#she recognizes that eliot and hardison need each other

[readinginthereadyroom]

it’s the office job (lev 4x11) and eliot and hardison are arguing over a sandwich. only it’s not a sandwich.

yeah I’m pretty sure this is sbout their relationship.

because the thing is—hardison and parker might be pretzels (and slowly moving toward something more official), but eliot and hardison are something too. and that something is apparently sandwich.

and hardison stole the sandwich.

but what probably started out as a prank has now escalated. because eliot’s making accusations against hardison (when really it could be anyone on the team), threatening him with moldavian sawhorses (regardless that it’s all bark and no bite). but it still feels disrespectful. nevermind that it’s true.

which is a breach of trust. and eliot’s not okay with that. because it’s not like eliot just forgot he ate the sandwich. he takes the sandwich very seriously. spent a lot of time and effort into crafting the sandwich. he’d remember eating the sandwich. hardison would definitely remember eating the sandwich.

so here they are. arguing on the con. not bickering. not squabbling. they are having a legit, if layered, argument.

and it’s impacting parker.

because we cut straight from the guys talking about their jobs require trust and respect to parker designing her eskimo kisses line of cards. happy this and happy that but no one is actually ever happy. the cards don’t say what they really mean. 

because two dinosaurs falling in love doesn’t make any sense. it should be a dinosaur ripping the head off a lion. but then there’s also inexplicably a bear. shows up out of nowhere and now he’s a part of the scenario, too. little lion leaving the pack early and little bear cub wants to go out and see the world, huh?

which is just code for dino parker is pissed at lion hardison and she’s worried bear cub eliot will leave if they don’t reconcile. because it’s not two it’s three. and she’s caught in the middle. and neither of them can say what they’re really thinking. that the three of them are more-than-a-team. and she’s terrified that in order to survive the fallout of this argument, she’s going to have to destroy all that she’s built. that she won’t make it on her own again.

and it’s not even all that subtextual. sophie and nate are also having a mirror argument about respect and trust. and it’s a flashing ot3 light that it’s not hardison and parker arguing. but hardison and eliot.

not to mention that the whole con, since it’s being recorded by the documentary crew, is being spoken in code. even nate thinks that sandwich has a double meaning. it’s a fragile embarassment honestly.

eliot says you don’t steal another man’s sandwich. hardison says I want to eat your sandwich. but what does the metaphor actually mean? what is the sandwich that eliot won’t shut up about making and that hardison won’t admit to taking? what code of the west has been broken?

eliot is the sandwich. hardison and parker are pretzels. to extend the metaphor—eliot wants to be a part of the lunch special. has perhaps unintentionally built the perfect sandwich to go with the pretzels. but he’s also really worried that they won’t go together. that it’s off the menu.

hardison, on the other hand, is very on board with adding a sandwich to the pretzels. the boy can cook. he can throw down. hardison’s been trying to steal the sandwich the whole time.

think about it! hardison weaseling his way into hugs. secret handshakes. high fives for morale. because parker’s metaphor is also right—eliot is a wild bear cub. and hardison has been slowly domesticating him. just like he’s been patiently helping parker bring herself back to life. king of the jungle. king of the nerds. age of the geek.

and since I can’t imagine hardison getting impatient with eliot—since he’s never impatient with parker. which means he didn’t overstep any bounds with eliot. more likely eliot finally realized what’s going on. realized that hardison wants his sandwich and that he wants pretzel. and it scares him. eliot is very self-aware but I think the ot3 blindsided him. so he’s all bear again. ready for a fight.

and then there’s parker. making get well soon cards that really mean please make-up. and being harassed by the filmmaker—while hardison and eliot are too busy arguing to notice. not that parker can’t take care of herself. because she most definitely can.

but maybe she doesn’t want to.

that’s why when the filmmaker gets uncomfortably close into her personal space and both eliot and hardison yell HEY! BRING YOUR ASS! giving parker a chance to pick his pocket—and she smiles. eliot and hardison are working together again. for her. more-than-a-team once more.

and then when it really matters. when hardison is in real trouble. eliot’s there. of course he’s there. because he’s all gruff hitter voice, nobody throws hardison off a roof. followed by his softer eliot voice, except maybe me.

the argument’s over. the secret handshake is back. and hardison apologizes by buying dinner, even if he never does admit to eating the sandwich.

cause he’s still trying to steal himself an eliot.

[make-me-imagine]

Stress Relief

12 Days of Christmas: Day 2

Plot: After a stressful con, Y/n decides the best way to relieve some stress, is a good ol' snowball fight.

A/n: Christmas is not mentioned in this drabble, so out of 5, it is a 0 on the Christmas scale.

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Gn!Reader + Crew Shenanigans

Warnings: A brief kiss, but that's all :)

Words: 909

-

As your feet crunched through the snow underfoot, you buried your hands in your pockets to keep them warm.

The others marched in front of you, bickering with each other about nothing as the stress of the con finally sank in. Most everything went wrong and everyone was tired and ready to fly home.

"Look look-" Sophie began, stopping as she lifted her hands up "The con is done, it may have gone wrong in a lot of ways, but it's done. We won, I know we are all tired, but let's stop bickering please."

As Sophie talked, attempting to calm the team down, you looked down at the snow. Sliding your foot around in it, an idea popped into your head as you looked back up at the stressed faces of the others. It could go very wrong, or exactly right.

"Well what do you want us to do Sophie?" Parker asked, her voice on edge.

"We just need to find something to do that will relieve some of this stress we've built up from the con."

Finally speaking up, you kept your eyes locked on Sophie. "I couldn't agree more!"

As Sophie spun around, a smile on her face as she began to thank you for agreeing with her, her face quickly morphed into that of surprise when a wad of snow smashed against her chest.

You saw the other's faces twist with surprise as some of them held back startled laughs.

Sophie stared at you for a moment, stunned. Quickly, she reached down and began grabbing a handful of snow

"How dare you!" She began, though you saw the smile she was attempting to hide.

Grinning as you stepped back, dodging the poorly formed snowball she threw at you.

"Snowball fight!" Parker suddenly yelled as he began scooping up snow.

"Oh, oh, we doin' this?" Hardison asked before he quickly scooped up some snow as well.

Seeing the stress immedietely disperse from their faces, Sophie looked back at you and smiled with a soft nod of her head. You smiled in return, noticing Harry winding up his arm behind her.

"Uh oh.' You muttered out.

As a snowball hit the back of her head, she turned around with a gasp.

"Oop-" Harry mumbled out, quickly running as Sophie began to chase him.

"Dammit Hardison!" Eliot yelled as Hardison dumped an armful of snow onto Eliot's back.

You let out a yelp of alarm as a snowball hit you in the arm as Parker ran towards you. You couldn't hold back your laugh as you quickly ran away, grabbing snow in the process.

Retaliating with a snowball, Parker yelled in glee as the snowball hit her square in the stomach, followed by one hitting her back from Breanna.

Throwing a snowball at Breanna, she pointed at you, with a challenging glare as she threw her own.

Just dodging the snowball that glided past your head, you ran around to a bench, using it as a shield. Being preoccupied with Breanna's assault on you, you failed to notice Hardison joining the fray, and Eliot nowhere to be seen.

As you arched your arm back to throw a snowball, arms looped around your waist, followed by a yell. You yelped in surprise, recognizing Eliot's presence, you laughed as he pulled you into the air.

"Trying to hide huh?" He asked, amusement lacing his voice.

"Hey!" You laughed out as you threw back the snow that had been in your hand.

You heard Eliot sputter out as the snow spread across his face.

"You little-" Bringing you down to the ground with a thud, you let out an alarmed laugh as Eliot began piling snow on top of you.

"No, Eliot!" You yelled out between laughs as you attempted to retaliate by throwing the snow back at Eliot.

He chuckled as he tried pinning your arms down. Both of you flinched as a bombardment of snowballs came flying at you.

"Hey!" Eliot yelled as he looked over, seeing all of the others peppering the two of you with snowballs.

"That's not fair!" You yelled, rising from the ground as Eliot let you go.

Eliot shifted from trying to drown you in snow, to holding out his arm to smack the snow away as it flew towards you.

Quickly, the two of you started grabbing snow, quickly firing at the others, making them laugh and run away.

As they fled, continuing their attacks on one another, Eliot looked back at you, a smile stretched along his face.

"Snowball fight was a smart distraction."

You shrugged with a smile "Seemed like a good idea in the moment."

Reaching his hand up, he brushed snow from your head before he gently grabbed your scarf and pulled you closer to him.

"It was." He said softly before pressing a soft kiss to your lips.

Pulling away, he smirked and motioned his head towards the others as he spoke "Now, what do you say we teach these punks a lesson."

You grinned and nodded "Sound's good to me."

As you and Eliot loaded up your arms with snowballs, you ran towards the others. Spotting you, they all yelled in surprise, and turned their attention to you as they attempted to dodge your attacks.

None of you cared about the looks and attention you got from passerby's, as the tension and stress from the con melted away, and was replaced by joy and fun.

xx End xx

Short but sweet!

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

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

[leverage-ot3]

the remarkable story of the world’s best thief, part one

parker grew up with no one. no friends, no family. and then she found archie (or he found her) and they had something, but he still held back and kept her at arm’s length

and then she takes this one job in chicago that’s stealing back airplane designs and she has to work with a team, something she never does but will do only this one time because the payout was supposed to be good

and then they’re all almost killed, which she doesn’t take personally, mind you. she cares that she didn’t get the money

so she goes along with the white knight’s plan and they enlist this horrible actress who isn’t actually that horrible, and they con dubenich out of his company and thanks to the hacker they get the score, the score that ensures retirement, that she can sit on an island surrounded by piles of money, homemade rigs and laser grids galore just for fun

except she can’t just retire. and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, working with them was fun. so she tells nate to call her when he has another job

and then that job goes sideways and she decides it’s not worth it, that she’s better off alone. so they’ll finish the job and part ways for good- how it was meant to be after all.

but then they give the veterans the truck full of money and they’re so happy and she figures, okay, maybe one or two more. maybe then hardison will tell her why she’s supposed to have a plant in her office. why does she need one if it doesn’t do anything?

and time passes easily, easier than it ever had before. she eats pizza beside hardison and eliot. jumps off a balcony without looking, trusting her ability to fall, but eliot catches her anyways. she stabs a man with a fork and hardison talks to her as she cries and at some point she decides that maybe they’re a little more than a team. he says he liked how she turned out, and it shouldn’t be so reassuring, but it is. she makes a tentative friendship with a woman named peggy, the most normal person she knows but astonishingly, somehow wants to be her friend.

and then they’re in a rehab center and she takes the pills they give her and things feel different, so she doesn’t want to leave. so she stays. and then sophie comes back, understanding her game of pictionary that no one else would ever get, so she goes with her. she sees her her team, her friends and is so happy. she jumps into eliot’s arms and holds him tight. trots over to hardison and holds him close. the drugs wear off, but the affection doesn’t. it never will.

and then they’re trying to con nate’s old boss because he’s on a downward spiral and revenge is something they all can understand. except then maggie, nate’s ex wife is there and she’s an expert on art and would be able to tell that their statue was a fake. so nate challenges her to steal the statue with whatever she can gather from the van and the party. and like some people do chess, she figures out how to get the statue with some gum, tinfoil, and ice. she kisses hardison for a distraction, but maybe she liked it? just a little. maybe.

and then they are successful and sell blackpool’s first david back to him, and things are great. she jumps down onto the transportation truck, picks the lock, and sneaks inside, ready to take the david statue back. except sterling- evil nate- is there and she has nowhere to go. 

and then he figures out that sophie, her sophie, stole the first david years ago and was conning them from the beginning of the job. she slightly gets it- she is a thief, after all. but the fact that she conned her own team (’a little more than a team’) leaves a bad taste in her mouth.

sophie comes through, and they jump off a building. sophie yells a bit, but she’s come a long way from the first job when she screamed all the way down to the first floor. their office explodes and they go their separate ways, because they’re professionals, after all. they know when a job can’t be done, when it is best to flee.

but leaving a job undone is like having a scratch unitched, and the two davids are on display at blackpools’ gallery. she’s pointing a laser at the painting and a woman turns around and it’s sophie. and then eliot is on the floor above her, and so is hardison. so they make a run for it and nate is out there, waiting in a getaway car.

hardison’s safehouse is a bit ridiculous, little furniture and a toiletless bathroom. they start to bicker but nate brings them to focus. hardison has the blueprints splayed out on a table and they start making plans again- easy- just like they did before. 

sophie tries to apologize to them in a tactless way, but they come around eventually. they take a moment, hardison, eliot, and parker, to christen the house with the painting of old nate and sophie directs them how to position it. things feel familiar, normal, and comfortable.

eliot, much to nate’s dismay, meets a willing maggie for lunch. she recognizes the button cam immediately, but takes a moment to make nate very uncomfortable because she’s cool like that. parker likes her for that.

she’s mad- furious in fact. but she agrees to participate in the con and performs wonderfully. parker is a little proud. and then the showing opens, and parker is at the reception desk, taking coats and bags. sterling and his entourage pass her and he talks about every country that wants her in prison, and she almost laughs. she settles on a smile instead.

the con plays perfectly, as almost all of theirs do. she puts the fake statues in all the bags she’s collected and watches it play out. and then they get to work hiding the artwork. they hide in the basement as their plan comes to a head, listening to the chaos above them. nate makes a deal with sterling and everyone leaves except nate and maggie. they come down to meet her, hardison, eliot, and sophie and get to work placing the works of art back in their places.

before long, they are all in an airport hangar, empty except for the five of them. nate tells them how the team has changed him, how they’ve done so much good in their time together. she feels tears prick at her eyes and her stomach has dropped and a part of her can’t believe that this is how it ends.

hardison asks her where she’s going and she smiles, and tells him he will just have to look. they all look at each other and somehow, although she’s still not that good at reading people, they feel the same way as her. it should bring her comfort, but it doesn’t.

one by one they turn and go their separate ways, including her. each step she takes feels harder and more definitive than the last. her heart feels low in her chest and her skin tingles in a way that she’s never experienced before.

spain, she thinks. spain is nice this time of year.

maybe then the weird feeling in her chest will go away. the tugging in her heart said it wouldn’t.

[gnar-slabdash]

2.12 The Zanzibar Marketplace Job

ytyMAGGIE MAGGIE MAGGIE MAGGIE MAGGIE!!!!

Everything abt the Sterling sequence, obvs.  “Eliot, I’m going to ask you not to do anything violent.” “What are you talking about, I only use violence as a rational response” Hardison fucking paying off the bartender and Parker’s kitty cat smile

I fucking love how polite Maggie is to Parker

OOH THERE’S THE PARK BLOCKS! Whenever they need to pretend they’re in a European area they use the park blocks

Sterling what the fuck are you wearing, is that a fucking purple brocade shirt under a gold brocade tie? You really woke up this morning and thought “I wanna give Nate’s Ho Ho Ho Job outfit a run for its money” didn’t you?

