A/N – This was supposed to a short little thing, because I was amused by the thought of Parker as a cashier. It turned into a fourteen page thing with a focus on Nate. I do not know.
Also, yes, the timeline is screwy. I fudged it to fit in November. So just pretend. :D
AND – Ok. I work at Wal-Mart. This place, and these people, besides the bad guy… exist. Now of course I've changed names and shifted things up a bit... but there is some truth to this, lol. Just so you know.
Ooh, also! The old man with the horrible accent? Yes, some of us do talk like that -_- lol.
I guess that's it. Hope you like.
The knock at the door of Nate's apartment startled the team into silence as they wrapped up their latest case. Looking slowly around at each other, noting that all four members, plus Tara, were currently situated in the room, they turned simultaneously towards the door with suspicion.
After a moment, Nate gave a dramatic eye roll to his band of thieves, and Tara, and went to peer through the peep hole of the door. He stood back a moment later and pulled open the door swiftly.
"Ginny?" he asked carefully, eyeing the attractive woman in her mid forties carefully.
"Oh, thank God," she replied, smiling, "You do remember me. Nate, I need your help."
Nate just stared for a moment, before collecting himself and ushering her in.
Ginny stepped in and surveyed the room, taking in the other four people with various expressions on their faces.
There was a young blonde girl perched on the arm of the couch regarding her with an amused sort of disregard, as if she wasn't concerned in the least what she was here for.
Sitting on the couch beside her was a young black man in a colorful sweater. He met her gave and gave her a quick grin, seemingly dismissing her as any sort of threat. Ginny didn't know whether to roll her eyes or pet him on the head. She chose to move on.
Seated on the other side of the couch was a striking blonde woman a few years younger than her, wearing the tallest boots Ginny had ever seen. The woman regarded her with practiced neutrality, her expression giving away nothing.
Ginny turned slightly to take in the sight of the long haired man standing cross-armed next to the chair. She wondered idly why he didn't sit. His expression though, well his expression made her take an involuntary step back. The man was absolutely beautiful, but even she could tell he was more dangerous than he looked. His sharp blue eyes studied her carefully, assessing, and she squirmed involuntarily.
Finally, after the long and silent moment had passed, Nate spoke again, nodding towards Eliot.
"Guys. This is Ginny. She's an old friend. Relax."
The atmosphere of the room shifted immediately and Ginny let out a deep breath. The tall black man jumped to his feet, coming to shake her hand happily.
"I'm Hardison, your friendly neighborhood… information specialist."
Ginny laughed and shook back, "Nice to meet you, Hardison."
She turned back toward the couch, where the younger blonde woman waved half heartedly before identifying herself as Parker. She then went back to fiddling with whatever metal object that had appeared in her hand suddenly.
Hardison leaned in to whisper, "Don't worry about her, she just doesn't have anything to do yet."
Ginny nodded distractedly as the older blonde woman walked over gracefully in those impossibly tall boots to shake her hand. "I'm Tara. And I'm on my way out." She paused to send Nate a quick cursory glance, "Call me if you need me," before nodding once more to Ginny and sashaying expertly out the door.
Before Ginny could register the whole dramatic exit, she found herself face to face with the long haired man again. To her surprise, he grinned easily at her, all traces of suspicion gone from his face.
"I'm Eliot," he drawled, shaking her hand as well, "How can we help?"
"Hey, that's my line," Nate protested from somewhere in the kitchen area. Ginny was having a hard time concentrating at the moment.
"Come sit, Ginny," Nate appeared in front of her again, moving her to sit in the seat Eliot has previously stood by. She nodded and did as she was told.
Eliot moved to sit in Tara's vacated seat, next to a reseated Hardison. Nate sat in the other chair, turned towards Ginny.
"What's going on Ginny? I haven't seen you in, hell it's probably been…"
"Twenty-five years," Ginny supplied, looking slightly surprised herself, "Where does time go?"
Nate shrugged minutely, knowing the question needed no real answer.
"Not since Bradlees," Ginny nodded, smiling faintly at the memory. She turned to face the others, "Nate here was the cutest kid. "
"I was hardly a kid," Nate protested, "I was almost eighteen, and you were only just twenty one."
"What's Bradlees?" Parker chose the moment to finally enter the conversation, testing out the word on her tongue.
