I'll Know When I Get There

Summary: One phone call was all it took to rip Ryan Sloane's life apart (Parrish/OC)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Teen Wolf, Ryan however is all mine.

Chapter 6:

Jordan Parrish had grown accustomed to his new desk in no time. He wasn't going to complain either way, the entire sheriff's station had been blown to pieces, which meant that a lot of the staff inside were either off with injuries, off on mourning or just moved to a different location within the building. Overall, Jordan hadn't faired too badly, he had gotten a new desk out of the deal and he had been picking up some overtime.

The only negative about all his newfound working hours was that he was making up for the deputies that were off for whatever reason, that and he hadn't seen or spoken to Ryan since the explosion.

Under normal circumstances, he would've been just fine with that but he could remember telling the girl to bring her own lunches to work, which ultimately meant Ryan wouldn't be seeing her daughter as often as she once had. Jordan just hoped that the town of Beacon Hills would calm down soon so that everyone, including himself, could get back into a groove of sorts.

It was getting rather hard to focus, with Ryan constantly on his mind, he knew he was going to have to do something about her sooner rather than later. Sure she had stated that she wasn't interested but that had been before she showed up at the site of the explosion to make sure he hadn't been hurt, what exactly did that mean for him? Was she coming around to the idea of letting him into her life?

Even if all she wanted to be was friends, Jordan knew that that was better than not having her as anything.

"Hey, where's the sheriff?" One of the other deputies in the station wandered over towards Jordan, pulling him out of his reverie. He turned to face the approaching lawman and watched as another deputy threw out an answer.

"Stilinski's out for the day."

"So the Katashi murder is now a Federal Investigation." Jordan cut in, hoping that maybe if these other deputies got a move on things, he could take off for a few minutes and run an errand or two. "Everything here that wasn't blown up needs to be placed in lockup."

"Okay, well, when's that happening?" The first deputy questioned and Jordan slowly rose to his feet.

"There's an armoured car coming to pick it all up tonight." Jordan answered easily. Yes, he had all this information, he had been put in charge of the evidence being moved. The sheriff had left him to deal with everything regarding Katashi and for that, Jordan was grateful.

He was ready to prove himself to the sheriff; being a Beacon Hills Deputy for as short of a period as he had been hadn't provided him with all that many opportunities to shine. He had found a few though, the bomb on the bus threat where Jordan had jumped right in, he hadn't shied away from walking onto the bus, even if there was an active bomb threat. If it meant saving people that were otherwise innocent, well he'd do what he had to, that was why he did what he did to start with.

"Who's taking care of guarding the load up?" The first deputy asked and Jordan lifted his hand up and pointed to himself. "You got any backup?"

"Just the guys with the truck." Jordan smirked and the deputy let out a little chuckle. Well if Jordan wasn't going to be needing any help, that meant that the rest of the force could focus on the other important cases floating around the station. If he could free up more of the other staff, then maybe Jordan could help give them the opportunity to crack more unsolved files.

"You sure you don't want any help or anything?" The deputy leaned down and lowered his voice.

Maybe he thought that Jordan was too proud to ask for help, maybe he was giving him the option to take his help without letting the rest of the force get the idea that Jordan couldn't handle himself. Maybe the deputy was offering his help because he knew that even the simplest job a deputy could land was still extremely dangerous. After all, it had been a slow night at the station when the massacre had occurred, no one wanted to lose any more deputies.

"I got it, but thanks." Jordan nodded and the deputy lifted his hand up, gently patting Jordan's shoulder before walking away and disappearing down the hall.

Letting out a deep breath, Jordan turned his attention back to the screen of his computer and debated his next move. He knew he wasn't going to be able to give the mission his entire focus, not until he spoke to Ryan anyways. He wasn't entirely sure what her shifts were like at the hospital, from what he could gather, she worked nights but that was about it. She had been working well past sunset both times that he had seen her at Beacon Hills Memorial but did that mean that was her permanent schedule?

