Ch. 11 Echoes
Eliot felt Savannah get out of bed after only an hour and a half of failing to sleep that night. He knew she was just going to hit the gym and the pool. He was going to avoid her until she blew off some more steam; she had a very short fuse lately.
He waited about twenty minutes and went down to the kitchen to bake. Baking was distracting, gave him a sense of control he rarely felt anymore. Working out did the same, but that wasn't an option right now. Around seven in the morning, after enough baked goods to feed Portland, Hardison came down and powered up his computer as Eliot climbed into the recliner to get the rest Savannah talked about. A few minutes later he heard footsteps on the stairs.
"Hardison?" To his surprise, it was Savannah's voice. He kept his eyes closed, controlled his breathing, and listened, pretending to be asleep.
"What's up, girl? Got a plan already?"
"No. Well, kind of, I still have to talk to Parker and Dani about it, but that's not why I wanted to talk to you."
Eliot heard the chair roll away from the desk. "Okay, speak your mind."
"I owe you an apology."
"For the GPS thing the other day? Girl, please, you had a right to be mad, I mean-"
"It's not that."
"Oh."
"I crossed a line with Parker. It wasn't far to you to-"
"Aw, man, you don't-"
There were several minutes of the two of them studdering over each other. It was actually really funny. Finally, the two of them got out a sentence simultaneously.
"I'm sorry."
"Thank you."
"What?"
"What happened really helped me and Parker."
"I'm still at 'what'."
"Look...here, sit down." Hardison lowered his voice. There was the sound of dining chairs being pulled out. "Intimacy is really hard for Parker. She and I are really close, but there are some things I just can't help her with. Being touched is...was scary for Parker. What you two did, it was a stepping stone so that we could take some new steps in our relationship. I..."
"Um. Good."
"So...what's up with you and Eliot?"
"How about to thank me, you don't ask me that question?"
"Alright, just keep in mind. This affects more than you and Eliot."
"I know. I'll fix it. I'm just not going to talk about it."
Later that afternoon, Dani was over. Like she belonged there, she went straight to the gym. Eliot couldn't map out his exact train of thought, but he decided it was time to workout. Savannah was practically addicted, so he couldn't keep waiting to be alone.
He walked in on Dani and Savannah sparring. He couldn't help but feel a strange twinge of envy as he watched the two slam each other around without restraint. The girls politely ignored him as he went to the weight machines, covertly glancing over on occasion.
"Alright, time out. I'm going to get some water," Dani said after about forty-five minutes.
"Cool," Savannah said, sitting down for a break.
Eliot waited for the sound of her footsteps to fade before he spoke. "You're more restrained with her than you are with me."
"She's been conditioned to handle it."
"So have I."
"It's not the same."
"Close enough."
"Just stop it, Eliot. This isn't something you want to get into."
"Yes, it is. You're the one pushing me away." And as he stormed out of the gym, they both knew he wasn't talking about sparring.
"Eliot!"
But he ignored the plead.
The plan was formulated that afternoon. Well, it was the usual fluid, mostly formulated plan. Parker and Hardison would do the classic inspector set up to get in the door then let the others into the lab through the basement window. Then probably blow stuff up. Because Savannah made it clear she wanted this over with. This was the equivalent to The Academy to her. There would be no sneaking around, long persuasion, or slow and steady cons. Get in, blow stuff up, get out.
They scattered around the underground lab, placing detonators to be set off as soon as they were clear. The junior terrorists hadn't finished the lab and only worked on it at night to keep up appearances, so when Hardison excused himself from the bathroom and Parker needed to get something from the van, they weren't questioned. These kids were geniuses when it came to chaos, but stupid when it came to folks in uniform it seemed. And they were just kids. Barely college age. Hardison and Parker were seen as adults who wouldn't find college kids dangerous, so the kids let them through. It was amazing how much they were getting by on perception.
On the coms, they whispered to each other which areas of the labs they covered. Suddenly, a curse from Savannah was heard through the coms.
"What's going on?" four voices called in unison.
The next words that were heard would haunt Eliot for the rest of his life.
"I tripped...and dropped them."
Everyone knew what that meant. Any sort of jarring rendered the detonators unstable; they could blow at any second. A deafening silence followed. You could hear no one moving.
And there was the explosion of thirty or so detonators.