Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for details.

Time to Consider
Chapter 7
By Callisto

Lakeside Lobster shack
Lake Catherine, VT

If yesterday had sent her mind reeling, than the following morning almost put her on overload. Parker had come down to breakfast to find her mother waiting for her. The second round of revelations began with Catherine telling her what had happened to her twin brother, Mason. No punches were pulled as Catherine gave her daughter the unvarnished truth.

Ben, who said the girl had taken what he told her very well and without tears or recriminations, had convinced Catherine this was the correct way to approach a very difficult subject. Maritza again listened to her mother but leaving out any hypothetical scenarios, asked some extremely difficult questions. Questions whose answers put Catherine's behavior in a less than favorable light. Clinching her teeth, to bare what was coming, Catherine was surprised that all Maritza did was smile and give her arm a gentle, affectionate squeeze. That wouldn't do, Catherine was too used to her daughter's loving bone crushing hugs and grabbing the girl, held on tight to her slight body offering comfort. Maritza returned the embrace. Mother and daughter remained in that position for some time, until Catherine held her daughter at arm's length and saw that she too had tears in her eyes. Their resulting consoling laughter encouraged Ethan to join them to see what was going on. His presence did nothing to abate their display of affection, instead it spilled over happily onto him as well.

An hour later, Parker showed up at the restaurant and waited for her fellow refuge from another era to show up. She had been surprised at Jarod's appearance but also relieved that she wasn't alone. He was a genius and somehow he would figure a way back to their reality, though Parker had to admit to herself that she wasn't sure if she could just give up her mother—not again. Catherine's presence had already begun the long and arduous duty of repairing the painfully damaging and gaping hole in Parker's emotional and spiritual psyche.

·

This was turning out to be his toughest pretend ever. Pretending to be himself with a family he barely knew was a monumental challenge. Relieved for a chance to revert to being his old self, Jarod decided to arrive a few minutes ahead of schedule. He always liked having a tactical advantage over his huntress—regardless of the situation. Her sudden appearance yesterday was a shock, though in retrospect he realized it shouldn't have been. In this place he was 20 years old, so that would place her somewhere in her late teens. What caught him up in the moment was the way she looked. He had never seen her at this age, so in his mind there were two Parker's: The child who was a friend, who had explored, teased and given him his first kiss. Then there was the other, who was mature, coolly beautiful, leggy, tenacious, and bitingly witty. On the island his empathetic compassion got the best of him when he saw the beleaguered expression in her eyes. However, it was this internal confluence that he had tried to kiss.

Yesterday, he realized after getting home and having some time to himself that he was in trouble. His feelings for Parker had been shifting around a lot lately. Seeing the two Parker's merged into the person he saw yesterday left him breathless. He had been around numerous beautiful women since his escape from the Centre. A number of them were far more beautiful than Parker. What this woman—no girl—possessed was beyond his wildest desires. She looked like the intact, older version of her child-self with the oncoming vestiges of her adult-self just beginning to emerge. That slow morphing had left him practically drooling.

Acutely aware of his raging hormones, he pinned his hopes on Parker's sarcastic wit to quell any romantic aspirations on his side. With a confident smirk on his lips he walked up to find the general store deserted. He quickly stepped inside to get a couple of cold sodas and came out to find Parker on the opposite side of the road where he had spotted her yesterday. He jogged over to join her and offered her the second can of soda. In his confidence, he failed to give her proper credit due to her drastically changed circumstances and underestimated the strength of his own emotions.

His first clue that something was amiss came in the depressed look in her eyes. She accepted the beverage, then looking around nodded in the direction of a grassy parking lot next to the restaurant. She led the way to the back where some picnic benches were set up. A small brook burbled happily nearby. She sat at one of the benches and opened the can, expecting the tab to stay on instead of peeling all the way off. With a shake of her head, she placed the pull-tab in the paper bag and took a sip, trying desperately not to stare at him.

