Rings of Truth
A "Pretender" Fan Fiction
By MissKate

A/N...For those that haven't read it already, I revised Chapter 3 to include more detail and such. If you are starting from this chapter, I advise that you back-track a bit and read what I added. Otherwise, continue...

One more notice: Asterisks indicate the beginning and conclusion of a flashback.

Chapter 4:

"Are you Miss Parker?" the girl asked quietly, her wavy light brown hair falling gently over her shoulders against a purple sweater. She looked no more the sixteen, but by the way her face and body looked stung by the cold, to Miss Parker, she appeared much younger.

"Uh…yes, I am." Shock still enveloped her body and it was hard for her to stray from it. There was nothing that could have prepared her for this moment, not even any subtle notion from Jarod.

The girl smiled in apparent relief. "I'm Olivia."

"Olivia Parker," Miss Parker said to no one in particular, just wanting to say her name.

"Yeah! That's right. So you who I am? You know why I'm here?" Her questions leapt out of her in one breath with no slowing down in between. By the tone in her voice, she seemed desperate for someone to connect with both her and her emotions. Her eyes made Miss Parker's heart sink as she noticed how this girl at her door had been yearning for so long, lost in her own soul.

"I know who you are," Miss Parker said nodding before she continued. "Why don't you come inside? You look frozen." She held out her hand to the girl who quickly took it and stepped forward into the inviting house. As she did, Miss Parker wrapped her arm around the girl's icy body and tucked her into her own as her own spirit continued to cry inside.

As the two walked in, Olivia let her eyes wander wildly around the home. She felt Miss Parker's release and saw her walk over to a closet where she soon withdrew a warm blanket. For some reason that she could not explain, Olivia felt safe within the walls of Miss Parker's home and in the comfort of her embrace. Even with only a few words exchanged between the two, she knew that she had been right searching for her.

"Here you go," Miss Parker said as she pulled the blanket around the girl. "Why don't you go sit down over there on the couch while I make you something warm to drink. Then we can talk."

Nodding, Olivia smiled as she sat on the soft couch, allowing the gentleness of both it and the blanket to enwrap her body. She looked up and saw a small picture frame on the mantle.

"Is that you and your mother?" she asked.

Miss Parker looked over from the kitchen and glanced at the picture she was referring to. "Yes," she replied, images of Raines murdering the woman suddenly passing through her mind. "She…uh…left…when I was young." For some reason, the hurt of Catherine Parker's death that continued to haunt her forbade the truth from coming out to the innocent girl. Still, Miss Parker's face turned icy as the warmth it had recently possessed quickly diminished. Over time, she had become much more talented in hiding her pain, but this moment pulled a little too hard at her heartstrings. As much as she yearned to let her emotions flow, she closed her eyes, trying desperately to fight back the burning tears.

Seeing Miss Parker's sudden change of emotions, Olivia said, "I'm sorry. I know how you feel though. My mother was…killed four days ago." Unlike her sister, Olivia let her feeling show as she allowed a sing tear fall. Gently, she pulled her knees up closer to her chest and let the blanket over her absorb the despair of her heart.

Miss Parker looked at the girl who seemed so small in comparison to everything around her. Her eyes gave her a sense of innocence that Miss Parker knew she had lost long before her teenage years and wished she could have maintained had the Centre's shadow not been cast over her. Before she knew it, she had forgotten her thoughts and had moved closer to Olivia, wrapping her arm over her shoulders and holding her close.

The girl looked up to Miss Parker with her sad eyes and smiled. "He said you would understand. He said I could trust you."

"Who said that?" Miss Parker's eyes lit up at Olivia's comment in wonder. There was only one person she knew of that would go through any trouble to bring the two together, and the thought of him doing this almost made her hidden emotion visible.

"Jarod."

The word, the name actually, was simple but it held so much meaning within Miss Parker's heart. This act of his truly reached her core and though she searched, she could not find the words to say. He had really done it this time. Once again, he had found her weakness, and went on fulfilling her dreams. Somehow he always knew exactly what her soul searched for, except in this case, he had given her the dream in the first place. She had no prior knowledge of this girl sitting beside her, but with Jarod's latest deed, Miss Parker realized that she was all that mattered anymore.

"Are you too really friends?" Olivia's question startled Miss Parker and shook her out of her thoughts. Of course she knew him, but he knew her better than even herself.

"Umm…Yeah, I do. We're…old friends."

Olivia smiled. "I felt that I could trust him. I've never felt I could trust anyone as much as I did when I say him."

Miss Parker thought back on all the times she had been scared to trust him, but she always did anyway. Her mother had trusted him with her deepest secrets and she always knew that his spirit was rooted in goodness. "Yes. Jarod has a very genuine heart."

"Was I right in coming here?" The question made Miss Parker look down at the girl's desperate eyes once more. "Jarod said…that you could help me. That you would save me."

"That's just like Angel Boy," Miss Parker said to herself. "Always doing everything he can to help some poor soul find refuge." He had never changed. From the days of their childhood to now, as he continues running and dodging from the Centre, his dreams of helping the lost lived on.

"Of course you were. Always…always listen to Jarod. Whatever he says to do, no matter how…awkward…it sounds, do it, okay?"

Smiling, the girl nodded, her eyes revealing relief as she did so.

