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Thanks for the reviews guys! Glad so far everyone is liking this story. Enjoy. And as always, this is co-written by Jaccione and Onisius.
Sydney stormed into Parker's office and planted both of his fists on her desk. "Parker, you have to stop him.” He demanded, no patience for pleasantries. He had told himself in the lift that he had to tread gently with Parker, but he was too angry and worried now to heed his own advice.
Parker looked up from her files and arched her eyebrows, slowly closing her laptop. "Stop who Freud?"
"Lyle," Sydney said impatiently. “He is interfering with Jarod, with my work with Jarod." Parker had so far shown no real interest in Jarod's welfare beyond his ability to work, and so he needed to appeal to her from that angle. It saddened him to think that she could be so cold and he wondered if she really was, really didn’t care, or she was just behaving this way to protect herself from the guilt.
"And the problem with that is?" Parker leant back into her chair. “You know damn well he is co-chairperson Freud, he has authority to do what he wants." It was something Parker was not at all happy with, sharing the chair with that cannibal. Africa had ordered them to though, and as much as Parker hated it, at least she didn’t have to answer to him fully.
"Not to undo what we are trying to do with Jarod to gratify some twisted personal need. It is counter productive and unnecessary Parker. You know what he does to Jarod." Sydney shook his head. "Don’t you care?” He asked in frustration.
“Yes I damn know what he does to Jarod. I know EXCATLY what he does to boy genius. Lyle is co-chairperson Syd, he can do basically what he wants." She matched Sydney's glare. "What do you expect me to do?"
"Stop him Parker." Sydney told her. “It sets things back and just makes Jarod fight you even more. Lyle is too set on his need for revenge and twisted enjoyment to care, but you should.” He just couldn’t seem to find a way to get through to her.
"And pray tell, why should I care about the monkey?" Parker asked, narrowing her eyes at him. All he had ever done was make her life hell.
"Then you should care about how this is setting your project back.” He said, disgust at the word clear in his voice. The fiscal importance was the only bottom line she seemed to care about, so he would have to make her see things in dollar amounts.
Parker knew Sydney wouldn’t let this go, and she knew he was right. She couldn’t stop Lyle having some fun with the annoying pretender, but it was detrimental to their profits and for that, Parker could take Jarod from him. “You owe me Syd."
"Anything Parker," Sydney agreed, tired of having this conversation. He knew though that Lyle wasn't going to listen to her and he feared for Jarod's future.
Standing up, checking her gun, Parker stormed out, not caring if Sydney followed her or not. She was getting sick and tired of having Sydney come whining to her about Jarod pissing Lyle off and being hurt for it. Lyle would get tired of this sooner or later, and it would be sooner rather than later if Jarod stopped baiting him and pushing Lyle. Even now, Jarod was taunting Lyle, pushing him, and the monkey just didn’t seem to learn not to do it.
Sydney didn't suppose they could get lucky and Parker put a bullet in him and finish him once and for all. He followed her, guessing at least one person was going to need medical attention by the time this was done.
When the doors closed on the lift, Parker looked at Sydney, “Maybe you should remind Franken boy how to act like the project he is. He does nothing to help himself by pushing Lyle."
“He is not a project Parker and he has a name. If we treated him like a human being then perhaps he wouldn’t have so much trouble adjusting. The only pleasure he has in life is provoking Lyle."
"There is a fine line between pleasure and pain, and for Jarod, that lined is majorly blurred."
"What is that supposed to mean Parker?" Sydney asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
Walking out when the doors opened, Parker left the tower lift and headed for the one to take her down to Jarod's 'room'. “I assume you left him in his room?"
“Yes, after Lyle threw me out. He is working Parker, and that is no small achievement. Pushing him like this only makes him fight us harder.” He was tired of repeating this lecture and he was sure she was tired of listening to him. Something had to change though, they were all currently headed for disaster at the moment.
"Working? He is refusing more then 90 off the SIM’s that he has to do. That isn’t working, that is buying time for him." They were making some money off of him though, but not enough. Sooner or later, genius boy was going to have to cave and do the SIM’s required of him.
“You don't understand Parker, even doing that is a remarkable thing, it has taken months to get him to this point and if you want him to go any further, you are going to have to give him something in return, protect him from that psychopath."
“I thought he was a sociopath." Parker said distractedly.
"Parker," Sydney growled at her.
