#Eliot Spencer being hot

[security-chief-odo]

The Fake Dating Job - Chapter 4

Elliot Spencer x Reader

Previous chapters: 1 2 3

Note: Thanks for your patience. My life has been crazy as of late. In exchange for bearing with me, I offer you, probably my favorite chapter so far of any of my fics.

Word count: ~3.7k

Description: You and Eliot pine for each other throughout the reception. Will your ex get in the way of your happiness?

• • •

After the ceremony, you and the rest of the bridal party are asked to hang back for photos. As the rest of the guests file into the reception hall for the cocktail hour, Eliot makes a brief detour to give you a peck on the cheek. “See you inside sweetheart.” he says softly before rejoining the rest of the guests.

Your mind occasionally wandered to Eliot throughout the photo process, whereas his mind never left you from the moment that he left the bridal suite this morning. You looked gorgeous in the dress your sister had picked out for you. Maybe he could blame the dress for why he spent more time focused on you than on the actual wedding.

Though that is the beauty of this whole plan, there would be nobody to explain it to as he was supposed to want to stare at you. There would be no moment where Hardison calls him out for staring at you for a little too long. There would be no explaining, rather lying, to Parker about how protective he gets over you on a mission. There would be no knowing look across the room from Nate or well meaning advice from Sophie. There would be nothing but his own thoughts and delusions that you would ever want him to be more than just your fake boyfriend.

When the bridal party finally makes their entrance into the reception hall, his eyes are searching for you. Despite how happy you are for your sister, a feeling of relief nearly consumes you once you find yourself by Eliot’s side once again. Though, as you make your way to the table, your relief falters slightly at the realization of who you’ll be seated near. Your ex is seated at the same table as you, only two seats away.

Eliot’s warm embrace calms you though. This is what he was here for ultimately, to be a barrier between you and your ex. To make the night go better for you. And in a small way, he was already doing just that.

After the couple shares their first dance, dinner is served. You desperately try to avoid giving your ex any attention, and Eliot makes that easy. He eats slowly, taking time between bites to shower you with little bits of affection. His hand rests on your thigh through much of the meal and you hope that the flush that crosses your cheeks isn’t too obvious in the dim lighting. You could get used to these casual touches, if only they weren’t for show.

“How’d you like the food?” you ask, hoping that a bit of small talk can keep your wishful thoughts at bay.

“It was alright.”

That response alone was very telling so you quietly finish the sentence he was too polite to complete. “But you could’ve done better?” You raise your eyebrow at him as he half nods.

“I’m just sayin’ I know what these wedding caterers charge and they should take a bit more pride in their work.”

You can’t help, but chuckle at this as the DJ announces the father daughter dance. You turn your chair towards the dance floor to watch your father and sister share this moment and Elliot does the same beside you. He wraps his arm around you and pulls you closer to him. You can’t help but lean into the touch. You probably don’t need to do as much as you are to sell the act, but damn it, if this is your only opportunity to be this close with Eliot, maybe relishing in it a little isn’t a bad thing.

After the dance, cake is served and this time Eliot has no complaints. The cake is as close to perfect as any cake could be. As you finish, you remind yourself to ask your sister where she got the cake from so you could maybe stop by the bakery on your own before you leave town.

As the dance floor opens up, you take this opportunity to go talk to your parents. You haven’t had enough time with them this weekend and you really have missed them. Ever the gentleman, Eliot insists on tagging along to properly meet them. He is far too good at this fake boyfriend thing.

You greet your parents with a warm hug. “I’ve missed you guys!” you say trying to be heard over the music. “It’s been too long.”

“And whose fault is that?” your dad asks.

Your mom nudges him and gives a disapproving glare at his bluntness. “You should visit more. Maybe then it wouldn’t have taken so long for you to introduce us to this handsome fella.”

“I’ve been telling her the same thing.” Eliot steps in with the charm offensive in full force. “I’m Eliot.” He shakes each of your parent’s hands. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“All bad things I suppose?” your mom asks teasingly.

“Hardly. She’s told me so many fun stories about your family. Though maybe a few of those stories could be classified as embarrassing.”

It’s nice to see your parents get along with Eliot, though it shouldn’t matter to you. You will have a fake breakup in a few weeks and this will be nothing but a memory for both of you. A damn good one too.

You’re broken out of that train of thought when you hear your mom reply, “Oh, is that so?”

“She’s got plenty of embarrassing stories of her own.” your dad adds in. Eliot lets out a hearty laugh at the prospect.

“Oh? Any worth telling?” You bury your face in your hands in fear of the mortifying words that may come next from either of your parents.

“How about you buy me a drink and I’ll tell you anything you wanna know about our dear Y/N?” Your mom suggests.

“Gladly” Eliot guides your mom to the bar and out of your earshot as you sit with your father.

You sit in silence at first, just enjoying the shared time. Minutes pass before your father speaks again, without even looking directly at you, “He’s good for you, you know.”

You figure the best way to avoid being caught in a lie is to just stay as close to the truth as possible, so you tell your dad your real thoughts on Eliot. “I know, he’s a really nice guy. He’s funny and caring. I really love him.”

“That’s not what I mean.” He turns to fully face you. “I just haven’t seen you this happy in some time.”

“Oh.” you say, stunned. This statement catches you off guard but luckily your father continues, so you don’t have to fill the silence.

“You seemed so sad before, especially with James. You used to force those tight lipped smiles that you thought we didn’t notice. This new guy has brought back your infectious smile. The one you don’t even seem to notice, you just do it.” He pauses slightly, “I missed that smile.”

This conversation comes to an end as your mom and Eliot return laughing loudly. Once he approaches the table, he stops in front of you. “Care for a dance?” He offers you his hand.

You gladly accept and follow him out onto this dance floor.You dance through several upbeat songs, joking and laughing at each other’s goofy dance moves throughout. For a moment, you forget how painful going back to normal life may be because having this much fun with Eliot reminds you how important your friendship is. The heartbreak could never break this bond. The bitterness of pining could never overpower the sweetness of these moments you share.

He spins you around and holds you close to him, your back to his chest. As you sway together to the music Eliot whispers in your ear, “You know, your mom told me some interesting things about you.”

“Oh god. What did she say?” You brace yourself for whatever ungodly stories from your youth your mom may have dug up for this occasion.

“Nothing too bad. I actually thought it was cute.” You turn in his arms to face him and raise your eyebrow as if to ask him to elaborate. “First she told me about the time you cut your own hair.”

You let out a chuckle, mostly in relief at how benign of a story that was. “I can still remember the terrible bangs I had in my school pictures that year. It felt like it took forever for those to grow out.”

“So is that why you convinced your sister to do the same just two years later?” He looks at you accusatorily and you know that your mom had to have given him more ammunition if he’s already digging in on the teasing.

You raise your hands defensively, “I just handed her the scissors and told her I thought she’d look cute with bangs. What she did after that is not my business.”

You wrap your arms around Eliot as you continue to dance as you bicker. “Oh I’m sure it was all her own idea.” His smile only widens as he continues, “She also showed me this picture of you as a kid where you were laying face first into your plate of mashed potatoes. It was cute. You’re still pretty cute when you get all sleepy like that.”

This catches you off guard because it’s just one more moment that’s a step past friendly without any reason for it. Nobody could really overhear your conversation over the music. He said that just for your benefit, or maybe just to sell the act. Maybe in a different life Eliot could have been an actor, he certainly played the part of lovestruck boyfriend pretty convincingly.

Trying not to focus much more on his words, lest their implications consume you, you add, “Did she tell you how I used to fall asleep at my bedtime so religiously I would sleep sitting up at family gatherings or in the cart at the grocery store?” He shook his head in response. “Yeah I wish I was still that committed to my sleep schedule.”

“Well ain’t that the truth sweetheart.” There’s a softness about him that is so rare and nearly indescribable. It’s a nearly magnetic force and you find it impossible to look away from him. It feels like if you even glance away for a second, the levity will be gone and the weight of the world will once again return to rest on his shoulders.

Soon you have to shift your focus as the DJ announces the bouquet toss. The men clear off the dance floor as all of the unmarried women gather. Sure, it doesn’t really mean anything if you catch the bouquet, but you find yourself reaching for it nonetheless. Maybe it was fate or maybe just luck or maybe it was set up by your sister considering her earlier remarks, but regardless the bouquet is in your hand and you’re staring down at it in shock.

Your sister hugs you and you know it’s going to break her heart when you and Eliot “split up.” Though by now, you’re too deep into it and so you have to act excited about this turn of events. A small part of you is excited though, the part that has clung onto every romantic moment this weekend as if it’s more than a fantasy. Perhaps that part isn’t so small.

On the side of the dancefloor the excitement over your purely hypothetical future builds in Eliot too. Fuck it. He won’t have many more chances to do this. He makes his way across the floor to you and happily pulls you to him, first in a tight hug, then into a lingering kiss. One that he has to hope you can’t just feel the sincerity of his desire dripping from.

You could get used to being kissed like this. Though, as your family is currently about half of the room, you pull away from Eliot, you can’t convince yourself to go very far away. Your foreheads rest against each other and the tension is palpable. Damn. He really is committed to convincing your family. He would have you convinced if you hadn’t been the one to set up this whole ruse.

Around you the dance floor fills again as the DJ turns on a slow song. You and Eliot hold each other close as you dance. Eliot softly sings along in your ear. His soothing voice slowly erases every worry you’ve had about this night. You feel safe and at home in his arms, and even if it won’t last, you can’t help sinking further against him. Truly if your heart must be broken, there’s nobody you would trust more to break it kindly.

You and Eliot are lost to the world around you as you both relish in what little time you have left to hold each other. That momentary bliss comes to an abrupt halt as the song fades out and you notice a presence looming just behind you. Just then you hear James’ voice behind you as his hand touches your back, sending a chill down your spine at your own unease. Speaking to Eliot he asks, “May I have her for this next one?”

Something seems off to him, but you reassure Eliot that it’s fine with a polite nod. There’s a sinking feeling in his chest, of course this was never real so he should have been prepared for rejection, but it still stings seeing you in someone else’s arms. Maybe that’s why you invited him, not to avoid your asshole ex, but to make James jealous.

Eliot goes to the bar to drown in something other than his own self pity and insecurities, and is met with your mother inviting him to sit next to her. Despite his own feelings, he won’t ruin things with your family so he orders a drink and sits at the open stool she has offered him.

“You’re good for her, you know?”

“I try to be.”

“I mean it. She’s happier with you than she has been in a long time. She still thinks she doesn’t deserve you though.” your mom looks at him with a sad sort of smile.

“What?” he asks incredulously.

“She’s always been a worrier. You can see it in the way she holds you,” she pauses in thought before correcting herself, “in the way you hold each other. You’re both so scared the other will leave. You don’t think you deserve her either, do you?”

It’s a relief in a way to be able to be truly honest for once this weekend. “No ma’am. I can’t say I do. I’m happy to have her until she realizes that though, and that’s enough for now.” He waves to the bartender and orders a second drink.

“You’re both idiots, I swear.” Your mother lets out a long sigh. “Do you treat my daughter with kindness?”

Suddenly, under your mom’s gaze Eliot feels like he’s sitting in the principal’s office facing detention. He feels small. “Of course.”

“And you love her?”

“Yes.”

“So are you saying Y/N doesn’t deserve your kindness and love?”

“No ma’am.”

“Then pull your head out of your ass and stop acting like she’s going to leave you. That girl loves you, anyone could see that, so why are you sitting here with me at the bar, drowning your sorrows?”

He hangs his head in defeat, he couldn’t argue the point of your affections, not without ruining your plan, so he settles on the easier argument. “She already has a dance partner.” He gestures to the dance floor.

Your mom finally glances over to you and rolls her eyes. “God I’ve always hated that son of a bitch.”

Eliot can’t help the deep belly laugh that escapes him. Your mom cursing in anger is funny when it’s not directed at him. It’s then when you turn to where he can see your face, your features lined with sadness. His protective instincts finally kick in and he heads your way. He tries to hang back to get the full scope of the situation.

As Eliot was at the bar, your ex had been saying truly awful things. As Eliot reapproached, he continued. “He’s gonna leave you, you know?”

Eliot couldn’t make out any of what was being said, but he knew from the tension in your body that you weren’t happy. He’s kicking himself now for letting his own insecurities put you in the exact kind of situation he was here to help you avoid.

Not wanting to cause a scene, you plaster a fake smile on your face and through gritted teeth say “I fail to see how that’s any of your fucking business James.”

“I’m just looking out for you, babe.”

“Don’t call me that” you cut him off.

He continues, not acknowledging what you said. “I may have moved on, but I still care about you. You don’t deserve to be hurt when he finds a prettier girl and runs away with her.”

“Fuck off, James.” Eliot isn’t going to stay with you, but that doesn’t mean you need to tolerate James’ bullshit. You pull yourself out of his hold but he follows behind you.

Eliot quickly approaches as he sees this and is in earshot finally for the last insult James throws out. “You know, I don’t know why you bothered catching that bouquet. Nobody is ever going to love you, much less marry you.”

In an instant, James is grabbed from behind, turned, and pinned against the nearby wall. You barely hear the commotion behind you as you exit the reception hall and finally let a tear run down your face.

Inside all eyes are on Eliot and your family has gathered as he begins yelling at James, “What’s your fucking problem, man?”

All too cocky, James smirks, “Here to ask if you can have my current girlfriend when we break up? You clearly love my leftovers.”

That earns him a broken nose. Eliot’s fist makes sharp contact with his face and the blood from his nose quickly stains his white shirt. “You need to shut the fuck up and leave Y/N the fuck alone, or you’ll find out just how quickly I can break another bone.”

Ever the idiot James opens his mouth to reply, but, before he can, your sister yells at him, “Better yet, get the fuck out of my wedding.”

With the bride’s blessing, Eliot and your father drag James out to his car and, seeing he’s been beat, or perhaps fearing being beaten again, he leaves without another word.

He sees you sitting on a bench outside the reception hall and breaks into a jog, wanting to comfort you. He holds you to his chest as you gently sob. As much as you didn’t like that James was saying it, you couldn’t shake the feeling that he was right, but you let that insecurity burrow further inside your heart as you realize something far worse. You probably just ruined your sister’s wedding.

You sit up abruptly and wipe the tears from your face, “I need to go apologize to my sister.” You run inside, leaving Eliot to slowly follow, though he washes your ex’s blood off of his hand before re-entering the reception hall.

Your eyes scan the room and finally land on your sister. The anxiety makes the words practically spill out of your mouth, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a scene at your wedding. I know I can’t make it better, but I’m sorry for ruining your night.”

Both of you are crying now. “You didn’t ruin anything. I shouldn’t have let him come, even if he was dating one of the other bridesmaids. If anything you fixed the wedding by getting rid of that piece of shit.”

“Well I’m pretty sure the getting rid of him part was more Eliot than it was me.” you chuckle. He walks up behind you, as if summoned by the mention of his name.

He looks toward your sister and her now husband as he wraps his hand around yours. “I am so sorry for,” he pauses and gestures vaguely towards the spot he had pinned James, “well, all of that really.”

Your sister laughs, “No need. We’ll just call it dinner and a show, and it was quite the show.” she leans in towards you both and in a far more serious tone adds “I heard from some of the others what he was saying before. You did the right thing, you could’ve gone a bit further to teach him a lesson if you ask me.”

He looks to you, now remembering that your ex had plenty of time in his absence to say far worse than what Eliot heard. “Wish I would’ve.” he lets out a nervous laugh, still unsure where he stands with everyone else. “I’m just glad he’s gone though and can’t cause any more trouble.”

Your sister replies, “Agreed. Though maybe try not to hit anyone at the next wedding?”

“I think I can manage that.” He smiles, glad to see that everyone is still in good spirits.

The groom, also seeming to relax, throws in, “You’d better because if those flowers are anything to go by, it’ll be your own.”

Eliot wraps his arms around you, and with more sincerity than you were prepared for says, “Hopefully.”

Trying so hard not to get lost in your imaginary future with Eliot, you change the topic. “Your wedding was really beautiful by the way. Congratulations.” You hug your sister. As you pull away, you lean back against Eliot and say. “I think it’s time for us to go back to the hotel though. I think we’ve created enough of a story tonight.”

“Of course,” she agrees. “Have a good night. Thank you both for coming.” Then as you walk away, your sister calls after you, loud enough for about half the room to hear, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, lovebirds.”

This leads to a few hoots and hollers from the other guests, just trying to tease and embarrass you further. You flip your sister off as Eliot guides you out of the room.

• • •

Next chapter

Let me know what you think!

Taglist: @mini-kunoichi @javicstories @imwithyoutiltheendofthelinebucky @being-worthy @xkell-bellx @imaginecrushes @sleeplessskeleton on @fablesrose @unholyhuntress @wonderlandfandomkingdom @fictional-hooman

[lemissingmask]

[ID: Sketch in greyscale of Eliot Spencer holding up Parker in a side star on his shoulder, while she’s in splits and her upper foot has the corner of a pride flag held between her big and second toe, holding it out despite there being no wind. The message beside them says ‘No breeze? No problem’. Both she and Eliot are dressed in sleeveless tops and she has two layered shorts on. Hardison is watching them in bemusement and beside him is written ‘Are you gonna stay there all month?’ End ID]

-

It was a hot week where I was and Pride month is nearly upon us, so here is the Leverage approved solution for if you have a flag to fly and it’s not windy enough for it to be fluttering away in all its glory.

(Or just random artings to slowly get back into the flow of things)

[werewolfsmile]

The Eliot Spencer Details Masterpost

I have been recording details about our beloved Eliot Spencer on my latest watch through. And now, it's finally time to reveal the details!! If I have gotten any details INCORRECT, I beg of you to correct me, at which time, this post will be updated and credit given. (Note: S1 was aired out of chronological order. I am going by chronological episode numbers - aka the correct order - and providing the episode titles as well to minimise confusion.) !! This post contains details from Leverage: Redemption! Read the episode references carefully if you are wanting to avoid certain spoilers !!

Shirtless Moments

S1 E7 The Two-Horse Job: The flashback scene when Aimee asks Eliot what his excuse was for not coming back to her, we see him being dragged/tortured, shirtless. "Tell us what you did with the monkey!"

S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Eliot is shirtless for the fight match.

S4 E9 The Cross My Heart Job: Ehh he's not completely shirtless here but whatever. At about 16 mins in, Eliot and Parker are getting changed together, Eliot strips to a singlet then throws his shirt at me the camera. (I didn't include other scenes of Eliot in a singlet here because in this scene he's actively undressing, whereas in others he's not.)

Necklaces

The earliest sighting of his guitar pick necklace is S1 E2 The Homecoming Job. It continues to pop up frequently in episodes, though noticeably less in S1. I thought about recording every occurrence of it here but ... lmao it's in legit waaayyyy too many episodes for me to bother.

S2 E10 The Runway Job: Honourable mention of the necklaces Eliot wears with his fashion week outfit. The longer one is kinda dogtag-esque, the shorter one is ... I think it's a fleur de lis? He also wears a range of chain necklaces later in this episode.

S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Bird pendant (possibly kingfisher) visible at 34 mins 39 seconds. Full credits to @wolves-in-the-world for this one including the time stamp! You can check out their reblog of this post with more details here!

Dammit Hardison

S1 E13 The Second David Job: The FIRST INSTANCE of dammit Hardison in the entire show! Said upon discovering each other in the gallery, around 4 mins 15 seconds.

S2 E1 The Beantown Bailout Job: Said around 22 mins 30 seconds, immediately following, "What are the odds that Eliot's crotch will actually explode?" Iconic.

S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: When setting up for the magic show and discovering the rabbit missing, roughly 19 mins 45 seconds.

S3 E3 The Inside Job: Running from security, around 31 mins 30 seconds.

S3 E4 The Scheherazade Job: Trying to enter McRory's at the same time, around 1 min 30 seconds.

S3 E5 The Double Blind Job: This is an honourable mention because this time NATE is the one to say dammit Hardison! 9 mins 15 seconds.

