Disclaimer: The usual media conglomerates along with Craig and Steve own the Pretender. All characters belong to them. I don't make money off of the Pretender. This is strictly for entertainment purposes and to keep alive a wonderful series that was cancelled too early and without a resolution to all the unanswered questions fans have been asking as well as having a JMPR wrapping up the show.

Summary: AU. Post IOTH. The Pretender and the government decided it's time to bring down the Centre and the evildoers running it.

The Fall

by

Starclipper01

Chapter 1

It was Wednesday. A warm, sunny morning in Blue Cove, Delaware with a hint of summer coming soon. Miss Parker was spending another gut-churning day in the hell that was the Centre. Thinking about the upcoming meeting with her daddy, Lyle and Raines was enough to drive her body to give her another migraine and start thinking about the bottle of scotch in her desk drawer.

Great, she snorted, dealing with an unaffectionate father who might have deceived her for her entire life, a boogieman with a breathing problem that was her recently revealed uncle, and a psycho twin brother with an eating problem. What a family. My family, she despaired. How she missed her mother, who was the only one in the family that came closest to being normal, just like the people she heard her mother reading stories to her when she was a child.

There were no happy endings in her family she mused with morbid reminiscing. Momma and Tommy dead, both murdered by the Centre. Ironically by other members of her family. And, the only reason she knew that was due to Jarod's efforts to reveal the truth to her.

Jarod. Even now, almost two years after his last contact with her, the wound of his loss was still raw. Not even Tommy's death can compare to the gaping wound in her heart and soul that Jarod occupied. The one constant of her life was gone.

The few months after his last nightly phone call to her; she, Sydney, and Broots all thought he was taking a break like the other times he stopped harassing the Centre and teasing the team assigned to bring him back. But as the months went by, the concerns and worries secretly shared among the three of them became palpable. Spurred by their own concerns, as well as the pressure of the Centre's unholy trio, they combed the country, and, then the world, looking for Jarod.

Anything that even gave a hint of Jarod was pursued relentlessly but everything came to a dead end. Dreading what her feelings were leading her to, Miss Parker nevertheless ordered Broots to search all the morgues looking for a John Doe that resembled Jarod. Like everything else, this too was fruitless. Much to her relief as well as Sydney and Broots.

Where is he? she begged to an indifferent world. Please let me know that you're alright, Jarod. Please don't be dead, she silently pleaded. I need you in my life. You're the only good and thing left in my barren life.

Leaning back to lean her head against her leather chair, she closed her eyes. The migraine was going to be a bitch, knowing from past experience.

Exhaling loudly, she leaned forward to pick up her phone to inform Broots and Sydney that they should come to her office to prepare for the upcoming meeting.

Suddenly she froze, with her hand hovering over the phone, as she felt and heard explosions rocking the building. Standing up quickly, she reached behind to pull her 9mm pistol out of it holster. With her right hand holding the pistol, her left hand snaked over to where her cell phone laid on the desk.

Flipping it open one-handed, she speed-dialed the Centre security office trying to find out was happening. "What the hell's going on!" she snarled to the harried and distracted on-duty sweeper. Holding her cell phone to her ear with her left shoulder, she chambered a round into her gun with both of her hands.

"We…" the sweeper was cut off by static. Parker winced at the sound. We're being jammed, she realized.

Just as the realization came to her, the doors to her office were kicked open. She snapped her head, letting the cell phone fall to the floor, and bringing her gun up ready to shoot anyone who dared to show their face in the doorway.

But what she saw was a small round black object arcing towards her before everything exploded in blinding light and deafening noise.

As Miss Parker writhed on the floor in agony, a part of her mind noticed gloved hands flipping her roughly onto her stomach and then feeling plastic flex-ties bounding her wrists.

She was roughly hauled up to her feet and was dragged out of her office. She heard moaning in the distance, than realized that it was emanating from her. Miss Parker was terrified but, due to her Centre training and background, she hid it well. With her being temporarily blinded, Parker didn't know where she was being taken to and what was going to happen to her. Her captors were the sinister, silent type so she didn't bother asking them any questions.

The pain, which she was to discover later, came from a flash bang grenade, made her nauseous and confused. The migraine that she was nursing earlier didn't help either.

As the effects of the flash bang grenade began to fade away, Parker could hear gunshots, screams, explosions, and orders being shouted all around her. People in combat gear were pounding up and down the corridor. The chaotic situation which she was immersed in ended abruptly when she was roughly shoved against a wall. She saw that she was in her father's conference room.

"Miss Parker?"

She quickly looked over to who was calling her name. It was Broots. "Broots, are you okay?" concern coloring her voice.

Broots was touched by the concern in her voice. Usually, he cringed at her sharp, biting comments. "I-I, um, I'm okay, Miss Parker," terror making him stutter. He knew what was going on but was frightened not for himself but for Debbie. He wasn't sure if he was going to see her alive ever again. Man, why did I took this job? I should have gone to Silicon Valley just like all my friends did and become rich but oh, no, I decided to work for an evil corporation…

His self-pitying was interrupted as Miss Parker leaned forward from the wall and gave him a cold glare with her blue-gray eyes. "Do you know what the hell is going on, Broots?" she hissed. She was already planning an escape as she experimentally tried to get out of the flex-cuffs. Damn, they're too tight.

