Well, this sucks. My head feels like it's gonna split in two. So I was laying on the couch, my eyes closed to block the light. I already had taken aspirin and Eliot kept texting me every two hours, making sure I stayed hydrated. So as I was laying down, I did have my comm in, though I had my end muted so I wasn't bothering the team, who were currently in Tokyo doing a job.
I heard Parker saying she was fine, and heard her repelling down, then groaning as she landed on the recliner. Hardison, over comms, reminded Parker that she had torn her ACL. Parker said it was a sprained knee. Hardison reminded Parker of doctors orders, which were six weeks of bed rest, and she had to take her pain pills. Parker argued that the pain pills made her all wibbly-wobbly. I had to tell Parker that's how she knew they were working.
Parker argued about having to be sharp, and she had to be able to run away from in 30 seconds flat while feeling the heat coming around the corner. Hardison realized she was quoting Heat. Yeah, we may have been binging a lot on Hardison's Netflix account. And I may have binged all six seasons of Doctor Who. And watched classic Who. Yeah, it wasn't good.
Hardison then ran into a situation, saying they would be fine without us. I personally didn't look much into it because I needed to rest. I put on my sunglasses and sat by Parker, who I could tell was sad.
"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of." I heard Parker mutter.
I sat on the arm of the chair, taking my sunglasses off since my aspirin had kicked in and I was feeling good.
"Parker, he didn't mean it like that." I assured her.
"Then what did Hardison mean?" Parker asked me.
"He meant that you didn't need to worry about him. He's got Eliot, Nate, and Sophie watching his back. He'll be okay." I told Parker, hoping it comforted her.
I went back to the couch and laid down. Then my phone started ringing. I looked and saw it was Eliot calling me. I smiled and answered.
"You do know I'm not dying, right Eliot?" I answered the phone, messing a bit with Eliot.
"Well, hello to you too, mama." Eliot chuckled.
"How you feeling?" Eliot asked.
"Same as the last time you texted me, I'm okay." I assured Eliot.
"You're not lying, are you?" Eliot asked.
"No, I'm not lying. Aspirin kicked in, so I'm good. I wish I was with you." I said, feeling a bit sad.
"Me too, mama. But I need my best girl at 100% so she can kick some ass." Eliot said, and I could hear the smile.
"Oh, I can still kick some ass, even with migraines and 7/10 cramps." I chuckled.
"I'm sure you could, mama." I heard some commotion from Eliot's phone.
"Hey, I gotta go, okay mama? Get some rest, take your aspirin, drink water, eat the chicken and noodles I made for you, and be nice to Amy okay?" Eliot ordered me.
I chuckled.
"Okay, doc." I teased Eliot.
I heard him chuckle.
"Smartass." I heard Eliot mutter.
"I love you." I said.
"I love you too Sweetheart." Eliot said.
He hung up and I closed my eyes, feeling another migraine coming. I think Parker heard me groaning, cause I heard her hobble over to me.
"Need me to get you anything?" Parker whispered.
"Just my water bottle, please?" I asked as I sat up, putting on the sunglasses.
"Sure." Parker said.
He sat herself down and handed me the water bottle. I took small sips and thanked her. I laid back down and I ended up putting on a heating pad to help with cramps. I dozed off, cause I woke up to hearing Parker playing with some electronics. I got up and walked to the workspace table. When I walked up, that's when Amy came in, a tray of food and a teddy bear. She's one of the employees Hardison hired to help with the brewpub.
"Good morning. How're the patients feeling today?" Amy asked us.
"I'm doing okay. Eliot's been texting and calling me all day, but I'm good." I assured Amy.
"Less and less like a patient and more and more like a prisoner." Parker said.
"Uh, well, hopefully this will taste better than prison food." Amy said, setting the tray down and handing me a cup of green tea with honey.
I quietly thanked her.
"Eh, you'd be surprised. Best meal I ever had was in French prison." I glared at Parker as she sighed.
"La santé." Parker said.
Yeah, uh, Amy didn't know what we really did.
"I'm sure it's delicious, Amy." I told her.
"French prison, huh? How long were you in for?" Amy asked as I helped her out.
Parker spoke French, saying not as long as they thought she'd be. I glared at her again, but luckily Amy didn't seem to know French. Parker turned to look at Amy.
"You know, we don't have to do this every day." Parker told Amy.
"Well, Hardison and Eliot asked me to look after you two. And though Hardison's your boyfriend, and Eliot's your husband, they're my bosses, so yeah, we do kind of have to do this every day. And trust me, it beats dish duty." Amy said, looking at Parker then me.
I helped Parker over to the briefing table.
"What's this?" Parker asked, looking at the teddy bear.
"A get well soon bear." Amy said.
