Sometimes the Truth is Important
Title: Sometimes the Truth is Important
Author: Magpie
Rating: pg
Genre: Sophie, Nate, implied Nate/Eliot
Verse: BlackKing!WhiteKnight!Verse
Summary:Sometimes the truth is important, and sometimes a lie is needed to hold you together.
Notes: So everyone remember how we've been having a very heartwarming series of fics for a bit now? It's over. We're back to the angst in full swing here and whats more we're approaching the Three Days of the Hunter in my verse so along with Eliot and Nate Sophie will soon be joinning the angst party! Even if both my fics planed for Three Days are about as happy/cracky as this verse is likely to get. After that it's mostly back to the usual angst and small moments of heartwarming.
Sounds like I'm describing a season of Surpernatural.
This is the fourth of five parts of the "In The Shadow of a Gunman" arc. This follows Sometimes They Win, Sometimes It Helps, and Sometimes Things Go Wrong
It was late, but unlike usual Sophie couldn’t sleep.
It was annoying. She was the one on the team who had no trouble sleeping. Where Hardison’s mind never stopped moving and Nate stayed up drinking (his new caffine addiction not helping matters) and Parker refused to lie still long enough and Eliot’s constant vigilance was not conducive to rest she at least could be semi normal.
It wasn’t to say she couldn’t pull all nighters as well as the rest of them. They were thieves, and being able to operate on little or no sleep was part of the territory, but it was annoying. There was just something annoying about lieing in bed in some ungodly hour in the morning, staring up at the ceiling, trying not to think about her boyfriend who’d dumped her, or Nate who was probably sleeping with Eliot held in his arms in a way she’d only wished he’d have held her, or Whitmark and all the emotions this last case had brought up.
With an aggravated sigh she rolled her head to one side, resisting the urge to bury her head under a pillow as if it would block out the noise of her own mind. Another moment later she rolled the other way and gave up.
Some tea would sooth her nerves. She’d get dressed and then she’d plan something, a grift or a con. Something she wouldn’t actually do but it would keep her sharp and half the fun was the planning. Maybe she’d incorporate the others in her mental plan just for the challenge.
It seemed to work wonders for Nate.
So did drinking, but she was going to avoid that little possibility.
In the end that was how she ended up letting herself into Nate’s apartment at four thirty in the morning. The downstairs one, she mentally amended. She’d been fooled once but it had only take a few favored nick nacks disappearing from the apartment for Sophie to guess he and Eliot had moved in together again and it had been easy to go from there.
She was nursing a mug of tea and trying to sort through a couple files on possible clients when she came in, not really paying attention to her surroundings.
Which was why a moment later when Nate gave her a confused greeting of. “Good morning?” From the kitchen table she nearly spilled tea all over her brand new jacket as she jerked in surprise.
“God Nate, what are you doing here?” She asked, putting the things in her hands on the nearby table and trying to calm her startled nerves.
“It’s my apartment.” He said, taking a long sip of coffee. “I think the more reasonable question is what are you doing here?”
“Your apartment is on the top floor.” Sophie said, Nate didn’t seem at all surprised she knew. “This is a more relaxed version of our old offices.”
“Strange. On the lease it say I’m the one paying rent.”
Sophie shrugged, non commitably and set about reorganizing her papers and wondering if she’d still go about planning with Nate here.
What was he doing here? She glanced over at him, noticed the distracted and haggard appearance and considered. It was the look Nate got when something was really troubling him, which normally meant either Sam, Maggie, or Eliot. He’d more or less come to terms with Maggie, and Sophie had a feeling if it was Sam Eliot would be somewhere nearby to keep an eye on Nate even if he was giving the older man space.
Which meant Eliot was probably the source of tonight’s troubles. Not unusual of late. The things Eliot had been through before, during, and after Kentucky had left Nate more than a little troubled over their hitter’s well being.
It wasn’t a misplaced worry, Sophie would be the first to admit. She was the one Eliot had given the gun to in Kentucky and he’d given her the same gun again, no explanation given or needed, after the job at the hospital. It was a preparation, a request, that just in case… She’d taken it and they’d never mentioned it again. She didn’t think she’d ever need it, but it was just one more reason to keep a mental track on Eliot.
And in honesty she knew he wasn’t doing well. She was a grafter, and even if Eliot was hard to read she could read him. He was still a little lost, still fighting his way back to the present and away from the hell he’d been dragged into. She read the fatigue he was just beginning to show from chronic nightmares. She saw how he touched the others just a little bit more than he used to but there was still some hesitation, like he was trying to show the others it was okay to touch him still, even though in honesty it might not be quite yet.
And his temper that had been slowly cooling off started to flare up again. He’d nearly come to blows with Hardison in the apartment earlier for something much less severe than things he’d let slide weeks ago.
“How’s Eliot?” She asked, after the quiet lasted too long. She was settling in to her seat, settling down for whatever would come of this, trying to stay objective. Focusing on Eliot’s issues would probably be a decent way of distracting herself from her own.
“He’s fine.” Nate said without looking up from his coffee. “How are you? You still haven’t explained why you’re here at four in the morning.”
