Parker came through the door of Leverage Headquarters, throwing her bag of gear in her office and continuing to the kitchen. She had been gone for over two weeks, and was back. And really craving some Lucky Charms. She came in to the kitchen where Sophie sat at the bar, nursing a mug of tea. "Oh, Parker, you're home!" Sophie seemed cheerful, but a line between her eyebrows told otherwise. "Yeah, got hung up at the airport. What up?" Sophie shrugged.

"Hardison is holed up at home with a new games. Nate is..." Sophie trailed off. "Drunk as can be and passed out in his apartment?" Parker finished.

"Precisely." Sophie shifted as Parker came to stand next to her. "And Eliot is skulking." Parker followed her gaze to the living room

"How long has he been like that?" Parker asked, crunching on her bowl of cereal. Sophie glanced at Parker and then back at Eliot, who was reading a book on the couch. "Two, maybe three weeks now." Spohie rolled her eyes. "Nate can't get a word out of him when they're both sober, but he's definitely mad about something."

"And when they're drunk?" Sophie raised her eyebrows in response and Parker nodded. The men never did good with alcohol.

"I'll give it a try." She picked up her dry bowl of Lucky Charms, picking up the dry cereal bits to eat first.

Eliot jumped as a bowl of Lucky Charms landed in his lap and Parker climbed over the edge of the couch. He relaxed, but only slightly. "Hey darlin'." He responded to her impromptu appearance. "So..." She started. "Sophie says you're mad about something." Eliot looked up from his book to glare at Sphoie, who suddenly found better places to be then watching them. He turned to Parker, who was staring intently. "And?" He asked, jaw setting stubbornly. She scooted forward until she sat on the cushion next to him, and took her bowl back. "And why are you mad?" She asked, the 'well duh' unspoken but clear enough on her face.

"I could be mad for a lot of reasons." He replied tersley.

"But you're not mad for lots of reasons. Does it have something to do with a job?" She asked. He glanced up at her and back down at his books. "Yeah."

Parker's voice got quiet, and her eyes as wide as a child with a scary story. "Did a retrieval go bad?" She knew that if a job went bad for him, it usually involved people hunting for him.

"No."

She finished the cereal and started on the marshmallows for a minute before she spoke again. "Then it was the santa job."

He rolled his eyes at the name, but didn't respond. Taking this as a yes, she continued to eat her cereal and watch him. "Was it the gang-bangers? Did Hardison do something stupid? Was it Grant?"

She stopped, knowing she'd hit the nail on the head. His posture and face hadn't changed, but his knuckles were white and his eyes had become slits peering out at the book. "What did Grant do?" She puzzled, looking down at her now empty bowl.

"I mean, aside from buy and try to steamroll a church, beat up a priest, be generally selfish and really mean at the construction site. You know, I bet, he doesn't even believe in santa- klss!" Her words were muffled when Eliot's hand shot out, took her by the back of her neck and dragged her towards him, whereupon she was throughly kissed. After several moment, he let go and stared into her eyes, before closing her open jaw with a finger under her chin. "Nobody get to call you baby. Nobody, but me."