Chapter Thirty-Three

Your Eyes, They Shine So Bright

I Wanna Save That Light

I Can't Escape This Now

Unless You Show Me How

Roughly about 11:30 AM Boston Time

"Damn!" Evan muttered under his breath, while he gritted his teeth at the sight in front of him.

He sat in the passenger seat of the SUV as his driver pulled up just inside the main gate to the warehouse, he'd secured three months ago. There was no guard in the guardhouse and the gates were wide open, but the driver hesitated to pull further onto the property based on the sight in front of them.

There had to be just about every squad car in the city parked inside the gates all directed towards the building he'd put Liam and his crew up in. The building where he'd planned to take Eliot for the final stages of his plan to kill the man.

But it wasn't just the police cars as well as the multiple news vans that littered the parking lot that really caused Evan to fume. It was the sight of seeing at least a hundred people in various costumes of every monster he'd ever heard of. There were vampires, Frankenstein's monsters, and even a smattering of werewolves; but by far most monstrous creatures were zombies. There had to be at least 80% of the crowd dedicated to the walking dead.

And they all looked pissed. Not just monster pissed, but totally just pissed off people in monster makeup. The cops and property guards were busy trying to corral all the monsters and they were protesting every single step. There were zombies sitting in cop cars, vans and the like, while there were some just standing around all in flexi-cuffs either ranting at the cops or smiling for the TV cameras.

Among all the people the cops were working to control, Evan could see five men lined up against the front entrance of the warehouse he'd been headed for and with those men were not city cops, but men in black suits. Could be the FBI, he thought. Or probably worse, they could be military cops, either the Army CID (Army Criminal Investigation Command) or most likely the DCIS (Defense Criminal Investigative Service) which reported directly to the DOD (Department of Defense).

It didn't matter, either way Evan was screwed if they caught sight of him as Evan Spencer Taylor was supposed to be dead. Very few would know that he'd been given a new identity as Evan Chapman, the head of his own private security company in Nevada. If he was recognized, they'd take him in and while he waited for them to figure out his story, Eliot would be in the wind and he couldn't let that happen. He'd come too far to let his brother get away without retribution.

"James, take me back to the house. We need to regroup." Evan said to the driver.

"Yes Sir." The man quickly shifted gears and backed the car away from the scene.

Evan fished his cell out of his suit jacket pocket again putting it to his ear after hitting the speed dial number he wanted. He waited for the line to connect.

"Sir?" Came the voice of his man from the airfield.

"Get to the warehouse and hit it. I don't care who you take out, but make sure all of Liam's men are dead. Seems there are men in black talking to his hired buffoons. I want Liam dead, too. I don't care how or who you take down with them, but they are all dead."

"Understood. Anything else, sir?"

Evan looked over at his driver and knew he could trust the man completely. James was the only man who hadn't let him down yet. "I want every ear to the ground on Dr. Richards and that nurse of his, Katharine Wakefield. And I want Quinn and Spencer. Dr. Richards and that nurse have Spencer and I want them all dead. Collateral damage applies now."

There was a small pause before the man on the other end asked, "You want Spencer dead by any means?"

Evan hated not being able to kill Eliot himself, but right now things had changed. It was now a cleanup mission and he needed to get back to the house and prepare for getting out of the states. "Yes. I'd prefer to do it myself, but since things have gone to shit, I'll take satisfaction in the fact that he's just dead. I'd like it to be you, if possible, Barnes, but bring me their bodies and I'll be happy. I'm heading back to the house now as the warehouse is a hot zone, then I'll be leaving the country until this blows over, so bring them to the other house."

"Yes Sir." The man disconnected.

Evan slowly smiled as he realized that Barnes would do what was necessary and he would not fail him. "James. I want you to join me at the other house. You've been loyal and it's time I gave you a bigger better role than just driving me around."

James smiled as he turned to his boss. "Thank you, sir."

Evan grinned as he looked the man up and down. He'd kept the man close to him due to his attraction towards him, but now he was glad the man had also stayed very loyal. "No, thank you, James."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nate and Vance stood together looking out the window keeping the SUVs that were watching them in their own sights. Nate had ended his call with Mikel, and she hadn't really told him anything he hadn't already known with the exception that Evan Chapman had brought her in to kill Eliot since he'd gotten away. She was due to land in roughly another hour or so and then she'd find a way to contact him again.

