Chapter 14

Nate was in a warm comfortable place. He could feel the pull on him wanting him to leave, he could hear the voices and he knew they were waiting for him to return, but he was not ready to. Every time he tried to pull himself out he felt pain flood his body and he sank back into the warm comfortable darkness that held him. He wished they would leave him there but they kept on, and he knew he had to try to tell them he was fine, he had to put their minds to rest. He heard her calling to him and this time he went passed the barrier of pain and pushed himself up and out of the darkness. He felt her hand in his and he tried to squeeze it giving her some comfort. He had one last barrier to pass and his eyelids fluttered as he fought his way back to full consciousness. Eventually he opened his eyes and started at the woman who sat holding his hand. He wanted to say something but with consciousness came a flood of pain that overwhelmed him and after only a few seconds he had to retreat back, back to his haven and away from the pain.

"That's it my darling. You rest and when you are ready I will be here." He heard her say as he sank back into the warm comfort of the darkness.

As Nate came out of consciousness the pain he felt caused his heart to start beating fast and his breathing became stuttered as if he was holding his breath and then taking short sharp breaths. Although Sophie did not notice it the machines did and they brought the doctors and nurses into the room in a rush.

"What happened?" The doctor asked as he checked the machines which had again settled into a steady rhythm.

"He…he opened his eyes…" Sophie said and for the first time she had taken up her vigil at his side the doctor could see tears fill them. They were not tears of sorrow though, they were tears of happiness and relief.

"I see…" The doctor said understanding. If the man had surfaced he understood why the machines had reacted the way they had, the man would be in excruciating pain when he did regain consciousness. He made a note on the medical charts ordering some stronger pain medication and less sedatives. Obviously the man was ready to resurface. "Well that is a good thing. Now he will be in great pain when he does regain consciousness, although his injuries are healing well, there are still some serious problems which we will have to revisit as his condition improves."

Sophie looked up at the doctor and nodded holding Nate's hand a little tighter. He was coming back to her. She had never doubted that he woud. She looked through the glass at the four other people watching her seeing their concern. They did not know why the nurses and doctors had rushed in. Sophie asked the doctor to tell them what had happened. She did not want to leave his side in case he surfaced again. The doctor agreed and then turned to go.

Sophie could see that he had told them that Nate had woken briefly, she saw Parker throw herself at Hardison grabbing the Hacker and hugging him tightly. She could see the reaction on their Hitter's face, for the first time in two weeks he saw a small tight smile from him and when their eyes met he nodded slightly to her before Parker turned to grab him pulling him into a hug. Sophie smiled and turned her attention back to Nate starting to talk to him again and running her hand over his forehead and through his hair as she did.

Four hours later Sophie released Nate's hand and left him in the care of Parker who took her place at his side. The Mastermind had not resurfaced again but Sophie was sure he was going to. He knew they were there, knew she was there and waiting for him and he would fight his way back. She knew he still had a long way to go. The wounds on his back and his leg were still healing and his internal injuries were also still healing. They had not touched his leg yet where Pennington had shattered his shin, they had the leg in a temporary cast but had done nothing further. Before Parker took her place she pulled Sophie into a hug tears welling in her eyes. Sophie smiled and squeezed the Thief tightly. Then after Sophie placed a soft gentle kiss on Nate's forehead she left the room to join the boys outside. It was early evening when they exited the hospital and they decided to go for dinner before returning to their penthouse to get some rest before going back to the hospital. Hardison would take over from Parker in four hours and then Sophie and Eliot would join them for the next one. The doctor still insisted that only one of them at a time could sit with Nate as his condition was still serious and the threat of infection was still great.

After they had returned from dinner and Sophie had taken a long hot bath, she climbed into bed and for the first time in a long time she fell asleep easily and slept peacefully. What felt like only a few minutes she awakened by Eliot's gentle shake.

"Eliot…what…what time is it?" She asked coming awake slowly.

"It's early Sophie…" Eliot said and she immediately knew by his tone that something was wrong.

"Eliot what…what happened?" She asked sitting up in the bed and stared at the Hitter.

"Nate developed a fever. The doctors think that his leg has become badly infected. They want to take him back into surgery."

