When The Bough Breaks

by MMB

Everybody has their breaking point — and Sydney has reached his. NOW COMPLETE

13. Epilogue

Chapter 13 – Epilogue

Parker looked up from her paperwork yet again to stare out the home office window at the mountains beyond. Jarod was due home from Delaware today, and the hours before Sydney was supposed to drive into Denver and pick him up were positively crawling. The contract on the desk in front of her had only barely been able to hold her concentration, and even then only because she was being extremely well paid to examine the financial ramifications and make sure that the merger between the two legal firms in question didn't shortchange anyone involved. Her reputation as a tough business mediator and an expert in corporate law had garnered her a steady stream of clients from as far away as Denver and Colorado Springs to her tiny office above the local drug store, some of them even coming to the sprawling ranch house in the middle of nowhere to present their cases to her and attempt to hire her expert legal mind. But her mind today was anywhere but on the details of the merger.

Outside, she could hear the steady snip-snip-snipping of topiary shrubs getting their biweekly pruning. She had no doubt that Angelo was probably outside as well, for the empath tended to remain in fairly close proximity to Sydney anytime he wasn't taking care of little Timmy. Today, however, was one of Timmy's days at the local preschool with his little friends, leaving Angelo with plenty of time on his hands to spend in the early autumn sun with his benefactor. These days, that meant that Sydney and Angelo would either be in the sun, tending the topiary and the vegetable gardens that supplied a good deal of their fresh food in summer and autumn, or in the greenhouse tending the bonsai collection that Sydney had kept and Jarod had eventually been able to reclaim from the Centre arboretum before they'd perished for lack of care.

Sighing, she rose and walked over to the window and then stood with her hands resting on the sizeable bulge in her middle and watched her adopted brother tend the manicured shrubs. The baby was getting more and more active lately, and Jarod was starting to make noises that he was hoping she would take a break from her career as a business lawyer — to abandon her office in the small mountain community and stay at home with their growing brood once the baby was born. She knew that Sydney secretly hoped that Jarod's arguments would be successful, for he had glowed with a very quiet joy at the idea of their little family growing by one and had taken great pleasure in coddling her and pampering her as much as he dared as her stomach had grown.

Although the old psychiatrist dearly loved Timmy and had been more than willing to play Grandpa to the little boy as the family unit solidified, there was not a doubt in her mind that Sydney considered her unborn child his first real grandchild and intended to be even more involved in her life than before once it arrived. Not that she minded — Sydney was everything she'd ever wanted in a father, and she couldn't even imagine life without him in that role any longer.

The others of the family were equally excited about the new arrival. Angelo was unreservedly delighted at the prospect of a new baby, and his excitement had infected Timmy so that the boy could hardly wait for his new 'brother' or 'sister' to make their appearance. And except for the fact that she was starting to feel as big as a house and ungainly as her pregnancy moved into the final months, she too was looking forward to holding her child in her arms for the first time.

Jarod, a man who had wanted a family of his own for almost his entire life, had been ecstatic when she told him he was going to be a father for the first time after only a little more than a year of marriage. He'd spent the last two years raising Timmy as his own, to the point that now the boy could barely remember a time in his life when 'Daddy' hadn't been there for him. But this new life growing within her fascinated the Pretender as very little else had. Even his searching for his biological family had stopped holding any real claim to his time or attention of late – he was far more interested in watching over every moment of the development of his coming child and making sure that she stayed as healthy as she could.

Only the most important of issues could draw him away from her side now – the denouement of the criminal case against William Raines and Lyle Parker being the last of those that would manage to do that for a good long time. Jarod had been a key witness for the prosecution, and his testimony in a federal courtroom in Dover against the Centre as an organization and two of the men who had made his childhood and early adult life a living hell had taken days to deliver. A promise to deliver future testimony in several other criminal cases dealing with national security issues posed by Centre activities with other companies and foreign governments had been his key to avoiding prosecution for multiple charges of impersonating an agent of the FBI — a deal with the Justice Department that he'd nailed down with Bailey's help a month after the initial raid on the Centre. Those other cases were still being built and investigated — the amount of data retrieved from the Centre that needed to be analyzed beforehand being virtually mountainous. The criminal trial of William Raines and Lyle Parker had been over almost the moment the jury got the case — both men were found guilty after less than a day's deliberations.

His return home that afternoon would mark a major landmark on a long road that had started with a phone call in the middle of the night about a missing colleague and had, over time, seen the fall of the Centre and the subsequent bankruptcy of the Triumvirate. When the eye of the law had begun to swing toward the African-based conglomerate, all members of that organization based in the US had pulled up stakes and left the country abruptly – but the damage had been done. By maintaining such close ties to the Centre and then being suspected of collusion with the scandalous behavior that still shocked and horrified the civilized world, their days had been numbered. By the time the Federal Government was ready to disburse the ample assets derived from the sale of Centre equipment and properties and closing of bank accounts, the Triumvirate was no longer a viable consortium with the legal presence capable of collecting funds owed.

In Angelo and Timmy's name, Parker – by then Mrs. Jarod Charles – had launched a court battle to wrest control of the huge fortune left behind in the Centre's wake from any other disreputable creditors who remained. She had divided the ultimate settlement award between a trust fund that assured Timmy's future, a trust fund that assured Angelo of adequate funds for his needs for the rest of his life, a very sizeable set of bank accounts for hers and Jarod's use, and smaller sums handed over to the Broots family, the Sanchez family, and held in trust for the still-missing half of the Charles family for all the pain and suffering they had gone through as a result of their contact with the Centre. She had left the rest — a huge sum — with the Delaware Attorney General's office to dip into when it came to settling claims against the Centre by any other victims who could successfully sue their cases.

With Jarod's share of the settlement carefully invested so that they were assured of a healthy income to live on whether they worked another day in their lives or not, she'd used her share to buy this property outright and completely remodel the house that they'd moved into as a rental after serendipitously happening on the quiet mountain village that was now their home. The sun porch that had once housed Sydney's bonsai collection had been reclaimed when the greenhouse had been completed, the kitchen modernized with larger windows to allow the sunlight greater access, and even a guest house constructed in the hopes that the day would come when Jarod's parents and family would be found and want to visit. Jarod had discovered he had a real talent for architectural design, and the next addition to the house had been connected office and work areas for the three professionals among them. The entire estate had subsequently been spotlighted in an architectural digest the following year, bringing in design job offers by the score.

One of the first joint projects that Sydney and Jarod engaged in once they had settled down was a modified version of the seratonin treatment for Angelo. The result of the new attempt at chemical and stimulus manipulation had been an increased ability to communicate verbally and better social skills — although still leaving the little man empathic enough that he functioned best when only the five of them were around. Still quite child-like in so many ways, Angelo doted on Timmy, idolized Jarod, showered Parker with small gifts of flowers or small things that he'd made, and unabashedly followed Sydney around like a puppy. He'd learned to enjoy the out of doors after a lifetime of finding freedom only in small ventilation ducts, and one of his favorite pastime when not with Timmy or Sydney was sitting in the middle of the grass of the huge back yard on a sunny day staring up at the majestic Rockies.

