Notes: A lot of things that happen later reference this story, which is kinda strange since I only just wrote it. *shrug*.

Check
Four times Nate and Eliot's chess game was interupted, and one time they interupted themselves.

The first time was on just an average Tuesday morning the week after the wedding job. There wasn't really anything going on but Nate had established this annoying policy that they all had to keep regular office hours. It was supposedly to keep up their cover story, though everyone knew it was Nate trying to keep them out of trouble. But no one actually had to do work that wasn't related to a job and they'd gotten to the point they enjoyed each others company enough to only grumble a little.

Eliot came in on time as usual, setting down his stuff in his office and settling into the comfortable leather chair in the corner of his office with a book. It was more or less what he'd been doing prior to coming to the offices but he could put up with a change in scenery. Besides, neither Hardison or Parker were awake enough this early in the morning to be annoying. Sleepiness normally kept them almost normal until at least eleven or so except when the adrenalin of a job had them going like energizer bunnies.

Eliot sometimes wondered if that was one reason Nate insisted on normal business hours instead of tweaking it a few hours later to cater to the fact two of the team were not morning people.

It was nearing the end of the morning quiet period when the door opened. Eliot cursed internally, wondering if consistently having to wake up earlier was allowing them to adapt to the new schedule, when Nate stuck his head in. "We got a job?" Eliot asked.

"Not yet, I've got Hardison checking a couple of leads and I'm taking a few hours off. Interested in a game of chess?"

Eliot was marking his place and putting the book down before he registered he was a little too eager to do so. But it was chess, he reasoned to himself, with a... friend? Mentor? Boss? … He internally shook his head. It was just chess, with the person who'd taught him chess, with whom he had some of the only good memories of his mid twenties. It was challenging and fun and why wouldn't he want to play it and he was spending too much time thinking about this. "Sure. Don't have a board with me though."

"I got one." Nate answered, gesturing with his head over his shoulder. Eliot followed, surprised when Nate led him not to his office but to the conference room.

Eliot was still making his third move when the conference room door opened letting in Sophie and the sounds of Parker and Hardison up to some kind of mischief that they hadn't been able to hear until now. Eliot turned his attention to the grifter, absently (but not for the first time)grateful of the room's sound dampening walls when the door closed behind her and once more muffled the noise.

"Nate I wanted to ask you abo-" Sophie started before noticing Nate wasn't alone in the room. "Good morning Eliot. I didn't know you played chess." She paused a beat and Eliot could almost feel her categorize their relaxed, non competitive postures and the haphazard positioning of the board and whatever else. "Or that you two played chess with each other." Often was silently tagged on the end. Eliot wasn't half the people reader Sophie was and he knew the game she walked in on had plenty of familiarity to catch onto.

Eliot was taken off guard though when Nate answered for them. "Yeah, we chess. I'd hope so. I taught him how." Eliot kept his face from betraying his surprise. It had been less than a week since they'd talked about their shared history and how Nate had left the team thinking they didn't have much of it. They hadn't really made a decision but Eliot figured that meant Nate would continue not to say anything.

But then he answered Sophie's questioning look with. "When we met." He turned to Eliot a questioning look on his face. "Was it really eight years ago?"

"Nearly nine." Eliot answered absently, trying to figure out what the hell Nate was playing at. Nate knew very well just how long ago it was. Hell, Nate could probably give the exact date he first saw Eliot and the exact date Eliot was first lucid enough to "meet" Nate.

"Oh. The time in Cairo was with Eliot? Has it really been that long?" Sophie commented, like she hadn't more or less told Eliot she knew a bit about what happened and assumed it was him. She had that look like she was trying to decide what the most profitable emotion to express was on her face. She seemed almost crestfallen and Eliot had to wonder if maybe he'd known Nate longer than she had.

Later, much much later and possibly never, he would address why that gave him a sort of snidely pleased feeling in his stomach.

Yeah, you two had a long fling through Europe or but I was here first. I saved his life. You shot him.

Yeah, considering even just putting mental words to the feeling made him sound like a teenage girl he wasn't going to address that feeling until he had to. Though considering how often that and other weird shit feelings had been occurring lately he might have to do so soon.

"If you don't mind me asking…" Sophie said, almost hesitantly.

Nate shrugged. "I was in Cairo, Eliot was in Cairo and we were both not having the best of luck."

Eliot snorted. "If getting caught by crime lords and held in a small cell for two weeks counts as 'not having the best of luck'." Of course, considering where he'd just escaped at the time it could have been much worse. "Nate an' I ended up cellmates."

Eliot turned back to the board as Nate made his next move, and turned his attention briefly back to the game. He was going to pretend like he didn't have this sudden urge to recount their shared history.

He was going to just keep playing chess and not thinking about what the hell was up with him.

A moment later Hardison came in (clutching a file folder protectively and edging away from a sulking Parker) and announced he was ready to brief them on their next job. He and Nate both quickly memorized their piece's locations and packed the board away.

It looked like he wasn't going to be able to keep playing chess so he'd just have to focus on not thinking about the brewing mess in his head.