Glancing down at his watch, he took note that it was just before sunset, the sky was starting to dim slightly outside, and Jordan knew that he wanted to show up at the hospital with lunch for Ryan, he just couldn't decide if he had time to do it before he was supposed to be at the armoured truck, which meant that he'd have to stop by after he had the truck loaded up and on its way.

Shaking his head, he stood up and headed for the locker room, where he promptly grabbed his jacket and slipped his arms into the sleeves. He dug into the pocket on his jacket, wrapped his hands around the cruiser keys that he kept there and wandered back out towards his desk, where he stepped around the furniture and came to stand in front of the deputy who had been there when the first deputy approached.

"I'm running home to grab a shower, I'll be back in time to load up the truck but if the guys get here before I get back, do you mind covering for me?" Jordan requested with a charming smile.

Yes, he had showered earlier, soon after the explosion, but he still felt dirty constantly and he knew he still smelled faintly like smoke. If nothing exciting was happening until later, he was going to take advantage of the down time.

"Sure thing Deputy." The guy nodded and Jordan nodded right back, knocking his knuckles against the edge of the guy's desk. With a smile on his face, he moved away from the deputy and headed for the door of the station.

The sun was still in the sky, but it was getting lower and lower, moving closer to the horizon. He figured he had over an hour, most likely two, before anything exciting happened at the station, which meant that he had plenty of time to go home and shower, and then make a quick stop on the way back to the station.

It wasn't until he was halfway home, driving his cruiser, that a thought had hit him. If he was going to be bringing Ryan lunch at the hospital, didn't that mean he had to know what she liked to eat? Maybe she was allergic to peanuts, or shellfish, what if she was allergic to something way more common, like wheat or flour?

Letting out a loud groan, Jordan slowly pulled over to the side of the road and rested his forehead against the top of the steering wheel. Suddenly his grand gesture had grown miles more complicated. He slipped his cell phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

He could certainly text her and ask her what she liked to eat but that would totally ruin the whole premise of it being a surprise. His eyes lit up at yet another idea and before he could think twice about what he was doing, he dialled the number for the front desk at the sheriff's station.

When one of the deputies on duty answered the phone, Jordan was quick to request Ken Robertson's contact information. Thankfully the deputy didn't ask why Jordan needed it but if he had, he was prepared to tell him that needing the information was for police business. That would be enough to placate the deputy at the desk.

Jordan nabbed a pen out of the console, tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder and began writing the man's contact information on the back of his hand. He repeated the phone numbers, both cell and home, back to the deputy on the line to confirm that he had gotten them written down correctly.

With a polite thank you, Jordan freed his phone from his ear and ended the call. With quick fingers, he punched in Ken Robertson's cell phone number and sucked in a deep breath. Was he nervous? Was this sudden feeling in the pit of his stomach all because Jordan was a little anxious as to what the man was going to say to him when he asked what his daughter liked to eat?

Ryan was this man's daughter and Jordan knew how protective fathers could be, but he was a deputy, that had to count for something, didn't it?

Well not if Ken Robertson felt the same way about deputies as Ryan did, which was a very real possibility. Cole had died because he was a deputy, what if Ken wanted his daughter to stay away from anyone in law enforcement for fear that she'd get hurt again?

Letting out the breath he had sucked in, Jordan hit the call button and lifted the phone up to his ear, listening as it rang. Part of him was hoping that it would go to voicemail, yes, Jordan was excellent at leaving voicemails. Another part of him hoped that the man would answer because he didn't want to have to wait for him to call back, or at the very worst, call Ken one more time.

It was better to get this sort of thing over with before he lost his nerve.

"Ken here!"

"Hello there Ken, this is deputy Jordan Parrish-"

"Oh god!" Ken groaned and Jordan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the man's concerned tone. He let a blanket of silence fall over them before it hit him; Ken wasn't expecting a phone call from a deputy, nobody ever really expected phone calls from deputies, they came as a shock, usually to inform next of kin that something bad had happened.

