Author's note: all the usual disclaimers about not owning the Leverage characters/concept and not making any money from this apply.
This chapter is a more satisfying length...I guess Eliot and Hardison needed a longer heart-to-heart than Parker and Hardison did!
Eliot woke a few hours later to find a couple of ice packs on his shoulder, an empty IV attached to his left hand, and a thief and a hacker in his bed. Hardison was on the far side of the king bed, watching something on the television at low volume; Parker was curled up around a pillow in between them, somewhere around their knees, apparently asleep.
Hardison looked over as Eliot slid the IV needle out of his hand, and pressed down on the small puncture wound to stop the bleeding.
"Hey," he said in greeting.
"Hey," Eliot replied. He released the grip he had on his left hand and inspected it. Still bleeding a little. He stuck his thumb back in place.
"Here," Hardison was holding out a square of gauze and piece of tape.
"Thanks," Eliot took them, fixed the gauze in place, and then pushed himself carefully to a sitting position, readjusting the ice packs on his right shoulder. He rubbed his eyes with his left hand.
"... Time's it?" he asked.
"Two," Hardison told him, then squinted at the clock." Maybe three. You doing okay?"
Eliot nodded.
"Like I said, no lasting effects," he said. "How about you two? You okay?"
"We're fine," Hardison said, but Eliot frowned down at Parker.
"No fever or chills or anything?" he asked.
"Nah," Hardison replied. "And, yes, we've been checking."
"Good," Eliot grunted, pushing the bed covers off him and beginning the laborious process of standing.
"Where you going?" Hardison asked.
"Bathroom," Eliot told him.
"Need help getting there?"
"We'll see in a moment," Eliot pushed to his feet.
Parker stirred as the weight distribution on the bed shifted.
"Just me getting up," Eliot soothed. "Go back to sleep."
To Hardison's surprise, she did. Eliot and Parker and their weird sibling-like relationship: three mysteries he was never going to solve. He tried really hard not to be jealous when that affinity between them pushed him to the sidelines. Right now, though, he was watching Eliot test out his leg. The first few steps went okay, but, by the time he reached the foot of the bed, Eliot couldn't ignore the shakiness. And all the walls and furniture were on the wrong side of his body to be of any use as support.
"Might need a little help," he conceded.
"Should have kept that crutch," Hardison commented, as he came around the bed.
Eliot just grunted.
"We can get you another one in the morning," Hardison offered.
Eliot shook his head. He brought his left hand up, backs of his fingers pressing briefly against Hardison's neck to confirm the claim of no fever before settling to grip Hardison's shoulder.
"It'll be better tomorrow," he said.
Hardison just rolled his eyes. He would believe that when he saw it.
"I got it from here," Eliot said when they reached the bathroom door. "Thanks."
"Sure," Hardison replied, settling back down on the bed to continue watching his movie as the door closed behind Eliot.
When the door re-opened a few minutes later, Hardison started to get up again, but Eliot waved him off, using the walls and furniture for support instead. He paused as he drew abreast of Parker, repeating his skin temperature test on her. Satisfied, he straightened and continued on his way.
"Where're you going now?" Hardison asked, as Eliot bypassed the turn back to his side of the bed and continued following the wall towards the door leading out into the living room and kitchenette.
"Need to eat something so I can take the antibiotics," Eliot explained.
"I can get it for you," Hardison offered, feet swinging off the bed. "Why don't you go back to bed?"
Eliot didn't stop or turn around.
"I'm fine," he said.
Hardison sighed, dropping back against the pillows. Damn macho idiots who had to do everything for themselves. Arguing with Eliot would be pointless, so Hardison left him to it. He kept an eye on the clock, though; if Eliot's butt wasn't back in bed in ten minutes, Hardison was going after him.
And, of course, ten minutes later there was no sign of the hitter. Hardison could tell the movie was reaching its rather predictable denouement, so he waited the additional few minutes for it to play out before picking up his empty popcorn bowl and soda bottles and heading for the kitchen. He left the tv playing as background noise for Parker.
Eliot had found some peanut butter crackers and another bottle of water, and had settled down on one of the couches, flipping through a magazine describing the various area attractions, historical sites, and dining and entertainment options. He looked up as Hardison came through the door.
"Movie over?" he asked.
Hardison nodded, dropping the empty bottles in the recycling container, and setting the popcorn bowl down net to the microwave. He wandered over to join Eliot on the couch, frowning at Eliot's chosen snack.
"We brought you back steak," he commented. "You didn't want that?"
"This is quicker and easier," Eliot said, holding up a cracker. "I plan on being back asleep in about twenty minutes."
"Oh," was the only comment Hardison could muster.
