Disclaimer: I don't own the Pretender. Please enjoy!

Prologue

It had been a week since the stalking had started. Miss Parker had been on edge from the beginning. Her father had installed mini cameras around the inside and outside of her house for protection. It took away from her privacy, but what the hell. The night Parker left, no one thought anything of it.

Sydney had been sitting in his office, working late, when his phone rang. He picked up the phone and answered it.

"Hello?" he said.

"Is this Mr. Sydney Green?" a female's voice said on the other end.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"This is Dana Collins with the Blue Cove General Hospital and we have a patient here named…Michealina Parker."

Sydney's heart jumped into his throat. "My god! What happened?"

"We got an anonymous call that said Miss Parker was hurt and we could find her at her address. When the EMS got to her house, they found Miss Parker severely beaten and unconscious.

"How did you get this number?" Sydney asked.

"I tried calling her father, but I couldn't get through. We found her cell phone and went through the phone book and found your number."

"Thank you. I'll be there right away."

"You're welcome."

Sydney hung up and hurried out of his office. About twenty minutes later, he arrived at the hospital. Once inside, he went to the information desk.

"Uh, excuse me." He said to the woman sitting at the desk, "I'm looking for a patient named Michealina Parker."

The woman typed at the computer for a minute.

"You came at just the right time." The woman said, "She just got out of surgery. She's in room one-oh-three."

"Thank you." Said the man.

When he reached Miss Parker's room, he held in a gasp, as he stared at the brutality that had been enforced upon her. Her left eye was swollen shut. There was a gash running from her right temple to her cheek. Her bottom lip was cut. There were deep purple marks around her neck.

Sydney felt a lump form in his throat as he approached her bed. Her heart monitor showed her heartbeat was slow, but steady. He bent his head and grabbed her fingers, carefully avoiding the I.V. that was in her bruised hand.

"Dear god." He whispered softly.

"Excuse me." A voice said, "Are you family?"

Sydney turned to see a female doctor walking into the room.

"Uh, yes." He lied, "I'm her uncle. Is she going to be all right?"

"There were some serious internal injuries, including bleeding and some ruptures. I successfully stopped the bleeding and closed some of the open wounds. We had to put her in a comatose state. She will be okay in a few weeks, given the proper amount of rest and healing time."

"Thank you, Dr.--?"

"Dr. Andrews." Replied the woman, "And you're welcome, Mr. Green."

The doctor left and Syd took out his cell phone. Turning it on, he pressed memory three and waited as the phone rang. After three rings, there was an answer on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Broots, it's Sydney. Miss Parker's in the hospital. I need you to look at the tape from the cameras that are in her house. When you find out who hurt her, call me back."

"Uh, n-no problem. Bye, Syd." The techie replied as Syd hung up.

The Centre

The Tech Room

SL-5

Broots sat down at the monitoring system that was linked to Miss Parker's house. He rewinded the tape for two hours earlier, then stopped it and began to watch. For the first hour, there was nothing except Miss Parker sitting on her couch, drinking wine and reading a book, which surprised him somewhat. At the beginning of the second hour is when the attack happened. When the techie zoomed in to see the attacker's face, his eyes went wide with shock.

He then picked up his cell and pressed memory two. The phone rang twice before the voice on the other end greeted him.

"This is Sydney." Said the voice on the other end.

"Syd. I found out who attacked Miss Parker and you won't believe who it is."

"Spit it out, Broots."

"I-it's Jarod!"