"Oh, I know this one!" Hardison interrupted, grinning over at Parker. "Bradlees is a retail store. Well, more like was a retail store. They don't really exist anymore. The closest one to Boston was in Chelsea, but it got shut down in the 90's when the company declared bankruptcy."
"That's… pretty accurate actually," Ginny responded, looking a little dazed. Who were these strange people?
Nate just shook his head, gesturing vaguely to the others to hush, "Just ignore them for now. What do you need, Ginny? And how did you even know to find me after all this time?"
Ginny laughed, "Come on, Nate. You really think you can come back home the way you did and not cause a little bit of a stir? It's an old neighborhood. A lot of us have moved away, but you never really leave. You know that. And when I heard about little Nathan Ford and his group of… well, whatever it is you call yourselves, I knew I had to try."
"Little Nathan Ford," Eliot snickered quietly, sharing a quick glance with Hardison, "I like her already."
Parker leaned across Hardison, who merely looked inconvenienced, to whisper not quietly enough to Eliot, "Do you want to have sex with her? I mean, she's kinda old, but really pretty, and I bet she'd have sex with you."
Ginny turned crimson at the words even as Eliot and Hardison simultaneously groaned in embarrassment. Nate just sighed.
"Don't mind her. She's just…Parker."
"Anyway," Ginny spoke up, breaking the embarrassed tension, "I came to you, Nate, because I didn't know who else to go to. I can't prove anything on my own. And people, good, hardworking people, are losing their jobs because of this wretch of a woman."
"I'm happy to help, but we're going to need more information," Nate replied.
Ginny nodded, "Well after Bradlees shut down, I had to find another job. I mean, Bobby works too, but with both girls and the mortgage payment, we just needed more money. So, after months of looking, I did the unthinkable for our Bradlees crew."
Nate laughed, "What's so unthinkable? It was a retail store. We were just k…"
"You were a kid, Nate. I wasn't. Not when it closed." Ginny couldn't help the touch of anger in her voice, "I was thirty something college dropout with two little girls and nowhere to go. It was an afterschool job for you, but all those years later, it was my livelihood. And now this job, no matter what people say about the place, and no matter how bad I felt about starting there years ago; these people are my family now too. "
"I'm sorry," Nate apologized, "I was just… it's been so long since I've even thought about Bradlees and all of you. Now, what did you do that was unthinkable?"
Ginny sighed, "I went to work for Wal-Mart."
Parker and Eliot stood in front of the deceptively small entrance to Wal-Mart, readying themselves for what was sure to be an interesting job. People rushed around them, muttered curses in several different languages flying their way. Between the two of them, they understood most of the words, and could guess the rest.
"Why do I have to be a cashier?" Parker whined to Eliot, "I mean, even Nate has to know it's a bad idea to put me in charge of thousands of dollars of money."
"Nate's not concerned with you ripping off the registers," Eliot countered, "He needs you to catch Ginny's boss doing it. And you can see things the cameras miss."
Parker grinned, "I can, can't I? Alright, let's do this."
Eliot sighed, making sure his hair was securely tied back, via Wal-Mart dress code, before following Parker inside.
"So, nobody is going to question a big suspicious looking van in a Wal-Mart parking lot for hours on end?" Hardison asked Nate as they made themselves as comfortable as possible in the van.
Nate snorted as he sipped from his thermos of what Hardison was 70% sure was only coffee, "This is Lynn. I know you're not familiar with the city, but trust me. We won't even make a blip on the radar in this place."
"And another thing," Hardison rambled on, as he does, "This Wal-Mart isn't anything like the ones back home. They don't even have a grocery section."
"Massachusetts doesn't have any Super Wal-Mart's," Nate explained, "The closest one is in New Hampshire. I'll tell you, it makes places like Stop & Shop pretty nervous when Wal-Mart even talks about expanding. It would kill them."
"And one more thing!" Hardison stared at Nate, "Why is Eliot the electronics guy? Shouldn't I be the electronics guy?"
"We've been through this, Hardison, I need you to actually *be* the geek, not play one. Plus, Eliot needs to be there in case somebody needs… coercion."
"Oh, I can coerce, I'll have you know that I'm a damn fine coercer, damn it," Hardison grumbled as he set up the various video and audio feeds he has hacked into the day before.
Nate just shook his head silently and sipped again from his thermos.
"Why is it so busy?" Eliot growled into the comms as he made his way to the electronics department.
