Title: Towers
Author: maestra
Chapter 9: "Of Faith and Friendship"
Broots had been on the Internet for hours, doing his customary searches before they left for New York City. Looking for some tiny little trace of where Jarod had gone. He felt uncomfortable with Miss Parker assuming that Jarod was in New York. They really had no proof that he was there. With all the turmoil going on in the country, he wasn't anxious to leave Debbie and go traipsing off to New York City now.
Suddenly it occurred to him to check the lists of passengers from Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Atlanta airports looking for any passengers with the first name of Jarod in the past week or so. With all the resources of the Centre mainframe at his fingertips, it was only a half hour later when his search hit pay dirt. Oh it could be some other Jarod of course, but he had a sinking feeling that it was their lost Pretender. And now they had it, confirmation that Jarod Birmingham had flown from Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport to New York City arriving after midnight on September 11th. So now he was left with searching the City of New York looking for signs that Jarod was there...somewhere.
*************************************************************************
Tara quietly let herself into her apartment. She had left Jarod sleeping, not wanting to wake him up. She didn't know when he had finally turned in but she suspected it was after dawn had at last began to lighten the night sky.
She was up by 7:00 and out the door in jeans and tennis shoes to get her houseguest fresh doughnuts from her favorite bakery, just because she knew he liked them. She slipped her shoes off when she came inside the door and padded by his door in her stocking feet so as not to wake him on her way to put them in the kitchen.
Tara quietly drew a pan out of her cupboard, and proceeded to raid the refrigerator to gather ingredients for an omelet. Jarod's tale of his childhood had touched her heart. And even now that he escaped the Centre as he traveled around helping people who seemed to have nowhere else to turn, he led a somewhat solitary existence. As she prepared the omelet for him she tried to think about what Jarod had told her the night before. She hadn't done much talking, just asked a few questions and listened. Sensing that at last, in who knew how long, Jarod was willing to really talk about his past. She couldn't imagine the things he had seen at Ground Zero, how could she imagine a place as evil as the Centre sounded?
She slid the fluffy omelet onto a plate, and added a glass of orange juice and a glass of ice water to a breakfast tray. As she added a couple of doughnuts on a small side plate for him from the bakery, and the napkin and fork he would need she heard him call out in his sleep. Leaving the prepared tray in the kitchen she dashed over to his bedroom door and quickly knocked loudly.
"Jarod! Jarod, are you ok?", she called out in a voice she hoped was loud enough to wake him, but not the neighbors. He called out again in his sleep, and with a note of panic in her voice she knocked again, "Jarod! It's Tara wake up!"
A moment later, she heard a sleepy, "What Tara?"
"Are you ok? You were yelling out in your sleep. Were you having a bad dream?"
"Yes. I am sorry to wake you Tara."
"You didn't. I have your breakfast ready anyway, I'll just go get it for you."
Tara dashed off to the kitchen and returned with the loaded breakfast tray, and knocked briefly at the bedroom door. And opened the door when he bid her to enter, crossing the room with the breakfast tray and setting it on the top of the chest of drawers.
"All comfy?"
"Uh, yeah," Jarod replied with a question in his voice.
"No, I mean sit up and lean against the head of the bed, put a pillow behind you...get comfortable, so I can bring the tray to you. I wanted to make you breakfast in bed."
"Oh," Jarod replied in surprise as he sat up and complied by throwing a pillow behind his back before he leaned against the headboard, "You went out and got me fresh doughnuts this morning too?"
"Yeah, Raspberry Supreme, your favorite." Tara placed the tray beside him on the bed and turned to leave. "Let me know if you need anything."
"Yeah I do."
"What can I get for you?", Tara turned back in reply.
"You, I don't want to be alone." Moving the tray onto his lap he replied, "Here, sit by me and keep me company. I don't want to think about the nightmare I was having. Distract me."
"How?"
"Sit here and talk with me."
"Ok," she smiled as she sat down facing Jarod and the headboard. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Well, I wanted to ask you a question."
"Sure, go ahead."
"Why were you so nice to me that first day or so? When I was so distant to you? You kept coming back, and never quit trying to be my friend. And I just don't know why."
"I don't know Jarod I haven't thought about it much. Maybe I sensed you were feeling lonely too. I had talked to Joe, Stan and Pete and gotten to know them a little. Of course, they were concerned about you, and we all knew you were new in town. I just wanted to be there for you, since you didn't have any family near by. And to be honest, you remind me a little of my best friend back home, Terry. He had the same lost look in his eyes when we first met way back in high school. I wouldn't give up on him, and I won't give up on you.", Tara assured him with a calm smile.
"You don't know know what you are involving yourself in when you associate yourself with me. I am a danger to you."
"That might be Jarod, but it isn't going to stop me."
