"Sir, three more contracts have been canceled." The secretary kept small as possible while delivering the paperwork to Donaldson.
"Get out!" Donaldson's hands shook as he shoved the previous reports across his desk. As the secretary scurried out of the room, Donaldson buried his face in his hand.
"Should have let me dispose of him right away," Gates muttered, sitting opposite the desk.
"Maybe you should have done a better job breaking him! Get out of here! I need to figure out how to stop the remaining clients from hearing this."
"Too late." Gates held up his phone. The screen showed a news break highlighting the stock plummet.
"And that's how you bankrupt the bad guy." Breanna chuckled to herself as she watched the chaos unfolding on her laptop.
"You crashed the whole company? Well done." Harry high fived her.
"Donaldson won't be doing anything with that tech again, but how do we know someone else won't?" Parker twitched her lips as she looked at all of them for answers.
"We can't stop everyone from doing it, but we can make sure no one gets a hold of this particular tech again." Sophie tapped Breanna's shoulder. "Did he respond?"
"Not yet." Breanna brushed her fingers along the keys of the laptop checking messages.
"Mitchell can handle most of the patients today, but I have to go in for about an hour to deal with one patient. He doesn't handle change well, so I can't try rescheduling or letting Mitchell handle him without risking it setting him off. BUT I also don't want to leave you here like this." Paul stood in the archway overlooking the living room.
"I'll be okay. Go." Eliot sat on the couch. The food and shower had helped his physical appearance improve.
"It is just an hour. Message me if you think you're spiraling. I mean it."
Eliot nodded slowly. "I'll try to get some sleep."
"That sounds like a good plan." Paul slowly walked out the door, a tingle running down his back.
Mitchell closed the door as Paul's patient left.
"You're sure you'll be okay covering everyone else?" Paul asked.
"I'll be fine. Go, help him. He needs you."
"Let me know if you need anything. Anything."
"GO!" Mitchell shook his head with a smirk.
Paul entered the house. "Eliot, I'm back. How are you doing?"
Silence.
He weaved through the rooms. A deep sigh rose out of his chest as worry sprang. Every second he failed in his search, another ounce of dread filled him up. Paul entered the kitchen, half terrified of finding his friend. Nothing. He began to shake his head when his eyes caught something out the window. The corner of his mouth twitched. Resolve filled him as he stepped out into the back yard.
"Paul." It was a statement. Eliot didn't bother to open his eyes. He lay on his back in the grass, arms across his stomach.
"Sleeping?" Paul tried to lighten the mood.
"Couldn't. I kept hearing her, and," Eliot swallowed.
"Grounding." Paul nodded.
"It felt like the safest place to be."
"No, it's good. I say it was a solid strategy."
Eliot sat up and looked Paul in the eyes.
"Do you want me sit here, or did you want to come back inside?"
"I can." Eliot pressed a hand into the ground to push up.
Paul placed a hand on Eliot's shoulder to halt his rise. "If the grass is grounding, we can stay. Don't move on account of me. My job is to meet you where you are, not drag you to me."
Eliot tilted his head and pulled his hand back into his lap.
"Okay. Backyard session is on." Paul crossed his legs to sit on the soft grass next to his temporary ward and patient.
"Don't call it that."
"Sorry. Let's pick back up. You were describing to me what was running through your mind hearing the projection of your mother speak. Specifically the part about not knowing you, or rather the past you."
"We talked about that, but I realized out here that that wasn't what triggered me. It hurt, and it definitely helped set the stage for depression. But what drove that knife, was the other part."
"When she asked why you didn't come to her funeral? Guilt."
Eliot shook his head. "She said come to her. Not her funeral."
Paul frowned.
"I made that same mistake. I assumed the funeral initially too, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized, that deep down, I didn't hear that. I heard come to her. Where she is, not where she was."
"You thought you heard your own mother asking why you didn't kill yourself?"
"Not exactly. Why I had made sure I wouldn't be joining her."
"Why you had become a killer bound for hell, as it were? Condemning yourself to never be reunited with her again. Missing her again and again, forever." Paul finally understood the fear eating at his old friend.
"It's stupid." Eliot began to roll his shoulder away from Paul, attempting to stand and flee.
"No, it's not." Paul held Eliot's elbow carefully. "Guilt is confusing and irrational, stubborn, and most assuredly painful, but never stupid. This program you encountered was tailor made to play on your weaknesses. Guilt has always been your Achilles' heel, Eliot. As long as we've known each other, you've worn that on your sleeve. But a weakness doesn't have to be a burden, and it is never something you have to bear alone."
