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Over Again - Leverage - Gen (Eliot Spencer, references to canon pairings) - Words: 835
Written for the CaffeinatedMagic Prompt Table 01; Prompt: Happy Ending
Summary: They save the day, again, but some things don't change.
Content Notes: None. PG
On AO3: Over Again
The job was finished. They'd done the crawling around in the ventilation and elevators shafts, the using wild accents and outlandish outfits, and even the greet and schmooze while they brought the corporate fat cats to their financial ruin. Then they'd cleaned up; Eliot cleaned the scrapes on his knuckles, Hardison wiped the hard drives of any particularly damning evidence, Parker coiled her ropes, and Sophie and Nate changed back into clothes that human beings might actually wear.
And then they moved onto the hard part of the evening. They went down to the bar and smiled at the young couple who'd had their lives destroyed and no recourse but to turn to those who didn't quite live by the letter of the law. The woman wept and the man touched his eyes suspiciously ever few minutes as Nate and Hardison explained that Dale Fisher and his company would never bother them again. Nate handed them the check and gave them that sad smile as he told them he knew it would never replace the life they'd lost, but they could start building a new one now.
The couple thanked them all profusely, handshakes and hugs all around, and then left the bar. The team chatted for a few more minutes; Parker and Hardison acting like they were from different planets but trying to speak the same language, while Sophie and Nate did a terrible job at hiding whatever it was that they were trying to keep from each other. Eliot sat at the bar, a drink in one hand and an icepack on his knee, and wondered how the team ever managed to get anything accomplished.
They were good people, all of them. Grifters, thieves, hackers, and whatever it was that Nate was calling himself these days. There was more crossover now then there used to be. Sure they were each the best at their specialized skills, they had to be, but they could all do some of the more basic functions of another team member when it was necessary. And yet, Eliot didn't know how they ever made it through a single job when one of them was always getting distracted. They didn't just have to help the people they had set out to help, they had to help everyone else along the way too.
Eliot wouldn't have been surprised if one day Nate stood up in front of them and solemnly told them that their next job was to save the world. Some days he was pretty sure that's what Nate had in mind with his whole crusade.
Nate was right about something, at least. The feeling that came with helping someone when no one else could was good. Better than anything else. But he could see how it was driving them all closer and closer to some kind of madness. They finished a job and Nate was setting up three more and researching another dozen at the same time. Eliot didn't mind that so much, he was never a man to be idle, but he could see the pace and the recklessness biting at the team.
Each time Nate was pushing to chase a bigger score, a bigger win for the downtrodden and wronged people he so strongly championed. Eliot had seen it before; watched guys go after bigger and rougher fights so they could feel, watched thieves searching for that one priceless thing that would satisfy their lust, watched grifters lose themselves as they went into deeper cons.
Having a team, a crew, helped a little. None of them could get as lost in the chase when they had four other people watching their backs. The team had doggedly dragged Nate away from alcohol - with less success than they might have hoped - and intervened in various crises in order to save each other. They were able to do it because they had each other, four minds and bodies outweighing the desperation of the one.
This saving the world, one person at a time, was starting to infect all of them though. Eliot saw it in the way that Hardison cut through firewalls and a programs like he couldn't breathe until he reached the data inside. He saw it in the way Sophie smiled and charmed and slowly disappeared back to where every moment was a character and the Sophie they'd maybe briefly seen was lost once more. He saw it in how Parker listened to the stories of the clients they took, and how she watched the marks. It wasn't as obvious with her - things with Parker rarely were - but it was still there.
Eliot was one man, a single body and a single mind, and he would be fighting a fight that would be impossible to win if he chose to take up the rallying cry. What he could do was mitigate the insanity and keep the team functional.
And when Nate came in and told them that they were going to save the world, he could walk away.
Written for the CaffeinatedMagic Prompt Table 01; Prompt: Happy Ending
Summary: They save the day, again, but some things don't change.
Content Notes: None. PG
On AO3: Over Again
The job was finished. They'd done the crawling around in the ventilation and elevators shafts, the using wild accents and outlandish outfits, and even the greet and schmooze while they brought the corporate fat cats to their financial ruin. Then they'd cleaned up; Eliot cleaned the scrapes on his knuckles, Hardison wiped the hard drives of any particularly damning evidence, Parker coiled her ropes, and Sophie and Nate changed back into clothes that human beings might actually wear.
And then they moved onto the hard part of the evening. They went down to the bar and smiled at the young couple who'd had their lives destroyed and no recourse but to turn to those who didn't quite live by the letter of the law. The woman wept and the man touched his eyes suspiciously ever few minutes as Nate and Hardison explained that Dale Fisher and his company would never bother them again. Nate handed them the check and gave them that sad smile as he told them he knew it would never replace the life they'd lost, but they could start building a new one now.
The couple thanked them all profusely, handshakes and hugs all around, and then left the bar. The team chatted for a few more minutes; Parker and Hardison acting like they were from different planets but trying to speak the same language, while Sophie and Nate did a terrible job at hiding whatever it was that they were trying to keep from each other. Eliot sat at the bar, a drink in one hand and an icepack on his knee, and wondered how the team ever managed to get anything accomplished.
They were good people, all of them. Grifters, thieves, hackers, and whatever it was that Nate was calling himself these days. There was more crossover now then there used to be. Sure they were each the best at their specialized skills, they had to be, but they could all do some of the more basic functions of another team member when it was necessary. And yet, Eliot didn't know how they ever made it through a single job when one of them was always getting distracted. They didn't just have to help the people they had set out to help, they had to help everyone else along the way too.
Eliot wouldn't have been surprised if one day Nate stood up in front of them and solemnly told them that their next job was to save the world. Some days he was pretty sure that's what Nate had in mind with his whole crusade.
Nate was right about something, at least. The feeling that came with helping someone when no one else could was good. Better than anything else. But he could see how it was driving them all closer and closer to some kind of madness. They finished a job and Nate was setting up three more and researching another dozen at the same time. Eliot didn't mind that so much, he was never a man to be idle, but he could see the pace and the recklessness biting at the team.
Each time Nate was pushing to chase a bigger score, a bigger win for the downtrodden and wronged people he so strongly championed. Eliot had seen it before; watched guys go after bigger and rougher fights so they could feel, watched thieves searching for that one priceless thing that would satisfy their lust, watched grifters lose themselves as they went into deeper cons.
Having a team, a crew, helped a little. None of them could get as lost in the chase when they had four other people watching their backs. The team had doggedly dragged Nate away from alcohol - with less success than they might have hoped - and intervened in various crises in order to save each other. They were able to do it because they had each other, four minds and bodies outweighing the desperation of the one.
This saving the world, one person at a time, was starting to infect all of them though. Eliot saw it in the way that Hardison cut through firewalls and a programs like he couldn't breathe until he reached the data inside. He saw it in the way Sophie smiled and charmed and slowly disappeared back to where every moment was a character and the Sophie they'd maybe briefly seen was lost once more. He saw it in how Parker listened to the stories of the clients they took, and how she watched the marks. It wasn't as obvious with her - things with Parker rarely were - but it was still there.
Eliot was one man, a single body and a single mind, and he would be fighting a fight that would be impossible to win if he chose to take up the rallying cry. What he could do was mitigate the insanity and keep the team functional.
And when Nate came in and told them that they were going to save the world, he could walk away.
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