"Ah. Does it do anything cool?" Parker asked.
I glanced at her.
"Besides promote good health?" Amy questioned if Parker was serious.
"Yeah, you know, like walk or talk or anything?" Parker asked.
"Parker, it's a teddy bear. It's made to make you feel better." I explained to her.
"Oh. Cause Hardison usually builds me robot friends, so…" Parker put the bear back on the table.
"Yeah, well, this one cost like 10 bucks. If you both need anything else, I'll be right around the corner." Amy said, grabbing some plates as she left.
"Thank you Amy!" I called out as she left.
"Thanks." Parker muttered as I drank my tea.
Parker and I started eating our cereal. Parker started staring at the bear. After we were done eating, the aspirin wore off, so I took a couple more and laid back down. As I was trying to get relax, since another migraine was happening, and I had another cramping episode, Parker was sitting on the recliner, changing the chanel. I had my sunglasses on and fell asleep again. I wasn't asleep long, cause Parker was going a bit stir crazy. Especially since Parker was now talking to the bear.
I groaned as I woke up. The migraine had passed, but the cramps were still there. I took off my sunglasses and sat up to drink more of my tea. Parker had the remote and looked at me.
"Hang on a second." Parker said, probably seeing my failed attempt at hiding how much pain I was in.
She grabbed her crutches and hobbled over to the extension cord and plugged in the heating pad, much to my objection. I put the pad on, which helped. Parker sat back down on the recliner.
"Parker, I could've gotten it, you know?" I told Parker.
She was in a white tank top and her sweatpants. And I was in my sweatpants and I "borrowed" one of Eliot's flannels and t-shirts. What, he gave them to me before he left.
"Kaira, you spend every day watching our backs. Every job, you take the punches so the rest of us don't have to. Please, I want to be needed." Parker was all but begging me.
And I understood why.
"Thanks, Park. I'm sorry. I guess I'm so used to taking care of everyone else and having to take care of myself alone, I forget that sometimes I need to accept the help." I gave Parker a smile.
She smiled back and played with the remote. She ended up finding the brewpub security cameras.
"Intersting." I looked at the feeds.
"Ah, brew pub. Didn't know I had Hardison's security-camera feed." Parker said, impressed.
"Well, he's gotta watch the brewpub when he's not down there." I added.
I watched on the monitors the regularly packed brewpub. Amy was delivering food, and the bartenders were working hard. Amy was given a vase of flowers by the one bartender, which I thought was sweet. Then I saw that mischievous look in Parker's eyes, and we were both bored as hell, so I smiled, saying to do what she wanted to do.
"What have we got here? Let's see." Parker started snooping.
I saw a couple at one of our two-seater tables, talking and laughing. Parker snorted.
"Nothing is that funny, am I right?" Parker looked at the bear.
"Am I right?" Parker asked me.
"Eliot's face when I steal his flannels and starts chasing me around the office, which always ends with him grabbing me as we're both laughing like teenagers, or Hardison when he gets offended when Eliot doesn't get his nerd jokes." I chuckled, causing Parker to smile as well.
"Yeah, that is pretty funny." Parker chuckled.
Then she zoomed in on another couple, who were talking.
"If you leave that seat up one more time, I'll just scream." Parker put on a high pitched voice, causing us both to chuckle.
"Wait." I looked closer at the feed.
"They're arguing." I realized, chuckling.
"Baby, I sometimes worry that I'm too much of a man for the world and for you." I put on a deep voice, trying not to burst out laughing.
"My mother warned me about you." Parker put back on the high pitch voice.
"What you don't know about your mama is, she leaves the seat up too." I put back on the deep voice, and we both bust out laughing.
Parker looked at the bear.
"She leaves the seat up, too, like… get it?" Parker asked the bear, chuckling, causing her to snort.
I calmed myself down and Parker zooms in on two dudes. They were talking, but by their body language, they were quiet, and trying hide what they were talking about.
"Who are those guys?" Parker asked, sensing the feeling I got.
I then heard the door open, and I see it's Amy, not only with flowers on the tray, but a burger for Parker and me, along with drinks.
"Is that the brewpub?" Amy asked.
"It is." I said, weighing my words.
"So this is what you do back here." Amy said.
I kinda chuckled.
"No. Maybe." Parker scoffed.
"It's boring not being able to walk." Parker said.
"And it sucks not being able to move 'cause of pain." I may have slightly whined a bit.
"Oh? That's okay. I like to people-watch too. Check it out." Amy went to sit beside Parker on the arm of the recliner, getting out a notebook with drawings.
I looked at them, standing behind the chair.
"I call him Sid… and I call her Nancy. You know, like the Sex Pistols?" Amy said.
Parker and I smiled.
