Work Text:
1 year after joining Leverage
Quinn was sprinting down a hall, a sobbing 3 year old in his arms and at least 3 thugs behind him. Problem was, they had guns and Quinn had lost his earbud when one of them had tried to bash his head in with a baseballbat. He didn't hit him with fullforce but there was a ringing in his ears paired with dark shadows at the edge of his vision. But he forced his legs to keep the fuck going. No earbud meant no contact to the team, meant no directions in an unfamiliar building and meant no backup.
He, Eliot and Parker had split up to find the girl while Sophie was busying the mark and Breanna operated from the foodtruck. Quinn had found her. Her and 3 guys with strong opinions on stealing what had already been stolen.
meanwhile in the foodtruck outside
"I've got Quinn on cams but he's not answering," Breanna said while keeping track of the man. "Did he take a hit to the head?" Eliot asked. "Yeah, Probably lost his earbud." There was swearing coming from her comms from multiple directions. "Good news is that he has Allie, bad news is that there are like 3 armed guards on his heels." "Tell me where to go," Eliot growled. Breanna gave him directions when she noticed something, "Eliot you gotta hurry, he's running straight into a dead end."
inside the officebuilding
Pain was suddenly blooming in Quinns already bad shoulder, making him stumble before finding his footing again. He turned the next corner and blank horror grabbed his heart when he looked at a white wall. "Shit," he wheezed. Looking down at the child, then looking back at where the thugs were approaching he made a decision. Carefully he sat the little girl down in a corner and stepped into the middle of the hallway, raising his hands. If he had to go down today, he would take them down with him.
The first guy ran straight into his waiting fists. Quinn clocked him across the face, grabbed the gun out of his hand and disarmed it how Eliot had taught him. The next guy swung at him with the barrel of his gun. Quinn dodged but gave the third guy an opening to grab him by the labels of his jacket to knock him into the wall. The air left his lungs at once and he was wheezing. There was a gun right in his face too, which Quinn managed to wrestle out of the hands and dismantle it before throwing the parts into opposite directions. He elbowed the guy in the face for good measure.
Suddenly there were rapid footsteps approaching and a blur of dark hair and blue and white flannel shirt barrelled into the remaining thug. Quinn was sliding down the wall behind him when he saw the guy hit the ground unconscious. He tried to catch his breath while his vision varyed between spotty and clear. "Quinn! Hey, I dare you to pass out on me now. We haven't finished the job yet," Eliot was hovering above him. "Just need to take a breather. I was managing without you just fine," Quinn said dismissively. "Really? Tell that your shoulder. Parker is gonna have a fieldday poking that." "What do you... oh?" He only now noticed the blood that was slowly seeping through the torn material of his jacket. "Shit," he hissed.
Eliot pulled him upright and despite the hits he'd taken Quinn felt surprisingly steady. He watched as Eliot went over to the girl and crouched down to talk to her. Quinn still had this ringing in his ears so he couldn't understand what he was saying. But the girl nodded once firmly and Eliot picked her up, "Breanna, we're coming out now. Tell me when more guards show up." He looked at Quinn. "You good to go?" "Believe it or not. This ain't my first rodeo. I'm fine," Quinn said testy. "Never claimed otherwise," Eliot growled back. Then he paused. "Parker said to stop fighting," he muttered. Quinn started to march back the way he came instead of giving an answer.
"Quinn!" Breanna practically jumped into his arms when he pulled himself into the foodtruck. "Shit I was so scared when I saw these guys going after you!" She exclaimed. He groaned but wrapped his uninjured arm around her shoulders. "It's okay Bre." "You're bleeding!" she protested, "and you got clocked on the head. I saw that!" "I know. Let me sit down please?" She helped him to keep his balance while he sunk to the floor.
"Can you keep her distracted for a bit?" Eliot handed the child to Breanna. The hacker took her grinning while Eliot pulled out a medical kit from somewhere. Quinn watched him wearily. He wasn't used to verbally fight with him. He didn't understand why he had been so pissed when Eliot came barreling in. It was probably Eliots normal reaction to ask about the wellbeing of his team, especially after someone got shot. And Quinn had blocked him off. Fuck.
He blinked up when Eliot knelt down next to him. "Eliot, I..." the hitter just shook his head and helped him out of his jacket and shirt. Quinn grit his teeth because the blood had already started to dry and it pulled on the wound. He looked away while Eliot took care of him. He tried to keep his breathing as even as possible while the pain kept getting worse.
A hand landed heavy on his uninjured shoulder. He hadn't even noticed that Sophie had joined them. She had a worried look on her face that he couldn't right place. She didn't say anything, just gave him a little squeeze before disappearing to the frontseats. "It scared the shit out of us when you went off coms," Eliot mumbled. "You're damn lucky that Breanna had eyes on you the whole time," "I was fine," Quinn said quietly. "You got shot." "I was still standing. And I already had two people down when you arrived. I could've gotten out myself." He took a deep breath, "This ain't the first mission we do together. But I feel like ever since I...," he searched for words but couldn't find any that would make this whole think sound better.
"Ever since I got... taken, i have the feeling that you guys don't trust me to do my job. I am a hitter just like you. I take the punishment, I wanna protect them. But I can't do that if you try to wrap me in bubble wrap." Eliot was watching him, gears turning in his head. "This was the third job you guys took me on. I recovered for half a year, then took my training back up like 4 months ago. And during the last two jobs you completely forbade me to get into a fight or even get close to the marks bodyguards. But that's not my job," Quinn was speaking quietly but sternly. "I think we don't want you to get hurt like that again. Let alone trigger you with anything. You still deal with flashbacks and nightmares, we didn't want to put too much on you at once," Eliot admitted, fixing the bandage he had wrapped tightly against the wound. Quinn sighed, "Look, im not used to the whole team thing yet and I know what im capable of. If I was on my own I would have taken up jobs much sooner than now. I don't need anyone to hold my hand. So please, stop acting like I'm fragile." "But..." "The nightmares and Flashbacks suck. You know that too. Im not asking you to stop helping me with them. Im asking to let me do my job." "Are you gonna start carrying spare comms?" "If thats the prize I have to pay I'll gladly do that."
A small voice interrupted them "Winn!" the girl had escaped Breanna and made her way up to the hitters. "Okay?" she asked and he nodded smiling. "Im okay. Are you okay? Were you scared?" he asked and the girl nodded. Then she took a few more steps and leaned against his chest in a hug.
Later Eliot and Quinn bickered about if he had started to cry at that moment or not.