Chapter 21

Eliot arrived at the hospital and exiting the car ran up the stairs to the fourth floor where Nate's room was. He slowed down as he walked down the corridor and approached the door. It was closed and he quickly grabbed the handle and swung it open. He looked in and saw Nate sleeping peacefully in the bed. He swept his eyes across the room and saw it was empty. He sighed in relief and then turned and closed the door again before making his way to the bed and taking up a position at Nate's side to wait for the others to arrive.

Sophie, Hardison and Parker arrived a mere ten minutes later and then Sterling walked into the room to find them all there.

"Eliot?" Sterling said as he looked at the Hitter.

"It was a message he sent to his rivals before he sent me." Eliot said simply knowing that they would all understand what that meant.

"I see so this is far from over then." Sterling said softly.

"No it's not over." Sophie said looking down at her husband trying to control the fear that threatened to drown her.

"Nate can never be alone. Hardison is checking out all staff working here. Sterling can you get the doctors to agree to the door remaining closed and the somebody always being present even during examinations?" Eliot said looking at the agent. He knew the doctor would not take that kind of instruction without it coming from somebody in authority.

"I can. Do you want my team on this as well?" Sterling asked.

"No I think we can handle security for now but thanks." Eliot said. "Hardison we need eyes and ears."

"Done." Hardison said he was already aware they would need to be able to watch not only Nate's room but the entrance to the hospital and so on. He was ready to get that in place and he would be running continual facial recognition, even though they did not know who Moreau might send, Eliot could give them a list of Hitters that Moreau used as a start.

"The doctor said Nate could be released in a few days." Parker reminded them. It was fine setting all of this up here but what about when they left.

"True. I don't think Moreau knew where Nate was so the house is still viable, we will just have to up security." Eliot said looking at the Thief. "Hardison you and Parker should take care of that in the next few days."

"Guys you have to be careful. We don't know what Moreau has in place. He could have people following us too and we could lead him directly to Nate." Sophie said as they spoke about setting up the security.

"Sophie the man is in prison, he must have set this in motion before that just as a contingency, but I doubt he could do anything now." Sterling said.

"Dubenich planned everything from prison." Parker said meaningfully. In an ideal world yes Moreau would not be able to do anything from a prison cell, but with a phone he could organise anything from anywhere.

"True, be careful guys, if you are followed…"

"We will." Parker agreed before Sophie could finish. She was not going to be the reason Moreau found where Nate was when they moved. Now was their time to keep him safe and she was going to make sure they did.

"So what do we tell him when he wakes up?" Sterling asked looking at the Mastermind.

Sophie sighed heavily. She knew what Sterling meant, was Nate going to allow them to protect him, keep him insulated? She knew he was not going to do that. He was going to want to settle this thing and he was going to want to bring out the hitman whoever he was by putting himself out there as bait. She also knew he was going to be angry with himself for allowing this to happen, that he had allowed Moreau to live and thereby placed all of them in danger. But she thought, he could not take even one more hit. He was not invincible, and his body could simply not take more hits even if he would not admit it. She knew that to be the truth and so did the others.

"Tell him what?" Nate's voice interrupted them.

"Hey darling." Sophie said as she leaned over and gave him a kiss. "How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough." Nate said looking up at her. He had caught the end of the conversation and he knew something was going on, something not good. "Well?"

"Moreau is going to be sending somebody for you." Eliot said simply. The man was no fool and he would work it out anyway, even if he had not heard anything.

"Ah…" Nate said laying his head back and closing his eyes. This was never going to be over he thought to himself, he should have just killed Moreau.

"We have everything in hand Nate." Sophie said softly.

"You do?" Nate said opening his eyes and looking at her. "Do you think he will stop if one fails?" He asked then looked towards Eliot.

"No he won't." Eliot said and all of them looked at him.

"We will deal with this Nate. You need to rest and recover, you have four bullet wounds and you cannot deal with this now, so please, just let us deal with it." Sophie almost pleaded with him as she cursed Eliot for being so direct.

Nate did not reply he simply nodded and put his head back closing his eyes again. Sophie was right there was nothing he could do. He felt old and tired and his body was sore. He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep for a long time. It was not long before he had drifted back to sleep as the others watched him.

"I don't think he can take much more Eliot." Sophie said looking up at him. First it was Elysia and her father, then the first gunshot and then the whole debacle that followed and Sophie did not think he could take any more.

"We'll get him through this Sophie." Eliot said.

"We will all get him through this." Parker said taking Sophie's hand. "It's our turn now."

Sophie smiled and squeezed her hand then turned back to Nate as the others got moving with securing his room. Hardison and Parker set off for the house to get the house ready for when they moved Nate there after his discharge. Eliot and Sterling stayed in the hospital with Nate and Sophie ensuring that he was secure there.

"You know we can't do this in perpetuity." Sterling said as he and Eliot sat outside the room.

"I know."

"So how are we going to end this Eliot…" Sterling asked turning to the Hitter. "Can we end it?"

"It ends with the end of Moreau." Eliot said.

"Well that is a problem."

"I know but…" Eliot took a deep breath. "Sterling I worked for this man as a Hitter. He will never let this go, he is going to keep going until Nate is dead," Eliot said looking at the Interpol Agent. "Or he is dead."

"Then we really do have a problem." Sterling said looking at the room door and wondering how they were going to get Nate and themselves out of this.

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