Sara left Nick after they reached his floor then went to her room and found a note under the door. She opened it and saw it was from Jackson. It referenced the communiqué from the Agency and Director Gage. She closed her door and headed down to the Pit to speak with them.
When she reached the top floor of the Pit and stepped out to find Matt, Jackson and Greg in a discussion as they awaited the elevator. "Hey, Sara. We were just going to look for you." Greg said with a serious look on his face as he took in her bandaged shoulder. "Are you feeling okay? Should you be up with that wound?"
Sara smiled at his worry. "Yes, Greg, I'm okay and I got the note Jackson, so I came to see you about it. I told Director Gage last night that I would be at headquarters on Sunday for the project." She spied the look that Matt and Jackson shared. "What's up? Has something changed?"
"Well, actually Director Gage was wondering if you could leave tonight." Jackson said. "He would like to meet with you more about the project before starting on Sunday. And get some sort of plan outlined."
"Oh, well, I was hoping to be here when Grissom and the others left but if I have to then, well, I have to." Sara never went back on a promise or commitment and wasn't going to begin now. "I'll give him a call shortly. Have any of you seen Jarod?"
Matt pointed down the hall and said, "He was in the Imaging room the last time I saw him." Sara already started walking that way when he pointed. She nodded back to them as she continued down to the room. After reaching her destination, she saw Jarod looking in the safe. She walked in and waited until he turned around to see her.
"Hey, Sara, I see you got the DSAs from Dr. Grissom and put them away." Jarod said as he moved to close the safe. Sara stopped him as she walked over quickly and looked at the box in the safe and the portable player on the table.
"Jarod, I didn't put these away." Sara saw the smile form on Jarod's face when she said that. "He must have brought them back after I caught him."
"Sara, have you talked to him yet?" Jarod wanted them to talk and get this over with. The sooner the better so that it would actually get talked out and not shoved under the rug.
"No, not yet, I was going to a little later. I actually need to talk to you about something else entirely." Sara's thoughts roamed back and forth between Grissom and Joshua. Joshua's problem could be resolved much quicker than her issue with Grissom. 'Best to get the easiest out of the way.'
"Well, what do you have on your mind?" He grinned, expecting it to be something other than what he was about to hear.
"What are your plans concerning Joshua?" Sara asked with concern lacing the tone in her voice.
Jarod didn't expect that topic and gave her a quizzical look before replying, "I really haven't thought about it that much. Why?"
Sara slowly paced the room in thought then turned to face him and said, "He seems kind of idle -like he has nothing to do. Are you training him at all or is Sydney doing anything with him? Is he attending school? I guess I'm concerned."
Jarod couldn't fathom where this was coming from. He sat on the edge of the table as he considered her for a moment and wondered if she wasn't maybe up to something. "Sara, we, Miss Parker and I decided that we didn't want him to have to go through what the rest of us children had to so we were planning on just enrolling him in school and try to bring him up like any normal pre-adolescent child. He's been through a lot with the Centre, he doesn't need to endure more."
Sara stared at him for a moment before continuing because her question was one that she didn't think that Jarod wanted to consider. "Does the Triumvirate know that you have him?"
Jarod squinted at her as he realized where she was probably headed with her thoughts. "Yes, actually they do. Sara, they haven't even given him another thought since the day we got him away from them."
"What if they have and are just biding their time?" She asked as she took a seat in the chair facing him at the table. "What would happen to him or to us for that matter if they were to get their hands on him? What are his abilities?"
He hadn't wanted to think about this stuff. He just wanted Joshua to have the life that he himself hadn't been allowed to. "I don't know, Sara. It would be bad if they did. He's just a boy and shouldn't have to deal with it."
"Well, that's the problem, Jarod." Sara stood and began pacing the room. "He may be a boy, but he's not just any boy. If he gets tracked by the Triumvirate, he won't be able to defend himself if we aren't around to protect him." Her tone was deep and full of concern. "Jarod, I'm going to play devil's advocate here and tell you, he is a threat to us in his present condition. He either needs to be trained to defend himself and also in offense or he needs to be removed from anything or anyone with a background at the Centre."
He stood and stopped Sara's pacing. "He shouldn't have to learn that. He's just a kid who has already been through enough hell not to mention that he is reminded everyday that he has no parent's and that he was only created to be my replacement."
"That's just it, Jarod. Being shifted off between so many people, although he is cared for by all of them, has got to be hard on him. He needs something stable but he also needs to be able to feel secure in his own abilities. And he is very capable of doing that if he is trained properly. He can learn control and learn to keep his abilities in check if trained to do so." Sara looked him squarely in the eye. The only way she can make him understand is to get him to realize how much trouble he can be put in if this isn't done. "He's so not able to protect himself right now. God, Jarod, he saved us last night but he put himself in a lot of danger that he wouldn't have been able to handle if Mary Jane had turned on him. What if her real goal was to capture him for the Triumvirate? She could very well have succeeded."
Jarod had no reply this time. 'I hate it when she's right.' He sat back down and stared at her in thought. "I'm sorry, Sara. You're right and I just haven't wanted to see it. I just want him to have what I didn't, what we didn't." He turned away, staring off at the wall. "You have something in mind don't you? You never go into anything with out some sort of plan, so spill."
She sat next to him and took his hand in hers. "I want to take him with me, Jarod. I want to train him and also enroll him in school. That way, he not only has the chance to learn the defense he needs but he can still have the opportunity for a normal life."
Jarod grinned at her. He knew exactly what Sara was wanting. "You just want to smother him with maternal love and play house."
Sara smiled. He knew her too well. "Is that so bad? I recall someone else doing that same thing with me." She poked him in the ribs and started to laugh when he began to squirm. She had forgotten how ticklish he was.
He finally stopped and looked at her seriously. "What about you're returning to D.C.? Are you going to take him with you?"
"Until now, I wasn't sure. But now that you actually have asked it and made me think, yes, I am. I think that having to watch the training program at H.Q. -he will have a good perspective of what I am going to be training him."
Jarod nodded in agreement. "Good. Thanks, Sara. I wasn't in anyway thinking about it like you did. I guess I should call Miss Parker and Major Charles and let them know. I think, in a way, they will be relieved." He looked down at their hands and smiled. "You know, if you decide to go back to Vegas, I'm really going to miss you. It's been nice having you around without the control of the Centre."
Sara smiled warmly and looked down like he did at their hands. "Yeah, I feel the same. I have a family Jarod but you will always be my brother. I love you so much." She stared into his eyes and a tear escaped when she said that. "I don't know if I am going to go back to Vegas or somewhere else. I would like to but it's going to be strange, knowing that Grissom and the others know about me but I do need to keep up with Nick and he wants me to meet "our" family. That's going to take awhile..." Her voice trailed off as she looked past Jarod to see Grissom walking toward them. "Umm, Jarod, I need to talk with Grissom. Why don't you tell Joshua the good news, okay?" She quickly stood and made her way out of the room to meet Grissom. Jarod turned to see what she was looking at and when he did, a smile reappeared on his face.
