Do You Trust Me? (Leverage FF)
Title: Do You Trust Me?
Rating: PG-13 (Violence)
Pairing: Eliot/Sophie
Words: 1,374
Author: niennaseregon (Hey! That's me!)
Summery: Eliot reveals some of his dark past to Sophie when she returns to Boston.
Credits: Thank you sooo much to quimby_13 for the prompt! You're a star!
“You know you never answered me, right?” Sophie asked, leaning back on Eliot’s couch.
“Never answered you when?” Eliot replied, handing Sophie one of the two bottles of beer he had gotten up to retrieve, before sitting down beside her.
“When I asked you if you trusted me.”
Eliot sighed. “Sophie…” he trailed off, not wanting to have that particular discussion with her just yet. After all, there was a reason he hadn’t given an answer in the first place.
“No, come on. I want to know.” Sophie said, crossing her legs underneath her.
“I don’t know. I guess…you just remind me of someone, that’s all. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just…want to keep my distance is all.”
“Aw, Eliot, you know I’d never do anything to hurt you guys. I mean, I know sometimes that might be hard to believe, but I -“
“Damn it, Sophie, it’s not about that, okay?” Eliot cut her off sharply, though a part of him regretted it. “Maybe it is, I don’t know.” He mumbled into his beer bottle before taking a drink.
“Well…who do I remind you of?”
Eliot looked at Sophie for a long moment before speaking, trying to decide if he really did trust her enough to let her in on his past. Finally, he sighed. “My sister, okay? You remind me of my sister.”
“Oh.” Sophie perked up a little. “Well, that can’t be such a bad thing now, can it?”
Eliot stayed silent, and Sophie softened a little.
“What happened?” She asked quietly.
“I don’t want to do this right now, Sophie.”
“Eliot, you can’t go through life with such unresolved negative feelings. It’ll eat at you until there’s nothing left.”
Eliot stood up from the couch suddenly. “Yeah, and who do you think you are, huh? Little Miss Perfect back from her soul searching journey around the world? Not everything’s that fucking easy, okay? I’ve been…” Eliot’s anger faltered, but he continued, though the hardness in his voice had diminished slightly. “I’ve been runnin’ a lot longer and at whole hell of a lot farther than you have, and it ain’t done nothing for me, okay, so just leave off of your little…psycho-analyze intervention crap, okay?” Eliot took the final swig of his beer and went into the kitchen to not only get another one, but to get away from Sophie.
Leaning against the counter, Eliot was surprised when Sophie didn’t follow him into the kitchen. He stayed there for at least fifteen minutes, calming himself, not wanting to continue any confrontation.
Finally he made his way back into his living room.
“You’re not gone yet?” he said, seeing Sophie still sitting on the couch. A part of Eliot was trying to stay mad at Sophie, but he knew that any pretence of her trying to ‘fix’ him was gone.
“Look, Eliot, I know that things with family can be difficult when you do what we do, honestly, I know that.”
“I don’t want to get mad at you, Soph, but it’s not all that simple where my families concerned, alright?”
“Then clarify it for me.” She placed a gentle hand on his arm. “You know I’m not one to go shouting it all from the rooftops.”
Eliot nodded. He still didn’t want to do it, but he had a feeling that it would be something Sophie wouldn’t let go of until she got him talking. He inhaled deeply, bracing himself.
“Obviously I wasn’t always one of the bad guys. When I was a kid, I remember my big sister being into all the acting and stuff. That was her big plan, you know? She was gonna become some famous Hollywood starlet, and move us all out to L.A. and buy us a big house with an indoor swimming pool and fruit trees in the back yard. She could be anyone, I mean, she was good. I have these…” Eliot paused, and swallowed hard. “I have these tapes, home movies, really, of her doing scenes, practicing accents.” Eliot laughed. “There’s one…she had got me into it, I think our neighbor was filming it or something. Anyways, I was dressed up like a superhero, and she was the damsel in distress I had to save.
“Things were alright back then, see…there’s a six year difference between us. I was six, she was twelve. Then, when she got into high school, she ended up getting boyfriends, and drinking, doing drugs. I remember one time, I was about twelve, she would have been eighteen. I accidentally walked in on her while she was in the bathroom. You could smell the pot she was smoking from all the way down the hall, but when I walked in, she had a needle in her arm. She yelled at me to get out and tried to slam the door but my fingers got caught. I can’t remember who found us, but I ended up in the hospital with three broken fingers. That’s when it really got bad, when everyone found out what my sister had been doing.
