Chapter 14

It was in the early hours of the following morning when Nate surfaced. He lay for a short while taking in the dim lighting and the smells and noises that told him he was in a hospital. For a place that he hated so much, he was spending way too much time in one. At least it was him having to endure the stay and not one of his team, or Sophie…he much preferred it be him. He lifted his head slightly and scanned the room until his eyes settled on his Hitter who sat staring back at him.

"You don't look to good…" Nate said the words coming out softly and with a hoarse sound. He cleared his throat and looked to his bedside for some water. His throat was dry and sore. Eliot was out of his seat and by his side in an instant helping him with the glass.

"I'm not the one lying in a hospital bed." Eliot said as he replaced the glass and looked down at the Mastermind.

Nate smiled grimly at him taking in the bruise on his forehead, along with the rather large bandage that covered the gash made by the gun butt that had struck him.

"How are you though…?" Nate finally said softly his voice full of concern.

"I'm fine Nate…" Eliot assured the man. "The bullet wounds were more bloody than dangerous, and your generous helping of alcohol and bandages kept the infection out."

"Sophie…?"

"She and the other two are fine, no damage. They are at the hotel now getting some rest. They'll be in later this morning."

Nate smiled relieved that nobody else had been hurt. He remembered facing Chartwell and the helicopters' appearance but nothing after Chartwell and sped off, he knew Parker and Eliot were alive but knew nothing of the fate of Hardison and Sophie, although he had supposed that it was through their efforts that the helicopter and police had appeared at the opportune time they had.

"Why didn't you tell me…?"

"There was no point. I knew that I was in trouble. I took a blow from a rock on the way down the river and felt something wrong then. I supposed I had cracked a rib or something. When I saw the discolouration I knew something inside had gone, but there was nothing you could have done to help and we needed to get out of there and get to Sophie and the others."

"Yeah…you had not fully recovered from your injuries…and you reopened the old wound, that led to the internal bleeding and…well here we are." Eliot explained to him what had happened.

"It could have been worse." Nate said his eyes drooping as he felt the pull of sleep.

"Yeah…" Eliot said as he watched the Mastermind fight to keep his eyes open.

"Eliot…" Nate whispered. "Don't worry, I'll put her straight...this was not your fault…nobody's fault…just is…" He said before slipping back into unconsciousness.

Eliot pulled the blanked up around him and then stood looking down at the man. He knew what Sophie's reaction would be to the situation and he knew that they had just started to heal from the previous job that had gone horribly wrong, for which Sophie had blamed the three youngest members of the team. Well to be truthful it had been their fault, they had got in over their heads on a job, a job that both Nate and Sophie had told them not to take, and Nate had had to bail them out, almost giving his life to do so. The worst was that this was not over. They did not know who they were dealing with in Chartwell, what his connections were, how extensive they were, the only thing he knew for sure was the man was a cold blooded killer and he was not going to let them walk away from this. They had bested him and he would come after them, in particular Nate. Nate had challenged him, shown him up, tricked him, Chartwell would come after all of them, but ten to one saw them as Nate's lackey's…which is what Nate always hoped for he knew. He tried to keep the focus on himself, drawing the danger to him and trying to keep it away from them. Eliot sighed and shook his head as he turned back to his seat to wait for the arrival of the others.

Sophie, Hardison and Parker arrived just after the morning rounds. Nate was looking better and sitting up in the bed.

"Nate…" Sophie said smiling at him as she entered the room and walked to his side, taking his hand and leaning in to kiss him gently.

"Hey Nate…" Hardison said as he and Parker moved to the other side of the bed. "How you feeling man…?"

"I'm fine Hardison." Nate told the Hacker. "Did you find out anything about our Mr Chartwell?

"Nate you are in no position to go after anybody, let alone Chartwell." Sophie said her voice conveying her unhappiness with the fact that Nate was already making plans to go after Chartwell.

"It's not a question of going after him Sophie…it's a question of being prepared when he comes after us." Nate said. He could see by the look on her face that Sophie was very unhappy. She was unhappy being here in this hospital with him hurt again. She was unhappy that he was already making plans to deal with Chartwell, she was unhappy at the whole situation and with him and the others as well. "And he will be coming." He said softly. Then he turned back to the Hacker and raised his eyebrows at him giving him the go ahead to continue.

