Leverage belongs to Dean Devlin and his team…same guys who are bringing us The Librarians – also starring the uber-talented Christian Kane. As usual, I own nothing, just borrowing them for a short while.

AN: My sincerest apologies simply won't cover my absence – but I offer them nonetheless.

Did I mention how much I hate TNT for cancelling this epic Series?...

Quick flashback from the end of last chapter…..

Arriving back in time for the doctors to bring news of their latest update, Nate placed his hand upon Sophie's shoulder, leaning in closer to the British lady, not only to ensure she knew he was back, but also that he would be with her throughout this ordeal. Parker stared down at the floor and though she remained silent and still at least she sat closer to the group this time. Hardison bounced his knee nervously, tapping his finger away on his iPad simultaneously. The young hacker had found the silence overwhelming, so much so that early into their first 24 hour vigil he had extracted himself to the sanctity of Lucille to gather his thoughts, while seeing if there was anything practical he could be doing while they waited on news of their friend. Now he sat once more in the waiting room, with his elbow on his knees and head in his hands, Alec Hardison wasn't sure which way to turn. He knew Eliot took care of the violent side of things but never had he been so close to the action, as he had been on this case; nor did he ever wish to witness any of it first-hand again anytime soon. Thinking back to cell #13, he shook his head attempting to lose the cold shiver that still ran through him, memories of a freezing cold cell where the soaking wet Hitter was struggling to breathe as his lungs filled with fluids. Eliot had never looked so broken and it frightened him that it had been that simple for a case to go so badly wrong. Parker had never looked so scared and yet she bravely knelt by the downed Hitter's side and held his hand while talking to him to keep him from entering completely the abyss of unconsciousness. They still hadn't discussed their argument as it seemed ridiculously trivial given the current circumstances, though he wished he could clear the air. Even now as he placed his hand closer to hers while they waited once more, hers were folded and rested upon her knees he slid across the empty chair, closer to the blonde, pulling her into him placing his other arm around her shoulders. He wanted to offer support while they heard from the doctors, previously Parker had refuted any such offer but now she seemed to unfold herself into his arms.

The doctor was once again joined by Dr Olivia Steele and waved to the seats for the members of the oddly gathered family so she could begin. "We'll get to the point as we know you've spent a very long time waiting to hear what was happening with Mr Daniels."

"In short," Dr Pitt-Fox started, "Your friend was regaining consciousness when his heart went into arrhythmia, we lost him at one point but I'm pleased to be able tell you that he is back with us. He has come through the last 90 hours surviving against many of the nastier hiccups we envisaged." Hearing a small sigh of relief exit all their lungs, the doctors looked towards each other before they continued. "As you know Eliot's respiratory system was severely compromised when he arrived with us, with fluid building in both lungs, along with severe hypothermia, and that was all without the poison entered into his blood system."

Taking over from her weary colleague Dr Steele continued, "He is making good progress with his lungs, he has been breathing on his own for 60 hours now. The hypothermia has diminished greatly with the warm saline and heated blankets. Although I can still hear crackling on both sides of his lungs the pneumonia is still present, but it has improved greatly."

Dr Steele paused to allow that news to sink in before she continued once more, "Believe it or not, what you saw was a good sign, Mr Daniels was actually waking up and coming around from his coma."

Parker hadn't known where the tears had come from, but she felt an overwhelming urgency to be with Eliot. To not ever leave his side certainly until she had seen those steely blue eyes staring back at her once more. Until they could visit him once more, she sought comfort with a reassuring hug from Alec, before she fell into Sophie's arms and the tears just continued falling.