When someone asked her if she was still using, she’d be as sweet as cherry pie and say ‘No sir. I’m a good Christian girl now’. Fuckin’ bull shit. That’s where I learned half of what I know about doing what we do. From her. Seeing her lie, cheat, steal and con for whatever she could get her hands on. Money, drugs, booze, you name it.” Eliot pointed a finger at Sophie.
“That’s why I am the way I am with you. Because you do just what she does, you lie, alright? Not one of us even knows your real name. You go off globetrotting for God knows how long. Hell, even with Parker you get somethin’ when you talk to her, she’s so damn…loco.” Eliot shook his head. Both he and Sophie stayed silent for a long moment. It was Eliot who spoke first, surprising himself as he continued his story.
“And when I was 14, my sister was 20, she got pregnant.”
Sophie couldn’t help but shrink back as she felt Eliot tense up beside her. She could see the muscles in his arms tense, his eyes dark with anger.
“The son of a bitch that got her pregnant…all he wanted was money. Money that she didn’t have, for drugs that she shouldn’t have…” Eliot let the thought trail off. “Every time I saw her he’d given her more bruises, sometimes burns. When she was 23 he put in the ICU for three weeks lying in a fucking coma before her body just gave up. The bastard killed my sister.
“I followed him to his truck one night with some pipe I’d found. I didn’t know dirt shit about real fighting and I ended up getting my ass kicked. After that, I promised my sister and her son that I would always be able to defend myself, and the people I cared about. That’s when I started training, learning everything I could. About two years later I found him again.” Eliot paused and took a long sip of his beer.
“What did you do?” Sophie asked. Eliot looked at her, his eyes dim.
“Do you really need me to answer that for you?”
Sophie shook her head, shivering slightly.
“My nephew went to live with my Aunt and Uncle in Texas. Last I checked he’s on his school’s football team.”
“Wow.” Sophie breathed.
“Yeah. So, there’s me, in a fucking nutshell.” Eliot pointed another finger at Sophie. “Don’t ever expect me to talk that much about myself ever again, and I swear to God if you tell so much as an ant about it…”
“No, no, of course not, I would never.” Sophie rushed. She leaned forward and placed her hand on Eliot’s and squeezed gently. “I appreciate you telling me this, Eliot. I know…you were right; I’m not perfect, and I shouldn’t try to judge you. But I know how it feels to hurt. And I am here for you, if you need me. I’m not going to run away again.”
“Thanks.” Eliot let out a husky laugh. “I guess I can trust you after all.”
Sophie smiled. “I could have told you that.”
Rating: PG-13 (Violence)
Pairing: Eliot/Sophie
Words: 1,374
Author: niennaseregon (Hey! That's me!)
Summery: Eliot reveals some of his dark past to Sophie when she returns to Boston.
Credits: Thank you sooo much to quimby_13 for the prompt! You're a star!
“You know you never answered me, right?” Sophie asked, leaning back on Eliot’s couch.
“Never answered you when?” Eliot replied, handing Sophie one of the two bottles of beer he had gotten up to retrieve, before sitting down beside her.
“When I asked you if you trusted me.”
Eliot sighed. “Sophie…” he trailed off, not wanting to have that particular discussion with her just yet. After all, there was a reason he hadn’t given an answer in the first place.
“No, come on. I want to know.” Sophie said, crossing her legs underneath her.
“I don’t know. I guess…you just remind me of someone, that’s all. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just…want to keep my distance is all.”
“Aw, Eliot, you know I’d never do anything to hurt you guys. I mean, I know sometimes that might be hard to believe, but I -“
“Damn it, Sophie, it’s not about that, okay?” Eliot cut her off sharply, though a part of him regretted it. “Maybe it is, I don’t know.” He mumbled into his beer bottle before taking a drink.
“Well…who do I remind you of?”
Eliot looked at Sophie for a long moment before speaking, trying to decide if he really did trust her enough to let her in on his past. Finally, he sighed. “My sister, okay? You remind me of my sister.”
“Oh.” Sophie perked up a little. “Well, that can’t be such a bad thing now, can it?”
Eliot stayed silent, and Sophie softened a little.
“What happened?” She asked quietly.
“I don’t want to do this right now, Sophie.”
“Eliot, you can’t go through life with such unresolved negative feelings. It’ll eat at you until there’s nothing left.”
Eliot stood up from the couch suddenly. “Yeah, and who do you think you are, huh? Little Miss Perfect back from her soul searching journey around the world? Not everything’s that fucking easy, okay? I’ve been…” Eliot’s anger faltered, but he continued, though the hardness in his voice had diminished slightly. “I’ve been runnin’ a lot longer and at whole hell of a lot farther than you have, and it ain’t done nothing for me, okay, so just leave off of your little…psycho-analyze intervention crap, okay?” Eliot took the final swig of his beer and went into the kitchen to not only get another one, but to get away from Sophie.
