Title: Exodus - Part II
Author: Jules
Rating: PG-15 for now
Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own any of the characters, no matter how much I WISH I did. They belong to the wonderful NBC and whomever own the rights to Pretender
Classification: S, R, A
Spoilers: I have no idea . . . um . . . after the third season at least! I kinda lost track of the years I've been watching!
Keywords: MPJR
Summary: Miss Parker discovers some disturbing things, and goes on the run.


Exodus
By Jules

Part 2
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Parker had drove in silence for a long, long time. The only sounds to break the tedium in the car was that of the infant's soft breathing while he slept and whilst he was awake, coos and baby giggles as he entertained himself with the few toys Parker had thought to purchase during her rushed trip to the baby store. She'd been very mindful of the fact that the fewer breaks she took, the further away from them she could get. As a result, she only pulled over to fill the gas tank and in rest areas to feed the baby, change his diaper, use the rest room herself, and restock her snack supplies from the vending machines.

Finally, she stopped in a small town once the gas gauge was hit for a second time. As her adrenalin died away, exhaustion began hitting her, so she wisely resigned to get a room for the night after filling her tank at an all night service station. As she pulled out of the gas station in search of motel she noticed for the first time that it was after one a.m.


InA Cheap Motel Room

Parker lay down on the bed with her son, taking sighing with fatigue as she began to relax a bit for the first time since overhearing her father and twin. She lay there, so tired she couldn't sleep, and studied the baby, noticing for the first time how he had Jarod's smile and his eyes' shape, but they were same blue as her's.

She finally spoke for the first time in over a day, "Hey little man. I'm not sure if you know this already, because of how smart you are, but I'm your Mommy. If I'd known before today, I would have hauled you out of there the moment you were born . . ."

Baby Boy Parker, as he was known since Mr. Parker was "too busy" to name him, blew a spit bubble, then reached up and grabbed a lock of her dark hair which had fallen from the ponytail and grinned at her widely.

Parker felt a lump forming in her throat and promised the boy, her voice revealing the difficulty of speech at the moment, "I love you baby, sooo much. And I won't let anything or anyone ever hurt you, or ever take you away from me." A few tears managed to escape, but she quickly wiped them away, having been trained from a young age that emotions were weaknesses, and never to let anyone see any kind of weakness. Sniffling, she sat up and pulled the box of ID's out of her bag, clearing her throat, "Alright, now let's figure out who we're going to be . . . Melinda Jones? No. . . . Alana Peters? Nah . . . Oh, how about Mckenzie James? Mckenzie is what my mother really wanted to name me, but my father insisted upon naming me Margaret, but in secret she called me Mckenzie. Your Daddy, Jarod did too. As for you, little man . . . it's time you had a name. I'm going to name you Thomas Kyle Russell, after the most wonderful man I ever had the pleasure of knowing next to your daddy, and your Uncle. The Centre killed them both, but they'll never be forgotten. But the Centre might think to look for a Russell, so for now you'll be Thomas Kyle James. Do you like that name?"

Parker wasn't sure whether she was imagining it or not, but it seemed to her as if Thomas nodded! Parker blinked several times and then rubbed her eyes. Exhaustion was affecting her judgement, she needed sleep. Lying back down, she watched as her son played with his feet, her eyes growing heavier and heavier.

Soon both mother and son had fallen asleep, free from the Centre's clutches for the first time in their lives.


The Centre

Sydney and Broots' were in shock. The poor men had come in for work that day, only to be told that Miss Parker, had been kidnapped along with her baby brother, while the two were out on a walk.

Neither could believe it, because this was Miss Parker they were talking about. Shoot first, ask questions later Parker, who never went anywhere without at least three guns concealed upon her person. So to them, it was a situation that seemed completely and utterly inconceivable. Both were sitting in her office, utterly bewildered as to how this could have happened, when Sam, her personal sweeper, slipped into the office.

"Dr. Greene, I need to speak with you and Broots," His eyes darted about nervously, "somewhere private." Sam handed him a note, then hastily left, terrified he'd be caught talking to the two.

