A/N: Oh, look! You guys get two chapters for good behavior and a long wait. I will be posting the rest of this story throughout the week unless I get bored and decide to post all of it tomorrow. Most of your questions will be answered in the rest of the story so have fun and review for any reason you feel necessary.
Parker stared at the hospital wall intently. She couldn't figure it out. It just didn't make any sense that she was in this situation. What was worse was the hole she felt. It was painful, wrenching, and disarmingly horrid all at the same time. Her eyes were stinging and leaking from the way those feelings were making her feel. She hated it. She hated all of it, not just the waiting. It was the not knowing that was really bothering her. She actually had no idea if her best friend was going to survive or not and it scared her beyond belief. Fear: that was a new emotion for the young thief. She had never actually been afraid of something before, and now she was. Archie would be disappointed in that. He always said that fear was irrelevant compared to survival. He also said that working with others was never a good thing and he was wrong about that. The young thief sniffled softly as she allowed the tears to flow freely for once. She wanted to feel this sadness. She didn't want to forget it. She needed to feel the pain and the tears. Of course, she was so absorbed in her own unique form of torture that she didn't even notice the hacker calmly sitting himself down beside her.
"You okay?" Hardison asked in a sympathetic tone.
"What do you think?" Parker demanded back bitterly.
"It's a formality, Parker," Hardison commented shyly, "I know you're not okay."
"Then why did you ask?" Parker questioned back right on cue.
"Because I want to talk about it and that was the only way I could think of starting the conversation," Hardison retorted.
"We were all there," Parker stated numbly, "We all saw what happened. Why do we need to discuss it?"
"Because it helps with the situation," Hardison smiled back as innocently as possible.
"Does it really?" Parker asked with hope brimming her teary eyes at the prospect.
"Sometimes," Hardison admitted softly, "At least, Sophie says it helps to talk about things. She also says it's not healthy to bottle things up so..."
"Is that why Nate's so… Nate?" Parker gasped out in a sudden need for understanding.
"I don't know," Hardison laughed hollowly at the thief's wise question, "Maybe. Sophie's the one who knows Nate. I have no idea what goes on in that man's mind."
"She's going to die," Parker stated matter-of-factly all of a sudden, "Isn't she?"
"No!" Hardison denied the thief's worried claim automatically as his body gave a quick spasm of fear at the tiny idea of it, "Of course not! It's Sophie! She would never leave us, Mama!"
"She did once before," Parker sighed out in a soft whisper.
"No, she didn't," Hardison growled at the thief affectionately, "She didn't leave us then, Parker. She had to take a break from being Sophie so she could be a better grifter for our team… and a better friend for our family! She would never leave us, Parker!"
"What if she does?" Parker demanded harshly at the hacker's words, "What if she can't help it? What will happen then? What happens to our team, Hardison? We can't lose Sophie! Nate can't lose Sophie! He won't survive! And Eliot will blame himself because the mark used him to bait her! He'll probably run away to make sure that will never happen again! What about you, Hardison? What will you do when Sophie dies?"
"Sophie is not going to die, Parker!" Hardison grunted at the thief with a certain snarl, "The doctors are going to make certain she won't die! Don't you even think that!"
"I'm sorry," Parker whimpered at the hacker in defeat, "I'm just…"
"Scared," Hardison nodded with the thief's assessment, "I am too, but we aren't going to lose her, Parker! I just know it."
"How do you know?" Parker interrogated with hopeful interest.
"Because I know Sophie," Hardison replied back with a genuine smile, "And you do too."
"Yeah," Parker smiled at the news, "Sophie is too stubborn to die by a bullet."
"Besides," Hardison added on to diffuse some of the impossible tension in the room, "She finally conned Nate into admitting he loved her. She's got to stick around for the gloat!"
"And to prevent Eliot from killing Nate," Parker agreed thoroughly eased by the hacker's wise words of wisdom.
"Only because he has to protect us," Hardison smiled at the thief's thinking.
"Hardison," Parker calmly stated as she tried to keep her mind from thinking such awful things, "Are you scared?"
"Terrified," Hardison admitted as he pulled the thief into a hug, "I'm terrified, Mama."
"Then it's a good thing it's Sophie," Parker concluded as the tears continued to fall, "because Eliot's going to be really mad when she wakes up."
"Speaking of Eliot," Hardison pointed out as the hitter made his way towards them, "Where have you been, man?"
"We have a problem," Eliot stated in a very low growl.
"No, really?" Hardison sarcastically replied with a scowl growing on his face at the hitter's choice of words, "I thought we were just having a little family get-together! We're in a hospital, man!"
"It's Nate," Eliot hissed at the hacker in irritation, "He's seeing Sophie."
