First off, let me say I LOVE LEVERAGE. I was so mad when it got canceled! But! I wanted to write some fanfics for it, and my favorite person on the show was DEFINATLEY Eliot, so I made this!

If you like it, please leave me a review/comment saying whether or not I should make it a chapter thing, where I come up with more situations like this. Or if I should do this for everyone else on the team too. I think that sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if you people out there will like it enough, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW! :)

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

VT


A Vulnerable Hitter

Eliot Spencer never considered himself to be a sensitive man.

He had grown up learning and being taught what it was to be strong. He had his fair share of hurt and even heartbreak, and though some of those memories still pained him today, he had moved on; as any man should. He had served his country, and become a criminal. Then, against all odds, he became part of a team. That team had now become his family. And so, Eliot did what he did best. He was their hitter. And he lived up to his title.

"Dammit Hardison!" Eliot's gruff voice snapped over the comms. "You were supposed to take care of the security, not lead them straight to me!" This was followed by the sound of a nose breaking, then the thud of a body being thrown somewhere. Next came the click of a door locking and a deep sigh from the long haired brunette.

"Man, then how 'bout you try to reset and fool the most advanced electronic security system without direct access! Huh? I'm working on it!" Hardison was typing furiously on his computer as he said this, trying to fool the system into thinking the threat was on a different floor. Sophie's accent then washed through the comms as she walked through the high-rise office building they were staged at. "Hardison, Nate, I've done all I can on my end. The mark is hooked, but I can't approach him again now; he's too perceptive for that." Nate nodded to himself, looking over Hardison's shoulder at his progress. "Hardison is almost done; Parker, you ready?" The blonde in question smiled slyly from her position inside the building. "Yep just tell me when."

A tense moment passed, the team knew how crucial it was that their timing was perfect, for fear that Parker or Eliot get caught or worse. The moment was gone when Hardison suddenly said, "now!"

Parker immediately dropped from the rafters in the celling. Landing gracefully and purposefully setting off the alarms as she did. At the same time, Hardison's quick fingers flew over the keyboard of his laptop as he did what he did best; hacking. In the meantime, Parker was strapping on a harness, and then jumping out the fifteen story window just as the security system shut everything down.

"Yea' baby, age of the geek!" Hardison took a celebratory swig of his ever-present orange soda as Nate smiled at another piece of the plan that fell perfectly into place. "Nice job guys, alright, meet here at the van, and we'll go back to prepare for the rest of the con."

Unknown to them however, right when Hardison had given Parker the signal, a guard had gone after Sophie. So, naturally, Eliot had tackled him to the ground and knocked him out. Sophie had listened to him when he told her to get to the van, and just as she left and Eliot was following another five guards had appeared. Smartly, they kept their distance. As a result, they had managed to force Eliot back into a small closet at gunpoint, just as the system had locked down. Eliot knew what had happened as soon as he heard all the electronic clicks and the alarms. He swore under his breath and tried to find something to get himself out with as he reported to Nate. "Nate, I just got backed into a closet, and now I'm locked in here. But I'm trying to find something to break myself out with."

The rest of the team, now safely in the van, tensed and gave each other worried looks. Nate immediately said, "Hardison, can you unlock that door?" The Hacker frowned as he shook his head. "I can't do that without opening every other door, and even if I could it would lead everyone in that building right to him. Sorry Eliot, but you're gonna' have to stay there until the security system reboots itself. Then you can sneak out." They heard another quiet swear, followed by an unusually quiet, "How long?" Hardison muttered, "Uhm…twenty minutes." Eliot's fists clenched, and he had to refrain from yelling. "Are you kidding me?!" He whispered as loud as he dared, hearing the guards start to leave, ordered to go look for the supposed real threat. "That's long enough for cops to completely surround this place!"

Nate sighed. He needed a drink, but that was going to have to wait, it seemed. "Eliot, sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it. Just sit and make yourself comfortable. We'll give you a distraction when we can, and get you out." Eliot sighed again, sat down, and mumbled, "Alright…" Nate furrowed his brows and shared a confused look with Sophie. Eliot seemed a bit off, but he didn't think any more on it. So they waited listening to the sirens approach. They weren't worried; having known Nate would have a plan in case this happened.

The sound of quick, hard breaths made its way through the comms, and Hardison checked to make sure it wasn't interference of some kind, before realizing it was in fact Eliot's breathing they were hearing. "Eliot? Are you alright?" Sophie phrased the question cautiously, hoping he hadn't been injured and not said anything.

Eliot had been sitting on the floor of the small dark closet, unintentionally curling in on himself and hugging his knees while trying to control his breathing. He was failing. "M'fine." He grunted, wincing at his quiet sounding voice. He was now feeling the familiar tug of a flashback, and he cursed, slowly closing his light blue eyes.

He remembered the darkness, and being cold; so, so cold. The suffocating tight space he had been locked in for God knows how long. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter. Managing to stop the flashback before it got worse. He hated feeling this weak and vulnerable. And all because of a damn closet! He spent the next minute trying to ignore the deep-rooted panic he could feel creeping up on him. 'Not here.' He thought to himself. 'Please, let me be able to control this…I can't afford this distraction now.' His efforts to conquer his worsening anxiety were starting to prove futile, however.

"Eliot?" Parker asked, worried for her teammate and friend. She could hear his breathing getting harsher, more gasping and desperate each second. And though she didn't want to ask, she feared her rising suspicion was right…but Nate asked his question first. "Are you hurt? Did you get shot or break something? Talk to us Eliot, we can hear that you're not doing great in there." The Hitter heard the words 'in there' and started shaking slightly. And he had almost managed to distract himself enough to not remember where he was… Still loathing his lack of control and strength in these moments, Eliot tried in vain to control his rapidly worsening trembling. Yes, this was one of the only times when Eliot Spencer was sensitive; vulnerable.