"What?" Parker snapped. “If you are going to call him something, get the name right." Either way, psycho or socio, Lyle was twisted in the head.
“You know what I mean Parker, Lyle is twisted and is pushing him too far. It is not wise to push Jarod beyond his limit to endure this. You are asking only for trouble." Jarod could be very dangerous if he became desperate.
“Maybe if Jarod did the SIM’s we told him to, didn’t provoke Lyle, did as he was told, he wouldn’t be enduring Lyle's little fun and games."
“You know Jarod won't do that Parker. You know how he feels about his work being used to harm others. He doesn't care about the consequences to himself. At least this way you have something."
"Something is not good enough. Africa is pushing us hard for more results. What we are getting isn’t enough for them. What we are getting is not enough to satisfy them, it’s only enough to just scrape by and not have Jarod taken over to Africa to work there. We all know how much more fun Jarod would have in Africa when he refuses the SIM’s for them.”
"Then give him some incentive Parker, make it easier for him not to fight you. Get Lyle off his back.” He demanded. He couldn’t understand how she could not understand this. The only person on the planet more stubborn than Parker was Jarod, and if he had dug his heels in, there would be no shifting him. They needed to make it easier, not harder, for him to submit and accept his reality, at least for now. Sydney was not fool enough to believe Jarod would accept this for too long. He could imagine him working on escape in every free moment he had and Sydney hoped he would find a way out soon.
"And you would think that would be enough for him to do all the SIM’s he is meant to?" Parker scoffed.
“It is a start Parker. What is the alternative? Beat him until he cannot work. Lyle has shown us how well that approach works."
“It’s one or the other. These SIM’s we are getting now are basically useless. He has been here three months already, he should be doing all of them. Not only is Africa growing restless of this, Lyle is and so am I. Either he starts doing all of them or he is sent to Africa."
"Do you think he cares? That that is a threat to him? You know you can't force him to do anything, we have to try a softer approach." Sydney had argued this from the very beginning of the pursuit.
"Africa has told us two weeks for a real SIM, and for them to continue, or they take him and he will never be getting out of there. He will die there, his body be used to create more pretenders, he will die in misery and loneliness. I would think there wasn’t a choice what he would want to do. And you seriously think under two weeks of a softer approach would work in time to get real SIM’s from him?"
"Do you believe anything you are offering him here right now is more attractive?" Sydney asked her as they got to his room. "Please Parker, let me try it my way, let me talk to him. Keep Lyle away from him and do things my way. At this point, what do you have to lose?"
"Jarod," Parker whispered quietly to herself as she opened the door and saw the room empty. Frowning, Parker looked around the little room. "So Freud, where is your monkey boy?"
Sydney saw the empty room. "Lyle,” He hissed in anger.
Shaking her head, growling annoyance. "As if I don't have enough work to do, I STILL have to chase after the rat’s arse." Even with the pretender in his cage back where he belonged, it seemed all she did now was still chase his sorry arse.
"This is hardly Jarod's fault Parker. Lyle needs to be controlled before he destroys Jarod, destroys us all."
Storming out the room, Parker headed straight down to the cell that Lyle had kept Jarod in for those three weeks and the start of Jarod's imprisonment here again.
Sydney followed her, fearing what they might find. Lyle seemed intent on destroying Jarod, and Jarod seemed to be playing right into his hands.
Heading down impatiently, Parker opened the door and walked into the room with the cell, seeing Jarod hanging by his wrists, wearing only his boxer shorts. His face had some blood on it, from what looked to be a cut on his eyebrow. He was panting, and Lyle and the sweeper with the jumper cables stepped back as she entered. "Don’t have much imagination do we Lyle?" Parker arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow.
"Why find new things, when the old ways work so well." Lyle smiled charmingly at her, nodding to the sweeper and watched as they backhanded Jarod again.
Jarod just grunted in pain, swinging helplessly. "Didn’t work so well last time.” He muttered in defiance.
“I did make the almighty pretender cry, I would say my techniques worked quite while for what I wanted." Lyle smiled as a punch was thrown to Jarod's solar plexus, forcing all the breath out of him.
"Jarod!" Sydney called in dismay, moving quickly towards him. Lyle was clearly insane and seemed bent on killing him, slowly, one piece at a time. Sydney was not a medical doctor, but he did know that Jarod's heart wasn’t going to be able to withstand too many more shocks.
