Baltimore, Thursday Evening, Right Before Sunset

[spin_kick_snap]

Things that really plucked Kathy's last nerve: 1) turning around and seeing a giant mountain of luggage behind her at the gym when she was perfectly well-adjusted, thank you, and 2) turning around and seeing a trail of mooks trussed like the Thanksgiving turkey behind her on patrol the night before when she was perfectly capable of handling herself, thank you. Never mind that she hadn't noticed at least three of them on her tail--in fact, that just made it even more annoying You know what made someone feel even more resentful? Knowing that she should be feeling grateful instead. Ugh! Not that she had any idea who this 'mysterious benefactor' was--the brief glimpses she'd caught of him showed that he was too tall to be Eliot and too compact to be Mr. Hardison. Which meant that Eliot had farmed this...this...this baby-sitting job off on someone else, because he couldn't be bothered.

So, yeah. She'd gone to sleep fulminating over that and woke up with a duffel bag at the foot of her bed that said Never going to be good enough and you know what? Kathy was just done. The baggage had only gotten worse throughout the day until Kathy had shoved her gi into a backpack and lit out for Baltimore after lunch. Anything to be away from that stupid island for the rest of the day. And, hey, maybe that would make it a lot ha.rder for her obnoxious shadow to find her, too.

Honestly, could today get any worse?

[For them that know who they are, please! NFB]

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[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy hit the ground with her knees, crumpling up into a tiny ball as she attempted to breathe, throat feeling raw and swollen. She coughed, a nasty, rasping noise, then sucked in great amounts of air. The Butcher hadn't wanted to strangle her. No, that would have been too gentle. He'd tried to crush her throat.

All she wanted to do was stay down, to finally do what Eliot had asked and let him handle it. The Butcher's lackeys were all down, most of them hurt worse than she'd been--she could stay curled up and breathing until Eliot finished with the Butcher, then maybe help him finish tying them up and...call the cops? Maybe? Let Leverage, Inc sort it out?

God, that sounded so good. So, so, so good. But she couldn't. She had to get up. Because sometimes other heroes needed stopping, too.

"Don't," she croaked, her hand soft on Eliot's shoulder. "Eliot, don't. Please. This isn't--he isn't worth it."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot flinched when her hand touched his shoulder, the knife wobbling for a moment before he held it steady again. Not driving it forward, behind the man's jaw and into his carotid artery -- but not pulling it away either.

"I've already let him live twice," he growled. "I ain't makin' that mistake again."

The Butcher glared back at him, hissing like a cat. Eliot put more pressure on his throat to shut him up.

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"There has to be another way, Eliot. There just has to be." Kathy kept her voice low, soft. Earnest. "Don't let him make you a killer."

The Butcher laughed, a choked noise around the knife. "Too late for that, blyadtch. He was a killer long before the first time we fought."

"You're not that same man now," Kathy said, shooting the Butcher a nasty glare but otherwise ignoring him. "You're not like him. You don't have to be. We can find another way."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shook his head. The rage was fading, now that he knew Kathy was alright, but he'd made this decision long before he'd seen the Butcher trying to crush the life out of her. "This is the only way, Kathy. He'll just come back, otherwise."

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"That's bullshit, Eliot!" Kathy said. "There's always another way! There's never just one choice! We can find another option! You're part of Leverage! That's what you do! You find solutions no one else can!"

[vdistinctive]

"Dammit, Ka -- kid." Eliot huffed heavily through his nose. The glare he shot over his shoulder at her was rather more distressed than he would have liked to admit. "For once in your life, would you just listen to me?!"

That glance back was the opportunity the Butcher had been waiting for. He smashed his fist into Eliot's cut cheek, grabbed the knife from Eliot's hand, and sent Eliot crashing back into Kathy and down to the alley floor.

"This is touching," he said, pulling yet another knife from his coat. "Maybe I'll kill you both at the same time."

[vdistinctive]

"Actually, mate, I don't think you will."

