"You know Ms. Parker, people really don't like to hear "what?" when the phone is picked up." It was her pretender! When she had just missed him this time she was slightly afraid that would be the last time she saw him now that she knows he can totally disappear if he wants. But he really was back and now calling her, her pretender really was back. Wait she thought, the Centre's pretender, yea that is right the Centre's pretender. "Hello… Ms. Parker?"

"Well that is too bad, what would you rather I answer, why hello there Jarod how are you this evening?"

"That might be nice, imagine a completely pleasant conversation."

"Most of our conversations are generally present. I mean, not the ones when you are teasing me, but the ones after I have missed you or have just found out some tragic piece of information about my family."

"True. But what if the conversation didn't have to be that way. I always call to help you, but might it never branch out from there. Instead of me just calling to make sure you are alright, which you hardly ever are, or to taunt you, what if we could just talk?"

"There you go again with the 'what ifs!' We already covered them and they can't happen.

"Really? Even though things have changed this dramatically since then, well I am sorry to hear that. Have a nice life Ms. Parker."

Jarod was about to hang up when he heard, "Wait no Jarod!"

"What?" Jarod said with little kindness in his voice.

"You are going to disappear again aren't you?" Ms. Parker responded utterly terrified. Why she quickly thought to herself. I can get out now with Daddy and Raines gone, I don't need Jarod. But wait, yes I do, just not to save me from the Centre, just to save me from…my life. This thought immediately scared her beyond belief. All she knew was that she could not lose Jarod, but she could also not admit this to him.

After a brief pause on his end as well he responded, "From the Centre I was planning to." He couldn't help but think along the same lines that she had been. She doesn't need him to be free from the Centre anymore and this will have been the 3rd time he asked her for "something more" and believe me, he thought, it will be the last, so her wanting him definitely wasn't why she did not want to see him go. He is the prize, she wants to win and be commended, yea that must be it.

She interrupted his thoughts with, "Me too then, you were going to disappear and leave me here behind again weren't you?"

"Leave you behind! What the hell do you mean? You were never locked up, you were never forced to do things! You had a life, you left me behind all those years ago!"

"You think I was free, well you are damn wrong. And you think I wanted to leave you behind. Even though I didn't want to, I always saw your anguish, your pain. It killed me to leave you, my only true, honest friend!"

This made him stop and think for a moment. She obviously cared, but if so why did she keep pushing him away, he understood before and even was able to forgive her for it, but not now. He had to continue what had become a screaming match to learn more. "Then why did you?"

"Jarod, you know I had no choice, I was a slave just like you!"

"NO! Not like me, you got to live, to experience, I got to be experimented upon. And now these last years you have been trying to bring me back to this place that supposedly enslaved you too. Why then? Have you no heart?"

"No! I do have a heart, that is the point! I have to get out of there so I can live and breathe!"

"I am just your ticket?" he responded furiously.

"Well you used to be, although all the times I thought about it I never actually imagined returning you. I don't honestly think I could have done it."

With that the screaming stopped. Jarod continued the conversation, now in a much calmer tone, "Well that makes me feel much better."

"But that all doesn't matter now, you are going to leave me behind again," she said very sadly.

"I still think you have no reason to be mad at me for leaving you what you call behind. You don't need me anymore, you can leave the Centre now, your beloved Daddy is dead, as is Raines. There is nothing holding you there anymore, Lyle could not do that."

"But what else would I have Jarod. The Centre is all I have known, almost everyone I have ever…cared about, anyone who has ever cared about me is gone. And now you are going to leave me."

"What does that matter though. You always treat me as if I mean nothing to you. All those times I have…been there… you knew I…was there. You always brushed me off, even earlier in this conversation if I remember correctly. I just don't understand what you want from me Parker!"

"Jarod I don't even know that. I just want…I just need…someone…okay damnit Jarod I need you! Are you happy now you jerk, I need you!"

"You are insane, now you need me, what about before?"

"Have you met me, man you are supposed to be smart. You think I can just admit something like that!"

"So what now Ms. Parker?"

"I don't know Jarod, I just don't know."

"I do." With that simple response he hung up. Her tears that had been streaming down her face for the second half of the conversation were beginning to come more forcefully when she heard a knock on the door….

