The Truth About Hardison
© 2010 Dolfyn Rider
Title: The Truth About Hardison
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: M
Pairing: None
Summary: Someone has a secret...and someone learns the truth.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Leverage-verse.
NOTES: Although this is set in the middle of third season, there are no spoilers so read without worry.
"Hardison?" she asked, worried about him. The monitor's glow reflected on his face, the only light in his office once again, but her question went unanswered. She tried again, more sharply this time, "HARDISON!"
He jumped, turning toward her, "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in...when did it get so dark?"
Sophie moved closer to him, checking her watch in the glow, "About 8 hours ago," a pause as she looks over his shoulder, "Are you at it again?"
He looked at her, guilty expression all over his face in the dim lighting, "Yeah..." he admitted reluctantly.
"You know this is a bad id..." She started to tell him.
"Sophie, I have to. Why are you so against this?" he cut her off, asking the same question he'd already heard the answer to several times during the past few weeks.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," she spoke as he mouthed the words along with her. Thankfully he'd turned back around and she didn't see him.
"I need to know, Sophie. I have to know. If Parker and I ever get serious..." he trailed off.
"What?" Sophie asked, surprised, wondering if he was finally getting up the nerve to ask their blonde co-worker out.
If we ever..." his voice broke slightly, "...get to the point where kids might be an option, I need to know," he sighed, finally admitting the truth.
"Wait, you and Parker finally..."
He stopped her, "Still not even close, but you all know I love the woman," he glanced at her, then shifted his eyes back to the monitor, keying in various words and phrases, hitting the back button and trying again when he didn't find what he wanted.
Sophie sighed, "I still don't think it's a good idea. What happens if you don't like what you find?"
"HOLY SHIT!" He exclaimed, jotting down something on a wrapper to one of his sodas that had been lying on his desk. He paused long enough to grab his jacket, then he was gone.
Sophie stopped the chair, still spinning from Hardison's hasty dash out the door, and sat down. He hadn't even turned his computer off. He must have hit on something big. Sophie grew more worried. Hardison missed the expression on her face as she read what was on the screen. Half-shock, half-horror registered in her big brown eyes as she scanned the page quickly.
"County General, Seattle, Washington, July 14, 1986
Baby Boy X is still in the hospital's care at this time. They have confirmed that the boy is between 5 and 7 days old. Tests confirm the child is in perfect health.
They are still searching for the woman who left him in the emergency room four days ago. She is under no threat, they just want to question her and are begging anyone who knows anything about the boy to come forward. No charges will be pressed."
With the article was a typical picture. Small, grainy and in black and white. A surveillance camera shot. It showed a woman with knee-length hair, her head down, as if she knew the cameras were there, and Sophie knew she did.
"Fuck!" Sophie shouted to the empty office. She debated her options.
Eliot? No, he wouldn't understand and she's hate to wake him up, if he was actually asleep. He was a teddy bear with the team, when awake, but when woken, he wasn't the most pleasant person to be around for a while.
Nate? She didn't even want to go down that route. A call at this hour to him would mean more trouble in their relationship's infancy. He'd think she was making up a reason to come over, and she knew where that would lead. Not that she didn't want it, but her mind was focused on pulling Hardison back into the ranks and making him give up the chase.
Parker! She was the only reasonable option. She's the only one who may be able to understand. She knew the computer as well as Hardison, too, as he was the one who taught her, and she was the least threatening of the team at this hour.
"Parker, I need you!" Sophie tried not to scream into the phone.
"Wow, Sophie, I didn't know you cared so much, but what are we going to tell Nate?" Parker's laughter was slightly disturbing.
"Parker! This is...wait, did you actually just make a joke?" Sophie couldn't suppress her shock and listened to the wind through the phone.
"Sorry," Parker said, voice sounding like a two-year-old who was about to be punished, "I was just reading a book, that line was..."
Sophie cut her off, "Parker, Hardison's gone to look for his birth mom! He found something on the computer and I need you to play the geek and help me track him."
"HE WHAT?" Parker screeched into the phone so loudly Sophie yanked it as far away from her ear as humanly possible, and kept it there as Parker's tirade continued, "I CAN'T BELIEVE HE WOULD DO THAT! WHEN DID HE START LOOKING? HOW LONG AGO DID HE LEAVE? WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU..."
Sophie interrupted her, "Parker! Get to the office...NOW!" she said and hung up.
Parker listened to the dial tone for a few seconds before closing her phone and shoving it in a zippered pocket on her vest. "She did say now," she giggled saying it out loud to no one, then she threw herself off the top of the pub they now called home.
Sophie was pacing and Hardison's computer was still on, though the image was now his screen saver. Parker stood at the doorway and watched Sophie chewing on her nail for a moment. She was really worried. Parker wanted to comfort her, but she still wasn't too good at that sort of thing yet. The jokes, once reading them, she could understand, but she wasn't sure how to comfort yet. She made a note to read more girl books, or chick flicks...no, that was movies...maybe she should pick up a few of them, too. Shaking her head, she finally spoke.
