Fic: Taking Care (Part 2B)
Fic: Taking Care Part 2B
Author: LMX
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Hardison/Eliot/Parker, Nana, OMC
Spoilers: Future!Fic, potential general spoilers for all Seasons 1 and 2. Specifics for The Two Horse Job and The Two Live Crew Job
Warnings: Abstract discussion of child abuse, grumpy teenagers being grumpy teenagers.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the studio, producers and writers except the words themselves and the order I've put them in. Dean, Lana, Reph, Marty, Eric and David, my rancher (Sully) and his mare and foal are original characters with no basis in canon or the real world. (Well, the mare and foal might be based on Candy and Robin, but... I'm sure the two of them won't mind)
Summary: Eliot's got dreams. Dreams he'd thought he'd grow out of once upon a time. Meanwhile Nate and Sophie are finding their dreams don't match up to reality quite how they expected.
- - -
Master Post
- 0 -
"If I give you a set of files can you run this on the screens?" Nate asked tentatively, finishing off the new plan and saving the files on his phone.
Alec scoffed. "I ain't even gonna answer that, give me the files and I'll have you a briefing ready to run in five."
Nate rolled his eyes a little, holding his phone out for Alec to take the files. The transfer was just a quick swipe of his phone over the WiTricity patch next to Alec's computer, and Alec started tapping away, one-handed even as he handed Nate his phone back.
"Right, right. So..." Nate cleared his throat nervously, drawing the other's attention. "I didn't intend this, Maggie," he started, tone already apologetic. "But I couldn't just..."
"What's going on, Nate?" Maggie asked with a soft smile.
"Sophie's on her way," he started, visibly nervous. "Um... Guys, leave that for a minute. What's going to happen next is entirely to be kept in this room."
Nate was treated to a room full of "you moron" glares from the adults as the three kids gave him slightly terrified looks. Alec took over the TV monitor with the first of the briefing photos as Eliot covered his face with his hand.
"Nate," Alec said, "If we're gonna do this you're gonna have to start from the beginning. Explain who we are, what we used to do together..."
"Oh, it's a job!"
Nate was a little surprised at the fond exasperation in Maggie's tone. He'd expected her to be raging. "You're alright with this?" he asked tentatively.
"Oh, I've been expecting it for months," Maggie replied easily. "There was no way you could just go cold turkey like that."
"You guys are creeping us the fuck out." Greg mumbled.
"Greg," Jake snapped, eyes a little wide.
Greg glared back through over-long bangs. "Sorry, am I just talking for myself here?"
"No, I'm pretty weirded too," Danny agreed quietly, moving to sit down next to Greg on the sofa.
Nate looked between the others, tiredly. "While Maggie and I were separated I did a lot of work outside the influence of law enforcement, with Eliot, Hardison, Parker and..." The doorbell rang, and Nate sighed before finishing, "And Sophie."
"You gotta admit, she's got flair, man," Alec grinned, sorting through the files he'd transferred and throwing up an old photo of the five of them back when they'd first met. Eliot's hair almost comically short and falsely mousy, Alec stick-thin like he'd just had a growth spurt, no grey at Nate's temples.
"She's creepy's what she is," Eliot retorted, getting up to answer the door.
"When you say outside the law..." Danny started, still looking uncomfortable.
"We looked out for people who couldn't get help the traditional way," Nate offered. "People being intimidated or conned by the rich and powerful. We acquired enough evidence to convict some bad people, got a lot of reparation funds to where they needed to be, got some people out of some dangerous situations." Nate stood up as Sophie followed Eliot in, leading with a weighty bump but a bright grin.
They waited long enough for Maggie to coo over Sophie's belly and for them to share mutually-interrupted babble over how everything was going before they settled and Sophie took a seat, Maggie introducing the three boys.
"Hello everyone, I'm Sophie," she smiled.
"How?" Jake demanded, ignoring Sophie.
"Well, you see, Parker here is one of the..." Nate stopped as Parker cleared her throat loudly. "The best thief I know," he corrected himself. "Hardison is an incredible hacker, Sophie is a grifter, one of the very best, and Eliot kept us all safe."
"I bust heads and got beat on, Nate," Eliot corrected wryly.
"What did you do?" Greg asked, looking curious where Jake and Danny just looked disbelieving.
"I... well..." Nate considered that for a moment. "I masterminded the cons. Chose the clients..."
"You are all *on* something." Jake rolled his eyes in exaggerated dismissal.
"Hardison, just run the file," Nate frowned, letting Hardison take over and watching the boys closely as they talked through what was going on, and what needed to be done. The plan was fairly simple, but apart from Danny, who was trying very hard to pretend he wasn't at all interested in what was going on, they looked intrigued.
Hardison wrapped up, and Nate looked back at the photo left on the screen of the scheming bastard they were out for this time. "You guys don't have to deal with this after today," Nate said carefully to Maggie and the boys. "I'm giving this to these guys and leaving them with it. They're very good at what they do, they don't need me babysitting."
Parker turned a horrified gaze on Nate, and he shifted uncomfortably. "What if the plan goes wrong?" she said when it became obvious Nate wasn't going to understand her horror from her gaze alone. "The plan always goes wrong, Nate. What happens then?"
"Parker, we've got this," Alec reassured.
"But we need Nate," Parker objected, eyes wide.
"Parker, Nate doesn't want to be a part of this anymore," Eliot reminded, trying hard not to grin as Nate visibly deliberated. "He's not a thief, remember?"
Parker snorted inelegantly. "Yeah, like that argument worked so well before."
"What you should know is that Nate was the best criminal mastermind that ever worked for the good guys," Sophie added wryly, with a conspiratorial grin to the teenagers.
"Ha! Nate as a criminal mastermind," Greg sneered a little, before going back to pretending he wasn't paying any attention to them.
"Actually, I can kind of see that," Danny frowned, pulling at a loose threat on the end of his jeans.
Sophie hid a grin. "Nate, Greg doesn't believe you can do this."
Nate didn't fall for her stirring, shaking his head. "Sophie, this job won't take five of us."
"Us?" Alec picked up on that little slip immediately.
"It can be a warm-down job..." Eliot offered.
"Oh, yes!" Parker declared, "I like that idea."
"No," Nate retorted, a little sharply. "There is absolutely no way I'm running a job with you. I have Maggie and the boys to think about now."
"Are you kidding?" Maggie shot back. "I've always wanted to watch you work. By which I mean, not watch James take you to the cleaners, or get knocked out and have Eliot come to our rescue."
Nate floundered for a moment. "It's not safe, Maggie. Technology now is better than it was then. They'll find us."
