Parker woke up to the sound of a knock at the door. She struggled to pull herself out of bed; it was Saturday so she didn’t have to get up early for work. She threw her robe over her shoulders and jogged to answer the door knowing who it was. Jarod had organised everything before she had moved in, including getting Parker a job at the local real estate agent. She flung open the door and saw Jarod standing there with a packet of bacon and a carton of eggs. Ever since they had moved to Australia, Jarod had been popping over almost everyday. They would just talk for hours about work and family and everything else going on in their lives. Parker found it easy to talk to him, to tell him her problems.
"Come in," she turned and walked away from the door, leaving Jarod to close it behind him. Jarod walked into the house, closed the door and went into the kitchen,
"Bacon and eggs all right for breakfast?" Jarod asked. Parker sat down at the dining room table and picked up the paper,
"Yeah, bacon, no fat, lightly cooked, eggs…"
"Over easy sunny side up I know," Jarod finished. Parker heard oil spatter on the frying pan,
"How was work?" Parker asked jadedly.
"It was great, I delivered three babies, including one in the middle of the waiting room, it was amazing," The excitement was evident in his voice. Parker smiled, she found it fascinating that he enjoyed his work so much. Every morning he had a new story about the previous day, about something special that happened. Parker’s work definitely wasn’t that exciting but she liked it much better than when she worked at the Centre so she just accepted it. 20 minutes later Jarod put a plate in front of Parker.
"Did you ever do a pretend as a chef?" Parker asked curiously swallowing bacon.
"No, well not professionally, just for around half an hour," Jarod explained. As she finished her breakfast the phone rang. Parker padded over to the phone. "Hello?" Parker answered as Jarod cleaned off the table,
"So, what happened at work yesterday? Parker?" Jarod dropped the plates in the sink and walked into the living room where she was. Parker put down the receiver and a horrified look covered her face,
"What’s wrong? Who was that on the phone?" He walked over to Parker and sat her on the sofa.
"Umm," she started, "that was the FBI," she started.
"What did they say?" Jarod demanded impatiently.
"Lyle escaped from the custody of the police three days ago…they believe he will come after us."
Parker started to shake; she stood up slowly and started to pace the room anxiously.
"Parker, I’m sure they will never find us here, they never had anybody in Australia with ties to The Centre, I checked that out before we left." Parker looked up at Jarod,
"You know he will be able to find us, he has a great power over many people… Jarod…I’m scared" Parker announced softly. It was the first time that she had revealed her inner feelings, but it didn’t matter, the situation was too urgent to try and hide her true thoughts. Jarod stood up and walked over to Parker. He guided Parker back over to the sofa. She sat down shakily,
"Don’t worry I will always protect you no matter what happens I will always be here for you." Jarod sat down beside her and held her hand. Parker turned towards Jarod, tears coming to her eyes,
"Thank you," Was all she could say.
The two sat there in silence for a few minutes, taking in the full magnitude of the situation when a knock came at the front door. Jarod stood, up motioning for Parker to stay where she was. He walked over to the door.
"Sydney?" Jarod asked surprised by his old teacher’s appearance.
"What? Didn’t you think I would find you?" Sydney asked jokingly. Jarod hugged Sydney, it was an amazing feeling. Jarod and Sydney had never hugged before; it was like an unspoken release from all the tension that had plagued their lives for so long.
"I’m just glad that you got away, and Parker as well, speaking of her where is she?" He asked Jarod. Jarod pointed towards the sofa, indicating towards the now sleeping Miss Parker.
"What happened?" Sydney sat in the chair next to bed.
"The FBI called and they told her that Lyle was loose and he was looking for her." She was just so afraid that she lay down on the sofa and drifted off to sleep. Jarod sat on the couch next to Parker and stroked the hair from her face.
"That means that no one is safe, Lyle will surely come after anyone that destroyed his chances to gain ultimate power. Unfortunately that includes Parker and you," Sydney looked at the two of them thoughtfully surprised by their apparently closeness.
