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Eliot Spencer knows what death feels like. Both sides of it. He first died in 1663 in a bar fight in England. Not his worse death, but he was always embarrassed at how easily he lost that fight. He made sure he never lost that easily again.
After he woke up, he panicked. Because lying in an alleyway listening to your bones snap back into place is pretty terrifying. His first thought was witchcraft. The belief was becoming more and more widespread, whispered about in fear, and now he was a living example of it.
He thought of going back to his home, where his mother and sisters were before deciding against it. He could already picture it, them asking questions as to why he was home so late. “Elias, where were you?” His mother would ask. And he would not be able to answer. So instead, he left his small town in England and started walking.
The dreams started the first time he fell asleep after coming back to life. Two women and two men, all travelling in a group. The men were sitting close to each other, laughing at something one of the women said. They’re all sitting at a large fire, sharing food together.
Elias woke up longing. He wondered why he was dreaming of those people. Maybe they were like him. But the thought turned bitter as he realized it was likely witchcraft. Maybe he got cursed by God, a punishment for something he didn’t know he had done. He shook all thoughts from his head and started walking again.
(What he didn’t know was that in a small town in Iran, four people woke up startled. Four people had just dreamt of a young man being beaten bloody, left in an alleyway to bleed out, only for him to wake up an hour later. They watched as he started walking with no path. They all looked at each other and agreed, they could not let this man live alone.)
Elias was still alone in 1665. The dreams hadn’t stopped, only gotten more constant. He wondered if the group of four was looking for him. Then the plague hit. Elias had died multiple times up to that point, but never so slowly. The coughing got continuous until he could barely breathe. His body slowly stopped working.
Then his breath came back to him in a pit of bodies. The whispers of witchcraft had only grown in the last few years, so Elias held his breath until the last of the bodies were dropped on top of him. Then he slowly made his way through the flesh surrounding him until he could reach the top of the pit.
And there, waiting for him, was a hand. It was one of the women he had seen in his dreams, soft face with hard eyes. He took her hand even as his skin crawled at the contact. She pulled him up and he let go of her hand to land on the ground. He took a shaky breath as he tried to get rid of the feeling of dead flesh on his skin.
“What is your name?” She asked in broken English. Her accent was something he hadn’t heard before, although he had also never left the country, so there were a lot of those.
“Elias.” He forced his voice to work. It had only been a few years, but his heart broke a little as he realized he had forgotten his last name.
The women didn’t search for more though, and instead she nodded. “I am Quynh.” She said. She turned to wave a hand a three other people standing a little while away from the pit of bodies. “Those are Andromache, Nicolo, and Yusuf.”
“Are you like me?” Elias asked.
Quynh nodded. “We are. The… dreams,” she said, searching for the word, “they will stop now.”
Elias furrowed his eyebrows. “Why?”
“Andromache can explain better.” She held her hand out for him again, to help him up. He almost took it, but the smell of dead flesh got to him before he could. He shook his head and lifted himself up. Quynh didn’t look offended and simply nodded. “Come.” She said before walking towards her group. Elias followed.
That was how Eliot Spencer found a group of people like him, but that is not the end of it. He followed that group for many years, until Quynh and Andromache got tried for witchcraft. He knew it would happen eventually; it had been his fear from the beginning. But to see it happen to Quynh and Andromache is not what he would have expected. He stood in the back of the crowd with Nicolo and Yusuf, watching Quynh and Andromache get led to the noose.
“They’re going to get found out.” Elias couldn’t help but whisper in fear.
Nicolo gripped his shoulder gently. “They will get out of it.” He assured.
Only they didn’t. They got sentenced to be burned alive, which Elias knew was torture all on its own. But then, they watched from the crowd as Quynh was pulled out of the small cave. They watched with fear as she was led to an iron casket.
“No,” somebody breathed. Elias wasn’t sure if it was one or all of them. They could hear Andromache screaming, pleading for Quynh. But it was no use. Quynh was placed on a boat and sailed out to sea, where they dropped her in the ocean. And all of them were helpless to do anything.
They were able to free Andromache, but Elias wondered how free she really was with Quynh trapped.
They continued travelling the world, fighting battles that they forced their way into. It wasn’t until 1812 that they dreamt again. It was a man, hanging from a noose, a uniform distinct to Napoleon’s army. They made their way over as soon as they could, to stop the dreaming. They found him in a week, the man named Sebastien.
