Fanfiction || City of Thieves || Leverage/Angel Crossover Fic || Part Eleven
Title: City of Thieves
Author: Sapphire Smoke [cuzimastripper]
Fandom: Leverage/Angel
Setting: Post "The Second David Job" in Leverage, Beginning of "Five By Five" in Angel
Rating: NC-17
Genre(s): Crossover/Team!Fic/Het/Femslash/Slash
Word Count Thus Far: 103,379 words
Summary: A prophecy of the splitting of darkness and light, of strength and intelligence. The Leverage team finds themselves mixed up in a destiny and in a world they never knew existed.
Feedback: Give it to me, baby ;]
Chapter Titles Notes: At first I just had the chapter titles be the character's names who's POV it was in, but because FanFiction.Net apparently won't let you have the same title name twice, I decided to actually name all of them. So it will tell you the characters name, but also have the chapter title.
Story Notes: So this is going to be my 'epic fanfic' for the downtime between seasons. I've decided not to tell you guys the pairings... ever. This is mostly a Team!Fic, and any sex and/or relationships are minor plot points and plus I don't like to spoil anything. Making you go 'OMG' makes me happy lol. Hope you guys enjoy! Suggestions and feedback is always appreciated!
Other Parts: PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN | PART EIGHT | PART NINE | PART TEN
CHAPTER FIFTY SIX
[ Angel ]
Out On Good Behavior
If Angel and Eliot knew what they were about to come home to, they wouldn’t have come back at all. Both men looked at each other slowly, just after seeing Cordelia running after Sophie, who had something in her hands, looking slightly crazed and determined.
“Sophie, wait! Hold on-SOPHIE! Don’t ignore me!” Cordelia yelled at her. Sophie ignored her.
Eliot spoke first, “You want to…?” Indicating leaving as he nodded his head at the door. Angel nodded.
“Yeah, sounds safer.”
But then their path was blocked because Sophie had found her way around them, trying to get outside but getting stopped at Sophie held onto her arm. “Sophie!”
Sophie turned around slowly and Angel could finally see what was in her hand: a surveillance tape. “What?” she asked her dangerously. “I’m busy.”
“You’re going crazy, you’re not busy,” Cordelia countered, noticing the look on Sophie’s face. “Will you just calm down for two seconds, please?”
“I am calm.” A dangerous look flashed through Sophie’s eyes. Cordelia backed up a bit.
Eliot and Angel looked at each other again, then backed up too. They were so not involved in any of this. They didn’t even know what any of this way, but they had a feeling they didn’t want to. They also both knew how Sophie can get when she goes ‘crazy’. They both looked at each other, what the hell had gone on during the small time they went to get coffee?
“No, you’re not,” Cordelia told her. “What are you doing?”
“Destroying evidence,” Sophie told her, then turned and stalked out the door, leaving Angel and Eliot to hear Cordelia yell ‘Sophie!’ another time before going after her.
They looked at each other again before Hardison came in the room, arm full of surveillance equipment. “Angel!” he exclaimed, seeing the man finally. Angel turned around slowly to face him, hoping he wasn’t caught up in drama already too. He just got here, after all.
“I watched the feeds you told me to check out,” he said, putting the cameras down on the chair.
“And?” Angel asked.
“Uh,” Hardison started, shifting his eyes a bit. Eliot rolled his.
“Spit it out, Hardison,” he told him, knowing the other man didn’t want to say whatever it was.
“Well uh, see, Buffy and Faith they uh…” Hardison started, looking at his equipment like it was fascinating. “… They had sex. Down there. In the cellar.”
“Man, you called that,” Eliot said, looking at Angel with a nod of approval. Hardison looked confused.
“You knew…? Then why did you…?”
“I had to make sure,” Angel said, his eyes wandering to the basement door. He could faintly hear Buffy and Faith down there again. He tried not to let his curiosity get the best of him. “Where’s Buffy?” he asked, his curiosity deciding that it indeed was going to get the best of him.
Hardison’s eyes were on the cellar door now that was open. He shrugged, “She should be on the stairs as Sophie interrogates Faith, but I guess not. Cordelia and Parker are watching the feeds though, should be okay.”
“Sophie just ran out the door with Cordelia behind her,” Eliot told him, eyebrows raised. Hardison just shrugged.
“I don’t know then, man. Guess they’re done. We’ll check out the feed later and see if she got anything out of her.”
“Uh… that doesn’t look possible,” Angel said finally, putting two and two together. “Sophie ran out of here with a tape and the explanation that she was destroying evidence.”
“Of what?” Hardison asked.
“I don’t know, I thought you would,” Angel said.
“Let’s just go ask Parker,” Eliot said in a ‘duh’ sort of manner, pointing at the girl that just walked in the living room from leaving her bedroom. She had a weird look on her face though.
“Hey, Parker!” Hardison called to her, she turned and looked at the three men. “What’s up with Sophie, do you know?”
“No,” she said. It was short and to the point and then she just left, walking into the kitchen.
Hardison shrugged again, “It’s anyone’s guess then.”
“Hardison!” came Nate’s voice from around the corner. When he came into sight he pointed at Hardison, “Where we at with the cameras?”
“Almost have them all up, we should be pretty good,” Hardison told him. Nate looked at Angel and Eliot and nodded in hello.
“Is Sophie still downstairs?” Nate asked Hardison.
“Ran out the door with Cordelia,” Eliot said, making sure he left out the part about destroying evidence. Angel looked over at him, realizing that whatever Sophie was hiding was probably from Nate.
“Why?” Nate asked, confused.
“You know how Sophie is,” Hardison said, shrugging. “She’s just being Sophie.”
Nate gave him a look that clearly indicated that Hardison’s comment was extremely unhelpful in the current situation, but brushed it off. “Alright well just make sure all these cameras are up and running before dinner.”
“Dinner!” Eliot exclaimed suddenly. “I need to make dinner.”
“We can just order-” Hardison tried, but was cut off by a glare from Eliot. Nate sighed, leaving the room from the petty food arguments and other pointless things.
“No,” Eliot told Hardison sternly. “I’m making us some food.”
Then Angel could hear Buffy and Faith clearer now, but he didn’t move. He looked up just as both of the women emerged from the basement. Hardison shrieked like a little girl and hid behind Eliot, who looked angrier than Angel had ever seen him.
“Whoa! What the fuck?” Eliot demanded, pointing at Faith.
“She’s pregnant and the air down there is making her sicker, we can’t just leave her there,” Buffy said. Angel blinked, did that just come out of Buffy’s mouth? How did Faith end up convincing her of that?
“That bitch better get back behind bars before I kill her,” Eliot said, advancing on Faith. Buffy stepped between them, protecting Faith. Angel was sure he had to be hallucinating.
“Don’t touch her,” she warned him. Angel put his arm out to stop Eliot from advancing any further and getting his ass handed to him by Buffy.
“Buffy, what are you doing?” Angel asked her carefully.
“I’ll have her stay in my room, we can padlock it if you really feel the need,” Buffy said, looking at Angel. Then she motioned to Faith with a small gestured and raised her eyebrows at him, speaking to him without actually speaking.
Angel nodded; he could feel Faith wasn’t a threat anymore too. Whether that could change though, was up for debate. “Deadbolt, then fine,” Angel said, knowing it would be more for other people feeling safe rather than to stop Faith from doing anything. A deadbolt would only delay her; a padlock would have been laughable.
“Fuck no,” Eliot said; going after her again but Angel held him back.
“Let them go,” Angel told him. Eliot was seething and glared at Angel. The two girls left, Buffy bringing Faith to her room, Faith looking back like she felt bad about Eliot’s anger towards her.
Hardison looked like he might wet himself. “I’m just gonna… I’m gonna go find Parker,” he stuttered a bit, leaving quickly, getting as far away from Faith as possible.
“What the fuck, Angel,” Eliot said stepping away from him and looking at him accusingly. “That girl fucked with my kid sister.”
“Parker’s your younger sister?” Angel asked, his eyes going wide. Eliot scoffed.
“Figuratively. Look, It doesn’t matter! She fucked with my family, and now she gets a nice warm bed?” Eliot demanded.
“Eliot, calm down,” Angel told him, obviously the wrong thing.
“Don’t tell me to calm down! That bitch is in my house, this is some fucked up bullshit and you know it.” He slapped Angel’s hand away that tried to rest on his shoulder.
“She’s carrying your child, she needs to rest. And she’s not a threat anymore, and even if she snaps trust me, Buffy and me will take care of it,” Angel told him as he took his hand away that had been slapped. He looked annoyed.
“First of all, that thing inside her is not my child. Second, if she snaps, both of you won’t have time to get to her. She’ll have already been dealt with.” His eyes flashed and then he walked away, passing Angel without another look, into the kitchen to begin dinner.
Angel sighed; this might not have been the best idea.
CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
[ Faith ]
A Once Split Whole
Faith watched Buffy close her bedroom door behind them and lean against it softly as she took a deep breath, looking at the floor. Faith fidgeted uncomfortably on her bed, knowing that Buffy was second guessing her decision. Maybe more than one. Hell, probably more than one. She bit the inside of her cheek and watched as Buffy tore her eyes from the floor to Faith.
“Faith…”
“Don’t,” Faith said, putting up her hand to silence her. She put it down slowly and just kind of shrugged uncomfortably. “Just don’t, B. Okay?”
“I’m not…” Buffy started, making Faith look up at her. Buffy swallowed and took another breath before saying softly. “I’m not... saying that this is a mistake. But this is just…”
“Not what was supposed to happen,” Faith finished for her. Buffy nodded, then shifted her eyes to the right a bit to look at the wall.
“I have a boyfriend, Faith.”
“And I’m pregnant, we all have our little problems,” Faith told her. Buffy looked over at her with a disapproving look.
“You know what I mean.”
Faith just rolled her eyes and bit and kicked her shoes off before bringing her legs up to cross onto the bed. Her arms folded in front of her chest, feeling defensive all of a sudden. “And you know that I don’t care,” she responded, though didn’t look at her.
Buffy scoffed, “Faith, don’t be like that.”
“Whatever,” was all that fell from the darker woman’s lips. She was tired of all of this. Tired of Buffy’s ‘will I, won’t I’ behavior. Faith just stared at the wall across from the room, her hold on herself tightening a bit.
Buffy just looked at her sympathetically, which annoyed Faith. She didn’t need her sympathy, or anyone else’s for that matter. It was just insulting.
She watched in her peripheral vision Buffy move from the door to standing beside her on the bed. Faith didn’t move, and Buffy had to push Faith’s legs a bit so she could sit next to her on the bed. Faith still refused to look at her, being childish, but not caring anymore. She just didn’t want to hear all this crap anymore. Buffy just kissed her downstairs, just let her come up here to share her room. Didn’t that mean anything? Why was Buffy’s head so freaking screwed up all the time?
Buffy’s hand was on her thigh now, but Faith still didn’t move. “Faith, look at me,” she said, but Faith still didn’t look at her. She just continued to stare at the far wall. “Faith,” Buffy tried again, but still no answer.
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes a bit before biting her lower lip softly as if in thought, and then Faith saw her move farther back, out of her peripheral vision… until the felt lips on her neck. She jumped out of instinct, whipping her head around to face the blonde and looking at her with a mixture of confusion, accusing, and surprise.
“Well you weren’t paying attention to me,” Buffy justified herself.
“Don’t screw with me, B. That’s the last thing I really need right now,” Faith told her, and rubbed her neck where Buffy had kissed it with a look like she didn’t know if she was rubbing it in or rubbing it off.
