DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Pretender or any of its characters, all rights
belong to TNT, but I'm hoping they won't sue me for playing in their world
for a little while as it is a whole lot more fun than my room.
Katia could hear a sickening smack as her head hit the brick wall a few seconds after her body did. She was almost too afraid to feel the pain, however, and the leather glove gripping her throat was certainly distracting. A silver knife came from somewhere, glinting in the dark alley. She wanted to scream, but somehow the hot breath of her attacker stifled coherent thought as easily as his fist clenched about her throat caught any sound she could hope to make.
Then, suddenly, the pressure of his body pressed against hers was gone. She sank to the ground and soon a warm voice startled her out of her reprieve. "Are you all right," the man asked, causing her to look up at him. He had trustworthy brown eyes, and the outstretched hand looked both strong and non-threatening. She took it and he helped her up.
"You don't appear to be injured," Jarod said steadying the girl while he spoke, "Is there somewhere I can take you?"
"Nell's," the girl whispered shakily. Nell's seemed to refer to the diner on the corner just beyond the ally. Maybe the girl worked there.
"My name is Jarod, by the way," he introduced himself. He didn't have a last name, he was just passing through this town; he didn't plan on staying long enough to need a name or an occupation.
"Katia," the teenager said, her voice still trembling. He held the door open for the girl while she entered the empty restaurant. It was late, and the place would probably close soon. The only inhabitant of glowing diner was a waitress in a soft yellow uniform who came rushing over to the girl the minute they were inside.
"Katia, are you alright. Sit down and tell me what happened," the woman said, kindly helping the girl who was still nursing her head to a booth. The girl seemed much better for seeing a friendly face, and she answered in a complete sentence, although her voice still shook. Jarod, however, noticed none of these details.
"I was attacked in the alley. Jarod chased the guy away and saved me." The waitress turned her attention to the man for the first time, and he got a clear view of her eyes. Then he realized he'd done nothing but stare at her the entire time he stood just within the doorway.
"Well, I guess that makes you a hero, Jarod," the waitress said, offering him a cocky smirk, "Have a seat. Heroes and shocked victims both get free pie here." Jarod returned the smile weakly, and the girl brightened considerably.
"What sort of pie do you want," Nell asked with a smile that could launch ten thousand ships. "The apple is still warm, it came out of the oven two hours ago for the late night sweet teeth we always seem to get, but there are still a few pieces left, there is also cherry and French Silk if you like your pie cool. Katia will be having apple, of course, she needs comfort food."
"Apple sounds delicious," Jarod said after giving himself a mental shake and remembering to be charming and act casually.
"Terrific, I'll be right back," Nell stated with a smile. Jarod smiled reassuringly at Katia, but he hardly knew she was there. His mind whirled with the possibilities that the woman fetching pie was really Miss Parker, that he had not seen her body deathly still in its coffin, nor heard a great deal of detail about the internment from Sydney. He toyed with the possibility of a clone or another twin, but he ruled out both of those as possibilities. If she was Parker, she was doing a great job of pretending not to recognize him. Over the last three months, thirteen days, he had 'seen' Parker too many times to count, but her voice, her overall manner had never stood up to scrutiny like this. He was utterly confused and he didn't have time to work out every possible explanation because Nell was coming back with pie.
After setting a piece of pie in front of the two customers, she poured three cups of coffee and sat down without preamble. "So, Mister Jarod, can you tell me what happened to shake up Katia this badly?"
"I'm not the best witness," Jarod said slowly, "I was walking past the alley and I saw movement. I looked a little closer and I saw a guy with a knife pinning her to the wall. I shouted and chased after him, but he had too much of a start and I decided to check on her rather than continue pursuit. If she can't identify him, we'll never find him." The way Jarod growled the last part of his statement led Nell to believe that he didn't really like back-alley bullies.
"You seem to know a lot about this," she said with a soft smile, "Are you a police officer or do you just make it a habit to rescue the weak and abused?"
"Closer to the second than the first," Jarod said, returning the smile and panicking in an attempt to garner hints that she knew who he was.
"Yes, I'll bet you're a regular Onysius," she smirked flirtatiously.
"What did you call me," Jarod asked, fighting to keep his voice steady. Was she hinting? Did she fake her death? Was he grasping at straws?
"Probably means something in ancient Mesopotamian," Katia cut in with a smile, she seemed to be feeling much better after her pie. "We take bets on what Nell was before she lost her memory. I always go with professor because she knows everything there is to know."
"Actually," Nell cut in, "he was the Greek god of"
"Retribution," Jarod finished. "He is symbolized by an angel with broken wings: I was just surprised by the comparison."
