A/N: Time to blur some lines between reality and dreamworld. Oh and also, lets go to the Homecoming Dance! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14

Eliot got a few feet from Parker's room and stopped walking. It was becoming impossible, coming back here day after day, just for nothing at all to happen. He tried talking to her about anything and everything, but to no avail. She just laid there motionless, helpless, wasting away, with no real sign of change. That wasn't strictly true, the doctor had said there were a few blips in the chart lately, enough that it couldn't be passed off as an anomaly anymore. Three times it had happened, but there were a multitude of reasons for the shift. It could mean Parker was getting closer to waking up, but by the same token, it could mean something much worse.

With a sigh Eliot looked back down the corridor and honestly considered leaving. He wondered if it was fair to Parker to walk away, but then it didn't feel fair to him to keep putting himself through this punishment. She wouldn't know the difference if he skipped out on the visit today,

"Excuse me, sir?" said a voice then and Eliot looked down to see a little girl stood beside him. "Are you lost?" she asked him.

The irony of a small child trying to help him find his way rather than the usual other way round was not lost on Eliot. The kid was blonde and cute as a button, making him think Parker must've looked similar at the age of no more than seven.

"I'm not lost, sweetheart, I'm, just…" he trailed off when he realised he didn't know what else to tell her. "Are you lost?" he checked then, wondering if that was why she asked.

The child shook her head, making her pigtails swing around madly.

"No, sir," he assured her. "I know my way around real well," she smiled, hitching herself up onto one of the chairs that were dotted up and down the hallway.

Eliot wasn't sure what to make of her matter of fact attitude or her apparent familiarity with the hospital. He certainly didn't like leaving her alone out here when she was so young and all.

"You mind if I sit down there with you, ma'am?" he asked her as politely as she had spoken to him.

"Sure," she nodded, giggling sweetly. "But I'm not a ma'am; I'm Becca," she told him.

"Well, I'm not much for being called sir either," he admitted. "My name's Eliot".

"Eliot," she rolled the name around her tongue and then smiled. "That's a nice name. Are you here because you're sick?" she asked then, bouncing from one thing to another without a moments pause as small children were wont to do.

"No, I'm not sick," he told her. "I, er… I'm visiting a friend of mine, down the hall," he pointed towards Parker's room and Becca nodded solemnly.

"That's the pretty blonde lady, isn't it?" she checked. "I miscounted the doors last week when I came down here and I saw her. Has she been asleep a long time?" the little girl checked.

"Yeah, too long," Eliot told her. "Why are you here, Becca?" he asked then, sure if they kept on talking about Parker this way he was going to wind up making a fool of himself by crying all over the sweet little kid.

"My brother is sick," she explained, looking somewhat less bright, though her legs kept on kicking back and forth in her seat. "He's sick a lot, and Mommy and Daddy yell at him because they say it's his fault, but Stevie can't help it. I heard him say he's fixing it, but the fixes seem to make him worse. Do you understand that?"

Eliot opened his mouth to speak an then closed it again fast. Yeah, he understood. Becca's older brother was a drug addict who's fix was sometimes a step too far. He OD-ed, he landed up in hospital, and this little kid had to sit out in the hall whilst Mom and Dad tore strips off their eldest for his destructive behaviour. It was an unholy mess for a little girl to be caught up in, and Eliot felt awful for the poor kid, but what could he do?

"I'm sure he'll be all better soon," he told the kid, hoping he wasn't giving her false hope.

Before he had a chance to think about it too much more, Becca spoke up again.

"What's the blonde lady's name?" she asked in earnest.

"Parker," Eliot smiled. "She's my crazy Parker".

"Are you married?" the little girl asked what seemed like an obvious question for her, and looked all kinds of confused when Eliot laughed out loud.

"No, honey, we're not married," he told her, "but I do love her," he said aloud, for perhaps the first time ever, astounding himself.

He barely noticed how much he had thrilled Becca who clapped her hands delightedly. Love was a beautiful thing when you were seven, he figured. No complications of relationships or anything, just fairytale stories and happily ever afters. It didn't look quite the same when you were all grown up.

