#nate x sophie x maggie

[leverage-ot3]

wait leverage white collar au where sam never died and nate and maggie are still married and sophie is the conwoman that seduces them both (through crime)

[leveragecentral]

Leverage + Texposts

[fablesrose]

Leverage Rewrite Ch 1 - Phone Calls

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Words: 3054

Summary: We are introduced to y/n Ford and her relationship with Nate through some phone calls. Takes place directly after the Bank Shot Job and goes through most of season 1.

Warnings: drinking, swearing, canon level stuff

A/n: okay, so I may be up over my head on this one, but here it is.

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

The ringing of my phone snapped me out of my lackluster concentration. I enjoyed freelancing, I really did, but this job was just not coming along like I wanted it to. I couldn’t even drag my eyes off my laptop to see who was calling me. It was always work related though.

“This is y/n Ford, how can I help you?” I made sure to turn on my best chipper voice, though I could tell my perplexed expression didn’t change. 

“Don’t use your customer service voice on me, y/n.” The voice was very familiar and I sighed in relief, turning away from my computer. 

“Oh, hey Nate. I didn’t look at the phone, I thought it was work… How are you doing?”

“That’s alright, I’m doing fine. I saw that you called a little while ago, I’m sorry it took awhile, I was working a job.” He sounded tired, but different than the last few times I had talked to him.

“Yeah, I just hadn’t heard from you for a bit, but a job? I didn’t know you were working again. How has that been going? What are you doing?” 

It was good that he was getting out and doing things again. He had been in a deep rut since he left I.Y.S and got divorced. And of course since Sam… passed. It has only seemed to get worse after that. I have tried to check in with Nate at least every couple months, more frequently when possible. Sometimes he doesn’t get back to me for a while, which seemed to be the case here. I’ve been worried about him, but maybe this will lead him to the up and up.

“Uh, I’m not sure if I can explain what I’m doing right now, birdie. It uh, it's a bit complicated and maybe more dangerous than you would like…” He sighed, and I didn’t even have to see his face to know he was giving a slight wince at what he said. I smiled, both at hearing him call me the nickname he had given me years ago, as well as his conscientiousness of my feelings. 

“Well, I hope you can tell me about it sometime. Are you happy doing it?”

He thought about it for a minute, “yeah, I am. I get to help people.”

“Are you alone? Do you need help?”

“No, I’ve got people.”

“Then that’s good enough for me. I still worry some, but you’re a grown man, you can take care of yourself… or should I say old man?” I smirked, knowing that it would bother him a bit. 

He barked out half a laugh, “I’ll let that one go. I’m glad you worry about me… You know you’re my favorite niece right?”

It was my turn to laugh sarcastically. “I’m your only niece. Don’t be a stranger.”

“Okay.”

I set the phone down after he hung up. Nate practically raised me. My parents died when I was a kid, an accident, and he was the only family I had left… Or the best family I had left. Grandad Jimmy barely counts. Even with my parents around I was always close with Nate, he always had little puzzles to teach me or games to play. I knew it was hard on him, to take care of me, but we had each other, and it got better. We both had to grow up fast, and when Maggie and then Sam came along, it seemed like the world was giving back a little bit. We were a happy family for a while. I graduated, moved out into the real world, and tried to be to Sam what Nate was to me. It all came crashing down. Nate had his own process though. This was worse than when my parents died, understandably, but I knew he was the only one that could work himself out of it. I try to let him. 

My eyes flipped back to my computer from where they were staring at the abandoned phone on the table. I can’t afford to reminisce any longer, I have deadlines to keep.

—---

Across the country, Nate absentmindedly tapped his phone against his knee, thinking. He gingerly moved his right shoulder, trying not to test his stitches too much. The team had just finished up the bank shot job. He knew he needed to take it easy while he healed up from his gunshot wound, but he could feel a slight itch to keep going in the back of his head. To take his mind off of it, he looked back at his phone, thinking of y/n.

He did miss her. Nate knew he had been distant recently and that she worried about him. He felt awful when he thought too hard about it. Here his niece was, worrying about him, a grown man, the one who raised her, who should be worrying about her. It made him want to reach for a drink. The truth was, he didn’t worry about her. Not often anyway. She was every bit of her parents, something Nate was glad for. His older brother was always the better one, he thought. He would have never become… Never become what Nate had, under the circumstances. 

He didn’t know what y/n would think about what Nate was doing now. He didn’t want to leave her in the dark, they had always worked together through Nate’s changing careers and her own progression through life. He also knew that this work was dangerous. Nate winced as the stitches pulled a bit as he shifted. He didn’t want her to worry about him more, or worse, get caught up in it if she didn’t have to. 

Nate went to pour himself a drink before heading back to rest. He set his phone down at his bedside table, looking at it for a moment longer. 

He would find a way to tell her somehow.

—----

It was about a month later when I was getting ready for bed that I got an email to my personal account. I usually don’t check emails this late, but it was from Nate. 

Hey birdie, I know it’s late over there and you probably don’t want to work, but I have this script that I need to make sure is believable for an actress. Do you mind looking over it? 

Attached was a pretty large file. Opening it up showed that it was around ten pages and it held two scenes. He was right, I didn’t want to, but it was Uncle Nate asking a pretty small favor. I read it through and answered.

So… the scenes themselves are decent, good pacing. Leaving the boy orphaned with the nun and mother dying will be sure to pull some tears. But the overall plot? That’s just awful, I’m sorry. Not sure how you fix that. 

It wasn’t too long before I got a reply.

Good enough, thanks. 

I sighed as I finished getting ready for bed. I didn’t know what in the world he was doing anymore, but at least he was still alive. 

I had started to forget about the interaction when a few days later he called.

“Wow, I hear from you twice in one week? What’s the occasion?”

There was a lot of noise in the background indicating he was in a busy place, “Yeah yeah I just… I finished this job and was thinking about you, so I thought I’d call.”

I smiled, “Appreciated… Is that your job, fighting werewolves with NATO troops? Is that why it's so dangerous?”

He groaned, “Please don’t mention the script, I want to wipe that from my memory. It uh,” he paused, thinking and I could hear some background announcements like he was in an airport or train station. “I was able to help some orphans this job, and… I- I’m just glad that you were able to come live with me, that we had each other when. When your dad passed, and mom.”

I took a moment before answering, “Me too Nate…” 

There was a moment of silence when I heard a deeper voice a bit further away from the phone, “Nate, come on, we gotta catch our connection. Last call.”

“I’ve gotta go.”

“Okay, talk to you later.”

He said a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone. It seemed like his new job was exciting, and I was interested in seeing where it took him next… If I could ever figure out what it was. 

I started to look forward to his calls even more now, and they happened more frequently as well. I always speculated what little details he would drop about his most recent adventure, if he shared any at all. One call he talked about a wedding and the fiascos behind it, from a woman he worked with that seemed to peeve him at times to appetizers. He insisted that when I got married (after he asked if I wanted to) that he wouldn’t attend if it was going to be a large crap shoot like the one he was just involved with. I simply laughed, I didn’t interject more than that to ask him about it as he was in a rush and clearly exasperated. 

