She walked down the hallway leading to Miss Parker's office. Her steps were firm and appeared confident. Her straight blonde hair was pulled half-up in a professional looking clip, matching the business attire she wore. As the woman approached Miss Parker's office, all the looks of terror that Miss Parker's name evoked came flooding into her head. Play it cool, Betty. She reminded herself, as she placed her hand on the door handle of the dreaded woman's office. Her stomach did a flip. This was the Miss Parker she was about to meet. The one whose reputation alone could make grown men quiver.

Tightening her grasp on the folder she held in her other arm, Betty let out a ponderous breath and opened the door cautiously. When peering inside the office, however, she didn't see anyone. She stepped inside, noting the dim lighting and colorless appearance of the office. She wasn't really surprised, tough. It seemed to match the theme of the entire cooperation. A closer inspection failed to present anyone. If she was to be honest, she felt a little relieved that she wouldn't have to face the infamous Miss Parker so imminently.

"Hello?" she called out, "anyone home?" When no one answered, she decided to take a little look around, maybe learn a little about this Miss Parker that everyone spoke about wide-eyed. One step closer to the desk was she managed, as the door flew open.

Betty nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Morons!" she heard the woman who had come barging in exclaim. "How the hell could he have gotten away?! I led him directly to the two of you and all you did was let him saunter off like the cocky rat that he is!"

The woman looked angrily at the two men whom had followed her in as she spoke.

She was tall, lean and looked like she could be stunningly beautiful, if she only took that scowl off her face. Betty was certain that this was the Miss Parker she'd been sent to seek out.

An elderly man, one of the men who'd followed Miss Parker in, interrupted her tirade. "Miss Parker, we did not simply stand around making shapes out of the clouds as Jarod casually walked away."

Miss Parker whipped around and opened her mouth, apparently about to spit out another insolent comment at the men who had accompanied her in. She said nothing, though, merely closed her mouth and looked directly at Betty, clearly surprised to see someone in her office.

The feisty beauty straitened up and smoothed down the front of her jacket. "And who might you be?" she then asked haughtily.

Betty swallowed hard. All the time she'd spent preparing for this moment was suddenly forgotten. "I - uh - I'm" she crinkled her forehead as she attempted to answer the simple question that had just been asked. "My name- is- uh - it's Betty. My name's Betty." She stuttered out.

"And? You're here because…?"

Betty stood there awkwardly for a moment, biting her lip, when suddenly she remembered the file she was holding. "Um, I believe this is for you." She stated as she held out the file folder towards an annoyed looking Miss Parker.

She rolled her eyes and stepped toward Betty, snatching the folder out of the scared girl's hand. A slow look, up and down, made Betty feel even more uncomfortable. Miss Parker said nothing, as she opened the folder in her hand, glancing only slightly at its contents.

Betty mentally kicked herself for acting so stupidly. Granted, Miss Parker had surprised her, and was much more intimidating than she ever could have prepared for. Still, she shouldn't have allowed herself to stutter idiotically.

"So you've been assigned to my team." Miss Parker stated conversationally.

Both the older man and the nerdy looking one who seemed to be hiding behind him, looked up, clearly surprised at the statement.

Betty straitened up. "Yes, ma'am." she answered, "They felt that all the paperwork may be slowing down your field work."

Miss Parker nodded. "They who?"

Betty's expression quickly changed from nervous to confused. "Mr. Parker and the other higher ups" she tilted her head to the right, slightly "I thought you'd already been informed."

Miss Parker clenched her jaw, ensuring her facial expression remained hard.

Betty detected that the information had struck her hard and offered, "He probably came by earlier while you were out."

Miss Parker nodded slowly, the last thing she wanted was another incompetent Centre employee getting in her way. However, she knew, deep down, that when it come to Centre business, what she wanted, or didn't want, really didn't matter.

"If that's the case, then why don't we get you some paperwork to start on." Miss Parker smiled mischievously. She was not going to make this easy.

She unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Slipping off her shoes in the foyer, she passed through the sitting room and into the kitchen, where she placed the paper bag of Chinese food on the kitchen counter and began to unload its contents.

Just as she was pulling out a container of general tso's, the bottom corner got stuck on the rim of the bag, sending chicken and vegetables soaring through the kitchen.

"Ugh!" she growled, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Bad day at the office?" a male voice asked from behind.

Parker whipped around. "Jarod! You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry."

"How long have you been here?"

"Not too long, only a few hours."

"Hours?" she narrowed her eyes, "You didn't rearrange all of the furniture again did you?"

He let out a slight chuckle, "No. I'm not crazy enough to do that more than once." He smiled childishly for a moment, reminiscing, before he remembered the spilled Chinese food. "What happened today?"

"Oh," she sighed, remembering her previous outburst, "Well, I got a new assistant today."

"A new assistant?"

"Yeah. Apparently she's 'in' with the 'higher ups', including my father."

Jarod looked up from the spilled Chinese food he was cleaning up off of the floor, "Your father?"

"Yep, apparently, he's the one who gave her the position." She shrugged. "I just find it a little odd that she's in with all the big guys and I've never even heard of her."

"That is kind of peculiar. Did she say why Mr. Parker sent her?"

"Something to do with paperwork distracting me from catching their pretender."

"If only that were true." Jarod broke out a devilish grin and she teasingly slapped his chest as she leaned toward him. He started to pull away, "Seriously though, Parker, should we be worried about this new girl?"

"Betty? I don't know how close she is with my father; she seems kind of innocent to be working for the Centre, to be honest. But I'm still going to keep an eye on her."

"No one is innocent there, Parker." He warned.

She knew just how right he was and she knew that there was more to this girl than met the eye. However, she just didn't get the creepy feeling around this girl that she got when she was in the presence of all the psychopaths she continually crossed paths with in the Centre.

"Just be careful, Parker, please." He pleaded.

It felt really good to have someone that truly cared about her. "I will." Parker smiled sweetly as she leaned over and kissed him.