#has Hardison followed and the building watched

[lemissingmask]

[ID: Sketch of Redemption-era Eliot Spencer lying on the floor on his back with his back arched and neck muscles tensed, grimacing as a collar around his neck lights up, giving him an electric shock. End ID]

-

Day 8: alt. Electrocution

Eliot being tortured with a shock collar as a cheeky little bonus for Day 8

Ficlet below the cut

“Move and we shoot.”

The voice was nearly as cold as the barrel of the gun pressed against Harry’s head.

Eliot froze.

He was several metres away, where he had guided the fight to keep Harry out of it.

And now he was too far away to get to him, to do his thing and make this guy with a gun go away.

“Frank,” Eliot didn’t growl, but his voice was hard and even more threatening than this Frank guy with a gun’s was, “Let ‘im go.”

“You don’t get to make demands here, Spencer,” Frank replied, “Now stay still.  You know I won’t hesitate.”

Eliot glared, but he obeyed, staying perfectly motionless with his eyes on Harry.

Of the four other goons who had attacked them, two were unconscious, and one had blood pouring liberally from his nose. The remaining one, apparently following some signal from this Frank guy, moved closer to Eliot, smirking when his adversary did nothing but glare.

"Right ear," Frank said, "Comm unit. Take it out and smash it."

The gun shoved against Harry's head.

"You too, Wilson."

Harry slowly raised his hand, extracted the earbud and held it out. Frank took it, dropped it, and stamped, presumably crushing the comm as thoroughly as the other hitter had crushed Eliot's a short distance away.

"Phone," Frank demanded, and as he accepted Harry's phone, instructed his colleague, "Check him for phone and weapons. Spencer usually has a knife or two stashed somewhere."

And Eliot did.

As Harry watched, still held in place by the gun to his head, the other hitter retrieved a pocket knife, a multitool and too throwing knives from Eliot, as well as his phone. He tossed all this away, shot the phone with a loud crack that made Harry jump and Frank laugh.

By now, one of the others had woken up and the nosebleed of the other guy had been stemmed enough for him to get involved, which he did with evident relish.

"Get the collar on him," Frank ordered, the hand not holding the gun coming to grip Harry's arm, twisting it up behind him, "Watch closely, Wilson. This is the fun bit."

As if Harry had a choice but to watch.

Eliot remained fixed in place, his attention on Frank and Harry, as two of the other men roughly fixed a rigid collar around his neck, yanking his hair out the way and making a point of briefly choking him as they pulled the contraption on. And, it was a contraption. Not just a collar. There was a box on one side of it with a little red light.

Smacking Eliot unnecessarily on the back of the head as they finished, the other hitters stepped back, one pulled out his phone, and then, suddenly, Eliot tensed, teeth gritting, and dropped to his knees, as the collar light turned blue.

Harry instinctively made a move like he might run forward, try to help, but the grip on his arm grew tighter and more painful and the gun knocked against his head.

"Shock collar," Frank said with a smile as the light turned red and Eliot was left breathing heavily on the floor, "Made special just for Spencer."

The light went on again, longer, bringing Eliot all the way to the floor.

"Do exactly as your told, or we'll see how long it takes for that thing to kill him."

With those words, the gun was removed, but almost immediately, there was darkness. A rough, imperfect, darkness. A bag thrown over his head, and two strong forms on either side were half-dragging Harry away.

Out of the building, into a vehicle, the same guys who had been dragging him pressed close on either side.

They didn't drive for very long - not more than an hour, but long enough and with enough turns that it wouldn't be easy for the others to track them from their last location. And they had to be on the way by now. Hardison and Breanna would have used the earbud GPS before they were destroyed, or maybe be tracking their phones.

There would be a Brick and Basil truck en route to where they had just been, and hopefully soon after to wherever they were going now.

When they finally stopped, Harry was manhandled once more, bringing him across a hard floor, into another building, an elevator, and then, at last, into a wooden chair.

The bag was whipped off, and across from him, behind a large, fake mahogany desk, was a man he knew perfectly well.

"Austin," Harry greeted, adopting the false pleasantry he always did with clients, "I'd love to say it was a pleasure, but..."

He nodded to the goons stood either side, taking that motion as a chance to look for Eliot.

Not in this room. A small office with two doors, the desk, some chairs, a mini fridge, and a large conference TV screen.

A bit of a downgrade from this former client's upmarket business address with its tropical fish tank and wet bar.

"Harry Wilson," the man smiled coldly, "You're a hard man to find."

Harry shrugged noncommittally, "What do you want, Austin?"

"I need you to do a job for me. I have a certain legal matter that needs taking care of, and the lawyer I had hired is, quite frankly, not worth the air he breaths. I need you to make an airtight case for me and present it in court," he pushed a pile of documents across the desk, "Everything you need is here. You have three days. This office..."

"No," Harry cut him off. He had worked for this guy before. He had helped him cover his tracks after he destroyed the lives of several of his workers and interns, leading to the suicide of one. This man was one of the long list of regrets burdening Harry's mind. He was two bullet points on the redemption list.

Harry would not work for him again.

"I expected you may say that," Austin stood, walked around the desk towards the screen. The goons rotated Harry's chair, forcing him to turn to watch.

"That's why I have invested in this incentive."

He used a small remote to turn the screen on, and after a second of blackness, a video feed was displayed, showing Eliot with his hands handcuffed to a metal loop fixed to the floor. It looked like a basement, but it was difficult to tell.

Austin pulled out his phone, and a few seconds later, that collar glowed blue again, electrocuting Eliot as he knelt chained to the floor.

And not just a short warning. It didn't stop. Austin wasn't going to stop unless-

"Okay!" Harry yelled, and the collar turned red, leaving Eliot unmoving on the floor, "Okay. I'll do it."

Austin smiled, "Good man. Now, as I was saying, those are the files. There's paper, pens and so on in the desk drawers. Water and food in the fridge. Bathroom through that door. You have three days."

He moved towards the door, the goons following.

"Oh, and if you fail to deliver..."

On the screen, Eliot was subjected to another shock, his body tensing, but nothing more. Harry wasn't even sure he was conscious.

"These gentlemen," Austin nodded to the goons, "Will wait outside. Their colleagues will be with Spencer."

He left, the door was locked, and the screen was left turned on, Eliot still not moving.

Harry spent about an hour searching the office and bathroom for anything that could be useful to escape. Weapons, air vent...anything.

But, predictably, there was nothing. And, even if there had been something, if Harry made an attempt, there were still those other hitters with Eliot, and no way Harry could get there in time to save him.

Harry was just going to have to play along for now. Get to work, start building a case...as a last resort, he would do what Austin asked. He would pull out all the past evil lawyer tricks, hopefully then get Eliot and himself back to safety, and Leverage could deal with the aftermath.

But that was a worst case.

Hardison, Breanna, Parker and Sophie would definitely find them before that. They had three days, and a collective set of skills beyond anything Harry had known or imagined before meeting them.

Three days was more than enough time for Leverage to track people down.

Harry kept this in mind as he spent the first day, working at the case, trying to ignore the itching of his conscience.

There was one moment, towards the end of that day, that robbed Harry of all his forced focus.

He hadn’t expected to see Eliot being treated well, but without cause - Harry had been doing as he had been told - two of the hitters from before had entered the room to amuse themselves.

Harry had no way to contact anyone. He couldn’t get to Austin to convince him to make them stop, refusing to work unless they did. But he didn’t really have the leverage. They were hurting Eliot, but not killing him, and it was within Austin’s power to let them do so.

Harry watched until the hitters disappeared from view and Eliot was left unconscious on the floor, blood pooling beneath his head from the repeated blows they’d delivered to his face.

And, facing the screen so he could see when Eliot woke up, Harry turned on the desk lamp and resumed the arduous task of figuring out how to help the rich and powerful crush those they had wronged.

He had no awareness of falling asleep. At some point, near midnight, he lay his head on his arms, just to try and let his eyes rest…just a bit.

He woke to a hand on his shoulder, a whispered voice in his ear.

“Harry.”

It was Eliot, crouched beside his chair, watching him with evident concern.

The collar was still on, and in places it was shining with blood that seemed to come from Eliot's lip and cheek. The handcuffs were on, but the chain between them broken, links draping on Harry’s shoulder.

"Harry," he repeated as Harry was still registering the situation and deciding whether or not it was a dream, "You alright?"

The hand on his arm was very real. Strong and familiar. And Harry probably couldn't accurately dream the fine details of the collar that he could see now up close.

Harry broke into a smile, "Better now. You're a good person to be kidnapped with."

That drew a small laugh from the hitter, his teeth showing bloody, "Ain't my first rodeo. You good to go?”

Harry nodded and quickly began gathering up all the documents on the case - it could come in handy later.

“What’s that?” Eliot nodded to the folder.

“The reason we’re here,” Harry replied, “And better off in our hands than his.”

“Former client?”

Harry wasn’t sure how Eliot knew, but they didn’t really have time to get into that, so he just nodded and followed Eliot towards the door.

"We have an exit?"

"We're gonna make one."

"What about..."

The collar.

Eliot had stood and moved to the door already, was looking out into the corridor.

"Looks like only some of the guards can set it off," Eliot replied quietly, "Took out the four who grabbed us. Hopefully we don' run into any others, but if we do..."

He paused, looking back at Harry.

"If we do an' I'm incapacitated, you gotta run."

"I can't just leave..."

"Yeah you can," Eliot tapped his arm and moved towards the door, not allowing any further arguments.

Harry followed closely, trusting Eliot to know when to freeze and when to move, and they managed to get into a stairwell without meeting any guards. Their luck ended there, but only for a moment or two. Only for as long as it took for Eliot to disarm and knock out the three guards they met as they moved down ten flights of stairs, and out into a carport.

No one there. Cameras, but no people, and no cars.

"What now?" Harry whispered, "You know where we are?"

"No. We gotta get somewhere crowded. Somewhere with people," Eliot replied, "We can lift a phone an' call the others."

"I don't think we need to," Harry smiled as he saw a familiar set of headlights approaching from the other direction. Eliot turned and broke into his own smile, bloody toothed, but just as relieved as Harry's.

As if summoned by willpower alone, a Brick and Basil truck stopped just outside the building. Harry wouldn’t be surprised if there had been some sort of planned dramatic entrance that culminated in such a welcome and timely appearance.

But they didn’t exit immediately in a dramatic, heroic manner. They were still inside the truck, probably planning their entrance, hadn't seen Harry and Eliot, based on the various screams, gasps, and almost punch that were thrown their way when Eliot opened the back doors.

"And here we busted our asses trying to get here quick as hell," Hardison complained teasingly, grabbing Eliot into a hug as they entered, "Coulda stayed in bed."

"Everyone okay?" Sophie asked, looking them both over, "Breanna? Can we get whatever that is off Eliot?"

"On it..." she immediately began inspecting the collar, while Parker picked the handcuffs, muttering something about more lock picking practice, and keeping hold of Eliot's hand for longer than necessary.

Harry was grateful for the cup of coffee Sophie produced and shoved into his hands, ushering him into the front with her so Hardison could set off driving, getting them the hell out of there.

"Who took you?" she asked.

"Former client," Harry said, drinking the coffee down more quickly than he should, "Wanted me to do a case for him, and used Eliot as leverage."

"Someone we need to take out?" Hardison asked.

Harry considered.

The court case would probably lead to twenty five years in jail if Austin lost...the man was practically already taken out as it was. Provided he lost the case. Harry knew who the prosecution team were, he knew the case, he had more than enough information in the folder alone…

Harry smiled, "I think I will take him out myself."

And he would make sure the team, especially Eliot, were at the trial. After all, they needed The Gloat.

-

[thisisnotthenerd]

got infected by the brainrot of creating d&d characters so:

leverage as d&d characters

note: the setting doesn't involve magic and only has combat encounters in very specific circumstances, so there's an obvious lean towards classes that go hard on the rp based on their abilities. they're thieves. they're a bunch of rogues fundamentally. if a character has magic, the assumption is that it's filtered through the setting, i.e. sophie using disguise self or hardison using remote access.

level wise, the original team is rocking at level 15 minimum in the original series. they’re some of the best of the best before they start working together. think of it this way: the reason they’re so high level is for rp reasons, not for combat, except for eliot. they’re trying to avoid encounters and solve puzzles through various means, not beat up a dragon. plus, given a low magic world, i’m assuming scaling of power is adjusted to the reality these characters exist in; they don't have the hp of a dnd adventurer, but they have the proficiency bonus and ASIs.

obviously there’s potential for better systems / systems that are more suited to heists than combats. i'm most familiar with dnd, so that's what i'm using atm.

first, the obvious:

parker: thief rogue. the base abilities allow for bonus action sleight of hand checks as well as no reduction to climbing speed. i would also add the opportunistic thief feat, as well as the acrobat feat because of her extensive training.

highest stats are dexterity and intelligence, with above average wisdom and constitution, average strength, and charisma is her dump stat. proficiency / expertise for the skills she needs: perception, survival, but not insight. over time with the crew she improves on wis/cha by working with sophie primarily.

nate ford: inquisitive rogue. all about seeing through people, digging into the cracks and finding what’s missing. i considered adding a dip into paladin for oath of vengeance, but one can commit to a code of honor without getting magic for it, so i'm sticking to pure rogue for nate.

i would add inspiring leader, and maybe the acolyte background for his background in seminary school, or city watch investigator for his work with iys. high mental stats, average physical, though intelligence and charisma are higher than wisdom for nate.

sophie devereaux: eloquence bard/mastermind rogue multiclass. both have really good abilities wrt talking to people which is her whole deal. she's often the one talking the group through grifts; if that's not bonus action help i don't know what is. plus jack of all trades allows sophie to work with a ton of different scenarios.

i'd say high mental stats again; max charisma, high wisdom, above average intelligence, with expertise in history, insight, persuasion, and deception, and average physical stats. disadvantage on performance when not on the con.

eliot spencer: another multiclass: fighter/rogue. base is battlemaster fighter, with a hefty dip into assassin rogue for expertise and uncanny dodge, etc. he gets a bunch of ASIs as a fighter, so he can be very well rounded and add feats to round out his rp e.g. chef, athlete, observant/alert. for combat, add the tavern brawler feat, unarmed fighting style, and the mercenary veteran background and you have yourself an eliot spencer.

highest stats are strength & wisdom, followed by charisma & constitution, then intelligence & dexterity, though all of them are above average, because he starts off with good physicals and builds up the mentals with ASIs.

alec hardison: a little tricky, but i’d make him a multi class of arcane trickster rogue and divination wizard, with a heavier emphasis on the rogue than the wizard. filtered through his use of tech, this man basically spams remote access, identify, arcane eye, scrying, rary’s telepathic bond, legend lore, locate object/creature, etc.* i would tack on the skilled feat because he picks up forgery and a bunch of other skills along the way.

highest stats are intelligence and wisdom, followed by charisma, with average physical stats, though his dexterity is higher than his strength and constitution.

*technically he can't cast some of the higher level spells on that list without getting up to 9th level in wizard--i'm handwaving this as him utilizing permanently enchanted items to work around it with his own 5th level spell slots. which he can get with the 9-6 split i set him at. it works with him being limited by location--hardison is at the top of his game in lucille, but when he doesn't have access, it's a little harder to work around.

harry wilson: courtier background to start; he has expertise in the law and its applications, but starts leveling in inquisitive rogue when he starts working with leverage. alternatively, it would be really funny if he starts leveling in lore bard by virtue of being guided by sophie. i could see him fitting into something like the scholar class from SW5e, but that's not what we're doing here, is it.

highest stat is intelligence, followed by wisdom, then charisma, with average physical stats. i would say that he starts off lower level—no higher than 5. the point is that he provides contrast and his specific expertise in the law.

breanna casey: arcane trickster rogue/artillerist artificer multiclass, but more of an even split than hardison to start. leaning towards artillerist, given the nature of the world and the fact that she would love an eldritch cannon. she starts leveling in rogue more after joining up with leverage and working with parker.

highest stats are intelligence and charisma, then wisdom and dexterity, then average strength and constitution. starts around level 8, by contrast to harry, but is still learning and leveling up with the leverage crew.

[thegeeksideofsr]

The Daughter Part 2

It had been a few days since I met my dad's team, and helped convince him to get back in the game. At least for this one.

I was just finishing at work went my phone dings with a notification.

I pick it up and see it's a text from Hardison. Which is odd, because I never gave him my number.

' Job's done. Wanna meet at McRory's for a celebratory drink?'

'Sure. Be there in twenty.'

I finish up my last bit of work, gather my things, lock the doors, and make my way to the pub.

When I walk in I see my dad talking to the Kerrigan's. I watch as the girl turns back to give my dad a hug, girl gives him something then leaves with her dad.

I watch them leave, then meander through the room to the team, and stand next to my dad and Eliot.

"Still your last job?" Sophie asks.

"Eh, well. Maybe, um," Dad sputters.

"Yeees."

"Ya know, until I find a job I like enough to keep me out of the bars."

"Idle hands are the devil's work shop," Hardison adds in.

"And then I'm out. Done."

" Sure." Parker agrees before she and Hardison head for the door.

"Dad, I don't think you'll ever find a job you like more than this." I place my hand on my dad's shoulder, leaning I to him.

"Yeah. Cause your not a thief," Eliot says, his hand resting my dad's shoulder as he walks away.

He catches my eye, and jerks his head towards the door. I give one last glance to my dad and Sophie then follow Eliot.

"Where are we going?" I ask him ocen we're outside.

" Nate's place. Hardison wants to add so much stuff and we are gonna help."

"Oh dad's gonna hate that!"

"Yes he will."

Once we get into the apartment, Parker, Eliot, and I help Hardison unpack and hang six tv monitors.

Then I help Parker bring in a giant painting that she called 'Old Nate'. An appropriate name.

When we burst in the door with it, my dad is already yelling ate Hardison for the monitors.

"No! Parker I don't ever want to see that painting again-"

"Hi, I'm old Nate and I live here too," Parker says in a mocking voice as she continues to bring the painting in.

"And Y/N. You're helping. I feel betrayed."

"Oh come on, Dad. You have been grumpy since you came back from LA. Plus I kinda like the painting," I stand next to Parker admiring the painting "Hey Hardison any chance I could get a print of that for my apartment?"

"I think that could be arranged -"

"No. Absolutely not. And you can't just break in here and start hanging stuff-"

"Oh yeah yeah. For repairs and renovations your landlord has full access to your dwelling. It's in the lease."

