#alden parker fanfic

[writeandsurvive]

AUTHORS NOTE: like I posted recently, this was supposed to be short at first, but here we are now, cutting it in two parts. I'm not sure I did a good job but I really liked the idea. So I hope I did it justice and you guys will enjoy it! 🫣

SUMMARY: your husband wants to open your marriage and Alden Parker is there for you.

WARNINGS: Fem!reader, marriage, open relationship, nsfw, protected sex, piv, oral, spanking, age gap (30s-50s), fall, injury, concussion, lies, vegetarian!reader, Alden kinda teaching sex, ass man!Alden, toxic!mom, reader being her (real) daddy's little girl

Taking over ~ Alden Parker 1/2

From the moment your husband of five years asked for an open relationship, you knew it was over. Bigamy was never your thing, you dedicated yourself to one person at the time and you thought it was the same for him. But somehow, after almost ten years of dating and five of marriage, he needed something new, someone else. Of course, he already had a person in mind; his cute coworker who had been eyeing him for a while, she was barely in her twenties, and was everything you were not. Beautiful with prominent curves, tall. The woman who wears high heels and makeup every single day of their lives, no matter what the circumstances. Your work as an NCIS agent didn't allow you to be this girly kind of woman, not that you'd be even with another job. It wasn't you and you thought your husband liked it, or at least, was fine with it. How wrong.

You were not sure why but you agreed to his request. The wedding vows meant something to you; you were ready to make it work, no matter what. To be entirely honest, the idea of divorcing in your mid thirties wasn't appealing at all, especially with the job taking eighth percent of your time. It felt impossible to meet someone new and start all over again. The plan was for you to have kids soon, not your husband fooling around with his hot new coworker.

There was no way you'd tell the team about what was going on. They wouldn't understand, especially Nick and Tim, who love and protect you like their sister. They like your husband very much, he became family too but this wouldn't sit right with them, and you wouldn't blame them. It didn't sit right with you in the first place. So you hid it to everyone for a couple of months. Every night your husband was out with her, you felt betrayed and thought so little of you. Were you a fool for agreeing to this?

But you decided to stop feeling sorry for yourself. After all, it was an open relationship, which meant you could be with someone else too. But who? You had never been the type of person to go out and hook up with the first stranger you found attractive, so going out just to meet someone wasn't an option. Sleeping with someone from work? The only option was the new team member Alden Parker, who you admittedly found very attractive, but this could be a very bad idea. You were still learning to know one another and getting used to the new team dynamic.

You felt desperate and alone.

You thought you hid it well, but you were quite wrong. During a stakeout, where it was just you and Alden in the car, he didn't wait long before asking how you were. "I'm fine, why?"

"I know I've only been here for a few months, and we're still getting to know each other, but I can tell something's wrong with you. You're closed off."

You laughed softly, earning a side eye from Alden. "Surprising that you're the one noticing."

"Maybe I'm paying too much attention-- to the team. So, what's up? You know you can trust me, right?"

You locked eyes with him for a moment, seeing how sincere and sweet he really was. "Yeah, I know. It's just-- embarrassing? Sad? Wrong? I don't know." You sighed, looking around the area because you had a job to do.

"Is this about your marriage?" He asked suddenly, catching you off guard. You looked at him with a puzzled look. "You don't talk much about your husband, even when the guys asked about him. They mentioned not seeing him in a while." You played with your wedding band while looking at it. "I've been married for ten years. Nothing you'll say will surprise me."

"Think so? Did your ex-wife ask for an open relationship?" You didn't really think before talking, and immediately regretted telling Alden about it. Your cheeks turned red, and you avoided his eyes for a very long time afterwards.

"Okay, um. I admit that-- you surprised me, good job." He paused. "Did he ask that suddenly?"

Since you spilled the beans, you might as well tell him everything. You needed to talk to someone, have someone's opinion. So, you gave him a resume of the past two months. How your husband told you about it, his coworker he's been dating, how you had been feeling, your fears.

"Honestly, I don't even understand how he could've asked that. I mean, if I was your husband, I wouldn't want another woman, and I definitely wouldn't want to share you."

You uncontrollably smiled at that despite the tears threatening to fall. "Too bad you're not my husband then." You joked, but Alden didn't laugh. He softly put his hand on top of yours, stopping you from nervously rubbing them together. The simple contact felt very nice, you didn't remember the last time your husband held your hands.

"I don't know your husband, and I want to meet him even less than before, but it does sound like he just wanted to be with this girl, without actually cheating. But mark my word, he'll regret it. I'm pretty sure that the moment you tell him you're seeing someone, he won't like it."

"Yeah, well I don't know if that'll happen, so..." You trailed off, looking down at your joined hands. His thumb was rubbing small circles on your knuckles, and that tiny gesture felt great. All you wanted to do was reach out for a hug from him. You were certain he'd give the best hugs; gentle and tender but tight.

"Why not? I mean, you could get anyone."

"Even you?" You weren't sure what had gotten into you, where this bluntness was coming from but since it was out of your mouth, you turned your face to lock eyes with Alden. He was already looking at you, leaning just slightly. He stayed silent for a moment, his eyes going down to your lips a couple of times.

"Anyone." He repeated softly.

Silence filled the car from a moment, it was just you and Alden speaking through your looks. Eventually, you broke it off by laughing. A soft and nervous laugh, and you immediately buried your face in his shoulder. He chuckled too, unsure of what this meant.

"I'm sorry," you said. "I laugh when I'm nervous. I'm not sure what's happening here, or even what I'm supposed to do."

His cheek was resting on the top of your head. "I didn't mean to make you nervous. I don't want us to be awkward with each other. It's just-- yeah, you can have me if you want."

You slowly lifted your head, just enough to look him in the eyes. He was sincere. After a moment of hesitation, you reached out and pressed your lips against his. Alden immediately melted into the kiss, holding the back of your head to intensify it. Before you knew it, his tongue was inside your mouth, allowing you to taste the coffee he just drank. The kiss lasted a long time and you couldn't remember the last time you'd been kissed like this. He truly wanted you and at this moment, he was all you wanted.

Remembering that you were on a stakeout, you eventually pulled away. Growling, Alden took a second to adjust himself and that was when you noticed the obvious budge in his suit pants. It seemed...big. "Oh wow." You said, uncontrollably.

Alden followed your eyes to his erection, and readjust himself again. "Um, yeah, sorry. I can leave the car--"

"What, no! Absolutely not! It's just-- intriguing? How big are you?"

He laughed - not without a certain pride. "Nothing to be afraid of." He smirked and winked.

"I highly doubt that." You said, still looking at it.

After a split second, you felt Alden's fingers stroking your chin and pressing gently to make you look at him. "Let me take you out to dinner. No pressure, just a nice time between two friends."

"So, not a date?"

"If you want it to be a date, then a date it is."

"Do you want it? I mean, it's not a regular situation and I'd understand if you didn't want to get in the middle of this."

"Your husband is clearly failing in his duties, and I'll be happy to take over, show you how you're supposed to be treated."

"Okay then."

Okay then. You and Alden did your best to take your hands and mouth off of each other during the rest of the stakeout. It was rough, because all you wanted was to climb onto him in the driver seat and discover how he feels. How he would make you feel.

But Alden was the perfect gentleman. After agreeing to have the date once the case is closed, he kept a reasonable distance from you. Too much time with you would prevent him from acting correctly, because he desperately wanted you.

He had since he joined NCIS. But he immediately noticed your wedding band - plus the age difference - so he tried to shut his crush down. However, everyday was a challenge. You were everything he ever dreamed of in a woman, and not just physically. He felt like a teenager around you, which pissed him off sometimes. How could he, a fifty-something years old man, could have a stupid crush on his thirty-something years old coworker? He felt highly inappropriate for months, especially when you stopped talking about your husband and Alden wondered if it could mean something. For a second, he hoped you had split up before being mad at himself for thinking about something like that. Now, the opportunity showed up, and if he had to be the side boyfriend, then he would be.

It was Friday night, the case was finally closed and you were working on reports and paperwork. Alden told McGee and Palmer to go home and be with their kids, when Nick complained about not being able to leave early cause he didn't have kids. "Fine, go home too before I change my mind. You too girls." He added, looking at Jess then you. Nick and Jess were in the elevator before you had time to respond. You stood up and walked over to Alden's desk.

"Good job, boss." You giggled.

"Nick is too predictable, that was easy."

"Now what?" You leaned against his desk, and it took him all his self control to keep his hands to himself.

"You tell me. Is it too late to go on that date?" He stood up from his chair, his body dangerously close to yours.

"I don't think so, but I'm gonna need an hour to go home and get ready."

"Why are you still here?"

Unconsciously, you pecked his lips before leaving. Alden smiled at that little gesture, before rushing out, so he could go home and get ready too.

Good thing your husband wasn't home. He had texted you that he would be out for the night, with her you assumed, not that you really cared anymore. Alden texted you, asking if he could pick you up, and if he should park away from the house. 'I'm home alone, act like you'd do normally.' you answered. So he did just that.

You opened the front door to find Alden Parker all dressed up, holding some flowers. You couldn't control your grin, nor the butterflies in your stomach. "You had time to pick up some flowers for me?" He handed them to you, and leaned over to kiss your cheek, making you blush and feel other things.

"They are actually from my greenhouse. I picked the most beautiful ones, but you are the most beautiful flower."

You giggled nervously while smelling the flowers, before walking towards the kitchen. "Come on in for a sec -- they are so pretty, Alden. Thank you so much." You couldn't remember the last time your husband offered you some flowers.

"Are you sure that's okay? For me to be in?" To be honest, he felt a bit uncomfortable there. It was just a reminder that you weren't completely available. You were married and would never be his entirely.

"We're not doing anything in the house. I'm just putting these in a vase."

To Alden's relief, you were out just a minute later. He held your hand up to his car, opened and closed the door for you. It wasn't much, but those small things melted you. "Where are we going?" You asked, after he started to drive.

"That's a surprise." He smirked.

"Not to be a pain, I don't know if you know, but I'm a vegetarian and it--" you felt his hand on your thigh. His touch was soft and gentle.

"I know, don't worry, okay?"

You obviously didn't have to worry because Alden took you to a vegetarian restaurant. It was fairly new and you hadn't been there yet, so you were excited. Again, he acted like the perfect gentleman, holding doors, keeping his hand in the small of your back, telling you to pay no attention to the prices.

The dinner was amazing, both the food and the chemistry between you and Alden. The conversation flooded easily, you got to really know each other, talking about your families, childhoods, hobbies. At any point did you talk about work, nor your marriage. "I could eat more vegetarian dishes." He admitted, tasting how good the food was.

"That'd definitely be better than your current diet." You teased.

"What's wrong with my diet?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Don't make me say it." You giggled.

"Please do."

"It's the diet of an overworked bachelor, plus pastries. Tons of pastries."

"Overworked bachelor, huh?" He smiled. "And I thought you liked my pastries."

"I do, very much. I just think you should eat healthier."

"Point taken. It's nice to have someone who cares."

You put your hand on top of his, and he welcomed it. "I do care, Alden." He brought your hand to his lips and kissed your knuckles.

"So do I." He answered.

Were you supposed to care in a situation like this?

After the restaurant, Alden asked if you wanted to keep the night going or if you wanted a ride home. There was no way you were going home just yet, so you drove for about fifteen minutes, before pulling over to the Bowlero. Alden laughed when you looked at him with a grin. "I knew you'd like that."

"So much! I'm so gonna kick your ass at every game!" This time Alden didn't have time to circle the car cause you were out before him. You grabbed his hand and rushed him inside.

You started with the arcades. Alden knew you were a competitive person, he heard you arguing with McGee over a game you played together, he even remembered Jimmy saying something about Victoria being upset during a board game because you wouldn't let her win. But Alden would let you win every game possible if it meant you'd smile and do a ridiculous happy dance. He wanted to kiss you every time you mocked him for losing, and also punished you in his very own way.

Then you offered to play pool. Except that pool was Alden's game. He was ridiculously good at it, probably because he spent long hours playing with friends when he was younger. However, he was distracted. Every time you leaned over the table for your turn, showing off your pretty ass in that tight dress, his cock twitched. The things he wanted to do to you in that position. "I thought you were a killer at pool?" You teased, mid-game.

"I'm a bit distracted." He said, positioning himself over the table.

"By my ass?"

Since you were on the other side of the table, you slowly turned around and shook your hips just slightly. "Fuck, sweetheart. You can't do this here. That ass is only for me to enjoy."

You turned around again, laughing. "Looks like those teenage boys enjoyed the view."

Alden immediately turned his face to where you were pointed, ready to give those boys a death glare. But there were no boys, or anyone else. "Not funny." He turned back to you. "Get out of my eyesight, so I can win this."

You circled the table to be behind him. You actually checked out his ass too. After hitting the white ball, and watching two balls going inside the holes, he faced you. "Much better." He smiled, proud of himself.

You got closer, pressing your body against his. "I didn't pin you for an ass man." You whispered.

He cleared his throat. "I'd always considered myself a tits man. But you--" he pressed his forehead against yours, his hand roaming at the small of your back. He wanted to touch your butt, and so did you. "You drive me crazy." He just said.

"Let's finish this game, fast."

To your displeasure, Alden won, even though he did fail a few balls on purpose. On the way back to the car, you kept talking about the game, what you did wrong, even accused him of cheating which made him laugh. "Damn, you don't deserve sex tonight." You finished the rambling, as you reached the car.

"Okan then," he opened the passenger for you but stood in the way. "I'll just drop you off." He had a tiny smirk on his face, but his instinct told him you wanted sex as much as he did, but he was also afraid you just wanted an excuse to go home. "Can I kiss you good night now?"

"Idiot." You said, grabbing his collar into a fist and bringing him into you. His body crashed into yours as he didn't hold his weight back on purpose, so he could catch you. His hands were immediately on your ass, right before his lips were on yours. If that kiss in the car had been something, this was even more. You and Alden were practically making out in the parking lot, not caring that you could be seen. "I wanna see your greenhouse." You whispered, out of breath.

The greenhouse was prettier than you expected. While holding your hand or your waist, Alden showed you some of his plants and flowers, even telling you about the ones he offered you earlier. But your eyes were more focused on him, his face, his lips, than anything else. "You're not listening to me, are you?" He chuckled.

"I'm a bit distracted." You said, reminded his words from earlier.

He gently grabbed your face in his hands and locked eyes with you. "I gotta ask-- are you sure about this?"

"Are you?"

He kissed you as an answer. Then he carried you into his bedroom, and put you down, without ever breaking the kiss. Your lips were probably bruised and swollen by now, not that you cared one bit. He paid attention to your neck, finding that sweet spot, while his hands traveled your body. You were completely melting under his touch. "Have you told how fucking sexy you are?" He asked.

"No."

"Then I'm sorry. Cause damnit you are the sexiest woman ever." His hands and mouth were working on your breasts as you were desperately trying to unbutton his shirt. His words did something to your core and to your heart.

"I need to feel your skin, Alden." You whined. He stopped so you could get rid of his shirt and he took the opportunity to strip you off your dress. Seeing you in your matching lace underwear shortcut his brain. There was so much he wanted to do and say, he couldn't decide where to start.

You touched his hairy chest, kissing his pec then his neck. "Alden? You with me?" Growling, he picked you up just enough to lay you down on his bed. He covered your body with his, kissing you roughly.

"I'm right here, sweetheart." He whispered. "Right here with you."

You both agreed to skip the foreplay, and orals, as you just needed to feel each other right away. Alden was already painfully hard, while you had already ruined your panties. So he grabbed a condom from his nightstand, rubbed his length against your slit for a moment before intruding your core. You both moaned at the feeling, even though he wasn't fully in just yet. "I knew it. I was right to be afraid."

Alden got confused for a second before understanding. He completely laid down on you, stroking your hair and softly kissing your lips, chin and cheeks. "Just a couple more inches, baby. I know you can do it. You're my good girl, aren't you?" His praises worked wonders on you.

He gently thrusted without going fully, until you told him he could. When he bottomed out, you screamed out loud, your eyes rolling back inside your skull. Alden didn't hold back his noises either - which got you even wetter - as he stared down at you with pure lust. It took all of his willing power not to pin you down and fucked you hard. "That's it, princess. I told you you could take all of me." He kissed you. "Fuck, your pussy is sucking me in." He nipped your bottom lip. "Can I move, baby? Please?" He sounded desperate.

"Fuck yes, Den. Fuck me." He didn't need more.

It wasn't a long and sweet love making. You were both so worked up and desperate for each other, it didn't take long until you and Alden came undone, shouting each other's names. While his cock softened inside you, he collapsed on you, listening to your heart pounding in your chest, just like his was. Your hand was resting in his hair.

"That was--" he tried to say.

"Yeah." You agreed.

Soon after, Alden left for a minute and came back with a wet cloth and some water. He cleaned you up, while you drank and stared. "I didn't hurt you, right?" He asked, concerned.

"Not at all." You stroked his cheek. "but you're definitely bigger than--" you stopped there. His brows furrowed together and he was speaking again.

"Was he the only one you've ever--"

"Yup." You confessed, looking down at the glass of water which suddenly seemed intriguing.

"Oh, um. I didn't know," he drank from his own glass.

"Would it have changed something?"

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"Well I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It seemed irrelevant." You started to move. "If you want to pretend this didn't happen, then fine with me, I'll--" Alden grabbed your arm before you could pull yourself on your knees and brought you against his chest.

"That makes me your second?"

"One, two... You can count, good job." His hand immediately smacked against your butt cheek. You looked at him in disbelief but with a smile on your face.

"I should teach you how to count the right way." He spanked you again. Your eyes went dark, and he knew you liked it very very much. Perfect.

"How many was that? Four?" You teased and two more spanks hit you. You uncontrollably moaned in his chest, and bit his nipple. He let out a high pitched yelp, making you giggle. He put his glass down on the nightstand, - almost dropping it - before getting on top of you, face down on the mattress. Since the four spanks had been on the same cheek, it was already pink, and it sprung Alden's cock back to life. He gave your other cheek a spank.

"No biting, little brat."

You could feel his cock resting between your ass cheeks and for a moment, you considered giving Alden what you always refused to your husband. This ass, your ass... was Alden's to love, fuck and spank.

"Not even a little?" You asked, innocently and earned another spank. You moaned against, burying your face in the pillow - that smelled wonderfully like Alden.

He grabbed a handful of your flesh, leaned over and bit your ass, before smoothing it with his tongue and lips. "Alden," you whined.

"What is it, princess? Do you want something?"

"Your tongue." You whispered.

He spanked you again but was a bit gentler this time. "Louder. You need to be loud and clear."

"I want you to eat my pussy!" You cried.

"Ask and you shall receive."

He turned you over and did exactly what you wanted.

After you came in his mouth, allowing him to drink every bit of you, Alden was painfully hard and ready to go again. He teased your entrance with the tip but you stopped him. He immediately pulled away, giving you space, afraid he did something wrong. But when he saw you turning around with a mischievous smile on your face, he understood. "My turn."

You knew you gave good blowjobs...to your husband. Then again, he was smaller than Alden's so it was easier for you. As you started to suck on Den's cock, you were desperately hoping he would enjoy it. You didn't want to disappoint him. But you could barely take half of him without choking. Still, from his noises, growls and words, he seemed to love it. "Relax your throat, baby. No rush, no worries. You're doing so good." This man could read you like a fucking open book.

You followed his instructions, took your time and slowly, you were able to take a bit more of his length. "Baby, if you choke on my cock one more time, I'm gonna cum." Since it was exactly what you wanted, you took as much as you could, choked and drank to the very last drop of his release.

As bad as he wanted to fuck you one more time, Alden's cock was unresponsive for the rest of the night. So you simply cuddled in bed, made small talk before quickly drifting away.

For a month, everything was great. Things with Alden were amazing, he was an actual dream. Most of the time, you forgot you were married to someone else, it was all about Alden, Alden, Alden. He was extremely sweet and thoughtful, he cared and wasn't afraid to show it, he treated you like a princess, except sometimes during sex. You always liked sex, but with your husband, it has never been too crazy, not that it was bad either. However, with Alden, you discovered yourself, found out you had some kinks and he was more than happy to oblige them.

The team complimented you several times, saying that you were glowing. Thanking them, you saw Alden smirking behind their backs, knowing he was the reason for that glow. It was crazy that they didn't notice what was going on, or at least, they never said or hint anything.

Your relationship with your husband was practically non-existent. You'd run into each other here and there, talked briefly about stuff but that was it. You obviously told him you were seeing someone, and he didn't ask anything, not even who was the guy, or if you were respecting the rules. It felt like he didn't care anymore, and eventually, you stopped caring too. All your focus apart from work, was on Alden and your relationship with this wonderful man.

It was your husband's birthday, and as a tradition, his family and your parents would come over for dinner to celebrate. You turned down Alden's offer to go on a date, mostly because you felt like you had to be there. The families had no idea what was happening and you couldn't just bail on them.

You were preparing a couple of dishes when your husband came home after meeting with his best friend - he said. He surprised you by hugging you from behind and planted kisses in your neck. You instantly stiffed, and tried to wiggle your way out. "What are you doing?" You asked.

"Kissing my wife. Am I not allowed?"

"You haven't touched me for months. Not even a hug."

"I know." He grabbed your waist and spined you around to face him. "It was my mistake and I'm sorry."

He leaned in to kiss you, but you pulled away before his lips could touch yours. "Wait, what is happening here?"

"Did you seriously pull away from a kiss?"

"You can't just come over to me, after months of ignoring me, and expect kisses, cuddles or whatever."

"I don't remember you trying either. I mean, you've barely been home this past month."

"You know exactly where I was."

"Right, with him. Who is he anyways?"

You let out a dry laugh. "So, now you're asking?"

"I am, and I expect an answer." He folded his arms against his chest.

"Someone from work."

He stayed silent for a second. "Nick?"

"Ew, come on."

"I know for sure it's not Tim, nor Jimmy! Wait-- is it the new guy? What's his name?"

"Parker, yes." There was no point in lying.

"Oh my god," he had a humorless laugh. "I can't believe this. That's why I never met him."

"No, you never met him cause you haven't cared in a long time."

"Says the girl who only cares about her job and her team!"

"If that was the problem from the beginning, you could've just said so and asked for a divorce."

"I don't want a divorce! I love you still." You stayed silent. He was obviously expecting you to say it back, but you couldn't. You didn't know if you still loved him. "You're not saying it back."

"I've got to get ready. The parents will be here soon."

You and your husband basically ignored each other, which wasn't difficult. Between the parents, siblings and kids, you each focused on different persons and nobody questioned it. Dinner was barely getting started when your phone rang. It was Alden, so you picked and listened while he told you there was a crime scene and gave you the address. "sorry for ruining your evening, sweetheart." He said.

"Oh no, don't worry." You were somehow relieved.

You got back to the living area where everyone was. "I'm sorry I've got to leave guys. Duty calls." They seemed disappointed but they knew how your jobs worked. "Gonna get changed." You rushed upstairs.

You had barely taken off your dress that your husband merged inside. "It was him, wasn't it?" He asked, angry.

"He's the team leader, he gets the calls and then calls us, so yes." You put on some pants.

"How do I know it's really about work?"

Onto the shirt. "Our families are here. Do you think I'd give up on them?"

"No, but you'd give up on me. You are."

"Stop." You opened the door, and walked away but your husband stopped you right next to the stairs.

"Don't go, stay here with us, with me."

"It's my work, I have to go."

"Work, yeah right." He was raising his voice. "You just want to see him."

"I said stop it!" You tried to pull away but he wasn't letting go of your arms.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?" He yelled.

"Let go of me!"

You fought him off, and that was all you remembered but it went dark.

Alden knew something was wrong and so did the team when you never showed up at the crime scene. They all tried to call you multiple times for hours until finally someone picked up when Alden called one more time. "Sweetheart, hey, is everyth--"

"I'm sorry, do you call all of your colleagues 'sweetheart'?"

"Hmm." Alden didn't recognize the voice on the other side but it definitely wasn't you. He suspected the woman to be your mother. "Why isn't Y/N answering? Is she okay?"

"She's at the hospital." Alden's heart stopped at this moment. "She fell down the stairs while she was getting ready and hurt her head. I just got back to the house and found her phone."

"Oh my god," his heart was pounding. "Which hospital is she at? She's gonna be okay, right? The injury isn't too bad?" Nick who was hearing the conversation, called out the rest of the team to approach.

"She has a mid concussion, they are keeping her overnight but she's fine."

"Thank god!" Alden exclaimed uncontrollably. "Which hospital? I'll go see her--"

"No."

"No?"

"She's a married woman, so you need to stay away from her."

"Ma'am--" he tried to talk, say something, anything but your mother kept going.

"I don't know exactly what happened, but it honestly doesn't matter. Whatever was going on between you and my daughter, it ends now. As her superior, and a man old enough to be her father, you should be ashamed."

"Ma'am!" He tried again.

"You know what, you should quit. But if you don't, I'll make sure she doesn't come back to NCIS. It'll be for the best anyways, this job takes too much of her. And it's not taking her marriage. So don't come anywhere near her, and have Nick call next time." She hung up.

Completely stunned, Alden had to sit so he opened the car's door and let himself fall onto the seat. The team was staring as he covered his face and rubbed his eyes. "Parker!" McGee brought him back to reality.

"Yeah, um. She fell down the stairs apparently and has a concussion. They are keeping her at the hospital for the night."

"Okay, move Park, I'm driving." Nick said, waiting for Alden to leave the driver's seat vacant.

"I don't know which hospital. Tim, please tell me you got your laptop?"

Luckily, Tim did have his laptop, and they checked every hospital admissions until they found which one you were at. Nick did drive himself and Alden, while the other had to stay behind to finish up on the crime scene. The team leader didn't say a word during the ride, and Nick respected his silence. He's known about Alden's crush on you for months.

After a few hours and multiple exams, the medical team finally put you in a room. The doctor asked you to not sleep for now, even though you were exhausted and in pain. Your dad joined in, and you were relieved to see that he was alone. "You scared the shit out of me, babygirl." He said, gently kissing your temple. "I'm glad you're fine. The doc doesn't want you to fall asleep just yet, so we're gonna talk, okay?"

"Dad, I don't want to talk right now."

"I need to understand what's going on. You know I'm not judging you and I never will, but did you have an affair with that new guy in your team?"

"That's what he told you?" Your dad nodded.

Of course your husband lied, but you told your father the entire truth. From months ago, to the moment right before you fell down the stairs. You told him about Alden, how you were falling with this man, and how you wanted to be with him and just him. You've been a daddy's little girl from day one, and have always been honest with him, he was kinda hurt you didn't confide in him when it all started, but you know he wouldn't react well.

"Where is he?" You asked eventually, speaking of your husband. "I don't want to see him. Please, don't let him in, dad."

"He's probably getting his nose patched up right now. And I warned him, don't worry. I don't want him anywhere near you." You looked at him, puzzled. "Whether you had an affair or not, I don't care. You fell because of him. Did he--push you, honey?" Your father's jaw was clenched, as well as his fists. He was ready to fight some more.

"No, no! He was just holding me back, I was trying to get out of his grip and the stairs were right there."

Your dad relaxed his fists only slightly, but he didn't have time to say anything.

"You fell because of that motherfucker???"

Alden and Nick were standing at the door.

You never saw that look on Alden's face before, never actually heard him talk this way. Nick wasn't looking any better, very much like your dad, he was ready to fight. Smiling shyly, you extended your hand towards the man you loved. Alden took it, while your father stood up from the bed.

"You two!" You called out your dad and Nick. "You're gonna stay in the hallway, but I swear to god if you go rogue, I'll kick both your asses."

"Yes ma'am!" They both answered, before leaving the room.

"You--" you turned your attention back to Alden, who was breathing heavily. "Sit." He did, and you stroked his beard. "I'm okay."

"You fell, you have a concussion, because of him. That's not okay for me."

"Just hold me, love. Stay here and hold me." He did. "And don't let me sleep."

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #ncis fanfiction #alden parker x reader #ncis imagine #alden parker smut #gary cole

[navalcriminalimagines]

Hellooo! Bonjour :) I’m so happy to find another writer who writes for Alden Parker, because he’s my new favourite Federal Agent in the crime procedurals I watch. Love your stories! 💙Is it possible to request a SFW fluff story with Alden? Maybe with another agent on the team, where they both love food and try to challenge each other to find the “best meal/pastry of the week?” ☺️

Hey love! 🫶🏻 So happy to have someone else who’s favorite is now our lil man Alden 🥰 He’s just perfect, isn’t he? ❤️ I hope you’ll enjoy!!

Pastries, meals and dates

When Alden Parker brought pastries on his first day on the job, you knew it would work out really well with him. It surprised him when you knew what the pastries were, and where they were coming from. Finding new pastries, making his coworkers discover them was his hidden talent, it was something he was known for in the FBI and he wanted it to be the same at NCIS. But this wouldn’t work with you; he wouldn’t be able to surprise you with those.

Instead, you were the one that surprised him the next day by bringing pastries too. “Let’s see which ones the team likes better.” You grinned at him, putting your white box next to his.

That day, the pastries you brought were gone before Alden’s. “You’re on,” he told you before leaving the office in the evening.

The following week, Alden brought new pastries he spent a long time looking for. The team loved it, it was completely gone before lunchtime. The next day, it was your turn to bring some, and the same thing happened. “So, which ones were the most delicious?” You asked the team.

“Sorry Y/N, but I have to go with Parker’s,” Tim said.

“Me too.” Jessica added.

Alden was grinning at you, and you rolled your eyes. You focused on Nick, who chose yours. “We have to ask Jimmy and Kasie.” You said, practically rushing to the elevator, Alden closed on your heels. In the silver box, the supervisory agent leaned against the wall and looked at you. “You’re stealing my thing, you’re not playing fair, Agent L/N.” He smiled.

