A/N: I got this idea while rereading alinandalion's without you. I don't know how I got this from that but I can some of the inspiration tools working it through. Please, trust me when I say it is totally worth reading all the way through. The ending is pure Leverage.
It had been a mildly sunny day when Nate got the call that would end his world forever. Eliot had been cooking. Parker and Hardison had been flirting, their form of it anyway. Sophie was visiting an old friend somewhere else and sending postcards everyday if only so everybody would know she was fine. Nate was laughing at the banter that was forming around him and already making plans for the big con they were going to pull off the moment Sophie had returned home. Okay, so they were going to pull off a big con a week after Sophie returned so Nate could spend some of their month long vacation together.
The phone ringing was not what ended the constant laughter filling the room in the least. No, the mastermind was stilling laughing as he picked up the phone and pressed the talk button.
"Hello," Nate said as he laughed at the faces the hacker was making for the thief's own amusement.
"May I please speak to Mr. Tom Baker?" the male voice on the other asked with too much regret and sadness in it to be a good thing.
"Yes, that's me," Nate replied back as he noticed the laughter suddenly stopped at his suddenly worried tone.
"Mr. Baker," the male voice replied as a method of stalling something very bad, "My name is Dr. Richard Hendrix. I work at the Charing Cross Hospital in London, Great Britain over in the U.K."
"I'm familiar with that hospital," Nate responded slowly as he tried to figure out why his stomach just dropped to the floor.
"Yes," the doctor gulped with a sad chuckle at the weird answer to his statement, "I'm calling with concerns to your wife, Sarah Jane…"
"Oh," Nate gasped out as he figured out exactly why his entire digestive system was churning and twirling in discomfort, "that!"
Sophie had been visiting friends in London. Nate was pretty certain that was code for her family who he was never going to be allowed to meet but that wasn't important when a hospital is calling about your "wife" who is in London.
"I'm afraid I have some very bad news," the doctor explained in a carefully clipped tone.
"How is she?" Nate demanded with a lot of greed in his voice that he just couldn't disguise even if he wanted to; the fear and desperation weren't fake either.
"Yes," the doctor swallowed at the abrupt question and that was so not a good sign at all, "Mr. Baker, I'm going to have to ask that you sit down!"
"How bad?" Nate hollered into the phone in answer as he just began to realize that there were other people in his apartment even though it was deadly silent.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Baker," the doctor sighed into the phone in that doctor voice that all doctors and nurses had perfectly formed to deliver bad news in that doctorly way, "but she didn't make it! There was a mugging nearby…"
"No!" Nate thinks he was able to groan out before he raced the phone to the floor. He didn't know if he heard anything after she didn't make it. He didn't care either. All he knew was that the hardwood floor was nothing compared to the cold that was seeping into his chest and every other part of his body and making it far too numb for comfort.
"What happened?" Parker demanded with wide eyes as she suddenly came nose to nose with the fallen man with fear covering her face whether she knew it or not.
"How?" Nate managed to gurgle out as he became aware of the phone that had dropped right next to him. Parker practically screamed when the mastermind hungrily grabbed onto the phone as if life depended on it. The mastermind flung the phone to his ear and demanded to know everything in that instant. It could be a con. He needed to hear it.
"How did it happen?" Nate questioned as he tried to ignore the sound of tears in his scratchy throat.
"A stray bullet to the chest," the doctor whose name he really couldn't remember at all said with deep sympathy in his voice, "There was no way of saving her."
"Oh," Nate cried out and he was vaguely aware of the way the team was looking at him as if he were crazy.
"I'm afraid that under the circumstances we are going to have to ask you to come and identify the body for us," the doctor groaned out sadly at the horrid news, "Just to make certain of everything that happened. I promise we will keep you as well accommodated as possible."
"I'll be there tomorrow," Nate answered into the phone grasping onto the false hope that maybe it was another Sarah Jane Baker that was aimlessly walking the streets of London and meeting an unfortunate death.
"I understand," the doctor whose name didn't really matter commented as he professionally hung up his phone to probably go deliver news to some other family that wasn't going to brake as much as his team was about to.
"What happened?" Parker repeated with tears glistening in her eyes in preparation for the news that was about to be shared.
"Hardison, get me a flight to London," Nate ordered waspishly as he tried to shake the daze from his eyes long enough to deliver the news to his team, "Get me the first flight you can!"
"Make that two," Eliot ordered gruffly as he turned off the stove and refused to do anything further than that, "I'm going for moral support."
"Make that four," parker ordered with understanding pouring from her eyes, "We're all going to go!"