“Most thieves aren’t nearly as smart or good-looking as they think they are” when he fucking THINKS it’s an edged compliment toward the other guy but to Maggie it just sounds like a self-burn lmao and then Tara’s just like “let’s rub it in that sounds fun” i love it.

you know what else I love? Parker’s DRESS in this episode. This isn’t the only time she wears that, is it? Just like with guest stars I never know if I recognize an outfit from a different episode or last time i watched this one.

I looooooove that the Magical Intercom Voice magically goes unnoticed 90% of the time but Maggie’s allowed to spot it every time

I love the bad guy who gets locked in with Nate and Maggie while they’re totally forgetting what’s going on in favor of arguing with each other. Poor guy.

[vickyvicarious]

Leverage Breakfast Club AU:

Brain - Hardison

ubergenius, is in detention for suspected hacking to change everyone's grades to an A in a class with a nasty teacher, but no one can actually prove it was him so they just officially busted him for like skipping class or whatever. He enjoys orchestra and computer class but is generally not very popular and most of the classes aren't super interesting to him.

Outcast - Parker

just kinda shows up places, including detention sometimes. will sketch the people in there, steal all their stuff, return some of it maybe. is basically only in school because her mentor told her she should graduate, main focus is on becoming a better thief.

Princess - Sophie

always tries out for school plays and fails miserably, but is very successful at playing the role of popular student. Not really sure what her own identity is, does things she doesn't even care about to fit in and then agonizes over it a little - but its so much easier to just be what people want and then get what she wants by making them like her, than to be genuine. In for skipping class.

Jock - Eliot

Popular, good at sports, but his family is strained (financially/parentally) and he has a lot of toxic masculinity influencing him from his dad. Constantly feels like he should be doing more, being more of a man, is ashamed of liking stuff like home ec for more than just the hot teacher, enjoying nerdy movies, etc. If he catches himself doing something that doesn't fit his dad's ideals often overcompensates in the other direction. In for bullying someone together with other members of the football team.

Rebel - Nate

....although he's mainly just the rebel in the sense that he constantly and willfully pisses off the teachers he dislikes, plus has shady family connections. He's very good in class, chess club, religious and generally kind, and considers himself definitely morally superior to these people (at first), but also can be extremely nasty if you piss him off

Principal - Dubenich

Wants to keep tight control over the school, and gets extremely pissed off when things don't go his way, but can actually be rather manipulative

Janitor - ???

I tried to think of a character who could fill that sometimes friendly but sometimes antagonistic role (but who recognizes them for who they are and demonstrates understanding/support in the end) and I was just coming up with Sterling. Which could work but he's not really a supporting character/he's do ambitious the role doesn't fully seem to fit him especially if I want him and Nate to have a significant relationship

.

Some story beats:

Sophie secretly really admires Parker for being herself so unabashedly, but also feels like she needs to help her learn to fit in for her own good. Parker doesn't fully even conceive of herself as a person so much as a tool still being molded a lot of the time, so this admiration is unexpected

Hardison/Eliot bickering that is tense between like bullying but also maybe a little bit of flirting and also maybe a respectful rivalry sort of sometimes, or recognizing they could be good friends if not for Eliot's hangups (+maybe Hardison being defensive)

Nate and Sophie have some UST built up but each are hesitant to engage with the other and tend to argue when they talk for any length of time

Eliot and Sophie travel in some of the same social circles but haven't interacted much. They're both decent at sniffing out a fake and recognize that in one another but till now its only made them want to stay away, not relate to each other

Hardison has had a big crush on Parker for a while but has no idea what to talk to her about and she hasn't really noticed him much

[eyrieofsynapses]

I’ve been thinking about The Big Bang Job again (like always), and the crew’s pasts, specifically their response to Eliot’s:

Sophie: Look, we all have a past. You don't have to tell us anything, Eliot.

The crew agreed, essentially from the beginning, not to ask about each other’s histories. Yeah, they’d be inclined to, and they would share if they wanted to, but there was never any obligation to tell each other anything they didn’t want to.

The first conclusion I originally drew from that, without thinking about it, is that they didn’t care about each other’s pasts. They don’t care about what each other did.

But that doesn't make sense. They care about each other and their mental well-being, right? And they’re all in a healing process. They’re all trying to figure out how to deal with their pasts and who they are now.

Understanding and untangling your past experiences and emotions is essential to healing. Your past is not separate from who you are now. It’s a piece of you, something that shapes you, how you act, what you do. You can change that with time and effort—but those experiences will always be there.

To help someone heal, you have to care about their past, in order to recognize how it impacts them now and what they need to move past it.

From the very beginning, the crew helps each other deal with and process their struggles. They help each other heal. They do care about their pasts. But it’s more complex than that, clearly, so how does it work?

That brought me back to this quote, in the same scene, and once again from Sophie:

Sophie: Kill Atherton? (scoffs) You can't. You're not that man anymore.

“You’re not that man anymore.” They know of Eliot’s past. But they also know who he is now, and that what he did doesn’t represent that.

Eliot is the most convenient example, thanks to this scene, but this is true of all of them. Nate is not the old insurance investigator who believed himself above them. Hardison isn’t the careless, arrogant kid who cared only to prove himself and didn’t always think about the consequences of his actions. His origin as a foster kid doesn’t define him, nor does it define Parker. Parker’s history of abuse doesn’t represent who she is now. She doesn’t have to sit in it, to let it haunt her.

Sophie… as of the original canon (I don’t know about Redemption), we don’t know much of Sophie’s past. But the hurt her grifts caused, the heartbreak, the people she preyed on—that doesn’t define her, either.

They live in the present. They see what they can become, not what they were, not what they are now. It isn’t that they don’t care; it’s that they don’t let the past define each other.

Why? Because you cannot change the past. Lingering on it only leaves you stuck in the moment.

And I might be wrong here, but I wonder… isn’t this what Nate’s story is about? Isn’t he trying to stop lingering on Sam, to move on, to define himself beyond the insurance investigator?

Isn’t that what his declaration at the end of The Maltese Falcon Job represents?

My name's Nate Ford, and I am a thief.

Nate is redefining himself. He’s spent the last two seasons calling himself a man of honor, thinking of himself as the insurance investigator instead of who he is now, trying to hang on to that…

Nate: Okay, you want a message? Here's a message. You're wasting your time. All right? You know, y-you don't figure out who you are by -- by roaming the earth, you know, or -- or hiding in London, you know? Look, nobody -- nobody knows who they are. Nobody knows who they are. I mean, you know, you think you do, And then life -- it just - it tears it out of you, and -- and you live with that, and... Look, there is no answer.

…and I think, partly through Sophie, he figures that out. He thought he knew who he was. For the last few years, he’s been clinging to that, to that vision of himself. But he has to accept that that isn’t who he is anymore. He’s not totally sure what he is.

But there’s one thing he does know: he’s a thief. Nate has recognized that he is something new, and he may not know all of what it is yet, but this is a starting point.

And that starting point also happens to be defining himself as one of the people who helped him figure that out. It’s identification with his new family.

Anyway, there’s a longer meta there, but back to my original point: the crew helps Nate to let go of that past and redefine himself, and they do it for each other, too.

Here’s the thing: for Nate to move on, he had to deal with his past, and the crew cared about it. They cared about Sam, about what he lost. Eliot even confronts him about it right at the start, apologizes and offers sympathy:

Eliot: Listen, I’m sorry about your kid.

Nate: You don’t know anything about that.

Eliot: Everybody knows. A guy like you goes off the street, a lot of people notice. And it was a bad story, too. How did they justify that, huh? The insurance company just not paying for his treatment?

But their journey is about helping Nate define himself beyond the grief. He confronts it, and then he begins to move on. It’s not just him, either, even if he’s the most obvious.

It’s Parker, with the crew learning about her history, about what she went through, and helping her build a family beyond it and understand that her strength is in who she is.

It’s Hardison, learning that he doesn’t have to prove himself, that he can have confidence in himself and who he is.

It’s Sophie, realizing she doesn’t have to hurt others to feel good: she can build up by teaching them, by showing them these things and how they can move on.

And it’s Eliot, seeing that they do not care about who he was, that the blood on his hands is not all he is, that he can help and heal and defend and build instead of tearing down.

Let’s come back to The Big Bang Job. This is why they don’t respond to Eliot with disgust, with judgement, with hatred. No… they answer with sympathy, with care, with love! Love! In the face of a gory and bloody and horrible history, they answer with love!

What else could you call the protectiveness they immediately answer with? They distance him, they say no, we’ll handle it, we’ll keep you safe, they keep him away from Moreau at all costs, and not once do they mention their fury that he didn’t say anything again. They understand.

See, Parker’s abusive past, Nate’s grief—those things hurt them in ways we get and easily sympathize to. Things were done to them, tore them apart. But Eliot’s past hurt him too.

It’s not just the PTSD from battle, either. Hurting other people, Moreau’s manipulation, all of that, that hurt him, and his grief and guilt from all the horrible things he did haunts him every day. They know that.

Yeah, he did horrible things, but it left him just as broken. But he surmounted that! He chose to become someone better! If they linger on that past, judge him by it, think of him as that person, they’ll only hurt him and his progress. He needs to be seen as what he is now. Just as they have to look at Parker and Nate as more than their grief, they have to see Eliot as more than the blood on his hands.

Eliot doesn’t totally get that at first, I think, because he doesn’t see himself as anything more than that blood, yet. He spends the whole season in fear of what they’ll think of him when they find out he worked for Moreau. To him, that’s who he is, no matter how he pretends otherwise. He makes his choices, and he’s chosen to be a better man, but isn’t that still what he is? Doesn’t he deserve the anger, the hatred, the fear?

Yet this season is… it’s also about showing that the crew as a whole doesn’t believe that, I think. Parker reveals her past in The Inside Job and The Boost Job, and they put it aside to raise her up and aid her. Three Card Monte shows off Nate’s childhood, the vicious anger and grief over his father, and yet, like always, they support him anyway. Sophie even reveals a piece of the person she once was in The King George Job, how cruel her past grifts could be, and they show no judgement.

Hardison… Hardison’s harder, because he didn’t cause much in the way of pain. But that, in and of itself, is powerful. He’s compassionate, he’s done the least harm, he’s had the best raising of all of them. Of all of them, he has the right to judge. It seems he shouldn’t extend that kindness. But he does. Every time, he puts their pasts aside and welcomes them with open arms.

We see some of the fruits of that in the fourth season: Parker begins to recognize that she’s worthy of love. Eliot knows he can reveal the darkest and deepest pieces of himself and process them safely. (Could he have said the things he did to the interrogator in The Experimental Job, without that? I wonder.)

All of them can see that they are safe to say “here, this is what I’ve done, this is my pain,” and that they’ll receive support and care in place of judgement.

The crew answers with compassion for the grief and agony that Eliot’s past has caused him, not with disgust and anger over what that past consists of, because that’s what he needs. He’s their family. How else could they answer?

This is the strength of Leverage's storytelling. It does not excuse their characters for what they have done. It recognizes their pasts and the damage they have done, and that lingering on it won't change a thing now.

And what is Leverage but that? What is it but a demand for us to recognize the things this human greed has done? What is it but a call to action?

This is what it says to us: "This is in the past. This is not something we can change. But we can do better now. So stand up, and change things."

(Quotes taken from transcripts provided by Leverage, Seriously.)

[coffeesuperhero]

Okay so not a soft ask but I need the content because this is a show that slipped through right to Xmas and I need??? the leverage ot3 Halloween headcanons, so like...

Pleaseeee

first of all re: halloween and this show-- you’re right and you should say it 

second of all, this got real long so apologies to your dashboards 

okay. so at first I was like, Parker loves Halloween, because she loves costumes anyway, she wanders around in Nate’s apartment in that nun’s habit for at least several hours for no reason other than she seems to really enjoy it, but then I thought, you know, idk if she does actually get Halloween at first, just because like-- they already wear costumes a lot, first of all, and second of all, she’s Parker, if she wants to show up in some random outfit she’ll just....do that, any day of the year, so like, what’s the deal with this one special day? Is everyone else just really that boring? The main appeal seems to be the sudden availability of large amounts of candy, easily stolen from stores or unwitting children, but it’s not like candy is suddenly unavailable the rest of the year. 

Eliot I think swears up and down he doesn’t care one way or the other about it, but secretly in his heart would not mind sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows and telling scary stories with the two of them, except that they sort of tried that one year when Hardison was trying to Explain Halloween and put like a fake log fire on the tv and made microwave s’mores and neither Parker nor Eliot found Hardison’s stories particularly scary, and after Parker and Eliot each had a turn Hardison got up, turned on every light in his apartment, declared that a) he was never going to sleep again and it was all their fault and b) scary campfire stories are supposed to be about ghosts what the fuck  y’all???? and Eliot had to make him Special Popcorn with chocolate on it and sit through several zombie-themed movies before Hardison would stop complaining, so probably he’s never going to talk them into, you know, actual camping and scary campfire tales. 

Hardison I think really really enjoys Halloween. He likes that everybody in his online circles changes their social media profiles to some clever spooky shit for a month, it makes him laugh. He likes candy and he liked trick-or-treating when he was a kid, all dressed up like his favorite superheroes, and later he liked taking his foster siblings around the neighborhood when he was Too Old To Dress Up but not too old to enjoy how much the younger ones loved it, the thrill they got when somebody knew what their costumes were or the way they’d hold on extra tight to his hand when one of their neighbors opened the door dressed up as something spooky, or everybody laying on the floor of nana’s living room later that night dividing up candy and trading and squabbling over what they liked and didn’t and falling asleep to whatever halloween tv movie was on, and as an adult he knows now how much work it took Nana to save up for costumes but they had ‘em every year and every year he thinks about Nana and all of his foster siblings and I think he misses them a little. He tries to Make Halloween Happen with the crew for a couple of years, mostly with Parker and Eliot because it’s pretty clear that this is not Sophie’s jam and Nate has Bad Memories associated with this day because of his kid, but after the Very Bad, Horrible, No Good Scary Stories Incident of 2010, after which he swears he did not sleep for a week, he kinda gives up. 

But then they’re in Portland and they’ve got the brewpub which Eliot has worked really hard to turn into his own restaurant, which means seasonal stuff and sometimes community stuff happens there, and on October 31st the local restaurants in their district are all doing Halloween stuff and letting in families with trick-or-treaters and Hardison’s like, “We don’t have to,” but Eliot just kinda shrugs and mumbles something about how it’ll look weird if they don’t, maybe, and Parker says something like, they don’t want to stand out, this is still supposed to be a cover, so Hardison signs them up too. And families come in with their kids and it reminds him of his foster siblings and a little bit of himself, all these kids in their superhero costumes-- Thor and Iron Man and even!! a little Miles Morales!! and he isn’t crying, you’re crying, probably, about that!!, and he excuses himself for a bit from handing-out-candy-at-the-door duty for a second, but when he comes back he sees that Parker (who is wearing all black and a headband with cat ears and has painted whiskers on her face) has taken over handing out candy at the door and is smiling? and doesn’t?? seem to be stealing any of it??? or scaring the children???? and Eliot’s bringing plates of food to a couple of families and their kids and he isn’t dressed up but he does take a second to stop and point out a couple of their costumes that he recognizes and the kids smile and he gives them a high five (for morale, Hardison thinks, smiling) before he heads back to the kitchen, and this is the best Halloween that Hardison has ever had, probably, here with two people who did this just because he cared about it, no other reason. 

