Chapter Six

ella: thankyou very much for both your reviews. Your second one finally prodded me into action to post this- I know I only go back and re-review something if I'm really desperate, so I feel very flattered. I hope you like it.

phi4858: 'until now'? Erg, the nervousness clamps down upon me. I hope this chapter meets your expectations.

Jar-Par Fan: Um. I posted. :-D Hopefully this should forestall you tracking me down and banging my head against the desk until I update.

thepretender1031: aw, shucks. Thank you. (That's me wondering who Dean Koontz is)

Mishelle: yeah, me too.

pretender fan: thanx for keeping your suspicions about alex to yourself- nothing more annoying than a reviewer that tries to write the story :) Hope you enjoy this chapter; I did a little happy dance when I read your review.

Rev2004: That was the aim. btw, you are almost always the first to post a review to this story. Please tell me that you're not just sitting at your comp waiting for people to post, because I have a cruel personality, one that exploits people like that. : p

Daisyz: Screaming is good. Screaming means I'm doing it right. Enjoy the chapter.

When Parker began to snore quietly, Jarod finally managed to relax. She been kidnapped, thrown off a bridge, then nearly killed by her psychotic brother, and now he was doing something completely against the script by taking her onto his side. The combined shocks had blunted her claws for the moment, but whatever he had admitted to her when he thought he was about to be killed, he doubted her meekness would last.

He drove along the snowy, winding road, heading generally east, but keeping away from the main roads. It meant the journey would be a lot slower, but they were harder to trace that way. He was heading to Delaware, to return Miss Parker to her home. It was only fair for her to make the decisions about her future once she was feeling more herself, and away from anyone's influence but her own. It would, however, take a day and a half to get there, which gave him plenty of time with her, something he had always secretly treasured.

Jarod did, however, pull onto the freeway for long enough to reach a McDonalds. He parked the car and went to the counter, rather than going straight through the drive through just in case it woke Parker up from much needed sleep. He needn't have worried- they were back onto the small roads with the meal half-finished before she woke up.

'You never could resist grease, could you PEZ-head?'

'It's so much tastier than anything else. Besides, I've got a lot of greaseless years to catch up on.'

Parker shook her head and untangled her free hand from his jacket to poke among the packages, trying to determine if there was anything actually edible among the fries and nuggets. Realising that there was no way Miss Parker would eat traditional takeaway food, Jarod had thought ahead to buy a bottle of water and a salad. Wordlessly she picked up the bottle and half-emptied it. The salad disappeared almost as quickly, by which time Jarod had finished the rest of the food.

They drove on in silence for another fifteen minutes. Jarod didn't want to be the first to talk; despite their brief banter, he was uncertain of Miss Parker's mood. So he waited for Miss Parker to breach the silence herself.

'Where are we going?' she asked finally, not looking at him.

'I was planning on stopping overnight at a roadside motel, probably in about an hour.'

'Shower?' she asked hopefully, ignoring his dodging of the question.

'And clothes, and a bed, and a shave, and some non-packaged food' confirmed Jarod in a wistful voice. Parker glanced over at him with a smile, noticing for the first time that he looked more ragged than usual. She realised that he probably hadn't slept since she was taken, and her stomach flipped slightly, although once again, the emotion was unclear.

As twilight began to settle like the snow, Jarod pulled into one of the more classy looking motels along the road. 'Wanna wait in the car while I get a room?' asked Jarod charitably. Parker snuggled into his leather coat still draped around her and nodded sleepily. He smiled, reached over and delicately extracted a credit card from one of the pockets in the jacket, then heaved himself out of the car.

Parker wasn't quite sure how he did it; she had dozed off before he returned for her- but as he led her carefully to their room, hotel employees scurried before them, opening doors before them, asking Jarod a few efficient questions, and generally being helpful. Moving like a sleepwalker, Parker allowed herself to be seated on the couch whilst Jarod dealt with them, and sighed with relief when the last one left. He turned to her with a lopsided grin and shrugged. 'Whose money did you just throw at them?' she asked wearily, not really caring.

