There's no Parker in this chapter, this one is Eleanor and Eliot centred.

I still hope you enjoy it, next one will be much Parker/Eliot heavier.

There was no job that day and he was in Sophie's and Nate's apartment making dinner because the team insisted and liked to have their meals together. Eleanor came in jumping around and the environment suddenly changed, the girl, just like her mother, had the particularity to change everyone's attention to her even if she didn't mean it.

She crossed her arms on the counter, laying her face on the cold stone; Eleanor eyed him with smart blue eyes.

"You and Aunt Parker are dating!" she stated matter-of-factually. "Can I have a cookie?" Eliot let his knife slip through the carrot one more time before stopping to stare at the girl.

"No, you can't; it's almost dinnertime" she moved around the counter heading to the stove.

"What are you cooking? It smells weird!"

"Eleanor, get away from the stove!" He warned with authority, off course, being who she was the girl just ignored his warning and was reaching for the hot pan; he pulled her quickly grabbing by her arm.

"Damn it! Don't you remember what happened last time?" She had dropped the pan on the floor; she seemed to have forgotten about it though because she was staring at him with a blank expression and eyes that demanded clarification.

"Can you put up with this over and over again?" He narrowed his eyes at her, why was the kid trying to get on his nerves?

"Don't you understand I do this to protect you? What if the pan falls to the ground again burning you this time? What then, hu?" She looked away from him, yet he knew she didn't feel regret or shame. Why? She was one of the smartest children he had ever seen, why didn't she understand him?

"Will you stop living me if I keep doing this?" There was something truly serious on her tone. "Would you give up on me? Would you stop protecting me?" He blinked in confusion, not understanding her. Why was she making all of those questions? "My daddy says aunt Parker is a lot like me sometimes. He says she's stubborn like a child and that she sometimes doesn't listen. Can you put with that, now that you're dating?" Finally the mask on her face falls and he can't see it, genuine concern for Parker.

"Of course I can put up with that darling! Don't worry I ain't ever giving up on you or her!" She smiles at him, sincerely this time. "How do you know we're dating?" Hell, he himself didn't know it, he doesn't have a word for what Parker and him are right now, the fact an eight year old girl does astonishes him.

"You always looked at her the same my parents look at each other and now aunt Parker dos too. It's not that hard to figure it out..." She steps away from him a bit pensive on what to say next.

She's worried because a child is still a child no matter how smart she is and she knows how much it hurt when that priest attacked her, how much it still does and to know her aunt went through something far worse... She saw it the day she attacked her mum and Uncle Eliot and she did not like it; that was her family breaking apart. If Eliot harms Parker on any way she'll loose them both...

She swallows hard before talking, the atmosphere around them seems tense as uncle Eliot stares at her, and the only sound heard is the water bubbling in the pan...

"I hope you're sure about that because if you're not and you hurt her my parents will kill you and I really like you..." Eliot lets a smug smile slip out and goes back to shopping his veggies.

"I am sure darling and your parents ain't gonna kill nobody, they're good people!" That sentence as the weight needed on the girl because she relaxes completely. The tension on her shoulders leaves yet there's something else in her eyes. She just spotted his lie. Eliot drifts his eyes from her hoping she'll just go away, he doesn't want to have this conversation with her, she's not his kid and this is too important for him to have this particular conversation with her; she covers his working hand with hers making him stop what he's doing. He knows he's screwed.

"My parents already killed someone, they can kill again... That's ok!" He can hear steps on the upper floor; it's Hardison doing a security improvement; he hopes he's not bursting in any time soon because things just got to serious. That girl is too confused for her own good, but who wouldn't be when your school teaches you standard moral values and your entire family is made of people that broke those exact rules for a great part of their lives.

"Eleanor, look at me!" He lifts the girl's chin with his head so his eyes stare right into hers. "It's not ok; it's not ever going to be ok; what we did was very, very wrong!" Her eyes get wet all of a sudden and he feels his heart ache.

"Does that mean my parents are bad?" Tears are starting to overflow her eyes, running across her face, tainting her features with a pain she did not deserve. He completely forgets about the pan on the stove, rounds the counters and pulls the girl onto his lap.

"No girl, your parents are good, they are very good!" She seems so mature most of the times, right now she just seems as small and fragile as she is.

"How? They killed someone!" Eliot wonders for how long the girl has been carrying this doubt with her as she cleans her face to his shirt between sobs.

"Well hon', sometimes good people do bad things; that doesn't make them bad." She sniffs one more time and pushes away to clean her nose with the back of her hand. "Listen, your parents, aunt Parker, uncle Hardison they are good people, despite what they do" She's cleaning her cheeks with the hem of her blouse.

"What about you? You're a good person too, right?"

"The thing is, darlin', I've done too many bad things with my life to be a good person..." His eyes look terribly sad, and she can see deep regret in them.

"I think you are a good person too, uncle Eliot. Thank you!" She kisses him on the cheek and gets up from his lap. "Can I get a cookie now?" He smiles, she could have the whole box if Sophie hadn't her "no cookies before dinner" rule.

"You can have two darling" She smiles, all sadness pushed away and leaves with a cookie between her lips and the other on her hand.

Five minutes after the steps from the floor above start getting closer and Hardison enters the kitchen.

"Damn, this smell! I sure luv ya cooking!" Eliot heads to the stove to control his pan and turns around with sharp eyes.

"Damn Hardison, how did Eleanor find out about us killing the priest? It was your job to protect her from that!" The younger man shrugs caught by surprise.

"Maybe she heard on school he died or somethin', I can't control everything. What're you cooking?" and he approaches the pan to take a pick.

"Don't touch the pan!" Hardison ignores him the same way Eleanor did, this time around Eliot doesn't stop him.

Hardison burn his hand letting the pan fall to the flour with a very loud, deafening sound.

"Damn it, Hardion!"

How could Eleanor respect boundaries if the supposed to be responsible adults around her didn't?

So I tried to portrait a mature child, did I succeed? Was this chapter good to the story?

I changed my way of representing people talking, what do you think about it?