DISCLAIMER

As usual, thanks a lot to Antoinette, my Guardian Angel, she's helping me a lot getting through this...I was very looking forward for updating the story. I hope you all forgive my lack of good English, remember it's not my own language ;) I hope I did a good work anyway...

virginie59: Thanks a lot for your review. My story is finished, so I'll update it on daily basis. Thanks!


Chapter 3: The Lost DSAs

CATHERINE PARKER'S MANOR

The day after – 9.07 a.m.

This time it was Jarod who opened his eyes and did not find Parker close to him. At that moment the only thing he had in his mind was the sublime night he had just spent with the woman he loved.

He had dreamed of it so many times, that now he couldn't believe it was all true, but yet, it was.

When he started to wonder where Parker was, he called her, without obtaining a response from her. For a terrible moment, he wondered whether she had escaped secretly to come back to the Centre and organize a team of sweepers ready to take him away. A second later, he felt just foolish and he hated himself for doubting her. That night, after Parker had gone to sleep, Jarod hadn't been able to do so. He was so in love that his feelings were above his reason for the first time. And it was also the first time that his first thought wasn't for his family, for his mother, but for her.

Sure, he had always thought about Miss Parker, he had always admired her during his daydreams, but not as much. Looking at her sleeping right next to him, he realized for the first time that he would never let her go, that she was the most important thing in his life. His only glimmer of hope back at the Centre and now the first pretext that guided him to the mad desire of watching the Centre burn from its very foundation.

Sitting in the bed right beside her, he had taken the phone and called the only person he could talk with.

"It's Sydney."

"Did I wake you?"

"Jarod!" he answered "No, I've been waiting for your call for hours, I was sure you'd phoned. How's Parker?"

The pretender glanced at her wonderful silhouette.

"She's sleeping."

From his pupil's voice, it didn't take long to Sydney to understand that Parker wasn't just sleeping, but she was sleeping next to him.

"Do you think this is…right?" Jarod asked, almost looking for his blessing.

Sydney smiled "I think this is the crowning of a journey you've started together years ago…and honestly I was sure it would have led where you are now…"

Jarod caressed Parker's naked shoulder, checking that she was sleeping. Fortunately, she was a heavy sleeper.

"I've never felt this way before, Sydney. Even if now I'm stronger…I also feel more…vulnerable."

"It's ok, Jarod…Think about how she might feel…I guess it wasn't easy to make her admit her own feelings."

"Almost like wrestling an alligator…" Jarod answered, grinning.

Sydney waited a few seconds "You deserve to be happy, Jarod…You two together are the answer to my prayers…Don't be afraid of loving each other."

Stunned by those words, Jarod couldn't say anything but "Thank you." and hung up.

Jarod was going to stand up, when Miss Parker reached him, beaming with joy. She was dressed and was curiously wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She probably felt so at ease that she could avoid her classic elegant leather-look that Jarod always saw her wearing.

"Good morning, Boy Wonder!"

"Are we back to those epithets from the past?" he asked, a bit amused.

"I wanna show you something…I'll be waiting for you in the attic!" she explained, kissing him. Then she headed to the door.

"Parker!" he stopped her.

"What?" she asked, turning back.

"I'm sorry…"

She looked at him, astonished "For what?"

"I…"

She immediately realized why he was apologizing. And she also realized she didn't care at all if he had thought for a second that she had disappeared to reach the Centre and hand over him. It was fair enough if he was afraid, she had decided to change her life just two days before. But she could play it to her advantage.

"You're right, Jarod, I'm very disappointed…" she said, trying to stay serious and approaching to the bed.

"Really? I'm sorry, Parker, I don't know what…"

"I'm disappointed" she interrupted him "Because you keep persisting in apologizing! Stop blaming yourself, I know I've been your hunter for five years, it's ok if you're a bit afraid of me…"

"No, it's not" he answered, angry with himself.

"Jarod" she articulated well his name and sat next to him "I won't betray your trust. I won't hunt you anymore, unless it's fun. I won't stop loving you. I won't run away from myself. But you have to trust me…You think you can?"

