Notes: As usual this story was brought to you in part by she who should be praised, my beta ASL_Wonderland
Also finalized the storyboards for the last few chapters of Black King White Knight and the first few chapters of Two Knight's Closing. So watch for things to come
Also, FF? Seriously? Seriously. Can you please stop messing up the formatting of my fics. It's not helpful.
The Legacy Job
Chapter Six
If it was anyone else, Sophie wouldn't have been worried.
After all it was only five minutes past five o'clock. They had agreed to meet *around* five o'clock. Parker and Hardison probably wouldn't even be here for another ten minutes at least.
But this was Eliot. Sophie could only ever remember him being late for anything once, back on the horse job (and had he even been late then?). Eliot was only ever "on time" for something when there was a very good reason he had to be there at that exact moment. If there wasn't, you could be sure he'd be there at least fifteen minutes early.
Sophie knew that early on Parker and Hardison had at least one conversation about trying to guess his reasons without reaching much of a conclusion (well, ignoring Parker's theory that he was fifteen minutes out of sync with time and was waiting to scare it into submission, which Sophie was relatively certain had been an attempt at a joke). Sophie personally figured it was just him being the kind of person who doesn't like to be late.
Which begged to wonder why it was twenty minutes past when Eliot should have been there and he hadn't even called.
Had the Irish mob united the local gangs in an attempt on Eliot's life? Sophie half wondered if she'd see the resulting carnage on the news before or after Eliot arrived to tell everyone what happened.
She smiled at the thought and turned back, watching what seemed to be another somewhat awkward conversation between Nate and his mother without really tuning in. From what she'd gathered Mrs. Ford had told Nate about Eliot earlier that afternoon and apparently the memories it had dredged up had not been entirely pleasant.
Of course, considering he just found out one of his co-workers was his younger half brother who he'd previously thought had been beaten to death (which, Sophie is guessing, wasn't that far from what actually happened) he had pretty good reason to not know what to think.
Hell, Sophie wasn't even a part of the revelation and she wasn't sure what to think.
She looked away from the pair when she heard the hospital room's door open.
She wasn't sure who she had been expecting (Parker, Hardison, or a battered but victorious Eliot) but it wasn't who walked though the door.
It was a girl. Blonde, short and thin and made to look even smaller by the oversized hoodie she was wearing, but probably about fifteen years old. It took half a second for Sophie to translate the two pictures she'd seen to match the down turned face half hidden by bangs.
"Go on in" Eliot said, coming in a step after Adrian and closing the door behind them. He came close to the foot of Nate's bed, Adrian sticking close to his side. "Adrian, this is Sophie , my team's leader Nathan Ford, and his mother Mrs. Ford. Nate, Sophie, Mrs. Ford, this is Adrian."
As introductions were made Adrian looked up, a friendly smile forming on her face. She let go of whatever she was clutching to her chest with one arm to wave awkwardly. "Hi." She returned the arm back around the books she was holding and her eyes seemed to flick between the others in the room.
"Alright." Eliot said and Adrian turned to look at him. "'Some chairs over there, just… make yourself comfortable. We'll be here for a while."
She nodded jerkily and turned to take a seat in the far corner of the room and unwrapping her arms. It looked like a word find book, something confirmed when Adrian opened it to a fresh page and took out a pen from her pocket.
Sophie turned back to Eliot, raising an eyebrow (not the only one in the room it seemed).
"Was there a problem at your safe house?"Nate asked, still looking over at Adrian.
"Not a security issue" Eliot said, hesitating half a moment apparently trying to figure out a good way of saying what he had to say.
"More a worried your client's going to kill herself issue." Adrian said not looking up from her book, though she did seem to curl in on herself tighter. "'M not. I'm not gonna kill myself. I'm not crazy." She made a sound that was almost a laugh. "Not that crazy anyway."
Eliot sighed turning back to Nate. "I couldn't leave her alone. We shouldn't of left her alone last night. She might not be that crazy, but the way this job's goin' I'm not takin' another chance. Not with some kid's life."
There was an exasperated sigh from Adrian's corner of the room followed by a muttered "some kid can hear you."
Sophie looked between Nate, Eliot, and Adrian. Eliot was normally good with kids, but… then again Adrian was fifteen and not really a little kid by most standards. Not to mention she was a fifteen year old girl, Sophie was relatively sure no one was very good at communicating with fifteen year old girls. Add in Adrian's… issues… and the general situation...
