A/N This was written for my leverage bingo card. The prompt was: The Big Bang Job.
"You got one shot, Moreau!" Eliot shouted as he ran as fast as he could towards them.
Nate was still looking at Moreau, his eyes challenging him to pull the trigger.
For a moment Moreau shifted his gun towards the mysterious Italian woman, standing behind him at his far right, and Nate looked surprised at him. But then he brought it back to Nate and shot twice hitting the mastermind at his chest.
"Nnnnooooo..." Eliot rushed to the airplane.
Moreau quickly climbed the small steps up the private plane and closed the door behind him, as the pilot got ready to leave. His hitter's instincts were telling him to go after the criminal and make him pay for shooting his friend, but one quick glance to the bleeding mastermind on the hanger floor made him stop.
The Italian woman was already kneeling beside the older man as she checked the damage.
Eliot took off his shirt and kneeled beside her.
"Two bullet wounds to the chest." she told him in her thick accent. "He's losing too much blood"
Eliot pressed his shirt on Nate's chest hoping to slow down the bleeding. He quickly put his comm in his ear. "Hardison, we've got a situation"
"What's wrong?" the hacker sounded alarmed
"Send an ambulance to the hanger. Fast!"
"Eliot?" Sophie intervened. "What's going on? Where's Nate?"
"He..." he gulped. How was he going to tell her? "He's been shot. Moreau shot him"
Parker, Sophie and Hardison stared at each other in shock.
"How bad is it?" she managed to get the words out as she tried to concentrate in driving the car towards the airport.
"It's bad" he confirmed his eyes on the unconscious man.
"I'll see if there's a med kit somewhere" the Italian got up and ran deeper inside the hanger to check the offices. She came back moments later with a medic kit.
"Help me roll him over to see if they're a through and through."
They rolled Nate to his side and the man let out a groan in pain. Eliot saw one exit wound but not the second one. That was bad, it meant that one bullet was still inside. It meant surgery. He knew something about medicine and how the body works to know that one bullet must have done some serious damage.
"Eliot..." he heard the faint voice of the mastermind.
"Nate, don't talk. You need to save your strength." he told him hearing the sirens of the ambulance coming their way.
"Moreau" he whispered while coughing blood.
"We'll get him" he promised. In that moment he was slightly pushed away from the EMTs who started working on saving his friend's life.
He saw Sophie abruptly stopping the jeep next to the ambulance and all the remaining three members of the team rushed outside.
"Oh God" Sophie stopped in her tracks covering her mouth with her hand when she saw all the blood Nate had lost. "Nate" she whispered in a sob.
Hardison and Parker where in shock too.
"He's going to make,"Hardison said "He's Nate. He can't..."
The EMT's put Nate on a gurney and rolled him towards the ambulance.
"I'm going with them" Sophie said already climbing on the vehicle.
And they watched them drive away
"The police will be here any minute now " The Hacker told the rest checking his mobile phone how far away were there
"I'll take care of that" The Italian told them. "You go"
Hardison and Parker were already inside the jeep.
"Thanks" the hitter nodded and climbing too.
They let Parker drive knowing she was going to reach the hospital in no time.
Inside the hospital, Sophie was standing in the middle of the corridor looking through the window inside the ER room where they were working on Nate. She saw the doctors and nurses fanatically reaching for instruments and tubes all working to keep Nate alive. Once they got him stabilized they pushed the gurney away towards the operating room.
"Nurse" she tried to stop her as she passed beside her.
"How is he?"
Sophie could already read on her face everything she needed to know. "I'm sorry I can't… the operating doctor will come and talk to you as soon as he can" she patted her hand and walked away.
Ten minutes later the others joined her in the waiting room.
"Any news?" Parker asked her sitting in the chair next to Sophie's.
"He's in surgery. They will let us know when it's done" she said running her hands through her hair and then looked back down at the floor, hiding her red eyes from the others.
"Why was he so reckless?" Hardison asked in frustration kicking a chair nearby.