The next phone call mentioned the same woman, of whom I learned her name was Sophie. I could tell he was still a bit peeved at her, but there was something else there as well, an interest. I smiled to myself as he talked, but didn’t mention it… yet. There were so many other questions I had about what he was doing now. I finally pried a bit more.

“Nate, come on, you’ve got to give me something. What are you doing, what is this job you are working?”

He paused like he knew it was coming, but still not prepared, “I am the lead of a… consulting team. We help people when no one else will, when no one else can.”

“Well that’s very noble of you Nathan. I’m not getting any more than that right now am I?” I laughed a little bit towards the end. 

“Yeah, uh, that is it for now. I’ll tell you more about it some other time.”

“You promise?”

“Promise.”

The next call was not as cheerful or exciting as the previous ones. I was already coming down with a cold, and another project had hit a standstill because of the lack of cooperation of people within the client’s company. Much more of this and I would back out of the contract. Luckily my contract states that I will get paid for the work completed, not necessarily at completion, and if I have to cancel a contract due to certain circumstances such as lack of cooperation, I get to keep funds in relation to work completed as well as the deposit. In other words, it would be their loss. 

I could feel I was developing a headache, but I answered the phone anyway, “Hello?”

“Heyy, how’s it going? I um… I can’t remember why I called…” There was a slight slur in his voice that I immediately picked up on.

“Nate? Are you drunk right now?” I asked accusingly, my headache getting worse. 

“What? No… what time is it… maybe.”

I groaned, “Damn it… You said you were getting better. You said you would quit!”

“Hey, I never said that-”

“Am I gonna have to kick your ass to keep you around?”

There was a pause on the other end, “No, Eliot can do that, he said he would keep me in line if he had to.”

“Well…” I took a moment to collect my thoughts, “I don’t know who this Eliot character is, but hopefully he’s good on his word, cuz I don’t want to fly all the way out there for that. I’d rather you stick around for a while.”

“I know.”

I sighed knowing I wouldn’t get much farther with him right now, “Well, sober up a bit. I can’t handle much more right now Nate, I’m getting sick. We both better go get some rest.”

“You’re sick? I’ll ask around for some recipes to help you feel better.”

Before I could stop him and tell him don’t bother, he hung up. I sighed again, stopping to get my bearings before starting the trek to the bathroom to take some medicine. 

I had grown a bit lax on Nate with his drinking. I made sure he didn’t drink himself to death after Sam’s death and the divorce, but once he made it to somewhat functioning, I just grew tired. There wasn’t much else I could do, so I figured he could sort himself out when he needed to. That seemed to be the case over the last couple of months. I could tell in his phone calls as they became more frequent that he was drinking less and getting better. I had exaggerated a bit when I said he promised me he would quit. I wish I had made him promise, but I guess it was just a conversation and some hope on my end. 

I didn’t know the rest of his team, but I hoped they could help him, or at least keep him on this side of life. Or that he had someone to rely on out there. I felt useless here in Boston while he was out in LA. Maybe I should have moved out there when his life had gone down hill, despite his protests. I could theoretically work anywhere. 

I started to slip into sleep as I thought about it. I didn’t fight it.

The next morning I woke up to an email on my phone.

Hey, I’m sorry I called you while drunk. Eliot gave me some soup recipes, hopefully they will help with the cold. Feel better birdie.

Below were the recipes promised. I looked them over, and they all looked really good, and relatively simple to make. This was good as I could feel the congestion in my head was worse than the night before and knew simple would be essential to any new meal the next couple of days. I’d like to meet this Eliot someday. 

—---

Over a month later Nate sat in his chair, staring at the drink in his hand reflecting back to the last phone call he had with y/n. He was drunk, and she was clearly upset at him. He hated to admit it, but, while he didn’t want to worry her, he should have felt more guilty about it. For that reason he hasn’t talked to her since he sent that email with Eliot’s recipes. 

What an unfortunate coincidence it was when he had to go into rehab with the mark for the next job. His mind kept going back to the group session they had with Sophie talking about the healing power of apologies, or something like that. She asked him if there was anyone he wanted to apologize to for burdening with his drinking problem, highly suggesting to him that he apologize to her and the team. What really got him was when she mouthed the words “like your niece?” 

Maybe that’s why he blew up a little. He didn’t need her to be brought up. The fact that Sophie knew so much about him unnerved him sometimes. He thought he kept her underwraps, out of whatever mess Nate found himself in. He obviously needs to brush up on those skills.

—---

I got a somewhat urgent call from Nate, the first one since he called me drunk that night. I was gearing up for a serious talk about his drinking, boundaries, and whatnot. This did not seem to be the case. 

“You’ve done mock trials before right?”

That stopped me in my tracks, “in highschool? Yeah, but that was a long time ago, what is going on?”

He explained that he was in a similar situation with him and his team. The plaintiff was a widow whose husband died from taking an energy supplement. She was suing the supplement company, but was not doing well.

“How would you win for this widow?”

I took a moment to think it over, “I mean… You have your three persuasive techniques, logical, emotional, and reputation, to paraphrase. You can either tear down the company and their arguments on these fronts and slash or build up your own. I don’t know all the data behind the supplement or if you have health records for the husband before and after the supplement, but that could help. If you want to go the dirty route you can tear down the credibility of the company and their witnesses and experts…” I hummed and hawed for a bit, still thinking. “Also considering, if this is a jury trial, play into the emotional side, get their sympathy, show that it is someone’s fault that this husband, father? Is he a father? You know, etc etc. Just keep with the triangle, logic, emotion, and credibility. Not sure what else to give you without more research or context.”

I heard a distant voice that said, “That just might work,” suggesting to me that I was on speaker phone. 

Nate talked to this other guy, “see, just put on your bowtie and talk to them like you’ve been doing your whole life.” He turned back to the phone and spoke to me, “That’s perfect, thank you, bye.”

He hung up and I just stared at the phone in my hand. What kind of consulting business is this?

I got a call I wasn’t expecting one day from someone I haven’t heard from in a long time. 

“Hey y/n, how have you been?”

“Maggie? I’ve been fine, just working freelancing… What’s up?” While she and Nate have been divorced for a couple of years now, she still played a role in my life as an aunt. We definitely drifted apart, but I thought we were both dear to each other. 

“That’s good, I’m glad you’ve been doing okay. I do have a favor to ask you though.”

“Okay… What is it?”

“I’d imagine it’s been a while since either of us have gone to a fancy party… What do you say?”

I hated to say it, but she was right. “Tell me when and where.”

[howdoyoudothedew]

Rated: G

Pairing: Maggie/Sophie/Nate/Sterling

Word Count: ~1k

A/N: Rewatching Leverage with my mom and asked my friend which of the ideas I have spinning I should write, she said 'leverage parents' so ta-daaaa, my beloveds. This is based off the dialogue prompt "No, I'm paying" which I got from a @otp-imagines-cult post

The second the waitress puts the check down on the table and leaves, the date turns into a warzone. Honestly, Maggie’s not even surprised at this point. She is, however, rather amused. Starting Leverage, getting together with Sophie, has been good for Nate. He’s more like the man she fell in love with and married, even if he’s still broken. (He was always broken, to an extent.) It’s good for Jim, too. The change to their occasional competition keeps him more on his toes and has even loosened him, if only slightly. Which is why this is even happening.

