AN: Well, better late than never I guess. It took some time getting this betaed, but on the upside I got all the last four chapters at once, so it should be pretty quick updating form here. This is just a short character study on Eliot during The Lonely Hearts Job (s04e15). Thanks to anyone who's read this far!
.oOo.
"You don't even bother to learn their names," Sophie says. It hurts more than it should. Eliot knows she's in a heated discussion with Nate and that the comment is not meant as harshly as it comes out. She still says it, believes it most likely, and Eliot can't come up with a single good way of answering that. He deflects by calling her out on using the word stewardess and is happy when Parker shows up and the conversation moves on.
Eliot is aware he's seen as a "love'em and leave'em" kind of guy, although in reality there's very little love and quite a lot of leaving these days. He's not interested in any kind of lasting relationship, and he makes sure to hook up with girls who feel the same. It's better that way, safer.
From experience Eliot knows that it doesn't end well when he commits himself to a relationship. It didn't with Aimee and that was a luckier ending than some. Eliot's profession simply doesn't go with the kind of commitment a significant other deserves, nor with the kind of openness required. People as brutal as him shouldn't get too close to other people.
If he let himself, Eliot's sure he could be good at the romance thing. He can imagine himself cooking three course meals for a future wife, lightening candles, setting up dates and sending gifts. The fact that he doesn't think he'll ever find a person to do any of that for is not exactly a happy thought. Instead it's a practical acknowledgement of the way things are. When you've killed people in as many ways as Eliot has, you don't let your guard down with anyone present. You're too dangerous for that.
Some part of the comment and the job they're on grabs onto Eliot in an uncomfortable, strangling way. It nestles in his chest and make him feel nauseous. He did bother to learn all their names though, even if the passing of time has made a few of them float together into a loose pile of letters.
Just to prove he can, Eliot buys flowers for Parker and Sophie when the job is done. He lets the credit fall to the others even if he knows Sophie at least will know where they're from. They're not his girls in that way, but he loves them without being in love with them, and maybe that can be reason enough.