"Sophie?" She almost whispered. It felt weird breaking into Nate's apartment, even if she did come in the window attached to her own office in the back area Eliot had made when the team had reformed a year and a half ago.
The brunette jumped a mile at the sound. Though Parker had whispered it, it was still loud as there was no other sound in the building, other than Hardison's computer running. "Where the hell did you come from? I've been liste..." she stopped, finally noticing Parker's outfit, "Were you on the roof again?"
"Yes," Parker admitted, "It may not be the tallest building around, but it's great for experimenting with my new designs and when I get new gear," she added, then in a jerky movement, she twirled for Sophie, to try to show off the harness.
"Let's go!" Sophie said, grabbing the blonde, not caring about where Parker had been before she got there. She practically threw the tiny woman into Hardison's chair, "Do it!" She pleaded.
"What?" Parker asked. She knew Sophie wanted her help, but how were they going to stop him if she was in front of the computer. It would have been easier if Sophie had chased him so they'd at least know what direction he went in.
"Do that thing where you type some stuff and we figure out where he is," Sophie said, almost in a state of panic now.
"You mean, you want me to track him?" Parker asked, slightly stunned Sophie needed her help for once.
"Yes, yes, that! Do it, do it now!" Sophie was begging Parker now.
Moments later, the whole team piled into a rented van and they were on their way. Parker knew, even without the search, where Hardison was headed and couldn't understand how Sophie didn't know herself. He was, obviously, headed to the hospital in the article.
Many rest stops and hotels later, they finally made their way into the city. It was crowded and noisy and Sophie just wanted to rest. The hotels they'd been staying in were low rent, often offering rooms by the hour, and they always used cash.
Hardison had taken his laptop and they knew he'd be checking for a tail. They didn't want to give him any more warning than necessary as they knew he'd be checking on them, too, once Sophie called them all and rounded them up.
Driving into the heart of downtown, the pulled up to a hotel. Sophie sighed, it was only a couple steps up from the dumps they'd been staying in, but she knew they had to.
"So, what's the plan?" She asked.
"Find Hardison, drag his ass back to Boston, and pray he doesn't take off again," Nate said.
"I can make sure he doesn't take off again..." Eliot offered.
"No," Nate looked at him, "We do still need him on the team, unless you're rather work with Chaos?"
"Fair point," Eliot said, backing off, not really sure of what else they could do other than tie him down until he got this searching stuff out of his system.
Parker slipped something into Sophie's hand and she jumped. Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't realized her co-worker approaching. "What...?" She asked, still pulling herself back from her thoughts.
"Room key," Parker told her, studying her face, her worried expression matched the brunette's, though for a completely different reason. She leaned into Sophie, "So, are you going to..."
Sophie cut her off, announcing to the team she was going to try to get some sleep before they could trace Hardison's whereabouts and turned towards the stairs. Slowly pulling herself up each step. She was more tired than even she realized.
Two hours later, she finally emerged from her room, wondering where Parker was, but found her soon enough in Nate's room. The rest of the team was there, computer cords snaking all over across the floor. They had already started the search.
"Good news or bad?" Nate asked her.
"Umm..." She paused, not sure what could be good about this, "Good?"
"He's been to the hospital, but hasn't dug around long enough to find anything out yet. Might mean he's hesitant now that he's here. His records are here, at least the..." he glanced at Parker, "...important stuff." Nate finished.
"Important...?" Sophie asked, confused.
"Since he was pretty much dumped here, they ran all kinds of tests on him when he was an infant. Kept some of the blood samples, as far as is known, according to Parker's research, he's a hundred percent healthy with no known diseases or illnesses." Nate informed her.
"Okay, so, the bad news is?" Sophie asked, wondering what could be so bad.
"He's got a hotel close to the hospital," Nate said.
"And this is bad news, how?" Sophie wondered out loud as they all looked at her.
"Well, bad for us," Nate stressed.
"Of course he'd want to be by the hospital, he can get there fast and the closer he is, the easier it is for him to....do whatever it is that he does," Sophie said.
"Sophie, you're not getting it. He's here." Eliot tried to explain it to her.
"Well, of course he's here! Otherwise, we wouldn't be!" Sophie snapped, emotions taking over, and she was admittedly still a bit groggy.
"No, Sophie," Parker spun her around to face her, "He's here, as in, he's in the hotel here!"
"Great, so that leaves us...where?" Sophie asked, her eyes back on Nate again.
They danced a careful dance around the hotel. Never going out in a group, never even leaving or coming at the same time, but they had a few options for surveillance that didn't include hiding in their room.
