CHAPTER 16

Past, Presents, and Financial Futures

(New Orleans)

Gemma woke to the smell of bacon. She wondered who was cooking, she hoped it was Eliot. But the feel of warm muscle and soft fur behind her shoulders made her think it might be Tyrel or maybe Ms. Teo doing the cooking. She opened her eyes and saw that someone had spread a blanket over her. Her toes were being kept warm under Quinn's belly. She saw his blue eyes look back at her and she wiggled her toes underneath him. He sneezed at her as he got up. She turned to look at Eliot to see if he'd caught the by-play. But it was Hardison staring at her instead.

She scooted a little away. "Oh, uhm, I thought you were Eliot."

Hardison got up and nuzzled his head under her chin before he left the room.

Getting up she tugged her pajamas straight and then followed the scent of breakfast into the kitchen. She saw the familiar sight of Eliot standing in front of the stove and the less familiar sight of Parker sitting on the counter next to him. Eliot turned to her with a smile as she walked in.

"Good morning darlin'." He held an arm out and she went to him.

He kissed her forehead. "You were sleeping so good this morning that I didn't want to wake you."

"You didn't have to make Hardison and Quinn stay with me." She hugged him around the waist.

"The boys wanted to stay." Parker sipped her coffee and thrust a mug toward Gemma.

Gemma caught the mug and managed not to spill any. "Thanks." She sipped her coffee and smiled. "I'm sorry I woke you all up last night."

"Usually it's Eliot or Quinn that gets nightmares so it wasn't a big deal." Parker sipped her coffee.

Gemma wrapped her arm around Eliot's waist and kissed his cheek. He gave her a smile.

"Would you mind setting the table? I think we're just about ready here." Eliot glanced at her.

She kissed his cheek again and felt a rumble in his chest. With a smile she shook her head and set her mug on the counter. She took down a stack of plates from the cupboard and headed to the dining room.

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After breakfast most of the pack went out for a run and planned to workout at a gym on the route. Gemma knew from last night's experience that she would only slow them down, so she opted to stay behind and work on a few things of her own.

Gemma could hear Hardison typing something as she came down the hall, but he closed his laptop as she came in. "You don't have to be so secretive. I wouldn't have peeked. And I probably wouldn't know what I was looking at even if I did see something."

Hardison smiled. "Nah, it ain't like that. I just know that most folks don't find what I do as fascinating as it really is."

Gemma grinned. "So how come you didn't go for a run and head to the gym with everyone else?"

"Oh, Eliot or Parker will drag me to the gym soon enough. I know I need the exercise, but I don't crave it the way those three do." He shrugged.

"Parker said Eliot didn't make you stay with me this morning. She said you wanted to stay. Whether you really wanted to or not, it was nice. So, thanks."

"We've all had nightmares now and again. It sucks to wake up alone." Hardison picked up a subtle change in her scent. "Eliot would have stayed with you instead, but Parker was angling for pancakes, and I'd rather sleep in a little anyway, so it was a win win for everybody."

Gemma smiled and her mind wandered for a moment. Eventually the smile on Hardison's face caught her attention again. "What?"

"You were daydreaming about Mr. Punchy, weren't you?"

"What? I was not!" She laughed. "Does he know you call him Mr. Punchy?" She snickered.

"Does he know? I built him a full-scale animation! Check this out." He scooted around to show her the Mr. Punchy animation he'd made years ago. "The man loved it. I think some days he enjoys his work a little too much." Hardison shook his head. "So were you daydreaming about his dashing good looks or his suave personality." Hardison pretended to flick long hair over his shoulder.

Gemma snorted. "I was thinking I'd like to get him something. But maybe it's too soon or what if I don't find anything he'd like." Gemma shrugged. "I'm probably just overthinking."

"You are overthinking. Go ahead and get the man a present." Hardison smiled. He pulled his laptop out. "What did you have in mind? Whatever it is I could probably get it delivered in the hour." Several screens popped up and were expanded, minimized, or closed in a matter of seconds.

Gemma rolled her eyes and gave his shoulder a nudge. "Don't be such a nerd!"

"Geek, not nerd. There ain't no pocket protector over here. I'm obviously a geek."

