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Story Notes:
Ethan and the clone don't exist.


Author's Chapter Notes:

Pretender - AU. S2 and beyond. No Ethan, no inner sense, no clone. Age change, to what I think would be more appropriate...well...to my story anyways. Allie's 21, Kyle's 25, and Jarod's 29. Hey it's AU anything can happen. Also, since I thought Kyle was too young to be in prison for 10 years and his age is now different, I'm just pretending he was in jail a lot less.

Note - suggestions (as long as they're not mean) are welcome. Mainly a Kyle/Allie story but will try to throw in some action every now and then....and I must warn you I love happy endings (and I'm a fan of 'love at first sight') so there will be some sappy stuff.


 

Kyle stumbled out onto the ground, wearing only a hospital gown. He drew in deep breaths, lifting up his head. It was bright and sunny but cold. The brightness hurt his eyes and it only reminded him of the first time he had escaped.

He was in a parking lot and vaguely remembered the minutes before when he had run, with a half-healed wound in his back, through the city. He knew it was a plastic surgery, in an attempt to make the bullet wound a few months ago seem non-existent. So they could start re-education and make him believe he never left prison in the first place. It was New York. No one thought twice about an escaped hospital patient.

Kyle got to his feet and looked around. He spotted a man in a suit talking on his cell phone. The suit was nice so the man had money. It was easy to follow him even dressed as he was because no one wanted to look at him for fear of provoking him.

When the man entered a parking lot, Kyle ran up from behind and knocked him out. The man fell to the ground like a sac of potatoes. Kyle searched his pockets and found a set of keys. He pressed the button and heard a car beep behind him. He turned and did it again. A silver Lexus’ lights blinked.

Kyle dragged his victim over to the car and stripped him of everything but the boxers. He had his own, thankfully, he was spared that humiliation. Kyle put the clothes on himself and took the cash from the man’s wallet. He felt a little guilty about knocking the man out, but he didn’t have much choice. He’d be spotted if he couldn’t find clothes or money for food.

This particular crime was common for him. Mugging. He had 3 charges on his record for it and every time it had been because he needed money. Unlike those times, this mugging wasn’t when he was young. Back then it had started with muggings, then a desperate need for answers and trying to beat information out of some of the men who had connections with the Centre. Then the kidnapping of Harriet Tashman. He had no intention of harming her. At least he remembered it that way. He just was good at scaring.

The twinge of guilt prompted Kyle to lean the man against the pillar nearby and leave the jacket and phone with him. He wiped down for fingerprints and took off.


Allie sat at the bar and drew in her sketchbook. It was slow. Usually, there would be about a dozen patrons in the east Buffalo bar. Tonight there were six.

She grabbed the smudger and carefully blended in the graphite and led pencil on the paper. A simple image of an old lady eating a sandwich at a bus station transformed into a complex drawing with a beautiful blend of lights and shadow.

She sighed and absentmindedly signed the picture, hiding her signature in the picture like she normally did so that it wouldn’t distract from the art itself.

She shut the book then checked the clock. 2:45am. God was she tired. Allie rubbed her eyes and put the sketchbook away and finished cleaning up. About a half hour later, Frankie, one of the bouncers, waved to her. “Ready?”

She nodded, grabbed her purse and followed him out of the bar. He made sure she got into the cab alright.


Kyle unconsciously flinched, having to push open the heavy door more than normal. The doors needed oil on the hinges. His wound was almost completely healed but some things still made the wound ache.

The bar was anything other than glamorous but then, most bars were.

“We’re closed.”

Kyle went up to the manager, who wore a suit and tie but no jacket and currently was going through the books. “I’m here for the job.”

“Oh…right.” He stopped what he was doing. “I’ll need to see a resume.”

Kyle gave his to the man.

He had stayed up in New York for a couple weeks to take time to re-cooperate since he hadn’t felt strong enough. Right now he was doing research, trying to track Jarod because he couldn’t follow Parker and the others or they would find out now. Security was tighter than ever and he wasn’t about to press his luck.

Now he needed money and he didn’t like mugging people for it. That was only done when there wasn’t any other choice.

