Fic: Transition Part 1

[acquariusgb]

Title: Transition
Author: acquariusgb
Characters: Sophie, Nate, Team, Tara Cole, Sam Ford
Pairings: Nate/Sophie,
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG-15

Transition
“Dad come on, it’s time to get up”
Nate groaned as he felt someone shaking him awake from his slumber sleep. “What?” he muttered.
“It’s my first day at the new school and you have a job interview” Sam stood beside his father’s bed hands on his hips looking him with a disapproval glare typical of a pre-teenager.
“What time is it?” he sat up running a hand over his sleepy face.
“It’s half-past seven. You’ve got twenty minutes to get ready.”
“Oh damn. “ Nate quickly got up, now fully alert. “The alarm clock didn’t go off,” he rushed to the bathroom to get washed. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” he slurred with a toothbrush in his mouth while he was trying to brush his teeth and shave at the same time. Their new life in Boston wasn’t really starting in the best of ways.
After he quickly got dressed in the suit he had prepared the day before, he went straight to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a hurried bite of toast. Sam was sitting at the table going through the last few days of mail. A white envelope caught his attention and he eagerly opened it.
“Hey Dad, check this out,” he passed him the invitation inside.
Nate grabbed the piece of paper and read through it while sipping his coffee. He nearly choked with the hot beverage once he had got to the bottom. Inside there was a leaflet:
The State Street Playhouse
presents
The Sound of Music
with Sophie Devereaux in the role of Maria
“There’s a letter inside too,” Sam started reading from it before Nate had the chance to snatch it from his son’s hands. “Dear Nate and Sam, how are you? I hope you’re doing okay. On Monday the 1st of September will be the opening of my new theatre play. There will be two tickets waiting for you at the desk. I really hope you can make it. See you soon, love Sophie.”
Nate sighed. Of course he hadn’t heard from that woman for nearly six months now and she just sends an invitation from out of the blue.
“That’s tonight,” Sam exclaimed enthusiastically. “We’re going, right Dad?”
Nate looked at his son’s happy expression and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to say no to him. He hadn’t seen him so happy since they had separated. In the months following  their leaving L.A. and before moving to Boston, they had gone for a long father and son vacation visiting most parts of the US and stopping at Disney World too. But even though Nate knew Sam had enjoyed it, there was still the spark missing from his eyes. He knew that his son hadn’t been happy about his decision to split the team and move on without them. In the year they had spent together with the band of thieves, they had become great friends if not even family. Sam had learned to horse-ride from Eliot and the two of them had sometimes gone to the hitter’s ranch for the week-end. Nate was sure that the hitter had also taught him some defense moves, even though he hadn’t been really happy with the idea. Sam could have had always counted on Hardison on getting him the latest mobile phone model or a computer game that had just come out and, the hacker had been like the big brother he never had and they would spent afternoons playing together. Then there had been Parker. Strangely, the thief had connected with the mastermind’s son. Sam saw her as a big sister and Parker was always so protective towards him. And last but not least, Sophie. While Nate had been struggling with his drinking, Sophie had been the only stable parental figure in Sam’s life. After Maggie had died in a car accident, Nate didn’t think Sam was going to connect with anyone else again, but the young boy had been smitten with the grifter . Like father, like son. That was what brought him to the decision, after he had been shot in Juan during a job, to entrust Sophie to be Sam’s guardian if anything should ever happen to him. He knew that his son was going to be in good hands.
“Dad?” Sam interrupted his thoughts.
“I don’t know, buddy, It’s a school night.” He went to the kitchen sink to rinse the mug.
“But we can’t miss it.” The ten years old whined. “It’s Sophie. Did you know she was in town?”
“No, I didn’t,” Nate shook his head, still wondering why the grifter hadn’t tried to contact them earlier. 
“We can't not go. It would be rude. It's only the second day of school, it's not like we're doing much. Plus, I miss her, I want to see her.”
Nate still didn't look convinced. He would be lying if he said he didn't want to go and that he missed her too, but he knew that going there that evening was going to open the door to series of troubles.
"Okay," he finally agreed.
"Yes!" Sam jumped, his fist in the air.
"Now, let's go. We're already late as it is."
After he had dropped Sam at his new school and made sure he was okay, Nate drove towards Boston Assurance where he had his job interview. He parked the car on the first empty spot, but he didn't make a move to exit the vehicle. He leaned forward and watched the tall dull empty building from the front window. He sighed. It reminded him so much of IYS and the bad memories that went with it. He took a big breath and finally got out of his black car.