Sydney hastily opened the folded piece of paper, and read the instructions,

Meet me on SL-27 in one hour.
Where we can speak without
prying eyes or ears.
It's about Miss Parker's disappearance.

-S

Sidney raised an eyebrow, taking note of Sam's usage of the word disappearence instead of kidnapping. He handed the note to Broots to read and once the small man had glanced it over, Sydney burned the note with a lighter from Miss Parker's desk.


One hour later
SL-27

Sydney and Broots easily found Sam on the burned out level, agitatedly pacing back and forth.

"Good you're here." Sam sighed with relief that it was just Sydney and Broots, and that it hadn't been someone sent to silence him. Then hastily got to the point, "I don't have much time until they miss me. Miss Parker is in big trouble. They think she's taken off with baby. I mean as in left The Centre with him. She doesn't have permission to even take him off grounds, let alone off grounds overnight. I managed to get on the sweeper team that searched her house. Her car was empty and the house was deserted. At first glance, it seemed as though nothing's missing, but I checked the closet, after I made sure no one was watching. The white box she stored all her keepsakes in was gone and the extra gun she keeps in a secret compartment in her drawer with the extra handcuff's were missing."

"I don't want to sound unappreciative, but how on earth did you know about those things?" Sydney questioned, suspicious of the man.

Sam surprised both Sydney and Broots by blushing, "When Miss Parker was still a sweeper, we were in a relationship for several months. Her father found out and promoted her to corporate. That's why I'm still a sweeper after all these years, I can't get promoted, on Mr. Parker's orders. Parker knew we couldn't keep seeing each other, or I'd get hurt, probably killed, so she broke it off. She had be transferred to be her personal sweeper to protect me, make sure I didn't experience any accidents on the job. . . I'd die to protect her."

Sydney cocked his head knowingly, "You're still in love with her, aren't you?"

There was no point in lying now, so Sam shrugged sheepishly, "How could I not be? She's just so amazing. So strong on the outside, but a frightened little girl on the inside. It also makes you want to protect her."

Sydney nodded in agreement and sympathy, as Sam went on.

"I don't delude myself into thinking that I'm anything more than her secret friend, a big brother to her in a way . . . because I know she never loved me like I love her. I mean, how could she, when Jarod captured her heart so long ago."

Broots' jaw dropped open in shock, but Sydney smiled, "So you know it too."

"Only people she cares about can trigger such strong emotional reactions from her. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to get past all the walls she has so carefully and securely built around her heart."

"I know." Sydney looked around, "We'd better go, they'll notice our disappearance soon and they'll start to look for us as well."

"Right."

"Keep me informed, please . . . she's like a daughter to me."

"I understand." The sweeper's eyes softened, "And if she contacts you, tell her I'm watching her back from here and I'll try to deter the search from behind the scenes."

"I will." Sydney shook Sam's hand, and then pulled the dazed Broots along behind him back to Miss Parker's office.


An unknown location

Jarod leaned back in a chair, popped a PEZ into his mouth and grinned as he waited while the phone rang on the other end of his cell phone. It was time to have some fun.

"Hello?" An accented voice answered.

Jarod sat up strait in his chair, that wasn't the right voice! "Sydney!"

Sydney sighed disappointedly, "Oh, hello Jarod."

"Sydney, why are you answering Miss Parker's phone? What happened?" Jarod had a sinking feeling in his stomach and a sense of dread washed over him.

"Miss Parker seems to have vanished, along with her baby brother. I was hoping you wore her. Inquiries are being made and the search for you has been placed on the back burner, and one for her and the baby is front and center."

"Have they been kidnapped?" Jarod asked terrified.

"That is what Broots and I were led to believe, but an inside source advised us differently. They say that the investigation is focused solely upon the belief that Miss Parker has taken flight, with the child. Their orders are to bring them in as quickly as possible."

"Why would Miss Parker run from the Centre with the baby?"

