I just started Leverage, so it's probably too soon for me to be writing this, but I had a cool idea and decided to do so anyways. I completely and utterly ship Parker and Eliot, which is probably one of the only ships we don't see in the show. Ah, well. I guess I can be satisfied with my fanfiction! There shouldn't be any spoilers, and this isn't really set at a certain time. Please leave a review, they mean the world!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my own character!

Eliot was worried about Parker. He hadn't seen her since they fought earlier. Knowing her, she was probably somewhere up high, maybe risking her life again. If something happened to her, he would never forgive himself. It would be all his fault. And, as it turns out, something did happen to her, but it most certainly wasn't his fault...

A few hours earlier:

"Why do you have to be so difficult, Parker?" he growled at her. "We've been keeping our relationship a secret for this long, and it's worked! Why disturb the peace now?"

"Because, Eliot! I'm sick and tired of lying to them. They're practically the only family I've ever stayed with for more than a few months. I don't like lying to them," Parker told him.

"God, Parker! This makes no sense! You're a THIEF! You lie to people for a living! How is this any different?"

"It just is, Eliot. I'm going to be at the ice cream shop when you're ready to apologize," she said curtly.

"When I'm ready to apologize? Are you serious? You're crazier than you are difficult, Darlin'! All those foster parents never seemed to teach you the important things, like how to ask for apologies. I'm not apologizing for anything," he told her. She looked at him, eyes filling with tears.

"That was a low blow, Eliot," she said through a little sob. "You know that's exactly the case. I don't mind it when you call me crazy, but to talk trash about my childhood? I thought you understood how horrible that was for me! And you still used it against me! You should know by now not to talk to me about it. We've been together for four months, for God's sake!"

"Parker-" he interrupted.

"Don't touch me! I never want to see your face again," she said as tears spilled down her face. He looked up, his face awash with shame.

"Parker, I-I didn't mean it, okay?" he said, trying to win her back, but it was too late. She was running out the door sobbing, screaming, "I hate you!" He felt horrible; he hadn't meant to hurt her, not like this. He ran after her, calling her name. He checked everywhere he could think of, but either he wasn't looking hard enough or she was avoiding him. More likely than not, it was the latter. He'd taken a shot at what he knew was the most painful period of her life, even he knew that was low. After about an hour of futile searching, he decided to let her cool off for a while. Maybe she would head back to their place later, and let him apologize. He headed back and wrote out an apology for her, and set about cooking dinner.

Present time:

Parker, perched on a rooftop, finally decided to head home. She'd hidden for long enough, and she was hungry, anyways. She leaped off the roof and landed lithely in the bushes, already heading home. She was about three blocks from the modest house she shared with Eliot, when four guys jumped out of the bushes and grabbed her. She screamed and kicked at them, managing to take out the guys and run. She made it to the front walk and screamed, "Eliot! Help!" He rushed to the front door, but the other guy got to her first. He fired at Eliot, shooting him in the hip, then again in the chest. Parker was aware of someone screaming bloody murder-her?-and a sharp pain in her skull...then, absolutely nothing.

Eliot could only watch in horror as Parker was kidnapped. He tried to struggle to his feet, but he wasn't able to go more than a few feet before collapsing again. The man who grabbed her stared at him, yelling, "Dr. Quintus sends his regards!" Eliot groaned inwardly. Another person from his past trying to hurt him, except this time they had figured out exactly how. Another shot was fired, clipping him in the shoulder, and when he looked back up both Parker and the the guy were gone.

Twenty Minutes Later, At the Office:

It was Nate's day off, and he was desperately trying to enjoy it. Sophie had kept wanting to go out and shop, and Hardison would not stop asking him to try out a new video game he had designed. Thankfully, he had made it clear he didn't want to do either of those things, and was finally able to grab a drink, when, of course, the phone rang.

"Hello?" he said as he picked up the phone.

"Nate, I need you to get down to my place, now," Eliot's voice growled.

