Sorry for the wait. I have been busy with real life.

Chap. 9

Nate watched as his old friend paced the small private hospital room. The man was clearly in distress. Sipping his sludge coffee, Nate smirked at the situation. Eliot constantly tried to keep people at a distance, yet he had inadvertently drawn them in instead. The team, Allen, even the nurses who had been in and out throughout the day seemed to have been placed under his spell. Even unconscious Eliot Spencer could turn heads and make people fall in love with him. Nate doubted Eliot even knew he did it. The young ladies all wanted to be with him, while the young men wanted to be him. The older women all wanted to mother him and the older men all tried to protect him, even from himself. Children even flocked to him. Eliot Spencer just seem to have a way with people.

"He's going to be fine, you know. Once the doctors get the headaches under control, he'll be alright. He just let it get out of hand this time."

"No, Nathan, you let it get out of hand. I told you how much he was hurting, hell Sophie even mentioned how worried she was! You didn't listen. You're the leader, Nate, you're supposed to look out for them. Especially him because you know he won't do it himself. He'll put the team and the job first every damn time."

"The last time I checked, the job he put first was saving your ranch! If Eliot wasn't so dedicated, you wouldn't have a home or a job left. You hired us to do a job, we did it! Things don't always go according to plan, that's a risk we all take with this job. Eliot knows that more than any of us. Hell, he's the one who always puts himself in the line of fire when things go bad."

Allen Cummings sagged into the uncomfortable plastic chair beside the bed and sighed. Fighting with Nate wasn't helping Eliot. If anything the kid looked more distraught now. Had he somehow picked up on the atmosphere in the room? Was he waking up? It had been thirteen hours since they had come into the hospital, Eliot writhing in pain, Parker close to tears, Alec jumpy and fidgeting. Only Nate, Sophie and he had remained calm. Now though, the seriousness of the situation was starting to sink into his fogged brain.

"Do you ever wonder why he does that? Or why he downplays his injuries?"

Nate tossed the sludge cup into the tiny gray trash bin and spoke.

"I have several theories on Eliot Spencer. I suspect you do as well. Sophie certainly has a few. Getting him to confirm anything though is the problem. "

Allen placed his rough hand over Eliot's slender one. The problem, he realized was that no one had bothered to care about Eliot Spencer in far too long. Now there were people who wanted to know about his life, about his past, but the younger man simply had no idea how to broach such a topic.

"Nathan, I need Alec to look into something for me. It may take some time, but I think it needs to be done."

"Eliot has started to trust you, Allen. That isn't something to take lightly. Betraying his trust would do more harm than good."

"Then what would you suggest?"

"Give it time. When he trusts you enough, he'll open up. He already has on some level. Why he feels so safe with you, I can't begin to fathom, but he does."

"He spoke highly of his parents, I can only assume I remind him of them. The similarities between his father and I are astounding. You have to have noticed that."

"It didn't escape me. I just underestimated how much this would get to him. It isn't like Eliot to let things bother him like this. You must really throw him off his game."

"He shouldn't have to play a game. He should be able to just be Eliot. What made him think he had to be otherwise?"

"We're all taking a few weeks to wind down after this. I'm not the heartless bastard you seem to think I am sometimes. I want him 100% before we start something else. You suggested we stay a while, so we are. Use you time wisely, Allen."

With that Nate Ford went in search of something a bit stronger that hospital coffee. He had to update the rest of the team and at some point, he really needed to sleep. He wanted to hear from Eliot's doctor before he did anything though. He needed to know just how badly he's fucked up where his hitter was concerned.