AN: So here's another Eliot has a twin from another show that CK has played in. I've only seen a few librarian/leverage crossovers so I thought I'd add my 2 cents (and 2k+ words). Please Review!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my imagination
The mood around the table in the annex's main room was an unhopeful one, to say the least. The team of misfit librarians and their guardian had just returned from what was supposed to be a simple artifact retrieval job but they hadn't even made it to the front door before they saw the security. Of course, that didn't discourage everyone.
"Look, I can totally get in the building. The security is good but I am way better!" Jones' statement was met with eye rolls and sighs, this wasn't the first time he'd made the argument.
"Jones, I am not sending you in there alone and you can't get us all in. We need to come up with a new plan, one that actually works." This wasn't the first time Colonel Baird had made this argument.
"I take it you didn't retrieve the Ring of Gyges? I did warn you this one would be difficult. It's always much easier for a librarian to find an object when it's still protected by ancient and sometimes magical security, rather than modern." Jenkins, ever helpful, voiced his I-told-you-so s.
"What if we didn't sneak in, I mean we could just walk in and then distract someone while Ezekiel goes off to steal the ring? Like we had planned to do when we went up against the Minotaur."
"Ya, cause that worked out so well last time, Cassandra." Baird wasn't trying to be short with her L.I.T's but it had been a long day and they weren't any closer to getting the ring.
"What?" Baird suddenly asked, looking at the resident cowboy. "You've been awfully quiet there, Stone, got something to share?" She wasn't sure why, but something about his face a moment ago, it was like he was debating with himself. And while he wasn't the most vocal of the group, he had been uncharacteristically quiet since she had turned down Jones' plan the first time.
Stone sighed and looked at his team, his friends(even if he wouldn't admit it out loud), and realized that if they were going to beat the serpent brotherhood to the magic ring, he was gonna have to let them further into his life than he had so far.
"I know someone who can help us get in. Lives here in Portland and he'll help, if I ask." He really didn't want to ask though.
"You made friends here? But you spend all your free time here."
"Mate, how do you know someone who can break into that building but I don't"
"Oh joy, more company."
"Stone, who exactly is this friend of yours? We can't tell just anyone about magic. Are you sure we can trust him?" effectively cutting everyone off, Baird voiced her biggest concerns and kept her curiosity at bay. For now.
"Known him forever. An I trust 'im more an' anyone else." Stone looked around at his team and realized he didn't have much choice now, probably should have just kept his mouth shut.
"Come on, like I said, he lives in Portland, this is somethin' I need to do in person." He started walking to the front door, where he'd left his truck, knowing they would follow.
"Why don't we just take the backdoor, quicker, cheaper, and less crowded?"
"Trust me Jones, this ain't a guy ya wanna sneak up on." Stone said with a small grin.
"Nate, I told you man, we ain't doin' a job today. I got shot. Twice! Hardison and Parker could have been exposed to that virus. We ain't doin' any jobs for another 3 days. I don't care how bored you are."
Eliot was getting annoyed. Nate really needed to learn to take the limitations of his team into account. Which is why Eliot was putting up such a fight about this break. His shoulder and leg were mostly fine, sore if he moved to fast or not enough, but he'd fought through worse. Parker and Hardison were fine too. Eliot really just wanted to take a break, relax for a few more days, and make Nate start to accept that the team wasn't without limitations. Actually, Eliot would have enjoyed a job right about now, he was getting bored himself and was almost willing to let Nate win this one. Almost. Mama always had said he was too stubborn for his own good.
"Eliot, this is important. These people, they need our help. Mark Gillman, he is stealing thousands from honest people who have been working hard for every penny this guy has taken. Look, I know limitations of my team, I know what we can and can't do, but we can do this."
Eliot studied the man in front of him, he was good, he'd slipped pathos, logos, and ethos all into four little sentences.
'Mama was right,' Eliot thought as he stood and walked towards the door, 'I am too stubborn for my own good.'
Eliot, on his way to the Brew Pub's kitchen, only made it to the dining room. He stood shocked for a moment and wasn't quite sure what about the table in the corner was more surprising. It could be that his brother was there, whom he hadn't seen in nearly six years and was supposed to be in New Orleans. It could also be that the blonde woman sitting across from his brother was a NATO counter-terrorism agent that he recognized from a mission in a classified part of the Middle East. It could also be that the man, kid really, sitting next to his brother was a "world-class" thief who had made himself a pain in Eliot's ass a number of years ago. He didn't bother figuring it out and made his way over to the table, he wanted answers. Now.
