Man I Used to Be #9
Title: Man I Used to Be
By: Jendavis
Rating: R
Spoilers: Up through 2x07
Pairing: Alec Hardison/ Eliot Spencer
Genre: Drama
Warnings: WIP
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't take this too seriously.
Summary: The present's a mess, and the past isn't helping.
Previous Chapters: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9
It was still dark outside, and Eliot was awake for what felt like a long time before he noticed that he wasn’t alone. Another moment passed, and Nate noticed it too.
"Eliot!" his voice rasped from the chair at the foot of the bed, but he was trying to talk quietly for some reason. "Good to see that you're awake. How're you feeling?" He rose, stepping towards the bed to stand over him.
He could feel the weight of Nate's eyes on him, pressing into every bruise, grinding over every scrape, pulling apart every cut to see deeper. The gown and bandages didn't cover it all. Too much was left open, exposed.
Eliot had never been so aware of relative positions in his life. Lying here, there wasn't any further he could get. And Nate didn't look like he was planning on stepping back.
He shook his head, as if it would offset Nate's closeness, and tried to shift, to sit up, but his ribs protested too strongly. Like he needed to give Nate any more proof of how weak he was.
"Take it easy, Eliot. We're in the clear for now, and we'll find the people who did this. Looks like two got away, and we got some information off the guard's wallet. We're on it, but I'm going to need you to tell us what happened. You up for it now?" Apparently one look told Nate all he needed to know, and he backed off apologetically. "It can wait a bit, until you're feeling up to it. No rush." He rocked on his heels, once, like he had too much energy, and Eliot wasn't giving him anywhere to go with it.
"You don't need to stay," Eliot ground out. For an opening salvo, it wasn't much, but he managed to hold Nate's eyes long enough that he should have been convinced.
"Huh?" Nate shook his head, distracted. "If someone comes after you, you're in no shape to fend them off. Besides. You, Parker and Hardison could have been killed yesterday, so…"
If he could only get free of the painkillers. Wake up properly and get out of bed, he could show Nate that everything was fine. That he had it under control. That he didn't need anyone sitting watch, staring down at him like they knew everything already.
Nate moved towards him, hand outstretched like he was preparing to shove Eliot back into bed if he had to, and Eliot hadn't even realized he'd moved.
The fact that Nate had done so, though? It was all too much.
"I'll be fine," he tried. "You don't need to lose sleep over it. I'll get out of here-"
"You're in here for a reason. And we're not leaving you alone. And it's not just because I'm. You know. Worried. I've got the others to worry about as well. And they're. Ah, you know."
"Worried."
"Right." Because you messed up, got yourself beat, Nate didn't say, but Eliot heard it anyhow. "Right. So. Ah. Go back to sleep. Rest up, and we'll get you back in the ring when you're out of here."
Nate seemed distracted, not really looking at him, but he talked a good game, he always did. But Eliot knew the score. When your hitter couldn't hit, it was time to move on. Nothing personal. Just business. It was smart, logical, and Nate knew it, but he was too much a white-hat to say so.
Nate was staring out the window, somewhat dazed, or maybe just lost in thought, and Eliot took the opportunity to study his face. His eyes were bloodshot, and needing a shave and a change of clothes, Nate looked beat to hell, like he needed the sleep more than Eliot did.
But he was still planning things out like he assumed there was still some sort of future, or and that Eliot had a place in it. Desperation, maybe, or denial.
Because it took one hell of a set of blinders to assume that Eliot would be up to the task anytime soon. Though the IV drip had run its course last night, he was becoming resigned to the fact that the other tubes might be staying in a bit longer. He didn't even want to get up, truth be told.
But he didn't want to be there, either. It was the only thing on which he and Nate agreed.
If Nate was in this much denial now, he had to wonder what he must have been like, before. Hours spent in uncomfortable waiting rooms, impatient for the doctors to give him news on his son. Another round of test results, another suggested treatment.
At least then it wasn't the kid's fault, he thought, though he wasn't so far gone that he'd say it aloud. But if Eliot hadn't fucked up, Nate wouldn't have to be here, now.
But Nate was leaving, anyway. Nodding once, he said "I'm gonna go see what the doctors have to say about Hardison."
Eliot hadn't even thought to ask about him. He stared at the ceiling, listening to his own breathing, and added one more thing he should have done differently to the list.
---
Nate was waiting outside the examination room, and smiled widely when Alec told him he was being released, but his face was weary and haggard. He looked like he'd been up all night. Probably had been, sitting in the chair, keeping watch.
Alec wished he could think of something to say that didn't relate to Nate's son. The other options, though, weren't much better. Eliot was so much on their minds that he was sure he should probably be trying to think about anything else.
Before going to see the doctor, he'd ducked his head around the curtain, just checking, and Eliot hadn't stirred.
He hadn't looked like he would be stirring any time soon, either, and even though Alec knew better, even though he'd heard the same reports from the nurses, he couldn't stop thinking about how close it had been.
