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"Eliot! Quinn! Are you okay?" The voice screaming in his ear made him jolt awake as if he was electrocuted. Quinn groaned. His head hurt and there was an annoying sting in his arm. He slowly got his limbs under control enough to feel for whatever was pinching him. He pulled a dart. Damn. Well that explained the cloudy feeling in his head. But not his clouded vision, which wouldn't go away when he blinked. "Eliot? Quinn? Dammit," "Parker?" Quinn managed. His tongue felt heavy. "QUINN? Oh my- Where are you?" The screech made his head pound harder. "I'm not sure. Got sedated. Rooms all....damn is that smoke?" There was murmuring in his ear that he couldn't understand while he tried to figure out why the world was spinning so badly. "Is Eliot with you?" That was Hardison, worried but a firm voice, calming his fast beating heart. "I'm not...," his eyes fell on a motionless form on the opposite side of the room. His body was moving before his head had caught up, making him even more dizzy, but that didn't stop him from limping over and dropping down on his knees. Eliot was laying on his side. A small puddle of blood had gathered under his head and he didn't react when Quinn shook his shoulder. "Come on pal, you can't be serious," he muttered and coughed when the smoke started to bite his throat. He pressed his shaking fingers to the side of his neck and released the breath he hadn't realised he was holding when he found a pulse. "Quinn! Talk to us!" Parker demanded. "I've got Eliot. But hes unconscious, headwound, steady pulse. I don't know where we are but there must be a fire closeby." He coughed again. He started to notice that he was running out of air and it wasn't pleasant. "Hold tight we -re - - out!" His earbud made a weird static noise and fell silent. "Parker? Hardison?!" They didn't answer and Quinn started to feel panic well in his chest. -
Quinn startled awake with a gasp. His heart was pounding as if he'd run a marathon and his eyes were burning. A tear slipped down his cheek before he got his breathing back under control. It took him a moment to figure out where he was. The room was dark, only slightly lit by a blueish nightlight someone had plugged in next to the door. He was in a bed. The sheets were soft in his whiteknuckled grasp. He released his grip slowly and with care. The joints in his fingers hurt along with his jaw. Quinn must've clenched his teeth too hard. There was a sudden dread rising in his chest as he tried to remember how the last few days went down. Parker had asked him to join in on a fun little job. Nothing too serious.
They had broken into an officebuilding. Eliot and him bickered and traded joked while taking out the security until they didn't. There was still a hole in his memories between hitting the ground and slipping into the dark and waking up in the basement along with a fire right outside the door. It hasn't taken long for Parker and Hardison to locate them but by the time they got to them... Quinn swallowed the bile rising in his throat as he remembered the feeling of chocking on the smoke. And Eliots pulse had been declining by the minute while he desperately tried to find a way through the flames for them. Quinn didn't even remember how they had gotten back to the brewpup. Only that he had woken up with an oxygenmask over his face in this same room. Parker had made clear that he would stay for a while. She had been so serious and unlike herself that Quinn didn't argue. Even though he was more than uncomfortable with the team being there, right outside the door. Speaking of? He strained his ears to pick up anything going on outside but there was only silence greeting him. He wondered if Eliot was still alive or if they kept him around because they needed a hitter to replace him. He hadn't seen or spoken to the man since the basement.
Curiosity won out in the end and he got out of bed as quietly as he could. His naked feet were loud in the quiet but he didn't bother with socks. He didn't like the way the material got caughed on the band aids that covered the burns on his feet. So he slowly padded into the hallway. His eyes started to get used to the darkness, but there was no way to miss the warm light shining through a crack in the door down the hall. He slowly made his way towards it and nudged the door a little wider open. He saw Eliot lying in a bed with at least three blankets piled on top of him. There was a bandage wrapped around his head, his eyes were closed but his chest was evenly rising and falling. Quinn felt out of place. No hitter should ever be as vulnerable as this while another was in the same house with him. He took a step back suddenly horrified and immediatly bumped into someone behind him. "What are you doing out of bed?" Parker sounded curious but also like a mother scolding her child. Quinn tensed and slowly turned, "I... uhm..." Parker looked at him with a tilted head and seemed to wait for him to find his words. "I just... haven't seen him since... you know. Didn't know how he was doing." It made Parker smile. "He's okay," she said. "Or he will be. You can go inside you know?" "Better not...," Quinn slowly retreated back to the guestroom with Parkers eyes burning into his back.
