Chapter 1
Parker stretched out her legs and propped her feet on the table, earning her a warning look from Sophie. When she shrugged and didn't move, the grifter sighed loudly.
"Where are they? They've never beenthislate before," Hardison muttered, checking his laptop screen again. "I can't seem to track either of them."
"Nate is probably otherwise engaged," Sophie murmured, her gaze dropping to the table.
She didn't elaborate, so Parker dropped her feet back on the floor and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. "But we're in his condo, well sorta, so it's not like he's too hung over to roll out of bed. What would he be otherwise engaged doing, exactly?"
"Doing 'who' would be more accurate." Sophie retorted and stood to go refill her coffee.
Glancing to Hardison, Parker mouthed the words 'what'd I miss'. Hardison leaned forward and whispered, "Nate left with a PYT last night."
She tilted her head in confusion and whispered back, "PYT?"
"Pretty.Young. Thing," Sophie answered, coming to sit beside the pair again. "That doesn't explain where Eliot is. At least he's normally more responsible than Nate."
"A world where Eliot is considered more responsible is a lil' creepy." Hardison picked up an earpiece and tried again to find their hitter.
After a few minutes, Sophie stood up, straightened her skirt and walked toward the door. "Call me if either of them decides to show up to do theirjob." She slammed the door in her wake.
Parker and Hardison looked at each other before he resumed trying to get Nate or Eliot to answer. Finally, he tossed the ear bud onto the table.
"GPS tracking on their phone is a fail. Coms are a fail. This doesn't seem right. I'm wondering if…" his voice trailed off.
"What? Someone killed them? Or maybe threw them in a dark horrible basement to torture them? Damien Moreau's people could do that. But they probably wouldn't since he's locked up and can't pay them. Ohhh! Maybe they're rotting in a Mexican prison! Wait, with Eliot it would probably be a Myanmar prison. Or would that be Myanmarian?"
"Parker!" Hardison snapped and her eyes drifted to his. "You'renothelping. We have a lot of enemies and there is a lot of money on Eliot's head. Not to mention the boy tends to piss people off just by his normal demeanor. He could be lying dead in an alley somewhere."
"Now you're just being paranoid and overly dramatic. If he was dead, wouldn't we know it?"
"How am I paranoid for stating the obvious? And how would we find out? Its not like dead men can return a phone call or we'd get an alert from the PD that an employee that 'doesn't exist' for a company that I work really hard to keep low key, ran out of luck or picked a fight with a bigger dude." Typing rapidly again, he continued, "I'm checking the morgue and hospitals for John Doe's."
"Is that his new alias?" she asked moving to perch on the table. Hardison shook his head in exasperation with a slight grin pulling at his lips.
xOxOx
Eliot struggled to clear the fog from his mind as he woke up. Sensing his arms being restrained, he didn't make any outward movements to show he was awake, even keeping his eyes closed. What the hell happened? The last thing he remembered was moving to disarm the guy with a gun before the trench coat guy tapped him on his forehead. Now he washere,whereverherewas.
"He is awake." A man's monotone voice announced before Eliot felt a splash of water thrown in his face. When he didn't move, someone forced his head back and poured some of the water down his throat before Eliot managed to spit it out and head butt the guy.
"Okay, so I guess we can rule out that he's a demon," another guy said as the second one stumbled back rubbing his forehead. Eliot glared at both of them.
"He's too fast and strong to be completely human."
"I'm Superman." Eliot smirked.
"Well, that's not kryptonite rope so let's see you break free of that, smartass," the other guy said with a smirk of his own. "Yeah, that's what I thought, 'Superman'. Nice hair by the way."
"So, what's your name, punk?" Eliot glanced at him, sizing him up. Not as big as the first guy he met, but both were bigger than the forehead tapper. How the hell did trench-coat dude knock his ass out with a finger tap? That's not normal.
"Trust me, you won't be screaming it later."
"You know Dean, maybe we misunderstood. Maybe he doesn't know what they took." the other guy said. Eliot realized he was the younger one and seemed the less pissed off at the world. Weird since he's the one Eliot tossed around back at the bar. And head-butted. "Maybe he's innocent…"
"Never heard that one before," Eliot muttered. "But hey, let's go with that. I'm innocent. Of what I'm not sure but whatever it was, I didn't do it."
Dragging a chair backwards to place in front of him 'Dean' straddled it. "Here's how it works. We'll ask the questions. You answer them."
"Sorry Dean. I can't hear you over the sound of my hands and feet being bound to a chair."
Dean smirked. "You're clever. I normally admire that in a person. Well, if they're not an asshole or working for demons."
"You've met my boss? He's not a demon, he's just tragically misunderstood. And most likely drunk."
