Author's Note:

Hello again! I hope you enjoy the new story. It will have longer chapters than 'The Hangover: Leverage Style' and be more in-depth with the characters. I'm taking a more dramatic writing position with this story, with more danger, romance and betrayal.

The story will revolve more around the team dynamic than on zombies, if you were concerned about that aspect.

Remember, I update faster with reviews! :)

Chapter 1

It had been 5 years this month, Nate remembered. It stung event to thing back to the time when all five were together; each, a unique and important part of his family and his life. Then it was gone, up like a puff of smoke, disappearing forever.

It surprised Nate to be thinking back to that time as the worst moment in his life, when the obvious answer only happened a year ago. The virus took over like a plague, starting in the Congo. The disease, much like Ebola was a mystery at first. Premature cases were said to be due to primates, but not proven. The first few victims were considered isolated incidents, but soon the doctors were infected, then the transport trucks, into the villages, then to cities, then onto airplanes. It was difficult to control, and unfortunately, it spread.

Nate knocked hard on the bunker door with his calloused knuckles. Two women stood nervously behind him, each checking over her shoulder.

"He's not going to help us, Nate." The British woman behind him relented. "We need to get out of here, there are too many of them."

"Sophie, we don't have a choice." Nate knew it was a long-shot, but this bunker was his last hope. They waited a few more moments. Sophie pulled on the extra fabric of his coat jacket, gently trying to pull him back to the jeep.

She wanted to tell him it was okay to give up sometimes, but this time she couldn't. This time, they couldn't give up, they didn't have the option.

"What do you want?" A noise came from the intercom next to the bunker door.

"Let us in, Hardison." Sophie called out. There was a long pause, almost too long.

"How do I know you aren't infected?" He asked. His voice cracked a little, and there were no jokes. Very unlike the Hardison they knew.

"Give me a break." Nate chided, sending a nasty look at the intercom. "Does it look like we've been infected?"

There was another pause. Nate knew he was burning bridges.

"How can we prove we're not infected?" The small voice from behind them spoke up for the first time. The girl was doe-eyed with curly red hair.

There was still no response. Nate was sure that Hardison stopped listening, but heard a loud clink come from the door. It unlocked and all three sighed in relief. Nate quickly twisted the metal wheel, opening the door. Sophie grabbed the rifle that was leaning against her leg and followed the other two inside.

If they'd thought that Hardison was letting them into his secret bunker, they were wrong.

"It's the holding cell." Hardison's voice echoed around them. The room flashed red, on and off and every few seconds they could see the metal pipes lining the walls and the cemented floor.

"Over here." Sophie called. She stood by the new door. There was no intercom on this door; instead it was replaced with a miniature blood tester. It appeared to Nate to be adapted from a finger pricking device used for testing blood sugar in diabetes patients.

"Test yourselves." Hardison echoed again.

"Ow!" Nate yelped as Sophie pricked his finger with the device.

"Shut-up you big baby." Sophie chuckled. Nate glared at her in disapproval.

"See, all clean!" Sophie called out after each test came back negative for the virus.

All three covered their ears when a loud tonal beep cut through silence in the room, then the door clinked open.

Nate was floored. It shouldn't have surprised him that Hardison would be ahead of the game as far as living necessities were concerned, but this was a whole other ballgame. It was like an underground mansion with clean floors, spotless painted walls, and priceless art. There were even fake windows showing a beautiful blue sky with people playing golf in the distance. It almost looked real, but the screen flickered for a moment signaling a monitor built into the wall.

"Is that Botticelli's The Birth of Venus?" Sophie stopped in the hallway and stared at it in awe. She leaned her head in closer to get a better look at the brush strokes.

"The original."

Sophie jerked her head up at the new voice. There, right in front of her was a man she hadn't seen in five years. Age definitely played to his advantages, but stress did not. He looked fit and his clothes were perfect, as though he'd sent them out to the dry cleaners that very day. She could tell though, by the way his body strained and by the bags under his eyes that life underground was not all it was cracked up to be. Though maybe that wasn't what kept him up at night.

Sophie nodded in approval.

"I told you that I'm not interested." Hardison scolded sending a dark glare towards Nate.

"Ehh, the radio was breaking up, bad signal probably." Nate responded avoiding Hardison's gaze.

Hardison made a face and Nate knew the lie was no good.

"Look, we came all this way. Could you at least show us around?" Sophie pleaded. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Back in the day, she was the heart of the family, maybe she still had some of that magic left in her to smooth the edges over.

