Hey there guys! So here is yet another chapter for you to enjoy. I still haven't found a new beta-reader yet so there is a chance that you might find some mistakes in here. They were not intended! :)

Have fun! - Foltro

He was a mess. Struggling against his ties had only gotten him cuts on his wrists which would most certainly leave deep scars. His entire body felt sore and overused, his muscles ached from the lack of movement. It was not the first time he had to endure such an ordeal, he had been a prisoner before and back then his captors were far less humane when it came to his treatment. However, with every hour he spent in Fuller's makeshift prison, his will was weakening, while his fury grew by the second. The beast inside him, on which he had to keep a constant iron grasp, smelled an opportunity to break loose again. Being shackled only made matters worse, because when he would lose the battle against his darker side, said restrains would provide excellent fuel for his viscous frenzy.

He took in a deep breath to gather the last remaining amounts of self-control he had. No one, not even Greg Fuller, deserved to fall victim to him in that kind of way. Unfortunately, the constant delusional rambling of said man didn't exactly help him focus. It was a constant change between rambling about how he was able to hold the fates of thousands of people in his grasp and breakdowns about how he never wanted to hurt anyone, the money and power just had gotten to him.

Said constant changing left Sean a bit confused as to how to see Fuller. On the one hand, he pitied him, the lures of power were hard to resist. On the other hand however, he despised him. He could always have chosen differently, to do the right thing and not give into his primal cravings for power and control. Sean tried as hard as he could to shut his mind down to a point where he would no longer care about anything. That way it would be easier for him to keep his rage in check.

His vision started to get blurry again. He needed water, it felt to him like ages had passed since he last had something to drink. As his consciousness drifted away his last remaining thought called out to the only friend he ever had.

Eliot woke due to the ray of sunlight that shone right into his face. He let out a small groan and turned away from the disturbing light's source only to find out that something, or rather someone, was keeping him from turning over. Startled, he took in a small sharp breath. But once his mind recognized the scent the air around him carried, he relaxed. As the grogginess fell from his eyes he suddenly doubted that he was awake. There was no way that what he saw was real. And yet here she was. Parker. In his bed. Curled up against him with a more than peaceful smile on her beautiful face.

As his body relaxed he tried to take in every feature of her. The way the morning sun put a golden glimmer around her blonde hair, the mesmerizing rhythm of her breathing against his chest, the soft touch of her skin against his. He was sure he would never be able to forget this very moment and at the same time he wondered how they got there. Did Lady Luck smile at him and the rest of the team for once, or did karma decide to leave him alone for a change and give him a second chance? Whatever it was, Eliot owed it; big time.

A soft moan and a shift in the weight that was pressed against him took him from his pondering place back to reality. A reality in which Parker just woke up and looked at him with the most innocent and yet surprised look on her face. The initial shock however vanished just as quickly as it came and was replaced with yet another of her beautiful smiles. "Mornin' sweetheart" Eliot mumbled, his voice still affected by his grogginess. "Can we stay like this, just a little longer?" a more than content Parker answered, her hair falling into her hitter's face when she lifted her head to look at him. It was without a doubt the most relaxing sleep she ever had. She felt like she finally found the door that lead towards something resembling a normal life. She didn't mind that said door hat Eliot's physique. Not at all.

As Hardison got to Nate's apartment he followed his usual routine: Turn on the computers and run a quick system check to see if anyone was sticking their noses where they didn't belong, water the plants and stock the fridge with his favorite beverage. However the fact that he was the first one to arrive (except Nate of course) had him wondering. Usually Eliot was here cleaning the knives in the kitchen before he got there. And as of late Sean had always been around making coffee or crawling into the files the team had on Fuller. Soldiers and their habits the hacker thought to himself. Although Eliot's absence was easily explained by the fact the he had someone to take care of, Sean didn't have any reason not to be here.

"Nate, is Sean up there with you?" the young man called up the stairs, assuming Sean was taking a shower or was helping Nate clean up the mess the mastermind usually left in his wake. "What are you talking about? He isn't down there with you?" Nate called back, sounding slightly irritated. "No, man there is no one here but me. That a bad sign?" the hacker said jokingly. The worried look on Nate's face as he walked down the stairs however told him that there was indeed something wrong with Sean not being around. Getting the hint he rushed over to his computers and noticed that Sean's com still was transmitting although it was running out of power. "You better call the others, Nate. The com's signal is coming from the warehouse district and from what I can tell, it stayed there for the past day" the hacker almost yelled, adrenaline flooding his entire system.

