Dream melodramatic ot3 declaration of feelings scenario (that I’m thinking about post-s5, but could certainly work for Redemption) is this:
This time it’s Eliot who steps on the bomb.
They’re only meant to be doing recon, and he almost wants to laugh when he hears the click, a little past the boundary of their mark’s sprawling land. Years of precautions and paranoia and he’s about to get taken out by a fucking booby-trap like an expendable character in one of Hardison’s action movies.
Parker and Hardison are still walking up ahead, and for a second he thinks about letting them go, letting them get clear of the danger zone and then just lifting his foot. Only he swallows, watching them, lump rising fast in his throat—he hasn’t been scared of death itself for a long, long time, but the idea of never talking to them again, never looking at them again, never telling them—
Well. It’s unbearable.
Besides that, while the placement of the device suggests it’s the only one, he can’t be sure, and besides that, it doesn’t take them long to notice he’s no longer right behind them.
‘You okay?’ Hardison calls, and the look on Eliot’s face must be answer enough, because they’re both coming back to him before he can choke out a warning.
‘So yeah,’ he manages, when they’re within a few feet of him. He holds himself very, very still, even as his heart seems to hurl itself over and over at the walls of his chest. ‘Looks like our guy went to the Udall school of home security.’
‘Eliot,’ Parker whispers, eyes dropping to his feet. Her mouth sets into a firm line. ‘How do we fix this?’
‘You can’t.’
‘It’s okay; we’re gonna figure it out,’ Hardison assures him.
‘You should get out of here,’ Eliot says, through gritted teeth. There are no wires for Parker to pull this time, no clever computer resets for Hardison to try.
‘We’re not doing that,’ Hardison says immediately, dropping to a crouch to try to get a better look at the barely-buried pressure plate, and Eliot wants to scream.
‘You need—I’m serious, you both need to get as far away as possible. We don’t know if this thing’s on a timer or—’
‘Then we’d better figure it out fast,’ Parker says, squatting down next to Hardison.
Then they’re talking to each other, the two of them, but he’s not really processing what they’re saying. Instead his pulse is thundering in his ears and he’s thinking about the pie he’d planned on making later. How they’d have both picked at the raw pastry and he’d have pretended to be annoyed at them. How they’d have argued they had just as much say in how this pie came together, because Eliot had dragged them out of the city to pick the berries specially (had watched the two of them goof around—Parker smushing a ripe blackberry against Hardison’s mouth and then kissing the deep purple stains away, Hardison putting Parker up on his shoulders so she could reach high into the hedgerows—and felt the odd mix of longing and deep contentment that is sunk into his bones by now, thrumming warm and sweet through his veins, settled forever into every atom).
It would’ve been good, that pie, and it would have been even better to watch them eat it, Parker with so much ice cream she’d get brain freeze, Hardison with that awful powder mix custard, at their dinner table in their home that they built together.
‘I need to tell you something,’ Eliot says.
‘—makes sense that it’d be deactivated remotely,’ Hardison is saying.
‘I need to tell you something,’ Eliot says, louder.
It really IS like [Eliot in the shower, curtain pulls back, Hardison: “hey are we - stop screaming it’s just me - are we past your emotional and physical barriers yet?”] tho.
I want this fic. I want BOTH of these fics. I want Hardison & Parker deciding that if Eliot isn’t going to be talkative on his own, the occasional fun and festive Shower Ambush is the way to go. He’s flustered enough to shoot answers from the hip, and naked enough to not escape easily. The escalation from ‘where’s the orange soda?’ to ‘you know we know you love us, right?’ would be a thing of beauty.
Plus, who’s going to pass up that gun (…and etc.) show? (Hardison is, because he’s a gentleman whose Nana raised him right. He [mostly] doesn’t look. Parker looks. Unabashedly. And occasionally tries to poke a scar that she hasn’t seen before. At one point a slap fight may or may not happen.)
