Disclaimer: I don't own "The Pretender"

You will never know what you will do in the heat of the moment, we sometimes do or say things we may later regret.

"The wonderful thing about life, Miss Parker, is if you change the story, the ending is up to you."

Perplexed and naked, Jarod laid in puzzlement. The chill air breezed through an opening crack from his bedroom window. Lies had been fed into his life for as long as he could remember. Suddenly, he felt trapped and a feeling of suffocation came over him. As a victim of the corrupted organization,"The Centre" was to be blamed.

His chocolate browns tried to envision the final moments with Miss Parker as he stared through the darkness. Never having bothered to have slipped on a pair of shorts after his shower, Jarod sprawled himself on the mattress. He kicked his sheet down to the foot of the bed. A bit longer than it had been in Scotland, he pushed his hair back away from his forehead, deeply he let out a long agonizing sigh.

The scent of her perfume lingered in his head. After the Isle of Carthis, he felt betrayed. "What about us?"

It had been six months since he's had any contact with her.

She had done her crying mostly in the rain or in the shower under the sprays of water. How could she have treated her best friend the way she had. Reminiscing back to that painful scene in the limousine, handcuffed like a common criminal, she pulled away as he took hold of her hands, as a last minute gesture of their friendship, tossing him aside like a bag of garbage.

There were shattered glass on her bedroom floor. Seven years of bad luck. Miss Parker laughed. A chain of bad luck was nothing new to her. She knelt down and carefully picked up the pieces of her silver hand mirror which she deliberately threw down in anger. If only it would have been so easy to have picked up the bits and pieces of her heart, and to throw it aside for a brand new one. Unaware of having pricked her finger, blood dripped onto the carpet, only then had she felt the stinging sensation. Her finger bled like her heart. Her tantalizing sapphire-colored eyes were hidden by the redness of her constant weeping.

Turning off the lights, she stepped out of her designer outfit, and sat on her rocker, dressed only in her delicate laced underwear. She pulled up her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She gazed out of the window, with the combined look of annoyance and despair, the scenic view were gloomy shades of black like the inside of her house and soul.

Sitting in darkness, Miss Parker tapped her polished red nails on the arm of her chair. She sighed gently, and traced the outline of her pursed lips. Everything which had been done to Jarod, his captivity, the tortures, her treatment of him, which caused him much pain and sorrows was finally eating up inside of her.

All alone in a new life, there had been no reason to return back to "The Centre". After all, "daddy" was somewhere probably in the bottom of the ocean. Or whomever that old man was to her. Even if the decrepit Raines was truly her father, there would have been no way in hell would she have ever acknowledged him as "daddy" or let alone a member of her dysfunctional family.

Jarod had clearly kept his distance away from her, and coming out of seclusion was nowhere in the future. Having gone through many turmoils in his life, which had unfortunately begun as a young child, now a grown man, nothing seemed to have changed at all. His demons were still inside of him, and no matter how much he had wanted to rid them from his past and pain, he couldn't. Miss Parker was one pain he forever could not vanquish out of his life.

She knew if there were to be any sort of reunion with her "pretender", the first step would have to come from her. Her closed fist slowly opened, a piece of crumbled paper fell down onto the floor, a paper she's had for four months with a telephone number scribbled on it. It was Jarod's number, which she knew from memory.

Miss Parker would never admit to anyone on just how lonely she was. Jarod had always been in her life. What would life be without him? You never how much you'll miss a person until they are gone. He was gone.

Heading into the bathroom, she splashed water onto her face. Her reflection in the mirror was someone other than herself. Instead of the heartless, icy cold Miss Parker everyone knew, she was just a pathetic woman drowning in her own sorrows. She suffered from headaches, when in actuality, it was her heart that ached.

Ignoring the ringing of his telephone, Jarod placed a pillow over his head. After several rings it stopped, a minute later the ringing continued. In his darkened room, he grabbed his cell phone off of the night stand and flipped it open.

