Fic: These Things That Were

[scout_lover]

Title: These Things That Were
Author: scout_lover
Characters: Eliot Spencer, Damien Moreau, Chapman (whom I’ve named Myles), Nate Ford (briefly)
Rating: PG-13 (implied, very implied, consensual m/m relationship)
Warnings: None … except maybe for Eliot as a stone-cold killer
Word count: 4,985
A/N: This was written for arabwel for the Leverage Secret Santa Exchange. The

Comments

Incredibly wordy reply, part The First

[scout_lover]

(You may want to get some coffe; this could take a while, lol. And I seem to have exceeded my character count.)

Oh, thank you, thank you! I'm thrilled to pieces that this affected you so. Honestly, I had worked myself into such a state over this that I was *thisclose* to just trashing it. Luckily, telaryn and sheryden settled my butt down, talked me off my ledge and gave me the little kick I needed to finish it.

Chapman, to me, seemed the obvious choice as an "observer." There was such a wonderful undercurrent of tension, hostility and contention between them, from Eliot's vaguely contemptuous, "He gave you the job?" to Chapman's sneering "I heard you'd gone soft," that, clearly (at least to me, lol) there were long-standing issues between them. I just sort of latched onto that and spun it out as a sibling rivalry … on steroids, and with guns. *g* But when they faced each other by that pool, there was obviously no love lost between them

Incredibly wordy reply, part The Second

[scout_lover]

I adore the Eliot-Damien dynamic. Goran Visnjic made Damien such a charismatic, seductive, commanding figure, and he and Christian played that poolside encounter with such a quiet intensity that I just went, "Guh!" There was obviously something there between their characters. For all the people in that scene, they really were the only ones there. They kind of took over my brain, lol.

Damien obviously had a deep fondness for Eliot (I love his smile during the "dog fighting" scene, while he's watching Eliot on TV; it's very much a "that's my boy!" look, even as he's watching Eliot undermining his power). He knows Eliot ("he prefers beer"), and obviously trusts him … up until the moment he learns Eliot has betrayed him (and, yeah, I may actually have to write that scene; it's sort of eating at my brain now, lol). But there's also just a little hint of, what? anger? resentment? when he asks, "Is this another retrieval job, Eliot? Tell me, whose Snoopy lunchbox do I have?" Just that little bit of bitchiness, belittling him in front of his

Re: Incredibly wordy reply, part The Second

[scout_lover]

Oh, believe me, I am always willing and ready to babble on about about characters, fic, and how I go about torturing writing about my pretties. ;)

I think you hit the nail on the head re: Eliot with the word "fealty." That's him in a nutshell. We've seen it tme and time again with Nate and the team. When he's yours, he's yours, completely. He's not a blind follower (look how often he challenges Nate), but once he has chosen you, that's it. As you pointed out with your Lancelot point (have I mentioned I'm also a King Arthur geek? squee!), Eliot's depth of devotion harkens back to that kind of service: "I am your liege man of life and limb." He can do quite well on his own, but he seems to crave a flag to follow. Maybe it's the soldier in him …

And I've often wondered why he's not in the Army any more (though, obviously, he's still got connections). Eliot is a born soldier, a born warrior, and perfectly suited for the military. So why is he out? Why did he leave? Why isn't he crawling through the mountains of Afghanistan, quietly