"What are you doing reading my leace?"

"I bought the building," Hardison says with a smug smile.

I watch as my dad give Hardison the worst death glare I'd ever seen from him.

"You bought the- your my landlord?"

"Yeah!" Hardison puts a fist out for a fist bump, but my dad ignores it.

As my dad turns away from Hardison, a loud sound comes from the other side of the wall.

I watch as my dad comes to stand next to me as the four of us watch the blade of a chain saw come through the wall.

Dad tries to stop it, but soon the cut out is done and falls towards us, a cloud of dust with it.

Eliot walks through the cloud of dust, covered head to toe in it, holding a chain saw. He nods then let's out a wicked cackle.

Hardison and Parker toss their arms around my Dad's neck, while I stand next to Eliot.

He moves his dust covered goggles to the top of his head, a surprisingly goofy smile on his face.

"Was the chain saw really necessary?" I ask him as I brush some dust from his shoulder.

"Yes, ma'am, it was."

I shake my head, then turn to my dad who still looks like he's about to have a stroke.

"You ok, dad?"

He shakes his head in response, then makes is away up stairs, leaving the four of us left down stairs laugh at his reaction.

I stay a bit longer to help clean up the dust from the floor and Eliot before calling it a night. I grab my jacket and stuff, ready to head out.

"You leaving?" Hardison asks.

"Yeah early morning. This was fun though. I'll see you guys around."

I say one last good night to the three of them, then make my way down to my car parked a couple blocks from the bar.

As I hit the end of the hall, I hear someone running to catch up with me. I turn to see Eliot running up behind me.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I was wondering if I could walk you to your car."

"Oh, um, you can, but you don't have to."

"My mom would have my hide if I didn't make sure you got home safe."

"Well we can't have that."

I give him a smile, that he smiles back, giving me butterflies like never before.

He places a gentle hand at my lower back as we walk to my car. He walks on the out side of the side walk, his hand still at my lower back.

As my car comes into view I wish I had parked farther away. I unlock my car, I toos my stuff into the passenger seat then turn back to Eliot.

"Goodnight Eliot."

"Goodnight Y/N."

I step close to him and press a kiss to his cheek.

"Stay safe out there."

"Do my best."

I give him one last smile, then get in my car, Eliot closing it me hind me. We share one last smile before I pull away from the curb and head home

**************

Tag List:

@katbratsupernaturalwhore @fictional-hooman

[firebirdsdaughter]

You know…

… What I love about the David Jobs?? Well first off, even if it was planned and however close the fight turned out, I love Eliot immediately going into protective mode when he (presumably) clocks Quinn taking photos of Nate and Sophie. There’s no hesitation, he’s just immediately in enforcer mode; and then following that, the way he, as Quinn says, won’t go down. Aside from being a testament to Eliot’s endurance, I also like taking it as his determination and ferocity increasing bc he’s fighting to protect and to get back to his team. Eliot’s very perceptive, the instant Quinn started giving him a real fight, I’m sure he knew it was a set up—which, in consequence meant that the rest of his team was in danger and Quinn was there to keep him away from them and get him out of play. Eliot’s first actions after the fight are to get his earpiece to warn Nate and check in, and then he doesn’t stop to take care of himself before participating in the rescue plan, despite broken ribs and maybe a concussion—in that moment, he’s not just fighting to avoid capture, he’s fighting to get back to his family so he can protect them like he’s supposed to.

The David jobs are a lot about how the team realising they’ve settled into being a family and caring about each other and how they’ve become different than other teams. Eliot is much more of a tacit person, esp in regards to emotions and genuine caring, and he’s the team protector, and he takes that position seriously. While his laughter at Quinn’s question could absolutely be taken at him being amused at Quinn’s frustration (which I do think is part of it), I kinda love it as him realising the reason he won’t go down and laughing in both disbelief at where he’s found himself and Quinn’s inability to understand. Eliot spent years fighting for himself, just to survive, and he’s gone up against many a strong opponent—Quinn giving him a real challenge isn’t just to make it clear things are seriously going wrong, it’s also the Eliot way to showcase how much he’s come to actually care about the team that in order to get to them, he will refuse to go down until he comes out on top. Unlike Quinn, Eliot’s not fighting for money, he’s fighting for people he cares for and wants to protect, and Quinn is an obstacle keeping him away from doing that. Quinn is in the way when Eliot’s family needs him. So no way in hell is he going down.

Also, now going back over it again… The fact that this starts Eliot’s eternal hatred of Sterling… Eliot’s been beaten up before in the past, we know he’s been in some particularly hairy spots. It’s not hard to assume that his resulting loathing of Sterling stems not just from Quinn giving him a hard fight (esp since he’s on perfectly fine terms w/ Quinn himself later, which I love and is so them), but the fact that Sterling did this to his team on his watch, that Sterling was able to keep him busy long enough to grab and/or threaten people he was meant to be protecting, esp people he cares for. That’d cause a life long grudge.

[pale-silver-comb]

So I know absolutely nothing about Leverage except what I've been seeing you post lately and I have to admit you're making it look tempting to watch! Can I ask what are some of your favorite things about the show/reasons you would suggest people watch it? And is there really a poly relationship that is canon?

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am going to do my best not to just “asdfghkjl” at you and answer coherently.

In a nutshell, Leverage is about 5 people. 4 are criminals (Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Sophie) with different and unique skill-sets and 1 is an ex-insurance investigator (Nate) who, at one point or another in his career, has tracked down (or at least attempted to) the other 4. The whole show is essentially: man reluctantly reforms 4 criminals to use their criminal powers for good and 4 criminals move into man’s life and stubbornly refuse to leave because, goddammit, now they have morals. 

I’ve got a lot of favourite things about the show but the main ones are as follows:

1. Found family. And I’m not talking about loners who come together to fight crime and happen to co-exist to the point where they realise they happen to have found themselves a family. I mean, Nate and Sophie are the Drunk Uncle and Wine Aunt who somehow become Mom and Dad to 3 beautiful criminal children. Mom and Dad love their criminal babies and the kids love them (as well as each other, but we’ll come to that in a moment). You get amazing family moments such as: Mom and Dad packing the kids lunch before sending them out to kick corporate greed’s ass; Mom and Dad giving the kids ridiculously expensive and personal Christmas presents causing their most Grumpy Kid to go very very quiet and soft as he runs off to gleefully play with his new murder toy; the kids interrupting Mom and Dad’s big Movie Style Kiss to ask if they can please keep their new underground layer and huffing and puffing when Dad tells them no.

2. Found family: the OT3 edition. To answer your question, the OT3 is indeed canon, confirmed by the creator. Now, usually, “confirmed by the creator” infuriates me because most of the time it’s a way for a creator to be seen as “progressive” without doing anything to actually be progressive. That isn’t the case here. The OT3 are built up carefully and while it is obvious the creators didn’t originally intend for all 3 of them to become a relationship in the romantic sense, by mid-season 5 we are given a very clear picture of where Parker, Hardison and Eliot are heading in their relationship. There aren’t any kisses at the end to signal this but there are solid marriage vows in not only one but two episodes. (And by marriage vows I mean literal equivalents of marriage vows: “for better or worse” and “’til death do us part”. I’m not even exaggerating). The OT3 also doesn’t need explicit romantic narratives to convey how much they love each other. Their love is laced through the whole show, from the way they teach each other things to the way they respond to each other and work as a unit. The way they fiercely protect and admire each other. Like someone once said, if you need characters to kiss or say I love you to let the audience know they love each other, you are writing them wrong. 

Aside from that, each of the parings in the OT3 are just. Gah. They are so well done, with friendship being the solid basis for them all. The creators never expect the audience to assume anything about them or fill in the gaps. They give us their relationships on screen and reference many things off-screen to show us how these relationships continue to build in between episodes.

Hardison and Parker are a canon couple and date in the show: it’s approached slowly and they are so goddamned sweet. They are basically every fluffy slow-burn trope with a healthy dash of mutual pining in the mix. They are basically that quote “love is patient, love is kind”. (I would like to add their romance never becomes the focus of the show or overrides the importance of any other relationship they have with the other characters, especially Eliot.)

Hardison and Eliot are the Old Married Couple and from day one are already bickering and looking at each other/making comments that are found in every UST fic ever (not to mention Hardison has a very good knack for making Eliot grin like a little kid, when usually he’s basically an Angry Little Chef Man). They argue, they play, and love each other plain as day. 

Parker and Eliot are more subtle but every bit as wonderful. They have an unspoken connection and understand each other on a level no-one else can. Parker and Eliot are not good with giving themselves over to affection for different reasons (and Hardison plays a central role in helping them realise it’s okay to want it and have it- that boy has endless patience) but there is something so beautiful in the way the two of them come together on their own and develop their own special bond that works for them. Parker and Eliot are that trope where the characters don’t need to speak to understand each other perfectly. They just do. Their love language is a lot of the time non-verbal but speaks volumes. (Parker also likes to annoy the hell out of Eliot and Eliot....just.....lets...her. Because he’s soft. The softest, grumpiest boy.) 

I could go into so much depth for each pairing and their dynamics as a 3 but that's for another post.

3. Subverting stereotypes. There is the occasional hiccup in the show regarding stereotypes but ultimately, Leverage gets an A+ when it comes to writing characters and making them 3 dimensional people who are not defined by certain characteristics or events. Nate could so easily fall into the White Man Pain trope where he uses the trauma of losing his kid as a reason as to why he is entitled to act like a dick. Nate is a dick but he doesn’t use his pain to excuse it and I appreciate that. Hardison is a black man who is soft and nurturing. Easily the most empathetic and patient of the group. He’s nerdy, an actual genius, and has the biggest heart of all the characters. Nate is maybe the glue but Hardison is definitely the heart. Media’s usual aggressive, amongst other, racist stereotypes can fuck right off. Parker is canonically autistic (I am sure this was confirmed by one of the creators) and she is not defined by it. It’s not written as some kind of singular personality trait. It’s part of what makes up Parker but it’s only one facet of who she is and not once is her actions, thoughts or feelings treated like a joke. Sometimes people don’t understand why she does and says the things she does but it’s met with patience and fondness over the course of the show. Equally, it’s not met with over-caution. Parker is just Parker. No-one tries to change her. The other nice thing is Hardison, who always makes sure Parker knows she’s amazing because of who she is and not in spite of it. Finally, Sophie is in her 40s. She’s not treated like she’s past her prime. Ever. She’s sexy, smart and never is she pitted against or compared to Parker (who is younger) for anything. Sophie is amazing and there’s never even a conversation of “I may be older but I am still *insert adjective typically associated with younger women here*”. Sophie is possibly the first female character I’ve ever seen who isn’t just unapologetic about her age but has never had to apologise for her age. It’s a non-issue and that’s that. The women on the show are written so well, right down to secondary characters and it’s beyond refreshing.  

4.) It’s just fun. The show has a “monster of the week” type format. Except instead of a ghoul or a ghost, the monster is some corrupt wealthy and powerful individual or organisation. The show draws on real-life individuals to do this and therefore closely parallels real-life people and events. It addresses important political, economical, social and environmental issues while at the same time remaining fun and light-hearted. The characters constantly get the chance to play dress up and by GOD do they have fun with it. You get to watch Eliot beat up bad guys in the most delightful of ways, usually after a witty non-sequitur and with a weapon you’d never think could be a weapon. The dialogue and back and forth between the characters is everything. And finally - my favourite thing- the team can never resist striking a dramatic pose after they’ve taken down the bad guy, making sure the bad guy sees them. I mean, they COULD just walk away, satisfied they’ve taken the person down, but nope. They gotta be dramatic bitches 24/7 and pose like they are models for every single month of this year’s Criminal Calendar.  

5.) Competence Porn. So. Much. Competence Porn.  

Honestly, I could list a thousand reasons for why Leverage is amazing but to list them would to be spoiling so many amazing moments you’d get to discover for the first time on your own if you do choose to watch it. It’s the kind of show you can watch with an eagle-eye and sink your teeth into. But it’s also the kind of show if, you would prefer, put on in the background for something entertaining while you do something else. Each episode is about the job at hand but it’s made up of so many moments between the characters that show how much the creators and writers care about them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll do whatever it is you do when something Soft and Wonderful happens that makes your heart melt. I am so beyond grateful for Leverage. It’s everything I always wanted in a show. Nearly every show I’ve watched in the past 10 years has disappointed me in some way, usually either because the writers run out of steam or characters who I love are treated poorly or given some kind of unnecessary “shock value” arc. Leverage doesn’t do that. Leverage is what it says on the bottle. Fandom isn’t something I joined because I needed canon fix-its. Fandom only enhances and celebrates an already excellent canon. 

[party-gilmore]

Thinking 'bout rope burns on Eliot's hands.

Thinking 'bout Pre-T3 Eliot noticing just as Parker jumps off the roof that they've been blown, that someone somewhere found out and they sabotaged Parker's equipment while The Team was doing their last perimeter check. Someone sneaky and clever and willing to kill to protect their client. Eliot already has a mental list of possible active mercs that fit a stealth infil profile even as he dives for the rapidly unrolling cord.

Knowing he doesn't have time to grab gloves. Knowing what it'll do to his already damaged hands. The tightly braided metal fiber is far worse than woven rope, slicing through his palms with slick precision, but he's not gonna fucking let go of Parker. His strangled yell over the comms has even Sophie stuttering in her grift, and he grunts out a quick summary of the situation between heaving breaths as Parker's descent jolts to a halt - the end of the cable a few mere inches from sliding through his bleeding hands.

Thinking 'bout Parker's trip back up the side of the building, Eliot shutting down what parts of his brain he can as he continues hand over hand along the cable to help pull her back up. She yells at him to stop, that she can free climb from here, but it still hasn't stopped raining and Eliot's not gonna take that chance

Thinking 'bout later, when they regroup at the brewpub to start work on Plan J, Parker is still kinda trembling where she's curled up on the right side of the sofa. She's safe, nothing more than some bruising around her rig where it wasn't supposed to take her weight at that particular angle, but she's shaking. The kind of nervous shake of someone coming down off of adrenaline. Eliot wants to reach out to her, offer one of the comforting touches they've been working on, but his hands are currently in Hardison’s lap. So he stretches one leg out across the couch and shoves Parker's ankle with his foot. She uncoils a little to tap back with her own toes.

Thinking 'bout Hardison's low "oh my g-d" when he finally saw Eliot's hands, fingers curled and clutched tight to his chest as red ran through them. Ignoring Eliot's "they're fine, just get us out of here before the Mark knows we know we're blown," to gingerly take his wrists and peel them away from his shirt. Eliot's curled fingers are twitching, hands shaking, and-

"Hardison!" Eliot bites out, tone urgent, but doesn't pull away. It snaps his attention back to the situation at hand, but he still doesn't move unti Parker is there slipping his hands away and sliding into place in his stead.

"I got him," she murmurs quietly, and Eliot ducks his head, and Hardison can get back in the driver's seat knowing Parker's handling it for now.

For now.

Thinking 'bout how when they get back to the brewpub, Eliot tries to head off on his own thinking that the rudimentary first aid Parker applied in the back of Lucille would be enough to appease Hardison's worry. It's not. They bundle him upstairs, to less complaining than they anticipated, and sit him right down on the left side of the sofa.

Eliot's mostly quiet as Hardison sits on the coffee table opposite him and pulls his damaged hands close. He doesn't watch as Hardison unravels the quick bandages Parker applied, doesn't flinch when he starts in with the antibiotic cream. Eliot just twitches his fingers a bit here, takes a sharp breath in there, and mostly just keeps an eye on Parker. Still more worried about Parker's state than his own.

Hardison keeps his touch gentle as he cleans, disinfects, rewraps those hands. The hands that protect him. Protect Parker... The hands he's never really gotten to examine this much. That he only really gets to see when they've either caused violence or had violence done to them.

'It's not fair,' he thinks, 'that these hands never get to touch without violence involved.' He's surprised by the longing behind the thought, by the want. By how it's not just for Eliot's sake that these hands deserved to be touched gently, but also by how much he wants to touch. For his own sake.

He watches Eliot watch Parker for a few minutes while his thumbs run over the last edges of the bandages. He watches Eliot clock her need for assurance, watches her respond in kind. Mutual understanding passing between them in a language Hardison’s still not quite able to speak. And he realizes he's okay with that.

Actually, he's more than okay with that. He likes it. To know that Parker has a second safety net stretched across a different axis than the one Hardison provides, just in case she falls in a direction he can't catch... but what does Eliot have? He takes the hits for them. Tears up his hands, from palm to knuckle for them. Catches ropes even when they slice him up, and then reassures them when it should be him receiving comfort for it. What does he get in return for it?

'Us.' The thought dawns so simply in the back of his brain as Parker slowly unfurls, playful shoves slowing to a stop and her leg just resting alongside Eliot's across the center of the couch. Casual. Comfortable. Easy. 'He has us.'

"All set?" Hardison jumps a little as Eliot's voice breaks the silence Hardison hadn't even realized was drawing on so long.

They finally break their gaze to meet Eliot's, wide-eyed and red faced.

"Almost," he replies, gently turning the bandaged hands over, thumb gliding along warm wrists, watching Eliot shiver with the touch. Testing a theory. He takes Eliot's left hand, carefully turning it open side up and holds it out to Parker. He locks eyes with her and lightly, deliberately, presses a soft kiss to the center of Eliot's right palm. While the man between them splutters and stammers, his girl picks up what's putting down and the shakey smile she'd been nursing since they got safe turns into a delighted grin. She follows Hardison's lead and places a kiss of her own in Eliot's left.

"We should touch more," Parker supplies, blunt and straightforward as usual. "When you're not hurt. Stop getting hurt."

"I-... I can't just... Parker, that's not-"

"You know mama, I think you're right," Hardison hums, Eliot's hand still in the grip of his left, letting the fingers on his right trail up the inside from sensitive wrist to even more sensitive inner elbow. "The thing is, that's not just a You And Me decision, is it?" He's responding to Parker, but he keeps his eyes on Eliot and his tone pointed, making sure the man knows the question is his to answer - if he wants to.

Eliot's fingers twitch again, but he doesn't pull away.

From either of them.

