A/N Alright, here we go... last chapter... gotta admit I'm feeling a little emotional about it. Like I have with every chapter I have to take a moment to thank Alexandra926 without whom this story would truly not be here. When I first got the idea for this fic and broke the story to her I thought this was gonna be a quick 4 chapter, 20k word max story. But even as this fic took a life of its own and I constantly wondered what I had gotten myself into, she held my hand when I had doubts about the whole thing and talked me off more ledges than I can count. So I have to thank her for the countless hours she spent editing this fic and for being the best sounding board, beta, and all around friend a girl could ask for...

That's all I have to say for now so I truly hope you enjoy the conclusion to this story, it's been a long time coming...

As soon as he woke up, Eliot knew that he hadn't gotten enough sleep, even by his standards. Cracking one eye open, the predawn light, barely beginning to brighten the sky outside his window only confirmed that fact. The temptation to roll over and pull the blankets up and over his head was strong, but while he didn't really want to be awake yet, he also knew he wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep anytime soon. He had just thrown an arm over his eyes when a small snuffling noise from the corner of the room caught his attention.

Moving his arm and lifting his head, he immediately spotted her where she was perched on his dresser. Dressed all in black, mostly obscured by shadow, she practically disappeared into the corner of the room. He blinked several times to make sure she wasn't just a trick of the light, or a hallucination brought on by not enough sleep and too much bourbon the night before. She had her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her shins, and as she watched him from over her knees, the expression on her face told him she was as miserable as he felt.

"Parker." Her name left his lips in an exhale as he sat up, the blankets pooling around his waist. "What-"

"I got your message," she cut him off. "I stole a car and drove straight back."

Eliot remembered calling her, but he had drank enough the night before that he could only vaguely recall exactly what he'd said. But whatever he said, must have been the right thing if she was here.

"I left it behind the police station. It'll get back to its owner," she added, misinterpreting the expression on his face.

"I'm glad. That you're back, I mean," he clarified, not really giving a shit about the car. "Parker, why did you leave?"

She didn't speak for a long time, and he wasn't sure she was going to, as her gaze left his and drifted towards the window.

"I'm a thief," she finally stated simply, still looking towards the gradually brightening sky. "A thief takes things."

"I know that, darlin'," he said, watching her expressions cautiously, fairly certain that she wasn't talking about the car she'd boosted anymore.

"I'm the world's best thief," she continued, as if he hadn't spoken. "Or at least I used to be."

"You still are, Parker," Eliot assured her, believing his words wholeheartedly, even as he wondered what in the world she had gotten up to in the last couple weeks that could possibly make her doubt her self-identity, and place in the universe like this. "Of course you are."

"No. I'm not," she glanced back at him for just a second, before shaking her head, her eyes moist as she confessed. "Archie taught me to be the world's best thief. He taught me to take what I wanted and get out before anyone could touch me. He taught me to always have multiple exit strategies. To only steal things you want, never steal things that you need, because that's how sloppy mistakes get made. Because if you can't leave it behind in order to get out clean, then it's too much of a risk. Because nothing is more important than self-preservation."

Eliot's mind was going a million miles a minute, doing his best to decipher exactly what Parker was trying to tell him. He thought he usually spoke her language pretty well, but right now he was at a loss. He had a feeling, though, that this wasn't just an existential crisis borne of a job gone wrong.

"Darlin', what-"

She looked him right in the eye as she continued. "I took something I wanted. I thought I got away clean. I didn't realize until I was gone that it was something I needed."

It finally clicked. Eliot threw off the blankets and jumped out of bed, needing to go to her, but when she put a hand out to stop him, his feet froze in place. "Parker-"

"I'm a thief. I take things," she repeated again. "So why do I want to give you…"

"Give me what, sweetheart?" he prompted gently, when she trailed off.

"Everything."

She said it like the word was wrenched from her chest without her permission and Eliot found himself once again moving towards her. He forced himself to stop when he standing a few feet in front of her, not sure if his touch was welcome right now. But when she launched herself off of the dresser and into his arms, he didn't hesitate in catching her and holding her tight against his chest.

She barely weighed anything in his arms as he carried her easily back over to the bed. Not that he had much choice in the matter, the way she clung to him like an octopus, all arms and legs wrapped around him tight. Leaning back against the headboard, Eliot let Parker nestle in impossibly closer, and simply ran his hands soothingly up and down her back.

"Why do I feel like this?" she finally asked, her face buried in his neck.

"Feel like what, darlin'?"

