Nihil Remanet

"Still here?" Eli said roughly, pointedly avoiding Jack's gaze.

Jack said nothing as he got slowly to his feet.

"Why?" the boy blurted suddenly, his voice with sharp with confusion and disbelief.

When Brody looked at him, the boy was staring fixedly at the groud, his fists clenched the way they had been all morning.

"I don't know what it's going to take to convince you of this," Jack began slowly. "But I'm not going anywhere."

"You should," Eli shot back roughly. "You're a cop. And I'm a"-- he broke off, his mouth twisting in disgust as if he could not find a word ugly enough to describe himself. "You'll walk away," he said finally, confidence surging in his voice again. "I know you will. You'll walk away when you know what I've done. I can make you leave."

"You can stop being dramatic," Jack said gruffly. "I'm not going anywhere, and you're still grounded. So come on. We're going home."

"You don't know what I did."

"I know you were caught selling again," Jack said impatiently. "We'll talk about that when we get home."

"I stole from the evidence room," Eli said. "And I bribed my teacher like I would always do before I lived with you. But I gave her the bribe money first. Before the sale."

"So?" Jack looked down at the boy, who suddenly looked pale--death pale, white all the way to his lips.

"I stole the money I used for the bribe," Eli said desperately. "I stole it from you." He was no longer staring at the ground--instead, he was staring wildly up at Jack, waiting for the betrayal to sink in.

Jack Brody stood silent for a long moment, and then reached a hand out toward the boy.

Eli flinched automatically--Jack felt a brief surge of anger towards the boy's father at the memory of the scars he had left on the kid--but relaxed slightly when Jack merely placed his hand on Eli's shoulder.

"Still here, kid," Jack said quietly. "Still here."