Short chapter, but it has some key moments. Hope you all enjoy.

When dealing with Nate and Sophie, approaching them directly was usually easiest, but you often needed to do it someplace where if things didn't go according to plan, you could get the hell out of dodge. Therefore the bar while I was playing piano and everyone else was enjoying a little R and R sounded like a decent plan.

As I concluded the song, I could feel Nate watching me like he always did when I played. Taking a deep breath, I turned toward them and sighed, slumping my shoulders and grudgingly moving towards them.

Nate raised his eyebrow and shot a look at Sophie. "She wants something."

Sophie placed her book on the bar and looked at me in a way that told me I had her attention. Not to mention, I could feel that I had everyone else's as well.

"So, I've been thinking," I said carefully sitting on the table top in front of them and trying to read their expression before I went on. They seemed patient enough, but I really wanted to get this right. "If, maybe, I could get a car?"

The statement definitely came out as a question, but it also did a fair job of shocking them.

"You want a car?" Sophie said as though she wasn't sure she heard me correctly. "As in a vehicle?"

"Or a truck, just, ya know, something to drive…" I tried forcing a hopeful smile.

Sophie kept her eyes on me. "That's quite the request."

I could feel my hope begin to drain as I looked down at my feet. "Well… I'm sixteen and I was just kind of wanting to start driving… I mean can I at least start driving some?" I muttered rolling on the balls of my feet.

There was a long moment of silence. "Actually, Anna's right," Nate said finally.

And just like that, things blew up.

"She needs driving experience before we hand her keys to a vehicle," Sophie said carefully.

I jumped in. "I know, and I was hoping that one of you guys," I glanced behind me for help from Hardison, Eliot and Parker.

Eliot was the first. "Hell no, you're not driving my car. If Nate of Sophie offer up one of their vehicle sure, why not."

Sticking out my lip, I pouted at Hardison but he raised his hands in surrender. "Oh no, I'm not getting dragged into this. Me and Lucille are staying hell outta dodge. You take your teenage hands of destruction and keep them over there."

Parker jumped up from her seat. "I'll teach her."

"No!" the entire room shouted at her in a mixture of fear and shock.

I looked at them. "Why not? If you're not going to teach me then let Parker!"

The looks I received, you would have thought I had suggested that I single handily steal the Monalisa with nothing more than a rope and my pretty face. Maybe Sophie and Parker could do it, but I didn't have the experience they had.

"Have you ever been in the car when Parker's driving?" Hardison asked giving me one of his girl gone crazy looks.

I glared at him. I could feel my anger rising. "I'm sixteen! If you aren't going to teach me then Parker can."

Sophie looked at Nate for help, and he stuttered as Parker and I got ready to head out the door. "Fine!" he said suddenly, as Sophie gave him a hard shove forward and looked at her desperately. "Fine, I'll take you."

"Really?" I cheered bouncing up and down. "You're going to take me driving?"

Nate looked as though he may be in physical pain, but eventually he nodded. "But we're taking Sophie's car."

Sophie nearly spit out her tea. "What?!"

As we climbed into the car, I suddenly felt a lot more nervous. Okay, this was not how I planned it. For some reason I thought I would just be handed the keys to a vehicle and be able to drive myself around and do whatever I please. Obviously not.

"Okay, now I don't think I need to remind you of this but if your hurt Sophie's car-"

"She'll kill me, I got it," I muttered pulling my seat belt on. I had driven before, plenty of times, but usually I was driving a getaway car or something. Plus, Nathan Ford in my passenger seat made me a little more nervous than I wanted to admit.

Not that it really surprised anyone, but I was a great driver. Well, I was a good driver and better than the average sixteen year old. And Parker. Which no one failed to tell me.

Still, Nate wasn't one hundred percent convince. In fact, he thought it would be more a better idea to have me pass several tests. Including knowing when we were being tailed, knowing how to lose a tail, and high speed driving. All of which Eliot had to approve of.

"You have to brake, shift, steer, shift, and brake!" Eliot snapped as Sophie's car drifted in the dust. Yes, one of Eliot's terms was to be sure I drifted correctly. She was going to kill us. I could feel it.

Finally, I threw the car in park and got out. Eliot also got out and slammed the door. "What?" he growled as I kicked at the dirt.

I crossed my arms. "Every other teenage kid would be grounded if they drifted their parents' car, but me? No, I have to pass a freaking drifting test!"

There was no sympathy for me in Eliot's eyes. This was one of those things that I had to learn. "This isn't poor pitiful me time, Anna. If you want to learn to drive, then do it."

"I know how to drive!" I pressed throwing my hands in the air.

Eliot stared at me, shaking his head slightly. "When are you going to understand that this life you have is not, nor will ever be, school plays and Friday night football? If you want that, tell Nate and Sophie, I'm sure you can go back to living with Maggie. But if you want to be a thief then grow up. It's your child like attitude that gets your ass in trouble."

At first I didn't know what to say, but I just kept getting angrier and angrier until I finally blew up. "I never had the chance to be a normal kid so how am I supposed to be one now?"

"You have the opportunity and you can take it," Eliot growled, pushing the Cadillac's door shut. "You want so badly to be normal, then go. Forget about the rest of us and go be whatever the hell you want to be. But I hate to break it to you Anna, you will never be like all those other kids. You will never be able to go to an art museum and not want to immediately look over your shoulder to scan security or be able to sit in an airport and get nervous when you go through security. You are not normal."

Looking away and toward the grass field we had driven out to, I tried to not seem as hurt as I felt. It was so easy to hide how I felt to the rest of the world, but my team was my family and when they said something like that it hit a whole lot deeper than just an angry mark.

He was right, but I didn't want him to be. I wanted to be normal with a normal family, but I wanted him and Parker and Hardison and Nate and Sophie. I wanted to steal the hope diamond on a free weekend or go to a high school football game. Yet, if I was just average, ordinary, I would be satisfied being that, because I never experience the thrill of holding an artifact worth more than three million dollars in my hands, or known was it was like to take down a corrupt CEO who was hurting someone in a way that police couldn't stop.

"That's not fair," I muttered.

"Hate to break it to ya kid, but life's not fair. As much as we try to make it fair we're never going to be able change the fact something's in life just suck." Taking a step toward me Eliot exhaled a deep breath. "But when there are little rewards that make it worth it."

Slowly, I nodded. "Can I just go home? We can try again tomorrow," I said walking around to the passenger side of the car.

Eliot nodded and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Oh, and we may want to go through a car wash… Sophie's going to kill us if we bring the car back looking like this."

Come on my lovely readers, feedback?