Title: Another Ghost Behind Blue Eyes
Author: Trapper Creek Kaniac
Fandom: Leverage
Category: Friendship, Angst
Rating: T
Warning(s): Major character death.
Summary: Eliot reflects on the death of a team mate.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and places belong to the show's awesome creators John Rogers and Chris Downey, I am only having some fun with them. I do not own Leverage and am not affiliated with the show other than being an obsessed, uh, devoted fan.
Author's Note: Written for Leverageland's heist #6 Rest in Pieces prompt.
Eliot sat in an unfamiliar Boston bar staring down into his sixth tumbler of Jack Daniels. He was tempted to down the whole damn fifth.
Sophie Devereaux was dead, and it was his fault.
A con gone wrong, that's all it takes. One wrong move and you're done, no second chances, not in this world, at least.
Eliot had had a bad feeling about the job since almost the very beginning. The guy they were going after was one of those people that came with "handle with care" label. Sophie had to meet the mark at an abandoned warehouse in order for the deal to go through or the con would be blown. When they had arrived, he had warned her to keep her eyes open and that he would a few seconds away if she needed him. Somehow it all went wrong and the mark pulled a gun.
He knew that she thought she could handle the mark without his help. She was Sophie Devereaux, and she prided herself on the fact that she could talk her way out of anything.
Before she'd had a chance to breathe the distress word the mark had squeezed the trigger. Eliot exploded into the warehouse, making a b-line toward to where the mark and his hitter were standing over her lifeless form. He'd broken the bastard's neck and taken out the hired muscle in a series of swift moves but that didn't change the fact that Sophie was still sprawled on the warehouse's cold cement floor.
It was eating him alive. He should have gotten there it in time. It was his job and he'd failed. If he'd just insisted that go in with her, if...
Eliot closed his eyes tightly at the memory. He wanted to beat his punching bag until his hands went numb, scream until there was nothing left of his voice. This was what happened when he let himself have a heart again, someone was always there ready to rip it apart. In the back of his mind he knew it most likely inevitable for a guy like him but it still felt like a vicious gut punch. Nothing ever came without a price.
He knew he wasn't the only one suffering but that didn't do anything to ease the hurt. The team was scattered, broken. Parker had most like disappeared, Hardison... he wasn't quite sure, and Nate – Nate would be at the bottom of a bottle.
Sophie hadn't just been a team mate, she'd been like a sister and a best friend to him. She had always been there when he needed her, even when he didn't, but the time she needed him most he hadn't been able to protect her.
Eliot took a long swallow of the comforting amber liquid and relished the feeling as it burned down his throat as unbidden tears suddenly welled up.
He would relive that horrible day over and over for the rest of his life.
~Fin
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed! Feed my review addiction?