"I kept thinking it would get better, but it got worse," she sighed against his skin.

"What did?" he asked, pushing her hair back from her face, trying to read her expression.

"This empty, aching feeling in my chest," she said. "I thought if I stayed away long enough, it would go away too. But it got worse every day until it physically hurt. And I couldn't make it stop until I got in the car and starting driving towards Boston."

"Then why didn't you come home sooner?" Eliot asked, wanting, needing to understand.

Parker exhaled with a huff, like she didn't know either. "I have feelings," she finally said distastefully. "Weird feelings. That make my stomach feel funny. And I was trying to figure out what they meant, but I'm not good at that," she admitted easily, knowing her own limitations. "Normally I would have asked you about it, but you're the one causing them," she added with a frown.

"Then why didn't you talk to Sophie?" Eliot asked, knowing the other woman would have happily helped Parker work through her emotions.

"Because you're the one I tell things to now," Parker said, as if it should have been obvious.

Eliot was torn between feeling frustrated that this whole thing could have been avoided if Parker just would have called Sophie a month ago, and pleased that if she chose to only have one confidant that it was him. "Why don't you try asking me now," he offered. "And I'll try to be impartial."

Parker didn't say anything for a long time, but Eliot patiently waited her out while she idly wound the ends of his hair around her fingers where they curled against his shoulder.

"I don't understand how you make me feel the way I do," she finally started. "Not the sex," she felt the need to clarify. "That was good. I mean, that was really good. I didn't even know it could be like that," she said, with a bit of wonder in her tone. "It was just… wow."

"I couldn't agree more, darlin'," Eliot told her, a smug smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. It certainly didn't hurt his ego to hear that it had been as good for her as it had been for him. He didn't know if his pride could have taken the blow, if that had been the reason she'd run out in the middle of the night.

"It's all the other stuff I don't get," she said with a heavy sigh, having obviously turned this over in her mind more times than she could count. "Like why I would rather be around you than anyone else, even when you're all grumpy and growly and mad at the world. Or why food tastes better when you make it. And not just your fancy Eliot food, but a bowl of cereal tastes better just because you're the one that poured the milk. I don't know why I've never slept better than when I'm sleeping next to you, even though after being in so many overcrowded foster homes I swore I'd never share a room with anyone ever again. And when you smile at me it makes my stomach feel the same way right before I make a big jump. And when I can get you to laugh it's like that moment before my line catches and I feel like I'm actually flying."

The hand that had been continually sweeping up and down Parker's back froze on the base of her spine, as Eliot did his best to take in everything that she was saying. His head was spinning as she poured her heart out, and Parker wasn't even done yet.

"I've always preferred being alone, perfectly fine not seeing or talking to another person for days at a time if I didn't have to. But now when I wake up in the morning I can't wait to see you and my night doesn't feel right unless you're there to talk to. And I keep wanting to tell you stuff. Stuff I've never told anyone. I gave you my name, Eliot. No one knows that." Her voice was getting progressively louder and faster the longer she spoke, like the words were spilling from her lips despite herself. "I don't need anyone, I never have, ever. So why do I… why… why do I need you?"

Eliot's first impulse was to want to flip her over and kiss her senseless, show her exactly how her words made him feel. They'd always been 'actions speak louder than words' people. But he knew that on this particular occasion, Parker actually needed him to talk her through this.

"Well, sweetheart," Eliot finally said, his even tone at odds with the way his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. "I think, that most people would call the way you're feeling... love."

Parker mulled that over for a minute. "So, all those things I feel... mean I love you."

Eliot wasn't sure if she meant it as a statement or a question, but he answered it anyways. "I'm afraid so, darlin'."

Parker lifted her head enough that she could look up into Eliot's face. "I don't think I like it."

He chuckled low in his chest, not nearly as offended as someone who didn't understand Parker the way he did might have been. "I don't think people like us ever do," he offered, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear

"People like us?" she asked curiously.

"Survivors," he clarified. "Because when you love someone, your happiness suddenly becomes contingent on another person's happiness and wellbeing. If you choose to give your heart to someone, you have to trust them to take care of it. That's a hard thing to reconcile when you're used to doing whatever needs to be done in order to survive. "

She tucked her head back underneath his chin. "I don't think I like it," she confessed again, "but I don't want it to stop either."

"Yeah," he sighed in agreement. "That's the catch, isn't it? You know what makes it easier though?" he asked, gently hooking a finger under Parker's chin until she was looking at him again. "If the person you give your heart to, gives theirs right back."

