Back into the Fold 2
Eliot waits until the day of Tony’s graduation from the academy when he can’t put the decision off any more. As much as he feels he doesn’t deserve them, he can’t cut himself off from his family entirely. Ignoring Adam’s clear invitation would be drawing an irrevocable line between them. Keeping a distant eye on them wasn’t enough anymore.
He’d gleaned as much as he could from emails Tony sends him – frequently, even if Eliot never replies – and from third parties, when he can. He knows about the new additions to the family; the twins, Neal’s friend Blair and a new boy called Clint.
If nothing else, he owes it to Tony. He hasn’t done a very good job of sticking by Tony, but Tony has never let him down. Tony, who has been his truest friend and brother.
So, Eliot finds himself up on a new doorstep, but still home, listening to the sounds of people celebrating inside. He isn’t sure how long he stands there, not knocking, before someone opens the door anyway. A boy, on the cusp of adolescence, stands there, staring at him. Either Ben or Alec, Eliot doesn't know them well enough from pictures to tell them apart.
“Dad!” the boy yells. “He’s here!”
There is a thundering of footsteps and then the entranceway is crowded with children of various ages, staring at him with varying expressions of wariness and curiosity. Eliot takes half a step back before he realises what he’s doing and holds firm.
Adam keeps to the back of the group, though he nods at Eliot. At his side, Faith looks at Eliot for a long moment before she smiles faintly at him. There’s something like empathy in her eyes and Eliot knows, from Tony and police reports, that she killed a man and now she has to live with that. He copies her smile but, like hers, it fades quickly.
Clint, the newest kid, watches him, suspicious and protective in equal measure. Eliot knows exactly how that feels; the need to keep this new, wonderful thing secure and the wariness of anything that might threaten it. It sends an awful stab to his heart to realise he’s that threat now.
Then Tony elbows his way to the front of the group, wraps an arm around Eliot’s shoulders and draws him into the house. He looks so smart in his new uniform and Eliot’s so proud of him, but it just reiterates that he doesn’t have a place here. Adam makes all their lives better, Eliot doesn’t. Not with all he's done and the trouble he brings.
“I’m so glad you came,” Tony tells him, pulling him into a tight hug that Eliot returns.
“I could hardly leave you to this lot,” Eliot says softly, attempting a smile.
“That’s Faith’s job, these days,” Tony says, bumping his shoulder. Eliot lets the feeling of home wash over him and tries to ignore the doubts that niggle at the back of his mind and the weight of his family’s expectations, for good or ill.