Author's Note: So, this started as a one-shot. Then, the plot bunnies attacked with their rabies-infested ideas, and it bloomed into a two-shot. However, the idea is still growing, and it may even become a three-shot, which by then I believe it is considered a story. Oh well. Hope you enjoy. Dedicated to SiriusDoctorWhoHoney329.

Italics = flashback

regular = current time

This is not beta-ed, so the mistakes are my own.

Rated T for violence and language.

Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage. If I did, Eliot would get more screen time.

"Out of the way, please!" The young paramedic yelled at the people in the hallway as she rolled the bed toward the emergency room. Her destination was straight ahead. The doors were already open and she could see the doctor waiting inside, already prepped and ready for surgery. He took a quick glance at the man who was strapped to the bed, watching as his eyelids fluttered. They had given him pain medication and put him under on the drive over in the ambulance, but he was starting to wake up. The man was bleeding badly from several wounds located all over his body. There were two bullet wounds, one located on his side and the other on his shoulder. The paramedic had tried her best to stop the bleeding, but the man was loosing blood really fast, and no one, not even the woman who was with him, knew what his blood type was. Then there was the matter of his broken arm, twisted ankle, and the gash on the side of his head. These were all preliminary findings, of course, and once the man was out of the danger zone –if he got out of the danger zone– x-rays would be taken and the breaks would be taken care of.

The paramedic made it to the operating room and wheeled the man in. She handed him off to the doctors and nurses in the room, and then went to check on the other person whom she had brought in from the crash. This woman was in much better shape, only having several scratches and bruises located on her body, along with a little mud. She had been taken to a different section of the hospital in order to treat her minor wounds. It had been very difficult, seeing that the woman had refused strongly about being separated from the man. She claimed to be his girlfriend, but nothing had been written down yet. The paramedic needed to find the doctor who had treated the woman and give him her verbal report before returning to her ambulance.

Meanwhile, the doctor that had been assigned to this woman was trying to disinfect a larger scratch and cover it before it got infected. However, this said woman was being very impatient, and very loud. She angrily yanked her arm out of the doctor's hands and pushed her blonde bangs out of her eyes. "Leave me alone, I'm fine!"

"Ma'am, please cooperate with me, it's for your own good." The poor doctor said, trying to treat this angered woman.

"My own good? You want to help me? Let me see my boyfriend!"

It was at this time that a nurse entered the room, followed by a policeman. The nurse spoke up. "Your boyfriend is currently in surgery. As soon as you are patched up, Mr. Scott here will escort you to the waiting area."

This calmed the woman down enough that she allowed the doctor to quickly care to her wounds. The fire never left the woman's hazel eyes, and she watched the policeman with a puzzled face. "Why do I need an escort? I did nothing wrong."

"We understand that. However, the circumstances of the crash are suspicious, along with the bullet wounds that you boyfriend sustained. I need a statement from you regarding the crash." The policeman said as the nurse left the room, her job finished for the time being.

The woman only nodded, and as soon as the doctor finished patching her up she stood up and motioned for Mr. Scott to lead the way. She wasn't going to answer any questions until she was situated in the waiting room.

Once they were sitting in two chairs located in the waiting room for families that had people in surgery, the woman calmed down even more, even though the worry lines never left her face. She watched as the policeman took out his notepad and flip it open to a blank page. "I'd like to start with your names."

The woman sighed. "Like I told the paramedics. My name is Lindsey Thompson, and my boyfriend's name is Eliot Jones." Both names were fake, but the police didn't need to know that, and any verification that they would need had already been taken care of by an outside source.

The policeman scribbled that down. "And now, tell me about the crash."

Lindsey watched as Eliot jumped into the car and slammed the door shut. The keys were already in the ignition, the vehicle humming as it sat in neutral. He quickly slammed the gear into forward and pressed down on the gas. Lindsey had to hold on to the dashboard as the car skidded out of the parking lot. She looked behind her and saw the reason for the hasty exit. A dark truck was right on their heels. She saw a flash of silver and heard a slight ping as a bullet ricocheted off the side of the truck. "What the hell is going on!"

She knew that the question was rhetorical; it was just her way of dealing with the fear that had filled her head as soon as she saw Eliot's approaching form burst out of the front doors of the building. It was then that she noticed that Eliot's hand was covered in blood, and on further inspection she noticed it was his own. The man's right shoulder was also covered in blood. Lindsey saw a hole in the fabric of his shirt and watched as red liquid flowed freely. She gasped. "You're bleeding."

