Room 234/236: Saturday evening

[mparkerceo]

After talking with Isabel, Jack and Parker left her room in something approaching shock.

"I can't believe this is happening."

[for time_agent, then open.]

Comments

[anextimeagent]

He'd followed her automatically, like it was programmed into him. Large part of world falls apart: follow Parker. "Yeah."

[mparkerceo]

"I should call Max. I should call him, and tell him that Isabel should stay and that he's a sonuvabitch for pressuring her--" Parker reached for the phone, fingers moving to call information.

[anextimeagent]

Jack snatched the phone out of her hands, holding it behind his back, almost glaring. "No."

[mparkerceo]

"No?" Parker gave him a dumbfounded look. "How can you say 'no'? That brat, this is his fault, he should know what he's doing--"

[anextimeagent]

"And you want to make this harder for her than it already is?" he snapped back. "You really want to force her to choose between her brothers and us? Fault doesn't matter. Isabel does."

[mparkerceo]

"It's not-- it isn't like that! She could get killed. Not arrested or expelled or hurt but dead, Jack. It's completely different." Parker's fingers curled into fists. "For what? The people who got her killed in her last life. How is that a good idea?"

[anextimeagent]

"It's not and I know," he bit out then made himself stop and breathe deep. "I know," he repeated, sounding quiet and calm while he clenched the phone so tightly it creaked under the pressure. "So does she. It won't stop her. We can't stop her." He looked away, voice rough as he whispered, "All we can do is make it easier for her to go."

[mparkerceo]

Parker took a step backward, expression falling. "We have to, we can't...." She took a breath. "We should be going with her. To watch her back."

[anextimeagent]

"Yes. We should." But they wouldn't. "We should lock her in a closet, we should make her stay, but we won't, because she doesn't want us to." And he threw Parker's phone on the bed, slanting her a dark look, because she was the one who'd taught him that that was reason enough. Otherwise he'd be trying to make her stay, and he thought he could, if he used everything he had. "Because she believes she has to go and we have to stay."

[mparkerceo]

Parker crumpled in the face of this, sitting in one of her chairs with her shoulders slumped. "This is so wrong. I don't want to think about all that can happen, all the ways she can get hurt." Her throat closed up, and she put her hand to her mouth, the tears starting to burst free.

[anextimeagent]

It shocked him to see her cry, held him immobile for several seconds, and then he was sitting on the chair's arm, reaching out to pull her against him. "I know, Parker. I know."

[mparkerceo]

Parker turned toward him, burying her face on his shoulder, and shook her head. "I hate this, I hate this, this is so stupid...." So many times and so many ways when she could fix things, but not now. God, she hated being helpless. She hated thinking of Isabel light-years away, alone and maybe getting hurt, and they'd never even know.

[anextimeagent]

He wouldn't think about it. That was the easiest, simplest way to deal. Even as he stroked Parker's hair and dragged soothing words up from god knows where, he was already pushing it down, pushing it away.

[mparkerceo]

Parker kept crying, and finally managed to get control back by reminding herself that Jack had to be taking this just as badly. "Sorry." She sat up, and wiped the tears from her face with the heels of her hands. "Sorry."

[anextimeagent]

"Don't, Parker. Not after everything." He pulled away, disappeared into the bathroom, stopped at the fridge, and deposited a box of kleenex and a bottle of water in her lap. Worrying about Parker was easy, a welcome distraction.

[mparkerceo]

Parker wiped her face off, and drank half the bottle, then took a few slow breaths. "Still sorry. I know you hate this as much as I do." She swallowed, then looked at him. "Thanks. How--" She reached out one hand to cup his cheek. "How are you doing?"