Notes: This is the sequel to Black King White Knight. Like that story it will be a series of one shots, drabbles, and short arcs about Nate/Eliot and the team. Everything here takes place after Fathers (which is a long fic in the Black King White Knight verse) and starts directly after the end of the Order 23 Job though it will likely last for at least the rest of the season. In this the Order 23 Job is the first Job they do after returning from Kentucky. I know the last chapter for Fathers isn't up yet (my beta still has it) but it can be read without reading the last chapter.
On another note this is the first of three parts to "Shelter and the Storm" an arc that ties up a few loose ends and tips us into the next bit of drama and whatnot.
Concerning Late Nights, Backfired Schemes, and Apartment Keys
After the Order 23 Job Hardison and Nate talk about a failed plan and the fallout of Fathers
Nate was still cleaning up mess the others had left in his apartment during the post job celebrations, wondering when or if Eliot would show up, when someone knocked on the door. It was the fact they were knocking, rather than letting themselves in like Eliot (and Parker for that matter) would, that clued him in to who it was. Short, soft but confident, raps. Hardison.
It was late, which by itself wasn't odd. Nate knew better than anyone else on the team the odd hours Hardison kept. Back in L.A. at the offices it had often been a toss up which one of them left last. More than a few times one or both of them had spent the night wrapped up in separate worlds, sharing the silence without even seeing one another.
But Nate knew Hardison had set up his own Hackers den in the old manager's office somewhere on the first floor. Hardison only did con work in Nate's apartment when they were working on an active case and others would be passing through. He never knocked on the door in the middle of the night. There wasn't much of a point.
They'd almost never spoken to each other on those nights back in L.A., At least not until some of the final days of Leverage and Consulting when Nate was on his downward spiral and starting to spend more long nights in the offices. Hardison had started to approached him a couple of times, finding excuses to nudge him out of the office. At the time Nate had thought Hardison had gotten used to having more alone time in the office when Nate and Eliot started spending more nights together than apart. Looking back all those attempts had occurred after the juror job, which was around when Hardison found out.
A small, almost sheepish, smile appeared on Nate's face. He realized Hardison had been trying to nudge Nate toward home and Eliot and hopefully a scenario involving less booze. "Use your key." Nate called out, piling dishes in the sink and starting to rinse them, settling into old patterns he'd learned and relearned more than once over the years.
Hardison let himself in and made his way to the kitchen, setting down his laptop bag and getting an orange soda, trying to look casual. Nate didn't need to be half the profiler he was to know this was anything but casual.
He let the pretending go on as he finished the dishes, turning off the water before Hardison finally broke the silence. "Our scheming backfired." Nate turned, raising an eyebrow at Hardison before going to make coffee. "What? You'd prefer I use plotting instead?"
"I like to think of it more as a plan." Nate said over his shoulder. "Scheme has a negative connotation to it."
"Well whatever you call it it proves my theory one more time, man. Bad things happen when you con your crew." He sighed and took a sip of his soda. "Even if it's for a good cause."
Nate rubbed his face, not liking the possibilities of where this was going. "What happened?"
Hardison gave a short bitter laugh. "Oh you just happened to have us steal somthin' full of the same thing you said you didn't want to come anywhere close to on this job." He tapped on his keyboard. "'oh Hardison, by the way, I want you to find a case where there'll be no kids' you said 'we just want to ease him back into this.' You said. 'He won't even notice and it'll give him some time and fights to set his head back on straight.' Yeah right." Hardison's voice was getting a little snippy as he twisted the computer screen around to show security footage of Eliot catching sight of something out of the view of the camera. A single click showed a boy edging away from his father. "Eliot was forty feet away and talking to me and he still caught sight of this kid."
Nate cursed internally, setting the coffee pot down a little harder than he meant. Yeah, they had been trying to keep Eliot away from kids for just a job or two. After the mess that went down with Eliot's step father they all knew it would take a little while before Eliot's control was back to the way it should be. Going after a mark who'd been hurting kids would have probably been the dumbest thing they could do.
So of course a job they were sure would keep kid exposure to a bare minimum had walked Eliot right past a boy who was being abused by his father.
On the first job back after the Father's Job ended in Eliot killing his own abusive stepfather.
That wasn't just a disaster waiting to happen.
"Now the good news is I don't think Eliot went off the rails more than just to threaten the guy and give his name to that marshal who owed our cover's a favor. Kid's gonna be alright." Hardison said turning the screen back and continuing to type. "Problem is Eliot turned his cell phone off two hours ago so hell knows what he's getting himself into cause I can't track him without turning on his tracking device." He glanced toward Nate.
They both knew it was only because of Nate and a close brush with death that Eliot had agreed to getting a tracking device implanted under his skin. Even then he only agreed if it was kept off except under dire circumstances.
