Thank you all for reading, reviewing, and getting alerts- and thanks so much, Megan for being the first reviewer and for giving me the encouragement to keep the story going. I love Parker and Hardison too so this has been a really fun exercise. I think a few people weren't too pleased by the tone of the first four chapters but I promise there's a lot more to be revealed and it won't all be doom and gloom.
I hope you all keep reading and letting me know what you think.
Cheers.
PS- I am in no way affiliated with the show, the actors, or crew. I do not own Leverage.
Every thought, every plan of action he had for the job flew out of his mind as he looked at her.
She was dead. He knew she was. He felt her fall- saw her die- looked into her eyes and saw no sign of life registered back at him. How could it be that she was standing in front of him looking as alive as he was?
"I know what you're thinking…"
Sylvia. He'd almost forgotten she was there too. An instant, rabid anger churned his stomach and filled his mouth with bile.
How could he have been so stupid? He'd been around long enough to know that no one was that nice. No one cared so much so fast. He should have kept he guard up. He should have questioned more and opened his heart less.
"This doesn't have to be one sided," she continued silkily, and he heard the thundering procession of approaching guards. He was cornered and he knew he literally had seconds to tip the scales in his favor before he would be beyond help.
"We can help each other," Sylvia offered and took a step toward the door, and Parker.
His attention once again shifted to Parker. He knew she couldn't see him clearly. The office was dark, his face was shielded by his helmet and visor and the blue swirling lights of the sensors didn't stay on him long enough to offer her any assistance. But her stare looked less like she didn't know who it was and more like she didn't care. She stared at him as though he were an enemy and he knew well what Parker was capable of doing to anything she perceived to be a threat.
He had to make her see him, even if it made him vulnerable. He knew removing the helmet would help them confirm his identity as well as interrupt his direct link to Lulu, not to mention leave his head ground zero for target practice, but none of that mattered to him as much as making Parker see him.
But first he had to even the playing field.
He stood still, not making any attempt to escape. He waited until several of the guards entered the room. He watched the way they eased around Parker with deference. The act caught his attention but he didn't have the time to think about it. Six very large, very armed men crowded around him slowly, each pointing guns at his chest.
Alec inhaled a deep breath. He knew he'd have to time his next move with absolute precision or… well, he didn't want to think about it.
He focused on Parker.
He exhaled as the word 'Stun' softly left his lips.
"Charge, in 3…2…1," Lulu prepared him, her voice droning quietly in his ear.
The guards all fell instantly, writhing and gagging in unison, all too paralyzed from the electric charge being delivered through their comms to try to stop him. Alec, with one swift movement turned out of their barricade and headed toward the door, toward Parker.
He wasn't fast enough.
Sylvia watched on with rapt attention as the guards seized on the floor but as she saw Alec approach the door said looked at Parker and uttered the word 'Sono'.
Parker's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed immediately.
"NO," he shouted and dove after her, grabbing her lifeless body and cradling her against him as he whipped out a gun and pointed it with chilling rigidity at Sylvia's face.
"Whatever you did, I suggest you undo it now," Alec growled through clenched teeth and he cocked the safety.
Sylvia adjusted her glasses as she stared at him wordlessly.
The breeze from a warning shot ruffled the silver hair that waved over her right ear.
"Trust me when I tell you I will shoot you if you don't fix her," Alec threatened menacingly as he cocked the safety again.
"I believe that you would shoot me Alec but unfortunately I'm less afraid of your bullet than I am of losing her."
Losing her?
His head was spinning. This was all too much and the job he intended to accomplish had gone to pot. He had to get out of there and he wasn't leaving without Parker. He seriously considered shooting Sylvia but he knew instinctively it would come back to haunt him.
The weight of the gun crunched the carpet softly as he laid it down. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the pen device.
"Them," he called Sylvia's attention to the unconscious men on the floor, "they are being pumped with intermittent bursts of electricity strong enough to make them loose bodily function but not strong enough to kill them."
"This little baby in my hand has the capability to emit a charge so powerful it would put down a herd of elephants. Now, I may not shoot you but I will most certainly shock the shit out of you if you don't tell me how to fix her."
Sylvia smiled the smile he once thought pleasant and sweet; now it looked patronizing.