"This can’t be happening now, not after all we went through to bring down The Centre. Parker just got a new job down here and everything was going great until this" Jarod stood up in anger. Jarod started to pace the room, obviously thinking of way to solve the problem of Lyle.
"Jarod," Parker murmured, "Jarod, where are you?" Parker asked sleepily. Jarod rushed to the bed and took her hand.
"Jarod…Lyle… he’s coming…" Parker opened her eyes and saw Sydney sitting in the chair opposite the coffee table.
"Sydney? What are you doing here?" She sat up shakily, running her fingers through her dishevelled hair.
"I came to find you of course and to get away from Blue Cove" Sydney smiled at her. Parker sat up in alarm.
"What about Broots and Debbie?" She asked frantically. Sydney touched her hand,
"Don’t worry, they’re here, Broots just took Debbie to Dreamworld for the day, they will surely be back soon." Parker sighed and lay back on the sofa. Jarod motioned for Sydney to join him in the kitchen, away from Parker.
"This is a serious problem, Lyle isn’t going to stop until he finds us and exacts his revenge," Jarod glanced into the next room at Parker.
"Jarod, you have to find somewhere safe that you two can hide, do you know anywhere?" Sydney asked impatiently.
"I do have a place that I bought just in case this kind of thing happened, but I don’t want to upset her," Looking at Parker lying on the sofa, "she’s settled down here and she likes it here, it takes her away from all the terrible things that have happened over the years." The both looked over at Parker and sighed.
"Well I have to go and meet Broots at the hotel we’re staying at, I will be back soon to check on how everything is going" He reached out his hand towards Jarod and they shook hands. He then left quietly. Jarod then went over to his laptop that he set up on the dining table. He scoured the Internet trying to find any sign of a reply to his thousands of messages to his mother. As he clicked on the many sites listed on the screen, he heard Parker walk over towards him,
"Hey you’re up?" Jarod said quietly
"Never could sleep for a very long time, force of habit" Parker pulled up a chair next to Jarod and her eyes searched the computer screen.
"No reply from your mum yet?" Looking at the empty mail box in the bottom corner of the screen
"No," Jarod sighed heavily, "I hope they haven’t stopped searching for me" He bit his bottom lip in fear,
"I’m sure they haven’t, they want to find you just as much as you want to find them." Parker explained. Parker couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be like for him to not know his parents.
"I have to go out and do some research, I’ll be back later on today," Jarod told Parker. He got out of his chair and reached for his jacket.
"So are you coming back or should I cook dinner and leave it oven for you until tomorrow?" Jarod turned around before he walked through the door.
"Don’t worry, I’ll be back," He smiled and closed the door as he left. Parker spent the rest of the day aimlessly doing housework and playing with Olivia, her pet rabbit. Around 5 O’clock Jarod came home,
"Honey, I’m home!" Parker turned around noticing the huge grin on his face
"Let me guess, you just watched your first episode of Flintstones?" Parker asked curiously and sarcastically.
"Yes, it was fantastic, a family that lives in the Stone Age, although I don’t believe it had any historical significance" Jarod explained thoroughly.
"It’s not supposed to," Parker laughed, "it’s a children’s program!" Parker could help but laugh at Jarod’s innocence, it felt good to laugh for a change.
"Oh then that would explain why they were driving cars using their feet" Jarod said awkwardly. He walked over the kitchen table and wearily sat down in one of the chairs. The microwave alarm went off and Parker jumped into action.
"That will be dinner, veal parmigiana with pasta" She rushed into the kitchen busily serving the meal. Just as the two were finishing up dinner they heard a bell ring. Jarod jumped up and opened the front door.
"Jarod," Sydney said. He walked up to Jarod and gave him a pat on the back. Broots was behind him along with Debbie.
"Hey Debbie, did you enjoy Dreamworld?" Jarod asked.