[dna-d2]

Leverage Redemption, and How it Handled Character Replacement

(Long Post Alert, so I’ll put a TL;DR down at the bottom)

(Also Spoilers for Leverage Redemption if you haven’t seen it)

So I recently got around to watching Leverage after way too long, immediately followed by Leverage Redemption. To start off with, if you love found family and eating the rich, watch this show. If you don’t like that stuff, also watch it, because I promise that by the end of it, you will. It has quickly become one of my favorite shows and I find myself smiling consistently throughout watching it. (Especially when Eliot is on screen because goddammit, I always end up picking the tough guy as one of my favorites. Though it’s much better when Hardison is on screen too because I fucking love their dynamic)

Anyway

Before I get too far into this, let me give you a pretty quick rundown on Leverage as a whole, to help contextualize all this. Also so I can finally talk about why I love this show in general, because no one else I know watches this and I need to talk about it.

So Leverage is basically a show where a group of ex-cons (convicts, con-men, you decide) teaming up with the guy who used to help catch them to pull off a heist for what they think are the right reasons at the time. (Spoiler alert, they got tricked, and then had to pull another heist to fix what they messed up) After that, they basically decided to remain teamed up to basically pull heists and con various types of rich douchebags who were gaming the system at the expense of the people. This is basically the whole show.

The Crew is comprised of five people. Sophie Devereaux (if that is her real name), the Grifter. She’s basically a master at pulling cons and tricking people. She’s basically the actress of the group, who pulls a lot of weight in getting the mark ready for their tricks and whatnot.

Eliot Spencer, the Hitter. And also my favorite character. He is literally what he’s advertised as. He hits things. REALLY well. In all seriousness, I can only think of one or two times in the entire series that he actually lost a fight, and he usually managed to get them back pretty quickly. He’s basically the violent older brother of the group, and as per sibling rules, he must always torment his younger siblings. Especially the middle child. That’s important. But also HE’S the only one allowed to torment them, because the second anyone else tries to mess with them, he (sometimes literally) jumps in out of nowhere to beat the everloving shit out of them. It’s great.

Alec Hardison, the Hacker. He’s also what he’s advertised as. A master hacker, as well as a Jack of All Trades in most technological and non-technological type stuff. You never know what knowledge he’s gonna pull out of his bag of tricks, but you can bet your ass he’s gonna use it to pick a fight with Eliot. As stated previously, he’s basically the middle child, though I get I a little iffy on the expression right around here as it regards Parker. Since they start dating about mid-way through the series. But not in terms of his relationship with Eliot. Honestly, I see their dynamic as one of the big selling points of this show, and I fucking love seeing them interact with each other. One minute Eliot is literally threatening to kill Hardison over a sandwich, the next he’s punching the shit out of someone because they threw Hardison over the side of a building and NO ONE throws Hardison over the side of a building, godammit. Except maybe him. (His words, not mine)

And then Parker, first/last name unknown, the Thief. She is an expert thief who, fun fact, canonically has high-functioning autism. (Technically the producer or whoever said that she had Asbergers, but that was back when the first season was running, and during a time when the autism spectrum probably wasn’t really a thing, or at the very least not well-researched) She’s crazy. At least that’s how people keep describing her, but personally, I just think she’s neat. She’s actually my second favorite character. VERY close second. It fluctuates depending on the episode, honestly. (Btw I wasn’t joking when I said first/last name unknown. We know one of her names is maybe Parker. Is it her first name? Is it her last name? Is it even her name??? Literally no one knows, not even the CIA. It’s great. I love it)

And then of course there’s Nathan “Nate” Ford, the Mastermind, He was once an Insurance investigator who chased these four down multiple times and probably got them all caught at least once (though clearly not for very long). He’s the guy you see in memes with the galaxy brain playing 4D chess backwards. He’s smart, he’s an alcoholic, and his son died. A perfect recipe for a hot mess to play team dad with a newly formed found family.

These five spend five seasons ripping off mostly rich white dudes and eating the rich. (not literally. If that’s what you’re looking for, watch Hannibal. I’ve never watched it, but something tells me that’s a little closer to the whole eating people thing) They quickly became a family, pretty much, and had lots of fun doing it. Each of these characters were a huge part of why Leverage was as good as it was. However, before the revival series began, there had to be some changes.

Between Leverage and Leverage Redemption, there were some issues with Nate’s actor, Timothy Hutton, and due to those issues, the show runners elected not to bring him back for the Revival series. And I’m not gonna go into that because it’s not really the main point of this analysis.

However because of this, that left a huge, and very important, gap in the main cast. The Mastermind, the LITERAL reason these guys were brought together has now been killed off due to casting issues. So what is a team of writers to do in this scenario?

Surely they’re just going to bring in some guy who has the exact same skill-set as Nate, who is also ultra-mega-smart, who we just HAPPENED to have never seen during the five seasons of the show, right?? That would make total sense, wouldn’t it??

So the writers did exactly NOT that.

Instead, they got Noah Wyle, of the Librarians (another series that a lot of the producers and writers actually worked on) and cast him as a good bad lawyer named Harry Wilson. The kind of lawyer who’s GREAT at his job, however he was not helping the right people. Eventually he realized that he was in fact NOT the good guy, and decided that he was gonna screw over one of this douchebag clients by stealing a painting of his from a museum, on the EXACT same day that Sophie, Eliot, Hardison, and Parker happened to have decided to steal a painting from a museum to cheer themselves up on the anniversary of Nate’s death.

So they of course figure him out immediately, observe how he does this, and watches as he immediately trips an alarm and almost gets caught. After this, they decide to help their brand new Mr. Wilson screw this guy over, and after that, he joins the team.

Now, what does this add to the team, you may ask? The new Mastermind, right???

WRONG

Mr. Wilson is a good lawyer, but he is by NO MEANS a criminal like the rest of them. He’s inexperienced, a little naïve, overall just not a con-man like the rest of them. He does however bring a lot of legal information and fancy lawyer-y loopholes to the game, which proves to be pretty useful throughout the season.

But I know what you’re thinking. If Mr. Wilson didn’t replace Nate as the Mastermind, then who did??

Well, no one, really. Instead, the rest of the team stepped up and each started pitching in their ideas for the overall plan, with Sophie mostly taking the lead. And this is kind of the genius of how they handled replacing Nate. Instead of just bringing in some rando smart dude that we just never heard of or something, they bring in a new guy who covers a new skill-set that they didn’t have before. While he is the new Fifth guy, he is not JUST the new Fifth guy.

He’s the new guy. He’s filling in the place Nate left on the team, but he is by no means a replacement for him. He’s not the Mastermind, he’s the…Well, Sophie keeps calling him “Our Mr. Wilson” so I think that’s just his title. You’d think he’d be the Lawyer, but nah. So he’s not the Mastermind, and he’s not the New Nate Ford. And he never will be. Nope.

He’s the Mr. Wilson.

And btw I know I didn’t really address Breanna and how she actually more closely fills in the archetypical “Replace Character A with Character B who has the same skills” but that’s because one: This was mostly about how they handled Mr. Wilson. Two: I think her integration with the cast is almost flawless. I say almost because I miss Hardison. And Three: She also wasn’t a carbon copy of Hardison. She was less experienced in certain fields, but more experienced in others, and is also a Gen-Z kid who’s more than willing to fight the power. 

(I’m serious about Hardison though. Please put him in more episodes next season I miss him. Have them both, I would LOVE to have them both. That’s a new dynamic that I think would be great. They’re sitting in Leverage, tag-teaming the bad guys’ security systems, it would be awesome)

TL;DR: They had to kill off a major character but instead of replacing him with some random-ass carbon copy that we just somehow never heard of in five seasons, they brought in an actual new guy who covers a new set of skills, but also is very inexperienced regarding the field they work in, and instead all the veterans of the group help fill in the role that the dead character left.

Also if you wanna watch it but don’t care where to start, I have two personal picks for ”Episodes I show Someone to Introduce them to the Show”

First is Season 3, Episode 11, “The Rashomon Job”

Second is Season 4, Episode 12, “The Office Job”

They’re both very good, and are basically my favorites

(Edit: I was gonna put more recommendations in the tags but I guess today is the day I learn there's a 30 tag limit. Who knew? NOT ME)

[vickyvicarious]

Leverage Redemption Pros/Cons List

Okay! Now that I've finally finished watching the first half of Leverage: Redemption, I thought I'd kind of sum up my overall impression. Sort of a pro/con list, except a little more just loosely structured rambles on each bullet point rather than a simple list.

This got way out of hand from what I expected so I'm going to put it all under a cut. If you want the actual bulletpoint list, here it is:

PROS

References

Continuity

Nate

Representation

Themes

New Characters

General Vibe

CONS

'Maker and Fixer'

Episode Twins

Sophie's Stagefright

Thiefsome

You might notice the pros list is longer, and that's because I do love the show! I really like most of what it does, and my gripes are fewer in number and mostly smaller in size. But they do exist and I felt like talking about them as well as the stuff I loved.

PROS

References

There is clearly so much love and respect for the original show here. Quite aside from the general situation, there's a lot of references to individual episodes or character traits from the first show. For example, Parker's comments on disliking clowns, liking puppets, disliking horses, stabbing vs. tasing people. The tasing was an ongoing thing in the original, the stabbing happened once (S1) but was referenced later in the original show, the clown thing only had a few mentions scattered across the entire original show. The puppet thing was mentioned once in S5, and the horses thing in particular was only brought up in S1 once. But they didn't miss the chance to put the nod to it in there; in fact with those alone we see a good mix of common/ongoing jokes and smaller details.

We got "dammit Hardison" and "it's a very distinctive..." but also Eliot and Parker arguing about him catering a mob wedding, and Eliot being delighted by lemon as a secret ingredient in a dish in that same episode (another reference to the mob episode). Hardison and Eliot banter about "plan M", an ongoing joke starting from the very first episode of the original show. We see Sophie bring up Hardison's accent in the Ice Job, Parker also makes reference to an early episode when describing "backlash effect" to Breanna, in an episode that also references her brother slightly if you look for it.

Heck, the last episode of these first eight makes a big deal out of nearly reproducing the iconic opening lines of the original show with Fake Nate's "we provide... an advantage." And I mean, all the "let's go steal a ___" with Harry being confused about how to use them.

Some of the lines are more obviously references to the original show, but they strike a decent balance with smaller or unspoken stuff as well, and also mix in some references between the team to events we the audience have never seen. If someone was coming into this show for the first time, they wouldn't get all the easter egg joy but most of the references would stand on their own as dialogue anyway. In general, I think they struck a good balance of restating needed context for new viewers while still having enough standalone good lines and more-fun-if-you-get-it callbacks.

Continuity

Similar to the last point, but slightly different. The characters' development from the original to now is shown so well. I'm not going to go on about this too long, but the writers clearly didn't want to let the original characters stagnate during the offscreen years. There was a lot of real thought put into how they would change or not.

It's really written well. We can see just how cohesive a team Parker, Hardison, and Eliot became. We get a sense of how they've spent their time, and there's plenty of evidence that they remained incredibly close with Sophie and Nate until this past year. The way everyone defers to Parker is different from the original show and clearly demonstrates how she's been well established as the leader for years now - they show this well even as Parker is stepping back to let Sophie take point in these episodes. Eventually that is actually called out by Sophie in the eighth episode, so we might see more mastermind Parker in the back half of the show, maybe. But even with her leading, it's clear how collaborative the team has become, with everyone bouncing ideas off one another and adding their input freely. Sometimes they even get so caught up they leave the newbies completely in the dust. But for the most part we get a good sense of how the Parker/Hardison/Eliot team worked with her having final say on plans but the others discussing everything together. A little bit more collaborative than it was with Nate at the helm.

Meanwhile Sophie has built a home and is deeply attached to it. She and Nate really did retire, at least for the most part, and she was living her happy ending until he died. She's out of practice but still as skilled as ever, and we're shown how much her grief has changed her and how concerned the others are for her.

There's a lot of emphasis on how they all look after one another and the found family is clearer than ever. Sophie even calls Hardison "his father's son" - clearly referring to Nate.

Nate

Speaking of Nate! They handled his loss so, so well. His story was the most complete at the end of the last show, and just from a narrative point, losing him makes the most sense of all the characters. But the way he dies and his impact on the show and the characters continues. It's very respectful to who he was - who he truly was.

Nate was someone they all loved, but he was a deeply flawed individual. Sophie talks about how he burned too hot, but at least he burned - possibly implying to me that his drinking was related to his death. In any case, there's no mystery to it. We don't know how he died but that's not what's most important about his death. This isn't a quest for revenge or anything... it's just a study of grief and trying to heal.

Back to who he really was real quick - the show doesn't eulogize him as better than he was. They're honest about him. From the first episode's toast they raise in his memory, to the final episode where Sophie and Eliot are deeply confused by Fake Nate singing his praises, the team knows who he was. They don't erase his flaws... but at the same time he was so clearly theirs. He was family, he was the man they trusted and loved and followed into incredibly dangerous situations, and whose loss they all still feel deeply.

That said, the show doesn't harp on this point. They reference him, but they don't overwhelm new viewers with a constant barrage of Nate talk. It always serves a purpose, primarily for Sophie's storyline of moving through her grief. Anyway, @robinasnyder said all of this way better than me here, so go read that as well.

Representation

Or should I say, Jewish Hardison, Autistic Parker, Queer Breanna!

Granted, Hardison's religion isn't quite explicitly stated to be Jewish so much as he mentions that his "Nana runs a multi-denominational household", but nonetheless. He gets the shows big thesis statement moment, he gets a beautiful speech about redemption that is the emotional cornerstone of that episode and probably Harry's entire arc throughout the show. And while I'm not Jewish myself, most of what I've seen from Jewish fans is saying that Hardison's words here were excellent representation of their beliefs. (@featherquillpen does a great job in that meta of contextualizing this with his depiction in the original show as well.)

Autistic Parker, however, is shown pretty dang blatantly. She already was very much coded as autistic in the original show, but the reboot has if anything gone further. She sees a child psychologist because she likes using puppets to represent emotions, she stims, she uses cue cards and pre-written scripts for social interactions, there's mention of possible texture sensitivity and her clothes are generally more loose and comfortable. She's gotten better at performing empathy and understanding how people typically work, but it's specifically described as something she learned how to do and she views her brain as being different from ones that work that way (same link). Again, not autistic myself but from what I've seen autistic fans find a lot to relate to in her portrayal. And best of all, this well-rounded and respectful depiction does not show any of these qualities as a lack on her part. There's no more of those kinda ableist comments or "what's wrong with you" jokes that were in the original show. Parker is the way she is, and that allows her to do things differently. She's loved for who she is, and any effort made to fit in is more just to know how so that she can use it to her advantage when she wants to on the job - for her convenience, not others' comfort.

Speaking of loved for who you are.... okay, again, queer Breanna isn't confirmed onscreen yet, and I don't count Word of God as true canon. But I can definitely believe we're building there. Breanna dresses in a very GNC way, and just her dialogue and, I dunno, vibes seem very queer to me. She has a beautiful speech in the Card Game Job about not belonging or being accepted and specifically mentions "the way they love" as one of those things that made her feel like she didn't belong. And that scene is given so much weight and respect. (Not to mention other hints throughout the episode about how much finding her own space meant to her.) Also, the whole theme of feeling rejected and the key for her to begin really flourishing is acceptance for who she is, not any desire for her to be anyone else, is made into another big moment. Yeah, textually that moment is about her feeling like she has to fill Hardison's shoes and worrying about her past, but the themes are there, man.

Themes

I talked a bit about this yesterday, so I'm mostly just going to link to that post, but... this series so far is doing a really good job in my opinion of giving people arcs and having some good themes. Namely the redemption one, from Hardison's speech (which I'm gonna talk a little more about in the next point), and this overall theme of growing up and looking to the future (from above the linked post).

New Characters

Harry and Breanna are fantastic characters. I was kind of worried about Harry being a replacement Nate, but... he really isn't. Sure, he's the older white guy who has an angsty past but it's in a very different way and his personality and relationships with the rest of the crew are correspondingly different. I think the dynamic of a very friendly, cheerful, kind, but still bad guy (as @soundsfaebutokay points out) is a great one to show, and he's got a really cool arc I think of learning to be a better person, and truly understanding Hardison's point about redemption being a process not a goal. His role on the team also has some interesting applications and drawbacks, as @allegorymetaphor talked about. I've kind of grown to think that the show is gradually building up to an eventual Sophie/Harry romance a ways down the line, and I'm actually here for it. Regardless, his relationships with everyone are really interesting.

As for Breanna, first of all and most importantly I love her. Secondly, I think she's got a really interesting story. She's a link to Hardison's past, and provides a really interesting perspective for us as someone younger who has grown up a) looking up to Leverage and b) in a bleaker and more hopeless world. Breanna's not an optimist, and she's not someone who was self-sufficient and unconcerned with the rest of the world at the start, like everyone else. She believes that the world sucks and she wants it to be better, but she doesn't know how to make that happen. She outright says she's desperate and that's why she's working with Leverage. At the same time, Breanna is pretty down on herself and wants to prove herself but gets easily shaken by mistakes or being scolded, which is a stark contrast to Hardison's general self-confidence. There are several times when she starts to have an idea then hesitates to share it, or expects her emotions to be dismissed, or gets really disheartened when she's corrected or rejected, or dwells on her mistakes, or when she is accepted or praised she usually takes a surprised beat and is shy about it (she almost always looks down and away from the person, and her smile is often small or startled). Breanna looks up to the team so much (Parker especially, then probably Eliot) and she wants to prove herself. It's going to be so good to see her grow.

General Vibe

A brief note, but it seems a fitting one to end on. The show keeps it's overall tone and feeling from the original show. The fun, the competency porn, the bad guys and clever plans and happy endings. It's got differences for sure, but the characters are recognizably themselves and the show as a whole is recognizably still Leverage. For the most part they just got the feeling right, and it's really nice.

CONS (no, not that kind)

'Maker and Fixer'

So when I started writing this meta earlier today, I was actually a lot more annoyed by the lack of unique 'maker' skills being shown by Breanna. Basically the only time she tries to use a drone, the very thing she introduced herself as being good at, it breaks instantly. I was concerned about her being relegated into just doing what Hardison did, instead of bringing her own stuff to the table. But the seventh episode eased some of those fears, and the meta I just wrote for someone else asking about Breanna's 'maker' skills as shown this season made me realize there's more nuance than that. I'd still like to have seen more of that from her, but for now the fact that we don't see a lot of 'maker' from her so far seems more like a character decision based in Breanna's insecurities.