“How can I trust that money isn’t ill-gotten gains, hm?” Jim says, raising an eyebrow. Jim, Nate, and even Sophie all have their wallets out. Maggie has her own wallet out as well, but she’s not joining in. She already knows how this one will end. While they’re distracted, she pulls out her card and places it inside the booklet for the waitress to grab when she comes back. Sophie catches her and smiles, but doesn’t put away her wallet. Maggie settles back to watch.

“Why I never!” Sophie gasps, affronted at her money even being suggested as ‘ill-gotten’. “I’ll have you know I got this money off a very rich man fair and square. I barely even had to do anything before he was handing it off to me.”

“How do we know your money wasn’t ill-gotten, hm?” Nate says, raising his own eyebrow and sitting back with his arms crossed over his chest. Jim scoffs.

“Maybe because I’m not a criminal, unlike some people,” Jim says.

“Hey!” Sophie protests again. “I am not the only criminal at this table anymore.”

“Right, because you seduced Nate to the darkside,” Jim says, voice dry.

“I’ll seduce you next,” Sophie says, despite having basically already done just that, narrowing her eyes at him.

“You know what, I’m just going to pay,” Nate says, cutting them off.

“What? No, I’m paying, you paid last time,” Sophie says and Maggie files the information away, because she had paid last time, just like she usually does. Which means Nate had gotten Hardison to sneak some of his money into her account, so he could retroactively pay for it. Which is so many more steps then needed. Also kind of annoying. She’s not exactly broke and they don’t exactly do this terribly often. She can– and will happily– pay for her datemates herself. The waitress passes by, grabbing the book absently when Maggie subtly holds it out for her. None of the others notice, thankfully, too wrapped up in their argument.

“Absolutely not,” Jim says.

“Well someone has to pay,” Sophie says.

“I’ll do it,” Nate says.

“I’m not using money when I don’t know from whence it came,” Jim says.

“From whence it came? Who even says stuff like that anymore?” Nate scoffs.

“I do,” Jim bristles.

“If he’s gonna talk like that, I’m definitely not letting him pay,” Sophie says.

“What does my speech have anything to do with paying?” Jim says, rounding on Sophie.

“It’s too posh for my taste.” Sophie sticks her nose in the air.

“Says our Lady Charlotte Prentiss,” Nate mutters into his coffee.

“Oh now you want to get in on it? And here I was defending you.”

Nate gives a half-laugh through his nose. “No you weren’t, you’re trying just as hard to get us to let you pay.”

“You’re right, I wasn’t. Now let me pay,” Sophie says.

“No, I’ll pay,” Nate says.

“I’m paying,” Jim says.

“Absolutely not,” Sophie and Nate say at the same time, which is apparently Jim’s breaking point.

“Fine! Maggie pays then.” Jim throws his arms up as well as he can get away with in a fancy restaurant and Maggie can barely keep in the amused noise.

“Fine,” Nate says.

“Fine,” Sophie agrees.

Apparently an expert at comedic timing, the waitress returns then with Maggie’s card. “Here you go. I hope you have a good night.”

“Thanks, you have a good night too,” Maggie tells her, ignoring the boys’ shocked looks for now as well as Sophie’s amused smile as she returns her card to her wallet. When she looks back at them, she pretends to be oblivious. She lets her eyes grow slightly wide and blinks a few times. “What?”

“You already paid,” Nate says.

“Someone had to and you three seemed busy, thanks to Sophie,” Maggie says.

“Wha-” Nate stares at her, eyes narrowed. Maggie can see the gears turn as he goes over her words, Sophie’s actions. Finally, he turns to Sophie. “You knew,” Nate accuses.

“Of course I knew, I’m not blind,” Sophie says and Maggie chuckles.

“Then why’d you even bother to argue about it?” Jim asks, clearly exasperated.

“Well I’m not just going to let you and Nate have all the fun, am I?” Sophie asks, a rhetorical question. “Now who’s leaving the tip?”

“Oh no, I am not doing this again,” Jim says. You absolutely will, Maggie thinks to herself. Likely not now, but definitely next time.

“All three of us will leave the tip, since Maggie was so kind to pay,” Nate says.

“That, I am surprisingly okay with,” Jim says.

“Why must you ruin all my fun?” Sophie pouts at Nate, digging out a few dollars from her wallet.

“I’m sure you’ll find some again soon, Soph,” Nate assures.

“And will give me a headache in the process,” Jim says, also pulling out a few dollars. Sophie smiles at him.

“You love it.” Jim declines to respond to her. But Maggie knows Sophie is right. Protest as he may, Jim loves all of them.

“Ready to head out?” Nate asks, standing from his chair. Maggie follows his lead.

“I think so,” she says. “It was lovely to see you all again.”

“It was lovely to see you, too, Maggie. I wish we could do this more often,” Sophie says, taking Maggie’s hands to squeeze. Sophie’s hands. They’re always cold, making her think of the old thing her grandmother used to tell her: cold hands, warm heart. With Sophie, Maggie finally has evidence towards it.

“There’s a Picasso showcase at the museum next week,” Maggie says.

“You’re just trying to give me an aneurysm at this point, aren’t you?” Jim grouses. Sophie pats his cheek.

“It’s our way of keeping you young.”

“It’s your way of giving me more gray hairs,” Sterling says.

“Does this mean you won’t go to the museum with us?”

“Someone has to keep you from stealing a very expensive painting,” Sterling says.

“So next week?”

“Next week,” the other three agree and they part ways in the parking lot, Sophie and Nate leaving together while Jim and Maggie leave separately.

[kitkatt0430]

do you have a favorite season or episode of Leverage? i love seeing you post about this show :)

Leverage is one of those shows that it's so hard to pic favorites because it's all so incredibly, satisfyingly good.

The first season is probably the worst which is still putting it head and shoulders over the best season of so many other shows that I love. It was hurt by being aired out of order, which thankfully the other seasons didn't suffer from, but it has so many little details in there that become running gags throughout the series. Plan M, Hardison dies. Let's steal an <X>. Parker stabbing a guy with a fork. Hardison's stories about his Nana. Eliot's very specific catchphrase. Sophie's struggle with being an actress vs being a grifter. Alice White. Hurley. Sterling. Old Nate.

I think the Pilot and the two-part finale are my favorites from that season though it is a very close call with basically every other episode.

The Pilot of course gives us the crew and becomes incredibly important to understand the motivations of the final villain of S4. So, so much is established in this episode. The heist at the start, the mini-con at the hospital, and the main con to get their revenge. The walk-away where they all fail to walk away.

And then the two part finale. Nate's ex wife shows up and everyone basically falls in love with Maggie because she's awesome. Sterling truly establishing the Sterling always wins rule with his second win. Nate being able to punch - in the face - the guy who turned down the insurance claim for the medical procedure that might have saved Nate's dying son. Sophie trying to have her cake and eat it too, only to ultimately chose the team over herself. Old Nate becoming the Leverage mascot (to real Nate's chagrin).

Season 2 is probably my second least favorite because I think Sophie leaving the team is somewhat... mishandled? Overall they handled the actress needing time off while pregnant well, but she leaves the team to find herself but is upset that Nate gives her that space and encourages the team to do so as well? Like, yeah, he needs to be better at asking for help and it's his big failing this season but he's very much trying to respect what Sophie asked for and given shit about it. But this is quite possibly the only overarching storyline the show fumbled which is sooooo impressive. (Glances at the Flash and it's many fumbled storylines.)

