THERE ARE PRETENDERS AMONG US

J: "I was taken from my family"

S: "36 hours and he's already demonstrated
more talent than any of our others"

                                   
A CHILD GENIUS

                                   
EXPLOITED BY THE CENTRE

J: "How many people died because of what
I thought up?"

                                     
ESCAPED

J: "Since I escaped I've spent every minute
searching for my past"

MP: "He's a pretender, a genius who can
become anyone he want's to be"

S: "The Centre wants him alive"

MP: "Preferably"

MP: "He defends the weak and abused"

J:    "Life's a gift"

Lady: "Are you a doctor?"

J:  "I am today"

*******************************************

Monday

7:00 a.m.

Blue Cove, Delaware

"Miss Parker?" Broots asked as he opened her office door.

"What?" she snapped. She was in a bad mood because of her dad's recent
wedding with Brigitte. She still couldn't figure out why he married that
lolly-pop sucking bimbo who'd tried to kill not only him, but herself.
And to top it all, Jarod had gotten away. Again.

"Um, you got a package from Jarod," he said, only a little taken aback
with her snappy reply. After a few years of working with her, he was used
to her cold and rude attitude. He thought this was the only way she knew
how to be, although Jarod and Sydney knew better. If one dug deep enough
one could find the Catherine Parker in her.

"What are you waiting for Broots? Give it to me," she said holding out
her hand impatiently. She quickly took the yellow manilla envelope from
him and dropped it at her desk. She then looked at Broots with an intimidating
glance that said 'What are you still doing here?' Fortunately he got the
message and left, shutting the door behind him. She stared at the package
for a few minutes thinking about Jarod before opening it. When she did,
she found a note with a cassette. Miss Parker opened the note, curious
as to what it said and read: "Be careful. Trust no one. -Jarod." A chill
went down her spine.

"What in the hell?" she murmured to herself. What was that supposed
to mean? Was she in danger, or was Jarod playing games with her? She put
the cassette in the tape player and hit play. The opening chords of "I
Wish I Felt Nothing" by the Wallflowers came in.

"Say when you're alone

It's better 'cause nobody knows you

When no one's you friend

It's better 'cause nobody leaves you

So you turned your back

On a world that you could never have

'Cause your heart's been cracked

And everyone else's is going mad"

A single tear fell down her cheek as she realized how those lyrics reflected
what she thought, all her fears of actually loving

someone. After her mom died, she had shut her heart to the world fearing
that she would lose someone again. She wiped the tear away and quietly
listened to the last lines of the song:

"And I know you believe that you and me don't belong here

And the worst we could do

Is keep trying to pretend we care"

Just as the song ended, her phone rang.

"What?" she answered, getting back in her "bitchy" mode.

"What did you think of the song?"

"Jarod."

"I think the last part kind of resembles our situation, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I don't belong in the Centre and you do. But instead I'm here
and you're free, isn't that ironic," she said in a fake light,

careless tone of voice.

"I wasn't quite thinking that."

"Well it's the truth."

"Come on Miss Parker, you know that I deserve to be free as much as
you do."

She ignored his last comment and asked what the message on the note
meant.

"Just what I wrote, be careful and trust no one."

With that he hung up the phone, leaving her blank. He picked up his
Halliburton case and got in his car. He drove for the next few hours until
he reached Virginia where he rented an apartment and proceeded to get ready
for his next pretend.

*****************

Same day

2:00 PM

JAG Headquarters, VA

"Lt. Cmdr. Rabb? Maj. Mackenzie? The Admiral would like to see you ASAP,"
informed Officer Tinner poking his head through Harm's office door. Harm
and Mac looked at each other with a look of confusion. Mac shrugged and
got up. She was quickly followed by Harm.

"Do you have any idea of what this is about Mac?" Harm asked as they
walked towards the office of Admiral Chegwidden.

"None whatsoever," was her short reply right before opening the door
to the Admiral's office. When they entered, they stood to attention.

"At ease," he said without looking up from his desk. After finishing
signing some papers he stood up, went around his desk and

leaned on it.

"I wanted to inform you that as of today you have been assigned an exchange
JAG officer to work with you for a couple of

weeks."

"Excuse me sir?" asked Mac at the same time that Harm said, "What did
you say sir?" They where both thinking, 'Oh, no, not

another one!,' referring to their past experiences with Brumby, the
exchange JAG officer from Down Under.

The admiral looked at them and rolled his eyes. They heard a knock on
the door and turned around.

"Lt. Cmdr. Law is here to see you sir," announced officer Tinner.

"Send him in."

A tall, handsome man entered the room, and stood at attention.

"As you were," said the Admiral, and proceeded to introduce him to the
others.

"Lt. Cmdr. Jarod Law, Maj. Mackenzie and Lt. Cmdr. Harmon Rabb." They
nodded to each other.

"I was just telling them that you will be working with them for the
next couple of weeks. Any questions?"

"No, sir," they all replied. Admiral AJ Chegwidden signaled them to
go. They saluted and left his office.

"Welcome Lt. Cmdr. Law," said Mac once they where outside the office.

"Thanks, and call me Jarod," he said with a grin.

"Fine Jarod, you can call me Mac, Harm does." She decided she liked
him. He was a nice enough, not to mention cute.

"So, why exactly are you here?" asked Harm.

"I think they're trying to compare the two JAG headquarters to see what
they can learn from each other, or something like that."

"Are you the son of Harmon Rabb?" Jarod asked already knowing the answer
to this question.

"Yeah, why?" He was interested to know the response to that question,
since it was a weird one to ask considering they'd just met.

"Um...," he kind of looked uncomfortable.

"Excuse me, sir, here are the files you wanted on the missing girl's
family."

"Thanks Bud," said Harm as he grabbed the files.

"Really appreciate it, Bud," said Mac.

"Hi I'm Lt. Cmdr. Jarod Law. Call me Jarod. I'll be here for the next
couple of weeks."

"Nice to meet you," he said and turned around with a confused look on
his face.

***************

It had been a busy day at JAG today, so Jarod hadn't been able to ask
Harm more questions about his father. He believed that his father, Major
Charles and Harm's father had worked together in the military. Fortunately,
he had rented an apartment right next to Harm's so he could talk to him
later. When he heard some movement in the hallway, he went outside his
room to see if it was Harm.

"Jarod, what are you doing here?"

"Do you live here?" he asked Harm, feigning surprise.

"Yeah, how 'bout you?"

"I'm renting it for the next couple of weeks."

"Do you want to come inside?" asked Harm, wanting to find out why Jarod
had inquired about his dad.

"Sure, why not?" They entered the apartment and while Harm went to put
his things away, Jarod observed his surroundings. Pretty much the same
as his apartment. A small decent place to live.

"Do you want anything to drink? I'm gonna make some hot chocolate for
myself, would you like some?"

"Hot chocolate? To drink? How do you do that? Do you melt the chocolate
and drink it like that?" asked Jarod with a child-like interest. Harm looked
at him with a disbelieving look.

"You mean you've never had some before?" Harm asked with disbelief.

"They didn't have any where I grew up," he said with a shrug, a sad
look in his eyes.

"Well, watch and learn." Harm went to the kitchen, got some milk, chocolate
powder, and poured it in a pot. He then heated it in the stove, poured
it in two cups and added marshmallows. Jarod looked on with fascination.

"Um. This is very good. I'll have to do it again some time, thanks.
So, about your father, I believe he served with my dad in the

military."

"Who's your father?" Harm was as anxious as Jarod to find out more information
about his dad.

"His name was Major Charles. I don't know his last name, I only have
an old picture," he said old picture," he said, taking a picture out of
his wallet. It was the picture given to him by Mike Bodie, the Native American.
His dad had once saved his life once. Jarod had helped him by pretending
to be a bounty hunter and ending the whole mess surrounding him. Harm took
the picture and looked at it intently for a minute.

