Continued from the ending scene of The Island of the Haunted

As she closed the phone and held it to her face she wondered if this was really it, if this was all it would ever be. Feelings of exhaustion and loneliness washed over her, her line would be tapped, of that she was sure and she wasn't about to give Raines, Lyle, or Cox any ideas to use her to lure Jarod back in. She couldn't do this for much longer, it was too much to bear. The never-ending revelations about her past, all these years of chasing Jarod around the country. Having barely anything else in her life other than the Centre, and the moment she even thought about leaving everything was taken from her. She thought of her mother's last words to her, spoken in Jarod's voice, to finish her plan. Whatever that may be, there were no more children to save, only traumatized adults searching for answers in this house of horrors. She was trapped in hell as long as Jarod was out there, or was she? Her daddy was gone, Raines apparently had all the answers and he sure as hell wasn't going to tell her. Her father had said the new Parker legacy started with her, and she certainly didn't want to leave a trail of death and destruction like the generations before her had done. She felt no loyalty towards the man who killed her mother in cold blood on a birthing table or the sociopathic cannibal that she called her brother. For the first time in her life, she felt she might actually have a say in her own future, no matter how bleak that future may be.

Next day The Centre – Sydney's office SL-9

Sydney entered his office to find an anxious Broots pacing up and down his office.

"Oh Syd, am I glad to see you."

"Are you alright Broots?"

The strangled short laugh that followed was more than telling. "I swiped everything here extra for bugs, but I don't even know where to start."

Sydney clapped the man on his shoulder. "Just start at the beginning. Broots. Tell me what it is you're so anxious about."

Boots sat down, rubbing his temples. "You see Miss Parker let me in her father's house in hopes of finding something about her mother, anything really. I found several hidden places actually, some had files, others DSA's. But then Jarod called me, and he of course knew where I was and mailed me the blueprints of the house, gave me a clue as to where there might be other secret stash places. Said he hadn't been able to break in long enough to get to those. And then I found it!" He stood up abruptly, "There were files and DSA's, all from times you weren't at the Centre!"

Sydney nodded "Jarod's missing weeks."

Broots shook his head, "Not just Jarod's, that's the point."

Sydney frowned "What are you getting at Broots?" He spoke in hushed tones.

Broots swiftly went to the door and barricaded it with a chair, "I can only show you part of it, I don't think she will ever forgive me if we would watch the rest of it."

"She?"

Broots was unable to look him in the eye, "Yeah, just…watch…" He flipped the DSA player open and retrieved a disk from under his shirt, inserted it, and pushed a button.

"Octobre 11th, isn't that…"

"Yeah, the day after Jarod's heart had been stopped"

"Broots what else did they do to him?!" He grabbed the man by his shoulder, but Broots only focus was on the screen.

"There!" He pointed and Sydney watched as two sweepers entered Jarod's apartment, dragging a small figure in a skirt behind them. Jarod, who'd been lying on his cot throwing a ball against the wall, sat upright. The sweepers left without a word and Jarod rushed to the figure lying on the floor, they could see him checking vitals and then he slowly turned the person on their back. The camera revealed an unconscious Miss Parker.

"Miss Parker?" Jarod's unbelieve was written all over his face. He checked her pupils and angled her face into the harsh light of the simlab, checking for a reaction. When he seemed satisfied she was furthermore undamaged he picked her up and carried her to his cot.

This was also when she began to stir, because of the angle they couldn't see her face but a groan could be heard.

He slowly put her down, shot the camera a look of annoyance, and turned back to her.

"Miss Parker, can you hear me?" He'd put one hand on her cheek and held hers with the other. Another groan, Parker blinked and stared at Jarod for a second.

"There you are." He smiled.

"Jarod?" she asked groggily and a little perplexed. "Where am I?"

Jarod sighed, "Two sweepers just brought you in without so much as a word, you've been unconscious and by the mark on your neck I think you were injected with something to render you such."

Sydney paused the DSA. "They brought in Miss Parker?! Why did she never tell us? For how long was she there? Was this part of a simulation?"