"Wow," the two women said at the same time, for very different reasons.
"Someone who knows what Nell is talking about," Katia said sarcastically.
"A knight in shining armor who actually has something inside his helmet," Nell practically purred. Jarod's brain was still simulating every possible reason Nell could look and act so much like Parker, so his conversation was running on autopilot, but he could tell she was flirting with him.
"Katia mentioned that you don't know what you were before you came here," Jarod said, changing the subject rather abruptly and trying not to look directly into her eyes.
"Yeah," Nell said, still smiling, but she seemed a little hesitant to talk about the new topic. "Three months ago I woke up in the hospital here with no idea who I was and no one at the hospital seemed to know how I'd gotten there. I didn't even have a chart. Luckily, I met Billy and he offered me a waitressing job and a place to stay. I didn't have a name, so he started calling me Nell, said I reminded him of his wife."
"She's being modest," Katia cut in with a smile, her ordeal was completely forgotten by this point. "Bill was in serious trouble and everyone in town knew it, when Nell died, her hospital bills left Billy in debt in a bad way. He was going to lose the restaurant, but Nell got his books in order within a week and her pies didn't do anything but help."
"So it only took you three months to become a fixture in this town," Jarod asked with a polite grin, wanting to confirm the timeframe more desperately than he'd ever wanted anything.
"I'm not exactly a fixture," Nell said, blushing and looking down at the table.
"Actually, she is, especially with the high school students. Nell runs a bit of a tutoring service that helps to keep the restaurant packed from three to six." Katia took a sip of her coffee and waited for Nell to get mad.
"I told you not to call it that," Nell said, her voice freezing over so suddenly that Jarod knew, for the first time, she could not be anyone but Miss Parker.
"I'm sorry Nell," Katia said, meekly setting down her mug and surreptitiously glancing at Jarod for help. "I was just joking."
"What is it, then," Jarod intervened quickly, "if it isn't a tutoring service."
"I don't know," Nell said, rolling her eyes. "I just happen to have a lot of high school students come in to the diner around then. I wouldn't have any other customers then, so I don't mind if they sit and just order fries and pie, high school students are snackers."
"Yes," Katia continued in a completely serious tone of voice, "And since they are there anyway, it makes total sense for you to explain complex calculus and physics while you pour coffee." Jarod laughed aloud when Nell smiled guiltily.
"I hope they tip you well," he said.
"Oh they do," Nell replied, her guilty smile turning into a fond one. "Katia here wrote a poem about 'The Know-It-All Waitress' for her English assignment last week. It was the nicest tip I've ever gotten." Katia blushed furiously and didn't speak. A subtle vengeance, Jarod noted, but he had no doubt about it being an intentional one.
"So," Jarod said, changing the subject for the teenager's sake, "If you recall everything from Greek lore to calculus, how is it that you don't remember anything about your past?"
Nell shrugged with disinterest, but Jarod saw something he could almost call fear behind her eyes. "I haven't really tried to remember anything, it's obvious that no one cared about be because no one has come looking. To answer your question technically, the doctor said it's not uncommon for amnesiac patients to remember information and not remember learning it."
"I just can't believe you wouldn't try to find your family," Jarod said slowly, his eyes searching her face for any sign at all. "I was taken from my family as a boy and I've spent every spare minute I have searching for them." She did not react to his words in any way other than to offer a sympathetic smile that did not quite reach her eyes.
"I hope they want you when you find them," she said softly, her expression carefully maintained, but her eyes flinched ever so slightly. "I've read about children, who were put up for adoption, trying to find their parents only to be horribly disappointed in the end."
"I wasn't adopted," Jarod said still smiling without force, "I know they wanted me as a boy, and I'm positive they'll be happy to have me back."
"I hope so," Nell said, still smiling, but the look in her eyes said she wanted to be anywhere else.
"Well, I'd love to stay and chat all night, Nell, but I told my mum I'd be home soon and I don't want her to worry," Katia said, breaking the tension.
"I'll walk you before I head back to my hotel, it wouldn't do for you to be attacked twice in one night," Jarod offered with his trademarked grin.
"Thank you," Katia accepted graciously. "Bye, then Nell. Thank you for the pie."
"Yes, thank you very much," Jarod mimicked, "It was really great to meet you."
"How long are you in town for," Nell asked, shaking Jarod's proffered hand.
"A little while, why?"
"You're really only the second night in shining armor I've met in the past three months, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of you. Stop by again before you skip town," she said with a smile.
