A/N : Hello!... Here's the second edition of the prompt based fics... This awesome prompts was sent in by B who wrote :

E/P- SPCA Parker rescues too many animals and makes (breaks in and leaves them) each of the team take some. 2K words :)

Sorry B... I don't know if this is quite what you wanted but I hope you like it anyway... and I exceeded your word limit by around 800 words... plz don't mind... anyways, I am blown away by the amazing response to this thing here... I loved getting all those prompts guys... just keep 'em coming and I'll try n get them all out as soon as I can. Review your thoughts about this chapter and others to help me get better... :)


Eliot Spencer wasn't having a good day, and it was only seven in the morning. Even the bike ride down to the offices at Nate's loft didn't do much to make him feel better cuz for the first time in a long time, there wasn't a crazy blonde riding pillion, clutching at him as if she was gonna fall off if she didn't... not that he minded it one bit. He hadn't slept very well the previous night either, also thanks to the crazy blonde... or rather, thanks to the absence of the aforementioned blonde.

Eliot knew that he'd changed a whole lot since he'd started working with the Leverage Associates team. He'd never worked on a team before... none of them had, but now, after a couple of years of working and going through a lot of things together, he couldn't even remember how he'd managed to live and work alone for such a long time.

There were a couple of drawbacks that came along with working as a part of a team... He didn't have the privacy that he'd prized above everything else before. Now, not so much... he actually liked being bugged by Hardison... when that had happened, he had no clue. He had to go along with plans laid down by someone else, something else that he'd never done before.

It helped a lot in the beginning that he'd trusted Nate. Now, Nate numbered among his few close friends, along side Sophie and Hardison. He'd have listed Parker among his short list of friends even a couple of months ago, but now, everyone knew that Parker meant much more to the hitter than just friends. They'd been seeing each other for some time now and Eliot had been surprised at the ease with which both of them, certified loners before, had adjusted to the contours of their relationship. Of course they had their share of arguments and fights, both of them stubborn and strong minded people, but somehow, the arguments managed to get resolved soon enough.

But today, Eliot was antsy for an entirely different reason. The team had just tackled a hard case, this one involving a mafia boss. That guy was crazy about his pets and Nate had chosen that as their way in. Parker and Hardison had had to play roles of people from the SPCA during the con and though everything had worked out in the end, the thief had been quite worried about the animals that had been involved. Eliot hadn't thought much about it when she sneaked out of bed and left the apartment in the middle of the night, but it was almost seven in the morning now and she had yet to show up.

Opting to climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator, Eliot was still worrying about the non-appearance of his girlfriend when he heard something that had him even more worried. A chorus of yaps, barks, mewing and other assorted animal noises... emanating from Nate's apartment.

"Oh no... no no no no... Please god no..."

What he saw when he opened the door to Nate's loft cautiously, would stay with him for the rest of his life, stored away in the corners of his mind, to be called up whenever he felt down or needed to find a happy memory.

He found Parker sitting on Nate's couch, happily talking to a dark grey kitten that was a Chartreux if he wasn't wrong, while surrounded by a variety of puppies, kittens and other small animals. A Belgian mastiff, the size of a coffee table lay by her feet, looking up at her with adoring eyes. There were tiny little fluff balls everywhere, cuddled into her body in the crook of her shoulder, sleeping in her arms, curled up against her legs. With the early morning sun slanting in through the big picture window behind the couch, his little thief looked like the bonafide angel that she'd been mistaken for once.

At the sound of the door closing, Parker looked up to see her hitter step into the apartment, looking like he'd just walked into an episode of the 'Twilight Zone'. Don't ask how she knew about the show, Hardison was a very bad influence sometimes... The hitter's eyes widened as he took in the profusion of small animals everywhere... literally.

"Hey... Eliot"

Somehow, Parker managed to sound happy, anxious and beseeching at the same time while looking like an adorable three year old who you couldn't help but cuddle even after the kid had gone loco with fingerpaints all over your couch. Sighing at the clean up that the whole team would have to get into because of Parker's late night animal rescue run, Eliot stepped inside the living room, already having to step around a sleeping Alaskan Malamute puppy that looked to be about a year old, and went into the kitchen. He needed more than his daily caffeine fix if he was to deal with this first thing in the morning.

Parker followed him anxiously to the kitchen, as he'd known she would. Turning to face her after filling and turning on the coffee maker, Eliot hadn't even opened his mouth to ask her a question when they heard footsteps stumbling down the stairs from the bedroom where Nate slept

"What the- PARKER?"

