Hey there again! So here is the scond part of my story.
I still do not own any content related to Leverage. Well, apart from the character I made up in my mind.
Special thanks go to Katiemac1992 for betaing my humble work.
Enjoy!
It all went way too smoothly.
Eliot couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking straight into a trap. Fuller was hooked without any problems. The sculpture that served as bait was stolen with ease and now Eliot was supposed to meet Fuller tomorrow to talk business with Sophie, who played his agent; while Parker was to infiltrate Fuller's office in order to get documents saying he (Fuller) knew about the side effects his medicament had.
Eliot had a very bad feeling about this...
Sean was angry as hell. Nate cut him out of the job.
"Your personal feelings will interfere with the job. Sorry buddy." he told him.
It took every bit of his self-control to not snap Nate's neck. Instead he moved close, to look Nate straight in the eyes.
"You better be hoping your plan works out. My only child got killed because of that man, understand? 'Cause if not I will make you pay." He growled.
Sean pushed Nate against the wall before he walked out the door silently taking one of the team's coms- just in case.
Nate stood paralyzed, unable to move and breathing heavily. It was no lie to say he was scared to death. He had never had someone threaten him the way Sean had. He sighed and went to take a very cold shower.
"Eliot, Parker get the hell outta' there! We're blown!"
Hardison screamed through the coms.
"I told you it went too well. But I'm just the dumb muscle so what's the use of listening to me? Dammit Hardison!" Eliot growled.
"Parker, where are you?" Nothing came back. "Parker?"
"Hardison, tell me where she is!" Eliot ordered the hacker.
"Her signal's coming from near Fuller's office. She's not moving. That means…" Hardison trailed.
"She got caught!" Eliot completed for Hardison; His heart skipping a beat.
Parker felt guilty. She had gotten caught and was sure she had screwed up the con. She felt guilty for Sean's girl because they were not able to bring Fuller to justice. She knew that Eliot would probably be pissed when he found out that she had gotten sloppy this time; though she was pretty sure she was very cautious. Now she was tied to a chair surrounded by two men she could tell were up to no good.
She had shut her com off when she was trying to crack Fuller's safe and then suddenly these two men appeared out of nowhere grabbing her and tying her to the chair. They didn't ask any questions so Parker figured they were waiting for their boss.
As Eliot made his way up to the room where Parker was being kept he became more and more angry with Nate for taking Sean out of the job. The sergeant was trained in observing people and places and would have been of great help in finding a subtle way in and out of the building.
'Wish you were here serge, could really use your help' he murmured to himself.
His thoughts returned to Parker again and his stomach stirred and he thought he'd throw up. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to her. Sure, he was the team's protector but when it came to the blonde thief he always put aside his personal safety. And suddenly he understood what Sean had said about unspoken feelings often hurting way worse. If she got killed without him ever telling her what she means to him … The mere thought making him sick and even more determined to get her out that building safe! That was the last thing that went through his head before his vision went dark.
Little did they all know, Sean had listened in on their conversation and when he heard Eliot wishing for his help, he decided to step in. He owed Eliot for pulling him from that tomb; back in Croatia. So he got on his motorcycle racing to Barn Pharmaceutics', hoping it was not too late, and silently wished to run into Greg Fuller.
Eliot expected to wake up dead, but instead he was tied to a chair next to a blonde woman. Immediately he realized he had been overwhelmed and was now being kept in the same room as Parker. Dammit.
"Hardison, give me a status report. NOW!" Sean growled through the coms. "Where are Parker and Eliot?"
"How did you..?" Eliot asked confused.
"Not now son, I'm tryin' to save your butts!" Sean exclaimed; dismissing Eliot's confusion. "Hardison, where are they?" He demanded sounding very harsh.
"I told you to stay off the job." Nate interrupted, "you are not thinking straight."
"Say that again when I'm back with your hitter and thief and I'll show you exactly how straight I'm thinkin'!" Sean yelled.
"I'm still waitin' Hardison. Where the hell are they?" He demanded shifting his attention to the hacker.
"In a side-room not far away from Fuller's office." the hacker whispered.
"On my way!" Sean said.
As he made his way through the building he noticed it was strangely short of people. It was a normal working day and Barn Pharmaceutics' was quite a big company. His senses sharpened, expecting a foe behind each corner. But there were none, so he decided to take the direct route to the room his friends were being held in. Friends? Where did that come from? He would work that out later, now Eliot and Parker mattered more.