"Will do," Jarod promised, the warmth in his eyes growing without bounds. "Good night, then."
"Sweet dreams," Nell called after them as they left the warm golden light of the diner to make their way through the unlit streets of the small town.
"You know," Katia began once they were a fair distance from the diner, "I think she likes you."
"What makes you say that," Jarod asked, only slightly paying attention.
"She never flirts with anyone. She hasn't been on a date since she woke up."
"Maybe it's just a sign that she's feeling better," Jarod replied, still not giving her his full attention.
"Maybe, but that still doesn't explain why she told you so much. She hasn't sat down and told anyone her story like that since before the stranger came and visited her."
"Stranger," Jarod asked, recognizing small town gossip when he heard it. He was actually surprised that a town this large would still have this sort of gossip, but he assumed that an amnesiac waitress as pretty and intelligent as Parker would naturally attract attention.
"Yeah, they say he was missing his thumb, but I think that's just gossip. I saw him, and I didn't notice it. He was about your height with a slightly slimmer build, but he scared the crap out of Nell, no one saw her for an entire day after he spoke with her. Bill wouldn't talk about it either. When she came down she stopped looking for her past and she refused to say anything about it to anyone. You're the first person she's even broached the subject with." The cheerful teenager was trying to set her savior up with her tutor, but she was giving Jarod far more information than she knew.
'Lyle,' Jarod wondered to himself. There was suddenly a distinct possibility that Parker's death had been faked by someone else and she was telling him the truth. That was by far the reason he desired to be true in respect to her falsified demise, but this was the first possible proof that he had. "Did you see this stranger," Jarod asked aloud.
"Yes, but only from afar, and he did wear one black glove in a sort of Michael Jackson I'm-Bad way, but I don't think it was to hide the fact that he's thumbless."
'Definitely Lyle,' Jarod thought, and he could not keep a smile from his face. "That look went out a long time ago, didn't it?"
"I suppose," Katia replied with a laugh. "Anyway, this is me. Thank you for the escort. And thanks again for the saving my life bit." She squeezed him quickly around his middle.
"Anytime to either," Jarod replied, returning the hug briefly. He returned to his hotel room. During the first month after her death he had searched furiously and without sleep for any record that it could have been falsified. Even now, with a villain to look for, he knew he would find nothing and another search could let someone know she'd been found. Instead, he worked to find the best way to restore his friend's memory.
Katia could hear a sickening smack as her head hit the brick wall a few seconds after her body did. She was almost too afraid to feel the pain, however, and the leather glove gripping her throat was certainly distracting. A silver knife came from somewhere, glinting in the dark alley. She wanted to scream, but somehow the hot breath of her attacker stifled coherent thought as easily as his fist clenched about her throat caught any sound she could hope to make.
Then, suddenly, the pressure of his body pressed against hers was gone. She sank to the ground and soon a warm voice startled her out of her reprieve. "Are you all right," the man asked, causing her to look up at him. He had trustworthy brown eyes, and the outstretched hand looked both strong and non-threatening. She took it and he helped her up.
"You don't appear to be injured," Jarod said steadying the girl while he spoke, "Is there somewhere I can take you?"
"Nell's," the girl whispered shakily. Nell's seemed to refer to the diner on the corner just beyond the ally. Maybe the girl worked there.
"My name is Jarod, by the way," he introduced himself. He didn't have a last name, he was just passing through this town; he didn't plan on staying long enough to need a name or an occupation.
"Katia," the teenager said, her voice still trembling. He held the door open for the girl while she entered the empty restaurant. It was late, and the place would probably close soon. The only inhabitant of glowing diner was a waitress in a soft yellow uniform who came rushing over to the girl the minute they were inside.
"Katia, are you alright. Sit down and tell me what happened," the woman said, kindly helping the girl who was still nursing her head to a booth. The girl seemed much better for seeing a friendly face, and she answered in a complete sentence, although her voice still shook. Jarod, however, noticed none of these details.
"I was attacked in the alley. Jarod chased the guy away and saved me." The waitress turned her attention to the man for the first time, and he got a clear view of her eyes. Then he realized he'd done nothing but stare at her the entire time he stood just within the doorway.
"Well, I guess that makes you a hero, Jarod," the waitress said, offering him a cocky smirk, "Have a seat. Heroes and shocked victims both get free pie here." Jarod returned the smile weakly, and the girl brightened considerably.
"What sort of pie do you want," Nell asked with a smile that could launch ten thousand ships. "The apple is still warm, it came out of the oven two hours ago for the late night sweet teeth we always seem to get, but there are still a few pieces left, there is also cherry and French Silk if you like your pie cool. Katia will be having apple, of course, she needs comfort food."