Nate was glad the woman had given him and Detective Bonanno a heads up, but he wasn't happy she'd told the detective all about Evan Chapman. Granted there wasn't much the state policeman could do now that he completely understood this was ending up being a military affair, but he didn't like someone knowing any of Eliot's secrets outside the team. It couldn't be helped though, and he knew Bonanno wouldn't do anything with the information except arm himself in case he was needed in the future.

"So, Colonel, how do you propose we elude this surveillance when we find out where Eliot is? We can't very well lead them to him and I'm not going to sit back and just let you go get Eliot alone." Nate stated watching the other man closely.

Michael Vance turned an appraising eye towards the mastermind. He took note of the drink in Nate's hand even though it wasn't even lunchtime yet, but he knew better than to make a comment on it. There had been a time or two in his life when Eliot Spencer had driven him to drink himself. "First, I'm going to wait to be sure we know where they are exactly, Eliot and this woman Katharine. Those two cars don't really bother me. They're amateurs really. I'll deal with them when the time comes and then we're going to get to Quinn. Eliot is in relatively safe hands, I'm sure but I don't know what's happening with Quinn. I've had the pleasure of meeting Katharine Wakefield and I can guarantee she isn't a wallflower, so I trust her with Eliot to a point." He paused at remembering his broken nose courtesy of the woman's extremely accurate left hook. "She leaves a permanent impression upon all those she meets."

Matt walked over with Emma and Sophie in tow. Having caught their conversation, he couldn't help chuckling at Vance's reply about the woman currently with Eliot. "That's putting it mildly." He stated catching Vance's slight pause. "The woman once broke the Colonel's nose." He said by way of explanation.

Sophie looked slightly surprised. "She did?" That was interesting, she thought.

"When was that?" Emma asked, intrigued with anyone who got the better of Colonel Michael Vance. "I'd love to have seen that."

Vance chuckled along with Matt. "So would my wife." He thought back to that day not too long before he'd lost his best operative when Eliot had disappeared off the grid. "Her brother was killed during a mission that went wrong. We had some bad intel and it led to one of my teams walking right into the hands of the enemy; my best team." He thought better of remarking on the fact his best team was Eliot's team or the fact that Eliot could also be in danger from the same woman who was supposed to be saving him. "Let's just say it was a bad time for all involved, and Katherine didn't take it well at losing her brother and I took the brunt of her anger."

Emma looked at Vance closely; she knew there was something he wasn't saying, but she figured it had to do with national security more than anything else. Getting this much information from the military about a mission was a first and she knew it wasn't easy for either her husband or the Colonel in the jobs they did. "Well, that's just... interesting." She mused. "I'm sure whatever the circumstances were, you can't reveal in detail now means that it was the enemy that killed her brother and it was in no way the fault of Uncle Sam, right?"

Vance looked at her as she spoke. He knew she knew just what their lives were like, but it didn't help that he couldn't express his personal feelings. "Let's just say, she had every reason to break my nose and leave it at that, okay Emma?" He responded quietly.

For once in her married life, Emma understood what the man was saying. She slowly nodded at him knowing that his saying that much was the most she'd ever get towards knowing just how hard it was for him or Matt, but especially just how hard it had been for Eliot to do the jobs they'd sworn to do. She didn't have to like their jobs, but she'd married a man knowing all of this, so she wasn't going to push him.

"Sure Michael." She responded as she gave him an approving nod before turning to look out the window herself.

Nate took in the small exchange and he realized like Emma had, just how hard both men's lives must be; and he realized there were things that he as a civilian would never understand about Eliot's career. Things he could never fully understand, but the one thing he did get was the fact that all three men were from the same mold. They'd believed in their lives once, and maybe these two men still believed in the long run, but he understood just how much Eliot had wrestled with his own choices.

He took a long pull from the glass in his hand as he noted Sophie's frown at his drinking again. He couldn't help it though; it had been a long night and he wasn't any closer to finding Eliot and he couldn't go through this without some help. After...after they got Eliot back, he'd gladly let her throw every bottle out, but right now he needed something to help him, because only God knew just how afraid he was right now.

Yes, he admitted to himself. He was afraid. Not for himself and not just for Eliot, but for everything. If he failed to get his teammate back, what would happen to the rest of his team, his family? He needed to keep these people close to him, because they were all he had now in this world that made even a little bit of sense. He needed Eliot here because the man kept them all running evenly. He knew just where and when to apply the right kind of pressure to make sure each of them could do their individual jobs and doing that kept them functioning as a team.

