Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a Leverage FanFiction, so please be understanding. I hope I did a good job at getting the characters personalities right. This will be a short story, there will only be one con in this plotline, sorry. This will also be the average length for each chapter. It came up to about 3 pages on my Word Document, so I think I'm not cheating you out of anything. The whole thing is set after the Season Finale, and the crew is in Oregon.

I will be updating once a Month, around the same time each month, give or take a week. If I know that I have a lot of readers, then I might update more frequently.

I would like to say a special thank you to my Beta Reader, LoveAndSerenity, she is awesome.

Pairings: Slight Hardison/Parker, slight Nate/Sophie, slight Eliot/OC

Disclaimer: If I owned "Leverage", Christian Kane would be in MyCircle. Lemme check....nope!

It had been a long night that was sure to get longer. The rest of the Leverage team had gone home over two hours ago, leaving their leader there by himself. Nate sat in the new Conference room alone with his drink. The only source of light came from the small screen on his laptop that was currently lying on the round, glass table in front of him. He was going over the plan that he had pieced together for their current customer. Nate was having problems in formulating this specific plan, the team did not have enough information to go on as of yet, and they hadn't exactly been working as smoothly as they had in LA.

They weren't totally to blame; IYS had a little something to do with it…okay, a lot. It was because of Nate's old insurance company that Hardison had to blow up their late place of operations, and the team had to flee the state and run like the criminals they all were all the way to Oregon. Hardison and Nate had tried their best to make the new office as close of a replica to the old one, but that was an impossible task. Leverage Consulting was still a 'legal' business, and their offices still took up a whole floor of a rented-out building, but that was about where it all stopped. The only real reminder of the life they all had in LA was the creepy portrait that Hardison 'painted' of the company's founder. Even the portrait had stopped being just a strange portrait. For the first week or so, the team would stop and stare at that portrait for a few moments, reminiscing about the past events that brought them unjustly to this place. However, as the days past, the rest of the team stopped their morning ritual. Eliot was the first to stop, the retrieval specialist was used to having to give up everything and run because a past enemy decided they wanted to kill him in some strange way. Parker was the next one to forget the past, followed by Sophie. Hardison had quit taking glances at the portrait, and before he knew it, Nate was all by himself. But he guessed that was how everyone was so good at what they did; everyone was able to forget the past. It was all just business.

At least, that was what everyone said when asked about it. Their actions showed differently. Since their move from LA, the team had started to drift. Even though the team accepted Sophie's not-apology, Eliot still had a hard time trusting her. His anger had started to get in the way of their jobs, and he had killed more than one man unnecessarily during a con. Parker would run off and do something crazy, like stabbing people with various types of utensils, and Hardison started to have focus issues again. Sophie was the only one who seemed to stay the same, yet again; Nate never knew when Sophie was truly being just Sophie, and not some made up person who was created on Hardison's computer. The team had started to go back to their lives before the Nigerian Job, when all they had was themselves. Nate knew that if something didn't happen fast, Leverage would be done with, and he would start to fall backwards, back to the place he had been before labeled 'rock bottom.'

Nate sighed and closed his computer screen. He had done enough thinking for one night, and if he continued to have these depressing thoughts, he wasn't sure if he would be able to get out of them. He had to wait a moment as the room went dark, the glow emitting from the computer had been his only source of light. Once his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he packed his computer into a small bag that hung on his shoulder, and picked up his glass of alcohol. He found his way to the kitchen, and placed the cup in the sink. He was going through the lobby and was about to unlock the front door to get out when he hesitated. Nate slowly reached for the light switch, and swung around, facing the small couch located on the opposite wall before turning the lights on. What he saw scared the crap out of him, and Nate could have sworn that his heart had skipped a few beats. Sitting on the couch like she was meant to be there, was a young woman.

