"Hey guys, I got doughnuts," said the wiry blonde as she placed a box of a dozen colorful and overly-sugared doughnuts on the counter.
"Ooh, thanks Babe," said Hardison as he walked up to her and pecked her on the lips causing a smile to form on Parker's face.
"Damnit Parker, you took a bite out of every one of these," growled Eliot who had made his way over to the box. With the relationship between Hardison and Parker still going strong for about two and a half years, she had adopted some Hardison qualities that warranted the occasional "damnit" from Eliot. Parker nudged Hardison as if to tell him to tend to her small work and Hardison obliged.
"How is she going to know which one she wants if she doesn't try each one?" asked Hardison. Maybe a couple of years ago Hardison would have sided with Eliot but having spent intimate time with Parker these behaviors were normal to him.
"Oh, I don't know, she bought the dough…" Eliot trailed off as he gave a glare at Parker who seemed very interested in Hardison's elbow before finally conceding and shooting her head up.
"I didn't have enough cash for a dozen, so I just grabbed some without really looking and left the cash I had. What? I'm a thief!" Hardison merely smirked as he grabbed a pink doughnut covered in M&Ms with a small Parker sized bite in it and headed to the couch. Parker was on his heels as Eliot went to the kitchen to get a mug of coffee to accompany his pastry.
"Babe, we found a job while you were gone. Check this out." He grabbed his remote and the hi-tech, multi-screen set up was filled with pictures of a middle-aged Caucasian male with short, flowing brunette hair with the early signs of silver streaks beginning to emerge.
"Is this another black book bad guy?" the thief asked. Ever since the acquisition of the black book Leverage International took off. Like Parker imagined, a lot of crews and individuals wanted to get in with the Leverage crew. In the two years since Nate and Sophie retired, the remaining three managed to setup several Leverage crews with thieves, grifters, hackers, and hitters who all wanted to take down corruption or help the little man. Of course, being thieves, the crews would help people and sometimes help themselves too when a mark was particularly affluent. Leverage International spanned six continents and at the moment had taken down about a fifth of the thousand or so corrupt business people in the black book all with the help of the founding three members who still resided in the brewpub in Portland.
"Nah, I found out about him when I was playing World of Warcraft last night. My buddy, in the same faction came on crying. This guy is amazing, so I tried to get him to focus on the game, but he was really down."
"Wait, you played WoW without me?" Parker questioned with an annoyed countenance. "I thought you said you weren't playing and that's why I got the pizza last night."
"Will you get to the point Hardison," snarled Eliot before the hacker could defend himself.
"Sure. Orson Rand, he's the COO of AquaGen, a company based in Hawaii that works with a lot of cutting edge technology that utilizes hydro-electrics and dynamics in order to make a boat load of crazy inventions. Rand got to the company about a year ago and it's not his first. Mid- level companies hire this man and he comes and ruins the company. Based on his financials he does this, so he can have his friends down at Wall Street buy up company shares for cheap and cut him a piece of the profits. Then he steals his employee's ideas, boots them, and then rebuilds the company with the help of loyal employees who are too scared to do what's right," Hardison explained all this as the other two listened intently.
"So, he's committing a controlled corporate sabotage in order to inside trade," interjected Eliot.
"Not just that, he also cases out employees to see who has the ability to help the company quickly rebound so he can also make money as the man who saved the "dying" company," added Parker. Her face scrunched up. She really didn't like this guy. He was like an amalgamation of a bunch of bad guys they've faced in the past.
"Exactly. And that's where my friend Robert Giardono, a.k.a. BobbyG1234567890 comes in. He's an engineer for AquaGen and he just developed a high-powered battery that charges using wave energy in the ocean. Based on some of these calculations he sent over, these batteries can change the world. Two days ago, Rand stole his research, slandered BobbyG's reputation, and fired him."
Everyone then looked at Parker. Ever since Nate left Parker had taken on the role of mastermind. Although, the leverage crew considered replacing Nate and Sophie they never could. So instead of replacing they decided to get much better at all their individual talents. Parker had learned a lot about computers in the past 2 years (Eliot tried but still remained as technologically incompetent as ever). Hardison had become quite the pickpocket and could even pick a lock in under ten seconds. All three had become pretty good grifters; Especially Eliot, who specialized in encounters with the fairer sex. In the beginning, it was hard but as time passed the three became a cohesive team that could steal another country if they had to.
"Ok boys…," Parker's eyes narrowed, and her mouth slid into a smirk, "Let's go steal a battery… In bathing suits!" Hardison gawked after his girlfriend delivered her line and walked away. Eliot merely grumbled as usual. Parker turned to wink at Hardison before going upstairs to pack her bags.
Hardison nearly tripped across the room to try and catch up to the departing thief. "Babe, you need any help picking out a bathing suit because I'd love to –" His sentence was cutoff as he reached their shared bedroom and hastily closed the door.
I'm terrible at keeping up with my writing but this is going to be a relatively short fic so I'm going to finish. I love Leverage and recently rewatched it and was inspired to write this. Please enjoy. Also, reviews are welcomed, appreciated, and encouraged.