A/N: I could say it in Japanese, but since I don't speak Japanese unlike Miss Parker, I won't.Thank you so much for the reviews! A simple truth is that even though I do not behave like a spoiled kid when I don't get reviews and refuse to post another chapter before I get them (heh), they have the ability to make me want to write (hint, hint). Meep.

As I've been going through the timeline, I came to the conclusion that the fic vaguely takes place during the Inner Sense (part 1) just after Jarod and his father rescued Emily from the sweeper team. We'll see if I'll be able to pull it through, won't we? For thinking errors, I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: My back hurts. Anyway. Not mine. Someone else, not me, created the wicked show and the wicked characters and I'm just having some wicked fun with them. Wicked, ain't it?

Oh and please, someone tell me if there's any good Pretender fan fic sites out there anymore? I just can't find them. All gone. Sniff.

By the way, from now on this fic (and all my other creations) can also be found in livejournal under the name 'savysavestheday' in case you're interested.

When the Triumvirate says 'jump', you say 'on who'

by Syrai

Chapter 3 – trusting issues

Why did everything have to be so damn complicated?

She had no answer to that question nor did she have answer to any other question she had been asking lately. Miss Parker couldn't stop thinking about her mother and her empty grave as it had turned out. Just before her father had given her these new, idiotic orders that no doubt were only made to keep the prying girl busy, she had confronted Mr. Raines telling him that her mother's body in fact was missing. As she had assumed, Raines had swallowed the bait and lead her one step closer to the hidden truth. They had followed him to a house in the woods with Broots, where Raines had burnt some papers alongside with other stuff, obviously not wanting anyone to see them. After he had left, they had managed to safe some of the papers but to her none of them seemed important. A drawing made by some boy called Ethan – Christ, what on earth did that have to do with anything?

She had actually been about to leave already when Broots had found something rather important. A few DSA (Digital Simulation Archive) disks on which the Centre had recorded Jarod's every simulation, every minute in the Centre. But it wasn't all they had found… there had also been a St. Christopher medal that for some unknown reason had been wrapped into a paper with 'Confidential – Mirage' written on it. Strangely, around every corner she seemed to find the Mirage, but never what it was.

Although she was grateful for Raines' little blunder, she couldn't help but feel mockery towards the man. With such a careless character, how was it that he had been able to stay in the Centre for that long? How the hell had he stayed alive?

Beats me.

Before she had had the chance to see what was on those DSA's that they had taken with them, she had been sent away, of course, and now the question burned her mind. If only she could send a message to Broots and ask if he had found out anything without risking her mission. But she couldn't. For her luck, she knew Broots was a lot smarter than people really thought, but at the same time she was worried about him. Well, no, not about him directly but about him revealing it to Sidney whatever it was that he had found out, if anything. For some ridiculous reason doctor Freud had been trying to make her leave this case alone, as if she could live with herself if she did that. It was her mother they were talking about for crying out loud!

"Dad? What are you saying?" Jarod's questioning, confused voice got her to look at his direction with raised eyebrows. What was Major Charles saying then? He, the runaway pretender, was standing in the bathroom, holding a phone against his ear and the only thing Miss Parker could see was his bare back. All he had bothered to put on after jumping out of the bed and rushing to his cell-phone, was his jeans.

Something clacked against the bed making a metallic sound. Oh yeah, getting half-dressed wasn't the only thing Jarod had bothered to do before making his phone call. No, no. She should've had seen it coming, really. He had reached his hand to her waist, but only to pull out her handcuffs from the back of her black trousers to use them against her. Now, as humiliating as it was, she had been handcuffed to the bed with her own damned handcuffs that were too tight and were hurting her wrists. Well, she couldn't blame him for not trusting her. They were the same handcuffs she had used on him so many times that she had lost count already… and well, it wasn't the first time he had kindly returned the favor.

Damnit, Jarod, come back here! Miss Parker tried to focused on his voice but couldn't really hear what he was saying. He was whispering again.

"Jarod!" She shrieked poisonously, "I'll scream if you don't get these things off right this minute!"

0000

"Sounds like you're busy there?" Major Charles noted, amused. Jarod frowned. What, did he honestly think he'd be having fun with another woman when there was Zoey to think about? By the sound of his amused tone of voice, he obviously did. Unlike Major Charles, Jarod on the other hand saw nothing funny about the situation. "Nah, it's nothing", he replied glancing over his shoulder while lifting his index finger up to his lips signaling Miss Parker to stay silent. For that, he received a deadly glare. "Miss Parker here just decided to pay me a visit." Alright, on second thought, it was sort of amusing to see her there completely defenseless.

"What! They found you?" His father breathed in panicking. My God… Now that he had found his son again, he couldn't bear the thought of the Centre catching him and taking him away all over again. "No, calm down, not they", Jarod gave a laugh, "only her."