"I'll take care of her while you all meet." Nate's mother said, slowly climbing to her feet crossing over to Adrian. "Adrian, are you hungry sweetie?"
Sophie smiled, in the process of crossing the room it was like a switch had been flicked. It was subtle, little things only a grifter would consciously notice, but it was like the air around Mrs. Ford changed from simply a senior citizen to "Grandmother." Something about the tone or word choice or… something. Sophie had never really had to try to play that part before but it seemed one that came naturally.
She winced internally a little at the realization Mrs. Ford was, or had been, a grandmother.
Adrian looked up from the book, apparently thrown off by the approach. "I… not really." She looked back down to her book, more mumbling than speaking to finish. "I already had lunch." She mumbled something Sophie couldn't quite make out after.
"What do you like to drink?" Clearly Mrs. Ford had heard the statement. A moment and mumbles later. "I'm not too sure what that is, you know in my day we had Coke and Pepsi and none of these newfangled diet strawberry decafe whatnots." Adrian's body language untensed a little. "Would you mind coming with me down to the cafeteria and help me find what you want?"
Adrian's eyes flicked up from her book and over toward them before back down. "I can go myself." Adrian said taking a deep breath like she was gathering herself to do just that.
"Well, I'm pretty sure you can, but I myself would like some tea right now, not to mention the last time I was down there they had what looked to be rather tasty chocolate muffins." There was just a flash of interest there and Sophie had a feeling they had her. "Do you like chocolate Adrian?"
Adrian nodded, her eyes actually settling on Mrs. Ford for longer than a moment.
"Well would you like to come with me to go see if we can find a few chocolate muffins and this…Diet Pepsi Maximum of yours."
Adrian looked toward them again, her attention going past Sophie to rest on Eliot and for half a moment Sophie could have sworn it was like Adrian was unconsciously asking permission. Before Sophie could turn to see Eliot's reaction Adrian took another deep breath and stood up, capping her pen and putting it in her pocket and hugging her book again before cracking a tentative smile and nodding.
A moment later the two had left the room.
"I couldn't leave her." Eliot said again once the door had closed behind the other two. "I went to check on her this morning. She'd had a rough night but she seemed to be doing alright this morning, alright enough to ask questions and try to figure out what was goin' on but… she cleaned up the mess she'd made, got her hands on one of the word find books I got her and shut down. Honestly just now was the first time I got more than two words outta her since noon."
Pieces started to click together and Sophie nodded about to explain when Nate spoke up. "She's learned how to function when she has to. So long as she can break things down into "I have to do this now" she can focus on doing what she has to when she has to and not on whatever's going on in her head. Hell, she's best off when she has to function. You can't will it away but if you can force yourself to stay busy and distracted it doesn't hurt as much." Sophie raised an eyebrow at the explanation. It was basically what she was going to say, but a bit more… personal… than usual.
Nate turned to Eliot. "You were right to bring her. She shouldn't be alone."
Sophie hesitated before pointing out the serious issue at the moment. "What do we do with her though? She can't go back in the system, not now at least. Your mother can't watch her forever. And we can't exactly hire a babysitter." There was a beat before she came to the same conclusion that it looked like Nate had already reached and Eliot had already accepted.
One of them had to watch Adrian. With Nate in the hospital, Parker well… Parker, and Hardison barely more than a kid himself Eliot and Sophie herself were the only two choices. Add in that Eliot could protect Adrian should situations arise, didn't sleep much to begin with if Adrian got worse, and she seemed to already have some amount of trust in the hitter…
Nate carefully asked Eliot. "You can do this?"
Eliot nodded.
A second later the quiet was shattered when the door opened to Parker asking, "Aren't they cute? They are cute right. I mean they're clothes for babies. That's supposed to be cute." As she walked in through the door.
Hardison followed a step behind her holding two pairs of baby booties made out of the type of yarn Parker's monstrosity had been made out of that morning.
The expression on Hardison's face made it pretty clear he didn't have any idea how Parker had managed to produce these from that in the sixteen hours since they last saw each other.
Parker pulled them from Hardison's hand and presented them to Eliot with the same question. "They're supposed to be cute right?" The moment Eliot instinctively moved to take them Parker let go and moved on. "Hi Nate. How are you feeling?"
The almost normal greeting was ruined by a smile that was clearly forced and the fact she glanced toward Sophie as she said it like she was checking in on behavior protocol.
