TITLE: The Island of Truths 2

AUTHOR: Trixi

RATING: PG?

SPOILERS: Second Season Final

DISCLAIMER: The Pretender and its characters, Jarod, Miss Parker, Sydney, Broots, Debbie and all others belong to NBC and I just borrow them.

AUTORS NOTE:This is part 2 of my story "Island of Truths".

I had not seen the third season when I wrote this and I wrote the first part short before the second season end was shown here in Germany. So if you find any storyline mistakes, blame our tv-station for not showing the Pretender sooner ;)

Thanks to Miss Houk and Jan for their help and ideas :)

It had been two days since Jarod had escaped Miss Parker in the police station, and she had since flown back to Blue Cove with Sydney. As for her father, it was just another unsucessful attempt at catching Jarod. Just.

For her, it had opened a whole new corner in the labyrinth of her life. That was how she saw herself now, trapped in endless tunnels and corridors without beginning or end. Jarod was the only one who had tried to find a way out of the labyrinth the Centre built around them.

Finally home after arguing with her father, she crashed, threw her things onto the couch and disappeared into the shower. Heat, shower, electric lights, she never realized before how much people depended on these luxuries.

She had not told her father about the castle, neither had Sydney. They simply said they had missed Jarod in the town and had to stay over night. She hoped she could Sydney trust on this. Though she had known him for years, she was not even sure who he really was.

She had never felt so lonely in her life, as she did this night. She sat on the couch in the window seat, reading her mom's diary. The emotions tore at her heart as she realized how luckless her mother was during her marriage to Parker's father. The only pleasant times she had probably had were with Ben and herself, of course. Parker was touched by the way her mom wrote so lovingly about her, wishing she could tell her again how much she still loved her.

The loud ringing of the phone next to her startled her back into the present.

"What?" she snapped as usual and lay her head back against the wall.

"Back again?" a soft male voice spoke to her.

"Oh yeah, after 4 hours in the police station until Sydney picked me up, several hours in a plane, two more hours explaining why we missed you again, yes, I'm back!" she replied, with false carelessness.

"I'm sorry I had to leave you there, but what could I have done? Let you bring me back to the Centre? No way."

"So why do you call me? What do you want?"

For a few moments, she did not hear a sound, just his light breathing, as if he were thinking of what to say.

"You feeling lonely?" he asked unexpectedly.

Then she went silent.

´Lonely and cold!> she thought. "Jarod, just...find someone else for your psycho-games!" then she hit the end button.

The following morning, after all the cruel things Parker read in her mom´s diary it was becoming harder and harder to be near her father. The husband of her mom, not her father. She was sure she knew who her real father was. Ben. She tried as hard as she could not to meet daddy in the Centre, burying herself in her work.

"Sydney," Broots asked the older man who stood beside him in the tech-room after Miss Parker left them. "What´s up with her? What happend in Ireland? She´s somehow ... changed."

"I guess that it has something to do with her mom."

"Not with Jarod?" Broots asked surprised. He suspected him.

"Maybe, him too. I don´t know. She´s a mystery.On one hand, she´s so much like her mother but on the other hand, she´s a total stranger to me..." though Sydney hoped it did not show that he was worried about her.

It was a difficult battle with herself, but she finally gathered all of her courage to drive up and see him.

"Ben!" Miss Parker greeted him, flashing him a warm smile.

"Parker!" he stood up from the bench and took her hands in his. "What did I do to I deserve this visit?"

"I ..." Parker hesitated and hoped she didn´t lose her courage now. "I found out a few things about mom and I wanted to see you again...." she began and they started to walk back to his house.

Inside, he made coffee for them and they sat together in the living room.

"I don´t understand why she took on all of this. Why didn´t she leave after she realized what was going on?" Parker wondered.

"It wasn´t easy for her. You should know that better than anyone. How long did it take you?" Ben responded warmly. "The very first time she discovered the cruel things they were doing, she hoped that her husband would do something. But it was already too late. He had turned to the wrong side of power." he smiled bitterly to her.

Parker spent the entire evening with Ben and they talked as if they had known each other forever.

