Sorry the characters seem really OCC but I was having trouble writing their speeches.
How Parker met Jovana, Milinka and Stevan
Parker had just had a meeting with a delightful old couple who didn't seem to mind her quirks about her doing a little job for them. Their daughter had gotten lost one day when out in their town and had accidentally stumbled across a warehouse. Wondering if they had a phone she could use or whether they could point her in the right direction of home, she had knocked on the small door at the front of the warehouse only for it to swing open. Assuming this meant she could step inside, she had walked in, calling out to see if anyone was there. Within minutes, there were men with guns surrounding her and demanding to know why she was there and who had sent her. Confused and tired she had denied everything, which had only served to infuriate the men who proceeded to beat her until she was on the brink of death and then dump her on the side of the road to die. She had been incredibly lucky to be found before she died and had been treated in a hospital. She had woken up long enough to tell her story to her parents and tell them she loved them before she died of internal bleeding that the doctors hadn't been able to stop. Her poor elderly parents were devastated as were her husband and children but no one believed her parents when they told them what their daughter had said. No one wanted to anger the men with guns, as they were feared due to rumours. Even the police feared them. Her parents just wanted justice for what they had done to their daughter and had called Parker as a last resort, hearing she was in the area and a few rumours of what she could do.
Parker had to accept. The parents were devastated and it had tugged at her heartstrings, compelling her to agree to a mission way too dangerous to pull off on her own. As much as Parker hated to admit she needed help, she knew there was no way she could take down this gang on her own, especially after what her research had turned up. Thugs, bullies, gunrunners, you name it and they probably would have done it. Parker may have been brushing up on her fighting skills and be at an adequate level but she was in no way shape or form good enough to take these guys on her own. She knew she had to call in outside help and her first thought had been Eliot. This thought however had pained her greatly, the pain of the split of the team and them leaving her like everyone else always had was too much for her and that option was ruled out as soon as she thought of it. He was the best she knew though, and there was only one other hitter she knew that was even close to Eliot's standard. But Parker hated him almost as much as she hated Sterling for causing the team to split up. She knew she needed him though, so Parker picked up the phone and made the call.
Quinn had been in a short lull after he had finished his previous job and didn't have another lined up yet. He had taken quite a beating from Eliot Spencer from their little fight in the aircraft hanger, and he was still kicking himself for losing. He was just relaxing when the shrill sharp tone of his phone indicated he had a call. Lazily, he reached out and scooped the infernal thing up before it rang through, in case it was a new job to do. He didn't recognize the number, but he answered anyway with a gruff "Quinn".
The voice that responded shocked him upright from his relaxed position on his sofa. "I really hate you right now, but I need your help," Parker ground out through gritted teeth. She hated to admit she needed help, especially to someone who had caused her family to split up.
Quinn was shocked, he recognized the voice that seemed to be very reluctantly asking him for help, but he was still bitter from his fight against Spencer and so he replied "Why not ask your little pet hitter to help you if you hate me so much?"
Parker knew he wouldn't just ask her what he could do like Eliot would have done ,and the thought of him so willing to help made her want to cry. She chocked on a sob and muttered "I knew this was a bad idea, forget I ever called and don't tell anyone about this or I will make you regret you were ever born." She knew it wouldn't have the effect she wanted, but it made her feel better.
Quinn almost laughed at the threat from the little blonde thief who he had admired immensely in her talent, but he had heard her crying and despite being a hard, unfeeling hitter, he had a weakness for crying women. They made him feel bad and so he said to her "Look I'm sorry, I just didn't expect to get a phone call from you of all people asking for help from me when you hate me and Spencer kicked my butt. Aren't you part of a team anyway? Why me?" He tried hard to be nice to her and then maybe she would stop crying. He was surprised she hadn't hung up on him yet. Everyone seemed to think he was tied to IYS and James Sterling but the truth was he was hired help to try and capture Sterling's old rival. It had been too good of an opportunity to pass up, a chance to be remembered for taking down the most untouchable group of thieves, but he had admired the blonde thief. She had proved her capabilities tenfold with her antics, and he found himself intrigued. He may have been a lone wolf but what sane hitter would turn down the opportunity to work with a hot and talented thief?
Parker wasn't sure why she hadn't hung up yet. Quinn seemed to be nicer to her at this point, and she was still holding out some hope that he could help her. She really wanted justice for the young woman and her family, so she bit her lip and started to tell him the story. "You can't tell anyone please. I need to know you won't tell anyone," she said and after his affirmative due to his building curiosity she continued. "The team split up, they decided it was too dangerous to stay together so they just upped and left me and I felt so alone so I started working on my own again but it just wasn't the same so I started up my own version of helping people like we did as a team but on my own and I was in Serbia and this elderly couple approached me and asked for my help and the bad guys have so many guns and they are really dangerous and I can't do it alone but I can't just not do anything and I couldn't ring Eliot because he left me and you were the next best hitter I knew and ..." Parker just blurted out the whole story as quickly as she could to get it over and done with, trailing off when she didn't really know what to say.
