Title: Appropriate Response

Author: AllOverTheWorld

Ships: Maybe Parker/Eliot but let's have them as friends for the moment.

Summary: Parker goes missing but when she resurfaces there is some revenge to be exacted and Eliot learns the definition of appropriate response.

Author's Note:

(1) Thanks to csimesser1, jd, Frankies Girl 21, Irish63116, race2win and b-mystique for reviewing Being Broken. It means a lot to me that you guys took the time to read it and, best of all, let me know what you thought.

(2) I had finals all of last week, hence my absence on any of the fanficition fandoms. Anyway the quote below is my absolute favorite by Eliot, I think it describes him perfectly. That, along with my love of Eliot/Parker, resulted in this. Yes, it is going to be a multi-chapter fic. How long, I don't know because I have an idea of where this is going to go but after that…it's really up to you guys.

(3) I rated this for violence and langauge that will (or already has) occure later in the story.

Enjoy.

"What? What are you talking about? I only use violence as an appropriate response"

-Eliot Spencer

Season Two, Episode Twelve: The Zanzibar Marketplace Job

Eliot got angry often, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he just had an explosive personality. This in mind the list of things that can, and often do, set him off is surprisingly small. It consists of: people that try to hurt him, people that abuse kids, dirtbags, douchebags and liars. Considering the fact that everybody lies. Maybe his list isn't so small.

"Where's Parker?"

The question rolls so easily off his lips and yet, combined, the words are quite foreign. Yes, Parker has the tendency to disappear but the rest of them can always figure out a reason. They can always deduce, using Parker logic, where and why she's gone. Right now they can't think of anything. Hardison's already checked all the local museums and art galleries for anything rare and/or expensive but nothing popped out at him. Nate, Eliot and Sophie have checked all of Parker's known safe houses in the area and came up with nothing. They all looked just as abandoned as the last time they had checked them.

Now the four of them were sitting in silence, each worrying and wondering where their thief had gone and why she wasn't contacting them. Hardison was staring blankly at his computer screen, hoping that one of the multiple searches he had running on Parker and all of her known aliases would come up with something. Nate drank blindly from a bottle of Scotch Whiskey and Sophie did nothing to stop him, to absorbed in her own, somewhat maternal, worries. This left Eliot, who was not drinking, or staring, but he was worrying. This entire situation was peterbing because somewhere, deep down, he knew in his gut that this was not a normal Parker disappearance.

It didn't have any of the normal characteristics of her dropping off of the face of the earth. Nothing expensive had suddenly gone missing, nor had anything happened during their last con that seemed to have spooked her. This was just plain weird and Eliot didn't like weird.

"You think that if anyone of us knew we would be sitting here?" Hardison said, unable to keep the harshness out of his voice.

"Look man-" Eliot began but Nate stopped him, setting down the glass of alcohol and clearing his throat before speaking.

"Don't start fighting with each other." He said, his words slurred slightly but under the seriousness of his tone it was barely noticeable "The thing about Parker is that if she doesn't want to be found, you won't find her. It doesn't matter how hard you look, but until she's good and ready, she'll be a ghost."

"You know this how?" Hardison asked, looking doubtful.

"How soon you forget that, at one point or another, I have tried to chase down all of you guys. I know how she works, at least when she's on the run, or hiding. She's become an expert at disappearing, we won't find her until she's ready to be found."

"So that's it?" Hardison asked "She could be in danger and you want to just sit here and wait for her to come waltzing through the door?"

Nate nodded "It's our only option at this point."

Hardison was about to come up with a witty response but he was distracted by the sudden vibration of Eliot's phone. It had been resting on the table, lifeless and silent, up until this moment and even as they all craned their necks to see the caller ID, Eliot snatched it up.

"Eliot?"

He knew that voice, or at least he thought he did. The person on the other end of the line sounded scared, more scared than he had ever heard her in his life "Yes." He said, keeping his face and tone as neutral as possible.

"I'm scared."

Not good. Not good at all "What about?" Eliot asked, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room, doing his best to concentrate on the voice on the phone.

Sobs.

Eliot closed his eyes, this was really fucking bad.

"Is that Parker?" Hardison asked

Eliot nodded.

"Lemme talk to her." He said, his tone angry, as he made to grab the phone from Eliot's hand. That plan was foiled as Eliot leaned out of reach and smacked Hardison's hand away.