"No sir! Oh I'm so sorry, this is just a casual phone call." Jordan shot back, hoping that he hadn't given the older man a heart attack. "I apologize if I worried you."

Jordan listened carefully, hoping that Ken didn't just hang up on him for the cruel joke he had unintentionally played.

"Thank you." Ken murmured and let out a soft sigh. "Ever since…since that night, I've just dreaded getting another phone call from the sheriff's department."

Jordan nodded his understanding and, upon realizing that the man couldn't see him, cleared his throat and spoke again, "I understand sir, and again, I'm very sorry."

"It's not your fault deputy." Ken said solemnly and Jordan's heart picked up in speed. He hadn't meant to scare anyone, let alone Ken Robertson, but that's exactly what he had done.

"Sir, I should've known better. I'm not calling to tell you anything and I didn't mean to scare you."

"Like I said deputy, it's not your fault. What can I help you with?" Ken asked and Jordan was thankful that the man was ready to get right down to business. He wasn't sure if he could've continued with the casual conversation after he had thrown the man into a fit of worry.

"Well I was uh, I was planning on stopping by the hospital on my way home later tonight and I know that there's a bit of a uh, for lack of a better term, a lockdown there. I was just calling to make sure that you weren't going to be heading up there to drop food off for Ryan." Jordan laid it all on the line and hoped that the older man wouldn't laugh in his face.

Ken Robertson, from the few minutes that Jordan had been around him, seemed like a reasonable person, he seemed to be the type of person who understood that protocols were put in place to protect those that needed to be protected. Had Jordan misjudged the man, had he assumed that Ken wouldn't go to the hospital when the man was really planning to go all along?

"Are you checking up on all the people who are related to hospital staff or just me?" Ken teased and Jordan let out a low whistle.

"So far, just uh, just you." Jordan answered honestly and silently prayed that this conversation would stay at a level that was just a tiny bit awkward and uncomfortable and not get any worse for him.

"Well I generally tend to follow the rules and if someone says that I should stay away from the hospital for my own good, then you can expect me to stay away from the hospital, unless, of course, I need medical attention." Ken continued to tease him and Jordan found his lips moving upwards into a little bit of a smile. "Although that means my poor daughter will have to eat vending machine food because she has apparently forgotten her lunch here at home."

"Oh no, that's terrible." Jordan feigned sadness and let out a chuckle. "Whatever can you do about that?"

"You're a deputy, is this a matter for the police?" Ken laughed right back and Jordan felt the weight of the world lifting off of his shoulders.

This man, the father of Ryan Sloane, grandfather to little Kylie, was giving Jordan a run for his money. When he had dialled the number, he had convinced himself that the older man would've been against Jordan being near his daughter, yet here he was baiting him. The old man had cast his line out and Jordan had taken it, hook, line and sinker.

"It could be classified as police matters. I could always swing by and pick up the lunch and deliver it to the hospital, if, of course, you classify this as an emergency."

"I wouldn't want my poor girl to starve." Ken jeered and Jordan relaxed in the driver's seat. "Seriously boy, I think her and I would both appreciate it if you stopped by and picked it up. Poor girl never has time to grab anything decent to eat unless it's packed in a brown paper bag."

"Understood sir, I'll swing by shortly and pick it up." Jordan smiled.

"I'm at Ryan's house, you know the address?"

"I can look it up." Jordan answered.

"I'll be expecting you soon then." Ken said firmly.

"I'll be right over."

"One more thing deputy, just come on in, I'll leave the door unlocked. Kylie's down for the night and I'd appreciate it if she stayed that way."

Jordan glanced out the front window of his cruiser and nodded, "got it sir."

The phone clicked and the line went dead. Before Jordan could reconsider what he had just gotten himself into, he punched in a call to the front desk yet again and requested Ryan Sloane's address. Once he had the information locked into his head, Jordan hung up and pulled back onto the road.

