AN: In this chapter Eliot remembers helping Hardison find pictures of Parker's family and seeing her last name. This is a reference to HonestBee's story 'The Worth A Thousand Words Job'. If you haven't read this sweet story I recommend it!
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CHAPTER 3
Friends
The next day early in the morning the team went to the airport to pick up Ewen and his wife Abigail.
Eliot tugged at his coat sleeve for the third time and ran his hand over the back of his neck again. As he shoved his hands back in his pockets Parker draped herself over his shoulder. She whispered so that only he could hear. "Don't be nervous they're your friends and we'll like them and they must already like you so just relax." She slipped her hand into his and adjusted her head on his shoulder.
Turning his head to try and see her didn't help much since all he could see was the top of her head where she was resting it on his shoulder. He looked toward the hall where the arrivals would be coming in and leaned his cheek against the top of her head. "Thanks."
A few minutes later Eliot recognized Ewen's tall lanky form in the middle of the crowd that was now flooding toward them in a slow stampede. Parker felt Eliot's posture shift and she straightened up. Glancing at his face she followed his sight line until she spotted the tall blond man in the crowd. "The tall guy is Ewen?"
"Yep. His wife is Abigail, she's the one with the dark curls on his left." Eliot tried not to bristle in irritation as the crowd brushed past them, bumping into him, nearly running over him with luggage, and jabbering so loudly on their cell phones that he wanted to put his hands over his ears. Finally Ewen and Abby were just a few feet away.
"Oh Eliot!" Abby threw herself at him in a huge hug. "It's so good to see you!" She practically squealed into his ear. Eliot couldn't help the flinch at her decibel and pitch but hugged her tighter anyway.
"Good to see you too." Eliot let her go and she stepped to his side so that all three of them were now facing Ewen.
Ewen smiled and winked then pulling himself up into his straightest posture he said. "Eliot Spencer Alpha of the Portland City Pack, I request permission to enter your territory." Ewen wasn't speaking very loudly, barely loud enough for Parker to hear, but a few passersby still turned a curious eye in their direction.
"Ewen McEllen you and yours are welcomed to my territory." Eliot smiled and both men hugged for a moment.
"I am so excited to be here. Nati and I, and the whole pack are so proud of you. Your own pack and your own territory." Ewen remembered the angry stray that Nati had brought home and Ewen could hardly believe that the centered and happy man in front of him was the same person.
"Ewen, you're being rude. You and Eliot can talk business after introductions and when we all aren't standin' in the middle a the concourse." Abby swatted at his arm but took his hand and leaned against him.
"I'm sorry, love, you're right." Ewen leaned to the side and kissed the top of Abby's head.
Eliot turned a little toward Parker. "Parker I'd like to introduce you to Ewen McEllen and his wife Abigail McEllen. Ewen, Abby, this is Parker."
"Formal. Why are we being formal?" Parker not so subtly stage whispered to Eliot.
Ewen chuckled and Abby tried to hide her smile behind her hand. "All these protocols and formal manners, it's what allows them to behave themselves and not get into so many fights. You must be new to Eliot's pack." Abby reached out like she might have put her hand on Parker's arm while she explained but Parker stiffened just slightly and Abby withdrew putting her hand in her pocket. Eliot gave a half smile and a nod in Abby's direction, in thanks for noticing and accepting Parker's boundaries.
"So do we have to be formal all the time?" Eliot recognized the tone in Parker's voice as the same one she used when he told her she had to at least try to eat her vegetables.
"No Parker not all the time. Really since we're all friends here we're probably done with all the formal stuff." Eliot tilted his head toward the baggage claim. "Come on."
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In no time Hardison had picked them up. "You have to introduce Hardison right?" Parker had shifted sideways in the front seat so that she could see the three in the back. Hardison quirked an eyebrow at Eliot in the rearview as he merged with traffic leaving the airport.
"Parker it's…" Eliot saw the look on her face and shook his head. "Okay." He turned a little toward Ewen. "Ewen, Abby, this is Alec Hardison." Eliot was about to let it drop there but Parker broke in.
"No the whole thing. Cause we're your pack so you have to do the whole formal wolfy thing right?" Parker looked very pleased and Eliot couldn't tell her no even if he thought it was silly at this point.
Eliot took a deep breath and started over. "Hardison I'd like to introduce you to Ewen McEllen and his wife Abigail McEllen. Ewen, Abby this is Alec Hardison." Hardison smiled at them in the mirror but kept his attention on the traffic for the moment.