Parker looked right into Eliot's eyes, shining at her all blue and bright. It only took a moment for her to figure out what it was he was trying to tell her. "You love me too," she said, a smile so bright it was like looking into the sun, spreading across her face.

"I do, sweetheart," he confirmed a grin of his own twisting at his mouth. "God help me, but I do."

"I trust you to take care of my heart," she told him solemnly. "And I promise to take care of yours."

Eliot did the only thing he could think to do in that moment.

He kissed her.

It was a slow languid kiss, exploratory and full of promises. Their last time together, had been all passion and heat, want and need, moments stolen in the small hours between late and early, under the cover of darkness where anything could happen. But now in the dawning light of a new day, they moved together unhurried, wandering hands and worshipful lips taking their time to map out bodies that were already so familiar, despite the relative newness that was this. Time stretched and contracted around them, losing all meaning as they carefully peeled each other out of their clothes until there was nothing between them but skin.

Once neither of them could stand another minute of teasing, Eliot settled himself between Parker's welcoming thighs. He was resting right against her entrance, ready to push inside, when he hesitated.

"Tell me you're not going to leave again."

"You want to talk about this now?" she asked, looking up at him like he was the crazy one.

And maybe he was, because he did want to talk about it now. "Tell me."

"Fine, I won't leave," she said, frustration in her tone, lifting her hips in an attempt to capture him.

But Eliot simply shifted backwards, keeping the same distance between them. "I mean it, Parker," he insisted. Maybe it wasn't fair of him to press the issue when she was all wound up and wanting. But neither of them were particularly known for playing fair. "Promise me," he said, knowing that Parker took her promises seriously. "No more disappearing into the night without a word. No more running. I won't go through that again."

He meant it, too. He'd been a mess this past month, and that was before they had made any declarations of real feelings between them. If he allowed himself to really love her, and she disappeared again for weeks on end… he didn't know what he'd do.

Parker nodded silently, her eyes wide at the raw expression of emotion on Eliot's face.

That wasn't good enough. "No, I need to hear you say it. Promise me that if you feel like you need to run, you'll talk to me first. You and me, we're in this together now."

Cradling Eliot's face in her hands, Parker looked him right in the eyes so that he could see how serious she was being. "I promise. No more running. Unless…"

"Unless what?" he asked with a frown.

"Unless you're running with me," she replied simply, a gentle smile on her face.

"That works for me," Eliot said, leaning in to kiss her while he slowly pushed inside her. "Because I'm not letting you go again."

"I don't want you to," she gasped, her eyes fluttering shut as she took him in, inch by inch.

"And if you ever try that again, I'm coming after you," he added, not even sure himself if it was a warning or a promise.

"Good," she sighed, her back arching when he finally bottomed out inside of her.

"Because your name, it's not enough for me," he murmured into her ear. "I want all of you, I need all of you."

"Need you," she agreed, clawing at his back. "Need you so much."

He thought he could live and die a happy man between her silky thighs. He might worry about becoming addicted to this, if he wasn't already so far gone for her, that everything else was incidental at this point. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve this woman's love, but he knew he'd do everything in his power to keep it. His crazy but wonderful, innocent but wicked, complicated but straightforward, thief.

"Mine," she growled, although Eliot thought it was more kitten than tiger. "You're mine now. I stole you and I'm not giving you back."

Eliot just kissed her hard in response, not contesting her words. He was hers, for as long as she wanted him. The only part he disagreed with was that he didn't think you could steal something that was freely given. But maybe she had stolen his heart a long time ago, and it just took his brain a while longer to catch up.

With her ankles crossed behind his back, he was getting the perfect angle with every thrust, and she used her heels to urge him along. "Don't stop," she gasped, her hands going above her head to clutch at the headboard. "Please don't stop."

"Not gonna," he assured her. "Never gonna stop."

He ran his palms up her arms until his hands found hers, lacing their fingers together and grasping them tight. With her arms pinned above her head, her body was stretched out beneath him, leaving him ample opportunity to get his mouth on every square inch of skin he could reach. He hadn't shaved in over a week, and the substantial stubble on his cheeks was leaving an angry trail of red burns on her delicate skin, but the way she arched into the rasp told him she was far from complaining.

He made his way back to her lips and kissed her long and hard until air was an issue and he had to pull away. He took a moment just to look at her, pale skin flushed with exertion, blonde hair haloing her head against the sheets, pink lips parted as her breath hitched with every thrust. She was gorgeous. And she was his.

