Nate sat in the ambulance watching as the paramedics worked on his hitter. They were trying desperately to keep his blood from filling his lungs. The hitter was still some what conscious if only by will power alone. The mastermind could not only see the pain in Eliot's eye but the fear that seemed to be growing more and more with each passing second. The same fear that he to was feeling. He couldn't get over the fact that he had the chance to prevent this all from happening. Instead he had allowed the job to take priority over the safety of his team. The mastermind was pulled from his thoughts as the ambulance came to a halt.
Eliot could feel his body go numb as he listened to the sound of the sirens. Judging by their sound he knew that he was in an ambulance. He could see Nate as he sat starring at him. Eliot felt as if he were drowning unable to breath. He wanted to say something but could his words were lose somewhere in his throat. He kept his eyes focused on his friend not wanting close them for fear it would be the last. As he stared at the mastermind his vision began to grow darker. He could no longer hear the sirens as as he watched the people around him moving. The hitter could only guess that they had arrived at the hospital.
The darkness that had started with his vision was now beginning to engulf him fully. It was an odd feeling here he was fighting for his life yet some how he felt at peace. He let the darkness take him welcoming the pleasantness of it. Time was lost on him and the memories of who he had been and the people he cared about faded. It seemed as if he could go on like that forever. At least until he realized he could hear what sounded like a voice. He knew it was not his own. It sound both distant and familiar yet he still could not place it. Why did it sound so familiar? Eliot let his thoughts wander was he listen to the voice, and as he listen memories started to come to mind. Unpleasant at first ones that he wanted to go away and never bother him again. These he remembered were his earliest and for a time only grew worse. Then something shifted the memories became happier and there that voice was again. He remembered now the voice belonged to his boss, his teams leader, no it belong to one of his best friends. The voice he was hearing belonged to Nate. He remembered now the events that had led him to this point, but more importantly he remembered that he fight to hold on. He had to fight to hold on to his life if not for himself than for his family. They were his reason for living, and he was their protector. If let the darkness take him now they would be defenseless or worse they would blame his fate on themselves.
Nate stood outside the door of the emergency room where they had taken the hitter. They were trying to stabilize him before taking him into the OR. He thought of the look in the hitter's eye as he had passed through the doors out of his sight. They look blank as if the life had drained away from them. The monitors said he was still alive if only just but the look his eyes had said otherwise. He would have continued that way lost in his thoughts if hadn't been for the of the heart monitor going flat. He felt his heart break as he rushed in through the doors shouting the hitter's name only to be stopped short of reaching him by a nurse. He watch in horror as the doctors tried to revive the hitter by sending volts of electricity through him. He called out the hitter's name again when it seemed as the doctor's efforts were useless. The nurse tried to remove him from the room but he wouldn't move. He would not leave his hitter now not when he needed him. The doctor sent another volt through the hitter when it still had been enough to revive the hitter he gave a look to the others as if the say it was unless.
"Call it," he heard one of the doctors say.
"Time of death 1:42 am..." one of the nurses said beginning to reach for the switch on the monitor. Only to be stopped by the sound of a beep. It was followed by another and then another. He was alive by some miracle the hitter had come back to them. The doctors who had been ready to give up moved into action not wanting to let him slip away again moving him toward the OR. Nate knew that this time he could not follow no matter how much he wanted to. This time when to nurse ushered him to move he did allowing her to guide him to the waiting area.
He saw the rest of the team there waiting to hear what ever new he had of the hitter.
"How's Eliot," Parker asked voicing the question that was running through their minds.
Nate didn't say anything. He really didn't know how to answer the thief. Sure he was alive but after what had just happened he wasn't sure if you could even consider him alright or not.
Seeing the the look of complete uncertainty Sophie took him by the hands leading him to a chair she sat him down "tell us what happen." Her voice was gentle but some how strained. she had probably been crying though by the way she looked he couldn't tell it.
The mastermind took a deep breath before relaying the events that had happen since they had parted at the parking deck. He told them the look he had seen in the hitter's eye as he passed through the doors, and of what had happened in the ER before he had been taken into surgery.
"He is alive and fighting but I don't know beyond that I just don't know," he finished focusing his eyes on floor. He wished that this was another nightmare that he could just wake up from. He just wanted this to be over.
There wasn't much to say other after Nate had brought them up to speed on what had happened. A unsettling silence fell over them that was only broken by the sound of the intercom and the constant ticking of the wall clock. The minutes tick by every so slowly as they waited for news. An hour had passed when at last one of them had broken the silence.
"Hardison, look to see who put out the hit," Nate said stirring the others from their own thoughts. The hacker looked over at him a little shock by the fact he could even think of work at a time like this.
"What," Hardison asked making sure he heard him right.
"Find who ever it was that ordered this hit," Nate repeated this time with a little more force. The other couldn't help but hear the anger in his voice. No matter how this ended they knew that he would stop at nothing make who ever ordered the hit pay. They also knew that if the worst were to happen the mastermind would driven for his need for vengeance. That would be his only reason for being and once if ever it were to be fulfilled they would loose him in the bottom of some bottle. The grief of loosing someone he had grown to cherish as he had the hitter would be too much for him to bear. After all though he would not admit it this team had some how found their way into his heart. They had become his family and in the process patched the hole left by his late son.
"Nate can this not wait until we know what how Eliot is doing," the hacker asked not really know what the answer would be. The question posed by the hacker seem to strike the mastermind the wrong way as his angry began to boil.
"No, this cannot wait," Nate said raising his voice "someone wants Eliot dead enough so that they went as far as to find a way put him in that parking deck in the sights of a sniper. Not only that but they also dragged the rest of us into it which could have put anyone of you guys into the line of fire as well." They could see the anger still growing perhaps more from frustration and helplessness from the situation than anything. Never the less they could see the reason in his order of the hacker as well as where he was going with the his train of thought. Who ever it was that had ordered this hit would not stop at this attempt. If by some miracle Eliot did survive then there was sure to be another and when and where that did occur it might not just be him who was caught in the cross fire. So not really knowing what else to do Hardison took out his computer and began his search. Several more hours passed with Hardison working away and the rest falling into the silence yet again.
The silence that fell this time round was only broken by the sight of the doctor as he appeared at the door way. Nate stopped his pacing turning as he heard the sharp in take of breath from one of the his team.
"Mr. Baker," the doctor call.
"Yes," Nate said stepping forward "how is he." The look on the doctor's face seemed to say the worst.
"First let me say that you nephew is a fighter the strongest I've ever seen. It was touch and go but we were able to stabilize. One bullet entered in his lower abdomen lodging itself in his liver. The second entered his left lung before being deflected by a rib and lodged against the heart. We were able to remove both and for now he is stable." The doctor's word felt as if the were stones being thrown at him. Nothing about what he was hearing sounded as if it Eliot's chance of surviving were good.
"What are his chances," Nate asked fearing the answer.
"To be honest if were anyone else I'd say now would be the time to say your goodbyes, as many times as we had almost lost him I would have to say it is quite possible that he could survive." Some how the doctor words lifted his hopes if only a little bit.
"And if he does make it," Nate asked.
"The next forty-eight hour should tell. For now we have him in an induced coma in order to prevent him from putting any unnecessary strain on his heart. But if he does make it then it will be a long road to recovery. In time he should return to how he was." Nate listen to the doctor praying for the hitter to pull through.
"Can we see him," was his next question.
"Yes," the doctor nodded to a him "the nurse will take you to him," he said waving a nurse over to them.
She guided the team through the hallways to the intensive care unit and to Eliot.
