Chapter Seven: blow the walls out
"I'm not sorry
For what I'm feeling,
Blow the walls out,
Bring the ceiling to the ground.

I've had the nightmares,
Seen the counselors,
I'm not going
Back up in that house again."

- "House" by Ben Folds Five

Nate rolled out the blueprints of the facility on the table and pinned two large pieces of paper to the wall behind him.

"Okay, this is what we know for certain. Here," he pointed to the blueprints and circled a portion of it with a red pen, "we know the building was incapacitated by the bomb Sterling and I planted."

"You should have used multiple charges," Parker remarked, grabbing a pencil and moving to one of the sheets of paper.

"Only had time for one," Sterling put in.

Parker stuck her tongue out at him and whipped around to face Nate, her ponytail slapping Eliot in the face.

"Hey, watch where you swing that thing."

"It's just hair, Sparky," Parker replied with a roll of her eyes.

Sophie moved between the two of them just as Eliot's face started turning a distinctive shade of red that suggested he might try punching something. Hardison did his part by grabbing Parker by the hand and dragging her over to the next sheet of paper; she poked him with her pencil and laughed when he jumped and almost fell over.

"So, what exactly are we trying to accomplish, Nate?" Sophie asked.

"We need all of you to help us come with a rough idea of how the rest of the facility is laid out," Sterling interjected before Nate could answer her.

Sophie shot him an irritated look and pointedly turned back to Nate. "Well, you're off to a good start. It was only two floors deep. I can tell you that the medical wing takes up the majority of the bottom floor."

"What counts as the majority?" Hardison asked as he stood poised with his own pencil. "Three-fourths? Two-thirds? Six-twelfths?"

"Six-twelfths is only half, Hardison," Eliot snapped.

"See, my point exactly." Hardison tapped the paper with the tip of his eraser. "So, anyone got some guesses?"

Sophie pursed her lips and said, "I would say about five-eighths."

"Now, see, that's useful," Hardison said brightly as he started drawing a line down the paper.

Parker moved to his side and started sketching on the paper, explaining, "There are two operating rooms, and three small recovery bays instead of individual rooms. That's important."

Hardison scratched at his chin and watched her draw out precise lines. "How you doing that without a ruler? And, why is any of that important?"

"Who says I don't have a ruler?" she replied absentmindedly.

Nate stepped forward and touched the paper briefly. "Would you happen to know if the main oxygen line is underneath those operating rooms, Parker?"

She smiled and went back to her drawing. Maggie moved around the table, grabbing a pencil on her way, and drew a few lines on the left side of the paper.

"This is where they kept patients they experimented on. I saw the rooms when I tried to go see Sophie after her surgery." She filled in about half the space left over from the medical bay and shuddered at the memory. "I wonder if they're still down there."

"We'll worry about that later," Nate murmured as he took a step back. "Okay, so what's on the middle floor?"

"A lot of rooms," Eliot growled as he moved in. "It's where we spent most of our time, and there's a staircase we used to get to the courtyard."

Parker was already filling in the details, drawing perfect rows of small boxes; Nate ran a hand through his hair, making his curls stand up on end as he paced, glancing back at the blueprints on the table behind him.

"We need to destroy this place," he mused.

"So, bombs in the operating room, scatter a couple on the middle floor, and one at the top to make sure it all blows up?" Sterling suggested. "Don't forget that these people are only being funded by more powerful people who can always start this project over."

"Oh, I already know what to do there." Nate gestured to Hardison, who grinned and started pulling up photos and PDFs of documents.

"The CIA has a lot of money invested in this place and Erik Mynas's dream to turn all of us into some demented superhero team," Hardison explained. "But, it's all under the table stuff, through, like, fifty shell companies. Took me forever to trace it all out."

"Are you suggesting we blackmail the CIA?" Maggie asked, a little incredulous.

"Yes. That's exactly what we're going to do. Insurance against this happening again to us or anyone else." Nate nodded his head and walked a little closer to the monitors. "Parker, you and Hardison will build the explosives. Sophie, you're going to be our way into the facility. Sterling and Eliot will go to the CIA…"

"Um, no," Sophie interrupted. "We will not be sending Sterling to bargain for anything with them."

"Why not?" Sterling asked, rounding on her.

"Because you're not very likeable," Hardison remarked. "People don't want to work with you."

"Besides, Nate is just better at that sort of thing than you," Sophie added. "Nothing to be ashamed of, though."

"Well, if I go instead of Sterling, then that means Eliot can go with the rest of you to make sure nothing goes wrong," Nate put in.

Sophie shook her head. "No. Eliot will go with you. There will not be a change in that plan."

"Why not?"

