Title: Wanted
Summary: Eliot was wanted in several countries. What if one of them got him? Eliot whump.
Rating: T, for violence and some cursing. Possible some implied non-con, but nothing graphic.
Author's Note: As always, I'm not a doctor and don't play one on TV, so all medical mistakes are mine. Also, this is unbeta'ed, so I guess all mistakes are mine.
Disclaimer: The Leverage team isn't mine (boohoo). I own nothing, except a little belly button lint.
Other Author's Notes: Thanks for all the awesome reviews! For those of you wondering, the whump fest is over and the rescue begins. I can't keep bashing on poor Eliot forever!
Eliot was too battered and sore to leave his cell for their daily meal the next day. He lay on his bunk, barely moving, while broken ribs grated together with each breath and infection began to set into the numerous open wounds on his body. As night fell again he listened to the sound of scratching coming from above his head. It sounded like rats in the ceiling, which didn't surprise him. Suddenly he felt a fine powder began to gently sprinkle onto his head. He closed his eyes, too tired to move to another position. He heard a grating sound from above his head, and then heard a female voice, "Eliot?"
He didn't say anything, too tired to move, and not believing what he was hearing, "Eliot!" the voice whispered again with a stronger sense of urgency. He felt a hand softly touch him on his face.
At that touch he opened his eyes to see the blonde headed thief hanging from the ceiling. "Parker?"
"Who else would be hanging from a ceiling in a prison?"
"Parker, what are you doing here?" he asked in disbelief, his brain not quite processing the situation.
"What do you think I'm doing? I'm breaking you out of here. Gosh, you must be brain damaged."
He struggled to sit up, not protesting when Parker grabbed a hold of his arm and helped him to sit up, "I'm not brain damaged," he growled softly, "Just not feeling my best right now."
"Well, I guess that's okay then," she said brightly, "But are you coming?"
"Darling," Eliot stated softly, "I hate to break this to you, but I'm not going to be able to climb out the same way you came in." Adrenalin was starting to kick in and he had regained some energy, but he knew it wouldn't be enough to block out the pain that his body would feel trying to pull himself up by his arms.
Parker pulled a harness out from the ceiling, "I know. Nate saw some video and thought you had a broken arm, so I came prepared. You put this on. I got a small motorized hitch that I set up. It's small and quiet, but pretty strong."
Eliot nodded, saving his breath and energy while he adjusted the harness. It was only a short distance from his bunk to the ceiling, but it would grate against his battered ribs nonetheless. He didn't know how long the escape route would be, but figured it would take all the strength his body had.
Parker disappeared back into the hole in the ceiling and he felt a jerk on the rope that he knew was asking him if he was ready. He replied by giving another pull on the rope, indicating he was as ready as he was ever going to be. He gritted his teeth as the rope began to tighten, pulling against his ribs and the open wounds on his body. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, willing himself to be quiet as the pressure caused more pain to shoot thru his body. The minute or so that it took for him to get to the ceiling pushed him to his limits and he was struggling to keep his breathing under control. He was pale and sweating by the time Parker had helped haul him onto the concrete ceiling. She silently motioned for him to move farther across the ceiling, and as he dragged himself forward, looking around as he did so, realizing that he was in an air vent. The openings into the cell were too small to fit a person thru, but Parker had managed to cut a hole into the ceiling, large enough for Eliot to fit through. She now managed to fit the tiles back into place, and while not as perfect as if it was untouched, hopefully it would escape scrutiny long enough to allow them to get away.
Normally Parker wasn't into "hopefully" and the rushed plan that this had turned into, but the team was desperate, and they knew that Eliot's days were numbered. They didn't have enough time to try to plan a con like they usually would. This was going to be a straight up break out. She'd been in that air vent for twenty four hours, working on cutting a hole in the ceiling large enough for Eliot to fit thru.
Parker slid past Eliot to get ahead of him. She tried not to stare at the open wounds on his face and exposed skin, the swollen and bloody eyes and the obvious broken bones. "It's several hundred yards of crawling until we get to an opening that leads to a sewer. From there we can walk, but it'll be tough going. You up for this?"
"Yeah, sure." Eliot said simply, not sure if he had the strength to make it, but knowing that there wasn't another option.
The blonde headed thief looked at him through appraising eyes. She didn't believe his answer, but didn't know what else to do but lead him through the escape route. She didn't think Eliot had looked this bad the two days earlier when Nate had seen the video feed, or else Nate would most likely have encouraged her to make another plan. Nate had said he was hurt, but implied that he was still strong, but now, now Eliot looked weak, and unlikely to be able to make the distance to the rest of the team.
She started her crawl through the air vent, looking surreptitiously behind her and noticing that Eliot only used one arm and one leg to propel himself behind her. Eliot made no sound of protest as they crawled the several hundred yards to the sewer. Parker had rigged a rope for them to climb down, as it was a two story drop, and while she could easily free climb down the two story drop, Eliot could not.
Eliot fell onto his knees into the dirty water when he got to the bottom of the rope. He was breathing harshly now, fighting against the pain that took his breath away and turned the edges of his vision black. Parker grabbed a hold of his good arm and leaned in close to his ear, "We need to be quiet still. We're still within the prison walls for about a quarter of a mile."
Parker heard Nate's voice in her ear, "Parker, how's he doing?"