All doubts Jarod have had disappeared at that moment. Parker was strong, smart, and…she was also incredibly exciting.

Jarod kissed her with passion, forcing her to contemplate the possibility to let wait the discovery she had made in the attic. But it was very important, so she tried to depart from Jarod.

"The attic…" she said between a kiss and another.

"It'll still be there in half an hour..." he answered.

Parker had no option but to agree.


When they reached the attic, Jarod was still wondering what Parker had found. He had inspected it deeply, hoping that he would have found some tracks of Catherine's past. But much to his regret, there wasn't anything: no trunk, no desk, no closet. It was completely empty.

This had surprised him because usually attics are places aimed to store any kind of objects, but not that one. It was too much empty, even thinking that the house had been put on sale. Maybe the Centre had passed and swept the board. But then why didn't they control it, in case Jarod showed up?

"Parker, this room is completely empty!" he explained, moving his right arm around.

"Not if you know where to look…" she answered, smiling. Then she moved towards the farther corner and lowered to touch the parquet beams. A second later, she raised one of them and revealed a hidden compartment, where there was a box.

Jarod approached her astonished "Come on, you couldn't get it alone!"

"You're right, I've had a little help from my…inner sense."

Parker was walking inside the attic and she heard the soft voices guiding her. She had spent an half an hour rolling in her bed, while she tried to understand where those voices were leading her. Then she had found the stairs that led to the attic and she had entered the room. As if she was in a trance, Jarod's mother had appeared in front of her, young and frightened.

"These must vanish!" she was saying, while she was taking an object towards the end of the room. Then Parker had seen her hiding the box under the floor. Margaret then had stood up, crying, and she had put the beam to its place, and then she had run out of the room.

"You're telling me that my mother hid this here?"

Parker nodded.

"What's inside?" Jarod asked, a bit preoccupied.

"I thought we could open this together…" she answered, realizing that its contents could be very important, to Jarod.

He smiled and then opened the metallic box. It wasn't very big, but its contents were certainly precious. Inside, all in a jumble, there were a dozen DSAs from the Centre.

Parker and Jarod stared at each other as if they just discovered America. They stood up, the box held in his almost trembling hands.

"These could be…the videos about our lost memories!" she said, excited "Do you have the equipment to watch them?"

"I never leave it…" he answered, this time with regret.

It was true, his DSA viewer was the most important thing he had stolen from the Centre before disappearing, he couldn't leave it anywhere and he had to keep it to think about his past sims or to watch any moments of his life at the Centre.

They went downstairs and reached the room where Jarod had left his baggage. He took the briefcase and put it on the table, then they turned on the computer.

A DSA was still playing the first kiss Jarod and Miss Parker had shared in the December of '69. When he saw it, Jarod felt a bit embarrassed and tried to turn it off. But Miss Parker had never watched it before, so she almost moved when she realized the memory she has for that moment was perfect and not at all faded. She kissed Jarod on his cheek, so he felt a bit heartened. Then she took the first DSA from the box and waited for Jarod to put it in the player.

The date was set to 03/15/1974. The video was about the both of them.

"How's your studies getting along?" Jarod asked, while he and Miss Parker wandered in his room. It wasn't filled with all the stuff he would have left at the Centre yet, but it was starting to reflect his personality.

"I don't wanna talk about it." she answered, knowing that she would have to leave in a few months "I prefer swimming, lately."

"You never told me you're a swimmer!" Jarod said, a bit surprised for the umpteenth revelation that Parker just confided him.

"My mother was very good at it…So I've thought I could follow in her footsteps!"

Jarod then noticed her new wristwatch.

"It's very beautiful!"

"It was mummy's…" she explained, taking the watch and showing it to Jarod.

There was "Catherine Parker" name incised on it.

Guessing how much that meant to his friend, Jarod gave it back to her.

"A few days ago, I went to the lake with daddy…He was there with me, but he did no more than work…So I took the skip out alone and I went way out into the middle but…it started taking on water and then it sank."

"The skip sank?" he shouted out, worried "How could you save yourself?"

"I swam…I tried to swim to save my life, but the water was so cold, so my legs started cramping and my arms were aching…"

"How did you make it?"

