A/N: Please trust me and don't hate me, okay? *runs away*

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 25

Sophie wasn't sure what to think or feel as she looked from Nate to Cora, to Maggie at the bar beyond, and back around again. The romantic haze she had been caught in dissipated at a moments notice, and she saw the world with shocking clarity. Nate wasn't going to let them have their night, their beautiful fairytale night that started at 'I love you' and only got better. Maggie was here, and everything was set askew all over again.

"I, er..." the mastermind said awkwardly as he glanced between his ex who was now waving at him and the woman he loved now stood beside him, "Sophie, I can't just... I mean..."

He was floundering and he knew it. Poor Nate had no good options here and was sure that Sophie ought to understand. If Maggie was here she had to have a good reason, and even if there wasn't trouble to be dealt with or a problem to be solved, he still couldn't just blank the woman he used to call his wife. There was too much history, and Sophie ought to realise that.

By the same token, he knew tonight was a hell of a big deal. They had never come quite this far before, and yet here they were, at last having admitted their true feelings, half way to a night of passion that might've cemented their romance at last. Things were real and genuine, and there was the potential of blowing it all over again if he walked away from Sophie and towards Maggie, but what choice did he really have?

"Just go" said the grifter at last with a defeated sigh, "Why would I expect anything else?" she huffed as she stormed past Nate and then Cora.

Maggie looked at her with confusion as she breezed by, barely even looking at her.

"You're welcome to him" she declared as she went by and then just as quickly was gone out through the front doors of the bar that swung wildly in her wake.

"Sophie, I..." she called after her, turning back a moment later with her mouth still open to find her ex stood beside her, "Nate, what just happened?" she asked him.

The mastermind looked from the door through which Sophie had just left to Maggie and back as he sunk down on the stool beside the woman he used to call his wife.

"Would you believe I screwed up again?" he smiled painfully, running a hand over his face.

"Unsurprisingly, yes" Maggie replied in understanding, "I'm sorry, I came at a bad time, didn't I?" she said, as she patted his hand on the bar.

"No" Nate was quick to tell her, but the look in his eyes made a liar of him all to easily, "Well, yes, maybe" he conceded, "I'm not even sure anymore, Maggie, I'm really not" he sighed heavily

He was desperate for a drink, even though he knew that wasn't really going to solve anything. Plus he could use Maggie not judging him too harshly. One woman storming out on him tonight was enough already.

"Scotch for the man" he heard her say to the bar tender then, and Nate's eyes shot up to meet hers with astonishment written in them, "I'm through trying to save you, Nate, it's not my place anymore" Maggie told him easily, "I thought it was Sophie's these days, but I'm not so sure she wants the job either right now" she said with a look, "What happened?"

"You don't wanna hear it" Nate waved away her question with one hand, accepting his drink from the bartender with the other and thanking him, "Besides, you must be here for a reason" he said to Maggie, "You okay?" he checked, before downing his shot in one and gesturing for a refill immediately.

"Actually, yes" his ex nodded, sipping her large glass of wine, "I was in town checking out some art for a local dealer, an old friend that moved out this way" she explained, "I just thought I'd drop in, see how you were doing. I know it's late for a visit but I have to leave again tomorrow and I just... I don't know, I guess I just wanted to say hi" she smiled, feeling a little stupid now because she genuinely didn't have much more of a reason than that, "Now I kind of wish I hadn't bothered"

"It's not your fault" Nate assured her, at which Maggie almost choked on her wine.

"No, I think it's probably yours" she said definitely, surprising him more than a little as he ordered his third shot, "What is wrong with you, Nathan Ford?" she asked him straight, putting her glass down on the bar with a thud.

"Would you like the alphabetised list, or chronological order maybe?" he challenged her, saluting her with his glass before he drank down the next scotch.

Maggie's hand on his arm the moment the glass came down stopped him from going for another. They both knew it wouldn't help anyway.

"Let's just stick to the most recent stuff" she advised, "and only things that have to do with Sophie"

Nate wasn't sure he should be all that comfortable talking to his ex about his current relationship, but then he could think of no-one else better qualifed to help him out. He loved his team, of course he did, but three were that much younger than him and barely able to keep their own new romances on the straight and narrow. Nate would always turn to Sophie in a time of crisis, if he dared turn to anyone but his good old friend Glenfiddich. When the problem was how to handle his own situation with Ms Devereaux herself, there just wasn't a person to go to for help, not until now.

"You love her, don't you?" said Maggie in the silence that went on too long.

"That's not..." her ex began but she wasn't listening to any excuses or drunken rambling he decided to do.

"Don't you?" she prompted the yes or no answer she was looking for, sure already it was the former rather than the latter.

Nate looked away and then back to meet her eyes that never wavered.

"Yeah" he admitted, feeling strange, "Yeah, I think so, but I swear Maggie, when you and I were..." he gestured vaguely between them, "I never..."

