A/N: You guys are the definition of awesome. Seriously. Look it up, there are pictures of all of you (don't ask me how they got 'em, it's kinda creepy). I'm glad no one was completely thrown off by my (possibly not as bad as I thought) fight scene. Boosted my ego a bit. Must say there didn't end up being as much whump as I thought in this chap, but there is some. As always, I must thank my reviewers suddencarolina, Likeka, luna-pendragon, SeaStarr, redqueen74, A. Elisabeth, Megan, Mayhem21, vickyloka, Angel JJK, NAVILLUS, cresdin, eligin, SimplyGloomy, BookLover223, SuzSeb, MusicEstVita, Sweetpea2100 I don't think i need to tell you all that you are my favorite drug. lol. And special thanks this time to my new beta: vickyloka Love ya girl! But if any mistakes remain, they are mind and mine alone. Now, for everyone, reviewers and lurkers alike...Enjoy! -pj

Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm in the market for Eliot though.

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Eliot glanced down at what had attracted Parker's attention and saw a tear in his green canvas jacket, a deep crimson ring of blood soaking into the area around it. He grunted, not having felt the wound before and reached over with his right hand to pull the fabric out of the way for a better view.

"Just a graze," he drawled and moved to continue, antsy from standing still for so long. Parker's hand shot out in front of him and pushed him back a few feet to sit on a boulder.

"Yeah. Just a graze," she shook her head, probing and analyzing the wound a bit more thoroughly. Eliot hissed when she tried to poke at it and sent her a glare.

"I'll be fine Parker, we need to keep moving."

"We've been running for at least three miles," she countered, reaching down to her boot to pull out a knife, "we can afford to stop a minute to take care of this."

She didn't miss the way Eliot's eyes lit up upon seeing her small blade.

"You keep a knife in your shoe?" he asked almost disbelievingly, but…was that arousal she heard in his voice? She looked up to see his eyes had darkened slightly and shook her head.

"There's something wrong with you."

"Is it so wrong for me to be glad you've picked up some of my better habits?"

A smile kicked up the corner of her mouth, "what makes you think I picked this up from you?" she tossed the knife in the air and caught it, "we need to make a bandage." She pointed at him, "your arm, your shirt."

Eliot nodded pushing thoughts of where else on her person Parker might be hiding things out of his mind. Carefully he pulled off his jacket and took her knife, swiftly slicing a few pieces off the bottom of his t-shirt. Parker stepped forward to help him wrap them around his arm, her small, nimble fingers in stark contrast to his thick, calloused ones.

"I hate when you say that," she mumbled as he pulled his jacket back on, wincing as the movement pulled at his arm.

Eliot frowned, neither had spoken in several minutes, "say what?"

"Just," she said, still staring at his arm, "it's just a bullet wound, 'no big deal'. Just six guys the size of European cars, 'no problem'. Just a little bit of torture and starvation, 'I can handle it'," she grumbled, shaking her head, "you're not invincible you know."

Eliot stood, readjusting his jacket and stepped forward, placing his hands on her arms, "it really is no big deal, Parker. There's very little someone can do to me that I haven't done, or had done to me before."

Parker rolled her eyes, and looked away, crossing her arms tightly and Eliot realized it wasn't what she wanted to hear. But then, he wasn't really sure what was.

"Would you rather I cry?" he smirked.

Parker wrinkled her nose, "no. What are we? Girls?"

Eliot tilted his head with a slight frown.

"That's not what I…I mean," she huffed, "dammit."

She turned around and stalked away. Eliot laughed quietly and jogged to catch up.

---

Parker sighed, and glared at another pine tree as they walked passed while she tied her sweatshirt around her waist.

The hiking had been almost enjoyable when they were on the trail. But since running from the bullets and guns they'd not found a single patch of even ground or cleared forest floor to walk on.

"Where are we going, Eliot?" she asked, blowing her bangs off her head.

Eliot glanced at her and shrugged.

Parker stopped, "you don't know?"

"I'm not sure." He corrected, grabbing her hand to pull her along, wanting to keep moving. He didn't have a definite destination in mind, but he knew which direction they were going and could at least keep them from going in circles.

Parker wrinkled her nose, "sounds like the same thing."

Eliot made an annoyed noise close to a grunt and Parker closed her eyes, allowing her head to loll back and smacked her cheeks with her hands.