"He looks familiar, but I'm not sure. I'll have to check later."

"Have you always been a JAG officer?" he asked, not really needing to.
He knew a lot about Harm, since before the pretend he had checked up on
him, the major, and the rest of the most important people at JAG. He'd
found out that he'd had two partners before Maj. Mackenzie.

"No, I was a Tomcat pilot for the NAVY until I got night blindness and
had to leave. How about you, have you always been on JAG or something?"

"Or something," Jarod replied, smiling to himself. Or something was
right, he'd been a police man, a lunatic, a doctor, a virologist, a gigolo,
a psychiatrist, a teacher...

"Thank you for everything, but I gotta get going now. See you tomorrow.
Bye."

"Bye, Jarod, it was nice meeting you."

*****************

Thursday

6:00 pm

Blue Cove, Delaware

Miss Parker got out of her car and started walking towards her house.
She had been feeling a little sick because her ulcer was

starting to act up again. Suddenly, she heard the whooshing sound of
a bullet passing right next to her. A couple more came

whizzing by her.

"Shoot. Why in the heck are they shooting at me?" She quickly took out
her gun and started firing in the direction of where the

shots came from. At the same time, she got back in her car and turned
it on. Another bullet hit her tail light. She sped off before she could
see her assailant. Jarod's words came back to her "Be careful. Trust no
one."

"How did you know, Jarod?" she wondered aloud. At that moment her cell
phone rang. She hoped it was Jarod.

"What?"

"Miss Parker, don't come back to the Centre until I tell you. It's not
safe here for you. Someone's trying to kill you."

"Gee, Syd, I kind of figured that out when someone started shooting
at me a couple of minutes ago. Do you think they know?"

"I'm not sure. Are you alright?" came Sydney's worried voice. Miss Parker
was pleased to know that he cared enough to be

worried, whereas her father couldn't care less. Sydney was more of
a father to her than Mr.Parker would ever be. That fact was sometimes to
painful to admit.

"Yes I'm ok. How did you know that they were trying to kill me? More
important who is trying to kill me?"

"I don't know who, but Broots found some info. that suggested this would
happen."

"Thanks for calling, and Syd... Syd? Sydney? Hello?"

"Darn!" she said when she realized the line had been cut off. She had
no idea what to do, but she knew one thing for sure, she had to get out
of Delaware and fast. After an hour of driving south, she decided that
she could go to Virginia and visit her old "JAG partner". The Centre had
asked her to pretend to be a JAG officer so they could get some military
information that they needed. At the same time they where testing her pretending
abilities. Knowing this, she purposely screwed up a little bit, almost
getting caught and losing some information, so they wouldn't make her pretend,
like they did Jarod. While she worked with Harm, they'd gotten a little
romantically involved, but decided to break-up after a short while. They
remained friends though, and before leaving, Harm told her that if she
ever needed any help, he'd be there for her. And now was the perfect time
to make use of that offer. She had another important reason for going there,
one that was related to the probable cause of her murder attempt...

******************

(same day)

8:00 PM

JAG Headquarters, VA

"Mac, Harm, what are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing for now," was Mac's quick response.

"Me either, why?" replied Harm.

"I was thinking that maybe we could get together at my apartment to
celebrate today's court results. I can get some pizza on the way," explained
Jarod hopping they'd say yes. He liked this type of friendship that he
had with them, one where the friends in it weren't hunting him. Besides,
it had been a tough case; they needed some time to just sit back and relax.

"Why not? But I need a ride, my car's in the shop. Harm?" said Mac hopping
he'd give her a ride.

"I'd love to give you a ride, Mac, but I have a lot of junk in it that
I need to take to recycle. I barely fit myself and was planning on taking
it now. Sorry." He truly was sorry. Any excuse to be alone with Mac was
more than welcome.

"Jarod?" Mac made a cute sad-puppy face at him. When Harm saw this,
he kicked himself again for not taking the stuff to recycle sooner.

"Sure, how could I resist?" he said laughing.

Mac smiled her thanks. She would have rather gone with Harm. Their partnership
was one of the best things that had happened to her. But she would love
to be more than friends with him, if only she had the guts to tell him.
'Suck it up marine, forget about him, he's you partner,' she mentally scolded
herself.

"We'll come to your apartment when we get there, ok?" It was more a
statement than a question.

"Great" Harm said with a grin, still a little mad and disappointed with
himself.

Harm got into his car and turned on the radio. The song "One Headlight"
by The Wallflowers was playing.

"Hey, come and try a little

Nothing is forever

There's got to be something better than

In the middle

But me & Cinderella

We put it all together

We can drive it home

With one headlight..."

After dropping off the stuff for recycling at the recycling place, he
went to his apartment building. He noticed that Jarod and Mac hadn't arrived
yet. 'Good,' he thought, 'I still have some time to shower and change.'
He walked to his apartment humming the song and singing it in his mind.

"Heeey, come and try a little Mac

Nothing is forever..."

He opened the apartment and noticed someone inside. Silently drawing
his gun, he sneaked behind the person, a woman, and put it to her back.
The woman quickly turned around hitting his hand, making the gun fall to
the floor. She then looked at him.

"Gees Harm, you didn't have to point at me with your gun, you know,"
said Miss Parker, recovering from the shock. He stared at her for a few
seconds before talking.

"Caitlin?" he said a bit uncertain.

"Remember me?" she asked a little irritated that he might have forgotten
her.

"Of course I do. How can I forget my first partner in JAG. Nice to see
you again. Sorry about the gun thing," he said while he

retrieved his gun and put it back in its holster that was hidden in
his waistband.

"Hey, no problem," she said easily. Harm always got her good side to
show. It was probably that boyish grin of his that made her forget how
cold she usually was. Too bad she just didn't feel attracted to him in
that boyfriend-girlfriend way.

'She's as gorgeous as ever, but she can't hold a candle to Mac,' thought
Harm. They heard a knock on the door.

"Come in, the doors open guys." Miss Parker felt annoyed at the prospect
of Harm having guests. She needed to talk to him about staying for a while
in his place. Her annoyance quickly turned to astonishment when she saw
exactly who Harm's guest were. In particular a certain tall handsome guy
who constantly invaded her dream, and occupied her days. He was currently
holding a pizza and laughing at something that his brown headed companion
had said.

"Jarod, what are you doing here?" she said drawing out her gun, not
being able to hide her astonishment.

"It's nice to see you too Miss Parker. How have you been? How are Daddy
and your new mommy doing?" said Jarod with fake politeness. Inside, he
was completely surprised and had no idea what to do. He thought of his
options that weren't at all comforting. Option A: get out of there as soon
as possible and hope not to get shot. Option B: stay there and hope that
she wouldn't take him in. He looked around, and at not seeing any sweepers,
relaxed a little.

"Thanks for your concern. They ask for you everyday. I know they wish
they could be here this moment." she said with the same fake politeness
he used.

"I bet." he said sarcastically. Harm and Mac had no idea of what was
going on. Still they knew enough to try to take Miss Parker's gun away.
With a quick nod to Mac, Harm delivered a fast kick to Miss Parker's hand.
Before she noticed her gun was out of her hands and Mac was retrieving
it. Mac pointed the gun first at Miss Parker and then at Jarod.

"Why don't you both sit on the couch and explained what just happened
here," commanded Mac, getting Harm's agreement.

Miss Parker shot Jarod a cold look and he just smiled back at her. This
made her even madder at him.

"So...old boyfriend or something?" Harm asked her, trying to make light
of the situation. He cared for both her and Jarod and didn't want to see
them killing each other. Jarod and Miss Parker looked at each other, and
for the first time they shared a smile.