AASJSHDHSHDHHSD“flustered enough to shoot answers from the hip and naked enough to not escape easily”
I’LL TAKE PHRASES THAT WILL LIVE IN MY HEAD RENT FREE FROM NOW ON FOR 500 ALEX
…so I wrote this It turned out SLIGHTLY more intense in places than I’d anticipated, but I kept my goofy first title idea anyway… and a lot of specific lines from this thread. So thanks to @eliot-wolfgirl-spencer,@bisexualeliotspencer, and @sun-lit-roses for the inspiration!
And I hope you all enjoy my offering of Shower Thoughts: Five times Hardison and Parker interrupt Eliot’s shower and one time he gets revenge interrupts Hardison’s
i’m just obsessed with the fact that the three of them still work so many years later. from what i’ve gotten textually from the show, yes, hardison and parker are dating, but the family unit is hardison/parker/eliot.
hardison and parker are shown to be physically affectionate, but there’s an electric and stable type of connectedness between all of them showing how in each other’s lives they have been:
eliot and hardison pointing where the stolen art belong,
parker and eliot always ending up together,
parker and hardison getting excited together,
the inside jokes,
the big decision making.
parker highlights his emotional connection to this specific team and eliot brings out his sense of duty. the other couldn’t provide the emotional support the other can, but as a unit, there’s help at every corner. parker still has eliot who has been her partner in (undoing) crime for years. eliot has parker, his partner that keeps him sharp. and both of them rest easy knowing hardison is using his big heart for good.
however, while canon has established that they have thoroughly,
thoroughly,
thoroughly
been in each other’s lives, it has not been explicitly stated it’s a polyamorous thing. canon, for me, would be them saying in no uncertain terms that eliot has also lived with them, or something like that. or perhaps, they would establish it in the middle of the second half of the season.
that being said, i have an enormous amount of fun with the show, and for whatever reason we haven’t been able to get our canon ot3, i’m so happy we see them as a family first and foremost, because it would have been so easy to let that disappear between the years.
I have come to the decision that I need to read more Leverage fics where Eliot goes on a rampage and just absolutely obliterates a bunch of people for taking/hurting Parker or Hardison. This could mean him slipping back into Murder Eliot mode, ruthless and calculating and efficient no one who gets in his way is left alive or this could mean him going off script; Nate, Sophie and Parker or hardison (whoever wasn’t taken ofc) try to make a plan and figure it out but when they finally look up to ask Eliot his input he’s just fuckin gone, and they’re all like shit fuck Eliot’s about to kill people, but Eliot only knocks everybody out and comes back in later with whoever was taken/hurt cradled in his arms and he’s just whispering reassurances and comfort to them and maybe he’s injured bc he couldn’t care less about being hurt he just had to get them back and eventually he’ll tend to himself but right now parker/hardison is the priority and besides, he’s always had worse and is well equipped to handle a “little” pain (depending on how much you like whump) and just aidbsbsndjxj
Lots of protective!Eliot and ot3 vibes
Anyway hit me up with links if ya know anything like that pls or maybe I should write smth like this myself
i will never get over how parker & hardisons venn diagram when it comes to thieving has safe-cracking right in the center and then eliot is their little safe that they break together
I know not everyone’s happy with how the OT3 was presented in Leverage: Redemption. But frankly, this is an excellent answer from John Rogers and is absolutely in line with everything that he’s said about it.
The OT3 was never going to be explicitly canon for exactly the reasons John Rogers outlined here – to define it in any way would kill somebody’s version. The OT3 means so many different things to each individual that ships it; there’s no one right and there’s no one wrong way to interpret it.
I will also point out that John Rogers knows the difference between enjoying media as a fan vs enjoying media as a creator. As he points out those are two very different things and as such, need to be understood and perceived from very different perspectives.
I can’t believe Eliot was married for over nine years and didn’t notice.
Anyone want to elaborate on that?? Orr??
Eliot Spencer is the king of denial.
