-the day before the incident-

Nate walked through his apartment door, preparing himself for the tongue lashing he was sure to get. He could hear the discussions of his team from the hallway, the bickering in escalation between his hacker and hitter.

"I didn't say that! I said..." The low growl of the hitter sounded different, exhausted and definitely angry.

"Yeah I heard what you said Eliot! You think I don't know what could've happened! I didn't know that those guys knew you and that they'd go after Parker! I didn't know man!" Now the hacker sounded like he was on a sugar rush and couldn't come down.

"We know that Hardison, I think the last con shook us all up a bit, right Parker?" And there was his grifter to try and ease a calm between the bickering boys.

"Yeah! And I got to punch someone and steal a really big diamond so I thought it was fun!" Of course Parker would consider it a win.

"Except for the part where you were surrounded by ten armed men." Eliot growled out, still fuming over the last con.

"Well yeah, obviously."

"They hit you Parker."

"Yeah? So? You hit them back harder. And I tasered them."

"After they got a few good shots in! You know what? Never mind. I need to take a look at your knee again though."

Nate entered at that point and tried to ignore the sight of Eliot bending and inspecting Parker's knee. The last con was harder than usual and the the team was worn afterwards. It didn't help that Nate called in a meeting today, but they didn't understand. Nate couldn't not be on a job today. Not today. It was the anniversary of Sam's death. He had to have his mind occupied. He already went to the gravesite and paid his respects, doused his liver in alcohol, met with the client, and called the team in. Going straight towards his alcohol stash, he grabbed a bottle and glass and tried to drown out the almost silence that followed him everywhere. Luckily, that's what his team was for.

"It's fine! Why are we doing this? It doesn't even hurt that much!" Parker wined.

"I saw the fall you took on the con, Parker, and you limping afterwards. This is just me checking your injury and it would go faster if you'd stop squirmin!"

"But Eliooooooooot! It doesn't even count cause I fell on you! You cushioned my fall!"

"Yeah well I apparently wasn't enough cushion for ya darlin. You still twisted your knee on impact."

"Well it's not my fault! The striped horses would have got me!"

"Zebras Parker. They're called zebras."

Eliot sighed as he wrapped Parker's knee with an ace bandage, his movements slower than normal. Nate studied the hitter for a moment, taking in how he favored his left side, though desperately trying to hide it. The left side of his face was a mass assortment of bruises all in various stages of healing. Maybe Nate pushed this to fast, set the bar too quickly, but he thought the last job was going to carry through longer. Since it didn't, he had to find another quickly so he didn't have time to think about the date. Downing his drink, he walked towards the group, noticing Hardison's uncharacteristic silence. Gazing at the young man, he saw the bloodshot eyes that spoke of a day or two of sleepless nights. That and the empty two liter of orange soda beside his laptop that he was typing away on. The man hardly even seemed present at the moment, only jumping in occasionally to bicker and fight with Eliot. Then Nate turned to the last one of his team, who he feared most. Sophie's eyes found his, and he was sure if it was possible to kill with just a look, he would be five foot under by now. Though taking into account how his team appeared, he couldn't blame her for her frustration. A pang of guilt hit him when he looked at his exhausted team. Even the elegant and beautiful grifter had dark circles under her eyes. Parker had a yellowing bruise on her cheekbone and scrapes on her arms from her thieving stunts the day before. Nate already concluded Eliot was hurt by the way he moved, unnoticeably different for people who didn't know him, but the mastermind could tell. Not that the hitter would tell what was wrong, not that it mattered either. Nate would rather not know what happens to the hitter, as long as he knows his limits. He can't handle that knowledge right now, feeling that emotional pain like he did those times Sam fell and scraped his knees or the times... Nate shook his head hard. Standing off to the side of the group, he cleared his throat and began.

"Hardison. Run it."

A small nod and a barely stifled yawn was his response. Nate glanced over at the hacker and knew he had rushed this one. Hardison hadn't even complained to him yet, signifying the amount of exhaustion he must be experiencing. Rubbing his eyes, the hacker tapped a few buttons and pulled up the newly acquired information. He cleared his throat before revealing his findings.

"Vladimir Balagula. Said to be part of the Russian mafia. Any information on this guy is scarce at best. He actually hardly has a record at all. Clean as a whistle except for a few parking tickets, though those are probably there to not raise suspicion."

"Is there anything you can give on this guy?" Nate sighed.

"Well our client claims he is responsible for the disappearances of teens from her shelter. Said that they slowly started to go missing, a new one gone every month." Hardison supplied, filled in on Nate's information from that morning.

"What does he want with teenagers?" Sophie asked, leaning forward in interest.

"Well that's what I've yet to figure out." Hardison exhaled as he rubbed his forehead.

"Where's he taking them?" The deep rumble of Eliot's voice raised the hacker's head.

"You think if I knew that I would still be standing here?"

"Hardison." Nate scolded.

"Yeah yeah. It's just the caffeine talkin."

"Do you know anything else?" Nate questioned, already feeling that the day was going to get worse. Especially since he noticed that Parker had gone silent since the briefing started. Glancing over at her, he saw the strain on her face when she was trying to deal with emotions but couldn't figure out how. Sighing, he realized why. Teenagers from shelters going missing.

"Well now that you ask, no. I just got done cleaning up the paper trail from the last con and you were lucky you got this much. I'll look into it some more but this is all I got right now."

Nate snapped out of his inner monologue at Hardison's voice. And there was the complaining. Looking at his team, the mastermind decided that after this con they would take a break. But for now, he had to occupy himself today and figure everything else out later. There wasn't much information to work with, but Nate needed something going on and he couldn't wait that long. He had to act on something. He turned to face the team.

"Ok. Let's go steal the next generation."