“Next year you’re gonna be Batman,” he tells Eliot later, when they’re all in bed. 

“Good luck with that,” Eliot growls. 

“See? You already got the voice down,” Hardison tells him. “Parker dressed up.” 

“I did,” she says. “It was fun. I told you he’d be happier if you dressed up.” 

“I’m not gonna be Batman,” Eliot tells her, and Hardison realizes this leaves the possibility open that he will be other things.

“How do you feel about Indiana Jones?” Hardison suggests, tapping his chin and thinking mostly of Eliot’s chest and back and half-unbuttoned shirts and trousers that actually fit. 

“You’d get to have a whip,” Parker says, and really, Hardison thinks, he should have led with that. 

“Oh yeah? What kind?” Eliot asks, sounding vaguely interested. 

“The whippy kind?” Parker says, flinging her arm out like she’s trying to use an invisible whip. “You know. Snap snap, whoosh. Whip.” 

"There’s a lot of different kinds of whips,” Eliot says, and of course he knows this, of course he does. “Bull whip? Cat o’nine? Snake whip? Signal?” 

Hardison peers over at him. “How,” he starts to say, and then shakes his head. “No, you know what? We are going to sleep, and tomorrow we are going to get a whip lecture, I guess, while we watch Indiana Jones.” 

“Okay,” Parker says, and Eliot grumbles something, but he doesn’t say no, and right before Hardison falls asleep Eliot mumbles something else that sounds like happy halloween, Hardison and yeah, this was a good year for Halloween. 

[cuban-feminist-that-gives-a-hoot]

Leverage: Redemption

There will be spoilers. Massive spoilers. Plus some angry ranting. Short answer is I loved it and I so hope they decide on a second season.

Let's get the angry ranting out the way.

1. Some folks are acting religious with their hate for Maria Shipp. Knock it off. I loved her, and not as a romantic thing for Eliot, but more of who she is as an individual. She's someone that has her own convictions, beliefs, and boundaries that she will not cross. Her and Eliot were good for each other right now, but as a forever thing? No. Her being there does not mean that OT3 was being shat on. If anything, it only confirmed it further because the only ones that Eliot could open up to freely are Hardison and Parker. With all the hate on her for some stupid reasons, I honestly want to see more of her to spite the haters. Eliot needs a cop friend too, just like Hardison and Parker have Taggert & McSweeten. For those of you shitting on her because of copaganda, copaganda has always existed in Leverage. It's just that they've also balanced it with a fuck the cops attitude too. Stop it.

2. The OT3 not being explicitly in the text is not queerbaiting. Those saying that shit is fucking wrong. We've gotten more queer rep from this one season than we've gotten from many, many other shows that don't even hit the bar. Please knock it off with that shit. They didn't destroy the OT3. It is still safe, as promised.

3. For those that mourn the loss of Nathan Ford, I'm going to need you all to recognize that killing him off was the right choice, both for the story and for behind-the-scenes reasons. Nate was my favorite too, but his death was the right choice. I'm not seeing that much here on Tumblr, but on Reddit? Hoo boy... *sigh*

Now that the angry is done, let's talk about the good.

1. Harry Wilson is such a delight for a character and I adore him. He has done some really, really shady and terrible shit, yet he's trying so hard to do good. If it were another actor in the role instead of Noah Wyle, it would not have been as good or convincing as the lawyer looking for redemption after causing so many, many issues with his policy of no sides picked. While I am sad that he is leaving the crew to be a better, nicer lawyer, I do hope he comes back to do consulting work. Everyone needs a little Fixer in their lives.

2. Breanna is a darling and I am so glad that we have her. Watching her grow and improve has been an amazing journey. If there is a second season, I so hope we not only get more of her, but I also hope she continues her relationship with Emily. They are just the cutest couple!

3. The team from Leverage: Con Artists being canon to the Leverage universe is just such a happy, happy thing and now gives me a reason to watch it, if only to know the context.

4. The Great Train Job needs to come with a trigger warning because that beginning intro was not even remotely OK for folks that are coming into it blind. Yet that was the episode that gave me the most satisfaction (besides The Harry Wilson Job) in watching the mark getting utterly destroyed.

5. The Bucket Job is by far the sweetest episode out of the whole season. That episode is just pure magic, from start to finish. Definitely one my top 3 for the entire season.

6. The brief moments that we had Hardison were fantastic and I do hope that we get more of him, should there be a 2nd season. Because you want to know what's better than a 5-Person Found Family Crew? A 6 Person Found Family Crew!

Loved Leverage: Redemption and I want more. Please let this show do so well that they'll give us a 2nd season. And if they don't, then it still ends on a satisfying note.

[smallblueandloud]

some leverage: redemption reactions

i finished leverage redemption today! and i don't have anyone to talk to about it so, here we have my reactions for all eight episodes, both positive and negative. please feel free to reblog/comment -- discussions are what i'm here for! (under a cut because spoilers and also this ended up being 2k. whoops!)

EPISODE 1: the too many rembrandts job

the "aww, this guy is trying to pull his first heist! how cute" job

what they chose to do with nate was... interesting. it might just be that i read too many of those cracky "here's how they should explain nate's absence" posts, but i was expecting something funny. the grief permeating this episode -- it makes SENSE, but it was still weird. leverage doesn't usually have sadness like this. pain, yes, rage, certainly, but sadness? not usually

the way sophie immediately spots the signs of a con and slips into a character? phenomenal. i'm here for EXPERTS BEING EXPERTS and this show does NOT disappoint

harry wilson is a really solid character! most impressively, he's not flynn, which is impressive enough that i'm making a whole bullet point about it. i was worried that noah wyle was kinda a one-trick pony, but it appears not! good for him tbh

i'm LIVING for the ot3 moments in this episode. "what happened?" "we happened" YESSSSS!!! i wish we'd had more domesticity, but i know they did what they could

"he gets it from his father" FUCK!!!!!

the discussion about redemption in this episode is FANTASTIC but personally i am still delirious with excitement about "my nana leads a multi-denominational household" so expect those thoughts in 3-5 business days

EPISODE 2: the panamanian monkey job

the "flash electropop concert" job

BREANNA INTRODUCTION! i love her so MUCH, y'all. we only got to see her dynamic with hardison in this one episode, but man, it manages to be one of her best dynamics anyway. i just! i love her! i love the way the team works with her!

"in our field, you're one of the best. but there, you're the only one." god we have ELIOT/HARDISON rights and i am NOT OKAY. just!! them!!!!!! being supportive!!!!!! they have learned how to be sweet with each other! they work together so much better (in part because we're seeing them from harry's outsider pov instead of nate's insider pov, but STILL)

midway through this episode, i thought "huh, leverage always focuses on specific people, when really the problem is systematic, and pretending it's anything different is just an excuse to not fight for change". and then at the end harry talks about how the system itself is broken! i love knowing that john rogers and i were reading the same tweets last summer. it's a good feeling to trust the people making a piece of media

who let noah wyle speak spanish. whoever it was, they need to rescind their permission

god, the parker/hardison in this episode. THE PARKER/HARDISON IN THIS EPISODE! they KILL me friends they KILL ME!

also just like, hardison in this episode in general. he made a star trek reference! he made a doctor who reference! he decides there are other people who need him more! the way they wrote around gina bellman's maternity leave in s2 was good but this was phenomenal.

also i'm here for ot3 crumbs so "is this like the time when eliot wanted us to say no" is going on my ot3-is-canon conspiracy board

this is a tiny detail but eliot taking out the drone with a goddamn ORANGE was so good. he's so good at his job!! they're all so good at their jobs!! i know i literally just talked about this but AAA

EPISODE 3: the rollin' on the river job

the "sometimes you just want to rob a vault wearing a floofy dress, and that's valid" job

i did... not. like. how the villain in this one was an immigrant whose exploitable weakness was a "desperation" to be included in the upper crust. and the fact that they beat him with a literal southern belle who explicitly beats him BECAUSE her family has been in the area for "hundreds of years"? it just feels Iffy.

also iffy about this episode was breanna's characterization. it felt inconsistent. she feels inconsistent across the whole season, but this episode in particular... she tells harry she's only with the team because she's desperate, that she doesn't believe in hope, and then at the end of the episode she tells parker she wants to be there to change the world. and like, even in the first place, she's not here out of desperation! SHE asked to join the team! like, i can see how it all kinda fits together, but it just feels... inconsistent. idk. i think these scripts all could've benefited from an extra round or two of editing.

anyway! i loved the way they tied hardison into these episodes, even though aldis hodge couldn't be there. he has binders! breanna doesn't want to read them! parker did! he put in big letters, "when in doubt, trust the person in the van". i'm just so !!! about how much i love him and how much he loves his team and how much his team loves him. FOUND FAMILY, BABY!

all inconsistencies in breanna's characterization aside, i really liked her speech at the end. i know how she feels! it's really nice to have someone on the team who's from -- not my world, really, but a lot closer than any of the others. it's a nice feeling! i love her a lot. i hope her writing gets more consistent

lol, parker ate eliot's carrot cake. i love the parker/eliot rights we get in this show, they're so domestic and it's wonderful.

EPISODE 4: the tower job

the "hardison made his partners learn klingon" job

watching this episode was what made me go "they're not going to make us sit through a harry/sophie romance... right? right?"

i'm still not sure they're gonna let us avoid it but it COULD work so... i've decided to just not worry about it for now

i liked the number of ways the con goes wrong! it was fun to watch them work on the fly like that. i think them not having a dedicated Mastermind(tm) is a good watsonian explanation for their plans being pretty haphazard in general, but it's good, they think well on their feet

nate was a chessmaster. he had the whole situation in his mind from the beginning, accounting for every possible outcome. parker and sophie are much more adaptive, and it's cool to see. they can rely on their respective skillsets a lot more than nate could

a really solid episode! probably one of the strongest ones in the season. i liked it a lot.

(ALSO as mentioned above the klingon lines were fantastic and not just because they were a star trek reference -- every time eliot and parker both mentioned hardison, together, it added a year to my lifespan)

EPISODE 5: the paranormal hacktivity job

the "sophie was worryingly prepared to fake her death" job

i know why they characterized the client as a skeptic, i really do, and i loved the format of this episode, but also. But Also. she should've been a love interest for breanna and I'm Right.

having a girl's episode was the CORRECT choice. they do crimes in their free time! they fleece newbie, cruel criminals! it's so good!

it would've been cool to have eliot around for the assassin guy, but it was also cool to see the others take him out without having eliot to rely on. it's like getting to see how they'd take out eliot, if they were ever on opposing sides.

PARKER CANONICALLY USES SCRIPTS IT'S THE BEST THING EVER

breanna bristling about letting the criminal into the theater's electric system was so good god i love her so much. she knows hardware! i bet she likes to work with her hands. i bet she stims. i bet she has adhd

actually, sidenote, but i LOVE these headquarters. they look so nice! the stage is so nice! i loved having an episode set in and around it, it was such a good choice.

EPISODE 6: the card game job

the "FINALLY AN EXPLICITLY QUEER LEVERAGE CHARACTER" job

QUEER BREANNA QUEER BREANNA QUEER BREANNA QUEER BR

UNFOLLOW ME NOW THIS IS GONNA BE THE ONLY THING I POST ABOUT FOR THE REST OF TIME

GOD, what a good way to reveal it. it's fully about her! i love queer romances, of course i do, but i don't think i've ever seen a character come out without a romance being their reason for doing so (however indirectly). i still think she should've gotten a date with the client from 1x05, but i really liked this too.

this episode just felt like a love letter to fandom, and i love that. i love how much it shone through. i'm used to writers specifically going out of their way to make fun of fans and laugh at them, so it was just. really nice to have someone stand up and go, no, this is important for a reason! people love this for a reason! it MEANS something!

very fun to watch eliot swordfight. very fun to watch sophie recite a sonnet in her classic fashion. very fun to watch parker work at being a good mentor. breanna was so excited about the card game! they're all so good!

oh, and i guess harry's here too.

EPISODE 7: the double-edged sword job

the "harry is addicted to mobile games, which is a mood" job

hot take alert! i think this is the weakest episode of the season by a LOT. it needed so much more editing. it felt so disjointed, so all over the place. the plot was haphazard but in a muffled way, where you had no idea why they were doing what they were doing. the climax was sudden and didn't make any sense. it was just weird.

i'm not the person to comment on this but it feels kind of lazy to cast an east asian guy to play a socially-awkward tech genius. just a thought.

oh, of course jonathan frakes directed this episode. sometimes his stuff is really good but other times (ahem, ds9 3x02) it's disjointed and all over the place. i'm not even surprised it was him.

idk if i have anything else to say about this. oh! some of the team moments were great -- mostly involving eliot. i loved the moment of him recognizing the headshot, i LOVED the ten seconds of everyone teasing him. he and parker talked about the wellbeing of their friend, the woman whose ex tracked her down!

separate bulletpoint to say how much i LOVED his conversation with breanna outside the house. he's so good at reassuring! he could go deeper there, talking about being better than your worst day, but he knew when not to push! it was so good.

"first off, this guy can't TOUCH hardison" deserves its own bulletpoint because like. y'all. Y'ALL.

EPISODE 8: the mastermind job

the "eliot is more than just a pretty face" job

oh man this post is so much longer than i thought it would be. okay just one more episode and then i'm done.

the callbacks to original leverage were SO well done and made me feel emotions without feeling overbearing.

i didn't like the central premise -- that nate would share so many details with a random insurance agent -- in the first place, but i did like how it allowed them to bring back nate without actually hiring timerty mcasshole.

i liked eliot's insistence that he's more than just the muscle! he is, and it's really good to know, textually, that the writers do too!

me, watching the resolution of the episode: ah, yeah, insurance fraud. a classic!

harry bonding with his guard had "they don't even have dental!" energy and i am SUCH a fan. i know it was all for the con but also give me harry, unable to stop advising people, even when they're actively holding him hostage

parker! on the phone with hardison!!!! ADORABLE

is it just me or was someone else expecting the accountant's name to be something significant? with the way they led up to it, i was waiting for a "sterling" or something else. my sensors were pinging for another tara reveal. i'm still convinced we're gonna get this guy dramatically revealed in the season finale.

a really nice episode! i had a lot of fun with it. and now i want to rewatch the rashamon job, but tbh i ALWAYS want to rewatch the rashamon job.

and that's a wrap! overall, a fun season, i enjoyed it a lot. not as solid as original leverage, but it's the very beginning, and it was put together during a global pandemic, so i'm cutting them some slack. also levar burton is gonna show up at some point. that's a big reason of why i'm cutting them so much slack.

my personal ranking of the episodes is 1x04, 1x06, 1x08, 1x01, 1x02, 1x03, and finally last (and least), 1x07.

what did you guys think of the new season? what was your favorite episode? do you agree with any of my opinions? disagree with any? let me know, please, i'd love to discuss!

