A/N: Okay, I really don't know where this One Shot came from (well, okay, maybe I know), but still, it needed to be written so that I could get it out of my system *sigh*
The idea has been in my head for quite a while and I really hope you don't think that I'm trying to make any of the characters to look bad *sighs* and I really hope I'm not stealing any ideas, because I'm sure that other people have had similar ideas and have probably written way better One Shots revolving around this topic *smiles*
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I also fear that it's not very good, but now that it's out of my system I hope I can concentrate on my other stories again. *smiles*
Well, I hope you will at least have a little fun reading and comments would be most appreciated...
I also hope there are not too many grammar mistakes, since English isn't my native language *smiles sheepishly*
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Summary: "Remember when I told you that I quit this team when I want to quit this team? Well, I want to now, so just for the record: I quit." Eliot tells the team he quits and tries to explain why...
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Disclaimer: None of the Leverage characters belong to me and I just borrowed them for this little story... this story doesn't mean to offend anybody… this is just for fun… and not for money either...
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The Trust Job
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"Remember when I told you that I quit this team when I want to quit this team? Well, I want to now, so just for the record: I quit."
The words left four people sitting on the couch in stunned silence, staring intently at the screen in front of them. The image on the screen chuckled, but it wasn't an humorous one, no for the four of them it was even painful to hear and the two women unconsciously huddled closer to the two men sitting beside them.
"You can't do this... we need you."
The man on the screen laughed, but again, there was no humor in that laugh.
"Bullshit. When was the last time you really needed me? And not just because you need a way out."
The four people on the couch looked at him with almost incredulous expressions on their faces and somehow the man's words didn't make sense to them, well not right away at least.
"You didn't think I wouldn't notice that things have changed, did ya? Come on, give me some credit. I thought by now we were past the stage of you thinking I'm some dumb muscle guy that can only bust heads."
Nathan Ford ducked his head a little, because he clearly remembered that first conversation he had had with Eliot Spencer on one of their first jobs. Yeah, he had also thought they were past this, but somehow somewhere things had gotten wrong after their last job and the worst thing was, that Nathan had absolutely no idea where.
Nate, Sophie, Hardison and Parker had been out drinking, sort of a double-date, to celebrate a job gone well and they had come up to Nate's apartment when the bar had become too crowded, only to find that Eliot was nowhere to be found. At first they didn't really think much about it, but then Eliot's face had appeared on the screens and they had realized that something was wrong... and then he had said those words.
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"Eliot, can't we talk about this? I mean, whatever it is, I'm sure we can settle it," Sophie Devereaux started, but she quickly shut her mouth when she saw the angry expression on his face.
"Oh, so now you suddenly want to talk? Don't you mean "let's poke his wounds and make fun of them?" As if a knife-wound doesn't hurt, as if a broken bone doesn't hurt..." Here Eliot hesitated a little, before he pulled down the collar of the shirt he was wearing to reveal a bandage around his shoulder and then he continued: "As if a gunshot wound doesn't hurt? Newsflash, guns can kill you..."
The words stung a lot, because they were meant to and this time it was Parker, who looked a little hurt and lost at what to do now, turning to Hardison, hoping that the Hacker would tell her what was wrong.
Hardison, however, looked as clueless as she did.
"You were shot?" was all he managed to exclaim, his eyes wide, a shocked expression on his face.
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Eliot's face became impassive.
"Exactly my point," he stated, tugging the shirt back in place and for the first time the four noticed how pale and tired the Hitter looked, how dull his normally bright eyes were.
"But you never get shot." Parker had separated a little from Hardison again and stared intently at the screen.
"Again, exactly my point. You didn't even notice that the bullet hit me while I gave you the time to get out. You were so wrapped up in your own little world, fussing over Sophie and her twisted ankle that you didn't even notice the blood on your hand when you clapped me on the shoulder, telling me how awesome you were for finding Sophie's signal, Hardison."
Now the Hacker had the decency to look a little guilty. He really hadn't noticed the blood on his hand, sure he had felt the wetness on his hands, but he hadn't thought much of it, because Eliot, Sophie and Parker had been dripping wet from the sprinklers Hardison had set off to create a distraction. He had just wiped his hand discreetly on Eliot's discarded shirt and never given it a second thought.
"You could have said something," he stated, not ready to take all the blame here. Eliot had never given any indication that he was injured.
"I shouldn't have needed to," Eliot replied, his voice tired, exhausted.
"I mean, you always notice when Sophie has a bruise somewhere, or when Parker has a scratch from jumping off another roof. So why didn't you notice a gaping bullet hole in my shoulder?" When he said that he was pointedly looking at Nate and Hardison.
Nathan stiffened, but then he straightened his shoulders, tired of Eliot blaming all of this on them.
"Oh, so this is, because you're jealous of our relationships? Come on, you hook up with a girl in every city we're in. It's not our fault you can't have a serious relationship."
As soon as the words had left his mouth, Nate knew he had made a big mistake, but he was just at a loss what to do, because he had never thought something like this might happen. So he had lashed out at Eliot to get a reaction out of the Hitter.
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Well, okay, his words got a reaction, but not the one he had expected. Eliot didn't look angry, no, he looked plain hurt, running a hand through his hair, wincing when he moved his injured shoulder too much.
"Come on, Nate, that's bullshit and you know it. Of course I'm not jealous of your relationships. You're my friends and more of a family than I've ever had and I'm happy that you found each other. But that's exactly the problem here Nate," Eliot informed and leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, closing his eyes for a second.