Hardison looked at the three of them, nodded and turned to walk back down the hallway. They followed behind, taking quick moments to admire the other priceless art that lined the hallway.

After giving the tour of the kitchen, living room, bedroom, workout room, water purification room, generator room, computer room, and a few others, they settled in the dining room over a warm meal.

"How did you get fresh vegetables? I haven't had fresh broccoli in months." Sophie questioned, salivating at the choices. She basically inhaled her dinner plate.

Hardison's lip twitched. "Home grown." He said sitting up a little higher in his seat.

"Amazing." The redhead breathed staring wide eyed at her plate.

"So, who are you?" He asked the redhead.

"Oh!" Sophie interrupted. "I'm so rude. This is Caroline. Caroline Ramsey."

"Nice to meet you." She squeaked. "Thank you so much for the food."

"No problem." Hardison answered.

Hardison had avoided people ever since the year started. He knew that trusting people only lead to danger and death, but he had to admit, it was nice having someone else to talk to.

"So, I didn't see the Dagger of Aqu'Abi in your art collection." Nate smirked.

Hardison gave a sidelong glance at him, and then smiled. "It's in the other room, with the expensive collection."

That's the Hardison I remember. Sophie grinned. It didn't take much to make a crack in his icy shell.

"So, I know you don't want to hear it, but we need your help." Nate saw Hardison's grin disappear faster than the blink of an eye.

Sophie gave Nate a hard kick under the table. He winced, but ignored her.

"I told you-" Hardison started with a dark tone.

"I know what you told us, but this is more important. This is about saving lives."

"No. I look out for number one." Hardison answered firmly. Caroline watched as he clenched his fork a little tighter.

"There are people out there dying, Hardison. We can save them." Nate pushed, sitting forward a bit and looking Hardison in the eye.

"I'll pass. But thanks."

"What the hell happened to you? What happened to doing the right thing? Helping people?"

Hardison jerked up, his chair sliding back. Nate followed suit across the table countering him. Caroline gulped trying to fade into the background while Sophie shook her head in annoyance.

"Nate, will you sit down and shut-up." Sophie hissed. The conversation needed to happen, but not so suddenly, and definitely not by Nate.

He ignored her again.

"Don't you dare talk about doing the right thing!" Hardison growled. "Especially, not to me."

With that, Hardison stormed out of the dining area and into his bedroom, blasting the music as loud as he could to drown out the thoughts of his past.

"You are a bloody idiot." Sophie whispered angrily at Nate.

"Thanks." He responded sarcastically making his bed on the couch with some sheets they found in one of the closets.

"You of all people won't win him over by giving a speech on moral and ethical obligations." Nate ignored her. She followed him around the couch as he continued to tuck the sheet into the couch cushions.

She threw her arms up in frustration, shoved him onto the couch and stormed into the guest bedroom.

The room was light blue, a twin bed on either side hugging the walls. She could feel the vibration of sound coming from Hardison's room, but chose to ignore it, appreciating that he let them in at all.

She sat on her bed and looked over at Caroline as she began taking her shoes off. The soles of her feet were asking for a good massage. The curly redhead was hidden behind a thick textbook with the words 'Secrets of the Amygdalae' by Harold Ramsey and Louis Craver printed on the cover.

"Do you think he will help us?" Caroline asked, peeking over her book.

Sophie contemplated. Hardison was the type of person who, under his prideful exterior, would always do the right thing. The only question that remained in Sophie's mind was whether Hardison was still the same person from five years ago. She wasn't so sure anymore. She'd seen a sliver of hope, but yet again, Nate managed to snuff it out within seconds.

"I hope so." Sophie answered as she crawled into the clean covers. She would have elaborated, giving Caroline more encouragement, but the bed pulled her into unconsciousness within moments.

The next day:

Hardison was not thawed out the following morning. He had not joined them in the kitchen for breakfast, but walked straight into his high tech computer room.

"If you say anything, I swear I will kill you myself." Sophie commanded. Nate nodded and took another bite of cereal.

Hardison got up to follow his morning routine minus breakfast. He was in no mood to see Nate. Instead, he started his computer up and began his usual satellite searches.

"What are you looking for?" Sophie asked, peeking her head around the door.

Hardison quickly minimized the screen and swiveled his chair around. "Nothing." He answered.

She gently stepped in the room, testing his reaction. She slowly made her way in and scooted a chair up to him.

"Hardison, I have to say, what you've done here is amazing."