Miss Parker smiled "The watch…I heard its ticking and I thought about mummy…I thought she used it to time herself and that maybe, if she had still been alive, she would have helped me…It was like my mother's voice whispering to me…"

Jarod took Miss Parker's hand and held it.

"Anyway daddy came and rescued me, fortunately…But I'm sure that I would have drowned, if it wasn't for this watch…It saved my life."

Jarod looked at her tenderly, stunned by that tale "I could have lost you…" he whispered to her.

"But I survived." she answered, smiling.

Jarod tried to approach her, but then Sydney had come inside to call him back to work. He was never too hard on Jarod and Miss Parker: they shouldn't have spent so much time together, but he knew they both needed it. They gave strength to each other and it was the only way to make Jarod manage his simulations with more tranquility.

"Let's go Jarod, your break is over."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Miss Parker…" Jarod said, holding her hand just for another second.

She nodded a bit embarrassed, then she left.

The DSA was over, but not the emotion felt by them both in watching that video.

"I remembered this one…" Jarod said, thinking that a couple of years ago he had shut Lyle and Parker inside a container to test their will to survive.

"Well, I didn't…In fact I've asked myself a million times how could you possibly know about my mother's watch…" she answered.

"You told me." Jarod whispered.

"Apparently I used to tell you everything…I was such a buttery girl." she admitted.

"You were sweet, and so you are now."

Parker sniffed to make the tears disappear from her eyes, then she radically changed subject "That container was the worst one, Jarod!"

He burst into laughter "Even worse than being an hostage in that bank?"

"But you were there with me…That was the first time we'd spent a little time together since you'd escaped."

"I know, but I hadn't planned it…" he answered with his mischievous gaze.

Then he took a new DSA from the box and put it in place of the previous one.

The date was set to 04/13/1970. Another video recorded the day of Catherine's presumed death.

"Jarod, sweetheart, I must introduce someone to you…"

Catherine's voice was not calm as usual. She held a little defenseless and frightened boy's hand, who showed few signs of consciousness. Jarod and Miss Parker were looking at him, astonished. The little girl couldn't even know that would have been the last time she would have seen her mother alive.

"His name is T- …Angelo." she explained, trying to smile, but hardly keeping the emotion.

"What happened to him, Madame Parker?" Jarod asked, while he held his best friend's hand, because she seemed so frightened and worried by the young stranger.

"Unfortunately some bad people hurt him, and now he needs to have some friends. Angelo won't ever be like other children, he'll always be…special."

Jarod looked at little Angelo and tried to guess how could he be "special". Miss Parker, on the other hand, felt the sense of dread in the boy's eyes.

"With time, you'll both learn to know him…Keep close to him, because I've not been able to…"

Then Catherine ran away, crying, leaving Angelo, Miss Parker and Jarod alone. The girl couldn't say a word: she had never seen her mother so upset.

The boy, on the other way, was visibly shattered and Jarod tried to touch his hand.

"No…more…Timmy.…" they heard him saying.

Jarod and Miss Parker stared at each other without answers.

When the DSA was over, Jarod sighed. The memory of what had happened to Angelo was one of the worst linked to the Centre. Even more when he thought that he had been near to a full healing but he just couldn't, primarily because of Miss Parker. Unintentionally, he glanced at her reproachfully. But he didn't need to blame her more: she was crying bitterly, now. To see her mother, Angelo…It had marked her beyond imagination. Now that she was on the "right side", she could not help feeling a horrible person for helping The Centre and its misdeeds, mostly after her mother had tried to destroy it and save those children from their terrible destiny for years.

Jarod took the DSA and stood up, holding her with all his love. He held her tight, while she sobbed against his chest.

"I'm sorry…" she said, between a tear and the other.

"Shhh…Don't even say that…It's not your fault…"

Parker winced, such was the ardor of her weeping. She couldn't stop and she could just think that, once back at The Centre, she would have run to Angelo and apologized for the first time in her life.

"Parker…We had been manipulated for years…What happened to Angelo it's not your fault…Remember? You had given up, you had decided to help him and the boy…It was an accident…"

Parker tried to nod, but she didn't want to take her face from the warm and comfort embrace of Jarod's, who was calming her down.

