A/N: Thanx to those that stuck with me on this short journey, and especially those you left reviews - you're all wonderful :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 5

It had been a rough time, one of the hardest Parker remembered going through, and that was saying something. She didn't know she could hurt like this, not since she was a kid, not since she lost Frankie. Parker always knew there was a flaw in the plan when it came to getting close to people. It was great when things were good, when everyone was keeping each other safe, caring and sharing, lending a shoulder to cry on or teaching a new skill. They were more of a family than a team these days, all for one and one for all, and Parker never said the words but she loved every one of them – Nate, Sophie, Hardison, but most of all Eliot.

She loved him more, differently, it was hard to explain. She knew it probably wasn't fair for her to care more for him than the others, and for the life of her Parker couldn't ever explain how it happened. It was just there, inside of her, a big piece of her heart that was only for the hitter with his own heart of gold.

Of all the people in the world, he had been the one to discover her deepest secret, which she had gone on to explain to him the best she could. He was shocked, but then she guessed she should have expected that. Parker knew it wasn't normal for people to fly. She never did meet another person that could do it. Well, there was a girl once that said she could, but that had been a tragic lie within her own mind, and she was best not thought of, for fear of tears threatening again.

Parker had cried too much these past days, cried over Eliot and all that he meant to her. She never knew a person take a promise so seriously. He was so completely determined not to let her down in any way at all. Parker never had that before, not the whole course of her life, until he came along and showed her how decent and caring and wonderful people could be for each other sometimes.

It would have been easier to let the truth come out, so much less painful if he had let her do what must be done, and fly to the top of the roof that wasn't half so high as this one she was sat upon now. He was so beat up before he ever started the climb up too many stairs, and it broke Parker's heart to hear him struggle.

The team had started screaming, even as she pelted after Eliot and met him on the roof at last. He had done it, disabled the EMP device and saved the con, only then allowing his body to give out on him. The only thing he was more dedicated to than the job was keeping Parker's precious secret.

Lying in her arms, spitting blood and barely breathing, he smiled proudly because he had retained that promise he swore to keep. She smiled too because she could hardly believe how much he must care about her to do that. He would suffer all this just to be true to her, and Parker's heart had all but broken in two when she realised it might be the last thing Eliot would ever do in this life time.

"Figured you'd be up here," he said behind her then, and she turned with a bright smile gracing her lips, the one she reserved especially for Eliot alone.

"Figured right," she told him, moving over a little so he could come sit beside her near the edge.

Eliot's injuries were barely noticeable when he moved now. He was a fast healer, he had to be in his line of work, but when he levered himself down to sit it was clear he was still in some pain. Parker didn't say anything, because she knew he wouldn't appreciate it. The man was insisting he was fine, even when Nate was checking him over on the day it happened, cataloguing half a dozen broken bones in his rib cage alone. Eliot was a walking bruise without his clothes on even now, strapped as best he could be around the ribs and a sling holding one arm until just a day or two ago. He insisted he was fine, even though they all knew he wasn't. Only Parker ever gave him any peace about it though. She guessed she owed him that much, and so much more.

"You cold?" asked Eliot, ever the gentlemen and thinking of her before himself.

Parker shook her head, no. The coolness of the night never bothered her, she doubted it ever would. Nights living on the street years ago taught her to be resilient, she supposed.

They sat in comfortable silence then, something they rarely ever found with anyone else. Most people found it necessary to talk when in company, even if that meant rambling on about some crap nobody cared about. Hardison was often guilty of it, even Sophie could be accused. Nate did quiet pretty well, but it wasn't usually comfortable, because drink was often involved and the atmosphere grew awkward. With Eliot and Parker, companionable silence was nice enough. They just sat and looked out at the view together, neither speaking nor moving for the longest time, until suddenly he felt her head drop onto his shoulder.

"I don't know how to say it," she said, almost too quietly to be her own voice.

"Say, what?" Eliot asked, his hand coming up, fingers running absently through her long blonde hair.

They hadn't been alone long enough to talk about this yet, about what happened that day. It seemed now was as good a time as any.

"I don't know," she admitted, face screwing up into a frown as she thought harder. "I just… I guess I just wanna say thank you," she admitted after a while, "but that's so little, and pointless" she observed. "Like, two little words when… when you could've died for me".

Mentioning the 'd' word had not been a good plan, Parker realised too late, as tears welled in her eyes and emotion took her voice away. She thought she was done crying. After the first day or so when things with Eliot were kind of touch and go, she thought she was okay, but then there were tears of relief and of joy that he was going to be okay. So much emotion that Parker was just not used to having inside her, whooshing around like she was a spinning washing machine. Even now things were getting back to normal she seemed to have little or no control over how she was feeling, and it bothered her more than a little.

