AN: Firstly, I do not own or represent any of the writers/producers of Leverage and am personally grateful to Dean Devlin for making such an excellent show.

Thank you all for your kind reviews, I will get round to replying personally if I haven't already. I've had some useful advice and tried to implement it so far. I think this should have one or maybe two chapters left. Thanks for sticking with me. Laura

While cleaning the last of his knives, Eliot thought back to the rather candid conversation he'd had with Nate earlier. He was surprised that the mastermind had taken his lack of subtlety over Sophie so well and decided that he'd probably been looking for a reason to call the absent grafter for some time now, without actually telling her how he felt. This would either bring her back to the team or see her walk out of their lives forever. It was always a possibility when you worked with a crew, just one of the many reason the hitter worked alone. Whatever the turn out, he'd make sure the air was clear with Nate tomorrow; he didn't like bad feelings between friends. Although, wasn't Nate first to tell Eliot that they weren't friends, the hitter wondered if that had changed somewhere down the line, the same way he was now changing his mind about Hardison and Parker. Maybe he'd call Sophie just in case Nate had a little too much Jack this evening! Swapping the sharpening stone for his swish PDA phone that Hardison had equipped the whole team with, he easily found Sophie's number and dialled, fervently hoping she would know what to do for the best. He really felt for Parker and just wanted to keep her safe from all the hurt, hold on where were all these thoughts coming from again. Maybe he needed Sophie to help with that too. Gees, this could be a long call….

Across town from the offices, Hardison tracked Parker to her flat, where she was now stationary. He toyed with calling her and seeing if she wanted some company. He didn't like to think of her being alone today of all days. Fishing out his phone, he called her mobile, which went unanswered; she was clearly not wearing her earpiece either. She obviously did not want to be bothered and he could understand that. He'd make sure he was at the office nice and early in the morning and keep an eye on her. Now though she was in her house, reading lamp on in the bedroom and he didn't want to invade her privacy anymore than that. He turned the ignition in his beautiful Ferrari and decided to get some sleep before heading back to the office and checking on those programmes he was running. God he hated that they'd taken that job – purely because of what happened with Parker today. At least she hadn't taken off with some new rip wire that hadn't been tested in all probability. Choosing a gear he pulled away.

Parker was already on the roof when she noticed Hardison's subtle red Ferrari parked behind the next building to hers. He would probably want to talk, and she didn't, well not with him. She had wanted Sophie there with her today; actually she selfishly wanted Sophie around her everyday. Sophie knew so much about life, and Parker, well Parker knew lots about Art, Antiquities and Money. She could break into anything and perform circus stunts with or without her rip wires, but she couldn't hold a conversation with a mark and act her way out of trouble. She couldn't confidently hold her head up in one of those stupid dresses and those murderous shoes. She needed Sophie more than ever, not only to help with the day-to-day sisterly help that she provided but Sophie was her real first friend. Alice had Peggy, but no matter how many times they told her that she actually was Alice, she didn't feel like her. Peggy thought Alice was a vegetarian for crying out loud. Sophie knew Parker and that was who she needed to talk to.

The air was cleansing her soul, well it was right up until it started raining, Parker would have to deny herself the pleasure of free falling down the side of a building, for tonight at least. She had watched Hardison pull away, silently hoping that the reading lamp she had left on had intimated that she was tucked up safely for the night. Hardison was becoming a good friend and Parker shuddered as she thought, really the whole team were becoming her friends. She was still a little taken aback by Eliot's reaction today. Normally he shied away from her, thinking she was insane. Which was undoubtedly a little true, but probably not too much more than the rest of them. However, today he had been soft and gentle. She imagined he could be like that when he wanted to and she'd seen it when he was around Aimee down in Kentucky. He seemed hurt by the accusation Aimee had levelled at him and Parker hadn't cared enough to be defensive at the time, but the more she thought of it, the more she wished she'd been brave enough to tell Aimee that it was Hermissing out and not the other way round. Gees, she was getting angry and feeling a little knot in her stomach. Perhaps she shouldn't have eaten all those greens Eliot had cooked for her. Stashing her kit and returning to her apartment, she grabbed a towel and ran it over her damp hair. She picked up her phone and noticed the missed calls from Hardison. Her earpiece was on the coffee table beside the phone.