“Nate…” Sophie paused, almost taking the bait and letting this be about her. God knew she deserved a little attention, but somehow she felt like she needed to address Eliot first. Afterwards Nate could deal with her. She hesitated, finding the right words. “You know sometimes the truth’s important.” She said casually, raising her eyes to meet his across the apartment. “We’re all worried. Even Parker knows he’s not doing fine.”
Nate sighed, looking into his mug before meeting her eyes again. “He’s doing better, a little every day. It’s just taking time. He’ll be fine.” He muttered something too softly for Sophie to catch.
“What?” She asked.
“I’m just not sure he believes it.” Nate admitted.
“Then tell him that you do.” Sophie said firmly. When Nate gave her a look that told her that somewhere between lack of sleep, general emotional misery, and fatigued caused by weeks of worrying he wasn’t getting what she meant. “Tell him you know he’ll be okay. Don’t give him some clichéd speech about how time makes things better and you’ll be there for him. He won’t sit still through half of it. Don’t try to con him into being okay. Just talk.”
Nate blinked at her, understanding coming slowly but coming. She got up, and walked over to sit across from him. “You two can be bloody blind but you’ve got more in common than you think. Control is a commodity to you both, and you both know what it’s like to have it brutally ripped away. He shows it different but right now… he’s like you when this team came together. He’s trying to pull himself back together, to not suffocate under the weight of memory of what happened to him. He’s fighting to get control back and terrified he’s going to lose.” She stopped and sighed, lightly resting a comforting hand on the one of his wrapped around the mug. “You won. Now you need to tell him he will too.”
Nate let out a long breath. He was thinking, realizing, his mind processing and shifting. “I don’t know that for sure.”
She didn’t address the fact she wasn’t sure what he wasn’t sure about. She let out one long breath and pressed forward. “Sometimes the truth’s important Nate, but sometimes the truth’s what we make it. I know this much. If you believe Eliot will be alright, he’ll believe it to.”
Without another word she got up and went back over to her planning, leaving Nate to his thoughts. She told herself she was glad she could help. She told herself to feel good about the fact that she was pulling her team back together, making up a little for pulling it apart.
She told herself that after Nate left, determination on his face and the keys to the upstairs apartment already in hand, he wasn’t going upstairs to talk to Eliot. He wasn’t going to go do what he could to fix Eliot.
She told herself there weren’t a couple tears making their way down her face. It was just raining. Indoors.
Sometimes the truth was important, but sometimes a lie was needed to hold yourself together a little while longer.
Previous: Sometimes Things Go Wrong
Next: Sometimes They Lose
Author: Magpie
Rating: pg
Genre: Sophie, Nate, implied Nate/Eliot
Verse: BlackKing!WhiteKnight!Verse
Summary:Sometimes the truth is important, and sometimes a lie is needed to hold you together.
Notes: So everyone remember how we've been having a very heartwarming series of fics for a bit now? It's over. We're back to the angst in full swing here and whats more we're approaching the Three Days of the Hunter in my verse so along with Eliot and Nate Sophie will soon be joinning the angst party! Even if both my fics planed for Three Days are about as happy/cracky as this verse is likely to get. After that it's mostly back to the usual angst and small moments of heartwarming.
Sounds like I'm describing a season of Surpernatural.
This is the fourth of five parts of the "In The Shadow of a Gunman" arc. This follows Sometimes They Win, Sometimes It Helps, and Sometimes Things Go Wrong
It was late, but unlike usual Sophie couldn’t sleep.
It was annoying. She was the one on the team who had no trouble sleeping. Where Hardison’s mind never stopped moving and Nate stayed up drinking (his new caffine addiction not helping matters) and Parker refused to lie still long enough and Eliot’s constant vigilance was not conducive to rest she at least could be semi normal.
It wasn’t to say she couldn’t pull all nighters as well as the rest of them. They were thieves, and being able to operate on little or no sleep was part of the territory, but it was annoying. There was just something annoying about lieing in bed in some ungodly hour in the morning, staring up at the ceiling, trying not to think about her boyfriend who’d dumped her, or Nate who was probably sleeping with Eliot held in his arms in a way she’d only wished he’d have held her, or Whitmark and all the emotions this last case had brought up.
With an aggravated sigh she rolled her head to one side, resisting the urge to bury her head under a pillow as if it would block out the noise of her own mind. Another moment later she rolled the other way and gave up.
Some tea would sooth her nerves. She’d get dressed and then she’d plan something, a grift or a con. Something she wouldn’t actually do but it would keep her sharp and half the fun was the planning. Maybe she’d incorporate the others in her mental plan just for the challenge.
It seemed to work wonders for Nate.
So did drinking, but she was going to avoid that little possibility.
In the end that was how she ended up letting herself into Nate’s apartment at four thirty in the morning. The downstairs one, she mentally amended. She’d been fooled once but it had only take a few favored nick nacks disappearing from the apartment for Sophie to guess he and Eliot had moved in together again and it had been easy to go from there.
She was nursing a mug of tea and trying to sort through a couple files on possible clients when she came in, not really paying attention to her surroundings.