- Leverage -

It was another 24 hours before the patient known as Eliot Daniels began to surface fully from his coma. Over the course of his hospitalisation the team had taken it in turns to leave for food and ablutions ensuring that at least one of them was with Eliot should he awake. Encouraging Parker to leave the room had become somewhat of a feat in itself and at times she seemed to withdraw into herself. Despite the playful and often abrasive nature of their relationship, it was clear that Eliot provided a much-needed stability in her life. Nate observed that during this time without Eliot's verbal presence, highlighted just how much the Retrieval Specialist grounded the young thief. Nate had found the prospect of such periods of time inside the hospital while they waiting around for Eliot to awake and heal, quite oppressive; having already lost one son he found he didn't want to leave and run the risk of losing control over the fate of a man that had come close enough to be considered another son.

Without a doubt he could not have felt worse, unless he had been trampled by a herd of stampeding elephants. Had he been stampeded? He ached from head to toe; even the roots of his hair hurt him.

What on earth had he done to get himself in this predicament?

Trying to raise his arm to scratch a pain-free yet irritating itch on his face, he felt the pull of an intravenous port in his arm at the inner elbow joint. He tried to raise his head to inspect his other arm, which he found was equally difficult: Eliot felt like he was pinned down and that just made him instantly nervous.

What had he gotten himself into this time? If only he could just remember where the team were? Was it right that he should hurt so much?

The questions he was posing inside his head began to hurt his brain, making his brow furrow, which also hurt and finally got an arm free to raise it toward his face. Eliot's hand found it was a squishy plastic tube like a nasal cannula tickling his face and summoning all his considerable strength into that hand he managed to pull it away and with limited extra movement he managed to remove the offending itch. Taking as deep a breath as he could without his ribs exploding, it became clear to him as to why he had the plastic tubes inserted up his nose in the first place.

Why was breathing so hard?

In seconds a previously repetitive noise became somewhat louder and all the more irritating, he was sure it was only mildly annoying before he'd moved. Clearing his muddled brain was too hard though somewhere in his brain did he come to the conclusion that he might just have unplugged some of those wires keeping him in place. The arrival of a far-too chirpy nurse made it all too clear that prior to his battle to scratch his nose, the voice explained that he'd been adorning a pulse ox machine which he'd somehow shaken off making the nurse monitoring his room believe that he was flat lining where he lay! Clearly since he'd moved he would now be prodded and poked by the owner of said chirpy voice. Joyous!

Sure enough the door opened and in burst a few more white coats, faces blurred but all suitably impressed to have found his two rather unfocused eyes opened and trying to stare back at them.

'"Page the doctors," instructed the senior of the two nurses, "I'll reattach the cannula and check his output." as she continued nearer to the bed.

"How are you feeling Mr Daniels?" busying herself around her patient, Nurse Wesley checked each of the leads to ensure they were still correctly connected before continuing in her cheery disposition, "I have to say we weren't expected you to be awake again for another few hours. Do you have any pain?"

Silence once more was her answer, thinking her patient might be a little confused, Nurse Wesley paid close attention to the two unfocused cobalt blue eyes which she once more reattached the nasal cannula, fighting off the weak arm raised in defence of his own nose. Then moved in front of her patient to ensure he could see her face, she continued to chat.

"Now Mr Daniels, we need to put you back on oxygen while we let you wake up fully. Once the doctor has checked you over then we can see about cutting you lose from a few of these tubes. How does that sound?"

This time she received a feeble nod, but it was as good as she expected at this stage of recovery. Her patient had been through the mill, it was practically a miracle that he was even awake at this point, never mind still alive in the first place.

The nurse still looked a little blurry but at least she had stopped moving. Fighting the cannula had been the last thing Eliot felt before he slipped back into a sleep. His last thought almost rallying him, were the team okay?

- Leverage -

After only a couple of hours Eliot surfaced once more, this time with more clarity than before. He even recalled Mason and his delightful non-contact torture. He knew that they had come into his cell and starting knocking him around but he was outnumbered even before he took into account his state after the water boarding. The bastards had held him down and then injected him with something! Eyes bolted open when his body twitched entirely from the memory, causing a shock of immediate pain in his chest and his head to blur once more.

