fandomtownies | 7:30AM, outside the Dorms, and into the Preserve

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@preserve

7:30AM, outside the Dorms, and into the Preserve

Parker is not a morning person. (Fandom is an Island. Jack is a flirt. And gremlins bite.) But she wanted to have privacy enough to have this conversation with Jack prior to Spy Tech class, and away from the school. Thus, a phone call inviting him to go running.

She held two cups of coffee bought at the Perk, and yawned, waiting for Jack.

[for

time_agent, but feel free to frolic in the Preserve. Run is reportable, but details of conversation NFB]

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Jack wasn't much of a morning person either, but it was worth faking it just to get a reaction from Parker. Which was why he bounded up to her and grinned. "Coffee? For me?"

Parker rolled her eyes and handed it over. "Did you even get to sleep? Or are you still awake from wherever you slept last night?" She yawned and shook her head. "God, just looking at you makes me more tired."

Jack smirked as he took the coffee, lifting it to inhale the steam. "I? Was virtuous and slept alone. I think I needed the rest," he added, as he drank from the cup. "Now, what could I possibly have done to earn your attention at this ridiculous hour of the day?"

"Drink your coffee while you walk." Parker walked off the steps down onto the back lawn, heading for the preserve, and took another sip of her own. "This requires some privacy."

Jack hesitated, all traces of mirth disappearing at the sudden, nagging certainty that he knew what this was about. "Okayyy," he said, catching up and matching his stride to hers. "What's up?"

Parker took another few gulps of coffee, and looked away, down the path. "So. The plan. Rumor." She took one last sip, then dumped the cup into the last garbage can before the woods started. "I went forward with it on Sunday."

Jack stopped dead and stared after her while his brain stuttered, trying to come up with a response that wouldn't get him killed. I went through with it, she'd said. Oh, she hadn't... "Alone?" He'd be proud later of how calm he sounded.

She couldn't look at him. Just kept walking faster. "To start." Parker stopped to stretch her hamstrings, still not looking at him. "Weiss followed me." She frowned suddenly, and stared off at the horizon. "I need to ask him about how he pulled that off, aside from the cab."

His jaw worked as he tried to wrestle down his anger. Not at all successfully, as it turned out. Hurling his cup at the garbage, he glared at her back. "What the hell were you thinking, Parker?" he yelled after her. "Going alone? What did you, wait 'til I was out of town to turn into an idiot?"

Parker hung her head, all attempts at nonchalance torpedoed to hell and gone. "No. I didn't wait until you were gone. I just-- finally managed to get my nerve up. And realized no one else should be involved." She looked up, trying not to be too defensive. "I took precautions, I wasn't going to get caught..." Except, of course, by Weiss. "It didn't happen."

"Uh huh." Jack kept glaring, voice dripping with skepticism, then strode over to to stand in front of her, arms crossed. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I'm-- We're already involved, from beginning to end. You should have taken someone with you. Kill her yourself, fine, but you take backup. Take someone to pull your ass out if needed. You do not go traipsing into dangerous situations alone." He ground his teeth in pure frustration. "Any of this sounding at all familiar?" he added sarcastically.

Parker could feel the blush building, scalding enough to make her blink, hard. "Yes." She closed her eyes, seeing it from his side, and shook her head. "I didn't think I could do it if anyone else was there, and I thought-- I didn't think I had the option of not doing it, and I did want to, I wanted her gone, and...." There was really no getting past it. "I was stupid." Weiss had gone easy on her, compared to this. Jarod had so many things to be angry about, this one had almost gotten lost. But Jack had known about this all along, and was way too focused for comfort. "I'm sorry."

He ran a hand through his hair, turning and taking a few steps away. He couldn't look at her or his anger was going to dissolve. "All right," he sighed. "All right. Okay. Two things to think about. Alone, you had no one to help you. She could have killed you," and he clenched fists, nails digging into his palms at the thought, but his voice never wavered, "and that would have been the end of your revenge. Two--" He swivelled back to face her. "If you were dead, it would have been us trying to take her out, with her knowing someone was after her." Us in Jack's mind was him and Jarod, two people ruthless enough to succeed unscathed, but still he said, "Chances are at least one of us wouldn't have made it back from that."

She honestly hadn't thought of that at all. Maybe she'd just been arrogant, to be so sure she'd at least manage to kill Brigitte, even if she'd been caught. Parker looked away and nodded. She couldn't speak because her throat was trying to close up. Every time she'd given someone hell for taking risks came back to her now, and she had no defense. After a minute, she cleared her throat and quietly said, "When you're right, you're right." She turned to walk down the path, all pretense of a morning run gone.

