DISCLAIMER

Well, this was a long journey, but it's finally over.
I should thank everyone who read this fiction, most of all those of you who reviewed.

I also want to thank Antoinette and DanielleSmileyFace who helped editing the story.

It's because of A. if I found out about these wonderful places for fictions. It's also because of her if I realized how much I still loved The Pretender.

One year ago I didn't even remember all of the episodes, and now here I am, talking to you, writing fictions in English (trying, at least!) and talking with all of you and SLM and CVS on Twitter. I think this is really great!

So thank you, FANmily, I hope you really enjoyed Mind Rain as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Oh, one last thing: to really understand this chapter make sure you remember Chapter 12. If you don't, go back and read it once again. It might be useful :)

Chapter 26: Epilogue a.k.a. The Pretender

EPILOGUE

(Five Years Later)

NEW HAVEN – CATHERINE'S PARKER MANOR

21st August 2007

Five years had passed since the events that had brought to The Centre final fall, and they'd been years of great peacefulness for the whole Charles family.

The affection Parker and Jarod harbored for their children increased constantly and exponentially. If Parker had a real weakness for Michael, who resembled Jarod more and more with each passing day, he had a predilection for Clio, his precious. He would have never thought he could love someone more than Parker, but maybe with Clio he had reached a level of adoration even higher than with her mother.

Jarod loved staying awake to watch her sleep when she was just a newborn, he had been the one to teach her how to walk, her first word had been "daddy" and by now that she was for years and a half, he always went to fetch her at the kindergarten and he was almost sorry when he had to leave her in other teachers' hands.

Not that he didn't worship Michael, too. Jarod had a special relationship with his first-born, they shared that inborn curiosity for the environment. Jarod liked sleeping in a tent with his boy during the summer and he used to tell him tales about his childhood or how he'd helped people during his life. Michael was seven years and a half, by now, and he was showing his cleverness at school even more than his father. His professors said he could burn all the stages and go up of two classes at least, but Jarod and Parker took position against it: they wanted Michael to have a normal childhood.

Seeing that he was very shy and he had the same character of his father at that age, Michael was modest and reserved, too. He knew he was far more intelligent than other children, but he never showed. This allowed him to make new friends easily, they loved spending their time with Michael because he knew many interesting things and entertained them with his weird tales. Michael had a fertile imagination, and he loved writing sci-fi stories. Seeing his precocity, he already wrote tales that could almost rival Isaac Asimov's, whose complete bibliography had been gifted from Major Charles to his grandson for his fifth birthday.

Obviously Parker and Jarod couldn't show too much around: their life in New Haven was nice because they could live in isolation and without being recognized. Parker had decided to go back to one of her first loves, music. Remembering how good she was at playing the piano during one of the family dinners, Catherine advised her daughter to spend her time in teaching piano lessons for the youngest kids, and she found it a great idea. This allowed her to vent that creativity that for too much time had been repressed by her father's cynicism.

Jarod, who played as well as her – if not better – loved listening to her while she slid her fingertips on the ivory keys of the piano. The former pretender, Clio and Michael often spent time in the living room with Angelo, while Miss Parker performed sonatas from Bach, Beethoven or Chopin, her favorite, for them.

Jarod, instead, realized that he couldn't travel around the country to help people anymore, his face was too much recognizable. So, lost the possibility to help others as a pretender, he opted for doing it in another way: with the N.S.A. help, he obtained the permission to take a degree in medicine – for real – in less time than "common persons". So, in two years he got his degree and started to practice without running the risk of being accused of fraud. With the money they'd received as indemnity from The Centre, he created a clinic where only voluntaries worked to help patients without a health insurance.

Jarod was the one taking care of most of the patients, but he also engaged a dozen of doctors who helped him pro bono when they didn't work.

Parker was very proud of him, mostly because he always managed to combine the roles he had in all their lives perfectly. She was still loved and cuddled as the first day they moved in together. At every important anniversary, especially in the day of the year they remembered The Centre fall, Jarod made an old-style-present for her. Were they ceramic statuettes, origami, mosaics or paints, it didn't matter. Every single present was always marvelous and surprising to Parker, who didn't usually have a gift in exchange for him. And whenever she made him notice, Jarod answered, "You already gave me you heart, Michael and Clio, I don't need anything else from you."

