"Eliot?"

Eliot looked up at the soft voice coming from the other side of the counter. His eyes lowered back to the food he was cutting.

"Yeah, Parker?"

"What should I do on a date?" Parker asked.

"Do I look like a woman? Go ask Sophie."

"I tried, but all she talked about was what I should wear." Parker sighed as she slipped onto a stool. "Please, Eliot? I don't know how much stuff is okay for a first date."

"Parker, I wouldn't even know what to tell you. That's different for every person." Eliot said.

"Please, Eliot? You have a sister right?" Parker asked. "What did you tell her on her first date?"

Eliot halted in his movements as he thought back to his sister's first date. She'd been 14 at the time, just a freshman in high school, and in Eliot's opinion, way too young to date.

Eliot listened to his mother ramble on about how sweet and nice the boy was. Each praise made Eliot's hand clench tighter and tighter.

"When's he spose to get here?" He asked softly when his mother took a breath.

"Oh, any time now." Mrs. Spencer paused and leveled a look at her son. "I know what you're thinking Eliot Spencer and you will not scare that boy or threaten him in anyway, do you hear me?"

Eliot turned innocent eyes towards his mother. "I would never."

"Mmhmm." From the look in Mrs. Spencer's eyes, it was obvious that she didn't believe him.

Eliot rose from his chair. "I'm supposed to clean my gun before I go back to the base, Mama. You mind if I do it in here?"

"That's fine, son. You can use the table."

Eliot went upstairs, grabbing a couple of towels and his gun. Methodically, he placed a towel down on the table, then took apart his gun. It wasn't but a few minutes later that the doorbell rang. He stayed where he was as Mrs. Spencer answered the door. When his mother went upstairs to check on his sister, he continued to clean his gun until the boy spoke to him.

"So, you're Alyssa's brother?"

Eliot looked up long enough to nod. "I am. So, you're Lyssa's date?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah."

As Eliot started to put the gun back together, he spoke slowly. "You remember in health class, when they told you having sex without using some sort of "barrier method" or protection could kill you?"

Blake's face grew red. "Yes, Sir."

Eliot loaded the gun and leveled a fierce gaze on the boy. "I am the barrier and I will kill you."

Without waiting for a reply, he rose from the table and started up the stairs. "I'll go see what's keeping her."

Eliot went to the top of the stairs, stopping in his room for a quick second before knocking on his sisters door. When the door opened, Alyssa was standing in front of the mirror.

"How do I look, El?" Alyssa asked nervously as she twirled for her brother.

"Like the prettiest girl in town." Eliot smiled, leaning against the doorway. "Here, put this in your purse."

Alyssa looked over, saw him holding out out a can of something, and took it. "What is it?"

"Mace." Eliot said. "He does anything at all that makes you uncomfortable or that you don't like, you spray that in his face and you call me. No exceptions."

Alyssa looked at the mace and then up at Eliot. "El, I won't need it. Blake's a..."

"No exceptions." Eliot interrupted. "None."

Alyssa sighed softly and then nodded. "Alright, Eliot. I'll put it in my purse."

Eliot waited exactly 20 minutes before he left his mother's house. He made it a point to be at every location his sister and her date went to, in a place where the boy could see him, but his sister could not. Alyssa never found out.

"ELIOT!"

Eliot broke out of his daze and glared over at Parker. "What, Parker?"

Parker looked at him impatiently. "So will you? Please?"

Eliot stomped over to a cabinet, opened it, and pulled a can of mace out. He tossed it over to her before going back into the kitchen.

"He does anything you don't like or makes you uncomfortable, you spray that in his face and you call me. No exceptions." Eliot growled.

Parker looked at the mace for a full minute before turning furrowed brows at him. "Mace? I don't think..."

"No exceptions, Parker." Eliot interrupted. "None."

Parker looked at him again and then nodded. "Okay."

Parker headed up stairs to get dressed in whatever outfit Sophie had picked out. An hour later, the doorbell rang and her date had arrived.

Tony stood there for a moment before looking into the kitchen and going over to the wall across from it. "So, how do you know Alice? Are you family? Her brother maybe?"

"You could say that." Eliot said quietly.

When it looked like Tony was going to speak again, Eliot beat him to it. "You ever use a knife before, Tony?"

Tony shook his head. "Don't cook much, mostly take out. Looks like you do though."

Eliot nodded and lifted up the knife, holding it as if he was going to cut an onion. "You hold it like this and it cuts through an onion. Learned that from a chef. Now, in the army, they teach you to hold it like this." Eliot shifted the knife into a different position. "That way, you can do this."

Tony barely had a chance to shake his head before a flash of metallic came whirling at his head, just missing him and stabbing into the wall behind him. The color drained from his face as the knife bobbed in the wall. He turned back to Eliot, who stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Do we understand each other, Tony?" Eliot asked.

All Tony could do was nod. Eliot held back a grin as Tony all but dragged Parker out the door after she came down the stairs. A few minutes later, upstairs, Nate heard the door slam. Sophie crossed over to the window where Nate was, leaning into his embrace.

"I'm worried about her, Nate." Sophie said. "Do you think we should go make sure she's okay?"

Nate looked down at the street, watching a red car drive off in the direction of where Parker and her date went. "Oh,I think the parents can stay in tonight. Big brother's on the loose."