"They argue a lot, huh?" I can't help but smile as I watch the feed of Sid and Nancy arguing.
"Well, Nancy thinks Sid is cheating on her, but she doesn't have any proof. Oh, she's Juliet…" Amy pointed to the top right camera feed.
"And he is Romeo." Amy pointed to the top left camera feed.
"Both serially single, braving the rough seas of internet dating." Amy said, getting into the gossip.
She got up and went back to the briefing table.
"Hey, you know, these are really good." Parker complimented.
I gave Amy a smile as she didn't believe Parker.
"She's serious. They are really good. And I've seen some of the best." I told Amy.
"Thanks. I wish you could tell my father that, though." Amy said, taking the flowers off the tray.
"Well, has he seen these?" Parker asked.
"No. He has never seen any of my artwork. Doesn't stop him from having an opinion about art school, though." Amy explained.
"He not a fan?" I asked.
"Not of any degree that doesn't have an M, a B, or an A in it. He wants me to take over the family business." Amy said, piquing both mine and Parker's interests.
"And what is the family business?" Parker asked.
Amy scoffed.
"What isn't the family business?" Amy muttered.
"Oh, you see that guy?" Amy pointed to the lone older guy at the bar, coming in front of us.
"He always orders the same thing every day - Chicken Parm. And then he takes one bite of it and then sends it back to the kitchen." Amy said.
"Hmm. What a jerk." Parker said.
"No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not like that. He's never rude. I think he's just… sad." Amy explained.
I looked at Parker, and she nodded.
"What do you know about those two?" I asked Amy, pointing to the two mystery guys.
"Not much. They're pretty pushy about where they sit, though. I guess they like the view. The bald one is "V", and the scruffy one is "K"." Amy explained.
"What do you mean?" Parker asked.
"What they call each other." Amy did jazz hands.
"How do they tip?" I asked Amy.
"Uh, always cash. I know that. But… I guess they must be average tippers." Amy answered.
"Cause you would remember if they tipped high or low or not at all. Believe me, I used to be a waitress." I pointed out.
"Exactly. Yeah, I got to go make my trash run - my favorite. Enjoy your lunch." Amy said.
I gave her a smile as she left. Parker and I watched the feed, specifically, K and V. Parker decided to look at the footage from Tuesday, and saw the same thing. They'd get four coffees. Parker then found out that they were there since Sunday.
I watched as Parker wrote down on the clear board what we did know about these guys, and we both wondered who they were. We then realized we had thieves in our house. And that's when we discovered Hardison didn't have a mic installed. I had another migraine, so I laid back down and Parker let me be.
I woke up as Parker put a bug in a glass of flowers and gave them to Amy to take to V and K's table. And Chicken Parm once again sent back the food. We watched as Amy put the flowers on the table. And we both noticed they didn't look at Amy. We heard them talk about how "it'll be headlines news" and how'd they'd have to disappear for a few months. And all the zeros in K's bank account should take the sting out of anything, and V said they'd have to be on lookout.
But then Amy poured water into the glass, breaking the bug. And since Parker's leg was in a brace, and I had more mobility at the moment, I climbed through the vents and sent down one of Hardison's scopes with the mic on it and clipped the string. When I came back, Parker was trying to repel and hurt herself a bit.
"We should be getting sound." I told Parker as we watched the screen, standing.
K said about bootlegging off a VHF wavelength reserved for truckers, and there was no heavy routes near the zip code so they were good.
"What is this, amateur hour? That'll never work." Parker said.
On cue, V said it would never work.
"What'd I say." Parker commented, and I shot her a smile.
V explained that the cloud cover was too low this time of year, and they'd stick to burners. Parker realized V was the mastermind. Parker and I then got to work the next day on the bugs, sending down flowers to put in the bar. I had taken some aspirin again and was feeling good, so I sat on the arm on the chair with Parker. She was eating cereal. I had some of the chicken and noodles Eliot made before he left. We watched the feed.
"That should be enough bugs to cover the whole bar." Parker said.
And I saw on the feed Chicken Parm getting his food. And once again he sent it back. V went over the plan with K, saying they'd be 20 minutes from the freeway. Apparently it was a quick clean getaway, and they'd be set for life. And Parker zoomed in on something on the table. I realized what it was.
"That's a map of our corner. Parker, can you pull up what buildings surround us?" I asked Parker.
"Okay, so… what's the target?" Parker asked.
She pulled up the area around us.
"Bank… pawnshop?" Parker questioned.
There was a savings place, but then Parker pulled up a jewelry store.
"The jewelry store." Parker and I both realized.
And with the tap of the keys on the keyboard, Parker pulled up the jewelry store, which was right across from where V and K sit.
"So that's why you like the view." Parker said.
