Disclaimer: See chapter 1.
Author's note: I know I've been updating slower. Every time I get stuck I start something new, but I'm going to try and do better! Everything I write will be finished in a more or less timely manner (i.e. you won't be waiting years! I'll almost always finish within a month or two at the most, if I'm truly stuck).
This chapter is longer because it's been over a week, and because if I split it I'd have two chapters very uneven in length.
XXXXXX
A half hour later, after explaining the situation in detail to Dr. Foster, she and Nate were being subjected to too many questions – and uncomfortable ones at that.
No matter how many times they insisted the incident had been a colossally disastrous mistake, Dr. Foster wouldn't agree to simply sign off on their forms. She insisted they follow her entire 10 session program, especially when she learned they had known each other for over two years. She cited something about the integrity of her process, but Parker could tell by the woman's eagerness that she seemed to take it personally if a couple under her watch decided to end things for good.
Another thing to blame Nate for. She should make a list, to prove to him just how much he was going to owe her.
"The whole thing was an accident," Parker tried to explain, again. "Neither of us even remember that night!"
"I see," Dr. Foster said. "And what about the four months since then. Was it also an accident you remained married for that entire time?"
"Yes!" Parker said, excited that the woman seemed to be getting it. "Now you understand."
"What I understand is that you seem to think I'm not that bright," Foster narrowed her eyes.
The woman made it too easy! Parker was about to reply when Nate stopped her.
"Parker." From his tone she could hear everything. Wariness, resignation, and a desperate plea to simply play along because it was the fastest way they were getting out of this.
She glanced over and met his eyes. She didn't want to, but maybe he was right. Maybe they simply had to do this to get to the end. The end of their marriage. She shifted uncomfortably at the thought.
"I think," Nate tried to explain to Foster, "you don't truly understand that we've been the victim of unfair judges."
"What makes you say that?" Foster asked, deciding to give them a chance to explain about this supposed 'bias' so that she could point out the ludicrousness of their paranoia and then move on to actual counseling.
"I tried everything with Judge Galen," Parker complained. "I even told her that Nate's probably a serial killer."
"I'm – Parker stop saying that!" Nate bit out with frustration.
"Well – what?" Foster turned to Nate in alarm. "Why would your wife think you're a murderer?"
"He bought duct tape the other day," Parker said quickly. When Nate turned to her she held up her hands as if innocent. "I'm just saying."
"I had a reason for buying that," Nate told the counselor, and couldn't believe he had to defend himself for this.
"I think there are some underlying –" Foster started, only to have Nate interrupt her.
"You know why I bought it Parker! It was for –" he stopped, realizing that it wouldn't be too smart to bring up that they'd needed it to detain a Russian art smuggler for a day in their last job. Come to think of it, what legal reasons did people use duct tape for? "We uh, had to…hang that painting. There are plenty of legitimate reasons people buy duct tape!"
Parker nodded. "For tying up victims, yeah."
"I have to say," Foster cut in, "that if you're making up lies about your spouse in an attempt to get me to think that –"
"It's not a lie!" Parker insisted. "He really bought duct tape!"
"When we get home I may just use it on you," Nate told her.
"You said you'd never tie me up," Parker accused.
"If I'd known how much trouble you were going to cause me, I wouldn't have made such a promise!"
Dr. Foster looked increasingly upset. "It appears things are worse than you've both told me, and this may be an uncomfortable question but it's best to get these issues out in the open. I've found that when you shine the light of openness on a relationship, the darkness often disappears."
Parker spared a quick glance at Nate, happy to find he looked as confused by that statement as she did.
"Have either of you been abusive in your relationship, either physically or emotionally?"
Parker was honestly floored at the question. The woman thought Nate would hurt her? It was an appalling thought that couldn't be further from any truth out there. "No way," Parker swore.
"Abuse can go both ways," Foster said, directing this at Nate.
"Wait, are you suggesting that maybe I am the one abusing Nate? That is ridiculous!" Parker laughed.
Foster shook her head gravely. "Abuse is not gender specific, Mrs. Ford."
Parker bristled, at both the implied accusation and the title. "You're wrong." She looked to Nate for help.
Truthfully, the suggestion had frozen him for a minute. He knew it was a standard question, but the thought that this woman considered the possibility that he would harm Parker – it made him furious, especially considering what he knew of her past.
"She would never be abusive," Nate confirmed to Foster. "And I would never hurt her."
