TNT owns all of the characters and their quirks. I only own this storyline.
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Chapter 9: The Diversion
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Sophie leaned against Maria's bed, her legs tucked under her as she reads a story to Maria. Hardison sat opposite them, typing furiously on his laptop. It appeared that she was destined to spend a second sleepless night in this room.
Hardison paused for a moment and looked up from the screen at Sophie. Now that he had the time to take a close look at her, he could see fine lines radiating from her eyes that had not been there three years ago. Dark eye bags had also appeared under her eyes, which to be fair, could have been exacerbated by their current situation.
Sophie caught his eye at that moment and Hardison tried to give her, what he hoped, was an encouraging smile. Sophie returned with a small smile. Words were not necessary for them to communicate. Hardison took another swig of his orange soda, popped a few gummy frogs and returned his attention to the laptop.
Sophie's thoughts drifted to the last time she had seen Nate. It was hard to believe that it had only been a little more than a day ago. He had kissed her good bye and promised to return for dinner. She had returned the kiss, voicing her concerns about her acting class's readiness for the production. He had given her another kiss, proclaiming his everlasting faith in her abilities to perform miracles and stepped out of the house. It had been just another ordinary day. Until it wasn't.
"Mommy? Why isn't daddy home?" Maria's question brought Sophie's thoughts back to the present. She stretched out her legs and pulled her daughter into her lap, hugging her close. She buried her nose into her thick dark hair that was so like her own, breathing in the fruity scent of her shampoo.
"Maria darling, do you remember mommy telling you that Princess Parker and Sir Eli had to go out on a mission?" Maria nodded. "Well, daddy got into a little trouble so they are off to help him."
Maria gave a little frown, popped a stolen gummy frog into her mouth and considered her mother's words.
"Daddy's coming home with them?" Maria asked. Hardison looked up at Sophie with sympathy. Sophie closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"That's what they will try their best to do darling." Sophie answered.
"I miss daddy." Maria declared, snuggling close to her mother. Sophie hugged her tightly, trying to hold back the tears threatening to escape. You and me both, darling, you and me both.
Sophie tucked Maria into bed, snuggling with her until the young girl had fallen asleep. The room was in semi darkness, lit only by the soft glow of Hardison's laptop screen and the Harry Potter nightlight in a corner. Sophie crossed over the room to sit next to Hardison, both anxiously waiting for Parker to plant the drive and trying to keep track of their progress over the coms.
A series of dings followed by a number of new windows popped up on Hardison's screen. A beat later, Parker's voice came on the coms, over the sounds of Eliot taking out the guards.
"It's done."
A few taps on the keyboard later and they had the camera feeds up. They scanned the windows, which gave a pretty good view of the empty warehouse, with a row of what used to be offices but had doors with electronic locks. Hardison brought up more windows and the image on one of them caused Sophie to give an involuntary gasp.
Whatever Hardison said to Parker and Eliot was lost to Sophie, the conversation like a faded buzz in her subconscious. All she could focus on was Nate. Nate lying motionless on the floor. Nate in a pool of blood. Nate dead. She had not realise she was crying until Hardison patted her arm gently.
"Sophie? Maybe you should go checked on Maria." Hardison's voice was gentle but firm.
She stood and crossed the room to where her daughter was in deep slumber. Sophie was an actress, a grifter and as such was an emotional person by nature. But never had she found herself to lose control so easily.
For the first time, the thought of losing Nate was too much to take. She looked at her daughter and the realisation that she would have to raise her alone terrified her. What did she know about colleges and career plans? She vaguely registered Eliot saying he found a pulse and she felt a small flicker of hope.
Hardison's urgent proclamation of an alarm snapped her back to attention. She mentally pushed aside her insecurities and anxieties; they were not out of the woods yet. She steeled herself; there would be time for crying later.
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Sophie had gathered up the small number of toys and books Maria had in her bedroom and put them all into the old diaper bag she had packed the previous night and handed it to Hardison. She paced the small room, waiting for the inevitable call from the hospital.