“I’m not screwing with you,” Buffy told her, looking her in the eyes seriously. “Look, this fucks with my head as much as it does with yours, okay? But I never said that I didn’t want…” she trailed off and chewed on her bottom lip again. “That I didn’t want this. I’m just… confused. Alright? Me and you, we’re… different. It’s not so simple.”
“But you mentioned beef-stick,” Faith said with an exaggerated eyebrow raise.
“Riley,” Buffy corrected. Then she shrugged, “I was just saying. Stating my confusion on the subject out loud, I guess…”
“Then what?” Faith asked her.
“I don’t know. I just… I don’t know, Faith. We’re destined… or whatever. It’s complicated.” Buffy’s hand slid up Faith’s thigh to hold the brunette’s hand that was resting on her own as well. Faith curled her fingers around Buffy’s as she placed it on top of hers.
“I don’t think we’re destined to be together,” Faith said with a little laugh. She shrugged and sighed, “Besides, even if we were… wouldn’t that make it simpler?”
“We’re a splitting of darkness and light,” Buffy reminded her as she looked up at the other girl. “If something is split, doesn’t that mean it was once whole?”
“So?” Faith asked, confused on what Buffy was talking about.
“A change of destiny will form from a once split whole,” Buffy said softly. She shrugged a bit, as if she wasn’t completely sure of the idea or of herself. “Can’t that mean us?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The prophecy… the last part Wesley read. It says that, and I just thought…” Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just reading too much into our lives into that damn thing. It can’t control everything we do, right?”
“It doesn’t control us,” Faith said, brushing her thumb lightly over the top of Buffy’s hand. “It just knows what’s already going to happen, I think.” She sighed a bit. “I don’t really know. Always thought those things were all a bunch of bullshit.”
Buffy didn’t say anything, just looked down at their intertwined fingers. Faith looked at her, watching her face. Buffy had a flash of emotion pass over her face before she looked up into Faith’s eyes. “I just don’t know if any of this is real or not,” she finally said.
“Buffy I loved you before I knew about all of this prophecy crap,” Faith told her.
“Yeah but I…”
“Was blissfully unaware,” Faith finished for her. Buffy smirked a bit.
“That was a nice way to put it.”
Faith shrugged a bit with a little smirk of her own, “Figured I’d be nice for once.”
Buffy pursed her lips together and looked down a moment, before looking back up and moving towards Faith slowly until their lips met in a soft kiss. Faith closed her eyes and parted her lips to let Buffy in, squeezing her hand a bit that she was holding. Part of what Buffy said was right, none of this seemed real anymore. If someone or some little scroll told her that Buffy would be hers, even for a moment, she would have laughed in disbelief.
Buffy’s other hand came up to rest lightly on Faith’s cheek, kissing her deeper. Faith let out an audible sound of approval and wrapped her other arm around Buffy’s back, pulling her closer to her body. She started kissing the woman a little more passionately, and Faith could feel Buffy’s breathing starting to get a bit more pronounced against her lips.
Then Buffy was on top of her, though Faith wasn’t sure how that happened. She sucked lightly on Faith’s lower lip, making her emit a quiet gasp before her lips fell from her lips to her neck, and Faith laid her head back against the pillow and arched her back a bit as Buffy’s lips explored her neck.
Then there was a knock on the door. “Buffy, I need to talk to you.”
It was Angel.
Buffy sighed a bit and crawled off of Faith, looking at her a little shyly, maybe a bit embarrassed by getting a little carried away. Faith squeezed her hand one last time before she let her go, watching her open the door and walk out of it.
Faith could still hear them, even though the door was closed. She heard Buffy ask, “What is it?”
“Bringing your new girlfriend upstairs into your bedroom to have a little fun?”
“What are you? A peeping vampire now?” Buffy asked him in offense. Faith sat up a bit, knowing this conversation wasn’t about to be a good one.
“I heard you, it’s not difficult, even without the extra hearing.” Angel said, then went on. “Eliot’s pissed.”
“Why is your new boyfriend’s problems suddenly my problem?” Buffy asked him, obviously annoyed with Angel knowing. Faith blinked, sitting up completely straight now. Angel’s boyfriend?
“You know why, but let’s not fight, Buffy. I’m just saying… Faith did a horrible thing to someone they’re very fond of. How do you think Parker’s going to feel about the woman that tortured her suddenly being able to mingle with the rest of us?”
“Faith isn’t going to mingle, Angel,” Buffy said, annoyance still heavy in her voice. “She’s staying in my room.” A pause, “Parker doesn’t have to know.”
“Both Eliot and Hardison saw her. Hardison’s dating the girl, you think he’s not going to tell her?” Angel asked.
“Look, I don’t know, okay? I don’t know what to do about any of this anymore. I didn’t come to LA with all of this in mind. But things just… they happened, alright? And she’s sick, she’s pregnant and she just can’t be trapped down there by herself.”
“And this has nothing to do with how you feel about her now?” Angel asked her.
“Of course it does, but it’s also basic human compassion,” Buffy answered.
“You never would have-”
“I know,” Buffy interrupted him. “I know, okay? But I do now, so can we just not? Please? I’ll deal with everyone, I promise.”
There was a long pause and then finally Angel responded, “Fine. Dinner will probably be soon - you can deal with everyone then.”
Faith figured Buffy acknowledged him with a head nod because suddenly the door opened and Buffy was coming back inside. Faith looked at Buffy curiously, “Eliot is Angel’s boyfriend, seriously?”
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes a bit, “I guess. I don’t know, they went on a date or whatever.”
“Angel’s banging a man… nice,” Faith said with a smirk.
“Faith!”
“What, B? I think it’s kind of sexy,” Faith replied, her smirk growing larger.
“There’s something very wrong with you,” Buffy told her with a funny look. Faith just shrugged.
“You wouldn’t want to watch that?” Faith asked her, genuinely curious.
“No!” Buffy protested. She made a face. “God, change of subject needed quickly.”
Faith just laughed and took Buffy’s hand in hers and pulled her roughly onto the bed, on top of her, making Buffy squeal a bit in surprise. She kissed her, changing the subject like she asked. But even as she fell into Buffy, she was still worried about what she was going to do when she had to face everyone.
It was inevitable. Sooner or later… she would have to.
CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT
[ Cordelia ]
Pretending
“Repeat after me… I am not in love with Parker. I love Nate,” Cordelia said as she nodded her head along, trying to encourage her to embrace her concept. As far as she knew, it was the correct concept to be embracing after all. Faith just liked to screw with people’s heads; Cordelia was trying to not let her take it too seriously.
“I am not in love with Parker,” Sophie said slowly, but then got a little disgruntled look on her face. “I love Nate.”
Cordelia sighed and looked at the grifter, hands going to her hips as they stood near the garbage bin where Sophie threw the tape into. “Alright, spill it.” She looked at her expectantly. Apparently it wasn’t the correct concept.
“Spill what?” Sophie asked her.
“What’s up with you and Nate?” Cordelia asked. Sophie got an odd look on her face when she was supposed to repeat that line.
“Nothing’s up, Cordy,” Sophie said, attempting to lie to her. Cordelia knew she was usually good at that, but she could see right though it and gave her a knowing look. Sophie sighed, “It’s nothing, I’ve just been thinking is all.”
“About?”
Sophie rolled her eyes a bit. “Sometimes you needing to know everything is kind of annoying, you know.”
“I’ll be sure to cry about that later,” Cordelia said evenly, not even caring. She nodded at her. “So?”
Another sigh from Sophie and her eyes flickered to the bench about five feet away, back into the yard. She turned and walked to it, Cordelia following her. When she sat, she paused for a minute before saying, “I just feel like he doesn’t trust me… and like maybe he just doesn’t want to be happy. Like he’s happy being miserable, as bloody screwed up as that is.”
Cordelia sat next to her on the bench, moving a little closer to her than she normally would so she wouldn’t sit in birds droppings and replied, “I thought that was just the way he was.”
Sophie shook her head. “He didn’t always used to be like that.” She looked up at the sky, watching a bird fly overhead. “Though never trusting me… that’s still the same.”
“So what do you want to do about it?” Cordelia asked her.
Sophie scoffed a little, out of scorned amusement. “There’s nothing I can do about it, Cordelia. I don’t have any options than just being with him.”
“You could not be with him,” Cordelia said, looking at her like it was obvious. Damn, was Sophie turning into one of those women that always needed to be in a relationship?
“And be alone again for another two years? No thanks,” she sighed and turned her head to look at her friend. Yup, maybe she was. “Plus, I do love him. I really do… but I don’t want him to make me miserable too. I just don’t know how to fix him anymore.”
“Maybe you could talk to him,” Cordelia offered in advice.
Sophie took a deep breath. “No… I can’t keep lying to him. I’m starting to think he knows I am. He’s paranoid about Parker for a reason, even if I didn’t see the reason before now.” She paused. “I just thought the reason wasn’t a real issue.”
Cordelia rolled her eyes a bit. “Sophie, don’t throw your relationship away over a girl that’s already taken.”
Sophie looked down at the grass and played with her hands a bit. “I’m not. I’m not going to… I’m still going to stay with Nate, but we can’t talk about it. I don’t want to talk about Parker anymore. I got kicked out of denial, makes it harder.”
“…You really love her?” Cordelia asked, surprised.
Sophie didn’t look up, but Cordelia watched her bite her bottom lip softly and say in a whisper, “Yeah… I do.” She shrugged a bit. “I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know why it happened. I wish it didn’t.”
Cordelia wrapped her arm around Sophie in a sideways hug, and Sophie leaned against her, putting her head on her shoulder. “I wish I knew how to help, but I don’t,” Cordelia told her.
“I know,” Sophie sighed. “I don’t expect you too. I don’t expect anyone too. Some people are just meant to not have everything they want, right?”
“No one can have everything they want,” Cordelia told her. “Lesson I learned the hard way.”
“Yeah… I know. I just like to pretend I do. I like to pretend a lot of things,” Sophie revealed.
“Like what?” Cordelia asked.
There was a long pause before Sophie answered. Then she took a deep breath and said, “Like who I really am.”
“What do you mean?”
Sophie untangled herself from Cordelia’s hug and looked at her a little apologetically, “My name isn’t Sophie.”
“What?” Cordelia asked, confused. “What is it then?”
Sophie’s eyes were on the ground again. “Jenny. But I… I didn’t want to be her anymore. So I’m just… I’m not. Right?”
“Changing your name doesn’t change who you are,” Cordelia told her.
Sophie didn’t answer, just looked back up to her. “Don’t tell anyone, I don’t want them to know. I think Nate knows, this guy we both knew in our pasts… he called me that. I told Nate it wasn’t true, but…” she sighed again. “I just want to be Sophie now.”
“Okay, Sophie,” Cordelia said, and smiled a little at her to let her know that she accepted that. Sophie smiled back.
“Thank you.”
“What friends are for, right?” Cordelia asked, her smile widening.
“Yeah,” Sophie said and hugged Cordelia again. “I guess so. Never really…”
“None of you never really had friends, did you?” Cordelia asked her.
“We’re thieves… you just can’t in our line of work,” Sophie said with a bit of a shrug. She took a deep breath before going on. “Never thought I was missing much. But I guess I was.”
“Of course you were, friends are irreplaceable in a person’s life,” Cordelia said. “They’re the one’s that help you through it all.”
“Noticing,” Sophie said with a little laugh. She looked back at the house and said. “We should go back, Nate’s probably wondering where I am.”