It was probably the kind of thing someone should say something about, but he wasn't that guy. Nate wasn't, either. He just handed Hardison his jacket with a tired grin and headed for the parking lot. "Sophie's going to drop Parker off here," he said, pulling the car door shut. "After I get you to the hotel I'm going to head out, go track down the guard. See what he knows."
Alec nodded, waited until they'd turned out of the lot to ask, "Don't you need me riding shotgun on that?"
Nate snorted. "I caught you, didn't I? Caught up with all of you, at some point, even without having you on the line. Think I can manage one guard." His eyes slid over towards Alec as he smirked, some of the usual life showing through. "Besides. Parker got his wallet."
"But." Several arguments were boiling over in his head, but I already screwed one job up wasn't going to work in his favor, and now he was getting hung up on shouldn't Eliot be the one to go with you? Nate must have sensed it.
"Hardison. Look. You need to focus. I want you takin' it easy, but I also want you on comms, running what you can from the hotel. You took a hit yesterday-"
"And I'm fine now."
"-and we all know that you're the best one for the job."
"I ain't gonna argue with that. Just. Don't seem right, is all."
"None of this is right. But it's just a temporary thing, you know? Eliot'll be fighting his way out of there in another day or so."
Alec sighed, shook his head, and apparently Nate wasn't expecting the disagreement. "What?"
"You seriously think everything's gonna go back to normal the moment he walks out of there?"
"Not right away, but. Yeah. Look. He freaked us out, and he's probably a little freaked himself, which is something we're not going to point out to him. But. He's not made out of glass. This won't break him."
Alec wanted to agree, he really did, but he wasn't there yet. "You know that for sure?" Alec looked down at his hands, annoyed that he was asking for the confirmation, feeling like an ass for saying it out loud.
"I have to. So do you guys, and so does he." Nate cut Alec a pointed look before turning his attention back to the road.
"Hey, man, look. I hear ya, and I don't want to be the one to rain on anyone's parade, but. What if the man ain't ready to hear it?"
"We tell him anyway." Nate stated with a shrug; apparently the topic was closed. "Now look. In the meantime, Parker said you grabbed some hard drives from the warehouse?"
"Yeah man. Mostly security footage, who knows what else, if anything. But I'm on it. Soon as I get in."
"Good," Nate nodded. "Because if our guard's a bust, it's our only lead."
---
With Parker's pale face staring down at him so sadly, he wasn't sure which of them was the ghost. He still had a body that could feel pain, so he knew he was still alive, but Parker's silence told him nothing.
She got you out of there. Her and Hardison. Use your head, you know this already.
Taking a breath, because one of them had to speak, he blinked heavily and asked, "What?"
In the time it took to open his eyes again, everything had changed. Maybe it was because she'd stepped from the gray and into the light, but there was color in her face again, or maybe it was because she was just smiling. Maybe it was just motion that gave her life, but when she bounced one knee on the bed next to him, shifting the mattress and his ribs with it, pulling the blanket tautly over his bruised kidney, he felt like he was dying.
This time for sure.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, springing back as Eliot slipped and let the agony show. "I forgot. Are you alright?"
"M'fine." He swallowed thickly
"Good. That's good. I. You weren't moving much. Hardison was here too, told me you were fine, but he's gone now. Been gone a while."
"Gone?" Eliot's throat wasn't working right, and maybe his ears weren't either, because Hardison- he'd been fine, right?
"They released him a few hours ago," Parker explained. "He's probably going to have a headache for a day or so, but he's okay. Nate took him to the hotel to get changed and stuff. I brought you a present!"
Eliot blinked, trying to track her as she stepped towards the nightstand and failing. Trying to string the words together to ask for more details about Hardison, he was in no way prepared to fight the stuffed bear that she shoved into his field of vision, and would have recoiled, probably, but there was nowhere to go.
"Um. Thanks," he said, reaching up to take it, considering it more closely as if it could explain it's own existence. It didn't even explain why it was wearing a green sweater, just stared at him with dark button eyes. It was a ridiculous thing to be contemplating.
But Parker, when he glanced at her, was bouncing on her feet. "Sophie helped me pick it out. I was going to get you a horse, because I know you like those, but they only had them in blue, and there were no markers to make it look more like a real horse."
Eliot nodded, as if it made sense. Okay, so in Parker's world, horses aren't pink, but bears wear sweaters the same color as the one Hardison wore- the door slammed on the thought before he even knew it was there.
"Um. Thanks." He toyed with the idea of trying to sit up again, but his chest was still feeling twisted in knots and his shoulder was throbbing. His body felt like it was swimming as it was, and it wasn't anything he wanted to think about. Instead, he sighed, blinking against another rush of cold oxygen hissing straight for his brain. He felt lightheaded again, but he needed to know. Taking another deep breath, he found the air to ask, "What's going on?"
Parker scowled, apparently thinking it over. "Nate said that we're supposed to let you recover, not to bother you with things to worry about."
Distracted by sudden vertigo, he almost missed her answer, and it took him a few moments to parse it. She'd just told him two things. One, that there were things to worry about, and two, that they thought he couldn't handle them.
If his distress showed, and Lord, he hoped it didn't, Parker didn't notice. She was already on the other side of the room, which seemed to be falling further away. He could hear her voice calling for a nurse, but he couldn't figure out why.
