Disclaimer: I own nothing.

You guys are so brilliant for reading and reviewing.

:)

Thank You!

"No."

"Eliot, you know if this was my spiritual home? You know where yours would be? A town called Malice." He took his eyes off the sun drenched road, and glanced at the irate thief.

"You know Paul Weller?"

"Who the hell is that the mayor?" Man she was pissed off, and her face a little creased from sleeping on a rolled up pillow. Eliot tried his best to concentrate on her demanding nature, and not on how adorable she looked all sleep mussed.

"No he was in The Jam-ah, know what? Forget it." He wondered why he bothered he really did.

"Jam? Seriously Eliot? Choc-o-late. Hershey is chocolate town. Not that I'm ever gonna know for sure since you won't take a measly five minute freakin' detour!" She threw her whole body into folding her arms in temper and he was almost certain the truck shook. Which was ridiculous since she weighed like, nothing. Or it had felt like nothing plastered against him as they flew through the night sky. Not that he was ever thinking about that again. Ever.

"Parker it's six o'clock in the morning. We got another six hours of driving. I wanna be there before dark or you know, the freakin' vows get made. If that's OK with you?"

"Well if it's all about you, then fine. Rob a girl of her childhood dream. Wait, doesn't that break Rule Four?" She put a finger to her mouth tapping thoughtfully, eyes all squinty.

"Oh, what, we off bucket lists and onto childhood dreams now? Gimme a break Parker. Did I or did I not plummet to near death and break into Tiffany's for you already?" It occurred to Eliot that that sounded awfully like a negotiating tack as opposed the flat out no of before. Ah crap.

"That was yesterday. Today is a whole new thing." Like that should be obvious.

"It was today Parker. Like three and a half hours ago." Oh God he needed more coffee. Way more coffee. And maybe some duct tape.

"We crossed a state line and I slept through it. It's a new day." Spoken as if it was written in the constitution. Eliot was pretty sure she had her own unique copy somewhere.

"Since when was that a-"

"Everybody knows that's the rule Eliot." Airily, she turned up her nose and looked out the window, and he was defeated against such asinine logic.

"Parker." He growled.

"Eliot." She eye rolled.

"Fine! God damn it fine." He glanced in the mirror and did a U Turn violently enough that Parker bounced in her seat. It gave him a guilty satisfaction. Then guilt won pure and simple. "You all right?"

"Are we going to chocolate town?"

"It's called Hershey. Hershey. And yeah, I'll drive through, so shut your yapping."

"Yay!" She went to clap then stopped, since she could possibly, despite her almost legendary inability to read people, sense he was mad. "I'll buy you a Hershey Bar."

"We could do that at the friggin' gas station!" He blew off his frustration in the bellow. She cocked her head considering his point.

"But Hershey Bars from Hershey are fresher right?" At that he gave up.

The scent of baked chocolate hit them hard on approach, and Parker's eyes almost popped from her head. She looked like a kid on vacation at Disney Land. A weird thought crossed his mind as she hung her head out the window, gulping in the air like it was actual chocolate.

"Parker?"

"Mmm hhhmm?"

"You ever been on vacation before?" He watched her process the question as he turned off a side road and took the signs to Hershey. Five minute detour my ass. So close to Harrisburg. So damn close.

"I don't understand." She looked at him, hair loose and blowing in the morning dry wind. It was gonna be a stupidly hot day. Which he would now be driving for most off apparently. The sweet scented air was enough to make him hungry.

"A holiday. You know, no work. Have you ever been anywhere just for fun?"

"I went to Paris for fun."

"Without stealing from the Louvre?"

"Well, no. That was the fun." She looked at him, and he looked back. Back away Eliot. Rule Three Eliot. He ignored his internal warning system.

"We wasted our visit in New York then did we?" His voice dropped as he asked, and he wanted to call back the question, wondering what the hell he was doing. Playing with fire. Actually no, Parker was more akin to a nuclear bomb.

"That was different. " She shifted her eyes, uncomfortable, and he felt like a dick, but a satisfied one. His hands re-gripped the wheel. Hardison should have taken her to his damn convention. Should have taken her out, shown her a good time whilst they had the opportunity. Man that boy needed a talking to.

"How was it different?" Eliot was pretty sure he hadn't asked that, but there the words were, in the air, loud and clear for anyone to hear. Fuck. He was playing with the blue and red wire's here.