Sensing his stare, her eyes fluttered open and she met his gaze. And as she looked up at him, eyes devoid of any of the barriers she usually used to shutter her emotions, he was sure he had never felt closer, more connected to another person in his life.

"Parker." Her name left his lips as a benediction, before he said the words that he had as of yet only implied. "I love you."

Those three little words, said to her for the first time in her life, was all the push Parker needed to send her careening over the edge. She came with a cry of his name, every muscle in her body tensing, in a toe curling, back arching climax. Eliot couldn't have held on if he wanted to, and using their still clasped hands for leverage he rocked his hips into hers as he rode out the wave of his own orgasm.

When he went to roll over, she once again protested. Instead of fighting her on it, he instead let a little more of his weight settle on top of her, only to be rewarded with a blissful sigh. It appeared that this was going to be a thing, and while he still had concerns about crushing her, he could deal if it made her happy.

"No, where are you going?" Parker asked with a frown, when Eliot did eventually move.

"I'm just going to go clean up," he assured her, dropping a kiss to the tip of her nose before rolling out of bed.

When he emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, a damp washcloth in his hand, he paused in the doorway to take in the sight in front of him. Parker was laying in the middle of the bed where he'd left her, heedless of her nudity, a satisfied smile curling the corners of her mouth. One arm was curled above her head, while she ran her fingers from her throat, through the valley between her breasts, down to her belly button and back up again with her other hand. He couldn't help but think that she looked like a work of art, comparable to the masterpieces they'd stolen in their line of work.

"You're gorgeous," he found himself saying. "You know that?"

Parker opened her eyes, and rolled her head in his direction, answering his question with a smile and an outreached hand, inviting him back to bed.

He sat on the edge of the mattress, leaning over to kiss her sweetly, while he used the washcloth to gently clean between her thighs. Tossing the towel through the open bathroom door to be dealt with later, he picked the comforter up from where it landed on the floor and crawled back into bed, pulling the blanket up over both of them. He'd barely settled before Parker rolled towards him, plastering herself to his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I really missed you," she whispered against his skin. "I'm sorry I left."

Eliot's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline. Parker did not apologize, especially not voluntarily.

"I forgive you sweetheart," he absolved her. "Just please don't do it again. I understand the impulse to run. I'm not trying to change you, I just need you to talk to me first next time."

"I promised I would," she reminded him.

"That you did."

They laid together basking in the afterglow for quite some time. Eliot was running his hand up and down her bare back just savoring the feel of her skin, when he opened his eyes and noticed the frown on Parker's face.

"What are you thinking about so hard, darlin'?" Eliot asked, using his thumb to smooth out the furrow that had developed between her brows. He'd already forgiven her, so he wasn't sure why she would be looking so glum right now.

"I don't know how to do this," Parker said softly. "It's my first time."

"Now I know neither of those things are true," Eliot refuted, with a suggestive raise of his eyebrow.

Parker pinched the inside of his arm, grinning when he narrowed his eyes at her. "No, I mean like a relationship," she said, the words rolling off her tongue like they were a foreign language.

Eliot sighed. "I'm no expert either, darlin'," he admitted. It had been years since his last failed relationship, and truthfully he'd never expected to find himself in another one. He just didn't think it was in the cards for someone like him. Not with the life he led.

"So then, how do we do this?" she asked sincerely, not wanting to mess this up. "How do you relationship?"

Eliot opened his mouth to tease her that it wasn't a verb, but then quickly snapped it shut again, suddenly feeling like he'd been hit on the side of a head with a crowbar. A sensation he was familiar with since it had actually happened to him before. Something that Parker had done to him before.

"Actually, sweetheart," he began, sounding a bit mystified himself. "I think we've been in one for a long time," he told her, unsure how he hadn't realized it before.

"How long?" Parker asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Months," he told her. "Coming up on a year, maybe," he shrugged, thinking that if they counted those early days of dinners and movies as dates, it had definitely been that long.

"That can't be right," she frowned.

"No, I think it is," he insisted. "We just didn't notice." It may have been a while since his last serious relationship, but he pretty sure they'd hit all the standard benchmarks in the last year for a long term committed relationship. The only thing that had been missing was the sexual aspect, which was, well... no longer missing.

"But Sophie said relationships are hard, and they take a lot of work," Parker countered. "You and me… that's easy." She considered it a moment longer before coming to a conclusion. "We must just be super good at this relationship thing already," she declared brightly.

