Leverage: The Great Escape
GH Karr
Chapter 1
"Hardison, are you gonna help or not? This was your idea."
Hardison placed his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone, and hissed, "I'm coming." He went back to the phone call while Eliot growled. "Yes, that's five people. An hour from now. Yes. No, I'll pay when we get there. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you." Eliot growled again and he hung up the phone.
Eliot saw him walk over and handed him a large box and a bunch of stuff stacked on top of it. Hardison staggered a little under its weight. "Do something with your crap so we all have a place to ride in the van. It's more comfortable than putting all of us in my charger."
Hardison stumbled into his office and set the things in his arms on his sofa. He would do something with them later, but they would be safe here, in his space. He moved back out before Eliot had a chance to come looking for him. A trash bag came sailing out of the van and landed on the pavement in front of him, almost hitting him.
"Hey, watch it!" Hardison yelled.
Eliot poked his head out and said, "It's your junk. You can put it in the dumpster. And see if the rest of the team is ready to go." He ducked back into the van, chuckling to himself.
Hardison made his way to the dumpster with the heavy bag, then, looking around to be sure nobody was watching him, he dialed a number on his phone. It rang twice and Sophie answered.
"Are you all ready to go?" he asked. Then, "What about Parker?" He listened for a moment, and then said, "Five minutes, it is. Eliot and I will pick you up at the front of the building."
(0o0)
Nate and Sophie were ready to walk out the front door, to meet Hardison and Eliot, but they couldn't find Parker. Nate shook his head. That girl—she could blend in anywhere, and disappear in less than a nanosecond apparently. Sophie carefully scanned the rafters. No sign of her. What could she be thinking? She knew they had somewhere to be, but they hadn't told her where they were going because Hardison wanted it to be a surprise.
Nate and Sophie did a quick sweep of the building, knowing that the boys were waiting for them outside. Eyeing the air vents, Nate raised his voice slightly, and said, "I hate for Parker to miss out on all of the fun, but I guess if we can't find her, we'll have to leave her behind."
Usually, if Parker knew they were going somewhere fun, she would literally fall out of the sky to go, so they waited. No Parker.
A loud growl sounded behind them. "Nate, Sophie, let's go. We're gonna be late."
"We're ready, but we seem to have lost the guest of honor."
Eliot growled again. "Damn it, Nate. Go get in the van with Hardison. I'll find her."
They chose to do as Eliot asked them, and darted for the van, in deference to Eliot's mindset at the moment.
(0o0)
Eliot didn't doubt that Nate and Sophie had looked for Parker. That wasn't it, exactly. It was just that Nate sometimes underestimated the spaces she could crawl into to hide, and none of the team except Eliot really ever considered the fact that she wouldn't hide anywhere she didn't feel safe. And just like that, with that thought, Eliot knew where she was.
Moving quietly through the halls of Leverage, Incoporated's headquarters, known these days as a Brew Pub in Portland, Eliot sought out the one place he knew it was most likely that Parker might hide. Flinging the door open, he thought he was wrong. For a moment.
Then he saw her. Curled up in a tight little ball, as close to the wall as she could get, behind the spare clothes in his closet. Talking softly, and making sure he made enough noise to telegraph his presence to her, he walked into the closet and said, "Parker, we're gonna be late, Sweetheart".
"Late, where?"
She looked up at him, brushing the hair out of her face, and in that moment, he saw exactly how small and miserable she looked. He moved further in and sat down beside her.
"Hey, don't look at me. Hardison wants it to be a surprise."
"Great. Except for the fact that I don't actually like surprises."
"You liked the surprise date Hardison planned for you, didn't you?" Eliot cocked his head sideways and looked at her, as though really seeing her for the first time.
"That was—wait! How'd you know about that?"
"Hardison asked me if I thought you'd like it. And we both thought you did."
She nodded. "But that was here". Where it's safe! she wanted to add, but didn't. Instead she said, "Surprises out there don't usually end well for me."
Eliot could understand that. She came from a bad home life, multiple foster homes, and had been a car thief before becoming a cat burglar. It was very likely that she hadn't encountered many happy surprises in her lifetime. Maybe only Archie and the things he had taught her.
"Well, Darlin', I'm gonna be there with you. I won't let anything bad happen."
"I know. But where are we going?"
"To a place Hardison thinks you'll like, to celebrate you. Go with us? Please?"
She sighed. "I'll do it for you. And for Hardison."
"That's my girl." He rose, sticking out his hand and pulling her to her feet. She slipped a small hand into his larger one, and they walked together out to the van and climbed in.