Sydney, eventually finding his forced retirement incredibly boring except when his skill with Angelo was needed, had contacted his old alma maters and acquired new copies of his old diplomas — which had been originally issued under his real last name — and then applied for and acquired a license to practice psychiatry in Colorado. He now spent three mornings a week at a regional mental health center seeing a select group of patients. Between the three professional stipends and the monthly dividend payments from the investments, there was more than enough income to support the five of them.

Best of all, however, was that they were genuinely happy together as a tightly knit nuclear family. With his three favorite charges back in his life to stay and the source of all their grief removed from the picture, Sydney's health finally stabilized and his tendency to slip into a deep depression over what he still rued as his past mistakes slowly ebbed. He had been overjoyed although unsurprised when Jarod and Parker had announced that they intended to marry not long after settling down, and Parker suspected it might well have been a very private wish of his all along. Less than two weeks after the wedding, Jarod and Parker Charles had initiated adoption proceedings and made Timmy legally their son, changing the boy's last name from Parker to Charles and eliminating even that relic of Centre history from their midst.

Married life had agreed with Parker Charles, much to her surprise — but the road to satisfaction had proven anything but smooth and placid. She and Jarod still bickered and fought the way they always had — they both were strong-willed and independent people with definite ideas about how the world should work, ideas that clashed diametrically more often than not. The arguments were saved for after Timmy was safely in bed and then carefully removed to a remote part of the house where the sleeping boy would never hear the raised voices, however. The tumultuous marriage worked because they loved each other with as much passion as they argued with each other — and because they both made a point of letting the love win out in the end.

Only twice had Sydney's advice been needed to resolve a dispute between them. The last time, after hours spent helping them find middle ground on which they could compromise, the older man had finally put on a thoroughly frustrated parental attitude of his own and proceeded to chew them both out royally for having upset Angelo so badly with the emotional spillage from their spat. Both had felt sufficiently chastened by the time he was finished that all of the arguments that had come since then had been much milder, with both parties far more willing to seek an early compromise after making sure their point of view had been adequately expressed. Neither wanted to needlessly distress their childhood friend — and neither wanted to face another tongue lashing from their adopted father ever again.

"Ah-HAH! Caught you on your feet again! You need to sit down and take care of my grandchild," Sydney spoke behind her, making her turn sharply in surprise. "You know what the doctor said about your being active too much now…"

"What do you think you're doing, sneaking up on people and giving them heart attacks? Here and I thought you were outside taking care of your bushes," she replied, walking the few steps toward him and into his arms for the kind of sheltering and paternal hug she had yet to grow tired of and still occasionally craved desperately. "I swear, I can't get away with anything anymore with you watching over me like a hawk…"

"Angelo decided it was his turn to do the trimming," Sydney told her with an amused grin, "and I figured it was time to see whether he's learned the process well enough to handle the job alone once in a while. Besides, my knees don't take climbing up on those ladders half as well as they used to — if he likes to do that part of it, I can be content. As for my watching over you…" he spread a big hand across her stomach, "…SOMEbody has to keep an eye on you when Jarod's not around to make you behave. How is your little boarder today, by the way?"

"VERY active," she replied as she felt a healthy kick land directly beneath where his palm was spread, and she glanced up in time to see the delighted smile light his face. "Anxious to play with his or her Grandpa, I'd say."

"No less anxious than Grandpa is, I assure you," he responded, dropping a kiss onto her forehead and then gently but firmly leading her back to her extra-comfortable chair behind her desk. "Off your feet," he ordered fondly and waited patiently until she had eased herself back into the cushioned leather. "I was thinking of making myself some tea. Would you like some of your herbal mix?"

"I'd love some," she sighed and pushed the contract back into its folder and closed the cover over it. "I'm getting tired of trying to think my way through stock options and controlling interests today, and Junior has been trying out for the Olympics Gymnastics team and has been practicing place kicking with my bladder." She rose to her feet again and raised a defensive hand at the exasperated look on his face. "Time out, Syd! I'm just going to follow you into the kitchen. I'll sit down again once we're there, I promise."

Sydney relented and waited patiently for her to slip her hand into the bend of his elbow before walking with her down the hallway toward the open and airy kitchen. "I just don't want you to go into labor before Jarod gets back," he worried at her and patted her hand as they walked. "He's the one who has been practicing all those fancy child birthing techniques with you…"

"There isn't much to it. You just remind me to concentrate on my breathing and focus — and try not to let me hyperventilate," she told him indulgently. "But I've got a whole month to go yet, so I'm sure you're not going to have to worry about having to pinch hit as a birthing coach for us in the next few hours."

"I'm still not taking any chances," Sydney warned her and handed her into a kitchen chair before heading to the stove to put the heat on under the teakettle. "Jarod's also the one with the medical experience — I'm not ready to deliver my own grandchild either."

She chuckled softly. "Relax, I may be feeling bruised internally, but I'm not ready to drop this kid in a mud puddle — not yet, anyway." She watched him putter in the kitchen for a while, and then turned so she could look out the picture window that laid the spectacular scenery of their mountain vista. "I'm just distracted today — what can I tell you?"

"That's understandable," he replied, kettle on the fire and mugs with teabags waiting on the nearby counter leaving him the time to join her at the table. "It's now officially over. Raines is behind bars for the rest of his life, Lyle is awaiting the electric chair for the serial murder cases and would be behind bars for the rest of his life with Raines anyway otherwise, and the Centre property has been sold and added to the settlement…"

"No, this is different," she shook her head. "Something's on the horizon…"

"That's called childbirth, Parker," Sydney laughed at her heartily, "and it isn't on the horizon, it's virtually at your doorstep."

"Cuuuuuuute, Freud. Cute, but wrooooong horizon…" she laughed back.

"Jarod's coming home," he tried again, running a finger under his nose and trying to stop chuckling.

"You're getting warmer, but that's not it either," she shook a finger at him. "This is something completely different. I can feel it."

The hairs on the back of Sydney's neck rose — it had been years since he'd heard her sounding so much like her mother speaking of her inner sense. "Good or bad?" he asked, suddenly very sober.

She looked about her and then threw her hands wide as she shook her head. "Hell, I'm not sure." She could see the look of concern on Sydney's face and reached out to take his hand in hers. "Relax, Syd — I'm not feeling impending doom, if that helps any."

"This isn't something to laugh at, Parker," Sydney chided seriously. "You haven't had your inner sense sit up and take notice of much of anything for a very long time."