---
Nate was just arriving at the address he'd gotten of the guard's ID card, and it was about damned time. It had taken him long enough to get out there that Alec had already scanned the photos he'd grabbed from Eliot's cell, started the facial recognition program, and started in on the hard drives. Nothing too deep, just surveying.
The first, the one that had actually been plugged into the computer, contained all the security footage from the warehouse. Unedited live feeds of the parking lots, the hallways, and the room where they'd kept Eliot.
The second hard drive apparently served as an archive. A quick perusal gave him little more than hundreds of hours of Eliot's suffering. It didn't look edited, but there were breaks in the footage, minutes missing here and there where the camera had probably been turned off. It wasn't the most elaborate setup he'd ever seen. The system, from what little he could see of it, was the kind of thing an underpaid guard could be trained to handle, no problem.
Aside from tying the bombs to the system, if his suspicions regarding the computer's wiring job were anything to go by. For all he knew, removing the connected drive from the computer could have set it off. Great.
He'd check it out more completely later, try to enhance what little he had. The information he wanted, their best chance at getting the sniper on camera, was probably back on the first drive.
There wasn't anything he could do to figure it out now, even if he did want to go back and sort through the rubble. Hopefully, the outside footage outside would tell him everything he needed to know.
But for the moment, everything he needed to know right now was beginning to come over the comms. Nate had arrived.
"I'm here," he said, and a car door slammed shut. "Going in now."
"You know how you're going to play it?"
"Depends who opens the door." A few moments passed in near silence, and then Nate was talking to someone.
"Is this the Geffin residence?" There was a pause, muted words that the microphone didn't pick up. "It is. Ah," Nate was about to start talking his line, but he'd been interrupted.
Alec sat up a little straighter, closing his eyes to hear, cursing the world for making him sit in a room miles away from disaster, unable to do anything but take it in. It was starting to wear on him.
Nate's tone, when he spoke again, was surprised, disappointed. "Oh. I. Well. I must admit, this is a shock. Ah. I'm sorry for your loss. Ah. No, I don't want to interfere, I just. What? Oh, no. I." Alec could almost hear the other voice, female. "No, that's okay. I'm guessing right now you're not too interested in listening to canvassers talking about the city council elections. I don't want to disturb you more than I already have, I. I'll just be on my way."
Alec glared at the ceiling in annoyance, and listened to the car door slam shut again. A moment later, Nate spoke. "Apparently, Shane Geffin died yesterday. I just spoke to his wife."
"Shit." Alec shook his head, ignoring the dull throbbing that was setting in again, and pulled up his browser, pulling down the headlines. "They found his body in the rubble after a gas line exploded at a warehouse on the North side."
"You sure you saw him leaving?"
Alec rolled his eyes, forced himself to unclench his fist. "Yes, and he was running away from the building, or, more accurately, away from Parker, who is quite terrifying with a gun in her hands." His eyes traced the path Geffin had taken across the security footage, once, back, and again, but something wasn't quite adding up.
"Looks like someone's cleaning up after themselves."
"Uh huh." Alec checked the time stamp in the corner of the screen, and felt the floor begin to drop out from under him. He must have made a sound, because Nate was asking, "Hardison. What is it?"
I fucked up. Big time. "Still got that wallet on you?"
"Yeah. IDs, credit cards, business cards. Think you can get anywhere with them?" Nate asked, already knowing the answer.
"Ain't got no choice," Alec said, trying to think, trying to work around the edges and find a way through. This can't be happening. "Hey. Ah. You know how we busted Eliot out?"
"I'm aware, yes."
"Nah, man. I mean. You know how."
"Not the specifics."
"Well I might have some bad news. Gonna keep looking, but." Alec "In order to get in there, I had to make sure the security cameras didn't see us."
"Right."
"So I looped some footage and fed it to the system. The thing is," Alec swallowed and wondered if he was going to be sick. "While it was doing that, the computer wasn't actually getting any information from the cameras."
"That's good, isn't it?"
"Normally? Yes, that's excellent. But think about it. The one timeframe where the cameras definitely would have picked up someone, say, for example, a man with a rifle, moving around outside?"
"Hardison," Nate sighed. Alec could see him pinching the bridge of his nose from here. "You're telling me you got nothing but your own fake footage?"
"Ah. Yeah. That's what I'm telling you," Alec stared at the wall and waited for the hammer to fall. But it never came. Nate remained silent enough that Alec could hear his footsteps as he made his way back to the car. "Yo, Nate. I'm really damn sorry, I know I messed up. Wasn't thinking ahead, didn't think it through, I-"
"Hardison, shut up."
And here it comes, Alec thought, glad that no one else was on the line to hear whatever was coming next. Should have planned it out better, should have seen this. Should have known.
"You got Eliot out. That's what matters. We've got other avenues we can take for the rest of it, all right?"
Alec nodded to the empty hotel room, wishing he had Nate's optimism. "All right. Yeah."
---
The X-rays told him what he'd been wanting to believe anyway. Not broken, just fractured. Even so, the doctor explained, while they were going to lower the stream of oxygen, she wanted to keep the canulla in for another day or so, and she wasn't letting him out of there on his own feet any time soon.
