Parker's Weird Obsession
By WriterHorse32
I do not own Leverage, television, or Castle, but I do own a stuffed panda bear named Sherbet. And note this takes place during season 2.
Parker never liked being sick and she especially did not like that Nate had sent her home because she was sick. So Parker was now sitting in her warehouse home with her bunny trying to think of something to do. Parker had gotten a television because Hardison had said that she should get a hobby other than jumping off tall buildings and television seemed like a good hobby. Parker was in the middle of watching the drama/comedy Castle when someone entered the passcode on her door. The team walked in with soup, flowers, and feel better bears. Once close enough to see Parker the team stopped in their tracks and stared at her surroundings. Parker was surrounded by colorful stuffed panda bears.
"What?" Parker asked. "What are you staring at?"
"You have a lot of stuffed panda bears," Nate said examining a panda bear with pink and turquoise fur.
"Yeah," Parker said. "Is there a problem with that?"
"I just don't think it's quite normal," Sophie said touching a green and white panda bear.
"Since when is Parker normal?" Eliot asked gruffly trying to keep his eyes off the enormous amount of panda bears.
"Do you guys want to watch Castle?" Parker asked pulling Bunny and one of the many pandas closer to her.
"Why do you have so many pandas?" Hardison asked finally finding his voice.
"I like pandas," Parker answered. "This is my favorite episode." Parker then began to explain the series to her team and why the episode "Home is Where the Heart Stops" was her favorite episode.
"You like this episode because of the jewels?" Hardison asked.
"I like it because it's about thieves," Parker corrected. The team was sitting on her pandas because she didn't have chairs. All she had was her bed and Sophie and her were sharing it at that moment so the guys were either on the floor or on the pandas that Parker had chosen to hold her teammates.
"So why do you have all these pandas?" Hardison asked Parker during a commercial break.
"I like pandas," Parker said. "And I had one when I was little."
"What happened to it?" Hardison asked making Nate wonder why he was asking.
"It got blown up," was Parker's answer. "It's back on!"
After finding out that (Spoiler alert!) a jewelry thief had killed the girl and after Beckett had kept Castle from getting killed Parker moved on to the episode "Ghosts" and seemed quite happy with watching the murder mystery show and to Sophie that meant trouble.
"Why don't we watch something else?" Sophie asked.
"No," Parker said. "This is my place and I say that I want to watch Castle." And so the Castle marathon continued until everybody decided to go home except for Nate.
"So what was the panda's name?" Nate asked Parker.
"Monte," Parker said not taking her eyes off the television screen.
"Why did he get blown up?" Nate asked. Parker sighed and looked sad before responding.
"I forgot him in my house when I blew it up."
"Why did you blow up your house?" Nate asked for once not judging anyone.
"The man my mom married after my dad, he took away my bunny and when he started to beat me after that I decided it was time. I broke into the safe he put Bunny in and blew up the house, but I realized afterwards that I had left Monte in the house and that he was gone now, I got these hoping they would make me feel better. It didn't really work."
"Why didn't it," Nate asked.
"Because it wasn't Monte." Nate understood what she meant. That having all these pandas wasn't the same as having her first one.
"Good night Parker," Nate said before leaving the warehouse. Parker smiled after Nate had left because for once someone understood one of her reasons for her quirks. Parker hugged Bunny and one of the pandas closer to her.
"It's nice to be understood for once," Parker said to the animals. "Good night guys." She turned off the lights and went to sleep with the pandas keeping watch over her. She hadn't gotten a better sleep in a long time.