"You know Nate… he thinks he's invincible. I told him not to mess with Moreau." Eliot grunted. He still felt guilty. It was his job to protect the team. It was his job to protect them from a sadistic man like Moreau.
"And now Moreau's gone to San Lorenzo. A tiny, little European country with no extradition treaty with anyone." Hardison exhaled.
"I could send someone to take care of him" Eliot suddenly told them. His darken eyes sending them the message. "I know people. A sniper. A straight bullet to the head and our Moreau problems would be solved"
Sophie shook her head. The offer had been tempting for a second, but only for a second "You're not person anymore. We're not that people." She sighed. "We will make Moreau pay for this, but our way…. Nate's way"
He nodded and sat down on one of the chair wait for news.
Three hours later someone finally showed up to them with news. They all quickly got up.
"Doctor" Sophie approached him first. She tried to read his facial expression needing to know if he was bringing good or bad news.
The surgeon took off his cap and sighed. He was exhausted from the surgery. "You're Mr. Ford's family?"
"Yes, how is he?" Sophie asked him.
"The first bullet was through and through and fortunately it went past without causing major damage, the second though was lodged into the right pulmonary vein. We took the bullet out and repaired the damaged, but he's lost a lot of blood. We'll know better in the next 24 hours."
"Can we see him?"
"He's in recovery room now, but he'll be transferred in ICU in an hour. I'll tell the nurse to notify you when he's ready for visits."
"Thanks"
The doctor nodded and walked away.
"Nate is a fighter." Parker nodded. "He'll make it through"
Of course that's was they were all telling themselves, but Nate had attempted faith once again and they wondered how many times he could try it before losing against it.
When ready, the nurse escorted them to Nate's room. They looked through the glass and gasped at the sight of their mastermind. He looked so frail and pale in that hospital bed attached to all those machined and pipes. They felt incomplete impotent and useless and for a moment Sophie wondered it that was how Nate had felt all those years back, watching Sam slowly dying and nothing he could do about it.
"Only one at the time" the nurse told them and left them alone.
"You go Sophie" Eliot nodded at the grifter.
She gave him a small smile in thanks and carefully entered the room. The beeping of the machine soon filled her ears. She told herself that the beeping was good. It meant he was still alive. She got closer to the bed, losing her control with every step she took.
"Oh Nate," she whispered and she ran her hand over his pale cheek. With her other hand she laced her fingers through his. "Don't you dare die on me, Nate. You can't die on me now. We still haven't talk about that kiss and now… and now making you pay in these last six months seems so ridiculous. We've already wasted so much time. Life is too short, you never know when everything can be taken away from you. When you wake up, we'll finally have that conversation. I'm done waiting." She leaned over him and kissed his forehead. "Did you hear me, Nate? I'm done waiting, so you'd better wake up soon"
She exited the room and gave the chance to the others to go and see Nate. They decided to stay in a hotel nearby for the night. Hardison was monitoring all the police channel and the hospital if there were any news.
The following morning they all walked to Nate's room together. When they got there to see the room empty, they panicked.
"Dammit Hardison" Eliot hissed. "I thought you were monitoring the situation"
"I was, nothing caught my attention"
"Well, he's missing!"
"Nurse" Sophie ran to the desk station. "Where is he? Where's Nate?"
"Don't panic" she smiled at them. "We've transferred him to a regular room. Down the corridor third door on the left"
They walked there as fast as they could.
"Hey, took you long enough" they heard a groggy voice.
"Nate" they exclaimed noticing that the mastermind was slightly sitting up and his cheek had most of their colour back.
"You're awake!"
"I told you he was a fighter. Nothing can stop Nate"
Sophie just smiled at him and walked towards his bed. Then she leaned down on him and kissed him fully on the his mouth. Nate was a bit taken back, but soon responded to the kiss.
"Oh, that's nasty man"
They both ignored the others protesting and when Sophie felt the mastermind needed oxygen again she ended the kiss with another small peck.
Nate was slightly out of breath. He had heart surgery the day before and he definitely wasn't up for nasty business. "What was that for? Not that I'm complaining"
"You and I need to talk" she simply told him and Nate soon understood that the waiting was over.