Eliot pinched his eyes shut and shuttered a moment. "I disappointed her. I hurt her. I was a stranger. A vile, evil stranger, and I knew it."
"No," Paul breathed and pulled Eliot into a tight hug. Part of him believed in comforting his friend, but part of him knew it was also to keep the man from fleeing in shame.
"No." Eliot pushed Paul off. "It's true. The projection may have been fake, but the message is true. I don't deny who I am."
"Who you were."
"It doesn't change what I did."
"No, it doesn't, but it does change you. You aren't who you were. The you here, now, exists because of that past, but also despite it. You won't ever be that person again."
"But I can't shake it either."
"Maybe not. But that guy doesn't get to hold you hostage either. You're stronger than he was. You already won that competition. Stop letting him hold you back. Learn to let him go."
Eliot's eyes darted for a moment. He hadn't considered that he was hindering himself by granting that guilt. Sophie, Maria, Nate… they had all tried to tell him in their own way, but he had refused to listen. Paul spoke his language. Understood better exactly where he had been. No, he realized that their shared past was the reason he allowed himself to listen to Paul. The guilt shifted. Eliot no longer felt the heaviest guilt for his killer past, now he felt guilty for dismissing those he loved and who loved him. They had tried to tell him all of this, and he had ignored their words out of some ego. Believing they couldn't speak to him without having been him. Apologies were in order, he hated that idea so much.
"More tea?" Paul asked as he saw the shift in Eliot's eyes.
"Probably." Eliot sighed.
Jun sat in the courtyard of HQ with Sophie and Breanna.
"I can't believe it. Donaldson is gone."
"Well, bankrupt, but effectively gone. The assets were liquidated to pay outstanding debts and employee compensation." Breanna tapped her laptop.
"I'm sorry to lose the project, but more relieved to see it out of his hands." Jun nodded slowly.
"Oh, you didn't lose it. We were able to find you an investor more in line with your vision. He bought your tech from Donaldson, I mean no one else would since it 'didn't work', and he's going to rehire your entire team to finish it- how you intended it." Breanna smiled and leaned back as Harry entered with a familiar face.
"Jun, I'd like you to meet Darren Nash." Harry gestured to Nash.
"THE Darren Nash? Are you serious?" Jun left his jaw hang.
"Yes. These fine folks introduced me to a wonderful young woman with a brilliant mind for energy development in the past, so when they mentioned you and a tech project, I couldn't say no. I'm quite intrigued by this dementia patient angle of yours. It's brilliant." Nash stated.
"I have more thoughts on it too." Jun answered.
"Excellent. We should talk some more."
Sophie smiled at Harry and Breanna as they watched the two men interact.
Eliot paused to take a deep breath. He allowed a few beats before pushing the door and marching into the club. The team milled around, trying to ignore his entrance.
"Excuse me," Breanna chirped as she weaved around him, bringing her soda from the bar to her laptop on the island.
"Wow," he muttered.
"You know we missed you. But we know you wouldn't want us to make a big deal out of coming back." Parker stepped up next to him.
"Right." Eliot felt awkward in the moment.
"How's the hand doing, by the way?" Harry asked. He and Sophie sat at the booth along the near wall.
"Better." Eliot rolled his eyes around the room, suspicious of the team's behavior.
"Welcome back." Sophie smiled at him.
"I'm sorry." He swallowed.
"No need. You did what you needed to do. We understand." Sophie stood up and moved closer to him.
"Not about that. Well, yeah that too. I mean, you tried to tell me what I was doing, holding on to that part of me, and I dismissed you. I shouldn't have. If I would have listened, maybe this wouldn't have happened."
"Or maybe it needed to happen to make you ready to receive the message. We've all been there. We're just happy you're okay." Sophie gave his shoulder a quick hug.
"Thanks." He glanced at the floor like a little kid.
"Apology done, can we start?" Parker twitched behind the bar.
"Start what?" Eliot squinted at them.
"Welcome back party!" Parker pulled a cake up onto the bar.
"Are you serious?!" Eliot moaned.
"Hey, Nana made the cake. Don't be dissing the cake!" Breanna frowned as she scurried between him and the bar.
"You told her?"
"Not all the details, just that you were getting some help..." Parker smiled toothlessly.
"Dammit, Parker."
"That's the Eliot we know and love." Harry chuckled.
"Shut up."
"Paul does good work." Parker added.
Eliot bit his tongue and made to leave. Sophie grabbed his shoulder.
"You wouldn't have us any other way," she whispered.
He sighed and nodded.
"Enjoy in your annoyance." Sophie squeezed his shoulder and went to grab a seat at the bar. Eliot shook his head and turned to join.