Now that it was just the five of them in the van Ewen finally noticed it. "They are human. I thought you had said that they are your pack?" Ewen was confused. In all the years since he'd known that Eliot had a pack he had never thought to ask if they were wolves because that's what a wolf pack was, a bunch of wolves.
"They are." Eliot's eyes flashed yellow and stayed yellow. "Parker? Would you come here for a minute?" Parker looked confused but Eliot gave her a reassuring smile. "It's okay." Eliot held out his hand to her. Parker still looked uncertain but she trusted Eliot so she unbuckled and stepped into the back and sat next to him. "Parker would you let Ewen smell your wrist?" He saw the look on Parker's face. "Do you remember when I told you that members of a pack all have a similar scent and that's how I can tell what pack a wolf belongs to?" Parker nodded and held out her wrist toward Ewen.
Ewen leaned forward and inhaled, he would have held her hand, but he had seen how she had reacted in the airport and didn't want to upset her further. "Wow. I didn't think it was possible." Ewen spoke with a smile and his eyes flashed yellow for just a second. "You are a treasure. You and Hardison must be something very special." Ewen spoke directly to Parker and glanced at Hardison. "Are there others in your pack?" Ewen looked at Eliot and noticed that Eliot had relaxed a bit and that his eyes were blue again.
"Two others and they are human as well." Normally an alpha wouldn't give out information on his pack but Eliot trusted Ewen and knew that the man was only curious. Eliot hadn't ever heard of humans being part of a wolf pack either so he could understand the fascination.
"What's wrong with that? Abby is human too, Hardison said so." Parker looked around at everyone.
"Yes I am but I'm not a part of Natali's pack. I've never heard of a human mate, or any human, being part of a wolf pack." Abby smiled at Parker.
"Well Eliot's ours." Parker said it firmly since that settled everything for her.
"Thanks." Eliot kissed her temple and nodded toward the front seat. Parker moved back to the front of the van with Hardison. "I've not made it known that my pack is human, and I'm sure you'll tell Nati, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread the word further than that." Eliot got a shiver at the thought of how fragile his family was compared to the wolves.
"Your family is our family." Abby patted Eliot's face.
"We will protect them in any way that you need." Ewen smiled. "It shouldn't be a wonder that you found a different way of doing things. Nati told me before I even met you that you would be an alpha someday but when I got to know you a little better I couldn't picture you putting up with a bunch of wolves. I guess we were both right." Ewen chuckled and leaned back in his seat a little.
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After Ewen and Abby had a little time to settle into the guest room above the pub everyone reconvened in front of the giant screens. Abby looked around for a moment but before she could make up her mind to leave, Eliot pulled out a chair for her at the table with the rest of them.
"If you guys need anything let me know." Hardison smiled at Ewen and Abby before jumping into the team meeting. "So here's what I could find on Keme and his brother Matchitehew." Hardison slid up the Meskwaki tribal legend. "After Keme aka Kempton left the tribe there is no record of him for a couple hundred years."
"Couple? Like two hundred?" Parker squinted over Hardison's shoulder at the information on the screen.
"Parker." Eliot growled at the interruption and Parker stuck her tongue out at him.
"So the next time we have any kind of record of him was during the first gold rush in Alaska. After that it's all pretty generic; new name in a new town, now and again, but mostly he stays off the radar. Then a year ago he moves to Elkhorn Wisconsin, and that is pretty much it."
"What about his brother?" Ewen asked.
"Since there was this story of Keme and Matchitehew." Hardison slid the tribal legend back up on the screen. "I figured there might be other stories too. Now I can't tell what's an actual sighting and what's just legend and most of it doesn't have any kind of date at all so I don't know if any of this helps or not. But there have been a lot of what amount to werewolf stories and sightings in that half of the state for ages before anybody else was recording history there."
"My grandmama's people were Cherokee and they had stories about shapeshifters. Course I didn't believe any of them until I became one." Eliot commented with a half a smile.
Hardison started sliding up all of the information he had found on the Beast of Bray Rd. "Kempton has confirmed that his brother is the Beast of Bray Rd. and the first official sighting was recorded in nineteen-thirty-six. After that nothing until sixty-four and then the sightings start becoming more common."
"Probably just more people in the area and fewer reasons to keep the sightings to themselves. That's how it is in Europe too. Nati has sworn to tack our hides to her front door if we ever pull any shite like this." Ewen nodded at the picture of Doristine Gipson's scratched up car, and readjusted his seat.
Abby swatted at his arm. "Language Ewen!" Abby scolded him but there was no heat behind her words.
"Nati told us there's a curse and she sent you a box of stuff that we might need to get rid of the curse but mostly she was too busy hustling us out the door and onto a plane to be very specific." Ewen looked at Eliot. "I know you already went over all this with Nati but could you tell me more about it."
