After watching three seasons of Leverage, I just had to write a story with them! I think Hardison and Parker together, but Eliot and Parker are so funny as brother and sister. If you desperately desire to read it as romance, go ahead, but I prefer them as siblings.

On the mend

A private job gone wrong leaves Parker missing for two days. Who finally goes looking for the thief?

Eliot was getting worried. Parker hadn't been seen in nearly two days now. Sure, she wasn't needed for this job, and oddly enough neither was he, but she always came in each morning to raid Nate's fridge and eat her fortune cookie. She hadn't come to their meeting and he was still waiting for her to climb in through the window. But no Parker. Sophie had tried calling her once, but she had to go trick some guy into signing over the rights to his company, so she had to leave. Parker's shoe with the tracking device was discovered taped to the back of the TV in Nate's apartment, along with a couple fortune cookies and a huge wad of cash. He had already checked to make sure she wasn't asleep under his bed, and she definitely wasn't on the roof again.

The more Eliot thought about it, the more concerned he got. It got to the point where he couldn't even enjoy watching the Saints destroy the Seahawks in that morning's game. Finally, he decided to go check her home. Maybe, just maybe, she was at home like a normal person. With Parker, you never knew where that girl might turn up. He didn't actually know which of the addresses she had given them was the real one though, so he had to call Hardison first. Hardison picked up after a couple rings.

"What, man?" he asked, slightly annoyed. "I'm busy!"

"I'm going to go check on Parker," Eliot growled. "I need her real address though."

"She still hasn't turned up?" He sounded concerned now.

"That's why I'm going to check her house," Eliot explained. "Do you have her address?"

"Um, yeah man. I'll send it to your phone." After a moment, Eliot's phone buzzed.

"Alright. I'll see you later." Eliot said before hanging up the phone before Hardison could respond. He pulled up her address and jumped in the car. It led him to a warehouse in the other side of town. There weren't any real houses around for miles and it was quite secluded from the rest of the town. He was about to call Hardison and ask him why in the world he was staring at a warehouse, but he decided to check for Parker first. He had come to find that Hardison knew what he was doing most of the time, and the guy deserved at least a little bit of trust. He walked to the main door and found a big lock with a keypad. He stared at it for a moment, knowing Parker wasn't stupid enough to make it be her name or her birthday. She always giggled when they had a mark whose password was his birthday. It might be her real name, but no one, maybe not even Parker, knew what that was. Then he realized it was probably Sophie's real name. It would be something that her friends could use, just in case something happened to her. He typed it in and the door clicked open. The door creaked open loudly, announcing his presence to everyone inside the building. That girl is ingenious. Now, it wasn't possible to sneak up on her. Not that he would have anyway, but it protected her from other intruders.

He walked into the main room where he saw a set up that only Parker could have. There was a single, large bed surrounded by several bulletin boards, a mini fridge and a couple bins with climbing gear. This was where she lived? Only Parker. At first glance, it didn't look like she was here. On the other hand, the bed looked like it had just been slept in. "Hey Parker?" he called into the emptiness. "You here darlin'?" No answer. Then he saw Parker's rabbit sitting on her bed. She couldn't be far if she left her rabbit here. "Parker? It's Eliot. Are you here?" He started walking back out when he heard a faint moan. "Parker?" He walked back towards the bed. He didn't see anything, but he knew he heard her. Finally, he bent down and checked under the bed.

Parker was curled up beneath the bed in a corner. "Hey."

"Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you!" he asked, exasperated.

"I was here. Where else would I be?" She didn't seem to see anything wrong with disappearing for two days, then reappearing again under her bed.

"Why are you down there?"

"I thought you were someone else."

"Why under the bed though?" It didn't make sense. The world's greatest thief hiding under a bed in her own home. Didn't she have a better place?

"I didn't have time to hide somewhere better," she answered timidly.

"Parker, I saw the video cameras out front. You had plenty of time to run. What's going on?" She had stationed at least six cameras all around the warehouse. She hesitated. "C'mon, I'm not going to hurt you. Why didn't you run?"

"I couldn't," she said nervously. These short answers were getting really irritating. Why couldn't she just tell him what was wrong?

"Why not Parker?" he tried not to growl.

"I'm hurt." Neither one spoke for a moment. Eliot had somehow known this before, but when she said it, it still hit like a ton of bricks. He sighed.

"Well, let's get you out from there." She allowed him to pull her out from under the bed. The first thing he noticed was that she was wearing loose basketball shorts and a baggy sweatshirt. She never wears sweatshirts. Then he saw Parker wince when he lifted her onto the bed. He adjusted the pillows behind her before asking, "Alright, what's up?"

"I'll be fine," she tried to convince him. "It's not that bad." She readjusted herself against the pillows and winced again.

"Parker, you know you need my help. I was going to leave when I heard you moan. You knew that. If you didn't want me, why did you call me back?" She hesitated again.

"You're right," she finally said quietly. "Can you fix my leg? It hurts." She indicated her left leg.

"Thank you. Let me take a look." He pulled her extra long shorts up passed her knee and gasped. Her knee was one big purple bruise. It was quite swollen and looked really painful. "What happened?" he asked angrily

"They weren't supposed to be there! I didn't know! I'm sorry," she apologized frantically, surprising Eliot.

"Darlin' I'm not mad at you," he told her quickly, "Who wasn't supposed to be there?"