Just as she arrived at home, her father knocked at her door.

"Won´t you let me in?" he asked and tried to smile.

"Sure. What do you want. You´re coming around a lot lately."

"Where have you been? I called you all day?"

"I took a day off. Is that a problem?" she turned and went into her bedroom.

"No, no." he answered and looked around in the living room. "I was just ... worried."

Parker stopped dead as she heared what he said. He never cared much about her, why now. ´Does he know about her visit with Ben?>

Miss Parker's face was expressionless as the sweeper threw Jarod against the wall and he gasped in pain. Sam cuffed his hands behind his back and Parker put her gun back in the holster and walked out of the room without looking back at him.

The time together had brought her nearer to him, and she could practically know his thoughts, before he even had them. It was so easy to find him this time. He should have never sent her his last present, but how could he know that one day with him on the island had taught her so much?

"Angel! I´m so proud of you!" her father walked to her and hugged her in the hallway of SL-5. "I knew you´ll catch him."

Parker freed herself from his hug and stepped back. "Thanks, daddy. Now I can go, right."

"Mhm, yeah, sure. But we have some things to clear first. Come in my office monday morning. You should take the rest of the week off, shouldn´t you? You deserve it."

They did not bring Jarod to his old room, but put him in a dark one with one lamp, a bed, toilet, and sink. The first two days, no one appeared, and he could not hear a sound outside of his cell.

The third day, Mr. Parker, Raines, a doctor, and two sweepers entered. Parker nodded to the sweepers and they pulled him off of his bed and onto the floor. Though he fought them, they held him still, so the doctor could give him and injection in the arm. Soon after, everything around him went black. When he opened his eyes again, several blurry faces stood before him. He was sitting in a chair, his arms and legs cuffed.

"He's awake." he heard a voice say through the fog.

Jarod recognized Mr. Parker's voice, and caught a glimpse of his face as he leaned over him.

"Where are the documents you stole from my home?" he asked, but Jarod remained silent. Mr. Parker nodded to the doctor. He pushed a button and through the electrodes on his bare chest and arms, an electric shock shot through him.

"Where are they?" he pressed, to no avail. Jarod said nothing. Then another shock went through him, again and again, all because he refused to speak nor did he make a sound. Jarod knew exactly what he wanted and why he wanted it back. The next shock blanked his mind out, and everything went dark again.

Raines stood next to Parker. "He is no use when he's dead." he said, and Parker nodded and waved for the doctor to cease.

When Jarod awoke again, he was back in his cell. Minutes later, Mr. Parker entered again. He was alone this time. Jarod tried to sit up, but realized that he was cuffed to the bed.

"What do you wanna do now? Try it again? Maybe the tests were wrong, maybe it was only temporary?" his eyes drilled into Parker's.

He knew exactly what Jarod was talking about and if he did not have the order to keep him alive, he would have killed him with his bare hands at this moment. He could not tell her. It must remain classified. Mr. Parker turned and left the room without a word.

"Here. I prepared the licenses, all you have to do is sign." Raines entred Mr. Parkers office, handing him a small pile of papers.

"What did the doctors say?" he asked Mr. Wheezy.

"It's not a problem any more. With our current medical knowledge and equipment, we shouldn't have any problems." he said, and both grinned. Parker took the pen and signed the forms.

"She'll leave the Centre officially on Monday. Take her then and lock them together in a cell. If they don't cooperate, drug them."

Raines nodded and left the older man alone in his office with his plans.

Jarod was now imprisoned in the Centre for a week and neither Sydney nor Miss Parker were allowed to visit him. He just sat in his room, barely moving, refusing to speak a word to anyone. He took the risk to come back here to give her the chance to leave, and now he waited for his chance to escape again. Outwardly, he seemed to be catatonic, but inwardly, his mind was working on his plans to get out of the Centre. But he could not help but wonder why neither Sydney nor Miss Parker had shown up to at least watch their trophy in his cage.

Saturday night

2 am

"What?" Miss Parker snapped into the phone, glancing at the clock on the nightstand.

"Mhm, Miss Parker, I´m sorry I have to wake you ..."