Quinn didn't go to sleep again afterwards, even though he managed to close his eyes. There were shadows dancing behind his eyelids and he feared they would turn into flames again if he slipped into sleep. He didn't acknowledge when somebody came into the room and pressed a soft hand against his forehead. Quinn held as still as possible so whoever wouldn't notice that he was very much awake. "Do you think hes okay?" Parker whispered and Hardison hummed "No fever mama. Maybe the sedative still hasn't worn off fully. We'll keep an eye, yeah?" The hand left its place on his forehead and tucked the blanket tighter around his body instead. Quinn made an effort to not shy away from the contact. Or squirm. He only dared to move when he heard the door close. His skin was itching uncomfortably in places.
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"Hold still, I can't redress this if you keep moving," Parker complained from behind his back. Quinn squirmed, "I could have done this on my own." He said (definitly not whined. Quinn didn't whine.) "I would love to see that," she gave back. Quinn winced. He had a few bigger burnmarks on his back that he couldn't reach and was now sitting on his bed with no shirt on so Parker could check them. She sat right behind him and Quinn didn't like it. "Do you want them to get infected?" She asked. "No," he sighed. "Then keep your head still," her fingers were in his hair suddenly to tilt his head and Quinn jerked away. A few strands got caught in her fingers and got ripped out, but the pain barely registered as he lurched away and turned so he could see her. She was sitting stockstill on his bed, studying him through narrowed eyes. "I guess i won't do that again, huh?" She said. Quinn forced the instinct to fight down and nodded silently, unconsciously sweeping the room with his eyes to make sure its really only Parker in there. It was empty and he let his shoulders sag down in relief. The movement pulled on the wound in the back of his neck and he hissed. This was embarassing. He walked back to Parker like a puppy that got spooked during a walk and ran back to its people to get some comfort and sat down again in front of her, hands tightly clasped together and shoulders tense. "You know you could have told me that you don't want me at your back," Parker pointed out quietly while she worked on cleaning the wound, again. Quinn kept silent, forcing himself to stay calm. Parker gave him a quick squeeze around the shoulders when she was done and flitted away before he could react in any way. All tension left him at once when he was finally sure he was alone in the room.
Quinn slipped out once he was sure his nervous system was calm enough. No restless fingers, no buzz under his skin, no fast heartbeat. He was as calm as he was able to get. And that had to be enough. He ignored the faint itch on the back of his hands. Slowly he made his way down the hall, entering quietly. But not quiet enough. Eliot might be still injured and mostly held down by painmeds but his head immediatly turned to the door when it moved. His lips quirked up a bit. "Good to see you on your feet," he rasped. "Couldn't stay in bed much longer," Quinn admitted. He pulled a chair out and sat down beside him, "How're you doing?" Eliot hummed, "Head hurts. Knocked me out good after you hit the ground." "You saw that?" "You literally told me that you were hit... before you faceplanted." Quinn didn't remember that. But the snickering coming from Eliot made him roll his eyes. He chuckeled in turn when Eliot made a pained noise. "You shouldn't laugh with a headinjury," Quinn pointed out. "I know," Eliot groaned. They fell silent for a while. Quinn was unconsciously fidgeting with the hem of his shirt when Eliot spoke up again, "You're gonna stick around for a while, right?" "Why?" "The team needs protection while I'm: you know," Eliot gestures with a hand towards himself, "And you are the only person I trust to do that." "I shouldn't stick around...," Quinn began but stopped himself because he couldn't think of a reason he could tell Eliot without giving too much away. It would sound weird and vulnerable to say having the team around made his skin itch and his heart pound out of his chest and that he felt trapped while all the doors were open, wouldn't it? Eliot hummed, waiting for him to go on. Quinn didn't. He suddenly had the urge to run and hope non of them would contact him ever again. "It's weird, isn't it? To have somebody who cares all of the sudden?" Eliot said thoughtfully. "I don't know what you try to say," Quinn deflected, but Eliot wasn't finished yet. "Parker gets these eyes sometimes you know? When she encountered something she doesn't understand? Usually she'll go to Hardison and when she gets back that look will have changed into something like fascination or disgust or anything else really." Quinn shifted slightly, eyeing the door and wondering if Eliot could stop him if he ran now. "But earlier, when she had this look on her face, she came to me. Wanna know what her question was?" Eliot had a slight smile on his face, the one where only one side of his lips curled up. Quinn hadn't figured out yet what it meant. Eliot didn't wait for an answer. "She asked 'Why is Quinn hurting?' And I said 'Probably because he dragged me through a fire?' And she said 'But he is hurting inside! Why?'" Quinn felt how his fingers started to tremble. He felt so small under Eliots knowing eyes and he hated it. He shoved them into his pockets and tried to take a deep breath. It didn't feel satisfying enough, so he tried again. "What do you think I answered her?" Quinn shrugged, hoping he looked nonchalant enough. "Well. My best guess is: He's scared for himself. In our line of work you don't get nice and gentle people around you, especially not when your injured. Its an instinct that is taught by experience. Having the team around and close is...stressful." Eliot reached a hand over and Quinn scrambled to catch it with his own because Eliots was shaking to badly. He blinked the tears away that threatened to spill.