He was still a few inches short of his final growth spurt. His body indicated that he was on final approach to the way he would eventually look in adulthood. His hair was surprisingly short, given the fashions of the time they had been thrust back into. His body was lean and gloriously muscled—not the bulging, bodybuilder type, but he was graced with a musculature that allowed him to be lean at the same time. His face subtly held the last remnants of his youthful self with his adult visage almost entirely taking over. And that smile of his which never ceased to charm her, had apparently reasserted itself along with his youth. Only his eyes gave him away, there he was the for—fort, oh Hell, she still couldn't say it to herself.

"I was hoping to find you here. It was a shot in the dark but I had to try. I figured you were sucked through the portal like I was, especially given that you were closer to the middle. Were you hurt?" he asked suddenly.

Studying something in the middle distance only she could see, her gaze shifted to his youthful face and said, "No. I woke up in bed, wearing clothes too large for me, almost 25 years in the past, with my mother alive and a red-eyed tree frog perched next to me."

"A tree frog?" he asked confusedly.

"It was in a specimen jar I knocked over when I followed you inside the warehouse. Apparently, he was the only one meant to be here."

"The portal must have been designed specifically to take it back without imposing any changes, that's why it didn't regress. Whoever built the machine must have injected the frog with some sort of aging inhibitor or modified isotope. We weren't prepared so the changes affected us."

His focused look of pleased amazement suddenly irritated her. "I'm glad that makes sense to you. What I want to know is where are we and how do we get back to where we were?"

Her sharp tone snapped him out of his reverie. He looked over at her and the memory of why he had stepped into the vortex in the first place came to the forefront of his mind. "Why did you shoot at me?"

It was Parker's turn to be confused. Then recalling that Karl had indeed taken a few shots at Jarod, she shrugged and stated, "I gave that moron specific instructions that no shots were to be fired. Apparently he's taking his orders from the Lyle now."

Only slightly appeased, Jarod continued to stare at her. His posture was that of someone who was looking for any indication of where the next strike would try to land. This mind-set further irritated Parker. Her plate was full with all the revelations her parents decided to bestow on her at once. No one around here seemed to have grasped the concept of 'a bit at a time'. From what she could tell, he was the only person she could talk to without reservation. The worm in Jarod's apple was a worm she had lived with most of her life. There never had been any Sydney in her life to listen when things got confusing or too lonely. All she had was the comfort of strangers which she quickly found to be a crapshoot in a game she never wanted to play. Jarod's presence in this bizarre scenario was therefore refreshingly welcome—to a point.

In an abrupt switch, she decided for once to go for what she needed instead of what others expected from her. Quickly dialing back her anger, she explained, "I realized what you were doing early on. All I can say is thank you. Raines was getting bolder in his new Chairman's role and would've shut me down sooner rather than later. I told all my sweepers not to shoot, that you were wanted alive. Keeping the chase active, without ever catching up was keeping me alive."

A deep exhalation was his answer. He nodded solemnly then asked, "Then why did you follow me?"

"The voices in my head. They kept egging me on to follow, as though you were running into danger and would need me there to help. I think that's the last time I'll be listening to them," she answered hollowly. The voices had fallen silent for now but she was certain their whispered warnings would start up again.

Jarod stared at her, wondering about the voices now. He decided he would broach that subject at another time and said, "I don't know how it occurred but you're right, we were propelled over 20 years into the past but not in the past we've already lived. We're in what's called a variant reality. It's very similar to our original lives but with subtle differences. Your mother is alive here and you're living with her instead of your father. I'm living with both my parents and siblings during a time when my family had been torn apart. The biggest bonus I can see is that the Centre doesn't seem to exist here."

"Yes it does. I checked. It's still there and after talking to my father, it's much the same as it was in our original time," she replied unhappily.

"You spoke to your father? Are you sure that was safe?"

"My real father, Jarod. My mother formally introduced me to him a few days ago. That's the reason why I'm here instead of Europe."

Jarod blinked and waited for the other shoe to drop. When he failed to respond, she looked at him and quickly read his expression, "You were right in the first place. Ben is my real father and I'm still a Parker."