"Apple sounds delicious," Jarod said after giving himself a mental shake and remembering to be charming and act casually.
"Terrific, I'll be right back," Nell stated with a smile. Jarod smiled reassuringly at Katia, but he hardly knew she was there. His mind whirled with the possibilities that the woman fetching pie was really Miss Parker, that he had not seen her body deathly still in its coffin, nor heard a great deal of detail about the internment from Sydney. He toyed with the possibility of a clone or another twin, but he ruled out both of those as possibilities. If she was Parker, she was doing a great job of pretending not to recognize him. Over the last three months, thirteen days, he had 'seen' Parker too many times to count, but her voice, her overall manner had never stood up to scrutiny like this. He was utterly confused and he didn't have time to work out every possible explanation because Nell was coming back with pie.
After setting a piece of pie in front of the two customers, she poured three cups of coffee and sat down without preamble. "So, Mister Jarod, can you tell me what happened to shake up Katia this badly?"
"I'm not the best witness," Jarod said slowly, "I was walking past the alley and I saw movement. I looked a little closer and I saw a guy with a knife pinning her to the wall. I shouted and chased after him, but he had too much of a start and I decided to check on her rather than continue pursuit. If she can't identify him, we'll never find him." The way Jarod growled the last part of his statement led Nell to believe that he didn't really like back-alley bullies.
"You seem to know a lot about this," she said with a soft smile, "Are you a police officer or do you just make it a habit to rescue the weak and abused?"
"Closer to the second than the first," Jarod said, returning the smile and panicking in an attempt to garner hints that she knew who he was.
"Yes, I'll bet you're a regular Onysius," she smirked flirtatiously.
"What did you call me," Jarod asked, fighting to keep his voice steady. Was she hinting? Did she fake her death? Was he grasping at straws?
"Probably means something in ancient Mesopotamian," Katia cut in with a smile, she seemed to be feeling much better after her pie. "We take bets on what Nell was before she lost her memory. I always go with professor because she knows everything there is to know."
"Actually," Nell cut in, "he was the Greek god of"
"Retribution," Jarod finished. "He is symbolized by an angel with broken wings: I was just surprised by the comparison."
"Wow," the two women said at the same time, for very different reasons.
"Someone who knows what Nell is talking about," Katia said sarcastically.
"A knight in shining armor who actually has something inside his helmet," Nell practically purred. Jarod's brain was still simulating every possible reason Nell could look and act so much like Parker, so his conversation was running on autopilot, but he could tell she was flirting with him.
"Katia mentioned that you don't know what you were before you came here," Jarod said, changing the subject rather abruptly and trying not to look directly into her eyes.
"Yeah," Nell said, still smiling, but she seemed a little hesitant to talk about the new topic. "Three months ago I woke up in the hospital here with no idea who I was and no one at the hospital seemed to know how I'd gotten there. I didn't even have a chart. Luckily, I met Billy and he offered me a waitressing job and a place to stay. I didn't have a name, so he started calling me Nell, said I reminded him of his wife."
"She's being modest," Katia cut in with a smile, her ordeal was completely forgotten by this point. "Bill was in serious trouble and everyone in town knew it, when Nell died, her hospital bills left Billy in debt in a bad way. He was going to lose the restaurant, but Nell got his books in order within a week and her pies didn't do anything but help."
"So it only took you three months to become a fixture in this town," Jarod asked with a polite grin, wanting to confirm the timeframe more desperately than he'd ever wanted anything.
"I'm not exactly a fixture," Nell said, blushing and looking down at the table.
"Actually, she is, especially with the high school students. Nell runs a bit of a tutoring service that helps to keep the restaurant packed from three to six." Katia took a sip of her coffee and waited for Nell to get mad.
"I told you not to call it that," Nell said, her voice freezing over so suddenly that Jarod knew, for the first time, she could not be anyone but Miss Parker.
"I'm sorry Nell," Katia said, meekly setting down her mug and surreptitiously glancing at Jarod for help. "I was just joking."
"What is it, then," Jarod intervened quickly, "if it isn't a tutoring service."
"I don't know," Nell said, rolling her eyes. "I just happen to have a lot of high school students come in to the diner around then. I wouldn't have any other customers then, so I don't mind if they sit and just order fries and pie, high school students are snackers."
"Yes," Katia continued in a completely serious tone of voice, "And since they are there anyway, it makes total sense for you to explain complex calculus and physics while you pour coffee." Jarod laughed aloud when Nell smiled guiltily.