"And what do you mean by that?" Sophie questioned, guilt and anger battling within her, because she was angry that Eliot was throwing sort of a temper tantrum, and she felt guilty and worried, because she saw that it took all of Eliot's efforts to stay conscious and he shouldn't be wherever he was, but with them so that they could take care of him.
Eliot sighed.
"I can't trust you to have my back anymore, because you're always so occupied with each other. You would die for each other and I'd die for all of you, you know that."
Eliot paused for a moment and what he said next, felt like a punch to all of them.
"I'm prepared to die for you, but obviously you're not prepared to die for me... at least not anymore, now that each of you has a reason to keep living."
"Eliot..." Nathan started, but then he stopped, not sure what to say to that. He looked at Sophie, but the Grifter looked equally at a loss for words as he did, fighting the tears in her eyes.
"It's okay, Nate. I don't blame you. As I said, I'm happy that you found each other, I just don't fit into the equation anymore and I'm tired of having to try."
The words were quiet and strained and it hurt the rest of the team to hear Eliot talk like that.
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"Why didn't you say something earlier? Why didn't you tell us how you feel? We could have done something. We never meant to exclude you." Sophie couldn't really comprehend what was happening here and Parker looked like a kicked puppy, while Hardison reached for his keyboard, trying to trace the signal.
Eliot sighed again.
"As I said, I shouldn't have needed to," was all Eliot said with a shrug of his shoulders, because he knew that if they hadn't gotten it now, they would never understand.
Hardison, who hadn't said much, now looked at Eliot with an angry expression on his face. Sure, he was worried about the Hitter, but he hated that he had put that sad and lost look on Parker's face.
"Come on Eliot, we're not mind readers, how were we supposed to know that you felt left out? You're not ten anymore, you're a grown man, you could just have put your ego aside and told us," he said, the anger more than evident in his voice.
Eliot only shrugged again and all of sudden his shoulders slumped a little and he looked defeated.
"If you can't figure it out for yourself, then you won't understand when I tell you," he answered and he raised his hand to turn off the computer.
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"Where are you?" Nathan questioned in a last attempt to find a way to rekindle things with Eliot, even though he was pretty sure that he would get an answer from the Hitter and he was right, but at least he didn't cut the video feed just yet.
"Somewhere safe..." was all Eliot said with one of his usual smiles, even though it didn't quite reach his eyes, but at the same time assuring them that he was okay.
"Where are you going?" This time it was Parker who tried and maybe she would have more success, because for a moment Eliot's angry face softened a little, but then he sighed again.
"Some place." was all he said and then he reached out to turn off the computer he was sitting at, but then he remembered something: "Oh and Hardison, don't try to trace the signal, you won't be successful. A good friend of mine has secured the line and when you crack it, I'll be long gone anyway. So save yourself some time... and it would be better for you if you didn't try to find me, because I'm taking precautions and I'd hate for you to get hurt, because I still care about you more than I probably should. But you'll be okay without me, I made sure that you'll always have an exit. So please don't waste your time looking for me, just keep doing what you do and help people who need it. Maybe I'll come back some day."
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The screen faded to black, the line cut, symbolic for the way Eliot Spencer had just cut himself out of their lives, something he felt he had to do to protect himself, not from all of the marks that were now probably out for his head, no, to protect himself from them... from the people that claimed to be his family, even though they had never admitted that out loud... but maybe they should have.
Maybe just sometimes they should have told Eliot how much they appreciated what Eliot did for them, how much they appreciated Eliot as a person, not just as means to get in and out when needed. Maybe then he wouldn't have felt like a fifth wheel. Sure, he would have most likely growled at them and waved them off with a "that's what I do", but then he would have given them this smile that made all the woman fall for him in an instant and he would have cooked for them, telling them like this, that he appreciated them too. But right now, they were left to wonder when they had last given Eliot something back. In the last months they really had come to only take from him, they remembered all the occasions when they were too busy with their respective other to realize that Eliot's grumbling had been his way to tell them that he needed a break, that he needed some time off. They had just rolled their eyes at him and had told him "to get over it", as if his problems didn't matter at all, while they were always relying on him to solve their problems.
Sophie, Hardison and Parker looked at Nate, the three of them not sure what to do, but they all knew that they wouldn't let Eliot just walk out of their lives like this, especially not without trying to make it right.
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"What are we going to do now?" Sophie asked, not sure if they should honor Eliot's wishes or not and they waited for Nathan to make that decision.
Nate looked at them, with a small smile on his face, before he stood up from the couch.
"Let's go, steal ourselves a Hitter."
His words sprung the team in action and they all did what they did best. Nathan watched them hurry around the apartment, making calls and in Hardison's case trying to track their Hitter. Nathan sighed and he just hoped that they weren't too late to show Eliot that they didn't take him for granted, that they were in fact prepared to die for him if it came down to it.
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THE END
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There it is... I know it's short and it's probably not very good, but my muses wouldn't leave me alone until I had written it down... and I have to admit that it was kind of good for me to write it and I feel a lot better now *smiles*
Well, and as I said before, I don't mean to bash the team with this fic, I am just a little annoyed sometimes how they deal with Eliot's injuries on the show and then Hardison complains in The Lonely Hearts Job about how they don't appreciate him, I thought that Eliot deserved the right to complain too... I know this is probably OOC, so yeah... I blame it on my muse and on some things going on in my real life...
Please don't hate me for it *sigh* Comments would be most appreciated *smiles*
And maybe I'll write a short sequel to it when the team manage to find Eliot, but I'm not sure yet. It depends a little on what you think...