The first episode of this season is hands down favorite. The team gets back together. Parker as a lock picking nun. The Team taking over Nate's apartment (and then refusing to leave for three seasons). The fact that this episode sets up the series finale. Because it does. The whole reason Nate decides to give in and rejoin the team for more than just this one job at the end? Is because this is where he realizes what really happened behind the scenes of the 2007-08 financial crisis, which leads directly to the target of The Long Goodbye Job.

(holy shit is this show amazing at callbacks and maintaining continuity)

I also really love the Two Live Crew Job for introducing Chaos and The Lost Heir Job for bringing in Tara for the rest of the season (only complaint is we barely get any more of her after this season). Though if I were to pick a second favorite episode of the season it'd be The Bottle Job because I love them saving the bar together and it has the first hints of Jimmy Ford being revealed (explaining further why Nate is the way he is).

I think Season 3 and 4 tie for me as second favorite seasons. S3 has the plot with the Italian and finally stops using Nate's personal failings as the driving impetus of the season finale. Eliot being so very ashamed of the man he used to be is incredibly touching (someone hug this man) and makes it all the more impressive what kind of man he's become now.

I love The Inside Job for putting Parker front and center. Introducing the man who raised her, but also failed her in a way that makes Nate quite likely want to punch Archie in the face. The show never outright calls Parker autistic, but she is. She so clearly is. And it's very plain to see that was factored into the set design for where Parker lives. It was part of Archie's reasoning for keeping her separate from his family - though he can say 'she wouldn't fit in' all he wants, the truth is clear in how he says it. But despite how he failed her, the episode is about showing that Parker does have a family now. The Leverage Crew. And they love her because she is the way she is. Because if she were any different, she wouldn't be their Parker. And they are willing to fight for her and trust her and follow her lead.

I love any episode where Hardison gets to be artsy, so The Scheherazade Job is beloved. How dare he be so talented? So, so, so multi-talented.

The Studio Job gives us Eliot's softer side and Christian Kane's wonderful country singing voice.

The Three Card Monte Job introducing Jimmy Ford in the flesh and giving us the wonderfully fucked up relationship he has with Nate. They love each other but they're too much alike to get ever get along. Each one has a very different code of ethics that clash irreconcilably.

The Rashoman Job is just incredibly well played, with the actors in the flashbacks being slowly updated as it's revealed this person or that person was actually one of the Leverage Crew pre-show. Sophie's accent in the flashbacks getting increasingly incomprehensible until she's basically speaking what the wingdings fonts look like when you try to type normally with them.

The King George Job giving more artsy Hardison who hacks history and probably needs a nap. Sophie's complicated backstory and her realization that cons where she thought no one really got hurt may have actually gotten people hurt after all - a character story beat that Leverage Redemption picked up for her and continued beautifully.

The San Lorenzo Job is absolutely stunning. Sophie shines here (and yet again does not know how to keep out of sight at her own funeral) absolutely stunningly as she builds herself up as a sort of Princess Diana/Evita type before her "assassination" that helps seal the deal of their election theft scheme.

Season 4 tying itself so neatly back to the job that started it all when it turns out the rich dude trying to manipulate them is working with Dubenich. It's impressive how well they pull off the reveal. But he's not the only big call back to Season One we get here. Parker's Alice White persona and the friend she made - Peggy - come back. Hurley comes back.

The Van Gogh Job is the best, best, best of the season. It doesn't pull any punches in saying "hey, this romance we're doing between a white girl and a black man? that used to be illegal. It is in living memory that these relationships could get black men lynched by racists with little to no repercussions. And talented black men would have their achievements handed to white men because 'that's the way it was.'" It puts the main actors into the roles of characters in the past just to make sure it hits hard because we know these faces. We're emotionally attached to them. Holy shit this episode.

The Hot Potato Job where the problem kid of the school field trip Nate and Parker hijack just needed people to treat him like a person, not a problem, to behave well. The way he bonds with Hardison and helps them smuggle the potato out at the end? I love this kid, I want to learn he's working for Leverage International one day.

The Carnival Job where the mark's kid is kidnapped and they burn their con because a child's life is more important. Eliot fighting concussed and with his eyes shut because he will be damned if he fails to save this little girl.

The Grave Danger Job managing to be the best 'buried alive' plot I have ever seen on a tv show (and it is a staple plot of tv shows from the 90s/early 2000s). They steal a police car and an ambulance for the sirens. It gets series with Parker calling Hardison 'Alec' and being at the most emotional we've seen her all show.

The Office Job being done in the style of The Office (and then the mockumentary follow up in the behind the scenes featurettes) is just priceless.

The Girls Night Out/The Boys Night Out Jobs being so perfect in how they intertwine over the course of the same night.

The Radio Job showing us just how much Jimmy Ford loves his son.

The Last Dam Job giving us "my son would be ashamed of me for killing someone. My father? My father would buy me an ice cream." Dubenich ultimately destroying himself while Nate walks away.

Season 5 is my favorite season, though. It's the culmination of where the show was heading from the start. Parker has grown so much from the first season that she's able to run her own con - something Sophie and Hardison have both attempted and failed - and with the rest of the team out of town to boot. Parker and Hardison clearly got the brew pub as a gift for Eliot, while realizing he'd never accept if they don't reverse psychology him into it. Sophie buying the theater and finally discovering her talent for directing as well as overcoming the blocks that kept her from bringing her prodigious acting talent to the stage floor. Nate achieving the goal that's driven him since the start of Season Two.

I love the French Connection Job for giving us more Chef Eliot. His relationship with food is lovely and this is my favorite exploration of it. Parker finally learning to appreciate beauty in art because of how she grows to understand how Eliot connects with cooking and learns to appreciate the artistry that goes into food.

The Gimme a K Job hits home personally for me - one of my sister's best friends (who was also the older sister of one of my best friends) was a cheerleader who hit her head in a cheer stunt gone wrong where the spotter messed up. It took a very, very long time for her to truly recover from that concussion (and thus why I know tv shows are bullshit for having people just walk that off) and knowing her injuries might have been less severe if cheerleading safety were taken more seriously...

The DB Cooper Job being another excellent episode built around Flashbacks staring the main cast in different roles. Agent McSweeten has to know something is up with the Leverage Crew, but he clearly respects and admires all of them. Especially Parker.

The Broken Wing Job giving us Parker on her own putting together a temporary crew from the wait staff and pulling off a con all on her own, while injured. (The whole reason why she wasn't with the team, in fact.) And it's so damn impressive of her.

The Rundown Job being as close to confirmed Eliot/Parker/Hardison as we're going to get outside of word of god (which we have!!!!) and it's beautiful to watch them work together without Nate and Sophie. It's also foreshadowing for them working together when Nate and Sophie retire.

Similarly, The Frame Up Job gives us how far Nate and Sophie have come as a couple and is as close to Nate/Sophie/Sterling as we'll probably ever get. (No word of god on this one, just me being overwhelmed by Nate and Sterling's impressive divorced-couple vibes. They're more divorced than Nate and Maggie, who are actually divorced.)

