#so then when she sees him with hardison and he repeats her words back to her

[aknolan]

Just watched the episode where Nate hypnotizes Hardison to play the violin really well, and the thing that gets me about it is that it really wasn't needed. It wasn't! Or rather, it didn't need to be a violation of Hardison's trust.

He could have asked Hardison, told him that this was what the con would require. Hardison would have accepted that. And no one in the episode claims it wouldn't have worked if Hardison knew it was happening.

Nate did it to prove a point. And his point was that to lead a crew you need to be capable of doing terrible things to your own crew. Capable of running a con on your own crew. The thing that Nate got really angry at Sophie about in season 1, the thing he did himself in season 2.

Maybe it is necessary sometimes, maybe that's how you save lives sometimes, but this time wasn't the time it was necessary. This time, Nate was just an asshole.

(And Sophie knew, sure, she was part of this one. But Nate already conned her to get her to say who would be easiest to hypnotize. After all, why else would he have to explain to her that he used her information on candidates to hypnotize Hardison?)

[fablesrose]

Ch 10 - The Two Live Crew Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: Stealing a family painting back for the client becomes more complicated when a competing crew comes to town.

Words: 3273

A/n: I wanted to get this out earlier, but here it is. I hope you like it!!

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

It was supposed to be a simple job. Stealing a stolen painting, giving it back to the rightful owners. But no, not only did someone beat us to the punch, but delivered a bomb to Sophie’s apartment. Now I stood here next to Nate at Sophie’s funeral. Though she was being buried under a different name. After Eliot, Parker, and Hardison all spoke, Nate went and closed the casket, giving it a soft pat as the pallbearers took it away towards the grave. 

I watched the curtain under the table where the casket sat, to see if it ruffled. It did as Sophie looked out quickly, gave me a wink and snuck out the other side where no one would see her. 

Faking someone’s death was surprisingly fun, especially when trying to find her potential killer. The four of us left, leaving Nate (and Sophie in a disguise) to keep scanning the mourners to see if one of them had any potential red flags of being her supposed killer. Only one man fit the bill. 

Sophie started the slides once we got back to Nate’s apartment, “Marcus Starke, brilliant grifter, even better forger.”

We all gathered around the living room to hear Sophie explain who this guy was. Parker sat next to Sophie, staring at her curiously.

“It’s like you’re haunting us.”

“Parker, I’m not really dead,” Sophie said. Parker poked her testingly. “I’m not dead!”

Parker replied with an unconvinced ‘okay’ before leaving her alone. 

“We used to work together,” Sophie continued about this Starke fella. “We did the Copenhagen job of ‘97, the Berlin Polytech job of ‘98, and, Nate,” she turned to him specifically, “remember that great run in Moscow?”

“‘That great run?’” he repeated, “I chased ya for three months.”

“Well, technically, you chased us,” she replied, “sorry.”

“Are you saying that you saw other teams before us?” Hardison asked.

“Really just another Nate, before Nate,” Parker rebutted. 

“Let me ask you a question,” Eliot said to Nate, “what bugs you more, is it the fact that he was with Sophie first or that he outsmarted ya?”

There were a few beats of uncomfortable silence before Nate expressionlessly said, “Moving on,” in a gravelly voice that showed he was very much bothered. 

“Ouch,” I whispered, of which Eliot replied with a smug huff. 

“Um, Starke doesn’t keep a permanent crew” Sophie continued, “He specializes in whiz mobs. He puts a team together, they slam into town on one high-profile job, and then they scatter. But usually they do one sm-” she paused as recognition spread across her face, “they do one smaller job first just to work out the kinks in the team.”

“Like our client’s painting, for example?” Nate asked. 

“Wrong place, wrong time,” Sophie said, mostly to herself, “Starke must have seen me, and now that I’m one of the good guys, and decided to get rid of me because… why?” She continued to think out loud, “because… I know his scams. Because… I know his favorite scam: the Mona Lisa variant.”

“Ooo!” Parker clapped a couple of times, “that was the first one I learned! In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen, and the conman who did it made six identical copies.”

“And then they put it on the black market, and each buyer thought that they had the original,” Nate finished. 

“So the dude sold the same painting six times,” Hardison said. 

“Seven,” I corrected, “depending on what he did with the original… the six copies plus the original, right?”

Nate nodded at me in agreement, but a bit distractedly. I glanced at Hardison to see he was agreeing, but a little embarrassed. 

“Not that that particular detail matters right now,” I added, motioning for them to continue.

“Hardison, pull up all the auctions in Boston in the next two days,” Sophie instructed, tossing him the remote. “Starke never stays in a city more than two days,” she explained. 

“Wait a minute, not museums?” Eliot asked. 

“No, no,” Nate answered, “Starke likes to use auctions to figure out who wants the painting. He picks who he’s gonna sell the fakes to.”

“That bit was actually my part of the scam,” Sophie said. “I made that up, it’s good isn’t it?”

“That’s still a lot of paintings,” Eliot said. 

“Yeah, it’s high profile,” Nate agreed. “A scam like this requires a lot of publicity, paintings ten million dollars or more.” 

“He does all his own forgeries,” Sophie said, “post impressionists, late 1800s.”

The screen showed all of the paintings available at auctions in the allotted time frame and slowly disappeared as they were eliminated on the given criteria just given by Nate and Sophie until there was only a couple left. 

“There,” Sophie pointed at one in particular, “That’s it. Van Gogh. He has a soft spot for Van Gogh.” 

The painting was a street scene, focussing on what seemed to be a restaurant or cafe with outdoor seating. I could tell that it was Van Gogh from the painting style once Sophie mentioned it. It was a quiet scene, peaceful, but the bright colors gave it life and energy. I could see the appeal to it. 

“So we just– we call the cops,” Hardison concluded. 

“Why is that the first thing you thought of, considering what we do,” I asked. I then said to myself, “I thought I was becoming part of the team, because that was not my first thought.”

“No,” Sophie said to Hardison, backing me up a bit. “If Starke goes down for this, there’s no guarantee we can get that painting back for the Mercers. He even smells the police, he’s gonna run, and we’ll get nowhere near it.”

“He did try to kill you, Sophie,” Nate reminded her. 

“We risk our lives all the time,” Sophie said quietly. “No,” She continued more resolutely, “We need to barter. We need something to trade for the Mercers’ painting.”

“Such as?” Hardison asked. 

Sophie looked back at the screen that showed the Van Gogh painting, “That. That’s what he’s come for. That’s what he wants.”

Nate turned to us, “We just gotta get there first.”

I turned to the rest of the team, “I feel a bit over my head on this one.”

Parker turned to me with a puzzled look, “What do you mean? You help us steal things all the time now. This is no different.”

“This is totally different, I mean, we’ve had time crunches before but this is a race. Against other professionals. I have learned a bit here and there, but not enough to be an asset against professionals,” I emphasized.

Nate shook his head, “Nah, you’ll be fine. We’ll find something for you to do. Come on, let’s go.” He walked away and everyone started to file out after him. I sat there watching them for a moment before following with a shake of my head. This will be interesting. 

There were people milling about the high end auction place, looking at the paintings on display. It was a relatively relaxed atmosphere, with servers handing out flutes of what seemed to be white wine, but I didn’t know enough about alcohol to pay much attention and I declined when one was offered to me. I wanted to stay particularly sharp in case we ran into trouble. 

We all had our assigned roles, with me acting more like a floater. Nate was obviously doing his point thing, making sure everyone was on task and being the brains of the operation, Parker acting like a server to swipe security credentials from the auction house manager, Hardison on computers and cams, with Eliot and I doing other general recon. Sophie was stuck in the van with Hardison, at least she felt like she was stuck. We had to keep her behind the curtain so to speak with her supposed to be dead and all. 

Eliot leisurely sipped on a glass next to me, surveying the room. With his hair pulled back with a beanie and his glasses, he looked comfortable. I could tell he was on alert, his eyes always peeled, but confident. I couldn’t help but admire him out of the corner of my eye until Hardison gave a direction.

“Eliot, check out the back corridor. I think I see an access point.”

Eliot looked at me and nodded his head in that direction, silently asking if I would come along. I nodded and followed him. It wasn’t long before there was some static in the comms with a voice I didn’t recognize coming through. Hardison argued with the voice, talking about baby monitor frequency and hacker whatnot. 

“Hardison, what is going on?” I asked, still following Eliot.

The voice responded before Hardison, “Ooooh, now who is the owner of that delectable voice?”

The voice was so… greasy that I reflexively gagged, silently, luckily.

Still, Eliot caught my response and growled into comms, “Who are you?”

“Nuh uh, we are stopping that right there,” Hardison answered. “Switching to backup comm frequencies. Eliot, they’re here, they’re here!”

“What are you talking about?” He asked as we turned a corner. At the end of the hall, an absolutely bombshell of a beautiful woman suddenly stopped as we spotted each other. She had a hand to her ear which she was talking to, which clued me in that she was part of the other crew. Eliot saw it too and quickly but gently pushed me back behind the corner as he analyzed the threat. I was in a position where I was relatively out of sight, but could watch both parties. 

I simultaneously listened on comms to Nate trying to figure out what was going on when Starke approached, striking up conversation, clearly already knowing who he was. I listened as it seemed the crew members paired off with their rival counterparts, battling it out in their respective fields. At least, I assumed that was what was happening in front of me as Eliot and this chick shifted between different combat stances. When each of them changed their form, the other seemed to flinch, leading to the conclusion that this was a more psychological battle. 

There was a look in Eliot’s eyes that I wasn’t sure I liked, particularly looking at this unfamiliar woman. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, and I didn’t want to explore the feeling any longer, so I turned away from them to go search for that access point Hardison mentioned. I thought I found it when I heard the manager ask everyone to leave. I worked my way back to where I left Eliot to find that Nate beat me there to grab him.

“Done giving her bedroom eyes?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light and teasing, but I was sure there was a different undertone present.

The laugh he had on the tip of his tongue from the interaction (or lack thereof) seemed to fall, and he gave me a light scoff and eyeroll, “Whatever, y/n.”

I raised my hands defensively as we exited the auction house, “Just calling it as I see it.” I walked ahead of him, passing Nate to load into the van, claiming the passenger seat for myself on the ride back. 

Coming back to Nate’s apartment to debrief a bit, Nate had a new fire and determination about him. It seemed like Starke pissed him off a bit.We reviewed the other members of the team with Parker and Hardison mirroring Nate’s annoyance for their own rivals. Parker was up against a thief named Apollo and Hardison against a hacker who goes by Chaos. 

“Was that who I was hearing on comms? He sounded greasy, gross,” I commented.

Hardison laughed once, “Well he is, and unfortunately very much knows what he’s doing.”

 Eliot, on the other hand, seemed to admire the girl, Mikel, and her reputation. She sounded very skilled and very scary. 

Once the opposing team members were established in the debrief, Nate was scrambling through papers and information. Trying to retain as much as possible. 

Eliot turned towards Sophie, “How’s this gonna play out?”

“He’s been challenged, okay?” She answered. “His pride is hurt. His… his ego’s at stake. He’s gonna… he’s gonna come up with a bigger, riskier plan than…”

“You talkin’ about Nate?” Eliot asked.

“Nate, yeah,” Sophie agreed, though a little distractedly. 

Eliot looked towards me and I hesitantly nodded in agreement as well. I didn’t know this side of Nate as well as Sophie, but the more I watched as Nate became more frustrated, she was right. I knew Nate was competitive, he’s been like that as long as I could remember, but in this environment, with the constant undertone of at least a little bit of danger, it seems to be on a whole new level. 

“There’s no way. There’s no way this crew is gonna get to that painting before we do. No way,” Nate repeated, determined. 

“We’re not giving up on our only hope of helping the Mercers,” Sophie added. “They’ve waited their entire lives for justice and we are not gonna fail them now.”

“Yeah, yeah. That. sure. Yeah,” Nate haphazardly agreed. “But I mean, who does this guy think he is?”

I looked at the team cautiously, and it looked like we were all on edge. This might be becoming personal.

“We know their MO, their strengths, their weaknesses,” Nate continued. 

“No, no, no,” Hardison interjected. “I have noticed a distinct lack of weaknesses.”

“We know their target,” Nate reassured, “even better, we know their timeline. That painting is going up for auction tomorrow, and it gets sold, it walks out that door. That means they have to hit it tonight. We gotta go in hot. In and out before they even…”

“Tripled security since today,” Eliot reminded him. 

“We barely had time to check out the cameras, the motion sensors,” Parker added. 

“Whatever happens, one way or another, we are walking out of that auction house tonight with that painting,” Nate finished, “No matter what.”

There was a beat of silence, tension clearly hanging in the air. 

“You got it?” He asked.

We all nodded and voiced the affirmative. 

“Now, let’s go steal ourselves a masterpiece.”

 Before I knew it, it was go time. I graciously took a minor role with how technical this plan was, leaving Hardison, Parker, and Eliot to their specific niche. Nate was the main distraction to have Eliot and Parker sneak in, but I was there hanging in the background in case more attention needed to be drawn. 

It didn’t take long for Parker and Eliot to run into their rival counterparts and for Hardison to get in a hacking battle with Chaos, stealing security capabilities from each other. Nate was holding the attention of the guards pretty well, but he started to lose them after the motion sensors went off. I was about to step in when none other than Starke stepped up to aid in the distraction, posing as Nathan Ford, with the insurance company. 

That might have been as bold of a move as any. 

Starke led Nate away from the gates towards the park where I was hiding out. This was when we were put on our back foot. Parker was stuck with the lasers that Chaos turned on after he locked Hardison out of security. It sounded like Eliot was still fighting Mikel. 

“What do you want me to do, Nate?” I asked him through comms, staying hidden. I watched as he glanced at Starke and the time on his watch. 

“Come on out, I’m still thinking.”

I approached the pair and watched as Starke spotted me, a curious expression crossing his face. 

“Ahh, see,” Starke turned back to Nate, pointing at him, “we found information and learned about your whole crew,” he turned back to me, “with the exception of you.”

“Let’s keep it that way, shall we?” Nate replied, just as a police car pulled up to the auction house, lights and sirens blazing. 

“You all out of tricks, Nate?” Starke asked.

“Oh, I think he has one more,” Sophie called as she stepped out of the driver's seat of the police cruiser. 

“Sophie?” Starke asked, surprised. 

“Oooh!”

“You’re not-”

“Dead? Yes.” She stepped up beside Nate and I.

“You went through all this just to set me up?”

“Uh-uh. No. We went through all of this to save you,” Sophie corrected. 

“Now, Hardison,” Nate spoke smugly. 

I smiled as I heard Hardison get himself up and running again, activating the alarms as planned. Parker was acting as a police officer inside and ‘arresting’ the other thief and grabbing the painting; Eliot was ‘arresting’ Mikel. Hardison went in as a third officer to smooth things over with the guards. We as a group watched as they all walked out of the front door.

“This is saving me, how?” Starke asked. 

Nate nodded at me to go and help the others get everything sorted out. I still listened as Sophie and Nate explained how Chaos was going to double cross Starke and how he was the one who tried to kill Sophie. I flinched as Starke’s car exploded down the street, catching me off guard. 

“Easy, y/n,” Hardison teased, packing up the artwork.

“Explosions happen all the time, nothing to be afraid of,” Parker commented casually as she pushed Apollo into the back of the police car, even though it was unnecessary. 

I laughed, “Well Parker, I’m not used to it yet. Explosions don’t happen on the daily for most people.”

She had a puzzled look on her face, “Huh, weird.”

 It didn’t take long for it to come to the traditional celebration of a job well done. Both teams gathered at the pub for bonding and the exchange of paintings. Parker was racing Apollo in picking locks and Eliot was exchanging scar stories with Mikel. I tried not to linger my gaze on them from where I sat at the bar and moved onto Sophie and Nate. They had made Starke hand the Mercer’s painting back to the aging couple who were overjoyed at its return. Starke was only satisfied when he received his compensation in the form of the Van Gogh painting.

We all shared a knowing smile as he left the pub. We had snuck into their home base while they were gone and had stolen his forgeries of the painting. Nate had given Starke one of the fakes, sending the rest of the paintings, including the original, to the airport under Chaos’ name. That should be sufficient evidence to frame him for forgery and theft. 

I didn’t stick around the pub for very long. It, for some reason, felt a bit disingenuous to insert myself anywhere after playing the backburner in this job. No matter how wrong I knew that feeling to be, I couldn’t quite shake it. Hardison had joined the thief table with his laptop, but was mostly admiring Parker with her determination to beat Apollo. My heart warmed with his genuineness that I could read even from a distance. 

I caught Nate’s eye from his booth where he was sitting with Sophie and nodded my head towards the stairs to signal I was heading home. Once he returned a nod in understanding, I exited the pub. I put effort into not making eye contact with anyone else to reduce the chances of being stopped. All the same, I wondered if anyone else noticed I left, or if Eliot would tear his eyes away from Mikel to see me leave. 

I didn’t even want to know.

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

Tags: @instantdinosaurtidalwave @kniselle @technikerin23 @kiwikitty133 @plasticbottleholder

[s-wordsmith]

There's a conversation, early in The Order 23 Job, as they're going to steal a hospital, between Parker and Nate that I have always loved and can now rant about now that I have Tumblr.

Nate has pretended to be a doctor and they are now setting up in a hospital so he can not only continue to do so but can do so more thoroughly. Parker is . . . confused, for one. Concerned. Curious.

The conversation goes as follows (to the best of my hearing):

Parker: "So let me get this straight. You're a doctor."

Nate: "Yeah."

Parker: "What if someone asks you to deliver a baby?"

Nate: "I'd say I'm not an obstetrician."

Parker: "What? A what?"

Nate: "A baby doctor."

Parker: "(Oh.) Well what if there's a train accident, there's stretchers everywhere? And then someone points at you and says 'Hey, you, help me with this sucking chest wound.'"

Nate: "Ah, I wo--I would stick my hand in the chest and, uh, y'know, hope for the best."

Parker: "Oh, you are so not operating on me."

Here's the important part: the tone.

Parker is, as I said above, confused and concerned and curious. Most tellingly, she feels comfortable expressing that with no filter. She's comfortable asking questions instead of pretending she understands as we sometimes see her do. And she's right to, because Nate responds absolutely patiently. He's calm; he doesn't get angry that she's questioning him (even though Nate specifically has done that with Eliot and Sophie more than once). He's rational; he thinks through his answers and then gives them to her, doesn't blow her off or act like she's inconveniencing him and when she doesn't know the word "obstetrician" he doesn't mock, he answers in exactly the same conversational tone. He's comforting without being condescending. He knows she needs to ask questions to understand things other people might not and he answers them without judgement.

This is a huge step forward for both of them.

I make jokes about the OT3 being Nate's kids/Nate being the Tired Dad, but in reality he's actively resistant to any conscious display of fatherliness. He can't be nice to Hardison directly without either a backhanded compliment or something serious forcing it (like active danger). He respects Eliot, but tends to hold him at arms length. Parker is the one person he steps into any sort of fatherly role for and I think it's only because he can justify it as a mentor relationship. Nate's trauma has manifested in a resistance to fatherly behavior. But you can see it every once in a while and this is one of those times. He's so soft during this conversation. (And it works. Parker doesn't seem to be nervous at all after and in fact seems to have fun at times.)

