Notes: Chapter two. Not much to add besides that this is betaed by she who should be praised: ALS_wonderland

The Legacy Job
Chapter Two

There were some days Nate was reminded of how very glad he was that the members of his team were on his side.

Today was one of them.

It had taken the better part of a half hour to get them to all refocus on the job rather than on Eliot's pending fatherhood. His reminders of what Eliot would do if he found out about all the snooping they were doing had fallen flat. He wasn't sure when it had happened but somewhere along the lines, everyone on the team had stopped being even a little afraid of the chance that one of the world's most dangerous hitters would ever raise a hand to strike any of them.

The team's antics were pretty amusing though, he almost wished Eliot had been around when Parker had called him a Teddy Bear.

After taking a reasonable time to adjust to the situation they were hard at work. Hardison did back ground checks and preliminary hacking to finish what they'd done before the meeting, Sophie made a few calls, and Parker watered the plants before picking locks from her box while hanging upside down from his stairs.

Business as usual.

Then when things were done and settled with the recon, Nate determined there was enough groundwork to take the job and called Eliot to let him know he should take Selina to the safe house. He'd barely even hung up the phone when Sophie and Parker had gathered around Hardison.

Nate walked over to investigate only to find Hardison had brought back up the nursery catalogue Eliot had been on long enough to actually look at cribs.

"I think she's having twins." Hardison said, clicking on another link. "Pre-natal care for twins and the mother, an article on the difference between single births and twins, I think he…" Hardison's voice faded a little. "But nothing at all about pregnancy in general. Some of these key phrases he used in the search aren't somthin' a guys gonna know unless he's al…" Hardison's voice faded.

"Already had a kid." Sophie finished, her voice hushed. "You think he has children out there that we don't know about?"

They all fell silent, different little bits and pieces swirling around in their minds. Yes, Eliot could go into chef mode, but during the day in and day out meals they'd had as a team, he'd proven he knew how to cook for a family while dealing with Parker and Hardison harassing him like overgrown kids. Every holiday they'd been together Eliot had disappeared either on it or for a few days before or after, and covered his tracks so well even Hardison couldn't find him. How good he was with kids. How personally he'd taken a father abusing his son.

How, if Nate was honest, more than anyone else, Eliot seemed to be able to comprehend, even if he didn't know firsthand, what losing Sam had done to him.

Their continued shock was interrupted by a cell phone call. Nate answered, forcing his voice normal as short confirmations were exchanged; Eliot had picked up Selina and was picking up some stuff from her place before taking her to the safe house and would be coming back for the briefing soon.

By the time Nate had closed his phone the others had dispersed, returning to their usual activities, no sign or sound that anything was out of the ordinary. Just another day at the office.

Nothing to see, move along.

Yeah, some days he was reminded how good at what they did they all were.

oOo

Eliot wasn't sure when he'd become the automatic choice for bodyguard for a Mark. Yeah, he was the team's muscle, but he was a Hitter. Hitters hit people. They didn't protect people. They protected themselves. Nate and the others had once had a very clear understanding of that. Nate had been the one to take Perry to the safe house during their first job. He'd seen to the other client's safety for awhile afterward. The others had seen to their own safety and Eliot had looked after himself.

So how did he end up here, in Selina Lauklin's house, listening to her buzz around her kitchen using what was left of the fifteen minutes he'd given her to get her stuff together to go to the safe house? He didn't know when he'd become his Team's white knight protector. He didn't know when he'd become their Client's white knight protector.

All he did know was that things were seriously out of control.

He scanned out the front window again before moving to check the back. He felt anxious. There had been no direct threat on Selina's life but that didn't mean someone wasn't out to get her.

A curse, not the first in the past twenty minutes, came from the kitchen followed by a crash of glass.

Eliot was at the doorway in under two seconds, ready to fight only to find Selina kneeling on the floor trying to use the sleeve of her shirt to brush shards of glass from a frame away from the paper it had protected until recently. He walked to the sink, grabbed the dishtowel and knelt to help if only to keep the woman from slicing up her hands on his watch.

"Sorry…Sorry." Selina muttered, taking her hands away but keeping her head down. Eliot didn't have to see her face to recognize the hoarseness in her voice was from crying. The kind that was somewhere between frustrated and afraid that had been kept on that edge for far too long.

Eliot really really wished Sophie was there. She was the one who knew how to handle this kind of shit.

"Hey, hey… it's okay." He muttered, finishing clearing the glass away so it was safe to pick up the paper. It was a page torn out of a word search, of all things. He looked at it a long moment, not really understanding the significance.

"When she's having a hard time Adrian does word searches, it distracts her, gives her mind something to focus on when she's trying to deal with just breathing. When I first got her she'd go through two or three entire books in a single week, more if she was having trouble sleeping." Selina said, gently taking the paper from him. "She'd also look for names of people she knew and other things…" She trailed off, looking it over a moment before pointing to a spot and showing it to Eliot. "She gave me this a week before she was taken, said it was proof of fate." The words "Selina" and "Adrian" had been circled, intersecting at the "a".

