"I'll take the odd numbers, you take the even?" Parker suggested, tossing Abby a bag of coats as they snuck into the basement of the psychology building.

"Other way round," she suggested, jogging briskly and quietly as she could behind the energized thief.

Parker shrugged. "Sure," she agreed as they turned the corner to where the guard was but silently spun back around seeing there was still a guard placed at the entrance.

She pushed Abby back against the wall and placed her finger to her lips.

"Guards," Parker whispered.

"What do we do?" Abby hissed back and Parker lent further into the wall and peaked her head back around the corner.

"I don't know!" Parker exclaimed, still softly. "I'm not the grifter."

"Neither am I!" Abby replied as the thief stole a glance around the corner. She quickly pulled her head back as the guard, previously sitting sedentarily at his desk, had now stood up and was suspiciously looking towards where the two girls were hiding.

"Shiny tomato," Parker swore.

"Okay, um," Abby began, thinking quickly and running through options in her head. "I'll distract him, you bring them the coats."

"What?" Parker asked as Abby wandered out into the hall. Parker was tempted to follow but, keeping her head, shrunk back against the wall.

The guard looked confused as Abigail traipsed out into the hall, swaying dreamily from side to side and he placed his hand upon his taiser.

"You can't be here," he commanded.

Abby gave a surprised look towards his taser. "I was looking for, uh, Travis," she told him sultrily. "He asked me to come down here."

The guard released his hand from his taser and shifted his weight awkwardly. "He's not here."

"Do you think you could go find him for me?" she pleaded, biting her lip teasingly.

"Sure, I'll be right back," he conceded and ran off down the adjoining hall to find his boss.

Parker snuck out from around the other corner and gave Abby a rascally grin. "Nice," she praised then ran towards the cells. "You coming?" she asked over her shoulder as she noticed Abby lingering in the hall.

"Yeah," she replied. "We'll have to be quick though. The goon'll be back any minute now."

"Why would you be meeting the mark down here anyway?" she asked curiously, picking the lock into the cell area.

Abby smiled. "Scrabble Parker," she informed her, watching the thieves fingers and their intricate movements. "Travis is a very avid scrabble player."

"How'd you know that?" Furrowing her brow at the notion while she pushed open the door.

"I, uh, read it in his file Parker," she lied, still smiling; the thief's naivety was always adorable.

"Oh," Parker stated, pulled out a pile full of jackets and tossed half of them to Abby.

They ran towards the cells, exchanging mischievous grins as they each opened their first doors and both quickly handed the shivering men their coats and exited just as swiftly and continued on to the next one.

When Abby made it to Eliot's cell she entered it slowly and was not surprised to see her uncle sitting awake on the bed.

His legs were crossed and eyes barely open as he meditated to keep himself calm.

"Abby? What?" he questioned, opening his eyes.

"Parker and I are delivering the jackets and stuff for Nate's uber plan," she whispered, wrapping his arms around his middle.

"You shouldn't be here," he protested, hugging her back.

She shrugged, stepping backwards.

"I just wanted to say," she began then took a deep breath. "I love you."

He smiled. "I love you too, now please go," he urged as Parker tapped on the open door.

"Come on!" she shouted enthusiastically. "Scrabble guy's gonna be here any second."

"Scrabble guy?" Eliot asked, against his better judgment.

"It's Parker," Abby shrugged once more. "She's weird."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"That was a nice sentiment you know," Sophie praised, twiddling a pen in her hand as they waited patiently for Parker to return from seeing Hardison.

Sophie, slightly bored with her minimal input in the job, had decided to join Abby and Parker on the drive and take the opportunity to check up on Abigail. "What you said to Eliot back in the cells yesterday."

Abby shrugged.

"I do what I can," she declared modestly, without looking up. Her feet were sitting up on the dash board and her fingers were ticking at her nails.

"Nate, we have a problem," they all suddenly heard Parker declare.

Abby immediately sat up in her seat, placing her feet back down on the floor of the car and attentively turning to face Sophie.

"What kind of problem?" Nate questioned, sitting at the desk in his apartment.

"Hardison's blown, I just found his CIA file on the floor and he's not here." Her voice remained steady and calm but it was evident that she was worried.

Abby unclipped her seat belt and pushed open the door, ready and determined to go help Parker (and Hardison).

Sophie tutted and shook her head.

"Oh, no, no, no," Sophie exclaimed and Abby, looking back at the grifter, paused with one foot already out the door. "There's no way Eliot would ever let you out of the van in a situation like this and there's no way I'm going to either."

Abby was determined to continue to move but, upon Sophie determinedly raising her brow, Abby shrunk back into her seat and shut the door behind her.

She knew Sophie was right, but still.

"Can you trace his earbud?" Nate questioned.

"I, um," Parker stammered but Abby quickly interjected, pulling her phone out of her back pocket.

"I can," she declared, opening up the app Hardison had installed on her phone knowing that everyone else would be hopeless with this task in his absence. "He must have taken his earbud out," she informed them as she looked at the blinking dot just a few feet away from Parker. "Say's he's still in the dorm room."

Sophie looked solemn.

"How did they even find out it was him?" Sophie questioned.

"We're dealing with a CIA interrogator, I'm betting it has something to do with him," Nate replied quickly. "Eliot, we need you on the outside," he stated, snapping the hitter's attention towards the conversation and spinning out of his chair.

