Outside Oklahoma City, Wednesday evening

[vdistinctive]

Trudy had said Eliot and his family were going to be her guests, so he wasn't allowed to cook dinner. He'd said she shouldn't have to cook it either, and they'd both refused to make everyone eat leftover funeral casserole.

So Eliot pulled the rental car — rental van, because four adults was a lot to fit into a sedan and renting a van was almost tradition — into the lot of a little mom&pop Italian restaurant.

"There's Tru's car," he said as he set the parking break and turned the car off. He looked back towards Kathy and Parker. "Y'all ready for this?"

[ooc: FAMILY DINNER TIME! For those who know, and epic slow play.]

Comments

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"They know I'm weird, right?" Parker hadn't asked this before. But Kathy's nerves might be infecting her.

[vdistinctive]

"You'll be fine, Parker," Eliot assured her. "You haven't stabbed anyone in ages."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Are any of them really stabbable? Should I avoid sitting next to any of them?"

[vdistinctive]

"Well. Ellie's kinda much, and I don't really know Jake too well, but I'm sure they'll be polite."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Maybe I'll just eat with a spoon tonight." Parker was biting her lower lip now, but seemed a little calmer. "Ellie, Jake. Cassie, Trudi. Wait, who am I missing?"

[vdistinctive]

"Johnny. He's the youngest. Not much of a talker." Eliot shrugged and opened the door to the restaurant. The hostess showed them to a back table, where Trudy and co. were already seated.

"Hey Tru," Eliot greeted, then pointed around the table. "Parker, this is Johnny, Jake, Tru —" Only one of the twins was at the table, and she raised an eyebrow at him with a little smirk. "— and I'm ninety percent sure that's Cassie. Where's your sister?"



Cassie rolled her eyes. "College. Like a nerd."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Hi." Parker just barely managed to keep that from being "hi!!!"

"Thanks for inviting us." She nodded at everyone and kept the smile on her face. Nothing to see here. Nope.

"You guys are old enough to go to college? Eliot didn't say that."

[vdistinctive]

Cassie propped her chin on her folded hands and smirked. "What did Eliot tell you?"

"Don't be a brat," Jake said.

"Ellie had to stay in Austin for her finals," Trudy said, getting up and circling the table to give her brother a big hug. "Cassie . . . is figuring things out."

"I got caught up online," Cassie grumbled. "It's fine."



"So she says," Tru said shaking her head. "The joy of raising teenagers." She let Eliot go and turned to Parker. "It's lovely to finally meet you, hon. Do you hug?"

Eliot gave Parker a look that hopefully made it clear the answer didn't have to be "yes".

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Not... really," Parker admitted, and was so, so grateful that Trudi had asked. "Reflexes kick in. People get hurt. Unless I start the hug. Then it's not bad." She couldn't help smiling back and relaxing a little though, because Trudi sounded like Eliot and kinda looked like him around the edges, and added, "Maybe by the time we leave?"

She smirked over at Cassie and said, "That you made him do stuff he didn't want to. Good job."

[vdistinctive]

"She didn't make me," Eliot grumbled.

"Ain't no trouble at all if you don't," Trudy assured Parker. "We're just glad you're here."

"Do you hit people?" Cassie asked, looking interested. "Dad says I'm not allowed to."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Why?" Parker asked, sitting down and looking bewildered, and shooting a confused look at the guy who had to be Jake. "I mean, it's way better than stabbing them. Which I don't do! Nope."

[vdistinctive]

"Stab them with what?" Cassie asked, looking very interested.

Jake looked between the two of them with a frown. Eliot intercepted before he could say anything, swooping in and engaging Jake in a conversation about sports.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"A fork. I mean, nothing!" Parker paused, then asked, "So, who'd you hit?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"They may start thinkin' you're weird," Hardison said, because you didn't try to con crew and you didn't try to con at all over something obvious. "But they'll still end up thinkin' you're great. They're a damn open an' lovin' family. Nana would like 'em."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parke gave him a hopeful grin. "Well, if Nana would like them..." Because clearly Nana was the last word in Okay People. "I still feel like I should've brought them a present. Or a money basket. Something." A sorry-your-dad-is-dead-present? Parker had no idea what one of those would be like.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"But they might feel weird they didn't get you somethin'," Hardison pointed out. "It ain't like Nana, when we were stayin' with her for awhile. This is just a meetin' where we can all be on equal footin'."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Soooo, initial surveillance," Parker said, putting this in her own kind of terms. "To get the layout. And the basic specs. And see if there are any places to avoid."

Parker, you can't steal Eliot's family.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Sure she could!

"Exactly," Hardison said. "We meet 'em on their terms to get to know them when they're most comfortable. Remember, mama, they're just as nervous to meet y'all as y'all are to meet them, an' just as eager to make a good impression."

Well. Maybe not Cassie.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"That will never stop being weird," Parker confided in a lower voice. "People wanting to make an impression on me. Not grifting-me, or Leverage-me, but me, me. So weird."

Okay, so, four people, dynamics to watch, food to eat, and making sure Kathy was okay too. Good! She would do this.

Thank everything that Hardison had done the prep work on this one.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Hey, I was tryna make an impression on you from day one," Hardison teased, leaning in to steal a kiss. "You had almost a decade to get used to the idea, mama."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

You can't steal what someone gives away, Hardison. Mwah!

"I got an impression." Parker grinned at him. "You run well when things go explodey. Also so smart I didn't understand what you were saying sometimes, so that was interesting." She squeezed his hand. "And you looked away when I stripped. So, good impression."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I mighta thought you were the prettiest girl I'd seen in my whole life basically, but that didn't gimme the right to look at you when you might not want me to," Hardison said. He still reflexively turned his back when Parker stripped and it wasn't for effect. Just because he got to see her naked now (and see her naked a LOT) didn't mean that her nakedness was FOR him.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"You both didn't look at me," Parker said, meditatively. "I thought you guys were interested in each other for a while."

Well, she'd sort of been right?

"But you kept impressing me. 'Cause you didn't change into anyone else, anyone worse later on." She took a breath. "You like them? Eliot's family?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

As much as Hardison would have been okay continuing to talk about how great he'd been, Parker's question took precedence. "I like 'em," he promised. "The guys are kinda quiet an' it's hard to get a bead on 'em, but Trudy's great an' you'll love Cassie. Ellie's pretty nice, but a civilian."

Well, they were all civilians, but Ellie very much so.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

So the nephew and brother-in-law could use some smiles, but Parker could relax with Trudy and Cassie. "Ellie's not here tonight though, so. Okay. Got it." Another small smile, and she squeezed his arm. "I'll bring them presents next time."