Parker hides not only her emotions but her lack of knowledge whenever she becomes aware of it, as a protective measure. She does this by modeling behavior or outright repeating words she sees/hears from those around her. I know there are examples from the first season but I'm blanking on them right now and the only thing I can think of is when Tara first joins the team and Parker is thrown off rhythm and retreats into this behavior, most notably when she refers to the someone as hot in a tone that suggests she's just repeating what the others said. But she's not doing that here. She doesn't understand Nate's process, so she asks, repeated questions as she tries to wrap her head around it. He uses a word she doesn't understand and she asks for clarification, immediately, in a very thrown-off way that suggests she didn't think it through first (the way she always thinks everything through), and then gets right back to her original line of questioning.

And then "oh, you are so not operating on me," which at first seems like such an odd leap, but I don't think it is. I think this is Parker deciding and establishing a boundary in the same moment: I am trusting you to pretend to be a doctor for this con, but I am not trusting you to operate on me like a real doctor should the need arise. Which is a healthy and reasonable boundary. I'm not sure Parker knows at this point that Nate would have expected this boundary to not need to be said and I'm not sure Nate knows at this point that this is not an understanding he can take for granted. They are learning each other.

As a side note, why did Parker just have "sucking chest wound" to pull out of her hat? There's a story there.

[eyrieofsynapses]

Redemption Panel Highlights and Reactions

GATORS

i.e., Beth Riesgraf and Christian Kane (mostly Beth) talking about filming the scenes in (what I presume is) The Rollin’ on the River Job, where they’re pulling some stuff out of the water, and finding out the next day that there was an absolutely massive alligator pulled out of the same place just a little while after they filmed it

Beth’s impression of the wildlife folks warning them about the alligators

Beth scaring the hell out of Noah Wyle by yelling “GATOR” at him just after he finished his scene

seriously that was an absolutely WILD part of the panel

Everyone showering Aleyse Shannon with literally all the love!

Aldis Hodge in particular big-brothering her, and also the older actors calling her out for not giving herself enough credit, and Dean Devlin talking about how she blew him away at the auditions with her ability to turn on a dime

Seeing Kane with his glasses off wiping at his eyes, momentarily thinking “you okay dude?” and then realizing that he was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes

(same)

The The Bucket Job clip! I’ve been a bit meh on a lot of Redemption, just in how it didn’t feel quite right, but that is possibly the absolute closest I’ve seen it get to the original in the best way. Brilliant

Which comes as no surprise since BETH RIESGRAF directed the episode!!! And apparently put an insane amount of effort in!

Beth’s utter delight and joy at both directing the episode and having the crew behind her

THE CHAIR

So apparently she and Christian went to town on the fight scene and he winds up tied up in a chair somewhere along the line and there’s a whole wild scene, which I am really looking forward to

Beth knowing how insanely particular he’d be about things like zip ties vs rope and what kind of rope e.t.c. e.t.c.

Apparently this is also tied into a VERY DEEP scene with Eliot? It sounds like they’re going to go super hard on his backstory, which is terrifyingly exciting

Just. Beth and Christian going very hard on that episode together

Speaking of: the panel’s going amazingly, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts, things are relatively light, and then, of fucking course—

Kane hitting us over the head about Eliot being a mass murderer who can’t be redeemed, is trying to stay static so that he can maintain the place he’s in, and is thus LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH HARRY

What the FUCK. This is of course incredibly insightful and perfectly on point (because it’s Kane) but also, EXCUSE ME, OUCH, why would you DO THAT to us?

Everyone talking about having their families on set and their kids!

Beth’s son growing up on the original Leverage set and now going into being a director himself!

Gina’s daughter also growing up on set!

Noah Wyle’s daughter is playing Harry’s daughter I REPEAT NOAH WYLE’S ACTUAL DAUGHTER IS PLAYING AS HARRY’S DAUGHTER

Gina Bellman remaining relatively stoic throughout much of the panel (seriously, this woman, how the heck does she do it) and then losing it when they’re asked about running/inside jokes

A lot of them are, of course, apparently not appropriate to be spoken on-panel

(A lot of the others are the little inside ones that are special enough not to be ones they want to share, which is sweet!)

Everyone collectively losing it over having LeVar Burton on for The Bucket Job

Devlin and everyone laughing about collecting the various Star Trek people on Leverage

Beth talking about Burton coming over while she’s getting ready and asking her if she’s living on coffee and water, her laughing because he was absolutely right, and then him gently reminding her to remember to eat, which is the sweetest thing in the world oh my gods

Kane apparently choreographing an intense scene with Burton and being scared out of his mind, because Burton really wanted to go for it, but to Kane it was like he’s a figurine that’s not to be messed with because he was so worried about hurting him

Kane choreographing a massive amount of the show, which I knew already, but seriously, this guy blows me away

Gina and the crew talking about how he’d be away for a day of shooting a fight and all of them would be missing him and thinking about him

Family Vibes

Everyone talking about how they’re very noisy and loud together on set and it’s a bit like walking into a group of people having Christmas dinner (or something to that effect) because they’re just Like That together

Aleyse being the most surprised by Beth when she met her because she was like a little angel of light during the auditions but turned out to be an absolute ball of wild energy on set

Gina going “wait you were a MODEL” at Beth

Aldis talking about how much he loved how Parker and Hardison’s relationship had developed and grown!

Also, Aldis apologizing when the New York (iirc) background noise got loud and everyone going “no no we get you”

His outfit is ON POINT today

Gina saying that Christian is the goofiest and wildest out of them in terms of humor

(she goes “some of you may not know this,” which, fair, but also, if you’ve seen more than ten minutes of this guy outside of character you know he’s an absolute ball of sunshine)

Gina, Beth, and Christian talking about how they’d challenge each other to stay off sweets back on the original set, because they knew they needed to stay in shape and also just because they’re competitive (apparently all of them are major sweet tooths) and hide brownies and things from each other, while Aldis is just. doing pushups. eating all the healthy stuff. and then wanders into the room with a literal cupful of chocolates

(and Aldis going “well yeah I have to work off the sweets SOMEHOW”)

Beth explaining that sometimes they’d order a “Kane burrito” from Christian and he’d alter it slightly

Like, you know, chopping up hot jalapenos super fine and mixing them in, and Beth practically not being able to talk after the first bite

Apparently Aldis still went back a lot even after that

(Christian just seems very pleased with himself over it)

(THESE PEOPLE)

Gina goes “hey we should have an episode where we all swap roles,” Devlin going “WAIT FOR SEASON ONE TO BE DONE,” and then somebody (maybe the moderator?? I don’t remember exactly) going “uh actually. We did that”

Cue immediate scramble of “WAIT WHICH JOB WAS THAT”

(paraphrasing) “Yeah you remember the bit where you put on Parker’s harness and went off a building?”

Turns out half the cast had actually forgotten that that existed and only remember when reminded

The original cast all think of the episodes as “jobs”!!!!

Everyone talking over each other, Devlin going “it was with Sterling when we blew up the offices,” deciding that it was the season one finale, and then trying to figure out what episode title it was (eventually they figure out it’s the David jobs)

Moderator and Devlin accurately commenting that the fans know the show much better than they do

Noah Wyle very correctly explaining how Electric Entertainment is like a family and Devlin just. Keeps people

Aleyse and Aldis talking about typing when they’re hacking and going “WHAT THE HECK DO WE TYPE”

Aldis goes “yeah I just type all the bad words that we’re not allowed to say”

Aleyse saying that she’s always a little worried they’re hiding a Word document behind the blue screen and they’re going to pull up what she’s typing at the end of the day and print it out and put it in her trailer going “what the HECK is this”

Noah talking about filming The Golf Job and just getting to direct Jason Marsters and Christian together

Apparently their dynamic in that episode accurately mirrors the one with their characters in Angel!

Which promptly goes straight to the comment that it was very hard to make Marsters look like a golfer (pfft)

(Also apparently Christian plays golf for fun with his friends? Not necessarily something I would’ve thought of!)

Aleyse happily talking about how she loved the dynamic on set and it was very different from what she was used to

Also Aleyse talking about doing stunts and everyone else praising her for going whole hog

Beth especially praising her for the bit where she’s hit with the paralysis injection (I don’t remember which ep it’s from) and her acting for it, because it was incredibly hard to drop off screen in the particular way she did

Aleyse promptly answers that she was terrified with some of those, especially one where she had to keep a clock from falling and breaking

Everyone discussing how they see a new aspect of Breanna’s character in The Train Job

Also, to get serious for a moment, Kate Rorick in particular talks about how Breanna’s part of Gen Z and how we didn’t get the “days of yore” where everything was chill. We’ve basically been living in a world of hostility the whole time. It’s something I deeply appreciate, as someone who’s part of that group, and I love how they emphasize that for us.

This panel was pure chaos and I loved every moment of it! My stomach was actually hurting from laughing so hard, I swear. They had me cackling well over half the time. I would happily take panels double or triple the length of this, this was amazing. I also adore how the second you drop these six people in a room together, they immediately take off and literally just run and give you everything you wanted and more. (It is also evidently very hard to get them to STOP talking.)

I’m also just going to stop and take a second to fawn over the effects for the 3D room. It’s gorgeous—I love how they replicated the headquarters, especially with the stained glass ceilings! Super impressive, especially with all the photos, and I just love the whole thing. Kudos to whoever put that together.

Anyway, I’m definitely missing some stuff too; seriously, there wasn’t a second wasted in this thing, they were cracking some kind of joke or dropping some really interesting piece of information practically every thirty seconds. (And I haven’t even gotten into the clips OR the bloopers. I miiiight do a separate reaction purely for those.) It’s still up right now if you missed it and you want to watch it! I’ll probably watch it again, honestly.

[party-gilmore]

...well, I managed to get to literally JUST BARELY before the actual smut starts, so please enjoy this unbetaed 2k word teaser prologue of "demi/grayace Parker doesn't feel like she's Enough for Eliot without Hardison around, so he sets the record straight."

Set during The Hurricane Job, because who gives a damn if the ep is even OUT yet, am i right? XD

“Room 236.”

“What was that?” Eliot hums. His voice is muffled beneath the heavy, sopping weight of his jacket as he tugs the damn thing over his head. His shirt peels off right along with it, so he just shucks the whole shebang in the generic direction of his luggage. He’ll have plenty of time to see to it properly tomorrow - the storm will have them trapped at least another day. With a groan, he stretches out his bad shoulder. It’s not quite dislocated again, but it’s not quite right either. Two nimble hands sneak up from behind and flit their way over the shoulder blade, one bracing against the wet neck of his white tank top while the other presses swift and hard on the joint - and ‘pop’ goes the weasel.

Eliot flashes Parker a pained but soft smile through the old dresser mirror, but it falters when he catches her eyes peeking over his shoulder. There’s a look in them he isn’t familiar with, but doesn’t think he likes.

“Park-” he starts to turn around, but she manhandles him back away from her and shoves her hand into the back pocket of his jeans. No small feat tonight, they way the rain has soaked and damn near suction cupped them to his ass. “H-hey, woah, alright there darlin’, slow it down a bit,’ he chuckles, reaching back to feel for her, but she’s already hopping back and flashing a small, colorful rectangle at him.

“Room 236,” she repeats, flipping it around her fingers like a coin. Eliot frowns. They’re in room 225, just down the hall. They’d found what the crooked cops were after with time to spare, so there was nowhere left to search. Why then, would he still have a room key for-

Oh. He reaches back and pats the offending rear pocket, flushing as he remembers Marshall Shipp’s parting flirtatious wink and accompanying gentle smack on the ass as they’d parted ways a half hour ago. He hasn’t exactly been… discouraging her interest. It's felt good that women are still interested in him even as he’s put a few more miles on, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like the attention - especially from someone as 'his type' as Maria.

Well, what used to be his type, at least.

He shoots a sheepish, apologetic grin at Parker. Maria’s ‘interest’ was quickly becoming ‘intent,’ and now Eliot needed to find a way to nip that in the bud sooner rather than later.

“Damn, I should’ve noticed the reverse lift,” Eliot clears his throat, toying with the edge of the pocket absentmindedly. “She must’ve slipped it to me after we completed the radio broadcast. I was uh, distracted by our success I guess.”

“Bet that’s not all she’d like to slip you,” Parker’s voice takes on a bit more of a playful tone for a moment. Cheeky, teasing. It feels like solid ground.

“Hey now,” Eliot teases back, starting to undo his belt, slow and deliberate, as he begins toeing out of his boots. “I can’t help that I still ‘got it,’ darlin’. I can think of a couple folks I know offhand that might like to, uh… 'slip me a little something' right now, 'specially since I'm properly alone with one of 'em for the first time since-” The only problem is, he forgot how damn difficult these boots are to get off on a good day, let alone when soaked through with salt water. Swearing under his breath, he abandons his attempt at being suave to sit at the end of the bed and fumble with the ties. He should know better than try to look cool for either of his partners nowadays. It never works out quite right, and he’s starting to get to the age where he doesn’t even see the use of that kind of posturing anymore himself. They’ve seen him at his worst already - mentally, physically, emotionally - so what would be the point, really? On top of that, he may make a fuss about his ‘cool points’ in front of Breanna, but he knows Hardison’s sneaky ‘dorkification’ process he's been slowly contaminating Eliot with over the last decade is almost complete. He's still drawing the line at DnD, but he doubts that'll last much-

“...or, if you wanted, you could go let her slip it to you.”

Eliot is too caught up in his own head to really register the suggestion at first. He's busy ruminating on how differently his younger self would be handling this whole situation - all smooth moves and hot edges, shucking off clothing with a kind of casual grace.

‘Yeah, those days have long passed,’ he thinks, hunched over and fighting the waterlogged leather of his boots with fumbling, aching fingers. He gets the first one yanked off his foot less than gracefully, wincing at his ankle’s unsubtle protest, before what Parker said finally processes.

Slowly, he sets his singular boot the side and shifts enough to face her. Parker’s tone didn’t hold any bitterness or bite, just nervousness and a bit of resignation. She isn’t looking at him, but out the window, arms wrapped tight around her midsection in a way he hasn’t seen her do in a while. She bounces restlessly on her heels. There’s a clear energy inside her looking to get out. The thunder rumbles lowly through the suddenly silent room, murmuring a warning through the curling reverberation in Eliot’s gut.

He starts out gentle. Easy.

“...now why would I wanna go an’ do somethin’ like that?” Sometimes it’s easiest to bring things to Parker head on, and she’ll respond in her usual stark, frank manner. Just lay it all right out in the open to be picked apart. This isn’t one of those times. Eliot can read that much in every restless tap, every rapid twitch of her eyes to some place else in the room, any place that isn’t him.

“She’s your type, isn’t she?” Parker’s voice is a higher register than it should be, but not quite into her panicking zone yet. That’s a start. “She’s badass, sexy… passionate.”

Eliot notices her leaning heavy on that last word, and frowns.

“So are you, Parker.”

“Not in the same way!” She turns a bit, still looking outside, but her arms unwrap from herself to gesture between them. “Not the same way you and Hardison are!”

It’s quiet for another beat. The white noise of the hissing rain against the window settles into the room with a steady, thrumming tension. Eliot doesn’t jump to demanding clarification like he might’ve done a decade ago, doesn’t snap and tell her to stop beating around the bush. He’s learned that Parker tucks away all the information he needs to understand in every phrase, no matter how inane or incongruent it may seem. So Eliot holds his tongue and chews on the words for a while.

“Me and Hardison, huh?” He leans forward, elbows on his knees, and rubs his jaw in a performance of pensiveness. The movement draws Parker's attention and she finally looks over to him, following the back and forth of his fingers. He presses on, carefully. “Thought we were talkin’ bout me and the marshall. What’s Alec got to do with this?”

“Because he isn’t here!” Parker breaks, not enough to falter or crumble but enough to say what's on her mind before she can overthink it. "He isn't here and it's different! I can feel it! I'm not-" she fumbles her words for a minute, just waving between them again. "-all passionate about the whole sex thing like he is!"

There's that word again. Eliot knows where to go from here, at least. It's all about that word. He stands up, albeit a little awkwardly with one foot still in an inch high boot.

"Sure it's fun and I like it sometimes, but not like you two do! Alec balanced me out, could give you what you needed! I'm not… by myself, I'm not enough for… for y-..." Parker cuts herself before she can grow any more manic, bunching her face up and looking away again like she does when trying to stave off any waterworks before they can start.

Eliot can see her closing up again as her words fail her, but that's alright. What needed to get out made it out. He can take it from here. He hobbles over in his awkward, single-socked gait until he's close enough to take her shoulders in hand, but he doesn't pull her in for the hug. Not yet.

"Now I want you to listen to me, and listen good." Eliot makes sure his tone is firm, but gentle. Parker responds the way he'd hoped - still not looking, tilting her head down, but leaning toward him. Into his space. Receptive, and ready to hear him. "Yeah, it feels different. That's cause you and me? Are different from me and Alec. We're always gonna be. 'That makes us, us,' remember? Just like that's different from you and Alec. It's all part of 'us,' yeah, but it's… we got our own thing, Parker. And sure, we might like it best when it's all three of us, just because we love him so, so much, yeah?"

He lifts one hand from her shoulder and tucks a bit of hair back behind her ear, giving her a chance to respond if she wants. Parker murmurs a quiet "yeah," and steps in a little closer. Eliot tugs her in the rest of the way now, assured that she's open to the touch. She pillows her chin on the shoulder she fixed, and Eliot lays a light kiss to the outside of her ear before continuing in a lower voice.

"So… we miss him, when he's not here, and we don't have the 'all three of us' thing right now. That doesn't make our thing, the you and me thing, any less good. It doesn't- Parker, you're so much more than just enough for me. You're who I need... especially when we don't have Hardison. Don't ever doubt that."

"I'll try," Parker turns her head and mutters it into the crook of Eliot's neck, and he loves her all the more for it. It's better than any empty promise of 'I won't,' because he knows the honesty of it. Knows it's not just an empty platitude of 'I'll do it,' but the vulnerable admission of 'I want to, but don't know if I can.'

"That's all I ask, darlin'."

Because it is. That's all Eliot ever asks of her. To try. Never demands that she change, never insists she should be thinking of herself differently or more kindly than she does. Just that she tries to.

"Now. About this whole 'passion' thing," Eliot sighs, pulling back so he can do that thing he does to Hardison that Parker loves to watch him squirm under, but likes it a lot less when it's turned on her. That thing where he ducks his neck and tilts his head and looks up at her through his hair with that serious, intimate look that makes her want to run because he for sure can see all of her secrets like this but also want to sink deep into that comforting gaze and never leave it. "I don't know where you got this idea that you're not passionate from, but-"

"Yeah, but it's not-!"

"The same?" Eliot cuts off her half-hearted attempt at argument. "Course it's not the 'same' as us, Parker! You aren't us. So, you… you don't lose yourself in it the same way me and Hardison do, okay? Him and me, how we get high off each other, the way we act... so you don't do that. That's fine! That’s only one type of passion, darlin'. You can't tell me,” he lets his hands skim down Parker’s arms until they meet her own palms. “That the way you focus so damn hard on taking us apart - taking me apart…”

Eliot brings Parker’s hands to his hips, and her fingers start to fidget with the hem of his shirt. Anchoring herself with the ribbed texture of the tank. Starting to explore up his stomach the way Eliot knows that Parker knows he likes. She’d ferreted that one out of him ages before they’d even thought up this whole ‘you and we makes three’ train. He lets his voice go a little breathy, a little raspy, makes sure she notices how she's affecting him. “-the way you always know exactly how to do it, piece by piece, single-mindedly pulling me apart like a damn puzzle, Park… you can’t tell me that ain’t some kind of passion.”