“Aw, don’t you have other things, Parker?” You mimicked him on the opposite wall.

“I have many things.” He smirked.

The doors opened, and Alden invited you to get out first.

Unfortunately, you lost that week.

This went on for weeks; you brought pastries one after the other, asked everyone to choose their favorites and counted points. Nobody complained, it was a silly game that allowed the team to eat free international pastries.

But eventually, you switched from pastries to meals, just between the two of you.

One day, Alden invited you for lunch to a nice Greek restaurant. You didn’t ask if it was a date because you were afraid of the answer but it surely felt like one. Alden was a perfect gentleman; pulling the chair for you, asking if you wanted more, if the food was like you wanted it, paying at the end despite your arguments.

The next week, you invited him for dinner to a new restaurant you’ve been dying to try. He insisted on paying again but he didn’t win this time since you were the one who invited him.

“Now we don’t have a team to decide between us.” He said as you were walking back to the car.

“No, but we are both honest people. I was dying to try this restaurant but yours was better.” You confessed.

“I am happy to hear that, thank you for being honest.”

You were walking side by side and you felt his hand brushing yours a few times. You hoped he would grab it and intertwine his fingers with yours but he didn’t. For a moment, you considered doing it yourself but you were too afraid of rejection. This would hurt your relationship you’re building with him and you loved it too much to take that risk.

You and Alden went to different restaurants for weeks, being honest about who found the best one. You loved every second you spent with him. The more you were with Alden, the more you were falling in love with him.

You hoped he would mention if those were dates, but he didn’t. That word never left his mouth.

Jessica and Kasie kept telling you that he was smitten, completely in love with you but you couldn’t believe them. You were afraid to believe them and be totally wrong. At least, until he said so himself or did something that meant it.

It’s been over a month since you and Alden had been going out to restaurants, but this time it felt different. On the drive to the place he chose, he told you that the owner and chef was one of his friends. “It’s a regular restaurant, you probably went there already,” he told you.

“I thought the goal of this was to make the other discover new places and meals?” You asked, confused.

“Yeah, but this one is different.”

“How so?”

“Because I want it to be a date, Y/N.” He took a quick look at you. “If you want it too, of course.”

“Why did it take you this long?”

“Fear, I guess? I was scared to destroy what we were building,”

“Then what changed today?”

“Nick, Tim and Jimmy had been annoying me for weeks. I can’t take it anymore.” He chuckled.

“Same here with the girls.” You smiled.

“So—“ he slowly put his hand on your thigh, giving you the opportunity to ask him to stop if you wanted to. “We could’ve done this weeks ago?”

“Yup, apparently.” You admitted, putting your hand on top of his.

“Well, I don’t regret it. This little game was great, even though I gained a few pounds.”

“You look perfect, Agent Parker.”

“So do you, Agent L/N.”

Now that you knew it was an official date, and after weeks of wait, you didn’t want to wait anymore. When Alden opened the car door for you, you got down, and kissed him before he even could close it. He let go of the door in order to hold you against him, intensifying the kiss. Your arms wrapped around his neck, hands running through his smooth hair. His hands traveled in your back, and you kissed until you were out of breath. “Couldn’t wait anymore.” You smiled.

“Me neither, but I was trying to be a gentleman.” He chuckled.

“Alden, we lost weeks already. Don’t worry about that,”

“Okay then.”

He pinned you against the car and kissed you again.

#ncis #alden parker #ncis season 19 #ncis imagine #ncis reader insert #alden parker fanfic #alden parker x reader #alden parker imagine #alden parker fic #alden parker x you

[hvaneyflowers]

Masterlist!

NCIS

Alden Parker x Jessica Knight

The Secret [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

-----------------------------------

F1 drivers

Carlos Sainz:

Italian Girl [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

Fernando Alonso:

Family [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

Lewis Hamilton:

Pov: You're dating Lewis Hamilton

Christmas Special🎄🎅

Christmas will really be Christmas [Charles Leclerc x you]

Mistletoe [Keving Magnussen x you]

Christmas vacation! [Pierre Gasly x you]

First love... and the only [Lewis Hamilton x you]

#ncis #agent alden parker #ncis alden parker #jessica knight #f1 #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #fernandoalonso #carlos sainz #sir lewis hamilton #charles leclerc imagine #lando norris #fernando alonso x reader #max verstappen #daniel ricciardo #kimi raikkonen

[le-amewzing]

Ripples

Mermay bit me three times over this year with ideas, so have another AU for Parknight~ ;D

Fic: "Ripples" [FFN] [AO3]

Pairings/Characters: eventual Alden Parker/Jess Knight, Parker's sister & parents, Timothy McGee, Nick Torres, & Jimmy Palmer, with cameos from Leon Vance, Billy Doyle, Joy Aaronson (as Joy Sullivan), Vivian Kolchak, & assorted OCs, & mentions of episodic minor charries

Rating: light T

Words: ~17,080

Additional info: romance, drama, friendship, family, 3rd person POV

Summary: Parker was saved once upon a time from the water by something…or someone…he later chose to believe didn't really exist. Decades later, casework takes him from the FBI to NCIS and he meets Jessica Knight—but not, he swears, for the first time.

      He had been fond of birds since childhood. Those feathered, winged creatures—they were beautiful, but (more importantly) they had the freedom to go where they pleased. Alden always envied them that.

      But he'd never once considered the world of that which inhabited the deep.

      Alden had new time to consider it when his father, Roman, received an assignment in the Pacific in the middle of 1972. Alden and his older sister, Lauren, overheard just one heated argument between their parents in the kitchen that summer before the packing began. Their older brother was lucky; Norman was a sophomore at college and didn't have to deal with any of this global travel anymore.

      There had been other moves, most of which Alden had been too young to recall, but family photo albums showed a history of bustling cities not all that unlike Chicago. This time was different, though. This time, they would be in a country surrounded by water, in a city kissing the sea.

      The joint naval base in Kanagawa was as sprawling as the rest—according to his parents and Lauren. "It's different from Chicago, but you'll get used to it," his sister insisted, and then she thrust a dictionary into his hand, because they would be going to school with other Navy brats and taking classes in English as was the norm, but she was always thinking two steps ahead, thinking that this assignment could keep them here for longer than imagined, so they might as well acclimate.

      But this change of scenery was a little too much for him. They had four seasons here same as they had four seasons back home, but fall, winter, spring, and even summer when it came around once more couldn't convince Alden to call this new place his home, least of all when the next call or letter their father received could upend them all over again.

      As a year snuck up on them in Japan, Lauren asked their mother if she and Alden could do some exploring on their own. "It's finally summer break, but we're moved in now and don't have anything else to worry about." She raised her fair eyebrows, and Alden glanced between them in the living room.

      Before she could answer, Roman—on a rare day home—set aside his newspaper and cocked his head at his wife. "Laurie's seventeen now, Marion, and Al's twelve, more than halfway to a man. It's safe to walk these parts, especially together. You've seen how the Japanese send their toddlers out on milk runs, right? The kids'll be plenty safe out on their own around here."

      The last bit must've been convincing, because Marion's frown morphed into a timid smile. Her hazel eyes darted from her daughter to her son and back, and she passed Lauren her coin purse. "…fine. But it's still towards the end of the day, and I'll be starting dinner soon, so don't stay out late, all right?"

      Lauren grinned from ear to ear, and even Alden perked up. Neither of them made it out without a hug and kiss from their mother first, but then Lauren grabbed her purse and they headed outside.

      "Where to?" Alden asked, since Lauren's interest in exploring had been sudden even to him.

      His sister marched forward, clearly with a destination in mind. "You'll see. I've been dying to go ever since my friends told me about it, but it's best in the summertime."

      Alden narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't like that. She always had a plan in mind, but also…she'd meshed with the kids here better than he had. A year in, and he hadn't even gotten close enough to anyone to borrow notes from when he stayed home with a cold back in February.

      They walked for a few minutes to the nearby train station, where Lauren bought their tickets. Alden shrugged and followed her, since he liked a decent train ride. Besides, one of the few pluses for him in Japan was that a lot of sights that flew past the window outside the train looked…quite…spectacular…

      "HEY!" he yelped as their line sped out over the water. Alden ignored the dirty looks from fellow riders as he dropped down in his seat and glared at his sister. "You didn't mention there'd be water," he hissed under his breath.

      "Because if I had, you wouldn't've come along," Lauren replied. She studied her fingernails before glancing at him and tousling his hair. "I know you hate boats, Al. I wouldn't do that to you. But Enoshima's supposed to be really nice, and I think you could use something really nice after this past year. Just trust me on this, yeah?"

      He growled lowly under his breath and crossed his arms, tearing his eyes away from her. He sulked for the rest of the ride, and Lauren was only able to pry him from his seat with the reminder that going back meant going over the water again so soon.

      Enoshima…was tiny, and bustling, and not exactly what Alden thought he wanted right now. He'd never had a problem with crowds before, but Enoshima during summertime—suddenly he had a newfound appreciation for the sardines packed into tins at the grocery store. Or perhaps it was just the throttle of this end of the train station, since Lauren grabbed his hand and yanked him free from the crowd out into—no, it was Enoshima itself. Train station or not, the crowd didn't improve.

      "A lot of Japan seems to build up and out," he mumbled against Lauren's arm as they went with the tide flowing from the station out into the street.

      Lauren's eyes followed his, and she looked at the buildings that seemed haphazardly constructed on either side of the narrow road. She actually laughed. "And yet somehow it all still stands. I don't know; I kind of love this about Japan. It's either ancient or this modern mishmash."

      Alden groaned.

      She tugged him along and, they further they went, the easier it became to breathe. The crowds didn't thin, exactly, but there was more room to move around, so Lauren let go of her brother. The buildings began to thin, though, and Lauren perked up. "Hey, the way to the beach is clear."

      "I'm not a fan of water, and you didn't bring your suit."

      "Well, no, but we can still walk around on the sand, soak up the setting sun, and see what food stalls are up." When his stomach growled in response, Lauren smirked. "I won't tell Mom if you won't."

      "…fine."

      Alden traipsed after Lauren and stuck his hands in his shorts' pockets. He watched and half listened as she bounced from stall to stall, curious about the different treats and practicing her conversational Japanese, the latter of which he still only grasped a few words and phrases after all this time. He perked up for a second when Lauren got in line at the stand grilling meat on skewers, but then he grumbled again when she changed her mind and went investigating a shaved-ice cooler on wheels.

      Sighing, Alden looked around him. There were some tourists, possibly expats like them, and plenty of locals…but he noted many families packing up to head home for the day. Normal families, he supposed.

      Families who stayed put.

      Families who wanted to stick together.

      A sour feeling in his stomach bubbled up at that thought, and Alden wandered close to the water's edge, where the sand was gloopy and this morning's sandcastles were already memories. He kicked at the sand a bit while his back was to those happy families, but the water lapped up the sand, close to the toes of his sneakers.

      Alden took a shuddering step back. That had been close.

      But then something out in the water glinted and caught his eye.

      Alden lifted his head and squinted into the fading sunshine. A bundle of boulders sat partly in the middle of the water, as though broken off from the rocky hillside of Enoshima itself. But it wasn't the boulders that had caught Alden's attention but something coppery out by them… He shielded his eyes from the orange sun and could almost make out a coppery tail flicking in and out of the water—but when he traced the edge of the tail upwards, he thought he saw a pers—

      And then the waves sucked him down and crashed over him.

      His curiosity in what lay behind the rocks vanished, replaced by panic the second he realized he must've taken half a step closer to get a better look. And that half a step was all a churning ocean needed to take hold of an inexperienced swimmer who was unprepared on top of that.

      He clawed for the surface to no avail, desperate to keep this last breath of air in his lungs, in his mouth. Alden thrashed and thrashed and thrashed—a second wave came, the waters receding just long enough for him to gasp and gulp a bit more air—but then he was under anew, and he thought he heard shouts and screams coming from the beach. But, underwater, those sounds were muffled, distant, as far as he knew.

      The current turned and twisted him around, and Alden lost track of which way was up, whether left was right or right was left. The waters receded once again, and he used what little energy he had to scream for help…but his voice didn't sound like his own, and it sounded too close.

      No one could or would hear him.

      (It had been a mistake to come to Enoshima.)

      (…no, it had been a mistake to make this move to Japan.)

      Alden stopped turning under the waves and began to sink, his arms and legs tired of fighting natural forces. Feelings of resentment bloomed for a hot second, but they were overpowered with childlike yearning instead for his sister, for his parents…then, even yearning faded, giving way to imagination.

      Someone with dark hair appeared before him in the water. Alden's eyes wanted to drift closed, but the dark-haired presence slapped him awake once, twice, so he squinted through the murk—

      That was when he first locked eyes with her. Copper eyes.

      Her lithe arms came under his and she propelled them upwards, Alden clinging to her and tuning out the fearsome ocean…but catching a glimpse of her means in their wake. A copper tail to match.

      They broke the surface, and Alden gasped fresh air. Another wave crashed nearby, but he felt hard land underneath him now. He coughed and spluttered as he got his bearings—ah, she'd deposited him on the offshore rocks—but he turned for another glimpse of his rescuer…

      …only to find that, like the receding waters, she had gone just as quickly as she'd come.

      "Never again" and "I'm so sorry" were Lauren's favorite phrases after that incident.

      His sister determined never to let Alden out of her sight after that, and Roman and Marion had flipped their opinion about Japan being as safe as they previously thought. For Roman, it stung more, Alden knew, to have a Parker man nearly drown. Parker men were sailors, born and bred, after all. Parker men didn't drown.

      But then a new letter (new orders) arrived, and the family understood their time in Japan was winding down.

      Before, Alden would've been relieved. Truthfully, he mostly still was…but he hadn't been able to shake the vision of the mermaid from weeks ago.

      He had seen her, right?

      Clearly, someone had rescued Alden, because he could swim, but he didn't have the skills to fight against the rip current that came at him that summer evening. But he was smart enough to know you didn't just go around bringing up mermaids without people looking at you funny, even in a country that openly talked about spirits good and bad as though they were next-door neighbors.

      That was why Alden kept sneaking out, just a few times on the rare occasion when Lauren was out saying goodbyes with friends, and wandered back to the same spot on the beach in Enoshima before their father's assignment ended. He only managed it a handful of times, because there was packing to do, and surprisingly he had his own classmates who wanted to throw him a farewell party, too.

      Four times. Four nights he returned to the beach. Three times, it was pointless.

      But the fourth time, two days before the Parkers were meant to head back stateside, he caught sight of her again.

      Alden almost missed her, since the palette of everything was wrong, so much darker an blue–green, at night. But he'd been ready to head home when he heard something strange that made him turn back and search the shadows by the boulders.

      She was a silhouette until the clouds moved and let slivers of moonlight fall on her, casting a ghostly glow on her form, and he could see her stretched out on the rocks, flicking the tip of her dimmed but still coppery tail in and out of the water. She toyed with the ends of her hair and—the sound. The sound came from her…oh. She was singing.

      Alden scrunched up his nose. It really was a strange sound. It was singing, but it wasn't quite musical. If anything, it sounded more like the ocean to his ears, at varying volumes. He sighed, wondering if this was how she communicated (if so, this was a language barrier not even his smarty-pants sister could break…).

      But the mermaid stilled and snapped her head in his direction when he sighed. Even from afar, he caught the tiniest glimpse of her eyes—

      —and that was all he was going to see of her for the rest of his stay in Japan, and for several decades after that.

      At age twelve and fresh on the heels of his rescue, it was still easy to believe it had happened.

      By age thirteen and after befriending Billy Doyle, Alden wasn't sure it was "cool" to believe in myths and the impossible.

      By age fourteen, Alden had traded in his given name for the nickname "Park," taken up troublemaking as his favorite pastime, and swapped out belief for disbelief.

      Park was a teen who was definitely a skeptic in the making. He should've known better when Norman said he'd always be around to look out for him and Lauren. He should've known better when Lauren promised she'd stick around, too, before applying to the Naval Academy. He should've known better when Marion first lost some unexpected weight but swore she was healthy like an ox. And he should've known better, that Roman wasn't going to put his family before the Navy, nor was he going to give up on the idea of his youngest following in his footsteps.

      A prolonged stint in juvie didn't help Park's skepticism much, especially after Billy somehow emerged from their shared stint even bitterer than before. "Guys like us, they plan to lock us up time and time again. They're countin' on it, Park," Billy grumbled to him a month out and a month back in school.

      Park shook his head. "Pretty sure that's not how the system works, Billy."

      "Yeah? Just you watch. I'll still be in the crosswalk when the light turns red and they'll be on me to walk me back to juvie!"

      Park gave it some thought, mused that Billy might be coming from a five-finger discount before that hypothetical crosswalk, and then realized Billy eyed him intently, waiting for the usual response. He shook his head and grinned. "Not if you have me to watch your back," he returned.

      That did the trick. Billy eased up, reverted to that fun, why-don't-you-come-along-for-the-ride personality Park had befriended when he'd still been just "Alden," and the day became easier.

      Although, Park realized Billy hadn't been the only one eyeing him intently. In the hallway, between bells, he spied Joy Sullivan doing very much the same but for very different reasons.

      Joy, like Billy, didn't seem to mind the trouble Park got up to, even though she wasn't much of a mischief maker herself. "I think you've got good in you," Joy declared one night when she'd snuck out to meet him for a movie.

      Park raised one doubtful eyebrow. "Considering your parents turned me away at the door the first time I came to introduce myself…"

      But she shook her head in the face of his skepticism. "I don't go by hearsay, Park. I've got a good feeling about you."

      Her words made him snort and shake his head. Joy's "act now, think later" personality was a force of nature he didn't want to fight— Park stopped in his tracks on the sidewalk on the way to the theater.

      Joy turned around and peered at him. "Park?"

      He furrowed his brow, an expression that didn't change even when his eyes settled on her. Her dark hair…and his thoughts of her just now ("act now" and "force of nature")… Something briefly tickled his brain.

      Something he hadn't thought about for years.

      But, no, Park didn't really trust his own memory, not from back then. …nah, it certainly must've been a twelve-year-old kid's dream.

      So Park brushed off the idea—of someone ever being in the water with him then—as an old reverie.

      And reveries…and memories…come and go, especially as people age. People came and went, too, Park—now "Parker," in his adult life—learned, the hard way.

      Joy moved away before they even finished high school. Billy was right about himself, being in and out of the slammer; Parker finally put some distance between them, much as it pained him, much as he liked Billy and the woman who saw the good in Billy that Parker did, Tess.

      Parker did take a page out of Billy's book, though, not too skeptical to try settling down. That was why he went against his better judgment and took a chance on fellow FBI agent, Vivian Kolchak. She was a bit like him ("I'm skeptic lite," she would joke), and that part of her was easy to get along with. She even managed to charm his family, and Roman seemed to accept his youngest son's path at last, because some kids would be sailors, some kids would get married and have families, and some kids would do both. Alden Parker was finally behaving like his siblings and maybe, just maybe, living up to his family name.

      But Parker's hard left from troublemaker into law enforcement put his critical mind and eventually his new marriage to the test.

      He liked to think that his first case would always be the wackiest tale in his quiver (zebras on PCP in a Californian winery? he couldn't make this crap up if he tried), but then time and experience sharpened Parker's focus, and it was the odd instances, the rare occurrences that never added up that always gave him pause.

      Like a missing teen, spat out of a maze of a forest in Oregon after midnight, the second the missing victim turned eighteen.

      Or evidence in a double-homicide that survived arson in a home in Illinois, left behind in a way that made it seem as though someone—child-sized—had cowered over it during the blaze. And yet no body had been recovered.

      Or a body that had been lost during a storm in the Hudson River. Divers had tried to recover it, but it was too risky to try again, not with such a large storm bearing down on them. But, when the storm cleared, the body had been practically delivered to the shore for the FBI's easiest access, and they recovered the victim, closed the case, and helped the family mourn.

      "Don't you think there are…other things at work?" Viv asked him once, on one of their quieter days when they weren't arguing about work coming first or his temper because hey, look, they were both home for once, relaxing on a rare Saturday morning.

      Parker set down last Sunday's crossword and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You can't still be thinking about the Hudson case."

      "Of course I'm still thinking about the Hudson case. We just got back from New York, and I love New York, but that case was different."

      It was one thing for him to think it, but it was another for her to say it. Parker glanced at his wife in her matching armchair. "How do you think?"

      Viv liked that question. She saw that as a chance to blurt whatever was on her mind and follow her train of thought aloud (the latter had been an endearing quality…initially. After five years? Not so much). She ran a hand through her blond locks and cupped her cheek in her palm. "Well, most people would call it a miracle, as the family did when their daughter washed ashore."

      He pursed his lips. The topic hit a little too close to home.

      "But I have to wonder about other things actually out there. Like…things here, of course, but out there, in the world, working in unseen ways…ways maybe we can't even comprehend."

      He closed his eyes and willed himself not to roll them. Parker knew where this was going, because they'd had this chat before. "You mean aliens," he said, resuming his crossword.

      Parker didn't need to glance at her to know he'd earned Viv's glare—that clenched jaw and stony stare. "…you really mean to tell me that you've never once believed in something else? Something you can't explain, Park?"

      His hand stalled while answering 10-down, a nightmare of sinking underwater coming to mind, but he said nothing.

      Viv scoffed and shook her head. If she had worse words for him, she didn't share them.

      Well. Viv didn't share them then.

      It took them three more bitter, noisy years before they realized it wasn't going to get better, but Parker wondered why he was surprised when he heard through mutual friends at the office that Viv accepted a job from the Department of Defense, all but chasing her little green men.

      Parker winced, truthfully, when he heard her news. He didn't want "Head of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force" on his résumé, not one bit. Give him drug kingpins or serial murderers or, hell, even missing children any day. Those things, graphic or heart-wrenching, he could handle.

      Parker didn't touch the "unexplained" with a ten-foot pole.

      …of course, that sour attitude with Viv leaked into his work attitude a little more than he would've liked in the years after the divorce. Before he knew it, Parker was down a partner, working cases on his own, and alienating (oh, the irony) agents around him. It was rather surprising when Director Sweeney huffed but signed off on Parker pursuing a potential serial killer on his own, in D.C.'s suburbs.

      Parker mused that Sweeney signed off partly to get Parker out of the office. He didn't mind; Parker considered it a win–win, since Sweeney was an exceptional bureaucrat and terrible at managing his agents.

      Still, Parker wondered how long this case would drag on. Months of sifting through cold cases and hunting this guy at a crawl… And now, here he was, in Georgetown, eyeing the man who might be his killer.

      He'd been here a few days, following a lead, when his own sixth sense—a real one trained from his time as Billy's sidekick and being an agent, nothing Viv might've conjured up—kicked in, causing Parker to hesitate while he tailed his suspect.

      Parker had eyes on his guy, but someone had eyes on him.

      He resumed moving, even though someone approached and tried to be friendly…but, ah, shit, that was a ploy. Parker broke out into a run, lost sight of his suspect, and sprinted across traffic.

      It was worse than he'd imagined. Not one, but three people were on him.

      "NCIS!" the female agent shouted.

      Internally, Parker cursed. Crossing jurisdiction lines, mixing alphabets—definitely not good…if he got caught.

      Unfortunately for him, that was the end result. This trio was younger, had a touch more energy than did he, and had the element of surprise on their side.

      Parker ended up surrendering in the small park across the street, on his knees, hands up, with two guns pointed at him and one joker assuring his pals that he "totally had him." But the agent behind him…ah, the female one, since he got a good look at the wise guy and the pasty fellow in front of him…cuffed him and pulled Parker to his feet.

      "Your friend got away, but you'll do," Pasty said, flashing his badge. Parker glimpsed the name "McGee" beside the NCIS insignia.

      His shorter friend grumbled about having it under control "without your and Knight's help," and they led the way back to their SUV. McGee and the other man climbed in front, and Knight opened the back door for Parker.

      "Watch your head," she told him. Then she got her first look at him.

      Parker got his first look at her.

      The incident he'd spent decades convincing himself was little more than a dream (and, hey, maybe he'd never even dreamt it!) hit him then in full force.

      The current dragging him under.

      Two arms appearing from nowhere, pulling him up to the surface.

      A mass of dark hair that floated around her like seaweed.

      And, peering out from that hair, at him, like gems, copper eyes that matched the scales—

      "Hello?" Knight blinked first and waved her hand in front of his face. "You all right? You paled, like, sheet white. You need to tell us if you have a medical emergency—"

      "I'm fine," Parker managed, and he swallowed a cold lump that formed in his throat. He shook his head. "I, uh, I'm fine. Just a bit chilly," he conceded, since there was no use in trying to hide his cold sweat.

      She nodded slowly and helped him into the back. A minute later, Knight took the other seat in the back and told her colleagues to go. "Oh, and can we have a little heat back here, McGee?" She offered Parker a small smile to show she'd heard him.

      Parker pursed his lips, knowing he needed to focus on this new wrench in his case…but his eyes kept going back to Knight's.

      Knight glanced at him after a while. "Something on my face?" she asked.

      Parker wondered. Especially when every fiber of his being screamed at him that Knight's eyes were the same ones as his rescuer's back then.

      But…how?

      Parker tabled the question, grudgingly, for the next few days, as his case both fell apart and broke open, thanks to NCIS' meddling.

      In the span of mere days, Parker blew his cover, nearly turned his case over to these Navy cops…somewhat reluctantly worked as part of a team…and realized that (perhaps) he'd been working on his own for a little too long. He'd also nearly cost them their forensic scientist, gone on a manhunt after their former team leader, and lost his job at the FBI.

      Good grief, his father would give him an earful at the next Family Game Night.

      But, in the midst of this tumult, Parker kept a close eye on Knight and noted how she interacted with her team and how they reacted to her. As far as he could tell, she was a bit of a new face herself, around McGee and Torres (the wise guy). But Kasie and Palmer, NCIS' forensic scientist and medical examiner, respectively, treated her like an old friend. And, after how high tensions had run during his—ah, right, they had a name to give their deceased killer now—during the LeMere case, Knight appeared to be rubbing off on the rest, fitting in just fine.

      Nobody gave her a second glance at all.

      Maybe it was just him? Perhaps Knight simply…bore a striking resemblance to someone (or something, he chided himself at home) from his past. …still.

      He had this chance, this opportunity now, to speak with her and to quiet that nagging voice in his head that usually only piped up during particularly tricky investigations.

      But the LeMere case was over. He didn't have a good excuse to contact her out of the blue.

      Right then, a chime notification hit his phone. Parker paused tending to his plants to read the message:

-My office, tomorrow morning, 11AM.

      He didn't need to wait or glance at the number to see who'd sent it, because Vance followed up with his director signature, as if signing an official NCIS email or document. Parker chuckled at that. Vance was the kind of bureaucrat he could get used to…

      Parker took a second look at the message.

      Well, a follow-up with their director was a good enough excuse, wasn't it?

      The next morning, Parker dressed early and drove to NCIS, but he sat in the visitors' lot for an extra five minutes, gathering his thoughts. He had an idea of what Vance wanted to say and knew his response already ("Thanks, but no thanks"), but when it came to Knight… When it came to her, he just had too many questions. Parker huffed as he exited his car and headed inside, musing that coming twenty minutes early probably hadn't been enough time for what he hoped would be a fruitful chat with the smiley agent.

      A probationary agent signed him in downstairs and gave Parker a visitor's badge, and the agent escorted him upstairs in the elevator, too. But, when the elevator dinged and the doors slid apart, they came face to face with Knight.

      Parker's eyes flicked to hers.

      Knight smiled her thanks at the probie. "I can take it from here, Kent." She stepped aside to let Parker exit and the elevator doors closed, sending the probie back down, but they didn't round the cubicles to join McGee and Torres in the bullpen. Instead, Knight furrowed her brow and cocked her head at Parker. "You're back," she stated, curious.

      He was never so glad to be skipping over greetings. Parker glanced in the direction of the MCRT desks and saw McGee and Torres were either busy or absent, and he returned his focus to Knight. "You have a minute?" he asked in a low voice.

      Her smile faded, replaced by barely there frown, but Knight nodded. She led him around a corner, down a hallway, and around a second corner before the din of the floor disappeared. "There's little foot traffic back here. You sound serious," she added.

      "Oh, it's nothing to do with the case—that's shut and closed. No loose ends," Parker assured her.

      Knight's shoulders dropped half an inch and she exhaled audibly.

      Parker studied her. The light in this back hallway had nothing on the skylights out in the bullpen, but he could still take in the sight of her well enough…and she did seem…normal, for lack of a better word. She was half a head shorter than him, even, and that was surreal to reconcile with a figure roughly his size or larger who'd saved him from drowning when he'd been a kid.

      The only thing that refused to let Parker drop his hunch was her eyes. Even in the dull light, they had an unnatural glint to him that he could pick out of a lineup, because he'd seen these eyes before.

      "Have we met before?" It was one of dozens of questions he wanted to ask and not necessarily the first, but he blurted it before his brain caught up with his mouth.

      Knight stilled. On a suspect, this would be a giveaway for Parker to interpret; on Knight, it was the rare kind of non-reaction he couldn't read. Eventually, she eased back into a smile and chuckled. "Well, yeah. We've met—on this case, a few days ago," she teased, as though he had short-term memory loss. "But it's nice to see you again, Alden."

      He narrowed his eyes. This entire time with NCIS, everyone had referred to him as "Parker" or "Agent Parker." Not that he hadn't introduced himself with his given name, but none of them had used it so far. He quirked an eyebrow at her.

