Chapter Text
Christmas 2020, New Orleans,
Flanders Group (RIZ)
“But if I knew your most traumatic experience, I can just say… ‘Operation Kansas’.”
“They call it ‘PTSD in a bottle’.”
“Operation Kansas happened at Christmastime, didn’t it? Holidays must be so difficult for you.”
“Is that why you’re reluctant to spend them with your father? How long has it been since you saw him last?”
“Don’t,” Eliot gritted. His father’s disappointed face flashed in front of his eyes among the carnage of Operation Kansas. It had been his most traumatic experience – but not he worst thing he had done. That he had done for Damien Moreau. No—he thought, don’t think of that, but it was already too late and screams filled his head.
Think of something calming, he urged himself. Clenching his jaw he thought of the team, of Maria – but in the depths of his disparity he could only find calm thinking of one person.
It had been over a year since he left Brooklyn and hadn’t returned there since. Between the carnage and cries, her face appeared.
Vera.
Six Christmases he had spent with her. This year was the second without her. Not being with her hurt and painful memories of their breakup flashed before his eyes. But he did feel calm as he pictured their first Christmas during her first year of college… when he had sneaked into her dorm.
Christmas 2013, New York City
Interestingly he was almost met with a book to his head when he shouldered the door to Vera’s dorm room open.
She had the thick book raised high before she realized who it was and promptly dropped it.
“Oh my god!” she cried with flushed cheeks and jumped into his arms. She still had platinum blonde hair and it was sticking out all directions. Dressed in an oversized NYU sweatshirt; she looked fully the part of a college student. Though she was older than the average student there, it was like she was reclaiming her youth, and Eliot loved seeing it.
Smelling and tasting like eggnog, they finally kissed since the last time they saw each other in September.
“Merry Christmas,” he murmured against her lips. “Do we need to put a sock on the doorknob?”
He looked around the room and deduced that her roommate had left to go home for the holidays. Not that it mattered—he had a hotel suite booked where they could disappear in for the next few days, but somehow seeing her so relaxed and casual created an urgency he could not postpone.
One of his hands quickly reached underneath the sweatshirt and he let out a moan at finding bare skin – no panties and no bra. Vera hummed into another kiss.
“El—” she gasped, but before she could try and rationalize it, he squeezed her breasts and with his free hand he hiked her shirt up. Walking her backwards, they hit her bed and together they tumbled onto it.
“Missed you,” he murmured, peppering kisses all over her face. Her body felt solid under him. He didn’t want to admit that he had woken up several times in Australia thinking she had been a figment of his imagination. Parker and Hardison had raised their concerns, but Eliot lucked out that they got distracted by a job involving a surfer. They had invited him to join at Nana’s for Christmas, and though he really was going to miss her pies, being in close proximity of Vera made him not regret the decision.
“Wait—” she insisted and gently placed her falling apart laptop onto the floor.
Eliot stood up, taking in the rumpled sheets and while he thought he had made her flushed from kisses – there was something else going on. He eyed her suspiciously.
“Were you… masturbating?”
She rolled her eyes, which he took as a yes. A smirk spread slowly on his face and she gave his chest a slap. “Stop it.”
“You so were—”
“Lacy finally left and I had the place to myself – and since we can’t have phone sex, I took matters into my own hands.”
“I’m not judging,” he assured, lying down and pulling her on top. Just the thought of her getting herself off made his cock hard. “Were you watching something specifically?”
“N-no,” she stammered and to avoid further questions she crashed their lips together. Eliot wasn’t going to let her get away with that so easily though and in a sneaky move he toppled her onto the bed, grabbing the laptop.
“Let’s see what you’re into—”
“Eliot no!”
And Eliot froze, because he was looking at himself. “What—”
It was a video of him fighting when they did a job years ago involving a gym. He had to take down a whole bunch of men to prove himself and Parker had filmed him to help their case.
“Dammit Hardison,” he said, “He’s supposed to erase this!”
He turned to Vera, who looked so delectable with her sweatshirt hiked up that he almost threw the laptop across the room.
Her chest was heaving in anticipation and with a dry mouth he asked, “You gonna tell me where you found this?” She shook her head.
“No.”
He had hoped she would say that. With a devilish smirk, he put the laptop on the edge of the bed and rested his other hand against her pussy, suppressing a groan at how wet she was.
“Oh!” she gasped before mewling when he removed his hand again.
“You going to tell me?”
“I’m—ah!” His hand was back, teasing her clit. “Eliot…”
“Tell me.” She must have been at it for a while before he arrived as she began to tense up, but he moved away his hand again.
“Eliot Spencer,” she warned, “I started this myself and if you don’t do anything about it, I will finish it.”
