Disclaimer: Pretender = not mine. The characters aren't mine, the actors aren't mine, the title isn't mine, the sets aren't mine, the production companies aren't mine, anything having to do with the show is not mine. Sigh…tell me if there's something else that I don't own because I'm feeling really sad and that will just be the final nail in the coffin. Maybe someday, I'll buy the show and then it really will be mine…someday. I don't have the rights to Candyland or Bingo…does anyone actually own Bingo? I don't own "Hey Diddle Diddle," "Hickory Dickory Dock," "The Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe," or "Winkin Blinkin, and Nod" either. C'est la vie! Bon Soir!

Summary: Jarod decides to end the chase, but he and Ms. Parker end up locked inside of a warehouse and…well, there's some arguing, some anger, and maybe something more.

Author's Note: Okay, we're finally gonna get somewhere in this story, Yay! Not that I minded lingering in the world of uninterrupted bliss for Parker and Jarod, but seriously, if I kept it up, I'd have to start charging pay per view…you know what I'm getting at…Anyway, read on!

Trapped In A Box

By Bec-Bec

Chapter 8

The Good Side of the Fight

"Lyle," Jarod said spitefully, without turning around to face his tormentor.

"Yes, the devil himself come to visit you from the Centre…oh wait, I think it's more familiarly considered hell by you. Time to come home, Jarod. Turn around."

Lyle couldn't see Ms. Parker from where he was standing; she was concealed behind the doorway. In truth, he had no idea she was anywhere nearby because he had only heard Jarod and Sydney's voices when he had happened upon the little group.

In an effort to keep her from being found, Jarod unwrapped his arms from Ms. Parker and held them up in the air as he backed away and turned to face Lyle.

Ms. Parker slid farther into the room in case Lyle came closer to the doorway. It wouldn't do any good for him to catch her; she couldn't help them if he did. She mouthed to Sydney, "Do you have a gun?"

Unfortunately, he mouthed back, "no."

Her mind started running through what options she had given the current situation…the pretender gene in her was good for something after all.

Lyle walked closer to Jarod, "Sydney, get out here. I know you're in there and this time nothing's going to keep you from the severe consequences that helping your former protegee are going to cause to fall upon you."

Sydney held his arms up and moved to exit the room, casting a sidelong glance to Ms. Parker before disappearing into the hallway to stand beside Jarod. He felt oddly proud in doing so, as if, at last, he was truly standing on the good side of the fight.

Lyle moved even closer to the pair, "Well well, Houdini, what does it feel like when you can't disappear and your assistant's caught helping you pull the skin over everybody's eyes?"

"Pretty good actually, considering I've still got people I can trust. Tell me, Lyle, who can you trust? Do you really think dragging us back to the Centre will improve your standing with Raines or the Triumverate? They could care less if you were dead or alive, so long as they've got me, they think their troubles are over. You're not worth a thing to them," Jarod did not hide his disdain for Lyle as he spoke.

"Shut your pie hole. I don't give a damn what they think, I'm doing this for myself. If I bring you back, I've got a bargaining chip, I've got the power."

"It's the power that's corrupted you, Lyle. Do you think your mother would have wanted this for you?"

Broots had come out of the bathroom and Ms. Parker slapped her hand over his mouth. Broots eyes widened. He had no idea what was going on until Lyle's voice reached his ears.

Ms. Parker nodded at him as a way of asking if he could keep quiet. He nodded back and Ms. Parker dropped her hand, moving toward a door on the other end of the room…perhaps she could get downstairs and grab her gun from where she'd thrown it two days ago and get back up to the infirmary without getting caught.

"Shut the hell up, Jarod. That little trick of yours is no good on me. Unlike my sister, I could care less what Catherine Parker would think of me. Speaking of dear old sis, where is she? Sam told me she was locked in here, where have you stashed her?"

"What, are you actually concerned about her welfare?"

"I could care less, honestly. Ms. Parker's useless, she's too emotionally involved in this little game. Unfortunately, Raines doesn't feel the same and expects her back. So, where is she?"

"Honestly, Lyle, I have no idea."

"You're lying, Sam told me she was here."

Sydney finally piped in, "Is Sam alright?"

Lyle gave a soft chuckle, "Dr. Spock, always worried about the welfare of others. Yah, Sam's just fine, if you don't count a severe hangover," he turned his attention back to Jarod, "What'd you slip him?"

"I haven't seen Sam, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Stop playing games, Jarod, where's Parker?"

"Oh, but Lyle, this is a game, all of it. You yourself said that Parker was too emotionally involved in the game, game being the key word. I love how you pass my life off under the title of something which includes Candyland and Bingo."

"Ah, Candyland, and you're the sweet reward. Now, I'll ask you again, where's Parker?"

Ms. Parker had made it back by now and slid up behind Lyle, "Nice of you to be so concerned about me, brother," she clicked the safety off of her gun, "Drop it."

Lyle made a cocky grin at Jarod and Sydney and dropped his gun to the floor before turning to face Ms. Parker. "Protecting the lab rat, are we now sis?"

"Let's get one thing straight, he may be a lab rat, but he's my lab rat, and no one but him gets to call me Parker."