All of their dreams stopped except for Sebastien’s. They hadn’t realized before, that the dreams were for each person and not the group as a whole. But with Quynh separated from them, Sebastien would continue to dream of the drowning woman.
Elias liked working with the team. A small little army, fighting the devils of the world. Andromache had taught him as many fighting styles as she was able, which was a lot. Nicolo and Yusuf kept him close, helped him reassure himself he wasn’t alone. Sebastien… Sebastien was new, and he was angry. He had lost his family and was taking it out on himself. Elias was not unfamiliar with the bottles Sebastien would leave all over their safehouses, but his destruction was not one Elias was comfortable with.
It all came to a head on a mission to take out a small, budding army. It was supposed to be quick, in and out with no extra injuries or death to themselves. But Sebastien got reckless. He made a move before Andromache’s call and got them all killed, plus giving the men time to escape.
Andromache laid into him enough for all of them, but Elias had had enough. He walked up to where Andromache was sitting and flopped down next to her. “I can’t trust him.” He told her.
“We can’t just leave him.” Andromache argued.
“I know.” Elias nodded. He didn’t want to say the rest out loud. He knew she would get it eventually.
After a moment, it clicked. “We won’t leave you either.” She stated.
Elias shook his head, a sad smile on his face. “You wouldn’t be,” he said. “I’d be leaving you.”
She held her breath but didn’t argue. She didn’t say another word to him, so he took it for what it was, and left with only her goodbye.
Elias left the group of immortals like him in 1842 and ventured out on his own. Andromache hadn’t said anything else to him, but when he made it to a safehouse of his in Berlin, he noticed a note on his kitchen counter.
Elias, it read. You are not ready to come back yet. Until then, we will send letters to this safehouse for you. Do not reach us until you are ready. You are missed. The writing was undoubtably Nicolo’s, which gave Elias an assurance he didn’t know he needed.
He burned the safehouse years later after World War II when he used it for refugees. Elias worried about how they would reach him without it. He didn’t have to, it turned out, because another letter was waiting for him in his Baghdad safehouse.
We are all safe, Yusuf’s letter read. It was a nice assurance even though they could never die. We are in the Americas for now, although Andy says we are leaving soon. The nickname threw Elias off for a moment before he realized it was Andromache. He supposed it would be best to modernize their names a little more. But he would stick with Elias for now.
He stayed in Baghdad for a month, trying to convince himself it was for no reason. But he knew, more than anything, he was hoping to catch one of them dropping a letter off in his safehouse. When the month passed with no sign of them, he finally left.
When he came back, there was another letter for him. It was short and in Andromache’s – Andy’s, he had to remind himself – handwriting. Only when you’re ready. It read. He huffed out a laugh and placed it gently with the other letters in the desk drawer.
He spent the next forty years travelling Europe, returning to Baghdad every other month to read his letters. Then he travelled to the United States and joined the army. He had been in armies before, many of them. But for some reason, this was different. He had not been in an American army before. He fought, yes, during the World Wars, but never for a specific country’s army. He never wore a distinctive uniform.
Now, as he puts on the green camouflage uniform, he is a soldier. He is asked his name and he tries to say Elias but what comes out is, “Eliot.” He looks around, realizing he’ll need a last name, and comes up with, “Spencer. Eliot Spencer.”
With joining an actual army comes very little free time. Eliot no longer has any time to visit Baghdad, he no longer knows how many letters are waiting for him. He gets lucky when a mission sends him to Iraq. He can’t help the smile as he manages to sneak away for just a little to get to his safehouse.
When he gets there, three letters are waiting for him. Two from Nicolo and, surprisingly, one from Sebastien. He reads the ones from Nicolo first, which are both him describing where they have been recently and how everyone is doing.
Sebastien’s letter is far more memorable. Elias, we noticed you’ve been in the States for quite some time. We are all soldiers, but an army will change you. Be prepared. Eliot still doesn’t trust Sebastien, even with all the time they’ve been apart, but he takes his warning to heart.
It doesn’t do him any good.
Eliot gets placed with a Black Ops team. Their missions are unspeakable and he would not wish to tell the stories even if he could. Their missions involve a lot of death on both sides. Eliot is the only one who always comes back. He gets a reputation. If you’re on his team it’s not guaranteed that you’ll live, but rest assured that the job will get finished.
