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katleeptTitle: "Parker's Christmas Miracle in the Snow"
Author: Pirate Turner
Dedicated To: My beloved, wondrous, and always inspirational and amazing Jack, and our darling babies -- Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice, my loves!!!!! This is the ninth story in my 12 Days of Solstice/Christmas for my beloved Jack and our darling babies of the year 2011.
Rating: PG
Summary:
Warnings: None
Date Written: 12 December, 2011
Word Count (excluding heading): 4,020
Disclaimer: Parker, Alec Hardison, Elliot, Sophie, Nate, and Leverage are © & TM their rightful owners, none of whom are the author, and are used without permission. Everything else except public domain characters belongs to the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Parker grew quiet as her friends celebrated their successful mission all around her. Elliot and Alec were busily high fiving while Sophie and Nate walked behind them at a distant pace and chattered back and forth in whispers. Parker could have listened in on their conversation if she'd wanted to, but she had no desire to know about what they were whispering. She was looking for something else tonight, and she had just found it!
She raced forward in the cold, North winds whipping around them and howling icily, her head tilted back so that the weather could caress her pale features. Snow drifted down onto her lovely face, covering her in a light, white layer, and her smile grew. She could still hear her friends muttering behind her as she stood still except for her tongue which reached up to taste the Wintry goodness.
They were annoyed by her behavior, but she didn't care. She had never cared who she annoyed since learning, as a young child, that all you had to do to annoy some people was to breathe. They were her friends, however, something she'd never had as a child or an adult, really, until she'd met them, and they would learn to like whatever it was she was now doing to annoy them. Besides, it was Christmas, and if they couldn't get into the Christmas spirit, especially now that, at long last, the snow was beginning to fall, that was their sad problem.
Memories fluttered through Parker's mind with the speed, delicacy, and uncertainty of a butterfly's flapping wings. She grasped at those memories that were good and shut away the bad ones, and then she remembered where she was at. Her smile at the knowledge was as big and joyous as any child's on Christmas Eve, and she turned swiftly to look at the street signs.
Her friends had all come to a stop behind her and were watching her carefully, but Parker didn't care. She also didn't hear them calling to her as she took stock of exactly where she was at in this city to which she had not returned in far too long a time. "What's she doing?" Elliot muttered.
"I don't know," Alec said with a deep, puzzled frown and a shake of his head.
"Parker?" Sophie called and then looked to Nate with growing puzzlement as he placed a hand on the crook of her elbow to still her. "Nate, I -- "
"Hush," he whispered. He'd seen the look on Parker's face before on another much smaller, younger, and boyish face, and he knew what it meant. She was reveling in the magic of the holiday, and despite his usual Scrooge crabbiness, Nate wanted to let Parker have her moment. Most of their worlds had become too dark for them to be able to enjoy Christmas or any of the other holidays the way they were really intended to be celebrated, but despite all that Parker had been through, somehow she still maintained the innocence of a child.
It might be annoying. It might aggravate the living Hell out of him more often than he currently cared to remember. But Nate wouldn't strip that innocence away from her. He'd seen the same delight that was shining on her reflected before on his own child's face, and he remembered those Christmases now as the cold winds whipped around them and Parker spun, face shining brightly and happily, in the cascading snow. Then he started to remember the Christmases that had followed, and his grip unconsciously tightened on Sophie's arm.
She saw the pain flashing in his dark eyes and understood immediately. "Nate," she whispered so softly that only he could hear her -- not that the others were listening any way for Alec and Elliot were too busy arguing over rather or not they should interrupt Parker and demand an explanation and Parker herself, for the time being, was completely lost to them and the mundane and depressing reality in which they were forced to live. "It's okay, Nate. I'm here."
Her voice choked, and she fought down the tears rising in her eyes as she saw the eyes of the man she'd come to love over the years despite all her protections and protests beginning to shimmer with a wetness he'd not allow to fall. She knew what she was offering him was very little, especially in comparison with that that he'd lost, but it was all she could tell him, all she had of any true worth to offer him, as the pains of the past stung again.
He blinked, and she watched his denied emotions flashing in his eyes as he struggled to return to his normally and very carefully controlled mask. "Sorry," he muttered and looked away from her into the swirling darkness of the growing night. "My mind was somewhere else."
"I know," she said and patted his arm. "It's okay." She kissed his cheek, and he looked at her in surprise.
Yet, before either could say anything more, Parker started running. "WHAT THE -- ?!" Alec demanded. "HEY, GIRL, COME BACK HERE!"
"PARKER," Elliot demanded, "WHERE'RE YOU GOING?"
She didn't answer them, however. She didn't even look back at them; it was as though she didn't even hear them shouting at her. She just kept running through the snow, her wide and bright smile still firmly in place. "Follow her," Nate commanded though it was unnecessary. There was nothing else any one in the crew had any intention of doing until they knew what was happening with their favorite thief.