Cringing at the yell from the mastermind, Parker silently slid behind the solid form of her boyfriend, using him as a shield while pushing him out the kitchen into the living room. Parker knew that Eliot couldn't be pushed around if he didn't want to but she needed him around when she tried to explain her actions because she knew that however screwed up her logic would sound to the others, he always understood her.

Nate's angry eyes softened a little at the sight of the thief hiding behind the hitter and the hitter allowing her to do that. He knew that both Eliot and Parker had been staunch loners, unable to have lasting relationships with normal people, in Parker's case and unwilling to even try to reach out to another person, in Eliot's case. Now as he saw the thief totally comfortable in both the physical and emotional sense around Eliot and how Eliot was completely fine with Parker being her own crazy but adorable self, Nathan Ford was happy that it was finally going right for his team.

But that didn't get them out of the mess that Parker had found fit to get them into. There were animals all over his living room... cute.. little... furballs... come on Nate, focus... right, right. Yeah... there was a huge dog slobbering all over his rug, a couple of squirrels running up and down Hardison's monitors, a kitten trying to make a snack out of the goldfish that he'd paid way more than it was worth...

Eliot followed his eyes and quickly snatched up the brown stripped kitty, holding it against his body and stroking it's head absently as he looked around the house, calculating just how many of the critters were currently calling Nate's loft home. There seemed to be atleast nine different dogs of various ages, four kittens, a really fat cat, a rabbit, a hamster that Nate hadn't seen yet in his cereal cupboard and a chameleon that was currently eying Nate's colorful nightshirt very curiously from it's perch on the chandelier.

There had been a slightly fat cat, that seemed to be older than the rest of the animals. Concerned about its health, Eliot was down on his haunches, inspecting the feline closely when they all heard Sophie and Hardison's voices echoing from down the corridor. All three of them stiffened, bracing themselves for the reaction that they knew was coming. But none of them were ready for what they heard.

For the first minute after the door opened, there was complete and utter silence. As Parker cautiously peeked from behind Nate's couch where she'd been hiding, they all heard high pitched screaming, but surprisingly, it wasn't from the source they'd all expected... Sophie. Hardison seemed to be jumping around, pointing at his shoulder, screaming his lungs off while Sophie was busy scanning the room with wide open eyes.

Belatedly, Parker noticed the chameleon which she'd started calling Pasquale in her mind, happily riding on the hacker's shoulder and handing the kitten in her arms over to a slightly bewildered Nate, she calmly walked over to the younger man and plucked the reptile off his multi colored shirt.

About half an hour, some more screaming, some coaxing and outright threatening later, the team had managed to herd all the animals into one single room and assembled in the briefing area, a couple of critters surrounding each one of them. Over the last thirty minutes, most of them had managed to bond with one or more of the animals and were now quite happy with sharing space with them.

Sophie was flanked on either side by a Bichon frise and an Australian terrier while she had a British shorthair cat on her lap. Nate was awkwardly petting a beagle standing at his side, while his other hand lay on a Persian kitten that lay contentedly in his lap.

Eliot was by the kitchen counter, trying to make breakfast for the group while being followed around by the mastiff, which had switched loyalties and the Alaskan Malamute that had been sleeping in the entryway. While Parker was trying to make herself inconspicuous in the corner seat, she had Pasquale on her shoulder, trying valiantly to match her hair color, while the Chartreux kitten she'd been talking to when Eliot came in, sat on her lap, playing with a piece of yarn.

Of the lot, Hardison seemed to be comfortable only around the smaller animals and some kittens so he'd taken his position on the couch accompanied by the hamster and the squirrels. A cute little Texas manx kitten had found its way over to his size eleven shoes and was rubbing up against his legs in an effort to get his attention.

As one, the rest of the team turned to Parker and four pairs of eyes silently asked her to explain her actions. Slowly and quite unsure of what she was gonna say to defend herself and keep the animals, the thief made her way to the center of the space.

"I... I actually don't really have a very good reason. When I went to the shelter with Hardison during the con, I saw all these puppies and kittens shut up in cages there, waiting for someone to take them home. I... I don't know. I just felt like bringing them home you know... They shouldn't have to wait like that for someone to like them and take them home... I just... I'm sorry..."

