The Red River Blues

Chapter 6 Recap:

He disconnected the call with a grin on his face that faded away quickly when he looked up at Harley. Her face was ashen and she was gripping tightly to the Formica tabletop, the dark metal of her ring a stark contrast to the white of her knuckles. Elliot leaned in closely, trying to discern her discomfort level as he whispered to her. "You alright?"

Her eyes darted around quickly, her eyes were dark and wild as they settled on his. "I think I just saw a ghost."

Chapter 7

Elliot glanced up at the mirror covering the wall behind the bar and immediately felt stupid because he had no idea what or who he was looking for. When he looked back at Harley, she was still pale and sweat was beading up on the end of her nose. "Where?"

"I…I don't know. It was just a glance. Over toward the bathroom." She indicated to her right with a tip of her chin but her eyes were locked on his.

He slid his wallet out of his front pocket (something he learned from working with Parker all of these years) and threw some bills down on the table. "We're out of here." Elliot half expected her to put up some kind of a fight at the decisiveness of his tone but when he reached for Harley's hand she only nodded, keeping her eyes down as he slid his arm around her and tucked her body in closely to his as they headed for the door. It wasn't until they were locked away safely in the car and back on the interstate that Harley's breathing leveled out and the pink came back into her cheeks.

He watched her quietly, wanting for her to initiate the conversation but when miles started to pass he thought better of it. "Talk to me."

"I'm not crazy, Elliot. I swear I saw him." Her bright blue eyes were swimming in tears when she shifted in her seat to look at him. He knew she wasn't crazy, but he hoped to hell she'd just caught a glance of someone who looked similar. Pulling his phone out of his pocket he dialed the call and linked it in through the cars on board Bluetooth. Elliot was thankful when Hardison picked up on the second ring.

"I knew you missed me, bra."

"Hardison, Harley's going to tell you everything she knows about Robby Baker and I need to know everything else, including his association with the Ramone family."

"I got you. Go ahead, girl."

Harley rattled off everything she knew about her former er…boss, which wasn't much, and then listened in awe as the two men discussed her and a bunch of acronyms she wasn't familiar with, but was able to pull out a few of the simpler ones like CIA and NSA. She wasn't sure exactly what Elliot's new team did but she was familiar with what his old team did and Harley decided that ignorance was probably the safest route, for now. They'd talked for well over half an hour and Harley was starting doze off as they pulled into the hotels parking lot. Elliot's eyes looked tired as he raked his fingers through his hair mushing it slightly while they listened to Hardison's vigorous typing on the other end of the line. When he could hear popping and ice clinking in addition to the clicking of the keys he said, "Hello Parker, Nate, Soph. Partyin' without me I see." Harley was astonished when a chorus of voices said hello in return.

"How did you know?" Harley whispered with her thumb over the mic on the dash but Elliot only shrugged and held up a finger at her as if telling her to hold on but then thought better of it and grumbled, "Crunching is Parker and Drinking is Nate. Sophie was just a lucky guess."

Parker's voice came in loud over the speaker and it felt like she was crawling through the dash at them. "Sparky, when you get home will you make me those little veggie thingy's like last time? Nate tried to cook tonight and the office filled with smoke."

Elliot grumbled but it was short lived and followed up by a chuckle when they could hear Nate in the background saying, "Uh, Parker I thought we agreed we weren't going to tell him that part."

Harley was smiling, as she listened to the banter between his teammates noting that they sound as much like family than anything else. Oh and the nickname, she couldn't help but rib him a little at that. "Sparky? Is that because of all the growling?"

Harley's smile widened when Sophie's voice, thick with accent and sleepiness came through. "I like her already." Elliot rolled his eyes at her and told Hardison to keep him up to date as he considered bashing his head against the steering wheel when Hardison said something uncouth about enjoying their second honeymoon as he disconnected the call. Tomorrow, tomorrow I break his fingers for real.

Hotel rooms are all alike after a while but at least this one had two beds instead of one. Harley figured he wasn't ready to go all-in with the married thing just yet. They were able to check-in with no problem but she wondered if literally every single woman on the planet had to flirt with him right in front of her. That ring might as well be a neon sign that read "taken" but there was no deterrent. Harley huffed as she flopped down on the first bed inside the door, toeing her boots off with a soft thud as they hit the plush carpet, and preparing to just sleep as is until Elliot's phone rang once again. She tried hard to decipher his conversation but between the greasy bar food and the softest bed ever, Harley found herself drifting soon after he took the call.

She would never have let him sneak up on her if she hadn't been so tired. But as Elliot reached across her to pull the blanket over her still fully dressed form his palm brushed against her hip and in her half-asleep, half-dreaming state her body reacted. Harley turned to her left in an attempt to fend off her attacker and caught him off guard with a firm right hook to the mouth that under normal circumstances he would have been proud of. He hadn't realized how strong she was, her petite stature and womanly curves masking that fact perfectly.

