Chapter 12

By the time they got to the hospital Sterling was awake and telling the doctor he was fine and was leaving. Olivia was arguing with him asking him to stay just for the night like the doctor asked and Sterling was having none of it. As they walked out the hospital Nate and the others were walking in and they met at the door.

Nate took Sterling's hand in greeting then told the man Perkins had got away and they should leave. Sterling nodded and then joined them all in the van, it was a little cramped, but it was the only vehicle they had. Eliot drove them swiftly to the safehouse they had been staying in and herded Nate and Sterling into the place quickly once they arrived, then he and Parker and Hardison set about making sure the place was secure while Nate and Sterling retired into the little study and closed the door behind them leaving Sophie and Olivia to glare at the door and fume at the two of them silently.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, few scrapes is all." Nate replied as he poured himself and Sterling a drink.

"We were lucky."

"Very." Nate concurred.

"We have to stop misjudging this guy or we aren't going to survive the next time." Sterling said accepting the drink.

"That was a high-risk play from him Jim, Perkins is insane and determined as well as organised and prepared, and more than that I don't think he is going to bother waiting for us to separate from them next time." Nate said sitting down opposite the man.

"So you have a plan?"

"A plan…" Nate asked smiling slightly and shaking his head. "Short of just giving him what he wants…no." Nate said.

"Well even if we were willing to do that, they would not be willing to let us."

"No they wouldn't."

"So…"

"Like I said Jim, I have no idea. All I do know is he will be coming again, and they may get caught in the middle, this has got entirely out of hand." Nate said the sat back sipping his whiskey. It was indeed out of hand he thought, and Perkins was proving to be very unpredictable in his methods, and that scared him.

"I don't want Olivia caught up in this Nate, your people, Eliot, Hardison, Parker and even Sophie can take care of themselves, and before you say anything I know they will protect her, but they are hell bent on protecting you too and, well she may get lost in that effort."

"So what do you suggest?" Nate asked raising his eyebrows at Sterling.

"We go our separate ways." Sterling said and smiled at Nate seeing the man had had the same thought. "Give him two targets."

"One tracking the other?" Nate asked following Sterling's reasoning.

"That's the idea."

"Workable…what about them?"

"We exclude them." Sterling said meeting Nate's eyes. That was not his usual advice, but he was thinking only of his daughter now and not Nate and his makeshift family.

"Ok, so the one he decides to go after first is the decoy and the other comes in to save the day…you know this is probably going to get one of us killed maybe even both of us, but I like it." Nate smiled pouring himself another whiskey.

"You can get two of those earbuds for us?"

"Not Hardison's no because then they will be on to us, but I have some at the apartment that are not locked into his network."

"So we have to go back to the apartment first."

"Yeah, also we have to get some weapons, I also have at the apartment." Nate said, they needed weapons because nobody was going to put the cuffs on Perkins, this was only going to end with both he and Sterling dead or Perkins dead, and he could see that Sterling also understood that.

"They are going to be watching us like hawks." Sterling reminded him, that was one obstacle he was not sure how they were going to get over, especially Eliot who was not happy about what they had done previously.

"Yeah…that is a problem." Nate agreed.

"So…?"

"Working on it." Nate said softly. This could be a breaking point for Sophie he knew and for the others, he was not sure they would forgive him, and if he happened to be the one that Perkins came after first and ultimately got killed he knew they would never forgive themselves for letting him go, but there was no other way.

Outside the room Sophie and the others sat talking about the situation all of them keeping an eye on the door to the study that Nate and Sterling had disappeared behind and wondering what the two of them were cooking up.

"You don't think they are going to try to go off alone again do you?" Olivia asked looking at Sophie. "My Dad must know that doing that is going to get him killed right? I mean he is hurt, so is Nate and they were both almost blown up and…and we won't let them do that right?"

"Right." Sophie said smiling at the teenager. She felt sorry for her, she had lost her mother and had only got her father back thanks to Nate a few years ago and now she might lose him too. "Don't worry Olivia, even if they wanted to, we won't allow it to happen."