Now all he had to do was remain calm, cool and collected when he finally showed up at the hospital, whenever that would be.

XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX

The first thing Jordan noticed when he pulled into the driveway was that Ryan had a very nice house. It was bigger than he had been expecting, but then again, he had it in his head that she was a single mom, and in his mind, a lot of single moms struggled, hell there were a lot of single parents, moms and dads, that were struggling. It was obvious, by the size of the house, and by the decency of the neighbourhood, that Ryan was providing her daughter with the best life she possibly could.

He parked his cruiser next to a large, black pick-up truck, which he assumed was Ken Robertson's, and turned his cruiser off. He sat in the car for a few seconds and tried to keep himself calm. This wasn't a big deal, this was just Jordan stopping by to pick up lunch for Ryan, which her father had made. The entire situation had his gut twisted in knots.

Sure he had met Ken before but it was only for a quick few minutes and then the man was gone. Ken Robertson was slightly intimidating and Jordan just hoped that the man wouldn't have any idle threats for him pertaining to his daughter.

Sucking in a huge gulp of air, Jordan pulled the keys out of the ignition and pocketed them before climbing out of the cruiser. He placed his hands at his sides and approached the front door, lifting his hand up to knock before stopping dead in his tracks.

Ken had explicitly told him to just come on in for fear that any noise would wake up Kylie. Jordan held his breath as he wrapped his slightly shaking hand around the handle and pushed the tiny little lever down, the door instantly swinging open into the house. Jordan hesitantly stepped over the threshold and gently shut the door behind him before wandering further inside the house.

He seized his opportunity and glanced around, taking in the sight of the photos of Kylie and Ryan littering the walls. There were a couple with Kylie, Ken and Ryan, but for the most part it was just the little girl and her mother.

While Jordan was familiar with how Cole Sloane looked, Jordan had been snooping through the police files, he made a mental note that none of the pictures contained Ryan's late husband and any of the pictures where Kylie was just a wee little baby were lacking any parents.

"Is that you deputy?" Ken called out softly and his head poked out of a doorframe, where there was currently a lack of door. Jordan quickened his pace and closed in on the man, stepping into the kitchen behind Ken.

"No door?" Jordan asked quietly and motioned towards the vacant door frame.

"You don't have kids do you?" Ken smirked at him and stepped towards the fridge across the room.

"I don't." Jordan answered and watched intently as Ken pulled the fridge door open, grabbed hold of a brown paper bag with Ryan's named scrawled across the top in messy little kid writing, and shut the fridge. Ken locked his eyes on Jordan and smiled at the young deputy as he stepped closer to him, extending the lunch towards Jordan, who took it in his own hands.

"Kylie was, well she still is, a little bit rambunctious so one night while Ryan was at work and Cole was on patrol, I was left babysitting. Now I may not be as quick on my feet as I used to be but Kylie, my god, as soon as she could walk, she moved as quick as a fox. So this particular night I was watching her, she got away from me for two seconds and when I finally found her, she was sitting on the floor crying her little eyes out with a cut on her forehead from the edge of the door." Ken began to explain and Jordan couldn't help but smile at the mental picture. What he wouldn't give to have a family of his own, someone he could love just as much as Ken seemed to love his girls.

"So you took the doors off?" Jordan asked with a slight little laugh.

"Just the ones on the main floor, and not the one to the basement, I wouldn't want Kylie to fall down the stairs. So that one always stays shut but other than that, it's just doorframes on the main floor." Ken answered with a laugh of his own. "All this time later and Kylie's still a little on the wild side, but she's a good kid for the most part."

"She's quite adorable." Jordan remarked and Ken nodded his head. "I'm uh, I'm sorry for your loss…for Cole. I'm sure he was a great man."

Ken bowed his head and looked down at his feet before sucking in a nervous breath, "Cole was perfect for my little girl and he loved Kylie more than anything in the world. It's hard, every day it's hard on all of us, but we get through it."

