#and hardison is too forgiving

[hedgiwithapen]

The Big Bang Job: Eliot at the pool

We all know that the Big Bang Job is the gift that keeps on giving.  But one thing that struck me recently, while rewatching that great conversation--the “If you ask me, I’ll tell you, so please don’t ask me” one-- was … Hardison, through it all. Hardison, still just a little damp, Hardison angry, but softening--he won’t let it go, but the anger is directed. And through the whole thing before, the meeting, in the pool, he keeps to his character. And I got to wondering … Well. Eliot Knew Moreau. He’s known all season long, exactly what kind of man Nate’s pointed them at, he hates this so much that the only reason he’s not going to ground over it is he knows that everyone else will follow Nate right into to the fire, and that’s his Team. That’s his People. He can’t let them die.  Eliot wants to be a million miles from anything with Moreau and wants his team away, too. And Eliot’s the one to say, “me and Hardison will hit Moreau. We'll get an invite to the auction.” And I thought about why. Eliot has to know that this meeting could go wrong in a thousand ways. He has to know that this meeting is going to let whoever goes with him know about that tied up corner of his past. So why Hardison, who’s proven many (many) times that he’s no fighter. He can’t take Nate. Nate’s face needs to stay hidden a bit longer, but more than that, Nate finding out in the heat of the moment can’t be trusted. Nate’s the kinda guy who needs to take a step when he gets all new information, and usually he gets it, but Eliot knows Moreau will not give him that moment to pivot. Sophie, Parker? Parker’s still shaky in her grifting, but Sophie’s solid, she can compartmentalize, she can overcommit to her bit in a safer way than Hardison definitely will.  So it comes down to this: Eliot knows there’s a lot of ways this meet can shake out. Moreau’s got people, people like him, people worse than him.  And if things go well and truly south, if they get made…. Hardison’s the one Eliot can save.  Nate, he’s nothing to Moreau--actually worse than nothing, he’s an annoyance. They get made, and Nate’s dead, fast. Sophie and Parker aren’t worth anything to Moreau either: they’re slippery, their talents require far too long a leash.  Moreau would throw them to his dogs. But Hardison?  Eliot can make the case for Hardison. A genius with tech, he can move money like a kid slides a checker on a board, he can get into anything you want him too, but he can’t break a chain and he’s got an open heart. He can be Contained and Controlled and Kept, and he’s the only one who can be.  Eliot knows he can buy Hardison enough time for Nate to come up with a new plan, for Parker to pick a lock, Sophie to walk him out. And that Hardison’s the one that will forgive him, after.

[faorism]

(really in my feels about the ot3 because of the @powerpolyculeshowdown so here's some propaganda)

parker and hardison allow eliot to be sillier. more ridiculous. outragous, even. eliot sings the stupid ditties hardison writes special for him, and he rolls his eyes at parkers pokes and prods and the occasional "accidental" face slap, and eliot can express himself for what actually bothers him no matter how nitpicky, versus having to calculate what he should say. (he still argues with hardison that throwing in on a brewpub was a stupid plan given its risk, no matter how many times hardison claims it was always a gift for him.) eliot laughs more. real laughs; you can tell because his smiles look more and more like grimaces: the way his ma perked her mouth which his dad always teased her about (though it was his favorite thing about her), rather than the wide toothy grins eliot learned because he knows, tactically, they are best for charming. parker and hardison let him not feel like he's a monster. or... parker tells him she always thought the big bad wolf had a bad rap, and hardison says some stupid shit about monsterfucking being the hip thing the kids are into these days, anyway.

hardison and eliot allow parker to feel deep. it's food that tastes like a hug and it's gadgets made just for her and it's loving and being loved and it's being one another's real families. she doessn't want to run away, anymore. or... she wants to run but with her friends beside her. or... running cons is all she's ever wanted to do, and all she did, for so long. parker is good at it. she loves it. she loves that hardison and eliot love it too. but... feeling deep is also being deep. she's no longer just her piles of money because she is no longer afraid of herself. her past. the memories that hurt. the habits she thought she needed to grow out of but always missed. these habits, like bleeping sounds that arent words and hands move move moving. hands that were once made to stay now can fly because hardison buys her fidgets and designs some just for her and keeps locks in lucille for when parker feels like infinity and needs the vibrations of ticktickticks to bring her back to herself. and eliot lets her braid and unbraid his hair; he won't let her blow dry it, not yet, but... he lets her pet his hair while it's still hot, now. it frizzes his hair a little, and parker feels her pulse rush throughout the day knowing she did that to him. eliot and hardison kiss her knuckles when they burn.

parker and eliot allow hardison to be mean. vindictive. he is nicer than he needs to be. wants to be... what he needs to be is nonthreatening, for the most part, in many places. he knows what it means to be him: tall and black and queer and gaining muscle and too smart for his own damn good and so very, very tenderhearted. hardison loves so damn deep, and he cares so damn much, but part of caring (the other side of a coin) is not giving a fuck. it's the boiling point of rage and betrayal. the i need to walk away from this fight because you are dead wrong and imma about to say something imma regret, so go fix yourself. the im not gonna forget, im not going to forgive, and im going to get my revenge. parker and eliot would not have questioned hardison's joy at securing the capture of the men that put him in that damn coffin; they hold space for him to be fully himself with all his ugly parts and his petty parts and the parts that do bring hardison shame if he thinks about it for too long. they know he's not perfect, and that? that feels like safety and love and forever to hardison.

[catawonkus]

i know eliot is our little meow meow, i know he’s the woobie and we love him. however. he really should’ve given hardison a heads up before dragging him into a lion’s den, eliot was the one who SUGGESTED that him and hardison go to moreau. he could’ve suggested hardison stay away, stay outside, or taken two seconds to say “look man, ive actually met moreau so i cannot pretend otherwise—follow my lead whatever happens”. or at the very least he could’ve apologized to hardison for nearly getting him killed. hardison forgives him way too fast for someone who doesnt even get a “sorry you drowned, i promise i would’ve come in after you if worst came to worst” instead eliot just yells at him. i know that’s their dynamic but eliot put him in danger and that wasn’t cool and it drives me crazy that they don’t talk about it

[loisfreakinglane]

@queenofattolia OOOOH MY FAVORITE THROUPLES!!!!!!!!! SMASH THAT READ MORE BUTTON

ben/maddie/ryn ~ siren (never forgive never forget that breakup, they were PERFECT. that show ended with season 2 and i will NEVER EVER EVER forgive season 3's crimes)

kala/rajan/wolfgang ~ sense8 (we were denied a full series arc of them getting together, but frankly i didn't feel it was rushed in the finale. it still felt organic TO ME, largely bc the chemistry between rajan and wolfgang was impeccable immediately)

eliot/hardison/parker ~ leverage (can you believe there's people who watch leverage that don't ship this?!!?!?! there are human beings out there who ship eliot/parker with zero hardison involvement. BAFFLED, FRIENDS)

angel/buffy/cordy ~ btvs/ats (i'm sorry this is based on my own brain falling into the depths of madness when s6/s3 were airing and i was banned from watching buffy so i was reading the transcripts on buffyworld and left to stew over how much i wanted buffy and dawn and tara to flee to la and never look back, while also falling in love with cangel and thinking about how much those three would fit perfectly together, buffy and cordy as two sides of the same coin, just always out of step with the others parallel heroic journey, how much bangel would work so much more for me when it's damaged adults coming together and also raising their impossible blue eyed kids together also connors never kidnapped also also faith moves into the hyperion too and gunn and fred never break up the end okay i'll stop now)

the princess, the prince, and the mermaid ~ the little mermaid (i was infected by the novel mermaid: a twist on the classic tail (heh) in my youth- christopher, lenia, and margrethe had a fascinating relationship i fell in love with. and now!!!!!!!! watching older adaptations of tlm, seeing the interactions between the three of them always intrigue me so hard. pre-disney the princess is allowed to be sweet and kind to the mermaid, if somewhat patronizing to the mute young girl. and when the mermaid fades away, her body in foam and her soul off to heaven, she lays a kiss on the grieving princess's head AND I DIE)

elizabeth/neal/peter ~ white collar (IT WAS SUCH A FUN TRIO I STAND BY THIS CHOICE! also at the time it was extraordinarily refreshing of fandom to not immediately despise and vilify the woman standing between their slash ship. and i adored the canon and the fanon so tbh! this will always stick out as a classique ot3 to me!)