"So, I wonder how Hardison's doing?" He asked as he turned to walk over to the hacker and check on his progress.

Matt and Vance both turned and followed the man over and soon all three were immersed in Hardison speak as to what he was doing to hack into the burner phone account Quinn had for the cell he'd purchased in a small village not far from Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Since it was a foreign purchase from a probable street vendor it was almost impossible to trace. Almost, Hardison had said with a smile as he'd tracked the phone through several accounts before he'd finally found the one he suspected belonged to Quinn. He was currently running it to track all the calls and texts the phone had made or received in the last 24 hours, but it was taking a while since it was a burner.

Most calls and texts fell off with each new call or text received and while not impossible it was harder to dig through the cyber stuff out there to get to what he needed. He was hopeful though, that he'd have something in the next three hours and that was the first good news Nate and the others could hope for at the moment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You know, our mother was killed by a drunk driver." Emma said softly to Sophie who was standing next to her while they both looked out the window at the two SUVs still parked below their building.

Sophie was slightly surprised by the information that the woman was offering up, but she knew better than to comment on that fact. Instead she stayed where she was and didn't look over at Emma. "I wondered if something like that may have happened."

Emma was the first to break and she looked up at Sophie in mild surprise. "You did?"

Sophie turned to look at her with a small smile on her lips. "Eliot drinks beer, but he won't touch the hard stuff very often. Not once have I seen him take more than one drink. We once had a job where he had to get someone out of play and he took him out drinking, but he didn't really enjoy it. He had the worst hangover that next day and he let something slip about never doing that again."

Emma slowly nodded in understanding. "Eliot doesn't drink without a reason." She paused again as she thought about what she was saying here; what she was giving up about her brother. "I'd like to ask you not to let anyone else know you know this, especially Eliot but we not only lost our mother; we lost a brother and a baby sister and it was hard on all of us, but it was really the hardest on our father and in turn on Eliot. Our father turned to drinking to battle his own demons at losing his wife and kids and Eliot had to become the man of the house. If it wasn't for Eliot, I'd never have been able to go to college and our father's business would have gone under long ago."

Sophie felt for this woman standing here. She knew everyone had a history and she knew it was always something bad, but this had to be hard on these two. She remembered how Eliot always frowned when Nate poured a drink to battle his own things and he'd even told her in her letter that she needed to help Nate. "Eliot tries hard to keep Nate away from the bottle. No one really knows this either, but Nate lost his son to cancer when the boy was about 8. He was a good man working for an insurance company that he'd given his all for and they'd refused to save his son with an experimental treatment that is now relatively common in most cases like his son, Sam's condition."

Emma nodded again. "I wondered what was in his life to lead him to have a drink." She paused as she returned her eye back to the window. "Nate kind of reminds me of my... our father. I mean before our father became a drunk, he was a good man. He...he really was. He's got cancer now too; and it's probably from the drinking. He probably doesn't have a lot of time left and while I've made my peace with him over his failures, he... well he and Eliot... haven't exactly mended fences." She thought about her father back in Oklahoma. "He is a good man, he just let the drinking takeaway from us the man we once knew, and he and Eliot both said things they probably regretted. I'm...I'm just thinking that maybe Nate needs to know how much he could lose if he... well..." She turned back to look at Sophie. "It's not my place to say this and I don't know Nate, but Eliot does, and I know Eliot wouldn't be here with him or this team if he didn't like the man, so maybe... I don't know... just maybe he needs to know that he could lose more of his family if he doesn't stop."

Sophie wanted to tell the woman it wasn't her business, but she knew it kind of was. Eliot was her business and by extension so was Nate as a part of Eliot's new family. "I know and believe me, we've both tried." She turned her back to the window to watch Nate across the room. "He means well, and he tries so hard to do the right thing, but sometimes things just get away from him."

"Sophie, everyone has things they don't want to let be known, you know. We all have baggage. We all have a bad home life, a bad experience, bad choices, all kinds of things; but it's those things that define us. Those things that make us who and what we chose to become. We can either let them turn us away from the good and lead us down the bad road, or we can take those things and use them to make ourselves better. Eliot had been trying all his life to find out how to do just that, and well, I've only known each of you for barely a day, but I know you are all good people, especially Nate. And he needs to know just how good he is, too. Eliot will always feel he's a bad man no matter what we tell him, but Nate...well, he is a really good man and he needs to stay that way, because if he can stay the man I know he is deep down, then maybe, just maybe he can show Eliot just what kind of a man he is too, deep down."