"What, Broots?" she sounded dangerous to him.

"I´m afraid, mhm, we have a problem......"

"Let me guess. Our Wonder-Boy escaped." she laughted tartly.

"Yeah, mhm, right."

"I´ll be there in 30 minutes." then she hung up and strolled in the bathroom.

Sure, this had to happen. She could have left in two days and now everything began again, argh!

Mr. Raines turned off the speaker through which they had listened to the phone call between Miss Parker and Broots.

"She didn´t sounded very surprised, did she?" he asked, turning to Mr. Parker who nodded.

Miss Parker arrived at the same time at the Centre as Sydney, and they walked down together to Broots' hole, but were intercepted by several sweepers who guided them to the Tower.

"Wait here!" one of them ordered and slipped inside a room. The others stood before the door and watched them with expressionless faces.

"What the hell is this all about?" Parker stepped in front of one but he didn´t move his face.

"I want to speak with my father! Now!" she hissed at him as the other came out of the room and called them in.

It was a large room with a long table and two chairs before it, and several on the other side; in each one sat a person. One being Mr. Parker and next to him they recognized to be Mr. Raines. The others were too much in the dark to see them clearly.

One of the people in the dark stood up and walked toward them as Miss Parker and Sydney seated themselves.

"As you already know, Jarod escaped again tonight." the man in suit and short brown hair began, circling them slowly. "And we´re sure one of you helped him!"

"What?" Miss Parker stood up but was pushed back down by one of the sweepers behind her. Her eyes sparkled dangerously, and she asked, "Daddy, what´s up? How could you believe that I helped him?"

"So you attest that you had nothing to do with his escape nor did you know about it before?" another one asked while her father just stared at her.

"Hell yes."

"And you Mr. Green?"

"Me, too." He just responded.

"Ok, you can go." Then they were pulled out of the room more or less from those sweepers and stood alone in the hallway.

"What the hell is going on here, Sydney?" Miss Parker stormed down the corridor with Sydney trailing after her.

"Maybe they believe one of us actually helped Jarod escape."

"That´s what they said, yes, but how do the think so? Neither one of us was allowed to even see him!"

"Let´s go chat with Broots and ask him what he knows. He was the one who called me."

"Me, too."

As they entred the tech-room, Broots was nowhere in sight and Miss Parker was about to turn and leave, as Broots came in, startled, as he nearly crashed in her.

"Oh, Miss Parker! Sorry, I didn´t meant to ..."

"Yeah, yeah. But tell us what you know what´s happening here." She dragged him to the desk by his arm and made him sit down.

"Mhm," he cleared his throat "all I know is that the security cameras were off and as they looked for Jarod he was gone. ..... again" the computer specialist added.

"And why do they believe we helped him?"

"Your were interrogated, too?"

"Oh yes!"

"They pulled me away from my computer and ..." Broots began but Parker cut him of.

"You can tell it Sydney later. Now we have to find out how Jarod could escape again though I don´t know if we should do this. Our job was to find him and bring him back. Now he should be the Centre´s problem."

Over a week passed and no one had heard from Jarod nor could they find out how he had escaped again. He didn´t even call Sydney or Miss Parker. It was as if he simply disappeared.

Syndey, Broots and Miss Parker were treated like intruders in the Centre, everyone looked strangely at them and no one spoke to them. It was as if they had a sign with "Don´t feed" around their necks.

Miss Parker hadn´t seen her father once during this, and she couldn´t get him on the phone, either.

"How's this for some shit!" Parker hissed as she tried to enter one room with her idendity-card as Sydney walked past.

"I have the same problem. They cut my security clearance to most of the rooms. I´m lucky if I can open the bathroom door."

Broots did not any more luck. The one room they all still had clearance for was the tech-lab where they met.

"Well, has anybody heard anything new?" Parker asked her co-workers. Both shook their heads in unison.

"Ok, it´s already late. You can leave for today and I'll try to find my father and ask him what this all about."

The Centre was already almost empty as Miss Parker had finished her paper-work and walked down the hallway towards her dad´s office. She heard soft footsteps behind her and turned, but couldn´t see anything.