Broots sighed "Don't know if part of it was a simulation, but it was part of a project. The files are encoded, it'll take me a few days to decrypt them, but the project was called Proles. And as for how long she was there, almost all of the three weeks you were gone." He exerted the DSA and put another in. "But this, this where it gets really weird," he pushed play again and an image appeared of Jarod and Miss Parker lying on his cot, he had an arm wrapped around her middle, his head in the crook of her neck, the both of them snuggled up to each other.

"This was after just a week, and the rest…oh boy, she's gonna kill me if she knows I saw."

Sydney leaned back, contemplating, his fingers touching his mouth. "They bonded…Jarod hadn't had any long-term type of relationship other than with her, certainly not so intimate."

Broots swallowed audibly. "Oh, they were intimate alright."

Sydney cocked his head towards Broots. "You're not saying…"

Broots nodded "That is definitely what I'm saying…" retrieving another DSA and switching it out. He put in a time frame and the disc skipped to a frame where Miss Parker was kissing Jarod, she'd pushed him up against a wall, her hands roaming over his torso when she suddenly stopped. Her eyes went to the camera and with a look of determination and fury, she ripped the cables of the camera and the image switched to another camera. No Miss Parker or Jarod in sight, but the sounds spoke for themselves.

Sydney closed the DSA player swiftly. "That was quite enough, Broots!"

The man himself nearly choked on his own words "That was not nearly the last of it, there were two other times she was brought in, she looked…a lot younger."

"You're telling me that they locked Parker up with Jarod more than once?"

He nodded his head. "That is exactly what I'm saying". When Jarod was eighteen or so, and when he was around twenty-one, and then the year before he escaped.

"Miss Parker was out of the country, the years in between. She barely stayed here longer than a week. But the year before Jarod escaped she was head of security, I can't even fathom her being locked up with Jarod and not making a big scene after, I would have heard of it. Either she was in on it, or someone has been tampering with her memories."

"They probably just brought her to the renewal wing for one of their special treatments." Sydney contemplated this for a second. "Then they must have done the same to Jarod, he barely remembers anything of those weeks."

Meanwhile on SL-20

Parker stalked the corridor to the nursery, her high heel clicking on the tile floors, pausing a second before opening the doors. This was the only place she felt she could even remotely let her guard down, she relaxed her tense jaw, conjured up a smile, walked in and greeted the nurse who silently indicated Baby Parker was asleep.

"Anything new in his development?" She whispered as she walked up to his crib.

The older woman smiled and whispered back, "Well he's so quick to learn anything, you know he could walk at 9 months and the talking barely stopped since he was 11 months. He's a very intelligent young man." Miss Parker stroked a finger across his cheek, warmth spreading through her body as she watched the sleeping little boy.

"Oh, there was one thing, there was a bit of an accident last week. We were told not to inform you because you'd worry and everything turned out just fine, but now that you're here. We were trying new foods with him last week and as it turns out he is severely allergic to something, so we won't be trying anything of sorts in that category."

She frowned "He's allergic, for what? And what happened?" The nurse shook her head, "He said his lips felt funny and his breathing went shallow, so we gave him epinephrine as a precaution and after histamine, usually these kinds of allergies develop around the two-year mark, but apparently he's just early with everything. Just make sure you never give him pistachios or any tree nuts for that matter, unless you have an EpiPen ready."

Miss Parker felt ice spreading all over her body. "He what?" she whispered hoarsely, praying she heard incorrectly. The nurse carefully stroked baby Parker's hair. "We gave him some pistachios as a snack to see if he would like it, but we had no indication he could be allergic. You're not allergic yourself? These kinds of allergies usually run in the family."

She had a very hard time keeping breathing, let alone answering and she just shook her head as a reply. She stared at her little brother still fast asleep in his crib, studying his earlobes, and knew for a fact he could not be her brother, all the signs had been there, but she had not been paying attention.

"He'll probably be awake in an hour or so, he was just so tired of playing, why don't you come back then."

It took every ounce of restraint to not just grab him and run out of here. She simply nodded, forcing a smile on her face. "I will, thank you."

The nurse touched her arm, "You know you are just so much like your mother. She was also such a kind soul. I see the way you look at him and I just know how much you love that boy. He's such an angel."

She felt like vomiting, "He sure is." She took one last look at the sleeping infant and turned on her heels.

Sydney's office- SL-9

"Sydney we need to talk" Miss Parker tried to open the door to his office, but the door seemed blocked. She threw her weight into it and the door flew open. Sydney and Broots stood next to his desk with very guilty looks on their faces.

