AUTHOR’S NOTE: I had a hankering for mush so I decided to write thisstory. It takes place before the last season finale. This is for all youshippers out there. No real plot, just romance, and mush, and "aw shucks"kind of stuff. I’ll leave some shipper warning space for you non-shippers.
"Truce"
by Rachel
Miss Parker parked her car across the apartment building. She hesitatedgetting out into the frigid air. She checked the address again that she‘accidentally’ found in Lyle’s desk. With the address was a newspaper clippingwith a picture of a man circled in the background. The circled face lookeda lot like Jarod, but it was too blurry to be sure. This whole thing probablyhas nothing to do with Jarod, but if it has to with Lyle, it’s worth exposing.Her enthusiasm in catching Jarod has waned. It’s three days before Christmasand she’s following a lead to a no-name town in the middle of nowhere inthe dead of winter. And to make things worse, she was alone. Lonely mightbe a better word. Her father took her little brother to Europe for theholidays, Broots and Debbie are with his family, Sydney went to visit Michelleand Nicolas, and Lyle is probably having Chinese food somewhere. If shedidn’t find Jarod, she didn’t care. Might as well spend Christmas withtotal strangers. ‘It’s not a bad little town,’ she remembered when shepassed through. Christmas decorations lined the streets and the store frontwindows were flashing with Season’s Greetings. People scurried about buyinglast minute gifts, greeting each other like they’ve all been friends forever.She quit feeling sorry for herself and daydreamed of getting lost in thiswonderful atmosphere--being apart yet a part of the crowd, shaking handsand meeting caring people who would accept her and welcome her. She shookherself out of it and stepped out of the car. She wrapped her coat tighteraround her to subdue the cold air that assaulted her and walked towardthe building.
As Miss Parker neared the door, a man walking by tipped his hat andopened the door for her. Another time she would have glared at him forassuming she was a lady who couldn’t open her own door. But today, shesmiled at him warmly and uttered a sincere thank you. She climbed the smallset of stairs and looked for the apartment number, still unsure why shewas doing this or why she would trust anything that has to do with Lyle.Maybe she just needed to get away from the Centre.
Already knowing she wouldn’t find Jarod, she picked the lock and entered.She looked around and shook her head. The place was empty--not a scrapor trace of Jarod or anyone who lived there. She turned to leave and stoppedabruptly when she heard ‘click, click’ coming from the kitchen. Beforeshe could react, an explosion sent her down to the floor. The smoke andflames tried to engulf the place like an angry dragon. She crawled towardthe door and tried to open it but the knob wouldn’t turn. She slid downto the ground, her world spinning out of control. She banged on the doorand tried to yell, "help me," but it just came out a muffled whimper.
The firefighters arrived in minutes to the 911 call. Two of the fightersentered the building and began to search for the origin of the fire. Tenantspiled out coughing and crying, but were all fine. One of the men headedtoward the end apartment and the other checked the rest, both fightingthe thick smoke that blanketed the air. Tom felt and listened on the doorand thought he heard a slight tap on it from the inside. He broke the knoband slowly but urgently tried to open the door. Miss Parker scooted outof the way and Tom immediately kneeled in front of her, giving her emergencyoxygen and helping her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her waistand kept the oxygen on her face as he practically carried her out of thebuilding, giving the other firefighter a nod as they passed him in thehall.
Miss Parker took the mask from her mouth and breathe in the air. "I’mfine. Thank you." Tom ushered her to the fire truck and wrapped a blanketaround her for warmth.
"Are you sure you’re alright?" Tom asked, noticing the sadness in thewoman.
"Yes," Miss Parker responded, her eyes filling with tears. Tom returnedto his duty and left Miss Parker alone. Now she felt lonelier than ever,even in the midst of the crowd. Someone offered her coffee, but she refused.She walked over to her car and sat behind the wheel. She stared out thewindow and let herself be hypnotized by the blinking Christmas lights thathas become blurry by her tears.
The firefighters contained the fire, puzzled by the little damage theexplosion created, as if someone deliberately caused a fire to happen onlyin the one apartment, but made sure there were plenty of smoke for effect.Tom patted each man on the shoulder and praised him. "Good job, Bill. Goodjob, Jarod."
"Thanks, Tom," Jarod responded. "Where is that woman you took out ofthe empty apartment?"
Tom looked around and spotted Miss Parker sitting in her car. "She’sin her car, over there. Good looking lady, but sad. Why don’t you makesure she’s alright."
Jarod looked at the direction Tom pointed and was shocked to see whoit was. He was dead on his tracks and didn’t know what to do. Thenhe saw the tears that fell down her cheek and his heart decided for him.
"Go on, Jarod, she won’t bite." Tom prodded
Jarod chuckled at that and headed toward Miss Parker.