He found a ventilation shaft that had the right size for him and moved through it trying to be as silent as he could knowing that, if spotted, he was dead; and he was not about to let Eliot down!
He reached a grid through which he could see two people tied to a chair. He found them, so far so good, but getting them out was far more difficult.
"Hardison, can you tell me how many guards there are near that room?" he demanded.
"Only a few. I've detected two phone signals in the room but I'm not sure about the other floors." Hardison responded, his entire body filled with adrenaline.
"Okay, I can handle those. Once Eliot and Parker are free I can distract the other guards and take the heat so Eliot and Parker can get out in one piece."
"That will get you killed man!" Hardison interjected. "Not an option! Stick together. No sense in getting yourself killed!" he went on.
"Hardison's right Sean, stay together. It increases your chances to get out of there." Nate added.
"I disagree. I did not encounter a single guard on my way here. Somethin's not right. But let's get that rescuin' done. They're not gonna free themselves." He said letting himself drop through the grid into the room, taking a roll over his shoulder as he reached the ground.
He got straight up to his feet, whirling around and hurling a punch to one man's throat causing the man to breakdown choking. Without looking, he took a half spin, kicking the other man's knee and with the sound of a cracked nut it broke. The man lost consciousness; obviously it was too much pain for him.
He turned around to face Eliot and Parker staring at him in disbelief. Ignoring it, he cut them free.
"That was quite impressive serge. Didn't know you could be that fast." Eliot said as he rubbed his wrists, thankful for the blood that coursed through them again.
"You actually hurt them very bad. Good." Parker added smirking.
"You're capable of a lot of things when your friends are in danger." Sean answered. "But we should get goin'. I head out first- see what kinda distraction I can create. You two- wait for 20 secs- then head straight out. You got that?" He sounded almost cold.
"Got it!" the other two agreed simultaneously as Sean went out the door.
Eliot and Parker got to the exit without much problem. Whatever Sean was doing to keep the security busy, he did it very well.
"Okay son. I should reach the exit any moment now but a lot of guys are after me; probably ex-marines I'd say, by the way they run." Sean informed, gasping for air.
"You can tell what a man is by the way he runs?" Hardison asked shaking his head.
"It's a very distinctive movement." Sean and Eliot answered.
Parker grinned. "So that's where you got that from, Eliot."
Before Parker could say anything more Eliot put himself between Parker and what he figured to be the shape of a gun.
The shot went off and for a few seconds the entire surroundings were completely silent.
Eliot blinked as he felt no pain turning around, he was afraid Parker was hit, but she was not. As he turned around again he saw Sean stumbling and holding his left shoulder. Blood was oozing from the wound as he tried to close it off with his hand. But what surprised Eliot more was the fact that Sean had not went down even after he got shot again.
An almost unbearable pain went through Sean's entire body. He had been shot before yet it never was the same. When he had rounded the corner to the exit he had noticed one guard pulling out his gun, pointing it in Eliot's and Parker's direction. His instincts put himself in the bullet's way.
He was pale and breathing heavily now but he would not give these bastards the satisfaction of going down. As he realized what specific building he was in, burning fury arose in him, erasing the pain. These guys worked for his daughter's murderer and tried to kill his friends. That was too much for his calm side to take.
The demon in him was unleashed.
Eliot and Parker ran out of the building- as Sean had ordered them- and as Parker hopped into their van Eliot turned around. He could not believe what he saw. Sean was fighting 14 armed guards with two gunshot wounds; but something was different. The sergeant fought with pure rage, trying to inflict as much damage as possible. He always thought the sergeant's nickname to be a joke, but now he understood why he was called 'Vortex.' He was a storm of destruction raging between the guards in the building.
When Sean regained consciousness he was standing over a dozen guards on the floor. They had broken jaws, ribs, knees and any limb you could think of was at least heavily damaged- if not broken. Sean tipped on his wounded and bleeding shoulder and was sure he was still alive when a spike of pain moved through him. Good.
When the adrenaline wore off he broke down to the floor slipping away into darkness.
Parker sat on her favorite sofa and couldn't get the day's events off her mind. She felt guilty again. She assumed she had blown the job and because of that, Eliot had gotten captured trying to free her and Sean was shot multiple times defending both Eliot and herself.
She expected Eliot to wake up from his apathy any minute and accuse her. But he didn't. He just stared into space. He did not say a word since he got back from the hospital where Sean was taken care of. Parker was amazed that someone had a will so strong that they could survive two bad gunshot wounds and a couple of broken bones and still take out 14 armed men. Although Sean was comatose, he was alive.
