Jarod sat in the car next to Sydney, dreading the end of the trip.  He knew he was in trouble; probably the most trouble he had ever been in with Sydney.  Sydney hadn’t said a word to him or even looked at him since they left the mall.  Jarod just hoped that whatever Sydney had planned for him did not involve at trip back to the Centre.

Sydney was absolutely furious with Jarod.  How dare he act that way.  The more Sydney thought about Jarod’s behavior, the more upset he got.  When they reached, the hotel Sydney left the car, leaving the packages for Jarod to handle.  Sydney reached their room first, but waited for Jarod to enter first.  He then tried to slam the door, but the automatic closure prevented that, infuriating Sydney even more.  He turned to glare at Jarod.

“Sydney…”

“I don’t want to hear it.  In fact, I don’t want to hear anything from you.  Understood?”

Jarod dropped his eyes as he nodded.  Sydney was even madder than Jarod thought he would be and Jarod was really starting to get scared.  He knew Sydney wouldn’t hit him, but he looked like he wanted to.  He flinched when Sydney stepped toward him.

“I have never been so embarrassed in my life.  What were you thinking acting like that?  No, don’t answer.  There is no explanation for your behavior.  None.”

Jarod swallowed and edged slightly away from the furiously pacing doctor.  He didn’t have a reason for dumping his plate, his emotions had just overwhelmed him and erupted.

“If you’re going to act like a small child, then I’ll treat you like one.  Is that what you want?  And so help me, if you ever act like that again, I’ll take you back to the Centre and hand you over to Raines myself.”

Jarod’s breath stopped at that last statement.  Being put under Raines’ control was Jarod’s greatest fear and not a threat that Sydney would make lightly.

Sydney stomped past the younger man, smiling grimly as he saw the effect the last threat had.  At this particular moment, he meant every word, but knew that come morning, he might regret saying it.  He pulled a chair out from the table and growled for Jarod to sit.

“Remember the time-outs from your first childhood?  Well, guess what? You get to revisit a childhood memory.  Enjoy.”

Sydney waited until Jarod sat down at the table before heading out of the room.

Jarod watched as Sydney left the room and then leaned down to rest his head on his folded arms atop the table.  He knew he had to sit there with nothing to do but think until Sydney gave him permission to get up.  Both Jarod and Sydney knew that Jarod could sit still for extended periods of time for a SIM, but to sit still with nothing to occupy his mind was just about unbearable for him.  Jarod, Miss Parker, and Angelo had been together the last time Sydney had used this punishment.  Sydney had placed a small alarm clock on the table in front of the young Pretender and told him he could go back to his room in four hours.  Then Sydney had left the SIM lab.

Jarod remembered how the ticking from the clock got louder as time crawled by.  The first half-hour went by with no problems, but then Jarod started getting antsy.  Then his mind started creating possible scenarios for both Sydney’s return and his not returning.  Of how Sydney would decide that Jarod wasn’t worth his efforts and walk away from him the way his parents had.  And on to how he didn’t deserve to have anyone who cared about him.  That night, curled into a small ball on his cot, the young Jarod had secretly cried himself to sleep.

All those old fears consumed Jarod’s mind as he sat in the hotel room with his head down on his arms.  The hours of the night crept by and Jarod never moved from his chair.  He didn’t want Sydney to return and see that Jarod couldn’t even follow simple directions.  The longer Sydney was gone, the more Jarod’s fear grew.  The fear of being returned to the Centre and being given to Raines.  The fear that Sydney now hated him and was not coming back for him.  And the realization that he deserved Sydney’s hatred.  Maybe Mr. Raines and Mr. Parker were right when they said Jarod belonged in the Centre.

Morning was approaching when Sydney returned to the room.  He went into the bathroom to get ready for bed without saying a word.  It was only when he crawled into bed that he gave Jarod permission to get up.  Then he turned his back to Jarod and went to sleep.

Jarod flinched as the bedside lamp was snapped off.  He quietly used the bathroom, but then stood in the doorway, uncertain of his next move.  Sydney had told him to him to get some sleep, but Jarod knew that he didn’t deserve the privilege of sleeping in that nice soft bed.  But he had to get some sleep, Sydney had said so.  He finally left the bathroom, but only to slide down the wall into a dark corner.  Sitting down, he leaned forward, hugged his legs, and rocked himself to sleep.

Jarod woke up a few hours later, but years in the Centre had taught him how to remain motionless upon waking.  He could feel the floor beneath him and the two walls surrounding him, reminding him that something was wrong.  It wasn’t until he heard a soft snore from the main part of the room, though, that he fully remembered where he was and why he was on the floor.  He got up and quietly walked over to the window. Stepping between the floor length curtains and the wall, Jarod watched as the sun came up.  He didn’t know when Sydney was going to call Mr. Raines, but he wanted to have a lot of memories of the outside world to take back with him.

