Fanfiction || City of Thieves || Leverage/Angel Crossover Fic || Part Five

[cuzimastripper]

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 (will include slash in later chapters)
Word Count Thus Far: 49,703 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!
Part One: Can be found HERE.
Part Two: Can be found HERE.
Part Three: Can be found HERE.
Part Four: Can be found HERE.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN NOTES: Why did none of you point out that I hadn't done a chapter in Wesley's POV yet? I thought I did everyone at least once and I realized I totally never did him. Bad bad me.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
[ Wesley ]
Cowardly Brave

Wesley felt like he had failed as a Watcher. He was so ecstatic when he was told he was going to be sent to Sunnydale to act as her Watcher, was so excited about all the things he could teach her, how he could guide her to be the best slayer the world had ever seen.

But it turned out she was the worst slayer the world had ever seen.

Faith murdered an innocent man. She turned to evil. Everything she came into contact with turned to ash. She was nothing but a plague on the world, and even though maybe not all of it was Wesley’s fault, he did feel mostly responsible.

He never should have told the council that she murdered that man, being captured by them was the breaking point for Faith, and he knew it.

He read her file before being sent to her. He knew she used to be beat constantly by her alcoholic mother, he knew she ran away from home at quite a young age. He knew she was already breaking and instead of trying to repair her he ruined her.

Faith was a time bomb with no direction. For awhile it seemed like Buffy was her target, but obviously she must have given up on that because she wasn’t in Sunnydale; she was in London stalking them.

He could only hope as he worked on translating the prophecy that there was some mention in there of her reforming, or a way to stop the Destroyer her and Eliot seemed to have spawned. He would suggest a regular abortion, but something inside him told him that if she was going to give birth to a monster and it was pre destined, it wasn’t going to go away that easily.

“Anything interesting yet?” Cordelia asked him, peering over his shoulder.

Wesley sighed, “If there was, don’t you think I would have told you?”

Cordelia scoffed, “Fine, sorry. I’m just bored.”

“Well you could always go try and catch up with Angel and the rest of them if you’re really that bored,” Wesley said sarcastically.

“And come face to face with America’s Most Wanted? No thanks,” Cordelia said and moved away from Wesley to go sit by Hardison on the couch. Probably to harass him, next.

Wesley looked back down at the prophecy and started to get to work translating the next stanza. He was back and forth between his books for a little while, trying to block out Cordelia incessant chattering when his eyes widened after he read over what he had just translated.

“Eureka!” he shouted.

Hardison looked up and cocked an eyebrow before addressing Cordelia, “Did he seriously just say ‘eureka’?”

“He does that,” Cordelia told him in an apologetic tone before turning and asking Wesley, “What?”

Wesley looked up and said, “There’s a way to affect the outcome of the child. Or, demon, whatever it is that she’s carrying.”

“What is it?” Hardison asked.

“I’m not a hundred percent certain, I still need to finish translating the rest, but from what I gather it has to do with Buffy.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes, “Oh great, because that’s just what we need. Buffy up in here messing with Angel’s head and affecting prophecies.”

“Like it or not Cordelia she is a part of this, could you please give her a call? Have her meet us when we get back to Los Angeles,” Wesley requested.

Cordelia cocked an eyebrow at Wesley, “You gonna tell Angel about her coming or you just gonna have her show up?”

Wesley cleared his throat, “I don’t know, I haven’t decided which would be the best way. But we do need her there when we get back, so please.”

Cordelia sighed but got up to go get her phone in the bedroom while muttering under her breath, “This is so gonna end badly…”

Wesley ignored her and went back to translating the scrolls. After maybe only a minute there was a bang, and he stood up to go look where the sound was coming from. Hardison was up too, and they both turned the corner and looked at what had happened.

Faith stood in the doorway, the door off of it’s hinges. She smiled and waved with her fingers, “Hi there Wes, miss me?”

“Faith…” Wesley said in shock and instinctively took a couple steps back.

Faith held out her hands and smirk, “The one and only.”

“Where’s Parker?” Hardison demanded and took a step forward, but Wesley held out his hand to hold him back. Taking on Faith was suicide.

Faith cocked her head to the side and little and started advancing towards them, and Wesley could only hope that Cordelia could hear what was going on and called someone for help.

“Dead,” she told him, and when he got that look of shock she started laughing. “Nah, you’re pretty little blonde is sitting tight somewhere right now, probably being rescued as we speak, actually.”

Wes and Hardison backed up as Faith got closer. “How did you know they went to go get her?”

Faith smirked and said, “I have little birdies all around, Wes. They whisper in my ear and tell me all sorts of useful things.”

“What did you do to her?” Hardison asked her, clearly afraid of the possibilities.

Faith cocked her head and said observationally, “Ohh… I have your girlfriend, don’t I? Well maybe not your girlfriend, little tech geeks like you never end up with hot chicks like her, do they?” She smirked and continued, “Aww… But you want to be with her, don’t you? Gotta tell you, she’s got one pretty pussy.”

Hardison went after her and Wesley tried to stop him but he pushed him back. Wesley knew what was coming before it even happened. Hardison swung, missed, and then was thrown into the far wall in a matter of seconds. Wesley winced as he saw him go down. He hoped he would get back up, but he didn’t move.

“Touched a nerve there, didn’t I?” Faith said, laughing. “Oh well.” She turned and looked around the room and put her finger to her chin in mock thought, “Now, where is Cordelia? I find it rude that she hasn’t come out to say hello to me yet.”

Wesley didn’t know what to do. He could try to fight her, but he knew it’d be useless. He could try to run but she would catch him. Just like she was about to catch Cordelia.

Faith opened the door to one of the adjoining bedrooms and smiled, “Well hi there, Cordy. Nice to see you again.”

“Get away from me,” Wesley heard Cordelia say from the other room as Faith advanced on her.

“Now you’re just being rude,” Faith said and Wesley heard Cordelia yell out in pain. “Come out and have a nice reunion with Wes and I, will you?”

And then Faith appeared again, holding Cordelia’s arm in almost a death grip which was making Cordelia wince in pain and bite her lip to keep from yelling out again.

“Faith… we can help you,” Wesley told her, trying to use a different tactic.

Faith laughed, “You can help me? Are you kidding me? Ah, see… this is why I’ve missed you, Wes. You always cracked me up.”

“We understand you’re in pain… we can get you some help, rehabilitate you…”

“No see what you’re not seeming to understand, Wesley, is that I enjoy being like this. Why would I want to change?!” Faith said, angry as she moved Cordelia to be in front of her and wrapped her arm around her neck, holding her there. Cordelia gasped, but could still breathe. But only slightly.

