When Parker and Margaret enter the living room, Jarod looks up. His eyes meet Parker's, a silent conversation passing between them. She nods once to let him know she's okay.

Adam is sitting on a footstool near Jarod, flipping through a book. Parker walks over to his side, perching behind him on the stool to run a hand over his hair. He looks up at her, leaning into her caress. "Hi," Parker says as he snuggles back to her. "What have you got there?"

"A book from Mister McGonnell," Adam answers. He shows her the pictures of a bear's picnic in the middle of the forest. "Jarod read it to me."

Parker squeezes the small boy in a hug. "It's back to 'Jarod', now?"

Her son realises his slip and sends an apologetic look to his father.

"Oh," Adam cocks his head to the side when Jarod gives him an encouraging smile, clearly not used to affection from anyone other than Parker. "Dad," Adam corrects himself.

Jarod's smile widens as he watches Parker drop a kiss on the boy's head. "Parker," he says simply.

There's so much in the way he says it. A question, a reassurance, appreciation.

Head resting on their sons', Parker meets his eyes to answer. "What happens next?"

Jarod shrugs. "I'd like to check on Sydney and Broots," he admits, knowing she's thinking the same thing.

"You think they're out of questioning or custody?" Parker asks, checking her watch. She hopes they weren't arrested after recovering from the scopolamine. The authorities surely would have found their employee records in the raid.

"Only one way to find out."

"Would you like to use the office?"

Parker and Jarod glance over at McGonnell, who they'd completely forgotten about. Margaret sits beside him, watching them with a half-smile that makes Jarod's throat tighten. They haven't gotten to spend much time together yet, but it can wait for a little longer. Jarod won't be able to enjoy getting to know his mother until he's sure Sydney and Angelo are safe.

"I would like to set up my own laptop to use," Jarod asserts. He doesn't know what McConnell's system is like; based upon his house, Jarod presumes it's a lot like Mister Parker's set up at his home office. While nothing to sneeze at, Jarod trusts his laptop over a stranger's computer to make a video call.

"Understandable," McGonnell agrees, nonplussed by Jarod's stipulation. "I believe they were released from hospital. Angelo wouldn't leave their side so he hasn't been lost in the resulting processing of the people who were inside the Centre when the raid happened."

Jarod glances at Parker. "Let's hope they're at Sydney's."

The four adults get up and leave the sitting room while Adam scrambles to follow them. Parker checks over her shoulder to make sure he's still with them when Margaret, who's bringing up the rear behind Adam, speaks.

"I've got him Madison," she reassures Parker.

Jarod stops so quickly that Parker almost walks into his back. He looks between the two women, raising an eyebrow at Parker and the name she hasn't used in years.

She raises an eyebrow right back, daring him. "Don't even think about it, Genius," she warns.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Jarod holds up his hands, he knows he'd never win that fight. Besides, he doesn't want to risk the truce they have mustered. "I'll be back in a minute. I've got to grab my laptop from our room."

He takes the stairs two at a time as he doesn't want to leave Parker and Adam for too long. Just observing his son, he could see a lot of mannerisms Adam inherited from his mother. He focuses on details and doesn't miss any. His eyes are the same shade of grey-blue and he has his mother's fair skin. Though initially fretful when Parker abruptly left the table, Adam quickly looked to Jarod for reassurance. Adam had taken his mother's cue, putting trust in the man who had been hovering on their peripheral since they left the Centre and the simple reassurance that Parker would return to them soon. Adam seemed to believe him, but only after they had entered the house and Jarod found a window where they could see Parker outside with Margaret. Only then did Adam allow Jarod to lead him to the sitting to find a book to read to him while Parker took time to compose herself.

He retrieves his laptop quickly from his bag, casting a look around the room to make sure everything is as they left it. He feels the pull of his muscles when he looks at the armchair where he spent last night. He doesn't want to repeat the experience tonight. Logically, he knows there are other rooms but he doesn't want to be apart from Parker or Adam. He's going to have to test the sofa because he isn't going to push Parker or Adam more than they're ready for.