The receptionist at the desk told him that the manager was waiting for him at the 24th floor, and Nate made his way to the lifts. He nodded to the people inside the cabin, but for the rest of the ride he kept to himself, never being the socializing type. When he reached his floor he stepped outside.
"Ah, Mister Ford," a middle age man greeted him. 
"Mister Brumby." Nate shook his hand with his tight and false smile.
"Please follow me, I'll be happy to give you a tour of the facility." He gestured with his hand and Nate followed the skinny man through the narrow corridors. "I've read your file. You found that stolen Monet in Florence, saved your company a $25 million payout. That identity-theft case, you saved $15 million. So, what have you been up to for the last year? It didn't say in your CV."
"Working with individual clients. Confidential," Nate tried to answer vaguely. He so needed this job to give more stability to Sam.
"Nice. Solving rich people's problems. It couldn't have been easy after all your personal problems."
Of course he knew, everybody seemed to know. It was something that is going to follow him everywhere.
"Actually, the other way around." He smirked.
Brumby looked at him in question "Hmm?"
But Nate just kept smiling.
"Well, glad to have you here. Welcome back to the insurance game. Great, there's lots of files I'd like you to review from our international branches. Bangkok, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Los Angeles. Let's start you as a consultant, work high-profile recoveries on a commission basis, and get you an office, maybe..."
The manager kept talking, but Nate wasn't listening. He looked at all the bored people working around him. They all seemed machines without life, emptiness in their eyes. Everything was running in slow motion. The file dropping, a telephone ringing in the distant, an employee walking to his cubicle... he knew he couldn't do this. He couldn't go back to his old life. Without even realizing what he was doing he turned around and left hearing the manager behind him asking him where he was going.
He quickly got out of Boston Assurance walked towards his car, but something caught his eye. An insignia of a bar at the other side of the road. He stared at it for a long moment. He kept thinking of all he had to go through to stop drinking. The first weeks after they left L.A., Nate had sent Sam to his former in-laws so he could go through alcohol withdrawal without worrying about his son seeing him at his lowest point. He could still remember the sleepless nights that he had spent hallucinating and in delirium and the days he would shake and have cold sweats, craving for a drink. It was like reliving the con the team did at the rehabilitation center, but even worse. But after a week he had slowly got better and now he hadn’t had a drink for nearly five months.
He so wanted to walk away, he needed to walk away, but something was dragging him across the street. He was already loosening his tie and unbuttoning his collar when a car going out of control hit a parked truck and flipped in the air right above his head. He ducked and saw the car landing on its top and catching fire. Without thinking twice about it he rushed towards it to check the people trapped inside. He kneeled next the passenger seat to his a girl about Sam's age. He opened the door and helped her get out.
"I've got you," he reassured the girl. He picked her up and carried her away from the car.
"Are you okay?" he helped her to her feet.
She nodded. "Yes, but my dad."
He turned around to see a bulky man approaching the car. He thought her was going to help the girl's father, but instead he opened the back door and stole a briefcase.
"Hey," Nate shouted after him but the man in baggy clothes and a cap just ran away. Nate shook his head and went to try and save the man still trapped inside the car.
The car was catching fire fast and soon it was going to exploded. He didn't have much time left. He unbuckled the man's seatbelt and dragged him outside. Together they ran to the side of the street, a big explosion behind them nearly stopping their run.
"Dad," The girl rushed to her father and put her arms around him.
"It's okay, baby," He patted her back before collapsing on the floor.
Soon the fire trucks arrived, followed by a couple of ambulances and police cars.
Nate spent the rest of the morning giving a statement to the police. Even though he had told them that he was fine, a police officer insisted that he got checked by a doctor.
He hated hospitals and it really was the last place he wanted to be.
After he had been cleared by the doctors, he was making his way to the lifts. He wanted to check that both father and daughter were okay. The phone inside his jacket started ringing.
"Dad, where are you? You were supposed to pick me up."
Nate checked the time and cursed mentally when he saw that it was already that time.
"Sorry, buddy. Something happened..." He didn't want to worry his son.
"What?"
He sighed. "I'm at the hospital..."
"What?" This time he heard his son shouting worriedly.
"I'm okay, don't worry, there has been an accident involving a girl and her father. It's too long to explain. I will give Cora a call and ask her if she can come and pick you up. I'll meet you at home when I'm done."
