Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for the usual statements.
Author's note: All scenes in this chapter occur in the past.

Time to Consider
Chapter 10
By Callisto

Webster's field
Lake Catherine, VT

Finally, they had some time alone without younger siblings or inquisitive parents watching their every move. Curiously, they were responding in the same way true teenagers do when placed in simular circumstances. Spiritually, emotionally and mentally they were still in their middle adult years. It was the physical part that held them back and too often they forgot about their appearance.

For instance, one evening in answer to Ben's offer to get her something to drink, Parker absently requested a scotch on the rocks, his startled response and her mother's deeply shocked face to her casual yet expectant attitude caused Parker to rub wearily at her forehead. Jarod was no more immune, his years away from the Centre had spoiled him into enjoying a certain amount of freedom. Whenever he grew restless it had become his habit to take off alone at any hour. This newest wrinkle in 20 year old Jarod's usual habits caused his father to wonder, prompting inquiries into what he was doing and where he was going. The simple act of grabbing the car keys would raise questions and eyebrows. Apparently in this reality, Jarod found he must have been well versed in all the rules or simply complied. From the confused disbelief on Kyle's face, he surmised that the practice of detection avoidance had been something of an art for him.

Today, they wandered in an open field near the Inn, rapt in conversation as Parker explained to Jarod what Ben had told her about his connection to the Centre and Mr. Parker. She nodded thoughtfully at his questions, since they mirrored hers. Just as she was about to launch into what her mother had told her about Lyle, a summer squall suddenly decided to treat them with a downpour. Soaking wet, they ran to the nearest shelter, the Inn. She wanted to keep Jarod to herself and took him into the mudroom. From there she would take him up the back stairs to the deserted storage attic above the guests' rooms. On the way there, she paused by the linen closet and borrowed a few of the largest towels and a couple comforters, shoving the lot into Jarod's arms. They climbed the stairs and entered the room. Jarod placed the bundle of towels and blankets on the bed and looked around at the dimly lit space. Weak light suddenly filled the room from the dusty curtains Parker pushed aside.

"We need to get these wet clothes off before we catch cold. Do you want the bathroom?" she asked briskly.

"No, you go ahead," he responded as he slowly peeled off his wet t-shirt and kicked off his shoes. The sight of his muscular torso made Parker's eyes widen and before he could catch her ogling, she turned and went into the bath to change. Jarod would have never seen her admiration because he had already turned his head. It was while he was removing his wet jeans that he found a small package in his pants pocket. He stared at it wondering how it had gotten there, eventually figuring that this was an example of Kyle's sense of humor.

She found a terry cloth robe hanging on the door hook and put it on. When she came out, Jarod was standing at the far side of the bed with a large towel wrapped around his slender hips and another towel drying his hair which was sticking straight up in spots.

Parker shook her head in mild disgust, despite his tousled hair; he still looked like he stepped out of a GQ magazine. He felt her scrutiny and looked up with the same smile he used to give her when they were kids. Unable to resist, Parker walked over to him and boldly opened the towel around his waist. Jarod was nonplussed while she stared at him for a few seconds before allowing her hungrily appraising gaze to make it's way to his eyes. With the opened towel still in her grasp, she took a few steps back as she mischievously smiled at him, then began using it to pull him closer towards her. He inched forwards slowly, while he held her gaze. When she had pulled him within reach, she leaned forward and was met half way in a tentative kiss.

"I'm not sure if I can continue to do this," he said quietly when he sensuously pulled away from their kiss.

"Why not?"

"I have excellent reserves of control—as a rule, but lately I'm not so certain."

"Umm, trying to control the outcome again?" she smiled with what he thought was an overly seductive grin.

It was then he decided to give her that smile again—the one that had the same effect on her since she was twelve—a barely controllable impulse to kiss him. As she was giving in to her urge and dropping his towel in favor of cupping his bare butt cheek, Jarod placed a hand on her hip while his other arm reached around and pulled her towards him and off balance. She broke the kiss as she fell gracelessly on top of him on the bed, just as he planned. The surprised sound she made at the back of her throat made him chuckle as he tightened his grasp around her and looked into her eyes.

"You look very beautiful, Miss Parker," he said in an aroused deepened voice as he glanced from her softly curling, damp hair into her eyes.

She had heard that tone before and knew she was equally aroused. Before they could go any further, she grasped his jaw firmly in one hand and looked fiercely into his eyes. "This isn't Vegas or anywhere else, Jarod. What happens here will follow us. I'm still the same person who's dogged your steps for the past 6 years. We make love now, you're making it with me, no one else, no illusions."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," he replied equally seriously as he unwrapped her robe.

