A/N: So... this is my absolute first Nate and Sophie fic... so be gentle. It isn't exactly meant to be a songfic but you could say it was inspired by Lady Antebellum's Need you now.

Katharen Silver, who's written a beautiful fic on the same song, should please understand that I really didn't mean to be a copycat of her idea or anything...

It just so happened that I heard the song and felt that it would be awesome to write Nate and Sophie into it... cuz it's like the song was made for them. Please understand that I started to write this a long way back and am posting this just so that it might see the light of day.

That aside, I own nothing... not the characters, not the setting and definitely not the song.

So here's my first Nate/Sophie with a side order of Eliot/Parker for all my E/P fans! Enjoy :)

Need you

Set during end of season 2 when Sophie leaves the team for some time.

She was sitting on the carpeted floor, a bunch of pictures spread out in front of her. They were pictures containing a bunch of people in various settings, in different moods... but one thing was apparent in all of them... the five people in the pictures were all happy to be there with the others, they belonged with each other and each one of them was aware of the fact.

The woman sighed heavily as she ghosted her fingers over the photographs... The sun was just rising behind her, seen through the huge plate glass window that showed an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. The brunette was in her favorite country and for the first time in her life, nothing about it was engaging her attention. Instead, she found herself bringing out the photographs she'd taken ages ago when she'd become infatuated with a new digital camera that Hardison had given her as a Christmas present.

The pictures she'd taken during the Christmas party were her favorite. They showed how the team had come together as a family in the time they'd worked together. She could just see the pride and happiness in Eliot's eyes, the pure childish glee in Parker's and a smug smile on Hardison's face at having gotten her a present she liked. She could also see Nathan Ford in the background, but she chose to ignore that fact for the moment, choosing to concentrate on the happier parts of the picture.

Eliot had been quite happy that night, his cooking getting rave reviews from everyone, the party a great success, even if it had only been the five of them and you could almost see the muscles on the hitter relaxing as he unwinded and enjoyed a peaceful celebration of the holiday season with the people who'd become so important in his life... his family.

Hardison had been his usual talkative, goofy self, making all of them feel comfortable and giving them a feeling of belonging... something that only he could bring to the room. Parker on the other hand was the personification of pure childish glee... She'd insisted on decorating the Christmas tree her way, making their tree probably the tree with the costliest trimming in the world...

If she wasn't wrong, and the grifter was never wrong when it came to jewellery, she'd seen the rose diamond of Gibraltar, the Burmese Fire Ruby, the priceless star jade and a number of other notable pieces of extremely precious and rare jewellery that Parker had undoubtedly stolen.

The other team members had tried objecting to Parker's tree trimming methods but Eliot had interrupted them by saying that if Parker wanted to showcase the tree with her loot, it was definitely a step up from when she didn't even want to talk about her jobs with them. Thinking about it, they'd all agreed that it was a huge step for Parker to actually allow them near her stolen loot and the party had been an even happier one than before.

The smile that had taken over Sophie Devereaux's face slowly leached out as she came back out of the good memory to her present. Looking back at the photos, this time, she focused on one face... the face she'd avoided till now... the face of the man she knew she loved, the face of the man who'd broken her heart. Nathan Ford.

The least that could be said for the relationship that existed between the two of them was that they definitely had a history. And what a history... for fifteen years, Nathan Ford and the woman who was known to him as Sophie Devereaux had played an epic game of cat and mouse. They were so good at it that they'd almost failed to see exactly who the cat was and who was the mouse. They'd been so involved in the details that they hadn't seen the big picture and now, a whole ocean apart, it was all the grifter could do to not cry at their stupidity.

Her pride and his stubbornness might just have cost them the happiest moments of their life... the ones they could've made together. Without even her knowledge, the grifter's hand had stretched to find the smartphone that Hardison had equipped everyone on the team with and even before she could process what she was doing, her fingers had begun tapping on his number on the speed dial. Hurriedly she snatched her hand back as if burned, in the process making the phone clatter to the carpeted floor with a muted thud.

Sophie stared at the phone as her mind went back to the main cause of her misery. She couldn't understand why she was even thinking about that man because she was pretty sure he wasn't thinking about her. It was much more likely that he'd led the team from one job to another and was completely involved in working out their next con.

Her heart told her Nate Ford wasn't worth her time of day but her mind knew better. Unlike most love affairs, this one had started in the mind... all those years... the thrill of the chase, the process of getting to know the inner workings of each other's minds, the complicated game of cat and mouse and the sweet sensation of besting each other had formed the body of their relationship.