She led them to a park, and the others stood back in the trees, whose bare arms were busily being filled with the falling snow, as they watched her spin around and around in the middle of the park. Her arms were outstretched. Her head tilted back, and her tongue once more lapping up snowflakes. She was completely at peace, and yet what she was doing now could have been just as easily continued where they had been at before. "What on Earth is she doing?" Sophie murmured.
"I dunno," Elliot answered, "but I aim to find out."
"Let me go," Alec volunteered and ignored Nate's calls to bring him back as he started forward.
Elliot and Sophie looked at Nate. "We shouldn't interfere," he muttered, "not yet. We don't want to take this from her."
"Aw," Sophie remarked, and Nate flashed daggers at her even as she patted his hand.
Elliot looked back thoughtfully through the hanging branches of the dried willow he stood behind as Alec approached Parker. He hoped the geek could handle the situation with the gentility it needed but waited expectantly for him to mess up everything.
"Parker," Alec called, "girl, why'd you take off like that?" She ignored him at first until he stepped directly up behind her. "Parker?"
She still didn't open her eyes, but she turned toward him at last, still keeping her head tilted back so that the snowflakes and the cold winds that accompanied them could caress her skin and still tasting the freshly falling snow on her tongue. Alec's breath hitched in her throat. Parker was a very beautiful woman, but she was never more lovely than when she was lost in a moment of innocence as she was now. He still had to know why she'd taken off the way she had but decided to try a different tactic. "Why do you like the snow so much?"
"It's snow!" Parker exclaimed as though it was obvious. She finally lowered her head and shot him a look. "Who doesn't want a white Christmas?"
Alec shivered. He pulled his cotton cap further down over his black ears. "Some of us wouldn't mind taking a vacation in Florida this time of year for a change."
Clearly thinking he was joking, she laughed and shoved his shoulder. Her shove was intended to be playful, but the force she unwittingly put into it almost knocked him over. Alec noticed her eyes shifting as though she was remembering something, and then Parker started turning around again. This time, however, she didn't raise her face to the dark sky; instead, she swept their perimeter with the intent, sharp, and calculating gaze of the thief she was. He followed her and then did a double take as, on her second sweep of their perimeter, they both spotted a gift wrapped in red paper and a big, green bow that hadn't been there before.
If Parker's grin had been big before, it was now so huge that it was a wonder it didn't break her face. She raced over to the bench, grabbed the present, and flopped down onto the snow-covered bench. Alec followed, his own, chocolate eyes growing large and doubt, hesitation, and worry filling his face. "Parker, it might not be such a good idea to open that, girl. It wan't there a minute ago."
"Sure it was."
"No, it wasn't."
"Okay, so maybe it wasn't, but it's safe." Despite his warning and the strange appearance of the gift, she was already tearing into the present. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears as strange sensations swept through her. Part of her wanted to scream her delight while another part thought of singing her happiness and still another part, a part she fought daily to keep shut away from the entire world, battled tears of relief. It had been here! After all these years, she had still had a present waiting just for her!
She squealed in surprised delight as a floppy, pink bunny with big ears poked out of the paper. She ripped off the rest of the paper in a flurry and stared down in surprise at what the stuffed bunny held. It was one of those stuffed animals that come holding a photo frame, and in that silverish frame was a picture of none other than Parker and the rest of her team, all smiling happily.
"Shit!" Alec exclaimed before he could stop himself. He looked back over his shoulder at the rest of the gang. "Did any of you do this?" They quickly shook their heads and waved him away, and he looked back at Parker. "You realize what this means, don't ya, girl? Some one's been watching us! If you have any idea who left this present for ya, you need to tell me right now! There's no telling what they're planning on doing!"
Parker just shook her head at his fears and sharp exclamations. "It's okay, Hardison."
"Girl, it's not okay! Somebody's been watching us!"
She smiled secretly. "He always does, always has been. He watches everybody."
"And I suppose now you're gonna tell us he knows rather we've been naughty or nice," Elliot muttered.
"Sh!" Sophie hushed him.
"Parker, who is he?" Alec questioned.
She blinked in surprise as she finally looked up at him. "Santa Claus, of course! Duh!"
Alec looked doubtfully at her. "Santa Claus?"
She shook her head. "I knew you wouldn't understand!" Her long, blonde hair shimmered against her black-clothed back as she kept shaking her head. "None of you believe in him, but he believes in you!"
"Parker," Alec said, grasping her hand in his and holding it tightly before she could pull the rest of the way away from him, "you're right." She looked sharply up into his eyes, and he returned her protesting, fierce gaze with a calm, patient, and reassuring look of his own shining out of his deep, dark orbs. "I don't believe in Santa."