"That's not really my kind of job," Quinn replied confused as to what she wanted from him. "I don't help people."
"But you beat them up," was Parker's reply and it was so innocent but made so much sense.
"You want me to beat up the guys with the guns while you do what?" Quinn asked, catching on but was quite frankly shocked that he was even considering helping her. Something was making him listen though, and there was just something pulling at him to help her.
She was surprised he was still listening and picking it up, but it pleased her and so she replied with more confidence. "Find out what they were doing, what were hiding, and then find evidence to show it and get them arrested somehow, preferably with them tied up and unable to hurt anyone."
She seemed so sure of herself that Quinn found himself agreeing to help her and saying he would fly out as soon as possible. The squeal she gave made him pull the phone away from his ear to prevent her from deafening him, but it made something inside of him feel good that he was helping her out so he noted her directions and started planning even as he clicked the phone off.
Days later, Quinn was now in Serbia waiting for the blond thief to pick him up and take him to her hideout, where they would plan the rest of the job and rest up until the perfect moment to strike. He looked around him but couldn't see her, so he turned back around and was shocked to see her right in front of him. Being shocked seemed to become a theme for him when it came to the thief. He was once again shocked when she socked him hard in the arm, surprisingly powerful for her size, and then hugged him.
"You broke up my family so I hate you, but you're helping me so I like you," she told him when she pulled back, as though it was blatantly obvious why she had done what she had done. Funnily enough, it did seem to make sense, but Quinn didn't have much time to dwell on it as Parker started to drag him off after her and towards her hide out.
Parker had commandeered a nice roomy old abandoned warehouse near the warehouse used by the gunrunners with only one entrance and exit, a door that was the only one that wasn't boarded up, and she had put a new lock on it to make sure she was kind of safe. After checking to see if there were any signs that someone else had been there, and when she was satisfied there wasn't, she unlocked the door and let herself and Quinn in, padlocked the door on the inside, and put a metal bar down. She wasn't taking any risks with these people.
Quinn watched her lock them securely in, pleased that she seemed to have been protecting herself, and looked around. It appeared Parker had furnished the place sparsely as there were two mattresses lying on the ground. It wasn't the worse place he'd ever stayed in, but it certainly wasn't the best either. But then she didn't want to let anyone know that there was anyone there, so she couldn't have brought too much in.
They got down to planning straight away and gave themselves three days to get ready and then they would hit the place. Quinn would go in, knock them out one by one, hogtie them so they couldn't move, and gag them so they couldn't warn anyone. Parker would sneak in and look for evidence of their illegal activities. They were both surprised to find that they worked well together and actually got along quite well, both developing a mutual respect for each other and their work.
Soon enough the day came that they would be 'stealing a bad guy's headquarters and his bad guys' as Parker put it so eloquently and all went according to plan to start with. Quinn had taken out the majority of them in a surprise attack and was scouring the extensive building for any stragglers he had missed. Parker had downloaded all the files off of the computers onto memory sticks and was just about to leave when she heard a noise from a side room. Checking that there was none else around, she peeked through the gap that the door was open, and the sight she was confronted with hit her hard with sadness and a sense of déjà vu as she remembered the last time she had been in Serbia with her team.
She was so caught up with the sight in front of her that she didn't even hear the door click shut behind her where she had shut it accidentally. The room was filled with orphans, or she assumed they were from the beds and the condition of them. Several looked like they had been beaten and they all looked filthy and tired. Suddenly, she remembered she had to get out of there, so she turned to open to door thinking she could sneak the orphans out as they had done before, but the door would not budge. Apparently, it had locked when it had closed, and there was no lock on the inside that she could pick to get them all out of there. Parker was well and truly stuck.
It was in that moment that she missed the technological connection she had had with her team and then she remembered her phone. She scooped it out of her pocket but was dismayed to find that she had no signal. Quinn meanwhile had hogtied them all together and, from their planning, it looked like he had all of them. He loaded them into a truck after checking them for any weapons and abandoned the truck just outside of the town. He had found the memory sticks that Parker had downloaded all the information and some photos on to and assumed she had left them for him and so posted them to the police department anonymously. He made his way back to the warehouse but was surprised to find that Parker wasn't there. Assuming she would turn up later, he laid down for a nap.
Parker, meanwhile, was lost. She didn't have her Serbian phrasebook with her, and all the children were staring at her. She raised a hand and a few flinched to her dismay. Gently and slowly she waved it back and forth in a wave and watched as they relaxed slightly. "Hi," she said in the hope that they would understand just enough English to understand her greeting. To her surprise, she was bombarded with many replies in English as it became clear that they all knew very good English and could converse with her very well.