The Butcher looked up, eyes blazing in fury, to see a figure silhouetted at the mouth of the alley. "Who?!"

"James Sterling." He stepped further into the alley, holding his badge aloft with one hand, the other holding a gun trained on the Butcher. "Interpol. And if that doesn't convince you. . . ."

"Baltimore PD!" Cops came pouring into the alley to either side of Sterling, all them armed. "Drop the weapon!"

Eliot glared up at Sterling. "You're enjoying this, aren't you."

"Not entirely. I was hoping for an excuse to arrest you, too."

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Kathy peeked out from under Eliot's bulk. He was short, but very compact, damn. "Eliot?" she asked. "Who is this guy?"

And before anyone could answer, she added, "I heard the introduction. I meant more generally. It's clearly personal."

Also, ow. The asphalt was hard.

[vdistinctive]

"He's a dick," Eliot grumbled. He levered himself to his feet, careful not to accidentally shove or kick Kathy in the process, then pressed gingerly at his cheek and grimaced. "Hardison calls him 'lawful good'."

Eliot clearly didn't approve. Hardison hadn't, either, and had in fact added a number of other, more colorful qualifiers to the term.

"Now, don't pout, Spencer." Sterling holstered his gun once the Butcher was disarmed and cuffed. "After all, I just saved your sorry little life."

The Butcher had cooperated with little more than a sneer, clearly counting on his ability to get back out of jail with ease. He snorted at Sterling's statement and leered a promise at Eliot.

"You know the prison system can't hold him," Eliot said, now pressing his hand to his ribs, checking to make sure they'd come out in tact.

"Not in this country," Sterling agreed. "But our friend here is wanted in plenty. I'm thinking . . . Myanmar." The Butcher flinched and Sterling smiled. "They're offering almost as much for him as they are for you."

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"He's one of those?" Kathy asked, bouncing back up to her feet with the ease of both youth and weird powers. Obviously she spoke geek. And, as a vigilante, she was much more chaotic good anyway. "Is this the guy you had following me for the past week?"

Also, don't think for a minute she wasn't going to be grilling you about Myanmar, Spencer.

[vdistinctive]

"What?" Eliot frowned at her. "No."

Sterling snorted. "As though I'd take orders from Spencer."

"Why are you here?" Eliot asked him.

"Because you have better friends than you deserve." Sterling sent the Butcher off to a police car with a heavy pat on the back and a shove.

Eliot shook his head. Hardison and Parker would never -- "Nate?"

Sterling gave him a knowing side-eye. "It certainly wasn't your military chums." He pointed to Eliot's cheek, just milimeters from touching it. Eliot jerked his head away. "Might want to get that checked, mate. Hate for it to get infected."

And then he walked out of the alley, pleased as ever to get the last clever word in.

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"So, did he really just sweep in here, take our perp, smarm at us like it's his job, and then swan off to take all the credit for catching him?" Kathy wanted to make sure she completely understood what was happening here. "After mourning that he couldn't arrest you and making some oblique threat about Myanmar?"

[vdistinctive]

"He did." Eliot sighed, stepping around a cop trying to arrest an unconscious mafioso and heading for the mouth of the alley. "Again."

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Kathy was careful to hide her bloody knuckles in her pockets and stepped lightly out of the alleyway. "So what are we saying? Unfortunate mugging victims?" she asked in an undertone. "Assuming we have to say anything at all."

She followed him, half a step behind. "If not that guy, who did you have tailing me?" she asked, trying not to sound bitter.

He had just asked for everyone's help for this, hadn't he? Everyone but hers, of course.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot had years of practice dodging around cops to get out of a crime scene, so he just tucked his chin a little and kept moving.

Sterling could take care of the paperwork. He'd probably even enjoy it, the asshole.

"I'm guessin' Shelley. I didn't have him tailing you, I just said to keep an eye out." Eliot smiled faintly. "He's a damn boy scout. Always goin' a step beyond."

