Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for details.
Author's note: My apologies for the lengthy wait for this chapter.
Time to Consider
Chapter 20
By Callisto
Burlington Airport
Burlington, VT
Ben had turned over the Inn to an old retired buddy of his, an ex-FBI agent who occasionally visited and helped out around the property. Now the Inn was under his care and Ben had left a long list of instructions including that no one was to know how to contact him. Before he could continue, the ex-agent told Ben to surprise him with his communication. What he didn't know, he couldn't leak, tell or slip up. Ben shook hands with his old friend and walked down the road and around the bend where he climbed into an old pickup truck containing his family plus Jarod and drove to the airport. Now they were in the air and on their way to London where they would change jets for the long journey to Lisbon.
The private airstrip was small and felt strangely exposed. Parker leaned against a tall table and stared at the empty tarmac, deeply engrossed in her own thoughts. Earlier that morning, she found Jarod staring at the sunrise in that singular way he had about him. While she sat snuggled with his arm around her, he remarked quietly, "Ever since we were kids, I've wanted to share a sunrise with you. The mad journey we were placed on with you chasing and me running, kept us apart. If I didn't know better, I would say that it was all done on purpose. What the reasoning behind it was about, I still haven't figured out. But I would've never thought that we would have to wait till we were middle-aged and in a variant time line to achieve this."
"God, that's some heavy thinking this early in the morning. Here, have a sip and shake off the gravity. I think I've had a belly full of heavy thoughts since my mother got a hold of me last night. I love her beyond all imagination but being a teenager around her is far more challenging than I could've ever imagined. If I analyze another motive or agenda, I think I'll scream bloody murder," she replied lightly. After a short pause, she continued, "There is something we should discuss. I told my mother that we would limit our, umm 'contact' while you stayed at the villa."
"Limit our contact?" he repeated curiously. He didn't like the sound of that.
"We'll need to exercise some self-restraint while we're in Portugal. Besides, I don't think I could have sex in my mother's house, with her so near. Just doesn't seem right."
Jarod looked at her, and then slowly began to smile at her discomfiture. "Don't worry. If it's too much trouble, then I'll find somewhere else to stay while you're at home."
"She won't hear of it. You're Major Abernathy's son and she's supposed to look after you. This next month is going to be a long one," she replied with a slow sigh. Getting used to having something or someone like Jarod was tough when its continuation was rooted in temptation and anticipation.
Jarod's answer was a small flattered smile as he pulled her closer and began to figure a way around their present obstacles. They sipped Parker's excellent coffee in companionable silence. Now several hours later, Parker was entertaining those same heavy thoughts she vowed to give herself a vacation from. A sharp, high-pitched laugh followed by a deeper one, caused her to tear her focus from the tarmac to the large waiting room area. Jarod had lifted Ethan onto his shoulders and was twirling the 6 year old around as the boy leaned backwards enjoying his dizziness.
It was while watching them that Parker's epiphany rushed in hard on her. She was smiling at her man with barely credulous wonder, when she realized how much she loved him. Most of her life and throughout all her adult years, she had convinced herself that her father's strictures about pretenders were true. In another example of the depth of his lies, consistent close contact and interaction proved all his claims false. Added to this, she realized with a bit of a shock, the depth of her own feelings. All this time spent with him in this fairy tale of a variant time scheme, talking with him, getting to know him, and sleeping with him, she realized somewhere down the line she had fallen hard for him. She found despite her ever-present emotional baggage, that she was more committed than she had ever been to anyone else. All of her 40 years of living confirmed these facts as her complexion flushed brilliant red and covering the lower half of her face with a hand she turned away from the others and back to face the vacant tarmac.
Jarod missed the outward signs of Parker's personal revelation, but her mother did not. It was the deep flush that caused Catherine to stare. Once Mari's eyes widened in disbelieving shock and she turned to hide her expression from Jarod, Catherine knew what happened. Mari found that all her lip service, and bull turned out to be true. What disturbed Catherine was the level and sense of maturity that radiated off her seventeen year old daughter. A type of maturity that heretofore, Catherine was convinced could only come from years of living and experience. Also were the confused messages that she kept getting from the voices.
