A/N: This chapter does have E/P in it, but also more of the con and some N/S interaction. I would love all E/P all the time just the same as you, but unfortunately the story doesn't work without the other stuff. Hope you still like the chapter! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 11

"Okay, I'm outside the building" said Sophie into her earbud as she hopped out of the cab and looked up, "Fifth floor, right?" she checked.

"That's the one" Nate said in her ear from his seat back in the Leverage office, "That whole floor belongs to Kendall's law firm, and according to his very helpful secretary he should be out until at least lunch time" he confirmed, "That should give you plenty of time to sneak into his office and find us something incriminating"

"Really, Nate" she admonished him, "I don't sneak, I don't need to" she reminded him with a smile he could see in his mind's eye as she spoke.

"Well, if you find anything or need any help, I'll be right here, listening in" Sophie heard him say as she rode the elevator up to the fifth floor.

"It was clever of Hardison to alter the frequency on the buds just a little bit, keep our mission separate from the others" she commented, her hand going absently to her ear, "Though I might feel better if I did know what was going on with Parker and Eliot" she sighed.

Nate smiled at that, at the sound of concern in Sophie's voice. Not that he was happy to know she was worrying, more that he liked how the team were coming to care for each other so much. They had each others backs from Day One when it came to the cons, but now it was almost as if they were becoming a family in a strange way, something none of them ever dreamt of finding here.

Shaking his head free of such thoughts, Nate re-focused on the task at hand, getting up from his desk and wandering through to the board room.

"Hardison is keeping an eye on our not-so-happy couple" he assured Sophie as he went, "He's there if they get in a fix"

"Don't think they're gonna need me much" the hacker grinned as he pointed at the vid screen which displayed the dance studio into which Eliot and Parker were now walking, "Time to get their groove on again, and they do that good, don't you, guys?"

"Ah, my wonderful dancers!" Senora Alvarez was all over the couple the moment they came though the doors, stopping them from answering Hardison even if they had wanted to.

Though usually Parker reacted rather badly to people wanting to make a fuss of her, Eliot might have been amused to note she was taking the teacher's manners with good grace and an excited smile today. He would have noticed if he wasn't entirely annoyed to be the centre of attention once again, when all they were doing was attempting to blend! Thankfully, as his eyes scanned the room, he saw no evidence of the other undercover couple that had caused so much trouble. If he had to spend too much time in a room with 'Roger' he was liable to want to kill him six ways from Sunday after the way he upset Parker. With every couple's schedule different and made to suit only them, every class was made up of different people, which had its upsides and downsides. One of the downs was that he and Parker were now being made a point of in front of a whole new set of people, and that they could well do without.

"Now, my beautiful class" said the teacher, addressing the seven couples she had spread out in her studio, "Today we have a little exercise to complete before we begin dance" she explained, with a flourish, the same way she said and did everything it seemed, "First of all, we have all the handsome men on this side of the room" she gestured, "And then all our beautiful ladies on the other side, facing their husbands"

Parker couldn't help but think the teacher was blind if she thought everyone here was either handsome or beautiful, although out of everybody Eliot was by far the hottest. That thought just led to others that she kind of wished hadn't surfaced right now as she recalled the dream she had last night. It had ended badly and she woke with a start from the evils of her past that often haunted her, but before that had been different. Before she had been safe and calm and easy. She had known that everything was okay because she was being held close and warm by the loving arms of one Eliot Spencer. Sure, they woke up the day before all snuggly, and he had put his arms around her many times before, to catch her when she leapt from a height, or help her climb up into a window someplace, but never just to hug her, that would be weird. It hadn't felt weird in her dream though, it had felt so good, and it had Parker wondering what that really meant...

"Alice? Alice White!" Senora Alvarez sing-songed as she waved her hand in front of Parker's face, finally succeeding in getting her attention, "Alice, I know your husband is very attractive man, but right now we must concentrate, yes?" she smiled, only now making Parker aware that she had been staring at Eliot this whole time.

The poor girl had the good grace to blush, especially when she realised she had probably made Eliot a little mad by drawing more attention to them. What she didn't know was that he was as flattered and confused as he was annoyed. When people stared at you that intensely there was usually only one reason, though of course Parker wasn't most people and therefore could have her own set of reasons for all but leering at him. Now was not the time to think about it because they were in the middle of a con, under cover using different names, and apparently supposed to be listening to teacher!

"Is very simple" she explained, going over to the first couple, "Our ladies are going to turn, face the wall, and our gentleman are going to move in a little closer, just a step" she gestured for her instructions to be followed, "Now ladies, we are going to close our eyes and very slowly lean backwards" she told them, at which point Eliot expected Parker to panic.

He was more surprised when she actually did as instructed along with a couple of the other women, landing safely in his waiting arms with a smile playing at her lips. It was a test for trust, and an old one at that, which Eliot had seen done before. Truth was he never really expected Parker to go with it so readily, and had he not had the arm strength he did possess, he might've dropped her completely on the floor with the surprise of it all.