She stepped away from Eliot so that she could respond to Nate in private, "Not so good. I think they worked him over pretty good from the video that you saw him in until now. I know you've got the vehicle parked on the road, but I think one of you needs to head this way. We just got to the sewers and he's pretty worn out."
"Alright," Nate responded, "I'll head that way. Hardison and Sophie can stay with the SUV."
She walked back over to Eliot, who didn't appear any better from the two minute break they had just gotten. "We need to go."
Eliot nodded wearily, motioning for her to lead the way. He limped along behind, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and trying to ignore the pain that shot through his body with every step.
It took almost half an hour for the two of them to traverse the quarter of a mile distance through the sewer to where it came out in an unused field. Nate was waiting for them in the bushes and he stepped out to where he could be seen when they appeared out of the sewer. Eliot had begun leaning heavily on Parker's thin form a hundred yards back, and as strong as she was, she was having difficulty supporting the heavier man. He had lost weight during his time in the prison, but still outweighed the lithe blonde thief. Upon realizing the difficulty that Parker was having, Nate ran forward, setting her out of the way and taking her place for Eliot to lean on. He was doubly shocked by how much weight the younger man had lost, and how heavily the man needed to lean on him. He had never known Eliot to need this much help; by the time they'd gone another hundred yards Nate was supporting almost all of Eliot's weight.
Eliot's eyes were squeezed tightly shut against the pain, although no matter how much he tried they couldn't blot out the beads of moisture that leaked through them. His breath came in harsh gasps, and the pain was made worse because with each breath he could feel his ribs shifting and grating inside him. His broken right leg would barely support any weight. He'd fallen to his knees twice upon entering the field, his feet getting tangled in the long pasture grasses. Each time he was unable to contain his exclamation of pain, and both times left him curled up on the ground for a minute or more while he tried to fight back the pain.
Finally Nate caught sight of the SUV on the side of the road, "Hardison, Sophie, we're almost there. Open the back up and put down some blankets. Make up a few ice packs too."
"Nate, how is he?" Sophie asked nervously.
"Just get everything ready Sophie. We're only a few minutes away."
Finally they were at the back of the vehicle, and Eliot didn't even open his eyes as he climbed into the back of the SUV, trusting the others to assist him. He crawled onto his right side, cradling his broken left arm against his battered and busted rubs. He moaned softly when he felt Sophie's hands against his face. "I'm sorry Eliot." she said softly, "Hardison, give me those ice packs."
"Oh man, oh man, this is bad," Hardison kept repeating. He handed Sophie the ice packs, fear creeping into his voice when he saw how badly beaten the hitter was.
"Hardison," Nate said softly, "Let's get going. You know where we need to go. Sophie, see what you can do to make him comfortable. It's going to be at least another day before we can get him to a doctor." Nate heard Eliot's harsh breathing and knew that Eliot was still conscious. He knew that Eliot's condition was even more serious then he realized when Eliot didn't protest getting to a doctor. He'd known Eliot to shake off stab wounds and gun shot wounds while vehemently denying the need for a doctor. For their to not even be the slightest protest told Nate more than anything else could.
"How long until we're out of this country?" Sophie asked as she gently washed Eliot's face with a wet cloth.
"We're not too far from the border, and we've already got paperwork that should get us across. We'll have to make up a story for why Eliot is in this state, but hopefully the prison either won't have noticed his escape, or won't report it. They don't want word getting out about an escape from their prison. It wont be good for publicity for them. Once we're out of the country we'll look for a town with a decent clinic. A healthy donation should ensure the doctor's discretion in treating Eliot."
The grifter continued her gentle cleaning of Eliot's injuries. Eliot was conscious but stayed quiet as she cleaned his wounds. His eyes followed her movements. Every so often Sophie would touch an especially sensitive area, and Eliot's breath would hitch in his throat and Sophie would still her movements to lean forward and whisper soothingly in his ear. Working quietly but swiftly she soon had his visible injuries cleared, and leaned close to him again to ask him about caring for the injuries under his clothing. Eliot didn't respond to her request, instead lay there quietly, staring blankly at the interior of the car.
"Nate?" she said worriedly. "I need to see what other injuries he's got."
Nate looked over at Eliot from the middle seat where he was sitting, "Hardison, how far till the border?"
"Actually, we passed it about fifteen minutes back. I guess they're not all that fanatical here about guarding the border."
"Well that's something in our favor at least. You have any idea where we can find a clinic for Eliot?"
"Well, there's not a whole lot of advertisement in these places, but I'm aiming for what looks like good sized village about three hours from here."
"Okay, good job." Nate turned to Sophie, "Don't make an issue of it right now. Just keep him comfortable. If we don't find a doctor at the village we'll discuss it then."
Sophie nodded her assent, then turned back to the hitter, pulling the blanket farther up around his shoulders. Eliot didn't say anything but she could see that he followed her motion with his eyes and she smiled at him, briefly laying a soft hand against his face before sitting down next to him.
"I think he's exhausted," she said quietly to Nate.
"Probably, and hurting too much to be able to rest." He looked closely at Sophie and saw the minute tremoring in her hands and on her face. He reached across the seat to lay a hand gently on her arm and smiled at her comfortingly, "He'll be fine, don't worry." Sophie nodded mutely, laying her head against his arm as she watched the slight rise and fall of Eliot's chest underneath the blankets.