Harley knew she was dreaming, she had to be because no matter how hard she fought it seemed like her arms were full of lead and the shadowy figure was too strong. She had to get away but every time she pushed away he pulled her back. She called out for Elliot but the man was squeezing the air out of her lungs and the sound came out garbled. She knew Elliot was close by because she could hear him saying her name and she prayed he wouldn't get hurt because of her mess. Her last thoughts were of him before the shadowy man started jostling her back and forth, keeping her close to him but shaking her hard and bringing her out of the fog of her nightmare.

When her eyes began to focus again she folded realizing that it was in fact Elliot who held her. His arms were wrapped around her shoulders, pinning her arms down to her sides and he was muttering something softly against her temple as she finally slumped into his grasp. She couldn't understand him but when she finally looked up at him the first thing she saw was that he looked panicked, the second thing she saw was blood. His grip relaxed enough for her to pull back and stand on her own so she could look at him fully, but he wasn't quite ready to let go and left his hands lingering on her hips to keep her steady he told himself.

"I did that didn't I?" She said softly, licking her own lips as she watched the blood from his newly busted lip formed into droplets and threatened to fall. He looked away from her as he searched for something to dab his lip with, feeling no need to affirm her question and make her feel worse. He chuckled softly when they both reached for the tissue box at the same time, Harley being just a little faster than he but the laugh was replaced by a groan as she pressed down firmly on the cut.

"Sorry. Sorry." She muttered as she pressed a little harder waiting for the bleeding to stop and focusing on the task at hand, not on the color his eyes turned when he worried or the area around his eyes that crinkled up when he smiled. "There ya go." She tried hard to keep her voice from trembling as she pulled her hand away and tried to step back until the edge of the bed hit the back of her legs halting her retreat and forcing her down on the edge. Elliot knelt down and took the blood stained napkin from her hand and tossed it in the trash can beside her bed and took her chin in his fingers, the callouses on the end a rough contrast to her smooth skin making her shiver.

"Talk to me, babe." Babe, not darlin' or sweetheart. He must think I've flipped for sure.

"I'm sorry. You're going to get hurt in all this and there isn't a single thing I can do to stop it." He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that. It's my job or I probably deserve worse came to mind but he wouldn't tell her that. He left her then and crossed over to his side of the room trying to put some distance between him and what he was feeling. She was worried about him getting hurt? Some mobster tried to blow her up and she's worried about me? He rummaged around in the bag of clothes he'd bought earlier in the day and tossed an oversized shirt and athletic shorts onto Harley's bed before answering here concern.

"Me? I'm tough, I'll be fine. You have a nasty right hook by the way." He said rubbing his jaw playfully and he tried to grin but the skin on his bottom lip pulled around the split and he couldn't quite suppress the flinch.

"I picked up a thing or two out there. The world can be a scary place." She could apologize to him a 100 times but she figured he would just blow it off like she hadn't just smashed him in the mouth or reminded him for the millionth time that he left her. So she did the next best thing, she took the clothes he'd offered her into the bath and took a long, hot shower. This had been a near-nightly occurrence and she knew that it might be a long time before sleep came again and had an ugly cry until her chest ached and there were no more tears left. When she came out some time later her sheets were turned down like he'd been attempting to do earlier and she could feel the tears welling up again. The room was dark now and it looked like Elliot had already fallen asleep while she was having her hot water meltdown, something she was thankful for.

She tried to be quiet as she lay there, but her brain was afraid to fall asleep again and her body was still humming from the left over Adrenaline coursing through her veins. She really didn't want to spend the rest of the drive to Portland sleeping, but as she tossed from one side to the other and checked the clock for what seemed like the twelfth time that hour she figured that was what was going to happen. Because every time she closed her eyes she could see the shadow man standing over her, like he was waiting for her to fall asleep so he could claim her. As she lay staring at the ceiling she heard Elliot rustling around in his sleep and then a few minutes later he got up and crossed around to her side of the bed. He was wearing an outfit similar to hers, except he wore a ribbed tank instead and his hair was mushed from the pillow. He looks beautiful.

"Scoot over." His voice was rougher than normal from the little bit of sleep he'd gotten or possibly the irritation at her wallowing around and keeping him awake but she didn't argue only pulled back the blankets and slid over to the other side of the bed. She laid on her left side watching him as he settled in and began to doze. He slept with his right hand behind his head and she wondered if that was a conscious effort to keep her from invading his space. Nothing says "stay on your side" like an elbow to the eye socket. But she didn't care as long as he was close by because she knew, and so did he, that if they stayed together that it just might keep the monsters away.