The White Rabbit Job where they almost push too far with their gaslighting routine but Parker is able to save the day by connecting to their mark in a way she didn't know how to when the show began. Her character development is such a highlight of she series so the repeated payoffs in this season are just... golden.

Every single thing about The Long Goodbye Job. Once again, all the callbacks to previous seasons. Eliot/Parker/Hardison being heavily hinted at again. Sterling letting Nate go because Nate was right, no matter what the law says. Parker inheriting the lead of the team from Nate. Sophie performing on stage the same play from the pilot, but being excellent at it this time. The episode's whole plot - again, cannot stress this enough - being a callback/having been foreshadowed by the season 2 premiere.

As you can tell, I love this show. It's beautiful and incredible and I was so, so relieved when Leverage Redemption premiered and I could instantly see that they'd done the impossible all over again. They'd recaptured the magic of the original show.

[aardvaark]

Leverage character asks: 1,3,17,45 (your choice on character)

thank you for the ask & for fueling my leverage obsession lol <3

1. Canon I outright reject

honestly i love the character development on leverage, even when it means the character has some negative traits or weaknesses or something. hmm… i think one thing i disliked was hardison being a super bad tipper (some ep in s5). he doesn’t care about workers? particularly after five years of leverage? idk.

i also wish eliot didn’t seem to like cops so much, but thats more of a gripe with the show’s/showrunners’ attitudes towards police.

3. Obscure headcanon

sophie: that she’s trans! love that hc. shout out to @transsophiedevereaux. also that sophie had a drunken one night stand with maggie, which is actually (word of god) canon rather than a head canon, but seems to be rarely mentioned.

nate: nate x sophie x sterling… it’s happened at least once.

parker: so many!! but the one i’ll share is that. uh. she’s probably killed someone. pre-leverage, she’s known to be dangerous for a reason, and she’s been in a lot of awful situations unfortunately. she would probably have done so out of necessity, it might even have been self defense, but yk. it’s still killing someone. and no, i don’t mean the pilot flashback - according to word of god (ie john rogers) she probably didn’t kill her foster parents when exploding their house. anyway, i’ve seen some cool fics about this idea and discussed this topic w @laser-tripwires and i think it’s really interesting for a variety of reasons, but i won’t list them here bc this is already getting so long lol.

hardison: that he still secretly adds to nana’s income somehow (he canonically paid off her medical bills), that he plays D&D, that he likes [insert media beloved by geeks that i don’t really know much about, but i love that people hc him as enjoying the things they enjoy so much].

eliot: my own silly hc that many of his scars are actually from kitchen accidents rather than fights lol

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them

gonna answer this one for sophie only, cause i have quite a few answers just for her!

1) i saw a gif set of sophie once with the lyrics of "thief" by imagine dragons, and it was a really gorgeous gif set and the lyrics fit very well.

2) yk the fable "the scorpion and the frog"? at the end of s1, she seems to excuse her actions (conning the team) like the scorpion - that it’s just in her nature, lying is who she is, she’s a thief and this is what thieves do, etc. additionally, it’s what sterling says about her, that her behaviour was predictable because it’s "who she is".

3) the gambler by kenny rogers. bc the chorus is canonically her life philosophy lmao (according to the last dam job).

45. Their favorite celebrity

sophie: canonically, db cooper. she idolises him in the db cooper job lol. poster above her bed as a teenager etc etc.

nate: man, his would be oddly specific im sure. like he reads war strategy books, maybe sun tzu. or perhaps a chess grandmaster, like bobby fischer. i don’t know much about war strategists nor chess players, so if anyone does, then maybe you can suggest a more specific person.

hardison: i know he loves star trek, doctor who, star wars - im simply not pop culture savvy enough to know who his fave actors from those shows might be. BUT. i think it would be funny if his fave celebrity was wil wheaton (who was in star trek, and who, of course, played cha0s in leverage). also, wil wheaton is famously into D&D, video games, comics, and other "geek" stuff that hardison proudly enjoys too. hardison does not see the resemblance btwn wheaton and his nemesis, no idea what you’re taking about.

eliot: i think he would have people he looks up to or thinks are incredible, who are celebrities but only in a very specific field. like a renowned chef, but not a "celebrity chef" as in one who’s on tv. i mean like a chef who is famous among chefs, for being one of the most talented in the world.

parker: i feel her definition of celebrity would be somewhat different to most people’s. plus, her knowledge of the world is deep but narrow - she knows everything possible about thievery and anything even tangentially related (probably a decent amount of physics, for example), but pop culture? not so much. she later gets into stuff like dr who via hardison though, so perhaps the actor of the current doctor, ncuti gatwa. now, there’s also famous thieves, BUT they’re generally only famous because they eventually got caught. parker does not get caught. she would not idolise someone who ended up caught. maybe the thief of an unsolved heist. honestly, parker is famous in the leverage crime world. so. herself? not that she enjoys being a celebrity lol.

[thegeeksideofsr]

The Daughter

Eliot Spencer x Ford! reader

I had an idea this and I hope it came out ok. I might do more with the two of them in the future.

Boston had it's ups and downs. The upside was my dad moved back from LA and was just five minutes from my place, living above the pub owned by my best friend's family. The down sides, my dad was still recovering from my half brother's death, and nearly drinking himself to death. Surviving off coffee and take out when I don't cook and leave him with left overs.

I decided to cook for him at least once a week so we can catch up about what happened since he moved to LA and I stayed in Boston. He always says I don't need to, but he's my dad, and we are both still recovering from losing Sam. We may not see eye to eye on everything, but we still get along pretty well, and it's nice having company sometimes.

I was supposed to have dinner with him last night, but we rescheduled for today. He said a friend from LA had a musical she was in and he was going to go support her, so we postponed to tonight.

I head over to his apartment around noon with supplies for dinner tonight. As I get to the door I can hear my Dad's voice, along with a few others. A woman's voice, who's words are easy to make out, then mens voices, to low to hear.

I fit the key into the lock and push it open, revealing my Dad in the kitchen holding a coffee mug, a woman sitting on a stool in one of his shirts, man in a green shirt sitting at the table with another man with a laptop, and a nun?

The sound of me coming through the door causes all of their attention to fall on me. The man in green shirt seems to sit up straighter when we make eye contact for a brief second.

I look to my dad, who has a panicked look on his face.

"What's with the nun?"

A stunned silence falls over the room, lasting about twenty seconds, then my Dad speaks.

"I can explain."

"You can? You can explain why there is a nun in your apartment, and well as a woman in your shirt?"

"She's dress like that cause she's doin'a con," the man in green says, gesturing to the nun as he stands from his chair and moves to the counter.

"Eliot." Nate groans.

"Eliot? Is this the team you worked with in LA?"

He hadn't told me much about his friends from LA or about the jobs they pulled, not in great detail, but enough to know that they seem to be good people. And something happened with them and IYS, but he never told me everything.

"That's us," the woman says, getting up from her stool and holding a hand out to me. "Sophie Devereaux."

"It nice to finally put some names to faces. Dad told me about you all."

"Dad? Your Nate's daughter?"

