Anywhere You Go, I'll Find You
Disclaimer: Neither Leverage nor the characters belong to me in any way. I have played with them in the creation of this story and returned them intact.
Summary: The job's gone wrong, Eliot's got to fix the impending disaster before anyone important gets really hurt.
Written for 'The Little Black Dress from Oklahoma' ficathon - prompt 35 - Anywhere you go, I'll find you (Nate/Eliot)
Eliot shifted forward on his stomach another few inches, grunting at the effort, hating every moment. He breathed in and out before attempting another push. Closing his eyes he thought of . . . horses running in wild open spaces, riding bareback, endless sky, endless grasslands, nothing in sight for miles and miles and miles. Breathing carefully, calmly he opened his eyes.
How in hell did Parker do this regularly? Never! Never again! Eliot was never doing this again! His heart was racing, pulse thudding so loud through his ears, he was sure it was echoing off the walls around him. The walls that were close around him, tight on all sides, pressing in, stealing the air, depriving him of room to breathe and oxygen and . . .
Eliot thought of Nathan.
He squirmed and pushed forward again, another few inches. It felt like miles of unending metal surrounding him. 'Stop it!' he reminded himself. Determined, he shoved forward again.
Hardison was going to pay for this! Definitely! Slowly, calmly, decisively! Eliot was going to enjoy making Hardison pay for this! He hadn't worked out how Hardison had fucked it up exactly but he had. Eliot needed someone to blame and it was definitely going to be Hardison.
He saw an approaching corner and wondered how the hell he was supposed to get round that. Muscle! He was made of pure muscle! Nathan liked his muscles! Nathan definitely liked his muscles! Eliot couldn't help the small shiver of pride at the thought of just how much Nate liked his muscles. Well that was all fine and good, but muscles definitely weren't made for this or not Eliot's muscles anyway.
How long was this freaking vent anyway?!
Eliot closed his eyes, tried for another mental image of open spaces before giving up and facing facts. He was stuck in a vent, a tightly fitting, enclosed vent. He couldn't go backwards and the only way forward was to get round the corner and forward was towards Nate. Forward it was then.
Mind over matter that's all this was! Eliot Spencer was not afraid of anything, Eliot Spencer was self-reliant, adaptable; a survivor. Eliot Spencer was going to be a fucking hero when he got the rest of the team out of this. He wasn't afraid. He wasn't! Eliot Spencer definitely did not have a problem with small, tight, confining, enclosed spaces. He didn't. Not at all. This vent was most definitely not a small, tight, confining, enclosed space with a lack of oxygen and no escape. Definitely not! For a start, he thought as he wriggled on to his side and began to bend round the corner, trying to pull with his hands and push with his feet to move round smoother, he had a way out; he just had to keep going forward!
He hoped Parker and Sophie had been able to get to the car he'd hidden before their pursuers caught up with them; hoped they'd be able to follow his instructions and make it to the changeover vehicle he'd left. And yeah, so later on, he'd have to explain why he'd got a separate escape route planned to the one they'd discussed at the briefing! Well later on, if he got out of this vent alive! Mind you, he didn't think Parker and Sophie would be complaining.
So . . . he had to rescue Nate and Hardison or maybe just Nate, maybe he could leave Hardison to rot for this. Justified payment!
Ten minutes later and he could see a hatch, an escape from this torment. He just had to get it open and then get into a position where he could get through it. Just! Like it was that easy. . .
Down on the floor, out of the vent, Eliot stood for a moment or two taking great heaving breaths of fresh air, free air, oxygen! He allowed himself just a few moments to collect himself after the ordeal before setting off in search of Nate and Hardison. He didn't have time to spare to think of Parker and Sophie, he had to just hope and trust that the girls had made good their escape by now.
