Chapter Text
“Sophie and Nate Ford?” Parker asked in shock.
“Yeah, why?” the teen replied.
“How could that be possible?”
“Well you see, Parker, when two people lov--” Hardison started.
“Hardison I know how sex works!” Parker said clearly annoyed. Luca looked at her with his head cocked.
“Who did you guys say you were?”
“Oh,” Tara started, “she is Parker, and I’m Tara, and we used to work with your mother.”
“So you guys are in the same line of ‘work’ she used to be in,” Luca asked, making air quotes around the word ‘work’.
“Yes,” Parker said, having finished her argument with Hardison over the coms. “Your sister came to see if we could help Nate and his drinking problem.”
“He’s going to need all the help he can get.”
“We are well aware of that,” Tara said. “So you know Nate is your father right?”
“Yes, I think I told you that already.”
“The big question is: Does Nate know?” Parker asked.
“Nate do you want me to drive?” Sophie asked.
“Sophie we only have a few hours left, and Michael just fell asleep again, and if we stop he will be up again. I’m fine,” Nate whispered. “But in the meantime you could finishing telling me that thing fro earlier.”
Sophie turned away from her husband, her gaze returning back to the window.
She knew she needed to tell him but she wanted to wait. She was still nervous of Nate’s reaction.
“Where did I leave off?”
“Paris. First David.”
“Oh, yes,” Sophie sighed. “Well, as I said, a few weeks later I realized we weren’t as careful as we thought.”
“Wait you mean...” Nate asked softly, glancing over to Sophie in the passenger seat.
“Yes. I was pregnant. But by the time I knew, you were long gone and off getting married. I knew how much you loved Maggie, and I didn’t have the heart to find you and ruin that,” Sophie kept her gaze at the floor of the small car. “So I had the child. I was planning on giving him up for adoption, but once I saw him I knew I couldn’t. Nate, he was gorgeous.
“So we moved out of England and back here to the states. I lived in hiding for a while, trying to be the best mother I could. I went on a few jobs, but only about once a month, and never one that I would be away from child for more than 24 hours. And then we meet again in Tuscany about 7 years later, and well you know what happened.” Sophie looked up to see Nate focused intently on the road, with a tight grip on the steering wheel.
“And well, that time you weren’t with Maggie and Sam had already been gone for a few years, and we made another drunken mistake. That time I found out I was pregnant at about 6 weeks, and by that time you were long gone, and I couldn’t bring myself to find you.
“I had our little girl here in the US, and I never looked back for you. The three of us kept well underground for a long time, until the day you came looking for me to join the team. With you back in the picture for an undetermined amount of time, I couldn’t risk keeping the children. I gave them to the state of Massachusetts.
“It was only until a few weeks after we got married that I started to poke around the state, trying to get information on our children. My search was put on hold when you said you wanted to adopt these two kids who were bouncing around the state.
“I didn’t continue researching until a few weeks ago, when we left Luca at college. He called me mom for the first time, and not Sophie. The state stonewalled me, and they just got back to me a few days ago.”
“Soph,” Nate said softly, turning his head slightly, “are you trying to say what I think you are trying to say?”
“Nate, Luca and Leah are our children, our biological children.”
Sophie turned to face her husband, whose hands gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. Instead of opening his mouth to yell, he quietly turned on the blinker and pulled over to the side of the highway. He put the car in park, letting his hands slide off the wheel, falling into his lap. His breath could be heard by Sophie, who had turned away from her husband, her eyes glistening.
“Sophie, look at me,” Nate whispered.
Sophie slowly turned her head, her gaze never meeting his waiting eyes.
“Sophie, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I..I didn’t w-want you to re-reject us,” she whispered, betweens gasps of breath, as the tears dripped onto her lap. “I-I thought it was be-better if you ne-never knew than you t-turning away. I couldn’t su-survive that.”
“Come here,” Nate said, opening his arms across the middle arm rest of the car, letting his wife fall into his arms. He cupped the back of Sophie’s neck, using his right arm to stroke her back, whispering soothing consultations as her tears ran onto his shirt.
When he felt her breathing return to normal, and the sniffs come from her, he pulled back and grabbed a napkin from the cup holder between them and gave it to Sophie. He waited until she had cleaned her face and blew her nose before speaking, “Sophie. You should have told me. I would have been there. Granted I am mad at you for not telling me sooner, but this is so important. I would have done so much for them. I wouldn’t have left hem to bounce around homes like that. I would have helped you even though you and I weren’t on the same side then. I am so sorry.
“But are you sure?” Nate said, the softness leaving his voice. “ Do you have any other secrets to exhume now that we are finally openingly talking? You kept this from me for so long, how can I trust you?”
Sophie looked up at her husbands fuming face. He gripped her wrists before hearing Michael stir from the backseat. he quickly released her arms, sight back on the road, and pulling the car from the sidelines back into the light traffic.
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