CHAPTER 9

Time to Regroup

They all made it, tripping and tired back to their hotel rooms. Eliot was barefoot, Ewen was still in his wolf shape, and all of them looked worse for wear. They garnered a few raised eyebrows but since Hardison had paid extra for pet friendly rooms no one stopped them as they headed down the hall.

Eliot had spent a while just letting the hot water run over him in the shower. At first the water had stung when it hit the raw wound on his shoulder, but after a minute the sting went away and Eliot enjoyed the warmth and the relaxation of the hot shower. Eventually he decided he wanted sleep even more than he wanted the hot water. Getting out he toweled off and discovered that there were several shotgun pellets lodged just above his left hip near the spine. He didn't remember getting shot, but there was a lot about last night that he couldn't remember. From what he could see in the mirror the wound looked like it was probably healing well but he would need to remove the pellets before they festered. He could also see the wound on his shoulder extended far enough down his back that it would be difficult for him to bandage on his own. He pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms and padded to the door that connected his room to Parker and Hardison's room and knocked lightly on the door.

"Hey? Are you guys still up?"

"Yah man. Parker's still in the shower. What's up?" Hardison pulled the door open. He'd already showered and was wearing his Star Wars pajama pants and a soft white tank.

"Could you help me with the bandaging?" Eliot gestured at his shoulder.

Hardison looked away for a minute and his smile faded. He nodded his head. "Yah. I'll be right there." He started to turn away when Eliot caught the edge of the door.

"Hey don't worry about it. If you're not up for it, it's okay. I can wait for Parker or Abby." Eliot wasn't sure what was going on with Hardison but he didn't want to make Hardison deal with this if he wasn't comfortable with it. He'd already had to deal with a lot this morning.

"No. It's fine. Just let me tell Parker what's up."

Eliot got out his first aid kit and pulled out the gauze and the tape he'd need for his shoulder. He stared for a moment at the scalpel in its packaging. He would need to get the shotgun pellets out if he didn't want them to fester but the angle would be really awkward and he would have to work in the mirror if he did it on his own. He had planned on asking Hardison to help with the pellet removal but the man seemed pretty uncomfortable at the thought of applying a bandage, so maybe he would have to remove the pellets on his own.

Hardison walked in and saw Eliot glaring at the first aid kit. "That bag do somethin' to you personally?"

"Huh, what?" Eliot turned a confused look at Hardison.

"You were glaring at that bag like it did something to offend you."

"Oh no its… Look if you don't want to deal with this it's fine really." Eliot gestured at his shoulder again.

"Nah least I can do." Hardison picked up the roll of gauze and sat down on the bed behind Eliot. "I'm really sorry." Hardison draped a length of gauze over Eliot's shoulder and reached for the scissors in the kit.

"Don't worry about it. You've bandaged me up before and you always did a good job."

"No. I mean for this." Hardison ran a finger near the edge of the silver-burn. "I'm the one that shot you. I'm sorry man."

"You? Really? I would have put money on Parker." Eliot couldn't help the grin at the surprising news.

"You don't remember?" Hardison stopped what he was doing.

Eliot turned a little to the side to get a look at Hardison's face. He smelled Hardison's emotions shift from guilty to angry. "No I don't remember. Most of last night is pretty blurry. What did I do?"

"You went after Parker. You…" Hardison clenched his jaw at the memory.

"Is she okay?" Eliot's face paled. "Hardison I'm so sorry. But you… This… You stopped me right? I didn't touch her?"

"No you didn't get to her. I didn't mean to exactly but I did… I'm the one that shot you with the silver loaded paintball."

Eliot turned the rest of the way and pulled Hardison into a fierce hug. "Thanks. Thank you for stopping me. You know if I'd known what was going on I'd never have… The two of you are…" Eliot could seem to find the right words but it didn't seem to matter.

"So is this like a private manly hug or is there room for one more." Parker smiled brightly from just beside them. Hardison reach out and pulled her close.