Sophie smiled at that. "I never really thought about that, but you're right. All of us Parker, Hardison, me, and Eliot, we've all just been doing what we're good at no matter who it hurt, but since we were brought together by Nate, we've learned a bit about how good we really all are, and you're right. That's because of Nate." She sighed as she saw the man lift his drink to drain the glass. "I think, for everyone's sake, I think maybe it should be you to explain what you've just told me to Nate. Before he pours himself another drink." She said with a nod towards the man as he was heading over to the kitchen to do just that.

Emma smiled weakly. "Got it; but just in case, maybe you could keep an eye on us. Just in case I have to break his nose."

Sophie laughed and nodded as she let Emma quietly thank her then walk over to the man in question. She couldn't stop the laugh that escaped when she saw Emma reach out and take the bottle of Irish whiskey from Nate and turn to pour the alcohol down the kitchen sink as a stunned Nate could only watch in silence as the woman then reached over and took his glass to drop in the sink. The woman was brave she thought.

Emma then reached out and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and handed them to Nate with some muffled words Sophie couldn't hear as she steered him over to the dining table where she pushed him into a seat and then she sat down next to him with her own pen and paper.

Nate looked over at Sophie with a confused expression that only intensified Sophie's laughter causing the others in the room to wonder what was going on. Sophie could only stand there and shake her head as Emma refused to allow the man to escape. She had no idea what Emma was instructing Nate to do, but it was funny because after that one look, Nate bowed his head to the paper and began writing and she watched in amazement as soon he was totally engrossed in whatever task he'd been assigned. Sophie could only wonder at just how much Emma Spencer would be able to get accomplished towards the 'keep Nate from drinking campaign', but given the sight in front of her, she was beginning to suspect that maybe, just maybe the woman might just have the will to succeed.

Maybe if they put Emma in charge of this job, they'd have Eliot safe and sound back home within the day, because the woman had the strength and determination to get what she wanted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Quinn slowly took in the fact that there was a deep buzzing noise reverberating through out his brain, and he wasn't sure if he had a head full of bees or what. It felt like something was really doing a number on his brain. He slowly forced one eye open as he tried to focus on his surroundings. He almost yelped when a bald head came into his line of sight.

"Oh good, you're awake. I was beginning to wonder if you'd sleep through everything." The bald head said as it bobbed up and down around him.

"What the fu-" He began when a hand was suddenly clamped over his mouth.

"No! No bad language, mister." Quinn turned to find the owner of the hand was a small girl no more than ten years old he was guessing. She had long curly yellow blonde hair and a large blue ribbon sat on top of her head where her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail.

She was smiling at him and slowly she moved her hand. "We don't say that word. Mamma doesn't like it."

"Ma...mamma?" He was confused. Who was this? What the hell was going on here?

The bald head came back in view just behind the little girl. "Mamma is my sister Libby. And this is Missy, my niece." The man moved the little girl away from Quinn. "Missy, go get your mamma and tell her Mr. Quinn is awake and we can get him out of here now."

"Okay, Uncle." The little girl skipped away. She actually skipped; Quinn realized as he watched her leave through the back door where he could see the alley just outside.

He slowly looked back at the bald head to see that now there were more features coming into his line of sight. The man attached to the head was young, probably no more than 30, but he looked like he'd led a hard life. He had a long scar running down the left side of his face that began at his ear and ended just under his jaw.

"What's...where am I?" Quinn managed to get out and he took in the fact that he was sitting on the floor of a room that looked like it was in the process of being renovated. His brain frantically tried to remember what had happened. Three men, guns, Mack, crap. Okay, he remembered landing at the airfield and being attacked by the three guys, then he'd managed to get away in the jeep, but he'd tried calling Vance for help.

Was this someone Vance sent to help him? "Did Vance send you?" He asked as he tried to pull himself up into a sitting position.

The man quickly reached out to help him sit up by bracing his back against the wall and Quinn took in the hastily wrapped bandage covering his left upper thigh. He'd been shot, he remembered that too. He'd killed at least two of the men in his escape, but he didn't remember how he'd gotten out of his car.

