Summary: Sometimes he hears his dead brother's voice in his head. Written for comment-fic at LJ. NOT in my "McDonald Boys" verse, but still features Eliot and Lindsey as twins.

Wow, look! An Angel/Leverage crossover that isn't in my "McDonald Boys" verse! That's...very odd.

Okay, anyway, warnings: Angstiness galore, spoilers for Angel's series finale "Not Fade Away," which means that you shouldn't even have read the summary for this if you didn't want to be spoiled for that (character death - whoops, sorry). Minimal spoilers for Leverage. Angst. Angst. Angst. Death!fic (a beer bottle dies a tragic death in a collision with a bedroom wall, RIP ye innocent bottle).


Wrong

"What's a lone wolf doin' on a goddamn team? What're you, playin' Robin Hood with the Sheriff of Nottingham? What's wrong with you?"

He tells himself that it's his own voice, that they're his thoughts, that he's alone in his own head, and sometimes, sometimes he can pretend, pull it off, convince himself.

Other times, he knows.

"What's wrong with you?...wrong with you?...wrong?"

He knows that he's not alone. It's his brother's voice. His dead, murdered brother's voice echoing in his head.

"What's wrong with you? They'll betray you, they always do," Lindsey whispers fiercely, "Teams never go well. They betrayed me!" he screams, unheard by the rest of the world, "They'll betray you. Just you wait and see. What the hell is wrong with you? Listen to me!"

"Nothin's wrong with me," he retorts to himself, to Lindsey, to the voice in his head.

"Nothing's wrong," he says in reply to Sophie's concerned question.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he thinks desperately, "Go away, go away, go away! Leave me alone. Just leave me alone."

"You don't want me gone, you know you don't," the thin voice taunts, "Liars and thieves, thieves and liars, they'll betray you. They'll leave you. You know I'll never leave. I'm the only one who'll never leave. Not ever."

"Leave me alone!" The empty beer bottle shatters against the wall. "For God's sake, leave me alone."

"God?" the cold voice sneers, "What's God got to do with any of this? God doesn't care, Eliot. I care. I'm the only one who's ever cared. Listen to me. They'll betray you."

"No," he thinks back at his twin, "No, you're wrong. You're wrong! They care. They do."

"They don't. They'll use you. And then they'll betray you. Just wait and see. Wait and see."

"You're wrong. They care. You're wrong. We're a team."

"No, you're the one who's wrong. A team? Look at what joining a team, trusting them, trusting him, got me! Two slugs to the chest, that's what. What's wrong with you? Listen to me, dammit! Listen to me. What's wrong with you?"

"Go away!"

"Never."

He thinks that he's the only one who can hear Lindsey until one day, Parker tilts her head, gives him an assessing look, and hugs him "because the bossy voice is being too loud."

Then, hopping away before he can react, she asks, "What's wrong with being wrong? If acting right feels wrong, then shouldn't being wrong be right?"

She doesn't wait around for an answer, just prances away licking a lime-flavored Popsicle.

"There's something wrong with that logic," Lindsey says presently, sounding puzzled. "Somethin' wrong with that girl."

Eliot snorts. At least now they're in agreement about something.


AN: I rarely allow myself to end on an angsty note...maybe for this one I should have...But gosh darn it, I wanted Parker to be able to hear Lindsey, too!