irma/marion/miranda ~ picnic at hanging rock (why aren't we frolicking in oz, wearing white gowns and eating picnic treats RIGHT NOW? anyway they're in love, they're so in love they fell into an alternate dimension)

ann/ben/leslie ~ parks and recreation (am I the only person who was tearing my hair out during ann's search for a sperm donor bc why did leslie never offer up ben's specimen!?!?! she is OBSESSED with ann and way too invasive and beyond controlling and I think way too much about that episode where ben and ann are fighting over the wafflemaker for one of leslie's insane random holidays, then end it off by coming together to make leslie STOP with the incessant celebrations and presents? anyway they should have all wound up together. and not just bc chris was terrible)

huoxin/jing/xiaowei ~ painted skin the resurrection (the lady demon, the princess, and the bodyguard. this trio was EVERYTHING. the demon fixated on the princess and her heart, the princess desperately in love with her bodyguard turned general but clinging to shame over her facial scars, the general who runs from his failure to protect her. ADD IN BODYSWAP SHENANIGANS AND I LOSE MY MIND EVERY TIME.)

ezra/jules/richie ~ imposters (possibly partially queerplatonic bc i'm not exactly sure where jules lies on ye olde kinsey scale, but even if it's platonic on her part i'm incredibly in love with this trio and i SO see it as a working throuple LEAVE ME ALONE)

elizabeth/olive/william ~ professor marston and the wonder women (whether you believe the historical accuracy of this movie or not, this throuple is fucking awesome and i adooooooore them)

gwen/mj/peter ~ marvel comics (i'm so sick of thinking about spider-man rn bc *waves hand at mcu* HOWEVER it would feel disingenous to leave this off my list. i love these three, i love them together so much.)

alex/hal/tom ~ being human uk (the way these characters brought new life to this era of bhuk. these three are in LOVE)

chel/miguel/tulio ~ the road to el dorado (baby's first ot3)

kirk/spock/uhura ~ star trek (THE KELVIN TIMELINE!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE SO MUCH. still mourning a fic that was deleted off ao3....... sad bean bear city)

art/patrick/tashi ~ challengers (THEEEEEEEEEEEE PINNACLE! there are ppl who cast tashi as the villain of the story and think art and patrick will flee her when the credits roll, and i am so glad i am not surrounded by those types. this is a love story where every person is desperately needed to complete the triad. they just don't work without all 3 of them)

clark/lana/lex ~ smallville (LOOK LOOK LOOK. SHUT UP. anyway i rewatched this show with my father at the height of the pandemic and lana/lex hit hard in a way it never had before, so now i'm p equally obsessed with every side of this triangle and now i want to smash them all together so bad. THIS IS HOW TO FIX EVERYTHING.)

gaby/ilya/napoleon ~ the man from uncle (ready made ot3, i can't be mad)

mylene/shaolin/zeke ~ the get down (did mylene and shaolin hate each other? uhhhhhhh yep. HOWEVER. THAT ALLOWED FOR SOME FUCKING GREAT TENSION. and they were both equally in love with zeke so like............ i wanted it so bad

i'm SURE i'm missing very important ones, but these are my broad strokes 💗💗💗

ALSO LOOK AT THEM!!!!!!!!! TELL ME YOU DON'T SHIP THEM IMMEDIATELY

[lemissingmask]

[ID: Partially coloured sketch of part of an old building, with an old wooden door and low wall showing, and some red flowers on the left side of the image. The low wall has a crudely drawn block image of a wolf with a bushy tail and fangs and breathing fire. End ID]

-

Day 19: Taken for granted

The Leverage crew take for granted the story of someone who flees into the brewpub for protection, and suffer the consequences.

Ficlet below the cut, which hopefully explains the obscure art.

-

It had been a mistake, a stupid failure in their personal security, and one that Hardison would never forgive himself for if they failed to get Eliot back.

Checking out the clients, verifying their stories and their backgrounds, that was his job. He was the only one with the skills to do it.

And he did. He usually always did.

But this time, he had not.

At least not until it was too late.

He took for granted that the terrified woman who had fled into the brewpub to hide from her two pursuers was legit. Hell, there had been two suits - former marines according to some distinctive feature Eliot picked out - lurking outside the building waiting for her.

Eliot had dealt with the muscle without the least difficulty, and then they had all listened to her story.

She told the leverage crew that she had been on her way to meet with her lawyer, who was helping her take down her former boss for money laundering, when she found the two men to be following her.

She gave them a background on her boss, how she found out about the criminal activity, and how since then she had been fired, harassed and had her car broken into.

So they took her on as a client, and Eliot drove her to a safehouse while Parker and Hardison got started on the case.

They had only just finished and wrapped up their last one, they were all on the tired side, but they could hardly do nothing when this woman needed help.

Except she didn’t.

The boss existed but she had never worked for him. He ran the company she claimed to have been employed by, but neither the financial situation of the company nor the boss was good enough to imply any sort of money laundering activity. What’s more, there was no digital trail to suggest any payments from that boss or anyone or anything linked to him to imply that he had hired professional muscle.

It wasn’t definitive, but something didn’t feel right, so then, and only then, Hardison got around to looking into their client.

Her background looked believable on the surface but one layer down it fell apart.

Profiles on social media built within the last month and backdated to make them seem older, no digital trail for her existence. No bank accounts, no SSN, no credit history.

And then facial recognition said her name was not Lucy, but Mary. And Sophia. And Clarissa, Diana, Francesca…

“She’s a grifter?!” Parker looked up at the screens where Hardison had the salient information projected, “Why? What does she want?”

“Maybe she heard of us and is auditioning?” Hardison suggested, not believing that idea for a second, “Eliot, you catch that?”

Silence over the comms.

Hardison pulled up their comm feeds. Working fine, Eliot’s was still on, sending system updates and pings.

“Eliot?” Parker asked, her comm showing the sound waves.

Eliot’s remained nothing more than base level of noise.

“Where is he?”

Hardison accessed the gps, “Safe house.”

Parker frowned, “Eliot! You copy us?”

“Maybe he and Lucy or whatever her name is are…”

“No,” Parker glared at the fake IDs on the screen, “Eliot wouldn’t do that. He still gets angry with himself for taking his comms out once before.”

More than once, to Hardison’s count, but it was true, not since the incident with the music producer and Nate having no backup.

She gave those IDs one more, lingering glare, and straightened, “I’ll drive.”

For once Hardison didn’t object. If something was wrong, even just potentially wrong, they needed to get to that safehouse and to Eliot as fast as they could, which meant Parker driving Lucille..

Hardison kept his laptop open in the passenger seat, checking the gps signal and keeping up attempts to reach Eliot by phone or comms. He and laptop only slammed into the window about four or five times in fifteen minute drive, which was pretty good he thought.

Not that there was time to feel proud.

Eliot’s Challenger was in the drive out front, parked normally. Nothing odd or hurried or wrong there.

Inside the house itself things were similarly apparently fine.

Alarms correctly disabled, mechanical locks unbroken, no sign of a struggle. In fact nothing out of place other than the two cups of coffee unfinished on the kitchen counter, and beside one of them Eliot’s phone and earbud, both in tact and still switched on. Alongside them lay the necklace Eliot almost never removed.

Hardison slipped that into his pocket and picked up the phone.

“I’m gonna search the house.”

Hardison turned quickly from the counter to Parker, putting the phone back down and immediately abandoning his plans to check through it, “Not alone you’re not.”

Whoever got the jump on Eliot - something nearly impossible on its own - could still be there, not expecting them to realise the grift so quickly, or maybe waiting for them in a trap that this could very easily be.

The house was empty and undisturbed. No trap but also no Eliot.

-

Traffic cams. Find the cars that could have left that area in the window between them arriving and their last contact with Eliot. Trace each identified car through the network of cameras, run each plate, look for something that seemed to be a lead.