Harry definitely gets more 'inside man' usage. His knowledge as a 'fixer' comes in handy several times. Nonetheless, I'm really curious if there are any bigger ways to use it, aside from him just adding in some exposition/insight from time to time. I'm not even entirely sure how much more they can pull from this premise in terms of relevant skills, but I hope there's more and I'd like to see it. Maybe a con built more around him playing a longer role playing his old self, like they tried in the Tower Job? Maybe it's more a matter of him needed distance from that part of his past, being unable to face it without lashing out - in that case it could be a good character growth moment possibly for him to succeed in being Scummy Lawyer again down the line? I dunno.

Episode Twins

This was something small that kind of bothered me a little earlier in the season. It's kind of the negative side to the references, I guess? And I'm not even sure how much it annoys me really, but I just kinda noticed and felt sort of weird about it.

Rollin' on the River has a lot of references/callbacks to the The Wedding Job.

The Tower Job has a lot of references/callbacks to The White Rabbit Job.

The Paranormal Hacktivity Job has a lot of references/callbacks to the Future Job.

I guess I was getting a little concerned that there would be a 'match this episode' situation where almost every new Redemption episode is very reminiscent of an old one. I love the callbacks, but I don't want to see a lack of creativity in this new show, and this worried me for a minute. Especially when it was combined with all three of those episodes dealing with housing issues of some kind. Now, that's a huge concern for a lot of people, and each episode has its own take on a different problem within that huge umbrella, but it still got me worried about a lack of variety in topics/cases.

The rest of the episodes failing to line up so neatly in my head with older episodes helped a lot to ease this one, though. Still, this is my complaining section so I figured I'd express my concerns as they were at the time. Even if I no longer really worry about it much.

Sophie's Stagefright

Yeah, I know this is just a small moment in a single episode, but it annoyed me! Eliot made a bit of a face at Sophie going onstage, but I thought it was just him being annoyed at the general situation. However, they started out with her being awful up there until she realized the poem was relevant to the con - at which point her reading got so much better.

This felt like a complete betrayal of Sophie's beautiful moment at the end of the original show where she got over her trouble with regular acting and played Lady Macbeth beautifully in front of a full theater of audience members. This was part of the con, but only in the sense that it gave her an alibi/place to hide, and I always interpreted it as her genuinely getting over her stagefright problems. It felt like such a beautiful place to end her arc for that show, especially after all her time spent directing.

Now, her difficulty onstage in the Card Game Job was brief and at the very beginning of being up on stage. @rinahale suggested to me that maybe it was a deliberate tactic to draw the guy's attention, and the later skill was simply her shifting focus to make the sonnet easier for Breanna to listen to and interpret, but he seemed more enraptured when she was doing well than otherwise in my opinion and it just doesn't quite sit well with me. My other theory was that maybe she just hasn't been up on stage in a long time, and much like she complaining about being rusty at grifting before the team pushed her into trying, she got nervous for a moment at the very beginning. The problem there is that I think she'd definitely still get involved in theater even when she and Nate were retired. I guess she could've quit after he died, and a year might be long enough to make her doubt herself again, but... still.

I just resent that they even left it ambiguous at all. Sophie's skills should be solid on stage at this point in my opinion.

Thiefsome

...And now we come to my main complaint. This is, by far, the biggest issue I have with the show.

I feel like I should put a disclaimer here that I had my doubts from the beginning about the thiefsome becoming canon onscreen. I thought the famous "the OT3 is safe" tweet could easily just mean that they are all still alive and well, or all still working together, without giving us confirmation of a romantic relationship. Despite this, the general fandom expectations/hopes really got to me, especially with the whole "lock/pick/key" thing. I tried to temper my expectations again when the character descriptions came out and only mentioned Hardison loving Parker, not Eliot, but I still got my hopes up.

The thing is, I was disappointed pretty quickly.

The very first episode told me that in all likelihood we would never see Hardison and Parker and Eliot together in a romantic sense. Oh, there was so much coding. So much hinting. So much in the way of conversations that were about Parker/Hardison's relationship but then Eliot kept getting brought into them. They were portrayed as a unit of three.

But then there was this.

I love all of those scenes of Parker and Hardison being intimate and loving and comfortable with one another and their relationship. I really do. But it didn't escape my notice that there's nothing of the sort with Eliot. If they wanted a canon onscreen thiefsome, it would by far make the most sense to just have it established from the start. But there aren't any scenes where Eliot shares the same kind of physical closeness with either of them like they do each other. Parker and Hardison kiss; he doesn't kiss anyone. They have several clearly romantic conversations when alone; he gets important conversations with both but the sense of it being romantic isn't there.

Establishing Eliot as part of the relationship after Hardison is gone just... doesn't make any sense. It would be more likely to confuse new viewers, to make them wonder if Parker is cheating on Hardison with Eliot, or if they have a Y shaped relationship rather that a triangle. It would be so much clumsier.

Still, up until the Double-Edged-Sword Job I believed the writers might keep it at this level of 'plausible hinting but not quite saying'. There's a lot of great stuff with all of them, and I never expecting making out or whatever anyway; a cheek-kiss was about the height of my hopes to be honest. I mostly just hoped for outright confirmation and, failing that, I was happy enough to have the many hints and implications.

But then Marshal Maria Shipp came along. And I don't really have anything against her as a character - in fact, I think she has interesting story potential and will definitely come back. But the episode framed her fight with Eliot as a sexyfight TM, much like his fight with Mikel back in the day. And then his flirting with her rode the line a little of "he's playing her for the con" and "he's genuinely flirting." The scene where he tells her his real name is particularly iffy, but actually was the one that convinced me he was playing her. Because he seems to be watching her really closely, and to be very concerned about her figuring out who he really is. I am very aware though that I'm doing a lot of work to interpret it the way I want. On surface appearance, Eliot's just flirting with an attractive woman, like he did on the last show. And that's probably the intention, too.

But the real nail in the coffin for me was when Sophie compared herself and Nate to Eliot and Maria. That was a genuine scene, not the continuation of the teasing from before. And Sophie is the one whose insight into people is always, always trustworthy. She is family to the thiefsome. For this to make any sense, either Eliot/Parker/Hardison isn't a thing, or they are and Sophie doesn't know - and I can't imagine why in the hell she wouldn't know.

Any argument to make them still canon leaves me unsatisfied. If she knows and they haven't admitted it to her - why wouldn't they, after all this time? Why would she not have picked up on it even without an outright announcement? Some people suggested they wouldn't admit it because they thought Nate would be weird about it, but that doesn't seem any more in character to me than the other possibilities. In fact, the only option that doesn't go against my understanding of these people and their observational abilities/the close relationship they share.... is that the thiefsome is not a thing.

And furthermore, the implication of this conversation - especially the way it ended, with Eliot stomping off looking embarrassed while Sophie smiled knowingly - is that Eliot will get into another relationship onscreen. Maybe not a full-blown romantic relationship. But the Maria Shipp tension is going to be resolved somehow, and at this point I'm half-expecting a hook-up simply because of Sophie's reaction and how much I trust her judgement of such things. Even if she's letting her grief cloud her usual perceptiveness... it feels iffy.

It just kinda feels like I wasn't even allowed to keep my "interpret these hints/maybe they are" thiefsome that I expected after the first couple episodes convinced me we wouldn't get outright confirmation. (I mean, I will anyway, and I love the hints and allusions regardless.) And while I'm definitely not the kind of fan who is dependent on canon for my ships, and still enjoy all their interactions/will keep right on headcanoning them all in a relationship, it's just.... a bummer.

Feels like a real cop-out. Like the hints of Breanna being queer are enough to meet their quota and they won't try anything 'risky' like a poly relationship. I dunno. It's annoying.

.

That's the end of the list! Again, overall I love the new show a lot and have few complaints.

[kookicat]

The Macaron Job 

I'm a damned idiot, Eliot thinks and scowls at the sheeting rain outside the kitchen window. It's a horrible damp day, the sort that turns his hair into a curly mess that defies even the hottest flat iron, and he's making macarons. They're never going to dry, he thinks and pokes the closest one with a clean fingertip, scowl deepening as the mix sticks to his skin. 

It wasn't like there were a million other, more rainy day compatible things he could have made. Like brown butter and oatmeal cookies. Or madeleines. Or lemon and poppy seed muffins, with a lemon glaze, sweet and sharp. Or an apple pie, rich and golden and spiked with cinnamon. Or even sugar cookies. 

But Parker had asked for French macarons, and he's never been able to say no to the women, especially when Sophie gets in on the act. So he's stuck in the kitchen, babysitting a sheet pan of macarons that are stubbornly refusing to form any sort of skin. They're never going to work, he thinks and sighs, pulling out the ingredients to make a batch of sugar cookies, just in case, letting his hands fall into the familiar actions while his mind wanders, pondering what else he wants to add to his newly established kitchen garden. 

It's another part of himself that he's reclaimed, once he'd committed to the team, and it had taken him a while to get comfortable with his hands in the dirt again, but damn, it was nice to replace the old blood on his hands with warm, fragrant soil, capable of giving life rather than taking it. Parker had caught on first, bugging him with questions about what the plants did until he got his first harvest of peas and squash and carrots and tomatoes, turning them into something they could eat, remembering exactly how at peace he'd felt, sitting down at the table to eat a meal he'd produced in more ways than one. 

He glances at the tray of macarons again, feeling irritation niggle at him when they still aren't set. The sugar cookie dough forms a neat ball under his hands and he shapes it into a log, wrapping it in plastic and slipping it in the fridge to chill, trying to ignore the urge to glare at the macarons. Like that'll make them set faster, he thinks and has to laugh at himself, just a little. Truth be told, there's not many other places he'd rather be on a rainy day than his kitchen, even if he is stuck with the least rainy day friendly bake ever. 

Quiet footsteps head towards the kitchen and he keeps his back to the door, deliberately, ignoring the prickle between his shoulders that he still can't quite shake. He trusts them with his life and his soul and his sanity, but bone deep instincts aren't so easy to turn off. "They're not done yet," he says when the steps transfer from wood to the tile floor in the kitchen, knowing as good as he was, he wouldn't have heard her if she didn't want him to, because the woman was like a damn cat, all liquid grace and soft steps. 

"They didn't take this long last time," she complains, boosting herself onto the counter and reaching around him to steal a crumb of sugar cookie dough from the big copper mixing bowl. 

Eliot tucks a curly strand of hair behind his ear and glances at the window, where the rain has become even worse, pouring down in a way that makes him wonder idly if they need to start building an arc. Hardison would hate that, he thinks, all those animals to manage and manages not to grin too widely. "Last time it wasn't pouring with rain," he says, and lifts an eyebrow at her when she frowns. 

She sneaks another scrap of cookie dough, chewing thoughtfully. "That makes a difference?" 

"Sure." He crosses his arms, resisting the urge to poke the damned macarons again, and leans back against the cabinet. "It's baking, Parker. Everything makes a difference." There's a thread of wry, amused annoyance in his voice. Sometimes the strict measurements, the recipes that have to be followed to the letter, the exacting nature of baking are exactly what he needs, letting him lose himself in the details, pushing back the memories for just a little while longer. It's almost like meditation, steps he knows like the notes of an old, familiar song. And sometimes, he wants the opposite, wants to grab ingredients by instinct to create something entirely new, something fresh and exciting and his in a way that baking never quite captures. 

"How do you know when they're ready?" she leans over, bumping shoulders with him, close enough that her hair brushes his cheek, nibbling on the last scrap of dough. 

"You're going to get a stomach ache," he mutters absently, tapping the closest macaron round with his pointer finger. "They're ready for baking when they don't stick to your fingers." 

It doesn't, to his surprise, and he lifts the tray, sliding it into the pre-heated oven. There's dark chocolate ganache chilling in the fridge and he pulls the bowl out, setting it on the counter to warm, pretending not to see Parker steal a spoonful as he turns away to stack the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. He turns back and has to smother a grin, because she has chocolate on her cheek and an overly innocent expression on her face. 

"Is that nice?" he asks, biting the inside of his lip to keep a straight face. 

She blinks at him, idly swinging her legs, taking care not to thump her boots into the cupboard door. "I don't know what you mean!" she says and he laughs, tossing a dish towel at her. 

"You have ganache on your face," he says and she swipes it away. 

The timer beeps and he silences it, turning the sheet pan around in the oven so everything bakes evenly. He grabs a piping bag and gives the ganache a stir, handing the spoon to Parker while he fills the bag. The kitchen smells safe, like good vanilla and sugar and chocolate and combined with the pouring rain it's making him feel relaxed, tranquil, almost sleepy in a way that's rare for him. He leans against the counter again, letting the comfortable silence stretch its legs, half an eye on the window, watching the water run down the glass. 

"You could have said no, you know," Parker says suddenly, softly and he grunts as he ponders his answer. 

"I know," he starts, and shrugs. "I didn't want to say no." 

"Oh," she says, frowning like she's missed something and normally, he wouldn't have the words to explain it to her, but it's different somehow, in the warm kitchen and he shifts his weight a little, glancing at the timer before he starts talking. 

"I wanted to," he shrugs, "For a long time, all I did was destroy stuff. People, mostly." The words sting more than he expects coming out and he pauses, clearing his throat, taking the time to figure out what he wants to say next. "I was finding my way back from that when we did that first job, but I still had a ways to go. Creating rather than destroying helps." The words are sticking in his brain and he scratches his jaw, meeting her eyes, seeing understanding there, feeling the echo of another conversation like this. "You never expect me to give more than I can." He lifts a hand, gestures vaguely at the kitchen. "This, I can give. So, yes, I could have said no, but I didn't want to." The corner of his mouth quirks up in a wry smile. "Even if you did ask for macarons on the worst possible day to make them." 

"You like them too," she protests, knowing that she's not the only one in the room with a sweet tooth. Eliot just hides his better, but she's never seen him turn down a donut yet. 

"I do," he agrees easily and shoves his hair back again. The humidity means it wants to fall in his face and his last two hair ties had mysteriously vanished. I'd order more, if I didn't think a quick sweep of the brew pub would turn up a dozen, he thinks. With three of them using them, the damn things seem to grow legs. 

"Here," Parker says and offers him a hair tie. 

He takes it, pretty sure it had started out life as one of his to begin with and puts his hair up, washing his hands just as the timer starts to beep. He turns off the tap and dries his hands as Parker silences the alarm, grabbing a dry dish towel before he pulls the sheet pan out of the oven. 

They're not his best batch ever - some are more oval than round, and he's enough of a perfectionist to find that annoying, but they smell great and he sets the sheet pan down on the cooling rack. 

"How soon can we eat them?" Parker asks and he swats her hand away as she reaches for one. 

"They're hot," he says absently, before he remembers that he's talking to Parker and she seems to spend a quarter of her life in places where anyone else would find the heat unbearable. "Let them cool, or they'll break when you move them," he adds. "It shouldn't take long." 

The kitchen is cool and he knows from experience that the macarons will be cold enough to handle pretty quickly. He just needs to distract Parker until that point. 

"There's sugar cookie dough in the fridge. We can shape those while these cool," he suggests and she brightens. 

"Can we make dinosaurs?" she asks, seeming to bounce on the spot without actually moving. 

"No," he says, because sugar cookies should be round and he's pretty sure the dinosaur cutters found a new home, far away from his kitchen. 

She frowns. "Animals then." 

He pulls the dough out of the fridge and sets it next to the ganache while he preps another sheet pan. "No," he says, because he's fairly sure the animal cutters went to live on the same farm as the dinosaurs. "Rounds are fine."

"You're no fun," she grumps and frowns at him, seeing the quirk in his lip that means he's secretly amused and not buying her act at all. 

"I made you two types of cookie," he protests, and reaches into the cupboard on the wall, pulling out a new blend of sprinkles. They're less lurid than her usual pick, but they're also dyed with natural extracts and not chemicals he can't pronounce and so he figures it's a decent trade off. 

"Ooh, sprinkles!" Parker says, grinning at him. "Sprinkles are fun." 

He cuts the log of cookie dough into neat, even slices and arranges them on the tray, reaching over to turn the oven up, wondering what to defrost for dinner. It's just him and Parker, for a change, because Nate and Sophie have a table booked at a fancy new restaurant and Hardison is at some game thing with his friends. Eliot doesn't rate the new restaurant - the menu is overly complicated, and he knows enough about Hardison's game nights to know he'll come home stuffed with enough cheap pizza, orange soda and gummy frogs to fuel a small army for a week. Parker would be quite happy with a bowl of whatever luridly coloured cereal she'd latched onto for the week, but Eliot is craving something rich and warming and comforting, because the weather shows no sign of improving. There's a ragu sauce in the freezer and he pulls it out, setting it aside to defrost, knowing there's fresh pasta in the fridge and homemade dinner rolls in the bread bin. 

Parker is rifling in the drawer next to her knees and pulls out a star shaped cutter. "Stars?" she says and waves it at him. 

"Fine," he says, and rolls his eyes. "Make half of them stars." 

She hops down and crosses to the sink to wash her hands, humming happily as she desecrates half of his perfectly round cookies. He sighs and presses the scraps together, wrapping them in plastic and dumping them in the fridge for later. The cookies will be a little tough, but that's nothing a glass of milk can't solve. 

The oven beeps to let him know it's reached temp, and he slides the cookie pan in, checking the macarons and finding them nicely cool. "You wanna fill these?" he asks as he gathers the stuff he needs for a simple glaze for the sugar cookies. "Just don't eat all of them," he warns as she takes the piping bag from his hands. 

It's the sort of kitchen task she's good at, hands that can crack a safe in seconds graceful as she works the piping bag. Piping makes his hands and wrists ache - he's broken too much stuff for there not to be consequences- so he's glad she took to it so readily. 

They work in comfortable silence as he sets the ragu sauce in a pan over a low flame to defrost and adds pasta to a second pan- fettuccine, not the one of the random bags of shaped pasta that keep appearing in his kitchen. He'd opened the cupboard and found pasta pandas a few weeks ago and wondered seriously if he'd taken one too many blows to the skull before Hardison claimed them. 

The glaze for the cookies comes together easily under his hands and he pours it into another piping bag to keep it from setting while they wait for the cookies to bake. There's lemon juice in it, to offset the sweetness of the cookies and for some reason, the combination reminds him of the team, all distinctive parts that come together to be better than they ever could be alone. 

He has nothing else to do for the moment and so turns to watch Parker as she finishes off the last few macarons, piping a neat dot of ganache on one before adding a second on top. There's a new smear of chocolate over her top lip and he reckons more than one has made its way into her stomach. 

There's an odd macaron left and she offers it to him. "They're really good," she says, around the bite in her mouth. "Is there a secret ingredient? What is it?" 