Which was why a moment later when Nate gave her a confused greeting of. “Good morning?” From the kitchen table she nearly spilled tea all over her brand new jacket as she jerked in surprise.
“God Nate, what are you doing here?” She asked, putting the things in her hands on the nearby table and trying to calm her startled nerves.
“It’s my apartment.” He said, taking a long sip of coffee. “I think the more reasonable question is what are you doing here?”
“Your apartment is on the top floor.” Sophie said, Nate didn’t seem at all surprised she knew. “This is a more relaxed version of our old offices.”
“Strange. On the lease it say I’m the one paying rent.”
Sophie shrugged, non commitably and set about reorganizing her papers and wondering if she’d still go about planning with Nate here.
What was he doing here? She glanced over at him, noticed the distracted and haggard appearance and considered. It was the look Nate got when something was really troubling him, which normally meant either Sam, Maggie, or Eliot. He’d more or less come to terms with Maggie, and Sophie had a feeling if it was Sam Eliot would be somewhere nearby to keep an eye on Nate even if he was giving the older man space.
Which meant Eliot was probably the source of tonight’s troubles. Not unusual of late. The things Eliot had been through before, during, and after Kentucky had left Nate more than a little troubled over their hitter’s well being.
It wasn’t a misplaced worry, Sophie would be the first to admit. She was the one Eliot had given the gun to in Kentucky and he’d given her the same gun again, no explanation given or needed, after the job at the hospital. It was a preparation, a request, that just in case… She’d taken it and they’d never mentioned it again. She didn’t think she’d ever need it, but it was just one more reason to keep a mental track on Eliot.
And in honesty she knew he wasn’t doing well. She was a grafter, and even if Eliot was hard to read she could read him. He was still a little lost, still fighting his way back to the present and away from the hell he’d been dragged into. She read the fatigue he was just beginning to show from chronic nightmares. She saw how he touched the others just a little bit more than he used to but there was still some hesitation, like he was trying to show the others it was okay to touch him still, even though in honesty it might not be quite yet.
And his temper that had been slowly cooling off started to flare up again. He’d nearly come to blows with Hardison in the apartment earlier for something much less severe than things he’d let slide weeks ago.
“How’s Eliot?” She asked, after the quiet lasted too long. She was settling in to her seat, settling down for whatever would come of this, trying to stay objective. Focusing on Eliot’s issues would probably be a decent way of distracting herself from her own.
“He’s fine.” Nate said without looking up from his coffee. “How are you? You still haven’t explained why you’re here at four in the morning.”
“Nate…” Sophie paused, almost taking the bait and letting this be about her. God knew she deserved a little attention, but somehow she felt like she needed to address Eliot first. Afterwards Nate could deal with her. She hesitated, finding the right words. “You know sometimes the truth’s important.” She said casually, raising her eyes to meet his across the apartment. “We’re all worried. Even Parker knows he’s not doing fine.”
Nate sighed, looking into his mug before meeting her eyes again. “He’s doing better, a little every day. It’s just taking time. He’ll be fine.” He muttered something too softly for Sophie to catch.
“What?” She asked.
“I’m just not sure he believes it.” Nate admitted.
“Then tell him that you do.” Sophie said firmly. When Nate gave her a look that told her that somewhere between lack of sleep, general emotional misery, and fatigued caused by weeks of worrying he wasn’t getting what she meant. “Tell him you know he’ll be okay. Don’t give him some clichéd speech about how time makes things better and you’ll be there for him. He won’t sit still through half of it. Don’t try to con him into being okay. Just talk.”
Nate blinked at her, understanding coming slowly but coming. She got up, and walked over to sit across from him. “You two can be bloody blind but you’ve got more in common than you think. Control is a commodity to you both, and you both know what it’s like to have it brutally ripped away. He shows it different but right now… he’s like you when this team came together. He’s trying to pull himself back together, to not suffocate under the weight of memory of what happened to him. He’s fighting to get control back and terrified he’s going to lose.” She stopped and sighed, lightly resting a comforting hand on the one of his wrapped around the mug. “You won. Now you need to tell him he will too.”
Nate let out a long breath. He was thinking, realizing, his mind processing and shifting. “I don’t know that for sure.”
She didn’t address the fact she wasn’t sure what he wasn’t sure about. She let out one long breath and pressed forward. “Sometimes the truth’s important Nate, but sometimes the truth’s what we make it. I know this much. If you believe Eliot will be alright, he’ll believe it to.”
Without another word she got up and went back over to her planning, leaving Nate to his thoughts. She told herself she was glad she could help. She told herself to feel good about the fact that she was pulling her team back together, making up a little for pulling it apart.
She told herself that after Nate left, determination on his face and the keys to the upstairs apartment already in hand, he wasn’t going upstairs to talk to Eliot. He wasn’t going to go do what he could to fix Eliot.
She told herself there weren’t a couple tears making their way down her face. It was just raining. Indoors.
Sometimes the truth was important, but sometimes a lie was needed to hold yourself together a little while longer.
Previous: Sometimes Things Go Wrong
Next: Sometimes They Lose