You can post it wherever as long as it has my name and e-mail address.

The Pretender Odyssey
Tracy -> fosset@hotmail.com


Disclaimer: The Pretender and its characters are property of MTM and NBC Television (although, I sure wish they where mine :-P ). JAG and its characters are property of property of CBS, Donald Bellasario, et al. The songs "One Headlight" and "I Wish I Felt Nothing" belong to the Wallflowers. This has been done for entertainment purposes only. Please don't sue me, unless, of course, Harm and Mac are taking my case, or Jarod pretends to be my lawyer. In that case, please sue me! :-)

I'd like to thank Laura Michaels for Beta reading this, and for encouraging me to write it. I also want to thank my sister, Trishie, for putting up with my minor obsession, and listening patiently to all my Pretender and JAG related babble. Oh, yeah, I wanna thank my Spanish teacher for making her class so boring, which gave me a chance to start writing this so I wouldn't die of boredom.

Spoiler: A slight spoiler for season three of The Pretender.

My Plea: Feedback!!!!!!!! My e-mail is: fosset@hotmail.com

*****************************************

THERE ARE PRETENDERS AMONG US

J: "I was taken from my family"
S: "36 hours and he's already demonstrated more talent than any of our others"

A CHILD GENIUS

EXPLOITED BY THE CENTRE

J: "How many people died because of what I thought up?"

ESCAPED

J: "Since I escaped I've spent every minute searching for my past"
MP: "He's a pretender, a genius who can become anyone he want's to be"
S: "The Centre wants him alive"
MP: "Preferably"
MP: "He defends the weak and abused"
J: "Life's a gift"
Lady: "Are you a doctor?"
J: "I am today"

*******************************************

Monday
7:00 a.m.
Blue Cove, Delaware

"Miss Parker?" Broots asked as he opened her office door.

"What?" she snapped. She was in a bad mood because of her dad's recent wedding with Brigitte. She still couldn't figure out why he married that lolly-pop sucking bimbo who'd tried to kill not only him, but herself. And to top it all, Jarod had gotten away. Again.

"Um, you got a package from Jarod," he said, only a little taken aback with her snappy reply. After a few years of working with her, he was used to her cold and rude attitude. He thought this was the only way she knew how to be, although Jarod and Sydney knew better. If one dug deep enough one could find the Catherine Parker in her.

"What are you waiting for Broots? Give it to me," she said holding out her hand impatiently. She quickly took the yellow manilla envelope from him and dropped it at her desk. She then looked at Broots with an intimidating glance that said 'What are you still doing here?' Fortunately he got the message and left, shutting the door behind him. She stared at the package for a few minutes thinking about Jarod before opening it. When she did, she found a note with a cassette. Miss Parker opened the note, curious as to what it said and read: "Be careful. Trust no one. -Jarod." A chill went down her spine.

"What in the hell?" she murmured to herself. What was that supposed to mean? Was she in danger, or was Jarod playing games with her? She put the cassette in the tape player and hit play. The opening chords of "I Wish I Felt Nothing" by the Wallflowers came in.

"Say when you're alone
It's better 'cause nobody knows you
When no one's you friend
It's better 'cause nobody leaves you
So you turned your back
On a world that you could never have
'Cause your heart's been cracked
And everyone else's is going mad"

A single tear fell down her cheek as she realized how those lyrics reflected what she thought, all her fears of actually loving someone. After her mom died, she had shut her heart to the world fearing that she would lose someone again. She wiped the tear away and quietly listened to the last lines of the song:

"And I know you believe that you and me don't belong here
And the worst we could do
Is keep trying to pretend we care"

Just as the song ended, her phone rang.

"What?" she answered, getting back in her "bitchy" mode.

"What did you think of the song?"

"Jarod."

"I think the last part kind of resembles our situation, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I don't belong in the Centre and you do. But instead I'm here and you're free, isn't that ironic," she said in a fake light, careless tone of voice.

"I wasn't quite thinking that."

"Well it's the truth."

"Come on Miss Parker, you know that I deserve to be free as much as you do."

She ignored his last comment and asked what the message on the note meant.

"Just what I wrote, be careful and trust no one."

With that he hung up the phone, leaving her blank. He picked up his Halliburton case and got in his car. He drove for the next few hours until he reached Virginia where he rented an apartment and proceeded to get ready for his next pretend.

*****************

Same day
2:00 PM
JAG Headquarters, VA

"Lt. Cmdr. Rabb? Maj. Mackenzie? The Admiral would like to see you ASAP," informed Officer Tinner poking his head through Harm's office door. Harm and Mac looked at each other with a look of confusion. Mac shrugged and got up. She was quickly followed by Harm.

