"You know a lot of things Nate," Eliot said to the mastermind as he futilely tried to shoot three glasses turned upside-down with his father's gun. The ping echoed about the room. "You don't know how this is gonna change ya."

"You handled it," Nate replied without looking at the hitter.

"Well you have no idea who I was before all of this... started. And that guy, kid, he had God in his heart he had a flag on his shoulder. Clean hands," he stuttered and Nate slowly turned to face him. "And I ain't seen him in the mirror in over ten years. And believe me, I get up every morning looking for him. So you can trust me when I tell you that pull that trigger and two men die. The guy you kill, and the guy you used to be."

Nate stood silent as the man walked off.

"But you still did it!" Nate yelled. "You still did what you did because you had to," he said, trying to find a way to justify his actions.

"I did what I did because I was a stupid kid and because I had to protect my family," Eliot yelled tapping his chest and turning back to face the mastermind. "You ain't protecting anyone here Nate. You're just out for revenge. You've got tunnel vision and you're puttin' people at risk. You're puttin' Abby at risk!"

"You're telling me that he doesn't deserve it? After what he did? He went after her too," he exclaimed as though the hitter had forgotten.

"I'm telling you, it's not worth it! You're right, he did go after Abigail, but I'm not stupid enough to screw everything up for revenge!" His voice grew husky as he yelled.

"So you wouldn't kill Moreau if you had the chance?" He was trying to push Eliot's buttons; push them for the answer he wanted and the hitter knew it.

"You know Nate, I ain't your daddy, I ain't gonna tell you what to do," his voice was tight, low and deceptively calm. He refused to answer Nate's last question; he refused to be manipulated by him. "And I don't have to defend my actions to you. But you have no idea what this will do to you and you go down that line, I won't follow you. We will be gone."

It was not a hollow threat, something which the mastermind knew, but still as Eliot turned and strode aggressively away Nate spun back around to his bottles, raised his father's gun and fired with perfect accuracy, the thought of revenge still firmly placed in his mind, despite what he knew he had to lose.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eliot stared at the gun Quinn and thrown him for a moment, examining the weight of it and what it could do before he finally cocked the weapon. Sophie looked at him with sense of horror that, to Eliot, was foreign on her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice shaking in shock. "What are you doing?" she said again, this time more firmly, regaining her composure

"I'm thinking about saving my friend some trouble," he said, his hand shaking. It had been a long time since he'd killed someone like this; point blank and not out of necessity. And he was considering it, seriously considering it. Nate was already bad enough already, he didn't need this extra burden, Eliot didn't need to deal with Nate's extra burdens. The hitter on the other hand, he already carried that weight around with him. What was one more?

"Eliot what's going on?" Abby asked through the comms, knowing only partially what was happening outside of the cave.

Her voice made him come to his senses and, still staring cruelly into Dubenich's fear filled eyes, he unloaded the gun.

Too many, that's what one more was.

"Next time give me the gun," Quinn stated as they walked away from Dubenich. "I'm your Huckleberry." The phrase was an olive branch of sorts; every hitter had experienced that horror in themselves and every hitter knew that distraction was the preferred remedy.

"Here," Eliot said, handing him the weapon and proceeding to fiddle with the necklace Abby had given him as child, which swung from his neck.

"Little late now," he replied.

"I love that movie," Eliot stated, by way of distraction.

"Who the hell doesn't?" he quipped and Eliot smiled but, truthfully, his mind was somewhere else.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Abby was lying on her cot in the corner of the cave when Eliot returned after the debarkle at the airport. She had heard through the grapevine what had happened and it scared her.

The hitter paced around for a few minutes before he finally decided to go talk to her. "Shove," he said as he tapped her feet and she shifted into a sitting position.

"So," she said.

"How much did you hear today?"

She didn't reply.

"So a lot huh? Look Abs I've done a lot of bad things..."

"I don't care," she said softly.

"What?" he asked in surprise.

"I don't care what you did DyaDya, I care what you do. And I don't like what you were going to do today."

"Neither do I, but sometimes..."

"But this wasn't a sometime. This wasn't self-defence or Alec in danger like that job with the College or with the funeral home, this was cold-blooded and you know it. What ever happened to not making the last deadly move?" she asked as she stood up and walked away.

Eliot stood up to follow her but Sophie, who had been hovering in the corner, stopped him.

"Give her some time Eliot," she offered softly.

"But-" he blabbered,

"No, what you nearly did shocked all of us today and we're all seasoned criminals. Abby's just a kid. Give her some time to process it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Abby punched the heavy bag which Eliot had brought down in one of the smaller caves off from the main one.

And again. And again. Trying to let all her frustrations out.

"Make sure you use your shoulder," Quinn offered, observing from the sidelines.

"What the hell do you want?" She threw another punch at the bag.

"Came here to use the bag."

"Didn't you knock two guys out like half an hour ago," she said as she threw another punch, wondering why he needed the practice.

"Exactly," he stated as though it made perfect sense and began to move forwards. "He wasn't going to do it you know Junior."

"Please don't call me that, Harlequin," she quipped; if he'd given her an annoying nickname, he was going to get one too. Actually, he was going to get more than just a nickname.

She threw another punch, this time at Quinn. He blocked easily then gripped the bag, making it easier for her to throw the aggressive punches

He nodded at her to continue and she threw a sequence of heavy punches into bag. Quinn grunted as he kept the bag steady.

"And do what?" she huffed as she paused, returning to his original question.

"You know what I mean. He wasn't going to kill Dubenich."

"'Cause you know Eliot so well," she replied sarcastically and she punched again.

"Cause I saw him three years ago; he was brutal, angry. I fought him and he was very prepared to kill me."

"I wonder why," she muttered under her breath as she threw another set of punches. Quinn raised is brow in annoyance.

"Anyway," he continued, ignoring the dig, "that's not the same person I saw today. He hesitated."

"So?"

"So your uncle has changed," he said shoving the bag forward and stepping away. "He's not the same person and he's making better choices because of it." She couldn't help notice a sense of longing in his voice. "You, well, you're just a kid; you need to trust him to make those right choices."

He walked off slowly leaving Abby standing alone in the darkness of the cave. Furiously, she turned around and threw a punch at the bag.

"What do you know?" she yelled back out into the darkness.

"You're angry," Quinn replied matter of factly, turning back around. He spoke clearly with firsthand knowledge. "But don't be angry with him for making the right choice, even if he considered the wrong one for just a second. Life's too short for that."

She stood in silence, contemplating. She didn't like the idea of people killing other people, not when she had experienced the hurt that came with the death of a loved one. She didn't like the idea of her uncle killing other people. She wasn't naive though, she was aware of her uncle's reputation. But that was just it; that was who Eliot had used to be and today that man had shown up again, a thought which frightened her. She'd more or less seen it with Alec and the CIA interrogator but that had been different, a life had been saved and this had just been… vengeful.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

dsnygal- That's exactly what I was going for! Thanks

Chapter title plagiarised from a Rogue Wave song.

'Will I follow you down the line?

Will I follow you down the line?...

We've been suffering the six days since he died'

I thought it was fitting

Much Love,

A Lyrical Dreamer