Compared to Parker's usual behavior it was a pretty good show of normalcy.
"Well, I've been shot." Nate answered the inquiry about his health.
"Yeah I kinda noticed that." Parker responded. "I was talking about the whole long lost supposedly beaten to death half brother turning out to be Eliot thing."
So much for shows of normalcy and tact.
"I'm working on it." Was all Nate really had to say to that. Sophie didn't exactly blame him for not knowing what else to say. "Listen, I'm gonna be down for awhile I think we can safely put this job on hold for a few days, at least until I'm out of the hospital. I can trust you all not to get killed on a side job if you've got the next week off?"
He looked between them, though his gaze settled the longest on Eliot.
They all nodded.
"Good. And when we get back to business I'll be certain to take this as a warning and say it." His attention had turned to Parker.
"Say what?" Asked Hardison.
Parker's grin was the *almost* sweet smile she got when Nate showed he did in fact understand her better than was possible for most humans. With a certain amount of relish she said "Lets go steal something."
..........................................
A few minutes later Sophie nudged Parker and Hardison out of the room, telling Nate over her shoulder to get better as the three of them took their leave.
The two brothers looked at each other.
There was history here, a lot of it, more than they had known, or ever really guessed before now.
And it wasn't like they hadn't had a lot of shared history to begin with.
Where did they go from here?
Neither really knew.
"How's Joey?" Nate finally asked, breaking the silence. His vague recollection of the little girl becoming a little clearer with time.
"Good." Eliot answered. "She's married, got two kids. Eliot's twelve and Marie just turned ten." The words were automatic, though they felt strange on his tongue. He never talked about his family, not to people who didn't already know.
Nate looked surprised. "I've got a niece and nephew? And she named a kid after you?"
Eliot nodded. "We call him El. And yeah. You're gonna have two more soon too."
The understanding showed on Nate's face. "You're not having kids, yo- our sister is."
"Twins." Eliot nodded. "She wants me ta name them." He shook his head. This conversation was surreal.
"Her husband?"
"Scott Phillips, tax accountant, and a good man. He knows exactly what I'd do to him if he hurt her or the kids, but he wouldn't. He's so in love with her I think he'd kill himself first."
"Are you going to tell her you found me?"
That question took him off guard. "Why wouldn't I?"
The look Nate gave him was hollow eyed, not too different from the look he got when the subject of Sam was brought up.
Before Eliot could put together a response, or even figure out how in hell he was going to respond to that, and it wasn't like the fact the whole thing was wrapped up in the fact they were brothers and his response might effect how that changed their dynamic…
The door opened and Mrs. Ford and Adrian slipped back into the room.
Adrian was as subdued as she'd been when she left, though she now held onto an unopened bottle of Diet Pepsi Max like it was the holy grail of sodas.
Distantly, Eliot knew it was an energy soda and chances were Adrian would not be sleeping in the near future if that wasn't her first can of the day.
Distantly he half wondered why everyone who came in contact with their team had to be addicted to *something*.
Mrs. Ford's hand briefly rested on Adrian's shoulder as she passed the girl on her way to Nate's bedside, the girl relaxed into the contact.
Apparently the older woman had managed to comfort and connect with the girl somewhat.
Apparently that was still possible.
It eased a bit of worry Eliot wouldn't admit had formed inside his chest. There had been a handful of moments when Adrian had acted a bit like he imagined Parker would have been like at her age. As much as he liked Parker he didn't want to watch Adrian become her.
Mrs. Ford touched his own arm as she passed. "Take her home Eliot, I'll make sure Nate doesn't annoy the doctors too badly."
Eliot looked to Nate, that hollow eyed look still there and Eliot still didn't have any idea how to fix this mess. He didn't know how this would change their dynamic or how the team worked. He didn't know how to assimilate the past with the present or the future. This didn't make sense.
He looked toward Adrian with her soda and her word find book and exhaustion etched into every feature in ways it shouldn't be for someone her age.
Life really had gotten very, very far out of control.
"Alright." He muttered, nodding to Nate and Ms. Ford before turning away. A hand landed softly on Adrian's shoulder. "Ready to go?"
Adrian glanced up briefly, lips twitching into a small smile before she glanced back over to the bed. "Bye Mr. Ford. Bye Elizabeth." She looked back towards him and nodded before her eyes dropped back to the ground and she left.
Mrs. Ford's instructions to take care followed him out and Eliot realized he didn't know who she was talking to.
