Warning; I do not own the leverage team or any leverage character, but all others are mine.
It was midnight, and Eliot Spencer was the only one awake. The rest of the team was scattered around the apartment, fast asleep after a long, hard job. Nate and Sophie were sharing the master bedroom, and Hardison was kicked back in his desk, a book over his face. Parker was sprawled out on the sofa. Eliot was in the recliner, skimming the late night sports channels. He was just about to turn the TV off, when the screen divided into 4 different sections.
Eliot frowned. "Why is Hardison's security feed on the sports channels?" He shrugs. He doesn't really want to know. The cameras showed different areas of the bar downstairs. Everything looked normal, until Eliot saw something unusual. Eliot sat up, staring at the bottom right screen. There was a hooded figure running through the alleyway behind the bar. He ( Eliot figured he was male) stopped at the control box on the side of the wall, and took out a tablet and a bunch of wire cables out of a backpack. Then he took out a lock picking kit and started fiddling with the lock. "Hey, he is trying to break into the control box and hack into the security system!" He thought. He quietly gets up, so as not to disturb his comrades, and quickly goes down the stairs, out the front door, and sneaks silently towards the intruder.
He had by then successfully unlocked the control box, had plugged all the cable wires to the control panel, and was typing furiously on the tablet. Suddenly, He was seized from behind. The tablet slips out of his hands and crashes to the ground, shattering the screen. With surprising strength, he jabs Eliot in the solar plexus with his elbow. Eliot's breath is knocked out of him, and he loosens his grip on the intruder, and he wriggled out of the hold. Then he whirls around, driving a perfect roundhouse kick to the side of Eliot's head. Eliot staggers, black spots dancing over his eyes. The intruder then goes for the knockout punch when he stops. Sometime while fighting, his hood had fallen down. Eliot's vision clears, and when he looks at the intruder, he can't believe his eyes.
There in front of him is a teenage girl. She is about 15, with bright green eyes, wire-rimmed glasses, and scraggly, shoulder-length black hair. She is wearing tattered jeans, a faded black hoodie, leather hand grips, worn out shoes, and an expression of shock on her pale face. She was shaking with cold or fear, maybe both. She was very skinny, almost malnurished. Eliot felt sorry for her. Then he remembered what she was trying to do before.
"Who the hell are you, and why were you trying to hack into the security?" He demands. She cringes involuntarily, her shock turning into fear. "I-ii- i wasnt hacking into the security, only the bank accounts. I n-nn- needed the money, I haven't ate, nor slept for about 3 days, and im starving. I had no other way, im sorry! Pp-p-please don't hurt me!" She stammers, her voice quivering. All traces of anger melt away from his face. This girl is acting like a cornered animal, and she needed help, so he was going to help her.
"Hey, calm down." He says in a soothing voice. "Im not going to hurt you, I promise. I'm here to help you now, ok?" She takes a big breath, and says "OK, but you broke my tablet. That thing had everything I needed on it, besides the stuff in my backpack." She looks like she is about to cry. Eliot sighs."Look, I'm sure Hardison has a new, state of the art tablet you can use."He explains. "Hardison? Who is Hardison?" She asks, confused. "Oh, I have a team of people who help innocent citizens. We help them with problems like fraud, debt, loan sharks, even criminal activities." " Oh, so... kind of like modern-day robin hoods!" She exclaims. Eliot smiles. " Yeah, like modern-day robin hoods."
"My name is Eliot Spencer. And who might you be?" "My name is Rosie." She smiles. She has a pretty smile. "Let me take you to the apartment upstairs, maybe make you some breakfast." He offers. She thinks about it for a little while, but her rumbling stomach wins over. "Ok, let me get my stuff." She heads over to her backpack and picks up her broken tablet.
"I guess I won't be needing this anymore." She sighs. She really did have all she needed on that thing, but at least this Hardison person might have another one. She walks to the control panel and unplugs the wires. She stuffs everything in her bag and zips it up. Then she walks up to Eliot. "I'm sorry for kicking you in the face." He smiles."That was a perfect move. I couldn't have done it better myself." "Really? Cool!" She exclaims. Then they start walking towards the front of the building.
As they were walking up the stairs, Eliot turns to Rosie and whispers, "OK, you need to be quiet, because my team is sleeping, and I don't want to wake them." "OK, I will." She whispers back. Just as he steps through the threshold, the lights flicker on, and Eliot finds himself staring at the face of Nathan Ford.
Nate was standing in the kitchen, coffee cup in his hands, glaring at him. Rosie hides behind Eliot, not knowing what to think, trying to get a better look at this guy without being noticed. The rest of the team was waking up, bleary-eyed and confused. Sophie comes out of the bedroom. "Where have you been?" Nate demands. Rosie seems to not have been noticed yet. "Well, ..." and Eliot goes into his story. Meanwhile, Hardison is checking on his security feed, shaking his head.