Love, he thinks and takes the macaron, knowing he's smiling again. "Now that would be telling," he says instead. 

[be-gay-do-heists]

another short ficlet for some hurt/comfort after the queen’s gambit job, with hardison trying to comfort eliot after he got drugged

Traveling back from Dubai in a private jet was a surprise luxury after a mess of a job. (Hardison suspected Sterling had something to do with their flight back in style, but every time he considered asking Nate about it, the mastermind had his ‘I am very deep in thought and do not wish to be disturbed’ face on, so he didn’t ask). With the exhaustion of the last forty-eight hours setting in, the extra space and privacy were appreciated by all members of the team. Sophie for one was taking advantage of the big cushy seats to fold her legs up and doze. Hardison looked at her, then at Nate (who was still brooding, how did he even have the energy?), and finally to Parker, who was probably decompressing the best out of all of them taking into account how frustrating this job had been for her. Her jump off the building after everything had likely helped; a little adrenaline was usually the key to getting Parker back to baseline. She had been content on the flight so far to sit and stare out the window, occasionally humming or bouncing her leg. Hardison smiled as he watched her.

Eliot, on the other hand, was going to drive him crazy if he didn’t relax soon.

The hacker had to cut him some slack. Being drugged would majorly unnerve anyone who relied on their control as much as Eliot did. He just hadn’t realized how much it would affect the other man. Not even fighting had gotten it out of his system. The hitter’s movements and speech had been slower, less clear than usual. His eyes would go unfocused briefly as he stared at whatever was in front of him, and once they got on the plane this was punctuated by his abruptly jumping up and walking the cabin end to end, as if doing a perimeter check. The fifth time he got up, Sophie caught Hardison’s eye from across the aisle and jerked her head subtly in his direction. The hacker mouthed some blustering in her direction (what did she think he could do about it??), but she just pretended to go back to sleep.

Hardison sighed. This was just putting them all on edge again, and he might as well try to see if there was anything he could do. He rose and followed Eliot back.

When Eliot turned at the end of the cabin to retrace his steps and saw Hardison there, he glowered at him. The effect was partially lessened by how the hitter’s hair was falling in his eyes, and he didn’t have the energy or awareness to brush it back. He looked, Hardison registered, bad off. He hated the dazed confusion that he saw cross Eliot’s face briefly. “Hey, you ok, man?” he asked, knowing both the answer and how Eliot would lie.

“I’m fine,” Eliot growled. Called it. “Get out of the way, I’ve gotta finish this sweep.”

Hardison blocked his path. “No, you don’t.” As Eliot he tried to get around him, he moved in front of him again. “Hey, listen to me. We’re in the air, have been for a couple hours, and nothing has changed since the last time you did a sweep. We’re all here, all safe, and we finished the job. No one’s coming after us. You have to trust me on this.” Remembering how the hitter had rushed to hug him earlier, he reached out and grabbed his arm to ground him. “We’re safe. You’re safe, you can relax.”

The second Hardison had touched him, Eliot went still. The hacker could feel the slight tremble running through him, but also how some of the tension was leaving his body. This better work, he thought, going in for the full hug. Eliot flinched and growled indignantly for a second before latching on to him with an iron grip and burying his face in his shoulder. Hardison patted his back. “It’s ok. You’re alright.”

Sensing he wasn’t going to be let go of anytime soon, Hardison shuffled them over to one of the seats. The awkward position was worth it to feel Eliot relax in his arms, becoming less tense with every deep breath he took. He restrained himself from startling when Parker appeared over his shoulder with a plastic water bottle. “He should have some water, it’ll flush the drugs out.” She waved the bottle at Eliot, who had opened one grumpy eye to look at her. “You’ll feel a lot better.”

Hardison took in the hitter’s hesitancy, and examined the bottle. “It’s unopened?” When she nodded, he patted Eliot on the back. “It’s just water, you can have it. Parker’s right, if you drink something you’ll feel better.”

Eliot growled something unintelligible, but took the bottle from the thief tentatively, and cracked it open to take a couple small sips. Parker beamed at him, flinging herself down to sit next to them, and the hacker squeezed a little tighter as positive reinforcement (judging from Eliot’s contented sigh, it worked). It was going to be a long flight back home, but as the quiet of the cabin settled around them again, Hardison didn’t mind spending it like this.

[schrijverr]