"Firstly his name is Raymond Cruz and not Chartwell. Well I did a search and this Cruz is big in the drug business, and other illicit activities." Hardison said. He had spent most of the night researching the man they knew as Chartwell and his organisation. He knew that Nate would need the information to be able to come up with a plan to deal with the man. What he had found out did not augur well for them though. "He started out as a small time punk, but with ambitions. He got into an organisation and worked his way up…taking out anybody who got in his way, until he eventually took over the whole lot. He is suspected of at least seven murders that he personally committed and countless others that he ordered done, but he is clever and the police have never been able to link him to anything concrete. He is on Interpol, the FBI and Homeland's watch list, besides drug running he is into murder for hire, arms dealing and there are rumours he deals in things other than drugs…"

"Like what?" Parker asked.

"Human trafficking, though again nothing has been proved." Hardison said. "He is not a nice man, he has money, he has power and he has a lot of guns to back him up."

"So what was a man like that doing mixed up in a small time pot growing deal?" Nate asked.

"I wondered that myself." Hardison said. "Seems those two boys worked for somebody who was responsible for the death of his brother, I think that was just payback. Though I don't know why he would not have told you his real name, I mean I assume he was planning on killing you anyway after what you had seen?" Hardison said. It was something that had been bothering him since he had found out the man had given Nate a fake name.

"He was being careful…men like that didn't get where they were without being careful. He did not know who I was, but I can bet you he knew I was lying too, the only reason he did not put a bullet in me then and there was that he was not sure if I had anybody with me and who I really was." Nate said seeing Sophie's face harden at his admission that he could have been killed right there and then by the man. "He knew I had witnessed him commit cold blooded murder, this was obviously personal to him, you are right about that, and he could not take the chance of any of my companions, if I had any, running off and telling the police. If anybody did get away and do that, well they would give the fake name to the police so they would not know who they were really looking for." Nate said giving the explanation he felt was reason for Cruz's actions. It was the same thing he would have done if he had been him.

"Makes sense..." Eliot agreed. "So he will be coming after you."

"Oh I think we can count on that." Nate agreed.

"So what is the plan?" Parker asked.

"Well we will have to…"

"Mr Ford…" The doctor said silencing the Mastermind as he entered the room. "I am Doctor Benkman, I was the doctor on duty when you were brought in. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Fine…" Nate told the doctor as the man started checking his chart.

"Mmm I see the attending on staff reported you had a good night and that there does not appear to be any sign of more bleeding. That is good."

"So when can I go home?" Nate asked.

"Well, I would like to keep you here for at least a while longer just to make sure we have not missed any other damage, I would like to do another scan and run a few more tests just to make sure, you had quite a serious rupture and I noticed that you have other internal scaring from your previous injuries, I need to keep you under observation a little longer to make sure there was no serious organ damage that could well only manifest later due to your latest injury. Let's say by the end of the week if everything goes well." The doctor told him. "Now I need you to rest and keep your exercise to a minimum, you need to give yourself time to heal. I will schedule a scan for tomorrow and then we can revisit the situation again alright."

Nate opened his mouth to object but Sophie stepped in before he could.

"Don't worry doctor, my husband will follow instructions." She told him.

"Good. Another injury like that and you might not come out of it this well." The doctor said seriously. "Another thing, I would like to have your medical records of the previous injuries, if you could give me the name of the hospital you were treated in I can give them a call. I need to know what to look out for in the way of complications and I would be able to do that easier if I knew the extent of the previous injuries."

"I have his medical records." Hardison said holding out a flashdrive for the doctor. "It's all on there."

"Very good…" The doctor said with a slight frown, it was not usual for his patients to carry their records around with them. "Well Mr Ford I will be in again later to check on you. So just keep as still as possible for the next day and then from tomorrow you can start to move around."

"We'll make sure he does so doctor thank you." Sophie said quickly again cutting Nate's remarks off. She knew he wanted to disobey doctors' instructions and leave the hospital but she was not going to allow that. Nate would stay exactly where he was until the doctor gave him the all clear. The doctor nodded and then left the room.

