Title: The Lost Lamb Job
Author: Trowa B
Rating: Gen/G
Notes: I should go to bed earlier. This bunny attacked late at night on twitter...
Summary: Lost lambs and good shepards...
*****
Eliot almost – almost – flails a little when someone abruptly tugs on the back of his shirt, spinning and dropping into a fighting stance in one slick move, ready to do damage, only to find no-one in his line of sight.
Confused, he blinks and looks down, relaxing as he realises that the person who had tugged is a little girl. She's about six, he figures, with dark eyes and dark hair and a curiously old look on her face. She's clutching the hand of a younger boy who is turning more red in the face as seconds pass and looks about ready to burst into tears.
"Well hey there, darlin'," he greets softly, bobbing down so that he's on her level and carefully disregarding Hardison's protest that he doesn't have to listen to this sorta thing. "Where's your mama?"
Sophie chimes in – more for Hardison's ears than Eliot's – that it's two kids and what kind of parent lets their kids just wander off at something like a county fair. He ignores that too. He got lost more times than he can count as a kid at these things.
The girl's face crumples at his question.
"We stopped to look at a pony!" she sobs, "And Daddy left us!"
"Aw, c'mon now, darlin'," he soothes, "I'm sure he didn't mean to. He's probably as scared as you right now." He holds his arms out for the two of them and scoops them up as they press close. They can't have come far and he's pretty sure he knows which horses they were looking at.
*****
Parker's there when they arrive, munching on the last of a stick of cotton candy and Eliot's already plotting ways to palm her off on one of the others when she spots him and bounds over.
"Hey Parker," he greets dryly, putting the kids down. "Kids, this is my friend Parker. Parker, meet Mary and Jimmy. Their daddy should be round here somewhere."
There's a choked noise over the comms – it sounds suspiciously like one of Nate's 'you're doing what?' noises – but he ignores it in favour of eying Parker assessingly.
Five minutes to find an official, he figures. He watches as Parker settles the little boy on her knee and retrieves a coin from behind his ear. The little boy sniffs and, with a child's fascination for all things shiny, reaches out to take it.
Five minutes can't hurt, he decides.
Much.
*****
When he returns, Parker is teaching the two fascinated children to pick a lock. They're watching her with wide, intrigued eyes and, as he looks on, Parker hands the lock and pick to Mary and breaks out a stopwatch.
Jimmy spots him as he leans on the fence of the corral which had caused this trouble in the first place and runs over, chubby arms extended in a classic, 'Up!' request and Eliot complies, standing him on the middle rail of the fence and holding him up as he hears the announcement about the two children go out over the tannoy.
"Won't be long," he tells the boy who is far too wrapped up in patting the closest horse to pay him any heed. Much as he likes kids, he doesn't want to skip out on his part of the research and end up with a nasty surprise because he was riding herd on two rug-rats.
Someone behind him uses a very bad word, but before he can turn and emphasise how bad it is to swear in front of kids, Jimmy pipes up with, "Daddy said a bad word!"
Eliot turns and, with an amused expression, takes in Jim Sterling in jeans and a flannel shirt as Mary squeals in delight and throws herself at him. "Yup," he agrees with the boy. "Sure did."
Sensing an ally, Jimmy looks up at Sterling from where Eliot has placed him on the ground and says, "That's a dollar in the swear box, Daddy!"
Sterling looks from Jimmy to Eliot and Eliot flashes him the most diabolical smirk in his arsenal. Luckily for all concerned, the man is distracted by Mary waving the padlock and lock-pick Parker had given her at him - and explaining in a high-speed chatter about how she could pick it in eight seconds - and he freezes.
"You let her teach my daughter how to pick locks?" he demands in a horrified tone.
Eliot shrugs. "Wasn't going ta stop her when she'd got 'em all calmed down'n quiet," he informs the man as Nate stumbles to a halt behind Sterling and Mary's eyes go wide with delight as she turns back to Eliot.
"Are you the guys who work with Uncle Nate?" she demands, eyes sharp and eager, all signs of earlier distress gone. "Because Daddy says we're not allowed to see him any more because he works with crooks. Are you a crook? You don't look like a crook, but that would be so cool!" She cants her head at him. "So are you?" Without waiting for an answer, she peers round Sterling, who is apparently wishing that the floor would open up and swallow him and waves. "Hi Uncle Nate," she chirrups and Nate smiles slightly and waves back, somewhat bemused.
Fighting back the dark flush creeping up his neck and across his face, Sterling turns to Nate. "One free pass," he says. "And this never happened."
Parker leans on Eliot, watching the show for a moment before crouching and waving a padlock and lock-pick at Jimmy. Sterling is almost fast enough to catch the boy before he gets his hands on them.
Almost.
"Will you stop your reprobates corrupting my kids!" he snaps at Nate, who smirks.
"C'mon, Sterling," he drawls, "You know Janie's collecting them later." His tone is amused and Sterling narrows his eyes slightly before agreeing.
"You may have a point." He looks down speculatively at the two children, obviously considering something. "C'mon kids," he says after a moment, "Uncle Nate says he'll buy you cotton candy."
Nate almost protests, but Eliot and Parker abruptly have him by the arms, dragging him towards the nearest vendor. "Yeah," Eliot agrees, to the refrain of Hardison's 'Hey! I want some too!' and Sophie's 'Don't you dare give Parker more sugar!' – "C'mon, Uncle Nate. You said you'd buy the kids cotton candy."