Parker was still driving Lucille as Hardison initiated this search.

On top of Eliot going missing, someone luring him from the brewpub meant it was burned.  Someone who had bad intentions for at least one of them now knew their base of operations.  Before they could do anything further, they needed to head back and get everything essential or sensitive and get it into Lucille.  They’d have to go on the road for a while, move to one of the safe houses, and operate from there until they had a handle on this fresh disaster.

They could do that while Hardison’s codes ran, scouring traffic cams and DVLA databases and cross-referencing with everyone - all the aliases of those people - who had ever or might ever have a grudge against Leverage.

Luckily, they did have a clear protocol for moments like this, and they had a specific plan for the brewpub, which served as a place of employment for a few dozen people as well as their base.

They dealt with the Leverage part of things - data, files, emergency funds, possessions of personal value - then told the employees to take two weeks paid leave starting when the last customers there already had gone.  After two weeks, they would evaluate the safety of keeping the pub open, or even of returning to Portland, but whatever they did, the staff would not be collateral damage.

By the time the two of them had finished these tasks and returned to Lucille, Parker starting back out in the direction of the safe house where Eliot had been lost, Hardison’s codes had produced some usable data, and even more usable intelligence.

The data, lists of car registrations and their owners, was essentially useless, until cross-referenced against aliases they knew, which picked out one belonging to their recent grifter.  Tracking that car through the cameras led to either an airfield or an industrial complex.

Hardison immediately started looking into who owned or rented property at the industrial site, and what flights had left the airfield within the window of Eliot’s disappearance.

There was a Dean Chesney who rented a warehouse in the industrial area, but obviously not the same Dean Chesney they had wrangled with since that guy had been dead some years now.  There was a supervisor elsewhere in the district whose surname was Doyle, who couldn’t be utterly discounted as a relative of the Doyle who they had conned, but even if it was the same person, luring and kidnapping the hitter was not his style.

The airfield showed one flight landing, two leaving, in the time window they had approximated.  The departures were, respectively, to Malta and Cyprus.

Hardison’s hope dwindled as he looked at the names of the people who owned the planes and their known associates, not a single one coming up as any likely enemy of them or of Eliot specifically.

But then he looked at the photo IDs.

And, now it all made horrifying, sickening sense.

“Damien Moreau?!” Parker was pacing back and forth in front of the comparatively small screen in their safehouse, “He escaped San Lorenzo and we didn’t know about it?!”

Hardison shook his head, looking from her back to his screen, “I’m contacting Eliot’s friend there now.  If he knew, he would have told Eliot.”

“And Eliot would have told us,” Parker paused for a moment, pursing her lips, then resumed the pacing, “We need to warn Nate and Sophie.  If Moreau wants revenge…”

“I’ll send an encrypted message, tell they to lay low, be cautious, but,” he looked back up, “If I tell them it’s Moreau and he’s taken Eliot…”

“They’ll want to get involved.”

They lapsed into silence, Hardison working on both the lines of contact, Parker pacing in her anxiety and frustration.

Moreau had to want revenge.  It made sense.  They had ruined him, got him locked up in some hole of a prison, and put him on the most-wanted list for some of the most powerful governments.

So, at least he probably wasn’t going to just kill Eliot…they had time to rescue him…

“What do we know about this alias?” Parker asked, appearing over his shoulder just as the messages both disappeared to their destined inboxes.

Hardison pulled up the information he had obtained but thus far only glanced briefly at, “Not much.  The digital trail only goes back about a year, but it starts, pretty much, with one very big payment into a bank based in Bermuda from a…”

He dug a bit deeper into the source of the money, a company that didn’t really exist in any proper sense, set up just to make that payment, and set up by one of the very powerful billionaires who Moreau had once worked with.

Maybe he blackmailed his way out and back into a fortune.

“Looks like from someone he used to do business with,” Hardison shrugged, “He also paid a large part of it straight back out to a law firm, with another two payments over the following year.”

“So he got himself a lawyer?” Parker frowned, “A lawyer good enough to get him released from San Lorenzo under a new name and with a lovely big cheque waiting for him on the other side?”

“Maybe,” Hardison carried on searching, an activity fairly routine for him by now, “We gotta figure out where he took Eliot.”

“And how to get Eliot back.  Moreau’s security is going to be tight, even if he’s lost most of his money and influence…the flight went to Cyprus, right?”

“Yeah,” Hardison was about to continue his answer when he saw an email from General Flores, which he quickly read before related to Parker, “Flores knew nothing about Moreau’s release.  None of the government did…it was done on the whisper.  And I mean, the serious whisper…someone with a lot of money or power had to have orchestrated it…”

“And we can dig into that later,” Parker said firmly, “First we have to get Eliot back.”

Hardison couldn’t agree more, “Two tickets to Cyprus, coming right up.”

-

Cyprus.  Over twenty hours total of travelling, only about five of which allowed any sort of digital investigation into where Moreau was, what his security was like, and who had managed to get him released without anyone knowing.  They had enough information for Parker to be rotating possible plans in her mind during the flight, much of which was spent looking absently out the window at the wing of the plane, and during which neither of them slept at all.

It was impossible not to think about what Moreau would do to Eliot, and the myriad dark thoughts that crossed Hardison’s mind made him really wished he had watched fewer horror films.

The guy had earned his reputation among the criminal community.  He was ruthless and people did not cross him.  Until Leverage had, and now they were paying for it.

By the time they reached Cyprus, they had three likely locations where Eliot would have been taken, approximate security profiles for two of them, and maybe half a formed Plan A for getting their hitter back.

This had become three complete security profiles and a hierarchy of probabilities for the locations, as well as vague Plans A-S (skipping M), by the time they reached the town in Pafos where Moreau had at least one property.

It was early morning when they reached the town, the old streets nearly devoid of human life, making the slow approach towards Moreau’s property feel almost dreamlike as the small rental car moved through the pale, thin light.  They expected to see some sort of security outside the building, but as they approached closer on foot, they saw nothing.  Some lights on inside, but no people or movement other than the gentle rustling of the oleander plants scattered around the exterior.

It was quiet, peaceful, calm.

Hardison jumped, almost screamed, at the suddenly hard nudge Parker gave him.  But he managed to keep quiet, and turned, seeing where she was pointing.

On a low wall at the far side of the building from them, in thick, black paint, there was a sort of stick-figure wolf with a bushy tail and that seemed to be breathing fire. The paint had dripped in places, and in others, over the pale bricks, it seemed to have either faded or deeper into the porous rock. Not enough to obscure the image, however.

“Eliot signal?” Parker mouthed, hope blossoming in her eyes.

Hardison swallowed.

Maybe.

Moreau wouldn’t know anything about that, and it couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

“Stay here,” Parker whispered into his ear, and began to make her way towards the signal, but Hardison quickly caught her arm and pointed to a camera camouflaged with the building's wall.

"Can you disable them?"

"I'm working on it..." he carried out the same procedure he had thousands of times before, assessing the cameras, working out if and how to get into them - loop the feed. Just needed to record a few seconds. Enough for Parker to get past unseen. There were five exterior cameras...except they were all showing static on his phone screen, already disabled. The same for the interior cameras.

"Someone beat us to it," Hardison looked back at Parker nervously. It had to have been Eliot, and that was a good thing, but then why did he feel so uneasy.

"I'm going," she whispered, "Stay here."

Cameras were out, but there might still be patrols, people inside, even though it was still very early and hopefully they were asleep.

Hardison watched Parker until she disappeared around the corner of the building, and he was left alone to wait in that eerily peaceful silence. He kept his phone out, watching the camera feeds and looking into what he could access of other systems inside.

The feeds never deviated from the static, and there didn't seem to be anything else with an operating system inside to attack, other than a few smartphones. But Moreau hadn't exactly been a high-tech bad guy. More of an old-school, send goons in the night to assassinate his enemies bad guy.

Hardison grimaced at that thought.

Eliot had once been one of those goons.

“Hardison!”

The hissed name over comms nearly made him jump, breaking his train of thought.