“I don’t believe that,” Wesley said to her.

Faith tightened her hold on Cordelia’s neck and she gagged. “Believe it yet?” Faith said to him. “You know,” she told him. “Maybe if you were a better Watcher, I would have been a much more positive role model, you think?”

“Let her go,” Wesley said, slightly begging.

Faith shrugged and threw Cordelia down on the ground beneath her feet. Cordelia gasped and rubbed her neck while Faith advanced on Wesley. “Unfortunately I have to. Things to take, places to go. Gotta make a living, you know? No time for fun, apparently.”

Wesley’s eyes darted to the two scrolls that lay on the other side of the room on the table where he put them down when Faith burst through the door. Faith cocked an eyebrow and looked at them, “These are it then? The stupid scrolls that say I’m pregnant?”

“You know about…?”

Faith rolled her eyes, “Sorry to disappoint, Watcher-man, but I ain’t got nothing baking in the oven.” She smirked and said amused, “Man, could you even imagine me breeding? The world would crumble.” She laughed.

“That’s what we’re afraid of,” Wesley said under his breath.

Faith walked over and picked up the scrolls. “Well, it was nice seeing you Wesley but you know… got places to be.”

Wesley struck up all the courage he had inside of him, which wasn’t much, but said anyway, “I can’t let you leave with those scrolls, Faith.”

Faith laughed. “What? Are you going to try to stop me, Wesley? Oh I wish I had a camera right now.”

Wesley put up his fists and clenched them, trying hard to stay brave even though his heart was beating a million miles an hour. It really didn’t help that Faith kept laughing. “Oh god,” she said through her hysterical laughter. “Just because this is so priceless, I’ll let you get one hit in. Come on, do it.” She taunted him with a smirk.

Wesley swung and connected. But the next thing he knew… everything went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT NOTES: Okay so I don't know exactly how long it takes for the effects of this drug to kick in when it's injected, I've personally only taken it orally (which is disgusting by the way - don't do it) which is why I wrote it taking so long because it has a kind of lapse period when you do it that way. I don't know if it's more automatic when injected, so if I got that wrong sorry lol.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
[ Hardison ]
Injections

When Hardison finally came to he was lying on the couch. He held his head, it felt like it was splitting open. Faith… fuck, he wanted to kill her. He had never in his life felt so much hate towards another individual.

“Hardison’s awake,” he heard Eliot say. He opened his eyes and saw Wesley out on the couch next to him. His eyes shifted to Cordelia who was sitting next to him and putting a cloth on his head; she had bruises on her throat. Dark bruises.

“Where is she?” Hardison asked Eliot.

“Gone,” Eliot replied in an angry tone. “When we got here she was already gone.”

“No,” Hardison said. “I mean Parker. Is she okay?”

Nate nodded and replied, “Sophie’s with her in the other room. She’s getting some sleep.”

Hardison sat up and looked around. There was a big crack in the wall from where he was thrown in to. There was a table broken, shit scattered everywhere. He looked at Wesley again, and when Cordelia moved her hand he saw he had a large gash on his forehead, that’s what she was trying to clean up.

“The prophecy?” Hardison asked.

“She took that too,” Angel said. “We have to get back to LA quickly once everyone is well enough to travel.”

Hardison sighed heavily and said more to himself than anyone else, “How is one girl responsible for all of this?”

“She’ll get what’s coming to her,” Eliot promised Hardison with a serious look.

“Eliot,” Nate said warningly.

“Don’t start on me again,” Eliot told him dangerously.

Hardison got up and looked at the bedroom doors. He nodded to one, “In there?” Nate nodded and Hardison told him, “I’m going to go see how she’s doing.”

He didn’t know what he expected to find when he opened the door. But he wasn’t expecting her to be awake when he did, and she was. He looked her over, she had bruises all over her body, dried blood in some places which Sophie was cleaning off of her with a rag. They looked at him as he walked in and he closed the door behind him before he said to her, “Hi.”

“Hi,” she responded, and gave him a little smile.

“Are you okay?” Hardison asked her as he came to the edge of the bed and sat by her and Sophie.

“I’m not sure how to answer that question,” she told him. Her voice was kind of funny, Hardison realized. It was airy, much more so than usual. Like everything was so simple. She shrugged a little lightly and then shifted her eyes to right to stare at the wall.

Hardison looked at Sophie question and Sophie just gave him a sad smile. She didn’t know either.

There was a silence for a little while until Parker spoke, still not looking at any of them. “I don’t like drugs.”

“What?” Sophie asked her as she cleaned off a cut on her arm.

“Drugs,” she told them as she looked at them with a little smile. “They take real life away. Pain...”

“What hurts?” Hardison asked her, looking her over.

“I didn’t give her any drugs,” Sophie told him, then looked back at Parker.

“Oh, nothing hurts. Nothing at all,” Parker told him and smiled. “But something is supposed to, isn’t it?” She paused and grabbed her head for a minute but said with a big smile, “Wow…”

Sophie and Hardison exchanged worried glances. “Parker,” Sophie asked her carefully. “Did Faith give you any drugs?”

“Hm?” Parker asked and looked over to her, tilting her head a little. “Drugs. Right. Yes, something in a needle. It’s been making me feel funny for a bit but now….” She smiled and spread her arms in the bed. “Now I feel like I can fly.”

“When did she give them to you?” Hardison asked her.

“Ummm…” Parker said and looked at the curtains on the window. “She left for a moment then came back. Someone gave it to her as a present.”

“When was this?” Hardison asked again.

“Right before you came,” Parker said, pointing to Sophie. “Then she went out the window. Maybe she could fly too.”

“Parker, listen to me,” Sophie said and took Parker’s face in her hands so she could focus. “Did she tell you why?”

“She needed time,” Parker told her with a smile. She then touched both Hardison and Sophie with each of her hands and said. “I feel wonderful, can we have a threesome?”

“What? No, Parker,” Sophie said and moved her hand. “You’re high.”

“But its so good…” Parker said and ran her hands down her body. “Everything feels so lovely, I want to feel more…”

“Liquid X,” Hardison said as he watched Parker. Sophie looked confused and Hardison clarified, “GHB. It’s a date rape drug, but a lot of people use it recreationally too because of… those kinds of effects.”

“How do you know that?” Sophie asked, while trying to keep Parker’s hands off of her.

“Hey, I’m not a total geek, I did used to party sometimes,” Hardison said. He looked at Parker and said, “Give it a bit, she’ll probably end up passing out since this is her first time doing it.”