(The team starts hearing rumors of a soldier with this reputation. They never hear a name, but they know it’s Elias.)
In 1992 Eliot’s entire team gets killed. He does too, technically, but nobody actually knows that. Because he comes back, but he comes back haunted. The enemy is dead, but he should have been able to save his brothers in arms. It’s the old fear of Quynh’s fate that always stops him from becoming a human shield.
In 1992 he does not return to the army base. He runs in the opposite direction and is declared MIA. The operation was set somewhere in Europe, which is familiar enough ground that Eliot can make his way to the nearest city and buy a change of clothes with stolen money. He never said he was honorable.
In 1993 he runs into Damien Moreau for the first time. Damien sends his bodyguards to kill him, and Eliot sends them back to him in pieces, not even a scratch on him. That isn’t even because his skin healed, Moreau’s bodyguards were just terrible and never got a hit off on him.
So Damien Moreau offers him a job. He says it will be personal security. Eliot knows enough to know it really means he will be Moreau’s personal bodyguard. He accepts the position anyways.
Eliot was wrong. The position is not just being Damien’s personal bodyguard. It’s also being his personal attack dog. He’s sent out on assassination jobs, jobs where a message being sent is the goal. Eliot can only leave San Lorenzo with Damien himself, which means he can never go to Baghdad. He feels trapped.
He forces himself to leave Damien’s side after Belgrade, in 2002. He was getting close to the point anyways, but Belgrade was the tipping point. The job itself would have been enough; killing families full of children without even blinking. But as he finishes up, he spots four figures out of the corner of his eye, watching him.
When he turns to look at them, they’re gone, but he knows what he saw. Nicolo, Yusuf, Sebastien and Andromache just witnessed his downfall.
(When the team gets back to their safehouse, Nicky stabs a punching bag with his sword. Joe frowns at the mess it makes. Booker grabs a bottle from the fridge. Andy tries not to rip the house apart from each wooden plank.)
When he finally leaves Damien, he wanders. He doesn’t go to Baghdad, no matter how much he wants to. He isn’t ready for what might greet him there. Instead, he goes anywhere else. Everywhere else. They find him in Venezuela.
He doesn’t even know he’s been seen until he’s being run through with a sword. There are voices yelling, but he doesn’t hear what they say over his own prayers that this time will finally be the last. But it isn’t. He wakes up with a groan, rolling to the side quickly as he hears a blade unsheathe again. The metal hits the stone beneath him.
“How dare you?” Nicolo asks. Eliot can’t look at him. His eyes find their way to Sebastien, who looks just as angry. Eliot remembers that he had children, and he looks away.
He looks to the ground as he admits, “I made mistakes. It won’t happen again.”
“Elias, how could it have happened at all?” Yusuf stares at him. Eliot’s heart stops at hearing his name for the first time in almost two hundred years.
“I made mistakes.” He repeats. That’s the only explanation he can give. Yusuf doesn’t ask again.
Andromache holds her hand out to him on the ground. “Come back with us.” She offers. It reminds him of when Quynh first found him, holding her hand out to him in that pit full of bodies.
He shakes his head. “I’m not ready yet.”
She retracts her hand. “Alright. Find us when you are.” And she turns to leave. Sebastien is the last to turn, and before he does, he gives Eliot a small piece of paper. He puts it away while Sebastien leaves.
He only opens the piece of paper Sebastien gave him when he’s back at his safehouse. On it, is a string of numbers; a phone number. Eliot hasn’t had time to find a phone, let alone use one, but he memorizes the numbers anyways.
He doesn’t go back to Baghdad until 2005, only to find his safehouse ransacked. It’s old, if he had to guess, by a couple of years. Three, if he wanted to be exact. Because he knows exactly who did this. It screams of Nicolo before Eliot even makes his way through the kitchen. He can tell when Nicolo started to regret it, likely after a talk with Yusuf.
He only cares about checking the desk drawer and making sure all his letters are still there. He breathes a sigh of relief when he opens the drawer to reveal all his letters, still in one piece. On top of the desk is a new one, dust not yet settled, so it’s actually new.
It’s in Andromache’s – Andy’s, he reminds himself again – handwriting. It’s folded, so the actual letter is hidden. The only writing showing says don’t read this until you’re ready. Eliot thinks about it for a moment before deciding that no, he isn’t ready yet. So he keeps the letter folded and puts it in the desk drawer with the other letters.