Broots swallowed. The computer whiz always thought nothing could get worse than the latest secret that they found out about with, again, Jarod's help. But then there was always the next secret and it would always get worse. Now, all the secrets were coming out. "Yes," he mumbled then he faltered because he just realized that it was indeed all over.

"Spit it out, Broots. NOW!" she shouted to him as she saw that he was a million miles away. She would have also snapped her fingers in front of his face were it not for the fact that she was tied up.

"It's, it's, the government. They're raiding the Centre," he told her in a small voice.

Whatever reply that Miss Parker was going to say was interrupted by the opening of the conference room doors. She saw a couple of government agents pushing a disheveled Sydney and her father into the room. Next, came Raines who was held firmly in the grips of two other agents as they frog-marched him to the area where the rest of them were. Without his oxygen tank, she callously observed.

She couldn't resist the mild amusement that flittered through her mind as she thought the government wasn't trying very hard to keep Raines alive for his trial.

"Do you know who I am?" an outraged Mr. Parker shouted at the backs of the departing federal agents. He stalked several steps forward until he was stopped by an FBI agent, a red-haired woman Miss Parker observed, who whipped out her .40 caliber automatic pistol aimed at her father's face.

"A piece of shit," she declared in a contemptuous voice. "A dead piece of shit, if he doesn't get back to where he belongs." Mr. Parker froze; astonished that someone could talk to him like that. He was always treated deferentially by his flunkies and underlings. Now, a nobody was treating him like he treated his toadies. And, the most galling thing of all was that he had no recourse but to obey her. Swallowing his pride and rage, he stepped back to where the rest of the captives were huddled. But his eyes held promise of payback as he glared at her. The female federal agent ignored him and walked out.

"Daddy, are you okay?" inquired Miss Parker as she stepped past a weary looking Sydney. She made eye contact with the psychiatrist silently mouthing to him, "Later". She saw Syd giving a single nod before moving on to stand next to her father.

Mr. Parker looked at her. Pride, along with the resentment that came with the knowledge that she wasn't his real daughter, mingled within him. Putting on his concerned-for-his-daughter face, he told her, "I need you to be strong for me. Don't believe anything they have to say, and don't listen to any deals that they offer. Are you with me, Angel?"

A shriveling part of her was still eager to please her ever-demanding father, even though she knew he kept secrets away from her, she concurred with him. "Yes, daddy."

Her father leaned over and gave her a kiss on her forehead. "That's my Angel." Just as she was about to ask him a question of how the feds managed to stage a raid without being tipped off by the considerable number of informants that the Centre employed within the government, he stepped away from her to whisper urgently with Raines.

Sighing resentfully over his callous treatment of her again, she went over to Sydney. She gave him a gentle hug even though her arms were tied behind her. Her de-facto father returned it though it was awkward with his hands tied up too. "Are you hurt, Miss Parker," his Belgian accent becoming thicker than normal showing his concern for her.

"Peachy, Syd. Just peachy," she sarcastically answered. But the look she gave him betrayed her gratitude for his concern.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the doors as they opened again. Lyle, violently struggling against his bonds and screaming incoherently due to his mouth being duct taped, was thrown to the floor. No one moved to help him as they all watched him writhing on the floor. Again, the doors were closed.

Mr. Parker and Raines looked down at Lyle showing no emotions at all. They both saw him as a pawn that was useful until it became useless and thrown away like garbage. Miss Parker, Broots, and Sydney held a mixture of contempt and fear for the hapless figure lying on the floor. Lyle had threatened their lives in the past and knowing the hints of his extracurricular activities didn't cause them to fall over themselves to help him.

"We need to contact our people inside the government," Raines rasped. He needed his oxygen badly but was damned if he was going to beg for it. "They'll get us out of this situation and punish those who led this raid."

Mr. Parker nodded vigorously. "You damn right they will," he growled, remembering the treatment he received from that red-headed bitch. No one dared treat him that way and get to live. He smiled inwardly as the thought of how he was going to welcome her to the Centre's renewal wing and all its amenities.

Sydney saw the smile on Mr. Parker's face and shudder. He saw that smile several times before and always wished that he never see it again ever. A part of him was relieved that Mr. Parker and Raines won't be able to carry out any more of their sick and twisted plots now that the government was shutting the Centre down. But another part of him worried that those two sickos would find another way to slither out of the trap that they found themselves in. But most of all he worried what would happen to his two friends.

Broots, the savvy computer technician, was the least guilty of them. Perhaps, with the statement that he will make to the authorities Broots will be able to walk away from this nightmare and be with Debbie and finally get the chance to live a more normal and saner life.

Looking over at Miss Parker, Sydney sighed despairingly. She didn't deserve to end up like this. First her mother, then Thomas. And, later, Jarod, though she would die before admitting it. Always standing apart from everyone else, he saw her, even with her arms tied behind her back, still the assertive and aggressively confident woman that the inhabitants of the Centre knew so well. But watching the subtle signals that her body was transmitting, Sydney knew that she was worried just like him. Only she managed to conceal it behind a veil of anger and biting sarcasm.

Sydney resolved that he would protect her as much as he can. Maybe she can be released without being submitted to the courts. At least he can do his best for her. He will not disappoint her. Like he did to everyone else.

Sydney's plans were halted by the sound of the doors opening and in walked a single figure trailed by a couple of other federal agents. The prisoners stared at him in shock, horror, and vengeful pleasure depending on their feelings for him.


A/N: I had to fix and repost this. Sorry for any confusion.