"He's been watching the doctors operate on her for the last couple of hours until they kicked him out," Parker pointed out simply, "Maybe that's why."
"He's talking to her, Parker," Eliot explained with a roll of his eyes, "And before either of you ask, she seems to be talking back."
"Uh-oh," Parker gasped out as that fear in her stomach started to curl up further at the news.
"That actually makes sense," Hardison replied with a tiny hint of disbelief in his voice.
"Now let's go before he gets himself killed," Eliot ordered as he pulled the two out of their seats, "or sent to the loony bin!"
%
"Nate?" Parker asked quietly when they finally made it outside.
"Yes, Parker," Nate commented dryly as he stared at a specific spot with glaring eyes, "I still see her and I know I'm not supposed to."
"Maybe she's a ghost," Parker began to explain for the very distraught mastermind before her, "Maybe that's her way of telling us everything's going to be okay. It makes sense that she would only haunt you, Nate."
"No Parker," Nate sighed at the thief's hopeful guess, "She's not a ghost."
"How long?" Hardison demanded in that shaky voice of his that everybody always hated.
"Since they took her away from me," Nate explained sourly, "I started seeing her after the doctors took her away for operation."
"And you didn't tell us," Eliot nodded along with disappointment apparent on his face.
"I was hoping to get away with it," Nate kindly commented back as he continued to stare at that strange spot with wonder.
"What happens if Sophie dies?" Parker demanded out of quiet desperation of the mastermind before her.
"Nothing good," Nate stated slowly as he chanced a look away from the tiny spot to look at the fearful thief with actual care in his eyes, "Because I'm cracking at the seams."
"No, you're not," Parker argued cunningly, "because you admit you're going crazy and crazy people don't believe they're crazy!"
"Is she telling you to do anything?" Hardison asked mainly out of his own curiosity on the touchy subject.
"She just wants me to keep going over the con to see where we went wrong," Nate shrugged in response, "I've been doing that for the last hour. I still can't figure out why they went after her."
"Yes, you can," Eliot growled at the mastermind's pitiful excuse, "You know exactly why they chose her!"
"Why?" Parker asked rashly, "Why Sophie?"
"Why not any of the rest of us?" Hardison fueled for the thief in hopes of getting an answer.
"It's the easiest way to take me down," Nate explained slowly as he glared at the hitter, "but that's not why she was shot."
"What do you mean?" Eliot questioned in shock, "Why was she shot?"
The flashbacks started piling up in the mastermind's mind at the hitter's questioning words. He saw the bullet shooting off. He saw the man pulling the trigger. He saw the nod from Hardison's video cameras. He saw the man pull out the gun and aim. He saw the quick look Sophie flashed the man before she started to move. He saw who the gun had been pointed at all along.
"Me," Nate realized with an agonizing breath, "They were never after Sophie. They were after me. She just got in the way."
"How would you bring our team down?" Parker gasped out in realization.
"The same way you would take out any army," Hardison cringed at the news.
"You take out the leader," Eliot nodded at his teammates with sadness, "I was the distraction, but not for Sophie."
"She jumped in the way for me," Nate cried out in agony, "That's why I see her. She made certain they would never get their target."
"That's not everything," Fake Sophie commented with a pleased smile, "Aren't you going to inform them about the rest of her plan? They deserve to know the truth."
"She loves you," Parker concluded for the mastermind surprisingly.
"What?" Hardison demanded of the thief in shock of what she was saying.
"That's why she jumped in front of the bullet," Parker explained excitedly, "Sophie loves Nate."
"Parker…" Eliot began to interject.
"You're right, Parker," Nate smiled at the thief's thinking, "You're absolutely right."
"And that's why you see her," Parker continued in awe of everything she was saying, "Because you love her too."
"Yes," Nate nodded at the thief's assessment, "I love her too. Dammit!"
"And that's why she's going to make it!" Parker stated firmly.
"Mr. Baker?" a nurse cried out as she stepped outside to find the four thieves all congregated together, "Are you Mr. Tom Baker?"
"Yes," Nate stated with fear easily oozing into his voice at the frowning face the nurse was wearing, "What happened to my wife? How is she?"
"Why don't you come inside so the doctor can explain it to you," the nurse suggested with sympathy shining throughout her eyes.
The four thieves shared a look of concern before they started to follow the nurse inside. The hitter gently monitored the mastermind as he stepped up beside him. The thief and hacker followed closely behind. Everybody held their breath. They were slowly marching towards a place that looked like it would be the grifter's room. There was absolutely nothing good about the complete lack of people in the hallways all of a sudden.
"I don't like this," Parker growled at the hacker in misery, "I don't like the way that nurse is looking at Nate at all!"
"Ditto," Hardison agreed with a nervous swallow of his throat, "but it's Sophie. Sophie's invincible, right Mama?"
