Parker, Neal, and Mozzie were interrupted early the next morning by a knock on the door. Mozzie managed to look through the peephole for a whole two seconds before Parker shoved him to the side, opened the door, and hugged the man standing on the other side who seemed to enjoy it more than he should. It didn't take more than 5 seconds for Neal to realize that this man had feelings for Parker.
"Damn," Hardison said. "I was plannin' on giving y'all a hard time for making me come all the way out here this early in the morning, but you had to ruin that, too. I'm Hardison" he said to Neal and Mozzie.
"I can tell," Neal smirked. "Parker's told me nothing about you and probably visa versa. I'm Neal. This is Mozzie."
"Dammit Neal," Mozzie whined. "I wanted a code name. Thanks a lot."
"OK…" Hardison said. "Anyways… I did some research on this 'unhackable' system and didn't get much other than cracking some minor codes and whatnot. It is safe to say that I'm impressed, and I'm not easily impressed."
Neal sighed. He knew this job wouldn't be easy, but he had really trusted this guy to get them something. "Do you have any good news?"
"Not yet, but I'm working on it," he said. He turned to Parker. "Oh and by the way, you forgot to mention that I'll be sitting in a van with a bunch of FBI agents! I thought they were renting me one, not sharing one. It's bad enough I have to work on their side now and that Sheila is ruined because of those damn slushee lids, but working in the same small area is even worse."
"I knew you wouldn't come if I told you about that," Parker smiled. "It's not so bad. Peter is a little off, though."
Neal couldn't help but laugh. Peter was the most normal person he knew and Parker was the craziest, so it was a little weird to hear her say that the roles were reversed. "Well we haven't had much luck, either. Hopefully the final briefing today will help us."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Hardison said. "The final briefing? As in, the briefing with FBI dudes in an FBI building surrounded by FBI guards? I don't think so. I agreed to this much, but that's crossing the line."
Parker frowned at him. "Eliot would have made you," she mumbled.
"Well, maybe or maybe not, but Chewbacca isn't here right now so HA," Hardison retaliated, victorious for once.
She stuck out her tongue at him and then remembered what Sophie told her a while ago. "Men will do almost anything for a girl they like; it all depends on the look."… "What look?" Parker had said. Sophie made her eyes wider and pouted her lips a little. When Parker had tried it, she looked like a fish and Sophie said it needed work. It was now or never- Parker only had one shot to get this right. She mimicked Sophie as well as she could. At first Neal made a freaked out face at her so she adjusted. Hardison noticed, and his facial expression changed.
"Damn," he said again. "Fine, Parker, but you owe me. And I mean you seriously owe me big time."
"Thanks, Hardison!" she exclaimed. Success! she thought- she couldn't wait to tell Sophie!
At FBI headquarters Hardison seemed a little tense. All the FBI 'dudes' seemed to be looking right at him! In reality they weren't but he was paranoid to begin with and it didn't help to be stuck in a room with a bunch of feds.
"So…" Peter said as the three walked into the room. "…if it isn't the computer wiz and the dynamic duo."
Hardison smirked. "You must be Peter. I hear we get to carpool tomorrow. I'll bring the snacks."
"No," Peter replied. "I heard about the slushee incident; if you so much as think about bringing food in the van, you'll find yourself in prison."
Hardison looked at Neal. "You told him about that? Man, what is wrong with everyone- I thought it was just the people I worked with, but they're everywhere."
"What's wrong with the people you work with?" Parker asked, not catching on that he was talking about her as well.
"Never mind," he said. He turned to the FBI guys, "So are we gonna do this thing or what," as he plopped into a chair. He got his laptop set up- never left home without it- and brought up the security system schematics. "All I got so far were a few security cameras. Man what is this guy doing? There are like a billion lasers too that work on completely different codes. This dude must seriously be paranoid, because-"
His incessant rambling was cut off by Peter. "Point is, can you get Neal and Parker inside?"
Hardison thought for a minute. "Define 'inside'".
"Dammit, Neal," Peter said, annoyed. "I thought these guys were 'the best'" he put bunny ears around the last two words "that they could do anything. You just decide to waltz in here with any criminals you can pick up off the street."
"Whoa, hold up a sec," Hardison interrupted. "I didn't come 4 hours out of my way to be insulted by second class FBI guys who can't even get information without a bunch of criminals. I said define inside, because I can get them in no problem. I can get them to the basement no problem. What I can't do is turn off the weight-sensitive tiles and laser trip wires, because the codes are in Chinese. Unless y'all have a Rosetta Stone sitting around here somewhere we're out of luck."
"Hardison, calm down," Parker said. "I can get past those without a problem."
"You can't get around moving lasers and a weight-sensitive floor. Even for you that's impossible," Peter said.
"Not necessarily," Neal said. "Remember that run in Europe, with Archie? That was intense." They both started laughing which confused and angered everyone else in the room.
Peter cleared his voice rather loudly. "That doesn't sound good. I would get some water," Parker said, not realizing it was because of her and Neal.
"Everyone calm down," Neal said. "Jeez, you are all so uptight. Point is, Parker can get through it. She's the best. Just relax. Tomorrow will be a piece of cake."
"Mmmm… Cake," Parker sighed. She dragged Hardison out of the room, "let's go get some!"
Once they were gone, Peter sighed. "For next time, do you know any normal thieves? I can't even believe them."
A/N: Sorry this is really short! I've been really busy lately and have lots of stuff going on. The next chapter will be longer and a lot better!