"We don't want you stressing your body any more than you have to, right now," she explained, apparently preferring mental stress as a treatment method. The indignities were starting to pile up, and the worst of them?
The fact that he was too messed up to fight them. Eliot let them shift him back onto the gurney, and managed to keep from reacting when, a while later, she told him that the catheter had to stay in at least until his next batch of test results had come in.
He thought, for a moment, that maybe his head was sorting itself out, getting itself back together, because he knew, even before he saw her, that Sophie would be waiting in his room when they rolled him through the door.
Mercifully, the nurses politely asked her to wait outside while they got him settled. At least she wouldn't be there to watch. He had a few minutes to prepare for the onslaught.
Any thoughts that they'd help evaporated the moment she opened her mouth.
"Oh, Eliot," she began, stepping into his line of sight with a sad look on her face. "Poor thing."
If he smiled strongly enough, he could probably throw her off the scent.
It didn't seem to work, though. Her smile only grew more watery, and she began rambling,
"You had us worried sick, you know. It was a mess. No one was sleeping right, and it seemed like everything was going to fall apart." She sniffed. "But you're here now, and you're going to get better."
"That's right, ma'am." It hurt to cough, but it beat the alternative. He couldn't spare the breath to tell her that really, he wasn't up to meeting her expectations.
---
After lunch, Alec went to Nate's room to retrieve the guard's wallet, before heading back down the hall to his room.
He wasn't even surprised to see Parker standing in the middle of it when he arrived.
"Hey. What's up, girl?"
"Nothing. I just woke up, and wanted to see what was happening."
"Ah. The footage was a bust. Just about to get started tracing Geffin's accounts."
"Cool," Parker nodded, distracted, looking at his computer. "Find anything yet?"
"No. Should have more info in a few hours. Right now, I got nothing but two handfuls of nothing." He thought that was the end of it, that Parker would leave.
But she was never that great at following cues. She didn't move an inch. Didn't seem to know where to go. Instead she shot distressed and wary glances at Alec out of the corner of her eye. He didn't have the time to parse their meaning. Every moment he waited, more information was falling into cracks somewhere. Her body language, though. That, Alec understood.
"Yo, Parker. You want to hang out, put the TV on while I work or something?"
Parker nodded, and paused like she was about to say something, but instead, she sat down on the chair at the other side of the too-small table. "If it's okay, I'd rather just watch you. Work." I don't want to be alone right now.
---
Eliot woke to muffled music and the clicking of keys, and opened his eyes to find Hardison lounging on the chair, legs thrown over the armrest, nodding his head under his earphones.
Intent on the screen, he was playing that stupid game of his, or maybe crashing the stock exchange. Apart from the surroundings, he looked as content as he always did.
Scratch that. He didn't always look so relaxed. Not when he was on his knees on a basement floor, checking for injuries, or when scrambling across the parking lot trying to get them to safety. Now, though, there didn't seem to be any stress creasing his face.
Didn't mean it wasn't weird, being in the same room as him.
He was just getting around to thinking about saying something, talking himself into attracting his attention, when Hardison happened to glance over. Springing into motion, he scrambled to get his headphones off while sitting up, nearly knocking his computer over in the process, but he didn't stand.
"Eliot. Yo, hey man. How're you feeling?"
"Fine," Eliot lied, suddenly feeling buried under the weight of Hardison's assessment. "Considering," he amended.
Hardison nodded awkwardly. "That's cool, man. Uh. I'm just working on tracking the people that did. All this. You feelin' up to telling me what you know?"
"Don't know much of anything." It wasn't an entire lie, he just didn't know where to start. Eliot glanced at the wall, wishing that the windows weren't frosted over, wanting to be able to see outside. "Head's still…"
"Right, right. I'll give you some time. Sorry. You need anything?" he trailed off, awkwardly, his eyes retreating back to the screen for a scant second, like he was itching to get back to work.
Eliot considered the offer, wishing he had the energy to sit up and take stock, but the painkillers they'd given him were starting, probably a bit too well. He barely noticed the catheter that was stuck to him, and realized glumly that there was probably a good chance that Hardison already knew it was there. "Nah," he decided. "I'm good."
"Cool." Hardison settled back in his chair for a minute, resettling his laptop, but something stopped him in his movement. "You. Ah. If you want, I can go move out into the hall. Y'know, if the noise," he nodded down to his computer, "is bugging you. Ain't tryin' to bother you, so let me know, and I'll jet."
I could leave you alone in here.
If he looked uncomfortable, it was easily passed off as reacting to the canulla irritating his nose as he shook his head. The noise hadn't bothered him that much, not really. Hardison hadn't, either, when he hadn't been looking. Eliot's eyes were getting heavy again. "Nah. Think I'm gonna pass out again."
"You do that," Hardison snorted, laughing quietly.
Eliot hadn't heard that sound in weeks. It was relaxing.
Eliot drifted off to the sound of typing, and a few minutes later, he could almost hear Hardison's music. He kind of hoped it would still be there when he woke up.