"I'm concerned for your safety. I can't protect you from them; I can't even protect my own family. They are all in hiding. My mother is on the run from them herself. We almost met a few years back in Boston, arranged by a friend of my mother's, but the Centre found out about it and I had to send my mother and my sister away before they too were captured by the Centre. I never got to talk to her, to touch her. I have forgotten what my mother's touch, my mother's embrace felt like."
"I'm sorry Jarod, that you weren't allowed to grow up with a normal childhood with Kyle, Emily and your parents. But, I believe that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become. We may have had bad childhoods, but that doesn't mean we have to let that ruin the rest of our lives. Sydney may have been your keeper, but he was also a big influence in helping to shape you into the thoughtful, caring, compassionate person you are today. The experience while you endured it Jarod was bad, but something good came out of it...You."
"Are you saying that I should be grateful that I was held captive by the Centre for 30 years?"
"No, I wouldn't go that far. I am saying, honor yourself for what you have endured. Wouldn't you give someone else "credit" for having endured what you did at the hands of the Centre? Then why can't you cut yourself some slack."
Jarod proceeded to take a few bites from the omelet while he thought about what she had said.
"When I see the twisted beams of metal, the smoke and ashes filling the air, when I see the remnants of lives lost casually strewn about Ground Zero, shoes, photos that would have graced a worker's desk. How can I ever get over the destruction I have seen? With the destruction that I might have been able to prevent? And Tara," he said as he placed the tray back on the bed, "I didn't tell you this, but I had a job interview in the South Tower on Tuesday afternoon. How am I supposed to come to terms with that?"
"Oh Jarod," she sighed as she got up and came around to his side of the bed, and gave him a hug. "I know it is hard for you Jarod. But you have to know that even if you had been in the Towers that day, you couldn't have prevented what happened."
"Maybe I could have helped get more people out in time before they fell..."
"Maybe you would not have gotten out in time and been lost as well Jarod.", she said honestly looking him in the eye. "And then we would never have met. And the Centre would have won. You would never be reunited with your family. Never feel your mother's arms around you again. Is that what you would want to happen?"
"No," Jarod replied passionately.
"Well then Jarod, you are going to have to realize that even though you are a Pretender, you aren't God. You can't do everything, be everywhere. What does it matter if I forgive you for being human, but you can't forgive yourself Jarod?"
"That's easier said than done Tara."
"I know but you have got to try. You carry way to much weight on your shoulders Jarod. You aren't invincible. I know, that you have continued to push yourself this week, long after you thought you couldn't go anymore. You've got to allow yourself to feel the emotions, to process them, you have to allow yourself to grieve Jarod."
"Jarod, I know it has taken a lot out of you to hear myself and others call you a hero. I know it hurt, when you do not believe that what you have done is above and beyond the "call of duty". New York City, has seen a lot of men who pitched in to help despite in this "hour of need". Heroes are just people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences. And that is what you have done, you went where you were needed. You used you skills to do what you could to help."
"Well so did you Tara," Jarod replied, "You used your skills to help when you volunteered."
Tara chuckled and arched an eyebrow quoting Jarod himself, "Point taken." She wouldn't have put the two jobs in comparison with one another, but she could see how without the support staff, the firefighters, rescue workers, and others could not continue to do the job they needed to do.
"No matter how bad your heart is broken Jarod, the world isn't going to stop for your grief. We have to keep trying to go forward, despite our losses. Whether we knew someone who was lost in these tragedies or not, this has touched all our lives. They say it will be a defining moment of our time. That years from now people will ask us, where were you on 9-11? What I am going to remember about 9-11 Jarod, is it was the day I met you."
*************************************************************************
"Miss Parker, are you ready to go?" Syd asked after knocking he quickly entered her office, "Sam has brought the car around to drive us to the airport."
Parker quickly swiveled her chair away from him and began to rummage through the inbox on her desk as if she was looking for something. Sydney however didn't miss the red eyes and the handkerchief in her tightly clenched fist.
"Parker? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine Syd, it's nothing catching us a Pretender wouldn't cure.", Parker put up a bold front but she knew she wasn't hiding her worry from Sydney. He knew her to well.
"Broots just told me, Jarod flew into New York City late on September 10th. Now he is searching for a Jarod Birmingham that would be registered at a hotel in New York City during that same time period.", Sydney replied. "Is that what you are crying for?"
"I'm not crying, I've got something in my eye," Parker lied.
"Yes, Miss Parker, it's called a tear.", Sydney replied shaking his head, and then he turned to leave. "I will wait for you in the car."
"Fine Frued.", Parker replied with a hint of her old sarcasm, as she got out her cosmetics and grabbed a compact and dabbed a hint of powder on the end of her nose. It wouldn't do for her father, Mr.Raines, or the Sweepers to see her with tears in her eyes over Jarod. It was bad enough Syd had seen her moment of weakness.
***********************************************************************
To Be Continued....