He has spent the last eight years after the end of Leverage with Parker and Hardison, have gone on to run a brewpub (that Hardison bought for him), they have a “gigantic house that they all share” (per John Rogers), the food trucks are basically Eliot AND Hardison’s combined babies, is ridiculously domestic with both Hardison and Parker in every scene the share together (the OT3 as well as Hardison + Eliot / Parker + Eliot), is quite hesitant to pursue a relationship (The Double Edged Sword Job) and only “seems happy” (Eliot’s description of Parker’s assessment) (The Hurricane Job) when he is in that other relationship.
Dude is fucking MARRIED in everything but name to Hardison and Parker and does not realize it.
Think about Eliot FINALLY breaking down and conceeding the annual winter argument of:
“You don’t… you just don’t take coworkers to family holidays, Hardison! That’s… That’s a couplething!”
“Uh, no, it says it right there in the title, fam-uh-ly holidays, see, family. When’s the last time you been back to your apartment to sleep, huh?”
“That’s not-”
“When’s the last time we ate a meal together you didn’t cook?”
“Because if I didn’tthen you’d never-”
“How many handknitted sweaters did Nana send over this year, Parker?”
“Three sweaters.”
“Three sweaters. One that fits Parker here just perfect, doesn’t it babe?”
“Mmnnn,snugly.”
“And this one here, doesn’t it just really bring out my, my shoulders, and my waist ‘n stuff and like-”
“Ooooh yeah, very dashing figure. For sure.”
“Except, you see this one here… It’s way too big for Parker, but the shoulders don’t quite line up the same on me, and it’s a lil short right… right here at the waist, and-”
“Comeon, man, she probably just-”
“So we’re basically all living together above in the restaurant we own, you’re cooking all our sit-down meals, and my Nana - who hasn’t even met you - is including you in our annual tradition.”
“Sure sounds like family to me!”
“Mmn. Boom. Thank you mama. Right there.”
“Damnit.Hardison.”
“Whatever, man. Talkin’ bout coworkers. What’s wrong with you. We ain’t just been "coworkers” since we chainsawed a hole through Nate’s old apartment wall. Put the damn sweater on and get in the van.“
And they’re almost a full two hours late because even tho he won’t say it Eliot is desperate for this woman to like him. To approve of him. To impress her. For reasons he can’t unpack right now.
So he’s rifling through his ENTIRE closet trying to pick out an outfit that makes him look as small and unassuming and innocent and gentle as possible while somehow still seeming approachable and well-socialized - like when he’s on the grift.
When he comes down, Parker almost says something - taking one look at him and frowning and murmuring to Hardison about how they want to take Eliot to meet Nana, not whatever character he’s apparently come up with in the 73 minutes it took him to get ready - but Hardison stops her.
"Small victories, mama,” he whispers to her and Eliot does one last perimeter check of the locks and security system before leaving for the week. “We’re just shipping him down there, so that’s fine for now. Trust me, we’ll let Nana and The Cousins do all the hard work prying him outta that shell.”
I don’t feel like cutting this wall of text so… yeah just in case…
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS FOR LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION THROUGH EPISODE 16.
CLICK AWAY NOW IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.
All in all, it was really enjoyable – the original series was 10/10 for me most of the time but this one got more a 8.5/10.
I liked the plots and all but sometimes the writing was a bit looser than it was in the original. There was more reliance on the Idiot Ball, usually played for dramatic points, which seemed… I dunno, it just didn’t feel as Leverage-y to me.
The most obvious problem is the distinct lack of Hardison. This isn’t something that could have been helped due to Aldis Hodge’s schedule and commitments. Dude’s star is rising and he is on fire right now and frankly, I’m just glad he was in the three episodes we got.
Even so the show made pretty damn good use of Hardison’s spirit to ensure he was still very much part of the fabric of the show without physically being there, much like the original Leverage did with Sophie’s absence in season 2 due to Gina Bellman’s pregnancy.
For the OT3, Hardison is a very important emotional anchor point. Without him, Parker and Eliot are both less balanced. For the audience, it’s harder to get into their heads without Hardison there to act as the mediary.
