Somehow, the team was still together even without their little blonde thief, although relations were much more strained as they realised she had provided a buffer and a focus for any anger and annoyance and had taken it on the chin. They had had to take more breaks and do a few less jobs, but they were surviving somehow even six months after they had first reunited. The team was still spending most of their time in Nate's apartment and eating their way through all his supplies and breaking his crockery and glasses with their clumsy grasps and big feet on the table.
That was how Nate found himself being dragged around the shops by Sophie along with a reluctant Hardison, who was dragging his feet and muttering under his breath about all the things he could be doing. Eliot had escaped at the first mention of shopping, something about training, and before Sophie could stop him, he was gone. Hardison had, however, been blissfully unaware, absorbed with something on his tablet and had looked horrified when Sophie dragged him out the door.
Nate had resigned himself to having to go along with it and knew that Hardison's complaining would make it worse for him. He would have rescued Hardison from the lectures he found himself having to listen to, but it was benefitting Nate that Sophie's attention was elsewhere and allowed him to wander along and observe the others out shopping. He was fascinated by the interactions of the others, but he was broken from his observation by a sharp tug on his arm. Clearly, Sophie had found a shop to go into as she dragged him into the store.
Turns out the store was a household appliances store and that Nate needed some new cushions for his couch and a new table lamp. Nate would have tried to protest this and say that what he had was fine and just how he liked it, but he knew that there was no use arguing with Sophie once she had made up her mind about shopping as it would just get him a long lecture and a longer shopping trip, so he just nodded absently at Sophie and gestured for Hardison to keep quiet when he tried to argue against Sophie.
"Just don't go there, Hardison," Nate hissed to the man in question. "Do you want another lecture about fashions?"
Hardison shook his head with wide eyes and wisely shut his mouth.
Sophie turned around from where she had walked off to and narrowed her eyes as she saw the two men hadn't moved. "What are you two waiting for?" she asked.
"Nothing," they both replied and hurried after. Sophie was still suspicious but moved off to the aisles that had the table lamps. Both men nearly groaned as they took stock of the amount of different options but remembered that the grafter had bat like hearing when she wanted to and so held it in and forced fake grins on their faces as they followed her to the first of the boxes.
Many table lamps later, and Nate had resorted to watching the other shoppers once again to stave off boredom. There were a few loved up couples who must have been picking out furnishings for new homes, a couple of people who looked rushed as they grabbed items and hurried towards the tills obviously on a time limit and a few families. The children from two of the three families were causing mayhem as they ran around the store, screaming as they went, and the poor parents looked at their wits end as they chased after them and tried to stop them from knocking anything over.
Nate watched them with amusement and sadness, glad that wasn't him like it had been many times before, but the memories of Sam that surfaced at the sight still caused him pain. Quickly, he turned his attention to the last family. A lone woman with three children sticking close to her legs was browsing the lamps, pushing a trolley with bits and pieces in. Her blond hair was drawn up into a messy bun with strands sticking out, and she was wearing a pair of worn out light denim jeans and a flowery blouse with plain black sneakers on her feet.
Of the three children, two were little girls who looked like they could be twins with the same mousy, light brown hair and were both dressed similarly to the woman, who Nate assumed to be their mother, although she looked a little young, with jeans on but instead wore patterned t-shirts in blue and mauve. The final child, a little boy, looked like the spitting image of his mother with blonde hair that was messy. He wore camouflage shorts with a dark blue t-shirt on.
Together as a family they were looking at the table lamps and the woman was asking the opinion of all the children which seemed to keep them focused and quiet compared to the havoc the other kids were causing. Seeing as she was on her own with three children, the blonde woman seemed to have the right idea and Nate admired her for that.
Looking closer at the blonde mother, Nate's eyes narrowed. There was something very familiar about that tall, slim woman. She reminded him very much of Parker. He was about to say something, but he thought his eyes must have been deceiving him. It wasn't until the little family had chosen their lamp and started off down the aisle and passed Nate, who had been distracted by Sophie to discuss the merits of a particularly ugly looking lamp that she seemed to have fallen in love with. Just as they passed by, one of the children said something to the woman, and she replied in a voice that stopped all three of the leverage team dead in their tracks, ugly lamp forgotten.