Eliot walked up behind his brother and the thief, ignoring the suspicious glance of the agent and the red head (the only person he didn't know at this table. At least he hoped, because so far the only way he could have known her is if he slept with her and that would just be awkward.) and stopped just behind the two men at the table and pulled both men into headlocks.
"You boys ought to go buy a lotter ticket." He growled out, noticing the blonde's hand going for her gun then stopping when she saw the resemblance between him and the man across from her.
"Damn Eliot, let go." Stone said pulling out of his brother's hold. "Why exactly is it our lucky day?" he questioned, understanding the meaning behind the lottery ticket comment.
"Cause I ain't knocked you both senseless yet. You're supposed to be in New Orleans, not runnin' around with a thief and NATO and" he paused at the redhead, "sorry, ma'am what is it you do?" he asked politely.
Cassandra, to her credit, was rather calm in her answer. "I do math."
"Right. Of course." Eliot finally moved to the end of the table and, grabbing a chair from a nearby table, sat down.
"What are you doing here Jakey?" he asked, much nicer this time.
"Yeah, Jakey, what are you doing here." One day, Ezekiel Jones was going to get hit very hard. Eliot hoped he was the one doing the hitting.
"The only reason I ain't kicked your ass yet is cause it looks like you're friends with my brother and he gets all pissed when I beat up his friends. Keep your mouth shut, Jones." Eliot's growl was accompanied by an impressive glare.
"You ain't got much right in judging my friends for being thieves, Eliot." Jake knew full well what his brother did, knew everything he had done, if not in detail.
Eliot rolled his eyes. "If you wanna hang out with thieves fine, at least hang out with decent one." He knew Jones was a better thief now than he was all those years ago in North Korea, but he was still mad.
"Excuse me, I am an excellent thief, maybe you should be a better at your job."
"Ain't nobody better than me at my job, son."
Jake took a breath and decided he'd better change the subject.
"How'd you know Baird was NATO?"
"Very distinctive boots." Eliot smiled. "And I worked with her a few years ago. It's nice to see you again Colonel." He said, turning his smile to the blonde.
She studied him, then Jake. "I knew you looked familiar." She finally said to Stone, shaking her head. "Nice to see you too, Spencer."
"You still haven't told me what yer doin here, Jakey." Eliot smiled, knowing his brother hadn't liked being called Jakey since middle school. Then he frowned and studied the people at the table. Jones was a genius, annoying and impulsive, but a genius. So was his brother. And then there was mathgirl. Plus one highly trained woman. He'd heard a variation of that equation before.
"We need your help. There is a, well, an item, we need to get that doesn't exactly belong to us." Jake stopped, waiting for his brother to react. Eliot had always known Jake was genius, you couldn't hide much from a twin. He had also always tried to convince him to get out of their hometown and do something with his brain. This probably wasn't what he'd had in mind.
"Last I heard you were down in New Orleans, what are you doin' here askin' me for help to steal something." Eliot asked as he stood and removed one of Hardison's bugs from the light above the table.
"I wasn't in New Orleans. I've been here in Oregon for the last few months. We're helping people, El, kinda like you and your team but not exactly." Jacob wasn't quite sure how to convince his down to earth, see-it-to-believe-it brother that magic was real.
He was not expecting his brother's next question. Nobody at the table was.
"What happened to Flynn?"
Four sets of eyes stared at him in shock and Eliot could only chuckle. He might not be the genius his brother was but that didn't mean he was stupid.
"How do you know Flynn?"
"What are you talking about, mate?"
"Did you get an envelope too?"
"How the hell do you know Flynn?"
Eliot really did enjoy catching people off guard.
"Met him a few times, helped him retrieve a few "magical" artifacts. He clued me in after the flying carpet incident. Didn't put much stock into the whole magic thing til the serpent brotherhood tried to recruit me. They still got that Lamia chick?"
More shocked silence.
And some more.
Eve sat and stared at the man before her. She had met Spencer before but this put a whole new light on things. She wasn't sure how many more surprises she could take today. Stone had a twin. Said twin was a thief and one of the most dangerous men she had ever met. He also knew about magic. And knew Flynn. And Jones. And Lamia. How did he know everyone?!
Jones was trying very hard to stay quiet. The last time he had seen Eliot Spencer he had done what he did best. He stole and he bailed. Hadn't turned out too well for Spencer though. In fact, Jones was pretty sure that Spencer had been in a North Korean prison for three months because that job.
Cassandra was processing the fact that Jake has had a twin brother this whole time and never mentioned him. And that said twin seemed to know about magic before his brother. She was also trying to avoid having a brain grape moment, not the impression she wanted to leave with the grumpy version of her friend.
