A/N: Apologies for the long wait between updates. Things got in the way of my ficcage plans, as happens sometimes. I'm sure you all understand. Many many thanx for all the fab reviews - you're all so cool!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

It wasn't long before Nate had the next client lined up, though he and Sophie had serious talks about it for the better part of a night before they dared tell the rest of the team anything. They had tried to set some ground rules over what Parker would and would not be able or allowed to do during her pregnancy, but she wasn't a huge fan of being told what to do at the best of times and in her hormonal state, Nate was almost afraid of trying to deal with her when it came to a job like this.

Sophie offered to take point, but that was likely to make everyone weird and suspicious, and upset any balance that might still exist between the five of them. No, Nate had to do this himself, he just wanted to know he had a little support from the grifter, that if a fight broke out about the specifics of a con or the slightly altered job roles, she was going to be on his side. With her agreement in place, and almost all possible contingency plans arranged before they began, Nate called Hardison, who got a hold of Eliot, who was supposed to bring Parker.

The first problem they encountered was that when the team assembled at Nate's place that afternoon, only four people were present.

"Eliot, is Parker okay?" the mastermind asked worriedly as he perched on a stool in front of the vid screen.

"Last I heard from her, yeah" the hitter agreed, "I called her about the job, left a bunch of messages..." he explained, as he pulled out his phone and checked the screen again to see if he had a text or voicemail reply from the thief - nothing.

"Well, maybe she's just running late?" suggested Sophie, though already her heart was starting to thump in her chest at the thought of something awful happening to her friend, her pregnant and now much more vulnerable friend.

"Maybe" said Eliot though he seemed unconvinced as he dialled Parker's number again and stood up to get a better signal as he made his call.

Hardison watched the hitter pace and listened as he left one more message, demanding Parker call him just the second she got it. He was getting mad because he was worried about her, the hacker knew. He was equally as concerned, and immediately swung into action.

"I can try her other numbers, the fake cells she has, just in case" he offered, fingers flying across the keyboard in front of him and patching into all the necessary signals and feeds.

"Sophie, maybe you could try comms?" Nate suggested and immediately the grifter went for her earbud, wandering away from the sounds of Hardison typing and then Eliot talking.

"This ain't good, man" he shook his head as he continued to prowl around like a caged animal, "I mean, we can't even go to her apartment to check she's okay, because she won't tell anyone where she damn well lives!" he yelled, perhaps too loudly, especially since everyone was within just a few feet of him, not a mile away.

"No answer on comms" said Sophie sadly as she returned.

"Or on any of her cells" added Hardison, looking decidedly grim.

"Okay, er... what about tracking?" tried Nate, thinking fast, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as he attempted to fix this before Eliot exploded again, "Um, didn't she have shoes with a tracker at some point?"

"Uh-huh, and she still got 'em, far as I know" the hacker agreed, "We just gotta hope she's wearing them, or at least she's in the same place they're at..." he said as he once again ran some kind of scan through his computer, "And they are right... here" he said, showing the display of his computer to the others.

"Parker has an apartment on Michigan Avenue?" asked Sophie, looking somewhat impressed, eyebrows rising at the realisation.

"That or somebody living there stole her shoes" Hardison shrugged, since it was the only explanation he had right now.

"Eliot..." Nate called across the room then to the hitter who was already on his way out.

"I'm going, Nate, whether you like it or not!" he yelled back over his shoulder, slamming the door behind him as he left.

The three left behind shared worried looks for more than one reason. They were concerned for Parker since she hadn't shown up here, and then for Eliot if he was going drive when he was in such a foul mood. They were used to him being angry, of course they were, he was like that the vast majority of the time, but this was different. It was as if he really cared deeply for Parker, else why would he be so concerned for her, and so mad that she wasn't here at the meeting where she ought to be?

"I shoulda gone with him" sighed Hardison as he rechecked the screen, "He's got like twenty-five floors in the building"

"You can't narrow it down to one apartment, text him the address?" asked Sophie as she moved to sit on the arm of his chair, leaning over to peer at the display that was now far more complex than just the map that showed on the vid screen.

"Er, yeah, I can probably do that" the hacker agreed, finding it a little odd he hadn't thought of that himself, but then he was worrying about Parker so very much right now.

