i) A little seasonal story. Oh, and Guy Fawkes night (bonfire night) is as big, if not bigger, than Hallowe'en over here.
ii) 'When the fireworks in me are all gone,
Well then I realised,
And I don't need convincing,
I've seen enough to want to change things,
You fell in love and I fell in line,
Thought I'd found my place,
Before I knew how much it cost to play it safe.'
(Embrace, 'Fireworks')
'Fireworks'
Miss Parker pulled the scarf a little tighter then hugged her arms around her slender figure. She thought she must be out of her mind, really just what was she doing? Less than forty eight hours ago she was safely ensconsed in her own, warm home; now she was five thousand miles away in another country, standing in a field in the dark with a bunch of total strangers - who seemed to be enjoying themselves a little too much given the circumstances. At the trill of the phone she quickly unleashed one hand, "What?" Her greeting, though familiar, lacked the usual bite, she knew exactly who would be on the other end of the line.
"You got my gifts then?" Jarod asked casually.
Her journey had begun with a postcard from Jarod; a picturesque village scene on one side, the other simply stating ' Wish you were here'. In the early days of her pursuit of the elusive pretender, indeed up until recently, she would have had Sydney and Broots do their 'stuff' and off they all would have trooped to some godforsaken hell hole that Jarod had made his home for a brief period, only to find he had left. On the odd occasion she would get to posture loudly with her gun and make some snide comments when their paths crossed. But she hadn't done either of those things for some time. "Wow Jarod, you really are as smart as they say you are."
"Missed you too, Parker", he bit back.
Jarod had been strangely quiet since that whole episode in Scotland. That phone call, the one where she had reiterated the rules of the hunt, had been the last contact she'd had with him. There had been no clues, no taunts, no nothing. Jarod had effectively disappeared off the face of the Earth until two days ago when he had sent her that postcard.
It had arrived early morning, she had been on her way out to work when she found it slipped under the door. The destinctive familiar script had made her stop in her tracks and she'd stood just inside of the door, one hand placed flat against it reassuringly, a plethora of emotions fighting for attention within her.
"Parker?", Jarod asked when she remained silent.
"What?" She had followed his clues, a little research was all that had been required on her part; tracing the postcard to a post office in a small village, the same village pictured on the postcard, in England. There she'd found he'd left a package for her in the care of the postmistress containing a scarf, gloves and a cell phone - thoughtfully with a charged battery. She'd turned the phone on immediately, expecting Jarod to have been watching her every move since she arrived in the country but there was nothing; it had remained switched on since. The keeper of the package had helpfully informed her of 'Jarod Johnson's' plans but only after she'd had to endure a good half hour lecture on Jarod's virtues. So she followed his trail, arriving at her current location less than an hour ago.
Jarod sighed. "I was hoping you would come alone."
"I'm not alone Jarod, I'm stood in a field with a thousand other people!" She hadn't even considered involving The Centre, not this time. She'd had to put up with Raines and Lyle for too long now, the only saving grace being that Lyle had been as unsuccessful as herself in Jarod's pursuit. Raines had been putting on ever increasing pressure to get results and even the normally unflappable Lyle was beginning to show signs of stress. She'd briefly contemplated the postcard being some kind of trick by her brother but she figured Lyle wasn't smart enough to pull it off.
"Oh I would say there are maybe three or four times as many as that", Jarod chirped.
"What the Hell is going on?" She switched hands, and consequently pockets, trying to keep them both warm. She wished she had told Sydney, not where she was going - though she thought she could trust him with that - but that Jarod was okay. The older man had been worried about Jarod's abscence, especially after the events on Carthis. She hadn't told him everything that had occurred, she couldn't. She could barely admit to herself what had almost happened. Whilst Sydney fretted more and more about his protege's state of mind after coming so close to meeting his mother, she became equally mindful; had she missed her chance?, was she fated to remain at The Centre?, had something happened to Jarod? It was the latter that worried her most - and the innumerable outcomes that she pictured.
"November the fifth. Or fifth of November, as we're on this side of the Atlantic. It's Guy Fawkes night Miss Parker", Jarod explained without really shedding any light on the matter. At her frustrated sigh he continued, "Fireworks, bonfires, food."
"Sounds, and looks, like a kids event", Miss Parker muttered, observing the amount of people under four foot tall. "That would explain your prescence." The question that had been at the back of her mind since she arrived almost an hour ago tugged at her again, what was she doing here?