“Yeah, but that’s just the same way I steal stuff,” Parker giggles a little, the familiar flutter of Eliot’s sides under her deft fingers grounding her and soothing some of the unease. He’s right about this. How she knows what to do with him. How good she is at it. But that’s not anything special, it’s just-

“Exactly, Parker,” Eliot is trying to walk them back toward the bed, but it’s not really working out well. Between his having only the one boot on and Parker actively seeking out the ticklish bits of his belly that make his knees go all wobbly when she scrapes her nails down them, it’s comical enough to startle another giggle out of her. Or it’s a sob. Or it’s a hiccup. Or it’s some weird combination of all three, she isn’t really sure, but it doesn't seem to really matter either. The sound is whatever it was, just like she is whatever she is.

“It's just like that. Just like how you plan your next score. And that’s your Thing. Like me and food, Hardison and his nerdery... Do you realize how that makes me feel? Knowing you treat me like a heist? Like the thing that you let define you?”

“Yeah but that’s not a sex thing, it’s just a me thing.”

“It doesn’t matter that it’s not a sex thing, Parker, it’s your passion. Your Thing. Yours.” Eliot finally makes it back to the edge of the bed and drops, pulling Parker into his lap. He guides her wandering hands to his chest so she can feel the rumble in his voice as he growls.

“Darlin’, you treat me like damn masterpiece. Like I’m standing smack under a spotlight in the middle of the Louvre, and the only thing in the world that matters to you is how you’re gonna pick through my security piece by piece until all that’s left under your hands is a canvas stretched tight as it’ll go and a picture meant only for you and the people you choose to see it."

Parker’s nails scrape against the skin of Eliot’s collarbone as her fingers instinctively curl in, wanting to grip take steal hold climb, and he barely restrains himself from throwing his head back in a moan. He needs to make sure Parker’s in the right place first, before he gives himself over to his own wants.

“Wow,” she whispers, damn near reverent now as she looks down at him. There’s a dawning in her eyes that tells Eliot they’re alright. That they’re gonna be good. That it’s okay to pull her tighter and ask her to go ahead and steal him again tonight, since he knows her rigging is secure.

"I can't imagine anything more passionate than that."

“Uh-huh, ‘wow' is right,” he laughs breathlessly, and reaches up to take hold of her chin. It’s a light grip, barely any pressure where he between his thumb resting on the front and the rest of his fingers curling around under her jaw, but she lets Eliot guide her down until their lips touch. Not kissing, yet, just touching. His mouth moves against hers as he speaks, tongue briefly darting out to wet two pairs of parched lips. “-so tell me, why the fuck would I want to go to anyone else?”

“Maybe if you got some bad advice,” Parker murmurs, voice strong and confident again for the first time since they wrapped up the con. “From someone who didn’t realize she made you feel that way?”

“Hmmn, that could make sense,” Eliot hums back, resisting the urge to roll up against her in wet jeans that would only serve to chafe rather than provide any of the friction that having Parker in his lap always makes him crave. “If someone could help me get this damn boot off, maybe I could get to work making sure she’ll never forget it?”

[adventures-in-a-world-of-fiction]

The Leverage/Stargate fic I’ll probably never write

I have an idea for a Leverage/Stargate crossover fic but no drive to actually write it. So I’m going to lay down the plot summary of the story that exists in my head. If anyone wants to take some or all of this idea and flesh it out into a full story, you’re welcome to it.

AU!Eliot Spencer went to work for Stargate Command early on in its existence and has been there ever since. He's extremely good at his job but in a ruthless way that has everyone at best wary of him and at worst terrified. He's the guy you send on the most dangerous missions, but he's also the guy you send when you want something awful doing without any questions asked.

The Goa'uld have put a bomb in a child and killing the child is the only way to stop it going off and killing thousands? Eliot Spencer is your guy. The megadeathray gun is surrounded by slaves as human shields? Eliot Spencer is the guy who will blow it up while everyone else is busy arguing about whether there's a better way. Need someone to headshot a Goa'uld and not care about the innocent host? He's the guy who will pull the lever on your trolley problem while everyone else is still arguing the ethical ramifications.

They keep him around because he is really good at his job but also because everything he does is technically for the greater good and you can see the logic in shooting the guy with the alien virus before he can spread it and cause a plague but still, you'd think the guy would show a little remorse about shooting an innocent person in the head. So he doesn't really have friends in the SGC just reluctant allies, but he's doing good and saving the world in his own, violent way.

But then one of the science teams discover something that's giving off the same sort of energy readings as the quantum mirror and Eliot is there to act as bodyguard/escort to the scientists. They bring the shiny, aliens toys back through the Gate but then something gets activated by accident, zapping Eliot, and then suddenly canon!Eliot is there in the base, with an apron and a wooden spoon because he was in the middle of cooking dinner.

Naturally, he's immediately on the offensive because he's apparently been kidnapped and these people are all in military uniform, so he starts fighting and takes down six marines with a wooden spoon but then AU!Eliot is there fighting him and they're evenly matched. Neither can get an upper hand and they only stop when someone shoots them both with a zat while they're locked in combat and knocks them out.

Eliot wakes up heavily restrained and they try to explain that they think he's been pulled from a parallel universe and of course Eliot doesn't believe a word of it because it sounds like something from one of Hardison's weird TV shows, and the guy who looked like him was clearly a trick. He's scared that the other Eliot is part of some plot to get to his team and so of course he's not going to give them any sort of cooperation. Everyone else is scared of him because they know how scary their Eliot Spencer is and they don't want to get on the wrong side of him, but they need to get one of the techs to try and undo what was done, so they get one of the team to bring in the alien gizmo - and it's Hardison.

The Hardison of this world was still a computer genius and got recruited to get alien and human tech to work together. He doesn't really know Eliot because the techs tend to spend most of their time with other techs generally, but also that guy's scary. He really doesn't want to be in the same room as two of them, glaring at each other, because if their Eliot Spencer is the good version, he really doesn't want to know what the evil mirror universe Eliot Spencer is like. But he drew the short straw so he's got to come in and try to get some tech they barely understand to zap this guy back to where he came from.

Canon!Eliot recognises Hardison at once but thinks that he's here as part of a con as a rescue mission, so he pretends to have no idea who he is, but plays along. When Hardison starts explaining about parallel universes and alternate timelines and quantum mirrors, Eliot listens and pretends he might start to believe this technobabble and asks questions like he's starting to be convinced. The first test to send Eliot back to his universe doesn't work but he agrees to cooperate if Hardison keeps working to send him home, because he needs to get out of these restraints anyway if Hardison's rescue plan is to have any chance of succeeding. And the other people who are around standing guard or watching the events unfold are surprised that Eliot would believe Hardison over an alternate universe version of himself.

"Of course I don't trust me. I know me!"

But AU!Eliot knows him too and thinks that he's been convinced too easily and that this is a trick. He knows he would never be so quick to believe a total stranger and thinks that Eliot is just lying to get out of the restraints and then he'll start fighting everyone again, probably taking that tech as a hostage.

But while all this is going on, people are referring to Hardison by his real name and talking to him like he's been here for years, and canon!Eliot starts getting weirded out because Hardison would never use his real name in a con and he has a very distinctive tell when he's playing a part and he's not showing that tell now.

AU!Eliot wouldn't just announce that he doesn't think this guy is telling the truth so he beckons whatever senior officer is present over to the far corner so that they can talk quietly but he can still keep an eye on canon!Eliot and warns him about what he thinks the guy is planning. Meanwhile, Hardison is still running tests on canon!Eliot with the alien tech and now no one is close enough to overhear, so Eliot lets his hair hang in front of his face to shield his mouth from the security cameras and whispers, "Is Parker okay?"

Hardison just goes, "Who's Parker?" in a voice loud enough that everyone in the room can hear it.

"Damn it, Hardison!"

The senior office asks Hardison what happened and he repeats back exactly what Eliot said to him. That's what convinces Eliot that this is real because he knows that Hardison would never do anything to expose Parker and he wouldn't blurt something like that out in the middle of a con after all the years they've been doing this.

"You're not my Hardison, are you?"

"Your Hardison?!"

And Eliot tries to then convince them that he now believes them, even though they're more suspicious than ever because he was pretending to believe them before. Eliot just looks at Hardison and says, "I swear on your Nana's chicken, chilli caserole recipe that I won't hurt you if you let me out of these restraints."

Everyone else is really confused but Hardison is astonished because Nana's chicken chilli caserole recipe is sacred. It's a family secret, but she will only give the recipe to family members she deems worthy, meaning that only one of her foster kids has ever been told it and Hardison (who consists off gummy frogs and orange soda in every universe) has never so much glimpsed the page it's written on. It's a meal that is served on the specialest of special occasions and Nana would guard that recipe with her life.

"You know Nana's recipe?"

"I proved myself worthy at your engagement party. She gave me the recipe for the wedding."

"I'm married in your universe?!"

"Not legally." Because three-way unions aren't legal and besides, the guy they had officiate their wedding dropped out of priest school to become an insurance agent con artist, so it's not exactly official, but that's never stopped them. Hardison is still confused but thinks that maybe it wasn't legal because of gay marriage rules and this means he had an unofficial commitment ceremony to Eliot Spencer. He has to sit down while he processes this.

After some discussion, they let Eliot out of the restraints and he spends a little bit of time in the SGC while Hardison works on the tech. He talks to the alternate version of himself and suggests he take a cooking class and tells him he should get to know Hardison better because, "Once you get past the annoying surface part that makes you want to murder him, he's one of the smartest, bravest, and best people you could ever hope to meet, and half the irritating stuff he does is just to make you smile."

"And the other half?"

"He's just being irritating," but Eliot says this with a soft, caring smile that AU!Eliot hasn't seen in his reflection in a very long time and that makes him think it's worth giving it a shot.

And Eliot talks to Hardison too, telling him that he has absolute trust in his ability to work out all this alien tech stuff and get him home safely because he has people there who need him because he doesn't trust Hardison to feed himself any with more nutritional value than gummy frogs without him there to take care of him. And he convinces Hardison to take a chance on this universe's Eliot because if anyone can get past his defences, it's him. Or Parker, but she doesn't seem to be around in this universe.

And that seems like the perfect moment for Parker to appear out of a vent because she wanted to give herself a challenge breaking into a facility with more security than any museum and she's been listening in on all of this stuff as it unfolds.

So this universe's Hardison and Eliot convince the SGC guards not to shoot Parker because she has a really useful skillset, and canon!Eliot wishes them luck as he gets sent bak to his own world, where his Parker and Hardison are in the middle of tearing the criminal underworld into a million pieces to find out what happened to him.

[vickyvicarious]

what do you make of Eliot's pre-show reputation for working alone? it makes sense for Parker and Hardison, who've always worked that way, but Eliot has a history of working as part of a team in various contexts

Yeah, it's definitely interesting! Really, Sophie never gets that label of 'always working alone' (and in fact later we see her bringing in Tara, which supports that she has friendly contacts still). It's just Parker, Hardison, and Eliot. And like you said, it makes complete sense for Parker, and even Hardison's hacking is just typically more suited to be done alone even if he is a social guy on a personal level. Eliot is different, given his history.

One thing I noticed a while ago, which is also interesting, is that Eliot's job by its very nature depends on other people. Sophie, Parker, and Hardison all steal what they want - as retrieval specialist, Eliot had to be hired. That's not to say he never just took something he wanted, necessarily, but his role majorly depended on people a) knowing of him in the first place, b) trusting his reputation enough to hire him, and c) being able to get in touch with him to hire him. I highly doubt he was handing out business cards left and right, so he had to have a network of contacts to at the very least pass his name along as an 'I know just the guy for the job' kind of thing. In fact, we see him bring in a friend on a con early in S1, and he is in contact with/does jobs for old military contacts throughout the show. (Once again, in the first episode Parker and Hardison were successfully recruited for someone else’s job, so it's not like that never happened for the others. But the general trend was that they picked their own heists; Eliot was hired on by other people.)

So we have a guy here who has a history of working on teams, a reputation as a loner, and yet still actively works for people who he has to keep on good enough terms to keep hiring him. How did that happen? In my opinion, it all comes back to Damien Moreau.

Eliot's timeline goes through some distinct phases:

Rural teen with a relatively poor family, I think they mention he played football; very all-American.

Joined the army with "a flag on his shoulder and God in his heart" or however that quote went.

Highly trained military operative involved in very classified operations.

Working for Damien Moreau.

Working solo as a retrieval specialist.

Leverage.

It's easy to track him through 1-3. He was recruited into the army with promises of heroism and glory, excelled at what he did, was eventually disillusioned. Getting from there to Moreau is a bit more of a jump, and likely didn't happen immediately. Given how protective Eliot gets over people he's working with, and how vigorously he hates betrayals of trust from his team, I think it's not unreasonable to assume that part of the reason he left the army had to do with whatever unit he was in getting very hurt. Likely in a way that made him feel he failed to protect them; maybe he was the only one who made it out of one specific situation. Maybe just a bunch of people he worked with got whittled down, or maybe it wasn't anything so deadly but he saw how little their lives mattered in the grand scheme of those in charge, saw how amoral the missions he was given were, and it was more of a gradual slide into illegality. There's also the detail that as he got into more and more classified work, he might be less and less likely to have a large group of people he could talk to/be a regular team with. Either way, I think Moreau didn't completely hire him straight out of the army, but there probably wasn't a tremendously long time between him leaving that group and joining up with Moreau.

*I originally thought Eliot didn't meet Toby until after he left Moreau, but a helpful anon corrected me on that! 'In the French Connection Job he says to Nate "I was out of the service and working for my 2nd PMC", doing wetwork.' He 'should've' killed Toby but instead stayed with him for months, 'learning how to cook and how to feel'. It certainly seems like he had gone some degree of numb after his experiences in the army and even since leaving it. His second private military contract/company... still implies he was working for organizations of some sort, though I get the impression he wasn't sticking around for terribly long times. Still, even if he then works solo retrieval type gigs for a while, I don't think he was nearly as insistent on working alone/had such a clear reputation about it, not yet.

Eliot no longer believed that he was doing good. He'd lost his naive patriotism and seems to have lost his religion for the most part as well. He didn't trust the system, but for the most part he still seemed to have faith in individuals. He still kept in touch with some old colleagues, he'd learned from Toby; he still wanted to be a part of something, even if that something couldn't be the US Army. He's a self-motivated criminal now but he still isn't averse to working with others.

Then comes Damien Moreau. Whether you read their relationship as romantic or not, it was undeniably important and personal. They knew one another well. Damien even still liked Eliot years after he'd left. There's good evidence for them having an emotionally abusive relationship where Moreau took advantage of Eliot's tendency to do things for those he cares about (I reblogged a great meta on this a little while ago). But essentially what we see here is that in all his time working for Moreau, no one else made such a strong impression on Eliot. Moreau definitely seems the type to play favorites and emotionally distance Eliot from other goons - Eliot isn't just another goon after all, he's the best. He's worthy of Damien's time and attention and specific assignments that only Eliot can be trusted to get done right. Whatever process of estrangement Eliot's superior skills may have begun, Moreau quickened until there was only one person who was the most important to him. Eliot didn't just work for him as a part of some vast criminal network by the end - no, he worked directly for and with Moreau himself. He was part of a team of two for all intents and purposes, regardless of how often he may have cooperated with others on specific jobs (though I suspect that got less frequent over time as well).

And when Eliot realized how deep he'd gotten, how terrible he'd become? He left, and left Damien Moreau specifically behind. Maybe he took a break for a while, went underground... it certainly doesn't seem like he had a conversation with Moreau and resigned so much as he just ran. And when he returned it was as a solo act. What this tells me is that not only did his time with Moreau break Eliot's trust in himself, it broke his ability to trust others. Not everyone necessarily, but in a working capacity. It probably was not the first time he'd experienced betrayal (in some form or another, his time in the army definitely qualified) but it was the most personal. Eliot trusted and liked Moreau - and he did the worst things in his entire life for him.

He couldn't repeat that. He couldn't leave himself open to getting sucked in like that again. And what's more, at this point he really didn't need to. His skills were such that he could get the job done himself (and had perhaps even honed those more solo skills while working for Moreau), and doing so meant that he never had to leave himself vulnerable to someone else like that again. He didn't have to be responsible for someone else getting hurt, and he didn't have to accept that he'd put someone else in charge of who he hurt. Eliot starts being more careful not to permanently injure or kill people, starts getting more selective with his jobs, and makes it a requirement that he works them alone. He still has to accept jobs from others, yeah, but he has ultimate control over what jobs he does accept, and if he operates purely on a freelance basis without getting too involved with any one client, then he can avoid the emotional entanglement that lead to such horrific loss of judgement in the past. It's hard, because he is naturally drawn to other people... but Eliot thinks that letting no one in is by far the safer option for everyone involved. He still builds relationships with others in order to get his name out, and may do repeat work for certain people, but no one is going to own him anymore. He is good enough that he can afford to set the terms like that; when he keeps getting the job done the word will spread that even alone he is worth the money. Eliot relies only on himself and any relationships he has are necessarily shallow. Professional, brief. This extends even to friendships (that seem to involve infrequent contact for the most part) and romantic relationships (he has plenty of sex but doesn't get emotionally close to anyone, does not fall in love). He is alone - in fact he is emphatically and outspokenly alone, because he doesn't want anyone to get their hooks in him like that ever again.

(*Doing jobs like this also limits the likelihood, especially in the beginning, that he's going to end up working for Moreau again in any real capacity. As time passes and Moreau doesn't attempt to bring him back too hard, that may become less of an issue in his mind, but it could certainly be a perk at least as the start.)

Then of course we eventually come to Leverage. It's been a while since Moreau. Eliot has built a solid reputation for himself - and he is being offered a LOT of money for a job that promises to be fairly quick. At this point, he probably feels like maybe he can trust himself as part of a team again without getting too sucked in - he will just keep it to one job and go his own way afterwards. It'll be fine.

...And then he immediately gets sucked in, bonds right away and wants so badly to stay. But even then, it's because of Nate. Eliot knows Nate, trusts him to be the 'honest man', is certain enough of Nate's moral compass that it's okay to get drawn in if Nate is the one making the plans. If it weren't for him, Eliot would have walked right away. Eliot was never going to allow himself to be ruled by others again... but Nate isn't like any of those people, he is a good man. Eliot can trust him not to lead him into anything too morally wrong, and in fact the work with Leverage is a way to bring some good back into the world. Not redeem himself, that won't ever happen, but under Nate's leadership Eliot can do something good for once. He doesn't want to stop.