Nate turned the pot on the brew and waited, thinking, before shaking his head. Of the team Hardison was easiest to predict with Eliot and Sophie tied and Parker coming in as least. Recent events, though, had just a hint of Eliot's control unraveled and he was less easy to predict than Nate was used to. Still, he knew Eliot, and he was beginning to think the hint of this other Eliot was one Nate had known ten years ago. That Eliot wasn't really so different from theirs. "He's probably either watching to make sure the marshal picks up the kid or finding a fight to blow off some steam after the fact."
Hardison nodded and a sort of silence fell over the kitchen. Nate wandered around, restoring order after the earlier chaos, waiting for Hardison to either decide to say what he was hanging around to say or leave. Nate knew Eliot wasn't the only one effected by their recent trip to Kentucky. Every one on the team had one reason or another to have slight hang-ups in the aftermath.
Surprisingly Parker and Sophie both seemed to have gotten mostly over it. Eliot was dealing with it the way he always dealt with things, a potentially unhealthy mix of suppression, bar brawls, and occasional glimmers of working through it. Nate was dealing with it with the same zen acceptance of someone whose managed to get through much worse scenarios.
Hardison was still trying to wrap his mind around it, and everything else that had happened. This was probably not at all helped along by the little day trip Hardison had taken when the danger was over. Not if the fact he'd come home at three in the morning afterwards, claiming he'd been catching up with some old friends but looking exhausted in ways Nate had never seen him before, was any indicator.
After Nate ran out of things to do he gave up. He was the team's leader and 'boss' as Eliot sometimes called him during a job.
But there were some days when he felt like he was playing a camp counselor.
With a sigh he poured himself a mug of coffee and sat down at the table across from Hardison, giving him another moment to speak. Finally Nate broke the silence. "How was the visit with your mother?" Hardison looked up, gaping at Nate. "I knew. It wasn't too hard to figure out as well as I know you."
Hardison took another moment to absorb, finishing off his orange soda. After a moment of processing the hacker shrugged. "She was same as I remember her, half drunk at eleven in the morning." He shook his head. "Was pretty happy to see me for awhile, said I looked like I'd made somthin' out of myself. That my dad would have been proud." He winced a little. "We started talking and it was, weird? I don't know. I havn't talked to her in five years. And the longer we talked the more she got over that and the more I got reminded about why." He got up and went to get another soda. "She ended up throwing me out. 'm not even sure why."
Hardison, apparently having said all he meant to, started to pack up his computer. Nate watched, drinking his coffee. There was a lot that went unsaid in that brief summary. Everything from hurt to resentment flattened out and rearranged into Hardison's half joking tone to make it plain it wasn't actually a big deal. With a light hearted nature and a reach toward the humor Hardison had made a good show of covering up the fact his own history had left him only slightly less broken than the rest of them.
Some days Nate idly wondered if there wouldn't be some benefits in having a resident therapist around to work out the team's emotional baggage.
"Hang around if you want." Nate said getting up. "I'm waiting up to see if Eliot turns up. I won't kick you out if you want to stick around."
"And watch you two do a rendition of Brokeback Mountain? Hell no!" Hardison replied with suitable twitches. There was something there though, a little smile once the feigned disgust had faded. Hardison had gotten the subtext of what Nate wasn't saying.
Even if your mom kicked you out we won't. I won't.
Hardison headed toward the door but stopped halfway there, pausing and making up his mind. "Hey Nate. Um… you an' Eliot. Have you got a place together again yet?"
Nate mentally told himself that this was not a situation to be awkward over. Hardison probably meant well enough and was worried about security or communications or something. Judging by how Hardison found out it had been a problem at least once. "Not yet. We've been a little preoccupied." That was a bit of an understatement.
Hardison hesitated a moment then dug around in his pocket and tossed a key to Nate. "Top floor. Security systems already in place, plus Tvs, computers, and whatnot though unfurnished otherwise. Kitchen still needs to be outfitted, figured Eliot'd be better at that. Plus, Martha Stewart? One creepy lady." He started walking towards the door. "Strategically located for safety and to prevent breakdown of communications in emergencies. Plus I don't have a fifteen-year-old daughter who might tell the nice stranger she meets at four in the morning about you guys. Tell the girls if you want. I'm forgetting right now that I even know you guys are up there. Oh, by the way, you're still paying rent."
It took Nate a moment to process what Hardison had said, another to get over the fact Hardison had just more or less given him and Eliot an apartment, and one more to put together a response. By then Hardison had beat a hasty retreat.
Nate looked down at the key in his hand and gave a long sigh, ignoring the rueful grin on his face.
It seemed Hardison wasn't quite done nudging him towards Eliot and "home".