“I’ve found Eliot,” Parker whispered, “He’s unconscious and he's not waking up. His leg's shot and his feet are all messed up, and he…he looks really bad...should I taser him?”

"What?!"

"To wake him up!"

"No, Parker. Don't taser him," Hardison replied very extra care to be very clear, then added, “You see any guards anywhere?”

“No. You're clear. It's totally quiet. Just stay low and avoid the windows."

Hardison took a deep breath and followed Parker’s path along the side of the building, round the corner, and into a yard that overlooked the ocean.

The two were a lot closer than Hardison expected, in a small half-covered alcove at the back of the yard.

Eliot was sitting up, leaning back against the stone wall with Parker beside him. His left leg was bloody, a tourniquet tied not far above his knee, and the soles of his bare feet were, as Parker had said, pretty messed up. Bloody and red and bruised. His right hand, unmoving on his lap, was obviously broken, and two bands of deep bruising crossed his exposed torso, stark against his too pale skin.

Matching bruises over his arms and wrists suggested some sort of restraint strong enough to have bruised the skin. Maybe fractured the bone beneath. Maybe internal injuries…

Hardison swallowed back his nausea, burying the worst case scenarios running through his brain.

Eliot had escaped far enough to get here and to leave them a signal, so he had to be okay-ish. Nothing acutely urgent...maybe it was blood loss or dehydration or hypothermia...he did look very pale and his lips maybe a touch blue. Moreau probably hadn't been exactly generous with food or drink, so it might be something as simple as that.

“Okay,” Hardison took a slow, steadying breath as he felt Eliot's thready pulse, “Parker, go ahead and let me know if anyone’s in the windows. I’ll carry him. We get him to the car, get some supplies, and get outta here.”

She nodded and hopped to her feet, running ahead. Hardison carefully slipped his arms under Eliot and stood, gritting his teeth as his legs and back protested him standing with the added weight.

The first few metres were fine, but with all the stopping and starting while Parker checked the way was clear, Hardison’s legs and arms were burning by the time he reached the car. He didn’t have time to deal with it though. They needed to get the hell out of here.

With minimal discussion, they arranged themselves so Parker drove and Hardison sat up across the back seats, Eliot propped up against him, hopefully absorbing some of his body heat. As much as Parker driving was not the best thing for someone with severe injuries, this was the way it had to be for when they stopped at a pharmacy.

It was still too early for anything to be open, so Hardison disabled the alarm and camera remotely, while Parker broke into the first pharmacy they found with no one nearby.

“Grab sterile gauze, bandages, disinfectant, painkillers…electrolyte replenishing stuff…if they’ve got one an emergency blanket.”

“The shiny one?”

“Yeah.”

“Got it.”

A few minutes later she reappeared, a lollipop in her mouth, and shoved the supplies into the car, ripping open the blanket and tossing it at Hardison while he rearmed the alarm and cameras to hide the break in as much as possible.

They really needed to not leave any sort of trail behind them.

While Parker kept driving, heading towards the next district, Hardison wrapped the blanket over Eliot. He should try to make him drink something, but doing that while he was unconscious would probably just make him choke.

Just as Hardison was mentally running through all the first aid Eliot had taught them, he felt the man in his arms shift slightly.

Then he fell motionless again.

Hardison squeezed him very lightly, "El? Eliot?"

Eliot moved again, making a soft, almost pained, sound.

"Parker! Parker, pull over."

She did with a little more abruptness than Hardison had hoped for, but then he had sounded pretty urgent. Urgent enough that she looked outright terrified when she opened the door to the back seats.

But then she broke into a smile.

"Eliot!"

"Hey," he rasped, voice heavy and rough.

Parker hopped into the back with them as Eliot tried to sit up, helping him to shift to rest against the back of a seat rather than Hardison. Able to see him better now, Eliot looked just as awful as back at Moreau's place. Maybe a bit more colour to his cheeks, but that was it.

"You okay, man?"

Eliot glared tiredly. He never liked that question.

"You were very unconscious."

"Drugged," he replied, and now his groggy state made more sense, "Moreau was gettin' ready to transport me somewhere else. Got out before it took effect."

Got out, but not fully away.

He must have had just enough time to escape before whatever sedative or paralytic or cocktail it was got to him. Enough time to escape and leave a signal for them to find.

"Here," Hardison twisted the top off a bottle of isotonic flavoured water from the pharmacy and passed it over, "You got it?"

This last as Eliot's hand shook when he took the bottle. But the hitter just nodded tiredly and drank steadily. Three long gulps, and he passed it back.

"Thanks."

"We liked the Eliot signal," Parker smiled up from her new position sitting comfortably in the footwell where no adult human should be able to sit comfortably.

"How'd you know we'd be there?" Hardison asked, "I mean, what if someone else found your graffiti or it washed away?"

"Moreau was keepin' tabs on you. Heard 'im say somethin' 'bout a plane arrivin' from Oregon. Figured you'd find the place soon enough."

"Speaking of, we should probably get going before Moreau comes after us..."

"Moreau ain't gonna be a problem anymore."

They both looked sharply at him. And then looked away, Hardison first, then Parker, realising the blunder in their evident alarm.

Eliot hadn't missed their reactions, but he spoke on as if he had been entirely unaware, "Should call cops an' get 'em to that place.”

“Do you think his men will try to follow us?” Parker asked.

Eliot began to reply, but he broke off. He shut his eyes, jaw clenching, and took an unsteady breath. Whatever Moreau had drugged him with was strong.

“Don’ know. Maybe. They might try to score an easy bounty or somethin’,” he paused again, and Hardison could see him shaking slightly under the blanket, “With cops on ‘em they’ll hafta lay low. Less likely to chase us.”

Hardison nodded, watching as Eliot continued to struggle against some pain or exhaustion or whatever it was, "Yeah. Yeah, I'll get on that now. Cops to Moreau's place...but we should get going. Stop at a hotel...you look pretty bad, El."

Eliot half-glared, half-frowned, caught between confusion and irritation, like he was attempting his usual grumpy but the lingering effects of the drug were getting in the way.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Eliot did, really, look damn awful, it would have been adorable. Hardison almost smiled as he turned his focus to his phone to make the call.

As Parker drove, Hardison kept a close eye on Eliot, who slowly drank his way through the electrolyte drink. More than twice, he seemed to almost slip back into unconsciousness or sleep, but he was obviously trying to fight it.

Hardison had got pretty good at knowing when Eliot wanted to talk, when he wanted just to listen, and when he wanted only silence. Now he wanted silence, and Hardison and Parker gave it to him.

Twenty minute to drive to the nearest fancy hotel, where Parker helped Eliot sneak in while Hardison checked him and Parker in under their aliases.

Then over an hour while Eliot cleaned and patched up his injuries, Parker and Hardison helping where he couldn’t manage with his left hand alone or when his strength started to slip.

They had to help with the extraction of a bullet from his shin, which was particularly gory and made Hardison very glad of Parker’s dexterity and not being bothered by blood, with getting some splinters of wood out of the cuts on his feet. Cleaned up, those didn’t look as bad as before. There were numerous narrow gashes and a lot of bruising, but nothing was too deep. It still looked horrible and was probably really painful. But it wasn’t damage to the extent Hardison had feared.

But by the end of their makeshift medical activities, and after a bath during which Eliot submitted to allowing them both to help, their hitter looked more like himself again. Worn out and subdued in the way he usually was after especially rough fights or bad injuries, but no worse than they had seen him before.

And he was behaving more like himself too, with the effects of the drug wearing off. It did away with the unease that Eliot's remark about Moreau had set upon them. Even after all this time, Hardison could never fully reconcile the Eliot he knew with the Eliot who killed people, and that moment had been the closest the two had ever come to meeting.

But now, their Eliot sat on the plush couch of their hotel suite, bandaged feet resting on a cushion on the coffee table, with Parker pressed close on one side, munching on a sweet pastry she had stolen from the hotel restaurant. Hardison was a little way off, making use of the small desk to work on bolstering their cover.

He had just posted a couple of photos to the social media of his alias to help their covers.

“Parker and I are here on holiday," he said, finishing a Tweet and looking up, "Eliot I’ve got you an alias set up for when we head back. How long do you need before you fly?”