He had to tear his eyes away from where Eliots hand lay warmly in his on the bed and looked at his face instead. The other hitter had closed his eyes and seemed on the brink of sleep. "How did you do it?" Quinn asked quietly. The smile grew wider on Eliots face, "I learned to trust them. Because they trusted me." His voice got quieter to the end and a few minutes later Quinn realised that he had fallen asleep. The implication of it hit him like a truck. Eliot just fell asleep with another hitter in the room, another hitter who held his hand, another hitter who had dragged him through a fire alongside his teammates to get him to safety. Eliot trusted him with his wellbeing and with his team. Quinn almost jerked away because of the realisation but Eliot had a vice grip even when asleep. So Quinn stayed seated while his mind desperately tried to come up with any reaction or emotion that would fit the situation. The panic that had already welled up when Parker had been sitting behind him started to overwhelm everything else when the door opened and Hardison strolled in. He stopped short when he noticed the distressed man on Eliots bedside. "Hey, whats going on?" He asked gently. "Eliot okay?" Quinn nodded, trying to keep his breathing under control. "Hey man, you can tell me if somethings wrong, yeah?" Hardison carefully detached Eliots fingers from Quinns, without waking the hitter and Quinn exhaled in relief. But his nervous system was still working overtime and he still felt like he was vibrating out of his own skin when a big hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed slightly. Quinn froze under the touch. "Easy man. Do you need to lay down or something?" He nodded towards a couch on the other end of the room. "I... yes-no. I mean-?" he always had had a stutter when he was overly nervous. He had always hated it. Hot shame rose to his head. "Easy man," Hardison repeated. "Let us just, go sit over there and just breath for a bit. Yeah?" The hacker supported him when he got up and walked him over slowly. Quinn sat down hard on the soft material and leaned his elbows onto his knees. Hardison settled in next to him and kept a heavy hand on his shoulder. "4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds out okay?" He said softly and Quinn just managed a small nod. So Hardison started counting while Quinn tried to focus on breathing. It helped, but slowly. The tremble in his limbs stopped after 2 minutes, he felt a wave of dizziness after another 2 when the adrenaline crashed. He felt so tired all of a sudden. A bonedeep exhaustion. He yawned. "There you go," Hardison mumbled. He had been rubbing circles on his back for a while now, Quinn only just noticed. He resisted the urge to lean on the other man.
"Are you gonna be okay for a minute? I'll be right back," All Quinn could do was nod. He wanted to thank the hacker or apologise for whatever that had been. But his mind felt fuzzy and he doubted he could form words right now. So he just watched as the taller man slipped out of the room. He barely noticed how his head hit the pillow on the armrest before his head shut off and he fell asleep.