      Her eyes widened at the overfamiliarity. "…as in, since the, uh, case is over. And I guess. It might be a while?" She reddened, too, harsh against their orange-walled surroundings, but she laughed at herself.

      That lone, skeptical eyebrow hovered, but Parker found himself smiling, too, in the face of Knight's awkward charm. Hers was the warmest reception around NCIS, anyhow, so he decided to leave his other questions for another day. "Ah…yeah, yeah, it might be a while, I dunno," he replied, scratching the back of his head.

      "What brings you in this morning anyway, Parker? Surely not my sparkling wit," Knight commented with a grin. She began leading them back towards the main floor.

      "Oh. Uh, I have a meeting with Director Vance shortly."

      "Ah. You don't want to be late for that."

      They wound their way back and Knight passed him off to another agent heading upstairs on the way to Vance's office. On the staircase, Parker glanced down into the bullpen and saw Knight, McGee, and Torres watching like curious puppies, only McGee and Torres pretended to find some work when they caught Parker's eye. Knight gave him a little wave.

      Vance didn't keep Parker waiting long and, even back inside the NCIS director's office again in as many days, Vance didn't dawdle with his reason for asking Parker here today. "I heard about your situation at the FBI," the director said.

      "'Situation' is a funny euphemism for 'fired,'" Parker pointed out.

      Vance stood behind his desk and shrugged at the notion. "There's that, and then there's…freeing you up."

      Parker stuck his hands in his pockets.

      "I'm sure you know we've got an opening, too. On that very same team you just assisted with the LeMere case."

      And there it was. Gibbs had mumbled something about it before setting root in Alaska. Vance had been sizing him up the last several days. But now the offer was official, to make the switch from the FBI to NCIS. Parker had known this, and he'd known his answer before coming in here.

      …but he also saw the opportunity. In general, but, even setting the past aside, he found himself freshly curious about Knight.

      "…count me in," he answered.

      Accepting a new team was one thing. Getting the new team to accept him…that was Parker's next undertaking.

      The MCRT lived up to its name, for sure. From supposed zombie sailors to drugged Navy athletes and even encountering in-laws on cruise ships with dead Navy commanders—these were absolutely major cases. And Parker was no slouch at handling his fair share of oddball cases.

      "But this is kind of our ballpark, too," Knight reminded him on the drive back from informing a sailor's family of his involvement in a local robbery. She tipped her head at Parker. "Don't forget you can rely on us, Parker."

      "No, I know, I know," he said. "And I'm trying. I thought Bandium was a good idea."

      She went quiet.

      At a stoplight on the way back to the office, he stole a peek at her and scoffed. "Yeah, all right, let me have it."

      Knight stifled her laughter and lightly knocked her knuckles against his shoulder before the light turned green and he got them moving again. "I mean, it wasn't the worst idea… But, as I said before, it's a way to communicate, and simply talking's communicating, too."

      "I thought at least McGee would be on my side with it. He likes a lot of the techie stuff same as me."

      "Eh, I think he likes being the one to introduce the techie stuff to us. But he'll find its use. I think Bandium's…got a nice color scheme."

      "Knight."

      "Mm?"

      "You're laying it on a little thick there."

      "Oops."

      Parker's scoff this time was too amused; it turned partway into a chuckle of his own. He shook his head at her reaction, glad to have her along and glad to brainstorm with her. "…thanks."

      He didn't have to look by now to know Knight smiled in response. "Could be worse," she said as they returned to the Navy Yard.

      "How so?"

      "It could be pre-Bandium days. We could have phones that only now have the capability to text. Ugh, those days were bad," she added with a shudder.

      "Yeah, pre-texting days in law enforcement…"

      "Or imagine no cellphones on the job. Remember when they first debuted?"

      Parker nodded when they parked. "Never had to carry one of those bricks and glad I never will." He paused before getting out when he spied her grin. "What?"

      "And that attitude sounds a bit like Torres. Lean into that some, and maybe he won't be as chilly over time."

      "I'll take that under advisement." Though said lightly, he actually meant it. Torres had been the grumpiest one of their bunch. McGee was reluctant to follow a new team leader after all his time spent under Gibbs, which Parker understood, but Torres was of a different breed. Parker appreciated Knight's skills in translating her friends' behavior…

      …truth be told, these first few months, interacting with and then joining NCIS, he'd at least been right on the mark about one aspect about Jessica Knight. She was the friendliest one to him. Kasie was trying but still held not shooting LeMere against him, and Palmer, like McGee, treated him with polite friendliness while he, too, adjusted to the changes around the office. And where Torres was openly hostile, Vance was openly accommodating as his new boss. But Knight was the bridge between old and new while still making adjustments herself, as she'd explained about her previous REACT team to Parker one afternoon a few weeks ago.

      He'd been surprised when she shared that, but Parker mused that it might've half been to fill the void of an otherwise quiet car ride on the way to a scene. Initial small talk, he could handle. Talking for half an hour straight with someone he barely knew? Not Alden Parker's strongest suit.

      But Knight had shared how she'd gotten here, something personal, and left it at that.

      Sometimes he got the sense she left the floor open for him to share, too, if he felt like it. …a few times, she outright asked, claiming she wanted to know what made him tick.

      That, he was still working on. He'd made the mistake of telling his team he wasn't great with boats when they'd worked the commander's murder aboard the cruise ship, and that had earned him several curious looks (then, too, Knight politely stifled her laughter and tamped down a smile). Sharing more about himself than what little they'd dug up on him or he'd cared to impart—and bringing pastries each morning had to be a point in his favor—exercised communication skills Parker wasn't certain he'd ever had.

      But, for all Knight could be pushy, she let the car go silent all the same, giving Parker time and room for whenever he was ready. The atmosphere with her was comfortable. That was why, he knew, he regularly partnered up with her, not only not to break the good rhythm McGee and Torres had established, but because Knight matched Parker's pacing well.

      Even tonight, on their way to speak with their victim's ex-wife, Parker and Knight found a space to park along the busy street and walked up the sidewalk together, chatting about Torres' moping over the bullet-riddled classic car from their crime scene. Parker shook his head and smiled, cutting the hotheaded agent some slack over reminiscing on his first car. "Eh, well, you never forget your first car or first anything." He chuckled. "He reminded me of the way I get when I still watch King Kong."

      "No," Knight commented, a smile in her voice. One peek told him the smile was there for real.

      But Parker didn't mind elaborating, with Knight. "Yeah. Favorite movie as a kid."

      "Which version?"

      "Classic. 1933."

      She nodded appreciatively. "I remember when that came out. That's a good one."

      "Yep. And…that's my second childhood reminisce of the day." He heaved a sigh. "Isn't that an omen?"

      Knight shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Could just be you being paranoid, but if I start talking about classic Barbie, then we'll know it's contagious."

      Parker shared in her grin this time when they approached the ex-wife's door—but he faltered on the step behind Knight as he processed what she said. "Which Barbie?" he asked Knight with narrowed eyes.

      She looked at Parker over her shoulder, her hand poised to knock on the door. "Malibu Barbie," she clarified. "Y'know. Since we were bringing up childhood favs." Then she gave him a quizzical smile before knocking.

      But Parker clicked his tongue against his teeth. He wasn't young, but he wasn't that old, and his hearing was still pretty damn good. …had Knight said "Malibu" the first time? And yet—hold on. The movie, too—he'd glossed right over her comment on the classic version.

      The door was unlocked, so Knight led the way inside, raising her eyebrows when she caught Parker's expression.

      …right. They had a job to do. And Parker still trusted Knight as his partner out in the field…

      …but she'd just renewed his curiosity in her as more than just his partner and part of his team.

      The investigator in him wanted to brand it "suspicion." But the side of Parker finding his footing with Knight (and the rest) wanted to think of it as curiosity.

      He'd been able to table his doubts about the Enoshima rescue for months now, putting them out of mind by force until it came naturally, until they weren't a niggling thought, even when Knight's eyes lingered on him every now and then. Besides, Parker didn't hate her attention, especially now that he knew she just liked to coax conversation from him.

      But her Barbie comment and her remark about King Kong had his ears pricked up for anything else potentially anachronous—just, anything else that didn't add up. Which briefly reminded him about their chat about Bandium and phones…but, no, that might've just been a context issue…

      "Ah, to be young and in love," Knight remarked of Barlow and Nazar as the couple reunited outside the Afghan Embassy.

      Parker snorted. "Yeah, they make it look so easy," he grumbled, hoping this ploy of luring the Chief Warrant Officer from the embassy to meet with his fiancée would give them both their suspect and the missing drone key.

      Knight snickered and tilted her head up at him. She leaned in and bumped her shoulder against Parker's. "First love?" she asked.

      Joy's name was on the tip of his tongue, but—with Knight staring at him on this overcast day, her eyes alight—his memory of the mermaid flashed in his head, and his mouth went dry. Suddenly, his collar felt warm, and he averted his eyes. "A long time ago," he stated. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Knight raise a curious eyebrow, but he wasn't going to let her pursue this topic. Parker stepped between Barlow and Nazar then. "All right, let's go. Rafi Nazar, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used—"

      But his Miranda Warning to Nazar was cut short, interrupted by gunfire from a vehicle speeding down the street in front of the embassy.

      Parker and Knight jumped apart, him on Nazar, her on Barlow. For a terrifying minute, Parker lost sight of Knight, and the gunshots echoed in the neighborhood, with every last building packed in tightly together. Then the gunfire ceased, the shooting rampage bookended by the screech of tires, and Parker checked Nazar over.

      "Parker!" Knight yelled. She scrambled to her feet, her face crumpled but her voice mostly steady. "You okay?"

      He paused long enough to give her a nod and see her relief, before he told her to call 911, because Nazar had been hit.

      Good grief. Mermaids or not—he needed to get it together….

      "How you holding together, Agent Parker?" Palmer asked more than a week later, as he, Parker, Knight, and Torres were flown out to assess the situation of the Stargazer.

      Parker shifted in his seat in the helicopter, forward and then to the side. But to the side meant closer to the window, which meant closer to the sea… It had been different, working that cruise ship case, since that had been docked. Out here? The Stargazer was stranded at sea.

      Knight leaned forward in her seat behind him. "You get seasick," she reminded him. "Maybe you should've stayed back at headquarters with McGee."

      He shook his head and opened his mouth to gripe that he wouldn't've been much help to McGee and Kasie this time. Wait. He'd told them he hated boats, but had he told them he specifically got seasick? He hadn't mentioned his dislike for the water… Well, maybe it had come up, just between him and Knight? Parker furrowed his brow, flipping through his mental rolodex of all the instances they'd shot the breeze, searching for when he might've brought up his phobias.

      She squeezed his shoulder. "Hey." She waited until he turned his head her way. "I'm not that keen to head down there either."

      Parker raised his eyebrows. Considering they each wore a headset to hear each other during the flight, he wondered if this was old news to Torres and Palmer.

      Knight scrunched up her nose and tried to smile. "I'm…hoping we can settle this quickly, before we find ourselves overboard." She dropped her eyes to the back of his seat and glanced at the window without exactly looking outside.

      Huh. Surprising. "Scared of the water, Knight?" Perhaps it was a phobia they had in common.

      "… …no. I'm at home in it," she replied. This time, her smile was gone.

      Parker pursed his lips, finding her expression at odds with her statement. Whatever she really meant, he hated seeing her so serious, and he scratched his scruffy jaw, contemplating something to lift her spirits.

      Before he landed on something, Knight added, in a low voice, "It's the current out here that I don't like. There's one of me but three of you. If anything goes wrong… Rescuing you won't be as easy as last time."

      Parker's eyes widened. His hand fell in his lap and he twisted around in his seat to catch Knight's expression—

      —but she was sitting back as the helicopter began its descent, and she focused on checking her gun's readiness. Beside her, Torres gave no indication that he'd heard the last bit; in front of Torres, Palmer was the same.

      Parker's heart pounded in his chest…or, no, that could be him tuning in to the helo's blades as they landed and removed their headsets… But still. Still.

      He wanted to doubt what he'd heard, but he couldn't brush this off as mishearing, not like past times.

      Yet, once again, he had to put his suspicions on pause while the case at hand took precedence. Which—not Parker's first choice, since terrorists pretending to be black ops Navy chasing them into the belly of the Stargazer increased the odds of Parker's and Knight's fears for this trip to come true.

      They'd shot one pilot dead, but Parker's team managed to drag their other pilot, Lt. Vela, to safety. The team found a room with space and a table to get Vela elevated for Palmer to work on him, but they'd be sitting ducks if they stayed here, hoping NCIS would send more assistance anytime soon.

      Parker had his satphone, but something blocked the signal. He cursed and rolled his eyes. "They've got a signal jammer," he announced to the room.

      "So we're stuck here, without NCIS knowing what we've walked into?" Palmer asked. His face dropped.

      Knight and Torres exchanged a look. "This ship had a crew before these guys arrived," she said.

      "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Torres asked.

      "Might be strength in numbers."

      "Only if they're still alive," Parker warned the ambitious duo.

      Torres didn't shrug him off, but Knight did purse her lips and look Parker's way.

      "…fine," he relented, despite his dislike for splitting up when they had so many unknown variables. "You two go scout the rest of the ship, while I stay here with Jimmy and the lieutenant. I'll do my best to figure out an antenna fix for the satphone. That might extend beyond the jammer's reach, if long enough."

      They nodded, and Torres led the way out.

      "Hey," Parker called after them.

      Knight turned back partway.

      "Be careful out there."

      She offered him that tiny smile again. And then she disappeared after Torres into the corridor.

      Parker had thought their situation couldn't get any worse. Even though Palmer helped him locate some wire in the room to turn into an antenna, too much time passed without Knight or Torres returning. And he couldn't drag Palmer with him—Palmer's focus had to remain on Vela, because Vela was their ticket out of there.

      Parker exited their hideout and found a) he hated how quiet this end of the boat was and b) a cover to the vent system down the hall and around the corner. He zipped the satphone into his jacket and pried the cover off, glad the vent was sized right for him, and climbed inside. From there, he followed the sounds.

      It was chaos from there. No wonder Knight and Torres had yet to return; Maddux and his men had taken them hostage and, sonuvabitch, tortured them for information on the others' whereabouts. Parker made sure they had time to get free, though, before he went luring Maddux and his thugs into a wild goose chase since, it turned out, they were also now looking for the pilot and the keys to the one vehicle off this ghost ship.

      But where Parker's brain thought a mile a minute ahead during the thrill of the chase, it took a breather once he hid on the helicopter while the terrorists flew off with their stowaway, thinking they'd escaped without issue.

      He closed his eyes and pictured Knight, Torres, bloodied and bruising. Palmer was capable, but Lt. Vela wouldn't have much time left if the good doctor didn't have the right tools.

      He cobbled his next steps together. Vela's music player, waiting for Maddux to be alone when they landed in some sort of warehouse, pulling the pin on that grenade—Parker was still a skeptic, even of his own plans. Time and again, he pulled through by the skin of his teeth. Now, his hijinks with Billy from yesteryear, and even that fateful day in Enoshima—

      But McGee received his message and sent help in the nick of time. And Parker rode back with the backup, took an earful from Vance the next morning, checked that Knight and Torres were all right after their private sessions with Maddux's guy, and joined in Knight's group photo for her niece's school project, actually feeling like a proper part of this team.

      After the photo, though, Parker passed the Paper Pauline back to Knight and lingered at her desk while the others found things to do. He lowered his voice, starting, "Hey, uh, Knight, about what you said on the helo flight…"

      This time, she didn't still. She fussed more with the damaged paper doll before setting it aside. Knight pulled her chair underneath her and sat down with a tight grin. "Oh, that?" She chuckled softly. "Yeah, sorry to bring up your seasickness and get you thinking about it right before we landed."

      He opened he mouth, poised to mention he'd heard what else she'd said, but Parker hesitated, because their interaction had changed. This time, when he'd brought something peculiar up…this time, Knight wouldn't look him in the eye.

      Knight hadn't given him any concrete proof before and even now her behavior was flimsy at best. But she was holding back something from Parker, of that he was certain.

      Through quiet days filled with paperwork and more typical days filled with cases big and small (your run-of-the-mill bioterror attack in the lab, Billy reentering Parker's life now of all times), Parker no longer brushed off his memories as a dream. If anything, he spent his nights at home, lying awake, concentrating on that last summer in Japan, trying to summon the details of that late summer day-turned-evening out with Lauren, hoping they'd glare vividly and give him more to go on if he wished hard enough for it.

      He couldn't stop thinking about what Knight had tacked on in the helicopter, as if it'd just been the two of them during one of their usual car conversations where she felt the urge to confide in him. That and her previous slip-ups and his gut feeling, when they first crossed paths months ago—it was hard not to think they hadn't met before.

      But—back then? In his youth? If so, Knight barely had aged, but more than that…

      Parker dragged a hand over his face.

      Was he really allowing himself to imagine a coworker with a tail now? (He made a mental note to apologize to Viv if he ever got the chance, because her alien infatuation paled in comparison.)

      It didn't help that, in the aftermath of Torres' undercover op with Sawyer in the fight club, the favorite joke around the office still was Parker needing to meet with Dr. Confalone for his official psych eval, to certify his move to NCIS.

      "It's not that hard," McGee assured him for the umpteenth time, but even he couldn't help the amusement leaking into his tone, and his grin was more entertained than friendly when said it—truly, he was Nick Torres' good friend. "We've all had to go through obtaining the official seal of mental approval, and Dr. Grace is great."

      "I second that," Torres said. He left it at that, which was an improvement from his attitude before the undercover op.

      Parker was glad for that, at least, and he knew Dr. Confalone was in part responsible for Torres' lighter attitude around the office. But he hadn't heard from the full chorus yet, and he raised his eyebrows at Knight.

      She ducked her head a split-second after their eyes met. "She's not a part of NCIS, but she's practically family. You'll like her, so it'll make it a breeze. Besides, she doesn't pull her punches, and she's good at seeing through your bullshit if you have any."

      Well, that was frank. He'd be more appreciative, if Parker weren't so worried. If Dr. Confalone were really that good, then how the hell was he supposed to hide from her a crackpot theory that was on his mind twenty-four–seven and not wind up not only without a badge but committed?

      "Ah, hey," McGee said, interrupting Parker's inner panic. He nodded to both Parker and Knight. "You guys taking the wife's interview?"

      "Yeah," Parker agreed. He needed to get his mind off the eval.

      McGee sent them Miller's address, and the Bandium notification chimed lowly on their phones. "Good luck."

      Parker and Knight headed downstairs, forgoing jackets since it'd warmed up considerably as of late. But the elevator ride down and the short walk to the car was quiet. Parker surmised today might be another quiet one, since Knight had been blowing rather hot and cold since the Stargazer. Some days, she was her bubbly, smiley, chatty self; others, like today, she wasn't keen to meet his eyes and kept her responses more direct (granted, she was often blunt, but Knight didn't soften her blows on these days).

      They were five minutes into their ride when Knight turned to him, gave him a long stare, and exhaled. "Are you really that worried about speaking with Dr. Grace?"

      Thank God, she was talking normally to him today. Parker peeked at her when he rolled through a stop sign. "I figure you've learned that about me by now. I'm not fond of heart-to-hearts."

      "Well, true." Knight shrugged and leaned back in the passenger seat. Her smile was back in her voice as she encouraged, "You know you don't need to have a heart-to-heart with her. It's literally just a psych eval. But she's there if you want to talk."

      "Yeah, I don't need to talk."

      "I didn't say 'need.' I said 'want,' Parker."

      "And I don't want to talk to her, not if I didn't have to."

      Knight let a couple silent minutes pass. "…you talk to me," she pointed out. "Not just about the things you like, the nerdy stuff or birds or plants or pastries. You talked to me about Billy. You've talked to me about being a fellow Navy brat."

      Parker licked his lips. Was there a good way to explain himself? It was easy to talk to Knight…not even for what he suspected she could be…but because she was Knight. In the end, he concurred, "…yeah, I talk to you."

      They arrived at Miller's street, and Parker cut the engine. They stepped out, and Knight's smile this time was small but brighter than any he'd seen before. She fell into step with him on the concrete path in front of the row of houses, and she bumped her shoulder against his like usual. "See? That's all that Dr. Grace will care about. That you've got a good head on your shoulders and, if things get rough, you do have someone you open up to. So don't stress out about it so much. She won't demand you tell her your deepest, darkest secrets—unless they're a threat to national security."

      He stopped in the middle of the path.

      "Parker?"

      "And if they're not a threat to national security, but they're disruptive?"

      Knight stopped with him, her smiling wavering. "Disruptive how?"

      He furrowed his brow and searched her face. There was never going to be a good time to bring this up, but—dammit, Miller's widow could wait. "It's something that keeps me preoccupied." Parker hesitated before diving right in: "Knight…who are you?"

      She gaped at him, caught off-guard by the question.

      So Parker pushed forward before she could dismiss this instance as another misunderstanding. "1973," he said. "Before Philly and Billy and pretty much the rest of my life. It was my father's only overseas assignment in Asia, and I know, I know, this sounds crazy, and I've seen your birthday in your NCIS file…but I'd bet anything it was you on the beach that evening, this"—he fretted, opting at the last second not to refer to her as a "creature"—"person, who saved my life from waters that I couldn't swim, that the people back then couldn't swim to get to me."

      There.

      There it was.

      Knight was still, same as the day he accepted Vance's offer. Except, this time, Parker recognized this stillness as Knight's brand of thinking-on-her-feet calm. Finally, she swallowed and said, "We should be interviewing Nina Miller right now."

      Parker's frustration briefly flared, but it vanished the next second as he followed her to the Millers' front door.

      Knight hadn't dismissed him, nor had she called him crazy.

      And that would be the only thought cycling through his head for the next few hours, after they discovered Nina Miller was their victim's second, hidden family and this wife attacked Parker, leaving Knight to run him back to the office in a panic, worried about a concussion and stitches….

      (But, hey, she hadn't called him crazy.)

      After all was said and done and they had Miller's first wife arrested for his murder, it had been a long case and a late night. McGee and Torres headed out with Dr. Confalone after Parker, finally, made his appointment, and Kasie and Palmer popped by to say goodnight, although Palmer's extra glance was a dead giveaway for double-checking the sutures on Parker's forehead.

      "Keep icing as needed, Parker," Palmer reminded him as Kasie dragged him towards the elevator.

      "Will do, doc," Parker promised, waving to them with a case folder. After the doors shut, he looked to his right.

      Normally, at this point, Parker would insist Knight head home, too. But she sensed his eyes on her and picked her head up from her paperwork. "How are you feeling?"

      "Practice round, for when I meet with Dr. Grace?"

      Her lips were a flat line. "Parker."

      "Jimmy checked me before. No concussion."

      Knight pouted. "Well, just to be sure, maybe you should stay up a while longer."

      He raised his eyebrows and almost laughed. "There's definitely plenty to do," Parker agreed, turning back to the forms spread out on his desk.

      But Knight stood and grabbed her keys. "Actually—go for a ride with me?"

      Parker set down his pen. She'd asked, but he had the sense it wasn't a question.

      They left in her car. Knight ran a hand through her hair, seeming tired but not sighing, before she turned the engine over. When she pulled out, they left the Navy Yard but didn't drive all that far from it, finding a nice spot along the jogging path by the main road that looked out over the water.

      Knight exited the car first, and Parker followed, taking his time to appreciate the sparse trees along the path and the gentle breeze that blew through them. From on the jogging path itself, Parker had a better view of the water. While not a fan of what the water could do, he didn't hate what it reflected, and he thought the Moon was actually quite nice tonight, calming and peaceful.

      Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Knight gazing at the reflection, too, and the later part of his memory of that summer returned to him, clear as the moonlight tonight, of the night he saw the mermaid sing. Beautiful now, beautiful then.

      Had he been moonstruck then or now? Parker wasn't sure of anything anymore.

      Knight crossed her arms in front of her chest and kept her gaze steady out in the water. "You mentioned 1973 before."

      "I did."

      "But you were beating around the bush, weren't you? Could you—Could you elaborate?"

      Had anyone else asked, Parker's lips would be sealed tighter than a clam. But he knew, she knew—he talked to her. So he stuck his hands in his pockets and he told her, taking it from the top: from Lauren's lie-by-omission to get him on a train across water to his not wanting to be in Japan in the first place (ah, he'd circled back too early) to getting too close to the water and being pulled under…to the copper eyes and tail that saved him…to the last time he saw her before his family left Kanagawa. It sounded so absurd, even to his ears. But he truly believed Knight was the last person who'd think him crazy.

      At the end of his tale, Knight sighed. After another beat, she hummed to herself, something not exactly…a tune…but which Parker noted sounded like the mermaid's song from their last encounter.

      They locked eyes.

      Knight's smile was soft, a bit melancholy, a little timid. But she nodded and half turned towards Parker.

      He drank in the sight of her anew, eyes roving over Knight, excitement and relief and confusion all warring within him. Parker couldn't help but face her, as well, and brush Knight's hair out of her face to get a good, long look at her.

      …she looked plenty human, just like him, but her irises were unnaturally iridescent in the moonlight.

      "It's you?"

      Her smile widened. "You're unsure now, after hearing my song again?"

      "But—it was really you then, not. Not some relative?"

      Knight shook her head.

      "How—?"

      "Oh, I was still young myself back then. I was glad I was able to get to you in time."

      Parker gawked at her. "Really? You don't appear to have aged much since then…"

      "We carry it well," she said with a shrug and a laugh. "Nah, actually, it's kind of like dog years, in a way…?"

      He hadn't missed that she'd said "we," but that comparison threw him. "Wait. Then, how old—?"

      "Parker, you still shouldn't ask a lady her age, whether she's got legs or fins."

      "Ah, right, sorry." He blinked a beat later, realizing after the fact that she'd distracted him pretty easily from the topic. Parker shot her a look. "Hey."

      Knight snickered and leaned against his right arm. "Let's just say I'm older than I appear. In human years, I'd be closer to your age than you think—but I wear it well."

      They watched a near wave ripple through the reflection and crash far, far below, beyond where it'd be a danger, though still Parker gave an involuntary shudder. He tried to focus on their conversation to keep his mind preoccupied. "You said you were young when you rescued me."

      "Mm-hmm." Knight paused. "I saw you swept up by the water and knew I had to act, even though interaction with humans is supposed to be limited."

      He glanced down at her. "Limited? Not forbidden?"

      "No… Once, the water was our sole domain. But time and technology changed that. And we adapted with the times." She frowned but didn't continue that thread, which left him wondering. Then Knight peered up at him. "Yours was the first life I ever saved…and I felt a change within me after that. When I had the chance, I came ashore to see how I could touch other lives, how I could save more."

      Parker had spent ages spinning theories and coming up with countless questions. Now that he had answers, Knight only gave him more questions. He was curious about how she was able to change (was it like the fairytale? Had they told it right all along?), but…more than that, he understood Knight's desire to do good in the world, especially, in a troublemaker's case, when he'd spent a chunk of his life doing bad. Ultimately, he sighed.

      "What is it?"

      "Ah, that's…that's just me being relieved that you're the one and the same from back then." He cracked his skeptical smile for her, dimpling his cheek. "Just—to think we'd meet again now, of all places."

      Knight hummed (an actual, human hum this time) in agreement, amused. But her amusement ebbed when she looked at him again with wary eyes.

      Parker shook his head. "Your secret's safe with me," he assured her. "Besides, all I've ever wanted was to tell what I thought was a mirage that day thank you, so…thank you." And he punctuated his gratitude with a bear hug.

      Knight said nothing. But she did return his hug, hiding her face by his shoulder and clutching his back, in relief.

      Relief.

      If Parker titled his eras, this one would be "relief," without a doubt. Solving the biggest mystery of his own life…and getting to work alongside that very mermaid…was a true feather in his cap.

      But solving that mystery came second to being fully comfortable again around Knight. There weren't any more off days where she wouldn't meet his eyes, now that she'd shared her truth with him. Actually, she was almost too comfortable, knowing she could crack certain private jokes with him now, without concern for her real age or fishy background which she hid around their friends.

      "Although maybe cut back on the nautical puns?" Parker suggested in the break room one afternoon.

      "Ohhhh, come onnn," Knight whined while he zapped a rare leftover croissant from this morning. "I've been sitting on some of these for more than fifty years, Parker. You've gotta let a girl chum the waters."

      "Knight."

      She grinned. "Half the time, someone hears something and doesn't even understand. They fall for it, hook, line, and sinker."

      Parker groaned into his mug of coffee and scratched his brow. Thankfully, the microwave dinged. He plucked the treat and pulled it apart, into two, passing Knight her half in a napkin. He leaned in before he released the croissant. "Just be careful," he whispered, both resigned and worried.

      Knight scrunched her nose up, but that grin didn't dim one bit. She patted his cheek and spoke between bites. "Hey, when you're an indestructible creature, you get to have some fun sometimes."

      Someone passing by the break room cleared his throat.

      They turned and saw that probie from the lobby desk, Kent, eyeing Knight in confusion.

      "She's speaking in hyperbole," Parker said matter-of-factly. He ushered the probationary agent to get moving with a wave of his mug.

      Knight snickered and coughed around her croissant as they walked back to the bullpen. "Nice cover."

      "And that's why I want you to be careful," he grumbled. The team already had accepted that Parker and Knight shared an odd sense of humor. Chances were good that the entire office would decide that, as well, soon enough.

      Torres picked his head up from his desk just as they sat down. "Do I smell warmed croissant?"

      "You smell the last croissant," Parker corrected.

      "Agh, damn it," he huffed.

      McGee rolled his eyes and cocked his head at Torres. "We've told you before, Nick: You snooze, you lose."

      "But I wasn't snoozing! I was working. Ish."

