A/N Thank you to all my reviewers! Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy your gift! Please keep feeding my muses with your reviews! Otherwise Eliot won't get strong enough to get out of bed!

Parker softly pressed her cheek in to the back of Eliot's hand. Fortunately, the other hand with the fractured arm attached had the IV line in it. She held his uninjured left arm close to her chest, not too tight because she didn't want to hurt him. Time flew and she hadn't said a word to him yet because her mind was at a loss for words. It was almost time for the nurse to come in and take Eliot's vitals. She saw the date written on a dry erase board on the wall and remembered that it was a new moon soon. New moons were a magical time of beginnings in one's life. It meant that one could recharge their goals or set new ones once a month. She'd learned some things about magic when she'd finally gotten introduced to Archie's children. One of his daughters was a Wiccan. Her father didn't approve of her lifestyle, but that didn't stop Parker learning a few easy rituals to do on her own. Just because she didn't believe in God, didn't mean that she couldn't believe in the power of the universe. She needed her sacred supplies from her warehouse. She wouldn't leave Eliot to go to her altar at the warehouse, so she'd have to make do with the bedside table against the wall.

One handed she reached into her pocket pulled out her cell phone. She sent a text to Sophie about what she needed. She didn't say why and told her that she had to be back by 8:30 in the morning. When she finished texting Sophie, she wondered how she was going to burn the sage around the room with Eliot on oxygen. Well, maybe she could be quick and maybe she could lie and say it was her perfume. Now all she would have to do is find a place to take her ritual bath of sea salt to clear her field of any negative energy. She touched the flesh of his forearm and it was a touch colder than his hand. Parker tucked his arm back under the blanket and kept his hand pressed to her cheek as she put her head down to the bedside. She began to visualize what a love life with Eliot might be like. It was obvious that it would look nothing like it had been with Alec. They had fooled around but neither of them had been ready to cross that intercourse line with each other. Maybe that had been the problem? If she wasn't ready, then he backed off. If she was ready, he wasn't. So, was it more of a problem of timing? Maybe, but the biggest issue was Alec's control issues.

Hell, at the near middle of the Value!More job, he wouldn't let her put her arm around his neck. He kept pushing her away… It didn't matter to her that she was being a distraction, Alec had pushed her away and she didn't like it. Eliot would have teased her back a little. She had come to understand after talking to Sophie, that Hardison was the type of person that had to create and control the environment he was in. He was trying to turn life into a video game. On one hand he could create the perfect environment to live in with his computer skills, fixing traffic tickets, embezzling money from outrageously rich business men, buying expensive cars, more video games, or even more equipment to help him control his created life. When he played video games he controlled every action that his character had to do. Even though he didn't create the world the game began with, he could control what world the character created for him to play in. It began to make sense to Parker that maybe he had seen all of them as characters in one of his video games. But this was one life-like video game Parker didn't want to be in any more. She wanted someone who got her, deep down, and that was only two people. Sophie and Eliot… And Sophie was already snapped up. So that left Eliot; and as far as she knew he was still single.

Parker had found out about Eliot's little rendezvous with the redhead after the job at Value!More had ended, by reading his lips as she stood near the window in the candy store. Hardison was off shopping to fill his gummy frog fix. She'd noticed something wasn't right with Eliot when he'd tried to talk her and Hardison into taking the job before he talked Nate and Sophie into it. The way she looked at him during the assignment meeting should have given him a clue she was worried about him. Before he'd left the girl she knew he was going out of town. When she'd told Alec that she was worried about Eliot's attitude, Hardison had broken the Bro Code and let slip some of the information that Eliot had shared about his past. The job finally made sense; Eliot was missing his dad… So, it made perfect sense that he disappeared after he'd gone to see the red head that hired Martin. Martin reminded him of his father. With the little bit of Hardison training she had on computers, Parker had tracked Eliot to his father's place outside Oklahoma City, using GPS. And the fact that he'd only stayed 15 minutes before he'd hit the road again.

Somehow she'd known the trip to see his dad was going to be a bust, and that was confirmed when he'd come back to the hotel they were staying at. He'd tracked her to the hotel they'd been staying at. He texted her when he'd been within 5 miles of her location to find out what she was up to… She'd gotten her own room instead of shacking up with Hardison to allow him his much needed World of Warcraft time, but she'd said she wanted to stay at the hotel for a couple more days. He'd offered to stay with her, but she wanted some time on her own. So, he'd gone home to more gaming without her. Eliot had gotten in just after the dinner hour. He softly knocked on her door and she'd let him in. They sat in chairs next to a small wooden table and talked over an extra six pack he'd bought if things went south. She'd ordered them room service because he hadn't eaten; just driven straight through. They'd sat up for a few hours before the night ended at midnight. She didn't know that he'd called the girl from the road and confirmed his date for Saturday, the next day. Not much of what Eliot had said made much sense since it was mixed with alcohol and emotion, and she hadn't experienced some of what he said, but she'd picked and chose what was important to get a decent picture of what he was trying to say.