"Nah shit." Eliot grunted out, focusing on the road. He pushed the pedal down further, hitting a dangerous 80 miles an hour as the truck behind them inched closer. Lindsey looked around the car for something to stop the bleeding. Finding nothing, she quickly took off her blue coat and pressed it against the wound. Eliot cursed and the car swerved, but stayed on the road. "Warn me next time, will yah?"

Lindsey nodded, and watched in despair as her blue coat turned red very quickly. She stole a glance at Eliot's face and her fear grew greater as she noticed that he was very pale. His hands were shaking on the wheel, and the car was swaying on the road, sometime going over as far as the next lane. "You're bleeding out. Eliot!"

She pressed harder on the wound, growing sick in the stomach as the blood started to soak her hands. She swallowed, now was not the time to get sick. She watched as his eyes started to flutter, and his hands started to go slack on the wheel. Right outside the window, a bullet coming from the men in the truck blew off the mirror. "Eliot! Don't go to sleep! Come on!"

The mixture of her voice and the shattering glass brought Eliot back to the present. He grunted and focused on the road once more. He shifted in the seat, and Lindsey's eyes grew wide and her face lost all its blood as she saw the driver car door smeared with blood, and the floorboards stained a deep red. This liquid was coming from Eliot's side, where there was another bullet hole in his clothing. He was shot twice.

Eliot's hands were growing slack once more, and Lindsey abandoned the coat and reached for the wheel, yanking it to the right as the road in front of them turned. The light was slowly dimming in Eliot's eyes, and the man took his foot off the gas petal and turned to look at Lindsey in the eyes.

"What are you doing?" She hissed as she watched the truck pull closer.

Eliot swallowed and grimaced, trying to fight off the blackness that was crawling into the edges of his vision. "I need you to jump."

His fingers slipped off the wheel and his left hand clumsily pressed the button on the dash to unlock the door. He then switched hands on the wheel and leaned over Lindsey and opened the passenger door, yelling out in pain as he did so. Lindsey just sat there, numb with shock as she watched the speedometer lower to 40 miles per hour, then 35. The truck behind them was basically on top of them. She saw out of the corner of her eye as a man leaned out of the side of the window and take aim at the cars tires.

"Jump darlin'." Eliot whispered. Lindsey shook her head, tears starting to fall out of her eyes. She watched as Eliot leaned over and violently mashed his lips into hers. Lindsey frantically kissed him back, then screamed in horror as she felt his hand push solidly on her stomach. She reached out to grab onto something, but there was no use. She fell out of the car door, her last image before hitting the ground was Eliot's face etched in pain and fear as his long hair whipped around in the air.

Lindsey wiggled in her seat. "Eliot and I were driving home and these guys in a big truck pulled up next to us, going the wrong way. They rolled down the window then shot at us." She paused, feeling tears well up in her eyes as she remembered what really happened. "Two of the bullets hit Eliot, and he lost control of the car. I wasn't' wearing my seatbelt, and I got thrown out of the car as it went off the road. Eliot wasn't so lucky…"

She drifted off and gripped the sides of the chair tightly in order to keep her hands from shaking. The policeman noticed this, and hesitated, not wanting to push the poor girl past her limits. She had been through a lot. However, he needed to finish the report, and would prefer to get the information before Eliot came out of surgery. "Can you remember anything else?"

Lindsey hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the breath out of her as she tumbled down the slopping land and into the ditch, where there was a small layer of muddy water in the bottom. Lindsey quickly picked herself up and scrambled to the top of the ditch just in time to watch Eliot's car swerve off the road. Because he has slowed down to push her out, the truck had ended up basically on top of the other car, and the man in the window had emptied his whole round into the cars tires. Both back tires blew out, and the car was unable to stay on the road. Lindsey screamed as she watched the car hit the ditch, flip twice, and land upside down at the base of some trees outlining the forest, a large mushroom cloud lighting up the sky as the car exploded. One of the bullets must of hit the gas tank. Lindsey climbed out of the ditch and blindly made her way over to the wreck, not even noticing that the dark truck hadn't stopped to make sure that they had finished the job. Her tears obscured her vision as she reached the wreck, her skin feeling hot from the flames that were licking up the side of the car. Lindsey didn't want to approach the car, scared that she would find a burnt corpse in the drivers seat.

