i_run_you_chase | simulation 002; voice

[Jarod does the same. He, however, has obviously not been sleeping. A variety of manuals are stacked up near him as he lays in bed.]

Lyle took over my rehabilitation. He wanted to break me. He wanted to make sure Sydney watched.

[Seeing that he wasn't sleeping, Parker scowled. Bastard with his phone calls. She grabbed a cigarette from the pack next to her bed and lit it quickly. Her eyes went wide when he said that Lyle took over his rehabilitation. Her voice was harsh, but the harshness wasn't for him, not really.]

Good to know that they're as safe they would have been if I was there.

I said he wanted to, not that he did.

You know me well, Miss Parker. Do you really think someone like Lyle could break me?

[She looked away for a moment, and then focused on the camera.]

No.

Though he did try his best. I particularly liked the ice cold water and freezing rooms.

[sets his jaw as this memory hits him] I could feel how much he enjoyed it.

[Parker frowned. Hard.]

I honestly do not know how he can be related to me.

You have more of your mother in you.

So I hear.

[he nods and looks away, then reaches out and picks up one of his pez dispensers. Like Miss Parker with her cigarettes, he takes a bite of one to cool down]

If you make a bargain, Miss Parker...

Make it for your life. For her sake.

[She looks away quickly, and then she looks back, and she just looks sad.]

If I make one, it'll be for his life. Not mine, not hers, his.

For Thomas.

Yes.

[Parker looked down quickly, and then flicked off the camera. He doesn't get to see her tear up, damn it.]

Jarod looked at the blank video screen for a few moments, and then at the door. He flipped off his communicator. Exactly 67 seconds later, Miss Parker will hear a knock at her door.

[Parker did not expect the knock on her door, at all. After she had turned off the video feed, she had gotten out of bed and had paced across her floor, angry with herself for turning off the feed and even angrier with herself for having turned it on in the first place. For a moment she didn't want to open it because there was no doubt who it could be. There was a pause before she decided that she wasn't going to hide from him. Quick, angry swipes were made at her eyes and her cheeks before she opened the door quickly.]

House calls now?

[Jarod stands there, not entirely certain why he walked over here. First of all, Miss Parker is now probably aware that he's living on the same floor as she is. And also, he lacks in the control he had over their conversations]

[But still, there he is.]

I thought you might not want to be alone.

[Parker tensed. She tensed and she nearly slammed the door quickly shut in his face. Her fingers tightened around the door as if she was going to do it before she took a step back. The step back and the relinquished grip on the doorway was an invitation inside, and it was probably the only one he was going to get. Her bedroom was like the one at home, the silver framed photos of her mother and Thomas were on her night stand, and leaned against one wall (but not put up) was the stained glass window that he had made.]

[he steps inside and takes in the room, looking almost surprised as he does]

They made it like your home.

[Having Jarod in her bedroom is odd and unfamiliar and uncomfortable in the fact that it's not uncomfortable enough. She doesn't know what to say for a moment.]

Yeah. [She scoffs] My room, my closest, my bathroom without the shower. It's all a part of being a damn rehabilitation ship.

[Curiosity overwhelmed her. She had noticed the change of door on her floor, but with the influx of people, she hadn't suspected it was Jarod's.] So they stuck you on the floor too, did they?

I hadn't realized they did this. [he steps over to her lamp and runs his finger across the shade]

My room is like one of the many motels I lived in. I guess that's because I never had a home.

Apparently it's supposed to be where you're most familiar or something. That's what Katie told me. [Parker watched him touch her lamp and she had an entirely irrational impulse to go over and snatch it away from him. She didn't, instead she turned in the other direction and poured herself a drink.]

Cry me a river. [Yes, that was Parker, covering her insecurities with sarcasm.

[he circles the room as she pours herself that drink]

I'm surprised they allow inmates alcohol and cigarettes.

[She rolled her eyes at that.]

Denise lets me do whatever I want. And I do a fair amount of drinking with wardens.

[A beat.]

Do you want one?

Very thin lines between who's a prisoner and who's a guard in this place.

[he steps behind her and looks over her shoulder at the drink]

Does it make you feel better?

[Parker laughs at that, and there's a darkness in it.]

You'd be surprised.

If I say yes are you going to call me an alcoholic? Tell me to quit?

And if I told you that you were, would you listen to me and quit?

[the very mild amusement in his voice says that he doesn't think so]

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