"Hardison!" Elliot growled and started forward.
"Alec!" Sophie complained and started to follow herself until Nate pulled her back into the bushes.
Alec continued gazing steadily up into Parker's eyes. "Help me believe. Tell me why you believe in him, and maybe it'll help me understand that he is real."
Elliot paused; the snow fell silent beneath the hitter's boots. Maybe Hardison was using more smarts than for which he normally gave him credit. The hacker was a genius when it came to technology but could be a complete idiot when it came to showing care for others.
"You won't understand," she said, shaking her head and looking away again. She gazed at the picture she held in her hands and the smiling faces of her only friends reflected therein.
Alec cupped her chin and lifted and turned her head so that his eyes again met hers. "Tell me," he whispered, "please? Help me to understand."
"You won't do it."
"Try me."
She sighed deeply and then began reluctantly to tell her Christmas tale. "This is one of the places I liked to come to when I was a kid. We never had any real Christmases in the homes. We were lucky if we had enough food to go around, but I liked the snow. It's pretty, and I liked to play in it. I came to the park to enjoy it, because the park was usually quiet and I could be alone here. One Christmas when I came," she shook her head, remembering and relating her tale slowly, "I wasn't alone. There was an old couple sitting on this bench."
"I almost turned around and left, but the woman called to me. She called me by name. Even most of the people at the home didn't know my name, so that made me curious. I came closer, and we started to talk. It was snowing hard that night, and the woman asked me if I was cold. She had a blanket wrapped around herself and her husband. I shrugged off the weather, told her it was a little cold, but I could take it."
Parker's eyes began misting. "It's not like I had much of a choice, but I didn't tell her that. They seemed like sweet people, and I felt sorry for them, couldn't imagine why they were in that park all alone on Christmas Eve. It's not like they were like me. They weren't orphans."
Alec wrapped an arm around her and gave her a slight hug. He would have liked to hug her more tightly and reassuringly, but he didn't dare lest it startle her so greatly that she stopped opening up to him. She looked at him in surprise; he tried to assure her with his grin. "Go on," he urged quietly.
She looked away from him, and her vision grew distant as though she could actually see herself as a child looking at those old people. "I asked her if she was cold. She laughed; her husband coughed but smiled. He had the sweetest, most innocent, and charming smile." She shook her blonde head slowly. "And his cheeks were rosy. I thought at the time that his face was red like that because he was sick, but it was more than that. They were red because of who he was, who he is."
Alec's eyebrows rose slightly, but he didn't say anything. He wouldn't take her fantasy away from her, even if there was no way Santa Claus was real. He had done the calculations. It was simply impossible for any man to get around the entire world in a single night, let alone to leave presents for every child, and there were children, like Parker, who'd never gotten anything for Christmas. Santa Claus didn't exist. But Parker believed and she was opening up to him, and that was a Christmas miracle in and of itself. He hugged her closer, rubbed his hands up and down against her arms, and listened to her tell her tale.
"She told me she liked the snow. I asked her why." She blinked, remembering. "She said it was because there should always be snow on Christmas. It was part of the magic of the holiday. She asked me what I was hoping to get from Santa Claus. I told her Santa Claus didn't care about me. I started to turn away when the old man looked at me. I knew he wasn't feeling good, because he was sitting, huddled in his wife's arms. I knew they were going to try to feed me a bunch of lies about how people cared and magick really existed, but I turned back any way."
She shrugged her lithe shoulders slightly and spoke in way of explanation, "I felt sorry for him. He coughed and complained, said it wasn't true. I told them it was. Nobody had ever given me anything before for Christmas, not Santa Claus or any one else."
She remembered the hurt that had flashed in both of the old people's eyes and round faces. "The man started coughing really badly. I thought he was going to hack up a lung. The woman tried to convince me that Santa was real, that he was everywhere. I told her I knew for sure he wasn't at my home or what passed for my home."
Alec squeezed her hand tenderly. He sensed Parker was fighting back tears and knew it was hard for her to open up to him as she was now doing. He also knew that he was incredibly lucky that she was, that she actually trusted and cared for him enough to tell him this bit about her past.
"The old woman was persistent, but every time she offered up a reason for Santa to exist, I shot her back down. The Santas in the stores taking pictures with the rich kids and the Santas standing on the street corners who were supposed to be collecting money for the rest of us -- money and presents that we never saw -- weren't the real deal. They were all fakes, and if the real one did exist, I'd definitely never seen him."
"The woman told me that all those fake Santas were Santa's helpers and that, eventually, one day, something would happen to the real Santa -- he'd get sick or something and have to stop doing it -- and one of those helpers would step in to help and take over the reindeers' reigns. I knew she was lying," Parker's face screwed up as she admitted, "or, at least, I thought she was and told her so. If Santa did exist, he didn't care about all the children of the world like he was supposed to, just the rich ones, the ones who already had mommys and daddys. He'd never came to me, never came to our home. He didn't care about me."
