Turn & Turn Again - Chapter Three: home again before this time next year

[alinaandalion]

Chapter Three:  home again before this time next year
"I close my eyes and I can see you...
I close my eyes and I can feel you here.
God willin' and the creek don't rise,
I'll be home again before this time next year.
Though I fear this fever won't break..."
- “God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise” by Ray Lamontagne and The Pariah Dogs

Hardison vibrated with nervous energy, pacing the length of Nate’s apartment while Parker watched him.

“They’ll be back soon,” she said as she fiddled with one of her locks.  “We haven’t started the job yet.”

“This is serious, Parker.  You get that?  Life or death serious.”  He shook his head.  “Why don’t we keep the comms in all the time?”

“Because it’s an invasion of other people’s privacy, which is wrong.”  She flipped her hair over her shoulder and smirked.  “At least, that’s what Sophie said.”

“Still, where are they?”

“You should learn how to have some patience,” Eliot said as he walked in the door.  “Nate and Sophie are right behind me.”

Sophie came in a moment later, holding Nate’s hand.  Hardison nodded his head at the two of them and pulled up photos and files from their newest job.  Nate settled into his chair beside Sophie, resting his hand on her thigh.

Hardison eyed them.  “Seriously?”

“What?  You want us to fight instead?” Nate challenged back.

“Just get on with it.  What the hell are we even doing here?” Eliot growled, leaning forward.

“Okay, so I was doing some research into the Mynas Institute, and I found some hinky stuff.”

“What do you mean?  Dirty money?  Deals with the mob?  Some sort of weird sex scandal?”  Sophie raised her eyebrows.  “It can’t be anything we haven’t dealt with before.”

“They have files on us.”  Hardison pointed his remote at the screens.  “Plus, there’s a lot of weird stuff, like experiments on people, going on.”

“So, we were recruited for this job to entrap us?”  Nate stood up and approached the screens.  “Is there anything out there with an explanation?”

“Nothing.”  Hardison crossed his arms across his chest.  “There are some underground rumors out there that this dude, Erik Mynas, is being funded by some of the most powerful governments to create a sort-of ‘super-team’ they can use.”

“That’s ridiculous, though.  It’s like a plot from a bad science fiction movie,” Sophie protested.  She turned to Eliot.  “Do you know anything about this?”

“A guy I used to work with mentioned to keep an ear out because there was something big going down soon.  This might be what he was talking about.”

“So, what do we do?” Parker asked, looking from Nate to Hardison.  “If they’re after us, do we run?”

“They’ve already made an aggressive first play,” Nate murmured.  “If we don’t bite, then they’ll come after us.”

“What do you want us to do, then?” Eliot leaned back in his chair.

“We’ll have to go to ground.”  Sophie sighed.  “Do you want us to split up?”

“Do we have to?”  Parker frowned and twisted the ends of her hair around her fingers.  “I don’t like it when we’re not together.”

“Self-preservation, Parker.  If we’re all in the same place, we’re easier targets,” Eliot explained.  “Doesn’t mean we all have to go our separate ways.”

Hardison shrugged and blacked out the screens.  “Look, I can secure safe places for us to go, identities that we can burn through, safe financial sources, all that jazz.  I just need a couple of days.”

“Okay.  Everyone, stay close and don’t do anything that could be considered unnecessarily risky.”  Nate eyed Parker fidgeting and said, “That means no jumping off any buildings, Parker.”

“I’ll get on that, man.”  Hardison moved to the table and opened his laptop.

Eliot started for the door.  “I’ll check with my sources and see if they know anything.  I’ll be around.”

Parker joined Hardison at the table and started picking her lock again.  Sophie glanced at the pair and then looked back at Nate.  He moved to her side and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Not exactly what I thought would happen when I suggested to you we should take a vacation.”  She gave him a small smile and slid off her chair.  “So, act like normal?”

“As much as we can.”

“Okay, then.  Do you want me to stay here?”

“If you don’t mind.”

She kissed him and headed to the kitchen.  “Don’t be silly.  Now, what do you want for lunch?”

“Macaroni and cheese,” Parker called from the table.

