step by step
An NCIS fic collection
by mew-tsubaki
- ^-^3
imagine: miscellany 6—opinions (this post on the sideblog: 695145063033061376/ parknight-imagines-miscellany-6-opinions)
tags: s19e21, pre?implied?Parknight
- ^-^3
The hours tick down like the remaining seconds on a bomb's counter. They don't have long until the FBI realizes they're no longer paying NCIS a professional courtesy, that NCIS has been using every stalling tactic in the book to keep Parker a free man.
Knight doesn't need to voice her anxiety to see McGee and Torres share in it. McGee's a little too fidgety, brimming with extra energy as he arranges the go bag for Parker. Torres' eyes linger on the items, his gaze half focused here and yet unfocused, possibly on someone else who left with too little notice this past year, also accused of crimes she didn't commit…
But Knight stops that train of thought there, because Parker will be back. He has to come back.
As if summoned by thought, Parker pulls in to the evidence garage, cutting it close, because Vance ought to be stalling the agents Sweeney sent to arrest him upstairs by now. He reloads his gun and takes a peek into the bag as McGee does most of the run-down, Knight and Torres adding their two cents and then some.
The last thing Parker does after he thanks them is take a good, long look at each of them, as if burning them into his memory, should everything go utterly sideways. Then he turns to double-check the car and the trunk for other necessities.
Knight notes the blond bob sitting up in the front passenger seat, and she darts to Vivian's door after McGee's depressing remark about them all maybe job-hunting soon (at best). She's got a minute before Parker and Vivian head off into the unknown, so Knight blurts, "Good luck."
Vivian blinks and rolls her window down two inches. "…thanks," she says. So nervous, this one—must come with the job.
Knight offers Vivian her most reassuring REACT smile. "Watch out for yourself, but Parker, too, yeah? We like him a lot around here."
"Park's always been one to take care of himself."
"No, I know… And he handles himself well…" Knight's smile, like her words, falter.
For the longest five seconds, Vivian's eyes stay on her, sizing Knight up. Her eyes narrow by a fraction, growing cold? Envious? Who can tell? "…I don't remember the last time someone had such faith in Park."
Knight opens her mouth to state that Parker's demonstrated his abilities to them about a dozen times over by now…but Vivian's pointed stare implies that the blonde's aware of how vocal Knight, in particular, has been in her support of him during this case. So she shuts up.
Vivian frowns and stares out the windshield. "The last time I believed in him and his ability to fix the world, though, the fairytale ended."
Just like that, her minute with Vivian's over. The foreboding words make her heart ache, an ache not soothed when she catches Parker's eye across the car roof. He offers her a reassuring but small smile before he slides in behind the wheel, and then he leaves with Vivian, with Knight, McGee, and Torres watching until the car is lost amidst traffic.
Knight mulls over her exchange with Vivian, until the guys prod her that their fate awaits them upstairs, and they'll face the proverbial gallows together, if it comes to that. But Knight's mind is on Parker, not on her career, as they take the elevator up.
After all, no one's looking for a fairytale—but is it so wrong to wish for a happy ending?
- ^-^3
…*lol*, instead of "opinions," perhaps this one ought to be called "subtext" or "implications"? Idk. XD Pitting Knight's optimism against Viv's history with her ex-husband, plus the hints of Parknight…as well as the foreboding there, mainly bc of Viv's warning (which, I like to think is a warning, not a threat). AHHH, I have written so much Parknight before s20 and I am. So scared. Of s20, *lol*. And what they might do. ;w;
-mew! :')