After making sure his father was really fine, Sam closed the call and waited for Cora to arrive. Of course the boy had no intention to wait for his father back at their apartment. And after a lot of convincing, Cora sighed and drove the boy to the hospital.
Back at the hospital, Nate was talking to the doctor who was following the victims of the crash.
“The father is still in surgery, but the daughter is in a room. You can go and visit her, if you’d like.”
Nate nodded and made his way to the girl’s room. He noticed two men standing outside the room. The short and balding man turned towards him when he saw him approaching them.
“Hi, I’m Glenn Leary. I'm Matt's boss at the bank.” He introduced himself. “I'm sorry. This is Lieutenant Bonanno of the State Police.” He pointed at the tall and well-built man next to him.
Nate looked at the detective curiously. “State Police? A car crash downtown usually involves Boston P.D.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Bonanno smirked like he was hiding a well-kept secret. “Good job on saving those people,” he said before leaving.
“Apparently Matt called him to set a meeting.”
Now Nate got more curious; maybe it hadn’t been a simple accident.  “Something at the bank?”
Leary frowned. “How? There isn't even going be a bank after Friday. We work at First Boston Independent. We're going under. At the end of the week, the government's going come in, write one last check for all our bad assets, and that's it.” He got closer to Nate and whispered. “I think it was caused by his drinking. All these problems at work and then he passing of his wife. You know what a mess people are when they drink”
Oh, he certainly did. He nodded at Leary who just walked away.
“Dad!” Sam shouted after him.
Nate quickly turned on his feet. “Sam? I thought I’ve told you to wait at home” He saw Cora walking behind the boy giving him an apologetic look. It wasn’t easy saying no to Sam.
“I wanted to make sure you were really okay. What happened?”
“Nothing you should worry about.” He smiled at the young Irish girl, who he considered a niece. “Thanks Cora, I’ll take it from here.”
“Okay, see you later at the pub," She waved at them as she walked away.
“Something's wrong with the car.” They heard a faint voice coming from the hospital room on their right.
“Hey,” Nate walked inside followed by Sam. “Are you feeling better?”
“It went real fast, and then the brakes...” She started crying.
Nate laid a comforting hand on her arm. “Listen, there’s a detective. I could call him…”
“No, something was wrong with the car,” She repeated more agitated.
“Okay, okay. Now sleep.”
The girl closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.
Sam looked at her curiously. “What was she talking about?”
“I don’t know…” Nate looked down at her apprehensively. “Something about the car accident.”
“Well, she clearly needs our help. You’re going to help her, right Dad?”
Nate shook his head. “Sam, I’m not in that business anymore.”
“But you could be…” he smirked.
He smirked back. “Come on,” He put an arm around his son shoulders. “Let’s go ready for our tonight’s appointment with culture.”
A couple of hours later, they were entering the theatre. It was quite full and they slowly and awkwardly made their way towards the center of the hall.
“Picking up for one.” A familiar voice caught their attention.
“Last name?”
“Parker.”
“First name?”
“No. Just one name.”
“Parker!” Sam exclaimed with a big smile.
Parker spun around surprised. “Sam!”
The boy rushed towards her and gave her hug. “I’ve missed you.”
Parker awkwardly stood there not knowing where to put her hands, then she lightly patted his back.
“Hello Parker,” Nate approached the two with a smirk.
“Nate,” she smiled back.
“Hey guys,” Hardison came from behind them.
“Hardison," Sam let go of Parker and ran towards the hacker.
“Hey buddy,” They fist bumped and high fived. “It’s been long. The only one missing is…”
“All right. After the show, then. I'll see you.” The sound of the hitter’s laughter from across the hall drawn their attention.
“Eliot!”
The hitter rolled his eyes when he saw the group. “I see you’re all here.”
“She didn’t tell me you were all going to be here.” Parker frowned. “When did you move here?”
“I’m actually here as a pit stop.” Eliot said. “Six months of traveling. Did a couple of big jobs…”
“Me too. I’ve been great,” Haridson shrugged.
“My Dad and I actually moved here some months ago. When did Soph…”
“Oh, you all made it.” He was interrupted by Sophie Devereaux hopping towards them happily.
“Sophie,” Sam hugged her tight. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too, my little man,” Sophie closed her eyes and hugged him fiercely. When she opened her eyes again they met Nate’s. Her heart skipped a beat. He looked good, better than how she had left him six months before. In that small instant she knew that even though she had tried to move on during the last months, a big part of her heart would always be with the man standing in front of her.
