AUTHOR'S NOTE: MY DAMN COMPUTER IS SCREWING UP MY LIFE. IT WAS WORKING FINE THE OTHER DAY. NOW I CAN'T LOGON TO THE INTERNET. I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG IT'S GOING TO BE BEFORE I GET TO POST AGAIN. SO I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR WHATEVER DELAY THERE MIGHT BE. I ALSO WHAT TO THANK EVERY ONE WHO REVIEWED. YOU'LL FIND OUT THE RESULTS SOON.
CHAPTER 26
EMILY COMES TO AN UNDERSTANDING
March 3, 2003
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
1:37pm
"Is ah, everything alright?" Charles asked Jarod as Will sat down next to his brothers and sister.
"Every thing's fine." Jarod said glancing at his children. Will was laughing at some remark Chris had made. Jarod and Charles sat down plates in hand. Jarod sat next to Will, Charles sat between Chris and Ethan. The nine of them ate lunch, and discussed many things. Not one of which dealt with what had occurred between Will and Jarod. After lunch Emily and Ethan cleared off the table while Jarod, took his children for a walk to the lake.
"Jarod what's wrong?" Alex asked reading his nervousness off of him as if it were a book.
'Nothing sweetheart." Jarod said lifting his daughter into his arms. Why don't we sit here?" Jarod said motioning to a spot under a dogwood tree.
"Kay." The children replied. Jarod sat down, Alex in his lap, Will across from them, and Aaron to his left and Andros to the right.
"She's going to be angry with me for telling you three this but I figured that since Will knew that it was only right to tell you three." Jarod spoke.
"Tell us what?" Aaron asked
"Yesterday Miss Parker found out who your parents are."
"She did? Who are they?" Andros asked excitedly.
"Calm down little brother." Will said placing a hand on his shoulder.
Jarod sighed, wishing that Parker was there to tell the children as well. "Miss Parker is your mother." The triplets' jaws dropped. "I'm your father." After a few moments the three children began to grin.
"We have parents." Alex said in awe.
"We have a family." Aaron said equally in awe.
"This is the best gift ever." Andros replied. Will smiled at his younger siblings antics.
"Will did you tell him about Alley." Alex asked
"Yeah mouse I did." Will replied
"Good we don't need anymore secrets." Aaron said. Will coughed.
"What is it?" Andros asked.
"Now don't be angry but I've know that truth about Mom and Dad for a while." Will told the triplets. "In fact I kind of messed with everyone's minds a bit."
"Go on." Jarod instructed.
"Well I have a bit of telepathic ability. So to keep every one out of trouble I kind of made you all not able to make the connection that we might be yours and Mom's. Will explained.
"You did what?" Alex exclaimed.
"It was only to keep us safe. And it did." Will protested
"It doesn't matter what you did Will, it worked." Jarod said. "Only next time talk to your mother or me before you decide to mess with any of our minds."
"Yes Dad." Will replied
"So Dad what are we going to tell Uncle Ethan and the others." Aaron asked.
"Were going to wit for your mother for that one. She and Peter will be here in six days."
"Really?" Andros said
"Really?" His father replied.
"Then we'd better get a room set up for her. Or will you and Mom be sharing a room?" Alex asked smirking.
"You know what? You four know to much for your own good." Jarod said tickling his daughter. "Come on lets get back to the house." The quintet walked back towards the house. The children then disappeared into the house with Chris, leaving Jarod to answer questions from the rest of his family.
"So what happened between you and Will earlier?" Charles asked Jarod.
"We came to an understanding." Jarod simply stated.
"Care to elaborate?" Emily asked him.
"No." Jarod said firmly. He hated not telling his family the truth but he felt that Parker should be there with them when he did. "Um listen, at the end of the week we're going to have two new house guest."
"Two more of the Black Files?" Ethan asked.
"No but one of them is a child a toddler to be exact. His sister will be coming as well." Jarod told him.
"I'm going to ask you once again, Care to elaborate?" Emily said.
"No, but I will. The boy's name is Peter." Ethan's eyebrow's raised at then mention of the name. "Peter's sister is Miss Parker." The plate Emily was holding slipped from her grasp and shattered on the tile floor.
"My sister is coming!" Ethan said smiling.
"Miss Parker is coming?" Emily said in both disbelief and horror. Jarod flinched at her words. He was afraid that Emily would react that way.
"Yes Miss Parker is coming. She and Peter are in danger."