"If you love her, you should kiss her," Becca advised sagely. "When the Prince kisses the Princess, she always wakes up. That's just the way it works," she nodded.

"Well, Parker ain't exactly a princess, Becca," he told her shaking his head. "And, er… I'm about as far from bein' a Prince as I can be," Eliot sighed, running a hand back through his hair.

"She's pretty like a Princess," Becca said thoughtfully, "and you're handsome enough to be a Prince," she considered, blushing a little when he thanked her for the compliment and smiled in such a way as to melt the heart of any female, be they young or old.

Becca's mother appeared from the door beside their seats then, telling her they were getting ready to leave so she should come say goodbye to her brother. Eliot watched the little girl go, waving back at her when she said goodbye. She was a sweet kid and she meant well, but Eliot was much too old and wise for fairytales. It would be wonderful to think one simple kiss would wake Parker from her comatose state, but that kind of thing didn't work in reality.

Parker could not stop smiling. She stood before the mirror in her room, all dressed up in the beautiful red dress that was just perfect for Homecoming, her hair curled and styled, and shoes borrowed from Sophie that she had been practising walking in for the past two days. This was what she wanted so badly, a school dance where she could feel and act like a princess. High School had been fun, the classes and the friends and the whole experience, but it was the dance she wanted most. It was the perfect way to end her fantasy, though her smile faltered a little when she reminded herself that this must indeed be the end.

There had been three occasions in the past couple of days when she opened her eyes to that hospital room. She had been less scared because she at least understood a little more what was happening, but still she fought to stay here just a little longer, just for tonight.

"Just for the dance, then I'll go," she told her reflection, recalling Sophie's tears in one brief flash to 'reality' and such a look of sadness and concern on Eliot's face on another occasion.

She could not keep giving them false hope with her tiny moments of wakefulness. Just tonight, then she would go home to them, and everything would be okay. She hoped rather than believed it was that simple.

"Parker?" Archie called from the bottom of the stairs. "Sweetheart, your young man is here to take you to the dance," he told her.

"I'm coming!" she yelled back, grabbing up her purse and rushing to the stairs, faltering just a little as her stiletto heels grabbed at the carpet pile.

She began her descent of the stairs as gracefully as she could, thinking of all the High School movies she watched as she did so. The look on the guys face when he saw his date all dressed up for Prom or Homecoming or whatever dance it was, it always made Parker laugh. They looked so stunned that a girl could be pretty, but why would they have asked them to a dance in the first place if they didn't think they were attractive? Yet, Parker didn't feel like laughing at all as she turned the corner mid-way in the stairs and looked down at Eliot when she heard him gasp. He looked stunned about her beauty, but also kind of proud of her in a weird way. She didn't really understand it, but she liked it all the same, especially when he smiled that rarely seen genuine Eliot smile that she loved so much.

"You look beautiful, darlin'," he told her. "Pretty as a picture".

She opened her mouth to thank him, but stopped short when she heard Frankie fake gagging in the doorway to the living room. Maybe she should have been mad at him, but she wasn't. There was every chance that Parker would feel reality pulling her back before this night was over, a real possibility that she would leave without ever seeing her dear brother again. It was with tears in her eyes that she approached him, and the boy looked genuinely surprised when instead of an attack he got a big old hug from his sister.

"I love you, you know that, don't you?" she whispered as she held on tight.

"Sure, yeah," he replied awkwardly. "You too, sis," he promised.

Parker was smiling again when they parted and she ran to hug Archie just as tight.

"Thank you, for everything" she told him solemnly. "I wouldn't be me without you".

"My pleasure, kiddo," he assured her as he hugged her back. "But come on now, you've got a dance to get to. Your young man here is getting impatient," he nodded towards Eliot who shifted awkwardly by the front door.

"Let's go," said Parker as she turned to him and took a hold of the hand he offered her and they left for Leverage High.

"And when the Doc said he thought maybe you were close to coming back to us, well, I wanna think that's a good thing," said Eliot, sat by Parker's bed and gripping her pale hand between his own. "Then I start to wonder if it's all just wishful thinking, since I'm here every day and... and you never open your eyes for me".

