)()()()(

They took turns babysitting Parker, who had trouble getting up off the couch now that her leg had stiffened.

When it was his turn, Nate was awkward around her, asking several times if she wanted additional blankets or pills or sandwiches, and seeming generally ill-at-ease. Although it was his apartment that Parker was staying in, he was inexplicably out of place. Parker didn't really want any blankets, pills, or sandwiches, but eventually she agreed to all of them just to make him feel better. He was obviously relieved as he hurried off to get them for her.

When Sophie came, she liked to sit and talk, which was problematic since Parker wasn't very good at that. The best strategy was to get Sophie going and then sit quietly and listen to her stories about Paris and London and Hermès and Chanel. Some of those places Parker had never even heard of, but it was fun to pretend.

Eliot mostly ignored her, preferring to put the game on the big screen and sit in silence. Parker didn't know what teams were playing but at least she didn't have to entertain him. And, he would usually bring beer.

Her favorite was Hardison, who never came by without bringing something fun for her to do – Wii Bowling one time, Guitar Hero, and Second Life (in it, Parker was still a jewel thief, which he said kind of defied the point). Today it was Sim City, and as usual he snuggled up next to her on the couch ("because they both had to be able to reach the console"). But after an hour or two he would usually decide that he was really tired, and sometimes Parker was feeling kind of tired by this time too, so she would lean back against the couch and close her eyes.

When she was half asleep she felt him wrap an arm around her middle. Maybe she was imagining the feeling of his hand brushing her cheek, and gently tucking her hair behind her ear.

After a few days she was very well able to limp around and was getting pretty sick of being cooped up. Nate had already caught her hanging from the railing of his spiral staircase, contemplating a flip. "I'm fine," she sulked when he made her get down. "Tell me about the job, what's going on? Can I help?"

"We don't need any help, there's nothing left to do. Sophie does the drop tomorrow and that's the end of it. So take a nap or something, okay?"

"I don't know why everybody's acting so weird," she complained to Hardison, stomping past him into the kitchen. She was going to eat peanut butter straight out of the jar, just to spite Nate, because she knew it annoyed him.

"That's `cuz you scared the hell outta everyone," answered Hardison promptly. "We didn't know where you were."

"I was fine," Parker muttered through a mouthful of peanut butter. Mmm, creamy. "I'm always fine." She scowled.

"Don't pout," Hardison wheedled. "I'll teach you how to make prank calls, you want to learn how to make prank calls? C'mon, I'll show you."

Teaching Parker stuff was something of a hobby around the Leverage headquarters; Sophie taught her girlie things, like shopping and makeup; Eliot taught her how to fight. Hardison taught her small talk and card tricks, and Nate taught her self-control - or tried to, anyway. It was a fun pastime, like teaching a stray dog to do tricks.

The only problem was that Parker wasn't entirely tame. If you try to teach a wild animal to sit on command, it may listen to you with some degree of interest. Or it may decide to maul you.

"Is your refrigerator running?" giggled Parker into the phone, while Hardison blocked the number's caller ID.

Grinning, he gave her a big thumbs-up.

...

The first sign of trouble came the following day. While Sophie made the drop to close out their con on the warehouse people, Eliot was supposed to have the baby-sitting shift.

But Eliot didn't come.

This wasn't particularly surprising to Parker – after all, it seemed like Eliot had never really warmed up to her. In fact it was possible that he found her extremely annoying (that happened, sometimes). She just figured he had gotten sick of playing nursemaid and left her to her own devices.

So what? She'd watch a movie, maybe make herself a sandwich. No problem.

Making her way slowly to the bathroom, she tried to convince herself it didn't matter. So what if she tripped on tile and cracked her head open – she could hear his voice in her head; someone who can't keep their feet underneath them deserves what they get.

Well, maybe that wasn't Eliot's voice, exactly. But he definitely wasn't the kind of sympathetic presence who would worry about something like that.

She kept herself occupied by breaking into Hardison's room and stealing only one sock from all his pairs. She was planning on hiding them all over the house. This was fun.

But when Sophie showed up at noon, she seemed unexpectedly concerned. "You mean he just didn't come?"

Parker shook her head no. "Did you make the drop?" she asked. "Were there dogs?"

Sophie frowned. "They didn't show," she admitted. "Nate is trying to track them down, see what went wrong. Maybe they duplicated the file or something." She was lost in thought for a moment. "Eliot didn't call or anything?"

"Nope."

At that moment Nate burst through the door. His hair was standing rumpled on the top of his head, which was a sure sign of agitation.

"Guys, we've got a big problem . . ."