"It's centred on a dark tale, Miss Parker. Plot, treason, torture."
She closed her eyes, she knew all about plot, treason and torture. So did Jarod. The Centre positively thrived on those concepts.
"There was a conspiracy to blow up Parliament, in the process killing the King. The goal was to install a more sympathetic monarch and end the persecution that was rife at that time. The conspirators were forced to live double lives because of their religion."
She thought briefly of her mother's life, one that five years ago she had been so sure of but now she knew there had been another part of that life she'd been kept out of. A life her mother had chosen because morally she could not ignore what was going on around her; a habit Miss Parker had not inherited from her mother.
Jarod continued, "Guy Fawkes' name is synonomous with this night as he was the one caught under Parliament with barrels of gunpowder. Interestingly there's a theory that the plot was prevented by a William Parker; he had been warned not to attend Parliament on November the fifth. It's thought that one of the conspirators may have tipped him off."
She remained silent as her thoughts turned to her father, if he even was her father. Mr Parker's body had yet to appear, leaving her in limbo. Half of the time she expected him to breeze into her office as if nothing had ever happened, the other half she managed to convince herself that he was dead - along with any answers he may have held.
"Now the torture was quite something. After rounding up all the conspirators and torturing them into pleading guilty they were sentenced to death. Not a quick painless one, they were hung until half dead then cut down and disembowelled. They were still alive at this point but not for much longer. Their hearts were extracted, then their bodies were decapitated and dismembered. Almost four centuries later an effigy of 'Guy' is still burnt on a bonfire on the night of November fifth."
She slowly opened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. "Thanks for the history lesson, but what am I doing here?" Jarod's penchant for games had certainly not deserted him but the story had made her assess her own life yet again. As Jarod's clues always did.
Jarod smiled into his phone, "Good question, maybe you'd like to answer it yourself?"
Miss Parker snorted angrily, "You sent for me, Jarod! No word for months and then suddenly you literally demand my attendance. Sydney has been a nightmare to deal with." That wasn't strictly true; Sydney was no more a pain than usual. She was angrier than she expected to be, the relief that Jarod was alive had been her overriding emotion since she received the postcard. Now that was beginning to wear off, partly because of Jarod's insistence on playing these games and partly because he hadn't even acknowledged how his abscence had affected others. Something she herself was struggling with.
"He was worried?", Jarod asked hesitantly.
Miss Parker sighed and tried to temper her anger at him. Sometimes she found it hard to understand how dumb he could be at times. It was obvious to her that the psychiatrist had more than a professional attitude towards Jarod. "Jarod, I could have had this conversation with you from Delaware. Why here? Why now?"
"You look a little cold Miss Parker, even with the scarf. Almost as cold as Carthis, isn't it?" Jarod avoided answering her question.
She turned slowly on the spot, her eyes searching the throng of people for one particular man, but it was too dark to make anything, or anyone, out unless it was two feet in front. "Yes." She hadn't blocked out what had happened, far from it - she could still picture him now. That conversation, his voice, his eyes and lips, how close she'd came. How close they'd both came.
"After everything that happened, I needed to get away. I needed time to think", Jarod said softly, finally answering the question.
"For a genius you sure took your time." She couldn't refrain from teasing him, it was part of their 'game' after all. He taunted her, woke her in the middle of the night, goaded her with clues about her family's past, interfered in her personal life, and generally annoyed the Hell out of her. She got to wave her gun at him. Wasn't much of a deal so she took to hitting back using his methods. As petty as it was for two adults to behave this way she found it hard to stop. A little voice told her it was a way of ignoring something deeper.
Jarod chuckled dryly, "For a genius I'm pretty stupid sometimes. If The Centre knew they'd call off the search."
"That's some journey of self discovery, Jarod. I could have told you that for free and saved you the bother." She set off, slowly walking through the crowd. It was more of an attempt to get warm than to find Jarod. Knowing him he'd be well hidden, but in a position that he could observe her, probably with night vision goggles. She'd always grudgingly admired his carefully set traps - but only when they caught other people.
"Sometimes the hardest route is the best way", Jarod whispered thoughtfully.
She mingled in between young families, couples and groups of youths, golden leaves crunching under her feet. She presumed they were all waiting for the fireworks to commence, why else would they be stood in the middle of a field in November. At least they knew why they were there.
