A/N: Loving all the feedback - thanks to you lovely people :-) Um, so I think I'm okay writing Eliot, Parker, Nate, even Sophie, but not so much Hardison... I'd love to know if you think I did okay with him this chapter, 'cause I'm not so sure. Thanx again all :-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

Things had returned to a state of almost sickening normality, well, as normal as things ever were, working as the Leverage team did. Bad guys turned good guys, all friends that were closer than some families these days, though if they were related there might be a lot less ups and downs. As it was, with Nate and Sophie struggling with their own feelings, never mind each others, and Parker and Eliot caught between strangled friendship and cold indifference, Hardison was feeling like the fifth wheel on the bumpiest ride of his life for a while there. Now, it was just so normal, so strangely calm amongst the team that he was almost more nervous than he had been a couple of weeks ago.

The day Eliot stormed out of the apartment with Sophie on his tail was definitely a turning point. After he came back, Parker was just so cold to him, a real Ice Queen, which Hardison hadn't thought she was capable of until then. The three of them just always got along, not right at the very beginning, but for a long time now. There were jokes and burns and flirting and all, it was just good fun, but not that day or for almost a clear week after.

Parker's cold shoulder towards Eliot didn't seem to phase him, his usual stoicness just went into overdrive to the point where Hardison was pretty sure he didn't hear the hitter speak more than three words together unless they were in the middle of a con and he absolutely had to. It went on and on, and yet he daren't ask either of his friends what was up for two reasons - one, they might actually tell him and he wasn't sure he could deal if anything had actually happened between them and they gave him the gory details, and two, either one of them could kill him with a pinky finger if they wanted to these days. A brother's life was worth more than that, he just was not going to get in on this crazy situation.

Then all of a sudden it got worse. One day it was just like a switch got flipped and everything was normal, but not a comfortable happy kind of normal, instead it was a weird and creepy kind of normal. Hardison looked at it like a family photo on a mantle shelf. Sure, everybody was smiling and happy as anything in the picture, but that wasn't a true reflection of any family unit. Nobody was happy all the time, and there was no way for five people to exist in a home or workplace without getting on each others nerves at least some of the time. It was all fake all the time when they were working a con and that was fine, but became painful to witness when they were kicking back at Nate's apartment or hanging out in McRorys.

What Hardison didn't necessarily realise was that Eliot and Parker themselves were all too aware of how awkward they were being and they hated it too. Unfortunately, neither were really equipped to deal with the feelings they had for each other, Parker most especially, and so they had just let everything slide back to a pseudo-normal state in the hopes that'd simple things up. It didn't.

Sophie had tried talking to Parker about what had happened. She apologised profusely for making things worse but the thief just waved away her concerns like it didn't matter. She didn't blame Sophie at all, because Parker knew the grifter was only doing her best to help. All the effort was in vain apparently, because as she ought to have known from the start, this thing with Eliot, whatever it might've or could've been, just wasn't going to work out. She just didn't want to have to talk about it anymore and hoped in time she could forget she ever day-dreamed about what it might be like to have a boyfriend like Eliot, or to have a real steady boyfriend at all actually.

The hitter wasn't blind and naturally he'd noticed things had changed. He couldn't believe that Sophie would break her promise and tell Parker the secret of his dreams about the blonde. It had taken a long time, but he did trust the grifter these days, enough to believe she wouldn't have told when she had promised him otherwise. Still, Parker was different with him again, distant even when she was sat right next to him, almost like she didn't really want to be there. He could try talking to her about it, Eliot knew that, but he wasn't much for talking at the best of times and only risked making this worse than it already was if he tried.

After a while, things started to fall back into a familiar routine, like nothing had ever happened, except Eliot knew it had. As with most people, repressing his feelings was making them unravel in his subconscious and so many nights he had woken with a start at the realisation of what his dreams had shown him. Parker was there so often he had lost count, and actually found it more strange these days if she didn't show up when he closed his eyes at night.

Sometimes he saved her from bad guys and she was grateful, other times he would take her away from some other guy, maybe Hardison, maybe a man wearing the face of the latest mark or victim, it didn't matter. It was distracting as hell, and more than once Nate had asked him why he looked so tired or out of it. Every time, Eliot brushed away his concern and said it was nothing, unwilling to share his inner thoughts and feelings because it simply wasn't anyone else's business but his own.