He followed her, fell in beside her, matching her steps, walking close enough that his shoulder brushed against hers. "That doesn't happen often." Anger mostly gone, he just felt tired. She could have died, and he wondered if he'd ever have known, or if she just would have disappeared. "So don't do it again," he said, sounding strained and raw. "Okay?"

"Okay," she whispered back. "I wasn't planning on it happening again." Parker shoved her hands in her jacket pockets, and kept her eyes front. "I feel like such a coward, to be so relieved." She clenched her hands into fists. "I just wanted to do the right thing, Jack."

"You're not a coward." Jack glanced sideways at her, then reached out and rested his hand against her back. "Parker, you're not. You wanted to do what was right for too many people, is all. And I think maybe," he stopped talking, staring at the ground as he thought, "I think maybe you shouldn't kill her." He wasn't sure she'd come out the other side intact. "We'll find another way."

"I had to tell Jarod everything last night. Angelo tipped him off on Sunday, and then he hacked my computer." She turned a little toward Jack, stealing a look at him. "So he knows what I-- we-- have been doing. He says he has an idea that will at least make sure Brigitte can't work for the Centre again, and get proof. And that he needs your help for it."

"He needs my help?" Jack sent her a strange look. "That's...unexpected."

"Tell me about it." Parker shrugged, and shook her head. "He's being a brat and won't let me participate. Just says I have to trust you two to handle it." Grudgingly, she muttered, "If it works, I won't bitch. Too much. But it's going to make me nuts."

They may have a truce, but it was new and uncertain, and deep suspicion uncoiled inside him. Jack would help, whatever he needed, for Parker's sake, but he wasn't going to let Jarod throw him to the wolves. "All right. He's at Caritas tonight, I'll see if I can get some idea what's going on."

"Okay." Parker ducked under an overhanging branch, then quietly said, "Dr. Jeffries and his family will be on a plane to Europe within the hour. We've got a couple days, maybe until Saturday at the latest, before Brigitte realizes he's definitely gone. So it'll have to be soon." She rubbed her eyes, and folded her arms. "You know I'm grateful for everything you've done so far, right? And that I don't automatically expect you to do this stuff?"

"Don't be stupid, Parker," he said without rancour, ducking under the same branch. "I'm in it until the end, whenever or whatever that is."

"Okay. Okay." Parker looked resigned. "And I'm not stupid. Just trying to make sure you're thinking too." She took a breath as the foliage began to clear and the path curved toward the beach. "So, yeah. How's your life going? It can't have more drama than mine, I think."

"I know you're not stupid," he said softly. "But thinking there's anything I wouldn't do for you is." He shook his head and followed her onto the beach, walking past her and towards the water. "My life?" Is too complicated, and I don't know how it got that way. Sam's fracturing and I don't know how to stop it. "It's fine."

She was remembering Captain Jack saying, He'd do anything for you, just not without questioning it. Parker shivered, and drew her jacket closer around her, thinking that was part of why she'd been so wound up over the weekend. She watched Jack walk toward the water, and narrowed her eyes, pushing her own problems aside for the moment. "That fine doesn't sound very. Anything I can do?"

Hands shoved in his pockets, Jack looked out over the ocean. Tempting, it was tempting, but he couldn't. Not now. Parker had enough problems of her own. "Make sure I spend at least one night sleeping?" He flashed her a blinding grin over his shoulder. "Having three thingies takes it out of a guy."

Parker rolled her eyes, and wandered over to stand next to him, elbowing him in the side. "You are so full of it, Jack. Just for that? I will pick some random day to lock you in your room with a sleep-CD, just when you think you want to go out and play." She smirked at him. "Consider it my kind of thank-you."

Jack fended her off, laughing as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a quick, one-armed hug. "Why does your thank you sound more like pay-back than gratitude?"

"Because I'm a mean, mean girl." Parker smirked, then buried her head on his shoulder for a second and whispered, "I'm sorry. And I promise. Never again."

"I'm going to hold you that. Forever." He closed his other arm around her, fingers tightening convulsively in her shirt, holding her tight before he let go. "And you are. A very very mean girl."

Parker gave him a small grin, then started walking north up the beach. "Who bought you coffee. And got you tickets and hotel rooms with Cedric. See, there's a trade-off there. Parker giveth as well as taketh away."

Jack chuckled and ran after her, once more falling into step beside her. "And I wouldn't have it any other way. Come on, you can taketh and let me buy you breakfast."

"Works for me."

Another bump against his side, then a grin, as Parker took off, calling over her shoulder, "Race you to JGOB!"

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7:30AM, outside the Dorms, and into the Preserve

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