She blinked back tears, and Alec pulled her into a hug as she trembled not from the cold but rather from the pain of her past and the sad tale she had to tell. "The old man had been silent up until then except for coughing. He had a really bad cough, and I thought he might be dying. When I said Santa didn't care about me, he looked up at me and . . . and . . . " Her voice trembled. "He said he was sorry." She squeezed Alec's hand and the bunny she now held so tightly that Alec thought his bones might well break from her crushing hold. Still she fought down the tears threatening to well in her eyes.
"He said he was sorry," she gasped, "that he'd tried to get to me, and tonight was his last chance. He gave me my first real present that night; he gave me Bunny! Not this Bunny, but my other Bunny, my first Bunny, the one sitting back home. He's gotta be wondering where I am by now, what with it being Christmas and all." Her voice trembled as she tried to distract herself with thinking about Bunny rather than what had happened next.
Alec held her as a few tears broke free of her restraint and slipped down her face. "So you think he was Santa Claus?" Her story was a sad one, but he still wasn't convinced. All of his research over the years had told him Santa didn't really exist; there was just no way he could be real.
Elliot growled and slapped the back of Hardison's head from where he'd came up to stand silently behind their bench. "I knew you wouldn't believe me!" Parker exclaimed and snatched away from Alec. Her tears froze in her eyes as they flushed with anger instead of sorrow and fond remembrance. She jumped to her booted feet in the snow. "I never should have told you!"
"I'm sorry, girl, it's just -- " Alec tried to mutter an explanation that could ease her fury while rubbing his head where Elliot had hit him, " -- that's a mighty big story to swallow."
Her glare cut straight through him. "IT'S NOT A STORY!" she yelled, holding her new Bunny close to her heart. "IT'S THE TRUTH!"
"Parker," Sophie spoke cajolingly as she came forward, pulling Nate along with her, "it's okay. I'm sorry Alec doesn't believe you," she offered, glaring at the hacker before returning a soft and understanding gaze to Parker, "but we do."
"We do?" Elliot muttered, his eyebrows arching.
"Yeah," Nate spoke quickly, rubbing his gloved hands together and blowing out air that showed in the cold, dark night and circled upwards. "We do." He smiled reassuringly at Parker.
"Really?" she asked doubtfully.
"'Course we do," Elliot agreed, catching on. If they didn't believe her in this, Parker might never open up again. He smiled at her. "You're one of the lucky ones," he told her. "You actually got to meet the real Santa Claus."
"I did," Parker admitted, a gradual smile slowly lifting her face again. She beamed at her gathered friends.
Alec started to say something, but Elliot hit him again before he could speak. "Hey!" he protested.
"Shut it," Elliot growled out of the corner of his mouth while flashing a smile at Parker.
"So what happened to them?" Sophie asked. "Did they tell you about their adventures?"
"No," Parker spoke disappointingly, her face falling again. "They started to, but a pig came by at that time."
"A pig?" Alec started but shut up again as Elliot once more balled his hand into a fist and prepared to hit him.
"A cop," Parker clarified. "I looked up when he shone his light over the park, and when I looked back, they were gone. I came back the next year, hoping they might be here," she shook her head, "but they weren't. They did leave me a present, though, and the year after that and the year after that . . . "
"So every year they leave you a present on this park bench?" Sophie asked.
Parker's face fell. "I don't know," she said honestly. "They did until I went to juvvie. When I broke out," she shook her head, "Christmas was over, and this is the first year I've made it back here since then."
"HO! HO! HO!"
All the team looked up at the joyous shout. They watched in collective and silent awe as a sleigh lifted into the air, high above the trees, and reindeer pulled the red sleigh up into the night. "SANTA!" Parker exclaimed happily. Jumping onto the bench, she waved like mad at the famous man in the beard and red suit who waved back at her. "See?" she demanded, glancing down at Alec. "I told you he existed!" Then her gaze went immediately back to Santa, and she kept waving, grinning, and watching him until he slowly began to disappear into the distance.
Alec opened his mouth, and Elliot hit him again. He wouldn't take the chance that the computer geek could come up with all kinds of explanations as to how the Santa they'd just witnessed could be a hologram or something, anything else, other than the real, jolly, and ancient Elf himself. "Merry Christmas, Parker."
"Merry Christmas, every one!" Parker exclaimed and then jumped down to stand with her friends. Even Alec was standing now and was preparing to try to give Elliot back some of his own medicine, but she stopped him unwittingly as she wrapped her arms around him and the others. "Merry Christmas to all," she recited, hugging her friends, and family, tightly, "and, to all, a good night!"
