Title: Mourning Song
Genre: Angst, Friendship
Complete Story Word Count: ~6,700 words
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Pairings: Eliot/Parker friendship
Warnings: None
Summary: Tag to the Future Job. Parker had a brother once, and she still has her memories. We all mourn the death of a loved one and honor their memories in our own ways. Eliot learns that Parker's no exception.

Author's Note: A thanks, as always, goes out to Rusting_roses. This fic was written more as a coping mechanism than anything else. One of my best friends had a sister die a few weeks ago. It wasn't an easy time, for me, or for my friend. Rusting_roses, I owe you a huge thank you. You were not only my beta for this fic. You were my rock through this storm. This fic is also dedicated to phoenix who knows how to give a friend a pick-me-up, even from the other side of the world. The Leverage fic you wrote me gave me my first real smile in several days. So thank you guys. When supporting a friend through a time like this, it's good to have a support network of your own. I had two amazing friends through this. You guys kept me sane during one of the hardest times in my life.

-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-

Mourning Song

"What do you mean she's gone?" Eliot asked, putting down the knife he'd been drying off near the sink. He slowly turned toward the kitchen table where Hardison was sitting, tapping away at his computer.

"I mean just what I said, man. She asked for a week off," Hardison responded without looking away from his screen.

Eliot's brow creased. He supposed that Parker could maybe just want some time off. The idea of 'taking a break' just wasn't something that he normally associated with her, though. Sophie frequently tried to rearrange their schedules to allow her to make a weekend trip to Rome or attend the latest museum opening in Prague. Hardison occasionally bounced off across the country in search of his own kind at the science-fiction conventions he loved so much. But Parker? She lived for this stuff. There was nothing that compared to the excitement of a difficult theft. So what had her leaving all of that behind? "Where'd she go?"

Hardison shrugged. "I know I keep pretty good tabs on you guys but it's not my job to play babysitter. If Parker had something to do and she asked for some personal time to do it, I'm not going to invade her privacy."

Eliot wiped his wet hands off on the rag he'd deposited on the counter and crossed to stand behind Hardison. The hacker raised his eyebrow as he shot him a sideways glance over his shoulder. "Yes?"

Eliot crossed his arms. "I know it's just like you keep tabs on us all. Whether it's by your own stubborn persistence or Nate's request, I don't know. Nor do I care. But last time I took some time off I saw that you guys had Parker shadowing me. Don't even try to tell me you weren't involved."

Hardison's flurry of typing slowed and then finally stilled at that. He turned his head to meet Eliot's eyes above him. "I swear man; really, I don't keep tabs on you guys when you take time away from the team. All of us have things we want to keep private and I wouldn't betray that trust, even if Nate requested it. If Parker was there with you, it was of her own volition and curiosity that had her tailing you. She didn't go at my behest"

Eliot pulled out a chair and sat down next to Hardison then. If he was telling the truth, there was no need to make his friend get a kink in his neck from craning his neck back like that to look at him. But damn…Parker. There were times he really thought he was starting to understand the girl and all of her hidden complexities , and then she would go and do something like this and a whole new depth to her personality would reveal itself. It was like staring down into an abyss, sometimes. He would swear the little thief had an endless hoard of secrets that he and the others could never expect to totally comprehend. "Track her for me. I want to know where she's at, at the very least. That's not too much an invasion of privacy."

Hardison sighed, looking pensive. "I don't know man. That's kind of entering grey territory there. I mean, how would you feel if we did that to you?"

The hitter snorted. "She already did me one better by tailing me on her own time, whether you were involved or not. She opened the door on something like this when she decided to cross that line herself." When Hardison remained unconvinced, Eliot continued in a slightly softer tone, "Look, I just want to make sure she's not getting herself in trouble. If she's sneaking around some military base, well, maybe we have cause to be concerned. If she's somewhere harmless I'll let it lie, ok?"

"Fine. I suppose that won't do any harm." Hardison descended into silence for a spell as he sunk into the technological world that was his home territory. A few moments later he was looking up, shaking his head. "Last phone tower that had her signal is up in Maine. She goes off the grid there; I can't do any more for you than that."

