Things will never change for us

Chapter 1: Back to normal

She sat on the settle by the window, looking out of the window. It was raining. Her eyes were following the raindrops on the window pane and she was drowned in thoughts so that it took her a few seconds to recognize that the phone was ringing. She took it to her ear and spoke low: 'What?'

'Miss Parker, you have to come to The Centre! I think I found Jarod.', said a very excited Broots.

'I'll be there.' she said and hung up. She let the phone rest on her chin and looked out of the window again. Now everything was really back to normal. A few weeks ago it seemed like the world was changing but now Miss Parker was back were she started. She was spending her time, waiting for a sign from Jarod just to chase him to nowhere and she asked herself if this was really everything she could expect from her life. But that was a question, which was not going to be answered now.

She was rising from the settle, took her jacket and went to the Centre.

xXx

Sydney was sitting on his chair and watched Broots walking around the room. 'Broots, calm down. I'm sure she will be here in a second.'

'It's so like her! When we're waiting any longer, he could be gone.', Broots said.

'Calm down, Broots. I'm here.' Miss Parker came into the office.

'Finally!' He gave her a newspaper. Jarod was on the picture on the first page, carrying a child.

'Where is that?', was everything she asked.

'Pennsylvania.', he said proud of himself but she knew how to get him down to earth again and said 'You get the newspaper from Pennsylvania?'

Broots was just answering: 'No, I was with Debbie in Pennsylvania for the weekend and brought it as a souvenire.'

'Since when are you back from Pennsylvania?', she asked without looking at him.

'We were back yesterday.'

'Yesterday? So you own that newspaper article for more than 24 hours and only now you realized that Jarod is on the first page?!'

Broots was ashamed, 'Yes...'

Sydney had to smile a bit.

'What makes you think that he's still there?', she wanted to know, 'For me it looks like he is finished with his mission.'

'We don't know if THAT was his mission. Maybe that was just part of another plan. At least it's a trail, right?'

'Book us a flight to Pennsylvania.', she said, threw the newspaper back on the table and went out. Broots rolled his eyes and said ironically 'Thank god, everything's back to normal.' He took the telephone and booked a Centre jet to Pennsylvania.

xXx

One hour later the 3 of them were on the flight. Miss Parker looked out of the window. Broots was talking about a woman, he met and she was just annoyed by his story. She rolled her eyes and said 'Broots, go ask the pilot when we will arrive in Pennsylvania.'

He hated to move while flying but he knew that she wouldn't accept a no and so, he just did what she said.

'Are you alright?', Sydney asked her when Broots was gone.

'Why?', she asked back.

'You appear to be very stressed out.'

She answered sarcastically 'Oh really?! Why would I be stressed out when we're on a flight to nowhere to catch Jarod, who is probably gone since hours!'

'Are you sure that's everything?'

'I'm not going to have that kind of conversation with you. I know that my father jumped out of a plane and is gone since then but I'm fine!'

'Then what is your mood about?'

'Nothing.', she said while thoughtful watching out of the window.

'What happened between you and Jarod on that island?'

She turned her head towards him with angry eyes 'Nothing.'

He said nothing but he now knew that this was the reason why she was so angry and stressed out for the last few weeks.

Then Broots came back and said that they would land in about 3 minutes and sat down.

When they arrived in Pennsylvania, they went to the fire department, where Jarod used to work. They asked for him and one of the firemen said that Jarod was gone since 3 hours.

'Did he say where he was going?, Parker asked.

'No, he didn't.'

'Of course not...', she said to herself.

'What did you say?, the man asked.

'Nothing. Can you show us where Jarod used to live while he was here?'

He was taking them to the small room above the fire department, where Jarod was spending the night.

Parker said 'Thank you.' and the man left them alone. She took the red notebook from the bed and skimmed through it. It was filled with newspaper articles like always but at the end of the notebook Jarod left a note. 'Sorry, you missed me. J.' was written in Jarod's hand writing. She rolled her eyes and showed it to Sydney: 'I knew it.'

'I'm sorry, Miss Parker.', Sydney answered.

'No, you're not.', she said while leaving this place. Sydney and Broots followed her back to the plane and they went back to Blue Cove.

xXx

It was late when Miss Parker arrived at her house. She took a glass of scotch and sat down on the settle by the window again, while she was thinking about why she even stood up from it earlier.

The phone rang and she answered it with a lifeless 'What?'.

'You missed me in Pennsylvania.'

She smiled and said 'Jarod.'

'Looks like everything's back to normal.'

'If someone gave me 1$ everytime I heard that in the last few weeks, I would be able to buy me a bus ticket to hell knows where.'

'So you don't enjoy hunting me?', he said ironically.

'I do - as much as you enjoy running away from me.'

'What are you going to do?'

'Waiting for another trail of where you are at the moment and trying to accept that things will never change for me.'

'Never is a long time, Miss Parker.'

'Maybe too long...'

'What's about Lyle?'

'I don't know where he is and I don't even wanna know.'

'Please be careful, Miss Parker. You know what Raines said...'

'Yes, I know. The question is why you know what Raines said.'

'I know everything. I'm a pretender, remember?', he was smiling.

She smiled too and said: 'If you don't want me to die, you just have to hide from Lyle very well.'

'I'm really serious about that. You know what Raines is capable of.'

'Don't worry, I'm not going to die at his hands.'

Then there was silence for a while. Both of them had so many things on their mind they wanted to say but they couldn't because it just wasn't the time for it.

Finally she said: 'Where are you going?'

'You don't expect me to do your work, right? Catch me if you can.', he said with a soft voice and hung up the phone then.

She was staring at the telephone and smiled a bit: 'I'll do my best...'

xXx

So, this was chapter 1. Tell me what you think and I'll try hard to upload soon :)