Hello. Welcome to my first venture into the Leverage fandom. I love this series but I wasn't sure how to do this team justice, then I had this idea. It's simple but fun and I hope it makes you laugh. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage or the X-men.

The Canada Job

"Why the hell did Nate agree to this job?" Eliot Spencer, retrieval specialist and hitter, snarled to no one in particular. He hauled an ugly but expensive chair out of a moving truck and into the blowing snow. The weather report didn't call it a blizzard but it sure felt like one.

"I hear ya," Alec Hardison, hacker, agreed vehemently. He slammed his fingers into his keyboard to try and keep them warm. Lucille was not made to withstand temperatures like this.

Nathen Ford, mastermind, sighed quietly, knowing the coms would pick up the sound. "Because there is a government agency targeting innocents."

"As much as I hate to agree with Hardison, I will say that taking a job in Canada in the middle of the bleeding winter was ill-advised," Sophie Devereaux, grifter, muttered. She didn't have that much to complain about, though. At least she was inside.

"I like it," Parker, thief, chirped. "I want to make a snow angel, and a snow man, and a snow cone, and have a snowball fight and…"

"Darlin'," Eliot chuckled, "We'll do everything you want later, when we're not in the middle of a con."

"Yeah," Hardison chattered, "Preferably somewhere sunny and warm."

"Hardison, you can't make a snowman when it's warm," Parker chided the hacker affectionately.

"Lil' mama, I will pay to ship snow to you but I want to be warm before I come down with frost bite. I need my fingers, people."

"Dammit, Hardison," Eliot growled.

"Focus everyone," Nate tried to bring his team back on task. "Evil government agency to take down, remember?"

"Yeah about that," Eliot grunted, as he shifted something heavy. "You haven't been real forth coming about who the client is or the target."

Nate shook his head. He was bundled up in a car on the corner of the street as he waited for his cue, which better be soon. This was worse than the mountain job. "I told you that we'd meet the client afterward and I don't know much about target. That's why the client came to us, to obtain information."

"I don't like it," Eliot repeated. Going in blind like this was making him nervous.

"It's Canada," Sophie said. "No, move the chairs over there, Jimmy. And put the filing cabinet back in the corner, I was wrong about putting it by the window." Her cover was an interior decorator hired to spruce up the government offices for a "surprise inspection" that Nate had arranged. Elliot was her hired muscle and go-fer. "What was I saying, oh yes. It's Canada, what's so dangerous about Canada?"

Eliot didn't answer past a growl. Something was bothering him about this job and it wasn't just the lack of information. He had a very distinctive tingle on the back of his neck and the officials they'd seen so far were not distinctive and that worried him more. There weren't many organizations that he couldn't identify from their style.

"A lot actually," Hardison was saying as Eliot mused things over. "I think the fact that I can't hack anything to do with this Department H, shows that there are some serious skeletons in the closet."

"And we were hired to bring them into the light," Nate finished. He checked his watch. "Are you ready for me?" he asked his team.

"We're good to go here," Sophie acknowledged. "No, Jimmy, the other corner."

"Got you covered from here," Hardison promised.

"No one said anything about skeletons," Parker pouted. "Was I supposed to bring more harnesses?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The con went through without a hitch. Nate had the poor paper-pushers so turned around that they never noticed the files he slipped between the cushions of their rented chairs. Hardison set off their fire alarms so no one detected Parker slipping into the server room to download everything before setting a small fire to explain the alarm. Then, under the cover of the confusion, Sophie and Elliot collected their chairs stuffed with papers before anyone could think to check them. Nate endured the overboard body check but they found nothing, just as planned. It was like clockwork.

The team took a few days to enjoy a ski resort so Parker could have her share of snow filled fun before finally getting on a plane back to Boston with a hard drive of encrypted files and several folders full of documents that had more redactions than words. Overall, a very productive week.

They were walking into the bar below Nate's apartment when Eliot caught a whiff of cigar smoke, a very distinctive brand of cigar smoke.

"Nate," Eliot growled, dumping the girl's luggage at the door so his hands would be free. It wouldn't make much of a difference if the smoker was after them, but it might give the team time to run. "Who did you say our client was?"