By the time he moves past trusting Nate's judgement so much, he already trusts and loves the whole team. Parker and Hardison especially, so now he has to stay to keep them safe... even from Nate's plans sometimes, when he gets drunk and reckless. Eliot is secure in his role as part of a team again - and he probably was very lonely without one for all that time. It's not really in his nature to work alone long-term. And a key difference this time is that everyone else gets just as invested as he, and there's a good balance of power and respect unlike all of the more hierarchical teams he was in before (army, Moreau, they would have clear command structures - hell, even high-school football has a captain and a coach). Nate is nominally in charge but they talk back to him and lead where they have the most expertise. They dedicate themselves to him as much as he to them, they change together. And they change for the better, together.

[some-little-infamy]

Dance With Us

(3x02 The Reunion Job - Coda Fic)  (Read on AO3) 

Eliot doesn’t care that no one bothers to respond to him once the mission’s over. He’s out of the office, he got to take his frustrations out with a few deserving human punching bags, and he’s fine. Let them have their fun… he had his. This is what he does. He doesn’t need all that.

He definitely doesn’t need to keep dwelling on how he heard Hardison ask Parker to dance before he pulled the com out of his ear and went back to Nate’s. He had plenty of those moments of his own back in actual high school, let the nerds have theirs now if they want. Whatever.

The problem is: the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that they were never moments he cared about. Even now, names and faces and, well, other assets, blended together in his memory, not worthy of any real distinction. Much like every other aspect of his life, it was always about the challenge, about the conquest, and then moving on. It never meant anything.

He definitely doesn’t need to dwell on the implications of that line of thinking, that if he were there with Parker or Hardison it would’ve meant something.

Half of a six-pack later, Hardison and Parker get back first.

“Where are Their Royal Highnesses?” Eliot asks, eyebrow raised when Hardison closes the door behind him.

“Couldn’t pull them away from their adoring fans,” Hardison quips. “So we left them for a few extra dances. Something tells me they didn’t even notice.”

Eliot lets out a ‘humpf’ sort of noise, because Nate and Sophie aren’t the only ones wrapped up in themselves tonight. Parker and Hardison haven’t stopped sharing these quick, knowing glances since they walked in, and even though it’s barely been a full minute Eliot’s had more than enough of it.

Grabbing the handle of the six-pack to take his last 3 beers with him, he’s surprised to feel Parker’s hand reach out with a firm grip around his wrist. “Thought you were going to show us how it’s done, Mr. ‘I’m The One Who Went to School Dances’?” she says.

“What?” Eliot asks, tensing instinctively when the lights dim, only for an almost disco-ball effect to project from the television screens on the wall accompanied by the opening chords of a slow rock ballad.

“You aren’t getting out of dancing with us that easily,” Hardison elaborates. Parker’s already leading Eliot by the wrist, which she still hasn’t let go of, over to where Hardison stands waiting expectantly.

“Us?” Eliot repeats, eyebrow raised.

“Well, on the way back we argued over which one of us would get to dance with you, and I won, but I also accidentally made Hardison cry so I felt bad and we agreed we’d just all dance together.”

“I did not-” Hardison starts, but one narrow-eyed glare from Parker has his lips snapping shut instead.

Hardison slides his right arm behind Parker’s back and holds his left hand out for Eliot to take. Parker holds her right hand out to do the same, and Eliot just stands there looking between them as if this must be some sort of joke.

“I don’t need your pity dance,” Eliot says, unable to find it in himself to feel anything other than defensive. That had to be it. He knows he made a few comments over the comms about no one checking in on him but he meant for them to sound sarcastic… maybe more of his actual disappointment bled through than he thought.

He knows he doesn’t quite fit in here. Nate and Sophie have their cat and mouse game history. Hardison and Parker have their secret spy stuff, with covert hacking and undetectable break-ins. All he has is violence and a short fuse. He’s the muscle, and if they didn’t need him he would’ve been gone a long time ago. He’s fine with it. Really. He doesn’t need this. He doesn’t even want it.

Except that doesn’t explain the way his heartbeat rises more staring down Hardison and Parker than it had fighting off guys twice his size earlier.

“I don’t pity anyone,” Parker says, motioning more exaggeratedly with her hand now, shoving it forcefully in his direction to take. “It’s the three of us. Always. Out there, in here. Doesn’t matter.”

The way Parker says it is the way Parker says anything - blunt and honest, which is the only reason why Eliot doesn’t doubt her words. It’s the reason instead of going back to his beer Eliot shrugs off the gray hoodie he still has on so that he’s left with just a tan flannel and his red-orange undershirt for better mobility before holding his hands out to take Hardison and Parker’s.

There’s a slight frown on his face at the immediate realization that his hands, rough and calloused, are such a stark contrast to the smooth, soft skin of the ones holding them… but even Eliot can’t frown for long when he looks up to see Hardison grinning like a damn fool and Parker giving that excited little half-smile he normally only sees her with before she’s about to jump off a building.

Without another word, they’re moving, perfectly in sync from the first step, in a three-person waltz that shouldn’t work as well as it does.

It’s perfect. Which is why he has to say something and ruin it, before something else does, not trusting the moment to last.

“This is a little ridiculous,” he points out. “No one waltzes at school dances.”

“Oh? Would you prefer something else?” Hardison asks, dropping Eliot’s hand. For a second Eliot is convinced that he did exactly what he set out to do - kept the people he cares about at arm’s length - and is surprised at the immediate disappointment he feels at succeeding. A moment later Hardison brings his hand back up to grab Parker’s, stepping closer so that Eliot is now sandwiched between them, Parker pressed against his chest, Hardison against his back.

They’re a comforting weight on all sides of him as they slow in pace down to a gentle sway back and forth. The knot in Eliot’s stomach over the assumption that he fucked everything up dissolves as quickly as it formed.

“Better?” Parker asks, her eyes searching his face to read his reaction, to make sure that it’s honest. He knows that if it isn’t, if he really wants to push them away and end this - whatever this is - he could do it and she’d let him. One hint that he doesn’t want this and she’s gone. They both are.

It’s tempting. Old habits die hard and this job would be a hell of a lot easier to do if he didn’t let himself get too attached in ways he shouldn’t be… then Hardison leans his head down just enough to rest his cheek against the back of Eliot’s head while they sway and the little stutter Eliot’s heart does tells him it’s a bit late for keeping himself in check as far as attachments go. 

“Better,” Eliot agrees.

In fact, when Parker tilts her head to rest her cheek on Eliot’s shoulder, the three of them moving just a little bit closer in the process, Eliot might grudgingly admit to himself it’s the best he’s felt in a long time.

[mad-madam-m]

So. When you have a moment and need to do a quick little ficlet-ish thing to clear your head, I have a prompt for you. "Because, you stubborn, reckless asshole, I LOVE YOU!" (Clearly a good Sterek prompt, but I will give you bonus points if you go TaiBani or Leverage OT3.)

(I am literally STUNNED you didn’t send me a Good Omens prompt, but hey! Let’s see what shakes loose.)

“What,” Eliot said. He glanced at Hardison, trying to figure out how to phrase I’m not going to steal your girlfriend but she did just say she loved me. “Uh—”

“We.” Hardison put an arm around Parker, looking a little nervous but resolute. “We love you. Dumbass.”

Parker patted him on the chest, a pat that was probably closer to a smack, by the way Hardison winced. “Thank you, Alec.” She turned back to Eliot, her face a cross between an I-told-you-so smirk and a more familiar I’m-going-to-stab-your-kidney glare. “We love you, you stubborn, reckless asshole, so stop doing stubborn, reckless shit!”

Eliot wasn’t sure which made less sense: Hardison and Parker standing there and saying they loved him, or Parker, of all the people in the entire goddamn world, lecturing him on being stubborn and reckless. In the space of four sentences, they’d taken his entire worldview, shaken it up like a snowglobe, and then smashed the whole damn thing on the tile floor.

“What,” he said again, because there wasn’t anything else to say.

Hardison cleared his throat. “What Parker’s trying to say—what we’re both trying to say—is that you are important to us. Not just as part of our team but…as a potential part of our team, you know what I’m saying?”

“That doesn’t make any damn sense,” Eliot said, out of self-preservation more than anything else.

“We don’t just have team feelings for you,” Parker said. “We have romantic feelings for you. And when you do dumb things like fight ten different guys at once—”

“That is literally my job,” Eliot reminded her. At least this was steady ground, so he didn’t have to think about what they meant by we and romantic feelings. “My job is to keep you both safe.”

‘Til my dying day had been the promise, and Eliot didn’t break promises. Not one like this.

“No, we’re supposed to keep each other safe,” Parker snapped. “We’re supposed to keep you safe, too.”

“We take risks,” Hardison said quietly. “We have to take risks. And sometimes, yeah, we’re reckless about it. But they don’t have to be stupid risks. And I know you know the difference.”

Eliot opened his mouth to argue, and then closed it again. Hardison wasn’t wrong, but damned if he’d admit it.

“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he repeated. “If that means I have to take bigger risks, then I’m taking the bigger risks.”

He’d take a lot of risks before he let something happen to Parker or Hardison. And until this moment, Eliot hadn’t really realized what that meant.

“We don’t want you taking bigger risks,” Parker said, with a glance at Hardison. “We want you coming back to us.”

Eliot didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t really know what to say to any of it. “I—”

Don’t have to listen to this was what he meant to say. But what came out instead was “I don’t want to lose you.”

Hardison took another glance at Parker, and then walked over to Eliot, arms outstretched. “C’mere.”

“What? No.”

That didn’t actually stop Hardison from giving him a hug, or stop Parker from joining him half a second later. Eliot stiffened. He had no idea what to do, but it wasn’t like he could move with them on either side of him and both of them holding him so tight he almost couldn’t breathe.

“We don’t want to lose you, either,” Hardison said into his hair. “You know that, right?”

Eliot did know, but it wasn’t the same thing as hearing it. Wasn’t the same thing as hearing Parker make a soft, pained noise like she’d just pictured losing him. Eliot never wanted to hear that sound again in his life.

Awkwardly, he wiggled one hand free to pat her arm. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You might,” Parker muttered. “If you keep doing things like that.”

Eliot sighed. “Parker. I said I’m not going anywhere. I...don’t want to leave.”

Were those the right words? He didn’t know. Sure, he’d promised to keep them safe but this was more than that. He’d moved out of anything resembling a comfort zone in the past five minutes. He only knew that he loved them and he would do anything for them. Hopefully that would be enough to figure out where to go next.

“You don’t want to leave, huh?” Hardison said.

Eliot shook his head.

“Then stay with us,” Hardison said, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Who the hell knew, maybe it was.

“Okay,” Eliot said.

They both hugged him harder, and for the first time since this damn conversation had started, Eliot felt like his feet were on solid ground.

Wherever they were going next, they were going together.

[frenchtoastpanda]

The Leverage finale

Gonna rant in public because @rainaramsay expressed interest. I have no theme this is just my thoughts as I rewatch this episode. Idk why I’m doing this. (Also I don’t know how to format, so sorry about that)

Oh right I forgot that this is a fucking sad episode why am I doing this to myself

Ooh the return of the Steranko! I am very glad they brought that back

I just love when they bring things back in general, like in the white rabbit job all of the companies looking to buy dogson are previous marks and how they have like three brand names for safes that they reuse a lot. It just makes it feel like a real world that people live in.

The theater! Perfect for Sophie! And the mentioned the tunnels, which I believe we encountered in the gold job

Sophie says “I have just the thing” and my immediate response is always “the play’s the thing” even though I know it’s from a different play than the one they are doing

And can we talk about how they are doing the same play as the pilot? Actually I will probably yell about that closer to the end

Parker being all emotionally cognizant and Nate just reciting physics formulas in response

God I love this bit (and I love that they are still including references to Nate’s alcoholism)

Just, Parker, the new mastermind, who doesn’t “let feelings get in the way” (like Hardison - this is the reason he can’t be the mastermind, much to his chagrin. He’s too much of a cinnamon roll)

Nate says she spins problems like puzzle pieces until they click, but I think it’s more like juggling all the fiddly bits inside a lock until it clicks open

HE TRUSTS HER HE TRUSTS HER HE TRUSTS HER!!!!!!!

Zachary is the lead! Love him!

Sophie saying she doesn’t miss acting at all 😏

She is a good director, though

"I'm exactly where I belong" I'm gonna die I am so happy for all of them

Oh no here we go

Cut right to Nate covered in cuts being interrogated about the mistakes he made

"Mr. Ford, how did your friends die?" CUT TO COMMERCIAL

This must have killed me the first time around

I do love this investigator though. I think I remember from the commentary that it wasn't originally supposed to be her, but it worked out really well

Nate looking around like he's confused (and trapped) while not being able to put together a full sentence (I'm not sure if I ever developed a solid headcannon for how much of this scene was him faking and how much was actual injuries from the actual crash) (I'm open to ideas!)

Ellen giving a vicious predatory little smile when she says that she's here to help him

I wish I could do gifs or screencaps or something. This is one of my absolute favorite callbacks! Parker in that little black bonnet thing jumping off a building having the time of her life and the boys do their "twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag" thing (whuch my autocorrect recognized as a phrase for some reason? Do I really yell about that but enough for it to suggest those words in that order? Fantastic)

But this time their faces and voices are full of affection. She may be an insane thief/mastermind, but she's OUR insane thief/mastermind

And coming after the white rabbit job where we had that line about how she's not and never has been crazy, the fact that you can tell they are saying this as a callback without meaning the crazy part is just perfect

It makes me wonder how many other times they have repeated this, because you can't convince me they haven't

Aah Sophie's horrible rendition of Lady Macbeth! Same speech, different ways of doing it just as badly (props to Gina Bellman)

Is this the same outfit? Hold on I need to check.

Y'know, I didn't think they changed that much physically over the years, given that they are adults, but going back to the pilot, I keep going awww look how tiny they were! (Especially Aldis. Like I know they had problems because he was getting too hot and ripped, but Damn)

Anyway, the dress is very very similar, same color and pattern, but it very slightly different. I will maybe post my very very horrible pictures after I finish this

Parker is so good at computers now that she has this adorably bored face when hacking! I love that they taught each other their stuff!

Using chaos as a distraction and co-opting the expected response as a cover! One of my favorite tricks!

Parker changing in the elevator! And the boys turning to give her privacy! And this isn't even the first time they did a callback to this! I love my respectful boys! Remember when Hardison turned the David around? So pure!

Ah, we are setting up for competency porn and then it all goes bad! Aah!

I love Eliot's little "wassup?" Before fighting the guy. Points for intimidation, Spencer

My stronk babies opening an elevator with their fingertips

And Hardison's recurrent fear of heights combined with Parker's love of them

She says "I got you" (twice)

Oh god Beth's acting in the elevator shafts

Oh I'm gonna cry

Oh and a "dammit Hardison"

Oh Gina's face

Even in a situation as tense as this, Eliot still takes the time to empty the gus and toss it away

I don't think I've ever seen him check for an ankle piece, actually. How has that not come up before now?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"Age of the geek, brother" I'm sobbing

I mean, so is everybody

Look at this acting!

I love that they didn't go for the clichéd established couple dying in each other's arms, but instead put Eliot in the middle, giving us our yummy hurt ot3 goodness

And Parker sitting up so she sees the other two go

Ugh. Where's that poetic cinéma image when you need it?

Anyone remember the perfectly timed bridge from the pilot?

What number Lucille are they on?

I love that they actually stop in from of the barrier at the bridge, then take a moment to decide before just going for the crazy impossible stunt because why the hell not at this point

Ah Nate and Sophie are holding hands on the way to death too!!

And cut the scene before they reach the top of the bridge. Time to see Tim show us why he's an academy award winner

Ooh and here's where we find out she was lying! (Should this be the part where I started wondering if Nate knew? Probably. Did I? Not even a little)

There was a big twist where the person Nate was facing off against was playing him in the pilot too

But John fucking Rogers didn't play ME in the pilot. I take that personally.

Ooh hints at the true story are being dropped

Ellen is almost adequately suspicious

JUST WALK TWO FEET FORWARD ELLEN! LOOK AT THE STAGE! COME ON!

"You loved them very much" Yeah he did. They all did! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

She knows he's lying, I love that (just like Dubenich knew Sophie was manipulating him)

"The only thing I ever had"? That's intense, Nate

God Tim is a good actor

(Like I low-key don't like Nate at all, but Damn he is well acted)

And he just turns it off, just like that

Wow

I am really into her little impressed face when he goes all Sherlock and explains how he knows they are at interpol

The glass! Of course Sterling brings him the glass! Not a pilot callback, but a good callback nontheless. The commentary says it's literally the same exact glass every time. I will have to go back and verify that at some point. I swear it didn't have those ridges around the bottom in at least one episode, but I also trust John Rogers, so idk

I love how sterling knows everything from the moment he appears, and Ellen doesn't even know what the black book is

"That's why you joined Interpol? Screw justice. You're the order guy?" What a good line for Nate and Sterling's relationship

Nate's not even interested in hearing Sterling's evil speech of evil about the bailouts

I actually really love the little exposition flashbacks

Her look of horror and dawning comphrension when he explains why he is there is fantastic. If we bring this show back, can we have more of this lady?

Yeah, Ellen, why IS he still lying to you??

Sterling remembered to be cautious about the coroner's van, but not cautious enough!

That's some timing. How did Nate arrange that ? Oh right, this was triggered by the arrival of the van, which he probably set the timing of

Nate's face after "Parker's still in the server room." Yes, sell that fear to Sterling! Make him believe he's right! I wouldn't have thought to fake a reaction to that. But that's why I'm not a griffer

And he trusted sterling to have a snark remark so that he could have an attention-stealing reaction to distract him

I try every time to see the kids going in, and I never manage to catch all of them

Why does Nate turn away here?

God, that really is a terrifyingly lifelike Hardison face

I gotta say, the first time I saw sterling shoot the Hardison corpse, I was really convinced that he was right and he was really killing Hardison for the first time

"Second question... No, Nate, why don't you tell her what my second question is?"

Honestly, the first time around, I had forgotten about that secret meeting between Nate and Hardison

"The plan's the thing" A callback to earlier in this episode. I'm dying. I love this show so much

And they can do that without being annoying because every leverage episode is like three or four episodes rolled into one. Sometimes more!

That's one of my favorite parts, but also one of the very few downsides

I get so excited watching the flashbacks that show how it all happened

Omg I love the thing where they stack! Parker crouching, Eliot just above her head, Hardison looming tall! It reminds me of the princess bride for some reason

Sterling is the Trojan horse, the way out is the way in...wait, didn't they do that with at least one other episode, where the floor was a horrible way in, but last minute they used it as a way out?

Are these callbacks or parallels at this point?

Sophie taught Nate how to act! "She found her calling." Yeah she did! So proud of her!

"Your ride to a life sentence in a secret prison has arrived" So dramatic for someone who knows Sophie is behind the wheel

Ooooooohhh he called him James!

"You and I are not the same" okay sterling

"Justice is always easy" YES GO STERLING wait that's a callback to the justice vs order thing earlier in this episode. I just got that

I have seen this so many times and I still notice something new every time I watch it

Does John Rogers have a tumblr? I want to tag him but I don't think he does

What is Parker wearing? Why is one sleeve randomly yellow?

I can't believe Nate is proposing in a hoodie

I love how the kids pop in with insults and Nate just agrees. He knows it's true

That's a huge fucking rock

"Did you steal it?" "No." "Oh, cause that would have been more romantic"

"I'll steal the first anniversary ring" lol I love these guys

Parker insists he follow the proper procedure

Oh wait, the ot3 are gonna branch out with other crews?