Dialling the number, Eliot thought of the broken look in those piercing blue eyes today, he'd never seen the thief looking so young, so hurt and almost still for the first time he'd ever remembered. Those are words he had never thought he'd use in context of Parker.

"Hello Eliot" said Sophie, "Is everything alright?"

"Hey darlin' I'm sorry to call, is this a bad time?" Eliot asked the absent grifter

Sophie didn't miss how Eliot ignored her first question. "Is Nate OK Eliot, tell me please what's happened?"

"Nate's alright, well he's Nate. It's Parker, she ain't hurt, well not physically" explained Eliot, he went on to tell Sophie everything that had happened during the day. When he finished telling Sophie how worried he was about their young thief, Sophie had said that she was aware of some of Parker's history, but had not known of her brother and his tragic accident. She had known that her father had put her into care after the death of her mother, as he simply hadn't been able to cope. From there on she was moved from foster home to foster home. There wasn't a lot of information on the thief and she was secretive about her past. Sophie believed that Parker would have been devastated to have her secrets revealed in front of them all and how they chose to handle it all would show Parker how they truly felt, be it for the better or worse.

"We found her back at Nate's place, huddled on the floor between the two sofas" Eliot explained while anger raised inside him once again "she looked so lost, she was cryin', she'd asked Nate why he'd taken the case, why Nate had believed the guy was a fraud when clearly he had a psychic ability. Sophie she was in such a state, I didn't know what else to do"

"You've done the right things for her, by reassuring her that she was conned and you were careful in your explanation so at least she'll still have you guys to trust, which is good" Sophie was silently packing her bags and planning on preparing a ticket as soon as she'd reassure Eliot that Parker was stronger than she looked.

Although the mere fact she found herself packing was testament to the fact she didn't completely believe that. No one knew Parker's real name, there was no way to check up on her, no way to trace her history. They only knew what they knew because Nate had kept a file on each of them when he worked for IYS. That information was out of date and even IYS didn't have Parker's real name. Did Parker even know it? Perhaps Sophie would call Parker before she left to try and catch a flight back to Boston.

Sophie ended her call with Eliot suspecting he hadn't told her the whole story, he was way more concerned than she would have expected for a Parker outburst. Although, while he was the hitter and undoubtedly the tough guy of the crew, she had seen how he was with Aimee in Kentucky and saw there actually was a chance he'd seen some happiness in his life too. She'd also come to trust the Hitter, well until the fiasco with the second David Job, she knew she had made a huge mistake in crossing the team and he'd looked at her with ever such slight mistrust since then and she couldn't exactly blame him. She also knew there wasn't a more kinder gentleman waiting to be discovered underneath his gruff cowboy exterior.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone – Nate this time.

"Well hello Nate, how are you?" purred Sophie

"Hmm I'm good thanks Soph, what about you?" Nate was pacing, she could hear it in his voice, and his slight slur gave away the fear he was feeling over Parker (she hoped!). She wouldn't tease him tonight.

"I know about Parker, I'm on the 1900 out of Heathrow and I'll back with you in the morning, she needs me Nate and she's my friend. I'm going to try calling her now to see how she is before I head out to the airport" Sophie took a deep breath "we'll make sure she's OK Nate".

"You didn't see her, I don't know what to do for the best, wait, how do you know – was it Tara?" thought Nate

"No, it wasn't. It was Eliot, he's worried sick" confided Sophie, well Eliot did sound worried and he hadn't strictly asked her not to tell. Then again, she hadn't told Eliot she was coming back that night. He'd soon find out.

"I hadn't planned on coming back when I spoke to him, so perhaps you could tell him. I need to call Parker before I head off. I'll see you in the morning Nate, we'll help her through this, what else is family for"

"Have a safe flight Sophie, I'll meet you at Logan…. And thank you" Nate spoke into the phone whilst his head was in his hands. He wasn't sure if he was angry at Eliot for calling Sophie or grateful because he hadn't had to explain it all in the end.