Realising he had now set off another alarm Eliot lacked sufficient energy to even search out whatever lead he had disconnected on this occasion. Instead he stared up into the face of a particularly attractive angel, pale faced with blonde hair, standing over him.

Realising who it was he tried to speak, "Pp arr ka…."

Watching her smile brighten up across her face made using his extremely dry throat to speak completely worthwhile. Whoa! When had this happened?

Tenderly touching his face, causing Eliot to close his eyes and lean into her touch, he soaked up the warmth her palm offered. "I'll get you some ice chips, and call the others," turning back as she practically span out the door, "and the doctors too, they'll want to see you." Gone in a flash, before he could try to make further comment, the southerner couldn't help but feel a smile on his face. Recalling her visit to him on the last night he had spent in his cell at the Facility, the scent of vanilla once again was present in the room. A feint scent he knew to be entirely hers. Usually his nostrils found pockets of it in the air around the office and when they had been training together in the gymnasium, often finding it on his clothes after close quarter training.

A long blink or two later, Parker returned and spurted out details of his cover, Eliot Daniels, held hostage, case under Bonnano's care etc. Hoping desperately that he'd be able to grasp at least some of them so that he could protect his cover. She just managed to finish as the nurse practically followed her in. Another face, this one full of smiles Nurse Wesley had been taking care of Eliot Daniels for each day shift so far that week. It was good to finally see him awake and also to see the young blonde lady wearing such a huge smile.

"Hello Mr Daniels, it's good to see you awake finally. Do you have any pain?" the bubbly nurse enquired of him.

Focusing his eyes back on Parker, who stood behind the nurse, noticing her defensive stance and raised eyebrow, as if daring him to lie about his pain. Eliot could barely believe it she was using his own tactics to protect him.

Parker was looking out for him, why? He pondered, though clearly his puzzled face gave away his question, at least to his protector as she folded her arms across her chest, almost standing firmer in reply!

Whatever next, he thought much to his painful regret, before he tried to reply verbally. Instead his voice barely escaped, dry and hoarse through lack of use, "Little… 'n….che'st.." The final word causing him to cough, Parker spotted his face scrunch in pain as he tried to keep the cough inside. It pained her to see him hurting so much, fighting to keep the pain inside, to keep anyone from worrying. All a little redundant given how much concern they had shared this week alone. It was also a little too late to try and keep the cough contained.

"No more talking for the moment," Nurse Wesley spoke as she unhooked an oxygen mask from the bedside and placed it upon his mouth and nose, then raised the bed slightly so as to ease his breathing. "Just nod your head for the moment, especially to answer the doctor's questions."

While he was trying to settle his aching body into this new position, slumping further back into his pillows, the nurse administered an injection into his IV, which she explained was a mild steroid to aid with opening his lungs.

"Now, why don't you relax and I'll help to get you cleaned up a bit."

"P..ase..." he rasped.

"I'll just get a wash cloth and some ice chips for you and we'll have you tidied up in no time at all." The nurse excused herself.

Parker had moved forward from the door finally but moved again as she offered to go and fetch the others. "I'll call Nate….."

"Wait…" Eliot reached for her hand to prevent her from bolting off to get the team.

Looking down at their hands where they met, she did not attempt to take hers back instead she stroked her thumb across the back of his hand. Without looking back up, Parker spoke softly, "It's good to have you back Eliot." Almost so quietly it was to herself, her eyes fixed on the bed, anywhere rather than stare into the abyss of those icey blue eyes of the long haired man laying before her.

"Thn'k y..u." He rasped once more, with as much sincerity as he could muster into his raspy voice. He hoped that Parker would understand why he was so intent on thanking her. Squeezing her hand to back up the strength with which he wished to offer his gratitude, or rather trying to grasp her hand firmly. He had come to the conclusion that he wanted her to know how important she was to him, consequences be damned.

