Chapter Seven

Eliot caught her as she slumped to the floor. He laid her down gently. Was this her first day? They were sending rookies for him now? He didn't know if he should feel relieved or offended.

He pocketed the taser and ran out the back door. He made his way to his hotel in a zigzag pattern, and only when he was sure he wasn't being followed did he go in. She'd called him by his first name. That wasn't a mistake even a rookie would make. Why did she play it like that? Was she crazy?

He sat on the bed, trying to think. Flores had gotten himself appointed to the position of Foreign Affairs Advisor. He was known for working late, after the business part of the palace shut down for the day. Eliot would have to get to Flores at night.

There'd been a flurry of activity at the palace today, but Eliot hadn't found out why. His back was still killing him, and the headaches weren't much better. He kept falling asleep at odd times, and he wasn't sure where he was when he woke up. Sometimes he wasn't sure he had woken up. Most of his experiences in San Lorenzo had been surreal, and he had this strange feeling that he was living someone else's life. The head injury must have knocked some sense into him; he knew now he had to get out from under Moreau. This life wasn't for him—he had to escape—but until he could figure out how to do it and survive, this life was the only one he had.

xxxxx

Nate ran to the back of the café and saw Parker lying against the wall of the hallway; Hardison hot on his heels.

"Parker!" Hardison called, pocketing the tracker when he saw her.

Nate knelt down to examine the bruised skin on her shoulder, peeking from her shirt. She was resting a hand over it. "Parker? Are you awake?"

"Yes." Her eyes popped open. "That really hurt."

"She's all right?" Sophie breathed through the com.

Nate winced, his ear was still ringing after the screeching death of Parker's ear bud. "Did he tase you?"

"Yes!" She looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. "With my own taser!"

"It's your fault," Hardison said coldly, taking her hand in his. "We told you to be careful. He told you to be careful. And were you careful? No. You attacked him. You attacked Eliot! You're lucky all he did was tase you with your own gun." Hardison's hand flew to his mouth. "And now he's out there, armed with a taser!"

Nate waved his hands at them to calm down. They were still crouching in the otherwise empty corridor, and he didn't want to draw attention to themselves. Nate rested a hand on Parker's shoulder. "Why did you talk to him?"

Parker's eyes grew sad. "His plate was about empty, and he already had money on the counter. I was afraid if I followed him, he'd lose me right away. He's really good at hide `n seek. I tried to ask Hardison's opinion, but he wouldn't stop telling me how I wouldn't find him. So I tried to pick him up."

"Oh, no," Sophie breathed again.

Nate was glad Parker couldn't hear her.

"I asked him to my place."

"You did what?!" Hardison almost fell off his haunches. "Why would you do that?"

"Because that's where he'd be the safest. Then we could take care of him."

Hardison bit his lip.

"It doesn't matter now. Did you happen to slip a GPS on him?" Nate prayed he didn't sound too hopeful.

Parker looked like she was holding back tears. "Where's Sophie? Sophie? Are you there?"

"Your com blew when Eliot tased you. Here." Hardison held up a new one, and she tucked it into her ear.

"I messed up, Sophie. I didn't think it through. I didn't bring an extra."

"It's okay, Parker."

"It's not! You thought to do it when you were shocked and didn't even know what was wrong with him. I failed him, Sophie."

"Welcome to the club."

Parker crossed her arms and stuck out her lower lip.

Hardison shook his head and stood. Bending at the waist, he offered his hand. "Come on, Parker."

"No."

"Let's regroup at the palace. We found him once, we can find him again."

"Absolutely not," Nate said. He was putting an end to this once and for all. "No one's going after him."

Parker smiled at Hardison. "Really?"

Hardison nodded. "We'll find him. We have to."

"No, we're not," Nate repeated.

Parker took Hardison's hand and pulled herself up. "I figure he's staying at a hotel. If we can just stake them out—"

"No! No stake out. No more splitting up, and no more going after Eliot—especially alone."

Hardison spoke to Parker. "We'll have to split up. Do you know how many hotels are within a five mile radius of the palace?"

"Hello?" Nate waved his hands, trying to keep his voice low. "I know you can hear me. You can't pretend the com is out, I'm standing right in front of you."

Hardison held out his arm, and Parker took it. "We'll have to be prepared."

"No prepared. No going after Eliot!"

Parker nodded. "Super prepared. We'll each need to carry like a dozen extra ear buds and we're going to need a lot more tasers."

"For Eliot? We'll need like a hundred tasers. And a tranquilizer gun. One of those they use for the elephants or the bears. And tear gas—no, sleeping gas."

"Ooooh! Sleepy gas. I like sleepy gas."

"No sleepy gas." Nate was forced to follow them out the back as they walked down the hall, continuing their ridiculous conversation.

"Nate, just get them back here. We'll argue later."

"We'll need ice," Parker said.

"What for?" Hardison asked.

"For when the tasers, tranquilizers and sleepy gas don't work. He'll get mad—really mad—and beat all of us up. One of us will have to remain conscious long enough because he'll tire himself out eventually. Then that person can shackle him."

"No shackling!" Nate called after them desperately.

Hardison turned to him. "Are you kidding, man? Lots of shackles. Lots and lots of shackles—this is Eliot." He focused on Parker again. "I don't really like your plan."

"Which part?" she asked curiously.

"Well, the part where Eliot is beating the crap out of us. I'm just not a fan of that."

"It's a work in progress. Nate will smooth out the finer points. Maybe Eliot won't beat us up."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe. He didn't look too good just now."

"You called him handsome before."

"It's Eliot. He'd have to be, like, all mangled up in a car crusher to not be handsome anymore."

"Parker!"

"I just wonder if he'll easily slip out of the shackles because he'll be really slippery, covered in our blood and all."

Nate blew out a breath. "No blood."

xxxxxx

A/N: I don't know if the taser would blow the ear bud. Since the ear buds are made up by Hardison, I don't think they ever said, one way or the other. In the homeless episode, Eliot gets tased and he's on the com later, but maybe he wasn't wearing it at the time or he had extras. So, in my fic, the com in the ear will blow from the taser.

Since this is another short chapter, I'm going to post another chapter tomorrow.