The team was on another con without their little blonde thief in another state. Without the bubbly energy of Parker, all the cases seemed to blur into one.

None of the team had forgotten about their glimpse of Parker. The security camera pictures had been downloaded to all of their phones and they had a few framed photos of her around the apartment and in Lucille. They all caught glimpses of blonde everywhere, hyper aware of every flash of blonde now, but none had turned out to be Parker.

Training with Jo, Millie and Steve was progressing very well and they were becoming excellent little thieves. Parker practiced with rewards for them, but also with time to act like children and play. Today they had finished training in one of their safe houses and Parker suggested they all go to the park.

The park near this safe house was a little paradise for the four. It had plenty of trees to climb, a children's play area and a beautiful lake full of fish with a little bridge across it.

Parker had bought herself a camera and now had hundreds of photos of the children at the picturesque park and as a family with her, and with Archie and Quinn sometimes when they had come with them. Jo, Millie and Steve loved Grandpa Archie and Uncle Quinn. They were like family and Parker appreciated their help with three energetic children.

Today the park was as quiet as ever, a little hidden gem, and so they headed straight for the play area. After burning off the kid's energy, they flopped down on their stomachs in front of the lake and watched the fish. They could lay like that for hours upon end and often did so, losing track of time until the sun went down and they got too cold to stay out there any longer.

Hardison was grumbling. He was the hacker, not the official photographer but, for this con, that was his assigned role. They needed pictures of the routine of their mark and he just happened to frequent a little park. Sophie was gushing over comms about how beautiful the area was and Hardison could just sense Eliot rolling his eyes from where he was jogging around, taking on the role of a serious jogger. Apparently Sophie could too as she proceeded to tell off and lecture Eliot from her position, sunbathing on the grass. Nate was sat on one of the benches in the park reading a newspaper like their mark was, hoping to strike up conversation.

They had been there a couple of times before separately, but today was the first day they were going to try and make contact and so they wanted everyone to be there just in case they needed to change plans or rescue Nate.

Parker got up from her position and retreated to the trees with her camera to take more pictures of the kids. She had never been so sentimental before she met them but now she felt so attached to the three and truly loved them, wanting to document every moment with them, and did so frequently. The three lay in a line with their chins propped up in the palms of their hands and their knees bent with their feet swinging above them.

The pictures that Parker snapped looked perfect, three children smiling and laughing in a beautiful place, as though they should be in a professional studio somewhere or on display, but how perfect they were made no difference to Parker. They were pictures of her family and for that reason they were precious. From the trees, she wanted a good vantage point, Parker could see the three clearly as well as the rest of the park although she paid little mind to the rest of the area.

Jo, Millie and Steve were dressed for the summer sun, with the two girls in pastel green and pink coloured dresses, and Steve wearing shorts and a thin pale blue t-shirt with a cat on the front of it. Most children would have wanted a more exotic or scary animal to be on their shirt but Steve had informed Parker that cat's were smart, nimble and agile and they were like Parker, and so he wanted a cat on his t-shirt.

Parker had been shocked at the explanation at first, but, when it sunk in, she had been flattered and pleased. It seemed that the kids had taken to her as much as she to them which relieved Parker, who only wanted them to be happy. All three wore flip flops that had fallen off their feet as they swung them.

Unaware, for the moment, of the extra people in the park, Parker had rejoined the kids and they had all moved to the bridge to dangle their feet in the water. Parker's own flip flops sat in a pile with the kids'. It felt odd for her to wear them,having always worn shoes that she could run easily in, in case she needed to make a quick get away, and was finding that she was getting used to the and that she could run in them quickly as well. It felt nice to have a life and a hobby outside of thieving and helping people.

Parker hadn't given up helping people, no, it seemed that Nate had changed her. Thieving no longer felt so good and so Parker continued to help people in between training the kids. They had gotten very good in the time they had been with her and Parker, after making them their own harnesses,had let them help her with some of her jobs, a lot of which were abroad now to minimise the chances of running into the team or getting the same job. Parker had picked up a few languages in her travels, but the little family still preferred the US to any other place as it was home and where the rest of their family was.

The day actually passed peacefully, and the two different groups in the park never met or saw each other. Eliot had caught glimpses of kids on their own and at times a family, as had Sophie, Nate and Hardison, but they were so focused on their con, that they missed who the family was.

Parker and the kids went back to their safe house, none the wiser, and played some board games until it was time for the kids to go to bed. Parker called Archie, after putting them to bed, and had a nice long conversation, talking about many different things including when Parker was going to bring her lovely kids back for a visit.

While the kids were like siblings to her and her to them, Archie treated them like grandchildren and they thought of him as their grandad. It was a little strange but he was old enough for that and so everyone went along with it. Parker was like a cross between a mother, a sister and a mentor to the three and she hoped that she balanced the three enough to be informative yet safe and strict yet fun. It was a hard balance but Parker managed it well somehow.

The Leverage team actually never realised that Parker had been there until they reviewed the photographs Hardison had taken the next morning. They had made contact with their mark and all their attention and focus had been on Nate and the mark and so the little blonde thief and her kids had gone unnoticed being on the other side of the park.

Hardison had been taking photos looking away from the mark but listening in to the conversation and adding his input when needed, so he hadn't really been paying attention to what his photos were of at that point. Turns out he had been taking lots of photos of Parker and her little family, many of which were very blurry and out of focus, but pictures of Parker none the less.

The team were shocked. How had the missed the fact that their little blonde thief had been within touching distance once again? She hadn't even been trying to hide, she was in full sight, and she couldn't have seen them as she hadn't run away, she had been there for hours. It had been the perfect opportunity and they had missed it.

They had all been angry at Hardison at first, even Hardison himself. He had been taking photos of her, must have been looking near or at her, and yet he hadn't seen her and alerted the others to her presence. He had missed their perfect opportunity. But then they realised that they had all been there and they had all had the chance to see her, they all could very well have missed her and probably did. Hardison was just doing his job and protecting Nate but they were all kicking themselves for weeks to come for missing her.

They had gone back day after day to the same park for a week in the hopes that Parker would return but they she was never there, much to their great disappointment, but they had a two leads on her now. It could only be a matter of time before they would catch up with her. Until then, well, they would keep looking!

Parker had got a call about a case the very next morning and, still completely unaware about the team's presence, had left with the kids for England that very morning. The case hadn't been that hard but they had stayed for a little sightseeing and practice and so had been in London for two weeks in total.

It was only when she returned back to that safe house, as they had left most of their stuff there, having to leave quickly, that she heard about how these people had come in and taken down the major loan shark in the town.

Parker had been working towards taking him down in her free time but to keep the safe house safe, no one in the town could know what she did and so she was having to work in her free time in secret. She had put many steps in place and the Leverage team must have used those along the way, so in a way she was still helping them.

She had know as soon as she heard that it had been a team that weren't cops or working under the law, that it had been her old team and she had mixed feelings. Relief that they hadn't found her and also sadness and longing, she missed them badly and maybe, just maybe, she would see them sometime soon.

This is unbeta'd but I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. Sorry for the wait, I've been busy with my other stories as well as this one. I will write a chapter when they meet again soon but I don't know how I want it to go yet so there may be a chapter or two before that one.

Thank you to DelusionNyssa, and everyone else who has reviewed this story. Please review so I know if people still like this story and want to read it.