"Would you like to know what I discovered?", Jarod asked seriously.
"England? Hate to burst your bubble but you're a few centuries too late." It was surprising how she just slipped right back into the role.
"No, that's not it at all", Jarod uttered weakly.
"Jarod?", she asked hopefully as a cold silence filled the air. For a long desperate moment she'd thought she'd lost him and she hadn't come all this way for nothing. Her first intuition, upon receiving his 'invitation', was that Jarod had discovered something about the scrolls. Or even something about her father's fate. That Jarod had contacted her outside of The Centre caused her to reassess; it had to be something that involved only herself.
Her soft tones seemed to bring him to life again. "I found out I'm a jerk."
She almost made a comment about it being true but managed to bite her tongue. Miss Parker slowed to a halt and looked around again, to no avail. And she wasn't any warmer either. "Who told you that?"
Jarod sighed again, "There was this woman I'd met, we'd kept in touch. I'd visit her whenever I could, she wanted me to stay but I always refused; told myself, and her, it was too dangerous."
"It would have been Jarod, for both of you", Miss Parker warned gently, the reason for his abscence now strikingly apparent.
"Maybe", Jarod postulated.
She could imagine the arrogant son of a bitch shrugging his shoulders as he spoke, he thought he could stay on the run forever. He probably could have as well. "Is that why she called you a jerk?"
"No. After my last conversation with you I went back to her, asked if I could stay."
Miss Parker sighed, this was really Sydney's area, but asked the question anyway - she wanted to know. "So what did you do to change her mind?" She felt like they were skirting around the most obvious topic.
"I was pretending." Jarod laughed hollowly, "Something I've been doing successfully for some time. But I couldn't go on with my pretend. She deserved someone who was in love with her, not some jerk in love with another woman."
"You're right, she does. And she was right too, you are a jerk Jarod", Miss Parker agreed, giving in to her earlier urge. She stared at the ground, suddenly conscious of the fact that she was in Jarod's sight. She steeled herself for his next words, not sure if it was out of optimism or apprehension.
Jarod laughed again, this time a deep chuckle. "Yeah, a jerk who's in love with you."
Miss Parker stood stock still, afraid she had misheard. "What?" The same words that she had used since day one now took on a whole different connotation; her voice was soft and faint and it really was a question, asked hopefully, rather than the usual demand. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as she waited for his reply.
"I'm crazy about you Parker", Jarod affirmed. "I'm tired of pretending that I'm not. I want you, I've wanted you for so long."
She swallowed hard. A small voice chided her for the relief she felt but she did what she usually did to her feelings for Jarod and ignored it. Wasn't that why she came out here alone, after all; why she hadn't brought her gun along for the ride, why, at this exact moment, no one at The Centre knew where she was. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, years of training kicking in.
"Parker?"
The first firework of the night exploded into the sky, the fragmented chattering she'd overheard from bystanders morphed into a rousing cheer that almost matched the boom of the explosion. The bright primary colours lit up the crowd and for the briefest of moments she was able to distinguish each and every individual around her, only for the scene to fade back into shadows all too soon. But in that moment she knew she didn't want to be in the shadows any longer.
"That night in front of the fire", Jarod began when she failed to respond again, "I was almost thought I could be with you. When you made it clear where we both stood I tried to forget."
Miss Parker remained silent while he spoke.
"I thought I could find this connection, this thing between us that I don't even understand, somewhere else, with someone else; I was wrong. There are only fireworks with you."
As he finished another firework lit up the sky and she wondered exactly how much of this he had planned. A war that had raged inside her for too long finally came to a close, one side victorious. "Did I say, 'You run, I chase'?" She wasn't sure if it was the beating of her heart or the crack of the firework, but she was having trouble hearing even her own words.
"Yes", Jarod answered cautiously.
She knew he was taking a risk, he'd probably been stewing over this for months. There was always a chance that she would have turned up here with sweepers in tow. Miss Parker began to walk slowly, her smile only apparent to others, if they bothered to look, when another firework ran it's course across the dark sky. "What I meant was I run, you chase. I'm tired of the old rules." She headed towards the perimeter of the crowd, not sure if she was going towards or away from him.
"What do I get when I catch you?" he spoke quietly into the phone as he stood rooted to the spot.