Sophie pushed Eliot out of the way and quickly got dressed without saying anything further. Eliot was already ready and within a few minutes they were on their way to the hospital. Once there they made their way up to ICU as quickly as they could. They found the doctor there along with another doctor that Sophie had not seen during Nate's time at the hospital.

"Mrs Ford…" The doctor said seeing the woman approach. "This is Dr Catherine Jones, she is our best orthopaedic surgeon."

"Mrs Ford." The woman greeted.

"What's happening?" Sophie asked dispensing with all the niceties.

"As you know we were not able to properly treat your husbands' leg, where the bone had been shattered, he was not strong enough to survive the surgery. Now we have no choice, the leg has become infected, we are not sure how bad it is and we won't until we get him into theatre."

"You said he wasn't strong enough…"

"That was then Mrs Ford. His condition has improved substantially."

"But…"

"Mrs Ford I will not lie to you. Mr Ford is still very weak and there is substantial risk doing this operation, however if we do not do it then your husband will not survive." He saw the doubt and scepticism for his words in her dark brown eyes. He was asking her to put her husband at risk again. She did not trust him and he understood why, he had been sure that Nathan Ford would never regain consciousness let alone progress as far as he already had. He had been wrong and he had told her so but it did not change her feelings towards him.

"Mrs Ford I understand your reluctance. I understand your distrust of Dr Fuller. Believe me, I have examined your husband and you need to let me do this. You can see by his monitors that he is struggling, his fever is very high and the infection is already affecting his recovery negatively. I know what has happened in the last two weeks and I am amazed I must be honest, but your husband is a fighter and he needs to fight again, you need to trust that he can come through this Mrs Ford. You need to trust me that I will take care of him. Now I know you don't know me, and I know your distrust of doctors because of what has happened, but you need to trust me. I promise you I will do everything in my power to make sure that your husband comes out of surgery and back to you. But you have to let me do this." Dr Jones said. She reached out and took Sophie's trembling hands in hers. "I know you are afraid, afraid that after all of this you will lose him. Believe me I know, but if you don't let me try, the infection will take him, no matter what we do."

Sophie stared at the woman and then nodded to her. Jones smiled and squeezed her hands tightly.

"Why don't you go in and see him, then we will take him." She said. She wanted to get the man into surgery as soon as possible, time was against them, she had no idea how far the infection had progressed. What she did not tell Sophie was that she may, depending on the damage to the leg which she had not seen herself, apart from the x-rays, which told her the shin was completely shattered and not looking good at all, have to amputate. The attending's had done what they could but it was minimal, they were more concerned with his other injuries and keeping him alive. The fact was that when she got him under the knife she knew that she might have to amputate to save the man. Sophie had enough to deal with and she felt that that was a bit of information she did not need to deal with just then, besides she might refuse permission for her to operate at all under those conditions and that was not an option, not if Mr Ford had any chance of continuing on his recovery.

Once Sophie had spent some time with Nate she joined the other four and watched as Nate was once again taken to surgery leaving them to anxiously wait for him to return.

"He's a strong man Sophie, you proved that, you had faith and he came back." Eliot told her softly as they all sat together.

"Yes…" Sophie said looking at the Hitter with worried eyes. "But how much can one man endure Eliot…even a man as strong as Nate…?" She asked softly. How much more could Nate take, how much more fight did he have in him, was this going to be one bridge too far for him to cross. She knew he would not give up on her, and she would not on him, but even the bond between them might not be strong enough to pull him through this time.

The four sat together quietly waiting. Hardison went to get them all some coffee from the vending machines. Eliot varied from sitting to pacing as the hours dragged on. Sophie sat her eyes closed trying to make herself believe that Nate would come through this too. Parker sat staring blankly at the doors to the operating room through which they had taken Nate, she sat unmoving and silent. When Hardison returned he gave them all their coffee then sat down beside Parker wrapping his arm around her and they all resumed their vigil, waiting for any news.

It was five hours later and the sun was starting to peek through the windows when Dr Jones came out to talk to them. She looked exhausted and Sophie could not tell if she had good or bad news for them.

