A/N: This piece has an episode tag to the Mile High Job. It deals with the aftermath of the plane's emergency landing, and the emerging relationships between team members who may not fully trust one another yet. There will probably be one more chapter after this one.

I don't own Leverage or any of the characters in this story. I write for fun and not for profit. I don't write slash.

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Enjoy the story.

Parker rose stiffly, shoving the suitcases aside, and stumbled toward the entrance to the plane's cargo hold. She paused before crawling back through, and taking a deep breath, she tried to feign a posture of nonchalance. Her head was pounding, and her vision was a little blurry. Periodic waves of nausea swept over her, and she didn't think there was a place on her body that wasn't banged up, bruised, or otherwise abused. It had taken every bit of the cat-like grace and athleticism she possessed to avoid serious injury. She had lost her comm. in the kerfluffle in the cargo hold.

She stood there until the latest bout of dizziness and nausea passed, and then carefully climbed out of the cargo hold, and exited the plane before someone had a chance to come looking for her. Her breathing was shallow, labored, and every breath hurt. She wanted to go back to her warehouse, and curl up in her bed until it all went away. With luck, the other members of her team would be occupied with the rest of the people on the plane, and wouldn't notice her. She didn't want to take any chances, though. Eliot tended to be much more perceptive about things like this than they thought he was.

As she climbed out of the plane, into the crisp air of the late autumn morning, she felt a bit better. Parker had the rare ability to appear and disappear at will, and she used it now to stay in the background of the scene, and therefore, make herself less noticeable. But she couldn't stay away from the others for too long without drawing attention to herself. She started to walk slowly in their direction, ever so slightly unsteady on her feet. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind, and a voice spoke in her ear, as he spun her around.

"Easy, Parker," Eliot said, his blue eyes appraising her and taking note of her injuries.

"I'm okay," she said, trying to pull out of his grasp, which caused her to stumble and almost fall.

"Keep telling yourself that." With a knowing smirk, he shifted his weight to counterbalance her.

At his expression, she looked away. "Eliot, please, I—" she broke off, almost pleading.

The smirk was still there, but he gazed at Parker, waiting for her to continue. When she didn't, his expression grew serious and he said, "Parker, what is it?"

"Eliot, just leave me alone. Please."

"And watch you pass out before you get to the team? Not gonna happen."

She ducked her head, and tried not to let her embarrassment show in her voice. "I just don't—"

Eliot thought he could guess what it was she was having trouble saying. "Listen Parker, there's nothing to be embarrassed by, though I can understand why you might not want the rest of the team to know the extent of your injuries. If you'll allow me to treat you when we get back, I won't tell them anything. The trip ahead won't be any fun for you, though. And if something serious happens, I won't be able to put off the treatment. That's the only deal I'm willing to make."

After a moment, Parker nodded.

Had the circumstances been different, she might have been amused at the protective stance Eliot took up just behind her. He was careful not to touch her, knowing that would raise the team's suspicions, but stayed close enough to catch her if she needed him. By the time they reached the rest of the team, Sophie had somehow acquired a ride for them, in a sedan that would be packed with four extra people. With Eliot's own bruises and Parker's injuries, he knew that the ride back would be very uncomfortable for both of them. He looked it over dubiously.

Sophie smiled apologetically, and said, "I know it's small, but it's the best I could do."

"Drop us where we can rent another, and we'll follow you home. I'm not riding for twelve hours crammed into a tiny backseat, with a bruised knee, a massive headache, and an injured shoulder."

Sophie bit back a smile. That was so like Eliot. He had belly crawled through jungles and sewer lines all over the world in search of terrorists and other subversives, had been tortured and half killed more times than he cared to remember, and yet he couldn't handle a long drive while injured, although, when she stopped to think about it, she really wouldn't want to either. Apparently, Nate wouldn't want to do so either, because he said, "There's an airport about twenty miles from here. They'll have a car rental place. These nice people have agreed to drop us there, so we can both rent one, unless you want to stop somewhere for the night, which is what we plan to do."

Eliot shook his head. "I'd rather get back."

"We'll get there as fast as we can."

Nate had Sophie climb into the front seat, leaving him to crowd into the tiny backseat with Parker and Eliot. Parker winced as she climbed in, but managed to keep from letting out an audible groan, and Eliot made a mental note to look for injuries to her legs when they were alone. He kept up the conversation, occasionally nudging Parker to join in, and watching her closely as he did so. She seemed to be doing all right for the moment, but it was a long drive even to the airport.

Finally, they arrived at the airport, and Eliot looked at Nate.

"You don't need to stay. We'll be right behind you." Nate didn't have to be told twice. After bidding the two younger members of the team to be careful, he and Sophie rented a convertible and set off for home. They would find a hotel somewhere down the road for the night. Eliot rented a rather large SUV. What he really wanted was a truck, but it made more sense in this case to give Parker a place to put her leg up, if she needed to do so.

He picked up a First Aid kit in one of the shops at the airport, and followed Parker closely as she walked outside. He knew she didn't like to be touched, and so he wouldn't help her walk unless there was no choice. When they reached the car, he told Parker to sit in the back, while he completed the inspection with the desk agent. Once they were finished, and the car was his, he opened the back hatch and had Parker get in and stretch out her leg. Climbing in beside her, he shut the hatch behind him so they didn't raise questions with the staff or passersby. Looking her in the eyes, and holding up two fingers, he asked, "Parker, how many fingers am I holding up." He knew before she answered that her vision was fuzzy.

She squinted to try to see them. "Three?"

He didn't say anything, but drew a penlight from his pocket and shined it back and forth in her eyes. She didn't like that at all, and tried to push his hands away. He caught the one closest to her and she started to hit him with the other, until he glared at her, as if to say, Hit me and you'll wish you hadn't. She let her other hand drop back down by her side, and a moment later, he finished, and put the light back in his pocket.

"Looks like you have a concussion, which means you're gonna have to move to the front seat, so I can keep an eye on you. Before you move, I need to look at your leg."

"Uh uh," she said, shaking her head. Eliot looked at her, and it was the first time she had ever truly seen him look hurt about anything. She liked Eliot and she didn't want to hurt him, but from long experience, she knew she couldn't trust people when she was hurt. When people knew you were hurt, they tried to take things away from you, or take advantage of the situation, thinking you couldn't fight back.

Eliot thought he read her expression pretty accurately. She didn't trust him. He supposed he could understand why, but it still hurt. She had to know by now that his job was to protect the team, and that he'd never hurt her. Shaking his head, he said, "I know we've only done eight jobs together at this point, and that you don't trust people easily, but I thought you'd have figured out by now that I'd never hurt you, or anybody else on the team." With those words, he opened the hatch and climbed out, slamming it shut behind him. He walked around the car, digging his keys out of his pocket as he did so. Climbing into the front seat, he started the engine without a word. It was going to be a long, silent trip back.