"My medical records Hardison…?" Nate inquired.

"I keep all of our records just in case." Hardison said matter-of-factly, he would not apologise for looking out for all of them.

"So you were saying…" Eliot asked.

"Oh no you don't…" Sophie interrupted him before he could speak.

"Sophie…"

"I don't want to hear it Nate. Chartwell, or Cruz or whatever his name is may be coming after you but I am not going to let you kill yourself before he can kill you." Sophie stated. "We can set up shop here just as well as anywhere else. Especially if you are in protective custody…" Sophie said softly.

"Protective custody…" Eliot said looking surprised. "You mean tell the cops here what is going on and let them get involved?"

"No Eliot…" Sophie replied icily. "I mean we call a certain Interpol agent and tell him what is going on and get him involved. Hardison you said this Cruz was on Interpol's watch list right?"

"Yeah but Sterling…"

"Nate is not walking out of this hospital until the doctor says it is safe for him to do so." Sophie stated flatly and they all knew that tone, she would brook no argument on the matter. "And even then, you heard the doctor said, any further injury could kill him."

"Sophie…"

"I don't want to hear it Nate." Sophie interrupted him.

"Fine…Hardison call Sterling and get him here. Tell him we have something for him that could advance his career…" Eliot said, he did not trust Sterling, but one thing he knew about the Interpol agent is that he would take advantage of anything to advance his career. "Also we need to set up some security around the room and make sure nobody gets in or out of this hospital without us knowing about them."

"Do I have a say in this?" Nate asked.

"No…" Sophie stated. "Not this time."

Nate stared at Sophie, then looked at the other members of his team and shook his head slowly. He could see on Sophie's face that she was not going to budge on this and by the look on their faces his team was going to back her.

"Fine…but we still need a plan." Nate said.

"Yes we do and you are going to come up with one, one that does not involve you putting a target on your back, but for now you are going to rest, let us get everything set up and then later, we can talk again." Sophie said. She had seen he was growing tired, although she knew he would never admit it. "So why don't you lot go do what you have to and let Nate get some sleep." She told the others.

Nate watched them troop out of the room and then turned his eyes to Sophie.

"I don't want to hear any of it Nate. I am not losing you and even if you don't care about your safety I do, you promised me forever, well I am going to hold you to that, so just lie back and rest." Sophie said softly.

"Sterling….?"

"You got a better idea?"

"Well…"

"One that does not involve you getting personally involved…? I am not saying that you cannot direct the traffic, but you are not going to play the part of traffic cop too. I mean it Nate, not this time. You can come up with the plan, you can do all the thinking you need to, but you are not…you are not going to put a target on yourself, you are going to stay safe and you are going to let your team do what they do best."

Silence fell between them as Nate digested her words and the anger he could hear in her tone.

"You know it is not their fault." Nate said. "Nine months ago it was not their fault."

"I am not talking about that now." Sophie said refusing to get drawn into a conversation they had had many times over during the last nine months. "I don't care who's fault it was or is…all I care about is that you start taking care of yourself, not acting as if it does not matter if you get hurt or even killed. Remember what you said to me Nate. 'It matters…we matter'? Well that is the way I feel about this, you matter, we matter and I am tired of you acting as if your life does not matter, as if you are expendable when it comes to the team or me…as if it is alright if you sacrifice yourself for me, for them…because it isn't."

"Sophie…"

"No Nate I am not arguing with you about this. This is the way we are handling this and that is the end of that.

"Fine…" Nate said taking her hand. "We'll do it your way."

Sophie squeezed his hand and bent down to kiss him lightly on the forehead.

"I'm glad we agree." She said softly. He looked tired again and she could see he was fighting the call to close his eyes again. "Now why don't you get some more sleep, when Sterling arrives we can start making plans."

"I love you Sophie…" He whispered.

"And I love you Nate. We all do…" She said softly. It was true and she knew it, any one of those three would die for him, even if she was angry with them, even if she thought they had been reckless and that recklessness had almost cost him his life, she knew they loved him. "Now sleep..." She whispered running her hand through his hair and holding his hand tightly. She stayed there until he was asleep and then left, closing the door behind her to find the rest of the team sitting outside the room making their plans.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, each and every one is truly appreciated.