[goodplace-janet]

Leverage s2e7, the two live crew job

this opener is breaking my heart

this receptionist has crimped hair?? what year is this

(according to wikipedia, the style came back into fashion around 2007-2008. my friends and i did that to our hair as elementary school kids in the late 90s, so idk)

love the food delivery recon role, the same one pizza guy eliot was trying in the last episode

okay, so dude who recognized sophie was part of the other thief team

““they”“ want her dead - why?

the pudding (parker you genius!!) made it so the bomb would think it wasn’t moving... so... put the vase on a table??

obviously that’s not dramatic enough, but like

I CAN’T BELIEVE

THEY CUT TO HER FUNERAL

faking her death so ““they”“ don’t come after her and she has time to regroup is great, it’s the most sensible move, AND YET

“which probably doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but it is to me” :’(

THE HACKERS ARE USING THE SAME FREQUENCY

AND TRYING TO HACK EACH OTHER NOW

i love this

also can we talk about hardison’s scarf collection? i don’t mention it as often, but i love his fashion style

i’m loving everything about these counterpart confrontations

did eliot already speak hebrew or did he sit down with google translate in case he needed to exchange pre-fight banter

did the other nate already steal the gallery

“i’m nathan ford, i’m with the insurance company” this motherfucker

i always feel weird when our team uses existing identities? so i do like that they’re seeing what it’s like to get fucked over by that. it’s probably not going to change their tactics, but still

i get that it’s just jokes, but

and then we have sophie devereaux, who only ever uses a (somewhat?) fake identity

i don’t have a whole lot to say about this sophie arc? i do like it, though.

love how the teams (minus one attempted murderer) are buddies now. the comparing scars scene was cute

[distinctivelibrarians]

Here

(read on ao3)

"Would you stop moving already?" All that earned him was a look that would've had any decent hitter worth their salt running for the hills and waving goodbye to their contract.

Good thing Hardison had the sense his Nana gave him, and not whatever messed up crap passed for a hitter's 'good' sense.

"Glare all you want, E. Nurse Gail ain't here - was she even a nurse? Huh, really? Cool - so you got me. That's what happens when you run into burning warehouses with no warning."

"For the last time, it was not on fire-"

"It was when Mr. Evil CEO of the Week blew it up."

"That was after-"

Hardison waved his hand dismissively, as he had each time Eliot had tried to argue the point in the last hour. “Yeah, yeah, after you ran in, after he said he was going to detonate.” It was his turn to level a glare at the hitter, and Eliot, at least, looked a little repentant. For a second.

“That blast barely took out a wall-”

“The one you were standing in front of.” Hardison interjected, even as he continued to dab lightly at another deep scrape he’d found with antiseptic.

“It barely took out a wall, and I got to the office before he could fuck anything else up.”

Which, fair. If their current target had been any more competent, he might’ve actually succeeded at burning the evidence they needed. As it was though, all he’d really managed to do was bring a wall down on Eliot, thereby royally pissing him off and...no, that was about it.

They’d passed the file off to McSweeten with a pretty bow - or as good as - and then hightailed it back to the pub before Eliot could go on an actual warpath. One would think having metal sheeting, rebar, and drywall dropped on oneself would slow most people down. But, it wasn’t until both him and Parker had hauled the man back to their apartment, back to the safety of their home, that Eliot even seemed to realize he had been hurt.

Which is when he’d started whining.

Hardison would not dignify his petulant moaning with any other word. It had started as soon as Hardison had sat his ass down after a quick shower to take a look at all the new scrapes and cuts and bruises, and hadn’t let up since.

“Not the point,” is all Hardison said as he moved onto the next cut - this one deep enough that it had started bleeding sluggishly again with all the moving Eliot was doing.

Eliot sighed, hard, through his nose, like he did when he was annoyed, but too tired to actually do much about it. “Then what is the point?”

And Hardison paused then, hand pressing a gauze to Eliot’s arm before he could wrap it.

“The point, Eliot, is that we didn’t see that it was just a wall.” Hardison offers after a long moment of weighing his words - weighing how this could go. Eliot had been fired up since they’d gotten back, only just putting up with Hardison mother-henning him. Parker had taken one look at that mess, rolled her eyes, and gone to clean up the mess with McSweeten. She’d been nearly vibrating out of her skin, and Hardison couldn’t blame her one bit, because he kind of felt like that too.

They hadn’t seen that it was just a wall. All they’d heard was a deep rumbling blast as the building shook and smoke started pouring out. They hadn’t seen that Eliot had gotten right back up and kept running. All they’d heard was static over the earpiece.

The silence that answers him tells him Eliot finally, finally, gets it.

Hardison lets the silence linger as he moves on to the next scrape, this one blooming an ugly blue-purple that’s almost black. It’s not...joy Hardison feels, when Eliot hisses as he pokes at it. That would be mean. But it is something, because it means Eliot’s here, and Hardison’s mad that for a second Eliot, even by accident, made them think that he wasn’t. And, quite frankly, Eliot could deal with it.

“Could you at least try to be gentle? I’ve seen the way you handle that damn computer, I know it’s possible.” Eliot mutters after another hiss, absolutely no heat behind it. If anything, it sounds more like something to break the silence, rather than picking up his tirade from earlier.

“I am being gentle. You just got turned into a punching bag.” Hardison shoots back, letting the fragile cut of his spine relax a little bit.

“Let me rephrase - everything fucking hurts, stop poking.” Eliot snaps, and Hardison rolls his eyes but does ease off a touch. Eliot actually admitting he’s in pain is an olive branch he recognizes from way too long spent with this man, and he’s in no mood to smack it away.

“You bleeding anywhere else?” Hardison asks as he leans back to get a look. Eliot shrugs a shoulder, wincing as it tugs at the bruises littering his ribs.

“Nah, think you got ‘em all, Nurse Alec.” And the grin he gives is cheeky, even if his eyes are shiny with pain and exhaustion. Hardison snorts at him, but grins back, standing and offering a hand to haul him up off the edge of the bathtub. Eliot lets him, for a wonder, and even lets Hardison lead him to their bedroom without so much as a grumble - which tells him all he needs to know about how much that pain is actually setting in now.

Hardison tries to help Eliot onto the bed, but gets shooed away. “Enough with the poking and prodding,” Eliot says, wincing as he sinks down to sit, “I just want to get some sleep.”

“Then tell me you’re okay.” Hardison says, not really thinking about it before it’s out of his mouth. But, now that it is, he really, really needs to hear it.

Eliot’s quiet for a long moment, watching him with an expression Hardison can’t read. “...Like I said, everything hurts. But I’m here, and I’m okay.”

And Hardison has to break the somber atmosphere before he vibrates out of his skin. “You keep saying that. You sure about it?”

There’s a crinkle around the deep set of Eliot’s eyes that tells Hardison he’s both being humored, and laughed at, in equal measures. “I think the injured are allowed to exaggerate.”

Hardison snorts, dropping down carefully beside him on the bed, “Oh really? So then, where doesn’t it hurt? I want to know where to elbow you in my sleep later tonight. Payback and all that.”

“Don’t even joke - you’re elbows are like glass and you know it.” Eliot says with an exaggerated shudder. Though, to be honest, he didn’t even need to exaggerate, and both him and Hardison knew it. Both Hardison and Parker were lanky, tangly sleepers, and Eliot had learned to live with it by now, no matter how much he grumbled. “But,” and he tilts his head, eyeing Hardison with another look he can’t quite place, “here.” And he raises his arm long enough to point at his elbow.

Hardison raises an eyebrow, “Oh? How about here?” he asks, even as he reaches over to brush a thumb over Eliot’s temple, some small part of him - deep, deep, deep down, where he’s still not entirely sure how he got both Parker and Eliot for himself - thrilling when Eliot leans into it.

“Mm...that’s not too bad.” Eliot mutters around a yawn. It’s far more endearing than it should be.

“Anywhere else?”

Eliot is quiet for a long moment, acting like he’s thinking about it, before he raises his hand to tap at his lips with a grin.

And Hardison can’t with this man; he has to lean over to press a kiss to his lips, grinning almost too wide for it to work. It’s gentle, and soft - little more than a sweet slide of skin, a press of breath - and over way too quickly.

“Did you just try to seduce me by quoting Indiana Jones?”

“Mm...nope. I tried to make you smile by quoting Indiana Jones. And it worked.” And Eliot looks so damn proud of himself that Hardison has to kiss him again, feeling that last bit of tension he didn’t even know he was holding melt out of him.

They were here, and they were okay.

[aethersea]

fake married + poorly timed confession + the leverage ot3? or any component ship, i'm not picky xD

as it happens, I was already planning on writing a fake married fic for the ot3! so this is more fic than fic description, though I couldn’t really convince myself that any of these three would full-on confess in the middle of a con which is, of course, the most poorly timed you can get. but here you go and please enjoy, mind the cut!

for this ask meme, which is still open

Parker and Eliot crash a senator’s garden party, posing as a married couple so they can be each other’s cover while each one sneaks off in turn. When Eliot needs to take a quiet moment to get rid of the guards on the roof, he excuses himself from the conversation in the parlor with a grin and a, “Better go make sure the little lady’s not having too much fun without me!” This wins a round of chuckles, and Eliot rolls his eyes as he turns away.

Parker, a few seconds later and out in the garden, just blurts out, “I’m going to look for my husband,” and clomps off.Sophie, keeping the senator busy at the buffet table, turns her eyes to the heavens in supplication.

Eliot meets Nate on the roof once the guards are dealt with, and leads him down to the senator’s bedroom so he can lie in wait and be all spooky when Sophie sends the senator up to look for his watch. Parker, meanwhile, is raiding the senator’s office safe for something Nate can blackmail him with. It’s a tightly timed con, but Eliot has a good four minutes to get himself back to the garden before the house guards notice that something’s gone wrong on the roof.

Or so he thought—they must have better failsafes in place than they’d realized, because Parker almost gets caught on her way back from cracking the senator’s office safe. Eliot, who’s half a corridor away and only just done getting his shirt and hair back in order, huffs in exasperation and rushes to intercept the guards about to reach her.

He rushes fast enough that he reaches her first, and instead of letting him barrel past her, Parker grabs him and swings him up against the nearest wall.

When the guards turn the corner, they find the two of them passionately making out. Parker pulls away from Eliot and says, with a drunken giggle, “You boys here to join the fun? Careful, my man here’s mighty possessive.” She lays her head on Eliot’s shoulder, and he takes the hint and glares the guards away.

- - - - - - -

Eliot does not talk to Hardison about this. The absence of that talk is a palpable weight in the van as they drive away from the senator’s house. Nate and Sophie can feel it too, he knows, from Nate’s wince and Sophie’s brief but sympathetic smile. It’s not like Hardison and Parker are—It’s not that they don’t—Well they are, actually, but—

Eliot takes a deep breath and lets it out through his nose. Hardison and Parker are dating, and even before that Parker had really only ever kissed Hardison on cons, but Hardison isn’t possessive, no matter the spike of horror that flashed through Eliot at Parker’s words to the guards. He has to know that Eliot would never try anything with Parker, would never hurt either of them like that. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine.

Still, he’s deeply relieved when Nate says that their next angle of attack is going to involve Hardison and Parker handling the real estate agency, just the two of them, while Eliot provides backup for Sophie almost all the way across town.

- - - - - - -

That relief means that Eliot is not even remotely braced for it when, at the last minute, the plan changes.

It turns out that the mobster’s cousin runs the real estate agency. This explains why the agency’s involved in the first place, but not how, so they still need to get Hardison in there to do his magic on their servers. “Alright,” Nate says, “Eliot, you’re switching with Parker. The mob might be hiding the drugs at the agency, so keep an eye out for guards.”

Hardison groans. “Come on, Nate, I already booked the appointment for Mr. and Mrs. Dallanby! Newlyweds, they just got back from their honeymoon in Kenya, I—I set up the facebook pictures, man—”

“We’ll just have to hope they didn’t do a background check,” Nate says, and Hardison grumbles but Eliot hears keys clicking on the line as he switches the personas around. “If they did, you’ll just pull a Bogota Chop Shop on them.”

So Eliot has to gun it across town to meet Hardison in front of the realtors’. (Parker, making the same trip in reverse, reaches Sophie a full five minutes earlier, because she is a maniac who should never be allowed behind a wheel.)

Eliot and Hardison still have not talked. Eliot tries not to think about that as he pulls into the agency parking lot and Hardison hops out of Lucille to join him. Somehow he is still trying not to think about it when Hardison takes his hand, pulls him through the front door, and introduces them as “Mr. and Mr. Dallanby, oh were you expecting a Mrs. Dallanby? Of course you were, of course, why do I even—I guess we should go somewhere else, hmm, what do you think about that? Come on honey, we’re leaving! I’m so sick of—”

Eliot finally pushes past the weird anxiety that won’t let go of his brain and manages to say something empty and reassuring, and then the receptionist is nervously insisting it was just a typo in the system and offering them coffee while they wait, and Hardison grumpily allows himself to be pulled away toward the waiting room couch.

He doesn’t drop the act there, though. He leans against Eliot and—and snuggles up against him, and somehow Eliot’s arm is around Hardison’s shoulder, and something inside him panics and tries to pull away but Hardison grabs his hand and yanks it down and hisses, “Look the goddamn part!” and there’s nothing Eliot can do but sit there and take it.

They still haven’t talked. Eliot can feel the tension in Hardison’s shoulders. He swallows hard and tries not to think about it.

- - - - - - -

No one at the restaurant opening should recognize him, but Eliot keeps out of the serving area anyway. It’s not hard—whenever the owner comes out and says someone wants to meet the chef, he just snarls that he’s too busy and ignores the woman until she goes away. It’s a lie—he’s only had three days with this kitchen team but he must grudgingly admit that they’re on top of things. Eliot keeps an eye on it all anyway, making sure the prawns don’t overcook and the beef doesn’t boil, with only half an ear for the drama happening in the serving area.

Hardison and Parker are building up to a fight. Eliot does his best to tune out Parker’s insults, Hardison’s anger, and Sophie’s careful coaching on when to escalate and when to wait. He’s not on until later, when the senator shows up; for now his biggest concern is fixing the garnish on these flounder fillets. Something’s still not quite right––maybe some shallots…

The argument in his ear crescendoes and crests. Hardison storms off in a rage. Parker fakes a few weirdly convincing sobs. For such a wooden grifter, she’s surprisingly good at pretending to cry. It’s barely a minute before the divorce attorney sitting behind Parker turns around to offer his services. Eliot can practically hear Sophie’s smug smile.

Hardison goes back to Lucille, or so Eliot thought. When he admits to himself that he’s micromanaging the kitchen more than he needs to be and retreats to the pantry, ostensibly to fetch some carrots but really to cool down, he finds Hardison leaning against the door, fiddling with his phone and munching on an apple.

