75 Godiva Street, Monday morning

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't sleep nearly as much as Parker and Hardison did, so he was pretty used to being up before they were, getting coffee ready and sorting through his fridge for what to make for breakfast. He'd've been perfectly happy to stay in bed and just stare at his partners and make sure they were still there, but whatever the aliens had been using to sustain them all over the week hadn't really been much more than minimal, and Eliot was pretty sure he wasn't the only one who'd be waking up today starving.

He may have stuck comms on everyone so he could still hear them the whole time, though.

It was weird being in his kitchen without Val sitting at his feet in her eternally frustrated hope for scraps (eternally frustrated from him, anyway, he was pretty sure she still did it because Hardison and Parker were sneaking her things), but Kathy had texted the night before to let him know that her little sister had been taking care of the puppy, and that Kathy was going to keep her in the dorms for one more night. Considering how much time he and the others had spent yesterday in constant physical contact, Eliot could guess why Kathy wanted to keep a nice, warm, happy puppy around for the night, so he didn't insist. He was used to getting shot at and nearly killed, after all, and what had happened in that sim --

Eliot's hand spasmed around his knife and he dropped in to the cutting board and stepped back, leaning his weight into his hands on the counter and just breathing through it as the image of Kathy silhouetted in the doorway ran through his head. He kept his head down a moment longer once the scene finished playing out in his memory, then straightened up, stretched his fingers, and got back to chopping.

He'd have to watch out for that for a little while.

[ooc: for those in the house and the one stopping by -- and anyone else who might decide to drop in and visit. Note: linked thread contains violence and simulated death.]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"You know, I might," Eliot said, standing again and going to check the cabinets. "Let me take a look. Grab a seat, would ya? I've just about got some food ready, too."

Welcome to the group of people who Eliot fussed over by feeding, Kathy. It was a small but very important club.

[spin_kick_snap]

And Kathy was quite happy to be in it. Especially since the Zin hadn't taken her insane metabolism into account when setting up her feeding schedule and her clothes were a little looser than they should have been.

"Thanks," she said, sliding into a chair at the table. Val immediately came over and sat by her feet. "Don't even pretend with me," she scolded lightly. "I was the one who fed you this morning."

Because of course she had some of Val's special food left over! Kathy believed in being prepared. "She's been fed and walked and brushed today," she rattled off to Eliot, because there was a big spaceship-shaped elephant in the room she was carefully avoiding. "Don't let her convince you otherwise."

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"Don't worry, I won't." He totally would. Just for today. Eliot was going to be a lot of coddling today. "Thanks for lookin' after her. And make sure you thank your -- little sister? -- too. I didn't think your sister went to school here."

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"My school-assigned sister, Lottie," Kathy clarified. "Not my actual little sister, Sarah. You'll probably meet her over Parent's Weekend."

If her parents let her come after the debacle that was last year. Kathy hoped so. Of her entire family, she missed Sarah most of all.

"She's actually a freshman this year. I keep wondering if I should convince her to come to school out here. Though I'm not sure if our parents could afford the tuition for both of us." She sighed, following the grain of the wood of the table with a finger. "And do I really want to bring Sarah somewhere she might get kidnapped by aliens?"

[vdistinctive]

"You know, I didn't tell Hardison or Parker about this place for a really long time, partially for that reason." Well, at first because he was trying to run away from being attracted to them, let's be totally honest. But once he saw what really went down around here, there was a lot of protectiveness involved, too. "And, well. You've seen how that turned out."

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"How do you deal with it?" Kathy asked abruptly, looking up at him. "How do you handle them being in danger and maybe watching--watching them get hurt?"

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Not well.

"It ain't easy." Eliot brought over with a tea cup and a wooden box of assorted tea bags -- no Korean teas, unfortunately, but a variety of Japanese and some nice French blends. "Though they're usually the ones havin' to watch me do it. Parker gets clingy. Hardison yells." He turned back to the counter, piled a plate with protein and carbohydrates, and put it down in front of Kathy. "I feed people."

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Kathy looked down at her plate and then up at him. "Oh," she said softly.

Then, "Are you mad at me?" She couldn't look him in the eye when she asked.

[vdistinctive]

"You mean for that damn stupid move you pulled?" Eliot asked. "No. I ain't mad. I honestly probably woulda done the same thing, when I was your age. Only stupider, 'cause I'da had even less experience." He sighed and moved to get the kettle and another cup, then came back over to the table. "Actually, I was plannin' to apologize to you."

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"I didn't mean to make you see that," Kathy said, pushing her potatoes around. And then looked up at him, startled. The idea of an adult apologizing to her was still surprising. "To me? For what? The whiskey? That wasn't really your fault."

Sure, he'd handed it to her, but he hadn't made her guzzle it down.