"Dude, it's the holiday shopping season. It's three days until Black Friday. This is only the beginning of the craziness." Hardison responded, sounding entirely too happy to be in the solace of the van.
Eliot resisted the urge to run to the van and kick his ass; he had a job to do after all.
"Just be ready to answer any tech-geek questions if they come up, Hardison," Eliot muttered as he reached the apartment.
He spotted a pretty Hispanic girl at the photo counter and sent her an inviting smile. No reason he couldn't have a little fun while he worked. The girl, Rosa, by her nametag, sent him back a small grin before turning her attention to a customer that was angrily smacking the electronic card reader.
Eliot paused to take in the electronics department. It wasn't much of anything, certainly not as impressive as the southern stores. Just a few aisles of cd's and dvd's, with a few more of cameras and laptops. The back wall of shelves held a small selection of flat screen TVs secured by electric alarms wound around the boxes. Just as he decided to go over and get to know Rosa a little better, he felt a small tug on the back of his shirt.
Luckily, his instincts and logic combined to stop him from immediately swinging, knowing that the perpetrator was most likely a customer, not a threat. He was right.
His tension melted as he turned to see a man of about 80 who barely reached his chest looking up at him, clearly confused. He looked down with the kindest expression he could muster. He was a professional, after all.
"How can I help you, sir?"
The man released a breath, seemingly happy to find somebody willing to help. "I wanna buy that big TV ovah thayah, but I can't bring it to the cah on account of my ahthritis and all. And my nephew was supposed to come help me, but he can't come till fridee and I want the tv today. The ungrateful bastahd."
Eliot suppressed what was sure to be a very unmanly giggle at the old man's irritation, and his ridiculously strong accent.
"Well, sir," he said instead, "How's about we get you in line and then I'll help you load up the TV in your car?"
Eliot swore that the man might hug him, but luckily he just nodded and thanked him as Eliot went to grab the TV.
After the man had paid, Eliot tucked the 'big' TV under his arm, which ok, maybe it was only a 26" TV, but the man was at least 80 years old, and headed for the door.
He was stopped by a tall blonde woman with a pinched, pale face.
"And who exactly are you?" she asked him, blocking his entrance.
Eliot looked down at her nametag to see the name Erika Malloy – District Manager displayed in cheery font. He grinned. His mark had found him.
"Well, ma'am," Eliot gave her his best sugary sweet smile, "I'm Johnny, and I just started here today. I'm helping this customer with his TV. A… what do you call it again?"
Erika stuttered under his charm, but quickly regained her composure. "A customer carryout," she informed him primly.
Eliot nodded genially, "Thanks so much. Now, if you don't mind, I'm sure the customer here would like to get home, and this box isn't exactly light." He strained theatrically with the box, giving Erika the full force of his expressive eyes.
Much to his delight, Erika nodded and moved aside, allowing Eliot and the old man through the double doors into the parking lot.
Once the TV was loaded into the car securely, the man tried to slip Eliot a twenty, but he refused. Shrugging the man muttered something about 'if I was only 50 years younger' before heading for his door. And if he smacked Eliot's ass right as the hitter turned sales associate began to walk away, Eliot would never admit it.
Eliot passed Parker on his way back to Electronics, glad to see the woman training her didn't look too traumatized, yet.
Parker was surprised to find she was kind of enjoying herself. The woman training her, Patty, was adorable. All soft curls and funny wrinkles and sassy mouth. She had a fanny pack hanging off one hip and a pack of cigarettes sticking out the pocket of the other. Parker wanted to scoop her up and start a doll collection. But somehow she figured Patty wouldn't appreciate it.
"So look," Patty was saying, drawing Parker's attention back to the situation, "It's not hard. Just ring the stuff, type in the amount they give you and press the buttons. The little screen will prompt you. If you need help, ask one of the other cashiers. If they're dumbasses, come find me. Or flash your light, though nobody will see it. If a customer starts with you, call me. Just yell out, real loud, it's how we communicate here."
Parker nodded, trying to keep track of Patty's train of thought.
"Ok then, good luck!" Patty said before disappearing. Parker frowned. Nate had told her she would get at least two full days of training, not an hour. And Hardison said there would be computer simulations first. Nobody told her she'd be on her own with a line a mile long on her first day. She stared up at the light above her register, the brightly glowing 9 seemingly mocking her.
