A/N: Thank you so very much for the continued support on this story. This is my first 'full length' E/P fic and all the reviews mean so much to me as we head towards an ending. More cuteness here now!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 13

It was Monday afternoon when Nate called the team to his apartment to talk about their next con. He gave them all the weekend to cool off after a tougher than expected job against the Triads. Now relaxation time was over and it was back to work, at least that had been the plan when he gathered everyone together like this. The trouble was he got the distinct impression as he looked from Hardison in one seat, past Eliot and Parker on the couch, to Tara in the other armchair, that nobody was taking him seriously or really even listening.

"Okay, that's it!" he exclaimed, so suddenly that everyone physically jumped, mostly because they really hadn't been paying attention, "Tara, what is so funny?" he asked, as she continued to fight a grin.

"What?" she shrugged at first, her hand at her face where it had been on and off for the past ten minutes as she tried not to laugh.

"Clearly something is amusing you" said Nate in an over-the-top way, sounding a little too much like a teacher admonishing a kid who had been passing notes in class, "You want to share what the joke is so we can get to some serious work here?" he asked her crossly.

At that Tara just lost it, not least because he was clearly trying to make her feel like a naughty school girl and not succeeding at all.

"I'm sorry" she chuckled, "But these two..." she said, hiking a thumb across at Parker and Eliot before turning her head to look at them, "You totally had sex, didn't you?" she said, a question despite the fact she was ninety-nine percent sure that she was right.

"What?" Nate looked and sounded shocked, not just that these two had finally done something about their mixed up feelings for each other, but that he seemed to be the last to know.

"Oh, c'mon, man!" said Hardison, "Seriously? You didn't notice that Parker is wearing Eliot's shirt?"

"And probably his sweats too" said Tara peering at the pants the blonde beside her was wearing, "Oh my God, did you even go home since Friday?" she asked with wide eyes and a grin that wouldn't shift.

Even Parker was forced to blush, and Eliot looked oddly uncomfortable. Neither of them had spoken yet, not really sure what to say for the best. Now they were being asked direct questions and Parker at least liked to respond to those with direct answers.

"Nope, haven't seen much but his bedroom ceiling all weekend" she told Tara easily, making the grifter laugh, as Nate covered his face with his hand, wishing the world away.

"Oh, man, that is some stamina, bro" said Hardison, raising his hand for a high five with the hitter, "For that, you get that" he told him, and though he was shocked and embarrassed as hell right now, Eliot didn't want it to show and accepted the gesture, slamming his hand against the hacker's own.

"Hey, you gotta tell me" said Tara, gesturing for Parker to lean in closer and whispering to her, "Is he as good as he looks?"

"Oh my God, yes!" the little thief replied with far too much enthusiasm and volume given the circumstances.

This was the point where Nate actually thought his head was going to explode with the force of his trying not to hear all that was being said, or think about what it meant. Parker was like a daughter to him in the strangest way, he really could not deal with knowing she was having sex, especially not with Eliot. He was fine with them being a couple, if it made them happy, and so long as it didn't affect the team, he just did not want to hear about it... ever!

"Okay!" he said, putting both hands up and shouting loud enough that Hardison wouldn't be surprised if the whole of McRorys downstairs came to a grinding halt to listen, "Eliot, Parker, if you two are happy then that... that's great" he told them with an almost genuine smile, "but I do not need to hear about whatever it is you've been doing this weekend, and I'm sure Tara and Hardison can stand to wait for all the gory details until after we're done working, okay?"

A general muttering of 'Yes, boss' and similar went around the room, and Nate let out a sigh of relief as he turned back to the vid screen and continued his talk. Of course, he was still struggling inside, though he didn't let it show. He was glad to know Parker and Eliot were happy together, that they had finally been honest with each other and figured things out. It was what they'd all been waiting for, for weeks now, and that was fine and dandy. The problem was what came after, all the things that could potentially go wrong in an intense relationship between two pretty intense people. This one new union had the potential to blow the whole team apart in time, and that was a genuine fear that lived inside of Nate.

