A/N: So maybe the previous chapter didn't go down so well, but I thought it worked *shrugs* Thank you for the feedback anyway. Here comes the next leg of the journey...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 6

Parker was pretty quiet and Eliot didn't ask why. He really shouldn't have snapped at her about the way she treated Hardison. She meant no harm and they both knew it, but she was kind of leading him on behaving that way, and Eliot couldn't have that. As much as he cared for Parker, he also cared about Hardison's feelings. They were brothers in the oddest way, and he knew the hacker liked the thief a lot. She didn't have to like him back that way, of course not, but she ought to be more careful about letting him think she did. Better for her to tell him straight out if nothing was ever going to happen between them. Allowing false hope was just cruel.

Eliot wasn't sure what it was, but he was almost relieved to hear that Parker wasn't attracted to Hardison. He never really thought she could be, not because of the hacker being a geek or anything like that, after all, they were people too. The pair did have things in common, both being foster kids, both being the younger members of the team. Still, she never did seem to favour Hardison in such a way as to make Eliot really think she liked him that much. She probably spent more time alone with Eliot himself than anyone else, now that he thought about it.

It pulled the hitter up sharp when the realisation hit him. He and Parker really did spend more time together than the rest of the team. Well, with the possible exception of Nate and Sophie. Eliot was pretty sure those two were up to all kinds of things when the rest of the team weren't around, he just didn't want to think about the details too much. Somehow it was a little too close to thinking about your parents doing it.

Eliot shuddered involuntarily, then glanced across at Parker. She was quiet still, but smiling as she watched the scenery race by outside the window. They never talked all that much, at least not until last night when they spent hours doing so. They did spend time though. He taught her self-defence, they watched TV together sometimes. She liked someone to spot her when she practised new moves or tested new harnesses and always took Eliot with her for those kinds of things. When he needed a hand patching himself up, or even with some heavy lifting, she was there. She was a lot tougher than she looked, and way more useful than the others on that kind of thing. It was strange to realise how close they were really, how right she had been when she talked about them having some inexplicable connection. It was nice though, in a weird way.

It took a moment for Eliot to remember that he didn't deserve anything nice, especially not the unbreakable friendship of someone like her. Parker was a hell of a woman. She didn't trust easy, but she trusted him, and Eliot was equal parts proud and saddened by that. It was good to know she looked up to him like she did, and put her faith in him to be there and be honest with her. On the other hand, what was she really putting her faith in? A man that barely earned the title. A person who looked for the guy he wanted to be in the mirror every morning but never could find him. He had blood on his hands, whether it was visible or not, too much of it innocent. Eliot could barely live with himself some days, especially before the team, especially right now being reminded so much of how things had been when he worked for Moreau. He didn't deserve Parker to care for him at all, and he would tell her so if he thought it'd do any good.

"I like your truck," she said all out of the blue, the same way she said most things. "It's like riding in a car but not," she considered. "It feels more like flying, or maybe that's just because you don't drive like an old lady."

Eliot smiled and shook his head. Sometimes the girl just didn't make a lick of sense. Other times it was scary how much sense he could make out of her rambling these days.

"Darlin', I ain't ever gonna figure you out." he told her, though his eyes barely left the road.

"Y'know you have a lot more accent out here, cowboy," she teased him, mimicking his Southern drawl as best she could, and honestly, it wasn't half bad. "Maybe it's the music," she considered. "Can I turn it up?"

"Sure." Eliot nodded, smiling a little when Johnny Cash's voice filled the truck nice and loud.

He was equal parts amused and completely confused by how easily Parker sang along. She threw her whole body into swaying in time to the music and looked to be having a great time when he glanced her way. She had yet to explain how she knew so much about country music, and Eliot didn't like to ask. It could've come from any foster home she had been in really, or any time since then. Dragging up the past tended not to be good for either of them, so the hitter let it lie. Parker on the other hand, she would just ask whatever question popped into her head and damn the consequences.