Eliot wasn't entirely sure that he agreed. They hadn't exactly gotten to this point without their fair share of growing pains and rough patches. Including, but not limited to the fact that she'd just taken off for a month, because feelings are hard.

Then again, on paper, the two of them shouldn't work at all; two stubborn, fiercely independent and solitary creatures by nature. But they'd managed to work through their issues time and again, not only unknowingly salvaging their budding relationship, but making it stronger all the time. He was under no delusion that it would be all fairy tales and unicorns from here on out, but he had faith that they would continue to work things out. So maybe, as Parker so eloquently said, they were pretty good at this relationship thing.

"I guess we are," he agreed with good humor.

Parker rewarded him a kiss, until a yawn so wide it made her eyes water, forced her to break it off. While his male ego wanted to take credit for her exhaustion, he only had to take one look at the circles under her eyes that were so dark they looked like bruises, to know that she hadn't been sleeping well either these past few weeks. And a part of him that he wasn't particularly proud of, was perversely glad that he wasn't the only one who was struggling to sleep alone these days.

"Get some sleep, sweetheart," he told her, repressing a yawn of his own. "There's nowhere we need to be. We can stay in bed all day if you want."

"I like the sound of that," she said slyly. He could feel her smile against his skin as her hand began to slide from his shoulder, down his chest and under the blankets.

He caught her wrist just short of her intended destination. "Sleep first," he said firmly, bringing her hand up to his lips and placing a kiss to her fingertips to soften his refusal. Quite frankly, he needed the rest as much as she did, especially if this was how Parker was planning to spend the rest of the day after their nap. Not that he was going to complain.

When he placed her hand back down in the center of his chest and covered it with his own to keep it from wandering again, Parker giggled lightly, but otherwise let it alone. Instead, she simply cuddled closer and shut her eyes with a contented sigh. It didn't take long for her breathing to slow and even out and Eliot was sure she was asleep, he himself only a few moments behind her, until her eyes shot back open with a gasp.

"What's wrong, baby?" he asked, his eyes filled with concern.

"Home is where your heart is," she said breathlessly.

Eliot was confused. "What?"

"That's what you told me, months ago," she explained, her eyes wide with her revelation. "You were right. I just didn't get it then, but I do now." She placed a hand over Eliot's heart, feeling its strong steady beat. "Home is where your heart is."

Something akin to awe passed over Eliot's face and he couldn't stop himself from sinking a hand into her hair, and pulling her lips down to his. He poured all the feelings he didn't have words for into that kiss, and the look in her eyes when she pulled away for air told him that the message was received.

"You were right, too, that day," he told her, the reverence in his expression being replaced by something a bit more mischievous. His smirk only deepened when she looked at him puzzled, his hand sneaking under the covers to give her bare ass a squeeze. "Home is where the pants aren't."

Parker threw back her head in a delighted laugh. "No more complaining about my lack of pants?" she asked with a triumphant grin.

"No more complaining," he confirmed, flipping them over, so he was hovering above her, bracing himself on his elbows. "In fact, I might just start insisting on it," he added, only half-teasing, since he wasn't going to have to repress what seeing her walking around in nothing but one of his shirts did to him anymore.

When he leaned down to kiss her again, she arched up to meet him halfway. "I thought you wanted to sleep first," she muttered against his lips.

"What can I say," he murmured as he began trailing a series of kisses down the cords of throat. "You're very… inspiring."

From the moment Parker had gotten Eliot's message that morning, she had had the same feeling in the pit of her stomach that she got right before a big a jump that she hadn't had time to properly prepare for. But now she knew it was okay to take that leap, because he was there to catch her. Eliot would always catch her.

And as they once again made love with the soft morning sun pouring through the windows, Parker was once again filled with maelstrom of emotions that she would never be able to pull apart to identify and name individually. But now she knew what it was called when they were all bubbling up together.

It was called love.

And love feels like home.

AN And there it is! That's the end! I wrote a large chunk of this chapter very early in the writing process so I've been eager for a long time to share it with you all and I hope it was worth the wait.

Before I say goodbye on this particular verse, I just want to say thank you to all of you. Thank you to everyone who's been here since the beginning and everyone we've picked up along the way. Double thank yous to everyone who has taken the time to comment especially those of you who have commented on every chapter, you don't even know how much I look forward to seeing you names in my inbox. Writing is hard and can be really lonely, and getting feedback, knowing you guys are enjoying all the long hours of work really makes all the time and energy worth it. And thank you to everyone who's reading this now, even if you are a lurker :P I truly hope you enjoyed it :)