At the same time, his mind was constantly wandering to Sophie. If she was here, she would be thrilled to see Parker so giddy and Eliot with a genuine smile on his face that was rarely so constant. She would also be telling him not to worry so much, reminding him that a drink wouldn't solve anything, and that this team had come through so many things already, it could survive anything now. God, he missed her, now more than ever, because Nate couldn't help but wonder, if he had been as honest with Sophie as Parker and Eliot had clearly been with each other, maybe he would be happier now, maybe she never would've walked out of him at all.

"And it's not that your advice wasn't great" Parker told Sophie as she paced in front of the vid screen which displayed the grifter's face, "It's just it didn't work, and then Tara said she wanted to have sex with Eliot..."

"She would" Sophie rolled her eyes as she interrupted, "Not that he's not attractive, obviously" she back-pedalled when she realised she might've caused offence, only to note that Parker wasn't even listening, she was still talking.

"So, I just went with my instincts, which I probably should've done in the first place" she went on, waving an arm in some random gesture as she explained, never really looking at Sophie just walking up and down so much she was making her friend dizzy and probably wearing a groove in the flooring by now, "And we had sex, and..."

"Oh my God, you and Eliot slept together?" Sophie gasped, perhaps a little too loudly, but at least her reaction got the little thief to stop pacing and actually face her.

"Yeah" she nodded, "And I kinda freaked out" she admitted, looking pained a moment before a giddy smile came to her lips, "but he was all sweet and nice about it. Did you ever feel like this, Sophie?" she asked in earnest, "It's like all warm from the inside out, and really calm and like nothing could ever make you mad or sad or anything ever again"

The grifter sighed a long heavy sigh, a sad smile curving her lips. Parker sure had got it bad, but in the best way. She was in love, as far as Sophie could tell, though thankfully it occurred to her not to go blurting that out in front of the poor fragile girl. She wasn't good with emotions at the best of times, and if she was feeling happy and content right now, Sophie was the last person who wanted to spoil anything or make it more awkward than it needed to be.

"Sweetie, you are so lucky that this is working out for you" she told her kindly, "To find a person that can make you feel that way, to have him care about you just as much as you do about him, it's... it's magical, isn't it?"

"So far? Pretty good, yeah" agreed the blonde with a smile that wouldn't shift, "but I'm still not sure about..." she began, only to have the door open and Eliot appear there, "Gotta go!" she said fast, turning off the screens before Sophie could say another word and hiding the clicker behind her back, "Hey!" she greeted him with a smile that was too forced.

Eliot wasn't dumb, though as the muscle it was often assumed he would be. He heard Parker talking when he was the other side of the door and he was certain the other voice he'd caught a little of was Sophie's own. The vid-screen seemed to flash as he came in the door, like it was just being switched off, and Parker was definitely hiding something.

"What's goin' on?" he asked as he walked over, and Parker dropped down to sit on the couch, shoving the clicker under a cushion.

"Nothing" she lied blatantly and he knew it too.

"Parker" her name came out like a warning as he sat down beside her, waiting for her to crack.

For a practised liar and a thief, she broke incredibly easily under his gaze. That surprised her more than it did him, but then she hadn't quite grasped the meaning of all that was happening between them yet, the fact that the way she cared about Eliot meant it wasn't that she couldn't lie to him so much as she just didn't want to.

"Okay, fine! I was talking to Sophie" she admitted, shifting awkwardly in her seat, "and I thought you'd be mad because we were talking about you and me, and what happened with us..." she told him, just waiting for him to yell apparently as she seemed to be trying to hide in the corner of the couch.

Eliot felt bad for her. She really expected him to get mad at her, yell at her for wanting to talk to her friend, their friend, about the fact they were starting some kind of relationship. Gone was the confident woman who showed up on his doorstep a couple of nights ago, determined to show him with actions that came easier than words just exactly how she felt about him. Here was a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and genuinely scared of screwing up apparently.

"Hey" he said, reaching out a hand to her face and encouraging her to look at him, "I'm not mad at you" he promised her, noting the irony since he had a reputation for being mad at everybody and all of the time as a rule, "but y'know if anyone is gonna talk about us it should be you and me, not you and Sophie" he reminded her, glad that she was at least smiling a little now as she moved in closer to him.