Then, she spotted a body laying several yards away from the burning car. "Eliot!" She screamed, speeding up into a run. She reached the body and recognized the give-away long hair. The man was lying on his back. At first it looked as if he wasn't breathing. Lindsey fell to her knees next to him and gently placed her hand on his chest. She felt it moving, and a sob of relief made its way from the back of her throat. She checked for his pulse and found it, weakly beating. Although, from the state that he was in, Michelle was doubtful that he would be alive for long. His right arm was laying beside him at an impossible angle, and the right side of Eliot's head was soaked in blood seeping from a large gash on his temple. There were also lots of little scraps and cuts on his skin that she could see. Lindsey wasted no time. She carefully yanked off his already blood-soaked shirt and ripped it in half, wincing as she saw large bruises already forming on his chest. She took the two pieces of clothing and pressed them tightly against his two bullet wounds. She used her hand to press against his shoulder wound, and her knee to stop the side wound. Then, with her free hand she dug around in his pockets until she found his cell phone.

"Don't you dare die on my, Eliot Spencer!" She gritted through her teeth as she quickly dialed 9-1-1. The operator picked up, and Lindsey was quick to tell where they were. "Hi! Thank God! He's dieing! Send an ambulance, we are…..about 10 miles past the old Insurance building on the major highway."

She hung up before she could get a response. She then quickly opened his contacts and found it empty. Lindsey cursed under her breath, pressing down harder on Eliot's wounds. Why would she have thought that a retrieval specialist would be careless enough to keep his allies in his phonebook? Since the ambulance would be arriving soon, she would need a cover ID for both of them if they didn't want their true identities to be found out. Lindsey could take care of herself, but she knew that Eliot was on a team, and they probably had several IDs made up already for emergencies like this. If only she could contact them. Getting an idea, she found his "recently dialed" numbers and pressed send on the first one listed.

"Eliot, man, do you get the concept of separate vacations? Or do I need to spell it out for you? Yah know, sometimes-"

Lindsey cut the voice off quickly, panic in her voice. "Eliot's hurt really bad. I called an ambulance, but I need a cover ID for him. Do you know where I could reach Nathan Ford?" Lindsey knew who Eliot worked for, and it wasn't a problem remembering the guys name. She was shocked the first time he told her. Nate Ford was infamous on the wrong side of the law.

"Uh, who is this?" This voice asked.

"Not important. I need that ID!" She yelled, the fear evident in her voice.

There was a small silence on the other side of the phone. "Eliot Jones, works for Leverage Consulting & Co. How did you get this phone?"

Lindsey cut the other man off, shutting the phone and slipping it into her own pocket. She had what she needed. She focused on Eliot's form, her tears falling from her eyes and mixing with his blood. So much blood…

"Come on. You can make it. Hold on." She said over and over again, loosing hope as every second passed. Finally, she heard the wail of sirens in the distance.

"Um, I called 9-1-1 on his phone, then applied pressure on his wounds until the paramedics showed up." Lindsey answered the policeman's question. Mr. Scott nodded, and put his pen away before flipping closed his pad and putting that away as well. "Thanks you. I know this must be hard. I may have more questions later."

Lindsey nodded and hugged herself. "I'll be here." She watched as the policeman got up and walked away. She sat there for several minutes, fingering the strange clothing that was on her body. Since her other clothes were covered in Eliot's blood, she had been given a pair of scrubs from one of the nurses who was the same size as her. She had gotten most of the blood off herself with a sponge while she was waiting for a doctor to come in and patch her up. Lindsey felt a small panic attack coming and started to take deep breaths in order to calm herself. Now was the only real time that she had to think things through since Eliot had jumped in the car that morning. She brought her fingers up to her lips and brushed over them, trying to remember the way Eliot tasted. However, when she closed her eyes, all she could see was him lying in the grass, bleeding, or the look on his face when he pushed her out of the car. She knew that look. In fact, she had seen it several times before. That was the look on a man's face that they got when they knew they were going to die, and accepted it.

She sat by herself in the waiting room, staring at the clock on the wall as the seconds ticked by. She had stopped crying a while ago, and had curled up in a ball. A nurse had come by several times to try and get her to come back into a hospital room, or even get something to eat or drink, but Lindsey refused them all. She wasn't going to leave the chair she was sitting in until Eliot got out of surgery. As the time passed, Lindsey started to slip in and out of sleep. She was entirely exhausted, but kept waking herself up every time she found herself falling into unconsciousness. This went on for while, until a man in a white lab coat and scrubs approached her. "Miss Thompson?"

"Yes." Lindsey asked, nodding her head and standing up.

"Mr. Jones is out of surgery"

This brightened her up. She got a renewed light in her eyes. "Is he ok? Where is he? I have to see him."

The doctor nodded and beckoned for Lindsey to start walking. She did, and the two went down the hallway side by side. "He is alive, but not out of the danger zone yet. We have him set up in a private room in the ICU. I need to debrief you about his injuries before you see him, though."