Even so, it was nice seeing all the Eliot and Parker team ups, which is something that they did not get to do as much of in the original series. Parker is now a very capable hitter in her own right and she was taking out people with and without Eliot. They are without a doubt two of the most dangerous people in Leverage: Redemption.
In group shots, it is usually Eliot next to Parker and vice versa. When in action, they are shown as very in sync with one another’s movements and actions, gesturing to someone/thing or otherwise being able to finish each other’s thoughts. They are very much a dynamic that has been together for years and it shows.
Eliot and Parker have always had a very solid, platonic relationship and that’s very apparent in Redemption. She teases and pokes at Eliot relentlessly, and he lets her, as he always does, though he may growl a bit more at her and plead with her when she’s pushing him. When Breanna or Harry get confused by Parker’s parkerisms, it’s Eliot that they look to to translate her for them.
The second half of Redemption is very much a mixed bag for OT3-shippers as it simultaneously canonizes and negates the OT3 ship which… damn, bravo, I mean, I love contradictions but SERIOUSLY??
Eliot begins dating the US Marshall Maria Shipp after The Double-Edged Sword Job; first in secret, alluded to, and then admits to it in The Hurricane Job. Parker is not happy about this and makes it very clear to Eliot.
In her “drunken” spiel to help get rid of the cops, Parker complains about her “brother” having brought his girlfriend into the “family” without talking to her first. She admits later to Maria that she didn’t like her but she did now, after the job. (In typical Parker fashion, which sorta confuses Maria.)
Later, Parker then tells Eliot that she’s worried that with Maria in the picture, Eliot will want to leave the team. And he assures her that is never going to happen, putting his arm around her under the pretense that he needs her help to get back to the bar.
(Which, um, is absolute fucking bullshit, dude walked perfectly fine from the bar to where they were talking. But y’know, Eliot Spencer can’t actually admit to wanting to put his arm around Parker affectionately because he’s very clearly a FUCKING MORON OF A MAN right now so….)
From the conversations in The Hurricane Job, it’s apparent that Eliot hasn’t told Maria who/what he is and leaves it to Maria to fill in the blanks when she sees fit. Maria first tells him that he needs to let people in, which leads to their eventual undoing.
One of my biggest criticisms of a possible Eliot-Maria relationship was the fact that by virtue of Maria being law enforcement and Eliot being a vigilante, there was gonna be a very defined line and someone was going to have to cross it.
What I didn’t expect was that it would be Eliot who would do so. This is a man who considers himself a shield for his team. He protects them, he gets them out. And yet, in a moment of wanting to be honest with someone he believes he could love – if not was already actively in love with – he opens up, he’s honest.
… and it bites him in the ass.
Poor fucking Eliot.
But also, IDIOT BALL moment much? Falling in love with someone in law enforcement when he is a criminal whose past activities make him wanted in more countries than can probably be counted, whose present criminal activities may be in the service of good but are still, well, criminal, whose family (found though they may be), whom he regularly risks his life for, are also criminals, and then decides that outing himself as a criminal to that law enforcement love interest is somehow a good idea.
As Parker said, DID YOU CATCH AMNESIA?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU ELIOT.
MAJOR. IDIOT BALL. ARC. This is counter to everything that Eliot Spencer has always shown himself to be, someone who is wholly committed, for better or worse. To split that commitment is one thing but to put the family at risk is a complete other and I just FUCKING CAN’T with this.
There’s another aspect here too, and that’s the actor/creator view on the character.
From the live watch Twitter party, Christian Kane posted this which I think may be very informative of how he views Eliot:
The watch party was during The Bucket Job, probably tweeted right around the scenes when Eliot was in RIZ custody. (This is just a guess.)
Another thing to consider is where Dean Devlin and Kate Rorick see Eliot going. This was an article from TV Insider
[Transcript] What does Eliot’s failed relationship mean for how he looks at what he’s doing with Leverage?
