CHAPTER 2
Solid Plan
Parker couldn't help commenting on where the movie got things wrong and what she thought about the real thieves. Hardison smiled and hung on every word and Quinn threw in guesses and commentary of his own.
Eliot watched as the group of old men playing old thieves poked fun at each other for aging and complained about arthritis and bad backs. In the glow from the TV Eliot noticed the crows feet and laugh lines that marred Parker's pretty face.
Parker had turned forty sometime in the past year and while she in no way looked old, Eliot could see the difference time had made since he'd first met her in her early twenties.
He'd lost track of the movie, so he got up and started fixing hot chocolate and another round of popcorn.
He brought Parker her hot chocolate, with whipped cream and sprinkles, and a fresh bowl of popcorn.
"Thanks Sparky." She gave his arm a squeeze as he reached over the back of the couch with the bowl of popcorn.
Eliot felt the tiny twinge of pain as Parker curled and flexed her fingers a couple of times before she wrapped her hand around the warm mug. He'd noticed the cold weather affecting Parker more over the last couple of years. She used her hands, her whole body, for her job and while she was still strong, lithe, and amazingly flexible, past injuries and time were very slowly taking their toll.
~~o0o~~
This job was a little too reminiscent of the recent movie and Eliot wondered if the movie and a touch of nostalgia was what had gotten them into this mess.
"Parker, put a move on." Eliot growled as he kept an eye on the vault door.
"Just a minute." Parker frowned in concentration as she moved her lock picks to the second lock on the safety deposit box door.
Eliot checked his watch. Fifteen minutes until the bank opened. He felt a twinge of pain arc across the knuckles of his right hand and a split second later the tiny sound as Parker's lock pick bounced off of the floor. He spotted the pick and quickly got it back to her.
A few more seconds and Parker had the door open and was able to slide the box out. Eliot tucked the incriminating papers and a small velvet bag into the satchel that Parker had given him. She wiped down the box and slid it back into its slot. Closing the small door, she went back to her picks and locked the small door.
With one hand Eliot boosted Parker up through the vent in the ceiling. Eliot leapt and barely managed not to slip back out of the slick metal vent.
"Come on. What's taking so long?" Parker teased as she wormed her way through the vent and up to the roof. As she climbed out of the vent, she was looking over her shoulder and harassing Eliot. She didn't see the metal bracket sticking out from the bottom of the air-conditioning unit that Quinn was angling out of the way. She hit her head painfully and slipped back into the vent.
"What the hell Parker?!" Eliot snarled as he slid crookedly down the shaft becoming wedged shoulder to hip at a painful angle.
"It's Quinn's fault." Parker whined with a hand to her head.
"Well get off of me and go tell him about it." Eliot grouched.
"Babe are you okay?" Hardison couldn't tell exactly what had happened since he didn't have a video feed inside the vents.
"Yah, just hit my head really hard." She was working her way more slowly up the vent. "And now my head hurts again and my knee hurts and… and everything hurts."
"Does your head hurt just from hitting it or did you already have one of your headaches?" Hardison had been concerned about Parker's recent headaches. She'd never been prone to headaches before but recently they'd been happening more frequently.
Dr. Tyrel had checked her out and said that it could be stress from the jobs, too much sugar, or simply a change in her body chemistry due to age. Eliot and the boys had been doing what they could to limit the stress of the job and Eliot had put them all on a more wholesome diet that limited sugars both natural and refined.
"Yah I already had a headache, and this made it worse." Parker held a hand up out of the vent and Quinn pulled her out one handed while he kept the industrial air conditioner propped out of the way.
The bank building was only a couple of stories tall, and Parker made her way to the edge of the roof with her fingers to her temple. "Hardison, can you catch me? I don't want to deal with the rigging."
"Sure momma." Hardison stepped out of the van and waited at the bottom of the wall with arms out.
Parker slid over the side and dropped to the decorative ledge halfway down. With a flip she leapt from the ledge and Hardison caught her easily.
"You're getting so good at that." Parker kissed his cheek as he set her down.
With a thump and a thud Eliot and Quinn landed on the sidewalk. Parker looked at her boys with a smile. "I feel…" She put her hand to her temple and suddenly one pupil went wide as the other contracted to a pinprick before she dropped to the ground dead.