“Mmmm….” Parker purred and ran her hands down her body again and then slipped them in her jeans.

“OKAY!” Hardison said and grabbed Parker’s hand and took them out of her pants. “Let’s not be doing all that, okay?”

“I need to have sex or I’m going to die,” Parker told him seriously.

“You’re not going to die, Parker,” Sophie told her.

“You both want to have sex with me, so one of you do it,” Parker said and started to take off her shirt but Sophie stopped her.

“No one is going to have sex with you when you’re like this,” she told her.

“ELIOT!” She screamed.

“Why are you calling Eliot?” Hardison asked her.

Eliot walked in the door and narrowed his eyes at the sight before him, “What’s going on.”

“Eliot, I need you to have sex with me,” Parker told him. “You fuck anything… fuck me.”

“What?” Eliot asked in surprise. He looked at Hardison and Sophie, “What the fuck is wrong with her?”

“Faith drugged her,” Sophie said. “Making sure we couldn’t just jump right on a plane and go after her, I would imagine.”

“But why does she…” Eliot trailed off and waved his hand indicating Parker who was trying to grope Hardison but he kept trying to make her stop. “What’s with the sluttiness?”

“Effect of the drug,” Hardison explained before exclaiming, “Jesus Parker! Don’t touch there!”

Parker was giggling. “I’m a FAIRY,” she proclaimed.

“Yeah okay, I’m gonna go tell Nate,” Eliot said as he looked at Parker like she was completely insane. He turned and walked out of the room.

“Wait, where is the penis going?” Parker asked.

“That penis doesn’t service you, Parker,” Hardison told her as he narrowed his eyes.

“Well yours won’t and Sophie’s all….” She giggled and mocked Sophie, “Oh my god I like feeling up Parker but I sooo don’t like girls.” She laughed again. Sophie scoffed.

Hardison sighed, “Just try to get some sleep.”

“Who could sleep?!” Parker exclaimed and sat up and tried to stand but wobbled and fell right back down onto the bed.

“And stop trying to move,” Hardison told her. “Please.”

“I want a threesome,” Parker said. “Now.”

“No,” Hardison and Sophie said at the same time.

“What’s going on?” Nate asked as he came in and then saw Parker wiggling on the bed like she was either getting satisfaction out of it or was uncomfortable in her own skin.

“Nate, do you want to touch me?” Parker asked him.

“Jesus Parker,” Sophie said.

“It’s not her fault,” Hardison told her.

“I know, but… god she’s…”

“Out,” Nate told them. The both looked back at Parker and sure enough, she was passed out on the bed. Hardison and Sophie both breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well Faith’s smarter than she looks,” Hardison said as he looked down at Parker and stroked her hair. “Parker will be out for awhile, by the time she even wakes up Faith will be in the states.”

Nate shook his head, “It wasn’t Faith’s idea. Angel and I have been talking, and the branch of Wolfram & Hart must be helping her over here because according to Angel, Faith is rash and impulsive, and this was well too thought out for her.”

“Well whoever planned it doesn’t make a difference,” Sophie said. “We’re still don’t know the rest of prophecy, which means we’re gonna have to try to steal it back from Wolfram & Hart. And, not only that, by the time we get there Faith will be halfway across the country.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Nate told her, then said. “Stay with her for the night, make sure she stays lying on her side just in case she vomits. We’ll decide what to do in the morning.”

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE NOTES: Okay so this chapter is really effing long. But I felt the need to establish some things about Parker, like the way she thinks and how she looks at things. Parker's head interests me. I've heard alot of theories about how people think she sees the world through the eyes of a child sometimes, but yet people never really go into how children see things so much clearer than adults do because youth is still untainted. Plus, Sophie teaches Parker how to be "normal" in the show, and I thought it was time Parker taught Sophie something.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
[ Sophie ]
Feeling Everything

“Sophie?”

Sophie stirred in her sleep, hearing her name. There was a hand on her shoulder now, shaking her lightly. She heard her name be said again and she made some kind of sleepy noise as she tried to open her eyes.

“What?” She asked sleepily.

“I don’t feel good,” Parker whispered to her. Sophie sat up a little and looked down at her.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

Parker swallowed and looked away for a minute before shrugging, “Stuff.”

“Parker,” Sophie said and looked her in the eyes seriously. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong. Are you sick?”

Sophie didn’t know why Parker was awake. It was probably only five hours after she had passed out, and Hardison said she’d be out for a long while. Maybe the drug affected her differently, she didn’t know. She never took anything like that in her life.

“I think I need to eat… and my head hurts a little,” Parker told her as she pulled the covers up under her chin.

“Alright, well hold on. I’ll go get you some crackers and some aspirin,” Sophie told her and gave her a little smile before rising out of bed. Her bare feet touched the cold floor and she shivered a little. Making her way out of the room she navigated her way to the kitchen in the dark. She didn’t want to wake anyone else up by turning on the lights in the hall.

When she got to the kitchen she flipped on the switch and light flooded through the room. Sophie squinted a little as she tried to get used to it. She always hated waking up in the middle of the night. She looked out the window as she went to the cabinet to get the crackers. The moon was high in the sky; it was probably four in the morning.

She grabbed the aspirin and poured a glass of water before heading back to the room. Parker had already turned on the light and was sitting up in the bed, the covers still pulled up to her chin. Sophie handed her the aspirin and Parker stuck out her hand from under the covers, but barely even at all. She grabbed the pills and swallowed them before Sophie could even hand her the water.

“Are you okay?” Sophie asked her, watching her mannerisms.

“You cleaned me up,” Parker said to her. It wasn’t a question, she already knew.

“Yes,” Sophie said as she put the box of crackers next to her on the bed.

“You saw it then.”

Sophie’s eyes flickered to Parker’s thigh, though it was covered by the blanket. She remembered cleaning up all the blood from down there, then realizing that it all came from deep cuts that spelled out the word ‘whore.’

“Yes,” Sophie said softly.

Parker looked down a little and asked, “That’ll never go away, will it?”

“I don’t know,” Sophie told her. “We can try to put something on it, if you want.”

“I’m not a whore,” Parker said, though her voice cracked and she wouldn’t look at Sophie.

“No, you’re not.”

“But now everyone’s going to see that when…” Parker trailed off and her hand clenched the blanket on top of her. She shook her head. “It’s a lie. I don’t understand. I don’t like lies, or not understanding. I don’t like people thinking stuff that isn’t right.”

