A/N: I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. I don't own Leverage or any of the characters, and I make no profit off of any of this. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews. They really do make my day, so please keep them coming. Enjoy.

Chapter 14

Colonel Vance saw her first when she stepped out of the side room and closed the door. He rose and met her as she walked over to join them. Before he had a chance to say anything, she shook her head, and then walked up next to him to address the team. "Both of our patients are sleeping. We weren't entirely successful finding the trigger today, but we'll try again. I would like to be close by so I can monitor him in case he wakes up."

"You are welcome to camp out on the sofa, or in the guest room."

"The sofa is fine. Vance and I have some business, so I'm going to walk him out."

"All right. I'll lock everything except the front door, and I'll ask you to lock that when you come back in."

"Thank you, Mr. Ford."

Vance offered her his arm and they walked out. When they were in the relative safety that Doc's vehicle afforded, she looked squarely at the Colonel.

"I have to ask you, Vance—what is this all about?"

He shook his head, and looked her in the eyes. Finally, he said, "Eliot wants to keep his friends out of this as much as possible."

Her eyes grew hard. "Damn it, Vance. Don't patronize me. If Eliot had wanted to keep his friends out of this, he shouldn't have called me for help. Besides, I know there's a contingency plan. You always have one. And so does he. There's a reason we were the best field team on five continents."

Vance flashed her a half smile. "Why didn't you ask Eliot?"

"I did ask him, and he told me his part, or at least part of his part of it. He told me that he ran afoul of a CIA agent on his last mission who implanted some commands in his brain trying to make him a weapon to be used against the team. His file told me there was some nerve gas involved. What I want to know now is what we're going to do about it?"

"I don't know what Eliot's plans are."

"I swear to God if you keep stringing me along, I'll find a way to ground you pending full physical and psychological evaluation. Now spill."

Vance smiled again, only this time it was a full smile. They held a rapid, whispered conversation. Ten minutes later, she thanked Vance, they both got out of the car and she locked it, and then she walked back inside. Parker and Eliot were both still sleeping when she checked on them, and she noticed that Eliot's IV bag was empty so she removed it, and untied his hands, so he could move in his sleep. She turned and started back out to the living room when a hand reached out and grasped her arm. She turned back around to find steady blue eyes boring into her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Okay. Did you find it?"

She shook her head, and then said, "We will. I have another idea of something to try tomorrow."

"Are you up to trying it now? I need to get back on my feet and complete this mission as quickly as possible." He glanced over at the cot. "How's Parker?"

"She'll be fine, but she needs sleep to help the healing process. I'd rather not wake her."

"Is the team still out there?"

"They've gone to bed. It's late."

"We could do it there."

Putting a finger to her lips, she nodded, then turned and walked out to the larger living room, and sat down in one of the chairs. Eliot followed her and sat down on the sofa. She looked him in the eyes.

"What I want to try now is to help you re-live the time when the commands might have been implanted, and see if you can tell me what the trigger words are. The tricky part of this is making sure they don't affect you before we can neutralize them. Ready?"

Eliot nodded, stretched out, and closed his eyes.

Speaking quietly, she put him under and then said, "I want you to go back to the time you encountered organophosphate poisoning at the college. See the scene, and tell me what happened. Nothing you see will affect you. You are perfectly safe. Nothing that anyone says will have any effect on you at all. Describe the scene."

"Sitting on bunk in cell. Really cold. Loud music. Mist through vents." That was the nerve gas.

"Were there any words under the music? Listen carefully, and hear it."

Now that she mentioned it, it seemed as though there were words underneath, but he couldn't make out what they were. He strained to hear them.

"Turn off the music in your mind, and hear the words."

Eliot spouted off a list of twenty or twenty five words which made very little sense, and even less sense together. Doc had no idea why anyone would use those words as triggers, but they had to take it seriously. No choice. She hurriedly wrote them down.

"What are you supposed to do when you hear one of these words?"

"Different tasks for different words." Well that told her what she needed to know, didn't it? And yet it didn't really tell her much of anything at all. She was going to need Vance's help for the next part of what they had to do.

She brought Eliot back to consciousness, and then rose and went to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. Twisting off the cap, she handed it to Eliot, and then sat back down in her chair.

Eliot downed half the bottle of water, then screwed the cap back on and set it on the table, and met her eyes with a hint of a question on his face. She almost smiled.

"We need to talk."

'That sounds serious."

"You might say that."

"Come on, Doc. Don't play games with me."

"I don't play games, Eliot. You know me better than that."

"Well, then, Kat, why don't you tell me what we need to talk about?"

"What do you remember from this last session?"

Eliot frowned as he realized that he remembered nothing. "Nothing." Then something else occurred to him. "Wait. Why do I remember what happened when I was hypnotized before but not now?"

"Because I told your mind to remember last time. We did this last one so quickly after you woke that I didn't think of it. My apologies."

Eliot nodded, and studied his hands.

"Eliot?" He looked up at her. "We'll take the next steps tomorrow. I need Vance's help."

"Why?"

"You mentioned about twenty five words that could be the triggers we are looking for, and if what you said was accurate, each of them is attached to separate actions. I need Vance to help make sure we can keep the well-trained soldier in you under control."

Eliot gave a single nod, but didn't say anything. A sort of tension fell between them, as if she wanted to say more, and as though he was afraid she would. Finally, he said, "You want to say something Kat, I can tell. So go ahead and say it."

"All right. I want to know why you didn't want me to see the man you've become, as you say."

"Didn't you see when you hypnotized me?"

"I saw plenty, but I'd like to know why you didn't want me to know."

"I'm not proud of that time in my life. I made some bad decisions. Nothing I do now can change that. You were one of the few people from my past untouched by all of that, and I guess I wanted to keep it that way."

"Are you worried that what I saw would change my opinion of you, Eliot?"

"I wasn't sure. I wouldn't blame you if it did."

"We've been friends for a long time. I'm disappointed that your opinion of me is that low."

Eliot's mouth moved for a moment, but he didn't say anything, and the tension fell between them again. This was one of his oldest friends, and he wanted her to understand.

"Kat, it wasn't that I thought you would judge me. I'll admit, I wasn't sure what you would have to say about it, but it is more that I am embarrassed by that time of my life, and don't want to share it."

"That's understandable. I'll let you make it up to me."

"How?"

"I know you have a plan. Let me help."

"Kat—"

"I know you, Eliot. You can't tell me that there's no plan. You either trust me or you don't."

"All right. We'll talk about it tomorrow. It's late."