Chapter 40
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter will be the last one in the 'Beyond the Island of Carthis'. I could write this story forever, since I love the 'Pretender' and pray for another TV movie that will clean up loose ends, and result in Jarod and Ms. Parker being together forever. But some readers have let me know that it's gotten old, and I do write four other fan fictions, two that are on a site I maintain. So I fear that because I was not able to give this story the attention it originally had, I should wrap it up now. And in a 'Pretender' style way, there will still be loose ends and unsolved mysteries. Thanks for all of the great reviews, and also thanks to the people who maybe couldn't review because they weren't signed on, but let me know by following the story, how they felt.
Within hours, Sidney and Vaughn had enough information to ascertain that Catherine Parker was actually killed by Raines, shortly after giving birth to Ethan. It was then that Cecily Jamison, Catherine's twin sister, stepped in and took over her sister's identity. What they did not know for sure, is whether this was in collusion with the Centre or not, and did Major Charles or even Melanie, for that matter, know anything about it?
Sidney was the one that solemnly told Jarod and Mallory this news. Jarod watched Mallory very carefully. But his wife shrugged.
'I never felt close to that woman. I never knew why. Now I do.'
Jarod looked from Mallory to Sidney.
'This means that Lyle is her brother, isn't he?'
Sidney nodded.
'Yes, though we will have to assume that Melanie is really this Cecily's daughter by some other man...'
'My father.' Mallory said calmly.
'It could be possible. For a cousin, she does look a little too like you.' Jarod noted slowly.
Mallory stood up.
'You see, I think that one of the few things that was true, from my 'aunt's' mouth, is that part about that secretary.'
Sidney frowned.
'You mean the one that Cecily said was Lyle's real mother?'
'Yes. I think she was really that secretary.'
Jarod shook his head.
'Why would she have done any of this? I mean first off, why would she sleep with her sister's husband? And then why help cover up her murder?'
'Which is what she did, when she went to Major Charles and told him she was Catherine.' Sidney answered.
'That skin disease is real. Sydney and I examined her.' Jarod said, nodding. 'But now I wonder if that woman got it while in Africa at some Triumvirate hotel or what! God! Her story was always off, but I could never figure out what it was...'
Sidney nodded quickly!
'I know, I know! But she looked like Catherine Parker, and the story was plausible...'
'Only because it was the Centre. And anything is possible there.' Jarod said quietly. He looked at Mallory, but she was not paying attention to either of them. She was staring across the glass at her father and Melanie. She watched as two guards brought Raines and Lyle in, shackled at the ankles and wearing orange jumpsuits.
Melanie stood up and said something to her 'father', and started to walk out. It was clear that the sight of Lyle and Mr. Raines creeped her out. Mallory looked at Jarod and Sidney.
'I'll be back.' she said, walking to the door and opening it. Sidney started to follow after her, but Jarod stopped her.
'I think this was just a bit too much after all we've been through. She has things she needs to say over there. She'll be fine. Leave her be.' Jarod said, watching through the glass, as Mallory met Melanie half-way.
'Our father is tired, so if you're going to bitch him out...' Melanie began.
'Get out of my way, before I make you move, 'sis'. Oh, by the way, you might want to pay Sidney and my husband a visit over there. We're not as related as we once thought.'
'What? What are you talking about?'
But Mallory didn't want to waste another minute with this broad! She hadn't felt anything when she first laid eyes on Melanie. Then again, she hadn't felt anything when she looked at Lyle either. But somehow, Mallory wondered if she had always secretly known. Maybe not the exact details, but known that this woman in front of her, wasn't really her sister?
Melanie stepped aside, not in the mood to start a fight. The father that she was just getting to know, was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. And she knew he was guilty, yet, it still didn't seem fair.
Mallory walked over to the door and looked at the guard.
'Agent Bristow said I could go in alone.' Mallory said with a straight face. The guard looked across the hall into the window where Jarod and Sidney stood watching. Sidney nodded slightly, and the guard unlocked the door for her.
