Chapter Text
“C’mon, babe, we’ve gotta go!” Hardison called through the bathroom door.
“I know, I know!” Parker hollered back, trying to tamp down the panic in her voice. Two more minutes. “It’ll be okay,” she muttered to herself. “It’s fine. No matter what, it’ll be okay.”
It all started approximately eleven minutes ago, as she was packing her toiletries. Hardison liked to pack up to a week ahead of the actual departure date, but Parker had never shaken the habit of a last-minute, haphazard collection of her belongings in whatever which way they best fit. When it came to breaking into bank vaults or casing a collection of priceless paintings, she was prepared to the point that even other thieves called her excessive. But a relaxing, romantic getaway with her husband? Well, put it this way, it was the morning of their departure for Venice and—much to Hardison’s consternation—Parker was still shoving essential items into her suitcase.
Parker had entered the bathroom that morning expecting to take only a couple minutes to grab everything she needed. She was rummaging around under the sink to make sure she hadn’t forgotten something when her hand found an unopened box of tampons.
She frowned, and pulled the box out from under the sink.
It had been 52 days since her last period.
Her frown deepened. She double checked her math.
Parker didn’t really pay much attention to her menstrual cycle. When she was younger, her erratic lifestyle and inadequate nutrients had caused it to be irregular, so she’d never really gotten into the habit of trying to predict it, simply handling it when it happened and not sparing it a thought when it didn’t. Once she became relatively settled and had Eliot to bully her into eating correctly, her periods evened out, but she still didn’t bother to track them beyond what her mind automatically kept up with.
But even she knew that 52 days without a period could mean something bigger was going on.
So here she was, perched on the toilet, waiting on a home pregnancy test. The only reason she had the tests on hand was because of another pregnancy scare the year before, which had turned out to be nothing. This was probably nothing too, right? She was pretty sure that they’d been safe over the past months. After her completely unexpected first pregnancy, the both of them had been hyper-aware of what birth control methods they were using, so she didn’t think there was a time when—
The timer went off, and before she could check the test balanced on her knee, she remembered.
The extra pills.
A couple months ago, she’d had two extra birth control pills remaining at the end of the month. She hadn’t really thought much of it, assuming that there’d just been extra in the pack, but if the leftover pills meant she’d forgotten to take them—twice!—then that could mean—
Parker looked down.
She was pregnant.
~o0o~
“Parker?” Hardison knocked on the bathroom door. “Is everything alright?” She’d been in there a really long time, and at first he’d been frustrated, but now he was starting to get worried, especially since he’d heard the lock click. He raised his hand to knock again, but the door swung open.
Parker stood before him, wearing a bright, though somewhat blank smile. “Everything’s fine.” She pushed past him to where the rest of their luggage was waiting on the bed, depositing her toiletry bag inside her suitcase. “Where’s Tasha?”
Hardison studied her for a moment longer, but she was acting so completely normal that he shrugged it off. “She’s downstairs with Sophie. You ready? Our flight leaves in—”
“An hour and a half, I know,” Parker interrupted, but she was still smiling. She stepped forward and slung her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. Hardison had expected something lovingly brief—the were under a time crunch after all—but Parker had other ideas. The kiss was intense, not in a necessarily sexual way, but strong, and urgent.
“Oh, come on, really?” Sophie’s exasperated voice came from the doorway and Parker pulled away. “You couldn’t at least wait for your super special romantic vacation to start all that?” Sophie rolled her eyes. She was balancing Natasha on her hip, but the little girl seemed completely unfazed by her parents’ display of affection. “The boys are here,” Sophie jerked her head towards the stairs, “We’ve got to get a move on.”
Hardison looked to Parker for some kind of answer to her odd behavior, but Parker just chuckled at Sophie and started grabbing bags from the bed. Other than taking forever in the bathroom and the kiss, it didn’t seem like something was wrong. He was probably just searching for a problem where there wasn’t one. Everything was going to be fine.
~o0o~
Venice was amazing. The city was beautiful and, of course, spending time together, just the two of them, was something they almost never got to do. Parker was truly glad they came. But it was getting harder and harder to justify keeping the pregnancy a secret from Hardison. Several times he’d caught her thinking about it and acted concerned, and she hated for him to worry about her when he didn’t have to, she just hadn’t felt like those were the right times to tell him.
She hid a sigh in his shoulder and snuggled closer to him in bed. She was staring down at her phone, in a bit of a daze, trying to decide what to do. Hardison was scrolling through his tablet, having mentioned something about checking out nearby restaurants, but when he heard Parker’s sigh, he put his tablet aside.
“Whatcha looking at, babe?” He slipped his arm around her waist. His hand came to rest on her stomach, right above their unborn child, but of course he didn’t know that yet.
Parker forced herself to refocus. “Tasha.” She angled her phone so he could see it. It was a picture that Nate had sent the other day as a bit of reassurance that Natasha was handling the separation fine. Somehow Tasha had convinced Eliot and Sophie to have a tea party, complete with costumes and everything. That girl really knew how to get anyone to eat out of her hand. Parker zoomed in on Tasha’s grinning face.
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Hardison squeezed her lightly, pride clear in his voice.
“Yeah.” Parker swiped through more photos of her. “She certainly is.”
They scrolled through more pictures, reminiscing about some of Tasha’s antics and chuckling at some of the more absurd pictures.
“You think you’ll ever want another kid?” Hardison asked, speaking softly into her hair.
Parker didn’t exhale. She wasn’t ready for this. Her mind scrambled for something to say.
Hardison sensed the shift in her, so he sat up straighter, moving away to get a better look at her face.
“Do you want more kids?” she finally got out, unable to look at him. What if he didn’t? She hadn’t even really considered that he might be upset about the pregnancy, she just hadn’t been sure how to tell him, but now that he’d framed the question that way—what if he was hoping she’d say no? She almost spoke up again, almost cut him off—she didn’t know if she could handle it if he said no, not now that it was already too late.
Parker felt Hardison’s arm retract from around her, and he shrugged. “I’ve thought about it, and I wouldn’t mind,” he said. “I always figured I’d try fostering at some point, but of course it depends on what you want.”
Parker kept looking down, trying to tell herself that was good, that his words were good. She didn’t know where this sudden knot of anxiety in her stomach had come from, but she didn’t like it being in the same place as the baby.
Hardison was still talking like he wasn’t sure what else to do, or how else to take Parker’s odd reaction. “I mean, we’d have to consider how we do cons and what jobs we take, since two kids would be a lot harder to deal with than just Tasha.”
Parker braced herself for the inevitable ‘so maybe we shouldn’t after all,’ but that’s not what came.
Hardison looked steadily at her. “I’m more than happy with what I have, but ultimately, yeah, I think I’d like another kid.”
Parker let out a small, completely involuntary noise of relief, her whole body relaxing at once. She wrapped her arms around Hardison’s neck and kissed him. Leaning back just enough to look him in the eye, she said, “I’m glad you think so, since I’m pregnant.”
Hardison froze, looking stunned. “What?”
Maybe that wasn’t the best way to break the news. Her relief faded and she nodded slowly.
“You’re pregnant?” Hardison repeated. “A baby? We’re having another kid?”
“Yeah,” Parker bit her lip, eyebrows raised. “Is that okay?”
Hardison’s face broke open into a wide grin. “I—you—” he fumbled for a second, unable to come up with anything to say, but the pure joy on his face was enough of an answer for Parker. Finally, he leaned forward, cupping her cheek, and kissed her, but he broke away quickly, unable to stop a laugh from bubbling up from his chest. “Oh my god. I—babe, this is amazing.”
Parker embraced him, curling her body as close to his as possible. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too, mama,” Hardison squeezed her gently. He leaned back to look at her again, and Parker could see that his mind was still racing. “How long have you known? I mean, when—how did you find out?”
“Uh,” Parker cleared her throat. “I found out the morning we left Portland.”
Hardison’s eyebrows drew together.
Parker hurried on, “I didn’t tell you because I guess it hadn’t really sunk in, and we were in a rush to leave, so I just—I didn’t let myself think about it at first, and by the time I did, I wanted to be sure to wait for the right time, and—I’m sorry. I should’ve told you right away.”
“Babe,” Hardison brushed her cheek with one knuckle, “I’m not upset. I—I’m so far from—how could I be upset when we’re gonna have another kid?”
Parker smiled and snuggled close to his chest again. Everything was okay. Of course it was. She felt silly for thinking it could ever be otherwise. She had the most amazing husband in the world, they already had the best daughter anyone could ask for, and they were about to get another perfect child to add to the family. How could that ever possibly be a bad thing?
When Parker glanced back up at Hardison’s face a few minutes later, he was still grinning, smiling that soft smile that she knew he only got for her and Natasha. “Hey,” she whispered. He looked at her. She opened her mouth to say whatever she’d been going to tell him, but the thought was gone, replaced by something else entirely.
She kissed him, stretching to reach his face, hands grabbing for the back of his neck. He shifted, pulling her so she was on top of him, making kissing him easier but also relieving the pressure on her stomach. She kissed him harder, straddling him, arching forward, holding his face in her hands. She loved this man so much.
He let her decide where to go, like always, but when she pulled back to look him in the eyes before kissing his cheek, and then behind his ear, and then his neck, he slipped his hands under the hem of her tank top, running his warm fingers up her back. She sighed.
Hardison chuckled deep in his throat and Parker felt the vibrations against her cheek and lips. She found his mouth again. His hands inched further up her back.
“What are you waiting for?” Parker spoke into his kiss, fingers playing with his shirt. “We going to celebrate, or what?”
Hardison grinned. “Hell yeah.” In one fluid motion, he pulled her shirt over her head.
~o0o~
They were awoken by the Hardison’s phone, the incessant beeping ringtone cutting through the drowsy early morning.
Hardison groaned, hand automatically feeling for the bedside table, but the hotel’s furnishing was a good few inches taller than the one in their apartment, so he misjudged the distances and ended up painfully smacking his wrist on the corner of the table. He groaned again, but finally came up with his phone. It took a good second of staring at the name on the screen before he registered that it was a call from Sophie.
He sat up, rubbing his face. “Hello? Soph?”
Parker was awake too, had been since the first ring, but now she pulled herself upright, concern clear on her face. “Put in on speaker.”
Hardison did.
Sophie’s voice came through the phone’s admittedly high-quality speaker, but it sounded not quite right, like when she’s pulling a con as a damsel in distress, but this was realer than that, something they’d only rarely heard from her. She sounded nervous. “Don’t worry!” she said immediately, apparently aware that they’d be concerned by her calling out of the blue. “Tasha’s fine, I’m fine, we’re all perfectly fine! Everything is under control, I promise. This isn’t an emergency call, exactly.”
“What happened?” Parker interrupted immediately.
Sophie hesitated. “Remember Richard Beauchamp?”
Hardison squinted, tilting his head. The name was familiar, and he was sure it had been one of their marks, but they went after so many bad guys it was hard keeping them straight. Was Beauchamp the one—?
“The furniture guy?” Parker asked. “The arms dealer that blew up that hotel?”
Now Hardison remembered with vivid clarity, and wondered how he could have forgotten. He’d been captured by Beauchamp’s goons during that case and was very nearly executed. “What about him?” Hardison swallowed. “Is he out of prison?” He hoped that was all it was, because at least they would know how to deal with it, though he wasn’t sure why Sophie would call, knowing the time difference, if that was all there was to it.
“No,” Sophie said carefully, and Parker and Hardison exchanged glances. She was obviously hedging.
“Spit it out, Sophie,” Parker snapped.
“He came after Natasha,” Sophie sighed, voice small and resigned. “He sent men to kidnap her.”
Hardison’s heart dropped, thudding to his feet, pounding in his head and all the way to the tips of his fingers. He was vaguely aware that Sophie was still talking, that she was trying to assure them that Eliot had sped to the rescue, taken care of the would-be-kidnappers, that Natasha was completely unharmed, but he barely heard her. Parker was barking questions at Sophie, demanding information that Hardison couldn’t register. It was all he could do to continue holding the phone.
His little girl. Someone had tried to harm, tried to take, his little girl. It was a fact of their job, a fact of their life and choices, that plenty of people, plenty of horrible, evil people would end up hating them, plotting revenge, wanting to ruin them. But to come after his daughter, a child, a four-year-old girl, seemed too outrageously despicable to ever actually happen. He’d always known it was a possibility, and they took so many precautions to ensure that no one would ever make it to her, so much of their life was designed around keeping her safe, but he’d never really thought—he’d truly believed that they’d never actually have to deal with a situation like this.
But now? Now that he had no choice but to admit that some men really were that horrible, now that someone was actively coming after Natasha, actively trying to use her to get to him and Parker, he couldn’t breathe.
Parker and Sophie had finished their conversation, and he hadn’t heard a second of it.
“How quickly can you get us on a flight back to Portland?” Parker demanded, throwing off the covers and rising in one fluid motion.
That snapped Hardison into action. He lunged for where his backpack was sitting on the floor, pulling out his laptop without having to get out of bed. “Give me ten minutes.”