They had been driving for hours. After a job gone wrong, the crew had bolted and we're now driving back to Boston in Lucille.
For a rare change of pace, Nate sat behind the wheel . The van drove smooth and silent as a lumbering beast plodding along in winter. The midnight sky shone with brilliant starts and a waxing moon hung warmly above.
He thought back to that job, and where everything had gone wrong. It was all going so well, before. They had the mark on the hook, the heist was underway, and all of the players were on the board... Or so he'd thought.
Parker had slunk into the C.E.O's office, floating around until she found the, as she said, "adorable baby wall safe!" They knew the make, model, and weaknesses, so getting in was no problem. The problem was what they had found.
"Nate, there's way too much in here. There are blueprints for rides that haven't even been built yet. If we steal these and go public, they're going to know something's wrong"
"take them anyway, Parker. We can just sit on these until we need them, and if we don't, we can get rid of them" That had been his mistake. He had gotten complacent, and as a result, had almost gotten Parker killed. She had grabbed up the large rolls of paper, locking the safe behind her and slinking out to rendezvous with Hardison so that they could upload the files to an anonymous social media account.
As she had clambered from the room in the nick of time, Sophie and the mark entered. As always, Sophie played her part to perfection, and everything continued smoothly... Until Nate was introduced. He had been playing the part of a sleezy amusement park investor, and was there to back up Sophie in her claim that they could avoid lawsuits or something. To be honest, he doesn't even remember the ploy now. All he remembers is the terror that lanced through his veins at the tinny scream over the comms.
Now, Hardison screams quite often, over anything from a spider to getting shot. If Hardison had screamed, Nate would have been slightly concerned.
Parker rarely screams, usually only upon impact from a large fall or getting shot. Had she screamed, he would have cut the job short right then and there, and gotten out.
So when Eliot screamed, a true, blood curdling, fear-invoking, 'you just killed someone I care deeply about and for one moment, just this moment, I can't think of anything else to do except scream,' type scream, Nate ran. He broke character, he found Sophie in the lobby with a set of car keys already in her hand, and they ran. Because Eliot only screamed like that when Parker or Hardison was actively dying, and there wasn't a moment to waste.
Gun shots rang out behind them, all narrowly avoiding the two charlatans as they dodged into the car Sophie had nabbed. With the pedal to the medal, Nate finally dared to ask the question.
"Eliot?! Talk to me, what's going on? Who's down?"
Except it wasn't Eliot who answered. Hardison's garbled voice rang through the comms as though he was far away, shouting, "Nate! Nate, they found her! Eliot's going after her but they got her bad, Nate! I-I don't know if she--if she'll--"
"Okay, Hardison, that's enough. We'll get her back, I promise. Are you all at the rendezvous spot?" He took the hesitant confirmation from the hacker as a direction and drove like Parker herself had possessed him.
By the time they reached the meeting spot, Hardison was trading blows with a burly guy. Bruises were already forming on his dark complexion, and he was loosing badly, but he was not going down. Not until Parker and Eliot got back. It took a blow to the teeth for Hardison to drop, and as the burly fellow pulled out his gun to finish the job it was Sophie who pulled out a gun of her own (heaven knows where she found that, or where she had been storing it in her skintight dress. Actually, scratch that. Nate really wanted to know where she had been hiding that gun.) and shot the man through the shoulder. It gave everyone just enough time for Eliot to come barreling into the man.
With a growl and a shout, the goon had been dead before he hit the ground. Parker, deathly pale Parker, the closest thing to a daughter he had Parker, was slumped over on a crate that Hardison was slowly creeping towards. She was deathly pale, and though the black of her garb covered the telling discoloration of injuries, a nauseating stream of red dripped down her hand.
Hardison reached up, still on the ground, and gripped her hand like it was water in a desert. Once Eliot had finished his prowl, he also stalked over to their theif. He looked at Hardison with an unspoken question in his eye and only picked her up once he saw the small nod Hardison gave him.
Lucille had already been at the location, so they all clambered into the van, with Eliot forcibly removing Hardison from the driver's seat and slipping in silently next to him. He had lowered Parker onto the bench in the back of the van, which had been installed for just this purpose, and set to work stitching the very bad, very bloody stab wound that Nate forced himself to look at. The injury would scar without a doubt, and Nate pictured the long line spanning from just below her rotator cuff to in between her breasts."'ts not gonna affect her climbing, I don't think. It missed anything vital, too," this next part was more for Hardison than anyone else, they all knew that, "She's gonna be fine. Just has to sleep it off."
Despite the intended listener, everyone in the van breathed a deep sigh of relief. Hardison posted the blueprints to the sight they had set up earlier, and Nate set off, thus ending his trip down memory lane.
Now, as Nate drove down the state highway, he rushed a glance to the silent backseat. The three crew members were resting against the back wall with Eliot's jacket over them. It didn't really fit, but that doesn't matter. Parker had shifted at some point, since she now had both legs slung over Eliot's lap and her head and good arm rested on Hardison's shoulder. The soft sounds of breathing was heard up front, and Sophie looked at him deeply while he maintained speed and took the necessary exit.
"we're all safe, Nate. You got them out in enough time."
"I just wish I could have done more. I mean, I'm the mastermind! I'm supposed to prevent exactly this from happening!"
"Nate, we don't even know what went wrong. Just wait until the morning, and we can fix it all then"
"Fine." And they drove off into the night, a big WELCOME TO BOSTON Sign fading from sight behind them.