Mallory stepped in and looked at the 'scums of her life'! The guard closed the door. Her gaze settled in on Raines, who still wore that stupid tube up his nose, while smoking a cigarette.
Raines was the furthest away from her, and he ignored her, as she walked up to him. He could not continue to do so, when Mallory snatched the cigarette from him and burned it on his face!
'AAAAAHHHHHH!' he screamed. The guard outside looked to Sidney, who shook her head again. Jarod's expression was full of worry. Melanie hurried into their room.
'Jarod? Sidney? What is she doing in there? She might hurt our father!'
Mallory might hurt 'their' father! The words sounded absurd said out loud. All Jarod could do was stare at her. Sidney motioned for Melanie to come towards her.
'We need to talk.' she said. Melanie reluctantly sat down.
'You crazy bitch!' Lyle said, shaking his head in wonder. He moved away from the whimpering Raines.
Mallory ignored her brother, and focused in on her father.
'Hello, Daddy.'
'Hello, Angel. I see you still have that Parker temper.'
'Hmmm, so it would seem.' she said, glancing over at Lyle and pointing at him.
'Hey! We're twins again! Did you know that? Daddy, did you know that?'
Lyle leaned forward.
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'Oh believe me, brother dear, I would've loved to be rid of you forever! But we just found out that the woman who's been calling herself our mother, and living with Jarod's father all of these years, really is some rogue twin sister of hers! Either that or an insanely jealous one! But you knew that, didn't you, Daddy?'
Lyle said nothing to this, but watched his father and sister intently. Raines began to cry in pain.
'Angel, there are things better left unknown.'
Mallory smiled and sat down, so that her chair was close to him.
'Like the fact that Jarod and I had a son? Or that all of those years you held me to that fake deal about letting me go, if I caught Jarod, you had my son captured like some kind of lab experiment. Your own grandson...or how about those lonely years I spent at boarding school alone, when I couldn't come home for Christmas....oh, wait a minute! None of that ever happened, did it?! You just planted those shitty memories in me so that I would forget Jarod and our baby, right?!'
'Now, Angel,' Mr. Parker said, beginning to feel a bit unnerved, 'I did what I thought was best at the time!'
'I planted those memories in you, Ms. Parker!' Raines hissed angrily. Mallory stood up, picked up her chair and threw it at him! Lyle slid away even further! Jesus!
Raines began to cry again. Lyle eyed his father and sister. He then began to try and wriggle out of his hand cuffs! Jesus! He wasn't taking any ass kicking stuck in these!
Mallory then walked around to the other side of her father and bent down.
'You couldn't have just let Jarod go, so that your daughter could have a father for her child, hey? Tell me, Daddy, since you've been alive all of this time, did you put the hit out on me, all of those years ago? Were you the one that told Lyle, and I'm assuming that's who it was, to inject me with that drug again? The drug that almost killed Abigail...she's your granddaughter....'
'Oh stop it!' Mr. Parker snapped. 'I am so sick of your ingratitude! Jarod RAPED you! You didn't want a child from an experience like that!'
Lyle snorted! Mr. Raines's crying had turned to soft laughter at those words!
'Shut up, both of you!' Mr. Parker barked. But Mallory grinned!
'No, Daddy! Both scumbags are right! Jarod didn't rape me! I went to him willingly, every chance I got!' she snapped.
'Angel, you were young and impressionable...'
'And lonely and longing to be with someone I knew loved me, just from the way he looked at me!' Mallory snapped, and the tears began to slip down her face. Her father wasn't sorry. He didn't think he had done a damned thing wrong. But he was going to hear the raw, unabridged truth about her time with Jarod in his room at the Centre.
Mallory swiped at the tears, then smiled at her father.
'Do you have any idea at all, what it feels like to be loved in that way? Any idea at all?'
Mr. Parker began to turn beet red with rage! He jumped up!
'I watched the goddamned DSA'S! I saw him riding you like...like...like...'
Mallory walked up to him. Her face was inches from his.
'Like a stallion rides the wind!' she began in a whispering hiss. Lyle and Raines were now staring at her, mouths wide open. Mr. Parker's eyes widened.