In 2008 he gets a job offer from Victor Dubenich, and he takes it. He reacquaints himself with Nathan Ford, and meets Alec Hardison and Parker. Then he doesn’t get paid. So he goes to the warehouse to figure out who the hell stole his money. Only for it to be a setup. As soon as they figure it out, they’re all running, and Eliot makes sure he’s the last one out.
He isn’t sure why he does it for them. They’re all thieves with their own agendas; they certainly wouldn’t have done it for him. Except for Ford, but he’s an honest man. Eliot makes sure they all get out anyways, and his body burns as his leg gets caught in the blast.
By the time they wake up in the hospital his body is all healed, so the doctors just handcuff him to a chair instead of a bed. Then they escape and Ford brings them to Sophie. For a moment, Eliot wonders if she’s like him. But then she reveals that she’s a grifter, not immortal. Although she doesn’t say that last part. Eliot just knows.
Eliot’s job is to punch people. To protect his crew and make sure they can do their jobs without getting hurt. It’s odd, running with a crew of mortals. People who actually can get hurt. But it gives him purpose. A way to repent for his sins. Even if they don’t know.
The only thing Eliot has trouble with is explaining why he never has any injuries. Sometimes he can get away with saying he’s a fast healer if he avoids them for a couple days, but other times he has to fake a limp until the natural healing time passes. Even if he has to look up what that is.
The first time he simply plays dumb is during the Davids job, right after his fight with Quinn. Quinn had broken two of his ribs and given him a concussion, but by the time Eliot and Nate met back up he was all healed. Nate had asked him once and then let it go when Eliot shrugged.
He goes to Baghdad for the first time in a year after the team splits up. He stares at Andy’s letter, thinking. He isn’t ready yet, but he thinks he’s getting close.
The first time Eliot forgets his crew isn’t immortal is when Hardison tries to grift and ends up captured by Russians. He almost suggests that Hardison just fight his way out before he remembers this is Hardison and not Nicolo or Yusuf. His heart stops for a moment at the thought, because that means he wants to keep this crew. And he won’t be able to. Not like he can keep Nicolo or Yusuf.
Eliot regrets everything when he finds out that Nate has been blackmailed into taking down Damien Moreau. He doesn’t tell them. He isn’t sure that he could, not without knowing what their reactions would be. Because last time somebody found out, he got run through with a sword he tried to hide from.
He doesn’t tell them until he’s forced to, until Hardison almost drowns. It takes everything in Eliot to not jump in the pool after Hardison, but he knows Damien will shoot him if he does. And if he gets back up, well that would make it worse. So he stays still and pretends that Hardison is Yusuf. Not Nicolo, because Nicolo would be angrier than either of the other two names.
Although Hardison does end up being pretty angry, so maybe he should have pretended he was Nicolo.
He doesn’t realize how close they are to actually taking down Damien Moreau until they’re on the plane to San Lorenzo. It’ll be his first time back in almost ten years. His mind flashes with images of Belgrade, of Nicolo’s sword piercing his skin. He can never take back what he did, but maybe this can be amends enough.
He doesn’t expect to run into Sebastien in the airport. They stare at each other, and Eliot can’t help but look around for the others. When he doesn’t find them, he subtly gestures for Sebastien to meet with him in the airport bathroom. Sebastien nods and Eliot separates himself from his team.
“What are you doing here?” They both ask at the same time. Eliot rolls his eyes. “You first.” He waves a hand.
“I was just leaving.” Sebastien answers. “Our job has been revoked.”
Eliot hums. “Where are the others?”
“Andy is already on a plane, Nicky and Joe are waiting a couple hours then they’ll go.” Nicky and Joe. Eliot mouths the names. He should have anticipated the modernization, but he’s been using their true names for so long that the nicknames are odd to him. “And you?”
Eliot doesn’t hesitate before giving him the truth. “Taking down Damien Moreau.” He needs at least one of them to know he’s fixing his wrongs. Sebastien’s eyes widen slightly before he nods.
“Be safe.” He says. Then he hands Eliot a piece of paper with a new phone number on it. When Eliot looks up at him, he shrugs. “I lost the old one.”
