A/N: So this took me a bit longer, mainly because I have written most of the three weeks they have spent a year prior to his escape, but I decided to put this part of the story first. Let me know whether you guys want more flashbacks and all of the things that have happened between them in the give or take nine weeks they've spent together or just to speed up the progress of the story a bit more and add some of that stuff later on.
Also, I used the apartment Jarod had in the first two episodes as a reference for his room, which is very different from the tiny cell he seems to have in the first film.
Warning: there is mention of SA in this story, not really described or anything, just mentioned. If you do not want to read that you can skip the part after the second dividing line.
"Parker, I'm…sorry." He began, "for going off on you like that. It's just that…finding out I have a son…" he swallowed, "Another thing the Centre stole from me."
She shrugged, "God knows I deserved at least some of your wrath. I'm actually surprised it took you this long for you to explode on me." She sighed and glanced at him.
"For the longest time, I just tried to believe my father and followed him blindly, but I did really try to break your clone out, you know. If I hadn't found out Sydney was already helping you, I would have, I couldn't just stand there and let them do the same to him as they did to you. Just like I can't let them do that to your son."
He turned to face her, "Yet, you still kept chasing me."
She gave him a pained smile, "It's not like I could just leave, Jarod. After I got out of the hospital my father was missing, I still needed to know what happened to Thomas, and then I had my baby brother to protect. There were still so many questions left unanswered. There still are."
"Which is also why you wouldn't come with me…"
"That's part of it," she hesitated, "I wish I could tell you that there was nothing that I wanted to do more than go with you, but there is a part of me that just…can't. Like a blockade in my brain that puts a stop to it the moment I want to trust you."
"Like you were trained to…"
"Yeah…" She walked off to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of scotch and two glasses, "So which one of our horrible history stories do you want to watch first?" she asked while handing him a glass.
He took it with apprehension, "Let's start at the beginning."
They settled on the couch with their glasses and shared a look as she put in the disc with the oldest date on it. They watched as a sixteen-year-old Miss Parker was carried into Jarod's chamber.
He climbed out of his simulation sphere. "Miss Parker? What did you do to her?" he asked as the men put her on his bed and walked out without a word. He went over quickly examining her, he found the small point in her neck where they had stuck a needle in and another one on her arm. She was out cold and from what he could tell it would take some time for her to wake up, he got himself a book and settled down next to her, his fingers around her wrist to keep up with her pulse. He took a moment to study her, she'd grown up a lot since he'd last seen her. She was now taller and her figure had changed from a girl into that of a woman, her hair was darker and longer. She was very beautiful he decided, but she also had dark circles under her eyes that indicated she had trouble sleeping and the expression in her unconscious was one of pain and sadness. It took almost an hour for her to regain consciousness.
When she finally did wake up she tried to sit up, but felt her stomach lurch and the lightness in her head made her rethink her action. "Hey, take it easy, whatever they've given you knocked you out for quite some time." Jarod insisted.
She blinked a few times with her eyes and furrowed her brows when her vision cleared and she found Jarod sitting next to her, holding her hand.
"Jarod?" she groaned looking around his room, "Why am I here?"
He looked unsure, "I don't know, I haven't seen you in years." She let out a growl, "Daddy shipped me off to boarding school, didn't even get to come home for the holidays, not even for Christmas." She shook off his hand, eyeing him with suspicion.
"You don't trust me," Jarod observed. "Why would I? They just locked me in here with you, for all I know I'm here just as entertainment for one of your stupid simulations!" She retorted.
"I'm not doing any simulations at the moment," he answered a little perplexed.
"Yeah, well maybe I am your next simulation, have you thought of that? Wouldn't be the first time…"
He studied her as she got up from the bed, and moved away from him "You're also angry with me."
Her mouth set in a hard line, eyes blazing with rage.
"Why are you so angry with me?" He insisted.
"Because you didn't answer any of my letters!" She yelled at him.
He seemed perplexed for a second, got up from the bed and carefully approached her, "I didn't get any letters, I thought you never answered mine!"