      "Well, you're not gonna guilt me into giving you the last bite," Knight stated. She shoved said bite into her mouth for good measure. A bit of chewing later, she continued, "I think Parker and I deserved the last croissant, anyway. We had to deal with those teenagers."

      "I think you meant 'were almost blown up,'" Parker corrected with a quirked eyebrow.

      "And that was a regular possibility in my REACT days," she reminded him. She shook her head. "Those kids were slippery. They scattered like a school of fish the moment a shark arrives."

      All three men stared at her.

      "What?"

      Torres scratched his chin. "Speaking of things in the water… I wouldn't mind helping out the Pearl Harbor office again."

      Parker snorted. "Done yearning for croissant already?"

      "Eh, just daydreaming about malasadas now."

      The team leader nodded appreciatively. "Those were some good malasadas you brought back," he said, though he directed that at Knight, who'd actually remembered to buy them.

      She smiled. "Honestly? I wouldn't mind helping them out again, too. Not just—I mean, sister office, of course. But it's really lovely out there."

      …huh. Not what Parker might've expected to hear, especially after her reaction on the flight to the Stargazer. Did that make something in the Pacific different or—? But he paused here, because this train of thought reminded him of other questions that had popped into his head the night Knight had revealed herself to him.

      It was one thing to let a joke or brief comment slide at the office, but Parker still felt it too risky to discuss Knight's identity at the office. And what he had in mind wouldn't work this time in the car…

      The only thing was timing. On a day that had them inside and primarily tied to their desks, Parker and Knight couldn't quite get away at the same time without catching interest.

      So he waited. After Torres had disappeared to the men's room and clearly McGee was squinting at lines of code, Parker looked to his right to catch Knight's eye.

      She sensed him right away.

      He motioned with jerk of his head, leaving Knight squinting at him in confusion. But Parker didn't wait, hopping up and heading for that back hallway Knight had tugged him to ages ago. Thankfully, she showed up seconds later.

      "Something up?" she asked.

      "Ah—" Parker closed his mouth while he found the right words. He hadn't thought this far ahead. "Well…I admit, I still have a lot of questions about things," he said, scratching the back of his head but being ambiguous on purpose for the sake of any eavesdroppers.

      Knight smiled her thanks. "Yeah, I figured as much. Work's made it a little hard to…"

      "Yeah."

      "Yeah."

      Parker softly snorted. Might as well go for the idea he figured would make Knight most comfortable: "How about my place? A bite and some beer, far from orange walls with ears."

      The dim light in this back hallway hadn't changed at all. But he'd studied Knight so much, he was so familiar with that soft beige complexion, that he noticed the second twin patches of coral pink blossomed on her cheeks. She blinked at him, but her smile remained. "O-Oh. Uh, yeah. That sounds great. What time should I be over?"

      He was glad. "Today seems like normal fair, so we should get out at a decent hour… Seven all right?"

      "Yeah. Seven's good."

      "Then I'll text you the address and see you at seven."

      Parker had just pulled the skillet off the burner when his doorbell rang that evening. He wiped his hands on a tea towel and checked his watch. Seven o'clock, on the dot. He smirked as he went to answer the door.

      Knight bounced on her sneakered heels, taking in the hallway when he opened the door. Her eyebrows jumped into her hairline, catching sight of his home over his shoulder. "Damn," she commented as she entered. "I thought this place looked nice on the outside, and even my way up was eye-opening. But the penthouse?" She whistled.

      "I've been here a while, plus I knew a guy," Parker admitted. He gestured to the hooks inside the door for her to hang her purse, and he observed that Knight had traded in her usual blouse and pantsuit for a slouchy tee and jeans. He chuckled to himself, since this comfy version of Knight went well with the relaxed bits of herself she'd been sharing with him lately. Parker returned his attention to her, though, when she wandered around after kicking off her shoes by the door, peeking at this and that. "Want the tour?"

      Knight stopped at his couch and turned partway back to him. "Yes, please" was evident in the brightness of her eyes.

      Parker ran a hand through his hair but caved. He curved a finger for her to follow him as they made a quick circle. "Down the hallway is a guestroom, my room, a few spare closets for storage, and the bathroom." He motioned with his chin between the living room and his kitchen. "Entertainment area, as you might've guessed, and an eat-in kitchen. I've technically got a proper dining room in this place, but I never have enough company over to put it to use."

      She bit her lower lip, but the pitying pinch between her brows couldn't hide the upward curve of her lips.

      Parker settled her with a sidelong look. "If you have thoughts of having everyone hang out over here every once in a while, think again."

      Now she laughed. But Knight gasped when they stepped into his favorite room. "Holy—! I thought you seemed to have quite a few plants around your place. But a whole greenhouse, Parker?!"

      She roamed inside and he shrugged, but he liked that reaction, truthfully. "Keeps my hands busy when my mind's preoccupied," he remarked.

      Knight drifted her fingers over the herbs sitting in pots on the ledge abutting the glass wall. "Your mind still preoccupied by a lot nowadays?"

      Ah, right. That had been his word choice during the Miller case, shortly before the truth had come forward. Parker rolled his head from side to side and picked at a pilled thread on the front of his knit shirt. "…nah. Not preoccupied. Just—intrigued."

      "Uh-huh." Knight snickered and finished her round of the greenhouse. "'Intrigued' is definitely the word I'd use right now. A penthouse filled with all this—I mean, all you're missing is an indoor pool."

      That earned her a dry look. But… He led her back to the main hallway, down to the second door on the right, and showed her the bathroom, complete with a large, restored clawfoot tub. "It's big enough, if someone decided she needed a dip," he stated, leaning on the door handle while Knight knelt and admired the porcelain tub up close.

      "Uh-huh…," she repeated.

      "Actually, that's partly why I wanted to have you over."

      Knight locked eyes with him. She laughed as warmth crept up his neck and she visibly reddened at the same time. "You kinda just race to the finish line, don't ya, Parker? Not even gonna wine and dine me first?"

      Parker dragged his free hand over his face. "No! Look, Knight—Jess—" He stopped to huff at her, and he shot her a tiny glare when she stifled another laugh. "I have more questions. And concerns. And I want you to be someplace comfortable, in whatever form comfortable, to discuss them."

      Her expression softened, and Knight straightened up. "…oh. Thank you…Alden."

      "And we can eat now. I figure our filets have been resting long enough."

      She nodded. This time, when she followed him to the kitchen, it was in closer proximity, only half a step behind him.

      He felt her eyes on his back while he plated slices of steak, mixed greens, and rice, but they ate and drank in companionable silence for a few minutes. Parker realized Knight's gaze had moved to his face.

      She smiled. "You said you had questions," she reminded him, in the middle of stabbing some arugula. "Pick one to start."

      Parker wiped his mouth and took another swig of his beer. Sitting across from Knight at his eat-in counter, though, reminded him a little of sitting beside her at the office. "You were talking about heading to Hawaii again, if the chance arose."

      Knight blinked in surprise but nodded. "If I could, yeah."

      "Isn't that…an issue?"

      "How so?"

      He furrowed his brow. "I still don't understand how—agh, I don't have a better way to phrase this—but how you're supposed to…work. Out here, we might be on the coast, but we're not surrounded by water the way Hawaii is. Isn't it a problem if you end up in water?" Parker rubbed his brow, his brain working overtime trying to figure this out on his own.

      Knight chewed a bite of steak slower and washed it down with some beer. Then she put her fork down. "I think my freak-out above the Stargazer is not exactly representative of how things work…" She mustered half a smile for him. "I can still transform, for now, yeah. But it takes the right conditions, Alden. It rains plenty here in D.C. in spring and sometimes fall, right? Nothing happens if I simply get drenched," Knight explained, and she reached across the counter to pat the back of his hand. "Rain's never an issue. I can swim in a pool, too. But if I'm in open water, living water—"

      That was an odd turn of phrase. "'Living water'?" he echoed.

      "Like ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, the ocean. Not manmade, and large enough to contain me. Only then can I retain my mer form."

      That did clarify her fear during the Stargazer case, though. Not only would she have revealed herself to Parker, but she would've outed herself to Torres and Palmer, too. "…you had a lot to risk for that ghost ship."

      Knight nodded. "It's one thing, reconnecting with someone I saved a long time ago." She paused and squeezed his hand. Then she withdrew it. "But risking my secret with so many of you all at once? Despite my bonds with Nick and Jimmy…it was a lot to weigh."

      While she pushed her food around on her plate, Parker stared at his bottle. Then he asked, "Why now? What made you choose to confirm my suspicions about you now, instead of letting me think I'd gone—prematurely senile?"

      Her fork screeched against her plate, and Knight set it down again. She pursed her lips in a tiny, smug smile and reached across to pat his scruffy cheek. "I could see it in your eyes, that what makes you a good investigator meant you weren't going to let this trail go cold either. And…part of me wanted to see what happened, finally interacting with someone I saved and having a confidant."

      He raised one contrary eyebrow as they both found their appetites again. "You say that, forgetting all the people you saved as a REACT agent."

      "It's not the same," Knight said between bites. "Plenty of people know I was a REACT agent. But this? It's just you and me. And your plants. But, good listeners they may be, I don't think they'll tell anyone anytime soon." She grinned.

      Parker didn't have a retort for that. So he did that scoff-chuckle of his and tried to hide his own amused grin.

      After finishing her own plate (and even picking a little from his), Knight retired to the armchair in his living room with a second beer in hand, chatting with him while Parker cleared the dishes. She'd just gotten done assuring him that she had a secret alcove in Hawaii no one else knew about, where she'd last been for "a dip" seven years ago since her and Torres' recent assistance in Pearl Harbor hadn't allowed for a visit, when Parker realized Knight's words trailed off. A quick look informed him that, after eating well, she'd dozed off.

      Parker leaned on the counter and enjoyed the scene for a moment. After making her panicky yet again tonight, he was happy to see her able to let her guard down and relax. Carrying her secret had been a heavy load for him all this time; he daren't imagine the weight it was on her shoulders before now.

      He returned to the sink and washed things by hand, letting tonight's new information marinate. Knight had shared quite a bit tonight, and it got him thinking of sharing secrets more generally.

      Not only having but sharing secrets was such a tremendous task, and not something easily done. Time and history had proven that him, through failed relationships and soured friendships. However…

      Parker set the rinsed plates to dry and turned back to the sleeping beauty in his living room.

      It was nice, he conceded, to find someone to share the weight of secrets, to have a confidant, at last.

      Knight coming over to his place wasn't a one-time-only deal. She continued to drop by on occasion for "a bite and a beer," even without Parker prompting and even without the need to discuss more mermaid lore.

      …yeah, so Parker had warned Knight off the idea of having their friends over and breaking in the dining room (for now, she joked). But he could definitely get used to the sight of Knight across his counter while they ate, even if she didn't nod off in the living room after dinner every time. (Sometimes, she mosied out to the greenhouse before Parker found her.)

      As Parker's primary concerns settled, so did their caseload, which seemed fortunate as spring ended and rains ushered in a humid summer. "Is it just me or does it seem as though this stuff isn't letting up these days?" he quipped at the window in the bullpen.

      The other three glanced at the window, too (he could see them faintly in the glass' reflection), and McGee sighed. "No. I know the saying is 'April showers bring Mayflowers,' but the meteorologists were saying this will probably continue for a few weeks before there's a break."

      Parker faced his team and involuntarily flicked his eyes towards Knight. But he forced his attention back to his mug of tea. Right. Knight had assured him that rain wasn't an issue for her.

      As if he needed a physical reminder to solidify that fact in his brain, a downpour caught everyone the next morning. Parker was the first one in, and the other three texted him that they were all running late.

      Knight, however, was the first of those three to make it in, and she was soaked through from head to toe. She stepped off the elevator, unamused, but she had a small laugh at herself when she met Parker in the bullpen, and she turned around in a circle, showing off her very much still human form.

      Parker, though, was reminded of the day they met, with Knight's hair floating all around her then and clinging to her face (like seaweed) now. The comparison caught him off-guard, as did the thud of his heart in his chest. But he rubbed the ache away and passed Knight a clean towel, which she gratefully accepted.

      The weather worsened, as McGee had said, and they each received weather alerts on Bandium over the next several days. Push notifications went out for heavy rain, severe thunderstorms, and the potential for hurricane-force winds.

      "We're not really thinking of working if a hurricane lands, are we?" Torres murmured Friday morning. Outside, the sky was dark enough to look like eight o'clock at night.

      Parker shared a look each with Knight and McGee. "There are certain protocols in place, based on what the Southeast office survived in the midst of Katrina." Their phones chirped in a round, Bandium's soft bloops echoing amongst their desks. "Aaand there's a body. Can't worry about tomorrow when we've got today on our hands, Torres. C'mon, dead civilian on a naval base."

      If only it had been a dead civilian on a naval base.

      Of course a dead civilian didn't make sense, but Palmer rolled their beefy brute of a victim over at the scene only to find a Petty Officer's I.D. wedged underneath him in the muck. "Petty Officer Serena Schmidt," Palmer read as he passed it to Torres.

      There wasn't much to gather from the scene, especially with the rain washing evidence away while they stood there, so the guys helped the medical examiner load the body while Knight snapped as many photos as she reasonably could in the doom and gloom.

      Back at the office, though, while they waited for Palmer's autopsy report, McGee and Torres turned up news on their Petty Officer. "Assigned to mess hall duties two months ago," Torres said, "after clerking didn't quite work out."

      "She's been cited for temperament issues, but fellow sailors spoke highly of her, so she was given a second chance," McGee added. "Except her C.O. is rethinking that second chance. Schmidt didn't report to duty this morning and hasn't been seen since last night, apparently."

      "Wait," Parker said. "So we have a dead civilian with scant evidence because of a downpour and a missing sailor in this storm?"

      Their day did not get better from there. With Parker on the line trying to speaking to Schmidt's commanding officer and round up base security for a remote interview over MTAC, McGee and Torres digging into Schmidt's record and her comrades' interactions with her, and Knight doing a deep dive into Schmidt's personal life, they had their hands full for the rest of the morning and the better part of the afternoon.

      A collective groan reverberated amongst them shortly before lunch, since Schmidt's background was all-American cheerleader and clean. Parker stared at his desk phone, willing it to ring with Palmer's call that he was ready for one of them down in Autopsy.

      But, when a phone did ring, it was Knight's. All four of them sat up, alert, as Knight answered. "Special Agent Knight. Uh-huh. Yeah, Serena Schmidt—wait, their what? Got it." She hung up and stood, holstering her weapon and reaching for her jacket. "That was the tip line."

      Parker, McGee, and Torres grabbed their gear without delay. "Schmidt turn up?" Parker asked.

      "Worse. Schmidt's parents called. Her younger brother didn't show up for school today."

      "Where to?" Torres asked as they filed into the elevator.

      "Tappahannock, Virginia. Southeast of Fredericksburg."

      Downstairs, they split up into the usual duos—McGee and Torres in the SUV, Parker and Knight leading in the sedan—and Parker had Knight drive while he greased wheels with local authorities to let them know they were coming. After, he dropped his phone in his lap and rubbed his knuckles against his chin.

      Knight kept her eyes on the road between swipes of the windshield wipers. "Penny for your thoughts?"

      Parker grimaced. "Mm, it's nothing."

      "Alden."

      He pursed his lips. "…it's a bit of a flashback for me, Jess. Granted, Lauren's an admiral now and definitely was not a Petty Officer at the time, but." He rubbed his brow. "A sister in search of her younger brother," Parker pointed out, even though it was only an educated guess that the Schmidts' situation mirrored his own.

      When it was safe to do so, Knight took her right hand off the wheel and found his left hand resting on his leg. She threaded their fingers together and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I found you back then. We'll find him now," she promised.

      Parker squeezed her hand back. He didn't trust his voice right now, wasn't ready to believe in that promise. Not when the weather in 1973 had been beautiful and deafening thunder cracked overhead now.

      The MCRT met the local sheriff at the Schmidt family home. McGee broke the news of Petty Officer Schmidt's unknown whereabouts, but Mr. Schmidt said he'd had a call from their daughter first thing that morning, saying she'd visit them soon.

      Outside, the team conversed. "That makes no sense. Schmidt's not due to leave the base for another three weeks, when her scheduled vacation kicks in," Torres said.

      One of the sheriff's deputies jogged up to them then and addressed the NCIS agents and the sheriff at once. "The BOLO—out on—Petty Officer Schmidt—she was seen half a mile from the boarding school, downtown," he finished when he caught his breath.

      The team exchanged looks. The Schmidts had said their son was a public school student—but that was a piece of the puzzle to be solved after they brought in their sailor safe and sound. "Lead the way, sheriff," Parker instructed the local officer.

      The sheriff navigated them through the waterlogged streets, which were mostly absent of traffic. They hit a snag with a downed powerline at the turn for the boarding school and had to backtrack a quarter mile, but they met up with another officer ten minutes later, and their witness who identified Schmidt pointed back into the woods heading towards the river.

      Parker and the others got out to scan the tree line. "I don't think the boarding school has anything to do with this mystery," he groused.

      Torres nodded and led the way into the brush, and McGee asked the sheriff to round up some officers to assist with the search. But Knight fell back with Parker and put a hand on his arm. "Alden, I don't like the look of that water," she warned.

      He glanced at her and followed her line of sight beyond the trees where things sloped down into the Rappahannock. The river was lively and flowing only a few inches below the bank's edge. "No…I don't either."

      Behind them, off to their left, a woman screamed. A second later, McGee shouted, "Parker!"

      Parker and Knight ran in his direction, Torres and the sheriff meeting them on the way. They found McGee with Petty Officer Schmidt in his arms, the blonde muddied and crumpled against their pale friend, tears clearing paths down her filthy face, sobs shaking her whole body.

      "Tim, what's she saying?" Torres asked.

      McGee's expression was stony when he met Torres' eyes. "…her brother. Our dead civilian is a drug dealer trying to push product through the base via access in the mess hall. When Schmidt tried to cut that access off, he threatened her family. He warned her that he'd have her brother dropped off here."

      Parker's blood chilled. "Any sign of him?"

      Schmidt gasped for breath and nodded. "H-H-His backpack. Simon's a good kid!! He doesn't skip homework, remembers his stuff—he—" A new wave of tears swallowed her words.

      Parker turned to the sheriff. "Fan out. Look for signs this kid is here and hanging on. Now!" he barked when the sheriff dillydallied.

      Lightning lit up the midday sky, followed by a shattering round of thunder seconds later. They each pulled out their flashlights to better search, but the sky darkened more and the water rose higher.

      Their flashlights' beams swept the Rappahannock's waters and turned up nothing. Torres found a green shoe, in a kid's size, but that only impressed upon them the sense of urgency.

      Knight tugged Parker back when a crack of thunder made him jumpy, and his footing slipped near the edge of the riverbank. She pulled him close. "This is getting us nowhere."

      "We don't have any options, and I'm not giving up on this kid."

      Knight nodded and stared up at him. "I don't like this weather, and I don't like that water. But…I told you." She lowered her voice (as if she really need to, in this maelstrom). "I can still transform. I only have a few more transformations left, anyway," she added with a scan of the river.

      That addition caught him unawares. Parker's face fell. "And then what, Jess?"

      "…"

      "And then what?!"

      "Parker!" Torres shouted. "Simon, he's heading your way!"

      They both turned. At first, Parker saw nothing. But then lightning flashed, and another fair head like Schmidt's broke the surface. Simon Schmidt thrashed to keep his head above the water, but it was a struggle he'd fail before much longer.

      He didn't even have to think about it. Parker dropped his flashlight and pushed Knight aside, running to the edge of the river and jumping in himself after Simon. This kid needed to be saved, but, just as important to Parker, Knight could not risk her humanity, not now, not when he didn't know what "a few more transformations left" meant, not when he didn't know what came after she used them up—

      —not when he and Knight had only just now found each other again, damn it all!

      He'd been a shit swimmer as a kid, but he'd worked hard to rectify that as an adult (after all, they didn't let someone without basic survival skills become law enforcement). But…but…the current of the Rappahannock River today was just as strong as the ocean was back when Parker himself was little older than Simon—just as strong, if not stronger…

      He hadn't thought this through. Parker had jumped in with good intentions, but good intentions wouldn't help him and the kid make it out alive.

      Parker got hold of Simon, but Simon had been in these raging waters just long enough to make him slippery. Parker's grip started to slip, and he tried to wind the kid's shirt around his fist, but the waters pulled them apart, and Parker…Parker started to go under himself.

      Panic brought to mind a flash of the first time he went under, that evening in Enoshima. But it was worse this time, because at least he'd been able to see partly in the angry yet clear waters back then.

      A moment later, Parker's head cleared the surface fully—and he knew why, when he felt familiar arms around him. He twisted his head to catch a glimpse of her, and there Knight was, towing both him and Simon to the bank's edge.

      Torres and McGee ran to their aid. Torres yanked Simon out and carried him off to find paramedics, while McGee helped pull Parker onto land. Knight partially heaved herself onto the edge, as well, but—with McGee on his other side and out of view—she grabbed Parker's ankle and jerked her head towards the water.

      Parker craned his neck and spied a flick of coppery fin peeking through the chaotic surface. Oh, shit. They'd have a bigger issue if anyone saw that, so he ignored McGee's bewildered expression when Parker unzipped his NCIS jacket and shoved it behind him towards Knight. The second Torres called for McGee, though, McGee left Parker and Knight alone, and Parker checked on her. "You good?"

      Knight had his jacket covering her "legs" for now. She nodded and rested her head against his thigh when he scooted down beside her. "Yeah. I need to rest for a bit and get them back under control."

      "So I don't need to find a tank to transport you home?"

      She pinched his thigh. "No. It's been a while, Alden, so it's like being out of practice. Just help a girl out and keep prying eyes away, all right?"

      "I will do my best," he promised. He brushed some mud off her cheekbone and out of her hair (ah, that thud in his chest happened again) before getting up and checking on the brother and sister.

      …granted, Knight took close to twenty minutes getting her tail under control, and keeping others away while assuring them she wasn't injured was a new challenge for Parker. At least Petty Officer Schmidt and her brother accepted that they could thank the agent responsible for Simon's safety later on. But McGee and Torres were Parker-levels of skeptical that Knight didn't need to see the paramedics after pulling both the boy and Parker to safety, especially if she'd exhausted herself so thoroughly.

      "Besides, I thought Knight had been a Division I track athlete, not a swimmer, at university," Torres pointed out while they waited by their cars. He and McGee perked up, though, and Parker turned as Knight walked towards them, all smiles.

      Parker scoff-chuckled. "Eh, we're each allowed to have more than one hidden talent, Torres."

      It hadn't been as apparent on the drive back, given their separate vehicles. But it was absolutely obvious back at the office: Parker and Knight stank and needed showers ASAP.

      McGee politely coughed in the elevator while Torres made gagging sounds, so they were first off the elevator when it arrived on their floor. But Parker and Knight remained, and the doors closed behind their friends, leaving the two of them alone.

      Parker flipped the emergency stop switch. The other two might've had the stench on their minds, but Parker had spent the entire drive back thinking about what had happened at the river instead. "So."

      Knight shifted on her feet. Her feet squelched inside her boots. "So."

      He briefly closed his eyes, replaying in his mind's eye what she'd sprung on him in the heat of the moment. "Jess. How many transformations do you have left?"

      "I don't know."

      He shook his head at her. "Jess."

      "I don't know! I've saved a lot of people in my lifetime, Alden. And I'll save as many more as I possibly can. With—or without—scales."

      As stubborn as ever…not that he wanted her to change, he mused, resigned. "… …so your powers…they fade, the longer you choose to be human," he inferred.

      "Yeah."

      Parker swallowed an anxious lump in his throat. He almost couldn't bear to voice his next thoughts, but he had to know. "…and…your lifespan? Does your—your immortality fade, too?"

      Knight faced him with a look of incredulity. "Alden, I never said we were immortal. We live really long lives, yeah. But we're not immortal. I'll…age pretty normally, after." She touched his mud-caked whiskers with her muddy hands, holding his face, and smiled. "I've never regretted walking amongst humans, though. Especially now. I saved people in both forms, but…this is the first time I've saved someone twice. I have a feeling you might need me time and again," she joked.

      He pouted at the implication.

      She frowned, too. "Are you disappointed I'm not going to be the mermaid of your dreams much longer?"

      Parker blinked, but he rested his forehead against hers and sighed. "I'd be lying if I said I was never interested in that side of you…but there's a helluva lot more to you than just a tail that has me fascinated by you, Jess. And I'm relieved to know you'll be sticking around."

      How funny. They had no moonlight in here, but even the emergency lights gave away the hint of her otherworldliness, because her eyes were still very much iridescent when they sparkled at his words. "Really?" Knight asked, brushing her nose against his.

      "Really," Parker confirmed. He punctuated the moment by resting his hands on her waist and leaning down a hair more to press his lips to hers, tasting their promise and a hint of the salty sea.

      …unfortunately for them, the lights flipped back to normal and the doors slid open, where McGee and Torres awaited them on the other side. Those two cleared their throats while Parker and Knight pulled apart.

      Parker glanced at the emergency switch—ah, shit, he must've hit it with his elbow—and his eyes darted back to their interloping friends.

      "I admit, we were just looking for you two to help us straighten out the Schmidt parents' statements," Torres said with a mischievous grin. He waved in front of him and McGee. "But look at what we found instead. Thought you two smelled bad before, but this smells pretty fishy to me now."

      Knight tensed beside Parker, but he placed a reassuring hand at the small of her back. Parker snorted at Torres and flicked his fingers at them for them to make way. "Yeah, yeah. Don't get crabby just 'cuz you didn't know."

      Torres gawked in mock-offense, but McGee finally recovered, mumbling, "Well, it might explain the odd sense of humor they share…"

      At that, Parker raised his eyebrows and coaxed a grin from Knight before they all returned to their desks.

      Still, McGee scratched his head. He looked from Parker to Knight and back. "But, ah, just how and when did this…?"

      Parker and Knight exchanged a look, and Knight scrunched up her nose and offered him a friendly smile. "That," she began, "is a fairytale for another day, Tim. Paperwork first, yeah?"

Done for the If You Dare Challenge (for prompt #3: moonstruck) in the HPFC forum on FFN as well as the Year of the OTP (May prompts: "who are you?", sunshine, and [mild] fantasy AU) on tumblr. HI. HELLO. It's been a few months since I churned out a new Parknight oneshot! Partly bc I've been busy in my other fandoms (have you heard of Harvestella? :3c), partly bc I've been maintaining the parknights tumblr (come check it out!). I have plenty of Parknight ideas, including some chaptered AUs in the works, but this idea blindsided me at the last minute bc Mermay. I've only ever drawn for Mermay before, but, once I got this idea, I just had to go for it. From including more Parker-centric headcanons (also, I dig Japan, so getting to use a setting there is always fun for me) to gaslighting Parker (oops) to weaving in canon (dialogue was paraphrased/rephrased from s19e8, and taken straight from eps 10 & 11, too) and ofc having Parknight romance (bc I love them LOTS), this was a wild ride and a blast. There was foreshadowing of certain events, but I wanted to have a circle ending, where Knight rescued him again. They met by chance and met again by chance and befriended each other and fell in love~ (Altho a part of me thinks young Alden mighta had a little love-at-first-sight with the pretty mermaid in Japan, *LOL*.) Idk. I have written a mermaid AU story before, but not like this, and, while not my first creature/fantasy AU for Parknight (and certainly not my last…check in with me next Halloween B3c *mew has plans*), I promise my upcoming chaptered AUs will be more normal. XDDD Additional thoughts: There are some Easter eggs for other fics of mine, both Parknight and not (the jogging path felt like a reference to "Evals" and an early phrase in this fic—I have an actual story titled "Kissing the Sea" in another fandom :D). I got to include some more Parker family hcs, altho I've worked in Parker as the baby of his fam elsewhere before. Regarding his FBI cases…if anyone caught it, that's deffo a hint that, aside from mermaids, there are likely fae running amok, *lol* (I love a good Fair Folk inclusion XD), but Parker can barely handle one mermaid in his life, so let's not open that can of worms…this time. B3c [I actually had one detail about Knight's background that ended up being extraneous for the story, which was already plenty long, but I've saved it for a potential rainy day.] And regarding the s19 as the main backdrop—well, a lot of Parknight's natural chemistry emerged from their pairing up on the regular, dating back to here, not to mention he does talk most openly with her. Did I ignore the s19 finale? You bet! Am I done rewriting s19 scenes? Hell no!!! 8D *ASDFGHJKL* I just rly dig Parknight, and if you do, too, or enjoyed this story, then REVIEW/COMMENT!!! And then come join the Parknight fun~

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave an anon/unsigned review via the FFN link or comment via the AO3 link at the top of the post, especially if you enjoyed this!

~mew

#ncis #parknight #alden parker #jessica knight #fanfic #mew writes too much #yearoftheotp #mermay #mermay2023 #timothy mcgee #nick torres #jimmy palmer #OCs #not gonna tag everyone but you get the idea

[dulldeads]

ABOUT ME. . .

❛ i’m real sorry for what i put you all through..

that’s going to haunt me forever ❜ — anthony clarke !

. ˚◞♡ angie — she/her — xvii — cancer !

°.• writer && editor | videogame enthusiast !

. ˚◞♡ will poulter supremacy !

°.• the walking dead , marvel cinematic universe , the maze runner , z nation , any movies with will poulter is in , horror && comedy movies !

. ˚◞♡ the walking dead game (all seasons) , resident evil (all games) , fallout four , the dark prodigies | little hope , the last of us i && two !

— NOTES ABOUT MY FICS && ONESHOTS —

©.• i normally edit and write small fanfics for certain fandoms. i’m only in a few fandoms at the moment since i have phases in each fandom. i’m currently in the fandom of the dark prodigies | little hope , the walking dead && will poulter !