“Couple of days.”

“We should stay at least a week to keep our covers good,” Parker pointed out, “A few days vacation is gonna look odd.”

“Two weeks?” Hardison suggested, “That’ll give me time to start sorting out a new base.”

Eliot frowned, “New base?”

“Portland’s blown. Moreau knew where to find us. No way to tell who else might know.”

The hitter looked away, letting out a frustrated breath.

“What we gonna do with the brewpub?”

“I’ll sell it. Make sure the employees are kept on or get compensation…we still need to move some things, clear out, but…”

“Can we set up our new base in Pennsylvania?” Parker interrupted excitedly.

Hardison frowned, and Eliot supplied the answer, “It’s the state that produces the most chocolate.”

“I was thinking Florida.”

Parker pouted, “Doesn’t Florida pollen make you cry?”

“Yeah man,” Eliot smiled teasingly, reassuringly like himself, “Can’t have you cryin’ your way through our jobs.”

Hardison rolled his eyes and moved over to join them, bringing his laptop and prepared to launch into the inevitably long debate over where they should move next. They had two weeks here, so they had time to discuss it in depth. Maybe enough time to go see some sights, do some touristy things, or just binge watch some classic TV and movies in the hotel.

-

[aardvaark]

WELL I meant like. the writers could have just said he was good at playing violin but gets stage fright about it, like they just say Eliot is good at guitar and singing but gets stage fright about it. it seems mean to give Eliot that but not Hardison. the man is already getting dragged around every heist by his ear they could have let him have this one thing.

Anonymous asked: Also there's the tea-making scene from the Reunion Job where they demonstrate that Eliot is actually pretty weak to Sophie's brain-manipulation tactics and when Parker points it out, both of them react like Sophie keeps doing this to HIM in particular before, like buddy... hardcore enough not to crack under torture... touchstarved enough to get fully brainhacked by just a couple of affectionate arm-sqeueezes

Anonymous asked: Also NLP in particular is absolutely a pseudoscience lmao but I can always forgive a bit of fun hokum in my daytime tv. for the bit. it just seems so mean to cheapen one of Hardison's few non-computer skill W's yknow. ok thank you and sorry for one million anons

omg def don't apologise for sending asks, im so happy to get them!! hi again i hope your day is going well!!

YES re: stage fright being a better option. thats is a much better idea anon!! makes more sense that he simply DOES play violin. he has a LOT of skills. i mean, hardison is a genius, full stop. he can do what he puts his mind to, plus he's shown to be incredibly talented at a lot of things which aren't directly related to his job, like painting. i don't think he gets enough credit as being seriously extremely gifted AND seriously extremely dedicated to honing some of those skills... he has a lot of talents that he's very causal about, but then the ones like hacking that he focuses on? those are mentioned to take so much effort, sleepless nights, etc etc. there's a reason that he's the best hacker on a team of people who are the best in their fields.

and this is all while he's still half-learning. leverage is crime university for him, as episode commentaries tend to say lol. he's... i forgot, 21-22? when leverage starts (ik aldis hodge had just turned 21 when he was hired for the role. looking back on s1 especially, he is soooo young. ik im 20 but like. 21 is so young. it really is). and he's been learning & teaching himself for years already, but it's still early days in his crime career & he seems to already be better than anyone else at what he does. and is somehow fairly well-adjusted unlike anyone else on the team lol. but he does have his own trauma, and his own problems he encounters. eg he hasn't really had a long-term relationship (according to commentary on... im gonna say girls night out/boys night out jobs? idk. s4 somewhere), so while we get a lot of parker dealing with a relationship that she finds kinda overwhelming due to the total lack of safe connections she's had in her life etc etc, we also gotta remember that the parker/hardison (*cough* /eliot too, *cough*) relationship is a pretty new and intimidating thing for him too. and. oh i just realised how off topic i am. wow. if going on tangents was a sport i'd be an olympic athlete.

(and aldis hodge btw is also so multi-talented, he designs watches and paints and, of course, acts. i remember some commentary from the bank shot job saying how they were gonna have hardison be fairly awkward on the grifting, but aldis hodge is just ridiculously good at doing those scenes where he totally stumps the mark/lackeys/cops/etc, and a lot of it is improv. irrelevant ik but i just think it's cool just how good he is at those quick grifting scenes).

anyway. eliot is so touchstarved :((( and he loves his family even when they annoy him or brainhack him lol. he's kinda immune to threats and pain and stuff for sad reasons but the smallest affection, he responds to. which is upsetting to think about, how much pain you have to have to no longer acknowledge it, and how little love you have to experience/accept for any amount to be disarming. but yeah thats true, idk why sophie says hardison was a particularly good target then... i guess her NLP stuff is supposedly easier to do subtly than hypnotism? maybe. regardless, the NLP stuff is absolutelyyyy pseudoscience, but as you said, i just allow for sophie to be able to magically do that stuff lol. its not real but sophie can do the impossible so i just go with it for 42 mins lmao.

[symphorine]

endlessly fascinated by that moment in s3 where eliot picks hardison to come with him to meet moreau. knowing what kind of situation he's likely to walk into - dangerous, at the very least, and how it went in the show is probably the best he could have hoped for. knowing that he'd give his name and of course hardison wouldnt let it go!! of course!!! im just. he picked him over nate or parker or sophie. he knows if it comes to fighting hardison will be at a worse disadvantage (arguably sophie also would be). in terms of grifting, of deceiving moreau, nate or sophie would be a safer bet. and then it pays off!!! yeah its a shit situation and eliot, while thinking it was entirely necessary and the safest, best path (and he's right i think) is not happy or satisfied or like. at peace with having brought hardison so close to danger and death. and hardison is rightfully angry. he's the one least likely to understand, too, and to let it go, but he still picked him to come with him. he chose hardison to reveal this side of his past to first, to reveal the extent to which he has sat on information that was crucially relevant to them the whole season. did he want to go through hardison's anger and indignation? did he think he deserved it? he's ashamed of what hes done for moreau, afraid for his crew if moreau got his hands on them. did he want that? did he want hardison to resent him for it? or did he think hardison was the most likely to forgive him? to truly forgive him. which i dont think he was tbh, and i always feel like theres a scene missing where they actually talk about it one on one, and i think it takes hardison a while to genuinely, fully come to terms with it. hell eliot could have told them beforehand and let them all plan and choose! he could have gone in alone! why didnt he? (well we can guess, probably because of the shame; it's hard enough for him to talk about it after, when he doesn't have a choice and he's left himself no escape door - maybe that's why hardison, because hardison wouldn't keep it quiet, because it leaves him no other option than to come relatively clean). eliot didn't name hardison to come with him on a whim there has to have been a thought process. he knew what he was going to do and he knew it would be a dangerous situation. he has to have weighed his options. why bring someone else and why hardison.

anyway. 1am leverage thoughts. i love them

[my-beloved-lakes]

@leveragetober

Leveragetober 2023

Prompt 9: Past

(this one was really last minute cuz I didn't get the idea for it until this morning, so I didn't do very much editing or anything like that.)

Eliot's past comes back to bite him in the form of a former employer with a grudge. It's up to Parker and Hardison to save him. (Under the cut.)

Parker knew not to ask about Eliot's past. She didn't really need to know anyways. It didn't really matter to her what he had done in his past. It was the past. The Eliot she knew now was the only one she needed to know. And besides that, she trusted that he would tell her anything that she needed to know. If it was important he would tell her.

But he wasn't here to tell her now, and she needed to know, now more than ever, because his life depended on it.

He had been captured by someone. she didn't know who, but she did know it was someone Eliot had worked for in the past. That was all he had managed to tell her before the comms had cut out.

Tracking his earbud had turned up a dead end after the signal cut out, but if she knew who had taken him she could use that to figure out where they had gone. She would also need to know how dangerous the kidnapper was, if he would kill Eliot, and how much time they had to plan a rescue once they found him.

"Parker, I think I got something." Hardison said.

Parker rushed over to Hardison and peered over his shoulder at his laptop.

