I'm glad you guys think that Nate is scary enough! I didn't want him to make him sooo crazy but still scary. I don't own Leverage.

A Boiling Anger

Part 1:

Max had been in the middle of trying to sleep on his flight back to London when his phone rang. He didn't want to answer it but he figured it might be important. Without even looking at who it was calling he answered it with the most pleasant voice he could manage.

"Hello?"

"Hello there Max Jenkins. My name is Parker and I am a close friend of Nate Fords. I have a few questions for you."

"Oh, you're a friend of Nates," Max smiled. "What can I do for you."

Parker held back a growl at his cheery tone. "You will tell me everything and anything you know about your most recent interaction with Nate. We know he's in Targhee National Forest. We know about the drugs."

"Well then what are you asking me about, Parker?" Max became confused for her words were sharp and quick.

"Why did you send him into the middle of nowhere with drugs that he has no idea what they do?" Parker growled. She furious at this man.

"He didn't tell you?"

"No, he told us nothing. We've slowly been putting together the pieces over the past day. We're on our way to save him now."

"No! He must finish the trial and find the cure," Max replied hurriedly.

"What trial? What cure?"

"There are seven different pills and one is the cure. I told him to take a specific one the first day because it was supposed to give him a mild pain-"

"Mild pain? He was in so much pain he literally started slamming himself into the wall!" Parker nearly yelled. The anger was like a fire clawing at her from he inside. She wanted this man to pay for what he'd done.

"May-maybe his body reacted differently then most peoples. He could've been allergic to something in it..."

"Why did he even agree to do this in the first place?"

"I told him...I told him I would get Sophie back."

There was a few moments of silence. "Are you the one that told her they were GPS coordinates?"

"Yes," he answered gravely. "We had done a little planning on how to get her back and that was what we settled on."

"He's trying to kill her right now!" Parker flat out yelled.

Max flinched as her words came blaring through the phone. "P-probably a drug that gives people homicidal thoughts and actions."

"When we get there we're taking him back and getting him to a hospital you sick bastard."

"I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm sorry! Once I get back to New York I'll head straight over there."

Parker snarled at the mans words. "I hope your plane crashes and burns." With that she hung up the phone and looked at them all with anger and determination.

Part 2:

She ran for about 45 minutes before Nate caught up with her and literally tackled her. It was like playing rugby with her bothers all over again. He managed to punch her in the face and get a cut on her arm. She was able to grab a large stick off the ground the knock him out before he could do anymore damage. Sophie made sure she had her stuff before running off in the other direction. Once she was sure she was far enough away from him she settled down behind a rock to catch her breath. She ate some food and drank a whole bottle of water and was dozing off when he showed up again. Her internal clock said that he had been unconscious for about a half hour. She looked at him and he looked at her. His eyes were still full of unknown rage as he flipped his blade out at her. She took that as her cue to start running again. They ran and ran until Sophie scrambled up onto a sharp and pointy boulder. Nate grabbed her and forced her down onto the boulder. He forced her to open her mouth and bite the edge. She knew he was about to make her bite the curb (or bite the boulder in this case) and quickly moved out from under him. His foot crashed into the edge and he cursed in pain. Thinking fast, she scrambled off the boulder and resumed running.

They had been running and chasing each other for almost an hour now. She saw the trees start to thin as she pushed the bramble away from her face. Nate was dangerously close behind but she stumbled out into the open field and was able to run a little faster. She saw a large stream and a generously sized waterfall on the right. It would be a hard obstacle to overcome since Nate was chasing her. Just as the thought was pushed into the back of her head she heard Him fall. She didn't stop running until she heard vomiting and coughing. When she looked back she saw him coughing up blood.

"Nate!" Sopie ran over to him. "Nate, are you okay?"

He continued to cough up more blood, spattering it over the ground and his hands. The homicidal thoughts slowly were dissipating from his mind and he began to feel weak. He felt Sophies hand on his shoulder as his body shook and convulsed.

"Nate, please say something. Please say you're okay," Sophie cried.

He groaned in pain, looking over at her. She saw his eyes were a light grayish blue now, blood splattered on his face. "I'll be alright."

"Did the drug wear off?"

He nodded and sat up. "I feel like crap."

"The team is coming for us and we'll be getting you to a hospital soon."

"No! I have to finish this trial. Please Sophie you have to trust me."

Sophie have him a stern looking, telling him that he'd have to do better then that.

"Take this and do not be afraid to use it if I get out of hand," Nate said as he handed her his pocketknife.

"No, no I couldn't do that to you."

"You have to trust me."

"If you don't find the cure in the next two tries I'm having the doctors take care of you."

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Now go get yourself cleaned up and then we can eat and get some rest. We have about 2 hours of daylight left."

"Where am I supposed to get cleaned up?"

Sophie motioned over to the river with her head. He just looked at her with slightly wide eyes. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"You're a boyscout tough it up!"

"But I-"

"God Nate it's not like I'll be watching you," Sophie said. Although, the little voices in the back of her head were saying 'yes I will!'

He contemplated the thought one last time before deciding it would be best if he did get cleaned up. Grumbling about woman and their crazy ideas he headed over to the river, taking his shirt off as he went.

Part 3:

Eliot was surprised by how Parker reacted. He didn't know what was going on the other side of the phone but it was obviously making her furious. It wasn't until those last words that he knew she was just as (maybe more) committed to finding and saving Nate as he was. He knew Hardison was thoroughly committed because of the excessive amount of work he was doing and the way his whole aura changed. It was almost surreal how different the hacker was.

"So what did Jenkins say?"

Parker proceeded to tell them how the phone call had gone. She described how his voice sounded and how he was so naive. They could hear the anger still in her voice as she raged on. Hardison was pensive and quiet as he listened while Eliot let the anger crawl over his face and eat him up on the inside. He knew his calm demeanor would be the next to go as he felt the rage towards Max build. Once she was done with her dramatic and poetic story telling Hardison went to check their progress on the flight.

"We have about 3 hours left."

"It's getting dark out so we'll have to stop for the night until we can search for him in the daytime," Eliot said as he looked out the window. He saw the pink glow of the setting sun soon fade into a deep dark blue and he knew somewhere far out there was Nate and Sophie all alone by themselves. All alone in the wilderness.