Stealthily he moved along the corridor, close to the wall, alert for any sound of other people. He knew the layout of the building from the plans he'd pored over before the job. Hours into the night, beyond the time the team had spent. Nate had been frustrated, it wasn't a new argument. Trust! Nate said it boiled down to trust and whether Eliot trusted Nathan to keep them all safe. Eliot didn't see it that way . . . He trusted Nate to try to keep them all safe, he trusted Nate to do his best, but it didn't stop things going well . . . kind of like this really! He couldn't understand why Nate didn't see that. Extra information internalized, what harm did it do? Clearly in this case none, for it was all that extra information that Eliot had pored over that he was now using to try and pull off this rescue.
It had all gone pear-shaped from the outset. No, in truth, pear-shaped didn't even begin to cover it! Nate and Hardison were in the van, on the comms, coordinating, Eliot was supposed to be bait, the girls were supposed to be sneaking in and doing the actual job! Within minutes of them all reaching their assigned points, waiting for the signal to go and . . . it had all gone wrong! Sophie and Parker's position had been made before they'd even had chance to enter the building.
They'd had to run. Eliot had heard as Nate had been shouting instructions to both the girls to get to a pick up point followed by directing Hardison to drive there. There'd been no communication with Eliot – no bad thing in the circumstances as it hadn't revealed his position. Nathan had known that he'd be working on getting himself far enough away to arrange a pick up once the others were safe. Then somewhere along the line, the van had been intercepted, Nate and Hardison captured. They'd been dragged off somewhere and Eliot had heard Sophie's exclamation of fear at the realization they were cut off.
Eliot had activated his own comm., given them directions to the first car he had stashed, along with enough of an indication that they needed to check the car for them to realize he'd got a change of vehicle lined up a short drive away. Then he'd gone silent again deliberately.
No reassurances for anyone that he was safe and unharmed, nothing that might give away his location. Instead he'd listened. He'd got enough from Hardison and Nate to know they were inside in the basement of the building and then nothing more.
It didn't take him long to find the room where Nate was being held. Two guards outside and a security camera on the door, he catalogued in his head the obstacles. A quick steadying inhalation and he moved forward swift and deliberate, taking out the first of the guards before either were even aware of his presence. The second was down and the camera out within seconds. Then he moved for the door, opening it with a key taken from the guard slumped at his feet.
"Nate!" he exclaimed, opening the door, seeing the older man slumped in a corner, face bloodied, one eye almost closed with bruising.. Eliot rushed to his side, slipping an arm round him. Relief washed through him as Nathan seemed to pull himself upward, lifting his head and tilting it, a half smile pulling at the least damaged side of his face.
"Eliot," he choked hoarsely.
"I'm here, Nate, I'm here. I've got you and I'm going to get you out of here," he murmured gently.
"Mmm, 's good," came the reply. "Don't wanna stay here, they're not very hospitable. So what are you doing here?"
"Getting you out, Nate. I wasn't going to leave you here."
"How'd you find me?"
"Believe me, I'm not going to let you go that easy. Anywhere you go, I'll find you." Eliot stood, carefully pulling Nathan up to his feet. Once Nathan was upright, he gave him a quick pat down, checking for injuries.
"Er! Eliot? What are you doing? Shouldn't we get out of here first?" Nathan mumbled.
"Where hurts, Nathan?" Eliot asked, ignoring the questions with a frustrated shake of his head.
"My head, my face err, that's it. Feel a bit dizzy." Nathan sighed, "You've stopped." Eliot smiled at the disappointment in Nathan's voice.
Standing he moved closer in, he murmured close to Nate's ear, "Later, darlin'! Like you said, we should get out of here first and get you fixed up." He felt a huff of air beside his ear, laughter maybe or relief, it didn't matter, he merely turned Nate towards the door and led him out into the corridor.
"Where's Hardison?" Nate asked.