Jarod was a very present father in his children's lives, he managed to get by between Michael's basketball matches – the boy had decided to join with the neighborhood team to Parker's delight, she knew how much important sport was to help him socialize with other boys – and Clio's dance recitals, seeing that his daughter had inherited her maternal grandmother's passion.

Lastly, Jarod always found time to go fishing with Sydney every other weekend. Sometimes they went on their own, other times they invited Broots, Major Charles, Nicholas, Ethan and Angelo, too. There were times that also Michael was invited to join them, he enjoyed staying with his grandfathers (biological and adoptive) and all those putative uncles. Those were merely men's appointments, women weren't welcomed and Margaret and Parker often stood at home with Emily and Monica, Ethan's girlfriend.

And yet, Parker knew that Jarod loved the moments spent on his own with Sydney more than anything else. He was still his confident, the person he went to when he needed advice. And the very first time they'd gone fishing, as Jarod had promised him someday they would have done, they'd really felt like father and son. Sydney adored Nicholas, but he felt Jarod was an extension of himself, his mirrored-reflection, as Major Charles had once told Sydney. And Phillip didn't blame the man, because he knew that Jarod loved him immensely, in spite of all.

One weekend a month they all met at Jarod and Parker's house for the "family reunion". The first to come were usually Sydney, Michelle and Nicholas, because they lived nearby.

Jarod developed a deep affection for Sydney's son, and he noticed that during the last year the same thing had happened to Emily. His sister had bonded with Parker to whom she confided the very more intimate secret. She had also revealed her that she'd fallen in love with Nicholas and that they were in touch by phone, a lot.

The fact they lived in two different states didn't help, so she was thinking to move in New Haven with them. Parker's door was always open, she would love having Emily around in the house, Jarod's little sister's extravagance had induced her to bond with her even more than Em had done with her older brother.

Instead, Broots and Debbie came from Washington. Debbie had become more and more beautiful over the years, and one day Broots had realized that her trips to New Haven had the main purpose to meet Jesse, who did nothing but write mails to his daughter. Like Jarod, Jesse was a real gentleman, he would never dare take the first step with Debbie, hadn't she been the one to step forward. And it happened naturally, during one of the reunions, when the two kids went to the cinema alone and come together hand in hand, confessing their parents they'd finally got together. Major Chales had later agreed with Jes moving to Washington, seeing that Zane had predisposed his admission to the agency, and Jes took the opportunity to go to live on his own.

Parker was happy for them, in those kids' carefree behavior she saw what hers and Jarod's lives might have been hadn't they been separated during the most important periods of their teens. Jes and Debbie's wasn't a high school infatuation, it wasn't a simple crush. It was a deep love that had resisted for years against their distance and their meetings with other people. They truly loved one another. When Debbie had asked her if she was sorry for the fact that her boyfriend looked just like Jarod, Parker had realized that the little girl was looking for her blessing. Knowing Debbie's sensibility, Parker gave her the go-ahead straightaway, making her understand that otherwise she would be the one looking for the younger version of her children's father to have some fun.

Catherine and Ben were still together and they showed their love more and more with every passing day. Parker was glad to see her mother so peaceful, her story with Ben was like a happy ending fairytale. She was sorry because she couldn't spend more time with her mother, but they both had their lives. When she, Ethan, and Catherine reunited those weekends a month, it felt like if they could achieve inner peace. Ethan, on his hand, had been living with Monica for two years, by now, and he'd found out she was a faithful and nice mate, who had won his relatives' hearts, even Parker's.

Lastly, Margaret and Phillip had rediscovered their union when they had celebrated it by exchanging their marital vows once again on the occasion of their fortieth wedding anniversary. Jarod and Parker had been their best man and bridesmaid and for the very first time they'd started to wonder if they'd done the right choice, not getting married.

They didn't have the necessity of feeling committed. Jarod and Parker were completely devoted to one another, and a ring wouldn't change that feeling. None of them had believed in the wedding for a very long time, they almost saw it as an obligation imposed by society. Their children were loved unconditionally and they had their father's family name, there was no need of a signed paper to make a difference.

