Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Leverage characters, I just love taking them out for a spin occasionally. I'm not a car thief, so the details are likely wrong, but I did my best to make it somewhat believable.
Pretty please review, just so I know if I should continue this series with Mack :) Enjoy!
Mack casually walked into the underground garage that held her quarry. She pulled her hat down and her hood up, obscuring her face from the cameras she'd noticed when she'd cased it out yesterday. She'd been eyeing the red Tesla roadster for a while now, but only now had done enough recon to go in for the steal. She reached into the convertible and deftly disabled the alarm, not a difficult task since she knew exactly which spark plug to pull out. She heard the scuff of a shoe behind her and spun, quickly pulling her stun gun from her messenger bag and thumbing it on.
Eliot snuck up behind the hooded figure who was messing with Nate's car. He'd gotten to the apartment a little early today, and noticed the person moving over to the Tesla. They apparently heard him and turned. Eliot saw the blue arc of a stun gun and reacted on instinct, knocking the weapon away and landing a blow to the jaw. The figure slumped against the car then fell all the way to the ground. Eliot's eyes widened as Mack's hat fell off, revealing short hair that was black on top but bright pink underneath, but more importantly, her clearly feminine and pierced features. "Oh shit." Eliot swore under his breath. He picked her up, throwing her slight form over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and then picked up the stun gun and messenger bag, then headed up to Nate's apartment.
"You know, this is my apartment, my home. It wouldn't kill you to knock." Nate groused as he came down the stairs. He stopped when he saw Eliot. "Who's that?" Nate asked, cocking his head to the side.
"She was trying to steal your car." Eliot explained, laying her on the couch.
"So you knocked her out?" Nate asked, confused.
"She came at me with a stun gun." Eliot said, holding up the item in question.
"So you knocked her out?" Nate repeated.
"I reacted on instinct. I didn't see that she was a girl until after she was down." Eliot tried to explain.
"Until after you knocked her out?" Nate said with a smirk as he headed into the kitchen to get some coffee.
"Lay off man." Eliot flopped into one of the chairs, glaring at the blank video screens. The door opened and Sophie and Parker walked in, clearly in the middle of an argument.
"I already told you, I don't mind giving you a ride Parker. I mind you popping into my flat while I'm in the shower." Sophie sounded exasperated but even the mental image of Parker startling the Grifter in the shower couldn't improve the Hitter's mood.
"I said I was sorry." Parker said, stopping as she spotted the sprawled form on the couch. "Who's that?" Parker asked, moving over to poke at the unconscious girl.
"Nate?" Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the girl.
"Ask Eliot, he's the one that knocked her out." Nate said with no small amount of amusement in his voice.
"Knocked her out?" Sophie looked to the Hitter for explanation.
"Knocked who out?" Hardison asked, walking into the apartment and stopping as she saw the girl on the couch. "Who's that?"
"The girl that Eliot knocked out." Parker said from where she was staring at the girl.
"Wait, the girl that Eliot knocked out?" Hardison asked, an incredulous smile spreading across his face. "Seriously?"
"I didn't see her face!" Eliot hollered, tired of them making such a big deal out of it. It was a simple mistake, nothing more.
Mack began to stir, moaning slightly as she opened her eyes. She sat up quickly as she saw Parker looming over her. "Who are you?" Mack asked, drawing her knees to her chest. "Where am I?" Mack looked around the apartment, her eyes widening when she saw Eliot.
"My name is Nathan Ford; you tried to steal my car." Nate said from the kitchen, coming in to stand with the rest of the group.
"Oh." Mack suddenly looked even more nervous than before. "Look man, I didn't hurt anything, just let me go."
"We're not going to hurt you." Hardison said, "Well anymore than Eliot already has." He grinned at the Hitter who just growled.
"So I'm going to go then." Mack said, rising slowly and grabbing her bag off the table, preparing to flee if things got weird.
"Not quite yet." Nate said and Mack froze.
"Are the police on the way?" Mack asked, biting her lip nervously. She hadn't been caught yet, and having to sit here surrounded was bad enough, but she really didn't want to go to jail.
"No, of course not." Nate said as though the mere thought of calling the police was absurd.
"What's your game?" Mack asked, narrowing her eyes.
