A/N: Well. Hope you're still both following and enjoying, hee. As you may have noticed, I'm bringing the happenings of the final episodes into the picture just to make it more fun (for who? Me? Eh), though it also means that if you haven't seen the final, you may not understand everything. If you don't like the way it's coming out (as I'm obviously twisting and playing with the "real" timeline), feel free to complain, but unless you don't have anything else than 'you suck' to say, don't expect me to take it seriously. Heh, been there, done that.

Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! All the authors out there probably know how much they mean to me, because they're really kicking my muse's butt, so to speak. So, reviews… mmmm… they keep the chapters coming (although I can't promise I'll remain this quick with the updates. It's called life, actually no, it's called "school." More precisely, "summer vacation ending and my senior year starting in few weeks." Darn it!), alright?… My author notes are probably longer than my whole fic together. Oh well.

Disclaimer: Really, if I did own the show and the delicious characters, you think I would've shared Miss Parker or Jarod (or Lyle) with rest of the world? I think not.

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

by Syrai

Chapter 4 – life lessons to learn

"God, I hate this song! Jarod, turn it off! You could've just blindfolded me, you idiot!"

Jarod detached his stare from the driveway in front of him to quickly glance over his shoulder. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to look there even though he knew he couldn't see the pouting woman. The only thing that gave away her unseen presence was her brown suitcase, which they had picked up from the hotel's reception as he checked out, on the backseat. There was a very simple reason for that one, of course. To Miss Parker he had said it was because he didn't trust her and her motives, but it wasn't really about that. He cared about her in some twisted way; always had, but he had never trusted her and that was nothing new.

"Goddamnit, Jarod!"

She was in the trunk, naturally. Why? It was just more fun this way. After everything Miss Parker had put him through, he deserved to have some fun! That was the excuse he kept repeating in his head whenever he felt bad for her. Why the hell would he have to feel bad for her?

A very Jarod-alike grin spread over his lips and behind his black shades, there was a familiar twinkle in his eyes. The kind which usually told he had come up with a plan so the-Centre-proof that not even Broots could have messed it up. Only this time, he hadn't come up with anything… Enjoyment… maybe he enjoyed a bit too much, fine, but there was nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

"Oh don't be a mood-spoiler, Miss Parker. Who doesn't love 'A total Eclipse of the Heart?" He shouted his question with laughter in his voice, although she probably would have heard his comment without raised voice. Jarod couldn't prevent the laughter, but he silenced it so that she didn't hear him laughing at her misery.

"I don't!" She growled through gritted teeth. Jarod was certainly getting on her nerves. Truth be told, she did like the song, but not when she was locked into someone's hot, dark and small trunk with handcuffs around her wrists and a goddamn shovel pressed against her thigh. She tried to kick it farther away, but only managed to hit her knee painfully to the steely top of her little prison. Shit! She swallowed the tears the pain caused. Argh, it couldn't get any worse than this! "It's been hours, Jarod, it's really starting to feel damn uncomfortable in here!" She started, "why don't we change places, huh? I'm sure you'd be better with pretending it's all comfy and nice in here!" Oh yeah, good one Parker, insult him some more and he'll surely let you out of here!

As she had thought, the comment didn't amuse him like all the others she had spat out had during their drive. She didn't see his face, but the tensed silence told it very clearly. This time it was more… personal somehow. This particular remark made him remember why he could never let himself trust her – ever. Nothing could change the fact he really was a pretender. Nothing could change the fact she was the one who wanted nothing more than to bring him back to where "he belonged", either. No, that's not completely right, he bitterly corrected in his mind, the truth about Catherine goes even above me.

"…Hopefully." It was a whisper she didn't hear and wasn't even meant to. Only now the situation was starting to draw itself into his mind; into his consciousness. It felt surreal. Did he really have Miss Parker, the Miss Parker in his trunk and was he really driving towards St. Catherine Church where his sister was? No, he had to come up with something else. Bringing Miss Parker into the same city was bad enough, but he couldn't risk showing her where his family was. In case Miss Parker did betray him, as he assumed she would do at some point, there'd at least be time for Major Charles and Emily to escape. So, he'd have to find some other place to stay for now, wouldn't he?

"Jarod!" A shrieking whine caught his attention. "You know, Miss Parker, time would pass more quickly if you only-"

"NO!" She knew what he was going to say; they had had the same conversation every 15 minutes and she was getting more and more pissed of every time he opened his mouth and mentioned it again. The icy blue eyes stared into the darkness as she opened her mouth to speak; "I'm not listing stupid animals starting with a stupid A! I'm not playing that stupid game with you, stupid!"

