The Plot thickens

Eliot Spencer kept his eyes always moving as he drove to the brew pub after the museum. He checked the rear view mirror and saw Parker sitting stiffly in the back across from Ezekiel Jones. The blond thief was caught up in her own world, avoiding the Australian thief. Eliot knew a little about the Jones. Jones who started at a young age of thieving, got recruited by Archie Leech, then captured by Mi6 to steal big things for Her majesty's secret service. Then he fell off the face the earth for a few years. There were rumors on the wind that Jones had turned over a new leaf, however still Eliot heard about big heists happening with Jones's MO. Eliot did not know what Parker's beef was with the Australian. And her distrust of the younger man made Eliot's hair stand on end. Until Eliot knew the whole story and why Jones knew the name of Stone. He would not let the younger man out of his sight.

"Hey man, did you find out anything about Jones?" Eliot whispered to Alec Hardison who was sitting shotgun.

"Nah bro, he's cleaner than you way keep your Charger." Hardison responded and glanced at the younger thief, in the rear view mirror. Hardison caught eyes with Parker who had pulled her hood up.

"He makes me nervous" Hardison stated. Hardison kept his eyes on his girlfriend who seemed to content with glaring out the window.

"Yeah well you are not the only one." Eliot responded and then asked "What about that he said. He's a librarian?"

"Man there have been rumors for years of an individuals who protect the world from magic. Things like books that bring the stories to life, haunted houses that actually eat its occupants, contracts with demons. But it's just an urban legend. I found a Flynn Carson who was supposed to be the Librarian for years. But its all rumors. Up there with Big foot and Dracula." Hardison explained.

"Flynn killed Dracula" Ezekiel interrupted.

Ezekiel was thoroughly ignored.

"What about the name Stone?" Eliot asked quietly as he drove through mountain road.

"Stone who?" Hardison responded and opened up his laptop.

"Isaac Stone or Jacob Stone" Eliot answered.

"I know a Jacob Stone" Ezekiel interrupted again.

"Dude private conversation as in not for little kids. Let the Adults talk." Hardison snapped

Ezekiel glared at the hacker and stayed quiet.

"Isaac Stone is the owner of Stone Pipeline and Rigging, lives in Oklahoma, has two sons Jacob and Esau, dude who would name their son Esau? It's almost as bad at that phase when all the boys were Finnick and all the girls were Prim, seriously naming after two fictional characters is just plain stupid. oh yeah spoiler alert they dead." Hardison word's spiraled.

"Geek Spiral dude. Besides Esau is biblical. Some People have a lot of faith." Eliot growled at Hardison.

"Dude relax, it's not like your name is Esau. Eliot is much better. You are named after a dragon and one of the best Sci-Fi characters of all time." Hardison held his hands up in a take it easy motion.

Eliot groaned. Suddenly a car pulled out very close to Lucille. Causing Eliot to slam on his breaks, keeping his eye on the rear view mirror, out of nowhere a big rig truck slammed into the rear door of the van. Metal screeched as it collided with big trucks bumper. Then Eliot heard a boom and glanced at Hardison when the electrical systems failed. He had no control over the van and suddenly felt that horrible feeling when one is on a roller coast before the biggest hill and your stomach jumps into your throat. Eliot crushed the breaks but the big rigs still was able to push the van over the edge. Eliot put the van in neutral and held tightly to the steering wheel. Sliding down the ravine seemed like a safer option then going toe to toe with a big rig.

"EMP!" Hardison screamed

"Hold On!" Eliot yelled as he felt the van scraping along the asphalt as it was being pushed over the ravine's edge. The van slid forward over the edge, and Eliot man handled the car to steer away from trees. However, it was a mountain road and there was an abundance of trees. As Eliot avoided trees, the van hit a rock and the rear of the van jumped forward until the rear door was in the air. The van landed with the its wheels in the air. Windows shattered, Eliot's shoulder popped as he felt a tree slam into his window, people screamed as the van slid down further down the ravine until it became wedged against a large tree. Eliot looked out his window, hopefully the tree would hold the weight of the van. The driver's side was suspended about 20 feet from the valley floor and the passenger side had the ravine ground. Eliot would make sure everyone got out on the side where there was ground.

"Parker!" Eliot yelled, he tried to turn and realized his shoulder was dislocated, a growl slipped through his lips.