Y'know, in an alternate universe I could have shipped Eliot and Sophie

GOD

I'M CRYING AGAIN

"You're the smartest man I know" where have we heard that before?

Parker recognizing her feelings! (And they've been preparing her for this the longest)

Aah, the circle shot from above and the breakaway, but this time not everyone breaks away!!!!!!!!!!

"You do know that Laura is not my real name, don't you?" Sophie I'm gonna kill you

And then the big obvious callback to the pilot, where Beth meticulously studied Tim's acting to recreate it

Loving the look of this scene. The costumes, the blocking, all of it

And they made sure to switch which parent was crying

Very excited for leverage international. Gimme!

[poetloveses]

I Would Have Been There For You

     The Bridgeport Brew Pub was quiet. The pub was closed for the rest of the day and the staff had gone home. Eliot Spencer was at the bar filling out paperwork and expecting deliveries throughout the day. Eliot liked when he was alone in the pub. No one to bother him. He could actually get his work done faster when he was alone.

    Alec Hardison and Parker were working on their own projects in the backroom. Hardison was probably working on something technical that Eliot wouldn’t understand. Parker could be doing anything. Eliot learn to stop asking a long time ago what was in that girl’s mind. 

    At that moment a delivery man walked into the brewpub. Eliot stood to greet him. “How are you today,” Eliot asked the delivery man.

    “Good,” replied the delivery man, “I have a delivery for Alec Hardison.”

    “Of course, you do. I’ll take it to him,” Eliot replied rolling his eyes.

    The delivery man nodded. He liked dealing with Eliot more than Hardison. Eliot tipped better and never gave him attitude about it. He handed Eliot the package. Then thanked Eliot, after Eliot tipped him, and walked out the door.

    Eliot looked at the package as he locked the door. What did Hardison order now, thought Eliot, as he heading into the backroom.

    “Hardison,” Eliot called out, “You got a package…” Eliot stopped as he walked into the room. The room was a total disaster.

    Hardison hopped out of his chair from a room from the side. “Yah, my package is here,” he exclaimed, as he made his way to Eliot.

    “Hey, watch it,” Parker exclaimed.

    “Sorry, babe,” Hardison said, as he got to Eliot’s side.

    “What is all this,” asked Eliot, as Hardison took the package from his hands.

    Hardison shook his head as he opened his package and says, “I have no clue. She just brought all these in and started separating them into piles.”

    Eliot started walking around the piles, he stopped at one and picked up something from the top. “Parker, what is this,” Eliot asked.

    “I don’t know. I just think old newspapers are interesting,” replied Parker.

    “What are you doing with them,” he asked.

    “I am just separating each section. Over here is comics, there is some funny stuff in there. Then we have editorials, local news, personals, obituaries, wedding and birth announcements, and sports. They are from all over the state, too,” Parker replied.

    “It’s a mess, Parker,” Eliot said looking down at the paper in his hand, “They are taking up the room. There is no where to walk and…” Eliot suddenly stopped talking.

    It was so sudden, it made Parker and Hardison take notice. Hardison, who had already gone back into the side room, came out to the door of the room. He looked at Eliot who was staring, silently at the paper in his hand. Hardison looked at Parker and he could see that she saw the same thing as he did. “Eliot,��� Hardison said, “Are you okay?”

    Eliot didn’t answer. He just kept staring at the paper in his hand. He couldn’t comprehend what he was reading.

    Parker and Hardison exchanged looks again. Something was bothering Eliot and they weren’t sure what though. Parker looked back at Eliot and called his name. It was like he couldn’t hear them. It was like he was in a trance.

    “Eliot,” Hardison said again.

    Eliot put the paper down and said, “I got to go.”

    Parker and Hardison exchanged looks again. Then Hardison asked Eliot, “Where are you going? Do you want us to come with you?”

    “What? Uh, no,” Eliot said. It was like he was coming out of a trance. “I just got to go, alone.” 

    “What is going on, Eliot,” asked Hardison.

    “Nothing,” said Eliot, “I just got to go.” Then Eliot walked out of the door without saying another word.

    Parker walked to the pile to find the paper Eliot was looking at. She wanted to see what could have made Eliot react the way he did. Parker picked up the paper looking it over. 

    Hardison went over to Parker’s side. “What does it say,” Hardison asked.

    Parker handed the paper to Hardison. She pointed at an article and said, “I think he saw this.”

    Hardison read what she pointed at and gasped. After a few moments, he said, “We should go be with Eliot.”

    Parker nodded and said, “I’m going to call Nate and Sophie and tell them what happened.”

    Hardison agreed. Parker called Nate and Sophie as they headed out to the car.

    Eliot pulled into the driveway. He turned off his car and stared out of the window. He didn’t know what he was going to say when he got to her. He hadn’t seen her in a long time.

    Eliot thought back to when he first met Amara Redding. She came into the brewpub a little less than two years ago. She had come in with a few friends. It was a day that changed his life.

    Eliot was working in the kitchen that day. He always loved being in the kitchen. His other job didn’t allow much time for him to be in the kitchen. He just finished up an order, when Amy Palavi came into the kitchen and said someone wanted to speak to the chef.

    “Just tell them I can’t come out right now,” Eliot said. He didn’t much like going out to see the customers.

     “They’re insist on talking with you. They’re at the bar waiting for you,” replied Amy as she took her order out to the dining area.

    Eliot wiped his hands on his apron and then removed it. Only two kinds of people always wanted to speak to the chef. First is that they wanted to complain about something. Usually trying to scam free food or drinks. Once they see Eliot, though, they usually change their mind. The other person is to tell him how much they liked the food. Eliot can’t count how many times that was the case. Sometimes they’d ask for the recipe. He’d always laugh and tell them he’d have to kill them if he told them. They always laugh with him, though sometimes it was a nervous laughter. Eliot had that way with people.

    Eliot headed out to the dining area. Time to see what kind of person he was dealing with. He went out to find out who wanted to speak with him. As soon as he walked out, he saw Amara. She was beautiful. Eliot couldn’t take his eyes off her.

    Eliot walked over to her. He was so mesmerized by her. It took him a second to realize she was talking to him. She was asking him something. He had to find the right way to see what she was asking without letting her know he hadn’t heard her. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that,” Eliot said.

    “Are you the chef,” she asked again.

    “Oh, yes, I am the chef,” replied Eliot.

    “Okay, I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful meal,” she said and smiled at him.

    He smiled back and said, “Thank you.”

    “I don’t suppose you could give me the recipe,” she said sweetly.

    “Well, if I told you, I’d have to kill ya,” he replied light heartedly.

    She laughed. It was the most beautiful laugh he ever heard. He never wanted her to stop, but then she did and they stood there in silence for a moment.

    “By the way,” he said, “My name is Eliot, Eliot Spencer.”

    “Nice to meet you, Eliot Spencer,” she replied, “My name is Amara Redding.”

    “Nice to meet you,” he replied.

    “I know you have to get back to the kitchen, but I just wanted to thank you,” Amara told him, “But I already said thank you, didn’t I?” Eliot nodded with a smile.

    At that moment, Amy came up to them. “Oh, I think they can spare him in the kitchen for awhile,” she said giving Eliot a wink.

    Amara laughed as Eliot said, “Well, that was not subtle.” Then he asked her, “Would you like to talk with me more?”

    “I would like that,” she replied, “Maybe you could get us a drinks while I let my friends know.”

    “Sure thing,” he replied. He went to grab their drinks as he watched her walk over to her friends.

    They ended up talking the rest of the night. Neither of them wanted to say goodbye. She told him she was from Mount Hood, OR. and was visiting friends in Portland. It is about two hours east of Portland. When they finally had to say goodbye, she gave him her number and told him to call her. He promised he would and she left.

    Eliot couldn’t stop thinking about Amara. He didn’t want to seem too eager when he woke the next morning. Everything he knew was telling him, he shouldn’t call her. But an hour later he couldn’t stop himself, nor did he want to, from calling her. She answered on the second ring. He found out she was still in town and they made plans to meet up for lunch.

    They had a great lunch. They share so much of their lives with each other. Eliot doesn’t share much of his personal life with people. He was much more of a private person. It took him a long time to open up to his closest friends, but here he was telling her almost everything about himself. There were a few things he wasn’t ready to share with her. Especially, his other main job that he did with Parker and Hardison. It took a long time to tell his first love, Aimee Martin, about his work. But that was after he helped her and her father on a job. There were parts of his past even Hardison and Parker didn’t know.

    After their lunch, they made plans to see each other again. Amara lives a few hours away from Portland and would be heading home later that day. She said she would come back in a couple weeks to see him. Eliot also told her, he would travel out to see her.

    Eliot thought things were going well. They were able to get together multiple times a month. Eliot introduced Amara to Hardison and Parker. It went really well and they really liked her. Right around a year into their relationship, things started going wrong. There were a couple times he couldn’t make it out to see her. Sometimes it was because of how injured he got on the job and he didn’t want to worry her.

    Then one day, Eliot got a call from Amara as he was waiting for her in the Brew Pub. He smiled when he saw her name come up on his phone. “Hello,” he answered, “Are you close?”

    “I can’t make it out today,” replied Amara.

    He frowned and said, “Oh, are you having car trouble? I can come out to see you. I don’t mind.”

    “No,” she replied, “I just can’t get away.”

    Eliot could hear something wrong in her voice. “Is everything alright,” he asked her.

    There were a few moments of silence before she spoke. “Listen, Eliot, you’re a great guy and things will work out for you. I just don’t think we should see each other anymore,” she said.

    “What are you saying? Did I do something? Whatever it is I can fix it,” he replied.

    “It is nothing you did. I just don’t think this is working,” she replied.

    “Can you tell me why? I don’t want to lose you,” Eliot replied.

    “Please, don’t make this harder than it has to be. Let this just be goodbye,” Amara replied. Eliot could hear her start to cry as she hung up.

    Eliot tried calling her back, but she didn’t answer. Every time he tried, it went straight to voicemail. She wouldn’t answer his calls or texts. He made a plan to go see her. He sent her one last text. He told her was coming to see her.

    Eliot was in his car. He had the car in drive when a new text message popped up. Eliot put the car in park and read, “Eliot, don’t come here. I don’t want to see you. It’s over. Don’t contact me anymore. Please, stop making this hard. It time you move on and forget about us.”

   Eliot turn the engine off. He put his head down on the steering wheel. The last time he hurt this bad, he turned to fighting. He helped liberate Croatia. That was the last time he heard from Amara.

    Eliot sat is his car unmoving for a moment. Why didn’t she tell him what was happening? He still didn’t know what he was going to say as he got out of the car with a single red rose in his hand. Looking around, it didn’t feel like it was enough. He was trying his best to keep his emotions inside. 

    Eliot walked silently across the grass. He didn’t care if anyone saw him, he wanted answers. He didn’t stop until he was standing in front of her.

    Eliot took a breath before he started asking questions. He started by asking, “Why? Why didn’t you tell me? Is this why you broke up with me?”

    Eliot could feel the tears start forming in his eyes. “I would have been there for you,” he whispered to her headstone. Cancer, that’s what the paper said.

    Suddenly, Eliot felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Hardison, Parker, Nate, and Sophie standing there. 

    “I know you said you wanted to be alone, but…” Hardison said.

    “I’m glad you all came,” Eliot interrupted.

    Parker stepped up to Eliot and gave him a hug. As she did, Eliot let the tears fall.

    They all stood next to Eliot as he turned around. He bent down and placed the rose on Amara’s headstone. He said one last goodbye before he left with his family.

[fablesrose]

Ch 21 - The Inside Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: Parker gets into trouble by taking on a job by herself to help someone from her past.

Words: 7.2k

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

It was supposed to be a lazy morning when Nate came bursting through my door. 

“Parker’s in trouble,” he said, putting his phone to his ear.

“What?” I asked, jumping to my feet, scrambling to find my shoes. 

“Eliot, yeah, Parker’s in trouble, meet us at her place,” he said into his phone and hung up. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”

“I’m coming!” I replied angrily, sliding out the door behind him.

Sophie was there on the phone too, I assumed calling Hardison. We dashed down the stairs and loaded into Nate’s car and he skidded out onto the road towards Parker’s place to try and figure out what was going on. 

Nate drifted to a stop in front of a warehouse eventually. The action made me fly across the back seat which made me double regret not putting my seatbelt on. I stumbled out of the car and had to stand and lean on it to stop the world from spinning. 

“This can’t be Parker’s place,” Sophie said. 

“Oh, the address on Central Square? That’s a dummy,” Nate said. “She’s got six of them.”

“What? She still doesn’t trust us?” Sophie said in disbelief. 

“Well, yeah, she took an outside job without telling us, I don’t think any of us know what’s going on in that girl’s head,” Nate replied. “Oh great, a keypad.”

I finally got my bearings enough to walk over to the door and see that, indeed, there was a keypad in the way of us gaining entry. 

“Oh, wait, this is Parker’s place,” Sophie thought out loud, “Parker picked the code.” She then stepped up to the keypad and typed in a code, but blocked the view from Nate specifically. 

“Unbelievable,” Nate said as the door opened. 

“Maybe I do know her after all.”

“You’re not gonna tell me what it is, are you?” Nate asked. 

“Sure, it’s my real name,” she replied, rubbing it in a little.

We entered the dark warehouse and as the door closed behind us, lights in the center of the room started to click on, revealing Parker’s living space. There was a bed in the center that was meticulously made. Surrounding it were various filing cabinets and drawers, free standing racks with rigging hanging from them, lock picking gear all lined up perfectly, and a clear erase board not unlike the one we had at the office. 

“Oh my god,” Sophie said as this all came into view. “I didn’t expect this. This is surreal,” she said as she looked at the table with everything uniformly placed. “She lives here?”

Nate was looking at the erase board where there were pictures of buildings, plans, and sticky notes, “Archie… Who the hell is Archie…”

“Parker!” Hardison yelled and came skidding to a stop in the middle of the room, also taking in the scenery that was Parker’s living space. “Okay, this is a little freaky.”

Eliot walked in right behind him, “Really? This is exactly what I expected.”

“Hey,” I greeted them, “Welcome to the party.”

“What happened to you guys? You should have beaten us here?” Nate asked.

“We went to the wrong address,” Eliot answered a bit cautiously. 

“Oh, the Central Square address?” Sophie asked sympathetically. 

“Yeah, yeah, the Central Square… I tracked your phone,” Hardison said. 

Nate grabbed a few rolls of plans and came over to her bed where more papers were strewn, “Alright, listen, she left timetables, security codes, schematics, now let's look at all this stuff to see where she went and what she’s after.”

“This is so well organized,” Sophie remarked, “she’s got everything laid out just so. This is as clean as one of your plans,” she said to Nate. 

“Maybe you’re rubbing off on her, Nate,” Eliot said. 

I huffed a laugh as Nate answered. 

“I doubt I’m rubbing off on her, she never would have tried to beat a…” he handed a plan to Hardison across the bed. 

“A Steranko?” 

“A Steranko,” he repeated. 

“A Steranko?” I asked again in disbelief. This was something out of Nate’s most crazy insurance stories. A small part of me wondered if he embellished it a bit, but even embellished, it was insane.

“On her own? Has she lost her mind?” Hardison demanded. It seemed we were on the same page. 

“Okay, please please explain it to me,” Sophie interjected. “What the hell is a Steranko?”

“A Steranko is the toughest security system in the world, in the universe, in the multi- whatever,” Hardison answered, still reeling from the revelation. 

“How do you not know this?” Eliot asked. “Even y/n here seems to have an idea.”

“I am a grifter,” Sophie answered seriously. “If I’m doing my job right, then the mark just–” she pantomimed turning a knob with a click, “turns off the alarm for me.”

“Look, Soph, if you take one of those computers that can beat like a hundred people at chess, it’s got a brain the size of a building,” Hardison began to explain, “you hook it up to military grade infrared, ultrasound, motion sensors–”

“Yeah, and then give it the personality of a pissed off Rottweiler,” Eliot cut in. “That’s a Steranko.”

“It has a heuristic algorithm,” Hardison explained more calmly. “It adapts to your moves and evolves a strategy based on your response. It learns.”

“It hunts,” Eliot added. 

“Okay, I’m even more freaked out right now,” I said, a shiver running through me. 

“Can you crack it?” Nate asked. 

“Can I crack– Nate, Steranko is like Mt. Everest, you don’t just jump on it,” Hardison exclaimed. “You’ve gotta train, muscle up–”

“No, no, no, Hardison,” Nate interrupted. “For Parker, can you crack it?”

My heart melted at the implication. That the bond between them, between the team, was strong enough that we would do anything. That we could do anything. 

Hardison took a moment to contemplate the answer. “I could– I can– Even if I tried, just tried: I can’t do it remote. I’d have to get in that building.”

“Okay, so we get you in, you open the doors for Parker, she gets out,” Nate gave a vague plan. 

“Through what? Where? Man, we don’t even know where she’s at,” Eliot pointed out. 

Nate walked back to the erase board and grabbed a photo, “The Wakefield building, downtown. So, let’s go steal a Parker.”

He began to walk out. 

“I’m only going if Nate isn’t driving,” I said as I started to follow him, still intimately familiar with the feeling of my head hitting his car door as I flew across the back seat. 

There wasn’t an answer to my statement as we all exited the warehouse, the lights automatically turning off as we left. 

When we pulled up to the building, Eliot and I took a lap around the building, assessing all entry and exit points and what the general situation was in and around the building was. Hardison was giving a rundown of what Wakefield was, which was a worldwide company highly invested and involved in all types of grain and cereals. It also turned out that Wakefield was in some hot water with bad investments and dead end research leading to the company being in chaos.

“We just walked the perimeter,” Eliot said when we got back to the van. “Lobby is the only point of entry. Everything else is locked down. I gotta tell you man, I’m not big about taking this place by daylight, on the fly.”

I gave a nod of my head in agreement, this was going to be tough. 

“What do you mean you're not big–no, no, no, what, you just want to throw Parker under the bus?” Hardison asked angrily, getting in Eliot’s face. 

“I didn’t say that,” Eliot replied. 

“But what you are saying is–”

“That’s not what I’m saying, I’m saying what happened to having a damn plan?”

“Hey!” I stepped between the two, pushing on their chests to get them to step back. “Hardison, you are not being fair! We are all here for Parker, there’s nothing wrong with saying we wish it was under different circumstances!”

Hardison still had a hard look and a clenched jaw but I maintained eye contact until he finally gave a nod.

“Thank you.” I turned to Eliot and whispered a bit firmly, “you didn’t necessarily have to say it out loud, if I have to scold both of you like children.” 

I watched as Eliot’s Adam's apple bobbed in a swallow before he answered somewhat softly, “Sorry sweetheart, I think we’re all stressed.”

“I know.”

“Guys,” Nate exited the van, “if you were gonna do a job like this, you’d need a basecamp, right? Somewhere private with good visibility?”

“And a partner, cuz I ain’t insane,” Eliot added, his voice back to his irritated gruffness. 

“Exactly, you’d want a partner, right?” Nate amended. “But all of the shots at Parker’s place, they were taken from a single location, up high…” He started looking at the skyline as if he could pluck the location out of the air. 

