A/N: I bet you guys thought you'd seen the last of me, eh? Well, I can't ever stay away. Not for long anyway. :) Er, not longer than a year... I don't remember the last time I posted. If you're still here, THANK YOU! And I hope your lives are treating you as well as mine is. My only wish for next year is more writing time. :)

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Parker was bored. Dumb Alec was playing his dumb game and dumb Eliot was reading. They both just told her to go away and Mom had the "I'm stressed, please don't bother me" frown and Dad had grumpy eyebrows. That left Parker with nothing to do besides stare at all the other people wandering around the terminal with stressed mouths and grumpy eyebrows. And some of them had their stuff just hanging out of their pockets or luggage like they wanted her to take it.

Mom said stealing was wrong, but sometimes Parker just had to do it, her fingers reaching out and taking before she'd even realized she'd done it. She used to think that if she did it too much Mom and Dad would take her back to the Other Family but she was seven now and she knew better. She was in her Sophie-Nate-Eliot-Alec-Parker family forever so she wasn't worried about that.

But she was bored and that boarding pass poking out of Fat Guy's pocket was driving her crazy. She would barely even have to move to slip it out and he wouldn't notice until he tried to get on the plane. She almost giggled at the thought, her hand inching toward the paper.

"Parker."

She jumped at Dad's voice and snatched her hand back.

"I hope you're not about to do what I think you're about to do."

She shook her head.

He gave her a look and she was pretty sure he hadn't believed her.

"I'm bored," she informed him, frowning.

"I know you are. We'll be getting on the plane soon. Why don't you look at a book or color for a while?" he said.

"I already DID that stuff," she said, feeling grumpy now.

"What do you want to do then? Besides steal that nice man's boarding pass?"

He said that last part leaning in so only she could hear and she almost smiled, happy that Dad had seen it too. "I wanna go over there," she said, pointing to the souvenir shop.

He thought about it for a minute, studying the busy terminal.

"Please?" she begged. Anything would be more interesting than sitting there.

He sighed. "Fine, but Eliot has to go with you."

She scrambled out of her chair and tapped Eliot's arm. "Take me to the little store," she begged.

He looked up with a frown. "Parker, stop," he said, shrugging away from her finger.

"Dad said you have to!"

Eliot glanced at Dad.

"Just for a minute, Eliot," he told him.

"Dad, seriously?"

"I wanna come!" Alec chimed in.

Eliot groaned and put his book down. "Fine."

"Stay together," Dad warned. "And Parker, no stealing."

She grinned and bounced toward the little shop, her brothers trailing behind. She began inspecting the snow globes, picking up every single one and shaking it before moving on to the keychains. Another girl, a bit taller than Parker, was staring at the nametag ones. Parker snuck several glances at her, wondering why she only wanted to look and not touch.

"What?" the girl asked suddenly, glaring at Parker.

Parker looked at her some more, trying to determine what she was mad about.

"What are you staring at?" the girl said.

Oh. "You. And I'm not staring, I'm looking."

"Well, stop," the girl said, rolling her eyes and turning away.

Then Parker saw her backpack. "I had one of those!" she blurted.

The girl turned back and studied Parker.

"Are you going to a new house?"

The girl nodded slowly. "Sort of. You a foster kid too?"

"Not anymore. Do you have to fly to get to your new house? They always just took me in cars."

The corner of the girl's mouth lifted. "Yeah. I gotta fly because I'm going to my dad's house. He lives in Anaheim. Now that he's out of rehab anyway."

"That's where we're going too! My dad is taking us to Disneyland. Are you going there?"

The girl looked sad, almost like she might cry.

"Don't cry," Parker ordered. She didn't like it when people cried.

The girl glared. "I'm not going to cry."

"Oh. You just looked like you were going to."

"Leave me alone," the girl said, moving over to the t-shirts.

Parker followed. "Why are you mad?"

"Go away."

Parker paused, trying to figure out what had happened. Eliot would know. She glided over to where he was looking at some model cars and poked his arm.

"Parker, what?"

"That girl is mad at me and I don't know why. She's a foster kid like I was and I thought we were friends but she got mad."

Eliot watched the back of the girl's head for a minute, his grumpiness gone. "How do you know she's a foster kid?"

"Backpack," Parker said, like it was obvious. "A whole bunch of us got one just like it."

Eliot was frowning at her but not in a bad way. More like a confused way, she thought. "You remember that? You were like, a baby."

Parker narrowed her eyes. "I was not. I remember lots of it."

She remembered that there were a lot of people in her first house and she slept on the floor under a bunk bed. She'd actually liked that part. The bad part was getting yelled at and sometimes not having enough food because she was the smallest.

She didn't stay there long because the social workers came and took all the kids away one night. She remembered being tired and scared and falling asleep in the back of a car before getting to the next house. Then there were lots of houses in a row and they were all the same to her. She was largely ignored until things started going missing and they caught her. It was before she was a good thief.

