Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for the usual statements.
Author's Note: Again, I apologize for the lengthy wait for this chapter. I'm hard at work on the next chapters and hope to post those soon. Thanks to those who are still reading.

Time to Consider
Chapter 29

By Callisto

Vancouver International Airport
Vancouver, BC

They landed quietly at the large airport. It had been decided that they should take commercial flights under alias' different than the ones they were using in Alaska in order to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. A connecting non-stop flight had been arranged; all that was left to do was to wait. The major glanced over at Ethan and felt his heart ache at the younger man's expression. There was pain, guilt and fear etched in his features as his eyes took on an unfocused glare while he listened to his internal angels/demons. The trip down from Alaska had been less than eventful with Ethan filling him in on the details the voices had supplied while the major flew the small Cessna south to Vancouver. According to the voices, they had only a couple days before the Centre would begin to zero in on Jarod and Miss Parker. The urgency of getting to them quickly and secreting them out of the area quietly was effectively communicated. Already they had been waiting several hours for a connecting flight, each hour ratcheting up the tension both men felt another notch. Ethan was exhausted. The voices seemed to realize that he was no longer shutting them out and began asserting themselves with a vengeance that didn't leave much room for sleep or even rest.

The major looked over at his son again but remained silent. There wasn't much he could say that would relieve Ethan from the terrible burden under which he was suffering. On the outside, it looked like the voices were actively torturing the fellow. A shuddering sigh came from his weary offspring as Ethan slumped further in his seat and fell into a deep, fitful sleep.

Sydney's residence
Blue Cove, DE

They had kept their heads down during the entire trip to his home. His house was the only place he could think of to take them where they could remain a short while until better accommodations could be secured. Jarod refused to answer any questions and the only glimpse Sydney could get of their rescued damsel gave him the impression of a young girl, not the brash, self-confident woman who was Miss Parker. Jarod had a number of things to answer for none of least was a full explanation of what was going on.

Once he pulled into the garage around the back of the house, he alighted from the Town Car slowly. His younger passengers on the other hand scrambled out and made a beeline to his back door. Quicker than using a key, Jarod picked Sydney's lock effortlessly and opened the door for the girl. Sydney was again denied a good look at his female guest and was obliged to follow the youthful couple inside. He was on the verge of angrily demanding an explanation, when Jarod turned and expressed his gratitude to Sydney sincerely.

"Thank you, Sydney. Without your help, I'm not sure this whole situation would've turned out so well."

"You're welcome. But Jarod, what exactly is going on? What's happened to you? Who is this girl and why was she in Lyle's house? I thought we were trying to help Miss Parker."

The girl was listening to their conversation and was on the brink of going into the living room to give them some privacy when she heard her name. A mischievous smile graced her face when she whirled around to look at him.

"Don't you recognize me, Freud?"

Sydney stared at the girl for several seconds before stumbling back. Jarod quickly grabbed his mentor's elbow and guided him into a waiting chair. The psychiatrist was mute from shock. The last time he had seen her this way was twenty years ago. There could be no mistake, but his mind refused to relent. It was impossible, there was some trick or Mr. Parker cloned his own daughter—but that seemed more farfetched than believing that she was the original Miss Parker.

His eyes followed her and watched her every movement, as she arched an eyebrow at his silence, strode quickly to the sink, opened a cabinet door above the counter and began filling a glass with water.

"Sydney? Are you all right? I'm surprised Jarod didn't warn you," she said, gliding a remonstrating glare at an equally youthful Jarod.

"I was having a hard time getting him to believe me. One look at you and he has no trouble at all not confusing you with a clone."

"As if anyone in that place would want to clone me," she replied with a cynical chuckle. The sight of Sydney's ashen complexion quickly sobered her as she placed the ignored glass of water within easy reach on the kitchen table.

"How could this be? Am I hallucinating? Or is this some bizarre experiment to get me to resign from the pretender project?"

Both Parker and Jarod frowned at his last question, though Parker's eyes took on an unfocused stare as she listened to voices only she heard and understood. Smoothly recalling herself, she looked into the psychiatrist's eyes with a gentle kindness he had never seen before.

"I suppose a full explanation would be easier coming from someone you used to work with rather than a man you think of as your child," she started with a deep sigh, oblivious to the astonished mixture of emotions on Jarod's face. Sydney was equally surprised and more convinced that they were who they claimed mainly from their interaction coupled with the confluence of expressions playing across Jarod's features.

"Let's see, this whole thing started over a year ago. I was sent with a sweeper team to retrieve Jarod after we found a lead on him in Hawaii. He kept leading me by the nose all over the globe, until we wound up in Buenos Aires and that idiot Karl countermanded my orders and decided to put in a little target practice. You were right about him, Sydney. I had to hit that moron over the head to stop him. Well, I'll skip all that chasing garbage we went through, so suffice it to say that I found Jarod inside a dilapidated old warehouse where some mad scientist just happened to be conducting an experiment no one would've believed in a million years. You with me still?"

Glancing from Parker to Jarod and back again, the elderly man replied quietly, "As a matter of fact, you have my undivided attention, Miss Parker."

