Picture perfect
“Hardison, look… I need a favor.”
“Girl, anything for you.”
He regretted it as soon as she produced not one, but two very thick photo albums from he didn’t want to know where. But, he still listened when she explained what they were, why she had them, and how she’d gotten them. That didn’t mean he was any more excited about the extensive process she was asking him to undertake.
“I just think it will help him, Alec.”
It was the use of his rarely used first name that put the final nail in his metaphorical (always metaphorical, never real again, uh-uh) coffin. On the other hand, he’d never anticipated trying to say no to Sophie Devereaux.
So, he spent the next two nights at his apartment, slamming back orange soda and scanning image after personal, insightful image onto a small, portable digital picture frame. He guessed it made sense. The man never kept pictures around because they were too hard to move, if they had to leave in a hurry. Hardison just wasn’t sure why it was Sophie that brought them to him in the first place.
When he saw Nate the next day, he pretended like he hadn’t seen nine hidden years worth of the man’s life in pictures. He just passed the frame to Sophie under the guise of a magazine (he privately thanked Parker’s lessons on pick pocketing and subtle hand tricks), and left Sophie to it.
She waited until Hardison, Eliot, and Parker had left to approach Nate. It was something that happened more frequently, lately. The other three would leave, and she and Nate would be alone in the apartment. Sophie never had any idea what they did while they were gone, and she didn’t question. None of them questioned much about their dynamic, anymore. They worked together, they spent time together, they planned personal trips away, all five of them.
Sophie hadn’t had a family in a long time, but she thought she remembered something a little like this.
Nate never would make it easy for her, though. He remained as buried in the sports section as he had before the apartment emptied. Sophie had been sure she’d planned this right. It was a week before he was unofficially scheduled to drown himself in liquor downstairs. She was hoping to cut him off at the pass, here.
“Nate.”
“Hmm?”
“I have something for you.”
His eyes flicked up from the paper, missed the look on her face, and dropped back down. Sophie waited for another beat, aware that her continued silence would make him look up again. When he did, she raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed, folding the paper down into his lap.
“I know that next week is going to be hard for you,” Sophie chose her words and her tone carefully, fully aware that bringing the subject up at all was like putting a sign on the bar that said, Thief Headquarters Upstairs. “So, I took the liberty of calling Maggie and putting something together for you, to… help out, I suppose.”
She handed him the frame, and helped him find the little switch to turn it on. The photo sequence started somewhere in the middle, opening on a picture of Maggie and Sam behind a birthday cake, both wearing multicolored pointed cardboard hats, getting ready to blow out the candles. The picture faded, and was replaced with an image of six year old Sam swinging a T-ball bat.
Nate’s fingers trembled then tightened on the frame, and Sophie had half a mind to take it from him before he broke it. “Where did you get these?” His voice was somewhere between raw and frosty. Sophie steeled herself for a fight.
“I called Maggie, and she sent me her photo albums… I wanted to put something together for you that’s a little more mobile. Hardison put together a menu for it, so you can find your favorites and…”
She trailed off when Nate brought a hand to her face, bringing her lips to his. It wasn’t at all the reaction she’d been ready for, the one she’d been talking her way out of, and it took her a moment to respond. She had just shut her eyes when Nate pulled back and whispered hoarsely, “Thank you, Sophie,” against her cheek.
“Girl, anything for you.”
He regretted it as soon as she produced not one, but two very thick photo albums from he didn’t want to know where. But, he still listened when she explained what they were, why she had them, and how she’d gotten them. That didn’t mean he was any more excited about the extensive process she was asking him to undertake.
“I just think it will help him, Alec.”
It was the use of his rarely used first name that put the final nail in his metaphorical (always metaphorical, never real again, uh-uh) coffin. On the other hand, he’d never anticipated trying to say no to Sophie Devereaux.
So, he spent the next two nights at his apartment, slamming back orange soda and scanning image after personal, insightful image onto a small, portable digital picture frame. He guessed it made sense. The man never kept pictures around because they were too hard to move, if they had to leave in a hurry. Hardison just wasn’t sure why it was Sophie that brought them to him in the first place.
When he saw Nate the next day, he pretended like he hadn’t seen nine hidden years worth of the man’s life in pictures. He just passed the frame to Sophie under the guise of a magazine (he privately thanked Parker’s lessons on pick pocketing and subtle hand tricks), and left Sophie to it.
She waited until Hardison, Eliot, and Parker had left to approach Nate. It was something that happened more frequently, lately. The other three would leave, and she and Nate would be alone in the apartment. Sophie never had any idea what they did while they were gone, and she didn’t question. None of them questioned much about their dynamic, anymore. They worked together, they spent time together, they planned personal trips away, all five of them.
Sophie hadn’t had a family in a long time, but she thought she remembered something a little like this.
Nate never would make it easy for her, though. He remained as buried in the sports section as he had before the apartment emptied. Sophie had been sure she’d planned this right. It was a week before he was unofficially scheduled to drown himself in liquor downstairs. She was hoping to cut him off at the pass, here.
“Nate.”
“Hmm?”
“I have something for you.”
His eyes flicked up from the paper, missed the look on her face, and dropped back down. Sophie waited for another beat, aware that her continued silence would make him look up again. When he did, she raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed, folding the paper down into his lap.
“I know that next week is going to be hard for you,” Sophie chose her words and her tone carefully, fully aware that bringing the subject up at all was like putting a sign on the bar that said, Thief Headquarters Upstairs. “So, I took the liberty of calling Maggie and putting something together for you, to… help out, I suppose.”
She handed him the frame, and helped him find the little switch to turn it on. The photo sequence started somewhere in the middle, opening on a picture of Maggie and Sam behind a birthday cake, both wearing multicolored pointed cardboard hats, getting ready to blow out the candles. The picture faded, and was replaced with an image of six year old Sam swinging a T-ball bat.
Nate’s fingers trembled then tightened on the frame, and Sophie had half a mind to take it from him before he broke it. “Where did you get these?” His voice was somewhere between raw and frosty. Sophie steeled herself for a fight.
“I called Maggie, and she sent me her photo albums… I wanted to put something together for you that’s a little more mobile. Hardison put together a menu for it, so you can find your favorites and…”
She trailed off when Nate brought a hand to her face, bringing her lips to his. It wasn’t at all the reaction she’d been ready for, the one she’d been talking her way out of, and it took her a moment to respond. She had just shut her eyes when Nate pulled back and whispered hoarsely, “Thank you, Sophie,” against her cheek.