Chapter 1
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The team sat at the table as Hardison regaled them with the information on their latest mark. Nate had kind of tuned him out as the hacker once again expounded on his sheer genius at getting the information he was displaying on the screen. Based on the glazed looks on the rest of his team, he suspected he wasn't the only one. When Eliot pulled his cellphone from his pocket and frowned at it, Nate decided that was more interesting than whatever Hardison was saying. It was only due to that change in attention, that he even noticed the hitter silently getting up from the table and walking away to take the call. That, in and of itself, was unusual. It wasn't like him to take a call in the middle of a briefing, no matter what. He watched closely as all the blood drained from Spencer's face and, if he didn't know better, he would swear that there was a moment when tears flooded the other man's eyes, before he turned his back on his teammates. The call ended quickly, he would guess it didn't take much more than a minute or so. The rigid line of his friend's back, told him whatever he'd just been told, wasn't good.
When he had himself under control, Eliot turned back to his team.
"I need to take some time off." He announced baldly, right in the middle of one of Hardison's detailed descriptions of the genius that was himself.
"Excuse you?" The hacker said incredulously. "What do you mean, you need time off? We're just about to start a new job, you can't take time off now!"
The completely distant look on Eliot's face set all kinds of alarms off in Nate's mind. There was none of the usual 'Damn it Hardison' directed at the younger man. Without thinking, he responded. "This guy isn't going anywhere. We can push it off for a few days. Eliot, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just need a few days. Is that too much to ask?" His tone held no anger, in fact it held nothing. No inflection whatsoever.
Sophie was frowning at him, trying to do what she did best, to read the blank slate that was her friend. His eyes gave nothing away. No anger at whoever had called, nothing. His body language, however, screamed back off. "Of course not, Eliot. Whatever you need. Is there anything we can do?" She asked gently.
"No."
Parker, being Parker, spoke up. She didn't like the way her friend looked, although she couldn't put a finger on the why. "What's up, Sparky? Where are you going? Can we go too?" What she really meant; was could she go wherever he was going. For some reason, she didn't like it when he wasn't around. The world felt colder and emptier. She didn't feel that way when Hardison wasn't there and she knew that wasn't quite the way it was supposed to work, what with his being her boyfriend and all. Relationships still confused her.
"No."
"Why not?" She bounced up and headed towards him, fully intending to poke him into submission.
"It's a family matter." With that he turned and left the room, leaving four people gaping after him. Nate and Sophie in concern, Hardison still upset that his amazing presentation was being ignored and Parker with hurt in her eyes. Weren't they his family?
Nate and Sophie both stood up, fully intending to make sure Eliot was okay. Nate put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. "I'll go." He said quietly. She nodded and subsided back into her chair. Nate hurriedly followed Eliot out the door, but he was nowhere to be seen. He'd had to be moving quickly, it had only been seconds since he'd left. The older man hurried towards the kitchen of the brewpub. He had an idea that his friend would not want to go out through the restaurant proper and would most likely head to the back door that opened off the kitchen. He was proven right when he got in sight of the door in time to watch the other man disappear through it. He broke into a half run and caught the door before it even closed all the way. He stepped out into the light, to find his quarry leaning against the fence that separated them from their nearest neighbor. Both hands were leaning against it, his head hung down between them and even from where he stood, he could hear Eliot breathing hard, trying to get himself under control.
"Eliot…." He wasn't sure what to say.
"What do you want, Nate?" The reply was curt.
"What's wrong?" He asked again.
"Leave it alone, Nate." Eliot responded harshly, his back still turned towards him.
"No. Tell me what's wrong!"
Eliot whipped around and Nate was shocked to see tears on the other man's face. "Fine! You want so bad to know what's wrong? That was my sister Beth. My dad…my dad died last night." His answer had started out angry but ended sounding broken.
"Oh, Eliot, I'm so sorry. What happened?"
"Heart attack. He was only 68! I thought…I thought I had more time."
"Time for what?"
"Time to make things right between us." Was the barely heard reply.
"What happened with the two of you?"
Eliot remembered sitting in the van at the Value More with Hardison asking if the things he'd said to Martin about his dad's hardware store were real or just made up for the con. That job had stirred up so many things inside him. He swallowed hard. He didn't really want to get into this with Nate, but a small part of him wanted to share the hurt, to share the burden. "He wanted me to run the hardware store with him. I wanted, needed, to get out of there. I wanted to see the world beyond our tiny corner of it. When I turned 18, I joined the service. I thought it would be the best of all worlds. See what there was outside my little town in Oklahoma and serve my country at the same time. We had a fight the night before I had to leave to report for basic training." That was pretty much all he'd told Hardison and wondered if he should just stop there but found himself continuing.
"He told me I was turning my back on my family. I told him Beth loved the store and would be the better bet to keep it in the family. He laughed at that. He was old fashioned, never could consider that a woman would be able to run what he thought of as a strictly masculine business. No, it had to be me or no one. I told him I hated every second I had to spend in that damn store, and that nothing was going to keep me there to take it over. I hurt him, Nate, hurt him real bad. I could have said it better, tried to reason with him, but I was young and so afraid that he'd find a way to make me stay and I knew that would kill me. Not right away, but slowly over time. I would just shrivel up and become a shell that sleepwalked through each day. He got so angry, told me that if I walked out that door the next day, don't ever bother coming back. That that would be the day his son died, in his eyes. I told him…I told him that that was just fine with me. It's the last time we ever spoke."
