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Tweak says, "Okay!"

_eliot_spencer (_eliot_spencer) wrote in omega_reality,
@ 2012-11-29 08:15:00

Entry tags:

*complete, 2012 11, character: april kepner, character: eliot spencer, dead: nathan ford

RP: Eliot/April/Nate
Who: Eliot/April/Nate
When: 11-29-12
Where: Cool Springs Inn
Summary: Time to settle in

Eliot sat at the small table in the motel room, eating the remaining fries from their take out dinner. April was across from him, laptop open, scrolling through rental sites. Nate sat propped against the headboard on his bed, legs crossed at the ankles, watching WGN News.

Eliot had worked his first day as a line cook at B&J's American Cafe. He'd been hired full-time on the spot on Monday after his interview. He'd be working around the Pappas' niece's college schedule, as she was the alternate cook, giving him Monday and Wednesdays off weekly until May. The hours at the diner were great, in Eliot's opinion, from 0600 to 1400. The early afternoons allowed for him not to have to find time to cram in his akido/kempo workout.

It had been a pleasant surprise that April had been able to find a job quickly, too. Eliot hadn't been concerned about Nate; by Tuesday, Nate had already obtained a full-time-with-benefits job in advertising sales at the local WCOE-FM radio station. April had gotten hired that morning as a part-time receptionist at Medspa Women's Healthcare.

With jobs in hand and salaries known, it was time to find a place to live and get settled. Three adults and a collie in a small motel room wasn't the ideal situation. Eliot slipped a fry to Cody under the table and hid a smile behind his hand when April gave him a look.

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april_kepner
2012-11-29 07:56 pm UTC (link)

"Don't feed him that stuff," April reprimanded. "He'll get sick. It's not proper food for a dog."

She scrolled down the site she was looking at, dismissing house after house for various reasons. Too small, too expensive, too expensive and too small... but whatever she looked at she kept going back to the same house.

One house, two two-bedroom apartments, one upstairs and one downstairs. One apartment would do for her and Eliot, if Nate took the upstairs one they'd share a house but still leave Nate with some privacy. Yet with both it would be close to $1000 a week which was more than they were willing to pay.

That didn't stop her from googling the house and looking at the street view. It looked like a lovely area, it would give them a small yard for Cody and it was only a 15 minute walk from Eliot and Nate's workplaces.

"I might have found something," April said, looking up. "It's too expensive, but it's perfect. It's a house with two apartments," she said turning over her computer so that they could see. "Nate could live upstairs, we could take the one downstairs. It's living together only not, you'd still have your privacy," she told Nate. What was better was that the closest neighbors would be in the next house, not on the other side of the wall.

Nate looked up from the news he was watching. "It's very nice of you to think of me, but I have my eyes on a place in town," he said. "I saw it in the paper today." What was better it was right above one of the pubs in town which suited him perfectly.

April's mouth hung open, because this was a horrible idea on so many levels. "Splitting up is a bad idea," she said. "How would you do evacuation drills? How would we warn you if there is an attack coming? What happens if you have an accident with your power?" She looked to Eliot for support. Surely he couldn't like this idea any more than she did?

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	_eliot_spencer 2012-11-29 08:02 pm UTC (link)
	Eliot ate another fry, thinking about it before answering. "I don't know, Nate. Splitting up is more natural looking, but if things go south you're not going to end up in jail again like back home," he said. "It also isn't going to get you out of keeping up with training, if that's your reasoning." (Reply to this) (Thread)

nate_ford
2012-11-29 08:12 pm UTC (link)

"Which is why this house is perfect," April said before Nate had time to answer. "It's two apartments, so we wouldn't be living together, just close to each other."

Nate reluctantly detached himself from the news for a moment longer, and turned to the two. "Look, I know things are different in this place, not at all like it would have been back home, but the two of you are still newlyweds. You deserve your privacy and your own home," he said.

