Collin's first "real" fight

Emily and Autumn – 8

Collin – 8

Izzie – 7

Jake - 6

They never meant for the kids to be like them, well, almost. Parker thought them all simple pickpocket skills and how to pick locks because those could always be handy and Sophie thought them the basics of lying since they could not afford to have the children spilling out their "real" names at school or saying their parents repeatedly broke the law for a living, but aside that they never meant for the children to actually become so similar to them. They did.

At the age of eleven months Izzie didn't speak a word to save her life yet she knew how to work with the team's cellphones, and Jake started stealing toys from other kids in kindergarten hiding in the vents if he got caught. Hardison had to give him an electronic bracelet because he kept disappearing whenever they went outside.

At the age of five Autumn spoke three languages fluently and Emily played chess on master level already.

And, then, there was Collin.

Collin could be very possessive over the three girls if some outsider tried to approach them and he was an athlete, he defended Jake in school and Eliot was sure he could defend himself if things ever got ugly but the boy never actually had to fight.

He was really calm; sometimes it would last for weeks and along the way they all had to hear the complaints about disappearing objects, inconveniently locked bathroom doors, cruel manipulations and evil plans of revenge.

When Izzie joined in it was far worst for the girl knew how to hack in house's security system and she could not only lock the electric door but also set all kinds of alarms off. Nate and Sophie were sure someday there would be frag grenades being thrown across the rooms, for now, they could just ground the kids before things got too bad. They all ended up grounded, except for Collin who knew better than to get in those fights.

So, when one day, "Adam Sinclair" received a call from the school director informing that his eight year old son had gotten into a fight with an older boy and was currently at the Hospital. Eliot panicked and drove the Hospital exceeding the speed limit by way too much preying that his boy was fine and cursing himself for not have taught him how to fight.

He found his son chilling on a chair, pressing a pack of ice over his right shoulder and with a nasty cut on his lip. The other, older, boy had a black eye, three broken fingers as well as his nose and an open wrist.

The director called Eliot aside.

"Listen, Mr. Sinclair, Collin's teacher tell us he's a good boy and fact is he never caused us problems before and that other kid, well, he's always running into trouble."

"Does this mean you won't punish my son?" Eliot asked feeling relieved.

"I don't want to, but you see, he won't tell us the reason he got into the fight and other students told us he started it so, if you don't get him to speak we will have to get him suspended." Eliot sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'll see what I can do."

Things got worse when the parents of the other kids arrived and told him to "Put his boy on a leach!"

"Excuse me?" Eliot asked.

"He's an animal! Look what he did to our little angel!" The mother said kissing her boy's head as the annoying child stupidly smiled at them. Collin growled.

"Your little angel? Asked him why I kicked his ass! You cunt!"

"Collin!" Eliot barked, where the hell had he learnt that word?

"What? He is!" and he turned to the other kid. "It ain't so funny when ya' messin' with a boy ain't it?" and he smirked in both disgust and pride.

Collin was dismissed from the Hospital five minutes later and Eliot agreed with the director he'd call as soon as he got to the bottom of it.

"So..." Eliot asked uncomfortable, already on the car. "Was it over a girl?"

"Kind of..." Collin responded as he stared out the window.

"Do you like her?" Eliot asked trying to understand if that all mess was over some crush. Collin turned around to stare at, running a hand through his short blond hair.

"Does it matter? You don't mess with girls. You just don't!" Eliot smirked, it was shame the boy had gotten in so many problems, but at the same time, he was proud of him. Eliot couldn't judge Collin because he would have done exactly the same thing.

"It doesn't. The next time though, fight him outside school so you won't get into trouble." The boy smirked slightly at his dad, glad he had found some understanding.

Both, children and adults were waiting for them in their living room when they got home.

"They told us what had happened." Sophie informed casually as if there weren't a bunch of people spread across his living room and eating his food, he now knew how Nathan felt all the time.

"We were worried about you!" The twins said at the same time on that way that always crept everyone else out.

"Why were you worried about him? He kicked ass!" Jake said and proceeded to mimic some Karate moves on the carpet. Parker tousled his hair.

"You are adorable!" She said with a grin that was so typically Parker's.

"No, mum, I ain't adorable. I am scary!" He said with a pout. She smiled more.

"Of course you are!" She responded tousling him again.

Meanwhile Collin had walked to Izzie and was now in front of her, she was staring at the floor, her feet crossed at tip of her shoes as she sat on the kitchen table. Why didn't those kids stay on normal places, like chairs?

The blond boy took something out of his pocket and handed it to her.

"Here, he won't take it from you again." He said simply and Eliot saw it was her Gameboy.

"Wait, wait. She was the girl that stupid kid was messing with?" Eliot and Hardison both asked at the same time.

"He kept stealing the Gameboy from her." Emily said and he knew who she was because her hair was caught in a messy ponytail as Autumn's was carefully braided.

"I lifted it from him the first ten times, but he kept stilling it!" Jake added.

"And this morning when she tried to retrieve it from him he said something very nasty to her."

"Very nasty!" Jake said crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Sweetie, what did he say to you?" Parker said reaching for her girl. Izzie kept quiet, saying nothing. Collin was the one lifting her chin so they'd be eye to eye.

"Hey, don't tell me you believed him. Not for a second. You're beautiful!" The room went silent as the adults stared at the two children in both shock and admiration. Collin continued. "He's ten, what does he know about girls anyway?" She bit her lip.

"You're eight, what do you know about girls?" He chuckled.

"Well, for starters I live with not one, but five very beautiful women and have you seen his mother? That woman looks like a pig in clothes!" Izzie snorted and swung forward on the table to hug him hard.

"My hero!" She said into his year just because she knew Collin was into superheroes.

Hardison got up from his chair.

"Callin' ma daughter ugly! Eliot, I am glad your kid did this because if didn't I would have to whoop his ass!"

Collin almost get suspended since he refused that Izzie came forward saying he didn't the school to think she was a cry-baby so the twins pretended that Collin was defending them because the boy was harassing them.

Later that week, on the bully's house, one thousand porno magazines were delivered and all their computers and cellphones mysteriously stopped working.

On the next one Jake breaks into the house vault and discovers a terrifying piece of paper. What is it?