The tech paced his office; occasionally scratching the little hair there was left as he tried to reel the information through his mind. He was pretty sure he knew who was behind Tempus. The why and the what of the project, on the other hand, Broots had not the slightest clue. He had still come up empty handed on Betty; there were no records on her, and there was nothing to indicate her whereabouts.

He continued to pace, anticipating Miss Parker's arrival. She hadn't been by in a while and that fact alone was making him anxious. He just hoped the little information he could give would be enough to keep her calm and not anger her further. One could understand her eagerness to find Betty, but her behavior lately… well, it had been erratic, at best.

Looking up, he nearly jumped out of his skin. There was Miss Parker, standing directly in front of him. He could see a small smile play on the corner of her mouth, upon seeing him jump. He hoped that meant she was in a good mood.

"Miss Parker, I think I may have found something on Tempus. It's nothing big, but it's something-"

As usual, she wanted the information, not the biography behind it. "Out with it, Broots."

"Oh, okay. Well, um, I started by hacking into Mr. Raines computer. I came across some messages and memos that mentioned Tempus, but there wasn't enough there to prove that he even has anything to do with it, just that he knows about it.

"But, realizing that most of these messages had come from Mr. Lyle, I checked his computer next and files about Tempus started popping up everywhere."

At this, Miss Parker's eyes lit up with excitement and for a moment she reminded him of a small child, enthralled by a story. "What did you find?" she prodded.

Broots face showed his nervousness. "That's it."

She was suddenly Miss Parker again. "It?"

"That's all I had time for without someone noticing that I was on."

"So you didn't actually read any of it?"

"Well, no. I just tagged the word 'Tempus' and looked for any results containing it.

"So there's nothing else?" she demanded angrily.

"Actually, I did check some of Lyle's monetary transactions. And if Tempus is his project, which I'm pretty sure it is, it's a very low-budget one."

Miss Parker nodded. She recalled the day she'd seen Betty interacting with Lyle in the hallway. Maybe it had something to do with Tempus? "Did you find anything in Lyle or Raines computers on Betty?"

Broots hadn't been expecting that question. He's hoped she wouldn't even bring her up, but there was no such luck. "No. There really hasn't been anything on Betty. There are no records of her on the Centre mainframe and there aren't any promising leads in any of the police data bases. It's kinda weird, ya know, it's like the girl doesn't even exist."

Miss Parker nodded distantly. She was worried, knowing Betty would have to resurface sometime. She unconsciously placed a hand over her stomach, pressing lightly. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

Parker knew she had to get out of the Centre before anyone figured her pregnancy out. She was also aware that time was quickly running out. She couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding at that fact.

"Miss Parker, is your ulcer bothering your?" Broots asked, snapping her back to reality.

She quickly dropped her hand to her side. "Uh, yes." She lied. Truthfully, her ulcer hadn't been bothering her, even though she hadn't been taking her medication. "Do you think there's anyway you could get more information on this Tempus from Lyle?" She asked, wanting to change the subject fast, before Broots could get any more suspicious.

Broots shrugged. "I guess so. Seeing as how it's an inexpensive project, it'll probably be pretty low-security as well."

"Then do it." She demanded, then made her way toward the exit without giving him a chance to respond.

Miss Parker made her way into the foyer of her house. Her briefcase tapped against the wood flooring as she set it down, echoing against the silence. Otherwise, the house was quiet. It had been dark outside for sometime and too many shadows crowded the room. She peeled off her overcoat and hung it on the wall hanger.

A deep voice broke the stillness. "Staying late at the office again?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin, whipping around to face the dark sitting room, adjacent to where she was standing. She recognized that voice.

Jarod stepped out of the darkness. He held his hands in the air, even with his face, palms facing forward. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded angrily.

His expression puzzled. "I missed you." He answered honestly.

She felt a slight pang of regret seeing how her words had hit him, but she'd asked him to leave. He'd agreed. She rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe that he thought he could just waltz back into her life, just like that. He was unbelievable!

Wait.