Leaning against the counter, Eliot was surprised when Sophie didn’t follow him into the kitchen. He stayed there for at least fifteen minutes, calming himself, not wanting to continue any confrontation.
Finally he made his way back into his living room.
“You’re not gone yet?” he said, seeing Sophie still sitting on the couch. A part of Eliot was trying to stay mad at Sophie, but he knew that any pretence of her trying to ‘fix’ him was gone.
“Look, Eliot, I know that things with family can be difficult when you do what we do, honestly, I know that.”
“I don’t want to get mad at you, Soph, but it’s not all that simple where my families concerned, alright?”
“Then clarify it for me.” She placed a gentle hand on his arm. “You know I’m not one to go shouting it all from the rooftops.”
Eliot nodded. He still didn’t want to do it, but he had a feeling that it would be something Sophie wouldn’t let go of until she got him talking. He inhaled deeply, bracing himself.
“Obviously I wasn’t always one of the bad guys. When I was a kid, I remember my big sister being into all the acting and stuff. That was her big plan, you know? She was gonna become some famous Hollywood starlet, and move us all out to L.A. and buy us a big house with an indoor swimming pool and fruit trees in the back yard. She could be anyone, I mean, she was good. I have these…” Eliot paused, and swallowed hard. “I have these tapes, home movies, really, of her doing scenes, practicing accents.” Eliot laughed. “There’s one…she had got me into it, I think our neighbor was filming it or something. Anyways, I was dressed up like a superhero, and she was the damsel in distress I had to save.
“Things were alright back then, see…there’s a six year difference between us. I was six, she was twelve. Then, when she got into high school, she ended up getting boyfriends, and drinking, doing drugs. I remember one time, I was about twelve, she would have been eighteen. I accidentally walked in on her while she was in the bathroom. You could smell the pot she was smoking from all the way down the hall, but when I walked in, she had a needle in her arm. She yelled at me to get out and tried to slam the door but my fingers got caught. I can’t remember who found us, but I ended up in the hospital with three broken fingers. That’s when it really got bad, when everyone found out what my sister had been doing.
When someone asked her if she was still using, she’d be as sweet as cherry pie and say ‘No sir. I’m a good Christian girl now’. Fuckin’ bull shit. That’s where I learned half of what I know about doing what we do. From her. Seeing her lie, cheat, steal and con for whatever she could get her hands on. Money, drugs, booze, you name it.” Eliot pointed a finger at Sophie.
“That’s why I am the way I am with you. Because you do just what she does, you lie, alright? Not one of us even knows your real name. You go off globetrotting for God knows how long. Hell, even with Parker you get somethin’ when you talk to her, she’s so damn…loco.” Eliot shook his head. Both he and Sophie stayed silent for a long moment. It was Eliot who spoke first, surprising himself as he continued his story.
“And when I was 14, my sister was 20, she got pregnant.”
Sophie couldn’t help but shrink back as she felt Eliot tense up beside her. She could see the muscles in his arms tense, his eyes dark with anger.
“The son of a bitch that got her pregnant…all he wanted was money. Money that she didn’t have, for drugs that she shouldn’t have…” Eliot let the thought trail off. “Every time I saw her he’d given her more bruises, sometimes burns. When she was 23 he put in the ICU for three weeks lying in a fucking coma before her body just gave up. The bastard killed my sister.
“I followed him to his truck one night with some pipe I’d found. I didn’t know dirt shit about real fighting and I ended up getting my ass kicked. After that, I promised my sister and her son that I would always be able to defend myself, and the people I cared about. That’s when I started training, learning everything I could. About two years later I found him again.” Eliot paused and took a long sip of his beer.
“What did you do?” Sophie asked. Eliot looked at her, his eyes dim.
“Do you really need me to answer that for you?”
Sophie shook her head, shivering slightly.
“My nephew went to live with my Aunt and Uncle in Texas. Last I checked he’s on his school’s football team.”
“Wow.” Sophie breathed.
“Yeah. So, there’s me, in a fucking nutshell.” Eliot pointed another finger at Sophie. “Don’t ever expect me to talk that much about myself ever again, and I swear to God if you tell so much as an ant about it…”
“No, no, of course not, I would never.” Sophie rushed. She leaned forward and placed her hand on Eliot’s and squeezed gently. “I appreciate you telling me this, Eliot. I know…you were right; I’m not perfect, and I shouldn’t try to judge you. But I know how it feels to hurt. And I am here for you, if you need me. I’m not going to run away again.”
“Thanks.” Eliot let out a husky laugh. “I guess I can trust you after all.”
Sophie smiled. “I could have told you that.”