Looking up to meet his glare, she acknowledged the feeble grasp behind his sentiment, she found herself speechless, managing finally to blurt out before she left. "You're welcome Sparky."

Leverage -

Hardison had discovered a glitch when they had tried to use the ear buds near the heart monitors and therefore they'd been without them since the first day.

The others were at first confused when they saw quirky thief bound into the cafeteria, instantly getting to his feet Nate was first to question her swift arrival especially when she was supposed to be guarding their hitter.

"He's awake," she blurted at the Mastermind. "He's awake and okay."

Nate couldn't help but pull the young lady into a hug, it was such good news.

Seeing the pair embrace caused the others to smile and hug also, it was brilliant news and once they had all hugged each other, Parker remained under the arm of Sophie Deveraux as they walked back up to where their friend lay. Trailing behind slightly by design, Sophie asked her younger friend how she was holding up after such a dreadful week, but particularly now that Eliot was finally awake.

"Happy," Parker beamed. "It's good to have him back."

"I can see that," the elder British lady retorted, "I suppose that I meant to ask you how you actually feel about him Sweetie?"

"I'm glad he's alive," Parker stopped and turned to her friend, "Well I mean, obviously I'm glad he's alive. Though I think I feel more and I don't know how I'm supposed to feel?"

"I shouldn't worry about trying to fathom out those feelings just now Parker, let's just enjoy the fact he's back with us and the rest will fall into place in time." The British lady offered her advice to the younger American girl.

Offering her arm for Parker to loop back through, "Shall we?" linking her arm through Sophie's she countered, "We'd better go and make sure he stays in bed?"

Leverage -

"Great to have you back with us Eliot," Nate was stood over him, a genuine happy smile upon his face. Smiling and squeezing Eliot's arm Nate seemed excited about something. "Damn good to see you awake." Relief washing over him he examined the younger man head to toe before continuing, "You gave us quite the scare this time. I'm not sure my heart can take anymore close calls and when she found you in that cell," glancing across to where the thief and grifter entered the room. "Well, let's put it like this, she hasn't left this room since you were admitted."

"W…'all ok?" Eliot had to check, no sign of Hardison.

"Yes, we're all okay. Alec is there," Nate spotted the hitter searching for all the team so he directed him to the other side of his bed where his brother was waiting to greet him.

"I'm here man, calm yourself down." Alec Hardison was smiling brightly to his left and though it hurt him to turn his head that way, seeing his brother smile was entirely worth it. "Don't you try talking, you gotta rest and we know you hate feeling weak man, you just gotta rest and be patient for now," chuckling lightly before he continued, the hacker couldn't help but tease the southerner, just a little bit. "Though I ain't gotta clue how they're gonna keep your ass in bed long enough to heal!"

Trying to growl had been a mistake, but one entirely worthy of his efforts.

"I don't think they want you to talk Eliot," Nate interjected though he was content that humour was back on the cards so swiftly. He began to quickly fill Eliot in on what had happened and what Captain Bonnano had undertaken since his hospitalisation, when the doctors arrived. Noticing the ladies wince at the mere mention of the cell back where he'd been held. Parker's wide smile fell from her face at the memory of cell number 13. Finding a place on the bed for her to reach out and touch Eliot had been a grounding she needed to remind herself that he was still with them, still breathing, still alive despite the pain he was still there, with her.

"The doctor would like to ask some questions, perhaps we should let them get on with the tests?" Sophie's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Nudging Parker out the door had been a little trickier than Nate thought, then again he couldn't help but notice just how badly she had taken the hitters recent hospitalisation. Not that any of the team were overly chipper to see their friend so badly hurt but this was something different and glancing towards Sophie it was clear that something hinky going on here and as she too was grinning, clearly there was more to this than he was aware of.

There is more to come – not much for this story – but some and then I've also started a story which will be entitled "Spencer, Commander Spencer" please let me know if you'd like to read something like that when I'm finished with this?