Author's note: all the usual disclaimers about not owning the Leverage characters/concept and not making any money from this apply.
Another quickie, so I'll post a second one in a moment. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I did the chapter breaks :)
Hardison was too late to catch Parker on her way out to find the housekeeping closet with the trash chute for that floor, but was waiting for her when she returned a couple of minutes later.
"You all right?" he asked as she closed the door behind her.
Parker nodded. She came to sit beside him on the couch, curling her knees up under her chin.
"E's really okay," he tried to reassure her. "The physical stuff doesn't bother him."
"I know," she said.
"Then what's got you tied in knots?"
Parker shrugged.
"Maybe it should bother him," she said.
"I don't think he could do his job if it did," Hardison pointed out.
"And maybe I feel like we let him down or something by leaving earlier."
"Parker..." Hardison protested. They had covered that ground.
"I know," Parker replied, not wanting to rehash it either. "But...we did something good today. And she really hurt him. It isn't fair that it ended like this."
Hardison snaked an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer while he thought about that.
"She doesn't know what we did," he reasoned. "Probably thought E got shot going after some piece of art, or a weapons deal or drugs or something... And you heard him: what happened tonight was just part of the trade...getting what he needed by accepting how she was willing to provide it."
Hardison stopped. Normally it was Parker trying to explain these things to him. It felt strange sitting on the other side of that equation.
"Besides," he continued, trying now to lighten the mood. "It doesn't change how hard we rocked today – and, baby, we rocked hard."
It got him a small smile.
"Totally awesome," she agreed.
But her eyes drifted back over to Eliot's door.
"Do you think Eliot would mind if we..." Parker trailed off, not quite sure how the sentence should end.
"...had a slumber party in there?" Hardison finished for her. "He's drugged so far to the gills right now that I don't think he'd notice if we had a keg party in there."
Parker yawned.
"I like Plan A better," she said.