SquidgeWorld Archive

It was bad this time, Eliot wasn't going to be able to drive; even if it was only an hour and a half. A groan, closer to a whimper escaped his chapped lips; he looked down at his mangled left leg. He needed a hospital, but more importantly he needed help because he couldn't use the ID in his wallet. Fishing his phone from his pocket which damn it it was in the left pocket and fuck, his leg was bad. One number repeated over and over again in his head. And before he could stop it he was already dialing and pushing send.

"Hey," Alec's sleepy, smiling voice came over the connection.

He shouldn't have called Alec; he should called Nate, Sophie, hell ever Parker before he called Alec. He was going to fret and sigh, give him those eyes that said, 'Stop doing this,' and Eliot wasn't sure how much longer he could ignore the, 'To me.'

"Hey," He clears his throat because growling isn't going to calm Alec's nerves when he tells him he's hurt bad. "I need you to come and get me."

"What's wrong?" Eliot hears the rustling of sheets and feet already padding across the floor and for a moment he's amazed because getting Alec of bed is hard. "Where are you? Never mind, I've got the GPS on your truck." Another time and place and Eliot would have been paranoid to know that no matter where he was or what he was doing the other man would know. Now, now Eliot can only thank God that Alec can do anything with a phone and the right wi-fi. "How bad are you hurt?"

"Slow down Darlin'." Alec hates the nickname, says it's because he isn't a girl, but Eliot knows that deep down whenever he calls the younger man that Alec melts. "Why don't you---" He drifts for a moment and realizes that he's lost a bit more blood than he thought. "You just get here first."

"Okay," Alec's end goes dead and Eliot can only look at it a moment. Alec knew that Eliot wouldn't want to stay on the phone listening to him worry but he can't help but wish that for once Alec didn't know him so well. Because right now all Eliot wants is to listen to Alec's voice. He needed that babbling non-sense, he'd listen to Alec explain building his first computer, in detail.

Eliot checks his make shift dressing, he's stopped the bleeding as much as he can with the little that he has. He ripped the hem of his shirt and he curses that he didn't have the energy to actually get in his truck, but he was already at the back of it when he approached and his mind was focusing on not passing out at the time. He's going to be passed out when Alec gets here; he knows it because his head swims again, vision going a bit crossed eyed. Eliot hoped that Alec called someone, and even though she would have been last on his list he knows that Parker is probably the best choice. Nate was worth a damn most days, Sophie would have mother hen until Eliot tried to break her neck. Parker was going to be all crazy-eyes and devious smirks but she would keep Alec focused, keep him grounded so that he didn't completely freak out.

One of Eliot's last coherent thoughts was that Alec was never going to let him leave for a side job again, and Eliot well, might actually agree this time.

The first person Alec called was Nate because it seemed like the logically thing to do, but all he'd gotten was a mumbling answer before a dial tone. The next person was Parker; Sophie got passed up because Alec was already doing enough worrying for everyone and they did not need someone else worrying. It was only when Parker answered with, "Will kill three in the morning, better be dying."

Alec refrains from saying someone might be because partly it made a hysterically something bubble in his throat and the other was that Alec was trying to be the only one worrying. "I need your help Parker."

Parker doesn't ask questions, "Be here in ten." Parker's waiting outside when he shows up six minutes later. Some where in the back of his mind he's already hacking into the DMV and erasing the five red light tickets he's going to get.

"What's going on?" She jumps in the car and her eyes automatically scan the backseat and when she looks at him there's concern behind the crazy.

"Eliot called, he needs a hospital." Alec kept it short, he doesn't want to give too much away. Like how he was practically shaking with fear, or the fact that it felt like he was going to puke at any minute.

"Got ID's?" How is he hurt?"

Alec nods his head for the first question, keeping to himself that he had to go back for them because he forgot them the first time. "I don't know how he's hurt or how b-bad." He cursed himself when his voice cracked.

Parker grasped his shoulder and it isn't creepy or weird; it's actually comforting. "I'm sure that he isn't dying." Parker smiled manically, but Alec's pretty sure she's trying. "He was able to call, wasn't he?" Her comforting hand makes up for her lackluster words.

"You're right." He mumbles and then keeps quiet because Alec doesn't need his voice betraying him anymore. Alec presses a little harder on the gas peddle every once in a while; his mind drifting to what Eliot's doing. Is he awake, is he passes out? How did he get hurt, where is he hurt? Can Alec go back and kill who ever hurt him... That thought scares him because Alec has never in his whole life wanted to inflict malicious harm to someone, but he would. For Eliot he'd do just about anything. It isn't until Parker lets out a gleeful sigh that Alec realizes that their doing a buck ten down the interstate. He slows down but not by much, he likes how fast the mile markers go by.