Rorick: That relationship threw into relief for him that his job is incredibly important for him, but he actually does want to find somebody that he could share his life with, which is not something that he’s really [thought of]. It’s been just come and go before.
Devlin: Let’s face it, for better or worse, he’s the third wheel in that relationship with Parker and Hardison. [Laughs]
Rorick: Sometimes you need the third wheel for stability though.
[Transcript]
I was happy to see that bond highlighted in the finale — the “until our dying day” reminded me of the fake death in the original finale.
Devlin: That was to try and give a window of what it was like when these guys were on their own and to show that relationship — that trifecta remains as strong as ever, if not stronger.
With this in mind, I think it’s very important to note that the actors and creators interpret the OT3 very differently than the fanbase. And I think that with just about any story, this is always going to happen.
To the creators, the OT3 is safe because they’re a family unit as that’s how they have interpreted it. The idea of Eliot as a polyamorous partner may not have ever occurred to them though that is certainly how much of the fandom sees it.
Which honestly sucks for fans that have really staked their fandom on the idea of a canon, polyamorous relationship, either explicitly romantic or not.
As an OT3 fan who loves the idea of Eliot as a full member of a polyamorous, romantic triad, but who never truly expected it to become explicitly canon, this is about what I expected, realistically speaking. (Hoped for, no. But expectations, yes.)
I’m more than happy to keep my smutty, bisexual dreams of MMF threesomes in fanfic rather than in canon; but that’s just me. For me, my shipping is more about playing with relationships (and smut) and enjoying the characters and interplay rather than representation and inclusion.
However, I know that for a lot of fans, it’s a low blow, especially for those that are polyamorous and/or in queer platonic relationships themselves, as they had seen themselves in the OT3. Representation is important and to have that taken away is hurtful.
Even given Devlin and Rorick’s take, I think, at least for fanfic purposes, the idea of a true polyamorous triad is actually still plausible with limited mental gymnastics. Eliot’s thrown his lot in with the other two and I think that he realizes that but he may not realize that he has had what he’s been looking for this entire time. Yeah, it’s Season 5 pining all over again but if you wanna play it likethat, it’s very plausible for Eliot to be just that fucking stubborn.
Well actually if I were doing a Leverage soulmate au I’d make it one where they’re all actually from different backgrounds so they have different ways of finding out.
Eliot would know from true love’s first kiss. He’s always wondered what if it’s someone he killed. For a decade he remembers their names, the color of their eyes, the last thing each of them said and wonders. In his better moments he hopes he doesn’t find them, because they deserve better.
Parker always wears gloves because it’s a good idea not to leave your fingerprints everywhere when you’re a thief but also because otherwise the moment she touched her soulmate she’d leave a mark on them and they’d leave a mark on her and that’s too much, that’s permanent. She’s happier not knowing. She doesn’t need some “normal person” bringing her down and caging her in and resenting her for not fitting in to their normal boring life.
Hardison sees colors for the first time the moment he meets Eliot but he loves Parker first and spends a sleepless year, sickeningly helpless in love wondering which love he could bear to give up, can you quantify this, can you write a program that tells you the pros and the cons before he finds out that actually they’re both his. And no, he doesn’t inform anyone before he finds out.
just saying, eliot goes over to hardison and parker’s to feed them something decent, and the two are in the middle of a Teach Parker The Ways Of The Geek watch of st:tos. they are on the episode with spock’s parents. there’s the part where sarek and amanda touch fingers, and hardison excitedly tells parker about The Supreme Knowledge of vulcan hand kissing like this is important, mama. eliot tuts at him being like, the fuck that ain’t no kiss, hardison. excuse you??
“i dont know, i think its sweet,” parker says, holding her fingers to hardison who immediately taps his against hers. her gloves are gone for the night because she feels safe at home, and eliot tries desperately not to find meaning that the gloves dont reappear when he enters the room anymore.
“thank you. nice to know some people got sophistication.”
