A/N: Thank you so much BaNdGeEk4EvEr, booklover51089, Harm Marie, jitzter14, Lady Isabelle Black, slvr-tgr99, Valawenel, and zjlht for reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting! It means a lot to me that you all take that extra minute. And, Gaben, thanks for being an awesome beta

Chapter 5: Sick Day

Eliot was stretched out in the large chair. His whole body hurt; luckily bruised ribs and a wrenched knee were the worst of it. But, still his whole body hurt; even with ice and heat, gentle exercise and lots of tai chi and stretching it was still going to be a couple of weeks before he was firing on all of his cylinders again.

Rolling off his side and onto his back Eliot stifled a groan; he'd caught a heel in the small of his back and had a very deep bruise just to the left of his spine. He hurt too much to read, even though Nate, Sophie, and even Parker had all brought him books.

He flipped on the television hoping for a game of some sort: Basketball, ice hockey, soccer, rugby, … Hell, even baseball or golf would be better than sitting here staring at the ceiling. Fuck, he needed to dust there was a cobweb hanging down from it catching the light over by the window. Hopefully, Marta would get it when she came to clean this week. It was nice being in one place long enough to be in one place that he could have someplace he make a home. This apartment in Portland might not be his little house in New Hampshire; but, it had a balcony where he could grow herbs in window boxes; and a couple of tomato plants in pots. He'd even used the old strawberry pot that his neighbor was going to throw away and put in a few strawberries.

But, it wasn't growing season yet. So they all sat dormant until it warmed up some more. And that didn't help his current issue: Boredom!

His grandmother had always said "idle hands are the devil's workshop." When he was a kid he'd thought it was funny; but, having seen Parker and Hardison when they were bored the phrase took on a whole 'nother meaning! There was the time that Parker had started gluing things to the ceiling of Nate's loft. In fact he was pretty sure there was probably still a couple of knick-knacks attached to the ceiling. Or the time she and Hardison had decided to make cookies. The things they'd done to his kitchen made him shudder, even now, over a year later. It had taken three days to get everything mostly back in order; and he'd made Hardison get him a new Kitchen Aid stand-mixer, the seven quart which hadn't been introduced yet. The mixer was a thing of beauty!

But, that still didn't solve the problem at hand: What to do right now? His eyes roved around his small apartment: A stack of old Gourmet magazines, the one on top had an article on bee-keeping and Mongolia; both of which looked interesting, and which he was intending to read. Some tablet computer thing Hardison had dropped off, said he'd loaded it with movies and cool video games. There was the latest stack of plant catalogs all touting hybrid this and heirloom that. Meh… He'd already bought his seeds, and would get his plants from the nursery down the road. There was the stack of books which the team had all contributed to; Shelley had even brought one over 'Ninja. 1,000 Years Of The Shadow Warrior. A New History.'

Shelley had been real specific about handing the book to Eliot, you could tell that he'd read it. The edges of the dust jacket were a little worn, and some of the corners were bent down where he'd forgotten to use bookmarks. Although, Eliot swore Shelley did that because he knew that it drove Eliot nuts! Sighing the hitter grabbed the book off the end table and flipped to the picture section in the center. Black and white photos, some of them not too clear, but what they showed was unmistakable.

There were stark black and white photos of Shugendō rituals, pictures of Iga and Kōga, the ever changing landscape; that in many ways never changed. There were pictures of some of the masters whom Eliot had spent time training under. There were pictures of the armor which had been passed down from generation to generation. Eliot had seen some ninja armor in person and it was much more impressive in person. Concentrating for more than a few pictures was next to impossible. But, this was a book he was going to have to read. Not like the Kay Hooper mystery Sophie had brought over. That would get saved until a night when he couldn't sleep and needed something mindless to read. Although, a lot of her books had a creepy element to them which sometimes made sleeping after them a little difficult. But, they were engrossing enough that they took his mind off the nightmares which had been keeping him awake in the first place.

Setting the book back on the side table on top of the Kay Hooper book, 'The First Prophet' Eliot let out a groan. Fuck, that rib didn't feel bruised; it felt more like a fracture. Hopefully, Nate wouldn't plan any jobs for a while. And while he might not say it to Hardison's face; the hacker had set them up with a pretty damn good health insurance plan!

The hitter's eyes scanned the rest of the stack of books. Parker had brought a novel called 'The Art Thief,' quite fitting. Although it was by Noah Charney, the guy who'd written a treatise called 'Stealing The Mystic Lamb' which was all about the times the altarpiece of Ghent had been stolen. And if this novel was at all written in a similar manner to 'The Mystic Lamb' it was going to be dense and dry. Probably be a good soporific.

Nate, knowing of Eliot's love of Ernest Hemingway's fishing stories had brought a Hemingway biography over. 'To Have And Have Another.' The hitter had read the fly-leaf and knew why Nate had brought it. It was a discussion of Hemingway and booze. Wasn't it Hemingway who'd said: "Here's to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life." Carefully lifting the book in his hand he remembered that was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway had said "I drink to make other people more interesting."

Ernest Hemingway had also said one of Eliot's all-time favorite quotes:

"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime"

E/N: As always there are a ton of end-notes; especially in this series. Ninja. 1,000 Years Of The Shadow Warrior. A New Historyis a real book. It's written by an English dude named John Man who specializes in travelogues and histories. I like Shelley picked this one because it discusses how the fictionalized and very sensationalized ninjas are unrealistic and then spends a LOT of chapters discussing the real history of shadow warriors. Pretty cool book, a little dry.

The Kay Hooper book, The First Prophet is the first one in her new series. It looks to be pretty good; it's on my stack to read while I heal from knee surgery. She generally writes a pretty good novel.

And To Have And Have Another is a book which is pretty much described above. I couldn't get through it; but, I'm not a Hemmingway fan. Some of the drink recipes are pretty cool; and it isn't called a cocktail companion for nothing.

And now that you've made it through all the end-notes: Go read all the rest of my awesome fics! I promise they won't disappoint Cheers!