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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Every praise on my knowledge of English should go to my beta-angel! Go back to my first three unbeta-ed chapters and you'll know what I mean. She'll run out of red ink soon, I tell you!
Souls of the Departed Part 8 "Two for the Road"
Broots entered the sim lab looking for Sydney. "Sydney, you wanted me down here?" Not detecting the doctor anywhere, he looked around cautiously but kept on calling for his colleague with a suppressed voice. "Sydney? Sydney, are you here?"
From the back of the lab he heard Sydney call him with a hushed tone. "Here Broots, I'm here"
Broots was surprised to find the psychiatrist on floor level, crouched in the opening of the ventilation shaft. Broots knelt down in front of the shaft and finally saw what the doctor was doing there. Angelo cowered just behind Sydney in the back. Between the two men was an open box that contained an immense amount of all sorts of memorabilia. This was definitely one of Angelo's treasure boxes.
Sydney looked up at Broots with worry on his face. "Angelo wouldn't come out. And he keeps on mumbling something incomprehensible. It's been happening for hours now.
"What's that in his hand?" The technician pointed towards some paper in Angelo's hands.
"I don't know. But he has been holding on to it ever since I got here. It must be the reason for his current behaviour."
Just then Angelo looked up. Haunted eyes peered from Sydney to Broots, then he returned his gaze to the piece of paper in his hands.
"Trouble. Needs connection. Mother. Looking for home."
Those were the first coherent words that had escaped from Angelo's lips in hours. Then Angelo held up the paper and passed it to Sydney. After he had let go of it, he grabbed his box and retreated, again mumbling unintelligibly.
Sydney took the piece of paper which was actually a picture: a picture of Ethan. It had been taken many years ago when he had still been one of Raines' experiments.
**********************
Joshua lay on the couch watching morning television. He hadn't even tried to go back to sleep after having the ice cream in the wee hours of the morning. He knew it would have been in vain.
Neither had Jarod. He was out on the porch watching the sunrise. The pretender had so much on his mind that he needed to sort through. There was this fear of never finding any little bit of descent sleep again; the fear that his younger brother shared with him the same fate. That he could not help Joshua made him feel endlessly useless.
There was Joshua's statement from the day before: 'You love her.'
And there was the ensuing discussion later that evening with his father regarding this very statement. It had been rather an argument than a discussion. His first with his father actually.
As much as he loved his father, he was a grown man and entitled to have his own life. That was what he had said to the Major, though he would've liked to simply say: "That's none of your damn business!"
He hadn't though. It had been impossible for him to talk to his father that way. Jarod knew he had to work on that because there were things that were none of his father's business.
Did he really love her the way Joshua had implied? Maybe. Probably. 'Who am I kidding?' He would just need one honest moment with himself. He'd just have to add up all the time he had spent thinking about her, recollect all the things he knew about her and their common past And if he analysed this with all he had learned and knew about emotions and love, he'd have to say a healthy 'yes'.
But what about her? Weren't her actions back in that limousine in Glasgow signs enough that she'd never reciprocate? Could he survive one more turn down like that?
He still would've liked to talk to his father about his conflicting feelings. But it seemed impossible. As long as his father would still regard her as some kind of danger, he was just too biased to be of any help.
That he himself was unsure about her was enough for him. He needed someone objective towards her and himself.
He took out his cell phone and dialed Sydney's number.
"Sydney here."
"Sydney, do you think that some..."
His former mentor interrupted him quite unceremoniously. "Jarod! I'm glad you called. You'll have to find Ethan."
"Ethan? Sydney, what's wrong?"
"Angelo told us Ethan might be in trouble. He didn't say anything else, but it sounded serious."
"Angelo is always serious about things. This is not good, not good at all. Where should I start looking for him? Anything from your side?"
"Nothing you could work on. But I keep checking. For now you'll be on your own."
"Thank you Sydney. I'll call again."
He hung up and returned to the house. His father was already making coffee. While starting to pack up his few belongings, Jarod explained to Joshua and the Major what was going on.
"Joshua, I think I know now why we had so much trouble sleeping lately. Actually it's just a hunch but it has to be Ethan. He has a very unique gift that I still don't know all about. We are connected to him. We might be able to feel him ...somehow!"
"Jarod," his father came up in front of him, "you've told us how Ethan had felt Miss Parker before. So if even you two can feel him in some remote way, don't you think she'd feel it even more so?"
With a slight smile on his face, Jarod answered, "I hope so dad, I truly hope so." To escape any further argument, the pretender simply put his hand on his father's shoulder and added with a more serious face, "I promise I'll be careful."