"She didn't tell you anything?" Hardison was surprised that Ewen and Abby had traveled all the way to Portland without knowing the details.
"When your alpha tells you to do something you do it." Ewen shrugged.
Eliot scoffed and Parker's laugh, although short, was loud. Hardison tried to hide his smile. "We'll put that in the suggestion box. Okay moving on." Ewen and Abby looked confused but decided not to ask. Hardison pulled up the audio file of their conversation with Kempton.
Hardison played the portion of the audio file where Kempton talked about his brother being cursed.
"…I'd never made the change before and I didn't know how. Wisakachek,… Well now I understand it, though I didn't then, he forced the change on me and my brother. I fought the change and it made the whole process painfully slow. He forced Matchitehew back into his human form and my brother rushed him. Even so young my brother was a fearless warrior.
Wisakachek threw my brother to the side before grabbing him up and bending him backward so that he was mostly upside down. He said some kind of chant over my brother. I didn't know the words of it then and really I don't know them now but I remember the word munu over and over again and something like 'sem moonrinn' at the end.
Regardless, at the end of the chant my brother began to have some kind of seizure and Wisakachek threw him to the ground. I was almost done shifting to wolf when I saw my brother stop moving. I was sure he was dead.
Wisakachek pulled a leather bag from under his fur shirt and blew some kind of powder over my brother's body. I lunged at Wisakachek and did my best to tear his throat out. I still remember the taste of his blood… Anyway. So when I saw that my brother was dead and so was Wisakachek I ran. And I kept on running. …"
Hardison stopped the audio file. "That's all that we know about how the curse was started."
"He said something about his brother being young. How old was he when he was cursed?" Abby held Ewen's hand for comfort.
"Keme told us that he was nine years old almost ten, and earlier in that call he said his brother was a couple years older than him so maybe twelve or thirteen." Hardison shuddered at the thought of being attacked by some wild animal, as a kid.
"Babies. They were just babies. Who would do something like that?" Abby sounded horrified.
"I'm amazed that they survived the change. I've never heard of anyone that young being turned." Eliot hated the images that the thought brought to mind.
"Could we talk to Kempton again?" Ewen asked.
Parker nodded at Hardison. "Call him."
Ewen looked confused that Parker had taken charge and Eliot hadn't, and even more that Hardison obeyed without checking with Eliot first. Abby patted his arm and whispered "Not your pack." There was no way that Abby could whisper quietly enough for Eliot not to hear.
Eliot leaned a little toward them. "If you hadn't noticed there isn't much about my pack that is average. Just… try not to take offense. They aren't wolves and I don't want them to be anything but who they are. This works for us." Eliot said it quietly but he wasn't trying to hide what he said from Hardison or Parker.
Parker looked to Hardison "Did I do something wrong?"
"Nope, baby girl. You just do you. They'll get the hang of it eventually." Hardison put an arm around her shoulders and placed the call. Hardison wanted to like Eliot's friends, but if they made Parker uncomfortable, he'd be making hotel reservations for the McEllen's on the other side of the city.
After the first ring Kempton picked up. "Kempton here."
"Mr. Foxman. This is Parker again. We think we might be able to help you and your brother but we need to ask you some more questions."
"Okay. Is your alpha there?" Kempton sounded slightly less resistant than last time but he still clearly wanted to talk to Eliot.
"Mr. Foxman." Eliot tried to suppress the growl but he was tired of people trying to sideline Parker. "We also have a couple of friends here. Ewen McEllen of the Ummoon Pack would like to ask you some questions about the curse on your brother."
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After a lot of back and forth Eliot was certain that they had gotten every detail they were going to get out of Kempton, as far as the curse was concerned. The call ended and Eliot checked the time and decided to start dinner prep. Parker and Hardison were settling in on the couch for a movie or one of Hardison's geeky TV shows, and Abigail said she wanted to lay down for a bit before dinner. Eliot figured that Ewen would join Abby so he didn't pay Ewen a lot of attention as he headed for his kitchen.
A few steps past the counter and Eliot heard Ewen trailing him. "Can I get you anything?"
"Beer if you have one."
Eliot snorted "I live above a brew pub. I'm pretty sure we got beer." Eliot pulled a bottle of his favorite beer out of the fridge and gently tossed it to Ewen. "Bottle opener's on the counter to your left."
Ewen looked around for a moment before he spotted it. "You know I'm sorry right. I didn't mean to offend you or your people. I really like them. It's my own fault for assuming that your pack had the same rules I'm used to."
"Apology accepted." Eliot tied on his apron and bandana.
