A/N: Helllooooo everybody! Here is my next chapter, HUGE thanks as always to my beta vickyloka, but any remaining mistakes are mine alone. Also, big hugs and Christian Kane smiles to suddencarolina, Tabitha of MoonAurora/FireSpirit, lilz54, SeaStarr, luna-pendragon, eligin, lwhilley, vickyloka (again! You overachiever, jk, luvya!), Angel JJK, Mayhem21, Irish63116, redqueen74, Kristin4, cresdin, and MusicEstVita for reviewing! You spoil me...not that that's a bad thing...in fact, it's a very good thing...Enjoy! -pj

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The rain stopped later that evening, but Eliot decided they ought to stay the night in the cave. It was rapidly getting dark and more likely they would get hurt if they couldn't see where they were going. And if the men after them had night vision they'd be at a severe disadvantage.

Parker was not entirely sure his judgment was sound.

"What are we going to do all night?" Parker asked, genuinely confused, then added, "I'm hungry."

Eliot was busy adjusting some of the nearby rocks and branches to conceal their hiding spot better. He paused and reached into the cargo pocket of his pants and tossed something at her.

"Half now, half for breakfast."

Parker caught it and looked down at the shiny wrapper. "An energy bar?" She unwrapped it and started to take a bite, but stopped.

"What are you going to eat?"

He shook his head, face pinched in concentration as he wedged a bushy branch in between two large rocks to finish covering the opening.

"I'll be okay."

She frowned, "you need to eat."

When he didn't respond she stood up, hands on her hips, "it's not fair for me to eat and you not to."

Eliot's shoulders sagged a bit and he paused before continuing in what he was doing, "It's not the first time I've gone hungry, Parker. I'll be fine. I can find us something to eat tomorrow."

She had no doubt that he could, in fact, 'find them something tomorrow' but that wasn't really the point. And as she watched him perfect their camouflaged hiding spot, examining his work with a critical, practiced eye, something clicked into place.

The way he kept constantly scanning the trees for their attackers. The rope. The knives he kept on him and scattered around his apartment. She looked down at the energy bar. He kept food on him. The fact that he knew how to camouflage them for the night. Knew how to find a spot like this in the first place.

Her stomach dropped.

Eliot felt her gaze on him and turned to look at her when he finished moving the branches into place. Parker's eyes were wide, her hands hung limply at her sides and her mouth was parted slightly in distress.

"Parker?" He frowned, taking a slight step forward.

"This isn't the first time you've been hunted like this." It wasn't a question, but the way his entire demeanor changed, resigned and closed off, told her it was true.

She blew out a breath and turned to sit against the wall, balancing the energy bar on her knees.

"Not hungry anymore."

Eliot sighed and moved to sit beside her, close enough that their shoulders were touching. Parker kept staring straight ahead at the wall opposite them. She understood the impulse to keep food on hand. To always be on the lookout for danger. But all those habits seemed to have waned and died out since she started working with the team.

What did it mean that she no longer had them? What did it mean for Eliot that he did?

"Hey," he said quietly.

She turned to look at him and the look of loss and sadness on her face formed a tight knot in his stomach. He racked his brain for something to say but came up empty and ended up just staring back at her. Finally, Parker looked away and picked the energy bar up off her knees, unwrapped it halfway and held it out to him.

He started to protest that she needed it more than him, but glanced again at her face and saw the plea and desperation written so plainly there.

Eliot sighed softly, wrapped his hand around hers and brought the bar to his mouth to take a small bite. He was glad he did when Parker's face lit up with a small smile and the tears-that-weren't-quite-there disappeared. He pushed her hand back toward her and raised his eyebrows expectantly.

She obediently took a bite, just as small as his had been, and handed it back allowing Eliot to rewrap the bar and put it in his pocket.

She drew her legs up to her chest and mumbled something he couldn't hear.

"What?" he asked quietly, stretching his legs out to cross them at the ankles.

"I said I think I love you."

Eliot's head snapped over to hers in shock. They'd always carefully avoided using those words between them. Eliot didn't because the only times he'd ever said them was to get a girl in bed and he didn't want to cheapen Parker like that. Parker didn't because, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't entirely certain she knew what they meant.

Eliot reached down between them to take her hand and thread their fingers together.

"You not sure?" He smiled gently. Parker shrugged, pulling his hand into her lap to play with his fingers.

"Not sure I even know what it means. But…when I think about why you are who you are…what you've done, even when you didn't want to," she looked up at him, her eyes wide and bright, "it makes me sad." She took a sharp breath and laid one hand on her chest, "deep."