"Okay" Parker nodded, "So, what do we talk about?" she asked, apparently genuinely baffled as to where a person began with a relationship.

The truth was, she never had this with anybody else, and mostly never planned to. She liked sex and she knew how it worked, she had no problem with male company in a friendly sort of way, but she never had a person she could ever call a boyfriend. She certainly never had what people called a 'relationship', not until now, not until Eliot.

"Well, most important thing first" he told her with a smile as he leant in to kiss her lips.

Though she was surprised, Parker responded with the same hunger he was feeling and since she didn't much care for self-control, the moment might of gone anywhere if he let it. Still Eliot was very aware that there was a conversation needed to be had before that, and if they didn't have it now it might never happen!

"That's not talking" Parker pointed out as they parted, "Not that I mind" she grinned anyway, "but you said talking"

"Yeah, talking" Eliot reminded himself of the importance of that, pushing his hair back off his face as he got his mind back where it was supposed to be, "Parker... I'm not good with relationships" he warned her.

"That's okay, neither am I" she shrugged easily, though he hadn't really finished making his point.

"Yeah, but what I'm saying is... the last thing I want to do is screw this up or hurt you" he tried to explain, holding her hands in his, "That's why this thing with us didn't happen before, why I didn't let it happen" he tried to tell her, knowing he wasn't getting this out very well and that he probably lost her already but he had to try, "Now it's happening anyway and... and I can't promise you it's going to work out like a fairytale" he told her, glancing up from their entwined fingers to meet her eyes.

Eliot honestly didn't know how she was going to react. For all he knew, she could burst out laughing or burst into tears, such was the range of intense emotions Parker had in her that could come tumbling out at any moment and in any random order. The truth was he hadn't a clue how she would respond to just about anything he said or did, which was scary as hell in one way, and yet he was willing to deal because of how much he cared about her.

"Eliot, I'm not a kid" she reminded him, "I gave up believing in fairytales a long time ago, way before all the other little girls" she said, with just a little bitterness in her tone, "I don't want you to be all... like Prince Charming or whatever" she waved a hand in some random gesture, "I don't even know how to be a proper girlfriend" she shook her head, because that was a definite, "but I like you, a lot, and I just kinda wanna see what happens with us being... y'know, like an us" she tried her best to say what she meant but was fairly certain she'd failed since she could barely tell what she meant herself anymore, and Eliot looked as baffled as she was, "You're looking at me weird"

"I'm sorry, darlin'" he apologised immediately, making a definite effort to change his expression.

The fact was, Parker was saying everything he could ever want to hear from her. He wondered if she had really thought much about what was happening here, what could happen as time went on. She seemed to realise the same as he did that they were both as screwed up as each other in their own way, and neither really cut out for a steady relationship. Still, they cared enough about each other that they were willing to try.

"So... we're good, right?" she checked then, looking worried and making Eliot realise he had yet to answer her properly since she gave her odd little speech, "You understand?"

"Yeah" he told her with a smile, "I get it, I do. We can just let it ride, see how this works out" he agreed, glad to see Parker smile again, even happier when she leaned in to kiss him.

Of course, it was never going to end at one kiss, not at this point in such a new relationship. So much passion existed between them, so many feelings that had been bottled up too long. One weekend only achieved so much, they still wanted each other so badly.

They were lying together on the couch before long, as Parker's hand strayed to Eliot's belt buckle, bringing him out of his passion-induced haze in that moment, and back to startling reality.

"Parker" he said, pulling away some, "We can't do this here" he realised, remembering the door was unlocked and the team could potentially walk in at any moment; it wasn't likely but it could happen.

"Oh..." Parker reacted a little belatedly as her brain caught up to her body, "Well, um, Nate has a bed, right?" she said with a wicked smile that was impossible to resist.

Eliot didn't even try to argue, as they got up hand in hand and disappeared up the stairs, her laughter echoing through the apartment, like music to his ears.

To Be Continued...