"You alright?" He sounded relieved, but also suspicious. Even though Jarod probably didn't know it himself, Major Charles was more than aware of his son's soft spot. Nothing good could come out of that one.

"I'm fine", Jarod assured stepping out of the bathroom after turning the light off. As Miss Parker had said right before he had clapped the handcuffs around her wrists, the sweeper team hadn't showed up. Why hadn't they? He, however, didn't have time to ponder upon that mystery for long for his father cleared his throat impatiently. "You go after this Ethan and tell me if you find out anything. I'll make another round here and I'll come back if I hit a wall."

Jarod could see Miss Parker's head shooting up. Had he said something that had got her attention? "Ok son…" Major Charles agreed. It was pointless to argue when he very well knew Jarod would make his own decisions. He had got tired of people manipulating him, telling him what to do… now he didn't take it from anyone, not even from his father. There was something in the way Major Charles had spoken the agreeing words that made Jarod feel like there was something more he wanted to say. "Dad?"

"It's just that…" He paused not knowing how to put it, "I mean, what are you going to do with her? She's a royal pain in the ass if you ask me and I would just leave her there."

He was now leaning against the doorframe, staring at her with examining look in his eyes. That probably would have been for the best but… "I don't think I can do that. She's obviously here for a reason."

"Yeah", Miss Parker snarled, but strangely she didn't sound as hostile as usual, "and it has nothing to do with me being the one handcuffed." In fact, she didn't even look as hostile as she normally did. Another frown wrinkled his forehead. Actually, the way she had said that sentence alone… it brought a very different image into his mind. There was a challenge in her eyes, that much he knew for sure, but this time it had nothing to do with the usual mouse-cat game…

What the hell was going on?

"Well do what you want, Jarod, but remember one thing. She isn't her mother, she's a real Parker."

Was she? "I don't know about that, dad."

"Don't let her mess up your head, you hear me, son? She'll stab you in the back the minute you let your guard down, so don't."

0000

Holy cow.

Holy cow.

Holy cow.

"Holy cow…" It was the only phrase that Broots had been able to repeat for the passed hour or so. He kept rewinding the same DSA disk over and over again and every time the familiar figure appeared on his screen, the same curse hit the air.

At first he hadn't realized what was wrong with the short scene that the disk had revealed. He had seen camera footage about Miss Parker's mother before, it wasn't that unusual, but when his eyes had met the date of the record… it was the date that had nearly caused him a heart attack. If Catherine Parker had been killed in April 1970… how was it that the date of the record said June, months after her assumed death?

Broots rubbed his neck, confused.

Did this mean that Catherine Parker had not died in the elevator as they had thought? Man… What the hell am I supposed to tell Miss P? Was this why they had suddenly decided to send her away? So that she wouldn't start asking questions about what really had happened in that elevator?

"So you found out about her." It was Sidney's saddened voice that startled him making the man jump onto his feet. Had Sidney just hinted that… "Y-you knew she didn't… didn't die that day?"

Sidney didn't even look away as he announced his reply. "Yes."

"But… but…" It didn't make sense. No matter how you looked at it, it was crazy. No way in hell Sidney could have known something like, well, this and still kept it as a secret. No, no, he wouldn't have had let Miss Parker go through all that pain during these years. Broots had seen the way Sidney looked at her whenever it was the anniversary of her mother's death… He had seen the pain in the old man's eyes every time she had gone to sit on her grave, to speak to her mother. Wait, had that pain been caused only by his crying conscience? Unbelievable. All this time he had said how he wished he could erase her agony, but yet he hadn't told her the one thing that could have had actually done it? Something just wasn't right.

"Does this mean you know what the Mirage is?"

Sidney shook his head. Through all these years he had hoped Miss Parker would never come across with the truth about her mother… but at the same time, he had always wished she would. There was so much Catherine in her daughter… he saw it every time he looked her in the eye. If only he could have shown it to her; things could've been different now. Somewhere in the past, she had picked the wrong path to follow ignoring everything he had tried to teach her. Although, he couldn't deny the fact it was probably that path that had kept her alive.

"No, she never told me what it was about", he answered finally stroking his chin, "I was only trying to protect Miss Parker and honor her mother's wishes." It was the truth as he knew it. He had been Catherine's trusted friend as much as he had been her doctor and when she had made him swore he'd never tell the truth about her death to her daughter, he had decided to go with her pleading.

Sidney's words gave Broots the creeps. "You talk like you'd know she's dead, Sidney." At this point, it wouldn't have surprised him if he did. On whose side was he!

"I have no way of knowing that", Sidney replied in his usual husky tone, "but…" The look in his eyes passed the message on and Broots caught it easily. "It is the Centre we're talking about, right?"

Sidney only nodded. Exactly so.