“come on. they’re just” eliot mockingly copies the movement between his two hands before shrugging full body. “that ain’t nothing.”
hardison is of course OFFENDED. he pauses the stream. “and who the hell gave you the authority to decide that?”
“trust me,” eliot says in his smarmy voice he aint been using as much in the last two years, but it comes back to hide the jolt of pain at being reminded of his soul pattern. “i know a thing or two about kisses.”
parker hums, “i think vulcans have sensitive hands.”
hardison is like, “yes! theyre touch telepaths! they are totally macking telepathically.”
“fine, ill give you vulcan magic mumbo gumbo…” eliot probably sounds more like mccoy than he would ever admit. “but what is the ambassador’s wife getting out of it? shes human, right?”
hardison is not gonna let this go. he bodily stands up and stalks over to eliot. from across the island counter dividing kitchen from living room, he holds out his index and middle fingers to eliot.
“intention, eliot. intention matters.”
“im not going to - ”
“afraid im right?”
“just do it, eliot,” parker calls from the couch. “i wanna finish the episode.”
“fine!” he copies hardison’s finger positions and touches the tips against hardison’s like how spock’s parents did in the show. he lets it linger for a bit, feeling stupid, but before he can call it off… hardison presses against him a little harder. barely noticable. then hardison slips his fingers down just a little, the pads tracking down to the first knuckle, the second… before lifting back slow and deliberate back to the starting position. he goes it again, and he has the biggest shiteating grin on his face, fuck, but this time he tracing down to the folded L of where eliot’s index falls to his thumb. hardison tucks his fingers into eliot’s palm for a second before returning up up up to their start. tips against tips.
hardison knows he has won and doesnt need to rub it in anymore than he has sunk his fingers into eliot’s hand. but the moment needs some sort of punctuation, it feels… heavy in a way he doesnt quite get, so hardison says “told you” as he finally pulls back.
eliot tries not to use his training against his crew, tries to not startle them so they can forget he ain’t quite like everyone else, not no more… but it is in less than a blink of an eye that he has got hardison’s palm clutched in his hand.
“uh. eliot?”
eliot’s stomach has dropped and his knees feel like they’re gonna fold under him and there are tears welling in his eyes and… he can only clutch harder. he never… after he saw the lovesick eyes hardison gave parker and the confused but curious looks parker gave back, eliot closed up shop on ever thinking they were his in any way he could claim his love to. but…
“intention,” eliot coughs out in a laugh.
“what?”
“oh,” parker says and she is beside them, silently having tiptoed over which eliot hadnt noticed because he is losing his entire shit. she and eliot make meaningful eye contact. “true love’s first,” she names for eliot and hardison stops trying to pull away. eliot nods in confirmation, shaken, which gets a huge smile from her.
they look to hardison as he sputters out the start of a sentence. he tries again. “i saw my colors on that first job, seeing you. parker came in so quick afterward and it was so dark so, so i never could tell if it was just you, or if your colors slipped into what she gave me, or maybe i imagined seeing the blue of your eyes before she dropped in but…”
hardison turns his hand into eliot’s and holds on.
and hell fucking yes. everything’s coming together. one thing’s missing, though (two things, really).
parker carefully reaches for the wrist of the hand eliot’s got clutching hardison. she carefully removes the wristband hes got there. now with the L of her index and her thumb, she slides a hold over eliot’s wrist knowing without looking she’s spilling a wine stain where they touch. she pulls eliot away from hardison (just for this moment) and to join the him and parker on the other side of the counter.
eliot does look down at the proof of parker’s soul pattern left on them both. hardison does as well, and yeah, okay? tears? they are a'flowing.
“hey eliot,” parker teases, “wanna show me what intentions you got for me?” she wiggles her eyebrows seductively, just to make sure he gets the message.
and when eliot swoops in to press his lips against hers, he knows just what he is finding in the kiss for the first time in his life.
If you don’t, you miss gems like this where they’re talking about the fact the show is set when it is.
