A/N: A couple of things in my RL, including losing everything on my hard-drive, have kept me from updating this. I'm not actually that happy with this chapter, but it's not going to get any better the more I stare at it. It's rather short, and the plot doesn't go anywhere, but maybe it'll help kick-start my Muse again. Try not to be haters, even if it sucks.

Disclaimer: I own everything.

WARNING: See chapter one.

Don't Let the Haters Hate

Present:

"You… I…"

Parker stared at the wall, the floor, the wonderful rendition of a decrepit future Nate – anything to avoid having to look Eliot in the face. Because while she refused to feel guilty about this, she could practically feel his glare burning a hole into her favourite sweater.

"Parker, what the Hell were you…"

He trailed off again, nostrils flaring, and abruptly stood up and began pacing. His entire body was tense, his stride clipped and angry, and Parker looked down at her hands and tried desperately not to feel like a naughty five year old.

"Do you have any idea how scared we were? How scared I was? How do you think I felt when I pulled in front of the White House, and saw my car, with you sitting in the front seat, go up in flames?"

Flash Back: Five Days Ago

"There's something wrong with you!"

He'd said it before. Hell, they'd all said it so many times he'd started to lose count. But something was different this time.

Normally Parker would laugh it off or flash one of her creepy little smiles when people – he – made comments like that, but this time… Maybe it was his imagination, but he could have sworn he saw hurt in her eyes before she closed off and stormed out of the meeting in the middle of Hardison's narrative.

And now Sophie was raising her eyebrows at him, and Nate was giving him one of those looks of his.

"What?" Eliot asked defensively. "There is!"

Sophie just shook her head and walked off, while Nate continued to stare doggedly. Looking worried, Hardison spared the hitter a dark look as well before jogging out of the room, calling after Parker, "Baby girl!"

Nate was still looking at him, and, beginning to feel edgy and a bit guilty against his will, he muttered an even more defensive, "What, Nate?"

Not looking away, the un-official leader/boss/sort-of-father-figure to the team pulled out a chair in front of him and sat down. Quietly but with a gravity Eliot couldn't ignore, Nate said, "I've been meaning to speak to you about that: the things you say to Parker."

"Yeah? What about them?" This defensive feeling really wasn't going away, and it was kind of getting annoying.

Shooting him a reproachful look, Nate linked his fingers loosely together and leaned his elbows on the table, saying: "Eliot, I get that you've probably gotten used to not being around people, you're accustomed to working alone and… and that you haven't been a part of a team in a long time. I get that, I do. But you have to think before you say things sometimes; particularly towards people who are more… inclined towards… sensitivity."

Honestly perplexed and getting frustrated, Eliot grunted, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"More specifically," Nate continued, ignoring him, "You need to watch what you say around Parker. She's a bit… odd, I know that, but you can't keep telling her she's weird, or that there's something wrong with her. People like you and me, comments like that are like water off a ducks back. But people like Parker, and even Sophie? They take it personally, even if they don't like showing it. And it hurts them. A lot."

Giving him a particularly intense look, Nate finished softly, "Don't tell me you missed that look on her face when she was leaving the room today."

A feeling of shame washed over him as Eliot acknowledged that, yes, he had caught the look.

Nate obviously realized this too, because he nodded, and said just as softly, "I trust you to fix this, Eliot; because if I find out that you haven't, or if we have to have this conversation again, I'm going to be doing a lot more than talking."

And while he might be comfortable in the knowledge that he could put an average human out of commission in under ten seconds, and though he was able to keep his face mostly impassive, Eliot still felt a shiver of apprehension run down his spine as he nodded.

"Good. Then I'll see you when we our next job turns up."

Present:

As he paced the floor in front of an unnaturally subdued Parker, Eliot considered with a regretful grimace how all of this might have been avoided if he'd just gone looking for Parker immediately and apologized.

But he hadn't gone immediately. In fact, he'd still been building up the courage to talk to her when the call came.

Flash Back: Yesterday

Eliot slammed the door so hard it rattled in its frames, but Nate was making enough noise of his own that it barely registered with anyone in the room.

"You what?" Nate was shouting, and he looked and sounded so pissed that Eliot would have been surprised if he wasn't hadn't been feeling exactly the same way.

"Just what I was going to ask," he said. He managed to say it calmly, more calmly than he'd thought he could manage under the circumstances, but it still surprised Sophie and Nate enough that they jumped slightly.