"Why do I feel like I just caught two kids with their hands in the cookie jar?!" She pushed the chair that had been blocking the door roughly aside. "And what is up with the blockade?" She let her head fall in her neck. "Ugh, never mind I have something way more important to ask you, Syd. Is this room secure, Broots?" The slight nod the technician gave her was enough to let her continue, but not before Sydney interrupted her.

"Miss Parker, we need to talk."

Parker rolled her eyes. "We sure as hell do, Syd. Remember when you gave us that boring speech about genetics around the time we found out about the clone?" Sydney went behind her and quickly locked the door.

"Miss Parker, this is important." Miss Parker threw her hands up in annoyance. "Yes, it really is, because all I remembered from that speech was how earlobes are easily recognizable genetic traits. How I have detached earlobes, and my dad doesn't, but my mom did, and how that was all about how having detached earlobes is a dominant trait and not having them recessive or something. Meaning that if two individuals with attached earlobes had a child, it would never have detached earlobes."

Sydney had walked back to Parker stopping in front of her. "What are you saying, Parker?"

She tried her hardest not to let any tears fall from her eyes, she bit her lip and took a deep breath. "Baby Parker has detached earlobes, and Brigitte and my father had attached ones."

Sydney took her gently by her arms. "You knew your Mr. Parker was sterile and couldn't have fathered that child, it was probably Raines who was responsible for fathering him as well."

She couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "Sydney, Baby Parker is allergic to pistachios…"

He let go of her instantly. "My God, they did it again." She could only watch the ground as Sydney smashed a fist on his desk, the sound of it startling Broots.

"But isn't Jarod allergic to pistachios?" Broots asked.

She stared at him through her teary eyes as she saw the puzzle pieces fall into place in his head. "No…They created another child with his DNA?" She nodded another tear rolling down her face. This time Sydney grabbed her roughly by her arms "What are you going to do, Parker!? Are you going to let that little boy be locked up for the rest of his life just like Jarod?"

"I need to tell him, Syd. He deserves to know."

"And you're certain this isn't another trick of Raines to get Jarod to do something rash?!"

With the little headspace she had left after all the emotional turmoil she ordered Broots "Broots, please get my…baby Parker's samples from the bodily fluid storage facility and have them compared to samples of Jarod. I don't think he's another clone, his facial features are…different, but see if he could be his son? " Her unusual demeanor made him even more nervous than usual.

"Miss Parker…"

"Please Broots, if he's Jarod's son, he needs to know." She turned her head to Sydney. "Can you contact him, ask him to meet. We'll have to be careful, Lyle has been keeping close tabs on me, they can't suspect anything or it'll be all of our heads that are in danger of beheading."

"Miss Parker, are you sure about this?" Sydney inquired hesitantly. "I have to tell him, I can't in good conscience let that little boy be abused just like they did with him."

"You know Jarod will want to rescue him and then probably disappear forever." She nodded, wiping a tear streak from her face. "I hope so."

She left with steps that sounded more confident than she felt, but as she paused after she closed the doors she heard Broots "You didn't tell her about…"

"No Broots, I don't know what Parker is going to do, this was more revelation than she needed at the moment. Perhaps it's best when she and Jarod find out together if they don't already know. It would explain her hesitation these past years, there always has been sort of a connection I contributed to them knowing each other as children, but maybe there was more."

Part of her will want to do anything to help that little boy, but is it enough? With the threat of Raines hovering over her like a sword of Damocles, do you think she'll be able to make the right choice?

"What am I going to tell Jarod when he calls? He knows I must have found something."

"Leave Jarod to me, it's best we do this as quickly as possible, but we must be very careful. One wrong step and all of our lives are at stake."

After eavesdropping just outside Sydney's office she'd quickly left the corridor. Stepping back into the elevator her mother had staged her suicide, she pushed the button to go up to her office, but as the doors closed she found herself sinking to the floor. She hit the emergency button, stopping the elevator. She crossed her arms over her knees and leaned her head on them. She now had most of her answers but more questions were raised by the day, the man she'd called father all her life was dead, there was no one to please anymore, only doing a job to stay alive. A little boy to save and a human chameleon to keep from being tortured and shipped off to Africa.