"Parker!" Sydney called out urgently, moving to Jarod, trying to help support him. "Undo these cuffs now.” He demanded.
Parker moved in and shot a look at Lyle, “It would do you good to keep your hands off of him. We need him working." She growled, thoroughly annoyed at having to come down here. Undoing the cuffs, Parker turned back to Lyle. “You are NOT to do this to him. If he pisses you off, find something else to take your anger out on."
"Jarod, I got you," Sydney said gently, as he held him. Jarod had lost some weight, but he was still too heavy for Sydney to support and he staggered under his weight. “I want to get him to the infirmary."
“You can't stop me 'sis'." Lyle said with a smooth smile. "Now I have some real work to do." Lyle walked away from her, pausing at Jarod, eyeing him coldly. "We will continue this later." With that Lyle left.
"This is insane Parker," Sydney said, helping Jarod to the bench and sitting him down. "Lyle is going to kill him."
Parker took a step forward, ready to kill the smug bastard but restrained herself. When Lyle had left, the sweeper hot on his heels, Parker turned on Jarod and Sydney. "And YOU," Parker growled at Jarod. “If you keep pushing him like this, I won't keep coming running after you to save your sorry arse."
Jarod looked up at her and gave her a weak smile. “I don't want you to save me Miss Parker,” He whispered hoarsely. She had condemned him to this, with a satisfied smile on her face. He didn't expect or want anything from her any more.
"So you want Lyle to kill you? Is that it? Take the easy way out?"
"Easy?" Jarod scoffed, which turned into a coughing fit. He didn’t see anything easy about this at all.
"Please Parker, not now." Sydney pleaded with her.
Parker looked out the cell’s bars to Jarod’s sweeper that always followed him, regardless of who took him where. Clicking her fingers, Parker watched him move off to get some water. Snatching it from the sweeper when he got back, Parker held the cold water out for Jarod, seeing his coughing fit subside a little.
"Thank you," Jarod whispered after he had drained it.
“I want to check you out Jarod, make sure you heart isn't damaged." Sydney fussed over him, using his handkerchief to wipe away the worst of the blood.
"Jarod, you have to stop pissing him off," Parker said softly, “He has all authority to do this to you, you have to stop it."
"Why?" Jarod asked, forcing himself to look up at her. It wasn't like she cared after all.
"Why? Are you even a genius at all Jarod? Look around you, look where you are, what he is doing to you. I may hate you, but I don't hate you enough to want him doing this to you." Nobody deserved this sort of Lyle’s attention on them, any of his attention at all.
"Then stop him," Jarod told her. It didn't really make all that much difference to him now. The Centre was the Centre, large or small room, didn't matter, there was no way out. He knew though that if he was going to get out of here, he need to get them to relax their guard, and the best way to do that was to pretend to be broken. He also knew that if he gave in too easily, they would be suspicious, so he had resolved to put up a good enough display to convince them. And that was proving to be quite easy, since his temper was so short these days. He needed to drive a wedge between Parker and Lyle, and the easiest way to do that was to do this. If he could prevent them from uniting against him, then he stood more chance of getting out.
“I can't Jarod, he has the authority to. All I can really do is keep rescuing your arse from him after he has had some fun with you. How hard is it to just keep your mouth shut and not push him?"
“You think I need to open my mouth?" Jarod asked her with a wry grimace.
"Well it doesn’t help the situation wonder boy." Parker shook her head at him. “I will do what I can to keep you from Lyle, after all, I do like pissing him off just as much as you do. And stopping his access, most of his access, to you would certainly put a bee in his bonnet." Parker had to grin at that, knowing how pissed off that would make Lyle.
Jarod wondered what she was expecting in return for this and he sighed heavily. With Parker, everything always came with a price.
"Parker, I need to get him to the infirmary." Sydney repeated, worried about his physical and mental condition.
Looking around, Parker spotted Jarod's pants and top and picked them up, throwing them at Jarod, “Get dressed and let’s go. For wasting my time like this Jarod, you will do some extra work."
Jarod bit his tongue to stop the bitter laugh that threatened to erupt, knowing it was probably not the wisest move right now. He let Sydney help him dress and then dragged himself up and onto his feet. He was shaky and knew he wasn’t going to be able to walk by himself, the shocks still affecting his motor control.