He put his helmet back on and went around to the passenger side. Hetapped on the window and waited for her to turn her head. She looked athim and he opened the door and sat in the car with her. Miss Parker wipedthe tears from her eyes and tried to compose herself. She was a littleannoyed at the nerve of this guy who was invading her space. "I said Iwas fine," she said, narrowing her eyes at the stranger.
"I’m glad," Jarod spoke as he removed his helmet to reveal his identity.
Miss Parker stared at him speechless for a minute, then she laid herhead heavily on the seat. "Oh, it you," she sighed.
Jarod smiled at her bewilderedly and wondered why she hasn’t reachedfor her gun and handcuffs.
"Not today, Jarod. I’m too tired and angry. That fire was deliberate,wasn’t it?"
"Yes, but it was meant only to scare whoever was in the apartment. Verylittle damage was done. Any ideas who?"
"My loving brother, Lyle," she said sarcastically. "I found the addressin his desk. The jerk set me up knowing I’ll follow any lead on you. WHYDID I FALL FOR THAT?!" she yelled, hitting the steering wheel with herpalms. "I am SO SICK of this, Jarod!" she cried, tears freely flowing fromher eyes. "I’m all alone, it’s almost Christmas, and I walk right intoLyle’s sick joke." She crossed her arms across the steering wheel and buriedher face in them. "I have no one, Jarod, and I hate it."
"You have me," Jarod said lightly, putting his hand on her arm reassuringly.
Miss Parker laughed a sad laugh, turning to look at Jarod with her tear-stainedface. "Why aren’t you with your family?" she asked sincerely.
"I haven’t been able to locate them. They’ve gone underground to keepsafe," Jarod said sadly. Miss Parker felt his loneliness, too.
"Daddy took little Jonathan away for the holidays."
"That’s his name?"
"Yeah, I picked it. I was tired of calling him the Baby."
Jarod’s face lit up suddenly and he made an offer to Miss Parker. "Calltruce for tonight, Miss Parker, and I’ll make you fall in love with thistown and it’s people."
Miss Parker was unsure of the drastic offer. She looked at Jarod’s extendedhand, then she looked at his expectant face. She turned away, closed hereyes to think, taking in deep breaths. "What the hell," she muttered, "truce."She took his hand and shook it.
"Stay at the Hampton Inn and I’ll pick you up at 5. Dress warmly," Jarodannounced as he opened the door to get out.
Miss Parker grabbed his arm, "That’s it? You’re just going to trustme to not bring you back at gunpoint, and I’m just going to trust you toshow up at 5?"
"Yes," he said simply and left.
Miss Parker sat there astonished. "O-kay," she pondered. "What the hell..."She smiled as she drove to the hotel.
**********
Miss Parker paced in her hotel room glancing at her watch for the upteenthtime. "He has 5-4-3-2-1," a knock interrupted her counting, "seconds,"she continued. She opened the door and saw Jarod standing on the otherside, smiling at her like they’ve been friends forever. All she could dowas smile back.
"You ready to hit the town, Miss Parker?"
"It’s only 5 o’clock, Jarod. You don’t ‘hit the town’ till after dark."
"Well, Miss Parker, this town closes at 8, so we have to hit it beforeit shuts down."
Miss Parker gave in. "Fine."
Their first stop was a little bakery on the corner of Main Street. Theyentered the store and the warmth and smell caused their head to lean backand their eyes to close in pleasure.
"Mmmmmm, it smells wonderful in here," Miss Parker commented, breathingin the precious aroma.An old Mexican man came out of the kitchen and greetedthem happily, hugging Jarod tightly. "Jerud! Mi hermano, my son! Alwaysgood to see you. And who is this beautiful young lady?"
"Mr. Gonzalez, this is Miss Parker, a friend." The man shook her handenthusiastically and Miss Parker felt a surge of happiness run throughher.
"Any friend of Jerud is a friend of mine. Come, come, sientate, sit.I bring you something very special. Something I just created today, buthave not found a name for it yet!" the man laughed and disappeared intothe kitchen.
A young girl approached their table with coffee cups and a shy smile."Hola, Mister Jerud."
"Hola, Carina," Jarod greeted her.
She placed the cups on the table and reached into her apron pocket andpulled out a single red rose and offered it to Miss Parker. "For the beautifullady."
Miss Parker put a hand on her chest and took a sharp intake of breath.She was so touched, her eyes began to water, but she held the tears in."Thank you," Miss Parker managed to say as she took the flower from thegirl.
The girl walked away smiling while Miss Parker watched in awe. Jarodstared at her grinning. Miss Parker noticed his amused expression and lookedaway. She lightly slapped his hand that was resting on the table."Stop looking at me like that," she smiled, a little embarrassed.