"I'm your insurance against getting killed on the spot," Eliot said in a low voice.

"And you do get shot. A lot," Parker said from where she was correcting Hardison's crooked line. She paused and grinned at all of them. "Ha, that rhymed. There should be a poem about it or something."

Hardison chuckled and said, "It could go something like this: Nate Ford wore too many hats and spent most of his time drunk. He and Sophie…"

"And, moving on," Nate said loudly with a pointed look in Hardison's direction.

"That didn't rhyme," Parker hissed at Hardison.

"What's the rest of the plan, Nate?" Maggie asked as she collapsed onto one of the couches.

"Well, it looks like Eliot and I will go to the CIA to cut a deal, Sterling will take my place in cornering Mynas, and you are in charge of the getaway car." Nate frowned when he finished. "Some of the details are a little rough, mostly the timing with the bombs, but we have time to work that out."

"Exactly how long do we have?" Sophie said softly, curling up next to Maggie.

"About ten days at the most," he replied with a sigh. "That's Hardison's best guess, and we're going to try to be ready to go sooner than that. So, I already have C-4 and other supplies for explosives stocked here."

"Is that something you normally keep lying around?" Maggie asked with a laugh.

"I always have C-4," Parker said as she swung over the back of the couch and bounced on the cushions. "Never know when you might need it."

"Something's wrong with you," Eliot muttered, stalking in the direction of the kitchen to start cooking supper.

"On that note, we're done for the night," Nate told them.

When no one moved, he rocked on his heels and walked out of the room. Sterling followed him out, probably to discuss the plan in further detail, and Parker pulled a stack of paper out from under the couch and started folding it into small paper cranes.

Maggie eyed Parker's new hobby and asked hesitantly, "Are you going to fold all that paper into cranes?"

"Of course." Parker's fingers nimbly creased the paper and folded it back. "I want a whole flock of them."

"Why?"

Parker narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to Maggie. "Are you trying to ask for one of them?"

Maggie shook her head. "No, that's not…"

"Here," Parker cut her off and dumped two into her lap. "You can have them."

"I'll only take one, Parker."

When Maggie tried to hand one of them back, Parker shook her head and pushed it back in Maggie's direction. "No! They're a pair, and they have to stay together."

Maggie pulled the crane back into her lap and sighed. "Okay." She turned her head to look at Sophie. "So, is this some form of symbolism or something?"

"I…don't know." Sophie eyed Parker and shrugged a little as she stood up. "Sometimes it's best not to look for extra meaning in everything."

"What does that mean?"

Sophie laughed as she walked off, and Maggie poked at her paper cranes; she did like the colors. Red and yellow, like fire.

"Have you found them yet?" Joseph asked as he surveyed the screens in front of him.

Erik shook his head and sighed. "We've been canvassing the area around their last known location, but nothing yet. Do you have any useful input?"

"Wait."

"What?" Erik rounded on Joseph. "How is that useful?"

Joseph shrugged. "There's this funny thing about people. They operate in patterns they've established throughout their lives, and even when they try to change that pattern, they end up only creating a similar one. So, if you know the pattern for one person, you can figure out what he will do next."

"What does that even mean?"

"I've been taking a look through Nathan Ford's past cases that have been on the personal side of things."

"And?" Erik pressed, his tone sharp with impatience.

"Just stay with me for a little bit here." Joseph smiled and slid his hands into his pockets. "We're talking about Nathan Ford, a man who has made a living out of getting revenge for people he doesn't even know. Now, what, exactly, do you think he is going to do to you for hurting his team?"

"So, you think they'll come back."

"Nathan Ford will not be satisfied until this place is completely destroyed, and there is no chance of anything like this happening ever again."

Erik smirked. "Or, if he believes there is no chance of this happening again."

"Now you're getting it," Joseph said with a nod of his head as Erik pulled out his phone.

"Hey, pass me that screwdriver," Hardison murmured as he crouched over the bomb he was working on.

Parker tossed it to him; he made a grab for it, but missed. It thudded against the table once and bounced off to the floor.

Hardison scrambled after it and said irritably, "Said pass, not throw, girl."

"Sorry. I thought you would catch it." She shrugged and turned her attention back to the wires she was twisting together. "Besides, it's going to be too big."

"I think I know what I'm doing." He picked up the tool and tried to screw a tiny bolt into place. He stopped and sighed. "Okay, you're right. Too big. But it's the only one we've got."

Parker leaned over his shoulder to study the bolt and then dragged a small bag out of the box of supplies she had assembled. She placed it on the table and opened it for him, revealing several different screwdrivers of varying sizes.

"I stole them. I didn't think we would need all of them."

