I don't own leverage or any of the characters. Just a fan of Eliot and Parker.
Eliot had lost her, and it was completely his fault. Parker had announced that she was dating Hardison like it was no big deal but her sideways glance to him had told him all he needed to know. She had moved on and it was for good, he could still see the hurt in her eyes whenever she looked at him and it broke his heart to know he was the reason she was in pain at all. It was his job to protect the members of the team, it had been his job to protect her and he had been the one to hurt her. She turned away from him and back to Hardison who was telling her some stupid story she probably didn't even care about but she smiled when he put his arm around her shoulders pulling her tight to his side. As he watched her now he could see she was happy with Hardison, he didn't push her away when she tried to sit closer to him on the couch he would pull her closer. He watched as Hardison walked towards the kitchen. Parker turned to Sophie and said something the grafter obviously thought was crazy and Parker laughed. She liked doing that she had told him once just to see the look on peoples faces when she said something crazy. Hardison made his way back to a now laughing gir and Elio was pulled into the memory of the night he had lost her as he watched Hardison hug Parker from behind.
He was sitting on his couch watching a football game when he heard someone knocking at the front door. As he got up to see who it was he was surprised to see Parker, usually she would come in through a window and just appear next to him. "Parker," at her name she finally met his eyes and his heart dropped seeing the tears in them. He went to pull her inside but she flinched away from his touch. "What's going on?" He said standing back so she could come in the apartment. Parker hesitated before entering and then just stood there awkwardly as he shut the door behind her. Eliot had made his way back over to the couch motioning her to follow. Something was wrong and he knew in the pit of his stomach that he wasn't gonna like anything that happened next. Elliot sat down and looked over at the girl who was fidgeting restlessly obviously nervous, she looked like she was abou to just make a run for it. "Parker sit down." She glanced over at the seat next to him and shook her head. "Eliot I need to tell you something." Parker spoke quietly, another sign she was uncomfortable, Parker was never quiet she always just blurted things out not caring how crazy she sounded. "Ok Parker." They had been dating for about a year now and he was falling for her hard, the thief and the hitter who would have thought. "I can't do this anymore." Parker looked up at him tears already starting to slip down her face. "What do you mean?" Eliot knew what she was saying but what had gone wrong, he couldn't remember doing anything that would make break up with him. "I can't keep being a secret Eliot. I can't be the person you are to ashamed of to acknowledge in front of people. Every time I try and get closer to you, you push me away." Eliot wasn't stupid he had seen the hurt in Parkers eyes when he would push her away during briefings with the team but he had been playing his part, she had to understand that. "Parker I'm not ashamed of you, I just don't want the team to know." Parker's eyes hardened "You don't want the only people who care about us to know that I love you, that we are together, that we have been together for a year. I understood keeping the secret when it was just a bit of fun but now we are just lying. I'm not a liar Eliot." Eliot looked at her, "Parker I can't tell them." Shaking her head Parker began to move towards the door, "Hardison asked me out tonight, I turned him down of course, but the funny thing is he did it right in front of Nate and it felt really good because he didn't care that anyone else was around he just wanted me. I think I'm gonna give him a shot Eliot because being with you only in the dark is breaking me and I'm already broken enough." Without another glance at him she walked out the door.
As everyone gathered for the briefing Eliot looked over at Parker as she sat down on the couch, it was only the two of them but where she used to sit right next to him she now sat all the way at the other end. It made his heart clench a little bit in his chest as he looked at all the space between the two of them and when he looked back up Parkers eyes met his and she gave him a sad smile before turning back towards Hardison who was talking about the latest mark. Eliot shook his head glancing back over at her, he would always regret not giving Parker what she needed because if he was honest with himself he knew she was all he wanted and now losing her was his biggest regret.