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What a name hides part 2
by Stefi

Disclaimer: The characters Miss Parker, Sydney, Jarod, Broots etc. and the fictional Centre, are all property of MTM, TNT and NBC Productions and used without permission. I'm not making any money out of this and no infringement is intended.

What a name hides part 2
By Stefi

Parker got out the car and looked at Sydney's house, dark and silent.
(Oh God, let him be at home!) she pleaded.
She knocked at the door many times. (Let him be at home, God let him be at home!)
A noise of steps, a lock squeaking.
Parker almost passed out for relief "Syd!"
"Miss Parker!" She slipped inside without giving him time to think.
"You must help me!" she said. The man, alarmed, looked out, along the empty street.
"No, nobody's following me."
Sydney scanned her face and concern got hold of his heart.
"You're really upset! What's happened?"
Parker took a breath. "The voices, Syd. Help me. Help me with my inner sense."
Sydney began to shake his head. "No, Pa-" She cut him off.
"They're driven me crazy! They keep on talking and yelling and I don't understand them. And it's important to understand. I have to know what they're trying to tell me."
She took another breath and tried to calm herself down.
"Come on, Syd, You did it for my mother, do it for me, too."
"You know well how it ended."
"It wasn't this to kill her! And I am NOT my mother." Parker reached for him "Please."
Sydney held her hands saying "Miss Parker.." but he stopped all of sudden and stated at her.
"Oh God, but you're freezing!" He passed the back of his hand on her face. "Come in the study, it's warmer." He leaded the woman in his favorite room and took her coat. "I'll take you a warm cup of tea." And he left her.
Parker stayed still for a moment, then turned around the desk and let herself in the leather chair, sighing. She was right coming here. The voices were still there, but at least they didn't yell anymore. Parker looked around the room. She liked it. It was so male, so restful, so...
(So Sydney) she smiled to herself. It made her feel safe. Sydney got this power, to make her feel safe.
Her look moved around, from the books on the shelves to the couch in a corner, from the chessboard on the little table on her right to the desk in front of her.

On this one, it was a lamp lighting up an opened book, a pair of glasses on it to keep the page.
Parker could see him: Syd in this chair, his glasses on his nose, reading...? She glanced the title,(Les Miserables?)
"Good Grief!" she rolled her eyes.
Further on, almost in the shadow, a wooden frame with an old picture of Jacob and Sydney, taken when they were young, maybe twenty-five, more or less. Her look softened, watching the picture. She hadn't had the time to know Jacob well, his last moments of life were...not enough. But he was Sydney twin, right? And maybe, she knew him a little. Or not? Twins often are very different or even opposites.
Parker stared again the picture, trying to find out who's who. In the lower part of the frame it was another picture, smaller and darker. She narrowed her eyes and reached for the frame.
The voices exploded all of sudden, startling her. Once again she felt herself sucked in the picture as her hand took the frame, dismantled it, grabbed the photo, the same she saw as a child.
A woman, blond hair, bright eyes, smiling widely and... and two children. Identical. Twins.
A shocked Parker turned over the photo and found again the elegant, old-fashioned calligraphy:
mars 1931
Greta avec Jacob
et Sydney

...."Who's this lady?"..."She is...was...your grandmother"....

"Greta..." Parker whispered "..Margaretha...Greta.." She grabbed her head, gasping and crying.
"Here's your tea." Syd put on the desk the cup and froze seeing the frame and the pictures.
But his hurt disappeared when he met her eyes, shining for tears. The love and caring he felt for that woman pushed him to run on her side, to hold her hands. This was the last drop. Parker burst in tears, without control.
Syd took her in his arms, waiting for a refusal that didn't come. She clutched at him, hiding herself in his neck, as her sobs increased. The old man was afraid. It wasn't like Parker to collapse this way. She did it only once before, when she lost her mother.
But maybe crying could help her, right? And he was there, to hold her.
Silently, Sydney prayed the Lord to always be there for his 'children'.
Little by little, the tears ended, but Parker seemed not wanting let Sydney go. He smiled and said "Come on, drink your tea"
She straightened up and took the cup he was offering. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks streaked of tears and make-up, but she was too tired to feel embarrassed or to apologize.
"You are dead tired, so now you finish your tea and then you go to sleep in my guestroom. Tomorrow, we’ll talk a little. Okay?" he ordered jokily.
She only nodded and Sydney frowned: a Miss Parker who didn't argue!
He saw her fingers lingering the picture of her mother.
"It's all I have of my family. After the war, Jacob and I tried to recover something, a book, a box, anything to remember our parents. But we found nothing. I don't know where this one comes from. One day, after the Jacob... 'incident', I found it in my pocket. I've never known who put it there."
He looked Parker and noticed that she was staring at him, with a strange light in her eyes.
He shifted her hair from her face and said "I'll go to prepare your bed."
Parker followed him with her eyes. (It's you? It's you my father? Or Jacob?)
She stood up slowly,(God, I'm so tired) and noticed that the voices were gone. She closed her eyes and listened. Nothing. Silence. (Maybe now, I can rest) And tomorrow will be different.
It wasn't over, she knew it. So many questions yet, so many mysteries. She kept on knowing nothing about the picture of Catherine Parker and Margaret Russell. She kept on not knowing who was her real father. But she had a little answer. Not much. But something.
The meaning of her hidden name. The voices leaded her on it.
Her name. There was her past in it, her life, the real Herself. And Mr. Parker knew well the power of a name.
Erasing a name, you destroy a soul. And giving her a new name, he had turned her into the fake, cruel Ice Queen.
"Parker, it's bedtime." She woke up from her thoughts and followed Sydney in the guestroom, glad to go resting.
The Belgian man followed Parker with his eyes, as she sat on the bed, sighing with relief.
He stayed still, next the door "You are okay, yes?"
She looked at him with those incredible eyes "Tomorrow I will be"
He nodded and turned to leave.
"Thank you, Syd."
"You're welcome, little one."

END

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