"Don't try to be cute…" Dean began.
"I can't help it. It comes naturally. Oh, and if I'm tied up, I get even cuter but since you're really not my type, let's just skip that part and go back to me kicking your ass." Eliot smiled and gave him a patient look. "Or I could promise I won't do it again if you untie me. Whichever one works for you."
"Dean…"
"Sam, shut up!"
"Sam and Dean?" Eliot laughed. "Is that like a boy band? And who is your skulking friend, your manager or your bodyguard?" He nodded to trench-coat dude in the back who was watching them silently.
"I'm not a manager. I only protect their bodies if they're in extreme danger. I am an Ang…"
"Cas! Both of you just shut up! Don't tell this guy anything until we find out how involved with Deniro he is."
"Deniro? Don't know him, assuming it's a him." Eliot shrugged, his wrists pulling at the ropes. He realized he was tied too tight to possibly wriggle out of this and grew concerned, but he made sure it didn't show on his face. "Can I go now?"
"He's telling the truth." This 'Cas' character quickly moved from Trench-coat Dude to Captain Obvious in Eliot's book.
"You have something that belongs to us. Well, not us, but Cas." Dean glared at him, a look which Eliot returned in kind.
"I'm sure you've searched me after you…drugged me or whatever. I don't have anything of yours."
"Oh, I'm sure you've hidden it by now. But we saw you with Deniro. We know you're working with him. You were leaving his house when we got there with those two dudes and that hot blonde. That very hot blonde who seemed to be able to bend her body in ways…." Dean's face took on a dreamy expression before he waved his hand in annoyance when Sam started to interject. Dean mouthed the words 'Zip it'.
"It appears that you guys have me confused with someone else. It happens all the time. Why don't you just untie me, and we can talk normally?" Dean rolled his eyes and Eliot smiled, realizing that Dean seemed the most like him. "You have my word that I won't kick your ass until you're finished with your questions and then I'll even let you throw the first punch. Unless you continue your train of thought about the blonde, then all bets are off, man."
"How generous! If you're such a badass, how'd you end up here, tied to a chair?" Dean stood up and walked into the kitchenette of the dumpy hotel room. "Kick my ass? I'd kick your ass back to next week before you realized it was going to happen."
"Yeah, if you leave me tied up, maybe. Untie me and we'll test it.
"Why don't we get into a pissing contest? Or I don't know, start comparing whose dick is bigger?" Sam snorted. The comment drew an odd look from Cas who opened his mouth to answer before Sam quickly interrupted before he could. "Dean, this is stupid. Cas said he isn't lying, and the holy water didn't affect him so maybe he just doesn't know what they have or what Deniro is."
Eliot waited while Dean appeared to consider it.
Cas was nodding silently before he reassured Dean, "If his dick is bigger, it has no effect on his fighting abilities. In fact, if he had a smaller one it might force him to develop a complex that he would overcompensate for by inappropriate anger and violence."
Dean began coughing and choking on his beer, while Eliot's train of thought went from 'what to fuck' to 'oh hell no he didn't' in rapid succession. As Dean tried to breathe normally again, Eliot began plotting to show Cas exactly how inappropriate his anger could be despite his dick size, his really big dick size he might add. Seriously, he was going to fuck Captain Obvious up. After he figured out how he knocked him out with a tap of his finger. Yeah, he needed to learn counter measuresthenhe rearrange his world.
Sam shook his head in frustration and picked up a big knife on the table beside him. "Seriously Cas. You're just embarrassing us now." Eliot tensed when he stood up and leaned forward to cut the rope from Eliot's feet. Before Sam cut the ropes on his wrists, he shook the knife at Eliot and said "I'm trusting you at your word. Don't make me regret it. But if you do, Cas will just make you sleep again." Eliot waited for a beat before raising his brows impatiently. Sam cut the ropes on his wrists, and he pulled them forward to rub at the rope burn.
Dean grabbed another beer from the fridge and returned to his chair, popping off the lid as he went. After a moment, he held out the beer to Eliot. "So, tell us what you know about Deniro."
"I don't know anyone named Deniro. If you saw me leaving his house earlier, then you must have a different name than I do. The man we took down for trafficking babies was named John, John Winchester." Eliot noticed the angry shock on both the men's faces and tensed to move quickly.
"He's using the name John Winchester? Fucking hell!" Sam yelled and jumped up, knocking his chair over as he stormed away.
"Wait…this guy, John Winchester, had two sons." Eliot tried to recall the information Hardison had pulled up on the man last week. "Yeah, one of them was named Dean, bad dude, but supposedly he's dead. You're pretty spry for a dead guy."
"That man was Deniro. Apparently, he's using our late father's name," Sam explained.
