AN: I've been watching Leverage, and the last two episodes kinda inspired this. Enjoy!


Trust

"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough" ~ Frank Crane


Parker didn't exactly know what THIS was, THIS being their group. Of course she thought that they were good as a team, otherwise she wouldn't have stayed on after their first job, or come back, especially after "Sophie" (she still refused to tell Nate what her real name was and the entire team was being threatened or, in Parker's case, bribed with brand spanking new cash to keep quiet) had blown up their offices. The indignity of that time still hadn't escaped Parker, after all, she'd been the one who bought the freaking plant and put it on her desk and looked after it!

Sure, they worked well on and off the job. That time they'd checked into rehab, they remembered her and had taken her out of the program (granted, it was technically as "Rose", but still, they hadn't left her to let the "happy pills" take her over). Then that time when they heisted the mobster's wedding, somehow everything worked out and they got the restaurant back (even if Eliot had been in the kitchen and killed a guy with an hors d'oeuvres, and that evil witchy wife got the jump on "Sophie").

They worked well: Eliot was a really good cook, Hardison was always willing to play video games or deal cards or do whatever she asked, Sophie was like her mother (but not in the sense that she really was), and gave her funny advice sometimes, but she still helped. And Nate was, kinda like the awkward uncle who tried to help, but sometimes screwed up (but she couldn't ever be completely sure, since she'd never had an uncle).

But there were still things that she couldn't bring herself to tell them. And she knew that they weren't being completely honest with each other either. After all, once a thief, forever paranoid was something of a trade specialty. "Sophie" wasn't really "Sophie" and had never quite been, Eliot never talked about his Hitter past if it didn't connect to a case, Hardison was as close to normal out of them all and Nate still had a way of thinking that drove them up a wall, especially when he never told them the entire plan.

Still, she sometimes worried if the things they knew would somehow be turned against her. She never told them why she hoarded her emergency stash inside cereal boxes with the cereal still in it, but she worried that somehow they knew. After all, she'd explained how an orphan had to hoard. She never truly understood why they found her artwork amazing, especially considering that the floor plans she drew were always exact and up to date (even if Nate had looked awkwardly at "Sophie" especially since she named them all). But she also knew that she wouldn't draw unless it had to be done, like when she'd sketched the man trying to kill the rich guy in his penthouse.

But the biggest piece of her hidden world had tumbled down when they'd shown up at Wakefield. If they were there, than that meant that they knew, especially since she knew Archie had a strong mistrust of outsiders. Somehow, they'd figured out which address was her actual warehouse, what were the schematics and they'd come barging in after her, headlong and not really caring about the fact that they were up against humans and a STERANKO.

She could have kissed Hardison once he got her up to Eliot and she'd nearly bounded out of her skin once she realized that Eliot was going to get her out, even if it was with a crowbar and a lift. But suddenly she froze. She wanted to get out, she knew she could, especially with only a pane of glass in her way. But the fact was that there was a very bad person who was going to hurt a lot of people. Archie and Nate were screaming at her, both wanting her to do something. And then she made her decision.

"It's what we do."

And she turned back.