"What's going on Parker?" Eliot asked "I can only help you if you tell me what's going on." His tone was mild, like trying to coax information from a small child.

"35th and Calumet."

Eliot stood up, slipping the phone back into his phone and grabbed his jacket off of the chair he had been sitting in.

"Where do you think you're going?" Hardison asked

"I'm going to find Parker." Eliot growled

'I'm coming with you. I have some words to say to that woman." Hardison said, standing up and making to join Eliot by the door.

He was stopped by Nate who shook his head "Let him go alone Hardison."

Hardison's jaw dropped and he spluttered angrily "What-why?"

Before Nate could answer Eliot said "Because she called me, not you. If she had wanted you to come, she would have sent a fuckin' e-mail or something." He said, before disappearing out of the door, slamming it as he left.

By the time Eliot parked his car in a parking lot at 35th and Calumet it was dark and the wind was bitter cold as he stepped out of the car and onto the asphalt. The entire drive over here had been filled with him replaying the conversation over and over again in his mind. He had known Parker, on a personal level, for three years and never in that time had he heard her say the words I'm scared, they didn't seem to be in her vocabulary. She was, after all, an adrenaline junkie; she craved the rush that resulted from jumping off buildings and creeping around in musty air ducts.

Where this desire for adrenaline had spouted from Eliot could only guess, but even then his guesses were haphazard at best. Little was known about Parker or her past, save she had had a younger brother who died in a biking accident and that she had been through the dark-side of the foster system. Other than those two facts everything else about her remained shrouded in mystery, no one even know her real name.

However the sense of mystery seemed oddly fitting for Parker. Knowing nothing about her made her all the more unpredictable, something that, in her line of work, made her extremely dangerous. Eliot had come to this conclusion just after meeting the entire crew. He knew that while Nate, Hardison and Sophie were dangerous in their own way, they were predictable. Hardison would use technology to exact his revenge, therefore escaping him was as easy as hiding in the woods for a while, form a new alias and blend into life. Sophie would put on an accent, speak a new language and pretend to be someone she's not, Eliot's advantage was that he knew her, he knew her face, her real voice and her weakness. As for Nate, he came a close second to Parker in terms of danger. His motives for taking a case would sometimes be unknown, while otherwise they would be crystal clear. He knew more cons than anybody else Eliot knew and had resources and intelligence on his side.

However, even after all of that Parker still poised the most threat to him. Her logic was as twisted as curly fries, often making mental leaps that the others spent minutes trying to figure out. Yet, she could break into a museum with no planning and steal their most valuable artifact in her sleep. The rules by which she lived were different than the rest; she lived on rules that had been formed when she was young. These rules focused on one thing, keeping her alive. Sure, they had expanded since then but not by much. She would do what it took to keep her self out of danger, real, life-threatening danger.

More recently, Eliot had noticed, she was becoming more comfortable in the team setting. She was taking more risks, and this was mostly a good thing, during cons, showing that she trusted her teammates to keep her safe. This was, Eliot thought, probably part of the reason why she had vanished for thirty seven hours.

"Eliot."

He jumped slightly at the sound of his own name and whirled around to see Parker standing there. He could tell in three seconds that something was wrong with her. Not just by the visible stuff, her eyes (the one that wasn't bruised) were red rimmed and blood shot (evidence she had been crying and not sleeping), bloodied and swollen lip, purple-ish green bruising around her clavicle and neck, but by the way she stood. Her right arm was cradled close to her body and her breathing was short and shallow, as if inhaling too much would cause her too much pain.

She was clothed in sweatpants and a loose fitting black hoodie, neither of which seemed to be providing her much defense against the cold. Seeing this, Eliot took of his own coat and wordlessly wrapped it around Parker before saying "Let's get inside."

His voice was calm but inside he was seething. Who had done this to her? Why had someone done this to her? Perhaps most importantly, where were they, so he could pound some sense into them?

Interested to know what happened to Parker? What about Hardison, he didn't take being left behind so well did he? Hope you enjoyed this first chapter and the second one will be posted as soon as I have time to write it. It will probably be up tomorrow.

Please leave me a note if you liked it, hated it or want to know more about what happened?

I know that Parker disappearing is quite a popular topic but I hope that you will read this with an open mind. Mostly because I would like to know what you think of my version of that topic.

Thanks,

AllOverTheWorld