"Yeah. He had me before he and Maggie met." I tell her as I set the bags of groceries on the counter. "What are you all doing here though? I thought Dad was going straight?"

"We are helping the Kerrigan's," the man at the table says, turning away from his laptop. "Nate says he's not gonna help us though."

"The father and daughter he helped? Oh, he's definitely gonna cave. And if he doesn't, I'll force him."

"I'm standing right here," Nate says.

I turn to look at him, trying not to laugh at the look on his face.

" I know."

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

After the gang introduced themselves, Parker and Hardison left to go the bank Kerrigan worked at, and Dad left me to sort out what I brought for dinner in the kitchen with Eliot and Sophie, while he went to shower, saying he wanted all of the stuff they brought gone when he comes back.

Sophie asked Eliot if he was leaving, to which he answered that he had over three-hundred sports channels, and he wasn't going anywhere, making me chuckle, drawing their attention to me again.

"So, how come Nate was in LA and you were here? And why didn't we know he had a daughter?" Eliot asks.

"He and my mom were together in highschool. They had me their senior year, she didn't want to be a mom that young, so she left me with my dad. I grew up with him and my grandfather. Most of my time was spent at John McRory's downstairs, Cora and I have been best friends for as long as I can remember." I tell them as I put a few things away and start washing vegetables for dinner.

"What about Maggie and Sam?" Sophie asks this time.

"When I was ten when he and Maggie got married. They had Sam a year later. When I finished highschool I got a job here in Boston, and Dad got a job in LA. It was tough, but we made it work. Then Sam's diagnosis."

"I'm sorry about Sam," Sophie says in a gentle tone.

"Thanks."

"You said you stayed here for work?" Eliot asks.

"Mhmm. I work at a restaurant. I took a class during highschool, and fell in love with it."

"Oh, you two are going to get along swimmingly," Sophie says, before walking away.

"You cook?" I ask.

"Sometimes. Is relaxing for me."

"Its the same for me."

I grab a knife and hold the handle towards Eliot.

"Care to help prep?"

He nods, takes the knife, then walks around to stand beside me. We work in silence, he chops onions and peppers, making neat piles, while I start on carrots and some potatoes.

He takes a breath to say something, but Hardison and Parker returning with their spoils, interrupt him. Once we finish prepping the ingredients, I dig containers out of the cupboard and we put all the ingredients away so the prep is done for later.

I thank Eliot for his help, then start cleaning up while Hardison sets up a printer in the living room, and connects his laptop to the TV. He starts going through tons of documents and printing them out. Soon he had them allover the living room.

My dad comes back down looking much better then he did, and immediately starts telling Hardison to clean up.

I smile to myself at the banter between them. I'm glad the team is here, Dad is happy too even though he acts otherwise. I wash the last cutting board, then set it to dry.

"Alrighty, I'm off." I walk to my dad, standing on tip-toes to kiss his cheek. " Try not to have a stroke. Eliot helped me prep everything, so all I have to do later is throw it all together."

"Alright. Be safe. And don't let the new guy get to you."

"I won't."

"You're not staying?" Parker asks.

"No. I have a new guy at the restaurant and I have to make sure he doesn't mess up."

I grab my bag and sling it over my shoulder as I walk to the door.

"Why is he your responsibility?"

"I hired him. I'm co owner."

I wave one last time, enjoying the look of shock on all of their faces, then head out the door closing it behind me.

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

Once the last bit of clean up was finished, the lights turned off, and the door locked behind me, I start making my way back to Dad’s apartment. I walk through McRory’s, waving to Cora as I pass through, reaching the elevator and heading to his floor. I fitting my key into the lock once more.

The living room is filled with stuff, Parker is wearing a jacket with massive shoulder pads that looks like it walked out of the 70's. Hardison is sitting in a chair, while Sophie is on the couch and Eliot is standing in front of the TV with an ice pack in his hand, Dad stands in the kitchen sipping yet another coffee.

"Hey, you guys." I say as I walk to the kitchen and set down my bag, catching the tale end of their conversation about the local mob.

A chorus of greetings is the only reply I get before they go back to talking.

"Sophie, how do you catch mob guys?" Nate asks.

"Ahhh, two glasses of Chianti and a story about my grandma in Sicily ."

"How do cops catch mob guys?"

"Taxes." The all reply.

I tune out the rest of the conversation pulling out the containers from the fridge, until dad makes a remark that is down right freaky.

"Your metaphors are creepier when you're sober," Parker says.

"I agree. You haven't said something that weird in a long time," I pipe in.

I get a laugh from Eliot, then my dad starts talking about the con they'd need to run. Hardison reminding him that the con he chose needed five people.

"Come on, Dad, just say yes. You may act otherwise, but this is the happiest if seen you in months."

He looks at me, then the team then nods his head.

"Alright. One job. Then I'm done."

Then he just walks away, without a word. I watch as he walks upstairs.

"Does he always do that?" I ask.

"Yeah." Hardison replies with a smug grin.

"He did miss us." Sophie says as she leans into Eliot's side.

I shake my head and turn back to cooking.

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

When the food is done, and the table is set, we all sit down and start eating. Hardison loads his plate with food, eating like he hasn't eaten in days.

" Alec, slow down. It's not gonna be taken away," I tell him.

He shakes his head.

" Woman, this is some of the best food I've ever had. It might be better then Eliot's."

"Oh, yeah!" Parker pipes in through a mouth full.

I chuckle at her, then look at Eliot, who's already looking at me with a small smile. We maintain eye contact until my dad asks me a question about work.

I fill him in on how the new guy did, and what we decided to change on the menu. When I mentioned a rather fancy dish, Eliot asked a question about what we use in it. When I told him, he had a look of understanding on his face, a welcome change to the blank looks I get when not talking to a coworker.

We talk about our favorite recipes throughout the rest of dinner, sharing which ones Dad liked, the ones Parker and Hardison's childish tastes actually liked, or the food that Sophie says is better that any of the fancy stuff her mark's thought was worth the price they paid for it. Which recipes we changed and how it turns out.

When we all had eaten, table cleared, dishes washed and any leftovers are put away, I stat to make my goodbyes. I hug my Dad, and bid the rest of the team goodnight.

I gather my stuff and head to the the door. I pull it open, then turn and look at Eliot, who's already looking at me.

"If you ever want to come over and cook, give me a call. I'd love to try some of you food."

"I'll have to take ya' up on that," he says with a smile.

I return his smile then head out the door, a giddy feeling erupting in my chest.

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

The soft smile remains on Eliot's face as the front door closes. A throat clearing pulls his attention to Nate, who has an annoyed look on his face.

"What?" Eliot asks.

"Don't." Nate growls.

"Don't what?"

"Don't flirt with my daughter. She is off limits."

"I wasn't gonna-"

"Off limits."

[autihippo]

"After reading his account of it I was prepared to meet a good specimen of manhood, but hardly the quiet, business-like gentleman who came here to-day" (September 30, Dr Seward's diary).

The thought struck me, as I was thinking about it, that he was expecting Eliot, and got Hardison. (Though when Alec's ever been quiet, I am sure I don't know.) So, it's time for a Leverage x Dracula crossover.

