Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Thanks to Mercedes (d'oh)-hopefully you'll know what for when you read lol.

Removed because it was naughty. :P (love them all honest!)

Any errors I apologise, gone word blind today!

Thanks for the feedback, you lot rock. :)

Eliot let the scenery calm his mind. It was dark, but houses were lit, porch lights on and neon signs glowed with the promise of vacant rooms at the roadside motels and all night service at the gas stations. He enjoyed driving at night. There was something about the world being asleep, well, most of it, and him being awake that spoke to the protector in him. He felt like he was guarding the innocent as they went about ending their day, putting kids to sleep, paying the bills, watching late night talk shows discussing shit they knew next to nothing about and he unfortunately did; it reassured the side of him that saw evil when he closed his eyes.

There were good honest folks in the world just trying to do right by their kin, and it soothed the part of him that had once thought that a lie. He had allowed himself to forget the every day good guys, so broken as he had been once by the things they knew nothing of in far flung places and done in their name. Now, he was glad they weren't tainted with it. Glad it didn't touch their lives, because honestly, the weight of the world and its problems were crippling, and he knew that first hand, since he had tried to fix it single handed once upon a time in an ill fated shot at redemption. He learnt the hard way that it didn't work like that. Every good deed you did didn't erase a bad one. Didn't stop the nightmares. So now, he consciously appreciated the battles they fought, which were no less hard just because they were on an individual basis. The economy was making the fight for survival at home a tough job, and he admired the strength of communities demolished by foreclosures and bankruptcy. They held firm and stood together, still gathering on a Friday night to support the kids they hoped would be spared the same heartbreak and humiliation.

"Go Colonials," he murmured, as he saw a banner trailing from a car full of college kids cruising by, heading off back toward Danbury. Did his heart good, seeing shit like that. Win or lose, you support your team, through it all. It made you family. He glanced at Parker. She had slumped back around so her face was toward him, her legs stretched out as she fidgeted in her sleep so her feet balanced on the dash. The urge to remove them had faded after a few minutes of her peaceful face and even breathing had convinced him not to be an ass. Why disturb her? Wasn't often she looked so angelic.

He refused to acknowledge that lie, since she always looked angelic till she opened her mouth and the devil came out. Parker was not typical, that was for sure. By any standard. Thinking about family had an uncanny knack of turning his thoughts to her lately. Shit, most things had a Parker variant that made his mind wander.

She was completely contradictory as a human being, sharp as steel and gleeful about Santa. Ate like a horse, slim as a reed. Averse to authority, immensely disciplined in her craft. Baffled by people, most willing to help. Creative, yet scientific in approach too. That tin foil thing H had told him about during the David gig, that was cool. Just a couple of weeks earlier her and Hardison had a spat about her ability to break into a building they were casing and she had insisted she could do it without his help and backwards. Cue a running backward handstand that saw her swing herself by her heels into a ventilation shaft and wink as she vanished from view. Eliot grinned. Girl had sweet skills no doubt about it. He appreciated her confidence in her ability. The Steranko thing was her bug bear, but as he had told her after, she beat it one way or the other. The result was a result. He understood her attitude because he shared it. Faith in your own abilities was sometimes all you had when you had no one else to come save you. It bothered him some to think she ever had to learn that she was her best and most reliable weapon, but he was glad she had. Some folks didn't have that core to work with, and damn broke under pressure. Not their fault. Bad shit is bad shit. He was just happy as hell she survived else he never would have met her. Woah! He checked his thinking, and put the mental brakes on. Enough of thinking warm fuzzy crap about the thief. Enough already.

She looked up to him like a brother, at least the whole team thought she did. Him too most times. But now and then, when they were in the middle of a high octane situation, or even just ripping it out of the team, their eyes met and he saw the woman stare back. The woman who saw him as a man not just the muscle. Not just Eliot, big brother protector. And damn it they were not related, so why did it feel so wrong that such a connection might exist? Why had he pushed her away recently and caused a troubled expression to mar her brow?

Hardison. Sweet lovable Hardison with his fast talk and big eyes that watched her like a love sick puppy. Shit.

Being close to people was a dirty business he decided, berating himself for having to relearn a lesson he had already passed once with flying colours.