"You never tried to reach out to him?"
"I thought about it. What I became over the years though? That wasn't the man I wanted my father to see. I decided it was better that he remember me the way I was back then, not the monster I had turned into."
"You're different now, you're not that man anymore." He unconsciously repeated the words Sophie had said to him after they'd found out that he used to work for Moreau. They'd resonated with him then, they'd allowed him to see past what he'd first thought of as a betrayal, allowed him to see the very real fear on the other man's face that he'd ruined something he treasured. The absolute conviction that they were out of their league, that someone was going to get hurt if they pursued this and it had almost happened to their hitter.
He knew, deep down, when his friend had picked up that gun in the warehouse and told him to get the Italian out of there, that Eliot Spencer was sure he was going to his death and that he was at peace with that as long as his team was safe. That he'd made it out alive, without a scratch, physically anyway, was still something that amazed him. He'd heard the gunfire that seemed to go on forever as he rushed away with the woman who'd been blackmailing him into helping her. Heard it long after they were safe. Longed to head back to make sure the man who had become almost a son to him, was also safe. He hadn't because he knew that, if he had and he'd been caught, it would have made the other man's sacrifice worthless. So, he'd waited and worried. When the distinctive lone figure had slowly walked out of that warehouse, backlit by the fire that was taking hold, he'd never been so glad to see anyone in his life. When Eliot had asked him not to tell the team what he'd done, he knew why and had been more than happy to oblige.
"Am I?" Eliot's response interrupted his memories.
"Yes, you are. You help people every day, people who have nowhere else to turn. You're the most loyal, protective person I've ever known. You've become someone I'm honored to work with, to be a teammate with, to call friend…to call family. If your father couldn't see that, then that would have been his problem."
Eliot was silent for a moment and Nate wondered if he'd just turn and walk away. He was surprised when his friend spoke again. "I tried. Once. A couple of months ago, after the Value More job, when I took a couple days off? I went home. Walked up to his door with a six pack of beer, hoping to make a peace offering, to make things right. I know he was there, his truck was in the driveway, the lights were on inside, but he refused to answer the door. I waited a few minutes, then left the beer and drove away. I should have…I should have waited longer, as long as was needed. Maybe picked the lock and gone in no matter what he wanted. I should have tried harder. I just never thought it was be the last chance I'd have." His voice broke on the last words and his shoulders hitched with a small sob, quickly smothered. Eliot Spencer did not cry, did not sob, no matter what the last few minutes had shown.
"There was no way you could have known, and you allowed him his choice. Something he didn't have the common sense to allow you. I know you, Eliot…" Here he held up his hand as the other man opened his mouth to retort. "I know you now. Who you were, what you did in your past, is in your past. The man you are today, is someone anyone would be proud to call son." He could tell that Eliot didn't know how to respond to that and that alone, made him beyond angry with Spencer Senior. He wished the other man were still alive, so he could tell him to his face what an idiot he was.
"I…thank you. Now, I need to go home, be with Beth, help her out. Can you understand that?"
"Of course, take however long you need. Do you want any of us to go with you?"
"No. I'll be fine. I'm planning on driving as it's not all that far. Should only take me a day or so." The underlying tone belied the words. Eliot would never ask for help for something personal like this, no matter how much he might have taken solace with having his team with him. Nate decided, then and there, that they would be by his side, whether he wanted it or not. He was also not going to give the other man the option to shut them down. He'd have Hardison find out where Eliot was heading, and they would get there first.
"Your sister? Will she welcome you?" Another thing that worried the older man.
"Yeah, we've always been close. There were times when I couldn't reach out to her and she worried, but she was always there when I finally got hold of her. We've seen each other over the years. Not at home, but we'd meet up somewhere in between there and wherever I was at the time. I missed her wedding as I didn't want to stir up trouble with her and dad. I got to meet her husband, her son, over time. She kept me up to date on what was going on with dad and the store, but she never told him that we were in contact. She knew he'd see that as much of a betrayal of him as me not wanting to run the business." His voice was so sad, that Nate's heart broke for him, reinforcing his decision for the team to make their way to Oklahoma.
"Will you be staying with her?"
"No, I'll find some place close by. She really doesn't have the room and I don't want to disrupt her life any more than it already is. This is going to be hard enough on her as it is."
"She and your dad were close?"
"Yeah. He could never see her as anything other than his little princess, but he loved her, and she loved him back." Eliot looked at his watch. "I've got to get going. I need to pack a few things and I want to head out before it gets too late." He turned to walk away and then turned back. "I meant it Nate, thank you. I have more respect for you than for most of the men I've served under over the years. The closest I can come to is Colonel Vance and that's saying a lot. If…if you feel it's right, you can tell the team why I've gone. Let them know I'll be back, and we'll do that next job. You guys are pretty much the only family I have, and I'll never not be there for you."
"We know that Eliot." The two men stared at each other and then Eliot nodded his head, once. He turned and walked away. When he was out of sight, Nate sighed and muttered. "And we'll never not be there for you." He turned and headed back inside. It was time to go steal a funeral.
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A/N – I put this towards the end of season 5, a bit before the long goodbye job. The ending of the Value More Job episode just about broke my heart. It's the mark of a good actor (and a good writer) that makes you feel so much about a character that you can forget, for just a little while, that they're not real people with real problems.