— i make oneshots more often than i make fanfics ! i could also take requests about any characters that i only know but i could try to write oneshots for some characters i don’t know about — it might not be good but i’ll try !

— CHARACTERS I LIKE —

little hope | anthony clarke , andrew , abraham , dennis clarke , daniel , david milton , vincent , john , joseph , james clarke , amy , anne clarke , angela , megan clarke , mary , taylor && tanya clarke !

the walking dead game | clementine , lee everett , kenny , louis , violet , alvin junior , luke && javier garcia !

the last of us i && ii | ellie williams , joel miller , tommy miller , dina && jesse !

resident evil | leon kennedy , chris redfield , jill valentine , carlos oliveira , piers nivans && claire redfield !

fallout four | dogmeat , codsworth , piper , porter gage , danse , deacon && nick valentine !

marvel cinematic universe | steve rogers , loki laufeyson , thor odinson , tony stark , wanda maximoff , pietro maximoff , stephen strange && peter parker !

the walking dead | negan smith , tara chambler , rosita espinosa, daryl dixon , rick grimes , maggie rhee , glenn rhee , enid , alden , paul rovia , abraham ford , beth greene , hershel greene , dale harvath , gage && carl grimes !

the maze runner | newt , thomas , gally , minho && sonya !

z nation | tenk (tommy) , addison carver , charles garnett , doc (steven beck) && alvin murphy !

— MY OCS FOR STORIES —

noelle pike (nyx) | little hope , love interest: anthony clarke (andrew) , childhood bestfriends to lovers (soulmates) !

hedy | the maze runner , love interest: newt , bestfriends to lovers (soulmates) !

matilda baros | marvel cinematic universe , love interest: loki laufeyson , soulmates !

©. ˚◞♡ dulldeads — do not , under any circumstance , repost , plagiarize , modify or translate my work. reblogs are always welcome. no hate or homophobia on my account , or you will be blocked. pleaee be kind to my writing , i’m kind of still an amateur i just don’t want to be judged for it !

#little hope #the dark pictures little hope #dark pictures little hope #anthony clarke #will poulter #no hate

[writeandsurvive]

Author's note: this is not proofread, there are probably typos. I hope my teasing didn't get you disappointed with the finale result! Tbh, I didn't know where I was going at first, but once I was in, I just kept adding. Maybe I'll write a little sequel to it, idk. Let me know what you think ❤️

Warnings: hospital, gun shot wound, surgery, complicated family, breakup, cold!Alden, evil!Vivian, secrets and reveals (I don't mean to make Alden's parents as bad people, just very concerned parents who can not not get involved in his life?)

Words count: 5.6k

@novamariestark @mandy426 @sarakafarrah

Never too late ~ Alden Parker

Alden felt stupid. He knew it was a trap but he still went in, head first. And now, he was in a hospital bed, waking up for surgery, his arm strapped and completely useless. He felt groggy and nauseous. He opened his eyes just slightly, seeing two people in the room. He recognized his father's white hair, as it almost blinded him. And a few feet to the left, he thought he saw you. But before he could tell himself it was the anesthesia and drugs that made him hallucinate, he fell back to sleep.

"He fell back asleep, it'll take hours before he actually wakes up. Are you sure you want to stay here, sir?" You asked Roman.

"I'd prefer to talk to him before going home and sleeping."

Not that you wanted to kick Alden's father out of the room, after all he was more legitimate to be here than you were, but it made you pretty uncomfortable. Roman Parker never liked you, or at least, he never accepted you as his son's girlfriend. Clearly, he wanted his son to get back with his ex wife, and no matter who Alden was dating, he wasn't going to accept her. So, he never gave you a chance to win him over, to show him how much you loved his son and how serious the relationship was. Unfortunately, the ending and the breakup was probably the proof he needed that he was right and you were fairly sure that he told Alden 'I told you so'. You doubted Roman knew the entire truth.

You never imagined you'd find yourself in this situation, back by his side, worrying about him, caring and feeling all those things you thought were gone. But when the hospital called to inform you about Alden being rushed into surgery, you didn't think twice before getting on the road. It was a good thing Philadelphia is only three hours away from DC.

And there you were, sitting by the bed, checking up on him just to make sure he was breathing. Roman didn't have much to say and neither did you so the room was silent except for the machines attached to Alden. His team - whom you had never met - stopped by several times, one of them gave you his number so you could call when Alden was awake. Their case wasn't over just yet, so they still had a lot to do. But you could tell they really care about him, and you were happy he had some nice people around.

His eyes finally opened again. He was grumbling, and whining, and it took several attempts for him to focus on where he was. He saw his dad again, asleep in a chair across the room. "Dad," he called out with a raspy voice but Roman didn't move.

"He fell asleep not long ago," you said, getting closer to the bed and putting your hand on Alden's. He turned his face to look at you, confusion written all over it. "Hey, are you feeling?" You asked softly.

He blinked a few times, looked around, to his dad, the machines, and back to you. "I'm dreaming," he whispered. "Dad!"

"You're very much awake, Den." You pushed some hair off his face. "I'm here."

"You left." He said. You tried to figure out the emotions in his voice, but it was like there was none. It was just a plain statement, and unfortunately, it was true.

"Let's not do this now, okay? Do you need anything? Water?"

He shook his head no, and tried to move but he instantly growled in pain. "Stop touching me." He told you and you pulled your hands away.

"Want me to go get a nurse?"

"If you're insisting on doing something for me, wake up my dad and drive him home." His tone was cold, but could you blame him?

"I offered him a ride several times, he didn't want--"

"Wake him up."

You moved to Roman to wake him up. After the Parker men talked for a moment, his father finally agreed to be driven home by you. The entire ride was silent, except for his directions to the new retirement home. You didn't try to make conversation, the old man was clearly exhausted from spending very long hours in the hospital, worrying about his son's life. Before he left the car, you gave him your number and told him he could call the next day if he needed a ride. You were relieved that he took it without any hesitation.

You drove back to the hospital, but stopped to get some comfort food for Alden. He'd probably not want it, or at least not yet, but you wanted to do this for him. When you got into his room, he was drinking some water and the TV was on. He looked at you like he was seeing a ghost. "Hey," you softly said, putting the food down, "I got you some of your fav snacks."

He looked at the bag and then back to you. "Why are you here?"

"Where else would I be?" You answered, getting closer to his bed.

"Literally anywhere else but here." He paused, taking a deep breath. "How did you even know? I highly doubt my dad called you."

"I'm still your emergency contact."

"Thanks for the heads up, I'll change that in the morning. Look, I'm alive okay? In a few weeks, my arm will be like new. So, you can leave now."

"Alden--" you tentatively tried to grab his free hand but stopped yourself when you heard him say, "No! You don't get to show up like this, after all this time, just because I got shot. You don't get to be nice to me, and try to take care of me. I'm a big boy. So you can do what you do, and leave. No need for a stupid note this time."

You stared at him for a short moment, tears threatening to fall. He was clearly avoiding your eyes, just looking at the ceiling. So, you simply grabbed your purse and started to walk towards the door. As your hand reached for the handle, you took a deep breath and turned around. "Believe it or not, but leaving you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I didn't do it because I wanted to but because we were making each other miserable. All we did was fight, we couldn't agree on a single damn thing. Your parents--"

"Don't talk about my parents." He warned you.

"I'm sure they are nice people but they were mean to me, Alden. As much as you could argue with your father, you never had my back when it came to your mother."

"I said, don't." You saw the tears in his eyes at this moment.

"I'm sorry for your loss." You whispered softly, feeling for him and knowing just how much he loved his mother.

"Are you?" He finally snapped and looked directly at you. "Where the hell were you when she passed? Huh? You didn't call, you didn't send a single fucking text!"

"That's not true!" You defended yourself. "I sent you a care package and a long letter!"

"Oh, did you now? Must have gotten lost in the mail." He said, ironically. Clearly, he wasn't believing you. So you gently grabbed his chin and forced him to lock eyes with you again.

"I did." You assured him, knowing it was the damn truth. "I put some snacks in it, your fav bottle of wine, some flowers for your mom and a plant for you. I even put my Metallica hoodie that you always wanted to steal. Did you not get it?" It took him a moment to process before shaking his head no. "Well, have you moved since we--? Cause I sent it to the apartment on--"

"I didn't move."

"Then, I don't understand. I was informed it got delivered."

He stayed silent once more, and you knew he was trying to figure out what happened to that package. "There was no way I would learn about your mom and not do something, Alden. No matter how me and her didn't get along, I know she was the person you loved the most and I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you. I'm sorry you thought I didn't care or--"

"Not your fault for this one, I guess." He sighed. You noticed the tear that was rolling down his cheek and you couldn't help but to dry it with your thumb. Alden closed his eyes at the gesture, and you let your hand rest on his cheek for a moment. You leaned over and kissed his temple softly. "I never stopped caring," you whispered. "Your dad has my number if you want to reach out, otherwise I'll go back to Philly tomorrow night. Take care of yourself and please be careful next time."

You were hoping he would say something but he didn't. So you just left.

As you drove back to the motel, you wondered if you should've told him about everything that was in that care package and in your letter. You remembered every word that you wrote, how you explained why you didn't tell him about the pregnancy - cause he didn't want kids at his age and with his work, and that he was convinced you were having an affair, you were scared he'd think the baby wasn't his - but regretted it every day. Little Noah was still a tiny baby when you sent the package and the pictures, so told Alden he wouldn't remember not having his daddy the first three months of his life. Everything could be set on the right track. You'd come back to DC, do the co-parenting, or whatever. You poured your heart out in this letter, offered countless apologies, and solutions. Since you never got an answer, you figured Alden didn't want to know his son.

In the room, you found your two years old son sleeping on the big bed like a starfish, and your sister by his side, scrolling through her phone. When she saw you, she immediately got up and hugged you. "It didn't go well, did it?"

You told her everything since the last updates you gave her as she made some tea. Noah was deeply asleep, as you softly stroked his hair. "So, he still doesn't know about the little guy?"

You shook your head no, whipping your tears away. "All this time I thought he just didn't care."

"That's crazy. But what the fuck happened to the package?"

You shrugged. "Beats me." Noah moved in his sleep to get closer to you. "I guess I have to tell him again, now."

"Yeah. Face to face this time."

In the morning, Noah woke you up a little before 6am, which meant that you had barely slept for two hours. "It's too early baby, let's sleep a little more okay?"

"'Kay" he answered, but all he did was laying next to you, looking at you like you're the most wonderful thing in the world, and played with your face and hair. But eventually he asked for some milk, and neither of you went back to sleep. Around 9, you went to get breakfast to the diner with Noah and your sister. Your son was very curious about this new place, until he had some pancakes in front of him. Breakfast was going fine, until two people approached your table.

"Agent McGee, Agent Torres, hi!" You greeted them.

"Good morning, you can call us Tim and Nick."

"Alright, um this is my sister Jane, and um my--"

"Mommy! More syrup please?"

You couldn't lie, could you?

"My son, Noah." He barely said hi even after you asked him to, too focus on his food.

Tim started to tell you that they had just visited Alden and he was physically okay, while Nick added that for someone who can never shut up, he was extremely silent that morning. They also said that Jimmy Palmer went to pick up Alden's father to bring him to the hospital. You did your best to remain neutral to that information until they left with their order.

"What do you know about Nick?" Jane asked as soon as you sat back down. You laughed despite yourself, knowing that Nick Torres was exactly your sister's type.

You spent the morning walking around DC, or more specifically around the hospital where Alden was. You answered a phone call from your parents, let them talk with Noah for a bit, who was very happy about being with his mommy and his auntie and not at daycare. As you found a park for Noah to play, you and Jane sat on a bench. "They probably figured it out, you know." Jane said. "I mean, Noah is like Alden's clone. And what's the deal with the Parkers' hair anyways?"

You giggled softly, looking at your son from afar and yes, his head full of hair was all you could see.

"He's almost 3, J. They lost three damn years. Do you think Alden will forgive me? And--"

"Girl, that's not your fault that package didn't reach him! I bet some evil hands got on it!"

"What? Who? Who would do that?"

"His dad was pretty harsh with you--"

"No! I really don't think Roman would do something like this. The only way to know it was from me, was to read my letter. Roman wouldn't have opened the box in the first place."

"Fair enough. Then, was he dating someone back then?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

You looked at each other. You had to visit Alden again.

Your anxiety was so high as you reached for his room, you thought you may faint. Your heart was pounding so hard and fast, but there was no turning back now. You had to tell him, cause he never knew.

You walked into the room after Alden said to come in, breathing heavily. Alden had his bed on a sitting position, and he seemed more alert than the day before. Roman was in the chair next to the bed, and he did give you a slight nod, which you returned. You asked Alden how he was doing and he just mumbled that he was fine. You noticed some of the snacks you brought had been opened and it warmed your heart just a little.

"Why are you here again?" He asked.

You opened your mouth to answer but the door swung open - without a knock first - and the person you really didn't want to see was right there.

"Wow, I thought I was never going to make it!"

Completely ignoring you, Vivian circled the bed to give Roman a hug, before focusing on Alden. She leaned over to kiss his cheek, not earning any kind of reaction from him. You just stood there, staring until she finally looked up to you, “Oh, you.” she said. “What are you doing here?”

You tried to shut all of your thoughts and questions going through your mind and looked at Alden, “I need to talk to you,” you told him.

Before he could answer, Vivian spoke up, “Yeah well, it’s gonna have to wait. In case you didn’t notice, he got shot and–”

“Viv,” he exclaimed.

“What? She doesn’t have anything to do here, does she?”

You heard your name from Roman and looked at him, “I think you should leave.”

You looked at Alden again, hoping he’d say something, that he understood that you really needed to talk to him privately, but he just stayed silent. “Nothing changed.” you whispered before leaving.

You found the first restroom on your way and locked yourself in there to cry. Things were still as they were, he wouldn’t open his mouth to defend you, or at least ask his father to stand down and not get involved. And what the hell was Vivian doing there? Were they back together, or on their way to? You figured he’d eventually find someone, but if that someone was Vivian, that felt like a huge betrayal, as she was one of the reasons things didn’t work out between you and Alden. She was always there, his family never accepted the divorce and it always felt like she needed to have a hold on him. You remember one day when she cornered you and basically said the only reason Alden was dating you was because she let it happen, “If I ask him to get back together, trust me, he’ll leave on the spot.”

Once you had a hold on your emotions, you texted Jane to let her know you were on your way to them. Noah immediately rushed into your arms, asking if you could get some cupcakes, like his auntie promised.

“You have a serious problem with sugar, my love.”

“I love sugar!”

“Yeah, I got that.” you giggled.

It was late in the afternoon when you got a text from an unknown number. ‘You can come. -A’

You told Noah that you needed to visit your friend again, but this time, he was not having it. “Wanna come!” he kept saying, holding onto your neck with his tiny arms.

“You can’t, baby. But I won’t be long, okay?” he shook his head no in your neck. You still started to walk towards the hospital, trying to negotiate with your son.

“I got an idea,” Jane said, “What if you and I go to the shop and find a gift for mommy’s friend? And maybe you’ll find something for you too?”

Noah looked at his aunt and then you. He wasn’t very convinced about it but with one little push, he did agree to let go of you.

You were relieved to see Alden’s room empty except for him. He was standing with some casual clothes on him, a bag was at the end of the bed. “You’re being discharged already?”

“Yeah, I’ll not spend another night here.”

“Alden, are you sure it’s the right thing to do? What did your doctor say?”

“What did you want to talk about?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

You sighed and sat next to him.

“That package I sent you when your mom passed– there was a long letter with it.”

“Longer than your note?”

“Alden, please.” you looked up to him, with tears in your eyes.

“Sorry, but that–really hurt me. More than you know.”

“I can imagine,” you took a deep breath, “And I’m willing to hear all about it, even if you want to get angry at me and insult me, but right now, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“About that letter?”

“I told you a lot of things in this letter, including one very important thing.” You took your phone out of your pocket, unlocked it and went to the gallery. The last picture was one of Noah that you took a few hours early at the park. Eventually, you showed him the phone. He grabbed it with his free hand and stared at the picture of a moment. “Wh–who is that?”

“His name is Noah.” tears fell down your cheeks but you didn’t care. “He’s my son. And your son.” you said right above a whisper.

Alden’s head started to move left to right, tears were forming in his eyes but he didn’t take his eyes off the picture. He couldn’t believe it and you didn’t blame him. “Alden, I’m sorry.” you kissed his injured shoulder without thinking. “I was telling you in that letter about him, there was pictures too, and since I never heard from you, I thought you didn’t–”

“That I didn’t want to know my own child?” you could hear the hurt in his voice. “Did you seriously think that about me?”

“What else was I supposed to think?”

“My mom passed away a year after you left. Why wait that long? He was already born!”

“I know, I– I explained everything in the letter and–”

“Yeah well, I didn’t get that damn letter, okay? So why didn’t you tell me when you found out?” he stood up from the bed, and whined a bit as he uncontrollably tried to move his arm.

“You were so clear about not wanting kids and why, we couldn’t be around each other without fighting and I– I thought you were back with Vivian. Look, I made this decision out of heartbreak and I regretted it, okay? Which was why I reached out when your mom passed. I realized that anything could happen to you or to me, and Noah needed both his parents–”

Your phone, which was still in Alden’s hand, started to buzz. “Your sister,” he said, handing you the phone. As soon as you picked up, you could hear Noah crying, “SOS!” Jane said.

Alden was staring at you, and you knew he was able to hear. “I’m on my way, sis.” you hung up.

“They, um, they are down at the gift shop.”

“Your sister and–Noah?”

You nodded, standing up next to him. “Look, there’s no rush, we can–”

“Does he know? Who I am?”

You put your hand over his, the one stuck against his chest.

“He’s not asking deep questions yet, but he did ask about his daddy a few times and I couldn’t lie to him. He’s seen pictures of you, so he may recognize you.”

Alden took a few deep breaths, taking to stop himself from crying. “What did you say about me not–being there?”

“Daddy leaves away from us and can’t visit for now.”

“Better than ‘daddy doesn’t know you exist’.” he said, coldly.

“Alden,” you whispered.

“We have a lot to talk about, but– our son is crying.”

You couldn’t believe that you were on your way to your son with his father by your side. Noah was going to meet his daddy. Alden was going to meet his son. You didn’t think it would go this fast, even though you figured Alden would want to waste any more time. As you approached the gift shop, you uncontrollably grabbed his arm. “You should’ve let me hold your bag.” you said.

“My right arm is fine. Is that him?” You listened and heard little whimpers and a little kid’s voice.

“Yeah.” you breathed out.

As soon as Noah saw you, he ran. You picked him up, holding him tight in your arms. “What’s wrong, baby? What did auntie J do this time?”

“Hey, I didn’t do anything!” your sister interjected. “Alden,” she greeted the man who was staying a couple of feet away. He briefly looked at her but immediately got his eyes focused on his son again. His eyes were full of tears, threatening to fall again.

“She said I could take just one teddy for your friend.”

“I said he didn’t need two of them. One was enough, wasn’t it, Alden?”

It was only then that Noah looked at his father. He stayed silent, just staring at him before looking at you and back at him. Then he approached his mouth to your ear, “He like daddy.”

“Cause it’s him, baby.”

Noah looked at Alden again. “You hurt, daddy?” he answered softly, like it was the most normal thing. Like it wasn’t the first time they were meeting each other.

It took a moment for Alden to answer. “I am, but it’ll be okay. Soon it’ll be like nothing happened.”

“What happen?”

“Huh, I fell and hurt my shoulder.”

“Need a hug?” He offered, since you strongly believed that hugs can solve a lot of things and it was something you were transferring to your son without doing it on purpose.

“I’d love a hug.”

Noah extended his arms, so you moved closer to Alden. “Careful with his shoulder, okay?” you warned him, but he was very thoughtful, only holding on his father’s neck. Then he kissed his cheek and rested his head on the right shoulder. You could see that Alden was fighting the urge to cry, just as you were. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there before, buddy. I’ll never leave you from now on.”

It was nearly impossible to take Noah off his dad after the initial meeting. Even in the car, he wanted to sit on his lap and only agreed to let go as long as daddy sat next to him. Your sister drove to your former apartment, but she needed to get back to Philly and work the following day. “Don’t worry, she’ll take my car if needed.” Alden told her when Jane asked how you’d get back home. You grabbed yours, Noah’s and Alden’s bags from the trunk before your sister said goodbye to the three of you before driving off.

Inside the apartment, Noah wanted to see every room. He asked a million questions to Alden about everything and nothing, and you had to translate a few times as daddy wasn’t familiar with Noah’s own language. His phone rang a few times but he completely ignored it, only focusing on his son and telling him everything he wanted to know. What you were feeling was indescribable.

When you told Noah that his dad needed to rest, he agreed to settle on the couch with him. “Is it okay if I make dinner now?” You asked Alden, “This little guy woke up at 6, and didn’t nap. Won’t take long until he gets grumpy.”

“Go ahead but I’m not sure my fridge has what you need. I can go get something?”

You looked inside the fridge as you heard your son asking his dad if they could watch Paw Patrol. You heard Alden’s confusion when he said sure, and giggled. “Where Netflix?”

“Oh, here.”

“Well, your fridge is indeed very sad. What do you want to eat, Nono?”

“Nuggies!”

“Why do I even ask?”

You grabbed your phone and settled next to Alden, placing the order while Noah explained Paw Patrol to his father.

A couple of hours later, both Noah and Alden were asleep on the couch. You obviously had to snap a few pictures, before picking up your son and bringing him to the bed in the guest room. “Put him on my bed, it’s comfier.” Alden said, half sleep.

“Okay, but I have to stay next to him, he could roll over.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

You placed Noah in the middle of the big bed, got rid of your jeans, socks and bra. Alden got in before you could get under the sheets, and clearly checked out your legs. “Could you be more subtle?”

“I know and remember your body like it was yesterday.”

You chose not to answer, “Do you need to keep the sling?”

“Yeah, for at least a week.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I took the entire week off work.”

“Doesn’t matter, since you’re gonna quit anyway. You’re not going back to Philadelphia.”

As Noah slept between the two of you, Alden asked many questions about your son; his birthday, favorite food, what he likes to do, if he has allergies or health issues, etc. You answered everything, gave him as much info as possible. “And um, does he have a father figure in his life?”

“Is this your way to ask me if I'm dating someone?”

“Maybe. Are you?”

“No. His only father figures are my dad and my uncle. Are you dating Vivian?”

Alden chuckled. “Are we doing this again?”

“Considering what I saw earlier–”

“I'm not dating her or anyone else. I'll admit I hooked up with her a few times over the last few years, but–”

“Great!” You sighed.

“You're gonna tell me that you haven't been with anyone since–?”

“The last time I had sex was probably the night we conceived this tiny human.” You looked down at Noah and played with his hair.

“Oh,”

It was silent for a moment. Alden wanted to get on his side, play with Noah's hair too, reach out for you, but with his arm, he could only lay down on his back and that frustrated him. “What was your breaking point?” He asked, eventually. “Why did you leave that day? And not talk to me?”

“I knew if I talked to you, I wouldn't go through with it. And it was something in particular that made me leave, I was–exhausted. Of the fights, the arguments, the jealousy, and suspicion. It was like we didn't trust each other anymore, for anything. And–” your voice broke. “Maybe it's stupid, but you didn't want to marry me, you didn't want to have kids with me so I just thought – I was temporary.”

“We lived together. That was a huge commitment for me.”

“Exactly. It was huge for you, while it was just natural for me.”

“Okay, I get that. And I'm sorry I made you feel this way.” He turned his face to look at you. He could only make out some of your features. “I was truly and madly in love with you. But I guess I only realized it once you were gone. And then I was so mad at you for leaving.” It was his voice that broke.

“I can't blame you for that part.” You cried. “Do you think it's too late?”

“Too late for what?”

“...Us?”

“It's never too late.”

Eventually you both fell asleep, exhausted physically and mentally.

Of course, you were both awakened by Noah. First, he cuddled and called out for you. “Hey, baby, good morning!” You said, eyes still closed, holding him against you.

“Daddy's snoring.” You listened closely and indeed Alden was snoring. Crazy as it was, you missed that sound very much. “Like pop.”

You giggled, “Not as loud as pop, though!”

“No! Wake him?”

“Hold on,” you grabbed your phone to check what time it was, 7:30am. Alden probably needed more sleep, so you convinced Noah to help you prepare breakfast for daddy and wake him up after. Luckily, there was some eggs and bacon, and pancake batter in the kitchen and in the end, you prepared breakfast while Noah logged on Netflix by himself. It was almost ready when there were some knocks at the door. You opened to find Roman and Vivian, holding what seemed to be breakfast.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, shocked.

“Making breakfast,” you gave her your best fake smile. “Good morning, Roman.”

“Is my son awake?”

“Not yet, I thought he needed–”

Vivian practically pushed you out of her way to get in. You obviously let Roman get inside too. “What is that?” She said, pointing at Noah.

“My son.” You all heard. Alden barely walked into the living area that Noah was running into his arms.

“Morning, daddy!”

“Good morning, buddy.”

“You snore!”

“I do not!” Alden laughed.

The boys didn't have more time as Vivian raised her voice, asking what was going on. You noticed Roman sitting at the kitchen counter, staring at your son, his grandson. “Go watch your show, baby, and we'll have breakfast, okay?”

Then he told everyone to follow him inside the greenhouse. “Don't act so shocked, Vivian.” Was the first thing Alden said. “You knew about Noah.”

“What? You're crazy, how would I–?”

“I remembered a few days after mom passed, you bringing me my favorite snacks, wine, a plant, and flowers.” The exact content of your package. “What did you do with the hoodie and the letter?”

“I don't– I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“The only reason I'm staying calm right now is because my son is in the next room, but look at me and listen to me. I never want to see you again, so you're gonna disappear from my life and my father's. Meaning that from the moment you walk out that door, you will not text or call him, or any other members of my family. And if I learn that you didn't respect that, I'll be far less gentle. Am I clear?”

“Alden, listen–”

“Get the fuck out of my house.”

She was crying and trying to get Alden to listen to her, but he only grabbed your waist and held you close to him. When she turned to Roman, hoping he'd listen and defend her, the older man simply told her to leave. Eventually, she did, using the greenhouse's door.

Alden held you tighter, kissing your temple softly. “Dad,”

“Can I meet him? What's his name?”

Noah was very happy to have another grandpa. And it was amazing to see how Roman was doing his best to give him a very good first impression. You all had breakfast together, and you mostly stayed silent, just being overwhelmed about the Parkers boys getting to know one another. After eating, Noah wanted to show Paw Patrol to his grandfather, and Alden took this opportunity to take you to the bedroom. He didn't waste any second before kissing you deeply and intensely. You returned it immediately, holding onto his hair. Feeling like you were breathing again, you only stopped kissing when you heard him making a sound of pain. “My shoulder,” he said.

“Oh god, I'm so sorry baby. I didn't–”

“It's okay,” he smiled. “It's worth it.”

He kissed you again, trapping you between the door and his body. “Fuck, I missed you.” He growled.

“Missed you more.”

“We can't do this right now, can we?” He chuckled, out of breath.

“Oh baby, it's gonna be tricky for us to have some privacy now.”

“It's fine. I'm taking all the pros and cons.” He kissed your forehead, “I'm taking you and our little boy. I'm taking it all.”

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #alden parker x reader #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine

[writeandsurvive]

I blame @mandy426 for this one 🤭 short and sweet, I hope? Lmk ❤️

warnings: smut without plot, age gap (not specified), unprotected piv, sex against some shelves, busted during sex, dramatic!Nick

Storage Room ~ Alden Parker

"Oh, fuck princess," Alden growled in your ears, thrusting in and out of your pussy, your back against his chest. One of his hands was holding onto your hip, probably leaving bruises while the other was wrapped around your throat and squeezing just slightly. "So warm and tight for me." He nipped your earlobe, earning a loud moan from you. "Shh, baby. You don't want somebody to hear you, right?"

Your nails were digging tiny holes on the shelves, and you bit your bottom lip so hard to keep quiet. But Alden was driving you crazy. This man has ruined every other man for you from the first time he fucked you, and the quality just keeps getting better every time he's inside you, touching you, kissing you.

"Alden, shit! Don't stop!" You whispered-screamed, moving your hips to meet his thrusts.

"Never." He left sloppy kisses on your neck, his hand moving to your front so he could rub your throbbing clit. You squealed, uncontrollably cleanching your inner walls. "Oh my--fuck, baby! You're gonna make me cum if you do this again."

Alden gave a rough thrust, stopped moving as he was buried deep inside you. He's probably never been this deep before. Another sound left your lips, half from pleasure and half from pain, but wonderful pain. "No one's ever taken me this good. You were made for me, sweet girl."

Your chest was pressed against the shelves, but you tilted your head back, resting it on his shoulder. He started to move his hips again, but gentler, as he grabbed your face and brought your lips to his. The kiss was dirty and sloppy, you could taste his favorite tea flavor and it got you even more hot and bothered. You were overwhelmed by him, his taste, his scent, and his fat cock pumping in and out of you.

"I missed you so much," you whispered, locking eyes with him for a second. You instantly blushed and looked away, remembering that it's just supposed to be casual.

"Missed you more." He smiled and you returned it right before he kissed you again. Alden started to move faster again, holding you as tight as humanly possible.

You thought you heard a noise, like someone was there and stiffed immediately. "Baby? You okay?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Your sweet noises? How wet your pussy is? Sure can hear it."

Your fear of being busted disappeared just as fast as it arrived. One of your hands reached out behind, grabbing Alden's hair. "I'm so close. Can I cum inside you?"

