Just Like Old Times

Sid & Frank Parker

by Jo and Layne

Standing on the sidewalk outside the small bank in the Glen, Frank Parker slid on his sunglasses. He'd just finished setting up accounts with the money Ben Wade had given him and the next item on his agenda was finding a place to stay. Seeing a newspaper box in front of the bank, he bought a copy of the Glen Times and settled down on a bench to check out the classified ads.

Sid parked his classic Bentley and stepped out onto the sidewalk by the bank, straightening the lapels of his newest Armani suitcoat. Usually he paid no attention to the lesser beings cluttering the small town, but something about the man with the newspaper caught his eye and he stopped, staring at him. After a moment, he used the side of his hand and pushed the paper all the way down, cocking his head.

Frank Parker smiled up at him with his wide white smile, eyes unreadable behind the dark glasses he wore. "Hello, Sidney. I'd heard you were here in the Glen. You sure it's wise for a man like you to be calling so much attention to himself?" The word "man" was emphasized, as though Parker considered Sid anything but, and he indicated the Bentley and the Armani suit. "You already stick out like a sore thumb."

"Parker." The name hung there in the air between them, practically dripping with their mutual memories. A slow smile spread across Sid's handsome face, a smile with more menace than pleasantry behind it. His keen mind was processing all the possible future scenarios of having this particular person here in the Glen. As he thought, his eyes continued to harden, a thing he made no effort to hide from the seated man. "Good to see you, Parker," he purred, cocking his head now to the other side as though studying a wasp on one's window screen before taking off one's shoe to squash it.

"Glad to know you feel that way, Sid." Frank's smile grew wider, despite the hardness in the other man's eyes. "As I recall, you didn't think it was so good to see me last time we met. But, then, of course-" Frank casually folded his paper and tucked it under one arm before glancing up at Sid again, his mirrored glasses catching the morning sun. "-I had you at a little bit of a disadvantage, didn't I?"

Sid's tongue came out, licking slowly across his lower lip. His fingers actually itched with the desire to close around the man's throat, flatten his windpipe. "If that's how you choose to remember it," he replied.

"Oh, if I had a choice, I'd rather not remember it at all," Parker told him, still smiling, but his voice had hardened to match Sid's eyes. "But that's just not the kind of thing a man can forget. A real man, that is. Got business at the bank, do you?" he asked. "Gettin' yourself a car loan maybe?" He looked pointedly past Sid toward the Bentley parked at the curb.

Sid's head turned, his eyes following Parker's gaze. "I've done all right for myself. More than can be said for you. You here to apply for a job sweeping the bank?" Deliberately he ignored Parker's question. "Be a step up for you, you get something like that."

"Oh, you're right there, Sid. It would be a step up. But then, anything would be a step up from chasing down vermin like you." Parker's smile had never faded and now, he slowly and deliberately removed his sunglasses to show that there was not a trace of a smile in his eyes. And as for how you've done-" Parker stepped up face to face with Sid and looked him right in the eye. "It's not HOW you've done, but how you've done it that interests me." He cocked his head to one side, deliberately imitating the nanotech. "I'd be willin' to bet you've done it without any of the good people in this little 'burg knowin' anythin' about you."

Using the tip of his forefinger, Sid pressed it into Parker's chest, his great strength causing the man to have to take a step backwards. "What I have or have not done is of no concern to you. I've made my money through wise business practices and there's no paper trail for you to sweep up with your little broom. So stay out of my face if you don't plan on being roo chow."

Parker chuckled mirthlessly. "Roo chow. That's good, Sid. I see you've picked up some Australian lingo."

This time Parker pressed his forefinger into Sid's chest and, although he couldn't make Sid step back, his intention was perfectly clear. To show Sid that Parker wasn't going to back down either. "I'm not interested in how you've made your money, Sid. I'm not a cop any more. I'm just warning you to stay out of MY business here in the Glen."

Removing his finger from Sid's chest, Parker brushed imaginary lint off the lapel of the Armani suit. " 'Cause, you see, not bein' a cop any more means there are no rules I have to stick to. And you want to remember that I'm the one man in the world knows how to take you down, 'cause I've done it before."

Stepping back, Parker smiled again. "How's your chip?"

Sid narrowed his eyes to a mere slit. "I'm not really into little fried slices of potato, but then you know that."

"Oh, yeah. I know a lot about you, Sid." Parker slid his sunglasses back onto his dark, handsome face. "Question is, how much do you want the good folks here in this little town to know? 'Cause there's plenty I can tell 'em, if I decide I want to talk."

Parker took out the keys to his own car and jingled them in his hand for a moment. "Includin' that new wife of yours. She know she's married to somethin' that's not human?"

Sid put his hand on the door handle of the bank and without looking at Parker, began to open it, saying just as he passed through the doorframe, "Talking, Parker, is hazardous to the health." He let the door close behind him.

Parker's smile never faded as he headed for his car. Working security for Ben Wade, and now running into Sid 6.7 again. The Glen was going to be a much more interesting place than he'd thought a town this size could ever be.