Alec doesn't let himself really take a breath until he's on the same street as Eliot, but even then it's only little shallow breathes that barely make it to his lungs. Or at least that's what it feels like. He isn't going to breath again until he had Eliot in his arms and he knew what was wrong with him. He makes a promise to himself right then that he is never going to let Eliot do one of these fucking side jobs again. If Eliot even thought the words side and job together Alec's going to lose it. He'll figure out how he'll know what Eliot's thinking later. Because this is never happening again. Next time Eliot gets hurt, God-freaking-forbid he's going to be right there to scoop him up and take him to safety. Hysterical thoughts are starting to form; such as how he'll have to beef up to do that, because the last time he tried to lift Eliot up he got laughed at for his troubles.

"Hardison." Parker's voice snaps him out of his thoughts and cuts the panicked laugh that was bubbling inside him. "There's his truck."

Eliot's truck is parked in an alley and it's a wonder that the cops haven't stopped yet because it looks suspicious all tucked away like that. Alec comes to a stop and has his seat belt off and the door open and forgets to put the car in park as he scrambled to get out. Parker slams the gearshift at the same time as she slips easily into the driver's seat. The smiling playing at her lips ghosted by the worry starting to show in her eyes. Eliot's not in the cab and Alec's heart skipped a beat when he saw him passed out in the truck bed. For a terrifying moment he felt like he was going to scream when he saw Eliot's left leg bloodied and mangled. Eliot cut his pant leg all the way up to the top of his thigh. The pool of blood around his leg is black in the dim light, from under misshapen bandages Alec could see two chucks were missing from his calf and eight inches thick of t-shirt wrapped around his thigh just starting to seep with blood. Eliot's foot was angled all wrong, while his leg rested normally the knee facing skyward, the inside of his left foot was resting against the truck bed. Bile rose in Alec's throat and he had to choke it back down, not wanting to vomit.

"Get something to wrap around his leg." Parker pushed him back towards his car before climbing into the truck. "Eliot it's Parker." She said quietly as she pushed her pointer and middle finger to his neck. Anything else she said was drowned out by the ringing in his ears, what if he didn't have a pulse.

As Alec stumbled back to his car his mind couldn't shake the image of Eliot's leg. He found a blanket and then hurried back because he didn't want to be away from Eliot anymore now that he was finally near him. Relief flooded his body and he took several deep breathes when he saw Eliot's open eyes. They were blood-shot, bleary and confused but damn it he could open his eyes.

"Alec." Weak, relieved and fucking alive his voice cut through the panicked fog his brain had been in since Eliot had first said, 'come get me.' He jumped into the truck and any other day he would have been all toothy grin and "Did you see that?" after the way he practically lifted himself right into the bed of the truck with only one hand braced on the side.

"Hey El," He said softly brushing a wayward lock of hair behind Eliot's ear.

"Sorry."

"N-nothing to be sorry about." Alec smiled weakly and Eliot's chin dropped back down on his chest.

Parker's hand landed on his shoulder, "We've got to get him to a hospital." It was then and only then did Alec realize that Parker hadn't even used the blanket he brought her and he started to suspect that she had just needed him to get away from the truck. Or she knew the he had needed to get away from the truck. "You drive his truck."

"What no way. I'm not leaving him." Alec protested his eyes not leaving Eliot's form.

Parker sighed and Alec was momentarily pissed by how well she was handling all of this. "You can barely look away---Hardison!" Alec's eyes snapped to Parker's. "See what I mean? You can barely look away from him. Help me get him in your car." Alec could only nod dumbly as he realized how right she was.

Parker dropped the tailgate and then took Eliot's right side; a second passed and Alec was going to ask her to take the damaged side but he realized how stupid that would be since Alec was taller and had a better chance of not messing it up more. It took careful maneuvering and every whimper that passed Eliot's lips when his leg was jostled cut Alec to his core. Finally they had him out of the truck and in Alec's car and he did not want to leave him.

"Go Hardison." Parker had to push him back towards the truck.

It was the first time since he'd gotten the call from Eliot that it crossed his mind and now he had less than fifteen minutes to figure it out. What the hell did he tell the hospital?

The first time Eliot wakes up it's to hands touching him that are not Alec's and the last thing he remembers, even if it's fuzzy and part of him isn't completely sure it wasn't a dream, was Alec being with him. So he tries to attack but his whole body is numb and he can't move his arms.

"Mister Jones remain calm, you are at the hospital. You're going to be fine."

