Eliot and Hardison had both been busy in the time the team had spent apart doing what they did best and trying to restore their reputations that had slipped slightly whilst they had been with the team. Both were upset by the split although neither wanted to admit it especially Eliot, although neither really had anyone to admit it to anyway. What they did was dangerous in different ways but they were both so good at their jobs that neither got caught when they didn't want to be or hurt too badly. They worked on separate projects the whole time but both secretly were tring to keep an eye on the team.
Hardison was sure that nothing could beat his computer skills. No one could hide from the technological world completely and if there was one little trace of them then Hardison was going to find them. Nate was horrifyingly easy to find and Hardison was really going to have to have a word with him again about protecting himself better and stop him from putting a metaphorical target on his back whilst there was none of them around to protect him.
Sophie was a little harder to find as a grifter but he thought she would be near Nate and there was some activity on some of her aliases that he could track. She was still grifting at times but she seemed to be doing ok for herself and she and Nate kept in touch at any rate so he was there if she needed him. Eliot, Hardison was less worried about, he could take care of himself very well and this was confirmed when he heard his name in connection to the hunky stuff he had found going on in Pakistan. Hardison kept an eye in him and had to admit that he was relieved when he saw that he was back it the states safely and relatively unscathed for what he had been up to.
The one he had been the most worried about anyway had been Parker. Hardison felt like he had got along well with the little blonde thief and he couldn't deny that he would have liked to have dated her but he knew that she never really returned his feelings for her and was closer to Eliot as both had bonded of the danger and thrill of their jobs despite the fact that Eliot would vehemently deny that and probably hurt you if you ever suggested he was close to the crazy little thief.
Parker had him very worried though. He could find no activity on any know aliases he had for her and he couldn't find any reports of thefts that fitted Parker's MO. For someone who lived for the thrill of the chase and in her case the theft, she couldn't have gone that long without stealing something and Hardison was worried about how their split may have affected the deceptively fragile thief. He had seen how impulsive and vulnerable Parker could be and he knew that the split had been like her family upping and leaving her and with her experience if the system she must have felt abandoned.
Hardison had turned to security cameras to try and track the thief but when you had no clue where to look, it was almost impossible to find her. He caught glimpses of people who could have been Parker but they were scattered all over the globe and he really wasn't sure that she would be travelling that far on her own like this.
When he got the invitation to Sophie's play he initially winced remembering the last time she had attempted to act like that on a stage and wondered if he could accidentally lose the invitation but then he realised that if Sophie was inviting the team then this was the perfect opportunity to see if Parker was alive and well, knowing that she would go if she got the invitation rather than face the rathe of Sophie when she found out Parker was missing. Seeing Nate and Eliot in the lobby had brought back all the memories of the jobs they had done and how well they had worked as a team but he felt a sinking feeling when he didn't see the bouncing blond head that he was looking out for. They all tried to be positive and hoped she was just late or they hadn't seen her yet. But then they were seated and there was still no Parker.
The performance was awful, there was no two ways about it and Hardison spent the whole time trying to convince himself that maybe she hadn't got the invitation and that she just hadn't know but he wasn't doing a very good job. It wasn't until after when he saw the note and found the footage that some of that hope came back. She was alive and by the looks of it well and that settled some his nerves for her but he was still hurt that she didn't show her face again but little did he know he would see the little blonde thief again.
Eliot was in pains to admit it but he actually missed the team. It just wasn't quite the same doing his job without the snarky comments of Hardison in his ear, with Sophie and Nate bickering and the oddball comments of Parker that threw everyone for six but always seemed to lighten the knew that the others would probably be tracking everyone and so he didn't feel so bad when he did exactly the same to them and he may have left just a few more clues for them than he otherwise might have, but not enough to endanger himself.
Nate and Sophie weren't too hard to track. Nate stayed in the same place for most of the time making very easy to keep tabs on and Eliot knew where Nate went Sophie was never far behind and after finding out that they had met up a few times, he was happier that they would have each other to protect each other although he was worried that he wouldn't be there to save them if they needed it but he carried on with his job regardless, trying to restore a bit of his reputation to make sure he was still feared.
Hardison was just as easy to track, he was like a sitting duck in his apartment that was more like a mansion but he seemed to be doing we'll for himself and so Eliot left him be but kept an eye out for any threats that could be coming his way.
The invitation came out of nowhere to him really as he hadn't expected the team to get back together so soon after they split up but he couldn't deny he wanted to see them again, he just really did not want to see Sophie's acting again. He agreed to put up with it, however, if that meant he could see the team again and reaffirm they were alive and well with his own eyes. There was one in particular that he wanted to see after failing to locate her.
As much as Eliot would deny it, he had probably become closest to the blonde thief of the team as they shared a thrill and danger of their jobs that required a more physical kind of skill and so they had trained together a few time before they split as a team and Eliot was worried about her. He had wanted to follow her, knowing how emotionally fragile she could be but he had a job to do and so he figured he would track her and visit her after his job but his job Rabin and on and he couldn't find any sign of Parker.
He probably came the closest of all of them to finding her as he had been in the same city at the same time at one point and had seen a flash of blonde in the crowd but he hadn't known she was in the area, not knowing where she was at all but holding out hope she was still alive and feeling guilty that he hadn't been able to protect her better in case she was hurt, and it had gone by the time he looked in that direction so he thought nothing of it.
Come opening night he looked for her in the crowd but couldn't see her but he still couldn't shake the feeling that she was there. During the performance her was sure her heard a giggle from the rafters above him and he was sure that when he glanced up he saw a flash of black that looked like a show poking out but when he looked back it was gone. he looked sadly at the empty seat next to him and thought he was imagining things until he saw her waving at the camera when Hardison showed them and he knew she had been up there watching them.
He was sad and angry that she never came to see them or gave them another sign that she was alive and although the mysteriously appearing evidence was clearly the work of Parker there was still no other visual or material evidence that she had been there and he wished that he could see her again and could make sure she was safe. Little did he know he would.