Chapter 4
They had been at the house for a week and Nate had retired to his room when the four of them gathered around the kitchen table to discuss what they were going to do.
"He is relaxed, more than he has been since he came back to us." Sophie said. Nate had been relaxed, he had spent his days reading, playing some pool or snooker with Eliot, and just relaxing on the patio while she sunbathed. They had not raised any of the issues they were there to address with Eliot telling them they had to wait until the right time.
"Yes he is." Eliot agreed, although he could still see the haunted look in the Mastermind's eyes, and he knew Nate was still not sleeping well. "He is also still drinking a hellovalot."
"It's the only way he can sleep." Parker said knowing that Nate's drinking picked up the later the night became.
"Yeah and it is not helping him that much, he still…well he is still experiencing the nightmares and sleeps very little actually." Eliot agreed. He did not sleep much at all and he kept tabs on Nate, peeking in on him from time to time and standing and watching as the man wrestled with the memories.
"So Eliot, this is your show." Sophie said turning to the Hitter. "How are we going to do this?"
Eliot looked at all of them seeing the question in their eyes. They were looking to him to tell them how to approach Nate, how to work this 'intervention' as it were. He was the one who had lived in a world that involved torture and pain. He was the one who knew what Nate was going through, maybe not on the same level although they all knew Eliot's life had not been easy, not in the military and not after either.
"Has he said anything?"
"No and I haven't brought it up." Sophie told him. "I wanted him to get to a point where he was relaxed like you said." They had spent a lot of time together, but they had not really spent much of it talking about anything really. She spent most of her nights with him until he asked her to leave which she did reluctantly, she had been hoping that that would change but it hadn't.
"Ok well we have two choices. We can confront him as a group and tell him how we feel."
"Or?"
"Or you can try to talk to him Sophie, or I can, but I think we need to talk to him together. We need to bring it up and not push him to tell us anything…"
"I thought that was what we were going to do?" Parker said looking at him confused by what he was saying.
"It is Parker. But we talk to him, we tell him how we feel because we have not done that yet."
"How we feel…?" Sophie asked.
"Yes Sophie because we haven't faced it either. The fact that he was taken, the fact that we knew he was out there suffering, not knowing where or what he was going through, the fact that we could not find him…then when he came back how we felt when he went off on that boat and what we went through listening to what happened on the island with David. We need to tell him how we felt."
"But won't that just make him feel worse?" Hardison asked his eyebrows knotting with concern.
"Maybe, but it will also tell him he is not alone, that he is not the only one trying to deal with everything that happened."
"Ok, then what?"
"Then we get him to really tell us what happened, get him to talk to us." Eliot told them. "I know we said when he came back that we would not ask him, but he did say he would tell us anything we wanted to know, well now we want to know."
"Eliot that is going to…it is going to be difficult."
"Yes it will be and emotional, for all of us, and we have to be prepared for that. We can't hold back Sophie because if we do he will, we have to let him know how much this is hurting us too because of what he is doing now, the drinking, the chances he takes, the way he is driving himself and us, the risks he is taking and the way he is putting himself in the line of fire job after job as if he wants to get himself killed…"
"Do you really think he does?"
"I think he doesn't care, he is back to what he was in the beginning, his life doesn't matter to him at all Sophie, I have seen it many times, in the army and after. He doesn't care either way, he does his job and if he dies doing it, well it doesn't matter, not to him."
"It does to me…" Sophie whispered then looked up at them with her eyes showing her pain. "To all of us."
"Yes and we have to make him understand that. Make him realise that this is hurting us too, that we are suffering, we have to make him realise that he is hurting us and that is going to be difficult for all of us to do because it is going to hurt him." Eliot said and saw they did not like what he was saying, they did not want to put Nate though emotional hell and doing what the Hitter was telling them to do would most likely do that. "Look guys this is going to be emotional for all of us, so either we are going to do this or we aren't."
"We are." Sophie said and Hardison and Parker nodded in agreement. "We have to because he is going to kill himself, if not on a job then with the drink and I…we have to try."
"Agreed." Eliot said.
This was going to be extremely hard for him. He carried so much guilt around the whole affair and he, like Nate did not do well with emotions, but he was willing to show his feelings to Nate if it would help and this was the only way he knew how to try and help the man. If it did not work, at least they had tired because Sophie was right, Nate was going to get himself killed, with the type of jobs he was choosing to take and the way he was negligent with his own safety, it was only a matter of time, and he might just kill one of them with him. Although Eliot had noted that he always took care to not expose them to too much of the danger, taking on the marks on his own if there was a chance of things going bad, much to Eliot's disdain and he had not held back when telling Nate that either. He was the damn Hitter not the Mastermind, but Nate had just shrugged him off and told him he would do what he thought necessary. They had got into heated arguments about his recklessness and his drinking which had not helped one bit and Eliot regretted losing his cool with the man on those occasions.
"So…?" Sophie asked breaking into his thoughts.
"Ok. Tomorrow, we sit down after breakfast."
"Who is going to start?" Parker asked, she did not want to, she could not, she did not know what to do or how to do it.
"I'll bring it up." Sophie said, it should be her, he would not shrug her off as he would the others.
"Good, then we take it from there. We can't plan this guys because I don't know how he is going to react and nor do you, we have to play it as it comes."
"What if he wants to leave, what if he gets angry and just…just wants to walk away."
"That is the chance we take, but he won't do that Parker. He didn't do it before and he won't do it now, he cares too much for us, all of us." Sophie said but she was feeling the same angst, what if this was too much for Nate, what if this caused him to leave them again this time for good, there were many 'what-if's' but she knew they had to try, they all knew that and they had to hope that Nate would know they were just trying to help him and let them.
"I'm scared." Parker whispered.
"We all are girl." Hardison said taking her hand and squeezing it. They had all agreed to this but now that they were going to do it was causing a tight knot to develop in his gut.
"Ok well I am going to bed." Sophie said then rose and walked over to Eliot bending down and kissing him gently on the cheek. "Thank you Eliot." She whispered then left the three of them alone.
"I think we should all get some sleep. Tomorrow is not going to be easy, not for any of us."
Hardison nodded then stood holding his hand out to Parker who nodded then smiled at Eliot wishing him a good night as the two left.
Eliot watched them leave then walked out on the balcony and looked out into the darkness of the night closing his eyes and contemplating what was to come tomorrow. He hoped it would work out, but it could backfire on them. Nate could react in a myriad of different ways and it could worsen the situation, he just hoped that the man would not walk away from them because if he did, Eliot was not sure he would ever come back. They all knew the risks, but they had to do something. He sighed then headed back into the house and up the stairs. He stopped briefly at Nate's room and opened the door a crack to see the man sleeping restlessly and empty bottle of whiskey standing beside his bed. "Just let us help you Nate please." He whispered before closing the door and heading to his own room.