Parker's voice had progressively softened as the narrative went along and by the end of it, she was crying big, crystal tears. Not waiting for anyone to say anything, she bolted, flying out the door and heading for the roof. Seconds later, cursing under his breath for not noticing it before, Eliot growled out for the others to not follow him and headed up for the roof himself, hoping to find his crying girlfriend before she went back into her emotional shell. The others were too busy trying to regulate the animals that had caught onto the strong emotions in the room and were acting antsy, and didn't see him pick something up before he left.

After searching for a couple of minutes, Eliot found her curled up into a ball, taking up as little space as possible in one corner of the roof. Approaching her silently, he carefully sat down next to her, inching closer until she was flush up against his body. He put an arm around her thin, shaking shoulders and squeezed lightly, before pulling her further into his embrace. Parker was still crying silent tears but she'd stopped shaking now and was allowing herself to snuggle closer to Eliot.

"What happened down there darlin'?... Why did you run off like that? I thought we were gonna work this out... None of us are angry at you for bringin' those critters in, we just wanted to know why you did it sweetheart..."

Still sniffing, Parker swiped a hand at her nose a little inelegantly before she answered him

"I... I don't know. I guess it felt too much like the old orphanages and homes I've been in, just waiting... you know... my life on hold till someone liked the look of me and took me home with them... just to return me back like some defective toy some time later when they found out that I wasn't like what they'd thought I would be like..."

Eliot had guessed this would be the situation, but he couldn't help stiffening in anger at what the beautiful young woman had had to go through in her childhood. He couldn't let himself react now or he wouldn't be able to let Parker get it out of her system.

"I guess... I just didn't want the little puppies and kittens to go through that. I could talk, I could take care of myself after sometime but these little things, they... they can't even do that. I didn't think I guess... I just brought them all to Nate's, hoping that we could do something about it. But I know... there's nothing we can do right?..."

"Baby... I know you want to keep them all, but you know that we keep moving, traveling a lot on the job, so there won't be anyone around to take care of all of them. Each and every one of those animals is very special and requires a lot of care and love. I know you love each and every one of them but don't you agree that they all need good homes to be in?... Have you ever thought of the fact that by bringing them all here, you might be depriving some kid of the perfect pet?..."

"I... I hadn't thought of that..."

Eliot let Parker think this one out by herself as he leaned back against the wall, letting himself relax.

"So... We have to take them back huh?... All of them? Right now?"

"Yeah... They have to go back to the shelter... but not each and every one of them. Here..."

To Parker's surprise, Eliot brought out his hand from behind him, opening the palm to reveal the little chameleon inside.

"You can keep Pasquale... He's gonna be a gift... from me to you"

"H-How did you know?"

"About the chameleon... or the name?"

"Th... The name"

"Oh come on sweetheart... We saw that movie together and I know just how much you liked the chameleon in it... So come on now... let's get downstairs and tell everyone what's gonna happen... okay?"

"Yeah... Okay..."

Just as the pair were about to leave the roof to the staircase, the thief pulled the hitter's arm, turning him around to face her. Standing up on her tiptoes, she pressed a long, sweet kiss on his lips, molding her body to his as they both leaned back against the wall.

"Thank you Eliot... I... I love you."

"I love you too baby... I love you so much..."

Eliot went back in for another soft kiss, before pulling back and wiping the tears off her cheeks

"Now come on before they send out search and rescue for us..."

When they got back to the mastermind's loft, the couple were in for a surprise. Nate, Sophie and Hardison were quite taken with all the animals, and upon Nate's suggestion, they all agreed that they would return the animals to the shelter, but would pay to get the animals taken care of, at least till they got adopted by someone else.

Sophie and Nate ended up keeping the British shorthair, which she called Sherlock, while Hardison's constant companion was the Hamster he'd started calling Kobayashi... and wouldn't hear of changing it to anything else upon being told that it was a very weird name for a hamster.

Eliot secretly made sure his neighbors, a older couple with a lot of time on their hands and a love for dogs, adopted the Belgian Mastiff and the Alaskan Malamute and himself spent a lot of time with the animals whenever he went over for the weekends. Parker of course rarely went anywhere without Pasquale nowadays. The only places he was not allowed inside were Eliot's kitchen for his own safety and Eliot and Parker's bedroom... for reasons other than safety.


A/N : Hope you liked this one B... Review your thoughts people...

P.S. SharkGurl, you'd asked about putting in another prompt... there's no limit to the number of prompts you can give me... jus type 'em in and send them on their way to me... They will become E/P fics at one point of time or the other... Keep reading and reviewing ! :)

Lotsa luv

Macybear