"And she's coming here?" Emily said believing that her brother was playing some sick joke.
"Yes Emily, Miss Parker and here little brother Peter are coming to live here." Jarod explained as if talking to a small child.
"For how long?" His sister asked.
"I don't know." Jarod replied becoming fed up with his sister's attitude.
"What is this place, a refugee for Centre fugitives?!" Emily shouted at her brother.
"I that that is exactly what this place is." Charles calmly told his daughter.
"But, Daddy that woman..." Emily began.
"Is Ethan's sister." Charles interrupted her.
"But she..."
"Is a prisoner of the Centre just as much as your brother's were, just as much as those children were. That woman, as you call her Emily, has been through hell. For Christ sake, she found her mother's dead body, and has been haunted by that for years."
"Catharine Parker didn't die in that elevator." Emily protested.
"She did to her daughter. This place is a refugee Em, and Miss Parker and her brother are in need of one. I am not asking you to like her, but I am telling you to be civil towards her." Charles told his daughter. Both Jarod and Ethan wee shocked at their father's defense of Miss Parker but neither of them commented on it.
"Uh, there's something else as well." Jarod said. "It has to do with the boy Peter."
"What about him?" Ethan asked.
"He's your brother Ethan."
"What? How?" Ethan asked in disbelief. Jarod explained Peter's origins to Ethan and the rest of his family.
"You know what's sad?" Ethan said after Jarod had finished talking. "I have no problem believing any of it. How sick do you have to be to create a child from a woman who has dead for decades, just so you can have heir?" He seethed.
"Let it go son." Charles said resting his hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Just let it go."
Upstairs the five children were sprawled out on the floor in Will's room.
"So," Chris said. "What happened earlier?" The four children exchanged looks.
"I guess we can tell him?" Will sighed.
"But you can't tell anyone we told you." Aaron warned him.
"You can't tell a soul Chris. We mean it." Andros said.
"I right I won't tell anyone. I promise." Chris said laughing at the children's dramatics.
"Pinky swear?" Alex asked holding out her little finger.
"Pinky swear." Chris said locking fingers with the little girl. "Now tell me before I bust!" he commanded.
"Miss Parker and her little brother Peter are coming to live here." Will began.
"That's it?" Chris asked. "You made me go through all of that over something that I'd find out more than likely before the day is out. I mean as soon as Ethan finds out he'll be singing at the top of his lungs that his sister is coming. Not that I can blame him Em can be a pain some times. Did you..."
"We weren't finished." Aaron said frowning.
"Miss Parker is our Mother, and Jarod is our Dad." Andros continued.
"Peter is Catherine Parker's son, thus making him Ethan's brother. And oh yeah our parents are in love with each other." Alex finished. Chris stared at them in shock.
"How come when ever we tell people the truth they all ways stare at us like that?" Will asked motioning towards Chris. The three younger children laughed at their brother's comment.
"Well I'll be damned." Chris said.
"You probably already are." Aaron muttered.
"Ethan owes me fifty bucks." Chris announced.
"What for?" Andros asked.
"After your Dad, I can't believe I just said that. I mean Jarod is your dad. That's makes me your Uncle. Hey I can command you all around."
"Follow the bouncing ball Chris." Alex said in a perfect imitation of her mother.
"Oh right. As I was saying Ethan and I made a bet after Your Dad and Zoë broke up. I said that he was in love with your Mom, you sound a lot like her by the way." He said motioning to Alex.
"Chris!" The children groaned.
"Oh and ah Ethan said that Jarod just out grew her."
"You're worse than Broots you know that don't you." Will said cradling his forehead with his hand as if he had a migraine.
"I have a question does Em know that your Mom is going to come and live with us?" Chris asked them.
At that exact moment they heard Emily scream "What is this place, a refugee for Centre fugitives!"
"Well I guess she does now." Aaron said. And the five children unable to contain them selves began to laugh until tears were streaming from their eyes.
The week moved by quickly for all. Jarod, Ethan and the children went about preparing the rooms for Parker and Peter, as well as Will and the triplet's room. Lowes and home Depot saw Jarod group quite often. Dozen of gallons of paint were bought, as well as truck loads of furniture. A bunk bed was bought for Peter's room and four loft beds were bought for Alex and the boys. Jarod had allowed his children to design both their room and Peter's, while Jarod and Ethan worked on Parker's. They finished ten hours before the house's newest occupant's arrived.