He opened his mouth to ask why she needed so many screwdrivers, but decided against that question. He just grinned and grabbed the one he needed.

"So, how are we going to time the explosions?" she asked as she went back to work.

"Wireless signal. I'll have a remote detonator for when we're all out of the building, then…"

"Kaboom!" she finished with a wide smile.

"Exactly," he agreed, chuckling a little at her enthusiasm. "Putting them on timers won't allow as much leeway as we might need in case of a delay."

She nodded her head and poked at the small bomb. "After this is over, what are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"What are we going to do?" she asked again.

Hardison twisted a frayed wire around his fingers and shrugged. "I don't know, mama. I don't know if we can keep doing the job."

"Why not?" She crawled up onto the table and dug the point of the tiny screwdriver into the table.

"Things aren't just going to go back to normal," he murmured. "We don't even know what's going to happen with this."

"The building is going to explode and Nate is going to make the CIA leave us alone," Parker said quickly, her eyes narrowing a little. "Right? Hardison?"

He shook his head. "It might not happen like that."

She drew her eyebrows together and set her mouth in a firm line. "Of course it will."

"Look, I'm not saying I want things to go bad." He placed a hand on her arm, but she jerked away from him. "It's just…. We're used to winning. But, these are the people who hunted us down and kept us as prisoners for over two years. We've already lost to them once."

"Why are you saying this stuff?" Her voice rose in pitch, and she jumped off the table, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You never did before. That's not what you're supposed to do."

"What do you want, Parker?" His shoulders sagged as he looked at her.

"I want everything to be normal. Why can't it be the same?"

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she swiped them away angrily, gulping in a breath of air and staring at him. He took a wary step forward and held his hands out, palms up. She hesitated then placed her own hands on top of his and took a deep breath.

"Just because it's not the same doesn't mean what we are now is bad," he murmured. He curled his fingers up over the back of her hands and pulled her a little closer until he could wrap her up in his arms. "Okay?"

She nodded her head and pressed closer to him until she could rest her ear against his chest and listen to his heartbeat, whispering, "But, this will work?"

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he replied. He pressed his lips to the top of her head. "So, I'm going to make damned sure everything goes to plan."

She closed her eyes and counted the rhythm of his heart, slow and sure. She pulled away from him and moved back to the table.

Flashing him a smile over her shoulder, she said, "So, one down. Five more to go."

"You can't tell me what to do anymore. I'm eighteen!" Olivia shouted.

Sterling sighed. "I know you're technically an adult. But, you're still my kid, and this is dangerous stuff."

"Then why should you go? How come you can go and I can't?"

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and tried to find a way of explaining without patronizing her. He was having a little difficulty coming up with the right words.

"Because they need me." It wasn't the best he could do, but it was short notice.

She did roll her eyes at that and said, "I need you, too. You're my dad."

"Exactly. Which is why you should do as I ask and stay here."

"What if something happens? What if you need me, and I'm not there?"

"Nothing is going to happen," he said quietly, placing his hands on her shoulders and giving her a warm smile. "I promise."

She wrenched away from him. "I'm not a child. I'm not going to fall for that. Bad things happen all the time to people who aren't even looking for trouble."

He rocked back on his heels and reminded himself that he was thankful for his daughter, that, for the most part, she was a really great kid who literally never caused trouble.

"If I did let you go, would you stay with Maggie in the van the whole time? And not get out for any reason?"

"Do I get an earbud like everyone else?" she pressed, a smile already starting to form on her face.

"Yes." He raised an eyebrow and held up a finger. "But you have to promise not to chatter nonstop."

"Deal."

She held out her hand, and he shook it after a moment's hesitation before pulling her into a fierce hug.

Nate looked around the circled group and said, "So, we have everything?"

Parker picked up a large bag and slung it over her shoulder; Hardison went around the circle and dropped an earbud into each person's outstretched hand.

"Now, these are all I've got, so try to be nice to them," Hardison said, giving Eliot a pointed look. "No submerging them or taking them out for anything."

Nate nodded his head. "Eliot and I will go to the CIA headquarters; the rest of you to the facility. They're close enough that we'll get to the two places around the same time. The second all of you get the bombs planted and make sure there aren't any innocent people inside, get out and blow the place. Eliot and I will meet you at the rendezvous point."

Sterling situated the earbud in his ear and grimaced. "I have not missed these."

Maggie patted him on the back while Hardison grumbled under his breath about ungrateful and difficult people.

Parker leaned over and whispered loudly, "Hey, you know that we can all hear you now, right?"

Eliot growled and swept out the door.

Nate cleared his throat and said, "Right. Well, let's move out."