A/N: Expect something big! I don't own Leverage!

Time wears thin

Nate wanted to run up the stairs instead of waiting in the elevator, but the gun chase had sucked all his energy up. Once the doors opened he quickly rushed out and into Sophie's room. Everyone was huddled around her except him and Parker. Sophie stopped talking and turned to Nate.

"Nate!" Her voice was slightly hoarse

"Sophie" He breathed and the tears started to fall before he could even comprehend what was going on. In a flash he was by her side, his lips on hers. They both pulled away more quickly then they normally would have.

"My lungs are still messed up from the fire" She explained, her accent more prominent then it used to be

"Your accents stronger"

Sophie shrugged. "Who knows why," she then frowned. "They gave me a ton of morphine"

Nate gave a watery laugh and sat down on the edge of her bed. "Yeah, they do that when people are in pain"

"And Hardison recorded the whole thing and refuses to delete it" Sophie stuck her tongue out at him

-FLASHBACK-

"Hey Maggie come 'ere I wanna tell you a secret" Sophie smiled lazily

Maggie cautiously leaned in close.

"You were lying when you said Nate wasn't good in bed because he's fantastic" Sophie said in a rather loud voice and started petting Maggie's hair.

Maggie sighed and Tara snickered while the two boys rolled their eyes.

"Hey do you remember that po-ta-to?"

The two nodded.

"Well the night before me and Nate had sex for the first time since San Lorenzo" Sophie giggled airily. Hardison had his phone out and had been recording the whole thing.

"This is gold!" He muttered to himself

"Oh no! You're taping my confessions? Don't give 'em to the police!" Sophie yelled

"Don't worry Soph, I'm not givin' them to the police"

"Oh, good! That reminds me. Nobody likes robots!" Sophie yelled at Hardison

Hardison frowned in confusion.

"And you need to cut your hair. You look too much like some southern boy that you pick up at the tumble weed saloon" Sophie started laughing at her own joke along with everyone else in the room

"Hey Sophie, do you have any more confessions about Nate or the rest of the team?" Eliot asked gently

"Ya! For Tara: yes Nate and I's relationship is mostly built on sex and some kind of unearthed love that we still haven't admitted yet. For Nate: Like seriously just shut your arrogant mouth sometimes and listen to what I have to say. For Eliot: I was NOT drunk during San Lorenzo!"

"Yeah how'd that go?" Eliot cut in

"God, it was fantastic!"

"Anyway! Continue with your confessions" Eliot cut in before it got anywhere close to graphic.

"And lastly for Parker: when are you going to ask sexual chocolate out?"

Hardisons eyes went wide and he looked at her with his mouth hanging open as he tried to form a coherent response.

"Where is Nate? He needs to see this" Tara exclaimed

"Yeah, where is Nate? I miss him" Sophie mumbled, followed by a heavy sigh

-END OF FLASHBACK-

"You're not acting all crazy right now"

"Morphine's wearing off" She answered simply

"You're bodies burning through it quick"

"Really?" Her voice was dripping sarcasm

"Has anyone told you anything?"

"No. The last thing I remember is packing up my apartment in Boston" Sophie mused

"Well we're here in Portland and we live together. Almost 5 days ago we were walking around this nice neighborhood. You smelled something burning and I didn't. Then as we walked I started to smell it and then you saw the smoke rising in the sky. You ran to the house and the lady who had just come out of the fire and was coughing said that her daughter was in there. I tried to stop you from going in there but two men held me back-" Nate was getting choked up, his eyes brimming with tears.

Sophie didn't push him, but stared at him in an almost pleading way.

Nate took a deep breath and continued, "I don't know what happened in there but someone screamed. I didn't care who it was but I kicked and yelled and they still wouldn't let me go. Then a firefighter came out with the girl and then you came out. You were limping which was probably because of your broken leg. Then you fell onto the driveway; unconscious. Then much later at the hospital they pronounce you in a severe coma. It means you would loose about 7 days of memory and could wake up in 24 hours to indefinitely."

Sophie thought about it for a while, trying to bring back the memory. Then it suddenly hit her. "So I-I could've died?"

Nate nodded slowly and felt the tears falling down his face.

"Wha-how did you...?"

"You got loaded into an ambulance immediately and I rode to the hospital with them. Then they took you away from me for all these tests. I left the hospital for the first time just earlier today."

"Nate you complete idiot..." Sophie went off on a rant but all he could do was smile sadly at her.

"I told him" Tara said once Sophie had finished

"You should listen to my best friend! She knows what she's talking about" Sophie was going to point to Tara but she wasn't allowed to move her arm

"But she never listens to me because she thinks she's better then me" Tara tousled her hair and smiled

Sophie laughed lightly. Nate reached up to fix her hair, his hands tingling at the feel of her warm skin.

"You know it's a bit un-cliché for you not to be here when I wake up" Sophie teased, grinning at him

"We were on our way here before we even got the call" Nates voice was slightly jaded and he shot Parker a warning glance. She tugged at Eliots arm and he followed her into the hall

"What Parker?" Eliot growled

"You remember when the Italian was blackmailing us?"

He nodded

"Well something like that happened...but not really. To make a long story short this man came and gave us this file. Supposedly this woman named Devalia Feradow is targeting us. Nate doesn't want us getting involved in it because he thinks it's a bunch of lies."

"Should still have Hardison check it out" He said quickly and crisply.