Eliot almost snatches it out of his hand. “Don’t take those,” he snarls. “They’re for the chicken waldorf, not for you.”

Hardison shrugs, that slow grin of his spreading across his face. “I’m a thief. What do you expect?”

Eliot rolls his eyes and shoves past him to get the carrots. When he turns around, Hardison is framed in the doorway, blocking his way out. Before Eliot can snap at him, he says, “Hey man, are you okay?”

Eliot raises his eyebrows, unimpressed. This is a long con, but not a difficult one. And he got to punch out three of the senator’s security staff just a few days ago. He’s fine.

“You’ve been kinda off these past few days. And you disappear the moment we break for the day.” Hardison doesn’t shrug or quirk a smile to take the edge off his words, like most people would. He looks steadily at Eliot, eyes gentle, and keeps his voice soft and calm. “You know we’re here for you, right? If you’re having trouble with something, or if you just want to talk, we’re here. You’re not alone anymore.

“Our mikes are off,” he adds belatedly, gesturing with his phone. “Just us here.”

It’s a special kind of courage, being entirely sincere with someone, opening yourself to the possibility of whatever they might throw at you. Hardison screams when Parker drops him off of even two-storey buildings and panics at the first threat of violence, but in his own way he’s braver than the rest of them put together. It’s admirable. It’s terrifying. Eliot glares, feeling his fingers clench around the carrot leaves, and knows that there is nothing he can do to intimidate Hardison even a little bit.

It’s not out of fear, then, that Hardison lowers his gaze and steps aside so he’s no longer blocking the only exit. It’s a concession, freely given.

Eliot has a brief, violent internal argument.

He can still hear Parker keeping the lawyer busy and Sophie advising her on how much to flirt, but after all these years of practice it’s easy enough to tune it all out and just listen for his name. He takes a deep breath, and then another.

“You and Parker are good together,” he says. Hardison’s eyes flick up, surprised but almost managing to hide it. “And I’m—I’m so happy for you both.” He doesn’t notice the way he ducks his chin a fraction until after he’s done it, bracing for a punch he knows won’t come. “And you know that I don’t—that I would never—Look, she’s your girlfriend, I’m not ever going to…to even try to…”

This whole being brave thing isn’t working out too well. Hardison is watching him with patient incomprehension. Eliot squares his shoulders and opens his mouth to do this right, but before he can, someone in the hallway cries out, “Girlfriend?!”

Hardison jumps. Eliot lunges forward to grab him and shove him into the pantry, so Eliot is between him and whoever this is, but it’s too late, there’s a hand reaching out and shoving Hardison’s chest, pushing him away from the door—

The hand is followed by an angry waitress—Jenna? Jamie?—who is utterly and bafflingly furious. “You asshole!” she yells over Hardison’s confused spluttering, “I hope she does divorce you!”

Eliot puts out an arm to block Jemima’s rampage, and she turns her look of absolute disgust on him. “Chef, were you aware this jackass is married?”

“Eliot!” Nate says in his ear, at the literal worst possible moment. “You’ve got incoming!”

“Married!” Joanna screeches in Hardison’s face. She’s not quite straining against Eliot’s arm, but she’s conveying through body language and intonation that she’s about three seconds away from violence. “And you have a girlfriend!”

Hardison’s face is absolutely priceless. At a better moment, Eliot would stop to appreciate it, but right now there are three mobsters rounding the corner just a couple feet behind Hardison, and they recognize Eliot from the real estate agency. “Mr. Dallanby?” one of them says, sincerely confused.

Hardison jumps again and glances over his shoulder. “Mr. Dallanby?” another mobster says.

The third one gasps. “You have a girlfriend?”

“He does!” Jen crows. “He’s a goddamn cheater!”

“Oh that’s messed up,” the first mobster says. The other two mutter their agreement. They step forward until they’re looming menacingly behind Hardison. The second mobster turns to Eliot and says kindly, “Are you okay, Mr. Dallanby?”

Hardison is stiff as a board, his eyes wide in a silent plea for Eliot to do something. Eliot, absolutely nonplussed, opens his mouth and closes it several times before he manages, “I’m fine, thanks. It’s—we’re working it out.”

There’s an unintelligible commotion in his ear and Jackie is starting to realize that something’s up. Eliot wonders desperately if this is a nightmare. The first mobster, who seems to be in charge, steps forward and offers, “If you need a hand, son, or if you need a moment to process this—”

“That’s okay,” Eliot says hurriedly. He’s trying to parse the jumble in his ear, and it’s not working but he’s pretty sure the main concern is that he and Hardison have gone off comms and not gone back on again. “I’m—we’re good.” He steps forward and grabs Hardison’s hand, pulling him away from the mobsters.

This, unfortunately, puts him right next to Janice, who declares in strident tones, “Oh no you are not! You have a wife back there, asshole, you can’t just cheat on her and expect—“

At that precise moment, the senator walks around the corner behind the mobsters. “I thought we were supposed to meet in the—Ted Dalton? What are you doing here?” Because of course, they had to be conning the one senator in all of Congress who actually learns the names and faces of every guest at his garden parties, well enough to recognize Eliot three entire days later and dressed as a chef.

The mobsters frown. “Wife?”

Parker, skidding around the corner behind Eliot with an audible squeak of tennis shoes on linoleum, says quietly, “Oh shit.”

[glorious-spoon]

When the Seasons Stop [Leverage/The Old Guard]

Title: When the Seasons Stop Fandom: Leverage; The Old Guard Pairings: Gen-ish or pre-relationship Eliot/Hardison/Parker Warnings: Temporary character death, canon-typical violence Other tags: Hurt/comfort, immortality Summary: Eliot Spencer damn well knew better than to get this close to a couple of mortals. But he never expected this.

*

There’s nothing new about the bullet punching through Eliot’s lung, nicking an artery and shattering a rib on its way out. He can feel the world start to squeeze and fold in a familiar way, but that’s not what worries him. What worries him is the gasping quality of Parker’s voice over the comms, the shaky way she said he’s all smashed up inside and the trail of blood zig-zagging out to the van.

Sophie’s hands grasp at him, pulling him in. Her eyes are huge and dark with tears, and Eliot can’t get the lung capacity to reassure her. Isn’t sure there’s anything worth reassuring at all when blood is soaking into the floor (Hardison will be so mad, he thinks stupidly, but it’s Hardison’s blood, his and Parker’s, and they’re sprawled there like broken toys as the van peels away into the street. There are sirens. Nate is swearing fluently and foully in the front as Sophie heaves herself through to drop into the seat beside him).

None of it fucking matters. Eliot’s vision is starting to tunnel, but he can still see Hardison gasping with blood on his lips.

“Did Eliot make it out?”

“Age of the geek, brother,” Eliot rasps, grasping for him, fumbling, fingers slick with blood. Hardison’s long fingers twitch weakly when he grips them. On his other side, Parker’s cold hand slips into his. She’s tilted back against the wall, her shirt stained with dark blood, soaking through to pool beneath her, and she’s already so cold.

She’s bleeding out, Eliot thinks vaguely, but his body is too leaden and heavy to do anything about it. His thoughts fragment into the thickening darkness, and the last thing he remembers is hoping against desperate hope that this time, this time, he won’t wake up to see the aftermath.

*

He comes to choking in silty water, flailing, splashing. Sinks into the dark and maybe drowns a second time before he finally surfaces. His head hits metal, and he gasps in the small pocket of air beneath it, his mind becoming aware bit by horrible bit. He’s died in a lot of bad ways since he took a bullet to the heart in the winter of 1861 and woke hours later face-down and stripped of his guns and boots in the cold Nebraska mud. But this one might just be the worst of them.

It’s too dark to see, but he fumbles until his hands close over a bony wrist, cloth and cold skin. Hardison’s, by the size. And there’s Parker floating to his left, her hair spreading out in the water and tangling around his wrist when he pulls her to him, puts a hand under her nose like he really thinks he’ll feel breathing.

Like there’s more than half a dozen people in the world who could wake up from this.

“Parker,” he rasps. His throat feels raw, and he tells himself that it’s the leftovers from breathing in river water. “Parker. Hardison. Come on. Come on.”

There’s no response. They’re cold and limp, floating lifelessly in the icy water, and Eliot can’t pretend that the heat welling up in his eyes is anything other than tears.

“Come on,” he rasps again. “Come on, Parker. Damn it, Hardison, wake up.”

There’s nothing. Just bodies, just Parker’s hair tangled around his fingers and Hardison’s expressive hands gone terribly still. Eliot drives his fist into the side of the van and feels his knuckles break and heal in an instant, and then he ducks beneath the water to check for the front of the van.

It’s empty, and he hopes with a dull, flickering sort of hope that Nate and Sophie at least got out alive. Then he goes back to pull the floating corpses of his dearest friends out through the shattered window, one after another. He loops his arms around them like this is a rescue instead of a recovery and kicks until his head breaks the swift surface of the river.

The water is deep and fast here, and it’s not easy to keep his head above it without letting go of either of his burdens, which he damn well is not going to do. He manages, at the very least, not to drown again before his feet finally find the soft mud in the shallows.

He pulls them both to the shore, scrabbling in the silty mud until they’re above the water line, and then he sinks to the ground and puts his head in his hands. Tries to breathe. Tries not to breathe, maybe, since that’s never been his problem. It doesn’t work, either way. His chest hurts like he can still feel the lingering ache of that bullet from a hundred and fifty-some years ago, but he knows it’s not that. Knows that it’s nothing more than simple grief.

He knows better, is the thing. He knows better than to get too attached. He always knew that his life would encompass both Parker’s and Hardison’s by years, centuries (millennia, if Andy is to be believed, and Eliot believes her because he’s never met another person so fucking tired of it all), but he just. He thought he’d have more time. He thought he’d get to dance at their wedding. He thought he’d get to watch Parker take over the reins from Nate and make Leverage into something lasting and real; he thought he’d get to watch Hardison going on about new computer shit for decades to come, going gray and bent and still leaning over his screens with that brilliant joy. He thought he’d get to welcome their children and watch them grow.

He thought that maybe, someday, he’d trust them both with his secret.

He thought he had more fucking time.

Something shifts to his left. Eliot lifts his head listlessly. If it’s cops, he’ll go into custody quietly. If it’s someone looking for trouble, maybe he’ll just let them kill him. Either way, he doesn’t have it in him right now to fight.

It’s neither of those things, though. Instead, Hardison’s body seizes, jerks, and then heaves upright like it’s spring-loaded. He’s hacking and coughing, vomiting murky water, his eyes so wide and wild that Eliot can see the whites all the way around. His hands dig into the mud, then lift to claw at his grimy, bloody shirt.

Cloth parts. Beneath it is bare skin, smooth and completely undamaged. No sign of the shattered bone and pulpy bruising that should be there. Hardison pats at himself frantically and finally lifts his head to meet Eliot’s eyes.

“Eliot,” he says, weak and rasping. “We—I thought—”

“Hardison,” Eliot breathes, and for a wild instant he has no idea what to think. Hardison was dead, he was dead, Eliot’s seen more dead bodies than he can count and he knows what they look like. What they feel like. Hardison was dead. Which means...

“Parker,” Hardison gasps, and then, “Parker, where’s Parker,” and before Eliot can even think to speak there’s gasping on the other side of him and Parker’s thready voice saying first Hardison’s name and then Eliot’s.

Eliot drops his head into his hands and laughs until he cries.

*

It takes a while to explain it. Or, to be more accurate: it takes a while to get to the closest safehouse that they can be reasonably sure isn’t compromised, which turns out to be one of Parker’s warehouses. She’s got A/C set up somehow, and clothes for both of them—Eliot recognizes the t-shirt she tosses him as one that went missing in the move to Portland all those months ago—and has even rigged up something that could generously be termed shower facilities.

“I thought you didn’t keep any of these anymore,” Hardison mumbles as she steers him to the sprayer that’s zip-tied to a pipe over a wide, shallow trough. The whole thing is brutally utilitarian in a very Parker kind of way.

“You never know when you might need to go to ground. Always be prepared.”

A ragged laugh escapes Hardison’s lips. “Boy Scouts. Cool, cool.”

Parker is busy unbuttoning his shirt; she pulls that off and starts on his pants. Hardison doesn’t squawk any objections about his modesty, which just goes to show how deeply shaken he is; Eliot turns away anyway as both their clothes hit the floor and the water sputters on. He can wait his turn. He once hiked thirty miles on the trail of horse thieves with the remnants of his own guts decorating his clothes; this isn’t even close to the most disgusting he’s ever been.

“Eliot,” Parker says firmly, and he lifts his head. They’re both naked, and he can’t quite stop himself from staring at all that smooth undamaged skin laid bare. Parker’s right shoulder is caked with blood that’s washed her entire side with red, but there’s no bullet-hole now. Beside her, Hardison is steady on his feet, standing easily on a leg that was shattered an hour ago.

They’re both alive.

Eliot blinks, then jerks his head to the side a moment too late. “Go ahead. I can wait.”

“Or you could just come here,” Hardison says, with a raw edge of humor. “You look like a drowned rat.”

“Thanks a lot,” Eliot huffs. He considers trying to argue, then finds abruptly that he doesn’t have the energy. He kicks off his boots and starts pulling his clothes off, leaving them in a stinking bloody heap on the floor. Parker and Hardison both watch him in a way that makes him feel weirdly exposed. It’s not prurient, not really. He has a feeling that they’re looking at his naked body the same way he was just looking at theirs. Cataloguing the injuries that should be there, and aren’t.

Drawing some conclusions, maybe, about all of the beatings that he’s walked away from without a limp in the time they’ve known each other.

“You got some explaining to do,” Hardison says, almost apologetically, as he draws Eliot into the tub with them. He keeps a firm grip on Eliot’s elbow like he’s expecting him to bolt, which to be fair isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility. Eliot has imagined stepping into a shower with the two of them more times than he can count, but this particular scenario never featured in his daydreams.

“Yeah,” Eliot admits, closing his eyes. The spray washes over him, rinsing away the blood and river mud, but the panic—that terrible bleak echo of grief—that lingers. “I will. I promise.”

*

While Parker and Hardison are getting dressed, he takes one of Parker’s burner phones and goes out behind the building to call Andy.

“I have the new ones,” he says without preamble when she picks up. He knows that she knows what he’s talking about. They’ll have dreamed this, the four of them.

There’s a long pause, and then Andy says, “Good. We’re in Afghanistan. Do you need us there?”

He can hear voices in the distance. It’s impossible to make out the words over the shitty international connection, but even so he recognizes Joe’s laughing cadence. He’s heckling someone; Booker, probably. Nicky has to be there too.

Eliot misses them all so much that it aches. He squeezes his eyes shut. “Nah. I can take care of it.”

“You know them,” Andy says. “Don’t you.”

It’s not really a question.

“Yeah,” Eliot says on a breath of laughter, all the same. “Yeah, you sure could say that.”

