DISCLAIMER: in the first chapter...
A/N: First off, I AM SO SORRY it took me this long to post chapter 11, but life got in the way. I will try to tame it next time.
Crazyrussiangal: Thank you for being a friend and a constant reviewer. I know I am taking some time to put MP and J together, but don't give up on me.
Gemini-M: I am glad you like it, even it being so short. I have reconsidered Syd and will give him a bigger role here. Keep reviewing, your commets are always valid and help me. Thanks!
Lynn: Patience, grasshoper. If the suspence weren't great, the meeting wouldn't be either!
NYT: glad you're still reading. Here is a longer chapter, hope it is to your liking.
Ruby Trinity: great that you're liking! You are the first to metion the words in the beggining, they are my favorite part too!
ororo: the pace is EVERYTHING!
Lisa: It' is true, I focus more on MP than Jarod, and she is the main character here, but J will play a big role. The character's have evolved during IOTH and the beggining of my story and showing that is, in my opinion, essential. Thank you for the review!
phi4858, leochick, Annette: thank you for the reviews and hope to keep up to your standards...
Chapter 11: NEW LIFE
When you seek to create...
To renew...
It is always best...
To start at the beginning...
The first thing Miss Parker did when she arrived in New York City was to create for herself a new identity. For it is necessary to respect the past in order to move into the future, Miss Parker chose to keep her first name. It was a name picked by her beloved mother and it represented what she had lost and was fighting to regain. For this and other reasons, she also chose to drop her last. Parker was a symbol of everything she had been before and yearned to leave behind. It was a legacy she rather not carry.
She considered adopting Jamison, in honor of her mother's maiden name, but reason and good sense convinced her to choose something which could not be so easily traced back to herself. Filled with self doubt and uncertainty, Miss Parker asked the voices within for an opinion, yet, strangely enough, they remained silent.
It was her decision to make...
And decide she did.
After that was out of the way, building a new background for herself turned out to be quite easy. After chasing Jarod for six years and analyzing countless personas, she knew just what needed to be done. New social security number and other documents taken care of, the next thing on her agenda was finding, for herself, a place to live. Craving the human contact she denied herself for so long, Parker bought an apartment, rather than a house, on a calm part of the city. A place she could imagine herself living for long years to come.
The place was neither big nor small. It was nothing like her old summer house, filled with rooms she never got to use, things that have never felt like they were her own, always dripping with memories that consumed her. No, her new home was roomy, but cozy, it's walls still bare, with no furniture at all, just waiting to be filled with things of her own choosing, with mementos of her new life...
The very first thing on her list to be purchased, turned out to be a mattress, a basic necessity, which would lie single a whole week on the floor, before she finally found a poster, carved bed to go beneath it. The woman, who had once craved fine things and refused to settle to anything half-done, was now enjoying this new, sparse and unpredictable aspect of life. For once in her adult years, she was in no hurry.
No hurry at all...
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Miss Parker spent the better part of her second week in New York wandering the streets of this crowded, busy and beautiful city. It is true that she had already been to the metropolis before, both on business and on pleasure, but the air held a certain new quality to it now. Never had she walked with such light feet, her shoulders neither slumped down by defeat, nor straightened to shield the shadows. A carefree smile graced her lips.
On Monday, her 12th day in the city, Parker was assaulted by an immense sense of dread. The voices within her mind all decided to speak at once, leaving her with a splitting headache and a bout of insomnia. After struggling all day to either understand or block out the constant buzzing, Parker lay down on her new bed, covered with beige sheets and six pillows and tried, in vain, to relax. At around tem at night, Parker sat up in bed and in an desperate cry, begged for a definite answer.
Downtown New York...
Hurry now...
Help...
Her mother's voice cut through all others and spoke with clarity. As she quieted down, so did the others, drowning Miss Parker in a loud silence that she both welcomed and feared. Deciding that ignoring the voices would not be good on the long run, Parker changed into a pair of dark jeans and a light sweater. Opting to wear sensible shoes for once in her life, she chose a pair of sneakers.