'I was screwing boys behind your back at home, while you were at that dungeon, making people's lives miserable! Then one day, I decided that I wanted to be with Jarod. I wanted to be with someone that despite his circumstances, looked at me with love. The daughter of his captor. I can still remember being in awe, at how wide I had to open my legs, because of how wide his hips were...'
'SHUT-UP!' Mr. Parker screamed. Lyle's eyes were huge as well! Jesus! She was one crazy bitch!
'Or how sometimes I would wrap my legs around his hips, to press him even deeper into me...'
'DAMN YOU! SHUT UP!!!'
'But you knew all of that, didn't you Daddy? Because you were filming us! How many times did you watch those things over again, huh? Tell me, can you figure out which time it was that Brian was conceived? Huh? Can you tell me that?'
'No....but I have the feeling you're going to tell me, aren't you?' Mr. Parker answered heavily. There was a sheen of sweat on his face.
Mallory grinned again. She felt nothing for him anymore. Her voice became very soft.
'Yes. It was the anniversary of my mother's death...or what I thought was it. Jarod was there...then again, where else would he have been? And I remember he took his time with me...we were so quick and fumbling...but not this time. And I remember that he gave me this long kiss, and with one final thrust, I could feel this warmth...'
'Oh damn you to hell! Everything that I did, I did for you! I did it to preserve our family legacy! To give you and your brother something to live for, to continue on with! And you spat on it, the minute you let that little 'pretender' touch you! Get out of here! Get out of here! Get out....'
Suddenly, Mr. Parker dropped to the floor! Three guards came running in, along with Sidney, Jarod and Melanie!
'Daddy! Daddy!' Melanie screamed, kneeling down before him. Lyle's eyes met Mallory's, but he said nothing.
Jarod had his arms around Mallory.
'What happened in here?! What were you two arguing about?!'
Melanie turned to face Mallory!
'I saw the way you were yelling at him! If he dies...'
'If he dies he dies.' Mallory said, her tone flat. Melanie's mouth dropped open and she turned away, furious, as she knelt down to see to him, along with the guards.
'What happened in here?' Sidney asked, looking at Lyle and Raines. Raines had forgotten his pain, as he just stared at Ms. Parker. Lyle shrugged.
'Father was going on about what an ingrate sis here was, then just dropped.'
'And that's all?' Sidney asked, eyeing Mallory. Her and Lyle were staring at one another. Lyle nodded.
'Yeah, that's all.' Lyle answered, looking down at his father.
Jarod did not believe a word of it. He turned Mallory back towards him.
'Honey, my father called. He's bringing the kids home.'
'He?' Mallory said dully, still a bit spent by her confrontation. 'What about the impostor.'
'My father didn't say anything about her. We'll just have to wait and see what he says. Are you alright?'
Mallory nodded and wrapped her arms around him, as Mr. Parker was carried out on a stretcher.
SEVEN YEARS LATER
Mallory watched, as seven year old Abigail flipped up in the air and dived off of the board. She had never liked diving, and always feared that her daughter would break her neck.
'Abby!' Jarod called out, as he flipped burgers, 'remember to keep an eye on your brother and sister!'
'Okay, Daddy!' Abigail yelled back, then paddled over to the small little raft that her four year old twin brother and sister, Kyle and Katherine, were sitting in. Mallory sat on a lounge chair and watched them. Every single one of the kids, had red hair, and looked more like a combination of Jarod and her. Brian looked almost exactly like Jarod. Not one of them looked more like her. Maybe that was better so.
Twenty-two year old Brian was over talking to his grandfather, Major Charles, and some woman he had brought with him to this party. Brian's graduation party from Boston University.
The last seven years had been easier than she had expected them to be. But maybe that was because all of the ghosts had begun dying off.
Her father had died hours later, after his attack. Melanie blamed her. Mallory could give a rat's ass! None of them had seen their cousin since.
Raines finally died of cancer. His withered remains were cremated. Mallory was just sorry he couldn't have been cremated BEFORE he died.