Surprise Hit

On a con Eliot is recognized by someone who has a hit on him and has to run.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: mentions of some mafia dealings

~~~~~~~~~~~

The con went to shit.

This happened often enough with a mark not making the expected choice, a firewall taking longer to crack than anticipated or someone showing up that was not supposed to. It was normal, however the way it went to shit this time was unique. “Nate, I got a problem,” Eliot announced.

“What is it?” Nate asked over the coms. It was an integral part of the plan that Eliot talked to their mark, John Fernsby, and convinced him to meet with Sophie. Nate would have done it, but he had already been the one to go in and convince the billionaire that thebusiness was worth investing in and Hardison was needed to help Parker into the safe. It had to be Eliot.

But Eliot said there was a problem, which was bad. However, it was about to get worse when Eliot answered: “He’s talking with a foreign dignitary, but I know he isn’t. That’s Mikhail Volkov, Russian mob. He has a hit out on me.”

“The fuck, man,” Hardison replied.

“I didn’t pick it either, okay,” Eliot hissed back. “But if he sees me, we’re fucked. Well, I’m fucked and someone has to take my part in the con.”

Hardison had pulled up the camera feed of the gala and watched how Eliot turned away from the mark and tried to leave them room without pulling any attention to himself. He almost managed too, were it not for a serenade band coming in right as he was near the exit.

It was such a stupid little thing that they couldn't have predicted and it was so incredibly ill-timed that Eliot had no room to come up with something. Mikhail turned to the band and saw Eliot, his brow furrowed and he yelled: “Stop that man!” as Eliot started to sprint, multiple people now on his trail.

He pushed over furniture behind him and swerved while a few bullets started to fly around his head, dangerously close. In his ear Hardison was giving him directions to Lucille, but he knew he could not return to the team. Not right now.

The Russian mob was not known for their leniency and if they thought he had people he worked with, then they would only target them as well. No, he had to go into hiding on his own and return to them later, when he could shake off his pursuers. In his ear he heard Hardison rant at him as he took the wrong turn, but Eliot didn’t care. He had a plan.

On the street it was easier to disappear, though he got many looks from people as they cleared the way for him while he ran like a madman. There were a few screams when the Russians appeared behind him with guns.

If it were a normal day and he was on his own, he would have stayed to fight them, but he was wearing a suit he couldn't easily fight in and Sophie and Parker had still been in the building, he couldn't risk them for something stupid he’d done in the past. And when he was outside, he didn’t have the surprise advantage or the closeness to take on that many guys with guns.

So, he ran.

His lungs were burning in his chest and his legs would be jelly were it not for the fact that he regularly ran long tracks in case he got in this exact situation.

It took a while, but the bullets stopped flying around his head and he couldn't hear any footsteps behind him anymore. He took a moment to focus on the chatter over the coms. His brain hadn’t heardany of the key words to get his attention in the background, so he assumed it was all fine.

“Eliot, Eliot, are you listening to me?” That was Nate.

“I’m here,” he grunted, checking in the alley if there was anyone still following, before starting to climb the fire escape.

“What are you doing? Hardison’s GPS says you’re nowhere near the hotel. We need to regroup and figure out our next move,” Nate said as Sophie asked: “Are you okay, Eliot?”

He replied: “I’m fine, Sophie. Just didn’t want to lead a group of armed mobster to our hotel room when their goal is to kill me and all my associates.”

“They’re coming to kill us?” Hardison’s squeaky voice came through the speaker.

“Not if they don’t know I’m with you,” Eliot assured him, “which is why I’m not at the hotel right now. I think I’ve shaken them off, but just in case I’m taking a long way round. Probably won’t come through the doors.”

Thenhe tuned them out again. It might be rude and he heard they were still asking him all sorts of questions, but he wasn’t in the mood to answer. He had other things to focus on and the last thing he wanted was to tell them why there was a hit on his head from this particular mobster.

Going through the city over the roof, he saw a few familiar stances and haircuts stationed at public places where he would hide, as well as at the hotels and he knew he had made the right decision to take this route.

Mentally he was trying to figure out why Mikhail was here of all places talking with their mark. It could be that he was laundering money and their mark having a connection with the mob could both help and be an issue. He could get into witness protection in turn for information, but it was also proof that his business wasn’t clean, even if they had wanted to get him for the stealing of company funds that screwed over his employees’ safety.

But that was not his business to think about, but Nate’s. He would wait for what the man had to say about this development, but in order to do that, he needed to get back to the hotel.

There were also “guards” at the entrance of their hotel, but the team was only on the fourth floor and while they weren’t close to the fire escape, Eliot could get up high and then go side wards over the ridge to their window.

He gave Hardison a heart attack when he got at the window. They hadn’t left it open, much to his chagrin, but were luckily there to open it for him and it was better not to have a weakness in the defense, so he couldn't blame them.

“What the hell, man,” Hardison said. “Give someone a warning before you go around showing up in front of the window. Did you even have safety or something? We’re up high. You could have fallen to your death, Eliot.”

“Yeah and if I had gone through the front door, I would have been shot,” he pointed out tiredly from where he was lying on the floor.

Parker was looking out the window and smiled: “Oeh, that’s a good climbing ridge indeed.”

“Woman!” Hardison exclaimed, while Eliot said: “We could do without the attention to our room, Parker, maybe next time.” She looked sad and glanced over one more time, before closing the window with a pout.

“Care to explain what happened?” Nate asked as he leaned over him. He did that face where he attempted innocence, but failed.

“Got recognized by someone who’s sort of actively trying to kill me,” Eliot replied with what they already knew.

“Sort of actively?” Sophie asked and Eliot was glad he could explain something not that bad to them instead of the other stuff. “Yeah, there’s a difference between saying, ‘hey if you manage to kill this person and prove it you get money,’ and ‘I am hiring you to kill this person within a time frame.’ Mikhail is the former. If I die, he would be happy, but he’s not putting extra resources in finding me and eliminating me.”

“And why would be be happy if you’re dead?” Fucking Nate always sticking his nose everywhere.

“I met him once,” Eliot wasn’t giving him shit.

“Would I be correct in assuming that the meeting ended in a loss on his end?” Nate replied.

“Maybe.” He was neither confirming or denying, not if there was no explicit reason. He hadn’t felt bad about the blow to Mikhail’s organization. It hadn’t been the worst he’d done and Mikhail had a smuggling ring of sex workers and that had been awful to find.

“Okay, so we know Fernsby has connections to the Russian mob,” Nate thought out loud. “So, he’s not only stealing money from his employees, but laundering dirty money as well. If we can tie those together then we’re set.”

“Mikhail has a weakness for brunettes,” Eliot informed him, not telling him how he got that tidbit of knowledge. “He also likes gambling.”

Nate got a glint in his eye as he looked to Sophie, who smiled back. Of course those two would have a plan without needing to communicate.

“You’re out for the rest of the con,” Nate told him. “Can’t have you risk the entire thing if you’re recognized.”

“What? No!” Eliot sat up. “I need to be there to have your back. With the Russians it’s only going to get more dangerous. I’m not leaving you to your fate with those people, they’re dangerous, Nate. This isn’t just some cushy billionaire anymore.”

“And what if he gets suspicious of Sophie because of you, what will you do then, Eliot?” Nate shot back. “I’m not saying you need to stay here, but I am saying you need to keep out of sight. You’re with Hardison in Lucille.”

Eliot wanted to protest, wanted to be closer to the danger in case it went to shit, he wanted to be there when a mistake from his past came back, but he couldn't argue with Nate’s logic and sometimes he hated that about the man.

So, he found himself watching the screens in Lucille as Sophie tried to get Mikhail to make a gamble on her company, to ditch Fernsby, because he was doing it without him and leaving him out of the profits.

He was filled with jittery energy, but so far so good.

“Hey, Eliot,” Hardison opened. “What’s it like, you know, to have a hit on your head? I mean, I’m wanted in some countries, but that’s just boring government stuff, not actual people, like persons, wanting me dead personally, you know.”

“Are you really asking me what it’s like when someone wants you killed?” Eliot asked him.

“I guess,” Hardison shrugged, trying not to look like he wanted to know the answer and failing miserably.

“It’s not that different from being wanted by the government, I suppose,” Eliot finally answered, surprising Hardison. “You just gotta watch out for different things and hope no one is desperate enough for cash to go after you. I have a good enough reputation that hardly anyone tries, but I’ve had periods where I had multiple people on my trail across a dozen countries. It was exhausting, but I get it. Kill me and you can make a lot of people with a lot of money happy.”

“Wait, hold on, reverse and repeat,” Hardison said. “A lot of people?”

“Yeah,” Eliot replied, didn’t Hardison know this? “I got more than one hit on my head. I think it’s five. Used to be six, but one of them died and the bounty fell through. Though I never knew if that one English guy put one on my head as well. And of course, the countries, but those are always lazy about it, so I don’t worrry too much about those.”

“What the fuck, man.”

Eliot didn’t see the big deal. He had done a lot to deserve it and he had learned to live with it. He hadalways kept one eye open anyway.

He focused back on the screen, despite the hiccup earlier with him, the con ran smoothly on its new course and Sophie was phenomenal as he pitted the two guys against one another, making them sell each other out in the end.

Nate was there with the police and both were arrested with illegal cash on their hands and a lot of bank records detailing their dirty schemes as well as showing the abysmal circumstances of the workers that had gone unaddressed in favor of laundering money.

Later when they were sitting in the bar, Nate turned to him and asked: “Any more of that we should be worried about?”

Before Eliot could answer, Hardison had jumped in: “Apparently between five and six more times.”

“No, between four and five,” Eliot corrected. “Mikhail is no longer on the list, but honestly we couldn't have predicted this and there are too many bad guys I’ve known, double crossed, worked for or left that are still out there. We can’t account for all of them. I’ll try to be aware of which marks could have ties to other’s I’ve known, but you don’t get to be good in my line of work without enemies.”

Nate wanted to say something else, but Sophie was quicker. “I’m not keeping track of all the people I have grifted either, Nate,” she said. “We all have a past and you’re not harping me about that or Parker on all she’s stolen. Just because Eliot’s past is a bit different, doesn’t mean we can treat it differently in our team.”

Eliot didn’t fully agree with the comparison. His enemies we’re not the same and one of them coming back would be worse than it was for others.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to disagree with her. Not right now.

He thought of all the people he killed, all the families he’d left behind with one member less. He thought of Moreau and the horrible things he’d done for that man. He thought of the US Army that had turned him into a killer and set him loose on foreign soil for the first time.

And he thought of his team. Of how glad he was he knew them and how they made him better and didn’t force him to be a person he hated. How much they meant to him and how badly he didn’t want to loose that.

So he stayed quiet and let Sophie defend him, hoping his past would not come back like that again.

~~

A/N:

Sorry that the con is kinda vague, I only had the ‘the mark/someone there has a hit on Eliot and he needs to run’ and no clear plan on running the con in the background. Hope it was still enjoyable :D

[deafeningnightcollection-things]

The Hospital Job

Nathan Ford x Eliot Spencer

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The slow and steady sound should be a comfort because of what it means (Eliot is safe, he’s alive, they got to him in time). That is the logical conclusion, but contrary to most of the rest of his life, Nathan Ford finds it impossible to draw the logical conclusion here.

Eliot Spencer, who’s supposed to be all muscle and action, and quiet thoughtfulness, and few words, but he isn’t in motion now. He’s laying still on hospital bed, pale as death, the shallow rise and fall of his chest barely visible. The only sign of life in the room is the steady beat of the heart monitor.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Every time he closes his eyes, Nate sees his mistakes, sees the steps he should’ve taken. They’re painfully obvious now, if only they had been mere hours previous.

The con should’ve been easy, get in, get out. Slip into some light method acting for 24 hours, and come out of the whole ordeal far richer than they had been previously. But then things had started going wrong, minor things Nate couldn’t anticipate but they kept stretching the con.

Nate leaned back in the chair, resisting the urge to get up and pace around the room, his throat burned for a drink. He hadn’t had a drink since this whole thing started and that was the problem.

Nate was shaking in his chair as he called out plays, the worst of the detox hadn’t hit yet, he could still do this and then, somehow, he’d find a drink.

“Sophie, go left, there’s a south facing door. Hardison shut off the security camera.” Nate’s eye flicked back and forth between blueprints of the building and the live security footage Hardison was feeding him.

“On it, boss.”

He traced the ventilation system with his finger. “Parker, behind you, there’s a vent. Follow it left, and then right. That should drop you exactly where you need to be.”

“Copy.”

“Tsk. Tsk.” Sterling sat on the desk next to Nate, “is this really the best use of your time, Nathan? They’ve all done this long before you stepped in to play mastermind.” Sterling held a shimmering glass of whiskey out towards him, “what makes you think they need you now?”

Nate swallowed thickly, he knew the glass wasn’t real, that this was only the cruel creations of his alcohol deprived mind, but he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out. He watched it slip through his hand, the sound of glass shattering on the ground echoing in his mind even as he stared at the clean floor.

“Parker could steal this blind folded. Hardison doesn’t need you to tell him what to hack. Sophie has been conning people since before you got into the game. Face it, Nate, what do you really bring to the table?”

“Nate, we’re blown. I got eight guys on my tail.” Eliot’s voice crackled to life through the comms.

Sterling smirked, leaning closer to Nate. “And dear sweet Eliot, the loyal dog, begging for affection at his master’s heel. He could get that from anyone, you aren’t special, Nate.”

“Enough!” Nate roared, throwing his phone at Sterling. It passed harmlessly through him smashing against the opposite wall with a crash. Sterling laughed in his face as he vanished.

“Nate?” Sophie’s voice was on the comms now, “what happened? Is everything alright?”

“Nate.” Eliot’s voice was overlapping with Sophie’s. “I need an exit, I can’t take all these guys.”

“Uh.” Nate tried to steady himself, the plan that had seemed so clear only a minute ago was slipping through his fingers. “We’re blown.” He repeated to himself, mentally sorting through his contingency plans. Surely there had been one for this scenario, there was always a plan.

“Nate!” Eliot hissed more urgently, “I’m running out of room here. I need an exit.”

Nate’s eye flicked back to the security camera feed. “Eliot, go left.” His eyes flew back to the blueprint, frantically scanning the ventilation system. “Parker, back up two turns then go left. The stairwell’s your exit. Hardison, get the van in gear and bring her around back, we’re gonna want to make a hasty retreat.”

“On it, boss.”

“Nate, you got me a dead end.”

Nate’s blood ran cold as Sterling laughter rang in his ears. “No, that can’t…” His voice trailed off as he looked at the blueprints. He’d been looking at the wrong floor.

“Forget it,” Eliot’s voice was little more than a growl. “I got this, just get everyone else out.”

“Like hell.” Nate barked back, “Parker, go up a floor. Do you still have the charges?”

“Oh yeah.” The blonde responded, sounding like Christmas had come early.

“You’re gonna set them up on the eastern wall. Hang on, Eliot, we’re gonna make you an exit.”

“Great.” The hitter’s tone dripped sarcasm as he grunted. “Take your time, I’m doin’ great.”

Nate focused on routing the team out of the building, refusing to listen to Eliot growing progressively more winded as he took hit after hit.

“Parker,” Nate called as a particularly violent shudder had him grasping the table for support, he couldn’t remember when he’d stood up. “Are you in position?”

“Almost.”

Eliot grunted again, as the team was treated to something that sounded sickeningly like bone crunching under a boot.

“Done.”

“Eliot, get away from the wall.” Nate ordered immediately.

The hitter huffed something that might’ve been a laugh under normal circumstances, “say it like it’s easy why don’t ya.”

Nate could only pray that he’d obeyed. “Parker, now!”

The explosion echoed in Parker and Eliot’s comms, like some sort of sick duet.

“Nate?” Sophie is kneeling in front of him in the hospital room. Her voice is gentle as she speaks, as though he may shatter if she’s too forceful. “Parker and Hardison went to get food. Do you need anything?”

Nate glanced at the bottle of whiskey that’s been next to him the entire time he’s been here. He’d tried to reach for a glass when this whole thing had started, and they’d been rushing Eliot to the hospital.

Parker, scarily calm in the driver’s seat, rushing through traffic like a madwoman, Hardison routing GPS navigation to the nearest hospital, and Sophie sitting next to him, offering what comfort he could.

He wasn’t entirely sure where the whiskey bottle had come from, it had been pressed into his hands sometime between the job and the hospital. He’d uncorked it with shaky hands, grateful for something to dull his senses.

“Nathan Ford, ever the useless drunk.”

Nate’s jaw clenched and he lowered the bottle.

“Oh no, don’t stop on my account. I’m just along for the show. Cheers, mate.” Sterling tipped his glass to Nate and tossed back the whole thing in one go.

Nate’s throat burned as he tilted the bottle absently in his hands, but as he glanced at Eliot, sprawled awkwardly across the seat next to him, he felt further removed from the burn. His hand trembled slightly as he closed the bottle and placed it on the seat next to him, but he forced it to still.

“Nate,” Sophie tried again to coax gently, “you can’t do anything for him here, maybe it would help if you left the room for a bit, took a walk, stretched your legs. I could sit—”

“You really, really want to help me?!” Nate was yelling now, he tried to reign himself in a little, but he also couldn’t find it in himself to really care about how loud he was being. “For the love of God, give me something to do. Please, just give me something to do.”

Sophie was quiet for a moment, Nate felt something small and worn pressed into his hands. When he glanced down, he was holding his notebook. The small leather cover worn from years of rough handling and abuse.

“Make a plan,” Sophie said gently. “Do what you’re good at.”

Nate gripped the notebook tightly, his gaze sliding back to the bed.

Sophie stood, making a show of brushing dust off her knees, even though the hospital was probably cleaner than their offices.

“Sophie,” she turned on her heel to face him, “tell Hardison to find the guys that did this.”

She glanced at the bed as well and nodded. “Of course.” And she was gone with a click of her heel on the tile floor.

Nate got up from the chair, moving to stand next to the bed. “Maybe I’m a bigger bastard sober than I am drunk, huh?” Eliot would’ve rolled his eyes at that, if he’d been awake Nate thought, a small reaction sure, but better than the lifeless inactivity that lay before him.

He turned the notebook over in his hands again and again. For the first time in his life, Nathan Ford had no plan.

“You need to wake up so you can punch me in the face for putting you in danger and I can apologize properly.” Nate wants to lean over the bed and shake him awake, do something to make him wake up faster. Anything would be better than sitting here, feeling useless.

“God damnit, Eliot!” Nate’s throat burned with something other than the desire for alcohol, his eyes felt wet, and there suddenly wasn’t enough air in the room. “You can’t leave us alone like this, I can’t do this without you!”

“Do people wake up faster when you yell at them?”

Nate jumped at Parker’s voice as she appeared next to him.

He forced his hands to stay steady, though he was sure Parker had already noticed the trembling. “No, no they don’t.” He smiled wanly, “it’s solely for the benefit of the people who are awake.”

“Are you mad at him cause you didn’t tell him you loved him?” Parker took a sip of her juice box, as though this was just a random day at the carnival, and she hadn’t just pulled the rug out from under him.

“P—Parker,” Nate spluttered, suddenly annoyed that he hadn’t taken that drink when he’d had the chance. But once he’d gotten over his initial shock, he knew there was no point in denying it. Parker could be mercilessly blunt, but she was rarely wrong, and she knew it. And denying it would only lengthen a conversation that he did not want to have in the first place. “There was never a good time.”

Parker shrugged, taking another sip of her juice. “He knows.”

Nate nearly dropped his notebook in shock, few people in his life managed to surprise him and Parker was most of them.

“He smiles more, after you stopped sleeping with Sophie and started sleeping with him. You’re good for each other.”

Parker finished her juice box and tossed it in the trash can behind her without looking. “Make sure he keeps smiling.” She marched out the door.

Something unclenched in his chest as he stared at Eliot once again. He leaned forward conspiratorially, even though Parker was presumably long gone, though you never knew with her. “She likes you, you know?”

“I get knocked out for a couple hours and you’re already spilling your deepest secrets to me, shoulda done this ages ago.” Eliot’s voice was rough from lack of water and his gaze is slightly hazy from the pain meds, but he was mercifully awake, and alive, whispered the voice in the back of his head that sounded like Sterling.

“Eliot.” Nate breathed, he moved next without conscious thought.

Eliot’s lips were surprisingly soft, though slightly dusty (soot, his mind supplied helpfully) and Nate jerked back quickly. Eliot blinked up at him slowly, the combination of the kiss and drugs frying his brain.

Nate couldn’t resist the soft smile that swept across his face before he could stop it.

“Nate.” Eliot smiled at him, one hand groping the air uncoordinatedly, searching for someone to hold. Nate slipped his hand into Eliot’s gently, just as the latter’s brow began to furrow. He relaxed immediately at the contact, allowing himself physical tells that he rarely showed unless they were in a safe private environment (the hospital qualified as neither).

“Get some sleep, Eliot.” Nate whispered gently as Eliot’s blinks grew slower and further between, the hitter still needed his rest.

“Wanted to say…” Eliot’s sentence faded into unintelligible mumbles as his grip on Nate’s hand went slack.

Nate dragged his free hand gently across Eliot’s face, tucking the loose hair behind his ears. Carefully, ever so carefully, he extricated his hand from Eliot’s. He lay the hitter’s hand gently back on the hospital bed and tucked the notebook into his coat pocket.

The burn in his throat was growing more insistent and now that he knew Eliot would be alright, the temptation of alcohol was too much to resist.

“That’s not going to get rid of me, you know.” Sterling commented as Nate took the first swig of whiskey. “As long as there are people like him, that you care about, who can be put in danger, I’m gonna be in the back of your head.”

Nate snorted, “I make a shitty bedfellow, just ask Sophie. Hell, ask Maggie.” He took another swallow, “Eliot’ll say the same thing soon enough.” He pulled the notebook out, “I’m no good to anyone, there’s a reason why you shouldn’t get involved with your team.”

Nate laughs lightly, but there’s no humor to it, it’s far too late to undo this thing with Eliot, and even if it weren’t, it would take a stronger man than him to do it. The hitter deserved better, Nate knew that, but in this little dance of theirs Eliot had chosen him, and that had to count for something.