Jones, Jones. Eliot prided himself on knowing all of his aliases so he never got mixed up but it wasn't---and then it was because it was Davey Jones. A bored night at home with Alec showing him photoshop, again, and showing him how he created aliases and that boring computer stuff he didn't really care about. Alec did though, so he had listened and picked outrageous names from him to create identities for. Eliot also thinks about how frantic Alec must have been to have grabbed that ID, but he's already starting to drift back out. As his brain goes muddled he remembers Alec's watery smile and holds onto that.

The second time he wakes up his body isn't as numb. He can move his arms if he wanted to but he can't feel his left leg at all and until his hand brushes his thigh and he opens one eye a slit to see his heavily cased foot he'd been slowly moving to panic. There's voices in his room and that tells him he's under a bit more sedation then he'd like; since that wasn't the first thing he noticed.

He recognizes Parker's voice and she sounds exasperated. "I already told you you should be telling H-Jack these things."

Eliot opens his eyes a slither again and almost cracks a smile before thinking darkly that they should have thrown those damned things away. If Alec grabbed the Jack Sparrow ID then he really had been frantic and he doesn't want to think of Alec worried and crazed. The smile in the first place had been for Parker; who looked uncomfortable and still crazy even the doctor, who with one glance Eliot can tell doesn't normally intimidate easily, looked about ready to leave the room.

"Davey and Jack are---are lovers." Parker has to try really hard not to laugh and it would have probably been that uncomfortable, "Ha!" laugh she had sometimes. "They only called me because of idiots---I mean doctors like you would have given them a hard time." A chuckle escapes and Parker turns that exasperated look on Eliot, "Thank god." She breathed.

"A-Jack, get Jack." He gets out ripping the oxygen mask off that he hadn't even noticed. Damn it they weren't giving him anymore painkillers.

"You're lover," The doctor was clearly uncomfortable, "Is in the waiting room."

Parker's eyes lit up at the growl Eliot let out. "I didn't ask where he was." The doctor shifted uncomfortably.

"See," What Parker thought was a friendly pat on the shoulder caused the man to jump and spin towards her. "Told you."

Apparently between the murderous look Eliot was now giving him and Parker's craziness the doctor was at his wit's end, because he turned on his heel and said he would send Jack in right away.

"You were attacked by a rabid dog while walking Hardison home from work tonight." Parker was next to him in her creepy didn't see her move way. "I don't think that was too far from the truth. You didn't kill them did you?" Parker actually pouted at the idea that Eliot had killed the two beast that attacked him. He hadn't, even Eliot felt a bit squeamish at the idea of breaking an animals neck. "Hardison is a mess."

Right then Alec walked into the room and relief flooded Eliot's body as it filled Alec's eyes. In three large steps Alec was at his bedside, he dropped his body down on Eliot's chest and just rested his head on Eliot's shoulder. Eliot's hand came to rest on the back of his neck and for several long moments they just stayed the way. Eliot looked at Parker over Alec's head and she was just watching them with amusement.

"So the doctors were able to graft skin onto the missing chucks or whatever something like that. Minimal scarring," She said brightly. "Well the cut on your leg, which by the way we said you got when you tried to follow Hardison over the fence that finally got you away from the wild dog, will need actually work done for it to be minimal. Your foot was fixed but your going to be---"

"Not my first rodeo Parker." It's not the fist time Eliot's broken his foot, been attacked by animals, or cut open his leg so close to the femoral artery that he'd actually been a little worried. The worry had come before the mass amount of blood loss as he had hobbled and hopped and broken his foot in two different places than the original break. After Eliot had only really worried about Alec and him getting to him before someone, like the cops, found him. His words affect Alec though and his hands that had just been resting on his body sudden flex and squeeze and Alec turned his head into the crook of Eliot's neck. "I-I know the drill. When can I get out of here."

"You lost a lot of blood." If it wasn't Parker Eliot would think she was trying avoid the question but Parker wasn't one for beating bushes. "Maybe tomorrow. I already tried." It unnerves him that she knew what he was thinking. "He isn't helping and it'll take all three of us to get you out of here."

"You need to be in the hospital." Alec muttered into his neck; simultaneously sending shivers down his back where his lips brushed over skin and making him sick with guilt. Alec's voice was rough and even though his eyes had been dry and only a bit blood-shot when he'd seen them Eliot knows that he's been crying.