Sam let go of her and noticed how Sophie and her father were still looking at each other.
“Nate,” she almost whispered. She then leaned forward to kiss his check and he awkwardly put an arm around her.
“It’s good to see you, Sophie,” his words stumbling. “These are for you,” he gave her a bunch of flowers that he had been holding the whole time.
“Thanks. They’re wonderful.”
He blushed. “Sam insisted on them.”
“At least one of the Ford's is still a gentleman,” she teased ruffling Sam’s hair with one of her hands.
“Sophie, someone was looking for you.” A tall distinguish man with a nicely trimmed beard came from behind her and put an arm around her.
Nate tensed on his feet, he soon recognized the intimate gesture of the man. 
Sophie put a hand on the man’s chest. “Thanks, sweetheart,” she smiled at him, but once she felt the others' eyes on her, she looked down embarrassed and took a step back from him. She avoided making eyes contact with them, but for a brief moment her eyes met Sam’s and she could read the hurt and disappointment in them.
Hardison  cleared his throat. “And… this is?”
The young man smiled and put his hand forward. “I’m Brian”
“Yeah, he’s…”
“I’m Sophie’s boyfriend.”
“Ah, of course.”
“Sophie,” Someone called the grifter from the backstage.
“I must go now. We're going to meet up afterwards, right?” she rushed away, singing some out of tune notes.
After the play, they all waited for Sophie to walk out from the backstage after she had changed out of her stage clothes so they could go out for a drink. The play had been... interesting. Eliot and Hardison thought it was torture, Parker laughed during the whole play, even Sam, who admired Sophie, had to admit that the grifter was really an awful actress. The only one who had seemed to enjoyed the play was Nate. Probably because his brain had completely shut out the words and songs, but concentrating on Sophie's movements, and the whole time he kept wondering how serious she was with that new boyfriend of hers. Now he knew he had been so stupid to turn down her advances all those months before and to then break her heart when he had told her it was over between. Not like anything had ever happened between them, only a couple of stolen kisses in Paris and the promise of a first date that had never come.
The former team wanted to have a reunion by themselves, but Brian had managed to invite himself in their small gathering, so they were now awkwardly sitting around the table, knowing that most of their topics of conversation were off limits.
"Are you ready to order?"
"Yes," Nate exclaimed a bit to eagerly. "Thank you Cora," he smiled at the young woman and Sophie slightly raised one of her eyebrows. "The usual for me."
"Ginger Ale it is," she took note. "Sam, a glass of coke?"
"Yes, please."
After they all had ordered, Cora left telling them that she was going to come back with their drinks in a moment.
"Ginger Ale?" Parker asked surprised. The other turned curiously towards Nate too.
"What?" He shrugged. "I quit drinking."
"You quit drinking?" Eliot repeated both incredulously and in amusement.
"Sure did."
"Dad hasn't had a drink in five months now" Sam confirmed, proud of his Dad.
"If you quit drinking? How do you know about this place, then?" Hardison asked.
"I rent a condo upstairs."
" You rent a condo above a bar?"
" That's right."
" Well, that's very... Catholic."
"It's more family related." Nate left it vaguely.
Suddenly Sophie's phone beeped. "Uggghhh..."
"What's wrong love?" Brian put an arm around the grifter when she hid her face in her hands.
"The play," They heard her mumble.
"Yeah, you know, I'm sure the reviews will be..." Hardison intervened. Sophie handed him her phone " …on the news website already."
Parker quickly grabbed the phone "Really? Wow. "Never before has a production of 'The Sound Of Music' made me root for the Nazis." The costumes were really great." She tried to make her feel better.
"No. No, no, no. Stop it. There is nothing you can say that's going make me feel better. Let's forget about it," she closed the phone and put on a brave smile.
"I thought you were great, Sophie," Sam lied to her. He knew she could read him like an open book, but maybe a small white lie would help.
"My only fan," she smiled at him a caressed his arm affectionately.
"I thought that was me," Nate told her, looking at her in the eyes, a secret conversation going between them.
Brian coughed nervously interrupting the intimate moment between his girlfriend and the man she obviously had a history with. "So what do you guys do?"
"Well..."
"Nothing interesting..."
"What do you mean?"
Were three separate answers from the hacker, hitter and thief.
"What do you do?" Sam eyed the young intruder. He wasn't so happy that he was there to ruin his plans to bring Sophie and his Dad together... for the second time, but the boy loved a challenge.
