A/N: This was requested by Kendra. I don't know if I like how it turned out…eh, whatever. I don't own Leverage!
How a piece of metal changed someone's life
It was the third time Sophie had ever run a con. The last two times hadn't ended well and the team still wouldn't let her live it down. Especially Hardison. This time she had assured them that she could do a con and not screw it up.
She was wrong. So very wrong.
It all happened too fast. She had been simply running the con and grifting like any other when suddenly the mark was about to hand over the check when he ripped it in half with a sly smile. Sophie knew right then and there that it would not end well. But before she could even open her mouth she was dragged out of her chair and punched square in the face. It happened a few more times and she felt the blood flowing down her face before she passed out. She had awoken on the cold metal ground of a truck. It had taken her a few moments to remember what the hell was going on and where the hell she was.
'Sophie! Sophie please answer me' Nate yelled into the comms
"What Nate?" Sophie grumbled as she sat up in the truck
'Oh, thank God Sophie!'
'Where are you?' Eliot demanded
"I'm in a moving truck"
There was a lot of cursing on the other end of comms from Eliot and Nate. Suddenly the truck stopped.
"It stopped"
Before she could even react the doors to the truck were thrown open and she was roughly grabbed and pulled out.
"Hey! Let go of me!" Sophie yelled in protest. She did a quick survey of the area and she saw that she was in some sort of warehouse. The two men that had a hold of her pushed her roughly to the ground. She groaned in pain and started to get back up but the one kicked her hard in the ribs. A burning sensation grew where he had kicked her and she slumped on the ground, clutching her ribs in pain.
"What's taking you two so long?" Came the smooth piercing voice of Victor Exfir.
"We thought you might want to join the festivities" The heavier of the two men chuckled
"How considerate" Victor said in a slightly sarcastic tone
'Sophie what's going on?' Nate demanded over the comms
"You can't hurt me" Sophie growled
Victor laughed. "That's so adorable," he said as he stepped on her hair and yanked it back. Sophie screamed in pain and clutched her head. She tried to pull her hair out from underneath his foot but he just pulled harder and harder.
"Stop!" Sophie sobbed
"Why would I stop?" Victor spat
Sophie cried more because she didn't have a good response. On the comms she could hear a lot of yelling and possibly crying; but she couldn't be sure. Once Victor finally let go of her hair she tried to scramble to her feet as quick as she could. Then one of the man picked her up from behind like she weighed nothing and then slung her over his shoulder. Sophie kicked, punched, and screamed as she tried to get away.
It didn't work
"Please help me" Sophie whispered over the comms
'S-Soph don't worry we-we're gonna c-come get you' Nate choked out
Sophie was about to respond but the man threw her off his shoulder and into a chair. Her back absorbed all the shock because the chair was bolted to the ground. Victor immediately got to working on tying her legs to the chair while the two other men worked on her arms. Right when Victor got in front of her foot she kicked him hard in the face with her foot. Unfortunately she didn't have her pointy black stiletto heels on that she had been wearing the night before.
(A flash of how she had lost them the night before making her smile even more then she already was)
"You bitch!" Victor yelled as he clutched his nose that was now bleeding everywhere
"You asked for it" Sophie said in a smooth tone, flashing him a wicked smirk
Victor cocked his head to the side slightly and then brought his foot hard down on her foot.
Again
And again
And again
Sophie screamed in pain the last time and she could feel the burning numbing pain ebbing into her toes. "What do you want?"
"I want you dead. I want all of your team dead"
Sophie shook her head slowly and glared at him with her shiny black eyes. "You can't kill us"
'Soph be careful what you say!' Nate warned her
'You're provoking him Sophie. You need to stop' Eliot commanded with the slightest waver to his usually firm voice
Sophie ignored the chattering in her ear. "We're better then you. We'll grind you into dust...Into nothing" Sophie drawled out.
Victor slapped her hard across the face and she gasped loudly. "Let down that grifter mask of yours and show me your scared!" He roared in her face.
"I'm not scared of you" Sophie whispered
Victor reached down and plucked her comm from her ear.
"Lovely girlfriend you have Nate. She's quite the strong one if I do say so myself. You know it's quite a pity I have to kill her, she'd make a nice addition to my team" Victor grinned evilly before crushing her comm with his shoe
Sophie felt her bottom lip tremble as she truly felt the fear set deep into the pits of her stomach. It twisted and churned in her stomach until she felt like she was going to throw up.
"Now that's what I want to see"
"Please don't kill me" Sophie begged, years of always getting what she wanted now crumbling to dust.
He smirked at her plead and pulled out his gun. Victor put the mag in and cocked it. "Goodbye Miss Devereaux"
The world went black.
LEVERAGE
Sophie awoke to the gentle but repeated slapping of her cheek. Above her she saw Nate looking a wreck, tears streaming and dripping down his face.
"S-S-Soph" Nate cried, pressing a wet kiss to her forehead
Sophie was about to move her arm to wipe it off but Eliots firm voice stopped her. "Don't move"
"Wha-what happened?" Sophie mumbled
"You were shot"
Sophie nodded her head slowly. "How bad?"
Nate let out a loud sob as he looked at her frail body.
Eliot blinked back the tears threatening to fall and answered for Nate. "You-you were lucky to survive"
"Permanent damage?"
"Just a scar"
Sophie smiled weakly at the news. "Nate?...Nate? It's okay"
"No it's not Sophie" Nate cried, his words slurred. "You almost died"
"But I'm right here Nate. Alive."
Nate looked straight into her sad brown eyes, "I love you Sophie! I can't live my life without you"
She grinned despite the pain in her body. "I love you too Nate"
Eliot groaned. "You guys act like saying 'I love you' for the first time is some huge deal"
"It is Eliot!" They both snapped at him
"I've loved you for so long and I know that I probably should've admitted it sooner. You'd probably say it's because I was too broken back then. I was broken but you helped repair me"
"We both can't live without each other" Sophie smiled gently
"This is horribly sappy" Eliot muttered
Nate smiled sheepishly and bent down to kiss Sophie.
Eliot grumbled in annoyance. "Congratulations on not being idiots anymore! Now can you please stop so I can finish stitching this bullet wound?"
They ignored him and continued kissing because as horribly sappy and mushy as it was they truly were in love with each other.