The next morning Jarod woke first and strolled half awake to the shower. When he turned on the water, Parker stepped sleepily up behind him, caressing his neck.

"And now?" she asked, looking him in the eyes, sure the water would make it impossible to be heard by anyone else.

Jarod dropped his head and closed his eyes. He briefly tried to pretend everything was just a bad nightmare and he would wake soon. When her thumb trailed down his cheek, he opened his eyes again and looked at her.

"I ... I ..." he trailed off. "I don't know." Jarod shook his head, "I'm afraid we can't do anything at the moment. We have to wait till they come to us."

After they were brought their breakfast, an unknown man entered the cell with a keeper and stayed after he left.

He was around sixty, had sparse white hair and wore an old looking jacket. He would have looked like a nice old neighbor if there hadn't been that look in his gray eyes, a worn, lifeless, expression. He walked over to the kitchen table and sat beside them. "Good morning. My name is Steward, Dr. Steward." He held out his hand but neither Jarod nor Miss Parker made a move. "Well, ...I know that you wonder what I'm doing here. I'm to be your new physician. Who attended you before?" he asked innocently. Both sat still motionless before him and made no attempt to answer.

"OK. Fine. If you don't want to talk to me, I can go. I'll give you time to think and come back later." He smiled at them and walked over to the door. After he knocked, a keeper let him out.

Parker threw Jarod a questioning look but he just shrugged.

"What was that about? They send someone who doesn't know anything?" Parker pulled her eyebrows together.

Later the day Dr. Stewart came back to them.

"OK." He turned to Jarod, "Are you going to do a sim for us?"

Jarod answered with an evil grin and looked in the opposite direction.

"Fine." The Doc waved his hand towards the door and some men entered and pulled Parker out.

"HEY!" Jarod stood up but another man grabbed him by the shoulders and made him sit again.

"Jarod, don't give in. Whatever they do, don't give in!" Parker screamed before they carried her out.

"What are you going to do with her?" Jarod shouted.

"Oh, you can speak?" the Doc responded. "Look, I'm just here to persuade you to work on a few things for the Centre."

"What exactly do they want me to do?" Jarod shouted angrily.

Jarod finally agreed to run a sim but only if they would bring Parker back to him and he wanted to know the purpose of the sim. Dr. Stewart left him and said he had to speak with the others first and Jarod was alone again. It was a horror for Jarod to be alone in there. If Parker wasn't brought back soon, he would go crazy.

When the door opened and Miss Parker walked in, she was cuffed and had a small bruise on her forehead. One sweeper uncuffed her, shoved her inside the room and then left.

"Hey?" Jarod hurried over to her, "What happened?" He brushed back some hair to take a look at the wound.

"I had an argument with a doctor and lost." She winced as he touched her forehead. "They ran another battery of tests on me. I'm afraid we'll get visitors soon," Parker enlightened him.

Parker sat at the head of the bed and leaned against the wall again. "At least it was a female doctor. What about you. The walls still coming towards you?"

"What did you do? Kicked her ass?" Jarod said smiling but not answering to her question.

"Mhm, something like that. I think both sweepers can now sing soprano in the church choir." She chuckled and pulled her knees to her.

"Does it hurt much?" Jarod checked her forehead once more.

"No, it probably looks worse than it is." She pushed away his hand. "Leave it, Jarod, I'm fine!"

"OK. OK. ... I agreed to run sims for them." Jarod informed her and waited for her reaction.

"And...?"

"I think it's the best way to ... to search for a way out for us? And we get a bigger room. Actually we get a whole sublevel."

"How... how did you manage that?" Parker watched him amazed.

"The sims seem to be very important to them but I'll only do them after I know full well what they're for."

When they were brought their breakfast the next morning, Mr. Parker entered the cell and sat next to them at the table. "We have a deal. Jarod runs some sims for us and you'll get a new place to stay." Just then Lyle entered, some papers in his hand and a huge grin on his face.

"This means you have the results?" Miss Parker hissed at him and stood up.

"Oh, surprise. You know?" Lyle walked over and stopped in front of her.

"You know, you are very lucky. This is the only reason why they want you alive."

Jarod stood up but stopped when the waiting sweepers pulled out their guns and pointed them at him and Miss Parker.

"OK. Now let's get down to business." Lyle threw the file on the table and sat down, waiting for Jarod and Miss Parker to do the same. "We all know why we're here together this morning." He began after Jarod and Parker exchanged a look and sat.