Eliot laughs and tucks the piece of paper away. “Thank you, Sebastien.”
“Booker,” he corrects. Eliot nods. At least this one makes a little more sense, given his last name.
“Eliot.” He says back, knowing they’ve still been calling him Elias. He can’t say he doesn’t miss it, but he shouldn’t be seen with a different name that isn’t one of Hardison’s aliases for him. Booker nods and they go their separate ways.
He calls Booker after they take down Moreau. Booker is cursing up and down the phone in French before he finally settles back into English. “You actually did it.” He says in awe.
Eliot gives a hollow laugh. “Yeah, I did.” He’s barely ever actually spoken to Booker, so he doesn’t know how to apologize for what he did in Belgrade. He won’t even try with Nicky. “My team and I are split for a few months, just until everything dies down.” He isn’t sure why he says it.
“Will you come back?” Booker asks.
Eliot thinks about it before shaking his head. Then he actually answers. “Not yet. Soon, I think. Give it a couple more years.”
“Alright, I will let the others know you called. Be safe.” Booker says before ending the call. Eliot stares at the screen and tries not to think about the last time he heard the others’ voices.
Eliot and Parker are on a mountain. It’s cold, and Eliot is definitely getting frostbite, even as his skin heals. He keeps a close eye on Parker, who just gives him a thumbs up every time he checks in. Then they’re falling into a crevice, where the client’s husband has died.
Eliot knows they won’t be able to bring his body back up. Even before the rope snaps when Parker tries to climb out. She tries to, so hard, but Eliot knows they can’t. Even if they could get him up, they’d freeze trying to drag him back down. Or, well, Parker would, and Eliot would bring her body back before anything else.
He finally convinces her to leave the body, but not before they watch the video on his phone. Then he sends Parker up and waits for her signal. He gets more worried the longer it takes, and when minutes finally pass, he calls out, “Parker?” He doesn’t try to mask the worry in his voice.
Nor does he hide his sigh of relief when she calls back, “I’m here!” It’s faint with all the snow but he hears her loud and clear. “Come on up.” And they leave the mountain.
(What he doesn’t know is that five people are having dreams of people they’ve never met. And four of those five are assuming it’s six. Because Booker is trying the phone but nobody is picking up, since Eliot left it in his Baghdad safehouse. Four people have just dreamt of a young woman dying in the cold, then waking up and calling down to her friend. But none of those four can see who it is.)
The second time Eliot forgets his crew isn’t immortal, Hardison is stuck in a coffin. Except he doesn’t forget so much as convince himself otherwise. Because if Hardison is immortal then they’ll find him in time. He can’t suffocate if he never runs out of air.
But then he thinks of Quynh, for the first time in a while, and her constant torture of dying over and over again, running out of air. He’s going to find Hardison.
They track him down at a cemetery, but before Sophie and Parker can dig him up, the cartel starts shooting at them. Eliot is still caught up with fighting one of the other cartel members, but he can’t help his pride as Parker takes care of it.
Nate is almost done digging him out and Eliot rushes to his side to lift him out of the coffin. He’s coughing, taking in air like every breath could be his last. Eliot knows the feeling. He holds him close and tells him that’s never happening again. Eliot will make sure of it.
(What he doesn’t know is that four people are having dreams of two others, and they can’t get a hold of their fifth. Four people have just dreamt of a young man suffocating to death in a coffin, then waking up and being pulled out by a face they can’t see. They watch from his eyes as he makes eye contact with a blonde woman.)
It takes a year for Eliot to make it back to his Baghdad safehouse, with everything that’s happened with Latimer and Dubenich. When he finally gets there, his desk is piled with letters, and there are hundreds of calls on his phone.
The only reason he doesn’t panic is that none of them can die. So he takes in a breath, and finally calls back Booker.
He answers on the first ring. “Finally! Lord and Heaven above, Eliot, it’s been a year! We thought you must have broken the phone, otherwise you would have called! Where have you been?” Booker rambles on.
Eliot laughs. “Sorry, I was busy with my team. Left my phone in Baghdad and was only just able to get back. Did you guys… need something?”
There’s silence for a moment. “Did we need something? The dreams, Eliot! Of course we need something. We need to find out who they are.”
Eliot’s brow furrows. “Wait, wait, what dreams?”
