A/N: I'm going to be continuing this series with some short stories that follow Tyrell and Elliot's relationship. Hope you enjoy!
Come chat to me on Tumblr if you have any prompts/requests. I'm Purplepie1

:-)

I hope that everything ties in with the events in the show. If you spot anything that doesn't add up, or have any questions, let me know!

Darlene burst into Elliot's apartment without grace or preamble, as usual. Elliot and Tyrell had been lying entwined together on the sofa, and they broke apart in surprise to turn and face Darlene.

'Darlene,' Elliot breathed, 'what are you…'

'So I see congratulations are in order,' she gestured at the two of them. 'I sent a card but it must've gotten lost in the mail,' she spat sarcastically. They both jumped up, and Elliot moved to stand closer to his sister.

'Darlene, I…what…' he stuttered. She ignored him, choosing to face Tyrell instead.

'So I suppose my brother has no idea how you took advantage of him?'

'Darlene, I don't…' Tyrell started.

'No, uh-huh,' she shook her head with fierce determination, taking angry strides towards him. Neither man fully registered what she was about to do, and Elliot flinched when she landed a hard slap across Tyrell's cheek.

Tyrell didn't stumble, but he blinked in surprise, eyes watering reflexively.

'You deserve that, and more, you son of a bitch! You knew, the whole time. You knew, and you exploited him! My brother can be a pain in the ass, but he definitely didn't deserve that.'

Elliot looked on, confused. He was certain that Darlene had to be making some sort of mistake, and felt the air rush out of his lungs when a look of recognition and shame clouded Tyrell's face.

'You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you Mr Wellick?' Darlene continued. 'How about you tell Elliot what you did?'

Tyrell looked at Elliot with wide, pleading eyes, as if trying to convey some sort of silent apology.

'Tyrell, what's she talking about?'

Several long, awkward moments passed. Darlene was glaring at Tyrell, but he wasn't paying attention to her, instead searching Elliot's face desperately.

He ran his hand through his hair and took in a deep breath.

'Elliot, there's no easy way to tell you this. I knew when I saw you…' he faltered. He cleared his throat and started again. He looked down, knowing he wouldn't get through what he was about to say if he could see Elliot's face.

He kept his voice even and measured, as if delivering a speech. There was no sense beating around the bush, and somehow he reasoned that a concise, emotionless delivery would be easier on Elliot. And maybe him as well. This was it, the moment he knew would come eventually. There was no sense in dragging it out. He fought a shudder. He could feel his attempts to disconnect from the situation start to fail. This was it, the moment he'd lose Elliot. He wasn't sure how he'd get through it, but knew he deserved everything that was about to happen.

'From the moment I met you, you intrigued me, so I kept you in my sights. When you framed Colby I started to see you as a potential ally, a useful tool I could keep in my back pocket. And most importantly, I had leverage over you. So then when things started to…' he paused for the right words, '…fall apart for me, professionally, I realised it was time to move in. I arranged a meeting with you, to discuss a plan I was putting in motion. By now, I knew of your extracurricular activities of course, but had no idea of the scale of what you were planning. You were exciting, and dangerous, and I wanted to know your game plan. But it was too soon, so I came to you with my proposal instead. I would pay you generously to launch an attack on E Corp, which I would of course intercept. I would get to prove myself, secure my position as CTO, and get to know you better at the same time. But you weren't interested. You explained you weren't motivated by money. I admired that, but it frustrated me at the same time. People like me buy others, Elliot. It's lazy and inelegant, but it's effective. Not with you though. So I went further- I threatened you. But you quite rightly pointed out that you had enough dirt on me to take me down with you, so I desisted. You promised me that you had exciting plans, and that what I was doing was insignificant by comparison.'

Elliot paled, feeling sick. What the fuck was Tyrell talking about? When was this conversation? And why did he have a feeling it was about to get a whole lot worse?

'I was satisfied, temporarily, but things continued to go downhill for me, so I came to you again, asking you to reconsider my offer. You had no idea what I was talking about. I assumed you were playing the fool to throw me off, but when I came to you a third time you'd changed tactics again. You were aggressive and confident- all the things I was unaccustomed to seeing in you. It was like you were a different person. That's when I realised what was going on.'

He stopped, looking like he was fighting a raging battle inside himself. Eventually he continued.

'I wasn't lying when I told you I'd been watching you Elliot. I watched you a bit too intently, I must confess. I knew you were seeing a therapist, so that seemed like my next step. I wanted to know if my theory was correct. It's easier to change the game plan if you know how many players you're up against. Of course, therapists only keep paper notes, so that was a dead-end for me. But I had other ways of listening in.'

Elliot recalled the suspicious looking plug socket in Krista's office, and his stomach churned. Despite the matter-of-fact way he was trying to recount the events, Tyrell looked like this was killing him. His voice was starting to waver, and he looked dangerously close to tears. Elliot felt no sympathy though, only white-hot anger and betrayal. He remembered with startling clarity why he used to be so afraid of Tyrell.

