A/N: Hi there... here's the next chapter of our fic. Hope you guys like it as much as the previous chapters.

Eagerly awaiting your feedback and reviews. :)


Chapter 09

The next day saw two of the Leverage Associates team react in completely opposite ways to the drama that had occurred the previous night.

While Parker, who'd clearly had a bad night, was almost regretting saying and in the process revealing so many things at Eliot's the last evening, she couldn't bring herself to find any enthusiasm for her inevitable day in the office. She knew just what she'd said to Eliot last night and knew quite well just what he could deduce from everything she had and hadn't said. Parker had always been a straight forward and honest person, even though she was a thief and being in such an emotionally exposed and diminutive position was affecting her more than she cared to admit.

For once, she was angry at herself for running away without finishing the discussion and she was angry at Eliot for letting her go. She wasn't sure of where she stood... where they stood when it came to their talk and the confusion was taking a toll on her

"Oh Bunny... I just wanna stay here and sleep" she said with a look that had both longing and a bit of fear, looking at the twin bed that had been the location of the latest in her series of nightmare induced sleepless nights. For once, she wished she could sleep without any nightmares or even dreams plaguing her... but knew that it was asking for the moon... something not even master thief she was, could steal.

Sighing as she looked at the timepiece on her nightstand, Parker pulled Bunny in an extra hard hug, as if she could get some strength from the stuffed toy and left the warehouse in the direction of Nate's loft.


The other side of town saw Eliot Spencer wake up at the crack of dawn like was his usual routine. The hitter had surprised even himself by sleeping quite well for almost 6 hours, something he hadn't done in a long time, his memory easily going back years in search of the previous occurrence. But of course, given the pleasant dreams he'd had when he slipped into slumber, it was no big surprise that he'd been relaxed enough to sleep through the night.

Last evening, too many revelations had crowded his brain, each one demanding his attention and somewhere in the whole confusion, a lot of small details seemed to have sunk into temporary oblivion... Not so now that he'd had a whole night to sleep on it. Now as the hitter scrolled back to his memories of the evening, so many little things that he'd missed came to the fore... and one or two big things too.

The first thing that had hit him last night had been the fact that his little thief, the one who never apologized for anything, had actually tried saying sorry. She, who'd not a year ago, felt no guilt at risking any of their lives during a con understood that she'd not only hurt him physically but also emotionally, and was attempting to correct her wrongs. That fact in itself, while being good enough for him to celebrate, paled in comparison to all the other things that were making themselves known to him now.

She'd actually said... yeah, he wasn't imagining it. She'd actually said that she felt awful when the two of them fought and that day when he'd had that stupid stand-off with Hardison, she'd wanted to come after him when he left... she hadn't stayed back with Hardison because that was where she wanted to be. The memory of being told by Parker that Hardison had kissed her and professed to liking her popped up but was pushed to one side so that he could concentrate on other things... things that didn't make him want to pound on something... or somebody.

Trying to focus on something else brought up another memory of the previous night, this one marginally more comforting. Parker had babbled quite a lot during her confused explanations last evening but one of the things she'd said was that she'd planned something for him... something that would force him to listen to her explanations. She'd also let slip that preparations for whatever it was had taken her the better part of the ten days she'd been AWOL. It was quite intriguing to say the least and honestly extremely frustrating for him now that he hadn't waited just a bit more to yell at her. If he hadn't noticed her thinness when he did, maybe she might even have put her plan into action and he wouldn't have been sitting at his breakfast table now, curiosity burning through his veins.

Okay... he had to find out what it was that Parker felt would make him sit in one place and listen to her... what it was she thought was required for him to stay put while she made her explanations... exactly what it was that she thought could contain him. The prospect of getting to know what the best thief in the world had planned for him gave wings to his feet and got him pushing his custom chopper to go at twice his normal speed.

Once the hitter was on his bike and making his way to the office, another memory of last night struck him and this one, made Eliot cringe a bit... Of course Parker had been completely and utterly foolish about it but Eliot couldn't quite get it out of his brain that maybe, in some obscure way he had been equally responsible for her current physical condition. Obviously he hadn't asked her to stop eating or taking care of herself and of course, it wasn't his job to make sure she ate everytime... he wasn't her keeper though the good Lord knew she needed one most of the time, but the gentleman in him Sister Mary Clarence had raised since he'd come to the Orphanage at the age of 8, wouldn't let him make her shoulder the whole responsibility for this whole mess.