Lindsey felt the urge to yell at the man that she had to see him that instant, but fought it down. She needed to know the extent of his injuries as well. And he was alive. Alive and breathing and out of surgery.

The Doctor continued, glancing at the chart in his hand. "Mr. Jones had two bullet wounds. One in his shoulder and one in his left side. Neither bullets hit anything extremely important, though we did have to retrieve the one out of his shoulder.

We were able to sew up the large cut on the left side of his temple using 17 stitches. He also had a concussion. We were able to relieve the swelling but we still need to watch him.

He also broke his right arm in two places, which we set and put in a cast. His left ankle was swollen, but only twisted. Mr. Jones had two cracked ribs and internal bleeding caused by the rupture of his spleen. We were able to stop the bleeding, but will need to keep him at least three days to monitor it, possible more.

Overall, he was very lucky. He lost an enormous amount of blood, but we found out what his type was and were able to give him a transfusion in time to save his life. The next 24 hours will be vital."

Lindsey listened silently, numbly nodding her head at the right moments, turning pale and feeling slightly sick as she listened to the list of injuries, which never seemed to end. Finally, the doctor stopped talking and they had reached their destination. There was a curtain pulled tightly closed, and Lindsey could see a pair of feet behind it, most possible a nurse. She reached forward to pull back the curtain, but the doctor stopped her. "I just want to warn you. He is very pale and has tubes and wires sticking to him all over, along with lots of bandages. He is also still under the anesthetic and we have his using an oxygen mask until he wakes up."

Lindsey nodded and took a deep breath. "I just want to see him." Her voice sounded weak and like it belonged to someone else. The doctor nodded his head then retreated. He had other patients to treat. Lindsey stood outside of the room, her hand lingering at the curtain. Finally, she pulled it back and slipped inside. The nurse, who was flitting over Eliot's body turned to see who had entered, then resumed taking down the readings from the machines.

Lindsey stood at the edge of the hospital bed, feeling tears well once more in her eyes as she took in the sight of the hitter.

His skin was pale and had an almost yellowish-green hue to it. He looked so weak and fragile lying there in the hospital gown. Just like the doctor said, there were tubes and wires attached all over his body, running off the bed and into the machines that beeped above his head. There were needles in his arm and in his neck, all putting some sort of fluid into his body. His right arm was in a small cast, and she saw that his right ankle was slightly swollen, though not discolored. Her eyes traveled to his face. There was a breathing tube coming out of his mouth, and a white bandage wrapped around his forhead. His eyes were closed, and she could watch as Eliot's chest slowly rose up and down, up and down.

Lindsey couldn't take her eyes off of him. The man whom she always knew as the guy who was invincible. The strong one who had no weaknesses. Of course, she knew that this wasn't true, but she still liked to believe in it. A small smile made its way onto her face as she looked at his hair, or, more accurately put, the lack of hair. In order to properly dress the large wound on the side of his head, they had shaved off all of Eliot's long hair. He was left with a military-style cut, only a little bushier on top. Lindsey knew that the man would have a fit when he woke up. If there was one thing that Eliot was vain about, it was his hair. She had bought him a special hair-straightener several months ago, one of those cool kind that used special lights instead of heat to straighten the hair so it wouldn't damage hair or cause split ends or anything like that.

Lindsey let out a shaky breath and looked around for a chair. Finding one, she pulled it up next to the bed, making sure not to sit it on any wires. Then, she sat down and leaned back. Lindsey took Eliot's left hand in her right one, gently wrapping her fingers around his. The nurse gave her a look, but said nothing. Lindsey used her thumb the gently stroke a small patch of skin on Eliot's hand. "I'm so sorry." She whispered. "So sorry."

Lindsey didn't look up from the table that she was cleaning as a visitor entered. "We're closed. Read the sign."

She ignored the person as she heard their footsteps approach her. It was almost 3 in the morning and they had closed over an hour ago. She must have forgotten to lock the doors. Lindsey worked at a high-class nightclub that was located in Davenport, Iowa. She was a waitress slash bartender at the club, and she had pulled the short straw that week, causing her to have to stay several hours late in order to close up.

"Well now, honey, if that's what you want."

Lindsey looked up from the table, her eyes brightening as she recognized the voice. "Eliot!" She yelled, dropping the rag she had been using to clean the table. Lindsey ran up to the man and engulfed him in a hug, reaching up to kiss him when she felt his strong arms wrap around her. He closed her eyes and moaned as Eliot returned the kiss. They stayed like that for several heartbeats before Lindsey pulled away. "It's been several months at least. I was beginning to think you forgot about me."