"I'm an assistant professor at Boston College," he took a sip of his drink hiding the smirk of superiority behind the rim of his glass. "And you Nate?" He asked and they all noticed the slight animosity intonation just because they were all professional grifters.
Sophie tensed beside Brian. She knew that Brian and Nate weren't going to like each other, but she hoped that would have tried to get along for her or at least tried to  hide their hatred better.
"I used to work for an insurance company."
"And now?"
"I'm full-time Dad."
"And he's also a hero," Sam retorted back. "Dad saved a man and his daughter from a car accident this morning." And as he said this he remembered something. "In fact we might have found a job..."
"Sam," Nate interrupted him. "That's enough." He drank the rest of his drink in one big sip and got up. "We need to leave now, you've got school tomorrow."
"But Dad..." Sam whined.
"Now!"
Reluctantly, Sam got up from his chair. "You guys aren't going away soon, are you? We will see each other again?"
"Sure man."
"You can count on it."
Parker shrugged. " I've got nothing else to do."
"Sophie?" Sam asked eagerly.
Sophie got up and hugged the little boy. "I'm living here in Boston now, so we're going to see each other so much that you'll be tired of seeing my face all the time"
"It was great to see all of you." Nate said, his eyes lingering on the grifter, "Good night."
He put a hand on Sam's back and together they walked away.
"We should probably go too, Sophie," Brian got up from his chair.
Sophie looked at her friend's faces. "Why don't you go?" She gave him her best conning smile. "We haven't really talked."
Brian didn't really want to leave without her, but he knew that he was going to lose that battle. He slowly nodded and leaned down to kiss her cheek. "I will call you tomorrow." And he left.
As soon as he was out of sight, Hardison laughed. "Where did you find that tool?"
Sophie glared at him with a small smirk on her lips. "He's good guy."
"I didn't know you were in to cougar town," Eliot added teasingly and Parker laughed.
"Eliot!" Sophie exclaimed in outrage. "He is not that young. I mean, I'm not that old!"
"If you still feel bad about the play," Parker suddenly changed subject. "I know what could make you better. We should steal something."
"Yes!" Sophie exclaimed suddenly excited. "We could do it together."
"I like this. Get right back up on the bike."
"Bike of crime. I stole the Hope Diamond, but it wasn't fun without you guys," Parker told them "So then I put it back. Yeah, 'cause I was bored. Didn't care."
The other shook their heads at her rolling their eyes.
"I spent three days hacking the white house e-mail. No buzz. But we are doing some pretty hinky stuff in Pakistan. Hinky."
Sophie turned to Eliot, "What have you been doing the last six months?"
" I was in Pakistan." He looked uncomfortable.
"See what Nate did? He took the world's best criminals, hitter, hacker, grifter, thief, he took us, and he broke us." Hardison rambled
"Exactly." Parker agreed.
"He taught us how to be better," Sophie whispered nearly to herself.
"This is the problem, with being the good guy. It gets under your skin." Eliot added.
"Sam did mention something about a possible job before Nate interrupted him."
Sophie looked at Parker, her eyes lighting up. "Yeah, something about a car accident this morning."
"Hardison."
The hacker was already working on his mobile phone. "I'm on it..."
Suddenly they heard the bar front door burst opened and the alarms in their heads went off as they jumped in their seats. There at the door was Sam Ford bent in two trying to catch his breath.
"Sam," Sophie rushed to him put her hands on his shoulders. "What happened?" She asked alarmed.
"My Dad," He said between breaths. "He needs help"
The others were already running towards the backdoor entrance, Eliot first of all ready for a fight.

Fifteen minutes earlier

"It was good to see everyone else," Sam said as he walked next to his father.
"Yes, it was," Nate agreed.
"Why did you interrupted me when I mentioned Zoe and her father?"
"It's nothing that concerns them. Also, not everyone should have listened to what we really do."
"Oh," Sam tilted his head down. "Brian, that douche bag."
"Sam, words..." Nate warned him, but he was glad his son didn't like the man either.
"What does Sophie see in him?" He frowned in disgust.
"She just wants someone next to her. Someone who loves her."
"We love her." He looked up at Nate. "You love her Dad. You could be there for her."
Nate sighed. "I wish things were so simple, Sam."
They reached their apartment door 2A. Nate was about to open it with his key when he noticed that door was already open. He put an arm forward stopping Sam and pushing him behind him.
"Stay here," He ordered, whispering.
