AN: Sorry about my mishap with Chapter 9, somehow I managed to publish the chapter without any of the edits I'd made, being saved. It is now corrected just in case you haven't read it. I am extremely grateful to all of my kind reviewers, you know who you are, but thank you for your wonderful comments.
I will never own Leverage, but I like to play with the characters from time to time….
Dr Meyer thought back to the surgery that had kept him occupied for the whole day so far. He hated gun shot wounds, not only did they cause such trauma and terror but they also brought along the families of the injured and watching the upset on their faces was something that he had yet to acclimatise himself with. If he had the choice he'd be working in some General Surgical Department instead of the Trauma Department, he saw far too many cases of gang shooting and armed robberies, or rather the victims of such crime. He hadn't seen anything quite so tragic recently until Eliot Carmichael came into his department with two gsw to the chest. He had coded in the ambulance and the EMTs had intubated him and used a chest drain to help relieve the pneumothorax. It appeared that the patient had been given Emergency First Aid immediately by a friend of the family, he had done everything he could until the ambulance had arrived to take over. This 'friend' had in all likelihood saved Mr Carmichael's life and prevented him dying at the scene. Once the scans were taken it was evident that only one lung was punctured and the other was encased in broken ribs, so any sudden movements could cause another puncture. He was wheeled straight into surgery where the left lung was repaired and although it is no longer under normal circumstances to wrap broken ribs, it had been beneficial to wrap these ones to stop them popping through the lung on the right hand side of the chest. They had limited any chance of severe respiratory compromise and for complete closure of the operation they had placed him on a ventilator and into a medically induced coma to let his body rest and repair. The doctor had pulled off his mask and sighed in relief, another family that he could deliver good news to this time.
Thinking back, Dr Meyer had been too busy to notice all the scars across the man's body, too occupied trying to save his life. It was later that evening when checking on the patient that he had noticed all of them. It hadn't been a complete surprise that the man had contracted pneumonia while under anaethestic, with all that work on his chest and the trauma he had suffered, it was probably more of a fait au complait. While the antibiotics coursed their way through Eliot Carmichael's body, Dr Meyer found himself thinking about the lines of work the man had been employed in and about his numerous scars. Scars, the patterns of a life lived and while he had been a stuntman and now a bodyguard, a number of scars were to be expected. Employment in a violent or destructive line of work to coin a psychological metaphor, hmm, he had understood why some people revel in that line of work and some other people found themselves in a vicious circle of violence throughout their whole life. He feared today's case had been a person caught up in his latter thought, he pondered asking Mr Ford about his older scars, but stopped himself as the medical code of confidentiality / Hypocratic Oath was not something he would break lightly. However, sadly the majority of the scars on the man's body were well over 20 years old.
It was three days before the medical team were eventually content enough to ease Eliot off the medication keeping him in a coma and then remove his ventilator. The family had been in and out all that time, with his wife sitting quietly at his bedside throughout the entire time. Keeping a silent bedside vigil, she had be found sobbing many times and despite recurring assurances that her husband would make a full recovery, there seemed to be something else on the young woman's mind. The surgeon was entirely content with the repair to the lung and on that third day they surrounded the bed and discussed with Mrs Carmichael and Mr Ford what they would do next.
"We're very happy with the way your husband is healing. He is clearly a tough man and he's making an excellent recovery," Dr Meyer explained to his audience, "do you have any questions?"
"When will he wake up?" The voice had been so quiet that they had all turned their heads in her direction, practically the first words Mrs Parker Carmichael had uttered in three days.
"Eh, No, it's not that straight forward, your husband's body has been through an extreme trauma and while he has pulled through, he will still need an enormous amount of rest and recuperation. Now I'm to understand that your husband is a physically active man and you may have some initial argument from him about his recovery,…
"Oh you have no idea, Dr Meyer!" Nate interrupted.
…well, as you said, it seems that you'll have your hands full and what I'm trying to say is that it will take a few hours at least before your husband comes round and it might be prudent to take some time to get some rest as you're going to be busy from now on until he's back on his feet."
"Thank you Dr Meyer, we'll all be there with Parker to help them through this." Nate assured the doctor, he really didn't think he'd be able to prise Parker away from Eliot at this point. It had gone beyond a crush or 'full on lust' as Hardison had described it, to a much deeper bond than they had all first believed. Perhaps even a first for Parker, he knew of Eliot's first love Aimee, yet he had no idea of Parker's former personal life.