"Oh Nate, Nate, man." Alec put his hand on his chest, the picture of hurt pride. "Are you seriously suggesting that my skills ain't up with the times? I'm ashamed of you."
"I thought you didn't do anything illegal anymore?" Nate pressed.
Eliot snorted disparagingly. "Have you met Parker?"
"See, Nate?" Maggie said, an excited grin already in place.
"It's a cakewalk job, Nate," Sophie pressed. "In and out. My part is almost laughable."
"That's because it got written in the last ten minutes and you're heavily pregnant!" Nate retorted, his tone sharpening again.
"Oh! That's what it is!" Parker's grin fell as everyone turned to stare. "What? I'd forgotten." She pouted at their astonishment.
Eliot recovered first, shaking his head. "Look, Nate. We're never going to put Maggie or the kids in danger. If you wanna just go home, we'll respect that."
"Our cake-walks have a tendency to spiral out of control," Nate made his last objection.
"That happens, we are more than ready to deal with it." Eliot added. "You and Maggie get the kids somewhere safe and we clean up the rest."
"Enough with the 'kids', man," Danny objected, and was ignored.
"Plus, we've got Sophie now, with her mind-control powers," Alec grinned, seeing Nate conceed.
"What do you think of spaniels?" Parker put in, as they considered the matter closed and moved on, Nate's defeat already sealed.
"For the job?" Sophie asked, confused.
"No, for forever," Parker retorted, a horrified expression on her face. "Dogs aren't just for cons, Sophie."
"Parker, that's maybe a conversation for after we've ripped off the corporate big-wigs?" Alec broke in, shaking his head. Eliot had covered his face with his hand, dissociating himself.
"But I wanted them to think about it while we were working," Parker complained.
"Fine, sure. You explain to these poor kids why you want a dog," Eliot said, getting up and heading into the kitchen as Sophie's phone started to ring. "Who wants coffee?"
Sophie answered her phone with a bright, "Oh hello darling! How was the zoo?" that faded into rather sharp tones as she stepped into one of the bedrooms and closed the door behind her.
- 0 -
As it turned out, having Sophie in a broken down car was a lot more effective as the opener for the Texan Mechanic scam than having Parker. Half a dozen people had stopped to make sure she was alright before the scam had already started, and in the end they had to leave Nate with her, looking supportive, until just before the mark arrived.
The con went beautifully, and they looked set to have their first ever one-try, no-plan-G, no unexpected surprises job, right up until the moment Sophie's waters broke. Still, the extraction went fairly neatly for an off-the-cuff construction, and Parker had what they needed to close the con, even if it would be the police rushing in to close up at the sad cost of the gloat.
Alec and Eliot rushed Sophie to the nearest hospital - her complaining all the way that she didn't want her baby to be born American. Maggie and Danny had gone to meet her there and Greg, Jack and Nate were just waiting for Parker to circle back around to them. All in all, not a bad six hours work.
Marcus was going to kill them, though. When he found out. And Nate couldn't remember how bad a month premature was, which was giving him palpitations. The idea that it might be very bad was creeping up on him as he called Marcus' cell for a third time and got a ring tone rather than the earlier straight to answer phone calls he'd made.
"Nathan. Where's my wife?"
"Ah, Marcus! Well..."
- 0 -
Lucy Starke was born November 3rd 2014, healthy and loud, in Boston General, at 6 lb 11 oz, with her father at her mother's bedside and two teams of nervous criminals in the waiting room with Maggie and the boys. Marcus kicked them all out as visiting hours finished for the night, promising them an update in the morning and time to visit the following afternoon provided Sophie was up for it.
They headed to the local bar to wet the baby's head, and to discuss the two cons that had been running across the town. Parker had been delighted to spend some more time with Apollo, and Eliot and Alec had been pleased that the rest of the other team - a group of more or less unknowns, though the hacker had an alias Hardison was sure he recognised - appeared to treat both of the thieves with the appropriate amount of respect you should give very-possibly-crazy people. Even Nate's boys - all three of them buzzing from the day's events, despite their attempts to remain unaffected - got involved in a heated games and consoles discussion Alec started with the other team's hacker.
Like a crazy big extended criminal family... it just worked.
- 0 -
Sophie looked tired, but she smiled as the three of them jimmied for position in her room. They'd passed Nate and Maggie on their way out and promised dinner and drinks some time soon for a belated gloat over the successful con, but now all their attention was on Sophie and tiny Lucy.
All Sophie's attention was on the armful of cuddly toys Parker was carrying towards the cot where Lucy was making amused noises.
"Parker," she warned gently. "You can't put all of those on top of her."
Parker gave her a long serious look, made slightly strange by the psychedelic turtle making an escape from under her arm. "But how will she know they're hers if she can't reach them all?" she asked, visibly confused.
Eliot rolled his eyes and moved around to take the seat next to Sophie's bed, watching the entertainment from a distance with a gentle grin.
Alec put one hand around Parker's shoulders and caught the escaping turtle with the other. "She's still pretty small, girl. Give her one to start off with and we'll build up from there."
"But which one?" Parker moaned.
"Give her the pony," Eliot replied without hesitation, ignoring the look the others shared. He leant over to kiss Sophie's forehead and took her hand as they watched Parker pile the toys on every free surface until she had just the pony in her hands. She made a neighing noise and galloped it across the room into the cot, where Lucy rolled to face it and started drooling on its nearest ear.
"Oh, you three," Sophie sighed, grinning broadly despite the dampness in her eyes. "I'm really glad to have you all here with me. It seems like you've been there for the most important events of my life, you're like family now. The thought of doing this without you was terrifying."
Eliot grinned back. "Hardison has had tickets booked to get us all out to Manchester for the last three months. We would've been there."
"Thank you." Sophie's voice cracked a little, and Parker's look turned concerned, creeping over to sit on the edge of her bed.
"You're going to be alright, Sophie," she reassured.
Eliot stood a little abruptly as his phone rang in his pocket. He pushed Alec towards his abandoned chair, and grimaced an apology as he headed towards the door. "Sorry, guys. I just gotta..."
"Go on, spoil this too!" Parker called after him.
"It's just..." Eliot started, hesitating in the doorway.
"Eliot, it's fine," Sophie smiled softly and Eliot smiled back, with an edge of something Sophie couldn't identify as he headed for the door.
Once she was sure he was sure he was out of earshot, she turned to the other two. "Is this his food redistribution effort?" she asked, shuffling to the edge of the bed to check on Lucy.
"He works all of the time. We were supposed to stop working on our road trip and he kept..." Parker gestured vaguely with one hand. "With his phone!"
Sophie frowned, and ignored the childish part of her that had taken that the wrong way. "Did you steal anything while you were away? Did Alec take his laptop with him?" she pressed gently.
