The Blake Job
Summary: For an honest man Nathan Ford knew a lot of freaks, geeks, and grifters.
Parings: Nate/ Sophie, Hardison/ Parker, Eliot...
Disclaimer: I neither own nor am associated with Leverage – the Show or the Physics applications.
Chapter One: Blink
"You killed him, didn't you." It wasn't a question. Nathan Ford didn't take his eyes off of the boy in the white bed.
"As Sophie said, 'It's called plausible deniability Nate'." The reply was made as the speaker also watched the child being examined in the small room. The conversation was held shoulder to shoulder with parallel gazes. The gazes rested upon Sam Ford. The familiar stranger handed the father a check, it was the only time the vigil was disturbed. Nathan looked at the check and then the person who handed it to him.
"This is his insurance policy." Holly Blake had killed her father, there was no evidence but Ford knew, in all likelihood if Sam was well Ford would be looking into the death as an insurance investigator. Ms. Blake would be doing time for homicide as well as fraud – in case the twenty five to life wasn't enough. But Sam was sick, and nothing else really mattered. Holly didn't look at him.
"It's for Sam." She said. The 'honest man' in Nathan reared his head, he had no proof but this woman, however young of one, was a murderess.
"I cannot take money from such a personal loss." His words dripped sarcasm onto the sterile hospital floor. A slight twitch flexed Holly's heart shaped jaw. She pressed a slim hand to the glass window in the hospital door, as if she was touching Sam's fevered forehead with her always cold hands.
"Nathan," she said with quiet intensity, "I don't want his money." Ford wouldn't be so cliché as to ask 'What do you want?'; she needed no prompt. "I just want my childhood back." Time, the only nonrenewable resource. She was never going to be a child again, that time was lost. But Sam as still a child, Sam still had time. Her check insured Sam a little more time. Holly pulled her hand from the glass as the doctors turned to exit. Ford and Blake cleared the way.
"You may see him now." One said nodding to Nathan. Nathan nodded to Holly who met his blue eyes fro the first time that night. She entered the room quietly, trying to get her smile to reach her grey eyes.
"Blink!" The boy exclaimed, sending more than one machine into a fit of blinks, blips, and buzzes.
"Hi Bud." Holly said calmly, taking a seat by the boy's bed. She sat with him for five minutes, not long enough to tire him, but still long enough to chat. Nathan watched the interaction between the two, his son and the murder, her check heavy in his hand.
Holly deliberately left a full lipstick kiss on Sam's cheek as she said good bye. Her farewell to Nathan was more subdued. They embraced and then he watched her walk away before spending the remaining time with his son.
Holly Blake had a photographic memory; she remembered everything about her good bye to Sam Ford. The Windy City lived up to its name; a gust struck her as she stood before the headstone.
"Hi Bud." She whispered in the lull of the wind. A tear worked down her cheek. This was the first day she met Sam, lo those many years ago.
"Sam," Mr. Ford said to his son, "This is Ms. Blake; she's going to play chess with you."
"Hi Miss Blink!" The little boy exclaimed excited. "I like chess." Holly smiled.
"I like chess too."
"Be good for Miss Blake." Mr. Ford said, enunciating clearly.
"Blink." The boy said, Holly shrugged at the father, she didn't mind. And Blink she'd forever be – at least to the Ford Family.
"I miss playing chess with you, no one plays quite like you." She said.
"Have you ever played chess with me before?" a voice asked. Holly didn't jump at the intrusion, nor did she need to look up to know who the intruder was. She had heard his soft footfall and felt the change in the wind brought by the presence of another person.
"Chess like Sam and I played or chess as a euphemism for something else?" She replied. Nathan Ford was once again shoulder to shoulder with her. Recent stories in the paper… "You quit being an insurance investigator White Knight."
"I insure other things now." He said.
"Black King." Holly shook her head, auburn curls playing across his bicep thanks to a near foot of height difference. "You are too good to be the Black King. To some you will always be a white knight. It makes you more of a grey man."
"Morality is grey." Nathan replied. Holly looked up at him, her grey eyes twinkling from behind black framed glasses. She smiled.
"Kohlberg's moral development. Stage Six."
"Most people remain in Stage Four." She was a smart girl and it wasn't because of her three PhDs.
"How very enlightened of you." She replied. Nathan extended his hand, black leather glove protecting it from the Chicago winter.