The mastermind shot a worried look at the hitter, immediately noticing the ready stance and tense posture. "I didn't," Nate answered carefully. "Why?"

The rest of the team saw their hitter's tension and prepared themselves. Parker pulled out her taser, Sophie pulled her innocent face on while she stepped out of the way, and Hardison backed up and pulled out his phone and immediately started searching for problems in the area.

Eliot scanned the room but didn't see the distinctive hairstyle he was looking for. "I think you need to tell me," he suggested harshly.

Nate smiled and laid a hand on the hitter's shoulder. "You can meet him," he said, not really understanding the problem. "He's upstairs."

Eliot growled but he led the way to Nate's apartment. He forced the others to stay back as he opened the door, wary for an ambush. When no one jumped out as he walked in, he relaxed minutely, but still kept his guard up. The rest of the team filed in behind him.

There were two men waiting in Nate's living room. One was making himself at home on the couch with a beer. The other was in a wheelchair, facing the door with a kind smile.

Parker, who had a very odd sense of self-preservation, skipped over to the second man with a big grin. "Can I touch your head?" she asked with the innocence of a child, one who was still gripping a very powerful taser.

The man chuckled but nodded. "Just this once, Miss Parker."

The thief leaned over to rub the top of the man's bald head. "Ha! I've always wanted to do that."

"I promise that we mean you no harm, Mr. Spencer," the man said. He angled his chair to look at Eliot who had moved along the wall so he could watch both men and so he was closer to the knife he had hidden in Nate's fake plant.

"Leave 'im alone, Chuck," the other man said, tipping his head back to finish his beer. "He don't trust me and he's got his reasons. Nothin' wrong with that." He heaved himself off the couch and turned to look at the team of thieves and grifters with a crooked, slightly feral smile.

"Yes, well, since they have just assisted us, I think some manners are in order," the older-looking man said. "I am Professor Charles Xavier and my colleague is Logan."

"Pleasure," Logan said, his voice dripping with amusement as he and Eliot sized each other up. They were both on the shorter side, Logan more-so than Eliot by several inches, and built for brawling. They also both had interesting hair styles. Logan's was shaped into points on either side of his head and sported impressive mutton chops. "No hard feelings for Mandipoor?" he asked, his eyebrow arching up.

Eliot studied the shorter man for several seconds before letting the tension bleed out of his shoulders. "No hard feelings," he agreed. "You looked better with the eyepatch."

Professor Xavier chuckled, turning everyone's attention away from the stand-off. "I believe you have something for us."

"We do," Nate agreed. "Hardison," he turned to the hacker who was uncharacteristically quiet. "The hard drive?"

"Oh, um, yeah, sure, man," Hardison babbled. "Just give me a minute," he said as he dug into the bag on his shoulder. He pulled out the small hard drive and the folders. "I haven't had a chance to go over this yet or decrypt anything, but here ya go." He handed the stack to Nate to hand to Xavier. He turned to Sophie to whisper shrilly, "Do you know who they are?"

The woman tipped her head elegantly. "I'm afraid not."

"They're the X-men!" Hardison squealed, forgetting to keep his voice down.

"Don't forget it, bub," Logan rumbled in a terrifying but teasing tone.

"Oh," Parker said. "Cool."

"Cool?" Hardison exclaimed, his voice raising another octave.

"Thank you for this," Xavier said to Nate, taking the papers. "We've been trying to get information on Department H and Weapon X for some time but they are prepared for any move we make. That was why I contacted you."

"Happy to help," Nate promised. "Did you want help with the encryption?"

"No, we have some very talented people on our team," the professor said with a shake of his head. "But thank you for the offer. Now, we must get going. Logan?"

"Comin', Chuck," the mutant said. He saluted Eliot and followed his colleague out the door.

Silence descended in the apartment while everyone considered the significance of this encounter. Hardison was vibrating with fanboy glee and Eliot was coming down from a serious adrenalin rush. He had not expected to see the Wolverine again and live. Nate was relaxed and Sophie didn't care really. Men with superpowers were still just men and she could handle men.

Parker was the first to break the silence. "How did he get up the stairs?"

"Dammit, Parker!"