Breathe Slowly
Auhor's Note: This story contains spoilers for Season 1 finale The Dragon House and Season 2's Red Rock Jarod.
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"Hello? Hello?" Sydney spoke into the phone. "Is anyone on the line?"
He finally heard the distinct click of the call being disconnected. Shaking his head and sighing, he returned the phone to its cradle. After returning from Arizona, Sydney had taken a few days off from the Centre in hopes that if Jarod decided to call him, he'd been able to talk to him on a line he'd made sure was relatively secured. It had been a full day since he'd watched the helicopter carrying Jarod with his slain brother, Kyle, rise into the air.
He was worried about Jarod, about how he was dealing with the pain of losing his brother. Again. They had thought Kyle dead once before, killed when they thought he was trapped inside an overturn van when a bullet struck its gas tank. Sydney didn't know how Kyle escaped dying then, but he knew that had been him in the desert last night, and he knew that Jarod had seen his brother murdered before his very eyes.
The phone rang again. Sydney paused a moment before picking it up, trying to decide what he was going to say to whoever was on the other end. All day he'd been getting hang up calls, and whoever it was had blocked their number so there was no way to call them back directly. It made Syd suspect all the more that it was Jarod who was on the other end and it worried him Jarod was having such a hard time speaking to him.
He finally picked up the phone. "Jarod?" Again, there was no reply, no voice. Just silence. Deafening silence. "Jarod, please if it is you, let me help you."
"How can you help me, Sydney?" Jarod's voice replied at the other end.
What Syd heard in Jarod's voice scared him but nonetheless Sydney closed his eyes in relief and sat down heavily on the couch beside the phone. "Jarod, I am so sorry about Kyle. I understand your pain, better than you know."
Jarod snorted. "How? How could you understand? Your brother wasn't murdered."
Sydney cringed at the harshness in Jarod's voice, feeling a little stung at his words. He knew that it was Jarod's grief and anger talking. He knew because he had felt the same things after Jacob had died. "No, he wasn't murdered. At least not directly, but I have reason to believe that the Centre was behind the accident that landed my brother into his coma. I also strongly suspect that it was Raines who gave the order for Jacob to be silenced. Jarod, hello?"
Jarod sighed. "I'm still here, Sydney. I'm sorry for what I just said."
"It's all right, Jarod. I know how much it hurts."
Jarod was silent for a moment more. "Sydney, tell me something?"
"Yes, Jarod?"
"How did you deal with Jacob's death? I'm not sure how to deal with my brother's death," Jarod asked as his voice began to break up, "Because it hurts even more this time than the first time I believed Kyle was dead."
"I took things one day at a time, Jarod. Take things as slowly as you can," Syd replied. "The pain does lessen, I promise you that. Until then, just breathe slowly."
"Thank you, Sydney."
Sydney heard the click of disconnection again. He looked at the phone in his hand for a few moments before laying it back down in its place. He knew Jarod wouldn't call him back again that day so he decided to drive up to the cabin to visit Jacob's grave and to spend the night there. He missed his brother very much but as he told Jarod he was just taking things slowly.
Breathe slowly . . .
Breathe slowly . . .
Breathe slowly . . .
FIN