It had been a week and a half since Abby had gone to see her father, returned home and burst into tears on Nate's apartment floor and nothing more had really been said about it. Everyone had been a little kinder and a little more cautious; Sophie had given sympathetic stares and reassuring cups of tea but had seen in Abigail's eyes that she was not to ask. No one had asked, not even Parker.

The only person who had said anything about it was Eliot, who had simply informed Abby that if she wanted to talk, he was here. But, otherwise and thankfully, everyone had left her alone because what she wanted, needed, was to be distracted. Originally, Dubai had provided for an excellent distraction, but then they'd come home and everything had caught up with her again.

So, tonight, the perfect opportunity had been presented to her to get her mind of things.

"Please, please, please, please, pleaaase!" Abigail begged as she followed her uncle around the bar the next while he brought empty glasses back to the bar.

"I already said no," Eliot replied.

"It's just one party! Kyle will be there, Stacey will be there; nothing is going to happen."

"Telling me your boyfriend is going to be there is not a great start," he said, reaching over the bar and grabbing a beer.

"Kyle is not my boyfriend," she sighed. "And I've never asked for anything like this before; you have to let me grow up eventually."

"No. There is no way I'm letting you go to this party," he reiterated, walking back to their booth, waiting for the rest of the team to join them.

"Why?"

So many reasons, he thought to himself. "Because there's going to be alcohol," he opted for, "teenage boys, drugs probably and I've seen enough to know what goes on at these parties so, no."

Abby froze momentarily as she crossed her arms, giving him one of those

"Why don't you trust me?"

"I trust you," he began. "Who I don't trust are the other drunk teenagers who don't think about consequences."

At that moment Sophie, Nate and the rest of the team walked down from the apartment.

"Will you all please talk to him," Abby exclaimed at the others.

"Talk about what?" Parker enquired, sliding into one of the booths.

"There's a party tonight and I really want to go but Eliot won't let me," the teenager exclaimed.

"Sorry Ace, I agree with Eliot on this one," Hardison stated, sitting next to the hitter. The man had continued with his overprotective brotherly attitude and, although he'd never really gone to one of these parties, he knew it was a bad idea.

"Thank you Hardison," Eliot stated.

"Traitor," Abby hissed playfully.

"Eliot its one party," Sophie said softly, sitting opposite the hitter and the hacker. "It's good for her to actually get out there."

"Thanks…" Abby began but then paused. "What do you mean 'actually'?"

"You know what kid," Nate whispered to Abby. "She's on your side; I'd drop it."

"She's sixteen!" Eliot exclaimed.

"Exactly," Sophie retorted. "You're honestly going to tell me that you weren't going to parties when you were her age?"

"Not really," Eliot replied and he was met with a surprised look from the rest of the Leverage crew. "I was too busy looking after my sick mother and my siblings!" he said through gritted teeth and he was met with several moments of silence.

The statement was only mostly true, there were several occasions where he had snuck out with Aimee to attend a local party. His experiences at which only consolidated his opinion that she shouldn't go.

"Eliot I'll be really careful I promise," Abby said softly. "I'll have my comms on me and I'll call you if I need anything."

"How are you going to get there?" he conceded and Abby grinned, knowing she had won. "Because you totalled my car."

"Stacey's going to drive us…"

"How long has Stacey had her licence?" he grilled.

"Six months and she's never had an accident," Abby replied.

"You can go on the condition that you don't drink and that I pick you up at 12 sharp," he said, pointing his finger at her sternly.

"But…"

"No buts. That's the deal, take it or leave it," he offered.

"Deal."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Eliot she's fine," Sophie said as she flicked through files, preparing for their next job. Eliot too was sitting at the couch, pointlessly flicking through files, his leg tapping incessantly out of nervousness. "It's only 10:30," she reminded.

"I don't understand the big deal?" Parker said, fiddling with one of her rigs from the other side of the room. "It's a party. We crash parties all the time; they have yummy food, lapsed security…"

"Not the same sort of party Parker," Eliot stated.

"Oooh. Is this the sort of party where teenagers have too much booze and end up pregnant or dead in a pile up?"
Sophie put her hand to her face and sighed while Eliot's jaw clenched ever so tighter.

"No one," began Nate, flicking through client files. "Is getting killed or pregnant. Abby is smart and knows to stay out of trouble; she will be fine. Now, can we concentrate on this job please?"

"Yeah sure," Hardison agreed then clicked back on the browser and brought the case file back up on the screen.

"You keeping tabs on Abby's father?" Eliot asked when he saw that it wasn't their client file that was brought up on the screen but in fact an extensive file on Steven complete with real time tracking of his financials.

Hardison looked up and gave a worried look upon realising his mistake. "What? No, I, uh, well what happened, uh," he stammered. "Please don't hit me?" he finally begged.

"What are his financials like?" Eliot asked and Nate snickered at the hacker's comment.

Hardison now looked surprised but did not question it. "No change, good or bad," he confessed. "What do you want to do about it?"

"Nothing," he stated. "For now."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On the other side of the city, Abigail stood awkwardly in the corner of the room with Kyle and Stacey, watching the rest of their year level drink themselves into a drunken stupor rivalled only by Nate.

"Remind me why we came again?" Abby yelled to her friends, who were struggling to hear her over the loud, thumping music.

"Come on AJ," Stacey exclaimed. "These kinds of parties are no fun if you don't drink."

Abby shook her head as Stacey grabbed a drink off a nearby teenager

"Do you want to dance?" the teenager boy asked Stacey eagerly, clearly far from sober. Stacey shrugged her shoulders and grabbed his hand, following him onto the dance floor.

"This is so not fun," Kyle exclaimed.

"Pretty much," Abby replied.

"Do you want to maybe have one drink?" he asked cautiously.

"What are you kidding?" Abby asked in apparent disbelief. Though, truthfully, the thought had occurred to her. "Your dad would probably arrest us!"

"Not to mention your uncle would probably kill us!" he laughed.

"No, don't be ridiculous," she said smiling. "He wouldn't lay a hand on me! You, on the other hand; you he'd probably kill."

"Just one drink?" he asked again.

"I dunno Kyle," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest and holding her forearm.

Then he gave her his big puppy dog eyes.

Ooooooooooh, someone's in trouble now.

Part one of an EXTREMELY delayed request for Theshoegirl.

I wrote this to go in like, chapter 5 or 6, but kept getting pushed back. But, regardless, I hope you all like it.