“It’s the southside,” Eliot said as he looked at one of the photos. “Look at the way the sun’s shining off the windows there. According to this height–”

“Wait,” Nate interrupted. “On the building, he said on, on the building across the street. Not in. Alright, Eliot, you’re gonna come with me. Sophie, Y/n, walk Hardison into Wakefield to get your hands on Steranko.”

“That’s the plan?” Sophie asked in disbelief. 

“You’re just gonna send us in there?” I added.

“It’s all I got,” Nate replied and walked off. 

“Nate, I keep telling you man, it's–” Hardison called after them but cut himself off when it was clear that he wasn’t listening. “Fine, whatever, forget it, forget it.”

“It’s fine, we can do this,” Sophie reassured. “Parker’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah, I know, quiet and sneaky, standard,” Hardison relented. 

“Quiet and sneaky is fine if you’re thinking like a thief,” Sophie said. “Thieves find entrances, but grifters?” She hummed and held up some business attire outfits, “we make them.”

We took turns getting changed in the van and headed towards Wakefield. I grabbed a clipboard with both a paper and an electronic tablet to complete the look. 

We introduced ourselves at the front desk as representatives from the “London office” and waited for the CEO to come and greet us in the lobby. He eventually came down and he was clearly frazzled with everything going on.

“Hello, Charles Rushing,” he introduced himself. 

“Emily Peal, J and L Resource Consultants,” Sophie introduced herself cooly in her British accent. 

Hardison mimicked with his own British accent, “Johnathan Steed. Financial review analyst.”

Sophie then nodded at me, “And this is Ava, my assistant. We are here to see who gets fired today.”

Charles didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, but led us up to a conference room anyway. 

“Yes, this will do nicely,” Sophie said as we walked in. “Now, I’m gonna need all of your senior executives and heads of departments in five minutes. Mr. Steed is going to need computer access, somewhere private, where he can take an endoscopic look at all your records.”

“Is that really necessary?” Charles asked, “I mean, there’s a certain order to-”

“This company is on the brink,” Sophie interrupted. “It is hemorrhaging money. Now, someone will be blamed. Now, I can either be your white knight or the angel of death. Your choice.”

I tried to disguise my smile with a pursed frown as the CEO swallowed tensely. 

“Yes, of course. Anything to help Ms. Peal. Anything at all.” He then turned to one of his employees, “Get Mr. Steed any office he wants.”

The employee clipped a guest badge onto Hardison’s suit jacket and exited the conference room to lead the way. The corner of Hardison’s mouth twitched up in a smile and he followed the employee to get started on cracking the Steranko. 

“Good,” Sophie said and turned away from Charles to start prepping for this meeting. I followed behind her, doodling on the tablet to feign taking notes while I listened to the comms for what was going on with Nate and Eliot.

They had gone up to the roof of the neighboring building and discovered Parker’s partner. An elderly man named Archie Leech, supposedly the greatest thief in the world, discounting Parker anyway. They found out that he was being held hostage to complete a job, the job Parker was trying to do in order to rescue him. When Eliot asked why Parker would want to rescue him, Archie claimed that he was her father. Or at least, as close to a father she had. He found her on the streets after she tried to pick his pocket and took her in and taught her everything he knew about thieving and quote on quote, ‘unleashed her on the world.’

“You know, she was broken. You understand that?” Nate demanded, “Parker was broken. You had no– you should have taken her in–”

“What? Taken her home like a real daughter?” There was a pause before Archie resumed what he was saying in a much softer tone, “This is my wife Marilyn and my grandsons. I love them dearly. They think I’m an accountant.” He then took a harder tone again, “What was I supposed to do? You know Parker. You know she wouldn’t fit in. God, she doesn’t fit in anywhere.”

“Yeah, but she was good enough to send into a deathtrap, huh?” Eliot asked a bit accusingly. 

“I didn’t send her anywhere,” Archie defended. “I was retired. They found me, whoever they are. Told me to break into Wakefield and steal some canister from the labs there, or they would kill my family. My grandchildren.”

“You couldn’t beat a Steranko even in your prime,” Nate said. 

“Which I am long past, thanks for the reminder. But, my employer gave me these blueprints and most of the codes, so I thought I could break the bloody thing. I called Parker for help, just to plan,” Archie explained. “Next thing I know, she jumps the gun and goes in herself. No idea what she was thinking!”

Well, this little anecdote explained a few things about the situation we were in. 

Nate told Eliot to make his way over to the building and make sure that Parker can get through any door that Hardison may find to get her out. 

All of the Wakefield employees who Sophie requested to see were filing into the conference room. I set myself by the door and greeted them, directing them to have a seat or find a place to stand as the meeting would be starting shortly. Hardison was hooking up to the Steranko and going through files and security measures. Our job in the conference room was to create chaos and take attention away from Hardison while he did this, having all of the senior executives’ attention on us instead of him. 

And boy, did Sophie know how to keep attention and breed chaos. 

“I know what I’m doing here,” she began as she addressed the group. “Someone has to cut $90 million of putrid dead weight from this flabby company, and that putrid dead weight is you all.”

I chewed on the inside of my lip to keep a somewhat neutral expression, she was brutal. 

“Now, see here, Ms. Peal. There’s no call for rudeness,” the CEO protested. 

“Wakefield agriculture is teetering,” Sophie continued. “I know it. Your board knows it. Your shareholders know it. The only people who don’t seem to know it are in this room, which is why you are all fired.”

Murmerings rose up from the room in a dull roar. 

“You’re just a consultant, you don’t have the authority to fire us,” a smug looking woman said. 

“I think you’ll find that I do… Dr. Hannity,” Sophie replied after reading her badge. “Silver lining: anyone that can convince me, right here, right now, that their job is necessary, will be rehired.”

The room erupted into chaos as they all tried to yell over each other to convince Sophie to keep their jobs. She egged them all on a bit to keep the chaos going until they all started to argue with themselves as to why they were important, often being more important than the person they were arguing with. Sophie began to sit back in her seat and watch the show. I nodded at her and ventured down the hall to find Hardison. 

“How’s it coming?” I asked him, circling the desk to get a look at his computers. 

“Well, I have bad news and not-so-bad news,” he replied. “The not-so-bad news is that Steranko is only running at a level one.”

“How many levels are there?” Nate asked. 

Hardison pulled up the diagram, “Okay, uh, level one: passive lockdown. Two: fire. Three: Terrorist takeover. And four: hazmat containment breach. Now, if it stays at a level one, she just needs to stay away from doors, cameras, uh… security key cards, and even actual security guards and she’ll be cool… For a while.”

“Oh yeah, easy,” I commented. 

“So she’s safe as long as she stays in, but if she tries to get out-” Nate said. 

“Boom. Game over,” Hardison finished the thought. “That’s the bad news.”

“It’s a lobster trap,” Eliot compared. “It’s easy to get in, but there’s no way out.”

“And this helps me how?” Hardison asked. 

“And what about the perimeter?” Nate asked before a fight could start. 

“Perimeter’s locked down tight. It’s a solid grid, right?” Eliot responded. “You got sensors, you got cameras on everything. You want to make a bet these suits don’t like giving up their privacy?”

I raised an eyebrow, “I think that would be a safe bet.”

“You’re gonna find a blank on one of those offices,” Eliot said self assuredly. 

“That’s actually, not bad,” Hardison agreed.

“Alright guys, so it’s a party,” Nate said. “But before we rescue Parker, we gotta find out where she is.”

“Nate,” Hardison said, “you do realize the entire building is looking for Parker. I mean the actual, physical building is looking for her. Look, any cameras I piggy-back, any sensors that I access, anything I do to find Parker could lead the bad guys right to her.”

“Alright, so what’s your play?” Nate asked. 

“What? What’s my play?” Hardison asked in disbelief, “Nate, I’m hacking a security system that the Pentagon calls ‘overkill’ with a laptop I found in the back of my car! Look man, honest answer, we can’t find Parker. We just have to wait for her to send up a signal and hopefully we get to her first.”

I sighed as I looked over his shoulder to the beast we were taking on, “Hopefully she trusts us enough to send up one, at least intentionally.”

Hardison nodded. 

“Is there any way to trick the Steranko down to zero?” I asked, no hope of him replying positively. 

“Nope, the only thing I can do right now is try and keep it where it is.”

“I figured.”

Hardison’s phone rang once before he answered it and simply said, “Speak.”

I couldn’t hear what was being said, but it vaguely sounded like Parker’s cadence. 

“We are already here, mama,” Hardison said. There was a pause where she said something and Hardison continued, “Wait. Parker, are you calling from a company landline?”

Parker replied, but even as I strained to hear what she was saying I couldn’t make it out, so I continued to listen to Hardison’s side of the conversation.

“No, no, not okay. Parker, they are matching IDs to retinal scans. If a security guard scans your ID, you’re busted. And now that you’re calling me, Steranko knows exactly where you are!”

I looked at his computer, and sure enough: a little red dot appeared with a ‘target found’ message.

Parker sounded a little frantic. 

“Okay, you’ve got a thirty second window. Right now, you’re at twenty. You need to hang up. Get to cubicle 27, wait there. Go now.”

I could hear the line go dead. Hardison quickly got to work grabbing a padded envelope and dropping an earbud in it. He filled out the little form and dropped the envelope on the mail cart passing by, sending it straight to cubicle 27 where Parker would be. 

“Guys, what would you say if I told you that all of Mr. Leech’s schematics are watermarked with the Wakefield logo?” Nate asked. 

“Those would be official, most likely original documents,” I replied, the gears inside my head turning. 

“Probably from the company’s hard copy files,” Hardison added. 

“Yes, the kind of files that are restricted to high level company personnel,” Nate said. 

“Head of security or above,” Hardison confirmed, eyes still glued to his computer trying to strong arm Steranko to keep it off Parker’s back. 

This whole situation seemed suspicious. Something just wasn’t right. 

“Okay, Sophie, I need you to do me a favor,” Nate said. 

“Anything,” she replied. “It’s not like there’s anything going on where I am.”

I chuckled as I could hear the dull roar of the executives still arguing to keep their jobs through the comms. 

“I want you to take a look around the room. I mean, really take a good look,” Nate told her. “Anything standing out to you?”

There was a long pause while she observed before she answered, “Dr. Hannity looks awfully calm.”

“She seemed incredibly smug at the beginning of the meeting too,” I commented. 

Hardison began to look her up in the company files, “Dr. Ann Hannity. She’s the senior vice president in charge of the research and development department. She runs the biotech division.”

“Yeah, and she has access to the Steranko, and the vault Parker is hitting on the biotech level,” Nate pointed out. He asked Archie if he ever had contact with his quote on quote ‘employer.’

“The client insisted on complete discretion,” he replied. 

“She’s in on it,” they said together. 

“I thought this sounded like an inside job,” I commented, mostly to myself. 

“Ford, an inside job like this only works if–” Archie began. 

“If they’ve tied up loose ends, yes,” Nate agreed. 

“If they find Parker, they’re not going to arrest her, they’ll kill her!” Archie said. 

A shuttered breath left my lips. The stakes just keep getting higher and higher. 

Archie was frantic and was going to do something rash to warn Parker, though what he thought he was going to do was still undetermined. Nate was able to calm him down a bit by saying we were on in and asking Hardison for an update on where she was. 

“Already took care of it,” he replied. “Earbud’s going hot in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

It only took a second for Parker’s voice to come through, “Okay, I got it. I’m on. Come get me.”

She sounded stressed and defeated, at least from her usual tone. A sigh of relief slipped from my lips as it sounded like she was at least okay for now. Nate and I greeted her at the same time.

“Is Archie there?” she asked next. 

Archie replied in the affirmative. 

Parker said his name in relief, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, right as rain, kiddo,” he replied immediately. 

“Kiddo?” Nate whispered.

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips as it was such a little thing for Nate to pick at.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get the canister,” Parker apologized. “The transcription codes–”

“Parker, what the hell were you thinking going in there?” Archie scolded.

“They would have caught you, Archie,” Parker quipped back. “They would have hurt you or your family.” There was a pause before she finished, her voice softer and if I didn’t know better, on the verge of cracking, “your real family. I couldn’t let that happen.”

I shared a look with Hardison. It was a sad and touching moment, but we had work to do. 

“Well, that’s alright,” Archie answered in a softer tone after a moment. “J-Just stay focused.”

“Yes, sir,” Parker said quickly. 

“Sir?” Nate muttered again. 

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

Hardison was able to find a blind and clear office free of sensors and cameras on the executive level, the CEO’s office to be exact that would be an exit point. Parker demanded a way out after her employee disguise worked too well and she got commandeered for a party, after a very awkward encounter involving another employee mentioning online sexting. Yup, Parker wanted out.

“Eliot, that was a nice call man,” Hardison said after Archie asked for an update and he explained the hole in security as an exit point. 

“Alright, so Rushing wants his privacy,” Nate said at the news. “Eliot, you’re on.”

“Wait a second, you want me to climb a 40-story building in broad daylight?” Eliot asked angrily.

“Yes, and I want you to do it now,” Nate replied calmly, with almost no variation in his voice at all actually, like Eliot would move heaven and Earth to climb this building. There was only a fraction of my brain that told me he couldn’t. “We’re up against the clock.”

“Man, where’s Parker when you need her, huh?” I joked. 

“Not funny, y/n” Nate said. 

I glanced at Hardison to see that he also gave me a slight glare. 

“Oh, come on. This is a stressful situation, I have to poke fun at some point,” I said. 

Hardison chose to change the subject, “Oh, Dr. Hannity, you’ve been a bad girl,” he said as he pulled up her records. “Nate, Hannity blew through $60 million last year and didn’t make Wakefield a dime. Some kind of, uh, super wheat that nobody wants. She should be on the front line, begging to keep her job. I swear. I’d fire her.”

“As you should,” I agreed, reading over his shoulder. 

“Hannity is our inside man,” Nate said. “Okay, Sophie, you can let everybody go except Hannity. And I want her angry. I mean steamed.”

“Noted,” Sophie replied. “Y/n, can you grab me a Wakefield folder and some printer paper? I’ll need you in here for some additional pressure.”

“On it,” I said, quickly finding a Wakefield branded folder on the desk Hardison was working on and exiting the office to find a printer. I shoved a decent sized stack of paper into the folder and entered the conference room where the last few employees were filtering out, leaving Hannity sitting on one side of the table and Sophie on the other. I slid the folder to Sophie with a neutral expression and sat next to her, obviously pulling out the notepad and pen to take notes.

Sophie tapped the folder against the table a couple of times, aligning the papers within, “Let’s take a look at your resume, shall we, Dr. Hannity?” Sophie opened the folder and stared at the blank pages, “Oh dear, it’s a bit thin, isn’t it?”

“A PhD in Agronomy from Stanford,” Hannity replied almost incredulously, “MBA from Harvard.”

“Mhm, yes,” Sophie said, disinterested. “Oh dear, graduated middle of your class at both. Published just… here and there.”

“I’m vice president of a Fortune 500 company, I’m head of research,” she replied stiffly. 

“I know! It’s surprising, isn’t it? And with such weak credentials.”

“I make one call, and you’re finished, Ms. Peal.”

This whole time I was loudly taking notes, letting Dr. Hannity know that she was under pressure. My notes consisted of writing down her characteristics which so far just included synonyms of cocky, smug, and entitled. 

“Let’s both make calls,” Sophie rebuffed. “You whine to your CEO about my bad manners, and I’ll remind the board that your division has spent $60 million developing… What was it?” Sophie opened up the folder again, “Wheat.”

Hannity scoffed, “Wheat? Okay, you’re an accountant, and you’re out of your depth.”

“A bit full of ourselves, aren’t we?”

I nodded along with the statement and vigorously underlined that same note in my notepad, drawing Hannity’s attention for a split moment before she replied to Sophie. 

“You want to know what I’ve spent the last two years working on?” Hannity stood up and activated the screen at the front of the room. A map of the US popped up with various green blobs covering it which represented some statistic or another. “Five companies–Five–control all the world’s agriculture. Trillions of dollars. They do it through wheat.The world’s entire food supply is founded on wheat.”

“I didn’t know that,” Sophie relented.

“Where does rice stand in this?” I asked dully, barely looking up from my notepad. “Because I think Asian countries would argue with your claim. Which is a big demographic, need we remind you.”

Hannity huffed at me, “Rice stands nowhere in this.” She quickly continued, pulling up a 3D model. “Do you know what this is? Of course you don’t. This is a blight called UG99. It’s a variant of the Black Stem Fungus native to Russia. Modern wheat has no immunity to it. So this is what happens if UG99 ever comes to America.” The model flew into the map of the US and red spread across the whole map. “The blight kills every wheat field anywhere it spreads. Half the world’s food supply, rotting in the fields.”

I wrote ‘monologue’ on the notepad. 

“That’s a famine,” Sophie said, much less antagonizing now. 

Hannity laughed, “No, it’s an opportunity. If UG99 ever hits, those five companies that control the food supply will spend billions to beat it. Whoever comes up with a solution…”

“Will save lives,” Sophie said soberly. 

“Will increase market share,” Hannity corrected in a tone that said she thought it was obvious. “I’m getting Wakefield ahead of the curve. My team has bred a strain of wheat that is totally immune to the UG99 blight and all its variants.”

Sophie transitioned back to a more critical tone as she looked at the blank sheets of paper again, “This company hired you to make money, not ‘super wheat’ for some famine that may never happen.”

Hannity paused before replying, “what if we knew, in advance, exactly what strain of UG99 would attack the food supply, where it would hit, and Wakefield Agriculture had the only wheat in the world to survive it?”

“Sounds like some sort of insider trading,” I commented, trying to see if I could get another rise out of her, but I suspected she had given us everything she was willing to and that we needed. 

She sneered at me, “It may do you good to invest.” She then turned back to Sophie, “So you make your calls, Ms. Peal, and I’ll make mine. Six months from now, we’ll see who's still looking for work.” Hannity then quickly spun which made her tight ponytail swish behind her as she exited the conference room. 

“Nate, I lost her, she’s gone,” Sophie said and then continued when she didn’t get a response, “Nate? Are you there?”

“Okay, just wait. Wait,” he replied. I assumed he was thinking. 

“Are you telling me this woman paid us to steal her own wheat?” Archie asked. 

“Worse, to steal the blight,” Nate replied. He then proceeded to explain how in order to know her wheat is immune to the blight, she had to have the blight to test and breed against.

“But why steal something you already own?” Archie asked. 

“Because she wants it to get out,” Nate said. 

“That is very crazy and absolutely right,” Hardison commented. “Nate, I’m sending you all the data that Hannity has on that project.” Hardison then explained that the schematics and location of where Hannity was storing a bunch of the blight, matched the information given to Archie exactly, confirming our theory. “Looks like somebody was trying to jumpstart an outbreak.”

“Oh, this–this virus, this what-do-you-call-it, gets out and kills the normal wheat,” Archie said, catching on. 

“That’s right,” Nate confirms. “And famine everywhere. I mean, it’s a multibillion dollar market ready for Wakefield to dominate.”

“Not only dominate, but they would destroy farmers,” I added, glancing at Sophie who sat next to me. “Many of these companies require that you buy seed from them every year, meaning that if farmers tried to collect seed or crossbred the wheat, even accidentally, they can sue farmers which are usually already struggling to buy seed anyway. If they dominate the industry like that, it could kill the agriculture industry.”