.........................................................
The drive back to the safe house was silent. Eliot tried to put today into some kind of order while Adrian stared out the window, her face as unreadable as Parker's.
In theory, he was the best choice to keep an eye on Adrian. He had experience with kids. He could protect her and he had this creepy suspicion that she trusted him.
But if this was going to work for more than twenty four hours he had to get his act together. She was fifteen years old and wouldn't require constant supervision, but she was clinically depressed and had just received some major blows and there was no telling what that was going to result in. He half felt like this was the grace period, that this semi functionality she'd been showing was the mixed result of her doing all she could to hold it together long enough to survive and not allowing herself to process the fact Selina was dead.
He had the bad feeling that it was only a matter of time until Adrian couldn't hold it together anymore.
He needed to get done what needed to be done now - while he still could.
He'd get them home, tell Adrian to stay downstairs while he made dinner. They'd sit down and eat and Eliot would lay down the basic rules and try to get Adrian to tell him what she needed and wanted. He'd tell her she'd eat meals with him but could get snacks when she wanted and he'd post a grocery list on the fridge. If she wanted something she should write it there and if it was reasonable they'd get it. Tomorrow he'd take her shopping for clothes and basic necessities (unless an amber alert on her was released; but if there wasn't one by now he doubted there would be).
With Nate's mention of her doing better if there was something she had to focus on in mind, Eliot made a note to ask her what she'd been doing in school before she was sent to the hospital and see if he could put together something for her to do. If she seemed at all up to it he'd probably try to get her to go running with him. Beyond just being good for her, exercise was a natural antidepressant. Since he doubted she'd willingly take any clinical ones in the near future it was the best he could offer.
Other than that he'd play it by ear. It would be at least a few days before Nate got out of the hospital. After that he'd have to juggle Adrian and the job for however long the con took and then he'd have to watch Adrian until they figured out where she'd go next.
There was no way he'd have her for less than a week and plenty of chance that it would be for two or three, or even longer.
He wasn't sure he could do this without becoming attached or emotionally invested…
He glanced sideways toward Adrian, still staring out the window with her Parker face on, before he turned his eyes back to the road, sighed, and mentally admitted defeat.
If it could help to keep the girl sitting next to him from being the next Parker or worse, he'd let himself become emotionally involved. He'd take care of her, try to help her through this, and find her a good home once it was over.
He could do that.
It was nearly an hour after they got "home" when Eliot was reminded of something his sister had once said about the futility of making plans for "later" when it came with kids.
One minute he'd been in the kitchen, finishing up the pasta and tomato sauce he was making for dinner, almost subconsciously keeping track of the sounds of Adrian working on one of her word find books in the next room.
Then there was a gasp and a crash and a choking sound, a pen falling onto a table top.
Eliot was in the other room before the pen had stilled but instead of enemies he found Adrian running for the bathroom, not even closing the door before collapsing in front of the toilet and retching, dry gagging after she'd lost what little she'd had in her stomach.
He stood, stunned, unsure what he was supposed to do. He quickly took in the room, trying to locate what had upset her or if she was simply ill. He noted her word find book had been thrown against the wall not more than a foot from him. There was a tear in the page, like she'd pressed to hard with the pen as she was circling a word. It was Adrian…
"She'd also look for names of people she knew and other things…" She trailed off, looking it over a moment before pointing to a spot and showing it to Eliot. "She gave me this a week before she was taken, said it was proof of fate." The words "Selina" and "Adrian" had been circled, intersecting at the "a".
He scanned the words around it and understood. Separated by the space of two letters was the word Mother.
Oh.
With far more hesitation than he'd used when approaching men with guns, Eliot crossed to the bathroom door and stood just outside the entrance. He had had all these well thought out plans for what to do at dinner but he didn't know what to do about the fact Adrian had gone from gagging to pressing herself into the empty space under the counter meant for a cabinet he'd taken out, and crying.
He never knew what to do about someone crying.
So he went with what he knew.
He retreated from the doorway just enough to grab the plastic cup that had landed near the bathroom door, for the moment not caring about the stain the contents had left on his carpet, and entered the bathroom. Quickly filling it halfway with water he knelt down in front of where Adrian had holed herself in and held it out. "Here." He said, offering the cup.
She had stopped crying but she stared at it like she didn't know what it was.
"To rinse out your mouth."