"I'm not laughing, but I'm not shivering in my boots either." She squeezed the hand she held. "Maybe it IS just that the baby will be coming soon. It's the sense of…" She expelled a breath and shrugged. "I can't explain it. There's a sense of excitement and anticipation — and a little apprehension — all wadded up and mixed up together."

"I'll be glad when Jarod gets back," Sydney grumbled and rose to his feet the moment the teakettle began to make noises like it was beginning to whistle. "I never feel very secure unless our entire group is right here — especially now."

"Still feeling insecure after all this time?" she asked gently. "You said it yourself — Raines and Lyle are locked away where they'll never see daylight again. The Triumvirate is bankrupt and out of business. There's nobody after us for anything…"

"I know," he nodded, carefully filling the two tea mugs and then carrying them back to the table. "But I've found it hard to forget a lifetime of having paranoia be the only thing that kept me alive and functional." He gazed at her fondly, hardly knowing how to express how precious these moments with her were to him. "Especially now that I have you and the baby to keep safe while Jarod's away."

"You do keep me safe, Sydney," she soothed, leaning forward as much as her stomach would let her and grasping his hand with both of hers now. "We do fine — we're OK."

"But there's something in the air…" he grumbled and toyed with his tea bag with his free hand.

"We just need to keep on our toes," she patted his hand and then rested back in her chair and began dunking her teabag to finish the steeping process. "Things are changing."

oOoOo

"This for you and baby," Angelo broke the silence of the mid-afternoon, coming into her office with his hand extended.

Parker looked up and smiled softly at the bouquet of wildflowers that he was holding out to her, with their ends already tucked safely into a small, glass vase. "Thank you, Angelo," she exclaimed as she accepted the gift and buried her nose in the middle of a small wild daisy. "How pretty."

"Sister not worry," he said as he shuffled back and forth from foot to foot with pleasure at making her smile. "Change is good."

Parker's eyebrow, no longer quite so meticulously sculptured but still as expressive as always, levitated suddenly. "Do you know what kind of change?" she asked, putting the cheery vase down in front of a framed family portrait that they had taken a few months earlier — before her pregnancy had started to show so much.

"Necessary," was all that Angelo would say before turning and scuttling out the office doorway.

"If I still had an ulcer," she grumbled in mild frustration at where he'd gone, then sighed and glanced up at the clock on the wall. Timmy would be home soon — Mrs. Anderson had promised that she'd be delivering children after letting them play at the park for a while after preschool, and that usually meant he'd be home just in time to be begging snacks close enough to suppertime to take the edge off of his appetite. Sydney would be home soon too, and that would mean that Jarod would be home soon too.

Indeed, the sound of a vehicle engine began to vibrate through the glass — and it was the sound of Sydney's new town car. Already she could hear Angelo's pleased cry of welcome. She hoisted herself back to her feet heavily and walked as quickly as she thought she could get away with through the house toward the kitchen door.

She homed in on the only face she wanted to see right then — a face that looked over in her direction as she came through the doorway and broke into a huge and relieved smile. Jarod dropped his black canvas duffel bag on the kitchen floor and opened his arms to his very pregnant wife to gather her close. "God I missed you!" he exclaimed into her hair, then bent to give her the kind of kiss he'd been waiting for over a day to deliver before dropping a hand to her stomach as the baby kicked at him heartily. "And you too, imp," he told his child indulgently, and then stepped back just a little bit. "By the way, I brought you a present," he told her mysteriously.

"Oh?" she asked in surprise. "From Delaware?"

"Only coincidentally," he replied cryptically and then stepped aside so she could get her first look at the third man who had come into the kitchen behind Sydney — a man who first smiled at her shyly and then gaped when he caught sight of her condition.

"Miss Parker!" Sam exclaimed softly.

"My God!" she cried softly and walked over to her old bodyguard slowly, as if barely believing her eyes. Then she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him as if he'd always been a dear friend, making the poor man blush desperately before he put a very cautious hand at her back to hug her gently in return. Then she backed off slightly and gaped at him. "Where on earth did Jarod find you…"

"He found ME after the verdict was read," Jarod explained with a satisfied grin that he exchanged with Sydney. "He'd…"

"I'd tried to talk to Jarod when he was back there giving testimony," Sam explained quickly, touched at the reception he'd been given. "The feds wouldn't let me get close to him. This time, I followed him to his hotel and then caught up to him in the airport. All I wanted to know was that you and the doc were OK. But he talked me into coming along, saying that you'd never believe him if he just told you he'd seen me."

"He's right," she agreed with a knowing look at her husband. "He knew that I'd probably dig out my old Smith and Wesson if he didn't at least give me a phone number so I could talk to you myself…" She took her guest by the hand and pulled him in the direction of the table. "Come over here so I can sit down before either of these two can start nagging at me to get off my feet — and then you can tell me what happened to you after I talked to you on the phone."

"I can't think of much of anything that would make her happier than this," Sydney told Jarod in a stage whisper.

"I remembered how hard she took the idea that she'd never see or speak to him again," Jarod explained, bending down for his duffel bag while eyeing his wife with a soft smile. "When I saw Sam walking toward me, I just knew that the one thing that would make her day would be for her to see him again – to see that he was OK and had survived the Centre being taken down."

"She was just telling me that she had a hunch that things were changing. Maybe she was just getting a quiet warning that Sam was on his way…"

"Let's hope," Jarod stated, his brow furling a little in concern. "I don't like it when her inner sense starts to kick up…"

"Neither do I, son," Sydney agreed. "Neither do I."

At that moment, the front door slammed and Timmy called through the house, "Mommy! I'm home!"

"In here, baby," Parker called back, and then turned a smile on a very astonished Sam. "Jarod and I adopted my little brother almost two years ago."

The former bodyguard looked relieved. "I was going to say that if Jarod had… you were… before you took off…"

"What?" she indulged his relieved indignation, "you would have punched him? Timmy's almost five, Sam. There's no way…" She turned as the child ran noisily through the house toward her voice. "You don't need to sound like a whole herd of elephants, you know," she called out.

Timmy rounded the doorway of the kitchen and skidded to a quick stop in surprise, and then cried, "DADDY!" before bouncing the two paces and up into Jarod's arms.

"Hey there you," the Pretender hugged his son tightly. "I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated your taking such good care of your mom for me while I was gone."

"Grandpa and Uncle Angelo helped," the little boy admitted, although the praise had him grinning from ear to ear. "You going away again soon?"

Jarod shook his head firmly. "Nope. I'm home for a good long time now." He turned so that the child in his arms could see that they had a guest. "And I'd like you to say hello to Sam. He's an old friend of your Mommy's."

"Hi," Timmy gave the stranger a small and shy wave.

"Hello there," Sam replied with a friendly smile. "So you take care of your Mom. That used to be my job – did you know that?"