"That was cold Sydney. You believe her without batting an eye but you gave me a hard enough time," Jarod replied with light amusement.

"That's because we were alone, outside of a restaurant during lunch when I told Parker about seeing Karl receive what appeared to be instructions from Mr. Raines just before they were scheduled to leave. No one else was around—I made sure of it." Then turning his eyes on Parker he asked with a calmness he wasn't feeling inside, "Please continue. I'm curious to find out how and why you're practically 20 years younger."

While Sydney replied to Jarod's light admonishment, Parker was busy mentally juggling. She was looking at her watch, listening to Sydney, trying not to show her true feelings for Jarod all while listening simultaneously to the voices in her mind as they informed her that her stay in Sydney's house would have to be extremely brief. She didn't question why the voices had become so chatty all of a sudden or why she could hear them without any effort—she just accepted it.

"That story better hold until bedtime, Syd. How long have you been away from the office?"

He turned to get a look at the time display on his built in oven and nodded appreciatively. "I've been gone for about 90 minutes. I had better check in. Since you've been away, they've given me a new project. Fortunately, along with it came some rather unexpected liberties. One of which is that my presence isn't required during certain parts of the day. Give me a moment please."

Both young people followed the shrink out of the room with their eyes. Neither bothered going to check to make sure he didn't call in the sanity police. Jarod because he trusted his mentor and his lover's instincts; Parker because the voices said he wanted to help Jarod and half way believed her. Besides, she reasoned to herself, the Centre would be the last place anyone would call sane.

Ferrer Residence – Past
Mar de Azul, Portugal

Catherine had read the letter through several times and was still having difficulty believing what she was reading. She sat with Ethan sleeping peacefully in her lap. The child was mentally and emotionally exhausted. He had been unable to get any rest since his sister had gone missing.

The implications were mind boggling but Mari's account explained much. Like, how she knew that whoever was her father, had to be Mr. Parker's brother. Her strange maturity was also explained but curiously, Mari didn't say how old she was when she went through the time portal. Obviously, her daughter had to have been an adult. The rest was beyond her wildest nightmare. Catherine thought about her little girl, the loneliness of her alternate childhood, the conditioning Leith had subjected her to coupled with his inability to sustain any warmth beyond his strangling possessiveness and dedication to the Centre, spelled a psychological/emotional dilemma that would be a challenge for an already well adjusted person. All Catherine's imagination could come up with was beyond frightening and depressing. Her mind immediately went back to the charity ball when she found her daughter flirting with men twice her age. Perhaps they hadn't been that much older than she had originally thought. She wondered what exactly had Leith put her little girl through in the other timeframe for Mari to attempt to kill that young sweeper, who granted was saying some pretty horrible things. The controlled and focused violence in Mari's eyes and the steadiness of her hand after Jarod caught her was almost frightening. A noise attracted her attention as she looked up and caught a glimpse of her husband as he moved away from Ethan's doorway.

Catherine was about to get up when the weight on her lap shifted to a more comfortable position. Placing her letter on the floor beside her, she gently gathered her son in her arms and holding him close, struggled to her feet successfully and placed the still sleeping child on his bed. While she retrieved the light blanket at the end of his bed, her foot kicked the letter underneath and completely out of casual view. Once she was done, Catherine turned to follow Ben to the sun-drenched living room.

Head bowed in fierce concentration, Ben paced back and forth, lost in thought. So far all possibilities had been extensively exhausted. He had approached the authorities but was told that he had to wait two more days before reporting his daughter missing. The major was still running down a lead on one of Jarod's racing friends to see if possibly he had told them of an unexpected trip. Abernathy was keen on the idea the minute he heard it, Ben not so much. Mari would've informed them if she were leaving or at the very least leave a note informing them. It was a tendril of hope that Ben figured was worth looking into for the moment. There were darker possibilities that were clouding Ben's mind now.

"What do you hope to accomplish by confronting him?" Catherine asked without preamble.

Ben paused in his pacing while turning to look at his wife. It was strange how there were times when she knew exactly what he was thinking and about to do. He wondered if she knew about the troubling suspicions that had begun to plague him. "It's not a stretch to believe Leith had something to do with her disappearance. He's already tried it twice."

"If that were true, your contacts would've alerted you by now. They haven't. But if you go there, angry at the world, he'll know that she's missing and we have no idea where she is. Not the smartest thing for us to do."

"Really? Then what would you suggest? That I sit here and read tea leaves? I want my daughter back and that's all I care about," he answered in frustrated anger. 'That is if she truly is my daughter,' he added in his mind. Either way it didn't matter. The headstrong beauty who was a carbon copy of her mother had won his heart and there wasn't anything he could do about it except react if anyone tried to hurt her.

Catherine didn't need the voices to know what was going on in his mind, but they informed her anyway. In a voice steadier than she thought possible she replied, "I want our daughter back as much as you, however, this isn't the way to go about it. Leith doesn't have any idea where she is or who took her. And if you appeal for the use of the Centre's resources, the Triumvirate will demand a quid pro quo. Instead of losing Mason, we might lose her as well."