75 Godiva Street, Saturday Afternoon

[geniuswithasmartphone]

So, everything was terrible again. Hardison was pretty sure that Tony and his TA were evil, Eliot had brought home a version of Kathy that needed babysitting a lot more than she needed to be out heroing, there were slugs pretty much everywhere, and last night Eliot had insisted they all sleep down in the panic room in the basement. Which was actually more like a 'panic suite' because Eliot had built it and he was kind of extra about things, but even so, it was a little more claustrophobic than Hardison was comfortable with. He'd found himself calculating how much air was available in their hidey hole, which wasn't something he'd done since they'd moved from Portland.

That itchy restlessness hadn't left him, even when they'd all come back upstairs for brunch. He needed to get out for a little while. Do something. Spend some time in the open air while feeling useful. So once the meal was over, Hardison grabbed for his jacket and his laptop bag. A walk across the island to the school for some quality research time would hopefully settle him.

[Open for housemates and visitors!]

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[godilovedthis]

"Hi mister," she said cheerfully. She knew she knew his name, in a minute, she'd remember it again. This was just a momentary memory lapse, those were okay. "I'm making a list of all my notes," she said, showing him the paper she was writing on. "Because I'm going to help with the dishes and then take a shower and they'll get smudged or washed away. So I want to keep track of them all so I can rewrite them when I'm done."

Beat.

"Eliot!" Ha! She knew she knew it!

[vdistinctive]

She'd done that enough times already that Eliot only twitched a little bit. It was about the only thing he was dealing with okay right now.

For certain values of "okay".

"That's a good plan. What can I do to help?"

[godilovedthis]

"Can you check the back of my arms to make sure I don't have anything written there?" she asked, raising her arms up so he could see her triceps. "I have trouble seeing anything if I write it there, but sometimes I forget."

[vdistinctive]

"I'm impressed you can even write back there," Eliot said, taking a look at her arm. "It's pretty smudged, but -- oh."

There was smeared, faded text there, reading keep Eliot's hat.

[godilovedthis]

"I'm really flexible," she said, nodding. "What's it say?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't answer, just ran his thumb over the words. He could see that hat perfectly in his head, sitting at the bottom of the pit trap, its brim just touching a pool of blood.

[godilovedthis]

His thumb tickled, but Kathy sat still and patient. Sometimes she needed time to find words, too, and it always helped when people didn't keep yammering on.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot finally pulled himself away with some effort. "It says 'keep Eliot's hat'."

[godilovedthis]

"Oh! I know where that is!" Kathy said happily. "It's in my nest at the warehouse! That's where it's safe, cause I can't forget it there. I wear it at night to keep me warm."

Then her smile faded and she looked distressed. "Oh no! Was I supposed to bring it back to you? I'm sorry I forgot!"

[vdistinctive]

"Nah, darlin'. It's yours, now. You did just fine."

[godilovedthis]

"Okay, good!" Kathy was all relieved smiles. "I wrote it down because it was important."

[vdistinctive]

"Let's make sure it's added to the list, then," Eliot said, giving her a small smile.

It was weird, having her here both set him off more and helped calm him down at the same time.

[godilovedthis]

Kathy nodded and wrote down Keep Eliot's hat. Well, probably. Keep Eliot's was written in English, but the last word was 모자.

"There," she said, not seeing an issue. "Anything else?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot read off a couple more notes, mostly names. None of which reminded him too much of anything bad, thankfully.

"Looks like you've got a lot to remember."

[godilovedthis]

"Yes," Kathy said, running her hands over the page. "It keeps getting harder, too."

[vdistinctive]

"Well. It's a good thing you thought to write it down, then."

[godilovedthis]

"I do what I have to to keep going," she said. She looked up at him. "Don't worry, I won't ask you. I'll ask Dante. When it's time."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot closed his eyes and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

[godilovedthis]

Kathy smiled a little. That kiss felt nice. Like a warm belly in a safe place. Like, well, love.

"Eliot, this is a silly question but..."

It didn't make sense. She was Korean, she knew that. And he had her call him 'Eliot,' not anything else.

And yet.

"Are you my dad?"

[vdistinctive]

Please pardon the small amount of clinging you got for that one, Kathy.

"Not by blood, darlin'. But yeah. By somethin' even better'n that."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy loved hugs!

"What's that?" she asked, snuggling him back.

[vdistinctive]

"Love." Eliot would hold onto her as long as she let him. Maybe a little bit longer. "Strongest thing there is."

[godilovedthis]

"You're right," Kathy said, freeing herself just long enough to make a note on her sheet of paper.

Where it had once said Eliot now it read Eliot (Dad).

[vdistinctive]

Kathy, right now you were Eliot's favorite person in the world. "Would you look at that."

[godilovedthis]

Bet he'd never expected the broken, amnesiac version of Kathy to be the comforting one today.

"Should I call you Dad?" she asked. "Or Eliot?"

Not that she'd remember either in fifteen or so minutes.