"What're you sleeping with him?" Lyle's eyes narrowed as he realized that really was the case, "You really are. Well this is an interesting turn of events, wait 'til I tell Raines."

"That's if you get to see the bald headed wheeze bag, give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you right now?"

"I'm your brother?" Lyle tried lamely.

"And that mattered so much to you before? Don't think I didn't overhear your entire conversation because I did. There's no way out of this one Lyle."

"Sure there is," he made a step toward her and her finger twitched on the trigger, letting out one shot.

Jarod stepped up behind Lyle quickly and gave him a strong thump on the back of his head causing him to pass out and crumple onto the floor before the bullet managed to hit either of them. Ms. Parker's gun was still raised in the shock of what had just happened. "Parker, you can drop the gun now," he said slightly worried.

Ms. Parker moved her arm down slowly and the gun slipped from her grasp, clattering to the ground, she sank down to her knees slowly.

"Sydney, take care of Lyle," Jarod said to the older man, without even looking at him, his eyes were fixed on Ms. Parker. He ran to her side quickly and pulled her close.

"Jarod, I almost killed him." She managed through the shock.

"Shh it's okay." He rocked her in his arms.

"But, I would have if you…if you hadn't…"

"Shh. Just rest a minute, okay."

She clung to him then, burying her face in his arms.

He just sat there and rocked her back and forth.

Sydney called for Broots to come and help him and, together, they lifted Lyle and carried him into the infirmary room. Broots found some rope in a supply closet and vaguely wondered why rope would be in a supply closet in an infirmary, but decided that inside of a Centre building, nothing really had to make any sense. He handed it to Sydney and they began to tie Lyle down to one of the very uncomfortable infirmary beds.

Out in the hall, Ms. Parker was starting to gather herself back together and turned her head up from Jarod's arms to look at him. He spoke first, "Are you a little better now?"

"Jarod, I just shot at my own brother."

"Parker, it was self defense, any court of law would agree with you on this."

"But if you hadn't stopped it, I would have killed him."

"Your gun wasn't aiming anywhere that would have hurt him badly, the bullet just whizzed past his arm, he would have been fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Don't worry, it's okay. Everything is going to be okay. We just need to find out if anybody else at the Centre knows we're here and how Lyle got in. It'll be okay, we just need to teach you to think without your gun. Okay?"

Ms. Parker gave a soft nod and allowed Jarod to pull her to her feet and hug her close.

"They'll all know now, Jarod. Everyone at the Centre will know about us."

Jarod held her back and tilted her face up to his, resting his forehead on hers so that they looked deeply into each other's eyes. "That doesn't change anything, you chose me, remember?"

Again, she nodded softly. Then, she kissed Jarod gently. "Now that I have you, I don't know what I'd do without you…or how I've lived without you for so long."

"You've always been too stubborn to accept someone else's help, that's how you lived without me. Isn't it better to deal with it when you're wrapped in someone else's arms?"

"Yes," a small smile spread across her lips.

"Good, now come on," he let go of her and headed toward the door of the infirmary, "You wouldn't want to miss the festivities we're going to have while we get information out of Lyle."

****

Back at the Centre, Raines' Office

Raines and Willie were staring intently at his computer screen as the latest footage of Ms. Parker and Jarod played with a ten-minute satellite delay. Raines' face, as usual, showed no emotion other than that every few minutes, his eyes would widen slightly, as if that were the only facial expression he knew. To say that he was a wide-eyed puppy would be a sad misstatement because his eyes were far too cold and unfeeling to resemble those of a puppy. Instead, he most resembled a skeleton with skin barely stretched over his bones and icy blue eyes which widened as anger spread over him…it was a rather revolting sight. Even Willie tensed at the sight of it, despite the fact that he had been Raines' personal sweeper for a long time and had encountered the expression often enough to wish he'd never have to see it again. Willie wasn't really sure why he wanted to play evil lackey to Raines other than that it paid well…and he got to inflict pain on people…he supposed that made it worth it to have to bare witness to the emphysema ridden ghoul everyday.

When Ms. Parker and Jarod had retreated into the infirmary, Raines turned off the satellite feed and growled to Willie, "Tell them to prepare the jet, it's time to drop in and break up this little love fest, amusing as it's been. Call Roc as well, his services may be necessary, as of this moment, I'm issuing a hit on Ms. Parker. Prepare the cleaners to follow after my little visit. I'm going to personally apprehend Jarod this time."

Willie exited Raines' office and Raines growled to himself, "There's no escaping this time, Jarod. We'll even make it all the more painful for you by taking out your pathetic cohorts…specifically Ms. Parker. That will teach her to interfere with out lab experiments." A wicked smile managed to spread across his lips curling them slightly, though, to the untrained eye, it would merely have appeared as though he were in pain.

****

The Warehouse, The Infirmary

Lyle was awakened as cold water splashed on his face.

"Well, good morning sunshine," Jarod mocked.

"Yes, the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day, can't you here the damned birds chirping," Ms. Parker chimed in sarcastically.

Lyle pulled against the ropes that restrained him, "Like I said, this is an interesting turn of events. Tell me, Jarod, is she good."