S3 E6 The Studio Job: Upon discovering the master tape isn't in the case, roughly 32 mins.

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Eliot and Hardison running in the woods for their lives, arguing as always. This one is a bonus 'dammit' because Hardison says it straight back to Eliot after Eliot yells it at him! Around 21 mins.

S3 E12 The King George Job: Discussing Hardison's forgery work, followed by Eliot regretting touching anything. Around 23 mins 55 seconds.

S3 E13 The Morning After Job: Pretending to be cops and accidentally ending up with a prisoner to take back to jail, around 16 mins 20 seconds.

S3 E14 The Ho Ho Ho Job: Honourable mention of Chaos mocking Eliot by saying dammit Hardison. Roughly 21 mins 15 seconds.

(phew, S3 was rough on Hardison! given what Eliot was going through with the whole Moreau thing.... ooh that's delicious angst)

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Honourable mention for Sophie saying it this time! While playing the role that was meant for Eliot, around 24 mins.

S4 E6 The Carnival Job: Mixing chemicals for a distraction, roughly 25 mins 30 seconds.

S4 E17 The Radio Job: Hardison running away from being thrown off a high floor, around 5 mins.

S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Sneaking around at the Bellington Dam, roughly 13 mins 35 seconds.

S5 E1 The (Very) Big Bird Job: 'Accidentally' putting a brew pub menu in front of Eliot, around 10 mins 20 seconds.

S5 E15 The Long Goodbye Job: Emotional scene that we do not speak about, around 12 mins 40 seconds.

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: After knocking Harry out and asking Hardison to help carry Harry, and Hardison refuses. 11 mins 40 seconds.

RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: Upon discovering that security is headed to the vault where Parker is, and the only way down there is through the vents. Around 34 mins 10 seconds.

RS2 E1 The Debutante Job: We get 3! In this whole episode! Probably to make up for Hardison being gone for most of Redemption. Anyway! First one when Eliot and Hardison are in Ralphie Roy's place and Hardison has no idea who Ralphie is, around 23 mins 15 seconds. Second is when they're breaking into the elevator and Hardison won't help fight or move the unconscious guards, roughly 37 mins 40 seconds. And third, after the job when Parker says that Hardison was the one who took out all the guards. Around 45 mins 10 seconds.

RS2 E3 The Tournament Job: Right at the start after Eliot says gaming isn't a sport and Parker texts Hardison, so Hardison starts blowing up Eliot's phone. Lmao. Around 4 mins 20 seconds.

RS2 E4 The Date Night Job: After realising Breanna stole his truck, Eliot says dammit, then aims it at a grinning Hardison, since Breanna is already running away. Around 46 mins 50 seconds.

Dammit Parker

S1 E4 The Snow Job: Parker jumps out of a second floor window, Eliot catches her. 15 mins. (Parker gets a dammit from Eliot before Hardison does!!)

S3 E8 The Boost Job: Parker driving erratically, Eliot thrown around in back seat. (Technically there's a pause between dammit and Parker but I'm still including it) 35 min 35 seconds.

S5 E12 The White Rabbit Job: Searching the mark's house, Parker wants to steal a shirt. Again, this isn't technically a proper dammit Parker, as Eliot instead says, "Put it back! Dammit." But I'm still including it because it was aimed at her. 21 mins 20 seconds.

RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: Parker is pretending to be a hacker heavily modelled off Hardison. Not a proper dammit Parker as, again, Eliot only mutters "dammit" under his breath, but still counts to me. Just after 18 mins.

RS1 E10 The Unwellness Job: At end of episode, after Parker admits that she didn't even learn Eliot's name till after the team broke up the first time. 44 mins 30 seconds.

RS1 E13 The Hurricane Job: After washing up on shore and entering the Beacon Inn, Parker and Eliot are bickering about Maria. He doesn't strictly say dammit Parker but there's absolutely no doubt who he's directing the dammits towards. 3 mins 30 seconds.

RS2 E6 The Fractured Job: When farewelling Billy and Parker says next time she'll finish telling him about the robot bodies. Again, it's just dammit not dammit Parker but it's close enough. 41 mins.

RS2 E8 The Turkish Prisoner Job: Another standalone dammit that is most definitely aimed at Parker! When breaking Romero out, Parker says she's a firefighter (with far too much glee), around 14 mins 30 seconds.

RS2 E10 The Work Study Job: A full dammit Parker this time! When Parker reveals that it's super easy to steal from a university and produces a whole bunch of stuff, roughly 22 mins 40 seconds.

Very Distinctive Moments

S1 E2 The Homecoming Job: Eliot ID's the weapon from the gunshots, around 8 mins. Later, he ID's a guy off his knife fighting style, around 18 mins 50 seconds.

S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: ID's a CIA guy from his stance, roughly 7 mins 45 seconds.

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: ID's the smell of peppermint on Hardison's breath, around 21 mins.

S3 E12 The King George Job: ID's former British paratroopers by their haircuts, 30 mins 10 seconds.

S4 E1 The Long Way Down Job: ID's a former spetsnaz guy by his footprint, 13 mins 45 seconds.

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Honourable mention of Eliot ID'ing ex-military personnel by their stances, he just doesn't say very distinctive. 18 mins 50 seconds.

S4 E11 The Experimental Job: Honourable mention of Eliot ID'ing a helicopter by the whumpa-whumpa (there's 7 of them did you know). Around 7 mins.

S5 E3 The First Contact Job: ID's military satellite transmission by the static, 7 mins 20 seconds.

S5 E9 The Rundown Job: ID's a Navy Seal who enlisted between '90-'95 by his watch, around 16 mins.

RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: ID's a drone (Breanna's) from the sound. 11 mins 50 seconds.

RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: ID's Russian mob by the tattoos, 36 mins 30 seconds.

RS1 E7 The Double-Edged Sword Job: Honourable mention for Maria ID'ing the way Eliot disarmed her gun, 7 mins 50 seconds.

RS2 E4 The Date Night Job: Eliot ID's a guy as not having a distinctive anything - which is what is so distinctive. 20 mins 40 seconds.

RS2 E13 The Crowning Achievement Job: ID's MI6 off their search pattern, 6 mins 50 seconds.

Known Family

S1 E6 The Miracle Job: When discussing Bibletopia, Eliot says his nephew would like it. This is the ONLY mention of a nephew in the entire show, Redemption included; nor is there any direct mention of a sibling beyond this (which leads me to believe that this nephew is actually the son of a close friend/cousin/military buddy, rather than a direct family relation, but that's just my headcanon).

S2 E3 The Order 23 Job: When talking to the abused boy, Randy, Eliot says he has an uncle named Randy.

S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Eliot's dad owned a hardware store and he wanted Eliot to take over one day. But Eliot wanted to get out of that small town, so he joined the service. Fought with his dad the night before he left and hasn't been back since. He goes back at the end of this episode and knocks - but his dad never answers the door 😭

RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: While interrogating/torturing Eliot with Red Haze, Bligh says that Eliot's dad's friend from Vietnam has invited Eliot to join them for Christmas. At the end of the episode, Eliot goes to join them for dinner, only to get a message from 'J' that his dad was a no show. This 'J' is widely accepted as Eliot's unknown sibling but that is incorrect! 'J' is Eliot's dad's buddy from Vietnam!

RS2 E6 The Fractured Job: The ultimate Eliot family backstory episode!! (if you haven't seen it yet and don't want spoilers, skip this one!) Eliot was adopted by a black couple, Billy and an unnamed woman, after being abandoned/surrendered at a hospital as a baby. His father was a war hero who got none of the glory and sustained a wound, ruining his civilian career path, so Billy never wanted Eliot to follow in his footsteps. Eliot loved the stories of his dad in the military so joined up to be like him. His mother died while Eliot was on an op and he couldn't get leave to come back for the funeral, deepening the rift between him and Billy. Ultimately, they reconcile, (Eliot says his dad was always a hero to him, Billy say's he's proud of Eliot, they hug), and I cry every time 😭❤️ [Edit: Eliot being a baby at the time of being found at the hospital and consequently brought home by his adopted mother is unconfirmed and my presumption. We have no clear info on his age at adoption. Thanks to @nival-kenival for picking that up!]

Phrases: Ain't

S1 E4 The Snow Job: Said to Nate, right before Nate tells him to go skip some rope.

S1 E9 The Stork Job: Says it twice while conning Irina.

S1 E10 The Juror #6 Job: Upon being told to go help Parker instead of watching a sports game, Eliot takes his beer back.

S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Discussing the fights the mark runs, says they ain't the UFC.

S2 E3 The Order 23 Job: Said right before threatening to throw Randy's abusive father over the railing of a stairwell.

S2 E4 The Fairy Godparents Job: Upon spotting a hitman sent to kill McSweeten and Taggart.

S2 E8 The Ice Man Job: After hearing Hardison call himself the Ice Man, says he won't bail him out when things go wrong.

S2 E9 The Lost Heir Job: While trying to get Parker to the court room and end up cut off by the police.

S2 E11 The Bottle Job: When Hardison wants help to clean up Nate's apartment and Eliot refuses.

S2 E14 The Three Strikes Job: When Nate says to meet outside the ballpark but Eliot refuses because now he's sucked into the sport.

S3 E3 The Inside Job: Twice while arguing with Hardison about how to rescue Parker, once when Parker offers him a lift down the stairwell with her on her harness rig and he refuses. This is the most he says ain't in a single episode!

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Once when the militia try to make him kneel, later when the militia kid catches him and Hardison near the train tracks.

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: When Sophie changes her story to mock Eliot's accent and mannerisms.

S3 E15 The Big Bang Job: When confronting Moreau with Hardison.

S4 E1 The Long Way Down Job: Upon arriving at the base camp and complaining to Nate.

S4 E7 The Grave Danger Job: When looking for a buried Hardison and hearing the sprinklers.

S4 E10 The Queen's Gambit Job: At the end, swearing revenge on Sterling.

S4 E12 The Office Job: Arguing with Hardison about Eliot's sandwich while searching the warehouse.

S4 E13 The Girls' Night Out Job: When trying to convince Nate to socialise at the very start.

S4 E14 The Boys' Night Out Job: Exactly the same as the previous episode, so this one barely counts.

S4 E17 The Radio Job: In the patent office, when trying to figure out who lured Nate into this situation. The same scene is used later as a flashback.

S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Warning Nate of the consequences of taking a life with your own hands.

S5 E2 The Blue Line Job: When ambushed by Marko when leaving the ice rink.

S5 E9 The Rundown Job: Once when going to wring information on the hit out of Riley, once when Hardison steps on the trigger plate of the claymore.

S5 E13 The Corkscrew Job: First time talking to Betty about how Leonard's a jerk.

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Twice when ambushed by RIZ thugs in the warehouse.

RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: Once when discussing Ryan Corbett at the start, once when refusing to let Hardison have a turn with the diamond-tipped drill.

RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: When warning Breanna to be certain of her calculations for how to get him and Parker out of the casino's vault.

RS1 E8 The Mastermind Job: Once when discussing hiring people to overthrow a government, once when discussing how they're going to do like 6 things at once, including saving Harry.

RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: Said twice while talking with Blanche, after Blanche helped rescue Eliot from RIZ.

RS1 E14 The Great Train Job: While digging through the tainted soil with Harry.

RS2 E1 The Debutante Job: When trying to get to Volkov's plane with Parker and seeing that two guards are in the way.

RS2 E5 The Walk In The Woods Job: Talking to Paul after rescuing Harry, who was pretending to be Eliot.

Fun fact: for every ain't that Eliot says, Hardison says at least two more. And that's too many for me to bother recording!

Phrases: Y'all

Never. Not even once.

Hardison, on the other hand, says y'all all the damn time - every season, multiple times, sometimes even multiple times in the same episode.

Honourable mention for Chaos saying y'all as an incorrect mockery of Eliot's accent in S3 E14 The Ho Ho Ho Job.

... Okay, okay! So Eliot says it a few times in Redemption! But only in ONE episode!

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Said 4 times when playing a character and convincing people to clear out of the auction house.

That's it.

Aliases

These are all the names that Eliot's gone by or used on cons that I could find, not just full blown aliases.

S1 E1 The Nigerian Job: Detective Lieutenant Carden (the scene with this alias was cut from a lot of versions of this episode)

S1 E4 The Snow Job: Vince Fetkey, Hans Von Schwesterkrank

S1 E7 The Two-Horse Job: Brad Mackie

S1 E9 The Stork Job: Dale

S1 E12 The First David Job: Professor Sinclair

S1 E13 The Second David Job: Professor/Dr Adam Sinclair

S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Kid Jones (on the fight match poster)

S2 E4 The Fairy Godparents Job: Coach Brewer

S2 E5 The Three Days Of The Hunter Job: Earl

S2 E9 The Lost Heir Job: Officer Hilts

S2 E10 The Runway Job: Julian

S2 E14 The Three Strikes Job: Roy Chappell

S3 E1 The Jailhouse Job: Dr Abernathy

S3 E2 The Reunion Job: Lloyd Hickey

S3 E4 The Scheherazade Job: Guy Hamilton

S3 E5 The Double Blind Job: Phil

S3 E6 The Studio Job: Kenneth Crane

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Agent Quint

S3 E8 The Boost Job: Skeeter

S3 E9 The Three-Card Monte Job: Detective Moffat

S3 E10 The Underground Job: Eric

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: Dr Wes Abernathy

S3 E16 The San Lorenzo Job: Ray Laroque

S4 E2 The Ten Li'l Grifters Job: Charlie Siringo

S4 E4 The Van Gogh Job: Lieutenant (only granting him this one because CK played him in the flashback)

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Tom Boonen

S4 E12 The Office Job: Mr Dennis

S4 E14 The Boys' Night Out Job: Luigi

S4 E15 The Lonely Hearts Job: Jackson Cooper

S4 E16 The Gold Job: Tobias Bowden

S4 E17 The Radio Job: Cowboy (*cough* John McClane *cough*)

S5 E2 The Blue Line Job: Jacques "Jack" Labert

S5 E3 The First Contact Job: Willie Riker

S5 E5 The Gimme A K Street Job: Steven Turner

S5 E6 The DB Cooper Job: DB Cooper/Young Steve Reynolds (again, technically not an alias but whatever it's here anyway)

S5 E7 The Real Fake Car Job: Barry McElroy

S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Archer

S5 E14 The Toy Job: Carl

Honourable mentions of Eliot being called: "Rambo" by Hardison in S1 E2 The Homecoming Job [thanks @independent-fics for this!]; "Emeril" by Parker in S1 E3 The Wedding Job [thanks @aardvaark for this one!]; "Sparky" by Parker in S1 E10 The Juror #6 Job and by Tara in S2 E15 The Maltese Falcon Job; and "Skippy" by Hardison in S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job.

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Will Gallagher

RS1 E6 The Card Game Job: Glenn the Savage

RS1 E7 The Double-Edged Sword: Emmett Milbarge

RS1 E8 The Mastermind Job: Frank Farmer

RS1 E10 The Unwellness Job: Hank

RS1 E12 The Golf Job: Reed Wilkins

RS1 E13 The Hurricane Job: Calvin

RS1 E15 The Muddy Waters Job: Armus Vagra

RS2 E7 The Big Rig Job: Kris

RS2 E8 The Turkish Prisoner Job: Nick O'Brien

RS2 E10 The Work Study Job: New Blood, Caterpillar

Honourable mention of Eliot being called "Skipper" by Hardison in RS1 E16 The Harry Wilson Job.

Known Associates

This is in direct reference to hitters/people from the criminal world that Eliot knew or was aware of prior to the Leverage Team. Quinn is not included in this list due to that distinction (sorry Quinn).

S1 E3 The Wedding Job: The Butcher of Kiev

S2 E7 The Two Live Crew Job: Mikel Dayan

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: Gutman

S3 E15 The Big Bang Job: Chapman, Damien Moreau

S3 E16 The San Lorenzo Job: Damien Moreau

S4 E4 The Van Gogh Job: Frank, Randall

S4 E6 The Carnival Job: Roper

S5 E4 The French Connection: Rampone

S5 E9 The Rundown Job: Riley

Trivia

S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: Eliot claims he only sleeps 90 minutes a day, and that he cured his claustrophobia as a kid by locking himself in the woodshed behind his house for a couple nights.

S3 E6 The Studio Job: Eliot is nervous to perform in front of an audience, to the point that Parker startles him and she's surprised that she did. Interesting to note that he seems to have no issue playing sport in front of crowds.

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Eliot says he hates beets.

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Eliot chews gum. He does this throughout a LOT of episodes across the seasons but I've only noted down this one episode for it.... thanks, past me 🙄 [Edit: thanks @nival-kenival for more info! Another confirmed episode is S1 E2 The Homecoming Job, and S3 E13 The Morning After Job!]

S4 E9 The Cross My Heart Job: Eliot says he fought a guy with a Nerf sword in Damascus, 2002.

S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Eliot drives an F-150 to his dad's house in Oklahoma. This is a THIRD vehicle that apparently belongs to Eliot, in addition to the Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Challenger we see in other episodes. The F-150 is not seen again.

S5 E12 The White Rabbit Job: Eliot has 'special sedatives' aka a little psychotropic he picked up outside of Bogota.

Eliot mostly walks at the back of the group, presumably to be the rear guard and make sure no one falls behind. See ... just about every damn episode for evidence.

RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: Parker says that Eliot has cut his way out of an ice cave, escaped a gorilla enclosure, and catered a wedding for the mob.

Eliot is seen wearing glasses throughout various episodes. A flashback in S1 E1 The Nigerian Job shows him wearing presumably his own glasses. All other instances of him wearing glasses (that I can think of) are when he takes someone's glasses for a con. It is unconfirmed if Eliot actually needs glasses to correct his eyesight or not, but is a fandom headcanon. In S3 E1 The Jailhouse Job there is an interaction where Nate ribs Eliot for taking so long in a fight, and Eliot says it's because of new glasses. An argument could be made that this means Eliot does require glasses. [Thanks @independent-fics for picking this up - for pretty much all the details pertaining to Eliot's glasses!]

And there you have it! All the details that I've spent the last 3 months collecting!! Now it's time for me to take a good, long break because my brain is fried! 😂

Once again, let me know if you find any errors so I can update the post. Data from Redemption S2 is where I've most likely missed things, since I don't have it on DVD and it's sooo much harder to scrub through streaming footage to find things. When will they release RS2 on DVD I need itttt.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope this post can be a helpful reference for you!

[morningstarbee]

hardison and eliot betting on who would get higher bids at the bachelor auction, and then hardison being the one to create eliot's fake persona and making him impressive

lmao okay hardsion... anyway eliot got $10k

he's so hot shut up ,,, alec hardison the man you are,,,,aldis hodge is so damn fine,,,HE GOT $15K AS HE SHOULD

eliot is also hot but hardison,,,,

PARKER WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

Eliot: ...Want me to teach you about the wines again? Hardison: That's just hurtful. Just- just making assumptions and presumptions that I don't know what I'm- Yes, I need you to teach me about the wines again. Yes.

I love them

ELIOT ORDERING A PLANT FOR PARKER AND SAYING TIS FROM HARDISON AND THEN LEAVING STOPPPP

i know this is like, a wingman moment, because eliot is the most romantic of them but like why does that hurt,, why does he have so much love and nowhere to put it? i choose to believe this is him helping his boyfriend impress their girlfriend

god. eliot spencer they could never make me hate you.

[fiction-boys-rule]

To Just Be

Pairing: Eliot Spencer/Reader (non gender specified)

Warnings: slight swearing, mental health topics, fluff

Summary: Your mental state takes a turn and you find yourself slipping back into bad habits. Eliot helps to comfort you and the both of you spend a cozy night together.

The music seems too loud in the small space of your bedroom but the thought of silence perturbes you more. The mattress is too soft but not hard enough at the same time. The feeling of your clothes on your skin is driving you insane. You are too cold and too hot at the same time, the only movement in the room being your fan and your feet adjusting the sheets every few minutes. 

You’re overstimulated, to say the least.