"This is a road trip with rules. You said so." She looked perturbed for all of three seconds before her eyes widened and she pointed past his shoulder. "There it is! It has an amusement park did you know that?"

"No I did not." Eliot sighed, and pushed the falling locks of his pony tail from his forehead. Hot and humid in Hershey, home of chocolate, USA. Wonderful.

She made him drive up Chocolate Avenue, and got out of the car at the junction of Cocoa and Chocolate to take a picture of the Hershey Kiss shaped lights . This from a woman who had untold works of art no doubt in storage all over the world. He shook his head. She really was nuts. He gave in to her demand to have their picture taken with the two signposts above their heads by some poor guy just walking his dog. Eliot wondered how the hell he had gone from a straight forward drive cross country to a wedding, to the Parker sight seeing tour of America. But she was beaming. And he figured a happy Parker was a calmer Parker.

Until she saw the Zoo.

"Its closed Parker." She looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"We beat a Steranko Eliot, I think the bird enclosure is within our range."

"You wanna break into a zoo? At six o-no, twenty past six on a Saturday morning. In Hershey."

"Don't you?"

Damn it. He really did.

He parked up close by, eyeing the mono rail straddling the zoo and whistled.

"Sweet ride they got." The morning sun was warming up fast and he wore a tee shirt and jeans, having lost the shirt a couple of hours back. Parker was still all in black, but appeared unfrazzled by the heat. She was always cool like that, just hot as hell in temper most times. Now she gave him her best big eyes glance.

"Maybe on our way back we can-"

"One time deal Parker, do not push me." She acquiesced prettily. He would bet good money Hardison could not handle full on Parker. Then felt petty for thinking it, and he did not like feeling petty. Yet he stood by his assessment as he watched the blonde thief sneak beside him, lithe and bright eyed despite the hour.

They scaled the wall and dropped into the zoo beside the barn owl enclosure, skirting the health centre and the few staff on duty easily. They really were good at this. To be fair, the zoo was vast and the cameras not hard to spot.

"C'mon." She led the way down one of the main thoroughfares toward a sheltered exhibit called The Great Southwest. Eliot kept low, and ducked them from sight as a guy walked by with buckets of feed. Glancing down at Parker in the shrubbery, he smirked when she dangled the guys keys at him.

She was very good, he had to admit. Crazy as hell, but very very good.

It took her two keys to find the right one, and she let them into the exhibit quick, tugging him into the dark. She took his hand since it was all but pitch black, and he wanted to slip his hand away, but couldn't think of a good enough reason. Even they couldn't see in the dark after all.

Coming up on a glass enclosure, Parker whispered at him.

"What's in here?" She got up close to the glass, peering inside, her shadow barely visible.

He shrugged, then realised she couldn't see him. Reaching along the wall beside the exhibit, he found a switch, and lights in the ceiling flickered to life. He shrank back. It was a large cave. caves were never a good thing in his experience. Using the light from inside the enclosure he scanned the wall for information, then shuddered involuntarily as Parker began to coo. Freakin' coo.

"Bats." He wasn't a fan of flying rats. Then he read on.

"Bats!" Parker was, if her softly awed tone were a sign.

"Jesus Parker, Common Vampire Bats? Are you shittin' me?"

"What's wrong?" She stroked the glass and black shapes flew at her, reacting to the vibrations.

"Parker, I don't even know what's the worse thing about this animal. That it has Vampire in its name or that that is preceded by Common. That's just plain wrong darlin'."

She took a snap on her cell of her smiling with a bat clinging to the glass beside her. Hardison would not be happy when he skimmed her pics.

"They aren't indigenous to the USA so relax Van Helsing. Did you know that the bat is the only mammal that can truly fly Eliot? Isn't that awesome?"

"Totally. Now c'mon."

"Oh wait! What's that?" She was gone. Eliot lingered a moment or two, gazing at the bat enclosure, a 100% certain he was being weighed up a potential blood bag, then followed. At a jog.

"Parker?" He hissed, unsure of her location when a hand caught his and tugged him to another enclosure.

Now this he could appreciate.

The Ocelot. Accustomed to the dim light now, and benefiting marginally from the lamps in the bat cave, Eliot could make out a small sleek shape at the back of the enclosure. Parker had crouched down, watching with rapt eyes, intent on the creature beyond the glass, in amongst the thick branches and foliage.

