The first time Eliot gets a phone call from Parker he's in Columbia.
It's been a month since they split and Eliot is doing his best to prove to himself that he doesn't need a crew. He's perfectly fine on his own and he doesn't need four dysfunctional thieves with emotional problems to make him happy.
Taking down a drug cartel all by himself does help to improve his mood.
And then his cell phone starts ringing. He's in the middle of a fight, obviously, but he's good at multitasking. And it's not like the five guys he's fighting pose any kind of a challenge.
Parker's name on the display takes him by surprise, which later on will cost him ten stitches, judging from the knife that grazed him. But Eliot thinks, deep down in that part of his brain he refuses to acknowledge, he got worse and it's nice to hear her voice again.
She's in Milan. At first he thinks she's in trouble, but it turns out she just wants to know whether he prefers Rembrandt or Monet. She's bored and she wants to steal one of them, but she has a hard time deciding.
At this point Eliot's a bit irritated. He's not sure if he's more mad with Parker who's interrupting his job with a stupid question, since she learned long time ago he knows shit about art... Or if he's angry with that one guy who just. Won't. Go. Down. Interrupting his conversation with Parker.
Without a word, he puts Parker on hold, throws the phone away and punches the guy over and over again until there's not much left of the guy's face. That should keep him down.
When he's done, he goes and finds his phone, over by the wall. He's a bit surprised it survived. He's even more surprised to find Parker still on the line, waiting for him to decide.
He asks her which painting she would like best. She says, she doesn't care. She's bored and paintings are as good as it gets because the museums' security in Europe are so much better than those in States.
He tells her to steal them both, which makes her squeal happily and call him a genius.
He gets an email a week later, when he's on his way to another job, about missing paintings in Milan.
Next time she calls him he's in one of the small African countries, overthrowing a king.
She's in Chicago. But more importantly, she's in trouble.
She sniffs and complains in that tiny voice of hers that it was all great until she forgot he wasn't there outside the window to catch her.
And not only the cast itches but there might be men looking for her and the shiny cat thing she took, and she could really use some of his spaghetti if he was anywhere near Chicago.
He tells her he's close enough and that he should be there in a few days and she gives him the address where she's staying.
He rearranges his schedule, goes through the final stages sooner that he had planned. In the end, he gets things done, but it lacks finesse and there are few witnesses left.
Which costs him a bonus, but he's in Chicago a week after Parker's phone call.
She opens the door with a pout. He can tell she's miserable. When he asks how she's doing she raises her left hand, clearly broken if the cast on it is any indication.
"I can't go through air vents," she informs him unhappily and he fights the urge to hug her.
Three days later he manages to get Parker to smile, despite the cast still on her arm. He takes her out, makes her seat on the hood of his rental and proceeds to pound he hell out of three thugs who thought they could hurt a tiny blond thief. Once he's done, she claps and asks if they can have ice cream now.
He decides he missed Parker. Even though she's crazy.
Third time she calls he's actually in between jobs, nursing broken ribs and watching hockey on cable.
She doesn't ask him how he's been. She doesn't ask if she's interrupting.
She just asks if he wants to go and steal something with her.
He figures it's Parker's way of asking him out for coffee. Possibly even admitting that she missed him.
He's not entirely sure what to say so he asks her to repeat.
So she tells him how much fun it was to steal things with somebody else, even though Nate always made them give everything back. And how much fun it would be to steal things with someone else again. But maybe, possibly, this time she could keep some stuff.
Or, if he really insists, they could fence the stuff and get money. Because money makes those noises that are just amazing, and the smell... She informs him the smell is the best part.
He tells her there's something wrong with her, but there's no fire in his words. He blames it on the fact that he's distracted booking a flight to wherever she is.
They end up stealing some coin Eliot couldn't care less about. The planning is a bit flawed, because neither of them actually knows how to work other people into their little schemes.
Parker ends up distracting the security by making out with Eliot. Which in turn distracts Eliot a bit and he ends up knocking the security out just to stop them from calling back-up.
But neither Parker nor Eliot gets hurt during the job, so there's a win, right there.
When she shows his the coin, it's a bit anti-climatic, but then she hugs him happily and Eliot has to admit that maybe, possibly, it wasn't a complete waste of time.
The fourth time, she doesn't call him. She just shows up at his place in North Carolina smiling widely and waving a USB drive in front of his face.
He lets her in without a word and watches her throw the drive onto his coffee table.
He carefully locks the door and picks it up following her to the kitchen. He asks her what's on the drive, half expecting her to tell him they will soon have to hide from Secret Service or NSA or some mobster because she stole some secret plans for some weapon of mass destruction.
She shrugs and goes through the contents of his fridge. Seconds later he's being informed that she has no idea what's there, but it was difficult to get it so she just took it in case it was worth a lot of money. And if it's worth something then there will be people after her to get it back and so she came to him, because if there's anyone in the entire world able to make her safe it's Eliot.
And why doesn't he have any ice cream in the fridge?
There's a brief thought of strangling Parker right there in his kitchen. But it somehow transforms into something completely different also including taking Parker's breath away and before he can think about they're coming back from the store, now armed with three flavors of ice cream.
They spend the evening on his couch, with Parker using Eliot as a pillow, telling him all about this very difficult and challenging job that was so much fun.
He's not entirely sure why he tells her not to contact Hardison about the USB drive. It doesn't matter though because she's already asleep, with his arm around her.
She doesn't call him the fifth time. He calls her instead.
He tells her he's going away on job and he will be out of reach. Completely secret, third world country, no cell phones or computers allowed kind of job. And he tells her that he realizes that there's that painting thing opening soon, but if she could not steal anything while he's gone, he would somehow make it up to her.
She tells him he's being silly.
And even though he promised himself he'd be patient with her, he growls her name. Frustrated that she just. Doesn't. Get. It.
She sighs and suddenly she sounds like he's the crazy one and she's humoring him. But she promises she won't steal anything and he figures it's as good as he's going to get.
He goes to Pakistan the next day.
He finds her in his apartment when he's back from cleaning up someone else's mess. She throws herself at him, hugging him and telling him it's good to see him again.
She informs him that she didn't steal anything while he was gone and for that he should buy her ice cream. She then leaves him, stunned, standing in the hallway and walks away. He catches her muttering that it's not stealing is she put it back.
He rolls him eyes and figures it's Parker.
But it's his Parker so maybe he should go get those ice cream.