"Eliot. My head hurts. Did you have to drive off the side of the road. The other car would have moved if you just honked." Parker responded weakly. Eliot glanced at the thief, she had a bruise on her forehead and nasty gash on top. Apparently the glass broke as the blond thief's head smashed into the window.

"Jones, Hey Jones You alive" Eliot asked.

"Oi Mate, please tell me you did not try to kill me" Ezekiel's voice sounded fine.

"Hardison wake up." Eliot shook the co-pilot.

"What Happened, Dude what did you do to Lucille and why are we upside down." Hardison asked.

"Because Sparky decided to see if Lulu could fly over trees" Parker's weak voice carried to the front seat, "My head still hurts, Sparky can we stop being Tim Murphy, I'm super dizzy?"

"Tim Murphy what's she talkin' about Hardison." Eliot growled and groaned, His left shoulder screamed in pain.

"Jurassic Park" Hardison and Jones responded at the same time.

"Hardison can you get out and get Parker out, it's a long walk back to the road." Eliot took charge.

At that moment the van filled with smoke and Eliot thought it was the engine over heating until he smelled the smoke, it was much smelled too sweet for smoke or electric wires smoldering. Eliot heard Parker yelling until there was complete darkness.

The Annex Same time

"It's seems quiet here without Ezekiel." Cassandra Cillian commented on the absence of the resident thief.

"Yeah like we can actually get some work done around here." Jacob Stone responded.

"Come on admit just once that you don't mind him. He's like an annoying little brother. It's nice to have a brother. I wish I had siblings." Cassandra stated.

"I have enough siblings. Definitely enough sisters. I don't need anymore." Jake said but as he said it his face changed. He looked very fair away, like he was remembering something that was long lost.

"Hey Jake, you still here?" Cassandra asked quietly.

Jake glanced at her big blue eyes and smiled a half smile.

Cassandra returned his smile which faltered as the intruder alarms started blaring.

"What's that?" Cassandra asked as she immediately covered her ears.

"Intruder alarm." Jake responded. Jake unconsciously moved in front of Cassie to protect her. Suddenly six masked men entered the annex and started throwing punches. Three surrounded Jake and three grabbed Cassandra. One to hold a white piece of cloth over her nose. Two to restrain her fighting. Jake fought as hard as he could but he saw that Cassandra was unconscious and being carried out by the goons. Jake turned to follow and then felt a hard blow to the back of his head and darkness.

Ravine, on a country road on the way to Portland.

Hardison awoke with a pounding headache. Eliot was still unconscious and Ezekiel Jones was just awaking. Hardison turned in his seat and to see if Parker was okay. She was gone.

"Eliot, Eliot, Eliot." Hardison said loudly.

"What," The hitter growled at Hardison "Give me a minute to get my bearings"

"No! no time they took Parker" Hardison ground out with panic over taking his calm.

With those words Eliot Spencer became very aware of his surroundings. Hardison had wedged open his door enough to get out of the van. Hardison had now opened the door to where the blond thief was sitting and started looking for clues.

Eliot gritted his teeth, right he had a dislocated shoulder. The pain turned to nausea and he swallowed the bile that rose to his throat. He carefully climbed over to the passenger side door. He took a steadying walk and joined Hardison by the now vacant seat.

"They left her phone but not her ear bud. I can try to track it. "Hardison said as panic seemed to edge around his voice.

"Okay, Let's just head down away from the car. It's not exactly stable. Where's Jones?" Eliot asked of Hardison.

"I have a way out of here if you want it?" Jones called from down the ravine.

Before Eliot could even process what was happening Hardison took off running down the ravine toward the Australian thief. Hardison tackled the younger man to ground. Eliot groaned and quickly ran down the hill to prevent his friend from killing Ezekiel Jones.

"Where's Parker? Tell me where she is?" Hardison grasped Ezekiel Jones's throat tightly to the ground as he pinned the thief to the forest floor.

"Oi mate, why would I know where she is. If you don't notice, I almost died as well" Ezekiel sputtered as the older man squeezed his neck in a vice like grip.

"Hardison" Spencer's voice echoed through the ravine.

Suddenly Spencer tackled Hardison into a tree and as Ezekiel took a deep breath. Eliot smacked Hardison into the large tree, hard enough that the hacker saw stars.