The End
Author: Pirate Turner
Dedicated To: My beloved, wondrous, and always inspirational and amazing Jack, and our darling babies -- Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice, my loves!!!!! This is the ninth story in my 12 Days of Solstice/Christmas for my beloved Jack and our darling babies of the year 2011.
Rating: PG
Summary:
Warnings: None
Date Written: 12 December, 2011
Word Count (excluding heading): 4,020
Disclaimer: Parker, Alec Hardison, Elliot, Sophie, Nate, and Leverage are © & TM their rightful owners, none of whom are the author, and are used without permission. Everything else except public domain characters belongs to the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Parker grew quiet as her friends celebrated their successful mission all around her. Elliot and Alec were busily high fiving while Sophie and Nate walked behind them at a distant pace and chattered back and forth in whispers. Parker could have listened in on their conversation if she'd wanted to, but she had no desire to know about what they were whispering. She was looking for something else tonight, and she had just found it!
She raced forward in the cold, North winds whipping around them and howling icily, her head tilted back so that the weather could caress her pale features. Snow drifted down onto her lovely face, covering her in a light, white layer, and her smile grew. She could still hear her friends muttering behind her as she stood still except for her tongue which reached up to taste the Wintry goodness.
They were annoyed by her behavior, but she didn't care. She had never cared who she annoyed since learning, as a young child, that all you had to do to annoy some people was to breathe. They were her friends, however, something she'd never had as a child or an adult, really, until she'd met them, and they would learn to like whatever it was she was now doing to annoy them. Besides, it was Christmas, and if they couldn't get into the Christmas spirit, especially now that, at long last, the snow was beginning to fall, that was their sad problem.
Memories fluttered through Parker's mind with the speed, delicacy, and uncertainty of a butterfly's flapping wings. She grasped at those memories that were good and shut away the bad ones, and then she remembered where she was at. Her smile at the knowledge was as big and joyous as any child's on Christmas Eve, and she turned swiftly to look at the street signs.
Her friends had all come to a stop behind her and were watching her carefully, but Parker didn't care. She also didn't hear them calling to her as she took stock of exactly where she was at in this city to which she had not returned in far too long a time. "What's she doing?" Elliot muttered.
"I don't know," Alec said with a deep, puzzled frown and a shake of his head.
"Parker?" Sophie called and then looked to Nate with growing puzzlement as he placed a hand on the crook of her elbow to still her. "Nate, I -- "
"Hush," he whispered. He'd seen the look on Parker's face before on another much smaller, younger, and boyish face, and he knew what it meant. She was reveling in the magic of the holiday, and despite his usual Scrooge crabbiness, Nate wanted to let Parker have her moment. Most of their worlds had become too dark for them to be able to enjoy Christmas or any of the other holidays the way they were really intended to be celebrated, but despite all that Parker had been through, somehow she still maintained the innocence of a child.
It might be annoying. It might aggravate the living Hell out of him more often than he currently cared to remember. But Nate wouldn't strip that innocence away from her. He'd seen the same delight that was shining on her reflected before on his own child's face, and he remembered those Christmases now as the cold winds whipped around them and Parker spun, face shining brightly and happily, in the cascading snow. Then he started to remember the Christmases that had followed, and his grip unconsciously tightened on Sophie's arm.
She saw the pain flashing in his dark eyes and understood immediately. "Nate," she whispered so softly that only he could hear her -- not that the others were listening any way for Alec and Elliot were too busy arguing over rather or not they should interrupt Parker and demand an explanation and Parker herself, for the time being, was completely lost to them and the mundane and depressing reality in which they were forced to live. "It's okay, Nate. I'm here."
Her voice choked, and she fought down the tears rising in her eyes as she saw the eyes of the man she'd come to love over the years despite all her protections and protests beginning to shimmer with a wetness he'd not allow to fall. She knew what she was offering him was very little, especially in comparison with that that he'd lost, but it was all she could tell him, all she had of any true worth to offer him, as the pains of the past stung again.
He blinked, and she watched his denied emotions flashing in his eyes as he struggled to return to his normally and very carefully controlled mask. "Sorry," he muttered and looked away from her into the swirling darkness of the growing night. "My mind was somewhere else."
"I know," she said and patted his arm. "It's okay." She kissed his cheek, and he looked at her in surprise.
Yet, before either could say anything more, Parker started running. "WHAT THE -- ?!" Alec demanded. "HEY, GIRL, COME BACK HERE!"
"PARKER," Elliot demanded, "WHERE'RE YOU GOING?"
She didn't answer them, however. She didn't even look back at them; it was as though she didn't even hear them shouting at her. She just kept running through the snow, her wide and bright smile still firmly in place. "Follow her," Nate commanded though it was unnecessary. There was nothing else any one in the crew had any intention of doing until they knew what was happening with their favorite thief.