"Hi" she said as she tipped her head back and looked at him.

"Hi, yourself" he replied with a smile he couldn't help, as he righted her back onto her feet.

"Ah, now we see where the trust really lies" said Senora Alvarez with a knowing look, as several couples who had not successfully completed the experiment looked daggers at each other or just plain embarrassed, "Now we move on to the dance... with a twist!" she grinned, producing a handful of scarves from behind her back.

"Did she just turn into bondage lady?" said Parker in a whisper, the look on her face decidedly disgusted and panicked at the same time.

Eliot opened his mouth to answer her and quickly closed it again. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on here, but he couldn't think it was going to end well somehow.

"What do we have, Sophie?" asked Nate through his earbud when the grifter seemed to be too quite for too long.

"I honestly couldn't say" she sighed as she checked no-one was around and slid open the bottom drawer of the file cabinet beside her.

Getting into Jeremy Kendall's office had been the easy part. Charm and wit and years of practice when it came to grifting had the secretary or receptionist or whatever she was believing that Sophie was totally within her rights to be wandering about in the lawyers' private office. This meant an hour had been spent so far, leafing through files, whilst a flashdrive copied as much of Kendall's computer as possible in the time.

"I'm certain a lot of these names are couples from the Retreat's records" said Sophie as she flipped through another wad of paper, "but nothing that would prove for sure that there's a connection, that he and his wife are actively trying to break up marriages and cash in on the divorces" she sighed, "Of course, I..."

"What are you doing?" said a voice Nate didn't recognise, but was certain in an instant must be Jeremy Kendall, even before Sophie ever said it.

"Monsieur Kendall" she said in a perfect French accent, "I am so, 'ow you say, at the end of my wits!" she declared, kicking closed the drawer she hoped he hadn't noticed was open as she all but flung herself into his arms.

"Um... there, there" the lawyer awkwardly patted the mysterious woman's back as she appeared to sob on the shoulder of his expensive suit, "But you know you really shouldn't be here..."

"This, I know" said Sophie, her head coming up suddenly, "I should not need... er, service you offer, but my 'usband, I have no trust for 'im. He is not, 'ow you say, a faithful man" she explained, dabbing at tearful eyes with a handkerchief as she sat herself down on the edge of the desk.

Rambling on with her eyes wide and chest pushed out to maximum capacity, the grifter was pretty sure she was doing a good job of distracting Jeremy Kendall, as she reached back towards the computer across the desk and removed the flashdrive from the USB port.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear you're having problems in your marriage, Ms Bouvier" he said sympathetically, even as he encouraged her to get up from his desk and head for the door, "but you really need an appointment to talk to me about this"

"I am sorry" Sophie apologised, not worried that she had to leave since she had the flashdrive, but rather wanting the file she had left on the chair in the corner, "I 'ave made such a fool out of me" she cried, "And you are so kind, Monsieur Kendall, such a kind man" she enthused, grabbing at his left hand and gasping as if surprised by the sight of a wedding band on his third finger, "Oh, you are lawyer de divorce, and yet married 'appily?" she said as she swept by him too suddenly for him to stop her.

Nate listened in with a smile as she grabbed what must have been a photograph of Laurie Redfern, waxing lyrical on the beauty of Kendall's wife and how lucky they both were to have found each other. He had no doubt that in the back and forth that followed, Sophie managed to grab whatever else she clearly wanted out of the office, he would suspect one of the files she'd been rifling through earlier.

A few moments later and she was clear of the office, a sigh escaping her lips as she realised her mission was complete and successful.

"Elegantly done, Sophie, as always" said Nate with a proud smile as he heard the elevator doors open and close, ready to take the grifter back down to the ground.

"Thank you" she said graciously, "but you know it might've gone better. Blokes usually fall for my charms a little easier than that"

Nate wasn't quite sure how to answer without getting himself into trouble. Any comment was bound to sound as if he was putting her down in some way, something he would never do on purpose. Telling her she was wrong probably wouldn't help either, she would end up accusing him of over-doing it or taking pity on her, which she would not stand for. Instead the mastermind took the safer route of changing the subject.

"Eliot and Parker are doing just fine, by the way" he told her, hoping it would take her mind off anything else.

"Oh, well, that's good" she agreed, "What are they doing? Dancing again?" she asked with a grin that wouldn't shift - she did love watching the pair move the last time, they had such a way about them, so in synch, it was almost as if they really were a couple.

"Yeah, they dancin' alright" yelled Hardison, loud enough that Nate's earbud would pick up his voice, "but you gotta see this to believe it, man" he chuckled, as on the screen Parker led a blind-folded Eliot around the dance studio floor.