“It’s so arcane, brutal,” Archie expressed, “She’d have to be a monster.”

“Yes, yes she would,” Nate agreed. “We gotta take her out.”

At the same time, Archie said, “We have to get Parker out of there.”

They spoke on top of each other for a moment, arguing about what to do. 

“You’ve gotta let me think this through,” Nate insisted.

“You’ve got four people trapped in there,” Archie pointed out, “an outside man who can’t get in. So what now? You're gonna actually call the police?”

“Yeah yeah yeah. Leech, just shut up. Shut up.”

“While you’re dreaming up your comic-book fantasies, Parker’s in there, waiting for a bullet to the head.”

“Yeah, and you put her in there.”

“And I’m gonna get her out,” Archie replied, then spoke through the comms, “Parker, it’s Archie. You’ve gotta leg it. Run for the front doors now.”

“Are you trying to get her killed?” I asked.

“No, no, Parker. You’re not going anywhere,” Nate insisted. 

“Your friends botched it, Parker. Just listen to me, and I’ll get you home,” Archie emphasized. 

“Parker, do not go anywhere near the entrance,” Nate contradicted Archie again. “There’s a hundred people there, it’s a bottleneck.”

“Somebody tell me what to do,” Parker pleaded stiffly, clearly caught in an uncomfortable position. Though whether it was the overarching context of today, the fight between Archie and Nate, or the company party she was participating in, I didn’t know.

“Yeah, and fast,” Hardison added. “I got codes to all the doors, but Steranko is rewriting. The bastard is quick–and smart.” He then proceeded to guide Parker through the building, opening doors where he could to get her to that blind office. 

“I get it, we’re here to get Parker out,” Sophie began, “But this Hannity woman is a piece of work. There must be something we can do to bring her down.”

“One thing at a time,” Nate said. “Eliot, she’s coming out hot, is she in position?”

“Yeah, I’m in position,” Eliot growled, “She’s the one that– Nevermind, scratch that. There she is.”

We waited for the tell tale sound of breaking glass, but it didn’t come. 

“Parker, move!” Eliot yelled.

“No, no I can't,” she answered softly. 

“Parker, what are you doing?” Archie asked. 

“This is no time for crazy, alright?!” Eliot yelled even more forcefully this time. “We gotta get the hell out of here!”

“I have to go back!” Parker said. “The Steranko has a record of the break in. Hannity can walk the blight out on her own and blame it on me! She’s gonna get away with it. We need proof.”

“What proof?” Eliot asked. 

“I have to go back and steal the blight.”

“Oh dear,” I said.

“Parker, this is not what I taught you,” Archie said. 

“Archie?”

“We do not get involved. We get out.”

“Archie!”

“This is not what we do!”

“No, this isn’t what you do!” Parker snapped. “Okay, Hannity is bad. She’s gonna hurt people–a lot of people! You’ve taught me a lot of things Archie, but… This is what we do.”

“She’s right, Nate,” Sophie said.

“Well, somebody better decide something, ‘cause Steranko is whoopin’ my ass!” Hardison called. 

There was a slight pause before Archie demanded, “You’re not actually considering this?”

Nate ignored him, “Parker, last time you went to the vault–”

“No, I couldn’t, but I was alone then,” Parker explains. “I’m not alone now, okay? Hardison, just clear a path to the vault. I know what I did wrong before, I can do it!”

“Okay,” Nate said and I could hear the proud smile in his voice. “It’s your show. Go for it.”

“Of all the sanctimonious–” Archie was not happy. “She was home free, she was out. Now you’ve got her playing hero?”

“She was right,” Nate answered, pride in his voice. “It’s what we do.”

“What you do? You’ve killed her,” Archie’s voice started to break, “That’s what you’ve bloody done. You killed her.”

Sophie and I shared a look at the outburst but decided it’s not our issue now. Now we needed to make preparations for getting out of this building. We gathered the few things we brought and dashed out of the conference room. 

Hardison guided Parker and Eliot, who still got to break a window to get into the building, back through the building to the biotech level. Parker was explaining what she did wrong before and how she got past the obstacles this time, which was interesting, but Eliot was not impressed enough to shake off the stress of getting the heck out of this monster of a building. Once they had the blight, Hardison set off a level four hazmat containment breach alarm per Nate’s request. 

Sophie and I scouted where the hazmat suits were and started gathering a few of them for our plan and then passing others out to cause some confusion. I vaguely heard Nate and Archie have another argument outside, trying to get into the building. 

Hardison had secured an elevator for our own use so Nate, Archie, and the news team Nate had recruited met Sophie, Hardison, and I on one of the upper floors that had already been evacuated. We helped Archie and the news team get dressed in the hazmat suits and sent them to meet Parker and Eliot on a different floor for the blight. After that, everything was in place for Archie and the news team to meet with Dr. Hannity and her head of security.

The rest of us made out way to the executive level and the CEO’s office to use Eliot and Parker’s earlier escape route, which apparently was a suspended scaffolding used for window cleaning. We listened to the confrontation through Archie’s comm and had the added bonus of watching it on Hardison’s cellphone, thanks to the news crew going live.

“We had a deal,” Hannity said to Archie once he took off his hazmat helmet.

“We did,” he agreed, “Until you breached our original contract. After all, you did want to kill me, and my partner.”

“Business is business,” she said smugly.

“Man, I wish I could have slapped that smug smile right off her face earlier,” I said, my hands clenching with increased anger and energy. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t think she’ll be smiling for much longer,” Nate assured, taking my hand and helping me onto the platform.

“Still, I would have liked the satisfaction,” I replied.

“I think we all would have,” Eliot said, glaring at Hardison’s screen.

“If you want your property, you will now pay double,” Archie said. We hadn’t heard what he said originally to Hannity’s business statement with our own conversation, but business is business.

“I’ve heard your proposal,” Hannity said in a condescendingly thoughtful tone, “Now here’s mine: I take the blight now. Mr. Vorhees kills all of you and feeds your bodies to the very expensive incinerators we have in the sublevel.”

I looked at Eliot and Hardison, “Is that true? I mean, I’m sure they would have to have incinerators with all the biohazards, but I didn’t see any chimneys or waste and exhaust escapes. Isn’t that necessary? Did you see anything–” 

Sophie shushed me, “she’s making her big confession.”

“--The hazmat spill. It’ll be easy to blame the theft on, well… You people,” Hannity said. “Six months from now, when the famine makes news, Wakefield will be the only company with a fix.” She smiled for a moment before continuing, “So, how do you want it? Straight on? Back of the head? Mr. Vorhees is flexible.”

“Oh, neither I think,” Archie replied. “Is that enough for you, young lady?”

“That’s plenty,” the reporter replied, and it sounded like she took off her hazmat helmet to introduce herself, “Janet Lin, Channel 6 News. I’ll just need to follow up on your little conspiracy to commit murder. Any comment Doctor? We’re live.”

I laughed as her face came into even better focus, baffled and embarrassed beyond belief. It was perfect timing as we were descending on the platform, aligning with the floor they were on. We gloated a bit, making sure to make eye contact with her as we slowly passed below the floor. I even gave her a wave that she clearly did not appreciate.

Once we got back to solid ground, we split up. Nate left with Parker to meet up with Archie, to say goodbye and have some closure for the job I assumed. The rest of us headed back to the pub and Nate’s apartment to decompress. 

“So, you brought up a lot of stuff today, Y/n,” Hardison pointed out once we had settled in a bit. “Insider trading and enough about agriculture to leave me surprised seeing as you’re a city chick. So what’s that about?”

I shrugged, “Freelancing. You learn a lot with research and working with different clients, different industries.”

“Sounds like when Eliot knows stuff from girls he’s dated,” Parker pointed out as she walked in, Nate close behind. 

“It would only be like it if she dated her clients, Parker,” Eliot said, clearly annoyed, the situation she got herself in today probably helped with that.

“Never said I didn’t,” I pointed out.

Eliot snapped his head towards me, “... Did you date any of them?”

“What if I did? Would that make you jealous?” I asked teasingly, “I mean, I did work for some interesting and powerful men at times.” He looked like he was going to respond but I continued before he could, “But, I mean, that’s got to be nothing compared to you in your line of work. I’m sure over the years you have met far more and far more interesting women. I mean, you have so many stories!” Of course I was just pushing his buttons a bit, and I was rewarded with his face turning red, though from what emotion I couldn’t tell. It was cute though, so I’m sure my own face was flushed as well.

Hardison was laughing in a corner, watching this interaction unfold and Sophie seemed to enjoy it with a smile as well. I could see Nate in the corner of my eye raiding his own kitchen for something and wasn’t paying any mind to what we were doing in the living room. 

Eliot seemed to still be searching for something to say, but I felt a yawn coming on that I could not repress. 

“Okay gang,” I said as I stood up. “My planned lazy day was interrupted and now I am tired, so I’m going home to have a bowl of ice cream and then go to sleep. I’m sorry but none of you are invited. Good night.”

Parker seemed a little sad about not getting ice cream, but the rest of the team wished me good night as I left the apartment with a small wave. 

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

Tags: @instantdinosaurtidalwave @kniselle @technikerin23 @kiwikitty13 @plasticbottleholder @wh1sp @who-actually-cares-anymore @romanreignsluver1

[serenelystrange]

Lemon Vampire-Repellent

A fluffy family-feelsy little Leverage fic written for AslansCompass as part of  @leverage-secret-santa-exchange 2019!

Summary: Parker catches the cold from hell and fluff and caregiving ensue! I hope you like it!  

Rated G. Parker/Hardison, Parker/Hardison/Eliot family feels, Gen.

“The key ingredient,” Eliot explains, “is exactly one fourth a cup of lemon juice.”

Continue to Read on AO3 or under the cut!

Hardison nods along, only half listening, watching with wide eyes at the seemingly random pile of foods and herbs that Eliot has been adding to the bubbling pot on the stove for the last hour.

He snaps out of it when he notices Eliot is directing Bitch Face # 4 at him.

“Wait, what?” he asks, long passed being scared of Eliot’s face.

Eliot just sighs and repeats the question.

“Where are your lemons?”

“Umm,” Hardison says, stalling as he pretends to look around the kitchen, knowing full well that he and Parker do not possess any lemons.

“We might have one of those plastic bottles in the fridge,” he finally says, shrugging and giving Eliot his most innocent expression.

“Who doesn’t have lemons?” Eliot asks, shaking the wooden spoon he’d been stirring with at Hardison in exasperation.

“Who just has lemons hanging around?!” Hardison counters, smirking.

Eliot stops himself before he can be baited into yet another dumb argument with Hardison, and takes a deep breath.

“Dammit, Hardison! Just go to the store and get me a bag of organic lemons,” he says, grudgingly adding on a ‘please’ at Hardison’s raised eyebrow.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Hardison says, pausing for one more glance at Eliot’s suspiciously cauldron looking pot. “Before you turn me into a frog or something.”

Eliot just waves the spoon at him again before turning back to stirring the pot as Hardison leaves.

“This’ll fix you up,” Eliot says a few hours later, concoction perfected after Hardison had finally come back with the lemons.

“I’m fine,” Parker says, weakly.

She’s propped up against her and Hardison’s bed, surrounded by pillows and practically buried in blankets.

“You are not,” Eliot says, calm but stern. “Drink.”

“It smells like a lemon vampire repellent,” Parker complains, wrinkling her nose as he brings the mug closer to her.

“That would be the garlic,” Eliot says wryly.

“Come on, babe,” Hardison says from where he’s leaning against door frame, looking on in concern. “You won’t let us take you to a doctor, at least let Eliot feed you his witches brew.”

“Not witches brew,” Eliot corrects mildly, completely unsurprised when they both ignore it.

“It’s just a cold,” Parker says, stubbornly.

“You’re feverish AND shivering,” Hardison fires back.

“A bad cold, then,” Parker says, chin set stubbornly even as her head thumps back against the padded headboard in exhaustion.

“C’mon,” Eliot tries again. “It’s easier if you just drink it all at once. But not too fast, you don’t want to throw it all up and have to start over.”

“Oh god, I’m not doing this twice,” Parker says, finally pulling her arms out from her blanket pile to reach for the mug.

“This better work,” she threatens, glaring at Eliot and Hardison both for good measure.

“It’ll help,” Eliot promises, smothering a grin as Parker’s face scrunches up in distaste as she sips the drink.

“There we go,” he says once Parker has drained the mug and mostly stopped glaring at him.

“Thanks, El,” Hardison says as Eliot passes him and heads back towards the kitchen to clean up.

“’course,” Eliot says, clapping Hardison on the shoulder as he goes.

“That was gross,” Parker mumbles from the bed, already falling asleep again.

“I know,” Hardison soothes, coming over to settle her down horizontally again and tuck her back into her blanket cocoon.

“Don’t,” Parker says sharply, flinching away from Hardison.

“What is it?” he asks, surprised and no small amount of worried.

“Just don’t want you to get sick too,” Parker whispers, burrowing into her pile of pillows.

Hardison just laughs gently.

“I’ll take my chances,” he says, and pushes Parker’s messy hair out of her eyes, rubbing her scalp in a light massages as he does.

“Yesssss,” Parker sighs, leaning into the touch like a cat.

“Get some sleep,” Hardison says. “If you feel better later, we’ll have ice cream.”

Parker smiles but is asleep again before she can actually reply.

“I hope that stuff really does help,” Hardison says to Eliot when he joins him in the kitchen again.

“It should,” Eliot says, “but I’m leaving all the ingredients in your fridge in case I have to come back and make more.”

“Thanks,” Hardison says again, “I’ll keep an eye on her, make sure it doesn’t get worse.”

“If it does,” Eliot starts, but Hardison cuts him off before he can finish the thought.

“I’ll carry her to the car and bring her to hospital myself,” he promises, laughing internally at the thought of buckling the Parker Blanket Cocoon into her seatbelt.

“Damn right,” Eliot replies.

“Go home, man,” Hardison says, kindly. “I’ll call if I need backup.”

Eliot puts his hand out for their complicated handshake and grins.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he says, and heads out, leaving Hardison alone in a kitchen that is definitely cleaner and shinier than it has any right to be after only a few minutes with Eliot.

“Freaking cleaning ninja,” Hardison whispers to himself, looking around in awe.

“Haaardison,” Parker calls out the next morning, frowning at the empty bed around her.

It takes him a minute to untangle from his blankets on the couch, but Hardison appears in the doorway, still half asleep.

“You ok?” he asks, voice rough and eyes mostly closed.

Parker reaches her arms out towards him and gives him her best puppy eyes.

“Carry me to the shower?” she asks, in a way that is more demand than anything else.

Hardison is moving before his words catch up to his brain, and it’s not until he’s scooped Parker up that he pauses to consider the request.

“You hate asking people for help,” he says, snickering softly when Parker shoots him a dirty look for calling her out.

“You’re not people,” she says, clinging to Hardison like a sloth. If the sloth was tall and blonde and suffering from the dumbest head cold in the world.

“Aw,” Hardison says, teasingly, but also actually kind of touched. “You’re not people either.”

“People are the worst,” Parker agrees, clinging a little tighter as Hardison heads towards the bathroom.

“Will you even be able to stand in the shower?” Hardison asks, shifting Parker’s dead weight in his arms.

“Hmm,” Parker says, apparently not having considered the concept of gravity versus muscle weakness.

“Carry me to the bathtub!” she amends, kicking her feet weakly in a ‘giddy-up’ motion.

“Woman, I swear to god, watch those feet!” Hardison scolds even as he’s laughing.

When they finally make it to the bathroom, Hardison sets Parker down on the closed toilet seat so that he can fill the tub up with the fancy peppermint bubbles she’d stolen from a snooty department store they’d passed through a few months ago.

Once it’s hot and bubbly, he helps her out of layers of cozy clothes and into the tub, arranging her hair over the edge of the tub as she settles against the fancy bath pillow that Hardison had swiped from that same snooty store for his own cozy bubble-baths.

“Just yell if you need me,” he says, ready to leave Parker to it.

“Don’t go,” Parker says, reaching out one arm blindly to try and grab him.

“I don’t think you’re well enough for that kind of bath,” Hardison retorts, but takes the offered hand in his own anyway.

“Just sit and talk to me?” Parker asks, uncharacteristically plaintive in her request.

She continues before Hardison can even reply.

“I haven’t heard anything geeky in days,” she laments. “Tell me what the geeks are angry at this week, Hardison. What’s new with the birds who play that game? What’s Doctor Who up to?”

Hardison laughs in delight, and grabs some towels to pad his seat on the tile floor so she can sit and lean against the tub, letting Parker take her hand back and settle fully into the water.

“The birds are still playing,” he says, “and the Doctor is on hiatus until New Year’s Day.”

“She travels in time,” Parker argues, “it might already be next year wherever she is.”

“Take it up with the BBC,” Hardison says, turning his head and shifting so that he can watch Parker’s face. Her eyes are closed, face flushed from the steam, and there’s a playful smile resting easy on her mouth.

God, he loves her.

“Oh!” he says suddenly, startling Parker enough that she cracks one eye open in mild alarm.

“What?” she asks.

“I have two words for you,” Hardison says, pausing dramatically for effect before continuing.

“Baby. Yoda.”

Parker opens both eyes at that, face shining with excitement.

“I need him,” she says, resolutely.

“You haven’t even seen him yet,” Hardison laughs.

“Irrelevant,” Parker says, settling back again and smiling to herself.

“I’m gonna steal him,” she says.

And Hardison knows that if anyone could actually manage to steal a fictional alien from the clutches of Marvel, it would be Parker.

“Of course you will,” he agrees.

They talk about nothing until the water goes cold, and then fill it back up with hot water and start all over again.

“I live!” Parker cries out triumphantly a few days later, as she and Hardison meet the others at Nate and Sophie’s.

“Glad to hear it,” Nate says, looking up briefly from his coffee and honest to god Sunday newspaper before getting back to the crossword he’d been working on.

“Such an old man,” Sophie teases him gently before focusing on Parker.

“Good to see you up and about again,” she says. “Nate’s found us a new job, and we didn’t want you to miss all the fun.”

“Ooh, crime!” Parker says in delight. “I’ve missed crime!”

Hardison and Eliot share an eye-roll over her head, but can’t deny how good it is to have Parker back to her normal self.

“Hell yeah, Team Crime,” Hardison agrees, squeezing Parker’s waist before settling on the couch next to Sophie.

Parker’s already hovering around Nate’s tablet, trying to get all the information before he can even begin his presentation.

“A passcode, Nate, really?” she asks.

Nate slowly lifts the newspaper to hide his laughing face and says nothing.

Parker just huffs and goes about figuring out the latest code with gusto. It really is good to be back.

The End

[friendlylocalwhumper]

I saw this Prompt earlier on my dash: "when whumpee's job was to get info for their friends and now their friends desperately need that info, but whumpee is hardcore passed out/can't stay awake or focus for whatever reason so their friends are forced to hurt them (extensively, ideally) to keep them awake n get important info. everyone suffers" Can you write something like that with Eliot from Leverage? Is there a character that would be willing to hurt him like that?

sure thing, anon! I think Quinn and Tara would totally be willing to do it. They respect Eliot, know he can handle it. Even if it honestly means he’ll pay them back for daring to touch him.

