Title: Faith, Family, and a Future That's Ours
Prompt by: Doranwen
Rating: PG-13/T
Setting: AU/Canon Divergence
Originally posted: 4th July 2020
Notes: for AU Exchange 2020 on Dreamwidth and AO3.
When he had to tell the team he was leaving, Eliot knew exactly how it would go down. The first question would be from Nate asking, 'How long for?' After he admitted this was a permanent split, the next question would be 'Why?' and that would most likely be from Sophie.
They didn't let him down and Eliot hated that he was doing just that when he refused to say much about his reasons for walking away. It was in everybody's best interest that they didn't know where he was going or why. He was damn sure none of them believed that and seeing how hurt Hardison and Parker looked in particular damn near broke him, but he had to do it, there was no choice.
Eliot was well aware they would never just let him walk out so easy. They cared too much, crazy as that sounded for a bunch of thieves. Add to that the fact Hardison was, without question, the smartest guy Eliot had ever met in his life and they were always going to find him. He just had to hope they had the good sense not to actually follow.
When it came to making the smart choice, Nate and Sophie could usually be relied upon to do that. Hardison too, if he gave himself a chance to think first and act second. That just left one, the singular member of the crew who might just be crazy enough to think she needed to give chase for some reason. That's why it wasn't exactly a shock to Eliot when he opened the door to his new house, three months after leaving Team Leverage, and found an agitated blonde on his doorstep.
"Parker," he said, leaning heavily in the small gap between the door and the wall.
"Why did you do it?" she asked without preamble or context.
Eliot smiled despite the serious look on her face and the anger that laced her tone when she asked the question. It really was so good to see her. He truly hadn't realised how much he might miss them all when he walked away, and somehow, it was Parker he had missed the most.
"I told you at the time," he said then, heaving a sigh. "I didn't have a choice."
"There is always a choice," she told him crossly. "You taught me that, you and the team. We were a team, Eliot. We were... we were family," she said, looking perhaps even more hurt now than the day when he told them all he was leaving. "And you don't abandon family. Other people do, but you don't."
His eyes closed as she said it, as Eliot felt the sharp pain of his own words used against him. Maybe not even things he actually said out loud, but he knew where Parker got the idea that he would never abandon her, or the rest of the team. She had been through so much, been screwed over by so many people, it took months, years even, for her to learn to have faith in anyone, to trust that the team had her back, that Eliot would always be there to catch her if she should fall. When he walked away, he might as well have taken a hammer to her heart, he saw that now, and yet there was no way for him to take it back, no way that he could ever have made a better choice than this one.
"You're right," he told Parker then, slowly nodding his head. "I don't abandon family. The problem is, sometimes, you have to walk away from one part of your family that you know can deal if they have to, so you can help another part that can't take care of themselves."
Parker had her mouth half open, presumably to ask what the hell he meant by that, but Eliot never gave her the chance. Pushing the door open wider, he revealed the truth to her, watching as Parker's mouth fell all the way open and then some. He really hadn't expected any other reaction.
"You... you have a kid?"
She stepped forward into the house then, uninvited and unapologetic as ever Parker had been. Eliot didn't have it in him to reprimand her. After all, since she had found him, she was welcome enough in his home. He had no fears about letting Parker in his place, around his daughter, because that trust he had been thinking of before, that worked both ways.
Crouching down by the playpen, Parker peered over the top at the little girl within, the same way she would if she was figuring out how to steal a diamond. The fact she was looking at his kid like she was almost as precious wasn't lost on Eliot.
"Faith, this is... uh, your Aunt Parker?" he said awkwardly, unsure if either one of them would mind.
Scrambling up onto unsteady legs, Faith toddled over to Parker and reached out a tiny hand. Seemingly not knowing what else to do, Parker took that hand and shook it, the way she would with an adult, only more gently than Eliot had ever seen her do anything.
"Hey," she told the little girl
"Hi," she said back, grinning widely until she finally giggled. "Play?"
"Not right now, sweetheart," Eliot told his daughter. "In a little while. We'll be right back, okay?" he told her, his hand under Parker's elbow encouraging her up from the carpet then.
He just had this feeling that she was going to start saying stuff, asking questions and everything. It wasn't that he minded explaining, but not in front of Faith. She had been through enough already.
Taking Parker with him, they slipped through into the adjoining room and Eliot pulled the sliding door partway across, leaving enough of a gap that he could keep an eye and an ear out for Faith.
