Title: Prerequisites of Affection

Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I make money from nothing.

Spoilers: None at all – everything here is made up by me except the characters.

Pairing: Nate/Parker

Summary: When Eliot gets injured during one of their jobs, Nate has to step in - much to the displeasure of everyone. N/P eventually. In progress.

Author's note: This has been in progress since I posted my first story on here. I finally figured posting it would give me more motivation to finish it, since it will bother me now that I have posted something that's not done. And it will be finished. I love reviews/suggestions/encouragement!

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"You did this on purpose," Nate fumed, directing his glare at Eliot, who merely stared at the ceiling. He refused to look at his boss for fear it might start a physical fight. In his condition, he could still take Nate, he was sure, but it would hurt.

"Right, I broke my leg on purpose." Eliot gestured to said leg, as if to prove his point.

Nate was unimpressed. "You probably did, just to get out of this. And now who has to take your place? Me!" He was back to pacing again.

"You're acting as if this is the worst thing in the world," Eliot began, then winced when Nate leveled him yet another death glare. "Okay, I see your point, but you'll get through it. Need I remind you that you're the one who came up with this particular plan?"

"Don't remind me," Nate complained. It went without saying that if he'd known Eliot would go and break his leg through sheer negligence, he would have thought of something different.

"Hardison gave me this questionnaire," Parker entered the room with a flourish, handing a set of papers to Eliot.

"Oh no. These go to him." Eliot, in turn, pointed at Nate, who sank into a chair and put his head in his hands. "As you can see, I'm in no condition to play the part anymore."

Parker wondered why Eliot looked so evilly…gleeful. "I forgot about your leg," she said, trying to sound sympathetic, but it was difficult. He had only himself to blame.

"I know it's hard to remember, seeing as I've had it in a cast for a week."

The sarcasm was lost on Parker who merely shrugged and started lecturing him on proper safety harness protocol. He could have throttled her, but his leg prevented it. Yes, his leg, that was the reason he would go with.

Once she'd thoroughly harangued Eliot, Parker turned to Nate, eyeing him with a healthy amount of skepticism. "You can't be serious that people are supposed to believe you are my – my –" she stuttered over the word, her mouth somehow unable to form it.

"Fiancé?" Eliot laughed, as Nate shook his head in denial. He could not get through this, not with Parker. With Sophie, now that would have been incredibly easy, and not just because of their past. Sophie had a way of becoming her character, and those around her easily coasted on her own brilliant acting. It was as if she, being so good, cast some of that talent onto those acting with her.

Parker was good at what she did, but acting? It had never exactly been her strong point. He eyed her warily as she looked him up and down. Sophie entered the room and arched an eyebrow inquiringly.

"I don't see it," Parker said finally, tilting her head to the side. "I don't think anyone will believe it."

"I concur," Sophie said, "we should draft Hardison for this role. He and Parker get along much better than you two." She flicked her gaze from Nate to Parker and back again.

"We get along well enough," Parker sounded almost as if she were sulking. "But I would never be engaged to someone who wore that," she informed Nate, who looked down at his shirt and khakis as if to find what was wrong with them. "For future reference, I prefer blue, it brings out your eyes."

"I'll get a new wardrobe just for you, Parker." He said dryly, and she smiled broadly in response. "And Sophie, Hardison can't do this, we need him behind the scenes." They'd already had this argument when Eliot had been assigned as Parker's fiancé – after all, Eliot had liked the idea no better than Nate currently did.

Sophie opened her mouth, but Nate cut her off. "And you can't be my fiancée, because they already know you."

"But no one knows about my personal life," Sophie countered. "I could very well be engaged."

He shook his head. "It's too risky; it's playing two roles and puts you at even more risk of making a mistake – not that I think you would. But it's impractical. I think we have to accept this is the best way to go about it. Both of us, Parker," He added, before she could protest again.

Parker took a seat at the table and tapped her fingers in impatience. He was always doing that, acting as if she were going to be the major problem on one of their jobs. And was it really so terrible to have to pretend to be with her? First Eliot had thrown that major fit about how she was impossible and actually stormed out, the baby. Just because she had a few suggestions for him about what to do and what not to do. Everyone knew it would help him get into character if he started acting the part for real, like running her errands, but of course he didn't see it that way. Nate had taken his side, as usual.