Jarod stowed his computer and travel bag in the trunk of his car, all the while thinking about all the possible places Ethan could've gone. Sydney had repeated Angelo's words to him: "Trouble. Needs connection. Mother. Looking for home."
He briefly wondered if his half brother had gone back to the house where his now dead foster parents had lived. Jarod discarded this idea after a second thought, remembering that Ethan now knew who his real parents were. No, he was not there. The pretender concluded that the troubled young man was looking for a connection to his real family.
During the short time both brothers were together, Ethan would sit for hours on a chair looking at his mother's picture. Yes, Jarod thought, he was looking for anything remotely connected to Catherine Parker.
After saying goodbye to Joshua and the Major, promising to keep in touch daily and to bring Ethan home to them safely, he got in his car and drove off.
Catherine was born in a suburban town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She'd written in her diary how happy her childhood there had been. Jarod had read it. Maybe Ethan was looking for some connection to her there. It was a start, a start as good as any.
******************************
Lyle stood hidden in the shadow above them. He had heard the conversation between Sydney and the pretender. The sole heir of the Parker legacy smiled to himself. Why go on an exhausting, and probably futile, search on his own when others would do so much better?
He always had suspected Raines' idiot to be more than just a mumbling idiot. Angelo just seemed to know when things were about to get ugly. And Lyle knew that on most of those times, Sydney would find out and - of course - tell Jarod about it.
Now all he had to do was wait. Either the sponge-idiot would tell them where to look for Ethan or Jarod would find him and tell Sydney about it. He only had to stay close.
*******************************
Miss Parker had just left Washington behind and was feeling very apprehensive. In the early hours of the morning she'd come up with an idea where to start looking for her brother. She'd decided since she did not really know anything at all, it was at least something. Heading north, she got onto the interstate and never looked back. It felt good on some metaphysical level to be back into the hunting game, so to speak.
After Ethan had rescued her from the burning building two years ago, they had spent a few hours together. Her brother had asked her to tell him about their mother.
Miss Parker had told him what kind of woman Catherine had been, what an extraordinary lady their mother really was. Ethan had asked many questions about this and that. And he also wanted to know if his sister knew what had made Catherine really happy in her life.
This question actually had made her feel more than a little sad. Her mother hadn't had a life that one could even remotely regard as happy. But still, there were moments, and she had gladly shared her knowledge with her half brother.
Catherine had always been in the best mood after spending time painting in her studio. She would have the most incredible smile on her face when she came back from one of her visits to the orphanage and could tell her daughter that another little child had found a family. And then Miss Parker told her brother that she truly hoped that her mother had been happy when spending time with her.
Ethan also heard about a man named Ben, the man who had been his mother's lover for some years. Appropriately, she'd always loved to go on her annual 'vacation' to see him. In Maine.
All this had gone through Miss Parker's mind earlier that morning. And she concluded that she'd drive up to Lake Catherine, Maine, to look for her brother.
************************
Jarod was somewhere in Pennsylvania. He had been driving for an hour, all the time tapping his fingers nervously on the wheel. He hated it when things were out of his control. The pretender knew he had to prepare for whatever was expecting him after finding his half brother.
They could encounter a group of sweepers, or worse, sweepers led by Lyle.
Ethan could be in some other kind of trouble, physically hurt or in mental distress. Jarod had to think ahead of any precaution and any possible way to help Ethan. Being one step ahead had always been the road to his success and, more importantly, the reason for his survival.
Still, all those difficulties where things he could expect, he could prepare for. But to think in mathematical terms, and he frequently fell back on doing so, there was one independent variable in his equation: Miss Parker.
What if she really showed up? What would she do? What would he say? The crux of the matter was he simply could not prepare for THAT.
He was pretty sure she'd felt his brother even more than he or Joshua had. His father had been right on that one. Jarod was also convinced that she would immediately try to find Ethan, no matter where she was at the moment. Would she know where to look for him? Would she come to the same conclusion he had and go straight to her mother's childhood home?
Ethan had told him that Miss Parker had been more than willing to share some memories about their mother. His younger brother had definitely kept a few of those things to himself, and rightly so. Those memories belonged to Catherine's children alone. But after a while Ethan had asked Jarod if he had ever heard of a man named Ben.
The pretender would never lie to his brother, so he admitted that Miss Parker had actually known about Ben only because of him.
That's when it happened. Jarod suddenly felt like a complete idiot. With only a brief look in the rear-view mirror he steered the car to the right and stepped on the brakes. The car came to a screeching halt on the emergency lane. Slamming his head on the wheel a few times, the pretender cursed himself for his stupidity.
Jarod took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He turned the ignition on again and got the vehicle back on the road, looking for the next exit sign. Jarod got off the interstate only to drive in what seemed to be a maze of roads and directions, back on the same road again. This time, though, in the opposite direction. He needed to head back. His new destination was Maine, New England.