She smiled into the phone at his teasing question, "Me. You get me Jarod."
Jarod remained still a moment longer, his hesitancy costing him his visual on her. "I think I like these new rules", he said as he dived into the crowd, towards her general direction.
She dodged in and out of the crowd with ease, feeling almost light headed. No thoughts of The Centre invaded her mind. Despite the relatively short physical distance between her and the imposing building in Blue Cove she actually felt a million miles away from that life. She shot a glance over her shoulder to locate her pursuer and at that moment a huge explosion overhead cast a white light over the whole crowd.
"I see you, Parker", Jarod warned as the light diminished.
Miss Parker swerved to her left but slowed her pace, she did want to be caught after all.
"Got you", Jarod whispered into her ear a moment later.
She turned round to face him and took in his appearance. His hair was shorter than the last time she'd seen him and he was clean shaven, a hand knitted scarf tucked under his chin and into his coat. She switched off the phone and shoved it into her pocket whilst trying to stop her heart from racing. "You've been following me from the start."
He grinned at her and deposited his own phone into his coat pocket. "First rule of the hunt; know exactly where your pursuers are at all times."
"So that's where I went wrong", Miss Parker said with a smile.
"I do believe you actually wanted to be caught." Reaching over he tentatively traced one hand down her cheek. "You're freezing", he whispered.
She nodded her head mutely, his feather-like touch and close proximity momentarily striking her dumbstruck. They stared into each others eyes as the seconds ticked away and above them more fireworks exploded, occasionally the flashes of light allowing them more appreciative views. She could see in his eyes the same desire she'd witnessed at Ocee's; only this time she was determined nothing would stop them acting upon that. She swallowed hard and found her voice, "Aren't you going to claim your prize?"
Jarod grinned even wider at her suggestion, and at the accompanying twinkle in her eyes, as she said it. He hesitated just a moment longer, memorising the moment, then leaned in towards her lips.
What started as a gentle, tentative kiss soon deepened by mutual consent. A loud 'Ahh' from the crowd caused them to part a minute or so later, self consciously looking around only to find the nearest patrons still craning their necks at the sky, oblivious to them both.
She grinned at him and he enveloped her in an embrace. She leant her head against his cheek, "I'm starting to thaw, Jarod", she whispered into his ear.
ii) 'When the fireworks in me are all gone,
Well then I realised,
And I don't need convincing,
I've seen enough to want to change things,
You fell in love and I fell in line,
Thought I'd found my place,
Before I knew how much it cost to play it safe.'
(Embrace, 'Fireworks')
'Fireworks'
Miss Parker pulled the scarf a little tighter then hugged her arms around her slender figure. She thought she must be out of her mind, really just what was she doing? Less than forty eight hours ago she was safely ensconsed in her own, warm home; now she was five thousand miles away in another country, standing in a field in the dark with a bunch of total strangers - who seemed to be enjoying themselves a little too much given the circumstances. At the trill of the phone she quickly unleashed one hand, "What?" Her greeting, though familiar, lacked the usual bite, she knew exactly who would be on the other end of the line.
"You got my gifts then?" Jarod asked casually.
Her journey had begun with a postcard from Jarod; a picturesque village scene on one side, the other simply stating ' Wish you were here'. In the early days of her pursuit of the elusive pretender, indeed up until recently, she would have had Sydney and Broots do their 'stuff' and off they all would have trooped to some godforsaken hell hole that Jarod had made his home for a brief period, only to find he had left. On the odd occasion she would get to posture loudly with her gun and make some snide comments when their paths crossed. But she hadn't done either of those things for some time. "Wow Jarod, you really are as smart as they say you are."
"Missed you too, Parker", he bit back.
Jarod had been strangely quiet since that whole episode in Scotland. That phone call, the one where she had reiterated the rules of the hunt, had been the last contact she'd had with him. There had been no clues, no taunts, no nothing. Jarod had effectively disappeared off the face of the Earth until two days ago when he had sent her that postcard.
It had arrived early morning, she had been on her way out to work when she found it slipped under the door. The destinctive familiar script had made her stop in her tracks and she'd stood just inside of the door, one hand placed flat against it reassuringly, a plethora of emotions fighting for attention within her.
"Parker?", Jarod asked when she remained silent.