"Eliot," she said, outright whining now, "I'm hungry and I'm tired and it's starting to rain."

Eliot frowned and looked up, the cheery morning sun had been hidden by suddenly overcast skies.

"It ain't rainin'." He said, dropping his eyes to scan around them and then looked at Parker. She was frowning at him.

"I can't believe you brought me out here into nature when it was going to rain."

Eliot sighed, watching the small woman climb over a large tree trunk that had fallen over a boulder in a windstorm long forgotten. She waited on the other side with impatiently tapping toes while he walked around the mess. Two of those goons had gotten the drop on him for a minute back there and his body was not interested in putting forth more effort than absolutely necessary.

"I ain't a meteorologist. It was 60% chance nothin' would happen." He grumbled, walking out ahead of her slightly under the pretence of taking point.

Parker rolled her eyes, carefully matching his footprints, "that's still a 40% chance there would be rain. Everyone knows you don't even think about jumping off anything bigger than 5 stories unless it's under at least 30%."

Eliot glanced over his shoulder, confused, "we're not jumping off a building, Parker." He tried not to let it come out 'grumpy and growly' but he definitely just felt a raindrop. Or two.

"No, we're doing something much more dangerous," she continued, as if she was having to explain a very simple concept to an equally simple student, "we're trudging through the woods. Uphill. In the middle of spring when unexpected rainstorms aren't uncommon and there are men with guns after us." She paused and Eliot waited, knowing there was more, "although admittedly, the 'men with guns' part wasn't planned."

Eliot grunted his agreement.

"Hey, did you try your cell phone?" Parker asked as if the idea had suddenly occurred to her, and started patting herself down looking for hers, then frowned when she remembered shoving it into the outside pocket of her backpack.

"Yeah, about an hour ago. No service."

Parker sighed, "Great. Just great. Now we-"

She was cut off by the deafening sound of raindrops battering against leaves and hard packed dirt around them as the sky suddenly opened up and dropped its load, soaking Parker and Eliot in seconds.

"Eliot." Parker said after a moment.

Eliot looked over at her, though the rain was falling so hard she was obscured even three feet away from him. She didn't look angry. Or even annoyed. She looked blank. It disturbed him just as much now as it did before they were together.

"Yeah?"

"I never want to see nature again. Ever."

Eliot, on the other hand, was annoyed, angry and a host of other emotions he didn't want to analyze long enough to give a name, especially since the majority of them were pointed at himself. He sighed and reached out to grab her hand.

"C'mon, we need to find someplace safe to wait this out."

Parker followed him automatically, muttering all the way, "We're going back to the city when this is over where there are buildings and taxis and stores and civilization and we're never leaving."

---

"I'm cold."

Eliot looked over toward Parker's voice. The only light in the small, shallow cave he'd found came from the opening, where visibility was almost nil because of the sheets of rain. But he could see well enough to make out Parker's curled up form beside him, hugging her legs, clearly shivering. They were both soaked to the bone and the temperature had dropped significantly since the rain started.

He pushed some wet hair out of his face.

"C'mere," he beckoned with a jerk of his chin. Parker needed no further prompting and immediately scrambled over between his legs and to his chest.

Eliot wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her closer. Hell, he was cold too.

Parker shifted a few times to get comfortable until the heat that radiated off him started to transfer through their damp clothes. Her elbow shifted against him, accidentally pressing into some boot-shaped bruising on his side and Eliot winced. He pressed a kiss to her hair, silently encouraging for her to be still and tightened his hold on her.

"I'm sorry." He said after a few minutes.

She turned her head slightly and raised an eyebrow, "for what?"

He almost laughed at the thought of having to explain himself. Any other girl would be giving him an earful already for ruining her hair and makeup or something. Parker, aside from being cold and hungry, didn't seem to even really care about their current situation.

"For today."

She shrugged, "you can't control bad guys. Or rain," she paused and then, "just remember the 30% Rule for next time, okay?"

Eliot laughed softly and nodded, resting his head on her shoulder. Parker felt his warm breath against her neck and found the temptation too much to bear. Turning her head and shoulders slightly, she was able to capture his lips in a slow, smoldering kiss that immediately made Eliot's mind go blank.

After a few seconds she felt him get tense and pull back.

"What?" she asked, confused. He'd never made her stop kissing him before. She didn't like it. She sat forward, turning her body so she could face him more fully, "what's wrong?"