“Bacon grilled cheese,” Hardison added in.

Sophie raised an eyebrow.  “Pick one.  I’m not a short-order cook.”

“Macaroni and cheese,” Hardison said, brushing his hand against Parker’s.

Sophie suppressed a smile and started pulling out the ingredients she needed while Nate moved around her, pouring drinks for both of them.  For once, she didn’t remark on the alcohol so early in the day; if anything, they all needed it.

***************

Nate looked around the small circle they had formed in the center of his apartment.  Hardison handed out small packets to each of them and stepped back into the formation.

“Those have all the identities you need.  I’ve set up three flights that will take you through London, Tokyo, and then to Paris.  You have an identity for each flight, and your final destination is Italy where I’ve set up for you to rent a house.  Your accounts are in there.  Strip them dry the second you hit the ground in Paris because I don’t know if these people will be able to follow us.”  Hardison rocked back on his heels and shoved his hands into his pockets.  “Also, there’s a burner phone with the number for our phone already saved in it.”

“Six months before any contact,” Nate interjected quietly.  “Anything else?”

“The three of you need to spread out when you’re in a confined area together.  You’ll look suspicious otherwise,” Sophie said, looking at Eliot.  “Nate and I will get a gun for protection.  I assume you all can take care of yourselves.”

“Where are we going?” Parker asked as she tapped her package against her fingers.

“Toronto, Salvador, Sydney, then Hong Kong.  Plan is to end up in Dubai.”  He sighed.  “Nate, your and Sophie’s flight leaves in a couple of hours.  Probably should head out.”

Sophie chewed on her bottom lip and looked at Nate.  Nate raised his hand in a gesture to pat Eliot on the shoulder, and Parker suddenly launched herself across the circle at Sophie, pulling her into a tight hug.

“I’ll miss you,” Sophie said softly, her voice breaking.

She stepped back after a moment then moved to Hardison while Parker and Eliot watched.  Sophie hugged Eliot last, lingering with him a little when he whispered something in her ear.  Sophie moved back to Nate’s side, and the other three lined up across from them.

Nate glanced over at her and saw that she was holding back tears; he grabbed his bag and started for the door.

“Try to be careful.  All of you.”  He smiled at them and waited for Sophie to join him.

As they walked out of his apartment, she slipped her hand in his.

***************

“Why are you still awake?”

Eliot started, grabbing the knife he had just been cleaning before registering that it was Parker standing behind him.

“Damn it, Parker, don’t sneak up on me.”  He put the knife down.  “Why aren’t you with Hardison?”

“I woke up and saw the light on.  Thought you might be lonely.”  She sat down beside him.

He passed her the lock she had been fiddling with earlier and selected another knife.  “Something bothering you?”

“Not really.  I just don’t like it here.”

She bent over the lock, and he shrugged; he stood up and moved to the small kitchen to grab a bag of gummi bears and an apple.

“Here.”  He tossed the bag to her and settled back down in his chair.

“You know, sugar is bad for you,” she said quietly, smirking as she opened the candy and threw a few into her mouth.

He took a huge bite out of his apple.  “What you do with your body is your own business.  You’re already sleeping with Hardison.”

“What do you mean?”  She furrowed her eyebrows and poked at her lock.  “Sex is actually very good for stress relief and it burns calories.”

“That’s not…just…forget it, Parker,” he grumbled.

“Do you miss them?”

“Do you?”

“A little bit.  I’m just used to them being…around.”

He smiled a little at that and nodded.  “I know what you mean.  How does Hardison feel about it?”

“He doesn’t talk about it.  Not really.”  She sighed, rocking back in her chair, the legs scraping against the floor.  “He worries, though.”

“We all do.”

She munched on the gummi bears and played more with her lock until it clicked open.  He finished rubbing his knife clean and set it down with the rest of his collection.

“Hiding out makes it feel like we’re on the losing end.”

Her voice was quiet; he pushed his hair out of his eyes and re-situated in his chair.

“That’d be because we are.”

Her gaze skittered from his face to the length of the counter as she said, “Well, I guess that makes sense.”