He laughed out loud. Boy, she really was in a bad mood, wasn't she? No doubt she'd make him pay for that one, though. Let her try.

"What, you rather list things starting with 's' then?"

All he could hear after that one was her screaming from the top of her lungs.

His eyebrows rose questioningly. "No?"

0000

Emily had woken up again, but only for few quickly passing minutes during which she had only muttered few words that at first hadn't made sense at all. Major Charles wasn't entirely sure if the girl had been delirious or what it was about, but nevertheless he had decided to check out the clue she had told him to follow. For one, Emily had dedicated her life to finding her family and this young man… well, he shrugged, if Emily thought it was important then it probably was.

Ethan. That was the name Emily had called out.

Normally Major Charles would have had waited for his son to return, but something told him Jarod wouldn't be coming alone… If the foolish boy really had taken his own hunter with him as he suspected, he figured it was better for him to check the clue on his own without letting Miss Parker interfere. With that, his thoughts returned to the matter at hand. The name and an address weren't the only things Emily had given him. She had whispered the word "NuGenesis" and written down a row of numbers… AA8585. NuGenesis, the fertility clinic and former adoption agency, that had claimed to help Major Charles and his wife had turned out to be the Centre's little puppet. The only thing they were after were new pretenders.

Even though, maybe he should've had waited for Jarod to come back… not that it made any difference anymore now that he was already heading towards the address Emily had given. Originally he had planned to hack into the NuGenesis database first, but when it had turned out to be a little bit more difficult than he had expected it to, he had decided to go check the place out. Maybe Jarod would succeed better, he was the smarter one after all.

0000

It was a cheap one-hour motel where Jarod in the end decided to check in with Miss Parker for few hours. Mainly, because he assumed it to be the kind of place from where the sweepers would look only if the occasion really called for it and well, it didn't. Usually he left a trail of clues behind him for Miss Parker and her co-workers to follow. This time it quite obviously wasn't needed and if he had done everything right, there was no way they could find out their location. She wasn't carrying any trackers, he knew it. It was the first thing he had checked after getting a hold of the right kind of equipment. The keyword was 'connections' – it was how and why he had managed to escape from Miss Parker so many times.

Jarod inserted the key to the lock and twisted it. After the somewhat loud click, he opened the door and let Miss Parker enter the room first. Just one glance around the room and she already snorted, dissatisfied. "Oh great, Jarod, this really tells how highly you think of me."

Jarod hid the smile with a serious face. Yes, then there was the simple fact that he knew a tasteless and tacky place like this one, with tapping water sinks and dirty toilets, was just what he needed to annoy Miss Parker further. He almost felt guilty for having so much unneeded fun on her expense, but just almost. There was something very intoxicating in knowing he was the one who called the shots, not her. In some ways, it had always been him in control of course, letting them find out his whereabouts and so on, but unlikely usually, this time Miss Parker couldn't deny it. Even if she did have her own hidden agenda, she had been forced to admit that Jarod was the one holding the strings for now instead of her.

Miss Parker took a step closer to the center of the room, stopped dropping her suitcase on the floor and turned around on her heels few times with her hands spread open.

"With the kind of amount of money you've stolen from us, Jarod, I at least thought you'd have it in you to pick a little bit better place than this one."

Only now he shut the door locking it and obviously ignoring her nasty comment. Miss Parker followed his every move, but still she couldn't tell where he had put the key. Damn magician.

"If you want to take shower or…" He glanced around the room hesitating, "something, then go ahead. But so you know, you're going back to being handcuffed right after. I need some rest and I can't sleep if I have to worry over you suffocating me with something."

"Fine", she spat with a crushed ego and bent down to grab the suitcase into her hands again. Looking at Jarod's content grin was making her feel sick. This was not how things had been supposed to go forward. Why exactly hadn't she tried to seduce him in that hotel room? The only excuse she could make for herself was that if she had jumped on him like that, he would've had known something was wrong. Have to be smarter than that, Parker.

Patience is a virtue, huh? It's a goddamn menace, that's what it is.

"I'll just get changed then", she continued coldly, "You should clean your trunk more often, it stinks in there."

"Not mine, as I'm sure you guessed", he said shrugging casually.