"Why? What happened?" he questioned, sitting arms crossed and exhausted at the interrogation table as the interrogator walked in.

"They made Hardison, snatched him ten minutes ago," the mastermind explained.

"Where'd they take him?" He slid a sidewards glance of hatred to the CIA.

"We don't know," Nate informed him, sounding ominous.

The hitter growled, preparing to strike. He'd said it before, nobody hurt Hardison except for Eliot.

"Gimme five minutes," he declared then pulled out his earbud and launched himself at the interrogator.

Back in the car, Sophie flinched and stole a quick glance towards the teenager beside her. She had not reacted and was staring blankly out the window towards the building where Eliot was being held, just visible through the trees.

Nate meanwhile, marched purposefully towards the door, running through plans and contingencies in his mind.

"What's the plan Nate?" Sophie asked.

"We're going to run a variation of the Double-Play," he declared, adding volume to his voice trying to draw attention away from Eliot's rash methods.

"Nuh-uh," she shook her head, "we don't have the aliases, resources or location for that."

"We don't need the aliases," he dismissed. "We're going to have the real police there. Sophie, give your police friend a call."

"I like your thinking Nate," she praised, pulling out her phone.

"As for the resources," Nate continued but was interrupted by Eliot's heavy breathing as he came back online.

"I know where they took Hardison," he stated groughly. "Same place where you had that first class."

"Parker?" Nate yelled out.

"Already on it," the thief replied, sprinting as fast as she could towards Hardison.

"Good, now, as for those resources," Nate began again. "We're gonna turn the ground floor of the psychology building into our station. Abby, go meet Eliot. Eliot bring your friends, we're going to need the man power." He opened the door to his car, got inside and slammed it shut. "Let's finish this," he declared adamantly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Abby ran into the door of the Psychology building, Eliot was waiting patiently, explaining the rest of the con to their latest participants.

She didn't move for a moment, staring at him blankly, not knowing what to feel before she ran forward.

"Hi." She leapt into his arms and he stumbled backwards, both with surprise and exhaustion.

"Hey," he mumbled, ignoring the longing, confused looks from the rest of the men. "What do we need to do?"

"Nate's bringing everything we need. For now, we need to clear out that room," she pointed to the back of the hallway.

"Let's get started then," he agreed, looking to his newly formed posse to help him.

With the extra help, it only took them half an hour to set up the interrogation room and the hallway which led up to it convincingly enough so that it would pass as the Boston PD.

Nate arrived ten minutes into the set-up, taking over from Abigail who had naturally taken control over the situation, leaving an emotionally and physically exhausted Eliot to work with the rest of the men.

Grayson, hauling an unconscious Travis in the back of her car, arrived just as they'd finished their work. She gave them the nod of approval and, just like Nate planned, the flip on Travis worked like a charm.

Nate even took a moment to stare at the man, contented in his success, before he marched outside to the others; it was the first time they'd reunited as a team since Hardison's capture.

When Eliot saw Hardison, he embraced him with the same care and concern as he did after the job with the funeral home only this time, Hardison hugged him back with a thankful pat on the shoulder.

Nate gave him a swift handshake while the hacker gripped his bruised rib with his free hand. Sophie kissed him on the cheek and Abby carefully hugged him around his shoulders, all the while exchanging an unsure look with Eliot.

"I'm glad you're safe Alec," she stated, still looking at her uncle. The look was subtle but, more or less it told him that she was, for the most part, okay with what he'd done.

She was careful to act like it was okay too; careful to make sure that she didn't make a big deal about it; after her discussion with Nate she decided that Eliot didn't need to feel worse about what he'd done. The same as the rest of the team who were all just satisfied that Hardison was safe.

The rest of the team similarly dismissed Eliot's actions, all just happy he was safe.

"You think this CIA suit's going to be a problem?" Sophie asked, as they all made their way towards the van, satisfied with having seen their mark arrested.

"We'll see," Nate replied, linking Sophie's arm in his.

"Oh, and good job on getting rid of that guard Abby," Sophie praised, looking over her shoulder back at the teenager, who gave a mockingly proud, quick courtesy.

"I have a good teacher," she smiled back.

"Getting rid of what guard?" Eliot asked, pausing in his tracks momentarily.

"You'll never know," she teased as she grinned and stepped into Eliot's car.

"Meet you guys back at the bar?" Eliot asked the others as he walked around to the driver's side. Parker and Hardison, who were hopping into one vehicle, and Nate and Sophie, hopping into another, both nodded.

"Race you?" the thief asked hopingly with a strange look in her eye.

"No, Parker," Eliot rolled his eyes. "Just no."

He slid into the car, ignoring the pout on Parker's face and pulled out of the park.

"Do we need to talk about today?" Eliot asked only after a few moments of silence, without taking his eyes off the road. Back at the house, they'd agreed to be more communicative and, if he didn't want her off on another bender, it started with things like this, however difficult they were.

Abby, who was staring pensively out the window, shook her head.

"You sure?" he confirmed. "'cause you know, that whole deal we made-"

"Eliot, you saved Alec's life," she interrupted. "That's all we need to say." Her tone was adamant and determined; just like a Spencer.

Request for jinxcat21. I'm glad I was pushed to write this, I enjoyed it, however challenging it was.

Now, next is where the Christmas Job I wrote would go, so, come the following chapter, consider Abby with a car, Nate with a boat, and them all coming out of the holiday spirit.

But, next we move on to the Radio Job!