And now here was Nate, with his abject misery at the thought of pretending to be engaged to her. She narrowed her eyes at him as he and Eliot whispered amongst themselves. If he didn't man up, she would show him misery. The thought made her feel better and she smiled. It must have looked somewhat predatory because both Eliot and Nate stopped to shoot wary glances in her direction.

"You boys make everything so much harder than it has to be," she said breezily. "I'm one of the easiest people to get along with and –"

Everyone started laughing, as if she'd said something hysterical. Hardison could barely control himself as he wheezed, "Parker – Parker, thanks, I needed that."

"You're not exactly easy, Parker," Eliot added, once he'd calmed down. "Remember how you wanted me to get your dry cleaning and do your shopping, and clean your apartment?"

"It would have forced you to pretend to care," Parker said, so low he almost couldn't hear her. "I thought it would make it easier when you had to do the real thing in public."

He became slightly uncomfortable, perhaps sensing some truth to her words, but ignored it and rolled his eyes. "Come on, you just wanted a personal shopper and maid. You were trying to see what you could get out of the situation!"

"Because I knew very well how miserable you were at the idea, you said as much, many times! As if you're so easygoing, maybe you should look at yourself every once in awhile." She found herself getting louder, not quiet yelling, but far too close.

"I think we all need to calm down –" Sophie began, but Eliot interrupted her.

"Of course I was upset," Eliot yelled, standing up, which was no easy feat seeing as one leg was broken. "I can't work with you, you always go off to do your own thing! You always make it harder than it has to be and I'm suddenly supposed to keep you in line? No thanks! You know, Nate accused me of breaking my own leg on purpose so I wouldn't have to deal with you, and I didn't, but if I hadn't broken it by accident I think I would have done it on purpose." He was breathing heavily by the time he was done, and regretted his words almost instantly. Even though he was upset and his words held some truth, it was only going to make things harder.

Parker was prepared to yell back at him, but his words sunk in after a moment. She abruptly shut her mouth. His arguments would have been comical if he weren't so deadly serious. She crossed her arms in an unconsciously protective gesture and switched her gaze from Eliot to Nate and back again. "I think I understand."

"Parker," Eliot sighed, internally debating what to say. He needn't have worried, for she started speaking again.

"You'd rather throw yourself out a window than work with me. Or is it just pretending to be engaged to me that causes so much trouble? And you feel exactly the same," she accused, turning to Nate. She tried to hold onto the anger because it kept the pain at bay. She'd had no idea their issues with her ran so deep.

"I didn't mean that," Eliot tried, but she left the room without another word.

Hardison cleared his throat nervously. "That was intense, ya'll need to take some pills or start drinking or something," he paused and cast a guilty look at Nate, who ignored the comment. "Find something to lessen the tension around here. Maybe we should attend a teamwork seminar or something…" he kept rambling on, though no one was listening.

"Men," Sophie shook her head in exasperation. "I'll go talk to her."

"No, I'll go apologize," Eliot said, even as Hardison stood up to follow Parker, still talking about how he couldn't work productively in such an unstable environment.

"All of you sit down," Nate said, dreading what any of them would say to her. Eliot would probably start yelling again. And he knew Sophie would somehow get Parker to agree that Sophie was best taking over her part. Hardison would be better, but Nate knew that she needed to hear something from him. Besides, he needed Hardison to work on getting into Liam West's office computer servers.

"You all know what you need to do to prepare. I'll be back." He thought for a moment. "Maybe in several hours."

"Good luck," Hardison smirked, which quickly disappeared when Nate turned to glare at him.

He waited to make sure they were all suitably busy before leaving. The problem was that no one (himself included) really ever thought of Parker as having feelings. She seemed so unaffected by everything that it was often incredibly easy to forget she cared about anything at all. It made him wonder how often they inadvertently hurt her. It was probably much more often than they knew about, and that stirred up such unexpected feelings of guilt and regret that he quickly cast the thoughts from his mind.

He'd simply find her and apologize for the insensitivity of their colleagues, and everything would be fine. Because everything was always that easy with Parker, right? Right. He clamped down on the uneasiness he felt and convinced himself he had nothing to worry about.

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TBC – soon, I swear! All thoughts welcome.