Disclaim: I do not own Leverage the charicters or anything to do with it. I would have made an Eliot action figure by now if I did.
I'm sorry if there are any misspellings or gramma fails, i did look.
Chapter one, the visit
Eliot was stood in the little kitchen in Nate's apartment making dinner. It had gotten dark some time ago and if you had looked out the window at the clear sky you would have seen a few little clouds blotting some of the stars. It was a simple and relatively easy dish as the last conn had really taken it out of him. Sophie and Nate were sat at the table talking about stuff he just didn't want to think about and Parker and Hardison were sat I the couch as Hardison tried to explain the plot of Lord of the Rings to a somewhat bemused Parker. All in all when Eliot looked back he knew that it had all been just too peaceful to last.
As he chopped the carrots, the knife making a steady rhythmic banging on the wooden board, an altogether different banging filled the room. It was the sound of a fist striking a door. The tapping was pressed and urgent. Whoever was out there wanted to come in. Badly. The others had predictably frozen, they all understood that almost no one knew any of them and there were very few people who might visit Nate. Putting the knife down Eliot walked to the door with smooth confident steppes, ready for anything. Except perhaps what he sore when he opened the door.
As Eliot eased the door open the young man who had been knocking stepped back, and jumped slightly at the sight of Eliot. He had clearly been expecting someone else. Eliot took in the man's features quickly. He was about the same height as Nate, maybe a few inches taller, he had short messy ginger hair that seemed to fall in the same way Nate's did, he also had the same features and build as the other man except he the man was a bit bulkier. He blue eyes were and all most exact mirror of Nate's.
"Does Nathan Ford live here?" His voice was tired, and sounded stressed but had a heavy Irish accent.
Eliot was faced with a dilemma. To let what was a total stranger into the apartment where the others were, his instincts to protect them were in overdrive and were saying that was a bad plan. The man may not look all that dangerous, year sure he had some muscle but nothing Eliot could handle but he could be armed. There were no obvious tell of a gun or knife but that didn't mean anything. His brain provided that the man was almost certainly related to Nate but he also remembered the way Nate and his farther had dealt with each other, for all Eliot knew it was that way with the whole family. His dilemma was solved by Nate.
"Let him in"
Eliot stepped aside and let the man though who came in with a look of relief on his face, it seemed he had realised a breath he had been holding for a long time.
"Coffee?" Nate offered the man "Or something stronger?"
"Coffee, but make it Irish"
Nate made the coffee quickly but poring himself a glass of scotch. The man stood in the middle of the room looking awkward. Nate finished the coffee walked over to the table and sat next to Sophie offering the seat opposite him to the man. He took it gladly. Nate sipped his drink and sighed.
"You look freezing, why the hell aren't wearing a coat?"
The man laughed "Since when were you so bothered about that sort of thing?"
"Your mother would kill me if you got hypothermia under my watch"
Eliot was getting gust a little annoyed with all this and asked in what he hopped was a polite voice "Who is this guy?"
Nate looked at him in milled surprise, as if he had almost forgotten they were there. 'Typical' Eliot thought.
"This" he said with a small gesture toward the young man "Is my nephew Ryan"
"You have a nephew?" Parker asked in surprise sounding slightly manic.
"Yes Parker, I have a nephew" he paused "Actually I have fifteen"
"Man I didn't even know you had a brother, never mind an army of nephews" Hardison said sounding slightly annoyed.
Sophie and Eliot didn't say anything. Eliot because he had worked out that Nate probably had a big family and Sophie because he had told her he had a big family. The other two hadn't court on and it seemed only a simple explanation would be able to help them.
"What you thought that I had a small family?" Nate asked sounding amused "Come on guys, my family's Irish Catholic. Did you really think there would only be me and my dad?"
Ryan looked at the drink in Nate's hand "I thought you quit drinking?"
"I thought you did too" Nate said waving his hand at the coffee that was more than coffee "any way how's your dad? Is he still running the chop shop?"
Ryan looked around the room looking slightly worried, probably because a room full of strangers just found out that his dad was an active criminal.
"Ah don't worry about them, they don't care about it"
"Yeah he still runs it"
"Is Jack in on the business yet?"
"He started bosting cars a couple of years back. Something you would have known if-"
Nate cut him off with a hand saying "Let's not go into that"
"Adam and Laruen missed you. We all did. Stephen took it real hard" Ryan sipped his coffee "But do you know what? He never stopped looking up to you, never said a bad word about you and was always the first to fight your corner when the rest of them started bitching"
"Did you?"
"What take your side? Yes of course I bloody well did, how could you think I wouldn't?"
"I didn't. I just had to be sure" Nate sighed again and sipped his drink.
They were silent for a long moment then Ryan spoke "Stephen's had a son. You'll never guess what he's called him"
"What?" Nate asked already have some idea of the answer.