Glancing at the tank, he figured a top up before hitting the 684 to New York made sense. Just thinking about New York made his gut hurt. Last time he had been there a lot of terrible things had happened and the place still held a shadow of that for him. For a lot of people. But getting morose wouldn't help him or his passenger, so he shrugged off the black cloud and cruised into the next gas station, raising a hand at the guy at the counter behind the glass as he turned in. The kid looked out of it and shook his head. Half asleep? Eliot glanced at his dash for the time. Middle of the night maybe, but a Friday night at ten? Nah. Taking in the deserted forecourt, and the fields surrounding the station, the last pit stop for a ways, his spider senses snapped to high alert. Damn that Hardison getting him to watch those movies! Spider senses? He was a grown man for -his thoughts stopped abruptly as a shadow moved in the store behind the glass. Eliot stopped thinking. He started doing.

He span the truck as he stopped, at an angle right by the service hatch. Parker had already been slipped down in her seat and covered in the blanket. She wouldn't be seen. And the bullet proof glass and panelling he had kitted it out with that Nate called overkill seemed pretty neat right about now. Over kill my ass he thought, before shoving the told you so's to Nate away to be thrown at him later. Or if ever. This kind of robbery sucked. Amateurs, crack-heads, local thugs-the worst class of criminal, the unpredictable kind. The kid at the till was terrified, and with good reason. From the shadow cast on the far wall, Eliot could tell there were two of them armed with automatic rifles. It was a very distinctive shadow.

Taking a deep breath, he swung out of his seat and into the cool night air and began to sway as he closed the door, and set off the locking system with the key in his pocket. Parker wasn't an idiot she could hot wire it if shit went bad.

"Hey kid, I gots to go-gimme the key would ya?" He clutched at his crotch as he weaved toward the window, eyeing the size of the service hatch and the distance between the shadows in the store and the doors. The kid shook his head, and starting to call out.

"Sorry mister, its all locked up, you gotta go to-"

"Now look boy," he slurred, despairing at the non perplex hatch, "when a man's gotta go, he's got-to- go. Ya feel me? I ain't pissin' in my damn truck boy issa rental. Bassards took a deposit an' ev'rythin'." The kid got told to get rid of him, he was sure, since he went quiet then nodded meekly at him before picking up a key by the till.

"Okay mister, I don't want no trouble. Key's right here and the bathrooms out back."

Eliot approached the hatch still holding his crotch and pushing the hair from his eyes. A shovel in the fire reg sand bucket made its way into his hand as he approached close enough that they could not see his lower body. He hoped the kid would pay attention. He hated this kinda thing, but damn it how could he drive away? Nate and his freakin' morals and principles were getting under his skin, and though half of him said leave, the other half said stay. The stay half won.

"Here you go mister." The kid dropped the key into the hatch and Eliot caught his hand beneath the glass. The kid looked up at him panicked with huge bloodshot eyes where fear had turned to tears and Eliot felt for him. Guns had a way of making small fuckers break others spirits. He hated that. Buy a gun and the world was yours right? Hell the fuck no.

"Duck." He said it low and straight and experience dictated his order would be followed. He backed the command up with his expression that turned to stone under the kids gaze, and a split of eyes widening was all he saw before the spiky haired do vanished behind the counter. Eliot swung the shovel and as the glass cracked because it wasn't safety issue which pissed him the hell off, he launched himself onto the hatch and kicked the glass in, before diving in behind the counter in a tumble of glass and speed.

The kid had covered his head and scrambled to the far corner of the counter and whimpered when Eliot landed to crouch beside him.

"Oh God Oh God Oh-"

"Shut up. Stay down." The kid nodded and gasped back the last God, and Eliot nodded, satisfied. Having issued his standard rules for most passers by, he listened to the torrent of noise his entrance had evoked. The gun toting scum bags were not happy. They let rip and bullets rained on the counter, smashing the glass that held the smokes. The kid cringed but when pinned by Eliot again, bit his lip.

Eliot decided enough already, and reached up, glancing at the walls, locating the cowards by the shadows stretching and moving on the wall. He vaulted the counter and got to work.

Turned out they were dumb fucks who stuck together, halving his problem immediately. Shock played a part to, since no one expects you to take on a gun. Like it makes you invincible. Time and again Eliot proved those who thought that wrong and he set about doing so again. With his fists.

