A/N: I love you I love you I love you. All of you. Yes, you *points at screen*. georgie's-jail3, lilz54, luna-pendragon, SuzSeb, SeaStarr, eligin, spnchick, Angel JJK, MusicEstVita, NAVILLUS, redqueen74, simplygloomy, MissGuenever, kanefan892, Mayhem21, vickyloka - you guys rock my little fangirl world!! I was super excited to see so many reviews from logins I recognized.

Okay, fair warning: I'm working on getting a beta (tired of going back to read my work and finding things misspelled, arranged wrong or missing) and that means my updates will be coming a little slower than usual, probably every 3-5 days. But know they are coming and I still love reading your reviews. Plus I'm impatient so I'll still probably put out one shots every now and then that are unbeated (if I can ever figure out how livejournal works. ugh) (that reminds me, look me up on livejournal (pdljmpr_armada) for the scoop on new fics in the works and the process that goes into it all!!) So, here it is for your Eliot/Parker pleasure...Enjoy. -pj

Disclaimer: Not mine. Also, I suck at writing fight scenes. Really. It would be better if you just imagine a fight scene on the show and skip those parts. lol.

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Parker started working her way carefully down the tree, having decided 'stay put' was open to interpretation, and was only fifteen feet off the ground when movement caught her attention below.

That was definitely not Eliot. And if the black fatigues and big, expensive looking, extremely dangerous guns were anything to go by, they weren't out for a friendly hike either.

Force of habit made her freeze and she squeezed her eyes shut, momentarily subscribing to the 'if I can't see them, they can't see me' rule of thought. Then it occurred to her that that was ridiculous, even for her, and she opened one eye and glanced down.

There were three men, each sporting short quasi-military haircuts and they flanked out to cover the area in what Eliot would have undoubtedly called 'a very distinctive maneuver'. The one in the middle had dark hair, he pointed at the other two and said something in a garbled, guttural language that might have been Russian and they both started searching the bushes and behind rocks. One of the men, a blonde, had moved to check the edge of the lake and found her and Eliot's packs.

Parker bit her lip, wondering where Eliot had gone and when he would be back. Not that she didn't trust him but she was kind of a sitting duck if any of them thought to look up.

Turned out, none of them got the chance. The blonde shouted to the leader, pointing at the packs, then let out a sharp yelp of pain and fell to the ground. It was then that Parker saw the knife in his back.

She watched, rather enthralled from this vantage point as Eliot leapt from the tree-line and quickly disarmed both of the remaining men. She'd seen him fight, plenty of times, but never from above and she found it was almost an even better view than ground level.

An elbow to the first man's face coupled by a knee to his stomach sent him writhing on the floor, Eliot whipped around, not even waiting for the first to fall before he delivered a powerful punch to the leader's jaw, snapping his head back. Stunned, the man stumbled backward allowing Eliot to take advantage of his split attention and swipe his legs out from under him, sending him sailing to the ground.

The men were professionals though, and big, that much she could tell. The first had at least a foot on Eliot, but was thin and muscular. The leader was more typical 'thug' shaped, slightly overweight but still taller than Eliot by three inches. For every time Eliot would send them down they got right back up, bleeding and bruised but back for more, which Eliot seemed more than willing to deliver.

Parker's attention was drawn away from the fight but movement in the corner of her eye and noticed the first man getting up, somehow having reached around and removed Eliot's knife. It looked to have landed off the mark slightly and probably only stunned him. And pissed him off.

She looked frantically back at Eliot, but he still had his hands full, needing to split his attention between two first two behemoths who just wouldn't stay down. In fact, now that she looked, Eliot was the one on the ground. One of the men held him and the other kicked, Eliot was curled up trying to absorb the blows but it didn't seem to be helping much.

Parker's stomach clenched, something hot and uncomfortable started to churn inside her and she didn't like it. She wasn't sure if it was fear or anger, or maybe both, but it made it nearly impossible for her to stay still. She needed to do something.

The third man started to pull a gun from his waistband and Parker didn't hesitate.

Soundlessly, she dropped to the next lowest branch, then reached down and took hold with her hands, swinging down and delivering a swift kick to the blonde's head as she tucked and rolled into her landing and ended up on her feet.

She scrambled forward for the man's weapon as he groaned once and slipped into unconsciousness. She effortlessly released the magazine and the bullet in the chamber with a quick snap and flick of her wrist.

She raised an eyebrow at the unconscious man, "guns are cheating."

There was a dull thud behind her and she turned to look in time to see the dust settle around the body of the leader, now laying unconscious beside his comrade.

"Are you okay?" They asked in unison and both nodded in response. Parker stood up, brushing herself off as Eliot began searching the unconscious men for weapons and clues to their identities.

"Who are these guys?" She asked, wrinkling her nose. She didn't like being attacked, certainly not on one of her precious days off.

"AR-15, M16, 9mil," Eliot said, tossing each of the guns into the lake. He felt bad, marring such an untouched landscape with something as ugly and violent as a gun but knew if he left them on the ground someone else could find them and use them, and he certainly wasn't taking them with, "not exactly your typical deer huntin' guns."

"Yeah, gathered that."

"We better keep moving, I don't plan to be here when they wake up," Eliot said. He went to his pack and pulled out a bundle of rope.

"You carry rope with you? On a hike?" Parker tilted her head, giving him the 'there's something wrong with you' stare that had become something of an inside joke between them.