"Forget about you? Don't think it's possible." The man replied, reaching into the pocket of his black leather jacket for an envelope. Lindsey took a second to look him over. His hair was still as long as she remembered. He was wearing a black shirt and a pair of jeans with cowboy boots and that belt buckle that he never went in public without. Her eyes snapped to his hands as he pulled something out of his jacket and handed it to her. Lindsey raised her eyebrow, but took the envelope all the same. She slowly ripped it open and pulled out two tickets. She read what they said with wide eyes. "Wow…Eliot."

The man shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I know how much you love those Broadway shows, and Nathan gave us all a few weeks off. Plus, I still owe you."

Lindsey nodded, resisting the urge to jump up and down. She had time to be excited later, though, and quickly pocketed the tickets. "Damn right you do. It's my best work yet."

She put up a finger and disappeared around the back of the bar, only to resurface ten minutes later with an envelope of her own, this was at least three times larger than the one Eliot gave her. Then man smiled and opened the package, his eyes scanning the document before replacing them in the envelope and slipping it into his jacket pocket. "Nice."

Lindsey snorted. "Nice? Those are more than nice. You are holding a whole life in your pocket. Jack Kane, age 32. Traveling businessman. You could give those documents to the freaking Butcher of Kiev and he wouldn't know it was you."

Eliot rolled his eyes, but smiled all the same. "What would I do without you?"

"You wouldn't." She joked, picking back up her rag and continued her job of cleaning up the tables. This was the last one of the night, and she would be ready to go. "How long did you say you had?"

"About two and a half weeks."

"Oh, Ford's getting generous." Lindsey shot, throwing the rag behind the bar.

Eliot slipped his arm around Lindsey's waist as she approached him. "Leave the man alone, he's changed. He's one of us now."

"Yeah, you keep telling me that." Lindsey said, smiling as she felt Eliot's arm around her waist. It had been a long time since she had felt that. As the two made their way out of the front door, Lindsey paused and locked the club with her key. Her eyes lit up as she realized that Eliot had ridden his motorcycle. She loved that thing. "Hey, Eliot?"

"Yeah Lin." He mumbled as he swung his leg over the motorcycle and threw Lindsey a helmet.

"Before we go to New York, there is this guy who had been giving me some trouble. I did a job for him a while ago and he still hasn't paid. Do you think…?"

Eliot just sighed and shook his head. His own girl wanted him to go and beat up some guy for money. What was the world coming too? "Yeah. We can go the day after tomorrow, ok?"

Lindsey was jolted awake when she felt an arm on her shoulder, shaking her gently. She hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep. She mumbled something and stretched, having to untwine her hand from Eliot's before glancing at the clock. It was past nine at night. She focused on the woman who had shaken her; it was the nurse that had been in the room when she had first seen Eliot after the surgery. Lindsey glanced at the nametag. It spelled out Rachel. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours end at nine in the ICU. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

This woke Lindsey up quickly, and she sat up straight in the chair. "I'm not leaving him." She said in a no questions tone.

The nurse sighed and tried again. "I understand, but you have to leave. It's the rules. You can sleep out in the waiting room. Once we move to the regular patient rooms, you can stay with him as much as you want."

Lindsey shook her head. "No offence, but I am pretty sure you don't understand. I'm not leaving this room."

"Ma'am, if you don't leave, I will have to call security. It's hospital policy."

"I don't care about damn policy!" Lindsey stood up, causing the nurse to back up several steps. Then, Lindsey realized what she had just done was totally uncalled for and sighed before running her hand through her straight blonde hair. "I-I'm sorry. It's been a long day."

The nurse nodded, accepted Lindsey's apology. Lindsey gave a weak smile before turning toward Eliot. She gently stroked his left arm, since his right one was in a cast. She wanted to kiss him on the forehead or something, but she was scared that it might hurt him. She managed to let go and slowly walk out of the room. She would be there at the very start of visiting hours the next morning. She wanted to be there when he woke up. Lindsey slowly made her way back to the waiting room that had become all too familiar to her the past several hours and sat down in a chair that was able to recline back. She had entered a small section of the waiting room called the "Quiet Room." The whole place was filled with recliners, and there was one other person in there, already asleep, probably waiting for their loved one to wake up or come out of surgery as well. She settled down and closed her eyes, slowly falling into a fitful sleep.

Tada! So, tell me. Hate it? Like it? Maybe even love it? Reviews of any kind are wanted! The more I get, the more incentive I have to write.

I will update the second that I finish typing the next chapter. SiriusDoctorWhoHoney329 will see to that.