“Yeah,” Cordelia agreed and got up just as Sophie did.
They walked back to the house in silence, and Cordelia stole a glance over at Sophie. The poor woman. Cordelia looked up to her a bit, she seemed like she had it all. She was an incredible actress, she was rich, she had… everything. Except her personal life was a complete disaster. But no one’s perfect, right? Flaws are what make’s the human race a bit beautiful.
Then all of a sudden Sophie was gone from her side, and Cordelia looked back to see her being pulled around the corner. Cordelia blinked for a bit, not even registering how that happened so quickly and so silently. She turned and ran a bit around the corner, seeing if she was all right, and then stopped as she saw Parker holding her elbow.
“You lied to me,” Parker told her.
“Let me go, Parker,” Sophie said, trying to get her arm out of the thief’s grip, but she didn’t let go.
“You looked me straight in the eye and made an effort to lie to me to my face,” Parker went on. “You’re voice was a bit higher than normal. You taught me that.”
“Parker, let her go,” Cordelia said softly. Parker looked over at Cordelia, not realizing they had company, and let Sophie go. But Sophie didn’t move, she just stood there and stared back at her.
“I wish I didn’t teach you that now,” Sophie said finally.
Parker didn’t say anything else, but one minute she was standing there and the next her lips were pressed against Sophie’s. Cordelia’s eyes went wide and so did Sophie’s, but neither of them really had a chance to register what just happened before Parker broke the kiss and told her. “You’re dumb, you know? I think I might love you too. But you’re just… dumb.”
“That’s helpful, Parker,” Sophie said automatically, annoyed a bit at being called stupid. She still didn’t seem to get that Parker just kissed her though, or the fact that Parker said she might love her, so Cordelia took the initiative to let them know something.
“Guys? This isn’t the most private place in the world to be practicing adultery.”
It was like a train wreck happening in front of her eyes, but Cordelia didn’t know how to stop it anymore than that. It wasn’t her business too, even though she knew it could end up potentially disastrous and hurt her friend more than she already is.
Parker went on, ignoring both Sophie and Cordelia’s remarks. She just needed to get it out. “But I think I might love Hardison too, and I can’t have both. Neither can you. You taught me that too.” She paused, and a funny look crossed over her face. “But I… damnit, I just want to…”
And then she kissed her again, this time a bit longer. Sophie looked surprised again, though Cordelia wasn’t sure why she would a second time, but she made no move to stop her. Instead she reciprocated this time. Maybe she finally was done pretending.
Cordelia was starting to feel very awkward though so she backed up a bit to leave, but then they broke and Parker spoke again. “I’m think I’m dumb too,” she finally said like she didn’t know what to do about it. Then she turned and ran away, around the other side of the house and out of sight.
Cordelia blinked and stared at Sophie, who was staring at the spot where Parker was like she didn’t know what just happened. It was a long time before she turned to look at her friend and asked, “Did that… did that just really happen?”
“Yeah,” Cordelia said slowly, “That definitely just happened.”
Sophie looked lost, a bit confused. She sank down and sat in the grass, and her eyebrows knitted together from the after shock of it all. “What do I do?” she asked, though Cordelia was sure it might not even be to her.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Bloody fucking hell,” Sophie sighed, putting her head in her hands. “She wasn’t supposed to… to just do that.”
“She’s Parker,” Cordelia said, as if in explanation. Sophie looked up at her.
“Yeah, she is. Should’ve thought of that. I forgot I… I forgot I taught her how to spot lies. I can’t believe I didn’t lie that well… I tried so hard too,” she looked confused, not about what was going on this time but how she didn’t seem to realize that lie wasn’t one of her best performances.
“Maybe she could just feel it,” Cordelia offered. Sophie just shook her head before getting herself off the ground finally.
“No, she saw the signs. I don’t remember doing them but I guess I just needed to get out of there so fast I didn’t think.” She paused, looking in the direction Parker ran to. She stayed there a long time before finally saying.
“I can’t go after her, can I?”
“I’m done trying to tell you what’s right, Sophie,” Cordelia said. “Do what you feel is the right thing to do.”
Sophie looked down a bit before taking a deep breath. “I can’t. I just… can’t. It’ll hurt so many people.”
Cordelia nodded a bit, though looked at her sympathetically. She could tell Sophie was upset. “Let’s go inside.”
Sophie nodded, chewing on her bottom lip a little. “Okay,” she said, and took one final look behind her before moving forward.
CHAPTER FIFTY NINE
[ Eliot ]
Daddy Dearest
That stupid fucking slut.
Eliot bent down to grab a pot out of the bottom cabinet, but not before banging them all around for good measure. He stood up straight and slammed the pot onto the counter, making it emit a loud bang. But that wasn’t good enough for Eliot so he slammed his fist down on the counter, just fucking furious. Why was she even still around? Couldn’t they just kill her and get it over with? Problem solved, maybe they won’t have a possible hero but there wouldn’t be a destroyer either.
Another bang as he puts it on the stove and lights it as he starts throwing in ingredients, barely even paying attention to what he puts in. Not like it mattered much anyway, he seemed to have sixth sense for cooking so more likely than not it would end up turning out halfway decent at least.
“Eliot?” came a voice from behind him.
“Can’t you see I’m busy,” Eliot stressed, not looking at whoever it was, because he already knew who it was. Angel.
“Busy cooking? No. Busy destroying the kitchen? Yes,” Angel replied. Eliot whipped around, annoyed.
“What would you know about cooking?” he demanded, angry with him too. He just sat there and let her go. Just let her go!
Angel smirked a bit, “I was human once.”
Eliot rolled his eyes and turned around, no longer wanting to acknowledge him. There was silence for a bit as he kept throwing stuff in the pan before he felt hands on his shoulders. He stiffened out of instinct, but stopped his original instinct to attack.
“What do you want?” Eliot asked, letting out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding.
“For you to look at me, for starters.”
Eliot resisted the urge to do another eye roll and turned off the burner before he ended up actually burning god knows whatever he was cooking, and turned around to face Angel. He looked at him expectantly.
“I know you’re angry…” Angel started.
“Damn right I am!” Eliot exclaimed loudly, throwing up his hands, one of which included a large wooden spoon that was covered in red sauce that ended up making a splatter pattern on the wall. Whoops. Well, fuck it.
Angel blinked at the spattered sauce on the wall but said nothing. Instead he looked back at Eliot. He tried a different approach. “Do you believe in the prophecy?” he asked him.
Eliot looked startled that he would even ask that, then shifted his eyes a bit as he thought. Finally he said. “I don’t know, I got to, don’t I? The damn thing knew I had a twin, that I would knock up Faith.”
“Then why don’t you believe it when it says she’s reforming?” Angel asked him.
Eliot glared, “First of all, the tenses between reforming and reformed is probably the main issue I have with that, because nothing is ever guaranteed. Second, regardless of what it says she’s going to do, it doesn’t change what she did.”
“I doubt she’s expecting it to,” Angel told him. Eliot just got more frustrated.
“Look, you protect yours and I’ll protect mine, right? That’s what we do, so fuck it, okay? You do what you do and I’ll do the same.”
“Faith is more yours than mine,” Angel pointed out. Eliot glared at him, not liking the implication.
“No, fuck that. She’s a slayer; that means she’s yours. Your people, your world, whatever. And that fucking thing inside her is… it’s not mine. And she is most definitely not mine.”
“Eliot, we live in the same world. Plus it’s yours… it’s your child. A human child, or did you forget that?” Angel asked, trying to stress the point, but Eliot didn’t seem to get it, instead he just got angrier.
“It doesn’t matter what it is, it’s not mine!” Eliot yelled and pushed Angel back a couple steps from him. He was breathing a bit heavier, though it wasn’t out of anger… it was out of fear. He was stuck in denial, he liked denial… why the fuck was Angel trying to pull him out of it? It wasn’t his child, he just helped make it. No where in the contract did it say that that made it his!
“Eliot, listen to me!” Angel said, raising his voice a bit. “Faith is carrying your child. You’re going to have a baby, Eliot. Listen to me!” But Eliot pushed him back again and told him to shut the fuck up, which made Angel grab his wrists and push him back against the counter to steady him. Eliot fought against him, but Angel had the leverage and had the speed, which seemed to infuriate Eliot further. He just wanted to make his shut up, stop talking. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to really know.
“I swear to you this child is going to turn out good, are you listening to me? Damnit Eliot, you’re going to have a son, or a maybe even a daughter!” At that, Eliot stopped fighting a bit, looking at him like something just dawned on him. A son or a daughter? His son, or his daughter?
Angel released his grip a bit and said softer, “You’re going to have a baby, Eliot. A child of your own, someone to protect and love. You’re going to be a father…”
Eliot blinked at him, shock registered all over his face. He finally got it. It sounds stupid that he didn’t get it before, but he just didn’t. It was always Faith’s evil child from hell. But it’s his child too, his child that everyone is trying to help turn good right now. Try to turn into a hero…
“Fuck,” Eliot breathed out, like he couldn’t believe it. “I’m gonna be a Dad.”
Angel nodded is head at him and Eliot just stood there for a minute, not knowing what to do. “I think I need to sit down,” he said finally, and Angel helped him to a chair. He slumped down into it and put his hands over his mouth as he stared at the far wall. A baby, a real baby. Someone to teach to cook, to fight, to bother Hardison… Eliot laughed a bit in his head at that mental picture. He took a deep breath.
Damn, he was going to be a father.
But the only problem was… “Faith’s going to be the mother,” he said, looking up at Angel. That meant no matter what she would always be in the picture. Always be in his life, always be in his child’s life, doesn’t it? Unless…
“I’ll take my kid away from her,” he said finally.
Angel sighed and knelt down next to the chair so he could be eye level with him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.
“She’s fucking crazy, do you really think she’d be fit as a mother? Seriously,” Eliot said, glaring a bit.
“She’s not crazy, Eliot. She’s just damaged… and damaged can be repaired.”
“Fuck that,” Eliot responded.
“Eliot,” Angel said, looking at him seriously. “Just don’t think about it right now, you have nine months to figure that out, okay? Just realize for a second that you’re going to have a child and just accept that. One thing at a time.”
Eliot was silent for a bit, just thinking. Angel was right, he couldn’t deal with all of this at once. It’s taken him this long to even accept that it’s going to be his baby, trying to figure everything out now would be stupid. “I still hate her,” he said.
“I know,” Angel said and put his hand on his leg. Eliot’s hand automatically came up to rest on his and he looked him in the eyes before leaning in and kissing him softly.
“Thanks,” Eliot said quietly after they broke. He shrugged, not good at platitudes. “You know, for making me… get it, or whatever.”
“No problem,” Angel said with a smile.
Eliot felt himself smile, despite himself. He got up and so did Angel and he went over to the stove again to start cooking again… but then stopped. Damn, that man was good, and for whatever reason he finally felt a little better. Better than he’s felt in years, and definitely better than he’s felt over the last couple of weeks. So instead of cooking, he turned around again and advanced on Angel, who looked confused for a minute before Eliot wrapped his arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
Angel’s arms snaked around Eliot’s waist and he reciprocated, sneaking in for a taste. Eliot groaned softly against the bigger man’s lips and pushed him up against the kitchen wall before his lips went to his neck, just needing to thank him in a different way.
“Aren’t you supposed to be…?” Angel started, meaning cooking, but Eliot interrupted him.