Three minutes later, the shit heads were disarmed and tied up in the back office, where he had found a girl, the kids girlfriend who had snuck in to spend some time with him studying for finals. The high school books on the desk and her terror at being discovered by either the shooters or her parents was palpable. Idiot kids. Rather get shot than let your mom know you were dating? Insanity. He wiped the security tape and glared at them both as they watched, huddled together. He locked the office up and threw the kid the key.

"I suggest you kids call your folks and call it a night now." He watched the boy dial, arms folded, a little blood on his arm from a cut sustained jumping through the glass. "Now call the police." The kid complied. "Now wait outside the doors till they show. Right by the door. Go'on."

He made to leave, when the kid called him with a shaky voice.

"Hey mister? The boss'll want your name for the broken glass, he's real particular about-"

Eliot turned on the kid and stared at him.

"Seriously kid? Know what? You're welcome. And I ain't breaking Rule Four because of your whiny ass, so I'm taking this-" He stalked to the cereal aisle and grabbed a box of Parker's favourite cereal, utterly infuriated. "And you're payin' as a thank you, so hop to it spiky."

The boy jumped and nodded, but not moving.

"I need to see you do it. Rule Four kid. Com'on."

The boy scrambled in his pants pocket and pulled out a couple of bucks to make the sale.

Eliot raised the box in a wave at them both.

"Why that was mighty generous of you sport. Night y'all." He climbed back into his truck after shaking of the small pieces of glass all over him, and muttered to himself about ungrateful whiny ass bitch boys grimly. Should have left he decided. Now he was cut and his shirt ruined. Friggin' idiots the lot of them.

"Hey Eliot?" Parker's soft query pulled him from the tirade distractedly.

"What?"

"Leave me in a locked truck whilst you go play Batman again and I will taser you to death. To death. To. Death." Jesus. He swung about to see her fully upright and mad as hell, eyes bright and fringe mussed up.

"Thought you were sleepin'."

"Ever heard the expression cat nap Eliot?" She was staring out the windscreen and he began to wiggle, finding glass embedded in the creases of his jeans. Damn.

"Yeah."

"Ever heard the expression cat burglar Eliot?" Okay she was using the voice she used whenever she had to give money back and she didn't want to. Which was often, but chilling every time.

"Yeah but see I was just-"

"Give me my cereal." She stared out front still, and he dumped the box in her hand."We need to switch plates on this thing and you have glass in your hair." She ripped open the box and ate a handful of crunchy crap he could never quite work out if it was nuts or flakes or whatever. A whole mess of crunch anyhow. Plucking at his shirt he nodded in agreement and sighed.

"This shit never happens when I go fishin' ya know," he grumbled, looking for a lay by to swap plates. Parker tossed him a cookie and he caught it by lifting a hand off the wheel for a sec.

Looking at it, he looked back at her. She had her feet on the dash, a cereal box in her lap and a serene light in her eyes. She turned to catch him staring and shrugged at him, before stuffing another handful of cereal in her mouth.

Screw it. He bit the cookie. He was going to hell anyway.

Parker ate on auto pilot. She was seething. And not entirely sure what about. Theoretically, this was what he did. Eliot was alone a lot on jobs, sent off like a lone wolf to dispatch all comers. She worried in a way then. but in a work way, same as she worried about every body. And he was always so tough. He could defeat most anything put in his way. So she gave him his due and didn't fuss, just like she didn't when the others had a job to do. Sure she was nursing Hardison through lifting, but that wasn't the same as fussing. It was teaching. This little hold up, was not in a work context. He was not their hitter. They did not have his back. He should not have left her in the truck. it made her light headed thinking about it. The sugary cereal helped. And that! I mean, she chewed viciously, perplexed and irritable, how could she be mad as hell when the guy just took on two gun wielding robbers saved a couple of teenagers and bought her cereal? How was that remotely fair? Just because he was tougher than her did not make her a soft touch, she declared inwardly, as she dove for more cereal. You don't buy a person with junk food. Uh uh.

The truck stopped and she dumped the box on the dash, daring him to complain, before jumping from the passenger seat on the sodden ground. It had rained recently. Hmm. She liked it when you drove into a rain-cloud. Weather was fast, and untameable. Wild and energetic. She figured one day when she had stolen all she could steal, she would become a storm chaser and steal a tornado. If it could be done, by God she'd do it. The spare plates were in the trunk under the floor of the boot, and she hummed whilst she worked at switching them out, annoyed beyond measure by the song stuck in her head. Done, she closed up the trunk and grabbed a small brush and made her way round to Eliot's side of the truck to help get rid of the glass in the foot-well.

