Testing Boundaries
© 2009 – DolfynRider
TITLE: Testing Boundaries
FANDOM: Leverage
RATING: M
SUMMARY: New job, new con...new romance?
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in the Leverage-verse.
NOTES: I'm posting against my own better judgment. I'm just too worried about offending people since I've never really done a story even CLOSE to this. Trying to re-work the last chapter and make it a T instead of my traditional M, but we'll see how that goes, too. Leaving it at an M for now, though...just in case.
CHAPTER ONE - THE BEGINNING
"I can't believe Nate is making us do this one!" Sophie huffed, looking at Parker, trying to fix her up into a proper girl for their newest job.
"Kissing a girl isn't so bad. I've done it before, when needed," Parker told her, "Think of poor Hardison and Eliot," she said, while she dodged the pointy object Sophie was holding too close to her eyes, "What is that?"
"It's mascara," Sophie said, trying not to let her mind go there, but now that it was out of Parker's mouth, it did. Hardison was pretty good with playing the stereotypical gay male, but Eliot...Eliot better play his part correctly or they'd all be screwed.
"They're not going to kiss...are they?" Sophie asked.
Parker shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, we're all supposed to play our parts well, aren't we? We're gonna have to kiss, eventually. So why shouldn't they?"
Sophie hadn't thought of that and once again she cursed Nate silently. The job was supposed to be easy. Infiltrate a commune whose leader was stealing funds from the members.
They agreed to take the job before they learned the commune was made up of gays and lesbians. The people living there were sick of the prosecution from others in the Bible Belt they lived in. In the commune, others couldn't touch them, though most did hold down jobs outside the commune's walls.
Each member donated money to keep the place running and in good repair. Their space was more of a gated community than the communes you hear about in the news, though they did surround the perimeter with twelve foot privacy walls to keep the unwanted out. There were only two small spaces with locking, wrought-iron gates at the front and back of the community so people could drive in and out.
The residents consisted mainly of high profile citizens in the community who could lose their jobs if people found out the truth about them. Most were doctors or lawyers. No one really knew what went on in their private little community, they just knew it's where a lot of the "richies" lived in the generally modest, middle class area and pretty much left them alone once they were behind the commune's walls. When friends or co-workers (and sometimes family) would visit, they'd "borrow" a neighbor to pose as their husband or wife to keep up appearances.
Through his web crawlers, Hardison discovered that the owner of the land on which the commune stood was taking money from those living there to benefit her own means. She was almost as good as Hardison on the computer...but not quite. She'd made a couple mistakes, though, which is what sent up the red flag as Hardison noticed the inaccuracy of funds as he was randomly searching people's bank accounts one day.
Nate went to question the people and they all had the same story. They willingly donated a quarter of their earnings and Natalie would then distribute the funds where she saw fit. They had lawn crews come in to take care of the grounds, she had experts come in for general landscaping, one of the members was a contractor and he was called on when houses needed repair, as well as other experts for the little things that needed done.
The people, however, had noticed that their bank accounts were off. Many were missing over half of their pay checks after only going grocery shopping or the like. Nate had explained to them what was happening, but had told them not to say anything, that he knew where their money was and could get it back, but they were to tell no one.
In time, he'd set up the team and had them paired off, their aliases ready, Sophie and Parker, known as "Sally" and "Susan" for the job, were going to buy a house in the commune. They were using one of the members' as their cover. Tasha was a doctor and Sophie was going to claim she worked with her, as a receptionist at the hospital. Tasha gladly got her all the information about the hospital she needed to make a convincing argument that she did work with her in case Natalie got suspicious.
Once the women bought the house, they were to introduce everyone to their friends Jack and Patrick, played by Eliot and Hardison respectively. Both men fought it, saying if Nate wanted to take them down so badly, why couldn't he buy a house and pretend he was gay for the job. After much arguing, mostly between Eliot and Hardison as to who would be Nate's boyfriend, Nate finally got between them, saying he'd just be an "understanding friend who was over frequently". If people thought the three of them had something going, all the better for the job.
*****
A week later, Sally and Susan had a party at their house, inviting old friends, as well as some neighbors from the Bay Park Community, for their house warming. Eliot and Hardison, as well as Nate, made an appearance. Things went smoothly, except, Parker keep trying to kiss Sophie. "Make it real!" Parker kept whispering to her, and as Sophie looked around, she did notice a few couples holding hands, and others sneaking in a quick peck now and then so she let Parker kiss her, exactly once, while she was on her way to grab some drinks. They got to meet a lot of their neighbors.
Oliver was a construction worker who did a lot of work on the homes in the area.
Jessica, who'd just moved in two weeks before Sophie and Parker, was a stay-at-home mom of her and Stacey's two little girls. Stacey worked as a freelance photographer.
Melissa was a single mom of two boys who worked for a local radio station, Sophie found out she'd inherited a lot of money, though so she was welcomed into the community by the wide open arms of Natalie.
Donny and John, who'd lived there since the commune was built five years prior, were both lawyers, and also had two girls.
Jake was single and liked to play the field, a lot. Others mentioned how he'd always have some new man over practically every night.
The names were going by so fast, Sophie was having a hard time keeping up with everyone. Their home was filled almost to capacity. The community members were all friendly and welcoming towards them, though Sophie did notice a couple that seemed to be hanging back, hovering around the food her and Parker had laid out, but not really socializing with anyone.
She tried to draw them out a little. "Hello, I'm Sally, and you are...?"
"Tia," the woman said, staring at her feet.
"You don't have to be shy," Sophie tried, "Come on," she said, taking Tia's hand, "I want you to meet Susan." Tia's girlfriend followed them slowly.
