Parker shifted nervously from foot to foot as they stood outside the rather modest home of Archie Leach. They had been forced to park on the street as there were several other cars in the driveway and along the front of the House. Eliot couldn't hold back a growl of anger; Leach should have known that Parker would be uncomfortable meeting his entire damn family at the same time. "Parker, lovely to see you've made it." Archie exited the House and made his way toward the blonde who Eliot noticed stood up a little straighter though she was still clearly terrified. "Mr. Spencer my family is wondering who is glaring at our House from the lawn perhaps you could desist." Archie phrased it as a question but it was clearly a demand.
"Sorry we're late sir, we had to make sure the dog had food and water and a lot of toys so he wouldn't get bored, and then we had to get the right container for the pie that Eliot made, he said you can't go somewhere empty-handed it's against some kind of rule." Parker rambled gesturing to the pie in Eliot's hands.
"It's quite alright kiddo, I'm sure that Eliot's pie will be fantastic no matter the container." Archie put an arm around Parker who looked surprised by the contact.
"You can bet on that Mr. Leach." Eliot answered with a nod, a flick in the upstairs curtain caught his attention and he saw a woman with dark hair duck behind the window frame. "I think we're being watched."
"Yes we should get in, the family is very excited to meet you." Archie with a hand at the small of her back began guiding Parker toward the House but stopped short when she resisted.
"What did you tell them?" she asked her voice shaking slightly.
"I told them that you were an orphan, that I found you a place to live and taught you a trade, I told them that I loved you and that you were as much a part of my family as they are." Archie turned to face Parker dead on and waited in front of her until she met his eyes. "I made many mistakes with you, if I could go back and handle things differently, if I could have brought you home and shown you what a family was I would have. I want the chance to make it right."
Parker looked back her eyes locked on Eliot's he took a step forward and bend his head to whisper in her ear. "I gotta be honest with you babe this guy isn't my favorite person in the world, but he loves you that's pretty clear you wanna stay or you wanna go I got your back." Eliot couldn't help but enjoy, despite the seriousness of the moment the small shiver that ran through her body at the feel of his breath against her neck.
"Let's go." She said taking his hand into her own and looping her arm through Archie's. The older man turned and gave Eliot a nod of thanks. They would never be friends but they respected each other, and sometimes in their world that was better. When they entered the House the first person he saw was the woman who had ducked behind a curtain on the second floor descending the staircase. She was older than them in her mid-forties with long dark hair. Behind her were two more people, a man and a woman all with the same brown hair and deep brown eyes.
"Sarah, Julia, Carter meet Parker and Eliot." Archie nodded to each of the children in turn.
"Excuse me." A young girl walked out of the dining room where children and what he assumed were spouses were also watching the exchange. The girl also had long brown hair but unlike Archie's children she had a pair of deep green eyes that were studying Parker. "You took my lollypop." She accused folding her arms over her chest.
"I gave it back so it doesn't count." Parker replied tightening her grip on Eliot's hand.
"Does too." The girl protested.
"No if you give it back it makes it better right Eliot." Parker insisted looking to him for support with a slightly nervous look in her eye.
"Absolutely." He said kissing the side of her head, "Now I don't know about the rest of you but I'm a bit tired so if you'll show me where I can put this pie I would love to take a seat." Eliot looked up the stairs at the oldest girl identified as Sarah. Archie had told him once that since his wife died his eldest daughter had taken it upon herself to be his caretaker; he assumed that meant she would be playing hostess at this little gathering.
"You're completely right Eliot." She stepped down the stairs and took the pie from his hands. "I'll take this to the kitchen and Carter will take your coats." She nodded to her brother who descended the staircase and took the light jackets that both Parker and Eliot handed to him.
"I'll take you to the living room." Julia led them into the large room were two men both stood upon their entrance. "This is my husband Peter, and Sarah's husband Eric. You already met Emily Sarah's daughter, and these are my son's AJ and Cooper." The men shook hands with the both of them while the two boys who Eliot estimated to be around ten and seven simply continued playing barely sparing a glance at the newcomers.
"So Parker tell us about yourself why don't you." Sarah requested as she re-entered the rom taking a seat on the arm of her husband's chair.