Eliot was becoming quite into this team thing, he was looking out for the others, for him and all this while Nate was self destructing again. First sign of trouble and he headed for the bottle. Eliot had made food, calmed the group down, sat down next to Parker in case she tried to bolt from the office when they tried to explain what Rand had done. All this and Nate had thrown his offer of friendship in his face all those months ago. He would need to remedy this first. One thing at a time and if he was going to do this properly he would need coffee first.

Parker was tucked away in her wardrobe, settled with a blanket and a rag tag stuffed rabbit. She had a torch, telephone and a cup of tea. On nights when the demons returned this was where she could be found. No one could come into the wardrobe to get her, as all demons normally looked straight at the bed instead. She was slightly spooked when her phone rang, clearly giving her position away to any ghouls that may have already hidden under the bed! It was Eliot, her stomach did that fluttering thing again; she really had to talk to him about feeding her all those vegetables at once. Surely they were poisonous in that sort of quantity.

"Hello Eliot" whispered Parker.

"Parker, are you alright? Eliot stood up when he heard her whisper, was she in some sort of trouble. "Are you alone?" he queried suspecting he had perhaps interrupted a visitor.

"Nope, just me here, but I haven't checked under my bed yet" said the little thief honestly.

What!! Thought Eliot "Parker, do you want me to come over, who's goin' to be under your bed?" Eliot was already collecting his keys and pulling on a jacket.

"It's OK, you've got better things to do than check on me, haven't you?" questioned Parker, silently hoping that he'd pop by anyway, check out who's under her bed and then he could carry on with his evening.

"I'm on my way Parker, don't stab me when I come in, OK!" joked Eliot, well half joked. You could never tell with her and she was spooked that's for sure. She sounded different than earlier, not sobbing, but whispering and sounding almost like she was hiding from someone.

Stepping on it, he headed out toward the loft apartment.

Parker had put the phone down and took another sip of tea pulling the blanket further up round her shoulders. Her wardrobe was pretty luxurious compared with some of the ones she'd slept in over the years. Changing foster homes so regularly meant she had learnt over time that you always needed to make sure there was a safe place in every home she went to. She was abruptly reminded today why she was in the system in the first place. It was her own stupid fault that she had jeered Tyler on to race that one final time. It was her own fault and she was punished all through her life for that one mistake. That job they'd done at the church with Santa Claus made her start to realise that maybe she wasn't really a bad person. She'd check with Sophie when she came back, if she came back.

The phone rang again and thinking it was Eliot again, Parker answered in a curt whisper "What now?" "Hello Parker, it's Sophie, are you alright"

"Oh Sophie, I'm so sorry, I thought you were Eliot again." She said still whispering.

"Where are you Parker, why are you whispering?" quizzed Sophie.

"In my flat, Eliot's on his way over, he wants to check under my bed. He's been real nice to me today, not said I was strange or not right in the head at all" explained Parker

"I heard that you had a terrible day Parker, I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you, but I want to tell you that I'm coming back, tonight…" she was interrupted by whooping coming from Parker "I'll be back in the office in the morning" "How are you feeling sweetie? Eliot told me all about today, he's very worried about you, they all are. I spoke to Nate too"

"I feel strange, I've never had a foster family like our team, everyone's different in their own way and we've all got so many secrets that we don't want to share."

"I know Parker, it's a good family and it's good that we've all become friends, we can talk about this more in the morning. Now I'm on my way out to the airport in about 15 minutes" dreaded security checks in the UK meant you had to be at the airport over 3 hours before each stateside flight. "How long ago did Eliot say he was coming over" asked Sophie, more impressed with the cowboy than she would convey to Parker.

"Oh about 10 minutes ago, he shouldn't be long now" Parker's stomach fluttered again. "Damn Eliot he poisoned me earlier, he made me that stir fry I like and ever since then whenever I think about the food or mention his name my stomach is fluttering in a strange way"

"Oh, I doubt very much that Eliot would try to poison you, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about" the grifter smiled, if things were turning out how she suspected they were then she may have a guardian to keep Parker safe after all!

"I'll talk to you in the morning, let Eliot take good care of you sweetie and I'll see you bright and early in the morning" Sophie couldn't help the grin that was forming into a cat like smile. Perhaps some good could come from this horrid situation.