A/N: I have no idea! Sadly, I do not own Leverage.
They were talking while Hardison was researching so it shouldn't have come as such a shock. Parker and Sophie were chatting on about cons while Nate added in his two cents when he wasn't busy smiling at their conversation choices. Eliot was lost in his own little world of cooking but he still piped in when he felt Nate wasn't doing an efficient job of it. They were doing their usual family thing.
Eliot had left the room to obtain something for Hardison to figure out who was working with their biggest bad. Parker and Sophie were continuing their conversation while Nate was put on food duty. That was when tragedy struck. One little known fact was what set their world up in smoke. Hardison's facial recognition was starting to pick up on the informant. Parker was asking about something unrelated to the con. Nate was holding onto a glass of scotch while he stirred. Sophie answered Parker's question with no hesitation. Eliot entered the room with the thing the hacker really needed just as a certain somebody's glass of scotch hit the floor with a loud crash. All eyes turned on the mastermind with some form of concern.
Eliot rolled his eyes at the spectacle and immediately turned his attention back on the computer screen. Hardison started enhancing the image so his software could make a positive match while it was scanning through the recognizable images. Parker continued with the conversation as if nothing had happened. Nate stared at Sophie and Sophie stared back. She knew. Unlike all the others she knew why the mastermind just dropped the glass of scotch. Nate stared at her with hurt and disbelief shimmering all over his features and they both willed for the truth to be undone. Hardison made a very loud gasp of shock and discontent. Eliot stared at the computer screen in angry confusion. Parker waltzed on over to look at the source of their demise. The facial software had made its match just as the hitter and hacker figured out who the person was without it. The photograph of the warehouse was empty with the exception of two people. The first was their bastard of a mark using their successes to build power. The second was someone they had trusted, one of their own, one of the family, their grifter.
"You," Nate cried out in shock as the others immediately stared at their grifter in betrayal, "You betrayed us?"
"Again?" Parker asked quietly as the visible horror of the situation decided not to be lost on anyone.
"I'm going to kill you!" Eliot snarled as he threw something across the room to prove his point.
"Me too," Hardison said as he stood to help the hitter take care of their betrayer.
Crack! The hacker recoiled in pain as the bullet tore through his shoulder and forced him to the ground. The thief screamed in shock and immediately went to the hacker's side to help him out. The hitter hesitated for a moment not sure if he should go after the one who fired the shot or the one lying on the floor. The mastermind stood there in shock as he stared at the woman with the gun in her hands.
"I'll take that as my cue to leave," Sophie calmly stated as she made her exit with the hitter chasing after.
"Eliot," Nate cried out before the hitter made it through the door, "let her go."
The hitter stared at the mastermind's statement with anger and betrayal shimmering all over his face. The mastermind just stared back with nothing but a broken look that threatened to rival the look he wore when they had first became a team. The hacker sat up as the pain started to dull into a simple throb as he took in the sight of the two men staring in mental battle. The thief held onto the hacker's shoulder and cried out at their misfortune without even bothering to cover up her tears.
"Alright," Eliot reluctantly agreed when he finally realized what had been going on right under his nose, "I won't kill her."
"Thank you," Nate sighed with relief though the comment did not fix his broken look in the least.
"It was Sophie," Parker stammered out in hurt.
"Again," Hardison grunted out in agreement, "Why didn't we see it?"
"How long?" Eliot demanded of the boss without even hesitating.
"Three months," Nate admitted immediately, "We've been dating for three months."
"What?" Parker gasped out in shock.
"And you didn't know she was the one who betrayed us?" Hardison howled indignantly.
"You love her," Eliot concluded for the mastermind sympathetically.
"We have to stop her," Nate continued as he tried to ignore the comment and the big pile of guilt that little fact brought with it.
"three months?" Parker hissed at the mastermind in actual anger, "And you didn't tell us!"
"Parker, not now," Eliot growled out angrily.
"What do you mean not now?" Hardison shouted out at the top of his lungs in indignation, "His girlfriend betrayed us for the enemy!"
"Something's not right," Nate sighed in disgruntlement as he tried to figure out what was wrong with this picture besides the obvious.
"your girlfriend betrayed us," Hardison snarled angrily at the way the mastermind was thinking, "and she shot me! You're damn right something isn't right!"
"She wasn't aiming to kill," Eliot pointed out when he could get past his rage enough to actually figure out how bad a shape the hacker was in, "She hit you in the weakest part of tissue where the bullet can go straight on through without doing anything more than making your arm useless for the next few weeks until all of the muscle and stuff has actually healed."
"What does that mean?" Hardison demanded in a loud screech.
"It means that she wasn't going to kill you and her aim made certain that she didn't," Eliot grumbled as he puzzled over the realization in confusion.
"Where's Parker?" Nate questioned when he noticed the thief hadn't said anything in a while.
"Out the window apparently," Hardison growled when he noticed the window closest to the thief was open and no thief was in front of it.
"She must have left when she heard Hardison would be okay," Eliot huffed at the news, "Do you want me to go after her?"
"No," Hardison ordered before the mastermind could even speak, "She might go after that betrayer if you do that and we don't want that to happen! Parker's probably heading over to the grifter's apartment for evidence in hopes of understanding what the hell's going on!"