Before he knew it Eliot found himself pulling up into the parking lot of the supermarket near his home that stocked most of his favorite organic vegetables and produce. Apparently, his inner self had made the decision for him when he'd been busy blaming himself and moping. Smirking at the fact that the little blonde had reduced him to having dialogue's with himself at 7 in the morning outside a supermarket, Eliot stepped into the long, low structure, his mind already buzzing with tons of ideas for healthy but tasty meals he could cook for the team... and Parker.


Parker was praying to every deity she was aware of and Saint Nick that morning as she silently swung her way into Nate's loft through her usual entrance at the kitchen window. It was well known among the team that she much preferred to use this entrance than any other conventional means of entry after Nate had tried once, during the first couple of months of settling in this city, to subtly... or not so subtly send her a message by locking the window. She'd just jimmied the pressure sensitive, locking system and the dead bolt, all from the outside in under a minute before calmly pushing the pane up and swinging her way inside as if this was what happened everyday. After that no one had any objections to her using the window as her means of entering and leaving the loft and their offices.

Now as the blonde thief silently jumped from her perch on the window ledge into the kitchen, she could see that no one... not even Saint Nick had been listening to her that day. Because right there in front of her, large as life and twice as colorful in his chosen attire of the day, with a really uncomfortable expression, stood one of the two people she'd hoped to avoid for the day... Alec Hardison.

"Parker..."

"Hi Hardison!... What're you doing her so early? Nice day isn't it?... Anyways, gotta go... so many things to do, so little time you know..."

Her attempts at sliding her way around the hacker while she unobtrusively kept up a cover of pointless chatter did not seem to be working as was obvious by the knowing and slightly amused expression on Hardison's face as he turned to face her.

"Parker..."

"Not working for you huh?..."

He shook his head no at that and Parker's face fell

"Do we have to do this?" she queried, her voice a little petulant

"Come on Parker... this is a lot more uncomfortable for me than it is for you. So can we just please get it over with?"

Sighing at that, Parker nodded and came back to sit on the kitchen bar, her feet swinging in an effort to keep her discomfort at bay. She knew that even though both of them were insanely uncomfortable with this, once this conversation, no matter how difficult, was done and over with, things would start looking better... or at least she hoped so. It was the only thing that made her come back into the kitchen and take her seat at the bar.

She heard Hardison take a deep breath as she turned to face him and she shut her eyes tight and they both heard each other start to speck simultaneously

"Parker, I owe you a massive apology.. I-"

"I'm so sorry Hardison"

Their respective sentences overlapped but both of them were near enough to make out what the other was saying

"Wait. What?"

"What?"

Again, their words overlapped as the astonished hacker and the equally surprised thief stared at each other. Hardison was the first to recover from the stupor

"Wait Parker... Why are you apologizing?"

"Why are you apologizing Hardison?"

"I asked you first Parker..."

This was accompanied by a 'and I mean it girl' stare that he'd perfected over the last year and it had it's desired effect on her

"Okay... Y-You said that day when you and Eliot had a fight that you l-liked me... you even kissed me and I ran off without saying anything. And after I got back from the vacation that Nate told us to take, I have been avoiding you because I didn't want to have this conversation... So I'm sorry"

"Parker... girl, if there is anyone who should be apologizing it should be me. I know that you didn't answer me that day, I was a little cut up about that but I get it. I shouldn't have dumped all of that on you then when you were obviously emotional but all I can say is that it was something that felt right then. I am not saying that it was the right thing to do, just that it felt like it. And I am so sorry for that..."

As she opened her mouth to retort, he continued on motioning her to be silent for just a bit more

"And I got to know from Shayla... that you'd called yesterday morning. I don't want to say I am sorry for meeting a woman like her Parker. I know I shouldn't be saying this to you but thank you. Thank you for not answering me that day... because if you had, I wouldn't have started going to that club that night and if I hadn't, I would've never met Shayla there again the day before. I liked you a lot Parker... I still do but what I feel for Shayla... that's just so much more... and so different from what I've felt for anyone else, ever."