Huskily he said, “Would love to watch that,” he moved to spread her legs, “maybe some other time?” As he dove between her legs, Vera’s moan was accompanied with a loud clanging noise. They both looked down to where the laptop had crashed onto the floor, the screen split open to show the hardware underneath. Guiltily he turned back to her. “I guess it’s a good thing I got you a new laptop for Christmas?”
Vera looked at him with large shell shocked eyes.
“You got me whaaa—” She didn’t get to finish her sentence as he quickly distracted her by resuming the task at hand. It barely took a nip at her clit for her to shudder with a climax. But it wasn’t enough to deter her. “I-I didn’t get you anything—” she gasped. “A laptop?! That’s too much.”
Eliot began to make quick work of opening his zipper where his hard cock was throbbing for a release. “Yours was already falling apart,” he grunted, “and all I want for Christmas is you.”
“Don’t fucking quote Mariah Carey-ah!” He didn’t bother taking off any of his clothes, positioning himself in front of her entrance and because she was so turned on, he just slid in.
“Fuck,” they both said, and Eliot covered her mostly naked body with his fully clothed one. He started to move.
“So you were thinking of me?” he whispered hotly in her ear.
“Y-yes.”
“Thinking of this?” He thrust himself deep into her.
“Yes!”
His hand cupped her breast, squeezing it. He never wanted to leave this moment—never leave her. Like an addict he captured her lips, increasing his thrusts at a rapid speed.
There, in a tiny dorm room in New York, Eliot was having the best fuck of his life. Every time he thought he had reached it, Vera surprised him. God, he wished she would join him. He hated that he had to let her go, but he loved that he could reunite with her over and over again.
Though it was freezing outside, he was becoming hotter and hotter under his clothes. He knew it was no use taking them off now—he was too close to coming—and Vera pushed his hair back, gathering it in her fist so she was pulling slightly.
Slowing down, they stared at each other.
“This is what I thought about while getting myself off,” she murmured. “Your face.”
Eliot swallowed, sweat beading on his forehead. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she said and wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him closer with a moan. “But also this.”
He gasped.
“Don’t hold back,” she said, “If you want me for Christmas—take me.”
With a grunt, he re-positioned them so she was up against the headboard. His hands kneaded any bare curve, marking her. He wanted her sated, limp and unable to sit the next time she went to class.
“I’m—” she scratched her nails over his scalp, shuddering under him.
He grabbed her thighs to spread them even wider and drilled into her until he couldn’t hold it in anymore, spilling deep inside of her. “Fuck.”
A breathy laugh bubbled out of her. “You can say that again.”
She was flushed red, her sweatshirt still bunched up over her chest, and quivered when he pulled out. Swallowing, he carefully tucked himself away again and rested his hand on her bare thigh as he sat on the bed, Vera now sprawled across it. The afterglow suited her.
He looked around the tiny dorm, his eyes resting on her roommate’s bed.
“You should get your own place,” he thought out loud.
“I don’t mind,” she said with a huff, “It gives it the true college experience.”
“Hm,” he simply sniffed, already planning how to get her something private.
“Stop,” she said and he stilled his hand—he had been absentmindedly stroking her thigh. “Not that,” she said, looking down, “Stop thinking. No interfering with my living situation. That’s a problem for post graduation.”
He sniffed again.
“You didn’t bring a bag,” she murmured softly and Eliot looked at her face. Her beautiful, satisfied face.
“Looking for your Christmas present, are we?”
“I do need a laptop for my essays.” She sat up, pulling her sweatshirt down to his dismay. “You’re staying somewhere else?”
He nodded. “You better pack,” he said, looking around her room, “As you’re my Christmas present, I’m taking you with me.”
Her face split into the brightest smile, before a voice echoed through his mind.
“All you have to do to make it stop, is give me Copperhead,” Bligh said, overlapping the Vera in his Red Haze and pulling him back to the warehouse. “Mr Kelsey has the antidote ready and waiting.” Blinking, Eliot remembered where he was, and why he had been dreaming about Vera and their first Christmas together.
He had to think, he had to act. Pushing Vera to the back of his mind, the Red Haze swallowed her and he missed her already. There was no time, he needed to find something neutral to focus on and distract Bligh from this… Ledger.
The Ledger, he suddenly thought.
“Yeah, yeah,” he rasped, breathing heavily, “It’s… three tablespoons of chopped garlic.” He took a deep breath, the Red Haze backing off slightly. “One teaspoon of smoked paprika—” Vera’s favorite.
Bligh sighed.
“Typical RTI tactics,” she huffed. Eliot continued his chili recipe, but Bligh stood up straight. “We’re going to do it the hard way, then.” She walked away, telling Mr Kelsey, “Give him another dose. Don’t let the drug leave his system.”
Eliot tried to say what was next, but the colors blurring his vision formed snowflakes. The thick, soft flakes reminded him of another Christmas… when it snowed so much he ended up snowed in somewhere in an upstate New York cabin… with Vera.