She walked on and turned around again after several steps. There was no one in sight, though she sensed someone's presence. As she neared the elevator and walked around the corner and she pressed herself against the wall, waiting. The air caught in her lungs, the gun in her hand, waiting and listening to silent footsteps coming towards her. She saw a gun come around the corner and grabbed it and pulled it toward her to attack her aggressor with a punch to the face. It was surely a sweeper though she hadn´t seen him before. He fell backwards, onto the ground, she held his gun. He quickly pulled another gun out from his trouser leg and aimed at her, but she was faster hand shot him in the heart. A loud ´bang> and then everything went quiet again.

Parker listened and but couldn´t hear more footsteps coming towards her. She ran into the elevator. Inside, she pushed the basement-button. Before the doors shut completely several bullets drilled into the metal and she sprang backwards, and threw herself onto the floor.

The gun aimed in front of her, she crawled out into the basement and out of the building, hopped in her car and roared trough the Centre parking lot. Her eyes glued to the rearview mirror, she drove home as quickly as possible and on the way her cell-phone rang.

"What?" she picked her phone out of her jacket.

"Miss Parker ...." she heard Sydney's voice say.

"Sydney?"

"Yeah." she could barely hear his feeble voice. "I had ... I had an accident."

"Are you ok? Where are you?" her mind raced.

"I´m ... I´m on the road .... Do you know the place where I had the accident with Jacob? Actually only a few miles away."

"Ok. Wait there. I´ll pick you up." then she hung up and hurried to that place.

Sydney wasn´t hurt badly though the car was just a pile of scrap and so she drove him home instead of a hospital. On the way she called Broots, after Sydney told her it wasn´t a normal accident but an assault. A car followed him and pushed his own from the road. When he lay in the ditch some men looked at him. Because he seemed dead, they left him.

Broots didn´t picked up the phone though she let it ring very long.

"Ok Sydney, I´ll let you out at home. Pack some things together. I´ll track down Broots and pick you up then.

Sydney nodded and climbed out of the car, moaning in pain at his stiff muscles.

"Broots? Debbie?" Miss Parker pushed the door open and realized that it wasn´t locked.

"Miss Parker?" she could hear Debbie´s excited voice from upstairs.

"Hi Honey, is your dad home?" she greeted her warmly.

"Hi! No, he´s still at work, why? I thought he was with you and Dr. Green."

"Mhm, well, I left. Shall we call him, huh?" she pulled out her cell phone and dailed Broots tech-room number.

Nothing. He didn´t picked up. ´Shit, where is he?>

"Is something wrong?" Debbie asked her innocently.

"No, no honey. Everything´s fine. Can you do me a favor. Go up and pack clothes and everything you need for you and your dad and hurry please. We´re gonna go on a short vacation trip." Parker explained and Debbie stared at her. "It´s some sort of surprise." she averted as she realized that Debbie was confused.

"Ok." the little girl nodded and did what she told her while Parker tried again to call Broots on his cell phone.

"Broots." he reported after a while.

"Broots! Where the hell were you?"

"Miss ... Miss Parker? I thought you´re home?" he walked on the side in the supermarkt aisle.

"I´m with Debbie! And now get your butt in the car and meet me at my house. I´ll take Debbie with me. And be very careful. I can´t speak over the phone but you have to take care of yourself." then the line went dead. Broots could just stare at the phone in his hand but quickly put it down, abandoned his cart, and hurried out of the grocery store. How could this woman scare the hell out of him even she was miles away from him?

Parker drove with the girl to her house and qickly packed a few things herself. She hoped Broots wasn´t in trouble. The Centre probably thought that she or Sydney helped Jarod but Broots was in danger, too.

After Broots arrived, she shortly filled him in with what she knew. After packing the car they picked up Sydney and hurried to the airport. Miss Parker gave everyone a fake passport, she quickly made with Broots at her home. Since she found out the truth about the death of her mom, she made herself a few arrangements not to end up like her. She of course had not planned on taking care of Sydney, Broots, and Debbie.