Dr Meyer injected the product that would aid Eliot to awake from his slumber, and checked the machines noting his heart rate and pulse/oxygen rates, noting they were all within the normal constraints he stepped back to take his leave.
"Regrettably they can't remove the ventilator until after he has woken and taken a few breaths alongside the machine to show he is capable to breath on his own." Nate relayed to Sophie, Hardison and Tara when they returned from changing clothes. "They aren't sure when he'll come round, could be any time now or a couple of hours."
The ladies headed into Eliot's room, they were usual visitors to the hitter's room and the nurses recognised them all by now. Hardison headed after them but was stopped by Nate.
"How's the house looking?" Nate asked the hacker.
"Great, the painting was finished this morning, the painters worked through the night to get it ready. Now it's being aired now so the paint smells won't make Eliot feel sick when he gets back home." Hardison whispered, "Electric is on, Cable connected and I've just got the screens to set up when they arrive tomorrow."
"And the girls are helping you out?" Nate commented with a slight laugh, knowing full well that there was no way Sophie would let Hardison decorate the mansion they'd bought to live in while they helped Eliot recover from his operation.
"Yeah like I had a choice, but don't worry, I'm planning my revenge on you already man!" Alec just walked past Nate into Eliot's room.
The hitter was laying in the bed, still in the pretty much the same position he'd started in three days before, after the life saving operation had been carried out. Since then the nurses had taken care to ensure he didn't get any bedsores and was bathed regularly. None of the nurses had made any complaints about doing that!
Nurse Matilda was still the senior nurse in charge of Eliot's case, because she'd been integral in getting him settled in ICU and become familiar with his 'family', the powers that be had moved her down to Eliot's private room to carry on with his primary care. She was taken by his wife, who looked haunted and at times petrified, the others ensured someone was with Mrs Carmichael at all times, well at least one of them, though they all took turns at his bedside. Matilda had caught the end of some very bizarre conversations. She was sure she had heard the man with curly black hair apologise for something, although she hadn't caught what. She'd heard his wife tell Eliot she loved him and hoped she got to tell him and the tall black man had teased him about movie marathons and people with plastic heads. God only knows how these people are connected, but they all had one thing in common, they all cared for the man in the bed.
Sophie braced herself for the battle to come when she entered the hitter's hospital room and heading towards Eliot's bed she noticed Parker stroking Eliot's hand and humming a song she didn't recognise. One of the plethora of nurses had just finished checking on Eliot's progress and taking note of his observations, they were expecting him to come round at some time today and there was no way Parker would be moved from his bedside. Sophie had to admire her dedication and knew that Eliot would be delighted when he found out that she felt for him as deeply as he felt for her.
"Hello Parker," Sophie said as they entered the room, "Hello handsome," as she turned to address Eliot. "Is there any sign of him waking up?"
"No" whispered Parker.
"Tara, would you take Nate and Hardison for a walk" Sophie whispered to the grifter, "I need to talk to Parker for a few minutes."
"About half hour to walk the grounds if I take them the roundabout way. Good luck!" whispered Tara, "See you in a short while Parker." Looking towards the thief who looked up at Tara and smiled, but failed to say anything.
"Parker, darling, we need to talk." Sophie sat next to the thief and put her hand on the young woman's knees.
Parker turned to look at Sophie as though looking at her for the first time. "Do you know something you're not telling me?"
"No Parker nothing like that, just when Eliot wakes up he's going to need a lot of help and care every day and probably most of the night as well. When he leaves the hospital we need somewhere to stay, other than the flat." Sophie began to explain the plan, "so we've arranged a place already, where we can all stay together, that way we can all help. Also we're not going to take on any jobs until Eliot is much better, okay?"
"Okay," Parker acknowledged, "what sort of place?"
"Well, it's going to be a couple of hours before Eliot is ready to wake up, it's not far from the hospital, would you like to come and see what we've done?" Sophie offered.
"Erm, not sure, do you think Eliot will know I'm not here?" Parker asked Sophie, "I don't want to leave him alone, he's scared of being left behind."
"Oh Parker, he'll understand sweetie, you've been here for the whole time. If you like, we can leave Nate here with him to make sure he's okay. What do you think?" Sophie replied.
"I think I need a shower." Said Parker, looking between Eliot and Sophie trying to decide what to do for the best. "I want to look nice for when he wakes up too. Do you think Nate would mind not seeing the house?"