With deliberation, they gently explored each other. When he could hold out no longer, Jarod deftly put on the condom he retrieved from his pant's pocket. They were a middle-aged couple who made love to each other with a surety of personal knowledge that came from their years and made the most of their indefatigable adolescent bodies. Some time later, sweat-glistened and breathing heavily, the two separated sated. Well, at least she was sated, Jarod felt like a million bucks and knew after a few minutes rest, he could continue. He knew he had built up a fantasy in his mind of the extreme pleasure he anticipated from making love to her. The experience, though a bit uneven being their first time together, fulfilled his expectations. A brilliant smile touched his lips as he thought about making love to her again. He vowed to himself that she wouldn't leave the room without him pleasuring her to the point of exhaustion.

Parker looked over and noticed the happily horny smile on his face. She smiled again, marveling at how deeply she craved his touch. This was a long time in coming and she enjoyed every minute of it. But her life held too many disappointments for her to revel in the pleasure without caution. Disappointment had ruled her life too long and fate had snatched too much away to catch her off guard. It seemed every person she learned to love, left her in someway, usually by dying. With a stab of regret she reigned in her euphoria and reasserted the wall around her heart.

Exerting her resolve she started speaking, determined to tell her closest and last remaining friend the burden that was weighing on her mind. "Before the rain and outright lust interrupted me, I was telling you about Lyle. Jarod, this whole thing is so bizarre. By the way, before I get into all that, have you found a way for us to get back?" She rolled onto her side and propped herself on an elbow to look at him.

Jarod copied her and answered, "No, but I'm developing a device for us to communicate with whoever sent us here. He might be able to figure out a way to produce a portal here for us to step through and back to our own time. There is one catch though."

He remained silent, watching her face intently. When it became apparent that he wouldn't continue, she asked impatiently, "What?"

"When we imposed ourselves on this time, our originals that were here ceased to exist, they're gone. So, if we return to our own time, it will be like we disappeared into thin air here. Are you sure you want to put your parents through that?"

"I didn't know," she replied quietly.

"It's another factor we both must consider before contacting the mad scientist who put us here. In our own time, we simply disappeared without a trace. There's no way for anyone to follow us without knowing the exact place in time we arrived. The device I'm designing using our cell phones and a few other components will act like a transponder, much like the ones found in aircraft. It will emit a signal that the time machine should be able to pick up. That's the only way anyone can find us."

Parker remained quiet and began going over her options. Everything was starting to boil down to pros and cons. She would need time to consider all the options open to her before coming to a decision. Her main motivation for returning had been removed by Jarod. She thought by returning to her original time that the original in this reality would magically reappear—but that would never happen. She would miss her mother and Ben terribly. Besides the adult Ethan, there wasn't much holding her to the original timeline. Shaking her head at the dizzying array of effects on those in this time as well as the other, she decided instead to continue with her story.

Jarod watched her quickly mull through what he had told her. He had time to weigh the pros and cons while he mapped the schematics for the time-variant transponder. His conclusion was that he would remain. Too much had been stolen from him in his original time. If he effectively disappeared than the pressures on his family would slowly disappear as well, allowing them the breathing room to reconnect and live their lives in peace. For him, he would gain all that had been stolen from him: His family, as well as some of the years and he held out hope, the woman as well.

"My mother told me she had accepted the lie that Lyle had been still-born. But it took her only a few years to figure out that Mr. Parker had lied to her. They had a violent argument, a real knock down, drag out fight and it was during this fight that he struck her for the first time. He threatened to take me as well, if she didn't stop making waves about it. In desperation, she knew she needed to be away from him to give herself some time to think but she was afraid for me. So, she parked me in a kiddie boarding school with strict instructions that no one was allowed to remove me unless it was her personally. For added protection, she failed to inform my fath—um Mr. Parker about my whereabouts.

"She headed up here, to elicit help from my real father. Ben already knew he was my father, she was up front with him about that and came up soon after I was born to show him the daughter he would never be allowed to raise. Apparently, he understood her reasoning and only insisted on getting yearly pictures of me. Well, after this last revelation, she finally decided she needed some help in getting my twin out of Raines' clutches—some things didn't change from the other reality at all.

"When she told Ben what had happened, he was equally upset. The real bombshell that rocked his world turned out to be that it was his corrupt brother who was holding his son hostage for something called the Pretender project. Raines, et al had still discovered the gene and theorized that boys were the only ones born with it active. Well, you can imagine how livid Ben was and he immediately called Leith Parker in an effort to extricate his son. Mr. Parker flat out refused then included rather arrogantly that he wanted me returned forthwith or my twin would be returned to his mother in bloody little pieces. There didn't seem to be anything Ben could do, he soon became aware that the search for him and my mother had started up with more of a vengeance than when he had first left the Centre. When my mother decided to cave into my Uncle's wishes, Ben knew she needed a strong dose of what she had actually gotten herself into and informed her that she had married one brother and had a couple kids for the other. We'll skip the part about what a dunce she felt like after hearing that little pearl.

