Disclaimer: The characters of "The Pretender" belong to someone else. The character of Prudence belongs to me, though (YAY)…Anywayz, wanted to mention I do at least own one of the characters in this story LOL
A/N: I finally gave myself a kick in the butt to continue this one… Thanx a lot for the reviews!
Chapters are going to be longer from now on (It´s not like I hadn´t used the time to practise LOL)
Anywayz, I´d be happy if you guys continued reading this one…though I forgot where I wanted to go with this one. Don´t worry, I just thought up something different :-)
And thanx to Ice Queen for remembering me of Jacob! I´ll do something about that, I promise!
The next morning, Parker rushed into her office and recognized Sydney standing in the shadows.
An ironic smile flashed her face as she turned to him, not saying a word.
"You shouldn´t have come here, Parker, your medical condition is still…" he began, but was cut off by Miss Parker.
"And what are you doing in my office, then?" she thought about adding a "Daddy" but decided against it. She would give him the hell of a talk! Later. Eventually.
Sydney just shrugged and remained silent.
Feeling anger burning inside her, Parker stepped closer to the elder man and spoke in a dangerously calm tone "If I find out about you trying to prevent me from finding out what the prophecy is, you will find yourself in the section for head cases and invalids" She threatened before she left the office, searching for Broots.
The gray-haired man just stared at her and shook his head sadly. No matter how hard he tried to prevent her from finding out about what would cause her even more pain than she had already experienced, he knew his chances were even lower than non existent.
---
"Good morning Prudence."
A teenage girl with long, dark brown hair turned around to face the man "Good morning, Syd." She greeted politely.
"Get dressed. It´s time."
The girl just nodded and followed his orders.
Sydney left the room and waited outside. Raines joined him and asked "Is everything prepared?"
Prudence was the one who would make him the unquestionable head of the Centre. No one would be able to stand up to the young pretenders abilities, though, he admitted to himself, it was a blame that she hadn´t her mother´s Inner Sense. He had looked after her since she was "born" and trained her pretender skills as well as everything else. Sydney had done his part as well and that probably was the reason she was still a friendly person, but Raines didn´t bother as long as she was under his control.
Sydney sighed. He had tried to prevent Raines from doing this, but after all he had to admit that he could be happy to even know about this child's existence and as frustrating as it was – he had not the slightest chance to do anything about it.
Stepping out of the room, Prudence gave them a smile.
"You look beautiful, Prudence." Sydney said, warmly looking at his granddaughter.
She was wearing black trousers, a black blazer, and under it, a cream-colored blouse. Black high heels, decent makeup and an easy but elegant hair styling made the outfit perfect. "I know."
"I´ll show you your office." Though Raines knew it was strange to hire a 17-year-old girl, he also knew nobody would dare to ask questions. Maybe except Miss Parker. But as she had no clue about the girl's parentage, he didn´t care about it. He would let Sydney take care of that.
--
"Broots! Where the hell have you been? Downloading porn?" Miss Parker snapped when she finally found him.
Broots looked confused and Miss Parkers snapping added a "terrified" to the package "I…I…saw something strange…"
"Gee, what could that be?" she barked, obviously not in the mood for "something strange".
"I…" Poor Broots didn´t know how to say it "I…saw Sydney and Raines together."
Parker´s eyes grew wide "Where? What were they doing? Stop shaking, shaggy, and spill!"
"They… we´re walking down to Raines´office with a young woman."
"What woman?"
"I don´t know…I have never seen her before. She had dark brown hair and I guess she´s in her late teens, bu…but except for that I don´t know anything. Though, I have a feeling that I know her…there was something familiar…"
Her eyes grew even wider when she remembered the file she had read in her vision. Could it be that…? No, Sydney would have told her. They have already used you. Or maybe not. She had to find out.
"Broots did that girl look some kinda like…me?" She asked, hesitating as she realized that this vision might indeed be reality. She felt her heart racing as she waited for Broots to answer.
"Now you mention it: yes!" he answered, puzzled.
Parker rushed out of the room "I´m gonna make these bastards pay!"
--
Prudence was amazed by everything happening to her this day. She couldn´t complain, though she had spent her entire life at the Centre, she had had everything she could ask for. Now that she was going to work for one of her mentors, everything changed.
They had decided that she should have a small house in Blue Cove and live a normal life. At least it seemed to be normal to her. She knew enough to live outside the Centre, and what she didn´t know: Until it was time, Raines didn´t want anyone to be suspicious about who she was.
"Prudence?"
Prudence seemed to be far away. Now she looked at Raines´ strict face and said "This office is wonderful, doctor. You´ll have no reason to complain about my work. I´ll do my very best."
"That´s what I expect…Miss Parker." He added the name and smiled while saying it. This branch of the Parker family tree seemed to be most promising. "Sydney is going to show you where you´re going to live and give you your car keys. He´ll tell you everything you need to know during the day." He gave Sydney a warning look and left.
Immediately Prudence turned to Sydney "What was that look for?"
"It doesn´t matter." Sydney whispered tiredly.
To his surprise, the usually calm and gentle Prudence snapped "Don´t you play smart with me Sydney!"
"Prudence…" he tried to calm her down.
"I´m sorry, Sydney. I shouldn´t have said that." Prudence said emotionlessly, a mask of friendliness on her face that reminded him much of the girls mother´s one.
"Let´s go then. Wait for me in the car, I´ll be there in a few minutes."
Suddenly, the hands of the girl trembled "Are you going to see her?"
"Whom?" Sydney asked, confused. Prudence had never asked such questions before.
"My mom." She answered quietly.
Sydney sighed heavily. If anyone recognized Prudence getting "emotional" he wouldn´t be allowed to see her anymore. She was too important to Raines as he would allow anyone to "spoil" his most important weapon. "Yes I am. Don´t talk about such things." They are watching.
--
"SYDNEY!"
Sydney turned around to face a very angry Miss Parker. "Parker…", he started, the second time this day, only to be interrupted by Parker for the second time.
"SHUT the hell UP!" she yelled. "Don´t you think I know what you´re doing?"
Shocked, Sydney lowered his voice "Calm down or you´ll get us killed."
Parkers mouth dropped open "So it´s true?" she answered, her face paler than ever before.
"We have to talk later." Sydney whispered and walked away.
Staring after him, Parker felt tears burning in her eyes.
--
"Let´s go." Syney simply said when he met Prudence and started the car, knowing that Prudence watched him.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Nothing."
"Liar. She gave you hell. I know."
"Be quiet, for gods sake!" Sydney whispered, being sure that the car was tapped.
"They can´t hear us, grandpa. I made sure of that."
Sydney abruptly stopped the car and stared at her "How do you know?"
Prudence smiled. She had waited long for this moment she could talk to someone about what she really was. What she really knew.
"Let´s say a little bird whispered it to me."
"I don´t understand…"
"Gee, how hard can this possibly be? I lied about not having the Inner Sense." Prudence shook her head "I´m sorry about breaking this new to you like this, but grandma told me that it was about time I talked to someone."
Sydney just looked at his grandchild in shock.
--
"Broots! I´m off of here for today!"
Broots recognized something that made him feel uncomfortable and afraid at the same time, because he had never thought this was possible "M…Miss Parker? Have you been crying?"
"Shut up, shaggy! Just make sure nobody realizes I´m gone!" with that she was gone, exactly knowing what she had to do, but disliked it and was afraid of the consequences.
"Has everyone gone mad?" Broots asked himself, as he left to make sure nobody would recognize Miss Parker not being at the Centre.
TBC...TBC...TBC
Hope you liked it this far!