The phone in your hands is warm from using it for the past few hours. You can’t seem to stop your hands from doom scrolling. 

Down, down, down. 

What was the trick that the podcaster said? Ask yourself what the last three videos were about to see if you are doom scrolling? 

Shit.

Different ideas pass through your mind, in a blur. Ideas about better things you could be doing to comfort yourself in this state instead of worsening it. There’s that new book you’ve been meaning to read, your favorite childhood movie, the stack of coloring books you bought a few months ago…

That’s all they are, fleeting thoughts and ideas. Pulling yourself away from the phone screen and leaving your bedroom is a daunting task. You want to sleep and be transported into a mental state of nothing, but you aren’t physically tired enough yet.

A soft knock on your bedroom door makes you jump. It cracks open, revealing a curious Eliot.

“Hey, sweetheart. I thought you weren’t home yet.”

“Oh, hi.”

“Were you asleep?”

You glance guiltily at your phone, “No,” you answer meekly.

“You didn’t hear me calling you?” “I guess not.”

He holds his stare for a bit longer than you are comfortable with.

“Bad day today?”

“I’m just tired.” you lie.

Eliot’s feet hesitate in the doorway and you know he doesn’t believe you. He knows you probably just don’t want to talk about it right now.

“I’m going to get started on dinner, okay?”

“I’m not hungry.”

Your response comes out quicker than you intended.

Eliot frowns and eventually asks, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

You feel your stomach clench in protest at your response. You just don’t have the energy to deal with eating. 

“Okay, alright. I’ll be in the kitchen.”

He slowly closes the door and you sigh.

Part of you feels bad for lying to him, but you’re so drained from the week it intimidates you thinking about having to explain yourself when you don’t even know what’s going on in your own mind. You want to comfort yourself in some way and have some sort of routine but you can’t decide what to do and it’s driving you crazy. You feel lost, both in the short and long term. 

You have been thinking of where your professional life is going, the endless chores and errands, and the state of the world that you’re constantly being bombarded with on social media. You feel hopeless and nothing in your everyday life is helping you get out of it. 

There’s been no specific trigger to your emotions, and you suspect that is the biggest stressor for you. It all started during your commute to work in the morning. You couldn’t choose music to play for the life of you and ended up resigning yourself to a quiet drive in order to not be running late.

During your lunch break you decided to visit one of your favorite cafes nearby. When you walked in and started to run through the different options on the menu, your mind went blank. Nothing seemed remotely appetizing, not even your usual favorite. When the barista called you over to order next, you panicked and ended up choosing the first option you saw. It was only afterwards that you realized what you had ordered and ended up doing a walk of shame back to your workplace. You drank the drink hastily to not have it go to waste, but it was a chore nevertheless.

During your commute back home, in silence once again, you encountered many terrible drivers and the closer you got to home, the more your mood soured. 

Upon entering your living space, the reminders of future chores and errands that needed to be done were enough of a nuisance to send you surrendering into your bedroom. 

Now a few hours later, here you still are. Your mind barely registers the now dark room and now you understand why Eliot seemed so concerned.

You distinctly register the sound of pots and pans and remember Eliot’s cooking. Almost on cue, your phone appears with a video of a delicious looking recipe and your stomach grumbles.

Using every ounce of energy you have left, you put your phone down. Your eyes stare up at the ceiling. Your mind is racing but hardly any of the thoughts are concrete or discernable. You just want a distraction, some way to lose control.

You sigh and sit up in your bed. Your back and neck protest from your previous position and you groan slightly. You don’t want to talk much tonight, but you figure you can try your best.

You make a quick trip to the bathroom before slowly continuing to the kitchen. Eliot is playing some old country music softly, the soft ambience and cooking sounds soothing you almost instantly. The overhead light isn’t on, just the stovetop, and you are extremely grateful. The smells pull you in further and your feet are moving before you can stop them.

Eliot turns at the sound of your approach.

“Hey, darlin’.” he greets softly.

“Hi.”

“I know you said you weren’t hungry, but I’m making your favorite. Didn’t want the food to go bad.”

Eliot sounds very unsure of himself at the moment, and it throws you off a bit.

“Thank you.”

He follows your lead of the conversation and doesn’t push you further. His attention returns to the pan and you watch attently as his hands add more ingredients.

“Go on and have a seat. It’s almost ready.”

You wish you could thank him more verbally, but you hope he knows your appreciation runs deep.

You stroll over and sit at the dining table, watching his back and the way he moves in the space. After a while, he plates and strolls over to you. 

“Here you go, baby. I hope you like it.”

You nod and gingerly start to handle your utensils. He eventually sits and you both enjoy the peaceful environment. Once you’ve both finished, he picks up your plates and cleans off the dining table. He surprises you by turning the stovetop light off and heading to the living space. At your confusion, he holds both of your coats up.

“I think we should go get dessert.”

You smile and nod. You stand from your chair and meet him in the space. He gently turns your body and clothes your body with the coat. You can tell by his body language he wants to touch you, but is unsure. Your hands reach out and wrap around his middle, making him reciprocate. His chin settles on the top of your head and he sighs heavily in contentment.

You both pull away after a few moments and head out the door shortly thereafter. You find yourselves sitting on a park bench enjoying your favorite desserts. The park is calm, and the surrounding area holds little to no people. The fresh nighttime air has allowed your mind to come back to the present and you feel refreshed, even if it is just a little bit. 

You return to your home afterwards and now you are able to look at your space in a different perspective. Eliot takes both of your coats off and hangs them up. He leads you to the couch and has you settle yourself before retreating into the hall. You are confused until you see him return with a basket of your self care items that you keep organized. 

He sits next to you and hands you your favorite face mask and headband. You put your headband on and are about to stand when Eliot takes the mask from you.

“Here, turn around.”

You do, and your heart flutters as he places the face mask on you. He adjusts it a few times before leaning away and nodding. To your surprise, he moves in closer and hands another one to you with another headband. It takes you a few seconds to realize he’s asking you to do the same. Your chest warms, and you will your hands to move. You take your time, relishing in touching his face and gazing softly into his eyes. Once you finish, you lean back and giggle softly. He smiles, holding your hands. 

“Now we match,” he says.

“Yes we do.” you whisper.

Eliot isn’t the biggest fan of watching tv, but he scrolls through different options until settling on an old animated children’s movie. You both move into each other’s spaces and find comfortable positions. Slowly, you feel yourself drifting into a peaceful state. His hands on your body and his warmth are steadily inducing you into a sleepy mood.

He catches your body’s signals and pats your side softly.

“Come on, let’s go to bed.” he whispers.

You wish to prolong your night, but you find yourself agreeing nonetheless.

He stands and accompanies you to the bathroom. Together, you prepare for bed and fall into your usual separate  routines. You are in bed first, too tired to follow your more thorough nighttime routine. Eliot joins you soon after, his arms caressing you. 

You decide to speak your thoughts before falling asleep. You hope your true feelings and emotions shine through your exhaustion.

“Thank you for everything. Thank you for taking the decisions away and just letting me…I don’t know, just be. I don’t know what’s wrong, but this helped. To just be.”

You stay in silence for a few beats, not expecting a response. You are glad you were able to express your thoughts, even if you don’t exactly know how to explain them.

“I’ll always be here for you. Just tell me, I’m always happy to just be with you. You don’t need to think or talk, you can just be with me. That’s all I need, just you. Nothing else.”

You squeeze him a little tighter at his words, and they allow for your body to finally slip into sleep fully, able to just be.

[fablesrose]

Ch 13 - The Runway Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: With Tara being a new crew member, they take to the runway at Fashion Week to get back at local sweatshop owners.

Words: 4562

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before the next job we, minus Tara and Nate, video called Sophie.

“He says he’s cool with it, but you know how he is,” Hardison said. 

“And the way she introduced herself?” Parker said, “That was a smooth con.”

Eliot shook his head, “Yeah, but it didn’t exactly build trust.” 

I nodded along, agreeing with what they were saying, but I didn’t have much to add. To be honest, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Tara and her being here. 

“Look,” Sophie said, “We didn’t get along when we first started… Eliot, how long did it take before you trusted me?”

I heard Eliot deliberately take in a breath.

“Eliot? You do trust me, don’t you?”

“That’s not the point, Sophie,” he deflected. “If Nate doesn’t like this chick, then it’s not gonna work.” I noticed that his southern accent slipped to be a bit thicker as he replied a bit flustered.

“Yeah, which is why you have to get him on board,” Sophie replied. “Look, you need a grifter. The last time one of you tried to grift,” she looked around and lowered her voice, “you wound up kidnapped by Russians.”

I cleared my throat and sent a pointed look towards Hardison. Eliot and Parker made their accusations more vocally. Hardison did not seem to appreciate it, but he deserved it. 

“Listen to me,” Sophie redirected, “Tara Cole is the best. I wouldn’t have sent her if I didn’t trust her, and I know you’re gonna love her, so… Just give her a chance.”

Eliot turned to Hardison, “She is hot.” 

“Very hot,” Hardison agreed. 

I waved my head in mild agreement, because she was, but rolled my eyes at their necessity to point it out. 

“Hot,” Parker said. We all gave her a look. That was not the expected response from her. She caught onto the tension quickly, “Cold? Why are we staring?”

Sophie moved on, “Yeah, I’m not saying to throw her at him, I’m just saying get him on board. He doesn’t always know what’s good for him, and if he does, he doesn’t do anything about it!” She was clearly getting frustrated, “He just lets it walk straight out the door, and…”

I nodded in agreement as she ranted. He did tend to do that. 

“Like… all the way to Europe?” Eliot asked with a swing in his voice. 

Sophie gave us a soft smile, “Just do it for me, alright? So I don’t have to worry about you.”

Nate and Tara walked in the door then, so Hardison and Eliot scampered away because we all knew damn well that we weren’t supposed to call Sophie. Parker and I stayed put for a moment longer.

“I just miss you,” Parker said. 

“And she’ll never be you,” I added before Sophie logged off with a soft smile, before Nate could see.

We then all sat down in the living room, Parker tossing the remote to Hardison, and Nate predictably standing in the front of the room. 

“Okay, run it.”

“Gloria and Russel Pan,” Hardison began. “Self made millionaires, they built their fortune off a company that produces cheap knock offs of the latest fashions.”

“The bargain bin has been pretty good to them, I’d say, with, you know, the nice car, giant house in the rich neighborhood, etcetera etcetera,” I added since I helped do a bit of research. “Gloria works in the factory making the designs. Russel is the business side of things, accounting, and works with the partners in China.”

“Okay, Gloria designs the clothes. Does she have any training?” Nate asked. 

“She did a correspondence course with a fashion school,” Hardison answered. “And she subscribes to all the magazines: Vogue, InStyle, Fashion & Style…”

“She submitted to Project Runway,” I said. 

“Last year?” Parker asked. 

“Last three years,” Hardison corrected. 

“Okay,” Nate said with finality, “That’s our way in. We’re gonna sell, Gloria Pan…” Nate pointed to Tara. 

“Her dream,” she answered. “Yeah, no, I get it.” She stood up to stand at the front of the room next to Nate, “I mean, the word ‘con’ comes from confidence, right? So we gotta build her confidence, make her think she’s the greatest designer in the world.”

“There you go,” Nate commented. 

“How?” Eliot asked gruffly. 

“How?” Nate paused, and smiled. “We need a Caprina.” Then he walked away in his usual fashion. 

“What does that mean?” Tara asked, watching as he walked away, “So he just says things and walks away?”

“Yeah…” Parker said.

“That’s something you’re gonna have to get used to, I’m afraid,” I mentioned. 

Tara looked at me, somewhat confused, “How did you turn out normal?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but wasn’t sure how to, so shut it again. Was that a compliment? A back handed one?

“She’s a survivor,” Eliot answered for me, with a smile.

Parker and Hardison stood and left, in a somewhat Nate fashion. Eliot stretched out a bit, placing his arms on the back of the couch, one of them behind me. Tara still looked confused about the whole situation, but left without another word. 

I turned to Eliot, “Thanks.”

He glanced at me, “No problem.” There was a beat of silence before he reached for the remote that Hardison had tossed on the couch. “Let’s see what games are on.”

“Ah, got a juice up on some manly stuff before all the fashion stuff for the job?” I laughed. 

“Please, I thought you liked sports,” he scoffed, “besides, like you’re into all the fashion stuff anyway.”

“I mean, sometimes,” I tried to defend.

He deliberately looked me up and down, “Uh huh, your clothes are probably between five to ten years old.”

“Ah ha!” I exclaimed as if I had caught him, “This t-shirt? Vintage.”

He laughed, “Uh huh, yeah, really proving your point there, sweetheart.”

I gave a playful ‘whatever’ to which he nudged me.

“Shut up and watch, they’re about to score.”

Later, we had to set up a little photo studio in the corner. Parker took pictures of Tara in some clearly fashion-y clothes and I photoshopped her onto a Fashion & Style magazine cover. I sent it over to Hardison to do the final formatting where he printed it off and actually made the physical magazine. It was a nice little assembly line. 

Parker then was able to strategically plant the magazine in the Pans’ house, setting up some cameras while she was there. We were able to watch as Gloria discovered Tara as Caprina to be the next big fashion designer through the magazine and the various voiceovers we added to celebrity news channels. 

Eliot and Tara went to set the hook and invite Gloria to Fashion Week. It was deemed successful, leading us to prepare for sneaking in ourselves. Parker, understandably, did not want to play dress-up, so she went in as a production assistant, slipping our passes and names on the guest list. She was also there to swipe anything, if need be. 

The rest of us dressed up to be fashion people, with Nate going particularly crazy with small round glasses, fingerless gloves, and a red fan. Hardison just went with a classic shirt and jacket that was deliberately untidy with some fur additions, and Tara with an all black ensemble. I used the occasion as an excuse to buy something a little nicer and a bit frilly. I normally couldn’t justify myself buying something like this, but I liked it and thought I would use it beyond just this job should the opportunity arise. 

I walked into fashion week next to Eliot who wore his hair down, glasses and a white shirt with plenty of accessories. I could tell his eyes were lingering on the models which didn’t bother me as much as I would have thought. I mean, who could blame him? I wasn’t sure why I was thinking about this anyway, it’s not like I wanted any attention anyway.

We set ourselves up next to a runway where some models were practicing their walks, Tara occasionally speaking up to ‘correct’ something. Eliot brought Gloria over and everyone was introduced. Hardison and I were fashion magazine editors and Nate was Caprina’s sponsor. Gloria handed over her designs for Hardison and I to look over.

“Oh no no no,” Nate cried after reading a text. 

“What what?” Tara asked. 

“My young designer who was going to be at the newcomer showcase at the end of fashion week, arrested!”

“Drugs in the car?” Hardison asked simply. 

“No, hooker in the hotel.”

“That is unfortunate,” I commented, looking over Hardison’s shoulder as he thumbed through Gloria’s portfolio. 

“He was to be my great discovery,” Nate lamented. “I don’t know what to do. What that boy could do with a buckle…”

I noticed Gloria perk up beside us. What a coincidence that every one of her designs incorporated heinous amounts of buckles.

Nate continued to have a meltdown of what in the world he was going to do while the rest of us quietly encouraged him to have Gloria take the spot. He finally agreed to see some of her other designs, so off Nate, Tara, and Eliot went to the factory with Gloria. Hardison decided to go back to the apartment at this point, back to run all the technical stuff. I decided to stick around Fashion Week for a bit, learning, wandering, just in case something came up. 

Everybody was running around rushing to make sure everything was perfect and in order for the upcoming shows. I quietly took note of what fashions I liked and disliked and which designer’s areas to avoid. I eventually found a quiet corner to people-watch, opening up the sketchbook I brought to finish the character. I absentmindedly doodled and sketched while also listening through comms to the others at Gloria’s office, trying to close the deal. That was until a PA walked up to me with a can of sparkling water.

“Here’s that drink you ordered,” he said, offering it to me. 

I shook my head, “Oh no, I didn’t order anything.”

“Well, take it anyway,” he insisted.

“You better get that to whoever actually ordered it, I personally don’t want to witness another meltdown,” I replied, shuddering as I remembered what some of the designers were doing in their stress. 

“What if I said that I lied and just wanted an excuse to talk to you?”

That stopped me. I looked at him curiously. He was wearing all black like the rest of the PAs, and relatively good looking. Nothing like the models walking around, but nothing to scoff at either. 

I hesitantly took the can from him, “Okay…”

“Does he need to be scared off?” Eliot asked through comms.

“Sorry,” the PA said, “that probably came off a bit strange.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied to both of them. “I’m a little surprised you’re not rushing around like everyone else.”

“There’s a little break with my responsibilities for a minute. I could say the same to you though.”

“Different priorities, I’m in between editorial appointments,” I replied easily, just keeping with my cover, “Not enough time to go anywhere though.”

He nodded. There was a beat before he said, “I, uh, like your look. And it doesn’t seem like you’re as pompous as most of the people walking around here. ”

I quickly straightened my clothes a little, “Oh, thank you. It’s a bit simple,” I said, referring to some of the other looks I saw walking around.

“And better than a lot of stuff here. Unfortunately for them-” he paused, listening to his headset. “Sorry, I’ve got to go.”

I checked the time, “No worries, I should go too. Thanks for this,” I said, raising the drink.

He nodded and smiled before running away to do whatever was needed. 

I smiled to myself, looking myself over. Maybe I did okay after all. Eliot took my spot at Fashion Week not long after. He came over after dropping the money off with Hardison. I was gathering my stuff to leave when he approached me. 

“Hey, everything okay?” I asked him once he arrived. 

“Yeah, it’s great,” he replied quickly. “That guy…” He trailed off as if fishing for info. 

“He was fine,” I assured.

“Good. Good,” he slid his hands in his pockets. “I did want to say, earlier, that you look nice.”

I smiled, not hiding the blush that rose to my cheeks, I was sure, but it could be attributed to the warm atmosphere with the stage lights and everyone running around. “Thanks, you look pretty good yourself.”

He raised his eyebrows and looked down at his outfit, “Really? I’m not sure about, uh… any of this… fashion stuff.”

“Could have fooled me,” I nudged him as I walked past him to leave, “and try not to flirt with too many models, okay?”

I heard as he stuttered a bit behind me, but didn’t actually answer.

I got back to Nate’s apartment around the same time everyone else did. Apparently Tara and Nate had a fight over how much money to squeeze out of the Pans’, a tension I could almost feel in the room. Nate demanded the earbud back from her right before he took Parker to follow up on a phone call Gloria left for Nate that abruptly cut off. They went to the Pans’ house, and Eliot was told to leave Fashion Week and check out the factory. He was not happy.

“What did I say about the models, Eliot?” I said. 

He sighed, “Just… whatever, I’m going.”

Hardison and I stayed at the apartment, checking where Gloria might have moved funds and her car GPS. 

Tara went to leave since she wasn’t doing anything here. 

“Hey,” I said before she walked out, “Sorry about Nate. He just likes to know all the factors and angles. He just doesn’t know you yet. Not that it’s an excuse.”

She just gave a nod at me before leaving. She had an unreadable expression which I didn’t think much about. 

Hardison started tracking the Pans’ car right when Nate and Parker arrived at their house. The car was pulling away when we heard an explosion on comms. It was loud enough that we determined it was the house since the car was still driving. 

Nate groaned, “Okay, what do we know?”

“Someone targeted the Pans,” Parker replied loudly. Their ears were probably ringing. 

“Yeah, I’m with you on that.”

“And the silver sedan that pulled out right before the explosion, it belongs to the Pans. I recognize it.”

“So, either they got away, or the people who did this got away in the Pans’ car, and the Pans didn’t. Uh, Hardison-”

“Already on it,” Hardison responded. “The Pans’ car just got on the I-95 heading south.”

“Okay, I need to see who’s in the car. Can you get me a visual?”

“Do I look like I have a helicopter?”

“A simple yes or no,” Nate said. 

“I might, might be able to get a photo of a traffic camera, but… I would have to time it just right based on the car’s rate of speed.”

