Chapter 36
Mallory's heels clanked against the cement floor as she made her way to Sydney's cell. Why were they making their base of operations in such a crude building? Even Jarod and the other Pretender's cells, looked a little better than this!
There was no one guarding Sydney's cell, not there was any need for it. He had no windows, and even if he had wanted to use his bedsheet to hang himself or something(God forbid!), the lone light and pipes that adorned his cell, were so high, that Sydney couldn't have reached them standing on the bed.
Mallory touched the bars and Sydney looked up. He had been sitting on his bed looking quite forlorn.
'Hey, Syd...how are you holding up?'
Sydney gave her a penetrating look.
'My wife is dead and I am back in the belly of the beast. How do you think I am, Ms. Parker?'
Ms. Parker took a deep breath.
'Sydney, Daddy will have someone reverse this brainwashing Jarod has done on you. Hell, maybe he can get someone to work on me, because things are getting stranger by the minute!'
Sydney stood up and walked up to the bars.
'What are you talking about?' he asked.
'Brigitte is dead.'
'What?! She was just...'
'Just alive?! Oh, I know, Syd! Believe me, I know! I watched her get shot by my father's 'new wife'! Sydney, what the hell is going on?!'
'What's 'going on' Ms. Parker, is that Jarod did not brainwash us. What is the last thing you remember clearly about your life?'
Mallory stared at him, blinking. She had been gripping the bars with both hands, but she removed one hand and turned away slightly.
'Daddy married Brigitte.'
'So, you don't remember Thomas Gates?'
Irritation began to creep into Ms. Parker's voice.
'No, Syd! I don't know anyone by that name! You were at the wedding though, did something happen then? Something that made us both forget our lives?'
'Ms. Parker, listen to me. This life that we're living now...we had put it behind us. Jarod and you were married...'
'No!'
'Yes!' Sydney shouted. 'I was at your wedding! You don't get along with Jarod's father and your mother...'
'What about my mother? Syd...do you know where Major Charles is?! Do you?!'
'That's enough of that!' Lyle snapped, walking up to the cell. He looked at Ms. Parker.
'Our father wanted me to find you to see if you were okay. He also wants you to join him and Irina for a small, 'getting to know you' lunch.'
'Irina?' Sydney asked suspiciously. Lyle favored him with a cold stare.
'Never mind, you! You know, I never thought you pulled your weight around here! And I know you were getting calls from Jarod and not telling the proper authorities. That's going to change. When we get Jarod back here, you are going to have NO contact with him whatsoever!'
'Lyle, just go! I'll be along in a minute!' Ms. Parker said tiredly.
Lyle gave Sydney a warning look, before turning and walking off. Ms. Parker rolled her eyes.
'It makes me sick when he plays the concerned, big brother.' she grumbled. Sydney reached through the bars and touched her hand. This seemed to startle her.
'Ms. Parker, please, please listen to me. There came a point that Jarod and you came to care for one another very much. The Centre found out and had you run off the road and injected with a drug that triggered memory loss. Jarod found you almost a year later living in Chicago and married to a doctor.'
Ms. Parker snatched her hand out of Sydney's hand! She then pointed at him and began to snicker!
'You should've been a writer, Syd. I'm going to go look for Broots.'
'He's not here!' Sydney snapped in frustration. 'Don't you even want to know who your new step-mother really is?'
Ms. Parker stared at him for a moment before answering.
'You're telling me you know who Irina Derevko is?'
'Yes! She's Jarod's aunt!'
'What?! My father married a relative of Jarod's?!'
'Ms. Parker, Irina is much, much more than Jarod's aunt! And it's not a relation that he is proud of. Irina Derevko has a daughter...who just happens to be named Sidney. She was a CIA agent working at the old Centre to bring it down...and she thought she had succeeded...until now. I have no doubts whatsoever, that she, Jarod and God knows who else, is on their way here to bring this madness down....again.'
Sydney sounded so sure of himself, Ms. Parker thought. So sure and so...so...angry! Was it remotely possible that he was telling the truth? Was it possible that Jarod and her were married and had children?
