A/N: This is the other half to a story posted in the Leverage/Crossfire Trail section of this site, but you don't absolutely have to have read that for this to make sense.
This takes place in the same 'verse as Lawyered Up, Brothers at Odds and in Arms (by poesie), and Lessons About Freedom. If you haven't read those, don't worry. All you really need to know is that Eliot Spencer is married to Parker, Parker knew Lindsey (McDonald, from Angel) before she knew Eliot thanks to a job they pulled years ago, and Eliot and Lindsey are twins. That just about covers it.
Fandoms: Leverage, Angel, Secondhand Lions, Rescue 77, Her Minor Thing
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to their relevant creators and not to me - I'm just mixing up sandboxes for the heck of it!
The Spencer Family Tree - Daddy's Side
Lindsey woke up to a knocking sound that he assumed was someone at the door. He realised his mistake as he came to and noticed it wasn't a knocking sound so much as the feeling of a fist bumping against his skull.
"Wow, you sleep heavy," said Parker, glad to see her bleary-eyed brother-in-law was finally awake as she thrust a mug of coffee into his hand. "Eliot wakes up if I so much as smile at him whilst he's sleeping," she noted as she sat herself down on the couch, curling her legs up under her.
Lindsey was barely coherent enough to know she was still talking. He moved to put his coffee down on the table and every single muscle he had complained. Falling asleep in the armchair had not been a good idea, but then he hadn't really meant to do it. So much for calling his brother 'grandpa' when he spoke of the late hour. He was clearly too tired to even make it to the spare room last night before he dropped off.
"What time is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Seven oh four," said Parker, sipping her coffee and watching Lindsey over the rim of the mug. "Eliot is making breakfast, so I thought I'd come wake you up and bring you coffee, y'know, to be nice."
There was something about the way she said it and the way she was looking at him. Lindsey didn't quite buy the being nice thing. Not that he didn't believe Parker was capable of it. She was one of the best people he ever knew his whole life, and proved it constantly, especially where him and his brother were concerned. The fact was, people didn't just state they were doing things to be nice unless they had an ulterior motive.
"What do you really want, Parker?" he asked her with a smirk he couldn't help. "A little alone time with the more charming Spencer twin?" he asked deliberately loudly as Eliot came strolling into the living room.
"You wish, Linds," he told him, whipping the back of his head with a dish towel.
"I wanna hear more stories!" Parker whined, like a small child about to have a tantrum. "You told me all about your Mom's side of the family tree, what about your Dad's side?"
"Parker," her name came out like a warning from Eliot's lips. "I know you're interested and that's fine, but..."
"But, what, El?" asked Lindsey, leaning out of the way of another strike when his brother turned his mild-glare on him. "We can't tell her the tales of the mysterious McCann family while we eat breakfast? She's your wife, El, you should be nicer."
"Fine," Eliot ground out, highly aware of his lawyer brother's emotional blackmail. "I'll be back in five," he told them as he headed back to the kitchen, leaving Parker and Lindsey grinning in his wake.
True to his word, within five minutes, they all had bacon and eggs in front of them. Parker looked to her husband expectantly, waiting for the tale he promised to tell.
"What? 'Cause Lindsey told Momma's side, I gotta do Dad's?" he asked her.
"Uh-huh," she nodded around a mouthful of delicious eggs. "All the way back to the Indians again," she grinned hopefully.
"Well, I don't think I can do that, darlin', 'cause we don't know as much about the McCanns," Eliot admitted. "See, our Daddy was raised a Spencer but he was adopted. He didn't know about it until suddenly this guy came knocking on our door..."
1986
"Dad!" twelve year old Lindsey Spencer bellowed from the front door.
"What is it son?" asked his father as he approached. "Hello there," he greeted the man at the door from over his son's head. "Can I help you with somethin'?"
"Uh, that all depends," asked the stranger, "Are you Mitchell Spencer?" he checked.
"Who's askin'?" he checked, as Lindsey looked between the two with interest.
"My name is Walter Caldwell," the stranger smiled politely, "and er... well this is gonna be complicated to explain, but I'm pretty sure I'm your half-brother."
Lindsey had taken off running at the sound of those words. He had to find Eliot and tell him what was going on. Maybe this was a con-man trying to fool them all! On consideration, that didn't make much sense since a thief would never come after a family like them. They were dirt poor, barely managed to keep shoes on their feet and shirts on their backs half the time. If he were for real, well, that would be weird too. A new uncle, a whole new part of the family maybe.
