Ch. 10 GPS

Eliot woke up from a nap in the recliner to the sound of the front door being thrown open. The unmistakable sound of Savannah growling and storming upstairs lured him out of the chair. Hardison was at his computer like usual and stared at the stairs with concern. The sound even brought Parker into the room, eyebrow raised.

Savannah ran back down stairs with a duffel bag and an arm load of shoes. She ceremoniously flung the shoes onto Hardison's desk. Before he could start yelling, she barked, "Take the GPS out of my shoes!"

Eliot felt his eyes go wide with panic. Hardison stuttered as he dared to glance over at him. "I-I-I don't...um..."

"I said TAKE THE GPS OUT OF MY SHOES!" She went over the desk and grabbed for Hardison's throat.

Only Parker's quick thinking saved him. She wrapped her arms around Savannah and hauled her out of arm's reach of Hardison or his desk. "No, you can't do that to him. He breaks. He's not Eliot."

For some reason, Parker let Savannah go and Savannah just shook it off. "I need-"

"I know. It'll be taken care of," Parker assured her, giving Hardison a look that told him she wasn't just saying that.

Savannah took a shaky breath. "Okay. Thanks." She grabbed the duffel bag and made towards the front door, still open. "Call me when we can go forward with the job."

"Where are you going?" Eliot had said it quietly, hadn't even meant to say it at all.

Savannah whirled around and glared at him, her eyes burning him with anger and a touch of hurt. She spoke with terrifying calmness. "Where do you think?"

And she left before he could respond.

"Hardison! Hardison! Hardison!" Dani burst through the door yelling like a siren.

As per usual, Hardison was half-asleep at his desk. Dani's hollering woke up both Hardison and...everyone else. Eliot and Parker jogged downstairs, laughably calm. Eliot reached the bottom of the stairs as Savannah trudged through the door in the wake of Dani looking like she'd gotten no sleep.

"What? What?! What?!" Hardison called back indignantly, somehow more awake than anyone after weeks of being sleep-deprived and stressed. Dani all-but leap-frogged over the desk and took over the keyboard. "Girl, whatchu doin'?" Hardison was very obviously offended at the entire situation.

"I figured out why you're not finding the lab. And I can fix it."

Hardison's attitude changed entirely. "Well damn, girl, do your thing."

They watched the light from the screen flash across Dani's face. The computer hummed faster. Hardison took it from Dani as it began to slow back down again. He said in almost disbelief, "We found it." The words sunk in and he jumped up and pumped his fist. "Yeah, we finally found this damn hell hole."

Dani hitched a duffel bag, apparently a trademark of Academy victims, higher on her shoulders. "I'll call the house, get a unit together."

"No." It came from Savannah, who was sharp as a tack. Dani started to argue and Savannah closed the distance between them as they failed to have private altercation.

"This is why they chose to go through the rest of the treatment."

"We're not getting these girls involved in another war they didn't ask to be in.."

"They're trained for this!"

"I said no."

"They're already involved, Van."

"This is my team. You play by my rules or you get out."

Eliot went forward to break them up as Savannah moved more aggressively towards Dani, but Parker pulled him back. "Let her go. She's under control."

"Maybe I will."

"You called me for help. You know you can't handle this with your powder puff brigade."

"That was uncalled for."

"You want that blood on your hands too?"

Dani stepped back like the words had a physical impact. "Van," she breathed, injured.

Savannah's chest was rising and falling rapidly even as she spoke relatively evenly. "We do our job as we are or you step out."

"Fine."

"Everybody just get some damn rest. We'll get a concrete plan together and tear these fucks down within a week. We're almost out of time before they have their own army of human molotov cocktails."

Hardison and Eliot looked at Parker with expressions of concern. She was as stone-faced as Savannah and just nodded.