"You’re beautiful when you’re embarrassed," Jarod said, taking her handand giving it a gentle squeeze.
They went into each store and browsed. Jarod’s favorite was the CandyStore. He managed to persuade Miss Parker to buy something sweet. Theywalked the street greeting people, smiling at the children, having a greattime. Miss Parker made the first move and reached for Jarod’s hand as theystrolled. She didn’t care what Jarod thought, or what the others thought.She didn’t even care what SHE thought, she just did what she felt likedoing--and that’s to hold his hand. Even though they wore gloves, she couldstill feel the heat that emanated from his hand. He returned the favorby clasping her hand tightly, entwining their arms, drawing her close tohim.They headed toward the Plaza Square where people gathered to witnessthe traditional lighting of the huge Christmas tree. The town waits tillthree days before Christmas because that’s how they’ve always done it--forthe past 50 years. Who can argue with tradition? They waited with the crowd.Looking around, Miss Parker saw the anxious faces on the children, thepride in the older people, and the joy in others as they wait for thisevent. She has never felt this good in a long time. She and Jarod werepart of a people that enjoyed each other, cared for each other.
"Is everyone ready?" the man announced on the loud speaker.
"YES!!" the crowd roared.
"Alright, you know what to do. Hold on to someone special..."
Jarod squeezed her hand as they waited.
The man plugged in the tree and the lights pierced the darkness, illuminatingthe tree from top to bottom. It was a magnificent sight. People clappedin unison.
"Merry Christmas, everyone!" the man announced. After a little while,people started walking away, leaving a scant few to stare at the tree inamazement. Jarod and Miss Parker were among the few. Jarod released hishand from hers only to put his arm around her shoulders. "You’re cold,"he noticed. She didn’t resist, it felt too good to resist. He pulled hercloser and she wrapped her arms around him underneath his coat, restingher hands on his back, feeling his strength. She snuggled her face intohis neck, still not taking her eyes off the tree, a smile of contentmentplaying on her lips. They stood there in silence--beautiful, peaceful silence.
Mr. Gonzalez and his wife passed the couple who seemed oblivious tothe outside world. Mr. Gonzalez smiled a fatherly smile at them, biddingthem good night as they walked past. "Good night, Jerud, and Senorita Parker."
"Good night."
"I love the way he says your name," Miss Parker smiled, still enjoyingher position in Jarod’s arms. "How did you meet them?"
"I was able to save his family when the bakery burned down. I alsohelped them rebuild it. I have a very special place in my heart for them."
"And it’s obvious they have a special place in their heart for you."Miss Parker looked up at him and saw the pride he had for being includedin the Gonzalez family. They looked at each other and the natural thinghappened. They kissed tenderly, with a touch of passion, but mostly itwas a kiss of two friends finding each other again. They gave each otherone last squeeze and walked away hand in hand.
Finding stuff to do in a small town is tough, but for Jarod and MissParker, they enjoyed every minute of being together. They spent hours ina diner talking. Jarod shared his experiences and stories of people hehas crossed paths with. He’s never had anyone to share with, someone whounderstands who he is, so this was a nice treat. Miss Parker listened intentlyand was actually impressed and found herself interested in what Jarod hasdone outside the Centre. She knew what he was capable of doing, but tohear him tell it with enthusiasm and passion, she was amazed. Not a mentionof the evils of the Centre ever came up. They have been transported toanother place and another time--a place void of lies, schemes, treachery,and secrets. To end the truce at midnight seemed unfair.
***************
It was almost midnight and they walked slowly back to the Inn, wishingfor time to stop. They stood in front of Miss Parker’s room, a little uneasy,like two teenagers out on their first date.
"Can I kiss you goodnight?" Jarod asked.
"Yes," Miss Parker responded, biting her lower lip, unsure why she wasa little nervous. "Can I kiss you thanks?" She asked in return.
Jarod smiled and moved in closer and held her at the waist gently. MissParker caressed his cheek and they kissed lightly.
"Thank you," she whispered in his lips.
"Good night," he whispered back, kissing the corner of her mouth.
They kissed again, this time, a little longer and sweeter, holding onto each other tighter.
"Thank you," she whispered again.
"Good night," he breathe out.
They couldn’t stop themselves, they kissed longer the third time, longer,more passionately. They were both breathless when they broke away, theirheart pounding in their chest. They both knew that it was their last kiss--akiss of thanks, a kiss good night, a kiss of friendship, a kiss goodbye.
"Good night, Jarod." She smiled at him as she untangled herself fromhis strong embrace.
"Thank you for a wonderful evening, Miss Parker." He smiled back. He watched her walk into her room and she shut the door slowly. Jarod heaveda big sigh and walked away, both forever touched and changed by the powerof their truce.
THE END