Eliot ate another cracker, and Hardison yawned, his head dropping back against the couch cushions.
"You should get some sleep, too," Eliot suggested.
"Tried that," Hardison said, rubbing his eyes. He dropped his hands and turned his head to look ruefully at Eliot. "Kept dreaming about pigs...and bombs."
Eliot grimaced.
"Yeah," he acknowledged. "It might be a while before a BLT sounds like a good lunch option again."
"I also kind of wish I'd never read all that stuff about the 1918 flu pandemic," Hardison admitted, eyes sliding away from Eliot's.
Eliot studied him in silence, reading between the lines of that comment.
"We'll keep a close eye on her," he promised, when he thought he'd heard all the things Hardison wasn't saying. "The first sign of a sniffle or cough, and we'll get her the best medical treatment out there."
"I know," Hardison replied, but he had folded in on himself, arms crossed over his chest in defensive and angry posture. His eyes lifted to Eliot's again, but didn't hold the clear blue gaze fixed on him. He really didn't want a fight with Eliot right now.
"Hardison..." Eliot started.
"I don't want to talk about it," Hardison cut him off, pushing himself to his feet.
There was a tense beat of silence.
"I think we need to," Eliot said quietly.
"What's there to talk about?" Hardison said angrily. "It all worked out in the end, right? So no harm, no foul."
He snatched up the wrapper from the crackers Eliot had been eating and stalked to the kitchen, throwing it in the trash. He kept his back to Eliot when he got there, hands pressed hard against the kitchen counter.
"I know you're angry," Eliot said. "That seems like something to talk about."
"You risked Parker," Hardison snapped, every note of accusation he had been carefully suppressing for the past several hours finding their way into those three words.
"I risked both of you when I didn't insist you go home," Eliot pointed out. "And you risked yourselves when you argued to stay."
"On the train," Hardison clarified, turning back to face Eliot. "You risked Parker on the train."
Eliot didn't flinch, but the flicker of fear and pain and doubt that crossed his face spoke volumes.
"What else was I supposed to do, Alec?" he asked. "Someone had to do it, and I couldn't be in two places at once. Would you rather she had been the one going up against the gun?"
"No!" Hardison objected. "I just..." he trailed off. This was where his arguments with himself kept getting stuck in what if loops, too.
"I get that there were no really good options," Hardison tried again. "But I was right there, too. Why Parker rather than me?"
"Because I knew she would get the job done," Eliot told him. "And by that, I don't mean that you couldn't have done it – just that, in the moment, you were looking for solutions that would also keep the three of us safe, while Parker was seeing what I was seeing: two threats and two people equipped to deal with them, nothing more."
"And that's the problem!" Hardison burst out. "Neither of you stop to consider the possible costs when you throw yourselves into danger like that. And maybe that was fine when you were working alone. But you're part of a team now – and that means not all of the cost would be yours. Did you even think about what it would have been like for me and Nate and Sophie if you and Parker hadn't made it through?"
Eliot was quiet, which Hardison guessed gave him his answer to that last question.
"I don't know if I can do that," Eliot said, honestly. "And I don't know that it would make any difference to the decisions I reach – except maybe to delay them when there isn't really time to sit around thinking. But I'll try, especially when there's more than one of us at risk."
Hardison took a deep breath, and nodded. It was more than he had expected Eliot to offer, even if it would never be as much as he would like.
Eliot still seemed to think that this was about Hardison having some sort of inferiority complex or something, however. And maybe he wasn't entirely wrong...Eliot and Parker between them had been making him feel rather inept over the past several hours.
"We couldn't have done it without you, you know?" Eliot said. "We only got to Udall in time because you found him for us. And you disarmed the bomb and figured out the vaccine thing, and that the trailer was a booby-trapped decoy, and how to warn Vance's team to get away before it blew...do I need to go on? It's like Nate always says: there's a reason we work together as a team. We all have different skills and different strengths. It's putting them together, rather than worrying about who's better at what, the makes us so good at what we do."
"I know," Hardison said, the last of his anger draining out. "I just don't want to be left behind."
"Fair enough," Eliot said. "But keep in mind that most of the time we're the ones trying to keep up with you while you're thinking circles around us."
The smile Hardison gave him was tired and wan, but it was a smile.
"Like you and Parker have any use for the circles," Hardison scoffed. "You two are all about the straight lines."
"Exactly," Eliot said. "And that's why we need you and Nate looking at the 360-degree view, and Sophie coming at it from her tangent. That's how we make sure we both get the job done and all come home safe."
Hardison nodded, and Eliot stood up.
"I don't know about you," he continued, "but I'm going to try for some more sleep."
"Yeah," Hardison said, following him back through to the bedroom.