A/N – So I guess this is my version of what happened after the finale. Well, at least as far as these two crazy kids are concerned. Spoilers for the new season, kind of. Nothing you haven't heard. Just a location, really. The rest, I sure as hell made up. :D
"Nebraska! Who the hell moves to Nebraska?"
Parker shrugged at Hardison, "Me?"
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Hardison sighed. Parker hadn't been hard to find, not really. She left a pretty distinctive trail if you knew what to look for. For instance, when the largest ball of twine in the world had gone missing for exactly one day, only to reappear just as mysteriously, Hardison knew she'd been in Minnesota. And when he'd heard about the exploding Mickey Mouse costumes at Disney World, luckily unoccupied, he knew she'd been in Florida. And he definitely knew she'd been in Texas, but he wasn't ready to bring up that particular insanity quite yet. But the sight of dozens of horses galloping freely down the busy Austin streets was enough to make him shudder at the memory. Parker should not be left alone. Which was where he came in. All in all, he was kind of disappointed that he'd hardly had to use his tracking skills at all. But on the other hand, maybe it meant that she wanted him to find her just as much as he did. Maybe words weren't her strong suit, but the girl knew how to leave a clue.
Tracking her to Nebraska had been the most difficult part of his search. After the… incident in Texas, Parker had fallen off the map, at least, off of his map. Out of his world. He'd tried her GPS trapped shoes, of course, but the signal had only led him to her old apartment. He found them buried in the back lot garden, along with her Alice White ID and a handful of rusted pennies. He'd wondered at the time whether Parker hoped to actually grow a money tree, and if she did, why not bury bills?
For a while, he gave up. For one long, boring week, he didn't search. Not for any of them. Though he knew where they were. Sophie didn't stay still long, but never strayed far from Paris. Eliot appeared one day in Connecticut and hadn't left since. Hardison wondered what the man could possibly find appealing in a place like Connecticut, but realized it wasn't his business anymore. Probably never was. And then there was Nate. Nate was in Boston. Why, Hardison didn't know. He'd been the easiest to find, as his record was clean, and he had no trouble using his real name. Hardison found an address, but couldn't bring himself to write. Nate pushed them all away, he broke up the team, and there was a part of Hardison that hurt enough to still be angry about that.
Then one morning Hardison turned on the news to see an uproar going on in Nebraska politics. Apparently someone had found a way to legally change the state's Republican political party to Democratic. Hardison had just laughed and packed before heading to the airport.
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"Well, obviously you, yeah," Hardison rolled his eyes, "But why Nebraska? What's here? Besides easy access governmental decisions?"
Parker grinned, "That was great."
"Yeah, you're awesome, I know, but still, that doesn't explain Nebraska."
She thought for a moment, silent, before answering, "I didn't know where to go. So I looked at a map, and Nebraska is sort of in the middle of everywhere."
Hardison snorted, "It's the middle of nowhere, is where it is. My allergies are already acting up!"
"It can't be the middle of nowhere, or else it wouldn't exist. It's the middle of everywhere." She tilted her head, as if the conclusion had come to her after much intense thinking.
Hardison nodded, stepping closer, "Alright, I guess I see your point. Middle of everywhere. Cool."
She took a step forward.
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Parker was surprised it took him so long to find her. She knew he would look, counted on it. But after Minnesota and Florida, and still no Hardison, she thought maybe he wasn't looking. Maybe he had already forgotten about her, about all of them. So she'd gone to Texas. It was so easy, now that she knew horses weren't nearly as murderous as she once thought. The plan was a bad one, she realized, as she looked back on it. Somebody could have gotten hurt, but she'd been nearly desperate. The urge to do something, anything, built inside her until she couldn't help herself. She told herself it wasn't for him, that she didn't crave his attention, that she didn't miss him, or any of them as a matter of fact. But she knew it was a lie. The restlessness she'd felt since childhood reared up again when her team wasn't around to keep her balanced anymore. After Texas, still no Hardison in sight, she stopped. For a few, exceedingly boring days, she just stopped. She hung out at her hotel, watched TV and ate fast food, all the while insisting she didn't need them. But then she had an idea. With a smile, she'd packed and headed for the middle of everywhere.
And here he was, standing in front of her, his mouth and eyes smiling at her like she'd never left, like it hadn't been months since he'd seen her. Mostly like he was really, truly, incredibly happy to see her. So they stood, two feet apart, in her little hotel room. He had knocked, though she knew he could manage a simple lock pick. It was the principle of the thing, or so she assumed. Principles were never her thing. She had let him in, more surprised than happy, she thought for sure that even massive political revision wouldn't be enough to bring him. But now, as he stood there with that happy look on his face, and as she stepped forward just a little bit, Parker was glad to have been wrong.