"There will be no getting around my watchdogs this time." Hardison said, he felt guilty that what he had set up before had not alerted them to Nate and Sterling leaving, so this time he had put backups in place in case Nate decided to bypass them again.

"They are not leaving here without us knowing." Parker said and Sophie could see a pout starting to develop on her face telling her that the young Thief was concerned that they would not be able to stop them, all of them were, the two men they were talking about were masters of their trade and if they wanted to go they would no matter what precautions any of them put in place.

"What do you think they are talking about?" Hardison asked staring at the door which remained closed.

"Don't know." Eliot said. He was frustrated with Nate, with Sterling and with the entire situation, he was also afraid that the two men would go off and this time get themselves killed. He needed to do something and decided that making them all some food would be the best thing. It was late afternoon and they had not eaten all day.

Five minutes later Sterling and Nate exited the room and took a seat with the others in the living area while Eliot was busy in the kitchen preparing a meal.

"So what is the plan Nate?" Sophie asked wanting to know what the two men had planned.

"Still working on it Sophie, let's discuss it after dinner." Nate smiled at her. "For now I think I am going to go and get cleaned up."

"I think that is a great idea." Sterling said as he too rose.

Sophie watched them both walk to their rooms then rose and followed Nate into their bedroom and closed the door behind her.

"Sophie…" Nate said turning to look at her as she leaned against the door.

"Don't Nate, don't lie to me please." Sophie said softly. "That is what you were going to do right, tell me that you were not thinking of going off again on your own and that you promise you will let us help and that you love me…"

"I do love you Sophie, more than you will ever know."

"Well you have an odd way of showing it." Sophie said watching him as he walked towards her. "You lie to me and then go off and try to get yourself killed taking no cognisance of what your actions will do to me. I love you dammit and I am your wife, you remember that? I am not ok with you doing this, I am not ok with you trying to get yourself killed and I am not ok with you excluding me or them understand? Nate…please..."

"Sophie I just…Perkins…" Nate raised his eyes to the ceiling and blew out a breath before continuing. "I am sorry, but I will not and cannot allow you to get in the middle of this no matter what you say, I will not…survive it…if you get killed because of me, and no matter how angry you get that is not going to change. I will not be responsible for you getting hurt. Perkins is a psychopath and an out and out killer, he always was, and prison made him more so, and he is nothing like anybody we have ever dealt with before, except maybe Eliot, and I will not do it." Nate said then held up his hand to stop her retort. "If you want to leave me because of that, then that is what you have to do, I would rather have you alive and well and angry than dead and that is the end of that."

She felt her stomach turn as she listened to him. He was going to go off on his own and nothing she was going to say was going to stop him, not even threatening to leave him, he had just made that clear. But she had to make him understand that the only way to get this done without anybody dying was to do it together.

"Nate I can take care of myself. We can take care of ourselves, and we as a team can take on anybody and win, we are the best and the last seven years has proved that we have taken on the Mob, the Russians, the Triads, there is nobody we cannot beat. The only way to beat this man is to work together Nate don't you see that?"

"I know my darling. I know you can take care of yourself and I know they can take care of themselves and I know that we can take on any 'mark' and get the job done. But this is not a 'mark' Sophie, don't you understand, this is a cold-blooded killer who is determined to kill me and Jim no matter who gets in the way, there is no way around it and there is no way to stop him, grifting and thieving, like I said before, is not going to win the day here. Now I know you don't want to hear that, and I know you are worried as are they, but this is something that Jim and I must deal with and the only two people who are going to get hurt in this mess is us, and that is a fact, because I will not accept any alternative." He said then stepped forward and pulled Sophie into his arms and crashed his lips into hers.

"No Nate…no don't do this please." Sophie said as she tore herself away from him and pushed him back tears brimming in her eyes. "I am begging you to not do whatever you are planning to do."

"All I am planning right now Sophie is to take a shower and get changed and then have a nice family dinner with my wife and family. After that…well we will have to see what happens." Nate said then walked into the bathroom and closed the door leaning against it and closing his eyes briefly as he heard Sophie leave the room and close the door rather forcefully behind her.