Title: A Fondness Comes Creeping In
Chapter: Goodbye Girl
Pairing: Eliot/Parker
Rating: PG-13
Prompt #1: Funeral
A/N: Post-finale. Even though I do ship Parker/Hardison, I think that Eliot/Parker have a lot of potential. This story will use five prompts from a table I keep at my journal. This takes place after the finale, going on the idea that Eliot, Parker, and Hardison have continued their team but also brought together Leverage International – which includes teams all over the globe.
She deserved more than this turn out. He thought to himself as he stared at the closed casket. Sophie was sitting beside him and he felt her shift and place her hand on his shoulder. Hardison was looking inconsolable in the corner, sitting beside his new girlfriend.
It was only the five of them and Eliot thought that, with all of the people Parker had helped as part of the team under Nate and under her own command, that he wished more people could have been there to appreciate her. When the service ended, Eliot stood up, his legs moving of their own accord towards Hardison.
The hacker looked up at him and whispered something to the woman at his side who excused herself and walked away.
"Brought a date to her funeral?" Eliot asked incredulously. Even though he as angry, Hardison didn't even glare at him. Parker had known Hardison was dating someone new. The two of them had called it quits over a year ago and then six months after that, Parker had sent Hardison to England to help manage a new team that they'd made contact with and wanted to improve. That's where he'd met McKenzie and Parker had met her a few times and talked about how sweet she was frequently to Eliot. He knew it was okay. It wasn't why he was mad and it wasn't Hardison that he was mad at, either.
Hardison already knew that. He was, after all, the smartest man any of them knew.
"It wasn't your fault, man," Hardison said softly.
Eliot swallowed thickly and glanced away. "Sure don't feel that way."
Five days ago:
Eliot had been reluctant to let Parker go to the client meeting without him. He told her that she needed to reschedule and that they shouldn't even take the job.
They'd worn out their welcome in North Carolina. Too many enemies had been made. He'd received a call from an old friend in Washington D.C. who needed his help and Parker had given him the green light to go. His bags had been packed when she'd told him she was on her way out to a client meeting. He didn't think it was safe. He liked to be sure.
"You know that even if I don't take the job, that I'll be repelling down buildings the second you cross the state line," she'd teased. He'd insisted on her giving him all of the information she had on the potential client before he left and forwarded it to Jenny – a hacker in Manhattan who owed him a favor to background check it.
He'd been halfway to D.C. when he got the call from Jenny.
"Eliot…the information on this guy…Are you sure it's legit?" she'd asked him. "I mean, at first glance it seems okay but when you look at some of his information it doesn't add up." She went on to explain, but he'd already turned around to head back to Wilmington.
By the time he'd gotten there, it had been too late.
Later that night, they all sat around a bar that Hardison had paid to ensure no one else would bother them. Nate and Sophie were both eying Eliot with concern and he shifted and lifted his beer bottle to his lips to take a long swig. He didn't need to talk about it. Didn't want to talk about it.
He'd gone through his entire life saying goodbye to coworkers in friends. In the military and in his line of work, you expected the man to your left to not be there when you turned around next.
But this was different.
This was Parker.
After a few quiet moments, Sophie approached his corner of the bar and sat on the stool beside him. "Eliot."
"I know," he whispered roughly.
"You do?" Sophie asked with a certain degree of surprise.
"I broke my promise to you. I didn't protect them, didn't save her," his voice was thick with emotion that Sophie hadn't heard in his voice before.
"That's not what I was going to say," she said softly before glancing around. "I don't want to be the one to tell you this, Eliot. But Nate and Hardison both thought it would be for the safest if I did. You see, Parker…"
"I can't talk about her right now, Sophie. Okay?" he asked, turning to look at her.
"Would you just keep quiet and listen to the woman?"
Eliot whipped his head around just in time to lay his eyes on Archie Leach.
The older gentleman walked in, gesturing to Sophie that she could walk away. "Parker asked me to give you this," he said simply, holding out an envelope
"When did you see her last?" Eliot asked with confusion before pulling out the sheet of paper inside and unfolding it to read a typed letter.
El,
If you're reading this, you're going to be very angry with me. You arrived only moments after the explosion and even though I was unidentifiable, you were able to confirm it was my body to the authorities because you knew exactly where I was supposed to be.