He slowly pushed the door further open and took a step further inside the apartment. As soon as he let go, everything else after happened in the matter of seconds. Someone jumped him from behind the door and attacked him with a knife but he managed to block his assaulter’s arm just before he hit him.
"Sam, run." He shouted to his son who was still standing in the hall shocked. "Hurry!" He added struggling with the thug.
Sam soon took off, hoping that the others were still down at the bar.
Nate pushed the man and managed to have him against with his back against the wall. He finally had a good look at the invader and he recognized him from the man at the accident.
"What do you want from me?" he hissed.
The big thug kicked him in the leg and Nate lost his grip on his arms. That was all the thug needed to liberate himself and try again to attack Nate. This time his knife penetrated Nate's clothes and skin, stabbing him on his abdomen.
"Nate!" Shouts came from outside.
The thug pull the knife out of Nate's body and without looking back he started running on the opposite direction of the voices.
Nate put his left hand on his right side and it soon got covered with his own blood and he slipped down the kitchen counter until he was sitting on the floor in pain.
"Nate," Eliot stumbled outside. He soon saw his friend bleeding on the floor. "Damn." He rushed to him.
Parker and Hardison arrived at the door frame and saw the scene in front of them, gasping.
"Dad!" Sam crashed into Parker's side as he ran to them, followed by Sophie.
"Keep him outside," Eliot shouted as he helped the mastermind off the floor. Parker put both her arms around Sam stopping him from going inside.
Nate hissed in pain but with the hitter's help, he managed to slowly walk to the couch.
"Hardison, need some help here," Eliot grunted. He pushed Nate to lie on the couch and ripped his shirt open to check the stab wound.
"Oh man, you know I get all squishy inside when I see blood."
"Blood?" Sam shouted, scared. "I want to see my father!" He tried to get free from Parker's grip.
Eliot glared at Hardison who soon felt guilty. "Way to go, Hardison! I just need a medical kit. Nate, where do you keep it?" He asked the mastermind who was losing consciousness from the blood lost.
"Downstairs... bathroom..." He whispered.
Hardison quickly went to check all the downstairs rooms until he found the bathroom and got the medical kit from the cabin and took it to Eliot.
Sophie slowly made her way inside and closer to the couch scared to see Nate bleeding. "Eliot?"
The hitter understood all the questions behind his name. How bad is it? Is he going to make it?
He cleaned the wound and started to check for major damage.
Nate shouted in pain, making everyone cringed, especially Sam who was still holding Parker. Soon the mastermind passed out.
"It's a bad stab wound but he's going to be okay," He told her.
Sophie nodded and kneeled beside Nate's head and she caressed his hair damp from his sweat.
After Eliot had stitched him up and bandage the wound, he nodded to Parker signaling he that they could come inside now.
Sam soon rushed to his father side. He scared him to see him so vulnerable laying on the couch nearly lifeless. Sophie put a comforting arm around him. "He's going to be alright. Don't you worry," she reassured him.
She knew that it wasn’t easy for the young boy to see his father like that, especially since his mother had already been taken away from him two years earlier.
"Sam," Eliot spoke to the boy. "We need to know what happened. Did you see the man who assaulted Nate?"
Sam took his eyes off his father and looked at hitter. He slowly nodded and told them the whole story. In a matter of minutes Hardison found out that the thug had been on the accident site that morning too stealing the briefcase. Hardison and Parker worked on the evidence they had, trying to connect the facts. How was the Kerrigan's car accident and Nate's assault related?
"Sam," Sophie ran a hand through the boy's hair. He was trying his best to keep his eyes open, but the grifter noticed that he was exhausted. "It's time for you to go to bed. You've got school tomorrow. It's way pass your bed time."
"I'm not going to school tomorrow." He stated.
"I don't think your father would want you to miss a day already," She pointed out to him.
"I don't care," He shrugged. "Someone tried to kill my father tonight, I think that's a good excuse."
"The kid has a point," Hardison smirked.
"I didn't go to school and turned out perfectly fine," Parker said munching at some cereal.
"You've got a strange definition on fine," Eliot shook his head. "The kid needs an education."
"All the things I need to know, I've learned them from the street."
"Yes... well... " Sophie tried to bring the conversation back to the main point. "You're tired. Go upstairs and get ready for bed. I'll come and check on you in a bit. We'll see about school.”
Sam turned his head towards his dad.
"Don't worry, we'll stay here with him."
The spend the rest of the night taking turns on keeping an eye on the mastermind. Since he passed out, he still hadn't regained consciousness. Sophie was concerned about it, but Eliot assured that it was normal and not to get worried about it yet.
