Ugh. I do not like this chapter but it gives rise to some very important plot points so... It gets better I promise.

Maybe it's just a dream?

After a tearful and awkward moment upstairs, the team made their way downstairs to have breakfast. Eliot felt nauseous at the thought of food though as he probably ate half of the wildlife last night. His stomach rolled in agreement and the hitter just sat at the table with a cup of coffee. The rest of the team joined him after grabbing their food/snacks and they all seemed to be staring at him. Sighing, Eliot knew this moment would come. Taking a long sip from his coffee first, the hitter spoke.

"Ok. Shoot."

They all spoke at once.

"You smell like wet dog."

"Are you okay Eliot?"

"Dude, what happened man?"

"Werewolves are real."

Eliot looked at each of his team members and inhaled through his nostrils.

"Parker, I just got out of the shower. Sophie, I'm fine. Hardison, yeah I must've broke or lost your band. And Nate, yeah they are real."

The team looked taken aback and disappointed at the answer they got. Hardison actually huffed and got up to check on the location of his tracker. Nate seemed as if he was still coming to terms with the whole werewolf Eliot thing. Sophie was eyeing Eliot with concerned eyes. They all looked perplexed. All except Parker. She continued with her curiosity, tilting her head to the side.

"Do you have fleas?"

"I'm not answering that Parker."

"Oh! Do you have the urge to chew on shoes?"

"Parker! I'm not a dog!"

"Do you remember being a wolf?"

This stopped Eliot's frustration at the ridiculous questions. He didn't remember being a wolf and that's what scared him. It was terrifying not to know what you've done, to lose control. Eliot's response was soft and disappointed.

"No."

The room got quiet at his response.

"So you...?"

"I didn't kill anyone Nate."

"How do you know?"

"Wasn't human blood."

"There was blood?"

"Yeah. Local wildlife. Deer and Bear. Mostly. Others too."

This got Parker's attention.

"You ate a bear?"

Eliot paused halfway to his coffee cup.

"No, the wolf..."

Eliot stopped himself and corrected his sentence for the thief before Parker could say anything.

"...Uh I guess. Would only make sense to hunt for food."

Or for the enjoyment of it, but Eliot didn't really want to explain that to Parker.

"But you don't have bad breath... Oh. Oh you used my breath mints didn't you?"

Eliot took this moment to look down at his coffee. His actions spoke for themselves.

"You would too if you tasted what I did."

Hardison then came back in the room with his laptop. He set down the laptop then walked over to Eliot. The hacker approached him hesitantly, which sent red flags in the hitters mind. His words came out slowly, as if he was uncertain to tell Eliot whatever he knew.

"It activated the fail safe."

Eliot looked at the hacker in pure confusion.

"What?"

"I said, it activated the fail safe."

The hitter was starting to get annoyed know.

"What is the fail safe...?"

Eliot was cut short though when Hardison unexpectedly bent down and lifted Eliot's pants leg. Eliot was quick to respond by swatting Hardison's arms away with a growl, but it didn't matter as the hacker already got what he was looking for.

"What was that Hardison?"

"That, was my tracking device. That's what that was."

Eliot looked at the hacker like he had grown another head.

"What?"

Hardison suddenly took up an irritated attitude that seemed to be trying to cover up another emotion.

"First off, You chewed up my tracker man! Ripped it to shreds! You broke it man! You're worse than two atomic bombs!" After pausing and regaining his courage, Hardison continued with the hard part that he almost seemed to whisper to himself. "That's why the fail safe activated."

Eliot held a calm demeanor even though they all knew he was boiling at this point. The hitters words came out clipped and with restrained anger.

"What. Fail. Safe. Hardison?"

Hardison had a flash of fear pass over his eyes but replaced it with a determined gleam.

"When I built the tracker I thought it was unbeatable. However, I decided that it needed a fail safe if anything went wrong...So I built it to where if it thought it was going to break, it would inject the person who had it on with a smaller tracking device... But never had I thought you could and would actually break it! And even then, it would have been on emergency and you would have thanked me later when I tracked your sorry butt down."

Everyone at the table was silent and shocked at this revelation. Parker, however was quick with her next question.

"You killed a tracking device too?"

Eliot figured it was possible as he did have a slight metallic taste in his mouth. Wait, didn't that mean...?

"Hardison, you mean to tell me there is a tracking device inside of me?"

Nate took the moment to add his own question.

"How'd you know where it would be?"

Hardison skipped Eliot's question to answer Nate's just as fast.

"It is a tracking device. I tracked it. Eliot said he lost it so I assumed from experience with my dog Megabite that... Well you know, it was gnawed off, which is a threat for the fail safe."

Eliot was still ticked from his skipped question and the anger started to leak into his voice.

"I thought you said it was broken."

"Well yeah, kind of. It still has a weak trace from the broken parts as I made smaller trackers inside the band for if such an occasion happened. But I put so much work in that band..."

Eliot cut off Hardison's sentence with a glare.

"You mean to tell me that you can track me from one of your little chips in my ankle?"

Hardison responded in the affirmative.

"That means if anyone hacked you or got ahold of your systems... Hardison you just broadcasted my location to anyone. Anyone who gets ahold of your tech!"

Eliot growled at his luck and glared at Hardison, who looked as if he was going to argue his point. All the countries with bounties on his head... Eliot knew he would jeopardize the team's safety. To be the cause of their pain... Eliot shook his head as anger rolled off of him in waves.

"Why'd you have to give me that tracker Hardison? I knew I never should have let y'all talk me into this!"

Sophie tried to intervene.

"Eliot..."

The hitters growls started to escalate but he left the room before he could fully snap.

Hardison took this moment to say his next words.

"I guess it's a bad time to say I might have set up cameras and got video of Eliot last night."

Nate's curiosity peaked at this but he gave Hardison a look that confirmed it was a bad time.