"Parker got us another car, we are on the way back now." Eliot updated. The house phone started ringing in the distant. Sophie ran to the set in the room, muted to avoid waking Maria, and took a deep breath. She allowed the phone to ring a couple more times before she picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hello, this is Nancy calling from the Buffalo Mercy Hospital. I'm looking for a Mrs Lara White?"
"Yes I'm Lara White. What's this about?"
"Mrs White, your husband was brought in a while ago with serious injuries, we need you to come down to the hospital immediately."
"What? What happened? How is he now?"
"He's in surgery now ma'am. Please come down as soon as you can and the doctor can tell you more when you get here."
"Yes, thank you." Sophie hung up and went to wake her daughter. Maria woke in confusion and started to kick up a fuss. The promise of finally seeing her father calm the girl down enough for Sophie to get her ready to leave.
"We're here Sophie, you can leave now. We got your back. Hardison, two minutes and you get out too. Remember to check that we cleared everything." Eliot's voice came over the coms. Sophie took a moment to step back into the shoes of Lara White and unlocked the room door.
Sophie was shown to the waiting room outside of the surgery, where a police officer was waiting for her. He was a fresh-faced kid, with a mop of shocking red hair, pale skin and a cluster of freckles on his nose.
He introduced himself as Officer Carter and offered his sympathies at her current situation. You don't know half of it kid. Sophie thought to herself.
She answered Officer Carter's questions in a distracted voice, concern for her husband's condition etched on her face. They established that Sam White had been ill since the previous day but had been feeling much better by lunchtime today. Workaholic that he was, he had wanted to pop into the pub to catch up on paperwork and the couple had gotten into a small tiff over it.
Lara had finally relented after dinner and he promised to be back in a couple of hours. She hadn't been too worried when he wasn't back by the promised time; he gets caught up in work sometimes, until the hospital had called.
At this point, she had broke down a little and implored Officer Carter to find out what happened to her husband. With a promise to do their best, Officer Carter left mother and daughter to wait on the outcome of the surgery.
Maria had fallen asleep on the car ride to the hospital and miraculously remained in slumber all through the interview.
"We're holed up at a nearby hotel Sophie. Hardison has hacked into the hospital system and security cameras. We'll be monitoring from here." Parker reported after Officer Carter has taken his leave
"I thought you were all going to the safe house." Sophie whispered.
"The safe house is too far from here. I won't be able to get to you if anything goes wrong. We'll stay close until we know more about Nate's condition" Eliot answered.
Sophie nodded, knowing they would see her response over the camera. She tried to get into a comfortable position on the hard plastic chair, taking care not to jolt Maria, whose head was now resting on her thighs, and settle in to wait for the doctor to emerge from the room at the end of the corridor.
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Eliot signalled to the other two to remove their ear buds. Hardison can monitor Sophie's coms on his laptop. They had managed to secure a suite at a nearby hotel and were now gathered in the living area, Hardison's gear already crowding the small coffee table.
Eliot dug through the duffle bag with their personal items for a change of clothes, he needed a hot shower to clear his head and plan their next move. Parker curled up on the sofa, watching the hospital's camera feeds, while Hardison next to her busied himself checking through the hospital's staff list, prioritizing those currently on duty.
As the adrenaline rush from the night's activities started to fade, Parker could feel fatigue taking over her body. Her eyelids started to droop and she was about to doze off when Eliot stepped out from the bathroom, towel drying his hair and approached the pair.
"Anything out of place Hardison?"
"Nope, all the on duty staff checks out. I'm running the off duty ones now. Facial recognition hasn't picked up anything on the cameras either."
"You think they will come back to finish the job?" Parker asked.
"No I think they will come for Sophie and Maria." Eliot replied. "We're missing something. The people who took Nate were professionals, the car, the phone calls. Those guards at the warehouse are just hired thugs. It doesn't add up" Shaking his head, Eliot continued "Both of you wash up and try to get some rest. I'll watch over the monitors and wake you up if there's anything new."
It was almost three in the morning but the doctor still hadn't made an appearance. Eliot turned on his coms and spoke softly.
"Sophie? How are you holding up?"
