He leaned his body to the left as he wound his way between two slow moving cars and the pinch in his side reminded him. A vision of pale, slender fingers gently navigating the tender skin at his side flashed quickly into his mind and just as quickly faded away.
He thought that he had placed that memory far away- tucked it away with joy, and laughter and thoughts of a makeshift band of crooks who became a family, and any and all thoughts of love. There was no more of that now. There was just him…well, him and Lulu.
He shook his head and blinked against the uncomfortable feeling of sneaking emotions. This wasn't the time to be distracted. He had to be fully focused. He was on a job, the same job that had almost cost him his life three years ago.
Another lean to the left to guide the bike, another pull from the long-healed wound at his side as if calling for him to remember.
"You're bleeding Hardison."
"I'll be fine Parker. Let's just concentrate on getting out of here."
The feel of the torn and burning flesh that ran the length of his left side was mind- numbingly painful but he wouldn't allow himself to give in, not yet.
Parker bit her lips in concern but she had to agree with him, they had to get out and fast.
She folded the file and tucked it into the waist at the back of her pants before she turned and pointed toward a black hole in the wall ahead of them.
"There," she instructed quietly and made her way toward the narrow opening, "this is the only way left."
Alec half walked, half ran behind Parker as she eased along the wall to look inside the hole for any trouble. It was clear. Thankfully a little luck came their way; walking out the front door of the building as they'd initially planned was definitely off the table.
A simple extraction job had gone horribly awry. Nate and Sophie were stuck on the top floor, Eliot was punching his way through a lobby filled with highly motivated guards and he and Parker were stuck trying to make a way out of thin air while he was slowly bleeding to death from a gaping hole on his side that felt like it was growing with every step he took. He swallowed a groan even as the pain compelled some kind of reaction. He couldn't give in to the blissful unconsciousness that was calling him. He wouldn't do that to Parker.
As though she heard her name in his thoughts, she turned to him.
"Hardison," she whispered urgently when she saw that his eyes were squeezed shut against the pain.
She reached out to touch him and the soft, moisture where his shirt stuck to his skin made her retract her hand as if she'd touched electricity.
"Is this blood," she asked rhetorically. She knew the answer immediately as she looked at the palm of her hand and even in the darkness she could see the syrupy consistency. An unhealthy amount of his blood dripped sinisterly from her wrist and real panic shadowed Parker's face for the first time that unfortunate evening.