"They're using our bar to case the jewelry store." I realized, not pleased.
We then saw K move, and we saw a gun in the waist of his pants.
"Shit, they brought a gun? To our bar? Oh hell no." I looked at Parker.
Now it was different. These thieves brought a gun to my bar. You see, we have some rules, the house rules we call them (A/N Come on, I know y'all know them by now) ; Rule 1: Always come to have fun, 2: Leave your troubles at the door, 3: No sitting around during closing, 4: there's no such thing as last call, 5: Pick 'em up when they fall cause they're drunk, 6: Share the bathrooms cause, come on, you can't hold up the line, 7: (my personal favorite) don't touch the women, but they can grab whatever they want to, respectfully (A/N come on, ladies, it goes both ways, ya know). But rule #8; Don't bring a damn gun into my bar. I had to put back on my sunglasses cause I felt a migraine coming. And I felt a cramp cycle coming, so I laid back down.
It didn't last long, and I helped Parker make a pinch phone. She ended up calling Hardison. We ended up getting Amy back in to help us. Parker was at the door.
"Okay, you want me to what now?" Amy questioned us.
"Those guys are gonna rob this store, right? Which is fine. I don't mind robbers who aren't robbing me or my friends or kids or…" Parker trailed off, grabbing the phone.
"They have a gun. A damn gun in my bar. That changes everything." I said, helping Parker hobble to Amy.
Parker showed her the pinch phone.
"This doohickey will send me the data from their phones so we can figure out what their plans are and stop them." Parker said.
"They have a gun. We don't stop them. We call the police." Amy said.
"Amy, we can't call the cops, that'll make it worse." I explained as I help Parker to the table and give Amy the device.
"Uh, how?" Amy questioned.
"These guys hear sirens outside the bar, they panic, they start firing out of desperation, cops fire back, a shootout with everyone in the bar caught in the crossfire happens. A shootout in my bar! Part of my responsibility is to make sure everyone's safe, so I'm not about to risk a damn shootout in my bar!" I explain, quite plainly.
"And how do you know so much about this again?" Amy asked.
"I… read blogs… Amy." Parker said.
"Have friends that are Psychology majors." I added.
"We don't need cops. We don't need anyone, especially if they don't need us! Then we really don't need them."
Yeah, filed that under "talk with Parker about later".
Amy chuckled nervously.
"We? Up until now, it's been me taking orders, and suddenly we're a "we"?" Amy questioned, grabbing stuff from the table. Parker hobbled to the other side.
"Okay. Look, I know I've been a little bit bossy, but I really hate this… asking for help thing. But Kaira and I really do need your help." Parker said.
I walked over.
"Truth is, Parker can't walk on her leg, so she can't get around that good, which believe me, is the worst thing to happen with Parker. The bar lights trigger my migraines, and sunglasses only work so much, and sometimes my cramps are so bad, I can't move hardly. Just curl up in a ball on the couch. And I can't control when. So, please, help us take these thieves down." I all but begged Amy.
"Why-why should I?" Amy asked.
"Because that's what you do. I've seen your résumé. Volunteer work, charity efforts. Of all the people who work here, do you really think Hardison really picked you at random? He knew you were one of us." Parker said.
"Okay, "one of us"? What does that mean - "one of us"?" Amy questioned.
"People who have to help." Parker said.
Amy sighed, and put her head in her hands, but then held one out so Parker could put the device on her hand.
"Just… push this button here or whatever?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, just get on right up to their table, and press the button." Parker explained.
"Thanks, Amy." I gave her a smile.
Amy went to leave, but hen turned back around.
"Okay, I got to ask. Is any of this illegal?" Amy asked.
Parker and I looked at each other and scoffed.
"Absolutely not." Parker said.
"Why would you ask that?" I tried brushing it off.
"Okay." Amy said.
She left. Parker and I both sat down at the briefing table, watching the security camera feed. I figured it was now or never. I looked at Parker.
"Park, you know, we all need you, especially Hardison. And not just because you're the best damn thief we know." I told Parker.
"Then why?" Parker asked me.
"Cause you bring out the best in us. Hardison's still a cocky son of a bitch sometimes, but he's smarter about it cause he can't lose you. Eliot and I, you brought out a piece of ourselves we never thought we'd get back and remind us why we fight. You remind Nate why we do this. You give Sophie someone to teach. You help us balance each other out. You're more than the world's greatest thief, Parker. You're our partner in crime. Hardison's, Eliot's, and my partner in crime. Cause there's no one else I would rather be left at the bar with than you. And there's no one else I'd rather climb through these dusty ass vents for than for you." I gave Parker a comforting smile.
"Thank you." Was all Parker managed to say as she wrapped her arm around me and pulled her close to her.
I wrapped my arm around her.