She started circling him, "You wrote to me?" She asked sharply.
He nodded, "Every day for four months, at first Sydney wouldn't take them, but after I refused to do a sim for a week he caved and said he would send them to you. But I never received any back, I then wrote to you once a week, and six months after that Sydney told me it would be better if I stopped and… I did."
"Then either Sydney or my dad made sure we never received each other's messages…" she concluded sadly. "It would have made a difference…I wouldn't have felt so alone…"
"Does it make a difference now?"
"Maybe."
Jarod and Miss Parker watched her younger self wander off to the other side of the room while his younger self kept his eyes fixated on her.
Jarod had a hard time understanding this new version of Miss Parker, she had always been emotional, but this teenage variant of her was a whole lot different from the one he'd known before. He was also not used to having other people in his space like this.
"Was it fun at boarding school?" He asked, trying to get her to engage. She rolled her eyes and turned away from him. Jarod frowned, she was different from before, harder to reach and less easy to talk to.
She gave him a dirty look, "Leave me alone, I don't wanna talk about it."
He seemed confused, "Why? Is it not fun out there?"
"Why can't you just leave it alone?!" She screamed in frustration.
Startled at her sudden outburst he felt very unsure of himself "Well,…I just…"
She jumped up and shoved his chest, "Just stop with all these questions, didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude?!" It was out before her brain caught up with her tongue and she gasped.
His expression darkened "That was low and uncalled for. Your emotions are out of control and you're clearly struggling with something that has happened to you, you've changed. And I can see in your eyes you would like to tell me all about it, so why don't you just tell me instead of pretending you don't want to. Let me help you."
A strangled laugh escaped her. "Out of control? Welcome to the world of teenage girls, Jarod! All of us are only one inch away from insanity. You want to know so bad how great it is out there? It isn't, it's hell. Locked up in a boarding school for five years. They all hated me! Called me a freak, because no one ever came for me. Daddy barely ever even wrote to me, and while other girls got picked up by their moms to go shopping in Paris or Milan, I got left behind with some of the teachers every vacation. And when I finally graduated early, of course daddy wasn't even there, but at least he remembered to send someone to come pick me up afterward only to dump me here in this dungeon with you! I'll never forgive him for this!"
"Do you think your father is behind this?"
"Of course, he is, like anything that happens in this hell hole. Nothing happens around here without him knowing!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." He offered unsurely.
"Sorry for what, my father locking me up or the outside world being just as bad as in here?" She retorted furiously.
"I'm sorry you didn't feel like you belonged anywhere." He said quietly.
It cooled her down instantly, her anger disappeared and only sadness was left, "Out of all the people in the world it's kind of ironic that you're the one feeling sorry for me."
"Why?"
"Because it's my family that's keeping you in here, locked up like their little lab rat. I feel sorry for you Jarod…" she confessed.
"But I can help people this way, save lives."
"And what about your life? Will you just sit here, solving puzzles without ever having had ice cream or felt the sun on your face?"
"Ice scream?" He questioned.
"Yeah, it's the best, it's like a frozen dessert. Very sweet, chocolate is my absolute favorite, but strawberry is pretty good too. When we were ten I tried to snuck in some for you, but it had melted before I got to see you. If you ever get out, you should definitely try some."
He shook his head, "Sydney thinks I wouldn't be able to function in the outside world anyway. That it would be too much for my brain to handle, that I need this environment to be able to use the full potential of my intellect. Like a white leopard, I wouldn't be able to fit in."
"Ugh Sydney," She scoffed, "If anyone knows that if you repeat a lie long enough it becomes the truth, it's him. Probably should never ask him what his family did during WO-II."
"Sydney takes care of me."
"Yeah,…and where is Sydney now?"
"He's supposed to be on a trip for the next three weeks," Jarod answered compliantly.
She rolled her eyes, "How convenient. Guess we know for how long they will keep us locked up together."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because wonderboy, Sydney would never allow this. Whatever they're up to, they had to wait till he was gone."