Fandom: Leverage

Characters: Eliot Spencer, Quinn, Tara Carlisle

Length: 1,189 words

Tags: torture, fever, confusion, fear, screaming, broken bones, weak from captivity

"We just need to know where they are."The pale man didn't respond. His eyes were closed, his brow furrowed a bit, as he tried hard to string his thoughts together. There was color to his cheeks and forehead, his skin radiating heat. He was dehydrated, and the fever didn't help. Quinn looked over the hitter to Tara, who looked grim."Eliot, you have to tell us right now. They're in danger. Can you hear me?"The hitter's breaths were gradually becoming deeper the longer he laid there. They couldn't let him fall asleep - every second counted. Tara, standing on the right side of the bed, took hold of Eliot's hand. Grateful for the leather cuffs holding him secure, she twisted his broken fingers.Eliot screamed. She hadn't known if he would. If he was in his right mind and not worn down by torture, he would have only growled and glared. But he was delirious with fever, weak from starvation, and in a great deal of pain. His body tensed and he tried to pull away. He tried to look at her, to see who was doing it, but his wide eyes failed to focus."Where did they take Parker and Hardison?"She hadn't let go of his hand, so she could feel how his hands shook. She was glad that she wasn't closer to the retrieval specialist, because this was hard enough without adding guilt to the mix."Where are they?" She gave a warning squeeze to his hand and his breath hitched. He shook his head weakly. Tara let go of his hand.Quinn leaned down so Eliot wouldn't have to work so hard trying to see them. "Do you know where you are?"Eliot turned to him, eyes stilled kind of clouded over. Quinn repeated the question. Eliot didn't answer, but he watched the other hitter intently. Quinn felt worse than he'd expected about doing this. He would pull it off without hesitation, he'd never been a quitter, but he knew how painful and terrifying it was to try and come back after this kind of ordeal. Spencer was the best hitter out there, but that didn't make him invincible. If he could tell them what they needed to know of his own accord, he would, and he'd understand what they had to do now. Didn't make it any easier."We're trying to help, but to get them home, we gotta know where they are. You saw them. You heard where they were gonna be taken. Where are Alec and Parker?""I don't know," Eliot croaked. "I don't know."Tara placed the heel of her hand at his collarbone, which was splotched with dark bruising and probably broken. He winced at the light contact, which sent pain lacing through his chest, but he still watched Quinn above him."You're all we've got. Without you, we can't find them. What do you remember?"Eliot was trying, it was clear, but he was losing focus. His eyelids started drooping as the searing of his broken fingers dulled.Quinn nodded to Tara, who leaned forward and pressed down on the collarbone. Eliot's body tried to arc up at the renewed agony of the damaged bone. He screamed again, this time his voice cracking dryly and going hoarse. The end of his cry nearly sounded like a sob of desperation."I don't know," He insisted, the pressure still there and making him tremble. "I don't remember, I..." His face crumpled a bit, his brow furrowing farther and his teeth showing in his grimace. "Please!" The plea was quiet, hissed out in his agony. Tara let up then. She stepped back, flexing her hands. This sucked.Eliot sighed when the pressure was released. He sank down into the mattress once more."We don't want to hurt you. I know I'm a dead man after this. But you'd still kill me if I let those two get hurt. I know you want to protect them. Don't you want to keep Parker and Alec safe?"Eliot nodded, eyes watering up. He wasn't crying, but Quinn wouldn't judge him for a second if he did. He was barely holding it together himself right now."I swear to you," Quinn placed his hand on the restrained man's arm, "I will get them home. I will keep them safe if you help me find them."Licking his lips, Eliot looked up at the ceiling. He thought hard. His face was passive now, a tear running down the side of his face. As soon as he found something in his muddled memories, he looked back at the hitter above him."They, they're afraid," He offered. "Afraid." He mumbled, trying to hold onto his train of thought. "Moving, they moved 'em, had enough of us just..." This time he hesitated not for a foggy memory, but because the memory was painful. "Payday," He recalled, jolting himself from the recollection. "They wanted to sell 'em, price on her head in France," He spoke quickly. His words halted and he shook his head. "I don't, that's all I know." He tensed, expecting more pain, but none came. He looked over to Tara, who was careful not to move and startle him."That's good, Eliot," Quinn assured, hoping he could get more details without putting him back on his guard. "They're gonna fly them out of the country. How, where did they take them? An airstrip?"Eliot didn't have an answer ready. Sure they would hurt him for not knowing, he looked to Quinn, then back at Tara, his hands shaking again. His eyes were wide. It was so strange to see someone as controlled as him look panicked."It's okay, just think back." Tara spoke soothingly. "They must have said something."He focused once more, ignoring the instinct to close himself off and keep his mouth shut. "P-private airfield," He blurted as soon as he remembered the phrase. "His cousin owns a plane.""Who?" Tara guided."One of, one of the guards?" Eliot finished weakly. His eyes shot to Quinn, anxious that he wasn't giving them what they needed. "He was out in the hall. Not sure. Said they could head out..." He thought hard. What had the man said? "S-... Saturday. Yeah." Eliot blanched. "What day is it?" His voice cracked again."That's today," Assured Tara. "It's 1am, don't worry, we're not too late. We do have to hurry, though." He gestured to Quinn that they had to find that airfield fast, then left the room.Eliot was watching Quinn as he looked down at the too thin, too pale hitter cuffed to the bed."You did good," Quinn promised, "We're gonna find them and bring them home. Parker and Alec are gonna be okay."Eliot nodded, calmer now. He cleared his throat and shifted. "I get it." He nearly whispered, his throat raw. "You had to." He raised his broken hands to indicate himself. "But if they don't... don't make it back, I will kill you." Even though he was bound, weak, and on the verge of passing out, Quinn felt the weight of his words."Understood."

[make-me-imagine]

Ready

Description: The reader and Eliot aren’t dating but love each other and are oblivious to the others feelings and the reader goes on a date with some guy and Eliot gets really jealous.

Characters: Eliot Spencer x Reader

Gender: Any

Words: 1,865 - This is my longest one yet!

This was Requested by anon

Eliot was watching you closely as you were talking with some guy. You were laughing at something he said as you grabbed his arm, classic sign of attraction. Eliots heart clenched, he hating seeing you with someone else, but maybe nothing would come of it.

Standing in front of Trevor he was making you laugh, he had brought up something that had happened in High School. When you and the team were getting ready for a con, you had run into Trevor. You hadn’t seen each other in years. You dated in High School and broke up when he moved away. 

When you had to leave Trevor asked you on a date. You hesitated briefly, your mind wandering to Eliot. You had liked him for so long, sometimes you thought you even loved him, but he never seemed to feel the same. You were getting tired of Eliot never noticing how you acted around him, so you said yes.

Getting into Eliots car driving to the pub Eliot cleared his throat “So, who was that guy?” he glanced over at you. Maybe he was no one.

“His name is Trevor, we dated in High School. I hadn’t seen him in years.” You watched Eliot closely, trying to see if he actually cared, but Eliot was good at hiding his emotions so you couldn’t tell.

This news only gave him a little relief, maybe you were just catching up, but what if it was more than that? Eliot was torn between admitting his feelings and keeping them hidden. Sure he’s had a lot of relationships, but you were different, he could actually picture himself spending the rest of his life with you, if he hadn’t pushed you away already.

He didn’t have time to make up his mind about telling you, you made it to the Pub. You were getting ready for the latest con, you were going to break into an office building. You needed to find a file with the names of your marks business partners. You were going after all of them. 

You couldn’t get to the floor normally so you and Parker had to shimmy through the air ducts. Eliot had run into some security guards, all you could hear in your ear piece was punching and grunting. You always worried about him, he could clearly take care of himself but that didn’t stop you from worrying.

After you had successfully gotten into the room, Parker was getting the file while you were watching the door. This was taking longer than you wanted, tonight was suppose to be your date with Trevor. Apparently this thought had crossed Sophies mind as well. “How much longer guys? We need to make sure y/n makes it to their date.” you froze in your place. 

“Date?!” came from Hardison, Parker and Eliot simultaneously.

“Sophie I told you that in secret.” you turned to Parker telling her to continue her search for the file.

“Oops” she said, hardly sincere. She new about your feelings for Eliot, and she new about Eliots feelings for you. Maybe he would confront you about the date and you two would finally stop dancing around each other.

“Lets not focus on that right now, we need to finish the job, then y/n can go on their date.” Nate broke in thankfully. 

After you got the file and made your escape you were back at the loft. Hoping no one would bring up Sophies announcement you were disappointed when Eliot spoke up first. “Date huh? You didn’t mention that when I asked who that guy was. It is Trevor your going on the date with right?”

Looking at Eliot you could have sworn you saw jealousy on his face..or maybe it was anger, for not telling him “You only asked me who he was, not what happened when we talked.”

Before he could respond Hardison broke in “And you didn’t think to mention it to me? Your best friend? Where is the trust?” 

You rolled your eyes at him “It didn’t come up.”

Parker sat down next to you “But it came up with Sophie?”

Sophie broke in this time “y/n asked Nate how long the con would take, I was curious as to why, since they've never cared before. So I asked them, that is the different between why I knew and none of you did.” 

Eliot put the ice pack on his face and looked over at you, you looked uncomfortable with the attention so he decided not to bother you about it anymore, he was too late anyway.

You get up from your seat “Are we done interrogating me yet? I have to get ready.” you didn’t wait for a response as you were half way out the door.

After getting ready you met up with Trevor. It was a fun date, but...he was exactly the same as he was in High School. To some this would be a good thing, but it wasn’t. When you were in High School he was childish, you loved that about him. But that was then, you were grown ups now, and though you don’t mind childishness, it seemed to be the entirety of his personality. He barely even asked about what happened to you after he moved.

During the date you caught a reflection in the window, turning quickly you look around, you swore you saw Eliot. “What is it?” Trevor asked looking around too.

“Nothing, sorry, I thought I saw someone is all.” you smiled at him.

“Well there are a lot of people here y/n.” he laughed at his own joke.

Eliot had gotten too close. He heard you laugh and needed to hear what you were talking about, as he was moving closer he saw you see him in the reflection of the glass. Quickly he moved and hid behind a wall, he was waiting for you to come look for him and confront him but instead he heard you continue your conversation with Trevor. ‘Maybe the didn’t actually see me’ he thought to himself hopefully.

Throughout the rest of the date you kept eyeing the reflections around the restaurant. You knew Eliot was here, but why? Was he being protective, did he find something out about Trevor? Was he jealous? You were so preoccupied with your thoughts you had forgotten Trevor was talking to you. You thought he heard you ask a question and breaking out of your daydream you saw him looking at you expectantly. “Sorry! Could you repeat the question, I don’t think I heard you correctly.” you feigned innocence.

Smiling he asked you again “I asked if you wanted to do this again?” there it was, you were waiting for that. Luckily you had an excuse to say no, at least for now “Sorry Trevor, I didn’t mention in before but I’m actually going out of town in a couple days, but maybe when I get back.” 

He shook his head at you “Sure, where are you going? And how long are you gonna be gone?”

You and the team were flying to Maine for the con in a few days “Maine, but I’m not sure how long I will be there. It’s a work thing.” he nodded in response.

The date had finally ended much to your relief. You had grown tired of having to fake laugh at all of his jokes. Eliot was relieved too, he had managed to get close enough to hear the conversation without you seeing him. When you were parting ways Trevor tried to kiss you, Eliot had to stop himself from interrupting, but luckily for him, you stopped it. You turned your face as he kissed your cheek instead. He smiled “No kiss on the first date then?” you nodded you head at him. “Alright, next time then” he winked at you. 

You waited until Trevor was gone to confront Eliot, you ad come separately since you and Trevor lived in different parts of the city. When you were waiting for the bill you heard a waiter ask someone if they wanted another drink, you recognized Eliots voice as he responded. You knew he was still here. You were mad that he was spying on you but mostly curious as to why. You pretended to walk towards your car but stopped around the corner, you knew Eliot would make sure you got into your car safely. As he came around the corner he almost ran into you “Jesus!” he jumped.

“Looking for someone Eliot?” you had your arms crossed.

Sighing he leaned against the wall next to you “So you did see me.” he rubbed the back of his head, what was he gonna say?

“Why did you follow me Eliot?” 

“I-I don’t know.” you rolled your eyes at this as you started to walk towards your car. “Fine! Fine..” you stopped, turning towards him. “I..was jealous.”

You stood their surprised, jealous? That was the response you wanted, but not what you were expecting. “Jealous? That I was on a date? Why?” you had approached him now.

“I know I’m good at hiding my feelings y/n I wish I wasn’t. I’ve been trying to convince myself to ask you out for a while now. But I’ve been a coward.” he was trying his hardest to avoid your gaze.

You had mixed emotions about this, you were surprised, happy and mad “You’ve had relationships before Eliot, a lot actually, why am I any different, what stopped you?” you only had a few relationships in your life, you weren’t good at showing your feelings but Eliot had done it so many times before.

“Your different y/n, I never wanted to stay in those relationships. Your the first person I’ve been afraid of losing, of hurting” he got quiet as he continues “Your the first person I’ve wanted to spend my life with. And I was scared of that, I was scared to tell you, in case you-” he was so afraid that you didn’t want what he did

You knew what he was going to say, he was afraid of the same thing you were “in case you thought I didn’t feel the same” he looked up at you. “I was afraid of the same thing, but the difference between us is that you are much better at hiding it, that’s why I said yes to Trevor. I was tired of waiting for...us”

You felt the same? How could he be so stupid. “I’m sorry y/n. But I’m here now and I’m ready for us if you are.” he inched closer to you, his face so close to yours. He was staring into your eyes.

You smiled at him “I am ready.” as soon as the words left your mouth he kissed you. You wrapped your arms around your neck as he pulled you as close to him as he could. The kiss was desperate and perfect. The kiss was a hundred words left unsaid, so many emotions finally able to be seen. You were no longer scared of a relationship with Eliot Spencer, you knew he would keep you safe, you knew he would make you happy. You were ready.

[featherquillpen]

Fic Masterclass: “strange, how we are changed”

There are some fics that are beautiful in subtle and complex ways. Fics I read again and again trying to capture their magic. 

What I’ve decided to do, for my edification as a fic writer myself, is write in-depth analyses of these fics to figure out what makes them tic. I call it Fic Masterclass. 

First off: read the fic. It’s short. Come back to this tab when you’re ready.

strange, how we are changed by thingswithwings (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison, 2359 words)

Peeling the Onion

On a surface level, this fic is about the Leverage OT3 getting high together and making out. 

On another level, this fic is about Parker and Hardison gently welcoming Eliot into their relationship.

On the deepest level, this fic is a portal fantasy: smoking weed transports the characters to another world, one where they can be vulnerable and unafraid and intimate, and alchemical changes in their relationship become possible. (Which is why the title of the fic works so well.)

The Play by Play

The fic starts in the middle of the action, with the OT3 hanging out together on the couch, like they do. This is the mundane world, something they do all the time. What’s different this time is that Hardison is smoking a joint. 

It’s in-character for Eliot to hesitate before taking a puff himself. He demurs, saying: 

"Nah, man," Eliot says. "I try to keep my mind and body pure."

But that’s not the real reason why he hesitates. And it’s so like Eliot Spencer not to admit his real reasons, not even to himself in the narration. The author points out, via Parker and Hardison, what the real reason is:

"There aren't any entrances or exits to this apartment other than the door and the two west-facing windows," she says, seriously. "I checked."

"And I got at least six independent security systems on each of those," Hardison adds, without opening his eyes. "It's safe, man."

This is a great move, because it illustrates how reluctant Eliot is to name his fears, even to himself, and how Parker and Hardison know him so well that they know his fears anyway, and how to allay them. So Eliot takes the joint, and from there we go to the upside-down world. Hardison asks Eliot to call him by his first name, and the narration changes, Eliot calling him Alec even inside his head. The name change is symbolically powerful. And in the upside-down world, nothing we take for granted has to be true anymore.

He feels slow, clumsy even. It's a refreshing feeling, somehow. He couldn't defend himself against even a really decent fighter, and it's nice to know that he doesn't have to.

Eliot starts saying random things that pop into his head, and he can’t beat even a really decent fighter. Truly everything we know is fluid and subject to change. The narration itself changes to reflect Eliot’s altered state.

Her cheeks hollow as she sucks air in, and her blonde eyelashes fall onto her cheeks, and Eliot wishes he had a snapshot of how she looks in that moment.

The fixation on specific body parts, like Parker’s cheeks and eyelashes, and in an earlier passage Alec’s fingers, shows not only Eliot’s attraction to them but also the hyperfocused tunnel vision that often comes with a marijuana high.

One thing I love about this fic is that it never explicitly states that Parker and Hardison are together at the beginning but not with Eliot yet, but the fic hints at it gently. The first hint is that Alec knows that Parker likes pot while Eliot has no idea what she’s like on drugs. The second is that Parker seems comfortable with calling Hardison by his first name in a way that Eliot isn’t yet.

And it’s so clear, even though he never states it in the narration, that Eliot isn’t with Parker and Hardison yet, but longs for them quietly, helplessly. 

Eliot doesn't know where to put his hand for a minute, then just lets it fall down onto Alec's shoulder.

Look how hesitant he is to make contact, even though he obviously wants to!

Easily, and because he wants to, Eliot kisses Alec's arm, just below the sleeve of his t-shirt.

This line just kills me because Eliot feels like he has to justify kissing Alec, even inside his own head: “because he wants to.” As if he has to give himself a reason.

Beside him, Alec rolls onto his side a little, turns his head and blinks at him upside-down. Eliot kisses his mouth this time, just for a minute, just softly.

This line causes me nearly physical agony every time I read it, in the best way. Again, Eliot makes excuses in his head, as if he’s trying to explain to himself why he’s allowed to kiss Alec. It was just for a minute. It was just soft. That means it’s okay, right?

After they make out on the couch, they fall asleep, Eliot not even afraid of getting snuck up on in his sleep. When they wake, they’re back in the mundane world. Eliot calls Alec by his last name again. But nothing is quite the same. In the narration, he calls Alec by his first name, which he didn’t at the beginning of the fic. And Eliot’s voyage through the high upside-down world has given him new knowledge. 

And before last night, Eliot would never have said that Parker was anything but impulsive, spontaneous, but now he can see the thread of tension that she carries around with her. Impulsively, spontaneously, he squeezes her hand in his.

He now sees what Parker could be, what she might be, and wants to give it back to her, the total freedom she had last night. I love that repeat of “impulsive(ly), spontaneous(ly).” 

In the light of day, they fall back into their usual selves, but everything has changed between them. 

The Takeaway

What I learned from this fic as a writer is how to use narration to sink deeply into a character’s thoughts. Eliot never thinks in this fic, “I’m in love with Parker and Hardison and I wish I could kiss them but I feel like I’m not allowed to,” because that’s just a fact of life for him. Instead, we see his self-denial and self-doubt in how he doesn’t say aloud that he’s afraid to be vulnerable, in how he makes excuses to himself every time he gets more intimate with Parker and Hardison, as if he needs to justify it. This fic makes me want to experiment with how much I can imply about a character’s mindset with small narrative word choices.