"Are you sure you don't mind doing this?" A man asked a rather elusive being with no known name.
"We aren't hurting anyone who doesn't deserve it?" The person reiterated from the other line.
"Nope, I may not be on the right side of the law anymore, but I'm still a pseudo good guy." He answered.
"Then yeah, I'm in." They promised. "I'm three hours away."
And with that the line went dead, prompting the man to close it and walk towards his team. "Ok people, our extra hand will be here in less than two hours."
"Remind me again why we need an outsider?" Their resident Grifter demanded with irritation clear in her voice.
The Mastermind of the operation held back an eye roll at the clearly jealous Grifter. "Because, we need the specific skill this person can bring in for this job." He reminded them all.
"What was his name again?" The Hacker of the team asked for the fifth time.
"Pride." Was the answer he gave just as his Hitter walked through the door.
"What?" The man asked as he took a seat at the counter, a thoughtful look on his face.
Their Thief rolled her eyes. "Our extra player for this job." She told him.
He looked up in surprise. "Why are we bringing in another player?"
The Mastermind rolled his eyes. "We need their specific skills." He answered irritably.
The Hitter sat back, a look of perplexion on his face. He looked like he was trying to remember something that he knew he knew, but wasn't positive.
"He better not be a thief." Their Thief, also known as Parker, said sulkily with her arms crossed.
"Or a Hacker." Their Hacker, Alec Hardison, muttered as he searched through federal databases for the name.
"I'll be damned if we bring an unknown Grifter on to this team with me here." The Grifter, Sophie Devereaux, said threw pursed lips. Ever since she'd taken her sabbatical and come back, she'd been a bit territorial.
Everyone looked towards the silent Hitter, who still looked deep in thought. He glanced up as he felt the eyes. "What?" He asked with a shrug. "I don't expect him to need another Hitter, and even if he does, I'm quite secure in my place on this team." He said, stringing more words together then usual before losing himself back into his previous thought.
"Well you all are right, and wrong." He answered. "The person -"
But he was cut off by the knock at the door. He walked over, glanced threw the peephole, and grinned at the sight on the other side. "Welcome." He said after opening the door.
Everyone but the Hitter rushed to their feet and towards the door to find a surprise on the other side. "Who's she?" Sophia demanded.
"She's our extra player." Nate Ford, aka their Mastermind, answered as he closed the door behind their extra hand for this job.
"I thought it was a guy." Hardison said sulkily before holding his hand out towards the beautiful creature. "My name is"
He was cut off. "Alec Hardison." She answered for him. "I do my homework."
The team, minus their Hitter, looked over the woman before them. She was shorter than even Parker, making her only about five foot two or three. With long auburn curls trailing down to her lower back, a porcelain doll face, a curvy body, honey and cream skin, and large green eyes that completely dominated her face beside the mass of hair. She was the type that made guys jump in front of a bullet or take a punch to the solarplex just to protect her.
"And your name is?" Parker asked a bit rudely.
The woman held out her hand. "Kath"
She was cut off by a gasp and "Mara?" from the previously hidden Hitter. "Mara Trail..." He reiterated his expression a mix between surprise, fear, and crushing sadness that no one but he and she could possibly understand.
Katherine Pride - aka Elizabeth Master's, aka Samantha Rule, aka on and on and on until you finally got to her true name... Amarantha Trail, aka Mara - turned to find herself face to face with a man she'd never thought to see again. She actually took a step back before checking herself and stepping forward angrily. "You!" She snarled as she brought up a previously hidden .45 and pointed it directly at the man's head. To say the other three were a bit surprised would be an understatement. "Why are you here?" She demanded, spitting out the word you as though worried it may contaminate her.
"You realize that shooting me would be a bit overkill." He told her calmly without even paying attention to her question.
She snorted. "You realize that I don't care." She told him, bringing back the hammer with every intent of putting a bullet threw his head.
Parker stepped forward angrily, but the little woman before them quickly pulled out a throwing knife and pointed it towards the thief. "I will throw this threw your shoulder - making it very hard for you to scale any buildings, and do your job, for a nice long while - if you step any closer." She warned silkily, keeping her entire focus on the man in front of her.
"Come on." The Hitter said with exasperation clear in his voice. "It's not like I did anything that horrid." He told her.
She snorted. "Are you serious?" She demanded angrily. "Nothing that horrid." She mimicked. "Do you know what happened to me after you left?" She demanded.
Sophie looked towards Nate with a smirk on her face, one that clearly said this was more than just a peek into Eliot Spencer, resident Hitter, this was one of the major reason he was who he was today. This tiny little woman before them was one of the biggest missing pieces to their Spencer Puzzle.
He shrugged. "I had to leave." He told her. "If I'd stayed they would have found you and you'd have gotten hurt."
She cackled, actually cackled like some demented witch, at his words. "They did find me." She told him with a glimmer of pain at some memory only she knew. "And you weren't there." She finished the last, her voice almost a whisper as she uncocked her gun and lowered it, the knife slipping back into its concealed sheath and her gun back into its own spot. She turned towards Nate Ford with a grimace. "I know I told you I'd do this, but I can't." She told him. "I'll make a call and have you a replacement that can be here by tonight." She finished before turning towards the door. She glanced back once more towards the man she'd known five years ago, and couldn't help the wobble that hit her lips. "Bye." She said before opening the door and walking out without another backwards glance.
Eliot stood frozen for a moment before taking off after the woman without even casting a glance towards his team mates.
