"I take it you've never been married?" Hardison asked.
"No." Eliot answered, shaking his head. In his line of work, you didn't get married. You didn't have girlfriends. Other attachments were a risk, a liability, and would constantly be in danger. It was one-night stands or nothing for him. Anything more and he was risking their safety.
"Ever come close?" Eliot didn't answer that question, not off the bat. He didn't know these people well enough yet to tell them about his personal history. But that question… He couldn't help but remember a girl from a long, long time ago. He couldn't help but remember hair that was blonde like straw, but as flowing and graceful as wheat in the wind; eyes like the mud and dirt they played in, when the sun was out and shining.
"No." Eliot finally said. But Hardison caught on, and that annoying as hell smirk grew on his face.
"What was her name?" Allison Cartman. Allie for short at first, then Al. Only he was allowed to call her Al for some reason. She'd beat the living hell out of anyone else that tried.
Then again, most people who tried tended to say it pretty rudely, and deserved to have the living hell beat out of them so they might learn some goddamn decency.
"It was a girl I grew up with," Eliot started before stopping himself. He wasn't about to tell a Hacker that information. He wasn't going to give him the chance to look her up (or worse, call her). He thought about one of their recent jobs, the one with Amy, and filled in what had happened with her. "But anyway, she married somebody else, so…" He glanced over at Hardison, and saw that he believed him.
"Hot damn." He muttered, whistling a little bit. "What did you do?"
"What did I do?" He asked, angry. He knew what he'd done to Allie. He'd given Amy a promise ring instead, and then left both of them in the dust. He hadn't even known that Allie had felt anything for him until he left; until he heard her tell him she loved him, she'd always loved him, and that she hoped he'd be happy with Amy. Then she left, too, and Eliot hadn't seen her since. "I liberated Croatia!" He seethed, shoving the apple he'd been eating in to Hardison's hands before walking off. He could hear Hardison calling after him though. Something geeky about comic books and being fat.
He wished he knew where she was, though. He still missed her. She didn't write him letters, however whether it was because she didn't know where to send them or because she knew that they'd end up at Amy's place, he had no idea. But now… If Allie knew what he'd done, would she even look him in the eyes anymore?
He never went back to her because it would hurt too much, hurt the both of them too much. He still dreamt of her, though; still dreamt of when they were kids and things were less complicated. He was three years older than her, but she didn't care. He was her best friend.
She was Al, and he was Ellie. That was what they'd agreed on, when she was five and he was eight. "If you're going to give me a boys name, then I'm going to give you a girl name!" That was her logic. She didn't call him Ellie in public, though. Only when it was just them, and nobody could care less.
Some days he wished she had.
He got back to cutting onions, his mind still wandering to Allie though. Maybe he'll give Hardison her name later on, if they all ended up panning out and became a team he could trust. Maybe he could just keep tabs on her and her family, make sure they were OK. Never had to talk with them, never had to interact, just monitor and protect from a distance.
Two years later he did just that, giving Hardison her name and the last address he knew for her. Nate was still in jail, they were still fighting the good fight, it was just a… A side project. He made sure Hardison knew to be discreet, and to keep him updated on anything new involving her. Over the next two years he learned that she dropped the official fight circuit, that she had worked to get her little sister in to a good college (she'd earned some scholarships as well) in Indiana, that Allie moved from that small town in Idaho to Portland after her mom had…
Oh.
Eliot didn't attend the funeral. He wanted to, but he couldn't. He just… It would've been too hard for him to go back. He sent flowers, though, and money to help with the costs (all anonymously).
Her mom died almost a year after he asked Hardison to keep tabs on Allie (car accident. Nobody's fault). She put her sister, Jamie, in college not long after Hardison did... whatever it was he did with his computer stuff ("You want me to keep tabs on the sister too?" Yes, Hardison, of course I want you to keep tabs on her sister. Watch all three of them, but keep the main focus on Allie), and herself in a local Portland community college about six months after her mom passed. When Eliot and the others moved to Portland as well, she was maybe an hour away from their brewery.
She got in to computers at some point, and continued with them in college ("Her major is computer science and her minor is criminology. Got nearly a full ride from the same guys that sponsored her sister. Grades are great." Thanks, Hardison. Don't screw with any of her computer stuff.), but she kept fighting; unsanctioned fights now. She made a fair amount of money with them, and tended to receive anonymous donations from people who'd profited off of her ("Now I can't prove that she's betting on herself and earning the money that way, but if it ain't her then I'm not certain who it could be"). When she wasn't fighting or in classes she was working two different jobs – waitressing and security for a shitty nightclub.
She didn't like being bored. She didn't like staying still. She didn't like help, not unless she trusted the people first. The way they'd grown up… He knew why she didn't trust. He knew why she preferred to do things herself. He still woke up somedays to a lot of bad memories, and her voice screaming for him. Every day, he woke up hoping to never get a call like that again.
But six months after they moved to Portland, he did.