Parker had secured a spot on the top of a nearby building that allowed them to see directly into Hardison's room, and if he was facing the right way, with the aid of binoculars, they could even see what he was pulling up on his computer.
Sophie had called in Tara to help them again once they realized Hardison was looking for activity on their accounts. They couldn't tip him off this soon. Not until they knew what he knew. So, Tara had stayed in Boston, with their credit cards and other easily tracked documents. Every other day, she'd go shopping on Sophie's card. She'd hit a bar or two on Nate's or Eliot's. She bought new gear for Parker to come home to at the sporting goods store.
They finally figured out everything Hardison knew. Parker had tapped into Hardison's computer, but the guys were watching him in case he realized it. She and Sophie sat in Nate's room, wading through all the information.
"So, the full records, they have everything, including his birth mother's name! Look!" Parker pointed at the screen, finger dancing up and down, shaking madly.
Sophie peered over her shoulder, "WHAT?"
"Sophie, he knows. He knows who his mother is," Parker spoke, voice as shaky as the team felt.
"What's her name?" Nate voice rang out through the coms.
"I'm going to go talk to him," Sophie said, pushing herself off the bed.
"No, Sophie, he's on the move! He just looked at the computer and took off." Eliot's voice called out this time.
"Did you see what it was?" Sophie asked hopefully.
"No, his body was blocking the screen, but he's about a block east now," Nate's voice again.
"I'm going," Sophie said, then took out her com and tossed it on the bed. She looked at Parker, "Come with me...please."
The guys heard Parker say "Yes", and headed to the room.
By the time they got there, it was too late. Both of the women were gone. They debated staying there or going after them, finally deciding to stay, as Parker had left her computer on. The monitor updated every few seconds to show Hardison's progress down the street.
She caught up to him in an alley. "Hardison..." she started as Parker rushed to his side.
"Mom...?" Hardison asked, unsteady as hell. He actually would have fallen over if not for Parker supporting most of his weight. "Why did you do this? What went wrong? Why was I wrong? Was I that bad of a baby?"
"Do the math!" Sophie snapped, then she turned and ran down the alley as fast as she could. Once she was sure they weren't following her, she slowed. She wanted to go back, knew what Parker was going to do, what Parker was going to say once she took Hardison to Nate's room, but she couldn't. She couldn't face anyone right now. Her cell chirped, but she quickly shut if off and kept going, tears streaming from her eyes.
Hardison tried to go after her, but Parker's hand stopped him. "I don't like math, what did she mean?"
"You don't like math?" Hardison turned towards her, "You're the one who figured out it would take 45 seconds to....oh, forget it. Parker, why didn't you tell me? I know that look, you knew. Why didn't she tell me?" He looked so hurt, Parker reached out and put an arm around him, but still kept her distance. It was an awkward position for both of them, then...Hardison closed the gap.
His deceptively strong arms embraced her and Parker was trapped. He rested his head on her shoulder and tried to fight tears of his own. All Parker could do was rub his back, but she wasn't sure what to do with her other arm, so she let it hang down beside her. A moment passed and she felt her shirt getting wet.
"Hardison...?" she ventured softly, "Are you..." she was so uncomfortable and didn't really know what she was going to say, she prayed he wasn't really crying on her shoulder, but at the same time, she knew he was.
He pushed away from her, wiping his eyes, "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay," Parker said, awkwardly patting his arm. "I know better than anyone on this team what you're going through, not that I'd ever want to find my parents."
"You're going to have to at some point, just so we know..." he stopped dead, mentally kicking himself for what he almost let slip. He knew she wasn't ready for that, though he did know, in his heart, that Parker liked him as much as he liked her.
"The team doesn't care who my parents are. Why would that make any difference in what we do?" Parker asked him, thankfully missing what he was really trying to say.
Hardison sighed, "It doesn't," a long pause, "...guess we should get back to the hotel. If Sophie's there already, they're going to be wondering. If she's not, they're going to need one of us to find her."
***************
Sophie sat on the bench for what seemed like hours, wondering what to do. She'd never told anyone her secret, not even Nate. Nate! What is he going to think of me? Is he still going to care? Finally sober so we can have a shot at a real relationship and now this? She glanced around the empty park wondering what to do.
She knew she had to go back to the hotel, but she wasn't sure she could face anyone. By now, she knew Hardison and Parker had to have returned and explained what was going on.
She debated just taking off, but Hardison and Parker both now had the annoying power to track her so she'd have to use cash and she didn't have much left on her from this trip. Plus, Parker really knew her. In the two and a half years the team had been working together, they really had bonded. Maybe it was because they were the only women, maybe it was because the guys were always doing guy things and left them to their own devices sometimes forcing them together, but Parker knew her too well, knew where she'd be most likely to go.
She had to go back to the hotel. She had to try to explain...to Hardison and to Nate...what was going on back then. She closed her eyes remembering.
