I wrote this to work through some writer's block on another story. It's quick and short and mostly just a tag to the end of The Second Daivd Job.


Eliot wasn't ready to admit that he might be falling for the hacker of their rag-tag team. He wasn't ready because he was certain that the geek probably didn't swing that particular way. It also had a big thing to do with the twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag; if Parker in her strange way was going after Hardison then all power to her. Eliot was not standing in the way of Parker, freaky blonde that would hide a razor in an apple; he did not care what Sophie said. He wasn't ready because he was standing there listening to Hardison make a promise to Parker to find her.

What was bothering Eliot was that it wasn't any one thing that drawled the older man to the little computer genius. It was a whole bunch of little things. Like how attentive Hardison was to the other team members; he was the guy that remember birthdays and holidays. Hardison asked how your weekend was, he made sure you were doing okay.

Eliot had a soft spot for caring people. In his line of work it was hard to find geniune caring people. Hardison cared because he could, because he should. Though he didn't hand it out willy-nilly, Eliot and the whole team had earned to be looked after by Hardison. Hell, Alec had pretty much made it impossible for all of them not to hand in their theif membership and go legit with the cheques he had handed them. So with all the things Hardison did to look out for their family it was hard to turn away. Turn away and not say all the stupid little things that were on his mind.

He wouldn't have minded telling Alec to look him up too, that he wouldn't even make it hard on him. He doesn't because that would be a can of worms and Eliot wouldn't be able to just walk away after a statement like that. Not that he wanted to walk away. He'd rather wrap his arms around Alec and rut against him; not a care or worry to the rest of the team standing around them.

Wow, maybe it was a good thing that they were walking away. Maybe he'd get those silly, pointless thoughts under control and him and Hardison would be buddies again with the same sort-of-ease that they always had. That was if they put the team back together and at this point it wasn't seeming like a very likely thing. So... Eliot stopped. This might be his last chance; after this he may never see Hardison again. So he could turn and tell Hardison all the things that had been building up over the last year, tell him about all the nasty, tender, down right dirty thoughts he had been having about the younger man. He could pin him against the side of the vechicle waiting for him and ravis---

Jesus, he needed to just get in his car and not look back. He needed to drive away and put as much distance between him, Leverage and Alec as he possible could. He can't move though and he knows that behind him still facing away from each other is his family. He knows that they aren't going to walk away from this any sooner than he is. So... He needs to get these feelings in check and forget about them. Eliot wants his family more than wants to tell Alec that he might be falling for him. It was just another reason he wasn't ready to tell Alec how he felt.