The crowd gathering around Alan's locker the following morning was exceptionally larger than the ring which had assembled around Abby's several days earlier. The reason being, of course, that Alan was much more popular and significant and people loved seeing idols fall.

That and the fact that the news of the school's famous gavel being stolen had spread like wildfire and people had rightfully deduced a correlation between the theft and the opening of a student's locker.

"You can't open that! That's my locker," Alan complained as the custodian went to snip the lock of the locker. The headmaster stood beside him, arms crossed in defiance. "My father's on the school board; you can't do this!" he protested again, all credibility slipping as he went from proper preppy to self-indulgent child.

"We received a tip that the gavel was in your locker," the headmaster explained coolly.

"You can't open my locker because of a tip from a student! That's not credible!" he objected.

"The tip wasn't from a student. It was from a faculty member," the headmaster explained

~Earlier~

Mouser jumped upon seeing Eliot waiting outside his office as he arrived at school that morning.

"Agent Priestly," Mouser said nervously as he unlocked his door. Uninvited, Eliot followed him in. "What can…"

"Do you remember how you agreed to help out when required?" Eliot questioned and Mouser nodded, gulping in nervousness. "Well, now you're required to help."

"What do you…"

"We need you to inform your headmaster that Alan Devlin was involved with last night's stunt and his locker should be searched immediately," Eliot instructed, without waiting for Mouser to finish his question; all the hitter wanted was for this job to be over and Abby to be out of any harm's way.

"Okay, okay, I can do that," Mouser stated as though he was trying to reassure himself that he was in fact capable of the task.

"Now," Eliot directed and Mouser got up out of his chair and scurried off to the principal's office.

Alan ran a worried hand through his sandy blond hair as the headmaster gestured to the custodian to open the locker.

The pudgy janitor slammed the bolt cutters around the combination lock, let it fall to the floor and then stepped aside for the principal to inspect the locker.

The first thing he pulled out was a snap lock bag containing six, neatly rolled joints a package which didn't cause any notion of surprise on anyone's faces, Alan's included. His face instead showed a deep sense of regret and anger.

The second item which was pulled out was a fully intact gavel and it caused Alan's face to drop and his jaw to snap open in surprise.

~The Night Before~

It had taken Parker three minutes to break into the school, leave it open for Abby to 'break in' and make it to the headmaster's office to switch out the real gavel for an exceptionally good, but extremely breakable replica.

It would have taken her five minutes, as opposed to fifteen, to then find Alan's locker, find the combination and then plant the real gavel inside had she not been so distracted by the extremely shiny, yet pointless orb sitting on the headmaster's desk.

It took her all of her willpower to not steal the trinket.

"But, but, but, that broke!" he exclaimed, then snapped his mouth shut as he realised he should stop divulging information.

"This way Mister Devlin," the headmaster instructed as he lightly grabbed Alan by the arm and led him through the crowd to his office.

"But, but, it wasn't, I didn't," he trivially tried to protest as he scanned the crowd. "Her!" he yelled when he spotted Abby, leaning against her uncle and surrounded by the rest of the team. "Emily Briggs! She's a thief, she stole it."

"She doesn't even go here," Parker yelled, the shouting blending in with the whispers and murmurs of the crowd.

"And him!" Alan continued, referring to Nate but still being hopelessly pulled along by the headmaster. "He's in on it too. All of them! They set me up! They set me up!"

That was the last of the yells that the team heard as a set of heavy, wooden doors were shut behind Alan and the headmaster. The second they were sealed, the hallway erupted into a group of gabbling teenagers, all trying to exchange whatever information they could on the dramatic scene that had just unfolded.

The team, however, slowly made their way to the nearest exit, all extremely happy with their success.

"I don't remember planting drugs in his locker being part of the plan?" Abby questioned as they stepped out of the building and out into the sunshine.

"It wasn't," Nate agreed. "Parker actually found them in there."

Abby looked at Parker for confirmation; the thief smiled and nodded as she fiddled with the shiny orb within her jacket pocket.

She just couldn't resist.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This is amazing," their client smiled as she looked down at the pile of cash sitting in front of her. "I, uh, I think this is too much."

