"So?" Hardison queried when they were all back at the hotel room.

"Wasn't a professional hit," Eliot replied, despite the fact he'd already relayed that information to the team and knowing full well that this wasn't what the hacker was asking; he continued anyway. "Knife work was sloppy and he was stabbed in all the wrong places; it probably took him 15 minutes to bleed out."

"It worked though didn't it?" Parker queried, sitting on top of the coffee table, fiddling with a lock in her hand.

"Any professional hit man wouldn't leave their mark alive where they can be saved or be a witness," Eliot explained further

"Not that this isn't interesting, or creepy as hell, but I was referring to the not one, but two relatives that work with the SBPD?" The hacker tried again, raising his brow and leaning back on the couch.

"Yeah, I'm interested in that as well," Nate added, just as curious as the others, even if they did not express it; the secretive past of their hitter had interested them all.

"Henry is my uncle, been a cop for as long as I can remember. A good one too," Eliot explained reluctantly before there was an angry banging on the hotel door; the team exchanged glances before Eliot stood up, grabbing a nearby umbrella, which Eliot could turn into a deadly weapon at a moment's notice for protection. What an umbrella was doing in the sunny city of Santa Barbara he wasn't sure but, honestly, he didn't really care.

He walked over to the door and, after looking through the peephole he opened it to find Shawn leaning suavely against the door frame, clad in a leather jacket, aviators and deep red cravat. Behind him, Gus was standing in his regular clothes with his arms and brow crossed in frustration.

"Shawn?" Eliot asked as he opened the door. "Why are you here?"

"Because you sent me a text!" Shawn said, slapping his cousin lightly on the arm as he coolly pulled off his glasses, tucked them into his top and walked inside the room; Gus followed cautiously.

"I didn't," Eliot began to protest but then turned back inside to face the team. "Dammit Hardison!"

"Nate made me do it!" the hacker complained pointing at the mastermind.

"So, this is what an international life of crime looks like," Shawn exclaimed looking about the lavish suite and the paperwork and various gizmos which were laid out on the tables.

"You think that's something, you should see Parker's place," Hardison exclaimed.

"And Parker is?"

"Our resident thief," Eliot said, pointing to the blonde.

Hello," Gus said, eyeing off Parker in his deep, 'flirtatious' voice. Parker eyed him back cautiously as she instinctively grabbed the nearest fork.

"Parker," Nate warned and the thief loosened her grip on the utensil. At this moment, Shawn took a step further away from the thief, who had just a hint too much of crazy on her for his liking, and not the good kind. Gus, on the other hand, sat down next to the thief and continued to (try) flirt with her.

At this point, Eliot smirked at the notion that Gus stayed well away from Eliot, but was okay flirting with one of the most unstable people on the planet.

"I'm divining that you," Shawn said pointing his finger at Hardison. "Are the resident geek, Basher Tarr meets Livingston Bell, if you will."

Hardison nodded but he wasn't the slightest bit impressed with the man's deduction skills; the hacker was, after all, sitting at a computer and wearing a star wars t-shirt.

"Alec Hardison, at your service," he greeted.

"And you," Shawn continued, spinning on the heels of his feet to face Sophie. "You would be the team's grifter."

"Sophie Deveraux," she smiled.

"Which leaves," the psychic continued, spinning further around so he was faced to face with Nate. "Mr Ocean, Hannibal, Hood himself; Nathan Ford."

"And you would be Mr Jane," Nate said smugly.

"Hmmm, I'm not a fan of that comparison," Shawn stated. "Or with Gus being a woman."

Parker raised her eyebrow at this statement and scooched over in an attempt to put more space between her and Gus.

"So…" Shawn began but was interrupted by a knock at the door. Eliot picked up the umbrella again and walked towards the door and, checking in the peephole, sighed. He took a moment to collect himself before he opened it.

"Henry," he greeted with an almost, slightly half smile.

"Eliot," Henry said, lightly pushing his way past the hitter and into the hotel room.

"Dad?" Shawn exclaimed.

"Either you tell me what's going on or leave. I won't have you dragging Shawn into whatever illegal game you've got going," the man declared, pointing his finger into Eliot's face.