Parker didn't know for sure where she was supposed to go, or why for that matter, so she hailed a cab, made sure she had enough money to come back home later and told the driver to head downtown, trusting the voices would continue leading her.
An hour and a half later, she found herself wandering the dark and deserted, might she add, streets in downtown New York, awaiting some kind of instructions. Just when she was ready to give up, a scream caught her attention. It was a tortured cry that could not be ignored. Tightening her pace in the direction of that horrible sound, Parker wished she had brought her trusted 9.mm along.
Tracking what she guessed to be a woman in trouble, the former huntress prepared for the worse. Only years of Center experience could have avoided, from her, any kind of shock. She had Lyle for a brother, after all. Seeing a pair of legs struggling underneath a dark and big figure, a menacing male, and hearing the whimpering that dared not hope for salvation, from the helpless victim, Parker acted almost without thought.
On pure impulse...
Just on time...
With a force, which had been nearly forgotten, she delivered a powerful blow to the shadowy figure's neck, knocking him unconscious. In less than a second, the hunter turned into pray, and found himself, easily captured. After breathing in deeply to calm the rush of adrenaline which had overcome her before and pushing the now limp body aside, Parker knelt beside the frightened woman.
She had never been a social or caring person and she cursed her lack of experience in dealing with scared people. She was the one usually doing the scaring... But now, a woman needed her for comfort. Not raising her voice above a whisper, Parker assured the woman that it was going to be okay. Not daring to touch her, Parker searched for the victim's eyes and asked for her name.
" Angie..." was all the woman could muster at that point, her cheeks covered with tears, her arms filled with bruises and her clothing completely torned. To be honest, Angela did not expect to make it through that ordeal and now an angel with azure blue eyes was looking down at her, telling Angie that she was safe. She could hardly believe it.
" tha... Thank y... you..." she managed to say, new tears springing to her eyes.
Miss Parker chanced a touch to the fragile woman's arm and was relieved when Angie didn't flinch. She assured her once more and turned to the attacker, making sure he would remain unconscious for awhile, then stood up. Seeing a purse carelessly thrown aside, Parker picked it up, searching and finding in it, a cell phone. Three numbers dialed and a brief conversation later, she returned to Angela's side.
An ambulance and a police car pulled up fifteen minutes later. The paramedics first assisted the victim, then loaded her inside, rapidly disappearing in flashes of red and white among the shadows of the night. The officers, a short strong built man and a tall slim woman, asked her a few questions, gathered the discarded purse, arrested the now conscious, angry and aggressive attacker and took note of her name, address and phone number for future use.
In forty-five minutes, Parker had been cleared to leave the scene.
Tired, both physically and emotionally, she hailed a cab and went home, her home. Once there, she took out pen and paper and wrote down Angie's whole name and the hospital she had been taken to, so she wouldn't forget, information which had been kindly provided by the officers on site. Miss Parker had tried then to get some sleep, but she could hardly keep her eyes shut. There were just too many thoughts going through her mind. Just too many to process.
Angie had not been able to protect herself, like so many women before her, from the monsters the world insisted on creating. Menacing and dangerous men, like her brother Lyle, who prayed on innocent souls and destroyed lives and dreams. Most didn't even know the true, cruel reality, that hid behind every corner. It seemed like a constant and on-going war with no prospect of an end.
Parker wished, no, yearned to change that scenario.
She didn't know where to start or how to do it, however, she felt, down to her bones, a certainty that she could accomplished it...
Somehow...
Laying on her new bed, with a small, hopefullsmile gracing the corners of her lips, Melanie Hart breathed in deeply and let herself be drowned in all the possibilities for the future.
Her future.
REVIEW!
QUESTION: should I start referring to MP by using her new name, or should that be too strange?