-Chapter Six: Finding a way among the pain. -

A/N: I'm sooo sorry about the late update. I have no excuse expect that I was biten with the lazy bug. Most of the chapters up to twenty seven are already prewritten. Believe or not I'm been working on this story off and on for six months! I'll try to update quicker. Oh, I'm going to give you a litle hint. Mel, and Sam are going to be meeting very soon. I'm not telling you guys any thing other than that. Well happy reading and I'll see you next week!

Jarod was stunned by the news. He couldn't sleep, He couldn't eat. Jarod could only run the information over, and over in his super genius mind. He had a son. A son! And with Ms. Parker of all people! Then he thought about the email he received earlier. Mentally he went over each of her words. She had hide this from him. And that hurt more than he can possibly say, yet he was proud of her. Of what she had done. She turned the tables on the Centre, and he couldn't be more proud. Or be more in love with her.

Jarod, knew for a very long time that he loved this crazy, enigmatic woman. He accepted it. And after Carthis, he thought for a time that he lost her. Then that phone call, changed the rules of the game again. Jarod, once again had her friendship. He had his best friend back. It was almost like when they were childern, and they would stay up all night and talk for hours. It warmed his heart to hear her voice every night. And as crazy as it seems, his love for her grew into something that he couldn't even define in words.

However, now she was gone. She had taken their child, and disappeared. He knew without a fact why she did it. Jarod had the skill, the knowledge to get inside her head. It was what he did. He knew that she was trying to cut ties with everyone with the Centre, but he what didn't expect is that she would cut ties with him. Yet as much he was angry at her for taking his son, and disappearing. He couldn't help the love and pride he felt for. He also couldn't help the heartache of the that hard cold fact that that he knew he could never see her face again. Never here her bold, loud, sensual, laugh again.

And killed him a little each day inside.

The announcement that they were about to land brought him out of his silent musings. After his call to Sydney, he knew he had to get out town, before the sweepers caught on to his position. So here he was, on the way to Dover (the last place she been spotted) then back to Blue Cove. Maybe then he could find a clue to where Ms. Parker was headed. He had to say this was very Ironic. The roles were completely switched. Now the prey, was the hunter.

On the other side of the country, in a little inn in Nappa valley... Sydney looked over his protege's latest lair, and shook his head. The older man had to chuckle at his proteges audacity. Around it was little puppets, labeled with the main players in charge of Jarod's retrieval. He chortled at his own little puppet.

Broots, along with two sweepers, were checking the rest of the hotel room, when the door flew open to reveal a very nervous, very anxious looking Mr. Lyle. Something that he hadn't seen since the whole mess with the Japanese mob several years ago. It warmed Sydney's heart to see that bastard look so disheveled. Lyle deserved everything that he getting, and more. It was justice in it's purest form, and Sydney felt a loud humming of pride at the thought that Ms. Parker at somehow made it so.

"Let me guess, nothing on Jarod. No clue to were the Lab rat has gone to?" the younger man said impatiently.

Sydney shook his head as he manged to hide his growing amusement of the this situation. Yet also those words, brought a series of memories of when Ms. Parker was the one saying them. He felt a familiar ache in his heart. God, he missed her. Everyday since her disappearance he felt the emptiness of the woman he thought as a daughter, but if she was happpy..., then he would be happy for her. She had gotten out, and he was pretty sure she was a lot happier now that she wasn't under the Centre's influence. Ms. Parker was like a daughter to him, and like all fathers wanted one thing for their childern: Their happiness. However, another part knew, that she wouldn't be completely happy intill she and Jarod were together again.

A loud snap brought Sydney out of his musings.

"Sydney, snap out of it! No clue on where your protege is heading next."

"None, whats so over, Mr. Lyle."

The younger man scoffed in disgust. " That's just great." Lyle turned around and strided out the hotel room, slamming the door behind him. For the first time in a long time, Sydney felt like laughing. He may be stuck in the bowls of hell, but least he got to a front row seat to the demise of two men he hated most in this life. Justice was sweet.