"Well I'd say you and Ryan are doing a wonderful job with that little girl." Jordan tossed out and Ken brought his eyes up, tears clouding his vision. Jordan forced a smile onto his face and felt his heart going out to the entire Sloane family.

"What scares me the most is that Kylie's going to grow up and not remember her father. She was only three when he was taken from us." Ken said, his voice catching on certain words. The older man was doing well to keep the tears at bay but Jordan knew how hard it must be for Ken to have to endure what he was going through.

"I'm sure you won't let her forget him." Jordan dropped his gaze to the brown paper bag and tried not to push the issue any more. He didn't know what he'd do if the tears in Ken's eyes actually got free. "I noticed that there aren't any pictures of him on the walls though."

"That's Ryan's doing." Ken breathed the words out and took a few steps to the left, gently dropping down on one of the chairs around the wooden kitchen table. Ken motioned for Jordan to follow suit and the young deputy sat down across from him. "She's a great mom and she's the best daughter a man could ask for but she's hurting, real bad. Not long after Cole, after he uh, passed on, she went through all the pictures in the house and hid away any that had Cole in them, including the picture of the three of them that resided on their bedside table. She's not handling it as well as I'd hoped but then again, who am I to judge."

"Where's Ryan's mother?" Jordan asked in a soothing voice.

"She's been gone for quite a few years. I can't imagine the death of her mother helps her any after losing Cole too. She's scared that the people she loves will leave her, whether by choice or because they're ripped away from her." Ken explained and let his hands fall against the table, his palms pressing against the surface. "I don't know what your intentions with Ryan are and she's old enough to make her own decisions but you have to promise me, whether you and my daughter become friends, or something more, that you won't hurt her."

Jordan pressed his lips together and let the man's words sink in. He had been nervous when he first pulled in, he had been scared that Ken Robertson would give him a piece of his mind and tell him that he wasn't going to allow a deputy like himself get near his daughter for fear that she'd end up hurt. This was a total twist of events.

"I could never hurt her." Jordan shook his head. "Even if it wasn't my job as a deputy to protect people, I still wouldn't let anything hurt her, or anyone else for that matter."

Ken let out a small snort of amusement and his lips spread into a sad smile, "If you are trying to get close to my daughter, just don't push her. She's been through a lot already."

"I swear I won't hurt her, I won't push her, I won't do anything to her. I just want a chance to get to know her." Jordan said sincerely and Ken gave him a slight nod of approval.

"Maybe you can stop by one night for dinner then, you can hang out with Kylie, I'm sure she'd love a new friend." Ken chuckled and blinked his eyes a few times, pushing the tears away for the time being. Jordan simply smiled at the man's offer and rose up to his feet.

"We'll see how the drop off goes." Jordan laughed right back and lifted the bag up. "I should get going though; I still have some police work to take care of."

Ken rose up to his full height too and trailed after Jordan as he headed back towards the front door. Jordan gingerly pulled the door open and stepped out onto the front step, Ken taking up residence in the doorway.

The older man watched as Jordan retreated to his cruiser, climbing inside and turning the vehicle on. As Jordan backed out of the driveway, the brown bag resting on the seat next to him, he couldn't help but wonder where he and Ryan would end up.

Would they simply be friends or would they end up as so much more.

Only time would tell.

XxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxX

Guy, I'm feeling pretty discouraged, I don't know if you guys are iking this story. I do appreciate everyone who's added it to their favourites and alerts but I'd love to hear what you think, feedback is always welcome!

winchesterxgirl: Thank you so much and I wholeheartedly agree about nap time!

poorxbrokexcollegexkid: Ken's doing the best he can to make sure his family's taken care of. Cranky Kylie is fun to write too and there will definitely be some Jordan/Kylie interactions soon!

If there's anything you guys want to say about anything, maybe you have questions that you want answered or things that you want cleared up, just let me know. Please leave me a review and I'll do my best to get back to you. If there's any questions you might have, feel free to PM me, I'm always up for a chat!