Title: Leap of Faith

Prompt by: caitriona_3- "The best proof of love is trust."

Rating: PG

Setting: AU Season 4

Word Count: ~890

Parker knew that she had done the wrong thing the second it was over. She knew they blamed her even when they said it wasn't her fault, but she really hadn't meant for it to happen the way it had.

She had run up onto the roof of the building, fifty storeys in the air. It was her world, she ought to feel safe enough, but not so much when her gear wasn't here. She'd had to leave her rig and ropes in the elevator shaft, she had nothing to save her if she jumped. There was no way out, and the bad guys were coming.

The job had most definitely gone south, and her only exit was off the top of the building. She made it up there, but the question then became how to escape. The rest of the crew were on the next building over. Hardison was working like crazy on his laptop, yelling in her ear about the plans he was looking over, desperate to find her a safe way out, as he had been these past ten minutes, all to no avail.

Parker tried to block him out. He really wasn't helping, neither were Nate and Sophie - one trying to unscramble his own problems, the other hoping to reassure the thief that everything would be fine. Parker yelled for them to please shut up, she had to think. Then one voice rang clear and true, not through her ear bud but in reality. She looked up and there he was on the opposite roof, hair blowing in the wind, blood running from multiple wounds. Eliot looked like a true action hero in that moment, and he was to prove his status right now.

"I got your message," she called across to him, as loud as she could against the blowing wind and all the voices in her ear.

She was speaking of the text message Eliot had sent her after his earbud got knocked out in the fight.

"You said 'go up' so I ran, but there's still no way out," she told him desperately.

"Do you trust me, darlin'?" he asked her seriously, as his eyes shifted from hers to the gap between them and then back up.

There was just a hint of a smirk on his lips, because he knew she understood without him ever saying the words. Hardison yelled again for her not to do anything rash, and Nate agreed. Sophie started flapping, and Parker couldn't bear it. She could do this. Eliot believed she could, and therefore she believed it too. Pulling the earbud from her ear, Parker shoved it in her pocket, the backed up to the centre of the roof.

Eliot looked across at her, pushed his hair out of his eyes and smiled. He nodded once then held his hand high above his head. He signalled a countdown from five, and for once Parker waited for zero before she ran and leapt. The gap was maybe six or seven feet, and she easily covered double that as she flew like a bird and landed with a crash in Eliot's waiting arms, bringing them both down with a thump.

It had been exhilarating and perfect, and it had saved her life. No sooner had they fallen to the cement together than the bad guys appeared on the opposite roof, firing straight at them. Eliot covered Parker's body with his own, then got them both up and over to the access ladder to take them down inside the building.

Now it was four hours later, and Hardison was sat down in the bar by himself, refusing to come up to the apartment with the rest of the team. Parker didn't understand. She thought he was her boyfriend now, that they were closer, but when she went to hug him, sure that he would be pleased she had survived, he moved away. Now he wouldn't even talk to her.

"He was making promises to get you out," said Sophie as she sat down on the couch next to the confused blonde. "Hardison, he was promising you a safe escape route, but you put your trust in someone else," she said, glancing to where Eliot was stood by the counter, sewing up a knife wound Nate had managed to get himself.

"I didn't mean it," the little thief said with a sad shake of her head. "I just..."

"I know," Sophie nodded, her hand on her friend's own. "I understand, but see it from his point of view. He asked you to sit tight and wait for him to save you. Instead, you put your faith in Eliot's plan and took one of the biggest risks of your life," she explained. "The best proof of love is trust."

With that, the grifter got up and walked away, leaving Parker to think things over. It hit her right between the eyes then, that whilst she did care about Hardison, she didn't love him, not the way she should. Of all people, she trusted Eliot more than anyone else in the world. She loved him apparently, and despite the fact she had hurt Hardison in figuring it out, she smiled. For the first time in her life, Parker understood true love, and she couldn't be sorry about that.