He didn't believe Eliot would ever hurt her, not physically at all, and never even emotionally on purpose. Sure, he said some mean things sometimes, but they weren't meant to wound, not really. It was becoming more and more clear that what existed between Eliot and Parker was beyond just a one night stand and an accidental pregnancy anyway. Hardison wasn't sure if he was glad or more pained by the revelation, but he tried not to think about it too much as a rule.

"Hey, here we go" he said suddenly as a result flashed up on the screen, "Apartment 235 is registered to Miss Rose Tyler, that's one of Parker's aliases"

"That's good" Nate nodded over the glass of scotch in his hand that nobody had seen him pour, "So, Hardison, since I doubt Eliot took his earbud, you text him the address, tell him we want to know the second he finds Parker safe"

"Sure thing, boss" the hacker agreed, reaching in his pocket for his cell phone.

Eliot got the text from Hardison just as he pulled up his truck outside the building.

"Boy's gotta be good for something" he muttered as he checked the screen and read off the apartment number he needed.

Getting into the building was easy, and an elevator seemed to arrive as if it was there just for the hitter as he strolled in through the doors. The ride to the tenth floor felt as if it took forever, not least because Eliot was far from the most patient person in the world. Just as soon as it arrived, he was out the elevator, the doors barely having time to fully open before he was gone. Down the hall, he traced door after door, counting up numbers to 235 and then pounding on the door without a thought in his head but finding Parker and making sure she was okay.

There was no answer to his over-zealous knocking, nor to his yelling of Parker's name over and over. After the first six attempts, Eliot started to get more and more worried and consequently more and more angry.

Just when he was considering if there was enough room for a run up to shoulder his way clean through the door, it opened of its own accord.

"Parker?" he checked, peering inside only to have her peek at him around the side of the door.

"What do you want?" she asked as she pushed her hair out of her face and sighed.

She didn't look good, presumably because she felt awful, Eliot guessed. The way she was dressed suggested he'd got her out of bed, despite the fact it was the middle of the afternoon by now and he knew she was usually up with the lark most days. In a moment, all the anger and frustration inside of the hitter melted into concern and worry for Parker.

"What happened?" he asked as he came into the apartment and she closed the door behind him, leaning heavily on the wall right after like she couldn't hold herself up.

"Nothing happened" she said snippily, moving to walk by him then and lurching somewhat to the side.

Eliot caught her easily, holding her with one arm and putting a hand to her face. She wasn't really there, apparently either so tired or just feeling so crappy that she couldn't be bothered to function. Still, the moment she realised she was quite literally leaning on somebody else, Parker snapped out of it some, making a deal out of righting herself without assistance and heading back towards what Eliot had to assume was her bedroom.

"I'm just tired, okay?" she told him as she went, "What's the problem?"

Eliot started to get mad again then, which wasn't unusual for him, but he had been making a special effort to keep his cool where Parker was concerned lately. She was pregnant, she was going to have mood swings and get all hormonal and stuff. If she bugged him, he still had to try and be nice, be understanding. He knew it already, though Sophie had hammered the point home more than once these past few days. Right now was different, because as far as he could tell Parker still didn't understand why he was here, why he'd come pounding on her door and then asked what was wrong with such concern. It bugged him that she could be so oblivious to the fact he cared about what happened to her, and he knew it shouldn't bother him, but it did.

"The problem?" he said, long after she asked the question, "The problem is you weren't answering any calls and we didn't know where you were" he told her from the bedroom doorway, "The problem is that you don't have one address we can always find you at, and you never let anybody know where you are or if you're okay"

"It never mattered before" she sighed into her pillow, "The phones are switched off because I was trying to sleep and..." she stopped short of saying the next thought in her head as she sat up sharply and stared at him, "How did you know I had a place here?" she checked.

"Hardison" was the only word Eliot felt the need to give as explanation, before continuing with the rant he wasn't done with yet, "Damnnit, Parker, don't you get that I... we were worried about you?" he told her, perhaps too harshly, though the kindly sentiment was real enough.

It still baffled Parker, even after all this time, to think that people really genuinely cared. Her team, her family, they were worried something bad had happened to her because they couldn't get a hold of her today. Now that she thought about it, she did think she'd seen a few messages on her main cell before she shut it off and let sleep claim her. Apparently there was a meeting or something she was missing, and it had got everyone, but most especially Eliot, really mad at her.