There was a weight on him when he stirred much later. Someone had maneuvered him so his legs were on the couch too and his head lay comfortably on a pillow. His eyes were gummed up so opening them took a bit of an effort. It was mostly dark in the room, apart from the gentle orange light that came from a lamp in a corner. Quinn was minutely reminded of a fire but the air didn't smell of smoke so the memory left him as fast as it came up. Moving was difficult, he realised. Which was bad. Real bad. "Weighted blanket," voice chirped from somewhere beside him. Quinn looked closer and found Parker sitting on the fluffy carpet, lock picks and a lock in hand. "Hardison said it makes him sleep better so we thought it might help you too," She provided. All the fight that suddenly had came to him left his body at once and he went limp. The pressure actually felt quite nice once he could put a lable on it. "Thanks, Parker," he managed. His throat felt badly, though he couldn't remember screaming. "We made soup. Or well, Eliot made soup and put it in the freezer and we heated it up. Want some?" "Parker, you don't have to..." "But I want to," She gave him a look he only knew from 5 year olds that tried to look serious. He didn't wanna think about why he knew that. Quinn sat up with more effort than one would expect from someone like him and pulled his knees up to his chest. Parker shoved a bowl into his hands and sat down beside him, pressing her shoulder to his. "What time is it?" Quinn asked, just so he would say something. "Somewhere around midnight? You've been sleeping for a while. I mean, you woke up once I think all panicky but then you fell asleep again after Hardison brought out the blanket." A while? Quinn had slept for at least 10 hours. He couldn't even remember that he had woken up somewhere during that time. "Hardison said you were not doing fine. And then you were fine again and then you fell asleep because panic attacks make you tired. And then you woke up because you have nightmares when you sleep and then you fell asleep again because Panic attacks make you tired." "I guess thats true," Quinn admits. "Eliot sleeps a lot too when that happens." "Parker you shouldn't be telling me this." "Why not? I think you should know these things when you're becoming part of the team." "What?" "We're planning on not letting you leave. Is that a problem?" Parker asked. "That sounds a lot like slavery Parker." "But you'll get paid. Slaves didn't get paid." Quinn let out a quiet chuckle, "What makes you think I wanna stay?" "You didn't ask for terms when we brought you in for the last job, you helped safe Eliot even though you could've easily saved yourself with less risk of injury, you didn't fight us when we told you to stay, you sleep badly since the job so that means the situation did something with you and you still haven't tried to leave. So I thought since you are already emotionally attached anyway, why not keep you here permanently?" Parker counted out.
Quinn looked at her stunned, felt how easily she moved in his close vicinity and felt tears well up in his eyes. "I don't know if...," he chocked out. Parker was in front of him in an instant and took the bowl out of his hands which had started to tremble again. "Eliot says its a good idea," she pointed out, "And Eliot knows these things. He also didn't want to stay at first and now he doesn't want to leave anymore. Maybe we can work something out that you only stay with us part time or something?" The thought of leaving suddenly filled him with dread, a punch to the gut he wasn't prepared for. His mind went to lonely places with barely any furniture, late night's plagued by nightmares when he woke up cold and terrified of the dark after. Pain of wounds that weren't healing right because he couldn't afford to stay in one place long enough for them to close. His heart started to pound again.
A hand landed softly on his cheek and his eyes snapped up to Parkers face which was sporting a frown. "It's okay if you don't want to stay. Its scary, i know." She said gently. It ripped a sob out of Quinns throat. "Please don't make me go. Please." It wasn't much more than a whimper. But the thief understood him anyway. He had known that the comfort of a team was dangerous. The care they gave him now was just cruel if they planned to let him go again. (She had just told him they wouldn't but he couldn't pick the right things to remember out right now) It really hadn't taken long for him to go soft didn't it? And now he would pay the price. The hand on his cheek changed places and gripped his shoulder tightly, grounding. "You'll stay if you want to Quinn," Parker said seriously, "Everyone wants you to." He managed a tight nod and sniffled. Parkers face relaxed and a smile appeared. She pushed the bowl back into his hands and sat down next to him again. The bowl had gone cold in the meantime. But Quinn ate the soup anyway between sniffling and lone sobs. He looked up once to where Eliot was still lying in bed. The other hitter was awake and watched them through halflidded eyes, a gentle smile on his face. Quinn finally started to relax.
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A few weeks later there were two hitters standing side by side downstairs in the pub, watching Parker and Hardison talk to a client. One of them wore a flannel shirt and his hair in a ponytail so it wouldn't get caught on the pinkish line on his forehead while the other wore a dressshirt without a suit and his hair in a halfbun. Their shoulders knocked together briefly as they joined Parker at the table after the client had left. "Lets go steal the national library" she said and they chuckled at her amused while she grinned brightly. And Quinn? Quinn couldn't stop the smile that was blooming on his face, cause they had told him he would stay and that was what he was gonna do.