Lake Catherine, Maine: Wednesday evening
*Riiiiiiiiing*
Parker answered her phone, checking the Caller ID, and smirking at the NO SIGNAL message it carried. "Yessss?"
She could hear the smile in Jarod's voice. "So. What are you doing?"
"Hanging out on Ben's porch, studying the leaves, and considering my plans for the next fiscal quarter." Parker leaned back on the porch swing, and set it in motion, dragging the tip of her toe across the porch floorboards. "What are *you* doing?"
"Studying the courtship habits of ducks on the lake. One of the females flips her bill just like you flip your hair."
"Gee, thanks," Parker said dryly. "How's that working for her?"
"Surprisingly well." Jarod sounded extremely cheerful. "Although she has some very fluttery competition. Nothing's decided yet."
"All's fair in love and waterfowl." Parker made a face, remembering a long-ago article on ducks that she'd read. "At any rate. Are you a wildlife biologist, or a hunter this week?"
"I could be a limnologist."
"You could. You could also be a social anthropologist with a weird thing for ducks, too. Hmmmm. I'll take door number three, Alex."
"Who's Alex?" Jarod's voice came over her shoulder as well as through her phone, and Parker snapped her cell shut before turning her head over her shoulder to look at him, smirking.
"My next ex-boyfriend. Maybe." She grinned. "Long time no see, Jarod."
"Seven months." He circled the porch swing to perch on the railing of the porch, and gave her a crooked smile. "Don't you already have enough ex-boyfriends?"
"I'm collecting them all," Parker told him solemnly. "If I get a complete set, I get a Maserati from the Association of Evil Bitches of North America. And if I get three Maseratis, I can trade them in for a sparkly tiara!"
"As long as it -- what's the phrase? Keeps you off the streets?" Jarod grinned, and pushed at the swing with one foot. "Any new arrests since the last time I saw you? Or haven't you seen Zero lately?" Parker snorted, then had to stop and think to be sure. Then whap Jarod's ankle when he started laughing at her.
"I did see Zero last month! But there were no arrests. We were in the middle of an adventure in the desert, I could have walked down main street naked and no one would have cared. And all the cops were my friends." She grinned as Jarod blinked away that image, to judge by the look on his face. "Isabel says hi, by the way. She's at UNLV now."
"Not Cornell?" She could see him filing that way in his mental database, somewhere between 'addresses and phone numbers to hack', 'resources' and 'friends.' "I'll have to give her a call. Maybe."
"Maybe," Parker mocked him, then got to her feet. "Ben said he would make cookies for you. Chocolate chip."
"Ooooo."
"You don't deserve them. You never call, you never write--"
"I wrote! You got four postcards from me." Jarod gave her the puppy eyes. "That's more than this time last year. And I've been even busier."
"Mmmmmph. Fine. Cookies and milk. But you have to tell me all about what you've been up to, or I'm keeping them for myself."
That sat in Ben's kitchen and ate half a dozen cookies between them, catching up on what they'd been doing since Jarod and Emily had left in February. They'd caught up with their Dad in May. But there was still no sign of their mother.
"Mom and Dad always split up, one of them keeping Emily, in order to make it more difficult for them to be tracked. They haven't had more than a month together out of each year in over a decade." Jarod poured himself another glass of milk. "The next time they switch custody, he'll tell her about me. Hopefully I'll get to meet her after that."
"Hopefully." Parker broke off a piece of cookie, studying Jarod for signs of distress. Nothing. He'd adapted to the fugitive thing a little too well, really. "Do you even have a last name?"
"Yes."
Parker raised her eyebrows at him. "Aaaand? What is it?"
"Better than Maureen." Jarod chortled as Parker threw a napkin at him, then shook his head. "No. You don't need to know. We never use it, and it's irrelevant." He was quiet for a minute, then said, "The day I can use it to register for a driver's license, I'll tell you what it is."
"Fair enough," Parker said, trying for lightness. "So how many jobs have you had since I saw you?"