Selina carefully folded the piece of paper and put it in her purse. "I'll finish cleaning this up when we get home. I've got most of my things ready to go." She turned away, wiping off her face. "Do I have time to put together some stuff for Adrian, for once we get her back?"

Eliot glanced at the clock. He had told Selina fifteen minutes twelve minutes ago but there had been no direct threat.

"You've got seven minutes." Eliot said.

Yeah. This whole caring about people thing was getting really out of hand.

Selina nodded, and grabbed a battered black messenger bag off a peg by the door between the kitchen and the dining room; a room that looked like it served as the little house's office. Selina bustled around the dinning room table again. Unlike before, though, when she'd been sorting through the half of the table littered with the folders and case files from her work and the investigating she'd done, now she was pulling things off the other half. Judging from the neat pile of word puzzle books Selina slipped into the bag, handful of notebooks, textbooks, and novels it had been Adrian's half, left untouched since the girl had been taken.

When Eliot got back from checking the front window once more, Selina was shutting the battered old laptop that had sat in the middle of the workspace, retrieved the power supply, and removed the flash drive. She shook her head. "Kids these days… I swear Adrian wouldn't care if I brought her nothing to wear so long as I didn't forget Matthew." Eliot was about to ask when Selina shook her head. "The laptop. According to Adrian, electronics work better if you name them." She slid it into the messenger bag with the power supply and flash drive. "I'll just grab her some clothes and we can get out of here.

Eliot nodded and watched her go. He checked the area twice more before they left. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. No bugs. No spies. Nothing.

But he still couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched.

oOo

When Eliot got back, the others had settled in front of the TV. Hardison waited until he'd grabbed a drink and settled down before beginning "Zocrolft Pharmaceuticals" Hardison said, clicking his remote to start running it. "Not the biggest company out there but they're growing. They specialize in medicines for mental disorders, specifically anti-depressants. Three years ago they announced they were working on a product specifically for the use of depressed teens and children. See, anti-depressants all have a risk of increasing suicidal behavior and in kids and teens… well it gets a whole lot more common. Zo-Tien was meant to be different."

He clicked again, pictures of a dozen teenagers sliding onto the screen. "It was I guess." He added, voice half bitter, half ironic.

"It was worse." Eliot guessed.

"I checked out our client's story and confirmed it. Of the fifty kids who were on the drug there were five suicides." Five of the pictures on the screen faded away. "The attempts were harder to track, I've only got confirmation on these three, and of course, Adrian Merrins." All but one of the pictures faded away and Hardison expanded it, a few more clicks brought up a file next to the recent school photo.

"This is our client's foster daughter, Adrian Merrins, one of the first failed suicide attempts. After a few weeks in a Psych Ward she was released back to her foster parents. She spent the next eight months bouncing between three different foster families before our client took her in. After six months Selina's investigating caught the wrong person's notice and they took Adrian as collateral. She's currently in the North Valley Psychiatric Hospital just outside Somerville."

"Getting her out is the first step." Nate added with a little nod. "After she's safe we can work on Zocrolft."

"I've done some research the person in charge of the testing at Zocrolft." Hardison continued. He clicked to bring up two pictures. "This is Joshua Milton, head of the department of Zocrolft that covers testing. Rich, Ivy League School, belongs to a golf club, new Rolex and Mustang every six months. Also? The guy probably uses a magic eight ball to decide what tie to wear. Check this." He clicked the remote bringing up five pictures. "Personal travel advisor for his yearly trip, personal stock broker, personal money manager, interior designer and fashion consultant, and of course his personal connection to the world beyond Mrs. Delores the Mysterious."

"Superstitious?" Eliot asked.

"Lets just say she's living rather nicely for a medium who doesn't have many clients."

Nate smiled and nodded. "Alright. Lets get Adrian back." With a satisfied nod he got up and headed upstairs to grab his gear before they headed out.

Parker watched Nate leave and leaned over to whisper to Eliot. "He didn't say what we're going to steal. Oooh…" She sniffed and drew away standing up. It was a known fact (at least she considered it known fact) that their jobs went sideways when Nate didn't give their "Lets go steal a…" rallying cry. And jobs involving kids also went sideways (Serbia, The Bank Job, the job when they came back together, the job at the private school). They went bad even when he said their rallying cry.

A job involving kids when Nate didn't say what they were stealing?

"Someone's gonna get shot in the face." Parker mumbled turning to look to Eliot. "Be very careful. Your kids need you too much for you to get shot in the face and die."

There was a long moment of silence as Sophie and Hardison froze and the look of confusion on Eliot's face quickly morphed into annoyance. "HARDISON!"

Parker watched as Eliot turned and stalked out after the hacker who had wisely chosen that as a good moment to flee the room.

Parker slid next to Sophie and watched them leave the apartment. Quietly she muttered. "I think Hardison's going to be the one shot in the face."