Walking up to her daughter, Catherine said quietly, "Confusing as hell, isn't it?"
Only her eyes moved, as Mari looked over at her mother sideways, her hand still over her mouth. "What?" she murmured from behind her own hand.
"Oh, when you realize how much you care for someone. From the astonished look on your face, it seemed like you just realized that's how you felt about him."
"How did you know?" Parker asked without thinking.
"I'm an old lady in my late 40's, that's how." Catherine replied lightly.
"And that's how it was for you with Ben?"
"Pretty much but it wasn't so earth shattering probably because I wasn't trying to hide from my own feelings like you seem so fond of doing."
A small huff of amusement came from Parker, followed by a few others that turned in to a disbelieving laugh. "I never knew I could feel this way about anyone. Once I thought I had gone farther than I ever had or could—until now. I'm probably going to wind up marrying him. Who would've thought," she continued mainly to herself.
A soft voice in Catherine's mind, confirmed Parker's statement as true. Catherine released a pent-up sigh and nodded, looking sympathetically at her daughter. "He seems to be a very nice young man."
"Thank you, Mama. It means a lot to me that you're trying to like him," Parker replied.
"He's a very gifted and special person," she confirmed softly. Then she decided that now was a good time for Mari to talk about the near future. "What are you going to do once we get home? I doubt Anton will enjoy seeing you with another boy."
"Anton?" she asked in total confusion.
Seeing her genuine look of bewilderment, Catherine heaved a sigh and replied patiently, "Anton. The scruffy boy you insisted on being allowed to see. He's no doubt waiting for you to return."
"Oh, Anton," she replied in a sudden rush. The first boy she slept with in her original time line. "I completely forgot about him." Then shrugging indifferently she said, "If I gave you a hard time about seeing him, I would like to apologize. Anton's nothing more than a little cretin who's sole purpose in life is to see how many women he can get into bed. I'm dumping him immediately and it has nothing to do with fickleness."
Catherine and Parker stared at each other for several seconds. Each woman trying to figure out what the other was thinking. It was during this moment that Parker knew she never really had a choice of returning to her dry, lonely life. While her mother was here, alive and vibrant, Parker knew she could never give up on the chance of having the family she always craved.
Catherine looked into her daughter's eyes and saw a soul leeching loneliness that had never been there before. Hope, love and disappointment among a host of other emotions swam in those piercing gray eyes. Without any deliberation, Catherine swept her daughter in a tight, protective hug and held on to her desperate to know what had caused these drastic changes.
Leeds Airport – Private TerminusLeeds, England
They boarded the Learjet quietly, almost anonymously. No one saw them and if they had, they didn't pay any attention to the jet's arrival or departure. All was quiet as the second day of their journey began. Ben was playing a game of Parcheesi with Ethan while Jarod watched. Parker leaned towards him and whispered in his ear that she would explain the rules if he wanted. It was something she had wanted to do for him when they were children.
Offhandedly, Jarod smiled and distractedly replied, "My Dad showed me how to play when I was seven. Ever since, I've been able to beat him at will. It's the only game he refuses to play with me." This answer caused her to frown thoughtfully. Jarod had been locked up in a tiny room in the Centre since he was four. She ought to know. She became friends with him when he was barely a teenager. Parker was taken aback and looked at him strangely. She was about to confront Jarod when her mother offered to get her something to drink.
"I would kill for a bottled water right now," she said quietly.
"I'm not sure if they have any carbonated water on board but would some juice do?"
"Thanks, Mom," Parker accepted gratefully and sat down on the sideways facing seats in the forward section of the jet. Catherine joined her as she sipped at her own iced down apple juice.
Switching to Portuguese, Parker said quietly, "Mama, I don't know if I've ever told you but sometimes I hear voices. I know that sounds crazy but it's not like schizophrenia, at least I hope it isn't. The voices I hear, tell me things. Sometimes they're strange but just about all the time they're true. They've also told me that you hear the same thing," Parker added slyly.