"Join me." He said. Holly's gaze ran over him, taking in more than he could ever know. She slipped her small hand in his for a firm shake. Her grey cotton sixteen button gloves against the black leather symbolic in many ways.
***
"Blink" Nathan said producing a young woman from behind him. "This is the team. Team this is Blink." The group paused to look at what Nathan had brought in. She, Blink, was almost a foot shorter than Ford. Her hair was curly and framed her face; she had big grey eyes that observed each person before her in turn from behind black framed glasses. There was a moment of silence.
"Hi." She finally said, waving a little, her nails were long and painted black. Her smile was clean and straight and white – just like a picket fence. The group, two men and a woman, came closer to examine the intruder in their midst. Eliot Spencer looked at Nathan.
"Is she even old enough to drink?" Nathan smiled.
"What is she even here for?" Parker asked. The smile morphed into an enigmatic smirk. Blink looked first at Eliot.
"Your supraorbital ridge denotes Native American decent – Hidatsa at a guess. Your accent says a Dallas youth, but there are overtones of Kentucky in your phrasing. You're wearing contacts." She coked her head as she spoke, her smile and voice light. She then turned to Parker.
"Your left hand has been broken three times, only once by your own doing. You have deliberately over stretched your ligaments. Your right shoulder slides out of the socket. Your lower back hurts." Pause. "You have focus issues but are actually quite smart." She wasn't even looking at Hardison. "You can't fight but you can talk circles around anyone. Humor is your defense." Nathan began to clap, cutting off further observations.
"This," Ford said, amused. "This is why she's here." Holly Blake. Three PhDs, a photographic memory. She can simultaneously write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other. She's The Observer.
"Holly Blake." She said. "Call me Blink." The team stared at her. Eliot rubbed his brow bone, Parker flexed her hand, and Alec had to pick his jaw up off the floor.
"Blink, this is Eliot Spencer, Parker, and Alec Hardison." Nathan formally introduced them. A brunette woman appeared in the background. "And this is-"
"Her Royal Highness Princess Maria Ruprecht, exiled ruler of Ginovia." Blink cut him off, the woman stopped and turned, a smile parting her full lips.
"Holly." She said briskly walking across the room to greet the familiar new comer with open arms. The women embraced, kissing one another's cheeks. Right, left, right.
"How do you know these people?!" Parker exclaimed throwing a hand in the air. First Sophie and now this girl? For an honest man Nathan Ford knew a lot of freaks, geeks, and grifters.
"I met Nathan when I ran away from school the first time – I wound up in a Brothel on the Rivera and met the Princess through a client. She was raising money to reclaim her throne, I was trying to make ends meet, and Mr. Ford was trying to save the world – as usual." Holly – Blink shrugged the tale off as common. The staring resumed.
"So," She said breaking the awkward silence. "What's the word?" From his position casually leaning on the wall Nathan laughed.
"Hardison was about to brief us." A moment. "Weren't you, Hardison? Hardison!" Alec Hardison snapped back into focus.
"Briefing – yeah, right – gottcha." He made a gesture showing he was (finally) on Nathan's wave length.
Alec, Eliot, and Parker headed for the boardroom, leaving the new girl, Sophie, and Nathan to follow. Parker rubbed her lower back as they walked, she'd be damned, but it did hurt. Eliot noticed the discrete action.
"You want some Tylenol or something?" he asked nodding to her hand rubbing above her belt line.
"Shut up four eyes." She snapped. Alec laughed.
"I saw your show last night." Holly said walking beside Sophie about three paces in front of Nathan.
"Oh, really? Why didn't you come back stage and say hello?" Sophie asked, her brown eyes glittering. She knew her true calling was not the stage, but she enjoyed acting.
"I did, but the stage manager said you'd gone to dinner already. I have an orchid for you in my hotel room." Holly's eyes flitted between Nathan and Sophie. "How was dinner?" There were no secrets from Holly Blake. But that didn't prevent people from trying to keep them. Sophie licked her upper lip.
"Lovely." She replied, nerves under her voice. "What did you think of the show?" She asked too quickly to be casual. Holly could have said many things but she chose to say only one,
"Your accent was Sevillan, not Aragonese." Nathan and Sophie looked at each other. Only Holly Blake would choose to comment on that particular aspect of Miss Devereaux portrayal of Katherine of Aragon in Shakespeare's The Life of King Henry the Eighth.