Author: maestra
Chapter 9: "Of Faith and Friendship"
Broots had been on the Internet for hours, doing his customary searches before they left for New York City. Looking for some tiny little trace of where Jarod had gone. He felt uncomfortable with Miss Parker assuming that Jarod was in New York. They really had no proof that he was there. With all the turmoil going on in the country, he wasn't anxious to leave Debbie and go traipsing off to New York City now.
Suddenly it occurred to him to check the lists of passengers from Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Atlanta airports looking for any passengers with the first name of Jarod in the past week or so. With all the resources of the Centre mainframe at his fingertips, it was only a half hour later when his search hit pay dirt. Oh it could be some other Jarod of course, but he had a sinking feeling that it was their lost Pretender. And now they had it, confirmation that Jarod Birmingham had flown from Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport to New York City arriving after midnight on September 11th. So now he was left with searching the City of New York looking for signs that Jarod was there...somewhere.
*************************************************************************
Tara quietly let herself into her apartment. She had left Jarod sleeping, not wanting to wake him up. She didn't know when he had finally turned in but she suspected it was after dawn had at last began to lighten the night sky.
She was up by 7:00 and out the door in jeans and tennis shoes to get her houseguest fresh doughnuts from her favorite bakery, just because she knew he liked them. She slipped her shoes off when she came inside the door and padded by his door in her stocking feet so as not to wake him on her way to put them in the kitchen.
Tara quietly drew a pan out of her cupboard, and proceeded to raid the refrigerator to gather ingredients for an omelet. Jarod's tale of his childhood had touched her heart. And even now that he escaped the Centre as he traveled around helping people who seemed to have nowhere else to turn, he led a somewhat solitary existence. As she prepared the omelet for him she tried to think about what Jarod had told her the night before. She hadn't done much talking, just asked a few questions and listened. Sensing that at last, in who knew how long, Jarod was willing to really talk about his past. She couldn't imagine the things he had seen at Ground Zero, how could she imagine a place as evil as the Centre sounded?
She slid the fluffy omelet onto a plate, and added a glass of orange juice and a glass of ice water to a breakfast tray. As she added a couple of doughnuts on a small side plate for him from the bakery, and the napkin and fork he would need she heard him call out in his sleep. Leaving the prepared tray in the kitchen she dashed over to his bedroom door and quickly knocked loudly.
"Jarod! Jarod, are you ok?", she called out in a voice she hoped was loud enough to wake him, but not the neighbors. He called out again in his sleep, and with a note of panic in her voice she knocked again, "Jarod! It's Tara wake up!"
A moment later, she heard a sleepy, "What Tara?"
"Are you ok? You were yelling out in your sleep. Were you having a bad dream?"
"Yes. I am sorry to wake you Tara."
"You didn't. I have your breakfast ready anyway, I'll just go get it for you."
Tara dashed off to the kitchen and returned with the loaded breakfast tray, and knocked briefly at the bedroom door. And opened the door when he bid her to enter, crossing the room with the breakfast tray and setting it on the top of the chest of drawers.
"All comfy?"
"Uh, yeah," Jarod replied with a question in his voice.
"No, I mean sit up and lean against the head of the bed, put a pillow behind you...get comfortable, so I can bring the tray to you. I wanted to make you breakfast in bed."
"Oh," Jarod replied in surprise as he sat up and complied by throwing a pillow behind his back before he leaned against the headboard, "You went out and got me fresh doughnuts this morning too?"
"Yeah, Raspberry Supreme, your favorite." Tara placed the tray beside him on the bed and turned to leave. "Let me know if you need anything."
"Yeah I do."
"What can I get for you?", Tara turned back in reply.
"You, I don't want to be alone." Moving the tray onto his lap he replied, "Here, sit by me and keep me company. I don't want to think about the nightmare I was having. Distract me."
"How?"
"Sit here and talk with me."
"Ok," she smiled as she sat down facing Jarod and the headboard. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Well, I wanted to ask you a question."
"Sure, go ahead."
"Why were you so nice to me that first day or so? When I was so distant to you? You kept coming back, and never quit trying to be my friend. And I just don't know why."
"I don't know Jarod I haven't thought about it much. Maybe I sensed you were feeling lonely too. I had talked to Joe, Stan and Pete and gotten to know them a little. Of course, they were concerned about you, and we all knew you were new in town. I just wanted to be there for you, since you didn't have any family near by. And to be honest, you remind me a little of my best friend back home, Terry. He had the same lost look in his eyes when we first met way back in high school. I wouldn't give up on him, and I won't give up on you.", Tara assured him with a calm smile.
"You don't know know what you are involving yourself in when you associate yourself with me. I am a danger to you."
"That might be Jarod, but it isn't going to stop me."