"That's different," Parker declared.
"Parker..." Sophie sighed. She knew this, this not-being-able-to-share-something feeling. "Is Eliot enjoying himself?"
"He and Raquel have almost sixty guys working for them now," Alec volunteered. "They've got permanent operations in Israel, South Africa and Egypt. They're trying to set something up in Minnesota where the militarisation of the farm belt is worst."
"Sounds like he's doing good work," Sophie smiled. "Have they had much trouble?"
"Eliot worries all the time, but the worst they've had are a couple of scuffles; bruises, scrapes and a couple of near misses. They're all waiting for the other penny to drop."
"And so are you," Sophie acknowledged, picking Lucy up and handing her to an awkward Parker, giggling as the thief's eyes went huge and her arms tense. Lucy squirmed, and Parker was forced to relax her arms to keep her hold. Sophie smiled and sat down on the bed again.
"He's pissing a lot of very powerful people off." Alec couldn't hide the worry in his voice, even with his eyes on Parker and Lucy.
"Have you talked to him about retiring?" Sophie asked.
"He's off saving the world. How selfish do you have to be to..."
"He asked us if we were going to retire," Parker interrupted Alec's blustering. "He's mean."
"Well, you have to think about it like this." Sophie gently smoothed out the kinks in Lucy's fine dark hair as she grinned up at Parker. "At least he's not being ground to the core fighting every week like he was when we were still working. And he's working with a team who have his back. He's as safe as he ever was before." Sophie glanced at the door. "How's the... long term project coming?"
Hardison reached across the bed to stroke Lucy's tiny hands, and grinned. "I think we might have found... um... 'it'." He shared a grin with Parker, and they both turned their attention back on Lucy.
"And you still think it's the right thing to do?" Sophie pressed.
"More and more every time he goes out," Parker replied.
"And you realise he might not want that. Retirement, I mean. Are you sure springing your plan on him is the right way to do this?"
"Guess we'll find out." Alec grinned absently as Eliot walked back in with an apologetic expression.
- 0 -
In January Eliot caught the newest super-flu on the flight in to Cuba and ended up quarantined there for nearly a month. He got home tired, achy and grouchy and unable to do anything about it. Parker fled to Europe, leaving them to track her movements through the news and the Interpol website for most of March and well into April.
Alec spent the winter and most of the spring building a subtle remote access program into some lazy coding in the newest Windows update. As soon as it went live, he was using it to forward the addresses of people with kiddy porn on their computers to the police. It was one of the biggest and most successful take downs in the history of the internet, and Alec went entirely un-lauded. The grin he got every time the news covered it made Eliot happy to be alive.
Despite being ill, Eliot hadn't actually worked any less, just travelled less - something that Alec and Parker made a point of holding over him every time he voiced an opinion or complained that he wasn't getting back to fitness quickly enough. It was obvious that he was worried about the people out there risking their lives for what he considered to be his personal mission, but Raquel was always reassuring and amused on the phone giving updates so he hadn't made too much of a fuss.
That buffer was maybe why it was such a shock when things suddenly went wrong.
Parker's eyes were serious and dark. "Come home," she said simply, like she'd been thinking about saying a lot more.
"I will," Eliot promised, sharing a glance with Alec and heading for the airport for the first time in three months.
They let him go, because there really wasn't any kind of fuss they could make that would help at all.
"I don't want it to be Eliot," Parker said, finally, to break the silence. They were still stood by the door, as if waiting for Eliot to walk straight back in.
"What?" Alec asked, thrown.
"I don't want to get a call and have to go out somewhere to bring back Eliot's body," Parker explained, and Alec had to swallow hard at the thought.
"Nobody wants that, Parker. Nobody," he replied vehemently.
"There are people who don't like the work he's doing," Parker pointed out. "They don't want him to come home."
She had a point. "Well, he's very good at what he does," Alec tried. "He isn't going to get caught."
"Raquel's very good at what she does too. Maybe better. Eliot was scared to fight her."
Alec had been trying so hard not to think about that. They still didn't know what Eliot was going to find out there, only that the team hadn't checked in. That there had been fighting in the area they were supposed to be working in. "She's going to be okay. All of them are going to be okay."
"You can't know that," Parker said blandly. "She could be dead."
"Parker." Alec shut his eyes, trying to remember how they'd last covered this. They were trying to work to a set list of rules to help Parker understand things like this, but it was so easy to forget how they'd said it the first time, so they didn't contradict themselves and just confuse the matter.
"I thought the death-thing was only in front of people who cared about..." Parker started.
"No. That one is for everyone," Alec grasped at the hint. "And we *do* care. Raquel's a friend of Eliot's."
"But you hate her," Parker objected.
"I don't..." And that one *was* complicated. "I care that Eliot cares, alright? It'd hurt him if she was killed."
"So what are we going to do about Eliot not getting killed?" Parker demanded.
"I'm not sure there's anything we can do. Eliot does what Eliot wants to do." Alec shrugged. "That's just... Eliot."
"There is something we can do," Parker grinned dangerously. "I think it's time for the plan."
- 0 -
Eliot pulled out his phone as he pulled into the busy traffic on the way into the airport. Nate's number was still on speed dial, but he didn't bother pulling out the camera.
"Eliot?" Nate's voice came through the car speakers. He sounded light, happy. It made Eliot grin.
"Nate, I gotta go out of town for a bit," he said, keeping it simple. No need to weigh on Nate with this. "I need you to keep an eye on Alec and Parker."
"What's going on, Eliot?" Nate's voice was immediately sharp and attentive. Eliot really had to get himself back in gear if Nate had picked up on the tension in his voice so easily. Or maybe it was just that Nate knew him too well these days.
"Three of my guys got picked up in the militarised farming belt, the Minnesota end," Eliot simplified. "I need to get them home. There are two guys meeting me out there to help with the extraction."
"Is Raquel going in with you?" Nate asked tentatively.
"She's one of the three," Eliot heard his voice get sharp, but figured he was probably forgiven when Nate replied:
"Shit."
"Always knew this was going to happen one day," Eliot continued. "Was as likely on American soil as any other."
"Just don't... don't get killed over bodies, Eliot." Nate hesitated. "Good luck getting them all home."
"Alec and Parker..." Eliot pressed.
"Of course."
- 0 -
Eliot smiled as he picked David out of the crowd at the airport, duffel over his shoulder and broad rimmed hat covering his eyes. At twenty five he looked every bit the young American tourist. Eric was less subtle, in his khakis with an Army bag at his feet as he lit a cigarette a little desperately, inches out of the no smoking zone.