"I don't blame you, not anymore…Neither Angelo…The young Davy saved himself, I kept an eye on him: he's living a peaceful life, surrounded by his family and friends. Angelo, instead…he is like he used to be, but now he knows that inside him, in a deep hidden corner, Timmy lives."

Parker finally broke away from the hug and looked at him, her eyes swollen with tears.

"This is a fault that will always be with me, Jarod, whatever you say."

"I undestand that…" he continued. "But you made amends. You're doing now, here, with me. Letting me love you, watching these videos, holding me like you're doing right now."

"I loved him…Why should I be so fooled? I believed my father's lies, Raines's, The Centre's…"

Jarod smiled and caressed her face with his hands "Because you didn't remember who you really are. Now, you do."

Parker nodded, this time a bit more convinced "I need a drink, if we must get through this stuff."

Jarod smiled: that was his "hunter".

"Let's have a break, some air will do you good, sweetheart."

As soon as he called her that way, he regretted it. But Parker didn't replied, nor she gave any sign that the thing had annoyed her. So Jarod dared more. While she was taking her coat to get out, he called her "Let's go, Charlie."

Parker stared at him, now in full possession of her mental faculties.

"Now you're risking your own life!"

Jarod snickered.


The air outside the house was cool and warm at the same time. Parker was convinced that as soon as she and Jarod would leave the place, everything would have become cold and dark again, like The Centre.

She wore her sunglasses and walked, her arms folded and a silent Jarod next to her. He was trying to guess what was in her mind, but it wasn't easy to decipher that den of emotions known as Miss Parker. For him, it has been easy to accept the truth about The Centre, which was a horrible place to run from, but for her it couldn't be easy at all, it would have never.

And realizing that maybe they have done them a brainwashing to lose important pieces of their past, it was the final straw.

Jarod couldn't stand to see Miss Parker reduced to a question mark. They both needed to know.

"Give me your phone." he said, with no further explanation.

"Who are you calling, the priest?" she asked, sarcastic as usual.

"I've always had my own personal confessor, down in hell…" he explained.

Jarod waited for Sydney to answer. When he heard his mentor pronouncing his own name, as he always used to do when he answered the phone, Jarod put in speakerphone Miss Parker's mobile.

"Sydney, we've got something important to ask you." Jarod said, gravely and seriously "Both of us."

Parker cleared her throat "Hello, Sydney."

"Parker, such a pleasure to hear your voice…Are you okay?" he asked her, as any father would have asked a daughter he hadn't seen for a few days and for whom was worried about.

"No Sydney. I'm not okay. Jarod and I…We're remembering things. Things we didn't even know we had lived, before…" she told him, sorry.

Sydney seized the opportunity to make some offhand psychoanalysis "It is normal that now you're together your subconscious…"

"Come on, Sydney!" Jarod stopped him "This has nothing to do with our childhood traumas, nor our stolen adolescences…We're talking about full memories extracted from our minds and a box full of DSAs stolen from The Centre by my mother years ago!"

Sydney goggled, while a breathless Broots was getting inside his office.

"What do you mean?"

"Syd, did they ever make experiments on me to…make me forget things I've had lived?"

"That I know the only time that happened…was when they removed the memory of the dialogue you've had with Catherine about your brother, Ethan."

Jarod and Parker looked at each other. Ethan was still missing, somewhere. One of the persons they would have to find and keep safe, once they'd go away from that manor.

"So you reckon it is impossible that they do this for other…memories?" Miss Parker asked.

"Not that I know."

"Miss Parker!" interjected Broots "What the hell are you doing with Jarod?! Did I miss something?" he asked, looking at Sydney suspiciously.

"There's no time for explanations and compliments, Mr. Broots, but we need you to do us a favour." Jarod said.

Broots sighed, thinking about all the times that man had helped him. It was because of him that Debbie was entrusted to him and not his ex-wife. It was because of Jarod that he was still alive.

"Whatever you need." he answered.

"Search for any information about The Centre projects for memory manipulation. I think that many answers we're still looking for could depend on this."