It was probably an odd sight to any person who was watching, a room full of couples all dancing around with all the men bound around the eyes with coloured scarves, led by their wives. In the middle of all this were Eliot and Parker, alias Paul and Alice, her with the biggest smile on her face, and him looking decidedly calm about his lack of control. They should be able to hear Hardison chuckling and making comments, but it didn't seem to phase either of them. After months of working this way, with earbuds stuck in their ears all the time, regardless of the job, they were used to blocking out the other voices if they really needed to, and right now was one of those times.

"Remember" Senora Alvarez told the class as the music reached a crescendo, "Actions, they speak louder than the words, and trust is a key to happy marriages"

Parker heard her, kind of, mostly she was too busy concentrating on where she was putting her feet, replicating steps that Eliot had taught her last time and that some of the more able wives in the room were also doing. There were fights breaking out, albeit it mostly in whispers, people getting their toes trod on both literally and figuratively. Through it all, the one non-couple in the room held true to form and completed their task without incident. The music ended and so did the dance, with the teacher instructing the men to remove their blind-folds, with a wish that they had all learnt a valuable lesson here today.

"Did that feel weird to you?" asked Parker, using her quiet voice for once.

"I've been moved around blind-folded before" Eliot shrugged, not sure why seeing her face fall made him feel so bad right now, "but never that well" he added quickly, glad to see Parker smile again, "You did good, darlin'" he promised her, either forgetting or just not caring that all he was saying could be heard elsewhere as well as being recorded for play back later!

Parker could not stop smiling. She never thought she could be so happy about the outcome of a dance class! This whole undercover thing had started out so badly, and now, even though they didn't seem to be getting very far with busting the bad guys, she was really glad to be here. Up to now, she had only ever thought of Eliot as the well-built guy that busted heads. Now she was coming to realise he was also sweet and fun and a whole bunch of other things that she really liked. It was confusing, and yet, Parker had to admit in her own head at least that she didn't mind the feelings he gave her, in fact she really did like them, even if she wasn't entirely sure what they were!

"I still don't understand why it was so difficult to keep Jeremy Kendall's attention" Sophie huffed when the team reconvened via comms sometime later, "Y'know, maybe he's gay" she considered from her place sat by the conference table at the Leverage offices.

"Gay?" Eliot echoed though the earbuds, as he sat on the couch, smiling inspite of himself as he watched his undercover wife spin circles around the room, still caught up in the dance from their last class it seemed, "Sophie the guy's married and his wife runs a Couples Retreat"

"Elton John was married" the grifter snapped back, causing Parker to stop twirling, a frown on her face - clearly she hadn't known that, "Eliot, you can't judge a person's sexuality solely on that"

"Maybe he just wasn't attracted to Sophie" the little thief shrugged, as her fake-husband bit his lip in an attempt not to laugh.

"Parker!" Sophie yelled in her ear, clearly quite affronted, though the blonde did not appear to realise what she had said to cause offence.

"What?" she asked as she came to sit by Eliot on the couch, looking to him for an explanation he hoped not to have to give right now.

Thankfully, this was when Nate decided to take control.

"Look, we're getting off the point here!" he told the whole team, and the two not present at the offices could just picture him, stern fatherly looks and all.

"Yeah, and I gotta do my thang with these computer files Sophie snagged" Hardison pointed out, his reason for being quiet up to now made clear.

"And we have lunch in a few minutes" said Parker, her hand at her stomach that was clearly protesting the lack of food.

"And more torture sessions with the psychotherapists this afternoon" added Eliot with an eye-roll.

Nate audibly sighed at all the complaining, feeling like the father they sometimes accused him of being, with at least three if not four unruly kids to keep control of.

"Not long now, guys" he assured them, "We're almost there"

With plans agreed and all information passed on, Parker and Eliot took the oppurtninity to offline comms for a while. Having an earbud shoved in your ear all day was fine and could be done, but sometimes it was nice to have a little peace in your own head! They could at least manage their lunch unassisted and planned to do so now. Of course, Parker could still hear Eliot even with the bud out and knew she would have to endure his complaining about his upcoming meeting with Dr Ritter this afternoon to be psycho-analysed. The little thief opened her mouth to answer, to say she was to looking forward to her own session with Dr Matthius either, but the words came out garbled and all were untrue.

Eliot didn't seem to notice, but Parker told a bare-faced lie when she stated she had no wish to see Laura this afternoon. The fact of the matter was, she had some serious questions she needed to ask the woman who seemed so nice and genuine. Not everybody here was in on the scam to break up couples, they were all sure of that, and Dr Matthius sure seemed genuine in her attempts to reconcile couples, even Alice and Paul who were not actually in a real relationship. Parker knew she had to be careful in the questions she asked, but she had to know what the psychologist thought about the weird feelings she was getting for Eliot. She couldn't make any sense out of them, maybe Laura could.

To Be Continued...