The hands that reached out for it automatically shook and he held onto it long enough to make sure she wasn't going to drop it. She pulled it back to herself and drank, looking as if she was thinking about nothing more than the task at hand. Focusing on what she had to do rather than what was in her head.
Looked like his plans for dinner wouldn't be going as planned. He'd get her through this moment when it looked like she had fully registered Selina was dead. He'd get her to the point where she could deal with it without drowning in it. Everything else would have to wait for later.
Now if he could only figure out how to do just that.
When the cup was empty she stared into it like she couldn't fully understand the concept that there wasn't any more.
This wasn't going well.
"Are you feeling a little better now?" He asked. Of course she wasn't but he didn't even know where to begin. He had to just say *something*. She gave him a look that plainly said what she thought of the question. "I guess not. You think you want to come out of there?"
Her slightly shaking answer caught him off guard. "Do I have to?"
After a beat he shook his head. "Nah, just doesn't look very comfortable."
She took a long, slow, breath pulling herself back under tighter control. "I like it."
"It makes you feel safe?" He hazarded a guess, offering a small smile. She nodded. "I've got a friend like that on my crew. Name's Parker." Adrian was watching him a little more intently than before. He shifted so he was sitting down Indian style. "Sometimes after a job goes south she'll sleep in the air ducts at our head quarters. Course the girl's twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag."
"Like me?" Came the question, with just a tiny hint of a twitch to her lips. Eliot didn't let it make him think she was okay. She looked ready to break down again at any second.
He shook his head, expression showing clear dismissal of the idea. "You ain't more than five pounds of crazy."
She actually smiled at that before it faded and she looked down. "Told you I wasn't that crazy." She said. "I'm not you know..." She took a breath, fingers of one hand reaching into the sleeve on her other arm, tracing over scars hidden by cloth. "Suicidal I mean… I'm not. That was the drugs and… a lot of stuff. But I'm not now. I have something I have to do. I have to stay alive until Zolcroft is taken down. Then I have to get into college somehow. Selina wanted me to go to college. She was helping me catch up in school so I could get into college." She ran out of breath and words for a few beats before mumbling. "I have to. She wanted me to."
He hadn't been expecting that.
It was a beat before he answered, it took that long to force himself past his instincts to not let this get personal. He'd already decided to let it. Hell, it had already been getting personal whether he let it or not. "That's good. Having a goal, I mean. I don't know much 'bout college, I never went, but I know having something you have to get is a good way to stay alive." One final breath before the plunge of trying to relate. Damn he wished Sophie was doing this, or that Adrian was a little kid he could just swoop in and save the day for. "It kept me alive through some tough shit, though it won't get ya through everything."
Adrian looked at him surprised and he took it as his cue to keep going. "When I was 'bout your age there was some bad stuff goin' on. It had been goin' on for a few years. I was… well I guess you can probably understand exactly what I mean when I say I was tired. But I have a little sister and I knew I had to protect her until I could get us out. That was my goal, it was all that mattered ta me…" He sighed, thinking back, remembering, glad that over the years he'd managed to work through most of what had happened so that it didn't hurt so badly to remember. "But eventually… you get too tired."
Adrian's words were just barely above a whisper when she asked. "did… Did you try?"
Eliot more felt himself nod than anything. "My friend Willie found me. Saved my life. I finally asked him for help and he helped get my sister 'n me out." He reached out, his hand gently wrapping around Adrian's. "Which is why I told ya that." She looked up, confused. He didn't exactly blame her, he seemed to be picking up on Nate's habit of speaking round about. Not to mention if any of the team heard what he meant they'd think he'd gone crazy and Parker'd probably start talking about Evil twins. "Sometimes we can't get through our shit on our own. Sometimes you need help. An' that's okay." For kids, he added silently, before begrudgingly adding and people on a team.
She whispered something he didn't quite catch all of, but he understood the request.
"That's what I do darlin'" He said, moving so his back was against the wall behind him.
Slowly Adrian uncurled and moved out of the nook and suddenly Eliot found himself holding Adrian, her face hidden in the crook of his neck just like Joey used to do when they were kids. Her entire body shook as she sobbed, and Eliot was just glad he'd already admitted defeat about keeping this job from getting personal. There would have been no helping it after this.
He held her, and let her cry herself out. He'd never known what to do when girls cried but he had a feeling that this was one occasion where the best thing to do was nothing. There wasn't really anything else he could do for Adrian right now besides hold her.
So he'd do that.