In that hot august of 2007, Jarod and Parker had decided to organize a real holiday a bit longer than the usual weekend. So they invited their relatives and friends to stay in New Haven for a week.

Parker and Jarod were finishing to settle all the bedrooms before the arrival of those who would sleep in their house, so they had reduced Michael and Clio's space, they would sleep in the same bedroom for a few days.

Michael loved his little sister, fortunately Clio's birth hadn't lit any kind of jealousy towards her. They two siblings played together and their parents were glad that they felt so attached to one another, they were sure this connection would help them once they'd get older.

That Tuesday, August 21st, Parker was preparing breakfast for the whole family, when Jarod appeared in the kitchen hand in hand with Michael and with Clio sitting on his shoulders. Angelo had moved in with Sydney, so it had been just the four of them living in the house for a few weeks, by now.

"Good morning, Mom!" the children shouted in chorus. All three of them.

Parker stared at them with preoccupation, "And all this enthusiasm?" she asked, looking at Jarod.

"Together with the kids I've opted for playing Monopoly while we wait for the others, won't we?"

They both nodded, Michael ran across the room towards Parker and let her kissed his cheek, "No way, I won't play Monopoly with you anymore…"

Michael glanced at his little sister, they both knew why their mother didn't want to contend. Parker hated to lose, and against Jarod she'd never won once.

"Come on, mom!" Clio begged her, while Jarod reached her, standing in front of the stove.

"Come on mummy!" Michael give her a hand.

"Come on, don't make us implore you, mummy…" Jarod challenged her, kidding and giving her a slow and passionate kiss that made Michael smile and Clio giggle, still up on her father's shoulders.

"Jarod, you always win…there's no satisfaction!" Parker explained.

"If you want, I can let you win, for once…" he replied cleverly.

"When did you ever let me do something, boy genius?"

Jarod took Clio from his shoulders and dropped her off, stroking her brown hair and asking, "Honey, will you help Michael preparing the game? And remember that the thimble is mummy's!"

Parker smiled and thought about that time she'd spoken with Jarod about the lovely memory she had of playing monopoly together with her family.

…

"You know, Jar, I don't like storms."

"Why, Miss Parker?" he asked her, thinking that he'd never seen one, but he would love to.

"They remind me of…nothing, it doesn't matter…" she answered, then she stood up. They were in the usual break area, where Jarod used to pause between sims. Miss Parker was visiting The Centre with her father, she was not more than twelve years old.

"Come on, tell me! You know you can tell me everything…" Jarod tempted her.

Miss Parker smiled and came back sitting with him. Even if they didn't know, Angelo was hiding inside one of the air ducts behind them.

"The last time I've done something together with my parents…it was during a big storm…the roads were all closed, and daddy was trapped together at home with mummy and me…"

Jarod hung on her words, as he did whenever Miss Parker told him a story about her life with her now-dead mother.

"I remember that he was very annoyed, because he'd some work to do back at The Centre…then I found the Monopoly box hidden inside a chest and we started playing…"

"Mo-Monopoly?" he asked, without understanding the meaning of that word.

Parker smiled, as always, for his naivety, "It's a game based on lands transaction…the first person who makes the others bankrupt wins!"

"But it's terrible!" Jarod commented, horrified.

"It's only a game, Jarod!" she answered, chuckling "There are different pawns to move on the game board. For example daddy was the shoe, mommy was the car and I was…the thimble."

Miss parker smiled at that memory, "We played all day and into the night, and I won almost every match!"

"You must be a very good player, then! You could teach me?"

Parker's face changed and become sad, "Daddy doesn't allow me to bring my games…he thinks it would distract you."

"Oh…" Jarod huffed. Then, after a few seconds, he got back to his senses, "It means that one day, when we're both away from The Centre, we're going to play together, as a real family!"

"Deal!" she answered, smiling and shaking her hand with his.

…

Parker now felt an endless tenderness when she tasted that memory that Jarod had reminded her even years before, when he'd sent Broots, Syd and Parker making that weird trip to the "Wonderful World of Oz".