"You did?" Timmy stared at the big man sitting at his kitchen table. "Long ago?"

"A very long time ago," Sam agreed with a chuckle and a glance at his former boss. "Angelo's here too?"

She nodded. "I couldn't leave him behind."

"What about Broots?"

"He and his daughter live in California now. Deb's in junior high, and he works for Intel. They were here to see us this past summer"

Sam nodded in response, obviously finding the news about his former coworkers of some relief. Jarod could see that the former sweeper did indeed understand his wife and her attachments much better than he'd thought possible — perhaps even sharing them to some extent. No wonder Sam had been so insistent on knowing she was OK – and no wonder she'd been so bereft at having to say goodbye to him.

"What about you?" Parker demanded, a hand landing gently on his arm. "What are you doing now? You're working?"

"I was," he told her, "but standing in a security kiosk at ungodly hours of the night isn't my idea of a good career move. I quit that one just before Raines and Lyle were sentenced, in case I could track Jarod down and find out if he knew where you'd gotten to…" He sighed. "Ya know, even though I'm glad I don't work for the Centre anymore, I kinda miss it."

"So you're in between jobs right now?" she asked, making sure she'd heard correctly. He nodded. "Where are you staying?"

"I'm looking into a room at the Rainbow Inn in town," he said with a smile. "Depending on how long I end up staying."

"You don't have any family back there…?" She stopped when his head shook firmly.

"I don't have any family, period," he told her flatly. "It was one of the requirements for sweepers that we have no families to come asking questions."

"What are you thinking, Parker?" Jarod asked curiously. It was obvious that she had thought of something — something that depended upon his not having any ties to Delaware that would pull him home.

"I'm thinking that Deke just retired, and Joe might be in the market for a new deputy," she looked up at her husband. "As Sam's former boss at a security-related job, I could put in a good word for him…" She looked back at her former sweeper. "It's quiet out here, Sam, and it's a huge territory. And, to be honest…" she smiled, "it would be nice to have you to bump into now and then again." Sam just sat there for a moment, shaking his head. "What?" she asked finally, with a touch of her old impatience in her voice.

"I'm just stunned, that's all," the sweeper stated finally. "Jarod convinced me to fly out here with him on the spur of the moment, then bullied the ticket lady until she gave me a ticket on his flight right then and there. And now you're saying…"

"You want to go home," Parker said softly and with disappointment.

"Not at all!" Sam looked up in astonishment. "I'm just having a great deal of trouble getting used to having my life picked up and turned inside out and backwards all of a sudden." Very carefully he put his hand on top of the one she still had on his arm. "I've missed you — all of you. I've been a little lost since that day you called. I think I just got unlost — and it's taking me a minute to get used to the idea."

"Sam gonna stay with us for a while?" Timmy asked Jarod quietly.

"Looks that way," Jarod nodded, and then smiled at his wife, who beamed up at him.

oOoOo

Joe Merrill was a tall and lanky sheriff with a droll sense of humor. Parker Charles' call that autumn morning came out of the clear blue sky — but within minutes, she had him looking forward to meeting this former associate of hers from that Centre place back East. Jarod drove Sam into town that afternoon, and Joe knew immediately that this was the man he'd want to replace Deke Johnston. Within a week, Sam was decked out in a sheriff officer's uniform and bouncing around the region with an experienced partner in a county Jeep. In a week and a half, he'd moved into town and rented a room at the Inn so he wouldn't have to depend on Jarod or Sydney to get him to work on time. Joe found the quiet sturdiness of the former Centre bodyguard a real addition to his small squad of deputies, and Sam knew that he'd found his calling at last.

Three weeks slipped quietly by. Parker Charles had closed up her office in town, as her husband had been wanting, and now waited on pins and needles for the birth of her child. Sydney and Jarod made sure that one of them was at the house at all times, so that a quick drive into the regional medical center when the time came would be within reason. Angelo had begun to shadow Parker, always being in the room when she wanted help to get out of a chair or to reach something that her stomach put out of reach. He'd taken to calling her 'Sister' in the last few months — and Parker found herself wondering, not for the first time, if the DNA test that she'd had run at the Centre had been waylaid and the results tampered with.

So it was that Parker and Sydney were in the kitchen, Parker stationed at the table slicing up salad vegetables and Sydney stirring a pan of gravy, when Angelo left Timmy on his swing outside and walked into the house. "They're here," he told Parker quietly and looked toward the front door.

Parker looked at Sydney, who then raised his head at the sound of an approaching vehicle down their long drive. He looked down into startled and apprehensive grey eyes. "Stay here," he warned his foster daughter with a pointing finger. "Let me handle this."

"Sydney…"

"Sit down, Parker!" he barked at her sharply, surprising her enough with the strength of the demand that her backside slid right back down onto the kitchen chair. He looked over at the empath. "Angelo…"

"No danger," Angelo was shaking his head. "Welcome."

The doorbell rang through the house. Sydney shook his finger at his daughter again as he headed toward the door, but Parker was in no mood to be left behind. The moment her foster father was out of sight, her hand flew out to Angelo to get the extra lift to pull her out of her chair quickly. She was halfway down the hall when she heard the door open and Sydney pull in a deep gasp of surprise. Then she stepped up behind him and saw who was standing on her doorstep.

"Ethan!" She pushed past Sydney and walked into her half-brother's arms.

"Miss Parker," Ethan cradled his half-sister tenderly. "I knew we'd find you someday."

"I thought I told you to stay put," Sydney grumbled as he closed the door.

"Angelo said there was no danger, Syd," she justified, leaning her head on Ethan's shoulder. "How did you find…? What are you doing here? I thought you were staying with Major Charles."

"I am," he told her gently.

Parker pushed back to look him in the face. "You mean they're here?"

He nodded. "They wanted to wait in the car, in case Jarod wasn't… they didn't know the lay of the land, and they're still a little on the careful side…"

"JAROD!" Parker bellowed, then turned anxiously to Sydney. "My God, Sydney, go get him!" she directed him frantically. Sydney nodded and headed off toward the office addition to the house at a dead run while Parker pushed at Ethan. "Go wave them in, for goodness sake! They don't need to wait in the car — they're more than welcome here!"

Ethan smiled and moved to the front door, opened it and gestured for the people sitting in the minivan to join him. Parker watched from behind him as first Major Charles emerged from behind the steering wheel, the back door opened and both Emily and the boy once known as Gemini clambered out. And then the passenger door opened. "My God," Parker breathed, a hand on Ethan's shoulder from behind. "They found her."

"What's the matter?" Jarod's voice echoed through the house along with the pounding of his feet against the floorboards. He had soon found his wife and moved to join her swiftly. "Parker, what?" Then he saw the face of the man next to her. "Ethan?" he asked incredulously.