"That's what I said! Anyway. Then as we were about to go get Nates car from the parking garage these men started chasing us and shooting us. We ran into an alley and that's when Nate got the call. So we went up this ladder on the side of the building and ran across the roof. We jumped onto the next building and the gunners vanished. There was no way down so we had to jump back over the ledge, which was hard since we were so out of breath and weak. Nate ended up sorta falling and he was hanging on the ledge. Nothing too bad happened and we managed to get back here all in one piece."

Eliot was silent for a moment before replying smoothly, "Thanks for telling me Parker. We'll talk more in depth about this when we get back to the apartment"

Parker nodded and followed Eliot back into the room. Everyone was laughing and smiling and the Hitter and Thief forced a smile.

"So when can Sophie go back?" Parker asked slowly

"The doctor said that I'll be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital tomorrow" Sophie's voice was laced with sadness

"But your TBI isn't that bad"

"No. Not really. But the doctor said that I should at least go for a few days"

"Anything you need to do to get better" Nate brushed the tips of the fingers across her cheek and pressed a light kiss to her lips

Sophie blushed and then let her eyes flick over the three 'kids. They all had little smiles on their faces as they watched her.

Parker was the first to break the silence with a comment that made everyone raise their eyebrows. "Did you know Nate can play piano...and sing"

"You can sing?" Eliot asked in surprise

Hardison laughed and turned to Parker gesturing for a high-five. "Boom! Up top for a good joke"

"It wasn't a joke" Parker said blankly

Nate was looking down at the floor trying to hide his bright red face.

"Natteee" Sophie said in that way that always got his attention

"Hm?" He looked up at her with a sheepish smile. "We all have our own secret talents"

Everyone shrugged in agreement.

"I know that you hate un-cliche things but-" Nate pulled a small box out of his jacket pocket and flipped it open. "Sophie Devereaux, will you marry me?"

Her jaw dropped open in surprise, her eyes wide as she stared at the ring and then up at him. "HELL YES!"

Nate grinned as if he had just caught Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. He slipped the dark banded, 3-karat diamond ring on her finger.

"Nate it's beautiful" Sophie breathed; tears of happiness rolling down her face. "You didn't steal it did you?"

"No I had it specially made"

"By who?" She cocked her head to the side in curiosity

"Uno, dose, trace" He pointed to Parker, Eliot, and Hardison

"I got the diamond and made it all pretty" Parker grinned

"I made the band and the holder" Hardison said humbly

"And I put it all together and polished it all off" Eliot said with a proud smile

"And your husband presented it to you" Nate smirked

"I love all of you guys so much" Sophie cried.

The three kids grinned as Nate pulled his wife-to-be in a long kiss.

-Much later-

A raging thunderstorm went on outside, the thunder and lighting quickly going on one after the other. Everyone in the team except Sophie sat around Nates table. They had just finished their story about Devalia.

"I don't like it Nate" Eliot shook his head slowly

"He said that we don't necessarily need to get close to her to stop her" Nate tapped his fingers on the table as he looked of into the distance.

"Remember Nate we're not going to get into this" Parker said firmly

Nate shook his head and then looked at Hardison. "Do a thorough check on her Hardison"

Hardison nodded. "Can I do it tomorrow since it's been a pretty long day?"

"Yeah. But guys let me be very clear about something. Devalia does her things in the shadows and is very mysterious-"

"-that doesn't make sense! She burned a house down, how is that inconspicuous?" Eliot interrupted in outrage

"I don't know! But my point is is that she is trying to kill us!" Nates voice escalated in to yelling. "She tried to kill me and ended up getting Sophie into a severe coma. Then she tried to kill me and Parker and then I was hanging off a building with my fingertips."

"So in dumb people terms none of us are safe" Hardison added

"Yes, Hardison. That's correct and you guys need to be careful. We all need to be careful"

The all pondered his words for a few minutes, the truth stinging in their heads.

"I-I proposed to Sophie now, mostly because I realized I don't have as much time as I think and that we could die soon. All of us"

-Insert dramatic pause here (A.K.A. commercial brake)-

"Doin' a background check on Devil lady?" Parker asked as she went to sit next to Hardison

"Her name is Devalia, please don't jinx it." Hardison pleaded slightly. "And yes I am"

"Find anything?"

"It's pretty much the same thing in this folder we got. 5 foot 11, black eyes, red hair, and female. Birthplace: unknown. Current residence: unknown. Family: unknown." Hardison muttered angrily, throwing the file on the table and ferociously biting the head off a gummy frog. "Got nothin' on her. Nobody's gonna help me, cuz they don't know how to work computers. I have to do everything while they just get to relax."

"It's okay Alec" Parker put a comforting hand on his shoulder

Hardison sighed as put Devalia's face through facial recognition. "Thanks Parker"

Parker smiled and watched the screen with Hardison. It took a while but finally it got a hit. "Finally!" It said that she had last been seen at a cafe in Madrid just a week earlier. "That's odd"

"What?"

"The last place she was seen was in Madrid. Don't you think she would've showed up somewhere around Portland at least?" Hardison thought out loud

"Who knows" Parker shrugged

"It just...doesn't seem right"

Parker frowned, a thought bubbling up in the back of her brain. She pushed it away and watched Hardison. He was trying to track her to her car, hotel, house, anything. But there was nothing. She was totally off the grid. They had no way to find her. So they would just have to wait until she came to them.

A/N 2: So I did the proposal 1) because the season 4 finale didn't end with such a huge bang as I was hoping 2) because as Nate said; he doesn't have as much time as he thinks. All that's left is the epilogue!