Chapter Text
Disclaimer: "The Pretender" and its characters do not belong to me they belong to TNT and NBC and are being used without permission. Please don't sue because I have no money.
Thinking.
Jarod
By: 24
Sitting outside staring at the serene water on the lake as the moon reflected off it he started to think about the chase, Miss Parker, the rest of the pursuit team and other things. He remembered when he had helped Broots when Damon had almost taken him to use as a shield. Damon thought that he didn't have it in him to shoot and kill him, but he did. Only because Broots had a daughter to take care of. Debbie's mother didn't care about her and Broots was the only parent that did. He wondered if his parents cared about him as much Broots cared about his own daughter. He was devastated about killing another human being, but it was an either or thing. Either he let Damon take Broots and let him kill Broots, or he kill Damon and let Broots live to go to his daughter. The little girl wouldn't have anyone to turn to if Broots had died that day. Damon was a cold-blooded killer and even said that he didn't care if Broots had a child to care for. Damon befriended him when he was still a prisoner of the Centre and then killed the mild mannered janitor when he handed over the disk to him. He had told Broots that time that he hoped that he had it in him to be a good father, but never knew if he would be a good dad. He remembered taking care of baby Michael when he was thrown into the dumpster. That was not the same thing as taking care of his child, but it was close.
When Miss Parker and him were on the Island he thought that he was close in getting through to her, but then when he tried to reach out to her in the limo she pulled away. They had almost kissed when they were in front of Ocee's fireplace, but Ocee came in at the wrong time. He wondered what their second kiss would have been like. He loved her, but he knew that she was to closed off to accept it. He had loved her ever since he had seen her though the glass wall separating them. He loved her when she was mad at him and yelled at him. He didn't think there was anything that she would do to make him stop loving her.
Sydney was his father in the true sense of the word. He did have his biological father, but he had only seen him a couple of times and not enough to build a relationship on. He loved Sydney as his father, but knew that Sydney did not love him. He still remembered the hurt he had experienced when he had thrown away his Father's Day Card. He was also hurt when he asked Sydney over the phone if he ever thought about being his father and the answer was that was never an option, he thanked him for his honesty, hung up the phone and walked away. He remembered Sydney telling his true son that there was more than being a father; a father was there for the little things for tying a tie and other things. He remembered when Sydney had taught him how to tie a tie when he was going to meet his parents.
He also thought about the young clone who now chose to call himself Jeremy. He wondered how he was handling the pressure of being an exact duplicate of him. He was glad that he had gotten Jeremy out of the Centre when he was still a child because then he could fully experience the world. He wished that someone would of done that with him, but it never did. He just hoped with whatever Jeremy experienced inside the Centre wasn't too bad.
He wondered what the scrolls said about the prophecies within them. Where they real or not? What would they have said in them? Was his destiny in the scrolls? He would never find out now that Mr. Parker parachuted out of the plane with them. He wished that he could have read them to know what they had said.
And finally the chase. The game of I run, you chase. Sometimes he got tired of the game, but he knew that he couldn't quit because that might cause trouble for Miss Parker and her team. Sometimes he got tired of going from town to town from pretend to pretend. Never knowing who he truly was. He slipped into so many pretends he didn't know who Jarod was. They had him pretending ever since he was taken to the Centre and it was hard to shed. The only thing that he liked was his freedom and to do that he had to be on the move. He still was amazed at being on the outside day after day instead of being locked up underground. He loved looking at the sunrise, sunset, the moon and stars. He wouldn't trade this for the world. And there were the new experiences that he had found through his journeys.
He took one last look at the lake, looked up at the stars, got up and walked towards the house.
The End.