All the Leverage characters that you may recognize belong to Dean Devlin, Chris Downey and John Rogers!
Any characters you don't recognize belong to me.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The clock on the back wall chimed at ten pm signaling the end of Claudia Taylor's late night workout. She climbed off of the treadmill and took a long gulp of water. It was times like this when Claudia hated the fact that she had agreed to enter one more beauty pageant, but a promise was a promise.
"As soon as this pageant is over, I am going home, eating a huge piece of cheesecake and sleeping for a week" she thought as she stifled a yawn.
"You ready to head back to the hotel Claudia?" her makeup artist Josh asked as he poked his head into the gym.
"Yea, all I want is a hot shower and a nice comfy bed" Claudia replied as she grabbed her stuff and the two of them walked to the rental car.
Claudia had begun entering pageants when she was fifteen, and in the last few years had racked up several wins. She was now scheduled to compete in the Miss Pioneer Valley pageant, which was the next step on the way to becoming Miss. Massachusetts. As much as Claudia liked the attention, she also liked the idea of winning the scholarship that came along with it. If she won Miss. Pioneer Valley, more doors would be open to her, but first she would have to beat the reigning Miss. Pioneer Valley, Annabelle James.
After Josh and Claudia loaded all of their things into the back of the rental car, Claudia handed Josh the keys and they started to drive back to the hotel. They were about five miles away from the hotel when Josh stopped at a red light, and then things took a turn for the worst.
The two were sitting at the red light and talking, when out of nowhere a car came around the corner and slammed into the passenger side. Both Josh and Claudia were very lucky that they had only escaped with the minor injuries, but they still had to take a trip to the hospital.
As the ambulance drove away, the driver of the car that caused the accident pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out a cell phone and hit 1 on the speed dial.
"Is it done?" a voice asked on the other end.
"Hello to you too dear" the driver replied drily.
"Sorry Daddy, is it done?" the voice asked again.
"Yes Annabelle, it's done, if you lose this weekend, it won't be to that Claudia" the driver chuckled.
"Good, thank you Daddy" Annabelle James smiled as she finished brushing her hair.
"Anything for you Princess" Marshall James replied as he hung up the phone.
Then he tossed the phone out the window and drove back to the hotel. His daughter was going to win that beauty pageant, and she was going to be the next Miss America if he had anything to say about it!
McRory's Bar: Boston
"So Miss. Taylor, if I understand you correctly you want us to go after the pageant director and the people that you think caused your accident, even though you have no idea who was driving the car?" Nate Ford asked as he sat across the young woman with her hand in a cast.
"Yes Mr. Ford, I want enough money to pay for my hospital and therapy bills. The pageant director refuses to pay the debts because he said that I have no case, but I know that my accident was connected to the pageant in some way" Claudia insisted.
"I understand that, but why do you think that we can help, I mean why not go to the cops?" Nate asked.
"I've tried, but they can't do anything without proof, and I did some digging after the accident, to pass the time. I found out that the director, Brian Trent, was fired from his last job because he was under suspicion of money laundering and fraud because all of the money from the pageant was to go to charity and never made it" Claudia explained.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean that he had anything to do with your accident" Nate said.
"No, but he could have something to do with it, or he may know who did, I mean I want to make sure that he can't hurt anyone else. In the last year, four other girls have been hurt in pageants that Trent was connected with, and he has to know who is doing it and covering for them. Please Mr. Ford, you're the only one that can help me" Claudia begged.
"She's right Nate, I think we should look into this" Sophie Devereaux said from her place beside Nate.
"Okay, we will look into it, but I can't promise anything" Nate said finally as he took a long swig of his drink.
"Thank you both" Claudia smiled as she got up and left the bar.
"Yeah, don't thank us yet" Nate said as he watched the young woman leave and then went upstairs to brief the rest of the team.
"So the client wants us to find out who was behind her accident, and take down this Trent guy, but has no idea if he is even involved?" Eliot Spencer asked as he glared at Nate from across the table in the office at Leverage Inc.
"Yep, I mean she honestly believes that Brian Trent was behind her accident or knows who was driving the car, and I think it's worth taking a look at" Sophie said softly.
"Well, let's hope it's not a huge waste of time" Nate said sullenly as he took a sip of his drink.
"Hardison, what do we know?" Sophie asked as the young hacker looked up from his computer.
