A/N: Sorry to leave you hanging so long on this story, but hopefully you'll find this chapter worth the wait :-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 12
"Hey, hold on a sec!" said Hardison suddenly just as Eliot and Parker prepared to offline and go into their separate sessions with the psychologists, "I got a pattern here" he said, waving for Nate and Sophie to come see what he had found.
"That's a lot of meetings with a doctor" said the grifter with a frown.
It seemed she was right too as the screen showed a minimum of weekly appointments with 'DR'. Something had to be seriously wrong with a person to need that many visits surely.
"See, that's what I thought too" agreed the hacker, "but then I found this one here that actually says 'doctor'" he showed her, "So now I'm thinking, maybe DR are initials for a name"
"Like Daniel Ritter" said Nate, as realisation suddenly dawned, "The husband and one of the psychologists working together, that could make sense" he nodded, his finger going to his ear then as he spoke very deliberately through comms to Eliot and Parker, "Guys, I need you to get Ritter's cell" he told them, "You can get into it somehow, right, Hardison?" he checked with the hacker then.
"So long as Parker or Eliot can send me a text from it, I can follow that back and we got a connection, probably to his diary or a calendar or whatever" he considered, "Most professionals these days keep that kind of thing on a phone.
"It's the new age filofax" Sophie shrugged, recoiling when Hardison shot her a look of pure disgust, "What?" she wanted to know, but ought to have guessed he was now recalculating what he thought her age must be to have made what he considered to be such an out of date reference.
Right now of course that was not so important as the plan and the look on Nate's face told them that.
"We're on it" said Parker as she stuck her head out into the hallway and looked around.
Several people were milling around, both staff and visitors to the retreat. She didn't see either of the psychologists at first, then suddenly the Staff Only door came open a little and she listened for voices. One was definitely Laurie Redfern, the other seemed to be Ritter.
"Okay" she said as she popped her head back in the room and gestured for Eliot to follow her, "Double reverse?" she suggested and he nodded his agreement as they went out into the hallways together.
Within seconds, Ritter exited the office, bumped into Parker, who had his cell in her hand with ease. Around the corner she quickly sent a text to Hardison then doubled-back, passing by her 'husband'. Eliot assumed she would just hand over the phone and got a suprise when she grinned at him, leaning in to kiss his cheek as she stuffed Ritter's cell straight into his pocket.
A moment later and she was gone, headed off to her session with Dr Matthius, leaving Eliot to get his bearings and head in to see Ritter. In his ear, Hardison asked that he give him time to swipe the info he needed off the phone and then at the end of the session make some excuse like he just found the psychologist's cell on the ground or something to return it to him.
"Okay, I'm offlining comms now" he told the team, "I told you, I can't have you guys in my head and a head doctor too" he reminded them.
"That's fine, Eliot" Nate agreed, "We'll be able to follow along from the button cam and mic just in case anything incriminating comes up"
"Great" the hitter grumbled as he pulled the earbud out.
He was getting used to having the team there wherever he went thanks to comms and such, but while he was here he could do without eyes and ears with him at every turn. After all, this psychologist was liable to ask all kinds of questions he wasn't sure how to answer, especially with things between him and Parker being so weird lately.
"Alice, you really shouldn't be so nervous" Dr Laura Matthius advised as Parker paced the room in front of her, ringing her hands and looking every kind of worried, though she had yet to say why.
"I'm not nervous" she told the psychologist, "I'm just... I kinda don't know what I'm feeling right now"
Laura watched the poor woman pace some more, then realised she really wasn't going to stop unless she was made to. On Parker's next pass, she found her route blocked by the doctor, who reached for her hands. The blonde's initial reaction was to back away, her arms flying up as she flinched away from the contact. Laura looked at her a little strangely but said not a word about it.