"I promise, I'll try to be good…"

"Mmm…"

"I let you do the bank!" Jarod implored her.

Parker lit up, "Deal!" she said, shaking her hand with his one, just as she'd done when they were kids. To that irresistible gesture, Jarod hugged her eagerly and kissed her again, he left her only when their kids' voices called them from the living room. They would have time to devote one another later.

After loosing once again, Parker came back to the kitchen to tidy up before the guests' arrivals. Michael and Clio were playing in the garden, and Jarod was watching an MTV program that was introducing a group much in vogue those days, the Muse.

Jarod loved Brit music, he was a true fanatic of all those English contemporary bands: he knew by heart songs by Oasis, Coldplay, Muse, Radiohead, Verve, Blur…Parker always teased him by saying that maybe it was because he'd lost the first British Invasion during the sixties, and now he wanted to enjoy at least the second one.

A rhythmic song was hovering in the air, it had an almost eighties electronic sound, that reminded to Parker about the Depeche Mode, a group she'd particularly liked when she was younger.

Fear and panic in the air

I want to be free

From desolation and despair

And I feel like everything I saw

Is being swept away

Well I refuse to let you go

Listening to the words, pronounced by the singer with that perfect English accent that Parker had enjoyed during her years spent in London, the woman realized at once that Jarod was particularly fascinated not only because of the melody, but also because of the lyrics. They seemed almost the mirror of his former life.

I can't get it right

Since I met you

Loneliness be over

When will this loneliness be over

"Jarod, honey…it's only a song" she observed, noticing his attention to the screen and his blank gaze.

" Yeah…but it's fitting, isn't it?" he asked her, his eyes saddened.

Life will flash before my eyes

So scattered and lost

I want to touch the other side

And no one thinks they are to blame

Why can't we see

That when we bleed we bleed the same

I can't get it right

Since I met you

"I thought your life got better, since you met me…" she urged him, sarcastically.

"It did…but for a very long time I didn't know how to deal with you. You couldn't see that we were bleeding the same, that we were the same…"

Loneliness be over

When will this loneliness be over

Loneliness be over

When will this loneliness be over

"And yet, there's a difference: your loneliness is over, indeed. Don't you think?" she asked him, taking his face between her hands and caressing it softly.

"I know, Parker…I like this song, it's the Muse last EP, I hadn't listened to it yet…don't you think its atmosphere reminds a bit of the 80s? Ah, you know I miss them?!" he answered, changing his face and surrounding her waist with his arms.

Even if she'd had a daughter, Parker's body was still enviable, in spite of the fact she was almost fifty. Jarod thought she was more and more beautiful with every passing day, years weren't ruining her appearance at all. And knowing that woman's vanity as he did, Jarod didn't miss a chance to remind her how much charming she was.

"Let me think about it…" she answered, putting her hands around his neck and waving right and left, "…horrible fashion, backcombing hair and large shoulder pads, flashy and unwatchable colors, Duran Duran…no, I guess you didn't loose anything at all!"

Jarod burst into laughter and kissed her softly.

At that moment, Michael and Clio ran inside the house and screamed, "Mummy, daddy, the grandpas are here!"

"Relax, Michael. Which grandpas?" Jarod asked him, parting from Parker.

"All of them!"

Jarod and Parker exited the house in time for watching Sydney coming with Michelle, Nicholas and Angelo. They lived in New Haven, so they were the only one that weren't going to sleep at Jarod's, they had no suitcases. Syd was ready to confide Parker and Jarod his will of keeping Angelo with him, now that Nicholas was moving in with Emily.

Behind them, Margaret and Phillip were getting out from their pick up with Emily, who ran towards Nicholas and held him. In the meantime, Catherine and Ben were greeting the others.

"Broots and Debbie aren't here, yet?" Margaret asked.

"They're on their way with Jesse, their flight was late…" Parker explained.

While everyone spent some time in ceremonies, Parker accompanied them inside the house and showed them their rooms.

"Sometimes I forget how beautiful this house is…you remember when we used to come here, Cat?" Margaret asked her friend.

"I've got beautiful memories connected to this house, Maggie…most of them are about our children…" she answered, holding Parker, who hadn't seen her mother in a while.

