Chapter 24

They had been waiting for five hours before a doctor made his appearance.

"Ford family." He called as he came through the doors.

Sophie and the others rose and hurried toward him. Sophie taking in his tired face and the expression that told her no good news was coming their way.

"I am Sophie his wife." She said automatically. They usually did not give information to anybody but family. Nate was family.

"Mrs Ford. Let us go into this room and then I can fill you in on your husbands' condition." The doctor said leading them over to a visitor consulting room.

"Mrs Ford your husband was severely injured when they brought him in. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the left shoulder, the right leg as well as one to the stomach. Now the shoulder wound was a through and through, and although he lost quite a bit of blood, we took care of it. The leg wound damaged some of the muscle but missed the bone, that too we were able to take care of. Mr Ford had received some hard blows to both his kidneys and solar plexus before he was shot, and this has caused a severe problem when coupled with the gunshot wound."

"But he is alive?" Sophie said. The doctor had not said he was sorry there was nothing he could do so Nate was alive.

"Yes, Mrs Ford he is alive, however his condition is critical. Stomach wounds are some of the worst and this one was particularly bad, the bullet caused enormous internal damage. It took us quite some time to locate it and remove it. On top of that Mr Ford suffered a cardiac arrest on the table and has lost a lot of blood. We have given him a transfusion and he is still receiving whole blood to try to compensate for the loss."

Nobody spoke and Eliot's expression had darkened. He knew gunshot wounds and there were not many people who could walk away from a gut shot, especially one at close range. Nate's chances of survival were limited, in fact it would be a miracle if he did survive.

"Mrs. Ford I am afraid that your husband's chances of surviving are not good. He his stable but critical. We will be watching him for if he starts bleeding internally again, we think we managed to repair all the damage but there is no guarantee, the state he was in when we operated, we may have to go in again, which in his condition would be very dangerous. I will suggest if he has any other family that you notify them. I am sorry." The doctor said softly. He hated giving news like this to families, but he also refused to give them false hope as well. This man was most likely going to die within the next day or so and they had to be prepared for that.

"Can I see him?" Sophie asked turning her tearstained face to the doctor.

"He will be taken to ICU. I am afraid we cannot allow any visitors for his sake; we cannot risk any infection. However, you will be able to see him through the glass windows, my nurse will show you. He will be in recovery for at least another hour or so before we move him though." The doctor told her.

"Thank you, doctor." Eliot said when Sophie showed no response.

"Very well my nurse will fetch you once we have moved him." He said then turned and disappeared through the doors again.

It was an hour and a half before the nurse told them Nate had been moved and led them up to the fourth floor ICU unit where Nate was being treated. They lined up at the window after the nurse left them. She entered Nate's room and opened the blind to allow them to look in at the Mastermind. He was hooked up to a myriad of machines which monitored his heartbeat, blood oxygen and more.

"We did this Eliot. I did this." Sophie said softly. "He should have stayed away."

"He's Nate, there was no way in hell he was going to stay away if you, or any of us were in danger and you know it Sophie. He's a force of nature and nothing we say or do can stop Nate Ford from doing what he wants to do or what he thinks is right in his own mind."

"Yes but we were careless on that job, we, we missed things, we miscalculated."

"True Sophie, but Nate has also miscalculated on jobs. We do a hard, dangerous job taking on men and women with power, money and often psychopathic tendencies. It is what we signed up for. What he signed us up for and what we chose to keep doing. It was nobody's fault that the job went south. As for this situation. Well that is what happens when one man is determined to save his family at all costs." Eliot said softly.

"You're right, except he always had a way out, he always kept us safe no matter how bad the job went." Sophie said softly then turned the Hitter. "You know when he turned up there in Chicago and told me he was playing my side; I didn't believe him." Sophie smiled then as she looked at the figure of Nate in the bed. "He never was."

"No he never was. I have seen him manipulate people into doing things they never thought they would, including killing themselves, and still he is the most honest man I know on a crusade to make the world a better place."

"I still don't know how he kept us all together, turned us from criminals into, well criminals with a difference shall we say, made us into this, this family." Hardison said softly.

"He gave us something we can never repay." Parker said softly.

"What's that Parker?" Sophie asked.

"Life." Parker said simply and they all turned to look at the little Thief. She felt all their eyes on her and turned to face them. "I was a Thief, that is all I was, you were a Hitter and you didn't like being that, Hardison, you were alone and Sophie, well you were lost."

"Parker."

"It's true Sophie, you weren't grifting anymore and you were trying to be the honest woman because of Nate, because he was no longer an IYS investigator chasing you because his son died and his life fell apart and so did yours."

They just stared at her; she had summed up what they were before this all started.

"I stole things from people and I was…I don't know, but I was alone and I thought that I liked that, that it was what I wanted. Hardison you love your computers, but again you only did that and you, well you were missing something weren't you? Eliot, well Eliot did what he did but he didn't like doing it, didn't really like hurting people but couldn't stop, and Sophie, you love Nate. So, he put us all together and gave us something we have never had. Something to be proud of. A reason to be proud of ourselves. That is why we stayed. For that feeling. For that feeling of belonging. That is why I stayed. He made us a family to show us that life is more than just about what you do, it not just about what you love doing it is about who you can share it with, who you love."

"Parker, I don't know where that came from." Sophie said softly to the Thief as she pulled her into her arms. "But you are right. He gave us this life we live. This life with meaning other than just money and jobs. He gave it to us, and he protects it for us." She said looking back at Nate's still form. "Even with all he has lost. Even with all he has suffered. Even though he was broken, is broken, he still took four broken people and made them whole, give them something to care about, people to care about."

They all nodded. Then turned back to look at their Mastermind. Their mentor, teacher, protector, father figure and a man they all respected immensely despite his drinking and the fact that he was a broken man and a complete bastard most of the time.

"He can't die." Sophie whispered to nobody.

"Sophie, it is up to him now and Nathan Ford is not a quitter, he hates to lose, even to death. He has a fighting chance and that is all he ever needs." Eliot said quietly.

After a few minutes Eliot suggested that they all go home, get freshened up before they returned to the hospital. Nate was going to need them in the next couple of days and weeks and they had to look after themselves if they were going to be able to take care of themselves. They agreed, albeit a little reluctantly. After saying their silent goodbyes, they headed out. Eliot left word at the nurses' station where they would be and that they would be returning in an hours' time. If anything happened, they were to contact them immediately.

"You hang in their Nate. We'll be back soon." Eliot said sotto voice and set off after the other four members of his family.