Author's Note – I have been *floored* by the wonderful reviews that everyone has left me on this story. You guys exceeded my wildest expectations for this fic and I am humbled to have such dedicated readers. Normally I like to respond to reviews individually, I think you all deserve that on my part for all of the work you put in to make sure that I know you enjoyed the story. If I don't find the time in the next few days to do this, I apologize. I am currently on my way to my first science-fiction convention and I've been told to expect spotty (if any) internet while I'm down there for the next five days. Just know that I have immensely enjoyed hearing from you guys. It gives meaning to this thing we do.
And now, I do believe that I have rambled on quite enough, you came here to read fan-fiction, not listen to me go on and on :P
Predator and Prey
Chapter 8
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Twelve hours later found the members of Leverage, Inc. back at Hardison's place. Eliot had taken up residence on the larger of the two couches in Hardison's living room. Home theatre was more like it, Eliot had always figured. This place had a larger plasma screen and better surround sound system than some movie theatres hehad been to.
At the moment, it was Parker who was none-too-inconspicuously watching him. She flipped a page in the magazine she was pretending to read before glancing at him quickly. He raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. She'd made the same gesture every three to five minutes for the past half hour or so since she'd woke him up to play twenty questions. Although he couldn't complain that she'd asked the same boring questions as Sophie and Nate. They'd asked him what city they were in, how he'd gotten a concussion, what his name was, what their names were.
Parker, on the other hand, had been more creative to say the least. She'd asked him questions he didn't even know the answer to. Like how long her best time was for picking a lock. He smiled. She had panicked at first when he hadn't responded correctly and had Nate's phone number dialed before Eliot had calmed her down and explained that she was supposed to ask him questions he would know the answer to. It still hadn't been boring, though. She'd asked about all the heists they'd pulled then. From bank robberies to all of the crazy roles they'd each played along the journey to becoming a real team.
Across the room Parker put her magazine down on the table, "You hungry? Cause I'm hungry. And Nate said that the doctor said that you should eat and drink a lot. So maybe I should make you a snack."
"Slow down, Parker. I'm fine. But if it'll ease your worry, go ahead, make us somethin' to eat."
She nodded and got up quickly, crossing the living room and disappearing down the hallway toward the kitchen. He didn't hear much from her for the next ten minutes or so beyond some humming as she went about making whatever passed for a snack in her opinion. Then there came the sound of metal hitting the ground.
"Parker? You ok out there?"
He waited a moment for a response. When none came he sighed. He eased himself into a sitting position and pushed himself into a standing position. The floor seemed to buck sideways as a dizzy spell hit him. He kept a white-knuckled grip on the arm of a nearby chair until the uncomfortable sensation passed and he was confident enough to let go.
As he moved he kept one hand on anything he could use to steady himself. A lamp, another chair. The cabinet along the wall and then the wall itself as he moved into the hallway.
There was muttered whispering coming from the kitchen and he called out to her again, "Parker, you in there? I heard a crash."
The muttering stopped and Parker appeared in the hallway with her back turned to him. She turned around at the sound and almost dropped the tray she was carrying.
"Eliot! You're not supposed to be up. Nate and the doctor said that you were supposed to stay glued to the couch. Although why anyone would want to glue you to the couch is strange to me." She set her tray down on the ground and hustled up to him.
"You should go back to the couch. I'll bring the food."
He put his hands up in mock defense, "Ok, ok. I'm goin' back to being a couch potato."
She didn't insist on physically helping him back like he knew Hardison or Nate or Sophie would. Parker didn't like being touched much herself, or touching any of them, he remembered. She respected his space but stayed just close enough to be there for him to grab if he was hit by another dizzy spell.
He shuffled back to the couch and sunk back down into the plush leather.
Parker nodded in approval. "Now stay there. I'm going to get our snack."
He waved her off on her way and she withdrew from the room, this time throwing one more nervous glance at him before disappearing from view again.
He heard the sound of Parker picking the tray off the floor and a few seconds later she was dropping the tray on the table. It was balanced a bit haphazardly on the edge and Eliot reached out to push it further onto the table so it didn't topple off. He looked it over. It was a rather lopsided cake with white frosting on the top that read 'Feel better soon!' in Parker's distinct hand. She always skewed her letters a bit to the right; he'd always thought it was cute.
"Thanks, Parker," he said sincerely. He knew that Parker wasn't the type of woman who liked working in the kitchen. She'd asked him about it one time while watching him cook some Thai food for a team dinner to celebrate a successful con. She asked him why he liked working over a stove when he could be out breaking into vaults or diving off buildings. You know, she said, the fun stuff.
"When'd you put this all together?" he asked.
"While you were sleeping. I woke you up after I stuck it in the oven."
"What flavor is it?"
"Peanut butter and jelly," she responded proudly.
He raised an eyebrow. "Never had a cake that flavor before."
She shrugged. "I found a bunch of recipes online but they were all boring flavors: chocolate and vanilla or strawberry. I figured I might as well make it a bit more exciting. And you did tell me that half of being a good cook was being willing to experiment."
He chuckled. "I did say that, didn't I? Alright then, let's try this concoction of yours. Got some cutlery and a pair of plates?"
"Yep," she responded gleefully as she grabbed them off the tray and laid them out on the coffee table. "I'm cutting the cake though. I'm not sure you should be handling knives with a concussion. I somehow don't think Nate would approve."
He shrugged and leaned back as she cut the cake into eight slices and dished them out a plate.
As she did so, Eliot thought back through the past few days. He'd gone from a fight in Nebraska, to this very couch, back to Nebraska, and then back to the couch. In that time he'd been prey and predator. He'd beaten up a few people, been beaten up a bit, and everything had come full circle back to his team's headquarters. His home, he thought. And not just a team, his family.
He thought of the efforts his family had made to fix what had been bothering him. When he'd been off, they hadn't treated him like prey. He'd always seen things in black and white. There were the people upon whom the criminals preyed, and the people who could stand their ground and beat those individuals back into the dark corners they had emerged from.
Parker handed him a plate of her cake. He smirked as he saw the inside. The white cake was marbled with streaks of purple from the jelly and strips of golden brown from the peanut butter.
With a family, he didn't have to be on edge all the time, worrying about a shady individual crawling out of the shadows and taking advantage or attacking them. He thought back to Hardison's guiding hand on his back as they went to the car after the fight. He thought of the way Sophie had stayed with him through the night despite the weariness that showed on her face. He thought of Nate having stopped by his place to pick up some more comfortable clothes for him. And as he put a bite of Parker's cake in his mouth, he realized something. There were seals and sharks in the world. But there were also close-knit families that fought together against all of the evil in the world. His family and him, they did that every day. And maybe that made the world a little less scary of a place.
"How's the cake?" Parker asked with a tinge of nervousness creeping into her face. It was the first time she'd cooked anything for another person. And they were always telling her that she had odd tastes.
Eliot threw Parker his widest smile, "Delicious."
-THE END-
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