"Gentlemen," Eliot greeted, only a little sarcastically. "Nice of you to make it."
They picked up a rental car that didn't look too much like a military vehicle but would get them where they needed to go regardless of the state of the roads they came across. Most of the roads had been strictly maintained by the military after they'd taken control of the area and declared martial law, but to get access to some of the more restricted areas, or the areas ignored by the military for their lack of tactical benefit, they would have to work for it.
They were most of the way to the camp, still on decent roads surrounded by parched fields, when the radios crackled into life. "Spencer," Dayan's voice was a blessed relief.
Eliot pulled over hard enough to rattle the jeep alarmingly and caught the two-way that David launched at him.
"Dayan, talk," he demanded shortly.
"We are on the ridge two k' north-north-east of you."
Eliot looked up and oriented himself, tracking the higher ground and identifying the areas of cover on the ridge. Moments later he saw a flash of reflected light. "Give us five. Keep us in your scope, we dropped a tail on the way out of the suburbs."
"I see nothing now," she reassured. "I will be watching."
Perhaps seeing how relieved Eliot was, David asked; "So, how much do you care about this girl, Spencer? I'd heard rumours you'd been domesticated, but no one's willing to spill the beans."
Eliot smiled. "Dayan's just a partner in the relief effort. She's married, with a little boy."
"Is that Raquel Dayan?" Eric pushed. "Shit, Spencer. I heard she killed a guy with a mop."
"It was a broom." Eliot grinned a little wider. "And there were two guys."
"I'm not sure I want a woman like that pointing a rifle at me," David grinned, a little wild.
"She's covering our approach, and she's a hell of a shot. I should know."
"Oh, that's a leading statement." David chuckled. "Did you teach her or something?"
Eliot dropped him a look. "No, she *shot me*."
As they broached a rise there was suddenly the wreckage of a light armoured Jeep in the road in front of them, explosive damage to the underside, bullet holes across the top.
"Dayan?" David asked across the radio as Eliot slowed the truck to a crawl, all eyes scanning the road passing under their tyres.
"The Jeep is ours," she answered the question before he could ask it. "You should be safe to continue up to us."
"Are we watching for mines? IEDs?" David asked.
"The scouts had a rocket launcher. He does not have one any more," she replied simply. "There is a group coming from the south west. Twenty minutes."
"Get ready, ma'am. We're almost on top of you."
- 0 -
As rescues went, it was more offering a lift. The three of them were scraped and bruised and Marty looked like he was nursing a fever with a two day old bullet scrape across his chest, but they all piled into the vehicle under their own steam and Eliot high-tailed it out of there before anyone even noticed they'd arrived.
For the first time in what felt like a very long time, Eliot and Raquel took a moment, sat side by side in the airport as they waited for their respective flights.
"You've gotta stop upstaging my rescues," Eliot told her.
She shrugged, "One day you *will* make a mistake, and I will be able to return the favour."
"Keep dreaming," Eliot chuckled, scanning the airport lounge absently.
Raquel sighed seriously. "Reph thinks we are having an affair," she voiced. It struck Eliot as strange that they'd never talked about this. Up until this point pretty much every moment they'd been together had been spent frenetically planning the next move.
"So does Hardison," Eliot shrugged. "Or he did. I don't know anymore."
Raquel frowned at him, looking away as an armed security unit passed them. "You still call him that?" she asked once they had gone.
Eliot snorted a laugh and shook his head. "Bad habit. I don't do it at home."
"A distancing tactic," she nodded once, acknowledging the decision. "Why doesn't your pretty thief worry?"
"Parker?" Eliot smiled to himself. "I don't try and work out Parker any more. I don't know if she'd care if I was sleeping around, so long as I came home and made her pancakes every so often."
"Reph thinks that now Mikael is born I should be home to care for him," she said quietly, sinking down into an uncharacteristic slouch.
"Reph sounds suicidal," Eliot observed with a grin.
"I think I am calmer now than I was when I was younger." Raquel offered and amused grin of her own.
"It's a survival trait."
"Perhaps."
Eliot scanned the lounge again, spotting Eric on his way back towards them. "Would it help for me to talk to Reph?"
"I would not be home any more often," Raquel observed.
"So long as you get home," Eliot added, his voice serious. He held her gaze for a long moment before scanning the lounge again.
"Eliot, do you ever think about stopping?" she asked gently.
"I'm not the one with the baby boy at home."
"That's not an answer," she pointed out.
"No, it's not."
- 0 -
Eliot hurt all over, he was tired beyond anything he'd felt in a long time and the rare serious conversation with Raquel had squashed any of the adrenaline after a job closed unexpectedly easily. He'd watched her board her flight home, knowing Reph was more than capable of making sure Raquel was alright when she got to the other end.
What he'd really wanted was to get home to the two people he trusted to make sure *he* was alright. Instead he'd got back to Boston to find the house empty and a message from Parker on the whiteboard that just read: "We have a plan, don't worry."
The girl really hadn't got the hand of reassuring messages.
His patience, and his exhaustion-induced calm, lasted long enough for a shower. He had Alec's number up on his phone before his hair was dry.
"You alright?" he asked the moment the phone connected, before Alec had even started the video feed.
"Hey!" Alec's face appeared and wobbled about a bit as he got the camera stuck on the dashboard of the car. He was sat in the passenger seat and the scenery outside his window was dry-looking brushland. He could have been a lot of places in the world, but he was in his own car, so he figured he was probably still in America somewhere. "You're home!"
"I'm home. You're not!" Eliot growled in response.
"Oh, yeah... man. Sorry about that. We're on our way back now. We meant to beat you back, but I missed the alert for your plane. There wasn't *any* internet. Can you believe that? Even my phone couldn't pick anything up. I didn't think that was possible anymore."
"Eliot." Parker's voice interrupted. Eliot waited while Alec reached out and twisted the camera to show Parker in the driver's seat. It had been unlikely anyone else was driving, but seeing her let that last little tightness in his chest relax. She glanced across at the camera and then put her eyes back on the road, a grin tugging at the side of her mouth. "You found her." She stated it rather than asked, obviously seeing something in his face. She was getting good at reading him.
"Yeah," he nodded, finding his own smile again. Parker had a way of cheering him up no matter what.
"Well good," she said with finality. "Now shush. I'm driving."
Alec turned the camera back to himself and the landscape out the window turned into freeway. "We'll be home about eight. Get some sleep and we'll be back before you know it."
"What is your obsession with sleep, man?"
"Have dinner ready for us!" Parker shouted across.
"God yes." Alec agreed. "Parker wouldn't let us stop for fast food. I've been starving for miles."
"Where the hell have you been?"
"We'll tell you when we get home," Alec grinned.