She stopped when she saw him sat on his seat with the door open, legs stretched out and feet planted on the ground, sewing up his arm, which was bleeding far worse than she had realised because of the black shirt. That was not on his body any more. Not covering his naked torso.

He glanced up through a fall of hair and she reached out quick and tucked it behind his ear for him since his hands were a little busy stitching up his wound. Self inflicted she told herself. No sympathy here. Nuh-uh. She hovered nearby.

"Why aren't you wearing a vest?" Stupid mouth. Stupid stupid mouth.

"'Scuse me?" His gaze narrowed and she shifted foot to foot. Then stilled, not sure why she was doing it.

"You normally have a vest on. A wife beater. Not that you would. Are. I mean it's a weird name for a piece of clothing when you think about it." Good God she would rather be arrested than be subject to the intense appraisal he was currently making with knowing eyes.

"You okay Parker?" He asked the question but his eyes were supplying the answer and Parker swallowed as his chest heaved. For a bizarre instant of clarity she wondered if he was being cruel or kind. Because it felt like both. That level of intimacy and confession made her want to cartwheel out of sight but she remained where she stood. This was, interesting.

"Fine." She nodded mechanically, even as her eyes strayed. and got busted big time if his smirk was to be believed. Arrogant foolhardy brave stupid man. "I was just thinking..." she stepped up close and stood between his knees, quite suddenly aware of a whole arsenal of weapons she had yet to master the art of. No time like the present to test them out.

"Parker what the hell-" He could not have sounded more strained and she took advantage of his wounded state to lean just a bit too close, as his hand was still threading his arm.

"Eliot ssh!I'm trying to say something." This close, his heat and chest wall hummed at her and she found herself thoroughly enjoying this kind of tease. It was...new. Leaning in again, and shifting her legs so his inner thighs were touching the outside of hers where she stood between his knees, she brushed the glass she had spotted from his hair and almost stopped when she saw his eyes close, unsure suddenly. A current ran between them that had elevated beyond the moment and the joking. The words tumbled from her in a squeak. And she never ever squeaked. Except at holidays.

"You should slow down on the cookies. You don't wanna get fat."

His eyes snapped open and caught hers and she cursed herself for not moving away quicker, sure he was going to explode at her in indignant fury. But he didn't. Instead his face broke into a slow slow smile that made her stomach curl. And then he stood, forcing her back a few paces, and stretched his arms as he tied off the thread. Tautening his chest. His very naked, not at all fat, chest.

"Why thank you Parker." He grinned that slow maddening way again and she was confused. She was supposed to be teasing him right? But then he ran a hand down his chest, as if yawning, and watched her follow his hand, his gaze burning her eyelids as her eyes dipped. "It's good to know you are so concerned about my...health."

Hot inside and out, Parker refused to let him know he had won, and shrugged, smiling brightly at him. This was not over. He wouldn't win this game. If it was a game. The thought made her pause. If not then what? She was all loose and hot and he was watching her closely, concern in his eyes taking the place of the warm secretive look of an instant before. It bugged her. Did he think her fragile? Not able to handle his brand of teasing? Well she could damn it. She paced forward and was about to-

Her phone chimed and the scene froze, then broke, the heat of it melting away like rain. Eliot snapped from his reverie and took the brush from her numb hand, turning away, all business and focused on ridding the glass from the foot well and his jeans.

Parker yanked out her phone and glanced at the screen.

Oh. Right.

"We should get going. You can drive us to Westchester. Its' a straight shoot down the 684. Wake me up there, I'll take over. Got it?"

She nodded, and watched him put the blanket over the drivers seat before letting her get in. He yanked a tee shirt on to, and she couldn't think of a damn thing to say as he glanced at her.

"We cool?" His voice was deep and soft and understanding about things she knew she didn't comprehend fully yet but was on the cusp of. Parker never knew two words could be so complicated. She nodded and grinned, and he just tipped his head then looked away.

She let him turn the radio up, grateful for the distraction from her muddled thoughts.

Let me know if you want more peeps! :)