No! No it was not! Daddy would never have let that happen. Daddy would never have let her have a real life....
Ms. Parker sighed. She could feel the beginnings of a migraine.
'Syd, I'll see what I can do about getting you out of this cell, okay?'
'What's wrong?' Sydney asked, watching her massage her temples.
'Nothing...just a headache coming on. I'll be back later.' Ms. Parker said and walked off. But Sydney was worried. Ms. Parker had now been given the memory loss drug three times. It was never meant to be used more than once. Irina Derevko was the one that had given her the drug to counteract it. The drug that restored Ms. Parker's memory. Sydney suspected that this third injection, was beginning to have an adverse affect on Ms. Parker.
****
Jarod sat on the CIA plane. He looked up, as Sidney and Melanie came out of another room. Melanie's hair was wet....and she was also now a brunette. Jarod could not stop staring at her.
He had been unable to get much out of Melanie, as to why she wanted to help the sister she had never met. Yet, he sensed that she wanted to know her lost family, a right denied to her by her mother and his father.
Abigail, Brian, Ethan and an overzealous Nicholas, had stayed behind. Nicholas has been especially unhappy with these turn of events, but had been given little choice in the matter.
Vaughn sat up ahead, working on a laptop. Two other agents were sitting next to him. Jarod's thoughts turned to Mallory. Despite her tough veneer, she had to be frightened out of her wits! To wake up and not have everything as she remembered it, and to be told that she has this other life...Jarod just wanted to get to her. But when he did, what next? How did they find the drug to bring back her memory?
He blinked, when Melanie suddenly dropped in the seat directly across from him. Her hair was still wet and she had a towel around her shoulders.
'So, do I pass muster?' she asked.
Jarod just nodded, looking her over. She did. It made him ache for Mallory all the more. Melanie, sensing this, broke off eye contact with him and began rubbing her hair dry again.
'So,' Melanie began, 'tell me what my father is really like?'
Jarod was a bit startled by the question.
'You saw him when you were kidnapped, didn't you?'
'Yes, but the man I met was gentle and kind. He wanted to know me. No one else has confirmed my assessment of him.'
'If he were 'gentle' and 'kind', then he would've never come up with this insane idea for the Centre in the first place. If he were so great, he would've never faked his own death and not informed my wife that he was alive in the first place. If he was so wonderful, Melanie, then he would've never had you kidnapped in the first place!'
Jarod stopped himself from going on a tirade. It wasn't her fault. He at one time, had been full of questions as to who his real parents were and what they were like. It was only natural that Melanie would be curious.
'Wow, you really hate him, don't you? Not that I blame you.'
Jarod looked at her.
'I think once we get there, and you realize the full impact of just what the Centre is all about, you may grow to hate him too.' Jarod responded.
His phone began to ring. Jarod pulled it out of his jacket and saw that it was Mallory! Jarod caught Sidney's eye, and she nudged Vaughn, as she headed Jarod's way.
'What? What is it?' Melanie asked, when she saw Sidney and Vaughn headed their way.
'It's your sister.' Jarod said, answering the phone. 'Hello, honey.'
Mallory refrained from rolling her eyes at his endearment. Besides, her head hurt too much.
'Jarod, I need to know why you're really coming here. This is important.'
'So is the life we've built together, Mallory. That's why I'm coming.'
Mallory ignored his comment and pressed on. She was standing in a dark corner of cell block, where she had just left Sydney. She couldn't take the chance of anyone overhearing the call.
'Are you sure that it isn't to see your 'aunt'?'
Jarod looked up at Sidney and Vaughn.
'My aunt?'
Sidney looked at Vaughn. Vaughn watched Jarod.
'Yes, Jarod! That Derevko broad! My father is married to her, did you know that?! Of course you did! You know everything!'
'Wait! Your father and Irina Derevko are married? What happened to Brigitte?'
'Irina shot her dead. I don't know where Bobby is....'
Jarod heard her gasp!