“Fuck it,” he said against his neck. “We’ll order out.” He bit the vampire’s neck lightly, feeling the irony of the situation and felt Angel grip his shirt a little more and let out something that could resemble a breath.
Then Eliot’s lips were back up, kissing him again a little more passionately, his hands running over his chest and down to his belt. They were in the middle of the kitchen, so Eliot still wasn’t about to really do anything, but it was fun even more a moment to make Angel think so.
“Eliot,” he gasps out, trying to move his hands.
“Relax,” Eliot said against his lips with a smirk. “I’m not going to do anything… here.”
But unfortunately they did end up getting interrupted by Parker coming into the kitchen. She just stood there in the doorway for a moment, not wanting to interrupt, and neither man saw her for a bit until Eliot shifted his gaze a bit to check to see if they were still alone and well, they weren’t.
“Parker!” Eliot exclaimed, looking at the girl. He wasn’t embarrassed at being caught, but instead worried. The girl looked really distressed.
“Sorry,” she said quietly. “I just… um…” she paused and shuffled her feet a little bit. Eliot and Angel untangled themselves from each other and Eliot walked over to the girl.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
She sighed and shrugged, still looking at the ground. “Can I talk to you?” she asked before looking up at him like there was no where else for her to go. It tugged on Eliot’s heart so he nodded.
“Yeah, come on,” he said as he put a hand on her shoulder to steer her out of the room. He looked back at Angel and gave him an apologetic look, but Angel just nodded for him to go.
Damn, why didn’t he start dating a man so much sooner?
CHAPTER SIXTY
[ Parker ]
Make Her Go Away
Eliot wasn’t someone she usually would go to for this type of thing. Or for anything, really. Besides maybe how to cook a pheasant or something equally as strange, or maybe to beat some people up. But she didn’t know where to go, and she kept having this really bad feeling in her stomach that she just did something really, really bad. But at the same time it felt really, really good so… see, now she was confused. And this is why she needed Eliot.
Though to be fair she had never seen Eliot in any kind of relationship besides whatever he’s doing with Angel right now. Well maybe that one time with Aimee, but he wasn’t dating her again. He used to, but not anymore. Parker thinks he had sex with her though, he came back from the stables looking awfully flushed for someone who was going to just check out the horses.
But Angel… was that his boyfriend now? Is he gay now? Parker stopped in the middle of the hallway suddenly and turned to face him, which made him look confused.
“Are you gay now?” she asked him, because she wanted to know.
Eliot blinked. “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?”
Parker shook her head no, but then peered at him closely. “I just want to know. Did you stop liking vagina?”
Eliot looked like he might laugh just from Parker choosing the word vagina, but he smiled. “I still like women, Parker.” But then he paused, his eyes going wide. He started waving his hands a bit at her. “But if I’m not into you, if that’s what you’re going for. Not that I don’t like you it’s just-”
“Eliot,” she said firmly, cutting him off. She put her hands on her hips. “The last thing I need is another person to like.”
“Right,” Eliot said suddenly, looking a bit embarrassed that he jumped to that conclusion. “I knew that,” he said, though still looked like he didn’t know at all. Parker rolled her eyes at him and took his hand before dragging him into her bedroom.
“Come on.”
He shut the door behind him and looked at Parker expectantly. But she was nervous again, wringing her hands. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea; maybe she should just keep everything to herself. Maybe she should just crawl in the air duct and just… live there. It might be nice, except for the dust… and maybe the small space.
Sometimes there are bugs in there too. That’s kinda gross. She should check that first.
But it was hidden and she’d have many exits. She could bring a blanket and maybe a stuffed animal so she would be alone up there. It might actually be very…
“Parker!” Eliot exclaimed suddenly, shaking the girl out of her thoughts. She realized she had been standing there staring with an odd look on her face for a little while.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, then sat down on her bed. Then she was silent for a bit before admitting, “I might have… I might have done something bad.”
“Did you steal something you weren’t supposed to?” Eliot asked, crossing the room to sit next to her. She shook her head no. “Hurt someone?” Eliot tried again. Parker shrugged a bit. “What did you do?”
Parker chewed on her lower lip for a minute before turning to look at him. “You’re not really going to care,” she said.
Eliot looked at her confused, “Then why did you bring me in here?”
“Because I need to tell someone and there’s… there’s no one that won’t judge me except for you,” she told him, then shrugged as she revised. “Well you judge me all the time, I know you think I’m crazy, but you don’t care about all the… the whatever. Personal stuff, that we all got going on. So you won’t tell me I’m an idiot, right?”
Eliot blinked at her a bit, then looked at her like she couldn’t believe she was asking him this. “Girl, I might think you’re nuts but I don’t think you’re stupid,” he told her. Parker smiled a bit and looked down.
She addressed her sneakers when she spoke, rather than Eliot. “I kissed Sophie and then ran away,” she admitted.
“Oh,” Eliot said, like he thought it would be something bigger than that. But this was big for Parker; this was really big and really bad. Why did she do that?
Right, because she wanted to. How come she can never stop herself from doing stupid things like that?
“That’s bad, right?” Parker asked finally, looking up at him like because of his silence she now didn’t know. He shrugged.
“Do you like her?”
“I think I love her,” Parker told him, which made his eyes go wide. She feels stupid in saying, “And Hardison too. But you can’t love two people, can you? Sophie loves me too… I wasn’t supposed to know that but I do.”
“I don’t know if you can love two people, Parker,” he told her finally. “I never have, but that don’t mean it’s impossible.”
“But you’re not allowed to be with two people at the same time,” Parker finished for him. But then he looks at her funny.
“Who says that?”
“Everyone,” Parker said, shifting a bit on the bed to look at him closer, now suddenly wondering why Eliot didn’t see things that way. “Wait, I can?” she asked him, hoping a new possibility will open up in front of her eyes.
Eliot sighed a bit and gave her a look that Parker didn’t understand until he said, “This doesn’t come back on me, we never had this conversation,” he told her.
Parker nodded, just wanting to know what he was going to say.
Eliot looked like he’s wondering if he should even tell her but then he says. “There’s three ways to have a relationship with two different people. One, with both of them knowing and consenting to it. Two, with both of them also being in a relationship with each other. And three, the road most people use but probably shouldn’t… doing so behind the other one’s back.”
“But…” Parker started, thinking out loud. “Sophie and Hardison don’t want me to date them both, plus Sophie has Nate. Which also makes it difficult for all three of us to have a relationship because then it’d be the four of us and then Hardison and Nate would have to date and have sex too and I don’t think they would really like that, and-”
“Okay!” Eliot exclaimed, stopping her. “Really didn’t need to visual of Hardison and Nate doing...” he didn’t even finish his sentence, just shuddered.
“So I should cheat on Hardison?” Parker asked him.
“What?” Eliot said, rounding on her. “I didn’t say that, make the record be known that I did not say that.”
“Well then I don’t get what you’re saying,” Parker replied, folding her arms across her chest. Eliot sighed.
“Do what you want Parker, I can’t tell you not to do anything. I can tell you that while I’m sure you could get Sophie to cheat on Nate for you because let’s face it, the woman is pretty much always out for herself and what makes her feel good… but if Hardison finds out the damn kid might cry or something and Nate… well he might kill you.”
Parker sighed heavily. Now what? Isn’t she back where she started?
“Okay,” was all she said, because she didn’t know what else to say. She was about to get up to go figure out something else when Eliot put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “What?” she asked.
“Uh,” he started, looking unsure whether or not to even tell her. “Look, there’s something you probably should know.”
“What?” she repeated.
A long pause, and Parker looks at him like if he doesn’t say something within the next five seconds she’s going to walk away. So finally he tells her, “Faith’s upstairs… in Buffy’s room.”
Parker thought she jumped about half way out of her skin. And somehow, she wasn’t sure how exactly, but she was now in Eliot’s lap. She guesses she jumped there, judging by the sound Eliot made from the impact. “What? No, I don’t like that!” she exclaimed, a bad feeling in her chest again. She hated that bad feeling, it didn’t feel good. It felt… bad.
Eliot looked surprised at the thief who was now basically curled on top of him like he needed to protect her and he wrapped his arms around her. “I can’t do anything about it,” he said, almost in an apology.
“No, no, no, Eliot,” Parker said, fear starting to wrap around her entire body. She could deal with her in the house behind bars, but she couldn’t really deal with this. She hid her face in his chest. She felt stupid for being scared, but she was. “Please make her go away, please Eliot.”
Eliot sighed heavily and stroked her hair. “She won’t leave the room, I promise you that, okay? But we can’t… I guess we can’t leave her down there anymore. Trust me, it pisses me off to no end too.” He paused and Parker could feel him tense up, meaning it. “It really does.”
Parker didn’t like that still. She’s not going to be able to sleep. Faith’s gonna come in and finish what she started and then go fuck Buffy after or whatever she likes to do and she’s gonna be broken all over again. She didn’t like that! She tried so hard to fix herself, breaking again would ruin that!
The door opened then and Hardison came in. He looked at Parker on top of Eliot and stopped. Parker took one look at him and got off of Eliot, running over to Hardison and almost knocking into him so she could just curl up into him. “Make her go away!” she told him, frantic.
“Faith,” Eliot explained to him, who was still looking at Eliot like he wanted to punch him for having his arms around his girl. Eliot held up his hands. “I was just… she’s scared and you know, I mean I don’t… I got a thing with Angel or whatever so yeah,” he defended.
Hardison just nodded, no longer looking angry. Hardison was like that though, trusting and understanding. He wrapped his arms around Parker and brought her close to her. Parker grabbed onto his shirt to make sure he wouldn’t leave. “You couldn’t do anything about it?” he asked Eliot.
Eliot shook his head. “I tried it’s just…” then he trailed off, like it was complicated or something. Parker didn’t understand why it was complicated.
Faith downstairs: good. Faith upstairs: bad.
Parker hated being scared, she usually never was. But this… this was scary. Faith did bad things, she did bad things to her and… she didn’t want any more bad things to happen.
“I don’t wanna leave my room anymore,” Parker tells Hardison, her words coming out a bit muffled from being in his shirt.
Hardison seemed to be getting mad, though Parker wasn’t really sure why. Was she making him mad? “Go find Nate,” Hardison said to Eliot. Eliot just nodded and got up, leaving the two in the room.
“Hey… hey Parker? Look at me, okay?” Hardison coaxed. Parker looked up at him, he smiled down at her. That smile that made her feel warm and safe and have butterflies. “We’re not going to let her hurt you, we promise. I promise.”
“I just want her to go away,” Parker stated, like it was just a fact and nothing more. She blinked at him before shifting her eyes down to her sneakers and feeling stupid. “I’m not scared or anything,” she lied.
She was never any good with lies.
“Of course your not,” Hardison agreed, though Parker knows he’s just doing so to make her feel better. She smiled a bit, that’s why she liked him. She nodded a bit, though more to herself than anyone to let herself know she can be okay and be brave and not run away like a little girl.
“You’ll make her go away?” she asked him.
“I’ll try,” he promised. Parker nodded again, and then Nate came in the room.
“What’s going on?” he asked, looking at Hardison. Hardison looked down at Parker and addressed her first.
“Stay here for a minute, alright? I’ll be right back.”
Parker took a deep breath and nodded again, she feels like she’s been doing a lot of that lately but she didn’t wanna talk when she’s scared. When she does that her voice breaks and stuff, and that makes her look weak. She watches him leave with Nate and she sits down on the bed, curling herself into a ball, forgetting her Hardison or Sophie problems for the moment.
She just wanted Faith to go away. Now, please.