Sophie looked at her sadly and wrapped her arms around her. Parker curled into a ball against her chest and sighed. “I think I’m not supposed to care,” she said quietly.

“Why?” Sophie asked her as she stroked her hair.

“Because I’ve had so much worse,” Parker told her. “So it shouldn’t matter. Well, not enough to really be fussed about, because if I can handle it shoudn’t be made into a big deal.”

“Of course it matters, Parker. You’re a person, not a robot,” Sophie told her.

Parker just shook her head and looked down at the covers.

“You can’t be strong all the time,” Sophie told her softly and looked in the eyes.

“I can try.”

There was silence for a little while after that. Sophie didn’t know how to convince her that it was okay to break down sometimes.

“Parker… do you want to talk about what happened?” Sophie asked her, and slipped her hand over hers to hold it.

Parker shook her head like she was going to say no, but instead the words came out, “A lot of stuff happened. But it’s nothing really.”

“How is that nothing?” Sophie asked her.

“Because I can handle it,” Parker said, looking at her. “At least better than I could if she…” she made a little motion with her fingers, and Sophie guessed what she knew everyone else thought happened.

“So she didn’t…” she paused before she said the word, “Rape you, then?”

Parker shook her head, but let out a little laugh. “No. So it shouldn’t matter as much, right?”

“Parker, rape isn’t the only thing that should matter.”

Parker didn’t answer; she just grabbed the box of crackers and started to eat them slowly. Sophie sighed and let go of her hand so she could use both of them to eat. She didn’t know what to do, or what to say. She had no idea what it felt like for Parker.

They sat there in silence for a minute while Parker ate. Finally she put down the crackers and got out of bed, taking the covers off of her.

“What are you doing?” Sophie asked her.

Parker didn’t answer; she just went to the full length mirror on the closet door and looked at herself. She grabbed the hem of her tank top and pulled it off over her head. Sophie didn’t say anything; she didn’t know what Parker was doing. Then Parker pulled off her shorts and she stood there, looking at herself naked in the mirror, and Sophie understood.

Parker was covered in bruises… everywhere. There was a gash on her arm, a cut down the side of her face, some on her stomach, and then the ones on her thigh. Parker’s hand reached up and delicately she touched the cut on her face. She had no expression, just stared at it.

“Parker… come back to bed,” Sophie told her, trying to stare at her face in the mirror and not her body. It was hard though, and not because Parker was naked. Just by how beat up she was.

“Come here,” Parker requested quietly as she touched the cuts on her stomach. Sophie looked at her for a minute, but then climbed out of bed to go stand next to her in the mirror.

Parker looked at them both in the mirror, her eyes slowly looking back and forth from herself to Sophie who was still trying hard to look at her face. “Oh,” she said. “Now I get it.”

“Get what?” Sophie asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Parker turned to her slowly. Her eyes locked with Sophie’s for a minute before she leaned in and kissed her softly. Sophie closed her eyes out of instinct, but then broke it and pushed Parker back softly.

“Parker…”

Parker smiled. “That. That’s what I get,” she replied and turned and walked back to the bed, climbing in it, still naked.

Sophie shook her head a little and said, “I don’t understand.”

Parker smiled a little at her, but it was more sad. “I see things differently than everyone else,” she told her.

Sophie walked back over to the bed and sat down next to her and replied, “I know.”

Parker shook her head, “No, you don’t. I see the way things really are, everyone else see’s everything in opinions, in fear, in doubt, in hope. No one sees facts.”

Sophie was confused; she didn’t understand what Parker meant. “I don’t think I understand what you’re saying.”

“I see the way people look at me. Hardison, he likes me. He likes me a lot, but he’s scared I don’t like him back,” she told her.

“Do you?” Sophie asked her.

“Yes, I think he’d be a nice boyfriend,” Parker said and smiled.

“Then why don’t you…?” Sophie started, but Parker interrupted.

“And you, you want to have sex with me because you’re curious, but you’re scared you might like it too much,” Parker told her.

Sophie didn’t say anything; she didn’t know how to tell her it wasn’t true when it was.

“Both of you won’t do anything about it,” Parker said. “Everyone thinks too much.”

Sophie was silent for a moment. She never realized how much Parker really did see the things that went on around her. Probably because she and everyone else just dismissed her as crazy because she saw things so much like a child. But thinking about it, children’s views aren’t tainted like adult’s are. They see things so much clearer.

“I don’t want to have to compete with fear,” Parker told her. “Both of you know where you stand with me, whether you realize it or not. So there’s nothing holding either of you back but your own fear.”

Sophie searched the other woman’s eyes, not knowing what she was supposed to do, what she was supposed to say. She didn’t want to come on to Parker in the state she was in, that was wrong, wasn’t it? She was beat up, vulnerable.

“Stop,” Parker told her seriously. “Stop thinking, Sophie.”

Sophie’s heart was beating faster, but she did what Parker said. Taking a deep breath and mustering up all the courage inside of her, she leaned in and kissed her. Parker parted her lips, letting Sophie slip her tongue in and wrapped her arms around her neck. Sophie was so nervous, she couldn’t ever remember being this nervous when kissing someone, but she just went with it.

Sophie tentatively touched Parker’s bare stomach with her hand and Parker ran one of her hand down from around her neck to cup her cheek as she kissed her deeper. Sophie had no idea what she was doing; she was scared she was going to mess it up somehow. What if she couldn’t get her off? Or worse, what if she hurt her in some way? She was already so delicate.

Parker broke the kiss and sighed, leaning her forehead against Sophie’s, “You’re thinking again.”

“I’m sorry,” Sophie whispered. She bit her lower lip and said, “I’m just scared.”

“Of what?” Parker asked her and looked her in the eyes.

“What if I do it wrong?” Sophie asked her.

Parker laughed softly, “I don’t think you can do it wrong, Sophie.”

Sophie was serious though, she was nervous. Parker just took her hand in hers and said, “Please… just try.”

Sophie’s eyes searched Parker’s in question; she didn’t understand why Parker wanted to do this now. “I need this,” Parker told her, an answer to her unspoken question. She looked down at her body and said, “I just need something good now.”

“Sex isn’t the only thing good, Parker,” Sophie told her.

Parker smiled, light amusement sparkling her in her eyes, “Another thing you don’t see. It’s not the sex that I need.”

“But you said that you knew I wanted to have sex with you,” Sophie responded, confused.

“Everyone always looks at the act, the physical part of it,” Parker said. “And it’s funny because that’s not even the good part.”

Sophie was confused, more so than she usually was around Parker. Parker smiled, knowing she still wasn’t understanding so she said, “Close your eyes.”