“You mean you haven’t gotten them?” Nicky’s voice comes through the phone. Eliot’s heart stops for a moment in relief at hearing that voice again.
“No, I haven’t gotten them. And did you say they? How many are there?”
This time it’s Joe’s voice. “There’s two. A white woman with blonde hair and a black man. We think they know each other.”
His happiness at hearing Joe is halted by the description. “How long ago did they die?” He asks, his voice tight.
“The woman died first, probably early spring on a mountain. Hypothermia.” Eliot blinks slowly. “The man died a few months later in a coffin. Suffocation.”
Eliot lets out a harsh laugh. “Fuck.” He puts his head in his hands. “Goddamnit.”
“You know them?” Andy asks.
Eliot groans. “Know ‘em? They’re my damn teammates.” That’s the only explanation they get, even though Parker and Hardison are much more to him than just teammates. Then the rest of Joe’s description hits him. “I was with them.” He says hollowly. “When they died.”
He hears each of their sharp breaths over the phone. “You couldn’t have known.” Nicky tells him. “They died where you couldn’t see, you had no reason to doubt they ever stopped breathing.”
Eliot’s laugh is watery. “If they were mortal they would’ve died. It’s my job to protect them.”
“Eliot,” Andy’s voice is gentle. He hadn’t realized Booker had told them his new name. “Are you ready yet?”
Was he? It had been around two hundred years since he last ran with them, nine since he last saw any of them but Booker. He thinks about it then comes to a decision. “Give me one more year.” He answers.
“Okay.” Andy says. “Bring them with you.” They say their goodbyes, then Eliot is alone in Baghdad again. He takes this time to read through the pile of letters they’ve left him.
He tries to think of how to tell them and comes up blank each time. It isn’t until their job in DC that it finally comes up. When Hardison activates the bomb in the house, Eliot thinks about just telling him to move. He’s come back from an explosion before. But he isn’t sure if Hardison and Parker are even aware of their immortality, so he sticks for disabling it the old-fashioned way. With Parker disabling the bomb upside down.
Then he gets shot twice on the train, and he knows the wounds will heal before they even get off the train. Sure enough, they do, but Parker and Hardison don’t notice until they’re back above ground and there’s an ambulance.
“You should get checked out, man.” Hardison tells him.
Eliot shakes his head. “Don’t need to.”
“What do you mean, you don’t need to? You got shot! Twice!”
Eliot thinks about lying, just telling them the bullets missed, before he decides against it. “Look at me man, do I look like I got shot.” He gestures to the tears in his clothes where he got shot, but there’s no bullet holes in his skin.
Hardison blinks at him. “How?”
Parker answers before he can. “He’s like me!” She beams.
“Technically,” Eliot corrects, “you’re like me.” Then he turns to Hardison. “You too.”
“Me too what? What is happening here?” Hardison looks like he’s about to freak out, so Eliot and Parker drag him away to a safehouse to continue the conversation.
When they get there, they all sit down, the silence tense until Eliot breaks it. “Parker, give me a knife.” He says, holding his hand out.
“Nuh uh,” Hardison protests. “No way, man. No way in-”
“Here.” Parker hands him a knife.
“Thanks.” He holds the knife against his hand and locks eyes with Hardison. “Trust me.” Then he stabs his palm with the knife before pulling the blade back out.
Hardison is really doing his best not to freak out, Eliot can tell, meanwhile Parker is watching his hand in awe. His skin is slowly putting itself back together until the only evidence that something happened is the blood on the knife.
Hardison blinks at his hand. Parker grabs it, poking at it from both sides. Eliot doesn’t flinch. “Have you been having dreams?” He asks them both.
Parker nods. “Yeah, about the people. There’s five of them.” She frowns. “I don’t like dreaming about the lonely one.”
Eliot grabs her hand in his own. He’d forgotten that they would dream about her too. “Her name is Quynh,” he tells them. “The others are Andy, Nicky, Joe and Booker.” It feels odd, to not introduce them with their true names, but Parker and Hardison will take the modern names better.
“How do you know that?” Hardison demands. “How do you know any of this?”
“Because they’re like us.” Eliot answers. “We’re immortal. We- we can’t die, Hardison.” He waits for the truth of their situation to find them.
“Ever?” Parker asks quietly.
Eliot thinks of the story Quynh told them of Lykon. He nods anyways. “Ever.”