"So tell me about them. You've brought us stories when you've come to visit but obviously there's some missing pieces." Ewen sat on one of the bar stools on the opposite side of the counter.
Eliot snorted and he had to admit, if only to himself, that he knew he'd left out things about his pack when he'd gone to visit the Moonies. "Hhmm, I'm not sure where to start."
"At the beginning of course." Ewen teased a little.
"So you know I'd gone into retrievals after I left the Moonies that first time?" Eliot glanced at Ewen as he started slicing mushrooms.
Ewen nodded and sipped his beer.
"So I got contracted to play body guard and make sure that some geek can get to a computer and not get man handled on the way in or out. There's supposed to be some world class thief that's going to handle the break-in so that me and the geek can get in and out undetected. But I don't trust those two and they don't trust me. At least Parker didn't, she'd heard about me. Hardison, well, he didn't know who I was and I think he just disliked me on general principle." Eliot chuckled as he remembered that first job. Eliot told Ewen all about that first one and how everything went wrong and even better how they got revenge. "So even though it was supposed to be a one-time deal it was such a blast, I wanted more. And so did they." Eliot looked across the room at Hardison and Parker curled up on the couch, and smiled. "I came and saw you guys after the team split up that first time. Remember?"
"Oh yes. I remember your foul mood. Telling everyone you were fine when you weren't. As if you could lie to a pack of wolves any better than you were lying to yourself." Ewen smirked.
Eliot rolled his eyes. "Right. After staying with you guys for a bit, I worked a couple of freelance gigs and I thought I'd put the team behind me when I got an invitation to one of Sophie's plays. I knew how bad Sophie's acting was but for whatever reason I decided to go and there they all were. And before you know it we're back at it again. Turns out we all missed helping people and there were still a lot of people out there that needed someone. So our little Robin Hood thing continued and I realized somewhere along the way that I needed these people and I'd do anything for them. And even though I'd never been part of a pack before I knew that's what they were for me. Course I'd been ignoring/denying those bonds until Nati pointed it out when I came to visit after Sophie left for a bit. But after she'd pointed it out I realized she was right."
"So do you feel them like you would if they were wolves?" Ewen couldn't imagine it.
"I don't know. I guess. I told you, man, I never been part of a pack before." Eliot shrugged and dumped all the veggies he'd sliced in with the meat he'd been browning.
"But you feel them?"
"Yah, I guess I do." Eliot heard a rustling sound and looked up. Parker was hanging bat-like from one of her harnesses in the rafters above the kitchen. "You need somethin' darlin?"
Ziiip. Parker slid down until she was almost eye-to-eye with Eliot but still upside down. "What does he mean 'feel' us?" Parker tilted her head in Ewen's direction.
"Do you remember last week when you decided to go abseiling off that really tall building down town?" Parker nodded. "How'd things go that night? What were things like right before you left?"
"You got all growly and told me I was going to break my neck one of these days if I didn't start testing my rigging a little closer to the ground first and Hardison agreed with you. But that's silly 'cause I'm always just fine." Parker didn't understand yet where Eliot was going with this but she was willing to go along with it for now.
"So Hardison went with you and helped you set everything up and he was so scared that it made him sick. And when you jumped it was the happiest and most excited that you'd been all week and it felt like flying." Eliot smiled as he remembered it.
"And you were waiting for me at the bottom. So what does that have to do with anything?" Parker sounded frustrated.
"Come down here wouldja. It's not good to hang upside down for so long." Eliot always found it disconcerting to talk to Parker when she was upside down.
"No. I like things better this way." Parker stuck her tongue out at him. "So what does last week have to do with anything?"
"Did you tell me where you were going so that I could find you later?" Eliot knew she'd put the pieces together on her own. Eliot watched as her eyes crinkled into a smile and he could see the moment everything clicked for her. She unclipped her harness and flipped to her feet on the floor.
"Well Parker got it. Whatever it is. But I came in a little late." Hardison had settled himself on a stool near Ewen.
"Eliot knew what it felt like when I jumped off the building and he knew where to find us. Usually, you have to use the gps in our earbuds to know where we are all at when we aren't together, but you were with me and we didn't tell Eliot where we were going."
"So you can feel what we're feeling? All the time?" Hardison didn't look comfortable with the idea, which was one of the reasons Eliot had never brought this up before.
"Not all the time. When it's a sudden strong feeling I usually feel it or if I concentrate on one of you. But most of the time I don't know what you're feeling." Eliot had been practicing more but it was still hit or miss when he tried to tap-in on them but if one of them was feeling something strongly he usually got a read on it. He was beginning to think he would also need to learn to block them someday but for now he was still enjoying this new dimension to his bond with them. "Actually the ability to feel what you guys are feeling is still pretty new. Very rarely before, I would get hit with something one of you was feeling but it was always a surprise. It wasn't until after you guys found out about me that it really started to develop."
