Chapter 1: Secrets and Fear

The conference room had been holding four figures for the last two hours. Parker, after fidgeting for the better part of the time, apparently decided that she had tried every possible seating position on the sofa. She was now laying with her back on the ground and her legs lying straight against the wall. Her only way of dealing with her restlessness was loudly popping her gum.

Eliot was lounging in the armchair he refused to give back to Sophie, despite her persistent pouting and nagging. He did one more check on his aiming before throwing the toothpick he had been chewing on at Parker's bubble. It made a loud popping noise before the gum fell flat across her face. She tilted her head up glowering at Eliot while he smirked and went back to reading the book perched in his lap.

Hardison sat in the center of the couch IMing someone with the handle "WOWhothuneyfth53" and reading News articles on the new Star Trek movie.

Sophie sat on the arm of the sofa absent-mindedly playing with her nails or just staring at her hands. Parker had looked at Sophie's hands a couple times but could not figure out what was so interesting. Without looking up from her hands Sophie asked, "Is that the girl you met during the job you tried to sleep through?"

"I did not sleep through it! I was fashionably late." Hardison quirked his mouth into a little smirk making sure to avoid the death glares he was getting from Parker and Eliot at the reminder of the painful memory.

Ten minutes went by before anyone said a word. Parker had flipped around to lie on her stomach. She was amusing herself by giving a rating to every building (or bridge) she had jumped off of since she joined the people in this room plus one other mad who has yet to show up. "Where's Nate?" she asked half expecting no one to answer.

"Dunno, hasn't been here all night though," Eliot replied vaguely.

"What?! How do you know that?" Sophie was becoming more alarmed over Nate's absence.

"Couldn't go home last night so I crashed here and I'm tellin' ya, no one came in."

"Why couldn't you go home?" Hardison could feel his inquisitive side beginning to itch.

Eliot shrugged, "old friend might be in town that I'm hoping to avoid."

That seemed to be all Eliot was going to say but it was enough to make Sophie suspicious and get Hardison to try and find something that could point to who Eliot was dodging.

Just then the front door quietly squeaked open. Eliot tensed and started to get up when he heard Nate heave a sigh out in the hall. Eliot relaxed a little but did not fully relax into the chair until after he saw Nate was in one piece. Hardison did not miss any of this reaction and started typing a little faster.

Eliot doesn't have a shortage of enemies by any means, Hardison thought, but it's not like the guy walks around handing out a list of killers he may have pissed off. Eliot was also smart enough to live in a quiet area with few cameras making a virtual stakeout and facial recognition hard. Hopefully Eliot feels like sharing for once.

"Where'd you go?" Parker chirped before Nate got into the kitchen for coffee.

Nate grimaced, "been driving all night…There's a problem…". The rest of the words meshed together.

"What's wrong?" Eliot put his book down and started watching Nate move around the kitchen.

"Maggie…she's missing."

"What?"

"She's gone. She called me last night while I was out. I called her back but a cop picked up. Had to go a couple towns over to answer some questions."

"I thought she was out of the country."

"Apparently not. Apartment looked well used."

Eliot seemed to be the only one who was able to speak. The other three sat in stunned silence, not sure of how to comfort their leader.

"Do the police have any clues?"

"It was a sloppy grab. I think they said that they found a fingerprint inside the bedroom somewhere."

"Alright so Hardison and parker go in as FBI and figure out who we're looking for."

"We can do that," Hardison finally spoke up.

Nate looked up, a slightly brighter expression in his eyes. There is hope.

Parker stood up and walked over to the kitchen. She gave Nate and awkward look before crashing into him in what was probably supposed to be a hug. She turned away quickly and opened up the long cabinet. The second shelf down had a false back. She pushed it and it popped open to show their credentials they used in old jobs. She grabbed the two FBI IDs from the bank job. She tossed Hardison's at him and it landed softly on his laptop. He pushed it aside as he went back to looking up Eliot's problem.

"You can still make it to the scene if you leave now," Eliot reported as he stood up.

"Yea alright. Hey Eliot, who's after you?" Hardison wanted to at least have a name to mull over later.

"Not the time Hardison. Can't you tell we have a bigger problem now? I'll take care of that, you need to go." Eliot headed for his office before Hardison could reply. He had to settle for staring after and thinking variations of stubborn ass.

Parker and Hardison left to change, leaving Sophie alone to be thankful that this was dry house, and dread the fact that there was a bar below them.