And Lyle...Lyle was shanked by a fellow prisoner. Mallory, for some reason, felt compelled to see him, on his death bed. Maybe it was because that the day he covered for her, back in Scotland, was the closest moment either of them had ever had.
He didn't have much to say. No apologies for all that he had done to disrupt her and Jarod's lives. But there was just this unspoken understanding, that if his beginning had been different, maybe he wouldn't be dying right now. And Mallory felt compelled not to let him die alone.
Sidney and Michelle weren't able to make it, since coincidentally, Nicholas's wedding to someone 20 years older than him, was today. Mallory and Jarod knew that Michelle wasn't pleased, and that this would be a somewhat difficult day for her. Mallory couldn't really tell how Sydney felt about it.
Mallory stood up. Sidney Bristow and Michael Vaughn, now married, were talking to Broots, and some woman he had been dating. Debbie was off at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mallory eyed the deep cut on Vaughn's forehead. She looked at Jarod, who was trying to barbecue and peek at Vaughn as well. Emily had given Vaughn that cut, in an insane attempt to kidnap Vaughn and keep him chained in her basement. Emily was now in a mental hospital, where she could finally get help for her six year obsession with Vaughn.
Mallory sighed. She knew that Jarod, and Major Charles, both blamed themselves for not being there for Emily. But Jarod and her, had their hands full with the kids, and Major Charles had just been getting into a relationship, after his marriage to that 'Catherine Parker Impostor' ended. Mallory never got the full story, as to what happened when Major Charles returned Brian and Abigail to them. But he returned alone. All Mallory could get out of Jarod, was that his father found out that Cecily had taken some sort of pay off from someone, he couldn't ascertain who, and that they were both supposed to make sure that Jarod and Mallory never saw the kids again. The fact that Major Charles didn't go along with it, softened Mallory to him somewhat. But, Cecily disappeared, along with this unknown person.
Mallory looked over at Jarod again, and found that he was already staring at her. He mouthed the words, 'I love you' to her. She mouthed them back and blew him a kiss.
THE END
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter will be the last one in the 'Beyond the Island of Carthis'. I could write this story forever, since I love the 'Pretender' and pray for another TV movie that will clean up loose ends, and result in Jarod and Ms. Parker being together forever. But some readers have let me know that it's gotten old, and I do write four other fan fictions, two that are on a site I maintain. So I fear that because I was not able to give this story the attention it originally had, I should wrap it up now. And in a 'Pretender' style way, there will still be loose ends and unsolved mysteries. Thanks for all of the great reviews, and also thanks to the people who maybe couldn't review because they weren't signed on, but let me know by following the story, how they felt.
Within hours, Sidney and Vaughn had enough information to ascertain that Catherine Parker was actually killed by Raines, shortly after giving birth to Ethan. It was then that Cecily Jamison, Catherine's twin sister, stepped in and took over her sister's identity. What they did not know for sure, is whether this was in collusion with the Centre or not, and did Major Charles or even Melanie, for that matter, know anything about it?
Sidney was the one that solemnly told Jarod and Mallory this news. Jarod watched Mallory very carefully. But his wife shrugged.
'I never felt close to that woman. I never knew why. Now I do.'
Jarod looked from Mallory to Sidney.
'This means that Lyle is her brother, isn't he?'
Sidney nodded.
'Yes, though we will have to assume that Melanie is really this Cecily's daughter by some other man...'
'My father.' Mallory said calmly.
'It could be possible. For a cousin, she does look a little too like you.' Jarod noted slowly.
Mallory stood up.
'You see, I think that one of the few things that was true, from my 'aunt's' mouth, is that part about that secretary.'
Sidney frowned.
'You mean the one that Cecily said was Lyle's real mother?'
'Yes. I think she was really that secretary.'
Jarod shook his head.
'Why would she have done any of this? I mean first off, why would she sleep with her sister's husband? And then why help cover up her murder?'
'Which is what she did, when she went to Major Charles and told him she was Catherine.' Sidney answered.