- 0 -
Part 2C
Author: LMX
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Hardison/Eliot/Parker, Nana, OMC
Spoilers: Future!Fic, potential general spoilers for all Seasons 1 and 2. Specifics for The Two Horse Job and The Two Live Crew Job
Warnings: Abstract discussion of child abuse, grumpy teenagers being grumpy teenagers.
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the studio, producers and writers except the words themselves and the order I've put them in. Dean, Lana, Reph, Marty, Eric and David, my rancher (Sully) and his mare and foal are original characters with no basis in canon or the real world. (Well, the mare and foal might be based on Candy and Robin, but... I'm sure the two of them won't mind)
Summary: Eliot's got dreams. Dreams he'd thought he'd grow out of once upon a time. Meanwhile Nate and Sophie are finding their dreams don't match up to reality quite how they expected.
- - -
Master Post
- 0 -
"If I give you a set of files can you run this on the screens?" Nate asked tentatively, finishing off the new plan and saving the files on his phone.
Alec scoffed. "I ain't even gonna answer that, give me the files and I'll have you a briefing ready to run in five."
Nate rolled his eyes a little, holding his phone out for Alec to take the files. The transfer was just a quick swipe of his phone over the WiTricity patch next to Alec's computer, and Alec started tapping away, one-handed even as he handed Nate his phone back.
"Right, right. So..." Nate cleared his throat nervously, drawing the other's attention. "I didn't intend this, Maggie," he started, tone already apologetic. "But I couldn't just..."
"What's going on, Nate?" Maggie asked with a soft smile.
"Sophie's on her way," he started, visibly nervous. "Um... Guys, leave that for a minute. What's going to happen next is entirely to be kept in this room."
Nate was treated to a room full of "you moron" glares from the adults as the three kids gave him slightly terrified looks. Alec took over the TV monitor with the first of the briefing photos as Eliot covered his face with his hand.
"Nate," Alec said, "If we're gonna do this you're gonna have to start from the beginning. Explain who we are, what we used to do together..."
"Oh, it's a job!"
Nate was a little surprised at the fond exasperation in Maggie's tone. He'd expected her to be raging. "You're alright with this?" he asked tentatively.
"Oh, I've been expecting it for months," Maggie replied easily. "There was no way you could just go cold turkey like that."
"You guys are creeping us the fuck out." Greg mumbled.
"Greg," Jake snapped, eyes a little wide.
Greg glared back through over-long bangs. "Sorry, am I just talking for myself here?"
"No, I'm pretty weirded too," Danny agreed quietly, moving to sit down next to Greg on the sofa.
Nate looked between the others, tiredly. "While Maggie and I were separated I did a lot of work outside the influence of law enforcement, with Eliot, Hardison, Parker and..." The doorbell rang, and Nate sighed before finishing, "And Sophie."
"You gotta admit, she's got flair, man," Alec grinned, sorting through the files he'd transferred and throwing up an old photo of the five of them back when they'd first met. Eliot's hair almost comically short and falsely mousy, Alec stick-thin like he'd just had a growth spurt, no grey at Nate's temples.
"She's creepy's what she is," Eliot retorted, getting up to answer the door.
"When you say outside the law..." Danny started, still looking uncomfortable.
"We looked out for people who couldn't get help the traditional way," Nate offered. "People being intimidated or conned by the rich and powerful. We acquired enough evidence to convict some bad people, got a lot of reparation funds to where they needed to be, got some people out of some dangerous situations." Nate stood up as Sophie followed Eliot in, leading with a weighty bump but a bright grin.
They waited long enough for Maggie to coo over Sophie's belly and for them to share mutually-interrupted babble over how everything was going before they settled and Sophie took a seat, Maggie introducing the three boys.
"Hello everyone, I'm Sophie," she smiled.
"How?" Jake demanded, ignoring Sophie.
"Well, you see, Parker here is one of the..." Nate stopped as Parker cleared her throat loudly. "The best thief I know," he corrected himself. "Hardison is an incredible hacker, Sophie is a grifter, one of the very best, and Eliot kept us all safe."
"I bust heads and got beat on, Nate," Eliot corrected wryly.
"What did you do?" Greg asked, looking curious where Jake and Danny just looked disbelieving.
"I... well..." Nate considered that for a moment. "I masterminded the cons. Chose the clients..."
"You are all *on* something." Jake rolled his eyes in exaggerated dismissal.
"Hardison, just run the file," Nate frowned, letting Hardison take over and watching the boys closely as they talked through what was going on, and what needed to be done. The plan was fairly simple, but apart from Danny, who was trying very hard to pretend he wasn't at all interested in what was going on, they looked intrigued.
Hardison wrapped up, and Nate looked back at the photo left on the screen of the scheming bastard they were out for this time. "You guys don't have to deal with this after today," Nate said carefully to Maggie and the boys. "I'm giving this to these guys and leaving them with it. They're very good at what they do, they don't need me babysitting."
Parker turned a horrified gaze on Nate, and he shifted uncomfortably. "What if the plan goes wrong?" she said when it became obvious Nate wasn't going to understand her horror from her gaze alone. "The plan always goes wrong, Nate. What happens then?"
"Parker, we've got this," Alec reassured.
"But we need Nate," Parker objected, eyes wide.
"Parker, Nate doesn't want to be a part of this anymore," Eliot reminded, trying hard not to grin as Nate visibly deliberated. "He's not a thief, remember?"
Parker snorted inelegantly. "Yeah, like that argument worked so well before."
"What you should know is that Nate was the best criminal mastermind that ever worked for the good guys," Sophie added wryly, with a conspiratorial grin to the teenagers.
"Ha! Nate as a criminal mastermind," Greg sneered a little, before going back to pretending he wasn't paying any attention to them.
"Actually, I can kind of see that," Danny frowned, pulling at a loose threat on the end of his jeans.
Sophie hid a grin. "Nate, Greg doesn't believe you can do this."
Nate didn't fall for her stirring, shaking his head. "Sophie, this job won't take five of us."
"Us?" Alec picked up on that little slip immediately.
"It can be a warm-down job..." Eliot offered.
"Oh, yes!" Parker declared, "I like that idea."
"No," Nate retorted, a little sharply. "There is absolutely no way I'm running a job with you. I have Maggie and the boys to think about now."
"Are you kidding?" Maggie shot back. "I've always wanted to watch you work. By which I mean, not watch James take you to the cleaners, or get knocked out and have Eliot come to our rescue."
Nate floundered for a moment. "It's not safe, Maggie. Technology now is better than it was then. They'll find us."
"Oh Nate, Nate, man." Alec put his hand on his chest, the picture of hurt pride. "Are you seriously suggesting that my skills ain't up with the times? I'm ashamed of you."