The manager read over the resume and gave a nod. “I see you have a few years under your belt.”

Kyle furrowed his brow at the expression but said nothing.

“Wait here.” The manager went to the back and came out a few minutes later, checking on the reference Kyle had set up. Everything checked out. “Welcome aboard.” He shook Kyle’s hand.

The pretender smirked, pleased that he had fooled people yet again.

Allie rushed to the door, carrying a few books with her that didn’t fit into her purse. She opened the door and was nearly thrown by its weight. She still wasn’t used to it. She tripped, falling onto her knees, dropping all of the books.

She sighed, tucked her hair behind her ear and started gathering them up.

Kyle turned, hearing the loud irritating shrill as the door opened. He did not expect to see what he did.

The humour of the situation passed him as his heart raced, his eyes widened, his palms became sweaty and his mouth became dry. Everything just seemed to move in slow motion.

Allie stood up, giving a shake of her head, tossing her hair from her face. Then she started over to the back room.

Kyle followed her with his eyes, wondering what was wrong with him. He suddenly felt dizzy and…scared. But why would he? She didn’t seem like any kind of threat to him. He had a good 5 inches in height over her, and she was small. Thin and toned, with an hourglass figure. He couldn’t help but notice her generous chest and curved hips and cute little backside.

He only wished he got a better look at her face.

“…and once it’s closing time, if any of the waitresses are still around you’ll need to walk them to their car or wait until a cab picks them up.”

Kyle blinked and turned to the manager. “Why?”

“For their safety.”

He stared at him, not seeing what he meant.

The manager raised his eyebrows. “I guess you didn’t have to do that in your other jobs…” he sighed. “We always make sure the women are escorted so nothing happens to them…” He had to explain further and wondered if Kyle really was as good as his resume said, or if he was just as dense in that area as well. He decided to give him the benefit of the doubt…at least until proven otherwise.

Kyle felt sick to his stomach when he was told why women needed escorts. There were some things even he wouldn’t do and forcing a woman to…well he never would have dreamed of doing that.

The manager led him to the back room. “This is the employee lounge…yeah not glamorous but it’s enough…free coffee there…lockers there…” he went up to one and pulled the name taped on it, off. “This one’s yours.”

Kyle vaguely listened to him. A couple of the waitresses were getting ready, including Allie. He noticed she had changed in the short time of her arrival. She now wore jeans instead of the long skirt he had seen her come in wearing, a black t-shirt, and she wasn’t wearing high heels any longer.

Allie finished tying her runners and put her high heels in the locker. She then swept her hair up into a ponytail, looking in the tiny mirror in her locker.

Kyle vaguely heard the manager tell him about where the coffee and everything was.

“And these lovely ladies are two of our waitresses…Megan…” he motioned to the blonde, then to the long dark haired brunette. “And Allie...this is Kyle our new bartender.”

Kyle’s heart skipped, glad to hear her name, and pleased that it was pretty, just like her.

Allie looked up.

She felt something hit her. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe, yet at the same time, she finally could. Her mother’s voice echoed in her head. “I knew as soon as I saw him that I was going to marry your father.” Allie swallowed and smiled sheepishly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Hi.”

He felt himself melting at her smile. But he couldn’t speak or smile, or respond. He just blinked.

“Let’s go over the register one more time…” their boss, Mr. Donaldson said and led Kyle out of the room.

Allie forced herself to turn around. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she saw her pink lip gloss on the shelf in front of her. She took it and put it on then looked herself over one more time before shutting the locker.

“I saw that.” Megan said, hanging up her sweater.

“Sorry?” she blinked innocently.

“Nothing.” Megan smirked and finished getting ready.

The whole night, Allie forced herself not to stare at the new bartender, but she managed glances every so often.

Kyle did everything he could to get Allie to look at him, flipping the bottles, setting zambuca on fire…but she seemed to be immune. It annoyed the hell out of him.

For three days, it was the same. She would manage a polite hello but then not talk to him at all the rest of the night.

 

 





Chapter End Notes:
Reviews would be appreciated.  Posted this up on another site and no one's really told me if it sucks or if it's good yet.  Constructive criticism please.





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