"Look, Jarod," Parker pointed out the open door at the knot of people walking toward them. Jarod moved up behind her and peered over her shoulder, and Parker could feel him sway against her back in shock.

"Dad?" he said very quietly, and then caught sight of the woman who walked beside his father hand in hand. "MOM?"

Parker turned and propelled him out the door toward his family and then watched as both parents hesitated in amazement and then were swept up into a tight embrace that soon included Emily and the younger version of Jarod. "He's been looking for them for years," she told her half-brother. "He'd almost given up."

"I think he's had other things on his mind lately," Ethan smiled at her and gently patted the bulge that was her unborn child. "Jarod's?" he asked softly, and then nodded at her nod. "I figured that was how things were."

Jarod finally had embraced all four of the newcomers and was drawing them toward the house. Ethan fell back, leaving Parker in the doorway to greet her guests. "Mom, Dad, this is Parker…" he paused with a fond smile as he moved next to her, "…my wife."

Major Charles' craggy face split into a cautious smile. "Miss Parker," he nodded at her graciously. "May I introduce my wife, Margaret."

"We've met, although briefly," Margaret said quietly, extending her hand. "Miss Parker."

"Please, come in," Parker motioned to the entire group to come through the door.

Major Charles hesitated as the younger pair approached. "You've met Jason, I hear…"

"It's good to see you again," Parker told the young man who looked so much like her Jarod had years ago.

"It's good to see you again, Miss Parker." Jason smiled shyly at the woman who was the very first person to treat him with kindness and respect.

"And this is my daughter, Emily."

"Hello," Parker shook hands with the pretty girl who had Jarod's eyes. "I'm glad to meet you at last." Now it was her turn to do the introductions. "This is my foster father, Sydney Grüen," she indicated the psychiatrist who had stood back from the ado, "and my adopted brother Angelo. Our son Timmy is out…"

"Mommy, we gots visitors…" Timmy thundered from his room and skidded to a halt at the sight of so many new people. He glanced to his father nervously. "Daddy?"

"Timmy," Jarod was all smiles, "This is your Grandma and Grandpa — Daddy's parents — and your Aunt Emily and Uncle Jason and Uncle Ethan."

Margaret was staring. "We didn't think you'd already have…" She looked up at Parker. "How long have you been together?"

"Two years, almost," Parker answered, understanding the confusion. "We adopted Timmy not long after we married. I'll tell you that part of the story a little later." Margaret nodded, understanding a mother's wish to protect her children.

"Sydney." Major Charles had his hand out to his son's former mentor. "It's good to see you again."

"And you, Major. It's a delight to see you so fit." Sydney answered, shaking the man's hand firmly and then nodding at the petite woman with silver and red hair standing next to him. "Mrs. Charles…"

"You're the Sydney who raised my son, aren't you?" the older woman asked point-blank.

"Yes, I am," Sydney answered blandly, drawing Parker's eyes and a surge of protectiveness that made her sway. If Jarod's mother was going to make trouble for Sydney, she was going to find herself with an angry beached whale in her face…

"Sister need to sit," Angelo blurted, his eyes never leaving Parker's face. "Too much excitement."

"God, Parker, are you OK?" Jarod was instantly solicitous and at his wife's side.

"I'm fine, but Angelo's right — I need to sit down." Parker leaned on Jarod and then had Sydney at her other side, supporting her.

She clung to Sydney as Jarod situated her in her favorite chair, and then the Pretender gestured to the rest of his family. "Please, be seated. Can I get you anything?"

"We weren't sure if it was safe when we saw you with that Centre sweeper, son," Major Charles explained finally, perched precariously on the couch next to his wife. "Ethan said that he'd follow you and see where you went — and we flew out after discussing it. You've been very successful at keeping yourself well-hidden here — so we were surprised to see sweepers still around."

"We aren't hiding," Jarod said simply, shaking his head. "The Centre is finished and the Triumvirate too. We LIVE here now — we, the three of us, all have our professional careers here right out in the open." He patted Parker's hand. "Parker is a corporate law consultant and mediator, Sydney is back to being a plain old shrink, and I've been working in architectural design."

"The sweeper you saw was my former personal sweeper," Parker explained quickly. "He found Jarod about the same time you did, only he talked to him at the airport. Jarod knew how much I wanted to see him, so…"

"He's still around?" Emily looked nervous.

"He's a friend of ours," Parker answered quietly. "He's a sheriff's deputy now. You've nothing to worry about from Sam."

Margaret had been studying Parker closely for a while and noticed that she grimaced slightly. "How soon are you having your baby?"

"Anytime now," Jarod announced proudly. "Her official due date is in about a week, but…"

"You live a long way from help if something should happen," the Major chimed in with a frown of concern.

"We've timed it — I know all the short cuts like the back of my hand," Jarod shook his head and put a comforting hand on Parker's shoulder while still supporting his son in his arms. "We can get from here to the regional medical center in about thirty minutes."

"You know, I think Jarod deserves some time to get to know his family again," Parker stated quietly, "and I need to check the larder to see whether I need to send Sydney into town for supplies for a bigger dinner than originally planned." She let Jarod help her get to her feet, and then kissed him on the cheek before waving at the rest of the Charles family. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me. Enjoy your reunion."

Sydney exchanged a knowing look with Jarod. "I think I'd better stay with her," he told the Pretender and rose to put a hand at her elbow.

"Why don't you go wash up after all your playtime outside?" Jarod told his son as he put the boy down, and Timmy trotted obediently from the living room. Angelo cast a smile at the strangers sitting in his living room and then followed Sister and Sydney.

oOoOo

If it weren't for the fact that Sydney would have scolded her worriedly for being on her feet too much, Parker would have been pacing the floor of the kitchen. Angelo had been dispatched with a glance to keep Timmy occupied and entertained so that Sydney could deal privately with whatever Parker was going through. He had prepared her a mug of her herbal tea, which was now cold and abandoned in front of her. He had rubbed her back and shoulders, something that had often taken the edge from her tension.

As it was, nothing he had tried had worked for long. Several paper napkins had been twisted, mangled, mauled and eventually tossed in the general direction of the wastebasket, all while Sydney waited quietly and patiently for the explosion that was sure to come. The longer it took to arrive, the more difficult he feared it would be to put down — but there was no way that he would trigger the explosion himself.

"This is it," she stated finally in a voice that shook.

"This is what?" he asked calmly, hoping that his serenity might be just a little contagious.

"They're here," she pointed out, a finger stretched out in the direction of the living room. "And they're going to want him to go back with them."

Sydney shook his head. "You don't know that, Parker," he soothed, extending a hand to her. "They just got here — and of course they're glad to see him and want to spend time with him."