Secretly Hardison kept a running ranking system of who was most annoying to have staying back with him while the rest of the team was out playing their parts on a con. The system was based on a complex scoring module he was actually considering trying to write a program for the next time he was bored and WoW was down for updates again. What time of day was a factor (Parker was least annoying in the morning when she was often sleepy and most annoying just before sundown when she had a habit of getting keyed up like nightfall meant she'd be doing something "fun"), so was what the others were up to (Eliot tended to get irritated and really tense when the others were up to something involving people he could be punching if he wasn't trapped in the office missing out on the fun).

But a big factor was who else was currently out of the action.

Sophie was actually the best company when it was just her. When it was Sophie *and* someone else Sophie seemed to feel this need to talk to them with mixed results that rarely were that conducive to Hardison getting his work done.

Hardison had thought that having Nate and Eliot stuck back with him while Parker and Sophie did their thing (gifting and stealing into a rather heavily secured office building no less) would score high on the distracting scale. Eliot was probably going to be cranky (not that Hardison would ever say so out loud, he liked his arms unbroken thank you very much) and Nate was Nate and he'd been off kilter lately and the two of them had had this weird vibe thing going on like they couldn't decide whether they were the best of buds or wanted nothing to do with each other.

Hardison wondered if he could get away with commenting on how they were founding the bastard cousin of UST, UPT (Unsatisfied Platonic Tension). Or if he could start complaining that they should "Just high five already". What was the Will-they-won't-they "Just fuck already" version when it was between two guys who couldn't seem to admit they were friends?

Shit, now he had the image of Nate and Eliot "Just fucking already" in his head and it was just nasty.

Eliot was looking at him like he knew what Hardison was thinking and wasn't at all amused.

Mentally scaring mental images aside so far it hadn't actually been that bad. Nate had been doing his mastermind thing and Eliot was sitting in the corner either quietly seething at missing out on a chance to hit somebody or listening to the com. Hardison was never really sure.

The pieces were in play though and it would be a little while before either of them could or should do anything and the next thing Hardison knew Nate was pulling out a travel chess board. Eliot moved to sit across from him and they set up what looked like a barely started game of chess.

"Just play chess already?" Hardison tried in his head, though they were apparently already playing chess and they'd been even weirder around each other lately than before.

Hardison turned his attention back to his computer.

Five minutes later the three of them were racing out of the room, the board left behind with the power supplies to Hardison's computers and blank monitors as the only evidence they'd been there at all.

Hardison imagined that sound he heard just around the corner and down the hallway from them was the thugs sent after them throwing the board against the wall in frustration.

Eliot led the way down a back stair, trying to get the three of them safely out of the building. Even as they all but ran Hardison was hitting the short series of keys to start a memory wipe and overwrite on the laptop he was carrying.

At the bottom of the stairs he traded for the one Nate was carrying. He wouldn't wipe this one until it was absolutely necessary. Which it looked like it might be soon.

Then he heard Eliot say the words that would keep echoing through his mind for a long time to come.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up."

Nate faltered for just a moment longer than Hardison before they both turned tail and ran.

72 hours ago Sophie had been comfortable in her assessment that Nate and Eliot were like two knights from different kingdoms who found themselves fighting as allies. They had a surprising deal of respect for each other, and even trusted one another in "battle" a good deal more than the others did at first but they had always been in some semblance of opposition and would never, could never, be friends.

Hell, 50 hours ago she'd thought that, maybe even more recently than that. The revelation of their history involving chess two mornings ago had somewhat supported that idea in her head. Two old rivals coming together to play chess. Symbolic really. But there had been an undertone of something else she hadn't really given thought of.

But now.

Eight hours ago Nate, Eliot, and Hardison had been ambushed in their temporary headquarters in the city they were working their most recent job. They had made an escape but with a very odd move on Eliot's part.

He'd sacrificed himself to get Nate and Hardison out safely, getting caught by their pursuers.

It was justifiable in that Eliot had a better chance of escaping by himself, and the team had a better chance of coming to the rescue with Nate and Hardison aiding the attempts rather than needing the rescue.

But to put his fate in their hands even this much… And Sophie couldn't help wonder if it was Eliot making the tactically advantageous move or what was left of the young thief who had once helped Nate escape seeking to protect Nate from recapture.

Trust, no.

Loyalty.

That was what she hadn't been able to read in their interactions yet. They were loyal. They were...

Six and some hours ago Eliot had been captured but those holding him hadn't noticed his com. There was something jamming the signal preventing Hardison from getting an accurate trace but he was working fast. Parker was ready to go in and Sophie was ready to help where she could.

And Nate? Nate was sitting in a chair, rubbing his forehead, a half finished drink next to him as he waited..

Eliot had been unconscious for four hours.

For an hour he had played possum to try to buy himself time, barely risking a few words to let them know he was still alive and the com was still working.

A little past the fifth hour his captors came in and threw a pale of water over him to wake him up and started a round of questioning.

