Chapter Two, because who needs a chapter one when you can have a prologue instead.
Disclaimer: no, because I don't feel like writing one. Go burn a cat.
'You're Jarod' Sydney told him gently, looking extremely worried.
'And... what happened?' he asked, his brow wrinkling slightly in confusion.
'That's what I'd like to know' said Parker.
'He's got concussion,' said Sydney, 'we should get him back to the Centre.'
'What's the Centre?'
'Maybe it's a good thing he's lost his memory' said Broots half-jokingly. Parker gave a snort of agreement.
'Can you sit up?' Sydney asked Jarod, ignoring the other two. 'I'll see,' said Jarod, taking a deep breath. It was obvious to the three Centre operatives that it cost the pretender quite a lot to sit upright, but finally he managed it. His face was pale and he was panting slightly 'I'll go get the car' offered Broots, standing and hurrying off
They didn't bother to handcuff the concussed man for the drive back to the Centre- after all; he didn't know there was anything to run from. Parker rang ahead to prepare for their arrival, so when the car pulled up there were sweepers waiting to escort the pretender and his captors into the Centre. There was a flurry of activity and before she knew it, Parker was standing at the end of a hospital bed in the renewal wing, next to Sydney and her father, watching Jarod being thoroughly checked over by a small army of nurses and doctors.
'We found him unconscious in an alley' Parker told her father, not taking her eyes of Jarod, who was watching a nurse take his blood pressure.
'Well done angel.' Said her Mr Parker proudly, money glinting in his eyes.
'There is a problem' Sydney warned him.
'Problem?' asked Mr Parker sharply, worried that something might come between him and the Centre's most valuable asset.
'His abilities took years of training. He won't be able to perform simulations without his memory.'
'Is there any way to help him get it back?'
'It's hard to say. He may regain it by himself, it may take a prompt from his past, or he may never get it back.'
'Prompt from his past' repeated Mr Parker thoughtfully, looking at his daughter.
'No daddy' she warned him firmly, 'I've bought him in, now I'm leaving. You promised me.'
The old man sighed. 'OK angel, I suppose I can't stop you if your mind is set on this. You've inherited your mother's strong will'
'Thank you daddy.'
'I just hoped you would consider staying. After all, someone has to be chairman after me.'
'I'm sure Lyle won't mind. Bye daddy' said Parker as she breezed out. And it was that easy.
Parker was cleaning out her office when she heard Sydney enter. She knew it was Sydney simply by the way he made very little sound when he entered. Lyle always announced himself immediately, Broots would shuffle nervously from foot to foot and Mr Parker never bothered to come to her office, he simply summoned her to his.
'Where will you go?' asked Sydney quietly. Parker looked up from where she was packing papers into a box. The psychiatrist wasn't trying to persuade her to stay, like her father, nor leave like a certain incessantly preaching pretender. He was just curious about what she would do now.
'Well first,' Parker told him, going back to packing the box, 'I'm going to have a holiday. Then I will think about it.'
'Enjoy your freedom Parker.'
'What about you Freud? You could leave now if you wanted to.'
Sydney simply shook his grey haired head. 'It's to late for me now. Don't worry about it. I'll do what good I can here though. If Mr Parker lets Lyle loose on Jarod again, I have to be here to step in.'
Parker nodded sadly. That was the one thread that pulled her to stay at the Centre- Jarod, amnesiac and completely at her father's mercy. But she had been waiting for this for too long. If she didn't go now, she never would. So she said her good byes to Sydney and Broots, gave Lyle and Raines' offices wide girths, and stepped out into the sunlight, truly free.
Jarod in the bowels of the Centre and Parker out on the surface- we have done a turn around haven't we. TBC.