"It's all my fault! I got sloppy and you got captured...and Sean... I'm sorry" Parker sobbed realizing that Eliot would have taken a bullet in order to protect her.
She started crying. No one ever had protected her in such a way. Eliot moved over to sit next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer.
"Hush darlin', you did nothin' wrong. It just was bad luck. It is not your fault at all. Fuller set this all in motion when he killed Sean's girl."
"But..." she sobbed.
Then bolting to her feet, she ran out of the room, making her way to the roof. She needed some space; and time to think. No one had ever risked their life for her and surely no one had ever forgiven her when she had surely messed something up. Once reaching the roof she headed for a dark corner. Sitting on the ground and hugging her knees, she started to cry again.
Assuming he had said something wrong he went after her. He figured Parker would head for the roof; she liked being there, he recalled. He could not wrap his head around the fact that she thought she was to blame for this mess. She must have had a far more terrible childhood than he knew, for her have that way of thinking.
When he reached the door leading onto the roof he could hear quiet sobs and crying; his heart broke just by the sound of it. He wanted to put his arms around the blonde thief and protect her from the world itself since she had had to suffer so much.
He found her in the darkest corner of the roof, rivers of tears streaming down her pretty face. Eliot had always felt that his defenses had gotten constantly weaker during the time they worked together and now definitely, she had managed to sneak into his inner-sanctum and was about to crack the safe that contained his heart.
"Hey sweetheart, why are you cyrin'?" he asked softly. "You did nothin' wrong." he assured her.
He sat down next to her and she immediately buried her head in his shoulder crying her very heart out.
"I never had people to care for me- or to protect me. But you were ready to get yourself shot for me and protected me from our very first job as a team...I never...I'm sorry you get hurt so much because of me." she whispered into his shoulder.
"Easy there darlin'. You don't have to be sorry for anythin'. Sure, I get hurt in order to keep you safe but I would do it over and over again 'cause I could never forgive myself if somethin' ever happened to you sweetheart. You…" He did not come any further because the next thing he felt was Parker putting her lips on his.
Eliot felt like he had gotten hit with a sledge hammer when Parker kissed him. His mind went into overdrive as he put his hand in her hair pulling her closer in order to deepen the kiss. He knew he had feelings for her but now he realized what she really meant to him. In fact, he noticed that she was the one thing that made him human. After all, his life before the team did not offer any share of comfort or happiness.
Parker did not know what else do to when she heard Eliot tell her he would always protect her. She had always assumed that he didn't like her because he was always telling her that there was 'somethin' wrong with her.' What she did know was the fact that she had been intrigued by him right form the start. He never shared his past with the rest of the team. At first she just wanted to reveal his secret but now she wanted to take all the bad things that clearly must have happened to him away from him and put them somewhere far way so they could never get back to him Somehow she felt it was the right thing to do as the knot in her stomach turned into a swarm of butterflies as Eliot framed her face with one hand while kissing her passionately. She did not know what exactly that was but she knew it was amazing. Her heart was beating so loud she could hardly hear anything else. She never wanted that feeling to stop.
But they had to when they went low on oxygen, slowly pulling away from each other. Eliot looked into Parker's eyes and could not help but to recognize how beautiful she was. He put his arm around her shoulder again and she cuddled up to him taking his free hand and intertwining their fingers. They sat that way for what seemed like hours to them.
"Hey darlin'," he whispered as he noticed she had fallen asleep "wake up; you'll get yourself a cold out here."
Parker's eyes blinked a couple of times before they opened again and Eliot was completely taken by her sky-blue orbs.
"What's the matter? I just went off to dreamy land." she said.
When she realized she had fallen asleep on Eliot's shoulder she blushed; the butterflies flying around in her stomach again.
"Noticed that sweetheart but I ain't the best bed around. Better you go down and have a sleep there."
He got up and helped her back onto her feet as well. She kissed his cheek and bounced off the roof. As the door closed Eliot found himself thinking of Sean again. If he had not shown up Eliot might have never admitted his feelings for Parker to himself at all. He decided to visit Sean in the hospital tomorrow.
Parker felt like she was on fire. She had never fallen asleep on someone's shoulder, and especially not on a cold roof. But Eliot was different from other people. He did not take advantage of her, instead he comforted her and she remembered how safe she felt when he put his arm around her. She felt like finally, she had found home. But she could not quite understand what the butterflies in her stomach meant. She decided to talk to Sophie about that topic; she knew more about life and feelings than Parker did. Yeah, Sophie would help her sort it out.