Title: Side of a Story

Rating: G

Summary: Maggie confronts Eliot

Spoilers: maybe from 'The Second David Job'

Author Note: This story was kicking around on my LJ for a while, decided to move it over here so you kind people might enjoy it too. There are a few other stories over there that haven't been posted here, so if you'd like feel free to seach for Wah_keetcha on Live Journal. Well... thank god the crew is back and enjoy this fic!

He was checking out the mansion's massive kitchen when the determined click of heels on the tiled floor alerts him to someone's approach. Running an appreciative hand over the butcher block island top Eliot decides not to hang around and wait for Sophie to confront him. His anger at the betrayal still burning hot and free inside his veins, balling up in his stomach like a serpent. With the ease of a person use to making a smooth, unnoticed get away Eliot makes his way out onto the massive patio and down the marble steps into the long neglected gardens of the massive estate. Stopping in front of a fountain, no long spitting water and dried up. Eliot listens for the footfalls of the back stabbing Grifter; he groans, having shed a hope that the woman would have given up and left him alone.

No such luck.

Knowing running won't help the fighter stands his ground as the clicking of the heels gets louder, the person already at the last landing. Eliot waits, his back turned and fisted hands in his pockets, jaw tight as he narrows his eyes, ready for the confrontation that has been destined to happen.

"Who are you? Really?" Eliot lets loose a breath of surprise and whirls around, finding Maggie standing on the landing above the final steps down to the fountain, her arms crossed and jaw sternly clenched. Surprise at the sight of the woman he conned not even three hours before expels the angry heat from his body, instead filling it with ice water. Eliot's never had to introduce himself to anyone before; most people who hired him know his reputation and never needed to have a hearty handshake and introductions.

"I mean, obviously your not Adam Sinclair, art expert and all that." She continues, blue eyes hard with suspicion as she moves slowly down the few final steps, heels clicking sharply. Eliot steps away from the approaching woman, his mind whirling as she moves closer, her expression a mixture of curiosity and mild fury. Eliot knows from past experiences that such a mixture in a high strung woman like Maggie never bodes well from the properly raised man who won't raise a hand to strike back.

"You also work with Nate and his little band of thieves, so I have to wonder if anything you told me was even true." She says, seeming to notice the man's discomfort and stopping a few feet from the specialist, her arms folded and hip cocked as she waits. Eliot's defenses are slammed up at the tone of her voice and he can feel the urge to move and get away from the situation eating away at him as he struggles with not launching at the woman, his senses seeing her as a potential threat. Maggie's eyes narrow slightly as she watches the man, trying to figure out the reason behind his tensed stance and weary look. The first time she met the man at the Blackpoole gallery she found his charming and knowledgeable in the ways of the art inspector, but now the seething fury upon finding out the man was working with her ex-husband. Maggie wanted to know, she wanted to understand why this man had pretended to be something he's not.

"Say something." She orders, voice hard and cold. Being a mother had given her a little more patience than she had when she was younger but at times like this her former temper flares dangerously. The man's eyes darken as his face hardens and the woman resists the urge to shudder at the unnerving sense of danger that overtakes her. Where did the charming and sophisticated Adam Sinclair she met at the gallery party disappear too? In that charismatic man Maggie saw someone she could relate too and understand, but in the man standing before her, tensed and weary she can't see anything relating to the other man. She cocks her head to the side, finding it strange that someone with the same face could have two polar opposite sides.

"What is there to say?" he suddenly asks, voice still rough and accented lightly with a Southern clipping to the words. She moves down another step, taking notice of the slight twitch in the man's jaw and the tightening of muscles in his neck.

"You can start with your name. Your real name." Maggie says, using her arms to emphasize her annoyance without approaching the edgy man. He watches her for a moment or two before dropping his gaze, his body language shifting to someone still weary and suspicious to one of a person not about to fight or run. Bright blue eyes come up and he opens his mouth but nothing comes out, his voice seemingly caught in his throat.

"I don't even need your real name, just give me something. Everything I know about you is a lie…" she trails off, her frustration with the man, with Nate, with the whole situation suddenly evaporating, leaving her exhausted and sullen.

"My name is Eliot Spencer; I'm a retrieval specialist that was hired for a job Nate worked on a while back." He finally says and Maggie mulls over his words, replaying the name in her head. She quirks a smile at the man and sighs as the change sets the man on edge again, his eyes darting around quickly for an escape.

"I remember seeing your file on my coffee table a few years ago… Nate was obsessed with you." She says with a bit of laughter on her voice. Eliot relaxes again, unsure of how to proceed and slightly worried what Nate would think, seeing the two of them like this. The man had been nearly spitting nails when Eliot joined Sophie and Blackpoole with Maggie tagging along, he really didn't need this to be yet another problem on their already rocky and strained working relationship.

"Your reputation precedes you and you're not proud of that?" Maggie suddenly asks, arms crossing and eyebrow cocking as she waits for an answer. Eliot isn't sure how to respond to that and stares at the woman as she slowly moves down to sit on one of the benches, crossing her legs.

"I mean, I've met a few thieves while married and working with Nate, they always boasted about the thing's they'd stolen or hocked. I met one specialist who went on and on about where he'd been, what he'd done. Men he'd killed." The last bit coming out seriously, the words cutting through the long haired specialist like his own knife. His tactical mind is working through her ploy though and while this tactic would get most people proud of what they'd done to talk, he knows better. Instead Eliot moves towards the stairs, his movement's fluid as he shrugs.

"I don't see the need to boast about my exploits. There are things people are better not knowing about, things that are to easy to draw a conclusion of a person's personality from. You can't judge a man by his reputation, because sometimes, that's only on side of an entirely different story." He says, taking the marble steps easily as he walks away, having said his peace and kept himself from being picked apart by someone who stands outside the shadowy darkness of the criminal world.

"Eliot suits you better." He stops at Maggie's voice and turns slightly, his eyebrow cocking. The woman is standing at the landing, her hands twisting in front of her, a small smile on her lips.

"It's better than Adam; you don't look like and Adam." Eliot gives a chuckle at that and shakes his head, continuing on up the steps. Maggie watches the man go, deciding that learning about the rest of Nate's motley crew, might just be a unique undertaking.

End.

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