Parker had all intentions of getting Jarod to catch up on the pointless paperwork that she was not able to fill out because she had to come rescue him. Walking out ahead of them, Parker called her secretary, and told her to get the basic travel reports and send them all down to Jarod's room, giving out his floor and room number. When it was done, she waited for Jarod and Sydney, before helping Sydney with Jarod.
"This cannot go on this way Parker," Sydney told her, worried that Lyle would take it one step too far one day.
Ducking under Jarod's arm, helping support him, seeing how much trouble he was having holding himself up and knowing Sydney wasn’t strong enough to carry Jarod's weight, “You ruin my hair Jarod and Lyle won't be the worst of your concerns.” She threatened him.
Jarod had to smile a little at that. “I will keep that in mind,” He mumbled as he struggled along, his limbs not really functioning properly, still twitching from the residual electricity that was still in his body.
Getting on the lift, Parker hit the button for the infirmary. "Freud here says the only pleasure you have now days is provoking Lyle?"
"Don’t know if that is pleasure, but close enough." Jarod agreed.
"Then can’t you find something 'safer' to do for fun?" Parker asked in annoyance.
“I have so many options to choose from." Jarod shot back sarcastically. Did she think this was fun for him? That he wanted to be here?
"Jarod," Sydney said, warning him to back down a little. "Now is not the time."
"No now seems like a perfect time." Parker argued a little. "When will you learn the 'life' you thought you had out there doesn’t exist anymore? You are a project, you are to do as you're told and do the work we tell you to do. With that comes the privileges and things that can keep you amused."
"What privileges?" Jarod grumbled, in no mood for her self-righteous, woe-is-my-life, speeches.
"A real room, maybe real food. Hot water, warmer bed, better bed. Maybe, some time down the track, trips outside." Parker reeled a few off. "But for things like that, you need to work. And I don't mean throwing a fit nearly everyday about the SIM’s that need to be done and deciding on ones you want."
“You think a hot meal and a soft bed is going to entice me...” He shook his head. "Why don't you just give me back to Lyle, will be quicker and easier." There was just no way he could give them what they wanted.
"Jarod, Parker is right, you need to listen to her. We cannot protect you from the ramifications if you persist in this course of action."
"There goes your thought of easing him in slowly." Parker scoffed at Sydney. “It’s either my way, or in two weeks, you're shipped to Africa."
"Please Jarod, you have to be practical." Sydney pleaded with him. He had to find a way to stop them sending Jarod over to Africa, which would surely destroy him.
Parker looked up from her files and arched her eyebrows, slowly closing her laptop. "Stop who Freud?"
"Lyle," Sydney said impatiently. “He is interfering with Jarod, with my work with Jarod." Parker had so far shown no real interest in Jarod's welfare beyond his ability to work, and so he needed to appeal to her from that angle. It saddened him to think that she could be so cold and he wondered if she really was, really didn’t care, or she was just behaving this way to protect herself from the guilt.
"And the problem with that is?" Parker leant back into her chair. “You know damn well he is co-chairperson Freud, he has authority to do what he wants." It was something Parker was not at all happy with, sharing the chair with that cannibal. Africa had ordered them to though, and as much as Parker hated it, at least she didn’t have to answer to him fully.
"Not to undo what we are trying to do with Jarod to gratify some twisted personal need. It is counter productive and unnecessary Parker. You know what he does to Jarod." Sydney shook his head. "Don’t you care?” He asked in frustration.
“Yes I damn know what he does to Jarod. I know EXCATLY what he does to boy genius. Lyle is co-chairperson Syd, he can do basically what he wants." She matched Sydney's glare. "What do you expect me to do?"
"Stop him Parker." Sydney told her. “It sets things back and just makes Jarod fight you even more. Lyle is too set on his need for revenge and twisted enjoyment to care, but you should.” He just couldn’t seem to find a way to get through to her.
"And pray tell, why should I care about the monkey?" Parker asked, narrowing her eyes at him. All he had ever done was make her life hell.
"Then you should care about how this is setting your project back.” He said, disgust at the word clear in his voice. The fiscal importance was the only bottom line she seemed to care about, so he would have to make her see things in dollar amounts.
Parker knew Sydney wouldn’t let this go, and she knew he was right. She couldn’t stop Lyle having some fun with the annoying pretender, but it was detrimental to their profits and for that, Parker could take Jarod from him. “You owe me Syd."
"Anything Parker," Sydney agreed, tired of having this conversation. He knew though that Lyle wasn't going to listen to her and he feared for Jarod's future.