"I think Nate would be happy to watch over Eliot for a change, we all owe him from one time or another. I'll call them and have them come back, alright?" Sophie pulled out her phone and dialled Tara's number.
As she spoke to Tara on the phone and arranged the return of the team from their walk, Sophie noticed that Parker was talking quietly to Eliot. She was whispering something in his ear and when she finished, she placed a lingering kiss on Eliot's forehead and then squeezed his hand.
With Nate safely ensconced in Eliot's room the other's headed for the van where Hardison drove them about 30 minutes outside the centre of Boston into the countryside. Turning off the main road onto a side route they came upon a gated entrance, which opened electronically by a button that Hardison had pressed from the visor. No one spoke as they headed up to the main house, which turned out to be an impressive mansion sized building that was surrounded by tumbling trees and large gardens. It looked beautiful from the outside and like a place Parker would rob on a different day, somewhere that would not only be littered with priceless paintings but have a state of the art security alarm for her to circumvent. Today they walked up to the front door and Hardison used a large skeleton key to open the front door.
"What do you think Parker?" Sophie asked the young thief, who was practically bouncing on her feet to explore the place and the gardens. Clearly all that caffeine was finally kicking in!
"It's beautiful, who's is it, have we stolen it?" Parker was getting back to her naturally inquisitive self in their new environment.
"It's all of ours sweetie, Hardison used the slush fund to buy some stock then arranged for the price to get better, well you don't need the details, it's ours, all of ours and we're all going to stay here until Eliot is feeling better and is back on his feet. It's got plenty of bedrooms, an area we can use for Eliot with en suite bathroom, including bath and a veranda for him to get easy access to fresh air to begin with." Sophie was smiling as she broke the good news to the thief.
"Wow, it's, well it's amazing. Eliot will love it and it's going to be lovely for us all to live together, like room-mates." Parker was in awe of the size of the place. "Where can I get showered so we can head back?"
"Just this way, they whole place isn't ready yet but tomorrow will see most of it finished and although we all need to head back to our flats to pack up some personal things in order to move in for a while, it's ready to move in to" Tara offered, taking the stairs off to the right followed by Parker and Sophie.
"I don't have anything here Sophie, do you or Tara have something nice I can wear for when Eliot wakes up?" Parker asked the grifters.
"I have a few little pieces that might help, come with me and see." And off they went leaving Hardison standing in the entrance hall, finally smiling that Parker was beginning to relax a little, the last few days had been terrible for them all, but to watch Parker then cave in on herself had just about finished them all off! Thankfully things were finally on the up. Alec headed off towards the kitchen area to see how his other plans were coming along.
Back in the hospital, Nathan Ford sat next to Eliot, silently to begin with and then realising he could bounce some ideas off the man while he slept.
"I've done lots of thinking over the last few days Eliot, I haven't been the best person to be around for a long while now. I know you were only being nice when you talked about Sam that first week and I was wrong, heck I was downright rude, you were being nice to me and I just threw it back in your face. All I thought was I didn't like what I knew about you, your reputation as a violent killer but that was all I could think of instead of realising that I didn't know you at all. Yes, you retrieved, but it didn't appeared that you cared about the body count you left trailing behind. Now I know you, I understand that's not true, you're just not like that. What I'm trying to say, in a very long winded way, is that I consider you one of the very few people that I trust, and that says more than any gesture of friendship I could make now. I need you to come out of this okay Eliot, we all do. Parker is a mess, she's worse than when I first met her, she has just sat here next to your bed for the whole time and fought us when we've tried to take her away to eat or sleep. I don't know what's going on between you two, but I know that kind of dedication is more than just friendship. I was beginning to see a spark between you both when Rand hurt her so badly that day, I didn't want to encourage it. What was I thinking, all the time we've been together I've been dancing around Sophie and the team has worked fine with it, so who am I to dissuade you from doing the same with Parker, although I don't recommend the fifteen year gap trying to decide what to do!"
Taking a break from rambling, Nate paced around the room, careful of the machinery that kept the hitter breathing. They were all used to the whoosh of the ventilator now, and hoped never to have to hear it again after today. Dr Meyer took that moment to enter into room, Nate was grateful he hadn't been five minutes earlier, phew.
