Chapter Text
“So, the plan is to wait until the Homecoming Dance. It’s the perfect opportunity to show Moreau up for exactly what he is in front of everybody, including those than can actually do something about him,” Nate explained to his team as they sat gathered in the back room of McRorys.
“If we go announcing all his flaws to a gym full of people...” began Sophie, with concern evident in her eyes.
She didn’t scare easily, but nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of Damien Moreau. If they must show him up for all that he was, surely they must keep their identities a secret.
“It’s cool, Soph, I got it covered,” said Hardison with a grin. “See, we takin’ all the video and the audio from those bugs Parker planted, we do a little mixin’ around, and we pretty much got ourselves a confession tape to show off at Homecoming without anybody knowin’ where it came from.”
“That could work.” Eliot nodded then. “They always put up the big screen, show the football game and all. If we can switch out the game footage with this...”
“I can totally do that,” said Parker with a grin. “Switch a disc for another disc? That’s like taking diamonds from the French National Bank. Y’know, candy from a baby?” she tried instead when everyone looked at her oddly.
“That’s my girl,” said Eliot, pulling her close with an arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple.
Parker resisted the urge to bolt at the contact and instead let herself relax into it a little. She was in control here, she was safe and okay, just like always with her team, with Eliot in particular. He would never harm her, never want her to do anything she wasn’t totally okay with. He hadn’t even made a big deal out of running out on him yesterday when he might’ve kissed her. It was all fine.
“So, just one week to go then,” said Sophie with a smile. “The Homecoming dance is where Moreau meets his match”.
“That’s the plan,” Nate agreed, “but more importantly than that, y’know, the Homecoming Dance is somewhere to enjoy ourselves, now our work is done”.
Parker wasn’t sure she liked how definite that sounded. Their work was done, the con was complete. Once Moreau went down, they would have no need for cons anymore, they’d stop being a team. After Homecoming, maybe they wouldn’t even be friends anymore, maybe Eliot would realise he didn’t really want to date Parker at all. There was a feeling of panic rising in the blonde’s chest as she saw in her minds eye a time when this whole world of high school and fun began to fall apart.
There was a pulling sensation in the very centre of her body and she sat bolt upright in her seat, moving right out of Eliot’s arms then. Her hand went to her chest and Parker felt as if she couldn’t breathe. They were talking to her, the voices of her friends called her name, asked her if she was okay. Four voices became one, repeating her name over and over, and then it twisted again into the shrill beep of a machine. The world faded out, spun on its axis and disappeared. Parker closed her eyes, wished it away, but the moment she looked at the world again she wished she hadn’t.
It was a nightmare, the very same one she had been having on and off since she arrived here, but it had never been this clear. Green-grey walls came into shocking focus, the beeping sound of a heart monitor pulsing from above her head. A hospital. She was in a hospital bed, all alone and cold, and every muscle ached. No, she didn’t want to be in a hospital, with pills and needles and doctors prodding at her, she didn’t want it. She closed her eyes again and wished it away, willed herself to be back where she had been before, with her friends beside her, with Eliot’s arms around her. She literally screamed and then when she opened her eyes again, Parker stopped panicking, allowing everyone else to take over.
“Parker, are you okay?” Eliot asked her as he leaned over her body.
She was lying on the floor, the little thief realised then, with all her friends peering down at her from above. All were standing except for Eliot who was down on his knees at her side, one hand cradling her face as he met her eyes. He was so scared for her, he cared so much. Between that and the fright she had, finding herself in a hospital bed as she had, Parker could have cried, but she didn’t.
“I... I’m fine,” she said shakily, sitting up much faster than Eliot was really happy with.
“What happened, mama?” Hardison asked worriedly. “I mean it was like... man, I don’t even know what it was,” he confessed, visibly shaken by what he had just seen.
“Hey, if you’re going to get up, slowly does it,” Nate advised, reaching for the side Eliot wasn’t already holding and easing Parker back up onto her feet.
They deposited her in the chair she had tumbled from moments before, and Parker looked at each of them with wide eyes. She swallowed hard, tried to regain focus. That had been such a strange few moments, and honestly, she didn’t want to think about what it might all mean. Right now, she just wanted everyone to stop staring at her like a bug under a microscope. Yeah, that would be a really good start.
“Honestly, I’m fine now.” She forced a smile at them all, as each of her friends re-took their seats and let out a sigh of relief that whatever had happened was now over. “I just... I dunno, I felt weird, but it’s nothing to worry about,” she promised them.
