It late one night when Jarod got this idea from a book he picked up for Miss Parker. He threw his things in the car and drove to Blue Cove. He arrived in the early morning hours. He slipped in her house as he normal did from time to time. He walked over to her bed and watched the sleeping form. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a piece of cloth soaked with chloroform. He placed it over her mouth. Parker fought a few minutes before falling in a deep sleep. Jarod put her over his shoulder and carried her out to the car. He started the engine and took off again. He hoped to put many miles between them and Blue Cove before she woke.
He watched her a she began to move. "It won't be long." He said to himself.
Parker could feel the warm sun hitting her body when her eyes popped opened. She let out a moan. She quickly raised up as she watched the trees move by.
"What in the hell?"
"Good morning, Miss Parker."
"Jarod?" Her head turned sharp at the sound of the Pretender's voice. She stared at him a few minutes. "How did...better yet...where are we and why am I in the car with you?" She snapped.
"Not a morning person, are we?"
"Cut the crap. Tell me what is going on." She grabbed the door handle but he had it locked.
"We are going on a road trip." He smiled.
"A what?" She tried to unlock the door but Jarod must have had it child proofed.
"A road trip. Oh don't tell me you haven't been on one before."
She groaned. "I'm in hell."
"No you aren't."
After giving up on getting out of the car, she reached over and pinched him.
"Ow. What did you do that for?"
"To see if I was dreaming!" She shouted.
"You dream of me often?" His eye brow raised slightly.
"Hell no!" She yelled back as she leaned back in the seat.
"It's okay if you do." He smiled a sly grin.
She hit him again. "Why are we taking a road trip?"
"Because I never got to take one before. I had a friend that promised me that we would go on one but I haven't heard from her in while."
"Her?"
"Yeah. A cute red head." He grinned from ear to ear of just the thought of Zoe. "Beside I was in this book store the other and picked a little something up for you when I got this idea."
"A gift for me. You shouldn't have." She smirked.
"It wasn't much really."
"Are you going to tell me what it is?"
"Here." He handed her a small book with a pink cover.
"The Bad Girl's Guide to the Open Road?"
"Yeah. I figured you need to get away. You look like you are under some stress."
"The only stress in my life is you." She shot back.
"Not really."
"And what is that suppose to mean?"
"Nothing."
"No, offense but the book does say it's for girls."
"Well, since either of us has any friends I guess I will have to do."
She gave him a go to hell look as she flipped through the pages and stopped at the Yo-yo game. "Now this sounds interesting." She had a smile on her face that ran from one ear to the other.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"On page 33 you will find a Bad girl's tool kit. I hope you don't mind but I packed a few things I thought you might need."
She quickly turned to page 33. "Duct tape. Jump rope. Condoms. Jarod, you naughty boy. What did you have in mind?" She laughed.
"It's not what you think!"
She watched him squirm. "Can we stop somewhere? I need to go to the bathroom and I'm not ready to pee on the side of the road!" She added.
"Sure. If you promise not to run."
"I won't. Besides you were right, is nice to get away from that old dreary building."
They drove to the next exit. Jarod filled the car up with gas while Parker found the restroom. It was long until they hit the road again.
Parker settled down in the passenger seat again. She opened a bag of peanuts. "Would you like some?" She handed the bag to him as she went through the music tapes he had laying around everywhere.
"Maybe later."
She read the tapes off as she picked them up. "Sheryl Crow, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Madonna, Willie Nelson. You sure do have a section of music here."
"I just picked up what the book said were good road tunes." His eyes focused on the open highway.
"Led Zeppelin. I don't see them in the book." She wonder why he would be listening to something that hard.
"I just like them." He commented.
"Oh, I see." She turned back to the book and flipped some more pages.
"There is something you can do for me?" He turned his focus to her.
"What?"
He handed her his phone.
"You want me to call work?"
"Yeah. I don't want them to find us."
"Where are we headed anyway?"
"Where would you like to go?"
"I don't know." She flipped through the book. "What kind mood are you in?"
He looked over at her. "What?"
"It says on page 39 that if you are feeling trapped go to Freedom, California. How are you feeling?"
"I feel like heading south. What does it say about Florida?"
"If you are feeling sick head to Doctor Phillips, Florida." She smirked.
"Okay what else?"
"There's a directory in the back. Let me see what I can find." She turned to the back of the book and started calling out places.
"Hey go back one."
"What?"
"The one after the Native American Hoop Dance."
"Nudes-A-Poppin Show."
"Yeah! When is it?" He grinned.
"You missed it." She keep on reading.
"Tell me when it was. I might need to remember that date."
"It is the 3rd Sunday in July and August. Happy!"
"Thanks."
"There is lot to do in Texas."
"Like what?"
"Well there is the Cadillac Ranch, Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Cockroach Hall of Fame, and the World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup."
"Hey...."
"No! I'm not going where there is rattlesnakes."
"How about cockroaches?"
"No. You have put me through that already."
"Oh...I forgot. Time flies when you are having fun." He joked.
She threw the book at him.
"Ow. Just make your call."
She dialed the number.
"This is Sydney."
"Sydney...."
"Miss Parker, where are you? Your father has been asking about you. Broots and I have been worried."
"And my father?"
"He wants to know where you are."
"He hasn't been worried."
"I'm sure he is."
"Syd, listen I will be gone a while. Something has come up."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I had to visit an old friend."
"When will we expect you."
"I'm not sure. I will let you know." She hung up the phone.
******
Broots stood next to Sydney. "What did she say?"
"She had to visit a friend."
"I don't believe it."
"I don't either."
"No. Miss Parker has a friend?" Broots shook his head and walked off.
******
"Okay, it's done." She handed the phone back to it's rightful owner.
As he took the phone, "Parker, I'm sure he's worried." He glanced up at her.
