Chapter 9

It was after dinner and everyone had settled down in the living room. He was left on the couch with the same idiotic toy he had been given for the last seven nights. He did not understand why he was given this one, normally when he solved one he was presented with a new one. This one he had solved after three days, the parts where the challenge to fit together rather than the few minutes it took to solve mentally. But the following night the elder gentleman once again had presented him with the same toy.

At first he thought maybe he had not preformed to his standards and had focused really hard to put it together in just one night but when he was given it again the following night he had actually thrown the man a glare and had him smirk at him in return.

For the last three nights he had been eyeing the little jumbled up connected cubes that was on the table. He had seen both the talker and the skipper play with the toy and he knew by instinct that the thing will fold into a larger cube made of smaller ones and he wanted to try it.

He looked over the rest of the people in the living room, the voice lady and the gentleman were on the couch opposite making dreamy eyes at each other and he felt like rolling his eyes at them. He looked over at the other occupants of the room, the talker was once again on his laptop and the girl and the man where playing with some sort of shiny things and having a conversation.

He very carefully left the toy he was playing with and after checking to see if anyone was watching him he reached for the one on the table.

Hardison was looking over things that could help Eliot when he saw him move towards the jumble cube. The doctors had warned them about not frustrating him by giving him things that he couldn't do and the jumbled up cube was way too difficult even for him to put together and it would be too difficult for Eliot, so he started to call out to him.

"Yow, Eliot man…"

He was interrupted by Nate, "leave him Hardison."

Hardison looked over at Nate who seemed to be solemnly focused on the smiling Sophie but was apparently watching Eliot.

"He wanted that thing for the last three nights, let him have it," said Nate while his entire body said he was talking to Sophie.

When everyone looked up Nate jerked his head and everyone got up to move over to the dining area. Hardison observed that Eliot looked up when they were moving and he noticed his eyes narrow slightly at the entire group. Even though they were all aware that Eliot did not understand and was not able to follow what was being said they still did not want to talk about him around him.

"Hardison stop looking at him," said Nate without looking their way and Hardison averted his eyes. However he did feel Eliot's eyes on him as he moved over to the dining area.

When they were all gathered around the dining area Nate began, "he's holding back," was his opening.

"Holding back what?" asked Parker turning to take Eliot in who had gone back to playing with the cube and she noted that he was making head way into it and she frowned, she played with that thing since Nate had put it on the table and it was impossible to put together.

"I don't know why he is not showing it however he is more aware then he lets on," said Nate.

"Are you manipulating him?" asked Parker turning back to the group and beginning to get angry. Since they had gotten Eliot back Parker had gotten very protective of Eliot and it was something that the entire team found very cute.

"You know how I feel about mind games Nate!" exclaimed Hardison. "And you are playing one with a guy who isn't firing on all cylinders."

"I am not playing with him," said Nate, "however I am also sure that intelligence wise he is still there, he is just not showing it and I don't why."

"Perhaps being paranoid was a character trait," suggested Hardison and was hit on the arm by Sophie.

"Is it perhaps because he has no way of communicating with us," suggested Sophie and at that they were all quiet.

"Could be the reason," suggested John who on most occasions chose to be quiet, he was after all not family. When everyone turned to look at him he elaborated, "he doesn't understand anything we say to him and we have not gone out of our way to try to communicate with him so naturally he would just go along with whatever we want."

Everyone was quiet for a minute, John was right while taking the time to talk to Eliot none of them had simplified their speech as no one in the clinic had suggested that he could understand it if they simplified it. Nor had they thought to ask him anything or gave him choices thinking that he was not capable. But if Eliot was still in there somewhere then shouldn't they try to get through to him?

"How are we going to go about this?" asked Sophie, "I mean none of us are speech experts."

"Autistic communication," said Parker out of the blue. When everyone turned to look at her she went on, "I once had a foster brother who was autistic and our foster mother had pictures of everything around the whole house. As far as I know autistic people have trouble communicating but are OK with pictures," after she was done she was quiet and no one asked about which foster home and what had happened.

"But Eliot is not autistic," said Hardison.

Once again it was Parker who answered, "autistic children are not able to communicate in the normal means because they do not understand what is being said however they are able to point to things they want. And I know that Eliot is not autistic however the principle should be the same," she suggested looking not too sure of herself.

"It could work," said Sophie with a little smile thrown towards Parker to set her at ease, "he is not able to progress speech but as you say if he is still able to think he should be able to understand what we say through pictures."

"How are we going to go about this?" asked Hardison and it was Nate who as usual took charge of the situation.

"What we are going to do first is everything he does and everything we ask him to do will be in pictures," after all he was the mastermind he knew what Parker had been talking about. "Hardison go online, I know that there kits you can buy where basic things have been pictured for autistic children, we could use some of those. We'll start by showing pictures of things to Eliot that he is doing and when he think he is comfortable with the change in the routine we'll ask him to make a few simple choices and see if he can understand what we are trying to do…" there he drifted off after all they were in foreign territory and none of them wanted to hurt Eliot.

They argued a few more points about what and how they were going to do things before moving back to the living room. And if the others had any doubts about Eliot's intelligence level it was all put to rest as their eyes landed on the perfect little cube that was sitting on the table and Eliot was once again playing with the intelligence toy he had abounded like nothing had been amiss.

Nate smiled at Eliot when he looked up, "come on it's time for bed," he said before holding out his hand for Eliot to grab and helped him to his feet, his hearth lighter knowing that bit by bit they were getting Eliot back.