Title: His Protector

Summary: Parker's thoughts on the flight home from San Lorenzo

Characters: They're all there, but mostly Parker-centric, maybe a little pre-Parker/Eliot. I haven't decided if this will be a one time deal or if I'll come up with more.

Rating: G

Wordcount: 1,000

Warnings: Spoilers for The Big Bang Job and The San Lorenzo Job, I guess.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

"Every one of Moreau's men has innocent blood on their hands. Every one of them are worse than me. You think you know what I've done? The worst thing I ever did in my entire life I did for Damien Moreau and I-I'll never be clean of that," Eliot finished.

"What did you do?"

"Don't ask me that, Parker," he pleaded. "Because if you ask me, I'm going to tell you. So please, don't ask me."

Parker couldn't shake Eliot's words from her head. The job in San Lorenzo had helped, working always helped her forget for a while, but it wasn't even seconds after Moreau had been dragged away that Eliot's words were back. She didn't want to know, really she didn't. After all, there were plenty of things that she had done in her life. Things that no one knew, things that would make others look at her like she was a monster.

So when Eliot told her not to ask, she listened, not because she had any illusions that he was exaggerating, but because if she was in the same position she knew that he would respect her wishes. Of course, the rest of the team had no such qualms about trying to find out just how bad their hitter really was. Parker knew that each one of them was wondering how to go about finding out the truth.

She watched as Hardison anxiously waited for the plane to land, his fingers itching to start tapping away at his keyboard, but she had faith that he wouldn't be able to find anything more than what he had already gathered on each of them. She also knew that Eliot, much like herself, knew how to cover his tracks. It would piss the hacker off, just like it had when he found out about Eliot's links to Moreau in the first place, but Parker was confident that he would find nothing.

When she turned her attention to Sophie, she almost growled at the look on the grifter's face. She was watching Eliot 'sleep.' Parker snorted quietly, enough to draw the attention of the grifter's 'mark.' He opened one eye, somehow managing to shoot her a glare, before shutting it again. The thief smiled brightly and met the glaring gaze of Sophie, who huffed a little and turned back to the fashion magazine on her lap. She wasn't really worried about Sophie finding out anything, sure the grifter was skilled, but Eliot wasn't a Picasso or a pair of Manolo's. The only real problem she posed was her mouth. She would try to ask him, when that failed, she would try to con him, which meant that Parker would have to keep an eye on her.

The squeak of the drink cart broke Parker out of her thoughts, the flight attendant spying a 'sleeping' Eliot next to her whispered, asking if she would care for anything. She got two bottles of water, placing one on the tray in front of Eliot and cracking her own. She was just bringing it to her lips when she realized that the woman was staring at her. Turning her full attention to the attendant, she noticed the smile on the woman's face. She had seen that smile a few times before on jobs that required some of them to play newlyweds. Either her and Hardison or Sophie and Nate, she paused briefly thinking it was weird that she and Eliot had never had to play that part, before throwing the woman a look that usually drove people away in a hurry. She watched as the woman scurried up the aisle to Sophie and Nate's seats. Sophie was ordering her champagne and Nate getting his scotch.

It was then that Parker acknowledged that Nate would be a problem if he wanted to be. His drinking made things easier, mostly because it made him care less. Not that he didn't care about them, because he did, just not as easily as when he was drinking. The thing was that if the whole Eliot used to work for Moreau thing had gone down when Nate had been sober a year or so ago, Parker knew that Nate wouldn't have just shrugged it off so easily, like he did in the park. However, Nate was dangerous, well really his connections were dangerous. Parker has no doubt that the Italian knew that Eliot had worked for Moreau, even if she never said anything to Nate about it. If the Italian had enough power to get information on Damien Moreau, stuff that the Feds and Interpol couldn't get, it would be very easy for her to get Eliot's information. Which meant Nate might be the only one that could actually find out Eliot's secrets.

She was pulled out of her thoughts once more by movement in the seat next to her. Eliot had sat up and was reaching for the bottle of water. He took a long pull from it and nodded his thanks to her before slouching and returning to 'sleep' once more. Parker smiled once more to herself and began humming a little tune quietly, not worried that she would wake the hitter; because she knew that he would never sleep in such a venerable place. He took his job seriously. He was their protector, just like she was their thief. As she sat there staring out the window, watching the tiniest of dots going by, she decided that maybe it was time to expand her resume. He was their protector, but she would be his.