"Do you have any idea of what this is about Mac?" Harm asked as they walked towards the office of Admiral Chegwidden.

"None whatsoever," was her short reply right before opening the door to the Admiral's office. When they entered, they stood to attention.

"At ease," he said without looking up from his desk. After finishing signing some papers he stood up, went around his desk and leaned on it.

"I wanted to inform you that as of today you have been assigned an exchange JAG officer to work with you for a couple of weeks."

"Excuse me sir?" asked Mac at the same time that Harm said, "What did you say sir?" They where both thinking, 'Oh, no, not another one!,' referring to their past experiences with Brumby, the exchange JAG officer from Down Under.

The admiral looked at them and rolled his eyes. They heard a knock on the door and turned around.

"Lt. Cmdr. Law is here to see you sir," announced officer Tinner.

"Send him in."

A tall, handsome man entered the room, and stood at attention.

"As you were," said the Admiral, and proceeded to introduce him to the others.

"Lt. Cmdr. Jarod Law, Maj. Mackenzie and Lt. Cmdr. Harmon Rabb." They nodded to each other.

"I was just telling them that you will be working with them for the next couple of weeks. Any questions?"

"No, sir," they all replied. Admiral AJ Chegwidden signaled them to go. They saluted and left his office.

"Welcome Lt. Cmdr. Law," said Mac once they where outside the office.

"Thanks, and call me Jarod," he said with a grin.

"Fine Jarod, you can call me Mac, Harm does." She decided she liked him. He was a nice enough, not to mention cute.

"So, why exactly are you here?" asked Harm.

"I think they're trying to compare the two JAG headquarters to see what they can learn from each other, or something like that."

"Are you the son of Harmon Rabb?" Jarod asked already knowing the answer to this question.

"Yeah, why?" He was interested to know the response to that question, since it was a weird one to ask considering they'd just met.

"Um...," he kind of looked uncomfortable.

"Excuse me, sir, here are the files you wanted on the missing girl's family."

"Thanks Bud," said Harm as he grabbed the files.

"Really appreciate it, Bud," said Mac.

"Hi I'm Lt. Cmdr. Jarod Law. Call me Jarod. I'll be here for the next couple of weeks."

"Nice to meet you," he said and turned around with a confused look on his face.

***************

It had been a busy day at JAG today, so Jarod hadn't been able to ask Harm more questions about his father. He believed that his father, Major Charles and Harm's father had worked together in the military. Fortunately, he had rented an apartment right next to Harm's so he could talk to him later. When he heard some movement in the hallway, he went outside his room to see if it was Harm.

"Jarod, what are you doing here?"

"Do you live here?" he asked Harm, feigning surprise.

"Yeah, how 'bout you?"

"I'm renting it for the next couple of weeks."

"Do you want to come inside?" asked Harm, wanting to find out why Jarod had inquired about his dad.

"Sure, why not?" They entered the apartment and while Harm went to put his things away, Jarod observed his surroundings. Pretty much the same as his apartment. A small decent place to live.

"Do you want anything to drink? I'm gonna make some hot chocolate for myself, would you like some?"

"Hot chocolate? To drink? How do you do that? Do you melt the chocolate and drink it like that?" asked Jarod with a child-like interest. Harm looked at him with a disbelieving look.

"You mean you've never had some before?" Harm asked with disbelief.

"They didn't have any where I grew up," he said with a shrug, a sad look in his eyes.

"Well, watch and learn." Harm went to the kitchen, got some milk, chocolate powder, and poured it in a pot. He then heated it in the stove, poured it in two cups and added marshmallows. Jarod looked on with fascination.

"Um. This is very good. I'll have to do it again some time, thanks. So, about your father, I believe he served with my dad in the military."

"Who's your father?" Harm was as anxious as Jarod to find out more information about his dad.

"His name was Major Charles. I don't know his last name, I only have an old picture," he said old picture," he said, taking a picture out of his wallet. It was the picture given to him by Mike Bodie, the Native American. His dad had once saved his life once. Jarod had helped him by
pretending to be a bounty hunter and ending the whole mess surrounding him. Harm took the picture and looked at it intently for a minute.

"He looks familiar, but I'm not sure. I'll have to check later."

"Have you always been a JAG officer?" he asked, not really needing to. He knew a lot about Harm, since before the pretend he had checked up on him, the major, and the rest of the most important people at JAG. He'd found out that he'd had two partners before Maj. Mackenzie.

"No, I was a Tomcat pilot for the NAVY until I got night blindness and had to leave. How about you, have you always been on JAG or something?"