There’s a hell of a lot that Andy could say in response, especially after the way everything went down with Eliot and Moreau ten years back, but all she does say, after a slight pause, is, “Well, good. That’ll make it simpler. You can explain about the dreams, but we’ll be in the States by the end of the week.”

Eliot laughs again, more genuinely. “Yeah, okay. It’s— It’ll be good to see you all. I miss you.”

“We miss you too,” Andy says, very gently, and ends the call before Eliot has to find a way to do it.

*

When he gets back inside, Parker and Hardison are dressed and sitting at the folding table. Both of them lift their heads as he approaches.

“Where’d you go?” Hardison asks.

“Had to call a friend.” Eliot makes a face. The time for prevarication is over, but that doesn’t mean he has a damn clue how to explain this. Until right now, he’s been the baby of the gang. “Andy, her name is Andy. She’s another one. Like us.”

“Like us, like us, okay,” Hardison says. “What—what does that mean, exactly? We—you got shot. Parker got shot. I had a broken leg. We all—” He shakes his head. “What happened?”

Eliot takes a breath, opens his mouth, closes it again. Finally, bluntly, he says, “You died. We all did.”

“Cut the bullshit,” Hardison says. There’s an uncharacteristic snap to his voice. He sounds genuinely angry for the first time. Scared, too. He sounds scared. Eliot wishes like hell there was anything at all he could do to fix that, but all he has to offer is the truth.

He sighs and says, to Parker, “You got a knife?”

She reaches back without breaking her eerily intent gaze to scoop a switchblade off the table and toss it to him. Eliot plucks it out of the air and opens it, then takes a deep breath, spreads his left hand out, and drives the blade into it until the point emerges from his palm. Blood dribbles onto the floor; Hardison jolts forward with a horrified noise.

Parker is still just watching him, cool-eyed and assessing. He pulls the blade out and holds up his hand so that they can watch the hole he just made heal in seconds.

“Oh shit,” Hardison says faintly. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”

Parker stares at him a moment longer, then holds out her hand. “Can I do that?”

“It’ll still hurt,” Eliot warns her, but he hands the knife back. She cleans it carelessly on a shop rag, then tests the edge of it thoughtfully.

Hardison rubs a hand over his mouth, then says, carefully, “Babe, please don’t stab yourself. I can’t watch that twice in a row.”

“It would heal, though.” She looks up and fixes Eliot with a burning look. “Right?”

Eliot sighs. “Right.”

She nods slowly. “That wasn’t the first time you died. Was it.”

“Not by a long shot.”

Hardison looks up at that, eyes narrowed. “When was the first time?”

“1861,” Eliot sighs. “I was guarding a mail coach in the Nebraska Territory, and we were attacked, and...”

“Eighteen—eighteen sixty-one. Okay.”

“Sorry.”

“For being old as balls?”

It startles a laugh out of him. “Yeah, I guess.”

“And there’s more of you.” Hardison pauses. “Of us.”

“Yeah. Four—” He pauses, winces. Thinks of Quynh, drowning and drowning under the ocean. Her deaths have been in his dreams for well over a hundred years. She’s been a constant companion, even if he’s never met her and probably never will. “Five more.”

“Are they older than you, or younger?”

“Older. Lots older.”

“So what you’re saying, basically,” Hardison says, “is that we’re immortal.”

“Yeah,” Eliot says dryly, “that was the general gist of it.”

Parker is starting to smile, wild in a way that’s almost inhuman. “Oh, I’m going to jump off the Sears Tower without a harness.”

“Babe,” Hardison says again, but he sounds distracted as he pulls a tablet toward him.

“You’ll still die,” Eliot tells her.

“Yeah,” she says dismissively, “but I’ll come back. Right?”

“Please don’t jump off the Sears Tower,” Hardison says absently. He chews on his lower lip as he does something on the tablet, shifting lights on the screen reflecting in his eyes. “Okay. Good news, Nate and Sophie are okay. Bad news, Sophie is in the hospital and Nate’s been taken into custody in Highpoint Tower.” He looks up and meets Eliot’s eyes, expression challenging. “We need to get him out.”

Eliot nods, relieved. “Yeah. We do.”

Hardison nods too. He looks a little easier now—with a task at hand, with proof that the others are still alive, with the knowledge that he’s still him, Eliot doesn’t know. “Okay. That’s what we’ll do. And when we’re done we’re gonna come back here and you’re gonna answer all of our questions. Right?”

Eliot considers that moment on the river bank when he thought they both were dead. He considers the interrogation Hardison is going to subject him to, and the batshit insane stunts that Parker is going to pull, and he feels himself smiling, broad and helpless. “Anything you want.”

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The French Connection Job

leverage 5.04

Eliot: I know what you're gonna say, Nate, but I want to tell you something about Toby. He taught me how to use a knife.

Nate: Use a knife?

Eliot: No. Not like I use a knife. He taught me how to cook. I was out of the service, and I was working for my second PMC. And the jobs we were taking were way across the line - past extractions and security actions.

Nate: Wetwork.

Eliot: Yeah. Anyway, I met Toby. We were reconning this restaurant in Belgium. And I should have closed him out. I should have been in and out in under 90 seconds. But I ended up talking to him for three hours. He showed me that I could use my knife to create instead of destroy. I stuck around for a couple of months. He taught me everything there was about the art of food, and I... He's one of the guys that kept me from falling all the way down. So now, I'm asking the other guy to understand why I'm gonna help him

HES BABY PROTECT HIM PLEASE

- - - - -

Eliot (stops him): Whoa. (gestures toward delivery man)

Hardison: What?

Eliot: You got to tip the guy.

Hardison: For doing his job?

Eliot: Hardison, he rode all the way over here on a bike to deliver your...

Hardison: That ain't nothing special. He got some exercise.

Eliot:...Dungeons & Dragons crap you ordered.

Hardison: He didn't bring me no cupcakes, no flowers, cards - nothing. You want a tip, little Stanley Tucci-looking... (give man change) Boom, boom, boom. Two quarters, two pennies. Go buy your mama something

eliot makes sure hardison gives tips because he’s a genuinely good guy

- - - - -

Sophie: I know it's short notice, but our celebrity chef just dropped out, and the network think you're a perfect replacement for the U.S. launch. The show is called "From Pole to Plate: Cooking with Strippers." Hmm? - But we haven't sorted the accommodation yet, so you'd have to live with the strippers to start off with.

Chef: Hell, yeah.

LMFAO HE WAS G O N E

- - - - -

Eliot: Food is life. Learn it. You will take this class seriously. Because if you don't, I'll throw your ass out of here quicker than you -

Hardison: I get to fire a laser. Yeah. Geeking in the kitchen. Uh, make you want to dance.

Eliot: We're here to cook food, not play with lasers

eliot is 0.000000005 seconds away from flipping his shit

- - - - -

Nate: How, um - how do you like being in Portland?

Parker: It's fine. Hardison and I are fine, and everything with the new Leverage is fine.

Nate: Parker, what's going on?

Parker: I just - I don't have a thing.

Nate: What do you mean, "a thing"?

Parker: Eliot has a thing. He loves food. Sophie loves theater. You have a sicko love of controlling people.

Nate: I don't have a sicko love - Let's stay on you. Art. What do you - what do you see when you look at Michelangelo's David?

Parker: Mark two laser grid around it, infrared on the floor, need a harness rated for six tons attached to a chopper to lift it out through a skylight

she’s BABY alright she just wants to feel

- - - - -

Eliot: Nate, I already swept the kitchen twice. There's no drugs. (to Hardison) Did you find anything?

Hardison: I think I did, man. Check it out. (fires gun) What? Wha- what? What?! Hey. Think about it. Levitating food could replace waiters.

Eliot: I will stab you in the neck.

Hardison: Don't hate the barbecue. Hate the sides.

sometimes eliot doesn’t know how he puts up with hardison and it shows

- - - - -

(Eliot is working in the kitchen, talking to Parker who is sitting at the bar)

Eliot: I'm gonna turn this place from a microbrewery into a gastropub. What do you think about that?

Parker: Teach me to like stuff.

Eliot: Parker, I don't have time for this, all right? I got to get this stuff done. Then I got to get back to the school

her sad, rejected face KILLED me

- - - - -

(Eliot puts a plate of food in front of Parker)

Parker: It's just food.

Eliot: It's not just food, all right? Some people could look at it and see just food, but not me. I see art. When I'm in the kitchen, I'm - I'm creating something out of nothing. You know what I mean? And sometimes, I crush it. Sometimes, it's crap. But either way, it makes me feel something.

Parker: Feel what?

Eliot: Just... feel.

Parker: Feel. Okay.

Eliot: You know, I didn't feel anything for a long time, and Toby taught me how to cook, and after he did, I started to feel stuff again. That's why I share it through my food. This is my art. This is my art, Parker. It's like letting a stranger in your head just for a second. And you allow them to feel what you're feeling. (pushes plate closer to Parker) Look again

he put off going to the kitchen to cook for parker and have a honest talk with her

he cares, your honor

- - - - -

Eliot: Parker can do it.

Parker: No, I can't. I don't even like food.

Parker: Except for chocolate and doughnuts.

Eliot: Listen to me, Parker, you can do it, all right? Remember everything that we talked about.

Eliot: Nate, she can do it.

Nate: Yeah, okay. So, Parker, you're the food critic.

eliot believes in her so much my heart is s o f t

- - - - -

hardison was legit eating a wholeass baguette and I’ve never vibed with someone SO HARD in my LIFE

- - - - -

Sophie: Oh, is it organically grown, ethically sourced, organically local?

she looks and sounds like everyone in my college town it’s ridiculous

- - - - -

Sophie: Parker, let's give them some micro-expressions. When you take your first bite, just give a hint of a smile. Remember, the key is micro.

(Parker takes a bite and doesn’t enjoy it)

Sophie: Well that didn't work.

Nate: Okay, so, what's wrong?

Sophie: When someone really smiles, then their eyes wrinkle up. You know, you just can't help it. But if a smile's fake, then the muscles - they don't contract.

Nate: There isn't anything she likes or can connect with.

Sophie: Parker, this time, when you take a bite, think of the first time you stole something.

(Parker smiles and Lampard relaxes)

Nate: Yeah, listen - Lampard needs to see some anxiety in her, you know, just to have him stick around.

Sophie: Parker, take a bite, then blink, then think of... jazz.

(Parker takes a bite, then starts gagging, spitting out the food. Lampard scrambles to her table)

everyone trying to get parker to find something she likes makes me WEAK they all love and support her so much just the way she is

- - - - -

eliot casually beating up the goon in the kitchen is an aesthetic

- - - - -

Eliot: How's it taste, Parker? You feeling anything?

Parker: The salsa verde is a nice marriage with the spring rolls, but while totally yummy, I just feel like... I should be feeling more

...

Parker: I can taste garlic and mushrooms. And something else that makes me feel different.

Hardison: Wait - was that for me? 'Cause I-I don't get it.

Parker: No. It's the food. I get it. I feel something

nate and sophie smiling at parker saying she feels something ,,, eliot being proud of her

- - - - -

(As Hardison turns, Rampone grabs Hardison and begins choking him)

Hardison: I'll bite you. I'll bite you!

(Hardison bites Rampone's hand and pushes the man back before running for the door)

Hardison: Nate, coming in hot

honestly biting people works

- - - - -

Rampone (looking at Eliot): Spencer, right? I thought I recognized you.

Eliot: Everybody out - now! (to Hope) Good job tonight.

Hope: Thanks.

(Eliot grabs a small bottle and sprinkles the contents onto a plate of food)

Rampone: See, the whole hippie thing threw me off.

(Eliot puts a plate of food on the edge of the counter)

Eliot: I'm gonna eat that when I'm done with you.

Rampone: Yeah, you were a good operator, if I remember correctly.

Eliot: It's a different guy.

Rampone: Bad attitude.

Eliot: Same bad attitude, though. You hurt my friend, Rampone.

Rampone: I should have killed him.

(Rampone reaches behind his back as he sprinkles spices on the plate of food. Eliot moves aside the tail of his shirt to reveal a knife)

Rampone: Like I'm gonna do to you.

(They both pull knives and begin trading slashes, hitting each other's blade. Rampone picks up a plate cover to use as a sheild. Rampone slashes Eliot on the arm and kicks him back. Eliot looks at the wound, then gestures Rampone forward)

Eliot: Come on.

(Eliot kicks Rampone, knocking him onto a counter. Rampone knocks him back, they continue to trade blows, knocking each other back and forth)

eliot is a different, better guy now and he ain’t dealing with your bullshit

- - - - -

Eliot: Not only did you and Lampard ruin my friend Toby's life, but you ruined the lives of the kids he was trying to help.

Nate (walking up): Eliot - Not worth it. Give him to the cops.

Rampone: Call off your dog. He's crazy.

Eliot: Crazy? I'm gonna cut your freaking head off and serve it on a platter.

Rampone: Call him off.

Nate (slowly walks closer, says softly): That's enough, Eliot.

(Eliot slowly releases Rampone and steps back)

Rampone: Thanks.

(Rampone swings at Eliot, who catches his fist. Nate punches Rampone, knocking him out)

Nate: Serve his - his head on a platter, huh?

(They begin to walk away)

Eliot: Was it too much?

Nate: No, actually, I liked it.

Eliot: I felt like it was a lot. Like, right when I said it, I felt like I may have gone too far.

for a second I was scared eliot was lapsing but I should have known better

- - - - -

Messenger: Package for... Alec Hardison.

Hardison: Oh, yeah. Got myself a laser.

Eliot (returns): Absolutely not. Don't give - don't sign for that.

Hardison: Don't sign for...? Hey, do you know what we're gonna be able to put on the pub's menu? On the pub's edible menu?

Eliot: Nate, you know...

Nate: Yeah, I know. You want to stab him in the...

Hardison: Stab what?

eliot: fOoD iS mY tHiNG

hardison: but EXPERIMENTAL food

eliot: *is ready to throw down*

- - - - -

Eliot: Where is Parker?

Nate: Oh, uh, she's, um, on a little trip.

[Museum]

(Parker lowers herself on a rope into a darkened room to look at a small sculpture. She smiles)

HER S M I L E

[vickyvicarious]

Parker: "Teach me to like stuff."

.

Okay, so. I have some thoughts about The French Connection Job's Parker+Eliot subplot. And I think I wanna approach it separately, scene by scene from each of their perspectives, because we have a couple different things going on here. It's still a little more of a Parker meta than an Eliot meta, but I have enough to talk about on both sides, and they're connected enough not to be in separate metas, that I am going to do it this way.

Also going to put this under a cut because it gets long.