"Ethan?" she asked her.

"He and Monica are on their way, too."

"He called you…or you were told by the voices?" her daughter asked her.

"Uncle Ethan speaks with me too, sometimes!" Clio suddenly commented, taking Parker by surprise. The woman stared at her mother, guessing that she had something to tell her.

"It seems that since his niece's birth, Ethan has been developing his inner sense again…my belief is that distance works as a catalyst!" Catherine explained.

"You mean that I could start to hear the voices again?" Parker questioned her, curious and hopeful.

"I hope so!" Catherine responded, kissing her.

"Monica told me not to tell you, but…I can't keep the secret a second more: they had decided to get married the next year! They fixed the date for next June!" Ben confessed Parker and Jarod, who took Clio in his arms once again. His hands didn't seem able to stay far from his daughter too long.

"I'm glad…" Parker commented, glancing nervously at Jarod. He reciprocated, in agreement.

"Mommy, why you and daddy don't get married?" Michael's soft voice interrupted the present chatter and put all the attention on the couple.

Jarod and Parker sighed, not knowing what they were supposed to answer their son. Did they still have a valid motivation to explain their children why they weren't husband and wife – at least officially?

"I wish you were married too…" Clio said, wisely.

"Sweetie…mum and dad love each other very much, even if they're not married!" Parker replied.

"And if you love mummy so much", Clio continued, staring at her father with her lovely and naïf look, "why haven't you ever asked her?"

Sydney was looking at the scene captured: those two kids really had an incredible intelligence, they reminded him of the little Parker and Jarod he'd raised at The Centre.

"She's right, daddy, why don't you make a formal proposal? Wedding is a reliable and lasting commitment, it's like the job you do at the clinic!"

"Scolded by my own son, who's not even ten years old yet…a moment to remember!" Jarod muttered, passing Clio to Sydney's arms.

Everybody started to laugh and dispersed around the house, but Parker went outside in the garden and sit on the rocking chair they put right next to the swimming pool, built by Jarod himself after they'd moved in.

When he saw she was thoughtful, he joined her and bowed in front of her, leaning on a knee.

"Parker, don't worry, they're young, we must get used to this kind of questions."

"Michael is so smart…I should know that sooner or later he would expect us to get married."

Jarod smiled, "He's as stubborn as you…he wants us to value his opinion, seen how well he verbalized it? He's natural talent!"

"He's incredible…" Parker agreed, shaking her head slightly.

Jarod took her hands and held them inside his ones, with tenderness, "What's going on? Want to talk about it?"

Parker didn't know if she should tell him. She didn't want to look weak, neither a softened sentimentalist.

"When we attended your parents' second wedding, it was beautiful…for the first time in my life I've envied a married couple. I started to think that it might be…something…"

"Natural?" he concluded for her. Parker nodded, with a sigh.

"I know we never talk about it, Jarod, but don't you think it would be right if we…well, if we got married?"

Jarod stared at her. After all those years, she was still able to leave him without words.

"I've always thought you didn't want to get married, Parker…the world marriage has never been said between us, I didn't want you to feel obliged to do it when you got pregnant with Clio…in the end, it was just a piece of paper, you know?"

He paused for a moment and sat next to her.

"After Clio's birth days became weeks, weeks became years…and you stood by my side, loving me as it was still the first day. Nothing changed…they way you behave around me, the way you look at me, the way you kiss me…the way we make love…which reminds me, we should take a vacation, only the two of us, and renew our passion without having our little pests around, shouldn't we?"

Parker laughed.

"You always gave me everything I needed and whished, I didn't want to urge you to the altar, if it wasn't what you really wanted, too."

Parker raised an eyebrow, "Meaning that during these five years…you wanted to ask me, but you didn't because you were frightened I would say no?"

Jarod nodded slowly, almost blushing, "Well, frightened is an overestimated word, but…"

"I already told you once: to be a genius, sometimes you say very stupid things!"

"You mean…you'll marry me?" he demanded, staring at her, hopeful as a kid. He hadn't felt so excited around her since he'd kissed her for the first time.

"On one condition." she answered.

"Whatever you want…" he whispered, inhaling her scent and approaching her.