"No," Nate shook his head at the thief's plea, "I don't want you to see…"
"But if Hardison and I go we can go find her when you say that it's not Sophie," Parker pouted out as she immediately went to the happiest thoughts she could find in protest.
"Hardison is not going anywhere to identify a body," Hardison retorted with fear practically screaming from his body language, "Hardison is going to spend his time booking two airplane tickets to the U.K. and then Hardison is going to spend the rest of it calling every single one of our grifter's aliases until he gets an answer that does not involve voicemail! That's what Hardison's gonna do!"
"And Parker is going to stay right where he can see you," Eliot quipped back in a growl as he kept both eyes pinned to the mastermind.
"But she's not…" Parker began to argue with hope sadly on her face.
"You're staying here!" Nate ordered in the voice he knew she would not disobey.
"I hate you," Parker spit back as she plopped on the chair closest to her and started babbling on about the many ways that their grifter could not possibly be dead.
"Aren't you going to argue with me?" Eliot posed to the mastermind with a cheeky grin that held nothing but fear to it.
"Nope," Nate explained himself in the best impersonation of indignity he could come up with considering such dire circumstances, "I need you to drive! I'm not getting drunk! I need to be sober just in case!"
"Alright," Eliot nodded as the room grew uncomfortably quiet at the tiny admission.
"Your flight leaves in a couple hours," Hardison replied as he handed them their passports and started typing on his phone, "Now, go!"
Eliot punctuated the hacker's order by throwing away the food he had been cooking only moments before. Nobody really cared about the fact that he included the pots, pans, dishes, and utensils into the trashed pile.
The flight wasn't fast enough and way too fast for the mastermind's liking. The hitter seemed just as determined to get out of the airport as the mastermind judging by the way they ended up being the first ones in line for a rental when they had gotten there with at least fifty people waiting in line. The drive to the hospital on the other hand couldn't be slow enough. The speed limit was practically blinding to the mastermind who did not want to go do what he was about to go do. He would have perfectly happy with the thief's magical idea that the grifter had merely sent out a body double and was lying low to await the pressure of the day. Hardison and Parker were both keeping their cells on stand-by just in case that was true.
The hospital felt deserted and creepy the moment the two men entered it. Everything about the foreign place screamed for them to run away and never return and never even watch another scary movie because they could just live right there. They didn't run, unfortunately. Eliot had enough wit about him to say they were there to identify Sarah Jane Baker. Apparently, he had enough wit about him to even explain that he was the brother of Tom. Nate didn't really pay attention. He was too focused on the walk to the coroners that felt a lot worse than watching Sam die. It was like a brand new sick version of the horror was taking over. The doctor who had apparently called them to deliver the news greeted them politely at the entrance and gave the detailed story of everything that happened. Nate didn't care. Eliot just nodded.
The body was lying on a cold slab with signs that it had been laid there in preparation. Nate practically snorted at the professional manner they had gone about arranging the table and putting it in the cleanest spot of the entire hospital. It wasn't as haunting in the room. That was pretty much the only good thought. The mastermind stared at the woman's body in complete shock at the blue tint of her once olive skin. She was still beautiful even in death. Nathan Ford now had the cold knowledge of that to add to his pile of facts about the great Sophie Devereaux. It was her. That knowledge alone was going to kill him he was sure. He touched the grifter's shoulder if only to remember the soft silk of skin. She felt like rubber in death and far too cold to the touch. It felt like he was touching something that had never been human at all. He moved the hair away from her face like he did when she was sleeping. Her hair was almost as soft but she was most definitely not sleeping. It made sense that her hair shouldn't be as soft.
The doctor then asked if it was her. Nate wasn't certain about the hitter's whereabouts until that moment. He was suddenly face to face with the hitter and the doctor who had told them the evil truth was holding his face as if he had been hit. The mastermind realized that he had broken the man's jaw when he punched him. Eliot didn't even reprimand him for it so apparently that was normal. They told the team after they were informed that a proper coroner's report had to be filed. They weren't going to get their Sophie back for another month. That gave them time to plan the funeral according to the nurse who had taken over once the doctor had gone to surgery. That gave them plenty of time to establish this was real and who did it was what they were thinking.
The funeral was sad as all funerals are. They stared at a bottomless pit of despair only six feet deep and watched as the cherry casket was slowly placed within.
Hardison had giant circles under his eyes. He had been up every single day since the incident that involved a phone. He dialed every single number he had to find her. He even called Tara to get any and all contacts he didn't even have the privilege of knowing. The hacker called every single one of Sophie's contacts; old, new, enemy or friend. He called everyone and came up empty every time. He was standing as close to the tombstone as he could get. He wanted to touch the name their mastermind insisted on putting onto it and everybody agreed that would be it.