"Is that what life was like for you?" she gestured towards the radio, and the song that sung of a real old-fashioned country boy's life. "I mean, from the stories you were telling me, I guess you grew up around a farm and stuff?"

"Some of the time, yeah." he nodded, keeping his eyes on the road.

His voice wasn't just more Southern out here, Parker noticed, but softer somehow when he spoke of the past too. She wondered if this was the Eliot that existed before he became the man she knew, the one that had done unspeakable things for Moreau and then had to learn to live with them later.

"Life was... it's just different, Parker," he told her, pushing his hair back off of his face with one hand. "Unless you're from the country, it's hard for you to understand."

"I wasn't always a city girl, Eliot," she told him smartly, leaning back in her seat far enough that she could prop her feet on the dash. "You know I've been all over. I lived on a ranch for a while," she smiled.

"You, what?" he reacted immediately, not just slapping her ankles to dislodge her feet from his dashboard, but also stunned by her words. "You? You lived on a ranch?" he checked, peering at her over his aviators perhaps a little too long when the road ahead curved suddenly.

"Turn," Parker instructed, pointing out of the windshield, and then got around to answering his question. "And yeah, I lived on a ranch. When I was seven or eight for like a year, I think," she explained thoughtfully, as if she wasn't quite certain of the details herself.

"But you hate animals," said Eliot, a little louder than perhaps he needed to be but shock will do that to you. "You really hate horses, they scare the hell outta you. Somethin' about a horse killing a clown?"

"Oh, that was after," she waved away his words quite literally with her hand. "Before I loved horses," she smiled fondly at a long ago memory. "Riding was as close to flying as I could get until I learnt to rappel..."

Eliot looked over at her as her voice faded away and her happy expression along with it. For a minute there she had looked so serene, so completely happy. Now she was sad again, looking as if something just broke behind her eyes.

"It was a long time ago," she sighed softly, looking away out of the passenger side window.

"What happened?" the question fell from Eliot's lips without him really thinking about it.

The man of few words, most of which were usually well chosen, knew he had screwed up before he even finished the question. You didn't ask damaged people about their past, he ought to know that better than anyone. When Parker asked him what happened with Moreau, he told her never to ask again because telling her the truth might've broken them both. Asking Parker what went wrong with some perfect dream home when she was young, it came down to the same thing. Immediately, Eliot opened his mouth to take it back, to say he was sorry, but he never got the chance.

"I need a soda to wash down my snacks, and a bathroom break," she said, screwing up the packaging from her pretzels and chips, making a crinkling sound. "Is there a gas station up ahead?"

"Er, yeah," Eliot nodded some. "Justa couple o' miles," he assured her, knowing he had seen a sign not so long ago.

Parker muttered something that might've been 'good' or 'thanks'. Eliot didn't ask her to repeat it because it didn't matter. Honestly, he was just glad they had moved past the awkward moment when he asked such a stupid question. Probably better to let it go for now, just as she had with him in the park that faithful day. Picking at old scabs did way more harm than good, that was for sure.

Parker leant against the truck, spinning her cell phone around in her hand. Eliot had made sure she switched it off before they arrived at the gas station, and when she got it out to do so she found three missed calls and five text messages. All the alerts had Hardion's name beside them, and that just stirred up a nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach that she rarely ever had to deal with - guilt.

Eliot had been right before, about the way she treated Hardison. She did use him and it was wrong, she just hadn't known what else to do when he made it increasingly obvious that he had some kind of feelings for her. Parker guessed it was just a novelty for her, to have a guy genuinely like her that way and be so sweet about it. Men liked her for her looks, she knew, and most ended up stabbed with forks or with their fingers broken for daring to put the moves on her.

Hardison genuinely cared. He wanted to buy her gifts and take her places. Parker didn't really want the items he would buy her or to go to the places he suggested, unless it was to steal something. She just liked that he liked her, that she was normal enough so anybody could.