"Second it is more natural looking, and third, this flat would put me in the middle of town where things are happening. I might not go to church..." He ignored April's 'you should', still amused that Eliot had caved. "...but I get to know people my way." He wasn't a sociable man, he liked to keep his circle of friends small to the point of nonexistant, had ever since Sam had died, but he talked to people and this would provide him with a lot of people to talk to - and a place to drink that was close to home.

He turned the sound up on the news again. "Have you seen this?" he asked. "Apparently there is a serial killer in Chicago."

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_eliot_spencer
2012-11-29 08:29 pm UTC (link)

Getting to know people Nate's way meant being at a bar, Eliot knew. He shook his head slightly. "There aren't cameras in this town that link to anywhere. A few of the places that do have cameras are still using VCRs. Unless one of us does something stupid, we shouldn't get on their radar." Eliot looked steadily at Nate. "Do I have your word you're not going to do something stupid and make us have to return to Vance?"

Eliot glanced briefly at the television, not too interested. "Wherever you are, there'll still be powers training, going to the range, and PT. That's not negotiable. It don't mean it'll be insane like Hanna's training, but not keeping up the shape you're in is idiotic."

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april_kepner
2012-11-29 08:55 pm UTC (link)

April looked at Eliot, then at Nate. "I know that look, it means he's doing something you don't approve of but won't tell him not to do in some sign of trust, but this isn't our dimension, this is another situation entirely."

"What happens when you suddenly turn into rubber in public? Or at home and then can't figure out how to turn yourself back? Nate, you'll have your privacy, we'll have ours, it's just closer. And you didn't answer my earlier question, how do you do evac drills with yourself?"

Nate sighed. "I promise I'll be careful," he said, before adding. "This is how you get Eliot to agree with you, isn't it? You don't stop talking until you agree?" He nodded towards the TV.

She rolled her eyes. "You're lucky you're what Eliot considers family," she answered, before turning her attention to the screen for a moment. "He's one of us," she said. "From another dimension, I mean. It's why they can't catch him and why they're so tight-lipped on details. I had almost forgotten about him." Not that she'd ever forget his victims, but she hadn't dealt with forensics in well over a year and in the aftermath of the towers coming down her attention had been on other things. She shuddered as she remembered the bodies - parts of bodies - she'd seen.

"Could you turn it off?" she asked, before pushing the computer towards Nate. "And at least take a look? It would be good for Cody if we're three in the house, and for Eve when she's born. She'd have someone to protect her in the house if Eliot and I had to be elsewhere."

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_eliot_spencer
2012-11-29 09:14 pm UTC (link)

Eliot shrugged, like it was no big deal. "If her logic beats my logic, she wins," he said. "Personally, I'd rather have you close, but I get why you'd rather be elsewhere." Eliot could only do so much, and Nate wasn't clueless on the dangers in this dimension. But Eliot also couldn't protect Nate in another house, just like he hadn't been able to protect Parker and Hardison.

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nate_ford
2012-12-01 07:02 pm UTC (link)

Nate liked April, he truly did. She was sweet and kind and had done more than she should to take care of him in the house they had on the base. It had been many years since he didn't have to wash his own clothes or get his own food, for one.

Right now, he really didn't like her. He'd never thought of her as manipulative before, possibly a bit naive, but with a worried look on her face she had pinned him down with the one thing that could influence his decision.

The safety of her and Eliot's child.

Grumbling, he turned off the news as she requested, then threw a glance at the pictures she'd pointed in his direction. They showed a white clean suburban house with a garden surrounded by other clean two story houses with gardens. It looked quaint, sweet, calm - everything he'd stayed away from since Sam died. Oh he'd rather be elsewhere, anywhere else than there, but he couldn't fail a child. He couldn't fail Eliot's child, or Eliot.

"Fine, I'll take the upper one," he said with a grumble as he got up. "I'm heading out for a walk."

