Chapter 10

The next day found a variety of pictures going up all around the house and by the time night came around Hardison had printed out each set of autistic communication cards that were ever created and sorted through the relevant ones that they could use and almost had plastered the whole house.

They could all see that the change in the house had set Eliot on edge as he halted every time something was out of place in a room. Hardison had put up pictures anywhere he could think of, even in his bathroom. Sophie reflected that it must have been unsettling for someone who had been through a very traumatic experience and was battling a difficult recovery. He had just been settling into the house and now they were changing the rules.

Sophie had watched Eliot before the whole ordeal had happened as she had watched every single member of the team. She was a grifter it was her job to watch people and find weakness that she could exploit. She had noticed to her dismay that Eliot of old had very few weaknesses.

Despite looking like a biker and an urban cowboy and somewhere along the way losing all the military training he must have had she could still see the officer in him, Special Forces if she was to venture a guess. One that hadn't joined the military right out of high school because there weren't many prospects in the little town he lived in. She would bet good money that he came from a well off military family and it had been a career choice for him, something he would have done for the rest of life before whatever went wrong had happened. He probably had an impressive education as well, one did not read and write in several languages just because they lived in those countries.

One look into his carry-on with perfectly folded t-shirts or the bed he had made with the military corners once they were sharing an apartment had confirmed her suspicions. A life in the military gave you certain things that you couldn't easily shake off.

Eliot had liked routines, she had had noticed he went out of his way to not have them but they were still there if you looked hard and deep enough. He had also liked predictable stuff as well. So what they were doing was unsettling for him however just as she knew he would he adapted to it. It took him several days to get used to his 'handlers' weird behavior of pointing to pictures. If it was in the old days Sophie would have laughed at the frown that Eliot had on his face. She now wasn't sure what it said, was he thinking that they were a bunch of idiots as he would have thought before?

Before all this had happened she had on occasions had said things just to see his reaction to them. She remembered that one time when Nate had asked what was so good about smuggled diamonds. She had jumped in and replied 'it's the way they shimmer on the deck of a billionaires yacht in the moonlight' and had to hold in her mirth as Eliot had turned around to give her an god awful glare before turning around and giving Nate the answer he was searching for like a good little officer she knew he was.

He was someone she enjoyed having intellectual conversations with and she missed him. She had found out that she could talk about the latest political happenings in Turkey and he would have a comment about it or she could comment on the latest book she was reading and find out that he had already read it. The only thing he did not talk about was clothes and shoes however she had let that slide as no one could be perfect.

Nate and she had talked long into the nights about what would happen if Eliot was not to get any better than he was at the moment. While she had been prepared to stay with Nate for the rest of her life if she was honest with herself she wasn't looking forward to having a grown up child for the rest of their life. Her feelings for the situation were complicated, if she had to she would look after Eliot for the rest of his life without any regrets but she wanted her friend back. She wanted to push Eliot's boundaries and see if he was still in there somewhere.

So after a few days she decided to take the initiative and see if he would at least communicate with them on the basic level. She needed to know that she would at least get some of her friend back.

So when he came down to breakfast she was prepared to get him to communicate with her. She had prepared his special porridge that was made from enriched milk powder for the morning bland. She had placed the honey, brown sugar and the maple syrup with their picture cards in front of them in plain sight for him to see.

She gave him a bright smile when she saw him and was warmed when he returned it. She reflected that even if Eliot never got any better they at least got to see him smile which he seemed to do more than they were used to. At first they all had been a little unsure of an Eliot who smiled a lot however they were all used to him smiling when he saw them. Parker in particular was delighted with the idea that Eliot was happy to see her.

Sophie went through the morning routine just as normal, "Good morning Eliot, how was your night? I trust that you slept well?" she asked as she guided him to the table to his usual spot. She asked him the same questions every morning. She presented him with the porridge and took a seat across from him so she could see him and waited until he had taken a spoon of the porridge. His reaction to the bland porridge was a frown and then he lifted confused eyes up to look at her. She in return gave him a smile and pointed to the items on the table.

"This morning I want you to choose, how would you like your porridge? Would you like your porridge with honey," she said while pointing to the honey and then moving on, "or brown sugar or maple syrup?" she finished and waited.

Eliot looked at her for a movement before looking down and reaching for his porridge again. 'Oh no' thought Sophie as she snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. It was something that the people at the hospital had thought them, Eliot did not like being touched and would not respond to his name however if you snapped your fingers it got his attention. It was something that she and Hardison used, Parker preferred to almost sit on him to get his attention despite the warnings of personal space and Eliot seemed to notice whenever Nate moved toward him. When he was looking at her again she repeated her question, this time making the gestures to go along with mimicking putting stuff in his porridge.

She wondered if this was a wise choice as he generally seemed confused about what she was asking him to do. Then he stared down at his porridge and picked up his spoon and just ran it in the porridge clearly not happy with the prospect of eating it bland. He either did not understand that he was to make a choice or he just thought she was being cruel with not giving him the sweet tasting stuff he was used to and leaving them in plain sight for him to see. After what he had been through she didn't put it past him to think that the people he was with could for their amusement withhold something he liked.

When he picked up the spoon to eat the porridge as it was, Sophie made her choice. She reached for the brown sugar and sprinkled it over his porridge. She had known from past experiences that if Eliot had made the choice brown sugar would have been his choice. Nate was the one that liked it bland, Hardison liked his with honey and Parker with enough maple syrup to make her hyper for the rest of the day.

Eliot looked up at her when she was done stirring in the sugar and Sophie gave him a smile to let him know that everything was fine however he seemed wary of her for the rest of the duration of the breakfast. She was a little hearth broken when he flinched away from her when she reached for him to wipe his face.

Had she misjudged the situation?