"Look man, I don't think he had anything to do with Parker being taken. We can't kill him. Just breath we will find her and get her back. I promise. I'll get her back. You know I'm the best retrieval specialist in the world." Eliot said roughly.

"Okay what's the play?" Hardison responded.

"We need to regroup. Jones said that he has a way out of here. So we follow him. But first we need to find out why Parker doesn't trust him" Eliot released the hacker.

"Hey E thanks for not punching me." Hardison said as they walked back to where Ezekiel Jones was waiting.

"Honestly, I couldn't if I wanted to. I dislocated my shoulder in the crash. And believe me I wanted to. I need you to follow my lead." Eliot groaned.

"I promise no more strangling people unless it's Parkers captures" Hardison responded.

"Get in line man" Eliot said. "Hey Jones you need to tell us right now what happened between you and Parker. How long before your contact picks us up?"

"it will be a couple hours, because we are in the forest." Ezekiel avoided the question.

"Naw man, do not avoid that first question. Otherwise I'll have my man Eliot knock you unconscious. Why does Parker not trust you?" Hardison threatened the younger thief. Eliot glared at the taller man, like he knocked people out on command.

"I don't know mate. She's your girlfriend. She would have told you." Ezekiel reasoned. "I see her as my big sister. Last time I saw her was 8 years ago."

"Why did she say you broke her wrist?" Eliot growled and scowled at the younger man.

"Oh that. In a heist 8 years ago I was casing a building. Archie needed us to get big diamond, he was going to use the diamond to pay for his children's schooling. Parker and I were never allowed to meet his family. Well I was being Parker's anchor, I was on the roof, she was rappelling down. Next thing I know a helicopter was landing on the roof. I got clonked on the back of the head. I was Kidnapped by Mi6, never to see Parker or Archie again till that day at your brew pub. She must have swung against the building and that's how she broke her wrist." Ezekiel responded.

Hardison glanced at Eliot, the hitter stared at the younger man trying to gage if he was lying, Eliot's eyes shifted to Hardison's and shook his head. Ezekiel Jones was not lying.

A few minutes later they heard a honk from the top of the ravine. An older man stepped out of a car, dressed in a suit, he looked very unassuming.

Ezekiel flashed a grin once he saw Jenkins, and turned back to the hacker and hitter, "That's our ride." Ezekiel said as he made way up to the road.

Hardison watched as the thief, made his way the steep slope, he then turned back to Eliot "are you okay climbing up there?" the hacker asked of the hitter.

"Yeah man, but we will have to leave Lucille behind." Eliot said as he started forward.

"Let me grab my bag." Hardison said as he walked over to the wreckage, and grabbed his laptop bag, slung it over his shoulder and started walking up the ravine.

"Those people who took Parker, they are long gone huh" Hardison ask Eliot.

"Probably." Eliot said as he scanned the road and ravine. There was no crash site. No Police, or other first responders, nobody had stopped to see if they were okay. It was weird. Seemed like the crash didn't even happen. Eliot tensed as they got closer to the car. There was nothing unassuming about the older gentleman who rescued them. He looked like a great soldier.

"Hello my name is Jenkins, Mr. Jones said you gentlemen needed a lift." The older warrior said.

Eliot turned from where he was still scoping out the scene.

"Sir are you related to Jacob Stone?" Jenkins asked of Eliot when he saw the striking resemblance of the younger man to the brilliant librarian.

Eliot tensed again but did not strangle Jenkins this time, instead he felt like this man was trustworthy.

"Yeah he's my brother." Eliot responded as he got into the back seat of the car sitting behind Hardison.

Ezekiel sat behind Jenkins.

Hardison whipped around in his seat and asked confusedly "Dude you have a brother."

"Yes I have a brother. Haven't seen him in 20 years. Probably thinks I'm dead" Eliot responded. "How do you guys know Jake?"

Jenkins responded as he cleanly navigated into traffic. "He's a librarian, like Mr. Jones, most brilliant of the bunch"

"Ouch Jenkins you wound me." Ezekiel interrupted again as he watched the exchange between Jenkins and Spencer.

"And you would be?" Jenkins asked of the two non-librarians who were occupied the passenger seats.

"Alec Hardison" Hardison responded.

"Ah yes the chap who robbed from Iceland a few years back" Jenkins surmised and shifted his eyes to Eliot.

