Chapter 19

Something was different about Parker, Eliot thought, not for the first time since they'd left the cliff. There was the faintest little furrow between those two pretty eyebrows, and a hint of something he couldn't place in her eyes. Frankly, if he hadn't been so tuned into her, he wasn't sure he would have caught it. Wasn't sure Sophie had noticed, or Nate… He knew Hardison hadn't. But Parker was flitting around, acting like her normal self pre-briefing.

Nate came strolling back into the living room, what looked like a freshly filled glass of something amber colored in hand. "Right, Hardison, let's run this down," the mastermind said.

Parker hopped the back of the sofa, those slender legs winding around themselves as she curled into the corner of the couch. Eliot let himself study her a moment longer before pulling his eyes away and focusing on the two screens in front of him.

"Right, so I set up the surveillance on the rally car last night, to see if Tiny Tim was going to take the bait," Hardison said, clicking away. "You guys got one more special stage here before the rally moves on, so it's gotta be soon, if at all. And since he tried to take a tire iron to Eliot, kinda figured it might be last night."

Eliot grunted. He was kind of curious how long Tiny Tim had been out for, just for professional reasons, after all. Wasn't often he got to take down someone that size.

"So here are the cameras from the hotel parking lot," Hardison kept going, images appearing onscreen. Eliot focused in on the one on the left that showed a large man moving somewhat stealthily between cars.

"That's him?" Sophie asked. "He's surprisingly light on his feet for such a large man."

Eliot snorted. "It's deceptive," he said. Parker just scowled at the screens. Tiny Tim was approaching their car.

"Aaand, here's our bad guy popping the hood and messing around with the interior," Hardison said, pulling one camera angle front and center. Eliot squinted, trying to figure what Tiny had done.

Parker growled. "He's loosening the wires connecting the turbo to the engine," she glared. "Jerk. I'm going to have to fix that now." Eliot reached over and laid a hand on her shoulder. She tipped her head to look at him. "I don't suppose you brought a screwdriver?"

He gave her a slight grin, hoping that it would clear whatever was lurking behind her eyes. Yeah, she was off, somehow. "Got a whole toolkit in the trunk of the Camry," he told her, squeezing lightly. She still scowled and looked back at the screen, but leaned a little into his hand. Eliot rubbed his thumb against the back of her neck before sitting back in his chair again.

"Right, so you two need to fix the car before tomorrow's race. Meanwhile, Hardison…" Nate gestured toward the screen with his glass.

"So now we move to our friend Gerald Pitts," Hardison said. He tapped a few keys, and the book Parker had found slid onscreen. "Parker hit the motherlode. This here is Pitts accounts book, kinda careless to leave it in the sofa cushions, but he musta not felt like anyone was onto him. We got here names, dates and money paid in and out on bets. We also got payments to Tim Thompson, aka Tiny Tim. If you'll look here, you'll see that he's penciled in a payment as of yesterday in the amount of ten thousand bucks."

"Bingo," Nate said.

"Oh, but wait, I ain't done yet," Hardison said, wagging a finger at Nate. "See, there's also a line in here about one Rodriguez, and twenty thousand dollars. Proof he's paying the Colombian, man." Hardison spread his hands like he was expecting applause, but Eliot was frowning instead.

"Wait, he's paying the Colombian twice as much as Tiny Tim?" Eliot asked, sitting forward and leaning his arms on his knees.

"That's what it says, man," Hardison said.

"Eliot, what are you seeing?" Sophie asked, voice concerned.

Eliot shook his head. "Means the Colombian ain't done with us yet," he said. "That kinda money means a bigger job than taking just one good shot." Shit. He knew he should have gone after the guy earlier. Dammit.

Parker was quiet, but her eyes were racing over the screens. He could almost hear her brain whirring, and he wondered what was going through her head.

"But why would Pitts be so worried about you?" Sophie asked. "After all, he just had Tiny Tim take your car out of commission so you loose tomorrow, thereby making himself a whole lot of money. Why have a mercenary hound you more when the goal has apparently already been accomplished?"