"What?" She had followed his clues, a little research was all that had been required on her part; tracing the postcard to a post office in a small village, the same village pictured on the postcard, in England. There she'd found he'd left a package for her in the care of the postmistress containing a scarf, gloves and a cell phone - thoughtfully with a charged battery. She'd turned the phone on immediately, expecting Jarod to have been watching her every move since she arrived in the country but there was nothing; it had remained switched on since. The keeper of the package had helpfully informed her of 'Jarod Johnson's' plans but only after she'd had to endure a good half hour lecture on Jarod's virtues. So she followed his trail, arriving at her current location less than an hour ago.
Jarod sighed. "I was hoping you would come alone."
"I'm not alone Jarod, I'm stood in a field with a thousand other people!" She hadn't even considered involving The Centre, not this time. She'd had to put up with Raines and Lyle for too long now, the only saving grace being that Lyle had been as unsuccessful as herself in Jarod's pursuit. Raines had been putting on ever increasing pressure to get results and even the normally unflappable Lyle was beginning to show signs of stress. She'd briefly contemplated the postcard being some kind of trick by her brother but she figured Lyle wasn't smart enough to pull it off.
"Oh I would say there are maybe three or four times as many as that", Jarod chirped.
"What the Hell is going on?" She switched hands, and consequently pockets, trying to keep them both warm. She wished she had told Sydney, not where she was going - though she thought she could trust him with that - but that Jarod was okay. The older man had been worried about Jarod's abscence, especially after the events on Carthis. She hadn't told him everything that had occurred, she couldn't. She could barely admit to herself what had almost happened. Whilst Sydney fretted more and more about his protege's state of mind after coming so close to meeting his mother, she became equally mindful; had she missed her chance?, was she fated to remain at The Centre?, had something happened to Jarod? It was the latter that worried her most - and the innumerable outcomes that she pictured.
"November the fifth. Or fifth of November, as we're on this side of the Atlantic. It's Guy Fawkes night Miss Parker", Jarod explained without really shedding any light on the matter. At her frustrated sigh he continued, "Fireworks, bonfires, food."
"Sounds, and looks, like a kids event", Miss Parker muttered, observing the amount of people under four foot tall. "That would explain your prescence." The question that had been at the back of her mind since she arrived almost an hour ago tugged at her again, what was she doing here?
"It's centred on a dark tale, Miss Parker. Plot, treason, torture."
She closed her eyes, she knew all about plot, treason and torture. So did Jarod. The Centre positively thrived on those concepts.
"There was a conspiracy to blow up Parliament, in the process killing the King. The goal was to install a more sympathetic monarch and end the persecution that was rife at that time. The conspirators were forced to live double lives because of their religion."
She thought briefly of her mother's life, one that five years ago she had been so sure of but now she knew there had been another part of that life she'd been kept out of. A life her mother had chosen because morally she could not ignore what was going on around her; a habit Miss Parker had not inherited from her mother.
Jarod continued, "Guy Fawkes' name is synonomous with this night as he was the one caught under Parliament with barrels of gunpowder. Interestingly there's a theory that the plot was prevented by a William Parker; he had been warned not to attend Parliament on November the fifth. It's thought that one of the conspirators may have tipped him off."
She remained silent as her thoughts turned to her father, if he even was her father. Mr Parker's body had yet to appear, leaving her in limbo. Half of the time she expected him to breeze into her office as if nothing had ever happened, the other half she managed to convince herself that he was dead - along with any answers he may have held.
"Now the torture was quite something. After rounding up all the conspirators and torturing them into pleading guilty they were sentenced to death. Not a quick painless one, they were hung until half dead then cut down and disembowelled. They were still alive at this point but not for much longer. Their hearts were extracted, then their bodies were decapitated and dismembered. Almost four centuries later an effigy of 'Guy' is still burnt on a bonfire on the night of November fifth."
She slowly opened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. "Thanks for the history lesson, but what am I doing here?" Jarod's penchant for games had certainly not deserted him but the story had made her assess her own life yet again. As Jarod's clues always did.
Jarod smiled into his phone, "Good question, maybe you'd like to answer it yourself?"
Miss Parker snorted angrily, "You sent for me, Jarod! No word for months and then suddenly you literally demand my attendance. Sydney has been a nightmare to deal with." That wasn't strictly true; Sydney was no more a pain than usual. She was angrier than she expected to be, the relief that Jarod was alive had been her overriding emotion since she received the postcard. Now that was beginning to wear off, partly because of Jarod's insistence on playing these games and partly because he hadn't even acknowledged how his abscence had affected others. Something she herself was struggling with.