Returning downstairs, Jarod hears the soft sound of his mother's voice before he enters McGonnell's home office.

"Cree, craw, toad's foot, geese walk barefoot."

Jarod pauses in the open doorway, taken back to when he was in the Centre and the nursery rhyme was one of the few comforts, an anchor he held onto through it all. The breath rushes out of him as his chest clenches tight. Parker, perched on the desk corner level with the door, instinctually notices him first, her eyes drinking him in with an understanding of what this means to him. He's brought back from his memories by her eyes glazing over wetly. He remembers moments when they've looked at each other like this before. Whether they admit it or not, like it or not, they're anchors for each other. She understands exactly what he's feeling in that moment.

She doesn't do anything except the slightest tilt her head to the side, giving him the option. Her resolve fortifies him as he braces himself to step away from the protection of the door and into the room where his mother is teaching his son the song which ingrained into his memory of the home he was taken from.

Parker doesn't look surprised when he manages to push his emotion down to enter or when no one has noticed the exchange. Not many catch their interactions, not the private ones anyway. Jarod has no idea how their phone calls never caused more issues for her with her father.

"Cree…craw…toads…foot," Adam copies Margaret, saying the words to get used to them rather than singing.

Parker turns her attention to their son, sitting just beyond the door with his mother in an armchair. She smiles softly at the scene Jarod can't quite see from his vantage point. The yearning it provokes is enough to overcome the crippling he encountered moments ago. He tucks his laptop under his arm like a paper and enters the room quietly so as not to disturb Adam or his mother. He doesn't want her to know how the nursery rhyme makes him feel. Doesn't want her to think of how he missed her until he's able to articulate it himself. They haven't had a minute to themselves in the commotion of the last few days to face up to monumental change in their lives.

"Cree craw toads' foot, geese walk barefoot," his mother sings to his child, maintaining eye contact as he copies her, this time, probably for the first time hearing and trying to sing. Nursery rhymes are frowned upon in the Centre. As much as she loves their son, he can't imagine Parker singing to him in the limited time they had together in the bowels of the Centre.

His mother sits with Adam on her lap, her hands coming up gently to cover his to bring them together. She claps their hands together in time with the song as they sing it over and over.

Jarod stands beside Parker, resting the laptop on the desk behind her. He wants to reach for her hand, to seek support and offer it. It's a strange compulsion, neither of them has ever needed that kind of gesture. It would be odd; Jarod knows doing so would concern her more.

So, he leans against the desk beside her, hip cocked against the wood. Parker shifts slightly closer, not quite touching, but close enough to share body warmth. It's enough.

McGonnell, sitting opposite Margaret and Adam, watches the scene with a smile. His gaze flickers over to Parker and Jarod. "Catherine would have been so happy to see this."

Margaret keeps her focus on Adam singing and clapping by himself now as she responds, "Oh, she saw it before we did, Robert, you know that. We're all here now because of Catherine."

Jarod glances at Parker at the mention of her mother out of reflex. She glances back at him with an imperceptible nod. She's okay.

"I guess we are," she admits, much more easily than she obviously expected. "But I think some people are missing that we all expected to be here, who should know we're here," she adds pointedly.

"I guess that's my cue to set up a couple of video calls."

"At first, I was doubtful, but acting on my veiled threats bodes well for our co-parenting in the future, Genius."

Jarod hopes she's only half serious.

AN

Life is tenuous and I'm finding it difficult to write at the moment, concentration is rare and elusive. I love this story the same as my others and all of you for reading and wanting an update...your messages have lifted me when I've been low lately. Writing is usually an escape for me. It's difficult when not even that can not comfort me and becomes another pressure I am feeling. Please don't stop with the reviews, they spark my tinkering with the laptop. New chapters may take time, but I'm not giving up.