Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1 for the usual details.
Author's note: A quick thanks for those of you who are still reading and waiting for updates. Here you go….

Time to Consider

Chapter 32
By Callisto

Baltimore, MD

The plane had touched down with a majestic grace that belied it size as it glided from night into the slowly gathering day. After the tedious wait and disembarking, they were able to rent a car under an alias and set off to find their missing loved ones. The drive was long but it was a relief to finally be nearing their goal. Curious about Miss Parker and eager to find out just how cooperative she might be, the major prompted Ethan into telling him of his relationship with her. Ethan was more than happy to speak ofhis reconnection with his sister. In the telling, his voice, demeanor and expression changed subtly. The major listened and watched as he soon began to understand his son's obsessive need for his sister's return. The warmth and love in Ethan's voice as he spoke of his sister, further humanized her in the major's estimation. The last time he had seen her, she was lying in a pool of her own blood on a Georgia tarmac in the aftermath of an attempted assassination on her malevolent father. If anything was an example of obvious potential being thrown after abjectuselessness, her getting shot instead ofParker was it. Still the major surreptitiously felt the slight bulge in his jacket pocket and was reassured that his 9mm was still there--just in case. Daniel's suggestions on how to get the weapon though airport security without being detected worked like a charm. The major wanted to be armed and ready for any eventuality.

Sydney's residence
Blue Cove, DE

She woke with the first gray smudges of dawn insinuating gracefullythrough the lace curtains. Never tiring of the novelty, she sighed contentedly at her life. For most of her years, Parker was in the habit of waking up alone, with nerves on edge and rarely refreshed. Even when she had company, too often she would dismiss her night's entertainment in order to avoid awkward questions like, why she slept with a gun under her pillow. Hiding the damn thing was inconvenient and deeply ineffectual—as Tommy's death proved.

Since the return of her youthful body, the disturbing trend of waking up at the crack of dawn continued. With having had only a few hours sleep, she felt more rested than if she had, in her middle-aged state, downed her typical dosage of sleeping pills and stiff scotch chaser. Suppressing the urge to release another deep sigh and indulge in a satisfying stretch, Parker laid still. Jarod face was inches from her own, as she relished the soft puffs of his breath as it warmly caressed her cheek.

At first, their physical relationship was so strangelyintense that it became a momentary exploration of her own deepening feelings for the pretender. Now, she could easily face the fact that prior to their current temporal kidnapping, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. The voices warned that their return to their original timeline would enforce a twisted version of their oldadvasarial relationship. It wasn't something she wanted, but she was glad for the warning just the same. Every moment she could savor having him next to her, loving and wanting her was like a memory treasure to be kept and taken out when things got particularly bad.

"Know that whatever happens, I'll always be there for you."

"I have a feeling that being dragged back to this time will prove to be far worse than being sucked down that time-shift rabbit hole in the first place."

"Are the voices telling you that or is it your gut talking?" he whispered in a sleep creaky voice.

"Both. Before all this happened, we knew who we were, accepted our pasts and had a good idea about where we would end up. But now, everything's changed. We're different, our lives are different. If I lose you…"she began haltingly, her voice beginning to catch on her emotions.

"Not an option. I need you to remember that."

"You're a part of me. It doesn't matter what might happen, I'll always…"

"Shhh," he soothed quietly as he leaned over in one movement and interrupted her morose thoughts with a soft kiss. Silently, they stared into each other's eyes and in doing so fully expressed what couldn't be said adequately with words. Without any prompting or cues, they slowly began to make love to each other.

The Centre
Sublevel 15 – Interrogation lab
Blue Cove, DE

For the past 12 hours, Lyle was systematically awoken, given treatment for his various bruises, questioned relentlessly then allowed to lose consciousness again. It was a cycle that left him exhausted and mentally confused. But still he managed to hang on to his fiction of 3 or 4 heavily muscled men attacking him in his own home for the first few hours. Eventually his usual exaggerations and prevarications were lost in a muddle of disorientation and uncertainty. Fatigue and confusion finally took over and his resolve slowly unraveled like a cheap sweater. The story of the housebreaking Asian girl came forth as he recalled how he enjoyed chasing her around the house and then how he savored the delicious taste her dismay when she discovered the doors were securely locked and wouldn't provide an easy escape. When he finally got the upper-hand he remembered getting a better look at her and the sharp disappointment in finding that she didn't appear to be Asian at all. Fuzziness returned when he tried to recall what it was that had rendered him unconscious. He was certain he had been hit in the back of the head just at the point when the girl reluctantly surrendered. For the life of him, he couldn't remember seeing his assailant's face.

Raines watched the entire interrogation impassively. This was his version of a T-board without all the comforting trappings. Lyle was supposedly his son but the Chairman continued in his indifference towards the sociopath. It suited his purposes to pose as Lyle's father but he wouldn't mollycoddle him like Parker did his daughter. As long as the Triumvirate bought into the fairy tale, that's all that mattered to him.

Dupont County
Delaware

A little over 2 hours driving time found the pair finally nearing their destination. Ethan had taken his turn at the wheel and abruptly pulled off the road at a heavily wooded turnout. He stopped the engine and waited. The major looked at his son curiously and was about to ask him the reason for the unexpected pause in their journey but there was something in Ethan's face that precluded questions. An expression of focusedattention came into his eyes and it seemed like the world receded into the background.

Ethan had continued to drive according to the softly insistent advice from this mother's voice. When the voices faded into silence, he knew it was time to pull over, be quiet and wait for the usually painful assault of information to compress itself into his brain. He wasn't disappointed. They were quickly running out of time but he had to meet his sister at a specific point to insure they could get away without anyone from the Centre actually seeing them. Over and over, with a curious litany, the voices chanted that Jarod and his sister were changed—a change that would affect their lives forever. In the near background a secondary chant warned to watch out for the madness. The 'rift-madness' could be tolerated for only a short period of time before they lost all higher cognitive ability. Ethan was unsure what 'rift-madness' actually was but this had to be one of the repercussions of yanking them back through time.

