Story 3 – "Mine"

An Eliot/Parker Story

By Brown Eyes Parker

Summary:

Shout-Outs:

Parker Source, Noelle86, saides, Bprice, (and leavenotrace, who reviewed by PM)

To everyone who favorited this story and put it on story alert, thanks to you all

Special thanks to:

Saides, who's helping me out with Parker-isms and the Eliot/Parker pairing until I get the hang of them.

Dedicated to:

Noelle86 because if she hadn't asked about doing a story to "Mine", I wouldn't have done it right away, I was going to do it eventually. But because of her request, I got a good idea sooner.

Disclaimer:

Clearly, I don't own any of the Leverage characters, or the rights to the song "Mine". I do own a broken CD player, and a dozen half-baked ideas for fan fiction, and fiction stories I would like to write one day.

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"I'll look for her," Eliot volunteered late one night in July. "It's my turn anyways, isn't it?"

Hardison gave him a weird look, and then went back to tinkering with his computer without saying anything.

"She's probably around here somewhere," Sophie answered. "Really, I don't think we have anything to worry about Eliot."

"We haven't seen her all day though," her replied. "I'm a little worried about her. I'm going to look for her, with or without your consent Sophie. I don't need it."

This time, Hardison muttered an, 'of course', that was barely distinctive.

"Go on Eliot," Sophie said, ignoring Hardison, she was tired of his petty jealousies. "I'm sure that Parker's fine, but go on."

.

"There you are," Eliot said, finding Parker sitting out by the Charles River. "I've been looking for you everywhere darlin'."

"I didn't feel like coming in today. There was a new art exhibit at the Museum of History, I wanted to check it out." Parker smiled at him oblivious of his concern. She patted the seat beside her. "Do you want to sit?"

"Sure, for a minute." He sat down next to her and then, tentatively, he put his arm around her. He didn't know why he did it, there was just something about the petite blonde in the moonlight that made him want to touch her. . . to hold her close, and protect her. Sitting there, with the moonlight, the fireflies and the boat lights flashing on the water, felt right. Until that moment, he hadn't known his own heart. . . he loved her. If asked, he wouldn't be able to tell when it had happened exactly, but none of that mattered anymore. All he wanted to do was make the thief his.

Growing up, Parker had never known happiness or true love. So, when Eliot put his arm around her, every inch of her froze. The only time a guy touched her like this was when they wanted something. But then, there was something about his touch. . . for some reason, being here with him felt more right than with any other guy.

In a millisecond, for reasons she couldn't explain, Parker began to believe that some form of true love could exist. Didn't Eliot show love for her and the rest of the team in the way he protected them every day?

Her heartbeat sped up as she leaned into his side and closed her own eyes. Maybe, just maybe, she could fall in love with him.

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After that, it was like an unspoken agreement had come up between them. . . to give whatever had transpired between them that night, a chance. They started spending all their free time together, and most days when they were at Nate's apartment, you would find them together on the couch. . . not sitting close, but close enough that the rest of the team began to figure out what was going on between them.

For the first time in her life, Parker truly understood what it was like to belong to another human being, and to have said human being to call her own. She never imagined in a million years that she would fall in love, and if she did think about it. . . she never imagined it would be with Eliot. But now that it happened, she loved loving somebody, and she loved that it was the gruff hitter, who underneath had one of the biggest hearts in the world.

Out of all the people she had known, out of all the possessions she had stolen or bought, he was the best thing that had ever been her's. And she was beginning to like him more than money, which was something that she had never thought possible for her.

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A couple of months later, she was a regular fixture at Eliot's house. There was even a place for some of her things, a spare toothbrush, her favorite button-down shirt, a bright pink hair piece that she put her hair up in while she got ready for bed, and a box of Lucky Charms.

And even though they weren't doing the things that normal couples did, (he was a perfect gentleman in that respect, letting things go slowly, and not rushing the physical intimacy), she was slowly opening up to him. Painful things in her past were surprisingly easy to tell him, she told him secrets that she had kept to herself for ages.

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It was 2am, almost a year later, and Parker was sure that things were over between them. They had had their first huge argument. Sure they had fought before, but it was nothing like this. Before, it had been about petty things, like about how much junk food she ate. . . or what movie they were going to rent on a Friday night. They'd argue about girls that they could set Hardison

up with, or if Sophie and Nate should have stopped dancing around the subject that was their feelings.

Years later, what they had fought about didn't matter anymore. What stuck with Parker was what had happened after the argument was over.

She had run out on Eliot, tears swimming in her eyes, fully prepared to leave everything behind her, including the good memories she had recently made. She was so caught up in her emotions, and her plan to run that she hadn't heard the screen door shut a second time.

And then, somebody caught her by the wrist. She turned around and looked up into Eliot's intense eyes, wiping at her own eyes to hide her distress. She had taken a deep breath, and prepared herself for the goodbye that she had become so accustomed to when something went wrong growing up.

But it didn't come, instead he pulled her into an embrace and asked, "Where are you going darlin'?"

The tenderness in his voice caught her by surprise, and she fought off another wave of tears. For the first time in her life, Parker didn't want to say goodbye, but heard herself saying, "I'm leaving. . . before things get any worse."

"I don't want you to leave though," Eliot replied. And what he said next surprised her even more. She never thought that she would hear someone say this to her. "I love you Parker. You're one of the best things that's ever happened to me. And I never want you to leave, I think I would like to spend the rest of my life with you."

If Parker didn't know any better, she would have thought this was Eliot's way of telling her she was the best thing that had ever been his.

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A few years ago, if somebody had told Parker that she was going to marry Eliot, she would have laughed at them. At the time, he hadn't seemed like the marrying type. And she knew, as a fact, that she most certainly wasn't the yellow house, and white picket fence kind of girl.

So to say that she wassurprised when Eliot had proposed to her would have been a gross understatement. She didn't know what had hit her when she had poured her Lucky Charms into a bowl, and a diamond ring had fallen out with the cereal. At first, she thought it was the prize that came with the cereal, but then she had looked at her boyfriend. And she could tell from the smile on his face that it was the real deal. He was really asking her to marry him.

A dozen reasons not to marry him popped into her mind right away. But they were followed by two dozen reasons to marry him. So, without giving it a second thought, she had said yes.

After months of planning, they were finally getting married. It was a simple affair that took place where it all started in front of the Charles River. And when Nate handed Parker over to Eliot, she knew that the wedding was his way of telling her. . . she was the best thing that had ever been his.

_The End_

Author's Note:

The next story I'm going to write is to "Innocent" by Taylor Swift. It should be an interesting story, I only hope I can do the song and the idea justice.

Holly, July 20, 2011_