Leverage part 3

The first thing that registered in Hardison was the constant beep coming from his left, or was it his right? Beeping every 2 or so seconds, it didn't take long for him to figure out that it was his heart monitor. Next was the thin sheet over top of him that felt like toilet paper. Since it was so thin and awful he got cold in a matter of minutes.

"Where am I?" Hardison asked himself, "What the hell happened to me?"

When all these questions were going through his mind he hadn't yet opened his eyes, so the petit blond girl setting on the chair next to the bed with her hand grasping his, had no idea he was awake. Praying that Hardison would live to see another day, she couldn't imagine living without him.

"Please Hardison wake up, don't die on me Hardison I love you!" Parker quietly said while looking at his sleeping figure. He looked so peaceful.

Hardison also felt something grasping his right hand, it felt small and smooth, like a-a woman's? He couldn't quite tell for sure, his brain was so foggy on what had happened. Wait, why was there casts on his arms and bandages all over his torso and face? Before he had time to open his eyes, he was again dragged into a deep sleep.

Parker was so lost in her thoughts she didn't realize the three other figures entering the room until Nate put his hand on her shoulder.

"Parker you need to go home and rest, you've been here for 3 days." His eyes were full of concern for her; she was like his only daughter.

"I can't leave, he might wake up and I don't want him to be alone." Her voice was full of sorrow and stress, how could this have happened to Hardison? Why hadn't she stopped him, she knew this was going to happen yet she didn't stop it!

"Honey," Sophie said in her English accent, "This isn't your fault, this isn't anyone's fault, it was a mistake that happened, and it will never happen again ok?"

Silence was thick in the room until Parker jumped up, "Don't you guys get it? It is my fault! All of it is my fault! I told him not to do this but I wasn't pushing it enough and he did it anyways! I knew this was going to happen yet I didn't do anything about it! So don't tell me it's not my fault that Hard- Mr. Green, Is lying in that bed fighting for his life!"

Everyone was shocked at this response. Finally Elliot spoke up, "What do you mean it was your fault Parker?"

She looked up with tears in her eyes and told them about her nightmare, and how everything was like her dream and that's why she didn't want the team to do the heist but no one listened. When she looked up she saw the concentrated look of Nate's face as he was trying to process what she had just said, and saw Sophie coming over to give her a hug. She tried to stop her, but when Sophie finally got her into a hug she broke down. Sophie just brushed her hair out of her face with her hand and saying calm words.

Hardison awoke again, and heard sobbing and someone trying to calm down the sobbing person. What's going on now? Taking it slowly, he opened his eyes to try to figure out what the heck was going on in his room. He saw a two men standing awkwardly at the foot of the bed, like they were waiting for something to stop or start. Looking to his right he saw to girls in a hug, one crying softly and one brushing away the tears and just holding her. Suddenly, all his memory of what had happened rushed to his mind, he saw the 4 people, the two men Nate and Elliot and the two girls Sophie and Parker. Parker, he saw them kissing in his apartment and snuggling on the couch while watching TV. The memories skipped to nighttime where Parker awoke suddenly from a nightmare. It skipped to a heist were he got beaten and broken down, until Nate and Elliot came to his rescue. Is that what happened, he thought afterwards, I got kidnapped and beaten? He took a deep breath, which apparently Parker could hear because she turned her head towards him and screamed.

"You're awake! Oh my god you're finally awake!" She said quite loudly, and ran towards him.

"Water." Was the only word Hardison could manage to get out of his mouth, he didn't notice how dry his throat was. Quickly Sophie grabbed his cup of water and put the straw to his mouth. He drank for at least a minute before stopping to take a breath. "What happened?"

Everyone looked at each other, and then to Parker, who was looking at the floor.

"You were taken by Mr. Henderson's' men while Sophie was in his office. They took you down to a cell were they," She paused for a moment and took a breath. Hardison tried to reach for her hand but when he tried a sharp pain spread through his body. She looked up at the pain in his face and tears came to her eyes. "They punched and kicked you until they saw you weren't breaking, and then broke your fingers. When they found the earpiece that got furious and broke your elbows, they were about to shoot you but Elliot and Nate got there just in time."

They all looked at Hardison, who was very quiet and looking at the ceiling. Finally he looked at Parker and smiled, "There's NOTHING you could've done to stop that from happening Mama, so I don't want you to keep that burden on your shoulders ok?"

She looked up with a couple tears running down her face, but Hardison just smiled. Parker nodded slightly before getting up and running from the room.

"Parker!" Hardison yelled after her.

"Leave her man, she'll be back." Elliot said confidently.