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Surprising them both, Parker pulled Hardison to her in a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.
"I missed you," she confessed in a whisper, the words burning a little bit in her throat with the unusual openness. She felt his smile against her cheek as he squeezed her waist.
"Missed you so much, you don't even know," Hardison whispered back, taking in her scent and the feel of her body so close to his.
Parker pulled away after a long moment, but slipped one hand in his, letting the twined fingers fall between them.
The silence crept up, neither knowing exactly what to say. Then Parker's face lit up as she remembered something she had learned.
"Did you know that the national soft drink of Nebraska is Kool-Aid? I tried to find the Kool-Aid guy, but apparently he doesn't actually exist. It's too bad, he would've been fun to steal."
Hardison just laughed and pulled her in for another hug, "God, I really did miss you."
Something suspiciously like tears burned right behind Parker's closed eyes, but she fought them off as she pressed herself tighter into Hardison's hold.
The tears were gone by the time he let her go, and Parker found herself unable to resist returning Hardison's goofy smile.
"What now?" she questioned. After all, they were in the middle of everywhere; with no team, no jobs, no purpose, and no idea what the future would hold.
Hardison shrugged, "I don't know. But we'll figure it out. I haven't given up in Nate completely yet. I think he'll call. He'll miss us."
"He's not going to call. He's probably forgotten all about us anyway." Her words echoed with empty conviction.
"Of course he'll call, Parker. We're his family. It just might take him a while." Hardison replied with the same conviction. Truth be told, neither one of them knew who was right, but Hardison theory was definitely more hopeful.
Parker nodded, "So we wait," she paused before placing a hand flat against Hardison's chest, feeling the rapid beating, "Together."
"Together," he agreed, placing his hand atop hers.
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The phone call came in the middle of the night, startling them awake from a peaceful night's sleep. Hardison blindly reached for his phone, squinting to read the overly bright display as Parker grumbled about kicking somebody's ass for waking her up. She shushed, however, at Hardison's surprised reaction to the phone. It read Sophie.
Suddenly very alert, Parker switched on the light and came back to sit beside Hardison as he talked to Sophie.
"Hey. No, I'm good. Wait, what? He's what? Damn. You call El..? Alright, we'll be there as soon as we can. What? Oh. Parker. Yeah. Yeah, shut up. I know. We're in Nebraska. Yes, Nebraska. Where it's 4 in the morning. Alright, alright, we'll see you soon."
He ended the call and turned to an awaiting Parker. "So?" she insisted, bouncing slightly on the mattress.
"Nate needs us. I don't really know what Sophie was going on about, but she sounded worried. She says he needs us, but I don't think he knows we're coming."
Parker nodded slowly, before shrugging, "Ok. Guess we're going to.. wait, where are we going?"
Hardison grinned, happy she was as willing as him to get up and go, "Boston."
"Boston," she repeated, unsure of what to take from that.
"Yeah," Hardison agreed, "Red Sox, baked beans, that's about all I know."
"There was the whole Revolution thing," Parker offered, only half teasing him.
"Smart ass," Hardison chided even as he leaned in to kiss her.
Parker pulled away, "you love my ass."
"True," Hardison conceded. "Guess we should pack. And figure out what to do with bunny."
Parker waved her hand dismissively, "Boston has cats. Bunny will fit right in." From somewhere under the bed, a meow called out what Parker took to be agreement.
"See? Bunny likes the idea."
Hardison rolled his eyes, "Fine. We'll take bunny with us. So all we need to do now is pack."
Parker crawled into his lap and pulled him in for another kiss. "We can pack in a while."
"A while," Hardison repeated, losing focus as Parker's mouth found his neck, "Packing. A while. Boston. Ok. A while is good. Boston can wait a while."
"Mhm," came Parker's muffled reply as she bit down lightly.
Closing his eyes, Hardison surrendered happily. He had Parker, and if all went well in Boston, they could have their family back as well. And Hardison, well, he believed in happy endings.
THE END
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Wow, so I have no idea how that came about. I was just sitting here, at like 2AM… and this thought popped up, and I figured why the hell not? Everybody else has already done a "what happens after the finale?" thing.. so I guess I figured I'd share my, admittedly P/H biased, version. Hope you liked! Comments are love.