Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage.
Pairing: Nate/Parker
A/N: So I've been wanting to do this story for awhile now but wanted to go ahead and get my Halloween one out of the way. I hope you guys enjoy.
Parker was about to open the door to headquarters, but before she could Nate opened it and walked right into her not knowing she was on the other side. He quickly reached out and grabbed her before she could fall over, "Sorry 'bout that Parker."
"Uh no it's fine," she told him with a nervous laugh taking notice that he still hasn't let her go yet; not that she was complaining, "So where are you headed off to?"
"Sophie, the crazy woman, is making me go grocery shopping because she's tired of being the only one who goes," he answered, "and I happened to walk in at just the right moment, so I'm the one who has to go."
Parker laughed, "Well I guess I showed up at just the right moment then."
"Lucky you," he said with a wink before releasing his grip and patting her on the shoulder before heading down the hall, "Hey if I'm not back in a few hours please come looking for me because I'll probably get lost in there."
"Yeah of course," she replied with a wave, shaking her head before walking into headquarters. "Hey guys."
Eliot gave a wave from the couch not even looking up from the television to say hello, "Yeah hey."
"Wow what a greeting, I almost felt a little warmth from that one," she stated sitting down next to Sophie at the dining room table.
"Now Parker you can't possibly expect Eliot to look away from a football game," Sophie declared sarcastically, "If you're looking for Nate he just left."
"Actually he ran into me on his way out," she said, "And you're mean for making him go grocery shopping all on his lonesome for like the first time ever."
"Well I'm hoping it will make him appreciate all I do around here," Sophie sighed glancing over at the thief and noticed she looked as though something were troubling her, "Hey what's wrong Parker?"
Parker gave a little shake to clear her head before looking over at Sophie trying to hide what was on her mind, "Nothing. Does it look as if something is wrong?...Um where's Hardison at?"
"Don't change the subject and I've known you for how long now? I think I'd know if something was at least on your mind," Sophie told her giving her a look that said to spit it out already.
"I do really want to know where Hardison is," Parker said easily not wanting to tell the grifter what was bothering her as she didn't really like to talk about her feelings even to the rest of the crew, who have all become very close friends and like a family to her.
"He's out of town for a few days, apparently he met someone online and set up a date so they could finally meet face to face," Sophie explained, "Now what's on your mind? You can tell me anything, you know that right Parker?"
She didn't know what made her finally give in, it could have been she just needed someone to talk to or it could have been the look from Sophie that made her spill her feelings to the grifter. Heaving a huge sigh of frustration she laid her head in her arms on the table, "I'm in love with Nate!"
At first Sophie didn't quite understand what she had said because it was a little muffled but after a few seconds, realized what it was that the thief exclaimed, "Whoa. You're what?"
Parker lifted her head glancing over at the couch to make sure Eliot was still absorbed into the game before repeating her earlier statement, "I'm in love with Nate. I honestly don't even know how it happened; it just hit me one day what I was feeling towards him. And the worst thing is that I feel as though sometimes he may feel the same way towards me but then the next day he goes back to his normal self. I'm just so confused Sophie. Please just tell me I'm stupid for feeling this way and that I should just get over it."
"You're not stupid. I'm not a hundred percent sure if he likes you but I do believe he may feel the same way," she told the thief when she thought back on how Nate would sometimes act around Parker.
"Really?" Parker asked a little shocked believing that she was just imagining a lot of the hints he may have given her, "Maybe you could ask him, you know, that way we'll know for sure."
Sophie thought about that but shook her head, "No I don't think he'd open up to me about that plus he'd probably get curious as to why I was asking in the first place and try to bury his feelings for you even deeper. No, we'll need a sneakier way to get him to reveal his love; yeah, we'll need to pull a con on him before he begins spilling his love out for you."
Parker glanced up at Sophie, who had an evil little smile on her face as though she were waiting her whole life to con Nathan Ford, "Uh Sophie, don't you think the mastermind of the whole group will see right through it?"
"Not if the acting is just right and I do believe I've taught you well enough over the past years that you can definitely pull this off, no problem," the grifter answered ideas already racing through her head, all she had to do was choose the perfect one.
The thief shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'Whatever', "So what will we exactly be doing?"
Sophie held her finger up to tell Parker that she was thinking; every once in awhile she'd shake her head before going to the next idea or she's tilt it slightly as if contemplating if that was the one she would go with, but finally a few minutes later smiled wide nodding her head, "Okay I've got it. We've got to make him jealous because trust me no one can hold back jealousy for very long, especially Nate."
"Okay….How exactly do we make him jealous?" Parker asked completely lost.
"We'll obviously need another guy for you to 'like'," Sophie air quoted on the last word looking around trying to think of someone she knew who would do this but smiled again when her eyes landed on Eliot, "Perfect."
"What's perfect?"