"What are you doing meanwhile?" Sydney questioned.

Jarod glanced at Miss Parker, who seemed still too much upset to talk.

"We'll try…to remember more."

Jarod ended the call and gave the mobile back to Parker. She held him tenderly and she let him stroke her hair, thinking that it was so reassuring to have him finally by her side.

Everything would be easier, even searching for secrets. There wouldn't be any more of the "I help you, if you help me" game that they had been playing for years. From that moment on, they would help each other.

"Are you ready to see other videos?"

"No. There are too many terrible things there." she replied.

"But there are also beautiful ones. You'd define terrible that wonderful moment when you talked to me about your mother's watch?"

"No…" she whispered "But the Angelo's one, It was…"

Jarod planted a kiss on her forehead, then took her hand and led her inside the house.


Jarod took another chair, to let them both sit in front of the viewer. Holding Parker's hand, he inserted another DSA inside the computer. Before starting it, he asked her "Ready?"

She nodded, trying to smile. But she was actually terrorized.

The date of the third disk was set to 12/24/1975.

Jarod was in the huge room where they often let him during breaks from simulations. He sat at a table and he was writing a note to be attached to a Christmas present.

A few seconds after the beginning of the video, a couple of female hands covered Jarod's face and young Miss Parker, almost fifteen, brought her mouth near his right ear.

"Guess who?" she asked.

Jarod smiled in surprise "Miss Parker! I knew you'd come!" he shouted, stifling the great emotion he had in seeing her after so many months.

"You thought I wouldn't have visited you to wish you Merry Christmas?" she asked, sitting next to him.

"How are your studies coming along?"

"Boring" she answered, snorting "I can't fit in yet. They all have a weird accent in London, and everybody's so serious. Besides, daddy ordered me not to talk about The Centre, nor you, so I can't tell anyone about our adventures…"

Jarod hung on her words, but from the look on his face you couldn't tell if he actually had heard anything of what Miss Parker just said. He was like into a trance.

"Where's your father now?" he asked then, forced himself out his torpor.

The girl shook her head, a bit saddened "Business trip, as usual. He left me home alone, but I was dying to see you. I came home yesterday for my Christmas holidays, so we could spend them together…"

"I'd love to…Sydney's gone too" Jarod said "Every year he disappeared at Christmas, and I don't even understand where he goes!"

Parker didn't want to reveal him that maybe he had a family outside The Centre, with whom he could be spending the holidays, she didn't want to disappoint Jarod.

"I've got a present for you, by the way!" she said, taking a little package from her coat pocket.

Jarod couldn't believe his eyes. So she thought about him, even if she was so far!

"I've got a small gift for you too…" he answered, giving her the note he was writing a few seconds before.

Parker took the paper and read. It was a poem entitled "To my best friend".

You're far and everything is fading,

Memories stay, but everything's ending.

If only I could see your eyes,

At least once again,

I could loose myself into their deep blue sea.

Jarod just blushed a bit, while the girl was reading "I'm sorry, but here I couldn't get a real present for you"

"Jarod, this is wonderful" she said, her eyes close to tears. She had missed very much that lovely and naive boy. "Come on, now open mine!"

Jarod smiled and took the cover from the package. Inside there was a little twig coming from a strange plant that he had never seen before.

"What's that?" he asked, curious. Miss Parker saw his pretending skills when she realized he was observing the twig with huge interest.

"It is called mistletoe, Jarod. It's a plant used mostly at Christmas, they usually hang it on the ceiling, like that…"

Parker took his hand and leaded him towards the wall, where there was a shelf where she could hang the mistletoe.

"What is it for?" the boy asked.

Parker came closer to him "When people meet under the mistletoe…Usually they kiss to wish each other Merry Christmas."

Jarod couldn't avoid noticing that her voice had just lowered, so as her eyes, looking with discretion at the floor. Did Miss Parker feel actually embarrassed?

Jarod, who now was much higher than her, leaned over her and kissed her on the cheek, finding her unprepared.

"Is that right?" he asked, experiencing that new discover immediately.