"Yeah it was great but daddy got sick on the Giant Drop so we had to leave after that." Debbie spotted Parker sitting at the table,
"Miss Parker!" she exclaimed excitedly as she ran over to hug Parker. Parker sighed mumbling to herself,
"That’s Broots for you, never one for the gut wrenching" Broots stepped inside the house and nodded at Jarod, uncomfortable by the whole situation. Jarod ushered Sydney and Broots into the house and they sat around the table talking about what happened when The Centre was destroyed. Debbie stayed on Parker’s lap and looked around eagerly trying to decipher what the grown ups were talking about. After the small talk had finished Broots cleared his throat and the conversation died down as they turned to listen to Broots. Broots caught Parker’s eye line and nodded his head towards Debbie. Realising that Broots didn’t want Debbie to hear the conversation she tapped her on the shoulder,
"Hey Debbie, do you want to go in and check out my wardrobe, I got all new clothes just a couple of days ago" Parker suggested. Debbie jumped off her lap and ran into the bedroom to take a peek.
"Thank you Miss Parker, I don’t want Debbie to hear this" Broots babbled
"Broots, tell us" Parker insisted.
"Ok well when I heard about Lyle escaping from police custody I set up a safety net around Queensland, looking at all the flights coming in including private planes. I found a private flight that flew in last night and I called the owner whose plane it was. I asked him to describe the man who hired the plane and he said…"
"Let me guess, no thumb" Parker stated wearily sarcasm evident in her voice
"Did you find out where the flight originated from?" Parker asked carefully
"No he wouldn’t tell me, said that it was confidential information and then hung up" Broots finished flatly. The three of them sat at the table in silence for along time, each thinking about the ramifications of this information.
"I need a cigarette," Parker seethed.
"We don’t have any remember? You haven’t smoked since you got here." Jarod explained
"Well nothing like this ever happened to cause the kind of stress I’m under right about now" Parker’s voice was agitated.
"Ok listen, I had a plan just in case anything like this happened. Broots and Sydney you will be located to a safe undercover base in a small shire down past Brisbane, where you will do all the electronic work. Parker, you and me are going to take care of Lyle once and for all." Jarod’s voice was filled with anger when outlining the last part of his plan. His anger was coming from his terrible hate for Lyle after all, he shot and killed Jarod’s brother, Kyle.
"Alright so when do we do this?" Parker demanded confidently.
"Tomorrow, Broots take Debbie and go back to your hotel and pack, I’ll send both you and Sydney a car to take you to the new location in the morning." Broots stood up shakily.
"Debbie," Parker called, Debbie bounced back into the room, "You and daddy are going to go on a little holiday tomorrow so you’re not going to see me as much as I wanted to see you but we’ll see lots of each other when you come back ok?" A pout covered Debbie’s face.
"For how long?" Debbie mumbled. Broots jumped in before Parker could answer,
"Not for too long sweetie now come on daddy’s going to be late." Broots held out his hand and Debbie went over and stood beside him. Sydney stood up and left quickly, after some confusion was about the situation was cleared up, Broots left shortly after him and close the door behind him. Parker sighed audibly and slowly rose from her chair,
"Well all in all this day has rather disappointing, I’m going to have a shower and then I’m going to bed to hopefully forget this day, actually forget my whole life has happened." The sarcasm was evident in her voice, but there was also a tiny bit of fear. She was afraid of going to back to her old life, where Lyle and the all others were part of all the devastation that surrounded her. Parker walked out of the room and disappeared before Jarod could say anything to her,
"Good night." he whispered.
The next day Parker dragged herself out of bed and padded out to the living room where Jarod was curled up, sleeping on the couch. She shook her head and went into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. While pouring she remembered the events of the previous day and started shaking, dropping the mug she was holding. The smashing of the mug woke Jarod with a start and when he realised the state that Parker was in and ran over to her.
"What the hell am I going to do?" Parker started to cry, she shrank down to the ground shaking uncontrollably. Jarod crouched down and took her in his arms; Parker stopped immediately and tried to pull away from his grasp, standing up erratically.