"I'm glad to –" Foster began.
"If anyone else did," he leaned forward as if she hadn't spoken, "I would kill them."
Foster watched him, surprised at the vehemence in his tone. Parker almost reached over to touch him. Almost.
"Though I can understand why it might sometimes seem like we hurt each other," Nate continued, "especially when my wife jokes that I'm a murderer. She has a macabre sense of humor."
"It was…light-hearted banter!" Parker confirmed quickly.
"Uh huh," Foster jotted something in her notebook, as she'd been doing the whole session, and Parker wanted to rip it out of her hands to read it.
Ten minutes later, Foster had finally cornered Parker on her obviously negative attitudes toward marriage, and asked if it might have anything to do with a difficult childhood. Parker merely stared the woman down in response, and Nate stepped in, talking about his first marriage to Maggie.
Parker found herself witness to a side of Nate she'd never really given much thought to before. He really had loved his first wife; maybe he still did. Parker was inclined to think if their son hadn't died, they'd still be a happy family today.
And that made her wonder – where would she be?
For the first time since she'd started working on Nate's team, she found she couldn't clearly picture being on her own anymore.
More than that, she couldn't picture herself without him, and if she'd told that to her former self – the one who Nathan Ford had tried to track down several years before – she'd never have believed it.
As Nate talked about how he had sworn to never marry again (and she hadn't known that either), Parker absently reached into her pocket, feeling the ring there. She had forgotten to leave it at home. She never put it on (except, presumably when they got married, though she couldn't remember that). Yet for some reason, the majority of the time she found herself carrying it with her. At first she chalked it up to absent-mindedness. But now, over four months later, she worried she might feel some sentimentality over it – or God forbid – this marriage, and the thought scared her to death.
She would have to get rid of it as soon as she got home.
"I think that about wraps up our time, I look forward to seeing you both next week. Parker, since we focused so much on Nate today, we'll have to spend time on you in the next session."
"Sure," Parker said, in a tone which clearly conveyed they would be doing no such thing.
"Remember the homework I gave you," Foster said as they left her office.
"What homework?" Parker asked as they crossed to the elevators. She must have been daydreaming during that part.
Nate handed her some of the papers he was holding, and she skimmed them in disbelief. "How am I supposed to know any of this stuff!" She exclaimed. "What are your spouse's long-term goals? Dreams? Likes and dislikes? Occupation?"
He glared at her for that one. "How do you not know what I do by now?"
"I can't exactly put criminal mastermind on here, can I?" She said as they stepped into the elevator.
"Mastermind? Really?" He sounded far too flattered.
"Oh, never mind," she said.
"According to the instructions," he pointed to the top paragraph, "we're supposed to fill them out about each other and then we compare and see how many we got right."
"She can't make us do this," Parker complained, and threw the papers away as they left the building.
Nate didn't say anything, though he had to smile – he'd known she would throw them away. Too bad there was no question about that.
XXXXXX
As it turned out, Foster was none too happy with the fact that Parker had thrown everything away, and after a stern lecture at their next session, she received another packet and, as a delightful bonus, trust exercises to perform with each other.
"I told you," Nate shook his head as they got back to his apartment. "You wouldn't listen."
"The woman is insane," Parker dropped the papers on the kitchen table. "And to think she had the gall to order we get a witness to sign off that we actually did this stuff! 'The honor system obviously doesn't work for you two,'" she mimicked. "As if I couldn't simply sign the name of a person who doesn't even exist." Nate barely hid his smile as Sophie picked up the papers and scanned through them.
"Oh my gosh! Trust exercises – I love these!"
"Thanks a lot, Nate," Eliot complained. "Do you have any idea what you just did?"
Sophie ignored him, skimming through what Nate and Parker were supposed to do. "Haven't any of you done these before?"
"No," Parker told her. "Come on, who would I have done them with?"
Nate didn't see much point to it. "I think we all trust each other. We wouldn't be working together if we didn't."
"Then let's prove it," Sophie said, still excited. "We'll see what we really think of each other on a more personal level."
"We're not doing them," Parker said firmly, looking to Nate for support. He agreed with her but kept silent, because maybe Sophie had a point. He was interested to see how they reacted. "You're supposed to agree with me," Parker complained once she realized he wouldn't back her up, "that's what marriage is about!"
"There's something you and Maggie have in common," he muttered.
"You are both doing them," Sophie ordered. "In fact, we're all going to do them."