"Your welcome, Park. Just remember that, okay?" I told her.
She gave me a smile and gave me a small kiss on my cheek. I smiled and let go and we looked at the feed.
"Now, whaddya say we get these sons of bitches out of our house?" I gave Parker a smirk.
Parker smirked back. We looked back at the feed, watching Amy as she walked up to the table. She poured their coffee, then spilled some. Amy got close enough and turned on the device.
"Thatta girl." Parker complimented as we saw the data loading.
"Whoa." I muttered as I realized the device worked too well.
Everybody in the bar's phone had been cloned.
"Uh, maybe just a quick peek." Parker said, grabbing the keyboard.
"If you say so." I chuckled a bit.
I grabbed the keyboard from Parker, giving me a scowl.
"Okay, let's see if Sid's cheating on Nancy." I said, pulling up Sid's phone.
I looked through his photos, and found a photo of his super drunk, all up in a woman's business that wasn't Nancy. Parker and I gasped.
"Oh, that's not Nancy." Parker said.
"That son of a bitch!" I exclaimed.
"Ew! Sid! I knew it! You're such a dog!" Parker said.
"Seriously, where the hell's his tongue at? Jesus, I don't think I've ever done that to Eliot." I was kinda disgusted.
Parker grabbed the keyboard back and loaded up Juliet's data.
"Juliet." Parker said.
Parker did some digging into Juliet's web browser, and she was on an online dating site.
"And Romeo" I said. Parker loaded up his dating profile.
"Did you both know that you both love Daft Punk and play the violin?" Parker asked out loud, causing me to chuckle a bit.
"Now do Chicken Parm." I told Parker, getting into this.
Parker loaded up his voicemails. Parker pulled up the oldest voicemail, which was from a guy named Larry at the hospital James, as Chicken Parms name turned out to be, saying how he heard about a woman named Emma. And based on Larry saying he was sorry, I felt horrible. There was another voicemail from 11 days ago, and it was Larry checking in again, asking for James to call if he needed anything, saying the service was beautiful. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Emma was Jame's love, and she died.
And the voicemail from today was that Larry shifted Jame's surgeries to a Dr. Phillips, and they could really use him back. Sadness crept in. No wonder Amy said James was sad. Parker moved on to V and K. Amy came back in.
"Did it work? Whoa." Amy said, seeing the data on the screen.
"Uh-huh. All right, so we've got no voicemails, no e-mails, no photos, but there is a lot of texting, especially from this one person named "O"." Parker pointed out, pulling up the texts. There was a lot of numbers in the texts.
"What about all the numbers?" Amy asked.
"I'm not sure." I said.
"At first, I thought it was some sort of transliteration code, but nothing obvious is stocking out as a match. And they switch to English everytime they order coffee." Parker said.
"Oh, that's what the coffees are for. The "V" guy always leaves, takes two coffees to go, and walks them somewhere." Amy said.
"Where?" I asked Amy.
"I-I don't know. I mean, I've never really thought about it until now." Amy said.
Then another weird text came through. Parker tried getting out of her chair, but I stopped her. I got up and went up to Hardison's electronic desk and grabbed a GPS tracker.
"Amy, we need you to put this bug on the bottom of their coffee cups. From there, we can track where they go." I told Amy.
She agreed and got the bug on the coffee and came back. Parker was sitting on the table, leg extended. I was holding an ice pack on her knee.
"Good job." Parker complimented her.
We watched the dot on the map, but something was off with where the GPS was heading.
"Okay, wait. If this is us and that's them, then are they where I think they are?" Amy questioned.
We both looked to our left. Then Parker got on the outside cameras to confirm. We couldn't find anything. I went with Parker outside. We saw a van with handicap plates with a quick release, a lock on the van's back door. And tires that were immune to spikes. Parker and I went back into the bar to tell Amy what we saw.
"Yeah, so there's a getaway van parked in the alley." Parker told Amy.
"How do you know that's what it is?" Amy asked us.
"Intuition." I said.
"Oh, that's what the numbers are! They're timing splits, like in track and field." Amy realized, walking up to the screen.
"I was a miler for like five minutes at St. Tristan's Prep - in high school. Okay, divide a distance into legs. See? Each number is accumulated time at the end of each leg, so the first leg is 2 minutes and 10 seconds, and the second leg is 60 seconds, which means the total time now is 3 minutes and 10." Amy explained.
"What's the first number?" Parker asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen that before. Oh shoot, I got to go make the trash run. I'll be right back." Amy said, going to leave.
"No, wait. Garbage truck comes at 2:30 every day, right?" Parker asked.
I knew where she was going.
"Right." Amy said.
"What if the garbage truck's not the only truck on a schedule? What do you bet-" I grabbed the keyboard and pulled up some security footage.