A soft rustling brought Sydney fully awake.  He had been dozing on and off all night, trying to understand Jarod’s strange behavior.  He had never seen Jarod act so juvenile before and was at a lost to explain it now.  He rolled over to look at the other bed and his heart seemed to jump out of his chest.  Jarod’s bed was not just empty, but completely undisturbed.

“Jarod?” he called out just before he saw the shape at the window.

The soft rustle that woke him up proved to be Jarod behind the curtains, he saw.  But there was no other response to his call.

“Jarod, come out from behind the curtain.”

Again, there was no verbal response, but the figure at the window started to move.  Jarod emerged from the curtain in the corner of the room, but went no further.  He was standing almost huddled in the corner and wouldn’t look up at Sydney.  This brought a rapid frown of puzzlement to Sydney’s face as he tried to understand Jarod’s odd behavior.

“Did you get some sleep last night?” he asked quietly.

Jarod gave one quick nod, but still wouldn’t look up at Sydney.  Sydney was at a complete loss now.  He knew it had something to do with the dinner last night and Sydney knew he had over-reacted.  Sydney got out of the bed and took a step toward Jarod.  Jarod’s almost imperceptible retreat further into the corner stopped Sydney before he could take the second step.

“Jarod, talk to me.  What’s wrong?  Is this about last night?”

Jarod flinched when Sydney mentioned the previous evening and Sydney’s suspicions were confirmed.  The problem was that Sydney couldn’t remember what exactly had happened once they reached the hotel room.  He remembered walking down to the hotel’s bar, he remembered coming back hours later and seeing Jarod with his head down on the table, and he remembered telling Jarod to get some sleep.  Something else must have happened, something that Jarod didn’t want to talk about.  And Sydney knew from long experience that getting Jarod to talk when he didn’t want to was impossible.

The next two days passed and Sydney was growing seriously concerned about Jarod.  They had checked in and out of a couple different hotels, traveled from city to city, and eaten in many different restaurants and throughout it all, Jarod had remained largely incommunicative.  He would eat whatever Sydney ordered for him, even the green vegetables that had started the problem back in the mall, but he would never order for himself.  He would answer most of the questions or respond to Sydney’s comments, but rarely did he initiate the conversation. Sydney had to practically order him to before Jarod would even sleep on the bed.

At the end of the third day, Sydney finally lost his patience. They had just returned from a nice family style restaurant where Sydney had once again been forced to choose Jarod’s meal for him. A meal in which Jarod ate everything on his plate even though it was obvious that he truly disliked what he was eating.

“That’s it, Jarod.  I have had enough of this.  I want to know what is going through that brain of your and I want to know right now!”

Jarod’s back fount its new favorite spot in the corner of the room.  He slowly slid down until he could hug his knees.

“I’m sorry.  Please don’t give me to Mr. Raines.  Please, I’ll be better.  I promise.  Please.”

Sydney stood in the middle of the room, looking at Jarod in shock.  It took Jarod rocking back and forth and repeating repeatedly “I’ll be good.  I promise.  Please don’t give me to Mr. Raines” to break Sydney from his horrified stupor.

“Jarod, we left Mr. Raines back at the Centre.  Moreover, I would never give you to him.  Never.  Where did you come up with that?”

“You said if I was bad again, you would give me to him”, Jarod finally looked up to Sydney, his eyes haunted by the past.  “Please Sydney, I’ll be good.  I won’t cause any more problems.  I promise.”

Sydney caught his breath in horror.  He had done this to Jarod and didn’t even remember it.  He knelt down next to Jarod, maintaining eye contact the whole time.

“Jarod, I didn’t mean that.  Sometimes, when someone is furious, they say things they don’t mean, just to hurt or scare another person.  I was so upset the night you….acted out, that I didn’t think.  I wanted to let you know you had acted and I lashed out in anger.  But, and I promise you this, I will keep you as far from Raines as possible.  OK?”

Sydney put his hand under Jarod’s chin to make sure Jarod kept looking at him.

“I promise, Jarod.  No Raines, I promise.”

Jarod’s eyes filled with tears, but he refused to let them fall.

“Do I have to keep eating those green things, Sydney?  They really don’t taste very good.”

“We’ll see, Jarod,” Sydney answered with a small laugh.  “We’ll work on it.”

Some of the tension that had filled Jarod for the last few days left him with Sydney’s laugh.  ‘Maybe Sydney won’t hate me anymore,’ he thought.