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	_eliot_spencer 2012-12-01 07:16 pm UTC (link)
	Eliot watched Nate leave with an arch of an eyebrow, then turned to April. "Guess your logic won," he said with surprise. He hadn't expected it. Nate had always been the most distant of them when they'd integrated into each others' lives back home. Eliot might have to ask what changed Nate's mind. "So we're settling on this place, then?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

april_kepner
2012-12-01 07:21 pm UTC (link)

April was elated. This was better than she could have hoped for. It wasn't just an apartment, it was a family home, a house, even if it was divided in two apartments. It wasn't the farm, and it was a bit too expensive given that they wanted to save up for that farm one day, but she could see herself be happy in that house.

"I guess so," she said brightly, nodding. "It's a bit on the expensive side, but it's a home, and it's beautiful. We'll be happy there."

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	Eliot/Nate _eliot_spencer 2012-12-01 07:23 pm UTC (link)
	Eliot was outside with Cody when Nate returned. He wouldn't deny he'd been lying in wait, nor would he beat around the bush. "What changed your mind?" (Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: Eliot/Nate

nate_ford
2012-12-01 07:49 pm UTC (link)

Nate was still annoyed. Unlike Eliot a walk didn't really help. Whiskey did but the bottle was in the room. He looked up when he heard Eliot's voice, and he rose an eyebrow at the question.

"You didn't catch what she did in there?" he asked. "Pulling the baby-card? How Eve's safer if I'm there, meaning that I'm risking Eve's life if I'm not there?"

"I have to admit I haven't seen it before, but in the right circumstances she would make one hell of a grifter." He just didn't like being played.

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Re: Eliot/Nate

_eliot_spencer
2012-12-01 08:08 pm UTC (link)

Eliot stared at Nate for a moment before laughing, deep and true. "You think she played you?" That was priceless. Eliot clapped Nate on the shoulder, still chuckling. "She's an 'honest woman' remember? You even pointed that out to me. She doesn't have a manipulative bone in her body. She believes what she says wholeheartedly. At most, she'd butter you up by making you your favorite meal." Or with sex, but that was for Eliot's benefit only.

Eliot shook his head with a smile. "She doesn't trick people. She's not like us. She's not like anyone I've ever met. She's not devious, or duplicitous. It's one of the reasons I trust her implicitly. Our non-dead friend might be a good person at heart, but she's definitely a puppet-master. My wife is just a truly good person with bad taste in men."

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Re: Eliot/Nate

nate_ford
2012-12-01 08:23 pm UTC (link)

"Oh please," Nate answered, glancing around before lowering his voice and making sure he was talking in down wind so that Mrs Russell couldn't hear him from the house. "She's been playing everyone in town since getting here. Oh she's basing it in her own personality but then that's what a good grifter does."

"I still think she's an honest woman, and I'm certainly not calling her devious. I don't doubt that she wouldn't do half the things we've done, but she plays people when she needs to protect her family, and if you can't see that then you haven't watched her since we got here." She hadn't played people at the school or in New York, but Nate was more and more realizing that this kind of society was her stage. This was where she had grown up, this was what she understood, even without thinking about it she knew what to say when and to whom.

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Re: Eliot/Nate

_eliot_spencer
2012-12-01 08:47 pm UTC (link)

"It's what regular folk do when they move to a new town; meet people, integrate. She'd do the same thing under normal circumstances. She's not playing anyone. She's being herself." Eliot got where Nate was coming from, because Eliot lived there, too. "We're so used to people not being what they are that everything's suspect. Yeah, there are certain things that aren't the truth, Thomas, but this is as real as it gets."

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	Re: Eliot/Nate nate_ford 2012-12-01 09:07 pm UTC (link)
	"Yes, she is, but she's also protecting what's hers," Nate said, but he left it like that. Eliot was too in love to see it any other way. He patted Eliot on the shoulder. "I already agreed to take the apartment upstairs. It's decided. It's fine." He might not like it but he wasn't one to back down from his word, he also wouldn't put Eliot's child on the line. (Reply to this) (Parent)