Chapter 6

They had just finished dinner three days after getting back to the house and Nate was sitting at the table in his little office going over things when his phone rang. The rest of the crew were in the living room when Nate picked up.

"Feeling better Ford?" Moreau asked as he answered.

"Moreau." Nate said softly, he had been expecting this call, he had been hoping it would come in because they still had no idea where the man was. He noticed his team and Sterling enter the room as he said the name.

"So how is this going to work Ford?"

"Depends?"

"On what?"

"What you want, how you want this to play out?" Nate said knowing they wanted him to put the phone on speaker but ignoring them. He saw that Hardison had already started the trace and he knew it would be futile.

"Well Ford I am not going to stop until we settle this."

"I realise."

"You get your team involved and they die too."

"So…"

"So do you want to play games Ford or end this?"

Nate closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering the question.

"We end this Moreau."

"Good, I will be in touch Ford, make sure you are alone when I do." He said and hung up.

"Nate…"

"Sophie…" Nate said taking a sip of his whiskey and looking her in the eyes.

"You are not going off alone Nate, it is not going to happen."

"I know." Nate said smiling at her. "But he doesn't."

"What…?" Eliot said not understanding what Nate was saying.

"He thinks I will leave to protect you all, that I am so angry about Elysia that I will go off half-cocked and take him on by myself."

"And you are not going to do that?" Sterling asked looking at the man intently. He was fully expecting that was exactly what Nate was going to do.

"No Sterling I am not." Nate said softly. "I need you guys to take him down, but understand, I am going to kill him." He said looking directly at Eliot then Sophie. "Nothing you say is going to prevent that."

They all just looked at him not knowing what to say. The were relieved he was planning on using them to get Moreau but the fact that he had declared he was going to kill the man scared them. Nate had no emotion in his voice not like when he was going after his father's killers, he had no emotion in his eyes. He had been distant from them even Sophie to a certain extent. He had spent his time in his office. He was not drinking excessively either. Sterling looked at his friend and saw the truth in his eyes, this was a Nate he had never seen before and hoped to God he never saw again.

"I can't allow that Nate." He was an officer of the law and he could not have a hand in cold blooded murder.

"Then leave. Any one of you who have a problem with that you are welcome to leave." Nate said looking at his team and then focusing on his wife. "Until this is over walk away."

"No." Sophie said loudly. "No Nate I am not leaving. You want to make me complicit in murder then you will do that, but I am not leaving."

Eliot looked at the woman and nodded. Not that he thought it would be murder nor that he had a problem with killing Moreau, but he knew what it would do to Nate in the long run if he did do it. He had told him that before, when he wanted to kill Dubenich, that it would change him, that it would take something away from him and he was right then and right now, if Nate did this, no matter what the reason, it would change him and not for the better.

"None of us are leaving." Parker said and Hardison nodded in agreement.

"Fine, then we do this by my rules and the way I want it." Nate said downing the rest of his whiskey.

"So what is the plan?" Sophie asked looking at her husband.

"We wait. Moreau wants me and he knows he can't get me here, not with all of you around. He thinks I will go. That I will leave here and go out there on my own and that is what I am going to do."

"Nate you just said…"

"I won't be alone Sophie you will be on coms and Hardison will be tracking me." Nate said refilling his glass. "He won't contact me again unless he knows I am on my own."

"He will know Nate. He will know that you are playing him." Eliot said concern in his voice. He knew Moreau and Moreau knew them, knew Nate and he was as nearly as good as Nate at playing games.

Nate looked at his Hitter. He knew that Moreau would know, he had studied the man for a long time and that was how he had managed to take him down the first time. It had cost a lot that first time, cost Eliot taking up a gun and killing for him, for them. He knew Eliot was worried about him they all were, but this man had stepped over the line, he had killed a child and Nate was going to make him pay for that.

"I am leaving. I am going back to my apartment and you are all going to stay right here." Nate said looking at Sophie and seeing her eyes narrow at his statement. "You can step in at the right time, but he has to come after me."

"He won't buy that will he?" Parker asked looking at Eliot for confirmation. Moreau would have studied them over the last years and he must know they would never let Nate leave, not when he was in danger especially from him.

"No he won't." Nate said pointing at Parker. "Elysia and David's funeral is tomorrow, and I will leave after that. We are going to put on a show for him."

"Moreau will be watching." Sterling said seeing where Nate was going with this.

"Right, and he will believe it if we play it right." Nate told them. "Now I am tired, and tomorrow is going to be a long day so I think I am going to head off to bed, I suggest you guys do the same, we can go over the plan in the morning before we leave for the funeral." He said standing up and holding out his hand to his wife.

Sophie looked at him and smiled taking his hand and walking out of the study to their bedroom with him. They entered the room and Nate closed the door behind them before turning and pulling Sophie into a passionate kiss.

"Nate…" Sophie said breathlessly as they broke off from each other.

"I love you Sophie, never forget that, I love you very much." Nate said pulling her towards the bed.

"I love you too Nate but this…what you are doing is…"

"Dangerous I know. But he is going to come after us Sophie whether we like it or not, come after me first but after all of you too." Nate said sitting down on the bed and pulling her after him. "He killed a little girl Sophie and it was my fault no matter what anybody says, Elysia is dead because of me."

"Nate…please."

"Sophie I don't want to argue, I want to spend the night with my wife that I love more than anything in this world, I want to spend it with her and make her understand just how much I love her." Nate said kissing her gently. "But if you don't want to…"

"Nate you are a real bastard do you know that." Sophie said pulling away from him. "You are going to do something that will either get you killed or make you a killer and you are trying to…"

"I am not trying to do anything Sophie. Understand I must do this, but it does not change how I feel about you, about them. You are all my family and you are my wife and I love you more than I think you will ever understand. You gave me that, you gave me the ability to love again, you made me understand that I was still alive even if Sam…even if he wasn't. It took a long time and we went through a lot to get to this point. I don't want to lose that Sophie. I don't want to lose you but..." Nate said pulling her closer and looking her in the eyes. "I am going to do this."

"I love you Nathan Ford and I will stand by you in anything. I will. They will. Just know that it will change us, it will change you."

"But that is tomorrow Sophie." Nate said pulling her in closer and kissing her softly. "For now can we just be us?"

"Yes my darling…" Sophie said pushing him down on the bed and capturing his lips in a passionate kiss.

Sophie lay awake with her eyes closed, she knew he was not sleeping, she could feel him thinking. What he was planning to do was inconceivable. Nate was not a killer. He was not a man like that. If he did this it would haunt him no matter how much Moreau deserved it. She had known that when he wanted to kill Dubenich and Latimer and their will for him not to do it had stopped him, perhaps they would be able to stop him again she thought before she drifted into sleep.

Hours later Sophie had drifted off into sleep and Nate lay awake listening to her breathe. He loved this woman so much it hurt. He loved the others too he knew, Eliot, Parker and Hardison, loved them as he had loved Sam. He knew what he was about to do would change them all, change him most of all. Eliot was right he would change not in any visible way but in who he was inside if he killed Moreau. He had of course used a gun before, he had shot people before, hell he had shot Sophie, but he had never killed. Injuring people left an indelible mark on your soul, shooting somebody, but killing them would be worse it would leave a mark on him that he would never be able to remove. This man had killed his friend and his friends ten-year-old daughter and he had to pay, putting him away again would not guarantee that he would not once again escape and come after him and then it might be Sophie or one of the others he would be burying. He was prepared to deal with the fallout of his actions because he knew this is what he had to do.