"Ah Mr Ford, good afternoon," he shook Nate's hand, "I see you've finally managed to persuade Mrs Carmichael to take a break. I wasn't sure you'd ever succeed in that task."
"Yes, the ladies have taken her to see the place we've bou…rented for while Eliot is recuperating. It's not far from here." Nate explained, wishing he'd thought that sentence through properly beforehand.
"I see, well any break in the fresh air is a good idea, that young lady is far too pale. Now let me see how young Eliot is doing."
"Do you need me to leave Dr Meyer?" Nate enquired of the doctor.
"Nope, not necessary unless you wish for a break too?" the doctor answered, pulling the sheet back from under Eliot's armpits to just below his waist, revealing his muscular torso.
"No, I'm fine thank you." Nate just got the words out when the doctor revealed Eliot's chest. He didn't think he'd ever seen anything like it. Yes, he was a fit young man, muscular and bronzed from his years outdoors, but the scars, he'd never seen so many on one person. Eliot couldn't be more than 32, yet his body was covered in pale slivers of scar tissue; traces of areas that had been stitched, some better than others and areas where the marks weren't neat slices, more like stubbed out cigar stumps. Dr Meyer noticed the look on Nate's face.
"You've never seen these scars before I take it?"
"Eh, no. Eliot is a private man, I shouldn't be looking at him now either, will you excuse me?" Nate said. "I'll be right outside."
"Of course Mr Ford," Dr Meyer replied, "Before you go, are you a parent Mr Ford?"
"I was, although I'm not sure what bearing this has on Eliot." Replied Nate curtly.
"I'm sorry Mr Ford, please forgive me, I shouldn't have asked." Dr Meyer dismissed the question quickly.
"Thank you, it was a long time ago now. You have my curiosity peaked Dr Meyer," Nate looked straight at the doctor, "Why do you ask?"
"I was just going to ask if you would want to know if your son was being or had been abused in his life?" Looking blatantly at Eliot's sleeping form. "It's none of my business, but these scars here and here," pointing to the mans shoulders and upper arms, "are over 20 years old." Dr Meyer covered Eliot back up.
"Yes Dr,… yes I would want to know." Nate stammered out, "thank you."
"I'll let you know when I'm all done." Dr Meyer said as the door was closing.
Nate took some time to assimilate what he'd seen, okay Eliot was a Retrieval Specialist, he'd spent time in various Countries dingy prisons, most likely being tortured and the like. Jesus Christ, he should have known that you didn't just choose that for a living? With his head in his hands he took several deep breaths before he went to get a coffee, definitely the wrong week to quit drinking.
Meanwhile, Dr Meyer took the opportunity to check over the remainder of Eliot's older scars. He found a long one on he back of the young man's head it went from just behind his right ear to above his left temple in the hairline, more than likely why the young man kept his hear long. He couldn't understand why someone would be willing took look after a practical stranger by being their bodyguard. Then again this man had taken two bullets trying to stop a kidnapping, he was clearly a very brave young man.
Leaving the room he approached Nate. "Mr Ford, that's one brave young friend you have in there. I look forward to shaking his hand when he comes round, fancy taking two bullets for a stranger, that takes some guts." Dr Meyer was particularly impressed.
"Yes, he's quite the hero," said Nate, "Is he going to be alright?"
"Why, yes of course, his vitals are all in order and he should be out of his sleep before nightfall." Explained Dr Meyer before excusing himself, "you holler if he needs anything or if you should wish to talk further Mr Ford."
"Of course, thank you Dr Meyer." Nate still didn't have his head on right after what he'd seen in Eliot's room and he wasn't sure he could look at the scars again. He was still visibly paled when he headed for the door and turning the handle he heard the ladies voices coming around the corner.
"Nate, what's wrong, why are you out here?" Parker ran towards him, cheerful voices stopping in their tracks.
"Nothing Parker, Dr Meyer was just taking his observations and I thought I'd step out to give Eliot some privacy, you know what he's like." Nate explained, though the look Sophie gave him made it clear she knew he wasn't telling a whole truth.
"Oh, okay, can I go back in?" Parker tried to get past Nate.
"Oh, yes… yes of course, what was I thinking." Nate stepped back and let Parker lead the way into the hitter's room.
"Parker if you're alright I'm just going to take Nate for a coffee, tell him what you thought of the house," Sophie practically dragged Nate away, waiting until they were safely around the corner barely before asking "what on earth is going on Nate?"