Glancing over Jarod's shoulder, she noticed someone standing behind him. While her right arm reached back for her gun, the other pushed Jarod out of her way. In one swift move, she stepped forward and thrust her gun into Betty's chest, just above the sling she was wearing.

"You told him!" she accused, practically screaming. She was furious. "Of all the people you could have told! You could have gotten graces back with the Centre with news like that! But you went to… to him?"

"Told Jarod what?" Jarod interrupted.

Betty took in a deep breath, trying to compose herself, which proved difficult because she really didn't like guns, especially after what happened last time she was around them. Her gaze shifted from the gun, which remained pressed to her chest, to Jarod's concerned expression, to Miss Parker's eyes, which were desperately trying to conceal the obvious hurt she felt. Ignoring Jarod, Betty locked her gaze with Miss Parker's and felt the gun press further into her sternum.

Betty tried to act calm and collected, but her voice betrayed her and came out shaky. "Yes, I told him about Tempus."

Miss Parker's expression hadn't changed, but Jarod's jaw had visibly dropped. Betty hadn't told him a word about Tempus, so why was she telling Parker that she had?

Parker lowered her gun. So, Betty hadn't told him about the baby, but apparently she had known about Tempus. She scoffed. "So you do work for Lyle?"

Betty laughed haughtily, deeply amused by the notion, until a shooting pain in her shoulder caused her to wince. Maybe it wasn't that funny. She shook her head, sobering herself and stated bluntly. "I would never work for Lyle. I hate him, actually."

"Then how do you know so much about Tempus?" Parker demanded. This girl confused the hell out of her and she didn't like it one bit.

Jarod wanted to say something, but what could he possibly say? They both clearly knew more than he did and didn't seem to be in the mood for sharing. So he kept silent.

"I can't tell you."

"Tell me!"

Betty gulped, she could see how angry Parker was getting. "Lyle has been working with a team of scientists, they're trying to make some sort of machine."

"Machine? To do what?"

Betty shrugged.

Parker was getting tired of this game. "To do what?" she growled.

"To see the future." She answered self-consciously. She honestly didn't expect them to believe her, but what was she supposed to tell her? She couldn't even come up with a lie big enough to cover this one.

Parker had to choke back a laugh. "What?"

Betty rolled her eyes. She knew she wouldn't take her seriously.

"That's not possible." Parker spat out confidently. When Betty didn't say anything, she turned to Jarod. "Is that possible?"

As Jarod looked at Betty, he then realized, with her blonde hair thrown up haphazardly and her child-like green eyes looking up at him, what Parker meant when she spoke of Betty's innocence.

He ran his hand over his head, starting at his chin and running it through his hair. "It's not a topic I've readily explored… but even for a team of scientists, something like that could take months, years even, to come up with a plausible theory."

Damn Lyle. Parker was furious, of all the preposterous experiments for Lyle to come up with. "What the hell would he want to see the future for?"

Betty looked over to Jarod, then down at the floor. It took only a moment for Jarod to realize what she'd implied.

Parker glanced back and forth between the two. She didn't understand the silent message and was getting more and more irritated by the moment.

Betty could see her frustration. "Look, Lyle hates playing that whole run and chase game. If he could see the future, he wouldn't have to. He would simply know where the pretender is headed and go get him."

Parker shook her head in disbelief. "That's not even possible."

"I'll look into it a little more, see if I can come up with anything that proves that this experiment might be possible." Jarod offered.

She shook her head more vigorously this time. She was pratically shouting and the panic in her voice was apparent. "No! He can't do that… he just can't!"

Jarod had never seen Parker let her emotions get this much control over her, not even in more emotionally stressful situations, and she'd had plenty of those.

"Parker, it's okay." He reached out for her, but she jerked away.

"No Jarod. It's not. The Centre is not going to get their hands on you, especially not now!"

"Not Now?"

Parker's eyes grew wide, she hadn't meant to say that aloud, it just sort of… slipped.

"Parker, what do you mean, not now?"

Before he could say another word, she grabbed her coat and headed out the door to the one place where she knew that neither of them would follow her. She wasn't ready to face the music, not just yet.

A/N:

Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. I appreciate any and all reviews, they mean so much to me:) -Charlie