"Where is that son of a bitch, Hardison?" Eliot scream-growled at the hacker. After he and Parker got Nate's call about Sean being missing and the very short conversation with said man, which was cancelled by Sean's com running out of power the usually calm hitter had been pacing the office. Not even Parker had been able to ease his mind. All they knew was that Eliot's friend was being held in a warehouse near the Boston docks. Before Hardison was able to fully locate the signal they lost the connection. "We can't just go in there guns blazing, Eliot" Sophie said "All we'd accomplish would be his and possibly our own demises".

"Well, we have to do something, right? Can't we just tip this Banana-person off?" Parker suggested, her voice reflecting the panic she felt. Eliot was on the edge of a breakdown, she hadn't seen him this angry in a very long time and yet she could do nothing to help him. Nate shook his head "When that psycho hears police sirens Sean is dead for sure. And we don't even know if Fuller is in the warehouse together with Sean. Moreover, we'd need a plausible reason to bring the good Captain Bonanno into this. And without any proof we'd have nothing to charge Fuller with, except being a giant asshole. Hardison, can you get a location on Fuller's phone?" the mastermind explained. "If we get him in the same room with Sean we might have enough to get him convicted."

"I sure hope Sean is still alive, when we get to him. Otherwise we're going to have a serious problem Nate" the hitter growled. The moment he said that however, he regretted it deeply. It wasn't Nate's fault that his friend was being held by a psychopath and if he were honest, he could never willingly hurt the mastermind. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lashed out at you, and it's not your fault. I'm sorry" Eliot added after seeing Parker turning completely pale after his outburst. He knew she hadn't even begun to think about the situation between them. But family and friends was his sore spot. "Okay, I got him or at least his phone anyway. Fuller seems to be down at by the warehouses right now. Do we go in?" The hacker finally broke the awkward silence that lingered in the room. Shortly after the that, McRory's was closed and Nate's apartment empty.

Sean had stopped counting how often he drifted in and out of consciousness for the past day. Someone had been kind enough to feed him and give him some water but the stale air of the warehouse he was currently in and his exhaustion began to take their toll on the former army sergeant. But he managed to have a very brief conversation with Eliot and that gave him hope. Hope that he could be done with all this once and for all. He surveyed the area of the warehouse he was being held in. It was quite large, even for warehouse standards but it looked like no one had been here for years. Dust was evident on the few crates he could see. It seemed the only light in this room was the rather small light bulb above him that was spending a ridiculously small amount of light which kept the rest of the warehouse in absolute darkness.

But the emptiness also made for amazing acoustics, at least how far Sean was concerned. The few objects in there barely managed to absorb any of the noise made from any location inside the warehouse. Which meant that Sean in general was able to eavesdrop on any conversation that occurred which, in turn, gave him some insight as to what was going on in the world outside of his rather limited radius of action. It appeared that the security system had been breached though no one had any idea who and how someone would be able to get access their network. Fuller's tech-goons seemed to think that they were untouchable. A diabolical smile forced its way onto Sean's face. If anyone was able to pull off a security breach like that it would be Hardison. Despite his young age that man was a true wizard when it came to computers and anything related to them.

Then another thought crossed his mind. If Hardison hacked into the warehouse's security system, that meant that Eliot and the other members of his bunch of modern day Robin Hoods weren't far. A wave of adrenaline, relief and excitement rushed through him. They found him!

Eliot's vision was a blur. He barely noticed anything but the target right in front of him. And even then he didn't take the time to fully notice anything beyond their feeble attempts at attacking him. The last time he behaved like this was when the team went after Moreau and he had to unleash the darkest side in him to get Nate and the Italian to safety. That "incident" had been the first time in a very long time that Eliot had used a gun, let alone killed someone. He still hadn't fully coped with what happened and apart from him and Nate no one knew. He figured he had to tell his team eventually if he completely wanted to put that behind him.

The occasional buzz of a Taser reminded him that he wasn't on his own in this fight. Parker had insisted that she'd come along to help Eliot and Sean. He didn't exactly understand why she was so eager to fight, she wasn't the fighting type. But he assumed it gave her some safety to do something instead of sitting around, waiting for him to carry Sean back to Lucille. That and it was good to have her at his side since Eliot encountered more goons than he anticipated.