The baby inside her took that opportunity to give a huge kick that felt like it threatened to break the skin under a rib. "I'm going to lose him," she worried, her voice shaking just a little more. "I knew this would happen if he ever found his parents. I mean — his MOTHER is here, for God's sake! There was nothing he wanted more than to find her for years, Syd…"

"Parker, Jarod loves you," Sydney tightened his hold on her. "He loves Timmy and he loves your child, and he's looking forward so much to your having that baby and bringing it home. He's not going anywhere, sweetheart."

"But this is the way it happens, Sydney," she countered with tears she could no longer contain streaming down her cheeks. "Everyone I love is taken away from me just at the moment when I can almost taste the happily-ever-after."

"Not everyone… I'm not going anywhere," he pointed out with raised brows.

"You know what I mean," she came back with a frown. "How am I going to raise two small children without Jarod, Sydney?"

He shook his head at her. "You're not going to have to raise them without Jarod, Parker. He's not going to walk out and leave you carrying his child or with a newborn baby. Listen to yourself! This is your fear speaking, and you know this. Calm down before you talk yourself into an early labor…"

"Sydney, I'm afraid." She had a hand to her mouth to try to restrain the sobs that were tearing at her to get out, and she reached out to him with the other desperately. "Oh God, what am I going to do now?"

He rose and moved to her side swiftly, putting his arms around her shoulders and holding her tightly to him. "It's going to be OK, Parker, hush!" His hand stroked her hair and her back as he bent over her.

Timmy, having escaped Angelo with the excuse of going to the bathroom, took one look at his Mommy sobbing in his Grandfather's arms and turned around. He walked into the living room and up to his father's side and tugged on Jarod's trousers. Jarod looked down at the tug and noted the expression of worry on his little boy's face. "Mommy's crying and Grandpa can't get her to stop. Daddy, please come."

Jarod looked at his parents and siblings, all of whom had stunned looks on their faces, and said, "This is important. I need to…"

"Go see to your wife, Jarod," Major Charles told his oldest son without hesitation, feeling the complaint rising in his wife and putting a hand on her arm to stifle it. "She's in no condition to be upset for very long."

"I think I'll come too," Ethan said to everyone present as he rose from his seat next to Emily. "She's my sister too. If something's wrong…"

Jarod merely nodded permission and headed off in the direction of the kitchen, moving as fast as he could without running. Ethan easily kept pace. Timmy, left behind with a roomful of strangers, stared at the people his Daddy said were a Grandma and Grandpa with no small amount of trepidation. Before any of the adults could say a word, the dark-haired little boy had turned and run away toward the kitchen as fast as his legs could carry him.

The Pretender's face folded into concern as he began to hear the strength of his wife's sobbing, and he burst into the kitchen and nodded at Sydney that he was taking over the job of trying to give comfort. "Sweetheart, Jarod's here," the older man bent and whispered at his frantic daughter. "I think you need to listen to him."

"Parker?" Jarod had his hand on her knee and was kneeling in front of her chair before Sydney had moved completely away. "What's going on here?" He glanced up into his old mentor's eyes, and Sydney simply nodded — and he knew. It was the same old fear that had kept them apart for so long rearing its ugly head again. "You have to stop this, honey — this isn't good for you or the baby," he shushed at her.

"I'm going to lose you, aren't I?" she asked softly, her eyes swimming with tears.

"Come on, Timmy," Sydney said as he bent and picked up his grandson. "Let's let Daddy talk to Mommy and get her calmed down again, shall we?" He gave Ethan a sharp look that said clearly that he thought that Jarod and Parker needed privacy to talk things out. Ethan nodded and turned to follow Sydney back out into the main part of the house.

"You're not going to lose me, Parker," Jarod soothed, wrapping his arms around his wife, holding her close and rocking her back and forth gently. "I told you a long time ago, and I'm telling you again: you are my life and my future. This is OUR CHILD," he reminded her, using his hand to guide one of hers to her belly. "You don't honestly think that I'd walk away from my own flesh and blood, do you?"

"What about them?" she insisted with a catch in her voice, the tears still flowing. "What if they don't want to go back to their home without you?"

"Then I guess they'll be moving into the spare house, because there's no way in Hell they could talk me into leaving you now," he kissed her cheek and forehead. "I know that you've been worried about what would happen when or if we found them. But I thought I'd managed to get you to trust me a little more than this."

Slowly she was calming – finding that with Jarod's arms around her and his reassurances in her ears, she could almost be convinced to believe that the jinx that had followed her from her youth might have actually been broken. "I'm sorry," she said finally, very softly. "I didn't mean to interrupt…"

"Parker!" Jarod called to her and put her face between his hands in order to emphasize his words, "You have nothing to apologize for. I've had a hunch that we'd be revisiting this in a situation like this one sooner or later – but I was hoping that you wouldn't get yourself quite so upset. Now," he kissed her nose and loosened his hold on her, "I think you need to come back into the living room with me. I don't want you to start imagining what's being said in there and get yourself all torqued out of shape again."

"Your family must think me a manipulative and possessive woman," she shook her head. "I don't know that I can face them after this."

"Nonsense," Jarod soothed. "Besides, you can put the blame on the baby and the fact that you're just about ready to pop. Your emotions have been a little haywire for a while now."

"Thanks a lot," she groaned. "Not only am I a beached whale, but an emotionally unstable one."

"Hey there! I happen to be in love with beached whales," Jarod grinned mischievously at her, "one beached whale in particular. Don't you be dissing the object of my affection, or I'll sic my wife on you!" She stared at him, her mind spinning at the ridiculous nature of his exclamation, and then she giggled. "There, that's better," he smiled at her. "Come on now, let me give you a hand getting up…"

"Uh…" Parker put her hand in that of her husband and would have risen, but she suddenly felt something strange give, and now she was more than aware of the sensation of wetness that was soaking her clothing. "Jarod… the baby…"

Those dark chocolate eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"I'm soaked, Pez-head – you're damned right I'm sure."

"SYDNEY!"

oOoOo

The knot of people stood on the veranda of the main house, watching as the four-wheel drive vehicle disappeared over the top of a knoll on its way to the medical center. "Mommy's gonna be OK, isn't she?" Timmy worried at his Grandpa Sydney from his post in the older man's arms.

"She'll be fine," Sydney reassured the little boy, "and when she comes home, you'll have a new little brother or sister to help take care of."

"We certainly chose an interesting time to come and visit," Emily commented to her parents.

"Well, while Jarod is occupied, do you think you could recommend an inn or a motel in the area that we can stay at?" Major Charles asked Sydney. "We don't want to impose here, especially with everything all topsy-turvy…"

"You don't need to go back into town," Sydney shook his head. "Jarod provided for you all in the event that you found each other." He pointed to the house on the other end of the property. "He had that place built for you, so that you'd have a place to stay if you ever came." He shifted Timmy in his arms. "If you'll give me a minute, I'll get you the key."

"A house of our own?" Jason was ecstatic. "How cool is that!"