"I did not agree to that!" Eliot argued.
"You didn't have to," Sophie said, letting him know she'd accept nothing but cooperation.
"Fine, but I'm doing this for them," he walked over to Nate and Parker, throwing an arm around each of them, as if he actually cared about their counseling sessions, "not because of your threat."
"Oh please," Sophie complained. "No one's buying it."
Parker sat down at the table and shuffled the papers; she wanted badly to set them on fire. "This is such a waste of time."
"It's to strengthen your relationship," Sophie said enthusiastically. "You two won't regret it, I promise."
"Is this going to be like the time you promised we'd enjoy your role in I Swear To God I Still Know What You Did Last Summer?" Parker complained, "Because it really doesn't take that much work to lay on a table in the morgue –"
"Parker, no," Nate hissed as he stepped up behind her, hoping Sophie wouldn't get too upset at the comment.
Eliot sensed Sophie's rising anger and tried to intervene to distract her. "I think maybe we should start!" He said, picking up a paper and waving it around.
"We don't need your help, Eliot," Parker told him, starting to stand. "In fact, I have to get going, you four have fun with –"
Sophie slammed her hands down on the table so hard that Parker fell back into her seat. "You're not going anywhere unless you want me to call Dr. Foster."
"Nate," Parker whispered without looking away from the grifter, "Sophie's being evil."
"At least we'll suffer together," Nate told her, trying to sound optimistic as he looked down at her. She tilted her head back to look up at him and he put his hands on her shoulders. "We'll survive."
"More than that," Sophie said dramatically, "we'll trust."
Nate thought maybe he should have agreed with Parker in the first place on there being no need for this. Too late now.
"It's settled…" Sophie said, entirely too pleased with herself. "Hardison, get over here."
Hardison had been lounging on the couch in the living room, ignoring them with success, but when Sophie called his name he couldn't pretend to be oblivious anymore. "Did you two have a thought-provoking session with Dr. Foster?" He asked as he walked to where Sophie instructed.
Parker didn't answer and Nate shook his head. He had no idea how they were going to get through eight more sessions in such a way as to make their counselor satisfied they had actually done what she suggested. Today hadn't helped when Parker had told the woman that either she was an extraordinary forger of Yale University degrees or else that institution had lost all respect in her eyes for giving her a doctorate.
"First up," Sophie read from the packet. "Balance exercises! I love these." She positioned Hardison and Eliot to face each other. "Now you both hold each other's hands and then lean backwards. The trust part comes in that the other person isn't going to let go and let you fall."
Eliot was more horrified by the minute. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm not doing that with him!" He went off to the fridge to grab a drink, preferably something alcoholic.
Sophie sighed, put out. "Fine, Hardison and I will do it." She took his hands and leaned back.
Unfortunately, she had no idea that Hardison had to screw up everything. He didn't know how to do the exercise and panicked, pulling on her hands so hard that she stumbled and nearly fell on top of him as he took a few steps back.
"Hardison!" She complained. "The object is to hold onto your partner – not to pull them over on top of you."
"Wait, maybe I do want to try these," Eliot smirked at Sophie, as she ignored him.
"This is hard," the hacker complained, "how am I supposed to know the appropriate amount to pull you?"
"Let's try again," she ordered as they reset themselves. Parker watched with interest as once again, Hardison pulled too hard on Sophie in panic and she ended up nearly falling onto him.
"This looks like fun," Parker remarked as Sophie berated Hardison on the fact that it wasn't rocket science.
Sophie dragged Eliot over and demonstrated the way to properly do it. They both leaned back and neither of them fell.
"I can't believe you couldn't figure this out," Eliot told Hardison. "Though maybe I shouldn't be surprised, since you're often inept at the simplest of things."
While the two of them got into a bickering match, Sophie ordered Nate and Parker to do the same exercise.
Parker tentatively held out her hands, staring hard at him. "If you let go of me, I will be exacting my revenge in an unnamed manner, at an unnamed time, on an unnamed date in the future," she warned.
"That's…real specific," he said, taking her hands. "I was going to let go of you, but now that you said that, I'll reconsider."
"Are you taking this lightly?" She nearly yelled. "Foster is going to be hearing about this at our next session."
"Relax, Parker," he soothed, giving Sophie a glance to indicate he was completely out of his depth. Sophie was no help and only motioned for them to get on with it.