"I managed to find the kidnapper's truck on the traffic cams. They stopped at an old warehouse by the river."

Parker felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Warehouses by the river were never a good sign. Rivers meant an easy way to dump a body. They needed to hurry up and rescue Eliot before there was a body to dump.

"I'm gonna keep looking to see if I can get a clear shot of his face so we can figure out who we're dealing with." Hardison went on.

"Do that while we drive." Parker said, grabbing the keys to the van and rushing out the door. Hardison grabbed his laptop and ran after her.

***

As Eliot came to, he realized he was hanging by his wrists from a chain attached to a thick metal pipe in the ceiling, his feet dangling a few inches from the ground. The chains cut painfully into his wrists and he could barely breathe from the pressure it put on his chest. He felt blood running down the side of his face from a cut on his forehead and more blood dripping into his mouth from his nose.

Eliot lifted his head and looked around, trying to get a better assessment of the situation. He was in a small warehouse, mostly empty except a few wooden crates.

There were three goons sitting around a small table playing a game of cards.

Eliot twisted his wrist back and forth a bit, trying to find a weak spot in the restraints.

The three goons looked up suddenly when they heard the rattling of the chains.

"Go get the boss." One of them said. 

One of the others got up and left into a back room. He returned a few seconds later followed by the boss, an all too familiar face.

"Spencer!" The boss said with feigned pleasantry.

"Lang." Eliot growled.

He had worked for Lang shortly before Nate had put together the leverage team. Lang didn't take too kindly to Eliot's quitting and had tried to hunt him down after he left, but Eliot was good at hiding. He had managed to avoid Lang until now.

Eliot just hoped Lang hadn't found out about Parker and Hardison. He'd never be able to forgive himself if they got hurt because of his past.

"I've been looking everywhere for you." Lang continued. "You're a hard man to find, but that only makes it more fun I suppose."

Lang walked over and stood right in front of Eliot eyeing him up and down. A pleased smile spread across his face.

"Y'know if I just let you hang there, you'd probably be dead within a few hours. The pressure on your arms closes up your lungs and suffocates you, but you already knew that. It'd be a really slow and painful death, but still kinda boring."

Eliot felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He remembered some of the brutal things he had seen Lang do to his victims, some of the things he had done for Lang himself.

Eliot wondered if Lang was going to hand off the chore of torturing him to one of the  goons or if he was going to do it himself this time. It was always a toss up. He hoped it'd be the first option. In that case he'd actually have a chance at surviving, but if Lang did it himself, Eliot knew he'd never survive that.

"I've waited a long time for this." Lang smiled.

And there was Eliot's answer. Lang wasn't about to have his goons do his dirty work for him, not when he had waited so long to do it himself.

***

Parker waited impatiently for Hardison to get the feed from the security cameras at the warehouse pulled up. She knew he was going as fast as he could, but every second felt like ages

"Alright, I got it." Hardison finally said.

Parker's heart sank when she saw Eliot on the computer screen.

He was kneeling on the ground between two goons who were holding him upright, his head drooped forward. His hands were chained tightly behind his back and he was covered in bloody cuts and bruises. There were two other men standing nearby, but Parker couldn’t tell what they were doing because the view of the camera was partially obscured by a stack of wooden crates.

"We need a distraction. Something to draw them out of the warehouse." Hardison said.

Parker thought for a minute then glanced at the row of cars parked outside the warehouse.

"Can you make those car alarms go off from inside the van?" She asked.

Hardison nodded.

It was a rushed plan and not entirely well thought out. If the bad guys came out of the warehouse it wouldn't take them long to discover Lucille.

She glanced back at the computer screen and her stomach lurched as she watched the two men come out from behind the crates into full view. One of them was carrying a long rope with a loop tied in one end. He slipped the loop around Eliot's neck and pulled it tight.

Eliot struggled weakly against the goons that were holding him but it didn't do any good.

The second guy got up on a step ladder and strung the other end of the rope through a metal hoop in the ceiling.

There was no time for a better plan.

"Do it now!" Parker shouted and jumped out of the van. She dashed towards the warehouse, not even waiting to see if the distraction was going to work.

A few seconds later she heard the blaring of several car alarms, then three goons busted out of the door to the warehouse. She slipped silently in behind them without them even noticing her. She was just in time to see Lang, the only one still in the warehouse, pull hard on the free end of the rope, lifting Eliot off the ground, and secure the rope to a hook in the floor.

Eliot let out a strangled cry as his feet left the ground. Parker darted forward, grabbed the step ladder and slid it under Eliot's feet so he wasn't choking.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned just in time to duck out of the way of Lang who tried to grab her. The problem was he was between her and Eliot now.

Lang grabbed the step stool and pulled it out from under Eliot.

Eliot choked and gagged as the rope grew tight around his neck again.

Parker pulled out her taser and rushed towards Lang. He tried to dodge out of the way but she was faster. She shoved it against his chest and clicked it on.

Lang convulsed then fell to the ground unconscious.

Quite frankly, she thought she'd rather kill him, but she didn't have any lethal weapons on her and she didn't have time to dwell on it.

She grabbed the step ladder again, got up on it and reached above Eliot's head to cut the rope.

Eliot fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. Parker winced as he hit the ground. It wasn't a soft landing and he wasn't able to catch himself with his hands tied behind his back.

Parker rushed over and crouched down beside him. She untied the rope from around his neck then quickly picked the lock on the chains around his wrists.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked.

Eliot just kept coughing and gasping, but nodded his head.

Parker waited another minute, trying to give him as much time as possible to catch his breath, but they needed to get out of the warehouse soon. Lang would be waking up any minute now and the goons would probably be coming back through the door soon. She didn't want to be there when that happened.

She turned quickly when she heard the door open, but it was just Hardison. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"I took out the goons outside." Hardison explained as he rushed over to Parker and Eliot. "Damn, are you okay?" he asked, crouching down next to them.

"I'm fine." Eliot said in a raspy voice.

He rolled over onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow, but that was as close to sitting up as he could get.

Parker helped him sit up the rest of the way and threw her arms around him. Hardison pulled them both into a hug.

"We have to go now." Parker said after a few seconds. She wished that hug could have lasted a lot longer, but there wasn't time for that now.

"Hardison, help me lift him."

Hardison and Parker both helped Eliot to his feet and supported him between themselves as they walked slowly to the van.

"We're gonna get you to a hospital." Hardison said.

"I don't need a hospital." Eliot said between shaky breaths.

"Eliot, you almost died." Hardison protested.

"I'll be fine."

"If you're absolutely sure." Parker said reluctantly.

It was probably better if they could avoid the hospitals right now anyways, Parker decided. They hadn't managed to take Lang down permanently and the hospitals were probably the first place he'd look for them. As a matter of fact it was probably better if they avoided the brew pub too. If Lang had managed to track Eliot all the way to Portland, then the brew pub probably wasn't safe.

***

Eliot reflected silently on what had happened as Parker and Hardison helped him walk from the van to the safe house. Those were memories he would have preferred not gotten stirred up. He had only ever done things he regretted for Lang and he'd never be able to forget any of it. He'd have to live with the guilt forever and he had excepted that a long time ago. His past haunted him all the time, always lurking in the back of his mind, but it was worse now. Now the memories were fresh again, more present, more painful.

Eliot let out a quiet groan as Parker and Hardison eased him onto the couch. He tried to hide it but his whole body ached from the beating he had gotten earlier and the van ride to the safehouse hadn't done anything to help. His neck and throat hurt too, but he figured he had escaped with minimal damage on that front since he wasn't having any trouble breathing anymore.

Eliot laid back against the arm of the couch and Hardison slipped a pillow under his head. Parker brought over a blanket and draped it over him, then laid down next to him and rested her head on his chest. Eliot didn't know how she did it but she managed to find the only spot on his entire body that wouldn't hurt to have that kind of pressure on it. It amazed him how gently she could be. Eliot wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her a little closer. Hardison lifted both their legs and sat down at the end of the couch then let them lay their legs back over his lap.

Parker had helped Eliot patch himself up and bandage all his cuts on the way to the safehouse so they could all just relax for a bit now. There wasn't anything else that needed to be done right now.