Alex and the boys' room consisted of silver bed frames, bright blue walls, and a lime green ceiling. Decorating the walls were painted copies of modern art done by the children themselves. Peter's room was done in a Spider-Man motif. ON the wall opposite of the window was a mural of Spider- Man web slinging through New York City. The walls were the blue of the superhero's costume and the ceiling was red. The boy's bedding consisted of Spider-Man sheets. Peter's dresser contained Spider-Man action figures Jarod had collected on one of his pretends and decided to keep. And the toddler's bookshelf was decoupage with clippings from Spider-Man comic books.
Parker's room was similar to her room at her house in Blue Cove. The room was located across the hall from Jarod's. Both Ethan and Charles took note of this fact but did not mention it. Nor did it escape the two men that Jarod had become very close to the four children. Chris and Will had also become close. One was rarely seen with out the other.
It was a good thing that the triplets were kept busy. For they did not have time to miss their absence of their friends in Blue Cove. Though there were times when the three children felt as if something was missing.
Back in Blue Cove, eleven children were plotting on how they were going to get Parker and her little brother out of the Centre with out raising the suspicions of the Triumvirate. They deiced that to stage the two's death would be the best course of action. The plan was for it to appear as if someone had – "preferably Willie" Jake said- broken into Miss Parker's house and shot her. Then to make it seem as if Raines had poisoned Peter in order to dispose of Mr. Parker's heir. Not only would the children be getting Parker and Peter out but also they would be getting Raines and Willie out of the way.
Jake, Rachael, Marc, and Cassie were in charge of designing a drug that would induce a coma like state in which the taker of the drug would appear dead. The drug would give its taker a low heat beat and an almost undetectable pulse. Terra and Tobias were placed with the task of pacing files on Raines's computer that would implicate him in the deaths of Parker and Peter. Greg, Jeremiah, Melissa were gathering materials such as samples of Parker's blood from the storage lab and make up to fake a gun shot wound. Michael and Michelle were given the task to convince Sam and Jen to help. Jen would be the one in charge of the autopsy. And Sam would make Parker's house look like a crime scene. Sam was to also place Willie's fingerprints around the house.
Parker on the other hand had to spend the week deciding what she could take with her. In the end she settled on some pictures of her and her mother, two changes of clothes, and Jarod's gifts. She did not want the Centre to know about the things Jarod had given her. She figured that once she and Peter were out of Blue Cove they could buy some new clothes.
Finally the day came and all were nervous. Jarod had been informed of the plan. Cassie and Marc were to place the cameras on a loop while Jarod and Ethan were to get Parker and Peter's drugged bodies out of the morgue before the autopsy. Parker and Peter's bodies were then to be replaced with that realistic of mannequins that had been constructed by the group of children. The mannequins were so realist it was unsettling. They even had artificial organs, and blood so that they would appear real during the autopsy.
Sam came to Parker's that night to help her appear as if she had been shot in the chest. Once done Sam administered the drug the children concocted.
"Are you sure this wont kill me? Parker asked only half joking.
"Those kids wouldn't harm you. They love you to much believe it or not." Sam told her.
"I know." She replied.
"Okay now remember once I place the blood on you don't move. Not that the drug won't knock you out in about five minuets or so."
"Thanks Sam."
"Hey it's my job to look out for you and your kids."
"Tomorrow your job is to look after Syd, Broots and the rest of the children. I wish that we could get them out as well."
"Even if you could they wouldn't go. Hose kids are planning something. Something big. You don't have to worry about them though. They're..." The stopped talking when he saw that she was asleep. "Sweet dreams Parker." The sweeper said as he left the room. He then exited her house, closing and locking the front door.
"You look after them Jarod." Sam warned the pretender.
"Don't worry I will. They mean the world to me."
"I know they do. Tell me how long have you loved her? Twenty, twenty- five years?"
"Something like that." Jarod replied.
"If some thing happens to her or those children I will come after you."
"I wouldn't expect anything less. And Sam I'm glad to know that my children and their mother has someone else who will risk their life for them."
Back at the Centre Jake was giving Peter his does of the drug. "Sleep well Tiger. Tomorrow you'll be free." Jake said as he stroked the little boy's hair." Jake then climbed back into the air vent and returned to his room.
"It's done." He said when he came through the air vent.
"Now we wait." Rachael spoke.
"Lets' get some sleep." Cassie suggested.
"Yeah." Marc yawned. "Tomorrow's going to be a long day."