Their's was more of a cerebral sort of connection that only got more complicated as emotions got involved. The sexual attraction had always been there... that was taken as a fact, rather than a factor, but once their hearts, those complicated organs of confusion got involved, chaos had ensued.

Things had been said that just couldn't be forgotten, forgiven or taken back, egos had been bruised and pride had come into play. Pride... that had always been her greatest weakness... not Nathan Ford as Tara seemed to think. But he too, had been stubborn and unbending... it was almost a whole week and he hadn't even called.

And here she was, reaching for the phone again, to call that heartless man... She needed to talk to someone... someone else. Just to get the impulse to call him to go away. So she dialed a number by heart

'Hello... you've reached Tara. I'm not available now, leave a number and name and I will call you back'

Her first option gone, Sophie desperately called another number... this one she had to get from her contacts list. And she waited as the phone rang in a room right across the ocean from her.

Nathan Ford was drunk... again. This was the fifth time this week alone that he had slept on the couch because he didn't trust himself to climb the stairs to his bedroom without hurting himself... he was drunk, not stupid. Okay, maybe he had been stupid... for putting his bedroom on the next floor when he knew that he was liable to be too drunk to take the stairs by himself. But then, he hadn't really counted on being by himself had he?

The mastermind poured himself another shot of whiskey as he peered up from the bottle to scan the empty room. It hadn't always been that empty... even yesterday, the room had been filled up with Hardison doing some antics on his computer, Tara, their new grifter, making some sarcastic comment about their new client... he didn't really want to think about why Tara was here... instead of... well he didn't even know who she was now. Eliot and Parker had been holed up in one side of the room discussing entrance and exit strategies over tons of blueprints and he... he'd been all alone, away from the noise and activity, standing back and trying to see the big picture. He didn't tell anyone that he'd failed miserably...

He'd known he would... fail that is. With Sophie gone, Nate knew that if anything succeeded, it would be due to the hard work and diligent planning of his team, not his plans. Sophie was his counterpart... she was the perfect grifter to his brains. She played it exactly as he'd envisioned it, almost as if she'd peeked into his brain when he'd hatched the plan.

Sophie got his obscure references, she got his half said words... she even understood his silences. But she hadn't learnt about his fears. She hadn't known that he was too afraid to take that chance at life again, because if he lost this time, nothing would be left of him to make another go at it. He would be utterly and completely destroyed... she held the power to destroy him in her delicate hands and she didn't know it.

Nate knew he was a fool to do it, but he still did it. Everytime the door opened, he still expected a smiling and perfectly dressed and made up Sophie to walk through it. All would be right in his world again when that happened. So the chance of that happening was about the same as it snowing in the Sahara during midday in summer.

Sophie Devereaux... whoever she was, was his anchor. And Nate's ship without its anchor was just drifting out to sea with no direction, no destination and absolutely no idea what was going on. And being the control freak that he was, Nate couldn't take it any more. He found his hand reaching unsteadily into his pocket for his phone and stopped himself. He'd located her address, gone to London and begged her to comeback to them... to him. But she'd just turned her back on them and sent her friend as a replacement... as if Sophie's place in this team could ever be taken by someone else.

He wasn't doubting Tara's skills, she was an absolute professional, but even Tara knew that she didn't really fit in with their motley crew of thieves bent on seeing justice served to their clients, and not even expecting to be paid for it. Sophie got him... but she wasn't coming back. At least not for now... he message couldn't have been clearer and he needed to get over it and himself. Nate Ford was tired of being a drunk loner and he was sick of pushing people away.

That decided, he pulled his phone out again and pressed a number on his speed dial, praying that the person he was calling in the middle of the night wouldn't be so pissed off that he would drop kick Nate to the other side of the world, which he was eminently capable of.

After a tough day and an even more exhausting evening, Eliot Spencer was finally asleep. The king sized bed in his house was finally getting it's dues as the hitter relaxed into the soft mattress and wrapping his arm around the slim form curved into his body, prepared to sleep the night away for the first time in a long time. But that was before the ringing of a phone woke him up.

Pushing away the anger that was clouding his vision... he knew that no one would dare to call him at this time of the night if they didn't have an emergency on their hands... he blindly reached for the phone that was vibrating on his nightstand.

"Hello?"

"Eliot?"

"Sophie?... Is everything okay? Are you in any sort of danger?"

He was already on his feet, proceeding to his closet to get a fresh pair of clothes when the grifter's voice spoke in his ear

"Yes... yes... no danger. It's all fine. Don't worry"

"What am I supposed to think Sophie?... You call me in the middle of the night and you expect me to politely ask about the weather wherever it is that you are?"