"What? Why, what's happened? Are you hurt?" Nate asked worriedly.

"Yes, just get down here! I'll explain when you get here, just bring bandages and medical!" came the reply. The line went dead. Nate, realizing that Eliot would never call him on a day off, hustled to get to his house, bringing Sophie and Hardison up to speed.

"He didn't tell you anything else?" Sophie asked.

"Nothing, just that he needed medical attention." Nate replied.

"Did he sound in pain, or upset?" Hardison questioned.

"Yes, both. Any ideas?" They both shook their heads. Nate pulled up into what he knew was Eliot's driveway. Knots were quickly forming in Nate's stomach, growing tighter as he spied spots of blood on the steps. He climbed the steps and opened the door, not bothering to ring the doorbell. If Eliot was injured, he wasn't going to be able to answer the door. Eliot was laying on the couch, bleeding. He managed a weak smile as they walked in.

"Listen, I have a job for us. We have to take it, there's no other option," Eliot said weakly. Nate looked at him as if her were crazy.

"First let's get you fixed up, Eliot," said Sophie gently as she squatted next to him and started bandaging his wounds. "These aren't all that deep, but you've lost a bit of blood...you'll be weak for a few days but you should still be in fighting condition."

"You aren't listening to me! Parker's been taken by someone from my past. They're trying to get revenge for something I did to them years ago. We need to get her back, now!" he screamed. They all stared at him in shock.

"Why would they go after Parker? Any of us would have worked," Hardison pointed out. Eliot shook his head.

"No, to get to me it would have to be Parker." He then proceeded to explain how Parker and him had been in a secret relationship for the past four months. They stared at him, open-mouthed.

"How did you manage to keep that from us this whole time?" Sophie asked.

"Sneaking around, being thieves, and anyways, it doesn't matter. We need to find her, and kill Quintus!" Eliot said, frustrated they were straying off task.

"Who-who's Quintus?" Hardison asked, feeling as if he had missed something.

"Quintus is someone I was hired to kill a while back...I ruined his business instead. I also cut off his arm, which made his illegal liposuction business a bit difficult to operate. He was kicked out of medical school, but he knew enough to start a back-door plastic surgery operation, and my people found out about it. They sent me to take Quintus out and shut down his business. I couldn't kill him, but I did shut him down, and he hasn't forgiven me since. So, he went after Parker," he explained. Sophie finished up with Eliot, standing up and adding,

"I robbed him once. I believe I took a Van Gogh? Or maybe it was a DaVinci...in any case, he's got a grudge against me too."

"Yeah, I did too! Except I cleaned out one of his accounts, left him a couple thousand dollars lighter and a few hundred thousand in debt," Hardison chimed in.

"He was under investigation from IYS for alleged insurance fraud. It turned out he was innocent, but we put him through a lot during that. I was heading that investigation, and he wasn't too happy with me," Nate added thoughtfully. "I bet Parker robbed him too, and that she was close to Eliot was an added bonus. And since he has a vendetta with all of us, Parker and Eliot especially, he won't hesitate to torture her..." he trailed off.

"Which means we need to find her, now," Eliot finished.

Somewhere Dark And Generally Unpleasant:

Parker awoke with a start. She'd just had the strangest dream, where she and Eliot had fought, and she was kidnapped somehow. She felt a sudden pain in her neck, and moved her arms to try and fix it. Oddly enough, when she tried to move her arms, she found they were cuffed to a chair, which was the source of her aching neck.

Cold realization washed over her as she remembered it wasn't a dream. She really had been kidnapped, by...who? She vaguely recalled the guy who grabbed her saying something about a Dr. Quintus...now why did that sound familiar? Oh, yes! She had robbed him blind a while back; perhaps that was why he took her. Her thoughts were interrupted as an expensively dressed one-armed man strode into the room, wearing a sinister sneer.

"Well, look who's finally awake! You slept well, I trust?" Quintus asked with mock politeness.