"He was worried?", Jarod asked hesitantly.
Miss Parker sighed and tried to temper her anger at him. Sometimes she found it hard to understand how dumb he could be at times. It was obvious to her that the psychiatrist had more than a professional attitude towards Jarod. "Jarod, I could have had this conversation with you from Delaware. Why here? Why now?"
"You look a little cold Miss Parker, even with the scarf. Almost as cold as Carthis, isn't it?" Jarod avoided answering her question.
She turned slowly on the spot, her eyes searching the throng of people for one particular man, but it was too dark to make anything, or anyone, out unless it was two feet in front. "Yes." She hadn't blocked out what had happened, far from it - she could still picture him now. That conversation, his voice, his eyes and lips, how close she'd came. How close they'd both came.
"After everything that happened, I needed to get away. I needed time to think", Jarod said softly, finally answering the question.
"For a genius you sure took your time." She couldn't refrain from teasing him, it was part of their 'game' after all. He taunted her, woke her in the middle of the night, goaded her with clues about her family's past, interfered in her personal life, and generally annoyed the Hell out of her. She got to wave her gun at him. Wasn't much of a deal so she took to hitting back using his methods. As petty as it was for two adults to behave this way she found it hard to stop. A little voice told her it was a way of ignoring something deeper.
Jarod chuckled dryly, "For a genius I'm pretty stupid sometimes. If The Centre knew they'd call off the search."
"That's some journey of self discovery, Jarod. I could have told you that for free and saved you the bother." She set off, slowly walking through the crowd. It was more of an attempt to get warm than to find Jarod. Knowing him he'd be well hidden, but in a position that he could observe her, probably with night vision goggles. She'd always grudgingly admired his carefully set traps - but only when they caught other people.
"Sometimes the hardest route is the best way", Jarod whispered thoughtfully.
She mingled in between young families, couples and groups of youths, golden leaves crunching under her feet. She presumed they were all waiting for the fireworks to commence, why else would they be stood in the middle of a field in November. At least they knew why they were there.
"Would you like to know what I discovered?", Jarod asked seriously.
"England? Hate to burst your bubble but you're a few centuries too late." It was surprising how she just slipped right back into the role.
"No, that's not it at all", Jarod uttered weakly.
"Jarod?", she asked hopefully as a cold silence filled the air. For a long desperate moment she'd thought she'd lost him and she hadn't come all this way for nothing. Her first intuition, upon receiving his 'invitation', was that Jarod had discovered something about the scrolls. Or even something about her father's fate. That Jarod had contacted her outside of The Centre caused her to reassess; it had to be something that involved only herself.
Her soft tones seemed to bring him to life again. "I found out I'm a jerk."
She almost made a comment about it being true but managed to bite her tongue. Miss Parker slowed to a halt and looked around again, to no avail. And she wasn't any warmer either. "Who told you that?"
Jarod sighed again, "There was this woman I'd met, we'd kept in touch. I'd visit her whenever I could, she wanted me to stay but I always refused; told myself, and her, it was too dangerous."
"It would have been Jarod, for both of you", Miss Parker warned gently, the reason for his abscence now strikingly apparent.
"Maybe", Jarod postulated.
She could imagine the arrogant son of a bitch shrugging his shoulders as he spoke, he thought he could stay on the run forever. He probably could have as well. "Is that why she called you a jerk?"
"No. After my last conversation with you I went back to her, asked if I could stay."
Miss Parker sighed, this was really Sydney's area, but asked the question anyway - she wanted to know. "So what did you do to change her mind?" She felt like they were skirting around the most obvious topic.
"I was pretending." Jarod laughed hollowly, "Something I've been doing successfully for some time. But I couldn't go on with my pretend. She deserved someone who was in love with her, not some jerk in love with another woman."
"You're right, she does. And she was right too, you are a jerk Jarod", Miss Parker agreed, giving in to her earlier urge. She stared at the ground, suddenly conscious of the fact that she was in Jarod's sight. She steeled herself for his next words, not sure if it was out of optimism or apprehension.
Jarod laughed again, this time a deep chuckle. "Yeah, a jerk who's in love with you."