"I hope they tip you well," he said.
"Oh they do," Nell replied, her guilty smile turning into a fond one. "Katia here wrote a poem about 'The Know-It-All Waitress' for her English assignment last week. It was the nicest tip I've ever gotten." Katia blushed furiously and didn't speak. A subtle vengeance, Jarod noted, but he had no doubt about it being an intentional one.
"So," Jarod said, changing the subject for the teenager's sake, "If you recall everything from Greek lore to calculus, how is it that you don't remember anything about your past?"
Nell shrugged with disinterest, but Jarod saw something he could almost call fear behind her eyes. "I haven't really tried to remember anything, it's obvious that no one cared about be because no one has come looking. To answer your question technically, the doctor said it's not uncommon for amnesiac patients to remember information and not remember learning it."
"I just can't believe you wouldn't try to find your family," Jarod said slowly, his eyes searching her face for any sign at all. "I was taken from my family as a boy and I've spent every spare minute I have searching for them." She did not react to his words in any way other than to offer a sympathetic smile that did not quite reach her eyes.
"I hope they want you when you find them," she said softly, her expression carefully maintained, but her eyes flinched ever so slightly. "I've read about children, who were put up for adoption, trying to find their parents only to be horribly disappointed in the end."
"I wasn't adopted," Jarod said still smiling without force, "I know they wanted me as a boy, and I'm positive they'll be happy to have me back."
"I hope so," Nell said, still smiling, but the look in her eyes said she wanted to be anywhere else.
"Well, I'd love to stay and chat all night, Nell, but I told my mum I'd be home soon and I don't want her to worry," Katia said, breaking the tension.
"I'll walk you before I head back to my hotel, it wouldn't do for you to be attacked twice in one night," Jarod offered with his trademarked grin.
"Thank you," Katia accepted graciously. "Bye, then Nell. Thank you for the pie."
"Yes, thank you very much," Jarod mimicked, "It was really great to meet you."
"How long are you in town for," Nell asked, shaking Jarod's proffered hand.
"A little while, why?"
"You're really only the second night in shining armor I've met in the past three months, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of you. Stop by again before you skip town," she said with a smile.
"Will do," Jarod promised, the warmth in his eyes growing without bounds. "Good night, then."
"Sweet dreams," Nell called after them as they left the warm golden light of the diner to make their way through the unlit streets of the small town.
"You know," Katia began once they were a fair distance from the diner, "I think she likes you."
"What makes you say that," Jarod asked, only slightly paying attention.
"She never flirts with anyone. She hasn't been on a date since she woke up."
"Maybe it's just a sign that she's feeling better," Jarod replied, still not giving her his full attention.
"Maybe, but that still doesn't explain why she told you so much. She hasn't sat down and told anyone her story like that since before the stranger came and visited her."
"Stranger," Jarod asked, recognizing small town gossip when he heard it. He was actually surprised that a town this large would still have this sort of gossip, but he assumed that an amnesiac waitress as pretty and intelligent as Parker would naturally attract attention.
"Yeah, they say he was missing his thumb, but I think that's just gossip. I saw him, and I didn't notice it. He was about your height with a slightly slimmer build, but he scared the crap out of Nell, no one saw her for an entire day after he spoke with her. Bill wouldn't talk about it either. When she came down she stopped looking for her past and she refused to say anything about it to anyone. You're the first person she's even broached the subject with." The cheerful teenager was trying to set her savior up with her tutor, but she was giving Jarod far more information than she knew.
'Lyle,' Jarod wondered to himself. There was suddenly a distinct possibility that Parker's death had been faked by someone else and she was telling him the truth. That was by far the reason he desired to be true in respect to her falsified demise, but this was the first possible proof that he had. "Did you see this stranger," Jarod asked aloud.
"Yes, but only from afar, and he did wear one black glove in a sort of Michael Jackson I'm-Bad way, but I don't think it was to hide the fact that he's thumbless."
'Definitely Lyle,' Jarod thought, and he could not keep a smile from his face. "That look went out a long time ago, didn't it?"
"I suppose," Katia replied with a laugh. "Anyway, this is me. Thank you for the escort. And thanks again for the saving my life bit." She squeezed him quickly around his middle.
"Anytime to either," Jarod replied, returning the hug briefly. He returned to his hotel room. During the first month after her death he had searched furiously and without sleep for any record that it could have been falsified. Even now, with a villain to look for, he knew he would find nothing and another search could let someone know she'd been found. Instead, he worked to find the best way to restore his friend's memory.