"Are you going to come with me or stay here and be geeky on your own?"

Hardison slid his laptop under the couch. "We walkin' or drivin'?"

"Let me see if Ms. Teo will let me borrow her car."

"Hold on." Hardison held out a set of keys. "Me and Lucille gotchu."

"Lucille?"

"The van's name is Lucile. Got to respect the van."

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"…And then she says…" Quinn adopted a ridiculous female voice with a terrible Spanish accent. "Really Señior it was the duck's fault."

Even Eliot couldn't help is laugh.

"Did it work?" Parker skipped past Quinn and Eliot.

"Yup."

Quinn, Parker, and Eliot practically tumbled into Ms. Teo's living room in a wave of happy chatter. They dropped bags near the door and were moving around the couch when Eliot stilled and looked at Hardison.

Everyone's focus shifted to Hardison, who was madly typing on his laptop. Parker glanced at Eliot and Quinn when she caught them both scenting the air.

"What? What is it?" Parker grabbed Eliot's wrist.

Hardison closed the lid of his laptop. "We need to talk."

Parker hurried to him, and he set the computer to the side. She started to sit on his lap but moved to the arm of his chair where she could see his face better.

"What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?" Eliot asked with a frown as he sat on the couch.

Quinn sat next to Eliot and his eyes went blue for a second as Eliot bumped shoulders with him.

Hardison's eyes flashed yellow for a second. He wanted to get defensive but even he could pick up the scent of his own fear. "Someone stole my code, old code, from back when I hacked the bank of Iceland, and I haven't been able to stop them."

"Why can't you stop it?" Parker asked.

Hardison took the hand she'd offered him and found reassurance in their mate bond. "I think the guy is keeping an air gap copy of it… offline like on an external hard drive or something. I've been writing code to kill that old code whenever it pops up but whoever they are they're good. Not only are they finding ways to disguise the code to make it past my sniffer bots but now they're using my own code to try and find me."

Eliot knew that Hardison had dumbed down what was going on so that he could understand it but there were still some things that he hadn't made sense of. "So someone is using your old code to find you?"

"They're using my old code to access banking systems. They're using my new stuff to try and find me. Pretty certain they're not planning on sending me flowers and chocolates."

"Do you know where they are?" Parker drew her legs up so that all of her was balanced on the arm of the chair.

"Los Angeles. I haven't been able to narrow it down from there."

"So we go there and fill in the gap in the air thing so that you can get all of your code back."

Hardison smirked at Eliot's interpretation of the problem. "Okay. We need to do it soon. Like maybe yesterday."

"Why?" Quinn frowned.

"Because the world economy could collapse if we don't." Hardison fidgeted and his eyes flickered between yellow and brown.

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Eliot tapped on Gemma's bedroom door. "Gemma?"

"Just a second!"

Eliot could hear the sound of rustling paper. He smiled and reached a hand for his back pocket. That also made him smile because that had to be the third time, he'd checked that pocket since he gotten dressed after his shower.

"Okay! Come in!"

Eliot opened the door and paused for a moment to look at her. She was sitting cross legged on her bed. A position that seemed to emphasize the curve of her hips. And with her hair falling in dark messy waves around her shoulders, framing her face and showing off her green eyes he thought she made quite the picture. He stored the image away as something he could remember later.

She smiled and patted the bed next to her. "Did you guys have a good time at the gym?"

He sat and she turned a little to face him better.

"We did. Looks like something has come up though and we're going to be leaving soon."

She nodded. "Yah, Hardison said that something was going on."

He could smell mixed emotions coming from her and her body language was telling him the same things. "I'm hoping it's not the idea that we're leaving that's got you excited. Not that I want you to be sad." He reached out and cupped her cheek for a second.

"I'm sad that you're leaving. But I'm trying really hard not to think about it. Here…" She thrust a small gift bag at him. "I'm terrible at waiting for presents."

His brow furrowed but he smiled. "What's this?"

"You'll have to open it to find out." She bit her bottom lip and practically vibrated with excitement.

He tossed the little wad of tissue paper to the side and looked in the bag.

There was something leather and he pulled it out. It was a leather wrist cuff. It reminded him of a few others that he wore from time to time. It was smooth and soft on the outside with three narrow leather straps that added texture and dimension. He was still admiring the dark brown color and the sturdy design when Gemma flipped it over in his hand.