Miss Parker smiled and stood on her tiptoe, then she dragged him to herself and kissed him again, this time pointing directly to his lips, as she had already done before. But this time, she was older, more aware. So she gave him a true kiss, putting also her hands on his face. Jarod, on his hand, responded pleasantly surprised and placed his hands on her hips. When the girl left him, she lowered and smiled. Jarod didn't know what to say. And then his watch gave the time, making them understand it was midnight.

"Merry Christmas, Jarod."

"Merry Christmas, Miss Parker."

The disk faded into black. Miss Parker's hand was still holding Jarod's one with a considerable pressure, so that he could feel her heart beating fast and strong through her veins.

This time he was the one with a tear to his eye. He didn't want her to notice that, but he was touched and excited, just like he was the day they shared that kiss.

"All these years I've thought…You had left and hadn't looked for me…That you had left the Centre and…me…"

She was stunned, a lump in her throat didn't allow her to speak.

"I'm going to destroy the people who stole these memories from us. I'll make them pay, Parker."

"But now, here they are." she whispered. She was happy because she had seen that disk and she wanted to thank Jarod who had given her the courage to watch those lost DSAs.


Jarod and Parker went on for hours watching those disks. There were not many, but every time they watched a new one, they needed some time to assimilate it and trying to remember on their own what the videos had captured. Sometimes it was a kiss, others a childish speech; sometimes they were moments of them playing with Angelo, others were fleeting encounters they had while Parker was studying in London and came back to The Centre for visiting.

But all those videos brought them back to a great truth: they really loved each other for years, until something had parted them. Or somebody. Someone who wanted to separate them not only physically but also mentally. Someone who knew that the two of them, together, would have been a risk for The Centre. So, once Jarod became seventeen and Parker sixteen, their meetings became a menace and the love they felt for each other had to be deleted like a file from a computer. Hypnosis, maybe drugs, brain inceptions. Somehow, they did it.

But they failed in a detail: Jarod stole the Centre DSAs and hadn't forgotten that "girl who gave him his first kiss". So as Parker hadn't forgotten the only friend she'd ever had, as a child.

According to Jarod, the work had been accurate and precise, but had damaged only the memories from 1971 onwards. Why the previous ones had resisted?

"I guess it was impossible for them to unhinge all we things remembered. Probably in the childhood years the events we live are imprinted in our memory in a latent state, and that's why we often think about them when we get older." Jarod explained to Parker.

"So why you did remember about the watch, while I couldn't?" she asked him.

"Because I found that watch in your mother's safe deposit boxes, and that must have stimulated my memory to remember that particular event.";

"You mean that if I'd ever seen some mistletoe I would have remembered about our…second kiss? Jarod, so many years had passed, I must have seen some other in my all life, since then!"

"It's an unknown territory for me too, Parker. I've never felt so powerless before."

In the metallic box found in the attic, there were still two videos.

"Do you feel up to watching another one?"

Parker agreed and this time she was the one who put the disk in the viewer.

The date was set to 12/31/1976. Parker wasn't amazed: most of those videos had been shot during Christmas Holidays, the only moment when she came back from London.

Jarod was in his room. Another year had passed, but finally Parker had arrived. He spent many months wondering about what they would say to each other in those few days they could stay together, but every time she showed up at his door, he had never the courage to tell her the truth about his great feelings for her. Jarod's room door opened and Parker came in wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Her look had definitely changed than when she was a ten-year-old child.

"I made it, Jarod, here I am! Daddy is going to spend the New Year's Eve away, he'll never know I'm here with you."

"I'm glad, Miss Parker. The Centre is always empty and desolate the last day of the year. It's few of us and I can't celebrate with anyone. What do people usually do at New Year's Eve?" he asked her.

"Well, almost everywhere there are fireworks. And when midnight comes we usually wish one another happy new year. Some people also make New Year's resolutions…"

"Resolutions?" he asked, curious.

"It's like a list of good intentions. For example, I'd love to see you more the next year. What would you wish?"

Jarod tightened his eyes "I'd love to see my mother and father. Just once."

"Jarod" she murmured "They are…"

"Dead, I know" he replied "But not in my head. I always feel them, even if I can't remember their faces anymore."