Catherine stared at her daughter, then coming to a decision answered, "Yes. I hear them too. I always suspected that you would be touched by our gift. Though what they've been saying lately, hasn't been making much sense."
"I have a question to ask and it isn't an easy one to ask," Parker began, shooting her mother a questioning look. This was the first time she felt she had a chance to broach the subject. At Catherine's resigned nod, Parker plunged on intrepidly. "It's about Ethan," she began in a lowered voice, still speaking in Portuguese. It was a language Ben had yet to learn.
"When he and I visited Jarod's family and had dinner there, I noticed something. Then the second time, I ran into them we both spent the day with them, I noticed it again." After a nervous pause and staring into Catherine's wary, almost frightened eyes, Parker continued, "He looks like Jarod's father and sister. It's weird. But you know how I feel about Jarod and I wanted to ask you, are we related to the Abernathy's?" Parker asked unable to go further with any reference to a possible liaison with the major. In her timeline, it had occurred through artificial insemination. She wanted to know how Ethan occurred in this variant. He looked too much the same here as he did in her reality which could only mean one thing.
Glancing over at her mother, Parker was surprised to find the older woman staring deep into her half consumed cup of juice. Without looking up, Catherine said quietly. "I'm going to tell you something. Something I haven't told your father but I'm sure he already suspects. I'm trusting you here, baby. Please keep this to yourself. I'll tell your father whenever I'm able to summon the courage."
"He isn't Ethan's father, is he?" Parker whispered softly.
"No. Major Abernathy is his father. It was an accident. Neither of us meant for anything to happen. How it did is still mind boggling to me. The man hates me and if he knew, he would hate me all the more."
"How can he not know? You never told him?"
"Of course not! I've exercised some questionable judgment in my checkered past but I'm not a complete dunce," Catherine replied wondering at Maritza's calm demeanor.
Parker took several breaths, then looking over at her mother, silently asked for details she couldn't verbalize. Catherine gave her overly mature 17year old a half smile then nodded.
"I see you want the details. How could a man I can barely stand and who clearly could live a rich and full life without ever seeing me again, ever produce a child between us? Well, it started years ago, when Jarod was about 3 or 4 years old. My marriage to your Uncle was well on its way to becoming the crumbled wreckage you're familiar with. Back then, there was something called the Pretender project. It was tied up with a place called NuGenesis where infertile couples were given a chance to bear their own children by any means necessary—artificial insemination, surrogacy, what have you. Well, when the women gave up a portion of their reproductive eggs and the men their sperm, the Centre who held NuGenesis' purse strings, would sometimes mix and match to get the combination they wanted. Your uncle and a demented fellow named Dr. Raines dreamed up the project. They weretrying to producea genius they could control and use. Well to make a long story short, I heard from Dr. Raines' wife that Jarod had shown the most promise and his kidnapping had been scheduled. From there Jarod was to be isolated and tested to see if he had a certain gene and if they could make profitable use of his gift. I tried eliciting help from a man I thought was sympathetic and a friend—a Mr. Fenigor but I soon found out from another source thathecame up withthe protocols for the project and wasn't to be trusted." Catherine paused as she thought about the risks Jacob had taken to inform her of Fenigor's true alliances. "My only recourse was to appeal to someone outside of the organization which left me practically no one whom I could trust. In desperation, I tried warning his parents—specifically his father. Told him to take his child and disappear. At first, I didn't think he believed me but the next day his entire family went missing. No one could find them. Then several years later and after the fiasco with Leith Parker when I lost your brother, I was, to put it simply and bluntly, depressed. It was during this difficult time that I received another call from Edna Raines. Do you remember the summer I sent you to spend with Dona Abrizzo in Tuscany?"
Surprisingly, the memory sprang readily to her mind. She shouldn't have remembered anything of the sort but the smell of olives, fresh earth and the warmth of the sun during a carefree summer was right there in her mind. Pushing aside the memory, she nodded her yes.