"Alice, please" she urged her, "I'm here to help you, in any way I can" she reminded her, "If you're feeling mixed up with your emotions, I wish you'd just talk to me about it" she encouraged as she herself sat down and gestured that Parker should do the same, "I won't judge you, you know that, and anything you say here is completely private. I won't even tell Paul, I promise"
Parker stood still a moment, observing Laura, trying to puzzle out if she could really trust in the words she said. So many people made promises, said they were the ones who you could put your faith in. So many people Parker had allowed close to her and regretted it over and over. Now she had a team that she knew genuinely cared for her and that she liked well enough, one in particular she liked best of all and that was what was really bothering her. Of course, in order to find out for sure, she was going to have to put a little trust in this Dr Matthius, who wasn't even necessarily a doctor at all. Sure, she was nice and all, but trusting anybody, even a tiny bit, was a huge deal for Parker, especially right now.
"Okay" she said at length as she dropped down onto the couch opposite Laura, accompanied by an audible sigh of relief from the psychologist, "Whatever this is, that I'm feeling... I don't get it" she shook her head, "I mean, I thought he hated me and I didn't really like him, except y'know obviously I know he's hot, 'cause duh! Not blind!" she giggled at how dumb she would have to be, before going on, almost unaware what confusion she was causing, not just here with Laura but also back at the Leverage offices.
"Parker? Parker!" Sophie called through her earbud but to no avail.
"She offlined" noted Hardison with a slight frown, "I guess she's just following Eliot's lead" he shrugged, "But no problem, we got the... Oh, no we don't" he said then, catching Nate's attention,
"We don't, what?" the mastermind checked as he came to peer over the hacker's shoulder, "What don't we have that we should?"
"Parker" he said simply, "I mean, she got the camera on, but no sound" he said, looking bemused, "I can't think the equipment failed..."
Sophie frowned hard as she looked from Hardison to the vid-screen, which now showed a split of the silent feed with Parker talking to Dr Matthius, and Eliot just now heading in to meet with Dr Ritter, his audio loud and clear.
"Maybe she doesn't want us to hear her" she wondered aloud, though for the life of her the grifter couldn't understand why.
She was baffled as to how Parker had become brave enough to even go into her session unaided, but when she was specifically asked to record both sound and picture, well, it was unlike her to break the rules in such a way. Of course, not one of the team knew that Parker had some rather private stuff she wanted to say in her session with Dr Matthius, and she hadn't the words to explain it to them, so she just hadn't bothered right now.
Laura tried to follow the stream of consciousness that came spilling from Alice's mouth. Of course, she took all this in a completely different way than it was meant. Parker was having new feelings for a new man in her life, whilst Laura was listening to Alice talking about a shift back to love for her husband Paul after a prolonged period on shaky ground. Thankfully, the things Parker was saying worked both ways and her theory was that maybe Laura's answer to her problem would too.
"Well" said the doctor after a moments pause, "First of all, I'm sure that Paul never hated you" she said kindly with a smile, "And I do understand why you're feeling so confused" she sympathised, "It is strange to feel two so completely opposing things about anyone or anything. You know, when I moved here from Europe, I was dreading having to start over, and yet at the same time so happy and excited to come live here in the States" she smiled, "It's kind of the same thing with you and Paul, I think" she explained, as Alice made a face that proved she didn't get it, "You've gotten used to seeing him as the enemy, as a problem, but now the old feelings are coming back, the attraction and the affection. The like and the dislike don't fit together, and it's scary trying to make that big life decision, choosing which feeling is stronger, and what the consequences of that choice might be"
"Yeah, I guess" Parker shrugged, hoping that she did understand as she thought she did, "So, how do I decide if I like him or not?" she asked, a straight-forward question that she hoped she would get a straight-forward answer too.
"There is no one certain way, Alice" Laura told her, unhelpful as far as Parker was concerned, "but I honestly believe, from working with the two of you, that you and your husband have something very special" she told her, "Now, I can't tell you from just a couple of meetings like this if you're meant to be together forever, nobody can make that decision but the two of you"
"But that doesn't help!" said Parker with pure frustration, "I mean, what if I want to be with him but he doesn't want to be with me?" she shrugged helplessly, "What if I tell him and he laughs" she considered with genuine fear in her eyes and tone at the very thought of it.
