vdistinctive | 75 Godiva Street, Sunday evening

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75 Godiva Street, Sunday evening

Eliot wasn't sure who had first started using the term for the occasions when the whole team got together for a friendly meal, instead of eating during a meeting for a job, but somewhere along the lines, "family dinner" had become official. With Nate and Sophie on the island, that was just what the team was doing now, with Eliot putting the finishing touches on his spaghetti sauce (one of the few dishes they all could agree on), Hardison and Parker grabbing dishes and napkins to set the table, and Val skipping about excitedly underfoot, all of them moving easily in and around each other with the ease of long practice.

Nate stood in the doorway with a beer and watched the process with a small smile.

"I take it Hardison bought your home out from under you, too?" he asked when he managed a moment with Eliot alone. The look on Eliot's face wasn't entirely quantifiable. It contained rather a lot of fond amusement, though.

"Sure," he said. "Somethin' like that.

[ooc: for the teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam!]

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"She has your eyes!" Oh, what a little heart-breaker she'd be. Sophie tilted her head. "What did you name her?" And a bit of curiosity on that 'not a niece' comment. "And how so?"

"She gave us at least four different first names before I finally worked out that her father calls her Joey. By the end of the weekend I finally dragged her full name out of her." Eliot kept an eye on Sophie's expression out of the corner of his eye. "Miriam Josephina. Devereaux-Spencer."

"Miranda-- ack." My, what big eyes you have, Sophie. "What?" And another look at that photo, in time to realize: "She really is an extraordinarily attractive child..."

"Miriam Josephina Devereaux-Spencer," Eliot said again, grinning. "And of course she is. That's what happens when you've got such pretty parents."

"But how on Earth did that happen!?" Sophie burst out with, then lowered her voice so as not to draw Nate's attention. "And don't say the usual way, I'd rather not have that particular train of thought in my head."

Eliot shrugged. "Gather there's a world out there where you got tired of waitin' for Nate to get his act together."

"I'm... overwhelmed." Sophie traced the edges of Josie's face in the photo with the tip of one fingernail. "What was she like?" And after a pause, "Was she happy?" Safe? Smart?

"She was amazing," Eliot said, clearly very fond. "Swapped accents like breathin'. Confident and strong, and I gather has her daddy wrapped pretty firmly around her finger."

Sophie laughed softly. "Like that's any surprise." She shot him an amused glance, some of her confusion settling down. "A child. I can't imagine it. I've never planned that, expected it." She was quiet. "What did she say about us?"

"Not a lot. She spent most of the weekend thick as thieves with the other two who showed up -- none of 'em from the same world, mind you. But she knew about a couple of the jobs we've pulled, and she absolutely couldn't fathom you endin' up with 'Uncle Nate'." Eliot flipped to a shot of the three kids in their triumph at Chilly Boulder. "Near as I could tell her versions of us were still together. Can't say as I ever put much thought into it myself, what with you and Nate doin' your dance and all, but I could see it, I suppose."

"Well. If things had gone differently, six years ago, maybe...." It wasn't like Eliot hadn't been attractive; she'd just still been mesmerized by Nate. But if Nate had been worse off, if he'd drunk more, if he hadn't forgiven her for the mess of the second David job-- who knew? "At least the crew is intact, then, if she still knows Nate, even as her 'uncle', not something else." She tilted her head and studied the photo of three smug young faces wearing ice cream shop visors. "They do look very, very pleased with themselves there."

Eliot grinned. "The manager was an embezzler. The three of 'em had just 'liberated' the store from him. Pretty sure he was tied up in the freezer when this was taken." He pointed to the young hispanic boy. "Spike there handled the thievin'. Joey was the grifter and the muscle, of course. And Gracie here was the mastermind and tech genius. They'd sorted themselves out as a team by about an hour after they met."

"Yo, you gonna tell her about Gracie's parentage?" Hardison asked from behind his laptop.

"Are you gonna answer her inevitable logistical questions?"

"Of course," Hardison said.

"...Course, I'm plannin' mostly on lyin', so..."

Sophie watched this like a ping-pong match. "Is anyone going to tell me?"

Eliot sighed. "She's Hardison's, of course. And -- mine."

"We're pretty sure Eliot carried her," Hardison said merrily. "With them hips, he's the obvious choice."

"Man, you already said you were gonna lie."

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"Well. Not a huge surprise. It only took one job for you and Hardison and Parker to bond, even if you all played it off as temporary for months after that." Sophie bit her lip, looking down at Joey again. A tiny grifter with muscle; accents and beauty and ... well. If she was working for the good, then she was far ahead of her mother at that age. "I wish I could have met her. Although perhaps I should be glad. That good-bye must have been difficult."

"It was . . . rough." Eliot shrugged, not wanting to think about it too hard. "Almost as rough as their arrival. It was literally the mornin' after the three of us hooked up. Apparently Fandom thinks the day after prom is the perfect time to throw kids at you."

Sophie gave a hoot of laughter before she put her hand over her mouth, reining it in to something more controlled. "Well, I can see the point with the students, but with you three--" Really, Fandom Island. Were you trying to scare them back to separate bedrooms? "I hope that didn't ruin your afterglow too much."

"Hardison had to drag me out onto the fire escape and yell at me for scarin' 'em," Eliot confessed. "I ain't even ever thought about havin' kids. And then suddenly there's two little girls callin' me 'daddy' before I've even got my damn pants on."

"Oh, Eliot." Sophie could just imagine the chin-wobbling that any daughter or niece of hers would inflict on him. "I find it hard to believe you've never considered it. You're wonderful with children. And teenagers." Sophie shook her head. "Although I can't say that anyone I know would deal well with that situation, really."

Eliot shook his head. "I only just got it through my head that I might live to see forty. And I'm thirty-nine. I wasn't gonna have a kid just to die on it."