Nate took a gulp of the bottle, shaking his head slightly to drown out the sound of Eliot’s bones cracking as it echoed in his ears. His hand clenched around the bottle, suddenly seized by the mad desire to drink it all in one go. He had done worse surely.

Beep.

The sound of the heart monitor gave him something to focus on besides, the crunching in his ears. The rhythmic sound was more comforting now that Eliot had awoken.

Beep.

Crunch.

Beep.

Crunch.

Beep. Crunch. Beep. Crunch.

The hospital room was suddenly too small, too hot. The whiskey burned in his stomach, threatening to come back up the same way it had gone down.

I need some air.

Nate stuffed the bottle into his jacket hastily and grabbed the notebook. He only paused a moment on the threshold to glance back at Eliot, the others would keep him safe. He had a feeling that Parker was watching even now. A flash of blonde hair at the window confirmed his theory.

Nathan Ford had forgotten the smell of dew at night. Back before he found more mundane things to worship than a god, he used to sit on the grass at night. Reading bible passages to himself and staring at the stars.

One of those loves stuck, the other did not.

To this day, he’s fascinated by the stars. From a scientific standpoint, he knew little about them, but from an astronomer’s perspective, he was rather well versed. He knew which stars appeared in each hemisphere over the course of the year, but most importantly he knew the stories behind each constellation.

Stories were important in his line of work (if you could call thievery work that is). People came to him with sad stories, screwed over by big corporations, and he did his best to write them a happy ending.

Nate’s thoughts shifted to Eliot, as they were want to do most days. He leaned back in the grass, stretching out his legs, and took a small sip of whiskey. Just enough to get that pleasant burn back in his throat.

Happy endings were the hardest to write, and the messiest to predict. Coming from the backgrounds that they did was no help. Nate wasn’t naïve, he had no misconceptions about what Eliot had done before Dubenich had assembled them all.

A string of deaths and missing persons had followed Eliot wherever he took a job, and yet, from the moment they met, the hitter had been gentle. His hands were covered in blood and yet, they were tender to a fault. From the awkward head pats (and later hugs) that he’d given Parker, to the affectionate clap on the back or shoulder squeeze he’d exchanged with Hardison from time to time.

There was affection everywhere he thought he was allowed to give it.

Nate forcibly kept himself off that list for as long as he could, trying to lead to the team dispassionately (unable to completely fall in with thieves). In hindsight, he’d been kidding himself, their ragtag little team had been a family, since they’d allowed themselves to trust each other on that first con.

Caring had been both quick and inevitable.

“Bit of a close call today, wasn’t it?” Sterling sat next to Nate on the grass.

Nate shrugged, he really wasn’t in the mood to hash this out with the hallucination again.

“You can tell Hardison to stop looking, my guys tracked them down. They should be sitting in a Parisian prison by noon tomorrow.”

Nate glanced to his left, brow furrowing. “You’re not a hallucination.”

Sterling smirked at him indulgently and inclined his head slightly in agreement. “Did you miss me, Nathan?”

“Believe me,” he said, raising the bottle to his lips. “If I didn’t have to see your face, I wouldn’t have.”

An emotion that might’ve been concern on a normal person flickered across Sterling’s face. He stood, brushing bits of wet grass off his pants.

“Sterling?”

“Hmm.”

“Thank you.”

Sterling was turned away from him, but Nate could imagine his smirk. “Just don’t go racking up too many favors you can’t pay off, eh Nathan?”

Nate toasted Sterling silently behind his back, bringing the bottle to his lips one last time. “You know me, Sterling. I play high stakes, or I don’t play at all.”

“The universe does have a way of bending to your insane machinations.” Sterling finished brushing himself off. “Do me a favor and tell that hitter of yours how you feel. I didn’t get his attackers arrested just for him to die of old age before you actually talk to him.”

Nate spluttered indignantly, “did Parker tell everyone about that?”

“Goodbye, Ford.”

Nate followed the sound of laughter into Eliot’s hospital room.

Parker was perched on the side of Eliot’s bed like a large blonde cat. She glanced up immediately as Nate entered the room, she always had a sixth sense for that sort of thing.

“Are you gonna kiss and make up now?” Parker asked.

“I think so.”

“Good.” She hopped off the bed in one fluid motion and skipped out the door without so much as a backward glance.

“There’s something not quite right with that girl.” Eliot murmured affectionately as she left.

“So,” Nate began, wishing he had more whiskey left, to help him say what needed to be said. “It needs to be said, after today. I’m stepping down from the team.”

“Nate.”

Nate held up a hand placatingly, “I was compromised while you all were in the field. That’s inexcusable.”

“That’s a load of crap. You were in withdrawal, cause of the job. You never woulda done that on purpose.”

“Eliot—” Nate tried.

“No. You don’t just get to step down because you had a bad day and it scared you!” Eliot shook his arm, as though looking for something to punch. “We all have bad days and we still come back to the team. We need each other. I need you!” Eliot’s shoulders slumped, “you don’t want to run the team, fine! But don’t give some excuse, call it what it is. You’re a coward.”

Nate isn’t scared anymore, he’s angry now. “You don’t get to call me that! You have no idea what it was like for the rest of us, sitting here, waiting for you to wake up.” He closed his eyes for a moment, praying for strength, “I can still hear your bones cracking…” Nate admitted softly, “if I hadn’t been out of it, you never would’ve gotten hurt. I can’t stop thinking about what might’ve happened if—” but Nate doesn’t even let himself finish the thought.

Eliot’s expression softened, “anyone ever told you, you think too much?”

Nate huffed out a watery laugh, “once or twice.”

“I love you.”

Eliot’s lips are just as soft the second time around, but firmer now that he’s more awake. Pushing into the kiss with a desperate force.

They need to talk, and soon, but there’ll be time for that later.

[ktsometimeswrites]

Memories (Eliot Spencer x Reader)

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Reader

Warnings: Broken glass but that’s it!!

Word Count: 986

A/N: This was a request from @fictionalhoomanofnowhere​, sorry it took so long! I hope you enjoy it!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eliot grumbles as he tightens the bandana on his head.

“Who orders a damn burnt steak, you are ruining a perfectly good piece of meat” He grumbles to himself.

As he throws the meat on to cook, he hears his name being called from the bar. 

“Hey Dan! Come do this, you can’t mess it up, just send it to hell and back” Eliot says, talking to one of the newer chefs.

He quickly goes and washes his hands, drying them on the towel slung over his shoulder as he hears Hardison calling his name again.

“Alright Alright, I’m coming” He says, swiping a glass of water from one of the kitchen counters.

He walks into the bar, it being relatively empty for the time of day, before he goes to wear he is needed he lets his eyes sweep over the restaurant, getting a feel for the patrons and whether or not they are enjoying their food. Once he is satisfied with what he sees and doesn’t sense or spot any danger in the building, he turns to Hardison, seeing the back of Nate and Parker on the other side of the bar, clearly talking to someone out of Eliot’s view. 

Hardison looks up and motions for him to come over, Eliot heads over towards them, intrigued but also being cautious.

“Hey man, come meet our new client” Hardison says

“Well technically they’re actually a new member of the team” Nate says, taking a step back so he can face Eliot, allowing him to get a look at the new person in question.

Eliot doesn’t even register the glass slipping from his fingers, it falling and smashing at his feet, the contents of it splashing at his feet. 

“Hey Eliot” The new person says

“Y/N, what are you doing here?” Eliot asks, frozen on the spot

“I literally just said they’re our new hire, does no one listen to me?” Nate says, bringing his hands up, exasperated. 

Eliot completely ignores him, still staring in shock and awe.

“How do you two know each other?” Parker asks

Y/N looks almost nervously at Eliot

“It’s okay, they know about him” Eliot says before glancing at the three stood around them “

“We worked together a lot with Moreau” Eliot explains, causing three heads to shoot towards Y/N

“I was the distraction on some of the more public jobs” Y/N explains, wringing their hands

“A very good distraction” Eliot says with a fond smile, causing Y/N to giggle

“You only say that because it meant that you got your job done” They say

“When I wasn’t also distracted by you too, yes” He says, small smirk on his face

Y/N picks up a napkin from the bar, balling it up and throwing it at Eliot, causing the man to laugh, a sound that the rest of the team aren’t used to hearing.

“Okay, if y’all are done flirting, we have a new client and a job to do” Hardison says, walking towards the backroom, Nate following behind.

Parker lingers for a second, looking between Eliot and Y/N before finally nodding and skipping after Hardison.

“What was that about?” Y/N asks

“Who knows with Parker, but, you’re here, I can’t believe that you’re here” Eliot says

“Yeah, after you left, Damien tried to make me one of his arm candy pieces, clearly I wasn’t having any of that and after some planning and calling in some favours, I managed to get out” They explain.

Eliot steps over so they’re opposite each other over the bar.

“I never got to say that I’m so incredibly sorry for leaving you behind, it happened all so quickly but I shouldn’t have done it” Eliot says, lowering his voice and softening his tone as well as ducking his head slightly.

Y/N reaches over the bar and lays their hand over his.

“You don’t have to apologise to me, you needed to get out, that job and that…..man, were killing you. I’m proud of you for getting out” They say softly.

“I’m just sorry I didn’t take you with me or come back for you” Eliot says, putting his free hand over theirs, sandwiching it between his.

“It’s okay, look, we made it back to each other didn’t we?” Y/N says

“And I’m not letting you go this time” Eliot says with a soft smile

“Good, cause you would have a hard time getting rid of me this time” They say with a grin “Wouldn’t have it any other way. I missed you” Eliot says

“Wow, this team of yours has made you soft….but, I missed you too”

“I was always soft for you darlin’” 

Before Y/N can respond, the door to the back room opens and Hardison’s voice rings out.

“Are you two coming?” He says, smirking at them from the doorway

“Dammit Hardison” Eliot growls, Y/N pulling their hand away to grab their bag.

“Let’s get to work, Mr Spencer” They say before walking towards the door. 

Eliot watches after them before turning to the waitress cleaning up the glass and water.

“Thanks Claire, sorry about that, you can go on your lunch break when you’re done if you want” 

“It’s okay Mr Spencer, I know what it’s like to see someone for the first time after a long time” Claire says, smiling at him.

Eliot smiles back, nodding at her before following into the back room.

He see’s Hardison has already pulled up the files on their new target and is starting to talk. He sidles up to Y/N, bumping their shoulders together, the both of them shooting smiles at each other.

Eliot revels in the feeling of familiarity, his old best friend stood at his side, standing amongst his family. He welcomes the feeling of comfort around him for the first time in a long time.

[histrionic-dragon]

Leverage and the Black Widow

Found some scraps/scenelets I wrote a while back.

 “Look at this,” Hardison said, staring at the security footage. “She’s like if Eliot and Parker had a scary ninja baby!”

“Ew,” Eliot and Parker muttered at the same time.

~

“Wait, she was at the thing earlier. She’s Goffson’s newest secretary-slash-trophy-girlfriend. Facial ID confirms it. It’s her. But her identity is airtight, guys—she’s got a Masters in HR from NYU and grew up in Wisconsin, series of moderately crappy boyfriends, no criminal activity. There is no reason this lady should be skulking around on a rooftop beating people up. There’s no way she should know how.”

“Well, obviously, she does.”

“Ohh, shit. Facial recognition just gave another ping. But something’s wrong—there’s only two records I can find here, it’s like it’s been . . . it’s been scrubbed, like what I do for us after a job. Only here, someone missed something. And she’s a totally different person. This was in Nevada eight months ago, and she was a historical monument docent or something.”

The shadowy figure slipped over the side of the building and down.

~

[later, they all surprise each other on the rooftop and the Widow Bites come out]

“I was wrong earlier.”

“Wrong about what, Hardison?”

“She’s like you and Sophie had a scary murder baby and then Parker raised it in the ways of the rig and the taser.”

“Can you stop saying stuff like that?!”

 ~

 “You know her?  You know her.  –Pretty lady who can kill us, of course Eliot knows her.”

“Shut up, Hardison.”

“I’m just saying, it’s pretty much par for the—”

“And I’m just saying, shut up!”

 ~

“Long time since Romania.”

“I hear you’re working for another side since then.”

“I hear you went freelance.” Her eyes flicked to Parker and Hardison. “But apparently not anymore.”

He took a step closer to the others, putting himself between her and them, knowing she’d read it as acknowledgement. “Found a good crew. You?”

A corner of her mouth turned up. “They sent a smartass with a bow and arrows to kill me, and he decided to recruit me against orders. I thought that was . . . interesting.”

“I kinda know what you mean.”

“Well, it’s been great catching up, but I’m afraid I can’t let you cover for Goffson.”

There was an offended squawk from somewhere behind them. It had to be Hardison, because the “Hey!” was Parker. Very stealthy.

“We’re not covering for him,” Eliot said, watching her carefully.

“No?”

“But we thought you were.”

“I have reason to believe he’s been selling classified information,” the Black Widow said. “I’m here to make sure he sells something else. Swap the intel, wipe everything that’s valid, let the rest play out.” By which she meant let them find out they were sold bad intel and take retribution. Elegant and brutal. “If you’re not protecting his sales, what are you here for?”

Apparently this sounded enough like a briefing that Hardison thought it would be a good idea to jump in, yelling out from behind the stack of crates they were using as cover for his little workstation. Great. “We’re actually more interested in his quote-unquote ‘legitimate’ business, by which I mean the way he’s been ripping off hundreds of people’s life savings to bribe his way into…something. Which is guess is your thing.”

The Widow frowned. “What does a group of thieves get out of that?”

“We’re the good guys now,” Parker said from behind her, just about giving Eliot a goddamn heart attack. “We steal from people who steal from people who need the money, and we give it back. Oooh, this rope is tiny. What is it?”

Fortunately, the Black Widow didn’t automatically kill people who snuck up on her. She had the look on her face that most people did when they first met Parker, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. “How did you get that without me noticing?”

“Thief,” Parker said, pointing to herself without looking up from the thin coil she was inspecting. “Hacker.” She pointed to Hardison. “You know Eliot. We’re as good at what we do as he is.” She finally looked up, though she kept fingering the rope. “You’re not as good as me.” She smiled. “You’re close, though. And I really like your gear,” she added, with the look that said she was remembering one of Sophie’s lessons, probably about softening interactions with compliments. “Seriously, where did you get this?”

“It’s carbon fiber,” the Widow said after a moment. “And it’s not available to the public.”

Parker shrugged. “That’s not a problem,” she said, and waited expectantly.

“Don’t steal from the SHIELD depot, Parker,” Eliot said, sighing, and gestured toward the ledge of the rooftop: truce? Let’s all sit down?

“Why not?” Parker demanded, as the Widow gave a sigh of her own and sat down next to Parker. It didn’t make her any less dangerous, but it was still probably a good sign.

“Professional courtesy,” Eliot answered.

Parker frowned. “But our profession is thieves.”

“Ours is,” Eliot said. “Hers isn’t.” He looked at the Widow. She was wearing a very small, patient smile. “She’s a spy.”

“She steals intel instead of money,” Hardison said, walking up to them. “I’ve disabled all the motion detectors up here for another ten minutes,” he added. “We can talk. But I’ve re-activated other parts of the security system and I’m not telling you which ones, so if you try to do anything—”

~

[They talk. Hardison has heard of certain shadowy operatives but….]

“No. That’s not real. That’s a myth. The Black Widow doesn’t exist.”

“Well, then if I have to kill you, you’ll be pleased to know you’re dead of natural causes.”

“You—buh—that’s like saying you’re Slenderman or something!”

~

It actually didn’t take long to come to an agreement, even if Nate was sputtering on the coms the whole time. Their aims weren’t in conflict, just their methods, and they could be more efficient if they teamed up. Hardison would bring down the security system. The Widow could go in and get her data directly, skipping about three steps of her existing plan, and plant some of their evidence while she was in. The Leverage team wouldn’t have to go in at all that night. She’d make sure they had access during the confusion of the bust the following afternoon.

“What if it’s a setup?” Sophie kept fretting. Nate wasn’t fretting; he was just yelling.

“She wouldn’t bother,” Eliot said. “We don’t have anything useful to the US government and she’s not in any kind of law enforcement that would bother with us. If she wanted us out of the way, we’d be dead.”

“That’s not as reassuring as you seem to believe it is.”

 ~

The files were all in Goffman’s office—not even in a safe, just in a locked drawer in a filing cabinet. Parker seemed personally offended by that. But there was one more thing they found when they checked the “secretary’s” desk. Nora Riddel had obviously left in a hurry, and everything she’d left behind would corroborate her cover story, from the tissues in the trash can to the photos on the desk, but one thing didn’t fit: A silvery envelope tucked under the keyboard, labeled only “Leverage.”

The envelope contained a list of account numbers that would make going through Goffman’s files even easier, and—Parker squealed—a length of very thin, very tough rope.

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Jailhouse Job

leverage 3.01

I love how they opened up s3 with all of their “codenames”/job titles

- - - - -

Hardison: Cameras are watching yesterday's footage. Locking down... which elevator?

[Elevator Shaft]

Parker: Huh? What? Oh, um, um, yes, I-I'm a go for elevator one.

[Courthouse Hallway]

Hardison: Were you asleep?

[Elevator Shaft]

Parker: It's very peaceful up here. Besides, I sleep better upside down.

(Parker is wearing her rigs, hanging upside down, elevator rises)

I adore her, okay + SHE SLEEPS BETTER UPSIDE DOWN ??? !!!

- - - - -

(Nate walks into the elevator with two men, one armed, the other the one whose gun Sophie stole. Parker jumps on the top of the elevator, opens it, and tasers both men before picking the lock on Nate’s cuffs)

Nate: You know, you could have just taken the keys off the guy's belt.

Parker: Eh, this is faster.

parker LOVES tasering people + it’s faster for her to pick a lock than to look for keys

- - - - -

(Hardison is walking along the sidewalk checking his phone, setting off car alarms)

Guard: What the hell?

(the guards at the door go to check, and Eliot disarms them, knocking one into traffic. Sophie pulls up in a car and just as Nate and Parker exit the building)

eliot’s F A C E when he accidentally makes the guy get hit by a car LMFAO

- - - - -

when it goes from “nate’s apartment” to “leverage hq”

- - - - -

Eliot: Spanish soap opera.

Hardison: Oh, yeah. Check it out, man. Look, it turns out Pepe's twin brother Peppi is actually Guadalupe's baby's daddy.

Eliot: Seriously?

headcanon: hardison and eliot were watching it earlier and eliot says “really” because god spanish soap operas are so dramatic

- - - - -

(Parker comes in with a bag over her shoulder)

Eliot: He doesn’t want to do it.

Parker: Oh, but I love jumping on elevators.

Hardison: I know.

Parker: This is my special elevator rig he got me for Christmas

we LOVE to see that nate (and sophie ?) get their children presents for christmas

- - - - -

Eliot: All right, look, Nate, you took the fall for us, so...

Hardison: After you lied to us. He's a liar.

Eliot: You took the fall for us. You went to jail so we wouldn't have to. We get that, so we're square. But now you got to let us get you out of prison.

Parker: But if we're gonna do that...

Hardison: And not all of us are convinced that we should.

Parker: Then we have to hit you at your next hearing. That prison's escape-proof.

Nate: Guys, no.

hardison is salty but eliot forgives him for the most part

+

I love it when the ot3 sits together

(also I take note when they’re in the same frame in these posts in case I (or anyone else) wants to reference when they are together for gif and or fanvid purposes)

- - - - -

Nate: I committed a crime, I got caught, and now I am gonna serve my time.

Sophie: Nate, what kind of world would it be if everybody that committed a silly little crime went to prison, huh? Complete madness. (Parker scoffs, Hardison makes an incredulous gesture with his hands)

- - - - -

Hardison: Okay, you know... You know what? Fine, Nate.

[Leverage HQ]

Hardison: We're still out here. We're doing the job. We help people nobody else helps. That's important. You want to stay around and miss out just because you got to figure out your guilty conscience, that's your loss.

Nate: Yeah, Hardison, I wa...

(Hardison severs the connection)

- - - - -

Worth: I am not a warden. I am CEO of National Prison Properties. I built this company, five prisons, from the ground up.

(The Italian laughs and lights a lighter)

Italian: Impressive. (lights a cigarette) You know what they say... That Rome was not built in a single day. But it burned in one. (blows out the lighter)

BADASS

- - - - -

(Billy pushes a cart of books through the room)

Billy (to Nate): Hey.

Nate: Hey.

Billy: Seamus Heaney. That Irish guy you asked for. (hands him a book)

Nate: Oh, excellent. Wow, thanks... Billy, right?

Billy: Uh, yeah.

Nate: Well, thank you. This could not have been easy to find.

Billy: Well, you seemed pretty down. And we got to stand up for each other, right?

Nate: Yeah. You're all right, Billy.

Billy: Yeah. Wish the judge thought so. (pushes cart away)

Nate: Yeah, I appreciate it

- - - - -

(Nate watches as Billy leaves the room, followed by some tough looking inmates)

Nate: I think something's happening.

Bellows: Thanks for your input. You can move on now.

(Nate follows them out of the common area)

prisons are the fucking worst but PRIVATE PRISONS are double that and john rogers agrees and that’s yet another reason why I love him

- - - - -

hardison tried taking up making a model helicopter in his spare time. cute

+ hardison likes to use the word hinky

- - - - -

Nate (puts hand on Billy’s shoulder): I'm sorry.

Billy: For what?

(Nate stabs Billy in the side)

Billy: Oh, sh...

(Billy falls to the floor, holding his side)

Nate: Oh. Uh, Hardison, why don't you gather the team and get me background checks on the... on the warden?

Billy: You stabbed me!

Nate: Oh, come on, just... just a little. It's... it's fine

this is the same as the “lightly stabbed” meme

- - - - -

Worth: The US has the fastest growing prison population in the world. Well, it's like the real-estate boom.

(Hardison plugs a flash drive into Worth’s computer)

Worth: Except, of course, the problem with real estate... You eventually run out of land. You never run out of people to put in prison.

Hardison: Hmm. We haven't had much success with private prisons concept in England. Our investment firm has large real-estate holdings for construction of facilities.

Worth: You see, any yahoo can lay some concrete and throw up some razor wire. The profit comes in proper management.

(Hardison looks at his phone, which is accessing Worth’s computer)

Worth: For example, the big money for us is in prison labor.

Hardison: Sorry?

Worth: Goods and services made by prisoners in America. $2 billion a year. One out of every five office chairs and desks "Made in America", made by convicts. And those jobs are not going to the Chinese. Bottom's up

john rogers was calling this bullshit out in like 2010 and still NOBODY LISTENS

- - - - -

(two guards are standing outside the room Billy and Nate are in)

Billy: Man, is this really the best plan?

Nate: Listen, the infirmary's under lockdown. There's cameras on both sides of the door, extra guards because of the pharmaceuticals. It's the safest place in the prison, really

- - - - -

Eliot (to guard): Abernathy, MD.

eliot still uses this alias that he picked up for The Rashomon Job

- - - - -

Eliot: We can just... well, you know what? It's fine. Just right in here, sir. And please have a seat.