Parker smirked mischievously, "No white dress."

Jarod laughed, "It wouldn't suit you at all, honey…"

When they went back inside, they found the whole family already rejoined in the living room. The newly-arrived Broots, Debbie, Jesse and the couple composed by Ethan and Monica, entered along with them.

As soon as they sat around the couches, Jarod took the floor and lowered the television volume.

"We have an announcement" he exclaimed, while he encircled Parker's shoulder with his arm. Without her stilettos, the woman wedged perfectly with him, arriving just under his shoulders.

The others looked at each other in an anxiously awaiting. Had they finally decided to go for it?

"Given our children's persistent boost…" Jarod commented, pointing at Michael, who smiled in answer "…we've finally decided to follow your advice and getting married."

A chorus of Congratulations raised around the room, while everybody stood to hug them both. Ethan and Monica informed them that they could do the ceremony together, but Jarod didn't agree.

"That must be your day, Ethan…Parker and I were thinking about an intimate thing, just the present people and a very short ceremony, but meaningful."

"When are you getting married, Mum?" Michael asked, approaching his parents so that Parker could take him in her arms. She looked at Jarod, who smiled in return, at his highest happiness. They were both thinking the same thing, at that moment: they were all there. They'd waited for such a long time, essentially all their lives. So there was no more reason to hesitate.

"What about…" Jarod answered, addressing now to all the people in the room "…this weekend?"

Once again, all the voices inside the huge living room started to overlay one another. While their parents, siblings, friends and children shared opinions and began to talk about what they would do for the wedding, Parker and Jarod parted from the group just to look at them all, they couldn't believe the luck they had in their lives.

In spite of all the pain, the nightmares that sometimes still harassed them, and the memories of the rough existence they'd lived until a few years before, they felt as if their life couldn't be more perfect, that day.

Michael and Clio ran outside in the garden, soon followed by Debbie and Jesse, they were looking forward to dive into the pool to enjoy that summer afternoon.

Michelle, Nicholas and Emily move towards the patio, Margaret and Phillip followed them, holding each other tenderly.

Broots approached the newly engaged couple, together with Sydney and Angelo. The last one seemed calm and relaxed.

"Miss Parker…Jarod…forever!" he exclaimed, almost shouting. Parker smiled for his hint of joy. The others chuckled, then Angelo was invited to go outside with Ethan and Monica, who were in the garden, right next to the pool, with Catherine and Ben.

Listening to the amused shouts of his daughter, who found herself in Jesse's arms, ready to end up inside the water with him, Broots sighed, "She's grown so fast…I bet I'm going to attend also her wedding, soon."

Jarod put a hand on his shoulder, "You did a wonderful job with her, Broots…Debbie is a breezy and smart girl, I hope Clio will follow her example."

"Even if she's not going to have the fortune to find her daddy's clone as boyfriend." Parker replied, glaring at Jarod with a mischievous look that urged Broots to roll his eyes, while they kissed tenderly.

Sydney chuckled, then the technician's phone rang.

"Hello? Hey, hi Andie…"

Jarod and Parker parted at the same moment and moved their curious expressions towards their friend.

"Andie?!" they asked in unison.

Sydney shrugged, he knew even less than them.

"Yes, we've arrived at Jarod and Parker's…Hey, Andrea says hello, guys!"

Parker and Jarod stared at him and smiled, while she moved her hand as if she was saying hello, and Jarod looked at her in amusement.

"Yep, everything's fine…" Broots moved and walked away, so that he could talk with discretion "Yes, I'm sorry you couldn't come with us…"

"You're telling me that…there's something between Agent Andrea Zane and our cybernetic friend?" Parker demanded, addressing herself to Sydney.

"You think it's odd?" he asked her in answer.

"If the Ice Queen was able to frame her prey, the pretender par excellence…maybe even a government agent might catch a hacker, won't she?"

Parker beamed at Jarod, then looked back at Sydney, who was exiting, too.

"Syd…" she stopped him, grabbing his arm.

He just gave her his full attention, without saying anything. Jarod guessed what she was going to ask him, even if she had barely touched on the matter.

"You will take me to the altar, won't you?" she demanded, shortly but firmly. Parker wasn't expecting a "no" for answer, but it had been difficult to ask him that question.