Of course, that didn't change the fact that was she was doing was wrong. Letting Hardison think there was more between them than friendship, that she would ever really want to date him, it was mean. A part of her always knew that, and yet, she carried on, just thinking it would all be okay. She saw now, more than ever, that it wouldn't.

What confused Parker was exactly how she was supposed to stop and to apologise for what she had done. She couldn't dump Hardison because she wasn't dating him. If she tried to explain to him what she had done, what she was feeling, well, that wasn't even clear enough to Parker in her own head, and verbalising stuff wasn't exactly her strong suit.

There was nothing she could do about it now, she knew. Cell phones were a no-no until they got out of the gas station, and there was no way she wanted to talk this out with Hardison when Eliot was sat beside her in the truck. She shoved the phone into her pocket and looked across at the building where the hitter had disappeared more than ten minutes ago. He only went to pay for gas and pick up a couple of bottles of water. That took two minutes tops and Parker had expected him to beat her back to the truck whilst she ran around back of the building to use the rest room. No such luck. It looked as if he was flirting with the girl behind the cash desk, and Parker found herself growling with frustration when she spotted the situation.

If Eliot had heard her, he might have been surprised. As it was, he wasn't actually being particularly flirty with this chick anyway. She was doing all the running, making a big deal about ringing up his meagre purchases and getting him his change. Eliot didn't like to be rude, especially not to women, even when they weren't his type exactly. He smiled politely, thanked her for her compliments, and tried desperately to get out of the door, until he realised she had slipped a piece of paper with her number on into his hand with his change.

"You should have this back, darlin'," he told her, handing said piece of paper over. "I'm flattered and all, I am," he assured her, "but I don't think my girlfriend would be impressed," he explained, jerking his thumb towards the window and Parker who could clearly be seen through it.

She looked mad, which worked well for the bit, but honestly, Eliot just thought she was pissed he was taking so long. Rolling his eyes, he strolled out into the fresh air again and wandered over, contemplating the woman leaning on his truck as he did so. In her jeans and boots, he could picture her as a country girl pretty easily right now. Riding a horse was a stretch, but she'd look good doing it, Eliot was sure. He had to admit, if only inside his own head, Parker looked pretty good doing almost anything.

"Here," he said when he got close, tossing a bottle of water into her hands.

"Thanks" she replied. "Are you gonna sleep with that girl?" she asked straight out before she took a swig of her drink.

Eliot already had a mouthful of his and managed to spray it all over the concrete at the sound of her words.

"Damnit, Parker!" he complained, wiping the back of his hand across his wet chin. "Why'd you think it's okay to ask stuff like that?" he asked her, only to have her shrug in response.

"You sleep with a lot of girls, and I know she likes you," she pointed out. "I'm not great at reading people, but even I was getting the 'take me to bed' vibe from out here."

Eliot said nothing. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't deny the charge that he had a lot of notches on his bedpost. On the other hand, it wasn't Parker's place to judge him on that or even to conduct an in-depth interview about it. Eliot was just all kinds of uncomfortable talking to Parker about sex, and so the conversation ended right here.

"Catch," he said simply, tossing his keys into her hands.

Despite the fact she was holding her water bottle and hadn't been ready, she still caught them without the slightest fumble. Yep, she was just that good.

"I'm driving?" she asked, completely distracted by the shiny keys and the prospect of being in charge of the truck.

Eliot was honestly just glad to get her off the topic of his sex life.

"You're driving," he confirmed with a single nod. "But Parker, you drive this truck like a normal person, you hear me?" he told her firmly, glaring over the top of his shades so she knew he meant business. "Any getaway car stuff or close calls with my baby, and that's it, you're not just not driving anymore, your ass is walking all the way back to Boston," he warned her, making a walking gesture with two fingers to impress his point upon her.

"Yes, sir," Parker over-did the compliance with a mock salute and a serious expression that fell into another grin within a second.

Eliot just sighed and rolled his eyes as the pair of them climbed into the truck and strapped in. Honestly, he had to wonder which one of them was really more crazy at this point. Eliot was seriously starting to doubt that it was Parker.

To Be Continued...