'Mallory? Mallory, what's wrong? Talk to me!'
'My head....I just have this really bad headache....and....'
'Mallory! Mallory!'
'Nope! It's your brother-in-law, genius!' Lyle sneered. He stood over his sister's now unconscious, inert body that lay on the cement floor. Two Sweepers arrived to carry her to a more comfier cell.
Jarod looked up at Vaughn and Sidney.
'I have Lyle on the line now. But something has happened to Mallory!'
Sidney reached out and snatched the phone from Jarod!
'Lyle? Lyle, you sonofabitch, you tell me what my mother and you are up to!'
'Sidney? Is that you? It is so good to hear your voice again. I have dreamt of you every night since that visit you paid me in prison.'
'Lyle...'
'Alright, alright! The good news is we're family! My sister got it right. Your very sexy mother and my father got hitched some time back....you know when you thought she was a fugitive. Believe me when I tell you she was right under your nose. There was even a church wedding! I was my father's best man, of course.'
'And Brigitte is dead?'
'Well, yes, Sidney. I mean, Good God, my father couldn't have TWO wives. I mean that would make him a bigamist! But your mother is dying to see you!'
'I just bet!' Sidney snapped, outraged that her mother would pull something so low!
'Where is Bobby?'
'Now that little tyke is safe...and getting ready to be tested to see if he could be a future Pretender. I have to go now...I'm helping to clean a cell for both you and Jarod.'
Jarod grabbed the phone back from Sidney!
'Lyle, what have you done with my wife?'
'Oh, that's another thing, genius, we gave my sister another memory loss drug...keeping in mind of course that it could be toxic for her, you know, since she's been given the damned thing twice already!'
'You bastard!' Jarod hissed.
'Well, if you want to save my sister, then you'd better surrender yourself here and pronto. Then, and only then, will your dear wife be spared. Oh, and once she is, then Father and I want to have a serious sit down about when you're going to turn over Ethan, Brian and that precious little girl, Abigail, to us. You know, I can just see it now. Bobby escaping as an adult, and we send out Abigail to chase him all over creation....won't that be fun? Oh, and we have rogue agents at the CIA as well. So, if you don't bring them to us, I'm sure that we can get someone there to bring them here. Now you get yourself in here now, okay?'
The line went dead. Jarod threw his phone! He stood up and began to pace to calm himself. Melanie jumped up and went over to him.
'What is it? What did he say?' she asked. Jarod glanced at her, before giving Sidney and Vaughn his full attention.
'The memory loss drug is breaking down in Mallory's system. It's killing her. If I don't surrender myself into their custody, they're going to let her die. Lyle is also claiming that the CIA protection will not be good enough to keep Ethan, Brian and Abigail out of danger.'
'He's bluffing! No one is going to take them, Jarod!' Sidney insisted.
'Just like Brigitte didn't have CIA help getting out of jail?! No! No! I can't do what I need to do if I have to worry about my family. Besides, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will keep their word and cure Mallory! None!'
Jarod walked past them and picked up the phone that he had thrown. He quickly punched some numbers. Sidney and Vaughn looked at one another.
'Hello, Dad? I need for you to do me a favor.' Jarod said and began walking away so that he was out of earshot. Sidney's mouth dropped open!
'He's calling Major Charles? Why?'
'I don't know, Sid, but I have a bad feeling about this.' Vaughn answered.
'What do you mean?' Melanie asked. Vaughn looked over at her.
'I think Jarod is getting ready to play into Major Charles and your mother's hands.'
Melanie looked confused. Sidney glanced at her.
'Oh, please don't tell me you didn't know how your mother and Major Charles have been panting to get custody of Brian? And you can tell they'd just love to snatch Abigail too!'
'What the hell are you talking about?!' Melanie snapped back. Granted, she had her own problems with her mother and step-father, but they were her parents, and she felt obligated to defend them.
'What we're talking about,' Vaughn said in a gentler voice, 'is that Major Charles and Catherine have done everything in their power to undermine Jarod and Mallory's relationship with Brian. They even went to far as to petition for custody.'