"Or something," Jarod replied, smiling to himself. Or something was right, he'd been a police man, a lunatic, a doctor, a virologist, a gigolo, a psychiatrist, a teacher...

"Thank you for everything, but I gotta get going now. See you tomorrow. Bye."

"Bye, Jarod, it was nice meeting you."

*****************

Thursday
6:00 pm
Blue Cove, Delaware

Miss Parker got out of her car and started walking towards her house. She had been feeling a little sick because her ulcer was starting to act up again. Suddenly, she heard the whooshing sound of a bullet passing right next to her. A couple more came whizzing by her.

"Shoot. Why in the heck are they shooting at me?" She quickly took out her gun and started firing in the direction of where the shots came from. At the same time, she got back in her car and turned it on. Another bullet hit her tail light. She sped off before she could see her assailant. Jarod's words came back to her "Be careful. Trust no one."

"How did you know, Jarod?" she wondered aloud. At that moment her cell phone rang. She hoped it was Jarod.

"What?"

"Miss Parker, don't come back to the Centre until I tell you. It's not safe here for you. Someone's trying to kill you."

"Gee, Syd, I kind of figured that out when someone started shooting at me a couple of minutes ago. Do you think they know?"

"I'm not sure. Are you alright?" came Sydney's worried voice. Miss Parker was pleased to know that he cared enough to be worried, whereas her father couldn't care less. Sydney was more of a father to her than Mr.Parker would ever be. That fact was sometimes to painful to admit.

"Yes I'm ok. How did you know that they were trying to kill me? More important who is trying to kill me?"

"I don't know who, but Broots found some info. that suggested this would happen."

"Thanks for calling, and Syd... Syd? Sydney? Hello?"

"Darn!" she said when she realized the line had been cut off. She had no idea what to do, but she knew one thing for sure, she had to get out of Delaware and fast. After an hour of driving south, she decided that she could go to Virginia and visit her old "JAG partner". The Centre had asked her to pretend to be a JAG officer so they could get some military information that they needed. At the same time they where testing her pretending abilities. Knowing this, she purposely screwed up a little bit, almost getting caught and losing some information, so they wouldn't make her pretend, like they did Jarod. While she worked with Harm, they'd gotten a little romantically involved, but decided to break-up after a short while. They remained friends though, and before leaving, Harm told her that if she ever needed any help, he'd be there for her. And now was the perfect time to make use of that offer. She had another important reason for going there, one that was related to the probable cause of her murder attempt...

******************

(same day)
8:00 PM
JAG Headquarters, VA

"Mac, Harm, what are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing for now," was Mac's quick response.

"Me either, why?" replied Harm.

"I was thinking that maybe we could get together at my apartment to celebrate today's court results. I can get some pizza on the way," explained Jarod hopping they'd say yes. He liked this type of friendship that he had with them, one where the friends in it weren't hunting him. Besides, it had been a tough case; they needed some time to just sit back and relax.

"Why not? But I need a ride, my car's in the shop. Harm?" said Mac hopping he'd give her a ride.

"I'd love to give you a ride, Mac, but I have a lot of junk in it that I need to take to recycle. I barely fit myself and was planning on taking it now. Sorry." He truly was sorry. Any excuse to be alone with Mac was more than welcome.

"Jarod?" Mac made a cute sad-puppy face at him. When Harm saw this, he kicked himself again for not taking the stuff to recycle sooner.

"Sure, how could I resist?" he said laughing.

Mac smiled her thanks. She would have rather gone with Harm. Their partnership was one of the best things that had happened to her. But she would love to be more than friends with him, if only she had the guts to tell him. 'Suck it up marine, forget about him, he's you partner,' she mentally scolded herself.

"We'll come to your apartment when we get there, ok?" It was more a statement than a question.

"Great" Harm said with a grin, still a little mad and disappointed with himself.

Harm got into his car and turned on the radio. The song "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers was playing.

"Hey, come and try a little
Nothing is forever
There's got to be something better than
In the middle
But me & Cinderella
We put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight..."

After dropping off the stuff for recycling at the recycling place, he went to his apartment building. He noticed that Jarod and Mac hadn't arrived yet. 'Good,' he thought, 'I still have some time to shower and change.' He walked to his apartment humming the song and singing it in his mind.

"Heeey, come and try a little Mac
Nothing is forever..."

He opened the apartment and noticed someone inside. Silently drawing his gun, he sneaked behind the person, a woman, and put it to her back. The woman quickly turned around hitting his hand, making the gun fall to the floor. She then looked at him.

"Gees Harm, you didn't have to point at me with your gun, you know," said Miss Parker, recovering from the shock. He stared at her for a few seconds before talking.