“Listen to me, a car’s driving eighty miles an hour, how long does it take to get to a camera a mile away, seventh grade algebra, Hardison.”

Hardison rolled his eyes and looked at me.

“Yeah, I never got a break in math,” I replied. “But there’s multiple cameras right? You can get a couple chances?”

Hardison tilted his head side to side, somewhat agreeing with me. 

“The husband said they had partners,” Nate said softer.

“Forty-five seconds,” Parker responded.

“What?” Nate asked.

“That’s the answer, forty-five seconds.”

“Oh…”

While Hardison worked on getting the timing right, Eliot piped in from the factory. 

“Nate, I got bank statements here listing Sunbright Holdings as a joint account holder with the Pans’…” He trailed off. 

“Can you show me that?” Tara’s voice came through the comms.

“Oh, that’s where she went,” I said, mostly to myself. 

“What’s she doing there?” Nate asked. 

“Wait, tell Nate that I know these corporate ID prefix is from Shanghai!” She shouted through the comms, making them squeal. 

“They pick up,” Eliot said through gritted teeth, “you don’t have to yell!”

“Just tell him.”

I was working on my laptop that was linked with some of Hardison’s software where I pulled up the camera feed from the cameras we planted there. “Hey, I’ve got the camera feed before the explosion… There’s quite a few guys there, here, I’ll send it to you.”

“Who’s planting that bomb?” Nate asked. “Eliot, Tara, get out of there!”

I heard all four of them start to dash off before Eliot said, “Nate, I’ve got three guys here.”

I turned to Hardison to see if he knew what was going on and who we were dealing with, but he was focused on his own computer. 

“Armed with cleavers,” Eliot continued. “That’s the signature of The Triad.”

“The Triads, yeah, we’re a minute away,” Nate responded. 

“The Chinese Triads?” Parker asked.

“Yeah, they control the global counterfeit clothing market,” Nate explained. “Worth billions to them, even more than narcotics.” 

“So we didn’t take money from the Pans, we took money from these guys, is what I’m hearing,” I said.

“And the last person holding their cash, was Eliot,” Nate said. 

I listened to comms as Eliot tried to keep Tara safe, which she didn’t appreciate, but it sounded like they both took care of themselves. At least, I didn’t hear any painful noises from them. 

“Nate, I just got a shot of the Pans’ car,” Hardison said as he pulled it up on the big screen. “Gloria’s traveling solo. I guess Russell didn’t make it out, the poor bastard got blown to bits.”

“Yeah, Russell Pan handles the finances,” Nate said. “Did you do a full background check on Russell Pan?” He then instructed Parker to stay behind, to be the getaway car. 

“Of course we did,” Hardison assured. He listed all the documents and data we got on him to prove that he is Russell Pan. 

“Yeah, but did we make sure that Russell Pan isn’t anybody else as well?”

I looked at Hardison, to distinguish between the two. He sighed an ‘ah, hell,’ before pulling up facial recognition. I guess it was to not just search for names, because that could narrow the search too much, and miss something. 

When the facial recognition finished, I swore to myself.

“Guys, guys, I just got a hit on an Interpol database,” Hardison said. “Russell Pan’s face matches a Nicholas Chow, Chinese national, works for the Sun Yee On Triad, counterfeit clothing, blackmarket, he’s known for burying his enemies alive. This is a bad dude.”

I looked back at my computer, trying to think if there was anything else I could do to help when I watched the camera feed again. “Uh, one other thing,” I said as I watched, “I don’t think he’s dead.” Hardison looked over at my screen. “He was there when the bomb was planted, like, helping.”

“No kidding,” Nate said, presumably as or after he entered the factory where more members of the Triad were. He switched into his character’s accent when greeting everyone, and softly commented that they had guns. “The last time I saw you we were here for business meeting with your wife. Yah, this is all big misunderstanding?”

“That cow of a wife gave you something of mine,” Russell said. “Fifty thousand dollars U.S.”

“Yah, this was for a show,” Nate said, “This was business, eh.”

“Twenty years,” Russell said exasperatedly, “I carried her. I brought over the cheap labor from China, I supplied the Asian markets, all she had to do was copy the fashions. No, you sold the woman a ridiculous dream. So I had to get rid of her.”

“What a douchebag,” I said before I could stop myself. Hardison gave me a look. “You know, along with being a murderous criminal and all that.”

“Now, I’m responsible to my superiors for that money,” Russell continued, obviously not hearing my comment. “Where is it?”

“Guys, sit tight,” Hardison said, grabbing the bundle of money that Gloria gave us, “Tell Chow, or Pan–pot skillet– whatever his name is, that is money is on the way, it’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Well, uh, we don’t have the money,” Nate said instead. “The money is gone, yah, we spent it on the vendors for Gloria’s show, yah.”

“Did you not hear what I just said?” Hardison then emphasized, “I’m on my way, with the money.”

“Yah, and there’s no reason to do anything, or go anywhere because, puh, the money is gone,” he repeated. 

“I think he heard you loud and clear,” I said to Hardison, not liking this situation any better than he did. “Nate, come on, what are you doing?”

Russell gave an order, in presumably Chinese, and Nate started to backtrack a little bit. 

“Listen to me one second before, what if I was able to give you something worth much more than the fifty thousand dollars, what if I was able to give you the designs for next fall’s collections today? Yah, that’s right. Get your factories turning out knockoffs way before the competition. This would be worth millions to you in additional revenue, millions!” 

I could tell Nate was thinking very hard to make this work, his accent wasn’t as thick as before, but luckily he was able to keep up the act as it seemed to catch Russell’s interest. 

“And how are you going to do this?”

“We have access to the Fashion Week, uh, shows. I mean, I can get you Julian to steal a major designer’s designs,” Nate offered up Eliot to steal it. 

“So, I let you go,” Russell seemed to laugh, “you run to the police, and I get nothing! No deal.”

I paced the floor as Nate tried to say something to save it when Tara offered herself as collateral, which Nate quickly refused. He tried to reason that he wouldn’t go to the police, we had no evidence, we couldn’t escape them anyway, etc etc. 

Unfortunately, Russell agreed to keep Tara anyway in exchange for the designs. He gave Nate one hour. 

“I’m telling you,” Tara said, “get him what he wants. It’s just fifty grand, huh? That’s what this is about, five oh, capish? Five oh.”

“Yah…” Nate said hesitantly, “Julien, let’s go, uh…”

Hardison and I waited until everyone got back, without Tara. 

“We could have just given Russell the money,” Hardison said. 

“If we had given him the money,” Nate replied, “we would have gone back to the client with nothing.”

“Cuz that’s what it’s about,” Eliot said, “a chance to run a con on the Triads on the fly. You put Tara’s life in danger to take down a bigger target.”

“Listen, it’s one thing for Florence and those other women to owe money to some local sweatshop. You want them in debt to the Triads the rest of their lives?” Nate asked. 

“You wouldn’t have left Sophie there,” Parker pointed out. 

“Listen, I know what I’m doing,” Nate insisted, “I got it under control, alright? We have less than an hour, we need some designer’s plans, we gotta get-”

“Hold on,” Hardison said as he typed on his computer. “Okay, there’s one show left today, Andre V has a hip hop couture line.”

“Great, perfect,” Nate pointed at Eliot, Parker, and I, “go get those plans.”

We didn’t have to be told twice as we dashed off, back to Fashion Week. Unfortunately for us, because of a ‘security breach’ earlier, we couldn’t get in without IDs. According to the chick at the security checkpoint, the only things getting through were models and clothes. Which led us to where we were now, arguing about clothes. 

Parker couldn’t get over the impracticality of them as a thief, but finally offered up a black piece of clothing with red-ish orange trim. 

“The A-line drape of the empire waist is nice, but the neckline is a little weak,” Eliot rattled off. “If you ask me,” he added once he caught Parker and I’s looks. 

“I thought you weren’t into all this fashion stuff,” I said. 

“Hey, I dated a lot of models. A lot of private fashion shows, if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, yes,” Parker said, continuing to flip through clothes. 

Eliot continued to give sexual innuendos that Parker and I rebuffed until we both walked away to a different rack when we couldn’t take anymore. I finally found something that fit some of her criteria enough to get her changed and backstage. 

“Why can’t you come too?” She asked as I rushed her through.

“Because I don’t have an ID and I think I would hinder you more than help, let me know if you need help and I can figure out a way in or make a distraction out here or something, now go!” I pushed her through to blend in with a couple other models heading where Parker needed to go. 

She was able to get the flash drive into the computer, but before all the files were uploaded, she got swept up into actually being a model. I helped conceal Eliot in a clothes rack to retrieve the drive as Parker was walking the runway, but not without an incident on her part. Luckily that didn’t stop us from being successful. 

We brought the drive to Nate and Hardison at the factory. Hardison took it and worked some magic, I was sure before handing it to Nate to give to Russell. Nate stepped out of the van and prepped himself before going in. 

“Hey,” Eliot stopped him, “if this thing starts going off the rails, don’t wait. Call us in.”

Nate nodded, “Chow is primed, I can handle him.”

“I’m not talking about him.”

“She’s a pro, she knows what to do,” Nate insisted before heading into the factory. 

I still had a nervous feeling in my gut despite his supposed confidence, but I seemed to always have that feeling at the tipping point of the con. I, of course, had nothing to worry about as Nate handed over the designs, Russell saw them, unknowingly sent Gloria’s design to all of his factories, courtesy of Hardison, and called the cops. The cops arrested Russell for being wanted by Interpol, also revealed courtesy of Hardison, and let Nate go once he showed them his Interpol badge.

“Okay, no earpiece,” Parker said to Tara, “How did you tell Nate you were gonna do the cop scam?”

Tara recalled when she told Nate that it was fifty grand, “five oh.”

“Five oh? Cops?” Eliot asked, “That was all it took?”

“Some people just know how to communicate,” Nate said. 

“I finally learned how to speak his language,” Tara said. “Cryptic clues, slogans, and code.”

We all shared a small laugh and smile that everything came out okay by communicating of all things. It all turned out for the best, our client got the money to help her parents come over to the States, the factory came under new supervision which was much better for all of its workers, and I think we could now work as a team. 

A/n: Reblogs and comments are welcome and encouraged! Thank you for reading!

Tags: @instantdinosaurtidalwave @kniselle @technikerin23 @kiwikitty13 @plasticbottleholder

[kookicat]

Breaking Promises Like Bones

He's never disobeyed a direct order. Not even when the thought of doing what he'd been asked made his hands sweat and bile rise hot and thick in his throat. Not even when the person at the other end of his weapon didn't deserve the world of hurt coming for them. Remembers with a shudder the ones who begged and the ones he couldn't save, any more than he could save himself. Told himself there was a rotten sort of grace in the act, because the result would have been the same, no matter whose hands were on the loaded gun. 

He trusts Nate, maybe even more than any other commanding officer, but there's a black and bloody and ruthless streak in the other man a mile wide he'd be a fool to ignore. 

And Eliot Spencer is no fool. 

So he notes the little, speculative gleam in Nate's eyes when he puts down the first gun he'd picked up in years, walking away covered in blood and oil and the stink of cordite. Tucks the thought that Nate would ask him to kill again away, in the vault in his head with everything else he can't think about, and goes back to business as usual. 

It stays that way, until there's a scared little girl and a gang of mobsters and Nate says the magic words - do your worst- that unlock the blackest parts of Eliot's capabilities. And it's worth it, to give back life to balance all the one's he's ended. Brings a scared little girl back home safe, so the balance swings in the right direction. 

But he can't help wondering, after that, when Nate's going to decide someone else needs to die. It's a dirty feeling, one that takes him back to the bad old days of working for Damien Moreau. Back to the days of being a mercenary, of not caring how much ruby blood was spilled as long as he had a bunk to lay his head and a pay cheque at the end of the month. 

They fall into an uneasy sort of equilibrium. It lasts until a plan goes to shit and Nate's in the hands of a thug big enough to give the hulk a run for his money. There's a sleek black handgun on the floor, at Nate's feet, and the goon's hands are around Nate's throat. 

"Eliot," Nate grinds out, and Eliot thanks God he doesn't have enough breath to make it an order, because the gun would already be in his hands despite the fact every shot he sends down the barrel feels like it takes a chunk of his soul with it. 

It's a brutal and bloody fight. Leaves Eliot doubled over, one hand pressed against his ribs, gasping for breath, blood dripping from his busted lip and brow. His left shoulder is throbbing again, arm full of pins and needles, joint full of ground glass. The goon is worse off- out cold on the floor, though Eliot knows that won't last. 

He stoops lower and scoops up the gun. Sees the question in Nate's eyes and looks away, under the pretense of breaking the weapon down. 

"Eliot-" Nate starts, and starts when Eliot throws the disassembled gun down the hall to land with a clatter on the white tile floor. 

"Never again," Eliot grinds out, teeth clenched so hard his jaw aches from the pressure. "Never ask me that again." Because I will do it, and there's enough blood on my hands to drown me already. 

Nate nods. "Okay," he says, like it's a done deal, but the little speculative gleam hasn't left his eyes. 

The unease creeps back into Eliot's gut, and lodges there like a stone. He locks it away, in the vault with everything else he doesn't want to think about and does his job, gets them both out of the building. Gets them home, and drowns out the screaming in his mind with a stiff shot or five and a few hours in the kitchen. 

Never again, Eliot said, but he knows there will always be another desperate situation, because that's just the life he'd signed up for for. Because that's how men like Nate and Moreau operate, on the edge of the possible and the reasonable. Because, like it or not, a lethal weapon is what he'd spent his life training to be. 

Never again, he'd said, like it was a promise he'd never break. 

But promises break easier than bones, and Eliot knows if he wants to keep his people safe, he'll go on breaking both.

(Guys if you read this and like it, please can you reblog? ❤️)

[make-me-imagine]

Headcanons: Taking care of each other when you are hurt (Eliot Spencer)

Headcanon Prompts: Taking care of them when they are hurt + Them taking care of you when you are hurt.

Requested By: @spuffyfan394

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Gn!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of injuries/wounds, blood, pain, stitches, etc.

-

Taking care of him:

Eliot gets hurt a lot, like A LOT.

Pretty much on every con he's a part of.

So he is used to having to take care of his own injures.

When you joined the crew, before and after the two of you began dating, you would insist on helping him when he was hurt.

He wasn't used to someone trying so hard to help him, and wanting to, that it made him feel vulnerable in a way.

At first (before you were in a relationship) you just tried to be helpful. Bringing him bandages, cleaning solutions, bringing him stuff when he was having difficulty walking or getting places.

You never treat him like a child, or like he can't handle the pain. Which he appreciates, because he is not one to be coddled.

That being said, he does love when you are gentle with him, because you do not want to add to his pain.

Once you were in a relationship, and more comfortable physically, that is when you started to be more proactive in helping him when he was hurt.

You would change the bandages that were more difficult for him to reach. You'd help him clean off an blood after an injury. You'd tie back his hair if he was too hurt to mess with it.

You would give him massages when he was sore, had pulled muscles, or was suffering from his chronic pain from past injuries.

Sometimes you insist on running him a hot bath to soak in after a rough job.

He enjoys these baths, even if you make it a bubble bath, though he insists you never tell Hardison he enjoys a nice hot bath. (Because we all know Hardison would have a field day with this and probably by him rubber ducks just to piss him off)

You learned how to take care of serious wounds after you joined the team, including doing stitches. For those jobs when things go very wrong.

The first time you had to help Eliot with a knife wound, he watched you stare intensely at the wound stitching it up.

You were delicate enough not to add any needless pain, but you were thorough. He was impressed, and touched at your need to help him.

Later he asked you how you learned to do stitches, and you told him you learned from an old "acquaintance" who owed you a favor.

When he asked why you learned, you told him you learned for moments like this.

You learned in case he ever needed you.

This only made Eliot love you all the more.

Taking care of you:

Fortunately, you do not get hurt nearly as often as Eliot does.

But when you do get hurt, Eliot becomes protective and your own personal nurse.

He also always feels guilty when you get hurt, as he thinks he should have protected you - even in situations no one could have stopped.

You learned fairly early on that words only ease his guilt somewhat.

What helps him more, is you allowing him to help you.

Bandaging you up when needed, giving you proper medications or treatments. Just letting him help you recover.

He can over react a little, not really letting you do much.

Making you too much food to make you feel better, watching your every move to make sure you don't strain yourself.

And if the tam tries to get you back in a con too early? Uh-uh, he wont let that slide.

Eliot also tries is best to distract you from any pain you might be in. He will tell you a story, or jokes to make you laugh or smile.

He is surprisingly gentle with his care, as he never wants to be the one to cause you pain.

Eliot will softly kiss your bandages, and kiss your forehead/temple, and hands, if you are hurting.

He also draws you hot baths, using your favorite oils, salts or bath bombs. He will even light a couple candles for you.

And he always asks if you want him to join you; mostly as a joke, but also not really.

If you are seriously hurt, he will sit outside the bath with you, helping you, gently cleaning your arms and hair, something you have done for him a dozen times before.

Also, just putting this in here - anyone who hurt you, will definitely live to regret it.

xx

General Taglist: @criminaly-supernatural, @imaginesfire, @onuen, @witchygagirl, @alexxavicry

Leverage/Eliot Taglists: @groovy-lady, @aaannabbanana, @peoniarose, @fablesrose, @spuffyfan394, @malindacath, @winnifredburkleismyhero, @that-marvel-simp, @gatefleet, @bthtallmadge2

[unloneliest]

jam i have a question. who is eliot spencer... where is he from. what makes him ur number one blorbo and what do u understand abt him that no one else does <3

partridge thank you so much for this ask i need you to know you made my entire morning. eliot spencer is. my specialest guy my blorbo of all time i love him so so so so much. he's from the tv show leverage, which aired from 2008-2012* and isn't immune to the downfalls of that era of tv in general but that. honestly does a comparatively outstanding job to ME. it holds up and also the premise is "what if these extremely competent hot thieves ruined shitty rich people's lives and helped the people who'd been victimized by the rich people and created a found family together after all having various levels of sad backstory? and there was an ot3 made as canon as the showrunners could possibly make it in 2012?" i'm getting ahead of myself though.