'They're born liars,' Sidney said, 'and nothing about their story has added up from day one. Starting with why your mother faked her own death and left Mallory, why neither her, nor, Major Charles went back for either Mallory or Jarod...I mean the list is long!'
Melanie folded her arms.
'So, I guess then I must be part of this puzzle. I mean, all of you must be wondering why I was kept, and not the others? Not Mallory or Ethan?'
Sidney didn't answer her. This wasn't about Melanie and she had her own problems now! Damnit! What was her mother up to? And who else was going to pop back from the dead?!
Jarod hung up his call and walked over to the trio.
'My father and Catherine Parker will be taking Ethan, Brian and Abigail away with them.'
'Jarod, no!' Sidney cried out.
'Jarod, are you sure?' Vaughn asked.
Jarod nodded sadly.
'Believe me, if there was any other way that I felt secure about, I'd do it. I spoke with Ethan and he'll be watching over Brian and Abigail, and keeping an eye on our respective parents. If my father and Catherine are good at nothing else, it's running. They've been running from the Centre even longer than I have. They'll know what to do.'
Sidney shook her head sadly.
'And after this is over? If they give you trouble about returning the kids?'
'Then I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now, all I can think about is keeping my wife from dying.' Jarod said.
****
Irina Derevko sighed, as the shower ran and Mr. Parker sang. She grimaced. She didn't know if she could ever get used to making love to someone that old!
But, she just considered it more work. Besides, her luck had run out, and she had been forced to be resourceful. Her plan to cash in on her Royal Russian heritage, hadn't panned out like she had hoped.
There was a knock on her door. Dressed in a white, terrycloth robe, Irina got up from her vanity and walked over to the door, opening it. A Sweeper was standing there.
'You have a visitor.' he said gruffly, moving aside. Emily appeared and smiled. Irina grinned and opened her arms wide to embrace her niece.
'Hi, Aunt Irina! I came like you told me to. Now, tell me how I can get Michael Vaughn for myself.'
Mallory's heels clanked against the cement floor as she made her way to Sydney's cell. Why were they making their base of operations in such a crude building? Even Jarod and the other Pretender's cells, looked a little better than this!
There was no one guarding Sydney's cell, not there was any need for it. He had no windows, and even if he had wanted to use his bedsheet to hang himself or something(God forbid!), the lone light and pipes that adorned his cell, were so high, that Sydney couldn't have reached them standing on the bed.
Mallory touched the bars and Sydney looked up. He had been sitting on his bed looking quite forlorn.
'Hey, Syd...how are you holding up?'
Sydney gave her a penetrating look.
'My wife is dead and I am back in the belly of the beast. How do you think I am, Ms. Parker?'
Ms. Parker took a deep breath.
'Sydney, Daddy will have someone reverse this brainwashing Jarod has done on you. Hell, maybe he can get someone to work on me, because things are getting stranger by the minute!'
Sydney stood up and walked up to the bars.
'What are you talking about?' he asked.
'Brigitte is dead.'
'What?! She was just...'
'Just alive?! Oh, I know, Syd! Believe me, I know! I watched her get shot by my father's 'new wife'! Sydney, what the hell is going on?!'
'What's 'going on' Ms. Parker, is that Jarod did not brainwash us. What is the last thing you remember clearly about your life?'
Mallory stared at him, blinking. She had been gripping the bars with both hands, but she removed one hand and turned away slightly.
'Daddy married Brigitte.'
'So, you don't remember Thomas Gates?'
Irritation began to creep into Ms. Parker's voice.
'No, Syd! I don't know anyone by that name! You were at the wedding though, did something happen then? Something that made us both forget our lives?'
'Ms. Parker, listen to me. This life that we're living now...we had put it behind us. Jarod and you were married...'
'No!'
'Yes!' Sydney shouted. 'I was at your wedding! You don't get along with Jarod's father and your mother...'
'What about my mother? Syd...do you know where Major Charles is?! Do you?!'