Eliot stood in shock as his brain overlaid what he'd just seen with something he'd seen years ago. One of Moreau's men had dropped dead as they'd been walking down the street. At first everyone had scattered looking for a sniper, but it was clear, very quickly, that the man had dropped dead without any outside aid. His pupils had been uneven, and Eliot remembered the doctor saying that was common when someone died of a sudden brain aneurism.
~~o0o~~
"That was a great movie!" Hardison high fived Parker.
"The ending could have been better." Quinn complained from his spot in a mound of cushions on the floor.
"What could be better than having the real Basil right here?" Hardison smiled and kissed Parker's cheek. "Am I right El?"
"Hhmm? What?" Eliot looked blankly at Hardison.
"I said the movie was better because we got to watch it with Parker." Hardison looked a little annoyed at having to repeat himself.
Eliot wrapped an arm around Parker and pulled her close. He kissed the top of her head and let his chin rest there. "Yah. It's definitely better with Parker."
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
Parker had managed to clean out the safe and was making her way to the elevator shaft while she listened to the rest of the team try to buy her time to escape.
Eliot was dealing with eight guards that had been rushing up the stairs. Hardison had locked down the elevators to force security onto the stairs and help control their movements through the building.
Parker listened to the boys squabbling in their usual fashion as she followed the hall around to a service elevator. They'd known in advance that the most likely scenario was that Hardison would have to lock down the elevators to slow security. So they'd made sure to run the service elevator up one more floor so that Parker could attach her rappelling lines to the undercarriage.
She pulled the coil of rope from her bag and unfurled it down the elevator shaft. The rope slid softly through her hands. She took a closer look at the rope as she secured it to the underside of the elevator. Her ropes should be scratchy or slick but not soft. Soft meant that a rope was reaching the end, and would be worn out soon. After a quick close inspection, she felt safe enough using the rope one more time. She snapped her harness onto the line and leapt.
The boys felt the thrill of adrenaline as Parker leapt.
Hardison smiled as he focused back on the security chatter. Quinn punched the next guy just a little harder than was probably necessary. And Eliot grinned maniacally as he took out two more guards.
*gasp*
"Parker?" All three pause at the sound.
A second later a thump sounded from the elevator shaft. Quinn could feel the tremor of impact through the soles of his feet a split second before he sprinted for the elevator shaft at the other end of the room.
Hardison raced from the van but ran into the next wave of guards that was coming for Quinn. Hardison, not being a fighter like Quinn, can't make it through the mob of armed men even with above-human strength and speed.
Eliot gives up the pretense of being human and starts to move through the guards faster than ever before.
Quinn finds Parker crumpled at the bottom of the shaft. By luck or design she hadn't landed on any of the metal mechanisms exposed in the bottom of the shaft. Quinn hoped down and tried to listen for her heartbeat but all he could hear is the blood pounding in his ears. He slid two fingers against the artery of her neck and finally breathed as he felt a steady pulse.
"She's alive. I don't know how bad she's hurt yet but she's alive." Quinn reports as he starts to run gentle hands over Parker.
"Skull fracture, right ulna and radius shattered. Right foot severed." He stopped to tie his belt around the mangled stump of her ankle. Right fibula, tibia, femur, shattered." Quinn couldn't help the wolf whine as he continued to catalog injuries. He'd been naming the injuries out loud so that the others would be prepared and might be able to make a plan. "At least three left ribs broken. Jaw broken on left side. Left eye…" Quinn gagged. He checked her pulse again and was surprised to find it still strong.
"Hardison?!" Eliot called as he sprinted down the stairs on the far side of the building.
A grunt and a snarl was the only response from Hardison.
"Eliot, you need to get here. If we move her, she'll probably die from internal bleeding. What do we do?" Quinn controlled his breathing and mentally tracked Parker's pulse.
"Alpha?"
Eliot saw the crowd of security guards waiting for him in the back hall he'd been running down. "Change her."
"What? I can't! You're the Alpha! You're…" Quinn could barely hear Eliot past the pounding of his pulse in his ears.
"Any wolf in the pack can do it. You can do it." Eliot let out a slow breath and felt something settle in his chest as he gave Quinn directions. "Stay away from her belly and her neck. Try to stay on the outside of the legs and arms. When you're done sprinkle your blood over the wounds." The last word was said with a grunt as the guards swarmed him.
