Chapter 2
Sophie said goodnight to the rest of the crew and then headed up the stairs her stomach knotting with tension as she did, it was her job to get Nate to agree to a little getaway and she was not sure he would. She knocked lightly on the door and then entered. Nate was sitting propped up in the bed sipping his eyes closed.
"Nate…" She said softly.
He started slightly opening his eyes and looking at her and then smiling.
"Soph…" He said as she smiled back at him and crawled onto the bed and settled next to him.
He immediately wrapped her in his arms around her pulling her closer before kissing her passionately. She responded, she moved so that she lay on top of him without breaking the kiss. Then she sat up and started to unbutton his shirt his eyes locked on her and she could see the love and the almost desperation in them, and it almost brought her to tears. Later they lay together she with her head on his chest running slow circles with her fingers on his body, her eyes surveying the scars left by his ordeal, and he with his arm wrapped around her holding her close to him.
"I've been thinking." Sophie said as she looked up and then leaned forward to capture his lips in a gentle kiss.
"Mmmm?"
"It has really been a very a long year and a bit for all of us and we have been working ourselves hard this last six months."
"It has." He agreed sitting up and pulling her up with him. "So what have you been thinking?" He asked as he reached for his glass of whiskey.
"I have been thinking it would be good if we all went away for a while, together…"
"A vacation?"
"Yes. I think we need it, away from here, away from Leverage, somewhere we can recharge the old batteries as it were." She smiled at him as he handed her a glass of whiskey as well.
"Sophie…"
"No Nate not for any reason, just to…to regroup. We have not allowed ourselves to do that, none of us and we need to. We haven't really connected again, and we need that too. They need it, they need some downtime Nate, and they won't do that unless we go together, they care for you and they worry about you and they are not going to go off and let themselves relax unless they know you are not alone, that you are safe and you know it." She said making it about the team and not him, making him understand that his wellbeing was paramount to them and that they would not take an opportunity to get away from everything unless he was with them. "So what do you say, just for a while, let's go and forget about all of this, and just…well just be a family spending some quality time with each other."
"They need it." He smiled at her. "Or I need it?"
"We all need it Nate." She said smiling at him and leaning in for another soft kiss. "So what do you say?"
He looked at her and nodded. The team was taking strain and he had worked them hard over the last six months, not for any reason except that he needed it, he needed the distraction of a job to take his mind off what had happened. He did not want to go somewhere where all he had was time to think, to relive, to remember, but they were his family and he had seen that they were taking strain, she was taking strain and maybe he owed this to them. When he had returned to them after finishing with David on the island he had told them he would work with them, tell them what they wanted to know, start to heal, and accept what had happened, but he had not done that. To his credit he had tried, but he just found it easier to drink, to work and drown himself in both. They had been patient with him, the almost insane risks he had been taking on jobs, the type of jobs he had been taking, dangerous jobs but they had said nothing, they had stuck by him allowing him to do what he needed to do. Now it was his turn he supposed. He could survive a few weeks he thought and besides, he could always find something to do wherever they decided to go.
"Where are you thinking of going?" He asked.
"Oh I don't know." She said non-committedly. "I'll leave that to the three of them."
"Not sure if that is a good idea." He said as he thought about the different places they could end up. If it were Hardison's choice in some town where he could go to some convention or the other, Parker would elect someplace she could practice her art of stealing and Eliot, well he was not sure what Eliot would elect to do, although he knew that the Hitter spent his vacations in dangerous parts of the world helping out friends from the old days.
She said nothing as she leaned over him and put her whiskey glass down before pushing him back in bed too and laying with her head on his chest again. She would leave this to him to decide, it had to be his decision not hers, she had coaxed him and now she left him.
"Ok…yeah sounds good." He finally said.
"Great." She smiled at him giving him another kiss.
"Now Ms Devereaux, I am really a little tired so I think you should go." He said kissing her again gently. "I love you…you know that."
"I know Nate." She said tears forming in her eyes. She wanted to stay, she wanted to hold him and help him through the night and the nightmares, but she knew he would never allow that not after what had happened that one time. She sat up and then leaned in for another kiss before rising and getting dressed.
"You are truly beautiful." He whispered at he watched her, and she blushed slightly at the softly spoken words.
"Why thank you Mr Ford." She said as she finished then walked to the side of the bed and kissed him again. "See you in the morning."
"Goodnight Sophie." He said then watched her walk out and close the door before topping up his glass and sitting back in the bed. He loved her so damn much and this was not fair to her, but he could not share his bed with her, he could not take a chance that he hurt her, and he knew that hurt her as well. "I am sorry Soph, but I will get myself through this I will…" He said to the absent woman as he sipped his whiskey. "I will." He said again then closed his eyes fighting back the emotions that ran through him.