"Quintus," she growled in reply. "Why have you taken me here?"

"Ah, right to the point, I see! Alright, well, if you insist on asking, I've taken you here because I know that you happen to be quite close to Mr. Eliot Spencer. This is true, yes?" he said, seeming for all the world like a polite host making conversation. Parker nodded cautiously. "Well, I realized this and thought to myself, "What's the best way to get revenge on Spencer?" The obvious answer was you, my dear.

"You see, years ago, when I was still operating my business, Spencer was sent to kill me. He failed, but he cut off my arm and shut down my business. Now I'm a mob kingpin here in New York. I spent years gaining the resources I needed to exact my revenge, and I am finally able to! The fact that you robbed me of nearly everything I had left shortly after that incident only fueled me further."

Parker, unable to keep her mouth shut as usual, said, "What exactly do you want from him? Money? A robotic arm?"

Quintus chuckled. "Well isn't it obvious? I am going to trade your life for his, and maybe torture the rest of them along the way a bit, too." Parker turned an unhealthy shade of gray.

"He'll never go for that, you know. He doesn't care about me! Not at all! In fact, we just had this really big fight and I don't think he likes me anymore. So, you should probably just give me back and find a different way to exact your revenge," she said desperately. He just laughed and shook his head.

"Silly Parker, that's not how things work!" he told her as if chastising a naughty puppy. "I'm going to call your team now, and give them my demands. If you say a word without me telling you to, I swear to God you will pay for it dearly." He took out his phone and dialed a number, presumably the office's. He hit the speaker phone button as it started to ring.

Nate picked up on the fifth ring. "Hello?"

"Nate, my good fellow! How lovely to hear your voice again. I need you to make sure everyone can hear me. Hello, everyone! I'm sure you remember me, yes? So I don't need to introduce myself. Anyways, I have your dear friend Parker. Now, these are my demands: You will deliver Eliot Spencer to the rooftop of the abandoned building off 49th. I, in turn, shall deliver Parker when I have Spencer. I also require everything that was stolen from me returned. Assuming you've sold everything that wasn't liquid cash, I shall need however much you received for it. If these demands aren't met within ten days, I will kill her. Are we clear?" Quintus asked, keeping up a sickly sweet persona.

"DON'T! PLEASE, DON'T DO ANYTHING HE ASKS!" Parker screamed. Quintus whipped around, glaring at her.

"I said, no talking!" he yelled as he struck her across the face. She cried out. "You will pay for that." He motioned to one of his henchmen, snarling into the phone, "She's alive, as you can see, but if you do not agree to these demands she will not remain so."

"Don't you dare touch her!" Eliot growled into the phone. "We'll do what you want, but do not so much as pull her hair or so help me God…" He was growing scared of this guy. He sounded completely insane, and he didn't want Parker to get hurt.

"I can do whatever I please, Eliot. It's a shame you aren't here, really," Quintus commented.

"And why is that?" came the reply. He chuckled.

"Because, dear Eliot, you have a track record for playing with fire," He said evilly. Everyone recognized the familiar whoosh and crackle of a torch. Eliot paled visibly. Quintus laughed maniacally, saying "Ten days." Then all that could be heard through the phone was Parker's agonizing screams.

"Oh, god," Eliot said as the line finally went dead. "We need to get her out, now! I'll call him and tell him we have everything, then hand myself over." It was sounding better and better. He couldn't let Parker sit there and suffer any longer. The madman had torched her! If she wasn't dead, she was in a lot of pain, and he couldn't stand for that.

"Eliot, we are not going to hand you over, okay? I have a plan," Nate said calmly. When he looked dubious he added, "I promise we will get Parker out of there. What we are going to do is what we do best: con him. Sophie, how's your traitorous backstabber?"

"Um, good, I guess? I can pull it off," she replied, confused.

"Great. So, we are going to send Sophie to Quintus, make it seem like she was scared of what he would do. You're a powerful ally, he won't say no.