She led them to a park, and the others stood back in the trees, whose bare arms were busily being filled with the falling snow, as they watched her spin around and around in the middle of the park. Her arms were outstretched. Her head tilted back, and her tongue once more lapping up snowflakes. She was completely at peace, and yet what she was doing now could have been just as easily continued where they had been at before. "What on Earth is she doing?" Sophie murmured.
"I dunno," Elliot answered, "but I aim to find out."
"Let me go," Alec volunteered and ignored Nate's calls to bring him back as he started forward.
Elliot and Sophie looked at Nate. "We shouldn't interfere," he muttered, "not yet. We don't want to take this from her."
"Aw," Sophie remarked, and Nate flashed daggers at her even as she patted his hand.
Elliot looked back thoughtfully through the hanging branches of the dried willow he stood behind as Alec approached Parker. He hoped the geek could handle the situation with the gentility it needed but waited expectantly for him to mess up everything.
"Parker," Alec called, "girl, why'd you take off like that?" She ignored him at first until he stepped directly up behind her. "Parker?"
She still didn't open her eyes, but she turned toward him at last, still keeping her head tilted back so that the snowflakes and the cold winds that accompanied them could caress her skin and still tasting the freshly falling snow on her tongue. Alec's breath hitched in her throat. Parker was a very beautiful woman, but she was never more lovely than when she was lost in a moment of innocence as she was now. He still had to know why she'd taken off the way she had but decided to try a different tactic. "Why do you like the snow so much?"
"It's snow!" Parker exclaimed as though it was obvious. She finally lowered her head and shot him a look. "Who doesn't want a white Christmas?"
Alec shivered. He pulled his cotton cap further down over his black ears. "Some of us wouldn't mind taking a vacation in Florida this time of year for a change."
Clearly thinking he was joking, she laughed and shoved his shoulder. Her shove was intended to be playful, but the force she unwittingly put into it almost knocked him over. Alec noticed her eyes shifting as though she was remembering something, and then Parker started turning around again. This time, however, she didn't raise her face to the dark sky; instead, she swept their perimeter with the intent, sharp, and calculating gaze of the thief she was. He followed her and then did a double take as, on her second sweep of their perimeter, they both spotted a gift wrapped in red paper and a big, green bow that hadn't been there before.
If Parker's grin had been big before, it was now so huge that it was a wonder it didn't break her face. She raced over to the bench, grabbed the present, and flopped down onto the snow-covered bench. Alec followed, his own, chocolate eyes growing large and doubt, hesitation, and worry filling his face. "Parker, it might not be such a good idea to open that, girl. It wan't there a minute ago."
"Sure it was."
"No, it wasn't."
"Okay, so maybe it wasn't, but it's safe." Despite his warning and the strange appearance of the gift, she was already tearing into the present. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears as strange sensations swept through her. Part of her wanted to scream her delight while another part thought of singing her happiness and still another part, a part she fought daily to keep shut away from the entire world, battled tears of relief. It had been here! After all these years, she had still had a present waiting just for her!
She squealed in surprised delight as a floppy, pink bunny with big ears poked out of the paper. She ripped off the rest of the paper in a flurry and stared down in surprise at what the stuffed bunny held. It was one of those stuffed animals that come holding a photo frame, and in that silverish frame was a picture of none other than Parker and the rest of her team, all smiling happily.
"Shit!" Alec exclaimed before he could stop himself. He looked back over his shoulder at the rest of the gang. "Did any of you do this?" They quickly shook their heads and waved him away, and he looked back at Parker. "You realize what this means, don't ya, girl? Some one's been watching us! If you have any idea who left this present for ya, you need to tell me right now! There's no telling what they're planning on doing!"
Parker just shook her head at his fears and sharp exclamations. "It's okay, Hardison."
"Girl, it's not okay! Somebody's been watching us!"
She smiled secretly. "He always does, always has been. He watches everybody."
"And I suppose now you're gonna tell us he knows rather we've been naughty or nice," Elliot muttered.
"Sh!" Sophie hushed him.
"Parker, who is he?" Alec questioned.
She blinked in surprise as she finally looked up at him. "Santa Claus, of course! Duh!"
Alec looked doubtfully at her. "Santa Claus?"
She shook her head. "I knew you wouldn't understand!" Her long, blonde hair shimmered against her black-clothed back as she kept shaking her head. "None of you believe in him, but he believes in you!"
"Parker," Alec said, grasping her hand in his and holding it tightly before she could pull the rest of the way away from him, "you're right." She looked sharply up into his eyes, and he returned her protesting, fierce gaze with a calm, patient, and reassuring look of his own shining out of his deep, dark orbs. "I don't believe in Santa."
