I'm sorry it took me so long to update but I had a blockage on this chapter and I had to rewrite about three times and on top of that I was applying to college and I didn't had much time to write… Any mistakes will be later corrected by my beta reader which unhapilly is not available at the moment. I will try to update the next chapter soon. Any criticism and help with this story is welcome.

Somewhere along the game things changed and she started chasing them around, they didn't know why or how, but they all felt observed. They could feel eyes on them, her eyes…

On a few occasions Hardison's smartphone was stolen and nobody, not even Parker, managed to get it back and she would get so close that in the morning Parker could smell her perfume inside a room…

So they got used to be the mouse on that run, they all desired to turn around to stop her, to awake her from her torpid greyness, from those lands of nowhere, from that living she was buried in, but there were too many buts, too many ifs, too many uncertainties and she didn't want them... She was Annie Croix, she was as cold as ice, she didn't have a heart beating in her chest, only dreams of chasing, dreams of winning a war none of them had started. She only had that deep, deep wish of hurting Nate, of finally beating him and, alongside with that there was the thirsty of revenge for Eliot. Yes, he could feel her, looking at him, even in his dreams she was there staring with dark eyes, eyes that spoke of accusation, eyes that said: "It's your fault I'm like this, you left me, you ABANDONED ME!"

Collin stood up from his chair and looked at his little girl, his beloved little niece was now a woman yet, he couldn't believe it. Her father had died a couple of years ago and now he had taken his place, he finally had the power to set her free from the family business. The man hugged her tight and handed a passport with a new identity. He kissed her gently on the forehead and watch as she walked away; that was the thing he wanted the most, to know she wasn't going to end like him...

They were still working on that long con in Brazil when winter replaced autumn and they were all tired, exhausted, chasing a painting nobody knew for sure if it hadn't been destroyed already and to top it all, Christmas was getting close...

Their little family was falling apart, Parker wasn't the same ever since Annie had pushed against the wall, she didn't speak with them freely anymore and Eliot had to force her to eat properly; when she wasn't working all she did was to stand in the roof looking at the bright blue sky and now, now she'd pray for some snow... Snow was really important.

She woke up to see her father's face smiling at her; he hugged tightly and brought her from her crib. "Come on sweetie, Dad and mom have a surprise for you". He carried her inside the living room, it was early in the morning and there was no light outside. Parker's family was poor yet they loved her with all their heart so that Christmas dad worked double shifts at the factory so she could have a Christmas tree and even some presents. She was too young to see the cracks on the ceiling or the broken glasses on the windows, but she understood how special that night was. She wouldn't ever forget the look on her mother's face, she was so tired yet there was a blessed expression crossing her features as she handed her a colourful package. Inside there was a stuffed bunny. It was snowing outside... Her parents died two months later on a car crash and Parker entered the system. She stayed with many families in many places, but it never snowed on Christmas while she was with them...

Eliot feels that there's nothing he can do so he just watches as she gets to pale, to skinny, too sad. He knows that one day, one day she's going to run away and that will destroy her, when that day comes she'll be completely destroyed due to what Annie did.

Eliot just sits there and prays that day isn't today...

Nate on the other hand, doesn't see how Parker is. He doesn't want to, because if he does he will have to see the hurt child inside her eyes and his heart won't take it. He will hug her and will fight for her; he will take her as his own, his daughter, his sweet baby. The only baby he had died so he can't play that game again, knowing he will lose.

He knows she's fading way, that's exactly why he does nothing; he can't hug her just to feel her getting colder and colder until there's no life inside her, until there's no blood running through her veins, just like Sam...

The boy's daddy told him he was going to the store to get something. He never came back home yet the boy with big hopeful eyes waited every day at the widow to watch the slim silhouette of his dad crossing the road towards home. Instead, a woman wearing a grey suit came, saying he was going to leave home for a while. He didn't understand what was happening he cried and called his momma, asked her why she didn't love him anymore and where his daddy was. She said with tears in her eyes that dad wasn't coming back and she could not afford to raise him properly so, she had called those good people that would take good care of him. One week later he was just a shy boy eating at Nana's table. Daddy never got back home and momma never came for him, but in the end it didn't matter because Nana was the only family he needed.

That was what Alec Hardison thought until the day he met an honest thief, a hitter with a golden heart, a crazy sweet blond and the best actress in the world, he never meant it. However, they slowly became his family too and that's the reason he hates himself so much right now. There's nothing he could ever do to save Sophie and he's absolutely impotent against what's happening to Parker so he buries his nose on his computer like a coward and searches for the painting so they all can leave Brazil and got back to America. The worst part of it is the fact he's not only planning on getting back to the States, he's planning on getting back home, to the only home he ever met.

He feels just like his dad, leaving his family on the time they need him the most, but that's the only thing he can do. He can't just stand there and watch as Nathan gets drunker every day, slowly killing his mind, as Parker fades way and turns into a shadow of what she once was, as Eliot's hearts crashes one more time... He can't, he just can't so he searches for the painting because maybe if he finds the painting that isn't so bad... No, it isn't so bad to turn into the only man he ever hated...

Eliot never had a real family; instead there was a woman who he always called Momma because his wasn't around. She always took care of him and protected him.

She was the one he thought of back on the army when she got mad. When she died the world got darker and he felt like he was going to blow up, however, Rafaela showed up and she reminded him of that woman, she reminded him of home. Unhappily she left as fast as she came and soon he had to find another family. That was Moreau for a while, but with him things never felt completely right so one day Spencer just left with Damien's blessing. He was starting to feel three was no home for him when the team started working together and now everything was falling apart...

what do you think about the flasbacks on Sophie's, Hardison's and Parker's lives? Please let me know