Done for the comment_fic livejournal community. Prompt: Leverage, Author's Choice, A Baby Changes Everything
The Baby Job
Eliot held the baby carefully. He wasn't used to holding things that needed protection, things that he hadn't set out to break. She was small and wriggly and far more foreign to him than any of the dust ball countries or wasteland zones he had landed his ass in.
"Eliot, hey man, you're late for the…" Hardison hadn't knocked before he opened the door to his so-called-office and Eliot met his eyes quickly. "Is that a…a…"
"What, you look like you've never seen a baby before." He pulled the infant closer and tucked the blanket that had slipped down around her shoulders and over her inquisitive hands.
"Eliot, man, how in the hell did you get a baby! And what is it doing here?" Eliot resisted the urge to smirk. He had never heard Hardison's voice raised to quite that pitch before. It hand never squeaked like that either. He closed the door behind him and stood stalk still in the room for several seconds while Eliot let him stew.
"The normal way, idiot. And don't swear in front of her, I don't like that." She fussed and Eliot found himself brushing a calloused hand down the side of her head, overly aware that just two days ago that same hand had crushed a man's windpipe. "She's a she, not an it. And I couldn't leaver at home, idiot. It was bring her along or not come at all."
"The normal way? Oh god, you knocked up some chick and she left you a baby. This is worse than that one movie!" He crossed the room and looked down at her. She looked up at him and wriggled some before erupting into screams.
Eliot raised her up some and re-situated her so that she was resting against his shoulder instead of the crook of his arm and patted her on the back as he rocked back and forth. "You upset her, man! If I wasn't holding a baby I'd break your arm!" And then, as the infant gradually began to calm again, he said, "and it wasn't like that."
Hardison raised an eyebrow. "No?"
"No. She…" Eliot glared at the hacker. "Okay, fine. It was like that."
"I knew it. It was bound to happen one day, my friend. I did give you the talk on protection, you can't blame a brother for trying."
"Shut up!"
"You know, a baby changes everything."
Eliot looked down at the little girl. "Yeah. I know." And he was maybe, just maybe, okay with that. "Just promise me one thing, Hardison," he said seriously.
Hardison looked at him back and the humor left his face. "Sure, buddy."
"Don't let Parker baby-sit her alone. Ever."
Hardison's face split into a grin. "Sure thing, man. Sure thing."