"The extra security." Eliot rummaged through the boxes near her bed until he found a first aid kit. He got to work on her knee as she explained. "It was a simple job. All I had to do was break in and take the money out of the vault. It was easy to get there, but there were three extra guys around the corner that I didn't see until they had already pulled me from the vent. I fell and hurt my knee. Then they started—Cold!" He had just put an icepack on her knee to bring down the swelling.

"Sorry," he muttered, not looking for fear of scaring her. His expression would not help her calm down. "Keep going."

"They started kicking me. Over and over." She choked back a sob. "I—I tried to stop them. I really did!" She was escalating and her crying was nearly breaking his heart. Plus, Eliot knew it wouldn't be good for her body to be shaken by the sobs. He put her knee down carefully and gently wrapped her in a hug. After a minute or two, she stopped crying.

"How did you get out?" Eliot asked as he released her and helped situate her on the pillows again.

"I pulled the fire alarm. In all the confusion, I got into one of the ground level air ducts. I didn't leave the building until last night though. It hurt too much to move."

"Did you hurt more than you knee?"

"No," she said fairly unconvincingly. Once again, Eliot was confused. This girl was socially awkward, but she could lie easily. Now, she was lying but he could tell. His only guess was that she wanted to trust him, but every instinct that she had was telling her not to let him know that she was hurt.

"What else got hurt Parker?" he asked firmly. She deliberated a moment, opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. "Parker, I'm not going to hurt you. I protect you guys. It's what I do. You know I would never hurt you, right?"

"My ribs hurt." Eliot finished wrapping her knee in an ace bandage before moving to her ribs. He helped her remove her baggy sweatshirt, and then pulled her tank top up just passed her belly button. Her ribs too were purple, but it didn't look like any were broken. He continued to feel around and she flinched some, but never cried out, so Eliot declared them only bruised. Just then, Parker's stomach growled loudly. She immediately slapped her arm across to silence it, and winced when she hit her ribs again.

"When did you last eat Parker?" Eliot asked as he handed her two icepacks for her ribs.

"A couple days ago," she said. He sighed. "Since before the job."

"Why didn't you call us?" He asked, even though he thought he already knew the answer.

"I was hurt," she said. "They would hurt me more and take my money." Eliot understood what she meant. They all had these instincts after years of work. Never show weakness. It told others that you were vulnerable and they would take advantage of that. Unfortunately, that instinct was so strong that it overrode her trust in her friends.

"Do you have any food here?" he asked, looking around. He opened the mini fridge to find that it only contained an odd substance in a jar. "What is this Parker?" he asked, holding up the jar for her to see.

"It's a cure to some disease. Sweden's government will pay a lot to get it back," she said, with an evil grin. Eliot threw it back hastily and wiped his hand on his shirt. "Do you have any fortune cookies?" Eliot laughed. The crazy girl doesn't eat in two days, and all she wants is fortune cookies.

"No, Parker, I don't have any cookies. I've gotta get you some good food so you can heal properly. The others are still out on a job. We can go the office. I made sure the fridge and pantry were fully stocked last week."

"Is there mac and cheese?" She asked hopefully.

"Yes. I bought it just for you last week. And I have some fortune cookies there."

"Really?" She smiled and clapped her hands. "Let's go!" She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, momentarily forgetting her injuries. She cried out and fell backwards, stretching her bruised ribs even more so. He caught her before she hit the bed and supported her while she waited out the dizziness that came with the pain.

"Parker, slowly this time," Eliot said, trying to hold back a smile. "Can you walk?"

"Duh! Of course I can walk, Sparky!" Parker slipped out of Eliot's grip and landed on the ground with the grace that only the little thief could have. Unfortunately, her bad knee gave out almost immediately. She yelped and started to sink to the ground. Eliot caught her and held her up while she struggled to get her feet under her again. "Maybe not… Um, help please."

"Sure thing darlin'." Eliot helped her walk about half way to his car before she was completely exhausted. "I'm going to pick you up, okay Parker?" He figured he should probably tell her what he was going to do so she wouldn't think he was attacking her. She would probably fight back out of instinct and end up injuring herself more before he could calm her down. She nodded, too exhausted and dizzy to speak.

He picked her up as carefully and gently as he could, but he could still tell this motion caused her quite a bit of pain. Her eyes were shut tightly, like she was trying to block out the pain. She curled into his chest and wrapped her arms loosely around his neck. She was so light. He had never realized how small Parker truly was. Sure, she could fit in an air duct without a second though, but she couldn't weigh much more than a child. At first, he could feel the tension throughout her entire body, but by the time they got to Eliot's car, she was asleep. She's probably completely exhausted. The thief hadn't had any proper food in almost two days, not that her normal diet was any good, and she was injured pretty badly.

He got to the car and balanced her for long enough to open up the passenger door before using his foot to pull it all the way open. He bent down to put her in the car, but Parker wouldn't release her hold on him. "Parker, you gotta let go now. I'm putting you in the car." She subconsciously loosened her grip and allowed him to pry her off of him and place her in the seat. He buckled her seatbelt before walking around the front of the car and getting in himself. The sound of the engine didn't wake Parker, but she started to stir when he got on the freeway. He saw when she first realized that she wasn't in her bed and then he watched as she realized where she actually was. "You're okay, Parker," he said just to ensure she was comfortable. "We're going to the office." She looked at him, then out the window, then back at him.

"How long 'till I get my cookies?"

Only Parker would ask for fortune cookies. Personally, I ask for reviews. :)