"Hardison, you are going to somehow create counterfeit money to give to Quintus. Make it convincing enough so he won't question it, but still detectable by the police.

"Eliot, you are going to be our trade. We're going to stage it somehow, so that both you and Parker come back. For now, though, you are going to be our source of information on Quintus."

"Quintus went to med school, but he got kicked out for trying to practice on illegal exotic animals. He used the knowledge he had to start an illegal liposuction business, but that went out the window when I cut off his arm a while back. Now, he's a mob kingpin in New York, and a rich one at that. Everyone fears him, so he's gained quite a large group of loyal henchmen. Word is that he was institutionalized a few years ago, but broke out and has been even more unstable since…basically, he's a revenge-bent, clinically insane criminal who has possession of Parker," Eliot said with worry etched into his face. Nate nodded thoughtfully.

"Which means he'll be reckless, do anything to get his revenge. Hardison, I also need you to come up with some sort of fake gunshot contraption. Alright, is everyone clear on what they need to do?" Nate asked. Everyone nodded. He smiled cunningly. "Well, then. Let's go steal us a teammate!"

Quintus's Lair:

It had been roughly an hour since Quintus had made the call to her teammates, since she had broken his little rule of silence, and, true to his word, he had made her pay. Her arms and chest were covered in burns from his torch, and one or maybe both of her legs were broken. She could hardly think straight through the haze of pain, but one thought sounded loud and clear: Eliot could not give himself up for her. She could not let him do that, so for now she would just have to suffer through this. Maybe she could do some sort of "miracle escape" thing when the ten days were up…Her thoughts were interrupted by what seemed to be a large penguin waddling into the room. Or was it a turkey? She blinked, trying to clear her head. The penguin turned into Quintus. She slumped in her chair. Was he here to beat her again? He didn't seem to have any weapons; he must have been there to gloat. He grinned, suddenly having a striking resemblance to a shark.

"Guess who I just got off the phone with?" he asked like an excited little kid. She kept her eyes downcast and didn't answer. He frowned at her lack of enthusiasm. "Sophie Devereaux! She said she was unwilling to risk her life trying to protect the rest of your little team. That she was worried she would end up like you. Told me she would rather be on the winning side of things. So, I'm meeting with her tomorrow. Prepare yourself, this time I will not tolerate any sort of rule breaking." Quintus told her as he strode back out of the room.

Parker couldn't believe her ears. Sophie, a backstabbing traitor? Sure, she'd left before, but that was just to vacation. There was no way Sophie would…she smiled. Of course! She was grifting. This was all an elaborate con; the team really was getting her out!

Sophie hung up the phone and smiled a bit wickedly. He had bought it. She could tell by his reaction: thinly veiled suspicion tied with a childlike giddiness. She strode into the conference room, announcing, "He bit! I'm meeting up with him tomorrow at his warehouse, where he happens to be keeping Parker."

Nate smiled. "How'd you do it?" She shrugged.

"I improvise a bit." His smile vanished.

"What did you say, Sophie?" Nate groaned.

"I just promised him the money when we met, that's all!" Sophie exclaimed, miffed. Nate breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, that's all? We have the money already."

"Is there anything else you need, Sophie?" Eliot butted in. She shook her head. "Good," he grunted. He drew her away from the group, into his office.

"I need you to promise me that you'll get her out alive, Sophie," he growled with sudden intensity.

"Eliot, I can try, but with these things…" she trailed off. Growling, he put his fist through the wall.

"I need you to promise! I can't…I don't know what I would do if she-she ended up…" he choked out. Letting out a small sob, he said in his gruff voice, "I can't stand it, knowing she's in there!" Sophie hugged him, murmuring sympathetically.

"I don't like it any more than you do, Eliot," Sophie told him. He looked at her through teary eyes.

"Then promise me," he pleaded. She nodded.

"I promise I will get her out safely."