"Caitlin?" he said a bit uncertain.

"Remember me?" she asked a little irritated that he might have forgotten her.

"Of course I do. How can I forget my first partner in JAG. Nice to see you again. Sorry about the gun thing," he said while he retrieved his gun and put it back in its holster that was hidden in his waistband.

"Hey, no problem," she said easily. Harm always got her good side to show. It was probably that boyish grin of his that made her forget how cold she usually was. Too bad she just didn't feel attracted to him in that boyfriend-girlfriend way.

'She's as gorgeous as ever, but she can't hold a candle to Mac,' thought Harm. They heard a knock on the door.

"Come in, the doors open guys." Miss Parker felt annoyed at the prospect of Harm having guests. She needed to talk to him about staying for a while in his place. Her annoyance quickly turned to astonishment when she saw exactly who Harm's guest were. In particular a certain tall handsome guy who constantly invaded her dream, and occupied her days. He was currently holding a pizza and laughing at something that his brown headed companion had said.

"Jarod, what are you doing here?" she said drawing out her gun, not being able to hide her astonishment.

"It's nice to see you too Miss Parker. How have you been? How are Daddy and your new mommy doing?" said Jarod with fake politeness. Inside, he was completely surprised and had no idea what to do. He thought of his options that weren't at all comforting. Option A: get out of there as soon as possible and hope not to get shot. Option B: stay there and hope that she wouldn't take him in. He looked around, and at not seeing any sweepers, relaxed a little.

"Thanks for your concern. They ask for you everyday. I know they wish they could be here this moment." she said with the same fake politeness he used.

"I bet." he said sarcastically. Harm and Mac had no idea of what was going on. Still they knew enough to try to take Miss Parker's gun away. With a quick nod to Mac, Harm delivered a fast kick to Miss Parker's hand. Before she noticed her gun was out of her hands and Mac was retrieving it. Mac pointed the gun first at Miss Parker and then at Jarod.

"Why don't you both sit on the couch and explained what just happened here," commanded Mac, getting Harm's agreement.

Miss Parker shot Jarod a cold look and he just smiled back at her. This made her even madder at him.

"So...old boyfriend or something?" Harm asked her, trying to make light of the situation. He cared for both her and Jarod and didn't want to see them killing each other. Jarod and Miss Parker looked at each other, and for the first time they shared a smile.

"Or something," Jarod told him with an ironic smile. Miss Parker just snickered. He then turned to Miss Parker.

"Are you here because of me?" Just because she hadn't dragged him by the ears back to the Centre with a team of sweepers already didn't mean that she wasn't planning to.

"Believe it or not, my life doesn't revolve around you, Jarod," she replied sarcastically.

"You could have fooled me. My freedom for yours, isn't that how it works," Jarod sneered. Her dad made her look for him 24/7. He felt kind of guilty for having to put her through that, but it wasn't really his fault.

"I'm not a lab rat like you, Jarod. I'm free, have my own house and can come and go as I please," she replied as if to trying to convince herself that it was truth. Jarod just gave her a knowing look, letting her know that he didn't believe it to be true, and that she didn't either. The only way you leave the Centre for good is in a body bag.

"Why exactly are you here for Caitlin?" asked Harm. He and Mac were totally confused, not having understood much of the conversation.

"Caitlin, as in Caitlin Pike, Harm's first partner? I should have known, the picture looked exactly like you. I just didn't believe it could be. The last time I checked you weren't into pretending," interrupted Jarod, voicing his suspicion.

"You're loosing your touch, Jarod," Miss Parker bickered. She then asked, "What's Boy Wonder doing here?"

"Boy Wonder?" Mac asked totally lost. She glanced at Harm and he looked the same way she did. Good, she wasn't the only one.

"Pet name she uses to show her affection towards me," joked Jarod, raising and lowering his eyebrows a couple of times suggestively. "Right, honey?"

If looks could kill he'd be ten feet underground already. "Harm, can I please have my gun so I can kill him right about now?" she asked sweetly, although she looked deadly serious.

"Um...Miss Parker..." said Jarod as he stared out the window.

"What?" she barked.

"I'm afraid someone's going to deprive you of that...pleasure, if we don't get out of here now," he said calmly, but men every word that came out of his mouth. She looked out the window towards where he was gazing.

"Shoot!" she said unconsciously. Outside the window a group of men dressed in black suites were getting out of their respective cars. It was pretty obvious, they were Centre employees. The question was what where they where doing there.