Hardison is staring blankly at the wall. “Eliot,” he says shakily. “How old are you?”
Eliot pauses at the question. He has to think for a moment. “Almost four hundred.” He finally answers. Hardison’s head hits the table.
“Okay, cool,” he says when he lifts his head up, his voice pitched high. “Alright, that’s a lot of information for five minutes. Let’s go slower.”
Eliot laughs but obliges. “When you- when.” His face shutters. He still can’t accept that they actually died once.
“When we died?” Parker offers. Eliot nods.
“When you come back, you have dreams of every other immortal. The reason we didn’t dream of each other is that we’d already met.” He explains. “Once you meet, the dreams stop.”
“So who are the other four?” Hardison asks.
“They work like us, sort of. Ridding the world of corrupt evil. Only they just sort of… kill everything.” He tells them. “I haven’t seen ‘em in a while.”
Parker tilts her head. “When can we meet them?” She’s practically bouncing in her seat. “And since we can’t die now, does that mean I can jump off buildings without gear?”
“No.” Hardison and Eliot both say at the same time. “It still hurts, Parker. Okay? And- and I don’t want you to die at all, even if you come back.” Eliot tells her, holding her hand gently.
Parker looks him in the eye and nods. “Fine. I’ll test it from inside the brewpub.” Eliot sighs but doesn’t argue, because he knows that’s the best he’s going to get.
He turns to Hardison to see what his overall reaction is. Hardison looks at him and shrugs. “I’ll get used to it,” he says, voice still high. “I think.”
Eliot smiles and drags them both to the couch to watch a movie to relax. Somehow, during the movie, Eliot ends up in the middle of both of them, cuddling close together. He doesn’t mind.
When Sophie asks him to protect them, he says, “‘til my dying day,” with no real thought at how true it is.
It isn’t until after Nate and Sophie leave that the implication of literally forever hits him, because they can’t die. They laugh, and Parker gives him a kiss on the cheek. He smiles as she walks to the couch, and finds that he doesn’t mind.
Eliot takes them to Baghdad when he decides it’s time. He’s ready now. It’s been almost two hundred years, but he’s ready to see them again. And for them to meet his lovers and fellow immortals. So he texts Booker that he’ll be in Baghdad, and that it’s time.
Before his team arrives, Eliot holds Andy’s letter in his hands. He takes a breath, then opens it. Took you long enough. It reads. Eliot laughs. Go figure.
He sorts through his letters while he waits, while Parker and Hardison make themselves comfortable on his couch. He closes the drawer just as the door opens. He shoots out of his chair and runs to the living room, only to freeze when he finally sees them.
They don’t look any older, other than the weariness in their eyes. They all spot him immediately, and he sort of feels like running. Nicky is looking at him with a mix of hesitation and leftover anger. Eliot doesn’t blame him. Joe is smiling, and he’s holding onto Nicky like he always has. Booker simply greets him with a nod.
Andy looks him over and smiles. Aside from himself, Eliot knows the true judge of whether he’s ready or not is Andy. And she seems to think he’s ready. “We’ve missed you.” She smiles.
Eliot laughs into a grin. “I’ve missed you guys too.” He takes a step closer, specifically watching Nicky’s reaction. He takes another step when the man relaxes.
“You grew your hair out.” Nicky points out. They’re standing close enough now that Nicky can run his hands through Eliot’s hair.
Eliot does the same. “You did too.” There are two pointed coughs; one from Joe, and the other from Hardison. Both men step away from each other with a laugh. Then Eliot turns to his partners. “Uh, guys these are-”
“The people from our dreams.” Parker cuts him off with a nod. “Hi, I’m Parker.” She turns to Hardison, who is still glaring at Nicky. “Hardison, say hi.” Parker shoves him.
Hardison jumps and startles into a friendlier face. “I’m Hardison.” He waves.
“I already told ‘em your names.” Eliot tells the others. They all nod and move to sit on or by the couch.
There’s a beat of awkward silence before Parker blurts out, “How much does it hurt to fall off a building with no gear?” She asks, wide-eyed.
Eliot smacks his forehead loudly. Nicky laughs. “Depends on how many bones you break.”
The comment spurs the entire room into an argument, which Eliot sits back for. He smiles, watching the people he’s known for hundreds of years interacted with the people he will be with for hundreds of years more. He’s content with all of them in his infinite life.