Parker looked thinner and paler than ever before. She had waited until the postcards stopped coming before she allowed the possibility to sick in. She refused to say the grifter's name after that. She hadn't lapsed into silence but she had absolutely refused to even admit their grifter had ever been a part of their lives at all. It wasn't until the thief had opened the cupboard to the tea that the tears of torment started to crumble down her cheeks. She had stopped eating cereal and only ate foods that were nowhere near the cupboard now. She was standing near the hacker with a look on her face that practically screamed that she wanted to dive into the pit with their grifter and pretend the world was never cruel again. She had been the only member of the team not to give any opinion on what should be on the tombstone; the grifter was her only reply.
Tara looked torn. She had arrived after Hardison's phone call to help get the people who did it back. She tried to convince Parker to stop waiting for postcards that would never come. She even tried to fill in for the grifter when it became apparent they needed to do something while they waited. She spent most of her time locating any fact about the grifter's death she could. She was getting them answers they needed and they weren't going to begrudge her the mourning method she chose. She had been the one who demanded Nate come up with a name for the tombstone. She was not surprised when the name slipped out and she was the first one to agree that was the name that belonged there.
Maggie watched the other mourners with tears in her eyes. She was the first person besides the team to find out about the grifter's passing. She had spent her time canceling her plans for the next month and a half to get to Boston. She bullied Parker into eating. She forced Hardison to take a break when the phone calls were starting to destroy him. She talked Eliot into doing things for her. She picked Tara up from the airport. She stopped Nate from pushing everyone away. She had been the one to arrange the funeral. She planned where it would be and when it would take place while the others were gathering information on the horror that had been placed upon them. She was the one who questioned Tara about the tombstone and then immediately ordered it when they all gave her their decision.
Eliot glared at the lowering casket. He had refused to cook as soon as they got back from the identification zone. He refused to step foot in the kitchen. He spent all of his time calling his contacts and his enemies in search of the person responsible for the grifter's death. He never left the apartment. He even went as far as to create a rule that nobody would leave unless he said they could and gave him a reasonable list of ten escape plans if they ended up in trouble. He was the one who forced Maggie and Tara to wear bullet proof vests whenever they had to go out. He was the last member of the team to actually agree on the name on the tombstone. He was also the last member of the team to agree to even go to the funeral.
Nate just stared. He had no sense of time anymore. All he ever thought about was holding Sop… the grifter in his arms and crying at her lack of heat. He watched as everyone else fell around him. He could only think about his utter lack of care at their loss. She was gone. Why did he have to care about anything anymore? He was just as focused on the postcards as Parker was. He was just as bent on revenge as all of the others. He just didn't care. He had been numb since he touched the grifter's hair. The only thing he cared about was the name on the tombstone. He was adamant that he would do anything to put Sophie Ford on that tombstone.
The mastermind was slightly aware of the fact that the two men who were lowering the casket into the ground had vanished all of a sudden. The others looked like they still hadn't even noticed. They were all numb apparently. The one who did all the feeling had just left them. It made sense they would be numb.
"Not a lot of mourners," a familiar British lilt tutted out in disappointment from somewhere near the middle of everyone, "is it?"
The mastermind just stared at the expected hallucination as he tried not to laugh in relief that he was finally doing something after being so incredibly numb. The others seemed a little surprised at the hallucination's presence though.
"Of course," the hallucination of the brunette grifter huffed as she stared down at the now lowered casket with sadness on her face, "That tends to happen when you're a professional grifter!"
The mastermind really thought about commented on that one but apparently he wasn't allowed to speak his mind.
"What?" Eliot demanded as he stared at the hallucination as if he had been hit in the head with a rock several times.
"I'm surprised by the name though," the brunette hallucination continued as if the hitter never even spoke a word to her, "I wasn't expecting that."
"I wanted them to put the grifter on it," Parker croaked out with a tilt of her head as she stared at the not-grifter in confusion.
"Whose idea was this then?" the fake grifter's mouth spoke as she turned around to stare at each member in concern.
"Maggie planned the funeral," Tara managed to stammer to the shared hallucination with more shock just taking over her face.
"It's a lovely funeral," Hallucination grifter replied with both brown eyes staring at the civilian in gratitude, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Maggie huffed out as she was suddenly getting angry at the hallucination's words, "Is this really happening?"
"I'm afraid so," the hallucination that was definitely starting to look like it wasn't a hallucination stated quite confidently.