When he turned back around, Parker was right there, still without any thought for personal space.
"Her eyes are exactly like yours," she said, gaze fixed on his own. "And she's so pretty."
"Thanks," Eliot told her, unsure what else he was supposed to say to that.
"So, how did you...?" she asked then, gesturing vaguely into the other room.
Eliot smirked, he couldn't help it. "How do you think, Parker?"
She rolled her eyes at that, the both of them knowing she hadn't meant it that way. Parker may still act child-like sometimes, wondering at the world being so unfair, believing in Santa and all, but she did know where babies came from.
"You never told us," she said instead, arms crossed over her chest, tone just a little accusatory, but Eliot didn't flinch.
"I didn't know," he assured her. "At least, not until three months ago. Sherry, her mom, she got in an accident. Faith didn't have anybody else, so they called me and then... then Sherry died. If I didn't take her, then..."
He trailed off, unsure himself whether he was unable or unwilling to go on. He glanced at Parker and found her staring through the gap in the door, no doubt looking at Faith but not seeing anyone but herself, so many years ago.
"Then she would've ended up in the system," she said, her tone flat and cold.
Everything in Eliot told him to wrap his arms around Parker and tell her it was okay, that she was fine, that Faith would always be looked after too. He wanted to do it, but he didn't, because he knew better than anyone how she could react, even with him, even now.
With a deep shuddering breath, Parker seemed to snap back to reality and her usual self.
"You did the right thing," she told Eliot definitely as she turned to look at him.
That earned her a smile. "Thank you, Parker."
"For what?"
"Understanding. You know I never wanted to walk out on everybody, but for her? I had to do it."
When Parker nodded her head in agreement then, it meant more to Eliot than she could ever know. After all, he knew how much he hurt the team when he left, how much he had to have hurt her. He had seen Parker cry a few times and always hated it. When she appeared at his house today, chewing him out for walking out on her when he always made it clear he never would, she had come close to tears and he knew it. Now she knew why he had to do what he did and she didn't just accept that decision he made, she seemed to support it.
"Uh, you plannin' on hanging around?" he asked then. "'Cause you're welcome to stay a while, if you wanted to."
Eliot had no idea how Parker would take the question and only realised half-way through asking it just how much he wanted her to say yes. It wasn't just a relief when she nodded and asked what was for dinner, it actually caused something inside of Eliot to come alive that had lain dormant for a good three months now. Having Parker back in his life, even if it was just for a day, it meant a lot. Probably more than he could ever explain to her, so he didn't say a word.
Six months later
The moment he prised the door open a half-inch, Eliot heard a little voice call out 'Daddy' and then two pairs of thundering food steps came hurrying to meet him.
"Hey, baby girl," he said, grabbing a hold of Faith and swinging her easily up into his arms. "You miss me?"
"Yes!" she told him, joyously hugging him around the neck as tight as she could.
"I didn't miss you," said Parker with a smirk that looked so much like Eliot's own sometimes. "We had way too much fun while you were gone."
"Now that part I believe," Eliot told her, grinning big.
A half hour later, after Faith had talked a mile a minute and told her daddy everything she and Parker had been doing in the two days he had been gone on his 'business trip', she was happy to settle down in front of the TV to watch her favourite cartoon and eat her healthy snack.
Parker stood in the doorway watching the little girl for a moment with a smile on her lips that was just so soft and content.
"So, you two got along okay without me, huh?" asked Eliot, lips near her ear and arm encircling her waist - it was amazing to him still, given how she was with everybody else, that she never even flinched when he did that.
"Of course," she said, actually leaning back into his embrace. "She's the best kid in the world."
"Well, I like to think so," Eliot agreed. "You know, I don't know how I'm ever gonna thank you, Parker. You walked out on a family, you gave up a life you loved, all for her."
"Not all for her," Parker disagreed, turning in his arms and meeting his gaze. "For you... and for me," she admitted eventually, the look on her face suggesting maybe she had only just realised that part herself. "I thought the team was family, and it was, kind of, but you and me and Faith..." she trailed off shaking her head. "This is... everything."
Eliot sighed the sigh of a contented man. "I know exactly what you mean," he told her, pulling her closer and holding her tight as she hugged him back for all she was worth.
Theirs was never going to be a simple life, not with their pasts, not with what was to come in the future, but for as long as they had each other to lean on, there was absolutely nothing they couldn't do.