After a few moments, they seemed to accept what she told them and move the conversation on. Parker joined in as best she could, smiled and laughed so nobody would worry, but the truth of it was she was more panicked by what had happened than anyone else. She got the distinct feeling she knew just exactly where she had gone and why, and it freaked her out more than she’d like.
“Oh, sweetie, I wish you would just wake up already!” said Sophie frustratedly, pulling Parker’s hand up into her own. “Come on! We can’t go on like this. Nobody is right since this happened, none of us know how to cope as a foursome when we should be five. It’s like a missing cog or... oh, I don’t know,” she said with a shake of her head. “I only know we need you, and... and y’know Eliot and Nate aren’t the only ones feeling guilty here,” she admitted.
It was true enough. Sophie could not blame herself for Parker’s condition, she really hadn’t played any part in it, even less than the boys who seemed to feel so terribly bad about what had happened, as if they were the ones that made Parker’s car crash that day. Sophie’s real problem was that she felt in some strange way that she was being punished for walking out on these people last year, for walking out on Parker just when she was getting used to having another woman in her life that cared.
Nate joked that Sophie was mother to all the others, she always countered that she was older sister only, and not advanced enough in years to be anything else. Either way, she was aware of how Parker turned to her in a moments crisis over grifting or trouble with the men in their lives. There was a certain amount of dependence and trust. Sophie broke that trust when she walked away, and only realised how much damage she could potentially have caused when she returned and Parker broke one of her own golden rules, hugging her good friend Sophie as if the world would end if she let go. It touched the grifter more than she could ever express, but she still had not considered how her team might really have missed her. At least they had the comfort of knowing she was safe and well, that she had left of her own accord. Poor Parker was lost to the team and could yet be lost forever. It was almost too painful to even think about, but Sophie was now understanding what it was to have one of four solid supports torn out from under her. She was spiralling downwards, unable to find her balance, sure she never could until the little blonde thief was back with them.
“Parker, please,” she begged her, tears in her eyes and a wobble in her voice that could not be helped. “We miss you so much. If you can hear me at all, please, please give me a sign. A blink, a wiggle of your fingers, anything.”
The young woman in the bed remained silent and still, and Sophie didn’t know whether she would rather cry or scream. She was stopped from doing either as the door opening startled her and the sight of Nate made her want to sob all the more.
“I, er... I couldn’t wait in the car anymore.” He shook his head as he moved around the bed too slowly and came to stand behind Sophie’s chair, placing a careful hand on her shoulder. “How’s she doing?” he asked.
“The same,” Sophie replied sadly, keeping one hand on Parker’s as the other came up to cover Nate’s own at her shoulder. “Thank you for coming in.”
Nate just nodded when she glanced up at him, unable to speak right now. A couple of times he had driven Sophie or Hardison into the hospital but stayed in the parking lot himself. More times than that he had brought just himself here, with plans to make a visit on his own. He hardly ever got as far as this room, fear and pain sending him scurrying back to the bottle he knew so well, that would bring little comfort but all the darkness of oblivion if he could just drink enough - he never could.
“Six weeks,” he said too softly.
“I know,” Sophie sniffed, fighting so hard to be strong.
In so many ways this was their little girl lying here, wasting away. Every week, every day that passed, there was less chance of Parker coming back from the brink. Even if she made it out of the dark and returned to her team, her family, they all knew the likelihood of her mind being intact grew smaller with each passing day.
The door opened again after a moment, and in came Hardison and Eliot, bickering like they so often did. They stopped mid-sentence, Eliot in the middle of his usual ‘Damnit Hardison’ apparently, as they realised they were not the only ones here. This was not at all pre-planned, the boys clearly hadn’t even meant to show up together, and certainly hadn’t banked on finding Nate and Sophie there.
“We shouldn’t all be here together... two at a time rule,” muttered the mastermind as he went for the door.
Eliot stepped in his way.
“How often are you here?” he asked, no accusation in his tone, just genuine curiosity.
“Well, er, actually in the room? Not much because... well, I don’t always make it,” he admitted, shuffling his feet and glancing once or twice at Parker lying still on the bed as ever. “Sometimes I just, I sit in the car and I think about her in here. I can’t... I just feel better being closer sometimes.”
“I always think it’ll feel better to be here, holding her hand, feeling useful,” Sophie piped up then. “Then I’m here and... and I never felt more useless.”
She was so close to tears, Hardison reached out to put an arm around her shoulders on instinct and pull her closer.
“Preaching to the choir, mama,” he told her easily, looking down at Parker with sad eyes.
“Yeah.” Eliot nodded, looking from Parker to the pointless ‘Get Well Soon’ teddy bear in his hands.