Eliot was feeling sorry for himself and he knew it. In some strange way he almost thought Parker was staying comatose in his company on purpose. He knew that was ridiculous, just as his thinking she could really hear him telling her all this crap was too far fetched to be believed. He'd been knocked out enough times to know that almost never happened. You were out cold to the world and didn't know any of what was happening out there, only inside your head where there might be a dream, a nightmare, or just an unholy struggle to get back to where you came from. Eliot hoped that if Parker was dreaming it was something good, just not so good she didn't want to wake up from it.

"Darlin' you have no idea what this is doing to all of us, to the team," he told her too softly. "I know you're probably mad at me for letting you drive, or maybe you're not. I'm kinda mad at me for that but... but me feeling guilty isn't helping, and I know that," he sighed.

He looked up to her closed eyes in her blank face and hated how pale she looked. Not that Parker was exactly the kind to be tanned or covered in make-up, but the lack of colour in her cheeks was almost painful to see after too many weeks lying unconscious in this hospital bed.

The situation was becoming desperate. The longer she lay here, the more chance that she wouldn't come around, and even if she did there could be untold damage to her brain. Best case scenario and she came back okay, her body would be temporarily useless since it had been given no real exercise for the better part of two months.

"Y'know, I got talkin' to this kid in the hall. She looked a little like you probably did at that age," Eliot smiled slightly then. "She, er... she was tellin' me she thought you were pretty like a princess, and I should act like a prince and... and wake you up with a kiss," he said, looking seriously at her.

There was no way he would have mentioned kissing in front of an awake Parker. Honestly, a small part of him wondered if just saying such a thing now would bring her round with the shock. Eliot wasn't blind to Parker's beauty or her sweetness. She was a nice girl, too nice and good for him, but he had thought about her in ways a man thought about a woman. He always figured if she was going to go for any guy that way, it'd be Hardison, and yet the rest of the team all seemed to have noticed that Eliot had feelings for Parker, and they weren't all that surprised. Whether she had any idea was a whole other question, and the answer seemed highly likely to be no.

Parker could hardly believe it when she first walked into the school gym and saw how beautiful it looked. It might have been fairyland the way it was decorated, all twinkling lights and crepe paper in every pretty colour imaginable.

All eyes turned to look at Parker and Eliot when they walked in hand in hand, Sophie and Nate right behind them, and Hardison and his date bringing up the rear. For once, Parker didn't mind the attention so much, and barely noticed it at all when Eliot swept her out onto the dancefloor and into his arms.

Though the three couples danced and mingled and such as the night went on, they were always very aware of who else was present in the gym. The principal and vice-principal, several members of the school board, and quite a few parents playing chaperones. Damien Moreau himself was even here with a beautiful Italian date that looked less than impressed to be on his arm somehow, but stayed there anyway. Hardison had switched the discs as needed, when the screen was put up and the footage from the football game shown, it would break a minute or so into the action, instead showing the evidence of all Moreau's worst schemes.

For now though, Parker wasn't really thinking about that. She was just enjoying this last night that she had dreamed of so long.

"This is perfect," she said without thinking, and Eliot smiled at that.

"Couldn't get much better," he agreed, as they swayed together in the middle of the dancefloor. "We won the game, we're about to bring down Moreau once and for all," he whispered, "and I've got the prettiest girl in school right here in my arms," he told her seriously.

Parker was very nearly floored by the intense look in his eyes then. She was sure without Eliot's arms around her she would have completely fallen over from the force of it. Still, she didn't want to move, she didn't want to break this moment, and when Eliot moved in for a kiss she forced herself not to panic...

"Hey, everybody!" a smiley girl on the stage suddenly yelled and the music was gone in an instant.

Parker was sure she heard Eliot growl as everyone was urged to turn towards the stage. She might have giggled at his anger at not getting the chance to kiss her, but honestly she was just a little too surprised right now. Not just because Eliot seemed to be mad about not getting to kiss her yet, but because the girl on the stage looked decidedly like a slightly younger version of Cora McRory.

"First of all, congratulations to the Leverage Wolves on their excellent win in the Homecoming game!" she announced, at which the entire gym erupted into cheers and applause, interspersed with specific whistles and calls at 'Spencer' in particular - Parker was so proud of Eliot then.