"That is the question on every one's mind, but only Miss Parker, and I'm guessing whomever ordered the hunt, knows the answer to."

Then Sydney hung up, leaving Jarod bewildered.

Jarod stared at the phone in his hand for a minute, then pushed off in his desk chair over to the laptop which sat on a table in his new house, as he was in-between Pretends, he'd thought it a good idea to invest in a dwelling for such times. Though if he were to really be honest with himself, it was more so that he would have a place he could call home.

He quickly hacked into the Centre computers, but he was unable to find anything other than what Sydney had told him, other than confirming the fact that all out search was on for Margaret and Baby Boy Parker.

Jarod leaned back in his chair and sighed, for once, he had no idea what to do, the one thing that kept him from going crazy from missing Miss Parker incessantly, was knowing where she was at all times. And now he had no idea where she was or even if she was alright.

One week later

Lyle drove home to his penthouse from the Centre. From there he went to the roof, down the emergency stairs, to a second car, then truly drove home, where his wife Ling, of eight years, was waiting for him with Kelley, their 3-year-old son.

He'd met Ling ten years ago and it was she who had saved him from being the man Raines had trained him to be. She was one of the children his mother Catherine had managed to save from The Centre before her death. She'd sensed his connection with the woman who had saved her, because she had an inner sense as well.

It had taken awhile for her to convince Lyle to trust her, but eventually, with time and persistence, he did. But it still had taken her over a year to overcome all the suggestions and training Raines had put Lyle through. Lyle still continued to suffer nightmares to that day about the things he'd done and that had been done to him.

Lyle had kept this part of his life a secret from Raines, knowing what the man could do to them. He'd had to Pretend to be a horrible, cold hearted, unfeeling person with no conscious for so many years.

The moment he'd started at The Centre, he'd felt a connection with Miss Parker, which he obviously couldn't acknowledge due to the circumstances. The discovery that she was actually his twin hadn't come as a complete surprise to him, or Ling, as it had been for poor Parker.

Lyle knew the Centre was evil, it had killed his mother, nearly destroyed him, and then he'd been forced to watch as it destroyed his sister.

He'd played Bridget, trying to get the inside track and with her power-hungry ways, it was no big shock when she'd married his scumbag father. And he'd suspected something was up the moment she came out with her pregnancy. But that his father would do what he'd done to his own daughter . . . it made Lyle sick.

The only problem with his Pretend was that he'd Pretended so well, he'd made his own twin sister hate him, maybe even fear him. The glove he wore hid the fact that he still had his thumb, because no one would have believed that he'd gotten off scot-free from Tommy Tanaka. Luckily, Ling Tanaka-Bowmen had found out and saved her husband's ass from her twin brother.

The Tanaka's truly hated the Centre, because of the kidnapping of their precious Ling and were forever in dept to Catherine Parker, and her children. Tommy's past involvement with her daughter and Ling's unexpected marriage to her son had been a unexpected turn of events for all involved.

Business was kept away from family, and Lyle's pretending to cheat them was pardoned once he'd explained what was going on. They'd even made him the glove that he wore to make it look as though he'd lost his thumb.

Lyle's car pulled into the driveway of a very large, heavily secured house, deep in the woods outside of Blue Cove. Right under the Centre's noses.

A tiny boy shot out of the door and ran towards Lyle as fast as his little legs could carry him. Lyle barely had time to bend down and scoop him up . . . .


SLAM

Lyle leaned the door of his car and swallowed the lump in his throat. That was the joyful greeting he used to get almost every night when he'd come from work. Until a year ago, when Raines' had taken Kelley. He used the boy to make sure Lyle kept on track with his torments of he sister. In the back of his mind, Lyle even now a year later somehow expected Kelley to scamper out and greet him, but his son never did.

Lyle took a deep breath, pushing back the heart wrenching thoughts and slowly went into his home. Ling was just setting dinner on the table.

"I'm home." He announced, thankful to see his wife, seeing her always eased the agony of the loss of their son. Her being there when he got home was what kept him going through the day.