Miss Parker stood stock still, afraid she had misheard. "What?" The same words that she had used since day one now took on a whole different connotation; her voice was soft and faint and it really was a question, asked hopefully, rather than the usual demand. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as she waited for his reply.
"I'm crazy about you Parker", Jarod affirmed. "I'm tired of pretending that I'm not. I want you, I've wanted you for so long."
She swallowed hard. A small voice chided her for the relief she felt but she did what she usually did to her feelings for Jarod and ignored it. Wasn't that why she came out here alone, after all; why she hadn't brought her gun along for the ride, why, at this exact moment, no one at The Centre knew where she was. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it again, years of training kicking in.
"Parker?"
The first firework of the night exploded into the sky, the fragmented chattering she'd overheard from bystanders morphed into a rousing cheer that almost matched the boom of the explosion. The bright primary colours lit up the crowd and for the briefest of moments she was able to distinguish each and every individual around her, only for the scene to fade back into shadows all too soon. But in that moment she knew she didn't want to be in the shadows any longer.
"That night in front of the fire", Jarod began when she failed to respond again, "I was almost thought I could be with you. When you made it clear where we both stood I tried to forget."
Miss Parker remained silent while he spoke.
"I thought I could find this connection, this thing between us that I don't even understand, somewhere else, with someone else; I was wrong. There are only fireworks with you."
As he finished another firework lit up the sky and she wondered exactly how much of this he had planned. A war that had raged inside her for too long finally came to a close, one side victorious. "Did I say, 'You run, I chase'?" She wasn't sure if it was the beating of her heart or the crack of the firework, but she was having trouble hearing even her own words.
"Yes", Jarod answered cautiously.
She knew he was taking a risk, he'd probably been stewing over this for months. There was always a chance that she would have turned up here with sweepers in tow. Miss Parker began to walk slowly, her smile only apparent to others, if they bothered to look, when another firework ran it's course across the dark sky. "What I meant was I run, you chase. I'm tired of the old rules." She headed towards the perimeter of the crowd, not sure if she was going towards or away from him.
"What do I get when I catch you?" he spoke quietly into the phone as he stood rooted to the spot.
She smiled into the phone at his teasing question, "Me. You get me Jarod."
Jarod remained still a moment longer, his hesitancy costing him his visual on her. "I think I like these new rules", he said as he dived into the crowd, towards her general direction.
She dodged in and out of the crowd with ease, feeling almost light headed. No thoughts of The Centre invaded her mind. Despite the relatively short physical distance between her and the imposing building in Blue Cove she actually felt a million miles away from that life. She shot a glance over her shoulder to locate her pursuer and at that moment a huge explosion overhead cast a white light over the whole crowd.
"I see you, Parker", Jarod warned as the light diminished.
Miss Parker swerved to her left but slowed her pace, she did want to be caught after all.
"Got you", Jarod whispered into her ear a moment later.
She turned round to face him and took in his appearance. His hair was shorter than the last time she'd seen him and he was clean shaven, a hand knitted scarf tucked under his chin and into his coat. She switched off the phone and shoved it into her pocket whilst trying to stop her heart from racing. "You've been following me from the start."
He grinned at her and deposited his own phone into his coat pocket. "First rule of the hunt; know exactly where your pursuers are at all times."
"So that's where I went wrong", Miss Parker said with a smile.
"I do believe you actually wanted to be caught." Reaching over he tentatively traced one hand down her cheek. "You're freezing", he whispered.
She nodded her head mutely, his feather-like touch and close proximity momentarily striking her dumbstruck. They stared into each others eyes as the seconds ticked away and above them more fireworks exploded, occasionally the flashes of light allowing them more appreciative views. She could see in his eyes the same desire she'd witnessed at Ocee's; only this time she was determined nothing would stop them acting upon that. She swallowed hard and found her voice, "Aren't you going to claim your prize?"
Jarod grinned even wider at her suggestion, and at the accompanying twinkle in her eyes, as she said it. He hesitated just a moment longer, memorising the moment, then leaned in towards her lips.
What started as a gentle, tentative kiss soon deepened by mutual consent. A loud 'Ahh' from the crowd caused them to part a minute or so later, self consciously looking around only to find the nearest patrons still craning their necks at the sky, oblivious to them both.
She grinned at him and he enveloped her in an embrace. She leant her head against his cheek, "I'm starting to thaw, Jarod", she whispered into his ear.