Chapter 23

The charter landed at LAX exactly two hours and twenty minutes after take-off and they climbed into the rented van that Hardison had organised. Their first stop was Maggie who had agreed to take care of Michael until it was all over. They arrived at Maggie's house just after nine in the evening to find her waiting for them. Sophie spent around an hour explaining to Maggie what was happening and telling her that she had to be vigilant and try to stay out of sight as much as possible, that she was trusting her with her son.

"I'll take care of him Sophie, you just take care of Nate." Maggie eventually said after Sophie finished. "And you all be careful too."

"Thank you Maggie." Sophie said giving her son one last kiss and then walking out the door followed by the others.

Just under an hour later they arrived at St Nicholas Church and made their way to the rectory where they found Father Paul waiting for them.

"Where is Nate?" Sophie asked expecting that he would still be sleeping, it was now after ten and she wanted to see him immediately if just to confirm he was alive.

"He's gone."

"What?" Eliot growled out.

"He heard me talking to you and he…he left." Paul said meeting Eliot's eyes. "I am sorry."

"Sorry…you're sorry…" Parker said moving forward menacingly, he was supposed to keep Nate safe and here so that they could help him, he had said that Nate was injured, and it not even been a day since the events that led to his injuries took place, not enough time to heal.

"I know you are angry, but I told you not even I can stop Nate from doing what he wanted to. Now he told me to tell you Eliot that your only job was to keep Sophie and Michael safe, and that he is sorry Sophie, and he will be in touch when he can." Paul said relaying Nate's message to them.

"Damn the man." Eliot said shaking his head his face showing his anger at the situation they were in again.

"You know Nate will always do anything he feels necessary to protect his family, the ones he loves." Paul said. "No matter what you say or do, nothing will change the way he thinks, he has always been that way, that is why he hardly coped when his mother died and did not cope at all with Sam's death, he couldn't save them."

Sophie looked at the Priest and nodded smiling although all she wanted to do was shout and scream and curse. Nate was out there alone again, and he was hurt.

"He also said something about not trusting the FBI and the Marshals, he thinks either they have a leak or Sadiski's hacker has infiltrated their systems, he thinks that is the way they found him after he had contacted Agent Penton."

"He's alone out there with enemies all around." Sophie said softly as she took in that information and sank down into the sofa feeling a little overwhelmed with a biting fear for Nate's welfare.

"So what do we do now?" Parker asked not seeing what they could do.

"We go looking for him." Eliot stated.

"No." Paul said forcefully brining their attention to them. "No, he said if Sadiski finds out you are here, any of you, he will assume that you are all involved in this…this whatever it is he is doing with Nate, and that if that happens he will come after you as well."

"Good." Eliot said and saw the Priests eyebrows raise in question. "Then they will have a distraction from Nate."

"True, but if Nate thought you were in danger he will call Sadiski and give himself up and you know it. To keep you safe, especially you Sophie, he will do anything to prevent harm coming to you, including sacrificing his life."

"Paul is right." Sophie said. "That is exactly what Nate would do if he thought we were in danger and it was the only way to prevent us getting hurt."

"So what are you saying we just sit and wait again?" Hardison asked incredulously.

"Yes Hardison, Nate said he would contact us right Paul?" Sophie asked looking at the Priest.

"He said he would be in touch." Paul confirmed.

"Ok, well let's find a place to stay and then we can decide what to do."

"You can stay here Sophie. I have enough rooms in the rectory to house you all comfortably and before you say no, please I want to do this, you saved my church and you saved my good friend so, please let me do this."

Sophie smiled at him and nodded. Then told them that they should unload the van and get it out of sight too. After unloading the little luggage they had Eliot pulled the van around to the back and saw the Cherokee standing there hidden behind the building. He surveyed the car and noted all the bullet holes and shattered windows, it was a miracle Nate had not been injured worse than what Paul had said he was, he just shook his head and then headed back into the rectory.

"What do you think he is doing?" Parker asked as they sat around Paul had gone to bed it now being close to midnight.

"I don't know Parker." Sophie said, she did not know what he was doing, she just wished he were here with them.

"Making a plan." Hardison said.

"Yeah but what plan, how does he fight them, especially if they have the FBI or the Marshals in their back pocket."

"That's it." Parker suddenly almost shouted.

"What's it Parker?"

"We find how they are getting the information, if it is through hacking which I doubt because if they could trace Nate's call to Penton then Hardison would have been able too as well. No there must be an inside source and we need to find them."

"And then they can tell us where Sadiski and Moreau are, they might know." Eliot continued the thought.

"Exactly." Parker smiled at him.

"Ok we are going to need information on everybody on Penton's team and who from the Marshals have been assigned to this taskforce."

"Right on that." Hardison said grabbing his computer and moving over to a small side table to start working.

"Once Hardison has details for us we can start going over everything."

"Ok well it's late and we all had a long day, I think we need to get some rest." Eliot told them and Sophie nodded.

"Goodnight guys." Sophie said as she stood and moved to the room Paul had allocated to her. She was beyond exhausted and emotionally she was drained. She walked in the room and lay down on the bed. "Goodnight my love, keep safe." She whispered as she closed her eyes.

Across town in a dingy rundown motel Nate lay on his bed thinking of his wife and son until he fell into a restless sleep.