Grinning innocently, he shrugged, sauntered over to the on-suite bathroom, poked his head inside, nodded as though satisfied and then flopped down on one of the two single beds. 'He'll never notice it- he has more than he can ever use.'

Parker let out a snort of bemusement. There was a knock on the door and she groaned, but Jarod moved lightly to his feet and answered it. Parker was no longer watching. She had closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the couch. When the door shut, after a brief exchange between Jarod and whoever it was, she lifted her head and looked to see what had appeared.

'Clothes and food' said Jarod simply. There was a room service cart that had been pushed into the room, and draped over Jarod's arm were various fabrics, including some that looked like flannelette pyjamas. Giving her a wink, he laid out the clothes on one bed, then flopped down on the other one, closing his eyes and leaving Parker to do as she wished.

It took about five minutes before she could force herself to move, during which Jarod did not move or make a sound. Standing slowly, she sorted through the clothes he had dredged up, deciding that she was just going to change into the pyjamas straight after her shower. That decided, she picked them up, carried them into the bathroom, and proceeded to have the longest, hottest shower of her life.

By the time she emerged, feeling much more human in soft, fresh pyjamas, with clean, dried hair, Jarod had stirred, and was picking over some food he had carried over to his bed. Parker followed his lead, and they ate for a while in silence. He finished before her, and disappeared into the steamed up bathroom. By the time he was done, Parker had curled up on top of the covers, and looked to be peacefully asleep. Smiling softly at how beautiful she looked, Jarod gently extracted the blankets from under her and tucked her in. Turning the lights off, he retreated to his own bed, and was soon deep in soothing sleep.

oo00OO00oo

The next morning, sunlight brushed over Parker's eyelashes, waking her. Blinking a couple of times, she yawned quietly, rolling over to look and the form under the blankets in the other bed. He was facing away from her, but the mound in the bed, delineated by the sunlight, rose and fell comfortingly as he breathed. Sighing in simple happiness, Parker sat up in bed. The movement woke Jarod, and he slowly awoke, looking adorably tussled and sleepy.

'Morning PEZ-head' Parker greeted him cheerfully. Grinning as he blinked at her, she threw the blankets back and stalked over to lay claim to the bathroom. Jarod watched her with a bemused smile on his face, shaking his head on general principles.

oo00OO00oo

Their conversation in the car as they got on the road again kept firmly away from the three little words Jarod has said as they were both hanging on the verge of death. They were both intelligent adults, and both knew fairly well how things between them lay, even if no one else in the world could even begin to grasp it. It was, however, part of the unspoken rules that the whole thing remained, well… unspoken. Nevertheless, the dynamic between them had changed slightly, and one part of Jarod's mind was wondering if it was due to the changed circumstances (ie. Parker wasn't chasing him waving a gun- the way they had spent the majority of any time to together over the past few years), or because Jarod had saved her life, or if it was after all because Jarod had admitted…about… the thing.

That part of Jarod's mind contemplating this was frequently having to be engaged for other duties, and he was only working himself around in circles, so he decided to drop that line of thought. The above mentioned other duties were keeping up with Miss Parker. She was an excellent conversationalist, now she had stopped snarling at him, although she did not let up on the taunting and verbal sparring. Jarod didn't mind. If he was truly honest with himself, he actually enjoyed it.

'You don't have to drive exactly on the speed limit you know.'

'It is the way to get somewhere in the shortest time without breaking the law.'

'No one's going to catch you if you just go a little bit over.'

'It's highly unlikely that the police will notice yes. It is still against the law though. And the stopping times increase exponentially with speed increase, thus increasing chance of crashing and…' Jarod trailed off, realising she was just winding him up. 'You don't really care how fast we're going, you're just trying to pick an argument.'

Parker just laughed, seemingly enjoying herself far too much.

'You take the bait every time rat boy.'

'I think this is probably why I usually tease you from a long way away in ways where you can't retaliate.'

'Or possibly it's because you're a coward.'

'Miss Parker, I'm wounded. I happen to have defied death a number of times.'

'I'm not talking coward in the normal sense. You're more of a allegorical coward.'

'How so?'

'Well… there's what you just mentioned. Plus the whole pacifism thing.'

'What? Pacifism is not cowardice. Besides, I'm not a pacifist.'