"Fuck yeah, please! Fill me up, handsome."

This time, both you and Alden heard the box hitting the floor, and all the files scattering. You looked at where the noise came from and saw Kasie standing there frozen. No one had time to react before a voice was heard. "Kas, you alright?" And all of a sudden, Nick appeared too. He noticed the box first before looking up to see you and Alden hurrying to dress back up. Torres immediately turned around and covered Kasie's eyes - who was still frozen in place.

"Ouch!" She shouted cause Nick's gesture was too sudden to be gentle.

"Yes, ouch indeed! I'm fucking traumatized." He whined.

"Fucking? Seriously?" Kasie said.

You and Alden looked at each other to make sure you were presentable. He struggled to fix his pants as his cock wasn't completely soft yet. The embarrassment was something, but having to stop just when you were both on the verge of orgasms was extremely uncomfortable. "We're dressed." Alden told them.

"Yeah, um, doesn't matter. I don't think I can look at either of you anymore." Nick said, his back still turned. Kasie pulled his hand away but instead of looking at you or Alden, she got down to grab all the papers around the floor. Alden kissed your cheek quietly before helping Kas. "Guys, come on. Let's not make this a big deal." He said.

You walked over to Nick, and touched his shoulders. He jerked off and took a few steps forward. "Don't touch me!"

"You're being dramatic, Nicholas." You rolled your eyes. Yes, you were embarrassed that your friends saw you getting fucked against some shelves by the boss, but they were that; your friends. The people you love and trust the most in this world.

"I-- it's -- it's like --"

"Like what?"

He took a few steps closer this time and whispered, "Like you're fucking dad."

"I don't know if I should laugh and be outraged."

"You do call me daddy sometimes." Alden chimed in. The face of pure disgust on Nick made you laugh uncontrollably. You covered your mouth instantly, and your friend, the guy you love like your brother started to walk over the elevator.

"Nicholas, come back!"

"Gonna throw up and definitely not coming back." He shouted.

Alden and Kasie had gathered all the papers and put them on the nearby table. You approached your fav girl, and tried to hug her from behind. "We good, Kas?"

"I guess, but please shower before you hug me." She looked at Alden. "You too."

Alden laughed. "I like having her smell on me."

"Torres, wait for moi!" She rushed to the elevator.

You got closer to Alden, who welcomed you in his arms. "Now what?" You asked, wrapping your arms around his neck.

"We come clean to everyone." He softly kissed you.

"Yeah, but-- aren't we supposed to be--you know, casual?"

"I'll only offer you casual so you wouldn't be stuck with an old man." He pressed your forehead against yours.

"You're not an old man," you kissed his nose, "You're my old man."

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #ncis fanfiction #alden parker x reader #ncis imagine #alden parker smut #nick torres #kasie hines

[writeandsurvive]

Caught in a Snow Storm ~ Alden Parker 1/2

Summary: After a work road trip, you and Alden have to stop at a hotel cause the roads are being closed and there’s only one room left.

Warnings: one bed, heater goes out, smut, age gap, smoking, handjob, oral (f receiving).

Words count: 5.2k

Author’s note: yes, despite being summer, I’m writing winter fics. I couldn’t shake this idea off my head so I finally wrote it down. Second part coming soon! Special mention to Supernatural in this work because 18 years later, I finally fell into the rabbit hole. I hope you’ll like it! ❤️

None of this was planned. Nothing happened the way it should have. The whole trip was a major waste of time, giving you zero info for your murder case and even less a lead. On top of that, a huge snow storm hit, blocking the roads and you had to stop at the first hotel you found. You usually love the snow, you find it beautiful when it’s all white outside. But this time, it was just the cherry on the cake. “Do you have everything you need for a sleepover?” You did this trip with your team leader, Alden Parker. You didn’t want to go in the first place.

The idea of being stuck in a car for almost three hours with your crush didn’t sound appealing. Not that you mind being with him, you actually love his company, love talking to him about all kinds of things, love his face when he smiles, or how his eyes are soft whenever he looks at you. You love how his mustache is dark while the rest of his beard - and hair - keeps getting whiter. But you still didn’t want to, because of what happened the week before.

Despite being cold outside, the sky was clear blue and the sun was out. You love this exact kind of weather, and ever since you found out about the roof, you enjoy going up for a break, taking some deep breaths, having a smoke and just appreciate the quiet. And that was exactly what you did. Smelling the nice scent coming from the bakery down the street, a cigarette in hand, you relaxed. You even took a couple of pictures of this nice view.

“You know,” you jumped for a second at the sound of his voice straddling you. He chuckled at your reaction. “Ever since I joined, I’ve been wondering where your secret smoking spot is.” He got closer to the ledge, taking in the view. You tried not to stare too much.

“Did you follow me here, Parker?” You puffed on your cigarette.

“Just a little at the time. Nice spot. But the cigarette—“

“I know, I don’t need the lecture. I’m not a heavy smoker, you know.” You stayed a few steps away from him, not wanting to overwhelm him with the bad smell of nicotine.

“Just when you’re overwhelmed or want to relax.”

You didn’t know what to think about the fact that he noticed all of this. And was intrigued enough that he found your secret spot. You felt all giddy, but buried it deep inside you.

“After sex, too.” As soon as it left your lips, you regretted it. Where was this coming from? Technically, it is true, you enjoy a smoke after sex, but it wasn’t something Alden Parker needed to know. You felt so horrified that you stopped looking at the man and just focused on the view and your cigarette that was coming to an end. You would probably need another one. “I shouldn’t have said that.” You managed to say.

“Yeah,” he agreed and you felt even worse. “Look, I’m not going to tell you how bad it is for you, cause I know how annoying that is—I’ve been there.” You looked at him, forgetting your embarrassment for a second. “Just that if and when you decide to try to stop, I’ll be happy to help.”

“H—how did you stop?”

“That’s actually one of the good things that came out of my marriage with Vivian. She really wanted me to stop, so we came to an agreement that everytime I needed to smoke, I’d reach out to her. I’d call if we weren’t together, or just tell her if we were, and she’d do her best to take my mind off it.”

“And it really worked?”

“After a while, yeah. It did. But also because I wanted to stop. If you don’t have that in the first place, no matter what you do, it won’t work.”

“I’ll— think about it. Thank you for offering your help.”

Your cigarette was long gone, and you put the bottom away in a little ashtray you hid.

“We’re a team.” He smiled at you. That damn smile that makes you want to reach for him and kiss him until you can’t breathe.

You went back to the bullpen together. “I do miss a good cigarette after sex though.” He just said before you left the roof.

Maybe you spent the entire week overthinking this. He obviously didn’t mind what you said, but you still felt horrified by it. Why would you say something like that to him? Clearly, he knew what that feeling was like, but it still wasn’t worth mentioning. He did agree when you said you shouldn’t have said it though. Did it make him uncomfortable? He probably doesn’t want to know anything about his coworkers sex life.

Not that you had any lately.

When you finally reached a hotel, you thought it would be it. You couldn’t wait to get into your room, lay down and relax. Probably go back down later to smoke. The ride itself wasn’t bad at all. Alden was his usual self, you two talked about many stuff in the car, some were work related and some weren’t. At some point, it felt like he was trying to know you better than he already did. After all, you’ve been working together for just a year, and it’s not like you two spend a lot of alone time together.

“I’m sorry we’re booked.” The receptionist started to say, and you sighed heavily. “Lots of people decided to stop when they announced the storm coming up. All we have left is a suite.” You and Alden looked at each other.

“It’s either that or the car.” He said.

“Fine. But accounting better not give us hell for that.”

“Is this a work trip?” The lady asked, surprising both of you.

“Yeah, why?” Alden asked.

“Because that suite—only has one bed.”

“Fuck me.” You muttered a bit too loud. But Alden agreed for the room.

“We’re adults.” He said in the elevator. “We’ll build a pillow wall if it makes you feel better.”

“Sure. Adults and pillow walls really fit together.” You rolled your eyes. Alden chuckled.

“Have you ever slept in the same bed as a friend or something?”

“Yeah, of course. But it’s different.”

The elevator’s doors opened and Alden walked out first. “If it really grosses you out to share a bed with me, I’ll sleep on the floor, Y/N.”

You usually love when he says your name, but not this time. You could tell by his tone that you upset him. Hurt him, maybe? But wasn’t it better that he thought something like that than know the truth? That you didn’t want to share a bed because you were scared of what it may do to you. You followed him into the suite. It was very beautiful, spacious, and kinda—romantic. Not helping.

“That’s not what I meant, Alden.” He put his backpack down.

“I saw a little store down the street, I’m gonna go buy a few things.” He walked past you to reach for the door again. “Do you need anything?” He still asked.

“A pack of cigarettes?” You heard his quiet growl.

“I was thinking more like some food? Hygiene products? PJs?”

“Do you really think they are selling PJs in that mini store?”

“I’m hoping. Sleeping on the floor is one thing, but sleeping on the floor in my suit? I’d rather not.”

“You’re not sleeping on the floor.” You told him.

“Are you?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah right.”

You knew he wanted to ask you why it was different with him. Why did you seem so repulsed by the idea of sharing a bed?

“I’ve got everything I need, thanks.”

Alden nodded and left.

This would be alright, yes? It was just one night. The bed was big enough for you two, you wouldn’t need a pillow wall. You just hoped his scent wouldn’t drive you crazy, that his body heat wouldn’t warm your insides.

While Alden was gone, you called McGee to give them updates - not that you had much - and listen to theirs. You exchanged a few theories about the case. And finally told him that you’ve found a hotel to spend the night. “Where’s Parker?”

“He needed a few things for a store downstairs. How are the roads in DC?”

“Not too bad yet, but we’re all heading back home before we have to sleep in the office.”

“Lucky you.”

“Be safe and stay warm.”

“Not too warm though.” You overheard Nick. The team knew about your crush on Alden. They all figured you out little by little.

“Tell him he’s a dead man.”

“She’s going to kill you.” Tim said to Nick, laughing.

“Love you too!” Nick shouted.

You were still working on your computer when Alden came back from his little trip. You immediately noticed the snow all over his dark coat, his hair was wet, and he looked absolutely frozen. “It’s getting bad.” You stood up to take a quick look through the window. Everything was covered in snow and the night was dropping. “The store owner told me that a neighborhood close by lost power. We may be next.”

“Wonderful.”

As Alden took his coat and jacket off, you went to grab a towel from the bathroom and offered it to him. “For your hair.”

“Thank you.” He dried off his hair, and sat on bed to take off his wet socks. He looked at you puzzled when you extended your hand.

“It’s just socks. They need to dry.”

You disappeared in the bathroom to put them on the tower heater, while it still worked. When you came back, Alden was sitting on the bed in his white undershirt, his belt was unbuckled. You forced yourself not to stare. “We can eat downstairs but I don’t feel like moving just yet. You can if you want to be alone.”

“Not hungry for now. You should take a shower while there’s still hot water, that’ll warm you up. I put a towel on the heater.”

You could feel his eyes on you even though you had your back turned to him. “Thank you.” And he was gone to the bathroom.

This was going to be alright.

You took a look in the bags he brought back. Was this considered sneaking? He didn’t say anything about it being private, and you could see a bag of chips on top anyways. And you found mostly snacks, a bag of your favorites. There was your favorite kind of tea, and some coffee powder. And obviously, a box of pastries. You smiled at that. If Alden doesn’t find his way to pastries, pastries will find their way to him.

Then you grabbed the hotel menu, looking at what could interest you. Unlike you told Alden, you were hungry, you just didn’t want to eat alone. And you wanted to make up to him for hurting his feelings earlier.

He came back from the bathroom, wearing some night shorts, his white t-shirt and a black zipper on top. His hair was still a little wet, and messy. You’ve never seen his beautiful hair like this and you loved it even more. Alden looked so casual, and cozy, you realized this was what it’d be like to date the man. This could be one of your daily views, if only— if only.

You were on the bed, scrolling on your phone, your legs under the blanket as it was getting a bit colder. “You should go too.” He told you, and you agreed. Walking past him as he smelled fresh from the shower turned your upside down. You hurried to the bathroom and locked up. A cold shower was more needed than a hot one. You almost gave up to your urges in the shower and touched yourself, but your embarrassment afterwards would be written all over your face, and Alden could read you very easily.

You needed to smoke.

“You were looking at the menu. Do you want to order something?”

“Do you?”

You definitely noticed how Alden looked at you from head to toes, even though there was nothing to see. You were wearing an oversized hoodie that you always have with you during winter, and your work pants. “I don’t have shorts like yours or anything similar.” You answered his silent question.

“Get under the blanket and take them off. I’m staying here for now anyway.”

You did as told, because you honestly wanted those pants off. Alden stayed seated at the little table. “So, food?”

“The grilled cheese sounds good.”

“Drink? I got you some tea for later, but you already saw that.”

It was the first time since you got the room that you and Alden actually looked at each other. You could tell he was teasing you for looking into the bags, so you smiled. “My favorite. Thank you by the way.”

You gave Alden your full order and he called the reception, who informed him about the heating system issue. The room temperature was clearly dropping. You pulled on your sleeves to cover your hands, and put the hood on. “We can get an extra blanket, or hang out around their chimney.”

“I’d rather stay here for now. And get your ass under the blanket too.”

“I’m good.”

“For the love of god, Alden! I’m not grossed out by the idea of sharing a bed with you! Or anything like that for that matter.”

“No, I know. I get it. I’m your team leader, I’m quite older than you. It’s not very comfortable, like sleeping with your weird uncle or something.”

You laughed, but Alden looked serious.

“You’re definitely not the weird uncle.”

“Yeah, tell that to my nieces and nephews.”

“I’d rather trust Eli.” You smiled and he returned it. You and the team learned about Alden’s godson only recently. You’ve met his former FBI partner, Jeremy, who talked about his son Eli, and how much he loved his godfather. You had no doubt believing that Alden was a loving godfather, who took his role very seriously. And you loved that about him. “Get under the blanket, Parker.” You said again, and this time he did. He stayed very much on his side though, a huge gap between your body and his. “Plug your phone before the power goes out.” He said, plugging his own.

As you left the bed to grab your phone charger - and computer - you forgot that you had no pants on. It didn’t even occur to you when you slightly bent over to get it from your bag. It was only when you walked back to the bed, and saw how red Alden’s cheeks were that you realized. You basically jumped under the blanket, mortified. “I’m sorry! I completely forgot—sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He cleared his throat. “No worries.”

“Let’s agree that if either of us does something that makes the other uncomfortable, we can just say it. Yeah?”

“Deal.”

How could you look him in the eyes now?

Both of you on your side of the bed, focusing on your phones, the room became totally quiet. You didn’t know what was more uncomfortable, the fact that you just saw your panties, and that you’re both so ill at ease, you can’t even talk, creating this awful atmosphere.

Finally, your order came in. You obviously decided to eat on the bed, the blanket covering you as much as possible. “I can put up something on my laptop if you want.” You offered.

“Yeah, why not.”

You gave him a few options as he settled the food.

“What’s Supernatural?”

“Seriously? Dean and Sam Winchester, chasing demons and all kinds of creatures?”

“That sounds—“

“Like what we’re watching. Sit.”

And you did just that. Eat dinner in bed, covered by a comfy blanket, watching the first episode of Supernatural… with your team leader. Your crush. The guy who’s much older than you.

You didn’t know who was the most surprised by how Alden got into it. He was asking you a bunch of questions, some that you couldn’t answer without spoiling. “Just because it’s not that bad, doesn’t mean I’ll binge the whole thing. Don’t care about the spoilers.”

“I do. So, if you want to know what killed the boys’ mom, just watch it.”

Alden was leaning against the headboard, an arm behind his head. He looked even more cozy than he did earlier. You could so easily lay down on his chest, and cuddle as you watch the show. “Maybe I should go down and get that extra blanket.” He said at the end of the episode.

“I will go. I’m gonna smoke.”

“I didn’t buy you a pack.”

“Always have a few with me. Do you think you can avoid freezing to death for ten minutes?”

“You’re the one going outside. Wouldn’t you prefer to stay warm here and talk to me?” He offered. How he managed to stop smoking. “We can watch another ep, if you want.”

“You’re hooked.” You grinned.

Alden turned on his side, leaning a little closer to you. “Well it’s always nice to know how to defend myself if I ever encounter a demon.”

“Or a vampire, or a werewolf, or a rougarou.”

“What the hell is a rougarou?” He laughed.

“Binge. The. Show.” At every word, you got closer to Alden. So close your forehead almost brushed his. A little more and you could’ve kissed the man. And it obviously took both of you by surprise.

“I’ll go get the blanket. Be back in a few.” He was gone before you could say anything.

By the time he came back, you had cleared the bed from the plates and food, made sure that there were no crumbs or anything in the sheets, put his water bottle on his nightstand, and waited. The extra blanket looked fluffy and pretty warm, and Alden couldn’t wait to get under. “It’s freezing in those damn hallways.”

You grabbed the blanket from his arms and set it just right on the bed. You took your computer, settling it between your hips and Alden’s, maybe it acted as a barrier. “You’re cold.” You could feel his coldness despite the gap.

“You think?” His vest was close up to the top, and he put his hood on just like you. Without thinking further, you reached out for one of his hands. It was frozen.

“Gimme the other one.” Puzzled, he gave you his hands. You put them in the big pocket of your sweater, and covered them with yours. His hands were much bigger than yours but you didn’t care. You moved your fingers on his skin, putting a bit of pressure to get the blood flooding properly.

“Do you have another pocket for my feet?” He asked as you felt his legs getting closer.

“I swear if you put your cold feet on my legs, I’ll scream.”

In the pocket where the four hands were, you didn’t know who was trying to warm who. They were mixed together, you could feel his fingers moving against your palm and wrist. Alden chuckled, his legs got even closer.

“Parker, I have a gun.”

“So do I. And I’m a better shooter.”

“We’re 1 to 1, so no, you are not.”

You and Alden went to the shooting range a couple of times. It started with a little teasing about your aim after a case, and it turned into a competition. Whoever wins the next round has to invite the other for dinner. His idea.

Did it mean something?

“When this case is over, we’re doing the last round. I can’t wait for my free dinner.”

“Be careful. I could take you to the worst and cheapest restaurant ever.”

“In that case—“

Before you knew it, Alden’s legs were intertwined with yours. His feet were pressed against your calves, and your body got much closer to his. You let out a small scream of surprise before trying to fight him off. But his hands had left your pocket to lock you down. To be honest, with your training, you could get out of his hold but he wanted to play, so you were going to indulge. He was holding you so tight that your hands were stuck in your pocket. You tried to sneak your way out, until you both heard a thump. “Was that my laptop?” You asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“If it’s broken, you’ll explain to accounting why I need a new one.” You lifted your head to look at him. “Shouldn’t be too hard for you.”

“Why’s that?”

“According to the rumors, you dated—“

“Come on. Don’t tell me you believe those rumors?”

“Well, they are around your age, some are single. And Kathy is very beautiful.”

You felt his hold loosen a little but honestly, you didn’t want him to let go of you. You wanted to stay there for as long as possible. He smelled so good, his body felt perfect against yours. Being this close to him felt—right.

“Mmm… that’s true, she is. Do you think I have a chance with her?”

You forced yourself to smile. “Of course you do. You’re clever, handsome, sweet, funny, passionate. And you have the best head of hair ever.”

He laughed at that. From where you were, you saw his throat bobbing. His Adam’s apple was so close, all you wanted was to kiss it. His laugh was the best sound you’ve heard, and it was even better when you were the reason he was laughing.

“I figured you loved my hair when a month after I joined the team, you accidentally touched it.”

“It was an accident, Alden! I was reaching for the file and your head was on the way!”

“Sure it was. I have such a big head.”

“Aldeeeen!” You whined and somehow your face buried itself in his neck. “I swear I didn’t—“

“I’m just teasing you.” He chuckled.

Realizing that you were basically cuddling the man, you were ready to move away and get some much needed distance. Especially that Alden’s released the last bit of pressure they had on you. But before you could move even just a little, his arms closed again. This time, he wasn’t locking you down. He was hugging you. Cuddling you.

“We should stay like this if we don’t want to freeze to death. Unless it makes you uncomfortable—“

“I’m good.” You immediately said. You didn’t want to move. Not now, not ever. “You’re lucky your feet are warm now.”

“Thanks to you.”

After a long moment and an internal debat, you moved your arms to hold him back. You felt his body relaxing entirely, and yours did the same. And you stayed like long enough that you both fell asleep.

Three hours later, you woke up. You and Alden were practically in the same position, except that he rolled a bit of his back, and one of his hands was dangerously close to your butt.

Your skin was damped. You were hot and sweating. Pulling the blankets just a little, you realized that the room wasn’t cold anymore. As slowly and quietly as possible, you moved out of Alden’s arms and left the bed. The heater was working very well, your hoodie wasn’t needed anymore so you got rid of it, as well as your socks. You were now in a tank top and panties, but couldn’t bring yourself to care. Especially not after what happened earlier.

You removed the extra blanket as gently as you could so Alden wouldn’t wake up. Then, you crawled back in bed, stared at his beautiful and peaceful face before slowly opening the zipper of his vest. You were halfway through it when his body moved and you felt his eyes on you. “The heating system got fixed. You should take it off.”

“You were doing a great job.” He sleepily said. You opened the vest entirely, and tried to remove it from one of his arms.

“A little help, Alden?”

Half asleep, he sat up and put his arms in the air like a toddler wanting to be undressed. You quietly laughed and undressed him, almost straddling his lap. It surprised you when he got rid of his t-shirt too before laying back down, taking you with him.

Alden was shirtless. You could feel him, you could touch his chest if you were bold enough. You wanted to turn on the lights and see his body, admire it, imprint in your brain forever. You were about to relax and just enjoy this moment, but it was when he let go of you and practically turned on the other side. “Oh” left your lips as it surprised you, confused you and kinda hurt you.

“Male body reaction.” You heard him say. “It’s better I stay on my side.”

It took you a couple of seconds to understand. “What if I don’t want you to stay on your side?” You whispered and moved closer. You didn’t know what had gotten into you at this moment. Maybe you were going to die of embarrassment, maybe you’d have to quit your job in the morning. Or maybe—

You were now spooning Alden. “Remember our agreement? If one of us does something that makes the other un—“

“Yeah.” He cut you off.

Slowly, you ran your hand from bare back to his chest. He started to breathe heavily. You loved the hair that was there. You touched his pecs, his tummy, making him growl, and reached the waistband of his shorts. You softly kissed his shoulder and Alden melted. His hand went up and down your forearm that was around him. “I need you to agree to this, Alden.” You whispered into his ear, “Don’t want to take advantage of sleepy you.” You planted a kiss under his ear.

“I’m very much awake, sweetheart.” His head leaned back into you. “You can do anything to me.”

When was the last time someone took care of this man?

Your hand finally got into his shorts. You had barely touched his length that he moaned. When your hand wrapped around his cock, you didn’t expect it to be this thick. You got even wetter than you already were. You collected his pre cum on the tip, and used it to start stroking. “Fuck!” He growled deeply. He completely leaned into you, his hand reaching for your hair, neck, face. He was needy and you loved it. You freed his cock from the shorts and stroked him slowly, putting just enough pressure. You kissed his cheek, nipped his ear. You were able to move your other arm under his head, which allowed him to touch his chest. Between the noises he was making, you could tell he wanted to talk, he wanted to say something but everything died on his tongue. “Kiss me.” Was all he could say as he turned his face and you did. All teeth and tongue, all needy and desperate. Alden was now on his back, his hips moving. You weren’t sure if you were giving him a handjob or if he was fucking your hand. That you cared.

“I’m gonna—“ he choked and growled.

You kissed his cheek and whispered to his ear again. “Cum for me, Alden. I’ve got you.” A few more sloppy strokes and he was coming all over his stomach, your name dying on his lips along curse words, his fist holding onto your hair for dear life - it stung a little but you loved it.

You watched him coming down from his high, playing with his hair. His chest was rising and falling rapidly as he was catching his breath. The post orgasm bliss on his face. You kissed his cheek, “I’ll go get a towel.”

When you came back, Alden had turned the nightstand light on, and he looked absolutely perfect. Naked, satisfied, relaxed… the best version of Alden Parker you’ve ever seen until now.

He tried to reach for the towel but you slapped his hand away, and cleaned the sticky mess on his stomach. As soon as you were done, Alden grabbed you and pinned you on the bed, his body covering yours. “I think we can say that our platonic work relationship is ruined.” His eyes moved from your eyes to your lips.

“How terrible.” You grinned and he kissed you. You’ve been in control so far, but you knew at this moment that he was taking over.

“I’m not sure how I got you to be interested in me, but I’ll take it.” He lifted your tank top a little and went down to kiss your stomach.

“You’re the only one who didn’t know I’ve had a crush on you for months.” Your body shivered under his touch.

“I may have noticed a few things—“ he took your top off of you and admired your breasts before touching them, kissing them, playing with your nipples. “But it seemed impossible.” He kept touching your tits as he got back up to kiss you. You buried your hands in his hair, and wrapped your legs around his waist.

“Why? Because you’re older?”

“For starters.” He kissed you one more time before getting on his knees. He slowly took off your panties while staring deep in your eyes.

“I don’t give a fuck about your age.” He looked at your panties, smelled them before throwing them away. You practically moaned at his actions.

“You should, babydoll.”

He settled between your legs, kissed your inner thigh, bit a little, and gently touched your pussy, looking at it so hungrily.

“Well if you don’t fuck me properly, I just might.” You teased, trying not to lose your mind over having him down there.

“As much as I want to, I’m not going to fuck you tonight, unless you got a condom hidden in your bag.”

“For fuck sakes!” You shouted.

“Sorry, doll. But I’m going to make you cum.”

And he finally dived in. He inhaled your scent deeply, before putting his month where you needed him the most. Alden knew what to do, when to do it. He ate you like a starving man. Making you moan loudly. You felt his index finger penetrating you, and another finger as his month kept playing with your clit. It didn’t take long before that amazing and familiar feeling appeared. One of your hands was in his hair, while he was holding the other with his free hand. Your legs around his neck could’ve suffocated him but you didn’t care and neither did he.

“I want to taste all of you, doll. Cum with my mouth.” He encouraged you. “I’ve got you.” He repeated your words. And you didn’t need more.

After cleaning you with the towel, Alden held you as you were catching your breath. Kissing your hair, he gently stroked your back. You both enjoyed this moment, this position, this tenderness. You didn’t know what tomorrow would be like, or even what this all meant.

Neither of you dared to ask.

#alden parker #alden parker fanfic #alden parker imagine #ncis #alden parker x reader #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine #jessica knight #jimmy palmer #kasie hines #nick torres #tim mcgee #ncis x reader #ncis reader insert #ncis fandom

[writeandsurvive]

Author's note: I liked this idea at first and I still do, but I'm not I did a good job at writing it. Sorry if it's not great.

Summary: You always respected rule 12, until you couldn't anymore

Warnings: angst and comfort, 'normal' ncis stuff, mostly based on ep 20x14 'old wounds', ex/booty call, jealousy, Alden being a dick to the team, happy!Gibbs in Alaska

Damaged Goods ~ Alden Parker

You've always respected Gibbs' rules, they actually became a code for you to live by. And Rule 12 - never date a coworker - was in your top 3, because you saw how bad it could turn. You saw Gibbs and Jenny having this strange connection, Tony and Ziva invading each other's lives but never being able to be together until very recently (let's be honest, it can only work because they left the agency), and lately Nick and Ellie. Lots of struggles and heartbreak. The only exception being your friends from LA, Kensi and Deeks. Every rule needs its exception, and since they had this spot, you knew it wouldn't work for you.

And surprisingly, you did pretty well all those years. Never dated someone from the office, nor even a federal agent. You never even had a crush on someone from NCIS.

But that was before.

Before him.

Alden Parker.

At first, you told yourself it was just some kind of attraction because let's be honest, this man is incredibly gorgeous. Knowing you'd never act on it - and Alden didn't seem to feel the same anyways - you decided to call your booty call a little more often; someone you actually dated a while back, with whom it didn't really work but the sex was amazing. You're a human with needs after all.

The team knew Joel, except for the two new additions, Alden and Jess. So when J dropped you off at work after a night at his place and kissed you goodbye under Alden's eyes, he immediately assumed it was your boyfriend, which you didn't see the point of denying.

Seeing Joel more regularly worked for a while, until it didn't. Spending more and more time with Alden, discovering about him and all those things he loves, seeing him take care of his plants like a dad, bringing pastries almost everyday, showing love and support to the team,... You weren't just attracted to him, you were developing feelings for him.

When a case involved his ex-wife Vivian, you realized how bad you had it. You felt jealous about how he still cared for her, thinking he may still be in love with this woman. And you were just envious of Vivian for being married to this man for ten years. How could she let him go, you'll never understand.

Despite the way you felt towards her, you offered support to Alden when she got shot. Showing up at the hospital with food as she was still in surgery, you told him he could count on you if he needed anything. It took you by surprise when he reached for a hug as a thank you, you didn't have time to appreciate it, his body against yours, his arms around you, his smell right up in your nose. It was all over too soon.

For weeks after this event, he never talked about Vivian again, so you convinced yourself she got back to her life and nothing was going on between them. You were relieved and happy.

Meanwhile, you kept seeing Joel, and he asked you to be his date at a family wedding. You had no reasons to refuse. But working for NCIS being what it is, you had to change and prepare yourself at the office. Jess and Kasie helped you with hair and make up, and allowed you to leave only when they were satisfied with their work. Walking back to the bullpen, you immediately spotted Joel talking with the boys. He looked very handsome in his fancy suit, but your eyes quickly fell on Alden who was already staring at you. You shyly smiled but he turned his face. When you finally reached them, Nick whistled at you. "Looking hot, mama!" You giggled and thanked him.