TOO BIG!
PART TWELVE IS HERE.
Author: Sapphire Smoke [cuzimastripper]
Fandom: Leverage/Angel
Setting: Post "The Second David Job" in Leverage, Beginning of "Five By Five" in Angel
Rating: NC-17
Genre(s): Crossover/Team!Fic/Het/Femslash/Slash
Word Count Thus Far: 103,379 words
Summary: A prophecy of the splitting of darkness and light, of strength and intelligence. The Leverage team finds themselves mixed up in a destiny and in a world they never knew existed.
Feedback: Give it to me, baby ;]
Chapter Titles Notes: At first I just had the chapter titles be the character's names who's POV it was in, but because FanFiction.Net apparently won't let you have the same title name twice, I decided to actually name all of them. So it will tell you the characters name, but also have the chapter title.
Story Notes: So this is going to be my 'epic fanfic' for the downtime between seasons. I've decided not to tell you guys the pairings... ever. This is mostly a Team!Fic, and any sex and/or relationships are minor plot points and plus I don't like to spoil anything. Making you go 'OMG' makes me happy lol. Hope you guys enjoy! Suggestions and feedback is always appreciated!
Other Parts: PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN | PART EIGHT | PART NINE | PART TEN
CHAPTER FIFTY SIX
[ Angel ]
Out On Good Behavior
If Angel and Eliot knew what they were about to come home to, they wouldn’t have come back at all. Both men looked at each other slowly, just after seeing Cordelia running after Sophie, who had something in her hands, looking slightly crazed and determined.
“Sophie, wait! Hold on-SOPHIE! Don’t ignore me!” Cordelia yelled at her. Sophie ignored her.
Eliot spoke first, “You want to…?” Indicating leaving as he nodded his head at the door. Angel nodded.
“Yeah, sounds safer.”
But then their path was blocked because Sophie had found her way around them, trying to get outside but getting stopped at Sophie held onto her arm. “Sophie!”
Sophie turned around slowly and Angel could finally see what was in her hand: a surveillance tape. “What?” she asked her dangerously. “I’m busy.”
“You’re going crazy, you’re not busy,” Cordelia countered, noticing the look on Sophie’s face. “Will you just calm down for two seconds, please?”
“I am calm.” A dangerous look flashed through Sophie’s eyes. Cordelia backed up a bit.
Eliot and Angel looked at each other again, then backed up too. They were so not involved in any of this. They didn’t even know what any of this way, but they had a feeling they didn’t want to. They also both knew how Sophie can get when she goes ‘crazy’. They both looked at each other, what the hell had gone on during the small time they went to get coffee?
“No, you’re not,” Cordelia told her. “What are you doing?”
“Destroying evidence,” Sophie told her, then turned and stalked out the door, leaving Angel and Eliot to hear Cordelia yell ‘Sophie!’ another time before going after her.
They looked at each other again before Hardison came in the room, arm full of surveillance equipment. “Angel!” he exclaimed, seeing the man finally. Angel turned around slowly to face him, hoping he wasn’t caught up in drama already too. He just got here, after all.
“I watched the feeds you told me to check out,” he said, putting the cameras down on the chair.
“And?” Angel asked.
“Uh,” Hardison started, shifting his eyes a bit. Eliot rolled his.
“Spit it out, Hardison,” he told him, knowing the other man didn’t want to say whatever it was.
“Well uh, see, Buffy and Faith they uh…” Hardison started, looking at his equipment like it was fascinating. “… They had sex. Down there. In the cellar.”
“Man, you called that,” Eliot said, looking at Angel with a nod of approval. Hardison looked confused.
“You knew…? Then why did you…?”
“I had to make sure,” Angel said, his eyes wandering to the basement door. He could faintly hear Buffy and Faith down there again. He tried not to let his curiosity get the best of him. “Where’s Buffy?” he asked, his curiosity deciding that it indeed was going to get the best of him.
Hardison’s eyes were on the cellar door now that was open. He shrugged, “She should be on the stairs as Sophie interrogates Faith, but I guess not. Cordelia and Parker are watching the feeds though, should be okay.”
“Sophie just ran out the door with Cordelia behind her,” Eliot told him, eyebrows raised. Hardison just shrugged.
“I don’t know then, man. Guess they’re done. We’ll check out the feed later and see if she got anything out of her.”
“Uh… that doesn’t look possible,” Angel said finally, putting two and two together. “Sophie ran out of here with a tape and the explanation that she was destroying evidence.”
“Of what?” Hardison asked.
“I don’t know, I thought you would,” Angel said.
“Let’s just go ask Parker,” Eliot said in a ‘duh’ sort of manner, pointing at the girl that just walked in the living room from leaving her bedroom. She had a weird look on her face though.
“Hey, Parker!” Hardison called to her, she turned and looked at the three men. “What’s up with Sophie, do you know?”
“No,” she said. It was short and to the point and then she just left, walking into the kitchen.
Hardison shrugged again, “It’s anyone’s guess then.”
“Hardison!” came Nate’s voice from around the corner. When he came into sight he pointed at Hardison, “Where we at with the cameras?”
“Almost have them all up, we should be pretty good,” Hardison told him. Nate looked at Angel and Eliot and nodded in hello.
“Is Sophie still downstairs?” Nate asked Hardison.
“Ran out the door with Cordelia,” Eliot said, making sure he left out the part about destroying evidence. Angel looked over at him, realizing that whatever Sophie was hiding was probably from Nate.
“Why?” Nate asked, confused.
“You know how Sophie is,” Hardison said, shrugging. “She’s just being Sophie.”
Nate gave him a look that clearly indicated that Hardison’s comment was extremely unhelpful in the current situation, but brushed it off. “Alright well just make sure all these cameras are up and running before dinner.”
“Dinner!” Eliot exclaimed suddenly. “I need to make dinner.”
“We can just order-” Hardison tried, but was cut off by a glare from Eliot. Nate sighed, leaving the room from the petty food arguments and other pointless things.
“No,” Eliot told Hardison sternly. “I’m making us some food.”
Then Angel could hear Buffy and Faith clearer now, but he didn’t move. He looked up just as both of the women emerged from the basement. Hardison shrieked like a little girl and hid behind Eliot, who looked angrier than Angel had ever seen him.
“Whoa! What the fuck?” Eliot demanded, pointing at Faith.
“She’s pregnant and the air down there is making her sicker, we can’t just leave her there,” Buffy said. Angel blinked, did that just come out of Buffy’s mouth? How did Faith end up convincing her of that?
“That bitch better get back behind bars before I kill her,” Eliot said, advancing on Faith. Buffy stepped between them, protecting Faith. Angel was sure he had to be hallucinating.
“Don’t touch her,” she warned him. Angel put his arm out to stop Eliot from advancing any further and getting his ass handed to him by Buffy.
“Buffy, what are you doing?” Angel asked her carefully.
“I’ll have her stay in my room, we can padlock it if you really feel the need,” Buffy said, looking at Angel. Then she motioned to Faith with a small gestured and raised her eyebrows at him, speaking to him without actually speaking.
Angel nodded; he could feel Faith wasn’t a threat anymore too. Whether that could change though, was up for debate. “Deadbolt, then fine,” Angel said, knowing it would be more for other people feeling safe rather than to stop Faith from doing anything. A deadbolt would only delay her; a padlock would have been laughable.
“Fuck no,” Eliot said; going after her again but Angel held him back.
“Let them go,” Angel told him. Eliot was seething and glared at Angel. The two girls left, Buffy bringing Faith to her room, Faith looking back like she felt bad about Eliot’s anger towards her.
Hardison looked like he might wet himself. “I’m just gonna… I’m gonna go find Parker,” he stuttered a bit, leaving quickly, getting as far away from Faith as possible.
“What the fuck, Angel,” Eliot said stepping away from him and looking at him accusingly. “That girl fucked with my kid sister.”
“Parker’s your younger sister?” Angel asked, his eyes going wide. Eliot scoffed.
“Figuratively. Look, It doesn’t matter! She fucked with my family, and now she gets a nice warm bed?” Eliot demanded.
“Eliot, calm down,” Angel told him, obviously the wrong thing.
“Don’t tell me to calm down! That bitch is in my house, this is some fucked up bullshit and you know it.” He slapped Angel’s hand away that tried to rest on his shoulder.
“She’s carrying your child, she needs to rest. And she’s not a threat anymore, and even if she snaps trust me, Buffy and me will take care of it,” Angel told him as he took his hand away that had been slapped. He looked annoyed.
“First of all, that thing inside her is not my child. Second, if she snaps, both of you won’t have time to get to her. She’ll have already been dealt with.” His eyes flashed and then he walked away, passing Angel without another look, into the kitchen to begin dinner.
Angel sighed; this might not have been the best idea.
CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
[ Faith ]
A Once Split Whole
Faith watched Buffy close her bedroom door behind them and lean against it softly as she took a deep breath, looking at the floor. Faith fidgeted uncomfortably on her bed, knowing that Buffy was second guessing her decision. Maybe more than one. Hell, probably more than one. She bit the inside of her cheek and watched as Buffy tore her eyes from the floor to Faith.
“Faith…”
“Don’t,” Faith said, putting up her hand to silence her. She put it down slowly and just kind of shrugged uncomfortably. “Just don’t, B. Okay?”
“I’m not…” Buffy started, making Faith look up at her. Buffy swallowed and took another breath before saying softly. “I’m not... saying that this is a mistake. But this is just…”
“Not what was supposed to happen,” Faith finished for her. Buffy nodded, then shifted her eyes to the right a bit to look at the wall.
“I have a boyfriend, Faith.”
“And I’m pregnant, we all have our little problems,” Faith told her. Buffy looked over at her with a disapproving look.
“You know what I mean.”
Faith just rolled her eyes and bit and kicked her shoes off before bringing her legs up to cross onto the bed. Her arms folded in front of her chest, feeling defensive all of a sudden. “And you know that I don’t care,” she responded, though didn’t look at her.
Buffy scoffed, “Faith, don’t be like that.”
“Whatever,” was all that fell from the darker woman’s lips. She was tired of all of this. Tired of Buffy’s ‘will I, won’t I’ behavior. Faith just stared at the wall across from the room, her hold on herself tightening a bit.
Buffy just looked at her sympathetically, which annoyed Faith. She didn’t need her sympathy, or anyone else’s for that matter. It was just insulting.
She watched in her peripheral vision Buffy move from the door to standing beside her on the bed. Faith didn’t move, and Buffy had to push Faith’s legs a bit so she could sit next to her on the bed. Faith still refused to look at her, being childish, but not caring anymore. She just didn’t want to hear all this crap anymore. Buffy just kissed her downstairs, just let her come up here to share her room. Didn’t that mean anything? Why was Buffy’s head so freaking screwed up all the time?
Buffy’s hand was on her thigh now, but Faith still didn’t move. “Faith, look at me,” she said, but Faith still didn’t look at her. She just continued to stare at the far wall. “Faith,” Buffy tried again, but still no answer.
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes a bit before biting her lower lip softly as if in thought, and then Faith saw her move farther back, out of her peripheral vision… until the felt lips on her neck. She jumped out of instinct, whipping her head around to face the blonde and looking at her with a mixture of confusion, accusing, and surprise.
“Well you weren’t paying attention to me,” Buffy justified herself.
“Don’t screw with me, B. That’s the last thing I really need right now,” Faith told her, and rubbed her neck where Buffy had kissed it with a look like she didn’t know if she was rubbing it in or rubbing it off.
