Disclaimer: I do not own the Leverage characters or anything having to do with the show. This is just a bit of drabble to occupy my time.
Sophie Devereaux stood in one of the offices of an art gallery in Philadelphia. There was a beautiful piece of pottery from Asia that was going to be displayed there. It wasn't they type of art Sophie usually went for, but there was something about it that she was drawn to. Or perhaps she was in the old American city due to the fact that Philadelphia was a lot closer to Los Angles than Madrid was. Either way, she was there. This time she was playing the part of a student taking art classes at the University of Pennsylvania hoping to learn a bit from a local art expert and gallery manager. There were parts of this character, this con that she found particularly fun and interesting. For example, to really play the part she wanted to be familiar with the university, so she had dropped in on many classes and even made herself familiar with a couple of the professors. Working so closely with the art and even some artists was a bit thrilling. However, listening to the inane prattle of the boorish little man who was the gallery manager was not interesting or fun; in fact, it was hardly bearable.
Nevertheless, it is exactly what Sophie happened to be doing when she walked out of the gallery one brisk afternoon in early March, a notebook in hand and what appeared to be a look of rapt attention on her face. She looked away from the mark only for a fraction of a moment. What she saw would have stopped any normal person in their tracks, but Sophie Devereaux was a very skilled grifter. She ignored the fact that her heart had just about skipped a beat at the sight of the man that had showed up so unexpectedly and from the looks of it, in a very poor state, and managed to walk down the steps of the gallery leaving her mark non the wiser as he returned to the building believing the beautiful woman had been totally enthralled in the conversation. She wasn't sure how he had managed to find her and it didn't really matter.
Sophie walked towards him and the lamp post he was leaning against, her eyes now fully took in his appearance. There were dark circles under his eyes. His clothes were rumpled and he looked as if he hadn't showered or shaved in days. She stood in front of him, looking in his eyes and right into his soul. When it seemed as though the world around them had faded away, that is the moment she whispered "Nate".
He put his head on her shoulder, buried his face in her neck; her thick dark tresses hid the tears that he had been trying to hold back. Sophie gently stroked his hair and allowed him to let out the surplus of emotions that had been threatening to drown him for the last two days. They stayed that way for what seemed to be hours but very well could have been only a few minutes.
Sophie took a step back and looked again at the man before her. There was a heaviness that weighed on her heart as the grief she had seen in his body language and in his face cam bubbling over the top. Without saying a word, she took Nate's hand in her own, lacing her fingers through his. She couldn't help but think how wonderful and right it felt to be standing beside him and how perfectly their hands fit together. She knew not to say anything and just allow him the time to breathe.
They walked along the streets of the Old City District. Neither noticed anything or anyone that they passed. They both unknowingly concentrated on the steady breathing of the other and their own hearts beating rhythmically in their chests. Then Nate cleared his throat.
"I hate hospitals. The noise of the machines beeping incessantly, the antiseptic smell. I hate the doctors who say 'Sorry, there is nothing more we can do' as if they actually care". Sophie didn't fail to recognize the bitterness and pain in his voice, but just kept walking, her grip on his hand never lessening. The two just kept walking without any thought or care of where they were headed.
A sparrow hopped on the ground in front of them, picking up scraps of food left by pedestrians. Nate shook his head. Something resembling a smile flitted across his face even though his eyes remained sad. "Sam loved birds. Some Saturdays we used to go to the park not far from our house and feed the birds bread. He loved the ducks best of all, thought they were funny. He was the best part of me. More beautiful than Maggie and smarter than me. He was so smart and curious about everything. Not too long ago, there was a lunar eclipse. Sammy begged Maggie and I to let him stay up to see it. We even went and sat on the roof of our house to get a good view. It was a really wonderful for night. For months afterward all Sam could talk about was the eclipse and the stars. He wanted to know as much as he could about the constellations and when astronomical phenomenon were going to happen. He and I spent every Friday evening for the better part of two months mapping out the night sky". Nate continued to talk about his son smiling at some memories while becoming teary at others.
The entire time Nate talked, Sophie said not a word. She just held his hand wishing that this evening, an evening which would have been absolutely wonderful under different circumstances, had never happened. Sophie had learned all about Sam and quite a bit about Nate and the life he had thus far kept hidden from her. "Soph, you would love..." Nate found himself starting to say before he realized the beautiful grifter would never have the chance to meet his son, not that she probably would have anyway. Nonetheless, the thought hit him, hard, so much so that he could scarcely breathe. "What do I do now?" he wasn't actually asking her, it was more a question he was throwing out there into the vastness. Sophie lifted her free hand up to tenderly stroke his cheek.
"Nate, right now, you're going to get in a cab and go to the airport. Then you are going to get on a plane and go back to Sam and Maggie. You're going to hold your wife, cry with her, dry your tears together, and be there for the final moments of your son's life. You are going to say good bye and tell him you will always love him. That is what you are going to do". She said it with conviction even though she was struggling not cry herself. They both somehow understood that this day would never be discussed again. She had helped him the only way she could, the only way he would allow her to. She hailed a cab, opened the door for him, and before he stepped into it and drove away from her, Sophie Devereaux looked into the eyes of the man that stood before her. She was searching for some sign that this was still the man who had chased her throughout cities all over the world, the man who could make her yearn with a desire she did not quite recognize one minute and then fill her with anger another, the man who knew her better than any other person alive, the man she had somehow fallen in love somewhere along the strange and turbulent journey that was her life. She knew that man was still inside him but she also knew that he could never be that man again. As she watched the cab pull away, for the first time in a long time, she found herself praying. Praying that this would not completely tear him apart and that somehow he would be okay. Somehow Sophie Nate would never again chase after her because of some priceless piece of art. That thought made her heart break even more.
That was the day Sophie Devereaux gave up the life of grifting at which she had become so very adept at and accustomed to and decided to live life as a citizen, honest.