"Alright here's the plan, you'll ask Nate for help to get Eliot to like you because you really like Eliot and he'll be the only one to be able to help because Hardison is out of town and I suddenly go to New York for some prime shopping," she explained.
"And do we know he'll even say yes then?" Parker asked a little skeptical of her whole plan, "And that Eliot will even play along?"
"He'll agree especially if he likes you too, but I'm not saying it will be easy to convince him. But this whole thing should work because if he holds the same feelings he'll be jealous of Eliot and if pushed in the right spots should admit it," Sophie stated happy with her little con, "As for Eliot, well let's just say he better agree or his life will be a living hell around here for awhile."
"I don't know if this will work but I suppose it won't hurt," Parker stated, "but I don't know if I could do this alone, are you really going to go to New York?"
"No I'll be at my place giving you pointers through the ear bud," Sophie said noticing it was half time, "Hey Eliot come here I need to ask you something."
Eliot rolled his eyes before getting up and walking over to the table, "What?"
"We're going to help Parker by getting Nate to reveal that he loves her," Sophie told him bluntly.
"Whoa, what? How does that help Parker?" he asked confused and, frankly, not wanting any part in it what so ever.
"She loves him but we're not sure if he feels the same but if he does then we obviously need to get him to reveal it so they can be together, duh," she explained as though he should've have realized all this.
"Why can't Parker just say she likes him and find out that way?" he asked thinking that would be the most logical way to go about this whole dilemma.
"Because, Eliot, if he doesn't feel the same way then it would cause terrible awkwardness between them, and I don't want to be in a room with two people who feel awkward towards each other," she stated, "Now we need you to be the person Nate gets jealous of so Parker will ask him for help and advice on how to get you to like her."
"No, no, no. Who said I was even going to do this crazy idea?" he asked, "I'm not going to be in on this, get some other guy to do it."
"Oh come on Eliot," Parker pleaded," It shouldn't take too long and it's not like we have to kiss or anything."
"Wellllll….you may," Sophie informed her.
"Ew! I'm not kissing him," she exclaimed pointing at Eliot with a look of disgust.
"Hey I'm not even doing it so you don't have to, and I wouldn't be that bad to kiss," he defended.
"Eliot please just do this," Sophie begged, "This whole con relies on you, so please do this for a friend who needs you."
He looked from Sophie to Parker, both of whom had their puppy eyes shining and their bottom lips poking out at him, "Argh! Fine, I'll do it but you guys owe me, I don't know what yet, but you owe me."
"Oh Eliot you're amazing," Sophie screamed standing up and throwing her arms around him.
"Yeah, yeah whatever," he said, a small smile showing up on his face.
"Yeah thanks Eliot," Parker told him glad that he agreed, ready to start their mini con.
"So what exactly do I have to do?" he asked glancing back at the television to see if the game was back on.
"Basically just fall for Parker when she begins to flirt with you, which she'll be getting advice on from Nate," the grifter explained, "And I'll be gone on a 'trip' but in reality I'll be somewhere else giving you guys both pointers when needed. We can get together later to plan it out in more detail so Eliot can return to watching his game, plus we don't want Nate walking in on any of this."
"Sure," the hitter agreed walking back to the couch to finish watching the game wondering what in the hell he got himself into.
"Thanks Sophie," Parker told her sincerely not realizing how much she was willing to do for her until today, "I mean it."
"You're welcome, we're like family and I always help my family in need," she told the thief glancing towards the door when she heard it open, "Looks as though we got it all figured out just in time."
"Looks that way," Parker responded waving at Nate when he came through the door grocery bags in hand.
He walked over to the counter dropping the bags, "Well don't just sit there; there are a lot more bags in the car."
"Ahh, Nate, we didn't need too much, what in the world did you buy?" Sophie asked annoyed with the man and he hasn't even been there for five minutes yet.
"I didn't know what we did and did not need so I…..bought a lot of stuff; and cereal because Parker seems to go through that stuff pretty quick," he stated heading back out the door to continue to bring in more bags.
"I swear Nate, I think you bought the whole store," Sophie exclaimed after seeing all the bags on the counter with some having been placed on the floor due to the counter being out of space.
"Hey if you don't like it then send someone else next time," he defended going to sit down next to Eliot to finish watching the game.
"Um you have to unload," the grifter stated becoming more annoyed with the man by the minute.
"Uh-uh, I toted all the bags up here and bought it all; you can unload," he stated in a tone that told her he was through talking.
"It'll go a lot quicker if you help us, Nate," Parker told him in a pleading kind of way.
He sighed getting up from the couch, "Fine I'll help but I'm doing this for you not her."
Parker smiled at his statement, beginning to believe that maybe, just maybe Sophie's mini con will actually work.
A/N: Well everyone that's it for chapter one but I do hope you guys enjoyed reading it and I would love it if you told me what you think so far. :)