Sometimes Things Go Wrong
Title: Sometimes Things Go Wrong
Author: Magpie
Rating: pg
Genre: Parker, Eliot, implied Nate/Eliot
Verse: BlackKing!WhiteKnight!Verse
Summary:Parker knows sometimes things go wrong, but she also knows sometimes they go right.
Notes: This is the third of five parts of the "In The Shadow of a Gunman" arc. This follows Sometimes They Win, and Sometimes It Helps
It was late, or early. Parker wasn’t ever really sure what to call it when you stayed up all night and it was like four in the morning.
She’d finished testing her harness hours ago, Hardison hadn’t liked that the first harness she designed for him hadn’t been tested so she’d given this one extra going overs. It was something nice and thoughtful to show she cared, something Sophie said was a thing that helped dating not go wrong.
Not that they were dating quite yet but after everything was said and done with the job Hardison had taken her out and bought her her favorite type of smoothie. She’d bought him an orange colored one like his soda. He’d been a little surprised, he’d already bought his own, but he took the one she got him anyway.
She’d have to ask Sophie what she did wrong later.
But now it was late-not-late time and she was still on an adrenalin rush. So she went back to the HQ.
Specifically she went to the roof.
Eliot didn’t sleep much, and ever since he and Nate moved in together in the penthouse apartment (they hadn’t said anything but Parker wasn’t blind) he’d started coming onto the roof late at night. He was slowly turning a section of the roof into a fenced off garden area and Parker was pretty sure the materials he had there were to build a greenhouse.
Parker liked to watch him work, it helped her relax and she had fun pretending she was protecting Eliot. After the first couple of times though he’d called her cell and told her to come down from there. If she was so interested she might as well lend a hand.
He’d started to teach her how to garden and it was strange. It was almost the exact way he’d started teaching her how to fight. He’d caught her watching him training on the roof of the Leverage Offices and had told her to come over and started showing her how to do what he was doing.
Only tonight Eliot wasn’t gardening, wasn’t moving between plants mumbling to himself as he Pruned and weeded and avoided weeding the plants that looked like weeds but weren’t.
He was sitting on the bench at the edge of his little garden, forehead resting on his hands like he’d been when she found him back in his room at his sister’s house in Kentucky.
Two years ago she wouldn’t have understood why that made her chest hurt like this. Now she knew that she was seeing pain. She was seeing her family in pain and she didn’t like it now any more than she had back in Kentucky.
Looked like she’d have to try that wisdom thing again.
She landed on the edge of the roof and approached Eliot slowly, making sure to let her feet make a shuffling noise on the roof so she wouldn’t startle him. Startling Eliot when he wasn’t okay was a dangerous thing in the bad not fun kind of ways.
She sat down next to him and waited, smiling a little sadly when he sat up but didn’t throw up his usual attitude and facades as Sophie called them. Parker’s lips twitched as she tried to figure out what Sophie would have her say. She’d failed at being sympathetic and nice with the client earlier.
“Is there something wrong?” She asked, not entirely sure if the questioning tone was from the question or because she wasn’t sure it was what she was supposed to ask.
Eliot looked over and gave that little grin that said ‘there’s something wrong with you’ but added something else to the end. Like it was a good thing, or maybe that it was something good to him. After a long silence Eliot spoke. “I want you ta stop duckin’ out of training on Thursdays. Your gettin’ better at fightin’ but never hurts to go further.”
Parker blinked, thinking. Eliot had started teaching her how to fight in the aftermath of the snow job. It had taken her a couple of months to realize it was because his faith in Nate had been wavering. At that moment he didn’t trust Nate to keep her away from danger. He’d caught her watching him training, not for the first time, and pulled her in to start teaching her.
It had been sporadic until the job with Santa Clause. After that Eliot had pulled Hardison into it and made it every Thursday off the job and whenever they found time on the job that he’d hold lessons. After they came back together Hardison had “conned” the cop who lived in the building to move into a much nicer place for the same price on the other side of town and Eliot had turned the flat into a studio for training.