---
Chapter 10
By: Jendavis
Rating: R
Spoilers: Up through 2x07
Pairing: Alec Hardison/ Eliot Spencer
Genre: Drama
Warnings: WIP
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't take this too seriously.
Summary: The present's a mess, and the past isn't helping.
Previous Chapters: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Chapter 9
It was still dark outside, and Eliot was awake for what felt like a long time before he noticed that he wasn’t alone. Another moment passed, and Nate noticed it too.
"Eliot!" his voice rasped from the chair at the foot of the bed, but he was trying to talk quietly for some reason. "Good to see that you're awake. How're you feeling?" He rose, stepping towards the bed to stand over him.
He could feel the weight of Nate's eyes on him, pressing into every bruise, grinding over every scrape, pulling apart every cut to see deeper. The gown and bandages didn't cover it all. Too much was left open, exposed.
Eliot had never been so aware of relative positions in his life. Lying here, there wasn't any further he could get. And Nate didn't look like he was planning on stepping back.
He shook his head, as if it would offset Nate's closeness, and tried to shift, to sit up, but his ribs protested too strongly. Like he needed to give Nate any more proof of how weak he was.
"Take it easy, Eliot. We're in the clear for now, and we'll find the people who did this. Looks like two got away, and we got some information off the guard's wallet. We're on it, but I'm going to need you to tell us what happened. You up for it now?" Apparently one look told Nate all he needed to know, and he backed off apologetically. "It can wait a bit, until you're feeling up to it. No rush." He rocked on his heels, once, like he had too much energy, and Eliot wasn't giving him anywhere to go with it.
"You don't need to stay," Eliot ground out. For an opening salvo, it wasn't much, but he managed to hold Nate's eyes long enough that he should have been convinced.
"Huh?" Nate shook his head, distracted. "If someone comes after you, you're in no shape to fend them off. Besides. You, Parker and Hardison could have been killed yesterday, so…"
If he could only get free of the painkillers. Wake up properly and get out of bed, he could show Nate that everything was fine. That he had it under control. That he didn't need anyone sitting watch, staring down at him like they knew everything already.
Nate moved towards him, hand outstretched like he was preparing to shove Eliot back into bed if he had to, and Eliot hadn't even realized he'd moved.
The fact that Nate had done so, though? It was all too much.
"I'll be fine," he tried. "You don't need to lose sleep over it. I'll get out of here-"
"You're in here for a reason. And we're not leaving you alone. And it's not just because I'm. You know. Worried. I've got the others to worry about as well. And they're. Ah, you know."
"Worried."
"Right." Because you messed up, got yourself beat, Nate didn't say, but Eliot heard it anyhow. "Right. So. Ah. Go back to sleep. Rest up, and we'll get you back in the ring when you're out of here."
Nate seemed distracted, not really looking at him, but he talked a good game, he always did. But Eliot knew the score. When your hitter couldn't hit, it was time to move on. Nothing personal. Just business. It was smart, logical, and Nate knew it, but he was too much a white-hat to say so.
Nate was staring out the window, somewhat dazed, or maybe just lost in thought, and Eliot took the opportunity to study his face. His eyes were bloodshot, and needing a shave and a change of clothes, Nate looked beat to hell, like he needed the sleep more than Eliot did.
But he was still planning things out like he assumed there was still some sort of future, or and that Eliot had a place in it. Desperation, maybe, or denial.
Because it took one hell of a set of blinders to assume that Eliot would be up to the task anytime soon. Though the IV drip had run its course last night, he was becoming resigned to the fact that the other tubes might be staying in a bit longer. He didn't even want to get up, truth be told.
But he didn't want to be there, either. It was the only thing on which he and Nate agreed.
If Nate was in this much denial now, he had to wonder what he must have been like, before. Hours spent in uncomfortable waiting rooms, impatient for the doctors to give him news on his son. Another round of test results, another suggested treatment.
At least then it wasn't the kid's fault, he thought, though he wasn't so far gone that he'd say it aloud. But if Eliot hadn't fucked up, Nate wouldn't have to be here, now.
But Nate was leaving, anyway. Nodding once, he said "I'm gonna go see what the doctors have to say about Hardison."
Eliot hadn't even thought to ask about him. He stared at the ceiling, listening to his own breathing, and added one more thing he should have done differently to the list.
---
Nate was waiting outside the examination room, and smiled widely when Alec told him he was being released, but his face was weary and haggard. He looked like he'd been up all night. Probably had been, sitting in the chair, keeping watch.
Alec wished he could think of something to say that didn't relate to Nate's son. The other options, though, weren't much better. Eliot was so much on their minds that he was sure he should probably be trying to think about anything else.
Before going to see the doctor, he'd ducked his head around the curtain, just checking, and Eliot hadn't stirred.
He hadn't looked like he would be stirring any time soon, either, and even though Alec knew better, even though he'd heard the same reports from the nurses, he couldn't stop thinking about how close it had been.
It was probably the kind of thing someone should say something about, but he wasn't that guy. Nate wasn't, either. He just handed Hardison his jacket with a tired grin and headed for the parking lot. "Sophie's going to drop Parker off here," he said, pulling the car door shut. "After I get you to the hotel I'm going to head out, go track down the guard. See what he knows."
