They'd been working a job and she had gotten in the way. She didn't mean to, and he certainly didn't blame her for being there, but if she had just stayed where he had told her instead of coming out when she heard the fighting then she would have been fine.
It should have been easy. In and out in less than an hour, but nothing seemed to be going their way on this one.
Sophie was doing the best she could to keep the CEO in the dark about what was happening, Nate was trying to find them another way out for them, Hardison was doing the best he could with everything and anything tec in the van with Nate, Parker was also trying to find a way out of the building for them with Eliot hot on her heels because just walking out like they'd planed was no longer an option, and Eliot was just trying to make sure that neither him nor their thief got shot. Less than two minutes and all the guards had been unarmed and had to fight hand to hand…or so he'd thought.
His blood ran cold when he heard her yell out in pain. He turned to see that one of them had had a knife.
Now Eliot Spencer did not get scared. When a gun was held to his head he gave it a cold look then knocked the person behind it out cold. He scoffed at how most fought with a knife, and in a fist fight you knew who would be walking into the winners circle. But when he turned to see Parker holding her stomach with a red hand and a thug holding a knife with her blood dripping off of it, it took all of his self-control to not kill anyone that got in his way as he ran to her.
He reached her just as she started to fall to her knees. "Didn't see the knife." She said to him then smiled apologetically. Her eyes started to flutter and he took her face in his rough hands as gently as he could to catch her attention.
"You can't sleep yet sweetheart. We've gotta patch ya up first. Come on."
He picked her up bridal style before running out of the building, retelling everyone what had happened over the comms.
They got back to HQ as fast as they could while Eliot sat in the back with Parker, making sure that the bleeding stopped. He thanked whatever God there was when it did stop and he saw that it wasn't as deep as he thought it had been. They wouldn't need to go to a hospital, which was the good news.
They went through the back of the bar and up to Nate's place. Eliot was carrying Parker, doing his best to be gentle, talking to her the whole time. He didn't want her passing out before he got a chance to see what damage had been done.
An hour after everything had calmed down; Sophie went up to Nate's room to check on the two that hadn't been seen since they got back. She opened the door quietly so as not to wake Parker if she was sleeping. The sight that welcomed her was not one she thought she would ever see.
Parker was indeed asleep, lying on her back with bandages around her middle. But what made her smile that of a mother's was that Eliot was laid out on the bed as well. His feet hanging over the side and Parker's head on his own stomach, his fingers running softly through her hair. Sophie had never seen the hitter be this gentle with anybody and it warmed her heart that Parker was able to bring out this side of him without even knowing it.
Eliot opened his eyes to see her in the doorway. "She didn't want to be left alone and she kept trying to curl into a ball." He said to her unasked question.
Sophie nodded and walked out of the room. What she didn't see was the smile Eliot gave the small blonde that was on top of him. A smile that could only be described as loving.