"Mmmm... thirteen?"
"God. Good thing you don't use temp agencies to get placed. They'd murder you."
Jarod shrugged, then said, "Better than working one job that I hate." He sent her a hard-edged look. "Or one that puts me in danger. Or makes me sick."
She glanced away. "So did Angelo tell you, or did you hack the information out of the mainframe?"
"Hack." He put his glass of milk down, and took a deep breath. "I would have gotten there if I'd known you were in the clinic. But by the time I'd gotten the info, you were already back home."
"It's fine," Parker said shortly, then relented. "I am fine. For now. I'm being more careful. It won't happen again."
"It better not."
Parker shot Jarod a glare, not wanting to know what that meant. "Zero got a new job. She called me this afternoon, before you got here. Production assistant on SUPERS. She's doing all the dogsbody jobs and having a blast." She smirked. "Getting me pictures of hot actor guys without their shirts on. I hope she works there forever and ever and ever."
"I could do that job."
That might have been a tiny tinge of jealousy there, Parker thought. "You really couldn't."
"I could!"
"You'd never last. You wouldn't be able to stroke actorly egos as well, or put up with being ordered around by six different people, or--"
"Hey, I've pretended to be army sergeants, Navy SEALs, and military pilots. I can take orders," Jarod insisted.
"Orders for fifteen non-fat double-whip lattes extra foam chocolate sprinkles cinnamon splash?" Parker snorted. "Call me when you do that, I wanna see it."
The conversation wandered over Burning Man (Jarod claimed he'd been there. Parker wasn't buying), Xander and Bridge's wedding and relocation to the future ("If I ever get married... oh, forget it, I'm never getting married. But if I were? Elopement. All the way."), Angela's pregnancy and the present Parker had gotten for the baby. Not to mention all the info she'd researched on the subject.
"It's enough to make me fund more birth control measures. And consider suggesting vasectomies to the guys I date."
"Anyone serious who'd be getting that suggestion?" Jarod's voice was as blandly non-committal as ever, and he kept his face mild and curious.
Parker slewed her eyes over at him. "I saw Weiss again in August. Otherwise, no." Jarod's lips tightened, then relaxed. Something about his expression.... "Jarod?" Then she got it, and stared. No. Maybe? "Oh. You have a girlfriend?"
Jarod ducked his head, a blush working its way up his face. "Nita."
Ow.
Parker picked up her glass of milk and drained it in three gulps. "Nita. Hunh. What happened to Jaye?"
"I haven't seen her in over a year." Jarod picked up another cookie, still avoiding Parker's eyes. "It was never intense or serious, you know."
And Nita is. Double ow. "I wondered how much you guys could have in common. But you kept telling her stuff, so.... So. Nita." She took a breath. "How did you two meet? What's she like?"
Twenty minutes later, Parker knew all about Nita, about how they met while he was pretending to be a Park Ranger, her childhood in South America, how they both liked Space Battles (Number 4 best, of course), and the Three Stooges, and about the time they went camping together (God, *they* had camped together, how the hell did he forget that?) she was ready to spork herself in the eye.
"I'm just... It can't last," Jarod finally said, a little subdued. "But it's great right now. I'm hoping we can stay together for a while. I've told her about the Centre. She knows to be careful. Maybe we can make it work."
Right. That would be the last straw. She hadn't wanted to admit to herself that she'd even thought about it in passing, but the flirting, in the e-mails, and he actually came to visit, and...
"I really hope that works out for you," Parker said in a manically chipper voice. "Really. It's so swerval. Awesome. Great." She pushed herself away from the counter, and gave him her biggest, fakest smile.
"Parker?" Jarod asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. Oh, now he caught a clue that maybe he was working her nerves. Fabulous. "I didn't-- Look, I just wanted you to know. This is important to me. You're my best friend--"
"Save it. I have enough best friends. Tell Ben I went out for more milk. Ice cream. Alcohol!" Parker called over her shoulder as she powered out the front door.
