Notes: Third in the Trust and Sobriety arc (tags to Beantown Bailout). To readers who've been following this for awhile you soon might notice a change in the chapter index thing. The stories I've written are mostly one-shots, short arcs, or drabbles but they do take place in a somewhat specific chronological order that occasionally varies from the order which I wrote and posted them. It will vary a good deal more soon when I start The Two Knights Opener arc which deals with the first few episodes. In the interest of giving an easier time reading through these in Order soon the Chapter index thing will be numbered acording to their chronological order. So if it jumps from 19 to 7 to 24 don't worry, theirs nothing wrong with your eyesight. Feel free to ignore it if you wish. Eventually I plan on moving the chapters around so they are in order and simply adding the new chapters to the end and mocing them to their correct location after I add the next chapter after that. Anyway, just a heads up.
Rule 17
Rule 17: Say the things you mean to say, you might not get a chance later. Just don't say That Thing.
Well at least they've got that last part down.
They'd never really been good at saying what they meant. They had a rule about it but they still didn't manage to obey it with anything bordering regularity.
It did however mean they'd gotten pretty good at learning what the other meant when they said something else.
So when Eliot asked if Nate wanted them to leave Nate caught the uncertainty Eliot didn't actually voice, maybe even uncertainty Eliot hadn't wanted him to catch. He knew Eliot was talking about much more than just the job and the team. He knew Eliot wasn't sure if Nate wanted what they'd had before.
When he answered, saying yes, he wanted them to leave, but looking to the others in the room, Eliot knew Nate meant that there were three too many people in the room to get into this.
But at least it wasn't actually telling him to go away.
And later, when the job was taking off (whether or not Nate wanted it to) and Eliot explained Parker's outfit he knew Nate would understand that he was testing the waters. He'd always watched Nate's back, always been the one providing whatever was needed to keep things running smoothly. He was letting Nate know he was still willing to act that part, whether or not there was something going between them.
Later Nate would hate that he'd rebuffed that sign, still to stubborn to admit he still needed the help.
It would take a little while but Nate would eventually give Eliot the sign they'd both been waiting for.
It was a simple phrase, made off hand as much to Sophie as to Eliot but they'd always acted in little ways. It was all the sign he really needed.
"You want to do this thing, you're on your own. Understood?"
So Eliot stayed.