"I thought you didn't do anything illegal anymore?" Nate pressed.
Eliot snorted disparagingly. "Have you met Parker?"
"See, Nate?" Maggie said, an excited grin already in place.
"It's a cakewalk job, Nate," Sophie pressed. "In and out. My part is almost laughable."
"That's because it got written in the last ten minutes and you're heavily pregnant!" Nate retorted, his tone sharpening again.
"Oh! That's what it is!" Parker's grin fell as everyone turned to stare. "What? I'd forgotten." She pouted at their astonishment.
Eliot recovered first, shaking his head. "Look, Nate. We're never going to put Maggie or the kids in danger. If you wanna just go home, we'll respect that."
"Our cake-walks have a tendency to spiral out of control," Nate made his last objection.
"That happens, we are more than ready to deal with it." Eliot added. "You and Maggie get the kids somewhere safe and we clean up the rest."
"Enough with the 'kids', man," Danny objected, and was ignored.
"Plus, we've got Sophie now, with her mind-control powers," Alec grinned, seeing Nate conceed.
"What do you think of spaniels?" Parker put in, as they considered the matter closed and moved on, Nate's defeat already sealed.
"For the job?" Sophie asked, confused.
"No, for forever," Parker retorted, a horrified expression on her face. "Dogs aren't just for cons, Sophie."
"Parker, that's maybe a conversation for after we've ripped off the corporate big-wigs?" Alec broke in, shaking his head. Eliot had covered his face with his hand, dissociating himself.
"But I wanted them to think about it while we were working," Parker complained.
"Fine, sure. You explain to these poor kids why you want a dog," Eliot said, getting up and heading into the kitchen as Sophie's phone started to ring. "Who wants coffee?"
Sophie answered her phone with a bright, "Oh hello darling! How was the zoo?" that faded into rather sharp tones as she stepped into one of the bedrooms and closed the door behind her.
- 0 -
As it turned out, having Sophie in a broken down car was a lot more effective as the opener for the Texan Mechanic scam than having Parker. Half a dozen people had stopped to make sure she was alright before the scam had already started, and in the end they had to leave Nate with her, looking supportive, until just before the mark arrived.
The con went beautifully, and they looked set to have their first ever one-try, no-plan-G, no unexpected surprises job, right up until the moment Sophie's waters broke. Still, the extraction went fairly neatly for an off-the-cuff construction, and Parker had what they needed to close the con, even if it would be the police rushing in to close up at the sad cost of the gloat.
Alec and Eliot rushed Sophie to the nearest hospital - her complaining all the way that she didn't want her baby to be born American. Maggie and Danny had gone to meet her there and Greg, Jack and Nate were just waiting for Parker to circle back around to them. All in all, not a bad six hours work.
Marcus was going to kill them, though. When he found out. And Nate couldn't remember how bad a month premature was, which was giving him palpitations. The idea that it might be very bad was creeping up on him as he called Marcus' cell for a third time and got a ring tone rather than the earlier straight to answer phone calls he'd made.
"Nathan. Where's my wife?"
"Ah, Marcus! Well..."
- 0 -
Lucy Starke was born November 3rd 2014, healthy and loud, in Boston General, at 6 lb 11 oz, with her father at her mother's bedside and two teams of nervous criminals in the waiting room with Maggie and the boys. Marcus kicked them all out as visiting hours finished for the night, promising them an update in the morning and time to visit the following afternoon provided Sophie was up for it.
They headed to the local bar to wet the baby's head, and to discuss the two cons that had been running across the town. Parker had been delighted to spend some more time with Apollo, and Eliot and Alec had been pleased that the rest of the other team - a group of more or less unknowns, though the hacker had an alias Hardison was sure he recognised - appeared to treat both of the thieves with the appropriate amount of respect you should give very-possibly-crazy people. Even Nate's boys - all three of them buzzing from the day's events, despite their attempts to remain unaffected - got involved in a heated games and consoles discussion Alec started with the other team's hacker.
Like a crazy big extended criminal family... it just worked.
- 0 -
Sophie looked tired, but she smiled as the three of them jimmied for position in her room. They'd passed Nate and Maggie on their way out and promised dinner and drinks some time soon for a belated gloat over the successful con, but now all their attention was on Sophie and tiny Lucy.
All Sophie's attention was on the armful of cuddly toys Parker was carrying towards the cot where Lucy was making amused noises.
"Parker," she warned gently. "You can't put all of those on top of her."
Parker gave her a long serious look, made slightly strange by the psychedelic turtle making an escape from under her arm. "But how will she know they're hers if she can't reach them all?" she asked, visibly confused.
Eliot rolled his eyes and moved around to take the seat next to Sophie's bed, watching the entertainment from a distance with a gentle grin.
Alec put one hand around Parker's shoulders and caught the escaping turtle with the other. "She's still pretty small, girl. Give her one to start off with and we'll build up from there."
"But which one?" Parker moaned.
"Give her the pony," Eliot replied without hesitation, ignoring the look the others shared. He leant over to kiss Sophie's forehead and took her hand as they watched Parker pile the toys on every free surface until she had just the pony in her hands. She made a neighing noise and galloped it across the room into the cot, where Lucy rolled to face it and started drooling on its nearest ear.
"Oh, you three," Sophie sighed, grinning broadly despite the dampness in her eyes. "I'm really glad to have you all here with me. It seems like you've been there for the most important events of my life, you're like family now. The thought of doing this without you was terrifying."
Eliot grinned back. "Hardison has had tickets booked to get us all out to Manchester for the last three months. We would've been there."
"Thank you." Sophie's voice cracked a little, and Parker's look turned concerned, creeping over to sit on the edge of her bed.
"You're going to be alright, Sophie," she reassured.
Eliot stood a little abruptly as his phone rang in his pocket. He pushed Alec towards his abandoned chair, and grimaced an apology as he headed towards the door. "Sorry, guys. I just gotta..."
"Go on, spoil this too!" Parker called after him.
"It's just..." Eliot started, hesitating in the doorway.
"Eliot, it's fine," Sophie smiled softly and Eliot smiled back, with an edge of something Sophie couldn't identify as he headed for the door.
Once she was sure he was sure he was out of earshot, she turned to the other two. "Is this his food redistribution effort?" she asked, shuffling to the edge of the bed to check on Lucy.
"He works all of the time. We were supposed to stop working on our road trip and he kept..." Parker gestured vaguely with one hand. "With his phone!"
Sophie frowned, and ignored the childish part of her that had taken that the wrong way. "Did you steal anything while you were away? Did Alec take his laptop with him?" she pressed gently.