They found Parker in the kitchen, getting out more food as their supply was dwindling. "Hey, Susan, this is Tia and..." Sophie paused to look at the woman behind Tia.
"I'm Asia," she said, reaching out a hand towards Parker.
Parker shook her hand, then turned to Tia, but Tia was still hanging back a little. "What's wrong?" Parker asked her. Sophie had been training her to read people, and she knew something wasn't right. Something was making Tia try to blend into the wallpaper.
"I'm just...not good with parties," Tia admitted. "Besides, everyone here hates me."
"What, why?" Sophie asked.
"Natalie's my mom and half the community thinks she's stealing from them," Tia admitted, then looked embarrassed.
Sophie couldn't believe it, then she stared at Tia hard. She should have known Tia was Natalie's daughter. The girl looked exactly like her mom, but a bit old for her age, while Natalie looked much younger than her 45 years. Both had long, jet black hair, were a bit too thin, with round faces and ski jump noses. They really could pass for sisters.
"DON'T TELL HER!" came Nate's voice in her ear. Sophie whipped around and went to peer out of the kitchen door to see if she could spot Nate, but he was lost in the sea of people. He knew Sophie well enough, and knew she was already on the verge of saying something to Tia.
"Stealing form them? Why?" Sophie asked.
"The members of this community have noticed a few discrepancies in their bank accounts, she has access to all of them, because of how the community is run – I'm sure you know that, since you've moved in, she would have needed your information – she says it's for 'safety issues', but even I'm beginning to doubt her," Tia told them, looking sad. Sophie wanted to question her a bit more, but as she opened her mouth, Eliot and Hardison walked into the tiny kitchen.
"Heeey! What's up ladies?" Hardison asked, "I'm Patrick, this is Jack," he said, slinging an arm around Eliot's waist, "And you are...?" The introductions went around again and soon the six were talking in their own little world, away from the noise and confusion of the living room. A knock on the kitchen door made all of them jump.
"Ladies, gentlemen, I have to go. I've been looking for you everywhere!" Nate said, then spotted Tia and Asia. "Hi, I'm Jeff, I haven't seen you two all night." The introductions started over again, ending quickly with Nate saying once again that he had to leave. He bid them all goodbye and was out the door in seconds. Parker followed with the forgotten food.
*****
The next day, the team drew up a list of all the residents, their jobs, and other bits of information they'd heard about at the party. Hardison thankfully had the foresight to have been recording while they were mingling and he'd installed wall coms in every room on every floor. The wall coms could be monitored from a remote location, in this case, from the condo Nate was renting down the road from the commune.
"Hey, Hardison, those things can be turned off and on...right?" Sophie asked hopefully, now eyeing the com in the living room. There were some things her and Parker had been discussing lately that the men didn't need to hear.
"Of course," Hardison said, smiling at the men.
"Okay, what'd you hear?" Parker asked, reading Hardison like a book for the first time.
"Well, I did forget to shut it down last night after we left the party..." he admitted.
Sophie's mind reeled. She remembered talking to Parker about Nate, but couldn't remember exactly what all she'd said. Parker was in her own world, as she had mentioned she was attracted to Hardison, but wasn't sure how it could work between them.
"Can we turn it off from in here?" Parker asked.
"Yes," Hardison motioned for her and Sophie to follow him and showed them a simple switch in the entryway closet that he'd installed. "I figured this would be the easiest way for you guys."
"Are you implying we wouldn't remember some complicated code or couldn't hack your computer enough to disengage it?" Sophie asked, narrowing her eyes at him, before brushing past him to go back into the living room.
"No," Hardison called after her, "It's just, this is a gated community, the likely hood of someone breaking in is slim – did you know Natalie has cameras at both entrance points? Plus there are random cameras installed in the telephone poles, too – anyway, a big keypad or something would look suspicious."
"We both have a computer too, ya know," Parker piped up. "If you can access it by yours, why couldn't we have done the same?"
"Natalie's been monitoring everyone's computer's! The Wi-Fi system isn't stable in here," Hardison informed them, calling up some information onto the small screen of Sophie and Parker's television. A quick glance revealed emails, IM's, bank records, and a few visits to forums by members of the community before Hardison shut it down again. "We can get a better look if we go to Nate's." Since it was a lazy Sunday afternoon, they agreed and within minutes, they were all piled into Nate's small condo.
*****
"Whoa!" Sophie whispered.
"What?" Parker asked, coming in from getting a snack out of Nate's kitchen.
"Jake really loves his internet," Sophie giggled, now staring at Nate's television.
Parker looked up to see a picture of two men in a compromising position and quickly looked back down. "Ew, I think I'm gonna be sick," she said, making a face. "Were they using..."
"Yes," Sophie laughed, "They were."
Parker paled, but Hardison had already changed the picture, going through each community member's history. He was talking about what each one usually did. They'd all checked their bank accounts online, many often ordered various items, too. It would be so easy for Natalie to get everything she needed even without already having their bank account information.
"What the hell?" Hardison asked.
"What?" Sophie looked at him, then to the screen. "Who's file is this???"
Parker looked up again, then said she needed to use the bathroom.
"Well, looks like we know what Parker likes," Hardison joked as the blond slunk out of the room.
Sophie went after her, glaring at Hardison, "You really don't need to know what we're doing!"
"Aw, he was just curious," Eliot spoke up, then looked back at the screen, "Hey, I hadn't seen that picture, print me a copy, will ya?"
Nate rolled his eyes, "Guys, come on!" He tried getting them back on task.
They got to work, taking notes on whose money was going missing, how much they were missing, their account numbers and anything else they could that would help them return what the community members were missing.
To be continued...