The Rewind Job, Chapter 12
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or GPS.
Recap:
"Oh, my," Sophie whispered, her hand going to her mouth in shock as she too read the screen. "Where's Eliot? Nate?"
Nate shook himself, rubbing trembling hands over his pants legs, before glancing up at Sophie. "He….he needed some time," Nate answered before hastily closing the web browser to get rid of the nightmarish description he had been reading and doing his best to clear any evidence of the search itself to keep the others from reading it.
Chapter 12
Sophie balanced the bowl of homemade vegetable soup carefully as she made her way to Eliot's space which was originally a small corner office next to the stairs that lead to the roof. She wasn't surprised to find Parker sitting on one of the bottom steps of the stairs, almost as if she were guarding Eliot's door. It was late afternoon and Parker had probably been there for most of the day.
The morning had been strained to say the least. Hardison and Parker had returned to Nate's apartment to find Eliot missing, Nate drinking, and Sophie at a loss over how to handle the situation. Parker pulled out a lock pick and turned toward the door saying she'd check Eliot's room, but Nate stopped her with a growled, "NO!" followed by strict instructions that the thief was not to pick any locks or crawl through any windows to find Eliot. Parker and Hardison had exchanged bewildered glances, before Hardison moved toward his computer intending to track Eliot through the GPS on his phone. After signing on, Hardison quickly realized that someone had run a search using his internet connection, although they did a decent job of covering their tracks. "What? You people can't use your own computers for browsing?" the hacker groused.
Before Hardison could determine who had been on his beloved machine and whether that might help him find Eliot, Nate appeared at his side, yanking the keyboard away from the man. The hacker, grifter, and thief were all stunned at the vehemence in Nate's voice when he ordered that under no circumstances was Alec to retrace any searches done on his computer in the last 24 hours, mumbling some threat about destroying the whole system before taking another gulp of his scotch.
With a long sigh, Sophie looked down at the thief on the step. "Parker?" she questioned gently.
"He hasn't come out yet." Parker replied, looking from Eliot's door to Sophie.
"Do you think you could?" Sophie tilted her head toward the door.
"Oh!" Parker hopped to her feet excitedly, before her face fell. "But Nate said…"
"I know what he said, Parker. But Eliot needs to eat. I'm just going to check on him and leave this soup."
"Eliot's special vegetable soup," Parker smiled. "That should make him feel better." Nodding her head in decision, she moved toward the door and made short work of the lock before stepping back to let Sophie enter.
Sophie knocked slightly on the door to alert the hitter to her presence before cautiously stepping inside. Eliot was sitting in his leather recliner, his feet up, staring out the window in front of him. As Sophie approached his side, he didn't acknowledge the grifter.
"Eliot, I brought you some of your homemade soup. I'll just set it right here," she commented, placing the bowl on the small end table beside Eliot's chair. The dejected look on the man's face broke her heart and Sophie couldn't stop herself from placing her hand on his forearm and giving a gentle squeeze.
Eliot closed his eyes for a moment, before he rested his other hand over Sophie's with a whispered, "Thanks, Soph."
Sophie was sure there had been recognition in Eliot's voice when he addressed her, giving her a measure of hope that their hitter was recovering the memories of his team and not just the horrors of his worst nightmares. "Can I get you anything else?"
"No," Eliot answered, before adding, "I'm just going to rest up here for a day or two and then I'll be on my way."
Sophie opened her mouth to protest that declaration, but decided to leave it be for now, hoping that with a little time Eliot would change his mind on his own or Nate would get himself together enough to talk some sense into him.
XXXXX
At noon the following day, Sophie stormed into Nate's apartment. Her anger flared as she saw their mastermind sitting at his table, a glass in one hand and a half empty bottle of Scotch in the other, much like he'd spent the majority of the previous day. She had just come from Eliot's room where she had found the man hobbling around, packing the few things that he kept there. She'd tried to convince him that he shouldn't leave only to be rebuffed by Eliot's gentle insistence that he had to go and he'd be leaving the following morning. Sophie was certain that he wasn't just talking about leaving to go to one of the houses he kept, but leaving the team for good.
"Nate, you have got to do something before its too late and Eliot is gone," the grifter pleaded.
"Maybe it's already too late," Nate muttered, taking another sip from his glass.
"What? Nate, you can't mean that…you…"
"Why can't I mean that? HE MURDERED A CHILD, SOPHIE!" the mastermind shouted, gripping the bottle in his hand until his knuckles turned white. "A child, Sophie….an innocent little girl…"
"Nathan Ford, you know Eliot would never have hurt that little girl on purpose. It was an accident." Sophie insisted.
Nate shook his head and laughed wryly. "AN ACCIDENT? He killed that girl during another criminal act, Sophie. An assassination attempt….that's capital murder, or it would have been in this country. Still murder anyway you look at it…."
"Nate, please. Don't do this. Eliot needs his friends…his family right now," Sophie pleaded. "His emotions are still raw from the head injury, remembering this…event...without his walls up. He's torturing himself…."
"Good," Nate replied with little emotion, pouring himself another drink.
"Nathan, you can't mean that." When the mastermind didn't reply, Sophie's frustration escalated. "NATE! Eliot doesn't need you condemning him as well right now; he's doing a good enough job of that by himself. You of all people should know the damage a man can do to himself over the death of a child!" Realizing what she had said, Sophie covered her mouth with her hand as Nate froze, staring into his glass.
"Get out!" the mastermind hissed.
"Nate, I'm…"
"OUT!" Nate shouted, throwing the bottle of Scotch against the nearest wall.