Fandom: Leverage/Hawkeye Comics
Characters: Kate Bishop, Parker
Rating: Teen
Length: 2,855 words
Written for: dreamwidth community: intoabar Prompt: Kate Bishop goes into a bar and meets... Parker!
CW: contains minor mentions of blood and injuries that happen off the page. Nothing really graphic. Also the tending to those injuries.
Summary: Injured and on the run, Kate Bishop stumbles into a strange brew pub and gets a little help from an odd yet kind stranger and her crew.
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This looked bad. Kate wasn't sure how much further she could go. She was stumbling more than running at this point and how much longer she was likely to remain upright and conscious was up for debate. She was pretty sure the Hydra thugs she'd been oh so foolish to confront alone were still behind her somewhere. She hadn't caught sight of them for a block or so, but it wasn't as if they'd have any trouble tracking her with the trail of blood she was so generously leaving behind for them. Nice of her, huh?
Kate felt so stupid. Clint had tried to warn her not to go alone but she'd been too mad at him to listen. She'd wanted the two of them to do the mission together but he thought they needed to do more recon and she had wanted to go in immediately. She'd worried they'd move locations before they got a chance to take them down. There had been rumors that they'd been taking people. Taking children. Kate couldn't wait on that. So they'd fought and in the end, she had decided to do the mission on her own. Turned out that Clint had been right about the need for more information. The Hydra goons had been ready for her. It hadn't gone well.
Kate stumbled again, barely managing to catch herself before nearly face planting onto the sidewalk. Crap, had she just slipped in her own blood? That wasn't good. She needed to find a safe place to lay low before she ended up passed out in the street. Turning the corner, she pushed her way into a shop selling flowers. Florist? Yeah, that's what they were called, right? Her head felt fuzzy. She needed to get off her feet and rest, just for a minute, but before she could find a place to sit down Kate found herself face to face with a very belligerent old man who proceeded to yell at her as he pushed her back out the door. She wanted to cry. What was with people these days? Whatever happened to hospitality?
Kate managed to make it a half block more. She stood in front of a brew pub she had never noticed before. It must be new. The sign on the door said it was closed but she could see that the lights were on inside. She crossed her fingers and pushed the door forward. It opened and she let out a breath. Kate barely registered the tinkle of the bells on the door before she collapsed on the floor a few steps inside.
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Kate felt cool tile beneath her cheek. Had she passed out? She heard footsteps and muffled voices and there was a beefy smell in the air. Maybe beef stew or something like that? It took her a moment to remember she had stumbled into some kind of pub-like place. It was a good smell. Her stomach rumbled as if hunger wasn't the least of her problems at the moment. Stupid stomach.
Someone poked her arm and Kate thought about trying to sit up and quickly discarded that thought. The floor was just fine, nice even. Maybe if she didn't move they'd just let her stay there a while. Nope. No such luck. Someone was holding her wrist. She was pretty sure she still had a pulse. Probably.
"Not dead," a voice said. A woman, she was pretty sure. "Great, find out who's after her." Another voice this one further away, male and definitely grumpy. Kate idly wondered if he was grumpy at her or if he was just one of those perpetually grumpy people. She hoped for the latter.
The woman shook her wrist. "I think she's passed out."
"She's not. Not anymore. Just find out." The grumpy man said.
"Hey you, bleeding girl, who're you running from?" The woman asked. Kate opened her eyes and groaned. The woman's blond hair hung down in her face and her eyes sparkled mischievously.
"Told ya." the man said. He sounded closer now, but Kate still couldn't see him.
She wondered if she should be afraid of these strangers, but knew she really had no choice but to trust them.
"Hydra goons, seven of them." She managed to say before a wave of pain hit her. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire. She didn't think she was screaming but she definitely heard someone that sounded a lot like her and she was screaming. Strong arms pulled her up off the floor and carried her away.
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She must have lost consciousness again because the next thing she knew she was lying on a bed and the blond woman from before was trying to undress her. Her quick hands nearly had Kate's purple catsuit peeled off her before Kate could utter a protest.
"Wait, wait a minute. What are you doing?" Kate asked.
The woman gave her a look like she thought she was the dimmest bulb in the box. "I have to get this thing off you so I can tell where you're hurt."
"We're not even on a first-name basis and you're stripping off my clothes here." Kate crossed her arms over her chest. She had a bra on, but still. It was awkward. At least it made her forget about the pain for a minute.
"Parker."
"What?"
"It's my name."
"Oh, Okay- I'm Kate." She had no idea of what to make of this Parker person. She seemed like she was probably not evil or anything on account of the fact she was helping and all that. She was helping her right?