Eliot leaned his head back against the wall for a moment, taking a few slow, deep breaths with his eyes closed. When he had his control back he opened them and gave her a crooked smirk.

"There are men out there who seem hell bent on killin' us. I need to focus," he leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss that was both promise and apology, "believe it or not, your lips are very distractin' darlin'."

Parker smiled and Eliot's smirk morphed into a smile in return. Her ego sufficiently boosted, he motioned for her to turn back around.

"Now I'm cold."

"I was trying to fix that," Parker grumbled halfheartedly, settling into Eliot's arms once more. She felt his chest vibrate when he chuckled and she leaned her head back against his shoulder.

"Yeah, I see that. But I'm not letting these guys catch me with my pants down."

Parker raised an eyebrow at him.

He caught her stare and grinned, "Literally or figuratively."

She laughed and they lapsed into comfortable silence, at least, as comfortable as it could be with them both keeping vigilant watch for approaching threats.

After about five minutes Parker started to shift and move restlessly again.

"Parker."

"I'm bored," she said frowning.

Eliot sighed and tightened his arms around her again, ignoring the pain that shot down his injured arm, "go to sleep."

She stiffened, "not tired."

Eliot leaned down and kissed the column of her neck, knowing full well that wasn't the reason she was opposed to sleep.

"I'll be right here, baby. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

He felt her relax and silently congratulated himself on being so fluent in Parkerese.

Parker sighed, resting her hands over his and she scrunched her eyes shut, as if she thought that would help her sleep better. Eliot smiled.

"Tell me a story." She demanded then, and Eliot tilted his head down at her before returning his gaze to the cave opening.

"About what?" He asked roughly, he was pretty sure any of the stories he could tell would have the exact opposite effect of putting her to sleep.

"I don't know," she shrugged to illustrate the point, "tell me about something that makes you happy. I just like the way your chest feels when you talk. All rumbly."

Eliot smiled again, not entertaining the thought of how long it had been since someone made him smile as often as Parker did, and thought a moment.

"The only two things that make me happy are you and horses, Parker."

Parker opened her eyes. Eliot was still staring out at the rain, or probably, through the rain, she didn't think he even realized what he'd said. And she didn't want to make him (or her) uncomfortable by pointing it out so she closed them again.

"What about cooking?" When he didn't object she continued, "tell me about your favorite meal."

"I like breakfast."

"Mm, me too." Parker sighed, smiling.

Eliot shook his head, chuckling a little bit and it made Parker snuggle in closer to him.

"Cap'n Crunch cereal is not breakfast, Parker. At least, not the kind I'm talkin' about," he began. He wasn't used to being the one to fill the silence, but if talking made her relax and go to sleep, he would do it. No need for both of them to be worrying.

"I'm talkin' about a real, home cooked breakfast. With bacon and sausage and scrambled eggs so fluffy and yellow they're like a picture," he rambled, surprised at how easy it was, "fried in the same pan as the bacon so they got a good flavor, you don't need ketchup or nothin' like that. And Pancakes, fresh pancakes from scratch, not a box, and fresh hash browns from potatoes from your own garden," he paused, to see if Parker was still awake.

"Mm-hm?" She muttered, eyes still closed. She was close.

"And biscuits," he let out a groan of pleasure and a smile tickled Parker's lips.

"I don't know if I should be offended or flattered that you make the same noise thinking about biscuits that you do when my mouth is wrapped around your-"

He cut off her words with a kiss and whispered against them, "what did I tell you about those distractin' lips?"

She giggled lightly and nodded, "please, continue. I believe you were on biscuits."

He leaned back with a grin and sighed, "fresh biscuits. Warm from the oven, steaming hot and flaky. You smother 'em with honey or butter or jam and they're so good you never want to stop eatin' 'em. They warm you up from the inside out and when they settle in your stomach…it's like comin' home."

He trailed off. He knew he was far too relaxed leaning against the wall of the cave with Parker cradled close to his chest, but he couldn't bring himself to go back into his hitter head-space just yet. Because even cold, soaking wet and sitting on a hard dirt floor, he realized he was happier now than he'd ever been.

Parker sighed as she slipped off, murmuring something that sounded suspiciously like 'you owe me breakfast in bed after all of this' and he tightened his arms around her.

"Count on it."

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TBC- Wow, each of the first chapters said 'end' instead of 'tbc' why didn't anybody tell me! lol. I always forget to change those stupid letters.