step by step
An NCIS fic collection
by mew-tsubaki
- ^-^3
imagine: miscellany 26—been there, done that (this post on the sideblog: 717977043084673024/ parknight-imagines-miscellany-26-been-there)
tags: pre-Parknight, s20e16
- ^-^3
He knows this two-step well; he's done it himself, time and again. That's why, Parker tells himself, Knight and her emergency remain a priority (if not the priority) on his mind.
This case—a biohazard devolving into a father-and-daughter cat burglar mystery—doesn't help distract him at all. Even when Parker heads to Kasie's lab for an update, his words slip out—"I need good news about someone's dad right now"—and, yeah, it's relevant to the case with Quinlan's father missing, but Parker's mind isn't in the lab, it's upstairs, pacing right along with a certain someone.
He knows how she feels, really. He was once that way with his mother, back in the day, and he's that way ten times over with Roman, especially the childish, churlish way the curmudgeon of a patriarch behaves now. Parker knows too well the burden of looking out for, of worrying for one's parents, certainly with countries between him and them.
He debates saying this, aloud, for Knight's benefit…if it'll even penetrate, he worries. She's stubborn, but there's stubborn, and then there's anxious and stubborn. Much as she likes talking with Parker, he fears this might be the rare exception….
But, in short order, the team has a lead on the burglar father's kidnapper, who agrees to meet Quinlan and Quinlan only. Naturally, the team plans a trap with Quinlan as bait, and Knight and Torres reassure the daughter that they'll get her father back.
Parker doesn't need to see Torres and McGee exchange an unsure look to signal him. He can see for himself that Knight is barely holding it together. It's a wonder she's still here, knowing her father's health is a less sure thing than this plan they're about to execute.
That's why Parker makes the decision, when Knight ducks to the break room to answer yet more texts from her sister, to order McGee and Torres to take Quinlan down to the garage, to get her prepped now. They can do this—the three of them plus Quinlan—without Knight. Knight really has someplace else to be, anyway.
And yet…right before they head out, Knight arrives. She's a little shaky (no, on edge, Parker mentally corrects), but she suits up anyway while McGee and Torres ask whether she should be on a plane right now.
Knight gives them all a tight smile. "There's nothing I can do to help while on the way to Japan or even in Japan…but I have a job to do here." That smile tightens impossibly when she insists that her father would want her to do this, anyway.
But Parker knows that façade. He's forced that expression on his face before. So he catches her eye as the others load up in the SUV, and he hopes Knight can read it on his face: "You really don't have to do this."
Her bravado wavers for a second. But then McGee taps on the comms, reminding them that they're live and that it's time to go. So Knight takes the opportunity to drop into the passenger seat of the sedan.
Parker slides in behind the wheel, and they follow behind the SUV, exiting the garage. They're barely to the edge of the NCIS lot when Parker reaches up and pulls his earwig out for second. He glances at Knight and nods in solidarity. "I get this, some of it, I do. So…if you change your mind about that flight and want a ride later…" Parker glances a second time—they lock eyes, and his linger—before he puts his earwig back in and returns his full focus to the road.
A few minutes and a traffic light later, he notes out of the corner of his eye Knight fiddling with her comm, too. She shakes her head. "No… I-I think I'll stay put. Maybe catch up on paperwork while I wait for Robin to call. But I…I wouldn't mind company while I wait."
He nods while Knight puts her earwig back in. Keeping company—that, he can do.
- ^-^3
Revisiting e16 bc it, like e15, still lingers in my brain some, *lol*. Smthg softer for one of the pre-Parknights in this collection, but still nice. I do like how focused he was on her, too, in this ep. -w-
-mew! :')