"Hello," he said hoarsely.

"Jarod," said the throaty voice.

"Miss Parker." He hadn't sounded surprise by her telephone call. "I see you still have your ways of tracking me down."

"How are you?"

"I was fine, until now."

"I haven't heard from you in such a long time."

"Are you drunk?" He asked sarcastically. "You don't sound like the Miss Parker I know."

"It's me. And I'm not drunk," she answered softly.

There was silence. His breath was the only sound which could be heard.

"Hello?"

"What?" He answered.

"Thought you hung up."

"What's the nature of this call?" He sighed.

"Still doing your pretends? Or have you settled down on one profession?"

"Did you call for a chit chat? Because I really don't feel like chit chatting, Miss Parker."

"You're angry."

"I'm glad you're aware of it. I remember Scotland. You turned on me."

She blurted out. "Jarod, what about us? Ocee's place." Her mind wandered of that night of the storm, alone together.

"Ocee's place? Let me think. Nothing happened."

"About that night, I, yes, I wanted to feel," she tried to explain, but, Jarod interrupted.

"Parker, don't. There was a time I wanted nothing but to have us kiss, wishing that Ocee had never stepped into the room with that damned pot of tea, but, she did us a favor. Like you said, a moment of weakness, that's all it was. It would have complicated things. And in the end, you betrayed me anyway. Or have you forgotten? Just leave me alone, why don't you, and forget this part of our lives. Start a new beginning. Don't stop me from starting mine."

"We've been through a lot together, you and me, from when we were kids, for as long as I can remember..."

"Parker, maybe we both deserve something more. And the something more I'm waiting for won't be you."

"I gave you nothing but grief. "The Centre", my brother, my father, I mean, I don't really know who he was to me, I'm sorry for what we've caused you, Jar."

"Is there a reason for this call, Miss Parker?"

Closing her eyes, she bit her lower lip, then spoke. "Do you remember my first name?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"Why? Have you forgotten your own name?"

"No. Just wondered if you..."

"What is it that you want, Miss Parker?"

"I-I'm sorry for everything. Forgive me."

"Not this time. No, not this time. You've hurt me enough. I won't allow it anymore. Look, I was just on my way out. And I'm running late. Is there anything else?" He asked as he stretched back onto his bed.

"Hope you find what you're looking for, Jarod."

"I hope so."

"So, this is goodbye. For good," she said painfully.

"I believe so."

"What am I suppose to do, Jar?"

"You're a smart woman, you'll think of something to do with your life. It's just that I won't be in it. I don't want to be in it. Not anymore."

"I sure messed up. Didn't I, Jarod?

"Yes. Big time, Miss Parker. Didn't you ever think I had any feelings at all? It doesn't matter now, I've already let go of whatever there was between us, if there ever was anything. It's time to move on."

"Moving on to what? Where?"

"Time to go, Miss Parker. Take care of yourself. Too bad it had to come to this."

"Jarod." She called out his name in a whisper.

There was a deafening sound of silence on the end of her telephone line.

JMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMP

Miss Parker stood on the cliff overlooking the ocean, the night was wet, cold and windy. She thought back of the events in her life. "The Centre" had come between them. Jarod had been so unfeeling toward her in their telephone conversation. Sitting down on the rocks, she cried. The weather had suddenly changed, raining heavily. Pulling her coat tightly around her, she ran her hands up and down her arms for warmth.

"You planning on jumping?" A voice asked.

She acknowledged by shaking her head.

"You do realize it's pouring out here," he said. "You'll catch a cold."

"I could say the same to you. Catching a cold is the least of my worries," she said.

"Why are you here?"

"Nowhere else to go." Looking up, she stared at him.

"I told you, Miss Parker, I needed to move on. I'm not going to even ask how you found me." Jarod held his hand out to her. "Come on. Let's get out of the rain."

TBC - Chapter 2