'I didn't learn much from your sessions, except that I was either incorrect, or you were unaware of the extent of your own delusions. Neither really helped me. I came to you again, on Coney Island. I was desperate by this point. Again you refused my offers and reminded me that I actually had no real power over you. Disappointed once more, I was about to leave when Darlene decided to make herself known to me. She warned me that she'd noticed me hanging around. She knew I'd been pursuing you. I don't think she knew who I was at the time, but she definitely didn't like me. She told me that she didn't trust me, and had been advising you to stay away from me. I couldn't really argue with her, it's the same advice I would have given you had I been her.'

Elliot felt a rush of gratitude towards Darlene, but again, an overwhelming sense of fear. He couldn't, no, *didn't want to* believe what Tyrell was saying. He felt as if the air had been knocked out of his lungs. When he'd hacked Tyrell's online profiles he'd learned nothing about him, yet Tyrell had sussed him out, mostly by simply observing him. He'd hacked him the old-fashioned way and somehow discovered everything, down to every last bug and flaw in his code. The thought made Elliot shiver. Before he could continue trying to process his thoughts, Darlene cut in.

'Elliot, I had no idea who he was, or how much he was manipulating you. I didn't know he knew about your illness. Fuck, *I* didn't even know how unwell you were at this point, I could never have…'

'It's okay,' Elliot muttered numbly. He knew Darlene must be feeling guilty that Tyrell had spotted what she had missed, but he couldn't muster the strength to reassure her right now.

'No Elliot, it's not. I had no idea what was happening to you, and to think that *he* knew, and took advantage of you…' she trailed off, looking like she might slap Tyrell again, before composing herself and continuing.

'It only recently dawned on me how much he must have known. Something he said to me when I confronted him… something about seeing you fall…it didn't make sense at the time, but tonight it just clicked…'

'I don't care.' Elliot knew he was being blunt. He honestly just needed Darlene to stop talking so Tyrell could continue. She carried on anyway.

'He's a psycho Elliot. I don't know what the fuck he's told you, or why you're playing fucking house with him now, but he doesn't care about you. He's always had his own agenda, and nothing has changed.'

'That's not true.' Tyrell spoke up. 'It was true, certainly, but it's not any more. I realised that I was fighting for the wrong side. I begged to be a part of your plan because I genuinely realised that you stood for something far greater than I ever did. You were right. It made my objectives seem petty and trivial by comparison. And I know I've betrayed you. I know how wrong it was to manipulate you the way I did, and I'm so sorry.' Darlene rolled her eyes, but Tyrell was paying no attention to her.

'Elliot,' his voice softened, and he moved towards him with his hands outstretched.

'I was a very bad person before. I have done things, so many unforgivable things, and I will never be able to undo them,' his voice was starting to crack, 'but I hope, no, I *beg* that you will give me the chance to fix this. Please…' he shot a desperate look at Darlene, '…if we could have a moment alone to talk…'

'You could manipulate me all over again?' Elliot snapped, flinching away from him.

'Elliot, I…'

'What, you have some more lies you'd like to feed me? I trusted you, despite all my better judgements. What the fuck was I thinking?' His eyes were starting to well up, but he scrubbed at them angrily with his fists.

'And you, of all people, know how this feels. I felt so awful for you when you found out everyone around you had been lying to you. When your life got torn apart I wanted more than anything to take your pain away, but now I'm glad it happened to you,' he spat viciously.

'You deserve all of it, you sick fuck. You deserve to be alone.' By now he was red in the face, and panting. A vein throbbed in his forehead, and his throat felt hoarse, but he couldn't stop the torrent of hate-filled words that flowed from his mouth.

'Do you even care about people? They're all just things you can bend and shape to your will, aren't they? You don't know love, you know leverage. You see other people's weaknesses as things you can hold over them and use to your advantage. I thought I saw the good in you, but there isn't any. You think there's some sort of light inside you, and you cling to it like a sad little child, but it went out a long time ago. Or maybe it was never there. I don't give a shit to be honest.'

'Elliot, please…' he stepped further forward, reaching out his left hand to touch Elliot's arm.

'No!' Elliot roared, lurching forwards and slamming both his hands into Tyrell's chest.

Tyrell stumbled backwards, and was trying to regain his balance when Elliot's fist made contact with his cheekbone.

He gasped in pain and surprise, reaching to steady himself on the sofa.

He brought a hand up to his face, wincing as he pleaded, 'Elliot…'

'GET OUT!' Elliot screeched, swinging a fist at him again. This time Darlene intervened, grabbing her brother's arms and shushing him gently.

'Get out, get out, get OUT!' he shouted frantically, struggling in Darlene's grip. Tyrell had never seen him look so distraught; his cheeks an ugly puce, and eyes wide and filled with tears. He managed to free himself from Darlene's grasp, but rather than lunge at Tyrell again, he curled in on himself, pulling harshly at his hair with an inhuman wail.

Tyrell was momentarily frozen, unable to take his eyes off Elliot, before his other senses returned to him with a jolt.

'I'm so sorry,' he whispered to both of them, before turning to walk out the door.