"Hardison!" Elliot growled and started forward.
"Alec!" Sophie complained and started to follow herself until Nate pulled her back into the bushes.
Alec continued gazing steadily up into Parker's eyes. "Help me believe. Tell me why you believe in him, and maybe it'll help me understand that he is real."
Elliot paused; the snow fell silent beneath the hitter's boots. Maybe Hardison was using more smarts than for which he normally gave him credit. The hacker was a genius when it came to technology but could be a complete idiot when it came to showing care for others.
"You won't understand," she said, shaking her head and looking away again. She gazed at the picture she held in her hands and the smiling faces of her only friends reflected therein.
Alec cupped her chin and lifted and turned her head so that his eyes again met hers. "Tell me," he whispered, "please? Help me to understand."
"You won't do it."
"Try me."
She sighed deeply and then began reluctantly to tell her Christmas tale. "This is one of the places I liked to come to when I was a kid. We never had any real Christmases in the homes. We were lucky if we had enough food to go around, but I liked the snow. It's pretty, and I liked to play in it. I came to the park to enjoy it, because the park was usually quiet and I could be alone here. One Christmas when I came," she shook her head, remembering and relating her tale slowly, "I wasn't alone. There was an old couple sitting on this bench."
"I almost turned around and left, but the woman called to me. She called me by name. Even most of the people at the home didn't know my name, so that made me curious. I came closer, and we started to talk. It was snowing hard that night, and the woman asked me if I was cold. She had a blanket wrapped around herself and her husband. I shrugged off the weather, told her it was a little cold, but I could take it."
Parker's eyes began misting. "It's not like I had much of a choice, but I didn't tell her that. They seemed like sweet people, and I felt sorry for them, couldn't imagine why they were in that park all alone on Christmas Eve. It's not like they were like me. They weren't orphans."
Alec wrapped an arm around her and gave her a slight hug. He would have liked to hug her more tightly and reassuringly, but he didn't dare lest it startle her so greatly that she stopped opening up to him. She looked at him in surprise; he tried to assure her with his grin. "Go on," he urged quietly.
She looked away from him, and her vision grew distant as though she could actually see herself as a child looking at those old people. "I asked her if she was cold. She laughed; her husband coughed but smiled. He had the sweetest, most innocent, and charming smile." She shook her blonde head slowly. "And his cheeks were rosy. I thought at the time that his face was red like that because he was sick, but it was more than that. They were red because of who he was, who he is."
Alec's eyebrows rose slightly, but he didn't say anything. He wouldn't take her fantasy away from her, even if there was no way Santa Claus was real. He had done the calculations. It was simply impossible for any man to get around the entire world in a single night, let alone to leave presents for every child, and there were children, like Parker, who'd never gotten anything for Christmas. Santa Claus didn't exist. But Parker believed and she was opening up to him, and that was a Christmas miracle in and of itself. He hugged her closer, rubbed his hands up and down against her arms, and listened to her tell her tale.
"She told me she liked the snow. I asked her why." She blinked, remembering. "She said it was because there should always be snow on Christmas. It was part of the magic of the holiday. She asked me what I was hoping to get from Santa Claus. I told her Santa Claus didn't care about me. I started to turn away when the old man looked at me. I knew he wasn't feeling good, because he was sitting, huddled in his wife's arms. I knew they were going to try to feed me a bunch of lies about how people cared and magick really existed, but I turned back any way."
She shrugged her lithe shoulders slightly and spoke in way of explanation, "I felt sorry for him. He coughed and complained, said it wasn't true. I told them it was. Nobody had ever given me anything before for Christmas, not Santa Claus or any one else."
She remembered the hurt that had flashed in both of the old people's eyes and round faces. "The man started coughing really badly. I thought he was going to hack up a lung. The woman tried to convince me that Santa was real, that he was everywhere. I told her I knew for sure he wasn't at my home or what passed for my home."
Alec squeezed her hand tenderly. He sensed Parker was fighting back tears and knew it was hard for her to open up to him as she was now doing. He also knew that he was incredibly lucky that she was, that she actually trusted and cared for him enough to tell him this bit about her past.
"The old woman was persistent, but every time she offered up a reason for Santa to exist, I shot her back down. The Santas in the stores taking pictures with the rich kids and the Santas standing on the street corners who were supposed to be collecting money for the rest of us -- money and presents that we never saw -- weren't the real deal. They were all fakes, and if the real one did exist, I'd definitely never seen him."
"The woman told me that all those fake Santas were Santa's helpers and that, eventually, one day, something would happen to the real Santa -- he'd get sick or something and have to stop doing it -- and one of those helpers would step in to help and take over the reindeers' reigns. I knew she was lying," Parker's face screwed up as she admitted, "or, at least, I thought she was and told her so. If Santa did exist, he didn't care about all the children of the world like he was supposed to, just the rich ones, the ones who already had mommys and daddys. He'd never came to me, never came to our home. He didn't care about me."