"Yeah." She turned her head and stared out the window.
The silence went from minutes to an hour.
"Hey, what do you say we play a game?"
"I'm not in the mood."
"Come on. There's the license plate game, 20 questions, or we could just talk."
"Maybe later."
Jarod would glance over at her every once in awhile to make sure she was okay. Finally, he couldn't take the silence any longer.
"South Carolina."
"What?"
"South Carolina." He pointed to the car in front of them.
"I said..."
"Come on, Parker, don't ruin our road trip."
She crossed her arms at her chest, took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Georgia."
"Uh. Where?"
"The trucker in front of us."
"Oh."
They played that game for a while then decided to move onto something else.
"I know, we could talk about our first and worst." Parker looked over at him, hoping to hear that his time with Nia wasn't that good. But then again, it was his first and probably only time so she thought.
"Our first and worst?"
"Yeah, Jarod. Your first love, first kiss, first time making love and the worst of those things." She grinned over at him.
"Well you were my first kiss."
"I know that."
"And first love."
"What?" She laughed.
"You heard me."
"Come on, Jarod. Be serious."
"I am."
"Okay, this may not have been a good idea." She whispered.
"No. You wanted to play unless you are going to be jealous."
"Me? Jealous? No. Never."
Jarod smiled. "Okay Parker, how was your first time?"
"My first time....." She placed her hand over her mouth. "It's been so long ago I can't remember my first time."
"Parker, everybody remembers their first time."
"Okay. He was nice looking boy. We had to be 16 or 17. It was nice." She beamed. She could see Jarod watching her through the corner of her eyes. "Your turn."
"My turn? That's it."
She rolled the window down a little. "It's getting hot in here." She fanned her face.
"All right. My first time was with Nia. We were looking for this man. His plane went down on the mountain and began our search when it got late. We had to spend the night out in the cool air when we found a barn to sleep in."
"Get on with it!" She snapped.
"Well...we made love. It was nice."
"That's it."
"Oh, excuse me 'Miss I was 16 and it was nice'." He teased.
"Okay but I bet she was the only one you had."
"No. Actually, there was this FBI agent and Zoe."
"Please. Like I'm suppose to believe you and an FBI agent."
"It's true. Believe what you want. I don't care." He kept on driving. "It's getting late. We need stop somewhere and get some rest."
"Whatever you want to do."
******
They stopped at some motel at the side of the road. "I'll get us a room." Parker stayed in the car while Jarod went and came out.
"It's over there. Room 221."
They got settled in. "I have dibs on the shower." Parker ran toward the bathroom.
"Ladies first."
"Why are you being so nice?"
"I thought I would go get us some clothes."
Parker eyed him as he left. "I'll be back." The door shut.
When Jarod returned he found Parker coming out of the shower with a towel around her. Her wet hair hung down her back dripping small amounts of water which rolled down her bare shoulder to her back.
"You're back." She smiled.
"I can wait outside while you dress." He turned quickly.
"Jarod, you can have the shower. I'll get dress in here."
He turned back around and laid a bag of clothes on the bed. "Okay." He went in the bathroom. He returned after his shower. He opened the door and saw her laying on the bed watching TV. She glanced up and saw his bare chest then a white towel around his waist. She stared for a few minutes.
"I forgot my clothes. They were in the bag with yours."
"I know."
"Mmm."
"I saw them in there when I got mine out."
"Oh." He grabbed the clothes and returned to the bathroom. "What are you watching?" He stepped around the corner with a jeans on but no shirt.
"Mmm." She couldn't help but watch what was standing in front of her instead of the noise that he was talking about.
"The TV. What's on?"
"Oh. Nothing really. I'm hungry. What do you say we get something to eat?"
"Good idea." Jarod slipped the shirt on and they headed out before either of them acted on what was going on in their minds.
******
An hour later, they returned to the little room they were staying in.
"I'm tried. Let's get some rest." Jarod informed her.
"Fine with me." Parker crawled into one bed and left the other one for Jarod.
Jarod laid there a few minutes staring up at the ceiling. "Parker?"
"Mmm."
"Nothing. Sleep tight."
She curled up in the blanket and watched him. "Jarod."
"Yeah."
"I can't seem to sleep."
"Me either. Want to watch TV."
"Sure."
Jarod grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Parker took hold of the guide that was sitting next to the bed. As he flipped through the channels, Parker called out was on. After a going through them three times, Jarod turned it off. "We could finish our conversation."
"What was that?"
"We talked about our first. Who was your worst?"
"Maybe we should move onto something else."
"Scared!"
"No. I just don't want to bore you."
"Come on. We can't stop there. Who was your worst?"
"Okay, he was brought in from Raines and I didn't know it. We had known each other a while back. He was also married."
"Parker!"
"I know. I'm going to hell. How do you know that I'm not going already?"
"I was going to say how could you. He had a family."
"He brought it on."
"Oh really."
"Well, he shouldn't tell me something that I know is true."
"And what was that?"
"He excused me of not being able to go that far that many times."
"Uh?"
"Orgasm Jarod. Have you ever reached that point?"
"I'm not sure."
"If you don't know then you probably haven't. Anyway, he was the worst. I lied to him and told him he was great. I got him in the end."
"I'm sure you did."
"Your turn."
"I'm not sure if I had a worst time."
"Come on Jarod. Oh I forgot. You have only had three people."
"I can't help it if I'm not as experienced as you. I was trapped in the Centre all my life."
"To tell you the truth. I wish I wasn't."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. All I wanted was to feel loved." A tear fell down her face. She turned toward Jarod. "I'm sleepy now. I think I can go to sleep. Do you mind if we finish this later."
"Sure. I'm ready for bed too. Sleep tight." Jarod turned the light off as Parker rolled over.
******