Stamped into the leather on the inside of the cuff was an inscription:

Start of something Good

29.9572178, -90.0654734

Eliot ran a thumb over the indented letters and numbers. "Is the longitude and latitude for here?" It made him uneasy to think that a piece of well-meant jewelry could be a map back to Gemma.

"No. Hardison said that with what you guys do it was too risky. It's the alley behind the bar where I first saw you."

Eliot snorted.

"I thought the building would be fine, but Hardison thought the alley was funnier because that's where I doored you."

"He would." He smiled at her. "Thank you. This is really special."

"Here." She fastened the little buckles around his wrist.

He leaned forward and kissed her. His wolf wanted to whine at the thought of leaving her. He let his forehead rest against hers for a moment. "I got you something too." He slid his fingers into his back pocket. "Close your eyes and hold out your hand."

She closed her eyes and held her cupped hands in front of her. She felt something warm and light. And the tickle of something that she could only guess at, she smiled.

Eliot looked at her holding his gift with an expectant smile on her face and he couldn't help his own smile. "Okay."

Her eyes lit up when she saw the delicate gold cross on a fine gold chain. "It's beautiful!" She ran a finger over the woven gold threads that formed an intricate pattern with stars at each tip and one in the center. Each star had a tiny diamond in the center. She flipped it over and saw Psalm 74:16 engraved on the back. She ran her thumb over the letters and looked at Eliot.

"Psalm seventy-four verse sixteen talks about how the day and the night belongs to God and how he created the sun and the moon." Eliot had spent a while at the jewelry store debating with himself about having anything at all engraved on the cross pendant. When he'd finally decided on it, he remembered Julio talking about God creating the sun and the moon to provide light and how God was sovereign over all. He remembered keying in on that scripture a little more because of the mention of the moon and the sermon had been near a full moon when the moon was singing loudly even in the day. He couldn't remember the exact scriptures that Julio had used in that sermon, so he'd given Julio a call. "I thought it would be a good reminder that God is always in charge and there is always light." He gave her a tentative smile. He didn't think that Gemma would have worn that silver cross if she didn't believe but he knew he'd made some assumptions.

She smiled at him. "Would you?" She handed him the necklace and turned as she gathered her hair up.

Reaching around her he brought the clasp to the back of her neck. As he settled it in place, he kissed the back of her neck where the clasp rested. He felt a slight shiver run through her before she turned around to face him.

She scooted around until she was practically in his lap as she pulled him into a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"How much longer do I get to keep you?"

"For as long as you want." He chuckled and held her a little longer. "But right now we'll be flying out in a couple of hours."

She sighed again. "Okay. Let's head down so that I can visit with everyone before you go." She leaned away from him.

~~o0o~~

Quinn was stacking luggage near the door and Parker and Hardison were huddled over Hardison's laptop on the couch. Ms. Teo and Tyrel were observing things from the dining room.

"Al, Eliot did you only have the one bag?" Quinn asked on his way past.

"Yah, just the one and it was packed."

Gemma frowned up at Eliot. "Did he just call you Al?"

Eliot snorted. "Might be easier if I told him that was an option and just let it go." He rolled his eyes. "Quinn is used to using titles. It was a requirement in his old pack. I don't like titles. They separate people and my pack is my family. I don't want to be separate."

"Al…like Alpha?" She tried to hide a grin. "What if I started calling you Al?"

"I can't begin to tell you how much I hate that idea."

"You said you'd think about letting Quinn call you Al." She teased.

"I ain't dating Quinn." He rolled his eyes. With his arm around her waist, he walked them toward Ms. Teo and Tyrel.

"You babies headin' out in an awful hurry." Ms. Teo held a hand out to Eliot and he took it.

"Hardison says it's necessary, so it must be." Eliot gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "We're like bad pennies though. You know we'll turn up again before too long."

"It wasn't clear, am I headed out with you guys?" Tyrel asked.

"I'm seriously hoping this next job won't require an on-site medic." Eliot groaned. "I'm thinking you can stay here and return the SUV, that Hardison had rented for me, whenever you get back to the airport."

