Back Injury (or The Reading Job)
Back Injury (Or the Reading Job)
“I’m fine.”
“Like hell you are. Just lay back Nate and let me help you.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me Eliot. I’m fine.”
Eliot smiled as he took a seat at the chair by Nate’s bed, watching as the other man scowled at him. It was only three months ago that he was the one in the bed telling Nate not to babysit him. Six months since that stinted attempt to befriend Nate and Eliot still hadn’t given up on it. He had been about ready too really, but then he’d got hurt and he realized Nate was starting to let him in little by little. He knew it was hard for him, knew that Nate had lost everything and still grieved for that. He still hadn’t accepted his new life really, for all that Black Knight Chess crap that Sophie was feeding him. Making friends with the crooks he’d once chased was far closer to acceptance than he was willing to go just yet.
Still, Eliot wasn’t going to leave Nate to deal with this on his own. He’d been surprised to get the call, surprised that Nate’s current ‘next of kin’ contact had at some point been changed to him. It made sense because Nate wouldn’t want to explain any Leverage related injuries to anyone outside of them, but he hadn’t known Nate was doing it. He would have thought he’d want Sophie as contact. But he was there now and even if it wasn’t a job related injury he was going to help Nate out. Like it or not, that was the kind of man that Eliot was and Nate had already learned, they’d all learned really, that once Eliot was a part of something that’s all there was to it. 100% was the only way he knew how to do something.
“You just need to rest Nate. Doc says if you don’t you might aggravate the swelling around the spine and then you’ll be in for some serious trouble. You don’t want to mess with your spine Nate so just sit back and let me fetch and carry for a bit.”
“That mean you’ll fetch my slippers and paper and sit and let me scratch behind your ears?”
Eliot growled a bit, which wasn’t helping much but Nate was being a jackass about it all, hoping to send him away. “I am your spaniel.” Eliot quoted, sure that he’d be surprising Nate by this bit and hoping it would stop his need to get rid of him. “The more you beat me, I will fawn on you. Use me - but as your spaniel. Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me, but give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.”
Nate’s eyes widened and he let out a sharp laugh. “You can quote Shakespeare?”
Eliot shrugged. He had a good head on his shoulders and even if he wasn’t into the high tech gadgetry like Hardison was, he enjoyed reading. Hell, there was a lot of time for it in his line of work. Get to a place early enough to make sure there were no double tricks, no surprises waiting for you and you had time to kill. And considering his day job didn’t really lend itself to having close friends, he had a lot of personal time to kill as well.
“I can read you know.”
“Yeah, I just never thought-”
“You figured me for the non-fiction type?”
“I figured you for the gym type, not the library type.”
And he could see Nate working it out in his head, trying to incorporate this new information into the overall idea of who Nate thought Eliot was.
“Not that I don’t spend a good amount of time in the gym,” Eliot said with a smile, “but I don’t want to get so big that I lose speed. It’s far more important to me than muscle mass. So only so much time in the gym and books are a good way to spend some time.”
Nate nodded, his eyes shutting slightly and Eliot knew the pain meds were finally kicking in and that Nate would be asleep soon enough. Damn car accident. He’d nearly had a heart attack when he got the call from the hospital telling him that Nate had been blindsided by another vehicle.
Nate thought it was just an accident but Eliot was the paranoid type and a quick call to Hardison had the team checking in on it. Maybe it was just what it was. Or maybe it was someone trying to get to Nate. If someone came tonight though and thought to find him defenseless, they’d learn the hard way not to mess with Nathan Ford.
Eliot noticed a book on the bedside and saw that a spot was marked. He picked it up and didn’t think much about it, just started reading aloud at the new chapter. Some story about some guys named Dirk and Al and a lot of shit they got into. He wondered, as he read to Nate who still mumbled something every so often, fighting the effects of the drugs, if Nate saw a parallel in their own relationship to the men he was reading about.
Interesting story though and as long as Nate kept making those noises Eliot read aloud. In fact, he continued until much later, not knowing when Nate had fallen asleep or how long he had continued to read aloud just for the fun of it.
He set the book aside and got up to get some coffee. When he came back in Nate was tossing, not the restful sleep that he had been getting. He took another sip of his coffee, set it on the night stand beside Nate’s bed and pulled the chair closer. He took the book back up then, just to see. When he began reading Nate calmed instantly, shifting into a more comfortable position with his head turned towards Eliot. Eliot reached out and pushed his hair back from his forehead and realized his hand was shaking. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Jesus Nate, what the hell am I doing here?”
Nate didn’t answer. He seemed to settle more as Eliot spoke and Eliot wasn’t about to leave him alone. Instead he took another deep breath and sat back in the chair. He opened the book back up and started reading again.