Mod Gift #6 - For Martinius!
Title: Staying Together
Author: telaryn
Giftee: martinius
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Parker/Hardison
Word Count: 798
Spoilers: Timestamp to The Maltese Falcon Job - spoilers for episode.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: No money made, no ownership implied.
Summary: After the events of "The Maltese Falcon Job", Parker discovers that families don't always fall apart, and a certain hacker has no interest in going anywhere, thank you very much.
Notes: For martinius with thanks for your participation in this year's Leverage Exchange.
The quiet murmur of voices nudged her awake. Parker didn’t want to wake up - waking up involved a world where Nate was in jail, Sophie was on the edge of tears, Hardison was angry, and Eliot was that scary-quiet he got when things were really bad. Waking up meant that she wasn’t safe anymore, that the best thing she’d ever known in her life was finished, and she and Bunny needed to figure out a way to start over.
Again.
”Just stay with her.” Sophie’s voice; it should have meant everything was okay. Or it was going to be okay as long as everybody followed the plan. Parker shifted around on the couch until her arm was over her face, hiding her from the two looking down at her. There was no plan anymore; nothing to follow.
”She’s not handling any of this well. I don’t want her to be alone.”
Shows what you know, Parker thought rebelliously. It didn’t matter what Sophie wanted. She always ended up alone; it was the one constant in her life besides Bunny, and she’d been stupid to forget it.
”She won’t be.”
Parker burrowed deeper into the couch. Hardison was going to try and cheer her up, and she didn’t want him to. If she let him cheer her up, then leaving him was going to be that much harder.
After a moment, Parker heard the door to Sophie’s apartment open and shut. Sophie was meeting Eliot - something about Nate’s arraignment being today, and the first chance they would get to see him and start working on a plan. Parker didn’t care. Not really. Not anymore.
She listened to Hardison as he moved around the living room, trying to work out in her head what she was going to say when he tried to make her wake up so he could talk to her and tell her everything was going to be okay. She knew better, and if Hardison tried to lie to her and say otherwise it was just going to prove that she was right and everything was over.
One minute followed another, then another after that. Hardison made three trips into Sophie’s kitchen, each time bringing back armloads of stuff that he set on the coffee table in front of Parker’s sofa/bed. She didn’t dare risk opening her eyes to see what he was doing, but on the third trip she heard the dry rattle of cereal in a box.
Finally she heard sounds of him shifting the coffee table forward, making room for himself so he could sit on the floor with his back against the sofa - so close she could have brushed against him with the slightest shift of position and still pretended to be asleep.
It was the sound of the television turning on that finally broke through her stubborn determination to shut him out. Jem and the Holograms - a weird little candy-colored cartoon from the eighties about a group of girls who helped people and sang really fun songs. Hardison had shown it to her one evening over loud protests from the others - and she’d used the word “outrageous” in every sentence she could think of for a month afterwards.
Parker opened one eye. On Sophie’s big television, Jerrica Benson was worrying about the Starlite Girls, who were in trouble for one reason or another. The Holograms had a choice to make, between showing up for an awards show, or performing at a benefit concert for a runaway shelter. “You’ve got both parts, right?” Parker asked Hardison, who was busy fixing himself a bowl of Fruit Loops. He knew she hated cliffhangers in her shows.
“Mmm-hmm,” Hardison said, pouring milk and holding up the bowl for her. Parker studied it for a moment, then pushed herself to a sitting position with a sigh and took the offering while Hardison fixed his own bowl. No words were exchanged, but the two of them ate three bowls of Fruit Loops each in the time it took the two dimensional characters to work through their issues and become a family again. Parker felt her stomach twist as the final song started, and set her bowl down on the coffee table.
“Why can’t we fix things like that?” Her eyes were aching, and she didn’t want to cry, and most of all Parker knew she really didn’t want to be alone anymore.
Not saying anything at first, Hardison pushed himself up on the couch beside her. “C’mere.” Parker crawled up into his lap, laying her head on his shoulder while Hardison hugged her fiercely. “You’re stuck with me, mama,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “You and me, no matter what. Promise.”
“And Bunny?” Parker asked, her voice muffled against his neck.
Hardison hugged her tighter. “You bet, Bunny.”
