Hardison stared blankly at the new ceiling in confusion. He was trying to remember why his head ached and every piece of him was screaming to fight. He remembered Eliot and Nate leaving to go meet with the mark. Sophie wanted to get something to settle Parker's nerves so she went downstairs for a while. Parker was practically bouncing off the walls in a bundle of chaos the moment Sophie left. She kept questioning what was going on and why they weren't doing anything. She couldn't understand that they were at the part of the plan where they threatened the mark into giving them everything. They were close to finishing the con. That's when it happened! Sophie entered the room with eyes blazing. She immediately started calling Parker names and said so many bad things it was horrible. Hardison wanted to punch the grifter until she was out cold for the things she said to his thief. Then, he recognized something. The note in her voice was wrong. It was her con voice. They were after Parker and he needed to protect her! He started helping Sophie out because he knew full-well that she wouldn't be able to fight them off on her own. They needed to buy Parker time. He packed up her things and practically threw her into the room furthest from the hotel door. He lied to her. He had to. He told her he didn't love her which was obviously not true but it was going to save her and that was all that mattered. He watched as Parker tried to fight off the tears on her way out of the window and out of their lives, his life, until she got past the hurt and realized how much they lied about. He heard a horrifying sound coming from where he had last seen Sophie. He rushed to the grifter's side in time to see her fail and have a cord wrapped firmly around her throat. He hollered at the goons and went to save his friend. A fist met him square in the face before he reached her but that didn't matter. The guy who threw the punch was on the floor in seconds from the arm he gladly extended the way Eliot taught him. He threw the guy killing the grifter across the floor and started exactly where she had left off. He kicked the first guy to come towards him in the nose. He then threw himself into the next guy. Anything to distract the big guys from the grifter and buy her the time she needed to breathe before she could escape with Parker. His head was the first thing to hit the television shortly after. His foot connected with something hard and a howl of pain helped his grimace of pain turn into a smirk of satisfaction. He could hear some movement from Sophie's direction and started heading towards it. His face was reflected back at him in several pieces after that one. He heard a chair crack from nearby and knew it was Sophie trying to fight off the goons for him. Didn't she understand that it was his job to save her? He kicked back and threw a punch that landed with a nice snap of satisfaction. He dodged some more blows as he tried to lead them further into the hotel room. Eliot and Nate would come back for them. He would be fine. He just needed to buy them time. He felt the wall up a few more times before blackness took him for a ride. The last thing he saw...

"Sophie!" Hardison shouted as he abruptly jolted himself out of bed and across the hall before gravity and his own stamina came into action, "Parker! Sophie! Parker! Girls, let me hear from ya!"

"Hardison!" Parker shouted angrily as she seized the man by the shoulders to comfort his fall, "What are you doing jumping out of bed like that?"

"Parker!" Hardison sighed in relief when the thief popped into his welcoming vision, "Are you okay? I didn't mean it! I wanted to get you out of there so they wouldn't get you! They didn't get you did they? You're alright, right?"

"I'm fine," Parker muttered in stunned disbelief as those horrid tears started to fall on her cheeks again, "I figured out you were lying later. We're safe. You're okay."

"Sophie!" Hardison repeated urgently as he snapped out of his moment of bliss at Parker's livelihood long enough to remember his job, "Where's Sophie?"

"She's…" Parker hesitantly began to answer before another voice floated into his ears.

"Hardison!" Nate snapped at him in relief, "You're awake, good. What are you doing out here? You just suffered from a very serious head injury! Come on let's get you back to bed!"

"Nate?" Hardison questioned immediately, "How is Sophie? Is she okay?"

"We need to get you back in bed," Eliot replied back as he gave the mastermind a careful look before he helped get the hacker up and moving towards the bed, "You were really messed up. How many of the guys did you take out before they got you?"

"I don't know," Hardison replied as he was put in bed, "I was only fighting so they wouldn't get Parker. It was just instinct. I had to buy her enough time to get lost. I just kept throwing kicks and punches and they landed every time. My face broke the mirror though."

"Seven years of bad luck," Parker stated the little fact in distaste, "We didn't need seven more years of that, Hardison."

