"Alright, I'm going to go see her. I'll call you if anything changes. Thanks for your help. I owe you."
"Yes, you do," Sophie snipped. The five of them had just gotten done going through Raelyn's house and removing any trace of her retrieving career and replacing it with the life he created. They'd convinced him to put it away instead of destroying it in case Raelyn regained her memory.
"I'm just waiting for this to blow up in your face," Parker interjected.
"Amen to that," Hardison agreed. Nate, as he had through a lot of the situation, stayed quiet, and Eliot left.
"Do you remember anything?" Eliot asked as he walked into Raelyn's infirmary room.
She was sitting up and looking relatively well if not emotionally stressed. She shook her head. "No."
"Nothing at all?" She shook her head again. He sighed and leaned against the foot of the bed. Ignoring every voice in his head screaming at him not to do it, he explained, "Your name is Allison Tate. I'm your father."
Her eyes narrowed in thought. "So what happened to my mom?"
"She died in a drunk driving accident when you were little." Eliot knew the best lies had seeds of truth.
"What happened to me?"
"You were shot in a robbery."
"Did I lose anything important?"
"Besides your memory? No."
"What happened to the robbers?"
"They were killed."
"Oh. That's good, I guess. What does 'toi uhusti' mean?"
Eliot furrowed his brow. "It's Cherokee. It means 'still strong'. Where did you hear that?"
She shift the blankets down past her legs. "It's tattooed above my knee. I know Cherokee?"
"You know a little. Your mother was over half Cherokee and I'm about a quarter, so you're about half."
"Interesting. Who's Eliot Spencer?"
He took a step back. "How do you know that name?"
She pulled the silver chain around her neck, producing the dog tags. "These."
He sighed. "I'm Eliot Spencer. You wear my dog tags as a good luck charm."
"Some luck." Oh great, the snark was still there.
"You woke up, didn't you?"
"That's true. Why do I have a different last name than you? Was I married?"
He choked on the laugh. "No, no. You're not married. Relationships aren't your thing. You have your mother's last name. We, uh, we weren't married."
"So I guess I take after you in the marriage department." He made a noncommittal noise. "Do I have a job? Or did I?"
"You teach jujitsu. And you make and sell jewelry. But that's more of a hobby that pays for itself."
"Hm." She rubbed her forehead.
"You okay?" He went to the head of the bed and felt her forehead. He tried to ignore the feeling of distance as she looked up at him.
"My head hurts. And my stomach. Where the hole is, I think. And I can't remember the last time I ate. Though, that could be par for the course. Maybe I ate and don't remember." There were notes of frustration or even sadness in her voice.
"It's going to be okay, honey." He squeezed her hand. "I'm going to go see Vance and ask him about getting you something to eat. You're going to be on pretty bland food for a while until your intestines heal."
"Lame," she responded as he headed towards the door. He glanced back at her. The sadness in her eyes was painful. Raelyn would be irritated and make a lot of jokes. But Allison was sad.
Vance was just around the corner. "Hey, Rae-Allison was wondering about getting something to eat. What can we do about that?"
"I cannot believe you went through with this, Spencer," Vance grumbled.
"Please don't do this to me, Vance."
"You're doing it to yourself."
"Will you-"
Vance handed him a form. "Take this to the canteen. They'll give you a meal safe for her to eat."
"Tha-"
"Shoo." Vance waved him off and walked away.
Allison ate, and thankfully, was able to keep it all down. Unfortunately, the pain meds put her to sleep shortly afterward, so Eliot decided to go for a walk. Not long into his endeavour, a hand landed on his shoulder. The hand belonged to Quinn.
"Hey, they won't let me in to see Rae. Can you vouch for me?"
"No."
Quinn's brow furrowed. "Why...not?"
"Because I don't want you seeing her."
Quinn's eyebrows raised and there was a familiar glint of irritation in his eye. "Why?"
Eliot started to walk past him. "You're not part of her life any more."
Quinn shoved Eliot against a nearby wall. "You can't stop me from seeing her. I'll just wait until she gets out, and see her at her apartment."
"She's not going to remember you," Eliot sneered.
Quinn slammed him against the wall again. "Come again?"
Eliot sighed, knowing that Quinn would go to her apartment and ruin everything. "She lost her memory. She doesn't remember anything. What she'll remember now is the life she was supposed to have. Or at least close enough to it that she never ends up here again."
Quinn pulled away from Eliot like the contact burned him. "You are a sick son of a bitch to fuck with your daughter's life like that."
"Normally, I have some fancy, graphic threat, but I know that's not going to phase you. If you come near her, I will kill you. Now get out of here. I've kept you from seeing her, but I'm the only one stopping you from getting shot just by being on this property. Everyone here knows who you are and what you've done. You may be White Hat now, but you haven't done near what I've done for these people. Leave."
Quinn disappeared and Eliot continued his walk. However, shortly into his second try, Vance approached him. "We're having some problems."