Five

Life gives us sunshine after the rain, don't lose hope...

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Somehow, Parker had put asking Ellie out to the back of his mind. When she had said she was being threatened, all he could think about was protecting her. He couldn't jeopardize her safety. If he had come clean and she didn't want him, their relationship would be strained. And knowing Ellie, she'd want some space. She would even go so far as to avoid him. So he had decided to wait until she had at least moved in and they had come up with security plans.

Then the shit with Joline had occurred and that just put a spin in the whole thing. He didn't want Ellie to think he was using her as a rebound or to get over his ex. She wouldn't believe he actually had feelings for her.

So telling Ellie how he felt was out of the question. At least for now. But that didn't mean he wasn't thinking about her. She was all he could think about. He was totally in love with her. Every few seconds something about her came to mind. Often times it was a memory, and sometimes it was just her face.

One of the things he loved about her was her temper. She was quick to flare up and took no shit from anyone, including him. He had always imagined how that fiery temper of hers would turn out in bed. Would she burn as hot even under him? He didn't want to tame her, he wanted her exactly how she was.

He also loved that no matter how angry she got, she was also quick to forgive, and he tried not to take advantage of that fact. As a teenager, she had gone through a lot because of her parents. If he were in her shoes, he would have lost hope in his parents and definitely wouldn't be thinking about forgiving them. But Parker knew she still wished for things to be different. That if her parents were to apologize after all these years, Ellie would forgive them in a heartbeat. He didn't really want her forgiving them, especially as he had had a front row seat to what she went through. But it was Ellie and he would never begrudge her her happiness.

Currently, they were both single. Parker didn't really believe in a higher power or anything of the sort, but the way things had lined up recently felt like a sign. Too bad he had to put a pin in it.

"Are you even listening to me? Diego!" Jake snapped his fingers in front of Parker's face.

Parker blinked and looked up at Jake, who was currently so close to him that he could smell the onion that was probably from his breakfast. "Back off man. What do you want?"

"Meeting in ten minutes? You set it up."

"Oh shit! I totally forgot about it. Got a lot on my mind," Parker cursed. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten about his first meeting of the week. He had planned to brief his employees and assign a few cases.

"It's Monday, man. Isn't it a little bit early to be having so much on your mind?" Jake pulled out a chair and sat down. He placed his feet on the desk and Parker shot him a dark look, making him wince.

"We're at work, get your feet off my desk."

"Sorry. So what's got you bothered?" His feet were safely on the ground.

Parker wondered whether to spill. Jake was his closest guy friend, but they'd never been close enough for conversations about love. They'd talked a lot about women, sex and a whole lot of shit, but none of them had ever mentioned feelings before.

Jake wiggled his eyebrows, "is this about Joline?"

"Kind of. We broke up, she had been cheating on me," Parker sighed, deciding to go with honesty. There was no one else he could talk to about this stuff. Ellie was the only person he really talked to. And this wasn't a topic he could bring up with her. He couldn't even lie and say he was asking for a friend. They knew each other too well.

"Fuck. How are you holding up man? Want to go out later tonight? We would definitely find a way to brighten your mood," Jake suggested. He was always the party guy. Parker could bet on it that ten times out of ten, the man would suggest clubbing and drinking as a solution to life problems. There was nothing a few drinks and a piece of ass didn't cure for the guy.

"Don't even want to talk about her. She's not what's bothering me. I'm in love with Ellie," Parker confessed and waited for Jake to give him shit about it. The guy didn't even crack a smile at his expense.

Jake was silent for a few seconds, "Yeah, I always knew. It's why I never asked you to set us up. There's always this look you get when you talk about her." He pointed at Parker's face, "Yep. That's the look."

Parker laughed. "Well shit. Never took you for the intuitive type." Jake motioned to him to carry on.

"We'll be late for the meeting if I give the whole story. The thing is I've been in love with her since forever, I finally made up my mind to tell her. Then this shit with Joline came up. I had planned to call it off with her, then let Ellie know. But Ellie was there and she even watched the fight. Now she'd think I'm hurting and planning to use her as a rebound. Which I'm not."

"Wow man. You actually met the dude? I can imagine how it all went down." Jake laughed.