Parker

This whole subplot comes on the heels of the last episode, in which there was a lot of banter throughout about Hardison and Parker's dates, and him wanting to branch out into other things than just bungee jumping or whatever. We have seen hints of this throughout S5 so far, even though we're only a few episodes in at this point. They went on a world tour that was pretty much just jumping off of stuff, Hardison said something about them figuring things out. We saw a cute domestic scene of the aftermath of them watching a movie together, except Parker 'fell asleep again' and missed most of it, and Hardison eventually went off to work on his laptop. Parker tried to comfort him last episode about dust mites and ended up freaking him out instead. She talked about how she liked fire and Hardison complained she was missing the point of his offer for a candlelit picnic. They did end on a very romantic note with her still making the effort to make it happen but getting rained out, and him recognizing her effort and listening to him, and projecting the stars around the dark room then having the picnic inside. They are clearly very happy together and both making the effort to meet in the middle, but there are still some disconnects. Which makes sense this early on anyway, but it's not out of place for Parker to start getting worried about her limited interests here given the context of them contrasting Hardison's more widespread interests.

Starting right off the bat - there's a picture limit so I can't show these early moments, but throughout the first part of the episode we see Parker looking visibly upset/pensive. Hardison notices and asks her what's wrong, but is immediately distracted by his package arriving, and then the team gets into the briefing and he doesn't get to talk to her again. (Sidenote that this is pretty OOC for Hardison, and I have to assume he would at the very least come back to her later, but they were clearly trying to get Parker talking with someone else this episode and apparently couldn't come up with a better way to do it. His writing outside of the kitchen stuff was kinda off this whole episode anyway, what with the whole tip thing.) She was about to open up to him, however, which is important. There's also a scene shortly afterwards where she confides in Nate, again after he notices her being upset and asks what's bothering her. She claims everyone but her has 'a thing', and names a few of them. He asks her what she thinks when she sees Michelangelo's David, and when her answer is an immediate assessment of how it's guarded and what she'd have to do to steal it, he kind of hesitates and then goes right back to running the con. He basically gives up on helping her with this once it becomes clear that a quick sentence or two isn't gonna cut it.

So after those brief, unhelpful conversations, that's when she makes a move. She was responding to others before, but this time she comes up to Eliot, clearly nervous. And she asks him to help her feel something.

(I find it very interesting that she doesn't ask Sophie. Sophie is the person who she would usually go to for something like this, after all. But, aside from this being an Eliot-centric episode and just like them sidelining Hardison's possible assistance earlier the writers want Parker to talk with Eliot not Sophie, I think there are maybe a couple reasons why she might go to him here. First, just distance. Eliot is right downstairs, meanwhile at the moment Sophie is however far across town at her theater. Certainly not saying she wouldn't go to Sophie eventually, but maybe that's why not first. Second, she and Eliot have an understanding, one that's been explicitly acknowledged since the start of S4. They are similar in a way entirely unlike the rest of the crew. So while Sophie may understand emotions best, Eliot is the one most likely to know what Parker is talking about when she says she just isn't feeling anything. Which by the way I'm gonna get more into later on. Thirdly they're in love but that's not actually relevant here since all of the team love one another.)

Eliot

On Eliot's side, she approaches him when he's busy in the kitchen. This whole job is stirring up a lot of old feelings in him right from the start. Toby was someone who 'kept him from falling all the way down', and Eliot is deeply concerned for him. At the same time, the way they are running this con is allowing Eliot to take on the role of teacher. Even though his students aren't anything like the eager students Toby has just had taken away from him, Eliot wants so badly to take advantage of this opportunity to teach them - maybe even all the more because they're resistant. He's being given a very rare opportunity to indulge his belief that food is life and to share it on a larger scale. To use the knife to create, not just destroy. Leverage often walks a line between doing both (taking down the bad guys and helping people) but Eliot doesn't often just straight up get to just do the 'creating' part. (I mean, he loves the destruction too, he genuinely loves beating people up and taking down bad guys, but this is a rarer pleasure.) So he's pretty preoccupied with that at first, and initially dismisses Parker just like the other two guys did.

But when she just looks quietly disappointed at his response, he goes still and watches her. We cut away from them here so we don't see his actual response, but it's immediately clear that he's realizing this is actually something deeply important to Parker, and well worth his time.

On to the next part of this scene below.

.

[Eliot sets a dish down in front of Parker]

Parker: "...It's just food."

Eliot: "It's not just food! Alright, some people could look at it and just see food, but not me. I see art. When I'm in the kitchen I'm, I'm creating something outta nothing, you know what I mean? And sometimes I crush it, sometimes it's crap, but either way - it makes me feel something."

Parker: "Feel what?"

Eliot: "Just... feel."

Parker: [murmuring] "Feel... okay." [looks down at the food and hesitates]

Eliot: "You know, I didn't feel anything for a long time. Then Toby taught me how to cook, and after he did, I started to feel stuff again. That's why I share it through my food - this is my art. This is my art, Parker." [Parker nods, looking worried] "It's like lettin' a stranger in your head, just for a second. And you allow them to feel what you're feeling." [pause] "Look again." [he pushes the plate a little closer to her. Parker takes a deep breath and slowly sets her elbows down on the counter as she stares down at the plate. Eliot watches her closely.]

Parker

At this point I want to talk a little about what Parker means when she says "feel something" and talks about "having a thing." Because we've seen her have interests outside of straightforward thievery before. Sure, most of her hobbies revolves around stealing - casing local banks for fun, for example. But she clearly has a deep love for Christmas and for chocolate. So why doesn't she count those kinds of things as 'feeling something'?

I think it comes down to what Eliot's talking about here. It's a sense of art. Not even necessarily making it yourself, although that certainly applies. Parker likes sweet things like chocolate and donuts, but although she really really likes them they don't make her feel any truly deep emotion. It's more tactile than anything else, just a pleasant flavor. Her love of Christmas isn't the same either in her eyes because it's not uniquely hers. It's something she loves to celebrate but she can't do so all year round, and plenty of other people like Christmas too. This one comes a lot closer, because it definitely seems to be tied up more in community and family for her than something like enjoying chocolate and piñatas, but it still doesn't belong to her in the same way that cooking does to Eliot or theater does to Sophie. And while theoretically her love of base jumping and so on could maybe count, it is still so tied up in her thieving that it doesn't feel separate. She's really good at drawing but only thinks of it as a useful skill, not a creative outlet - this is similar to that.

She has been branching out into a lot of new experiences and emotions lately, and while she's struck out deep into uncharted waters with her relationship with Hardison, once there she's only seeing more and more things that she just... doesn't get. She loves spending time with him, and enjoys what they do together, but she doesn't understand all of those things. Not on a deeper level. She wants to feel that sense of connection to something, wants to feel deeply emotionally moved by something.

And honestly? I think she's way up in her head about it. I'm not trying to dismiss her struggle here at all, but I do think she is stressing herself out about having something uniquely her own. About having a huge interest that speaks so strongly to her personally. And those are amazing to have, but it's really not necessary. She doesn't need a strong secondary passion so much as she needs to let go of trying so hard to force herself into something.

And what's happening in this scene in particular is that Parker is trying so so hard to force herself to feel something. It's evident in her face throughout the whole scene, in her body language. And she is so terrified that it's not going to work that honestly, I'm not surprised at all that it doesn't.

Eliot

On Eliot's side of this scene, he feels like he recognizes where Parker is. This entire job has him remembering how it was to feel nothing. Her phrasing got to him deeply. He wants to reach out and teach her to see something more, just like Toby taught him.

He knew a bit about how to cook before Toby. But it was only seeing Toby's passion that struck something in him, that awoke a part of himself he might've never known before. For Eliot specifically, cooking being an art isn't just something he likes. It's something that brings him hope.

Eliot doesn't believe in redemption. But he believes in actions. And what Toby did, by teaching him to cook, was to teach him that his actions can be good. That he can create, not just destroy. That all is not lost - not 'for' him necessarily, so much as 'in' him. There is a deep empty place inside himself that he can enter so so easily. The difficulty is crawling back out again. Cooking was his rope out of there. He still finds it difficult to express his emotions very often, particularly verbally, but when he makes someone a meal he puts a part of himself into it. And yet doing so doesn't take anything from him, it just adds more.

This is all very vague and figurative and may make no sense, but the takeaway I want to have is that Eliot is opening up to Parker on a very deep level here. He feels like he recognizes what she's talking about, and it was a very bad place for him. (Again, I don't think she is quite that badly off at this point in canon, but I digress.) And while making food allows him to feel that he is demonstrating his love for someone, that he is sharing a part of himself with them, he recognizes that she isn't receiving that. What she's getting, is just a plate of food. Tasty food maybe, but nothing more than that. And so Eliot verbalizes everything to her in a way he rarely does.

And then he keeps trying. This scene obviously doesn't end up making her feel something, and we don't get to see the immediate aftermath of that, but we can glean a little about how they feel based on their reactions. And Eliot is deeply determined to help Parker feel something from his food. He insists that she play the food critic; even speaks directly to her and reminds her to consider what they talked about.

.

In the restaurant, we start out with Parker dutifully playing her role but feeling nothing much beyond just the role. Eliot checks in with Parker, she acknowledges that the food is good but doesn't make her feel anything, and he makes improvements based on her feedback. Then something abruptly changes.

Parker: "I can taste garlic, and mushrooms... and something else that makes me feel different."

Hardison: "Wait, was that for me, cause I-I don't get it."

Parker: "No, it's the food. I get it." [smiles] "I feel something."

+

Parker: "Mmm! These black noodles are amazing!

Eliot: "Parker, it's tagliolini nero con gamberi."

Parker: "Mmm." [eats a huge forkful] "Mmm. Mmmm. These are really good."

Parker

What just happened here? Last we saw from Parker, she'd failed to feel something from the meal Eliot made especially for her in the brewpub, and she was clearly disheartened. She felt it as a failure, very much in the sense of a disappointment. She didn't want to try again, didn't think it would work, and tried to protest when Eliot said she would be the food critic. Even once she got to the restaurant, nothing was happening for her.

The difference wasn't in the flavor of the food. The moment Parker started to feel something was right after she said she felt nothing and Eliot, instead of being disappointed or giving up, took it as a challenge. He changed his recipe, he improved it specifically to better reach out to her. He kept trying.

And yeah, maybe the bone broth helped it taste better. But that wasn't the point, not really. The point is that Parker had gotten herself stuck in a hole, trapped herself in this cycle of not understanding how things make you feel and then believing that she just couldn't. She wanted something of her own and she didn't have it and she didn't immediately get anyone else's thing either, and that was it. She just wasn't capable. She was other. This is an old old fear of Parkers, dating back to Archie or even before. Something in her just isn't capable of being like other people. She wasn't worthy of being in Archie's real family, and she's not able to feel passion for anything outside of stealing. (Setting aside the fact that she loves her team, that all she needed was the right family. That you don't have to be a creator to feel passion, and you don't need to be passionate about any particular thing in order to feel deeply and find beauty in the world.) Parker has empathized deeply with people, has felt so intensely before and is constantly trying to learn more and new ways to be. But because she is noticing her teams' passions now, she has this ideal that she wants to reach, and none of that is good enough for her. She doesn't even know exactly what her ideal involves, but she can't get to it.

But when Eliot doesn't give up, that gets to her. If he views his food as sharing himself with others, Parker finally gets what he's been trying to give all along. It's all about him trying again and again, changing his approach to match her better. That's what she feels, that's what she enjoys.

And once she starts, the floodgates open. She loves the black noodles. She is so happy, she is relieved. There was this huge resistance that she couldn't get past before, but Eliot persisting helped her to break past that and now that she is out of her head about it she can enjoy the food in a way she never has before. Because she feels his love for her in it.

Eliot

Eliot is trying so hard to connect to Parker. It's not really different from what I said in the last Eliot section, and basically the same as what I just said in that Parker section, but I want to emphasize a little more just how much this is about love on his end.

Eliot loves Parker. He loves her, and he wants so much to help her. It doesn't honestly matter that he does this with food, except for the fact that food is what matters so deeply to Eliot himself. He can't reach out to her in the same way through any other medium. And we don't get to see his reaction to Parker's moment of realization. But I think it would be such a deep sense of joy. This is as fulfilling for Eliot as it is for Parker. It's exactly what Eliot has been hoping for this whole episode, to teach someone else to see food in the same way he does. It doesn't matter if it only lasts for a moment or a single meal. That's enough. He has been the support Parker needed through this time of self-doubt. And it is all the more meaningful to him because this isn't just a random student, this is Parker.

He told her he loves her through his food, again and again, and she eventually felt it. She understood. That must mean so much to him.

.

I wanna end with one more brief note on Parker. Does she get her own "thing" this episode? No. No she does not, and this scene shows us that. Parker is not suddenly interested in food or cooking. The importance of that meal was purely derived from Eliot on the other end of it, focused on her and trying his best to reach out to her.

And I don't think this is something only Eliot could have done for her either, not really. The difference between him and the others this episode is mostly in persistence. However, it's also about her mentality. Hardison has built/done things for Parker before and she felt them just as deeply - but the context was different. She wasn't looking for a sense of beauty or art in the world at large then, and so even though she felt the love in the gift just as much, it didn't make her feel like she could find that kind of emotion in other things. She just wasn't looking for it. Also, it was made easier for Eliot to reach out because there's that connection Parker has with him, that understanding that they are on the same level somehow. She doesn't feel that with Hardison - and she loves him all the more for him being different from her, but he also I think can intimidate her with how good and open he is, with how much he can feel in so many different directions. It's part of why she got so worried about herself not being able to do so this episode.

Like, the team has scolded Nate for not having a life or interests of his own outside the job not too terribly long ago! And Parker has had her own joys before! But she isn't seeing that this episode, too caught up in this fear about not having her own 'thing', not feeling anything that way. So while anyone could have helped her through this, it was easiest for her to let Eliot do so + for him to understand what she needed from him. (Hardison in particular was rudely robbed the opportunity, but they all love and support her and could have reached her. Not to detract from Eliot doing so, but also I don't wanna sound like no other method of reaching out would've worked.)

But as soon as she feels something once with Eliot's help, that relaxes those fears. And then Parker is free to look in other places. She remembers Nate's comment about art, and maybe even tells him what she plans based on him knowing where she is at the end of the episode. And then she goes to visit this statue. In her own way which means breaking in, but without any goal of taking it. She just goes to look at the art. And she feels something again.

Parker doesn't gain some big passion at the end of this episode. She doesn't need to. She never did. She just learns how to let herself relax from that restrictive frame of mind. To simply be in the moment and enjoy things for the sake of what they are. To feel - not really in any way she was incapable of before, but intentionally now. It's a quiet victory, in the end. It doesn't mean she's going to get a new hobby or change her lifestyle at all really. But she's let go of a fear and is now intentionally seeking out new connections with the world beyond her once-limited parameters.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I just spent hours going through the search results for ‘meta’ on your blog, and there’s so much interesting stuff there, and it’s way too late at night now, but it was so worth it. Anyway, I love your leverage meta and was wondering if you could talk about the leverage crew interacting/working with others? (ie two live crew job, the last dam job), especially when they’re allies and/or people they’re actively working against in different scenarios (like chaos)

First of all, thank you so much nonny, that means so much to see that you appreciate my meta! I put a lot of thought into it and it gives me such joy to see that others appreciate my rambling and overthinking about fictional characters. Truly, you have made my evening. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 

Second of all, this is such an interesting meta question and I’m excited to answer it!