(Nate sits in the chair and Eliot lays it back)

Eliot: It's just in case the guards come in. (buckles restraints on Nate’s wrists) Restraints. Here's an infirmary manual. (turns the light on Nate’s face and picks up a drill)

Nate: That's, uh, for the... for the guards, right?

Eliot: You know what I usually do, Nate, to people that run a con on their own team? Almost get people killed 'cause they're out of control?

Nate: Are we okay, Eliot?

(Eliot puts down the drill and plugs in a flash drive, typing on the keyboard. Images come up on the monitor)

eliot is mostly over it but would he ever give up a chance to fuck with him? nope.

- - - - -

[Judge’s Office]

Sophie: Key card and checkbook.

Parker: Keys and appointment book. Ooh, and this? (holds up keys) Safe deposit box key.

Sophie: Ooh, I love a secret.

(Sophie sits down at desk while Parker gets started on the safe)

COMPETENT WOMEN

- - - - -

Hardison: Yeah. See, Rockford can't drop below 70% occupancy. If they do, they lose their state funding. No state money, they close. And they came very close two years ago.

[Nate’s Cell]

Nate: Hmm. So, private prisons are like the hotel business. They live and die on occupancy, head count. Now, Worth wasn't gonna lose $100 million in profit just 'cause he didn't have enough hard-cases to fill the prison, so he puts a few judges on the arm to send him non-violent offenders, easy prisoners to supervise.

[Leverage HQ]

Parker: Yeah, but why these people?

Eliot: Because they're citizens. 'Cause they're honest, middle-class citizens. These are the people, they don't want to cause any trouble. They can't afford a lawyer, so if some judge sends them away, well, yes, sir. They were taught to trust the courts. They believe in the system

- - - - -

[Leverage HQ]

(Parker wearing a robe standing in front of a green screen, trying to pose. At one point she does a duck face.)

Sophie: You remember what I showed you. Just try some different-different shapes and-and-and that pout that we talked about. Ohh, no, not that one. (to Hardison) I didn't show her that.

Sophie: Kind of... just, you know, just relax. Try one up, one down. Maybe... So...

(Parker continues to pose)

Sophie: Ooh, yeah. Shoot that.

(Hardison snaps photos)

Sophie: Ooh, I like that. That's gonna work.

(Sophie uses the remote to place Parker into a photo of Worth)

Sophie: Okay. Yes.

Hardison: Looks good.

Sophie: I can work with that.

(Parker drops her clothes to the floor)

Hardison: Whoa. Oh! Whoa.

Sophie: Parker!

Hardison: Why am I looking away

this scene is iconic lmfao

also hardison you’re not looking because you’re a goddamn GENTLEMAN and we love you for it

+ she takes off all her clothes and puts on a baret LMFAO

- - - - -

parker and hardison smiling at each other as they map out the prison

+

THEY CLASP HANDS HAPPILY

- - - - -

Parker: Who's Sophie?

Hardison: You remember, we're not supposed to use her real name with, uh...

Parker: Right, Nate hasn't earned it yet. Forgot. Sophie. Sophie. So-phie. So-o-o-phie. Sophie. S-s-s-sophie. Sophie

we love parker trying to act cool and normal and fumble about it. she’s baby

- - - - -

Eliot: All right, we cut that wire.

Hardison: No. No, look, once a lockdown is called, all these sensors go hot and those door bolts drop into place.

Parker: I got it! The furnace room. There's no sensors because it's too hot. They crawl straight down along the heating pipes until they reach the sewage system. Ha ha!

[Prison Common Area]

Nate: Now, Parker, it's a 150 degrees in there.

[Leverage HQ]

Parker: The average human can withstand that for 27 seconds.

(Hardison and Eliot look away)

Parker: What? Come on

the ot3 is trying your honor

also parker is adorable playing with the model helicopter remote while laying down on the table

- - - - -

Worth: Then fire them. What's the use of being non-union if I can't fire people?

GROSS

- - - - -

Nate: Parker, please tell me you're at Hardison's new van.

[Exterior Prison]

Parker: Yeah, it's really nice.

[Prison Common Area]

Nate: Did you bring it?

[Exterior Prison]

Parker: Wait, are we doing that now?

[Prison Common Area]

Nate: Yeah, we're gonna breaking out right now.

[Exterior Prison]

Parker: Yes! (gets into van)

SHES SO EXCITED + she likes the new van!!!

- - - - -

Nate: A little sloppy.

Eliot: New glasses. (takes them off and looks at them)

OKAY SO DOES HE NEED GLASSES OR NOT ???

also he did the lil flip thing with the security guard nightstick

- - - - -

Computer: Lockdown.

Nate: Okay. (pushes door open and holds up a folded piece of paper) Newspaper folded eight times can support a ton of weight. Come on.

(they head down the hall)

- - - - -

Sophie: Motion sensor. Nate.

Nate: Steam's filling up now.

[Prison Kitchen]

(Nate walks slowly toward exit)

Nate: Motion sensor beat.

[Freezer]

(Nate enters and grabs a plastic bag, draping it around him)

[Leverage HQ]

Sophie: Breathe.

[Prison Mechanical Room]

(Nate pushes out a grate and enters the room, the bag covered in ice)

Nate: And heat sensor cleared. Last stop.

(throws off bag and exits the room)

- - - - -

parker was having so much fun with the model helicopter I love it

- - - - -

Hardison: You, yeah. Ha. See, I like this. I like when we pretend to kiss.

Parker: "Pretend"?

Hardison: Heeeey

- - - - -

Nate: What about my team?

Italian: They lead dangerous lives. Thieves die all the time.

Nate (steps close to her): Now that you should not have said.

Italian: I don't know. You seem highly motivated. (walks away)

- - - - -

Sophie: Damien Moreau? Are you out of your mind? Nobody touches Moreau!

Hardison: Nate, Moreau finances the Sicilians, the Russian mafia, the Colombian cartels.

Eliot: Yeah, he moves money for the North Koreans, stolen artifacts for Iraq, nuclear materials for Iran.

Hardison: Moreau is The Big Bad. He is the central bank for international crime.

Parker: N-nate, these files are CIA, FBI, Mossad, Japanese Security

poor eliot this season is gonna be Rough™ for him :(

- - - - -

Sophie: She's blackmailing us?

Nate: She's... she's... she's sort of... Yeah. Yeah.

Parker: Sucks to be on the wrong side of that, finally.

- - - - -

Eliot: We can't go straight at a guy like Moreau. They'll vaporize us.

ELIOT was the one that finally gave in and gave up some information on how to go at this. eliot. because he knows moreau. he knows how that man works. so he knows he has to be the one to start the conversation, even though he hates it with every fiber of his being.

[cakeandpi]

SOPHIE!! major spoilers below. I’m sorry if the readmore breaks on mobile.

a in media res open, a classic leverage move

but more importantly, sophie!!

she’s alone. wakes up alone, has breakfast alone. this place is too big for her to be living here alone though, so either nate lives(?) here with her or she’s on a vacation. also texting with the team! i assume ‘h’ and ‘e’ are hardison and eliot, given that she shows up as ‘s’. and the change from ‘i’m sorry i can’t’ to ‘i don’t want to’ - from deflecting to being honest - even though she doesn’t send it. and she looks so sad/tired/worn... from what though?

that tea set is pretty, wonder who she stole it from or who stole it for her as a gift

THE WAY HER CHIN WOBBLES AND SHE LAYS DOWN TO NOT-CRY WHEN SHE READS ‘P’/PARKER’S ‘I MISS YOU’. there’s something about how parker’s is simple and honest and about feelings - something that parker struggled with for so long! - while both hardison’s and eliot’s are about actions

SDALKJF;SLKDJFLKSJDFLKJ DID THEY REALLY KILL NATE? FOR REAL?? I CANNOT IMAGINE SOPHIE ACTING LIKE THAT WHILE SHE’S ALONE IF NATE WASN’T FOR-REAL DEAD. stars did he drink himself to death? if so does sophie blame herself for not trying harder? was it a con gone wrong? did someone come for revenge and succeed? i have so many questions

oh. ohhh. the team is gathered around nate’s grave. there’s  definitely a larger post to be made about this but that’s for later.

sophie leaves first, parker and hardison following side by side, and eliot brings up the rear - watching their backs.

“one year gone” OH NO

“you’re a light weight man, i’m not carrying you out of here” and hardison listens with only a look of reproach.

“meat wagons” “food trucks parker. it’s food trucks” love that she’s still teasing him

everyone’s faces at parker’s heavily sexual metaphor (“nothing like sliding into a hot, strange... vent.”) did she do it on purpose to bother the boys? is she talking about pegging one/both of them? also hardison chuckles and grins a little bit after and omg i can’t there’s going to be so much fanfic from that interaction alone

“age of the geek baby” yesss! and then eliot and parker repeat it, my heart

*shoulder slap-grab* “eliot was very worried.” parker can be honest in texts but in person she still hides a bit behind at least one of her boys. except it’s not true dishonesty because eliot immediately deflects by being all ‘i’m going to cook us food’. but as brunch and grocery run plans are made, sophie tells them to stop, and its obvious that a line for sophie has been crossed. the three of them go quiet as sophie walks away to have a moment. And then!!! Parker goes to her and whispers “we should steal something.” It’s that callback to 2x01, when Parker suggests the very same thing to Sophie, for the same exact reason - it’ll make Sophie feel better.

“It’s been years” - don’t be modest Sophie

The look on Sophie’s face says that she’s still trying to catch up to what’s happening, and yet she doesn’t resist them pulling her along on a trip to steal some art from an art gallery.

“Hey man if you happen to find some water or some asiprin” “I told you man” no ‘dammit hardison’ yet but its building up in eliot, i can feel it.

“It’s been eight years since I’ve done this. I need a sec.” Oh sophie, it’s like riding a bike (of crime!)

“I can’t do this” Sophie says to herself, right before pausing at hearing and argument and her grifter instincts going ‘find out whats going on’.

and here’s the ... mark? OH ITS THE NEW GUY. also lol at the angry man, I don’t think the museum guy would have been so honest and up front if the board wasn’t on-board with removing his name / not accepting his money anymore.

“i’m just here for the art.” literally. but that little argument and that tidbit about maxwell’s size of donations and how that family made their money - I think that has tipped sophie from ‘i can’t do this’ to ‘i want to steal and hurt this guy’. (angry guy, not the lawyer new-guy)

wait wait wait did sophie steal that particular piece?? i don’t remember fuck. but sophie remembers the year (2002), city (London), and that it was a “beautiful spring day”. i’m thinking she stole it. “it was a bit of a rush job, really” - one of her early thefts? or was it while she was with the team? i never paid attention to what years the og leverage was set in, i’m going to have to go back and figure that out now!

Sophie walks away but keeps an eye on Lawyer, and realizes that he’s going to steal that painting. Right in front of her. I don’t know if we’re meant to think he thinks he’s alone, or if he’s trying to show off to Sophie? But Hardison and Parker come in, Hardison apologizing for pulling Sophie into this but Sophie’s excited now, she’s got the taste of a con and it’s pulling her out of her depression for the moment. Meanwhile Parker’s all ‘yeah this is there plan its real simple and really boring.’

“So anyway, my psychologist says -” I STAN. Not because there was anything wrong with Parker, but Parker had expressed in the past some frustration with not being able to get people like the others do, and her going to a psychologist would be one way of learning to deal with that. Novak (Novack?) is a child psychologist which I don’t know is Parker’s (or the writings) best choice but we’ll see how that plays out beyond that Parker likes the puppets.

Ah okay so the alarms go off to get everyone out of the room, so its not a ‘show off in front of sophie’ plan. Instead, he thinks he’s alone and Sophie startles him. “This is not what it looks like.” Sir, sir, you are in front of a professional grifter, that was insulting.

THE UNNECESSARY FLIPPING

“Is that my watch?” Sir they already have your wallet, phone, and anything else in your pockets.

Guy failed his thief audition - doesn’t matter that he didn’t know he was auditioning.

THERE’S THE “DAMMIT HARDISON”

ooh, an in media res-in media res. how many layers is this going to go? i like that we’re getting Lawyer’s backstory now, rather than in a few episodes. (with this building on the original leverage (and having fewer episodes), there’s more pressure to know why - at least in broad strokes - we want to care about a main character. this isn’t like tara, where it was ‘sophie asked me to do this’, no one’s vouching for this guy.) so we’re now.... half a year in the past. so nate’s been dead six months at the time this scene is happening. hm.

ah. okay. so rather than being a ‘i have a conscience’ lawyer or a ‘i’m about to make your life harder’ laywer, he’s a ‘bribe me to make your life easier’ lawyer. So what changed?

oooh, okay, so what changed is not so much that he saw the error of his ways, but because he was double-crossed on the bribe. (he should’ve gotten at least some of that bribe money up front) from the look of surprise on his face, he’s run done this sort of thing successfully before and he’s gotten overconfident. (i know it’s not exactly a bribe, it’s a settlement/payout, but that’s.... usually more than one lawyer and a lot more tedious paperwork. there’s a settlement thing from my old health insurance where we can either choose a portion of a payout or keep our right to sue them over what the payout pertains to - what happening here is exactly the same thing except the bad guy is going ‘lmao, no not paying anyone shit’ after Lawyer’s gotten people to agree to a payout.) Lawyer should’ve done stuff in the right order; instead he put too much faith in the bad guy’s... honesty? honor? i don’t know. but Lawyer messed up. I don’t know if he made a second visit to those families to explain that actually there’d be no payout.

so he feels guilty about have done a bad job as a lawyer? and that’s why he was stealing the painting? that feels like it only makes sense if he was representing the people who were hurt by the bad guy, but going by the show it was the bad guy who contacted him. so this isn’t.... his usual arena?

and the team gets their brunch!

also wtf, Sophie’s dining table chairs looks like my parents’ dining table chairs. (table itself is different)

“You don’t get a vote, sit your ass back down” Lol

“Even numbers only, baby. I can’t believe I know that.” baby. baby. baby.

“Who here hasn’t already stolen a rembrandt?” ooh. okay i know sophie will have, and probably parker? hardison i don’t know if he would have before the team forming. Idk about eliot - maybe as part of a retrial job?

ah damn we only get numbers from Parker, but she’s stolen 3.

lol, they all start following sophie except for Lawyer, so Eliot rather than directly follow gets into his space, makes him uncomfortable without really doing anything specific, so that Laywer also follows rather than stand around in the kitchen/dining area alone and unattended. (they might be very casual about revealing that they’re a group of thieves, but they’re smarter than to leave a lawyer of all people unsupervised in the home of one of their own.)

omg that picture of sophie taped to nate’s old computer monitor.

some art thievery backstory. it was the 1990s (as opposed to the 1890s) and parker declares that it was 13 paintings, but what i’m interested in is how eliot repeats that number. it’s like he knows something about that theft and is trying to not let on about it. (or he thought it was a different number and is trying to not give hardison or parker an opening to tease him with?)

“We’ll do this one. Just one.” A callback to the very beginning of Leverage (“one job only”), only instead of Nate’s ‘i’m not a thief and therefore separate from the rest’ attitude, it’s Sophie going ‘i'm not ready to fully rejoin yet’.

“Sophie, I’ve been the roper for the past eight years.” Oh this is a very mom-daughter sort of feeling right here, and it’s so full of both love and pride and a tiny edge of that ‘stop backseat driving mom’ feeling.

LMFAO, “I haven’t stabbed anybody in a really long time, like a whole month.”/“Parker a month’s not very long.”/“It is when your the one not doing the stabbing.” It’s parker so it’s almost definitely literal, but also this could very well be a dirty joke here and I’m cackling. (That, and this might be a bit of Eliot’s influence on her. Hardison might help Parker celebrate 'no stab wednesdays’, but maybe eliot and parker have ‘yes stab fridays’ dates?)

A:LKDJFLKJSDF Hardison can 3D print an Old Nate painting now if he wanted.

“I was cocky because I was good. You were just cranky.” LOL stop flirting and make out you two.

“I was in it for the rep. Parker for the cash.”/“I had anger issues I needed to work out.” Simple and concise and true. I wonder what Sophie’s one-sentence reason would be? ‘Sophie likes having art?’

“I got a sniper in Afghanistan, he can get you the rocks. I got a mob driver in Cyprus. He can get you the soil.” I’m pausing right here to imagine Eliot having to explain to someone that he needs cactus lice for ‘reasons’.

“I got a guy in Mexico owes me a favor” I really want to be a fly on the wall for that favor call-in conversation.

“Oh you - you know somebody who’s nasty enough to pick lice off a damn cactus with his bare hands?” / “Yeah. It’s a big favor.” FLY. ON WALL.

The second Lawyer starts chuckling too Hardison motions for him to stop. This joke, from Eliot at himself, isn’t one for outsiders. Lawyer guy needs to actually prove himself before he gets to laugh at Eliot’s darker-if-you-know-the-subtext jokes.

“Don’t be ridiculous man. If they were stolen masterpieces they’d be in [the other] closet.” Ah yes, we have what’s probably Nate’s closet (arguably not stolen masterpieces) and Sophie’s closet (definitely stolen masterpieces). Also Hardison and Eliot gesture at the stolen-masterpiece closet in unison

an IYS insurance stamp with Nate’s name under it. WAIT. wait wait wait. 1x01 - “Should’ve kept one of those Monet’s” - Is this - did Nate remember Eliot’s comment, about if he had kept some of those paintings he could’ve fenced them for money to try to help pay for his son’s medicine? Does Nate have this closet in case Sophie (or Maggie) had health problems and there was a sudden need for money? I’M SCREAMING

oh, and Hardison smells the painting, not unrolling it or looking at the tag like Lawyer did. Hardison paid attention and remembered that lesson from Sophie about the statue of Rah and how their mark knew it was from a museum and not a dig in egypt. (3x15 i believe) (Hardison smelled it, Eliot got touch, and Parker tasted it.)

i missed these guys running a ‘clear the room’ mini con.

Parker’s running an auction again! A bit less aggressively this time, and also with a fully fake buying audience (Sophie’s acting students? I didn’t get to s4/5 in my rewatch so I don’t know if there’s returning faces - I don’t think there are?)

“Nate never settled for nice.” The look on Eliot’s face there. The adjustment in his mind from a ‘Sophie con’ to a ‘Nate con’. Not that Sophie ran ‘nicer’ cons than Nate, but hers were ... cleaner? They had a stopping point, a line that - once crossed - the team would walk away from the job. Nate, though, Nate didn’t stop until he was satisfied he had obliterated the mark, especially if he was feeling particularly egotistical. Eliot’s look is readjusting to the fact that now, with Nate dead, Sophie might not have that line anymore. But it’s just a maybe, and her going ‘I want to hurt him more than have art’ isn’t so far beyond the pale that Eliot’s going to call her on it. (Even if it was over the line, the mark’s still in the room.)

ALKSJDF;LKJASDFL Parker’s nametag! She’s still using her Alice White identity!! Is Alice still friends with the woman with the cats?? Does Parker still forget that she’s Alice?

Ooh, and all the fake auction bidders are filming Bad Guy and him walking away in frustration.

Hm. Bad guy is having a security check run on someone, only this time I’m aware enough to know that the team knows this is going to happen to their fake identities, so assuming anything gets flagged they’ve likely already accounted for it.

“You know, we never really got to talk. If you ever... want to discuss...”/“I think this is my way of talking about it. Through this.” Eliot might not have really liked Nate as a person, but Sophie? He’ll be damned if he doesn’t reach out to Sophie, again and again, letting her know she can lean on him, that she doesn’t have to deal with her grief alone.

i’ll have to dig into this later but i’m having emotions about nathan ford right now (“his heart burned too hot for too long” ‘“I’m sorry”./“Don’t be. At least he burned.” - who is this writer becuase i wanna marry them steal their writing skills)

‘brick & basil’ ‘poboys’ ‘gumbo’ is that one of Eliot’s food trucks? (i want a poboy so bad right now) there’s also social media logos on the side! hardison probably set up the pages initially and but by now you know each and every one of those food trucks have amazing reviews.

“Is it weird that I find all of that really attractive?”/“I thank God every day that you do.” parker drags hardison in for a kiss, only for it to be revealed that this is right in front of eliot, who is immediately all ‘outies’ with the fresh-baked painting.

GASP. ELIOT���S FOOD TRUCK IS THE NEW LUCILLE?????

“it used to take a whole van, now we can fit a mini-Lucille inside every food truck in the world” I LIED, LUCILLE HAD BABIES

Lol at Parker being all ‘i’m attracted to you but i’m not going to lie about your accents having always been good’

"My cover’s not blown” and Eliot’s cover is immediately blown. Eliot isn’t too surprised at this though, so this is probably a thing that has happened more than twice in the past eight years. (His face not flagging any alerts is likely handiwork of Hardison’s.) The question is if the team figured this into their calculations or if this is one of the twists they have to maneuver around on the fly.

“this is an audition. for them.”/“big guys got potential. you can cut the rest.” has the feeling of that time where Eliot was all ‘if i’m not honest you won’t improve’ at the hitman he had stabbed in the shoulder. and Eliot might have prefered to skip the bruises but that smile of satisfaction of having a good clean fight, no guns around? Amazing.

.... not sure if I believe that that’s the original painting that Lawyer sets on fire.

I approve of the trigger discipline! Guard is pointing a gun at Lawyer’s head but does not have the finger on the trigger, very good.

aha, and here we have where the team succeeded anyway. I’m pretty sure that was hardison on the other side when the Bad Guy was giving his bank account code stuff, but I’m not sure exactly how the rest has been set up.

“We’re going to need to come up with a plan M.” I’M SCREAMING, NO DEAD HARDISON’S ELIOT RUDE

“Why we gotta call it plan M?” EXACTLY

“You know my feelings about plan M.” LOTS OF FEELINGS AND NONE OF THEM HAPPY

“Eliot, plan S. For Hardison survive, damn it.” I LIKE PLAN S.

Parker’s covering her mouth and bouncing in place because she’s really, really, really excited about getting to break into 8 different museums and it brings back the vent-joke and I love her

THE GLOAT

“I wasn’t too sure about the whole gloating thing ... [but it was] very cathartic.” Exactly. Not the best idea in the real world, but this is fiction so why should we be spoiled of having a bit of fun?

“You didn’t pay out to everyone?”/“We couldn’t find everyone.” Hm. Is Lawyer going to insist on finding everyone? Is that how he stays with the team?

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you think you were done?” Hardison’s smile and tone here are amazing.

“Oh, if only you could find all the names, then you could just move on. ... You don’t get to do just one thing and claim you’ve repented.” And Hardison is speaking to more than just Lawyer here, this is about something everyone on the team has had to deal with, that everyone who’s done another wrong and later regretted it has had to deal with. It’s more complicated than going ‘sorry’ and moving on. This is why the three of them - Eliot, Parker, Hardison - have their own separate ventures. The work to heal the wrongs does not stop.

“My Nana leads a multi-denominational household.” I really want to meet Hardison’s Nana.

having more emotions about eliot excuse me

"he’s his father’s son.” we’ve never heard Hardison talk about his dad, so this line is about Nate being Hardison’s crime-dad and i’m having more emotion excuse me again

hmmmmmm i don’t like that dress on parker in this end scene

“Sophie? Your call.” They all know she said one job. And that this job is technically done, for all that the mark has fled the consequences. And unlike Nate, who they were just all ‘we’re moving into your house to run cons, join us or not’ - with Sophie they’re giving her a chance to go ‘no, leave’. And it’s likely that if she did say that, if she said she was done, they’d move on without her. Because she did leave the team to retire with Nate. It’s her choice to rejoin the game, her choice on how long she’s back in. And it’s rewarded with her deciding that this particular job is not done yet. (Whether she’ll stay on afterward remains to be seen. As the title states, as Hardison’s speech just now elaborates on, this season is about redemption. Hardison’s focusing on Lawyer because he’s the newest, the one who’s put in the least amount of work, the one who needs the push. The rest? Sophie, Eliot, Parker? Hardison himself? They know each other enough to know that the work is being put in, even if its not loud and obvious, and what to look for if they think one of the others needs a push, or a reminder that they are people too.)

THIS WAS VERY GOOD I LOVE IT