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They sat atop the stony ruins, silent, thoughtful, staring out intothe ocean. Five minutes, ten, then fifteen ticked by, but Parker remainedquiet, knowing Jarod would talk, in his own time.

He stared out to the horizon, where the tip of the sun would appearat any moment. Already the sky was filling with color, clouds reflectingred, orange, and a hundred colors in between. The shades of red remindedhim of flames, leaping out towards him. Closing his eyes, Jarod forcedthe thought away. He knew the memories would come back to haunt him, againand again, but at that moment he just didn't have the strength to dealwith them. He knew they would never go away, he understood that. All hewanted was to be able to look back on that time without completely breakingdown.

This thought suddenly reminded him that Parker was still next to him,staring out to the ocean as quietly as ever. God, he wanted to tell her,he wanted to tell her so much. But he couldn't do that to her, couldn'tgive her another demon to bear, another reason to hate him...

Inhaling sharply at the thought, he stood abruptly, turned, and quicklyclimbed back down the ruins, shaking Parker from her reverie. Muttering,"What the hell?" she scurried down after him.

He was already in the hill's meadow, past the ruins, going at such abrisk step that she had to break into a light jog just to catch up withhim. "Jarod, what is it? Where are you going?"

"Back to the car." Stupid question. Still, even though his voice wasn'tcold, it'd regained that harsh edge. "I'll wait there until you've finishedwith your little field trip."

With an irritated frown, she finally caught up, stopping him with apull of his arm. "Would you stop?"

"Let go," he demanded, finally turning to her.

"You know, this is getting real old, real fast."

"What are you talking about?"

"This. Your attitude, your character--everything's different. Everythingcould get better, if you would just tell me what's going on--"

"I'm fine," he snapped.

"The hell you are." Enough was enough. "You rant, you rave, you starveyourself, you have unbelievable nightmares—you are not fine. And if youdon't feel like talking, well that's just too damn bad--I've got the carkeys, and neither of us is leaving until this is cleared up."

"You can't stop me from leaving," he insisted, his voice rising.

"Watch me."

"Why are you doing this?!" His voice had reached yelling pitch. "Anhour, a day, a week--nothing will change, I don't care how long you keepme here!"

"I can help you, if you'll just tell me--"

"Tell you what?! About all the people whose realities have been rippedapart by my meddling? How I'm responsible for the loss of innocent lives?What purpose would that serve--it won't take back what happened. All itwill do is cause you more pain. I can't erase the past, but at least Ican protect you!" His last shouted words echoed through the nearby woods.

"Don't hide this from me." Her voice was low, soft, determined. "Whateverhappened, you can't handle it on your own. I'll be fine--it's you thatI'm worried about."

He stared at her, guilty conscience fighting against overwhelmness.And then, finally, in a whisper barely audible, "I just want it to go away..."

Parker held her breath, waiting. His eyes slowly wandered to some pointto the right of her, as his mind moved back to the beginning of it all."I came across the file one night," he said vaguely. "Nathan Crawford...Ididn't recognize the name, so I checked the Centre database, but therewas just that one file on him...from your father's system. He'd pulledsome political strings, gotten Crawford released from prison..."

"Why?"

"Your mother'd befriended a woman, Helena Price--very rich, lots ofpowerful connections. But more importantly, she was divorced with a littlegirl your age, and happier because of it. Helena began to visit her moreand more, and they grew closer--and your mother began to get ideas. Yourfather saw what was happening, and wouldn't allow it. Crawford was an assassin,one of the best--in exchange for being released, Crawford took care ofHelena."

"And my mother..."

"...had been reminded of the power your father had over her. Problemis, Crawford's not the kind of person that you control. Once the job wasdone, he disappeared...After finding out what he'd done to Helena, I finallythought to look at his criminal record, see what he'd been in for."

"Murder?"

"Child molestation," he whispered. "Three counts. I realized Crawfordwas probably still out there, so I did a nationwide search, tracked himdown to Los Angeles, his newest residence."

"Oh, god..." Her mind tried to grasp it all, and as she realized thatDaddy had knowingly freed a child molester, she felt physically ill. Shegulped uneasily, but knew that she had to know the rest. "And then?"

"And then," he replied grimly, "I caught him."
 
 

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Part 6