Alec nodded, waited until they'd turned out of the lot to ask, "Don't you need me riding shotgun on that?"
Nate snorted. "I caught you, didn't I? Caught up with all of you, at some point, even without having you on the line. Think I can manage one guard." His eyes slid over towards Alec as he smirked, some of the usual life showing through. "Besides. Parker got his wallet."
"But." Several arguments were boiling over in his head, but I already screwed one job up wasn't going to work in his favor, and now he was getting hung up on shouldn't Eliot be the one to go with you? Nate must have sensed it.
"Hardison. Look. You need to focus. I want you takin' it easy, but I also want you on comms, running what you can from the hotel. You took a hit yesterday-"
"And I'm fine now."
"-and we all know that you're the best one for the job."
"I ain't gonna argue with that. Just. Don't seem right, is all."
"None of this is right. But it's just a temporary thing, you know? Eliot'll be fighting his way out of there in another day or so."
Alec sighed, shook his head, and apparently Nate wasn't expecting the disagreement. "What?"
"You seriously think everything's gonna go back to normal the moment he walks out of there?"
"Not right away, but. Yeah. Look. He freaked us out, and he's probably a little freaked himself, which is something we're not going to point out to him. But. He's not made out of glass. This won't break him."
Alec wanted to agree, he really did, but he wasn't there yet. "You know that for sure?" Alec looked down at his hands, annoyed that he was asking for the confirmation, feeling like an ass for saying it out loud.
"I have to. So do you guys, and so does he." Nate cut Alec a pointed look before turning his attention back to the road.
"Hey, man, look. I hear ya, and I don't want to be the one to rain on anyone's parade, but. What if the man ain't ready to hear it?"
"We tell him anyway." Nate stated with a shrug; apparently the topic was closed. "Now look. In the meantime, Parker said you grabbed some hard drives from the warehouse?"
"Yeah man. Mostly security footage, who knows what else, if anything. But I'm on it. Soon as I get in."
"Good," Nate nodded. "Because if our guard's a bust, it's our only lead."
---
With Parker's pale face staring down at him so sadly, he wasn't sure which of them was the ghost. He still had a body that could feel pain, so he knew he was still alive, but Parker's silence told him nothing.
She got you out of there. Her and Hardison. Use your head, you know this already.
Taking a breath, because one of them had to speak, he blinked heavily and asked, "What?"
In the time it took to open his eyes again, everything had changed. Maybe it was because she'd stepped from the gray and into the light, but there was color in her face again, or maybe it was because she was just smiling. Maybe it was just motion that gave her life, but when she bounced one knee on the bed next to him, shifting the mattress and his ribs with it, pulling the blanket tautly over his bruised kidney, he felt like he was dying.
This time for sure.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, springing back as Eliot slipped and let the agony show. "I forgot. Are you alright?"
"M'fine." He swallowed thickly
"Good. That's good. I. You weren't moving much. Hardison was here too, told me you were fine, but he's gone now. Been gone a while."
"Gone?" Eliot's throat wasn't working right, and maybe his ears weren't either, because Hardison- he'd been fine, right?
"They released him a few hours ago," Parker explained. "He's probably going to have a headache for a day or so, but he's okay. Nate took him to the hotel to get changed and stuff. I brought you a present!"
Eliot blinked, trying to track her as she stepped towards the nightstand and failing. Trying to string the words together to ask for more details about Hardison, he was in no way prepared to fight the stuffed bear that she shoved into his field of vision, and would have recoiled, probably, but there was nowhere to go.
"Um. Thanks," he said, reaching up to take it, considering it more closely as if it could explain it's own existence. It didn't even explain why it was wearing a green sweater, just stared at him with dark button eyes. It was a ridiculous thing to be contemplating.
But Parker, when he glanced at her, was bouncing on her feet. "Sophie helped me pick it out. I was going to get you a horse, because I know you like those, but they only had them in blue, and there were no markers to make it look more like a real horse."
Eliot nodded, as if it made sense. Okay, so in Parker's world, horses aren't pink, but bears wear sweaters the same color as the one Hardison wore- the door slammed on the thought before he even knew it was there.
"Um. Thanks." He toyed with the idea of trying to sit up again, but his chest was still feeling twisted in knots and his shoulder was throbbing. His body felt like it was swimming as it was, and it wasn't anything he wanted to think about. Instead, he sighed, blinking against another rush of cold oxygen hissing straight for his brain. He felt lightheaded again, but he needed to know. Taking another deep breath, he found the air to ask, "What's going on?"
Parker scowled, apparently thinking it over. "Nate said that we're supposed to let you recover, not to bother you with things to worry about."
Distracted by sudden vertigo, he almost missed her answer, and it took him a few moments to parse it. She'd just told him two things. One, that there were things to worry about, and two, that they thought he couldn't handle them.
If his distress showed, and Lord, he hoped it didn't, Parker didn't notice. She was already on the other side of the room, which seemed to be falling further away. He could hear her voice calling for a nurse, but he couldn't figure out why.