She blinked back tears, and Alec pulled her into a hug as she trembled not from the cold but rather from the pain of her past and the sad tale she had to tell. "The old man had been silent up until then except for coughing. He had a really bad cough, and I thought he might be dying. When I said Santa didn't care about me, he looked up at me and . . . and . . . " Her voice trembled. "He said he was sorry." She squeezed Alec's hand and the bunny she now held so tightly that Alec thought his bones might well break from her crushing hold. Still she fought down the tears threatening to well in her eyes.
"He said he was sorry," she gasped, "that he'd tried to get to me, and tonight was his last chance. He gave me my first real present that night; he gave me Bunny! Not this Bunny, but my other Bunny, my first Bunny, the one sitting back home. He's gotta be wondering where I am by now, what with it being Christmas and all." Her voice trembled as she tried to distract herself with thinking about Bunny rather than what had happened next.
Alec held her as a few tears broke free of her restraint and slipped down her face. "So you think he was Santa Claus?" Her story was a sad one, but he still wasn't convinced. All of his research over the years had told him Santa didn't really exist; there was just no way he could be real.
Elliot growled and slapped the back of Hardison's head from where he'd came up to stand silently behind their bench. "I knew you wouldn't believe me!" Parker exclaimed and snatched away from Alec. Her tears froze in her eyes as they flushed with anger instead of sorrow and fond remembrance. She jumped to her booted feet in the snow. "I never should have told you!"
"I'm sorry, girl, it's just -- " Alec tried to mutter an explanation that could ease her fury while rubbing his head where Elliot had hit him, " -- that's a mighty big story to swallow."
Her glare cut straight through him. "IT'S NOT A STORY!" she yelled, holding her new Bunny close to her heart. "IT'S THE TRUTH!"
"Parker," Sophie spoke cajolingly as she came forward, pulling Nate along with her, "it's okay. I'm sorry Alec doesn't believe you," she offered, glaring at the hacker before returning a soft and understanding gaze to Parker, "but we do."
"We do?" Elliot muttered, his eyebrows arching.
"Yeah," Nate spoke quickly, rubbing his gloved hands together and blowing out air that showed in the cold, dark night and circled upwards. "We do." He smiled reassuringly at Parker.
"Really?" she asked doubtfully.
"'Course we do," Elliot agreed, catching on. If they didn't believe her in this, Parker might never open up again. He smiled at her. "You're one of the lucky ones," he told her. "You actually got to meet the real Santa Claus."
"I did," Parker admitted, a gradual smile slowly lifting her face again. She beamed at her gathered friends.
Alec started to say something, but Elliot hit him again before he could speak. "Hey!" he protested.
"Shut it," Elliot growled out of the corner of his mouth while flashing a smile at Parker.
"So what happened to them?" Sophie asked. "Did they tell you about their adventures?"
"No," Parker spoke disappointingly, her face falling again. "They started to, but a pig came by at that time."
"A pig?" Alec started but shut up again as Elliot once more balled his hand into a fist and prepared to hit him.
"A cop," Parker clarified. "I looked up when he shone his light over the park, and when I looked back, they were gone. I came back the next year, hoping they might be here," she shook her head, "but they weren't. They did leave me a present, though, and the year after that and the year after that . . . "
"So every year they leave you a present on this park bench?" Sophie asked.
Parker's face fell. "I don't know," she said honestly. "They did until I went to juvvie. When I broke out," she shook her head, "Christmas was over, and this is the first year I've made it back here since then."
"HO! HO! HO!"
All the team looked up at the joyous shout. They watched in collective and silent awe as a sleigh lifted into the air, high above the trees, and reindeer pulled the red sleigh up into the night. "SANTA!" Parker exclaimed happily. Jumping onto the bench, she waved like mad at the famous man in the beard and red suit who waved back at her. "See?" she demanded, glancing down at Alec. "I told you he existed!" Then her gaze went immediately back to Santa, and she kept waving, grinning, and watching him until he slowly began to disappear into the distance.
Alec opened his mouth, and Elliot hit him again. He wouldn't take the chance that the computer geek could come up with all kinds of explanations as to how the Santa they'd just witnessed could be a hologram or something, anything else, other than the real, jolly, and ancient Elf himself. "Merry Christmas, Parker."
"Merry Christmas, every one!" Parker exclaimed and then jumped down to stand with her friends. Even Alec was standing now and was preparing to try to give Elliot back some of his own medicine, but she stopped him unwittingly as she wrapped her arms around him and the others. "Merry Christmas to all," she recited, hugging her friends, and family, tightly, "and, to all, a good night!"
The End