Parker didn't lean back until he did so first. And she held Nate's hands with a near deathly grip, but it didn't bother him. Instead, he only thought that maybe he should be going easier on her because if she didn't trust him to not let go of her, then she probably didn't trust anyone at all. And it aggravated him, because he really should have figured that out before now.
When neither of them fell, Parker considered it a remarkable feat.
"Brilliant!" Sophie said, making a flourishing checkmark on Foster's trust exercise sheet. "See how easy that was?"
"Easy? Like hell!" Hardison scoffed.
"What's next?" Sophie said, scanning the sheet. "Oh, blindness!"
"Huh?" Parker asked, as Sophie ran upstairs to get some of Nate's ties. She picked up the sheet and read that one partner had to be blindfolded while the other led them around. No way in hell. "Nate, our counselor is Satan!"
Nate put his arm around her in sympathy.
"Here you go, Hardison," Sophie returned, handing him a tie, as Hardison backed away.
"You must have damn near lost your mind, woman, if you think I'm going to put that around my head!"
Sophie pouted and then turned to Eliot, holding out a tie. "Would you?"
Eliot looked as if he were severely wavering, but then he gave in to her, as everyone knew he would. "Fine, but you owe me."
"Trust me, I'll make it up to you later," Sophie assured him. "Nate, you don't mind if we bring some of these home, do you?"
"If you do, never bring them back," Nate ordered.
Sophie smiled broadly at that as she tied it around Eliot's head. "Okay, Hardison, get over here."
"Wait!" Eliot cried, "I thought you'd be leading me around, Sophie."
"Why?" She asked. "We already trust each other, which defeats the point. You need to learn to trust someone else. Like Hardison."
"I don't trust Hardison. I don't trust Hardison!" Eliot said, panicked, reaching out to try and grab hold of Sophie but she was able to evade him at the last moment.
"Now Hardison," Sophie said right over Eliot's protests, "all you have to do is lead Eliot safely down to the bar and back. You're his eyes. Now go!" She gave them both a shove to get started and Eliot fell into the kitchen counter. "Oh, Hardison you should have caught that, remember you're his eyes!"
"Sophie…" Eliot's tone said all that needed to be said. Only she wasn't going to give in, and he must have known it because he sighed with frustration.
Hardison gingerly took Eliot's arm, as if he thought the other man might snap it off. The other three watched them leave the apartment with no small amount of fascination and trepidation.
"I don't know if this the best –" Parker stopped talking when they heard a shrill scream (Hardison) followed by a crash and profuse swearing (Eliot).
"Uh oh," Sophie whispered, as they all rushed to the doorway. Hardison and Eliot came back up the stairs, Eliot obviously in pain and Hardison trying to stay as far away from him as possible.
"It was an accident," Hardison said, "I swear!"
"You're dead, Hardison. I can't believe you didn't tell me there were stairs coming up!"
"It slipped my mind!" Hardison protested.
"Tell me I can lead him next," Eliot pleaded to Sophie. "Because I'll lead him right out the window."
"I think that you two are done," Sophie said warily, then brightened as she turned to Nate and Parker. "You two are next."
"I will set on fire anyone who tries to blindfold me," Parker said firmly.
Sophie tried to convince an unrelenting Parker until Nate finally stepped in. "Sophie, forget it, we'll do that one another time. What's the next one?"
Sophie frowned, unhappy at being overruled, but she told them about the next item on the list. "Trust falls! Hardison, you fall backwards and Eliot will catch you."
Eliot mumbled this was a waste of time because he wasn't the one in counseling, but Sophie only told him to shut up.
"On three, man, you ready?" Hardison asked.
"Whatever, Hardison."
Hardison didn't move, though. "You're going to let me fall on purpose, aren't you, because of that…stairway incident."
"Just fall and get it over with!"
"That wasn't an answer," Hardison complained.
Eliot felt he was going to need to provoke a bar fight later on to get over this horrible day. "I'm not going to let you fall because Sophie told me if I play nice – I'll spare you the details."
"Oh man, it's something dirty, isn't it?" Hardison grinned. "High five!" His smile vanished when Eliot's face didn't change one bit.
"Would you two get on with it," Parker groaned, letting her head fall onto the table. "You're worse than a couple!"
"On three," Hardison said again. "Not right before three, or right after three, but on three. Alright. Here it is. One, two...no, I'm not ready. Okay, one, two…no wait, is that pace too fast?"