*there's a sequel currently airing but i have yet to watch it & there's certain aspects about it that i refuse to accept as canon (this is a part of me being the most right about eliot)

i am putting this under the cut because. well. this got long

to start with context. having my brain rewired by supernatural and captain america: the winter soldier when i was a teenager is a huge factor in like. *waves hands vaguely* everything. when it comes to how i came to love leverage and eliot specifically. i got driven away from spn because (to simplify things) the showrunners hated the fans so bad and the characters were fighting the narrative but unable to escape it, and i loved the version of the characters that was actively being opposed by the show. and that was just plain not enjoyable for me. and marvel is marvel and continuity of emotional and interpersonal arcs doesn't matter at all to them.

and the thing is i took a sociology class in 2017 and it was making me so upset learning about white collar crime. and @canis-la-trans was like. we are watching leverage now. to remedy this. and i'd tried watching it with him before but this time around it just clicked. and the biggest part of what clicked is eliot. because listen. eliot is in somewhat of the same category as my earlier favorite characters but the thing about eliot spencer is that all of his best qualities are canon, not fanon. he redefines the category. he's incomprable. to me.

the thing about eliot spencer is he's the punchboy. he's the hitter. it's his job to get in the fights and protect the team. and he does his best to come across as grumpy, as not caring about people, does his best to fly under the radar as just another unintelligent lackey with a short temper who's particularly talented at violence.

but that's a performance. canonically that's a performance. and he has the best work/life separation of the whole team. he's not his job - he's very good at his job, and it's what he does and that is a part of him, but where some of the other characters view their job as an extension of their selfhood, eliot doesn't.

he cooks. he cooks so well that he could do that professionally. he grows all his own produce (allegedly). he's one of if not the best person on the team with kids. he loves so wholly so fast. he's the first person to call the team a we. within team dynamics he & sophie, the grifter, protect the other 2 from the worst of the team leader's dysfunction.

eliot's done bad things in the past. and he views himself completely past saving. like. from commentary on the show: he knows he's going to hell. like. his self worth is completely abysmal. i know he would die for the team. in s2e2 there's an episode where the team isn't succeeding at the con, and he takes the fall on purpose. and in a conversation about that he says "i'm not diving on a grenade. i'll be all right" but he says that so readily that i Know he's thought about it. and he would. for the team he would. for parker and hardison he would. he's in love with them. and they're in love with him too and i have to cut myself off or i'll go an entire separate rant about them!!!!

he has long hair. which he straightens. and he looks great with blood on his face. he doesn't use guns. he never throws the con for personal reasons - only ever does to protect kids. he grew up in rural oklahoma and he enlisted to get the hell out of dodge and he got in such a bad argument with his dad the night before he shipped out that he got disowned. and he can't even talk about it until nearly the end of the final season of the show. he never once mentions his mom. and i just know he got disowned for coming out, intentionally or not. he's never had an environment he could be his full self in without fear until the team.

parker, the thief of the team, is intentionally written as autistic; the hacker, hardison, is so likely written to have adhd. and eliot is autistic too, to me. it makes the level of performing masculinity to closet himself so much more insane to me. bc it's also masking. and adding that context to eliot and parker's relationship makes me unWELL.

the thing is is that eliot is a character who's hiding, who's actively doing his best to be unnoticed. and so many people who watch the show fall for the act, even if they don't fall for the whole act they fall for parts of it, and like. They Are Wrong About Him. i have an entire complex backstory thought up for eliot, because i think the only thing sadder than him missing out on the kind of connection he finds with the team is him knowing what he's missing because he had a queer best friend as a kid, & the two of them were closeted together, but he lost contact with her over the years.

the thing is that eliot spencer has SO MUCH GENDER and i know if he and parker and hardison adopted a kid eliot would be ma. never dad. and i don't think he'd even be able to start exploring that for himself until the end of the series.

the thing is eliot spencer would listen to the mountain goats. and there's a couple other people out there who are right about that and it makes me so insane 100% of the time.

and i love him and this is just a list of facts about him and the most important thing about eliot spencer to me is that. he exists in motion. trying to capture a still image or static description in words never works. but he's my wife and i love him so much. and i always will. and i'm writing a fic where i'm going to blow him up. just a little bit. for his own good. this is my "eliot made himself a mountain goats mix tape about knowing he's willing to jump on a bomb for parker and hardison & never telling them that in advance" playlist from that universe.

all of leverage is availible for free streaming on imdb tv & here are thee best leverage fanvids of all time:

& this last vid is abt the show in general, not just the ot3:

i would add all my fave eliot pics i have screenshotted but this is already so long . i still might rb and do that anyways he is Everything to me

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 3, Episode 12, The King George Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

John: Hey I'm John Rogers, executive producer.

Christine: Hello I'm Christine Boylan, writer of this episode.

John: And unfortunately the fantastic director, Millicent Shelton, of this- of this episode could not join us.

Christine: Because she's working all the time!

John: She's working all the time.

Christine: She's amazing!

John: Christine, how did this show come about?

Christine: I am obsessed with- [Laughs] a lot of things that are in this episode. And I begged you to let me do them.

John: The only thing missing from this is bustles and parasols, really.

Christine: It's true! It's true, we had everything but bustles and parasols.

John: James Frain.

Christine: James Frain! Obsession. [Laughs]

John: Great actor, yes, that wasn't creepy at all on set.

Christine: He became one.

John: Yeah, there you go. No, it was- we had been- we wanted to do a Sophie backstory episode for a while.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: We had been wanting to talk about- since we had been addressing - all year - everyone's reason for being on the show.

Christine: Obsession.

John: Obsession?

Christine: Eliot in a pilot outfit.

John: Eliot in a pilot outfit? Really? I did not know that.

Christine: [Laughs] Look guys, hot guys in pilot outfit? That's hot.

John: I was not aware.

Christine: I'm just saying.

John: And, you know, as you'll see in the finale, you know, we really get into why Eliot is trying to redeem himself. And in this was our chance to kinda see- to have Sophie realize what a lot of grifters sorta push off, is that it's not a victimless crime.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: You know, that you rip off institutions and you rip off insurance companies, so it's all kind of a chess match with giant corporations and you know, that there is some human fallout. Which is something shes not dumb enough not to realize before, but she’s always emotionally quashed.

Christine: She's been able to turn a blind eye to it before now.

John: Exactly, because she’s evolving. She's actually- that's something we talk about in the Sophie/Nate relationship all the time is part of the problem is, Sohpie’s actually becoming a better human being faster than Nate is.

Christine: Hmm.

John: And that's one of the reasons they can't actually ever quite make it work.

Christine: Mhhm, mhmm.

John: She's farther along her sort of, you know, decency evolution.

Christine: This, look- this was, all day this large choreographed scene where they said, “You may as well have written The Music Man.”

[Laughter]

Christine: It's a lot of moving parts, a lot of people doing a lot of simultaneous things, and it had to play out almost like a little play, which was a lot of fun for me.

John: Yes. You love little plays.

Christine: I do love little plays.

John: Camera people when you have three or four cameras in there at the same time, not so much.

Christine: No likey. Camera people no likey.

John: Big thing for the fans, kids- people dig Eliot Spencer helping adorable war orphans.

Christine: I know, yeah, they really do. And how cute is this kid, she's so cute.

John: She was adorable, she was really great.

Christine: She was wonderful. She was wonderful.

John: And this was also- it was interesting we were breaking this episode, it was so plotty that it was one of those things where we realized we just have to jump in the middle.

Christine: Just- I love starting in the middle. Oh my god, great, staring.

John: Just immediate - we’re up, we’re running.

Christine: We’re up and running.

John: The audience knows the show by now, we’re well into third season, you'll figure it out!

Christine: I mean yeah, look it’s James Frain, do you think he's the good guy? No!

[John Laughs]

Christine: No, he's not the good guy!

John: He's a sinister Brit in a suit! Come on!

Christine: He's a vampire sometimes, sometimes he's a, you know, renaissance villain.

John: We did do the take where James kissed Aldis like in True Blood, and that's on the servers somewhere.

Christine: That's on my reel at home. That's a private reel.

John: By the way, having just flown through, this looks distressingly like the actual customs arrival at Logan.

[Laughter]

Christine: Yay!

John: Yeah, it’s actually pretty close, it’s actually-

Christine: Did you get caught with some contraband?

John: I did not get caught with some contraband.

Christine: Illegal lion statues?

John: No. 

Christine: Tiger statues?

John: No, I- all my illegal stuff is virtual.

Christine: I am also obsessed with antiquities trafficking. Because it is something that drug lords do to make money to move drugs, which is a lot fun! 

[Christine Laughs]

John: And we've mentioned on a couple of the commentaries, we spend a lot of time- and this is one of those weird things, you know, people that write shows are human and they get into their little sort of obsessions. And we got really deeply into money laundering and the ways in which you launder money this year. And it just so happens that some of them are very glamorous.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Like antiquities smuggling.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Yeah, it's not just for giant nations pillaging other giant nations.

Christine: It’s true.

John: Antiquities. It's for individuals too.

Christine: That was-

John: We gave her a bear! A little bear of peace to hug!

Christine: Come on, how cute is she?

John: She's adorable.

Christine: Adorable.

John: Adorable. An accessory after the fact, I'm sorry she's going to jail. 

[Christine Laughs]

John: That was another thing, too, by the way. I love watching the arc of audience research on the boards and forums.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Cause I do go and watch, and as people know I’ve got the blog and ask questions. And this was one of those things where it's like, ‘Well I love the episode, but I don't know about- can they really take kids and keep them in custody? Can ICE really do that?’ And then about a day later- it's the same on all of them, a day later it's like, ‘Well, I'm doing some research,' and then about a day later, ‘Oh god, this is horrible!’

[Laughter]

Christine: Oh it's real!

John: ‘It's real and horrible!’

Christine: It's real!

John: Yeah. We do a lot of research into horrible things so you don't have to.

Christine: Mhmm.

John: And bang, we’re into the credits.

Christine: And here we are. That was very wonderfully cut together, wonderfully directed, vital kind of- they did a great job.

John: Truly difficult. That whole teaser, that happens in one scene.

Christine: They gave me so much shit on set. Paul Bernard just looked at me with the eyes of death like, ‘Come on lady! Nine pages, huh?’

[Christine Laughs]

John: Nine pages. You do write big scenes.

Christine: Look at this!

John: I adore you, but you do- you don't write television scenes.

Christine: Look at this shot!

John: Keep talking about the shot.

[Laughter]

Christine: This is Shanga Parker, he’s a great actor.

John: How long was the first act you ever gave me in the first script?

Christine: Twenty pages!

John: Twenty page act.

Christine: Twenty pages in The Miracle Job, act one.

[Laughter]

Christine: First draft.

John: There were some beautiful speeches, they’re lovely.

Christine: Some beautiful speeches, they moved to like act three mostly, so.

John: Now I'm sorry, what was I talking about?

Christine: This was Shanga Parker, he is a fantastic local actor who we worked with.

John: Where were we by the way? We are at the convention center?

Christine: Also a professor. This is the convention center.

John: In Portland. This is great.

Christine: Yeah, not overrun by comic book fans, which is usually how I see a convention center. So this was, you know-

[Laughter]

Christine: This was nice.

John: It's like, ‘Oh, this is what it looks like when normal humans walk through?’

Christine: Yeah! It's what- they look like airports!

John: Yeah theres no chunky transgendered Wonder Woman in here, it looks like an airport.

Christine: No. Oddly enough there was, actually.

John: That was odd, actually on the set.

Christine: I brought her with me, she was my assistant.

John: Really? There you go. Doing a lovely job, just- you know there's a lot of good people in the system, and doing their best to help people out. And, you know, it's one of the things we talk about the morality of the show. It's like, are we good guys, are we bad guys? Well, you know, sometimes the system needs a little kick in the ass, cause there are good people who are too good to kick it in the ass.

Christine: Absolutely. Immigration advocates, these guys work really hard.

John: That's a nice bit of staging, by the way, having the couple passed out on the couch.

Christine: Yeah.

John: That's a beautiful little bit of airport detail.

Christine: It was tough, we had to kinda cheat a little bit to make sure they weren’t distracting, but I learned a lot about what to put in background and what's already in the shot and- Millicent’s a great teacher, and she didn't mind me- my shadowing her like a little duckling for most of the shoot. It was really helpful.

John: That is also one of our first sort of great- we got in fast, and now we're doing a lot of backstory to reconnect this episode with the season arc.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's one of those weird things- and this is how it falls out. We had planned to salt the Moreau plotline about every third episode, but due to actor scheduling issues and a rewrite it just wound up being on either end of the season.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: So, you know, this really had- this episode had a lot of heavy lifting to do, which was kinda reintroduce this entire plotline. And Derek Frederickson of course doing great work on the graphics in order to make it clear.

Christine: Fantastic. And not only is he incredibly prepared and does a lot of research and does great work, you know, before, in prep. But when you show up on the day and you want something different, he can whip- he’s magician! He's a magician.

John: Yes, he's actually sitting there with a laptop and I said, you know, “Give me something that looks entirely different.” Five minutes later, “This?” “Oh my god!”

Christine: I have not bought him enough cocktails, that’s the- [Laughs]

John: I think- that has to be a digital shot. Because- yeah.

Christine: Yes.

John: We were shooting through the TVs at that point, and I don't think we’re capable of doing that.

Christine: No.

John: This was also very cunning of Millicent, to break our five up into twos in a way I don't think we'd done before by shooting straight at them.

Christine: Yes, yeah.

John: Usually we rake. Claridges, real? Made up?

Christine: Claridges is made up. A lot of the stuff in here is real in the Leverage world.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Some of the royal stuff, we wanted to- I love the royals. Don't you, John?

John: I hate the royals.

[Christine Laughs]

John: I hate the royals. It’s-

Christine: It’s class warfare.

John: It’s absolutely class- 

Christine: Class warfare.

John: If I could watch that castle burn to the ground… Anyway.

[Christine Laughs]

John: No, it was.

Christine: See I’d like to, you know, get them out and live in the castle.

John: Yeah, no.

Christine: It’s two different approaches, same result.

John: I am personally- level that ground and build a school on it.

Christine: More of an opportunist myself.

John: This was actually fun, was giving her the, “Can I brood here, too?”

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: It's, you know, people are not unaware of the fact that Nate is a moody bastard. 

Christine: Mhm.

[Laughter]

John: And this is one of the- another great things in the third season where they are pairs, they are partners, they're, you know, they're equals here. This is, again, not a scene that would have happened in the first two. And part of the fun of doing television, you can develop relationships over a long periods of time.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You can't do this in a movie.

Christine: No, you absolutely cannot. That's why movies will always be the inferior.

John: Really? Wow.

[Christine Laughs]

John: There's a reason you're my favorite!

Christine: Ohhh, that's right!

John: Nicely done!

[Christine Laughs]

John: There you go.

Christine: This was a lot of fun to shoot; this was rewritten. Like- I try to rewrite everything on the day, that's the- [Laughs]

John: Really, make it easier for yourself, Boylan.

Christine: Yeah, except for those big Music Man sequences. But this, you know, Gina and Tim know their characters, they wanna play and we can- this scene always gets ten times better when you sit down and just read it with them, you know?

John: It's always fun, too, because I remember the first time I was on set and they came up and they're like “John, we think we're rewriting this scene”. It was- I think it was in the military one first season, oh my god we made enough of these- Homecoming. Where we want to change the nature of this conversation, and I was bracing myself for the giant actor thing of a total rewrite but they just [unintelligible] two sentences later. ‘That's it?’

Christine: O-ok?

John: Alright, fine!

Christine: Sure!

John: And, you know, they- yeah.

Christine: There's a respect that goes both ways, and I think the writer needs to be present for the actor and vice versa. And it really-

John: That's what the writer’s on set for.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: You know-

Christine: And to learn directing secretly!

[Laughter]

John: Don't get seduced by directing. 

[Christine Laughs]

John: A monkey could direct. [Monkey noise] “Ahhh ahhh!” Pointing at- there are the actors! What else are you supposed to point the camera at? It's not hard, people!

Christine: But here is another one of these- this was- we shot it at a college?

John: Yeah.

Christine: Beautiful location.

John: Lovely establishing. Wow, her in that dress is kinda amazing.

Christine: She’s amazing. Oh my goodness, and this- this office. I mean we turned it into an auction house, everybody did such a good job just dressing it, and already a beautiful location.

John: Dressing on this was great. Yeah, Becca and the whole production design team doing an amazing job.

Christine: Becca's another one who’s just, you know, a magician.

John: Yeah.

Christine: [Laughs] like pulling it out of a hat, I don't know how she does that.

John: I love that you've got a picture of Queen Victoria there, cause that really establishes exactly the tone and the style of the auction we’re gonna be doing.

Christine: I think so, it certainly made me feel comfortable.

[Laughter]

Christine: Loyalist that I am.

John: I know. You understand that blood isn't special. You understand that, right?

[Christine Laughs]

John: And Frain with the ascot! How perfect is that!

Christine: Look at Frain! Nadine really had to sell me on the ascot, but once she did- once he walked in she looked at me and she said, “Right? Am I right?” And I said, “So right, Nadine.”

John: So right.

Christine: So right as always. That's- playing the thug there, Ollie Trevena. Hilarious, and-

John: Really great.

Christine: Good with the stunts.

John: And it's tricky too, cause we had to have one of the funnier thugs we've ever had in this one. He really had to be able

Christine: He got a little speechify later on.

John: That bang over from there to there, that’s- this what I really like about this episode in- you know, it's great - this is the first episode Millicent’s directed for us, and so she brought a subtly different style to the show.

Christine: Mhhm

John: And watching it, it made- I really enjoyed it, because we’re in London, it feels like our ‘we went to London’ episode. 

Christine: Yeah.

John: It has a tonal difference, and part of the fun of doing the show is it's a different movie every week.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And this is one of the ones where it really feels like it's a different movie. You know, now we're doing our Thomas Crown.

Christine: Yes, absolutely.

John: You know, the other one you did, it's our Friends of Eddie Coyle, you know.

Christine: Mhhm. And once again, Portland did provide.

John: Yes. Absolutely. 

Christine: Portland gave us London, so thank you, Portland.

John: White gloves.

Christine: Just put gloves on this guy, we’re in London! There you go!

John: Now wouldn't you take the gloves off in order to-

Christine: Absolutely not, he would not.

John: Oh this was great, this may be the single sexiest scene in the entire show.

Christine: Oh, she’s like, ‘could this be longer?’ But she was great.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Actors- they all want monologues, and then the monologues are too long.

Christine: Oh I know, Gina said the same thing.

John: You can tell I'm in the second Guinness cause I'm starting to bitch about them.

Christine: No, I love them.

John: No, this- I love this scene. 

Christine: She’s amazing.

John: Because, again, this is how Parker sees the world. Inanimate objects and people are both- you're capable of relating to both of them on exactly the same way.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: No. 

Christine: She's manipulating them as well.

[Christine Laughs]

John: Wow, I don't know where that came from.

Christine: John!

[Laughter]

John: This was a ton of fun, doing the auction research, and figuring out how that worked. All these- also the antiquities research, although you had a lot of that from your previous stuff.

Christine: I had brought a lot of that with me, but it was fun to kind of- I had mostly looked at, you know, older stuff. Really just stuff from antiquity. But looking at the kind of newer things in the King George stuff, and the, you know, the signet rings.

John: Yeah, and we have to give- and as part of the whole we use all the parts of the buffalo, we have to give a shout out to the wonder twins.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: Cause the wonder twins had originally come up with the idea of a treasure hunt episode.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And they put it in Boston, which naturally put it in revolutionary times.

Christine: Right.

John: That led us to King George, but then we shelved that episode-

Christine: Right.

John: So years later when we came into the antiquities, you jumped on that, and it was-

Christine: Let us do King George, yeah.

John: It was great.

Christine: See, they would go for the revolutionary side of things, and I went for the the-

John: I know.

Christine: Red coat side.

John: Really?

[Christine Laughs]

John: Really.

Christine: That's why we’re a good team!

John: Go live in Acadia.

Christine: We’re a great team!

John: We are a great team.

Christine: Look at that statue, statue of Ra. 

John: I love that you can just ask Eric Bates: we need a statue of Ra, and he's like “I've got one on the truck.”

Christine: Yup, patted me on the shoulder, “Alright, Boylan.” With that look of ‘You're crazy, but alright. Let's do it.’

John: No, well it's not quite as bad as when he walked in the first season finale and went, ‘how many tiny statues of David?’

[Laughter]

John: ‘You realize these don't exist, actually, anywhere?’

Christine: Oh, man.

John: It's never boring on Leverage.

Christine: Having Sophie figure out, you know, Frain’s character's heart desire on the fly.

John: Yeah.

Christine: That is- that was fun.

John: That was- this episode, interestingly, really benefits, because it's not a particularly action filled episode. It benefits from the density of the investigation.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Because a lot of these- a lot of these scenes, a lot of these acts, and this is why you rewrite and stuff. Really in the outlining and the breaking we’re like “OK, this is gonna wind up being two episodes.”

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You know, and just crunching it and churching it and crunching it, really gave you exactly what everyone's job is at all times, and really made you understand why Sophie is a crucial part of this team. Sophie is a genius in her own way, as much as Nate is.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: No one else could pull this off.

Christine: And this is her area of expertise. I do like going into, you know, each of their areas of expertise in different episodes. It's nice to kind of- Parker's role for a while as we did in yours and Geoffs.

John: That was kinda fun in Gone Fishing, you're in Eliot's world. 

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Eliot- if you're gonna be running around the woods with people trying to kill you-

Christine: You wanna be with Eliot.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Christine: It's true, if you were gonna be in an auction house, you wanna be with Sophie.

John: Exactly. This was fun, this was-

Christine: Tim, looking dapper.