"Wouldn't say it that way, but Torres is right!" Tim agreed.

"Why thank you very much, Timmy."

You looked back at Alden's desk but it was empty. He had disappeared. Shaking off the deception - you'd have loved to know what he thought - you focused on Joel, who grabbed your hand and made you spin. "You're gonna outstage the bride." He then gently kissed your lips and that was when you saw Alden again from the corner of your eyes, upstairs, near the MTAC entrance. Fucking Houdini. His face was unreadable.

When you came back to the office on Monday, things with Alden had changed. He got distant with you, teaming you up with everyone but him, not getting interested in your free time anymore, and barely answering when you got interested in him and his life.

You couldn't help but get hurt at his behavior. And your defense mechanism was to hurt back, so you ignored him even more. If you told him three sentences a day, it was a miracle and it was strictly about work. Moreover, you were back to calling him 'Parker' or 'Sir', after switching to 'Alden' months prior. Maybe you were being petty, but you couldn't bring yourself to care.

What hurt the most was when Parker invited the team for game night at his place, and you only heard about it by Kasie. "What do you mean you're not invited?"

"I mean I didn't get an invite, a question, a text, a call, or a damn pigeon."

"I'm sure he counted you in anyways. We're a small group, he knew it'd reach you."

"Doesn't matter, I'm not going."

Somehow, by the end of that day, Alden stopped you in the hallways. "Hey, are you coming tonight or not?"

You stared at him for a second before laughing sarcastically, "Kasie scares you that much?"

"Look, I just assumed you'd spend the night with Jonas--"

"Joel." You corrected, arms crossed over your chest.

"Joel, right. But anyways, I didn't think you'd want to come, so--"

"You assumed wrong, Parker. Very wrong. But I don't want your pity invite, so I'll not be there." You started to walk away from him but he was quick to grab your arm and make you face him again.

"I'm sorry. It was wrong of me. I let my --" he sighed. "I shouldn't have assumed. And I'd really like it if you would come to game night at my place."

Alden really looked apologetic and sincere. All you wanted to do was say yes after asking him why he had been acting like this with you. No, the complete truth was that all you wanted was to close the gap and kiss the life out of his man. You wanted his hands and mouth on you, his cock inside you, his noises in your ear.

You never felt this way before, and it scared the shit out of you.

"Too late, I made plans with Jonas." This time he let you leave.

It was a big fat lie though. You spent the night alone in your apartment, drinking, and feeling sorry for yourself. And before you knew it, you were booking a plane ticket to Alaska for the following weekend. You didn't tell anyone you were going to visit Gibbs. All they knew was that you requested your Friday and Monday off to leave town. Of course, everybody assumed it meant a little getaway with Joel.

It felt amazing to see Gibbs after months, and you were so glad to see how well and peaceful he looked. He showed you his new place, took you around this little town he called home - it didn't take long -, he took you on a boat ride, and fishing. Photography being one of your hobbies, you spent lots of time snapping anything that caught your eye. At night, you'd eat his infamous steak, and have a drink on his porch, facing the lake and mountains. "So, you gonna tell me why you're here?"

"I told you, I wanted to see you. I miss you."

"I miss you too, sweetheart, but I'm no idiot. Talk."

You told him everything and much to your surprise, Gibbs laughed once you were done. "Laughing at my misery? Alaska makes you mean, Leroy."

"I'm laughing because you're the idiot."

"Wow, thanks?"

"Parker has a thing for you. It's obvious. He's ignoring you cause he's jealous of Joel. Who, by the way, is still desperately in love with you." Gibbs laughed more at the face you made. Pure confusion, you looked like you were trying to figure out string theory. "Here, have one more." He poured you another glass of bourbon, and watched you drink it in one swallow.

"Okay first things between me and Joel are pretty clear --"

"Maybe for you. Honey, all you have to do is snap your fingers and he's there, despite breaking up with you, because--and I quote 'this job doesn't leave you much time for us'"

You sighed and went for the bottle but Gibbs grabbed it first. "Not yet." He said, putting it by his feet.

"Now, about Parker. He's friends with Tobias you know, and Tobias calls me often."

"Okay?"

"Parker asked Tobias about you, soon after he joined the team."

"What kind of things did he ask?"

"Things you like outside the office, your backstory, if you were in a relationship..."

"I don't believe you."

"Call Fornell, and you'll see."

"I check on Toby every week, we try to see each other whenever I can and he never said anything about that."

"Because he knows."

"Knows what?"

"Alden could be your Shannon, your Diane, sweetheart."

You tried to enjoy the rest of your trip, but you couldn't. Everything Gibbs told you was replaying in your mind and you tried to remember whatever you could, any interaction with Alden that wasn't work related. Were Gibbs and Fornell reading too much into this or were you completely blind? As an investigator, this made you question your abilities. If he really had a thing for you, how could you not notice? Or was he a really good actor?

You thought about Joel too, and maybe a part of you knew that but selfishly, you never questioned it too much. It was nice to have someone to call whenever you needed, whether it was for sexual relief or just have someone there to hold your hand, which he always did.

On the plane back home, you decided to have a very thorough and honest conversation with Joel. You didn't want to lose him as you really care about the man, but it was for the best.

But you came back to a weird vibe at work. As you got into the office on Tuesday morning, everyone was already here except Alden - admittedly you felt relieved as it gave you more time to prepare yourself to see again - and the team got you up to speed. "We had a case yesterday, a murder that looks like drugs related and Parker stormed off. He's been MIA since." Jess informed you.

"I went to his house last night but he wasn't there. Called, texted and nothing."

"That's not very Parker like," you conceded, puzzled by what they were telling you.

They gave you more details about the case, and theories they had thus far - wasn't much - and Alden finally walked in. "That's a W. For Wills, Clayton Wills." He quickly took his coat off and threw it in his chair. You sat back at your desk, and started to do research on this Clayton guy. Nick asked about pastries and Alden immediately lost it on him.

"Do I have to do everything around here while you just beg for pastries and sit on your ass at your damn desk?!" He angrily shouted, standing face to face with Nick. Who was this guy?

"Agent Parker!" You all heard from upstairs, where Leon Vance was standing. Alden sighed and walked to the director.

Everyone agreed that something was very wrong.

During the day, the team made progress on the case, but Alden wasn't calming down. He kept snapping about everyone, making it sound like the team was just a bunch of useless investigators. He wasn't with you though, as he was utterly ignoring you. You honestly felt invisible. If you said something, Alden would answer to someone else, like it wasn't you who talked.

This was a side of him you never saw before and you didn't like it very much. By the end of the day, you were all in the evidence garage, when a man in a wheelchair arrived, asking for Alden. "You're Jeremy Brighton?" Tim asked him with a smile. "My wife and I love your book and your podcast! - Tim McGee," he extended his hand.

You all proceeded to introduce yourselves, but when it got to you, Jeremy already knew your name. No time to ask for some explanation as Alden walked out of the elevator and a moment later, you knew why this case was personal to him; Wills' case was the one that got Jeremy in a wheelchair. It explained a lot, but it didn't minimize Alden's behavior with the team. Especially since he kept snapping, until Vance actually benched him on Wednesday.

You never meant to eavesdrop on Alden and Jeremy's conversation in Autopsy, but they arrived, not knowing you were the supply closet. The door was slightly opened, you could hear everything they were saying and it was obviously too late to let them know you were there.

"It was my bullet that hit your spin, Jer! And that guilt is eating me alive." His voice broke and you felt shivers in your entire body. You wanted to get out and hugged him forever.

They kept arguing back and forth. Jeremy telling his best friend it's not easy to live with Alden's guilt on top of everything, and Alden saying that his hobbies are just a way to fill the void. That man was broken, the guilt had been slowly killing him for years.

"Since we're spilling the beans, are we going to talk about her?" Your ears tickled.

"Not a chance." Alden was stern.

"She's as pretty as you told me, more even." You could hear Jeremy's smile. "Don't tell Josie I said that though."

Alden's small laugh was a bit covered by the body drawer being closed. "I will if you don't shut up."

"I may have made a mistake -- I guessed her name before she told me." Oh yeah, they were clearly talking about you. You smiled despite yourself.

"What the fuck? Jer! She's not stupid, she's gonna question that!"

"Well you could tell her you've been pining over her since you joined."

"I haven't --"

Jeremy laughed. "'Jer, she was so pretty today.' 'Jer, she figured out the case all of her own, she's so smart.' 'Jer, she has a boyfriend. Of course she has one, how could a woman like her stay single?' 'Jer, I can't stop thinking about her, I need a lobotomy.' Should I go on?"

"I think I need a new best friend." You heard the automatic doors opening and closing and then silence.

So... It was all true? Alden has had a thing for you for over a year? He's been pining over you? While you had a thing for him too? You wanted to smile and cry at the same time. Cry for the lost time and the pain of the past months, and also for Alden's pain and guilt. Smile because the man you loved had feelings for you. Your stomach was jumping inside of you. You had to sit for a moment to process and figure out what you were going to do.

Obviously, having the conversation during this case wasn't an option, so the goal was to get it closed as fast as possible. Which the team did once you found out evidence against Wills. But of course, Alden was sent home by Vance instead of joining on the op to catch him.

However, Alden refused to let it go. After calling Tim to 'check', he went rogue; left Jeremy in his apartment, grabbed his gun and went to get Wills himself.

~

Seeing Alden holding Wills at gun point, his pretty face bleeding, and the pain and the guilt written all over his face, was your breaking point. You put your gun away, and slowly walked over to him, not caring about the team being there. You stared at his face, saw the tears in his eyes. But he wouldn't look at you, he kept staring at Wills who was on his knees. You let your hand run over his arm, until it reached his hands. "Let it go, Alden." You whispered, pressing on his hands so he would stop aiming at the scumbag. "Look at me." He shook his head no, but dropped his aim. The team proceeded on handcuffing Wills, but you didn't pay any attention to that. You grabbed the gun from his hands and handed it to Nick, slightly nodded at him. A silent understanding that they could go.

It was just you and Alden, in that dark forest. Thanks to some spotlights several feet away, you could see his face clearly as you stood in front of him. He looked down, still avoiding your eyes. You put your hands on each side of his face, softly stroked his beard for a moment before forcing him to look up. "We got him. You are okay and most importantly, Jeremy is okay. He seems to be a very happy man." At this moment, he locked eyes with him, slowly figuring out that you knew the entire truth. "It wasn't your fault."

How, he wanted to ask. It got caught up in his throat when you wrapped his arms around his neck, and held him tight. His shaky arms wrapped around your middle, and his face buried itself in your neck. "Not your fault." You repeated, playing with the small hair in the back of his head. He cried in your arms.

You drive him home with his car, holding his hand the entire ride. The music filled the silence, you didn't want to pressure him to talk. Once at his house, Jeremy was still there and immediately asked what happened. Alden just apologized, grabbed a beer and disappeared into his greenhouse. "Do you know a ride home?" You offered to his friend. "I'll come back here and stay if he lets me."

"He will, he needs you. He's--"

"I'm in love with him, Jeremy." You spurred out, not realizing the words leaving your mouth before it was too late.

Jeremy smiled. "I figured, but I'm glad to hear it. He's been self sabotaging his life and relationships since the accident, and he probably won't be easy 24/7, but please, stick with him. He's worth it."

"I've been told I'm pretty stubborn ever since I was born."

"Hopefully, you're more stubborn than he is."

"Are you done talking about me?" You heard from the greenhouse. You should've been embarrassed by the fact Alden probably heard your confession to Jeremy, but you were planning on telling him at some point, so you didn't. Plus, you were confident by the fact that he had feelings for you too.

"I'm leaving, pal. Looks like you're in good hands. I better see you at Eli's game this weekend."

With Jeremy gone, you joined Alden. He was drinking his beer while checking on his plants and flowers. "How do you know?" He asked, without looking at you.

"I heard you and Jeremy talking. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spy or anything, I was there and you didn't see me--"

"I ruin everything I touch. Don't listen to Jer, you should leave before it's too late."

You knew that no words would convince him at this moment, so instead of talking, you grabbed his face and crashed your lips on his. It was the most meaningful first kiss you ever had. You tried to tell him how much you loved him with that kiss, and Alden returned with the same intensity. He held you by the back of your neck, trying to get you as close as possible to him.

You only separated when the need to breathe was too important. "Let's get this wound clean up."

As well as all of his other wounds.

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker fanfic #alden parker imagine #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine #alden parker x reader #nick torres #gibbs #tim mcgee #jess knight

[writeandsurvive]

Happy that you open for requests 😊

I would like 33 and 41 with my bae Alden Parker 🥰

Hey anon, I really hope you won't be disappointed 🥹 love to you ❤️

Warnings: annoying ex, jealousy, things get slightly 🔥 towards the end

33. Are you jealous?

41. You're lucky you're hot

Worth It ~ Alden Parker

Alden Parker knows his job is highly demanded, taking so much of his time it can cause issues in a relationship. With his ex-wife, it worked well sense they worked together, but since then, it was always a big problem with women he dated - among other things.

When you two got together, he was very forward about it. Saying he'd do his best, but the job could make him miss stuff, being away for a bit, not being home at regular hours. But you were okay with it, saying that you were convinced he was worth it. And things have been working for a couple of years since.

There has been ups and down, as in every relationship. But overall, you always manage to talk and resolve whatever issue there is. Alden really learned the meaning and importance of communication in a relationship with you, and he was very thankful for it.

It turned out that Alden was the one having issues with how much his job takes. You've had a tight group of friends for years, with whom you spent most of your free time. And Alden stopped counting how many times you told him about the time you had with them, making him feel left out.

There was women and men in your group of friends. Some were in relationships, even married with kids and others were singles. What bothered Alden was that one of those guys was actually your ex. You gave it a try a few years ago, and it lasted a certain among of time before you both realized you were better as friends. At least, that's what you thought and told Alden, but the first time he met your group of friends and so your ex, he had this gut feeling; your ex was not over you.

On a Friday night, it was one of your friends' birthday, and y'all planned on meeting at your usual bar. Alden has been gone for a few days at sea, and you hadn't heard about it. It was the first time, but you really didn't like this part of the job. The man you love being somewhere in the middle of the ocean, not knowing how he's doing, if he's okay, when he's coming back... Those days he's gone are rough, and you usually turn to your friends more than normally. You never told Alden how you feel when he's away because you didn't want him to feel more guilty than he already is. You know he's afraid his job is going to push you away and you'd never want him to believe that he's right. Because you are not going anywhere, as you love this man more than you ever loved anyone before.

The celebration was going very well. Everyone could make it, your friend Mel has been showered with love and gifts, and the alcohol was flowing. You had a few drinks in, and alcohol gets you to be quite touchy. You just go to your friends, kissing their cheeks, hugging them, leaning on them. Luckily, they were used to it after several years, and they would just accept it. At some point, you reached to your ex, giving him a big sloppy kiss on the cheek and rested your head on his shoulder. "You're drunk." He laughed.

"Mhm, not yet."

"Too bad. The first time we slept together was after at Mel's birthday, both quite drunk."

"I've got a boyfriend." You said, sternly.

"I had a girlfriend back then!" He exclaimed.

"I love my Alden."

"Yeah, well. Where is he tonight?"

"Bite me."

You started to walk away but he grabbed your waist immediately, bringing your body against his. He leaned into your neck, and gently bit. You laughed out loud, trying to pull him away, "get off me you vampire!" You shouted.

You didn't know how long after someone pull you away and it was only after a moment, that you looked at this someone. Alden was holding you against him, staring at your ex as if he could kill him with his eyes. "Alden, baby! You're back!" You practically jumped into his arms, holding him tight and kissing his cheeks and neck. Even with the alcohol, you noticed how tensed he was, barely engaging in the embrace. You started to pout like a child. "Don't do that, please." He softly said.

"I missed you. Hug and kiss me."

He sighed before finally returning the hug. He held you extremely tight but you loved every second of it. "I missed you too," he said, looking at you. He leaned in to kiss you and the kiss was practically a show for everyone looking. All teeth and tongues, you even felt Alden's hands grabbing your ass.

"Get a room!" You heard one of your friends shouting. You flipped them off and kept kissing your man until you were out of breath.

You had a few more drinks after Alden's arrival, while he stayed sober so he could drive the both of you home. You stayed glue to him the entire time, which got your friends to tell you to let him go, that he was not going to fly away. "He is! He always is and I want him to stay on the land."

"Alden, seriously, stop leaving. I'm tired of having her crash at my place cause she misses you." Your other friend said.

"I'll do my best." He answered, bringing you closer to him that you were already were.

Alden figured it was time to leave when you started to sleep on his shoulder. He warned a few of your friends that he was taking you home, seeing how your ex was staring from a corner of the bar. He practically carried you to his car, as you were mumbling some non sense. You slept through the ride and he let you.

Technically, you and Alden were still living separately but in practice, you had been staying at his place for months, even when he was away. He loved coming back to his apartment, seeing that it has been lived in, smelling your scent everywhere, seeing your favorite blanket on his couch, a couple of books laying around, the bed unmade because you don't understand the point of making it. He carried you to the bedroom, sitting you on the bed. You were a bit more awake, and was looking up to him with a smile. "I want you." You said, making him chuckling.

"I want you too," he kissed your forehead. "But let's sleep first, okay?"

"Why?" You whined, trying to undo his buttons.

"Because you've had quite a few drinks and you're obviously tired."

"Never tired for you." You stroked his beard and hair.

"It'll be worth the wait, darling."

He helped you out of your dress and in one of his t-shirts. He made you drink some water before allowing you to fall asleep.

In the morning, you woke to your head pounding and your stomach feeling weak but also Alden's arm around you, his body pressed against yours and his soft breath on your neck. You enjoyed this for a long moment, until the urge to come to the bathroom was too much. You freshened up, brushed your teeth, took some water and aspirin before going back to bed. Alden was awake then. "I'm sorry baby, I didn't mean to wake you." You softly said, snuggling back against him.

"No worries. I struggle to sleep when I don't feel you."

"You and me both." You admitted.

"You didn't sleep here while I was gone, did you?" He asked.

You immediately leaned on your elbow, allowing you to face him. "How--?"

"Why didn't you tell me it--" he stopped unexpectedly. He was clearly staring on your neck, and his face turned more sweet and soft to angry.

"What?" You asked, touching your neck as if you'd feel something.

"Go look in a mirror."

You did and it took you a moment to remember what had happened. You immediately jumped back on the bed, sitting on top of Alden, and apologizing profusely. He let you kissing his face and neck but didn't engage. "I hate him."

"He was just fooling around--"

"No, he wasn't. He did it on purpose, probably hoping it would get us to have a fight."

"Me and him, it's in the past, Den. We're just friends."

"To you."

"Are you jealous?" Alden had never truly shown jealousy before and seeing how angry and protective he could get, did things to you.

"This is beyond jealousy at this point. He's clearly still into you and it's upsetting that you're not seeing it or refusing to see it."

You sighed, laying down on top of him. "Maybe you're right. I just don't want to lose my friend."

He wrapped his arms around you, holding you tight against his chest. "I know. But imagine I wouldn't have seen what happened, how do you think I'd have reacted to that mark on your neck?"

You stayed silent for a moment, imagining just that and then imagining if it was the other way around. You completely understood Alden's point of view and maybe he wasn't wrong about your ex.

"I'll do what I have to do."

You grabbed his face to kiss him. Clearly, you were looking for something and Alden knew that, so to annoy you, he barely responded to the kisses. "Aldeeeen!" You whined, touching his torse, kissing his neck, moving your hips against him.

"Yes?" He said, innocently.

"Making love to me." You kissed him. He was a bit more into it, his self control slowly melting away.

"You have another man's mark on you."

You growled at that, as you sat up on him. Under his stare, you got rid of the t-shirt, your bare breasts greeting him. His hands immediately went from your stomach to your tits. "I'm yours," you whispered, looking him deep in the eyes. "Mark me as such."

"Fuck! You're lucky you're hot." He sat up too, hungrily kissing you.

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #ncis fanfiction #alden parker x reader #ncis imagine #alden parker smut #gary cole

[writeandsurvive]

Well, @mandy426, you asked for it, so here you go. Hope you'll enjoy it! 🫣 Inspired by the picture below (because how could we not?)

Summary: Alden comes home one night in his undercover outfit

Warnings: nsfw, established relationship, wall sex, piv, unprotected sex, undercover!Alden, biker!Alden, kinky reader ig?,

Undercover ~ Alden Parker

Alden was very clear from the beginning; his job takes a lot but doesn't give much. You were okay with that as you'd have dealt with whatever, just to be with this man. You did underestimate how bad it could be though. The long hours, the physical and emotional exhaustion he deals with, the missions away from home, and more. There were definitely hard times, where you wish Alden had a boring 9 to 5 job, but you immediately felt guilty thinking this. He obviously loves being a federal agent, and you do admire him for it.

The worst was kissing him goodbye in the morning and not knowing if you'd see him again. But there's nothing you wouldn't do for this man, so you learned to deal with this fear and anxiety and make the best of the time you have with him.

Eventually, something new came up; Alden was going undercover. He didn't say much about it, just that he probably won't be home much, and if somehow you run into each other in town, pretend that you don't know him, unless he comes over to you. Honestly, you hoped this wouldn't happen.

He's been undercover for two weeks and you had barely seen or heard of him. It was hard, but luckily, his best friends Tobias and Jeremy have been giving you updates on Alden, they kept checking on you, spending evenings with you. Plus, you have a supportive family who's always there for you.

When you heard the sound of keys opening the door, you actually got scared for a second, forgetting that your partner had the keys and could come home whenever he could. You stood up from the couch to meet him at the door, but you stopped as soon as your eyes laid on him. It didn't look like your Alden at all.

"Honey, hey!" He rushed over to you and hugged you tight. "I can't stay long, but I'm missing you so bad."

You hugged him back, still quite puzzled. Your nose was buried in a leather jacket you've never seen before. Alden let go just enough to kiss you. "Are you alright?" He asked, stroking your cheeks and looking at you from head to toes. "Baby?"

"Are you undercover as a biker or a hipster?" You looked more at the leather jacket, the black hoodie under, the beanie on his head, the full beard - he only had the mustache since you met - the boots. You've never seen Alden dressed like this before, and you never imagined he would. But damn, did he look even hotter.

"Oh, yeah, um. Biker, actually. I know it doesn't look like me."

"Are you riding a bike?"

"Isn't what bikers do?" He chuckled. "Plus, I had my biker phase in my early twenties, so I'm not entirely new to this."

"Y-you did? How come you never told me? Or shown me pictures?" You exclaimed, sounding like you were upset.

He laughed a bit more, "I don't know, it never came up. My fam hated it."

"I don't care about your family! I wanted to know!"

Alden got closer to you again, putting a strand of hair behind your hair and softly brushing your skin that was turning pink. "Is this look turning you on, baby?" He whispered in a husky voice. He was smirking, clearly aware of the effect this was having on you. You were blushing even more and you swallowed thickly.

"Maybe." You whispered back.

Then he grinned as his hands traveled south, roaming over your breasts. He leaned over, pressing his forehead against yours. "Not necessarily what I had in mind, as I just needed to see you, but I'd be damned to deny you."

You were the one who reached for the heated kiss. His beard was probably hurting your skin but you couldn't care less. You stroked it before enjoying feeling the leather under your fingers. Alden made you walk backwards until you were pinned against the wall. His lips and tongue found that sweet spot in your neck, earning a loud moan from you. You wrapped a leg around him, his hands traveling under your - his - shirt to find you braless. He growled and played with your tits, still ravaging your neck, jaw and lips.

"Alden, I need you." You whimpered, rubbing yourself against the bulge in his jeans.

"I suppose I should keep the clothes on?" He chuckled, freeing his cock and giving it a few pumps.

"You better."

Alden got rid of your night shorts, and took advantage of dropping on his knees to kiss your intimate parts and gave a few licks on your clit. His beanie flew to the ground as you held onto his hair. The beard was giving more sensation than just the mustache.

"You taste so delicious." He got back to his feet, and held one of your legs up. "Ready for me, babygirl?"

"Yes, always! Fuck me, please!"

He didn't need to be asked twice and found the perfect angle to slip his length inside you. Both crying out, like you hadn't had sex in months. Alden gave you time to adjust before pumping in and out of you. "Fuck baby, you're taking me so good."

It wasn't romantic nor sweet, but rather rough and animalistic. You were trapped between his strong body and the wall, and loved every second of it. It wasn't long until you were cumming, shouting his name over and over again, holding onto his hair and the leather jacket. It was all he needed to cum deep inside you.

Feeling that his legs were pretty weak, Alden gently put you down and you felt his cum going down your inner thighs. "I need to sit," he said, taking the jacket off. You needed to sit too and luckily the couch wasn't far away. You grabbed your shorts and put them back on, not caring about the mess on you. "I'm an old man, you can't do this to me." He laughed, still trying to catch his breath.

"You can't do this to me!" You exclaimed, straddling his lap. "I hope there are no women around you."

"Don't worry about that." He reached for a meaningful kiss. "You're the only woman for me."

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker fanfic #alden parker imagine #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine #alden parker x reader #alden parker smut

[writeandsurvive]

I'm sorry for this, it's not good. But somehow, I managed to get something done, so I gotta share. Kinda inspired by NCIS S21E08 'Heartless'.

Warnings: age gap, married couple, established relationship, talks of miscarriage, giving birth, jealousy, womanizer!Alden, daddy!Alden, very slight smut

Mine ~ Alden Parker

When you started to date Alden Parker, as he was still an FBI agent, you never considered becoming friends with his coworkers. Especially, after meeting a few of them he would consider his friends and they turned out to be judgmental towards the age gap in your relationship. Not that you wanted to befriend his coworkers anyways, you just agreed to meet them cause he asked. 

However, it changed when Alden joined NCIS. He immediately started to tell you about his new team, and you could he was fond of them all, including his boss - which was extremely surprising since he never got along with his FBI boss, Sweeney. You quickly knew it would be different this time. It did take him a while before introducing you to them, but once it happened, you all hit it off. The guys were quite impressed with Alden wedlocking a woman fairly younger than him, while the girls, even though they wouldn't go for someone older, they agreed that Alden Parker had a little something. "It's the freaking hair!" Jess joked. 

Before you knew it, this new team felt like family. You'd all hang out together - dinners, games night - and sometimes you'd have girls night with Jess and Kasie. You even babysit McGee's twins and/or Victoria a few times. Which, as much as you loved it, did hurt a little since it would remind you of the struggles you and Alden had been having to have a baby. Between not getting pregnant for months and the miscarriages, you had started to think that it wouldn't happen the natural way for you. Also, Alden really felt like he was getting too old to have a kid, no matter how badly he wanted one with you. 

When you reached your third trimester, Alden felt pretty confident that this time everything was going to be alright while you couldn't shut that little voice in your head saying that something bad would happen like the other times. But finally, the nurse put your crying new born in your arms, and everything felt right. "You did so good, my love." Alden cried, kissing your forehead and looking down at his son. "Our miracle baby. He's perfect." 

You didn't want the nurse to take him away from you but you knew they needed to check him up and clean him. "Do you guys have a name for this little guy?" Another nurse asked. You and Alden looked at each other for a second. "Axel Roman Parker." He said, proudly. 

Obviously, the team was in the waiting room. Alden had been at work when you called him to tell him that your water broke. Nick had been the one driving to the hospital, "Torres, I'd like to meet my son before I die, thank you very much!" Alden shouted, holding onto the handle above the window. 

"Don't worry, dad." Nick grinned. 

Your husband went to see them to let them know that mom and baby boy were alright. "Is it okay if you guys only meet him in a few days?" 

"Of course, no rush!"

"Send us pictures though! Please?" 

Alden didn't want to go back to work after his paternity leave. He didn't want to leave his little family. The night before his first day back, he actually felt depressed. "He's changing so much so fast, I'm gonna miss so much." He sadly said, stroking his son's back, who was peaceful sleeping on daddy's chest. 

"I'll take as many pics and videos I can." You kissed your husband's cheek. "And Vance said you don't have to put many hours like you usually do." 

"I know, but still." 

You noticed the tears forming in his eyes and it broke your heart a little. You didn't want him to go back to work either. You wish he could push his leave a little more, but he had pushed it as much as possible already - director Vance had been amazing and made it easy. You wrapped your arm around Alden's neck, carefully so you wouldn't wake up Axel. He nuzzled your neck as you gently stroked his hair. "He loves you and perfectly knows who daddy is. It won't change in a few hours, I promise." 

"I honestly thought it would never happen for me, you know? Before you and then the issues we had, I thought-- I just wasn't meant to be a dad. But now he's here, and I just don't want to be away from him."

"Aw, baby." You cried with him. "I wish there was a way for you to stay." 

The next day, Alden arrived late at work as he struggled to let go of Axel. Jimmy and Tim, who knew how it felt, were very helpful throughout the following week. 

It took you months to separate from Axel, just for a few hours. And even more time to go out for a girls night while Alden had a boys night with his little man. 

"I almost forgot how champagne tasted." You smiled, having your first drink in over a year. 

"Good thing we took a whole bottle then!" 

The conversation between you, Jess, Kasie and Delilah went on as it usually does when you four get together. Jess talked about her relationship with Jimmy, and her dad. Kasie confessed about her new crush - you and the girls immediately hyped her. Delilah talked about her job, and the twins newest obsessions. And you obviously talked about Axel and your husband. 

"By the way, how's Alden's neck?" Jess asked. 

"Perfect! Did Nick really fix him with a bear hug?" 

