A/N: Thank you all so much for sticking with me through eight chapters of New Hampshire fun! I know that I've enjoyed it. Gaben, thanks so much for both being my AWESOME beta, and the reviews! Aelan010, AliasMarie, Always-Underrated, Candygirl28, CountryGirl83, MavenAlysse, rivendellelve, saides, Sprite91360, thedoctorlovesme, ToshiChanTheAwesome, and WhiskeySkye – you all rock!
Chapter 8: Leaving
It was four-forty in the morning; early for even Eliot to be up and around. But, it was time; he needed to start driving if he was going to make Portland Oregon in a decent amount of time. It was thirty-three hundred miles, and he needed to stop in St Louis, Missouri where he wanted to check in on an old friend from the service.
Eliot took one last look around his now empty house, and sighed angrily to himself. This hadn't been just a house to him. It had been a home, one of the few true homes he'd had in well… Well, over ten years. He'd bunked in a lot of places: Apartments, hotels, motels, friend's houses, including their couches; but, this old farmhouse had been a home!
Shelley had come over and helped him pack some of the stuff that he couldn't leave behind. So his go-bag was in the wheel well of his truck, his knives were under the driver's seat, there were a few boxes with books, a few mementos, training equipment, and a couple of other things that were carefully packed under tarps in the truck bed. And most importantly right by the tailgate of the truck, for easy access, was a large cooler. The cooler was full of produce from his garden, some fridge pickles he'd put up last week, and his favorite mustard which made any crappy truck-stop sandwich taste better!
Everything had been packed and put into storage using one of the new aliases that Hardison had put together. He'd used one of those storage places, those storage places that dropped off containers, then you packed them, they picked them up and stored them until you called them and told the company where to drop it off.
The hitter grabbed his travel mug; this mug had been to a lot of places since he'd joined the Leverage team. Prior to working with Nate, Sophie, Parker, and Hardison he didn't really have anything that he trucked around because he liked them. There were some things he'd hauled around the globe or stashed in secure places; but, this was different… He now had pictures, books, and furniture! Furniture! Not something he'd ever expected to have, non-disposable furniture. Up until they'd met in Los Angeles most of his furniture had come from Goodwill, the garbage, sometimes the curb on garbage pick-up day. But, now… Now, he had furniture. The American chestnut bookcase he'd refinished, the butcher block table he'd found at a salvage yard in Baltimore during a job, a cast iron bed that had come from the neighbor's, Adele's mother's house. His coffee maker was packed; but, by the time he reached town Joan would be at the Café' and she'd fill his mug and give him a breakfast sandwich to go.
With one last look at the garden he'd lovingly tended over the last two summers, and the lawn that the kid down the street had mowed. As much as Eliot loved the connection to the earth that this house gave him, he really didn't feel the need to mow the lawn. It was nice having enough money to hire someone to do that, and the weed-whacking, weeding the flower beds around the house, and even watering and weeding his vegetable garden when the retrieval specialist couldn't get up here for a couple of days..
And so, with one last loving look at his home, the retrieval specialist settled his mug into the cup holder, climbed behind the wheel of his truck, and headed off to the coordinates Hardison had sent: Portland, Oregon.
Eliot hoped he could find something… Someplace that he could feel a connection with the earth, the people, and find peace! He checked his rearview mirror as he turned onto the main road, and swore up and down that he would come back here!
E/N: I hope I didn't miss anyone; but, thank you so much for reading. It means so much to me that you all take time to read, and then take that extra minute to review. Thank you again! I know that I'm going to miss Eliot's creaky old farmhouse and his neighbors. Gaben, thanks again for everything!