As much as she wanted to just sit there, Miss Parker knew that she had to know what was going on. She could not help Olivia if she did not know how she needed to be saved. "How did you meet Jarod?" she asked, trying to ease into the subject at hand.

"He was the first person to get to my house after I found her…my mother…on the floor." There was uneasiness in her voice, but she continued. "He said that he heard gunshots as he was passing through and then showed me his FBI badge."

Miss Parker smiled on the inside, knowing that Jarod always had some trick up his sleeve.

Briefly pausing, Olivia closed her eyes as if trying to reconnect with the image before she went on. "He knelt down and did everything he could for her, and then let me cry when he said there was nothing left to do. Then…more officers came and they carried her away, but Jarod stayed with me. He asked if I wanted any ice cream and got some out of the freezer for the two of us. He sat beside me on the couch and said that I had to leave so that they wouldn't come after me as well. When I asked who 'they' were, he said that it didn't matter and that I just had to leave. I trusted him and I didn't know why. He was taking me away from everything I had ever known and for no apparent reason. But still, after taking a few things from my room, I took his hand and he led me away, telling me that I would soon find the truth."

Miss Parker knew that she wasn't going to have to push her sister to find out how she arrived at her doorstep. It seemed as if this story had been boiling inside of her just waiting for something to make it spill out. Miss Parker realized that all she had to do was listen with no questions asked.

"We went to his apartment for a few days and he let me sleep on his couch, but I could still hear him typing endlessly on his laptop. I remember…feeling safe. I don't know if it was the room or Jarod, but I remember believing that nothing could get me as long as I stayed there. This morning, when I woke up, he was talking on the phone. The only thing I heard him say was 'Miss Parker' because as soon as he saw that I had woken up, he hung up and knelt beside me. I asked him whom he was talking to, but all he told me was that you were his friend and that you would keep me safe. I didn't want to go even though he promised that you would protect me as much as he could. I just wanted to stay where I was, where I felt secure, but he told me that his job was taking him back to Seattle and that he couldn't take me along. We got into his car and drove for a long time. He didn't stop driving until I noticed that we were in the middle of nowhere. I was confused and scared, but Jarod told me that I was almost there."

In amazement at both the story and the fact that Jarod had been so close, Miss Parker's eyes grew wider, trying to soak every detail in. Still, she could not believe that she had missed her prey yet again. So often had he been within arm's reach when she had not known it and here it was happening yet again.

Failing to see Miss Parker's thoughts, Olivia let her story continue, the words simply falling out of her mouth. "He said that you would help me and that all I had to do was walk until I saw a house on a hill. I didn't know why I had to go by myself, but I didn't want to ask any questions that would make him change his mind about helping me. I just assumed that he was trying to protect me by not drawing attention to the house. When I opened the car door to step out, he grabbed my hand, telling me to wait."

Olivia's story paused as she remembered the next part. "He reached into his pocket and placed something in my palm. I didn't look at it, but as I slid it into my own pocket, I felt its shape. He said it was for you."

Miss Parker did not have time to think this over. Before she knew it, the girl has slipped the gift into her hand, leaving Miss Parker's thoughts wild in her mind. She raised it to eyelevel, wondering why Jarod had given it to her, until it hit her. It was the ring she had snuck into Jarod's pocket one day when they she was sneaking around the various sub-levels. She remembered the day clearly and played it back in her mind.

***

She saw Jarod in the corner by the wall as she was passing by his door and saw the pain, the longing, in his face. Cautiously making sure that no one was around, she knocked lightly on Jarod's door. She remembered seeing the face of her distant friend light up when he spotted her and how he seemed hesitant to make contact with her. They both knew that cameras were everywhere, but somehow this fascinated them both. Only one corner of his room was out of the cameras' sight so, after vigilantly opening the door for Miss Parker, he snuck over to it, followed by his visitor, the blue-eyed girl.

"How are you?" she whispered her eyes focused on the young boy.

"Better now," he said softly. "What are you doing down here? Your father will be angry."

Miss Parker smiled. "He won't know. Nobody…will know."

Needing to trust her, Jarod gave in. "Why did you come?"

"I…was just passing through. And I thought that maybe you could use a friend."

"I wish it didn't have to be like this," Jarod whispered as Miss Parker nodded in reply. "I wish I…we…could live without all of this secrecy."

"But it makes it kind of fun, doesn't it?" She wanted Jarod to smile again. She liked to see him smile. "Can you imagine a life without the Centre?"

Jarod shook his head. "No, but I would like to."

Both children turned their heads as they heard a click at the other end of the hall. It was a quiet sound, but all too loud in their ears. Without a word, Miss Parker rose, followed by Jarod, knowing that their time together had been cut short. Opening the door only wide enough to check for any presence on the opposite side, the girl began to make her exit. As she left however, Miss Parker took a ring off of her finger and dropped it into Jarod's pocket, disappearing before he could react.

***

Miss Parker clasped the ring in her hand as the memory concluded. "I can't believe he kept this," she whispered. "I…found it in my father's office when I was just a child and took it without him noticing. I don't know why I gave it to Jarod, it just seemed right at the time."

Olivia smiled. "Maybe he's trying to tell you something."

"What else is new…"

*******************

Finally! I finished Chapter 4!! Hopefully the next installment will come sooner as I am on vacation from school right now.

*misskate*