"You're dead," Nate stammered as he came to a realization no other member of his team seemed quite able admit to yet.
"Oh Nathan," the maybe hallucination sighed at the statement as she slowly made her approach and touched him burning hot on the cheek, "When are you going to learn that nothing is black or white?"
"You're not dead?" Hardison shouted at the grifter as his face started to turn read at the most definitely not-hallucination's words.
"Nope," the grifter replied confidently as she stared at her family sadly, "I'm not dead! I'm sorry you had to think so!"
"Sophie!" Nate gasped out with tears accidentally slipping from his eyes as he pulled the not dead grifter as close to his body as possible.
"I refused to say Sophie," Parker gasped out as she suddenly appeared right beside the mastermind with both of her arms gripping the grifter just as tightly.
"Nate and Eliot had to identify the body," Hardison growled at the grifter with hatred and betrayal shimmering on his face.
"Rubber doll made to look exactly like me," Sophie apologized for the confusion, "I had to hire someone to make anatomically correct too just to convince everyone I was gone!"
"Who were you avoiding?" Eliot demanded in rasp as he joined the group hug for a moment and then placed an accusing finger in the grifter's face.
"I'll fill you in later, I promise," Sophie cried out in understanding of what she put everyone through, "Believe me when I say I would have told you sooner if I could!"
"You're alive," Tara gasped out as she joined the group hug just as energetically as Parker, "I hate you for not telling us!"
"I'm sorry," Sophie apologized again as tears were starting to appear in her eyes at the sad faces all around her.
"Give her some air," Eliot ordered when it looked like the grifter was going to be crushed to death by the forceful hugs, "You'll kill her if you keep it up."
The huggers complied immediately, though reluctant to let go. The mastermind held up his hands in surrender while Tara and Parker jumped back in fear that they actually would be the death of their reunited member.
"You bitch!" Maggie screamed as she slapped the grifter across the face to the shock of everybody attending the funeral, "You scared them to death by pretending to have died! Do you have any idea what I just watched you put them through?"
"Yes," Sophie smiled at the civilian's anger, "and thank you so much for taking care of them when they needed you most!"
"Don't ever do that again!" Maggie ordered as she tried to keep her temper for a little bit longer.
"Don't just let her off the hook so easily!" Hardison snapped as he raced towards his family with fury in his wake, "Do you have any idea how many phone calls I had to make just to confirm that you were indeed dead? I haven't slept in weeks! Parker refused to say your name! Eliot stopped cooking! Tara came back and helped us get more info on your "death"! Maggie had to plan your funeral because we were too busy being in denial to even think of it! You broke Nate, man!"
"Hardison…" Sophie began with sadness in her eyes.
"NO!' Hardison ordered as he invaded the grifter's personal space with an angry glare, "You don't get to defend yourself after putting us through hell! This is my time to talk and I'm going to talk! You scared us! You scared us to death! We were so frightened that I think I had a heart attack twice a day, every day! I don't care if it was to save our lives as much as it was to protect your own! You don't do that to your team! Don't you dare do that to us again or I will personally sick Eliot on you to kill you!"
"You're too brash to do it yourself?" Sophie posed to the hacker with humor in her voice.
"You know I can't kill people!" Hardison growled at the grifter with happiness starting to betray his relief now, "Besides, Parker and Nate would chicken out before the job would even get started! I need me hands to work and killing people is what Eliot's hands are made to do! Just be glad that I didn't think about sending Tara after you until just this moment! Can you imagine the pain she'd cause?"
"Only a little," Tara playfully huffed to get the happiness back in their lives after such a horrid loss.
"Hardison," Sophie smiled at the hacker with her most sincere smile ever, "are you going to come over here and hug me or are you going to holler at me to death?"
"I'm gonna hug you!' Hardison shouted as he squeezed the grifter tight and grumbled about the unfairness of faking death to the point where your own family doesn't even think it's fake.
The crew of these plus their two friends headed towards the bar to celebrate their newest victory. Sophie told them how she destroyed their little problem while her death was still in circulation. Nate refused to leave her side even when she really wanted alone time. Parker started eating cereal and saying her name almost to the point where they had to limit the thief's use of it. Hardison continued to complain about the grifter's sucky plan that did not include them and still totally saved their lives. Eliot started cooking that day. Maggie yelled at Sophie some more. Tara stayed to work on a few cons while the brunette grifter was grounded and forced into the mastermind's custody. How else would a happy ending end?
A/N 2: Review and tell me if you were expecting that ending? I set the clues. Did you catch them?