â Roundinâ down ainât an option. âÂ
( Sometimes, he wished he could. )
He could yell until he lost his voice, could tell them every detail of anything and everything that would happen; and still, theyâd be there. Still, theyâd stand there alongside him. Still, theyâd call them a mark to me made. Whatâs another crime syndicate to add to their list? FrustratingâŠand yet, he understands. Eliot knows family, knows it in blood and brothers in arms, and this â itâs not so different.Â
â Same deal. Same figures. âÂ
But rules? Well, they were hard to tell.
Rare is the need for help; it doesnât sit well in his bones â still the mentality of taking things on his own remained. He took the hits after all, dealt and absorbed the punishment so they didnât have to. What kind of enforcer, what kind of protector was he to let Parker and Hardison take the hit for something they werenât involved in?
He has a job, he does it well, heâs embraced what he does and what heâs got to do. Itâs personal, and things might get a little dirtier than normal.Â
â Hardison and Parker, they donâ know half of what I know. Good as they are. â Hands on his hips lift to cross over his chest. Heâs kept it this way for a reason; an echo of a conversation heâd once brushed upon.
( Donât ask me that. ) Â Â
â Alright, Spencer. Got yourself a deal. â
Hand is held out to shake, a familiar gesture now, ever since that first time, impeded a little by the cuffs. Itâs friendly, in a detached sort of way --- strictly business. The lie he tells himself every time he goes back to them. Always asked, first, never of his own volition. Waits to be needed.
â Theyâre still young. â
Quinn is, too -- younger than Eliot, not as young as Hardison. But thatâs not really what he means. He means that theyâre criminals, sure, and theyâve each seen their own hardship. But thereâs some special sufferings that age a man, that make him more than his years.
Eliotâs seen âem. So has he. And theyâve both been on the other end, too.
Theyâve both done bad things. Quinn still does them, if the price is right. Eliot might have moved away from that life, but once it gets its claws in you -- it never backs down and it never stops pursuing. Itâll always be there. Sometimes, times like this, itâll catch up.
â Some things, they donât need to know. â Itâs a promise, unspoken, to help keep those things from them. Heâs soft on them, this little family, and maybe one day itâll get him into trouble. Hardison, who for all heâs irritating does a damn good job at anything you put him to. Who loves Parker.
Parker, who sometimes from the corner of his eye looks a little like Jeannie. Parker, who dances to her own tune and wonât apologise for it.
â Anything I should know, going in? â
If this is old names come back to haunt him, then Quinn might know a few of them.