'That skin disease is real. Sydney and I examined her.' Jarod said, nodding. 'But now I wonder if that woman got it while in Africa at some Triumvirate hotel or what! God! Her story was always off, but I could never figure out what it was...'
Sidney nodded quickly!
'I know, I know! But she looked like Catherine Parker, and the story was plausible...'
'Only because it was the Centre. And anything is possible there.' Jarod said quietly. He looked at Mallory, but she was not paying attention to either of them. She was staring across the glass at her father and Melanie. She watched as two guards brought Raines and Lyle in, shackled at the ankles and wearing orange jumpsuits.
Melanie stood up and said something to her 'father', and started to walk out. It was clear that the sight of Lyle and Mr. Raines creeped her out. Mallory looked at Jarod and Sidney.
'I'll be back.' she said, walking to the door and opening it. Sidney started to follow after her, but Jarod stopped her.
'I think this was just a bit too much after all we've been through. She has things she needs to say over there. She'll be fine. Leave her be.' Jarod said, watching through the glass, as Mallory met Melanie half-way.
'Our father is tired, so if you're going to bitch him out...' Melanie began.
'Get out of my way, before I make you move, 'sis'. Oh, by the way, you might want to pay Sidney and my husband a visit over there. We're not as related as we once thought.'
'What? What are you talking about?'
But Mallory didn't want to waste another minute with this broad! She hadn't felt anything when she first laid eyes on Melanie. Then again, she hadn't felt anything when she looked at Lyle either. But somehow, Mallory wondered if she had always secretly known. Maybe not the exact details, but known that this woman in front of her, wasn't really her sister?
Melanie stepped aside, not in the mood to start a fight. The father that she was just getting to know, was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. And she knew he was guilty, yet, it still didn't seem fair.
Mallory walked over to the door and looked at the guard.
'Agent Bristow said I could go in alone.' Mallory said with a straight face. The guard looked across the hall into the window where Jarod and Sidney stood watching. Sidney nodded slightly, and the guard unlocked the door for her.
Mallory stepped in and looked at the 'scums of her life'! The guard closed the door. Her gaze settled in on Raines, who still wore that stupid tube up his nose, while smoking a cigarette.
Raines was the furthest away from her, and he ignored her, as she walked up to him. He could not continue to do so, when Mallory snatched the cigarette from him and burned it on his face!
'AAAAAHHHHHH!' he screamed. The guard outside looked to Sidney, who shook her head again. Jarod's expression was full of worry. Melanie hurried into their room.
'Jarod? Sidney? What is she doing in there? She might hurt our father!'
Mallory might hurt 'their' father! The words sounded absurd said out loud. All Jarod could do was stare at her. Sidney motioned for Melanie to come towards her.
'We need to talk.' she said. Melanie reluctantly sat down.
'You crazy bitch!' Lyle said, shaking his head in wonder. He moved away from the whimpering Raines.
Mallory ignored her brother, and focused in on her father.
'Hello, Daddy.'
'Hello, Angel. I see you still have that Parker temper.'
'Hmmm, so it would seem.' she said, glancing over at Lyle and pointing at him.
'Hey! We're twins again! Did you know that? Daddy, did you know that?'
Lyle leaned forward.
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'Oh believe me, brother dear, I would've loved to be rid of you forever! But we just found out that the woman who's been calling herself our mother, and living with Jarod's father all of these years, really is some rogue twin sister of hers! Either that or an insanely jealous one! But you knew that, didn't you, Daddy?'
Lyle said nothing to this, but watched his father and sister intently. Raines began to cry in pain.
'Angel, there are things better left unknown.'
Mallory smiled and sat down, so that her chair was close to him.
'Like the fact that Jarod and I had a son? Or that all of those years you held me to that fake deal about letting me go, if I caught Jarod, you had my son captured like some kind of lab experiment. Your own grandson...or how about those lonely years I spent at boarding school alone, when I couldn't come home for Christmas....oh, wait a minute! None of that ever happened, did it?! You just planted those shitty memories in me so that I would forget Jarod and our baby, right?!'
