A/N: Just me clearing out the drabble file so my other fanfic stories can have some room to play.
Do I own it? Um… NO, no I do not and thank you ever so much for the painful reminder! (sulk)
"Nate's been shot!"
The words escape Hardison's mouth in horror before he even has time to process anything other than the words on his screen. Parker makes a squeak sound and zooms away from her previously glued spot next to Sophie to sit right beside him to stare at the screen. Eliot scrambles over faster than Parker and gives the definitive nod that it is in fact the truth. Suddenly it gets very quiet in their room of complaining about the mastermind who betrayed them. All eyes turn on Sophie the moment the words finally penetrate enough to think past them. It seems like it happened in slow motion but it wasn't. It only takes five seconds for reality to set into the grifter's brain after hearing those words. Five seconds of teammate staring and suddenly she's out of the chair and Eliot's blocking her escape. She tries to sidestep him and he gets in her way. She hits him. He takes it. She hits the hitter again and he takes the grifter's slap again. Parker and Hardison watch the struggle in confused silence because Sophie never hits and Eliot never takes it. They watch as their grifter starts beating at the hitter to get him to move. They watch as the hitter stands his ground and refuses to budge to the insistent grifter. Eliot says he's not letting her leave and they all know it's true. She says she hates them all and they all know it's a lie. Eliot tells her it will be fine. She tells him to sod off. Parker is suddenly there with Eliot fighting to keep their grifter with them. Hardison doesn't even realize he's helping until the grifter's slap comes his way. They fight Sophie's self-preservation together because that was how it was always supposed to be. She keeps trying to con them out of fear of being too close and they know it. The fight gets worse and Parker's starting to cry. Hardison stops fighting and takes the thief away because only the hitter is going to keep their grifter together long enough for her to break in the safety of their home, the one they built together. Sophie's starting to blame Eliot because they all know that's the only thing she has left to do and he's starting to get to boiling point because he can't stop it. Eliot suddenly says he kissed you because he loves you and that's when it suddenly stops. Sophie falls into the hitter's arms in a fit of tears and he's the only thing holding her up. She's crying and Parker's suddenly there crying with her. She's curling up into a little ball in front of them and Hardison's right there holding on because they're the only family he's got. Sophie finally breaks and they let her because they know. They don't know when they figured it out but they know. Nate admitted the truth to get their Sophie back. She came back to save them but he had admitted the truth to get her back. Their Nate wasn't going to die, they knew that too. He was going to live so Eliot could beat him to a pulp. He was going to live so Parker could tease him mercilessly. He was going to live so Hardison could send pornos to his doorstep whenever he felt like it. He was going to live so Sophie could kill him herself. Their Nate was going to live. He was going to live so they could torture him for being a major liar and an ass. He was going to live because there were still tons of people they needed to save. They were a family. It's what they do.