Sophie took a deep breath and headed towards him, asking, "Eliot, have you-"

"Yeah, I heard." Ah, there was the anger. He closed his right fist into a white-knuckled grip as he imagined all the ways he was going to kick Parker's ass for doing something so monumentally stupid.

"The White House? She's breaking into the White House and-and you let her?" Nate, having overcome his surprise, continued shouting.

"Wait, is that Hardison? Where's Parker?" Eliot cut in again incredulously. His eyebrows furrowing, he moved within eye-sight of the large screen, where only Hardison was in view. As he became visible to the screen's built in camera, Eliot thought he could see Hardison visibly shrink.

Good, he thought darkly. If he's done what I think he has, he should be afraid.

"Yeah, apparently someone-" Hardison flinched at the emphasis put on 'someone', "-thought it would be a good idea to help her, without telling any of us!"

Eliot exchanged a pissed look with Nate as Sophie interjected, "Nevermind that, I just want to know what could have possessed Parker to do this! After what happened with the Steranko system, she knows better! And you, Hardison, should have known better than to let her!"

After a moment wherein they all glared at Hardison, and Hardison did his best to look anywhere but at them, Nate sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"No, I know what brought this on. She's trying to prove something to herself – or, no. More likely, she's trying to prove something to us. Eliot, I think this has something to do with what you said to her on Friday."

Eyes widening, Sophie turned to Nate in a low voice that Eliot could barely make and said, "You're right, it makes sense. She was hurt by what Eliot said, and now she's 'acting out' to prove to us or herself that the accusations have no basis."

Not liking how focus was turning back towards him, Eliot interjected roughly, "You're talking about her like she's a child."

For some reason, Hardison was glaring at him now, so the hitter upped the level of his own glare a notch until the hacker backed down.

"Well, in some ways - at least mentally - I think she still is," Sophie replied. "She's obviously never had a proper childhood, a family, and it shows in the way she interacts with us. Anyone can see she looks to Nate as a father-figure, and you, Eliot, as a sort of brother. Although me, I couldn't say for sure, and Hardison… well," she finished with a small smile. "In any case, I believe she's just acting out. Similar to how a child would respond under similar circumstances."

While Hardison blushed and stammered out excuses, Eliot turned to Nate and said, "So, what's the plan?"

This whole business with Parker's feelings was making him feel all guilty and confused again, so Eliot did his best to push it out of his mind and concentrate on getting her out. Again.

We are definitely going to have a talk when you get back, he thought grimly.

Nate sighed again. "The White House… dammit. Well, I guess we're just gonna have to plan as we go and hope for the best."

"Yeah, because that always works out so well," Eliot snorted sarcastically.

Suddenly, a loud blaring noise began issuing through the speakers. Jerking in surprise, Hardison began running his fingers crazily over the keyboard, the white's of his eyes vividly bright against the darkness of his surroundings.

"Hardison… Hey, Hardison!" Eliot shouted. "What's going on?"

"Uh, someone just triggered the alarm system," the hacker stammered out, fingers continuing their crazy dance. "The firewall's coming up FAST. She needs to get out of there, now. Excuse me."

Hardison cut the connection without any further explanation, and Eliot banged his fist on the counter in frustration.

"Nathan…"

Nate nodded decisively and said, "Yeah, I know. Com-mon guys; we need to go figure out how to steal ourselves the White House..."

Sophie followed after Nate as he headed towards the door, pausing momentarily to put a hand on Eliot's arm. "Don't worry, Eliot; we'll get her. Nothing bad's going to happen to her."

"It'd better not," Eliot muttered after her back, "Or I'm going to kill the girl myself."

It was only once they were heading towards their vehicles that Eliot finally noticed.

He was putting in his earpiece as he walked, going over a mental risk-assessment of the situation, when he halted mid-step in his tracks as it occurred to him what was wrong with the picture in front of him.

"Nate…" Eliot whispered before he started yelling loudly enough to wake the cows, "WHERE THE HELL IS MY CAR?"

Both Nate and Sophie also stopped in their tracks, and together they all stared at the blank emty parking space where Eliot's car used to be.

It was a few seconds before Eliot said, in a hushed, dangerous whisper:

"She didn't."

A/N: Like I said, short. But hopefully at least a little sweet? :D
And I would bet my left foot that you, my reader, totally missed my awesome new disclaimer. Uhuh, that's right, go check it out again, and maybe that'll teach you to read my precious author's notes. OH SNAP!