"Nothing, why do you ask?" Nate replied trying not to look the grifter in the eyes, knowing he was blown all along. She raised her eyebrow at him, definitely something she'd gotten from the hitter, "Okay, okay, I'll tell you, but it's between me and you, right."
"Of course, spill." Sophie knew he'd give in easily, moving towards a double bench that Nate had motioned her towards.
"The doctor came in and asked if I wanted to leave while he checked over Eliot, I said no, as I didn't want him waking up alone. Anyway, he pulled back the sheet down to Eliot's waistline and well, the scars Sophie, I've never seen anything like it." Nate had tears welling up in his eyes.
"I know it can't be easy to have seen them Nate, but he's a hitter, there's a certain amount of his work that causes him pain and injuries, he's bound to have some scars." Sophie couldn't quite understand why Nate had been so shaken by the hitter's scars.
"Sophie, the scars are over 20 years old." Nate forced out through gritted teeth, hoping he wasn't going to have to say it again. Watching as Sophie paled too he realised he'd been harsher than he intended in getting his point across and they both needed to get a grip before the others saw them.
"Oh Nate, poor Eliot, do we know anything about his life beforehand?" Sophie put on her game face to quickly mask the pain she felt for Eliot. "Do you have anything in that file of yours?"
"Not enough to explain this, I'm going to have to think about what to do here. If we try to help, he'll leave us and take for the hills." Sophie knew what Nate was trying to say and pre-empted the end of his sentence, "..so basically we forget what we've seen until we find out what happened."
"Yes." Nate pulled Sophie closer and squeezed her tightly, it was a hug filled with warmth and love, he hoped it would soothe her anguish over Eliot for now.
They headed back to Eliot's room hand in hand, knocking to announce their arrival.
"Hey guys, any news?" Hardison asked, "What did the doctor say while we were out."
"Nothing much, he expects Eliot to awake soon and there shouldn't be any long lasting side effects, other than tiredness and the need for lots of rest to help his body heal."
"Parker, what did you think of the house?" Nate addressed the thief.
"Oh, it's gorgeous. It's a great idea for us all to live there," Parker looked back to Eliot, "he's not going to like being made to rest, is he?" She picked up Eliot's hand to place it between hers and was glad he finally felt warmer now. Turning to comment on his increased temperature she felt the hand tighten in hers, and realising what this meant she jumped up to look at Eliot's face, grateful to see a pair of eyes finally flickering open.
Hitting the buzzer for the nurse, which got everyone's attention, Parker said "He's waking up."
Gathering around the bed, the team were soon delighted to see a pair of cobalt blue eyes staring up at them, suddenly they were filled with fear when Eliot realised that he had a large tube stuck down his throat. Starting to panic and his face began to redden, Nate took control, "Sophie go outside and shout for the nurse, Parker help me calm him down."
"Eliot, it's me, shush now, calm down Sparky," Parker was stroking Eliot's hand and reached across to dry the tears falling from the hitter's eyes. He was trying to calm down, to control his fear and panic in front of the others.
"Eliot," Nate this time, from the other side, "don't try to hide it, just calm down for your own sake. We've called the medical team and they should be here…" Everybody turned as the door opened and in walked the doctors.
"Okay, everyone out for a few minutes while we sort this out," came the order from Dr Meyer and Nurse Matilda, who had burst through the door. "We'll need a few minutes with Mr Carmichael to do a few tests. Mr Carmichael, one blink for yes, two for no, okay?"
One blink later and Dr Meyer was beginning the tests on Eliot before the door had even closed fully from the team's hasty exit.
Fifteen minutes of pacing in the corridor and they were rewarded with an update from the doctor. "He's doing well, he's off the ventilator though you'll need to keep talking to a minimum, he wants to know when he can go home and I've told him it will be at least a week. He's not too chipper from the looks of it. Mrs Carmichael if you could ensure he has plenty of ice chips they will help his throat repair from it's time on the vent." Looking around at the odd, but strangely cohesive family Dr Meyer continued, "He'll probably fall asleep again soon, let him. He needs as much rest as he can get and I understand that once he's out of that bed he'll be in a hurry to get moving again. The worst is over ladies and gentleman, so relax and soon life will start to get back to normal for you. Any questions, nope, well you know where to find me."
AN: Thanks for your patience, I am just tidying up the next chapter, so it will be up soon. Reviews are very gratefully received x