Souls of the Departed Part 8 "Two for the Road"
Broots entered the sim lab looking for Sydney. "Sydney, you wanted me down here?" Not detecting the doctor anywhere, he looked around cautiously but kept on calling for his colleague with a suppressed voice. "Sydney? Sydney, are you here?"
From the back of the lab he heard Sydney call him with a hushed tone. "Here Broots, I'm here"
Broots was surprised to find the psychiatrist on floor level, crouched in the opening of the ventilation shaft. Broots knelt down in front of the shaft and finally saw what the doctor was doing there. Angelo cowered just behind Sydney in the back. Between the two men was an open box that contained an immense amount of all sorts of memorabilia. This was definitely one of Angelo's treasure boxes.
Sydney looked up at Broots with worry on his face. "Angelo wouldn't come out. And he keeps on mumbling something incomprehensible. It's been happening for hours now.
"What's that in his hand?" The technician pointed towards some paper in Angelo's hands.
"I don't know. But he has been holding on to it ever since I got here. It must be the reason for his current behaviour."
Just then Angelo looked up. Haunted eyes peered from Sydney to Broots, then he returned his gaze to the piece of paper in his hands.
"Trouble. Needs connection. Mother. Looking for home."
Those were the first coherent words that had escaped from Angelo's lips in hours. Then Angelo held up the paper and passed it to Sydney. After he had let go of it, he grabbed his box and retreated, again mumbling unintelligibly.
Sydney took the piece of paper which was actually a picture: a picture of Ethan. It had been taken many years ago when he had still been one of Raines' experiments.
**********************
Joshua lay on the couch watching morning television. He hadn't even tried to go back to sleep after having the ice cream in the wee hours of the morning. He knew it would have been in vain.
Neither had Jarod. He was out on the porch watching the sunrise. The pretender had so much on his mind that he needed to sort through. There was this fear of never finding any little bit of descent sleep again; the fear that his younger brother shared with him the same fate. That he could not help Joshua made him feel endlessly useless.
There was Joshua's statement from the day before: 'You love her.'
And there was the ensuing discussion later that evening with his father regarding this very statement. It had been rather an argument than a discussion. His first with his father actually.
As much as he loved his father, he was a grown man and entitled to have his own life. That was what he had said to the Major, though he would've liked to simply say: "That's none of your damn business!"
He hadn't though. It had been impossible for him to talk to his father that way. Jarod knew he had to work on that because there were things that were none of his father's business.
Did he really love her the way Joshua had implied? Maybe. Probably. 'Who am I kidding?' He would just need one honest moment with himself. He'd just have to add up all the time he had spent thinking about her, recollect all the things he knew about her and their common past And if he analysed this with all he had learned and knew about emotions and love, he'd have to say a healthy 'yes'.
But what about her? Weren't her actions back in that limousine in Glasgow signs enough that she'd never reciprocate? Could he survive one more turn down like that?
He still would've liked to talk to his father about his conflicting feelings. But it seemed impossible. As long as his father would still regard her as some kind of danger, he was just too biased to be of any help.
That he himself was unsure about her was enough for him. He needed someone objective towards her and himself.
He took out his cell phone and dialed Sydney's number.
"Sydney here."
"Sydney, do you think that some..."
His former mentor interrupted him quite unceremoniously. "Jarod! I'm glad you called. You'll have to find Ethan."
"Ethan? Sydney, what's wrong?"
"Angelo told us Ethan might be in trouble. He didn't say anything else, but it sounded serious."
"Angelo is always serious about things. This is not good, not good at all. Where should I start looking for him? Anything from your side?"
"Nothing you could work on. But I keep checking. For now you'll be on your own."
"Thank you Sydney. I'll call again."
He hung up and returned to the house. His father was already making coffee. While starting to pack up his few belongings, Jarod explained to Joshua and the Major what was going on.
"Joshua, I think I know now why we had so much trouble sleeping lately. Actually it's just a hunch but it has to be Ethan. He has a very unique gift that I still don't know all about. We are connected to him. We might be able to feel him ...somehow!"
"Jarod," his father came up in front of him, "you've told us how Ethan had felt Miss Parker before. So if even you two can feel him in some remote way, don't you think she'd feel it even more so?"
With a slight smile on his face, Jarod answered, "I hope so dad, I truly hope so." To escape any further argument, the pretender simply put his hand on his father's shoulder and added with a more serious face, "I promise I'll be careful."
Jarod stowed his computer and travel bag in the trunk of his car, all the while thinking about all the possible places Ethan could've gone. Sydney had repeated Angelo's words to him: "Trouble. Needs connection. Mother. Looking for home."