At which point everyone but Nate had taken out their coms, the sound of blows landing, rattling chains, and flesh hitting flesh more than they were willing to listen to.

They had watched Nate as he poured himself a drink and then another, Sophie couldn't even bring herself to be upset.

When Nate had said "what?", disbelief on his voice they had feared the worst until he followed it with a soft "bishop to E-5." He closed his eyes and winced, a few tense moments passing before he added "knight takes the pawn on G-7."

"Did Nate go crazy?" Parker had asked quietly a few minutes later.

Sophie had shaken her head. "They're playing chess by memory."

Even as Sophie had spoken Nate's voice had faded halfway through a move. "Eliot? I'm listening… We're going to come get you okay? Just… hold on. Eliot? Eliot?" Another moment later he turned back to the team. "The battery on his com died."

The ensuing silence still hadn't broken.

Minutes ticked by. Parker got antsy but tried not to show it. Nate finished his bottle of whatever.

They entered into the seventh hour since Eliot had been taken and Nate stood up and reconsulted with Hardison. The com was their only lead at the moment and with every minute what was left of the auxiliary power was draining away with any chance they had of find Eliot soon.

A minor eruption of angered voices came from Nate and Hardison and Sophie moved over, ready to sort this out only to find Hardison looking at Nate with a mixture of confusion and a touch of fear.

"I don't… do I even want to know what that is?" Hardison asked.

"What what is?"

"I asked Nate why he was acting like Eliot was gonna die any second. I mean I care what happens to Eliot but the pressure is not helpful. And he said that Eliot's got a Hitter's Backup plan and we need to move fast." Sophie felt her stomach drop. Of course Eliot would. "I don't even know what that is."

Sophie took a breath and tried to explain in a calm tone, understanding why Nate was freaking out. "Due to the nature of there work it's much more likely for a Hitter to be captured by those who know how to keep them secure. Those who catch them are also much more likely to want revenge or information." She let out another breath at the look crossing Hardison's face. "Some Hitters make a preparation for this to ensure that should they be caught with no way of escape and a slow painful death ahead of them they can commit suicide quickly and painlessly."

"Before the communication cut Eliot told me they'd stripped him and chained him tight against a concrete wall and weren't letting him down for anything. They may not know who he is but they saw how dangerous he was. If we don't help him…"

Sophie filled in the blank for herself. If it wasn't for having a team this would be exactly the kind of situation a Hitter might take the easy way out of.

Something beeped on Hardison's computer and he turned back, typing furiously for a moment before all but shouting. "Got him! I know where Eliot is."

Parker didn't care.

Yeah, she liked Eliot a lot more than she normally liked people. He made her food and stole stuff with her and when he said she was strange it felt almost like he didn't really mean it like that.

And he was sort of nice.

But she didn't care that he was hurt.

No, she did care, just not that much. She wasn't worrying and the sight of him chained up against the wall, bruises and blood staining skin already marred by scars hadn't made her cry inside in her special angry place.

And it hadn't made her rage either.

It hadn't.

And none of that was why she was crawling through the air ducts in the hospital where they'd taken Eliot. The nurses had told them that only family could see Eliot and Nate had been the only one with an alias related to Eliot's. Parker was crawling through the air vents to find Eliot's room because she wanted to spite the nurses.

Not because she needed to see him to make sure he was still breathing.

Not because she was crying in her special angry place.

To spite the nurses.

She found the air vent above his bed and peeked through. Eliot had his eyes (well, eye, one was swollen shut) open and was watching Nate where he sat beside Eliot's bed. They both looked uncomfortable and Parker guessed that they'd just finished talking about the tracking device Nate, Hardison, and Sophie wanted to put in Eliot so they could find him easier if this ever happened again.

It never would. Parker could tell them that. She wouldn't let it. It was way too much hassle and not enough money in the end and Eliot got hurt… which of course she only cared about because it meant the team wouldn't do anything until he was better which was boring.

After a long moment of silence Nate spoke again. "Pawn to B-8."

Eliot nodded and closed his eyes, breathing evening out before he answered. "Rook to A-4.

Two more moves and Nate lost another piece to Eliot. They made it through a move after that before Eliot stopped responding.

He'd fallen asleep.

Nate settled down into his seat and Parker tried to get comfortable. She'd stay here for awhile. She found that constant steady beep to be soothing.

They sat quietly in his apartment. Just him and Eliot and a chess board set between them.

It had been four days since they rescued him, twenty-four hours since Eliot was released from the hospital, and forty minutes since he showed up on Nate's doorstep.

They didn't talk about the conversation in the hospital, where they had talked about (without actually talking about) what Eliot had been trying to say to him between gasps as the com died.

They didn't talk about the tracking device.

They didn't talk about the fact Eliot had a new set of wounds that would heal into scars, the first he'd received in defense of this team.

They played chess, trying to finish their game.

Eliot moved, taking his queen with a rook and saying the first word spoken since Eliot asked him if he wanted to finish their chess game.

"Check."

Nate looked up from the board, meeting Eliot's eyes.

Later they would talk about what happened next.

Much Much Later.