Eliot leaned back so that he could see them both. "I'm am so sorry for everything that happened last night."

"So what are you boys doing?" Parker still had moments where it was hard to process emotion and having Eliot apologize and hug her and Hardison was something that she wasn't ready to deal with in the immediate.

"We were supposed to be gettin' this guy patched up. But we lost track of that for a moment." Hardison looked at the gauze that was unraveled most of the way across the floor.

"Hardison will you order room service. I want pancakes and Eliot wants steak." Parker fished through the first aid kit until she found the extra roll of gauze.

"Did you ask the man if that's what he wants? Maybe he wants pancakes too." Hardison was already dialing.

"Dammit Hardison. Just order the food." Eliot growled while he handed Parker the medical tape.

By the time the food got there Parker had finished bandaging Eliot's shoulder and had removed most of the shotgun pellets. "I found two more… and… I think that's it. I can't tell if there are any that might be deeper."

"Thanks Parker. Really. That helps a lot." Eliot had done his best to hold absolutely still while she used the scalpel and the forceps to remove the pellets.

"You're bleeding more than you usually do. Did I do something wrong?" Parker smeared ointment over the area and applied a telfa pad.

"No you did fine. I'm still exhausted. I need to eat before I'm going to have the energy to heal like I usually do."

"Speaking of which. You guys food is getting cold." Hardison said around a mouthful of fries.

Eliot couldn't have cared less what temperature his food was, he was just too hungry to be picky. Getting up off of the bed he crossed the room to the small table where Hardison had set their food. Eliot saw the burger and fries that Hardison was working his way through and Parker's pancakes with extra syrup were waiting for her. There were two plates with steak, potato, and vegies also sitting on the table. "Who's the extra steak for?" Eliot almost drooled at the smell.

"You. Figured you could use a little extra food after all the runnin' around you did last night." Hardison slid a plate closer to Eliot.

"Thanks!" Eliot closed his eyes in pleasure at the first bite.

Eliot finished off both plates of stake and their sides before Parker was halfway through her pancake. "I know we got more to talk about but I gotta sleep first." Eliot stood up and started to stretch until it pulled against his wounds. Without another word he crossed to the bed and crawled under the covers and closed his eyes.

Parker handed Hardison her plate and tilted her chin toward the door to their room. Hardison grabbed his own plate as well and headed for the door.

Parker very lightly ran her fingers over Eliot's hair. "Good night Sparky."

"You know it's almost ten in the morning right?" Hardison watched her from the door.

"Doesn't matter."

. ͽϿ Ѻ Ͼͼ .

Small and sweet. She wouldn't make a whole meal but that didn't matter. She was crying for her momma and that was good. He could eat the mother if that one came too close. She reached with trembling fingers for her flashlight but couldn't quite reach it. Her lemon yellow dress was bright and breezey. Her lemon yellow dress wasn't yellow anymore with the blood splashed across it. Wait? Yellow dress? No, this one had a puffy red coat. Red was a good color. The color of blood. He lept. All fangs and claws. Ripping, tearing. Screams, screams were good…

Eliot had begun thrashing and moaning in his sleep as images flashed, and tormented his sleeping mind. Finally with a half strangled scream he sat up, nearly falling off the edge of the bed. He had a death grip on one of the cheap hotel pillows and a hand on his chest as he brought his breathing back under control.

"I told Hardison we shouldn't have let you sleep so long." Parker didn't look up from her bowl of cereal.

"What time is it?" Eliot took a deep breath and let it out very slowly and repeated the process until he felt in control of himself.

"Almost five." Parker crunched her way through several more bites. "I'll fix your bandages after you shower."

"Okay. Head back to your room and I'll call you when I'm ready."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why should I go to the other room?"

Eliot growled, yanked a duffel bag out from under her and stomped to the bathroom. In fifteen minutes he was back and Parker already had the first aid kit open on the table.

"You must be feeling better." Parker commented as she spread antibacterial ointment over the silver burn.

Eliot tilted his head to look at her but didn't comment.