Quinn looked at Parker, mangled but alive, and pictured her smiling face in Hardison's arms and the way her hair flew behind her like a flag when she jumped from the beams of the kitchen onto Eliot. The smirk she gave him whenever she would poke at one of Quinn's wounds.
He stripped off as fast as possible and pushed for a fast shift. He'd never fully trusted his wolf, but the wolf seemed to know what to do, and Quinn followed the instincts that were pushing at him. His teeth tore through the flesh of Parker's arms and legs and his claws raked down the tops of her thighs. Somehow the wolf seemed to know when they were done, and Quinn shifted back to his man shape. All but the teeth, and he used his fangs to rip deep bloody furrows down his forearm.
Pumping his fist to promote bleeding he slowly moved his arm over Parker raining blood in steady red splatters across her wounds. He couldn't tell at the end what was her blood and what was his but the fear that he hadn't done enough had him slashing at his arm again.
Hardison crawled to the edge of the elevator shaft and held an arm down to Quinn.
Quinn looked at Hardison confused.
"Come on man." Hardison beckoned him. "She's gone." Hardison tapped his chest as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
Eliot arrived a second later and saw the shocked look on Quinn's bloody face and the crushed look on Hardison's. He tilted his head back with a mournful howl.
~~o0o~~
Eliot woke with a start. His heart was pounding, and his wolf was frantic. He stood and worked on controlling his breathing. The bedside clock said it was three a.m.
Gemma wasn't up yet.
He breathed and paced for another minute. Finally, he scooped up his phone and tapped at the screen.
"Nati?"
"Eliot, dear boy."
Eliot felt the tension in his shoulders relax as he heard her cheerful tone.
"Have ye gotten yerself intay some kinda mess?"
"Maybe." Eliot breathed slowly. "I think maybe I'm going crazy."
"I think I'm going crazy at least once a week." Nati huffed. "What's eatin' at ye?" Her tone softened.
"I keep seeing Parker dead." He had to take a long slow breath to keep control. "It's daydreams and nightmares. The images just keep plaguing me."
"What happens in these visions?"
"Parker is injured in a car wreck, and I try to change her, and she dies. A mugging gone wrong, and she dies. An aneurism and no chance to change her 'cause she's already dead. A job gone wrong, and she ends up mangled and I make Quinn change her, but she ends up dead." He couldn't stop the wolf whine. "Nati, what's wrong with me?"
"Oh poor boy, nothin' is wrong wit ye. It doesn't happen often but sometimes an Alpha will feel a pull to change someone into a wolf. A pull so strong that it makes them sick. Gives them visions." She sighed. "I've had it happen a time er two."
"It just feels all wrong." Eliot felt something clench in his chest. "How can I change her when I'm this scared that she's going to die?"
"Do ye remember how scared ye were when all this first started? Ye didn't think ye could live like this but ceann cróga, ye managed it quite nicely."
"Yer saying, I just need to man up?"
She chuckled at the very American phrase. "Aye lad. Ye need te do it. Even if ye gotta do it scared, it sounds like it's time te get it done."
"Thanks Nati."
"Aye lad. Anytime."
She hung up and Eliot stared at the blank screen of his phone.
His bedroom door opened a crack.
"Eliot?"
"Come on in." Eliot was relieved that it was Quinn and not Parker or Hardison at the door. After that last nightmare he wasn't sure he could look at either of them.
"What's going on?" Quinn moved to sit on the edge of the bed next to Eliot.
Eliot noticed the way that Quinn held a hand over his belly. He and Parker and Hardison all seemed to feel their pack connections in their chests. In moments of whimsy, he'd thought of them as heart connections. But from the moment Quinn had joined the pack, Quinn always reached for his belly when dealing with pack bonds. It was something that intrigued Eliot, but he figured it wasn't something that could be explained.
"Just a nightmare." Eliot gave him half a smile.
"Nati helped you sort things out?"
Eliot nodded.
"You know you could always talk to me or the others."
Eliot knew that his connection to Nati made Quinn uneasy but neither of them had brought it up. "Yah I know. But sometimes I need outside perspective and Nati has been a wolf longer than anyone I've ever known. There isn't much she hasn't seen."
"So can you tell me what's up?"
"I think…" He looked at Quinn. "I think I need to sit with it for a bit."
