A/N: Spins off of Brinchen86's story "Twists and Turns" (story ID- 9147409). Go read chapter 1 of that one first, and this will make a little more sense. My friend's aware of this and gives full permission for me to borrow her idea :)
Nate stood, leaning back against the kitchen counter, and sipped his coffee while he watched his "kids" interact; Hardison, Parker, and Eliot were bickering back and forth about something, though the alliances seemed to shift at any given moment as two ganged up on one. Two weeks ago Parker and Eliot had admitted to the team what he'd suspected for a month already- Parker was pregnant, three months along, actually. He'd begun paying close attention right after the forgery job with Maggie when she'd come back from the hotel room with a sadly-nostalgic look on her face and refused to answer his questions. Then Parker had begun acting odd, even for her, and Eliot waffled between hovering and trying to give her space. Nate had watched their strange dance, noticed Parker's reaction to food, and made an educated guess as to the reason. He was careful about the jobs they took and craftily redirected Parker's roles in them to be less physically demanding, coincidentally it also placed her closer to Eliot's positions as they hadn't needed muscle for these jobs, and did his best to avoid drawing attention to his actions. He couldn't really explain why without revealing what he knew, and if he knew them, they had their own plans for the announcement.
Or, at least Eliot may have had plans. They'd all been together celebrating the end of a successful job when Parker simply popped out "I'm pregnant". In the stunned silence that followed, Eliot had sighed in exasperation and dug a tiny photo out of his wallet. When he dropped it on the table they could all see that it was a grainy black and white sonogram, though the amorphous blob in the center could have been nearly anything. Questions had started immediately as the photo was passed around and the pair did their best to answer. Yes, it was Eliot's. No, they hadn't been a committed item though they were now. Yes, she did plan to keep it. No, they didn't say anything earlier as they wanted to wait for the first trimester to pass before announcing anything. No, marriage hadn't come up yet. And yes, Hardison could be the official doting uncle as long as he didn't try to turn the kid into a cyborg of some kind.
He was drawn back to the present as Hardison left to go home for the afternoon, something about hoarding or a horde, Nate was never quite sure with some of the things the hacker did online, but it left him with an opportunity. "Err, Eliot…" he called to catch the man's attention. It took a few seconds as Eliot was still standing beside the couch and arguing with Parker that no, she wasn't allowed to have caffeinated coffee. Not even a little, no matter how much she begged or gave him the puppy dog look Sophie taught her.
Eliot looked up with an irritated expression, "What?" he asked. Parker poked him hard in the ribs and he batted her fingers away, turning back to give her a stern look. She pouted back and turned to give Nate her attention as well.
"Well, I," Nate hedged, now unsure how to voice his idea. "I thought that I'd remind you that I'm still ordained… if you ever wanted to…." he trailed off at the expression on Eliot's face.
Eliot, dealing with Parker again, sarcastically snapped back, "So what- your Catholic sensibilities demand that we get hitched just because we're having a baby? Parker, leave off!" Parker made a face at Eliot's exasperated yell and pulled her hands back from where she'd been poking him again.
"No, that's not what I meant," he hastened to explain- this certainly didn't look like the best time to have brought up the subject. "I just," Nate struggled to put his feelings into words, "I consider you two to be like family, and I'd be honored if you let me be the one to marry you. If that's the way you decide to go, of course." Nate took a large gulp of coffee to stop himself from rambling and wished that he'd put a little something in it. He could lead them through a horrifically convoluted con, or take a visible and dangerous part in a job, yet when it came to expressing his affection and emotions to them, he ended up a mess.
Eliot looked down at Parker in question and the two had one of their silent discussions. Looks flashed back and forth faster than he could interpret, though thankfully it looked like Eliot had lost the irritation somewhere along his stumbling explanation. Parker turned a smiling face back to him and chirped, "We're in, so when can you do it?"
Somewhat caught off guard, Nate had to think for a second until it hit him- somewhere along the silent conversation he'd witnessed was a proposal and acceptance, and now they were taking him up on his offer. "If you want to do this under your real names, get the license application filed and that'll give you a month to plan before I can do the ceremony. If you want to do it under one of your aliases then Hardison can insert the electronic documents and I can do the ceremony any time you want," he explained.
Another silent conversation took place. "We'll have to dig out or original documents, but we want to file the license under our real names even though we'd like you to marry us under the ones we're currently using. We kinda like these names," Eliot said and aimed a gentle look at Parker. She grinned sweetly and then poked him, in the ribs, again.
As another round of bickering started, Nate turned back to find his bottle of aspirin in the cabinet. No wonder he saw them as his kids- they certainly acted like it. A thought crossed his mind and he let an evil smile pull at his lips. "You two do know that Sophie is going to go crazy about the wedding, don't you?" he called over his shoulder and heard immediate silence fall. He turned and found them both staring at him with identical wide-eyed expressions of terror. Satisfaction warmed his chest- he could still torture with the best of them! Plus he did owe them a little payback for waiting a month before telling the team that Parker was expecting. Even though he suspected, her blunt announcement was still quite a shock and left everyone rattled for a few days until what passed for normalcy settled in again.