Okay so I know that I haven't updated anything in 2 months but to be honest i got writers block to hell for Piece by Piece and then I started to RP and my muse got sucked into a hole for like a month. And well that brings us up to about a week ago - Anyway I come with a story because the finale was just…no words. I can't even begin to explain how I feel about it. I promise I'll be writing more often guys just bear with me~

The Flood

"Nate…Nate, it's still not good enough!" Sophie exclaimed in exasperation. She was trying to help him with his acting skills, well more preferably his grifting skills, and it was not going very well. He was able to lie through his teeth just fine but she was able to see right through it. Hell, she was sure anyone who knew him well enough would know he was lying.

"Dammit Sophie, I'm trying!" Nathan snapped back angrily. He ran his hand through his hair and let his hand fall to the nape of his neck to rub at the sore muscles. They had been sitting on the couch for nearly an hour as Sophie desperately tried to help Nate with his grifting skills. Apparently he still was't meeting her standards. "Will you please just show me what you mean?"

Suddenly he was slapped hard across the face. The sound of a sharp gasp was covered up by the smack of skin against skin. Pain spread like wildfire under his skin and he brought a hand up to rub the sting away. His slightly hurt eyes looked up at a now seething grifter who looked like she was about ready to rip his throat out. "No, Nate. I'm not going to show you what I mean because you should be smart enough to know what the hell I mean. Now, I have better things to do than teach you how to lie. Maybe while I'm gone you can figure it out yourself."

"Sophie, what the hell-"

Sophie, on the other hand, ignored him and continued on as though he had never even opened his mouth. She shot him one more purely disgusted look before she stood up, turned her back, and started to walk away. The Mastermind was just looking at her with his mouth open as he tried to think of some words to form. But then his girlfriend started to laugh and suddenly it hit him. She turned around and looked at him, holding her hand over her mouth like she always did when she was trying to keep from laughing.

"You…" He started, but he never got a chance to finish because Sophie had started to laugh uncontrollably. Still he tried to keep the look of anger on his face but he couldn't help but start to smile. His lips twitched and he grit his teeth but the joy of the woman he loved just made him too happy.

"Oh you should've seen your face Nate," She giggled as she plopped herself back down on the couch and wrapped her arms around her man.

"I'm sure it was just hilarious," He muttered, kissing the side of her head. The sudden shock of being slapped and then yelled at had had him a bit turned upside down and confused, which is why he hadn't figured it out right away. And he was sure that he looked like (as Sophie had once said) a slapped mackerel.

She nuzzled her head against his neck as her laughed slowly faded until all that was left was a smile strewn across her lips. A thought popped into her head and slowly the smile began to fade until she sat there frowning and wondering. "Nate….why do you want me to teach you this? It's not like you need to be any better for the cons."

"One can never have enough information."

"Really? That's the best you can come up with."

He shifted underneath her a bit, pursing his lips briefly and wondering how the hell she figured it out already. Well, Nathan she always knows when you're lying. His heart rate speed up slightly but when she placed a hand over his heart it jumped and began to beat furiously. "I just…Sophie, it's a long story."

"We've got time."

"I…" He faltered and gave a defeated sigh. His eyes fell to the glass that had been filled with a generous dose of scotch the night before and he yearned for it to be filled once again. As the time for his big plan approached he felt himself get dragged just a little bit closer to the bottle and a little farther away from the team. It took a lot of strength to push the bottle away - say no to what he craved - and do the right thing for once. And now…now he had to do the right thing even though it pained him to do it. He let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes, bringing a hand up to rub the bridge of his nose. "I just want to make sure that if anything were to ever happen to you guys I would be able to lie us all out of it."

"Darling, is this part of one of your big plans?" Sophie asked carefully as she moved her head away from his shoulder so she could look at him with her big brown eyes. His blue ones looked sad and heavy, and even with those two emotions she knew he was suffering under the weight of hiding something from her.

He sighed once again. The look in her eyes was just too much for him and he had to look away, turning his head to the side and looking at the glass that sat on the coffee table. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Sophie follow his gaze and then look back up at him. The disappointment was nearly radiating off of her and he shrugged the touch of her hand away.

When Sophie felt him start to close off she backed away and gave him some space. He was starting to shut her out like he always did when something was bothering him and she absolutely hated it. Even after being with him for two years she found it was still rare for him to talk openly about such things. Still she loved him. She loved him for every flaw and every mistake that made him up. Sighing, she ran her hand through her messy hair. It was clear that this big plan had something to do with Sam or his past, or any other of the god damn things that sent him running to the bottle. And this began to worry the Grifter, and she began to wonder about this big plan of his and what it could possibly involve. She'd be damned if she didn't con it out of him. "Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well," She said quietly. When Nate didn't respond she pressed her lips in to a thin line and nodded. "Why do you want to lie to protect the team? You don't have to say it….just think it."

The thought rang loud and clear in his head and it made him feel a bit woozy. He nodded.

She had slowly inched her way back over to him and now sat as close as she could get to him without touching him. She leaned in and whispered in his ear very carefully, "Now why would you lie to protect me?" A beat skipped through the silence before her gentle voice broke through the calm once more. "And hold on to every feeling, every single feeling, and let it wash over you like a flood. Let the tears and the happiness come through and let it bleed into your voice." There was another pause for dramatic purpose (because she's Sophie Devereaux after all). "All the truth in the world ends up being one big lie….one way or another."

His lips had parted as he drew in long shaky breaths. Something about her words had touched him deep inside and along with the well of emotions he had brought upon himself he felt as though he were about to cry. Tears were swimming behind his eyes and his throat felt heavy with the pain of holding back his emotions. When he had dug up all the feelings he felt for her he dug up his most intimate and his most hated and everything that settled in between. And in the moment that all this struck him he knew that if he needed to protect Sophies life by lying he could do it.

"Okay…good, good," She breathed, "You've got yourself there and now you have to channel all of your emotions into the grift. Close your eyes and begin to picture the setting I tell you."

Nate closed his eyes.

Sophie changed her accent to a legato southern one and threw in just a hint of a Boston accent to throw him off slightly. "The room is dim. It's quiet in the room, but that silence is soon disturbed when you hear the sound of the door opening. As you come to you start to feel metal around your wrist. Handcuffs. You yank at them angrily because you know you've made a mistake - that something in your plan went wrong and your team paid the price. You look up to see the features of a woman with a hard face and blonde hair sit down across from you. Only a table separates you from her. Your head throbs from the accident earlier…the accident you can't quite remember. She speaks now in a even voice."

…

"Four other bodies were pulled out of the river along with you and the van. Three of them were already dead with bullet wounds in their bodies. The last body was mutilated by the impact of the van and the shrapnel."

Lies. It was all lies but he knew if he didn't lie himself that the con would be over and he would be in jail in minutes. So at her last words he did what Sophie had told him just weeks earlier, and channeled every single emotion he felt for them. It washed over him like a merciless flood and drowned him in a blackness not even he could begin to describe. It shimmered around him, laughing, taunting, and crying out in a hellacious harmony of 'they're dead and it's all your fault'. Painful sparks of other memories arose in his heaving chest and burning eyes and joined in the chorus of voices. He felt every ounce of loss when Sam died, every feeling he felt when he found out he had lost Sophie to another man, all the pieces of his shattered heart when he had let his only family go, and the rage and revenge that had coursed through his veins when his father had died.

Together they fueled an act of pure loss and hopelessness, and one that showed the truth of a failure long gone but whose smoldering colors still raged on.

The End

P.S. The scene in which I'm describing is right before Nate slams his fists down on the table and tries not to cry and then she shows him the pictures of the body bags.