Fingers entwined, Parker and Hardison poked into their colleague's apartment. Once they realized, their friend had company, they treaded lightly to try and determine if it was safe to interrupt.

"Ow! You don't have to be so rough!"

"Dammit, Rae! Hold still, and it won't hurt so much."

"I wouldn't pull away if you'd remember the bandages you're yanking on are attached to a human being."

"You could remember human beings break and stop being so damn reckless all the time!"

"Can we skip the lecture, please?"

"You want me to bandage you up, you're gonna listen to what I have to say."

Against their better judgement, the pair stepped into the living room to see Eliot bandaging the hand of a young raven-haired woman. Parker cleared her throat. The other two looked up from their triage. "Shit," the girl hissed. "I'm out!"

"Dammit! Do you two not know how to knock? What the hell?" Eliot ranted. He caught the girl, who was now halfway out the window, by her injured arm and brought her back in. "Get your ass back in here, Raelyn. I am not done with you yet."

Raelyn seized as she snatched her arm out of his grip. "Dammit, Dad!"

"Dad?!" Parker and Hardison questioned in unison.

Father and daughter muttered similar strings of obscenities. "I really should go," Raelyn insisted, heading towards the back door as Parker and Hardison stood paralyzed, trying to absorb the scene.

"No."

"I'm 23 years old! You can't tell me what to do, old man."

More shock piled on top of the observing couple. No one ever in their relationship had ever dared to talk to Eliot that way. Eliot was clearly growing uncomfortable having an audience. He took a breath, but it didn't seem to help. "Why don't you hang around for dinner?" It wasn't a question. He softened just a bit, the love for his child showing through. "We can have whatever you want."

Concession and possibly guilt painted her face. "Fine." And she turned and stormed upstairs.

"Um," Hardison started. A single syllable raised a dozen questions.

Eliot went to the kitchen, and they followed. He passed out drinks, and upon cracking open his beer, began to explain without ceremony. "I was young, and it was a drunken one night stand with a friend. Andi knew I couldn't be a parent in my line of work, so she played the martyr, and made it clear she was going to handle Raelyn on her own. I visited as much as I could, every few months or so. I didn't really realize how much of a martyr Raelyn's mom was being. When she was 15, Raelyn ran off and came to find me. Evidently, Andi didn't try to hide the fact that she never wanted her. Even though I never spent that much time with her, not by choice, Raelyn knew that I cared a lot more about her than her mother did."

"How have you managed the last eight years with the team and...that?" Parker asked in disbelief.

Eliot sighed heavily. "Fortunately...and unfortunately, there's a lot of me in her. I doctored up some paperwork and set her up in an apartment. I checked up on her any time I had a moment, at least once a month. She was pretty self-sufficient."

"What happened to her arm?"

Eliot couldn't seem to look up. "Like I said, there's a lot of me in her."

"Do you guys fight like that a lot?" Parker asked.

He rubbed his brow. "More and more lately." He took a long swig of his beer. "Like she doesn't even try to keep herself from getting hurt. She could've picked a real path and made something of herself, something good, something better. But no, she drops out of high school, scrapes by with a G. E. D. even though she's smart enough to have graduated with Honors in school so she can run around retrieving things, reckless little shit."

Parker snorted derisively, the hypocrisy pointed out without words. He shook his head gravely. "I didn't grow up planning to do the things I did."

"Is she playing white or black?" Hardison asked, suspicious.

Eliot groaned. "She says white. But she's so new to the game, I'm almost sure she doesn't know who deserves it and who's a victim."

Hardison couldn't help but smile at this new side of Eliot. "Must suck that you can't handle her the way you handle most of your other problems," he snickered, rapping his knuckles on the counter.

"I've come close a few times, make no mistake."

"She drives you crazy."

"At high speed with no brakes."

"And you love her."

"More than myself. More than food. More than life."