Home and Heart - Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters or material.



Della Spencer stared in disbelief at Hardison's perfect, slam dunk mission. After taking off for almost a year to rebuild now that Sophie and Nate, the team decided to start off small. This was not small.

Sophie had nominated Della to work as the grifter after Tara turned her down. She had only been around for about six months and was still working to integrate herself into the team. Her new relationship with Eliot was smoothing the way, but she still did not know exactly how to tell them that they were walking into any con's worst nightmare, a town full of cons and criminals. The last place on Earth that she had ever wanted to be.

Eliot, Parker, and Hardison did not have any concerns, but she felt stuck.

Stuck staring at the neat little personnel map Hardison had created with the bios of the "big players" in the town.

Stuck staring at names on a screen - Quartermaine, Cassadine, Corinthos, Spencer, Scorpio...

Della dragged her eyes away, hoping that Alec would change his mind, Parker would get bored, or Eliot would be able to read her body language. She was the novice here, the low man on the totem pole.

Her eyes drifted back, knowing buried aspects of her personality and history would likely come out soon. Memories and personality traits that were better left buried, along with Lilly and Shane. Shane's bloody face flashed briefly through her mind's eye, and she looked away from the others to he the tear that dripped slowly down her face.

Grifting had always come naturally but she had learned from the feet of masters. Her uncle and cousin were legends. Still she found herself stuck.

Stuck staring at the name of the person who ruined her, sent her running into a world she had been nowhere near ready to navigate. It had taken forever to find her footing.

Della's objections had more or less fallen on deaf ears, as she tried to convince the team that this towan was owned by the Spencer family, convince them that the Quartermaines weren't even afraid of the mob families or even the morbid obscure Russian royalty.

Somehow after everything, she found herself on an airplane.

Stuck staring at a plane ticket to the last place on Earth that she wanted to be...

Stuck in a plane on her way to good old Port Chuckles.