"Hardison!" Eliot and Sophie yelled in unison.
"Fine!" He said, indignant. "One, two…let me start over. "
Parker couldn't take it and stood up from the table. "This is ridiculous."
"Hardison, if you don't fall this time –" Eliot began.
"I'm fine, I needed to get ready." He jumped up and down a few times, stretching. "This time, for real."
He loudly counted and right as he said three, Parker angrily pushed her way past both of them. "I have no idea what this is supposed to prove," she said, as Eliot barely caught himself on a kitchen chair – and Hardison landed on the floor.
"What the hell, man?" Hardison jumped up. "Trust. Exercises. How can I ever trust you again?"
"It's not my fault, Parker shoved past me!" Eliot defended himself, as Hardison angrily went back to the couch, insisting his faith in Eliot was irreparably shattered.
"Maybe you two should be in counseling," Nate suggested.
"Forget them," Sophie said, "now you two come here and try."
"I don't want to," Parker said, defiantly crossing her arms and attempting to stare Sophie down.
However, when Sophie got an idea in her head, she sometimes simply could not let it go. "You already got out of the blindfold one, you're not getting out of this one, too. Look how easy it is, Parker," Sophie fell backwards, and Nate, not expecting it, barely caught her in time. "Trust – it's the basis of any solid relationship."
"I don't need anyone to catch me," Parker argued, "I rely on myself just fine."
"And what if that isn't enough?" Sophie argued, following along with the hypothetical scenario. "What if you can't catch yourself?"
"Then I land on the floor. And I get up again," Parker said coldly.
"Come on, Parker," Nate tried. "So that Sophie will let it go and we can move on."
"No." She would not do something so ridiculous.
"I'll tell Foster on you," Nate warned. "She'll give you even more homework."
"You wouldn't," Parker gasped, shocked at the betrayal.
"Try me," he challenged.
"I hate you," she muttered as he stood behind her, "and I'm going to tell her you forced me to do this. Then we'll see what she has to say about lack of trust in this relationship."
They waited. And waited. "I'm ready," Nate told her, and she tried, she did. She shut her eyes. She imagined there was nothing to fear. She tried to clear her head of every thought it contained. But she simply couldn't give in and let herself fall. She stopped herself every time.
Sophie tried enthusiastic encouragement. "Come on, Parker, you can do it."
"Falling is not that hard, Parker," Hardison told her (ignoring the way Eliot and Sophie started ridiculing him that he was one to talk).
Eliot said he didn't understand how someone who could jump off buildings couldn't lean backwards when it was a five foot distance to the floor.
Parker figured it out though, in her ten minutes of hemming and hawing and otherwise procrastinating. Anyone could perform the jumps she did if they knew how to do it right. She always prepared her own harnesses and she knew they would catch her without fail. Because she set them up herself.
This type of exercise didn't have a safety net, something she could put in place to ensure she didn't hit the ground.
"I can't take it!" Sophie finally yelled, shoving Parker toward Nate.
Parker reached out to grab Sophie and steady herself, but she was too late. Luckily Nate was still waiting and caught her with ease. Parker took a moment to compose herself, and it scared her, it truly did, that such a simple thing had caused her an amount of anxiety she hadn't felt in over a decade. What the hell was going on?
"I think," she told Sophie angrily, as Nate held onto her arms to keep steadying her, "that you and I need to have a conversation about trust."
"Sophie," Nate said, irritated, "how does pushing her over help with a trust exercise?"
"Your wife needed to learn you would catch her, didn't she?" Sophie shrugged, feeling irrationally upset. How dare they get angry at her when she seemed to be the only one who cared about them completing their counselor's lessons and obtaining the annulment they both claimed they wanted?
"You're having way too much fun with this," Parker growled.
Nate decided Sophie wasn't worth dealing with at the moment. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked Parker carefully.
Parker absently noted that he was still holding onto her, unsure if she was alright after being startled.
"Yes," she told him, forcing herself to step away. "It was."
To her chagrin he ignored all rules about personal space and stepped closer to her again, leaning in to whisper in her ear – so only she could hear – "I would never let you fall."
She glanced up at Nate, a question in her eyes she couldn't fully form, even to herself, before seeming to shake herself back into awareness and moving away again. He watched as she pressed a hand to the silver chain around her neck, almost without thought.
He didn't comment, though he found it odd. He'd never seen her wear jewelry before.
XXXXXX
TBC – reviews welcome.