"Or something," Jarod told him with an ironic smile. Miss Parker just
snickered. He then turned to Miss Parker.

"Are you here because of me?" Just because she hadn't dragged him by
the ears back to the Centre with a team of sweepers

already didn't mean that she wasn't planning to.

"Believe it or not, my life doesn't revolve around you, Jarod," she
replied sarcastically.

"You could have fooled me. My freedom for yours, isn't that how it works,"
Jarod sneered. Her dad made her look for him 24/7. He felt kind of guilty
for having to put her through that, but it wasn't really his fault.

"I'm not a lab rat like you, Jarod. I'm free, have my own house and
can come and go as I please," she replied as if to trying to

convince herself that it was truth. Jarod just gave her a knowing look,
letting her know that he didn't believe it to be true, and that she didn't
either. The only way you leave the Centre for good is in a body bag.

"Why exactly are you here for Caitlin?" asked Harm. He and Mac were
totally confused, not having understood much of the

conversation.

"Caitlin, as in Caitlin Pike, Harm's first partner? I should have known,
the picture looked exactly like you. I just didn't believe it

could be. The last time I checked you weren't into pretending," interrupted
Jarod, voicing his suspicion.

"You're loosing your touch, Jarod," Miss Parker bickered. She then asked,
"What's Boy Wonder doing here?"

"Boy Wonder?" Mac asked totally lost. She glanced at Harm and he looked
the same way she did. Good, she wasn't the only one.

"Pet name she uses to show her affection towards me," joked Jarod, raising
and lowering his eyebrows a couple of times

suggestively. "Right, honey?"

If looks could kill he'd be ten feet underground already. "Harm, can
I please have my gun so I can kill him right about now?" she asked sweetly,
although she looked deadly serious.

"Um...Miss Parker..." said Jarod as he stared out the window.

"What?" she barked.

"I'm afraid someone's going to deprive you of that...pleasure, if we
don't get out of here now," he said calmly, but men every word that came
out of his mouth. She looked out the window towards where he was gazing.

"Shoot!" she said unconsciously. Outside the window a group of men dressed
in black suites were getting out of their respective cars. It was pretty
obvious, they were Centre employees. The question was what where they where
doing there.

"Would that mean that you are as unhappy to see them as I am?" he asked
hopefully. He still wasn't totally sure about her reasons for being here.
But he now had a pretty good idea that it wasn't because of him. It had
just been a coincidence, a very weird one at that. Here they were, the
hunter and the hunted, after a few years of trying to evade her and succeeding,
she had caught up to him, not because she planned it, but by chance. 'How
ironic,' he thought shaking his head with bewilderment.

"What do you think, genius?" she said sarcastically.

"What's happening here? Who's 'them', and why do they want to kill either
you or Jarod?" asked Mac exasperated, fed up with the little answers that
they where getting.

"The people she works for," said Jarod, moving towards the door, getting
ready to leave.

"And that would be..." interjected Harm, as anxious as Mac to get some
answers.

"Some very dangerous people that will kill you guys too if we don't
get out of here now!" answered Miss Parker, motioning them towards the
door. They quickly followed, Harm and Parker with their respective guns
ready to fire if need be.

"I know how to get out of here, so that no one will notice us leaving,"
said Jarod going into his room and closing the door after

everyone was in. He then proceeded to lift up the carpet in the floor,
which concealed a kind of trap door.

"How did you know this was here?" asked Harm, surprised that Jarod had
found out about it. He thought he was the only one who knew it existed,
since it was so well hidden.

"Shear coincidence, I guess," Jarod shrugged and opened it. It had some
spider webs, a sign that it had been a while since anyone actually used
it. He lowered his body inside followed by Mac and Harm. After some hesitation,
Miss Parker followed as well, cursing under her breath. After walking for
a minute, they reached a door that led to the parking lot. After a short
debate on who's car they would take and who would look for it, Mac was
chosen to get Jarod's rental car, a blue Intrepid. They weren't sure if
the Centre new about Harm and Mac, but decided that if they did, Mac would
be the least they'd know about, since she hadn't previously met Miss Parker.
Nevertheless, she carefully went to the car and got in, making as little
noise as possible. She then picked the others up. A Centre sweeper noticed
them and started shooting at Miss Parker and Jarod. Mac drove as fast as
she could trying to escape them. Harm, being the one who new the area best,
gave her directions that quickly made them lose the sweepers.

"Close call. So where to now?" said Mac in a relieved tone of voice.

"How about the airport? I have a beach house in an isolated island near
Puerto Rico we can go to," Jarod informed then, receiving a surprised look
from Miss Parker.

"Since when?" she said scornfully.

"Since a few months after I escaped." he replied nonchalantly.

"Fine, the airport it is. We can rent a small plane maybe." interrupted
Mac, turning towards the airport. When they got there, Harm told them to
stay just outside of it while he went inside to make arrangements. After
a short while, he came back out informing them that they where leaving
in five minutes.

"How did you arrange for us to go so quickly?" asked Mac, voicing the
question of the other two.

"An old friend," he said smiling unconsciously, and led them inside.
Shortly after reaching the small plane they met the pilot, a tall´blond-haired
beautiful woman. She went over to Harm, hugged him and kissed him lightly
on the cheek. Harm smiled at her and hugged her back.

As Mac witnessed this 'friendly' exchange, she got a weird feeling inside,
and decided she wasn't going to like this pilot woman. 'Snap out of it
Major, you aren't jealous of her, now are you? Harm's only your partner,'
a little rational voice said in her head. On the other hand, another voice
whispered, 'How can he kiss that...that...girl! Uh!'

"Long time no see, Commander," she said in a playful voice.

"I could say the same thing, Liz," he replied teasingly. He then looked
her up and down. "Looking good. How's it going?"

"You're looking pretty fine yourself, and I'm doing great. I'll always
miss flying with you. You were one of the best pilots, the

second best in fact," she smiled.

"What do you mean second best?"he asked grinning.

"Well there was me..." she said laughing, Harm joining in. It was good
to see her again after all these years. She had been a

childhood friend of his who treated him like a kid brother. She was
the one who inspired him to start flying when he was starting college and
she was starting to fly for the first time. One day she took him with her,
and he immediately knew that he wanted to be a pilot.

"Guys I want you to meet Lyssa Baldwin, the woman who inspired me to
become a tomcat pilot," Harm said, introducing her to the rest of the group.

"Is everything alright, Harm?" she asked with concerned, wondering why
he'd been so persistent to get her to take them away

from there.

"Yes mom," he said it like a little kid does when his mom is being over
protective.

"You're the kid brother I never had, I'm entitled to patronize you and
worry about you once in a while," she said with a sad puppy look on her
face.

"Ok mom, I'm sorry," he said and hugged her.

"Now that's better," she said teasingly. Mac had a smile of pure relief
on her face, Harm didn't like this woman, well, not in a

girlfriend kind of way. Her thoughts surprised her and she quickly
ignored them, although they were very hard to ignore.

"So, where too?" Lyssa asked, and when she was told, she took them to
her small plane, that took them to the beautiful island of  Puerto
Rico. After a lot of thanks, they left Lyssa to go back to the States with
a load full of other passengers.

 

 

 

*******************************

"Now what?" asked Miss Parker. It was times like these when she wondered
why she'd ever quit smoking.

"We go and do some shopping. I don't know if you've noticed, but we
don't have any other clothes except what's on our backs," Jarod said and
the others agreed. They got into a taxi and Jarod asked in an almost perfect
Spanish to take them to a mall. The taxi man said some names of malls and
they decided on Montehiedra, because it had a lot of clothing stores, but
it also had a Kmart so they could get some food and other stuff. When they
got there, Jarod payed the fee and then went into the mall.

