I don't own any of the Pretender characters! They belong to NBC and all of the geniuses who created them. Hope you enjoy! Please R&R!
THE INSANITY OF OUR LIVES
Chapter 3. Plans Underway
"An undercover F.B.I. Agent working as a Biology teacher was shot, but no other casualties have been reported," stated the news anchor on the TV.
" Hey dad, wasn't that Jarod's next pretend?" asked Emily.
" I believe it was," replied Major Charles from the corner.
Ever since the Subway incident, Emily and he had been hiding out in Nashville. They had bought a large two-story house under a different name, and had been living there ever since. Ethan had joined them a little while later, and together they found Gemini. Jarod stopped by occasionally but he never stayed long. He was always afraid of Centre discovery. Through their computers, they kept up to date. Jarod e-mailed him before every pretend, so that he would never lose him. They were almost together. All they needed now was Margaret.
" I sure hope it wasn't Jarod who got shot," said Gemini.
They had tried to decide upon an actual name for him, but he insisted upon waiting for Margaret.
" It was, but he's alright. The voices say it was the Centre," said Ethan.
That Inner Sense thing scared him. I mean he actually talked to voices that told him things before anyone else knew them.
" Of course he's alright. He's as stubborn as dad. And to be quite frank with you, I'm still trying to figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing," said Emily.
" It's a good thing. Trust me," he said chuckling.
"Speaking of trust, didn't we "trust" you to make dinner?"
" Yeah, and I've been making dinner," replied the Major. This wasn't going anywhere good. He could tell.
" Then what's that I smell burning?"
"My hamburgers!" he replied running into the kitchen.
Everybody was rolling on the floor clutching their stomachs.
"Trust Emily to provide comedic relief," he thought. She's just like her mother.
The thought of Margaret sent a tear to his eye. He missed her so much. Everyday without her was worse and worse. He hoped Jarod found her soon.
He wiped an unshed tear from his eye, and started peeling his burnt hamburgers off the skillet lying on the stove. He had planned on grilling them, but an unexpected thunderstorm put an end to that idea. He paused a moment lost in thought, when he heard the very familiar sound his computer made whenever he had mail. He decided to just wait in the kitchen and try to fix his ruined hamburgers. One of the others would probably check the mail.
"Dad! Come here! You should come see this!" said Gemini.
"I'll be there in just a second. Hold on."
"Hurry dad this is important!"
"I'm coming," he said. What could get Gemini so excited as to forget that the more pre-occupied he was, the longer it would take for dinner to get done?
He walked into the living room, and glanced at his computer screen. Written on it, was the exact location of Margaret. It couldn't have been Jarod who wrote it. Jarod would probably find her, and then just bring her back. Someone must have spotted her, and dropped an anonymous tip. According to the tip, she was staying at a little town outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. He knew Jarod would want this as soon as possible, but as he was about to send him a message, he paused. He felt that he should the one to bring her back. After all the trouble and anguish Jarod had gone through trying to find them, he didn't want Jarod to have to disappointed again. He decided he would check out this lead, considering the fact that Jarod had done all of the hard work up to that point.
"Aren't you gonna send this information to Jarod?" asked Gemini.
"No, I'm going to go check this out for a change. Knowing your mother, it's probably a dead lead anyway."
"Oh sure. You just want to go so that when you find mom, you guys can have all sorts of PDA." Emily, again.
"What's PDA?" asked Gemini with an innocent child-like face.
"Public Display of Affection."
"Oh."
"But anyways, I'm gonna go pack up a few things, and then I'll be on my way. Emily, as the oldest present, you're in charge."
He hoped he wasn't too late to find her. Margaret had always meant the world to him.
************************************
" Hey Allen! Once again, I can't think you enough for what you did for me," said Jarod. The hospital had released him an hour ago. He was very thankful to be out of there. He hated being pinned down for too long. It probably had something to do with what the Centre had done to him. He was limping slightly, but that would probably go away soon.
"I'm glad to see you're okay. You owe me. Remember?" said Allen. He wanted to get to the bottom of this. He realized whoever those people were that shot Jarod knew what they were doing and who they were dealing with. They were after him for a reason, and he wanted to know why.
" Of course I remember. Just tell me what you want to know, and I might tell you. It depends on what you ask."
" That's fair enough. After all, I don't want your whole life's story. Really all I want to know is why those people were after you. I won't tell nobody else. Your secrets are safe with me."
Jarod knew that they would be. Allen and he had become close friends over the years. They had first met two years ago when he had helped to prove his innocence for a crime he had never committed. Since then, they had worked on ten different cases together. He had never told him anything about his past.
" When I was a child, I was taken from my family by a secret organization known as the Centre."
"Why?" interrupted Allen.
" Because I'm a Pretender. I can become anyone I want to be."
"You can become anyone you want to be? What do you mean by that?"
"I can be a doctor, a rocket scientist, a lawyer, an F.B.I. Agent, but the most ironic thing is I don't know who I am. The Centre isolated me as a child and exploited my abilities for their research. They used me to perform simulations. They told me these simulations were being used to help people, but instead they sold them to the highest bidder, and twisted my work. Many people have died because of something I thought up. When I learned of this, I escaped. I've been eluding Centre capture for five years now. All the while, I've been searching for the family I never knew," he said with a mixture of shame and sadness in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry Jarod. I never knew," said Allen.
" It's okay. It's not your fault my entire life is nothing but a living nightmare."
" I can't imagine what it would be like to have never known my family or to know that everyday someone's hunting me," Allen replied, " Have you found any of your family at all?"
" Actually, I've pieced together most of it. All I'm missing is my mother," he said wiping away an unshed tear. He hated telling people about his past.
" Well at least you found some of them, right?" said Allen hopefully.
" Yeah."
" You know you should inform the Bureau about what these people did to you. They should pay for it," he said with a glint in his eyes. He enjoyed his job a little too much.
"No! I was afraid you might suggest that. Never do anything like that. These people will do anything to protect themselves. They don't care who gets in their way," he said warningly.
"Geez! Don't bite my head off! I was only offering a suggestion."