Sophie did as she was told and Parker whispered in her ear, “Don’t think, just tell me everything you’re feeling.”

Sophie shivered a little from Parker being the close to her and said automatically in a quiet voice, “Anticipation.”

Sophie could hear Parker smile and she said, “Good, keep going.” Parker kissed Sophie’s neck lightly and dragged her bottom lip over her skin and up to her ear. Parker’s breath was on it, tickling it, sending shivers down her spine. Sophie’s breath caught in her throat as Parker’s hand was suddenly on her stomach under her night shirt.

“Nervous,” she whispered quietly. Parker raked her nails across Sophie’s stomach lightly and Sophie could hear the change in Parker’s breathing as it got noticeably faster as her hand traveled further upwards. Sophie’s breathing was changing too, and Parker kissed her neck a little and sucked on it lightly as she dragged her nails softly across the underside across Sophie’s breasts.

“Lust,” Sophie gasped out, and her hand reached for Parker’s leg. Parker moaned softly in her ear and Sophie’s breath caught and she gasped out again, “Need. God, Everything…”

“See?” Parker whispered in her ear softly. “Everything, that’s what it’s about, Sophie. Feeling everything.” She paused and put her finger between her breasts and said, “Especially that feeling that shoots right down you like this.” And she moved her finger all the way down to the top of Sophie’s panties. “That’s the best feeling, because you can’t describe it any better than that but it’s still the greatest feeling in the world. It’s like fire running through you.”

Sophie opened her eyes and looked at her, her breathing labored, before she closed the distance and kissed her. Parker was taken by surprise so much that she slightly toppled over, but Sophie just climbed on top of her. She kissed her passionately, suddenly her fear not being an issue anymore. Parker gasped out against her lips and grabbed on to the hem of Sophie’s night shirt and they broke the kiss only for a moment to pull it up over her head. Parker’s hands were grasping at her back and Sophie moaned against the blonde woman’s lips.

Then Parker bit her lower lip softly and Sophie gasped and grabbed onto Parker as she raked her nails down her back. “God, Parker…” Sophie moaned as she broke the kiss to go to her neck. She sucked on it lightly and then bit and Parker gasped, arching her back into Sophie’s body.

Parker’s eyes were closed and she was gasping at every little thing Sophie did to her, which made Sophie feel a little powerful. She had no idea the things she was able to do to her, and part of her couldn’t believe she was scared to do this in the first place.

Sophie kissed Parker’s neck and then her throat before dragging her lips down to Parker’s breasts. When she took one of her nipples in her mouth Parker gasped hard and moaned, her nails digging in to Sophie’s back. “Oh my god,” she breathed out and arched her back even more.

Sophie flicked her tongue against her nipple and ran her hand down Parker’s sides before grabbing on to her hips. “Ow,” Parker said, and winced.

Sophie looked up at her, “Oh god, I’m so sorry. I forgot you were-”

“It’s okay,” Parker said, but sat up a little which made Sophie sit up too. Sophie looked at her, confused. Parker just smiled at her, “Thank you.”

“But…”

Parker laughed softly and put her finger to Sophie’s lips. “My body isn’t up to par right now, Sophie. But you at least know where you stand when you do ever want to try this again. And that’s all I needed, and it’s all you need to do right now for yourself.”

Sophie didn’t know what to say. She was so confused, wasn’t the point of this so she wouldn’t be scared to have sex with her? Didn’t Parker want…?

Parker noticed her confusion and said. “I just wanted to let you have a taste. If you rushed it, you would wake up tomorrow morning and regret it because you would think you didn’t think it through. Trust me, this is better. This way, if you do wake up in the morning and regret what we just did, it won’t be as bad as if you actually had sex with me. Or if you wake up in the morning and don’t, then when I’m better and you want to try it again you can just do it without worrying about whether I would want you too. Because I do, Sophie.”

Sophie just looked at Parker in slight amazement. Finally she said, “You know, you’re a lot smarter than you let on.”

Parker just laughed and replied, “Don’t give away my secret.” She smiled and gave Sophie a light kiss on the lips. “Let’s go back to bed, okay? And do me a favor?”

“Yeah?”

Parker smirked, “Let Hardison know that he can’t have his fear run his life either, it never gets anyone anywhere.”

Parker reached over and switched off the light and laid down. Sophie bit her lower lip softly and just smiled. Damn, she really did underestimate Parker, didn’t she? She was… so much more amazing than anyone ever gave her credit for.

But thinking that… well that may become a problem.

CHAPTER THIRTY NOTES: Sophie's selfishness FTW. Srsly. I love that character flaw that she has... muhaha.

CHAPTER THIRTY
[ Cordelia ]
Manipulation

They were all on the plane going back to the states. Hardison ended up getting them on to a flight the next afternoon, but they all knew that when they did get back there Faith would be long gone. Cordelia was applying makeup to her bruises on her neck with her compact and scowled. She knew they would find Faith eventually, but she wished she could get what was coming to her now.

“You missed one,” Sophie told her, who was sitting next to her. She took the cover up and the sponge from Cordelia and started applying one near the back of her neck.

“Thanks,” Cordelia said with a smile.

“No problem,” Sophie replied and dabbed it on. “There we go, can hardly see it now.”

Cordelia sighed and said, “She’s such a fucking bitch.” Sophie nodded in agreement.

Everyone slept most of the flight, but Cordelia couldn’t sleep for some reason. She just kept looking out the window, wanting to get back home. Back to her apartment, back to her own bed. Hell, she even kind of missed Dennis, her ghost.

Wesley told them the rest of the prophecy he had managed to translate, and actually ended up telling Angel that Buffy was going to be there when we got back. Cordelia couldn’t really tell what he thought about that, whether he was excited or nervous. Angel didn’t say much either way about it, just kind of nodded. She personally wasn’t looking forward to Buffy being there, she always caused so many problems. But unfortunately, she was a part of this whether Cordelia wanted her to be or not.

She looked over at Sophie, who was staring at something across the plane. She had been staring at it for awhile now, so Cordelia hoisted herself up a little to see what she was looking at out of curiosity. She was expecting to see Nate, since the woman was all infatuated with him, but was surprised when her gaze was locked on Parker.

Cordelia smirked and nudged Sophie with her elbow, “What’s up?”

“Huh?” Sophie said, snapping out of her thoughts and looking at her. “What do you mean?”

“You’re burning a hole in the back of Parker’s head, that’s what’s up.”

“What? No I’m not,” Sophie said.