As the hacker caught himself going into raptures about who he now knew to be the love of his life, he forcibly pulled himself to a stop and turning to Parker with a guilty expression attempted to apologize again. But she wasn't having any of it.

"Stop it Hardison. I am not angry with you for finding someone you like that much. I was actually avoiding you for the last couple of days because I couldn't figure out how to tell you that I didn't like you like that... you know in the romantic sense. So in a way, you kinda did me a favor by letting me off the hook. By the way, I know she must've given you a hard time yesterday morning after she spoke to me... so... what did she do?... Did you get your ass kicked?"

The mood, which had been heavy and sombre, broke into something much lighter with Parker's comment. Her casual teasing and friendly queries made it clear to the hacker that he had nothing to apologize for and that everything was still the same between them. He couldn't thank the lord enough for making Parker the amazing person she was. All he could do now was hope that whatever was going on between Eliot and her could get resolved as easily as things had gotten resolved between the two of them. That also reminded the young hacker that he had things to smooth over with their retrieval specialist too, something that he wasn't particularly looking forward to.

Memories of that day came to the fore as he looked at the smiling face of his friend sitting next to him. When he'd stepped in between Parker and Eliot that day, he'd come to know that he'd just put his foot into something much bigger and much deeper than any of the rest of them knew. There were too many emotions running rampant around the pair of them that he couldn't even make sense out of. Whatever had been the problem, had still not resolved itself, at least till the previous night. The memory of Eliot almost kidnapping the little thief came to the fore and Hardison paused in his thoughts to take a good look at Parker.

She looked as if she was okay... she was thinner and somehow, a little more restless, as if she'd had a bad night, but she looked pretty much like she had the previous day. Not much had changed after the curious kidnapping and Hardison almost couldn't stop himself from asking Parker about it. Exactly what had happened between the hitter and the thief... and he wasn't just talking about yesterday. Nate, Sophie and himself... none of them knew about what had exactly caused the big blow up or the subsequent cold shoulder treatment... from both sides. Though both he and Sophie had been insanely curious, Nate had more or less ordered them to stay out of it and they hadn't been able to go against Nate's pseudo threat.

But now that the worst of it seemed to have passed, Hardison was burning with curiosity as to what had exactly happened... both two weeks ago and yesterday. Maybe he'd never get the nerve up to ask... maybe Parker might tell him herself, or maybe he'd never find out... but Hardison hoped to hell and back that whatever the problem was between Eliot and Parker, would resolve itself.

He hadn't been kidding when he'd told Parker that they were more than a team. After Nana, Nate, Sophie, Eliot, Parker and now Shayla, were the only people the young hacker counted as family. He'd lost too many people and things in life to let his new family get wrecked due to a misunderstanding. He wouldn't step in between Eliot and Parker again, he'd learned his lesson that day. Hardison still couldn't forget either the pure rage he'd seen in Eliot's eyes that day or the sheer misery and brokenness that the hitter had exhibited at being faced with Parker and with the idea of using force against him.

Whatever it was, he'd learned his lesson that day... he wasn't stepping into that again but he was definitely gonna be standing on the sidelines, hoping and praying for his family... for both of them to work it out between themselves.

That thought swirling in his brain, Hardison turned to look at Parker again and finding her staring at him with a quizzical expression, he shook his head answering her silent question and leaned forward a bit in his chair to wrap his arms around her thin form, hugging her to him. As the surprised thief adjusted to the fact that she was being hugged by her friend, Hardison almost chuckled as she snuggled into the embrace and returned it with one of her own bone crushing hugs.

The two of them were so involved in their mutual expressions of friendship and filial affection, that they failed to notice the front door open and a cheerful hitter walk into the kitchen with his arms full of brown paper bags overflowing with produce.


A/N: So there it is... Hope all of you liked it.

Any sort of feedback makes a writer's day :)

Please don't forget to send in your reviews and thoughts... any ideas for this and other fics also welcomed.

Lotsa luv and shortbread cookies

Macybear