It was an odd feeling, dying. It was even worse the way she was going. Sophie could feel and see everything that was happening but she couldn't breathe, couldn't move. So she stared at the ceiling as her life started to slip off into oblivion. She heard a loud sound over by the door. Her name followed shortly afterwards. Then Nate popped into her line of sight with Eliot joining him with tired looks of worry on their faces as they started working on keeping her alive, but it was already too late and she knew it. It was an odd feeling. She could feel her pulse growing weaker as her vision started to dim. It hurt too. There was nothing there to help her breathe and her chest ached for oxygen. Her heart felt like this giant gulp of fire every time it tried to send blood throughout her body. She wanted the darkness to hurry up and swallow her whole. She didn't want Nate to know she suffered. Then her throat was aching in double time all of a sudden and a persistent mouth of familiarity started slamming air into her lungs. That hurt worse than anything. It was Nate's mouth breathing into her. She couldn't move because it was too late and she was going to die and he was going to feel guilty because he couldn't save her in time. Her heart started thudding against her chest and her lungs burned as they moved the way they were supposed to. The blackness was starting to disappear and it really didn't make any sense because she was starting to feel alive again. Nate's mouth forced air into her lungs one more time and then they remembered how to work. She started coughing and it hurt and burned and was the worst pain she had ever gone through.
The sounds of rough coughing started to fill the air after that. Sophie was blinking and coughing in Nate's arms and very much alive. She was practically shaking from the force of the fits.
"Thank God," Nate cried out as he clasped the grifter tightly in his arms so she wouldn't hurt herself further, "You're okay."
"Parker!" Sophie screeched out as she tried to clasp Eliot's hand to get his attention, "Hardison! Goons! Out!"
"I'm on it," Eliot nodded as he realized what the grifter was trying to do, "Stay here!"
"Sophie, calm down," Nate pleaded as he started drawing circles in her back to keep her lungs from overexerting themselves, "You need to breathe slowly."
The grifter continued to cough, gasp and groan as her breathing tried to get under control. Tears were forming in her eyes and the mastermind wasn't sure what they were for. He held her close and kept rubbing her back while air remembered how to fill her lungs again.
Eliot raced into the other rooms as quickly as possible. He forced his way into all of them with no sign of the hacker or thief anywhere. He kicked his way into the final room in a panic. The hacker was there, lying on the floor unconscious. The hitter quickly stepped to his side and checked for a pulse. Hardison was alive but the blood smears from earlier were definitely his. Eliot raised the young man up onto the bed and started looking for a first aid kit. The window to the room was open and the wind whistled through the curtains in an insulting, soothing breeze. Nate raced into the room carefully and stared at the hacker in shock.
"Parker?" Nate demanded immediately.
"Gone," Eliot replied back as he continued to work on cleaning the hacker's wounds, "Through the window. I can't tell if she was taken or not. Sophie?"
"Passed out the moment her breathing got under control," Nate bitterly replied as he stared at the hacker transfixed, "How bad is he?"
"He's got a nasty bump on the head," Eliot surmised quickly, "A few broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. He'll be fine in a few weeks. He'll be out cold for at least the next few days."
"Why did they leave him like that?" Nate demanded hotly, "What was their plan?"
"They were sending us a message," Eliot stated calmly, "Apparently Sophie was too much of a risk to leave alive."
"Hardison would be the one to fight for Parker the hardest," Nate spat back at the sinister idea, "Why kill Sophie, seriously injure him, and take Parker?"
"Because they were going to take Parker," Eliot stated as he stopped working on the hacker long enough to get his shaking hands under control, "Sophie's the mama bear of the den. If you steal a mama's cubs you better be prepared for a fight. Hardison was the second most dangerous thing in their path after that. I think Sophie really took them for a spin before they finally brought her down. Their goal was Parker based on the direction of all the upturned furniture."
"Why get us out of the room though?" Nate questioned as he helped the hitter reset the hacker's shoulder, "Why not just you?"
"You're the boss," Eliot replied after a pause, "You'll do anything, including getting your ass sent to prison, to protect your team. They wanted to separate the strongest from the weakest for a while."
"I'm going to kill them," Nate stated darkly, "I'll rip their throats out if they so much as lay a hand on Parker."
"That'll send them the right message," Eliot huffed at the mastermind's automatic thoughts, "You try to strangle my girl and I'll rip your throats out, you hurt my thief and I'll kill you slowly. Hurt my hacker and your fingers are going to be broken separately."
"In my defense," Nate responded in kind, "You're the one who will be doing most of the torturing."
"How are you?" Eliot demanded as he let the statement rest.
"I'm going to stay with Sophie," Nate replied back as he left the room with that blank look on his face that meant he was already planning their enemy's demise.
"They're going to pay," Eliot translated for the unconscious hacker, "Nate's got a plan forming in his head and as soon as you and Sophie are in top notch shape, we'll get Parker back."