The screen that dominated much of the back wall behind the make-shift stage then lit up, and the members of team Leverage shared sideways glances as the movie clips began to play. A perfect pass between Eliot and another player on the football team, an excellent touchdown, and then the picture began to break up and scroll. Before anyone had a chance to investigate, the footage of Moreau was there for all to see, his voice loud and clear through the sound system speakers all around the gym. Parker wanted to see him react but hardly dare turn her head. She leant into Eliot instead and peeked over his shoulder just in time to see Moreau's eyes grow wide as he shared a panicked look with his friends and his uncle, the Principal.

The next few moments happened in a deliberate rush as security, at the instruction of teachers and schoolboard members, began removing Damien and all the friends of his that were visible on the screen, from school property. They were going to be dealt with, them and the Principal himself apparently as the head of the schoolboard himself led the older man out. Parker hadn't noticed until that moment just how much the schoolboard's chairman looked like Agent Taggart.

"Okay, that was... not planned," said Cora from the stage, trying to bring some calm back to proceedings. "Time to move on," she giggled, clearly feeling awkward. "So, let's announce the Homecoming King and Queen".

That was met with rapturous applause as an envelope was handed over, and other people appeared on the stage carrying a crown meant for a boy and a tiara for a girl. Parker looked at Sophie. She was sure the young grifter would win Homecoming Queen, after all she was beautiful and smart and everything, just about everybody liked her. Maybe Nate would get King since he was her date, though Parker wasn't sure if it worked that way exactly.

"Okay, Leverage High," Cora smiled ever more widely if it were possible as she pulled the card with the winners names out of the envelope. "Our Homecoming King for 2010 is... Eliot Spencer!"

The whooping and calling was deafening, as Eliot laughed in disbelief, letting his hand slip from Parker's as he headed up into the stage. She wasn't surprised he won. He was the star quarterback and well liked by his fellow guys and more so by the girls. She was proud of him, she couldn't take her eyes off him, hell, she was pretty sure she was in love with him, even though Parker wasn't overly sure she understood exactly what such a thing entailed.

"And our 2010 Homecoming Queen is... Parker!" announced Cora, much to the astonishment of the girl herself.

Nobody reacted to the fact she had only one name, nobody booed or hissed, not even the bitchy girls who really had not liked her before. All Parker could see was Eliot gesturing for her to join him on stage, all she heard was Hardison yelling, and Nate whistling, and Sophie applauding. It was ridiculously loud and overwhelming, and yet Parker didn't feel the need to run, just to get to Eliot as fast as possible. He looked kind of dorky in the king's plastic crown, and she was sure she would look equally as silly when they put the tacky tiara on her head, but that didn't matter. This was one of those perfect moments she never had when she was younger and whilst she had it now she was going to enjoy it, knowing it could not last very long.

"Didn't see that coming," Eliot smiled as he pulled her into an embrace.

"I did," she whispered as Cora announced that the King and Queen were to have a spotlight dance.

The dancefloor cleared a space and Eliot led Parker down the steps from the stage into the middle of the floor. The room was pretty dark, Parker could see nothing but Eliot in the spotlight that shone sown so brightly on their heads. They began to sway to the slow song and all around them the tapping of feet and rustling of material proved so many other couples were joining in the dance too. Parker was lost in the moment, drowning in Eliot's intense blue eyes, happy and sad all at the same time because this was just exactly what she wanted and so close to being over all at once.

"You okay, darlin'?" asked Eliot then, holding Parker close. "Or maybe I should call you princess, since that's what you look like right now," he smiled.

"If I'm the princess that makes you the prince, and this whole thing must be a fairytale," said Parker, too caught up in the moment to realise they were actually King and Queen.

When Eliot leaned in closer this time, Parker found she was leaning too, her eyes closing right before their lips met in a sweet kiss that soon turned passionate.

Parker could feel everything and yet nothing, sure the floor had gone out from underneath her feet as she fell into the moment and got lost in the best kiss of her life.

A few moments later a loud beeping in her ears made her eyes shoot open. Eliot was still right there with his arms around her, but the world was no longer as it should be.

To Be Continued...