Standing up, checking her gun, Parker stormed out, not caring if Sydney followed her or not. She was getting sick and tired of having Sydney come whining to her about Jarod pissing Lyle off and being hurt for it. Lyle would get tired of this sooner or later, and it would be sooner rather than later if Jarod stopped baiting him and pushing Lyle. Even now, Jarod was taunting Lyle, pushing him, and the monkey just didn’t seem to learn not to do it.
Sydney didn't suppose they could get lucky and Parker put a bullet in him and finish him once and for all. He followed her, guessing at least one person was going to need medical attention by the time this was done.
When the doors closed on the lift, Parker looked at Sydney, “Maybe you should remind Franken boy how to act like the project he is. He does nothing to help himself by pushing Lyle."
“He is not a project Parker and he has a name. If we treated him like a human being then perhaps he wouldn’t have so much trouble adjusting. The only pleasure he has in life is provoking Lyle."
"There is a fine line between pleasure and pain, and for Jarod, that lined is majorly blurred."
"What is that supposed to mean Parker?" Sydney asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
Walking out when the doors opened, Parker left the tower lift and headed for the one to take her down to Jarod's 'room'. “I assume you left him in his room?"
“Yes, after Lyle threw me out. He is working Parker, and that is no small achievement. Pushing him like this only makes him fight us harder.” He was tired of repeating this lecture and he was sure she was tired of listening to him. Something had to change though, they were all currently headed for disaster at the moment.
"Working? He is refusing more then 90 off the SIM’s that he has to do. That isn’t working, that is buying time for him." They were making some money off of him though, but not enough. Sooner or later, genius boy was going to have to cave and do the SIM’s required of him.
“You don't understand Parker, even doing that is a remarkable thing, it has taken months to get him to this point and if you want him to go any further, you are going to have to give him something in return, protect him from that psychopath."
“I thought he was a sociopath." Parker said distractedly.
"Parker," Sydney growled at her.
"What?" Parker snapped. “If you are going to call him something, get the name right." Either way, psycho or socio, Lyle was twisted in the head.
“You know what I mean Parker, Lyle is twisted and is pushing him too far. It is not wise to push Jarod beyond his limit to endure this. You are asking only for trouble." Jarod could be very dangerous if he became desperate.
“Maybe if Jarod did the SIM’s we told him to, didn’t provoke Lyle, did as he was told, he wouldn’t be enduring Lyle's little fun and games."
“You know Jarod won't do that Parker. You know how he feels about his work being used to harm others. He doesn't care about the consequences to himself. At least this way you have something."
"Something is not good enough. Africa is pushing us hard for more results. What we are getting isn’t enough for them. What we are getting is not enough to satisfy them, it’s only enough to just scrape by and not have Jarod taken over to Africa to work there. We all know how much more fun Jarod would have in Africa when he refuses the SIM’s for them.”
"Then give him some incentive Parker, make it easier for him not to fight you. Get Lyle off his back.” He demanded. He couldn’t understand how she could not understand this. The only person on the planet more stubborn than Parker was Jarod, and if he had dug his heels in, there would be no shifting him. They needed to make it easier, not harder, for him to submit and accept his reality, at least for now. Sydney was not fool enough to believe Jarod would accept this for too long. He could imagine him working on escape in every free moment he had and Sydney hoped he would find a way out soon.
"And you would think that would be enough for him to do all the SIM’s he is meant to?" Parker scoffed.
“It is a start Parker. What is the alternative? Beat him until he cannot work. Lyle has shown us how well that approach works."
“It’s one or the other. These SIM’s we are getting now are basically useless. He has been here three months already, he should be doing all of them. Not only is Africa growing restless of this, Lyle is and so am I. Either he starts doing all of them or he is sent to Africa."
"Do you think he cares? That that is a threat to him? You know you can't force him to do anything, we have to try a softer approach." Sydney had argued this from the very beginning of the pursuit.
"Africa has told us two weeks for a real SIM, and for them to continue, or they take him and he will never be getting out of there. He will die there, his body be used to create more pretenders, he will die in misery and loneliness. I would think there wasn’t a choice what he would want to do. And you seriously think under two weeks of a softer approach would work in time to get real SIM’s from him?"
"Do you believe anything you are offering him here right now is more attractive?" Sydney asked her as they got to his room. "Please Parker, let me try it my way, let me talk to him. Keep Lyle away from him and do things my way. At this point, what do you have to lose?"
