My take on how the leverage team handled finding out about Maggie and Eliot :) can't write Maggie and Eliot together and not have the team react, right? they were going to be individual stories but I like them together :) Let me know what you think
Sophie
Sophie had figured out that Eliot and Maggie were dating a month before she let them know that she knew. They weren't exactly very good at hiding it.
Her first clue was when Maggie had recommended a new book. Innocuous enough, but the book wasn't Maggie's usual taste. And Eliot had been reading the same book a week ago. Coincidences do happen though.
Then Hardison made a joke about Eliot buying jewelry for a girlfriend, which was unusual enough to pique her interest. After all, Eliot didn't date, not seriously enough to warrant jewelry anyway. When she probed Eliot for details about the mystery woman, he gave vague answers. Or no answers at all. Again, this was odd. Eliot usually didn't mind giving at least a few details about the women he dated.
It was the monthly shopping trip with Maggie that gave her the final clues though.
The first hint of the day was the new necklace Maggie was wearing. Not only was it out of Maggie's price range and not something the woman would buy for herself but Sophie was certain that she had seen Eliot looking at the same necklace in Paris. When she asked Maggie about it, the woman responded with "Oh…it was a gift." With a small smile and slight blush. She didn't offer anything else and Sophie decided not to push.
The next hint was after shopping. While Maggie put away her new clothes and talked with the grifter, Sophie made a number of observations. Such as the second toothbrush in the bathroom, the man's ring on the dresser (which was slipped into a drawer a few minutes after Sophie had noticed it), and a man's flannel shirt in the laundry basket.
As they headed back downstairs, Sophie noticed in the kitchen that there were more dishes in the drying rack than Maggie was likely to leave, had it just been her eating.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Maggie exclaimed suddenly as they entered the living room.
"I got you something in Spain last month, wait here." She ordered as she made her way back upstairs.
Sophie moved around the living room, looking for any more clues as to the mysterious boyfriend. That was when she found the biggest clue yet.
Almost hidden under the coffee table, just a corner peeking out, was bandana. A very distinctive bandana.
Sophie smiled to herself, pleased with her discovery.
She nudged the bandana further under the table and turned as her friend came down the stairs.
"Oh, Maggie, that is a beautiful dress! You really shouldn't have." She raved, not mentioning the bandana, or any of her deductions.
They would tell her when they were ready.
Parker
Parker found out that Maggie and Eliot were dating by accident. Well, to be accurate she didn't actually realized they were dating until later.
The team was taking a two week break/vacation/time-away-so-I-don't-kill-you-all/hiatus. Nate and Sophie were somewhere in Europe, Haridson was at comic-con, and Parker wasn't exactly sure where Eliot was.
She found that out the hard way when she tried to sneak into Maggie's house at four in the morning.
Parker knew Eliot had upgraded the security in Maggie's home so she was careful and quiet when she came in. However, while it is possible to get by Spencer Security, it is much much harder to get by Spencer himself. Parker's quiet intrusion woke Eliot, who in turn woke Maggie.
"Darlin' someone's here. Get on the-"
"Eliot, what are you doing here?" Parker peeked over the couch at the couple.
Eliot sunk back into the couch, the brief surge of adrenaline preparing him for a fight leaving his body quickly.
"We fell asleep watching a movie." Maggie answered the blonde thief. "What are you doing here so late Parker? Are you okay?" he voice laced with worry.
"huh? Oh, I'm okay. I just missed you. And the team is on break and me and Hardison are going to London next week but he's at comic-con now so I figured I'd visit. Is that why you're here Eliot? Did you miss her too?"
Eliot took a breath, feeling winded just listening to her talk so fast.
"Figured it was about time to check the security again. I fell asleep watching the movie." He parroted the excuse for his sleeping on the couch.
"ooh, sleep over!" Parker squealed. "Can I stay?" she pleaded, turning to Maggie with puppy dog eyes.
"Sure, you can stay." Eliot sighed and rolled his eyes but accepted the inevitable.
"Parker," he started after hearing her stomach growl, "when was the last time you ate something besides cereal?"
Her eyes drifted upward and her hand came to her chin as she thought. "I had fortune cookies for breakfast yesterday." She finally replied.
He shook his head and moved to the kitchen and started to pull out the left over pasta from a romantic dinner.
"ooh, Eliot food!" Parker squealed to Maggie.
"Your security must be really good; Eliot never sleeps somewhere he doesn't trust the security for." She complemented.
Maggie frowned a little at that, both for the issues it meant for Eliot and because she was hoping Parker would ignore the fact that Eliot was comfortable enough to sleep at her place.
"Parker, can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure."
"Let's keep our sleepover a secret. Okay?"
"Kay, but why?"
"Well, "she paused not quite sure how to phrase it. "Nate doesn't like knowing when I have other people spend the night, especially other men. I don't want him to be upset." She tried, knowing she hadn't quite conveyed what she meant.
"Does it bother you when Nate and Sophie have sleepovers?" Parker asked.
