"That's why I worked alone. No one close to me can get hurt if I'm the only one taking the punishment."
Eliot had stormed out of Nate's apartment and started walking. He didn't know where he was headed; he wasn't thinking about that. He was thinking about Sasha and not paying much attention to the environment around him. That is, he wasn't paying much attention until a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him into an alley.
Surprised, Eliot did what any hitter would do under attack. He struck out, aiming for his assailant's face. He expected the thud from his knuckles making contact. What he did not expect was the very feminine grunt followed by a growling, "Dammit, Eliot!"
He spun around, only to wind up with a foot in his solar plexus. He doubled over, gasping, trying to refill his lungs. As he wheezed, he looked up through his hair at his sister. She was holding a hand to her left jaw, glaring at him. When Eliot could finally talk, he rasped, "What the hell was that for, Sash?"
"That was for hitting my bruised cheek when I was just trying to help my brother, you idiot!" Moving her hand, she worked her jaw and winced. Eliot could see a new bruise beginning to bloom just above her old one.
"Help me?" His voice was still about three times raspier than normal as he straightened. "Why would you help me? Especially after the way you reacted in the bar!"
Sasha snorted, rolling her eyes. "Just because I'm mad at you, little brother, doesn't mean I don't care about you." Eliot felt a knot in his chest he didn't even know had been there loosen. "Besides," she added with a shrug as she helped him up, "you have a few thugs following you, and I have some pent-up anger at a certain Spencer family member I need to work out." As five men rounded the corner, armed with bats and pieces of wood, Sasha rolled her eyes at the look Eliot was giving her. "Frank and I have been seeing a therapist. He says it's not healthy to 'keep it all bottled up.'"
The armed men reached the Spencer siblings at that moment. Moving in rusty tandem, falling into a rhythm they'd created many years before, Eliot and Sasha began to work their way through the toughs coming after them.
Eliot knocked one of the guys to the side and into a brick wall, grabbing the other around the neck in a choke hold. "You and Frank are in therapy?" His voice was disbelieving.
Sasha struck her leg out in a high kick, snapping one goon's neck back and knocking him out. She nodded, grabbing the fallen man's wooden baseball bat. She flipped it end over end, caught it, then swung it with devastating force into another thug's gut. He fell over, retching, as Sasha spoke over him. "Marriage counseling. We've been having a bit of a rough time." She used the bat against the back of the neck of the man Eliot had rammed into the wall earlier, dropping him like a rock. The guy Eliot was holding onto finally passed out, and he let him fall.
Sasha dropped the bat and stared at the last man standing. She and Eliot were in opposite corners of the alley, the guy in between them. Sasha shot out a final remark, "But you would know that if you'd come by any time before now."
The siblings both glared at the tough guy in the middle and at the same time said to him, "Come on," using their fingers to beckon him. The guy blanched, turned, and fled, brushing past Nate Ford in his efforts to get out of the alley. Nate looked from him, to the goons on the ground, to the two at the end of the alleyway arguing in growled whispers. He heard snatches of it, from Eliot's insisting that he'd been trying to track her down, to his sister's disbelief, to mentions of only Aimee Martin's call from two previous summers being the only sign she even had he was alive, to Eliot's saying he'd gotten every Christmas card.
Things ended when Sasha's voice rose sharply, "Dammit, Eliot! I've been looking for you every spare minute! The closest I got was when I found one of your aliases listed on a country music website!"
Eliot growled and Nate could see him muttering Hardison's name in vain. Sasha was still furious.
"Eliot!" her voice dropped as one of the men on the ground stirred. The male Spencer made a move as if to knock him out again, but his sister was too fast. She snapped her leg backwards and put the guy down, then continued as if they hadn't been interrupted. "Your niece, Erin? She has leukemia."
Eliot froze. Tears began to fall down Sasha's cheeks, but Nate noticed that she didn't seem to realize they were falling. "She needs a transplant, and neither her father, brother, or I is a close enough match. Frank's an only child, his mom is too old, and the doctors say a family member is best." She started sobbing, and Eliot grabbed her in a hug as she started to collapse. "I can't lose my baby girl, Eliot. I just can't…" Eliot shushed her and rubbed his hand down her back.
"Don't worry, Sash." Eliot looked up and caught Nate's eyes. "Let's get you inside." Ford realized they had circled around behind McRory's and Eliot was asking to take his sister up to his condo. Nate nodded and went over to open the door.
As Eliot and Sasha passed, he heard him mutter in his sister's ear, "She'll make it, Sash. She's a fighter, just like us." He looked Nate in the eyes. "You won't lose her. If you do, it'll be over my dead body."