"You never know when you're gonna need it," he raised his eyebrows at their attackers.

"Good point." Parker nodded and then joined him in pulling the three unconscious bodies into a pile so Eliot could wrap rope around them.

They stood back to admire their handiwork.

Eliot tilted his head, "is that a bow?" He pointed at the knot Parker had made at one of the men's ankles.

"Yeah." She said blandly.

Eliot just shook his head and turned to retrieve their backpacks when something whizzed by his ear, exploding into the bark of a tree beside Parker's head. In an instant Eliot was on top of her, pushing her into the ground and covering her with his body.

"Is somebody shooting at us?" Parker exclaimed as if the idea were completely ludicrous.

Eliot didn't respond, but grunted as he carefully maneuvered himself off of her and onto his hands and knees.

"Go," he ordered, motioning toward the trees, "stay low."

Parker nodded, following his direction and didn't get up from the crawl until Eliot said to a few minutes later. Then they ran.

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Eliot berated himself internally for not seeing this coming. He should have sensed it before they left. He had a heightened sense of paranoia that rivaled most conspiracy theorists, but he hadn't realized they were being watched or followed.

Damn Parker and those short shorts and pouty lips.

And now, because he could only think with one of his heads at a time, they were running through the woods with nowhere to go. He'd studied the map before they set out, force of habit, but it had been to find good places to walk, not places to hide and defend.

At least, that's why he told himself he was angry, and it probably was a part of it, but it was by no means all of it.

"You think we lost 'em?" Parker asked quietly, slightly out of breath. She glanced behind but, now that they were off the trail, the trees and bushes had all started to look the.

Eliot ran for several miles a day anyway and Parker was light on her feet, so they'd run for almost twenty minutes before slowing down to a walk.

But she was still winded. She spent her crawling through air vents, not in track and field competitions.

Parker jumped when a bush rustled to their right and reached for Eliot's hand, threading their fingers tightly.

Eliot glanced at her, "just a rabbit, Parker."

She furrowed her brow at his annoyed tone. He didn't usually use that one when it was just the two of them, not unless…

She sighed, blowing her bangs off her forehead, "okay, what did I do?"

It was Eliot's turn to frown and he glanced quickly over their shoulders, his eyes keeping up their constant scan of the surrounding wilderness. "What?"

"Well you're all grumpy and growly so…what did I do?"

Eliot shook his head, "there are people with guns after me, Parker."

"Us. After us." She corrected.

"What makes you think they're after 'us'."

"Well what makes you think they're after you?" she retorted, indignant. She slipped her hand out of his and crossed her arms over her chest, "I'm wanted in just as many countries as you are, you know."

Eliot gave her that Look again and shook his head, almost smiling. Only Parker would be offended at the implication that angry men with guns weren't after her, but someone else instead.

"Fine. Us. Men with guns are after us. That makes me 'grumpy and growly'."

"No, that makes you tense and cautious. Which you are," she pointed out, having noticed the confident, edgy set of his shoulders and the way he was keeping part of his attention on her and the rest on the surrounding tree line, "but you only get grumpy and growly when I've done something wrong. Remember when I tried to make macaroni and cheese?"

"You put watermelon in it Parker. And you burned it to the bottom of my stockpot."

She nodded, "case and point." She reached back over to take his hand, "so tell me what I did and I'll decide if I want to apologize or not."

Eliot sighed, using the opportunity of pushing some low branches out of their way to stall.

"I told you to stay put," he said finally, not looking at her.

Parker contemplated this, "you're mad because I helped you fight those guys?" She scoffed, "I thought your ego was bigger than that, El."

He stopped abruptly, yanking his hand from hers and turning to face her. Parker didn't back down, or even flinch from his sudden movements. A fact he appreciated.

"It's not about my ego, Parker. Those men were dangerous. They had guns. They could've killed you. What would I have done if something had happened to you, huh?"

Parker swallowed hard. She didn't know people, but she knew Eliot, and she could see the concern and fear hidden behind the anger in his blue eyes.

It made her angry too.

"And what? I don't have the same worry?" she reached up and poked him in the chest, making Eliot blink in surprise, "you think it's any easier for me to watch you fight bad guys with guns? To hear you getting hit and punched over the coms when we do jobs? What am I supposed to do when something happens to you?" Her look was stone and ice as she drew her finger back, "how you're feeling right now…welcome to my world."

She turned on her heel and stalked away. It took Eliot a moment to sift through all the angry rambling and he jogged to catch up.

"Parker I-"

"And I can take care of myself, FYI. I've been doing it a lot longer than I've know you."

"I know Parker I-"

"And it's not as if I got hurt. I knew what I was doing. I helped you. That guy was going to shoot you in the back, and then what? I can't carry you, I couldn't have hid you, I wouldn't have known-"

Eliot grabbed her arm, swinging her into his chest and swallowed the rest of her protest with his mouth.

"I wasn't done." She said breathlessly when he released her, leaning her forehead against his with her eyes closed.

"I'm sorry." Was his only response and she nodded, accepting his apology. He rested his hands on her hips and pulled back slightly to look at her.

"We should keep moving."

Eliot nodded and turned to point, "that way."

"Eliot," Parker gasped and reached out to yank his arm back toward her, "You're bleeding."

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END - Let the whump begin...also, I would like to point out that i posted this at 1:35am. Why? Because I couldn't stand the thought of waking up to no new reviews. Yes I know I need help...so help me! lol