Not saying anything, Miss Parker lift her chin up defiantly, she spun around and marched into the bathroom. The door slammed shut with such force that for a second Jarod thought the mirror on the wall was coming down. Fortunately, it didn't. The next loud noise was caused by the suitcase being thrown on the floor.

"You know, Parker-" She immediately noticed he had dropped the 'Miss' "-you're really making it seem like I kidnapped you or something as evil as that. But as we both know, it was you who came to me and wanted my help, not the other way round."

True. "Yeah", she replied through the closed door, "but I didn't ask you to treat me like I was some…" Suddenly she couldn't finish the sentence… just what was she about to say? The confusion brought a frown onto her forehead and she had to lean against the door with one hand for support. The other one rose up to cover her mouth as if she had just realized something.

Damn you daddy.

That was it, Miss Parker decided to give her father a piece of her mind the next time they met. Screw the Triumvirate, screw the orders; what did they know about anything? What did he, Jarod, know about anything? He only pretended to know. Still, she knew she couldn't abandon her orders… It was the only way of showing her father she was as tough as Lyle was. Only way to find out their big secret… Without meaning to, she whispered her last words again, "…Like I was some…"

"-meaningless study subject; a target, without any feelings at all?" Jarod helped cynically taking off his coat at the same time, "I know, doesn't feel that nice, does it?" The leather coat flew on the wooden chair next to the door. Miss Parker was finally starting to get it, wasn't she? Good, it was the whole point of it all. To bring back the young Miss Parker by showing her how he felt every day of his life. With every year passing by, she turned more and more alike her father and it was something Jarod hated. He had tried so hard to get her questioning the way she lived her life, but every time he thought he had made a progress, she crushed his wishes by some cold comment that proved him wrong. It was clear that after what had happened to Thomas, Miss Parker had locked herself inside her own little shell where things such as feelings couldn't hurt her. It was strange, really. She knew it was because of the Centre that Thomas had been murdered and yet she kept on clinging on them. Talking about denial, huh?

Slowly he walked to the bed and sat down, exhausted. A relieved sigh broke off as he felt his tensed body relax a bit. The mattress underneath him didn't feel particularly nice or good, but it served its duties. He had slept on worse, so. Closing his eyes, Jarod kicked off his shoes and allowed his body to meet the lumpy bed… He knew it was dangerous to play like that, he might fall asleep but still, he couldn't force himself to open his eyes.

The last thing he heard, was the shower being turned on. If he hadn't drifted into deep sleep that fast, he also would've had heard Miss Parker's quiet sobs that she, as always, tried to hide under the running water.

0000

"Daddy, what are you doing?" It was Debbie's faint voice coming from the living-room that caught Broots attention and gave an end to his pacing. He stopped, but only for a minute.

"Nothing honey, there's just lots on my mind right now." Lots? That was an understatement of the year. "You go to bed, I'll come tuck you in in a sec, ok?"

He heard her footsteps first, then her reply; "Ok."

He started walking again, one hand on his hip, other one pressed against his forehead. Moving was what usually helped him solve his twisted thoughts and untie the knots. Because of that, he had been walking in circles in his kitchen for half an hour already, ever since he had got home. Debbie had asked him to play something with her, but he just couldn't stop. There was so much on his mind right now, so much to worry about.

Like, where the hell was Miss Parker? Things were so much clearer when she was around. He wasn't sure why, but the cold woman had the habit of straightening things up one way or another. She would've known what to do next and the whole issue being her mother, she had the rights to tell what to do next, too.

The thing was, Broots had just discovered just how Sidney had known about Catherine Parker's faked death; she had told him straight to his face. Unbelievable, really. Sidney had shown him a DSA of their last meeting; something that Miss Parker would have undoubtedly wanted to see too. It was during their last so called appointment that Catherine had told him it was the only way for her to live a little big longer because someone she loved planned to kill her. Who!

On the record, she said she was going to be killed for being part of the famous, but unknown 'Mirage' but refused to tell Sidney what it was about. That of course was a shame. She had made him promise he'd never tell the truth about their family tragedy to her daughter and being a doctor; therapist and also her dear friend, he had felt it was his duty to honor her wishes. So, he swore to keep her big secret to himself and gave her his St Christopher medal – the same one Broots and Miss Parker had found. To keep her safe and to bring her luck.

Through all these years Sidney had kept something like that from both Broots and Miss Parker. It didn't really matter to him, but it surely did matter to Miss Parker and now she wasn't even there to hear it. Wherever she was, she was completely unaware of the fact her mother… his pace quickened… might still be alive.