"I know" she told him with a warm smile as she patted his arm affectionately, "You were a good husband, Nate, and a faithful one, I believe that" she assured him, "It's different now, you and me are ancient history, at least romantically, and it's not like the worst chapter of my life was the time I spent with you, not all of it, but we've both moved on now" she told him what he ought to already have known, as she watched him turn his empty glass around and round on the bar, "You're a different person, and a guy I like, but I'm not in love with you now any more than you're in love with me" she reminded him, getting his full attention again with those words, "Sophie is the woman for you now. I've known that for years"

Nate smiled a little but the expression didn't take long to fail on him.

"Really? Could you tell her that?" he asked, at which Maggie laughed lightly.

"Why don't you?" she offered as a solution, but that only served to make Nate explode, loud enough that the few people left in the bar turned to see.

"I did!" he said too loud, then quietened down when he realised the attention he'd gotten for it, "We were... things were fine, and then she sees you and... and I don't even really know what happened" he shrugged at last, wondering if he might get another drink at this point without Maggie trying to stop him.

"Oh, Nate, you're so tiresome sometimes" Maggie rolled her eyes, ordering him a drink herself and a refill for her own glass as the barman walked by, "You know what women are like" she reminded her ex, "Healthy competition is fine, once in a while, but you made that woman wait long enough for you"

Nate wanted to argue, in fact he opened his mouth to do just that but realised almost too late that she was perfectly right. Sophie had always been there, in some form or other, for more years now than he cared to count. Even when he was still married to Maggie, when he went through the pain of losing everything, when he had to rebuild his life from the ground up, it was Sophie every time. She would take no crap from him, she helped with the drinking, she broke him out of jail for crying out loud! They had been through so much between them, and though she had walked away before now, she always came back, and she never, ever let him down.

"I need another drink" he said just as soon as the shot glass was empty but Maggie shook her head firmly and made him face her on his bar stool.

"No, you don't" she told him, "Nate, don't make this my fault, I'm not going to let you do that" she told him sternly, with that same look she sometimes got in the old days when she had to scold Sam for doing something he shouldn't have, "Go to Sophie, go and tell her you're sorry, go and get down on your knees if that's what it takes, but make it right" she urged him, "Don't let another good thing disappear from your life, because this time it really would be your fault" she confirmed.

Whether she was talking about herself, their son, his job, Nate wasn't entirely sure. There had been an awful lot of loss in his life, and of all people he knew now, the one he couldn't bear to have disappear for good was Sophie Devereaux. It had taken his ex-wife to make him see sense, of all the people in the world, but she had done it, and he could never thank her enough.

"You're a hell of a woman, Maggie Collins" he said, putting his hand to her cheek, "Did I ever tell you that?" he smiled.

"You did" she nodded happily, even as he scrambled up off his stool to go.

"Will you still be around tomorrow? I'd still like to catch up" said Nate as he turned back.

"Afraid not" she told him, just as soon as she'd swallowed another sip of wine, "It's really a flying visit, I just... I wanted you to know that I'm okay" she confessed that which she had originally come here to say and never got the chance, "I met someone, y'know, and I'm happy" she smiled wide.

Now Nate understood a little better why she was so eager for him to grab the good things in life with both hands. She was doing just that, building a new happiness for herself, and he couldn't be more glad. Jealous exes were no use to anyone, their time was over now but they both had a chance to move on into a bright future, with this friendship between them that would always hold true.

"Any big news here that I might need to know?" she asked, when Nate stood there long enough to give her the chance.

"Um, well, Parker's pregnant" he blurted out, thinking there could be no bigger news than that.

"Parker?" Maggie echoed in astonishment, "Wow"

"Yeah" Nate nodded along, "with Eliot" he added, not at all sorry to be able to make it clear his hitter was off the market, even though Maggie had already confirmed she was too.

"Oh" she reacted differently to what Nate expected, "Well, that makes sense"

"Seriously?" he asked her, eyes wide at the very concept of Eliot and Parker being an obvious match to any outsider from the team, "You think that... Well, yeah, it kinda does now" he said thoughtfully after a moment, realising that perhaps he should have seen it sooner, since neither Sophie nor Maggie seemed overly surprised by his hitter and thief hooking up, "Huh. Have you considered a side-line in matchmaking?" he asked Maggie, with a smile that couldn't be helped - even she was happy to see that.

"No" she answered shortly, "Now go, Nate. Go fix things with Sophie so I don't have to worry about you so much anymore" she urged him, rolling her eyes at what she was sure were his usual delaying tactics.

Nate wasted just one more moment, though he wouldn't call it time wasted at all as he stepped in closer to kiss his ex on the cheek.

"Thanks, Maggie, for everything" he told her seriously, before breezing out of the bar at last and leaving her alone.

"No problem" she said in his wake, turning back to the bar on her stool to finish off her glass of wine.

This really wasn't how she expected tonight to go, but she couldn't regret it. At last she and Nate had both moved on in their own way, and remained friends into the bargain. It was strange how things turned out sometimes, but so long as everybody was happy, that was all that really mattered to Maggie.

It was early in the morning, too early for Parker to be awake she reckoned, until she rolled over and got the sun full in her face. Usually both she and Eliot were pretty early risers, even if they only woke up to make love for a while before they ever got out of bed. It was just natural for them to wake around dawn, but this morning it seemed Eliot had managed to sneak out on her before Parker even opened her eyes.