So they took her from those houses and put her in the Last House. Which was bad. It started with the yelling like at the other house, but it was harder to hide because she was the only kid at the Last House. Then they found her stash. She grabbed stuff and hid it all the time, especially food and anything she thought looked pretty. But when the man at the Last House found her stuff in the vent his face turned all red and he yelled and yelled and she couldn't talk and he grabbed her and hit her and made her eat all the food she'd kept in there even though it was going bad. She threw up lots. But she couldn't stop taking stuff and he wouldn't stop hitting her.

She shivered a little, thinking of it. She hoped Eliot didn't notice but he always noticed.

"You remember the bad stuff, Parker?" he asked quietly, slipping his arm over her shoulders.

She nodded.

He pulled her closer with a little sigh. "If I ever find the people who hurt you…"

She smiled. She didn't think of the Last House very much anymore but it made her feel better to know that Eliot would keep her safe. "So why's the girl mad at me?"

"Well, what'd you say to her?" Eliot said, smiling a little.

"I told her that I was looking not staring and we were going to Disneyland. And I told her not to cry but she said she wasn't crying so I think that part's okay."

Eliot groaned. "You embarrassed her, Parker. She was prob'ly sad you're goin' to Disneyland and she's not."

"Oh." Eliot was really smart sometimes. Parker could see how that might make someone sad. She ducked away from under Eliot's arm and hurried out of the shop.

"Parker, wait up!" Eliot called after her, but she was just going back to Mom and Dad.

She came to a skidding halt in front of Dad and held out her hand. "I need my ticket and your ticket," she said, bouncing impatiently.

"I told you to stay with Eliot," Dad said.

Sometimes Dad missed the point. "I need the Disneyland tickets, Dad! Hurry, before she's gone."

Dad stared at her.

"What do you need the tickets for, Parker?" Mom asked gently.

This was taking forever. She glanced over her shoulder, looking toward the shop. Eliot and Alec were running over but Parker couldn't see the girl anymore.

"Hurry!" she pleaded, her hand outstretched.

"Eliot, what's going on?" Dad asked, using his huffy voice.

"I dunno. She just took off."

"I need the tickets!" Parker cried in frustration.

Dad opened his mouth to tell her to sit down probably but Eliot spoke first.

"Parker, are you going to give your pass to that girl?" he asked. That gentle voice he used sounded like Mom.

She nodded, relieved that they finally seemed to be getting somewhere.

Eliot was talking to Mom and Dad now. "There's a girl in the gift shop. A foster kid, and Parker was talking to her."

"I made her almost not cry," Parker added.

Mom was leaning forward now, a look Parker didn't recognize on her face. "Parker, you want to give your Disneyland ticket to a girl you don't even know?"

Parker nodded, glancing over her shoulder again. "And Dad's. 'Cause she's going to meet her dad."

Mom put a hand on Dad's arm and gave him a Look. "Sophie, this is crazy," he said.

Mom raised her eyebrows.

Dad sighed and unzipped his suitcase. "Fine. But are you sure, Parker?"

"Hurry! She's leaving!" Parker exclaimed, snatching the paperwork out of Dad's suitcase and heading toward the girl who was leaving the gift shop with a woman.

Parker picked up speed, thinking about Dad's question. Of course she was sure! She had a family and the girl didn't yet so maybe Disneyland would make her feel a little better.

"These are for you," she said breathlessly, running up to the girl and shoving the passes at her. "And your dad."

The girl stared at her.

"What's this, honey?" the woman with the girl asked Parker. She looked like the nice social workers that used to take Parker to new houses.

Parker heard Dad's voice before she could explain. "I'm sorry," he said. "This is sort of strange, but we were wondering if you could find a use for these. Three-day park hopper passes to Disneyland."

The woman stared at them, tears in her eyes, and Parker wondered if she'd done something wrong again.

"I- I don't know what to say," the woman said.

Mom and the boys were there now too. "They can have all of them," Mom said quietly, her hand on Alec's shoulder.

Alec was nodding. "We don't wanna go if Parker and Dad aren't going."

"And maybe there's some more kids who need 'em," Eliot added quietly.

The girl was looking at Parker fiercely. "You don't have to do this," she said, but Parker didn't think she was mad anymore.

She grinned. "I hope your dad will be your forever family."

Without another word, Parker turned and walked away, leaving the passes in the girl's hands.

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Eliot gave up his window seat for Parker on the plane and she watched out the little oval in awe as they rode above the clouds.

"I'm proud of you, Parker," Eliot said. She could hear the smile in his voice without even seeing him. "You probably changed that kid's life."

Parker shrugged, her face still pressed against the window. "I think she needed them more. And Mom said now we can just play on the beach for our vacation and swim in the ocean. The real ocean!"

She heard him chuckle and settle back into his seat before she turned her full attention on how high up they were and how amazing that felt.