"Wait a minute." Parker interrupts." This guy actually unlocked the control box? That's impossible! I personally put that lock on there, and it is supposed to be Unpickable to everyone except me. This guy has to be a professional." Eliot smiles. "Hold on, it gets even better." "How can you be so entertained by all this?" Sophie snaps. "We had an intruder almost break in to our security, and you're over there, smirking like a crazy buffoon!" Eliot stops grinning, taken aback by Sophie's sudden attack. He holds up his hands. "Just hear me out, OK?" He asks. " Let Eliot talk." Nate says, still staring at him. He takes a sip of coffee. Eliot nods and returns to his story.
At the mention of Rosie, she steps out from behind Eliot. everyone's eyes are trained on her. "Hold on!" Hardison cries."Are you telling me that this girl picked an Unpickable lock, and almost successfully hacked into MY security system?!" Hardison could not believe what he was hearing. Surely this kid could not be that good. Rosie scowled . "Technically, I was trying to hack into your money stash." She retorts defiantly. "and I suggest you be more cautious with your security, because it took me only 9 seconds to hack into your firewall!" WHA-! NINE SEC- ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" Hardison was freaking out. "Hardison, calm down." Sophie says in a soothing voice. "Calm down! But-!" "Enough, Hardison." Nate growls. Hardison shuts up.
"This must be the leader of the team, the mastermind." Rosie thinks. "And this Hardison guy is the hacker. The blonde chic was probably the thief. Eliot's definitely the hitter, so the European lady has to be the grifter."
Nate gets up and goes over to Rosie and holds out his hand. "Well, I guess you're here now, so you might as well stay here for the night. I'm Nathan Ford."Rosie just stares at the outstretched hand. "Erm, well, you've already met Eliot, and Hardison. That's Sophie." He points to the European lady."and Parker." He points to the blonde. "We are Leverage associates and company." "Where are your parents, Rosie?" Sophie inquires. "Surely they are worried sick about you."
Rosie is conflicted between telling these new allies more lies, or suffering the consequences of the truth. She looks at Eliot. "No." She thinks. "I can't let that happen." She clears her throat and says,"Well, my parents are actually dead." She sighs. "I ran away from my group home 3 days ago, and for good reason too. Anyway, I've been wandering the streets, scrounging for food and shelter. I only came to the bar to steal because I was desperate. I had to do some thing to get money. So that I could get out of the country." She thinks to herself. Well, at least it was half-true. She did leave the group home, and she was desperate for money, but it wasn't all true. Still, it was convincing.
The team sat in grim silence, until Hardison speaks up and says, "As long as you don't try to hack into my accounts again, I don't care what you do." Nate sits down and asks, "So, does anyone object to Rosie sleeping here?" Nobody says yea or nay, but Parker says, " I want to see what else she can do. She is obviously a talented hacker and thief." "And don't forget a powerful hitter!" Eliot adds, rubbing the side of his head (which is still throbbing.) "She put up one hell of a fight out there. I didn't even get one punch in and she had me layed out flat!" "Oh, and an amazing grifter and mastermind." Rosie adds silently.
"So it's settled then. Rosie will stay with us tonight, and we'll see what happens in the morning." And with that, Nate gets up, puts his cup in the sink, and stalks to the bedroom. Sophie soon follows suit. Parker yawns and says, "I'll sleep in the air ducts, so you can sleep on the sofa." Rosie stares at her. "Umm, you don't have to do that. I'll just sleep on the floor." So she goes over to the living room, curls up by the cold fireplace, and is soon fast asleep. She didn't realize how exhausted she was.
Eliot just looks out the window, arms crossed, thinking. All of a sudden, he feels a pair of small arms wrap around his waist. "Did she really kick your ass so quickly?" Parker whispers in his ear. Eliot turns around and faces her. "I've been thinking about that, and I'm surprised. She really caught me off guard with how much strength she has! I think she's had training or something like that. Plus, she could have knocked me out cold, but she stopped herself before she made her move. I wonder why?" Parker smiles and kisses him lightly on the lips. It took a while for her to get to that point in the relationship, but it was worth every bit of it. "Maybe she just has really good self-control, like you." Eliot raises his eyebrows. "Not like that I don't. She reminds me a lot of you, with her lightness of fingers and awkward social skills." "Oh, yeah? Well, she reminds me of you, too, with your attitude and sucker punches!" She replies. Eliot laughs softy, and kisses her again. Then he goes over to the cupboard, grabs an extra blanket, and walks over to Rosie. He drapes it over her small frame, then grabs a pillow from the couch. He bends down and gently places it under her head. He stops for a second and looks a little closer. It almost looks like her roots are blonde. Eliot shakes his head and stands up. "I'm just being paranoid. Why would she dye her hair?
Well, she had plenty of reasons. For one, she didn't want to be recognized by anyone from the group home, nor the police. But that's not the only reason. There was a much bigger secret that was so dangerous, the consequences of that secret getting out somehow would be unfathomable! Never, would she let it slip out of her control. Ever.
I'm so sorry for the delay! I promise to update my chapters more quickly next time. Please write your review on my story so far. I'm dying for feedback! Thank you so much.