Chapter 6

A week had passed, and Sterling was recovering well and had been moved out of ICU into a private room. Nate on the other hand was not doing as well. He remained in the ICU since his blood pressure was still erratic, and he had not yet awoken. The doctor could not tell them why Nate had not regained consciousness but told them that he was improving and healing although it did not seem like it.

Detective Rogers had informed them that they had got no useful information from the crime scene. Olivia had assisted with a sketch of Perkins with Eliot telling her to give them the most accurate description as possible, they could use all the help they could get here and having more eyes on the street looking for his guy was not a bad thing. He was sure Perkins had an eye on the hospital, which meant he was aware of them as well as they had barely left the place, especially Sophie who spent her days and most of her nights watching over Nate, he wanted to tell her to cut back a little as the detective had noticed her obsession with watching over the man, but he could not get it out of his heart to do it. He had intimated to the detective that Sterling had introduced the two and that they had been sort of seeing each other. He had seemed happy with that explanation. Parker and Hardison also wanted to be with Nate but Eliot had insisted that they stay with Sterling most of the time as he was their 'boss' and the one they were supposed to be concerned about.

Sterling had spoken to the detective too and given him the run down on Perkins and what he was doing, he told him about the old case he and Nate had worked and why Perkins was coming after them. He had of course discussed doing this with Eliot and the team first and they had agreed that having the cops on the lookout for the guy was their best option, so Sterling had held nothing back. A warrant for Perkins arrest was issued for attempted murder of an Interpol Agent and one Nathan Ford. Sterling had also enforced Eliot's story about Nate and Sophie telling the detective that his ex-sister-in-law and his friend had become quite close, which explained her watching over him.

Another four days passed and then Nate finally regained consciousness and over the next few days he progressed well being moved out of ICU and into a private room as well. There appeared to be no damage to his spinal cord and the doctor said he would make a full and complete recovery in time.

"Nate." Sophie said as she stepped into the room after he had been moved and the nurses allowed them in. "Oh Nate you scared the hell out of me you know."

"Scared the hell out of myself." He smiled at her as she leaned in and gave him a kiss.

"Well you are going to be fine now." She said as she straightened up and ran her hand through his wild curls. "Don't you ever do that to me again Nate."

"I promise…"

"So what now?" She asked as she sat down beside the bed.

"I don't know Sophie, we don't know where he is, we don't know what he is planning, and we don't know when or how he is going to come after me and Sterling."

"That's a lot of don't knows Nate."

"Yeah." He sighed, it was, and he did not like it at all. "But for right now I just want to spend some time with my wife…without having detectives and the rest of the team around." He had missed her he thought as he looked at her, and he had been scared, not of dying, but of never seeing her again.

"So what do you want to talk about Mr Ford." Sophie smiled at him.

"I don't want to talk at all." Nate said then moved over patting the bed beside him.

"We can't Nate, we are connected remember and not married..." She said and he could see the regret in her eyes.

"Oh well…" He said taking her hand. "I missed you Soph and I know you were scared I am sorry. I was scared too you know."

"You, Nate Ford scared?" Sophie said looking at him in surprise with a wry smile on her face.

"I thought… well when those bullets hit me I thought, I thought I might never see you again, talk to you again…" He said then swallowed hard before continuing. "It scared me."

"Oh Nate…" She said lifting his hand and placing a kiss on it. "I felt the same way."

"It took us so long…well it took me so long to admit how much you mean to me Sophie and I don't ever want it to go unsaid, I love you Sophie Ford, I need you, and I need you to know that I will always love you, in case…well…"

"Nate." She said then swallowed the lump in her throat as she stood and leaned down capturing his lips. "I know my darling and you must know I love you too, more than anything." She said sitting down again. They sat in silence for a while just holding hands. "You know, I was a Grifter, I did not let myself get involved with anybody, not really, but with you, from the start you…you attracted me. I mean, I wanted to see more of you and not to con you, just to spend time with you and the longer you chased me the more I wanted to see you. I had seduced so many men, made them forget all about their families their wives, their children…"

"Sophie…"

"No let me finish." She smiled at him. "But I could never do that with you, I tried…"

"And I was tempted."

"Maybe, but you never acted, you were loyal to your wife, to your son, to your family and that is why I fell in love with you, I had never met somebody like you, you seemed so cold and distant when working but…you were not, you never were it was just a façade you had to protect yourself from caring, just like me. But you know Nate, we found each other in the end, and we are going to be together for a long, long time mister."

"Amen to that." He smiled at her. "You are wrong though. I was tempted, no I was Sophie…" He said before she could interrupt him. "Because you intrigued me from the beginning, from the moment I met Sophie Devereaux fifteen years ago."

"Fifteen years ago…" Sophie said softly. "That was when all of this with Perkins was happening."

"Yes, Sterling and I were in Damascus following a lead on him when we met." Nate said his brows knotted as he remembered that fact. "He was there to steal the Vermeer."

"Hey, I remember that heist." She said casting her mind back to that time. "So that was him and you and Sterling were there to catch him."

"Yes that was Perkins." Nate said.

"Nobody really knew the man, just that he was a top rated thief and one that was not very nice, we all stayed well out of his way and if there were rumours he was going to do a heist we steered well clear. Those that did work with him, well suffice to say many did not finish the jobs they were on or worse it ended badly for them, he had a reputation for not liking to share the loot with partners. When he dropped off the grid and out of our world nobody was unhappy, but we all wondered what had happened to him, but nobody knew who he was, he was just known as Voleur, he kept his identity rather secret, so nobody made the connection."

Nate listened to her and frowned slightly, he did not know that part of the story, they had Perkins name due to a random fingerprint that had been lifted from the scene of one of his crimes, one that had gone wrong where he had tried to steel some valuables from an Arab sheik and come up second best with two of his men being killed and him barely getting way, the merchandise was insured by IYS so the Sheik had shared the information with them. Law enforcement authorities did not have the information either.

"Yeah…he worked alone, and when he had a team, he usually…well it ended badly for the team. He did not like witnesses to his crimes and often on jobs he would use them as pawns, letting them take the heat so he could get away." Nate said. Perkins had been, no he corrected himself, was a real piece of work and he and Sterling had been relieved when they had finally ended his run.

"I'm scared Nate."

"I know so am I." He said taking her hand. "But you know if he could be taken down once, he can be taken down again."