Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage or any of its characters. I am not associated with Dean Devlin or any other producers on the show. I am not associated with TNT, or any of it's parent companies. All original characters, however, are owned by me.
What? I dated a lawyer.
Author's Notes: Don't worry, this is just a prologue. The actual chapters will, hopefully, be much better, and have much more dialogue.
When Sophie first introduced this crazy scheme of hers to Nate, he never thought he would have actually gone along with it. Yet two weeks later here he was trying to wrap up the gig.
The client was an old friend of Sophie's she knew back in school named Lily Clemens. Lily had recently gotten married, and her and her husband Michael decided to move from their apartment to a house they could raise a family in. Unfortunately, their "real estate agents" had other ideas in mind. These "real estate agents" were really two conmen who had been in the business for a long time, preying on the innocent-minded to get what they want, which was-of course-money. These "agents" had a website where you could look at cheap run-down houses on the market that were in the process of getting fixed up. After picking a house you were interested in, you met with the "agents" to discuss price and see pictures of the house. (The potential buyers never actually saw the house, because it was currently a construction site and therefore "too dangerous for the buyers"). After making the sale and getting the money, the "agents" sent it to an untraceable off-shore account.
When Lily and Michael were never contacted again about their new house, they tried contacting the "agents" but-of course-couldn't find them. When trying to contact the company itself they realized that all the phone numbers were no longer in service, and that all of the addresses were fakes, and usually led to abandoned warehouses or other storage facilities. Then, like most people would, Lily and Michael contacted the police. The police, unfortunately, couldn't do anything because they had no evidence, no idea how to track down the "agents" who sold them the house, and Lily and Michael didn't even know the "agents" real names. It was as if they had vanished into thin air…the perfect con.
But, it wasn't so perfect for Lily and Michael who had lost their entire life savings to the conmen. So, they did what any sane (or maybe not so sane) person would do…they contacted the Leverage offices.
After having an ohmygodwhathaveyoubeenupto?howareyou? moment with Sophie, Lily recounted her tragic tale, immediately gaining Sophie's support. Who then brought it to Nate.
The second Nate heard about the Clemens situation, he subconsciously put on his aahhhcrap face. After Sophie asked (a.k.a. nagged) for about twenty minutes, and with the added help from a thirty-year-old scotch that had mysteriously gone missing (thanks to Sophie), he spilled.
Nate would recognize his work anywhere. Every detail screamed William Travers. William Travers was an ex-insurance agent, like Nate. Travers, however, didn't quit for reasons like Nate's, he was fired. He was fired for moonlighting (and in this situation moonlighting meant being paid by thieves to tamper with, and destroy evidence that would send them to jail). But before he was fired, he was Nate's partner. And Nate was the one who discovered Travers' "extra-curricular activities". Instead of turning Travers in, Nate, who had become good friends with Travers over the years, told him that if he stopped what he was doing and worked to help catch the thieves who bribed him, Nate wouldn't turn him in. Unfortunately, Travers wouldn't go for it. Instead he ran.
Nate searched for him for months without a trace before giving up. But the second he heard this story, all the bells in his head went off, and he knew instantly that Travers' was the brains of this outfit. This case meant thinking about the past for Nate, which he never liked to do, and the case was also going to be a challenge, because Travers was good at what he did. Very good.
Despite all this, Sophie managed to get Nate to go for it with the amazing use of her talents (or by casting a spell on him as Parker believes). Either way, it worked.
Nate and Sophie spent three very long days coming up with the perfect plan. They all spent another three days for prep, and they all took off the night before the job started.
The con itself took about one week to execute. And boy did they execute it well. The whole thing went off without a hitch. They shut down Travers and his business partners, got the Clemens' money back (and then some), and took some money for themselves (and then some…and then some more).
With the con done, and their money in the banks, the team decided to enjoy a victory dinner at the offices. At the end of the meal Nate made a victory toast. "To a job well done. May there be many more like 'em." The entire team raised their glasses and repeated back in unison: "A job well done."
And that's where all the trouble began…