Thankful

Hardison woke to the smell of roast turkey wafting up the stairs. He'd always loved Thanksgiving ever since he was a kid. Of course Christmas was better but Thanksgiving was right up there in his pantheon of favorite holidays. Opening his eyes he could tell it was still early and he'd probably woken as much from the chill as the delicious smell. Parker had stolen all the covers and was currently scrunched up under them, probably dreaming of ventilation systems or safes with tricky locks.

Hardison knew he wouldn't get back to sleep so he might as well get up and see what was going on in the kitchen. As he padded his way down the stairs he expected to hear Eliot's knife chopping through things at a ridiculous speed or the sound of the whisk scraping against the side of a mixing bowl. Instead it was quiet. Hardison went to the coffee pot and fixed himself a cup with extra cream and sugar. Eliot always teased him that coffee was meant to be drunk black and that Hardison was missing the entire point of coffee. Hardison put the creamer back in the fridge and leaned back against the counter with his cup in hand.

Taking a look around the kitchen he noticed that it was clean. Eliot always cleaned as he cooked but usually there was some evidence that he was mid project. But their kitchen right now was the clean-and-neat of not-in-use. There were a few dishes in the drainer and the dishwasher was humming quietly.

"Eliot?" Hardison called quietly. He didn't want to wake Parker and he knew that he didn't have to be very loud for Eliot to hear him. There was no answer. He waited few minutes and had nearly finished his coffee before he was certain that Eliot wasn't just fetching an ingredient or something from the restaurants kitchen. He decided that it was time to trace Eliot's earbud and find out what was going on. He was about to set his cup of coffee on the table when he noticed the note. There were a couple pages filled with Eliot's blocky handwriting. At a glance the first page was a note and the second page was directions.

"What in the hell?" Hardison muttered to himself. He sat down and picked up the first page.

Sorry I'm not here this morning. Toby asked me to help him and his students prepare Thanksgiving dinner for one of the local shelters. The guys were pretty excited and I just couldn't tell them no. Julio and a bunch of his church folks have gotten in on it too. It's gotten bigger than I thought it would. I'll be home later but I know I won't be there for lunch. You two can have a nice meal together and we'll all hang out tonight. I've got almost everything ready for your lunch you just need to follow the directions on the second page.

~E

Hardison flipped to the second page and quickly read over the directions. He had to admit that Eliot had made it pretty easy. Mostly it was what to put into the second oven and when, for how long and at what temperature. There really wasn't anything that they needed to make for themselves and he was pretty sure that he and Parker really couldn't mess it up too badly.

Soon Parker came down the stairs yawning and sleepy eyed. "Morning" She looked around much the same way that Hardison had when he realized that their surly hitter wasn't in the middle of meal prep. "Eliot?"

Hardison held up the note. "He's working with Toby and his students this morning."

Parker nodded and sat on Hardison's lap. Taking the pages from him she read over them quickly and leaned her head on Hardison's shoulder. "hhhmmm" She set the pages to the side and sat there for a minute.

"His directions looked pretty easy and we don't need to start any of it until almost ten." Hardison took another look at the second page just to be sure.

Parker nodded again before sliding off of Hardison's lap and getting a muffin from the refrigerator. She munched on her breakfast and reread Eliot's note. "Julio is Eliot's old army buddy right? The one that's a priest?"

"Yah. You should remember that since you made me look him up last year. Him and Eliot volunteer at that soup kitchen that mostly serves homeless vets." Hardison was glad that Eliot was making connections with some of his old buddies and not just the ones that were into nefarious dealings.

Parker finished her muffin and his coffee before going back upstairs. Hardison set the note and the directions on the counter and decided to set the table for later. His nanna always had the table set early as a reminder of the big meal that was only hours away. Hardison set out two plates and two cups and stopped, lost in thought. There'd always been several foster kids at a time in nanna's house and when the team started having holiday meals together there had still been that family atmosphere. But this year Nate and Sophie were caught up in something in Europe and wouldn't make it back for thanksgiving. Eliot was helping take care of the less fortunate. And that left just him and Parker. While he enjoyed time alone with Parker, thanksgiving was all about family and it just felt lonely without everyone at the table.

"Why aren't you dressed yet?" Parker's voice right behind him startled him badly.

"Jeeze Parker! What do you mean 'why aren't I dressed yet'?" Hardison turned to see that she was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans with her hair pulled back in a tail.

"If we leave now we will probably make it to the shelter at the same time as everyone else." Parker picked up the directions from the counter. "The turkey is just keeping warm so I bet it will be fine if we leave it alone and nothing else will spoil if we wait 'til later to cook it."

"You want to volunteer at the shelter?" Hardison asked for clarification.

"I want to be where you and Eliot are. And he's at the shelter." She shrugged.

"But what about the food?" Hardison knew that Parker hadn't had any holiday meals worth remembering before the team but most people understood that the meal was the centerpiece of the day.

"It's just food. Eliot's food is really good but that's 'cause he loves it. Without him it's just food." Parker frowned. "Why aren't you getting dressed?"

Hardison kissed her and quickly headed upstairs to get dressed.

~~o0o~~

The shelter was clean and fairly well kept but nothing fancy. There were several cars parked around back including Eliot's charger. Hardison parked next to Eliot's car and he and Parker headed to the back doors. The door was locked but before Hardison had a chance to knock Eliot came to the door.

"What are yall doin' here?" Eliot frowned at them.

"We're here to help." Parker slipped past Eliot and into the kitchen.

Hardison shrugged. "Like she said."

Before long Hardison found himself on dish duty and Parker was wiping down tables and generally doing 'go-fer' duties. Eliot was overseeing three of Toby's students as well as working on a tray of sweet potatoes. Everyone was busy and the talk got louder as everyone got to know each other. The chatter reminded Hardison of the happy sounds of nanna working in her kitchen and instructing all the older kids on what to do with a certain dish or ingredient or pot of something. These people didn't really know each other for the most part but they'd come together for a common purpose and for at least a little while they were family.

Hardison had loaded two of the dishwashers already and was working his way through a sink full of odds and ends when Parker came over. "You're happy." She kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear. "Now it's thanksgiving."