"The burn is a lot smaller and I don't think you need a bandage for the shotgun wound. If your clothes rub on it we can put a bandage over it, but it's mostly healed."

Eliot nodded.

"Are you okay?" Parker sat in the chair facing him.

Eliot nodded. Parker shoved at him with her toes. Eliot sighed. "Did I hurt anyone last night?"

"No. You scared a few people, but no one got hurt."

"It's just I think I remember…" Eliot looked at his hands for a moment.

"The little girl in the yellow dress?" Parker asked quietly.

Eliot's head snapped up. "How?"

Parker quirked an eyebrow at him. "You haven't dreamt about her in a while. But you dreamt about her just now. Didn't you?"

Eliot didn't often sleep in front of the others. He knew his nightmares could be loud and sometimes he woke up swinging, so he tried not to sleep around the others very often. But over the years there had been many times where it couldn't be avoided and sometimes their presence had kept the nightmares at bay. He was so exhausted when he fell asleep this morning that he thought he wouldn't be able to dream but he had been wrong. "I dreamed about a girl in a red coat but it got kinda mixed up with the girl in the yellow dress and I can't tell what part is just dream and what part is memory."

"You did scare a girl in a red coat last night. She was real." Parker didn't understand 'sugar-coating' and saw no use in it. It was always better to hear things straight so there was no misunderstanding. She knew Eliot would be upset, but he would want the truth.

"You're sure she's okay?"

"Yah El. She's fine." Hardison came all the way into the room and set several bags down on the small table. "I just got off the phone with her mother. Heather slept fine all night, no nightmares, and she is already back outside playing with the new puppies. I told her mom to keep in touch and we'll check up on them again in a week. Kids are resilient man." Hardison slid one of the bags closer to Eliot.

Eliot opened the bag and pulled out a new pair of boots. "Thanks for keeping tabs on them. And for the boots." Eliot pulled them on and laced them up. "So what else happened last night? I've got impressions of things but it's feelings mostly and none of it makes much sense."

Hardison pulled up a map on his tablet. "The farm we rented is here." Hardison pointed. "After you got attacked you ran off. I hacked the local emergency systems and we got the first call about a wolf, from a farm here." Hardison pointed at a spot several miles from the first spot. "The next call was from here." Several more miles back in the opposite direction and on the other side of Bray Rd. "The last call we got was over here. That's the one with the girl you remembered." The last spot was on the same side of Bray Rd as the farm they had rented but almost all the way to Bowers at the other end of the road. "After that you ate my nano-bots and we were able to track you to the bunch of trees where we found you." Hardison pointed to a final spot not far from the farm they had rented.

"What happened at the first two places I went?" Eliot hated that he couldn't remember but he knew that his team would tell him if something really bad had happened.

"Looks like you killed a sheep at the first place." Hardison held up a hand to forestall any response. "I already deposited money, way more than a sheep is worth, into their account. And I assured Mr. Bray that he did, in fact, get the wolf with his last shot. He was very pleased and said you deserved it." Hardison's teasing tone on the last sentence couldn't be missed.

Eliot growled at him and made a move-it-along gesture.

"At the second place you scared a woman pretty good and tore up her door. An anonymous person already hired a work crew to head out to her place and fix whatever needs fixing, not just the door, and they have all been very well paid. Half up front and half when I get photos of the finished work." Hardison sounded very pleased with himself and his smile looked smug.

"Start a college fund or something for the girl. Use my money." Eliot grumbled as he began poking through bags. Hardison slapped at Eliot's hands.

"Excuse you? Those are not for you." Hardison scolded. "Abby and Ewen should be here any minute, along with food." Hardison moved the bags to the floor on the other side of the table.

As if on cue Abby knocked on the door from the hallway. "Eliot, the trolley with the food is here."

Parker hopped up and opened the door. "Oooh, smells yummy!"

Ewen followed Abby in and after a little shuffling everyone was settled and the food was passed around. Conversation was light but they all new that they would have to get back to business soon. Before long the food was finished and the table cleared.

