Chapter 1
Parker looked at Hardison's loving brown eyes, whenever she looked at them she thought she would get lost, so always broke the connection before she wanted to. "I think… I think I'm having unusual feelings for…" she paused and looked up, suddenly all the confidence she had was gone. Her mind scrambled to find something to say, why doesn't she just come out and say it? Why can't she say she's in… That's the thing, she doesn't know WHAT she's feeling, and she just knows she's feeling something she has never felt before. Her childhood was full of abandonment and suffering, not one of love. All she knows is whenever she's with him, she gets a weird feeling in her stomach, her heart beats faster, and she can't help but blush a little. Parker looks down at the bar table, and sees pretzels in the bowl, just waiting to be eaten. "Pretzels." Looking up from her hands, she sees Hardison looking at her with care. "Well, pretzels will always be here for you, and wait for you until you're ready." He smiled, tapped the table with his knuckled, downed his beer, and left the bar. Stunned at what he said, Parkers brain was telling her to chase him, but her body was not letting for budge from her seat. Then, she bolted, out the door and down the street. "Hardison!" She screamed, seeing his black skin blend with the cool, dark night. Running as fast as she could, she saw his figure turn to face her, frozen in his spot. When she finally reached him, she was out of breath, "Hard...Hardison, I don't like pretzels like that." His face was full of confusion, not quite getting what she was blabbering on about. "I just panicked, and I didn't say what I was trying to say." Suddenly, she felt him touch her arm, when she looked, he smiled. "I know you'll tell me what you mean when you feel completely and utterly ready." He turned to leave, sadness covering his face, only because it meant she wasn't completely ready for him.
Chapter 2
Again, Parker was stunned at his response. Why wasn't he pushing to know the answer? Why hadn't he said, "Dammit Parker!" Like Elliot did. Then she knew, it's because he was Hardison, not Elliot, not Nate, and not Sophie, Hardison, the person she could always know was there when she needed someone to lean on and to tell what was bothering her, the one who didn't push, and let her do things on her own time (unless they were on a case). That's when she knew, this is what love felt like. Running again to catch up with Hardison who, while she was thinking about all this, had continued his walk to his apartment. She had gotten all the way to his apartment and knocked on the door. "Hello who is i…" His sentence got cut off due to Parkers lips crushed against his. At first he was shocked, and wasn't responding to the kiss. Thinking this meant he didn't feel the same way, Parker quickly stopped, quietly apologized, and turned to leave, only to be grabbed by the arm and turned around. His lips came into contact with hers and there was no going back.
Chapter 3
That night they watched Doctor who and Star trek all night, not needing to get all mushy yet, they just wanted to enjoy each other's company. Parker was curled into Hardisons side, with her feet curled under the end of the couch. Hardison had her arm around her, not wanted to let her go, and his head on top of hers. Parker closed her eyes at around 1 in the morning not wanted to fall asleep because it might mean having to go home. She felt Hardisons chest go up and down, and his heart beat at an even pace, and his breath hit the top of her head. Hardison heard Parker sigh, and look down. Her flowing blond hair covering his arm while her arm was on his lap. She looked so peaceful. He kissed the top of her head and felt her relax, and then feel her breathing turn to a calming pace, she had fallen asleep. Not wanting to walk her, he thought about either leaving her on the couch or picking her up and bringing her to his bed. After little thought, he gently picked her up and carried her to his room. She woke up, and moaned, he whispered in her ear, "Shh its ok I got you, don't worry, go back to sleep." Parker raised her hand to his cheek and then kissed it, "Don't leave me, I don't want to be alone." Nodding, he put her on one side of the bed, changed into his Polar bear pajama pants, and got in on the other side. Instantly, Parker rolled over to snuggle with him, and they fell asleep like that, wrapped in each other's arms, finally together.
Chapter 4
Parker dreamed, and when she dreamed, it wasn't a good dream. They were on the job, trying to take down a corrupt sales company. Hardison was undercover and working close to the owner, trying to get him to invest in their 'fast food company'. But they caught scent of his trial, and got his bodyguards to take him to a secure location to, 'teach him a lesson.' She sees him getting punched and kicked, and thrown around the small, cement room. They try to get him to talk, to tell them where the rest of his team is, but he doesn't speak, just looks in the man's eyes, and spits in his face. The man explodes, pushes Hardison against the wall and starts beating the crap outta him, punching his stomach and his face. Finally, he has enough of going 'easy' on him, and takes his right arm. Slowly, he breaks each of his fingers, each time asking who he's working with before breaking the next, but Hardison doesn't speak. She hears him scream in pain as each finger gets destroyed. She tries to scream at them to stop, to get Hardison to tell them where they are, but they don't hear her. The man moves from the right hand to the left, doing the same process. Break, who are you working for, silence, repeat. Parker can't handle it, tears are running down her face and she turns away, afraid of what the outcome will be. After all 8 fingers and 2 thumbs are broken, he moves to the elbows. Taking hold of either side of Hardisons arm, he pushes hard. Hardison screams at the top of his lungs, tears running down his face. Finally, there's a big crack, and a horrendous scream, and a loud laugh. "Tell us where your team is, and we will spare your other arm." Tears are streaming down Hardisons face, the two men can tell he's trying to stay strong but is slowly breaking. He looks up, determination in his lovely brown eyes, "I will NEVER tell you who my team is, you can break all the bones in my body, hell, you can kill me, but you will never know who my team is." The men are taken aback by this statement, but quickly recover, "You have made a fatal mistake." Then, without warning, the man snaps Hardisons bone in half. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Hardison screams, Parker is crying, she can't stand this, she's forgotten it's a dream, she's forgotten that in reality, Hardison is lying beside her, completely intact. In her dream, the men laugh at Hardisons screams of pain and the tears flowing freely down his cheeks. The man pulls his jacket away, reveling a gun, "Sure you don't want to tell us where your team is?" Hardison looks at what used to be his arms, closes his eyes, and says with all the strength he has left, "Do it." The man smiles, loads the gun, puts it to his head and….