"We'll work on a plan to take down Lang later," Parker said. "once you're all better."

Eliot hugged Parker a little tighter. That didn't really matter to him at the moment. What mattered was that Parker and Hardison hadn't been hurt by Lang and his goons and that they were safe. That was the only thing that mattered anymore. He couldn't let them end up on his list of regrets. He couldn't live with that.

Eliot closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. The aspirin he had taken on the way here was finally starting to kick in and ease the pain a little, and he felt comfortable with Parker laying next to him.

"Let me know if you need anything." Parker said.

"Mkay." Eliot mumbled.

He was already well on his way to falling asleep.

[ghost-in--the-room]

@leverage fandom I really want to read some Eliot whump, so i would love some recs!! If anyone wants some Eliot Whump prompts (random thoughts to spring off off) here are some that you can use or talk to me about

It's a wonderful life au - I have yet to watch the original I have seen many references in media, when you have done bad things in the past and realise your mistakes you have to live the rest of your life repenting for what you have done. Eliot knows this and will live with his sins until he dies. But when the actions of the present and not the past cause his family to be in danger with him around he starts to wonder if it would have been better for the team if he was never there to begin with and if he does not stand by then but in their shadow to protect them he will. This could be solved by mystical means with someone magical showing Eliot both how his absence made some lives better but how his absence made things worse overall. Or the team figures out that Eliot is spiralling and they stage a con to show him how much he helps people (I personally like the idea that they don't know he was "leaving" and them cheering him up had unknown positive effects like how Eliot had unknown positive effects on others lives) This is mainly inspired by how a saw a post that talked about Eliot knowing he was going to hell but how I like to think that he has made his redemption, not because he has saved more lives then he made lost but because even when he has saved 100x more live then lost he still save more.

Chronic Pain - With how long he has been a hitter Eliot there is not doubt that he has injuries that will cause pain for the rest of his life. Hardison and Parker have figured it out over the years working together (OT3 for the win) and have worked to make secret plans for each con if they see Eliot is not having a good day but cause lord knows he won't say it him self, not when he won't let it effect theirr safety. But they aren't just the three of them, they aren't all together, they aren't the ones calling the shots. Sophie hasn't been there enough, she doesn't realise. Breanna has heard stories of the invincible man, someone who never stays down. Our Mr. Wilson is new, he doesn't fully understand the life and the roles in it. Eliot won't speak for himself so Parker and Hardison will have to. Either a con uneedingly dangerous for Eliot or "friendly" ribs that hit too deep and someone, Parker or Hardison, snap. ( I think Hardison snapping would have the biggest effect with Parker silently storming.) I kinda dislike the idea of the second one being where one of the team says something that finally makes one snap but rather they have made similar but lighter comments and they didn't think to the pain Eliot goes through to protect them/ underappreciated him for that job. While Eliot whump I think it would be more focused on team dynamics and Parker and Hardison thoughts then Eliot's own.

The Long Lost Father Job- In the process of writing this I haven't recently watched episodes with mentions of Eliot's father but we know he has a bad/absent relationship with him. In this there is a job where one of the victims (but not the client) is Eliot's father. When Eliot release his father is there he has to balance working the con and reconnecting with his father. The three ways I see this going are: one Eliot and his father reconnect. With (I think they parted after an argument/Eliot believes he is some what to blame) them forgiving each other with promises to meet up in the future. Two while they don't reconnect they make amends with each other to neutral. As in they forgive each other but the father thinks that it's too late for them to be a family and points to the team and says Eliot already has one. The father being shown to the reader as bad dad but not an evil one. Three the one where CONTENT WARNING the father Eliot remembered wasn't the whole picture and he down played his father's abusive tendances. Where the team and Eliot learn the man is not as he remembers. While with the og teams dynamic was that of Nate being the father of the group I think Eliot had less of that dynamic with Nate and more of a mother in Sophie. So that instead of saying Eliot had a father in Nate (which is true) he says something like "I may not have a Dad I have a mot- erm a Sophie"

Eliot gets hurt in the field - There are so many ways this can be done. But the shortest one I can explain is that as Eliot is the one who throws himself into danger most often he deserves something like the coffin job or the bank job where the job goes south when Eliot gets injured (protecting one of the team because jumping in front of a bullet format it mwa) and the team scramble to save him while getting revenge 10 fold of what they originally planned. And you can easily add in some Eliot being like it's ok it's what I do and the team being like it's not ok, it's never ok and we will try even harder to protect you. (beautiful)

bonus 5 + 1 format five times the team protected Eliot without him knowing and the time he found out (about it all)

[schrijverr]