Cordelia scoffed, “Please, I’m not blind.”

Sophie rolled her eyes but smirked a little. “I’m just looking at her. It’s not a big deal.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Cordelia told her and leaned in and whispered so maybe Sophie would really tell her what’s going on. “Something happened; you used to never just stare at her. Did you finally do it?”

“What? No,” Sophie said quietly and looked at her. She was silent for a minute then said, “Well not really.”

“Not really, huh? So then…?”

Sophie rolled her eyes again but smiled, “Do you just live for gossip or something?”

Cordelia smirked and shrugged, “Girl’s gotta make her life interesting somehow. So spill. I heard she was all slutty when she was all drugged up, did you take advantage of that or something?”

“No!” Sophie said in a whisper. “I wouldn’t take advantage of Parker when she’s high.”

“Well then what happened?”

Sophie didn’t speak for a minute; she just smiled and looked at Parker again. Finally she said quietly, “She just taught me something last night, was all.”

“Oh lord,” Cordelia said as she noticed Sophie’s behavior. “You’re starting to actually like her, aren’t you? You do like women.”

“No, of course I don’t. I don’t like all women, I just… maybe like Parker. A little.”

“Sweetie,” Cordelia told her when a knowing look. “Even lesbians don’t like all women. Hell, straight women don’t like all men, do they? So it doesn’t really matter if you like one or if you like twenty.”

“It’s not like that though,” Sophie told her. “I just saw a different side of her last night and I liked what I saw, it’s not like I want to jump in and date her or anything. I still want Nate.”

“But you’re also lonely, and you don’t know how long you’re going to have to wait for Nate,” Cordelia said pointedly.

“I’m not lonely,” Sophie objected.

“Oh please, you haven’t had sex in two years. You’re either lonely or a robot.”

Sophie was silent for a minute, still looking at Parker. Cordelia cocked an eyebrow at her, and finally Sophie spoke. “Parker just made me feel something last night. And… I enjoyed how she made me feel. I kind of think that I’d like more of that. Possibly.”

Cordelia smirked and shook her head, “Girl, you’re getting yourself in trouble.”

“How so?”

“You’re developing more than friendly feelings towards her, and not just sexual one’s either.”

“No I’m not!” Sophie protested.

Cordelia scoffed, “Please, you’ve been staring at her for like… hours now. Every time you or I say her name you smile.” She paused. “Parker.” Sophie smiled. “See?”

Sophie wiped the smile off her face and scowled, “Oh, sod off. I don’t like her.”

Cordelia just laughed at her, “Whatever you want to think. But you do realize that if you end up pursuing that, Nate’s going to get jealous, even though really he has no reason to be since he’s not making his own move on you. And not only that, your friend Hardison over there would be crushed because he likes her.”

Sophie bit her bottom lip in thought then said, “I’m supposed to tell him something, something Parker wants him to know.”

“Well then tell him,” Cordelia said.

Sophie paused for a minute then said in a guilty voice, “I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Because then he’ll make his move on her and then…” she trailed off.

“And then you don’t get her,” Cordelia finished. She shook her head, “Oh man, you are selfish.”

Sophie scowled at her but said admittedly, “Yeah, maybe. But is it really so selfish to just want her for a little while and then later give her to Hardison and I can try back on Nate again?”

Cordelia cocked an eyebrow at her, “Sophie, she isn’t yours to give.”

“I know that,” Sophie said and slumped lower in her seat, slightly pouting and looking off to the side. Cordelia shook her head; she knew Sophie knew exactly how she sounded.

Finally she said in a quiet voice, “I just want to feel for a little while. And yeah I find it weird that Parker’s the one that’s making me do it, but it’s not like I chose for it to happen. It just did. I wish it was Nate, but he hasn’t bothered to try. Parker did.”

“You’re confused,” Cordelia told her.

“I know,” Sophie said. “But I just kind of want to try it for a little while. And maybe it won’t be for me, I don’t know. But I just… I need to try. I need to feel like that again.”

“You need to tell Hardison eventually what she wants him to know,” Cordelia told her.

“I know that, and I will. Just… after.”

Cordelia shook her head and said, “You’re going to get yourself in trouble, I’m just forewarning you now…”

“Not if no one knows about it,” Sophie said and smirked a little.

“This is gonna end badly. You’re using everyone around you for your own selfish needs.”

“Oh stop being so pessimistic all the time,” Sophie told her and slapped her arm a little. “And don’t’ pretend like you’ve never done the same, either. I just need this right now.”

Cordelia shrugged, “Yeah, I did all the time. Then karma came and bit me on the ass. How long do you think it will be till it does that to you?”

Sophie just rolled her eyes and didn’t answer. Cordelia sighed. She wouldn’t tell anyone, she wouldn’t betray Sophie’s trust like that, but she knew this wouldn’t end well. Sophie was trying to bend everyone to fulfill her needs and wants, and not taking into account what other people may want. She’s a grifter, she got that. She always got things she wanted by manipulating people, but these were her friends.

This really, really wasn’t going to end well.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
[ Buffy ]
The Other Slayer

What was she doing here?

Well, she knew why she was here, obviously. Some great big epic prophecy that’s about to make the world go KABOOM because of something Faith did, or something. Buffy wasn’t exactly sure about the details just that Faith plus prophecy equaled bad. Very bad. And also her plus Faith plus prophecy equaled better. Or was it worse? Great, now she was getting herself confused. Cordelia didn’t explain it too well on the phone.

Buffy sighed and sat down on Angels’ desk in his office. Their flight had already come in; they should be there any minute. She really didn’t know what she was doing there.

It’s not like she put much faith in prophecies… Ugh, revise that. She didn’t believe that much in them. But Giles went all geeked out freaky when Cordelia called and said that she must go right away. Something about what he was talking about with Wesley awhile ago.

But this was the last thing she needed, really. Faith was finally gone… and yeah maybe she would just love to pull out a can of whoop ass on the bitch just one more time, maybe two or possibly five, it’s like she came looking for a fight. Not only that, coming back to Los Angeles now was just complicated. She had a boyfriend, she had Riley. So Angel…

What about Angel? Big love… and loss. No need to open up old wounds.

Buffy looked up as the door opened and… eight people came walking through it. Buffy furrowed her eyebrows, what the hell? Who were all these people?

Angel stopped when he saw Buffy standing there and said, “Buffy.”

No, it’s the Easter Bunny. Obviously.

“Angel,” Buffy said in return. She looked around, “New friends?”

