The safe house really looked anything but safe. It was one of the dozens of big old remote and abandoned farmhouses in the area, but it was so neglected, it looked like one stiff breeze would blow it over, at least on the outside.

Inside, it had been fixed up, cleaned and decorated to look like a warm family home. Using a generator for heat and candles for light, the place had a very 'Little House on the Prairie' feel to it. As he placed the cameras, Hardison couldn't help but shudder at the idea of living like that, with no electricity and worse still, no internet access!

Tracey was first to arrive, looking more harassed than when Nate first saw her in the middle of the busy ER and he was pleased, that meant they were getting to her. She headed inside quickly, eyes darting around, as if checking to ensure she was alone, not noticing the team, strategically hidden in the car just close enough to keep track of what was going on, but far enough away that they wouldn't be spotted. She quickly set herself up in the den and proceeded to work on her laptop.

It was another thirty minutes before her father arrived. The sharp intake of breath from Eliot was missed by most of the team, but Nate snuck a look in his direction. The hitter, their hitter, their fighter, their rock, suddenly looked like a scared little boy who'd seen a ghost. For Nate, the pieces finally clicked into place, but he didn't have time to dwell as an argument started inside and his attention was drawn back to the laptop sitting on the dashboard.

"I've looked at three of the kids we've 'helped' recently, look," she said, turning her laptop to him, "Lucas White has been expelled from school for fighting, Stuart Michaels has been in and out of the hospital more times in the last three years than when he was here; he's been diagnosed with ADHD and put on medication. Chances are, we were wrong about his family situation. And the latest little girl, Cindy Stevens, has runaway twice in three months and the family she left behind, the father has been worse than ever, both the mother and brother have been into the hospital several times!"

"I'm sure these are anomalies, they won't all be like this," her father replied quietly.

"It's time to stop, Dad. No more, we can't do this anymore. We don't know what happens to these kids after they're gone, it's not right!

"Would you rather I'd left you at home with your so-called parents? Haven't you had a better life than you would have had there?"

"Hopefully most of our kids are like me, but I can't live with the idea that even one of them is like that girl who came to see me today."

"How did you find all this information on these kids? We told them to keep low profiles."

"Cause I planted it for you to find," Hardison said with a smile, enjoying watching the scene unfold on the screen in front of him from the safety and comfort of their car, the results of his hard work coming to fruition.

"You know the skills we use to do background checks on our clients," Tracey replied, "well they can be used to check up on anyone, do you have the files?"

"Here," he said, handing her a USB drive, "start with the girl who came to see you."

"I don't need to, I saw what she's like, and she's a convicted junkie who is blackmailing us."

"I looked into her after you called, so please, just indulge me please, honey," he answered, smiling sweetly at her, brushing her hair back, the gesture of comfort he'd used since she was a child.

"Fine," she said, inserting the drive into her PC.

"Hardison," Nate said slowly, "tell me we when she searches she'll find Parker and not the real Alexandra Steel?"

"Erm..." Hardison replied,

"Hardison?" Nate moaned.

"What?" Hardison tried to defend the oversight, "I was too busy finding as many missing kids as I could and creating their bad stories, I didn't think she'd check Parker out once she found the stories on the latest kids they'd taken and besides, creating a back story that old is difficult, it takes a lot more time than you gave me."

"So," Eliot started quietly, "when she pulls up information on Lexie, it'll be real?"

"Who's Lexie?" Parker, Sophie and Hardison asked in unison as they turned to look at him.

"Eliot," Nate said, "we need to stick to the pl...bugger!" he finished as Eliot jumped from the carefully concealed car and sprinted into the house. "I guess we're following him then," Nate concluded.

Eliot wasted no time in covering the distance to the house, the others struggling to keep up with the much fitter hitter. He crashed through the door, into the den and had the older Dr. Clark against the wall, by the throat before either doctor even knew what had happened, causing Tracey to scream in surprise and shock.

Eliot's life was all about control these days, holding onto something that could hurt and could kill if he let it. He knew that violence didn't solve all his problems; he learned that the hard way, but right now, it felt good.

"You!" he spat the words out, "you stole my baby sister! You killed my mom! You ruined my life!"

"Please," Tracey sobbed, "you're hurting him."

"I don't care!" Eliot yelled, not even turning to look at her, "you have no idea what you did to me or my family, you destroyed us!"

"I saved her," John managed to gasp out as Eliot's grip continued to tighten.

"Saved her?" Eliot said incredulously, "that wasn't your job, it was mine and I've spent the last twenty years feeling like I failed her, I couldn't protect her, do you have any idea what that's like? You had no right, she wasn't your responsibility."

"Eliot," Nate said, cautiously approaching him now that the team had caught up. Having heard the end of Eliot's and the good doctor's exchange, he knew his suspicions about Eliot's motives in this case were right, "you were just a kid yourself; it wasn't your job to protect her, you didn't fail her."

"I should have been there, I should have stopped it," Eliot responded a little quieter, "I should have stopped him," he finished, banging the elder doctor off the wall once more.

"Eliot," Sophie stepped up, "you once told me that you couldn't control the violence, what you had to control was inside," he turned to look at her, remembering the conversation just a few short months ago, "you need to control that just now," Sophie continued, "we can work this out, we have the records," she gestured to the computer, "we can find Lexie and we have enough to put him away for what he's done."

"He needs to suffer," Eliot replied.

"He does," she said quietly, daring to move a little closer, resting her hand gently on his arm, "but if you hurt him, you know that will stay with you forever."

"I've killed before."

"I know, but I'm guessing you can still see their faces right?" she continued, "you always wish there was another way, a better way, a peaceful way to resolve problems, let us do that now."