"And there's some kinda built in wolfy gps huh?" Hardison took the forkful of food that Parker brought him.
"Parker stay outa my food. It's not done yet." Eliot growled at her. He looked back to Hardison. "I guess but it's more like the kid's game of hot-and-cold. I can't always tell exactly where all of you are but the closer I get to you the easier it is narrow it down until I find you."
Ewen had been observing the whole exchange and had to smile. "Can I ask a few questions? I'm meaning no disrespect, I just want to understand how things work since it looks like we'll be handling this curse thing together."
Eliot looked at Hardison and Parker and nodded at Ewen, while he stirred the food in the wok.
"So you are the alpha, my wolf knows it. But Parker seems to take the lead without you and it doesn't… you don't… How does that work?" Ewen wanted to understand the team's unusual pack dynamics but he didn't want to offend them again.
Hardison had gone to the cupboard to take down plates and cups but he looked over his shoulder to answer Ewen. "Parker is our mastermind. She sees the bigger picture and how all the pieces fit. She knows what we are all capable of and what it's going to take to get the job done."
"We all have our specialties. They trust me to keep them safe and believe me when I tell them things about what we're facing on a job. Hardison can do things with a smart phone that you wouldn't believe and there is no better thief in all the world than Parker. These are, hands-down, the smartest people I have ever known."
"I'm not trying to argue." Ewen put both hands up in an appeasing gesture. "But how can your wolf stand to follow, anyone, when you are the alpha, the leader?"
"What did you tell me years ago about pack order and dominance? The most dominant and capable wolves are at the top of the pack and they care for and protect the wolves below them." Eliot started plating the food and he looked at Parker and glanced to the top of the stairs. Parker nodded and took off in that direction. "I may be the most dominant wolf here." Hardison snorted and Eliot whacked Hardison's fingers with his wooden spoon when Hardison reached across one of the plates Eliot was still loading. "So it is my job to care for them and protect them. The best way to do that is listen to the people that are smarter than me and follow their lead."
"Parker and I are pretty smart." Hardison said with a grin and no humility at all, as he started taking plates to the table. "But…"
"But only an idiot would underestimate Eliot." Parker said from the top of the stairs with Abby in tow.
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Conversation over dinner had been light and happy. Eliot was glad to see that his pack and his friends were on better footing with one another. Hardison and Parker had drug Ewen off to see the wonders of some new techno gadget on the other side of the room. Abby had been invited of course but she had decided to help Eliot with the cleanup.
"I really like your people. That Hardison is so funny. And Parker well… I can see why you love them. What is her last name, or first name maybe?"
"Parker is just Parker. If she has another name she might share it with us someday but until then she is just Parker." Eliot grinned to himself, while he ran a sink full of hot soapy water. He'd helped Hardison find pictures of Parker's family years ago and he had seen her last name then. He'd never mentioned it to anyone, especially Parker. He didn't know if she hadn't shared that with him because of the way that she compartmentalized so much of her life or if she hadn't shared it because the wound was still too painful. He hoped that she had shared her name and her history with Hardison. If anyone could be gentle with Parker while she worked through things, it was Hardison.
"You keep smiling like that and you'll get soap bubbles in your teeth." Abby teased him as she finished clearing the table. "I'm glad you found such good people. You deserve them."
"I don't actually. They are a blessing I really don't deserve." Memories from Eliot's past jumped in front of him and he scowled at them.
"Don't you get all broody on me. You are a good man Eliot Spencer. The rest of us know it, now you just need to accept it." She flicked the end of a dishcloth at him. He grabbed it faster than she could see him move and he flicked it back at her with a grin, before he laid it on the counter next to the draining rack.
"I'm not 'all broody' just truthful. I was a very bad guy for a long time and I don't deserve them but they're mine now and I'm grateful." Eliot flicked water off his fingers at her before he settled in to wash the things he didn't want run through the dishwasher.
"I think your days of being a gallóglaigh are long behind you now. Welcome home." Abby kissed his cheek and went to join the loud laughter coming from the other side of the room.
AN: Gallóglaigh/gallowglass was a kind of warrior. It's an interesting bit of history. They became mercenaries for hire and worked mostly for the Irish chieftains. They were said to be mighty in battle, strong, cruel and without compassion, choosing to die rather than surrender. Some poetic descriptions say that they were that way because they had no home, nowhere that they belonged.