"Hey, lady, you open?" A rough male voice knocked Parker out of her reverie as looked to the customer and nodded.
The man had only one item, a movie, which Parker carefully scanned and placed in one of the bags on the spinny thing, she was damned if she could remember its real name. She dutifully told the customer his total and waited. He handed her a twenty and she grinned. She'd forgotten about the money! She hummed happily as she keyed in the numbers and the drawer popped open. Her eyes lit up as she took in the sight of several thousand dollars just begging to be liberated, but she restrained herself.
Handing the customer his change and receipt, Parker pushed the drawer shut with a sigh. She hated that part. But before she could complain, another customer was in front of her, with considerably more items, and she realized she had no time to complain.
After what felt like hours, a peppy black man called Sam told Parker to go and take her lunch, to which she happily agreed. Thankful that she and Eliot were on the same schedule, she dutifully waited by Electronics until Eliot was done flirting with the photo girl and came to walk with her.
They made their way past the other blue and tan clad employees to the time clock, taking turns swiping their badges and clocking out for lunch. As soon as Eliot was done, Parker tugged his arm back in the direction of the store.
"Where ya going?" Eliot hissed, annoyed.
Parker rolled her eyes, "I'm hungry, and they have a McDonalds here. We're going to eat."
"We're supposed to meet Nate and Hardison at the van, Parker."
"After we get cheesy beefy goodness," Parker insisted, "And an apple pie."
Eliot shook his head, "How the hell are you so skinny?"
Parker just grinned. A cheeseburger awaited.
"Who puts a restaurant next to a bathroom?" Eliot grumbled as he reluctantly bit down his cheeseburger. He'd sworn not to eat the junk, but the smell of french fries and 'cheesy beefy goodness' as Parker had so eloquently put it, combined with his extreme hunger, had done him in.
Parker shrugged, mouth otherwise occupied with devouring a big Mac.
They sat a two person table against the wall, eating in silence until they heard a voice from the table across from theirs speak up.
"Hey," a plain looking white girl in the signature blue and tan acknowledged them, "You guys are new, right?" She smiled over at them, the grin making her prettier, lighting up her face.
"Definitely your first day," The knowing assessment came from the Asian boy who sat across from the girl.
Parker just continued to eat, ignoring the intruders. Eliot sighed and wondered what she did when there wasn't somebody else to answer for her.
"Yep, first day," he answered, friendly enough, "I'm over in Electronics, and Betty here is a cashier."
The girl nodded, "Guess they're hiring a lot of new people for Black Friday and Christmas and stuff." The Asian boy nodded his agreement, stealing some of the girl's fries in the process. She gave him an annoyed but resigned look.
"Anyway," the boy went on after swallowing his fries, "I'm Dario, this is Leslie. We started the same day a few months ago."
Eliot nodded, not sure what response the boy was looking for.
The girl, Leslie, rolled her eyes at the boy before standing and cuffing the boy upside the head. "Come on, D." she urged, "We gotta clock back in. And I'm sure the nice new people don't want to be bothered already. Let them grow to hate Wal-Mart slowly as it sucks their soul like the rest of us."
She said it with such a cheery tone that Eliot couldn't help but laugh.
Dario shook his head dramatically, "Now you've gone and scared the PNA's, Les, good job."
"PNA?" Parker questioned, paying attention only when she didn't know something, as usual.
"Potential new associate," Leslie explained, "That's what you're listed on until they're sure your gonna stick around. Then your name goes on the schedule."
"Just numbers to them, man, just numbers," Dario nodded, gathering up the trash.
Eliot nodded again and watched them leave. Quirky kids.
"People here are weird," Parker said as she slurped down her soda.
Eliot took a moment to take in the irony of that statement before responding. "Yeah, maybe," he retorted, "Or maybe they're just stuck. This city ain't exactly the suburbs; most of the employees probably live within a five mile radius of here.
Parker just shrugged before digging into her apple pie. Eliot waited an entire minute before breaking and grabbing the second pie off her tray. After all, they were two for a dollar, and his mama taught him never to waste food.
To say Parker and Eliot were exhausted as five o'clock finally rolled around would be an understatement, but they were. Eliot had dealt with some bad bad people in his time, but he never wanted to drop kick so many people in such a short span of time before.
"This real job shit?" he said as he and Parker piled into the van that held Hardison and Nate, "No thank you. Give me meth heads and mob bosses any day."