"I-I’m fine." She quickly rushed out of the kitchen and disappeared down the hallway. Jarod got up thinking of following her but stopped himself, she needed time alone.
Parker rushed into the bathroom and turn on the taps, splashing water on her face.
"Calm down, calm down, compose yourself Parker!" she whispered to herself fiercely. "What the hell are you doing, letting Jarod see you like that!" She raked her hands through her hair and breathed in deeply. She composed herself and quickly walked back out into the lounge room. Jarod looked up from the dining room table and noticed that Parker had cleaned herself up.
"So what’s the plan?" she asked calmly. Jarod stood up,
"Are you okay?" Jarod asked. Parker had a look of confusion on her face, as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.
"Yeah I’m fine!" she quickly acknowledged going into the kitchen and making herself breakfast. Jarod shook his head, realising she was holding herself back from revealing her true feelings, another one of her father’s crimes.
"Parker, you can’t keep hiding your feelings like this, if you do I’ll only get worse not better." Jarod walked into the kitchen and towards where Parker was standing waiting for her toast to cook,
"Stop trying to be my shrink, I have Syd for that!" She snapped. Jarod jumped back as if being burnt by what Parker had said. Jarod retreated towards the door,
"I need to go home and retrieve that plans I have drawn up, I’ll be back tomorrow." Jarod said coldly, hoping to get some kind of response out of her. He was right, She whipped around,
"Tomorrow?" she asked shakily. Jarod turned around just before he opened the door.
"Yes, well you said you were fine so there’s no need for me to be here?" he asked knowing he was getting his way. Parker hesitated briefly for speak rather slowly,
"But what if Lyle comes for me?" Jarod shook his shoulders,
"Well he won’t find you because you’re not in the phone book and remember you are under a different name down here, M…" Parker raised her hand, giving him the death stare indicating she didn’t want him to say anything more about it. She took a deep breath,
"But you know he has his ways, he was power of many people." Jarod to himself,
"I’m just around the corner if there is any problems." Jarod waved Parker off and open the door to leave. Parker let out a protest she sighed deeply, which made Jarod turn around,
"You’re not going to make me beg are you?" Parker said. She looked at him with a look of contempt and a little bit of embarrassment. Jarod pretended to look astonished,
"What? Do I believe my ears? Is this the lady herself asking me to stay with her because…" he pretended to splutter the words, "she’s afraid?" His face was covered with a smirk. Parker looked at him with a cold stare,
"Yes! Fine! I admit it! I’m…" she couldn’t say the words, words she wasn’t allowed to say for over twenty years, "…afraid, ok! I admitted it alright!" Parker expected Jarod to laugh at her but instead he just closed the door and walked over to the desk located in the corner and opened a draw, pulling out a file crammed with multiple sheets of paper. He walked over to the dining room table and dumped the file on the table and sat down heavily in one of the chairs. Parker looked at him,
"Why wasn’t he teasing her?" she thought to herself. Jarod looked at her indicating he wanted her to see the file. Parker cautiously pulled up a chair beside him. She looked at the plans and saw the heading on the top of the papers,
""Emergency Plans for Cases In Relation With The Centre?"" she asked cynically, "I thought you had to go home and get the plans?" she got angrier when she realised what he had done,
"You knew that I wouldn’t let you go didn’t you?" Jarod couldn’t keep the smile of his face. Parker looked down totally embarrassed and angry, Jarod stopped smiling and asked a simple question,
"How else was I going to get you to reveal your true feelings to yourself?" Parker looked up instantaneously and looked at Jarod who had again buried his concentration in the plans. She thought to herself,
He’s right, that is the first time I have revealed my true feelings out loud, or even allowed them to be revealed to myself!
She looked over at him again and had a realisation…
"I’m free… truly free, for the meantime," she whispered to herself.
TO BE CONTINUED…