"No thank you." Parker muttered squirming as all eyes were on her.
"Parker is a co-president of a security firm." Archie supplied subtly glaring at his children.
"What kind of work does that entail?" Peter asked with a hand on his wife's back clearly to calm her down.
"Parker is our security expert." Eliot explained taking Archie's hint. It was clear that the older man's family was not taking to Parker as well as he had hoped and both men knew that Parker would be made more awkward because of it. "She figures out how to break down the defenses of an alarm system physically instead of hacking it, we have another department for that."
"Is that even possible anymore?" Carter asked clearly interested, "I understand back in the days of bells and whistles it may have been easier but with the technology of today I find it hard to believe."
"Every system has a flaw." Parker said with a small smile at Archie, "Even the new ones are just a matter of nuts and bolts; you take out the right one and the dam breaks."
"What about you Eliot?" Carter once again carried the conversation, "You said we earlier so I assume you work for the same firm."
"We do, I'm in the recovery department. Sometimes as good as we are something does get taken, then it's my job to get it back." Eliot answered. His job was much easier to explain because it seemed more real world then Parker. "What about all of you?"
"Well, Sarah is a teacher at the local high school, Peter is a detective, Julia is a therapist, Peter is a mechanic, and I just got promoted to head of security at Lazidine Industries." He finished proudly. Eliot's surprise would only be noticed by one person, and when he reacted to the name of the company Parker looked over at him questioningly.
"Just got promoted huh, congratulations! Did the old guy retire?" Eliot inquired subtly nodding to Parker that she should go along with whatever he said. Eliot thought back to his talk with his neighbor David. Upon reflection he had noted the man's blue jacket in the hallway had the Lazidine industries logo on the front pocket. He knew from basic perusing of the newspaper that they were a real estate company. They were considered the new frontier in banking because each office held every step required to buy a House, you could go in and close on your House the next day if you had all the proper documentation. The company employed Real Estate agents, bankers, brokers, underwriters, loan officers, and everything else all they were missing was the moving company branch. He had yet to look into the problem but with an inside man right in front of him it would become quite a bit easier.
"No fired for something, personal reasons they said." Carter told them and leaned forward a bit. "I would love to hire your firm to do an audit, what did you say the name of it was again?"
"Leverage Security Consultants." Parker answered still clearly confused over what had Eliot so excited about Carter Leach's employment.
"We're on vacation now." Eliot found a pad and piece of paper on the coffee table beside the home telephone and scribbled down his name and phone number. "I'll see what we can do about the friends and family discount." He chuckled handing the paper to the older man who nodded gratefully.
"Yeah it's the problem in security, when nobody tells you what exactly the other guy got fired for you have to cover every base. I heard about this one company that told their second in command he was in charge just to test whether or not he would be able to handle the job. The real security chief was running the heist, they stole something like half the company files before they got spotted but they still managed to get away." Carter said folding the paper and placing it into his pocket.
"Well since were going to barbeque I think we should head out back." Archie announced standing and ushering the children out of the room. The younger ones followed but Eliot grabbed Parker's arm so she would hold back.
"What do you know about Lazidine?" he asked. He knew his partner well enough to know that if she had ever driven by the building she likely knew at least the basics of the security system and camera setup.
"They don't handle any actual cash, they aren't really a bank they just work with them. It's an identity theft hub though, with that many people working there, that's why they have such tight security. Were one person might not need your social security number or whatever it's still going to be on the file, they have a lot of identity safety security their system is supposed to be hack proof." She rattled off quickly speaking quietly so nobody would overhear the conversation.
"Our neighbor Dave works for them, that night he came over to apologize he told me that his company, which I'm pretty sure is Lazidine had some irregularities in the bookkeeping, he thinks someone is embezzling money from the company and with what I just heard I think he might be right." Eliot spoke just as quickly and just as quietly. Parker who was fully aware that they had a limited time to speak simply raised her eyebrow asking silently for more of an explanation.
"There are really only two reasons to fire a head of security; either they aren't doing their job right or they're sleeping with someone they shouldn't. Either one of those choices you would tell the next guy in line in the hopes that they would take it as a warning call." He said.
"So you think the head of security knew about it and they fired him for it?" Parker asked, "Why not kill him?"
