#them. they

i think that the first time eliot gets hurt and only parker is there she patches up the wounds he can't reach professionally and carefully (they don't talk abt where she learned to do stitches that well) & doesn't push him too much to use painkillers (which means that she'll poke all his bruises but if he still doesn't want painkillers after that she'll let him be) and then she tries to hug him bc she Knows it makes him feel better and he lets her without complaint, but eventually it gets too much and when she gets frustrated with herself for not being able to do more she calls hardison.

he shows up immediately (he may have already tracked where they were). he asks her 'what can i do mama?' and she just. pushes him on the couch and carries eliot to drop him in alec's lap, which eliot genuinely tries to protest! and then she crouches down to his level looks him in the eyes and whispers so that hardison cant hear them 'do you really not want to?'.

eliot stays silent. 'its okay', she whispers, 'hardison is nice and soft.' and eliot grumbles at a volume that hardison can hear but he also nuzzles his head into hardison's shoulder while he does it.

hardison quips about how he maybe should become the teams cuddler instead of their hacker while he leans back into the couch, one hand coming up around eliot's back slowly, in a way that eliot can see coming, and when eliot falls asleep parker and hardison don't talk abt how right it feels to have him between them, but they are both aware of it, and they will soon.