It wasn't as if he couldn't do his job, or that he actually had any problem working with Parker. They did what they were here to do without any major issues, that hadn't changed at least. Monica Hunter got hers, and evil Erik (with a K) Capston (with a C) had been shown the error of his ways too. The work was in no way the problem, it was the times in between that were making things worse.

For the most part when they were running a con, on the grift, doing what they were here to do, things were normal, too normal, especially when Parker was anything but normal at any other time. Of course, Eliot had to admit, if only to himself, that if there was something wrong with Parker then it was the right kind of wrong, but it didn't alter the fact that all this normality was driving him as crazy as he'd once suspected she was.

Right now they were alone in Nate's apartment, him and Parker and Hardison, waiting for the man himself and Sophie to arrive back and brief them on their latest job. With the hacker busy playing around with something on his computer, and Eliot being constantly distracted from his book by Parker climbing on the furniture like a bored cat with no mouse to chase, it didn't take long before the hitter just had to move, speak, do something other than sit here in awkward silence.

"Anybody hungry?" he asked, standing up and dropping his book onto the coffee table.

"I could eat" agreed Hardison with a nod, "Thanks, man"

"Parker?" Eliot prompted when she didn't answer, finding it odd to have to talk to her upside-down since she was now hung over the back of the couch, almost doing a wonky headstand on the cushions.

"No, thanks" she answered flatly, and it wasn't entirely clear if she meant to be cold with him or if she was just being Parker.

"You sure?" the hitter pressed, "I could make your favourite pancakes, if you want?" he offered, watching along with Hardison as she flipped herself over and off the couch with smooth cat-like grace.

"I'm not hungry" she insisted, before wandering away, barely sparing either man a glance as she went.

With a sigh that escaped without him ever meaning for it to, Eliot headed for the kitchen, muttering to himself.

Hardison was pretty sure he heard 'There's something wrong with you', though this time he was seriously wondering if his buddy was talking to Parker or just to himself. As far as he was concerned, there was something wrong with both of them, and the sooner they figured it out, the better it would be for everybody.

"Hey, Nate" said Hardison as he packed up his stuff to leave the apartment, the others having already gone, "Can I talk to you, man?"

"Of course" the mastermind agreed, picking up his coffee mug from the table, "What's on your mind, Hardison?" he asked, making a face as he sipped his drink and found it now distinctly cold.

"I think you should to talk to Eliot and Parker" he said, following the leader as he went into the kitchen to get himself a fresh mug of coffee, "Seriously, man, what they're doing' ain't right"

"I didn't know they were doing anything" said Nate thoughtfully, "but if they are, it's hardly any of my business, so long as they're not affecting the job"

He meant what he said, of course he did, though Nate also knew that he was at least partially lying. He shouldn't meddle in the personal lives of his team, especially if it wasn't interfering with their work. He'd pushed too hard with Sophie and almost damaged his friendship with her beyond repair. As it was they were on shaky ground, not least since her SOB of a boyfriend dumped her. Where Eliot and Parker was concerned, he'd love to tell them what to do, try his best to make them happy and all. Nate knew it was dumb, but too often he found himself feeling that familiar glow of fatherhood at team meetings, when he and Sophie were getting along and trying to break up squabbling and sniping amongst the three 'kids'. So lost in thought was he at this point, he was hardly aware that Hardison was still there, still talking.

"...and it ain't right" he insisted, "Y'all seen how they are together, like way too normal, as if they was pod people or something"

"Pod people?" Nate echoed with a look that said he thought that was going a little too far, "C'mon, Hardison, Eliot and Parker are fine. Besides, what good would me talking to them do even if they weren't?" he asked, sipping at his fresh coffee and sighing with delight as it hit the spot that he no longer let alcohol touch, "Anyway, I would think you'd be happy about them not getting too close. Don't you like Parker yourself?" he asked, an eyebrow raised as he headed back to the couch and parked himself.

"Yeah" Hardison admitted with a nod as he came to join him, diving over the back of the sofa and landing beside him, apologising with a look when he realised he almost made the older guy spill his drink in his own lap, "Yeah, I like Parker, but she don't see me that way, and that's cool, y'know?" he shrugged, "I want the girl to be happy is all, and the more I see her and Eliot bein' the way they are with each other, more I think they're fakin' the normal that they ain't, just so they don't have to deal with what they is"

"And what are they exactly?" asked the mastermind curiously, even though he wished he didn't care.

"Head over heels in deep scary love, bro" said Hardison definitely, which worried Nate to no end, because unfortunately he really believed that the hacker might be right.

To Be Continued...