"Alexandra Stevens, now known as Lucy Simons, living in Portland, Oregon," Tracey spoke again quietly, "she's right here," she said looking from Eliot to the computer, "she's married with two kids."

Eliot dropped John Clark, who crumpled into a ball on the floor, and darted to the computer and read for himself.

"That's really her?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she answered

"How can you be sure?"

"Here," she pulled out the photocopy of the ledger Parker had given her, "we made a note of the adopting couple..."

"Purchasing couple you mean!" Eliot snapped.

"Along with a control number in this book, this matched up to a control number in another book which we transferred into a database last year, the second book stored the original records for each child along with the new social security number, from there it's easy to trace people, see" she began to demonstrate, "from the social security number I get her employment details, she's a doctor, specialising in abuse victims, her work has an address and phone number listed.

"Lexie," he whispered again, reaching out a shaking hand to touch the screen and his baby sister whom he hadn't seen in over twenty years.

"I'm sorry," Tracey said and flinched as Eliot turned to face her, the rage and hatred back in his eyes, "I really am sorry, we thought we were helping people, like he helped me," she finished.

"I'm sure you helped some of these kids, but there are others who will have ended up worse off, or never gotten over being kidnapped," Nate said, "and you forgot all about the families you took them from, what about your family, have you never wondered about them?"

"A few times," she answered, scuffing her feet together, "but then I remember what my dad was like and I put it out of my mind."

"William Fletcher, died in a car accident three years after his daughter went missing, report says it was a DUI," Hardison piped up, "Susan Fletcher left him six months after the kidnapping and started a support group for parents of missing kids, she still lives in the same house and hasn't stopped searching for her daughter."

Tracey gave a sob at hearing what had become of her family.

"What do you want?" John Clark had finally recovered his voice after being half strangled by Eliot, "Money? Your sister back?" he said turning to Eliot but backing away slightly as the hitter turned his wrath back on the doctor. "You're conmen; you came here with a fake story and tried to extort money from my daughter!"

"And you kidnap and sell kids, what's your point?" Parker asked.

"You think we're not careful? We tape all our client meetings," he turned to Nate, "we have you on video trying to buy a child Mr. Ford," then to Parker, "and you, trying to blackmail us."

"Your point being?" Hardison questioned.

"You take the information on where his sister is," he gestured to Eliot, "then leave me and my daughter alone. Expose us and we'll expose you."

"No, here's how it's going to work," Nate replied, "you are going to prison for the kidnap of Stacey Fletcher, we will take your records, track down all the missing kids and give their families some piece of mind."

"What about me?" Tracey asked. "Are you going to turn me in, I'm just as guilty as he is."

"Nate looked around at the team, each of them shaking their heads in turn, before finally landing on Eliot, who had gone back to staring at the computer screen.

"Eliot," Nate prompted "are you okay letting Tracey go?"

Eliot looked from Nate, to Tracey, to the computer and back to Tracey.

"As long as this family business is out of business!"

"I promise," she replied with a grateful smile.

"I know what we've been doing isn't legal, but we thought we were doing it for the right reasons, we honestly thought we were helping people," she suddenly found the floor very interesting again, "he's my dad, he brought me up, he took me from hell and loved me," she looked up at Nate, "do you have to turn him in?" she asked, not daring to look at Eliot.

"It's either that or I let Eliot kill him, it's your choice." Nate replied as Eliot's hands balled into fists,

"Who the hell do you people think you are?" John said, almost laughing, "we are respectable doctors, you cannot come in here, accuse us of harming children when all we've ever done is help them and expect us to just go along with whatever you say."

In an instant, John found himself pinned against the wall once more.

"You will do exactly what we tell you to do or I will snap your neck!" Eliot threatened through gritted teeth.

"Fine," he replied, "What jury will convict me anyway?" he laughed.

"We'll make sure of that," Eliot replied with a derisive laugh, "don't you worry about that, plus, if your 'daughter' testifies against you, that should be the final nail in your coffin."

"Please, you can't ask me to do that."

"You will, unless you want to join him in prison," Eliot said, fixing her with an icy stare, causing her to find the ground interesting once more.

"This will never hold up," John fought back once more.

"Dad, please stop," Tracey pleaded, "It's over."

"But..." he replied, tears filling his eyes as he looked at his daughter, "Tracey please?"

"I'm sorry, Dad," she replied, "but I think it's time to let Tracey go, Stacey needs her life back," she finished, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"No," he answered quietly, before falling to the floor once more, suddenly looking like the old, frail man he now was.

"Hardison, grab the laptop with the files," Nate told the hacker before turning to Tracey, "where are the video files?"

"On here, with copies on his laptop," she said pointing to her father's discarded bag.

Eliot picked the bag up and threw it at the wall, glad to finally have an outlet, albeit a small one, for the rage and hatred bubbling inside him.

"I guess that's destroyed then," Sophie said smiling.

"No more copies?" Nate asked.

"No," Tracey replied.

"Alright, I think we're done here," Nate said, rubbing his hands together, "Hardison, Sophie, I think you have a kidnapper to take to prison."

"Erm..." Hardison started, "the original plan was to turn both of them in for the Cindy Stevens kidnapping, how do we do this if we want to keep her out of it?"

"You need to go into a police station and tell them you were kidnapped," Nate said to Tracey, "can you do that?"

"I guess so," she replied.

"What about the Stevens girl?" Parker asked, "how do we explain where she was?"

"Well, we're going giving her back, if the mom agrees to leave the dad and move out of town, she won't have to explain it if she goes far enough," Nate explained, "in fact, we'll use their money," he said pointing to Tracey and John, "to pay for the relocation and give them some starting money while they get on their feet."

"And all the other kids?" Tracey asked.

"We'll look at each one individually, make decisions from there," Nate replied. "Right, let's get moving," he finished and started for the door, glad this case was nearly over.