"I'm concerned for your safety. I can't protect you from them; I can't even protect my own family. They are all in hiding. My mother is on the run from them herself. We almost met a few years back in Boston, arranged by a friend of my mother's, but the Centre found out about it and I had to send my mother and my sister away before they too were captured by the Centre. I never got to talk to her, to touch her. I have forgotten what my mother's touch, my mother's embrace felt like."
"I'm sorry Jarod, that you weren't allowed to grow up with a normal childhood with Kyle, Emily and your parents. But, I believe that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become. We may have had bad childhoods, but that doesn't mean we have to let that ruin the rest of our lives. Sydney may have been your keeper, but he was also a big influence in helping to shape you into the thoughtful, caring, compassionate person you are today. The experience while you endured it Jarod was bad, but something good came out of it...You."
"Are you saying that I should be grateful that I was held captive by the Centre for 30 years?"
"No, I wouldn't go that far. I am saying, honor yourself for what you have endured. Wouldn't you give someone else "credit" for having endured what you did at the hands of the Centre? Then why can't you cut yourself some slack."
Jarod proceeded to take a few bites from the omelet while he thought about what she had said.
"When I see the twisted beams of metal, the smoke and ashes filling the air, when I see the remnants of lives lost casually strewn about Ground Zero, shoes, photos that would have graced a worker's desk. How can I ever get over the destruction I have seen? With the destruction that I might have been able to prevent? And Tara," he said as he placed the tray back on the bed, "I didn't tell you this, but I had a job interview in the South Tower on Tuesday afternoon. How am I supposed to come to terms with that?"
"Oh Jarod," she sighed as she got up and came around to his side of the bed, and gave him a hug. "I know it is hard for you Jarod. But you have to know that even if you had been in the Towers that day, you couldn't have prevented what happened."
"Maybe I could have helped get more people out in time before they fell..."
"Maybe you would not have gotten out in time and been lost as well Jarod.", she said honestly looking him in the eye. "And then we would never have met. And the Centre would have won. You would never be reunited with your family. Never feel your mother's arms around you again. Is that what you would want to happen?"
"No," Jarod replied passionately.
"Well then Jarod, you are going to have to realize that even though you are a Pretender, you aren't God. You can't do everything, be everywhere. What does it matter if I forgive you for being human, but you can't forgive yourself Jarod?"
"That's easier said than done Tara."
"I know but you have got to try. You carry way to much weight on your shoulders Jarod. You aren't invincible. I know, that you have continued to push yourself this week, long after you thought you couldn't go anymore. You've got to allow yourself to feel the emotions, to process them, you have to allow yourself to grieve Jarod."
"Jarod, I know it has taken a lot out of you to hear myself and others call you a hero. I know it hurt, when you do not believe that what you have done is above and beyond the "call of duty". New York City, has seen a lot of men who pitched in to help despite in this "hour of need". Heroes are just people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences. And that is what you have done, you went where you were needed. You used you skills to do what you could to help."
"Well so did you Tara," Jarod replied, "You used your skills to help when you volunteered."
Tara chuckled and arched an eyebrow quoting Jarod himself, "Point taken." She wouldn't have put the two jobs in comparison with one another, but she could see how without the support staff, the firefighters, rescue workers, and others could not continue to do the job they needed to do.
"No matter how bad your heart is broken Jarod, the world isn't going to stop for your grief. We have to keep trying to go forward, despite our losses. Whether we knew someone who was lost in these tragedies or not, this has touched all our lives. They say it will be a defining moment of our time. That years from now people will ask us, where were you on 9-11? What I am going to remember about 9-11 Jarod, is it was the day I met you."
*************************************************************************
"Miss Parker, are you ready to go?" Syd asked after knocking he quickly entered her office, "Sam has brought the car around to drive us to the airport."
Parker quickly swiveled her chair away from him and began to rummage through the inbox on her desk as if she was looking for something. Sydney however didn't miss the red eyes and the handkerchief in her tightly clenched fist.
"Parker? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine Syd, it's nothing catching us a Pretender wouldn't cure.", Parker put up a bold front but she knew she wasn't hiding her worry from Sydney. He knew her to well.
"Broots just told me, Jarod flew into New York City late on September 10th. Now he is searching for a Jarod Birmingham that would be registered at a hotel in New York City during that same time period.", Sydney replied. "Is that what you are crying for?"
"I'm not crying, I've got something in my eye," Parker lied.
"Yes, Miss Parker, it's called a tear.", Sydney replied shaking his head, and then he turned to leave. "I will wait for you in the car."
"Fine Frued.", Parker replied with a hint of her old sarcasm, as she got out her cosmetics and grabbed a compact and dabbed a hint of powder on the end of her nose. It wouldn't do for her father, Mr.Raines, or the Sweepers to see her with tears in her eyes over Jarod. It was bad enough Syd had seen her moment of weakness.
***********************************************************************
To Be Continued....