Lessons had continued as usual for awhile, though in the weeks since Kentucky Parker had been ducking out of the lessons. This was the first time Eliot had brought it up.
“I don’t want to learn more.” She said simply. “Remember what I said when I asked you to teach me?”
“You never as-“
“Back when we started working together I asked you to teach me because I knew you were a Hitter and you wouldn’t protect me and sometimes things just go wrong.” She looked over to him. “But you’re protecting us now. I know even if something goes wrong you won’t let anything bad happen to me. There’s no reason for me to learn to fight now.”
For a second Eliot looked like he’d been sucker-punched in the stomach, then a small bitter smile crossed his face. He shook his head. “Ya know someone once told me sometimes things just go wrong.”
“Not someone, I told you that.” Parker said, before getting that he’d been doing that thing people sometimes did.
“Yes, ya did.” He said with a little nod. “Sometimes things go wrong. I might not be around forever, or even just when ya need me. I need ta know you can look after yourself in a fight.”
“Okay.” She said simply, trying to give her voice that petulant sound that made him smile sometimes. Her acting skills, never really at their best, weren’t working to well though. The thought that Eliot might not be around forever… that he might leave or get killed… it hurt a lot. “Elie?” Eliot looked up sharply, the use of his sister’s nickname startling him. Parker smiled a little, good, she had his attention. “I know sometimes things go wrong but will promise you won’t just walk away again?”
He didn’t answer right away and Parker decided to give him time to think. She got up and started trying to weed like he’d been teaching her.
A few minutes later his hands closed over hers, stopping her from uprooting a plant she guessed probably wasn’t a weed. “I promise.” He said as he let her hands go. He moved, pointing out a patch of actual weeds in another pot. “And Parker… if ya want… when it’s just you an me… you can go on callin’ me Elie.”
Parker smiled over at him, and he smiled back, and she nodded. “Sometimes things go right to.”
Previous: Sometimes it Helps
Next: Sometimes the Truth is Important
Author: Magpie
Rating: pg
Genre: Parker, Eliot, implied Nate/Eliot
Verse: BlackKing!WhiteKnight!Verse
Summary:Parker knows sometimes things go wrong, but she also knows sometimes they go right.
Notes: This is the third of five parts of the "In The Shadow of a Gunman" arc. This follows Sometimes They Win, and Sometimes It Helps
It was late, or early. Parker wasn’t ever really sure what to call it when you stayed up all night and it was like four in the morning.
She’d finished testing her harness hours ago, Hardison hadn’t liked that the first harness she designed for him hadn’t been tested so she’d given this one extra going overs. It was something nice and thoughtful to show she cared, something Sophie said was a thing that helped dating not go wrong.
Not that they were dating quite yet but after everything was said and done with the job Hardison had taken her out and bought her her favorite type of smoothie. She’d bought him an orange colored one like his soda. He’d been a little surprised, he’d already bought his own, but he took the one she got him anyway.
She’d have to ask Sophie what she did wrong later.
But now it was late-not-late time and she was still on an adrenalin rush. So she went back to the HQ.
Specifically she went to the roof.
Eliot didn’t sleep much, and ever since he and Nate moved in together in the penthouse apartment (they hadn’t said anything but Parker wasn’t blind) he’d started coming onto the roof late at night. He was slowly turning a section of the roof into a fenced off garden area and Parker was pretty sure the materials he had there were to build a greenhouse.
Parker liked to watch him work, it helped her relax and she had fun pretending she was protecting Eliot. After the first couple of times though he’d called her cell and told her to come down from there. If she was so interested she might as well lend a hand.
He’d started to teach her how to garden and it was strange. It was almost the exact way he’d started teaching her how to fight. He’d caught her watching him training on the roof of the Leverage Offices and had told her to come over and started showing her how to do what he was doing.
Only tonight Eliot wasn’t gardening, wasn’t moving between plants mumbling to himself as he Pruned and weeded and avoided weeding the plants that looked like weeds but weren’t.
