"When are you going to sneak away from Eliot long enough to come see me?" Quinn asked on the phone.
Ale smiled, closing her bedroom door behind her. They had been talking every night since he left a week before, Ale's days falling into the same routine that they had been before.
"I think I'm going to give it a shot for next week. I'll just let him know I have stuff to do and ask him to call and ask you if you are willing to babysit," Ale said, Quinn laughing on the other end of the phone.
"I guess I could sound irritated that he's asking me," Quinn joked. "Do you think he knows I didn't take the money?"
"He has no idea. He is still pretty grumpy. But he's getting better. Thank you, by the way, for donating your paycheck to the hospital. You didn't have to do that."
"I couldn't think of a more deserving place to put it."
"Well, I mean, your checking account for one," Ale said, smiling when she heard Quinn sigh on the other end.
"We have talked about this. I am not going to take money for spending time with you. That is wrong. You are more than a job to me."
Ale couldn't help but smile, her cheeks flushing.
"Well then you could at least put the money in my bank account. I am running low on funds," she joked, Quinn laughing softly.
"I'm excited to see you," he whispered, sounding close to being asleep.
"I'm excited to see you, too. Hey, I was thinking that we could try going dancing again next week," Ale suggested, Quinn groaning in response.
"Last time ended so badly," he whined.
Quinn did not want to go dancing with Ale again. He didn't want to be like Eliot, but he wanted to protect Ale, and that was very hard to do in a room full of men who all want to be with her.
"I remember it ending very well. But maybe that was the wine," Ale said softly, Quinn hearing the smile in her voice.
"I guess I don't count that part as dancing," Quinn replied. "We can kiss and drink wine any time."
"Yes, but how often do you get to punch someone on a dance floor?" Ale teased.
"Goodnight, Ale," Quinn sang, not wanting to talk about it anymore.
"Goodnight Quinn," Ale sighed. She always sounded nervous when they hung up. Like she was afraid to go to sleep.
Knowing Ale, she probably had every right to be. Quinn didn't want to know the demons that chased her at night, but he definitely wanted to protect her from them.
When Ale woke up the next morning she knew she had to ask Eliot to go off on her own. He had been a little grumpy, lately, but he was still nice enough. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she also couldn't be stuck in the house all day, either. Or stuck in the van with Hardison. She loved the guy, but it was so boring.
Ale and Eliot took their usual run and got ready for work, Ale taking the time they rode together in the car as her opportunity to ask Eliot for some free time.
"So I was thinking," Ale started, Eliot looking at her and nodding, letting her know that she was listening. "And if it is okay with you, and Quinn is willing to watch me, that I could go visit some old friends next week. Like a Tuesday/Thursday kind of thing. You could drop me with him when you go to work and he could drop me off whenever you get done," Ale said, all in one breath.
She tried to read Eliot's reaction, but she couldn't—she might as well have been talking to a brick wall.
"I guess that would be fine," he sighed, pulling up to Nate's. "I'll call and ask. But don't get your hopes up."
"I won't," Ale promised, smiling to herself. She ran upstairs to the team, Sophie nodding at her when she walked in the door. Ale nodding back, Sophie smiling.
Sophie was so happy that Eliot was letting Ale go off with Quinn. Sure, he didn't really know that she was going to be dating him while she was gone but he was still accepting of the fact that Ale wasn't going to be right there with him 24/7.
It was refreshing.
Eliot was hesitant in calling Quinn. He could have just told Ale that he said no, and that would have been so much easier. If she was in his sights, she was in his protection.
It was the right way to do things.
Still, he was taking what Sophie had said to him into consideration…Ale had to have her own life—at least two days out of the week.
Quinn was also nervous to talk to Eliot, not wanting to sound too eager to be with Ale. At the same time, he didn't want to seem too angry about the job or he would stop asking. It was a fine, fine line that he was walking, and he was worried he was going to fall right off of the edge.
And Nate, well Nate was still trying to figure out a way to make Ale a part of the team. She was distancing herself from them, which he knew was good in a way, but he also knew that both the team and Ale needed each other like fire needs oxygen. He could see that Eliot was treating Ale like a job, and he knew why Eliot was treating her like that, but he needed to find some way to make it stop.
He needed to get Ale and Eliot together. He didn't like dealing with the romantic lives of those he dealed with—he didn't even like getting in the middle of his own romantic issues—but he did need to make the team more cohesive. It was the only way that things would work.
Later that night he told Sophie about his thoughts over dinner, and Sophie simply laughed. She promised Nate that she already had it figured out, and that, considering he was supposed to be the master mind of the group, he really, really needed to get himself together.
That Tuesday Eliot dropped Ale off at Quinn's, him walking her into the building and making sure Quinn was standing directly next to her before leaving.
"He was, um, a little nervous about today," Ale smiled, Quinn laughing.
"I could tell. So, I am sure that you have plans for today. But if it works out, I have some plans, too. For us," Quinn smiled.
Ale winced, upset with herself for not even thinking Quinn would have planned anything. She had the next four weeks booked between the studio and the hospital.
"But I also kind of figured that you would get excited and fill up our schedule, so the plans can be used whenever you don't have something planned."
"You are the best," Ale smiled, giving Quinn a kiss. "I just have to change and then we can go."
Quinn wouldn't have cared if Ale had every day planned for five years…he would have followed her anywhere, for as long as she wanted.