"I just have one question. How did you disable the Tesla's alarm?" Nate asked. Mack watched as the team went about their business, though noticed that everyone kept an eye on her. Hardison was sitting on the floor, doing something on his laptop. Eliot stayed in his seat, looking angry. Sophie was in the kitchen making some tea while Parker was pouring herself a bowl of cereal.
"Pulled a spark plug." Mack said with honesty brought on by simple surprise.
"That's all it took to disable the alarm system I paid extra for?" Nate asked, raising an eyebrow. "How did you know that? Teslas aren't exactly a dime a dozen."
"Research." Mack said simply. "I found out what kind of alarm system Tesla uses, and then looked into the brand to see what its weakness is. And I found it and decided to use it. And no, Teslas aren't a dime a dozen, in fact, yours is the only one on the Eastern Seaboard." Mack said, gaining some satisfaction from the look of surprise on Nate's face.
"You're quite good, clearly." Nate said.
"Not good enough, clearly." Mack said wryly. She didn't get any sense of danger from the group, but still stayed alert.
"Oh, you couldn't have expected Eliot to get the drop on you. So you're a car thief. What's your name?" Nate asked.
"Mack." Mack said simply, she didn't reveal anymore than that to anyone.
"You may want to be more careful next time Mack." Nate said and nodded toward the door, indicating that she was free to go. Mack nodded at him in thanks then turned, heading out the door. Just as she got to the threshold she saw that there was a map with a clearly marked route on it up on the six plasmas that graced the wall.
"What's that?" Mack asked, stopping and looking at the screens.
"Don't worry about that." Nate said and Mack smirked.
"Look, dude, I don't care what it is, I don't care what you're up to, but if that's an escape route, it's not going to work." Mack said and walked through the door, happy to be out of the weird apartment and away from there.
"What do you mean it's not going to work?" Mack heard his voice behind her and turned around, seeing that the older man had followed her out.
"'Not going to work' as in 'you're going to get caught'." Mack said, the confidence in her statement made Nate pause.
"Why do you say that?" Nate asked, this young woman fascinated him. He'd never really chased car thieves but if what he'd seen so far was any indication, she was good at what she did.
"Look, I'm just saying it's a crappy route to take if you want to get away clean. Do what you want, who am I to argue with you?" Mack said, itching to get out of there.
"Thanks for the advice. Oh, and Mack?" Nate waited for her to turn around and look at him. "Stay away from my car." He smiled but Mack could tell that he was serious.
"Will do." Mack threw him a mock salute then headed off, anxious to be out of there.
Nate smiled to himself and headed back into the apartment. "Was she right Hardison?" Nate asked.
"I don't know what she was talking about man, there's nothing wrong with this route. There's no road construction, no foreseeable delays, nothing." Hardison said.
"Parker, did you lift the number off her phone?" Nate asked, looking over at the Thief who smiled sheepishly and nodded. "Good. Hardison, I want to know who she is." Nate said, settling on the couch. He looked over to see Sophie looking at him strangely. "What?"
"Why do you want to know more about her Nate?" Sophie asked, studying him.
"Curiosity's sake. She disabled the alarm in my Tesla in less than a minute, the dealer said it was almost impossible to disable. She's good at what she does and yet I've never heard of her. Seems a bit odd don't you think?" Nate said with a slight shrug.
"You sure that's all?" Sophie asked quietly.
"What are you implying?" Nate sounded insulted.
"That you like to rescue people." Parker piped up from the kitchen table where she was happily eating her bowl of cereal.
"I do not…rescue people? When have I ever?" Nate stammered, flustered by how close to the truth they were.
"Uh, have you looked around Nate?" Hardison said, "You brought us together."
"I do not want to 'rescue' her, just know more about the girl that tried to steal my car." Nate insisted, pretending not to notice the knowing look that Sophie gave Hardison.
"According to this, Mack has been stealing cars since the early 80s, so I'm guessing she appropriated the name." Hardison said. "Or it was her father's." Nate pointed to a photo of the original Mack, who was standing with a little girl whose face had been blurred.
"Makes sense." Sophie said with a nod. "She took over the family business along with the name. Gives her instant credibility with the fences." The tone of her voice implied that Sophie approved of the technique.
Nate seemed deep in thought and the team shared knowing looks, they all knew that they'd be seeing the girl again soon.