"I was right. That first number is clock time. At 2:30 every day, an armored truck pulls up to pick up the daily cash from the jewelry store to move it. Eliot always told me transport is the weakest point to strike. We got when and where." I got excited.
Just then, a text came through on the phone's, saying "greenlight". This was not good.
"In other words, right now." Parker said as I cursed under my breath.
But we didn't see V or K in the security video doing anything.
"What's happening?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. Truck's here." Parker said.
We both had the same thought.
"They're bird-dogging." Parker and I said.
Then we saw V put a finger up.
"That's it. 60 seconds. We got to move." Parker said, hurting herself trying to get up.
"Woah, mama, slow down." I stopped Parker from moving, grabbing her shoulders as Amy helped.
"You okay, Park?" I asked her.
"I'm fine. I got it, I got it, I got it." Parker assured me.
Parker then buckled.
"Okay, you're not going anywhere." I helped Parker stand, much to her objection.
"Okay, tell me." Amy said.
"Tell you what?" Parker asked.
"You know what to do, and I know how to walk - no offense - so let me be your legs." Amy told Parker and me.
"It could ger scary in there." Parker said.
"I get it." Amy said.
I was about to offer to go, but then another cramping episode happened, knocking me to the chair.
"Okay." I nodded to Parker to show Amy could do this.
We made a plan. Parker and I stayed on the couch, and I had taken Motrin and had a heating pad on. Amy went down to the bar, getting a pitcher of sweet tea to take to V and K. Let's just say, Parker and I started a domino effect. Parker may have sent Nancy that photo of Sid cheating. And since Nancy was understandably pissed, so her and Sid blocked the door, threatening to send the photo.
Amy walked, acting like she was going around them, using Nancy's anger and shoving of Sid trying to get the phone to bump into V. V left, but it worked out cause the truck pulled out. There was then a text sent that said "no joy", then abort, meaning the job was called off. Amy came in, still recovering.
"Well, good news is, they're properly flummoxed. But bad news is, we have to wait 24 hours till we go to do it again." Parker said.
"Wait a second." Amy came in front of us.
"You both didn't say anything about them coming back." Amy said.
"Well, of course we want them to come back. How else are we gonna catch them?" Parker pointed out.
"W-We don't. We're gonna call the cops." Amy said.
"Normally, we would agree, but what we've been doing hasn't exactly been legal." I said, giving an apologetic look to Amy.
"Oh, I knew it!" Amy exclaimed, upset with herself.
"Just think of it as more charity work." Parker said, trying to give Amy a smile.
"Okay, but my other charity work doesn't involve having a gun pointed at me." Amy said. "Exactly, that's what I'm saying. Oh, you meant that as a bad thing." Parker said.
I groaned a bit.
"Park, we talked about this. Normal people don't like to have guns pointed at them." I told Parker quietly.
Amy was hunched over, upset.
"You're really serious. You think we can do this." Amy realized.
"I do." Parker said.
"We do." I added.
"Look, these guys aren't that good, which is actually another reason why we should do this, cause sooner or later they're gonna make a mistake." Parker said.
Amy was looking at the feed.
"They could get desperate and hurt the driver or worse, they could start a shootout in the bar while the other one hits the truck. People are gonna get hurt." I explained.
"Look, if we don't catch them, we're letting that happen." Parker said.
I heard Amy sighing, then she turned around.
"So, what's the plan?" Amy asked.
Later that night, Parker was on the phone with Nate, trying to ask for help. But it didn't go well.
"Park." I walked up to her in the hallway.
"Kai, I don't know what to do." Parker said, getting upset.
I grabbed her shoulders.
"Hey, Park, look at me. You can do this. Okay, we can do this. Now, let's go back to the drawing board and go through what we know." I told Parker, getting her calmed down and focused.
We both figured out the thieve's plan was simple. They'd hit the truck, go to the getaway van in the alley, and the fastest way to the alley was the pub. First split is from the truck to the front door, the second split was the time it took to get through the restaurant. Parker had Amy rearrange the tables in the restaurant and told her not to seat anyone at them.
"Right, I'll just tell them we're short on servers. We do it all the time when we don't feel like working." Amy said.
I kinda chuckled a bit as Amy mentally punched herself.
"And you're dating the boss, and you're married to the other boss." Amy said to herself.
I'm not gonna lie, that threw me off a bit. Parker chuckled.
"You guys think of him as the boss?" Parker asked Amy.
"Well, yeah, because that's what he is. And Eliot runs the kitchen, so." Amy said.
"Yeah, guess so. Are they good bosses? Do you-you guys like them?" Parker asked.
"What, are you kidding? They're awesome. But don't take this the wrong way - they're both way too smart for this place." Amy said.