"Vance? Who's Vance?" The bald man asked. The man reached behind him and pulled a canteen into Quinn's view. After popping off the lid, he handed it to him. Quinn took it and didn't give it a second thought as he drank from it greedily.

"Vance. I called him for help. Didn't he send you?" Quinn responded after drinking his fill.

"No. I was sent by a friend of a friend to find you." The man watched Quinn. He didn't know anything other than the fact he was supposed to find this man and get him to safety. They'd need to leave soon in order to do that. "We tracked you to this store you parked behind and just as you passed out on your car horn, we got you out and in here long enough to bandage your leg. We need to get moving now before whoever is after you finds you. You've been out about a half hour and Libby was beginning to worry you'd lost too much blood. She's the nurse and she did the basic triage. The bullet exited your leg, which is good, but you were really bleeding out a lot, so she wanted to be sure you were stabilized before we moved you."

Quinn looked at the man. "Who sent you?"

"I told you, a friend. Just know we're the good guys, and we're here to help. My sister, Libby is a doctor and me, well I'm... let's just say I'm the muscle. Name's Eric by the way. Now we know your name is Quinn and you're here to help a friend of your own, and our friend knows your friend Eliot. He wants to help you help him. So, we're all good, we all want to help you and Eliot and we're here to get you safe so you can do just that, okay?"

Quinn just stared at the man. What the hell was this? No one just showed up and offered to help like this. Well, no one unless they were Kat or friends of Kat's maybe. "Do you know Kat?" He asked as he took another long pull from the canteen and allowed the man to pull him to his feet.

He winced in pain as he leaned heavily on Eric, who pulled him along. He realized that in the space of the explanation he'd been given and his questions, the man had succeeded in getting him upright and sort of walking out of the building towards the waiting blue paneled van that had a large picture of a bouquet of flowers on the side and a sign that read Bloom's bloomin' blooms.

Okay he was being rescued by a man with a bald head and a scar who owned a van from a flower store? And brought a child on the rescue? What was going on here?

Eric helped him inside the van to settle him on the seat behind the driver who was a petite woman of about 35 with long frizzy blonde hair that was as wild as the looks she was giving the two of them. "This is Libby, Quinn, my sister and your sort of doctor for the time being. And I don't know anyone, or anything named Kat either. We were sent by Albert, who is a friend of Eliot's. Now, Missy will be keeping an eye on you while Libby drives you to her place. I have to ditch your jeep so whoever is looking for you goes the wrong way." Eric strapped the seatbelt around him, and Missy jumped onto the bench seat to sit next to him.

"It's okay, Mr. Quinn. My mamma is the bestest and you'll be just fine." The girl said as she reached over to take the blanket her mother handed her, and she folded it awkwardly over Quinn's lap. "We don't want anyone to see your leg, so keep this over your lap, Mr. Quinn."

The girl was behaving like a doctor herself, Quinn thought. And the mister stuff was beginning to grate on his head. The buzzing was coming back again as he settled himself against the back of the seat and allowed the little girl to take the canteen and then as she tucked the blanket around him, he slowly felt the van shift gears and head off in some unknown direction.

Whoever these people were, someone who knew Eliot had sent them. So, they probably could be trusted, but he found it hard to let his guard down. The one thought he kept going back to was how the hell did Eliot or his friend know he needed help, unless said friend was Nate Ford?

But if these people knew Nate, surely, they knew about Vance and Whitmore. Maybe not, maybe Ford hadn't had time to fill them in. Suddenly he felt like he was sliding off the seat and he knew he was about to pass out again. Whatever was going on here, he just hoped he truly was safe, because he knew he wasn't going to be able to do anything to prevent an attack if they were not the good guys.

His last sight was of Missy sitting next to him holding his hand in hers while she made sure the blanket covered him. "It's okay Mr. Quinn. We'll be home soon, and you will be safe, I promise."

He thought okay, fine. I'm just gonna go with this. Besides who would send a ten-year-old girl named Missy to kill him? At that thought he smiled grimly, because he knew anything was possible.

AN: Thank you everyone for all the reviews and follows and favorites! You make me love doing this! So, like all good things, this must come to an end. There are only about three to five more chapters left and we will be saying goodbye to each other, but hopefully there may be a sequel in the works (hint hint). I'm busy working on a Live Journal prompt for Christmas that just might somehow end up over here later so be on the lookout. I've also got an original story of my very own in the works and will update on that later. Wish me luck!