Leverage Characters, Nate's Apartment and John McRory's are owned by Dean Devlin, Electric Entertainment and TNT. Everything else (including the new characters) are owned by me.

Chapter One

The water splashed down in a torrent, Eliot let it wash over his head and body. He turned his face up to the spray to get the full effect of the water. He scrunched his eyes against it and tried to relax. His whole body ached, the team's last con had been a difficult one and he taken a number of blows from a six foot six inch Swede made like a brick wall. He would not go down, no matter what Elliot did. In the end Eliot had had to disarm him and shot him in he leg with is own gun. Eliot concentrated on his breathing, he hated guns but sometimes you just had to use them. At least it was over now, the client was satisfied and they had got one up on the bad guys again.

He sighed heavily. He really needed a holiday, somewhere away from everything and everyone. He wanted to be somewhere where he could lie on a beach, drink some beer and go surfing if he wanted to.

Eliot suddenly stopped, it was like everything in his body went on red alert. All his nerve endings were standing to attention. Eliot had learned long ago to listen to his intuition, it always seemed to pick out danger before his brain had any time to catch up. He lowed the water pressure in the shower so he could hear more clearly and stood there, waiting and listening. There it was a again, a gentle squeak, someone had stepped into his living room. He knew his house inside and out, every floor board, every door jam, he knew every sound the house was capable of. He turned the water pressure back on the shower and slowly he opened the shower door carefully so as not to alert his intruder.

His eyes flashed around his bathroom. Damn it, he thought, there was nothing there. Note to self, must arm bathroom, he smiled at his joke. He scanned the bathroom one more time then his eyes fell on his father's old fashioned barbers' razor blade. Eliot smiled to himself, that would do in a pinch. He opened out the razor so the sharp edge was exposed and he palmed it ready to slice and dice whoever was stupid enough to come onto his territory.

Very quietly the intruder moved through the house, she was quick on her feet, and was sure she had got through without alerting Eliot. She had watched him come home forty minutes ago, looking bloodied and in foul temper. Eliot never changed, she had mused to herself.

She had wanted to approach him immediately, she held back but she knew that would be a bad idea, she had to wait until he was inside and then make her way around to the back of the house. Even though the house was on it's own land, she did not want to risk them being seen together if at all possible and she did not want to alert anyone to anyone to her presence.

She knew she was dicing with death, it was a risky maneouvre coming into Eliot's house uninvited but she did not care. She needed his help and he had to help her because she would give him no choice. She was able to pick the lock on the back door easily, she remembered everything that Eliot had thought her when they were together. She moved out of the sitting room and moved towards the closed door. Eliot's bedroom, they had spent a lot of time together there, lots of happy memories. She could faintly hear the shower running. A thought of Eliot standing naked under a stream of hot water caught her off guard and she had to stop herself. She took a deep breath, I did not come here for that, she reminded herself. She gently grabbed the door knob and twisted it as she gently pushed it open.

Eliot stood at the side of the door and waited until the intruder was half way in, he acted instinctively and grabbed them from behind. He locked his arm across their chest and held the razor to their throat while clamping his hand over their mouth.

At once everything stopped, his hand felt the soft skin of the intruder and the strands of long hair brush against his hand and arm as the intruder struggled, trying to speak against his palm. It was the perfume that caught him off guard, the perfume, he inhaled it deeply, it could not be, Jean Paul Gautier? Her perfume, Kat's perfume. It was impossible.

In disbelief Eliot felt everything move in slow motion, it could not be, his mind would not accept it. He spun the intruder around, and his heart stopped. It was. His brain had ceased to function and he dropped his hands to his sides.

"Katharina", he uttered her name in a soft whisper, part of him desperately happy she was here, the other part filled with a consuming rage.

Eliot grabbed her roughly, his fingers bit into her arms "I thought you were dead, six years and you let me think that you were dead", he shook her hard, his body trembled and he fought the urge to shake her again.

"Eliot, I can explain", Kat cried, she could feel the anger pulsing from his body.

He gently pushed her away. It was too much for him, he realised that he was still naked and started to walk away from her.

He stopped and turned back towards her without looking at her "Wait in the sitting room, I will be out in a few minutes, I need time to get my head straight".

Kat nodded, her heart was thundering in her chest. She knew it was better this way, to give him a couple of minutes to collect his thoughts. She had always known that when the time came that he would take it hard. Kat knew he was feeling betrayed and hurt. She was not surprised but she could feel the marks on her arms where he had grabbed her. She moved back into the sitting room and sat on one of the well worn leather recliners. Her heart still hammering in her chest.

She knew she had to explain everything to him and she would but first she needed his help and he would have to help here whether he wanted to or not, she would give him no choice.

Eliot felt the blood rush to his face, he felt every bit of anger pulse in his body, he felt angry, no he corrected himself he felt betrayed. He threw a glance towards the sitting room and tried to swallow the feeling of hatred and resentment. That woman was alive, she had lead him to believe she was dead. He had spent the last six years mourning her and trying to repay his debt to her by helping others and all along she had been alive. She had made a fool of him.

Eliot sat down heavily on his bed, he felt something break inside him. For six years, he had not let anyone get close to him. It had lots of affairs and flings, but he had not loved anyone since Katharina. His relationship with his highschool sweetheart Amy had been a silly school crushed compared to what they had. She had been the one for him, when she died, he stopped himself, when he thought she had died, his heart had been smashed to pieces and everything he had been working towards disappeared.

Life was very cruel, he mused, he laughed bitterly, life was a joke.