"I'm not apologizing for getting my ass handed to me to get you out," Hardison spat back with a grin at how alive she was, "When did you guys come to save me?"

"We didn't," Nate sighed as he took a deep breath at the thought, "We were too late."

"What do you mean?" Hardison asked in confusion, "Parker's alive and well and right here. I'm alive and only a little broken. Sophie's… Aw hell no! Sophie's dead? How can she be dead? I was right there! She can't be dead! How is she? What happened? She wasn't dead when I passed out!"

"Hardison calm down!" Eliot shouted as he gave another look in Nate's direction before answering, "Sophie's…"

"Sophie's dead!" Hardison screamed as guilt started swelling throughout his chest, "I'm sorry, Nate! I was fighting them off as hard as I could but that woman just wouldn't leave!"

"Hardison, no!" Nate shouted at the hacker in dismay, "You were saving Parker! You saved…"

"She's dead!" Hardison shouted out angrily, "I'm sorry, Parker! I really tried!"

"Sophie's alive, Hardison!" Parker shouted out loudly, "She's fine."

"Seriously?" Hardison demanded as he stared quizzically at the two other men in the room, "Cuz they aren't acting like she is!"

"It was a close call!" Eliot supplied with a guilty shrug, "A very close call!"

"I had to do mouth to mouth eighteen times before it worked," Nate explained as he rubbed his neck in frustration.

"Then where is she?" Hardison demanded immediately as his eyebrow started to arch at the implication, "If she's alive, why isn't she in here right now?"

"She's resting," Nate explained sheepishly, "It was a very close call!"

"We're keeping her heavily drugged until her throat heals enough that she won't damage anything by talking," Eliot supplied as he darted another careful glance Nate's way.

"I want to see her!" Hardison demanded angrily, "Wake her up because I want to see her right now!"

"Hardison," Parker spoke softly, "she's sleeping. You should be too. It's okay. You need your rest."

"No!" Hardison shouted at the woman he cared about most of all, "Ya'll are lying to me, that's what's going on! Ya'll know I tried to save her and you think telling me will do somethin' with my recovery! She's dead and ya'll just don't want to tell me! Aw Sophie, I'm sorry! I tried!"

"Hardison?" a gravelly voice that sounded somewhat like the grifter's answered back after that little outburst of mistrust.

"Oh thank god!" Hardison sighed in relief as the grifter popped into his vision, "They wouldn't let me see you!"

"It's alright," Sophie smiled warmly at him as she groggily moved towards him though she was intercepted by Nate's arms snaking their way around her waist to keep her standing, "I'm fine. You saved me. I would be dead if you didn't buy me that time! Go to sleep."

"Parker," Hardison demanded sternly as the thief automatically popped up to his side, "don't leave! You stay right there!"

"I will," Parker promised as she grabbed his hand and squeezed it, "I'm right here."

"Good," Hardison smiled as his eyelids grew very heavy, "I saved my girls. I can sleep now. I lo…"

"You low?" Parker asked in confusion when Hardison fell asleep before completing his statement, "What did he mean by he lows?"

"Nothing, Parker," Eliot replied as he stared at the grifter in disdain, "What are you doing out of bed, Sophie?"

"I heard him screaming," Sophie shrugged as she started leaning heavily against the mastermind, "I knew he needed to make sure I was alright."

"You need to be in bed," Nate calmly stated as he pulled her closer, "Your body needs time to recover from the lack of oxygen."

"I don't want to rest," Sophie pouted as her eyelids started to slide shut of their own accord.

"I know," Nate spoke softly as Eliot rolled his eyes, "that's why you're being drugged."

"I hate drugs," Sophie stated as Nate picked her off of the floor and took her out of the room.

"How close was it?" Parker asked sheepishly as she petted her hacker's hair and stared at his sleeping face in wonder.

"Everybody's safe, Parker," Eliot quipped back refusing to answer her question at all, "We'll get these guys back for what they almost did. That's all that matters."

"How bad was Nate?" Parker asked immediately afterwards as she guessed the answer based on the one she had gotten.

"They're alive and the bad guys didn't get you," Eliot stressed with a low growl, "That's a win! Don't worry about the rest of it! It's not your fault, Parker!"