Parker tried to comfort him "You've got Sydney, at least, while I haven't got even daddy anymore."

The sixteen-year-old girl became sad. A few days later she would be seventeen and her father wouldn't even remember her birthday.

"You've got me." Jarod answered, holding her hand. She smiled, slightly embarrassed, then she looked at her watch. It was 11.59.

"So, Jarod, what do you hope for this New Year? It's almost coming…"

Jarod smiled "I guess a...kiss, would be the best thing to close the old year and begin the new one"

Miss Parker looked at him mischievously "You didn't even need to ask…"

She eagerly dragged Jarod to her and kissed him just when midnight stroke.

"You know." she whispered "There's an old saying in Europe: what you do at New Year's Eve, you'll do it the whole year."

"It means that you're staying here, kissing me for the next 365 days?" Jarod asked, forgetting all his shame.

"I'd want to ask daddy…to let me stay here" she said, while stroking his hair "I could invent an excuse and come back to Blue Cove…And then I could get you out of here and we both could get away, together, as we've always said…"

Jarod stared at her "You'd do that…for me?"

She nodded gently.

"Why?"

"Because…I've been in love with you since the firs time I saw you."

Jarod kissed her again and this was the first time he felt something different, inside. How could he define it, desire? That was not a sim: those were real feelings, that he was feeling for a girl, no, a woman…a true woman. They were different from the others, he knew that by then. They shared a secret, they grew before the time. And now he wanted to demonstrate to himself that his come-too-soon maturity could also be positive, to them.

He took Miss Parker's hand and led her towards his bed, whispering something to her ear that couldn't be heard in the video. But the girl smiled and nodded, sighing.

Jarod smiled too, then he said "But I've never…"

Miss Parker neglected any delay and ran towards the door, locking it. How could she know that they have at least ten cameras on them?

Then she reached Jarod and lay on the bed next to him. Then the boy turned off the light.

Parker still had a hand on her mouth, when the DSA finished. Jarod, instead, had his one on his forehead and stood up in a huge anger, throwing the chair to the floor with such strength that he truly scared Parker.

He was breathing noisily, as if he had to retain all the heat he had repressed. He ran towards the kitchen and started to throw everything he could reach: glasses, cutlery, plates. Parker listened to him complaining and screaming, but she couldn't do anything to help him. She was feeling the same way and she knew that Jarod needed to get it off his chest.

When she realized the noises had finished and he had stopped shouting, she reached him in the kitchen. He was leaning on the kitchen island and he was keeping his hands on his head to hide it between his arms.

Parker approached him silently and held him from behind, wrapping her arms around his chest.

"All these years…" he finally said "All these years…"

"I know." she said "It hurts."

Jarod turned around and looked at her: she seemed distressed too because of what they've found out.

"You loved me…You've always loved me…We loved each other for years, how come we don't remember anything?" he shouted. Parker shook her head: she had no idea.

"Almost twenty years later you came back to The Centre, ready to hunt me, trained to hate me, to distrust me, to find me like a…prey. As if you hadn't known me at all…" he continued, adding to it, "I reckon they made a more accurate job with you, rather than me."

That was what she was thinking too. She had been convinced of that since they had found those damned DSAs.

"We had…" Jarod said, still thinking about the video.

Parker tried to smile. "I know, isn't it great?"

Then Jarod burst into a little laugh and held her. He realized how much he needed her, in that moment.

"I propose you this deal: now we go upstairs and I'm going to make love with you until that memory will be back in my mind…"

"To stimulate your memory, clearly." she said, ironic.

"And then we'll see the last video, hoping that it won't reveal we also had a child, back in '76." Jarod continued, sarcastically.

"We can work on it now, you know…we are not out of training." she answered.

Jarod couldn't wait a second more. Those words had intrigued him so much that he felt he could lay the woman he loved on that kitchen island not to waste more time to reach the bedroom. He kissed her with passion, almost biting her lips such was his necessity to do it.

"Come with me, Boy Wonder." she whispered, leading him towards the bedroom.


If you're reading, I hope to have comments too! Even if you want to insult me! And I'd love to know how does it seem to you and how you feel about it!