Eliot blinked, feeling the full force of her words, the new level of concern behind them that startled them both.

He shook his head, reaching out to touch her cheek, "don't worry 'bout me darlin'."

"I don't worry," she said immediately, in a voice that was unexpectedly strong, "I just…wish it could be different."

There was no pity in the words and no judgment. Only regret and sadness.

"Parker, I chose this life. To be who I am."

She nodded and sighed again.

"I know. Me too." She snuggled further into his side and he took the hint, raising his arm to wrap around her and she rested her head on his shoulder, "I think that means there's something wrong with both of us."

Eliot laughed and squeezed her tighter, rubbing up and down on her arm a few times to get her to relax.

She obeyed his unspoken request and closed her eyes, knowing he wouldn't sleep at all that night, but would insist she did.

With another sigh, Parker slowly drifted to sleep.

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When they woke the next morning it was just before first light and Eliot wasted no time in getting them on the move. They picked their way carefully through the forest in the dim morning light at a pace only slightly slower than the day before, Parker complaining endlessly about being woken before 8am an unprecedented two days in a row.

By mid morning they found themselves at the top of the small mountain they'd been climbing in the first place.

"Eliot, relax. We lost 'em." Parker said after his fourth time glancing over their shoulders.

Eliot gave her a look. "And if we didn't?"

She rolled her eyes, tiptoeing forward to see over the nearly 100 foot drop extending below.

"We haven't seen or heard from them in over a day," she commented, leaning out over the edge.

Eliot shifted his gaze to Parker and cursed, quickly closing the distance between them. His hand shot out to grab her arm and pulled her back to his chest, away from danger but only by a few feet.

"Dammit Parker."

She smiled, nonplussed.

"Can you think of a better way to go?" She said, ignoring his concern and continuing the conversation. She gestured with a sweep of her hand at the landscape spread out before them.

The trees gave way about twenty feet back from the summit and with their backs to them standing out at the edge which was almost a cliff, they could see for miles. Low, rolling hills spread out before them, punctuated by sharply inclined taller hills, like the one they were on now. The entire valley was blanketed by green and flowering trees in full bloom. In the distance they could see a lake sitting peacefully nested between two hills and every now and then a cackle of birds would move in mass from one treetop to another.

Eliot sighed, shaking his head.

"Only you can make death sound almost appealing." He said, drawing a hand around her shoulders and she turned to give him a side hug.

"This is what I brought you to see," he whispered, dropping a kiss onto the top of her hair. It was a different side of the mountain than he was used to being on, but the end result was the same, "my favorite place in the world."

She tipped her head up to look at him, surprised.

"What? You thought I was dragging you through the forest at eight o'clock in the morning for no reason?"

She nodded, "yes."

He chuckled, squeezing her against him, "Nah. It's better at sunset thought. Sun sets just behind that lake there. It's like the sky is on fire. Most beautiful thing in the world."

Parker stared up at him until he couldn't stand to ignore it and looked down at her. He saw tears standing in her eyes and frowned, alarmed.

"Parker what-?"

She grabbed both sides of his face and cut him off with a tender but urgent kiss.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Eliot wasn't sure what she was thanking him for or why she looked about ready to cry, but he wasn't able to contemplate it very long either. The moment was broken as gunshots and shouts ripped through the air.

Eliot's reaction was immediate, taking a defensive, fight-ready stance as he placed himself between Parker and the group of men that suddenly emerged from the tree line.

Eliot recognized one of them as a man who had attacked them before and the red stained bandage on his arm confirmed it. He'd been joined by a handful of his buddies now, all carrying similar weapons and forming a half circle around them, cutting off their exits.

He cursed inwardly at himself for allowing his guard to go down. Now they had no weapons, no leverage and nowhere to go.

Parker's eyes grew wide at the site of guns trained on them, steady and precise. She knew Eliot's feelings on guns and why, but these men were smart, staying far enough away not to allow Eliot any advantages.

The one in the middle, with short gray hair and harsh black eyes, motioned toward them and barked something in Russian that she didn't understand. She wasn't overly surprised when Eliot responded in the same language, growling through his teeth.

Parker didn't hesitate.

Being careful to move slow so as not to call attention, she got up on her tip-toes to whisper into Eliot's ear just as he finished speaking.

"Do you know how to fall?"

Before he could process what she was saying, before the antsy bad guys' fingers could get any tighter on their triggers, she reached forward, locked her hands around Eliot's waist and threw all of her weight backward, sending them both back over the edge of the cliff.

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END- Would you look at that...a cliffie! Haha, literally!