"I don't know Parker. I think Hardison's safe from that." Sophie answered, neither taking their eyes off the door. "Eliot doesn't like guns remember?"

"Oh. Right." Parker answered, not feeling comforted.

oOo

There were some days Nate was glad they were all on the same side now. Some days he was well and truly impressed by the others.

Parker accidentally revealing what the team knew and the half hour spent getting them back to some kind of focus was not one of those particular bright shining moments.

After stopping Eliot from murdering Hardison (or scaring him to death, because the fact Eliot hadn't actually laid a finger on Hardison by that point suggested he had no intention to actually get violent), and getting everyone to get their gear, Nate was feeling like a kindergarten teacher.

Then it was into their van, on the way to the North Valley Psychiatric Hospital for the retrieval of Adrian so they could move into the rest of the job.

Of course Eliot, their expert on retrieving people, was having a bit of a hard time conferring with Nate about strategy. Hardison, who'd found hacking his way into the hospital's database was relatively easy, had gotten over his fear, and was tag teaming Eliot with Parker's help to try to get information, with Sophie contributing from the drivers seat every now and then.

Nate had to hide his amusement as the man who Nate knew for fact had withstood months and ungodly amounts of torture at the hands of experts, looked about to crack under the weight of sheer annoyance.

As amusing as it was though, they really needed to focus for a few minutes. The extraction should be easy enough to plan, but at this rate it would take a four hour drive instead of a forty minute one.

"Hardison, Parker, I need Eliot for ten minutes. Can we have a bit of focus here?"

Nate and Eliot had actually more or less gotten through the plan, and were explaining it to the others, when Hardison's computer started letting off a distressing series of beeps. A moment later all their cell phones started chiming merrily.

"What the…?" Nate barely started before Hardison's fingers were flying over the keyboard. "It's the alarm at the safe house Selina's staying in." Hardison made a few more clicks and brought up a screen of footage showing someone trying to break down the reinforced back entry to the safe house.

Eliot's cell phone stopped making the alarm sound and rang. "Yeah, we know." He answered, nodding to Nate that it was Selina. "You're gonna be fine darlin', it's gonna take them a bit to get in there and we've got a way out for you. Now listen here's whatcha need ta do."

"Sophie pull over." Nate said, glad they were still on a city street. "I don't know how they found the safe house but trying to kill Selina means they're moving for an endgame. You three keep going, get Adrian out and stay safe. I need Eliot with me to pick up Selina because we know she's got armed men after her." He looked from Hardison to Parker and then met Sophie's eyes in the rearview mirror. He was saying that they wouldn't have Eliot to protect them if things went south. "If things go south get out and get away."

They all nodded, their expressions serious in contrast to the earlier teasing.

"Meet up at the east side safe house. If you're back before us I want you to scope out my apartment, see if it's safe to go back to."

Another round of nods.

Eliot put a hand on his shoulder, gesturing out the back, still on the phone to talk Selina through the backdoor out of the not-so-safe house.

They had to move. They were at least ten minutes from where they'd stashed Selina, even with Eliot doing the driving.

They climbed out of the back of the van and Nate took over the phone, talking Selina through the retreat, suppressing his honest man's instinct (figuring they'd fix it later) as Eliot picked a car's lock, climbed in, and hotwired it at a speed that had Parker nodding approvingly as she closed the doors behind them. The others took off as Nate climbed in, braced himself, and Eliot started to drive.

Three minutes later Nate had navigated Selina out (well, down, out through a well hidden and locked passage into a service elevator to an abandoned entrance to sewage service tunnels, over a block, and up into an entire different building that had a safe house and a panic room.)

Long minutes later they parked outside the building and entered, checking Hardison's alarms to make sure they were still active as they went. Nate kept the phone conversation going until they'd reached the internal entry and the door opened. A rather shaken looking Selina stepped out, hugging a black messenger bag to her stomach. "I… I know…" She was trying to say something but it looked like she was a little past articulating herself.

"It's alright. We've got you." Nate said, attempting to sound comforting. "Come on. We'll get you somewhere safe." They kept a car in the parking lot, ready for the hasty get away they needed right now.

"Safe…" She managed, nodding, relaxing. The adrenalin rush of fleeing for her life looked like it was wearing off and leaving her wiped.

They ended up herding her down the stairs between the two of them, Nate marveling at human behavior as they stepped out into the parking lot. With the team he'd almost forgotten how normal people reacted to having a very implicate threat to their lives. Hardison would be quoting some…

His phone rang and he picked it up. "Got her Hardison?"

"No." Hardison said, confusion in his voice. "It's not her."

"What do you mean it's not her?"

"We went to the room of Adrian Merrins and it was some other girl. She's not here."

"Wh-" Nate's response was interrupted as something warm sprayed across his face, a moment before an unfortunately familiar pain exploded through his right side knocking him back. He register the sound of guns and was somewhat aware of Selina's body hitting the ground before another sharp blow knocked him into Oblivion.