"David! I can't believe it," Margaret shook her head with wide blue eyes. "After all this time…"

"You have to understand," Major Charles remarked at the confused look in his son's mentor's eyes, "we weren't quite as brave as you. We've been living on the run, never staying very long in one place, for well over a year – well, all of us but Emily, who has her job in Philadelphia still. This," he pointed at the house Sydney had indicated was for their use, "is as close as we've come to having a home of our own for…" He exchanged glances with his wife, "…a good many years. Even if we wanted to settle down, we don't have the resources…"

"It really isn't my place to say so," Sydney told them quietly, "but that isn't a problem for you anymore either. Jarod and Parker put aside in your names a sizeable amount of money from the settlement against the Centre. It's been gathering interest for over a year, waiting for you."

Margaret looked at the Belgian challengingly. "And this doesn't bother you?"

Sydney merely blinked at her and then turned to the child in his arms. "Timmy, I need to talk to your other Grandma and Grandpa about grown-up things right now. I need you to go find Angelo and see if you two can figure out what we're all going to have for supper tonight." Still not entirely sure that these new people were good news or bad in his life, Timmy shot Major Charles and Jason a thoroughly distrustful look and then trotted off obediently in search of his favorite Uncle. No longer constrained by the understanding of a small child, Sydney returned the challenging expression at Margaret. "Why should Jarod's making arrangements to take care of his family when he found them bother me?"

Surprise, she stood her ground. "You stole him from us — you raised him…"

"Peg!" The Major tugged on her arm. "Really…"

Sydney shook his head and waved away the Major's defense. "She has a reasonable point of view under the circumstances, Major. Mrs. Charles, I know you may not believe this, but I had nothing to do with stealing Jarod. I did, however, raise him with a certain set of personal ethics — one of which would be to take care of those he cares about. Frankly I would be upset if he HADN'T made these arrangements."

"What about her?" Margaret insisted. "How does she feel about everything he's done?"

"She approved and helped him all along the way. But the thought of you ever reappearing in Jarod's life has had her terrified," Sydney answered truthfully, shocking the woman as he'd hoped to. "She knows how much finding you folks means to Jarod and would never deprive him of knowing his family. But because of the way HER life has been, she's terrified that you'll take what he's done for you, figure it still isn't enough, and demand that he return to your family circle. She's certain that he'll leave her the moment you people crook your little finger and ask him to."

"She thinks we'd steal him away from his new baby?" Emily gaped. "What kind of monsters does she take us for?"

"She took me for the kind of monster that would have shot her mother," Major Charles reminded his daughter. "For all I know, she STILL believes…"

"She knows better," Sydney shook his head. "Leave it to say that she knows the truth about her mother's fate." He gazed at Ethan. "You know this too, I assume."

Margaret couldn't help but think of the full welcome Parker had extended to them just before retiring to the kitchen, where she'd evidently fallen to pieces. It hadn't been a show of manipulation — she'd genuinely been frantic. Perhaps she'd been wrong about all these people all along. "Does she make him happy, Sydney?" she asked finally.

The psychiatrist nodded. "I've known Jarod a long time, Mrs. Charles, through good times and very bad ones. I can say without a doubt that he's been happier these past two years with her then I've ever seen him – and he's been so excited about the baby coming..."

"It would give him a family of his own at last," Jason spoke up quietly, voicing what he knew would be his older brother's – his clone's – thoughts. "Even if he never found us again, he wouldn't be without."

"Is Timmy theirs — Miss Parker's and Jarod's?" Major Charles couldn't prevent himself from asking the question any longer.

"Officially, Timmy was the son of Mr. Parker and his second wife. Physiologically speaking, however, Brigitte was unable to conceive and Mr. Parker was essentially infertile. Parker wasn't even his real daughter." Sydney shrugged eloquently. "I'm sure both of them have toyed with the possibility that Timmy is theirs biologically – that he was another ploy in the Centre drive to have and keep a Pretender — but they've decided not to open that Pandora's box. They adopted him legally, making him their son in every other way, and that's all that matters to either of them now." He smiled. "Timmy's a good boy, very bright. He might as well be theirs, he's very much like they were when they were small."

"And he's scared of us," Jason stated knowingly.

"Why not? We came into his home and upset his mother and now she's off to a hospital," Emily nodded. "I think if I were a small child, those would be logical assumptions for me too."

"Do you realize what this means, Peg?" Major Charles turned to his wife. "We're grandparents – about to be made grandparents again."

Margaret stared at her husband for a moment and then looked over at the man who knew her son better, it seemed, than she did. He was being quite gracious, under the circumstances, answering each and every one of her questions or challenges with candor and honesty. It was getting harder to equate the man in front of her with the monster she'd always pictured, and the dichotomy was getting hard to tolerate. "I think I owe you an apology…" she started.

Sydney shook his head. "I know how I would feel in similar circumstances," he said with many layers of feeling, his mind touching the subject of Nicholas' upbringing very carefully as it was one of the few things that still could trigger a depression if he wasn't very careful. Neither Parker nor Jarod needed to have to help him out of an emotional hole right now. "Don't worry about it."

Margaret put out her hand. "Then can we at least declare a truce?"

"That I would be glad to do," Sydney smiled widely and grasped her hand in his. "Truce, Mrs. Charles."

"That was my husband's mother's name," she told him. "My name's Peg."

"Can we see the house now? Please?" Jason pleaded. "Are there enough bedrooms that I can have one of my own?"

Sydney could see the subtle signs of Jarod's old impatience in the young man that reminded him so much of his protégé. "Let me get that key," he chuckled.

oOoOo

Margaret gazed down into the bassinet that her husband and younger sons had made from some scrap lumber lying around in a barn in the two days since Jarod had driven Parker away in a rush. "What did you decide to name her?" she asked in a quiet voice so as not to awaken the sleeping newborn, raising the question that had been the subject of great speculation on the estate.

Parker gazed at her mother-in-law's face and knew that her new daughter had enchanted the woman. Perhaps there might yet be some common ground between them. "We're thinking of Autumn Catherine," she answered in an equally quiet voice.

"Autumn." Margaret still couldn't get enough of looking at the tiny, dark-haired scrap of life that was her own flesh and blood — Jarod's child. "That's a good name."

"She's absolutely beautiful, Parker," Sydney whispered and kissed the new mother's cheek gently. "And she's going to look just like her mother."

"Thanks, Syd," she replied, leaning into him just a little and kissing him back. "But she looks an awful lot like Jarod, if you ask me…"

"Can I see?" Timmy demanded, pushing through the legs of the adults around the cradle. He gazed with wonder at the tiny person lying among the white frills and next to a small and very soft teddy bear. There had been an awful lot of fuss about something that looked remarkably like a dolly that just lay there and did nothing interesting. "When do I get to hold her, and how soon will she be able to play with me?"