Hardisons eyes looked down sadly; he really needed her to know it wasn't her fault. While his eyes were open he looked around the room. It was a simple white room with curtains around his bed in case he ever needed privacy. Slowly he looked at himself; he had two huge casts on both arms from the shoulder down with 5 tiny splints on each finger for each hand. Trying to sit up he got very dizzy and lied back down.

"Don't try to sit up Hardison; you have a couple broken ribs so you won't be able to sit up for at least today." Sophie said quickly.

Alec looked from one to the other to the other, seeing all their sad expressions made him so depressed, he needed to go back to bed and forget all about this. "I need more sleep, I'll see you later." And turned his head away from them.

They all got the message and said there goodbyes, and left the room. Hardison closed his eyes and before long, he was asleep.

Parker sat with cold air pushing against her, she loved the cold air. It made her all frozen and not feel anything for a couple minutes. She looked out at the city, so many tall building and skyscrapers. Standing up, she took a deep breath that sent chills down her spines, and took off down the building. Down she went, past window after window, seeing nothing except the ground coming at a fast pace. Anyone watching would've thought she was going to fall to her death, but at the second floor, she sprung back by the help of her ropes. Smiling brightly she unhooked herself two stories up and let go, only to fall into a tree and land on the ground, safe and sound. Sighing, she walked back into the hospital to Hardisons room. It could only go up from here.

When she reached his room she saw he was sleeping peacefully. Her lips came up into a smile and she walked over to the chair she had placed next to him. After a while he awoke, and when he saw her he smiled, "Hey Mama."

"Hey yourself."

"How are you? You kind of bolted before I could ask you."

"I'm fine, but I'm more worried about how you're feeling."

"Don't worry about me, I'll be out of here before you know it, and back in the game in a couple months."

Parker smiled, he always knew how to make a bad situation sound just that little better. Then she got serious, "I was so scared Hardison."

"I know Parker, and I'm so sorry that you had to go through this."

"You could've died."

"But the thing is I didn't, I'm right here alive and, not so well." He chuckled to himself at that play of words, but Parker stayed serious, "You can't do that to me ever again."

"I won't Parker, I promise."

"You can't promise that, we never know what's going to happen."

"You're right. How about, I'll try as hard as I can so that will never happen again?"

"Ok Alec." She reached over and kissed him. They sat in silence for a while before Parker spoke up, "Ava."

Hardison looked up confused, "What?"

"My name's Ava."

He looked at her and smiled, "I think Ava is a beautiful name for a beautiful person."

Parker smiled before saying, "Move over," and getting in bed beside Hardison.

She cuddled into him before falling asleep for the first time in 3 days. Hardison looked at her thought to himself, "I'm the luckiest guy in the whole entire world.

For the next 2 weeks the team came in everyday to visit Hardison in the Hospital, the only person whoever stayed there was Parker, and she only left to have showers and get into different clothes. On the last day before being let go, Parker noticed how down Hardison looked.

"What's wrong Alec?"

"Huh? Oh nothing." He said with a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Common I know something is wrong, why aren't you jumping out of your bed? You're going home tomorrow."

"I know it's just," He paused, trying to get the right words to form, "It's just I don't know what I'm going to do now, I mean I can't do anything for another 2 months or so."

Parker walked over to Hardison and looked at him with a look she must've learned from Sophie, "Oh, we'll think of 'something' do to while you're on house arrest," before going back to pack up his things.

"Woman, you're going to be the death of me," he said sighing, before smiling and looking at the door.

Suddenly a man appeared, and he didn't look like a visitor.

"Can I help you?" Parker said, looking at him confused,

"Oh, I just came to do some 'unfinished' business." Both Hardison and Parker confused, they didn't know what was going on until they saw the 39mm gun being pulled out from under his jacket.

"A message from Blacky, he never leaves lose ends when he's sent to do something."

Before he can pull the trigger, Elliot comes out of nowhere and twists his neck and the way that you know he's dead.

"Dammit Hardison, I leave you for 2 hours and already you're trying to get yourself killed again?"

"Yes Elliot I defiantly called the hit man again to come and actually killed me." He looked at Elliot with such sarcasm Elliot just scoffed and looked out the hall, "We better get you outta here now."

So, with the help of Elliot and Parker, they wheeled him down to the main floor and into Nate's car.

"What the hell is he doing here? He's not supposed to leave until tomorrow morning."

"Little problem with security, let's just say Mr. Henderson doesn't like leaving loose ends."

Not fully understanding, Nate stepped on the gas pedal and sped down towards the HQ, to get the full story of what's going on.