In the following hours she was told by all of the orphans how the bad men outside had killed their parents and taken them and their siblings to force them to work for them and how they beat them if they didn't think they were doing well enough or just because sometimes. Parker was horrified by their stories, but she was touched by three the most. Jovana, Milinka and Stevan had all been only children and had been the only ones without siblings when they had been brought in. They had formed a close knit group and seemed to become more attached to her as time went on. Slowly, one by one the children fell asleep, tired from a long days work, and Parker watched as the three she secretly favoured snuggled up to her in their sleep and clung to her like she was their last lifeline. Parker just hoped someone found them soon.
As it turned out it would be another one and a half days before they were found. The orphans had hoarded some food, and it was shared out little by little to keep them going as they were all locked in the singular room with no escape route. The story telling continued and they played a few games that they could in the confined quarters. Jovana, Milinka and Stevan became closer and closer to Parker as she hugged and comforted them when they were upset and looked after them when some of the bigger kids got a little too rough with them and they all ended up with nicknames, becoming Jo, Millie and Steve respectively. They started to refer to Parker as their big sister. She looked after them like they thought a big sister would do, and Parker found herself getting attached to the trio. She just wanted to protect them.
Quinn waited another day and a half for Parker to arrive in which time he became increasingly worried for her, and wondered where she could have gone. It finally hit him when he saw a newspaper saying that an anonymous tip had lead to the arrest of the gang found tied up in a van. The memory stick! She hadn't left it there for him. She had never left! Quinn hurried over to the warehouse. Had he missed one, had they hurt Parker, had he failed her? He scoured the warehouse once again until he had checked every inch but one room, a locked door near to the room where the computers had been.
He regarded the lock, but it was more Parker's speciality than his, so he just called out stand back in the hopes that anyone in there would hear him and slammed his boot into the door. It swung violently open and when he looked inside, Quinn found himself slack jawed at the sight within. There were rows of beds with children cowering on them and in the middle, protecting three of them from any possible danger, was Parker, looking slightly tired and a little worse for wear but alive and well. Now he may not be a good guy, but he never involved children and by the looks of things they had been abused as well, which made Quinn's blood boil.
Parker was relieved to see the man entering the room was Quinn, and she couldn't help but throw her arms around him and hug him and was surprised when, for the first time, he hugged her back.
"Let's get them out of here," Quinn said in her ear, and she just nodded as she turned to address them. Jo, Millie and Steve clung to her as the two adults led them all outside to Quinn's truck. Quinn told Parker to wait with them and drove off only to return many minutes later with a bus big enough to transport all the kids in. Parker grinned at him and helped them all on.
Just before Parker could get on Quinn stopped her. "What are we going to do with them?" he asked, wondering what Parker was planning. He watched as her face fell and knew this was the moment she had been dreading. "You really got along with them didn't you?" he said.
Parker nodded, looking at him sadly. She knew she couldn't keep all the kids, but she had connected with them so well.
"You can't keep them all," Quinn started. "But maybe if you really don't want to give them up then you could take some of them with you." He wasn't really sure why he said it. It wouldn't be practical, but he couldn't bear to see her looking so sad and when her face lit up in a grin, he knew he had said the right thing. Parker started to tell him all about Jo, Millie and Steve and how she could train them to be her little protégés.
She continued like this until Quinn gently stopped her and reminded her she had to speak to the others first. Parker went into the bus and explained to the children what was going to happen. She told them her friend had taken care of all the big bad men and that they couldn't hurt them again. They were going to drop them off at the police where they could tell them what had happened, but they couldn't say anything about her or her friend.
She told them they were going to go to a big house where they could get adopted and to make sure that they told the police who their siblings were, and to take them to a certain orphanage, the one that the other orphans she had rescued were. When she told them that she was taking Jo, Millie and Steve with her, there were a few tears and many wanted to come with her as well, but she explained that they could have a happy family come and collect them and that she couldn't provide for more than three.
It took a little more persuasion and bribing with Hagen-Daaz, but they finally agreed to her story as long as she came to visit them at the orphanage and wrote to them to which she readily agreed. Quinn smiled as he watched Parker explain so gently to the kids, and at her nod he drove the bus and abandoned it near the police station where it would be found. Tearful goodbyes were said, with most of the tears being from Parker, and the Quinn, Parker, Jo, Millie and Steve slipped off and watched from a distance until the orphans were found.
They all left the country under false identities, having created some for the kids. Once in America again, Quinn and Parker said goodbye and promised to stay in touch. They had become quite good friends and had become quite protective of each other. Parker had forgiven Quinn for breaking up her family eventually as he hadn't left her and he had come back for her. Parker watched him leave and then turned to the kids and smiled. She had a new family now, one that Quinn had helped her build, and for that, she was very grateful. She would definitely have to introduce him to the Mortons at some point. He was part of her family now, whether he liked it or not, but first she had to forge some paperwork!
Thanks to my beta reader for this dandelion518 and to hugabugcraze19 who also gave me some help.