A/N: Enjoy! - pj

"Ow ow ow ow," Parker's eyes were squeezed shut, every muscle in her body tense with pain as Eliot gingerly placed her on the couch in the middle of the hotel suite.

Instantly Hardison appeared at her side, offering one trembling hand for her to squeeze against the waves of pain. Sophie came from the bathroom with a cool washcloth and lay it across her forehead, dabbing at her pale, sweaty skin while worrying her rouge colored bottom lip mercilessly.

Parker cursed. Repeatedly and loudly. In several languages the team didn't know she even spoke.

Nate stood closer to the door watching them tend to Parker, his face betraying every inch of concern and worry he was feeling. After a moment Eliot came to stand beside him, his arms crossed over her chest, frowning deeply.

"So what can you do for her?" Nate asked quietly, wordlessly taking Sophie's hand when she returned to his side and reached for it.

Parker, who under Hardison's coaching was fighting unconsciousness, let out an involuntary whimper and Hardison looked up at the others, swallowing hard.

Eliot's sharp blue eyes flickered up from Parker to land on Nate, "me? Nothing."

Nate and Sophie both looked at him and Eliot shrugged, his helplessness masked by irritation.

"What do you want me to do, Nate?" he asked in a harsh whisper, not wanting Parker to hear, "it's an open compound fracture. The risk of infection is unbelievable. She needs surgery at a hospital I told you that."

Briefly, Nate's mind flashed back to fifteen minutes before. Hearing Parker's startled cry when her harness gave out over the ear buds followed by her heartbreaking moans of pain as Eliot announced he was en route. Running though the building, dodging badges and bullets as Eliot's muttered curses and his contrasting gentle words of encouragement to Parker filtered into his head.

Her leg had been bent at an impossible angle then, dangling horrifically from her body, blood soaking and white bone visible through the pant leg as Eliot began his emergency triage, growling orders and murmuring encouragement.

"We can't go to the hospital," Sophie said, though it seemed to break her heart to remind them, "the FBI knows our faces and so do the local police. They'll have faxed a photo of each of us to every hospital in the state by now."

"Well I'm not a surgeon Sophie, this is out of my league." Eliot snarled, frustrated at the situation. At the job gone wrong, at the police for catching on, at himself for not being able to do more.

"Oh god," Parker hissed, throwing her head back as tears leaked from her eyes, trying not to sob, "hurts hurts hurts."

Nate turned and reached into the mini bar.

"Hardison." The hacker looked up long enough to catch the tiny bottle whiskey thrown his way, "it's the only painkiller we got."

Alec nodded and set to coaxing Parker into drinking it. Sophie crossed the room to help him, needing to be near.

"Nate," Sophie looked up, all the worry and desperation bubbling up from her chest summed up in a single word.

"I know," he said simply, holding a small bottle of vodka like a prayer. His eyes were blank as he stared over at Parker, his shoulders and back stiff with tension. His mind whirling as he searched for a solution, a way to get Parker what she needed.

A few feet away, Eliot's clenched his teeth and he closed his eyes.

"I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Sophie asked, looking up from where she sat perched on the coffee table, her arms wrapped around her middle, tears standing in her eyes.

"Gotta make a phone call," he said, and closed the door to the room behind him as he left.

---

Parker was still awake, Hardison could tell because she was still gripping his hand as if he were going to pull away, which he wasn't. But her condition hadn't improved in the twenty minutes that had passed since Eliot's mysterious phone call.

Sophie wordlessly covered the now shivering thief with a new blanket from the closet and returned to Nathan's side, too distracted by worry to notice the empty bottle of vodka in his hand.

"Eliot, how much longer till this friend of yours-" Nate started.

"They said they'd be here, they'll be here," Eliot interrupted sharply; his own worry masked with anger, true to form. Just as he finished speaking there was a knock at the door and he jumped from his leaning position against the wall to answer it.

The others couldn't see around the corner but a whispered conversation of 'thanks for comin' in the raspy voice of their hitter followed by a curt reply of 'where's my patient' reached the suite ahead of the speakers.

Nate wasn't sure what he'd been expecting.

Probably an older man, someone who had his license revoked after an unfortunate law suit, or maybe a greedy private practice type who was looking for a little extra cash or the thrill of working with criminals.

But he was certainly not expecting the young, leggy blonde with soft honey eyes and a black pencil skirt that entered the room. She took in the spacious room in a sweeping glance before zeroing in on Parker and rushing over, unceremoniously shoving Hardison aside in order to begin her examination.

"What happened?" she demanded, "I need truth and I need details." The woman set a black bag down beside her and pulled out a stethoscope, a thermometer, a flashlight and a pair of latex gloves. She looked up and threw impatient looks around the room when no one spoke.

"Now."

Nate glanced at Eliot, but the hitter's face revealed nothing. He decided not to make their mysterious doctor ask again and stepped forward. He explained where Parker had been, how far she'd fallen and what had been done to treat her, Sophie interjecting here and there to clarify or correct.

All the while the young woman was busy checking Parker's pupils and pulse, carefully feeling for breaks in the small thief's bones that might have been overlooked.

Parker stirred and when she touched a particularly tender spot near her ribs, her blue eyes sliding open to and focus on the stranger.

"Hey," the woman said, her voice suddenly soft and warm, "what's your name?" She smiled and Parker gave her an odd look.

"Parker," she frowned slightly, "you look kind of…" she trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut and letting out a soft moan.

"Alright Parker just take it easy," the woman turned and reached back into her bag, coming back with a syringe and a disinfectant cloth, "I know you're in a lot of pain but I'm gonna take care of that, okay? I just need you to stay awake for a little while longer, think you can do that?"

Parker nodded and the woman looked up at the team, all the softness vanishing. Back to business.

"Tell me one of you has medical training," she said, sending a pointed look at Hardison, then Nate and finally Sophie. Seeing them all give a short shake of their heads she sighed deeply and looked back down at Parker.

"Great," she muttered then threw a quick, cold glance at Eliot, "looks like you're with me, 45. I have scrubs and masks in my trunk, go get them."

She turned to the others without waiting to see if he would do as she asked.

"I'm gonna need a table of some kind."

"A massage table work?" Nate asked and, at her affirmative reply, surprised everyone when he got up and disappeared out the door after Eliot.

The woman nodded, back to checking Parker, "I'm also going to need clean sheets, towels and ice," she took a deep breath and blew her long bangs off her forehead, muttering to herself, "and a head examination."

"I'm on it." Sophie said, glad to have something to do as she too left the room.

Hardison was perched on the arm of the couch and watched as the young woman the charm back on and spoke softly to Parker, explaining what she was going to do and why, expertly deflecting Parker's weak protests that she 'didn't do drugs'.

"Well I'm not about to operate on you awake so I'm afraid you don't have an option," she told her gently, almost teasingly. Hardison tilted his head at her, the slight lilt to her speech that he was sure he wasn't supposed to notice.

She snapped on the gloves and administered something to the nearly unconscious Parker through a syringe, then started an IV.

"Thanks for doing this," he said his dark eyes flitting up to hers breifly, as if he can't quite convince them to stop looking at Parker long enough to make real contact with someone else.

"Parker is…she 's…"

She looked up and, for a moment, the cool businesslike exterior evaporated, revealing something deep and real that flooded her honey eyes with warmth. A small smile kicked up the side of her mouth when she recognized the look on his face, suddenly transforming her from 'just pretty' to 'memorably beautiful' in a matter of moments.

"I know."

TBC - I'm such a review junkie. Please. Enable me.