“I’m not screwing with you,” Buffy told her, looking her in the eyes seriously. “Look, this fucks with my head as much as it does with yours, okay? But I never said that I didn’t want…” she trailed off and chewed on her bottom lip again. “That I didn’t want this. I’m just… confused. Alright? Me and you, we’re… different. It’s not so simple.”
“But you mentioned beef-stick,” Faith said with an exaggerated eyebrow raise.
“Riley,” Buffy corrected. Then she shrugged, “I was just saying. Stating my confusion on the subject out loud, I guess…”
“Then what?” Faith asked her.
“I don’t know. I just… I don’t know, Faith. We’re destined… or whatever. It’s complicated.” Buffy’s hand slid up Faith’s thigh to hold the brunette’s hand that was resting on her own as well. Faith curled her fingers around Buffy’s as she placed it on top of hers.
“I don’t think we’re destined to be together,” Faith said with a little laugh. She shrugged and sighed, “Besides, even if we were… wouldn’t that make it simpler?”
“We’re a splitting of darkness and light,” Buffy reminded her as she looked up at the other girl. “If something is split, doesn’t that mean it was once whole?”
“So?” Faith asked, confused on what Buffy was talking about.
“A change of destiny will form from a once split whole,” Buffy said softly. She shrugged a bit, as if she wasn’t completely sure of the idea or of herself. “Can’t that mean us?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The prophecy… the last part Wesley read. It says that, and I just thought…” Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just reading too much into our lives into that damn thing. It can’t control everything we do, right?”
“It doesn’t control us,” Faith said, brushing her thumb lightly over the top of Buffy’s hand. “It just knows what’s already going to happen, I think.” She sighed a bit. “I don’t really know. Always thought those things were all a bunch of bullshit.”
Buffy didn’t say anything, just looked down at their intertwined fingers. Faith looked at her, watching her face. Buffy had a flash of emotion pass over her face before she looked up into Faith’s eyes. “I just don’t know if any of this is real or not,” she finally said.
“Buffy I loved you before I knew about all of this prophecy crap,” Faith told her.
“Yeah but I…”
“Was blissfully unaware,” Faith finished for her. Buffy smirked a bit.
“That was a nice way to put it.”
Faith shrugged a bit with a little smirk of her own, “Figured I’d be nice for once.”
Buffy pursed her lips together and looked down a moment, before looking back up and moving towards Faith slowly until their lips met in a soft kiss. Faith closed her eyes and parted her lips to let Buffy in, squeezing her hand a bit that she was holding. Part of what Buffy said was right, none of this seemed real anymore. If someone or some little scroll told her that Buffy would be hers, even for a moment, she would have laughed in disbelief.
Buffy’s other hand came up to rest lightly on Faith’s cheek, kissing her deeper. Faith let out an audible sound of approval and wrapped her other arm around Buffy’s back, pulling her closer to her body. She started kissing the woman a little more passionately, and Faith could feel Buffy’s breathing starting to get a bit more pronounced against her lips.
Then Buffy was on top of her, though Faith wasn’t sure how that happened. She sucked lightly on Faith’s lower lip, making her emit a quiet gasp before her lips fell from her lips to her neck, and Faith laid her head back against the pillow and arched her back a bit as Buffy’s lips explored her neck.
Then there was a knock on the door. “Buffy, I need to talk to you.”
It was Angel.
Buffy sighed a bit and crawled off of Faith, looking at her a little shyly, maybe a bit embarrassed by getting a little carried away. Faith squeezed her hand one last time before she let her go, watching her open the door and walk out of it.
Faith could still hear them, even though the door was closed. She heard Buffy ask, “What is it?”
“Bringing your new girlfriend upstairs into your bedroom to have a little fun?”
“What are you? A peeping vampire now?” Buffy asked him in offense. Faith sat up a bit, knowing this conversation wasn’t about to be a good one.
“I heard you, it’s not difficult, even without the extra hearing.” Angel said, then went on. “Eliot’s pissed.”
“Why is your new boyfriend’s problems suddenly my problem?” Buffy asked him, obviously annoyed with Angel knowing. Faith blinked, sitting up completely straight now. Angel’s boyfriend?
“You know why, but let’s not fight, Buffy. I’m just saying… Faith did a horrible thing to someone they’re very fond of. How do you think Parker’s going to feel about the woman that tortured her suddenly being able to mingle with the rest of us?”
“Faith isn’t going to mingle, Angel,” Buffy said, annoyance still heavy in her voice. “She’s staying in my room.” A pause, “Parker doesn’t have to know.”
“Both Eliot and Hardison saw her. Hardison’s dating the girl, you think he’s not going to tell her?” Angel asked.
“Look, I don’t know, okay? I don’t know what to do about any of this anymore. I didn’t come to LA with all of this in mind. But things just… they happened, alright? And she’s sick, she’s pregnant and she just can’t be trapped down there by herself.”
“And this has nothing to do with how you feel about her now?” Angel asked her.
“Of course it does, but it’s also basic human compassion,” Buffy answered.
“You never would have-”
“I know,” Buffy interrupted him. “I know, okay? But I do now, so can we just not? Please? I’ll deal with everyone, I promise.”
There was a long pause and then finally Angel responded, “Fine. Dinner will probably be soon - you can deal with everyone then.”
Faith figured Buffy acknowledged him with a head nod because suddenly the door opened and Buffy was coming back inside. Faith looked at Buffy curiously, “Eliot is Angel’s boyfriend, seriously?”
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes a bit, “I guess. I don’t know, they went on a date or whatever.”
“Angel’s banging a man… nice,” Faith said with a smirk.
“Faith!”
“What, B? I think it’s kind of sexy,” Faith replied, her smirk growing larger.
“There’s something very wrong with you,” Buffy told her with a funny look. Faith just shrugged.
“You wouldn’t want to watch that?” Faith asked her, genuinely curious.
“No!” Buffy protested. She made a face. “God, change of subject needed quickly.”
Faith just laughed and took Buffy’s hand in hers and pulled her roughly onto the bed, on top of her, making Buffy squeal a bit in surprise. She kissed her, changing the subject like she asked. But even as she fell into Buffy, she was still worried about what she was going to do when she had to face everyone.
It was inevitable. Sooner or later… she would have to.
CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT
[ Cordelia ]
Pretending
“Repeat after me… I am not in love with Parker. I love Nate,” Cordelia said as she nodded her head along, trying to encourage her to embrace her concept. As far as she knew, it was the correct concept to be embracing after all. Faith just liked to screw with people’s heads; Cordelia was trying to not let her take it too seriously.
“I am not in love with Parker,” Sophie said slowly, but then got a little disgruntled look on her face. “I love Nate.”
Cordelia sighed and looked at the grifter, hands going to her hips as they stood near the garbage bin where Sophie threw the tape into. “Alright, spill it.” She looked at her expectantly. Apparently it wasn’t the correct concept.
“Spill what?” Sophie asked her.
“What’s up with you and Nate?” Cordelia asked. Sophie got an odd look on her face when she was supposed to repeat that line.
“Nothing’s up, Cordy,” Sophie said, attempting to lie to her. Cordelia knew she was usually good at that, but she could see right though it and gave her a knowing look. Sophie sighed, “It’s nothing, I’ve just been thinking is all.”
“About?”
Sophie rolled her eyes a bit. “Sometimes you needing to know everything is kind of annoying, you know.”
“I’ll be sure to cry about that later,” Cordelia said evenly, not even caring. She nodded at her. “So?”
Another sigh from Sophie and her eyes flickered to the bench about five feet away, back into the yard. She turned and walked to it, Cordelia following her. When she sat, she paused for a minute before saying, “I just feel like he doesn’t trust me… and like maybe he just doesn’t want to be happy. Like he’s happy being miserable, as bloody screwed up as that is.”
Cordelia sat next to her on the bench, moving a little closer to her than she normally would so she wouldn’t sit in birds droppings and replied, “I thought that was just the way he was.”
Sophie shook her head. “He didn’t always used to be like that.” She looked up at the sky, watching a bird fly overhead. “Though never trusting me… that’s still the same.”
“So what do you want to do about it?” Cordelia asked her.
Sophie scoffed a little, out of scorned amusement. “There’s nothing I can do about it, Cordelia. I don’t have any options than just being with him.”
“You could not be with him,” Cordelia said, looking at her like it was obvious. Damn, was Sophie turning into one of those women that always needed to be in a relationship?
“And be alone again for another two years? No thanks,” she sighed and turned her head to look at her friend. Yup, maybe she was. “Plus, I do love him. I really do… but I don’t want him to make me miserable too. I just don’t know how to fix him anymore.”
“Maybe you could talk to him,” Cordelia offered in advice.
Sophie took a deep breath. “No… I can’t keep lying to him. I’m starting to think he knows I am. He’s paranoid about Parker for a reason, even if I didn’t see the reason before now.” She paused. “I just thought the reason wasn’t a real issue.”
Cordelia rolled her eyes a bit. “Sophie, don’t throw your relationship away over a girl that’s already taken.”
Sophie looked down at the grass and played with her hands a bit. “I’m not. I’m not going to… I’m still going to stay with Nate, but we can’t talk about it. I don’t want to talk about Parker anymore. I got kicked out of denial, makes it harder.”
“…You really love her?” Cordelia asked, surprised.
Sophie didn’t look up, but Cordelia watched her bite her bottom lip softly and say in a whisper, “Yeah… I do.” She shrugged a bit. “I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know why it happened. I wish it didn’t.”
Cordelia wrapped her arm around Sophie in a sideways hug, and Sophie leaned against her, putting her head on her shoulder. “I wish I knew how to help, but I don’t,” Cordelia told her.
“I know,” Sophie sighed. “I don’t expect you too. I don’t expect anyone too. Some people are just meant to not have everything they want, right?”
“No one can have everything they want,” Cordelia told her. “Lesson I learned the hard way.”
“Yeah… I know. I just like to pretend I do. I like to pretend a lot of things,” Sophie revealed.
“Like what?” Cordelia asked.
There was a long pause before Sophie answered. Then she took a deep breath and said, “Like who I really am.”
“What do you mean?”
Sophie untangled herself from Cordelia’s hug and looked at her a little apologetically, “My name isn’t Sophie.”
“What?” Cordelia asked, confused. “What is it then?”
Sophie’s eyes were on the ground again. “Jenny. But I… I didn’t want to be her anymore. So I’m just… I’m not. Right?”
“Changing your name doesn’t change who you are,” Cordelia told her.
Sophie didn’t answer, just looked back up to her. “Don’t tell anyone, I don’t want them to know. I think Nate knows, this guy we both knew in our pasts… he called me that. I told Nate it wasn’t true, but…” she sighed again. “I just want to be Sophie now.”
“Okay, Sophie,” Cordelia said, and smiled a little at her to let her know that she accepted that. Sophie smiled back.
“Thank you.”
“What friends are for, right?” Cordelia asked, her smile widening.
“Yeah,” Sophie said and hugged Cordelia again. “I guess so. Never really…”
“None of you never really had friends, did you?” Cordelia asked her.
“We’re thieves… you just can’t in our line of work,” Sophie said with a bit of a shrug. She took a deep breath before going on. “Never thought I was missing much. But I guess I was.”
“Of course you were, friends are irreplaceable in a person’s life,” Cordelia said. “They’re the one’s that help you through it all.”
“Noticing,” Sophie said with a little laugh. She looked back at the house and said. “We should go back, Nate’s probably wondering where I am.”
