"Hardison!" Parker cried out. "Wait up!" Hearing his teammate, Hardison stopped and waited for her to catch up.
"What's goin' on? Nate not done with me yet?" He tried to keep the bitterness and frustration from his voice, not wanting Parker to think it was directed at her. He was somewhat successful.
"Hardison," Parker told him as they began to walk down the sidewalk. "Don't be like that. I mean, sure, it wasn't the nicest thing to do, but you know that Nate didn't do it to hurt you. He'd never do anything like that."
"Yeah, I know. Come on, the man went to jail for us," Hardison reminded her with a sigh. "It's just a bunch of other stuff that this brought up that's buggin' me."
"Well," Parker began. "Tell me about it. What's going on in that big, smart head of yours?" Hardison looked over at her, saw that she was serious and wondered what was going on. Parker had never been the kind of girl who wanted to talk things out. She was more likely to run from it all. Quite effectively, he was sure. The therapist routine was more Sophie's style.
"Parker, don't take this the wrong way, but I just gotta know." Hardison tried to think of the best way to ask why she was asking to hear him complain, but couldn't come up with something polite enough. He just went for it. "Why? Why are you –"
"Why am I acting like Sophie?" Parker asked with a small smile. Before Hardison could respond, she continued. "Well, she's still at the bar flirting with Nate, or whatever it is that they do when they're alone. So I thought I could be, you know, a sub-Sophie, and help out." Just like that, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Not sure of whether he was willing to spill his guts, Hardison decided to play for time. "You're fallin' right back into it, aren't you? Callin' her 'Sophie' again, I mean."
"Yup," Parker told him after a second, allowing the change of subject. "I like her real name, and I'm happy she told us and everything, but she's always been 'Sophie,' you know?"
"Yeah, I get that," Hardison said with a small smile. "Still, you used her real name as the code for your…place." It had unsettled him that Parker lived in a warehouse, but there wasn't much he could do about it. The thief just marched to the beat of her own drum.
"Well yeah," she retorted. "Who else but you guys would be able to guess it?"
"If any bad people wanted to get in there," Hardison pointed out, "they wouldn't need the code. They could just break the door down, or hack it."
"And then they'd get hurt," Parker replied with a dark little smile that both scared and intrigued him. "You really think I would leave Bunny protected by only one flimsy little lock?"
Curious, Hardison couldn't keep himself from smirking and asking, "What tricks you got set up girl?"
Parker sweetly told him, in what would seem like a non sequitur to anyone who didn't know her, "I like fire almost as much as I like money." Hardison resolved never to go to Parker's warehouse without her knowing it. He thought of a question to keep the conversation moving.
"What's the story with Bunny, anyway?"
"He's mine. I keep him safe." And that's all he could get out of her. Admittedly, he didn't try that hard. He didn't want to push Parker too far and have her shut him out completely.
"Well, just to be sure, why don't I go over to your place and upgrade the security one of these days? I can make it so that no one has to get barbequed; plus, you would know the second some schmuck tried to break in."
Parker considered the offer for a second, and then nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that. Thanks, Hardison." They walked a couple of blocks in comfortable silence before Hardison opened up about his issues.
"I really did want to run my own crew, you know? But if running a crew means that I have to go behind their backs or something…I don't know if I could do it. I'm not that kinda guy. I wanna trust that my crew will be honest with me and vice versa."
"For a criminal, you're a very honest guy," Parker responded after a second. "That doesn't mean you can't still run your own crew, though. Who says you have to be the exact kind of boss Nate is?"
"True, but I wanna be a good boss, and Nate is the best. Who else could I learn from? I don't know anyone who comes close to Nate's caliber, and I'm sure they're even worse about manipulating their crews that Nate." Hardison let his head drop and sighed in frustration. Dammit Nate, he thought angrily. He didn't know if he could be an effective leader and not become a manipulative bastard. Or worse. At that moment, Hardison wanted nothing more than to curl up on his bed with a couple liters of orange soda and watch the latest Doctor Who episode.
"What about us?" Parker asked suddenly. She stopped walking and looked Hardison in the eye. She looked flustered, and a little angry. "If you're running your own crew, that means you've left us."
Startled, Hardison rushed to reply, "It's not like I'm gonna just skip out of town tomorrow Parker. This isn't goin' to happen for years and years. If it happens at all," he muttered the last bit to himself, but was sure Parker's keen ears heard him.
"I don't want you leave," she told him quietly. "You, Eliot, Sophie and Nate are the only friends I have. The only ones I've ever had." She looked down at her hands and said, almost intelligibly, "I don't want to go back to being alone."
He took her nimble, dainty, soft hands in his own and willed her to believe his next words. "Parker, were friends no matter what's goin' on, or where we are. You don't ever have to be afraid of me not being our friend. And, like I said, if I leave at all, it won't be for a long, long time. And I'm pretty sure Nate, Eliot and Sophie feel the same." Parker looked up at him once more, her face unsure. Hardison smiled at her reassuringly.
"Sophie's already ditched us once. How do I know she won't do it again? Or maybe Eliot will get seriously hurt on the next con. Or maybe Nate will get shot and arrested again. You can't promise me that something won't happen; our lives are too dangerous for that." She looked to be on the edge of tears.
"You're right I can't promise that something won't happen; I'm no fortune teller. But I can promise you that I - and Sophie, and Nate, and Elliot - will do everything possible to stay here with you, safe and happy." He let go of Parker's hands, cradled her silky smooth face and smiled. "You know what? I lied." For a second, Parker seemed surprised and distraught; she might have bolted the next second, so Hardison hurried to continue. "I am a fortune teller, and believe me, I ain't goin' nowhere. Neither are the other three." He would have sworn that Parker's eyes started to shine before her lips formed into a small, happy grin and she moved forward to hug him. He could have stayed like that for a week. All too soon though, Parker pulled away.
"You're a great guy, Hardison," she said to him with clear eyes and a content smile.
"With the amazing company I keep," Hardison answered, looking at her pointedly, "I couldn't very well be a douche, now could I? You wanna get something to eat?"
"Pizza," Parker responded promptly. "Then cereal."
"Well, let's go." As they walked toward their favorite pizza parlor, Hardison wrapped his arm around Parker's waist and drew her close to him.
"Thanks," he whispered. She smiled, then playfully bumped him.
A/N: If you enjoyed this, and would like to suggest the next episode I should write a tag for, please leave a comment including the episode title and relevant POV.