Ms. Parker slapped him across the face and blood trickled from his nose, "You are the most revolting creature on the face of the- no, you know what, I take that back, even you aren't as bad as that bastard Raines."

"Hah, it won't matter what you think soon enough. Raines is probably on his way here right now. I sure hope Jarod was worth it, Parker, Raines has probably put a hit on you now that he's seen who your loyalties truly lie with." Lyle received another slap.

"I believe I warned you that Jarod's the only one who gets to call me Parker now."

Lyle turned his eyes on Jarod, "Are you going to let her do this to me Jarod? I know you, you can't bare to see another human being suffering."

"You're forgetting Lyle, you aren't human, humans have hearts, something I haven't seen one trace of in you. Besides, Parker can do whatever the hell she wants, I'm not her keeper."

"You hear that Lyle? I can do whatever the hell I want, amazing how the Centre never gave me that much freedom. Now," she grabbed his wrist and began to twist it, "Who exactly set this little plan up?"

"Hey diddle diddle, the OW!" Parker twisted his wrist tighter, "cat and the fiddle, OW!!" The tendons in his wrist felt as though they were all starting to tear and the bones felt as though they were one hundredth of a turn away from snapping, but Lyle wouldn't give in. "the cow jumped over the moon, MOTHER OF GOD!" the bones in his wrist let out a sickening crack." Lyle winced but he'd never break this easily…even if his bones did. "the little dog laughed to see such a sight and the dish ran away with the spoon."

"Lyle, start talking or I'm gonna start working on that new thumb of yours," Parker hissed menacingly.

"Hickory dickory dock, OKAY OKAY," he gave in as the relatively new attachments in his thumb stretched taut and close to the breaking point. He really hoped Raines didn't have this room covered by cameras as well. "Raines set this up to see if you would remain loyal to the Centre or turn to Jarod. He figured after that trip to Carthis, you trusted Jarod the most because he told you the truth…despite what you both believe the truth is. He sent Jarod that article about the drug bust. This facility has been with the Centre since the 1970s, you'd think Wonder Boy over here would have thought to check that out."

"And…" Ms. Parker gritted her teeth.

"He's had surveillance running this entire time. I didn't know until after I spoke with Sam, that's the honest truth."

"How'd you get in here?" Jarod joined in the conversation now.

"Tricks of the trade. Magicians don't reveal their secrets, Jarod, you know that." Lyle began laughing wickedly.

Parker walked away and motioned for Jarod to follow, "Monkey boy's whacked, I don't know how much of that story he just made up. Though, it seems realistic enough. Let's see what Broots and Syd have pulled up." She exited the room.

Jarod took one last look at Lyle before following. Lyle was now going on and on about the little old woman who lived in a shoe and Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod.

He caught up with Parker halfway to the staircase, but not before admiring how nice her hips swayed from behind… "and she thought jeans didn't show enough curves," he thought to himself. "Parker," he reached out for her arm, stopping her.

"Yes, Jarod." She turned to face him.

He pulled her mouth to his and kissed her hard.

"What…was that for?" She asked, a little short of breath.

"Hoping you wear jeans more often," he grinned playfully.

"That depends, Pez Head."

"On what?"

"Whether or not you wear jeans more often," this time she kissed him. She broke the kiss and started walking away again, making sure to add an extra little sway as she did.

Jarod admired for a moment, and then took off following her to the laptop where Broots and Sydney were looking for whatever they could find.

"Broots, what have you found?" Ms. Parker asked.

"Well, there's a small order I found with Raines name attached to it regarding something called 'Immure.' "

"Immure: to confine," Jarod muttered, "what does it say?"

"It just says 'Project Immure underway. Subjects under surveillance.' " Broots explained.

"There's nothing else?" Ms. Parker said impatiently.

"I'm sorry Ms. Parker, but whatever project Immure is, that's all we've got on it."

"Broots, Immure is obviously this, now keep looking. Jarod and I will go find something to eat." Ms. Parker strode toward the kitchen with Jarod following closely.

Before Jarod and Ms. Parker got there, however, the door Ms. Parker had first entered the building from slid open and in walked Raines, wheeling his oxygen tank, with Willie and all of his usual entourage.

"Come now, children, you don't look happy to see me," he said coldly, again with that wicked smile where his lips curled up but he seemed more in pain, "that's not anyway to treat daddy after everything he's done for you."

Author's Note: Okay, the story's finally moving…I hope. We'll see how long it takes me to resolve everything. This Author's Note must contain a super duper special thank you to Pez7701 for the overall plotline of this chapter. I loved your suggestion of Raines' using this as a way to test Parker's loyalty, so I've used it. Credit must be given where it's due, so thanks so much!!! I hope Lyle wasn't too insane…it's hard to write for him. I really need a third movie over here!!! Doesn't TNT understand the depths of my despair? Every week longer that passes since IOTH aired, my hope dies out more…It's been a year people! A whole year! What are they doing over there? Anyway, I need some more reviews guys! I know that in comparison with some of the stories on this site mine = yawn boring, but when you finish reading all of those other really great stories, just pop on over here and drop a review!!! Please?!!! Love Ya All!