He was sitting on the bench at the edge of his little garden, forehead resting on his hands like he’d been when she found him back in his room at his sister’s house in Kentucky.
Two years ago she wouldn’t have understood why that made her chest hurt like this. Now she knew that she was seeing pain. She was seeing her family in pain and she didn’t like it now any more than she had back in Kentucky.
Looked like she’d have to try that wisdom thing again.
She landed on the edge of the roof and approached Eliot slowly, making sure to let her feet make a shuffling noise on the roof so she wouldn’t startle him. Startling Eliot when he wasn’t okay was a dangerous thing in the bad not fun kind of ways.
She sat down next to him and waited, smiling a little sadly when he sat up but didn’t throw up his usual attitude and facades as Sophie called them. Parker’s lips twitched as she tried to figure out what Sophie would have her say. She’d failed at being sympathetic and nice with the client earlier.
“Is there something wrong?” She asked, not entirely sure if the questioning tone was from the question or because she wasn’t sure it was what she was supposed to ask.
Eliot looked over and gave that little grin that said ‘there’s something wrong with you’ but added something else to the end. Like it was a good thing, or maybe that it was something good to him. After a long silence Eliot spoke. “I want you ta stop duckin’ out of training on Thursdays. Your gettin’ better at fightin’ but never hurts to go further.”
Parker blinked, thinking. Eliot had started teaching her how to fight in the aftermath of the snow job. It had taken her a couple of months to realize it was because his faith in Nate had been wavering. At that moment he didn’t trust Nate to keep her away from danger. He’d caught her watching him training, not for the first time, and pulled her in to start teaching her.
It had been sporadic until the job with Santa Clause. After that Eliot had pulled Hardison into it and made it every Thursday off the job and whenever they found time on the job that he’d hold lessons. After they came back together Hardison had “conned” the cop who lived in the building to move into a much nicer place for the same price on the other side of town and Eliot had turned the flat into a studio for training.
Lessons had continued as usual for awhile, though in the weeks since Kentucky Parker had been ducking out of the lessons. This was the first time Eliot had brought it up.
“I don’t want to learn more.” She said simply. “Remember what I said when I asked you to teach me?”
“You never as-“
“Back when we started working together I asked you to teach me because I knew you were a Hitter and you wouldn’t protect me and sometimes things just go wrong.” She looked over to him. “But you’re protecting us now. I know even if something goes wrong you won’t let anything bad happen to me. There’s no reason for me to learn to fight now.”
For a second Eliot looked like he’d been sucker-punched in the stomach, then a small bitter smile crossed his face. He shook his head. “Ya know someone once told me sometimes things just go wrong.”
“Not someone, I told you that.” Parker said, before getting that he’d been doing that thing people sometimes did.
“Yes, ya did.” He said with a little nod. “Sometimes things go wrong. I might not be around forever, or even just when ya need me. I need ta know you can look after yourself in a fight.”
“Okay.” She said simply, trying to give her voice that petulant sound that made him smile sometimes. Her acting skills, never really at their best, weren’t working to well though. The thought that Eliot might not be around forever… that he might leave or get killed… it hurt a lot. “Elie?” Eliot looked up sharply, the use of his sister’s nickname startling him. Parker smiled a little, good, she had his attention. “I know sometimes things go wrong but will promise you won’t just walk away again?”
He didn’t answer right away and Parker decided to give him time to think. She got up and started trying to weed like he’d been teaching her.
A few minutes later his hands closed over hers, stopping her from uprooting a plant she guessed probably wasn’t a weed. “I promise.” He said as he let her hands go. He moved, pointing out a patch of actual weeds in another pot. “And Parker… if ya want… when it’s just you an me… you can go on callin’ me Elie.”
Parker smiled over at him, and he smiled back, and she nodded. “Sometimes things go right to.”
Previous: Sometimes it Helps
Next: Sometimes the Truth is Important