'Now, Angel,' Mr. Parker said, beginning to feel a bit unnerved, 'I did what I thought was best at the time!'
'I planted those memories in you, Ms. Parker!' Raines hissed angrily. Mallory stood up, picked up her chair and threw it at him! Lyle slid away even further! Jesus!
Raines began to cry again. Lyle eyed his father and sister. He then began to try and wriggle out of his hand cuffs! Jesus! He wasn't taking any ass kicking stuck in these!
Mallory then walked around to the other side of her father and bent down.
'You couldn't have just let Jarod go, so that your daughter could have a father for her child, hey? Tell me, Daddy, since you've been alive all of this time, did you put the hit out on me, all of those years ago? Were you the one that told Lyle, and I'm assuming that's who it was, to inject me with that drug again? The drug that almost killed Abigail...she's your granddaughter....'
'Oh stop it!' Mr. Parker snapped. 'I am so sick of your ingratitude! Jarod RAPED you! You didn't want a child from an experience like that!'
Lyle snorted! Mr. Raines's crying had turned to soft laughter at those words!
'Shut up, both of you!' Mr. Parker barked. But Mallory grinned!
'No, Daddy! Both scumbags are right! Jarod didn't rape me! I went to him willingly, every chance I got!' she snapped.
'Angel, you were young and impressionable...'
'And lonely and longing to be with someone I knew loved me, just from the way he looked at me!' Mallory snapped, and the tears began to slip down her face. Her father wasn't sorry. He didn't think he had done a damned thing wrong. But he was going to hear the raw, unabridged truth about her time with Jarod in his room at the Centre.
Mallory swiped at the tears, then smiled at her father.
'Do you have any idea at all, what it feels like to be loved in that way? Any idea at all?'
Mr. Parker began to turn beet red with rage! He jumped up!
'I watched the goddamned DSA'S! I saw him riding you like...like...like...'
Mallory walked up to him. Her face was inches from his.
'Like a stallion rides the wind!' she began in a whispering hiss. Lyle and Raines were now staring at her, mouths wide open. Mr. Parker's eyes widened.
'I was screwing boys behind your back at home, while you were at that dungeon, making people's lives miserable! Then one day, I decided that I wanted to be with Jarod. I wanted to be with someone that despite his circumstances, looked at me with love. The daughter of his captor. I can still remember being in awe, at how wide I had to open my legs, because of how wide his hips were...'
'SHUT-UP!' Mr. Parker screamed. Lyle's eyes were huge as well! Jesus! She was one crazy bitch!
'Or how sometimes I would wrap my legs around his hips, to press him even deeper into me...'
'DAMN YOU! SHUT UP!!!'
'But you knew all of that, didn't you Daddy? Because you were filming us! How many times did you watch those things over again, huh? Tell me, can you figure out which time it was that Brian was conceived? Huh? Can you tell me that?'
'No....but I have the feeling you're going to tell me, aren't you?' Mr. Parker answered heavily. There was a sheen of sweat on his face.
Mallory grinned again. She felt nothing for him anymore. Her voice became very soft.
'Yes. It was the anniversary of my mother's death...or what I thought was it. Jarod was there...then again, where else would he have been? And I remember he took his time with me...we were so quick and fumbling...but not this time. And I remember that he gave me this long kiss, and with one final thrust, I could feel this warmth...'
'Oh damn you to hell! Everything that I did, I did for you! I did it to preserve our family legacy! To give you and your brother something to live for, to continue on with! And you spat on it, the minute you let that little 'pretender' touch you! Get out of here! Get out of here! Get out....'
Suddenly, Mr. Parker dropped to the floor! Three guards came running in, along with Sidney, Jarod and Melanie!
'Daddy! Daddy!' Melanie screamed, kneeling down before him. Lyle's eyes met Mallory's, but he said nothing.
Jarod had his arms around Mallory.
'What happened in here?! What were you two arguing about?!'
Melanie turned to face Mallory!
'I saw the way you were yelling at him! If he dies...'