"How about we separate. Mac and I will go to the stores for women and
you to the men's stores. We can meet in the food court in three hours,"
Miss Parker said.

"Three hours?????" Harm and Jarod said at the same time with bewilderment.
Mac and Miss Parker looked at each other and

rolled their eyes.

"Yes, three hours, not a minute more or less. I hope we have enough
time," Mac replied with a smile.

"Fine" said Jarod, still a little perplexed about how much time some
women took to by clothes. They started walking away, but

Jarod stopped them.

"Hold on. You can't use your credit cards, the Centre would be able
to trace them in a sec. You can use the my ATM card, no one could possibly
know it was mine."

"Boy Wonder to the rescue!" Miss Parker said sarcastically, then smiled
evilly when she thought of who's ATM card she'd be

using. Before actually deciding to leave him almost bankrupt, she had
to make sure it wasn't her money he was using for the ATM card account.

"Would this be in my account, or is it your money?"

"It's in my account."

"What is the limit on this thing?" she said, her wicked smile even bigger
than before.

"It has a pretty big limit," Jarod said getting a little bit worried
about having given her the card. But then he just shrugged, thinking that
he could always get more money from the Centre.

With a smile on their faces, Miss Parker and Mac left, as did Harm and
Jarod. Having bought everything they needed, Jarod and Harm were back in
the food court in two hours. They'd both bought at least a dozen t-shirts,
all with short sleeves, a few short pants, tennis shoes and reef ®
sandals, a couple of bathing suit trunks, underwear, shaving cream and
razors, sunglasses, and a few other things. They had to be prepared, since
they weren't sure how long their stay at Jarod's house was going to be.
After waiting for half an hour, they got hungry and bought burgers with
fries. When they where almost done, Miss Parker and Mac showed up carrying
a bunch of bags full of stuff.

"Gees, what did you do, buy the whole store?" Harm said with a grin,
offering them some seats.

"You could say that," Mac returned with a smile. She looked longingly
at Harm's fries, and he offered her one, laughing as she

quickly ate it.

"I'm so hungry! How about you Miss Parker?"

"Sure, want to get some food?"

"What do you think?" They went and got some food, then returned and
quickly ate it. Then they went to Kmart, where they bought the other stuff
they'd need. Afterwards, they got into another taxi that took them to Fajardo
where Jarod's boat was. It was a long ride, and they were happy to finally
get there. They walked towards the dock and reached a boat called Marilyn.

"This better not be your boat, Jarod," said Miss Parker when she saw
it's name. Jarod's grin told her otherwise. She shot him a

withering look, but it had no effect on him.

"Nice boat, cute name. Who's it named after?" Mac asked innocently.
This made Jarod laugh uncontrollably, until Miss Parker

pushed him, making him fall into the water below. He resurfaced with
a smile on his face.

"Let me guess, after you, right?" Harm said looking at Miss Parker,
smiling at the face she made.

"We men like to name our planes and boats after our special women, don't
we Jarod?" he continued, making all of them laugh,

except Miss Parker. She looked mad, but inside she was flattered that
Jarod had done that.

"Yes, Harm loves me, he named his plane after me, Sarah," Mac said in
a mock serious tone. She knew that Harm had named his plane after his grandmother,
who's name was the same as Mac's. Although Harm smiled at the comment,
he wondered how much truth there was in Mac's comment. 'You really do love
her, and you know that,' a little voice said in his head.

Jarod finally got out of the water and stepped into his boat.

"All aboard!" he said with a sweep of his hand, motioning for all of
them to come in. Miss Parker looked at him then, and her heart skipped
a beat. 'He looks so good with his hair dripping water, his clothes stuck
to his body, and what a body...Snap out of it, he's JAROD, the guy you're
suppose to hate..." She shook her head trying to get rid of her thoughts
and concentrate on what was happening. Harm and Mac were disentangling
the ropes, while Jarod was making sure everything else was ready so they
could leave.

"Can I do anything to help?" she asked, wanting to do something.

"Sure, help take the rest of the ropes off," said Mac. Soon after, they
were on their way to Jarod's island. Except for Jarod, who was driving
the boat, they where all seated and enjoying the wind in their faces. They
made small talk for a couple of minutes, until Miss Parker decided she
wanted to see how Jarod was doing. This gave Harm and Mac the chance they'd
been waiting for to talk alone about their current situation.

"So, what do you think of this mess we've gotten into?" Harm asked Mac.

"I really don't know what to think. We need more information on this
Centre corporation. As for them, they're hard to figure out. Even though
it's obvious they love each other, it seems as if they don't know it. How
about you?"

"Well I never imagined that my former partner wasn't really in the military,
or that she was like that."

"So flyboy, are you admitting to being fooled?" she teased.

"We both were fooled, jarhead. Who'd have thought that Jarod wasn't
in the NAVY?"

"Well we've gotta do something. I mean, we can't just stay like this
forever. We have work to do. How do you think the Admiral's going to react
when he knows we went AWOL?"

"Mac, it isn't our fault that we had to leave."

"I know that Harm. What I mean is that we have to get back to JAG eventually,
and I have no idea on how to do that without

getting ourselves killed"

"Maybe those people didn't see us."

"Maybe."

"How about we resolve this when we get there. We'll do this as if it
were a case; interview them, do some investigating, and finally draw some
conclusions that will get us out of this mess. Deal?"

"Deal. Wow, check out the sky, it's beautiful, all full of stars." Night
had fallen so quickly they hadn't really noticed. Even though they were
in the tropics, the wind was blowing hard, making Mac shiver. Harm noticed
this and put an arm around her to give her warmth. Mac looked up with surprise,
but then she just leaned back and rested her head on his chest.

"I knew it," Miss Parker said to herself when she saw Harm and Mac.

"Knew what?" Jarod asked her, making her jump. She didn't think he'd
heard her. Miss Parker then did a really un-Parker thing; she sighed wistfully.
Jarod was a little surprised to see that side of her.

"Look at them. Isn't it obvious, they're in-love."

Jarod looked and then shot her a questioning look.

"Just because he put his arm around her?" he asked skeptically.

"Haven't you noticed how they look at each other. They probably don't
realize it either, but it's so obvious."

He just stared at her with a blank look on his face.

"Men!" she said conclusively. She looked at his confused face and laughed,
then smiled a genuine smile.

"Ok, who are you and what have you done to the Miss Parker we all know
and love?" Jarod asked teasingly.

"Can't I just be happy and act like a normal woman once in a while?"
she asked defensively. He just laughed. "There's something we need to discuss,"
he said somberly.

"I know,"she said with a sad sigh.

"How are we going to get them out of this mess. It's not their fault,
they where just at the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong people,"
Jarod said, feeling guilty about this.

"We can't ruin their lives..." she said, feeling more guilty than Jarod,
since she was the one who decided to go to Harm's

apartment.

"So we have to make it look to the Centre as if they don't know anything,
which they don't. For now, anyway. If there's something I've learned while
working with them, it's that they are the best at what they do, meaning
they're good at finding information." he said finishing her sentence.

"Hey, before we continue, I gotta question for you."

"Shoot," he said, using one of the phrases he'd picked up recently.

"What were you doing at JAG?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me what you were doing there a few years
ago."

She reluctantly explained the reason why, telling him how scared she'd
been if they knew she could pretend well. She didn't tell him the most
important thing she did though, she wasn't sure if she should tell him
or not. She finally decided to leave it for later. He then told her how
he was looking for some information concerning his father. Shortly after,
their hour trip to the island was completed. They anchored the boat a few
feet away from the sand and proceeded to put all their stuff in the dingy
that was taking them to shore. Since they all didn't fit in the little
raft, Jarod had to make two trips to the boat. When they were all on the
sand, he motioned them to follow him. Finally, behind some palm trees was
a beautiful two story house with a balcony facing the sea.