This knock at the door startled her, but really she knew who it had to be. She approached her front door and pulled her gun off the table near the door on her way. When she opened the door she saw him, saw him standing there in front of her still with the long hair that she had to admit she liked, in his normal leather jacket. He saw the gun in her hand but also saw that she could not bring herself to point it at him. They just stood there for what seemed like forever starring at each other completely entrapped looking at each other. Finally, he walked up to her and wiped away the tears flowing from her eyes. This action startled her and she brushed him off and then turned and retreated into the house. She made no gesture to close the door or lock him out, rather left the door ajar for him…an invitation. He walked through and shut the door gently then proceeded to her living room where he saw her disappear into. He stood in the entryway into the room just looking at her sitting on the couch. She was still clutching her gun. Although they both knew it was not a threat or would be used, he still understood the security and sense of control the weapon gave her.

"So are you going to say anything?" he asked her quietly.

"Well I wasn't really expecting this or for you to be this close. As a matter of fact what were you doing outside of my house?"

He put his head down. He simply could not look at her while he admitted this. "I just wanted to see you one more time before I left."

"So you really were going to leave me here all alone."

"You never really gave me a choice!"

"Look, you know I need you. Like I said on the Island in front of the fire, 'you are the person that I have been trained to distrust, to hate yet you are always there at the most difficult times in my life." He noticed she messed up the quote a bit, but was not going to bring that up at a moment like this. He got the point, but still needed clarification.

"So you want me to stay here, revolve my life around you so that I can help you when you need it but have you push me away, chase me, and more or less fight me for most of the time?"

"No." She responded simply standing up. "I want you to be here with me. Jarod, I thought I was going to lose you forever tonight and it made me realize something. You are the only person in my life right now that…" she had to pause for a moment to think about what to say next, "deeply means something to me, that has been there for me, honestly Jarod, that is actually close to me."

He cut her off, "so now that I am what is left you want me!"

"No, no Jarod." She started crying harder now, "look you must know how hard this is for me. Please don't leave me. It is not that you are the only one left that had me stop you, it is that now that you are the only one left and I thought I was going to loose you, I realized that I love you, I always have, and that loosing you would be the worst loss since my mother. When I thought I lost you five years ago, a deep part of me died, and now that you have come back…I just can't do that again. You left me because I didn't admit how much you meant to me. Until now I wanted to blame you, but now I see it was my fault. Please don't go, I need you, I love you, and I hope you feel the same?" She whispered with the last amount of strength she could muster. This was it, she was either about to live or die based on his response. She couldn't breathe.

He walked towards her and only stopped when they were less than a foot apart. I have always cared…always loved you, you must have known that." With that he closed the remaining distance between them and kissed her lovingly, softly yet passionately. When they separated a few moments later he just rapped his arms around her and stood there with her in his arms. They both could feel how they just fit together. They were two halves that were clearly supposed to be this way, like when one hugs a loving parent or that perfect someone; only a person one has a deep, deep connection to. He gently kissed the top of her head then separated them so he could look at her. Her face seemed like its old self. She no longer wanted to be crying, rather she wanted to be happy yet her strong self. But just then a thought occurred to her, what if he is only with me out of pity for poor pathetic Parker…or worse to use her. She pulled away from him.

He could tell something was on her mind, "what is wrong Parker," he said with a very worried tone.

Promise me first that you have not just said and done that because you pity me, because if that is the case go away. I did not say those things to get your pity, I said them because you needed to hear how I actually felt, and it was one of the hardest moments of my life.

"No! How could you think that? When I have always been here for you, always cared, always helped, and then on the Island tried to ask you to choose a different path for the two of us?"

"Are you just with me right now then saying this stuff to protect yourself, so that I don't call sweepers, like you could have just said those things in the limo to free yourself?" she took a few steps back from him as she said this.

This hurt him deeply. "Do you really think that I would do that, that I could do that?"

"You are a Pretender, you can do anything you want," with a smart-ass look about her.

With that last comment he just walked right up to her and kissed her deeply. He ran her fingers through her hair than rapped his arms around her back. When he finally released her he looked into her eyes and said, "Not even I am that good."

With that comment she smiled and felt truly happy for the first time in a long time. He was here with her at last. She had always known he was supposed to be, she could just never let him because of the circumstances. She was so relieved that she no longer had to push him away and that he was still there, ready to love her. Meanwhile, he could not help but feel content with his attachment to her. Nothing with Ms. Parker would be easy he knew, but now that he knew she loved him too, he would try forever to keep it that way.

Note to Readers: Hi guys! I hope you are enjoying the story so far. Due to a vacation I will unfortunately not be able to update this story again for about 3 weeks. I didn't want you all to think I abandoned you, that is if you do want more of the story? I will think about the story on my vacation and will have a great update when I get back.