"Seriously," Parker commiserated, sending Hardison a grateful look as he handed her a miraculously cold orange soda.
"Did we get anything useful out of Parker and Eliot's misery?" Nate asked Hardison, who was fiddling with the laptop.
Hardison grinned widely, "Sure did. Thanks to the button cams, and Eliot's little encounter with Mrs. Malfoy, we've got a pretty good idea of her pattern. We can probably predict which registers she'll hit, and then we can catch her in the act."
Eliot looked over in confusion, "I thought the mark's name was Malloy, not Malfoy."
Hardison sighed and splayed his hand over his chest dramatically, "El, man, you wound me. Seriously. Even you must read a book now and then."
"I read plenty," Eliot defended.
"Mmhm," Hardison teased, laughing when Eliot made to smack him, only to realize he was too tired to care.
Nate muttered something about thieving children and took off for home.
"It's a character from Harry Potter," Parker whispered helpfully into Eliot's ear as they rode along.
Eliot smirked as he whispered back, "I know. I just like fucking with Hardison's head."
Parker laughed, burying the sound in Eliot's shoulder as they bumped around in the shaky van.
The next morning, the team, plus Ginny, met again at Nate's apartment. Eliot and Parker were mercifully given the day off, thanks to Hardison and his hacking genius. They had all planned to sleep in and then plan the next move, but Nate had other idea.
"We need to strike on Black Friday," he said by way of starting the meeting.
Ginny nodded, understanding at once. As store manager, she knew how much money the store would be raking in just on that one day. Hundreds of thousands of dollars would enter those registers. If ever there was a time to steal, it was on Black Friday.
"If she's going to try something," Ginny spoke up, "She'll do it about noon, right as the accounts people come and pick up the first wave of money from the registers. It will still be an unholy mess of people, and nobody will be paying enough attention to see what she's doing."
The other three members nodded their agreement, waiting for their roles.
"We will be," Nate replied, in that eerie calm voice that suggested he was out for blood. "This woman is getting your people, good honest hard working people, fired because their drawers are coming up short. These people have families that depend on them. We need to stop her."
"Oh, the bitch is going down," Ginny grinned wolfishly back at Nate.
He laughed, "Now there's the girl I used to know."
"So what's our plan?" Eliot asked.
"First, we call Tara," Nate said, ignoring Eliot's groan. "And then she and I will be going in there with an obscene amount of cash to purchase the most expensive everything we can find. And we are going to make sure Ms. Malloy is well aware."
"But how will that help us catch her?" Parker asked, "I mean, even if you guys come through my register, she wouldn't risk just jumping in and grabbing the money. Too many witnesses."
"It's not about the register," Ginny explained. "It's about the blue box."
"And now I'm lost," Hardison sighed, rubbing his hands over his still sleepy eyes, "Blue box?"
"Blue box." Ginny repeated, "It's the box the accounting people put the money bags in from the registers. And then an accounts person, and any member of management bring the money to the back. And you can be sure that Erika will insist on being that member of management."
"You think she's gonna go for one last big payout and then run." Eliot stated, it wasn't a question.
Ginny nodded. "All she needs to do is divert the accounts person for just a second, and run. The box is in a carriage, which conveniently has wheels. And the crowd will be so dense, she might just pull it off."
"That's an awfully big risk," Nate weighed in.
"Well," Ginny reasoned, "She's an awfully big idiot."
The apartment resonated with the ensuing laughter and Ginny had to laugh along.
They hadn't planned on a proper Thanksgiving, honestly. Nate planned on reveling in the silence of his empty apartment before the job the next morning. Eliot had similar plans, though if the night ended the way he wanted to, he'd be in the pretty waitress's apartment instead of his own. Hardison bought himself a turkey frozen dinner and planned to mainline the latest Dr. Who's in rapid succession. And Parker, well Parker never did understand what all the fuss with Thanksgiving was about. As far as she could tell, people celebrated a bunch of white folk coming over and annihilating an indigenous population. And also there was maize. The whole thing made no sort of sense, so she treated it like everything else that didn't make sense; as if it didn't exist.
But somehow things shifted. After realizing the pretty waitress was indeed both a lesbian AND married, thank you very much Massachusetts, Eliot grabbed some beer and headed for Nate's to watch some football. Nate allowed him in with only minimal muttering, even pulling out a bag of chips from somewhere in the cupboards.
