Title: V is for Vermeer

Prompt by: fleurlb

Pairing/Characters: Nate, Sophie, Eliot, Hardison, mentions Parker

Rating: PG

Setting: future/non-specific

Word Count: 354

Given the high levels of security, only the best thieves would attempt such a thing, and four of the very best thieves certainly were.

It hadn't come as a huge surprise when they all discovered each other there, though it had been years enough since the happy band of Robin Hoods had parted company.

Hardison's high-tech skills had got him through the front door, disabling alarms and locks like they were nothing at all.

Nate and Sophie were still together, or rather they were together again for about the fourth or perhaps fifth time since the teams split, lovers and partners both til the next explosion of crisis sent them running for cover - as usual, they had talked their way in.

Eliot was the obvious choice for getting the artwork out from under the noses of security without a problem, since his job was and had always been Retrieval Specialist; nobody knew how he'd got in or planned to get out but they knew better than to ask.

Of course the real mystery ought to have been why they had all chosen the same museum at the same time, the new Vermeer exhibit that began tomorrow with many of his best works restored to knew heights of beauty.

The sad smiles worn on all four faces as they met, as if it were planned, before the specific painting they had all come to steal, made it abundantly clear that they all knew why each other wanted it for their own.

The resemblance was striking between the girl in the picture and the one member of their team that nobody had been able to keep track of for years now, none of them sure if she was dead or alive, free or imprisoned.

Each of their hearts ached, losing the last of the hope that maybe, just maybe, Parker would have been here too, for the same reason they were.

The fact that she wasn't seem to confirm something they all knew deep inside, and so silent goodbyes were said, and the famous Vermeer remained hanging in its prize position, untouched by thieving hands.