'If he dies he dies.' Mallory said, her tone flat. Melanie's mouth dropped open and she turned away, furious, as she knelt down to see to him, along with the guards.
'What happened in here?' Sidney asked, looking at Lyle and Raines. Raines had forgotten his pain, as he just stared at Ms. Parker. Lyle shrugged.
'Father was going on about what an ingrate sis here was, then just dropped.'
'And that's all?' Sidney asked, eyeing Mallory. Her and Lyle were staring at one another. Lyle nodded.
'Yeah, that's all.' Lyle answered, looking down at his father.
Jarod did not believe a word of it. He turned Mallory back towards him.
'Honey, my father called. He's bringing the kids home.'
'He?' Mallory said dully, still a bit spent by her confrontation. 'What about the impostor.'
'My father didn't say anything about her. We'll just have to wait and see what he says. Are you alright?'
Mallory nodded and wrapped her arms around him, as Mr. Parker was carried out on a stretcher.
SEVEN YEARS LATER
Mallory watched, as seven year old Abigail flipped up in the air and dived off of the board. She had never liked diving, and always feared that her daughter would break her neck.
'Abby!' Jarod called out, as he flipped burgers, 'remember to keep an eye on your brother and sister!'
'Okay, Daddy!' Abigail yelled back, then paddled over to the small little raft that her four year old twin brother and sister, Kyle and Katherine, were sitting in. Mallory sat on a lounge chair and watched them. Every single one of the kids, had red hair, and looked more like a combination of Jarod and her. Brian looked almost exactly like Jarod. Not one of them looked more like her. Maybe that was better so.
Twenty-two year old Brian was over talking to his grandfather, Major Charles, and some woman he had brought with him to this party. Brian's graduation party from Boston University.
The last seven years had been easier than she had expected them to be. But maybe that was because all of the ghosts had begun dying off.
Her father had died hours later, after his attack. Melanie blamed her. Mallory could give a rat's ass! None of them had seen their cousin since.
Raines finally died of cancer. His withered remains were cremated. Mallory was just sorry he couldn't have been cremated BEFORE he died.
And Lyle...Lyle was shanked by a fellow prisoner. Mallory, for some reason, felt compelled to see him, on his death bed. Maybe it was because that the day he covered for her, back in Scotland, was the closest moment either of them had ever had.
He didn't have much to say. No apologies for all that he had done to disrupt her and Jarod's lives. But there was just this unspoken understanding, that if his beginning had been different, maybe he wouldn't be dying right now. And Mallory felt compelled not to let him die alone.
Sidney and Michelle weren't able to make it, since coincidentally, Nicholas's wedding to someone 20 years older than him, was today. Mallory and Jarod knew that Michelle wasn't pleased, and that this would be a somewhat difficult day for her. Mallory couldn't really tell how Sydney felt about it.
Mallory stood up. Sidney Bristow and Michael Vaughn, now married, were talking to Broots, and some woman he had been dating. Debbie was off at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mallory eyed the deep cut on Vaughn's forehead. She looked at Jarod, who was trying to barbecue and peek at Vaughn as well. Emily had given Vaughn that cut, in an insane attempt to kidnap Vaughn and keep him chained in her basement. Emily was now in a mental hospital, where she could finally get help for her six year obsession with Vaughn.
Mallory sighed. She knew that Jarod, and Major Charles, both blamed themselves for not being there for Emily. But Jarod and her, had their hands full with the kids, and Major Charles had just been getting into a relationship, after his marriage to that 'Catherine Parker Impostor' ended. Mallory never got the full story, as to what happened when Major Charles returned Brian and Abigail to them. But he returned alone. All Mallory could get out of Jarod, was that his father found out that Cecily had taken some sort of pay off from someone, he couldn't ascertain who, and that they were both supposed to make sure that Jarod and Mallory never saw the kids again. The fact that Major Charles didn't go along with it, softened Mallory to him somewhat. But, Cecily disappeared, along with this unknown person.
Mallory looked over at Jarod again, and found that he was already staring at her. He mouthed the words, 'I love you' to her. She mouthed them back and blew him a kiss.
THE END