[no ic, ooc <3]
Parker answered her phone, checking the Caller ID, and smirking at the NO SIGNAL message it carried. "Yessss?"
She could hear the smile in Jarod's voice. "So. What are you doing?"
"Hanging out on Ben's porch, studying the leaves, and considering my plans for the next fiscal quarter." Parker leaned back on the porch swing, and set it in motion, dragging the tip of her toe across the porch floorboards. "What are *you* doing?"
"Studying the courtship habits of ducks on the lake. One of the females flips her bill just like you flip your hair."
"Gee, thanks," Parker said dryly. "How's that working for her?"
"Surprisingly well." Jarod sounded extremely cheerful. "Although she has some very fluttery competition. Nothing's decided yet."
"All's fair in love and waterfowl." Parker made a face, remembering a long-ago article on ducks that she'd read. "At any rate. Are you a wildlife biologist, or a hunter this week?"
"I could be a limnologist."
"You could. You could also be a social anthropologist with a weird thing for ducks, too. Hmmmm. I'll take door number three, Alex."
"Who's Alex?" Jarod's voice came over her shoulder as well as through her phone, and Parker snapped her cell shut before turning her head over her shoulder to look at him, smirking.
"My next ex-boyfriend. Maybe." She grinned. "Long time no see, Jarod."
"Seven months." He circled the porch swing to perch on the railing of the porch, and gave her a crooked smile. "Don't you already have enough ex-boyfriends?"
"I'm collecting them all," Parker told him solemnly. "If I get a complete set, I get a Maserati from the Association of Evil Bitches of North America. And if I get three Maseratis, I can trade them in for a sparkly tiara!"
"As long as it -- what's the phrase? Keeps you off the streets?" Jarod grinned, and pushed at the swing with one foot. "Any new arrests since the last time I saw you? Or haven't you seen Zero lately?" Parker snorted, then had to stop and think to be sure. Then whap Jarod's ankle when he started laughing at her.
"I did see Zero last month! But there were no arrests. We were in the middle of an adventure in the desert, I could have walked down main street naked and no one would have cared. And all the cops were my friends." She grinned as Jarod blinked away that image, to judge by the look on his face. "Isabel says hi, by the way. She's at UNLV now."
"Not Cornell?" She could see him filing that way in his mental database, somewhere between 'addresses and phone numbers to hack', 'resources' and 'friends.' "I'll have to give her a call. Maybe."
"Maybe," Parker mocked him, then got to her feet. "Ben said he would make cookies for you. Chocolate chip."
"Ooooo."
"You don't deserve them. You never call, you never write--"
"I wrote! You got four postcards from me." Jarod gave her the puppy eyes. "That's more than this time last year. And I've been even busier."
"Mmmmmph. Fine. Cookies and milk. But you have to tell me all about what you've been up to, or I'm keeping them for myself."
That sat in Ben's kitchen and ate half a dozen cookies between them, catching up on what they'd been doing since Jarod and Emily had left in February. They'd caught up with their Dad in May. But there was still no sign of their mother.
"Mom and Dad always split up, one of them keeping Emily, in order to make it more difficult for them to be tracked. They haven't had more than a month together out of each year in over a decade." Jarod poured himself another glass of milk. "The next time they switch custody, he'll tell her about me. Hopefully I'll get to meet her after that."
"Hopefully." Parker broke off a piece of cookie, studying Jarod for signs of distress. Nothing. He'd adapted to the fugitive thing a little too well, really. "Do you even have a last name?"
"Yes."
Parker raised her eyebrows at him. "Aaaand? What is it?"
"Better than Maureen." Jarod chortled as Parker threw a napkin at him, then shook his head. "No. You don't need to know. We never use it, and it's irrelevant." He was quiet for a minute, then said, "The day I can use it to register for a driver's license, I'll tell you what it is."
"Fair enough," Parker said, trying for lightness. "So how many jobs have you had since I saw you?"
"Mmmm... thirteen?"