"It could be insurance money," Nate speculated. "To make sure that they loose. It could be a future payment on the next stage, it could be another target."

Eliot shook his head. "Doesn't feel that way," he said. "Feels like this guy is going for us. Hardison," he asked, sitting back and trying to work his way through the instincts that were clouding him, "what have we got on this guy's background? Anything that ties into me?"

Hardison opened his mouth to say something, but Parker beat him to it. "I think he's after me," she said, tilting her head just a tad.

Eliot's back went stiff and he knew the others' heads whipped around at that. "You, Parker?" Nate asked, voice level. "Why?"

Parker was studying the screen where the picture of their shooter was. "Six years ago, Bogata," she said. "The Museum of Gold. They had a set of pre-Hispanic gold hairpins that I wanted. The job wasn't hard, but there was a security guard that got in the way at the last minute." Her fingers twitched a little. "I slipped out with the stuff, but he was pretty mad."

"Did he see you today, Parker?" Eliot asked, voice steady and even. He needed information. If he was going to keep Parker safe, and he was, he needed lots of information. "When you took his picture in town, did he see your face?"

Parker shook her head slowly. "I don't think so," she said. "But if he's been hanging around the track at all, he'll have seen me."

"I think I got the extra money thing," Hardison broke in, fingers flying the whole time. "See, near as I can tell, this guy usually goes for a lot more. He took this job at a discount."

"That would explain a few things," Nate said, swallowing a mouthful of his drink.

"Give me the rundown, Hardison, what's this guy's background? I need to know how good he is," Eliot said tersely. Dammit. Dammit. He was going to keep Parker safe.

"Gonna take me a few minutes, Eliot, mercs like this usually have their shit hidden," Hardison said, frowning.

Eliot nodded and settled back, prepared to just wait. But Parker popped up off the sofa and was out the back door before he could draw in a breath to tell her 'stay', and so instead he got up to go after her. "I got this, Sophie," he said, holding a hand up to keep the grifter in place as he headed out the back.

Parker was up a tree in the yard when he found her. Up. A. Tree. He had to figure she was missing the rooftops of the city, given how far up she'd gone. Eliot stood at the bottom and looked up at her, craning his neck. He really didn't want to climb thirty feet. "Parker," he called up. "Darlin', can you come down?"

There was rustling above him. "I'd rather stay here for a while," Parker said. Politely. Huh. That was… not normal.

"Parker, you gonna make me come up there?" Eliot called up to her again. "Cause I weigh more than you, sweetheart, and it ain't gonna be much fun for me to climb that high."

There was more rustling, a heaved sigh, and then Parker started descending. Eliot watched her, deciding she really was part spider monkey as he watched her nimbly swing, drop and slide until she was resting her back against the trunk and stretched out on a fat limb about ten feet off the ground. He heaved a sigh of his own and figured he'd meet her halfway.

"Ok, good enough," he muttered. He reached and hauled himself up, one branch at a time until he was at about the same level as Parker. Eliot wasn't as comfortable off the ground as she was, he'd rather have nice, solid earth under his feet. But he put his own back to the trunk of the tree and reached his hand out next to him to catch her fingers with his.

"So what's up with you, Parker?" he asked, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles as they sat there, legs dangling around tree limbs. "You've been off since this afternoon."

Parker was quiet, and he could almost hear her thinking. If he'd felt more stable, he would've been looking at her. As it was, he'd prefer to keep his back to the tree trunk and not fall.

"Eliot," Parker started, then stopped.

Eliot squeezed her fingers. "What is it?" he asked again, softly this time. "Tell me, darlin'." She was quiet again, so he tried fishing a little. "Is it this Colombian? 'Cause you know I've got your back, Parker, there ain't no way he's going to hurt you…"

He could feel her shaking her head. "No," she said. "He can't catch me." But there was something there, Eliot could tell. Something that was bothering her.

"Than what, Parker?" he asked.

