AN: Leverage, sadly doesn't belong to me or there would be more pretzels and Nate and Sophie would rejoin the team.
Nathan Ford was sitting at a bar (big shocker huh?) drinking. His life was at an all time low, his wife divorced him, his son dead, he was unemployed, it really wasn't looking up for Mr. Ford. It seemed his life was about to get even worse after he left the bar, drunk of course, considering he was hit over the head, unconscious, and stuffed into the back of a car. He had no clue how complicated his life was about to become. The blonde nodded approvingly to her "thugs" before walking away.
Eliot Spencer was just finishing a retrieval for a very bad man. He had retrieved the merchandise and left it in the drop-off site and was just walking away when he felt a needle go into his arm. By the time he realized what had happened it was too late, he was unconscious in five seconds flat. The blonde smirked as she walked away and her "goons" placed Eliot inside their car.
Parker was very busy, hanging from the ceiling, over the laser grid of a high security museum. Her target, a Van Gogh that she always had thought was pretty. After she got the painting she reentered the air duct, then it filled with knock out gas and she fell into unconsciousness within seconds. The blonde smiled as she watched her "muscle" pull Parker out of the air duct by the legs and toss her into the van.
Alec Hardison was having a great time. He had just finished hacking the president's email and got himself an invitation to the next party at the Whitehouse, in exactly one week. He was just about to go back to his Orc battle when the door got kicked in and suddenly two guns were aimed at him. he out his hands up slowly and the goons walked closer and closer to him until one snuck behind him and cut off his air supply until he passed out. The blonde surveyed their work with a satisfied smile on her face before she left her "guns for hire" to load the hacker into their van. She did make sure to grab a few liters of orange soda before they left though.
Sophie Devereaux was already having a bad night. No one applauded her performance, there was nothing for her to steal and nobody to grift. She was dejectedly walking to her car when she noticed she was being followed. A man in a dark suit who didn't look very friendly was only a few feet behind her and had been for several minutes. She walked slightly faster before she noticed a man in a identical suit standing in front of her. She panicked slightly and turned sideways and started walking toward the women she saw standing standing there, thinking that maybe a witness would stop them. She was so focused on getting to the blonde woman she didn't even notice the cloth in her hand until it was too late. The Blonde covered the grifters mouth and nose with the chloroform covered rag until her eyes rolled back and she fell unconscious into the Blonde's arms. Her "men who don't ask questions" hurried to take the grifter from her and place her in their waiting car.
Natan Ford groaned and touched his head as he woke up. He could feel the lump as well as some dried blood before he tried to figure out where they were. He looked around and saw one heavily locked door, no windows, bare walls and a television and a large couch. He then turned his attention to the four unconscious people lying around him. He looked at the closest person and gave a start. It was Sophie Devereaux. He had many memories of Sophie, from the many times he stopped her grifts, but never one with her unconscious. She however did not look injured so he moved onto the next person. It was Eliot Spencer, retrieval specialist. Nate was slightly worried now because he had never met someone who could beat Eliot. He then looked at the next person and saw Alec Hardison, hacker extraordinaire. He man had some dark bruising around his neck, so Nate figured he wasn't the only one they physical knocked out. Next to Hardison lay the lithe and beautiful thief Parker (AN: I DO NOT ship Nate and Parker, I personally think Parker is beautiful and I love Beth Riesgraf!) lay unconscious with a stuffed Bunny in her arms. He smiled slightly at the young thief before taking a seat on the leather couch. He heard a slight movement a turned just in time to see Eliot sit up suddenly and look around, trying to clear his blurry vision. He saw Nate sitting on the couch and started towards him.
"Easy Eliot" he said as he saw the look in the Hitter's eyes.
"What am I doing here?" he demanded, a slightly crazed look in his eye.
"I don't know, I'm in the same boat you are for once" Nate replied, looking slightly amused by the hitter's reaction.
"And why should I believe you" Eliot asked.