"Like Eliot," Parker nodded her head in understanding of what the hacker was doing.
"Don't get your hopes up," Eliot begged of the two young thieves with concern, "Look at the way she's walking. She's walking as if she has a very heavy load on her shoulders."
"Plus the way she keeps darting looks at Nate shows she's worried about his reaction to the news," Hardison added on as he remembered his training from the grifter they were worried about.
"Sophie says that people walk with confidence when they're happy," Parker listed off delicately, "and she's not which means she isn't happy. She's sad and a little disappointed because she's walking with big, jagged steps. It's like she's stumbling but not quite because she has to still be professional in front of us. She's walking like she just lost a patient… Oh!"
"Not now, Parker," Nate ordered with a quick look at the young thief's face before he whipped his head towards the doctor that was heavily approaching them.
"His shoulders are sagging," Hardison whispered to the young thief for a distraction.
"Which means bad things," Parker agreed sadly.
"Mr. Baker," the doctor asked kindly when he finally reached Nate, "Tom Baker, right?"
"How is she?" Nate demanded desperately though it was obvious from his stance that he had intended on being professional.
"Are they with you?" the doctor pointed to the three thieves behind him in hopes of buying himself a few more moments before breaking the news, not a good sign.
"The blonde and the tall one are our kids," Nate explained hurriedly as his professionalism was remembered for the moment because he noticed the way the doctor was acting too, "the long-haired brunette is my brother. What happened to So… my wife?"
"She survived surgery," the doctor delivered the news with a pained expression on his face, "but she lost a lot of blood in the process. Her vitals were pretty close to shot when we got to her and we had to resuscitate her a few times during the whole process."
"What are you saying?" Parker gasped out in hopes of understanding what was going on.
"How bad is it?" Nate finished off because he knew exactly where the doctor was going with this one and it scared him far more than he was even ready to think on.
"Mr. Baker, your wife is currently in a coma," the doctor reported slowly, "it's a small one but there is no likelihood of her waking up. Blood loss causes brain damage when there isn't enough oxygen running to the brain. Your wife may not wake up ever again. I'm so sorry, Mr. Baker, but we did everything we could to save her life."
"She's not dead though," Parker growled at the doctor in anger, "You're talking about her as if she's dead. She's not! It's Sophie! She'll wake up."
"She's a little stressed out now," Hardison apologized for the thief as he put an arm protectively around her shoulders, "She's having a hard time with the news that we might never see our… mom wake up again!"
"Can we see her before we have to make any decisions?" Nate asked with that broken voice of his back to stay.
"Of course," the doctor agreed with sympathy, "It's only right. I'll take you to her room myself."
The thieves followed the doctor into the hospital wing without speaking. It was a silent march to the grifter's door as each thief thought about the words the doctor had just said to them. They walked into the grifter's room in disbelief as everybody's gaze fell on the beautiful brunette lying there. Sophie laid there with tubes sticking out of her nose and mouth as her breathing was monitored by some machine off to the side. She looked pale.
"Can we have a few minutes alone?" Nate asked the doctor awkwardly as his eyes were glued to the grifter in the bed.
"Of course," the doctor nodded at the man's assessment as he hurried the nurse away, "I'll be back in an hour to discuss options."
"I don't get it, Hardison," Parker admitted to the hacker softly as she pulled him to the side for information, "Sophie's alive. Why are they so upset?"
"Because now we have to consider letting Sophie go so she won't suffer," Hardison told the thief the truth because he wasn't Sophie and he didn't have the heart to lie for her own protection.
"Nate can't do that!" Parker gasped out in horror, "It would kill him!"
"That's why I'm here," Eliot explained as he hugged the thief and hacker before going towards the mastermind to start discussing options, "Why don't you two wait outside for a bit?"
"Sophie's supposed to say that," Parker growled back in response.
"Come on, Mama," Hardison sighed as he pulled the thief out of the scary room with their favorite grifter, "Let's go get something to drink. I'm thirsty."
"Let's get ice for Sophie too," Parker agreed with a smile, "then we can go to the cafeteria and steal some tea because we all know how much blood loss makes you thirsty."
"Yeah," the hacker coughed out in disbelief, "Let's do that."
"She's in denial," the hitter sighed when the hacker and thief finally disappeared.
"Yep," Nate agreed as he picked up the grifter's hand and held on tight, "I was afraid that would happen. Did you see Hardison's reaction?"
"He thinks you should pull the plug," Eliot nodded at the mastermind's words, "She's hooked up to a breathing machine! I can understand why he wants you to do it."
"I can't," Nate stumbled at the abrupt approach of their important conversation, "You know I can't! I can't kill her!"
"Then she's going to suffer," Eliot hissed at the selfish mastermind beside him, "and we both know how much you want her to do that."