'Yes you are. You don't like guns.'

'You just like guns far too much. And anyway, I shot a man once.' Jarod added boastfully, feeling the need to defend himself.

'Let me guess; he was wearing a vest?'

'Well… maybe.' Replied Jarod, in mock sulkiness. Parker laughed again. 'Have I mentioned you're a child as well?'

'And?'

'It's not normally something people should be proud of.'

'Oh you love it.'

'Mmm. Just so long as you're not actually under-age.' Murmured Parker silkily. Jarod blinked a couple of times in shock and swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. Having decided she'd firmly taken the higher ground, Parker sat back and grinned smugly, leaving Jarod stunned into silence at the sudden change of tone. To divert his suddenly heated thoughts, he reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and extracted a mobile phone.

'What's that for?' Asked Parker, temporarily forgetting their low level good-natured bickering.

' Sydney. I really should have rung him earlier. He's been worried sick since I told him you'd been kidnapped.'

'How did you know I'd been kidnapped before he did?' Asked Parker curiously as Jarod hit a speed dial number and waited for Sydney to pick up. 'A magician never reveals his secrets.' He replied with a wink, Parker rolled her eyes but let it drop. Hearing the aged psychiatrist pick up, he put the mobile on speaker phone so they could both talk to him then put the phone on the dashboard. Parker heard Syd's voice give a cautious 'This is Sydney.' It almost sounded like he didn't dare to hope.

''S been a good day Sydney.' Said Jarod, grinning across at Parker in the passenger seat.

'Thank God, Jarod. Did you find her, is she OK?'

'You're probably worse off than me Syd. Worrying isn't good for you, you know.'

'Miss Parker! What happened?' There was a distinct note of joy in the shrink's voice at hearing Parker alive and unharmed.

'I got kidnapped by Douglas Willard, dressed as Jarod.'

'What happened to him?' Sydney's voice was suddenly reserved, knowing that both Lyle and the chairman of the Centre had headed out on 'secret' trips the day before.

'I don't know. We left him to Raines.' Jarod's voice was flat. There was a moment's silence.

'What about Lyle?'

'Dumped him. We'll talk to you later Sydney.' Jarod ended the call, knowing there was a risk of tracing on his phone if he stayed on the line two long.

'We're heading back to Delaware.' Stated Parker after a few moments silence.

'Yes.' Replied Jarod, not volunteering information. Parker sighed in frustration at him, and he couldn't hold back the slight smile on his face. Making her annoyed was just so much fun.

'We should be there in about two hours. Hopefully no one will realise my plans before them and be waiting for us.'

'Yeah.' Agreed Parker absently, thoughts occurring to her. Jarod focused his eyes on the road and concentrated on driving for a bit. Parker had obviously, consciously or unconsciously, avoided thinking about what came next until now. The call to Sydney was no doubt starting things surfacing in her head. Jarod left her to it. If she was going to make any decisions, then they were hers to make. She had been manipulated long enough by the Centre, and he would not sink to their level. The rest of the journey remained relatively silent, yet it seemed all too soon before he was negotiating the back streets to her address.

'So what now?' she said, standing uncertainly on the pavement outside her house, the stolen black Centre sedan parked at the curb. Jarod stood behind her, watching her as she regarded the stone façade. 'Miss Parker?' He murmured, his deep voice was laced with some unreadable emotion

'Yes?' she replied, slightly nervously, turning to face him. In response he took one smooth step forward, bent his head, and softly, sweetly, warmly, captured her lips in a momentary kiss. Miss Parker's spine melted, and she shivered as he pulled back with a soft chuff of warm air. Looking deep into her eyes, he paused for a moment and then smiled. 'It's your call' he murmured softly, the smile turning into a wicked grin. She met his gaze, transfixed, until a flock of geese, migrating for the autumn, hurtled noisily overhead, startling her to look upwards. When she looked back, he had vanished, but Miss Parker smiled nonetheless. It was indeed her call, and she knew just what to do.

The End

Author's Note: Thankyou to all the readers and hangers on of this little fic. I'm thinking of writing a sequel, should there be the demand for it. What do you all think?