In some ways, she was glad she hadn't had a real family. It seemed there was much more pain having one than it did living without. She couldn't even really call Archie Leach her father. He was more like a boss, so was Nate. But there were rare times when she witnessed Nate's father-like qualities come out, especially when Eliot and Hardison were bickering at each other. After his fourth beer to her two, she put him to bed in her bed; tucked him in and everything. Her face beamed with a smile. He'd needed a friend and he'd picked her… Out of all of them, he'd picked her. Parker's heart swelled with pride. She recalled what he said to her in the ice cave… 'The two of us, we do things that they can't, won't.' 'It makes us, us. Now you can take that as a gift or you can take it as a curse.' She chose to make it a gift, a little something between them she figured the others might not understand. Then she turned on her heel, grabbed an extra pillow and blanket from the upper part of the closet before she made herself a bed in the bottom of the closet. She closed the door and relaxed in the darkness.

Parker pictured normal nights of just staying in with Eliot, dinner and a movie sprang to mind. He could make her something fantastic and she had dibs on picking the movie. And she'd always pick something he'd be happy to watch. Parker didn't really know the meaning of chick-flick… Sophie was a bit lax in her training of that subject. There were only so many action, science fiction, dramas, and historical movies she wanted to watch on Netflix. She could see them getting a dog. She could see lots of the softer Not-So-Badass Eliot… Cuddle Eliot… Kissy Eliot wouldn't be so bad either. Parker envisioned BIG, she couldn't help but see her in a white wedding dress. Eliot, handsome as ever in a spiffy tuxedo with his long hair down on his shoulders. Hardison behind him, smiling as his best man. Nate and Sophie would be sitting on her side as her stand in parents. Archie too, if he lived that long… Her friend Peggy and Tara might get asked to be a bridesmaid. And on Eliot's side, maybe his dad if her dreams came true. Some of Eliot's buddies might get invited too if they didn't cause trouble. A very small wedding, in deed. She didn't picture the location yet because there wasn't a need for a venue.

As she was doing her little visualization exercise, a little girl with brown hair ran by… And then a little boy with blond hair chased after her in Parker's vision. The little girl reminded her of her and the boy looked a little like a young Eliot. She wasn't sure where they came from but they were dressed like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. She looked down in her vision and she was wearing that white bird dress that she wore on the job where Eliot sang. He hadn't sung since that job and from time to time she'd hear him singing in her mind because she missed it. It helped calm her down… It was a nice contrast to him yelling, "Dammit Hardison!" Or arguing with Nate for not being on top of his game or arguing with her for pulling another stupid stunt that could get them all shot… Parker just wanted him to wake up and argue with her again. She understood that he yelled at her to prove that he cared about her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said a word.

At that, Parker opened her eyes because she heard someone coming into the room.

"Oh, good morning, you must be Bethany."

"Yes."

"I'm here to take your brother's vitals and then the phlebotomist will be in a few minutes after that to get some blood samples."

"Oh."

"You should go stretch your legs for a few minutes, maybe go get some breakfast. The cafeteria's open."

"I'm not hungry," she continued to hold Eliot's hand.

"Or you can stay, but I need to be where you are so that I can take his blood pressure, sweetie."

"Oh. 'Kay," Parker was afraid to leave him alone considering there were people out there that wanted Eliot dead, but this nurse was probably in her early 50's and was pretty kind.

She stood and pushed the chair away so that she could move out of the way. She stood over by Eliot's feet, her hand touched his blanket covered foot. Touching him kept her grounded, as if she felt like he'd float away if she wasn't there to hold him down. She wondered if by touching him, he could feel she was there. She wasn't sure he'd even heard her voice other than what she'd said to the nurse. Parker watched as she gently lifted Eliot's arm and wrapped the cuff around it. She hit a button and the motor started; the cuff filled with air.

"One-hundred over sixty-five. It's still low but it's pretty good from where it was just a while ago. He went down to fifty-two over twenty-one earlier. That's when they had to come restart his heart."

"Wow. Where is it supposed to be?"

"Perfect would be a little less than one-hundred and twenty over say seventy-five."

"How long will it take him to get there?"

"I'm not a doctor, but he's still got a ways to go. He has to get his systolic number, the upper one, up. The bottom number, the diastolic seems to be recovering well. Your brother still has a long way to heal yet. We're taking one day at a time."

"That's what my Aunt Ophelia said."

"Well, she's right," the nurse replied before she put her red stethoscope to his chest and began to listen for his pulse.

His pulse came out to a good 50 beats per minute. Then she took a thermometer out and moved his arm gently to place it in his arm pit.

"How come you put that there?"

"I'm checking his temperature to make sure he doesn't have a fever."

"And?"

"Looks like he's good there too," she came around and wrote down what the leads on the monitors recorded, like his breaths to make sure his Co2 was getting cleaned out. "I'm all done."

The phlebotomist came in with her neat little brown tray full of vials and supplies.

"This is Alex. She's the best blood-sucking Vampire we have around here. Patients say they don't feel a thing," the nurse joked.

"Hi, I'm Alex. I need to take some blood samples for Doctor Milton. I promise, I'll be quick," she smiled and went to her job.

"This is Bethany Ford, Mr. Ford's sister."

'Oh, if she only knew how far from being Eliot's sister I am…' Parker thought.

"Nice to meet-ya. I'll be drawing his blood in the a.m. 'til he moves to the ICU. I'm all done. See ya later."