"Would that mean that you are as unhappy to see them as I am?" he asked hopefully. He still wasn't totally sure about her reasons for being here. But he now had a pretty good idea that it wasn't because of him. It had just been a coincidence, a very weird one at that. Here they were, the hunter and the hunted, after a few years of trying to evade her and succeeding, she had caught up to him, not because she planned it, but by chance. 'How ironic,' he thought shaking his head with bewilderment.

"What do you think, genius?" she said sarcastically.

"What's happening here? Who's 'them', and why do they want to kill either you or Jarod?" asked Mac exasperated, fed up with the little answers that they where getting.

"The people she works for," said Jarod, moving towards the door, getting ready to leave.

"And that would be..." interjected Harm, as anxious as Mac to get some answers.

"Some very dangerous people that will kill you guys too if we don't get out of here now!" answered Miss Parker, motioning them towards the door. They quickly followed, Harm and Parker with their respective guns ready to fire if need be.

"I know how to get out of here, so that no one will notice us leaving," said Jarod going into his room and closing the door after everyone was in. He then proceeded to lift up the carpet in the floor, which concealed a kind of trap door.

"How did you know this was here?" asked Harm, surprised that Jarod had found out about it. He thought he was the only one who knew it existed, since it was so well hidden.

"Shear coincidence, I guess," Jarod shrugged and opened it. It had some spider webs, a sign that it had been a while since anyone actually used it. He lowered his body inside followed by Mac and Harm. After some hesitation, Miss Parker followed as well, cursing under her breath. After walking for a minute, they reached a door that led to the parking lot. After a short debate on who's car they would take and who would look for it, Mac was chosen to get Jarod's rental car, a blue Intrepid. They weren't sure if the Centre new about Harm and Mac, but decided that if they did, Mac would be the least they'd know about, since she hadn't previously met Miss Parker. Nevertheless, she carefully went to the car and got in, making as little noise as possible. She then picked the others up. A Centre sweeper noticed them and started shooting at Miss Parker and Jarod. Mac drove as fast as she could trying to escape them. Harm, being the one who new the area best, gave her directions that quickly made them lose the sweepers.

"Close call. So where to now?" said Mac in a relieved tone of voice.

"How about the airport? I have a beach house in an isolated island near Puerto Rico we can go to," Jarod informed then, receiving a surprised look from Miss Parker.

"Since when?" she said scornfully.

"Since a few months after I escaped." he replied nonchalantly.

"Fine, the airport it is. We can rent a small plane maybe." interrupted Mac, turning towards the airport. When they got there, Harm told them to stay just outside of it while he went inside to make arrangements. After a short while, he came back out informing them that they where leaving in five minutes.

"How did you arrange for us to go so quickly?" asked Mac, voicing the question of the other two.

"An old friend," he said smiling unconsciously, and led them inside. Shortly after reaching the small plane they met the pilot, a tall blond-haired beautiful woman. She went over to Harm, hugged him and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Harm smiled at her and hugged her back.

As Mac witnessed this 'friendly' exchange, she got a weird feeling inside, and decided she wasn't going to like this pilot woman. 'Snap out of it Major, you aren't jealous of her, now are you? Harm's only your partner,' a little rational voice said in her head. On the other hand, another voice whispered, 'How can he kiss that...that...girl! Uh!'

"Long time no see, Commander," she said in a playful voice.

"I could say the same thing, Liz," he replied teasingly. He then looked her up and down. "Looking good. How's it going?"

"You're looking pretty fine yourself, and I'm doing great. I'll always miss flying with you. You were one of the best pilots, the second best in fact," she smiled.

"What do you mean second best?"he asked grinning.

"Well there was me..." she said laughing, Harm joining in. It was good to see her again after all these years. She had been a childhood friend of his who treated him like a kid brother. She was the one who inspired him to start flying when he was starting college and she was starting to fly for the first time. One day she took him with her, and he immediately knew that he wanted to be a pilot.

"Guys I want you to meet Lyssa Baldwin, the woman who inspired me to become a tomcat pilot," Harm said, introducing her to the rest of the group.

"Is everything alright, Harm?" she asked with concerned, wondering why he'd been so persistent to get her to take them away from there.

"Yes mom," he said it like a little kid does when his mom is being over protective.

"You're the kid brother I never had, I'm entitled to patronize you and worry about you once in a while," she said with a sad puppy look on her face.

"Ok mom, I'm sorry," he said and hugged her.

"Now that's better," she said teasingly. Mac had a smile of pure relief on her face, Harm didn't like this woman, well, not in a girlfriend kind of way. Her thoughts surprised her and she quickly ignored them, although they were very hard to ignore.

"So, where too?" Lyssa asked, and when she was told, she took them to her small plane, that took them to the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. After a lot of thanks, they left Lyssa to go back to the States with a load full of other passengers.

Part 2