Sean nervously shifted around in his rather uncomfortable position while he witnessed Eliot and Parker taking down guard after guard. The smarter ones seemed to notice that they were no match for a berserk Eliot and the cold and cruel accuracy of Parker's Taser. Soon all of those who could still walk had dispersed which left only Sean, Eliot and Parker.

"Are you okay?" a panting and slightly frightened Parker asked him while Eliot was cutting him loose. "I'll live. Have you seen Fuller on your way here" the former sergeant asked while he was rubbing his wrists. Two shaking heads told him all he needed to know. Sean turned around to scan the area behind him for any sign of the man he wanted to hurt most. Just as he came to hold a sudden and immense spike of pain rushed through his entire body. He felt a warm liquid oozing from his left shoulder. As he went down he realized that he had been shot, again.

Just as Sean stumbled to the ground and a pool of something red formed itself on his shirt, the last remaining compassionate fragments of Eliot Spencer vanished. He let his inner Beast take control. With a speed he didn't know he possessed he darted to where he figured the shot originated from. In his bloodthirsty haze he made out the silhouette of a shaking man. He didn't notice the whispered "please, no!" before said man's neck snapped with a strangely satisfying crack.

Under any other circumstances Eliot would have not been so merciful. As much as it pained him to admit it to himself, there was still some part of him that enjoyed inflicting pain. And if he found that his victim more than deserved that treatment, that disgusting satisfaction was multiplied by a very large factor. But with Sean bleeding onto the warehouse floor and the subconscious knowledge of Parker being around watching him he didn't have the time to torture Fuller.

Parker was completely frozen. She hadn't seen this much inhumanity in a very long time. Not only had Sean (whom she secretly considered to be the prodigal uncle of her rather dysfunctional family that had just returned into her life) been fatally wounded but also had Eliot transformed into something she didn't recognize, or like for that matter. The caring, sweet and usually collected man she loved was replaced by a frenzied tiger. His whole body seemed to be radiating off hatred and anger. She went over to where Sean was slowly bleeding out on the floor and tried her very best to keep him alive. "Please, you can't leave us, you can't leave me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as she pressed her hands on his wound with all the pressure she could muster.

When Eliot kneeled down beside her she unwillingly flinched, she didn't want anything to do with that monster that had taken over Eliot's body. But as soon as he placed himself beside the dying Sean the real Eliot Spencer re-emerged. "C'mon stay with us old man. You've been shot before. Nothin' you can't handle." He tried his best to keep his former sergeant focused.

A sad smile made it's way onto Sean's face. Despite all the effort Parker and Eliot put into keeping him alive his survival instinct didn't kick in. "It's alright son. I'll see my girls again" he managed to whisper between gasping for air and coughing up blood. "My…. Wallet…Eliot" he whispered before his last breath left his body and he drifted away.

While Parker started to simultaneously punch Sean's now lifeless body and crying her very soul out, Eliot obeyed the last words his friend mumbled before he died. He reached inside Sean's pocket and took out his wallet. Besides a bit of money and various cards he found a folded and from the look of it rather old sheet of paper. He unfolded it and what he saw broke his heart in billions of pieces. In his hands he held a child's drawing with four people in it. Every person had their names written over their heads. From left to right it read: Mom, me, Dad and Uncle Eliot. And now even the hardened hitter allowed himself to cry for the first time in a very long time.

It had been two days since the incident at the warehouse. Ever since then a meaningful silence dominated the otherwise chatty and warm atmosphere in Nathan Ford's apartment. Parker hadn't left for one of her many safe houses, Hardison went off into his virtual reality, Sophie handled the media hype of Fuller's death and everything even remotely connecting the team to it. Nate had been hitting the bottle again (and this time no one blamed him for it) while Eliot had been awfully silent all this time. Now he could usually been found either on the roof staring into the sky or in his office manhandling his boxing sack.

Sean's body was kept in a morgue where Nate had a friend who made it possible for the team to keep the body until they had finished all the planning concerning his funeral. They figured he wanted to be buried next to his wife and daughter but due to resent budget cuts in the cemetery wasn't the most busy place right about now.

On the good side (if this mess had a good side to it) Barn pharmaceutics collapsed after the death of their CEO and the release of the experimental substances in their inhalers. It had been effectively crushed. What was left to figure out was how to deal with the emotional aftermath that had yet to begin within the team. Nate and Sophie agreed that it had the potential to rip everyone apart, which was most unsettling because of Eliot and Parker being in love with each other. That relationship was fragile enough as it was without any emotional nukes being dropped on them.