Faith cut her eyes towards the now-empty booth again, unable to shake the creeping cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. Nate and the strange, sickly looking woman had been gone for a while now, but even Eliot had been quick to point out that the bar was exceptionally noisy tonight.

They're just in the poker room, she repeated to herself, taking another pull off her root beer and pretending to listen to what Eliot was saying.

The hitter wasn't fooled for a second. "You want to go check on him?"

"Faith," Sophie said, "I'm sure he's fine. If the woman was as weak as you say, it's probably taking a bit to get her story." She smiled reassuringly. "He'll be back in a minute."

"Unless she was a vampire or something," Parker said. "And she put him under some sort of whammy." Faith flinched; the thief's brutally frank assessment hit a little too close to a possible source of her discomfort.

"That's not funny, Parker," Sophie chided.

"Yeah," Hardison added. "Besides – vampires can't come in a place unless they're invited."

The same woman, standing straight and proud in Faith's memory, pointing two fingers at a girl Faith had never met – a girl whose death had changed Faith's life forever.

"Be in my eyes. Be in me."

"It's a public place," she forced herself to say. Blood fountained behind her eyes, along with memory of the fire burning through her gut as she came into her powers. "No invite necessary."

"Faith..?"

Half-blind with panic now, Faith threw off the hand that had grabbed her arm – shoving back from the table. No… Voices of the team and the surrounding patrons blended into a white noise behind her as she ran for the poker room, praying she wouldn't be too late.

Eliot was the first one out of his chair following Faith through the crowd, but the rest of the team was hot on his heels. They hadn't known her that long, and they really didn't know her that well – although they each, in their own way, had been trying to change that. One thing they all knew without question was that she cared about Nate as much as they did.

Maybe she was just being paranoid. She was wary of the world in general by nature – it was understandable with the life she'd lived and the things she'd seen.

When things went really bad, it made sense that Faith would be the first to know.

So when she bolted from the table, they ran after her – not thinking twice about it. Faith hunted vampires like it was the easiest thing in the world. Anything that scared her was a good enough reason to panic as far as the rest of them were concerned.

"Coms!" Hardison gasped as they threaded their way around the bar's other patrons. Eliot stopped long enough to pull his out and fit it in place, and then made sure that Parker, Sophie and Hardison were all in front of him before he started moving again. Faith was in the lead – it was no longer a case of putting the other three closer to danger; it was a fear of what could happen to anyone Eliot couldn't see.

Faith was already inside when they entered McRory's back room, staring at the emptiness. There was no sign of the pale woman. No sign of Nate. The chairs hadn't even been pulled back from the table. We've been tricked, Eliot thought, barely resisting the urge to smash his fist into something.

They had been tricked, and it was far too late to do anything about it.

He sent her after my father. After my fucking father.

Faith looked around at the faces of Nate's crew, each of them alternately stunned, frightened and angry, until she locked eyes with Eliot. "When I get my hands on that brother of yours, there isn't going to be enough left to resurrect." The rage she normally worked so hard to keep at bay was everywhere now – blotting out the fear and leaving only cold determination in its wake.

Kill them…punish them…he's gone too far this time…no going back…

"He won't kill him," Eliot said quickly. Of all of them, he seemed to have the best read on where her head was at. "He's just trying to regain the upper hand. Lindsey's not stupid enough to risk killing or turning Nate, Faith – he knows what we'd do."

Don't care…don't care… There was going to be violence before the night was over – Faith could almost smell it in the wind.

"He was very careful with Hardison and me," Parker added. "Once he had us, the vampires weren't allowed close enough to hurt us."

"You don't get it!" Faith yelled, slamming her fist into a nearby table. "Drusilla is not a normal vampire! If Lindsey thinks he's got her under his control, he's kidding himself!"

Eliot took a step towards her. "We'll get him back, Faith, but we've got to be smart about this. Work it through."

Faith glared at the hitter, completely unable in that moment to access any of her feelings for him. "You work it through. I'm going to get my father back from that crazy bitch."

She was ready for Eliot to try and stop her as she strode towards the back door. She wasn't ready for Hardison getting to her first and grabbing her by the shoulder. "Hang on a second, dammit!" he said. "You can't just…"

Faith whipped around. Her fist connected solidly with his jaw – harder than she would have struck if she'd realized it was him. The hacker let her go immediately, stumbling back a few steps before dropping to the ground. Her reaction time slowed by the unexpected change in targets, Faith had less than a fraction of a second to respond before Eliot closed with her.

She ducked under what she thought was going to be a swing at her head, but Eliot was ready for the dodge. Chairs and tables scattered as he grabbed her wrist and swept her up in a tight hold against his chest. Before she could deconstruct what he'd done and slip free, Eliot took them both to the floor – using his legs to leverage her into a position where she couldn't move.

"Ease down!" he growled into her ear, jerking her more tightly against him when she tried to struggle free. "Faith! Stop!"

With a roar of frustration, Faith gave up trying to slip free of Eliot's hold and gathered her strength to try and power free of him. Pain flamed almost immediately across her shoulders – her body warning her of immediate injury if she kept on that course of action.

He had her. He'd been smarter than she'd expected, relying on leverage and strategically applied pressure against her superior strength. Every move Faith could come up with to counter him would almost certainly result in a crippling injury.

"You're no good to Nate if I break both your arms," Eliot said, confirming what she'd already figured out. "Control yourself!"

He would do it too – even this deep in the grip of her madness, Faith never once doubted Eliot was completely serious. He would take her out of the game entirely in order to keep her from giving in to her worst impulses, and becoming something none of them could accept in their midst any longer.

A very large part of her wanted to push the point – to make him live up to the promise in his words. Anything to keep from having to face how scared she was that Nate was gone – and how even if they found him, the odds were he wouldn't ever be the same again.

Faith drew a deep, steadying breath, trying to do what Eliot wanted, and put the leash back on her rage. "All right," she said, the sound muffled against the wood floor. "All right."

She felt him relax a little, but the moment had passed where she might have tried to exploit it. He was right – going all Dirty Harriet on the situation would make her feel better, but in the end it wouldn't help get her father back. "You good?" Eliot asked.

Faith waited a few beats, trying to figure out an honest answer instead of an easy one. Finally, she nodded. Her mind had cleared enough that she felt more in control of herself than not. You can be around people again…

She'd thought Eliot would let her go immediately – time was of the essence, especially if they were going to come at this sensibly. Instead, he pressed his face even closer to her, pitching his voice so low Faith knew she was the only one who could hear him.

"Before I let you up," he said, "I want you to understand something very clearly. This was your free pass. You ever lose control like that on any of them again, and I will put you in the ground. No matter how I might feel about you, I will bury you and walk away with a very clear conscience."