“Yeah,” Cordelia agreed and got up just as Sophie did.
They walked back to the house in silence, and Cordelia stole a glance over at Sophie. The poor woman. Cordelia looked up to her a bit, she seemed like she had it all. She was an incredible actress, she was rich, she had… everything. Except her personal life was a complete disaster. But no one’s perfect, right? Flaws are what make’s the human race a bit beautiful.
Then all of a sudden Sophie was gone from her side, and Cordelia looked back to see her being pulled around the corner. Cordelia blinked for a bit, not even registering how that happened so quickly and so silently. She turned and ran a bit around the corner, seeing if she was all right, and then stopped as she saw Parker holding her elbow.
“You lied to me,” Parker told her.
“Let me go, Parker,” Sophie said, trying to get her arm out of the thief’s grip, but she didn’t let go.
“You looked me straight in the eye and made an effort to lie to me to my face,” Parker went on. “You’re voice was a bit higher than normal. You taught me that.”
“Parker, let her go,” Cordelia said softly. Parker looked over at Cordelia, not realizing they had company, and let Sophie go. But Sophie didn’t move, she just stood there and stared back at her.
“I wish I didn’t teach you that now,” Sophie said finally.
Parker didn’t say anything else, but one minute she was standing there and the next her lips were pressed against Sophie’s. Cordelia’s eyes went wide and so did Sophie’s, but neither of them really had a chance to register what just happened before Parker broke the kiss and told her. “You’re dumb, you know? I think I might love you too. But you’re just… dumb.”
“That’s helpful, Parker,” Sophie said automatically, annoyed a bit at being called stupid. She still didn’t seem to get that Parker just kissed her though, or the fact that Parker said she might love her, so Cordelia took the initiative to let them know something.
“Guys? This isn’t the most private place in the world to be practicing adultery.”
It was like a train wreck happening in front of her eyes, but Cordelia didn’t know how to stop it anymore than that. It wasn’t her business too, even though she knew it could end up potentially disastrous and hurt her friend more than she already is.
Parker went on, ignoring both Sophie and Cordelia’s remarks. She just needed to get it out. “But I think I might love Hardison too, and I can’t have both. Neither can you. You taught me that too.” She paused, and a funny look crossed over her face. “But I… damnit, I just want to…”
And then she kissed her again, this time a bit longer. Sophie looked surprised again, though Cordelia wasn’t sure why she would a second time, but she made no move to stop her. Instead she reciprocated this time. Maybe she finally was done pretending.
Cordelia was starting to feel very awkward though so she backed up a bit to leave, but then they broke and Parker spoke again. “I’m think I’m dumb too,” she finally said like she didn’t know what to do about it. Then she turned and ran away, around the other side of the house and out of sight.
Cordelia blinked and stared at Sophie, who was staring at the spot where Parker was like she didn’t know what just happened. It was a long time before she turned to look at her friend and asked, “Did that… did that just really happen?”
“Yeah,” Cordelia said slowly, “That definitely just happened.”
Sophie looked lost, a bit confused. She sank down and sat in the grass, and her eyebrows knitted together from the after shock of it all. “What do I do?” she asked, though Cordelia was sure it might not even be to her.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Bloody fucking hell,” Sophie sighed, putting her head in her hands. “She wasn’t supposed to… to just do that.”
“She’s Parker,” Cordelia said, as if in explanation. Sophie looked up at her.
“Yeah, she is. Should’ve thought of that. I forgot I… I forgot I taught her how to spot lies. I can’t believe I didn’t lie that well… I tried so hard too,” she looked confused, not about what was going on this time but how she didn’t seem to realize that lie wasn’t one of her best performances.
“Maybe she could just feel it,” Cordelia offered. Sophie just shook her head before getting herself off the ground finally.
“No, she saw the signs. I don’t remember doing them but I guess I just needed to get out of there so fast I didn’t think.” She paused, looking in the direction Parker ran to. She stayed there a long time before finally saying.
“I can’t go after her, can I?”
“I’m done trying to tell you what’s right, Sophie,” Cordelia said. “Do what you feel is the right thing to do.”
Sophie looked down a bit before taking a deep breath. “I can’t. I just… can’t. It’ll hurt so many people.”
Cordelia nodded a bit, though looked at her sympathetically. She could tell Sophie was upset. “Let’s go inside.”
Sophie nodded, chewing on her bottom lip a little. “Okay,” she said, and took one final look behind her before moving forward.
CHAPTER FIFTY NINE
[ Eliot ]
Daddy Dearest
That stupid fucking slut.
Eliot bent down to grab a pot out of the bottom cabinet, but not before banging them all around for good measure. He stood up straight and slammed the pot onto the counter, making it emit a loud bang. But that wasn’t good enough for Eliot so he slammed his fist down on the counter, just fucking furious. Why was she even still around? Couldn’t they just kill her and get it over with? Problem solved, maybe they won’t have a possible hero but there wouldn’t be a destroyer either.
Another bang as he puts it on the stove and lights it as he starts throwing in ingredients, barely even paying attention to what he puts in. Not like it mattered much anyway, he seemed to have sixth sense for cooking so more likely than not it would end up turning out halfway decent at least.
“Eliot?” came a voice from behind him.
“Can’t you see I’m busy,” Eliot stressed, not looking at whoever it was, because he already knew who it was. Angel.
“Busy cooking? No. Busy destroying the kitchen? Yes,” Angel replied. Eliot whipped around, annoyed.
“What would you know about cooking?” he demanded, angry with him too. He just sat there and let her go. Just let her go!
Angel smirked a bit, “I was human once.”
Eliot rolled his eyes and turned around, no longer wanting to acknowledge him. There was silence for a bit as he kept throwing stuff in the pan before he felt hands on his shoulders. He stiffened out of instinct, but stopped his original instinct to attack.
“What do you want?” Eliot asked, letting out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding.
“For you to look at me, for starters.”
Eliot resisted the urge to do another eye roll and turned off the burner before he ended up actually burning god knows whatever he was cooking, and turned around to face Angel. He looked at him expectantly.
“I know you’re angry…” Angel started.
“Damn right I am!” Eliot exclaimed loudly, throwing up his hands, one of which included a large wooden spoon that was covered in red sauce that ended up making a splatter pattern on the wall. Whoops. Well, fuck it.
Angel blinked at the spattered sauce on the wall but said nothing. Instead he looked back at Eliot. He tried a different approach. “Do you believe in the prophecy?” he asked him.
Eliot looked startled that he would even ask that, then shifted his eyes a bit as he thought. Finally he said. “I don’t know, I got to, don’t I? The damn thing knew I had a twin, that I would knock up Faith.”
“Then why don’t you believe it when it says she’s reforming?” Angel asked him.
Eliot glared, “First of all, the tenses between reforming and reformed is probably the main issue I have with that, because nothing is ever guaranteed. Second, regardless of what it says she’s going to do, it doesn’t change what she did.”
“I doubt she’s expecting it to,” Angel told him. Eliot just got more frustrated.
“Look, you protect yours and I’ll protect mine, right? That’s what we do, so fuck it, okay? You do what you do and I’ll do the same.”
“Faith is more yours than mine,” Angel pointed out. Eliot glared at him, not liking the implication.
“No, fuck that. She’s a slayer; that means she’s yours. Your people, your world, whatever. And that fucking thing inside her is… it’s not mine. And she is most definitely not mine.”
“Eliot, we live in the same world. Plus it’s yours… it’s your child. A human child, or did you forget that?” Angel asked, trying to stress the point, but Eliot didn’t seem to get it, instead he just got angrier.
“It doesn’t matter what it is, it’s not mine!” Eliot yelled and pushed Angel back a couple steps from him. He was breathing a bit heavier, though it wasn’t out of anger… it was out of fear. He was stuck in denial, he liked denial… why the fuck was Angel trying to pull him out of it? It wasn’t his child, he just helped make it. No where in the contract did it say that that made it his!
“Eliot, listen to me!” Angel said, raising his voice a bit. “Faith is carrying your child. You’re going to have a baby, Eliot. Listen to me!” But Eliot pushed him back again and told him to shut the fuck up, which made Angel grab his wrists and push him back against the counter to steady him. Eliot fought against him, but Angel had the leverage and had the speed, which seemed to infuriate Eliot further. He just wanted to make his shut up, stop talking. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to really know.
“I swear to you this child is going to turn out good, are you listening to me? Damnit Eliot, you’re going to have a son, or a maybe even a daughter!” At that, Eliot stopped fighting a bit, looking at him like something just dawned on him. A son or a daughter? His son, or his daughter?
Angel released his grip a bit and said softer, “You’re going to have a baby, Eliot. A child of your own, someone to protect and love. You’re going to be a father…”
Eliot blinked at him, shock registered all over his face. He finally got it. It sounds stupid that he didn’t get it before, but he just didn’t. It was always Faith’s evil child from hell. But it’s his child too, his child that everyone is trying to help turn good right now. Try to turn into a hero…
“Fuck,” Eliot breathed out, like he couldn’t believe it. “I’m gonna be a Dad.”
Angel nodded is head at him and Eliot just stood there for a minute, not knowing what to do. “I think I need to sit down,” he said finally, and Angel helped him to a chair. He slumped down into it and put his hands over his mouth as he stared at the far wall. A baby, a real baby. Someone to teach to cook, to fight, to bother Hardison… Eliot laughed a bit in his head at that mental picture. He took a deep breath.
Damn, he was going to be a father.
But the only problem was… “Faith’s going to be the mother,” he said, looking up at Angel. That meant no matter what she would always be in the picture. Always be in his life, always be in his child’s life, doesn’t it? Unless…
“I’ll take my kid away from her,” he said finally.
Angel sighed and knelt down next to the chair so he could be eye level with him. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.
“She’s fucking crazy, do you really think she’d be fit as a mother? Seriously,” Eliot said, glaring a bit.
“She’s not crazy, Eliot. She’s just damaged… and damaged can be repaired.”
“Fuck that,” Eliot responded.
“Eliot,” Angel said, looking at him seriously. “Just don’t think about it right now, you have nine months to figure that out, okay? Just realize for a second that you’re going to have a child and just accept that. One thing at a time.”
Eliot was silent for a bit, just thinking. Angel was right, he couldn’t deal with all of this at once. It’s taken him this long to even accept that it’s going to be his baby, trying to figure everything out now would be stupid. “I still hate her,” he said.
“I know,” Angel said and put his hand on his leg. Eliot’s hand automatically came up to rest on his and he looked him in the eyes before leaning in and kissing him softly.
“Thanks,” Eliot said quietly after they broke. He shrugged, not good at platitudes. “You know, for making me… get it, or whatever.”
“No problem,” Angel said with a smile.
Eliot felt himself smile, despite himself. He got up and so did Angel and he went over to the stove again to start cooking again… but then stopped. Damn, that man was good, and for whatever reason he finally felt a little better. Better than he’s felt in years, and definitely better than he’s felt over the last couple of weeks. So instead of cooking, he turned around again and advanced on Angel, who looked confused for a minute before Eliot wrapped his arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.
Angel’s arms snaked around Eliot’s waist and he reciprocated, sneaking in for a taste. Eliot groaned softly against the bigger man’s lips and pushed him up against the kitchen wall before his lips went to his neck, just needing to thank him in a different way.
“Aren’t you supposed to be…?” Angel started, meaning cooking, but Eliot interrupted him.
“Fuck it,” he said against his neck. “We’ll order out.” He bit the vampire’s neck lightly, feeling the irony of the situation and felt Angel grip his shirt a little more and let out something that could resemble a breath.