They had continued to work on the case and slowly putting the pieces together they'd found. Sophie had woken Sam up and told him it was best for him to go to school. The boy had protested but at the end the grifter won. Eliot cooked breakfast for everyone and then he drove Sam to his school. When he came back, they heard moans coming from the couch.
Nate was slowly waking up. He had a really bad headache, but nothing compared to the sharp pain at his side. He tried to sit up, but a gentle hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Careful Nate, you don't want to rip off your stitches already."
He opened his eyes to find Sophie leaned over him. He couldn't help to notice how beautiful she was in the early morning even after an obviously sleepless night.
“Why are you wearing one of my shirts?”
She chuckled. “Really? That’s the first thing you say.” She got up from where she was sitting on the edge of the couch and walked to the kitchen counter to get a glass of water and handed it to him.
“Why are you all here?” He tried again.
“Someone tried to kill you last night.” Eliot pointed out. “They came pretty close, you’ve lost quite a lot of blood.”
Memories of the previous night came back to him. “Where’s Sam?” He asked, a bit panicking.
“Relax. He’s at school. Took a lot of convincing, but he never could say no to me,” Sophie smiled.
He sighed. “I appreciate what you’ve all did, but there’s no need for you to remain here. You can leave if you want.” He slowly got up wincing at the pain and putting a hand on his  bandage.
“Yeah, because you're doing so great,” Hardison comment sarcastically. “Aren’t you curious to know why someone tried to kill you?”
“Not really, no,” Nate shook his head.
He finally noticed that Parker was dressed as a Nun. He stared at her and she smirked at him. He shook his head and kept walking to the kitchen cabin.
Hardison ignored him and continued talking. “Thanks to Sam’s description of the man that attacked you, I’ve compared it with the footage of camera surveillance from the car accident and look,” He turned his computer so he could see. “He was there!” He smirked.
“Yes,  I know. I recognized him.”
“Yes, well. Do you realize, on average, people are caught on security cameras 13 times a day? ATM cameras, traffic cameras. It's crazy, man, but we can track him. We can. Well, I lost him in this alley.”
“But when I was driving back from taking Sam to school, I found this empty briefcase belonging to a Matt Kerrigan at that intersection.” Eliot showed him the black briefcase.
“It's Boston Commonwealth Bank, right?”
“ No, First Independent Boston. That's where Kerrigan works.” Nate answered even though he was trying not to get involved in the conversation.
“Who's this guy?” Eliot pointed to the monitor.
“You don't know, do you? That's Kerrigan's boss, that guy. Leary.” He shook his head. He wasn’t going to fall for it “Whatever.”
“All right, who's the other guy?“ Eliot continued.
“It's not clear enough for facial recognition.”
“Yeah, well, the problem is, these two cats went down to the safety deposit boxes.”
“Which is the only room in every bank, with absolutely no cameras.” Parker exclaimed her face already showing her happiness.
“Which means we’re up, baby.” Hardison got up from his chair and put a priest’s collar on “They tried to kill Kerrigan for what was in the briefcase. We're gonna steal it back.”
“She was dressed that way 'cause she's doing a con.”
“What,” Nate shrugged, “You thought she was dressed like a nun for no reason?”
“It's Parker.”
“Guys,” Nate sighed. “I know this seems like one of our old jobs, we all agreed that we'd just move on. It was great. It was fun. It was wonderful while it lasted, but I was drunk most of the time, to be honest with you. And I… A little crazy. I really, I owe all of you, you’ve helped me a lot with Sam and I'm very proud of what we did. I-I really am. But I got my life back, and I intend to keep it that way. And I am not a thief.”
“Nate, that girl and her father need our help,” Sophie told him, “It’s what we do, it’s what you taught us to do. Don’t tell me you don’t miss it?” She looked at him knowingly.
Nate looked her straight into her deep brown eyes. Of course she knew, she knew everything, he couldn’t hide it from her. This was what had stopped him from accepting that job the day before, this rush for conning people and make the bad guys pay.
He wasn’t ready to let her know she was right yet. “I’m going to get cleaned up.” He said as he slowly walked up the stairs. “We’ll talk about it later”
“Watch your bandage!” Eliot shouted after him.
Hardison and Parker left for the bank while Sophie and Eliot stayed behind.
“Are you going?”
“You’re joking?” Eliot chuckled. “The man’s got 700 sports channels.”