He briefly wondered if his half brother had gone back to the house where his now dead foster parents had lived. Jarod discarded this idea after a second thought, remembering that Ethan now knew who his real parents were. No, he was not there. The pretender concluded that the troubled young man was looking for a connection to his real family.
During the short time both brothers were together, Ethan would sit for hours on a chair looking at his mother's picture. Yes, Jarod thought, he was looking for anything remotely connected to Catherine Parker.
After saying goodbye to Joshua and the Major, promising to keep in touch daily and to bring Ethan home to them safely, he got in his car and drove off.
Catherine was born in a suburban town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She'd written in her diary how happy her childhood there had been. Jarod had read it. Maybe Ethan was looking for some connection to her there. It was a start, a start as good as any.
******************************
Lyle stood hidden in the shadow above them. He had heard the conversation between Sydney and the pretender. The sole heir of the Parker legacy smiled to himself. Why go on an exhausting, and probably futile, search on his own when others would do so much better?
He always had suspected Raines' idiot to be more than just a mumbling idiot. Angelo just seemed to know when things were about to get ugly. And Lyle knew that on most of those times, Sydney would find out and - of course - tell Jarod about it.
Now all he had to do was wait. Either the sponge-idiot would tell them where to look for Ethan or Jarod would find him and tell Sydney about it. He only had to stay close.
*******************************
Miss Parker had just left Washington behind and was feeling very apprehensive. In the early hours of the morning she'd come up with an idea where to start looking for her brother. She'd decided since she did not really know anything at all, it was at least something. Heading north, she got onto the interstate and never looked back. It felt good on some metaphysical level to be back into the hunting game, so to speak.
After Ethan had rescued her from the burning building two years ago, they had spent a few hours together. Her brother had asked her to tell him about their mother.
Miss Parker had told him what kind of woman Catherine had been, what an extraordinary lady their mother really was. Ethan had asked many questions about this and that. And he also wanted to know if his sister knew what had made Catherine really happy in her life.
This question actually had made her feel more than a little sad. Her mother hadn't had a life that one could even remotely regard as happy. But still, there were moments, and she had gladly shared her knowledge with her half brother.
Catherine had always been in the best mood after spending time painting in her studio. She would have the most incredible smile on her face when she came back from one of her visits to the orphanage and could tell her daughter that another little child had found a family. And then Miss Parker told her brother that she truly hoped that her mother had been happy when spending time with her.
Ethan also heard about a man named Ben, the man who had been his mother's lover for some years. Appropriately, she'd always loved to go on her annual 'vacation' to see him. In Maine.
All this had gone through Miss Parker's mind earlier that morning. And she concluded that she'd drive up to Lake Catherine, Maine, to look for her brother.
************************
Jarod was somewhere in Pennsylvania. He had been driving for an hour, all the time tapping his fingers nervously on the wheel. He hated it when things were out of his control. The pretender knew he had to prepare for whatever was expecting him after finding his half brother.
They could encounter a group of sweepers, or worse, sweepers led by Lyle.
Ethan could be in some other kind of trouble, physically hurt or in mental distress. Jarod had to think ahead of any precaution and any possible way to help Ethan. Being one step ahead had always been the road to his success and, more importantly, the reason for his survival.
Still, all those difficulties where things he could expect, he could prepare for. But to think in mathematical terms, and he frequently fell back on doing so, there was one independent variable in his equation: Miss Parker.
What if she really showed up? What would she do? What would he say? The crux of the matter was he simply could not prepare for THAT.
He was pretty sure she'd felt his brother even more than he or Joshua had. His father had been right on that one. Jarod was also convinced that she would immediately try to find Ethan, no matter where she was at the moment. Would she know where to look for him? Would she come to the same conclusion he had and go straight to her mother's childhood home?
Ethan had told him that Miss Parker had been more than willing to share some memories about their mother. His younger brother had definitely kept a few of those things to himself, and rightly so. Those memories belonged to Catherine's children alone. But after a while Ethan had asked Jarod if he had ever heard of a man named Ben.
The pretender would never lie to his brother, so he admitted that Miss Parker had actually known about Ben only because of him.
That's when it happened. Jarod suddenly felt like a complete idiot. With only a brief look in the rear-view mirror he steered the car to the right and stepped on the brakes. The car came to a screeching halt on the emergency lane. Slamming his head on the wheel a few times, the pretender cursed himself for his stupidity.
Jarod took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He turned the ignition on again and got the vehicle back on the road, looking for the next exit sign. Jarod got off the interstate only to drive in what seemed to be a maze of roads and directions, back on the same road again. This time, though, in the opposite direction. He needed to head back. His new destination was Maine, New England.