Eliot ran a hand through his hair before dropping the hand to his other wrist. For the first time, Hardison realized that he was wearing a plain hemp bracelet containing a single bead. He untied the string that held it there and held the piece of jewelry toward the hacker.

"I know we're friends man, but bribery isn't going to work here. Besides, unless that bead it worth, like, elevnty billion dollars, I'm not take it. I'm not holding out on you here, there's nothing more to tell. And even assuming I was withholding info, jewelry wouldn't do it. Maybe a real light saber prop from the Star Wars set, but-"

Eliot growled, causing the hacker to drop off the end of his statement. "It has a GPS tracker in it. Parker wanted to exchange friendship bracelets…I figured if I was going to be roped into it I might as well use it to my advantage. She has the twin to that with a military-grade GPS tracker in it."

A grin crept across Hardison's face. He turned the bracelet over in his hand. It was very much something Parker would like, which also meant it was probably something that made Eliot cringe. The single bead was small, almost small enough that Hardison was surprised Eliot had managed to get a tracer in it. The clay bead was striped in fluorescent pink, green, and yellow. Eliot's fashion sense, whatever small amount he might possess, had probably wept at that. But sometimes you had to play on Parker's terms and by her rules and preferences in order to win the game. "That's sneaky, but smart thinking."

"Well someone had to keep tabs on the girl. And ever since she found out that you had a GPS in her shoes she took to buying new shoes every two weeks or so."

"I have tried to get another GPS on her with no success. That girl has a mind of her own on missions sometimes and it's just easier to know when she gets a sudden impulse to head off on her own."

Eliot snorted. "Try working with her in the field. She's a mind of her own all the time."

Eliot scooted over his chair closer to Hardison as he directed him to the proper secure website to use to activate Parker's GPS device. But going through and activating the device only occupied a very small amount of the hacker's attention. He needed more stimulation than this simple exercise, so conversation would have to suffice for the moment. "So where did you go when Parker tracked you? Must've been getting a bit rusty if Parker was able to track you. That's not even one of her stronger skills."

Eliot stared the hacker down with a steely gaze that left no question about how he felt about this line of conversation. "I thought you were under the impression that what we did on our own time was our own business?"

"I mean, I am. But we're sitting here and all, and Parker knows where you went. So I just thought I'd ask…"

"Well don't. And my skills are never rusty. Parker's main job is to be sneaky and elusive. Does it surprise you that she was able to sneak up on one of us? How often has she popped out of your ceiling vents and scared you half to death?"

"Man, don't be knocking me on that! You don't expect a person to just drop from the ceiling like that."

"I'd expect exactly that of Parker."

Hardison chuffed a quiet laugh at that. "I suppose that's true enough. I've got the tracker up and running. Should only take another few minutes to pin down her location. So you got trackers like this on all of us, or just Parker?"

"Of course I got them on all of you. I'm a retrieval specialist, remember? It's my job to come track you down and save your asses when you get in over your head. How am I supposed to do that if I can't find you?"

"That is so not cool man! I don't keep tabs on all of you, just Parker, and that's cause she does some crazy shit sometimes." Hardison lifted up his computer, looking for a GPS chip or something of the like. Eliot had to have planted it on something he regularly carried with him.

"Stop freaking out, Hardison. Like I said, it's a precautionary measure in case one of us was to get in trouble. I carry one too, in the bracelet, and Nate knows how to active it." That bit of knowledge had Hardison relaxing. If Nate knew about it, then Eliot really was on the level about the whole GPS thing and wouldn't invade their privacy unless dire circumstances were in play.

The hacker kept examining his computer as he waited for the GPS to hone in on Parker.

Eliot growled and pressed down on the laptop, forcing Hardison to let go of the edge he was peaking under or risk getting his fingers pinched. "Now stop trying to find it and get rid of it. I promise you, mess with the one I got on you now and I'll make sure the next one is impossible to get rid of."

Hardison relented, gulping at the threat. Several unpleasant thoughts were going through his mind as he envisioned all of the very uncomfortable places that the hitter could place a GPS device…the man had a sadistic streak that wasn't to be trifled with.

The hacker's computer chirped, drawing his attention back to the screen. "I've got her."

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