Author: telaryn
Giftee: martinius
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairing: Parker/Hardison
Word Count: 798
Spoilers: Timestamp to The Maltese Falcon Job - spoilers for episode.
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: No money made, no ownership implied.
Summary: After the events of "The Maltese Falcon Job", Parker discovers that families don't always fall apart, and a certain hacker has no interest in going anywhere, thank you very much.
Notes: For martinius with thanks for your participation in this year's Leverage Exchange.
The quiet murmur of voices nudged her awake. Parker didn’t want to wake up - waking up involved a world where Nate was in jail, Sophie was on the edge of tears, Hardison was angry, and Eliot was that scary-quiet he got when things were really bad. Waking up meant that she wasn’t safe anymore, that the best thing she’d ever known in her life was finished, and she and Bunny needed to figure out a way to start over.
Again.
”Just stay with her.” Sophie’s voice; it should have meant everything was okay. Or it was going to be okay as long as everybody followed the plan. Parker shifted around on the couch until her arm was over her face, hiding her from the two looking down at her. There was no plan anymore; nothing to follow.
”She’s not handling any of this well. I don’t want her to be alone.”
Shows what you know, Parker thought rebelliously. It didn’t matter what Sophie wanted. She always ended up alone; it was the one constant in her life besides Bunny, and she’d been stupid to forget it.
”She won’t be.”
Parker burrowed deeper into the couch. Hardison was going to try and cheer her up, and she didn’t want him to. If she let him cheer her up, then leaving him was going to be that much harder.
After a moment, Parker heard the door to Sophie’s apartment open and shut. Sophie was meeting Eliot - something about Nate’s arraignment being today, and the first chance they would get to see him and start working on a plan. Parker didn’t care. Not really. Not anymore.
She listened to Hardison as he moved around the living room, trying to work out in her head what she was going to say when he tried to make her wake up so he could talk to her and tell her everything was going to be okay. She knew better, and if Hardison tried to lie to her and say otherwise it was just going to prove that she was right and everything was over.
One minute followed another, then another after that. Hardison made three trips into Sophie’s kitchen, each time bringing back armloads of stuff that he set on the coffee table in front of Parker’s sofa/bed. She didn’t dare risk opening her eyes to see what he was doing, but on the third trip she heard the dry rattle of cereal in a box.
Finally she heard sounds of him shifting the coffee table forward, making room for himself so he could sit on the floor with his back against the sofa - so close she could have brushed against him with the slightest shift of position and still pretended to be asleep.
It was the sound of the television turning on that finally broke through her stubborn determination to shut him out. Jem and the Holograms - a weird little candy-colored cartoon from the eighties about a group of girls who helped people and sang really fun songs. Hardison had shown it to her one evening over loud protests from the others - and she’d used the word “outrageous” in every sentence she could think of for a month afterwards.
Parker opened one eye. On Sophie’s big television, Jerrica Benson was worrying about the Starlite Girls, who were in trouble for one reason or another. The Holograms had a choice to make, between showing up for an awards show, or performing at a benefit concert for a runaway shelter. “You’ve got both parts, right?” Parker asked Hardison, who was busy fixing himself a bowl of Fruit Loops. He knew she hated cliffhangers in her shows.
“Mmm-hmm,” Hardison said, pouring milk and holding up the bowl for her. Parker studied it for a moment, then pushed herself to a sitting position with a sigh and took the offering while Hardison fixed his own bowl. No words were exchanged, but the two of them ate three bowls of Fruit Loops each in the time it took the two dimensional characters to work through their issues and become a family again. Parker felt her stomach twist as the final song started, and set her bowl down on the coffee table.
“Why can’t we fix things like that?” Her eyes were aching, and she didn’t want to cry, and most of all Parker knew she really didn’t want to be alone anymore.
Not saying anything at first, Hardison pushed himself up on the couch beside her. “C’mere.” Parker crawled up into his lap, laying her head on his shoulder while Hardison hugged her fiercely. “You’re stuck with me, mama,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “You and me, no matter what. Promise.”
“And Bunny?” Parker asked, her voice muffled against his neck.
Hardison hugged her tighter. “You bet, Bunny.”