"Jarod," Parker whispered quietly to herself as she opened the door and saw the room empty. Frowning, Parker looked around the little room. "So Freud, where is your monkey boy?"
Sydney saw the empty room. "Lyle,” He hissed in anger.
Shaking her head, growling annoyance. "As if I don't have enough work to do, I STILL have to chase after the rat’s arse." Even with the pretender in his cage back where he belonged, it seemed all she did now was still chase his sorry arse.
"This is hardly Jarod's fault Parker. Lyle needs to be controlled before he destroys Jarod, destroys us all."
Storming out the room, Parker headed straight down to the cell that Lyle had kept Jarod in for those three weeks and the start of Jarod's imprisonment here again.
Sydney followed her, fearing what they might find. Lyle seemed intent on destroying Jarod, and Jarod seemed to be playing right into his hands.
Heading down impatiently, Parker opened the door and walked into the room with the cell, seeing Jarod hanging by his wrists, wearing only his boxer shorts. His face had some blood on it, from what looked to be a cut on his eyebrow. He was panting, and Lyle and the sweeper with the jumper cables stepped back as she entered. "Don’t have much imagination do we Lyle?" Parker arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow.
"Why find new things, when the old ways work so well." Lyle smiled charmingly at her, nodding to the sweeper and watched as they backhanded Jarod again.
Jarod just grunted in pain, swinging helplessly. "Didn’t work so well last time.” He muttered in defiance.
“I did make the almighty pretender cry, I would say my techniques worked quite while for what I wanted." Lyle smiled as a punch was thrown to Jarod's solar plexus, forcing all the breath out of him.
"Jarod!" Sydney called in dismay, moving quickly towards him. Lyle was clearly insane and seemed bent on killing him, slowly, one piece at a time. Sydney was not a medical doctor, but he did know that Jarod's heart wasn’t going to be able to withstand too many more shocks.
"Parker!" Sydney called out urgently, moving to Jarod, trying to help support him. "Undo these cuffs now.” He demanded.
Parker moved in and shot a look at Lyle, “It would do you good to keep your hands off of him. We need him working." She growled, thoroughly annoyed at having to come down here. Undoing the cuffs, Parker turned back to Lyle. “You are NOT to do this to him. If he pisses you off, find something else to take your anger out on."
"Jarod, I got you," Sydney said gently, as he held him. Jarod had lost some weight, but he was still too heavy for Sydney to support and he staggered under his weight. “I want to get him to the infirmary."
“You can't stop me 'sis'." Lyle said with a smooth smile. "Now I have some real work to do." Lyle walked away from her, pausing at Jarod, eyeing him coldly. "We will continue this later." With that Lyle left.
"This is insane Parker," Sydney said, helping Jarod to the bench and sitting him down. "Lyle is going to kill him."
Parker took a step forward, ready to kill the smug bastard but restrained herself. When Lyle had left, the sweeper hot on his heels, Parker turned on Jarod and Sydney. "And YOU," Parker growled at Jarod. “If you keep pushing him like this, I won't keep coming running after you to save your sorry arse."
Jarod looked up at her and gave her a weak smile. “I don't want you to save me Miss Parker,” He whispered hoarsely. She had condemned him to this, with a satisfied smile on her face. He didn't expect or want anything from her any more.
"So you want Lyle to kill you? Is that it? Take the easy way out?"
"Easy?" Jarod scoffed, which turned into a coughing fit. He didn’t see anything easy about this at all.
"Please Parker, not now." Sydney pleaded with her.
Parker looked out the cell’s bars to Jarod’s sweeper that always followed him, regardless of who took him where. Clicking her fingers, Parker watched him move off to get some water. Snatching it from the sweeper when he got back, Parker held the cold water out for Jarod, seeing his coughing fit subside a little.
"Thank you," Jarod whispered after he had drained it.
“I want to check you out Jarod, make sure you heart isn't damaged." Sydney fussed over him, using his handkerchief to wipe away the worst of the blood.
"Jarod, you have to stop pissing him off," Parker said softly, “He has all authority to do this to you, you have to stop it."
"Why?" Jarod asked, forcing himself to look up at her. It wasn't like she cared after all.
