Part 3 - The End of Memories
Disclaimer: Still don't own them = Italicized dialogue is direct from the televised script and used without permission as is this entire fanfic
Thank you for the reviews and kind words =
She had looked at him, her eyes sad and searching. She glanced down and seemed to come to some decision and started to smile. "When I was your age, I knew a boy just like you," her tentative smile faded, "Exactly like you. I felt for him, but I never let him know," her gaze no longer saw him, but the past, a regret-filled past. "I saw," she paused, the memory obviously uncomfortable. "Pain, in his eyes but I looked the other way."
He had felt the discontentment flowing off of her and it pained him to see her so unhappy.
"I see the same pain in your eyes but I can't look away anymore."
"I don't understand," he denied. He can remember the confusion, and secret elation, he felt as he tried to figure out why he would matter so much to her, why his . . . his pain would matter to her.
She gave a small laugh. "Do you want to be here or do you want to do what other kids do?" she asked, a smile playing about those beautiful lips.
"What do other kids do?" he had asked, confused by even the thought of a choice.
She laughed again, a small delicate sound, her smile staying this time. "Play. Have fun. Experience life," she had reeled off, like the list of possibilities was endless. Her voice promised pleasures unknown.
"Is this a simulation?" He cringed, remembering his insecurity, his fear of the unknown.
"No. No, this is real," she had assured him, earnestly.
"I'm doing what I want to do. Sims to help others," he had reassured her, aware of his duty and parroting those very terms that Mr. Raines had pounded into him, time and time again.
"Then why were you crying?"
"I . . . I wasn't . . . I just." Panic, pure and simple panic. That was the only way to describe the feelings flooding through him at that moment. Panic that he would be punished for having emotions. Panic that he would be alone again. Panic that she would leave him. He had been unable to continue looking at her as he felt the tears begin again.
"It's okay." She got up and moved closer to him, the scent of her perfume and the warmth of her body reaching him first as she sat beside him on the bed, her hand soft and calming on his arm. "It's okay."
"If Mr. Raines finds out, he'll get angry and when he gets angry, he . . . he . . . " He couldn't say it out loud, all the horrors, the pure terror that Mr. Raines had visited upon him stuck in his throat. How could he admit to her what had been done to him? She didn't deserve to know about such things. He had to protect her from what Mr. Raines could and would do to those who disappointed him.
"I won't let him hurt you anymore, I promise." She had hugged him closer, her gentleness amazing to him. The feel of her soft lips against his forehead, the warm shelter of her arm around his shoulders, he had been stunned. "We've got to get you out of here," she had declared and for one brief moment he had allowed himself to feel hope. Hope that she wanted him. Hope that she would take him away from Mr. Raines. Hope that he could stay with her.
He felt her lightly tap his right shoulder, a touch without rancor, with . . . affection?
"He's not going anywhere with you," Mr. Raines had come upon them, his raspy voice the sound nightmares were made of, and he remembered knowing with a certainty that he had never known before, that he would never see her again.
He could feel those dreaded tears start again and hugged himself tighter as he listened to Jarod's voice, a precursor to his own tones in the years to come, say her name, "Miss Parker."