Laura felt terribly sorry for the poor young woman before her, and by the same token utterly bemused. The fact of the matter was, Alice White came across as so very confident and sure of herself in so many ways. She certainly seemed to know what she wanted the other day in the staff office when she was practically straddling her husband on a desk! Now she was spooked and in a complete panic at the idea of telling the very same man that she loved him.
Perhaps the problem was that the psychical side of their relationship worked much better than the rest of it, that's what Laura had started to wonder, and yet she recalled the last session she had with Alice and Paul and immediately frowned. Was it not established that he had intimacy issues then? A distinct problem with his wife sleeping naked? Or maybe she had got it wrong, misunderstood what they were trying to tell her. Perhaps Paul was more concerned he would want his wife too much to ever get any sleep at all if she did not stay somewhat covered up. Perhaps he felt the need to concentrate on the other parts of the marriage that weren't working so well, whilst the physical side always had?
"Alice" said Laura eventually, realising she had been silent too long, "Do you love your husband?" she asked her straight out.
"Yes, obviously" the blonde responded so fast that Parker actually wondered if she herself had spoken at all, or if someone else had answered for her.
Maybe it was just because she had rehearsed her character so well, she was answering on reflex as Alice. Maybe it meant something else entirely, but right now she was too afraid to question it, and far too busy trying to concentrate on what Laura was saying to her, for fear of missing something important!
"Do you believe he loves you?" came the next question, which was far ore difficult to answer.
Parker looked puzzled for a long moment before she answered.
"I don't know" she admitted, pretty sure that Eliot couldn't possibly love her, because nobody ever had before, and yet he was kind of nice to her, "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to tell" she said, sadly shaking her head.
It made Laura wonder how she had ever got this far, to be married as she was and holding onto a man, albeit not well enough to have a happy union without the aid of outsiders. Of course, she was unaware that this relationship she was trying to unravel in her mind was all a charade.
"Have you tried asking him?" she suggested, at which Parker burst out laughing, startling the doctor a little, "Okay, so, maybe he's not much for talking about feelings" Laura belatedly realised, after all, she could see how Paul had been far from the emotionally aware type, "Then perhaps... Have you tried showing him how you feel?" she suggested.
That knocked all the giggly feelings out of Parker in an instant. Showing Eliot how she felt wasn't a bad idea, but she could hardly wrap her head around the concept. She liked him a lot, he was hot as hell, and he was almost always nice to her these days. He treated her like the person she was, not the person he'd like her to be, and he never did let he down. Eliot would've killed that Roger guy for daring to touch her, of that Parker was certain, and she liked knowing it, liked it a very lot in fact.
"You think I should have sex with him" she said matter-of-factly, stunning Laura for a moment, as Parker often did with those unaccustomed to her very straight-forward nature.
"Well, it's not all about the actual sex" she tried to tell her, faltering just a little over her explanation, "although it's always good for that to be a part of any healthy marriage, I just... Um, Alice" she started over, leaning in a little and meeting the other woman's eyes, "Only you know how you really feel about Paul, and he is the only one who can let you know how he is truly feeling too" she told her, "Now, I can give you all kinds of advice, offer up a hundred ideas, but the fact still remains that you two, talking to each other, spending time reconnecting with each other, that is the most important thing" she smiled, "That's what you're here for, right?"
Parker just nodded, not knowing how else to respond. What she was really here with Eliot for was to bust the bad guys, bring this place down, and yet it was hard to hate everybody and everything at The Twin Souls Retreat. Laura certainly seemed genuine and not at all like she wanted to break up any couples. Her advice might yet prove to be the very thing that got Parker herself into some kind of relationship. As scary as that might seem on the surface, it would also make Dr Matthius somewhat of a miracle worker!
To Be Continued...