"Hey," said Eliot, encouraging her head up off his shoulder so he could look at her. "I'm still here," he reminded her, wiping a stray tear off her cheek with his thumb, wondering once again at how comfortable she seemed to be in getting close to him when she would shy away from so many others, or worse, lash out.

"I know," she nodded, going so far as to lean into his touch, "but I was so afraid you... you'd be gone and after everything… I don't think I know how to be without you anymore," she admitted, "and it's scary and weird and I don't like feeling this way, but I can't help it," she tried to tell him, knowing she was failing miserably at making sense, just like so many times before. "Do you even understand what I'm saying? I'm not sure I do," she sighed, feeling so incredibly inarticulate and dumb.

"Yeah, I get it, darlin'," he promised her. "I do," he smiled as he pulled her close.

She hugged him as tight as she dare, knowing she would hurt him if she wasn't careful. Parker didn't do comfort, didn't give it and didn't want it from others, at least that's what it would seem like to an outsider. She alone knew better, at least until Eliot came long. They knew each other, from the day they met they seemed to know. It was an unexplainable, undefined connection, and over the years it had only gotten stronger. He was the only one who seemed to really know when she needed somebody close and when she needed to be alone. She could tell the same about him, though anybody else's moods and feelings baffled her, to even include her own sometimes.

"Promise me you'll never die on me," she begged him, words muffled because her face was buried in his T-shirt still.

"Sweetheart, you know I can't promise you that," he reminded her, moving back to see her face, lifting her chin with his finger, "but I ain't plannin' on checking out of here any time soon, okay?" he told her. "I can promise not to leave you any other way, and I do," he swore, "but that's the best I got, darlin'."

She nodded that she understood. Of course he couldn't promise not to die, nobody could do that, but she really wished it were possible. She wished that through sheer force of will alone she could keep Eliot with her always and forever. The promise he had made was enough for now. It would take death to part them, nothing else would ever come close.

"Wait a second," she said, with a look of confusion then. "If we promise not to leave each other til death… Are we married now?" she checked.

She asked so earnestly, so innocently, completely without sarcasm or an angle to play. Eliot almost laughed, not at her because she was dumb, but just because she was so damn adorable sometimes.

"No, Parker, we're not married," he assured her, kissing the top of her head. "Anyway, what we've got's tougher than folks that get married. You got an Eliot Spencer promise, that's the most binding contract on the planet, sweetheart," he assured her with a smirk.

"If I don't know that by now," she said solemnly, reaching out to run her fingers lightly over the bruises that still marred his face. "I still can't believe you went through all that just to keep my secret. Not that I didn't trust you," she shook her head quickly, "but… even I didn't know you were that amazing."

Eliot actually chuckled at that. He could take a compliment as well as the next good-looking, well-built guy, but this was a little weird. Parker thought he was amazing, not because he could beat up four guys without breaking a sweat, not because he could bench press twice his own weight, not even because he was wanted in a whole bunch of countries and never once been caught. She thought he was so special because he kept a promise to her, one so important that he almost died to keep it. It was actually a little amazing to him too, not that he could take the punishment he had to endure, but that he could love someone as much as he knew he loved Parker.

He hadn't tried to define it before, whether it was a romantic thing or more familial. No matter what place he tried to slot Parker into in his life, she never quite fit. She was too hot to be his sister, meant too much to be just another lover. It was like whole new rules had to be made just to fit Parker into his life, and what shocked Eliot more than anything was how he was so willing to rewrite the world he knew just to make space for her. She was that special, meant that much, and all this was true before he ever knew her secret.

"You think I'm amazing?" he shook his head. "That's all you, babe, and I'm not talking about the flying thing," he assured her. "All the stuff you've been through, and you've come through it stronger than any woman I ever met," he told her, brushing her hair off her face and keeping her looking at him even as she tried to duck away, embarrassed for perhaps the first time in her life by anyone or anything.

"You've got more talent for thieving than I could learn in a life time, and you're one of the nicest, sweetest people in the world, even when you're breaking the law with a smile on your face," he told her with a grin. "It's like most of the people you ever met in your life tried to knock you down, but you said no, and you got back up. That makes you just as strong as I am, Parker, maybe stronger, 'cause you got all that on the inside, where it really matters."

Parker couldn't get the stupid grin off her face as she stared back at him then. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say or do when Eliot was being so sweet to her. Guys didn't compliment her, they complimented Sophie and women of similar style. She was just Parker, and yeah, people respected her for the work she did and told her she did it well, but that was all. This was a whole other thing, this was like something out of a movie with the moonlight and the moment.