"I agree. He's the smartest man I've ever met, and I've known some very smart men." Parker said.
"Yeah. I'll be damned if Hardison's not cocky 99% of the time, but he's smart enough to live up to it. And Eliot's smart too. Maybe not in the way Hardison is, but he knows a lot, and shows more than he cares to admit sometimes. That's part of the reason I love him. Always cares about everyone." I can't help but smile a tad, thinking about Eliot.
God, I miss the hell out of him.
"And I asked you about a brother, right?" Amy asked us, standing at one of the tables.
"Twice. Each." Parker said.
"Oh, we should sit Romeo and Juliet together and see what happens." Amy suggested.
I chuckled a bit.
"That's genius!" I exclaimed.
"It is?" Amy questioned as Parker left.
"No, no, not what you said. What I thought of. But inspired by what you said." Parker said, hobbling up the stairs.
I ran over to help Parker up. We went back to the screen in the office. Parker had up Romeo and Juliet's dating profiles.
"So, you're going to set up Romeo and Juliet with each other?" Amy questioned.
"No. I have an even better match." Parker said.
Parker pulled up two more dating profiles. Amy left for the night and Parker and I got some sleep. Though, Parker was restless, so she may have come into my room and laid on top of the blanket and curled up to me, anxious about the next day.
Morning came, and we all got ready. I was on the couch with my heating pad on, watching the feed. Parker gave Amy the two coffees for V and K. Parker joined and we waited. Parker was on the recliner, and I was on the arm, feeling were watching the feed together. It was close to 2:30. Amy came in, yelling she was gonna do the trash run early. Parker told her to hurry, cause Romeo and Juliet's dates showed up.
Though we noticed something was wrong when we saw the greenlight text. This was not good at all. Parker tried getting up, but yelled in pain, so I told her to stay put. Though, I heard Parker following me as we realized the truck wasn't at the store. Then it hit us that every day at 2:30, Amy took the trash out. And there was Amy's family business, which she was hesitant to say. Parker got on her phone and looked up Amy's dad, and as it turns out, he's worth $1 billion.
"Shit!" I exclaimed as we both went back to the briefing table to look at the camera feeds.
Parker got on the keyboard and watched as Amy ran into a goon who grabbed her.
"Goddammit! We were wrong!" I exclaimed as I started running out the door.
I managed to run outside and find the van. Parker came up behind me. Luckily, she put her pain pills in the coffee for the drivers. I was able to pick the lock and get Amy out. We then ran inside the bar. We locked the door and Amy hugged us both, sobbing.
"It's okay. You're safe." I comforted Amy.
"Just maybe next time, mention that the family business is multinational." Parker said.
The fire alarm then started going off. And we got Amy to safety and watched the feed, where we watched the two cops point guns at V and K. She then got shot. James jumped in, helping the cop. V and K caught the security cams, and we realized they knew we knew about their plan.
"Dammit!" I exclaimed.
"What does that mean?" Amy asked.
"It means things are about to get a whole lot worse." Parker said.
"We didn't just piss of thieves, we pissed of kidnappers who aren't afraid to shoot cops." I realized.
We hid and we watched as V and K came in, V with his gun drawn. We turned off the lights. V yelled, asking if we thought that turning the lights off scared him, and that we were way in over our heads. I took care of K, punching him a few times, then knocking him out with a punch to the face. Parker used the screen to distract V, then pushed him, his gun gping off. Parker then turned the lights on. The gun was in the middle of Parker and V. I was in the corner by the tables.
I had to think quickly. Parker wasn't able to get to the gun in time. So it was up to me. I ran, causing V to run. I kicked V's hand so he would grab the gun. I pushed the gun away, and Parker used her crutch to trap V's hand. I got up and grabbed the gun and disarmed it. V got up, grabbing Parker's crutch. Parker punched V, and I went in, kicking his kicking his face. Then Parker got a couple hits in with her crutch. I grabbed V's shirt and pulled him up.
"Hey asshat!" I punched V.
"Get out of my house!" I threatened.
I gave one final blow to his head and pushed him to the floor. He was out. I checked Parker, making sure she was okay. Parker and I met the cops at the bar with V and K. They were being escorted out. Parker stopped them. I was beside her.
"Hey, hey, wait." Parker said.
Parker hobbled over and stared at V and K.
"What?" V questioned Parker.
I chuckled.
"I'm gloating." Parker said.
I smiled and chuckled again.
"You picked the wrong bar to play, you sons of bitches." I hissed.
I nodded to the cops to get them out. Parker and I were pleased with ourselves. I mean, we were both not at 100% and we still kicked ass.
A couple of days later, we had a surprise for James, also known as Chicken Parm. The restaurant was closed and no one was there. We saw him walk into the bar. Amy greeted him.