"No." Maggie replied truthfully and with a small smile.
"Then why does Nate get mad if you have sleepovers?" Parker asked, not understanding her friends.
"He doesn't get mad, he gets jealous. He loved Maggie, still does but in a different way now. Sometimes he forgets that he's not in love with her." Eliot explained, carrying Parker's dinner over.
"Oh. Okay, I won't tell Nate about our super-secret sleep over." Parker said, taking the heated up lasagna from Eliot.
"Can I tell Bunny?" she asked after a few bites.
Hardison
Hardison actually went looking for information of Eliot's girlfriend. He had watched as Eliot disappeared after every job lately almost as soon as they were done. Not to mention the jewelry he had seen his friend hiding and the better mood he had bene in. Hardison could tell it was getting serious but he couldn't find anything to indicate who it was.
That's not to say he didn't try. Eliot tended to avoid technology so there wasn't an internet trail, no social media clues to follow. Nor were there any text messages, voicemails, or emails. Debit card traces didn't work either. Eliot almost always used cash on a normal basis, he was probably even more careful when it came to hiding who his significant other was and where she lived. Hardison even ran Eliot's recent calls through a program but there weren't any new numbers or names saved.
Eventually he decided to try a non-electronic approach. Not because he didn't think it would work because it's the age of the geek baby and everything can be found online. He just wanted to give his friend a chance to tell him himself. Totally.
This new approach was also slightly (much) more annoying for Eliot. Hardison began asking leading question anytime he thought he might catch Eliot off guard.
"Hey, do you think your girlfriend would like this movie?" he'd ask while downloading Doctor Who.
"What's the name of our mark again?" He asked during a con.
"Right, right. And your girlfriends name is….?"
"Focus Hardison." Nate cut in.
"So. Is her birthday in May or June, since the necklace you bought in Paris had an emerald in it?"
"Dammit Hardison! Knock it off!" Eliot finally snapped after Hardison's questions distracted him from a fight, resulting in Eliot getting a black eye.
In the end, it was pure chance that Hardison figured it out.
He was doing his weekly inventory of electronics to see what had been lost (thank you parker) or broken (lookin' at you Nate and Eliot) when he realized he was missing a burner phone that he knew he'd had at the end of the last job. He remembered having it in Eliot's charger after the con and he thought he'd brought it in with all the others.
He tried calling Eliot but his phone was off. He debated going over to Eliot's place (he did know where at least one of his safe houses was) but it was kind of late (read 3 am).
In the end he decided to trace the burner phone, safest way to find it.
Except the burner phone wasn't at Eliot's. It wasn't even in Oregon. He double checked the address.
"How the heck did you get to Maggie's house?" he wondered out loud.
He sat for ten minutes debating on whether or not to call Nate or Eliot(he probably had his other phone on him), not sure how a phone from their last con had ended up so far from home. Instead, he pulled up a phone trace on Eliot's car, having planted a tracker on it the night before in hopes of tracking down where his girlfriend lived.
He decided to delete the search and never mention it to anybody when it popped up that Eliot's car was also at Maggie's.
Nate
Eliot told Nate that he was dating Maggie abruptly and seemingly out of nowhere.
He considered doing it while Nate was drunk, but decided against it because Nate is dangerous when drunk. However, he might be dangerous sober. Eliot debated waiting for Nate to be in good mood or maybe when it was just them as opposed to the whole team. He thought about it when he while pretending to read at the brewpub and he deliberated it while cooking. He pondered it while cleaning dishes and considered every conceivable way to tell his friend that he was dating his ex-wife.
Eventually he figured out the one time Nate wouldn't be able to get mad about his relationship.
"I love you too Sophie." Nate said quietly, the couple stealing a quiet moment away from the team, or so they thought.
This is what Eliot had been waiting for. The only time Nate couldn't get mad at him for dating his ex-wife would be when he was professing his love to his current wife. It had taken almost two weeks for him to get this chance, seeing as the mastermind and grifter weren't prone to public displays of affection unless it was for a con.
"I'm dating Maggie." He said without preamble, shocking Nate and Sophie, who both jumped at the sudden loss of privacy. Eliot felt only slightly guilty for ruining their private moment.
He stood his ground, ready for a fight.
"W-what?" Nate asked, head spinning not uncommon to the feeling of having one too many drinks.
"Maggie and I are dating, have been for a few months now. I love her and it don't feel right hiding the relationship. I didn't plan on falling in love with your ex-wife but I did. And I wouldn't change it if I could, she's too special."
"You're dating my ex-wife?" Nate repeated, the spinning was slowing but the room was slowly becoming red.
"That's not a problem, is it Nate?" Sophie asked digging her feet in.
"Ye- NO – I mean- wait. You knew?" he sputtered to Sophie, finally registering her unsurprised demeanor.
"Of course, they did a horrible job at hiding it." She replied, waving her hand dismissively. "Everyone knows."
"Everyone?" Nate and Eliot said in unison.
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