"Absolutely nothing more than what Claudia Taylor told us, that four girls have been injured in the past year, and that Brian Trent was connected to all of the pageants. Other than that, Nate man, we got nothing" Hardison said as he glanced around the room.
"So it looks like we need to find someone who knows a lot about beauty pageants" Sophie said.
"Yep" Nate said as he looked around the room and noticed that a certain blonde thief was missing.
"Where's Parker?" Nate asked.
Just then the thief walked into the room holding Hardison's phone that she'd lifted when he wasn't looking.
"I know someone who can help us, she used to compete in these things" Parker smiled.
"Parker, you want to bring in a total stranger to help with a job, do you know how crazy that is?" Eliot asked.
"It's not crazy Eliot, she's not a stranger, well not to me anyways, Megan happens to be my best friend" Parker replied as she looked down at her nails.
When the blonde looked up she noticed that everyone was staring at her in surprise and disbelief.
"What?" she asked curiously.
"You have a best friend? Is she as crazy as you?" Eliot asked.
"No, Megan is actually normal and a little boring I guess" Parker said confused.
"Is she a thief too?" Hardison asked.
"She used to be, we met when we were working with Archie, and she likes to jump off buildings with me too" Parker smiled as she walked out of the room leaving the rest of the team staring after her.
"Parker has a friend, I mean someone other than us, that's interesting" Sophie said.
"Hmm maybe that girl is normal after all" Hardison smiled.
"I still think that it is a bad idea to bring in a total stranger to help" Eliot said doubtfully as he stalked out of the room in time to see Parker disappear out the bar and heading down the street.
Oak Hills Apartments: Downtown Boston
Megan Mancini glanced down at her stopwatch as she reached the front of her apartment building. She'd just run four miles in under two hours and she was happy with the results. She smiled when she removed her ear buds and walked to the elevator and greeted her neighbors.
"Hello Megan dear, going up?" Mrs. Stanly asked with a smile.
"Yes I am" Megan replied with a smile.
"Good, next time you go running, you should take Bobby with you, he needs to get back into shape" Edna Stanly said as her husband rolled her eyes.
Everyone in the apartment building had learned to deal with the older woman's persistence, especially her husband. Edna had been trying to get her husband in shape for years, but nothing had worked yet. However, Megan liked the older couple and often asked them to keep an eye on her German Shepard, Atticus, when she needed to go out of town.
After Megan walked into the apartment and took a shower, she noticed that the window in her bedroom was open and that Atticus wasn't barking. She smirked because she knew that it could only mean one thing.
"Hey Parker" she said as she poked her head into the room and found her best friend sitting on the couch with a box of cereal and scratching Atticus behind his ears.
"How did you know it was me? I mean I could have been a thief or something" Parker smirked at the joke.
"Well Atticus wasn't barking, and the window in my room was open. Besides in the last five years that I've lived here, only one person never uses the door and that person would be you Parks" Megan replied as she sat down on the couch.
"Oh, well I have a favor to ask you" Parker started.
"What is it?" Megan asked as she leaned her head back.
"Well the team and I got a new client today, you've heard about the pageant contestants that have been getting hurt lately right?" Parker asked.
"Yeah, is one of them your client?"
"Yep, and we need someone who knows about Pageants and the way that they work" Parker explained.
"So you want me to help you pull a job?" Megan asked.
"Yep" came the reply as Parker chewed on her cereal.
"Parks you know I don't do that anymore and I haven't been in a pageant in like ten years or so" Megan argued.
"Come on Megs, I know you miss that kind of work, and you would be doing something that you're great at, I mean do you actually like working as a safe cracker for the cops?" Parker retorted.
"Well no, but at least it's safer than what I used to do" Megan reasoned.
"Look Megs, I wouldn't ask if I knew that you never wanted to work together again, and I mean you are the only one I trust, well besides the team that is. Please just think about it" Parker said.
"Okay, I'll think about it" Megan said finally as she got up to get a drink.
"You know you're crazy right Parks" Megan said as she turned back around and realized that the Blonde was gone.
"Well I guess I must like crazy" she giggled as she pulled out her cell and dialed a number.
"Hey Reilly, is Bonanno there?" she asked when someone answered.
"I guess I must be just as crazy as she is" Megan thought as she glanced out her bedroom window as the curtains fluttered in the light breeze.