"I thought you were scared of animals?" He crouched down beside her, and understood why, since she was almost on eye level with the shy cat. Huge unblinking eyes stared back.

"Only the murderous ones." She whispered, not moving her head a fraction.

"Yeah and Vampire bats sound friendly?"

She snorted. "Shut up. Like it would even want my blood. Fruit bats maybe. I'm all sugar."

"Yeah." He was so tempted to make a lame joke out of that, he stood. Time to go.

"Wait look," she pointed gingerly and he turned to see the Ocelot creeping forward stealthily. It was gorgeous, it's pattern distinctive even in the gloom, it's feline face utterly fierce and beautiful all at once. A moment descended upon the scene, where none dared breathe lest they break the spell.

"Quick," Parker dragged him down and grabbed his neck to take a snap of them with the Ocelot behind them. Lightning fast.

"That'll never come out Parker. No flash." He felt her shrug next to him.

"So. I'll know what it was of." Somehow he understood completely.

"Can't argue with that. Let's go, I got a wedding to get to Parker, in case you'd forgotten?"

"About that," she began, as they snuck back out of the enclosure and locked it up behind them. Ah, he thought, she was finally going to ask. Like a sane person. It made him think there was hope for her after all. They crept along the shrubbery toward the outer wall silently. At the animal health centre, she threw the keys through a cracked window then they ran for it, before jumping the wall, out of breath when they eventually reached the truck.

"What about it Parker?" He held his side, feeling a stitch after sitting driving so long before a bout of activity. she didn't ask what he was talking about. She picked the conversation right up again.

"Don't forget I need to stop for a dress." He tucked an errant strand of hair from her face behind her ear, then checked himself. She didn't appear to notice anything untoward in the action. He swallowed.

"Sure." Wounded beyond measure that she could still be so uninterested, he got in the passenger side. "You're driving. Head to Harrisburg and then take the I-81 south."

"Cool." She settled in the drivers seat and tweaked the chair so her feet would fit. He hadn't noticed her do that before. She had put it back though, because it had been in his position when he sat in it next. "Bye Hershey! Thanks for feeding me all these years!"

She actually waved.

"Parker?"

"Yeah? Hey thanks Eliot. That was awesome. Did you see that Ocelot? Did you know its one of the only cats to have all three types of marking on it? Rosette, spots and stripes. Very distinctive. Isn't that your thing? Stuff like that?" She glanced over as she drove back up to the Interstate, and he bit his tongue.

The "There's something wrong with you" he had been about to say seemed redundant now.

"Is that so? Well you live and learn huh?" She nodded happily, sniffing in the scent as they left the chocolate air space behind.

Eliot closed his eyes and let the sun on his face warm him up, cool sweat forming at his brow after their getaway at the zoo.

Parker was glowing at the wheel, and grabbed a juice from the cooler he had picked up at the last gas station. She tossed a carton into his lap, and he pierced it and drank it in silence.

"Hey Eliot?"

"Yeah?" God knows what now, so he braced himself for anything.

"Is it OK if I use your road trip as a vacation? If we aren't stealing or working then that's what its is right? Or have we broken the rules by breaking in to places?" She frowned as she sucked on a straw from a juice box, anxious about his response, he could tell by the way her eyes flicked to him over and over, and thinking on the breaking in versus stealing issue like it was a philosophical debate worth having. Her words touched him in an unbearably raw place.

He cleared his throat before answering.

"I guess I could live with that. And don't worry on the rules. When you've broke 'em I'll tell ya."

Eliot knew no matter what was said or done for the rest of the weekend , he wouldn't be telling her shit about those rules.

"Hey Parker?" She glanced over, eyes a little puffy, all that hanging out the window like a damn Labrador. He winced as his neck cracked on the head rest. Man he needed his 90 minutes in a bed after this.

"What?"

"Put some music on would ya? I can hear myself think and I don't like it."

She switched the radio back on with a slight smile. He grumbled to himself.

"Where to on the I-81 Eliot?"

"Hagerstown then the 68 to Morgantown. A long ass way. Probably shoulda got a plane after all." He yawned, and let his head dip at the back of his seat under the warm kiss if the early sun.

"I'm glad you didn't." Parker's quiet admission from the drivers seat registered with him just as he fell to sleep.