"More power to her," Eliot grunted in agreement of the assessment, "Nate's been sleeping with the grifter and didn't even know."
"Does Parker have her com in?" Nate demanded in desperation.
"I don't know," Hardison shrugged before letting out a gasp of pain, "She may not have fired to kill but damn that hurts."
"Why wouldn't she fire to kill?" Eliot questioned the mastermind accusingly, "Why would she just shoot to harm?"
"Something's not right," Nate repeated in a huff with some form of hope slipping into his eyes, "Hardison, check to see if Parker has her com."
"Hardison isn't doing nothing!" Hardison shouted out in disdain of the order, "Hardison is going to go get his arm wrapped up and plot a million different ways of killing the grifter that shot him thank you very much!"
"Find out if Parker has her com in now!" Nate shouted as he seemed to come to some form of conclusion as to why his grifter would betray them, "We might not have time!"
"Nate," Eliot calmly hissed as he tried to not let his emotions get in the way, "You're not exactly of the right state of mind right now!"
"She didn't betray us, Eliot!" Nate growled out in desperate hope, "She couldn't do that again!"
"Nate, man," Hardison grunted out in anger, "She shot me in the arm! I don't care what you think that woman is still highly violent and not on our side!"
"Nate," Eliot rolled his eyes at the hacker with warning, "You need to calm down! You're too invested in believing in her innocence to listen to reason!"
"No, you listen, Eliot!" the mastermind growled out in a thunderous snarl as he grabbed the hitter by the collar of his shirt to get his full attention, "You didn't hear her nightmares! She couldn't survive betraying us again! She feels guilty for the first time around! She actually apologized to me in her sleep before! I know she's innocent and if we don't do something soon…!"
"We're not doing anything for her!" Hardison rasped out as he violently approached the mastermind and hitter with danger in his eyes, "She shot me! How can you think she's on our side if she shot me?"
"She didn't shoot to kill!" Nate hissed at the hacker pleading for him to understand, "I know from experience that Sophie always shoots to kill! You should be dead right now! She obviously cares about us if she decided to keep you alive!"
"She shot you once, Nate," Eliot calmly retorted in hopes of keeping the hacker from killing their leader and keeping the peace, "You're still alive!"
"She liked me," Nate explained plaintively, "She's always liked me. At that point in time she was shooting just to see what would happen! If she had felt threatened she would have killed Hardison!"
"Unless she's not a bad guy," Parker chirped into the conversation.
"Parker," Hardison swirled around to look for the thief in question, "Where are you?"
"I'm at Sophie's place," Parker stated slowly, "Did you know that she has a whole bunch of information on the mark including his most recent paper activities."
"Paper?" Eliot questioned the hacker in hopes of getting an answer.
"If you want to stay off the radar," Hardison explained casually as all of the venom seemed to pour out of him immediately at the thief's calm voice, "You use papers. More dangerous to hide but harder to trace."
"He has a lot of information on all of us," Parker stated as she looked over the papers, "Including you, Hardison. None of these files have anything about Sophie though. It's like he didn't even know she existed. That's weird!"
"Parker," Nate ordered greedily, "Do me a favor and check to see if there are any pictures of the woman who's after us with Sophie lying around!"
"Okay," Parker agreed before the hacker or hitter could even argue with that theory.
"Why would Sophie have a picture of the woman who is after us?" Eliot questioned in surprise of the suggestion.
"Why would she pose with somebody she was working for?" Hardison added on with a hint of expectancy in his voice.
"She wouldn't," Nate explained breathily in cautious anticipation of the thief's news, "She only poses with marks!"
"With the only exception of us," Eliot nodded at the mastermind's statement, "She didn't aim to kill Hardison!"
"You've said that," Hardison grumbled as he continued to keep pressure on his injured arm, "and yet you have not helped me with the bullet hole in my arm at all!"
"Hey," Parker cried out excitedly, "I think I found something better than what Nate was hoping for!"
"What?" the hitter and hacker screeched in loud unison.
"What did you find, Parker?" Nate asked with excitement, dread, and greed thick in his voice.
"I found a note from Sophie and a recording," Parker stated happily, "Do you think she was planning on us figuring out she was the bad guy so soon because she didn't even bother to hide it from me?"
"Where did you find it?" Eliot asked for some reason nobody wanted to touch.
"In her fridge," Parker stated in disappointment.
"Umm," Hardison scrunched his face in confusion at the comment, "Yeah, something tells me we ruined her plan too soon."
"Bring the note and recording here," Nate ordered hesitantly, "Now!"
"You got it, boss," parker agreed with glee evident in her voice, "She didn't betray us, right? That's what this means, doesn't it?"
"Let's not get our hopes up, Parker," Nate promised grimly, "I'm too afraid of the answer right now to even hope for that."
"But we are going to rescue her, right?" Parker demanded briskly, "I mean, it's not like she was actually going to kill Hardison."
"Please, tell me that grifter did not just sign herself a death warrant," Hardison begged as all thoughts of his bullet wound seemed to be forgotten in that single moment.
"We're waiting until Parker comes back with the letter and tape before we jump to conclusions, Hardison," Eliot barked at the hacker in his usual gruff voice, "Now, come on and let's get that arm taken care of before you bleed all over this place!"