"I know, Hardison told me. He said you're a superhero" Parker said.
"Hardison? Is that the guy I saw earlier?"
"No, that was Eliot. Hardison's watching everything from upstairs."
Kate wasn't sure if that was a threat of some sort or just a statement of fact. She was having a hard time getting a good read on this strange woman.
"Are you superheroes too?" Kate asked.
The woman laughed. "No, not super or anything. Kind of heroes though, mostly. I guess." She shrugged.
Well, at least she didn't say they were villains. "Hey, have the Hydra goons shown up yet?"
Parker shook her head. "Come on, you need to let me clean you up so I can see how badly you're hurt. It looks really bad."
Kate winced. "One of the guys stabbed me in the shoulder but other than that I think it's just cuts and bruises. Nothing a bag of frozen peas won't fix."
"Are they magic peas?" Parker's face lit up.
"Um, no? Just regular frozen peas from the grocery store."
"That's weird. Why would ordinary frozen vegetables help you heal?"
"Because they're frozen and cold?" Kate said, because really, what else was there to say?
Parker finished getting Kate out of her costume and was now cleaning her shoulder. It hurt. Kate tried and failed to keep from crying out. So much for putting on a brave face.
"Why don't you just use ice? Ice is easier than food in a bag, it's just frozen water. I'm pretty sure it's even free." Parker said.
"Because peas just go in the freezer and I don't have to remember to make ice?" Kate tried to shrug and was hit with another wave of intense pain.
"What about ice-packs. I know they sell those in stores too, we always have a stack of them in the freezer."
"All very sound arguments, but I like my peas frozen and in a bag. They're traditional. It's a Hawkeye thing."
"Don't let Eliot hear you talk about frozen vegetables, he only uses fresh stuff here and he's really serious about his cooking." Kate hadn't gotten a look at Elliot on account of her being nearly passed out when they met, but she did remember thinking that he sounded tough. Not tough enough to take on half a dozen hydra thugs though. "Is he going to be okay out there?" Kate asked.
Parker laughed for almost a full minute before reigning it in. "Eliot will be just fine; I'd worry about the Hydra goons, if they didn't suck so much, that is." Parker went back to poking and prodding Kate all over for a bit and then started cleaning her up with antiseptic.
Kate felt weird and awkward having this stranger taking care of her, yet it was better than going to the hospital. Kate hated hospitals. She missed Clint and felt like an idiot for going on a mission without him. He made her so mad sometimes though. She really hated when he was right about stuff.
"Okay, I need to stitch your shoulder up a little, you should probably go to the E.R. or something, that's a thing people do, I think, right?" Parker seemed unsure. It was a weird thing to be unsure of. Kate briefly wondered if maybe she should go to the hospital and have actual professionals fix her up. "Do you know what you're doing?" She asked.
"Of course, I stitch Eliot up all the time," Parker said.
Kate wasn't sure how good a chef this guy could be if he needed stitches on a regular basis, but it wasn't really her place to say, was it? "What about the other guy? Hardison? Do you give him stitches too?"
"Nah, he's behind the computer most of the time so he doesn't get hurt as often, which is good because I don't like it when he gets hurt. I don't like it when Eliot gets hurt either, but there's no helping that." Parker said.
Parker set the needle and thread out and this made Kate want to keep her talking so she could avoid the inevitable. "So what is it that you actually do here? Cook? Waitress? What?"
"Oh, I'm a thief," Parker said as she stuck her with a syringe. "To numb the area" she explained when Kate's eyes went wide and she let out a very unsuperhero-like-shriek.
Kate squeezed her eyes shut. "Did I just imagine you telling me that you're a thief."
"I don't think so," Parker said.
Kate kept her eyes closed and wondered what the heck she had gotten herself into. She did some breathing exercises to get through the whole getting stitched up by a thief thing, well, that and the whole getting through the pain thing. Mostly the pain. Kate decided she really didn't like getting stabbed. She really needed to be more careful in the future.
After what felt like hours but was probably only twenty minutes or so, Parker announced that she was finished and taped a bandage over Kate's shoulder.
Kate opened her eyes and watched the woman strip off her latex gloves and deposit them in one of those little medical waste boxes. This really didn't seem like your average brew pub. She knew she probably shouldn't ask, but then she wouldn't be a Hawkeye if she knew how to keep her mouth shut, would she? "So Parker, you said something about being a thief?"
Parker crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Yeah, that's what I am."
"Okay--"
"But like a good guy thief," Parker added.
"Uh, huh. I didn't know that was a thing." Kate said.