"It was during that summer, Edna informed me that my ex and his sidekick were at it again. This time they succeeded in kidnapping a small boy named Timmy. He had all the gifts that Jarod possessed. I told Edna not to worry that I would do whatever I could to stop them. To let them continue would mean more kidnappings and heaven knows what kind of medical experiments would result. She gave me the details and after a carefully laid out plan, I decided to watch them and find out their routines. It was childishly easy because they were so arrogant and sure of themselves. One thing I knew for certain was that I couldn't accomplish this on my own. For that I needed someone who wouldn't need a lot of convincing, was smart and able to handle himself. To involve any of my prior Centre contacts would risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Jarod's father sprang to mind. But I had no idea where he was hiding. That was the first time I used our gift. After some trial and error, I was able to locate him and made contact. He didn't want to help me at first. It took some arm-twisting to get him to come along—that and a promise that he would never see me again if he helped. He was so resentful, I almost told him to forget about it.
"We went over my plan carefully. He made a few adjustments proving to me that I had made the right choice in ally. Everything went off without a hitch until he took Timmy from me for a moment while I keyed in the combination to get out of a main Centre corridor and into one of the junctures that lead outside. The inside of that place is laid out like a labyrinth. For some strange reason, Timmy took an instant dislike to Trevor. Bizarre really. Timmy began to scream and of course that brought at least half a dozen sweepers on us immediately. We barely got out of there with our lives. I got a nasty flesh wound for my trouble and Trevor was more pissed off than I've ever seen anyone. We switched motels and names several times before getting to the rendezvous point. I finally was able to hand Timmy over to his crying mother along with some fresh ID's and money. They disappeared with the same efficiency that Trevor and his family had. After everything was finished, we had to switch motels again to throw the Centre off our trail, just in case. One long day, we were stuck in the motel together for the whole day and Trevor wouldn't talk to me, would barely look at me. Because we were still trying to stay under the radar, he couldn't contact his family. I hadn't seen you for several weeks and your father in a month of Sunday's. This is beginning to sound like a litany of excuses," Catherine said as she shook her head sadly.
"It was late afternoon when everything decided to pile in on me at once. I found myself shaking uncontrollably and choking on my own tears. After all I'd been through, I had never been shot at and hunted. Your father always made them back off before things got bad. I realized how much influence he truly had. Trevor saw the condition I was in, came over to me and wrapped me up in his arms. Even then, I couldn't stop crying and shaking. He was trying to comfort me the best way he could. Somehow he started kissing me but I kept crying. He kissed me on the mouth and kept on doing that. One thing led to the usual other. Those are some details that I won't bother going into. The next morning when we were finally finished with each other, I happened to look at my hands, stared at my wedding ring and almost got sick. Trevor looked the same as I. Neither of us could look at the other without this overwhelming feeling of self-disgust because we thoroughly enjoyed it—guilt because of what we had done. We parted barely speaking to each other when he reminded me of my promise that we shouldn't see each other ever again. I readily agreed, what happened between us was a fluke—a one-time thing. On my way home, I visited your father trying to wipe out the memory of Trevor. I thought I succeeded until I discovered that I was pregnant. It was the voices who made sure I couldn't comfort myself with the delusion that Ethan was Ben's child."
"Oh, Mama. And I thought I was the only one in the family capable of making such colossal mistakes," Parker said with sympathetic understanding. With a wry smile she added, "I suppose seeing him again was like watching a horror movie monster that keeps rising from the dead no matter how many times you keep killing it."
"Oh God! Mistake doesn't give it justice. But no, baby. You got that part honestly. Do you hate me?"
"How could I ever hate you? You're the best thing that ever happened to me. To think I almost lost you, the only thing you could do to lose my esteem is to go back to that backstabbing, lying SOB of an ex-husband," Parker said with a slow smile. "No wonder your reaction to Jarod has been so negative."
"Partly. It seems Trevor and I are destined to continue to run into each other," she replied sadly. Catherine gave her a rueful smile and held her daughter tightly. She didn't want the old Maritza to ever come back. This version was everything she could ever hope to have in a daughter, friend and ally.