'That's enough of that!' Lyle snapped, walking up to the cell. He looked at Ms. Parker.
'Our father wanted me to find you to see if you were okay. He also wants you to join him and Irina for a small, 'getting to know you' lunch.'
'Irina?' Sydney asked suspiciously. Lyle favored him with a cold stare.
'Never mind, you! You know, I never thought you pulled your weight around here! And I know you were getting calls from Jarod and not telling the proper authorities. That's going to change. When we get Jarod back here, you are going to have NO contact with him whatsoever!'
'Lyle, just go! I'll be along in a minute!' Ms. Parker said tiredly.
Lyle gave Sydney a warning look, before turning and walking off. Ms. Parker rolled her eyes.
'It makes me sick when he plays the concerned, big brother.' she grumbled. Sydney reached through the bars and touched her hand. This seemed to startle her.
'Ms. Parker, please, please listen to me. There came a point that Jarod and you came to care for one another very much. The Centre found out and had you run off the road and injected with a drug that triggered memory loss. Jarod found you almost a year later living in Chicago and married to a doctor.'
Ms. Parker snatched her hand out of Sydney's hand! She then pointed at him and began to snicker!
'You should've been a writer, Syd. I'm going to go look for Broots.'
'He's not here!' Sydney snapped in frustration. 'Don't you even want to know who your new step-mother really is?'
Ms. Parker stared at him for a moment before answering.
'You're telling me you know who Irina Derevko is?'
'Yes! She's Jarod's aunt!'
'What?! My father married a relative of Jarod's?!'
'Ms. Parker, Irina is much, much more than Jarod's aunt! And it's not a relation that he is proud of. Irina Derevko has a daughter...who just happens to be named Sidney. She was a CIA agent working at the old Centre to bring it down...and she thought she had succeeded...until now. I have no doubts whatsoever, that she, Jarod and God knows who else, is on their way here to bring this madness down....again.'
Sydney sounded so sure of himself, Ms. Parker thought. So sure and so...so...angry! Was it remotely possible that he was telling the truth? Was it possible that Jarod and her were married and had children?
No! No it was not! Daddy would never have let that happen. Daddy would never have let her have a real life....
Ms. Parker sighed. She could feel the beginnings of a migraine.
'Syd, I'll see what I can do about getting you out of this cell, okay?'
'What's wrong?' Sydney asked, watching her massage her temples.
'Nothing...just a headache coming on. I'll be back later.' Ms. Parker said and walked off. But Sydney was worried. Ms. Parker had now been given the memory loss drug three times. It was never meant to be used more than once. Irina Derevko was the one that had given her the drug to counteract it. The drug that restored Ms. Parker's memory. Sydney suspected that this third injection, was beginning to have an adverse affect on Ms. Parker.
****
Jarod sat on the CIA plane. He looked up, as Sidney and Melanie came out of another room. Melanie's hair was wet....and she was also now a brunette. Jarod could not stop staring at her.
He had been unable to get much out of Melanie, as to why she wanted to help the sister she had never met. Yet, he sensed that she wanted to know her lost family, a right denied to her by her mother and his father.
Abigail, Brian, Ethan and an overzealous Nicholas, had stayed behind. Nicholas has been especially unhappy with these turn of events, but had been given little choice in the matter.
Vaughn sat up ahead, working on a laptop. Two other agents were sitting next to him. Jarod's thoughts turned to Mallory. Despite her tough veneer, she had to be frightened out of her wits! To wake up and not have everything as she remembered it, and to be told that she has this other life...Jarod just wanted to get to her. But when he did, what next? How did they find the drug to bring back her memory?
He blinked, when Melanie suddenly dropped in the seat directly across from him. Her hair was still wet and she had a towel around her shoulders.
'So, do I pass muster?' she asked.
Jarod just nodded, looking her over. She did. It made him ache for Mallory all the more. Melanie, sensing this, broke off eye contact with him and began rubbing her hair dry again.
'So,' Melanie began, 'tell me what my father is really like?'
Jarod was a bit startled by the question.