Sophie was the first to react. "Parker?!" she asked incredulously, but the woman didn't even respond, and the family continued on towards the tills.
Hardison seemed to be in shock. "Was that ...?" he started.
"I ... I though she looked familiar," Nate replied in shock. They had looked long and hard for the little blonde thief but had come up with next to nothing and, if they were right, her she was right under their noses.
By the time they recovered from their shocked stupor, and that took quite a while in itself, they all rushed after the quartet to see them just finishing up by the tills. As she paid, yeah that shocked them all that she had actually parted with money rather than stolen the items, she turned back and thanked the cashier and then looked back into the store. For a moment her eyes seemed to connect with the team before she picked up the packed bags and ushered her children out of the door.
The three thieves chased after her out of the store calling her name, but when they exited the store, there was no sign of Parker or any of the children, just crowds of people milling around. Shopping seemed to be over for the day as Hardison wanted to go home and check the security cameras, and Sophie seemed a bit too shaken up to care about continuing, so they made their way back to Nate's apartment.
Parker had taken Jo, Millie and Steve out to buy some new furnishings for one of their safe houses. Before, she furnished them sporadically, but with the children, she wanted to make them as happy as possible. If that meant buying a few more furnishings, then so be it. She was slightly less reluctant to spend money now; she wanted to give her little sisters and brother what she never had growing up.
They had gotten everything bar a new lamp, so they headed to that particular aisle. Jo, Millie and Steve were still quite shy and were a bit intimidated by the noise of the other children, so they stuck close to her legs. As they were looking at the lamps, Parker felt someone's eyes on them, but she didn't want to be too obvious about checking who it was and didn't sense any impending danger and so continued what she was doing. As they chose a lamp and turned around to leave, Parker realised who had been watching her. The day she went out in Boston had to be the day Nate and Hardison were dragged out by Sophie. She had to admit that it was good to see them again, but seeing them in such close proximity also caused the pain of abandonment to return. She knew that she had a new family now and that they all had to move on.
Quietly, she told the kids that there were some people she knew here, but that they had to ignore it if anyone said her name. Just as they were passing her old team, Jo asked her why and she replied, without thinking, that she would explain later and then she realised her mistake. They had recognised her voice and called out to her, but she continued on as though she didn't hear them at all.
Parker was twitchy all the while they were paying, imagining that any moment her old team would come rushing around the corner and force her to go with them. She just wasn't ready for that, and when she did speak to them, she hoped it would be on her own terms. Thankfully, there wasn't a queue at the tills, and they were done quickly. Parker turned to thank the cashier and looked back into the store briefly, only to catch eyes with her old team.
She broke eye contact and rushed Jo, Millie and Steve out of the store and to an alley near to the shop. They slipped out the back of the alley and half power walked, half jogged back to the safe house, making sure to watch out in case they were being followed. On the way back to the house, Parker breathed a sigh of relief and explained who those people were to her. Luckily for her, the kids picked it up quickly and understood. They dropped the subject and got back to the safe house, which they made look much like a home.
Eliot was back in Nate's apartment when they got back, but Sophie was too shocked from the encounter to question him. Eliot refused to believe they had seen Parker until Hardison pulled the footage of the store and froze on a picture of Parker's smiling face. They had to admit that she looked good through their shock. She looked to have grown up and become more responsible, dressed prettily with a smile on her face that wasn't due to money or thieving.
No one seemed to know what to do. They couldn't track Parker after that, she seemed to have dropped off the map, and they had no clue who the children were. She was alive, she was happy, and for all the questions they had and even though they wanted her back, they were happy that she was well.
This is the first of a couple of glimpses stories I hope to get around to. Please review if you like it and thanks again to my beta reader dandelion518.