---
Nate was just arriving at the address he'd gotten of the guard's ID card, and it was about damned time. It had taken him long enough to get out there that Alec had already scanned the photos he'd grabbed from Eliot's cell, started the facial recognition program, and started in on the hard drives. Nothing too deep, just surveying.
The first, the one that had actually been plugged into the computer, contained all the security footage from the warehouse. Unedited live feeds of the parking lots, the hallways, and the room where they'd kept Eliot.
The second hard drive apparently served as an archive. A quick perusal gave him little more than hundreds of hours of Eliot's suffering. It didn't look edited, but there were breaks in the footage, minutes missing here and there where the camera had probably been turned off. It wasn't the most elaborate setup he'd ever seen. The system, from what little he could see of it, was the kind of thing an underpaid guard could be trained to handle, no problem.
Aside from tying the bombs to the system, if his suspicions regarding the computer's wiring job were anything to go by. For all he knew, removing the connected drive from the computer could have set it off. Great.
He'd check it out more completely later, try to enhance what little he had. The information he wanted, their best chance at getting the sniper on camera, was probably back on the first drive.
There wasn't anything he could do to figure it out now, even if he did want to go back and sort through the rubble. Hopefully, the outside footage outside would tell him everything he needed to know.
But for the moment, everything he needed to know right now was beginning to come over the comms. Nate had arrived.
"I'm here," he said, and a car door slammed shut. "Going in now."
"You know how you're going to play it?"
"Depends who opens the door." A few moments passed in near silence, and then Nate was talking to someone.
"Is this the Geffin residence?" There was a pause, muted words that the microphone didn't pick up. "It is. Ah," Nate was about to start talking his line, but he'd been interrupted.
Alec sat up a little straighter, closing his eyes to hear, cursing the world for making him sit in a room miles away from disaster, unable to do anything but take it in. It was starting to wear on him.
Nate's tone, when he spoke again, was surprised, disappointed. "Oh. I. Well. I must admit, this is a shock. Ah. I'm sorry for your loss. Ah. No, I don't want to interfere, I just. What? Oh, no. I." Alec could almost hear the other voice, female. "No, that's okay. I'm guessing right now you're not too interested in listening to canvassers talking about the city council elections. I don't want to disturb you more than I already have, I. I'll just be on my way."
Alec glared at the ceiling in annoyance, and listened to the car door slam shut again. A moment later, Nate spoke. "Apparently, Shane Geffin died yesterday. I just spoke to his wife."
"Shit." Alec shook his head, ignoring the dull throbbing that was setting in again, and pulled up his browser, pulling down the headlines. "They found his body in the rubble after a gas line exploded at a warehouse on the North side."
"You sure you saw him leaving?"
Alec rolled his eyes, forced himself to unclench his fist. "Yes, and he was running away from the building, or, more accurately, away from Parker, who is quite terrifying with a gun in her hands." His eyes traced the path Geffin had taken across the security footage, once, back, and again, but something wasn't quite adding up.
"Looks like someone's cleaning up after themselves."
"Uh huh." Alec checked the time stamp in the corner of the screen, and felt the floor begin to drop out from under him. He must have made a sound, because Nate was asking, "Hardison. What is it?"
I fucked up. Big time. "Still got that wallet on you?"
"Yeah. IDs, credit cards, business cards. Think you can get anywhere with them?" Nate asked, already knowing the answer.
"Ain't got no choice," Alec said, trying to think, trying to work around the edges and find a way through. This can't be happening. "Hey. Ah. You know how we busted Eliot out?"
"I'm aware, yes."
"Nah, man. I mean. You know how."
"Not the specifics."
"Well I might have some bad news. Gonna keep looking, but." Alec "In order to get in there, I had to make sure the security cameras didn't see us."
"Right."
"So I looped some footage and fed it to the system. The thing is," Alec swallowed and wondered if he was going to be sick. "While it was doing that, the computer wasn't actually getting any information from the cameras."
"That's good, isn't it?"
"Normally? Yes, that's excellent. But think about it. The one timeframe where the cameras definitely would have picked up someone, say, for example, a man with a rifle, moving around outside?"
"Hardison," Nate sighed. Alec could see him pinching the bridge of his nose from here. "You're telling me you got nothing but your own fake footage?"
"Ah. Yeah. That's what I'm telling you," Alec stared at the wall and waited for the hammer to fall. But it never came. Nate remained silent enough that Alec could hear his footsteps as he made his way back to the car. "Yo, Nate. I'm really damn sorry, I know I messed up. Wasn't thinking ahead, didn't think it through, I-"
"Hardison, shut up."
And here it comes, Alec thought, glad that no one else was on the line to hear whatever was coming next. Should have planned it out better, should have seen this. Should have known.
"You got Eliot out. That's what matters. We've got other avenues we can take for the rest of it, all right?"
Alec nodded to the empty hotel room, wishing he had Nate's optimism. "All right. Yeah."
---
The X-rays told him what he'd been wanting to believe anyway. Not broken, just fractured. Even so, the doctor explained, while they were going to lower the stream of oxygen, she wanted to keep the canulla in for another day or so, and she wasn't letting him out of there on his own feet any time soon.