She took a step toward him and he pushed the pen device out at her threateningly and stopped her cold.
"She is not the girl that you knew," Sylvia said, holding her hands level with her face in surrender. "She is now infinitely more powerful than you can imagine and no matter what you do to me or to her the girl that you remember is forever lost to you."
A chill ran up Alec's spine.
He looked down at Parker's unconscious face angled up at him and his chest ached. She was there, in his arms after he thought he would never see her again. She was helpless and vulnerable but most importantly she was alive and he had her. No one was taking her away again.
"No one," he said as he looked down at her, his voice barely above a whisper.
He raised his eyes to Sylvia, "As for you…" he pressed the lever on the pen device and Sylvia fell backward almost instantly; a slow hiss escaping her chest as she fell unconscious.
He didn't spare the older woman a second glance. He gathered Parker in his arms and lifted her fully into the room as he closed the door and headed toward the wall behind Sylvia. The schematics he'd memorized of Hasting's Institute indicated that there was a window in the office next door. It had once been one large room but the Acquisitions closet was cordoned off from the original space. Getting into the other office would prove tricky though seeing that the door was nearly to the end of the long hallway and he couldn't afford to meet with any further armed and angry challenges- not while he was carrying Parker. He looked at her face and a burst of inspiration hit him. What would Parker do? Parker would blow a hole through that sucker!
Thank Spock for dry wall.
He eased Parker onto the floor behind a table for shelter before he reached into his rucksack and pulled out the conducting gel he used for the steel doors in the basement. The gel was overkill for the thin synthetic walls but he didn't have time to be gentle. They needed to get out of there, and fast. The security system undoubtedly would have sent out an alert to the rest of Hasting's goons and while the six in the office were probably the only ones on hand he knew a horde was likely on its way.
The gel glistened neon as the blue sensors flashed time and time again and it began to smoke as Alec ran the pen device's laser over it. Alec rammed his shoulder into the center of the six by three charred outline and the synthetic material gave way easily.
"Come on Mama," he whispered as he gingerly lifted Parker into his arms and through the hole.
The sliver of winter blue moonlight that beamed through the window guided him across the room. He shifted Parker's weight, aimed his pen devise and traced the laser along the entire frame of the window where the glass met the metal until her heard the slight clink to indicate its separation.
"Track and mobilize," he instructed Lulu quietly as he struggled to adjust Parker's weight to his back. He kneed the detached window pane slightly and it fell without further protest as he unzipped his jacket to remove the grappling hook and the attached titanium climbing rope. Alec fastened the hook to the wall and it automatically drilled a more secure hold while he eased himself and Parker out of the window.
"ALERT. ALERT." Lulu's voice in his helmet called his attention and he held his position to look around. From his vantage point at the side of the Hastings building he saw two large black SUVs pull up and park haphazardly in front. He froze and watched as at least twenty heavily armed men raced out of the vehicles and into the lobby of the institute. As soon as they left his line of sight he pulled Parker's clasped hands tighter around his neck and lowered himself in one quick jump out of the window.
He was never as grateful for artificial intelligence as he was just then. Lulu had arrived and parked just beneath, having tracked his signal and mobilized herself to meet him.
And not a moment too soon.
Just as he singlehandedly removed the rope's connection to his harness, he saw the intense glaring red pin point of a gun's tracking laser illuminating his chest. He folded his body over Parker, pulling her arms and legs underneath his body and tensed himself as he prepared for the gunfire…but none came. He chanced a look in the direction he saw the laser originate and no one was there.
It must be Parker, he rationalized, they didn't want to take the chance that they hit her.
He knew that they wouldn't take the chance to shoot from a distance but they would ambush him.
He lifted Parker onto Lulu's wide engine bed and secured her between his body and the handle bars.
"Second location."
His two word instruction to Lulu indicating his secondary safe house. It was closer and had a room that would serve his current needs.
"Auto-engage."
Lulu revved to life and maneuvered herself out of the alley and onto the intersecting street, leaning heavily to the right to avoid the security SUVs.
As the bike leaned Parker's head lolled to the side and a scar on her forehead glistened against the scant moonlight. Alec gnashed his teeth as he saw it.
"What did they do to you," he asked quietly and pulled her more securely against his body as Lulu wove her way quickly toward the safe house and salvation.