Hardison looked down. "You don't need to compliment me Sophie, you didn't do anything wrong."

She paused. He was referring to the past. Of all the things she could talk her way out of, this one that was one topic that she would never be able broach with the team.

"How long will your supplies last?" Sophie questioned, fiddling with a paper clip on the desk.

"Two years, maybe three." He responded, leaning back in his chair.

"And what then?" Sophie asked.

"And then everyone is dead anyway." His voice cracked again.

Sophie wanted to phrase her words carefully. She knew that he could either be of tremendous help or tremendously difficult.

"You know Caroline out there?"

Hardison nodded.

"Her father created the cure."

"Pssh" Hardison mocked. "Please. Every cure they've found has either sped up the process or killed the test subjects instantly."

"Yes, but all the others didn't diagnose the problem."

"Yeah, yeah, this one diagnoses the brain abnormality" Hardison inserted.

Sophie stopped short. "How…?"

"You never know whose listening." Hardison murmured. "It's easier to hack into your web feed with General Locke than you think."

Sophie was shocked. They worked very hard to encrypt the web feed to prevent grungy thieves from looting the location.

"You could save the world, Hardison….You could save…" Sophie almost let it slip. Hardison whipped his head up. "…everyone." Sophie finished lamely.

"I don't want to save everyone." Hardison swiveled his chair back around to the computer and pulled up the satellite imaging again.

"It's my brother and my father." He heard from the doorway.

Hardison didn't turn around. Don't give in to the guilt trip. You always give into the guilt trip.

"I need to find them." She pleaded quietly. "To save them."

"I'm sorry, it's too late for them." He voiced without looking at her.

"No it isn't!" She said angrily storming up behind Hardison. "Don't you have a family?"

"Not anymore." Hardison voiced, careful not to look at Sophie.

"Well, if you did, wouldn't you do anything for them? Anything to know that they were okay and safe?"

This time it was Sophie's turn to meld into the background.

Hardison was silent. "Just because you gave up…doesn't mean we all have." Caroline whispered.

"I didn't give up." He growled.

"It sure looks like it." Nate spoke up as he walked in the room. He glanced over at Sophie who was sending him death glares.

There was a long and icy silence. No one had the guts to speak up.

Hardison pressed a few keys on his keyboard and the satellite image zoomed and landed on a skyscraper. "Do you see all those specs down here?" He pointed toward the entrance of the Skyscraper, "those are the infected. And they are all over the building. And on top of that, the building security system is a monster to hack."

"Their security system?"

"Just because there aren't people to run it doesn't mean it isn't working. The windows are painted with a light absorbing filament, hundreds of window solar panels give the skyscraper electricity, which powers the system, which makes it a pain to get into, not to mention the infected that are hiding inside."

"Sounds like you can't hack it." Nate challenged.

"Please. I can hack anything." Hardison leaned back in his chair with his arms behind his head.

"Then prove it. Come with us." Nate softened. "Please."

Hardison had taken the rest of the day to himself. While running on the treadmill, he had time to think. He struggled beyond anything, with the idea of working with Nate again, especially after last time. He knew that it was the right thing, to save lives, but he would be giving up his home, his safety.

After finally agreeing to go with Nate, Sophie and Caroline, the next few days were spent organizing their travel route, identifying viable gas pumps along the way, isolating low infected areas for overnight and stocking Hardison's tricked out mobile home for the trip. They were almost ready.

"I call her Lucy" Hardison gushed introducing them to his mobile home. They admired the elaborate wiring and capabilities of this moving home.

"Not Lucille this time?" Sophie questioned looking back at Hardison as she carried the final box of canned food up into the vehicle.

"Nah, Lucille IV is in the other garage. Big Lucy is what I use to go on trips." Hardison patted the side of the home. The mobile home was black with three bold blue stripes riding from the front to the back.

"Hardison, do you have everything you need for the break in?" Nate asked walking up with a few pistols he pulled from their jeep the day before.

"I'm all set. We will need to head out early tomorrow morning so we can arrive mid-day, get what we need and get out of town before the lurkers come out." Hardison suggested.

"Agreed." Nate answered feeling more in control than he had in months. Even only having one member of his team back on board made the world of difference to him. Like a piece of his soul re-ignited. Hardison had even had an 'almost' conversation with him the other day about the best way to set up an encrypted network.

There is hope yet. Nate thought to himself. But so help me, I will let the zombies have him if he quotes Star Trek the entire way.