A little after two in the morning, Eliot was sitting up in bed halfway through reading a new novel that he had just purchased that evening. His hair was still wet from the shower he took after his workout in his basement gym and he had traded his contacts in for his glasses. He was stretched out in his flannel pajama bottoms with his back propped up on pillows against his headboard and had his book in his lap. Just as he was mentally criticizing the author of his book for a completely inaccurate description of the capital building in Croatia, he could feel her. He didn't look up but he knew she was perched on the ledge outside his bedroom window.
She had broken things off with Hardison weeks earlier and he knew that Hardison had flown to a convention for the weekend to meet up with a girl he met gaming online. Eliot figured that it had finally hit Parker what she had done and since Sophie wasn't in town anymore, she came to him. Since the break-up, nothing was different except that Parker went back to her hangar every night instead of staying at HQ. Eliot thought it was kind of strange that the two went right back to being close friends after their romance didn't work out. He had figured that most of the time, when two people break-up there is resentment or anger or something, especially from the girl in the relationship. However, this was Parker and when did she ever do anything the normal way. This was one time though that he was grateful Parker was Parker. Otherwise, work would have been impossible.
After several long seconds, she finally tapped on the glass to get his attention and he looked up. As he got up from his bed, he placed his bookmark in its place and set the book on a small table he had next to an overstuffed chair and ottoman that he had in the corner of the room. He grabbed his phone and used the app Hardison created for his security system to deactivate the windows. When he finally made it to the window, he noticed that Parker looked like she had been crying. He accounted her tears to her finally realizing that her ending her romantic relationship with Hardison meant that he was no longer hers and could date other girls. Figuring that Hardison was probably her first real long term boyfriend, his heart pained for her. He remembered his own first love and first heartbreak and just how much the latter sucked.
Opening the window, the cold air hit Eliot and he quickly pulled Parker inside his bedroom into the warmth. She unlatched her harness while he shut the window and reactivated the alarms, and then set his phone on his bookshelf. Turning to face her, he realized that she was only wearing a tank top and sleep shorts with little ankle socks and Converses that didn't match.
"Damn it, Parker, you're going to freeze. Where the hell are your clothes?" he said as he grabbed the throw blanket he had sitting over the back of his overstuffed chair and wrapped it around her shoulders. He ran his hand up and down her arms trying to warm her up. "Being upset over Hardison is not reason to catch your death."
She looked up at him with huge tears in her eyes and finally spoke. Her words came out in broken sobs "Not…upset…about…him."
"Well, darlin', what's wrong then?" He said as he thumbed away tears. And, then an idea hit him and anger boiled out of him. He growled "Did someone hurt you? Parker, tell me."
She shrunk back a little out of his grasp and he realized that he had tightened his hold on her when he thought someone might have hurt her. He also remembered that sometimes his anger kind of scared her so he softened his grip and his voice and quietly said, "Please, tell me."
"Monsters. I couldn't make them go away. I kept fighting and fighting like you taught me but they were still stronger and bigger than me. All I know was I had to get to you, so I just ran out and got here as fast as I could without looking back. You'll make them go away." The words rushed out of her like air from a balloon.
Eliot pulled her into his arms and tucked her head under his chin as she continued to cry and said, "Yeah, baby, I'll make them go away." He knew better than anyone the monsters that existed in nightmares. His were all formed as a man; he couldn't imagine how terrifying hers were since they were formed from a child's perspective.
Eliot picked Parker up bridal style and walked over to the chair. He sat down and placed her in his lap with her legs over his thighs and her head nestled in the crook of his neck. He reached down and slid off her shoes and she immediately curled her legs up under the blanket. Looking down, he thought to himself how small she looked. Usually she was all leg and staring him dead in the eye but sitting there in his lap all curled up in a ball, she looked so tiny. As he rubbed her back, he started humming a new melody that had been stuck in his head that he had been contemplating righting down and trying to make something out of on his guitar. As she listened to him, her crying started to slow and just before she started to fall asleep she realized the reason she broken it off with Hardison. He wasn't Eliot.