The ice clinked against the glass as it began to melt down, but Miss Parker didn't hear it. She took an absent sip of vodka and frowned, trying to pull the fragment into consciousness; but it continued to remain just out of focus. A dark room filled with shadowy figures; an overwhelming anger permeating the air; desolate sobs of defeat; and the remnants of a crushed bouquet lit with silvery white from moonlight pouring in through an open window.... Pieces of a past that she couldn't remember, or remnants of a history that never existed; to Parker, it no longer really mattered which.

The shrill sound of her phone shook her from her thoughts. She grabbed it with fury.

"What?"

"Bad dreams keeping you awake nights, Miss Parker?"

"Don't you have anything better to do, wonder boy?"

"No, not at this moment."

The long silence hung on the air waves between them like a dreadful curse, and Parker's agitated sigh finally sparked Jarod into speaking once again.

"What's bothering you, Miss Parker?"

"Other than you, Jarod?"

He clenched the phone tightly in his fist. "You've been unusually sad, since you visited your mother's grave--"

"--Damn you, Jarod, how dare you track me--"

"--You do it to me all the time, Miss Parker--"

"--That's not the same thing, and you know it."

He let a long pause of silence go by. "What's bothering you?"

Parker looked out the window into the pitch black of night, then quietly said, "I can't shake the feeling that I've forgotten something important. Something about my mother... something about today. I was sure of it when I saw the bouquet my father put on her headstone--"

"--Your father?"

"Yes. You're slipping if you didn't notice the large bouquet of white flowers--"

"--Mums and roses."

"And monkey boy gets the prize...."

"What makes you so sure it was your father who put them there?"

Parker's eyes narrowed together. "Is this some kind of sick joke, Jarod? Did you put them there?"

"No, I did not, Miss Parker."

"Then tell me what you know about this, Jarod." The emotion in the silent pause made Jarod's mouth go dry, and Parker's voice was vulnerable when she continued. "Please, Jarod, if you know something about my mother--"

"--You've got to trust your inner sense, Miss Parker; go where it leads you. And you've got to trust me, at least a little. If I uncover any truths regarding your mother, you'll be the first to know. If there's one thing I understand all too well, it's the feeling of betrayal over my own past."

Parker swallowed hard; life hadn't been easy for Jarod, and she hadn't made it any easier. But all she said was, "Thanks Jarod. I'd appreciate that."

In response, the line went dead.

------------------------------

It was late, and Sydney still sat at the desk in his office. His stomach was burning with guilt, and his head pounded from trying to come up with another way out. But there wasn't one, and Sydney knew it. He closed his eyes in remorse as Catherine's desolate sobs filled his ears.....

"Oh God, no more. Please....... my little angel will be home any moment; I don't want her to see this. If you ever loved me, you won't let her find us like this."

The anger in his voice filled the darkened room, "If I ever loved you? I loved you more than anything else, and you betrayed me....you betrayed us. How could you do this?"

His hand hit her again across the face, hard, this time splitting her lip. The bruises around her cheeks and eyes were already swelling, and the tears on her face glistened slightly from the reflection of moonlight coming through the open window....

Sydney started almost violently when he felt the hand on his shoulder.

"Easy, Sydney, it's just me."

The tired doctor looked up into the concerned eyes of his student. "Jarod. What are you doing here?"

Jarod could easily hear the concern in his mentor's tone. "Don't worry. I can get in and out of here at will...." He smiled at the man he who had raised him, but the old man remained tense. Jarod gently rubbed the taut shoulder under his hand. "What's wrong, Sydney?"

Finally Sydney smiled, although it never lit his eyes. "Nothing, Jarod." He stood and walked away from his student, keeping his back to the younger man. "What brings you here?"

"Miss Parker."

Sydney turned abruptly to face Jarod. "What about her?"

Jarod carefully watched Sydney for any nonverbal clues as he spoke. "She's very upset about her mother."

Sydney's left hand fidgeted slightly, as it always did when he was trying to hide something. "In what way?"

"She says she feels like she's forgotten something important about today, and when she went to visit Mrs. Parker's grave this morning, her father already been there to leave a bouquet of white flowers."

Sydney looked toward the floor, then moved slightly away, his left hand sliding into his pocket. "What's so strange about Mr. Parker putting flowers at his wife's grave?"

"On a holiday or anniversary, I suppose, nothing. But then today doesn't commemorate any kind of remembrance for Mr. Parker, does it Sydney?" The doctor's eyes darted to Jarod's, but he said nothing. "Mr. Parker didn't put any flowers on Catherine Parker's grave this morning: you did."

"That is ridiculous conjecture, Jarod--"

"--No, Sydney. Don't lie to me. I was at the cemetery today, and I saw you. White china mums, and white roses. When I was little, I remember seeing bouquets of that type lying on your desk sometimes, wrapped and waiting to be delivered to someone.... apparently to Mrs. Parker."

Sydney reached for the pretender. "Jarod, you don't understand."

Jarod pulled from the older man's grip. "Then explain it to me."

Sydney looked away. "Jarod, there are some things that you're better off not knowing."

"I can't believe you lied to Miss Parker. She trusts you, Sydney; she looks to you for protection, for kindness....for.....for love. How could you lie to her?"

"I haven't lied to her."

"You certainly haven't told her the truth."

"Jarod, she's been hurt enough."

"Oh, that's perfect. Now you're going to pretend that you're keeping it from her to protect her. Coming from you, Sydney, that's really rich."

The doctor couldn't keep the hurt from his eyes, and he looked away. "Have you told her that it was me?"

"Not yet." Sydney's eyes flicked up to meet Jarod's. "I wanted to give you the chance to tell her yourself."

Syd looked down. "Jarod, I can't--"

"--If you don't, Sydney, I will."

And when Sydney looked up to meet Jarod's eyes once more, the pretender was gone.