But I'm fine, Eliot.
I had to leave the country indefinitely for Archie on a very important job and, in the meantime, I couldn't risk having anyone after me while I work this job so we had to convince the world I was gone for good. Hardison believed that the only way to pull that off was to con you, too. I don't know why, but I wanted you to hear it from me, first. I'm going to be gone for a while, so I think that you should relocate to New York and do some work with Jenny and the Manhattan team – you're the man in charge now.
-Parker
He stared at the note before turning it over and reading the words neatly scrawled in Parker's handwriting:
P.S. I dictated my thoughts to Sophie and that's the letter she wrote. All I told her was "I'm alive. Have to go on job. Go run New York. I don't get why she changed it.
Eliot blinked a few times, "What the fuck is all this?" he finally burst out. He looked around at the guilty expressions on Nate, Sophie, and Hardison's faces and the look of amusement on Archie's. "You all knew?"
"Well, yes," Sophie whispered softly.
Eliot felt rage coursing through his entire body, he made a move towards Hardison but Nate stepped between them. "And it was your idea to just let me go on thinking it was true? To con me?!"
Hardison's face was impassive for a few seconds, "Yes. Because if you didn't know the truth, your reaction would be the most convincing. We had to be sure no one would get wise and try to follow her."
"Why me?" he demanded angrily.
"Well, isn't it obvious?" Sophie asked, amusement now replacing her guilt.
"The fuck are you talking about? Can you stop being cryptic? Why did you phrase this letter to make it seem like she ain't coming back?"
Sophie frowned and sat down beside Eliot once again, taking his hand gently in his. "Oh, Eliot. Parker's going to be gone for quite some time, the job is very in-depth and involves a very long-term grift in addition to the heist. We had to convince you because – you're so…fond…of her."
Eliot frowned, he didn't necessarily like the tone to Sophie's voice when she said the word fond but ignored it. He wondered why Parker hadn't gone to Eliot for advice; he'd faked and assisted in the faking of deaths before. He would have helped instead of going through this torture.
He didn't think it made sense, that Hardison wasn't the one they'd think to con.
The hacker had been in love with the woman for years on end and even though he'd moved on, he assumed there was the bond there still. How could it have ever disappeared? Parker was crazy, but she was also alive and fun and kind and beautiful and…
Oh.
Fond.
Fuck.
He winced and looked around at them and then at the note in his hands. He crumpled it up and tossed it aside before looking at the others. He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand and, without a word, stood up to walk out of the bar.
"Where are you going?" Nate asked, concern in his voice.
"To pack for New York. It's where she wants me to go, isn't it?"
The others watched the hitter walk out without so much as a word. Sophie heaved a great sigh as Nate poured himself a drink. Hardison looked down at his lap, a small sly smile creeping onto his face following Eliot's revelation. "About damn time," he mumbled. No one noticed Archie slip out until he was already gone.
She was hanging around in Moscow.
Literally. She was hanging upside down from a building, her eyes closed as she meditated the way that Eliot had once taught her how. She heard the breath in her ear, but kept her eyes closed.
"How is he?" she asked softly.
"He's angry," Archie's voice spoke over the comms. "He didn't understand he had to be the one conned. But he'll be okay. He's preparing to go to New York, the way you requested."
"I don't like that I lied to him either, I still don't understand why we thought it was a good idea to lie to any of my friends about it."
"It had to be convincing. And you even said it yourself when I came to you with this job…"
Parker frowned, "I know what I said."
"I've never felt closer to anyone than I do to Eliot, Archie. It won't be easy to leave him behind for this long," she'd admitted before Archie had asked the million-dollar question:
Do you love him?
Love was dangerous in their line of work. It didn't pay off to love. It had nearly gotten herself and Hardison killed several times. Thieves had no use for love or stealing hearts, romance wasn't lucrative. Or at least that was what she'd been telling herself since she'd refused to answer the question and took the job.
She did hate the idea that he'd sat through her entire funeral thinking she was truly dead. She wondered how sad he'd been or angry. She hoped he'd forgive her if she got the chance to see him again.
Coming Up: Eliot tries to adjust to life without Parker in it. Parker runs into trouble in Moscow.