"That's different," Parker declared.
"Parker..." Sophie sighed. She knew this, this not-being-able-to-share-something feeling. "Is Eliot enjoying himself?"
"He and Raquel have almost sixty guys working for them now," Alec volunteered. "They've got permanent operations in Israel, South Africa and Egypt. They're trying to set something up in Minnesota where the militarisation of the farm belt is worst."
"Sounds like he's doing good work," Sophie smiled. "Have they had much trouble?"
"Eliot worries all the time, but the worst they've had are a couple of scuffles; bruises, scrapes and a couple of near misses. They're all waiting for the other penny to drop."
"And so are you," Sophie acknowledged, picking Lucy up and handing her to an awkward Parker, giggling as the thief's eyes went huge and her arms tense. Lucy squirmed, and Parker was forced to relax her arms to keep her hold. Sophie smiled and sat down on the bed again.
"He's pissing a lot of very powerful people off." Alec couldn't hide the worry in his voice, even with his eyes on Parker and Lucy.
"Have you talked to him about retiring?" Sophie asked.
"He's off saving the world. How selfish do you have to be to..."
"He asked us if we were going to retire," Parker interrupted Alec's blustering. "He's mean."
"Well, you have to think about it like this." Sophie gently smoothed out the kinks in Lucy's fine dark hair as she grinned up at Parker. "At least he's not being ground to the core fighting every week like he was when we were still working. And he's working with a team who have his back. He's as safe as he ever was before." Sophie glanced at the door. "How's the... long term project coming?"
Hardison reached across the bed to stroke Lucy's tiny hands, and grinned. "I think we might have found... um... 'it'." He shared a grin with Parker, and they both turned their attention back on Lucy.
"And you still think it's the right thing to do?" Sophie pressed.
"More and more every time he goes out," Parker replied.
"And you realise he might not want that. Retirement, I mean. Are you sure springing your plan on him is the right way to do this?"
"Guess we'll find out." Alec grinned absently as Eliot walked back in with an apologetic expression.
- 0 -
In January Eliot caught the newest super-flu on the flight in to Cuba and ended up quarantined there for nearly a month. He got home tired, achy and grouchy and unable to do anything about it. Parker fled to Europe, leaving them to track her movements through the news and the Interpol website for most of March and well into April.
Alec spent the winter and most of the spring building a subtle remote access program into some lazy coding in the newest Windows update. As soon as it went live, he was using it to forward the addresses of people with kiddy porn on their computers to the police. It was one of the biggest and most successful take downs in the history of the internet, and Alec went entirely un-lauded. The grin he got every time the news covered it made Eliot happy to be alive.
Despite being ill, Eliot hadn't actually worked any less, just travelled less - something that Alec and Parker made a point of holding over him every time he voiced an opinion or complained that he wasn't getting back to fitness quickly enough. It was obvious that he was worried about the people out there risking their lives for what he considered to be his personal mission, but Raquel was always reassuring and amused on the phone giving updates so he hadn't made too much of a fuss.
That buffer was maybe why it was such a shock when things suddenly went wrong.
Parker's eyes were serious and dark. "Come home," she said simply, like she'd been thinking about saying a lot more.
"I will," Eliot promised, sharing a glance with Alec and heading for the airport for the first time in three months.
They let him go, because there really wasn't any kind of fuss they could make that would help at all.
"I don't want it to be Eliot," Parker said, finally, to break the silence. They were still stood by the door, as if waiting for Eliot to walk straight back in.
"What?" Alec asked, thrown.
"I don't want to get a call and have to go out somewhere to bring back Eliot's body," Parker explained, and Alec had to swallow hard at the thought.
"Nobody wants that, Parker. Nobody," he replied vehemently.
"There are people who don't like the work he's doing," Parker pointed out. "They don't want him to come home."
She had a point. "Well, he's very good at what he does," Alec tried. "He isn't going to get caught."
"Raquel's very good at what she does too. Maybe better. Eliot was scared to fight her."
Alec had been trying so hard not to think about that. They still didn't know what Eliot was going to find out there, only that the team hadn't checked in. That there had been fighting in the area they were supposed to be working in. "She's going to be okay. All of them are going to be okay."
"You can't know that," Parker said blandly. "She could be dead."
"Parker." Alec shut his eyes, trying to remember how they'd last covered this. They were trying to work to a set list of rules to help Parker understand things like this, but it was so easy to forget how they'd said it the first time, so they didn't contradict themselves and just confuse the matter.
"I thought the death-thing was only in front of people who cared about..." Parker started.
"No. That one is for everyone," Alec grasped at the hint. "And we *do* care. Raquel's a friend of Eliot's."
"But you hate her," Parker objected.
"I don't..." And that one *was* complicated. "I care that Eliot cares, alright? It'd hurt him if she was killed."
"So what are we going to do about Eliot not getting killed?" Parker demanded.
"I'm not sure there's anything we can do. Eliot does what Eliot wants to do." Alec shrugged. "That's just... Eliot."
"There is something we can do," Parker grinned dangerously. "I think it's time for the plan."
- 0 -
Eliot pulled out his phone as he pulled into the busy traffic on the way into the airport. Nate's number was still on speed dial, but he didn't bother pulling out the camera.
"Eliot?" Nate's voice came through the car speakers. He sounded light, happy. It made Eliot grin.
"Nate, I gotta go out of town for a bit," he said, keeping it simple. No need to weigh on Nate with this. "I need you to keep an eye on Alec and Parker."
"What's going on, Eliot?" Nate's voice was immediately sharp and attentive. Eliot really had to get himself back in gear if Nate had picked up on the tension in his voice so easily. Or maybe it was just that Nate knew him too well these days.
"Three of my guys got picked up in the militarised farming belt, the Minnesota end," Eliot simplified. "I need to get them home. There are two guys meeting me out there to help with the extraction."
"Is Raquel going in with you?" Nate asked tentatively.
"She's one of the three," Eliot heard his voice get sharp, but figured he was probably forgiven when Nate replied:
"Shit."
"Always knew this was going to happen one day," Eliot continued. "Was as likely on American soil as any other."
"Just don't... don't get killed over bodies, Eliot." Nate hesitated. "Good luck getting them all home."
"Alec and Parker..." Eliot pressed.
"Of course."
- 0 -
Eliot smiled as he picked David out of the crowd at the airport, duffel over his shoulder and broad rimmed hat covering his eyes. At twenty five he looked every bit the young American tourist. Eric was less subtle, in his khakis with an Army bag at his feet as he lit a cigarette a little desperately, inches out of the no smoking zone.
"Gentlemen," Eliot greeted, only a little sarcastically. "Nice of you to make it."