Jarod, being the man of many faces, of many disguises and was very good a hiding his pain. He needed to be strong, he needed to be a solid rock. Of all the pretends, and all of the adventures he accured, this was going to be the most important of his life. He was going to find his home. The place he felt safer than any other place in the world. He was going to find Ms. Parker, a person out this solitary world that was home to him.

Another week had passed without hearing her voice. And that very fact a lone was cutting him deep inside. For years he looked at this world alone, reuniting families, finding justice, to only to walk to to the next adventure alone. He made a lot friends along the way, found love and lost it, yet he was found that he himself constantly alone. With no place to call his own. He had found most of his family, although his mother was still missing. He still hadn't found a place where he belong, other than with Ms. Parker. The only one who knew his fears, his heartache and pain like he did.

'God. Had been eight years since this journey began?' He could hardly believe that it had been almost ten years since he began his journey into the world. Yet he was still drifting, still bobbing in the sea of faces.

He looked around his surroundings, and sighed. He was here again. Three time in the last two weeks. He couldn't quite stay away. He looked over the furniture covered with white sheets, the mantle that was missing the tell-tell silver picture frames that held pictures of another person that loved Melinda as much as he did. Her mother. He walked through the kitchen, looked out to veranda as he watched the full moon dance in the sky. For a second he imagined that she was out there somewhere with his son, under the same sky, laughing, and living. All perfect expect that he wasn't with them. Where he belonged.

He searched, prodded, prayed and hoped to God that he would find some clue to where they gotten to, but he found it was a lot easier to play the prey than the hunter. He also found out that she was very good at disappearing, leaving no trace. He felt hopelessness take over his heart. Would he never he see his son? Will he never see the woman he loved again? God only knew.

"Jarod Don't give up."

He whirled around. He heard a voice that sounded just like her voice. Maybe he was dreaming again? Maybe he just finally losing it? A soft cool breeze suddenly pass around him, and it instinctively made him shiver.

"Don't give up." he heard the whisper again, faint but ever so clear in his mind.

And suddenly like a bolt of lighting, a soft orb began to form. Bright, and perfectly beautiful. It was small at first, almost the size of a tennis ball before it grew, and grew into a large size ball. Then abruptly, the orb began to take form. Jarod, at first couldn't make out what it was...intilll he came face to face with Mel's azure eyes. yet he instantly knew that it wasn't. Instead of the steel walls that were steady underneath Melinda's eyes, he saw only kindness, only compassion. Emotions that were hidden well under the Ice Queen persona.

It was Cathrine, Melinda's late mother staring back at him. For a brief second he was scared by this encounter. He never came face to face with a ghost before. Mel, was the person that the supernatural happened to.

"Don't give up on her, Jarod. Don't let her runaway on the love that you have between her. Never give up hope, Jarod." said Catherine in her comforting soft voice that brought chills down his spine. Cathrine was always right when it came to the things most important in life. And she was right, he didn't give up on his family so why should he give up on the woman he loved! Jarod all of sudden, felt a new steely determination run through him. He wouldn't give up! He would see her again, like he would see his mother, and his family again. He didn't give up on his family, and he sure in the hell wouldn't give up on her, or his son!

"Never give up on love, Jarod." She repeated. The form began to disappear, shrinking back into nothingness. Yet her words were still with him. And it began to cling to his heart, giving him warmth, and strength to go on. A solitary tear broke free from his eyes that were now shimmering with unshed tears in the moonlight.

"Thank you, Cathrine." he said out loud. Jarod took a deep breath, grabbed his keys, and left.

Though he couldn't see her, or hear her this time. Cathrine smiled at the young man that would be forever joined with her daughter. Personally she couldn't picked any better herself. She gave a soft chuckle.

"You're welcome, Jarod. You're very welcomed."