“We’re doing what we can.”

“A lot of good that will do when they take us away.”

He leaned on the counter and touched her arm, his fingers only a light pressure on her skin.  She flinched at the contact, but she didn’t pull away.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you and Hardison stay safe.  I promise.”

“But what about you?”  She tilted her head to the side and studied him.  “What if they get you?”

“I’ll be okay.  It’s what I do.”

She slipped out of her chair and started to go back to bed.  She paused on her way out the door and whirled around, grabbing onto Eliot in a fierce hug.  She buried her nose into his neck, and then she was gone.  He listened to the door close behind her and started putting away his knives, the blades gleaming in the dim room.

***************

“Soph, where are you?”

Sophie looked up from the sinkful of dishes she was working on and called, “I’m in the kitchen, Nate.”

He walked through the door, and she smiled at him; the past couple of months they had spent in Italy had resulted in him darkening up a bit, and she found it impossibly sexy.  He moved behind her and pressed a kiss to her neck as she scrubbed at a pot.

“It’s a quiet day out there.  We should go for a walk.”

“I’m busy,” she murmured, trying to ignore him as he moved his mouth up to her jaw.

He pulled her away from the sink, grabbing a dish towel and wiping her hands clean.  “The dishes can wait.”

“They’ve been waiting for the past week.”

“When did you turn into a domestic woman?” he teased.

She rolled her eyes and let him pull her to the door.  “I take offense to that.”

He turned around and pulled her into a kiss before pushing the door open.  “I’m not very worried.”

She laced her fingers through his and drifted closer to his side; the breeze was colder than she had expected, and it went right through her thin cotton dress.  He smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked to the quiet street.

“Have people stopped talking about us?” she asked as they wandered along the pavement.

He shook his head.  “Well, in a small town, people always talk about you.  It’s nothing to be worried about.”

“If you say so.”

He just leaned over and kissed the side of her head; she smiled at that.  One of the only good things to come out of being on the run was that he had become much more affectionate, constantly touching her and surprising her with small presents.  She was enjoying it probably much more than she should.

He stopped short when they reached the park.  “So, I have a reason for bringing you here.”

She eyed the park and the way he was shifting his feet; she slipped out of his grasp.  “Nathan Ford, you had better not be proposing to me.”

“What would you do if I was?”

“Refuse.”

He laughed a little and motioned to a bench nearby, moving to sit down.  “I wouldn’t expect anything less.  I’m not going to propose.”

“Then what are we doing here?”

“Well, I do want to give you this.”  He fumbled as he reached into his left pocket and pulled out a small box.  He opened it to reveal a small sapphire ring.  “It’s not an engagement ring or anything.  I just saw it in the jewelry store and thought of you.”

She reached out and touched it, her breath catching in her throat.  “It’s gorgeous.  But, why?”

“It’s a compromise, of sorts.  Neither of us really want to get married, at least not now.  But I wanted to give you something.”

“Should I give you something?”

“If you want to.”

“It is a promise, though, isn’t it?”  She smiled shyly at him and ducked her head.  “I’m not dumb enough for you to con me into this.”

He sighed and slipped the ring out of the box, holding it out to her.  “It’s my commitment to you, Soph.  Just…”

“Such a Catholic,” she murmured, moving closer and kissing him.  When she pulled away, she said, “I’ll let you put it on my left hand.”

He grinned, his face lighting up, and he took her left hand in his, slipping it on her ring finger; the band was cool against her skin.  He threaded his fingers through her dark hair and pressed his lips to hers.  She slid closer to him and enjoyed the feeling of pretending like this was normal.

***************

When Hardison opened his eyes, he closed them again immediately in response to the pounding in his head.  He rolled his tongue around his mouth, grimacing at the dryness and the fact that his tongue felt three sizes too big.  Groaning, he sat up and slit his eyes open so he could survey his surroundings.

He was in a stark white room on a bed with white, papery sheets like in a hospital, and the fluorescent light was making his headache worse.  He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up; he swayed from the nausea but managed to stay on his feet.

