A/N: So we're here with the Epilogue to the little series of snapshots :) Also... okay, I admit it, I'd planned to take another song for this ("Tonight" by Reamonn, if anyone was interested) but then I came across that nice little Eliot/Parker fanvid (what? Now and then I really like those) on YouTube and I just... um... had to use it. Yeah. Also, I probably found a way to make it possible for mac to watch Leverage after all! Yay!

PS.: I Have another piece that's more or less summing up the Fragments from Parker's POV. I'm not quite sure if I'll publish within this story or on its own, so be on the look out for it :)

You Amaze Me

"So if you're crazy I don't care you amaze me
Oh you're a stupid girl, oh me, oh my, you talk
I die, you smile, you laugh, I cry
And only a girl like you could be lonely
And it's a crying shame, if you would think the same
A boy like me's just irresistible."

The Fratellis, "Whistle For The Choir"

It still amazes him. It's been three months now since they started this – whatever this is – and the world still hasn't come to an end. Of course Hardison had not exactly taken it lightly when it somehow had gotten out that Parker and he weren't only teammates anymore but after some sulking and a rather violent outbreak – he'd really held back and Hardison probably knew that but since he seemed to feel better after planting his fist in his face he figured it had been the right thing to do – things have evened out.

Despite Nate's and Sophie's – and his own, mind you – concerns they can still work together, be professional, keep private what should be kept private… well, mostly. Now and then it's just too tempting to grab her for a quick kiss in an elevator or just before she's about to throw herself off a rooftop – only when they're alone, of course. Okay and it's just impossible to resist Parker when she thinks that a short stop to catch your breath when being pursued by the cops or a mob of goons is just the right moment for shoving him into the nearest wall and get her share of adrenalin filled kisses.

But the best moments… the best moments are moments like now, deep in the night when it's just them. As far as he can tell, Parker's deeply asleep after an eventful day and an evening that had been just as eventful… only with different events. Unlike him, she's usually asleep after just a few minutes and wakes up only rarely during the night. It still bewilders him because despite her not talking about it he knows she must have been through hell for the greater part of her childhood… maybe even of her life. But maybe her mind just deals differently with it and spares her the nightmares one would expect.

At least he hopes so, being on pretty intimate terms with nightmares himself. He hadn't been exactly lying when he'd told Sophie he only sleeps 90 minutes a day… he just never told her it's not intentionally for the most part. Or rather not intentionally to save time as he'd made her believe. It's more like it's his way of dealing with what years of liberating Croatia, doing classified stuff in Pakistan and generally putting your life on the line for people who were too lazy or too much of a coward to do it themselves do to the mind.

But when Parker's lying beside him, he doesn't feel the need to fill the time that he's awake with busying himself. He can just lie here, listen to her deep regular breathing, feel her warmth beside him, smell her unique scent that's somewhere between soapy clean and a darker note… and everything's alright.

To be honest, it's a little embarrassing. Since he acknowledged that he just isn't made for a life behind picket fences and left his old existence behind for a life of shadows, danger and violence, he'd prided himself in being independent, in not needing anyone beside himself. He'd graciously taken the opportunities of physical action with women life had thrown in his way but he'd been careful not to form attachments.

That had worked just fine… until Viktor Dubenich had walked in and he'd signed up for working on a team with the world's most insane thief and a hacker that seemed to have an uncanny knack for being able to memorize practically every bit of pop culture ever produced… and then had decided to double cross them all. If he hadn't done that and hadn't Nate offered them a chance at revenge, he'd have walked back into the shady demimonde he'd lived in before and never even looked back.

But he didn't and now he has Parker and everything is different. They still haven't talked about it but he has the feeling they don't need to. Parker would probably just be confused about it anyway because he just has the feeling that she may have learned how to pick a lock in under ten seconds all by herself but that 'talking' had never been on her curriculum. And he's fine with that. He never was a great talker and as long as she's just there and accepts him with her, things are right.

She… "You gonna stop that brooding thing anytime soon?" What… hey, she was supposed to be asleep. Why is she suddenly… "Because if you don't, I'm gonna hurt you." Right. As if she could, half asleep as she is. But… okay, right now, she's deadly adorable. Half turned around, the eyes barely open, a little pout on her face and the blonde hair a mess… he can't help but get up on his elbow and put a kiss first to her shoulder then to the crook of her neck.

It elicits a content little sigh from her that makes him all warm inside and he puts an arm around her waist. Settling in with his chest to her back it occurs to him that she could be right and that he should probably start to let go a little of the whole 90 minutes a day sleep thing. He is awfully tired all of a sudden and isn't not allowing yourself to sleep, because things you never wanted to see again could resurface the same thing as running away from them?

So since he's not a coward… he might as well do what everything inside of him is begging him to do. Closing the last inches of free space between them, he closes his eyes and finally just lets go… and that feels so good.