"How did you find this place?" Miss Parker asked in awe. She wished
she could live in a place like it.

"When I was working as a real estate man, they had this house for sale.
I decided it'd be a nice place to go on vacation from

pretending," he said with a shrug and a smile, pleased that his guests
seemed to like it. He then went to the door and walked 3

steps backwards. The others looked on puzzled. He knelt down on the
floor and removed some sand with his fingers. He then

pulled out a little box, opened it and took out a key. He then returned
the box to its place and covered it up with sand.

"Great hiding place," Mac said lightly.

"Only you would do that," said Miss Parker taking the key from his hand
and opening the door. As she took a few steps inside, she gasped involuntarily.
There, in the middle of the room was a pool, and the roof top was made
of a transparent material that permitted you to see the sky and its stars.

"Gees, Jarod, what else do you have in here, a Jacuzzi?" she said sarcastically.

"In the bathroom," he answered seriously. She shook her head with amazement.
'If I where him, I'd forget about pretending and just stay here all the
time,' she thought wistfully.

"Nice place you got here buddy," Harm said patting Jarod on the back
as he passed him.

"Glad you all like it."

"Where do we put the stuff?" Mac asked, looking around the place.

"Food in the kitchen over there," he said pointing to a small room.

"As for the sleeping arrangements, there are four rooms, so that shouldn't
be a problem. They're upstairs, you can see them now and decide which one
you want," he said, already climbing the stairs with the bags that contained
the stuff he'd bought. The others followed upstairs with their bags. Harm
and Mac chose the rooms to the left of the hall, and went inside to put
their stuff away. Harm went into the bathroom to put his remaining stuff
away, and shortly after, Mac opened the other door of the bathroom to do
what Harm was doing.

"Connecting bathroom, I see," Harm said a little surprised.

"I'll have to keep that in mind," Mac replied with a smile.

"So what do you think of this house?"

"Very nice. I love the beach."

"Me too. So, do you want to go running with me tomorrow morning?" he
invited.

"Sure, I'll meet you outside at 0630 hours."

"A little early, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but later, we won't be able to catch the sunrise."

"Fine, 0630 hours it is." he said. Finishing what he was doing, he left.

******************

(Same time)

"So Jarod, where do you usually sleep?" Miss Parker asked before deciding
what room to go to.

"In a bed," was his short reply.

"Don't be a smart ass. Seriously, which room? This one?" she said opening
the door to the room with the balcony.

"Yep," he said moving in.

"Well thanks for lending it to me," Miss Parker said dumping her bags
on the floor and opening the balcony doors. A breeze came in, rustling
her hair. She closed the door and faced Jarod who was looking at her with
a questioning look.

"I never said I'd lend it to you."

"You never said you wouldn't. Thanks again," she said, flopping down
on the bed. When she did so, the bed moved. She bounced on it, and it moved
again.

"A water bed?" she asked raising an eyebrow. He smiled sheepishly and
plopped down on the bed, causing it to keep moving.

"Get out and go to your new room, I have some unpacking to do," she
said seriously, but not in her usual

do-it-now-or-you'll-be-very-sorry kind of way.

"Fine, but you owe me one," he said giving up and going to his room
through a connecting bathroom.

********************

Later that night they all met downstairs to talk about what to do. Harm
and Mac had talked previously in her room to decide what questions to ask
them.

"First of all, what is the Centre, and why do they want to kill either
of you?" Harm asked after receiving a confirming nod from

Mac. Jarod sighed a resigned sigh, and looked at Miss Parker for approval.

"We'll tell you, but let me warn you that hearing this can put you in
more danger than you were before. Everything you hear can't leave this
room. Do you still want to hear it?" warned Miss Parker.

Harm and Mac looked at each other and silently communicated. After a
few seconds they decided that they did want to hear it.

"We'll tell you what you need to know to understand the situation,"
said Miss Parker. She didn't want them to know all that was happening in
the Centre.

"The Centre is a secret corporation that sells different...ideas...to
other organizations."

"Ideas?" asked Harm confused.

"Yeah, ideas. Ok, say that you want to commit a crime and you want it
to be fool proof. The Centre, for some money of course, tells you how you
can do it. So, you bought an idea," Jarod tried to explain.

"It does a lot of other stuff too, like training people into becoming
something...psycho killers, empaths...pretenders," he continued bitterly,
thinking of what they had done to Kyle, and how they had destroyed little
Timmy and himself.

"They treat people like lab rats, using them for their research," he
said getting angrier.

"They kill their own, that is, those who try to do right," Jarod was
referring to Catherine Parker and how they killed her for trying to save
him and others like him.

"Please," Miss Parker said in a whisper, hating to hear about her mother's
death.

"To try to sum it up, they're ruthless people who only care about themselves.
The only way you leave the Centre is in a body bag. Oh, yeah, did I forget
to say that her dad is one of the chairmen?"

Mac and Harm where speechless, astounded at what they'd just heard.
They both looked at Miss Parker, not sure about what to think of her. She
looked kind of spaced out, as if she were remembering things, going back
to her past.

In her mind Miss Parker was thinking about the happy little girl she'd
been. 'I was a carefree, innocent little girl until they killed my mother.
Damn them!' she thought with furor. 'Is daddy responsible for her death?'
she asked herself for what seemed like a million times since she found
out that her mother had been murdered. 'Fenigore told us it was Jarod's
dad, but then again, it could all have been a Centre conspiracy for me
to get madder at Jarod and not find out the truth.' As this internal battle
wore on, Mac asked Jarod his relation to the Centre.

"When I was four years old I was taken from my family by the Centre.
They made me perform thousands of simulations for their research," he said,
remembering those painful times.

"Why?" was Harm's simple question.

"Why?, because I'm a pretender. A genius who can become anyone that
he wants to be. They used this ability to get some ideas they could sell.
They told me that they would never use them to cause harm. I didn't know
any better, and had no other choice. Then a little over three years ago,
I started finding out the truth about them, and decided to escape. Since
then, I've spent every minute searching for my past, and trying to right
some wrongs. You see, I have no idea how many people died because of what
I thought up," he concluded in a sad tone.

"And what does Miss Parker do?" Harm asked.

"She's been trying to bring me back to the Centre," he said simply,
seeing the warning look Miss Parker gave him to not say

anything more about her life as a child and her search for her mom's
killer.

"And now, why do they want to kill her?" Mac asked, gesturing at Miss
Parker.

"I have a good idea," he said, looking at Miss Parker.

"Can we do this later, I'm getting a headache," she said.

"Fine. I'll call Sydney and ask him or Broots if they have any information
on who ordered you kill, why..." Jarod trailed off.

"Wait, before you do, we have one more question," said Mac, speaking
for Harm.

"What were you doing at JAG?" Harm asked.

"Trying to find out something about my father. I think he might have
served with your father. He was a Major in the Marines. I

don't know his last name, for that matter, I don't know mine either.
He may not even be my real dad, just my adoptive one."

"I'll look into it," promised Harm.

Jarod took out his cell phone and speed dialed Sydney.

"Sydney" came a strong voice with a Belgium accent.

"Do you know who's trying to kill Miss Parker?" Jarod asked without
preamble.

"Jarod, how are you? Is Miss Parker, all right?" he asked, concern evident
in his voice.

"She's all right. But have either you or Broots found out anything about
why or who is trying to kill Miss Parker?"

"Well Broots was able to hack in on some Centre files and found out
that a certain Mr. Lyle had given orders to kill her. I don'tknow if it's
relevant, but Mr. Lyle and Brigitte have been meeting constantly. Maybe
she's involved in it somehow."

"Thanks Syd. Do either of you know why?"