He didn’t have a large amount of floor space, just enough for the bed and a small side table.  Probably about eight by ten feet if he had to guess.  They had changed his clothes, and the sweatpants were chafing him in places he didn’t really appreciate.  The shirt, on the other hand, was really soft if a little too thin for the ridiculously cold air blowing through the small vent right above the door.

Licking his lips, he wished for a glass of water, but he walked the length of the wall, feeling the surface as he looked around for any sort of implement to use to pick the lock.  Well, okay, he didn’t know how to pick locks, but he hated sitting still.  Besides, if he was trying to break out, maybe someone would start paying attention to him and bring him some damn water.

He was just reaching for the doorknob when the door swung open, almost hitting him in the face.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were right there.”  The woman was dressed in pale blue scrubs, and she looked to be in her early twenties.

He shook his head, wincing at the increase in pain.  “Naw, it’s cool.”

She closed the door behind her and took him by the arm, leading him back to the bed.  She prodded his chest, using just enough force to indicate she wanted him to sit, and she produced a bottle of water from somewhere unseen, along with two small pink pills.

He eyed the medication with suspicion.  “What are those for?”

“They’ll help with the headache and send you to sleep,” she explained, grabbing his hand and dumping them into his palm.  She unscrewed the bottle cap and handed the water off to him.  “They won’t hurt you.”

“I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

“Doctor’s orders, I’m afraid.  The medicine they gave you earlier wore off faster than anticipated, and you need time to recover from your journey.”

He snorted.  “You mean the attack where I ended up being taken down by a taser and a hit to the head.”

“My job is not to endorse the policies of the retrieval team but to make sure you take the medication you need and stay healthy.”  The smile on her face turned steely as she crossed her arms over her chest.  “Now, you can take those pills yourself, or I can call an orderly in here to tie you down so we can administer the same medicine intravenously.”

He considered throwing the pills across the room for a moment; however, he was exhausted and not in the mood to struggle with anyone else.  Rolling his eyes, he popped the pills into his mouth and gulped down some water.  The world immediately got a little fuzzier, and she took the water from him before he was finished.

“Hey, I’m still thirsty.”  He was slurring his words too much, and when he tried to lunge after the bottle, he ended up falling on his side to the bed.

He heard the click of the door closing, so that meant he was alone.  The dizziness felt oddly familiar, like when he was trapped in that dark, enclosed space and woke up before someone jabbed him in the upper arm with a needle.  He rubbed at the spot, then, and blinked.

“Eliot, take Parker and go!  You have to get out of here!”

Parker shook her head and brandished her taser.  “We’re not leaving you!”

Eliot just bent over, pressing against where one of his ribs had just broken.  Hardison’s fingers flew over his phone keyboard; he was determined to make sure they would be safe.

“Listen, we aren’t all going to make it out of this.”  Hardison tried to grab Parker’s hand, but she jerked away from him.  “There are too many of them, and Eliot’s already injured.”

“Which is why I should stay behind,” Eliot growled.  “I’m already halfway down.”

“No!”  Parker was fighting back tears and tugging on Eliot’s arm.  “We can still make it.”

Hardison pushed his phone into Eliot’s pocket and stood up.  “I’ve got the two of you plane tickets to get you out.  They’ll be waiting for you at the airport.  Use the identities I set up for this type of emergency.”

The door was breaking down, and Hardison spun around to face whoever was going to come through.

“There’s only a small window of time here,” he said insistently.  “I’ll distract them.”

“Can’t let you do this,” Eliot snapped.  “Not your job.”

“Take care of her.”

“I’m right here!”  Parker stamped her foot and poked Hardison hard in the chest.  “You don’t get to tell me what to do!”

The door crashed open, then, and armed men poured through.  Hardison couldn’t even count them all, though it looked to be more than twenty.  He was quickly surrounded and cut off from the others; he could hear Eliot’s grunts of pain and the distinctive crack of bone.  He tried to get in a few good punches, but the men were moving so fast, and then he was immobilized by pain, his eyes rolling back into his head as he fell to the ground.  When the electricity stopped coursing through his body, he tried to get up on trembling limbs.