"Why? Are you even a genius at all Jarod? Look around you, look where you are, what he is doing to you. I may hate you, but I don't hate you enough to want him doing this to you." Nobody deserved this sort of Lyle’s attention on them, any of his attention at all.
"Then stop him," Jarod told her. It didn't really make all that much difference to him now. The Centre was the Centre, large or small room, didn't matter, there was no way out. He knew though that if he was going to get out of here, he need to get them to relax their guard, and the best way to do that was to pretend to be broken. He also knew that if he gave in too easily, they would be suspicious, so he had resolved to put up a good enough display to convince them. And that was proving to be quite easy, since his temper was so short these days. He needed to drive a wedge between Parker and Lyle, and the easiest way to do that was to do this. If he could prevent them from uniting against him, then he stood more chance of getting out.
“I can't Jarod, he has the authority to. All I can really do is keep rescuing your arse from him after he has had some fun with you. How hard is it to just keep your mouth shut and not push him?"
“You think I need to open my mouth?" Jarod asked her with a wry grimace.
"Well it doesn’t help the situation wonder boy." Parker shook her head at him. “I will do what I can to keep you from Lyle, after all, I do like pissing him off just as much as you do. And stopping his access, most of his access, to you would certainly put a bee in his bonnet." Parker had to grin at that, knowing how pissed off that would make Lyle.
Jarod wondered what she was expecting in return for this and he sighed heavily. With Parker, everything always came with a price.
"Parker, I need to get him to the infirmary." Sydney repeated, worried about his physical and mental condition.
Looking around, Parker spotted Jarod's pants and top and picked them up, throwing them at Jarod, “Get dressed and let’s go. For wasting my time like this Jarod, you will do some extra work."
Jarod bit his tongue to stop the bitter laugh that threatened to erupt, knowing it was probably not the wisest move right now. He let Sydney help him dress and then dragged himself up and onto his feet. He was shaky and knew he wasn’t going to be able to walk by himself, the shocks still affecting his motor control.
Parker had all intentions of getting Jarod to catch up on the pointless paperwork that she was not able to fill out because she had to come rescue him. Walking out ahead of them, Parker called her secretary, and told her to get the basic travel reports and send them all down to Jarod's room, giving out his floor and room number. When it was done, she waited for Jarod and Sydney, before helping Sydney with Jarod.
"This cannot go on this way Parker," Sydney told her, worried that Lyle would take it one step too far one day.
Ducking under Jarod's arm, helping support him, seeing how much trouble he was having holding himself up and knowing Sydney wasn’t strong enough to carry Jarod's weight, “You ruin my hair Jarod and Lyle won't be the worst of your concerns.” She threatened him.
Jarod had to smile a little at that. “I will keep that in mind,” He mumbled as he struggled along, his limbs not really functioning properly, still twitching from the residual electricity that was still in his body.
Getting on the lift, Parker hit the button for the infirmary. "Freud here says the only pleasure you have now days is provoking Lyle?"
"Don’t know if that is pleasure, but close enough." Jarod agreed.
"Then can’t you find something 'safer' to do for fun?" Parker asked in annoyance.
“I have so many options to choose from." Jarod shot back sarcastically. Did she think this was fun for him? That he wanted to be here?
"Jarod," Sydney said, warning him to back down a little. "Now is not the time."
"No now seems like a perfect time." Parker argued a little. "When will you learn the 'life' you thought you had out there doesn’t exist anymore? You are a project, you are to do as you're told and do the work we tell you to do. With that comes the privileges and things that can keep you amused."
"What privileges?" Jarod grumbled, in no mood for her self-righteous, woe-is-my-life, speeches.
"A real room, maybe real food. Hot water, warmer bed, better bed. Maybe, some time down the track, trips outside." Parker reeled a few off. "But for things like that, you need to work. And I don't mean throwing a fit nearly everyday about the SIM’s that need to be done and deciding on ones you want."
“You think a hot meal and a soft bed is going to entice me...” He shook his head. "Why don't you just give me back to Lyle, will be quicker and easier." There was just no way he could give them what they wanted.
"Jarod, Parker is right, you need to listen to her. We cannot protect you from the ramifications if you persist in this course of action."
"There goes your thought of easing him in slowly." Parker scoffed at Sydney. “It’s either my way, or in two weeks, you're shipped to Africa."
"Please Jarod, you have to be practical." Sydney pleaded with him. He had to find a way to stop them sending Jarod over to Africa, which would surely destroy him.