"Ahh, about time you arrived husband. I have some pleasing news." She informed him, looking up and smiling at her husband.

"What?" Lyle questioned, giving her a kiss.

"I'm with child!"

Lyle froze, "You're what!"

"In eight months, you are going to be a father once more." She told him, filled with joy.

"Oh God." Lyle fell down heavily in a chair in distress, scenarios of what Mr. Raines might do with this information running through his head.

"What is wrong?" Ling kneeled next to her husband, "Does this news not make you pleased?"

Lyle closed his eyes, then took her hands into his, "Ling, of course I'm happy that you're having a child, our child, once more. It's just . . . if Raines were to find out . . . . I would go crazy if anything happened to you."

Ling nodded her head in understanding, "I know, which is why Raines will not find out that we are expecting once more. My brother has already tripled security around the house and the guards have orders to shoot on sight if anyone who is not cleared tries to enter. What happened before will not happen again."

Lyle brought Ling's hands up to his lips and kissed each palm, "You're right, it won't. This time, our child will be safe. And I promise you, I will get Kelley back from Raines, then I will destroy that man, and my father, for what they have done to my family."

"I am sure you will. And you have the Tanaka family's full backing." A new voice suddenly proclaimed, startling the lovers.

The two turned to see Tommy Tanaka, standing in the doorway, looking completely serious.

A park

Parker surrounded herself with all the things Jarod had given her over the years, not quite sure she knew what she was doing. She also had PEZ, Twinkies, and Curious George books all around her as well. Immersing herself in all that was Jarod.

Soon, she began to crave junk food and saw the world in "black and white". Things that Jarod and Sydney had done with each other ran through her mind, growing up in the Centre, meeting her, escaping. The noble obligation to help those who required it and punish wrongdoers filled her.

Parker started pacing and popping PEZ. The undeniable need for a place to call home came to her . . . and then, the place of where "home" would be.

Parker took another PEZ out of her Pebbles dispenser with her teeth and then grinned, knowing exactly where to go.


One day later
San Diego, California
5:30 am

The sun was just beginning to rise, it was not even peaking over the horizon, but the stars were beginning to disappear, and to the east, the sky was a purple unhurriedly reddening, as Parker pulled into the driveway of a very large home on the beach of the Pacific Ocean.

She picked the lock on the door and by the look of the silver DSA case on the living room table in the other room, she knew she was in the right place.

A little later

Jarod awoke to the foreign smell of bacon and eggs being cooked. He sat up straight in bed, grabbed his tank top, pulling it on, and cautiously went downstairs, where a scene that he had never expected to ever see, let alone observe in his own kitchen, greeted him.

Miss Parker was leaning over a baby, holding it's hands and talking in a extraordinary tone of voice, "What's Thomas doin'? What's Momma's little man doin' chewin' on his hands? Are they tasty? Do they taste good?"

The baby kicked his feet and gurgled. The microwave going off pulled her away. She pulled the bacon out of the microwave with a potholder.

"Good morning Jarod. It's about time you woke up. Sit down. I just finished making breakfast. No more Twinkies and Hagen Daz for breakfast anymore. Do you have any idea how bad that is for you?" With tongs she put the sizzling back on a plate covered with paper towel and turned around, "Sit down Jarod! And I'll explain what Thomas and I are doing here. And what the hell is going on." She handed him the plate of bacon, "Put that on the table."

Jarod dazedly walked over to the pre-set table and sat down, numbly placing the back between the two empty plates.

Parker picked up Thomas in his carrier, set him on the table next to her, and played with him, not wanting to look at Jarod. She knew if she did, she might lose the cool exterior she was displaying.

Jarod made himself a plate and began shoveling in food. He grinned after the first bite, "Hey, this is actually good!" Then he started shoveling mouthful after mouthful down, washing it down with the glass of apple juice Parker had set out earlier.

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Please, I want replies, and I want tons of them (at least 6 of them) or I won't continue. I know it sounds pathetic, but I live for feedback, good or bad!

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