Hardison and Parker ran down the abandoned hallway panting for breath, trying to find their way out of the expo center basement. Hardison knew that Parker wasn't running as fast as she could, and gestured at her to go faster and let him fall behind, but she ignored him. They hung on to Nate's voice in the com as he yelled, "Go! Go! Go!" in a voice as close to panic as they'd heard from him. But when they turned the corner, there he was. Jeb Neblee. The host of the chocolate expo. Who happened to also own the food company that sold tainted milk powder to world hunger charities.

There he was. Right behind his bodyguard. Who was right behind the bodyguard's gun.

And then Parker and Hardison had to listen to someone other than Nate. They told Parker and Hardison to get on their knees, and they quickly found and took the coms. They put the gun to Hardison's head and demanded to know who they were working for. And Hardison's throat went dry and tight, but he kept it together and gave them a story about getting lost trying to find their way to the diabetes awareness booth of the expo, and what did they mean there's no diabetes awareness section, didn't they find that socially irresponsible?

They reacted to Hardison's sense of humor the way many wanted to, but few did. With a punch. And then the bodyguard turned the gun on Parker.

"She doesn't know a thing," Hardison said through his swelling lip, "But if you don't get that gun out of her face right now, I'm not telling you anything."

"Hardison, I can handle this," Parker told him.

"Enough of this bullshit," Neblee said, "You two lovebirds want to help each other out?" He lifted a discarded pipe from the cold floor and grabbed Parker's arm as the bodyguard's gun kept them from moving off their kneeling position. He smiled, held her arm straight, and raised the pipe. "Tell me where to find your bosses or I break her elbow." He looked at Hardison then. "And your knee is next!"

Neblee raised the pipe as if to hit Parker and she pulled back and closed her eyes, as if she knew exactly how bad it was going to be. Hardison lunged in front of her but saw the butt of a gun heading right for his face. He pushed forward even though he knew he had little chance of either stopping Neblee's pipe or avoiding a concussion himself.

But then nothing happened.

Except that Hardison and Parker had been lightly pushed back out of the way, and were lying there side by side.

And then two loud thumps that sounded like flesh hitting floor. Hard.

And then Eliot walking into their field of vision. Eliot standing over them, his face like a beacon telling them that they were safe.

Eliot. Wearing his "I Heart Chocolate" apron and his pastry chef 'disguise' and a concerned look.

"You okay?" he asked, reaching out two hands to pull them up.

"How did you get here Eliot?" Hardison asked, "You were like a half mile away with the client."

"Yeah, I had to run here. Sorry I'm late," Eliot smiled though he was out of breath.

It was then they noticed that Neblee and the bodyguard (or their bodies?) were surrounded by marshmallows and strawberries and liquidy chocolate and the broken pieces of a crytal fondue fountain.

"Did you just kill someone with fondue?" Parker asked.

But Eliot was more concerned with Hardison's split lip, as he ran his thumb gently around Hardison's mouth and jaw, trying to see if there was further injury.

Nate must have said something to Eliot in the coms, because he suddenly said, "Yeah, got 'em boss. Heading home.... No, Nate they look okay. Hardison has a minor cut but I'll take care of it.... No when I said heading home I didn't mean HQ .... Uh huh... Okay, see you Nate."

Eliot smiled at them then and said, "Nate's giving us the rest of the day off. So we can have a little alone time, just the three of us."

The three of them looked at each other for just a moment, until Parker jumped up into Eliot's arms, and Hardison put his arms around both of them. Eliot spoke finally, voice trembling more than he would have wanted to admit, "I'm just glad you guys are okay. If I hadn't gotten here in time -"

"Don't be silly," Parker said, "You got Nate to give us a day off in the middle of a job! You're totally my hero."

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Written for comment_fic on livejournal

Prompt was for Eliot/anyone, death by chocolate