"He did! It was pretty funny!" Jess laughed, remembering the scene from a couple of days ago. "Doctor Logan probably thought we were crazy." 

"I can't believe that my husband im-so-scared-of-needles-hold-me-hand worked on a heart surgery." You laughed, trying to imagine the scene. 

"Mr I fainted when my wife got her epidural." Kasie teased. 

"In his defense, it's a pretty big needle for this." Delilah said. "Thank god he didn't faint during the surgery though." She joked. 

"Well, if he did, I'm sure Doctor Logan would've enjoyed giving him mouth to mouth." 

You, Kasie and Delilah turned like one person to look at Jessica. "What?" She asked, confused. Then she looked at you. "He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" 

"Um..."

"Jessica Knight."

"The doc clearly developed a crush on him. She practically flirted with him in front of me." 

You let out a deep breath. "Did he flirt back?"

"Not really, he was genuinely confused."

"Did he not learn his lesson with the senator?" Kasie chimed in. 

You finished your drink in one swallow, remembering when he gave you a piece of paper with a number on it. "Whose number is it?"

"A senator." He had said. 

"Alright and what am I supposed to do with it?" 

"You, nothing. But I guess she wanted me to call when she gave it to me." The jerk was smiling while you used to candle flame to burn the paper. 

"I don't care about the 'it's safer for you if people don't know I'm married' crap, I'm gonna glue the wedding band to his damn finger." 

The girls laughed, always enjoying how easily you get jealous when there's a woman around Alden. When you had learned that some women in the office kinda liked your man, you showed up at the NCIS headquarters for the first time and asked for a tour. When his ex wife got involved in a case, you were feeling anxious, even though she knew about you from the beginning, thanks to Alden's parents. The worst actually was when he saw his first love for the first time in over thirty years. He had admitted that it felt very strange, and maybe if he had been single, he'd have pursued something, but he was married to you, and deeply in love with you and he'd be crazy to let you go. It was one of those rare moments when you and Alden were struggling, and fought a little more often. But he never gave you a reason to be jealous or suspicious, it was just a part of your personality. And to be fair, he was such a womanizer, you couldn't help but to think that any other woman would be better than you. 

You got home slightly drunk, which Alden expected. He was happy that you finally let yourself have some fun away from him and Axel. Barely sleeping on the couch, he immediately got up when he heard you come in. "Hey! What are you doing up? Is Axel awake?" You asked, struggling to take your shoes off. Alden kneeled down to help you. 

"He did wake up an hour ago for his bottle but he's fast asleep now." 

"Good, good." You leaned a little and ran your hand through his hair. "I'm so so so so happy you're my baby daddy." 

Chuckling softly, he got back up and wrapped his arms around your waist. "Thank you for choosing me. You made all my dreams come true." You hugged there for a moment, just enjoying each other. "Let's go to bed, baby mama." He started to carry you, grabbing the baby monitor on the way. 

"No sleeping, gimme another baby." He laughed but quickly got cut off as you smashed your mouth on his. He managed to get to the bedroom while you practically assaulting him, holding his face firmly and french kissing him. Of course his body was responding positively. As he put you down on the bed, you dragged him along. He was on top of you and you started to make out. It was long until you felt his erected cock between your legs. You reached for it, forcing your hands under his shorts. "Fuck, baby." He moaned. 

"Yes, fuck me daddy." 

And he did just that. ~

After freshening up in the bathroom, Alden found you in the nursery, looking over Axel. He hugged you from behind. "Do you really want another?" He asked, cautiously. 

"Not necessarily," you admitted. "I mean, if it happens, I'll be very happy but I can't go through the struggles again."

"Okay. We've got him and he's absolutely perfect." You stroked your son's hair one more time before turning around to face your husband. 

"He really is." You grabbed his left hand and stared at it for a moment. "This wedding band stays on, Alden. 24/7." 

"But--" 

"No but. I'm done with women flirting with you cause they assume you're single. You're taken, you're fucking mine. You keep the damn ring on." 

Alden stayed silent for a moment. "Jess told you about Doctor Logan, didn't she?" You only looked at him, arms crossed. "Fine, I won't take off my ring ever again." He reached for your wrists and made you uncrossed your arms as he hated when you strike that pose on purpose. He brought you as close as possible to him. "Are you ever going to accept the fact that you're the love of my life? That I rather be single for the rest of my life than with someone else than you? That losing you and now Axel, would absolutely destroy me?" 

All you could do was kiss him, but he did saw the tears falling down your cheeks.

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #alden parker x reader #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine #ncis reader insert #alden parker x you #ncis x you #ncis x reader insert #ncis x reader

[writeandsurvive]

Ride or die ~ Alden Parker

This was supposed to be pure fluff (which it is), but before I know it, I'm writing soft smut lol. I'm not sorry about it.

Summary: Alden wants a new plant (yet another one)

Warnings: fluff, smut, established relationship, age gap (implied), sex on the couch, p in v, dominating!Alden, romantic!Alden, teasing, gentle banter, short!Reader (I, myself, being 155cm)

Going shopping with Alden is never a good idea. The house always ends up with a new plant. It doesn't matter what you're shopping for, in the first place. Or even if you go somewhere where there's no plants to buy. He always finds a way to worn you down, giving you his saddest puppy eyes and/or most charming smile. You kinda hate him for it.

"The greenhouse is full, Den. Wait for one of them to die."

"You know the goal is to keep them alive, right? Plus, it's a plant I don't have yet."

You do love how he's passionate about plants, that's actually one of the many things that made you fall in love with him. But what you don't like is having to take care of them when he gets caught up with work. He does his best to take care of them himself, especially after the second plant you killed, but being a federal agent asks a lot, and sometimes you find yourself on plant duty.

"And you know the patio was also supposed to be for me to paint, right?" You mimicked him.

"You still got space! One tiny plant won't change that." He took his eyes off the road for a second to look at you with a soft smile. You felt his hand on his thigh, squeezing.

"You're annoying." You rolled your eyes, and saw his soft smile turning into a proud grin. He knows he's winning, not that you could forbid him to buy a new plant anyways.

You take your phone from your pocket, to look at something. Alden pulls over his favorite store to get plants, and gets ready to leave the car when you grab his arm to stop him. "You changed your mind?" He starts showing off his puppy eyes.

You show him your screen, "He's cute, isn't he?"

He squints his eyes to look, and realizes you're showing him a picture of a cat. "No!" He says.

"You're getting a plant, I'm getting a cat."

"Babe, a cat will destroy the greenhouse! Eat my plants!"

You giggle, "I know!"

"You're mean." He pouts like a child. "If you want a pet, let's get a dog! A turtle! A bird!" His eyes go wild as he looks at you again, like he never thought about getting birds before.

"No! Absolutely not! No birds in the house!"

He growls. "Fine. But no cat either!"

"Then let's go home, before our groceries go bad."

Alden leans over to you, his puppy eyes locked on you. "Please," he whispers close to your ear, knowing it's your weakness. "You promised my old man you'd always make me happy." You laugh at that and he follows, knowing how ridiculous this is.

"I'm sure Roman would be on my side for this."

"He's always on your side! I'm starting to think he loves you more than me."

"Well, I wasn't a juvie."

"That's a cheap shot!" He pinches your thigh as a quick punishment, making you jump on your seat.

"Parker! It hurts!" You slap his arm.

"Indeed. So I'm getting a baby plant to make myself feel better." He kisses your lips, before nipping it and leaving the car. You love this man so much it hurts.

~

"You better help me put the groceries away before spending an hour finding a place for your plant."

"Yes ma'am." Alden always carries most of the groceries to the house, because he doesn't want you to carry too much, even though you perfectly can. You stopped arguing with him on that a long time ago though. "Focus on carrying my baby." He says handing you the plant.

"That's something you say to your pregnant wife. And I'm neither pregnant nor your wife." You walk away after an extra sway, without waiting for him, knowing he's grunting with a smile as you do.

You reach the apartment a moment before him, giving you time to hide the plant. He doesn't realize right away, as you both put the groceries away. Somehow, you always end up having to put stuff on the top shelf, despite your struggle to reach it. But you know Alden likes it. He enjoys the view as you tiptoe - especially when you're wearing barely nothing. And of course, he takes the opportunity to come behind you. His arm follows yours, his hand brushing as he grabs the box of cereal and puts it there. His other hand puts your hair away so he can kiss your neck. "Everytime." You smile and lean into him, angling your head to give him better access.

"Advantage of dating a pocket size woman." His arms wrap around you, one of his hands softly stroking your neck. You stretch your arms behind the both of you, so your hands can touch his magnificent hair, deserving a soft 'hmmm' from him.

"Are you sure you're okay with us not getting married?" He softly asks, kissing the top of your head.

"Yes, Alden." You turn around to face him, wrapping your arms around his neck. "I told you I'm fine, I understand why you don't want to get married again, and we don't need that to be in a committed relationship." You kiss him, and his hand comes to hold and stroke your cheek while the other holds you tight against him. As the kiss intensifies, you can feel a bulge in his pants and if his hand slid into your panties, he could feel how wet you are getting.

But before it can get really interesting, Alden pulls away with a smirk on his face and walks out of the kitchen. "You cannot be serious right now!" You shout at him and hear him laugh. But you don't say anything more, knowing he's coming back any second, asking about his plant. So you just walk over to the couch, grab your book from the coffee table and settle there.

About twenty seconds later, Alden is in front of you, hands on his hip. "Where is it?"

"Where what is, dear?" You ask, not looking up from your book, even though you're absolutely not reading.

"Where is my baby plant?"

"Probably the same place my orgasm is."

Before you know it, the book is being thrown away and you're being pinned onto the couch, your wonderful boyfriend on top of you. "I'm gonna give you that orgasm, but" he links your wrists together to put them above your head. "Those hands stay here. If I feel your fingers on me, I'll stop here and there."

"Bossy," you tease him, trying not to show how this is turning you on. You love it when Alden gets all dominating and controlling. It's something he discovered and developed with you, which makes it extra special. Like it's a part of him that belongs to you and you only. No one ever got to see him like this and hopefully no one ever will.

"You kiss me, I stop." He adds. "You come before I allow you, no orgasm for a week."

"That's not fair!" You whine.

"You whine again, and I stop. You talk back and I stop." He holds your face, "Are we clear?" You nod.

"Good girl."

You don't move as he undresses you just enough, before pulling his already hard cock out and pumping a few times. You'll never get tired of this, of him. He can act tough and controlling, but the man doesn't even need you to touch him to get an erection. This makes you feel powerful and you love it.

Alden starts rubbing his leaking tip against your clit, earning soft noises from you. He teases your pussy for what feels like forever. "You look fucking beautiful, losing your mind under me like this." All you want to do is beg him to fuck you, but scared it'd sound like a whine, you don't say anything but his name. "I've never loved my name more than when it comes out of your mouth." So you say it again, and again.

"Fuck me." You whisper.

"I'm not sure you deserve it." His cock is replaced by his thumb, that's moving extremely slowly. "Maybe I'll just jerk off on this pretty pussy, and get on with my day."

"Make me cum, and I'll tell you where the plant is."

"God, I hope you never get tortured." You immediately feel his thick cock sliding inside you, and you moan loudly. His body is completely on top of you now, he's pampering your face with kisses as he thrusts in and out of you. His eyes lock into yours and his arms crawl under yours and he intertwines his fingers with yours. "You were made for me, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was. Fuck Den, I'm close."

"Thank god cause I can't hold back much longer." He let go of one hand to rub your clit, making sure you're both cumming at the same time. You love how he allows himself to be loud as he milks deep inside you, this sends you over the edge and you match his volume.

After a few sex sessions when you started to date, you realized how he was forcing himself to be quiet when he reached his orgasm. You asked him about it and he confessed that he was told several times that he was too loud and it wasn't pleasant - mostly by his ex wife - so he forced himself to control his noises. Of course, you told him to never do that again with you and he hasn't since, especially when he noticed how much you loved it.

Alden lays on top of you, both catching your breath. He let go of your hands so you can hold him and stroke his back and hair. "You're my ride or die, baby." He confesses.

Ever since you had the marriage conversation, and he admitted not wanting to do it again, Alden has been making sure to let you know how committed he is, and how much he loves you, and that his decision has nothing to do with you.

"I know."

A few seconds later, he's looking at you, puzzled. "What?" You ask.

"I'm not your ride or die?"

You giggle but don't say anything. "You're annoying." He sits up, pulling his soft cock out of you, making a much bigger mess on the couch. You're quick to follow, grabbing his face and kissing him. "You're my ride or die, you crazy plant lover."

"The crazy part appeared because of you." He kissed you a little more. "Now, where is it?"

You laugh and tell him. You thought he was leaving you like this, but of course he comes back with his plant and a towel for you. "And just like that, I've been replaced." You roll your eyes.

"Be glad it's not with a younger woman--"

"If you pick someone younger, it'd be illegal, Mr Federal Agent."

As you called it, it took him about an hour to rearrange the greenhouse just to find the perfect spot for his new plant. An hour you spent on the leather couch in the greenhouse, switching between reading your book and looking at your handsome man. "Come." He extends his hand to you, so you take it and follow him to where the plant is now installed. "Name it." He says, hugging you from behind.

"Why me? It's your plant."

"Do you know what exactly it is?"

"Of course not, Alden."

He chuckles. "It's a Peacelily. It'll bloom into a beautiful white flower. And it's known to remove harmful toxins from the air."

"oh, really? That's nice!" You look closer at the plant.

"I want you to name it cause it's yours. It's you." You turn around to face him, "So pure and beautiful, who takes all the negativity away whenever you're around."

You knew Alden was romantic and loving, but he was taking it to another level with this. You're close to tearing up as you hug and kiss him. "I'm the luckiest girl in the world."

"You make my world better."

You kiss more and look at the plant again. "Bonnie."

"Bonnie?"

"Yeah, and maybe we could get a grumpy, older plant, put next to it and name it Clyde."

"I sense a subliminal message there but I'll ignore it."

You laugh and hug him tight.

#alden parker #alden parker fanfic #alden parker imagine #ncis #alden parker x reader #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine

[writeandsurvive]

Summary: Alden mistakes your relationship with Tobias Fornell for something it is not

Warnings: talks of grief, mentions of Emily Fornell's death, attack by a frame, wound, blood, jealousy, NCIS normal stuff

Author's note: I still think Emily's death was unnecessary but that's another debate. I had to give Tobias love bc damnit, he deserves the world. Based on ep 19x17 'Starting Over'

Permission ~ Alden Parker

Seeing Tobias Fornell walking into the bullpen brought some familiarity that instantly warmed your heart. You rushed to him, arms extended and hugged him pretty tight. "Hi sweetheart," he whispered, kissing the side of your head and returning the hug. He then greeted the rest of the team, included Alden, whom he hasn't seen in a long time. You smiled seeing them being friendly with each other and wished to see more of that.

Tobias started to talk about the victim, whom he sponsored in the grieving group, but it wasn't any help as Tobias thought Thomas was making progress. Eventually, the team got back to their desks to keep investigating while your favorite person said he was going to say hello to Jimmy down in Autopsy.

"Permission to go with?" You asked Alden.

"Um, yeah, sure."

You immediately grabbed Tobias's hand and the two of you walked towards the elevator, unaware that Alden stared until you were out of sight. In the elevator, the former FBI agent pulled you in for another hug. "How are you today, T?" You asked softly.

"I feel like I failed Thomas." He sighed. "But I'm glad to see you. I miss you."

"I miss you too. I'm sorry work has been crazy lately,"

"Hey, hey, don't apologize. I know how it is. I guess I miss having you at home."

After Emily's death, you made the choice to move in with Tobias without asking for his opinion. He was a mess - fairly so - and you didn't like the idea of him being alone. So you had grabbed your essentials, and made yourself at home in his spare bedroom. To be fair, Tobias hadn't had the strength to fight you on this, so he just let you. He even let you when you took a few days off to stay with him, try to get him out of bed even if it was just for a walk around the block. He let you feed him, hug him as he cried, take care of the house. You also took care of Emily's funeral and all the paperwork as Tobias couldn't bring himself to do it. He was dead inside and if it wasn't for you, he probably would've done the irreparable.

"You literally packed my stuff and brought them back to my place." You reminded him.

"Because an amazing woman like you shouldn't be living with her old ass broken friend." He kissed your cheek. "Alden wouldn't understand." He softly smiled.

"We are so not doing this again."

Luckily the elevator's doors opened immediately after.

The case was moving forward, and Tobias stayed around. He clearly wanted to be a part of the case, probably out of guilt and also perhaps he missed working cases. However Alden wasn't giving him anything to do, which makes sense when you think about it - he wasn't a federal agent anymore - but that frustrated you. Seeing your friend walking around the office like a lost puppy hurt.

"I can give T my laptop and he can help me with my research." You offered.

"I said no, Agent L/N." Alden answered firmly. "You're actually coming with me to see this other woman."

You sighed but grabbed your stuff anyways. You kissed Tobias's cheek before leaving, "Sorry I tried." You whispered.

Throughout the elevator ride and the walk to the car, you could feel Alden's frustration. He wasn't speaking to you like he usually is, he wasn't even looking at you. "T could use the distraction." You said, as you got into the car.

"It doesn't have to be our case. He's not an fed anymore and he knew the victim."

"And he feels like he failed the guy! Helping us would actually help him."

"Wow." Alden chuckled dryly.

"What?"

"For years I've heard about this girl who would protect Fornell with her life, go after anyone who went after him. I honestly thought she didn't exist, but boy was I wrong."

"Do you have a problem with my relationship with Tobias?" You asked, slightly offended.

"As long as it doesn't interfere with your work and our cases, I honestly don't care."

You switched from offended to hurt. How stupid were you for thinking that Alden may reciprocate your crush. He clearly wasn't, he couldn't care less about you on a personal level. You stayed silent the rest of the ride, looking at the city through the window. Alden didn't talk either.

The silence treatment didn't stay on for long, as Thomas's other girlfriend threw a frame at Alden's after he told her about his actual wife. You jumped from the couch to check on him. "Alden, hey! You okay? Can you hear me?" He was holding his forehead but you still saw some blood dripping. "Let me see." You gently pulled his hand away and check at the wound. "Yeah you're gonna need some stitches."

The woman was still crying and shouting at you two to get out of her house. For a moment, you consider arresting her for assaulting a federal agent, but Alden simply said 'let's go' and you were walking back to the car.

You started to fish inside his coat pocket. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for the car keys." You checked the other one.

"Pants." He said, leaning against the car. "Tell me you have a tissue or something?"

After looking at him for a second, you shrugged and searches for the keys in his pants pockets. You knew it was highly inappropriate but your hands behind so close to him and his crotch, did something to you. You took a deep breath before opening the car. Once inside, you took your knife and cut a piece of your shirt. "Again, what are you doing?"

"You need some tissue."

"Well yeah but not from your own clothes."

"I don't have anything else, so it's either that or your fancy suit."

He sighed but didn't argue. You pulled his hand away again, and started to clean the blood that dripped out of the wound. You were so gentle, and so close to Alden, it made him uncontrollably blush. When you brushed his hair away, he closed your eyes for a second, enjoying the feeling. "I'm not hurting you?" You asked softly, making his heart go faster.

"N-no. It's okay."

"It's going to be fun for you to explain this scar." You giggled.

"Better than explaining the one I have on my thigh."

When he saw the curiosity on your face and your grin, he regretted every word. "Don't--"

"What happened to your thigh, Alden?" You asked, still grining. "Hold this until you get back to the office."

"I won't tell you."

You settled back into your seat and started to drive. "I can be pretty annoying and stubborn."

"Yeah, I gathered that."

You gave a death stare but a few seconds later, you were both laughing.

You didn't bother going to the bullpen but instead took Alden immediately to Jimmy in Autopsy, where Tobias and Grace were.

"I got an patient for you, Jim!" You announced almost cheerfully.

"Oh wow, what happened to you, Parker?"

Alden sat on the chair Jimmy gave him. "He got attacked by a frame." You told them, after hugging Grace.

"Aaah, those nasty things." Tobias chuckled. You moved close to him, as he was leaning against an autopsy table. You grabbed his arm with yours and leaned your head on his shoulder, and started to tell the full story while Jimmy was patching up Alden. He barely looked at you or Tobias.

Alden really tried to avoid you after that, but it was almost impossible. He hated how you told the story of his wound, not because you were saying it with a smile, but because all he could think about was the after, in the car. He could still smell you from up close, he could still feel your minty breath on his face. He's never been into a friend's girlfriend before and he had no idea what to do. All he knew was how he hated whenever you hug, kissed or touched Tobias, how jealous he felt when he heard you and Tobias making plan for the evening. Clearly you were spending the night at T's place, and he wished it was him. He almost found an excuse to make you stay but realized how petty that was. This case couldn't end fast enough.

The next day, Alden was relieved to see you coming in without Tobias. You stopped at his desk, to grab a pastry and leaned a little to have a closer look at his wound. "It's good you don't have a bruise or anything else. It is hurting?" You asked. He wished you weren't this sweet and thoughtful with him.

"It throbs at times but it's okay. I'll live."

"Good, would be a shame to lose you to a framed picture." You smiled and walked to your own desk.

A minute later, a text popped on his phone. 'What happened to your thigh?' he read. He looked up to you and you were looking all innocent, concentrating on your computer.

'None of your business. Stop thinking about my thigh and get to work.' he answered, and regretted it immediately. Was he flirting with you through texts? God, Tobias was going to give him a matching wound on the other side.

'Can't help it. Is it a big or small scar? Where is it exactly?'

Were you flirting back? Alden's head was exploding. What kind of woman were you to do something like this? And why couldn't stop himself from answering.

'Want me to show you?'

'Bet.'

It was official, Alden Parker was going to hell. But he was happy cause he knew he would take you with him.

It wasn't a Tobias Fornell free day. He showed up in the afternoon to check on the team and the case. Alden agreed for him to have an update, which you happily gave him. Tim and Nick were out of the office to interrogate your other suspect, and Jess was in the lab, checking things with Kasie. So, Tobias simply grabbed a chair and settled next to you. Alden felt extremely uncomfortable, especially when he noticed how your behavior towards his friend was the same. Like there hasn't been some speakable texts between you two earlier. He felt bad for Tobias. The man has been through so much over the years and now this.

At some point, Alden couldn't take it anymore so he excused himself and walked away. Almost immediately, Tobias kissed your cheek and said he'd be right back. "Fornell, don't do whatever I feel like you're gonna do!" You exclaimed.

"I love you." He mouthed and disappeared at the same corner Alden did. You sighed and your heart started to race.

When Alden saw Tobias coming in the bathroom, he expected to be punch soon enough. Should he prepared himself to duck or should he let Fornell hit him? After all, he did deserve that punch and maybe more. But Tobias was smiling.

"You okay, Fornell?"

"Are you?"

"I-huh? Yeah?"

"How long are you going to beat around the bush, Parker?"

"Um, what? What are you talking about?"

"I know that Gibbs had the rule 12 about dating a coworker. And Y/N learned the job through his rules, but come on. This one has been broken many times, even by Gibbs himself."

"Look Tobias, I'm sorry, okay? I know I shouldn't be interested your girlfriend, and it'll go away. I promise you, nothing--" Alden stopped when he heard a laugh coming from Tobias.

"Wait, you think she's my girl?"

"She's not?" Alden exclaimed, a bit to intensely.

"Okay, let's go get a coffee."

In the breakroom, they sat at a table, cups of coffee in front of them. "I'm gonna be honest, if my life has been different and if I was significantly younger, she would have a ring around her finger and I'd have kicked your ass." Tobias started.

"Fair enough."

"My relationship with her is--special, to say the least. A while ago, she named us 'platonic soulmates' and I guess it fits." Alden nodded. "And if you want to date her, you're gonna have to be okay with that."

"Obviously." Alden chuckled. "Clearly if she had to choose, it'd be you." He took a sip of his coffee. "But even though I'm slightly younger than you, I'm still much older than her."

"And does it seem like something she would mind?" Alden shook his head no after a few seconds. "Look man, you will not be able to help a better partner than her. We're talking about someone who moved in with me after my daughter passed away to support me. She even used her vacation time for that. She handled everything for me, even though she was hurt too cause she knew Emily for almost ten years. I literally had to move her out of my place, and honestly, I only did after she told she had a crush on you."

Alden was extremely moved by what he was hearing. He knew you were someone very special, someone who would give and do everything for the ones she loves, but this was another level. It made him fall for you even more.

"I don't even know what to say." He answered honestly.

"She deserves to be happy and loved. And as much as I love her, it's a different kind of love. Not the kind of love, I know you can give her."

Alden stayed silent. "However, if you just want to hook up cause she's insanely hot, find someone else."

"That's not the kind of man I am."

"I believe you. But never forget that I still have a gun, and you saw me use it a few times."

The case finally came to an end, and you were all very happy and relieved. Alden has been distant from you since his conversation with Tobias and T refused to tell you what they talked about. It was driving you crazy, and even making you feel uncomfortable whenever your team leader was around. What did he know? What did he think?

After coming back from the lab to the bullpen, you were surprised to see everyone was gone except for Alden, who was still typing at his computer. "Where's everyone?" You asked, avoiding looking at him.

"I sent them home."

"Oh, okay."

You started to work on your paperwork again before Alden spoke up again. "You can go too. Tobias is probably waiting for you."

This time, you did look at Alden who was still focus on his screen. "Wait, what do you think my relationship with Toby is exactly?"

Alden finally stopped typing and looked up to you. "What is your relationship with Tobias exactly?" He asked.

You sighed. This was taking you back a few years back when the guy you were dating was getting jealous of Tobias, accusing you of having an affair with him, being in love with him. And you hated that. "Like I said, if you have a problem with--" Alden stood up from his chair and walked over to your desk. He leaned against it, his body fairly close to you.

"I don't have any problem with it. It's obvious that if I want to have you, I need to accept him."

You looked at him, all lost and confused. "Wait--what? What do you--? What?"

Chuckling, Alden crotched down and made you chair spin so you were facing him. "Would you allow me to take you on a date? I've got Tobias's permission." He said with a huge smile.

You stayed silent for a moment, mouth opened. "Are you serious, right now?"

He stood up just enough so that he could grab your chin and gently pressed his lips against the corner of your mouth. You melted under his touch. "Very serious."

"Will you show me your thigh and tell me the story?" You whispered making him laugh.

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #ncis fanfiction #alden parker x reader #ncis imagine #tobias fornell #tobias fornell x reader #kinda

[writeandsurvive]

just because i want to have Parker's babies very much and give him all the love. this is short, but it's the first thing i've written in many weeks, soooo it's a good sign i guess. if you want more of daddy!Alden, maybe it'll motivate me to write some more. anyways, enjoy! 🫶🏻

Family Man ~ Alden Parker

Everything happened so fast. One day, your husband Alden Parker was gone to Alaska for a case, and he came back, informing you he was fired from the FBI. But before you all could enjoy some family time, he was offered a job at a new agency.

You found Alden in the nursery, rocking your three months old daughter to sleep and softly singing her a lullaby. You lovingly looked at them for a moment from the door frame until Alden felt your presence and looked up to you, stopping his singing. You quietly approached, took a look at your baby girl; her sweet face resting on her daddy's chest, eyes closed and month opened. A little angel.

Then you looked at your husband, who looked tired. "Whatever decision you make, I'll support you hon." You whispered, running your hand through his hair, and his eyes closed for a second, melting into the gesture.

"I want this job, but I just wish I had more time to just be a dad and a husband." He admitted.

"If you take it, you have to start right away?"

He nodded sadly, looking down at his sweet baby. "She's changed so much already. And Rome, oh my god, since when is he obsessed with skateboarding?"

You giggled softly. "It's fairly new, love. The new neighbors' teenage kid uses his skateboard to go everywhere, and he let Rome try."

"So, are we getting him one?"

Alden stood up from the rocking chair, holding Eliza close to his chest. "Kiss from mommy," he said, approaching her little head to you. You kissed her hair a few times, Alden did the same before trying the transfer to her crib. For a second, Eliza moved and fussed but quickly settled back to sleep. You both sighed in relief.

"I was thinking we could go get it, with pads and a helmet this weekend?" You got back to the conversation, while making sure the baby monitor was working.

Alden smiled. "Let's do it." He grabbed you by the waist, bringing your body against his. "And on Sunday, I want you to enjoy some you time. You can do whatever, go wherever, while I take care of the kids. Sounds good?" He kissed your cheek then your lips. You stayed silent for a moment.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'd rather be with the three of you." You admitted, hugging your husband tightly. "This is what I enjoy."

Alden held you even tighter, "How in the world did I get so lucky?" He let go, grabbing your face between his hands. "You're the most amazing wife and mother. Thank you for never giving up on me, and making me the father of your children."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Alden Parker. Let's go to bed and enjoy some us time."

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker imagine #alden parker fanfic #ncis fanfiction #alden parker x reader #ncis imagine #daddy!alden

[writeandsurvive]

I'm open to requests. List non exhaustive. Also, I'm a sucker for old men and I'm (not) sorry.

NCIS:

Alden Parker

Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Eventually, Tobias Fornell

Fire Country:

Vince Leone (sorry Sharon)

Manny Perez

Luke Leone

I'll consider requests for any Raúl Esparza's characters too.

I love(d) writing for Joel Miller from The Last of Us, but since the series came out, there's so much more writers for the show, and I feel insecure about my writing, so...

Same thing for Aaron Hotchner, from Criminal Minds.

As a reminder, @navalcriminalimagines is me. I just wanted a fresh start.

#ncis #alden parker #alden parker fanfic #alden parker imagine #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine #gibbs imagine #gibbs x reader #tobias fornell #fire country #vince leone #manny perez #luke leone #fire country imagines #fire country x reader #fire country fanfics