"Dean was dead. But I brought him back from Hell." Cas had finally sat down on the bed closest to the door, although Eliot didn't recall seeing him move.
"That's useful," Eliot furrowed his brow before returning his gaze to Dean. "Handy guy you got there. Knocks people out by touching their forehead and brings you back from Hell when you die. I need to get one of those. Where did you pick this one up? Do they have female versions?"
"Oh yes they do, they most certainly do," Dean chuckled after a moment, over an obvious inside joke. "Cas is…well, he's…"
"I'm an Angel."
Eliot watched the strange man for a moment, nodding. "Like the vampire with a soul or like a cherub?"
"No, Cherubs are what you call Cupid. I'm an angel of the Lord."
Eliot stared at him for a minute, waiting for the man to crack a smile. Taking a sip of his beer, he finally said, "Riiiiggghhhhttt. Ofcourseyou are. I don't know what you drugged me with, but I think you guys might have done way too much."
xOxOx
Nate went to slide out of the bed and felt the warm body beside him shift. Turning, he found two dark eyes watching him.
"Sneaking out?" Her smile indicated it wasn't the first time she'd been to the rodeo.
"Yes, I need to get to work. Big meeting you know? If you give me your number perhaps I can buy you dinner…"
Before he knew what was happening, he was flat on his back again and she was straddling him, her smile turning wicked. "Tell you what, Nate. Why don't you just give what I want, and I'll give you whatyouwant?"
Nate smiled before replying. "I thought that's what we were doing last night."
"No, that was sex," Meg said with a laugh. "You humans are all the same. You think with your dicks."
"You humans? Don't you mean youmen?" Nate started to grow concerned when he noticed the coldness in her eyes.
Meg leaned forward placing one hand on either side of his head, staring at him. Suddenly her eyes went all black and she grinned, "No I mean you humans: you 'poor excuses for a failed experiment that walk the earth in these weak, breakable meat suits' humans. And if you're stupid enough to think what happened last night was whatIwanted, then you deserve what I might do to you. So, I suggest you continue to impress me with your abilities to obey and tell me where I can find it."
For the first time since his son died, Nate felt bone chilling terror course through him. "I have no idea what you mean."
"Deniro had something for me and apparently you nicked it before I got the message. Now I've had to dodge an angel and two pissed off hunters, who all have a long history of annoying me, trying to find it and my patience is wearing very thin, much like your odds of surviving this. But hey, if you give me what I want without any more of the fake niceties and sweatiness of sex, which wasn't that bad to be honest just not when I have other things to do, then I'll give you a gift. Just think of it as payment. Oh, and I'll let you live too so that's two gifts. Well damn, that's like three wishes! When you throw in the sex, I'm a mother fucking genie today!" Her eyes returned to normal when she chuckled darkly.
"And what do you think I want? Because I really don't think I have what you're looking for. I don't know anyone named Deniro…" Nate stammered and Meg sat up. She paused before getting off the bed and shaking her head at him with a little smirk.
"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you, Nathan. Your genie just turned into your worst nightmare." Before Nate could even realize how terrified he needed to be, she had jerked him off the bed and thrown him across the room like she was picking lint off the bed. He crashed into the wall and fell with a thud, gasping for breath.
xOxOx
Parker slipped from the condo, locking the door behind her. She felt uneasy and Hardison's pacing and his constant attempts to find Nate and Eliot made her nervous. She moved through the hallway quietly before ducking into the stairs. Her senses alert, she knew she was alone and moved quickly to leave the building. Passing by McRory's, she peeked in to see Sophie sitting at the bar nursing a drink, with no mind to the fact it wasn't even noon.
Swiftly moving through the crowd, she walked through the alleys to some of Eliot's normal haunts. He didn't know that she'd followed him regularly when she was bored. She liked to follow him because he was so alert, it was a challenge. Sophie and Nate could walk cluelessly to her presence for days. And she hadn't followed Hardison in a long time. She knew she could but something about the fact she could follow him without him noticing her really bothered her. She liked him noticing her.
After the fourth place, Parker found something that made her begin to panic. It was so small, most people wouldn't have seen it, but its presence jumped out to her. She approached the item slowly, hoping against all odds she was wrong. When she crouched down beside it and picked it up, she felt dread overtake her.
A moment's pause to look around the area, her eyes returned to the small, crushed ear bud and she held it to her mouth and said aloud, "Hardison, please tell me you can hear me. Please…tell me…"
Holding it to her ear, waiting to hear the comfortable voice she had grown used to hearing inside her head. After a few minutes, tears escaped her eyes and rolled down her cheek as she pulled out her cell phone and began fumbling with the buttons.