"El!" Lindsey came to shake his brother til he woke. "El, c'mon. You gotta hear this!"
Eliot was in no mood to be woken. He had stayed up half the night with his Momma when her nightmares had come again. He really needed to learn how to survive on less sleep, but as yet he hadn't figured out a way.
"What the hell, Lindsey?" he asked, pushing his brother away. "I need sleep!"
"Oh, then I guess you don't wanna hear about the guy at the door that says he's our Uncle Walter?"
That had certainly got Eliot's attention. He was wide awake in a second and yet staring at his twin as if he were crazy. They didn't have an Uncle Walter. The only uncle they had was Aunt Annie's husband, and his name was Frank, yet Lindsey was nodding his head and insisting what he said was completely true.
It wasn't long before the two boys were back downstairs, ears to the living room door, hanging on every word said. It wasn't like their Daddy to just up and take a stranger's word on anything, so this Walter guy had to have proof that what he was saying was true. Sure enough, little Eliot and Lindsey heard the rustle of paperwork and their Dad reading aloud what was apparently a letter from the mother he had never met.
Mae Caldwell, it turned out, gave birth to Mitchell when Walter was only two and was barely coping with the one child never mind another. She gave the baby up for adoption, and never saw him again, but never did forget her second son. Now it seemed she had passed away and this letter Mitchell Spencer now held in his hands was to explain to Walter about the long lost brother he ought to go forth and find. It seemed now that he had.
"So you guys inherited a whole family?" asked Parker with wide eyes, and a mouthful of eggs that was hardly attractive.
"Not exactly," Eliot shook his head, draining his coffee mug. "Uncle Walter came to visit a few times after that, and he told us all his old family tales, about Mae, but mostly about his Great Great Uncles, er... Garth and..."
"Hub," Lindsey supplied with a smile. "Legend has it they were a real crazy pair, but honest and gentlemanly and all. They reckon Hub got mixed up with a Sheikhs daughter or something, way back when."
"Could be true I guess" Eliot shrugged, piling up the empty breakfast plates. "I doubt it though."
Parker was amazed. She had been fostered her whole life, never really knowing where she came from, and not caring much. She kind of wished somebody would show up on her doorstep and tell her she was related to all these exciting people. At the same time she hoped it never did happen. Those kinds of people brought complication into a person's life, and Parker liked her own little world just exactly as it was these days. With Eliot, and the team, and Lindsey, she'd never been happier with a make-shift family before.
"So, there's none of these McCanns or Caldwells left now?" she asked in all innocence, knowing of course that the twins' father was long gone.
"Last time we saw Uncle Walter was our Daddy's funeral," said Eliot with a sigh, running a hand back though his hair. "He had twins too, right?" he checked with Lindsey who nodded.
"Yeah, named after the old Uncles, I think," he agreed. "Then another boy, I think he was called Paul maybe? Hey, you remember that woman who showed up at the funeral, Maisy something?" he asked Eliot as his brother stood up to take the dirty dishes through to the kitchen.
"No, not really" he told him. "Why?"
"She said some weird stuff about our Dad and Uncle Walter and all," he shook his head. "I was at Wolfram and Hart by then, I realised I could get info on just about anybody. I checked her out. It was almost definite she was Mae's daughter, another half-sibling," he explained.
Parker looked between the brothers as if she were watching a ping-pong match, especially when Eliot's eyes went comically wide. Today it seemed he was learning as much about his family tree as his wife was!
"What happened to her?" asked Eliot then, but Lindsey shook his head.
"Long gone now," he admitted. "Her husband too. They had a kid though, er, Wick Lobo? I dunno what happened to him."
"Get the idea outta your head, Parker," said Eliot without even looking at her.
The brightness of her almost-evil grin dipped when he did turn his head and met her eyes. It was cool that he knew her so well most of the time, but she was way too easily and too often busted by her darling husband.
"What?" she asked, trying to act innocent, but even Lindsey had caught on now.
The ex-lawyer covered his mouth with his hand, attempting to stifle a smirk as Eliot stared his wife down. They both knew what she was thinking. She had managed to reunite two very estranged brothers, why not a distant cousin too?
Somehow Lindsey had a feeling that if she really wanted to do it she would to. Of all the people he'd ever seen get close to Eliot, including the sister that had turned her back on them both, their long-dead mother, and even El's first love Aimee, none could wrap the guy around her little finger quite like Parker. She was certainly a unique and special woman. He was happy enough that she had been added to the Spencer family tree.