The 1 Time Eliot Faced Moreau + 5 Times Eliot Kept Away from Him

AKA Moreau scares Eliot, but he’ll face him again for the safety of the team. However, the team is very observant and when they notice, they do everything in their power to ensure that Eliot won’t have to go through that again.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: none

~~~~~~~~~~

+3. Hardison

Hardison has always been too goddamn nice for his own good. He has known that about himself ever since he was nine and kept on being friends with Diego, even though Diego would always get the both of them in trouble and blame it on Hardison. He just saw that Diego needed a friend and couldn’t bring himself to stop being his friend.

Through the years he has proven that over and over again, finally deciding to work solo after one too many close calls. Only to get sucked in by Nate. Then he got friends and like Diego, he kept being their friend even if they got him into trouble.

That first year, he’d forgiven Parker for going solo and leaving them to their own devices at the start, forgiven Sophie for double crossing them, the year after he had forgiven Nate for going behind their back and taking the fall for them. And now? Now he is forgiving Eliot for nearly getting him killed.

On one hand, he hates how empathetic he is. Hates that he sees that Eliot is terrified of Moreau and how he has turned into himself, like he’s weighed down by guilt. Hates that he can’t just be upset about nearly getting killed without sympathizing with the guy that led him into that trap, knowing how dangerous it was. Lying to Hardison.

However, he can’t be too mad either. Because the team has given him enough throughout the years that making up with them is worth it. Hardison loves all of them and he is too stubborn to let this break them up.

Because Hardison is too nice and after he blew off steam, he spend time figuring out why Eliot had done what he did. Tried to understand.

He came to the conclusion that Eliot needed support, that there was no other way and if he’d told them, Nate would have benched him or used his connection to Moreau against him. And that would have sucked for Eliot, because Eliot is scared of the man. It hadn’t clicked until later that Hardison now knows what fear looks like on the hitter’s face.

Moreau scares Eliot and Eliot had walked in that place without hesitation for them. He had kept still so Moreau wouldn’t have a reason to shoot. He had agreed to kill someone, to go back to being the person he is desperate to leave in the past, just to keep all of them safe.

Hardison can still remember how Eliot had shook after they left. How his eyes looked in that park when he begged them not to ask.

So, Hardison forgives him. He knows it will pay of in due time, like forgiving Diego meant the other boy later helped getting him his first computer, like forgiving Parker gave them the room to grow into pretzels and how forgiving Sophie and later Nate helped keep the team together. The family they built. He doesn’t want to loose any of them, including Eliot. So, he works through it and moves on.

Still, he’s a little glad when Nate lays out the plan and Hardison isn’t working together with Eliot for this con. Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting and Hardison needs a little more time for that.

But then the con continues on and it doesn’t go right. Sophie blows their cover and now Moreau knows they’re here, coming up to threaten and intimidate them, which they only get away from by the skin of their teeth as Nate bluffs.

It puts Hardison on edge, because he is also scared of Moreau. He has done the research on this man, heard the rumors about him, plus experienced first hand how badly getting Moreau’s attention can get.

That first night after they’ve been found out, he tosses and turns, anxiously trying to hear if the footsteps going through the hall are here to kill them all. And it’s not until he recognizes that the boots he keeps hearing are Eliot patrolling the hall and relaxes that he realizes that he has forgiven the other.

He still trusts Eliot to protect him, to keep them safe. The rest will grow from there, he’s sure of that, he thinks as he falls asleep.

The next morning, he thinks about it some more and feels guilty about Eliot patrolling the halls. He is the only one, who has seen how scared Moreau makes Eliot, how much it costs him to have to face the other man.

Still, Eliot had followed them here to San Lorenzo, to throw himself between the team and the person that scares him the most. He has never complained once about it, even if they can all see the tension in his shoulder and now nightly patrols. It isn’t healthy for Eliot to be here, surrounded by the threat of Moreau, able to run into him at any moment.

Hardison still has a few issues with how Eliot handled the situation, but he can appreciate the sacrifice and do something nice for the other.

They need a good scandal in their smear campaign against the sitting president and Eliot needs to get away from where he can run into Moreau. So, Hardison whips up an animal’s rights activist alias and sends Eliot on his merry way to hold a few puppies and be interviewed by a pretty lady on national TV.

Since it’s for a con, Hardison knows Eliot will take it seriously, other than if Hardison had pushed him to flirt with a beautiful lady just because, which is exactly where Hardison needs him. Eliot won’t be useful if he gives himself an aneurysm due to stress.

So he watches the news with a pleased expression, while watching Moreau prowl around the parliament on another screen. The two are far removed from each other and Eliot looks more relaxed than he has since they went into that pool.

Mission accomplished.

[wolves-in-the-world]

@werewolfsmile hey. good tags:

#eliot is not immune to the culture of the environments he's been in #like the military and crime syndicates etc etc #and i find it so interesting that he's the character pushing for emotional growth from others right from the start #(see the end of the nigerian job)

#it's like he knows he's doomed #cursed for all he's done and the blood on his hands #but it's not too late for nate #or sophie or parker or hardison #he can push them and stretch them and help them grow into better versions of themselves #and when they do grow it's like a quiet relief for him #he'll never achieve the peace that they are reaching nor does he deserve it #but he gets to see it in his family and that's enough

#until one day he realises that he's been changing and growing too #and his family view him as worthy of redemption. of forgiveness. #and that's not who he is he made his peace with that fate along time ago he knows he's cursed #but #for the first time in a long time #he wants to see himself the way his family sees him #and so eliot starts the journey of learning to forgive himself

the thing about eliot spencer as a character, right. the thing about him.

(and as always your mileage may vary on my analyses so if we disagree that's cool actually)

is that he is in fact a slightly emotionally constipated idiot who is occasionally sensitive about his perceived masculinity and gets defensive about emotional intimacy around other men (largely hardison, who's much more comfortable expressing affection and embracing a softer kind of masculinity), but eliot displays enough emotional awareness and sensitivity and respect for women etc etc that anyone who's been subjected to that era of television will put on rose-tinted glasses without even looking twice.

(and he is, don't get me wrong, incredibly emotionally aware for a professionally punchy guy with enough trauma to sink the titanic. it still startles me to see.)

on top of which we have the layers and the accessories and the excellent hair with the secret braids and the way he barely has an ego and he's good with kids and protective of his team without taking it too far and some of us never stood a fucking chance.

[littlebigmouse]

I'm thinking about the Big Bang Job and again and like-

I don't think Hardison is mad at Eliot for almost drowning in that pool. Yes, he was probably freaking out in six different ways, but if Hardison made a list of Top Three Reasons To Be Mad At Eliot For Today, the pool wouldn't even show up on the list, or make a tentative third place tops.

The primary reason Hardison is angry with Eliot? Lack of communication. Because Eliot spend six months being prissy with Sophie for "conning her own crew" by withholding information about the Second David, and then turns around and spends six months withholding information about their mark. Because even when it was clear that they were finally going up against Moreau, Eliot stood quietly. He announced that Hardison and him would take care of the invitation, watched Hardison come up with a plan how to get in, and still didn't say anything. There was presumably a bit of a drive to the hotel, and Eliot said nothing. They were standing by the door, Hardison already trying to get through the first line of security with his plan, and then Eliot starts derailing the plan, as bare-bones as it is, and still doesn't explain anything. Hardison spends the elevator ride down hissing questions at Eliot, but doesn't get an answer or a signal or anything, which is granted the point at which an explanation was long overdue and not really possible anymore.

I don't think Hardison thought Eliot had betrayed him, he still plays his part and probably puts enough of the puzzle together just from the brief interaction he catches between Eliot and Moreau ("He prefers beer"). I don't think he blamed Eliot for getting kicked into the pool, was probably still counting on Eliot to get him out in time. because Hardison can think of plenty of reasons why Eliot wouldn't've wanted to tell them anything, but even more reasons why he should have anyway.

The first thing Hardison does once they're out of Moreau's earshot? Ask for reassurance. Extend an olive branch. He tells Eliot how he got more air and asks whether that was Eliot's plan. It's something Nate would have done, probably, get Hardison into the impossible situation and rely on him getting himself out of it, make that part of the plan. Hardison is freaked, but he isn't angry yet. It's an implied "I did the thing, did I do good? That was part of your plan?" Maybe even "You counted on me getting out of there in one piece, right?" And Eliot, all angry and prickly and vulnerable dismisses Alec, admits, under a layer of sarcasm, that there wasn't a plan, he had no idea Hardison would suck air out of a chair, dismisses his request for reassurance.

Now, the next time we see the two? Hardison is furious. They reunite with the rest of the group and Hardison just bites out "Tell them".

I think it's safe to assume that even after they got out of the hotel, they spend the drive back in silence. Or at least, Hardison asking questions until he realizes Eliot still won't give him answers, Eliot all frustrated himself, just telling Hardison to shut up. Maybe Hardison didn't ask questions and was waiting for Eliot to start talking, start explaining what just happened. Eliot remaining still, and stoic and still not saying a word.

That's why Hardison is angry after the pool scene. Because Eliot had had all these opportunities to open up and explain vital information, trust Hardison with it, and didn't. Even after the fact. Because Eliot betrayed his trust, plain and simple, and didn't even have a plan to show for it. No exit strategy. And they could have come up with one for sure, had Eliot just given them the intel. If not six months ago, then when they split up to start taking down Moreau. If not then, then on the way to the hotel the latest. But Eliot didn't, and didn't even explain after the fact, not until the crew was all reunited again and Hardison's suit dry. Not until Hardison, fuming with anger, hissed at him to "Tell them."

[ Because Eliot may have counted the seconds, but he had no idea how Hardison would keep himself alive, and by all accounts, Hardison, an untrained geek, who can hold his breath for thirty seconds and significantly less if freaking out, wouldn't have survived the encounter according to Eliot's calculations. ]

And honestly? I'm disappointed there never was a follow up. Hardison seems to deflate once Eliot opens up even the tiniest bit ("Don't ask me that, Parker"). He probably gets why Eliot didn't say anything, understands not wanting to bring up memories on a scale of bad he can imagine but will never be through. And then he's busy with a bomb either way. But just because Hardison understands doesn't mean they shouldn't have talked about it again, because after three years of friendship and trust, after months of shared frustration over Sophie, and then Nate, conning them, after "You don't con your own crew", Eliot still didn't tell Hardison anything until it was too late. And even then only gave a sliver of intel once the rest of the crew started pressuring him about it too.

And yeah, that should have left more repercussions than it did.

[heidiamalia]

-Faceless-

Leverage

[The Lonely Hearts Job]

[knifegiver]

I just watched that! And I did notice how Eliot gave Sophie the most grief, trying to needle an apology out of her. And the moment Parker and Hardison find it sufficient and say that they forgive her, Eliot stops ranting at Sophie and forgives her, too!

Rewatching the second David job, and Eliot was SO MAD at Sophie for lying to them, and I'm just wondering how much of that wasn't at the lies but at the fact that Parker and Harrison got hurt

[pebblesrus]

wait hang on. the long way down job parker and eliot talk happens less than 2 weeks after the team takes down moreau. hang on. i need a minute.

i’ve talked before about how i think that the “it makes us us” was about hardison, uhh it’s wordy so linking here.

but basically, how do u think eliot deals with the emotional turmoil of parker saying us

[leverage-ot3]

if you have an undying love of leverage and you know you’ll love the reboot dearly no matter what but have the crippling fear that the ot3 won’t get the justice it deserves after almost ten years of officially being canon per john rogers’s word clap your hands 👏👏👏