"Ahem... well, seeing that I called Parker and you picked up the phone, I would rather appreciate a little chat about weather Eliot..."

This time, there was a suppressed smile in the grifter's voice as she thoroughly enjoyed her new revelation. God knew she had been rooting for Eliot and Parker to get together... or maybe she was just assuming too much... or was she?

The slight pause and the very minute elevation of the hitter's voice on the next sentence however gave it all away. He was playing the 'so you know, it's no big deal' card... and she ahd to say, doing it very well.

"Yeah... sorry, must've picked up the wrong phone. Just hold on Sophie... lemme see if she's awake"

As he turned to the bed however, he saw the thief sitting up, the sheet pulled up to her chest, her ear pressed to another phone similar to one he held and directing a sheepish smile at him while answering whoever it was she was speaking to. One more second's delay told him that the person on the other side of that call was none other than Nate Ford.

Turning back to the one he held, Eliot spoke

"Sorry Sophie... Parker seems to be on my phone... talking to.."

"It's okay Eliot... I just called to chat with Parker. It was nothing important... I'll call back later. Congratulations by the way... hope both of you are happy together..."

"Thank you Sophie. I'll tell her you called..."

After a slightly uncomfortable pause, Eliot continued... he was a hitter sure, but he was always unfailingly polite to the grifter. Eliot respected Sophie for her skills, her instincts and the role she'd palyed in Parker's life. He'd been disappointed with her leaving, even a little angry, but from his heart, he knew that Sophie and Nate had to work things out between them if they were to ever find happiness. He wanted the two of them to be happy and so he decided to interfere.

"Sophie... if you don't mind me saying this... you're calling Parker when it's the middle of the night for her because you needed someone to talk to and Nate is calling me in the middle of the night because he needed to talk... wouldn't it be much easier if the two of you just spoke to each other?... just once?... You need to work this out betwen the two of you Sophie."

At her continued silence, he spoke again

"I was just makin' a suggestion... and I am sorry if I overstepped my bounds..."

"No.. no... It's okay Eliot. What you said is correct but... sometimes it isn't as easy as just picking up the phone..."

"And sometimes it is as easy as that... Sophie just give it a try. You deserve a chance to be happy... both of you"

"Thank you Eliot... I-I will think about it..."

"That's all I'm askin' for Sophie... good luck"

"Thanks Eliot... and good night. Sorry for waking you up"

"It's alright darlin'... I'll do anything if it keeps my family happy Sophie... and you'll always be my family. Wherever you choose to be"

"Oh Eliot... you don't know how much that means to me... Thank you Eliot... thank you for that. Now I'll let you get back to sleep... and Parker... Good night"

"Have a nice day Sophie"

Ending the call, the hitter turned back to his girlfriend of two weeks to find her smiling up at him from her position on his bed, having finished her call with Nate earlier.

"Picked up the wrong phones..."

"Yeah we did darlin'... but that was an interesting conversation wasn't it? I hope something comes out of it"

"So... Nate called you... and Sophie called me"

"Yeah... we started out at the opposite sides of the bed in the evening remember?" he asked laughingly

"Hmmm... I do remember a lot of things about the evening Mr. Spencer... but not about the opposite sides of the bed... care to refresh my memory?"

The lowered voice and the batted eyelashes were enough for the perceptive hitter to get back into bed and start working at refreshing his thief's memory of their evening... which seemed to be pretty solid... but who cared, it was a lot more fun this way.

Across town, a slightly more sober Nate Ford was staring into his phone again... this time in surprise. That had been an illuminating conversation. Not that he'd needed that much information about Parker and Eliot's relationship... but again, it was Parker he'd spoken to and he was relieved that the hitter and thief managed to keep it professional while they were on the job.

Heaving another sigh, this one of tiredness, the mastermind was just about to get up to make up the couch for another night, his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello Nate..."

'Sophie?'

She smiled at the emotions she could hear in his voice. It was a smile that had been missing far too long from the brunette's face... a smile of pure happiness... something only this man managed to bring out in her.

"My name is..."

Across the ocean, Nathan Ford's face also settled into a beautiful smile at hearing the words that the grifter had spoken thousands of miles away. The frown lines erased from his face, the mastermind looked half a dozen years younger... and this was just from listening to her voice. But Nathan Ford knew now... he knew that it was all going to be good... because he had his anchor, his Sophie by his side.

The last time they met, she'd asked him a question... whether they needed her, or he needed her. He hadn't answered her then... he did now.

"Please come back... I need you"

AN: So there it is... My first Nate and Sophie fic... Hope all of you liked it... Don`t forget to review you thoughts and ideas. :)

Lotsa luv and choco chip cookies

Macybear