"Not really, I have my suspicions, though. We'll try to find out as
much as possible and then tell you."

"I have my own suspicions too. I'll call you tomorrow. By the way, how
are you and Broots doing?"

"Well, not great. They're treating us as if we were responsible for
Parker's disappearance."

"I'll try to do something about that. Gotta go, bye, and thanks again,"
with that he hung up the phone and looked at Miss Parker worriedly.

"Supposedly it was Mr.Lyle, and possibly Briggite, who're responsible.
As for the why, we're still not clear," he informed her.

"Why am I not surprised," she said in a low sarcastic voice. Then she
stood up, looked at her watch and said she was going

upstairs.

"I think I'll do the same. It's already midnight and I've been up since
five am. See ya and goodnight," Harm said getting up, Mac following him.
Jarod still wasn't tired and decided to stay downstairs for a while and
take a swim. He went to the little bathroom downstairs and open a cabinet.
Yes, they where still there, the bathing trunks he always kept there for
occasions like these. He quickly changed and jumped into the pool, which
was a little cold.

"Man that's cold," he said resurfacing. He decided to swim a little
to get warmer. Afterwards he floated on his back, looking at the star filled
sky.

"Nice night," a voice remark, startling him and making him sink. He
swam up, and shook his head to get the water out of his eyes and hair.

"I thought you were sleeping Miss Parker."

"Tried, but couldn't, so I came down here."

"Wanna join me?" he invited.

She looked at what she was wearing; silk t-shirt and pants, not exactly
what you use to go swimming.

"No thanks, maybe tomorrow, that is later today," she said and shrugged.

"Nice PJ's, by the way," he said.

"Thanks, Romeo," she said sarcastically.

"Romeo?" he asked confused.

"Come on, even you have to have heard about William Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet" Miss Parker said in disbelief.

"Not really, who was he?"

"William Shakespeare was one of the best poets in the world. He wrote
sonnets, plays, poems, etc. Anyway one of his most

famous plays is "Romeo and Juliet", a story about two kids in love,
who defy their families to be together. In the end-"

"Wait don't tell me, I'll read it," he cut her off.

"Fine by me," she said, as he got out of the pool to dry himself. She
couldn't help but notice again how well built he was.

"What?" he asked defensively, when he noticed her staring at him.

"Nothing, I'm going back upstairsm," she said quickly, trying to hide
her blush.

He looked at his watch. 1:30am, it read. He sighed. He still wasn't
tired. 'Another thing to blame on the Centre. Why can't I just get tired
at eleven like normal people do?' he thought wistfully, wanting to be able
to sleep. Instead he went over to his computer and turned it on. He then
connected to the Internet and looked for William Shakespeare's "Romeo and
Juliet". A lot of websites came up, and he clicked on the one he was looking
for, the one that had the play written on it for all to read. He started
reading it and was quickly engrossed. An hour and a half later, he turned
off his laptop, and went to sleep thinking about the tragic story he just
read. 'This Shakespeare guy is a good writer, I'll have to read the rest
of his plays,' was his last thought before he fell asleep.

********************

 

Friday

6:00 am

Jarod's Beach House

"Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep..."

Harm groaned and turned off the alarm on his watch. He lay on his back
for a couple of minutes, and heard the water from the

sink running. He got out of bed and put sweat pants over his boxer
shorts. He made his way to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came Mac's voice. He opened the door and tentatively peeked
inside. When he saw that Mac was just finishing

brushing her teeth, he opened it wider and went inside the spacious
bathroom.

"G'morning Major," he said with a sleepy smile, and went on to wash
his face and teeth.

"Morning," she said wide awake with a grin. 'Wow, check out that six
pack.' she thought blushing slightly. Thankfully he didn't see her face
because he had soap all over his face, covering his closed eyes. She looked
for her hair brush, and quickly brushed her hair.

"I'll see you in a few minutes flyboy, gotta go put my shoes on. Don't
be late."

"Sure. What time is it, Mac?"

"It's 6:07 with 42 seconds," she replied without looking at her wash.
Harm shook his head with a smile.

"One day I'm finding out how you do that."

"Dream on," she said laughing and left.

*********************

20 minutes later

on the beach

Harm walked outside the house to find Mac already stretching. He quickly
joined her and after a few minutes they started jogging. They ran for fifteen
minutes in companionable silence, side by side. Then Mac started to pull
away.

"Catch me if you can," she shouted back to Harm. He grinned and quickened
his speed. When he was next to her and about to get her, she turned around,
evading him.

"Come on flyboy. What's the matter, are marines too tough for you,"
she said teasingly, both of them laughing. With a burst of

speed he was next to her, holding her by the waist, so she wouldn't
escape this time.

"Caught you!" he said, both of them breathing hard.

"Took you long enough," she teased.

"Oh, yeah. You're gonna regret teasing me," he said with a playful look
in his eyes. He then picked her up, as if she weighed

nothing and started carrying her off towards the water.

"Harm, no, you wouldn't, right buddy? Pal? Best friend?" she asked pleading
with him. He kept walking towards the water.

"Did I mention that you're the best pilot and lawyer in the world?"
she asked him hopefully.

"Hmm. Nope you didn't," he said walking into the water. When he saw
a deep place he dumped her in.

"Oh, now you've done it, Harm," she said getting up and charging for
him.

"Oh, oh," he said in the same moment she knocked him down in the water.

"Thanks Mac."

"You're welcome," she said and decided to swim a little bit farther
from shore.

"This is pretty nice actually. The water's not cold, it's just perfect,"
she said contentedly.

"I gotta agree with you on that," Harm said swimming over to her.

"Hey, Mac, turn around towards the horizon."

"Wow, what a beautiful sunrise."

"Not as beautiful or great as you," Harm said without thinking. 'Oops,'
he though, 'Did I say that aloud?'

"Did you just say that?" she asked him.

"I didn't think I'd said it aloud, I'm sorry," he said still mad with
himself, and not to mention embarrassed beyond belief. She came closer
to him and on impulse kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Does that mean you don't mind?"

"Not if you don't mind my kissing you again," she said doing just that.
He smiled.

"Do you know how long I've wanted that to happen?" he asked her, happier
than he'd been for a long time.

"Not as long as I have," she said with a grin.

"Try me," and with that he kissed her, wrapping his hands around her
waist. She returned the kiss, putting her hands on his neck. They stood
like that, kissing each other, their passion growing, while the sun rose
behind them.

"I love you, even if you are a jarhead," he whispered.

"Same goes for you flyboy."

**********************

(same day)

7:00 a.m.

Jarod's Beach House

Despite the late time he'd gone to bed last night, he woke up at 6:20
with the sound of footsteps in the hall. He didn't sleep much and was easily
woken by the smallest noise, although he did enjoy the sound of a little
animal typical of Puerto Rico, called the "coqui" because of the coqui
sound it made. They came out at night and made noises until morning. He'd
gone to the bathroom, gotten dressed, and then went to the kitchen. He'd
recently discovered the big country breakfast, and made enough scrambled
eggs, bacon, ham, and toast for everyone there. He even made fresh squeezed
orange juice. He heard footsteps on the stairs and turned around to see
Miss Parker in a short skirt and t-shirt with sandals that had no heels.
'Not exactly what I pictured her wearing,' he thought, surprised at her
outfit. 'I like it though,' he decided.

"Why, good morning Miss Parker. Aren't we looking lovely today," he
said in a kind of teasing manner.

"Good morning to you to, Jar," she said smiling, using her childhood
nick name for him. This surprised him even more, and she

laughed at his bewildered look.

"What, can't I be in a good mood?" she defended herself.

"Wait, don't move let me get my cam-corder, no one would believe me
otherwise," he said in a mock serious tone.

"Ha, ha, ha," she said in a deadpan voice.

