NCIS ( Canon) One Shots

In The Box

Jessica is still getting used to the team aspect of the MCRT team after being thrown to wolves many times alone as a negotiator. So when the team notices something  is awry in her behavior They decide it's time to remind her that not everything has to stay in a box.

  " Morning Parker, have another meeting today? " Knight questions seeing her boss walk down from the director's office. The silver haired man's groan gave her the perfect answer.

   It was early in the morning, the sun barely rose from the sky. Their other members wouldn't be here for at least another hour, but the reports and meetings could not wait.

 " Torres and McGee owe us one for doing this while they get to sleep in, " the brunette huffs, not looking away from the white glare of her computer screen. Her eyes were already starting to hurt from the strain.

" Well I am the leader. I just didn't realize that it required going to so many meetings. Did your REACT team have this many meetings to attend and case files to write? " Parker genuinely questions.

Knight rolls her eyes, " If not more, if one of our cases were to go awry we would have to write an incident report and case reports both of those meant tons of papers for us, and Dalton…' she spat the name out like venom in her mouth before continuing like nothing happened, ' he always seemed to be in a meeting. "

Parker looked at her funnily. He knew what happened to Knight's team, and she probably would never forget what Dalton did, but he never heard her sound that vile before.  " I'm sorry if I brought some bad memories back to surface Knight. That was not my intention at all," Parker speaks calmly, hands up in a way Knight always puts her to show someone she is not a threat.

The brunette takes a long breath and nods, she knew Parker was just curious, she was just in a bad mood today anyways. The last few nights her sleep has been plagued with nightmares for no apparent reason and it was really starting to bug the woman. " You're okay, I was the one out of line. I'm sorry for snapping at you Agent Parker, " she replies hastily, head going down with guilt.

Her attention once again returned to the screen in front of her determined to finish this last report, and to not meet Parker's eyes. Although she could still feel Parker's eyes burning on her head questioningly, he seemed hesitant not wanting to push her into talking. The room went into an unusual awkward silence. Their team was rarely quiet when two or more were together. That's probably why the first thing Agent Torres said when he got off the elevator with McGee in  tow was, " Oh come on, please don't tell me I forgot we were having a quiet game tournament, " probably trying to help ease the tension as he headed to his desk across from Parker's.

It took a moment longer for Jess to react to Nick than usual, and that did not seem to go unnoticed. Instead of just feeling one pair of eyes on her scalp she now felt three burning into her hair. She finally looks up glad she had put extra concealer on that morning, because now she had three agents looking at her worriedly instead of just one. She just hoped no one would be able to see through it.

" No, we were just focused on our paperwork, unlike you two who just walked in, " She spoke and rolled her eyes in an anumused manner. When she still sees the slight worriedness on their faces she smiles trying to ease them. This was not their fault, it was her's. They shouldn't have to deal with her problems, they were hers to deal with, not her team's.

" I know what you're about to say… "Jessica started glancing at the other three agents, her mask of concrete slipping back over her face, " Keep it in the box, keep it in the box, just until work is over, " The voice in the back of her head spoke to her. She hadn't heard it in a year. Well she had heard it rarely through a few cases, but never this bad not since her REACT days at least.