"Eliot Spencer" Eliot said simply

"I've heard you as well. Quite a dangerous man you hang out with Mr. Hardison." Jenkins said,

"Mr. Hardison. Nobody ever calls me Mr. Hardison" Hardison exclaimed.

"I don't do that job anymore" Eliot demanded.

Jenkins could see that the younger man was telling the truth and the rest of the ride was made in silence.

They arrived at the annex a while later. Jenkins pulled up to the curb. Everyone got out of the car.

"Where are we?" Eliot asked.

"The only place that's safe for the moment." Jenkins responded.

Jenkins lead the group to the door and opened the door. As He and Ezekiel wandered into the library without a care in the world, Eliot and Hardison stopped with mouth agape.

"Okay I take it back about the rumors, the library is defiantly a real place" Hardison said quietly.

"Jenkins" A woman's voice called out.

"Yes Colonel" Jenkins answered.

"I need an ice pack" the woman voice echoed.

"Coming Colonel" Jenkins dutifully called.

Eliot turned the corner flanked by Hardison, as they looked at the library. It was like anything they could have imagined. Eliot noticed two people, a tall woman who, kind of reminded him of the actress who played Mystique in X-Men movies Hardison made him watch, and a man who was laying on the couch with an ice pack on his face masking his face. The woman turned and stopped. Eliot watched as her eyes shifted between the person on the couch and Eliot. She sputtered and then turned to Jenkins.

"Okay now we are just handing out tickets to annex." The women exclaimed as eye Eliot and Hardison.

"Colonel, no of course not, these two were with Ezekiel when his car went over the ravine. I thought it would be safer to have them come here." Jenkins explained.

"Excuse You, it was my car that went over the ravine." Hardison interrupted.

"Hey Colonel Baird, where's Cassandra?" Ezekiel asked.

"She was Kidnapped." Eve interjected.

Ezekiel got very quiet. Eve watched the two new comers and finally decided that these two would not cause a problem. She walked over and stuck out her hand.

"I'm Colonel Eve Baird, formerly NATO command, presently Guardian for all things magical, and mysterious, including the Librarians. Jones you already met. Jenkins is the caregiver of the Annex/Library." Eve said.

"Alec Hardison" Hardison stuck his hand and introduced himself using his real name, which threw Eliot, for a moment, but he didn't let Colonel Baird see that slip up.

"Eliot Spencer" Eliot responded.

At that same moment he heard a name he had killed long ago, the name of boy with God in his heart and the flag on his shoulder, the one who used to be his guiding light.

"Esau?"

Eliot turned and came face to face with his younger twin brother. Jacob Stone, the man who was laying on the couch with an ice pack on his forehead suddenly decided to pay attention. Jacob stood from the couch and quickly made his way over to his brother. Soon they were standing only feet from each other. Before he could say anything to his brother, totally out of character of Jake, Jacob wrapped Eliot in a bear hug. The hug was reserved for brothers, and brothers in arms, long and strong. Both scared to let go of the other for fear they were dreaming.

The annex became very still as they watched the reunion. Until Hardison gasped a strangled gasp. Every eye including the Stones brothers turned to the hacker.

"Esau, dude in my defense I had no idea your parents were so biblical. Please don't punch me!" Hardison said. With that the reunion was over and Eliot knew he would need to answer some questions.

"Eliot Spencer, you took mom's last name?" Jake asked first.

"Right before I joined the army, remember how teased I got because my name was Esau, I didn't want to deal with that in the army so I changed it to Eliot after Great grandpa, well later on I started to do things that were not as honorable for the Stone name so I took mom's last name." Eliot explained.

"We were told you died. We even had your service, we buried you right next to Mom." Jake commented.

"How long ago was that?" Eliot asked

"15 years" Jake responded.

"About that time I became Eliot Spencer." Eliot said. "What did you say about your friend being kidnapped?"

"Cassandra Cillian, about 4 hours ago, was kidnapped from the Annex." Eve stated.

"About the same time as Parker." Hardison responded. "coincidence, I think not"

"We can help you get your friend back." Eliot responded.

Eve stared at the two men and asked "What are you going to do?"

"Colonel It's our job. I'm one of the best retrieval specialists in the world. I think I can help you get your girl back and ours as well."

"Okay, let's pool our resources. Let's work together." Eve commented.

"Sounds like a plan" Jenkins interjected.