gelbes_gilatier | Fic: Need Another Story (Reply)

Title: Need Another Story
Fandom: Leverage
Characters: Eliot, Parker
Word Count: 1,337
Rating: T
Summary: Eliot always prided himself to be good at controlling everything... but Parker was always good at shaking things up anyway.
Author's Notes: Okay, um... virgin fic in this fandom, so please be gentle :S Originally, Need Another Story was planned as a simple one-shot to get me out of the routine of writing Stargate but it turned into a series of one-shots. Need Another Story is now the prologue and takes place some time during Season One, somewhere in the second half, I'd say. Also, everyone please thank my beta

mackenziesmomma who agreed to edit this although she has never seen an episode of Leverage in her whole life and normally beta's my Stargate stuff. Every mistake in content is entirely my fault, not hers. She is made of awesome ;)

Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.

Need Another Story

“I need another story
Something to get off my chest
My life gets kind of boring
Need something that I can confess.”

One Republic, “Secrets”

For someone whose entire existence depends on secrecy and lies, Parker is remarkably straight forward. Insane, yes, but honest. Alright, so sometimes he's not quite sure if one doesn't determine the other but it's a fact that there isn't anything secretive about Parker. It was about the first thing that he realized about her and it had startled him a bit – more than her strange affinity for jumping out of windows as her preferred escape strategy, actually. And he's not a man to be startled easily.

So yes, no one knows why or how or when Parker became the nut job she is today but the important thing about it is that she doesn’t hint at her past or make strange allusions or use it to mess around with anyone's head – well, anyone's but hers, probably. She doesn't flirt with it, like Sophie sometimes does with her baggage with Nate to get what she wants. Parker doesn't even use it to make excuses for her often less than stellar whims and notions. In fact, if it hadn't been for Belgrade, they maybe never would have learned that bit about Parker having grown up with foster parents.

At first he hadn't wanted to admit it but Parker's way of keeping secrets without ever making a fuss about them is what earned her his grudging respect. He may have some shady spots in his past that he isn't proud of but it's not like he doesn't have moral standards; and honesty is one of the most important things that he values. Nate's drinking is bad because it makes him lose control and therefore endangers all their lives but what’s even worse about it is that Nate lies about it, to himself and to them.

Parker... Parker doesn't play games. Yes, she messes with their heads but when she has her own agenda, she doesn't talk about it and manoeuvre around; she acts. When she wants to rescue orphans in Serbia, she simply sneaks away and breaks into the weapons dealers’ warehouse, without any plan at all. Granted, from a strategic point of view that had been the most stupid thing he had ever seen anyone do but what had impressed him about it had been her determination and dedication.

Until that moment, he'd been wary of her, had tagged her as the one team member most likely to double-cross them or just walk away one day and leave them hanging. People whose primary love in life is money have a way of doing that when a higher bidder appears on the scene. So he'd tried to keep an eye on her, to protect the team from any possible harm she might bring them. That little extra trip in Belgrade had taught him that there are things more important to Parker than just money. He's still not quite sure if she won't get them all killed or arrested or both one day but he's starting to get the feeling that it won't be because she sold them out.

It'll probably rather be because she gets one of her crazy ideas and doesn't think about consequences or plans at least a little ahead. One of these days... it'll get her killed. Her jump out of the window in Miami had been proof of that because he had believed her when she had said that she hadn't known that there would be someone outside to catch her. Parker doesn't lie about such things – in fact he wonders what she does lie about – and that's what keeps him thinking about it. Ever since then he can't stop fretting about it, wondering what would have happened if he hadn't been there... and what could happen when one day he won't be there.

So he still keeps an eye on her... but now it's rather that he's looking out for her, be a little more sensitive to her moves during a job, to be there in case she feels the need to dive out of a window or stab a weapons dealer with a fork again. He's learned a lot about her that way and he's starting to realize that she has grown on him. He doesn't really know how or when exactly it happened but she managed to get under his skin although he'd promised himself he'd never let a woman get under his skin again after Aimee.

Right now, Parker is far from being what Aimee was for him – and she will probably never be exactly that because she's as different from Aimee as can be – but there's a certain prickle in his neck and a certain tingle on his skin when he looks at her in certain moments that tell him that she could be dangerous to him, in a whole different way than he'd expected her to be.

It irritates him because he knows there would be no happy ending for them – everything inside of him tells him so – and he never was that kind of man to walk into his ruin open-eyed. He likes to plan ahead, be in control of himself, the situation, the enemy; and Parker starts to complicate everything. Right now, they're teammates, working together but not getting into each others' spaces when the jobs are done and Hardison's ear bugs are back in their case and he likes it that way. Keeps everything clean and easy. If that changes... things get messy and he hates that.

Apparently, his best guess then is to steer clear of her, stop watching her, stop thinking of her... and he absolutely would if she'd let him. But she seems to be always there, most of all when he doesn't expect her. Like... now. Ah, fuck.

He'd just wanted to get a coffee but there she is again, lounging around in the office kitchen and he's ready to beat a tactical retreat but unfortunately she already saw him and gives him one of those pointed looks with her head a little bent down and the eyebrows raised and no way he will give her the satisfaction of seeing him fleeing the scene.

So he just turns his lips into the hint of a smirk and walks in, to refill his cup and then leave, all deliberately slow and casual. He doesn't look at her and she's now behind him but for some reason he feels the hairs on his arms raise, just like when an opponent behind his back gets ready to attack him. Steady... steady... and now leave the room, just keep it normal... He's tempted to add a little Kentucky horse trainer swagger to it but decides against it. Almost at the door, almost... "'scuse me, Eliot."

There's a little sardonic grin on her face as they stand in the door frame, practically nose to nose and she even... goes as far as raising her eyebrows again and run her tongue along her teeth... and pucker her lips just a little bit. Just for a very, very short moment he sees himself grabbing her and shoving her against the wall, kissing her, tasting those puckered lips, feeling that lithe body against his, burying his hands in her blonde hair... fuck.

Realizing he needs to end this, he turns his lips into a smirk, raises an eyebrow and steps aside... even motions for her to take precedence and drawls, "After you, Miss." She gives him a sassy little grin and saunters past him... apparently fully aware of what that is doing to him and he realizes he's too far gone already. In fact... he's screwed. Oh just great. It means... he has to reassess the situation and his judgement of Parker - maybe there's nothing secretive about her but he was probably wrong about her not playing games - and he better... he better start. As in right now. Yeah, good plan.

~*~

TBC in You Can Dance.