"No," Nate assured and was about to continue, before Abby, sitting next to him, spoke up. The teenager had insisted on meeting with the client to give her the money; she wanted to see the whole picture, the smile on the client's face and reassure herself that her breaking the law was for a good cause. Of course, Nate may have inferred that one from her body language.

"There's enough there for all of the students who got kicked out to go to school, any school, they want to," she guaranteed. "They deserve it, so it's not too much."

"And what happened to the person responsible?" the client enquired.

"Mr Devlin was expelled, brought up on possession charges and given community service. He's under pretty close watch but we'll check to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone else," Nate informed her.

The young woman smiled and thanked them one last time as she picked up the cash and walked out the door.

"That felt good," Abby declared after a few moments of silence.

Nate nodded in agreement and took a sip of his drink as the others walked over from the bar to join them.

"So, how did you like your first con?" Sophie queried, sliding in next to Nate and hooking her arm under his.

"Interesting," Abby stated, though honestly she was still unsure whether this fit for her, as exciting as it was. "I'm going to go with interesting."

"Stick with that," Hardison agreed.

"Hey, what happened to Mouser?" Abby questioned.

"Not much," Nate replied but trailed off upon seeing a mischievous, evil grin spread across Parker's face. "Something you want to tell us Parker?"

The thief smiled once more as she pulled, seemingly out of nowhere, a stem of petunias, roots and soil still attached and falling across the floor of the bar.

Sophie, the only one who realised the significance of the strange gesture, gasped. "You tore up his garden?"

"Yeah," Parker replied, her eyes wide.

"Parker, they were his prized possessions! Every dollar he had went into those plants," Sophie explained. The team looked at her, partially with disappointment and partially with great amusement; no one however, other than Sophie, said anything. "Just, tell us next time you plan on extracting revenge please?" Sophie conceded.

"Fine," Parker moaned.

"I'd also like to point out," Hardison stated, opting for a change in conversation. "That tomorrow is Friday and we have no jobs lined up. We have the weekend off."

A sigh of relaxation waved across the table.

"Perfect," Sophie declared. "Tara's coming into town so I can actually catch up with her."

"And I can go see Peggy," Parker said.

"Works well for me," Eliot declared.

"You have plans?" Sophie enquired.

"I've got a friend from the service coming into town, plus I owe Bonnano a poker game," he explained.

"What time?" Hardison asked.

"You're not invited," Eliot said with a straight face.

"What do you mean 'I'm not invited'?" the hacker questioned.

"You can't play poker," Eliot complained. "You just, just…"

"I'll be there at 7," Hardison decided, ignoring the hitter's joke. At least, he hoped it was a joke.

"Nate?" Sophie asked but the mastermind did not reply, instead he took a long sip of his whisky.

"Read up on some clients," he finally said as he stood up to get another drink from the bar. Eliot, who was sandwiched between Abby and Parker in the booth, not so unobtrusively slid out from between the two girls and followed Nate to the bar.

"Nate," Eliot said, seriousness in his voice as he lent on the bar. "She was too involved with that con. That was too far."

"Nothing happened…"

"I don't care, that was too much," he reiterated.

"Okay," Nate said simply; he partially agreed with Eliot, believing that the girl was too young, too innocent, to be involved with their business. The other part of him knew she was too smart, cunning and too much like her uncle to not be involved in their business. It was a difficult dilemma. "Okay," he said once more, deciding, for now, it was not his place to impose.

"Good," Eliot stated, snatching himself another beer before walking back to the booth, where Sophie was dealing out playing cards.

"What are we doing?" Nate, who had followed Eliot back from the bar, questioned.

"Teaching me how to play poker," Abby said proudly.

Eliot grinned and pulled up a chair. "She's gonna beat you ya know," he declared to Hardison, picking up his cards.

"She ain't never played before," Hardison protested.

"A monkey could beat you," Eliot quipped. "She's sharp, that's all I'm sayin'."

"We'll see about that," Parker said, squinting her eyes and preparing herself to win.

So, I hope you enjoyed that! Anyone care to guess what's up next? It was not so subtly hinted to above.

Many, many, super, uber thanks to SweetyKinz for betaing and being awesome.

And many thanks to you, kind reader, for your loyalty, especially through that little hiatus =)

Any requests or ideas, don't hesitate; I always love fresh thoughts =)