They picked up a rental car that didn't look too much like a military vehicle but would get them where they needed to go regardless of the state of the roads they came across. Most of the roads had been strictly maintained by the military after they'd taken control of the area and declared martial law, but to get access to some of the more restricted areas, or the areas ignored by the military for their lack of tactical benefit, they would have to work for it.
They were most of the way to the camp, still on decent roads surrounded by parched fields, when the radios crackled into life. "Spencer," Dayan's voice was a blessed relief.
Eliot pulled over hard enough to rattle the jeep alarmingly and caught the two-way that David launched at him.
"Dayan, talk," he demanded shortly.
"We are on the ridge two k' north-north-east of you."
Eliot looked up and oriented himself, tracking the higher ground and identifying the areas of cover on the ridge. Moments later he saw a flash of reflected light. "Give us five. Keep us in your scope, we dropped a tail on the way out of the suburbs."
"I see nothing now," she reassured. "I will be watching."
Perhaps seeing how relieved Eliot was, David asked; "So, how much do you care about this girl, Spencer? I'd heard rumours you'd been domesticated, but no one's willing to spill the beans."
Eliot smiled. "Dayan's just a partner in the relief effort. She's married, with a little boy."
"Is that Raquel Dayan?" Eric pushed. "Shit, Spencer. I heard she killed a guy with a mop."
"It was a broom." Eliot grinned a little wider. "And there were two guys."
"I'm not sure I want a woman like that pointing a rifle at me," David grinned, a little wild.
"She's covering our approach, and she's a hell of a shot. I should know."
"Oh, that's a leading statement." David chuckled. "Did you teach her or something?"
Eliot dropped him a look. "No, she *shot me*."
As they broached a rise there was suddenly the wreckage of a light armoured Jeep in the road in front of them, explosive damage to the underside, bullet holes across the top.
"Dayan?" David asked across the radio as Eliot slowed the truck to a crawl, all eyes scanning the road passing under their tyres.
"The Jeep is ours," she answered the question before he could ask it. "You should be safe to continue up to us."
"Are we watching for mines? IEDs?" David asked.
"The scouts had a rocket launcher. He does not have one any more," she replied simply. "There is a group coming from the south west. Twenty minutes."
"Get ready, ma'am. We're almost on top of you."
- 0 -
As rescues went, it was more offering a lift. The three of them were scraped and bruised and Marty looked like he was nursing a fever with a two day old bullet scrape across his chest, but they all piled into the vehicle under their own steam and Eliot high-tailed it out of there before anyone even noticed they'd arrived.
For the first time in what felt like a very long time, Eliot and Raquel took a moment, sat side by side in the airport as they waited for their respective flights.
"You've gotta stop upstaging my rescues," Eliot told her.
She shrugged, "One day you *will* make a mistake, and I will be able to return the favour."
"Keep dreaming," Eliot chuckled, scanning the airport lounge absently.
Raquel sighed seriously. "Reph thinks we are having an affair," she voiced. It struck Eliot as strange that they'd never talked about this. Up until this point pretty much every moment they'd been together had been spent frenetically planning the next move.
"So does Hardison," Eliot shrugged. "Or he did. I don't know anymore."
Raquel frowned at him, looking away as an armed security unit passed them. "You still call him that?" she asked once they had gone.
Eliot snorted a laugh and shook his head. "Bad habit. I don't do it at home."
"A distancing tactic," she nodded once, acknowledging the decision. "Why doesn't your pretty thief worry?"
"Parker?" Eliot smiled to himself. "I don't try and work out Parker any more. I don't know if she'd care if I was sleeping around, so long as I came home and made her pancakes every so often."
"Reph thinks that now Mikael is born I should be home to care for him," she said quietly, sinking down into an uncharacteristic slouch.
"Reph sounds suicidal," Eliot observed with a grin.
"I think I am calmer now than I was when I was younger." Raquel offered and amused grin of her own.
"It's a survival trait."
"Perhaps."
Eliot scanned the lounge again, spotting Eric on his way back towards them. "Would it help for me to talk to Reph?"
"I would not be home any more often," Raquel observed.
"So long as you get home," Eliot added, his voice serious. He held her gaze for a long moment before scanning the lounge again.
"Eliot, do you ever think about stopping?" she asked gently.
"I'm not the one with the baby boy at home."
"That's not an answer," she pointed out.
"No, it's not."
- 0 -
Eliot hurt all over, he was tired beyond anything he'd felt in a long time and the rare serious conversation with Raquel had squashed any of the adrenaline after a job closed unexpectedly easily. He'd watched her board her flight home, knowing Reph was more than capable of making sure Raquel was alright when she got to the other end.
What he'd really wanted was to get home to the two people he trusted to make sure *he* was alright. Instead he'd got back to Boston to find the house empty and a message from Parker on the whiteboard that just read: "We have a plan, don't worry."
The girl really hadn't got the hand of reassuring messages.
His patience, and his exhaustion-induced calm, lasted long enough for a shower. He had Alec's number up on his phone before his hair was dry.
"You alright?" he asked the moment the phone connected, before Alec had even started the video feed.
"Hey!" Alec's face appeared and wobbled about a bit as he got the camera stuck on the dashboard of the car. He was sat in the passenger seat and the scenery outside his window was dry-looking brushland. He could have been a lot of places in the world, but he was in his own car, so he figured he was probably still in America somewhere. "You're home!"
"I'm home. You're not!" Eliot growled in response.
"Oh, yeah... man. Sorry about that. We're on our way back now. We meant to beat you back, but I missed the alert for your plane. There wasn't *any* internet. Can you believe that? Even my phone couldn't pick anything up. I didn't think that was possible anymore."
"Eliot." Parker's voice interrupted. Eliot waited while Alec reached out and twisted the camera to show Parker in the driver's seat. It had been unlikely anyone else was driving, but seeing her let that last little tightness in his chest relax. She glanced across at the camera and then put her eyes back on the road, a grin tugging at the side of her mouth. "You found her." She stated it rather than asked, obviously seeing something in his face. She was getting good at reading him.
"Yeah," he nodded, finding his own smile again. Parker had a way of cheering him up no matter what.
"Well good," she said with finality. "Now shush. I'm driving."
Alec turned the camera back to himself and the landscape out the window turned into freeway. "We'll be home about eight. Get some sleep and we'll be back before you know it."
"What is your obsession with sleep, man?"
"Have dinner ready for us!" Parker shouted across.
"God yes." Alec agreed. "Parker wouldn't let us stop for fast food. I've been starving for miles."
"Where the hell have you been?"
"We'll tell you when we get home," Alec grinned.
- 0 -
Part 2C