She frowned a little when she found his side of the bed empty, and then listened hard for a clue as to where he had gone. It happened before, he would sneak off and make her breakfast in bed or something sweet like that, and such attention never failed to make her smile. Right now Parker couldn't hear kitchen sounds, and she couldn't here running water from the bathroom either, which was strange. If he wasn't making food or showering, she couldn't think what Eliot would be doing up so early without waking her too.

Sitting up in bed, she listened harder and eventually heard Eliot's voice float down the hall, loud and a little angry it seemed. There was no other person there, she would know it if there were, and so he had to be on the phone. Maybe it was Nate talking about a new job. Maybe it was Hardison having got himself into a jam. Either way, Parker got up out of bed, threw on some clothes, and padded down the hall to the living room.

Eliot was still talking on the phone when she got there but he muttered all his words and kept his back to her til the last. She hadn't a clue what he was saying and all at once he wasn't saying anything anymore. He turned around, completely unmoved by the fact she was there, and forced a smile.

"Hey, babe" he greeted her, walking over to plant a kiss on her lips, "I, er... I gotta head out, just for a while"

"Okay" said Parker, though she was frowning all the same as she watched his throw on his jacket and stuff his cell in the back pocket of his jeans, "Is it something important? Should I come with?" she checked.

"Nah, it's fine" he told her, though somehow he didn't seem his usual Eliot-self when he said it, and he barely looked at her the whole time, "It's just an errand I gotta run. Be back before you know it" he added with a smile that didn't quite sit right with Parker, especially when he practically ran out of the door without offering to even come close to her again.

Something wasn't right, and Parker knew it. She may be less than good at reading people, she may take things a little literally sometimes, but she wasn't stupid, far from it. Eliot ought to know better than to play her. They were close enough, she hoped he wouldn't try. Of course, the only course of action for Parker was clear enough. If Eliot wouldn't tell her where he was going, if he was going to act so weird without explanation, then she was going after him.

Tracking people was easy, Parker always thought so. Sure, Eliot was a little trickier than most people because he was as good at his job as she was at hers. The advantage was that he had no reason to think he was being followed. He never spotted Parker, not the whole walk down from the apartment, across the street, and across town in the truck which she easily followed in a cab. Halfway to McRorys she was sure that was where they were headed, and had the cab driver take a different route, just in case Eliot started to notice he picked up a tail.

The hitter left his truck on the opposite side of the road, and Parker ducked out of the cab without even paying, sure he would never catch her anyway. It was unlikely McRorys would be opened up for the day yet, but she knew Eliot had a key the same as they all did for emergencies. He went for the front door and so Parker crept around back. If Eliot was coming to see Nate he would have told her, unless he was planning a surprise party or something, and she figured that couldn't be it. Her boyfriend knew how much she would hate that kind of surprise.

What Parker hadn't noticed as she made her way to the back of the building and in through the team's private room, was that Eliot wasn't alone coming in the front door of the bar. A woman had been waiting to meet him, someone Parker had never seen before today, and never ever wanted to see again. Her mouth dropped wide open and the bottom dropped out of her world, as Parker peered through into the bar and saw some stylish looking red-head with her arms wound around Eliot's neck, his own hands at her hips, and their lips crushed together.

First came sadness, then came rage. Parker stormed back out of the door, almost bowling Hardison over as he appeared there with his laptop and a frown.

"Mama, what the...?" he tried to ask, but she heard nothing he said and barely even noticed he was there.

The hacker heard his name called and met Eliot in the doorway between the back room and the bar.

"Was Parker here?" he asked, not waiting for a verbal answer or to give any explanation as Hardison pointed towards the door through which the thief had just gone.

Eliot was already going after her when he heard the alarm go off around front of the building. Running all the way, already panicking about what the hell was going on, the hitter missed all the fun that Parker must've been having. Every window and light on his truck was smashed in as the alarm blared like crazy. There was a dent in the hood too, and thrown aside the vehicle the weapon she must have used, the nearest metal bar. Adrenaline borne out of anger was a powerful thing, that much Eliot knew from past experience, and Parker had just learnt as she beat the crap out of his truck.

"Parker!" he called her name into the street, scanning every which way to see where she was gone but there was no sign of her.

It was astonishing how a woman, almost eight months pregnant and all, had managed to do all this damage and escape before he even got here. Still, Eliot couldn't really be shocked, this was Parker after all and she was not like any other woman he ever met, in all the best ways most of the time, and all of the worst right in this moment. She couldn't handle what just happened, he knew what she must have seen and exactly what she must have thought. Right now, Eliot Spencer hated himself, even though this wasn't quite as much his fault as it seemed.

"Yo, Eliot!" Hardison called as he came rushing across the street, "You wanna tell me what the hell is goin' on here?" he asked, taking the time to shut of the truck alarm that so far the hitter had just let blare on and on.

Eliot ran both hands back through his hair, trying to breathe through the panic and pain both. God, this was the biggest screw up of his life, and that was really saying something. The question then became, could he fix it, or was it all too late?

To Be Continued...