"Eliot?" she said more quietly than she meant to. "Are you going to kiss me?" she asked in all innocence, not even sure why she thought so and half-convinced he would laugh next and tell her she was crazy for suggesting it.

"Are you gonna stab me if I try it?" he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting in a half a smile.

Parker shook her head solemnly and braced herself for a moment she wanted to happen and yet scared the living daylights out of her at the same time. She'd been kissed before, but it had never really ended well. Usually she initiated any kind of making out, and that was pretty much always for cover on a con, as Hardison would attest. She and Eliot had never done more than hug, and yet she felt closer to him than anyone else in her life right now. Parker wasn't sure what to expect when he leaned in closer and she anticipated his lips landing on her own.

It felt strange at first, her brain screaming 'This is Eliot, and he's kissing you! You're being kissed by Eliot!', but those and all other thoughts soon left her entirely as she fell into a moment she didn't want to find away out of. For a man built for violence and pain, he could be so surprisingly gentle, this Parker already knew but Eliot proved it to her all over again in the way he kissed her, a sweet moment that didn't even last as long as she had hoped for. She found herself almost tipping over on top him when he suddenly pulled away, leaving her wanting.

"Wow," she gasped in air, her eyes opening up to the world that she was barely aware she had left for a few moments.

"Should I take that as a compliment?" Eliot smirked a little, unable to help it, even in what ought to be a pretty serious moment.

"Yes, you really should," confirmed Parker with a smile of her own. "I didn't know I could feel that way when I wasn't flying," she admitted truthfully.

It was one of the very rare occasions when Eliot Spencer almost looked embarrassed.

"That is a heck of a compliment, darlin'," he told her. "Though I gotta say, didn't feel so bad from my side either," he admitted, running his fingers through her hair and then letting his hand come to rest at her cheek. "'Course, I don't know what flying feels like exactly."

"You want to?" she offered, not even sure how the words had come to spill out of her mouth so suddenly like that.

Parker never flew with anyone else before, not even her beloved foster-brother when he begged and pleaded. She was afraid of something going wrong, of him getting too excited and letting go of her hand, and then falling. She didn't trust her own abilities so much back then either, when she was so young. Things were different now, she felt she had some control and she trusted in Eliot even more than she trusted in herself to make it all be okay somehow.

Eliot himself wasn't really sure what to say. He wasn't crazy about heights, they both knew that, but this was Parker and her offer to him was a huge deal. No way could he bear to hurt her by saying no. Besides, this was pretty much the opportunity of a life time.

Slowly, he nodded his head, finding it easier than actually speaking. They both got to their feet then, and taking a hold of his hand, Parker led Eliot to the centre of the roof.

"I'm not sure... I think this will work," she admitted, seemingly muttering more to herself than to Eliot as she positioned herself facing him, and locked her arms with his, her hands gripping tight near his elbows, and his positioned the same way on her. "Ready?" she asked.

"I guess, yeah," he nodded his agreement, holding on to as tight as he dared but wary of hurting her if he let his grip tighten too much.

All of a sudden, Eliot felt the ground go from beneath his feet. He glanced down and realised they were indeed hanging in mid-air, just a foot above the surface of the roof they'd been stood on a moment before, but it might've been a mile. Eliot wasn't exactly loving it and they'd only just begun, but the broad smile on Parker's face was enough to calm any fears he had about falling and dying right now.

It was one thing for her to share her gift with him by telling him all about it, it was a whole other ball game showing him how it worked, letting him know how it felt to do this. They rose a little higher and circled around above the roof, never actually going over the edge at all, which Eliot really appreciated. They might've just been dancing, if there was music and something solid under their feet, but as weird as it felt it was kind of nice too, and Eliot felt a lot less freaked out by the whole thing by the time they came in for a landing back where they started.

"That's... that's really some feeling," he said, just a little giddy from the sensation.

"Uh-huh," Parker nodded, as they let go of each other arms a moment, shaking out the their aching muscles from holding on so tight before. "Flying is the best feeling... well, maybe second best now," she admitted, as she tentatively moved in closer.

"Only maybe, huh?" Eliot teased her, knowing what she meant and not exactly willing to argue too much as he slid his arms around her body and pulled her close.

When he kissed her again and she responded with everything she had to give, Parker felt as if her feet left the ground all over again, even though she knew they hadn't at all. The truth was, Eliot felt much the same about it. It occurred to Parker, in the misty haze before her mind went blank in the best way, that she wasn't the only person in the world that could fly. Anyone could do it, if they just let themselves fall in love with the right person.

The End