"Ben went to the only people that could help him. His friends at the Triumvirate," she stated sardonically. At Jarod's disbelieving, pained look, she nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I know. After some rather cynical wheeling and dealing, the Triumvirate came up with their own solution. They too wanted to see if the Pretender project held the promise they had been told. Unknown to my father, by this time the Triumvirate knew about the message in the scrolls. In this time line, it seems your parents wised up a lot quicker to what the Centre was up to and disappeared with you and Kyle before you could get kidnapped. Without you, there never was any confirmation that the Pretender project would be viable. The messages in the scrolls made no sense and our mothers remained ignorant of their existence. Without you as a blueprint, all the other children picked up were quickly released and the project was almost scrapped until Mason came along. Therefore, Timmy's brain was never fried into making him Angelo. Dannie, Darra and the others were never abducted from their real parents and my mother had no one who desperately needed rescuing. Mason, by the way, is Lyle's real name, the name my mother gave him.

"We were six when all this went down. The best deal the Triumvirate could offer was for Mr. Parker to retain custody of Mason and to relinquish both my mother and me. Ben argued and tried to get the Triumvirate to agree to let him raise his own son, but they weren't having any. They were still holding out hopes that those lousy scrolls were telling the truth. Unfortunately, Mr. Parker wasn't listening too good and continued the search. It took Ben pulling a number of strings to get his brother to back off. Fortunately for Mason, our father still had some influential friends on the Triumvirate who backed Ben's play and forced Mr. Parker to take Mason away from those psychos Raines had placed him with and told him that he would have to be raised in and around the Centre—like I was. So, there my twin sits, living the life that I had and there isn't any way for me to rescue him. Hell, by now it's too late. He's so lost and confused in the web of lies Mr. Parker weaves, I doubt he knows which way is up any more."

Jarod listened to her story with a creeping horror. Without him, most of what occurred in the original timeline would never have happened, including Angelo. That was the reason Jacob was still alive and by now Sydney was probably married to Michelle and raising his own son, Nicholas. The ramifications were mind-boggling. He laid back and thought about what he had just been told. Without moving he asked, "Why didn't your mother just move up here and raise you?"

"I asked her that. She said because even though the Triumvirate agreed to separate us, Ben's underground contacts within the group told him that there were some pushing for my testing. My mother said before this whole fiasco got started, she had heard of the pretender project and out of curiosity she got Jacob to do some preliminary tests on me and found that I was an extremely viable subject—probably more so than my twin, Mason. She couldn't take the risk of the Triumvirate turning a blind eye if Mr. Parker decided to renege on the deal and take me anyway. After all, I was only his niece and family had to give everything they had or would ever hope to be in order to help family.

"Ben helped my mother get out of the country undetected and set us up in a house in Portugal. She would make infrequent visits to Rome, where she would meet Ben. They really are in love with each other. You can't help but see that when they're together. Apparently, it was during one of her Roman visits when I was eleven, she kept the visiting Aunt Dorothy fiction, that she became pregnant with Ethan. Apparently, both the Triumvirate and Mr. Parker are unaware of his existence but somehow they found out about my early graduation from Cambridge. It sparked some controversy, a new last name and another round of finger pointing but Ben was able to convince them that they had already stolen his son, he would do everything in his power to keep me out of their clutches as well."

"So Mr. Parker is still looking for you in order to use you for the Pretender project?"

"Amazing, isn't it? For an unwanted afterthought, my mere existence seems to spark a certain greed in too many eyes," she commented sadly, voicing her true opinion for the first time. She had never been blind to the dismally low level of importance she occupied for those she cared for the most. Her own loneliness was a testament to the fact.

"If you were so unwanted, they would never have started fighting over you. It seems in this timeline you'll be on the run much like I was in our original," he said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't mind helping you out with that in the least. That is if you decide to stay," he murmured softly, allowing his hand to gently trace her jaw line.

"I'd be running for my life in any timeline. If I go back, then I can never return to the Centre. Raines was looking for an excuse to chill me. My extended disappearance is plenty. If I stay, Mr. Parker will try to lure me in to prove that the scrolls were telling the truth and if they catch both of us, it'll be just like the old timeline only worse. Either way, I'm screwed."

Despite the gruesome talk, Jarod was still immensely turned on by her. She spoke as though the conundrum was far removed from her present circumstances. Her gaze remained fixated on the ceiling as she absently caressed his hairy upper thigh, distracting him almost beyond control.

"Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it," he practically growled as he leaned forward to nibble her neck. At first she thought he meant he would take care of her dilemma. It was just as their throws of passion began clouding out all thought, it dawned on her that he meant he would be the one screwing her.