'You saw him when you were kidnapped, didn't you?'
'Yes, but the man I met was gentle and kind. He wanted to know me. No one else has confirmed my assessment of him.'
'If he were 'gentle' and 'kind', then he would've never come up with this insane idea for the Centre in the first place. If he were so great, he would've never faked his own death and not informed my wife that he was alive in the first place. If he was so wonderful, Melanie, then he would've never had you kidnapped in the first place!'
Jarod stopped himself from going on a tirade. It wasn't her fault. He at one time, had been full of questions as to who his real parents were and what they were like. It was only natural that Melanie would be curious.
'Wow, you really hate him, don't you? Not that I blame you.'
Jarod looked at her.
'I think once we get there, and you realize the full impact of just what the Centre is all about, you may grow to hate him too.' Jarod responded.
His phone began to ring. Jarod pulled it out of his jacket and saw that it was Mallory! Jarod caught Sidney's eye, and she nudged Vaughn, as she headed Jarod's way.
'What? What is it?' Melanie asked, when she saw Sidney and Vaughn headed their way.
'It's your sister.' Jarod said, answering the phone. 'Hello, honey.'
Mallory refrained from rolling her eyes at his endearment. Besides, her head hurt too much.
'Jarod, I need to know why you're really coming here. This is important.'
'So is the life we've built together, Mallory. That's why I'm coming.'
Mallory ignored his comment and pressed on. She was standing in a dark corner of cell block, where she had just left Sydney. She couldn't take the chance of anyone overhearing the call.
'Are you sure that it isn't to see your 'aunt'?'
Jarod looked up at Sidney and Vaughn.
'My aunt?'
Sidney looked at Vaughn. Vaughn watched Jarod.
'Yes, Jarod! That Derevko broad! My father is married to her, did you know that?! Of course you did! You know everything!'
'Wait! Your father and Irina Derevko are married? What happened to Brigitte?'
'Irina shot her dead. I don't know where Bobby is....'
Jarod heard her gasp!
'Mallory? Mallory, what's wrong? Talk to me!'
'My head....I just have this really bad headache....and....'
'Mallory! Mallory!'
'Nope! It's your brother-in-law, genius!' Lyle sneered. He stood over his sister's now unconscious, inert body that lay on the cement floor. Two Sweepers arrived to carry her to a more comfier cell.
Jarod looked up at Vaughn and Sidney.
'I have Lyle on the line now. But something has happened to Mallory!'
Sidney reached out and snatched the phone from Jarod!
'Lyle? Lyle, you sonofabitch, you tell me what my mother and you are up to!'
'Sidney? Is that you? It is so good to hear your voice again. I have dreamt of you every night since that visit you paid me in prison.'
'Lyle...'
'Alright, alright! The good news is we're family! My sister got it right. Your very sexy mother and my father got hitched some time back....you know when you thought she was a fugitive. Believe me when I tell you she was right under your nose. There was even a church wedding! I was my father's best man, of course.'
'And Brigitte is dead?'
'Well, yes, Sidney. I mean, Good God, my father couldn't have TWO wives. I mean that would make him a bigamist! But your mother is dying to see you!'
'I just bet!' Sidney snapped, outraged that her mother would pull something so low!
'Where is Bobby?'
'Now that little tyke is safe...and getting ready to be tested to see if he could be a future Pretender. I have to go now...I'm helping to clean a cell for both you and Jarod.'
Jarod grabbed the phone back from Sidney!
'Lyle, what have you done with my wife?'
'Oh, that's another thing, genius, we gave my sister another memory loss drug...keeping in mind of course that it could be toxic for her, you know, since she's been given the damned thing twice already!'
'You bastard!' Jarod hissed.
'Well, if you want to save my sister, then you'd better surrender yourself here and pronto. Then, and only then, will your dear wife be spared. Oh, and once she is, then Father and I want to have a serious sit down about when you're going to turn over Ethan, Brian and that precious little girl, Abigail, to us. You know, I can just see it now. Bobby escaping as an adult, and we send out Abigail to chase him all over creation....won't that be fun? Oh, and we have rogue agents at the CIA as well. So, if you don't bring them to us, I'm sure that we can get someone there to bring them here. Now you get yourself in here now, okay?'