She sat in the corner of the couch, but it wasn't because she wanted to save space. Her slender right arm was stretched across the back of the couch, her fingers lightly tapping in a hypnotizing rhythm. Her fingernails looked as if they were recently treated to a French manicure, the white tips blurred as her fingers moved. Her other arm was resting gently in her lap, a small silver pistol laying next to her left hand, looking innocent to all of the world. Her legs were crossed, and her feet were dressed in shoes with heels that would rival Sophie's. The rest of her attire seemed as if it was chosen for the exact task of being bland. Her blue jeans were complemented with a simple black tank top along with a long, single silver chain that held no charms or trinkets. Her hair was let down, it was around an inch or two longer than Eliot's. The coloring was a different matter; it was naturally black, with brown streaks placed expertly in the locks. Her grey-green eyes stared a hole in his blue ones, and a knowing smirk was gracing her bare lips. "Hello, Mr. Ford."

"What do you want?" Normally, Nate wouldn't be this rude, even if he was having a conversation with a possible bad guy. However, extraneous circumstances, including lack of sleep, caused him to forgo the mental dance and be straight and blunt. He was also having a hard time not looking at the dangerous object lying in the woman's lap. Every time his eyes lay on it, the deadly metal seemed to laugh at him. The woman, it seemed, noticed this as well, and caused one of the laughs to become reality. It was a short, small laugh that seemed like more of a chuckle. "Don't worry, if I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already."

"Well, that's certainly comforting." He watched as the woman picked up the small metal gun and played with it for a few seconds. She handled it the way that Nate imagined Eliot would handle such a gun if he ever caught him using one. That information was both comforting and unnerving. The woman finally clicked the little safety lever so that the gun was no longer ready to fire, and placed it on the arm of the couch. She then uncrossed her legs and stood up. She stood about a half a head shorter than Nate while wearing the heels, which made her a woman of average height, a blessing if you worked on the darker side of life. She began to slowly pace the room, making sure to stay in front of Nate so he didn't have to move to keep an eye on her. Her heels make a soft click-lack noise as they came in contact with the floor. "You know, Mr. Ford, that the world has started it's decent to chaos, when things start to fall apart. For example: Men blowing up their own office buildings, insurance companies denying a soundproof claim to one of their greatest assets…" A flinch worked its way out of Nate. "…those who hunt having to worry about being hunted…you get my drift, no?"

"I don't have the energy nor the time to play games, try your speech somewhere else." Nathan moved toward a single chair that meant for customers. He was tired of standing, and assessed the woman earlier statement to be true. As long as he didn't anger this strange woman, no harm would come to him tonight, at least from her hands. His sitting down caused her to pause in walking side by side. Instead if sitting back down, she continued to stand, placing herself directly in front on Nate. "But isn't that what you do Nathan? Play 'mind games' all day long? Oh…don't look surprised, I do my homework."

Nathan was surprised all right. Surprised that this woman knew a lot about his company. He hated it when people knew more about him than he did about them. Maybe it was the conman in him, or maybe it was the paranoid insurance investigator that lay only partially dormant inside. He sighed, showing off his agitation with the whole ordeal. "Are you here to mock me, or is this conversation actually going somewhere?"

Another smirk. They were getting slightly annoying. It was as if she knew a big secret about him and wanted to tell, but wouldn't. "Alright, fair enough. I have a proposition for you. A – you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours – kinda deal. " She then walked back over to the couch, where she pulled a good sized black purse from behind the couch. From it, she pulled an innocent looking manila envelope, which she handed to Nate. She stood up as he read it; feet spread slightly apart, all her weight on her right foot. After about a minute she crossed her arms. Nate took his time reading through the information. Another case against a large, international company that has gotten so comfortable with its power that it has started to make mistakes. Just the kind of case they took. At the back of the report was an extra sheet of paper. Further reading showed that it was a resume, probably the woman's. Nate started to see what was happening. "I'll provide the much-needed glue for your team if you provide me with…leverage…"

Nate stared at the folder in his hand, reading over the resume once more. He would get Hardison to run some of the names, but the woman had some talents that would be great assets to the team. And introducing a new player would either make or break the current group. Seeing that they were already starting to break, it was a risk that Nathan was more than willing to take. He placed the folder on a small side table next to his chair before standing up. He thrust his hand out, palm upward, to initiate a handshake. "Well then, Miss…."

"Knite."

"Well then, Miss Knite, you have yourself a deal."

And there you have it folks. What do you think? I'm not begging but REVIEWS would be loved!