75 Godiva, Sunday evening

[vdistinctive]

There wasn't anything quantifiable that Eliot could nail down, but he could tell when Fandom managed to shake off its latest evil invasion. It was like an enormous, evil weight had been lifted from the world.

It was an enormous relief, but mostly Eliot kind of wanted to take a nap. Again. Apparently freaking out as hard as he had took a lot out of a person, more than sleeping a good 10 hours straight thanks to the medication Hardison had dug up.

"Right," he said. "So . . . what. We should be good through, like, March now, right?"

[ooc: for the family, especially, but can also be open!]

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[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison sighed and looked away. "I met the other me from the world she's from," he said quietly. "It's why Eliot was the way he was yesterday. Clingin' to the fact that that wasn't me, wasn't us is the best I got sometimes."

[tigerundercover]

"What happened?" Raven asked. "I mean, if you can talk about it? I'm mostly just really confused here."

There was another Kathy who was an idiot and another Raven who was evil, and people freaking the fuck out.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Me'n Parker, we turned into what they called hollows over there," he said. "Wild, feral things. Hunted...people. Mostly Eliot. He was like her." He nodded to Kathy with his chin. "Less perky. Grizzled old murder-hobo who only remembered that he had to kill the two of 'em. The thing they got, it takes an' takes an' takes till there ain't nothin' left an' then once you're empty, it turns you into a monster. Pretty sure the only thing that kept him goin' was feelin' responsible for takin' us out."

He paused. Swallowed hard.

"They're all dead over there. He killed that Hardison. That Parker killed him; he died in my arms. Our Parker killed her."

[tigerundercover]

"Holy shit." Raven bit her lip. "Is that what the other me is? One of these . . . hollows?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I don't...I don't think so, little mama," Hardison said reluctantly. "She was a lot more there than either Eliot or Kathy was. The other me'n Parker, they couldn't even talk. That girl, she could talk, think, shift. I think she'd somethin' different."

[tigerundercover]

"So . . . what?" Raven asked. "She was still all me?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"She was able to do a decent impersonation," Hardison said. "But she was colder 'n harder'n you. There was somethin' off about her, no matter how she pretended. Committed to watchin' the world burn. So, nah, wasn't you. Just better at pretendin'."

[tigerundercover]

Raven wasn't so sure about that. "She must've been really angry."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Or maybe hopeless," Hardison offered. "There are lots of reasons someone might decide it's best to just stop, whether they decide to take anyone with 'em or not." He watched her, eyes full of compassion and understanding.

[tigerundercover]

"Have you ever felt that way?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah," Hardison said with a sigh. "It ain't really somethin' I'm proud of, but yeah. I been there. Been while. Right before I joined Leverage, actually. Nate caught me at the end of my 'I don't care 'bout nothin'' tailspin."

[tigerundercover]

"What'd you burn?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Myself mostly," Hardison said. "Some folks who weren't really the friends I thought they were."

Beat.

"My dad."

This was a story the crew didn't even know.

[tigerundercover]

"Oh." Raven frowned. "I guess I always assumed you didn't know your parents."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I don't, not really," Hardison said quietly. "My mom went to jail when I was still a toddler, an' I never met my dad till I tracked him down my junior year of high school." He gave a soft laugh, but there was no humor in it. "Right around Christmas, in fact. Kinda had it in my head that it would be a Hallmark holiday special thing, I guess."

[tigerundercover]

"Oh god. And it was more 'morning talk show for terrible people'?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"More like one of them Lifetime specials about the inner city that white ladies like to cry over," Hardison said, with a little more bitterness than Raven had likely ever heard from him.

[tigerundercover]

Raven winced sympathetically. "Gross."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"It wasn't a good scene," Hardison agreed. "Wasn't one to begin with, an' I didn't make it better by showin' up with all these expectations. An' when I left, I left thinkin' that if he ain't want me, that was fine, I ain't want him, either...an' over some time, I'd show him what it felt like to be alone an' unwanted."

He coughed and looked away. "Like I said, ain't too proud of this. Don't talk about it much."

[tigerundercover]

Raven leaned in to give Hardison a hug. It was about waist level, because she was still sized like a ten year old, but she figured the thought counted. "I get it. I don't even know what I'd do if I ever found out who my parents were."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"An' I can't say I'd be there tryna keep you on the side of angels if you did find 'em," Hardison said. He didn't volunteer to go digging, either. "I'd try to keep you from doin' somethin' you'd regret, but...some folks just ain't worth the name. An' if that's true of them..." He shrugged. "I'd get it."

[tigerundercover]

"Is it okay if I ask what you did?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Another time?" Hardison asked. Rather than giving her the brush-off, he looked like he was pleading with her to understand. "It ain't somethin' I like to think about an' with everythin's that's been goin' on this weekend..."

[tigerundercover]

Raven nodded. "Yeah. I getcha. Sometime when there's nothing but happy things going on otherwise."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Or at least when we ain't, like, twelve hours out from a meltdown, you know?" He wrapped his arms around Raven, smiling at how small she was. "How'd I luck out in gettin' you as my TA, huh?"