AN - Not mine, I own nothing, if I did Eliot would never be clothed.
Feedback is life, please leave me some. Thanks.
This was going to be perfect, two weeks, no clients, no colleagues and no stress.
It had been a long year, watching Nate get busted and then trying to bust him out, only to get blackmailed into taking down a master criminal. They hadn't stopped for more than a few days at a time and hadn't managed to get anytime away from each other.
Eliot liked the team, he liked his "family," as Aimee had put it, but sometimes he liked the idea of them more than he actually liked them. Parker's weirdness and naivety about the world and people was only funny for so long, eventually it became grating. Hardison's geek talk was fun when Eliot could make fun of him, but nonstop for a full year was too much for him to handle.
And of course there was no forgetting Nate and Sophie. Nate with his dual obsessions, winning and Sophie and Sophie with her obsession, shoes!
Eliot could handle them all in small doses, a few weeks, a month tops, then he needed space, he needed a break, just long enough for him to go back with a smile.
The first time in a year he had time off, time away from the team, when everyone was doing their own thing.
Sophie was going to Paris; she never missed a shopping opportunity.
Nate, still trying to get Sophie to tell him her real name was following her to Europe.
Parker and Hardison were heading to Rome, something about checking out the museums. Eliot could only laugh at the thought of the two of them, Hardison explaining about the amazing art, while Parker tried to figure out how much it was worth and how she could steal it. Eliot made a mental note to keep an eye out for art thefts in Rome over the next few weeks.
The rest of the team had their plans set, ready, no fuss, no muss, simple and pain free. But for Eliot, the one who'd needed this time off more than anyone, had no idea what he was going to do.
On the one hand he had Aimee.
Beautiful, sweet, amazing Aimee, the only girl who actually managed to make his heart skip a beat, even just the thought of her made him smile at the memories, but going there had complications. He loved her, always had, always would, but could never stay and he could see that every time he said goodbye, he took another little piece of her heart with him, he knew he couldn't keep doing that to her, no matter how much he loved her.
But these days when he thought of Aimee, he also thought of Kaye Lynne and her song that described his life more than he liked to admit. She'd seen something different in him, something no-one, not even Aimee saw. He became a hitter the second he started working for the government. He put feelings aside and got the job done and no-one saw him as anything other than his job, but Kaye Lynne saw more, she saw someone who could be anything and do anything. The chance to run away, escape his past was intoxicating.
So, as he sat in his rusty old truck, he knew he was at a crossroads, play and hide in the safety of his past or run away to what could never be?
He'd been dying for a vacation for so long, but now, all he wanted was for his phone to ring and Nate to have another job, anything to make his brain stop trying to figure things out.
But that was not to be, he had to choose.
Who did he want? Aimee or Kaye Lynne?
He really had never been so confused.