"Smells great. Are you pretending to be Betty Crocker this week?"

"Betty Crocker?"

"Never mind. Where are Harm and Mac?"

"They went out jogging like half an hour ago. Want some?" he asked offering
her some breakfast.

"Sure, thanks," she said as he filled her plate with food.

"Not so much Jarod, you'll make me fat," she said, seeing the big amount
of food in her plate.

"I don't think so," he said, but proceeded to get himself a plate. A
minute later, they sat down together at the table outside facing

the sea.

"So, Parker, what do you want to do? Return to the Centre or stay over
here?" he asked her after eating silently for a couple of minutes.

"Jarod, there's something you don't know about me. This thing is the
probable reason why they wanted me killed. You probably won't believe me,
though," she said seriously, having decided the previous night to tell
him the truth.

"Try me," he said, curious about what she had to say.

"What do you think I do at the Centre, Jarod?" she asked him.

"Try to catch me." he said confused.

"Well, that's just it; catching you is not the reason why I'm there."
At his perplexed look, she kept on explaining.

"You see, when I was about 13, Sydney discovered that I was a pretender.
He didn't say this to anyone, and secretly trained me to become a pretender.
He didn't want the Centre to do the things they where doing to you. He
was mad about the stuff going on there, but didn't want to leave it because
he was afraid about what Raines and the powers that be would do to you.
I didn't know if my mom had been murdered, until you told me, but I always
had my suspicions. Anyway, shortly before you escaped, the Centre sent
me to JAG, as I told you before, to get some info. from some people there.
Sydney told me to take advantage of it, and to find someone important in
the government or military that I could trust so I could expose the Centre.
I quickly learned that Admiral Chegwidden was a good, trustworthy man,
and told him about the Centre, showing him some evidence. In turn he called
in Clayton Webb, a CIA agent, who he assured me was on the right side of
law. He told me that he would need more evidence. I told him I'd get him
more. When I told him who was one of the Centre's main customers, the government,
he asked me if I knew exactly who in the government. I told him no, but
that I could find out. After some debating, because he didn't want to send
a civilian to do that kind of job, he finally gave up and agreed. When
you escaped, I saw a way to stay at the Centre until it was necessary and
gain some more trust from my dad and the rest of the Tower. I reported
to Webb once a month. It took me about two years to gather enough evidence
to incriminate the Centre for all the stuff they'd done, all their projects,
but I did it. The only thing I was still missing was more incriminating
evidence towards certain people in the government, so I had to stay another
year, until a week ago, when I finally got all the evidence I could possibly
need. I gave most of it to Webb, but there's still something that I need
to give him. I guess Lyle must have found out about all this somehow. I'm
afraid for Sydney and Broots who've been helping me all along. I'm sorry
about how I acted when I first saw you in Harm's apartment, but I had to
keep on with my charade, I wasn't sure if I was ready to tell you the truth
yet. And that's my story. Do you believe me?" she asked, concluding her
complicated explanation.

"Strangely enough, I believe you. I had my suspicions, but wasn't sure.
Are you planing on exposing your dad too?" he said, glad to know that his
suspicions where proven correct, but concerned about how she was going
to deal with her dad..

"Well, this is the real me." she said gesturing to herself.

"Glad to know that. I knew you weren't as cold as you made others think,
although you did fool me sometimes," he admitted.

"And about my dad," she continued in a sadder tone, "I guess I'll have
to expose him. He's not exactly a saint, far from that. And I think he
killed my mother, not your dad, Jar."

"So, what are you planning on doing now?" he asked her.

"I need your help on getting Broots and Sydney out of the Centre with
the rest of the evidence that I have there. I was planning on giving it
to Webb today, but as you can see, I can't. The evidence is still at the
Centre."

"Of course I'll help you. We need to call Webb though and tell him that
you can't deliver today. First, though, can you forgive me for judging
you wrong?"

"Of course I forgive you, it's not your fault. And your right, we should
call Webb. Cell phone," she said holding out her hand. At that moment Harm
and Mac came back hand in hand, smiling. Miss Parker looked at Jarod with
an I-told-you-so look while she waited for Webb to pick up the phone.

"Who's she calling?" Harm wondered. Miss Parker held up her palm for
silence so she could here Webb on the other side.

"Webb, this is Parker,"she said, making Mac and Harm gasp with surprise.

'What's she doing calling Webb?' Mac as ed herself.

"Are you meeting me today with the evidence?" he asked quickly.

"That's why I called, I can't. The Centre tried to kill me yesterday,
so I couldn't go back to get it, and had to leave. I went to

Virginia to talk to you, but the Centre found me, and I had to leave
again."

"Are Harm and Mac with you? They're AWOL."

"Yeah, they're here, and so's Jarod."

"The pretender?"

"Yeah, he's helping me get the evidence along with Sydney and Broots
out of the Centre. We're staying at his house."

"Ok. Tell Mac and Harm about this, I need them informed to prosecute
the government and military people involved with the

Centre. Is there a number I could reach you?"

"Jarod, what's the number of this phone?" she asked him. He gave it
to her, and she gave it to Webb, and then hung up and

returned the phone to Jarod.

"Why were you just talking to Clayton Webb?" Harm asked her, confused
and suspicious.

"It's a long story. Why don't you get some of the great breakfast Jarod
made, and we'll explain." she said with a sigh.

******************

"Any other questions?" asked Miss Parker, after finishing explaining
everything since the beginning.

"Yeah, how can I help?" asked Mac.

"I don't know right now." she replied.

"There must be something." Harm said.

"Well we gotta discuss what we're going to do. First lets get our goal
clear: to get Sydney, Broots, and the evidence out of the

Centre safely, and deliver it to Webb. After that, the conviction,
but that part will take care of itself," Jarod said, putting things into
perspective.

"But first I need to clear my head a little. Does anyone have the time?"
Miss Parker asked, planning on taking a small break.

"It's 8:47 with 21 seconds," Mac said immediately. Jarod and Parker
looked at her in amazement.

"How?" Jarod asked, confused. She shrugged, smiling.

"If you ever find out, please tell me," Harm told him.

"Ok, how about we meet in the pool at 10 am. We can discuss what we'll
do, while we freshen up. Fine with everyone?" They all agreed. Miss Parker
said she was going for a walk and Jarod decided to go with her. Mac and
Harm stayed back, talking about what to do with their new found love, and
its consequences. After a few minutes, though, they got distracted with...other
things... and forgot all about talking.

*******************

"I like this you, Miss Parker," Jarod said honestly.

"You can call me Marilyn, I never was fond of the name Miss Parker,
it reminded me to much that I have a dad I'm supposed to expose."

"Fine by me, Marilyn," he said, happy that he could finally use that
name.

"You know, one day you'll have to tell me more about how you pulled
all this off.," he said lightly.

"One day. Maybe I'll even tell you something else you don't know about
me," she said mysteriously.

"And what would that be?"

"I'm not telling," she teased.

"How can you hide something from this poor man," he asked with a sad
puppy look on his face, gesturing to himself.

"Like I am now," she laughed.

"And there's no way I could pry it out of you."

"Nope."

"We'll see about that," he said and went on to tickle her. She laughed,
and begged for him to stop.

"You have to promise to tell me first."

"Fine, fine, I promise, I promise," she said, falling to the sand with
laughter. He stopped, and she looked at him.

"This is kind of embarrassing," she said, a blush creeping across her
face.

"Go on," he said in a mock serious voice.

"When I was a kid, I had this huge crush on you, and I used to dream
that some day we would get married," she confessed, her face now beet red.

"And now?" he asked in a husky voice, moving closer to her.

"Now, now...Why don't you answer me that question, and then I'll answer
it."

"To tell you the truth I've been in love with you since that day I first
met you and you gave me my first kiss. Now you answer it."