[vdistinctive]

"For all of it." Eliot focussed on the tea for a few moments, rinsing his cup in the hot water and carefully measuring out the milk. The whole tea ritual thing went a lot better with loose tea instead of bags, but he could make due. "It was pretty clear that sim was built -- that it was set up for me, for my nightmares. Hell, Swearengen even said it, after --"

The sugar jar needed refilling. And anyway honey would be better with the green tea. He started to get up to get the jar, then made himself sit back down. Fidgeting wasn't going to help.

"You never woulda had to face that shit if it weren't for me. Is what I'm sayin'."

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"Oh," Kathy said again. She wondered what the other two sims said about her, especially the one had been taken straight out of Korean history. Had that been set up for her, specifically? It had been weird, but not particularly nightmarish...

"I might not have ended up there, specifically, but I would have ended up somewhere else," she said after a few moments of though. "And I might still have ended up just as dead, only without a friend there to share it with me. I mean, it was still a horrible fuckin sim--" her lips quirked "--but I wasn't alone. And that meant a lot more to me."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot smirked faintly at the word choice. "Suppose that's true," he allowed. "Still. I'm sorry that happened to you. The bullets in there didn't hurt like they ought to, but it can't have been pleasant."

Hell, the one he'd taken hadn't hurt at all. It'd just been a blaze of light and sound, and his head had been knocked back -- and then he'd been in the street near Parker and everything had been better.

"And anyway. The longer a body can go without findin' themselves witness to a war like that, the better."

[spin_kick_snap]

Whereas Kathy had woken up alone again. She's ended up in a cheerful little world, where she had been super-tiny and pushed a ball around collecting random things, like crabs and swans and fish, but as happy and colorful as the world was, she'd still been alone.

Huh. Maybe that one had been her nightmare, all alone but ostensibly happy with a father-figure that was forever expecting her to do better?

"At least you don't have to worry about me becoming enamored with guns?" Kathy said, cutting into her breakfast steak. Oooh, medium rare, perfect. "Between that and digging the bullet out of Gorgon's shoulder, I think I'm happier never seeing a gun again."

Except for her laser pistol. But, in fairness, that was more for its inherent scifi coolness than any desire to actually use it.

"What happened to you to get you home?" she asked.

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"I goaded the town asshole into shooting me in the head." He possibly could have done at least a little more to sugarcoat that.

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"You're gonna have to be a hair more specific than that, Spencer," Kathy drawled. "A sorrier collection of cocksuckers I ain't never seen in my whole life."

Dammit, Eliot! She was trying to not speak Deadwood!

[vdistinctive]

"Don't you get me started again. I call Hardison a cocksucker one more time and he might disown me." Eliot shook his head. "Battle went about how you'd expect, when you're pittin' arrows against bullets." Eliot's voice went soft and his tone flattened, as though he was reading from a textbook. "A few white casualties. Natives wiped out. We were out on the edge of camp takin' care of the bodies, and I was keepin' vigil over the burial."

He paused and took a sip of his tea, and reminded himself that this wasn't an interrogation. That he was supposed to feel it.

"Honestly the two bodies didn't even really look like my crew. Not more'n superficially. But they were close enough after everything else. I snapped, took down everyone at the site. Swearengen started in on some villain speech shit. And -- I needed out. Punching wasn't doin' it. You'd vanished after getting shot, but I can't say I was really thinking much about that. Just that things had to change. So I let Swearengen shoot me. And it worked."

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"Eliot!" Kathy's fork clattered to her half-empty plate. "Oh my gosh, are you all right?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. "I'm fine. Was the moment I saw everyone came out alright." That wasn't entirely true, but it was close enough for Eliot's purposes.

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Kathy's expression was dubious. "So, you're just...okay with getting shot? In the face? Because when you stopped being shot, everyone else was okay?"

[vdistinctive]

"Ain't the first time I've been shot," Eliot said. "Honestly, bein' forced to play Russian Roulette was much harder to deal with."

[spin_kick_snap]

And yet was still a better way to spend time than Sophie's old performances.

"Oh." She got a lot of mileage out of that word. "That's not a life experience I've ever had."

Maybe that's why it was still bugging her?

"But radio makes it sound like you got a happy ending out of the deal," she said. "Congratulations."

Beat.

"Err...not that kind of happy--never mind." Oh look, more breakfast!

[vdistinctive]

"That's a good thing, sweetheart. If I have anything to say about it, that'll never be one of your life experiences. What the hell are those squirrels reportin' about me now?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"That you told Hardison that you loved him," Kathy said. "And I'm guessing that's true for Parker, too?"

Because she couldn't see him saying it to one not the other.

[vdistinctive]

"Freakin' squirrels," Eliot grumbled. "Damn right it is. Parker got it earlier, when we were still in the sim. After what I saw -- didn't make sense not to say it anymore."