"I checked your schedule, and you don't have nothin' until the end of next week." Hardison called without looking away from his computer. "So I set you up on a flight for Wednesday."

"I thought I had a board meeting on Monday." Tyrel frowned.

"I canceled it." Parker chimed in. "It didn't look important, and this was easier."

"Spreading chaos wherever she goes." Tyrel muttered and shook his head.

Eliot snorted.

Quinn came back through the living room with one more case. "If you all don't put a move on, we aren't going to make the flight." He opened the door to the porch and grabbed another bag as he headed out.

"He's right." Eliot grumbled. He kissed the top of Gemma's head. "Let me go help him with the bags."

Quinn and Eliot got everything, except the laptop Hardison was using, loaded into the van in just a few minutes.

"Alright, looks like we better get after it." Eliot announced as he came back inside. He looked around and spotted everyone but Parker. "Where's Parker?"

"Right behind you Sparky."

Parker startled him and his shoulders tensed. "There's somethin' wrong with you." He snapped at her with a growl.

Parker rolled her eyes. "I thought you were in a hurry? Are we leaving or not?"

Eliot rolled his eyes as she walked past him. He spotted Gemma who'd pressed her lips together in an attempt not to smile. "Think that's funny do ya?" He gave her a mock growl but couldn't hide his smile. He went to her and scooped her up and gave her a little spin with a growl into her neck.

She laughed and hugged him. He set her back on her feet and she let her head rest on his shoulder and felt that odd not-growl rumble in his chest. "Call me when you get a chance." She stepped back and he tucked her hair behind her ear.

"I will." He smiled

Everyone lined up at the door and said their goodbyes. Tyrel shook hands and exchanged hugs and Ms. Teo hugged each one and reminded them all to be careful and take care of each other. Parker had gotten her hug from Ms. Teo and then went around to Hardison's other side to collect another. Hardison and Eliot both raised an eyebrow at each other over Parker's head, at the unusual show of affection from their mostly stand-offish thief.

Ms. Teo pulled Eliot into a hug and then smiled up at him. "I'm glad you babies worked things out. Now you call dat girl often as ye can. An' you take good care o' yerself." She frowned a little. "You bring 'em all back te see me."

Eliot wrapped her in a long hug. "I'll do my best. Try not to start any wars with the supernaturals while I'm gone, okay."

When he let her go, she slapped at his arm. "Tosh. Get on wit' ye now."

He gave her a wink and stepped up to Gemma. "I really just want to carry you out to the van and take you with me." His eyes flashed yellow for a second as his wolf approved of the thought.

"I'd love to go on an adventure with you, but I think I'd end up in the way." She linked her arms around his neck and rubbed the tip of her nose across the tip of his.

"I'll call you soon." He kissed her. "I gotta go." He kissed her again.

She laughed and pulled back when he tried to kiss her a third time.

"Come on Sparky. We got places to be." Parker grabbed Eliot by the back of his arm and towed him out the door.

Gemma laughed and watched as Eliot tossed an arm around Parker's shoulders like she was his annoying kid-sister. She felt Ms. Teo slide an arm around her waist and Tyrel hug her sideways with his arm around her shoulders. They all watched as the van drove out of sight.

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(Los Angeles, Scorpion's Garage)

Agent Cabe Gallo stepped through the grimy-used-to be-red door that served as the usual entrance to the garage-turned-headquarters and slid his sunglasses off. "Walter!"

"He and Toby went to Kovelsky's." Paige looked up from the stack of papers on her desk.

"Why?" Cabe frowned and checked the time on his watch.

The cussing from the back of the shop couldn't quite be understood over the sound of banging metal and the clatter as several small somethings scattered across the cement floor.

"Happy didn't get the parts for her motorcycle?" Cabe frowned.

"Amongst other things." Paige sighed and tried to put on a professionally happy face. "What have you got?"

"I think you better call everyone back in. This is going to take the whole team." He set a folder on Paige's desk.

She flipped it open and scanned over the first page. "Someone is trying to hack the banks in Los Angeles? All of the banks?" She frowned as she looked up at Cabe.

"I'm afraid it's bigger than that." Cabe stretched his neck side to side trying to fend off the stress headache he could feel coming.

~The End~