Disclaimer: Leverage is (c) 2009 Leverage Holdings Inc.
Little Things
John McRory's Place was dark, which was hardly surprising, as it was just after two o'clock in the morning. The sign on the door proclaimed the bar to be closed. All the chairs had been stacked onto the tables, awaiting the next day when they would be taken down and used to accommodate the bar's patrons.
The lock clicked and the door opened, allowing five people to walk in. The first two, a man and a woman, immediately set about the task of switching the lights on and pouring drinks. They said nothing but occasionally stole glances at each other. Their names were Nathan Ford and Sophie Devereaux – Nate still didn't know her real name so he continued to refer to her as Sophie, much to everyone else's amusement. Sophie smiled at him and he smiled back as they brought out five small glasses and poured the bar's most expensive scotch into them.
The third person through the door was much more vocal as he approached the bar.
"Yeah man! That's what I'm talking about!" Alec Hardison was in the mood to celebrate. "We took down Moreau, a corrupt president and freed a country at the same time! To my mind that's a reason to paaaaartaaaaay!"
Nate and Sophie looked at each other other and shook their heads. Sometimes they felt like the parents of an unruly child.
Close on Hardison's heels was a petite blonde girl of roughly the same age. While she was not as loud in her entrance she nonetheless had a huge grin across her face. The girl, known to everyone only as Parker, called across to Sophie.
"Hey Sophie! You think you can get me some of that new money they're going to print with your face on it? It'll look great next to my other world currencies!" She hopped up onto the barstool next to Hardison and beamed at him.
The final person through the door did not look like he was in the mood to celebrate. This was hardly surprising as anyone who knew Eliot Spencer believed his scowl was permanently stuck to his face. Considering his past and the things he had done for Moreau – none of which the team knew about, and they all wanted to keep it that way – he had very little to be happy about.
Hardison was still in full flow. "Sophie's face? Sophie's? Girl, they should put all our faces on their notes!"
Sophie leaned her chin onto her cupped hands and smiled at Hardison. "Well, Hardison," she began in her well-educated English accent – whether real or not no one knew, "If that's how you feel then the next time we go abroad you can be the fiance of the presidential candidate and get shot in the chest by the president's security forces."
Hardison shut his mouth and glared at her.
"I'm just saying," Sophie continued, "It's really not that hard."
Parker grinned and patted Hardison's arm. "Don't worry. Next country we go to I'll make sure to steal a printing press for you."
"Careful Hardison," Eliot growled, the first words he had spoken since entering, "She might actually do it."
As they laughed and drank and celebrated their success, Eliot took the chance to look over his team mates. His job was to observe his targets and find out their strengths and weaknesses and he put his skills to use now. It was all about spotting the little things.
Nate was a remarkable person. He had lost his son, his wife, his job, his reputation, everything and he made his living gambling what little he had left on the wildest risks Eliot had ever seen. That Nate not only survived but beat the odds was all the more amazing. It seemed to Eliot that Nate lived for the thrill of the moment when plans succeeded or failed.
Sophie on the other hand was a different matter. Eliot knew her real name but could still only think of her as Sophie. She had known Nate the longest out of any of them and was obviously in love with him, as he was with her. They had probably the most dysfunctional relationship he had ever seen as they danced around each other. Every time one of them seemed to be making progress or getting through, the other would do something to bring it crashing down back to the start. Eliot was no fool. He had smelled Sophie's perfume – it was a very distinctive smell – back in Nate's hotel room in San Lorenzo and knew exactly what had happened. He just hoped that this time they could make it work instead of doing what they usually did and messing it all up.
Parker was unique. Actually she was completely crazy. Eliot remembered the first time he saw her and the description he had used then was still valid now – twenty pounds of crazy with a five pound bag. There was something innocent about her though. He didn't know much about her childhood but the little he did know pointed to a life worse than his own. The things that had been done to her had been so bad that the fact that she still had something of the wide eyed innocent little girl about her was a miracle in itself. It was as if she had locked that girl inside her years ago and had only recently let her out to play. Her eagerness for Christmas had shown that, even if it did get a bit too much. Although he wouldn't admit it, Eliot considered her to be the little sister he never had.
Hardison could be summed up in one word: geek. He was proud of it too. While Eliot's idea of a good time would be a night on the town with girls hanging off each arm, Hardison would be more than happy to sit in his room with nothing but his laptop, cracking the most secure firewalls and systems known to man. But there was another side to him, and that side was currently sitting on the barstool next to him. Just as Eliot knew Nate and Sophie were in love with each other, so he also knew that Hardison had rather a large crush on Parker. And it seemed that the pretty blonde thief also had feelings for him, but who could tell? All they had to do was to admit their feelings for each other but neither one would – Hardison was too wrapped up in his ones and zeroes and Parker had never been given the chance to explore her emotions. Eliot shook his head. Life was passing them by and they were just letting it.
And Eliot himself? He was a hitter. His job was to watch everyone else's back. That was it. Although, ever since the job where he pretended to be a country music star, other ideas had been springing up into his head. Ideas like the one he was having now. Mumbling something to the others he fished out his phone and left the bar, punching a number in as he went through the door.
After Eliot left Hardison leaned over to Parker. "So, uh, I seem to remember something about you wanting pretzels?" he asked quietly.