She rolled her eyes and muttered “Men.”

Later that afternoon, Hardison and Parker were back from the Bank, and they were all sitting, including Sam, on the couches in the sitting room. Only one was missing.
“Where’s Eliot?” The boy asked.
“Oh, I’ve sent it him to check out something.” Hardison was working on his computer and then something came up on the TV screen. “So, this is one we’ve got so far. This is what Kerrigan found. The deeds from '75 to '77. 20 businesses all started in the late '70s. Now, here's where it gets weird. All the financials for, what, 30 years, squeaky clean. Taxes paid, employees withholding often and early. Until the last six months. That's when they took out crazy-bad business loans, refinanced mortgages with high interest rates. I'm talking big loans, too. Add it up, it's a couple million.” He showed some slides.
“That’s Brandon O'Hare,” Nate interrupted him.
“Yeah, I’ll run him through the database.”
“There’s no need. We grew up in the same neighborhood. The O’Hares are mobs, we’re talking about mob business here.”
“Oh, oh!” Parker exclaimed.
“Call Eliot,” Nate shot a glare at the hacker.
The hitter picked up at the second ring. “What?” He snapped. He was still looking through some boxes. This is the third place I checked. It's all the same.”
“Eliot, those are mob places.”
“What do you mean mob?”
“Hey,” he turned around to see three guys approaching him. One of them was the guy that stabbed Nate. Every fiber of his being was telling him to make the guy pay.
“I’ll call you back,” He closed the phone.
“I’m going to teach you not to look through private property” The man that attacked Nate walked to him with a baseball bat.
Eliot punched the guy with all the strength he had, taking pleasure on seeing the man crumble down with his nose broken. The two men who were behind him picked up some tools to use as weapons. Eliot quickly picked up the baseball bat now abandoned on the floor and hit one of the guy in his solar plexus and the other guy bent into two from the pain and lack of air. Eliot then pushed him behind him, as the third guy attacked him with a crow bar. He stopped it with the bat, then he punched the guy on the face and with a flip kick the last guy was on the floor too.
Eliot jumped in his truck and drove away. Luckily he had taken some boxes and bags from the previous warehouses he had visited, so he didn’t return to Nate’s condo empty handed.
“Seriously?” Hardison opened one of the boxes. “Check it out: A 1981 calendar Hall and Oates. The first two months are all Hall and no Oates. That's cold, man.”
“Judging by this fringing and...” Sophie picked up some of the clothes stuffed inside “What? Those shoulder pads, this stuff hasn't left that warehouse since the 1980s.”
“I feel like a robot,” Parker tried to move wearing one of the jacket.
Sam laughed at her and tried on a hat.
“Wait,” Sophie turned to Nate, “So if these are supposed to be just fake businesses, how come their financials are so squeaky clean?”
“Because they're fake businesses. How do you catch mob guys?”
“Ah, two glasses of Chianti and a story about my grandma in Sicily,” She smiled thinking about how much money she got from conning a particular mob family in New York.
Nate just rolled his eyes at her. “How does the government catch mob guys?”
“Taxes!” Hardison exclaimed. “That's how they got Capone.”
“That’s interesting, but how is this going to help Zoe’s father?” Sam wondered not really following the team’s discussion.
“Oh, I’ve got just the plan for it,” Nate smirked.
“If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, it’s going to be dangerous, especially for you,” Sophie looked at him alarmed. The con she was sure he was planning on doing was the turnabout that was going to leave Nate alone in an isolated location meeting the man that had already tried to kill him.
“It’s going to be okay,” He waved her off. “Now, let’s getting ready.”
“Hmm… Dad?” Sam interrupted. “Do you mind taking me to visit Zoe at the hospital?”
“Oh look,” Hardison smirked “The boy’s got a crush.”
“No, I don’t!”
“Defensive! He does!” Eliot teased him too.
“It’s… just… I’m sure she’s feeling scared… and…”
“Oh, ignored them,” Sophie told him. “I’m sure she will be happy to have a visit. Maybe you can take her some flowers.”
“That’s sounds great. I’m going to get ready!” He jumped from his seat and ran up the stairs.
Both Sophie and Nate watched him leave the room. “He’s got the white knight complex, just like you,” Sophie whispered in Nate’s ear.
Nate smiled. “What can I say? It’s a family trait.”
“Well, I’m driving,” Sophie got his cars keys from the kitchen counter. There was no way she was going to let him drive all around town with the stab wound still fresh.

continue to part 2