Hardison showed up next, looking sheepishly to the ground and rambling on about how Thanksgiving was supposed to be spent with family and his Nana wasn't around and he didn't really know anybody besides them and he burned his frozen dinner and hey are those chips? And before he could lose his voice, Nate ushered him in and handed him one of the many soda's stashed in the frigde.
Parker came last, dressed in what they suspected was an old Pocahontas costume. It was too short and way too tight, but Parker preserved that somebody had to represent the fallen peoples of the past. Eliot had given her a look of incredulity that she plainly ignored before plopping herself on the couch between him and Hardison. Her long braid smacked Eliot as she sat down and he barely resisted tugging it in retribution. Instead he sipped his beer and focused on the screen.
Parker was barefoot. Hardison notices this as she stretched out those long legs of hers to rest on the coffee table. He also noticed how much longer they looked in that itty bitty costume of hers, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Eliot however, damn him, seemed to posses the ability to read minds and gave Hardison a knowing look before kicking his legs up right next to Parker's, brushing his sock clad foot along her bare one in the process.
Hardison absolutely did not make a sound anywhere resembling a bratty whine. Not at all.
It was too late to get a turkey, but it turned out that Chinese food places never close, and are more than happy to send along an extra batch of fortune cookies for blonde false Indians.
And that was Thanksgiving.
12:01 AM on Friday morning came swiftly as the Eliot and Parker descended on Wal-Mart in the darkness. Outside, eager shoppers lined up down the sidewalk, a mess of coffee and blankets. They walked warily around the shoppers to the path to the back door, where they were to join the rest of the crew. The doors wouldn't be opening until 5AM, but things needed to be set up.
They clocked in and reached the middle of the store just as a mandatory meeting was called. Dario and Leslie stood across from them in the giant circle, and gave them small tired waves. Eliot nodded curtly back, surprised when Parker actually waved to the kids.
"Ok, people," the voice came from a short but round woman name Liz. "I know this is the first Black Friday for a lot of you, so let me give you the run down. If you've heard this before, deal with it. It's important."
Eliot snorted silently, he liked this lady.
Liz continued, "First, and most importantly, make sure you are at your area at exactly 5AM. Not 5:01, not 5:02. 5AM. Second, the lines will be long. Very long. Do not be intimidated. Customers will bitch and complain and try to get you cut them a deal. Do not give in."
She paused to take a breath and Eliot found himself flashing back to various military briefings.
"Now, when the doors open, we will have hundreds of civilians rushing in here, pushing and yelling and generally being a nuisance. Again, do not let them intimidate you."
Parker giggled at the use of 'civilian' in a Wal-Mart speech, but Eliot nudged her quiet.
"Finally," Liz continued, "No favors. If a customer's card is declined, too bad. No, you cannot hold anything for them. No, they cannot 'run to the car.' If they aren't prepared for this, they shouldn't be here. Are we all clear?"
A round of nods and muttered agreements rippled through the crowd.
"Good," Liz said, tapping her clipboard, "Now let's get to work."
The morning flew by in a blur of customers and cash and plastic. Eliot lifted more TVs than he ever dreamed he would, not even noticing the whispers as some of the women watched his shirt strain against his back as he worked after the first two hours.
Parker rang up items at an alarming speed, talking bizarre joy in scanning the big items with the handgun. She stopped counting the money after it hit five thousand, but she still pet the register reassuringly every half hour or so.
Hardison strolled in around 9AM, delivering Eliot and Parker blessed blessed coffee before disappearing somewhere in the depths of the shoppers.
At 11:00 AM, Nate and Tara walked in, wearing expensive coats and each pushing a carriage. They headed determinedly towards the electronics department, stopping to smile sunnily at Erika. She grinned right back, practically smelling the money they would spend.
At 12:00 PM, the accounts lady and Erika brought the blue box to the furthest register from the office and began methodically placing the full bags into the box.
They made their way down the line until they were one register away from where Nate and Tara stood with their yet to be rung up stuff.
"Eliot, get over here now," Nate spoke calmly into the comms, "Just in case she really does make a run for it. That carriage could be a pretty effective weapon if she uses it right."
"On it."
Eliot made it to the exit just as the accounts woman and Erika put the last bag into the box. Nate surveyed the scene and realized maybe Erika wasn't so dumb after all. The place was a madhouse. The crowd was thick and noisy and rowdy, the perfect mix to escape unnoticed. And then he saw the accounts woman collapse.