Eliot sighed, then wearily said, "We're going to look for him now." Nathan nodded, then winced at the movement, bringing one hand up as if to prod round the swollen eye, until Eliot caught hold of it just before it made contact. "You trying to make it hurt more? Come on, let's get the geek and get out of here." Eliot gave a gentle tug and they headed further down the labyrinth of corridors.
Eliot heard the voices before he reached the corner and slowed, peering round cautiously. There was no one there, but an open door just a few feet down was clearly where the noise was coming from. He stopped Nathan and with a gesture had him wait.
He crept closer to the open door, listening to the sounds within . . . "It's because of my beliefs right . . . because I am a vegetarian . . . that's why you're doing this, am I right? Because I'm an animal activist. Well, I'll have you know, I am not alone in my beliefs, just because you think I'm wrong. There will be more after me . . ."
Hardison! Eliot didn't know where the geek got all the stuff he spouted. It had made him want to throttle him on more than one occasion, but he figured it probably had its value in situations like this. There certainly wasn't the amount of skin on skin noise that Eliot normally expected in these kinds of situations and having seen the state of Nathan, these guys weren't afraid of inflicting damage.
"Hey, hey, hey. No, no! There is no need for that kind of behavior . . . Oomph!" Hardison's stream of words was cut off abruptly with the sound of a fist impacting, just as Eliot had edged close enough to peer round the door and count the room's occupants; Hardison and three others. Eliot focused in, quick decision made and moved. He'd managed to take down two of the men before the one actually inflicting the damage on Hardison had realized what was happening.
'Ooops!' the thought ran through Eliot's mind as he realized that the last figure had managed to land a couple more blows to Hardison's face before being 'distracted' by Eliot's presence. He wasn't good at his job and it only took one well aimed blow for Eliot to floor him in such a way that he wouldn't be getting up any time soon.
Eliot moved swiftly to untie Hardison and then shoved him quickly in the direction of the door, saying "Move! Left and left again, get Nate and move! End of the corridor turn right, then third on the left. Move!" Hardison started to ask a question, but Eliot just shoved him out of the room, with another "Move!" added for effect, before turning back and securing the three men so that even when they did come round, they weren't going to be coming after them any time soon before running after the other two men.
Back at the office, Eliot abandoned Hardison to Sophie and Parker's ministrations, trailing after Nate into his office where he helped the older man, clean up his injuries and ice the now completely swollen eye.
"So . . ." Nathan began. "Looks like all that sitting up late poring over plans and maps paid off then." Eliot shrugged. "El, don't get me wrong. Seriously, I'm grateful, more than grateful," he rested his hands on Eliot's hips, stopping the younger man from withdrawing. "But I've got to know why? How did you know it was all going to go wrong? What did I miss?"
Eliot looked away, tried to lift Nathan's hands away, but instead found his hands caught and himself pulled closer as Nathan stood up. "Tell me Eliot."
Eliot sighed and shrugged, "I don't know what you missed, I don't know what went wrong. I thought – I thought it was Hardison . . . the comms . . . but I don't know. I didn't know before. . . I just had to be . . . prepared."
Nathan's hands lifted to capture Eliot's face, turning his head back to face him. He pressed his lips to Eliot's tenderly, cautiously aware of his own split lip. "Thank god you were. If you didn't know that something was wrong, then why do all that extra work this time? Why not every time?"
The flush of embarrassment rose swiftly up Eliot's cheeks and Nathan laughed, "You do do it every time! God! I love you! But why, El, why? Don't you trust me?"
"It's not that . . . You – you think one way . . . lots of ways about the one job . . . I'm looking for something different . . . A different job. . ."
"What are you looking for, Eliot?" Nathan asked softly.
"I'm looking for where they're likely to keep captives if anyone gets caught. I'm looking for ways in and out that I could use to get any of you out if something goes wrong." Eliot still won't meet his eyes.
"You're working out how to get us out before we even get caught?" Nathan murmured.
Eliot nodded, "I have to be sure that anywhere you go, I can find you. . . That's my job."