Eliot had often been asked about his scars by the others. It was a question that Hardison would sometimes ask him when they were in between jobs or whenever they had free time. It was a question that all of the team wanted to know the answer to. He always refused not wanting to go back into his memories, but he could see that the entire team was curious about the stories behind the white lines etched into his skin.
He eventually went into an explanation for them one late night in the bar when they had just gotten back from the hospital after saving the 15 year old Joshua Spin from the CEO who tried to steal the heart from the airport. He couldn't seem to remember the CEO's name but Nate had looked pretty depressed when they had gotten back from the hospital, and they all had been desperate for conversation.
After many failed attempts at conversation, Hardison had jokingly mentioned one of his scars and surprising everyone Eliot, being almost as desperate for something to talk about other than what happened before at the airport, decided to share the stories behind his scars. In most of them he skipped over the really deadly stuff as he knew that Sophie would freak out if she knew that he got the scar across his chest from when he was once tied to a chair and held there for 3 months in a cave in North Korea.
So he went into the long story of his scars eventually opening up to the team and even describing the people he met when the story took place. After hours all of the stories were finally told except for one, the scar along his lip. When Hardison had mentioned it, none of them had missed how he tensed at the question. Sophie had thankfully urged everyone to go home after that and everyone gladly accepted since the tension had gotten so thick inside the bar.
Back at his apartment Eliot finally let himself remember just how he got that particulary scar. That scar was just a reminder of what the worse thing he had ever done. He remembered getting the mission from Moreau. Being told when to have it done by and what it did to him afterwords. He was never really the same after that mission. He slowly lost himself in the memories.