Parker & Hardison: Jonathan & Mina. Couple hugely devoted to one another, always available for support and ready to bury you when you hurt their partner. Parker is not quite the Victorian woman Mina is. (If you tell Parker to sit back and let the men handle things, she will hand you your arse and steal your wallet.)

Eliot: Quincey Morris, though with fewer guns. Eliot'd go out and punch any bats flapping around.

Nate: Van Helsing. He's the Man with the Plan.

Maggie: Lucy. The entire team loves her, and would kill you for hurting her.

Sophie: Arthur. She's shammed being nobility enough times.

Sterling: Jack Seward. He's enough of a bastard that I can see him running an asylum.

Dracula is the only one so far I don't know about. Maybe Damian Moreau, though that would require him to care, to a degree, about the people he hurts. And being above it all is what led to Damian's downfall.

[why-bless-your-heart]

Why I like Nate x Sophie:

She grounds him

Friends to lovers

Team Dad x Team Mom is always a winning combination

The way she looks at him, even when he’s at his worst

Why I don’t like Nate x Sophie:

The way Nate and Maggie look at each other

[thatsastepladder]

I had an idea (well, 12% of an idea) for a Leverage x Librarians crossover come to me in a dream, and I need to put it here so I don't lose it.

And by 12% of an idea, I mean plotbunnies.

My half-asleep 5AM self called this "The Galileo Job/...and the Telescope of Galileo" but I'm not really sure that works, exactly. It would work fine on the Leverage side, but I'm not sure about the Librarians side, I'd need to make up some magical trait for it to have.

I don't really have a plot in mind, all I came up with at the time were character dynamics.

Anyway, important thing that files in the face of 99% of crossover fics between these shows: Eliot and Jake aren't related in this, they just happen to look alike. Nobody comments on this fact because it's funnier that way.

(However, if Maggie's in the episode, she 100% mistakes Jake for Eliot's Wes Abernathy disguise.)

Jones and Parker know each other, but only by reputation - a good thief doesn't get caught, obviously. Jones is stoked to be working with the Parker, Parker's not so keen on working with Jones.

Similarly, Baird and Eliot have history from when he was in the service. Not romantic history, mind you, but they've crossed paths a few times.

Jenkins knows Sophie from a previous noodle incident. It's not elaborated upon.

If Flynn is in this, none of the Leverage crew can stand him at all. Especially Nate.

On the other hand, Nate and Cassandra get along quite well - Cassandra having sympathy for what Nate went through with Sam due to her own struggles with the medical system.

Cassandra also gets along well with Hardison - much to Parker's chagrin, as she starts to get a bit jealous. And then Cassandra has the gall to steal her cereal...

Jake and Hardison also become fast friends, but of the 'arguing all the time' variety, mostly about art history.

As for an actual plot, I'm thinking if it were a real episode, it would be a pretty standard Leverage episode from the start - a client comes to Nate seeking justice against a group that's claimed the family heirloom MacGuffin or whatever. Nate says "let's go steal a MacGuffin", and their initial plan goes horribly wrong.

Cut to the Library, the Clipping Book opens and the LITs are off to the same place Leverage is... because whatever's messing up Leverage's plan, it's magic.

[thewingedwolf]

Parker, Eliot, and Hardison when they first see Sophie acting: what the hell and fuck

Nate when he sees Sophie acting: THAT IS MY W I F E AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH

[leverageepisodegifs]

418: The Last Dam Job

[winterroseposts]

Leverage Season 01 x 11 - The Juror #6 Job

Parker immediately discovering the trial is being tampered with.

Sophie- "You know she's never done that before."

Nate - "What?"

Sophie- "Asked for our help."

Hardison managing to win the Vargas's case.

01 x 12 The First David Job

Eliot in his role as an art expert is chatting up a lady at the museum. Nate - "Bring her along. It'll sell the character. " Turns out it's Nate's ex-wife, Maggie. Eliot dropping Maggie's arm with a sheepish "Oohh" really sells it.

Parker using the fake second David like an action figure. Hardison- "Can you please not play with the little, naked man?"

Parker casually changing into a dress in front of Hardison. He turns around & turns the fake David statue around.

Parker - "I need dark eyeshadow."

Eliot to Sophie "I assume she's talking to you. "

Parker breaking into the vault with "things she found at the buffet."

Sophie and Nate rescuing Parker and Hardison by going "What would Parker/Hardison do." Sophie grabs Parker & rappels off a roof. Nate uses the office security system.

01 x 13 - The Second David Job

We see the team entering the museum in various disguises & think their working on a plan. Turns out they're all here separately and tripping over each other.

Hardison being chased by security- "Eliot, help me."

Eliot flips him over and handcuffs him.

Maggie figuring out "Professor Sinclair" is working with Nate from the button camera she got Nate years ago.

Maggie working with the team.

The team finally getting Blackpoole ousted from the company.

[gabolange]

So, let’s talk about Leverage: Redemption. In which I am medium-whelmed at best.

Spoilers below the cut.

I finished the show a couple of days ago and I keep trying to figure out why I didn’t love it. This isn’t to say I didn’t like it, because I did, but it didn’t land for me the way it seems to have landed for a lot of people, and so here I am with, like, meta. Party like it’s 2008 and all that.

2008. I actually didn’t meet Leverage until 2010 despite friends telling me for ages I should watch. It one of those moments that became a forever memory for many reasons, but the most important is this: the show was perfect. Those first hours spent watching a rerun marathon on TNT on a hot-as-fuck July 4 in Albuquerque, New Mexico came with them the understanding that this show was truly special.

It was funny, it was topical, it was sexy, and it was so fucking smart. I fell in love right away with all of them, but especially with Sophie, and with Nate, and with their complicated, complex, adult history. And then over the course of catching up and keeping up, I fell even harder, with them and those themes, with watching Parker and Hardison grow into themselves, with watching Eliot deal every day with his demons. I loved the way the show balanced light and dark, how it could have Archie’s zappy cane in the same breath as Eliot giving Nate advice about what it would mean to kill. I loved that we all loved Maggie, even though ex-wives are known in television to be evil shrews. I loved Tara’s complexity, and Sterling’s wit, and how every episode was a chess game. And oh, how I loved Sophie’s journey, how she had to decide every day not how to live but who to be.

When I say it was perfect, I don’t mean it didn’t have its duds. Of course it did. But it did the thing it was trying to do better than anyone has ever done it, with intelligence and respect, and its finale is one of the three best series finales ever filmed.

This is all to say the bar for Leverage: Redemption was both sky high and very low. When I heard they weren’t bringing Nate back, my first thought was don’t you fucking dare break my heart. If Nate was drunk off his ass in a ditch somewhere, if he had broken Sophie’s heart--that would be the ultimate betrayal (hi, I still have feelings about The Doctor Blake Mysteries). And so the bar was: don’t break my heart, while also being something like the perfect show.

They didn’t break my heart. I said early the best thing would be to kill Nate after he and Sophie had good, long, happy years together. And they did, and it was the right place to start.

They gave me that, and I am grateful, but when I look at the rest, I guess I was underwhelmed. Or at least only whelmed. Medium-whelmed at best.

There were things I loved: Hardison and Parker’s relationship. Eliot’s careful watch over Sophie. Hardison growing up to become the most epic white hat hacker ever. The idea that getting back into the game would be the thing that would make Sophie happy. Hardison’s commentary on redemption. The idea of Leverage: International. Gina Bellman is still made of magic and heartbreak and perfection.