Sydney looked at her seriously, then his face just beamed, he was full of affection and love, his eyes moving from Parker to Jarod. He took the hand of the woman he'd been calling daughter for years by now, and kissed it. She blushed a bit, while Syd answered, "It will be my honor, Parker."

Miss Parker smiled and hugged Sydney, while Jarod hardly held back his tears. Syd stroke the woman's hair, then his hands ended up on her sweet face, not at all signed be her age. He wiped her tears, streamed down for the emotion, and smiled at her. Then he walked again to exit the room, he stopped just to make a statement.

"I'm very glad that Broots found his soul mate too…" he said, gazing at his friend, who was still talking at the phone.

"Me too…A man less I should be jealous of…" Jarod replied, softening the tension.

Parker turned towards him, almost offended by his remark, "And why on Earth should you be jealous of a man I consider my brother?!"

Jarod grimaced, "What about that night in Vegas?!"

Parker muttered, "Never mind the fact that we were chasing you, and we finished with the usual dead-end, but nothing ever happened between the two of us!" she screamed.

Noticing the ambience was heating up, Sydney exited to rejoin with Michelle, still touched by Parker's request.

"Oh, come on, Broots has always been crazy about you!"

"Yeah, and I've always warmly pushed him not to show to me in any way! And what should I say, will you invite Zoe and Nia to our wedding, too? Or maybe that lovely black widow, how was she called, Kristen?" she challenged him, venting her repressed jealousy. They were alone inside the house, by now.

Jarod snarled, while she walked away from him, "It was Kristi, for the record. Obviously, of all the alias I personated, the only ones you pull out when you want to fight with me are those involving women, am I right?"

Parker sneered at him, "You watched too much television, recently…you were no C.I.A. agent as Sydney Bristow, you were just a chameleon who lived his sims in a very personal way…I wonder how many whims you did on with those women!"

Jarod approached her again and grabbed her arms, more and more angry "Shame that every time I had something to do with any of them, I always crawled back to you…and you duly rejected me and call me lab rat, or boy wonder, or boy genius, or…"

Parker took a hand on her face, her patience almost over "I did it just because I was jealous! Didn't you ever realize?"

Jarod stopped to argue for a second, thinking about those absurdity they just said, or better shouted at one another.

"God, you're beautiful when you're angry…"

"You know, I've been told the same thing by my crazy maniac brother Lyle, twice."

Hearing that name for the first time since a very long time, Jarod hesitated a moment.

Parker, yet, sneered at him and kissed him passionately, feeling her husband-to-be surrender at once to the irrepressible desire to lift her and bring her into their bedroom.

"We…have…guests…" she whispered, between a kiss and the other.

"They won't even notice…our absence", he answered.

Parker was the first to come back to her senses. She parted from Jarod and pushed him away, without ever stopping to smile. Then her eye fell on the television, MTV was still airing new music videos.

She took the remote control and almost turned it off, when her attention was drawn by the image of a huge white room that was enlightening, and by a man walking towards a microphone. Behind him there was a big wall painted in red. Full of curiosity, she raised the volume that was still muted. Immediately, the riff of a mellow guitar, with an unmistakable timbre, permeated the room. A second later, a voice started to sing.

Keep you in the dark

You know they all pretend

Jarod, who was almost exiting, eavesdropped, recognizing at once the voice and its style. He approached Parker, intrigued by the video.

Keep you in the dark

And so it all began

"It's Dave!" he shouted, smiling, "I've heard that their new EP was to be released, but I didn't know today was the day!" he continued, noticing the word Brand New on the screen.

In that moment, the drums entered strongly to accompany the melody, changing drastically the initial tone of that song. Parker rolled her eyes, she couldn't expect anything less from Foo Fighters.

Send in your skeletons

Sing as their bones go marching in…again

The need you buried deep

The secrets that you keep are ever ready

Are you ready?

I'm finished making sense

Done pleading ignorance

That whole defense

Jarod was totally regressing to an adolescent status, he started to move his head at the music rhythm. The lyrics, as usual, were very significant.