Luckily for the stunned team, Jacob Stone wasn't the only twin with a team.
Members of Team Library were brought out their thoughts by the arrival of another two fifths of Team Thief.
"I told you there were two Eliots out here." Parker said, not too quietly, to her boyfriend and literal partner in crime as they too joined the group in the corner.
Parker made it over first and promptly studied the twins before poking both of them. Had to be sure one wasn't a fake.
"Parker, knock it off." Eliot growled.
Jake always had had better manners. "Hello ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you. Elly has told me a lot about ya'll. And you must be Hardison." He said shaking the other man's hand and grinning at Eliot's scowl. They both had nicknames and he kind of hoped his brother would start with childhood stories. He would win that battle.
"It is a pleasure to meet you too man. You know, Elly, here never mentioned that he had a twin brother." Hardison was gonna have fun with this.
"Oh, they're twins!" Parker exclaimed, as if that wasn't the most obvious option.
Eliot just shook his head and growled at Hardison.
"Hey, man, does this mean you call home to talk about us? You like us man. Ha Ha, I knew you loved us. That is so sweet, Elly, callin home to talk about his best buddies." One day Hardison would learn to keep his mouth shut. Probably not today.
Eliot sighed and that was the last sound before a very awkward silence descended upon the table.
A silence broken when Ezekiel spit his drink out all over the table, just missing Cassandra.
"Dude, that is nasty!" he exclaimed.
Eliot laughed. "Got the thief juice, huh?"
"So, is this why you told Nate we weren't doing a job, you wanted to have lunch with your brother? You could have just told him that. Now he's gonna make us wait longer cause he thinks its cause you got shot." Eliot suddenly wished he were somewhere else.
"You got shot." Jake's voice was quiet and sounded a bit too much like Eliot's.
"Relax, Jakey, I'm fine. And no Parker, I didn't know Jake was coming in today. Looks like we got a job though. Just us, we ain't involving Nate or Soph."
"You're going to help us?" Baird questioned, confused at his quick agreement. "You don't even know anything about what we are stealing. Or from whom."
"Ooh, we get to steal something? Can I use my new harness?"
"Jakey asks for help, I ain't sayin' no. and only if we need to Parker."
"Hey, what'd she mean, you got shot?" Eliot wasn't the only stubborn cowboy at the table.
"Chill, I'm fine, it was like 2 weeks ago. There was this thing is D.C. and some guy got lucky."
"Two weeks isn't enough time to heal for a bullet wound, you dumb ass." Sometimes Jake wondered how his brother survived this long.
"Actually its two bullet wounds. He got shot twice."
"Thanks Parker." Eliot growled under his breath.
"For what?"
"Eliot." Hardison could totally see the family resemblance.
"Just drop it Jakey, tell me bout this job would ya?"
"We need to get the Ring of Gyges. A guy named David Thomas has it his private and very well guarded collection in New York." Baird answered before Stone could argue with his brother, she had worked with Spencer before and if he said he was fine, he was.
"New York, alright, so seven tickets to New York, comin up." Hardison said, working with the guardian to avoid an argument.
"We don't need any tickets. Ya'll are gonna love this. We just gotta get back to the annex." Jake said with a grin, excited to show off the annex to his twin.
Eliot studied them for a minute and nodded.
"We can leave in an hour. Parker, Hardison, grab your gear, we ain't doin a con, we're just gonna steal it. Don't make it obvious that your packing stuff up though, don't want Nate or Sophie catching on."
"Why don't you want your other teammates to know what you're doin?" Jake finally asked as Parker and Hardison left.
"Nate has been pushin the team too hard. We can do what he's askin but its only a matter of time before someone slips up. He needs to slow down. I've been fightin' him on takin' a job for a week now, just got done telling him we need to wait three more days." Eliot explained as he got up and put the chair back.
"I'm gonna go get ya'll something to eat. By the time you're done eatin, we should be ready."
"Why three days?" Cassandra asked, catching the specific number.
Eliot chuckled, "Cause I've been itchin' to do a job for days. I'll bring your food out soon."
"Dude, I can't believe your brother is Eliot Spencer!" Jones whisper-shouted as soon as Eliot was out of ear shot.
"I can't believe both ya'll met him and didn't realize it when we met."
"It was nice of him to agree to help us. He didn't even ask what was going on until after he agreed." Cassandra said, changing the subject slightly.
Jake smiled. He knew his brother would help. That's what they did. A brother calls, a brother answers.
Please review! I might add more to this story or just add other drabbles in the same 'verse if people like it.