"Abby yesterday you said you weren't sure what ritual would lift the curse but you only preformed one ritual on me. Am I cured or do we need to do something else?"

"I am pretty certain that the curse is lifted. I don't believe you would have been able to complete the change or be in control now if you weren't cured. Can you tell me what the curse felt like?"

"Felt like? I don't know. The rogue bit my arm and started scratching me up right before Ewen drove him off and it didn't feel like anything at first, other than the usual pain of cuts and scratches. Then I realized that I had started my change and I couldn't stop it. I knew I was out of control and I remember warning Hardison and Parker off. But after that I don't remember much of anything." Eliot shrugged

"No. Not memory. Feelings. If you could only use one or two words what would you say to describe the feel of last night?"

"Hunger. Rage." Eliot began worrying the hem of his shirt between his fingers. "I know I was out of control but I don't remember feeling that way."

"And when the sun started to come up just before, or right around, the time we found you?" Abby laid a comforting hand on Eliot's arm.

"Unease bordering on fear. Like I was being watched or hunted."

"And how about now?"

"I'm me. I don't feel anything extra or unusual." Eliot scratched lightly at the edge of the bandage under his shirt.

"We talked to Nati last night and she seemed pretty certain about what we were dealing with. I took a few marks in the fight with the rogue last night too but I didn't end up in the same state as you." Ewen absentmindedly touched a spot on his shirt. Eliot was pretty sure there was a Saint Christopher medal underneath Ewen's shirt. "Nati said we can't get near a wolf that's been cursed except in our wolf form otherwise we'll end up cursed too."

"Abby, last night you were in a hurry to get the ritual finished. You said we only had a few minutes to get it done. Is time a factor? It's been hundreds of years since the rogue was cursed. Will you still be able to lift the curse?" Parker was fiddling with her favorite tension wrench.

"And what was with the whole upside down thing?" Hardison drug a French fry across his plate.

"This curse needs to be removed in the twilight. So just before dawn or just before dark. Best if it's just before dawn. The upside down part is necessary as well. It's part of what is physical and representational in the curse and the removal of it. So unfortunately we have to do the same thing with the rogue. He needs to be man-shaped and we need to hold him upside down." Abby rubbed a hand over her face as she thought of how difficult that could be.

"Did Nati have any ideas on how to do that?" Eliot scratched again at the bandage on his shoulder.

"Yes." Abby saw the looks on Hardison and Parker's faces and looked down at her hands in her lap.

"And?" Eliot hadn't missed the by play but he still wanted an answer.

"She said we oughta shoot you." Hardison glared daggers at Eliot and Abby.

"Not a bad idea…" Eliot looked thoughtful.

"Not. A. Bad. Idea? What the hell?" Hardison wanted to kick Eliot under the table but he was afraid of hitting Parker by accident.

"Well it's not. If we could hit him with a paralytic that would solve the worst of our problems." Eliot was so focused on the possible solution that he hadn't noticed how truly upset Hardison was.

Hardison shoved away from the table and went through the connecting door into his and Parker's hotel room.

"Natali wasn't talking about shooting you with a dart full of something. She wanted us to shoot you with the gun that you brought." Parker also sounded very unhappy. Eliot wasn't sure who she was, currently, more unhappy with, him or Natali.

"Parker?" Eliot made sure she was looking at him. "I'm sorry I put you guys in that position. But now I need you to find a way out of this for us. This seems like the logical plan to me."

"And if we had let Ewen shoot you?" Parker couldn't keep looking at him or she might cry and she didn't want to cry. She studied her tension wrench again.

Eliot ran a thumb across her cheek. "I would rather that had happened than to have found out that I had hurt you or Hardison." Parker nodded but still didn't look at him. "So now we need to do something about the rogue. I'm not proposing we kill him, just find some way to slow him down. Can you help me with that?" Parker nodded again took a deep breath and straightened in her seat. "Let me go talk to Hardison and you three see what you can come up with." Eliot rose and went after Hardison.