"How did you know I was here?" Eliot asked, concerned and honestly confused, as he tossed the umbrella aside.

"I tailed Shawn," Henry stated and Eliot tossed Shawn a dirty look. "I was a cop for thirty years remember?" Henry said, wandering further into the hotel room, where he saw the remainder of the team sitting on the couches while Gus and Shawn still stood idly in the room. He only recognised Sophie. "Myers?" he questioned to no one in particular and then turned to Eliot. "Why is the interim curator here?" Henry crossed his arms in a patented Spencer 'give-me-what-I-want-'cause-I-ain't-moving' stance.

Eliot returned the stance and, had Nate not stepped in, it was highly likely the two would have sat a stalemate for a long period of time.

"Uh, Eliot maybe you should just," Nate suggested then shrugged, suggesting Eliot to just tell him what was going on.

"What?" Parker asked, not overly fond of the idea of confessing their crimes and MO to a cop. Eliot rubbed his forehead in frustration; sometimes family was just too complicated.

"Henry, this is my team," the hitter began reluctantly. "Hardison, Parker, Sophie and Nate," he introduced.

"What have you got to do with this case?" the elder Spencer enquired.

"The guy who died he was our mark," Eliot explained.

"You're con men?" Henry asked in disbelief, though in his mind he was thinking that that was a definite step up from whatever Eliot had previously been. "And you're dragging Shawn into this?"

"I resent the implication that I was dragged!" Shawn protested.

"We're not bad con men," Parker jumped in. "We're good ones!"

"We run cons on people take advantage of others," Eliot explained further.

There was a quizzical look on Henry's face.

"Think, think Robin Hood," Hardison suggested and Henry nodded.

"See Dad, told you it was nothing to worry about," the psychic reassured his father, feeling though he had digressed back to a teenager.

"You break the law," Henry stated matter of factly.

"Eh, pick up where the law leaves off," Nate suggested alternatively.

"You still break the law."

"You're telling me you've never pushed boundaries to do the right thing?" Nate questioned.

"Point taken," Henry accepted as he grew more comfortable in his surroundings and pulled up a chair. "So what'd this guy do?" He said and leant forward with his hands clasped and elbows on his knees. Meanwhile Shawn wandered about the room, eyeing off and fiddling with all of the gadgets flung about the room.

"Well," Nate began then paused to look at Eliot for confirmation to explain; the hitter nodded at him to continue. "It's actually quite ingenious. Paintings would come into the gallery, he would have forgeries made up and either sell off the originals on the black market or keep them for himself."

"I think I saw this on a movie once," Shawn noted.

"It's criminal but it's not exactly hurting anyone," Henry pointed out ignoring, along with everyone else, Shawn's comment.

"Except for the fact he's been doing this all over the country with different identities…"

"How does one go about getting one of these, fake identities?" Shawn interrupted. "Because it could come in handy," he laughed.

"Hours and hours of gruelling hard work," Hardison replied.

"How much?"

"Shawn!" both Eliot and Henry yelled.

"Can I continue?" Nate asked sarcastically before he continued his brief. " Basically, in every city he's been in an innocent person has taken the fall for him," Hardison added.

"And now he's dead?" Henry confirmed.

"As a doornail," Parker replied.

"And you didn't kill him?" he asked, directing his question at Eliot.

"That's what I asked," Gus chimed in.

What is it with this family and thinking I killed someone, he thought. "No," the hitter replied groughly.

"So who did?"

"That's what we need to find out," Nate replied.

"Sounds like you need a little of this," Shawn said gleefully as he put his right hand to his scalp. "A whole lotta this," he continued placing his left hand on his other temple. "And probably a lot of this," he added, hovering his hands over Hardison's gadgets.

Wow! You're response to this has been amazing guys, thank you!

Here's a nice long chapter to tide you over to the next one.

Unfortunately my computer crashed and I lost this story so I'm having to slowly rewrite it...

BUT, never fear, it'll only be more awesome!

Reviews have been amazing my friends, keep it up.

Ta,

A Lyrical Dreamer