Chapter 5
"NO!" Parker wakes up with a start, tears all over her face and chest. Hardison is already awake, trying to calm her down, "Mama, calm down, shh, it's ok, calm down, it's ok." Smoothing her hair and speaking calming words, he hears Parker trying to speak, "You, he, they, your arm, the gun, the men, con." But her brains so confused nothings coming out right. "Shh babe, I'm right here, calm down, deep breaths, that's it, breath in then out, it's ok Parker, shh calm down everything's fine, shh." Finally she had calmed down enough to speak. "What happened mama? Did you have a bad dream?" That causes Parker to break down again, telling Hardison everything that happened. While she's speaking, Hardison is smoothing out her hair and holding her close, listening intently to what she's saying. Once she's finished, Hardison holds her at arm's length, and makes her look him in the eyes, "Parker, it's ok, I'm right here, I'm not going to leave you, ever, don't worry I'll be safe, come here." He pulls her into a hug, letting her tears fall onto his shirt, just letting her know he's there, and he won't leave until she's ready. After around 45 minutes, she pulled away, wiping the rest of her tears on her hand, "I'm sorry, I've put tear stains on your shirt." He smiles, and says its fine; it's a bedtime shirt anyways. She rises from the bed and walks out to the kitchen; all that crying made her hungry. If you had looked at her, you'd see the tear stains on her cheeks and her puffy red eyes. They ate breakfast on the couch, Hardison not letting go of Parker and just letting her relax into him while she eats her cereal. After a little while, their phones rang, indicating that Nate had picked up another job, so they got cleaned up, and after a long hug, headed hand in hand down to the bar.
Chapter 6
Once everyone had made it to Headquarters, Nate asked Hardison to start the briefing. "Meet Mr. Logan A. Henderson, Owner of a Boston sales company, currently taking thousands of dollars from people around the world and investing in corrupt companies, causing the people to lose all their money. He currently is in Boston, but soon will move to one of his other company's locations, so we have to act fast." Hardison turned to Parker, only to see a horrified look on her face. How could this be, wasn't what I saw just a dream? Hardison could tell something was bothering her, but before he could ask what was wrong, Nate started telling everyone the plan, "Ok guys here's what's going to happen, Hardison, you and Sophie will go undercover and try to get Mr. Henderson to invest in your company, while that's happening, Elliot and Parker, you two will become interested investors in his company, and if everything works out, when he excepts our company and invest lots of money in it, you will invest in us to, and then we will scram. Sound good everyone?" Everyone nodded except Parker, who was in her own little world thinking about this whole thing. "I don't think we should do this," Parker said suddenly, "I don't have a good feeling about this, we should skip it and move onto another case." The team looked at her in shock, what was she talking about? Nate just shrugged this off, "No we will do this case and we will take him down. Hardison, Sophie, get ready, today you go and meet with Mr. Henderson." They nodded and headed out, before Hardison left, he looked at Parker and smiled, as if to say, "Everything will be fine, trust me."
Chapter 7
The next morning Sophie and Hardison went to have a meeting with Mr. Henderson, everything was going relatively smooth, and they could tell he was still being skeptical but they knew after a little bit they would have him. "Mr. Henderson," Sophie said confidently, "My partner and I are leaving for another business in two days; we would like to know your answer by tomorrow so we can discuss details before our departure." She smiled her special and tapped his arm, one of the many ways to get people to do what she's saying. Mr. Henderson looked surprised at this gestured, then smiled, "Well I'll have to look at the fine print but it looks like you have yourself a deal Ms.?" Sophie smiled and said, "Ms. Florentent." "Well Ms. Florentent looks like you have yourself a new partner." Hardison smiled, he loved watching Sophie in action, she might suck on stage, but on a con, she was golden. After a little more chit chat the two quietly left the building. What they didn't know though, was that Mr. Henderson was on his phone talking to his 'security' and telling them that tomorrow morning, Hardison (AKA Mr. Lawson) would be coming with papers to sign and they should take him to the basement to teach him not to try to scam big business owners.
Everyone met at the HQ for a quick debriefing before all departing to their homes. Hardison and Parker walked hand in hand down the street. When they finally got to Hardisons house, they stopped; there was silence because were trying to figure out what to say. "Hardison," Parker said finally, "What are we?" He smiled, looking at her beautiful eyes and sighing, "We are whatever you want us to be." Parker thought about this, what did she want them to be? After many seconds, she looked up and said, "We are Parker and Hardison, and you are my boyfriend." Hardison let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding and smiled, "I can live with that." He leaned down and kissed her gently, and felt Parkers hands rising to his next and deepening the kiss. "Wanna go upstairs and watch some TV or something?" Hardison said breathlessly, "I like watching movies with you." Before she spoke, she led Hardison up the stairs to his door, and then replied with a quiet yes. So they entered the apartment, about to do more than just watch Dr. Who.