"God. Good thing you don't use temp agencies to get placed. They'd murder you."
Jarod shrugged, then said, "Better than working one job that I hate." He sent her a hard-edged look. "Or one that puts me in danger. Or makes me sick."
She glanced away. "So did Angelo tell you, or did you hack the information out of the mainframe?"
"Hack." He put his glass of milk down, and took a deep breath. "I would have gotten there if I'd known you were in the clinic. But by the time I'd gotten the info, you were already back home."
"It's fine," Parker said shortly, then relented. "I am fine. For now. I'm being more careful. It won't happen again."
"It better not."
Parker shot Jarod a glare, not wanting to know what that meant. "Zero got a new job. She called me this afternoon, before you got here. Production assistant on SUPERS. She's doing all the dogsbody jobs and having a blast." She smirked. "Getting me pictures of hot actor guys without their shirts on. I hope she works there forever and ever and ever."
"I could do that job."
That might have been a tiny tinge of jealousy there, Parker thought. "You really couldn't."
"I could!"
"You'd never last. You wouldn't be able to stroke actorly egos as well, or put up with being ordered around by six different people, or--"
"Hey, I've pretended to be army sergeants, Navy SEALs, and military pilots. I can take orders," Jarod insisted.
"Orders for fifteen non-fat double-whip lattes extra foam chocolate sprinkles cinnamon splash?" Parker snorted. "Call me when you do that, I wanna see it."
The conversation wandered over Burning Man (Jarod claimed he'd been there. Parker wasn't buying), Xander and Bridge's wedding and relocation to the future ("If I ever get married... oh, forget it, I'm never getting married. But if I were? Elopement. All the way."), Angela's pregnancy and the present Parker had gotten for the baby. Not to mention all the info she'd researched on the subject.
"It's enough to make me fund more birth control measures. And consider suggesting vasectomies to the guys I date."
"Anyone serious who'd be getting that suggestion?" Jarod's voice was as blandly non-committal as ever, and he kept his face mild and curious.
Parker slewed her eyes over at him. "I saw Weiss again in August. Otherwise, no." Jarod's lips tightened, then relaxed. Something about his expression.... "Jarod?" Then she got it, and stared. No. Maybe? "Oh. You have a girlfriend?"
Jarod ducked his head, a blush working its way up his face. "Nita."
Ow.
Parker picked up her glass of milk and drained it in three gulps. "Nita. Hunh. What happened to Jaye?"
"I haven't seen her in over a year." Jarod picked up another cookie, still avoiding Parker's eyes. "It was never intense or serious, you know."
And Nita is. Double ow. "I wondered how much you guys could have in common. But you kept telling her stuff, so.... So. Nita." She took a breath. "How did you two meet? What's she like?"
Twenty minutes later, Parker knew all about Nita, about how they met while he was pretending to be a Park Ranger, her childhood in South America, how they both liked Space Battles (Number 4 best, of course), and the Three Stooges, and about the time they went camping together (God, *they* had camped together, how the hell did he forget that?) she was ready to spork herself in the eye.
"I'm just... It can't last," Jarod finally said, a little subdued. "But it's great right now. I'm hoping we can stay together for a while. I've told her about the Centre. She knows to be careful. Maybe we can make it work."
Right. That would be the last straw. She hadn't wanted to admit to herself that she'd even thought about it in passing, but the flirting, in the e-mails, and he actually came to visit, and...
"I really hope that works out for you," Parker said in a manically chipper voice. "Really. It's so swerval. Awesome. Great." She pushed herself away from the counter, and gave him her biggest, fakest smile.
"Parker?" Jarod asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. Oh, now he caught a clue that maybe he was working her nerves. Fabulous. "I didn't-- Look, I just wanted you to know. This is important to me. You're my best friend--"
"Save it. I have enough best friends. Tell Ben I went out for more milk. Ice cream. Alcohol!" Parker called over her shoulder as she powered out the front door.
[no ic, ooc <3]