"Alright I guess. I really just want the doctor to tell me how Nate is. This waiting, it's torturous." A sigh. "Where are Parker and Hardison?"
"Sleeping I hope. If they're taking this long it means they haven't given up on him yet."
Eliot hadn't realised that Hardison had set the volume on his laptop on maximum. As such, the sudden blaring of the alarm gave him such a jolt that Parker and Hardison were already racing out of the adjacent bedroom, before he recovered.
"What the bloody hell is that blaring Eliot?" Sophie winced at the sharp wail in her ear.
"Dammit Hardison. You're going to wake the entire building"
Hardison was already frantically checking the warning windows and turning down the volume.
"What is it Hardison? Is it the hospital? Soph and Maria in danger?" Eliot asked urgently.
"No it wasn't the hospital. There's been a breakout at one of Interpol's prison. And… oh hell no, Tony Kadjic's in the wind."
"Dammit. That's it right there. They took Nate to ensure our attention will be focused on getting Nate and they could spring Tony Kadjic from prison." Eliot snapped, his knuckles white from clenching. Another shark had just appeared in the tumultuous they were swimming in. He really wanted to hit something.
"Wait. I just remembered something else." Parker exclaimed, a look of horror on her face. "Nate mentioned Maggie in the car while we were driving to the hospital." Without prompting, Hardison was already typing away furiously, trying to locate her.
"She's at her apartment in LA. Her car is in the parking lot and GPS on her phone puts her in the building."
"Give me her cell number, and keep a close eye on the hospital cams." Eliot said, pulling out his phone. He dialled the number Hardison read out and willed Maggie to pick up the call. The call connected and rang. And rang. And rang.
"It's going to her voicemail. Do you have the security footage of her building? Go back a few hours and see if you can see her actually coming home." Hardison nodded, fingers flying across the keyboard.
"Wait! Is that a man coming out of her apartment?" Parker cried out, finger hitting the pause button. The camera was situated at the end of the corridor, a distance away from Maggie's apartment; making it hard to judge exactly which door the mysterious man was coming out from.
Hardison rewind the clip and played it again, this time at regular speed. All three peered closely at the slightly pixelated clip and this time Eliot saw something that made his blood run cold.
"Parker, make an anonymous call to the LAPD, pretend to be a neighbour or something. That man had a gun."
"What?" Sophie's shocked voice came over the coms.
Hardison plugged Parker's cellphone to his laptop before handing it to her. "I've spoofed your number such that it appears you are calling from LA."
As Parker made the call, he pulled up the other camera feeds, trying to put a face to the mysterious man but failed. The man knew where the cameras were situated and had avoid looking at all of them. Hardison switched the feeds back to real time and the three of them crowded around the small screen, waiting for the police to arrive.
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The scene that unfolded on the screen seemed unreal.
Two police officers had arrived and knocked on the door only to discover that it was not closed all the way. They had then drawn their weapons and moved cautiously into the apartment. After a few minutes, one of them left the apartment and returned with police tape to seal off the apartment.
Still, the team clung on to the small silver of hope. Even when a forensic team arrived shortly after, instead of the paramedics.
When the coroner emerged from the apartment with the body bag, Hardison turned off the feed and leaned back, closing his eyes. Eliot updated Sophie over the coms, then turned it off, cursing under his breath. Parker remained frozen at her spot on the sofa, tears pouring silently down her face.
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Sophie sat on the hard plastic chair, listening to Eliot's updates on the situation at Maggie's apartment. The whole situation seemed surreal to her. They had been so focused on their own little family they had overlooked the vulnerable just outside of their circle.
And now, not only is a dangerous man on the loose, an innocent had paid the price for their oversight.
Already on edge from the events of the last couple of days, the anxiety and despair that threaten to overwhelm her. This is not over yet. Her grip on Maria tightened and she could feel the girl stirring a little. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Sophie gathered the strength to focus on the job at hand.
"Family of Sam White?"
"Yes, I'm his wife Lara."
"I'm Dr Kelly. Your husband is out of surgery."
A/N: I have been rereading A Storm of Swords and it may or may not have led me to be more trigger-happy. Ok, you may now yell at me if you are so inclined.