"What do you think they're up to?"
She shrugged, "You're the genius, you tell me." She took a stroll around his room, "At least it's a lot nicer here than it used to be. If I'm gonna be stuck with you for a few weeks I'm glad it's here and not in your old room."
"This is my apartment, they gave it to me a few weeks ago. Sydney said it would help me relax outside of doing simulations, that it would keep my brain sharp and make me feel more at home."
He watched her expression fall, "Why does that bother you, Miss Parker?"
"Because this isn't what home feels like, it just sounds like they want their priced possession locked up in a nicer cage."
"What does home feel like then?"
Her eyes went up to the ceiling, "Home is…where you feel safe and loved. I haven't been home in a long time. I used to think our house was home, but after momma died it was just a house. It never did feel like home anymore, it was just so empty. The last time I remember feeling what home is like was the winter before she died. Both of them were gone so often, my dad was usually at the Centre and my mom would go visit the orphans, but one day there was a really bad snowstorm. My parents couldn't go anywhere and they were forced to stay home, we played Monopoly for days. It was just the three of us, no other distractions, neither of them having to leave. I felt happy and loved, that's kind of the last memory I have of home."
She sat down on the couch, "Do you have any memories like that, Jarod?"
He sat down next to her, "Sometimes I dream of my mother, at least I think she's my mother. We're outside and she's hanging up laundry, I'm playing with a little plane made of wood. It gives me this feeling of safety and happiness."
"That is exactly what home should feel like…safe."
He noticed the sadness in her voice, "There is more you're upset about, isn't there?"
She eyed him suspiciously, "What do you mean?"
"You're hurting and it's not just about boarding school." He studied her with an intensity that left her feeling vulnerable, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat on the couch.
"Jarod…" she bit down on her lip and pretended to study her nails, "please just forget about it."
"But, someone hurt you?"
She couldn't stop a tear from escaping the corner of her eye.
He put an arm on her shoulder, but she immediately scurried away from him.
"Someone did hurt you, ...physically."
"Well, I did the physically hurting part,…mostly."
"Mostly?"
"I broke his thumb…"
"Why?"
The tears were now freely flowing from the corners of her eyes, "I just wanted to feel what it was like to be loved again, to be kissed again, and then he just…he just.." she sobbed, "he said I wanted it because of how I'd dressed, that I was provoking him, but I didn't, I swear! I just wanted someone to care about me! I didn't want him touching me like that!"
He carefully placed his hand on hers, she wept and curled up against him, making herself as small as she could. He held her as she cried.
"It wasn't your fault, you did nothing wrong." He whispered to her.
Parker's face had turned a ghostly shade of white, Jarod observed as he paused the DSA.
"You never told anyone else, did you?" He asked gently.
She shook her head, and with shaking hands she put down her scotch glass, then wrapped her arms around her knees, still avoiding his gaze.
"Parker…"
"You know, when you send me back to him he even had the nerve to tell me that I was the one who instigated it, that I was fabricating lies, making an enemy out of him to survive. That I was doing the same to Raines, how all of them would be granted absolution of their sins… He made me doubt my own memories…"
Realization of who she was talking about dawned on him, "If I had known…"
"But you didn't Jarod, because these memories of ours were erased."
"If it's any consolation," he offered, "He won't hurt anyone ever again. I later found out he still was trying to touch little girls…Last I heard they have to keep him in isolation for his own safety. Prison isn't exactly the safest place for a child molester."
"Good, I hope he rots in hell. That bastard didn't change one bit, and neither did Raines."
"People rarely do," he took her hand and squeezed it, "Will you be okay?"
She nodded and squeezed back. "Let's face it, Jarod. This will probably not be the worst that's on those DSA's."
A/N: In 4x12 MP talks about how Giuseppe was her date to the spring dance, how she broke his finger, and how she went to school in Rome. So I kind of went with that and made him the bad guy. In the episode with Faith, she also referenced the fact she never had any female friends before so I kind of imagined her having trouble relating to other girls and then attracting more male attention as she grew up.