There were things I liked: I am fond of our Mister Wilson, even if I find Noah Wylie about as interesting as plain toast. There were some truly great Eliot beats. I don’t yet like Breanna, but I like the idea of Breanna. I liked the way Nate hovered over the entire thing, because Sophie brought him with her. I think the sets were great, and I was impressed at how much they were able to do in a pandemic. I found utterly baffling but nonetheless charming that we meet Harry in the middle of a failed heist in which the team judges his technique and then adopts him. I liked Fake Nate and everything they did with that. The show had many bright spots, and I don’t in any way want to diminish them.

But. It wasn’t smart. It wasn’t sexy. Except for Sophie’s grief and Hardison’s plans, it picked up the character beats where we left them ten years ago. Has Parker been mastermind for this entire time? I would have loved to see that. Have they learned how to do this well without Sophie and Nate? I would have loved to see that. Show me the history.

Show me the history. Breanna and Hardison and Parker all say this is the worst timeline, and we know it is because we have lived it. But in the universe of the show, it doesn’t really seem that bad -- the plots of the week were silly and so small. I remember finding Damien Moreau too big, once upon a time, but this all felt too easy, the stakes far too small for this to be a show where everything has gotten worse. Nate almost murdered two guys in cold blood, folks. The show was missing any of the darkness that made the original truly compelling, and so lost the balance we loved between that and finding joy. I don’t need it in every episode, but I need a hint that there’s something bigger and meaner out there other than throwaway dialog.

(And, when it tried to go dark, it swung and missed. The episode with the collapsed building was timely, but as someone with anxiety and PTSD, the way the crew played on this guy who had apparently tried to do better this time around...was kinda not okay, to be honest.)

I don’t have OT3 goggles, but I think if I did, I would find Hardison’s absence a little sad--he was the glue, and they needed to do more to bring Parker and Eliot together as friends / colleagues / long-term members of the same polycue / whatever. But even without OT3 goggles, I missed Hardison a whole lot. And I am SO happy for Aldis Hodge growing up to be a real movie star, but he brought so much presence and capability to every scene he was in, even when he was just a kid. Nobody else has his gravitas, or Timothy Hutton’s.

I do have Sophie goggles, and Sophie / Nate goggles. And they didn’t ruin the ship or anything, of course not. But I missed the frisson they brought, the way they made the show just that much more adult. And I am so very, very glad they got their happiness, but I am kinda sad that sexy got replaced with grief.

So yeah. I don’t know. I didn’t hate it at all. I am willing to give it a chance, to let it grow into something I love. But it isn’t, at least not yet.

(x-posted to dreamwidth)

[vickyvicarious]

Some Leverage thoughts

Hardison stays up all night when he gets into a game, even otherwise is a bit of a night owl. Parker tends to stay up late but has the ability to fall asleep any time anywhere at will. Eliot can sleep whenever if needed but likes to wake up at the crack of dawn; luckily he only sleeps like 5 hours a night so he doesn't need to miss out on too much time with them in the evening. They do sleep in though so he gets annoyed at them wasting the day away.

Sophie and Maggie are good friends who would most definitely enjoy having a threesome together but it won't happen as long as Nate is the third party and Sophie isn't going to do it without him now they're together, so... sigh. What a shame, they'd have a great time. They have discussed this over wine resignedly but with great affection.

Sterling is an excellent cook. Nate lets this slip at some point, probably via commenting that he prefers Sterling's version of [x dish Eliot made]. They all silently agree never to let Eliot know.

Parker likes putting stuff in her hot chocolate. This can range from stuff like caramel, mint, butterscotch... to stuff like peanut butter, hard-boiled eggs, hot sauce.

Nate doesn't do anything for his son's death anniversary. On his birthday he usually gets drunk and maudlin and vaguely religious but he refuses to do anything special for the day he died.

Sophie regularly visits her acting troupe and gives them advice both onstage and in life. She gives them all her personal cell phone number.

Eliot doesn't save contacts in his phone, just memorizes the numbers of everyone he needs to talk to.

Parker cannot hold a conversation of any length on the phone without doing gymnastics/parkour or she finds herself unable to focus.

Hardison likes exercising for a number of reasons including: defying geek stereotype, lookin' good, it's a thing to do while listening to podcasts or watching trashy TV, and it warms his heart to know he is capable of putting Chaos in a headlock from which he would never escape.

Eliot would make mixtapes for the team if he didn't know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would all mock him for eternity. Still, deep in his heart the impulse lives on.

Hardison has assigned a superhero alter-ego to every member of the team but none of them care enough to sit down and listen to him explain who he chose and why. (Eliot gets excited about it eventually but only after a lengthy amount of trolling.)

One year they all go apeshit on April Fools day. No one even remembers why they did it but they are all too scared to ever attempt celebrating the day again.

[bisexualeliotspencer]

Leverage x Primeval

I like to come up with pitches for ways the leverage team would fit in other universes so enjoy the following AU:

After realising a kid’s pet was straight out of a dinosaur book, Parker gets thrown into the strange world where dinosaurs travel through glowing crystal anomalies and into the present day. After consulting with renowned palaeontologist Nate Ford, Parker ends up joining a team of scientists, politicians and special forces operatives to figure out the cause of these anomalies, and to help deal with everything that comes through them.

Nate Ford - Takes the role of Nick Cutter, the academic with a missing (ex) wife. Obsessed with the prehistoric, collecting fossils and teaching his students all about the past. Currently working in the UK with his research student lecturing at the local university. Brought in to help identify and study the creatures the anomalies drop out.

Alec Hardison - Nates number 1 research student (combination of Stephen Hart and Connor Temple) still a hacker but also with a particular interest in the prehistoric like Nate. Was there for when Nate lost Maggie when she disappeared without a trace. Has had to keep Nate afloat and out of his destructive alcoholism by providing work and research projects to keep him sane. Becomes the main tech support of the team as well as cataloguing and tracking the anomalies all over.

Parker - the zookeeper with a troubled past (Abby Maitland) grew up jacking cars and breaking in to places she wasn’t supposed to. She was never a fan of people but fell in love with reptiles and ended up with a degree and a job at the zoo in the reptile section. When she becomes part of the team her thievery skills come in handy for getting into, and out of, tricky situations

Sophie Devereaux - (Claudia) works for the Home Office, dealing with bureaucratic bastards and covering up potential incidents. Works with the team to keep journalists and the general public far away from the reality of the situation they face.

Eliot Spencer - captain of the special forces team (Captain Tom Ryan) Eliot was brought in to help deal with the potential threat from the past. Keeps the team safe as well as keeping his own team prepared.

James Sterling - (James Lester) Public servant and general arsehole in charge of the operation. Is the main liaison between the prime minister and the team and seeks to keep the knowledge of these anomalies out of the public radar and an official secret. Butts heads frequently with Nate and doesn’t share the sentiment that all the creatures should be kept alive and protected.

Maggie Collins - Nates Ex wife who disappeared one day. Also a renowned palaeontologist who was investigating strange claims of large unknown reptiles the day she disappeared, did she know something about these anomalies? Or was she just unlucky?