Parker groaned, you could always trust Jake to dwell on the less important details. "Focus man. I don't know if waiting to tell her is a good idea. She's single now too. What if I wait and then she finds someone else?"

Jake stood and begin organizing the files Parker's assistant had left for the meeting. "I think you made the right call. You should wait, but don't wait too much. In the meantime, spend more time with her. Don't let her find someone new. I'll be praying for you guys." He placed the files in Parker's open hands and headed to the door. "Now we're late, let's go."

Stephanie, Parker's assistant knocked and then opened the door. "Team meeting for the new case starts now. Also there's a call for you."

"We're on our way. Please take a message, we're already late. Join us once you're done," Parker instructed.

Stephanie nodded and made her way back to her desk.

Jake sighed, "Can we switch assistants? Look at those legs, man."

Parker grabbed him by the collar and led him towards the conference room. "You're such a dick!"

"I think she has a thing for you. You know the look you get when you talk about Ellie? She gets almost the same look when she's staring at you. And I've seen her stare a lot, especially when you're not looking."

"Jake, you think everyone has a thing for me. There's no way Stephanie likes me like that." Parker stopped a few steps from the door and motioned for Jake to go in first. The guy straightened his collar, gave Parker a bow, then pushed the door open.

Parker hadn't heard from Ellie all day. She had been asleep in the guest room by the time he was ready to leave. He noticed a few missed calls but ignored them, deciding to call and check up on Ellie first. Most of the people calling him already had his office line, they'd probably leave a message for him. If it was so important, they'd call again, he thought. He dialed her number and listened to it ring before going to voicemail. He tried again and still didn't get a response. Assuming she was busy at work, he put his phone back in his pocket and moved towards the door.

When Parker opened the door, most of the seats were already occupied. He took a few minutes to appreciate how far he had come. He still remembered when he started his law firm; PD LAW FIRM. He had been twenty-three and pretty much didn't know what he was doing. It had been him, Stephanie-- who had taken the job of assistant, paralegal, records clerk, and pretty much everything, Sally in accounting and Paul in human resources. Now he couldn't even remember the names of most of his employees.

It had been very slow the first year. They didn't have the liberty to turn down clients and had taken any case they could find. Now they had a waiting list for clients, and Parker barely had time to breathe.

When he walked in, he exchanged smiles and pleasantries with them before settling down.

Thirty minutes in, and Parker was mostly done assigning cases to the different attorneys present when Stephanie finally made it back in. She passed him a note, and when he opened and read it, his blood froze.

The call was from Taylor and the guys. They've been trying to reach you for the past hour. They lost Ms Parks, still haven't found her. You need to go!

Parker could feel his head emptying and his breaths heaving out loudly. He heard the distant sound of someone saying his name, but couldn't bring himself to answer. He pushed off from his seat and ran out the door, his heart beating so fast that it drowned out the noises around him.

Jake tried following him but was stopped by a calm Stephanie who explained that everything was fine and she would round up the meeting.

Parker pulled his phone from his pocket. The ringer had been turned off, he already had twelve missed calls and a few messages he had ignored earlier. Checking them now, he found all of them were from Taylor, the head of his security team.

He tried calling Ellie again and it went straight to voicemail. Before he could call Taylor, his phone rang.

"Hey, Taylor. What's going on?" Parker asked while grabbing his keys. He rushed out of his office and towards the elevator.

"We checked everywhere for her, couldn't find her," Taylor's voice was calm, and Parker held on to the hope that it wasn't so serious. He wished he could reach Ellie, only hearing her voice could reassure him.

"Where are you now?"

"Heading to your place. I just left the station where I reported it. They said they couldn't file a missing persons report because it hasn't been up to twenty four hours, but when I explained the threat situation, they assured me they'd try," Taylor reported.

"I'm on my way home," He hung up as the elevator doors opened to the garage.

Parker ran to his car. He prayed and begged to whoever could listen that Ellie would be fine. He couldn't imagine a life without her. His hands trembled as he pulled his door open. He took a few seconds to calm down, reassuring himself that nothing could happen to her, sometimes no news was good news. With this in mind, his hand steadied just enough to start his car.