"They're almost out of time. I have an idea of where we're supposed to meet them."

"Meet them? I thought we were going in to try and rescue them?"

"The voices kept saying thatJarod wasat the Centre but neitherwere caught by the Centre. Now they're saying that Jarod got out but is still too close to the Centre along with my sister."

"Do you know where? The last thing we should be doing is prowling around this area. The Centre has eyes and ears everywhere."

"Not exactly. I only have an idea of where they'll turn up. Sometimes I'll get an actual address but not always. I think it's this way because they're on the move, trying to stay a step ahead of anyone who might start searching for them. Waiting here near the highway is going to be our best chance of finding them before the Centre does."

"I'd feel better if we knew exactly where they were and could go and fetch them," the major replied in a dissatisfied voice.

"I wish that too but this is the best that I can do right now. You were right about the Centre having eyes and ears everywhere. If we were spotted, our presence would be reported and too many questions would start being asked."

As a form of punctuation, Ethan started up the truck and headed towards the rendezvous point the voices given him.

The Centre
Sublevel 15 – Interrogation lab
Blue Cove, DE

Raines stared unblinkingly at the unconscious, sweat-soaked sociopath through the two-way mirror. It was a strange story Lyle had offered but the physical evidence seemed to support it. The cleaner team had returned and promptly given him a preliminary report. There was evidence of at least one but possibly more intruders in Lyle's new home. A rush had been put on the DNA analysis of all the evidence retrieved from the home, including a long dark hair that had been retrieved from the dumbwaiter. If the woman had a record, she would live to regret ever burglarizing the home of a Centre executive.

The sound-proof door behind him clicked open, and then was allowed to drift closed by itself while the guest waited patiently for the pneumatic door control to do its job. Raines felt the air stir slightly and a puff of expensive men's cologne waft gently towards him like a calling card telling him the identity of his visitor.

"Thought I would find you here," the darkly pleasant voice commented evenly.

When it became evident that the Chairman chose silence over any reply, the visitor settled quietly next to him. The old silent treatment didn't work on him. He liked it when everything around him was shrouded in deathly silence. The room was dark. The only source of light came via a two-way mirror from the adjoining room where the raccoon-eyed Lyle slept deeply. It had been a long day and night for the progressively disturbed executive.

"What were they able to discover about Lyle's unlikely guests?" Raines asked heavily.

"Unlikely is the word," came the persistently, pleasant reply. "I would've thought that this was a left over from the previous occupants but according to the cleaner who found and retrieved this little gem, it's highly doubtful the maid would've allowed this to hang around for so long."

Raines look down at the thick sheaf of papers being handed to him. He took the folder and allowed it the flop open naturally. The picture that greeted him, made the Chairman pause uncertainly.

"My reaction exactly. I had them check it 3 more times. Seems our Mr. Lyle has had a most interesting visitor but there's a catch to this little twist," Cox paused delicately before resuming. "The reason I had them recheck their findings is because the age the sample suggests. If you don't mind, I would like to ask our cannibalistic friend in there just a couple more questions."

The Chairman's twin laser eyes bored their way into Cox's skull as the physician kept his eyes riveted on the hapless sociopath about to be awakened for the umpteenth time. "There must be some mistake."

"That's what I'm about to find out," Cox replied as he slipped a picture from the thick folder and giving the sociopath a hard, vicious look, he left the observation room and entered the interrogation chamber accompanied by two overly muscled sweepers and a quietly, sadistic-looking physician.

The sounds of flesh being slapped and deep, growling grunts came from the next room. Raines continued to watch dispassionately. Once again, the door behind him whispered open. This time he turned to see the director had entered to join him. Nodding curtly to the Chairman, the Tower executive stared through the two-way mirror at the scene of Mr. Cox circling while two sweepers roughly woke Mr. Lyle.

"You say there were two people who attacked you in your home. Is that right, Mr. Lyle?"

"I keep saying the same thing over and over. It's the truth. I realize it's something you're unfamiliar with but that's the only tune I know. I'm too exhausted to lie."

"You also said that one of your assailants was a woman. Would it be more accurate to say that perhaps she was a girl?"

"Whatever. Look, I didn't get a chance to get to the part where I check her ID. Was too busy getting hit over the back of the head," Lyle slurred softly. He was losing consciousness again. Cox glanced over at the doctor who stood observing in a corner. Immediately the doctor snapped to attention, and coming forward, he broke a small plastic vial and waved it under Lyle's nose, waking him instantly.

Cox circled one more time. When the sociopath was roughly sat up in his chair, Cox stood in front of Lyle. Once he was assured the other was at least awake, he held up a picture. "Familiar?"

Lyle, bleary-eyed, squinted at the photo. His eyes widened and he was suddenly fully awake. "Yes, yes. I told you the truth. You had the evidence all along," he said with a touch of anger.

Cox didn't reply but continued to stare at Lyle. If the sociopath hadn't been so exhausted. If he hadn't insisted on the lab rechecking their results. If he didn't have experience in knowing when a person was lying, he would've ordered the sweepers to work over Lyle relentlessly to get at the truth. The problem was that the old Sherlock Holmes saying was true—sometimes the impossible was possible—maybe.

Remembering that he had called for the Director to attend this little questioning, Cox drew his posture straight and took a deep breath. Without looking around he held up the picture to the mirror for the Director's benefit. He didn't need to be in the room to imagine the dark, comely woman's sharp intake of breath.