Not being able to help her was killing him, and any small way they tried to make this better, they all knew it was never going to work in reality. They could do so many things, right so many wrongs, but in this situation, none of their skills could save the day. They were not doctors, and even medical experts could not help Parker until she could help herself. Her eyes had to open, there had to be a change. Until then, it was purely a waiting game.
“Did anyone talk to a doctor today? asked Hardison then. “Ask if there’s been any progress?”
“Pretty sure there hasn’t,” said Eliot, reaching for the clipboard on the end of Parker’s bed and flipping through the charts.
“Yeah, well, no disrespect, man, but you ain’t a doctor,” the hacker pointed out, going straight for the door to find said medical professional.
Nate took the opportunity to leave too, and Sophie wasn’t far behind. Being here was just too painful right now. At least if they found a doctor there was a chance of good news. A slim chance, but a chance none the less.
Eliot was the last to leave. Silently, he walked up to the head of the bed and tucked the tiny bear into Parker’s side, letting her arm keep it there. Leaning over, he dropped a kiss on her forehead and then followed his team.
Barely a minute after her room had emptied out, Parker’s body spasmed and her eyes shot open. No sooner had the machines wired to the young woman considered reacting than she was gone again, as still as ever she had been, as if nothing had happened at all.
“And I don’t exactly want to go back there. I mean, what if I can wake up but that’s all I can do? It felt weird there, like my body didn’t even want to move. That’s pretty scary, but then if I stay here, does that mean I die in the other place?”
Parker stared down at the stuffed bunny she was hugging in her lap, as if waiting for him to answer her, something he was never going to do, of course. She had friends and family here, more than she ever thought possible, but in this case they were of no use to her. If she tried to tell them she had come from another world, they would think she was more than crazy, they’d call her certifiable and want to lock her away! No, she had to deal with this alone, she realised, all alone except for Bunny, who had always been there for her. If only he could give her the advice she really needed. Instead, their conversation was entirely one-sided as she pulled her legs up under her on her teenage-self’s bed and sighed.
“If I stay here, well, it’s not going to be the same. I mean, right now we’re pulling a con on Damien Moreau, and that’s great, but when it’s done... well, I’m not even sure if the team will still hang out together. I’ll have Eliot, I like that. I kinda wish he liked me that way in the other place. He might, I don’t know, I never asked. He doesn’t really seem to have a type of girl he likes best, except they’re usually thin, and pretty, and bendy... Hmm, maybe I am his type.”
Shifting to flop down on her stomach, Parker propped her chin on one hand and gave Bunny a contemplative look, adjusting one ear on the toy rabbit that flopped at a strange angle compared to the other.
“So, if Eliot likes me in that world the same way he does here, and the team will stick together there when they won’t here, and high school can’t last forever anywhere... I guess I should go back,” she considered carefully.
“Plus, if staying here means I die there, then there is no choice anymore, not ever. I don’t know if I can really give up the world I knew so long forever, Bunny, no matter how much fun high school is.”
The cell phone in Parker’s back pocket vibrated then, taking her attention, and she shifted to sit up, taking her cell out to see who had messaged her. She smiled when she saw it was Sophie and hit the button to read the text.
“She wants me to go dress shopping for Homecoming,” Parker told Bunny. “That’s nice, I guess, that she would think of me, but yuck! I hate shopping!” she declared, texting back just exactly those words, however thoughtless they might seem - Sophie would understood, she always did.
Parker got to thinking then, now about how much she disliked shopping, but about how much she loved the idea of going to Homecoming. It was similar to Prom, and there was no way she could stay here until May for that. It was just six days until the Homecoming Dance, she was sure she could fight the sensation of being dragged back to ‘reality’ until then.
Weighing it up in her mind, Parker had soon quite decided she simply had to stay until after the dance, then the next time she got one of those weird dreams or funny seizures that sent her back to a hospital bed, she wouldn’t fight it.
Going back wouldn’t be easy, she would probably find herself in no fit state for any kind of fun for a while, but her friends would be there, they would take care of her. They were getting pretty good at looking out for each other lately, and besides, all those sad faces and tears she had seen, Parker realised now how much her friends must be worried about her.
“It’ll just be for another week, Bunny,” she told him then, stuffing her cell back in her pocket. “Which means I will need something to wear for Homecoming, I guess,” she sighed, looking towards her closet, already knowing nothing suitable existed inside.
“Ooh, I have the perfect idea!” she said then with a grin, pulling Bunny close to whisper her plan under one of his floppy long ears.