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"Bad news," Nate said through the intercom. He and Sophie had been coaxing their mark into investing on a new office building for the better part of an hour, and Parker had zoned out a while ago. She had a bowl of Cheerios on her lap and orders to get to a safe once Sophie and Nate had deviated their mark off his path, so she wasn't particularly bothered by the ongoing lack of entertainment. "I don't think these are the kind of people who would kill him, but they got Hardison."
Eliot sat up and said, "What do you mean they got Hardison?"
"I mean they have him now, what do you think I mean? He was in the van and now he's not. Neither is a good deal of his equipment. Now, this was not in our plans, but we can work with it. Sophie's on her way; you need to listen to her. We're not dealing with mobsters here: Hardison put himself on the company's IT payroll and people connected to the company kidnapped him—if we play our cards right, we could have them arrested and our client taken care of in a much shorter time than anticipated."
"Do I still get to meet this guy's safe?" Parker asked warily.
"That depends on what Sophie does next."
Eliot snorted. "Depends? Are you kidding me?"
Parker shook her head. "Nate never kids."
"So we're just supposed to wait?"
Nate didn't say a word, which made Parker picture his stern face. She took another spoonful of cereal and hummed under her breath.
~
Sophie had just finished explaining Plan B to them when Hardison's discarded earbud picked up the sound of a shot. A shot and a shriek that sounded a lot like Hardison.
Sophie's face fell.
"That was not supposed to happen," Eliot said.
"Was that— Did they just—" Sophie tried. She was supposed to be the articulate one; Parker wondered if anyone in the world could be always eloquent. Maybe all people like Sophie had monthly moments of tongue-tiedness to make up for how annoying they were so much of the time.
"Don't leap to conclusions," Eliot said. "It was just a shot."
"A shot and a cry," Sophie said, sounding somewhat shocked.
It seemed everyone was describing what they'd heard, so Parker said, "The shriek was definitely Hardison's."
"He could've gotten shot at."
"And cried?" Sophie said.
Eliot gave her a look that Parker interpreted as a combination of 'have you even met the guy?' and 'shut up before I punch you in the face'. The latter she understood easily; as for the former, she didn't think Hardison was enough of a wimp to break character when he was supposed to keep his cool, but she guessed Eliot had his reasons, and the look made it clear that asking was the wrong course of action. Parker could read orders just fine.
And now that Parker thought about it, it felt better to have an explanation for what they'd heard that didn't involve Hardison being dead. She wasn't sure why it was, but she felt lighter. Normally the idea that somebody who was supposed to be dead wasn't made her feel more volatile instead, because that meant they might still have the means to attack her.
"You're right," Sophie decided with a nod, face suddenly returning to its usual makeup-y glow. "We must operate under the presumption that this was in our plans. We have two options here," Sophie continued carefully. From the look on Eliot's face, Parker thought Sophie might have been talking down to them, because he always got that look like he was about to embark on a killing spree when someone he shouldn't beat up openly underestimated him. It was cute, in a vicious predator kind of way.
"Who do I have to take down?"
Nate was actually set on the option where they didn't have to take anyone down, Sophie said, and Parker thought Eliot might take her down instead, just for the sake of hitting something.
"I lost the signal on Hardison," Nate's voice came in through the com. "Is he okay?"
"He may have got shot," Sophie said. "We've lost contact ourselves."
"I think what Sophie's trying to say is that he may be dead," Parker explained matter-of-factly. "Or not. Or bleeding."
"He's—hey, no," Nate said, regaining composure more quickly than Sophie had just a few minutes before. "Whatever the reason, we're one man down, we need to pull through this. You saw Mandy, you think she deserves this? Let's finish this con while we still can."
~
Parker was halfway through an air vent when she heard Nate's voice in the com again, saying, "We got visual on Hardison," and then a sharp crack and a muffled curse.
"Parker," Sophie added sharply, "I don't mean to rush you, but remember to tell us the second you're out of harm's way. The sooner we can reset the security system, the sooner we can put this horrid episode behind us."
Parker wasn't entirely sure why everyone was so on edge—they were a good team, they always fixed their mistakes—but she didn't need to be told twice.
~
Nate got the police involved again, which always made Parker feel like she was at a carnival and a boy had won her a teddy bear when what she really wanted to do was play the game herself.
When she got back to Nate's apartment, Hardison was sitting on the couch holding something rectangular and metallic and fissured in a way that reminded Parker of the images that appeared on the monitors when Hardison left his computer plugged into them while it was playing music.
Hardison was also doing something that sounded like sobbing. Parker raised an eyebrow and sat next to him. Eliot was sitting on an armchair poker-faced.
"They shot my laptop, man. My baby," he told her. Parker thought you were supposed to touch people when they lost things, so she patted his shoulder. "Thank you. At least someone's concerned."
Eliot scowled and slammed the door hard on his way out.
~
Eliot showed up at Hardison's apartment later that night with bloody knuckles and several cuts on his neck.
At least none of them were bleeding.
"What happened to you?" Parker asked perfunctorily.
"What do you think?" Eliot growled. "I hit things, they hit back, I hit them harder. End of story."
Hardison looked from Parker to Eliot's neck to Eliot's face and gaped.
"You were—were you grieving?" he said. "That was anger, wasn't it?"
Eliot stared defiantly, then said, "Anger's what you're gonna feel when I punch you in the face if you don't shut up."
"Right, man, sure, sure. It's also the second step of grief. Unrelatedly."
Eliot took a deep, loud breath and looked ready to kill something. Parker thought it would be ironic if he killed Hardison now that his other almost death was all sorted out.
"The only kind of grief you ever cause for me is extra hassle when you fuck up and I have to go save your pansy ass," Eliot said, and then walked over to the kitchen. His face only softened after he'd grabbed two large knives and a big chunk of dead animal to cut into.
"That's his way of saying he cares," Hardison told Parker quietly, like he didn't want Eliot to hear this time. Which was weird, because Hardison had appeared to enjoy making fun of Eliot just a few minutes earlier.
"I don't get it," she said. The only thing she'd cared about for a long time was money. Money didn't need to be told how she felt. She didn't need to be told how people felt. It was a waste of words.
"You kiss wallets goodbye," Hardison pointed out.
"That's different," Parker said, and yawned. "Wallets don't follow me around if I 'lead them on'."
Hardison blinked at her for a second, then laughed and handed over a Wii remote. She fell asleep when Hardison was about to beat her little computer self. She was startled awake by Eliot sitting down beside her and grabbing the lonely remote with a scowl that seemed to be hiding a smile.
Maybe Hardison had a point about that whole showing affection thing.