When Parker stepped out of the bathroom that night, her roughly toweled hair dampening the back of her pajamas, she was surprised to find Hardison sitting on their bed staring at the blank television screen.

Usually the hacker had some sort of electronic device to keep himself occupied – his tablet, his phone, or watching Doctor Who re-runs on tv – but today he just sat on the neatly made hotel sheets with his back against the headboard and the television switched off.

He turned his focus on her when she stopped at the foot of the bed. "Come here," he said quietly.

She crawled onto the bed and into his opened arms. He hugged her close, and she tucked her head under his chin as he breathed in the scent of her shampoo. Parker brought a hand up to his chest, feeling the slightly quicker, but still steady, assuring beat of his heart.

Thump, thump, thump.

"Don't do that to me again," Hardison repeated his words from earlier that day. "I can't afford to lose you, Parker, I just can't."

Parker nodded against his chest.

"God, I was so scared when you ran out with that briefcase. I didn't know what you were going to do, and the thought of anything happening to you is just…" Parker felt him shudder and tighten his hold on her as he tried to clear his throat to continue. "You are my life, baby, and I can't lose you."

"I can't lose you either, Alec," she said after a while. "I did the only thing I could think of to save you and Eliot and everyone else in this city."

"I know. But it doesn't mean I like it one bit."

"It was for the hundreds and thousands of good people here," she reminded him.

"I didn't like this job from the beginning. I'm a selfish guy – I would rather risk everything than let anything happen to you. Everything. In our line of work, it is almost impossible to avoid the bad guys, and even though I'm just the geek and can't fight like you or Eliot, I still wanna protect you. After we got out from that old lab, all I wanted to do was to take you away from this mess and let someone else deal with it. "

"But if they failed the influenza would've eventually infected us," Parker pointed out.

"I realized that afterwards, but at that moment, nothing else mattered but you," he said. "Nothing in this world means as much to me as you do, Parker. "

Warm moisture on the top of Parker's head made her look up to see tears glistening against his cheeks. She wasn't sure how she should comfort him; if Sophie was here she would've known what to do.

Tentatively, hesitantly, Parker lifted her hand up to wipe the tears away. She must have done something right, because Hardison took a deep breath and leaned into her touch.

"I love you."

The three little words slipped out so easily that it stunned Parker herself as well; they had never professed their love out loud before.

Parker didn't do commitments. She was a thief; a thief comes and steals your possessions, not stick around and make promises they can't keep. She learnt, from a young age, that commitments and promises were just another form of lies wrapped up in a neat layer paper. The ladies that took her to her new foster homes always told her, "I'll find you the best home ever, honey. You just have to live with these nice people for a while until I find the perfect family for you, okay?"

And she believed them. For a while, at least.

She was bounced around from foster home to foster home, abusive foster 'parents' to 'just-care-about-the-money' foster 'parents'. Very rarely she would be placed into a nice foster home, but those were the ones she only got to spend a few days in.

Needless to say, the ladies never found her "the best home ever".

Even with Archie, who had given her a first taste of what it felt like to be able to have a person she could depend on, she had left after she picked up enough skills to allow her to crack basic safes and to lift someone's wallet without them knowing. She wanted to stay longer, of course, but there was that nagging feeling that she would be forced to leave soon, just like when she was younger, so she chose to leave on her own terms instead.

Now she had Nate and Sophie and Eliot and most importantly, Hardison. They were the first people that made her truly feel like she belonged with them, that she could stay for as long as she wanted to.

Looking into his deep, dark eyes, it felt right to tell Hardison she loved him.

This was a huge leap of faith for Parker to take; she was telling him that she trusted him to be there during her most vulnerable times, and to not leave her when she needs him the most.

"Really?" his lips curved upwards.

Parker buried her face in his chest again, embarrassed. "Really."

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "I love you too, Parker."

She hummed in response, pleased. The thief couldn't explain the fluttering feeling in her stomach, but she loved it.

Hardison gently lifted her chin up and asked softly, "For luck?"

She leaned in, though not before uttering the two words that stretched Hardison's smile even wider.

"For us."

END

A/N

Idiot 9: This is my favourite episode EVER. Parker and Hardison scenes, and Hardison and Eliot scenes? What more does a girl need? After watching it, I just had to write a little something for the cutest pair in tv history, and this story pieced itself together pretty much in an hour, so it was just the matter of turning it into words... Anyways, as usual, read and review pretty please?