"Yeah, okay." Eliot gets a good look around the hospital room, something he hadn't been too concerned with when he first woke up. Alec had been pretty much front and center in his mind, but also Parker had been there so the threat level was minimal. He'd long ago stop thinking of Parker as a threat, well not a dangerous threat, more just how crazy did her crazy run threat. When his eyes land on the closed blinds and he can see the sun is up outside he looked at Parker again. "What time is?"

"Almost three in the afternoon. You were out for a long time. Surgery took up like three hours so yeah." Parker fell into one of the two hospital chairs that were in the room.

Just mentioning how long he was out and surgery made Eliot realize that he'd been fighting off drifting back to sleep for a while now. His head feels heavy and right before he falls back into unconsciousness he asks. "It's still Sunday right?

"Yep!"

Mustering just enough awareness he tries to get Alec to move, "Darlin'," Completely ignores Parker's snort and squeal. "Go sit down 'm goin' t'sleep." All he gets in response is a light snore.

"Aw, he hasn't had a wink since you woke him up almost twelve hours ago. Poor baby." Parker stood and helped shift them into a more comfortable position where there was no threat of Alec hitting his injured leg. "Night guys, don't worry I'm not going any where and I doubt Doctor Idiot will be back any time soon."

When the doctor finally decided to grace Eliot's hospital room again both men were still sleeping and Parker was amusing herself with two pieces of string and their left ring fingers. She wondered idly for a moment while completely ignoring Dr Idiot if Nate would marry them when they were ready. A giggle erupted from her and she couldn't help laughing out loud when the doctor jumped. He 'hmm'd' and 'erm'd' at Eliot and Hardison being in the bed together but was smart enough this time to keep it to himself.

"Well Ms Parker if everything goes alright we should be able to release your brother tomorrow afternoon. Of course he'll have to speak to the police and animal control they've been waiting quite patiently; we're all quite worried about a rabid dog being on the loose." Parker chose to ignore him slightly nodding her head and smiling a little, but she gets great amusement out of watching him back out of the room.

"We're gonna have to get out of here." Her head snapped up and Eliot's looking at her with annoyed eyes, looking down Parker sees that she didn't take her home made rings off their fingers yet. "High expectations?" He waved the hand in the air but she doesn't miss how he looks at it again.

"Well, you're going to have to make an honest man out of him eventually." She quips enjoying the grin that pulls at Eliot's own lips.

"Maybe I like living in sin." Hardison sat up and moved to the edge of the bed his hand never leaving Eliot's. "So I guess I lose? We're gonna bust you out of here?" Hardison doesn't like the idea. Both of them can tell but he's also a smart man and Parker knows that he knows that talking to cops; not a good idea.

"Yep," Parker stood up. "You want to do this now, how you feeling?" It's eight o'clock and other than waiting until later the time is perfect. Parker's been paying attention and there's a shift change about to happen with the nurses. Thirty minutes was about their window and they should really take it now.

"I'm good." Eliot sat up and only let a small groan escape. "Don't look at me like that." He glared at Hardison who glared right back.

"Aw, that's cute but we gotta move." Parker stretched her hands above her head. "Their gonna go nuts when your machines start flat lining so be ready." Though she's pretty sure the nurses aren't going to be any where near where their supposed to be and if they are their room had already been deemed the "Weirdo's" room. Probably why they hadn't been harassed yet about how close it was getting to the end of visiting hours. Parker handed over a crutch.

"Where did you get this?" Hardison looks all confused and it's funny.

"I stole it while you were sleeping. Also got you a bunch of the good happy pills so don't worry about the pain. C'mon." Parker wants out of the hospital as badly she'd already stemmed off some questioning from animal control. A few well placed laughs and giggle, she even sniffed one guy. He had smelled weird in her own defence. They had left with quite a few backward glances.

Eliot started with pulling out his IV and then quickly got rid of the other monitors, with a little help from Hardison and a lot of growling on Eliot's part they had him out of the bed and on the crutch with little incident. Eliot was actually pretty good on the crutch and some how ended up being the one leading their little group out of the room. They were professional thieves and it would have been insulting if they got caught fleeing a small hospital like this one and were out the door in no time. It helped that Parker had also mapped a great escape route for them.

"So much for you being there." Eliot grunted as he deposited himself pretty roughly into the backseat of Hardison's car.

"It wasn't like someone was trying to kill you." Parker said before shutting the door. "I'll drive the truck home." She snatched the keys out of Hardison's hands. Something like, "I don't want Crazy driving my baby." Sounded from the backseat. "I'll take care of her." Parker started to skip away but she was still able to hear Hardison's, "I'm the only Baby you got." As he slid into the driver's seat. As she got behind the wheel of Eliot's truck she started humming and it suspiciously sounded like 'Here comes the Bride.'