Quinn tried to squash the quick flash of rejection, but Eliot picked up on it. Eliot put a hand on the back of Quinn's neck. "I ain't gettin' rid of you. I could use the company."
"You want your tea with or without whiskey?"
"With." Eliot smiled as he stood with Quinn. "Thanks."
They both headed down to the kitchen for a very early cup of tea.
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
The day had been mostly uneventful, but Eliot still had two more visions of Parker dying. Even knowing what Nati thought about the situation didn't prevent him from breaking out into a cold sweat.
He was just getting ready to head to the restaurant kitchen when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw a whole string of emojis from Gemma. A flower, a moon, a wolf, and a smiley face.
Eliot tapped Gemma's picture on his phone and held the phone up to his ear. "I feel like I ought to know what you're tryin' ta tell me with all them little pictures, but maybe I don't."
Gemma chuckled. "I'm sure you don't."
Eliot couldn't help his smile. "Okay then. You gonna explain it to me?"
"It's kinda weird and I can't really explain all of it. I had this dream…"
Eliot felt the skin on the back of his neck prickle and a chill slide down his spine.
"I was in the dark and I was scared but then I saw yellow eyes. Your eyes. At least at first I thought it was you but then this big dark wolf came toward me and I could see her in the moonlight. She was so big, but I wasn't scared anymore. We just sat together in this field of wildflowers. I don't know. It was nice. There wasn't anything big or important about this dream. It was just nice."
"Oh darlin', I think that dream might be more important than you know."
"Oh really? Why's that?"
"You ever dreamed anything before and it came true?"
"Uhm, no. Not really."
She sounded hesitant, nervous, so Eliot decided to wait and see if she would say anything else.
"I mean not like whole dreams. But like, I've seen you in a dream sometimes and then later, like, I'd see you but it was just a second or something, but I'd recognize it as something I'd seen in my dreams. But even then, it wasn't anything important. Just the look on your face or the light in your hair or something."
Eliot couldn't help the warm feeling that spread through his chest. "I didn't know that." He smiled. "How come you never said?"
"I told you. It didn't mean anything."
Eliot could picture her blushing and it made him smile all over again. "Well I think it's sweet." He waited but she didn't say anything else. "In your dream about the wolf you said the wolf was a she. How did you know?"
"I don't know. It was a dream. I just knew the wolf was a she." She paused. "You know who the wolf is because I said she?"
"Maybe." Eliot bit his lip. "Listen, I want to tell you all about it but I gotta go. I shoulda been in the kitchen ten minutes ago."
"Well hurry up." She smiled. "Call me later."
. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .
Eliot blinked slowly and stretched his neck side to side as he climbed the stairs to the loft. Brian had left work early and Robert hadn't been able to come in to cover at the last second so Eliot had done his best to keep up with the orders with the less experienced staff. It had been a long shift and he was drained.
He pushed the door to the loft open and was unsurprised to see his pack on the couch watching a movie.
As he got closer, they scooted around to make room for him. He dropped tiredly into the space provided and let his head rest on the back of the couch. He'd just let his eyes close when he heard the TV click off.
"So?" Parker questioned.
Eliot arched an eyebrow without opening his eyes.
Parker poked him hard in the ribs.
He growled and swatted at her hand.
"Come on Eliot. We need to talk." She poked him again.
He scooted up and opened his eyes. "About what?"
"You've been super distracted the last couple of days." Parker frowned giving him her very-serious-mastermind-look.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"I have another job lined up. But I need to know if you're ready for it."
"As long as it's not just this second." He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
"What's got you so distracted? Is it Gemma?" Parker crossed her arms.
"No I just been thinking."
"So you've said." Quinn muttered.
"About what?" Parker poked the center of his chest.
He caught her fingers in a firm grip and pulled her onto his lap. "I been thinkin'…" He kissed her hair. "It's about time we made plans to change you into a werewolf. Not by accident or because of some emergency. We need to make a plan that's going to give you the very best chance to survive the change."
Eliot could feel anticipation swell in the pack bonds but underneath there was the tiniest thread of fear. He sighed and held Parker close for another second. "You are too important to take wild chances with. So let's make a real plan."
Parker smiled and kissed his cheek.
~~The End~~
.
.
.
.
AN:ceann cróga = brave one