"Nathan." Ryan smirked "So that's two people naming children after you"
"you know most people consider it a great honour. Anyway, you didn't track me down and fly all to way America just to tell me Stephens a farther, and I'm guessing that it's not to simply visit your dear old uncle Nate. What kind of trouble are you in?"
"How did-"
Nate cut him off again "You've lost a lot of wait quickly, you clearly haven't been sleeping and you respected my decision so you wouldn't have found me if it wasn't urgent and you didn't think there was anyone else who could help so what sort of trouble are you in?"
Ryan sighed and looked down and away he didn't seem keen to talk.
"Come on Ryan. You know I won't judge or care, I covered our family's tracks for years"
"You know how we boost cars and sell them? Well I was hired to steal a real nice old model jag"
"Did you tell anyone else?"
"No" he paused but continued at a small gesture from Nate "Any was once I've stolen the jag I'm supposed to take it down to the water front the day after and not touch anything in the car"
"Did you?"
"Yeah. I found some documents a report or something they didn't make mush sense to me but they must have meant something to someone because the shop got trashed the same night I stole the jag and the day after Adam and Lisa didn't went missing" He looked down and took a deep breath "I found this in my kitchen the same day."
He pulled out a photo and handed it to Nate. He took it and looked down at it. Sophie peered down at it over his arm. Eliot walked over to get a look. He knew that there was no way Nate wasn't going to get involved and that meant there was no way that the rest of them wouldn't get involved. The photo was of two kids a boy and a girl. The girl didn't look any older than three she had a long wavy ginger hair, a round face and blue eyes like Nate's and Ryan's. The boy was almost completely identical to Nate but only five-ish years old. Both children were sat on some sort of plastic floor and their hands were tied behind them. The girl seemed upset but uninjured; the boy on the other hand had a yellowing bruise on his jaw his lip had been split in several places and both his eyes were blacked. He stared out at the camera in angry defiance. There was a man behind them dressed in black and he wore a balaclava. He was holding the back of the boys head and had the muzzle of an Armalite AR-18 pointed at the boys head.
"His stance say's British special forces, either SAS or SBS and that's a Armalite AR-18"
"Very popular with the IRA" Nate said distractedly he turned the photo over and looked at the back. There was a message.
'Bring the documents to the water front at 11pm in three days'
"Ryan I am going to need you to think very carefully the answer to the next questions" Nate's voice was quiet and deadly series "Do you understand?"
Ryan nodded
"Ok, how long ago did the happen?"
"Yesterday"
"Did you get the registration plats on the jag?"
He nodded and pulled out a piece of paper with it on. Nate took it and after examining it he handed it to Hardison saying "See what you can do with that" Nate turned back to Ryan "Do you still have the documents?"
"No. they were stolen"
"When?"
"A day after the shop was trashed"
Nate ran his fingers thought his hair and Eliot spoke "What kind of weapons did they use to trash your shop?"
"Crowbars I'd say, from the damage"
"Where were they taken from?"
"School"
"Are there cameras?" Eliot asked
"What?"
"Are there security cameras around the school?" Eliot asked again sounding a little agitated.
"Um yes I think so"
Nate had begun pacing up and down the kitchen "Have you spoken to the police?"
"No"
"Good"
Nate sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose already forming a plan, he looked at Ryan and said "Go shower, it's the third door on the left"
Ryan nodded and walked up stairs without a word. It was clear he had been running on adrenalin and passing the problem on to a more experienced pair of shoulders seemed to have let the sleepless nights, the worry and the lack of food catch up with him.
"Hey Nate I found your guy" Hardison said from his computer "His name's Liam O'Hara and he's the CEO of First Dublin Independent, now this is a small bank and with the whole financial crash in Ireland it should have gone under but not only are its doors still open but it's prophets are going up. There is a whole lot of funny business in the accounts"
"Are they only in Ireland?"
"Uh… yeah I think so"
"Right I need tickets to Dublin for me and Ryan. I need to take care of this"
Sophie stood up from the table and walked over to him saying in a soft but firm voice "uh uh no. Nate we're helping you with this"
"No. that's fine I can handle this myself" and with that he stepped out of the apartment.
Sophie sighed and said "Eliot, will you try to get Ryan to eat and Hardison research that bank and the CEO" she pause "And get flights to Dublin"
She found Nate down stairs in the bar sipping another drink, deep in thought. He offered her one which she accepted. They sat there drinking in silence for what seemed like a long time before Sophie spoke.
"Nate why don't you want us to help you with this?"
"It's not that it's just that …" words seemed to fail him and he paused before continuing "A man should be able to look after his own family"
He dropped his head and busied himself with his drink. They both knew the sub context but neither said it instead Sophie said "So look after your family by letting us help"
"fine"
Sophie was slightly surprised; it had taken barely any persuading to get him to let her help. It was slightly concerning but she would worry about it later after those to children were safe and they had more time. She placed a hand on his and said softly "Nate it's going to be ok, you'll get them back" she stood up "You had better pack Hardison will have plane tickets that will leave in the next few hours."