"I guess that dream never went away," she said, making him what he believed
to be the happiest man in the whole wide world. He moved closer to her
and gave her the sweetest kiss she'd ever received. She kissed him back,
closing her eyes, giving herself to the kiss.

"I hate to do this," he said after a few minutes, getting up from the
sand, where he and Miss Parker had been passionately kissing, "but we gotta
go." "Can I take a raincheck?" he asked hopefully.

"If you're good," she said teasingly.

"I'll be the best behaved person in the world, scout's honor," he said,
imitating an earnest child.

This made her laugh, which in turn made Jarod kiss her again.

"We gotta go," she said breaking off the kiss, before they got too into
it, and lost track of time. He took her hand and led her back to the house,
so they could change into their bathing suits.

When they saw the girls coming down the stairs in their bathing suits,
Jarod and Harm whistled at them. Parker and Mac looked at each other and
with a small nod walked up to their respective man and pushed them inside
the pool. Then they high five'd each other.

"That'll teach them," Mac told Miss Parker with a triumphant grin that
mirrored Parker's own.

"You know what Jarod? I think they want a hug."

"I think you're right" replied Jarod, with an evil grin. Parker and
Mac tried to get away, but with no success. Soon, they too were wet. While
hugging Miss Parker, Jarod moved towards the pool and purposefully fell
into it, bringing Parker down with him. Before Harm could do the same,
Mac jumped in the pool, and Harm followed her.

After a while, they finally stopped horsing around and Miss Parker asked
Jarod for his cell-phone. He went and looked for it, andshe dialed Sydney's
number.

"Sydney."

"Hey Syd, how are you doing?"

"Parker, we have a problem," he said without preamble.

"What happened?" she asked worriedly.

"Your dad gave orders that we, that is Broots and I, cannot leave the
Centre until you come back. There are a couple of sweepers watching our
every move," he informed her. Then in a low voice so that no one could
hear, he said, "Broots has part of what you need, and I have the other
part," he said referring to the evidence.

"Fine. We'll try to get you out of there. Be ready to leave by tomorrow
morning. Ok?"

"Yeah. Thanks, and Parker, you and Jarod be careful." She hung up and
smiled thinking on how Sydney had always treated her and Jarod as if they
were his children.

"What did Sydney say?" Jarod asked and she told him, including the part
where Sydney said to take care, which made him smile.

"Tomorrow morning I'll pretend to be one of the Centre sweepers and
get in. Then I'll get Broots, Sydney and Angelo out by my usual escape
route," Jarod stated, already forseeing the whole event in his mind.

"Harm, Mac, we need you to get Webb and some reinforcements to the Centre,
so they can surround it and no one leaves. I'll go with you to show you
the way, and brief Webb," said Miss Parker, and Harm and Mac quickly agreed.

"Wait until I come out to give the signal that will tell Webb to surround
it," Jarod told Parker.

"Any questions?" she asked Harm and Mac.

"Just one. When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow at 0330. I rented a plane earlier today. It'll leave at 0430,
so we can be in Virginia at 0730. From there, we'll drive with Webb and
his people to Blue Cove, Delaware and be at the Centre at 0900. By that
time all the Centre personnel are going to be there," Jarod explained his
well thought plan.

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for the next day; calling
Webb, making arrangements, organizing evidence, etc. By

8:30 pm they where ready to go to bed, so they could be rested for
the long day that lay ahead.

Miss Parker went to her room and opened the doors that led to the balcony.
'What a beautiful night,' she thought staring at the

scene that lay before her. Then, without warning, Jarod appeared below
the balcony in the sand. Then he did something that

surprised her even more.

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east,
and Marilyn is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious

moon, who is already sick and pale with grief....It is my lady, O,
it is my love! O, that she knew she were!"

"Jarod!" she exclaimed, a blush rising in her face.

"She speaks: O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art as glorious
to this night, being o'er my head as is a winged messenger of

heaven unto the white-upturned wondering eyes of mortals that fall
back to gaze on him when he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds and sails
upon the bosom of the air," he said, quoting two of the parts that caught
his attention while reading Romeo and Juliet the night before.

Miss Parker laughed at his acting, touched at what he'd done. He then
climbed up to the balcony and came to stand before her.

"You're learning," she said with a smile on her face and kissing him
softly on the lips.

"I gather that means you like it when men recite Shakespeare to you"
he said playfully, and she kissed him again, and again...

*************************

Saturday

9:00 am

Blue Cove, Delaware

They'd just reach the Centre and Jarod was getting ready to go inside.
He wasn't all to keen on the idea, going back brought too many painful
memories. 'Just do it for Sydney and Miss Parker. You're only gonna be
there no more than five minutes if all goes well,' he tried to comfort
himself.

"Thanks Jarod," Miss Parker said giving him a light kiss on the lips
before he went in dressed as a sweeper, with the ID he'd

prepared the day before. He walked the halls like any normal sweeper,
getting into his pretend. When he reached Sydney's office, he told one
of the sweepers that was there that he was relieving him of his duty. The
sweeper left quickly, thankful that he could finally go eat his breakfast.
There was still the matter of the other sweeper guarding the door.

"Mr. Lyle asked for you," Jarod told him, giving him some official looking
papers. Scared of what Lyle would do to him, he left

immediately, leaving Jarod alone. When he saw that the hall was clear,
he entered Sydney's office, where he found him and

Broots. He looked up to see Angelo in the air vent. He signaled Angelo
to open the vent and motioned for them to go in. Broots and Sydney were
a little hesitant, but Jarod told them that it was the only way. He was
the last one to go in, closing the vent behind him, just before a sweeper
came in and found them gone. He quickly alerted everyone. Angelo motioned
for them to hurry up. After a few minutes of walking around in the labyrinth
of air vents, they finally came out by the back. All, including Angelo,
moved conspicuously to where they found Miss Parker in a car that took
them to the rest of the people.

"Miss Parker sad, but happy," said Angelo when he touched her, a tear
running down her cheek.

"That's right Angelo," she said, giving him a brave smile. She gave
the signal to Webb, who in turn gave another signal to the troops that
were hidden, and they came forward, making it impossible for anyone to
leave. Some were even guarding the Centre airplanes.

Jarod came over and hugged a crying Miss Parker, and whispered comfortingly
"It's over now, it's all over."

************************

Epilogue

With the evidence that Miss Parker had gotten, the list of personnel
working for the Centre and the list of its costumers, Harm and Mac where
able to bring them to justice. Their success in this particular case gave
them the push they needed to earn their

promotions. A week after the case was over, Harm proposed to Mac, and
they where married on a sunny July evening. He was able to find an old
picture of his dad with Major Charles, and an old letter Jarod's dad had
written to him, but that was it. He then gave it to Jarod. Jarod and Miss
Parker followed suit and eloped a month after Mac and Harm's wedding. Jarod's
beach house became their real home, but they were away most of the time,
using their pretending skills to help other people, but also to find the
families of those who, like Jarod, were stolen from their families by the
Centre. Angelo occasionally came along to help them. Sydney moved in with
Michelle, his former love, and was finally able to live the life he had
wanted for so long, but wasn't able to because of the Centre. As unbelievable
as it may sound, Broots found the perfect mommy for Debbie, a kind, gentle
woman who he loved and married. With his wife, a computer expert, he opened
his own security firm, which got him a good fortune.Ocasionally he helped
Parker and Jarod. The corrupt people in the Centre, which is to say the
great majority, were sentence to a life in jail, and some, like Raines,
ended up in the looney bin.

THE END :-)

Liked it? Hated it? Want to kill me because of it (please don't)? Please,
please, please (yes I'm begging) send me feedback. My address is shipperpretender@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading!!!