"We don't want you stressing your body any more than you have to, right now," she explained, apparently preferring mental stress as a treatment method. The indignities were starting to pile up, and the worst of them?
The fact that he was too messed up to fight them. Eliot let them shift him back onto the gurney, and managed to keep from reacting when, a while later, she told him that the catheter had to stay in at least until his next batch of test results had come in.
He thought, for a moment, that maybe his head was sorting itself out, getting itself back together, because he knew, even before he saw her, that Sophie would be waiting in his room when they rolled him through the door.
Mercifully, the nurses politely asked her to wait outside while they got him settled. At least she wouldn't be there to watch. He had a few minutes to prepare for the onslaught.
Any thoughts that they'd help evaporated the moment she opened her mouth.
"Oh, Eliot," she began, stepping into his line of sight with a sad look on her face. "Poor thing."
If he smiled strongly enough, he could probably throw her off the scent.
It didn't seem to work, though. Her smile only grew more watery, and she began rambling,
"You had us worried sick, you know. It was a mess. No one was sleeping right, and it seemed like everything was going to fall apart." She sniffed. "But you're here now, and you're going to get better."
"That's right, ma'am." It hurt to cough, but it beat the alternative. He couldn't spare the breath to tell her that really, he wasn't up to meeting her expectations.
---
After lunch, Alec went to Nate's room to retrieve the guard's wallet, before heading back down the hall to his room.
He wasn't even surprised to see Parker standing in the middle of it when he arrived.
"Hey. What's up, girl?"
"Nothing. I just woke up, and wanted to see what was happening."
"Ah. The footage was a bust. Just about to get started tracing Geffin's accounts."
"Cool," Parker nodded, distracted, looking at his computer. "Find anything yet?"
"No. Should have more info in a few hours. Right now, I got nothing but two handfuls of nothing." He thought that was the end of it, that Parker would leave.
But she was never that great at following cues. She didn't move an inch. Didn't seem to know where to go. Instead she shot distressed and wary glances at Alec out of the corner of her eye. He didn't have the time to parse their meaning. Every moment he waited, more information was falling into cracks somewhere. Her body language, though. That, Alec understood.
"Yo, Parker. You want to hang out, put the TV on while I work or something?"
Parker nodded, and paused like she was about to say something, but instead, she sat down on the chair at the other side of the too-small table. "If it's okay, I'd rather just watch you. Work." I don't want to be alone right now.
---
Eliot woke to muffled music and the clicking of keys, and opened his eyes to find Hardison lounging on the chair, legs thrown over the armrest, nodding his head under his earphones.
Intent on the screen, he was playing that stupid game of his, or maybe crashing the stock exchange. Apart from the surroundings, he looked as content as he always did.
Scratch that. He didn't always look so relaxed. Not when he was on his knees on a basement floor, checking for injuries, or when scrambling across the parking lot trying to get them to safety. Now, though, there didn't seem to be any stress creasing his face.
Didn't mean it wasn't weird, being in the same room as him.
He was just getting around to thinking about saying something, talking himself into attracting his attention, when Hardison happened to glance over. Springing into motion, he scrambled to get his headphones off while sitting up, nearly knocking his computer over in the process, but he didn't stand.
"Eliot. Yo, hey man. How're you feeling?"
"Fine," Eliot lied, suddenly feeling buried under the weight of Hardison's assessment. "Considering," he amended.
Hardison nodded awkwardly. "That's cool, man. Uh. I'm just working on tracking the people that did. All this. You feelin' up to telling me what you know?"
"Don't know much of anything." It wasn't an entire lie, he just didn't know where to start. Eliot glanced at the wall, wishing that the windows weren't frosted over, wanting to be able to see outside. "Head's still…"
"Right, right. I'll give you some time. Sorry. You need anything?" he trailed off, awkwardly, his eyes retreating back to the screen for a scant second, like he was itching to get back to work.
Eliot considered the offer, wishing he had the energy to sit up and take stock, but the painkillers they'd given him were starting, probably a bit too well. He barely noticed the catheter that was stuck to him, and realized glumly that there was probably a good chance that Hardison already knew it was there. "Nah," he decided. "I'm good."
"Cool." Hardison settled back in his chair for a minute, resettling his laptop, but something stopped him in his movement. "You. Ah. If you want, I can go move out into the hall. Y'know, if the noise," he nodded down to his computer, "is bugging you. Ain't tryin' to bother you, so let me know, and I'll jet."
I could leave you alone in here.
If he looked uncomfortable, it was easily passed off as reacting to the canulla irritating his nose as he shook his head. The noise hadn't bothered him that much, not really. Hardison hadn't, either, when he hadn't been looking. Eliot's eyes were getting heavy again. "Nah. Think I'm gonna pass out again."
"You do that," Hardison snorted, laughing quietly.
Eliot hadn't heard that sound in weeks. It was relaxing.
Eliot drifted off to the sound of typing, and a few minutes later, he could almost hear Hardison's music. He kind of hoped it would still be there when he woke up.
---
Chapter 10