"Of course it's a thing. Like Robin Hood, duh." Parker scowled at her and Kate wondered if maybe she should just change the subject.
"Robin Hood, yeah I guess that's true. Are Eliot and Hardison thieves too?"
Parker snorted. "No, you don't need three thieves on the same team. That's just crazy talk." Parker shook her head and added, "Hardison is a hacker and Eliot's the hitter. Sophie and Nate are traveling at the moment and we're supposed to be on vacation, or hiatus or something. It's been kind of boring really, until you showed up anyway. Thanks."
"Um, glad to be of help?" Kate said.
Parker got a faraway look on her face like she was paying attention to something that was happening somewhere else. After a minute or two, she looked back to Kate. "Eliot's taken care of your Hydra thugs."
"How, what? All of them? How do you even know?" Kate felt so confused. Maybe she had passed out in the street and this was all some strange fever dream.
Parker tapped on her ear. "Comms."
Okay, that made more sense. Kind of. "Is this even a real brew pub?" Kate asked. She had to know.
"Oh yeah. It's kind of like a hobby. I've been told that people need hobbies or something. Sophie said that once, I think. Nate doesn't have any hobbies though unless you count drinking, but Sophie says that's not a real hobby."
Kate decided to ignore that last bit, it seemed like way too much information about someone she hadn't even met. "So, your real job is?"
"Helping people. Mostly we take down bad guys. Hardison said we took down your father a couple of years ago."
"That was you?" Kate's dad was not a good man, one might even say he was a villain. Though not quite powerful or important enough to be an actual supervillain. Two years back someone had bankrupted him and got him sent to prison. Kate had been rather relieved about the whole thing.
"Yeah, Hardison said I wasn't supposed to tell you that part though. Oops."
"Don't worry about it. I was glad when he went down. Thank you."
Parker smiled. "You should get some rest. It's almost time to open the pub. I'll bring you something to eat a little later, okay?"
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Kate woke up sprawled on her stomach, legs tangled in the sheets. She pushed herself up on her arms and looked around. It was a small bedroom, neutrally decorated. The bed she had fitfully slept on was small but comfortable. She sat up with a groan. Her whole body felt stiff and sore. She was dressed only in her bra and panties but she was alive and all in one piece, so she really couldn't complain. She spotted her bow and quiver leaning against the wall and smiled. She had been worried she lost them. That would have really sucked.
There was a knock on the door. Kate pulled the sheet up around her. "Come in?"
It was Parker. She let herself in and deposited a pile of clothes at the end of the bed. "Your costume was a mess, so I brought you some other clothes. You can take a shower if you want, or have some lunch. Your friend will be here soon."
"My friend?" Kate was finding that conversations with Parker tended toward the confusing side.
"Yeah, the other Hawkguy."
"Hawkeye." Kate corrected.
"Whatever, he's coming to pick you up."
"Why? How? What?" Clint was coming? No, he'd be like 'I told you so' and he'd be so right too. Kate didn't want that.
"Hardison called him. He's your partner, right?"
"My team partner, not my partner partner or romance partner..." Kate blushed as she tried to explain. Why she felt the need to, she had no idea. Apparently, neither did Parker. The woman was giving her a look like she thought Kate was too stupid for words.
Kate chose food over a shower and regretted nothing. The steak and mushroom pie was amazing and the chocolate cake that followed was blissfully sinful. That Eliot guy could seriously cook. Go figure. It wasn't long before Clint showed up and she and Parker said their good-byes.
"What was that place?" Clint asked when they got in the car.
"A brew pub?" Kate really wasn't sure how to explain it all to Clint. She wasn't even sure how to explain it to herself.
"I'm pretty sure that was more than a brew pub. This guy called me to tell me that you were hurt and he used a number that you don’t even have." Clint said.
"You have a number that I don't have?" Kate asked, feeling more than a little offended.
"Not that point. Who the heck called me on a top-secret line?"
Kate thought about it a moment. "It was probably Hardison, he's a hacker, or so I was told. I never actually saw the man. I'm assuming he actually existed. The woman called herself Parker, she said she was a thief. Apparently, the whole brew pub thing is a hobby? I don't know. There was another guy, Eliot. I think he's the muscle and the cook. I never really got a look at him but I did hear him. I was kind of out of it at the time." Kate shrugged. "I don't know it was weird, but they patched me up and keep me safe. I think that Eliot guy even took out the rest of the Hydra goons. I'm pretty sure they're the good guys. Probably?"
"If they helped you, then they're okay by me," Clint said. He looked at her with concern in his eyes. It was too much. She closed her eyes and let the rhythm of the road lull her to sleep. It had been a very strange day.
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