This is sooner than I expected. I had it ready already so I thought, why not?
6 weeks earlier.
Parker, Hardison and Elliot were waiting for Sophie and Nate to get back with a job, hanging out in Nate's apartment. Elliot was busy cooking dinner while Parker and Hardison were on the couch watching National Treasure. Or trying to anyways. Hardison couldn't keep his comments about Riley's poor choice in equipment to himself. Elliot smiled to himself as he saw the two on the couch. It was always obvious that Hardison had feelings for Parker. He was about as subtle as a flash bang grenade. The thief on the other hand, was an enigma. Three years he spent with her and he still only knew so little. But what he did know is that she worked better with him than anyone else. Hagan and Thomas had always been their most successful cover story.
That had got Elliot thinking. They did seem to spend more time together than with anyone else. You truly had to put together the pieces to fill in the picture. All the sideways glances and the shared smiles added up to something. Now that he thought about it, maybe there was something deeper going on there. Had they taken it to the next level? There was that one week in April Hardison decided he needed a break to visit his family. And when he thought about it, didn't Parker also decide that she needed that week off too? Of course, Elliot hadn't thought much about it at the time because Nate decided to give everybody the week off. But something about it seemed suspicious to Elliot.
Hardison and Parker were always headed in the same direction after a con. The transition from co-workers to friends to... whatever that is, was so seamless, he almost missed it. Look at them sitting on the couch; They were so close, they might as well be cuddling. Elliot had to admit, whatever it was that Hardison and Parker had, it was good. Just when he realized he had been staring at them, almost as if she sensed his eyes, Parker whipped her head around toward the kitchen.
"Do you smell burning?" she asked bewildered.
Crap! He had been daydreaming for too long and forgot he was cooking. "It's all good," he said, quickly scavenging what he could from the pan. He was getting starting to get sentimental. He missed that feeling of closeness with someone he hadn't had in a while. Elliot started to feel more like a fifth wheel every day. One night stands were great until the morning. Luckily, Sophie and Nate came back in just as he was finishing his last dish.
"Alright guys our client is Martha Shuma, the wife of a senator's aide who got killed because he got a good look at a couple of files he shouldn't have. Now, Mr. Shuma used to work for Robert Biscombe, a senator from Connecticut. We have to figure out why it is that Mr. Shuma was killed. All we know is that he was mugged in his car and we assume the files taken off of his body," Nate told the team as he passed around the file.
"Well, it definitely wasn't a carjacking gone wrong. He was strangled from behind. The mark on his neck suggests military grade fiber wire," Elliot informed. "It's a very distinctive mark," he elaborated before they could reply.
"Biscombe made his political career on his 'tough stance' with National Security. As such he spear-headed the bill that had doubled the size of the NSA and other covert ops organizations and tripled their budget. A preliminary investigation had revealed a possible suspect. Mr. Shuma's replacement, Fred Durst, had had previous experience as a consultant to both the NSA and CIA's cryptography divisions, giving him access to their computer banks. That's our link. We need to break into the NSA and see what it is that they know."
"Slight problem. Let's just say these guys are a little more security conscious than the average joe. Not only do they employ the very guys whose job it is to stop and apprehend me, but they also keep all the juicy information in a room with no outside access. Not even phone lines in or out."
"So even if you were in the building..."
"We'd still be a no go. I have to be in the room myself."
" Well then, let's get you in that room. Sophie, I need you to stay on Biscombe. Elliot, I need you to get Mr. Durst out of the room while Parker gets Hardison in. Let's go steal ourselves a National Security Agency."
Please don't expect every update to be this quickly lol. This story is gonna take up another 2 chapters before we get back to the juicy bits. At least that's how much I have planned so far.