"Maybe they did, we have to do some research and find out what's going on." He replied. He took her hand in his and led her out into the backyard.
"We were wondering where you guys got off too!" Julia exclaimed when they re-joined the group. "I hope you both eat meat." She held up a plate of perfectly grilled T-Bone steaks and some grilled chicken.
"I like hot dogs too." Parker said smiling slightly.
"Hot dogs are my favorite!" Emily exclaimed the earlier lollypop incident clearly forgotten in the face of this new and wonderful information.
"What's your favorite part?" Parker asked taking a heaping of food onto her plate and walking toward the kids picnic table without a backward glance debating the young girl on the validity of dogs in a bun versus dogs in a blanket.
"She gets along great with the kids." Sarah commented rather bitterly, upset that she felt more comfortable with the children than with her.
"She's had a tough go of things sweetheart you just have to give her time she'll warm up to you." Archie reassured his eldest daughter who simply watched Parker interact with the two young boys who had apparently decided their Aunt Parker was 'totally cool'.
"I've seen kids like that in my office all the time. They associate being hurt or being mistreated with adults the innate trust that we put in other adults when we first see them. The faith I have that Eliot wont haul off and punch me in the face for no reason, she doesn't have that with adults so she finds it in kids, it's easier for her." Julia said joining them at the picnic table that was clearly for adults.
"You got that from ten minutes huh?" Carter mocked his older sister earning him a playful punch in the ribs. "Hey hold on now!" Carter threw his hands up in the air scooting back, "What happened to the trust that you weren't going to beat me up!" he laughed along with the rest of their siblings but Eliot tuned them out. He had never thought about Parker that way, she couldn't trust adults because all her life the things that happened to her had been because of them. As a kid it must have been tough but as an adult herself it explained a lot of her social awkwardness.
Julia threw him out of his thoughts by leaning closer to him so she could be heard over Carter proclaiming loudly that his sister had clearly broken three of his ribs. "It's a good sign that she's in a relationship with you, it seems healthy if a bit co-dependent." She winked at him as she leaned back and joined in the argument about the state of her brother's health, quickly offering to punch him on his left side so his right wouldn't hurt so much anymore.
Dinner passed quickly with jokes and various attempts at getting to know each other while Parker taught the kids cartwheels on the lawn. It had taken only a little prodding from Julia to get both the older women out on the lawn as well. Eliot had watched Parker be quite tentative with them at first but quickly warm up and begin showing them a few flips. It didn't take long until all the adults were attempting to one up the others with more daring stunts as the kids cheered them on.
"I wish I had known." Eliot scooted over from where he had been seated in the middle of a bench where he had a good view of Parker and the rest of them. "I wish I had seen in her what you do, seen something more than the thief she could become." Archie joined him tapping his cane lightly on the ground a sign, Eliot knew from Sophie, of distraction.
"I'm almost glad you didn't." Eliot said, "She deserved a family but if she had this… if she had what you would have given her I don't know that we would have met. I wouldn't have known how empty my life was without her and who knows I might have settled for less then perfect."
"You're a good man." Archie said finally, "I think your good for her, better than that orange soda gummy frogs boy." He scowled disapprovingly, "Quite stupid to steal from behind a desk, I prefer to be in the action."
"I'm with ya." Eliot chuckled. "Don't get me wrong Hardison's got some skills, but there's nothing like sweating, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping action to shake things up." Eliot chuckled along with Leach, "But then again he does have asthmatic tendencies."
"I'm glad you found her Eliot." Archie told him after they finished having a laugh at Hardison's expense, one of Eliot's favorite pastimes.
"Me too Leach." He answered standing from his seat on the bench and joining Parker who was waving him over to try and get him to show the kids some of his karate skills. He could almost see it, a few years on this being their kids he was showing how to properly hold their hand when going for a punch. It was a familiar feeling, the desire to have children. Hell most people say it's human nature but looking at Parker for the first time in his life he thought it might be an honest possibility.
A/N: Well this update less then 12 hours after the last one is my form of apoligizing to all of you for being gone for the entire Leverage hiatus. I'm sure that like me you use ff to get you through and I'm sorry I let you down. I hope this helps to make up for it, thank you to those of you who have stuck with me.