"Mrs Ford." She said smiling at the woman and Sophie felt like a weight had been lifted from her. It was good news. "Mr Ford came through with flying colours. We performed and open reduction and internal fixation of the bone in his shin. We rebuilt the bone using some bone from his hip and then fixed plates and screws to hold it together. We will have to keep a keen eye on him to make sure that we got all the infection and there is a chance of blood clots and bleeding around the wound along with further infection, but I am very optimistic." She told the Grifter.

"Thank you…" Sophie said in a shaky voice.

"Your husband is a fighter Mrs Ford, what he has gone through and survived is remarkable…" She told her then looked around at the group of people surrounding Sophie. "But I think he has something to fight for…" She smiled. "They will bring him back here as soon as he is out of recovery." She said then left the group alone again.

Nate returned to his room but he did not surface again for another three days. When he did Sophie could see he was in tremendous pain and he only managed to stay awake for a minute or so. He continued to get better though and within the next few weeks he was moved out of ICU and into his own room. Things were going well and the doctors agreed that his recovery was nothing short of a miracle. His leg too was healing well and Dr Jones was optimistic that he, with therapy, would regain the full use of the leg.

"Well Mr Ford, I never thought I would say this but I am happy to discharge you tomorrow." The doctor said as he stood in Nate's room four weeks later. "You will still have to take it very easy and I will let you have the name of a good physiotherapist who you can continue to see when you return to Portland."

"Thank you doctor..." Nate smiled at him squeezing Sophie's hand tightly as she stood beside his bed.

"I think you should thank them Mr Ford…" The doctor smiled at the group surrounding the Mastermind. "That is some family you have."

"He's right you know. I have some family…" Nate said looking at all of them in turn. "Thank you all, for not giving up on me…" He said looking directly at Eliot and then to Sophie who nodded giving him permission to continue. "I know we said we were out…but…"

"You're not. You're going to stay with Leverage International…?" Parker said excitedly her eyes lighting up.

"Sophie and I talked about it on honeymoon. We miss you and we…"

"Miss the job." Eliot said smiling. It was not about the job but trust Nate to have to bring it in to avoid it being all about emotion.

"We miss our family." Sophie said softly smiling at them all.

"Then let's go home…I have plenty of clients lined up and…"

"Slowly Hardison..." Sophie laughed. "Nate still has a lot of healing to do."

"And we will make sure he does…" Parker said happily. "But there is nothing wrong with his mind and he is the MasterMIND so he can do his part anyway…" She said.

"That he can…" Eliot concurred. He would be happy if Nate and Sophie remained outside of the dangerous area of the job and just provided the plans…and the advice and the support, they all needed them, both of them and he was just happy that they had realised that they needed the three of them just as much.

"Yes…" Nate said closing his eyes trying to hold back the emotion that was welling in him. He was alive, and he was with the people he loved. He had come so close to losing everything and he was beyond grateful for another chance.

"Ok…well let's go guys, we have some arrangements to make…" Eliot said moving his head to indicate that the other two should leave.

"See you later…" Parker said bouncing out the room dragging Hardison behind her. Eliot turned and looked at the two oldest members of his family and smiled farewell to them then left closing the door behind him.

"So Mr Ford…alone at last." She said making Nate scoot up in the bed as she kicked her shoes off and climbed on and after giving him a light kiss on the lips she rested her head on his shoulder as he ran his hand through her hair.

"I love you Mrs Ford…" Nate said tears in his blue eyes as he held her close to him.

"I love you Mr Ford, now and forever…" She said loving the fact that she was lying beside him as she listened to the steady beat of his heart.

They lay like that until they drifted off to sleep and the other three found them in the same position when they returned later that evening.

Well that is the end of the story guys. I hope you all enjoyed it, and enjoyed the happy ending. I would really like to thank everybody for taking the time and making the effort to review, follow or favourite the story. A special thanks to Sphinxius, Sandy-wmd, ThunderAll Around, Leveragus, SusieDeveroux, Huttonfan, Stellaru, KendraBC, msj12991, intimidating, Grifter for Life and everybody else who left me reviews throughout the life of the story. I really appreciate it when I get feedback from my readers so that I know if the story is working.

I am looking for a premise for my next story so if anybody has any ideas for me they would be appreciated…