Spinning infinity, boy

The wheel is spinning me

It's never-ending, never-ending

Same old story

Realizing that the strophe was going to give the way to an even more violent chorus, Parker started to smile. Jarod listened to the song, he seemed captivated.

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say I will never surrender?

As soon as they heard that magic word, Parker and Jarod stared at each other, stunned and amazed, they both had their mouths open. It didn't take long before they started to laugh.

"He did it!" she exclaimed.

"He kept his promise! He truly wrote a song about me!" he screamed, happy as a little boy.

Parker couldn't believe that. Maybe it was just a coincidence, and yet Jarod had influenced so many lives that who knew, perhaps…

Parker took advantage of the instrumental part to talk, before Jarod re-fell in the bliss caused by the song.

"You were right, Jarod…you noticed without the need for him to dedicate it to you!"

"And you were right when you said that it wouldn't be a love ballad…" he answered, smiling and holding her from behind. In spite of the music rhythm, Parker found his gesture terribly romantic.

In time or so I'm told

I'm just another soul for sale…oh, well

The page is out of print

We are not permanent

We're temporary, temporary

Same old story

The video changed direction when a group of armed soldiers appeared in front of the band playing the song. Parker and Jarod couldn't avoid to think about The Centre sweepers.

What if I say I'm not like the others?

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

You're the pretender

What if I say I will never surrender?

The guitar sound came back to rule the song, while Dave was still moving on and on. Parker thought he was very attracting, though she would never say that out loud.

"The best is coming." Jarod sentenced.

"How do you know?" she asked, smiling.

"I know." he silenced her.

I'm the voice inside your head

You refuse to hear

I'm the face that you have to face

Mirrored in your stare

I'm what's left, I'm what's right

I'm the enemy

I'm the hand that will take you down

Bring you to your knees

So who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

The armed soldiers of the video started to charge, while the guitar repeated once again the soft and intriguing melody the song had begun with.

Keep you in the dark

You know they all pretend

A sudden break, and then the song picked up from the chorus in an explosive way, in the video the red wall turned into a rain of paint falling over the soldiers, recalling terribly the color of blood.

What if I say I'm not like the others?

(Keep you in the dark)

What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?

(You know they all... pretend)

You're the pretender

What if I say I will never surrender?

So who are you?

Yeah, who are you?

Parker and Jarod watched the video until the very last second, captivated by the melody and the determination that band had in that song interpretation. As soon as it was over, Parker turned off the tv and looked back at Jarod intensely, surrounding his neck with her arms.

"So, who are you, Jarod?" she asked him, her eyes loosing inside the ones of the man she'd been in love with for an entire life.

From the outside, their friends' shouting were inviting to join them to enjoy that extraordinary day. Jarod smiled and kissed her, tenderly this time.

"I'm the pretender…"

Parker smirked, it was a grin that enclosed cunning, naivety, love, affection, friendship, derision, all at once.

Jarod couldn't help but burst into laughter and take her hand, dragging her outside, where the others were waiting.

When he saw his children in the pool, Jarod did something he'd never done before: pushed by the heat of the moment, he walked on and dragged Parker until he managed to push her inside, completely dressed. While doing so, yet, he fell inside with her, and they started to laugh, approaching one another and starting to kiss.

"God, I love you, Boy Genius!" she said, between a laugh and the other.

"I love you too, Ice Queen!"

A second later, Michael and Clio dived again close to their parents, splashing them copiously. And yet, they couldn't scold their children for such a natural action.

Parker caught Michael, while Jarod seized their daughter, putting her on his shoulders.

All the laughs, that day, didn't disappear until late night. And only then, when all their guests were sound asleep, Jarod and Parker went outside in the garden and laid down under the stars, both contemplating at that marvelous August sky. There they fell asleep, in a tender embrace, prefiguring how beautiful it would be to live again such days in the years they still had in front of themselves.

They would live them together, no more "you run, I chase", no more late night phone calls, neither clues to solve.

Truth had won.

And that mind rain that had characterized their existence for years, was finally over.

For good.

The End

Songs quoted in this chapter are:

- Map of the Problematique by Muse (EP: Black Holes and Revelations)

- The Pretender by Foo Fighters (EP: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace)