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“Jesus Parker!” Elliot groaned, rolling to the side and grabbing a tire iron. He slams it into the side of the guy following them. She turns to him slightly to say something but is cut off when she’s yanked to the side behind a nearby car. Before an argument can erupt from her lips, buttles start popping the area around them, effectively silencing her.
“I don’t think Jesus has much to do with this situation.” She muttered, more to herself than to Elliot. However, the man had annoyingly good hearing, and heard her regardless, making a face but saying nothing in response.
Elliot peaked outside of their coverage and cursed ducking immediately out of the way of the many bullets headed towards them.
“Hardison, a little help here?” He said, making eye contact with Parker. She looked side to side trying to find anything to help them out.
“Working on it. Not much I can do, car manufacturing plants are not as techy as you think.” Hardsion said in their mics. She could tell by the slight breathiness of his voice that he was scared. She could same the same glimmer of fear in Elliot’s eyes, though admittedly, his was hidden behind a thick layer of anger and determination.
Parker looked out herself, though she didn’t get far before Elliot pulled her back, grabbing her hands and pulling her into his lap. She was a bit startled by this, and while her attention should have been on the bullets raining around her, she was distracted by how warm Elliot felt.
Luckily her brain didn’t linger on it too long. Her attention was taken by Hardision speaking in her mic again. “I’ve got into the sprinkler system, setting off in 3… 2… 1!”
At one, Elliot and Parker lept up, Parker, grabbed the closest thing to a weapon she could, which happened to be a long lug wrench, and swung it at the first man she saw. Now was a time when her mind was blissfully empty and she could focus on just hitting the bad guys. It was the same quiet that overtook her mind when she was trying to liberate (or steal.)
There was too much going on, and a fuzz started to creep over her consciousness. She was fighting, but soon found she wasn’t in her body, finding it far too difficult to focus as every noise seemed dialed up three times as loud. Everything was so loud and jumbled that she didn’t hear Elliot frantically calling her name or the panic that it was laced with. In fact, the only thing that distracted her from the men in front of her was the bullet that slammed into her side, knocking her to the ground.
All at once, everything stopped. She heard him cry out her name and the slamming of something. There was one final gunshot, she heard as she struggled to get off the floor, however, she didn’t make it far before Elliot was by her side.
“The men?” She asked, worried about more.
“Don’t worry about them, god Parker, why didn’t you listen? I was callin’ you!” Elliot grunted while pulling off his flannel, and bunching it up, pressing it to her stomach.
She gasped when he pressed the rag to her side, pain racing up her side and across the rest of her skin. After the mental and physical swearing subsided, she answered, “I couldn’t hear you.”
“I don’t know how the hell you couldn’t, was only a few feet away,” Elliot grunted. Before noticing something nearby, and grabbing it, he handed the object to her, and at that moment she realized why things had suddenly felt so quiet.
She put her dropped headphone into her ear, and all at once sound erupted from it, though the vast majority of it was Hardisons panicking. It was hard to make out what exactly he was saying, both from her growing lightheaded feeling and because he was speaking so quickly. She managed to grasp the words “ambulance” and “soon” but everything else was lost. Especially as the pain flared.
“Shit!” Parker shouted, unable to hold back the yell. It felt like fire racing along her side, burning and hot. Suffice it to say it was a pretty unpleasant experience.
“You’re alright, you’re alright,” Elliot muttered, as he continued putting on pressure. “The ambulance will be here soon, just keep breathing, you’re okay.”
Just as he finished speaking, she heard sirens as they started approaching. She closed her eyes and laid her head down, feeling like maybe she could relax just a little.
“Parker? Hey! Parker, head up! C’mon stay with me, please, Parker!” She heard, but her mind was already going fuzzy and dark.
Parker’s dreams were dim and hard to follow. Sometimes there were people there, sometimes there were. But no matter who was around her, one feeling always remained. An overwhelming amount of loneliness.
Parker woke up slowly, which was unusual for her. Her mind floated back to consciousness and gently nudged her awake. It was pleasant in a way that waking up usually wasn’t.
As she got closer to lucidity, she realized it was probably due to whatever drugs were in her system. They made her feel relaxed and numb all over, it was nice to have your body relax, even when one would not normally. The second thing she became aware of, was the people in bed next to her. One on each side, she sat in the middle with Hardision on her right, and Elliot on her left.
Hardison was laying facing her, holding onto her arm with both of his, and snoring a little. It was adorable and almost enough to make her coo out loud. She could see the faintest amount of drool dripping out of his mouth, but luckily none of it was landing on her.
Elliot was sleeping facing upwards. He wasn’t snoring, but he did look relaxed. His hand was lightly grasping hers.
Normally they would all usually sleep in their bed together, however, they all tended to sleep at different times, meaning it was rare for all three of them to be sleeping together at once. Either one of them would be up, doing something, or they couldn’t sleep that night, or they were just busy with something. Having both of them in the bed next to her really showed just how worried they had been. Especially if they were both knocked out.
Parker shifted slightly, trying to pull her arms away, however, it was instantly unsuccessful. Moving her arm out of Hardisions grasp made him snort loudly, both waking himself and Elliot up. They both realized she was awake, and Hardison jumped to ask her questions.
“Babe! How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Do you feel nauseous? Do you-” Parker replied to nothing, and instead smacked a hand over his mouth, efficiently silencing him. Elliot said nothing but snorted at the look on Hardsions face.
“Give me a minute.” She rasped out. “And maybe some water.”
Elliot got out of bed and obliged, shortly returning and handing her a glass. She started chugging it but stopped as he tipped the glass forward some, urging her to slow down. Hardison sat at her side, fiddling nervously, clearly wanting to do something, but unsure what.
When she finished her water, she turned back to Hardison, and asked, “Did anything else happen while I was out?” Sure, she had gotten shot, but she had to make sure everything with the client was handled first.
“Yes, I ended up passing off the rest of the mission to our nearest team, and they handled it from there.”
She nodded and sighed, flopping back onto the bed, before instantly lurching forward and hissing in pain. She had forgotten about the bullet wound.
“Parker you literally just woke up, babe I swear,” Hardison said, sounding exacerbated.
“I forgot.” She muttered, leaning heavily on Hardison. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed lightly.
“Parker, what was going on here?” Elliot asked. She wasn’t sure what the expression on his face meant, but she knew he wasn’t happy. However, she was more confused by his question as she couldn’t figure out what he was really asking.
“I just… couldn’t think?” She said haltingly.
“Can you elaborate on that?” Hardison asked gently. Elliot grabbed her hand and rubbed her knuckles gently. He wasn’t as much for words, but the action spoke for him.
“Everything got so loud and there weren’t really any thoughts in my mind. I don’t really know how else I can say it.”
“You don’t have to say anything else, I think I get it. “ Hardison nodded.
Elliot leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently. “We’re just glad you’re okay. You scared us, Park. We’ll try and get something to work. In the meantime…”
“No fieldwork.” Parker and Hardison said at the same time. It was a familiar saying of Elliot’s, though a new one as they started to learn their limits as a team. Things were different now, they could take breaks, they could rest, they could heal.