John: Exactly. And interesting- I had actually pitched this originally, when you were breaking this, but actually happening in the mens room.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then- 

Christine: We couldn't find a good location, so we had the mens room lounge. This is like the right outside of the toilet.

John: As one does!

Christine: As one does.

[Laughter]

John: Absolutely. Also you can rough a man up in a lounge and people won’t pay attention, in the mens room, it’s expected? I don't know-

Christine: It's England, you expect Michael Caine to walk in and gut punch somebody, come on.

[Laughter]

Christine: Come on.

John: Michael Caine, great in an interview, the best advice about playing a villain I ever heard, which is the scarier the guy is, the softer he talks.

Christine: Oh I love that. Well Frain’s definitely got that down.

John: Yeah, Frain’s playing that. It's really is- he has no need to threaten someone because he is, himself, threatening.

Christine: And by the way, there's no nicer person in the world.

[Laughter]

John: Than James Frain?

Christine: Nicest guy in the world. And completely menacing.

John: Yeah, I love the way he picks up the physical cues. Coming up with the physical cues was fun.

Christine: That was fun. Ok, so this is where we went off and we worked on two different scenes.

John: Yes.

Christine: That had to connect, and we basically wrote exactly the same thing.

John: The same scene, yeah exactly.

Christine: Which was- made me feel like I learned something. I feel pretty good, you know.

John: It was- you know, the writers know this show by now. 

Christine: Yeah.

John: You know, and also I would say, temperamentally, you and I are probably the most similar- 

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Style-wise.

Christine: Yes. We’re both haptic, we like, you know, we like using all the senses, but having the object in your hand?

John: Yeah.

Christine: That's what this episode is about.

John: Exactly. And the- also that was kinda fun was coming up with, when we were first breaking it, trying to figure out what Hardison's job was.

Christine: Yeah.

John: And coming up with Hardison- that Hardison became- hacked history. That was-

Christine: That was-

John: That's my favorite part of the episode.

Christine: That's your most shining moment right there, by the way. That he hacked history.

[Laughter]

John: Thank you. That’s- we just, it- we’re kinda talking inside here, because of the nature of scheduling, Boylan and I wound up working on this one a little bit more cause I'd come back from directing-

Christine: Absolutely.

John: The other episode, and so I was out of the loop on another episode so I ended up jumping in on this one.

Christine: It was not a huge [unintelligible] with this one.

John: And also, you did back to backs.

Christine: I did, I did.

John: You were actually producing-

Christine: Yeah.

John: And being on set for-

Christine: Three-Card Monte.

John: Three-Card Monte. So I actually wound up hanging out and doing a little bit of the research before you came back, and you came back, I'd crunched a little bit of this.

Christine: Yeah. And it helped that it was this one, because at least I had done all that work, like, prior to going to Portland.

John: No, that's the thing - you had broken the plot, and just left me with the all the little research-y bullshit to come up with. Which I love doing.

Christine: You do.

John: I love- part of the fun for me in the show is finding everything out that's true that we can put on the air that people don't believe. She's amazing in this scene.

Christine: She's amazing. The two of them? Wow.

John: Yeah. Look at that kinda- she's a totally different human being here - that kinda bored, looking off a little to the left, the little head tilt.

Christine: And the genius of Gina, which some people are going to sort of recognize here and some people are not, but the way she slightly alters her accent. Just slightly goes for a more refined, different class.

John: Yeah, just the way she carries herself, the way she's thrown on the little sweater around the- she's wearing a knockout dress and by putting the little wrap on-

Christine: Changes everything.

John: Changes everything.

Christine: And again-

John: And look at that! She looks imperious there.

Christine: Oh, god.

John: You know. And meanwhile, in real life she's a really sweet, kinda goofy, you know-

Christine: Absolutely. ”Ooh Christine, another monologue!” That she had perfectly memorized and performed brilliantly. 

John: Yes, you know.

Christine: Of course.

John: They have to complain.

Christine: Of course. 

John: And again- I will say again, Nate in a chair getting beat up while Sophie runs a con, I have no problem saying this is one of my favorite recurring themes of the show.

Christine: I told Tim it was a dream of mine.

[Laughter]

Christine: Tim really enjoyed this episode, I have to say - he had a lot of fun on set.

John: Now, it's- well, you know, he looks great, by the way. That's a great look with the little- and he's hooked, and he's back in.

Christine: Yeah. And yeah the two of them had a lot of fun with this. Yeah, the hook- I love the walk away and then coming back.

John: Yeah, and also, again, one of the things you can do in third season, but also one of the things we try to reinforce now that she's his peer, when she says, “You know what I'm running here”, and he goes, “Yeah, but it's dangerous.” 

Christine: Right.

John: We don't wanna- don’t need to explain it to you, all you need to know is these two people know each other well enough to know what they're playing-

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And what the risks are. And it's a shorthand between peers.

Christine: Yeah.

John: Does she throw that- was she wearing that necklace in the other scene?

Christine: She was.

John: She was.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's amazing.

Christine: It looks different against the black than it does against the- yeah.

John: Amazing how different it looks.

Christine: And that's a fantastic sweater.

John: And Nadine throwing together a great little ensemble.

Christine: Oh, Nadine's amazing.

John: And the evil look there, and this is a bad idea.

Christine: Oh no.

[Christine Laughs]

John: This is a bad idea is one of our- now here's a question. Everyone else is dressed for the weather. Was it hot in that office?

[Laughter]

John: Is there- did he nearly pass out from the heat?

Christine: It sure was! Really hot in there.

John: Was it hot because they were trying to put on the lamps to make sure the gun show was bright enough?

[Laughter]

Christine: It was!

John: I remember-

Christine: I promise certain things!

John: Coming into the writing room, and on the wall it's like, it was you know, the priorities-

Christine: Strip Aldis down to his underwear.

John: The priorities for the episode, and one of them was Hardison in the t-shirt for the fans.

Christine: Yes.

John: Like alright, there you go.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Aldis not complaining.

Christine: This is my favorite scene ever. [Laughs]

John: Ever?

Christine: Until now.

John: Yeah, there you go. No this is-

Christine: Until the one we’re performing right now.

John: This one right now?

Christine: This one we’re doing right here.

John: This is a great roundy round. This is interesting, this- we don't usually go around the circle on this type of-

Christine: Mhhm.

John: On this type of scene. But we were not in our usual set.

Christine: Yes.

John: So this table kinda demanded this geography.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And giving- again, Sophie, this is competence porn. This is pure competence porn.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Giving Sophie the ability to instruct everyone else, ‘You’re in my world, these are the rules.’ And yeah, and then coming up with the physical aspect of exactly why the, you know, why the statue was unfakeable.

Christine: Right.

John: Absolutely lovely.

Christine: Why had we failed, how can we succeed, basically.

John: And now- and then, I think it originally started with a knighthood.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then when we were doing the research we had no idea knighthoods were so cheap.

Christine: [Laughs] Knighthoods are pretty cheap.

John: Knighthoods - twenty six hundred. We actually used the line in the show. And it was just deep in the guts of doing the research we spent some time on the royal boards, and there are actually forums and websites of people dedicated to watching royalty. And not just famous royalty, but keeping track of the second cousins, and the third cousins.

Christine: Oh yeah.

John: And the people who are, you know, dukes four times removed. And that was fascinating!

Christine: Mhhm.

John: The idea that like, for example in New York, there are- there's royalty walking around that you would not recognize in any way shape or form.

Christine: Oh yeah. They have jobs, they live on the upper east side, they're, you know, wherever.

John: Yeah and they're, you know, seventh in line to succession someone.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And that was- and that led us to the lost baronies.

Christine: Yes.

John: The lost- and-

Christine: And there are so many we thought about planting some of our-

John: Yes, exactly. 

[Laughter]

John: It didn't really look all that hard to tell you the truth.

Christine: Just don't tell them we’re Irish. It’s fine.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Don't tell them they're Irish. They don’t understand the horror of what's going on.

Christine: Smelling the statue.

John: Smelling the statue. And it was also a very nice beat you did here by giving each person- separate person a clue, so it wasn’t static.

Christine: Mhhm, yes.

John: And again, one of the things that the third season, discovering stuff during the scenes, makes exposition part of the conflict more. And I'll say this- no one comes to a show the best writer they are. You know, we definitely- the first season and second season were great, but I look back at them now and realize they gave us tools to do, you know, some great stuff in third season.

Christine: Completely.

John: Yeah. 

Christine: I'm constantly- I just learn on the job. I don't know what I'm doing on any given day.

[Laughter]

John: Well that's you. I'm talking about other professional writers.

Christine: Oh other professional writers.

John: You are-

Christine: Well I-

John: I'm basically stunned you're working.

Christine: I just walk in saying like, “Hey, look at this great statue. Let's do a-” [Laughs]

John: Yeah, exactly.

Christine: I mean, you know, all joking aside, having the audience as involved as possible is one of my constant goals. I want the audience to be a little- not even a little bit ahead, a little bit behind, but there.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Present, you know?

John: You like a lean forward episode.

Christine: I do like a lean forward episode, you know, there's nothing worse than being spoon fed information.

John: Yeah. I'm going to give a giant shout out to the greatest antiquities crime show of all time, Ian McShane in Love Story.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: For giving us some of the ingredients on that list.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: Because I'm pretty sure when we were breaking this it was like, “And here's the Love Story moment.”

Christine: Absolutely, yeah,

John: I remember being boggled when I was a kid watching that show like, ‘You can do this? Really?’ And, you know, we talk a lot about the influences on the show but Love Story is not not in the canon. It’s-

Christine: No, it's not.

John: It's in there, it's a big part of it.

Christine: Well I was also thinking because, you know, we had watched Three-Card Monte, and I'd written a little more investigative stuff this year, and I think it's because you made me watch Jonathan Creek.

John: Yes!

Christine: There was a lot of Jonathan Creek going on when I wrote this one, so.

John: Yeah. You know what, there's a lot of good stuff up there.

Christine: Yes, a lot of good stuff out there.

John: It’s people.

Christine: Most of it coming from Britain.

[Laughter]

John: No, well no. No, I mean it’s- we’re about to go on a giant side thing. Every country makes great television.

Christine: It's true.

John: They just don't export the bad stuff.

Christine: You know, well said. Well said.

John: Yeah, no, Jonathan Creek, created by David Renwick - great show. If you have a chance to get our DVD, and then get your friends to get our DVD, but then go get Jonathan Creek.

Christine: Go check that out.

John: Yeah.

Christine: Also a great show.

John: Also Millicent, great job here making a very static scene be fraught with parallel.

Christine: She's not afraid of the long scenes, John.

John: Yes. Long scenes are death in television, Christine.

Christine: Long scenes can be amazing as long as they have, you know, breaths and moments in fits and starts.

John: We actually talked about this one one of the other commentaries where the wonder twins were saying to Marc, “God, this scene is so long.” And he went, “No, directors love this! Gives us a chance to park the camera and work with the actors.”

Christine: There's an arc in the scene.

John: There is an arc in the scene. And that's the trick is writing is fractal. We get very geeky when it's just you and me.

Christine: I know, I kinda miss this, we haven't done this in a while, it’s fun.

John: Yeah, writing is fractal. Every show has a three act structure, every act is a three act structure, every scene has a three act structure.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And, you know, if there's not a goal-

Christine: Whether it’s three lines or no lines or-

John: Exactly. If there's not a goal and not opposition, then you shouldn't be watching it happen.

Christine: Absolutely. And these two really dug in and it was magic to watch. I mean some of the best times were just sitting there watching them.

John: And I also love when Gina gets to do this, when she gets to do the lean forward hook.

Christine: Oh, man.

John: Because a lot of times she's playing slightly bitter characters, so she can't play the physical intimacy.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: I remember when we did the pilot, and she did the similar thing to Saul Rubinek.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Who of course has been acting for ages. Saul is one of the best actors I've ever seen in my life.

Christine: Absolutely.

John: And we broke and walked over and Saul was leaning against the railing. I said, “You ok?” He went, “You have no idea what it's like to have the full force of that woman's attention.”

[Laughter]

John: “I just- I need a moment.”

Christine: Mhhm.

John: She's great in this.

Christine: You know, we know why she's the greatest grifter, this is why. And these two. Hilarious.

John: Always hilarious. You cannot go wrong with a Hardison/Eliot scene. Oh and the little throwaway- by the way, this is nice, too, because it's not bickering.

Christine: Right.

John: You know.

Christine: They are working together, and-

John: If you go back and look at the season, you can see that to a great degree, their relationship has evolved.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And when they’re arguing, it’s because Hardison, quite frankly, is doing something stupid or dangerous.

Christine: Right.

John: All Eliot wants to do-

Christine: Well Eliot cares about him!

John: Eliot has wanted to have one job: keep all of these idiots alive.

Christine: Right.

John: That's it. It's just- keep them alive until they get- you know, until they are finished with the con.

Christine: He is the rational center.

[Laughter]

John: Eliot has the best sense of judgment on the crew. I say this constantly. Nate Ford is not good at escape plans.

Christine: No.

John: No. Eliot has the hardest job on the crew.

Christine: Parker can escape, but you know, by herself.

John: This is why I know, by the way, it’s you and I doing this because we're such writer geeks, we’re not really talking about the actors as much as we do on the other ones.

Christine: I know! We really should be!

[Laughter]

John: It's like right now in the internal life of the character.

Christine: Right! So. No, but I will say the Hardison/Eliot stuff- it was nice to have Millicent there. She's directed so many different, you know, various things, but she's also directed a lot of 30 Rock. That helped.

John: Yeah.

Christine: The kinda comic pacing and timing, It worked with the boys’ sensibilities. We had a nice fun set, and stuff moved along at a nice clip. Which is good considering it was a breakneck schedule.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah it's always a break- yeah, it's always horrible.

Christine: As usual, it's a breakneck schedule.

John: No, if you were to play this whole scene back to back it'd be- it’s an act!

Christine: Yeah.

John: It's almost an entire act, isn't it?

Christine: You look at me like I should be surprised at that.

John: Yeah, it's like a ten page scene.

Christine: I am not surprised at all! [Laughs]

John: And now the we think things have gone horribly wrong.

Christine: Janet Penner, she's lovely! Lovely local actress

John: Who's that? I'm sorry?

Christine: Janet Penner, local actress who was wonderful, and imperious in ways. Just, you know, yeah, she scared me.

John: Where do we come up with this twist, that she knew her? I'm trying to remember-

Christine: Well, we had talked about- it’s coming off of the Jimmy Papodakalis thing we'd been talking about earlier that, you know, they've got these personas. 

John: Yeah.

Christine: And to get that deep into a grift-

John: Yeah.

Christine: You know, she'd been running this-

John: Sophie was the long con.

Christine: For a long time. Yeah.

John: Exactly.

Christine: This is a long con.

John: And this is also something that- this is some backstory Gina had given me first year.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Gina has an entire Sophie backstory in her head. And we talked about how actors prepare, you know, Gina had the backstory. Beth has a little bit, Eliot has a very- Christain has a very detailed backstory. Hardison has a little bit. Tim, it’s very organic, he kinda plays it every year.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And fills in the backstory as he wants to evolve the character. Again, t-shirt really? That warm in that hotel room?

Christine: Uhh, look at all the work he's doing. 

John: Yeah? Really?

Christine: Yes.

John: Good to know. 

Christine: It's England. The AC doesn't work there. Also it’s winter.

John: I didn't know that. Huh.

[Laughter]

Christine: This hotel because it's very old, and it's hot.

John: Oh wow, good way to fill it in.

Christine: It’s not wired for that.

John: I'm just saying.

Christine: You know.

John: If I put Beth in an outfit like that, I’d-

Christine: I would like- exhibit A, Beth's outfit.

John: Oh, there you go.

[Laughter]

John: What's always also fun is we don't often play a Parker and Eliot versus Hardison scene.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's usually the other way around.

Christine: That was fun.

John: Yeah, it was a lot of fun just realizing he's a little overinvested. And the big thumbs up! I love the big thumbs up.

Christine: Oh man, hilarious. The IV pole with ink made me laugh so hard.

[Laughter]

Christine: That was a lot of fun to put together.

John: That was great set dec, that was really nice.

Christine: Oh man, they're great.

John: And now a big giant bombshell about Sophie's past; this was a lot of fun.

Christine: In a big giant hat as well. You had to have some big giant hats, or else this whole episode wouldn’t work.

John: Seriously, it's just- this thing is one long-

[Laughter]

John: Working at your subconscious in one long thing in this episode. And now we mention that we both plant the Moreau, remind people about Moreau, also I plant San Lorenzo.

Christine: Yes.

John: Which is important.

Christine: All leading up to the explosive finale.

John: The explos- wow. That- you really sounded like an announcer.

Christine: [Laughs] I can do a sound bite, I can do it.

John: There you go. I love how Tim’s playing this revelation. He's not being judgemental-

Christine: No.

John: But he's finally- he's got a giant chess set in his head of trying to put together Sophie's life, and this falls in.

Christine: Oh, yeah.

John: You know. It was tricky to figure out how to make sure it wasn't her name. And it was actually Gina who gave us the answer.

Christine: Yes, absolutely. And this is why you have to have intelligent actors to work with, who can participate.

John: Because we had this great bit and it was all “How do we write around her never saying her real name?”

Christine: Right.

John: And it was all this sort of dancing, and then Gina said, “Well it’s my stage name.”

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You know, she met me when I was an actress, and-

Christine: It's perfect.

John: Thank you so much.

Christine: And there was a lot of discussion about the lines of succession, and the royal houses, and yes, ours are a little bit- these are the royal houses in the Leverage-verse.

[Laughter]

John: Yes. There was a slight- there was a slight hiccup in the Edwardian succession that really- 

[Laughter]

John: It changed the Leverage-verse history slightly. Also zeppelins. Which you don't usually see cause we don't shoot the sky.

Christine: Yes. Also steampowered things.

John: This is- Leverage-verse is a little steampunk.

Christine: It is a little steampunk-y.

John: You hear- you see the great thing I heard the other day I put it on the- steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown.

Christine: Ohhh, wow.

[Laughter]

Christine: That's fantastic. 

John: Great- is that another white scarf? That is gorgeous.

Christine: Yeah, look how nice.

John: That is a great outfit.

Christine: Look how nice. He really, you know, he just looked great. [Laughs] Between takes I'm like, “Tim, beautiful.”

John: I know.

Christine: Beautiful. He enjoyed wearing nice clothes.

John: And then we had the full- this one, again, could be two episodes crammed into one.

Christine: I don't know what youre talking about. [Laughs]

John: We do a thing at the airport, and then we do a blown con, and then we do a hook-

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And we forge an antiquity, and now we steal an auction.

Christine: Right.

John: And we’re in act three.

Christine: Yes. I mean we bury the real bait inside the thing.

[Laughter]

John: Yes, exactly. No, and it was a lot of fun too, was coming up with the way that fourth act paid off.

Christine: Yes, brilliant.

John: That was nice.

Christine: That was- that was-

John: We’ve been wanting to do that for a while- well we'd been wanting to do that for a while, because Russian icons always kinda fascinate me.

Christine: Yes.

John: The idea of art that doesn't look like art.

Christine: Oh, is this something you're obsessed with?

[Laughter]

John: No not obsessed, just I have a big-

Christine: Super interested in.

John: Chris Downey calls it my big doctor's bag of bullshit.

[Laughter]

John: I have a giant doctor's bag of just random stuff that I've picked up from being odd. I also love that- just the- him drying it.

Christine: Oh man, manicure dryer.

John: The manicure dryer. Great bit.

Christine: They- the props, oh my god it's just- oh my god. Props and set dec working together to create genius in that whole sequence.

John: And that's great, all you have to do is pan across one- just one car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and you're in London.

Christine: That’s all you need, you're in London, look at these toughs.

John: And having been to London, by the way, yeah that's pretty much what it looks like.

Christine: I mean, Portland giveth.

John: Portland giveth. I also love the- this is kind of a callback to the overly loquacious villain in The Future Job.

Christine: Little bit.

John: A little bit.

