A/N: So please forgive me for any writing mistakes, this Dutchie is a little rusty and has no bèta to weed out all the errors. I would also like to thank absinthespoons for her amazing fan video work with the song "Tongues & Teeth", it helped me tremendously with writing this piece. Please go check it out on Youtube if you can!

"This is Sydney."

"I got your messages, you said it was urgent." Jarod replied wearily.

"Jarod! We need to meet up with you, we found out some important news that cannot be shared over the phone."

Jarod sighed "We?"

"Parker was the one who found the information and suggested a meet-up."

Jarod shook his head. "Forget it Sydney, she didn't have a change of heart all of the sudden, if the time on the island meant nothing to her she's not gonna start now. Just another ploy to get me back into the Centre."

Sydney frowned. "What happened between you two on that island?" Jarod rubbed his face and sighed again. "There was a turning point,… she didn't take it."

"And did you get a chance to talk to her afterwards?"

"She told me it would just be as it always has been, 'you run, I chase'."

Sydney contemplated his words for a second. "You're in love with her and wished for her to take your side." Jarod audibly swallowed.

"Before Alex jumped, he told me I had no idea how important she was to my life. I've been thinking a lot about that lately…"

"Jarod, Miss Parker is on the edge of wanting to betray everything she was trained to stand for, to let go of the thing that has held her prison for just as long as it has been holding you. But she is scared, it's a big leap for someone like her. It's all she's ever known for the past thirty years! And with all these revelations about her family these last few months…" he let out a long sigh "She brought you to her house, not the Centre when she needed to know about her mother. She let you go to find Ethan and a large part of her does not want to see you back at the Centre."

"She will not risk her life for my freedom."

"Jarod, while I'm the first to acknowledge Miss Parker's loyalty has always been to the Centre, it was only because she wanted her father's love and affection. Now that Mr. Parker not only left her behind but also turned out not to be her actual father she lost her ties to this place. To give you an idea of how far on that ledge she is: she cried in front of Broots and me today, and she seems desperate and determined to help you. Her intentions seem genuine to me."

The littlest spark of hope flared in Jarod's heart.

"But we need you to leave a trail for Lyle so we can meet without being followed. I'm pretty sure they have been keeping pretty close tabs on her."

Two days later – Miss Parker's residence

He hesitated before knocking on the door, he didn't feel like another confrontation this soon, the wounds of his heart still fresh. The door opened before his knuckles landed on the wood. Miss Parker stood there, not dressed in her usual skin-tight office clothes, but in a light blue sweater and some jeans. "Come in," she said, not daring to look him in the eyes. Seems she felt just as rattled as him. He followed her into her living room.

Sydney greeted him.

"Jarod please sit down", he gestured to the couch.

He stared intensely at his old mentor, "What exactly did Broots find?"

"We'll get to that later, first there is something else Miss Parker would like to tell you." His gaze shifted to Miss Parker who'd been pacing behind the couch while wringing her hands. She wasn't just rattled to see him, whatever it was she'd been wanting to tell him it couldn't be any good. He sat down on the couch and Miss Parker found her resolve and sat down on her coffee table across from him folding her hands, clearly trying to calm herself.

She let out a shuddering breath, "Two days ago, I went down to see my baby brother and I received some news that made me question whether he could even be my brother. I had Broots steal his DNA from the bodily fluid storage on SL-15, and run some tests. I was right, he is not my brother." She paused, contemplating grabbing his hands to hold him for the news to come.

"You made me come all the way down here to tell me your family tree is even more messed up than you already knew? I don't feel like playing games Parker, what is this about?!" The coldness in his voice pierced her heart, and she finally met his eyes. Knowing there was no delaying this any further she spoke quietly and braced herself for his reaction, "He's not a Parker, he's yours. He's your son, Jarod." Several seconds ticked away on her clock as he stared at her, she could only observe as the news finally landed in his brain.

His eyes went wide, "No…" his breathing quickened, he began raking his hands through his hair and he stood up abruptly. "No…!" he shook his head and went to his former caretaker.

"Sydney…" he begged, hoping he would deny it, that this was not the truth. "I'm sorry Jarod, Broots just called to confirm Miss Parker's suspicions. I'm afraid it's true, baby Parker is undeniably your son."

Miss Parker made the mistake of coming over and touching his arm, trying to calm him, "Jarod, I'll help you get him out, I promise."

He took a furious look at her hand on his arm, "Well, aren't I grateful you decided to become Mother Teresa all of a sudden. Or should I say mother Catherine. Now that "daddy" is gone you finally regained your conscience?!"

"I'm not my mother, Jarod!" She hissed out defiantly.

He shook off her hand and closed what little distance there was between them, "No, because unlike your mother you were just fine with the cloning, you were fine with them torturing me, fine with them taking more children for their insane experiments. How many lives need to be ruined for you to finally decide it needs to stop?!" He yelled, now inches from her face.

Sydney came between them pushing them gently apart.

"Stop it! Both of you!" He warned. "If we want that child out of the Centre you'll need to work together and none of this is helping. Jarod, to her credit Miss Parker did try to break out Gemini and wasn't even aware of what Lyle had been doing to you until she found the jumper cables you left her. Besides, there is something else and it's very important that both of you see it." He took a few steps back, flipped open a DSA case, put a disc in, and pushed the button. "This was the day after they'd stopped your heart, a year before you escaped."

Jarod slowly moved away from Miss Parker, his eyes fixated on the screen. "From the weeks I've been missing," he stated, confused at the distraction Sydney had provided.

Sydney nodded, "Yes, and I believe there was a reason for that."

He watched as Miss Parker's figure was dragged into his room. "Sydney, I don't remember this."

Her heels clicked on the hardwood floors as she stalked her way to the DSA player. "Sydney, what is this?" she asked. They both watched as Jarod examined her and put her on his bed.

Sydney sighed, "Another major revelation about your past. Miss Parker, you were there for almost three weeks, you don't have any recollection of this whatsoever?" He questioned studying her reaction. Her expression showed only shock and confusion.

"None, I was supposed to be on a cruise with my father, one of the very few vacations we took together. I got a concussion on the last day. Couldn't recall a thing."

"How convenient," Jarod remarked, giving her a deadpan. She was just about to start an argument again when Sydney took away her opportunity to do so.

"Jarod, if you want any chance of saving your son, not just out of the Centre, but the both of you living in freedom for the rest of your lives you will need to control your emotions. You need her, and she needs you! You two can keep pretending to be at each other's throats or decide to trust the other, and I can already tell you the latter will happen eventually anyway. You're connected in more ways than the both of you are aware and something tells me only together you will have any chance of succeeding."

Parker felt eleven years old again, scolded by her father, caught roaming around The Centre with Jarod and held her tongue.

"I know you two want to rescue the boy, but for tonight I need you to watch these DSA's together. Especially the last one. But you must know that this was in fact the third time they locked you two up together. They did it in 1977 and 1980 both with the same results and I suspect the same objective. "

"What objective?" Jarod questioned.

Sydney grabbed his coat and scarf from the rack next to the door. "I'm not entirely certain, but I do have my suspicions. I suspect you'll have the same once you finish watching the footage. They were part of a project called 'Proles'. In the meantime, I will try to find some evidence to confirm these, but it is impertinent that you watch these, they may be the key to ending this once and for all." With that he left, leaving Miss Parker and Jarod staring at a closed door.

"Proles…" She studied him as the words fell from his mouth.

"What does it mean?" She asked.

"Offspring…" he answered quietly.