Sorry I skipped last week's story! I was super busy and even after seeing it, I didn't have a real moment that just jumped out at me. Therefore, I'm going to try to do two for this week's episode. Try. We'll see how it goes.

As for this week's first story, I really loved Eliot's enthusiasm at Sophie's successful punch. He said he was teaching her a few things, but I couldn't see Sophie training like Eliot or even Parker. I figure she needed a different method. :)

Enjoy!

I don't own Leverage.

They heard the punch over the ear buds, but Eliot couldn't tell if it was real or not. It wasn't until later when Eliot saw Hardison lying on the ground that he realized that Sophie had put her training into practice.

He was so proud of her!

Sure, Hardison probably faked unconsciousness, but from what Sophie had learned over the past couple of months and Hardison's geekiness, Eliot was pretty sure the initial fall was real.

They had been having periodic training sessions for a couple months now. Just like Parker, Eliot had decided that Sophie needed to know how to throw a punch. Nate was getting overconfident, which meant that their cons were getting riskier. It wasn't uncommon for Sophie to be in a more dangerous position than the rest of them, and it had occurred to Eliot a while ago that she probably didn't know how to defend herself if something went sideways.

At first, she had been very timid. She was striking the training dummy with barely enough force to make it move at all. Then Nate started watching their sessions. At first, Eliot thought this might hinder her, but then Nate offered some advice to Sophie that made a huge difference.

"Sophie, what is making you not attack this dummy like you would any other con?" he asked after another failed attempt to knock the dummy over.

"I don't know," she said, clearly frustrated.

"Yes you do," he said wisely. She glared at him. Eliot stepped back and let them figure it out. Maybe Nate would find a way to help her learn quicker. Even after several weeks, she wasn't much closer to throwing a solid punch than she had been at the beginning.

"Well you sure seem to know," she snapped. "Why don't I go after this like I do other things?"

"It's out of your comfort zone," he said like it was obvious. "But if you were playing a part, say an upcoming boxing champion, I'd say you'd do a lot better…" he trailed off. With that, he got up and disappeared upstairs. Sophie looked after him with a slightly confused look on her face. After a few moments, Sophie turned to Eliot with a determined expression now placed on her face.

"Show me again," she said.

Eliot demonstrated the proper technique to throwing a good punch while minimizing the damage to her hand. After his demonstration she closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, and then struck the dummy with enough force to knock it over.

The sessions had gone much better after that. For the next few weeks, Sophie didn't come in as Sophie. She came in as Lucia, the next fighting champion. At least in her mind. It was a different experience for Eliot, trying to train Lucia instead of Sophie, but after a few more weeks of increased success, Lucia faded back into Sophie. Sophie, who could now throw a legitimate punch.

I know it's short, but I didn't have much time.

Thoughts? Reviews are love!