Chapter 11. Well here is chapter 11. Many of you asked me not to kill Sophie…would I do that? Smile. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: not mine

Spoilers: the Maltese falcon job,

Sophie turned and tried to run, but the guard grabbed her wrist and twisted in behind her back. Sophie heard a sharp crack as pain shot through her wrist. The guard then used his leverage over her to push her face against the wall. "Where is he going?" he demanded.

"I don't know," Sophie lied knowing perfectly well that he was going to hit her again. She could still feel the pain shooting through her wrist and was concentrating so hard on not crying that she did not notice the voices on the earpiece.

"Tara," Eliot asked, "Are you guys in the clear? Are we ready to get out?"

"We're clear but I don't think Sophie is," Tara replied worriedly. "Eliot those guard will hurt her badly if they realized Nate is gone."

"I'm on it," Eliot replied taking off towards the elevator. "You guys get Nate clear and I get Sophie."

"Great," Tara replied.

Nate looked up at her from the stretcher. "Is Sophie going to be okay?" Nate asked.

"Sophie's going to be just fine," Tara replied knowing that statement fell somewhere between cautious optimism and a blatant lie. She did not really care at the moment. She needed Nate to stay relaxed until they were clear of the hospital, and telling Nate that Sophie was probably being attacked would not relax him.

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Eliot paced back and forth in the elevator. "Come on move," Eliot told the elevator. After what seemed like forever it reach the right floor. Eliot went tearing down the hallway toward what sound like a fight. He was right. It was a fight.

The bigger of the two guards had Sophie pinned against the wall by the throat. Eliot could tell just at a glance that she had black eye and probably a broken wrist. That was enough right there to piss Eliot off. Nobody hurt his team and especially not either one of his girls.

"Let her go," Eliot told the guard.

"What," the guard sneered at Eliot, "Are you going to do something about it?"

Eliot didn't answer the question instead he knocked the slightly less bulky guard out with one punch. The bigger guard looked at Eliot and Eliot noticed that the guard had a choke hold on Sophie. Eliot lunged forward and punched the guy in the nose. A satisfying crack told Eliot he had broken the man's nose.

The man let go of Sophie and got his fists up in ready position. He tried for Eliot's nose but Eliot block him. However his next punch to Eliot's stomach hit home and Eliot doubled over. It was only for a second but it was enough for the other man to get on top of Eliot and pull him to the ground. The man tried to pin Eliot to the ground but Eliot got his senses back and rolled over so he was on top.

"Apologize," Eliot told the guard who was completely at the mercy of Eliot's raised fist.

"For what?" the guard spat, "Doing my job?"

"No," Eliot growled, "Apologize for beating up an innocent civilian because you weren't doing you job, and you decided to take it out on her."

"No," the guard spat again and this time he hit Eliot's face. Eliot wiped it off in disgust and pinned both the guard arms to his sides.

"Any last questions?" Eliot asked apparently giving up on the apology.

"Yea," the guard asked, "Who the hell are you guys?"

"We are thieves," Sophie said finally getting to vent in response to the man's criticism of the team's character. "We are Nate's teammates and we came back to rescue him, and we very rarely kill people which is why Eliot is going to knock you out instead of killing you in cold blood."

"How noble," the guard mocked.

"You better believe it buddy," Eliot said knocking the man out with a single blow, "because I would have killed you after what you said and did." Eliot toed the man to make sure he was really unconscious then he turned to Sophie, who was still slumped at the bottom of the wall where she had fallen. She was however sitting up strait. "Soph," Eliot asked gently, "what's hurt and don't tell me nothing because I know something is."

"My wrist is the only thing that I think is really bad," Sophie told him, "the rest is superficial." Eliot picked up Sophie's wrist, which was bent a little weirdly.

"Okay I am going to wrap this here," Eliot told her, "but I am going to have to rewrap better once we are outside of city limits." Sophie nodded and tried not to wince as Eliot tied it firmly around her wrist. "Alright," Eliot told her, "you can walk right?" He looked up and down the hall checking that it was still clear.

"Yes," Sophie replied, standing up, "and Eliot." Eliot turned back to look at Sophie. "Thank you for saving me," she told him, "I know you told me not to do that…"

"Hey," Eliot said, "your job was to get Nate out safely. You did that. My job was to protect the people on this team. I wish got her faster but we both did our jobs." They smiled at each other and started walking down the hall towards the elevator.

"Hardison," Sophie told him, "get the engine ready. We're coming down."

"Sophie," Nate's voice suddenly appeared in the conversation, "Sophie, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Nate," Sophie told him gently. "I will see you in a minute."

The elevator door's opened and Eliot swore as he saw who was standing in the lobby.

"What is it?" Tara asked apparently having gotten her ear piece back from Nate.

"We have a little friend here," Eliot growled.

"Who is it?" Tara asked worriedly.

"Sterling," Sophie replied looking at Eliot. Things just got a lot more interesting and not in a good way.

Yea…Cliff hanger…Wouldn't you just love to see how it goes down? Review and you will see much more quickly. Smiles innocently… until then...