The silence between them remained, with neither knowing where they went from here. Parker was suddenly very aware of what a mess she looked and felt, and neither of them could miss the fact they were in her bedroom right now. Mixed up feelings and all were becoming the norm for the both of them lately. For Parker it was mostly because of her hormones on top of the life changing prospect of being a mother, a part of a family after so many years without anyone to care. For Eliot it was re-evaluating his entire life's plan and realising he was about to have new responsibilities and different priorities too. The whole thing made the two of them so frustrated, to the point where Eliot just wanted a reason to beat the crap out of someone or something, and Parker didn't know why but she just got the urge to cry far too often... including right now.

The sight of tears on her cheeks made the hitter feel sick. Women crying was one of his few weaknesses in life, and Parker crying, especially now, just made him feel like hell. This pregnancy thing was such a huge deal, there was no getting away from that, and when you were a person that had trouble just dealing with normal day to day stuff, which Parker did, it was all far too much to take alone.

"Hey, come on" he said gently as he moved towards the bed, ever mindful of spooking her.

When she didn't flinch, he sat down on the edge and reached out for her, a little surprised when she went willingly into his embrace, sobbing like a child.

"I hate this" she mumbled against his shoulder, "I'm just so tired all the time, and then the stupidest things make me wanna cry" she complained, as Eliot just held her close and rubbed her back soothingly.

"It's okay, darlin'" he promised her, "I know it sucks right now, but it's normal. It's all part of the process"

Her head came up too suddenly from his shoulder at the sound of those words, the weirdest look on her face.

"How do you know?" she asked, apparently confused, "You've never been pregnant"

Whether it was the odd look on her face or the suggestion of any guy, let alone him, carrying a child, Eliot wasn't sure, but he had to try really hard not to laugh right then.

"I read it in a book" he pointed out, something that was probably obvious to anyone else, but then Parker never really had been like any other person he ever knew, "You should probably be reading it more than me but..."

"You bought a pregnancy book?" she interrupted, still staring oddly at him, "To help me?"

Poor Parker seemed completely lost by the concept that somebody wanted to help her. It broke the hitter's heart, that he usually claimed not to have, to realise just how badly she must have been treated before. She honestly couldn't fathom how anybody could care so much about her, worry for her welfare, or want to do nice things to please her or help her out. Sure, it was a little strange to Eliot to first have a make-shift family in the form of a team of Robin Hood style thieves, and now the prospect of a real family since he was about to have a child with Parker. Still, he was dealing better than she was apparently.

"All I wanna do right now is help you" he promised her, as solemnly as he ever promised anybody anything, "I wanna keep both you and this kid of ours safe, alright?" he told her, mindful of scaring her with such a commitment by making her feel smothered or trapped.

It took a moment, but then the odd frown on her face gave way to a watery smile that Eliot was grateful to see.

"I guess" she shrugged, looking down a moment and then to his sopping wet shoulder as she poked him, "Sorry for messing up your shirt" she apologised, though it seemed the hitter had only just now noticed what she'd done.

"Yeah, well" he shrugged it off like no big deal, "I'm sorry I yelled at you" he told her without really meeting her eyes, "It's not your fault you feel this way"

Parker nodded a kind of agreement to what he said, summoning a little courage and leaning into his embrace again.

"I feel better now" she said in a strangely soft tone Eliot was sure he never heard her use before.

It was nice though, to know she needed him, that she wanted him around and that she could find such comfort and peace in his arms. That didn't mean it wasn't entirely strange to realise he was the one lone person that Parker both trusted and liked enough to be comfortable with like this. The whole course of her life she had dealt with people who pretended to care, who used and abused her. Eliot was here to make sure that didn't happen anymore.

The longer this went on, the more he came to realise that maybe some of these feelings he was getting for Parker hadn't just started when she announced she was pregnant with his child, or even that one night when they slept together and made this baby she was carrying.

Maybe this was what Eliot wanted from the first day he met Parker ... or maybe not quite then, after all she did come off as nothing but twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag in the beginning! Now he knew her better, now he had come to really care about her. As scary as it might be to realise he was allowing himself to fall, Eliot could not deny it, at least inside his own head. He was in very great danger of being in love here, and he only hoped it wasn't his downfall.

To Be Continued...