Posted for the
leverage_bingo prompt: The Ho Ho Ho Job...
Title: The Christmas Miracle Job
Pairing/Characters: Parker/Hardison
Rating: G
Word Count: 760
Summary: He could steal all the riches in the world, but she'd give him the most priceless item he'd ever call his own.
Spoilers: 3.14 - The Ho Ho Ho Job
Notes/Warnings: This was sparked by my beta and best friend,
julietm when she gave me "Parker, Christmas" as a prompt when I was in a writing frenzy. I turned it into something that worked for my
leverage_bingo card. Look mom! Another new fandom. Be gentle. Comments, constructive criticisms welcome. Please see Additional Author's Notes for more insight.
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, regrettably - it's not mine.
When Parker asked him to fix it - it being the weather on Christmas - his heart had nearly broken. She loved Christmas. He'd learned that from watching her as the season drew near. The holiday brought out Parker’s inner child, hidden away for so much of her life, and gave that child a reason to shine. Her innocence about Santa and the joy she desperately wanted to share with others made his heart melt in a million different ways he knew he'd never be able to explain. If he hadn't known he was falling in love with her before then, Christmas would have made it impossible to miss.
All she wanted for Christmas was snow. No matter how often he checked the weather report, the answer was the same. Unseasonably warm for Boston on Christmas. And the one thing she asked him for was to fix it. He had to be on top of his game for the job they were working, but all the while, he was wracking his brain trying to figure out how he was going to give Parker snow for Christmas. He was a genius in a lot of ways and he could do damn near anything... except alter the weather.
Alter the weather? Maybe he couldn't do that for all of Boston but maybe, just maybe... he could alter it for the part of Boston where Parker was on Christmas. He sat up in bed as the thought occurred to him and went to work - even though it was 2am. He wasn't sleeping anyway and wouldn't now that the idea occurred to him. His fingers were twitching furiously, the way they did when he was onto something big during a hack or when the battle was fierce in World of War Craft. But this? This was even more important because it was for Parker.
He was up all night that night and the next and the next one after that, working the Christmas con against Chaos and working on a Christmas con of his own. He hoped she wouldn't mind the deception but since the weather man couldn't tell him if there'd be snow for Christmas, Hardison knew it was all on him.
The team was celebrating in the bar on Christmas Eve, the job finished, the holiday spirit among them. He sat in his chair, playing with the new smart phone from Sophie and Nate... mostly just watching the time tick down. He cast a glance over to Parker, wondering if she suspected... wondering if his plan would work at all. Who was he kidding? He was Alec Freaking Hardison and for Parker, he could do anything. He smiled to no one, thinking one more time that he'd never seen anything as perfect and as pure as Parker in her elf costume, when the clock in the distance struck 9pm. His gaze shifted from Parker to outside and that's when he saw the first of his handiwork trickling down. He pretended not to notice, keeping his eye to the side on Parker and waiting impatiently for her to see.
And when she stood to her feet, motionless for a moment... awestruck by what she saw outside, that's when he knew all the work he'd put into this had been worth it. He watched her, walking slowly as though in disbelief, outside. Out into the entrance she stepped, snow falling every where around her as she lifted her face to the sky. It might have been unseasonably warm in Boston but this particular one square block of downtown would enjoy a white Christmas... at least for the next hour. He wanted to tell her about the snow machine he'd crafted on top of the building, the one he'd taken special care to adjust so that the flakes that fell wouldn't just melt before they hit the ground... flakes that would cover more than just a few feet around the building. He realized he might cause a traffic accident or two, but one look at her face and he figured that was a small price to pay. He didn't care if she ever knew what he'd done. She had asked him to fix it and so he did. That was all the recognition he needed... until she turned her gaze away from the snow and back at him. Her smile told him everything. She knew. She knew he'd made this happen. He could steal all the riches in the world, but that smile she gave would forever be the most priceless item he'd ever call his own.