He could hear Parker yelling something, but he couldn’t see her, and then he heard Eliot growl out, “Damn it, Hardison!”

There was more yelling and the sound of fighting, and he focused on trying to stand back up.

“Hey, stay down!”

Then something very hard cracked the back of his head, and he blacked out.

He shivered as cold air started blowing out of the vent again; black dots appeared on the edges of his vision.  The throbbing in his head started to fade, and he closed his eyes.

***************

Nate knew something was wrong the instant he stepped onto the street.  The neighbors were across from his house, congregated in a small, tight group.  He launched into a run, skidding to a stop in front of the house, whirling around to face the people looking at him with fearful suspicion.

“What happened?” He knew he was doing nothing to assuage their apprehension, but Sophie had been there alone, and he needed information.

“Some men went in there,” someone finally volunteered; Nate had to struggle to pay attention because they were speaking in Italian, and he had never been as fluent as Sophie.

“And?”

“We heard gunshots.”

Nate didn’t wait for anymore explanations; he sprinted to the house and burst through the front door.

“Sophie!  Sophie, where are you?”  He saw the chaos that clearly spoke of a struggle, but he continued going through the house, calling Sophie’s name.

When only silence answered him, he turned to survey the torn apart kitchen.  The glint of sunlight bouncing off of something shiny caught his attention, and he strode to the middle of the room.  He bent over and picked up with trembling fingers the sapphire ring he had given to Sophie only a few weeks earlier; he balled his hands into fists and moved to the next room.

He found two dead bodies there.  He didn’t check for pulses because there was an immense amount of blood pooling under them; he saw the small gun he and Sophie had kept in the kitchen drawer and checked the magazine.  There were four bullets missing.  He looked around the room, mapping out where the stray bullets could be from the position of the bodies and the gun.  He found the marks in the far wall.

There was no evidence that she was hurt, but he couldn’t be sure.  And, he didn’t know where these people were now, if they were planning on coming back for him.  Not to mention the law enforcement that would be swooping down on the house at any second to investigate the shooting.

He felt cold and distant, slipping back into planning mode because he couldn’t, wouldn’t think about if Sophie was all right.  He knew she was.  He ignored the doubts niggling in the back of his mind and moved on autopilot, grabbing the bag he kept packed.  He found the photo album he and Sophie had started in a fit of sentimentality and pulled out one picture; they were smiling in it, and he remembered that day, full of sunlight and flirting and pretending like they were normal.  He shoved the picture into his pocket and threw some wood into the fireplace, lighting matches and shoving them in there in the hopes of creating a quick blaze.

When the flames started catching, he pulled out the photos one by one and tossed them in.  He didn’t wait to watch them burn.  He got up, took his bag, and walked out, his brain already working out where to go next and what the first step in getting revenge would be.

***************

Eliot cursed as he paced the small room he had been backed into.  He had gotten sloppy since they had taken Parker away, and he knew he was on the losing end of this.  He didn’t have the ability to fight his way past twenty or more guys who all had guns trained on him.

He knew the guns were equipped with tranquilizer darts since that was how they had taken out Parker; it didn’t help that it had taken those goons less than a week to catch up with them.

As it was, he didn’t have many options; there were innocent people out there who were going to be caught in the crossfire, and with the fact that he was more than likely going to lose this battle, he didn’t want anyone to get hurt in the process.

He could hear them beating on the other side of the door, and he yanked it open, reaching out and grabbing the first guy he saw, wrenching him inside and breaking his neck.  He slammed the door back closed, but one man got his arm hooked around the frame; from the crack of bone, it looked like his arm broke for all his trouble.

However, with the opening left behind, the men swarmed through, trampling their own man in the process.  Eliot braced himself against the wall, blocking a few punches before one landed in his gut.  He grunted and pulled the guy in to knock him out.  He didn’t manage it because someone snuck up on his side and slammed his barrel against Eliot’s neck.

Eliot dropped to his knees, too stunned by the hit to block the next one that cracked right along one of his just-healed ribs.  Black dots appeared in his vision, and he tried to blink them away.

A moment later, he felt the sting of a dart piercing his neck, and he closed his eyes.  It was over.

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