Then Eliot’s lips were back up, kissing him again a little more passionately, his hands running over his chest and down to his belt. They were in the middle of the kitchen, so Eliot still wasn’t about to really do anything, but it was fun even more a moment to make Angel think so.
“Eliot,” he gasps out, trying to move his hands.
“Relax,” Eliot said against his lips with a smirk. “I’m not going to do anything… here.”
But unfortunately they did end up getting interrupted by Parker coming into the kitchen. She just stood there in the doorway for a moment, not wanting to interrupt, and neither man saw her for a bit until Eliot shifted his gaze a bit to check to see if they were still alone and well, they weren’t.
“Parker!” Eliot exclaimed, looking at the girl. He wasn’t embarrassed at being caught, but instead worried. The girl looked really distressed.
“Sorry,” she said quietly. “I just… um…” she paused and shuffled her feet a little bit. Eliot and Angel untangled themselves from each other and Eliot walked over to the girl.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
She sighed and shrugged, still looking at the ground. “Can I talk to you?” she asked before looking up at him like there was no where else for her to go. It tugged on Eliot’s heart so he nodded.
“Yeah, come on,” he said as he put a hand on her shoulder to steer her out of the room. He looked back at Angel and gave him an apologetic look, but Angel just nodded for him to go.
Damn, why didn’t he start dating a man so much sooner?
CHAPTER SIXTY
[ Parker ]
Make Her Go Away
Eliot wasn’t someone she usually would go to for this type of thing. Or for anything, really. Besides maybe how to cook a pheasant or something equally as strange, or maybe to beat some people up. But she didn’t know where to go, and she kept having this really bad feeling in her stomach that she just did something really, really bad. But at the same time it felt really, really good so… see, now she was confused. And this is why she needed Eliot.
Though to be fair she had never seen Eliot in any kind of relationship besides whatever he’s doing with Angel right now. Well maybe that one time with Aimee, but he wasn’t dating her again. He used to, but not anymore. Parker thinks he had sex with her though, he came back from the stables looking awfully flushed for someone who was going to just check out the horses.
But Angel… was that his boyfriend now? Is he gay now? Parker stopped in the middle of the hallway suddenly and turned to face him, which made him look confused.
“Are you gay now?” she asked him, because she wanted to know.
Eliot blinked. “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?”
Parker shook her head no, but then peered at him closely. “I just want to know. Did you stop liking vagina?”
Eliot looked like he might laugh just from Parker choosing the word vagina, but he smiled. “I still like women, Parker.” But then he paused, his eyes going wide. He started waving his hands a bit at her. “But if I’m not into you, if that’s what you’re going for. Not that I don’t like you it’s just-”
“Eliot,” she said firmly, cutting him off. She put her hands on her hips. “The last thing I need is another person to like.”
“Right,” Eliot said suddenly, looking a bit embarrassed that he jumped to that conclusion. “I knew that,” he said, though still looked like he didn’t know at all. Parker rolled her eyes at him and took his hand before dragging him into her bedroom.
“Come on.”
He shut the door behind him and looked at Parker expectantly. But she was nervous again, wringing her hands. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea; maybe she should just keep everything to herself. Maybe she should just crawl in the air duct and just… live there. It might be nice, except for the dust… and maybe the small space.
Sometimes there are bugs in there too. That’s kinda gross. She should check that first.
But it was hidden and she’d have many exits. She could bring a blanket and maybe a stuffed animal so she would be alone up there. It might actually be very…
“Parker!” Eliot exclaimed suddenly, shaking the girl out of her thoughts. She realized she had been standing there staring with an odd look on her face for a little while.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, then sat down on her bed. Then she was silent for a bit before admitting, “I might have… I might have done something bad.”
“Did you steal something you weren’t supposed to?” Eliot asked, crossing the room to sit next to her. She shook her head no. “Hurt someone?” Eliot tried again. Parker shrugged a bit. “What did you do?”
Parker chewed on her lower lip for a minute before turning to look at him. “You’re not really going to care,” she said.
Eliot looked at her confused, “Then why did you bring me in here?”
“Because I need to tell someone and there’s… there’s no one that won’t judge me except for you,” she told him, then shrugged as she revised. “Well you judge me all the time, I know you think I’m crazy, but you don’t care about all the… the whatever. Personal stuff, that we all got going on. So you won’t tell me I’m an idiot, right?”
Eliot blinked at her a bit, then looked at her like she couldn’t believe she was asking him this. “Girl, I might think you’re nuts but I don’t think you’re stupid,” he told her. Parker smiled a bit and looked down.
She addressed her sneakers when she spoke, rather than Eliot. “I kissed Sophie and then ran away,” she admitted.
“Oh,” Eliot said, like he thought it would be something bigger than that. But this was big for Parker; this was really big and really bad. Why did she do that?
Right, because she wanted to. How come she can never stop herself from doing stupid things like that?
“That’s bad, right?” Parker asked finally, looking up at him like because of his silence she now didn’t know. He shrugged.
“Do you like her?”
“I think I love her,” Parker told him, which made his eyes go wide. She feels stupid in saying, “And Hardison too. But you can’t love two people, can you? Sophie loves me too… I wasn’t supposed to know that but I do.”
“I don’t know if you can love two people, Parker,” he told her finally. “I never have, but that don’t mean it’s impossible.”
“But you’re not allowed to be with two people at the same time,” Parker finished for him. But then he looks at her funny.
“Who says that?”
“Everyone,” Parker said, shifting a bit on the bed to look at him closer, now suddenly wondering why Eliot didn’t see things that way. “Wait, I can?” she asked him, hoping a new possibility will open up in front of her eyes.
Eliot sighed a bit and gave her a look that Parker didn’t understand until he said, “This doesn’t come back on me, we never had this conversation,” he told her.
Parker nodded, just wanting to know what he was going to say.
Eliot looked like he’s wondering if he should even tell her but then he says. “There’s three ways to have a relationship with two different people. One, with both of them knowing and consenting to it. Two, with both of them also being in a relationship with each other. And three, the road most people use but probably shouldn’t… doing so behind the other one’s back.”
“But…” Parker started, thinking out loud. “Sophie and Hardison don’t want me to date them both, plus Sophie has Nate. Which also makes it difficult for all three of us to have a relationship because then it’d be the four of us and then Hardison and Nate would have to date and have sex too and I don’t think they would really like that, and-”
“Okay!” Eliot exclaimed, stopping her. “Really didn’t need to visual of Hardison and Nate doing...” he didn’t even finish his sentence, just shuddered.
“So I should cheat on Hardison?” Parker asked him.
“What?” Eliot said, rounding on her. “I didn’t say that, make the record be known that I did not say that.”
“Well then I don’t get what you’re saying,” Parker replied, folding her arms across her chest. Eliot sighed.
“Do what you want Parker, I can’t tell you not to do anything. I can tell you that while I’m sure you could get Sophie to cheat on Nate for you because let’s face it, the woman is pretty much always out for herself and what makes her feel good… but if Hardison finds out the damn kid might cry or something and Nate… well he might kill you.”
Parker sighed heavily. Now what? Isn’t she back where she started?
“Okay,” was all she said, because she didn’t know what else to say. She was about to get up to go figure out something else when Eliot put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “What?” she asked.
“Uh,” he started, looking unsure whether or not to even tell her. “Look, there’s something you probably should know.”
“What?” she repeated.
A long pause, and Parker looks at him like if he doesn’t say something within the next five seconds she’s going to walk away. So finally he tells her, “Faith’s upstairs… in Buffy’s room.”
Parker thought she jumped about half way out of her skin. And somehow, she wasn’t sure how exactly, but she was now in Eliot’s lap. She guesses she jumped there, judging by the sound Eliot made from the impact. “What? No, I don’t like that!” she exclaimed, a bad feeling in her chest again. She hated that bad feeling, it didn’t feel good. It felt… bad.
Eliot looked surprised at the thief who was now basically curled on top of him like he needed to protect her and he wrapped his arms around her. “I can’t do anything about it,” he said, almost in an apology.
“No, no, no, Eliot,” Parker said, fear starting to wrap around her entire body. She could deal with her in the house behind bars, but she couldn’t really deal with this. She hid her face in his chest. She felt stupid for being scared, but she was. “Please make her go away, please Eliot.”
Eliot sighed heavily and stroked her hair. “She won’t leave the room, I promise you that, okay? But we can’t… I guess we can’t leave her down there anymore. Trust me, it pisses me off to no end too.” He paused and Parker could feel him tense up, meaning it. “It really does.”
Parker didn’t like that still. She’s not going to be able to sleep. Faith’s gonna come in and finish what she started and then go fuck Buffy after or whatever she likes to do and she’s gonna be broken all over again. She didn’t like that! She tried so hard to fix herself, breaking again would ruin that!
The door opened then and Hardison came in. He looked at Parker on top of Eliot and stopped. Parker took one look at him and got off of Eliot, running over to Hardison and almost knocking into him so she could just curl up into him. “Make her go away!” she told him, frantic.
“Faith,” Eliot explained to him, who was still looking at Eliot like he wanted to punch him for having his arms around his girl. Eliot held up his hands. “I was just… she’s scared and you know, I mean I don’t… I got a thing with Angel or whatever so yeah,” he defended.
Hardison just nodded, no longer looking angry. Hardison was like that though, trusting and understanding. He wrapped his arms around Parker and brought her close to her. Parker grabbed onto his shirt to make sure he wouldn’t leave. “You couldn’t do anything about it?” he asked Eliot.
Eliot shook his head. “I tried it’s just…” then he trailed off, like it was complicated or something. Parker didn’t understand why it was complicated.
Faith downstairs: good. Faith upstairs: bad.
Parker hated being scared, she usually never was. But this… this was scary. Faith did bad things, she did bad things to her and… she didn’t want any more bad things to happen.
“I don’t wanna leave my room anymore,” Parker tells Hardison, her words coming out a bit muffled from being in his shirt.
Hardison seemed to be getting mad, though Parker wasn’t really sure why. Was she making him mad? “Go find Nate,” Hardison said to Eliot. Eliot just nodded and got up, leaving the two in the room.
“Hey… hey Parker? Look at me, okay?” Hardison coaxed. Parker looked up at him, he smiled down at her. That smile that made her feel warm and safe and have butterflies. “We’re not going to let her hurt you, we promise. I promise.”
“I just want her to go away,” Parker stated, like it was just a fact and nothing more. She blinked at him before shifting her eyes down to her sneakers and feeling stupid. “I’m not scared or anything,” she lied.
She was never any good with lies.
“Of course your not,” Hardison agreed, though Parker knows he’s just doing so to make her feel better. She smiled a bit, that’s why she liked him. She nodded a bit, though more to herself than anyone to let herself know she can be okay and be brave and not run away like a little girl.
“You’ll make her go away?” she asked him.
“I’ll try,” he promised. Parker nodded again, and then Nate came in the room.
“What’s going on?” he asked, looking at Hardison. Hardison looked down at Parker and addressed her first.
“Stay here for a minute, alright? I’ll be right back.”
Parker took a deep breath and nodded again, she feels like she’s been doing a lot of that lately but she didn’t wanna talk when she’s scared. When she does that her voice breaks and stuff, and that makes her look weak. She watches him leave with Nate and she sits down on the bed, curling herself into a ball, forgetting her Hardison or Sophie problems for the moment.
She just wanted Faith to go away. Now, please.
TOO BIG!
PART TWELVE IS HERE.