" Because I'm an honest man Nate replied.
"He is you know" Sophie said from where she sat clutching at her aching head.
The door suddenly opened and two armed men and a rather pretty blonde woman walked in. She smiled at Nate, on the couch with Eliot glaring at him a few feet away, Sophie sitting on the floor, Hardison checking out the television, and Parker hiding in the the corner with Bunny.
"Welcome to my house!" the blonde said enthusiastically
"Where are we? What are we doing here?" Eliot demanded angrily.
"We are here to watch your lives" the blonde said mysteriously.
"What the hell does that even mean?" Eliot demanded angry and confused.
"I was sent some... dvd's from the future." the blonde said slightly embarrassed she had to say that.
" That's complete bullshi-" Eliot started before he was interrupted by Hardison saying "It actually might not be impossible..."
" What the hell does that mean?" Eliot demanded
"Hear me out, hear me out" Hardison said before he started explaining. "This technology is seriously advanced" he said before he said a bunch of techy stuff no one understands. "In simpler terms" he said after seeing all their confused faces "there is no way for this to technology to exist for at least a hundred years" Hardison said slightly in awe of the advanced tech he had the honor of beholding.
"So..." said the blonde slightly nervous, "do you want to watch them?" she asked holding out five dvd cases.
"Hell no" said Eliot with the rest nodding in agreement.
"Wait!" said the blonde panicking slightly, "Just give me sixteen minutes, please just sixteen minutes"
Eliot looked at her pityingly before replying "Fine just sixteen minutes though, not a second more!"
"Okay" said the blonde "since I only get sixteen minutes we will start with the last episode." she said perkily
By the end of the sixteen minutes (AN The first sixteen minutes of The Long Goodbye Job is where they all (excluding Nate) die) everyone was in shocked. Who knew four con men and one honest man who used to chase them could become a family. Parker had hope in her eyes for the first time in a while, maybe she could finally have a family. It didn't matter that she died in the end but since she now had people who would become her family, she'd be damned if she let anything happen to them. She let Hardison slip through her fingers, that was HER! All her fault, and if she had just warned Eliot, had just seen the gun then maybe he would've survived. Then Nate and Sophie gave up hope because they were all dead, so really all four of their deaths were her fault. She'd be damned if she didn't change what happened.
Eliot could hardly believe he would finally have a brother, and a sister. It was his job to protect them but he failed to even protect himself. He should have known he would have a back up gun, but from what he could tell he was too worried about his family to think about that. It was scary to consider that he let people get that close but then again, it was relieving, he wouldn't be alone anymore. There was no way in hell he'd let this happen to those who he would obviously consider family in the seemingly near future. He'd be damned.
Hardison could hardly believe it In the future he will have people, other than Nana, he loves enough to put his life into danger for. He would not only break the law for these people, he would risk his life, did risk his life for these people. He was willing to die for these people. His last words were asking if his friend, his brother was alright. The thing on the forefront of his mind was not his own health and safety, but the safety of a team member, a family member. Now that he knew he would have a family, would be damned if he let anything happen to them.
Sophie was shocked, happy, and sad. She was shocked because even though she dreamt of it for years she didn't expect that her and Nate would actually get together in the end. She was happy because she would have Nate and they would build themselves a family. She was sad because when it looked like it was all perfect, everything went wrong. Her boys and her little girl died, just before she herself did, leaving a self-blaming, greiveing Nate alone in this world. He had already lost one love and one child, he would lose another love and three more kids. Nate was strong but that would break anyone, Nate cracked the first time, he would completely shatter if it happened again. She'd be damned if she let that happen to her love.
Nate was shocked, terrified, sad, and happy. He was shocked he would get a second chance at a family, terrified he would mess it up like it seemed he would, sad that he would lose them again, and happy that he would get a second chance. He could already see the twenty biggest probrlms, he would change them and protect his new family, or die trying. He'd be damned if he let his family slip through his fingers a second time, he's be damned.