Nobody else noticed. Nate couldn't believe it; even after all his years dealing with shady people. A woman collapsed to the ground, and nobody noticed.
At the same moment, Erika began to slowly move towards the exit, trying not to draw attention.
Nate shoved Tara to make sure the accounts woman was alive before pulling out the camcorder from his pocket and stepping back to train it on Erika as she made her way to the exit.
They let her get out of the building and a good foot into the parking lot before Eliot stopped her, halting the carriage with one hand as he hooked the thumb of his other hand through his belt loop.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?" he asked lazily, rolling his eyes at her attempt to push the carriage into him.
"Get out of my way!" Erika yelled, pale skin flushing red with anger.
Eliot shook his head, "I don't think so. Not until you tell me what it is you're up to. Then maybe we can… work something out."
Erika's demeanor changed instantly, and she went from sneering to smiling in understanding. "Oh. You want a cut? I can do that. Wal-Mart has insurance. They'll never miss this money. And it was just too easy to take. And hell, I deserve it for putting up with this crazy company for ten years!"
Eliot nodded pleasantly, "You definitely deserve it. So, you're telling me that you just stole tens of thousands of dollars from your own company and you're going to get away with it?"
Erika looked exasperated, "Yes! Yes, that's what I'm telling you! I stole from Wal-Mart! Big deal. Now take your cut and get out of my way!"
"I don't think that's going to happen," Nate's voice drifted over as he appeared in front of them, closing the video camera and holding it to his chest protectively.
"You would've gotten away with it too," Hardison appeared next, followed by Parker and Tara, who still had her arm wrapped around the now conscious accounts woman.
"If it wasn't for Leslie and Dario telling me their suspicions all those months ago," Ginny finished the thought as she completed the little group.
"The weird kids?" Eliot questioned, looking surprised.
Ginny nodded, "They're good kids, didn't like the thought of good people getting fired for no reason."
"This? This was a setup?" Erika stepped away from the carriage suddenly and began running.
Eliot caught her a moment later, holding tightly against her struggles. "Yes ma'am, this was a setup," he answered helpfully.
"And we have it all on camera," Parker added, enjoying the way the pale woman's face twisted in horror.
Erika finally stopped struggling and slumped against Eliot. He took the opportunity to hand her over to the police, who had finally showed up.
Ginny smiled brightly as she filled in the police on what was going on.
A few days later, Ginny met Nate once again, this time in the familiar booth of McRory's Pub.
"I just wanted to thank you again," she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "And thank your team too, wherever they are."
"I'm more than happy to help an old friend." Nate replied, blushing slightly, "I always had such a crush on you as a kid."
"I thought you said you weren't a kid? Even back then," Ginny teased lightly.
"Yeah, well, things have changed," Nate retorted and his grin was only half forced.
Ginny nodded, "Some things, yeah. Others, not so much. I know you've been through hell, Nate, and worse. Word gets around. But you're still that kid with those bright blue eyes that wanted to save the world. You do good."
"I just regularly commit felonies in the process." The grin is wryer but somehow more genuine.
"Things aren't as black and white as we want them to be, Nate. It's never that simple. But those people of yours? They care about you. I know it's not the same as… I know nothing can fix what happened. But I know you, and I know these people can make you happy again if you let them."
"You knew me," Nate protested again, drinking deeply from his glass.
Ginny just smiled, "I know you. Little Nathan Ford. He's still in there. And he, you, saved my family. That's worth everything to me, whether you see it or not."
Nate's smile isn't full, but it's not broken either. "It was good to see you, Ginny, really. Good luck with everything."
Ginny nodded and stood, pulling on her coat, "You'll have to come for supper one night. Bobby grills a mean steak."
"We'll see," Nate laughs, "You never know what crazy job we'll be in the middle of next."
Another nod, another smile. Ginny knows that 'we'll see' surely means 'no,' but she doesn't let it stop her from hugging Nate tight and whispering one last thank you before leaving the bar, and Nate to his thoughts.
Nate sits staring long after she left, processing everything. With a groan, he pulls himself up and heads for the door. He needs sleep.
"All right there, Nate?" Cora calls out as he walks by.
He shrugs as his hand reaches the door, "We'll see."
The End