JOHN ROGERS: And that’s why Parker has the line, “Eliot was very concerned.” Because Eliot would have been the one in the big, giant house that they all share where he’s all like, “Man why isn’t she callin’ us, what’s going on?”
Eliot signing autographs for his adoring public for anonymous.
Haaaaa, so here are some things i have to say about this:
Look at Hardison in that second gif, aka when he is sure that Eliot is not looking at him. Look at his pleased little smile. Look at his little thumbs up. Look at his delight at Eliot’s delight, which he of course quickly conceals once Eliot turns around, because he knows Eliot will have more fun if the more Hardison pretends to be bothered about it. Look how right he is about that. Look.
Actually though this episode contains my second least-favorite Alec Hardison character beat in the series, topped only by the horrible tipping scene (which I talked about here as an addition to an amazing post that you should read anyway, regardless of my attached rant about the horrible tipping scene, because it’s incredible). But look, okay, I am sorry, but here is the thing: this is Alec ‘Hearteyes’ Hardison we’re talking about here. Alec ‘Don’t Worry About The Cloud Of Love That Extends Around Me Six Feet In Every Direction, It’s Always Like That, There’s Just Too Much Of It To Fit Inside My Body’ Hardison. Alec ‘I Canonically Spend My Weekends Making You Guys Costumes For Potential Cons’ Hardison! Alec ‘I Love Parker And Eliot So Much That Sometimes It Is Literally Painful To Watch The Way My Face Lights Up When I Look At Them,’ Hardison, okay! That is the guy we are talking about, and there is no way that guy would ever, in one million years, walk out of a baseball game that Eliot was playing and kicking ass in. SORRY CHARLIE, THAT JUST WOULD NOT HAPPEN. Alec would be glued to his seat and shoving popcorn in his mouth while nudging the complete stranger next to him and being like, “Hey, hey! Did you see that? That amazing triple? That’s my – he’s – that’s my dude out there. That is my boy.” The ONLY reason Alec could have for walking out of a baseball game in which Eliot was playing is if he was going home to get, like, his DSLR and his decent video equipment in order to record this for posterity, or possibly because he wanted throw Eliot off the trail so he wouldn’t be expecting Alec to show up at the NEXT game, with said DSLR and video equipment, to record it for posterity. POSTERITY WOULD BE INVOLVED, THOUGH. Posterity or bust.
And this is why, in my head, there is a missing scene in The Three Strikes Job where Hardison and Parker go to one of Eliot’s game in like, super ridiculous obnoxious fan clothes, Hardison with his camera basically glued to his hand and Parker with a ring of blue cotton candy sugar around her mouth because she’s eaten like 14 of the stupid things. And they sit just behind first base, and every time Eliot comes up to bat Parker leans a little too far over the railing and screams “AY BATTER BATTER BATTER,” at the top of her lungs, and Hardison has to like, do a super shitty half-assed job of hiding his camera while Eliot glares at them. But he doesn’t actually try that hard to hide it, and Eliot isn’t doing a very good job with the hiding thing either since posterity is TOTALLY going to see all those little grins Eliot can’t quite manage to suppress, and when Hardison says to the guy next to him, “That’s my dude, okay, that’s my boy,” he doesn’t both concealing his pride even though the dude looks a little uncomfortable, especially when Parker nods happily and adds, “He’s really good at hitting stuff.” And when the game ends they wait around for Eliot in the parking lot, and he pretends he’s all mad – “You’re going to blow the con,” he says, clearly not meaning it, and then “Jesus, Parker, how many cotton candies did you eat,” which he clearly means a little more – and Hardison just grins and slings his camera bag over his shoulder, laughing outright when Parker climbs onto Eliot’s back and kisses him on the cheek, because while posterity doesn’t need Eliot’s outraged squawk of “Damn it, Parker! You’re all sticky, I swear to god, I’m telling the cotton candy vendors not to fucking serve you next time,” Alec himself is really, really enjoying it.