""How much longer?" Hardison blinked at the quiver in the usually strong voice of their teammate, quickly answering, "About twelve minutes, Eliot." The man in the closet swore yet again, wondering how eight minutes could have seemed like so long. He tried taking deep breaths to calm himself even though he knew it was a lost cause. Nonetheless, he still had to try.

But Parker knew her notion was right as soon as she heard Eliot's wobbly voice ask that question. And she figured that he wouldn't want the team to know, that he was probably ashamed of it and wanted to ignore it; but she knew that she couldn't ignore it. Not now.

"Are you claustrophobic Eliot?"

This immediately earned the thief bewildered looks. And she looked back, saying, "What? I know about this, my partner had it for a while….at least, 'til I shoved her through ventilation shafts until it went away." She smiled at the last part, fondly remembering the hate then extreme gratitude she'd received for that. The team heard a gruff scoff over the comms, followed by Eliot's still shaky voice saying, "Only you would do that to a person Parker…..and….….yes. I am." He didn't want to admit this to them. But he knew he didn't really have much of a choice. Besides, he trusted them.

Nate leaned back in his seat, for once at a loss as what to do. He'd only met one person with claustrophobia. But he'd simply been a bit jumpy and anxious when in elevators, so if Eliot had a severe case…

"Shit." He received surprised blinks for the sudden swearing, but he ignored them. "Uhm, okay, just hang on Eliot." He turned to Sophie after saying that, taking out his comm to ask her, "What the hell can we do about this? Do you know anything about this?" The grifter nodded to Nate, remembering having to get close to a mark with the same problem. She only hoped she could help Eliot from a distance. "Eliot-focus. Breathe steadily, and just think about something else." Hardison chose this moment to pipe in, "Think about beating the shit out of Sterling."

He was rewarded with a weak, quiet chuckle. "Already tried that, actually. Didn't work as well as I'd h-hoped…" He hated the stutter in his voice. Hated the fact that he knew he couldn't calm down until he was outside. He hated the fact that his team needed to know that they couldn't do a thing to help him. His breathing was getting worse, quick, sharp intakes were all he could manage. His hands were shaking, he could feel sweat forming on his face, and he knew he was going to be stuttering when he talked. But he knew he needed to be honest with them.

"Y-you can't do anythin'…I won't be able t' calm down 'til m' outs-side." Yep, he was slurring and stuttering. Fantastic. But he heard the worried voice of Parker before he could berate himself further. "Hang in there Eliot. We're gonna' get you outta' there as soon as we can."

He replied with a simple quiet, "Yeah." He then took out his comm so that he could focus on controlling his rising panic. ' Just breathe deeply….Don't think about the fact you can't move more than a foot in any direction….J-just calm….down….dammit, I c-can't…'

His team was silent. They knew they were all thinking the same thing, 'I hope we can get him outta' there quickly.' But they knew there was nothing they could do until the security system reset and Hardison could have access again. They heard the click of his comm being set on the tile floor, and even then they could still hear his increasingly harsh breaths. Hating the fact that they couldn't do anything to help their friend as they heard his breathing get to a near- hyperventilating point. And so they all waited, willing time to move just a bit faster.

~~~~~~~~* 11 minutes later *~~~~~~~~~

"C'mon people move! We got a medical emergency here!"

Hardison had managed to set off the fire alarm as soon as he had access to the system again, and Nate and Parker had moved in disguised as paramedics. They quickly went to the hall Hardison directed them to, and thankfully managed to get Eliot out without a problem. But the unusual sight of their strong, stubborn Hitter curled shaking and gasping on the floor of an unbelievably small closet would stay with them for a while. Eliot had quickly looked up at them with grateful and trusting blue eyes, rushing out of the closet and leaning on the wall for support. They had given him a minute; Nate with his hand on Eliot's still shivering shoulder, before making their escape.

Eliot played his part well, seeing as all he had to do was stumble a bit, and let himself keep trembling and rasping for air. Nate pulled him up into the back of their "ambulance", and Parker drove them a short distance to their usual van, where Hardison and Sophie were anxiously waiting.

The hitter jumped out of the back of the ambulance, immediately looking towards the sky and taking a huge, deep breath of the city air. He stood there for a minute, getting his breathing back under control and calming his racing heart. Finally, when he no longer felt like he was going to pass out, he turned back to his team and walked towards them. He gave them a simple but meaningful, "Thanks."

The Leverage team smiled at Eliot, glad to see he was alright. And gave their own small nods, Hardison commenting, "You better not puke in the back of the van, dude." Eliot chuckled, amused at the hacker yet again. "Don't worry, I won't. Now let's get the hell outta' here already."

The team piled back into the van, and started their drive back to Nate's apartment. Soon after they left, Parker noticed Eliot's hands were still trembling. So being the socially clueless thief she was, she reached over next to her and put her hand over the brunette's, then blurted, "You're still shaking; are you sure you're okay?"

Eliot looked at his hands, finding they were in fact still shaking pretty badly. He nodded, seeing the others look back at him, concerned again. "Just…after effects, I guess. It'll go away, stop worryin', I'm fine."

Respecting their friend, they started chatting to pass the time, Hardison and Eliot striking up another notorious argument about the outdoors V.S. video games indoors. While Parker was content to add in her own comments occasionally, earing hilarious looks and exasperated comments from her team, Eliot was being grateful for his understanding friends, thinking that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing for them to see him so vulnerable. Nate, Sophie, and Hardison were simply glad to have everyone okay and back to their usual bickering.

Meanwhile, Parker was finding comfort watching the trembling in Eliot's hands fade more with every passing minute.

VT