"Nice to see you today." Amy told him.
"How are you doing?" James asked Amy.
"Good. Regular spot?" Amy guided him to his seat at the bar.
"Yeah. Where is everybody?" James asked.
"Eh, slow day. I'll get you some water. I'll be right back." Amy said, leaving.
Parker and I sat down beside him. He turned around and smiled at us. But he didn't recognize us.
"Do I know you two?" James asked.
"Oh, I, uh, work in the back." Parker said.
I lightly tapped her.
"Her boyfriend owns this bar, and my husband is the chef here. I mostly do the drinks." I gave James a slight smile.
"We were here the other day when you saved that cops life." Parker said.
"Just glad I was here." James said.
"Well, phew! I'm sure that cop's happy we swerve a chicken parma." Parker said, putting on an Italian accent to say chicken parma.
"Yeah." James smiled as Parker and I chuckled.
"I guess I order a lot of that." James said.
"You do." I said, gently.
I took a breath.
"You know, I've gotten good at reading people, working in this business. Something tells me there's a reason for that." I said.
"MM, my wife… before… even at her sickest, she'd make it for me. She insisted. Said, uh, making me happy made her feel better." James told us.
I try not to cry. "I'm sorry to hear she…" I said sympathetically.
"Well, she would have been proud of you… the way you stepped up the other day." Parker said, the emotion getting to her.
"Hmm. Thank you both." James said, thinking about his wife I imagine.
"You know what we're gonna do? We are gonna find you a new favorite dish." Parker said.
"What do you say?" I asked him.
Then servers brought out a bunch of food that was made for James to try.
"Whoa." James chuckled, taken back.
"Sheesh. Whoa." James was taken back.
Amy brought out four glasses of white wine for us.
"Well, thank you." Jame thanked Amy.
"No fish. I don't like fish." James told the one server, and all the fish dishes were taken away.
"To new friends, new food, and no fish." Parker proposed a toast.
"No fish." The rest of us said.
"Oh, you gotta try Eliot's chili, it's amazing!" I got excited as I put my glass down.
Parker asked for silverware. We spent a while helping James pick out a new favorite dish.
At night, Parker made some popcorn and I Amy, Parker, and I watched "Night of the Living Dead". I was on the couch in between Parker and Amy, the heating pad on, and aspirin was already taken, and our pajamas were on. Well, I mostly wore Eliot's t-shirt and plaid pants. I heard the doors open and I shot my head back. I saw the rest of my family had returned. Eliot was wearing a pink hoodie, blut top underneath, a black cap, and jeans. He had a bit of a beard going. I saw Eliot smile and I ran up to him.
"Eliot!" I exclaimed as I all but pounced on Eliot, hugging him hard.
"Hey, mama!" Eliot chuckled as I grabbed his shoulders.
I had a huge smile on my face and kissed Eliot.
"Oh, I missed you so much, babe." I told him.
"I missed you too, mama." Eliot smiled back.
I saw Parker and Amy looking at us.
"Hey, you guys remember Amy?" Parker asked the team.
"What's up?" Hardison asked Amy.
Eliot shook his head no. Hardison kissed the top of Parker's head, causing Parker to smile. Parker, Amy, and I looked at each other, not wanting to say what happened.
"So, how was Japan?" Parker asked.
Basically, everyone said it was boring. I was sitting on Eliot's lap at the table.
"How were things here?" Nate asked us, maybe spoting the bullet holes in the rafters.
We said it was borning.
"You know, I don't believe you. And you, you're a part of this. See this - all this? It's not just any zombie movie. This is the original zombie movie. Babe, it's on Blu-Raym, how is it possible to be bored? You know what we're gonna do? We're watching this from the beginning, because obviously, you're doing something wrong." Hardison didn't really give another option.
"I'm in." Eliot said.
I smiled. "Hell yeah." I said.
"Sure. Why not?" Sophie agreed.
"Maybe a little more popcorn?" Nate suggested.
"I'll get some." Amy said.
I went to sit next to Parker while I waited for the team to come back.
"Nice job while we were away." Nate whispered to me and Parker.
A smile crept on our faces. And not long after that, we were all huddled up on the chairs and couches. We watched the movie.
A bit later, I ended up falling asleep. I kinda woke up to Eliot changing as I laid in bed. I just smiled and Eliot laid down.
"Go back to bed, mama." Eliot all but whispered.
I hummed and closed my eyes.
"I missed you." I whispered to Eliot.
"Missed you too. I'm sorry I wasn't here to take care of you." Eliot said.
"Hey, you had to do what you had to do. It's okay." I told Eliot.
I felt his arm wrap around me. And I was content. Eliot and my family were back.