Jarod" story, and Corinna and Parker had amassed a list of just over a dozen places the DSA might be hidden. Now all that remained was to see if the tenuous agreement forged between the Parker twins and the pretender could hold for 61 days.
Two days later, Lyle stood in his father's office, trying not to let anger creep into his neutral expression. He knew he had to undergo this tirade if he wanted to come to any kind of agreement with the man. He needed that in order to get back to work so he could make his meeting with Cyrus at 5:00. Yet he couldn't think about that now. Instead the scowling face of his father filled his vision.
"Lyle, I simply can't believe that you were unable to discover anything useful in D.C. I swear, sometimes you seem totally incompetent."
"I'm perfectly competent. If you have anyone to blame, it's Jarod. For interfering...for...."
"Enough! We're wasting valuable time, meanwhile he has the baby."
"And my sister."
Lyle watched with a tiny bit of enjoyment as his father struggled to cover up that glaring omission.
"Yes, of course he has Angel, but she can take care of herself. That baby is the one the Triumvirate is waiting to get back here, and we need to do it now."
"I can take over the search if you like. You could put Cox on Ethan."
"No."
The resounding rejection had been expected, but it still stung Lyle a little bit to have such a large helping of disrespect thrown in his face.
"We need Ethan back here, too. Mirage is still an open program. Find him, and no more mistakes. I don't need to remind you that I've done a great deal to protect you and your secrets, Lyle. I expect my effort to be repaid."
"Of course, Dad." With that, Lyle knew he'd been dismissed, and he gratefully took his leave from the room. It was time to get back to work.