"Hardison can pull the plug," Nate concluded slowly, "We've trained him enough to do it."
"He won't be able to sign the papers," Eliot sighed at the news, "and Parker would never forgive him. You can't do that to him."
"You can pull the plug," Nate growled at the hitter in irritation as he started moving wisps of the grifter's hair out of her face, "If you're so bent on having it done."
"You're a selfish bastard," Eliot coughed out in amazement, "If you really loved her, you'd do it yourself!"
"You don't want me to," Nate concluded with a satisfied smile that was way too predatory, "Do you, Eliot?"
"It's Sophie!' Eliot growled out in annoyance, "It's supposed to be me you're discussing, not her! I don't want her to suffer!"
"But you don't want me to pull the plug," Nate hissed at the hitter's cowardice, "But I'm the coward because I'm talking about it."
"She'll never talk back," Eliot explained with sympathy for the mastermind thick within his voice, "Just because she's alive doesn't mean you have her!"
"Of course not," Nate quipped back bitterly as his grip on the grifter's hand tightened possessively, "That's what my hallucination is for."
"You know what she would want," Eliot placed a comforting hand on the mastermind's shoulder as he carefully spoke his next piece of advice. "You're the only one who can decide what to do."
"I'll give her a few days," Nate explained sadly, "and then I'll decide if I can pull the plug or not."
"I understand," Eliot nodded at the simple statement, "I'll tell the doctor you want three days."
"What?" Parker gasped out as a bucket of ice slowly dropped to the floor, "you're going to do it? I trusted you!"
"Parker!" Hardison called after the blonde blur that barreled past with no stopping in her future, "Parker, come back!"
"Let her go," Eliot ordered the younger man when it looked like he was ready to go.
"You're going to do it then?" Hardison asked sheepishly as he continued to watch the spot where the thief had disappeared.
"We're giving her three days before we make a decision," Eliot explained with a sad smile.
"You mean before he makes a decision," Hardison retorted angrily, "You heard what the doctor said, man. You can't let her suffer."
"Three days, Hardison," Nate stated defiantly as he kept his gaze on the grifter in question, "She has three days to prove to me that she's going to be okay or I will murder her!"
"It's not murder when it's mercy," Hardison pointed out in a growl, "I'm getting out of here! I need some air!"
"You're sure about this?" Eliot demanded of the mastermind with concern.
"Watch them," Nate ordered in a temper, "I'll let you know if she's going to die when her three days are up! I owe her!"
"Three days," Eliot agreed sternly, "Don't beat yourself up too much over it."
"Leave us alone," Nate complained expectedly at the hitter's insistence to be there with him.
"You got it," Eliot agreed as he left the mastermind to stew in his thoughts while he went to take care of more important business matters.
"What do I do?" Nate demanded of his hallucination with anger.
"I like your plan," the hallucination of Sophie smiled at him with amusement, "It gives her three days to be okay and it gives you time to work up the courage to say you're not going to kill her! It's brilliant really!"
"Stop using her voice," Nate begged in pain of the news, "Stop looking like her! Look like someone I can hate instead!"
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" fake Sophie asked with anger on her face, "No, you won't listen if I'm Sterling. You won't do anything but shout and draw attention if I'm Blackpoole! I can do Maggie if you like but you won't respond as well as you do when I'm Sophie."
"Why won't you just go away?" Nate pleaded with the specter in a complete rage now, "Why won't you leave me alone?"
"Because I'm you and you're a persistent little wanker when you need to be," fake Sophie smiled casually at the banter, "Would you like it if I pouted my lips and flirted like she does?"
"I want you to go away," Nate barked back in anger as he turned his gaze back on the sleeping grifter in the bed, "and I want you to wake up."
"She can't hear you," fake Sophie snapped at the man in irritation, "She's in a coma. Her brain can barely even pick up its own functions and thoughts let alone your voice!"
"Shut up!" Nate ordered with a growl at the hallucination's evilness.
"Remember," fake Sophie chanted with renewed vigor, "I'm how you perceive Sophie. You seem to be under the impression that she is someone who is annoying and is out to make your life a living Hell. It's not my fault you think of her this way."
"Considering I'm in love with her," Nate snapped back viciously, "There is obviously a lot more I visualize her as than just a beautiful woman with nothing but annoying anger in her soul."
"You're confused," fake Sophie mused with a sneer, "because this is how you really see her. I'm your mind, remember. I only do what you tell me to."
"Then go away and leave us alone," Nate begged of the hallucination with hope in his eyes.
"You are alone," fake Sophie quipped back with a laugh, "She's not there anymore than I am here! You're going bonkers, you know."
"Come on, Soph," Nate turned his attention back on the grifter in the bed, "I know you. You have to wake up!"