Christine: Little bit. [Laughs] A little bit.

John: This may be related to, occasionally, when I drink the room I go into the villain speeches.

Christine: Yes, and they're long!

[Laughter]

John: They're long. They're long villain speeches. I think villains have rich internal lives.

Christine: Also, we like British thug movies. We like these kind of, you know-

John: Yes, exactly, this is where the show becomes snatched. Just for like-

Christine: A little bit.

John: This side of it.

Christine: Kinda love that.

John: Also we got the ‘very distinctive’ joke back.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Which I always love. 

Christine: Yeah, that worked out really well. And Ollie and Christain had a good time with those-

John: Yeah.

Christine: With all those takes and- hilarious for us.

[Laughter]

John: And now the stall. It's tricky, it's one of those things where the audience- television is tricky in that shows really are- the fates of shows- you generally know what's gonna happen in a show. And so trying to figure out how to create obstacles without them being schmut bait.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: You know, is it a stall? Is it really something going wrong?

Christine: And there are moments that just rest entirely on Sophie's ability to charm the pants off of him.

John: Yes.

Christine: And it works!

John: It works, absolutely. Yeah, and then she drops back into the other character. No, it's lovely.

Christine: Just so easily.

[Silence]

John: We’re doing that thing where we just watch the episode.

Christine: Yeah, it's really good, right?

[Laughter]

John: I hate when that happens.

Christine: Ah, I love that angle, and this.

John: Yeah and this.

[Laughter]

Christine: Also fun.

John: Honing door rule by the way - if we can avoid it, we never show Parker arriving in a scene.

Christine: Right, she appears like a sprite.

John: Ye- like a sprite? Really? I was gonna say ghost or wraith-

Christine: Sprite! Sprite’s are terrifying.

John: This was fantastic!

Christine: Oh.

John: We had like a whole mini con set up, and- how did we- how did that happen?

Christine: Ok, that was a joke- you know what? That's my husband's joke.

[Laughter]

Christine: That's weird! Yeah, it was a joke that Eric and I-

John: We should say Chrisitne got married, like, three days ago.

Christine: I got married a couple days ago, yeah. It's a joke Eric and I had thrown back and forth, and I believe he had made to you. We were having dinner with Wil Wheaton one night, and he made that joke in the parking lot.

John: That's right.

Christine: And we had been bantering it back and forth and then I'm going over the script and I thought, “Ooh, right here!” And he said, “Yeah, use it! Do it!” I said, “Wait, is that somebody else's?” He said, “No, I think that's ours! Or mine! Or somebody’s!”

John: All good things come from Wil Wheaton.

Christine: So there you go, yeah.

John: There you go. So if you wanna write, Wil Wheaton.

Christine: Go have dinner with Wil Wheaton, and he will inspire you to great jokes.

John: And if he says he's busy, just don't listen to him. Just break into his house and have dinner with him and good things will happen.

[Laughter]

Christine: He’ll love- he’ll respond to that.

John: This was a ton of fun.

Christine: Oh man [Laughs]

John: This came out of the original scene where she said, “Ooh, the last time I saw you was in The Louvre.”

Christine: Right!

John: The idea of Parker doing an auction of stuff that she at some point had her hands on? Lovely.

Christine: And it comes back to, you know, the theme of these are objects you can touch. These are objects that she has touched and moved at some point.

John: Well, it- also we had talked about the idea, we had had to create Parker's living space for episode five, and the idea that just in the darkness past that, there's just piles of this stuff!

[Laughter]

Christine: Yeah!

John: She has priceless artifacts sitting in a warehouse in Boston.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: Because she likes having them.

Christine: That's right, why not?

John: And then we wound up paying it off in Ho Ho Ho when that's the stuff she hangs on the Christmas tree.

Christine: They do pay off the storage units.

John: We do, the storage units-

Christine: Full payoffs.

John: I have a storage unit, so I know how-

Christine: So do I.

John: Oh you have a storage unit now?

Christine: I do. I'm a married woman now; I have a storage unit.

John: Exactly, had to move all your stuff.

Christine: How else to lure the young unsuspecting-

John: No, don't! Don't go there!

[Laughter]

Christine: Boxes of comic books! Into your storage unit!

John: Oh, I was thinking of another one.

Christine: Oh.

John: And I love- you know what? We talk about the different moods of the actors, Aldis’s ability to make Hardison convey that no one appreciates he's a genius is just great.

Christine: Ohh.

John: It's my favorite recurring bit on the show. That's a great shot, by the way.

Christine: Ooh, ooh, great shot.

John: That's a gorgeous shot. 

Christine: Sexy. Wow.

John: I wouldn't have thought of that shot in a million years, that's really nice that light coming through.

Christine: She really uses the room, and she and Dave Connell worked really well together to design these shots.

John: Also a good reminder that Hardison is not necessarily the most athletic guy in the world.

Christine: Right.

[Laughter]

Christine: He looks really good, but he's not out there running all day long like Eliot is.

John: He's not- yeah. 

Christine: Finding the right pair of glasses, that was a lot of fun..

John: Yeah.

Christine: Some were too insanely comic, some were too serious, these were perfect.

John: And his frustration- just take the damn thing! I'm sick of your toying!

Christine: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, and that's, you know, one of the reasons I think he wants to- that character wants to run his own crew is he’s sick of, you know, he's sick of being unappreciated.

Christine: Mhhm absolutely. Well it's- when you're the youngest person in a group, it can be- it can be difficult.

John: Yeah. And the little tap, the little little push, yeah paying off the NLP and the other stuff. This was great.

Christine: Oh, he's lovely.

John: Casting- how is he referred to in the script?

Christine: [Laughs] What did we call him? Pretentious…something?

John: Yes, he's like eurotrash.

Christine: I- he said, “How do I play it?” I said, “Like a Whit Stillman character.” And not a lot of people knew who I was talking about.

[Laughter]

Christine: Cause he's quite young, this actor.

John: The pink shirt really lands it.

Christine: The pink shirt really, yeah. And he was lovely.

John: And then again, the same thing, trying to create an obstacle in order to-

Christine: American fop?

John: American fop! I think it was that.

Christine: I think it was American fop.

John: And this was interesting, too, one of those things where we were trying to figure out- we had to have a problem during the auction, and so why would there be a problem? Well, we had to create one, we had to create an obstacle for the other character, which meant we had to create parameters. Parameters gave us the $250,000. 

Christine: Mhhm.

John: It's amazing how much you work backwards.

Christine: Yeah.

John: You know, you work backwards from the conflict, and come up with the rules for the conflict and around the most interesting version.

Christine: And then it feels like the most natural thing in the world. 

John: Yeah.

Christine: Which is a great moment. Many scotches later.

[Laughter]

John: Many scotches.

Christine: Oh the storage unit!

John: Mostly Irish whiskey this year. Ah, the storage unit. And again, this was fun because really trying to figure out- we had originally broken this to be on the docks.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then when budgetary constraints said perhaps we could not go and fake up the docks of London, we went back to the ending of the season one finale, where we established that she had the storage unit and that she was- it was one of many.

Christine: Yeah, why wouldn't she have many all over the place?

John: Yeah.

Christine: Smells the book.

John: We use all the parts of the buffalo.

[Laughter]

John: And the little bit of joy there. The little- the victory lap, yeah.

Christine: He made that from nothing!

[Laughter]

Christine: It is one of my favorite things I've ever written if I do say so, was the “I have gone from apprentice to journeyman to master.” And he did such a good job [Laughs] on that!

John: He really did.

Christine: Cause it was the- it felt very analogous to the writer's career.

John: Well, it was very- he really dug in on the mania of it.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And then Sophie being left behind. Now-

Christine: Yeah.

John: I always wondered, did we- was an integral part of the con? No, he bailed on her.

Christine: No, he bails on her. Cause, I mean, you know, scorpion’s a scorpion.

John: Yeah. Exactly.

Christine: [Laughs] Always count on a scorpion to be a scorpion.

John: Also, I remember we had a long discussion about exactly what- how she would feel about this moment. I mean, on one hand, it's getting her off the hook, on the other hand, it's kinda a painful reminder exactly why she became a grifter.

Christine: Absolutely. And that's the part I wanted to deal with, was the latter. Because this persona’s taken a lot of beatings.

John: Yeah.

Christine: She had a hard time with this. With this long con, and revisiting it is not something I think she thought she would ever do.

John: Yeah. And that's the mistake you make, you get too close to Eliot with a gun.

Christine: Mhhm. Oh, oh sad.

John: And the out. You can never go wrong on an act out with a guy drawing a gun.

Christine: Take the gun out!

John: Now, he's drawing on Eliot so we all know how this is gonna end. But the fun was coming up with a creative way to beat the hell out of three guys.

Christine: Oh, yes.

John: Belt fu! First time we've done belt fu.

[Laughter]

Christine: Belt fu!

John: First time we've done that. That was-

Christine: But he does try to explain first. [Laughs]

John: Yes it's like he’s- actually grown to like this guy-

Christine: Yeah!

John: And would prefer not to beat the hell out of him.

Christine: They have a professional respect, but you know, the job’s gotta be done. There you go.

John: Yeah. And the belt!

Christine: Mhhm.

John: This came out of, I think, the big bag of old Jackie Chan writing.

Christine: This was- yeah. Mhhm

John: This- I think we use this on a Jackie Chan animated episode.

[Laughter]

John: I think I went in there. No, this is a great fight actually. And the snap! That's gotta hurt.

Christine: Oh man. And it's funny. I do say that action’s not my strong suit, but fights I love.

John: You do love a good fight. 

Christine: I love fights.

John: Well, you know, what if they had swords, you'd be the happiest girl in the world.

Christine: Absolutely! Well ‘cause fights are about character.

John: Yes.

Christine: Fights are all about character.

John: How someone fights, how they handle the geography, the choices they make-

Christine: Absolutely.

John: How they escalate violence. It's one of the things we talk about with Eliot, we never try to give him just a fight scene, he always has an attitude on the fight scene.

Christine: Mhhm.

John: And hoisted by your own petard, sir.

Christine: Ohhh

John: Hoisted by your own petard.

Christine: Basil Harris, local actor, nice guy.

John: Oh yeah, no really- nice guy, nice performance.

Christine: Yeah, he's really good, right? But he's really-

John: And this looks sufficiently different from the other airport.

Christine: Look at that! This was late at night. [Laughs]

John: How late?

Christine: Very late.

John: Yeah. We tend to go a little late.

Christine: Those were late days.

John: No, coming up with- it’s interesting, it's one of the recurring themes of the show- that's me rubbing my face, by the way, cause my voice went weird cause lord, I'm tired of doing this.

[Christine Laughs]

John: Is how you move stuff.

Christine: Yeah.

John: How you move stuff- when we did Rashomon Job, at one point we had four little paper cups with different things simulating the object moving around.

Christine: Oh yeah.

John: You know, it's a lot like- it is- you know what? That's why, I suppose you watched Jonathan Creek, it’s like a magic trick.

Christine: It's a magic trick, yeah.

John: It’s a magic trick. And no, it's a lot like designing a magic trick from the ground up.

Christine: Yeah. 

John: And-

Christine: And again, it's the physical object of it all.

John: Yeah. And we talk about this actually on another commentary when we did Scheherazade Job, it’s like when you do a high concept episode, you need- when you do a heisty episode, you need something you can hold.

Christine: Oh yeah.

John: Like it was diamonds for that one. You need very clean simple goals.

Christine: Mhhm. The audience can track.

John: Alright, this actually- you wrote this.

[Laughter]

John: At a ridiculous time of night. At a ridiculous time, and you wrote the whole, “What's all this, then?”

Christine: “What's all this, then?” Come on, I did that on purpose!

John: Which- on purpose. And you gave me the draft and I laughed my ass off. I'm like, “Now you're screwed, cause it's staying in.”

Christine: Of course!

John: And is the classic Monty Python- that is the classic 1930s stage show arrival of the cops.

Christine: Of course!

John: Really mandatory.

Christine: Absolutely mandatory.

John: For the arrival of the police.

Christine: I write to make you laugh, sir.

John: Thank you.

Christine: I write to entertain you. Look! Look, she's ok!

John: She's being reunited with this lovely- her aunt and uncle.

Christine: She's gonna go live in New jersey!

John: Oh that's great.

Christine: It's fine!

John: She's got an education, maybe go to Stanford.

Christine: Aww, that's great!

John: She's got a beautiful future because-

Christine: She's gonna go fight for women's rights in the middle east, it's gonna be wonderful!

John: Exactly, because of our horribly immoral, immoral, crew.

[Laughter]

Christine: Yay bad guys! Who are good guys! Yay!

John: Yay!

Christine: Also-

John: It gets a little fuzzy at the end of the season this year.

Christine: Having Eliot speak Arabic, super hot. On a list of hot things.

John: It's interesting-

Christine: Languages you didn't know they knew, but you assume they knew.

John: Always interesting doing the commentaries with a female writer. 

[Laughter]

John: There's a lot of stuff I didn't know we did just cause it was hot.

Christine: The ladies do things that are super hot.

John: No, no, I'm very scrupulous.

Christine: Everything Gina does in this episode is hot.

John: Yes, but that's because she's hot. That just happens.

Christine: Yes, correct.

John: No, this is a great walk away and a great acknowledgement of- and the great ‘Screw you that you don't really know my name.’

Christine: Mhhm. Millicent came into, you know, she was- it was her first episode, she directed the hell out of this.

John: Oh I could not be happier. This feels- and there's- yeah, she's actually handling the dog tags!

Christine: Mhhm. yes.

John: There, which are- which do not- which are blank. And we wound up- although the audience doesn't know they are blank, the crew does. It's interesting she was actually playing to the cast at that moment, not the characters. We wound up writing it into the Ho Ho Ho Job, because Gina came up with the idea that she wears blank dog tags so we wrote it into an episode.

Christine: That's great.

John: Great. This is the only time I think ever, other than the two part season finale, we hint at the next episode.

Christine: Mhhm. That was fun hinging-

John: Yeah. There was a lot of- there’s advantages to serialization, you're always tempted, it just carries momentum forward. I love Parker's smile at the end of that. That’s-

Christine: That was a lot of fun!

John: That was your last episode for this season.

Christine: That was my last episode for the season.

John: You did a great job.

Christine: It was a fun season.

John: I hope you enjoyed that. This is John Rogers.

Christine: This is Christine Boylan!

John: And stay tuned to put another DVD in, because it is a lot more, including explosions.

Christine: A lot more.

[faorism]

Hello, and a warning that this ask will be nsfw. As a fellow puppy play Eliot Spencer truther (sidenote: calling it puppy play feels wrong in this context. That's not a puppy that's a full grown dog. That's a dog with the beginnings of arthritis. The kind that deserves to be spoiled.) I was wondering how you feel about the idea of Hardison, trying to feel things out, adding d(aw/o)g to his list of nicknames for Eliot. I think it'd drive him a little crazy. Hardison says 'calm down man, just sit down d(aw/o)g' and Eliot does not calm down but he does sit down, that sorta thing. Have a nice day

-🤡

nsfw-ish & bdsm & puppy play || i like where your mind is headed! personally, i would think dawg would be integrated into his speech as echolalia off of randy american idol, so it would be tied very much to musical eliot more so than doggy eliot. (i think he actually uses it during the studio job! when eliot is recording and he's being ~pitchy.)

maybe when they start up petplay, eliot gets the wires crossed the first few times he's humming and hardison says something. but imo, and this is getting to something that is so deep and true to my vision for them, but as you said, hardison absolutely spoils and praises eliot during their play because that's the only time he can really get away with it. i think hardison wouldn't call eliot just "dog" because that is so depersonalized; it sounds like something you would say if eliot was in trouble. i don't write within the ot3 any punishment toward eliot; even correctives i write are heavily controlled. eliot's been through so much esp since i am a moreau/eliot shipper that the ot3 is a place of respite for eliot. therefore, in the context of petplay, just "dog" would be too harsh for the way i write them.

THAT SAID, i would absolutely read a fic about that as a foundation. i imagine eliot getting all hot around the collar in public as hardison flirts with him 👀

(i tend not to include parker in the petplay, but parker when shes around, and hardison and eliot are going at it, she? she would absolutely call him just "dog." and it wouldnt be harsh; just parker.)

[lemissingmask]

[ID: Sketch in black and white of Eliot Spencer in a small cage that forces him on his hands and knees, being branded with a hot iron through the bars of the cage. The red-hot end of the branding iron is the only part of the image that is coloured, and the glow reflects off the bars and Eliot's clothes. End ID]

-

Day 10: Branding

Eliot in a cage being branded

[ereborne]

1, 29, 37, 44 <3

1: Who are your comfort characters? I've got a comfort trope more than a comfort character, right, so what I really want when I'm in a bad place is to see a sad guy (preferably both hyper-competent and massively dumb of ass) be loved a whole whole lot. Therefore: Clint Barton, Derek Hale, Dean Winchester, Eliot Spencer, Din Djarin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alexsandr Kallus, and the fandom versions of pretty much all members of the Batfam.

29: how do you like your shower water? At this point, I'll take it pretty much any temperature so long as there's enough pressure to get through all my fucking hair. I have so much hair, and for weeks now I keep showering at the same time as Nick's taking his shower downstairs or somebody's doing dishes or laundry, and it is so hard to rinse out all my fucking hair with half-pressure water. Ideally, it'd be hot enough to sting and pounding down like the wrath of the gods, but I'll settle for 'actually gets me clean'.

37: someone in your life, other than a relative, you’ve known for 10+ years? I've known my friend Heather (the one I dragged out of the kudzu-haunted Winn-Dixie) for 20+ years, which is math I'd never done before and now I am boggling. Hot damn. Holy shit.

44: you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it? I've got a list for this! Prioritized, of course. I keep a little mental map in my head of where they live and work and everything! Like reading about Clint Barton et al being loved and appreciated, planning the occasional cross-country murder spree improves my emotional stability. It's the daydreams that keep you going sometimes, you know? However, for legal reasons, I cannot enumerate the list. I'm sure you understand.

[suddenrundown]

I posted 4,759 times in 2022

496 posts created (10%)

4,263 posts reblogged (90%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cloysterbell

@faorism

@party-gilmore

@anonymousalchemist

@be-gay-do-heists

I tagged 4,186 of my posts in 2022

Only 12% of my posts had no tags

#leverage - 1,124 posts

#i queue believe in fairies - 826 posts

#eliot spencer - 616 posts

#alec hardison - 497 posts

#parker - 465 posts

#our flag means death - 403 posts

#what we do in the shadows - 386 posts

#leverage redemption - 266 posts

#ot3: hitter hacker thief - 243 posts

#guillermo de la cruz - 201 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#love cr being like yeah caleb was once in a poly relationship and here's a scene in a graphic novel to prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

not even victor hugo spent as much time in the parisian sewer system as marinette and adrien do

731 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

#4

im about to go absolutely feral over "#small touches that are Allowed Touches." please say more.

I bluescreened when you sent me this cuz the tag was just #vibes lol but in my attempt to turn the #vibes into coherency, I just got rambly. But we’re going with it!

So an interesting thing about Eliot is that his designated job is not actually “hitter”. Like, he does hit people a lot but only out of necessity and when it comes down to it while doing his actual job, which is retrieval specialist. And in the case of Leverage, what he’s retrieving is the team, getting them in and out of places safely in whatever way he can, often using violence as a tool, which is why his designation gets lovingly shorthanded to hitter.

When he’s not resorting to violence out of necessity, he’s physically directing the team, leading them around with a guiding hand or using his own momentum to get them where he thinks they should go. He doesn’t just do that on the con, though. I can’t find the post that talks about it right now, but Eliot likes to herd people around. Off the top of my head, there's the moment you were talking about in your post with Eliot leading Parker away from the hospital window with a hand to her bicep that trails to her wrist as he gets her to walk, and then I know there's a gif from the 12 step job floating around where Hardison and Eliot, after gleefully whispering about getting to go to a strip club, walk away from Nate with Hardison in front and Eliot very closely at his back. I can’t find it but like you know the one.