"You must be relieved that Raines is nothing more than a lying piece of…," he said quietly. Personally he was glad, having Raines so closely related to someone he was falling for was inhibiting to say the least. "Do you still have your cell phone with you?" At her answering nod, he continued, "I'll need some of the components in your cell phone, combined with mine. With a little luck, I'm hoping to contact the person who created the time portal." Shortly after this brief meeting, Parker had to leave to join a family outing and Jarod had to return to his own family.

·

The next day, Parker decided to start hunting for Jarod. Given her prior experience, she was pleased it took her less than 30 minutes to locate him. Her parents had decided to take her and Ethan fishing, she begged off claiming a headache. Catherine suspected Maritza just needed some time to herself and touched Ben's arm gently to stop him from insisting that the teenager should go. He seemed deeply charmed by Maritza and wanted her around as much as possible. Catherine had been thrown by the changes in her daughter, but her love and respect for her child encouraged Catherine to give her daughter some breathing room.

At first Parker decided to call all the lodges in the area but stopped herself not knowing under what name his family was going by. He thought the Centre no longer existed but she would lay a month's salary bet that his parents were fully aware of the organization that almost got its hot little hands on their pride and joy. She then recalled the distinctive truck that had been sitting outside the little country store across from the lobster shack. After questioning the clerk for a few seconds, she easily extracted the info she needed.

It was a 20-minute walk to the Wyman cabins. Almost immediately, she spotted Jarod with his family. A sudden urge to watch him play with a young girl who was probably his sister was too strong. Eventually he looked up as though aware there was someone watching him. The girl ran back into the house laughing while Jarod walked over. Parker felt her heart pause slightly at the appreciative smile that appeared on his face at the sight of her. The last time she had seen that expression of his so often was when they were children growing up lonely in the Centre.

"Hi, what's up?" He asked as he walked up.

"Nothing. I had some free time and thought about you," she said with a nervous sigh. "Dig the Angel Flights. There isn't anyone around here or really anywhere that I can have an intelligent conversation with." At Jarod's furrowed brow, she waved off his curiosity. "Yeah, I can talk to my mother but nowadays every time I do another bone comes flying out of my family closet like a scud missile. I never thought I would say this but frankly, if I hear another revelation I'll scream."

Jarod couldn't help chuckling at her words and her sarcastic tone of voice. He understood the loneliness. The luxury of completely relaxing and letting down his guard never presented itself. Despite having his family around and learning about his roots, he could never fully explain himself, always on guard not to let loose with an inappropriate anachronism.

"Why don't we go for a walk? That way we won't be disturbed," he offered.

"I just hiked up here from the Inn. Is there somewhere we can just sit and talk?" she asked while looking around curiously.

He nodded and led the way into the nearby forest. The going was a bit rough until they came upon a small clearing. Parker looked around and listened to the sounds of the birds chirping in the trees around them. Smiling she sat in the fragrant grass and released the breath she had been holding. Her tension was slowly abating as she glanced at Jarod, who kept staring at her. The warmth that the adult Ethan had noticed about her was slowly becoming apparent to Jarod, who settled near her to see what other surprises she would produce.

"What's it been like for you? You know, finding yourself over 25 years in a past you've never lived in?" she asked quietly, truly interested in his response. It was a good thing she was, because his answer took over an hour to relate. Often during his long answer, she would start laughing. At one point, she was laughing so hard; Jarod stopped talking just to enjoy hearing her amusement. This marked the first time since they were children that she was curious about his feelings and him for himself alone. When she finally got herself under control, he slowly continued with the story, allowing her to catch her breath. That is until the next amusing misunderstanding in which he explained his confusion over what was now his ex-girlfriend's baffled jealousy at his disinterestedness. This story produced another round of laughter and Jarod looking at his situation objectively, joined in with her. Their first day together in their shared past was spent enjoying each other's company and the realization for Jarod that it was as he thought it would be—her mother's presence in her life would have an immediate effect—one that was a pleasure to witness and as a result he became hopelessly infatuated.