Parker nodded quickly. "Nate?" she called out, "I want pretzels!"
Nate fished behind the bar and brought out a small bag. Parker accepted them gratefully and tore the bag open and started munching. Hardison's face fell, although she didn't seem to notice.
"Oh, uh, I thought you meant..." he struggled to find the words.
"Want one?" Parker asked brightly and held out the bag to him.
"No... no thanks. You knock yourself out. I uh... I'm gonna head home." With that, he left the bar and made his way back to his flat. Parker grinned at Sophie and Nate as she crunched her way through the pretzels.
…
Hardison's flat was a rather spacious affair. A bedroom, a bathroom, a joint kitchen and lounge area. He kicked the door closed and flicked the lights on. He felt hollow inside. Parker of course would have had no idea what she was saying or how she had made him feel but it still hurt. He had honestly thought he was getting through to her. Obviously he was as far away as ever.
He looked at his watch. Half past three. He didn't feel tired so going to bed was no use. Instead he made sure all the curtains on the windows were closed and headed towards a cabinet near the bedroom.
Eliot and Nate were sitting at a table in the bar opposite Jane Akinyemi, explaining to her that Alexander Moto was finished.
"We, uh, we have this for you," Nate said, handing Jane a cheque for five million dollars.
Jane tried to refuse it. "No... no... the diamonds..."
"Have nothing to do with that," Nate explained. "See what happened was, we, uh, we ended up with this Stradivarius and we thought that the money could be used for the good people of Watada, maybe a music foundation for the kids? You could set that up." He paused and indicated Eliot. "It was his idea."
In spite of how Hardison was feeling he smiled. What no one else but Nate knew was that he was the one who had bought the Stradivarius. He had even used his own money to pay for it. He was still upset at how Nate had used hypnosis to get him to play it but even he had to admit there were some benefits. Being able to express his feelings through the violin was just one of them.
Hardison took out the violin and tuned it, closing his eyes as he listened to the pitch of the strings and gently turning the knobs to tighten them. Finally satisfied he picked up the bow and started to play. The space within his apartment added to the acoustics.
As he lost himself in the music he allowed his thoughts and feelings to flow through him and into the instrument. He loved Parker, there was no other way to describe it. Ever since their trip to Serbia where her mask had slipped when confronted with the orphans he had felt some sort of pull towards her. When the team had split up after the job with the David statues he had asked her where she was going and she had all but outright asked him to look for her. Well he had looked. Hard. For six months. He thought he had come close on several occasions but each time she had managed to slip away. After a while he wondered if she wanted him to find her, and then they all met up again in Boston. As they took on new jobs Hardison found his feelings towards her changing. At first he thought it was because he had missed the others and was glad they were all back together, then he realised he had missed her and was glad she was back. After that the rest is, as they say, history.
He hoped that Parker would one day be here, sitting on the sofa right there, legs tucked under her chin, listening to him as he poured his heart out to her through the music, with that wide-eyed innocent look in her eyes that she always had. He shook his head slightly. Some day maybe, but not today.
Hardison paused for a small moment. Had he heard something? Like a quiet sniffle? No, he couldn't hear anything else. He must have imagined it or it must have come from another flat upstairs. He carried on playing for another half an hour before he felt he could finally go to bed.
He never saw the curtain move slightly, never heard the subdued click as the window quietly closed, never heard the soft zip as something weighing approximately twenty pounds shot down a rope to the ground.
And he certainly never found the pretzel that had been accidentally dropped onto the floor.
…
Parker untangled the line and packed it away into her pack. She had nearly been caught! How could she have made that slip? She could hear Archie in the back of her mind scolding her for such a schoolgirl mistake.
She hated herself for doing this to Hardison. Actually she hated herself for a lot of other things. Well, maybe hate is too strong a word, maybe dislike would be more appropriate. Okay, perhaps not exactly dislike but...
Anyway, the point was that she had no idea what to do. If she was presented with a vault in a bank she would have found twelve different ways of stealing its contents before the person showing her finished speaking. Museums and art galleries were just playgrounds to her. But this... this... this thing with Hardison was completely new territory for her.
Sophie would have been able to tell her what it was, only Sophie would have told her it was love. Only that couldn't be right, because Parker didn't love anyone. She never had loved anyone. She...
She suddenly realised that she didn't know how to love. Sure she liked Hardison a lot and was always happy when he was around. And there was that time when Hardison was with that girl and she crushed a beer bottle with her bare hands and spouted something about pretzels. But love? She could never love anybody. She couldn't.
Could she?
Parker shook her head. She was being silly. Sleep. That was what she needed. Sleep and Bunny. Yes. She looked at the bag of pretzels she was still carrying and counted the ones that were left.
One missing. Parker looked back up at Hardison's window. Maybe he'd never find it. Maybe he'd never know she'd been there.
For some reason the thought saddened her.
…
That night the two of them slept, images of the other spinning through their minds, each wondering how the other really felt about them.
It was all about the little things.
A/N I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a show as much as Leverage, and I don't know if I've ever enjoyed characters as much as Hardison and Parker. Well maybe Lost, but that's another story.
Anyway this is my first (only? I have no idea) Leverage fanfiction. I'm not sure how it'll turn out. I hope it'll go well and you all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.