You could just say it’s out of habit that he does that. If he leads them around on the con then he habitually leads them around everywhere else, right? Maybe, sure. But here’s another fun thing about Eliot:

He’s ~repressed~.

Eliot’s protector of the team but he’s also protective of them as his friends/family. And he does things to show that. Cooks them dinner, talks them through problems, etc. Those are the things he allows himself to do. But that’s not all he wants from them.

At least, not from Hardison.

See the full post

797 notes - Posted January 28, 2022

#3

See the full post

826 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

#2

See the full post

986 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

also nandor saying that he forgot guillermo’s a vampire slayer but he spent so many minutes hyping the shit out of him and how big and strong and hot good at fighting he is

1,162 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[fablesrose]

Ch 3 - The Second David Job

Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: Part two, the season finale. Y/n finally learns what Nate does for work and aids in the payback this time.

Words: 3049

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was odd, I hadn’t heard from Nate almost the whole time I was staying in LA. I had tried to call him a couple of times, but when he did pick up, the phone calls were brief, he wouldn’t tell me where he was, and just seemed secretive and dodgy. More than usual at least. 

Maggie was busy helping at the museum, and with the Blackpoole exhibit being set up, she was working overtime. I mostly stayed at her apartment, working on my laptop that I brought with me. Luckily this project that I was working on was coming to a close which should leave me free for the opening of the exhibit and then flying back to Boston. As nice as it was here in LA, I missed home. Realistically there was nothing keeping me here, I did love art, growing up with both Nate and Maggie as guardians, but I didn’t need to stay for the exhibit. I guess I kept expecting Nate to call me. I wanted to help him. I guess this client is here too though.

I got a call one afternoon from Maggie. 

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey y/n, can you take a break from your work today?”

I looked at the clock, I had been working for a while, “Yeah, I can do that. What’s going on?”

“I just got a call from Professor Sinclair asking to catch up, and I don’t really want to go alone, I feel like there might be something going on.”

“You want me to either crash or stalk you two on your date?” I couldn’t hide the displeasure from my voice.

“It’s not a date. Besides, he was much more into you when we met him last.” She had a slight tease in her voice that I scoffed at.

“I call bull. He didn’t call me to ask to catch up.” I felt my stomach twist a bit. Figures he would ask my hot divorced aunt out.

“I don’t think he has your number, y/n.”

“Touche.”

“Please? Just sit a few tables away and if you get uncomfortable there’s a couple of shops right around the corner that I know you’ll love. You can bail at any time.”

I sighed, “Fine, but you owe me. You treat me more like a cousin, or a sister than a niece, you know that?”

“You love me, see you there.”

“No comment.”

I walked in a little after Maggie, choosing a spot a couple tables away, behind Adam so I could see Maggie’s face. I was close enough that I could hear them if I wanted to, but far enough that I could tune out as well. I ordered water since I didn’t think I would be there long. Maggie was right though, the surrounding stores did look appealing. 

I watched Maggie look Adam over, then make eye contact and wink at me when he wasn’t looking. Weird. I had no idea what that meant. I tuned into their conversation to see what was going on. 

“We’re not going to talk about art all afternoon are we?” Maggie asked Adam.

All afternoon? I was definitely not staying that long. 

Adam answered no.

“Good, that’s all my ex husband wanted to talk about. That was so tedious.” She said it with a smile.

I frowned. I knew they had their problems, that’s why they got divorced, but she never spoke about Nate like that. Especially to a virtual stranger. What is going on?

“Listen,” Maggie placed her hand over Adam’s on the table and I could see him stiffen, “I want to thank you. I haven’t dated much since my marriage broke up.”

I groaned. Of course she conned me, it was obviously a date. I couldn’t stand this much longer and started to gather my things. When I looked up she had forceful eye contact with me that told me to stay put.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Adam replied.

“No, don’t be. He was obsessive, perfectionist, controlling.”

“He must have had some good qualities.”

Maggie scoffed, “No, not even in bed.”

I sputtered in my water. Gross, I did not want to hear this. I begged Maggie for mercy across the room. 

“But worst of all, he completely forgot that I gave him that same button camera for Christmas three years ago.” She smiled and waved me over.

I was so confused, but got up and joined them. Adam turned around and saw me, his face defeated.

“Hey y/n.”

I nodded, “Adam.” 

Maggie marched over to a van in the parking lot and I followed quickly after. She opened it to reveal the airport receptionist, the Italian woman, the second David seller, and Nate, all sitting together.

“I can explain.”

The drive to the random mansion was dead silent, but once we arrived, Maggie and Nate started arguing. I figured I would get my chance to rip him apart afterwards, so I didn’t join in yet. I stood in the doorway glancing between them arguing and the others grouped at the stairs. 

“I feel used.” The guy who I thought was named Adam said.

I turned a bit towards them, “Same.”

Maggie stormed outside with Nate close behind, “It’s going great,” he said as he walked out the door. 

The former Italian woman, now British, replied, “we can tell!”

The house was eerily quiet once the yelling was gone.

“So,” I looked at the four people in front of me, “are you this team Nate mentioned for his consulting thing he was doing? If that is what was going on? Or whatever?”

The young man who posed as the second David seller spoke up first, “yeah, that’s us. He didn’t lie to you about that, just the means of which we do it. I’m Hardison, resident computer guy. Thanks for the help with the supplement lawsuit thing I had to do.”

That made me smile, “Glad to hear I was of any help at all.”

The British woman approached me next, her hand outstretched, “Sophie, actor, art thief, grifter, take your pick.” She smiled with a confidence I could never hope to achieve when I shook her hand. 

Hardison introduced Parker as a thief before the last member stood from the stairs and stepped up to me. 

“And I’m Eliot, official title is retrieval specialist, these guys call me a hitter.” When he wasn’t acting as Adam, his voice was a bit gruffer, a little deeper. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, his long hair down. I noticed without his glasses just how blue his eyes were.

“Well, it seems you might have some other talents too. Those soup recipes were a lifesaver.”

His lips quirked up toward a smile and I thought I saw some color in his cheeks before he ducked his head in a nod and went to sit down again. 

Nate and Maggie came back and she came up to me, tears still in her eyes, “did… did you know about Sam’s treatment?”

I looked between her, Nate, and the rest of the team, “I had an inkling. They wouldn’t pay for it right?” I looked at Nate to see the slight nod, “Who do you think helped Nate do the research on it?” My lip quivered thinking back. How happy we were that we might have found something that would help, but it didn’t make a difference. I was in the middle of a project, across the country when they called. Sam died.

Nate came and placed a hand on my shoulder before pulling me into a hug, Maggie joining shortly after. 

It was decided to regroup the next day to go over the plan. 

“And that, that’s the plan.” Nate placed a final push pin with string attached to the board with all the designs.

“You actually expect this to work?” Maggie was clearly skeptical.

“No no, you’re supposed to say ‘wow, that’s just crazy enough to work.’” Hardison replied. 

“Incredibly, chance does seem to bend itself to his bizarre machinations” Sophie commented with a relaxed air. 

Parker leaned next to Maggie’s ear, “that’s his super power.” She sniffed her shoulder as she pulled away.

Maggie looked over to me and I just shrugged. 

“Okay, now, do you have what we need?” Nate asked Maggie. 

“I have to check museum inventory.”

“Oh, easy.” 

Hardison typed his way on his laptop before turning it toward Maggie. 

“This is confidential, you’re not reading my emails are you?”

Hardison quickly responded, “no, no,” before nodding at Nate that he did. 

I piped up, “I was right, you do a lot more exciting things on your computer than I do.”

Hardison smiled at me before Maggie confirmed.

“This is the only thing big enough for what you need.” She turned the laptop toward Nate. 

“Great. Okay, now how soon can you get that in the restoration room?”

“Now that’s not my department. You have to convince the museum director Darien Lloyd to pull it from the display.”

“Okay.”

“Nate?”

“Hmm?”

“You can’t just make somebody do what you want them to do.”

There was a pause before Eliot said, “Whoa!”

“That’s what we do, I mean…” Hardison laughed.

“You’re adorable,” Parker said while stroking Maggie’s hair.

I had to admit, “That’s a bit naive, even for you Maggie. Our society is built on persuasive techniques and making people do things, for various reasons.”

Everyone just looked at me and nodded as I shrugged. 

We quickly got going to set up the con. Maggie, Sophie, and Parker were at the museum while Nate, Harison, Eliot, and I were at the mansion watching and listening through cameras and comms. We watched and listened as there was a handoff between Parker and Maggie which led to Maggie subtly pushing the director towards the Egyptian room, all while laying clues for the con on him. 

Sophie then dropped hints about the curse surrounding the sarcophagus while posing as a museum director from Cairo.

Eliot leaned over to me, “Good call about the curse by the way.”

Hardison concurred, “yeah, look, he’s already scared, he’s looking up all the places the sarcophagus was before there, lots of dead people. D-E-D dead people.”

Nate and Eliot both spelled dead correctly.

“I was throwing a little style up, just a little bit. A little style. I know how to spell dead, damn it. I can steal a bank, I can spell dead.”

I laughed, “Thanks, but I think it really comes down to Sophie and Maggie’s setup here, along with your expert hacking skills with those articles, Hardison.”

“You are a flatterer, woman. Are you sure this guy raised you?”

I shouldered Nate next to me, “unfortunately.”

I could feel his glare, but I just watched as Maggie hit the point home talking about the supposed fungus that surrounded Egyptian artifacts that were claimed to be cursed. 

The boys left shortly after to move the sarcophagus, leaving me at the mansion. I looked over the plans a couple of more times while they were gone. Maggie stayed at the museum while everyone else came back. They got to working on something when Nate came into the planning area where I was. 

“So what do you think?”

“I don’t know yet, I guess we’ll just have to see how this plays out.”

“No,” Nate stepped up next to me, “I mean, about all of this, the whole thing.”

I looked up at him, “I wish you would have told me. Why didn’t you? Did you think I wasn’t going to approve or something?”

“I just didn’t want you wrapped up in it.”

I hummed at him. “Well I think you are doing some pretty cool things, I’d be happy to be a part of it. Not that I could help much.”

“Maybe.”

There was some commotion behind us with the rest of the group arguing a bit before it fell quiet. I started walking towards the entry where they were, “It seems like you have a good team here though. I’m glad you have them, that you have each other.”

“They are the best.”

“That’s good…” I stared at the portrait they had hung on the mantle, “what is that?”

Nate looked at the picture of himself, just much older, “Don’t ask.”

“Okay.”

The next day was when the exhibit opened. Everyone had their roles and places for the day. Now, just to put it in motion. 

Nate and I entered the museum arm in arm when Blackpoole and Sterling approached. 

“Well well well, what the hell are you doing here?” 

Nate held up two tickets, “Well I bought some tickets for me and my niece. It’s open to the public.”

“I don’t think…” Sterling started to say, glancing between the two of us.

“Of course, enjoy yourselves.” Blackpoole let us pass.

After looking at the art for a while, there was loads of commotion and chaos, just as planned. I let Nate go to the roof while I rendezvoused  with the others. We watched as he dropped down from the skylight. The security system activated, locking us in. 

“Let’s go to work.”

I helped them complete the task before they slipped me back outside in the crowd where I found Maggie.

“Maggie, what’s going on? I got separated from Nate in the confusion, have you seen him?”

Sterling was right next to us along with Blackpoole and the museum director. Sterling stared at me accusingly, but didn’t say anything. 

I followed them inside the building, once we reached the closed exhibit doors Sterling said, “This is your last chance Maggie. Come clean.” He looked over to me, “you too y/n.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The doors finally opened to reveal Nate standing in a spotlight in front of the two Davids, in their case.

“The two Davids,” Blackpoole giggled, “Thank God.”

“Got you Nate,” Sterling said. 

“Yes, that was the whole point,” Nate replied. 

“What do you mean?”

“You know all that chasing me around? ‘Don’t let Nate Ford near the two Davids, how’s Nate Ford going to get the two Davids?’ I wasn’t the mastermind on this one, Sterling… I’m the bait.”

He counted down from three for the lights to come on and reveal the walls, empty from all the art that previously decorated it. 

Blackpoole broke down in disbelief and horror. There was over $150 million worth of art that was missing. And he was responsible for all of it. It was insured by IYS which would cause a major hit to his career and company. 

“Well done,” Sterling had to admit. 

Blackpoole grabbed a gun off of a guard’s belt and pointed it at Nate’s head, “where are they?! Where are they?!”

“Nate!” I yelled, I took a step forward, but Maggie grabbed my hand. 

“Clear the room!” Sterling demanded. A guard pulled the two of us away, both of us scared for him. 

We both had comms, which helped us hear the conversation better. Nate told Sterling the terms of getting the art back for destroying Blackpoole. Sterling agreed, almost too eagerly. 

Blackpoole pointed the gun at him “No. Sterling, you work for me,” He swung back towards Nate, “IYS is my company!”

Nate responded immediately, “Can’t let personal feelings affect policy. You have a responsibility to shareholders. No exceptions.” He threw Blackpoole’s own words back at him. Nate took the gun out of his hands, “I have lost my only son. Do you really think you scare me? Huh?”

Maggie squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. 

Blackpoole came rushing towards us, “Maggie, well, you understand.”

She let go of my hand, stepped up to him, and gave him a wicked right hook to the face. I stepped up and kicked him once while he was down.

Maggie smiled at me with a thoughtful look, “screw therapy, that felt really good.”

She walked off, and after exchanging a few words with Sterling, Nate came up, hooked arms with me and we both walked out the front door.

Later, that day the three of us were sitting in the empty exhibit room, waiting for the call. 

“Are you going to stop now?” Maggie asked Nate. 

“I don’t know.”

“Interesting.”

Nate hummed in a question.

“You admitting you don’t know something.”

Nate’s phone rang, and he answered it, listened then hung up. “It’s done. Blackpoole’s out.”

“Time to return the artwork?” I asked.

“I think so,” he replied. 

He lifted the seat cover we were sitting on to reveal an opening down to the restoration room. We all climbed down. 

When I got close to the bottom, Eliot grabbed my hand with one hand on my waist to guide me, “Careful sweetheart.” 

I grabbed his hand a little tighter and felt myself blush at the nickname. 

We admired the art surrounding us before leaving the room from behind the sarcophagus.

Nate and Sophie explained how they would seal and replace the floor tiles and then move the art to the loading dock to make it look like they came from the outside. 

Maggie approached Nate, “You are not the man I married.”

I quickly decided I didn’t want to be in the middle of that conversation and dashed off behind the others. 

After we had finished the work of moving the artwork, Parker and I helped oversee the sealing of the floor. We gathered at the back of the museum, clearly about to part ways.

I looked at each of them, “Are you guys gonna keep doing this? Am I ever gonna see you all again?”

They looked at each other for a moment before Eliot stepped up to me, “uh, we don’t know. Hope so.” He touched my elbow gently before pulling away.

I smiled at him before looking at the others, “Good enough for me… I guess this is bye.”

Hardison and Eliot nodded.

“I guess so,” Parker said. 

I nodded once more before stepping into Maggie’s car and driving back to her apartment. 

The next two weeks were mundane after that. I finished the LA project and flew back home to Boston. It was reaching into that third week afterwards that I got a phone call from Nate.

“Hey, I’m lookin’ for a place… Got anything in mind?”

Tags: @isoldeahlstrom

[trekscribbles]

Thank you for voting! This helped a lot.

Decision: I will draft The Bushwhack Job while finishing up the outline for Stone Triples: Part 3, which I will then draft between TBJ and my original project which was supposed to be published last spring. I do have intentions to write all three, I promise.

As an extra thank you for giving me clarity... the beginning of The Bushwhack Job!

[If anyone knows who to credit the photo of Eliot to, please let me know... I got it off Pinterest, which was no help. The rest I did in Canva.]

Chapter One

He woke to the feeling of heat on his face and pressure on his chest. A groan built in his throat, but he didn’t voice it; quiet, always quiet, and still; don’t move until you know what you’re moving into; make no sound until you know who is there to hear you. He breathed in scorched air and opened his eyes.

His vision blurred the flames consuming the wooden platform above him, but the thick smell of smoke shot him through with enough alarm to move his aching body. Something heavy slipped off his stomach as he sat up, and he blinked to focus on the object beside him.

An arm, limp, connected to a bloody shoulder. Glassy eyes stared from a face he didn’t know, mouth open, cheek pressed into the cement floor.

They’d fallen together, this man on top of him, when the chains holding one end of the platform broke. The back of his head was wet and nausea clawed up his throat, but he forced it down and tried to take a calming breath. Smoke poured into his airway, leaving him coughing and trembling. He needed to leave.

The dead man was sprawled across his legs, and he extricated himself with careful movements, trying not to aggravate his throbbing head. A pool of blood had collected under them. Not his. Fragments of broken glass glittered across his shirt; a bright shard was embedded in the other man’s neck.

Voices came to him through the sound of burning, popping wood, and he covered his face with an arm as he eased himself free. “Where is he?” a man yelled from somewhere above the platform. “Where’s Spencer? Find him!”

He staggered to his feet, squeezing his eyes shut as the room swayed around him, and pushed long hair—impractically long, and sticky with blood—out of his face. Pain shot up his leg, but there were more voices now, and instinct drove him toward the door at the far end of what looked like a warehouse. Crates and pallets blocked his route; he ducked behind a stack of wood as a new voice shouted, “It’s Vinny! Tell Lancaster that Vinny’s dead. Who’s got eyes on Spencer?”

He suppressed a cough and darted toward the door, running in a low crouch. The flames were high behind him now, hot against the back of his blood-soaked jacket, and he hoped it would give him cover.

“There! There, the door—stop him!”

The crack of a rifle split the smoke behind him, and he threw himself through the doorway and ran on without bothering to shut it. No time. He had to find a place to defend himself, something to put his back against without getting himself cornered. Another shot, a curse, an order: “Find him! Find him!” He kept running.

It was dark. He ran in the shadows, sticking to the side of the building as he turned the corner, his ears straining into the night. Something smooth turned beneath his boot, and he almost slipped—he bent to catch himself and dropped a hand to the concrete, felt cold metal against his fingers.

A rifle casing, .308. Too common to match with any one shooter. It didn’t help him.

“This way,” called a low voice.

Dark smears on the ground caught his eye, and he grunted and pushed away from the wall. He was trailing blood, enough for his enemies to follow even in the shadows. A hedge cut along the sidewalk beside the building, and he gathered his strength and vaulted over it, placing his hand on the thickest branch he could find. The dense sticks tore at his hand, but that was the least of his worries.

Hidden by the bushes, he doubled back toward the door. Something in him resisted being forced into flight; if he was going to strike, it should be now, while they weren’t expecting it. Adrenaline pounded through him, and he pictured the way the fight would go: he would get behind them, slip his hands over their throats, twist—

He stopped. He knew exactly what the bones would feel like as they snapped against his palms, and his body went cold.

He’d done it before.

A siren wailed in the distance. He put his back to the burning building and headed toward the sounds of traffic.

I have 3 ideas, all of which I'm very excited about, and I have no idea what to choose. It would help me so much to know if anyone is interested in any of these to help me narrow down my choices.

1. Part 3 in my Stone Triplets Trilogy: When Alex is kidnapped by the Curator, Jake works with Eliot and the Leverage team to rescue him. Meanwhile, Alex pulls a "Ransom of Red Chief" and is the most irritating kidnapping victim ever.

2. Third in the Killing (temporary title stolen from The Iliad): Eliot is captured and drugged during a job. When Parker and Hardison come to rescue him, he doesn't recognize them and attacks. (So much angst in this one, guys. But a happy ending.)

3. The Bushwhack Job: Eliot wakes up on the sidewalk beside a dead man, with no memory of who he is or what happened to the other man. He only knows two things for certain: someone is trying to kill him, and he's not going to wait around for it to happen. (Some more angst when the team thinks Eliot is dead, and while Eliot tries to figure out what kind of man he is with only violent muscle memories to guide him.)

Or none of them, I guess. That's an option too.