"No? Why don't you tell us?" Parker could have killed him. She had never hated a human being so much, if he was even human.

Lyle breathed, looked down and grinned. "To make it short, you are going to have a child."

"Why do you think so?" Jarod cut in before Miss Parker could say something that she might regret. The sweepers still stood by the door.

"Why? Because that's your only chance to ever get out of here." He said like he just told a child a secret.

"And you think we trust you?"

"No, but you have no other choice. Either you do it on your own and have, at least, a little fun," he leaned over to Miss Parker and grinned evilly, "or we do it for you. It's your choice."

"And what was that with this Dr. Stewart? Why this when you want something else?" Jarod cut in again.

"Oh, he... he has nothing to do with us. To come back..."

"Wait. Are you saying we have to work for you both?"

"If you work for him it's none of my business but you shouldn't tell me no! We'll give you one hour to make a decision." With that Mr. Parker and Lyle left them.

"What now?" Parker turned to Jarod. "Who the hell is this Dr. Stewart?"

"Don't know but, wait, I have to go somewhere. I,ah, shit, I have my hands full of marmalade." Jarod stood up and went to the bathroom, followed by a confused Parker.

"What the hell... we have more serious problems than marmalade and you...," she stopped when Jarod had turned on the water and pulled her with him in the little room.

"Here," he whispered, "While you argued with Lyle, your father gave me this." He unfolded a piece of paper he pulled out of his pocket.

"He's telling us to cooperate?" Parker thought her eyes were playing tricks on her as she read the note.

"It might be the best choice. We'll play along with them till we have a plan, huh?" Jarod suggested. "But because they want something from *us*, we can want something from them, can't we?"

Exactly one hour after they left, Mr. Parker and Lyle came back.

"Your decision?"

"We agree." Jarod responded and Miss Parker went on, "But we have demands. We'll get a new place to stay, and we want at least one room in it without cameras or microphones. To confirm this, you'll give us some equipment. We wrote down what we'll need." She handed Lyle a piece of paper and grinned as evilly as he had before.

"What makes you so sure we'll give you this?" Lyle asked after he read it.

"Oh, that's simple. Though you thought I didn't knew about them, I read the reports about your plans to breed new pretenders. Well," she walked around him slowly, knowing full well the power she held. "... how many times have you failed to a new one?"

Lyle angrily stormed out of the room but Miss Parker could have sworn she saw her father nod at her before he followed him.

Later that day they were taken to a new sublevel. They were dragged down a deep corridor and at the end shoved into a room. Well, not a room, it seemed like they had broken down a few walls and out of 6 small rooms made 2 big ones. It looked like a factory building now.

"Don't even try to escape." Lyle said when he visited them. "There is no way out for you. The air vents are welded and the whole corridor is sealed. Guards are on every corner and cameras are all over the hallway. Save your energy for other things." He touched Parker's cheek and Jarod stood up angrily. But before he could react, Brigitte pulled out her gun and knocked him out. Lyle looked back over his shoulder and when he turned back to Parker she hit him hard straight across his face. He recovered from the blow and came after her but she deflected him, caught his arm and threw him to the wall before Brigitte could reach them.

She caught his throat and squeezed. If Brigitte hadn't dragged her back, she probably would have killed him.

Lyle wheezed a few times "You ..."

"What?" Parker hissed back, still held by the bitch. She could see that Lyle was fighting hard for self-control.

"Argh." He nodded to Brigitte and left.

"Jarod?" Parker kneeled down beside him and turned him around.

"Ah, shit!" he opened his eyes and let his head fall back as a stabbing pain crossed his head.

"Are you O.K.?" she asked, concerned, and laid his head in her lap.

"Yeah, I have a hard head." he joked, grinning a bit up at her.

"Jesus, Jarod, you scared me." She replied and bend down to kiss his forehead and he stealed another kiss from her.

"Come on." She offered a hand to help him up. "Where´s the kit?"

"I saw Lyle leaving it on the bed." He remarked wryly.

"This'll be a huge bruise tomorrow." He sat down and rubbed his head, watching Parker go in the bathroom and come back with a wet towel.

"Here." She gently laid it on his head. "God, when I get my hands on her again..." Parker cursed and walked around, her hands on her hips.

"Should I ask them for a punching-bag for you?" Jarod joked and ducked when she turned around and gave him a look.

"When you feel better please check for cameras. I don't wanna play a part in the Centre's latest drama."

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