The line went dead. Jarod threw his phone! He stood up and began to pace to calm himself. Melanie jumped up and went over to him.
'What is it? What did he say?' she asked. Jarod glanced at her, before giving Sidney and Vaughn his full attention.
'The memory loss drug is breaking down in Mallory's system. It's killing her. If I don't surrender myself into their custody, they're going to let her die. Lyle is also claiming that the CIA protection will not be good enough to keep Ethan, Brian and Abigail out of danger.'
'He's bluffing! No one is going to take them, Jarod!' Sidney insisted.
'Just like Brigitte didn't have CIA help getting out of jail?! No! No! I can't do what I need to do if I have to worry about my family. Besides, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will keep their word and cure Mallory! None!'
Jarod walked past them and picked up the phone that he had thrown. He quickly punched some numbers. Sidney and Vaughn looked at one another.
'Hello, Dad? I need for you to do me a favor.' Jarod said and began walking away so that he was out of earshot. Sidney's mouth dropped open!
'He's calling Major Charles? Why?'
'I don't know, Sid, but I have a bad feeling about this.' Vaughn answered.
'What do you mean?' Melanie asked. Vaughn looked over at her.
'I think Jarod is getting ready to play into Major Charles and your mother's hands.'
Melanie looked confused. Sidney glanced at her.
'Oh, please don't tell me you didn't know how your mother and Major Charles have been panting to get custody of Brian? And you can tell they'd just love to snatch Abigail too!'
'What the hell are you talking about?!' Melanie snapped back. Granted, she had her own problems with her mother and step-father, but they were her parents, and she felt obligated to defend them.
'What we're talking about,' Vaughn said in a gentler voice, 'is that Major Charles and Catherine have done everything in their power to undermine Jarod and Mallory's relationship with Brian. They even went to far as to petition for custody.'
'They're born liars,' Sidney said, 'and nothing about their story has added up from day one. Starting with why your mother faked her own death and left Mallory, why neither her, nor, Major Charles went back for either Mallory or Jarod...I mean the list is long!'
Melanie folded her arms.
'So, I guess then I must be part of this puzzle. I mean, all of you must be wondering why I was kept, and not the others? Not Mallory or Ethan?'
Sidney didn't answer her. This wasn't about Melanie and she had her own problems now! Damnit! What was her mother up to? And who else was going to pop back from the dead?!
Jarod hung up his call and walked over to the trio.
'My father and Catherine Parker will be taking Ethan, Brian and Abigail away with them.'
'Jarod, no!' Sidney cried out.
'Jarod, are you sure?' Vaughn asked.
Jarod nodded sadly.
'Believe me, if there was any other way that I felt secure about, I'd do it. I spoke with Ethan and he'll be watching over Brian and Abigail, and keeping an eye on our respective parents. If my father and Catherine are good at nothing else, it's running. They've been running from the Centre even longer than I have. They'll know what to do.'
Sidney shook her head sadly.
'And after this is over? If they give you trouble about returning the kids?'
'Then I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now, all I can think about is keeping my wife from dying.' Jarod said.
****
Irina Derevko sighed, as the shower ran and Mr. Parker sang. She grimaced. She didn't know if she could ever get used to making love to someone that old!
But, she just considered it more work. Besides, her luck had run out, and she had been forced to be resourceful. Her plan to cash in on her Royal Russian heritage, hadn't panned out like she had hoped.
There was a knock on her door. Dressed in a white, terrycloth robe, Irina got up from her vanity and walked over to the door, opening it. A Sweeper was standing there.
'You have a visitor.' he said gruffly, moving aside. Emily appeared and smiled. Irina grinned and opened her arms wide to embrace her niece.
'Hi, Aunt Irina! I came like you told me to. Now, tell me how I can get Michael Vaughn for myself.'