“So you’re the other one,” the blonde girl said, looking at her. Buffy scoffed, she certainly wasn’t the other one, that was Faith. She came first, after all.

“You don’t happen to be pregnant by any chance?” One man said to her, almost in hope. Buffy looked at him like he was insane.

“What?”

“Eliot, leave it. I already had the vision. You popped the bitch, you lie in the ditch,” Cordelia said to him and smiled in a way that didn’t in any way mean friendliness. The man named Eliot scowled.

“What is going on?” Buffy asked Angel.

Angel took a deep breath, which is slightly ironic since he has no breath. “Buffy, this is Nate, Sophie, Eliot, Hardison, and Parker. They’ve been helping us.”

“Helping you do what, exactly?”

“Get the prophecy,” Wesley told her.

“So where is it, then? What does it say, so I can know exactly why I’m here,” Buffy said, just wanting to get right down to business. Chatting meant talking about personal things, and she’s rather avoid those topics.

“Yeah see, there was a slight problem with our plan,” Hardison told her.

“Faith stole it,” Nate told her.

“What? Angel how could you let that happen?!” Buffy shouted at him.

“It was complicated,” Angel told her, not at all happy with her blaming him out of eight other people.

“How complicated is it to keep one thing away from one person when there’s eight of you?” Buffy said. Damn, these people really needed to step up their game, Buffy thought Angel was better than this.

“I don’t like her,” Parker told the woman standing next to her, Sophie.

Buffy turned and looked at her with her hands on her hips, offended that this woman would out right say that, “You don’t even know me, thanks.”

“I know more about you than you think,” Parker told her. “I got to know you a lot when Faith tortured me pretending that I was you.”

Everyone was silent for a minute, staring at Parker. Apparently she hadn’t told anyone that. “She… tortured you?” Buffy said, gaining compassion.

“Because of how bad you screwed with her,” Parker told her. Buffy looked at the marks all over her body. Cuts, bruises… she looked really messed up. But that wasn’t her fault, and she was mad that she would think that. Why was she always responsible for everything Faith did? She wasn’t her damn babysitter,

“I didn’t do anything to her!” Buffy said, angry. “I tried to be her friend, I gave her every chance and she just fucked it all up!”

“Alright, Buffy, calm down,” Angel said to her.

“Don’t tell me to calm down! You guys called me up and dragged me down here for what? So I can be bitched at by a woman I don’t even know?!”

“We dragged you down here because Faith got herself knocked up with something that’s gonna kill us all,” Cordelia said. “And apparently you’re the only thing that can stop it. Trust me, if there was another alternative we would have taken that.”

Buffy just stared at her. Faith’s pregnant?? Well, hardly a surprise though really. The way the girl spread her legs for anything it was bound to happen sooner or later.

“Can we all just sit down and get this sorted, please?” Wesley requested.

Buffy sat, she had no other alternative. Her head was spinning; all of this was too much information.

“Wes translated part of the prophecy before it was stolen from us. Faith was working with Wolfram & Hart, and used Parker as bait to lure us to rescue her while she broke in and stole it. But yes, Faith is pregnant. And yes, it’s with something that’s going to destroy mankind. And yes, you are the only one who can change the outcome of the child, though we have yet to know how until we get it back,” Angel told her.

“Does Faith know…?” Buffy started, her head still spinning.

“She doesn’t believe it,” Wesley said. “Which might buy us some time.”

Buffy sighed and put her head in her hands. God, how is her life this screwed up? How does everything just manage to come in right at the perfect time and fuck it all up? Demon activity was at a minimum in Sunnydale; she was just ready to settle down and try to work everything out with Riley.

Well, try being the operative word. She still couldn’t believe he slept with Faith. Even if she was in her body, you would think he would be able to tell the difference from normal and a slutty whore bag.

“So… what do we do, then?” Buffy asked.

“We steal it back from Wolfram & Hart,” Nate said.

Wesley shook his head, “There might be an easier way.” Everyone looked at him. “I might be able to try to summon the scrolls. Mind you, it’ll just be slightly like a hologram and it won’t last long and… it might have some side effects.”

“Like what?” Cordelia said, worried of what they might be.

“Doing a spell of this caliber takes a lot of energy because I would technically summoning them from the past, and it will probably suck out all of the energy in the area and then when the spell is over disperse it in one large blast.”

“So what? We lose electricity?” Angel asked.

“Among other things, possibly. There’s a lot of different kinds of energy, I really can’t be sure,” Wesley said.

“I think it’d be safer to just break into the firm,” Nate said.

Angel shook his head, “No, they don’t only have normal security they have supernatural security as well, who know’s how well guarded they are. It might be a better risk to try to summon them.”

Hardison raised his hand and said, “Just on a side note, our party is getting quite large. Should I find somewhere where we can all stay together until this is all over?”

“Why do we have to stay together?” Buffy asked.

“Because psycho slayer already got one of us,” Cordelia said, nodding to Parker. “And while you’re well equipped to defend yourself, on the off chance that she doesn’t skip town immediately, I’d personally rather I didn’t wake up to being Faith’s next play thing.”

Angel and Nate looked at each other and kind of shrugged, and Nate said to Hardison, “Alright, just not that mansion we had before. Sterling is probably still looking for us.”

“Who’s Sterling?” Angel asked him.

“Minor problem,” Nate said, waving it off.

Buffy was just staring at them all, still really having no idea why they were all involved in this. “Who are you guys, anyway?”

“Us?” Nate asked and turned to her with a smile. “We’re thieves.”

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
[ Nate ]
You Don’t Want To Know

Hardison ended up renting them another mansion, though this one actually ended up having toilets. It wasn’t as big as the last one, not as flashy, but it had enough rooms for all of them and four bathrooms. Nate hoped that would be enough, but with the women he couldn’t be too sure. There seemed to be something strung into the female DNA that required them to take up the bathroom for hours at a time doing things that probably would only take them half the time to do.

After talking to Sophie to get the gist of what really happened to Parker, Nate knew he had to talk to Eliot. The man was still seething with the thought of Parker being violated in that kind of way. He made his way to the kitchen where Eliot told him he would be making dinner for all of them to keep his mind of off things. Wesley had said the spell would take a day or two to prepare, so everyone had to keep themselves busy between now and then.

“Hey,” Nate said as he walked through the threshold from the main living room to the kitchen to see Eliot standing over the counter, cutting onions.

Eliot looked up and raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was coming in there so casually like he was about to want to have a sit down heart-to-heart or something. He stopped cutting and looked at him expectantly.

