Title: The Intersection of Points N and E
Summary: Snapshots of Eliot and Natalia's adventures over their years together.
Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage or any of the characters associated with the show. I only claim ownership to the character that I created. Also, no profits are being made off of this story. It's only for your entertainment.
Author's Note: Now, I know I'm supposed to be writing Miami, but I keep getting ideas for this story! This is another short based on a line that just came to me. From Eliot's perspective. Gets a little heavy, but I hope you all enjoy.
Chapter 10: An Angel
~November 12th 1998 ~ School
She's got these ringlets that curl in her hair. They wrap around your finger like a baby's hand, holding on and never wanting to let you go. And they're so soft that you don't ever wanna pull away. They're the kind of curls you see on angels at Christmastime.
But Natalia, well, I don't know that angel's the right word.
Not because she's got a mouth dirtier than sin and hands that'll either make quick work of you, or make ya suffer all night long. No. She ain't no angel because angels are supposed to save people.
And she's the one who needs savin'.
She fell asleep right here in my arms not too long ago. Her cheeks have barely dried from the tears. From what I could tell, her Daddy called earlier.
That almost never ends well.
He don't yell and he don't cuss. I think what he does is worse.
He never says he's proud of her.
Ain't that all a girl wants? For her Daddy to be proud of her? That ain't so much to ask. If he is, he don't say it. And I think that's just as bad as not bein' proud at all. She busted her ass in school for him and all he asked her is what she was doin' next. Never even stopped to appreciate how far she'd come. Maybe that's why she's here.
Because honestly, here ain't where she's supposed to be.
Girls like her shouldn't be pickin' up guns. She's too smart. Too pretty. She should be kickin' ass in a law office. Savin' someone's life in a hospital. Makin' people feel somethin' on a movie screen. She should be off breakin' hearts, not learnin' to put bullets in 'em. I think she does it because she don't feel like she's good enough for that. Because her Daddy never said he was proud of her. And if you can't make Daddy proud, who the hell else can you?
He always says that she never calls and he don't ever get a chance to talk to her. She just nods her head and tells him she's been busy, but when she hangs up, I see the rest of it. I see the tears. I'm the one she tells it all to. She never calls him because all he asks is how classes are going. And if she's on the right track to graduation. She says she don't call him because he never talked to her when she was at home. She doesn't understand why it makes a difference now. Honestly, I don't either.
I think he should just leave her be. Because it doesn't sound like he's gonna fix things anytime soon. There ain't no point in callin' just to make her cry.
But I guess he ain't the one who sees the tears.
She told me once one night when we were all tangled up in my sheets, that she's afraid to have a family. She's afraid to bring someone into a world where it's so easy to show someone you care, and still no one ever does. Hurtin' comes as easy as breathin'. She's afraid that her kid would end up like her.
When she was a baby she used to be the center of his world. But then life happened, I guess, and his world started spinnin' around somethin' else. He said he worked so hard so that she could have everything she ever wanted. What he didn't realize is that all she wanted was a daddy. And now it's too late for him to fix it. He can't give her back her childhood. And she wouldn't dream of putting her own child through that.
It makes me wanna marry her just to prove her wrong. Show her that a daddy can love his baby and her momma more than anything in the world. I wanna show her that the world ain't as bad as she thinks it is. I wanna give her enough love to last the rest of her life and then some, just to make up for the years she lost.
I want that for her.
Natalia don't seem broken when you look at her. She looks like an angel right here, right now, asleep on ringlets of black silk. The moonlight's started to fall on them and I'll be damned if it don't look like a halo around that pretty little head of hers. But she ain't no angel. She needs an angel.
Now, I'm nowhere close to divine. But I can damn well try to save her.