Her fingers shifted in his, and then she was swinging lightly around and was all of a sudden straddling his branch, facing him. Their knees knocked and she leaned lightly forward, resting her hands on his thighs.

"Are you going to go after him?" Parker asked, looking down at the bark they were both straddling and seeming very interested in the patterns there.

Eliot risked his balance reaching out to grasp her chin and lift it so he could see her eyes. "Damn straight I am," he told her, "that's what I do. I keep you safe."

Parker's blue eyes were meeting his now, but they were troubled. "But you're doing it because of something that happened before. Something that I did, that you have to clean up." Eliot kept his eyes steadily on hers. "What if you get hurt because of me?"

He couldn't help it, he smiled. Just a little, just a soft one. It was just so damn nice to have someone caring like that. "Then I come back and you patch me up, like I do you," he told her, rubbing his thumb over her bottom lip. A bit possessively, he had to admit. "And you know I'm gonna get banged up every now and then, Parker, I'm a hitter. Sometimes I get hit."

"Yes, but…" her voice trailed off, and she dropped her head back down to stare at the bark. She was baffling him a little. He couldn't follow where her mind had gone, what was still bothering her.

"But what?" he prompted. He put his hands over hers on his thighs, pulling her a little closer, making her scoot along the tree limb. His legs pressed against the outside of hers now, and she was close enough that he could duck his head and see hers.

Parker took a deep breath and picked her head up, that little furrow between her eyes. "But everything's different now. And I don't mean that I didn't care if you got hurt before but it's different now. And you want me to stay with you at night, and you got all happy when I brought my stuff to your room, and you touch me all the time even when we're not having sex and you like me driving the rally car and you took me to see stars and you have sex with me differently." She took another breath. "And now I don't want you to get hurt, and I really don't want you to get hurt because of me."

It all filtered through Eliot's brain, and left him at the end with another smile. "Parker, you know what that is?" he asked her. She'd turned her head to stare out at the yard behind them, but her eyes slid to his and she nodded just a little. Eliot could feel the thump-thump of his heart beating double time, and somehow, he was ok with that. They didn't have to put a name on it yet. Especially not with Parker freaking just a little bit right now.

He tugged her closer, pulling her and risking his balance by lifting her up until she was pressed back against him. He wrapped his arms around her, leaning back into the tree trunk. "I like sleeping with you," he started. "I like waking up and seeing you still asleep, and knowing you're safe and happy. I like watching you get dressed, and knowing that there's no bra under there." He couldn't resist rubbing the side of one breast fondly, and held on while she squirmed just a tad. "I like touching you, full stop. I like the way your skin is soft and smooth and pale, and so different from mine. I really like the way you move, on the mats, in a car and hell yes, in my bed." His voice got a little softer. "I like the way you look at stars like they're something as precious as your stash of diamonds, and I like knowing I can do something that puts that look on your face. I like the sound you make when you come in my arms." She shivered at that.

"When you care about someone, Parker," Eliot went on, really trying to keep himself on track. This mattered. "When you really care, you care about what happens to them." He bend his head and pressed his lips to the side of her head. "You want them happy and safe. So I make Darrien wish he was dead for touching you, and I'll take care of this Colombian. And you have my back, you're my extra eyes and extra hands if I need it." He rested his cheek against her hair. "Do you get what I'm saying?"

He felt her sigh as she slipped her arms to wrap on top of his. "I think so," she said.

He smiled into that silky blondness. "Ok," he said. "How 'bout we head back down to solid ground and see what Hardison's got for me?"

She hugged his arms a little tighter without moving. "Ok," she said. Then, "Eliot?"

"Yeah, darlin'?" he answered, a little distracted by the clean, tempting scent of her. That spot on her neck was right there…

She was quiet for a moment. "Never mind," she said, and swung out of his arms and down to the ground, leaving Eliot a bit baffled and with a shadow of a frown of his own to follow.

Anyone else wish that Eliot was real? *sigh* I sure do…