"It'll be a while before you can play with her," Jarod told his son with a grin, "but I'll bet if you ask very nicely, Mommy will let you hold her for just a little while the next time she's awake."

"The cradle's beautiful," Parker told her father-in-law with a shy smile. "I don't know how to thank you…" She gazed from Major Charles to Jason and back again.

"Don't be ridiculous, my dear," the Major exclaimed very softly, leaning in to give his daughter-in-law a gentle and unexpected hug. "It was a real treat to be able to work with my hands again – and show Jason a little bit about wood-working. I couldn't think of a better thing to give you right now. I'm glad you like it and can use it."

Parker thrilled at the affection she'd been feeling from Jarod's family ever since she'd brought her newborn home. "I'm just glad that you're all here. I didn't get to ask this before, but how long are you going to be able to stay?" she asked eagerly, hoping that she'd actually get a chance to get to know Jarod's parents a little bit before they went home.

"Actually, we were hoping to talk to you and Jarod about that a little bit," Margaret put a finger to her lips and gestured that the knot of people move away from the cradle so that the baby's sleep wouldn't be disturbed.

"Talk about what?" Jarod asked curiously. Parker had merely managed to ask the question first, and he too wanted to know how long he had to get to know his family before they would have to communicate from a distance.

"When Sydney told us about the house, you have no idea what it meant, son," Major Charles explained patiently. "We haven't had anything like a real home since you were stolen from us – and except for Emily, we've all be living life on the run until we found you. The four of us…" his finger indicated the two parents, Ethan and Jason, "talked it over, and we were wondering if you would mind very much if we stayed… here… for a while longer. Your mother and I would very much like to get to know you AND your family better, and I can't think of a better place to raise Jason…"

"You mean you're NOT going to leave?" Parker was already grinning from ear to ear.

"If you don't mind having your in-laws practically in your lap," Margaret answered cautiously.

Jarod could see Parker's delight, and he smirked with an intense sense of inward pleasure. "I think we could get used to that – what do you say, Parker?" he asked, putting an arm around his wife's waist. "I've been sharing a house with someone more like a father-in-law than a mentor for a year now — do you think you're ready to return the favor?"

"I think it's a wonderful idea," Parker said in a voice that cracked with emotion. "To have the whole family HERE… together…"

"Except me," Emily said with a delicate shrug. "Unless, of course, there's a job opening at the local newspaper…"

"You could always freelance," Jarod teased his little sister.

"Maybe I could try something in Denver – get a little closer and still maintain my independence." Emily filed the idea away and decided that when her two weeks' vacation was nearly up, she'd head to Denver a day or so early to check out the possibilities.

Jarod nuzzled his wife's ear tenderly. "Didn't I tell you that I'd never leave you?" he whispered only loud enough for her to hear. "How can I leave you for my folks if they live only a hundred yards or so from us?"

Parker leaned back against her husband's strength, feeling the bonds of family begin to swirl and connect with people she'd only feared, and was content beyond her wildest dreams. She had Sydney, she had Jarod, she had her children – and now she had no need to harbor worries about being left behind ever again.

"Grandpa David? Daddy said you make wooden planes. Can you show me?" Timmy touched his new grandfather's hand timidly, only to have the man bend and pick him up.

"Whatcha say, Uncle Ethan? Uncle Jason? Are we up to making model planes today?"

"Can I help, Dad?" Jarod asked quietly.

Major Charles turned a fond eye to his oldest son. "Absolutely. C'mon boys." He gave a nod in the direction of the front door and led most of the men of his family toward what would probably end up being his territory – his woodshop.

Margaret seated herself next to the cradle in an easy chair and let herself get comfortable. When she had agreed to come out to see what kind of situation Jarod had gotten himself into, she hadn't expected to end up where she was now. She'd come west to find her son, and not only had she found her son but she'd ended up with a beautiful new home, enough money that she need never to worry again — and a much larger family as well. Angelo, always a little shy and retiring around the newcomers, had settled down on the floor Indian-style next to the cradle and was crooning to the baby. She smiled back as he looked up into her face and smiled at her shyly. Margaret gazed down at her sleeping granddaughter, feeling her ties to Jarod tighten and strengthen and begin to include even this strange and gentle little man who said so very little. This was what this disparate and very eclectic family had needed — something to tie them all firmly together as a whole.

Parker took in a deep breath of contentment and then walked over to lean into Sydney's side. "This is all your fault, you know," she said, gazing with him across the room at her beautiful baby girl.

Sydney blinked and then put a fond arm around Parker's waist. "Sweetheart, if you hadn't noticed, that is Jarod's little girl," he told her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "I had no part in that."

She groaned and punched him in the chest gently. "I mean, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here, like this — and I wouldn't have Autumn or Timmy. Or Jarod."

"How do you figure that?"

Her grey eyes were wide and sincere. "You got us all out of there, Sydney — you managed to do what my mother and Jacob never could. Face it, if it weren't for you hitting bottom, we wouldn't be free and all together with the Centre just a bad memory. Of course, you picked a helluva way to start things out — you know my hand has never been the same since that morning at White Cloud…" She grinned at him then and melodramatically shook out the hand that actually did still ache in very cold weather from the damage she'd inflicted on herself by punching him out in his fishing cabin a lifetime ago.

He took the hand in his gently and lifted it to his lips. "I'm just glad that when I thought I had nothing left to live for, I had two very precious people willing to convince me otherwise — even to the point of damned near breaking my jaw to save my life." He lifted his arm to around her shoulders, pulled her close and kissed a cheek gently. "I love you, Parker — I always have, and I always will."

"I love you too, Sydney."

Then he held her to him with his eyes closed, contemplating the road that had led from the depths of hell they all had endured at the Centre to the paradise he was living now. It had been a hard and bumpy passage, and there was no promise that there wouldn't be potholes and ruts in the days to come, but it had been worth it.

In the end, it had all been worth it.

A/N: I would like to thank all my very faithful reviewers for letting me know there was still an audience for these tales. To Doranwen, Nancy, Little Parker, I Love Tea, Nans, Anna, Whashaza and Katscats, you guys are great and have made me appreciate posting my stuff to FFN again.

But this is the last finished Pretender tale I have to tell. The only thing I have left is a novel-length piece that I never finished - and I have lost my notes and outline to it as well as lost the muse that used to feed me Pretender stuff, so I fear it will never be finished. If enough folks ask for it, I will post it - but it will have to be with the understanding that it won't ever be completed (until or unless my Pretender Muse is somehow resurrected, which I really don't expect.)

I do continue to write fan fiction, however, but I now write for Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion under the authorname Aeärwen22. If any of you are at all interested in that fandom, please do come over and find me there. I'd love to see and hear from you.

Thank you all for your amazing support over the years.

Sincerely,

MMB