She was barely fourteen, her parents had just been in a car accident. She'd hung around for the funeral, but she couldn't live with her grandparents. They were good people...too good. She took off, heading for the states on money she'd been scamming, or flat-out stealing, since she was ten years old. Her parents were in the business, it's all she knew, and they had taught her well. She was excellent at pulling a con already, but if by some long shot, she did get caught, she didn't want her grandfather to know. She knew he'd be so disappointed in her, but she couldn't stop herself.
She loved having money, loved being able to buy whatever she wanted. Her parents had been thoughtful enough to put some money aside for her as well, plus they left her a hefty inheritance, but she wanted to make her own way and she knew, using her own, she'd always have a nice net to fall back on if needed in case of an emergency.
When she arrived at the airport in Chicago, she grabbed her bags and headed out. Not sure where she was going, she just took in the city, leaving a trail of empty wallets. When she got bored, she moved on to Orlando. Then Salem, Austin, Salt Lake City, and so many others. She liked the bigger cities as they had more suckers who'd fall for a pretty face but she also loved to relax in the smaller cities, staying until her money ran out or she got tired of seeing the same faces.
On her fifteenth birthday, she decided to head up to Washington. In Seattle, she met Nikki. He was tall, dark, and muscular. And he was older than she, but he didn't know it. She let him assume she was closer to his age. They started dating, started scamming together, and only a few weeks later, the double line appeared. Nikki told her he had to leave while she was in the bathroom, staring at the test. The cops were on to him and he had to bolt. After the shock of the test wore off, she finally emerged from the bathroom, but he was already gone.
Shaking her head of the memory, not wanting to relive the pregnancy, not wanting to relive leaving her little boy at the hospital, she dragged herself to her feet and started walking as slowly as possible back to the hotel. Rehearsing what she was going to tell everyone in her head.
Before she wanted it to, the hotel loomed large in front of her. She freed the key from her purse and headed in. At the elevators, she paused, resting her head on the cool metal surrounding the doors before hitting the button.
As the doors opened, she stepped out slowly, half expecting the team to be there. They weren't. The further down the hall she got, the slower her feet went. Still unsure of what to tell them, she took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob.
The silence in the room scared her as all eyes turned in her direction at the sound of the lock clicking open. She faced them, more alone than she'd ever been in her life. Seconds ticked by on the bedside clock as they all waited. Eliot, Parker and Nate eyed her, then Hardison, then back to her in a silent game of tennis. Back and forth, back and forth.
Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. "Welcome home, son?" she ventured.
Hardison walked to her slowly. Stood in front of her for a moment, then fell into her in a hug so tight she couldn't breathe. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," pour from her lips as her tears fell onto his shirt. At the same time, "Why didn't you tell me? Why?" kept spilling out of Hardison's mouth, his tears now soaking her shoulder.
She finally disengaged from the hug and led him to the bed where the others were still sitting, watching, mute, taking in everything.
She quickly explained. Once she saw the paper, saw herself leaving, she went and explained her situation. She told the police she was just scared, explained she was only 15, that she was living with friends and didn't want to bother them with her child. The apartment was a tiny two-bedroom and on any given night, there were usually ten or twelve people, usually runaways, who crashed there. Those living there backed up her story. She signed over custody and moved back to London, scamming her way through various cities on the way there.
Eight years later, she decided to come back, to try to find him. She paid the money to have the records opened, but wasn't sure how he'd react. At the time, he was in foster care, but the adoption agency said he was well-adjusted and loved his foster parents. She was worried what may happen to him, emotionally, if she came forward.
She kept telling herself she'd find him again the following year, but as the years went by, it got easier and easier for her to stay away. When Nate called on her to join the team, hearing who he had enlisted, it was the perfect opportunity to see what had become of him. She was sad at first, hoping for more for him, like any other parent, but when a con went well, she was secretly proud of him the most.
She turned, "Nate...I don't know what to...I don't want you to think...there was so much going on, I was so young..." she floundered, trying to find whatever words might cushion the blow.
"Sophie, we all have things in our past we're not proud of," Nate said, eyes trained on her face. Then he realized what he'd said. His eyes darted to Hardison, "I meant the giving you up part." Hardison nodded, understanding.
Parker finally spoke, she looked at Hardison, "Does this mean you have to call Nate 'dad' now?"
The spell was broken. The whole team laughed. Except Parker. The seriousness on her face only made them laugh harder, though.
"What?" She asked.
"Not yet," Sophie replied, a glint in her eye.
"Not ever," Nate said, then turned to Hardison, "Unless you want to."
It took some time for the team to adjust, and even now, Hardison does tease Nate by calling him "dad" every once in a while. He'd learned his lesson. Though Sophie did offer to try to locate his birth father, she knew it was useless. And if Hardison ever did want to, she knew he had a better shot than she did of finding Nikki.
THE END