Oh man, if anybody was in any doubt that the Leverage team are hugely protective of each other, their interactions with their allies would blow that misconception out of the water. Note that I’m not including Sterling in this because that would be a whole post by itself and I personally don’t see Sterling as an ally. He’s been their ally at times but they’ve never really trusted him--he’s more like a comfortable antagonist. But anyway.

When the team has to deal with an ally, or team up with anyone really, they close ranks. Mr. Quinn is a bit of an exception since Eliot has no personal beef with him (more on that later) but Tara, Chaos, Archie? Slamming the fucking door in their faces. Maggie is the only real exception (gonna tackle her last). No matter how many squabbles might be going on, no matter if the rest of the team wants to strangle Nate with a piano wire (in a loving way), once someone else is introduced, they prove what a family they have become by uniting as one and going, and whom the fuckst might you be?

Let’s start with the longest ally relationship they have: Tara

Tara was, I think, a great addition to the team. I think she really challenged them and in ways that they needed. Eliot, Hardison, and Parker all quickly latched onto Sophie as a mom figure (in different ways--Eliot behaves like an oldest sibling with her, he’s old enough not to need her anymore but he knows he can turn to her if he needs her and she’s his ally when they’re making decisions, but Parker heavily relies on Sophie for guidance). Having Sophie ripped away from them forces them to stand on their own two feet more. It forces them to deal with Nate themselves instead of using Sophie as a shield. And Nate, well, we all see how he falls apart without Sophie and tries to blame her when it’s really himself.

The team closes ranks around Tara immediately. Nate doesn’t kick her to the curb for two reasons only: they need a grifter, and Sophie trusts Tara. Tara’s beautifully unapologetic behavior (insisting on getting a profit from their jobs, not babying Nate) doesn’t help in keeping the team at arm’s length, but Tara knows her worth and knows they’ll come around, and sure enough, they do.

Oddly enough, Tara’s really great for the team because they prove to themselves that they really are a family by her being there. Season one’s theme, as stated by the producers/writers, is all about family, and in season two we see the team really internalize that and realize that it’s true, they are a family. Through the adversity of losing Sophie and having to adjust, they recognize what they have truly become.

(I would argue that this is also the season where the OT3 realizes how deep their feelings for one another are as a result, but that’s another post for another time.)

By the end of the season of course we see them accept Tara as a friend and ally even if they’re loathe to admit it because all the members of the team are loathe to admit when they’re wrong about something. But their interactions with Tara show the team how they’ve become set in their ways, in their dynamic, and makes them question why, and makes them realize what a family they are.

Which is why it’s such a beautiful ending with Nate going to jail and the feeling of betrayal when they realize he’s not coming with them--they’ve spent all season going oh shit, we’re a family, we’re really in this together, okay, and then to have Nate make his plan without them and to abandon them even if you can understand that he did it to protect them...

So yes, the team’s interactions with Tara basically show them what a family they have become and set the entire thing up for Nate’s sacrifice at the end of the season, bless you Tara, you queen, I’m single, please call me.

The other ally that the team has that they’re automatically sort of forced to accept (the way that because of Sophie they were forced to accept Tara) is of course Archie.

That motherfucker.

Look Archie is a charming bastard but he’s still a rat bastard and I will punch him in the face if I ever meet him and y’know what he’ll probably understand. The fact that in The Last Dam Job we see him say to his bewildered daughter “that’s my daughter” about Parker, proving that he STILL, after EVERYTHING, hasn’t introduced Parker to his family? Ahaha. We are in a fight, sir, we are in a MASSIVE fight.

Archie only appears in one other episode but like Nate’s dad shows us so much of who Parker is and why she’s the way she is. We’ve got Parker’s family backstory, her asshole father whom she killed, but there’s still a big gap between that and how she became a thief, and Archie fills that gap. And the way the team reacts to him is fantastic because the only one who closes ranks around him is Nate.

Nate, who also has a rough relationship with his father, Nate who treats Parker like his own daughter, Nate who mentors Parker into becoming a mastermind. Nate who was also a father. Nate hates Archie, because Archie should’ve helped teach Parker to become a person, and instead he taught her to become a weapon.

Hardison, Eliot, and Sophie? They are extremely protective of course and they are not fans of Archie, but they are a bit busy getting Parker to safety, they respect how important Archie is to Parker, and they are proud of Parker. They know who and what she is. They know that Archie will see the proof in the pudding.

But Nate, Nate is so goddamn offended, and I think this is the moment he realizes that Parker really is like family to him, and really takes responsibility for her growth. I think this is the episode where Nate goes, oh, she’s going to be my successor. Parker is going to be the new mastermind.

It’s so great to watch as Nate’s the one knocked off-balance by an ally, rather than the OT3, showing his hand more than the others.

Then there’s the other main player during The Last Dam Job: Chaos

Oh Chaos. We all love to hate you. Chaos is absolutely everything that fuckboy nerds often are, the thing that makes women hide their love of geeky things, he is the gatekeeping asshole that thinks nerds are still the most oppressed class and probably goes on rants about fake geek girls.

The seething hatred that Parker, Hardison, and Eliot have for Chaos is hilarious but understandable, but what’s interesting is how nobody in the team seems surprised by what an asshole Chaos is. Sophie and Nate just kind of roll their eyes at him. Eliot’s angry at Chaos for Parker and Hardison’s sake. Hardison feels that his professional pride is offended, that anyone would ever consider Chaos and Hardison to be in the same category, and he’s angry at how Parker is treated by him. And Parker is pissed off by Chaos’s objectifying comments.

But none of them seem surprised.

You know the moments when the team is taken aback in disgust by someone, we see it all the time when a team member realizes just how awful a mark truly is. Even Nate has his moments where you can see him actively wondering if maybe he should just scrap the whole plan and throw the mark out the window. But with Chaos, it’s par for the course.

Because sadly, very sadly, as I said--Chaos represents what we expect nerds to be.

Okay so brief history recap, the whole ‘nerds get bullied’ was a thing that absolutely happened for a period of time back when reading comics and science fiction was considered lowbrow. Comics were for younger children, not high schoolers, fantasy writers were considered hack writers (you can read Ursula K. LeGuin’s excellent essays on the matter), and in fact a lot of parents thought reading comics and science fiction and the like was bad for you. Then when computers first came onto the scene, they were very new and difficult to navigate. Something parents are finding nowadays is how damn easy it is for their young kids to navigate and use electronic devices, and so kids will often, to the horror of their parents, get onto social media sites and see things they shouldn’t because the parents didn’t realize how easily their child could access and learn to use these things. Because back in the ‘80s, it was a lot harder to navigate the internet and computers. So if you were hugely into them, you were an outlier.

But those days of comic books, science fiction, and computers being things that only fringe communities got into are LONG gone. Women have always been a part of those communities although, surprise, nobody wants to mention it, and they’re even more so nowadays. Even when Leverage was being filmed, superheroes were cool! Several Batman movies had been wildly successful, the Sam Raimi Spiderman films had been box office hits, Lord of the Rings had won A MOTHERFUCKING OSCAR. In fact, it SWEPT THE OSCARS.

Geeks and nerds were no longer someone to laugh at and bully, especially straight white male nerds. And yet, these sad excuses for human beings continue to whine and bully and show their true racist, misogynistic, self-centered mindsets by insisting that they are bullied and ignored and can’t get dates because of their “nerdy” interests.

Newsflash: it’s not because of your interests, it’s because you’re assholes.

Chaos represents that. He is the WORST kind of nerd, and unfortunately, probably the kind of nerd that gets into the criminal world because he has a superiority complex and a chip on his shoulder. So if you watch the crew, they’re all pissed off by him, but none of them are surprised by him.

In fact, that’s why they recruit him for their team in The Last Dam Job!

Chaos tried to murder Sophie, he tried to murder Sophie’s old friend, he makes derogatory and objectifying remarks about Parker, and it’s all EXACTLY par for the course for hackers. Hardison is the hacking exception. He’s a gentleman, he’s black, he’s emotionally mature and aware, he’s thoughtful, and his “age of the geek, baby” catchphrase isn’t bitter and plotting “oh how I shall make you all rue the day you bullied me” it’s ecstatic and fun. He knows that the people who don’t appreciate his skills will come around in time. He’s not going to be an asshole about it.

The team recruits Chaos for the job not just because he’s the last person that their enemies will expect but because if they went out to find another hacker, they’d run into people who were just like Chaos in personality and behavior. Chaos is, at least (and ironically given his moniker), a known evil, he’s someone they understand and therefore can to a certain degree control. The team goes damn easy on him during this job. They could’ve taken the opportunity to make his life MISERABLE while he was distracted working for them. But they didn’t. They just roll their eyes and make quips about wanting to kill him.

Note that the other people in the Two Live Crew Job, the hitter and the thief, are treated very much as novelties. Eliot and Parker seem amused by them like they’re shiny new toys, but we also get the impression that they’re glad to see the back of them because the shine of these new toys would wear off rather quickly. Meeting someone who’s exactly like you is fun for a short bit but it can’t last--you’re too alike for any kind of relationship (platonic, romantic, or otherwise) to work long-term.

Chaos is hated by the team and they absolutely close ranks around him. Eliot and Hardison don’t even take their eyes off him and Eliot tells Mr. Quinn to do the same. The whole team works to keep Chaos away from Parker so that she doesn’t even have to deal with his presence. But given the insane revenge that the team has planned against others who’ve tried to kill them, and especially given that the last time someone made Parker upset Eliot and Hardison literally offered to kill the man, it’s unusual that they let Chaos off so easily. And it’s not out of a sense of “you’re our ally” honor. They screw over Sterling when he’s supposed to be their ally as well (although Sterling is also screwing over them, so...) so it can’t be that.

I honestly think it’s that they feel that Chaos is one symptom of a disease. He’s one type of cancer in a long, long line of cancers. Knock him down, and another incel asshole is gonna take his place.

So why bother? Why bother, when instead they can just keep Chaos on a tight leash. Better the devil you know, and thanks to his inability to shut up and his ego, they know Chaos very, very well.

Then we have Mr. Quinn, who is very interesting in that he’s one of those instances where you have to read into Eliot’s silences to get a lot about him. Now, unlike Moreau, I’m not saying that Quinn and Eliot were ever a thing. They could’ve been, sure, but I don’t personally get that vibe from them. What we get from Quinn is a window into how the rest of the criminal world sees Eliot.

Now, we learn in The Girls’ Night Out Job what the criminal world thinks of Parker. “You’re the Parker?” People know of Parker and how crazy she is, even if they don’t necessarily know her gender. We get a lot of what the criminal world thinks of Sophie, from Sterling to British nobility to everything and everyone in between. Hardison doesn’t have as much of a repuatation yet but as I’ve stated elsewhere Hardison is twenty-two at the start of the series, he’s still establishing himself, even in the relatively young game of hacking. But other than Damien Moreau, we don’t really get a huge look into what people think of Eliot (and Moreau isn’t even a proper look at Eliot the professional, he’s a look at Eliot the person, but I’m not recapping my entire goddamn Moreau/Eliot meta it’s under my tag y’all can go find it).

So Quinn is our one foray into how Eliot is seen by the criminal world, and the overwhelming emotion is: respect.

Unlike Chaos, or even Parker and her counterpart from the Two Live Crew Job, Quinn and Eliot respect each other and don’t take anything personally. They sort of accept that they’re on opposite sides out of a sense of honor--staying loyal to the person writing their checks--but it’s nothing personally antagonistic. And we see this with the other hitmen that Eliot tangles with 90% of the time. There’s no personal beef, it’s just doing their job, (and we get hilarious exchanges like Eliot being frustrated with amateurs, “how are you gonna improve,” etc), and that’s extremely fascinating considering how very personally Hardison, Sophie, Parker, and even Nate take it when they’re up against someone of their own field.

It all, for me anyway, harkens back to the talk between Sophie and Eliot in the boxing ring about Eliot’s rage and violence, and how he explains that he doesn’t let it own him and he has it under control. Being a hacker is who Hardison is, being a thief is who Parker is, being a grifter is who Sophie is (and that’s part of what spurs her season two journey to find herself), and Nate, well, we all see for five seasons how Nate struggles with his sense of identity. But Quinn and other hitter allies show us that being a hitter is what Eliot does, it’s not who he is. Eliot is a chef, he’s a boyfriend, he’s a lover, he’s a protector. He separates his identity from the job and it’s incredibly healthy of him and he’s possibly the only one of the team who can do that and I think that’s absolutely fascinating and another way in which the Leverage writing team uses Eliot to deconstruct the trope of the violent small-town white army boy hitman and blow it up to smithereens.

Because normally, Eliot would be the person most married to his job, the person least in touch with his emotions, the person constantly tempted by violence and to lose himself in his role. But instead he can walk away from it. In fact he wants to walk away from it, he wants to distance himself from the violent person he became and the things he did, he wants to become someone new (and did, when he fled Moreau and Toby taught him how to cook).

Mr. Quinn is our key to going, oh huh, hitters and bodyguards, ‘retrieval experts’, they don’t identify themselves with their jobs the way the other roles do, and that sets up a really interesting dynamic and I love it.

Finally, we have arguably the most interesting ally, which is Maggie.

A quick note on Maggie: While she is an ally, Hardison, Parker, and Eliot seem to view Maggie as separate from most of their other allies because she’s Nate’s ex-wife. Tension with Maggie comes more from Sophie and Nate. Eliot does flirt with her and score the date with her but the moment he realizes who she is he seems to go on the date purely for spying purposes for Nate--her being Nate’s former anything immediately puts her in this special category for the OT3 where they’re more excited to watch Nate responding to her than they are anything else. The OT3 don’t see her as any kind of threat--they rightly recognize that any interpersonal issues attached to her are Nate’s to deal with, and the OT3 have always been good about detaching themselves from Nate’s problems, calling Nate out on them, and not taking on Nate’s problems like they’re their own.

And I love how they write Maggie. She’s an ally who’s a civilian and the team treats her differently as a result. The OT3 want her for juicy information on Nate. She’s never once treated like a harpy, like a bitch, as a one-dimensional prop for Nate’s backstory. Sophie likes and respects Maggie. Maggie is a foil to the team because she reminds all of them of Nate’s fallibility, and she really shows them how they’re seen in the eyes of the public. She likes them, she’ll even join them occasionally, but she doesn’t 100% endorse them, and the team knows it, so they use her judiciously. In The Last Damn Job they use her precisely because she’s not a criminal, and you know that the team would welcome her into their lives if she wanted it, but also maintain a distance out of respect. They all adore Maggie, they find her fascinating, and it’s such a delight with the way ex-wives or ex-girlfriends are usually written.

They say that to really know a person, you have to know their friends and their enemies. And that holds true in this show. To see the status of the team, you have to look at how they treat their allies and their enemies, and so through seeing their allies, you see the team better. And I love that. A+ writing.

So those, nonny, are my random rambling thoughts on the team’s allies! Sorry it took me a few days to get to this, I hope you enjoyed it!