Nate looked back into the living room to see if Parker was anywhere within hearing distance and when he didn’t see her he looked at Eliot and said, “I talked to Sophie, Parker told her what happened.”

Eliot started cutting again, though the knife was making louder sounds than it was before as he cut them harder. “Oh yeah?” he asked as he turned away and dove into his work, trying to not show how mad the situation made him.

“Faith didn’t rape her,” Nate told him.

Eliot took a breath and looked at him, his eyebrows creased in anger, “Are you telling me that’s supposed to make some kind of difference?”

“Does it?” Nate asked him.

“No,” Eliot said and started to scrape the cut onions into a pan and put them on the stove to sauté them.

“Eliot, we can’t kill her.”

Eliot was silent for a minute as he started to push the onions around in the pan with the oil, making sure that they didn’t stick. “If you repeat what I’m about to say to anyone, I’ll kill you,” Eliot said without looking at him.

Nate looked at him curiously but said, “Okay.”

Eliot started cutting up mushrooms and said. “Parker’s like that annoying little sister you always wish you were never related too. But when shit goes down in the end, she’s your sister, and you’ll do what you can to protect her.”

Nate was silent for a minute at Eliot’s revelation. Then he said, “I understand what you mean, and it was hard for all of us to look at Parker that way. And while I will unofficially give you permission to do whatever you like, it has to be after we figure out what we do with the pregnancy situation.”

“I was planning on beating her so bad she’d miscarry,” Eliot said with no sound of remorse as he threw the mushrooms in the pan.

“Eliot, you’re going to have to wait. There might be a way this baby could turn into something good.”

Eliot slammed down his spatula and looked at him, “Are you kidding? Anything born from that woman has no chance of being good.”

“We don’t’ know that yet.”

Eliot just shook his head and poured in some type of rice into the pan before he grabbed a tomato.

Nate just sighed and looked through the threshold to the livingroom. A couple people had piled in there. Cordelia was watching TV and Buffy had come to join her, but Cordelia didn’t look too thrilled that Buffy was there with her. Wesley walked past with some books, muttering to himself. Sophie and Parker seemed to be talking about something in the corner, which seemed pretty secretive since they were really close together and talking in whispers.

“Is there anything else?” Eliot asked him.

Nate was watching Sophie, she touched Parker’s arm lightly and was smiling, then Parker said something and she tossed her hair behind her shoulder and started giggling. Actually, if he wasn’t completely sure he was wrong; it kind of looked like she was flirting with her.

“Do you know what’s going on with everyone?” Nate asked him.

Eliot snorted, “Are you asking me for gossip? Because you have the wrong person for that, I couldn’t care less what everyone’s doing.”

“So you don’t know anything?”

Eliot rolled his eyes as he was cutting the tomatoes and told him, “I have theories, but don’t care enough to ask.”

Nate looked at him, “What theories?”

Eliot put down his knife and looked at Nate incredulously, “Why do you care all of a sudden? You know as well as I do that staying out of it is much safer.”

“I’m just curious,” Nate told him.

“Because you think something involves Sophie,” Eliot said with a pointed look before getting back to cutting.

Nate looked back in the living room, and Sophie was talking to Parker, a low voice right in her ear. Parker looked up at her questioningly and Sophie smirked and got up, motioning for Parker to follow her.

“I’ll be right back,” Nate said, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Eliot warned. “Trust me, some things you don’t want to know.”

Nate didn’t heed his warning; instead he followed Parker and Sophie. They went around the corner and Nate followed at a distance until they went into the closest bathroom. They didn’t shut the door all the way though, it was open just a crack. Nate knew this was probably really wrong, spying on his co-workers, but things just weren’t making sense anymore and his curiosity got the better of him.

He could see Parker just slightly through the crack and heard Sophie say, “Let’s put some antiseptic on those cuts first, we don’t want them to scar.”

Nate furrowed his eyebrows. Well, that seemed normal. Maybe they had just gotten really close as friends and that’s how girls acted towards each other when they were friends. Nate chastised himself for thinking otherwise, it really did sound stupid now that he thought about it.

“Do we have to do this every day?” Parker asked her.

“We don’t have to, but it makes a better chance that they’ll heal better. It’s up to you though, if you don’t want to we don’t have to,” Sophie told her.

“No, I don’t want any scars,” Parker told her.

Nate could see Sophie start to put the ointment on some of her cuts, and he shook his head. Obviously he had gotten the wrong idea. He had started to walk away when he heard Parker ask, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“This,” Sophie said, and to Nate surprise he saw through the crack in the door her lean in and kiss Parker. Nate’s eyes were wide as Parker wrapped her arms around Sophie’s neck and she kissed her deeper.

He rubbed his eyes; he had to be seeing things.

Nope, they were still kissing. His eyebrows furrowed in confusment and when they broke, Parker smirked and said, “You don’t regret it then.”

“No,” Sophie said and smiled at her. Nate watched her take Parker’s hand in hers and kiss her lightly on the lips again before saying, “I really like how you make me feel.”

That was as much as Nate could handle watching. He turned and walked back into the kitchen, slightly looking like a dazed robot.

“I told you not to do that,” Eliot said after taking one look at him as he was getting the chicken out of the oven.

“You knew about this?” Nate asked Eliot in a quiet voice.

Eliot shrugged, “Theories, though the look on your face just confirmed them. What did you expect, man? You weren’t giving her any.”

“Yeah but… Parker?”

Eliot shrugged, “I don’t get it either, but whatever floats their boat.”

“Does Hardison know?” Nate asked.

“I doubt it, and I suggest you keep it to yourself unless you want them to know you’ve been spying on them. I’m sure Sophie will blow up and give you a piece of her mind about that,” Eliot told him and smirked.

“But, it can’t be serious… right?” Nate asked him, hoping the answer will be no.

“I’m not a tabloid, Nate,” Eliot told him. “I just notice things that go on around me, it’s what I do.”

Nate shook his head, and watched Parker and Sophie go back into the living room to sit down on the couch and watch TV with Cordelia and Buffy. They were sitting really close to each other. Nate rubbed his temples; he could feel a headache coming on.

“Dinner’s almost ready, try to act like you’re not a peeping tom,” Eliot told him.

“I’m not a peeping tom!” Nate protested.

Eliot scoffed, “You spied on them, what else do you call it?”

Nate just grumbled something under his breath and left the kitchen. The thing with Parker couldn’t be serious, it just couldn’t. Sophie must just be lonely. It wouldn’t last long.

Or at least he hoped.

REACHED LJ'S POST LIMIT!
PART SIX CAN BE FOUND HERE.