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"Yeah, I kept appreciating how he--" Kathy bit down on the rest of her comment. "You can thank him for me," she said instead. Sounding grudging. "He does good work."

Her work. He'd done her work. But he'd done it well enough.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot looked over at her as they got clear of the cops, no longer as worried about hiding his face. "You do, too, you know." He nodded behind them. "Back there. That was real good. Ain't many people would've had my back any better."

There was nothing grudging or patronizing in his tone. Eliot didn't believe in critiques that weren't honest, especially not about fighting.

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Eliot "Teaching Moment" Spencer.

For a moment, Kathy just smiled; bright and happy and roughly a million megawatts. His praise meant a lot to her. A whole lot, since she knew how sincere it was. Her mentor was proud of her. "Thanks, I--"

Her smile faltered. Fell. His praise felt good, but it didn't make things right. Admittedly, she had her own fair share of blame to shoulder for that, but... "You still would have had me a million miles from here. Except you would have died, Eliot. You told me over and over how dangerous this guy was, but you were still stalking through all of Baltimore by yourself to take him on."

[vdistinctive]

"Might've died," Eliot admitted. "Mighta landed my hands on something useful and gotten the upper hand back. But I wasn't alone." He tapped his ear -- where his earbud had fallen out at some point, and probably ended up crunched under someone's heel. Hardison would be giving him hell for that. "Just 'cause you can't see it don't mean backup ain't around." He sighed again, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "You're young, Kathy. I know it's just about the last thing someone your age wants to hear, but it's true. You're idealistic, untested. I couldn't pick you at my back because I knew he could kill me. And then he'd have a straight line to you. You've got too much potential to waste it dyin' at the hands of someone like the Butcher."

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He was right, she didn't like hearing it. But she knew he wasn't wrong. At least, not about her being young. Everything else, however...

"Well, what about you?" she demanded. "Have you used up all your potential or something? Have you gotten to the point where it's okay to throw yourself away on the Butcher? Where's this vaunted backup of yours? Where's your army buddy? Why isn't he here backing you up? Where are Parker and Hardison? What did you think you were going to do, fight him and his jerks off?"

Ugh, now she was tearing up. But she'd seen how close it had been--the idea of Eliot dying alone in an alleyway because he was being stupid--!

[vdistinctive]

"I've done it before." That probably wasn't as reassuring as he'd thought it would be. "And honestly, if I hadn't been trying to make sure you didn't catch a wild swing, he might not've come as close to takin' me out as he did." Again, this was matter of fact. He was still annoyed, but he kept it out of his voice as best he could. "I shouldn't've blown you off the way I did. I'm sorry about that. But if I'm gonna be teaching you, darlin', you gotta start listenin' to me all the time. Not just when you like what I've got to say."

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"You didn't just blow me off, Eliot, you dismissed me. Everything I do, everything I thought I was capable of--suddenly it didn't matter. It became some...some dumb kid's game or something!" That was the problem about pushing people away for their own good. Sometimes they didn't go far enough and you were left trying to repair the damage. "You want me to listen to you? Maybe try talking first. Without telling me that I'm good enough only when the stakes don't matter."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot bit back a sharp retort, reminding himself that he was more than twice her age. And how much of an idiot he'd been at seventeen, too.

"I ain't -- always great with the explaining things." Hardison would be laughing uproariously at that understatement. And then glaring. "I promise to try when it ain't life or death. Frankly --" He ran a hand through his hair, wincing as he ended up pulling a few strands that had gotten caught in the blood on his cheek. "You scare the shit out of me."

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"Me?" Kathy looked honestly baffled. "I don't scare anyone!"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot chuckled ruefully. "If that were true you wouldn't have had the Butcher called in to take you out. That -- that ain't what I mean, though." Did Kathy have any idea how hard it was for him to come out and say things like this? "I ain't -- I've never done this before. Hell, I only recently got used to workin' with a team. I screw it up. . . ."

If he screwed it up, he got to see what happened on the alien ship happen all over again. Only this time without it being a simulation.