A/N: Hey everybody, will you look at this... I'm still alive *smiles* I'm really sorry that I haven't updated any story for so long, but due to some nasty things happening in real life, me being ill and in hospital for a few days amongst them, I really wasn't in the spirit to write anything.
I'm really sorry, but I'll try to update things more frequently, especially to keep my thoughts away from the fact that we most likely won't get a season 6 of Leverage *sad sigh*
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And well... since I tried to get back into the spirit of writing by settling for an easy task: A nice little, fluffy sequel to "The Trust Job", about two thousand words... but somehow... well, this happened. It is still a sequel to "The Trust Job", but it is not going at all as I first intended to, but I quite liked the way how it turned out (and yes, it's finished, just not totally typed down). There are going to be two or three chapters, depending on how much it actually is, when I've typed down the 40 handwritten pages. But it is way too long for a one-shot, so it is going to be a short chaptered fic *smiles sheepishly*.
I really hope you will like it and reviews will be most appreciated *puppy dog eyes*
And please keep in mind that English is not my native language, so I hope the grammar issues are not too bad...
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Oh, and for the timeline, Eliot left before "The Boy's Night Out Job"... just in case you're wondering *smiles*
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Warnings: SLASH (Eliot/surprise)
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Summary: It has been two years, but the team has finally found Eliot, but seeing their lost Hitter again is not going how they imagined, since Eliot has changed... a lot... SLASH (Eliot/surprise), Sequel to "The Trust Job"
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Disclaimer: None of the Leverage characters belong to me and I just borrowed them for this little story... this story doesn't mean to offend anybody… this is just for fun… and not for money either...
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The Moving On Job
Chapter 1
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Two years...
It had been two long years since Eliot had cut his ties with the Leverage team and had walked out on them... two years of fruitlessly looking for their lost son while trying to honor Eliot's request to continue helping people.
And Eliot had kept his promise, too. The team always had a Hitter helping them. They just appeared out of nowhere when they needed one for a job and in the beginning it had been a bit unsettling, but after a while the team had gotten used to it and they had just realized how good Eliot actually was at what he did.
All the Hitters that were sent to work with them were good, most of them almost on Eliot's level, but none of them as good as he was. And they were always good enough to get the team out safely. In the beginning it had been a bit hard to trust a stranger with their lives, but they also knew that Eliot would never put them in danger so he would never sent them a Hitter he didn't trust. The payment also wasn't a problem, because they all shrugged it off with a "I owe Spencer my life, so the least I can do to repay him is to make sure you're safe."
And they had learned one thing, if you owed something to Eliot Spencer and he asked you to repay it like that, then you made damn sure to do it or you'd find yourself in a lot of trouble.
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Like that the team continued to do their job and help people while trying to look for their missing friend. It wasn't the same, however, not even by a long shot. Only after Eliot had left the team had realized how much Eliot had done for them without them really thinking much about it. There was no one that cooked dinner for them after successful cons. And there was nobody to treat the little wounds and injuries they often sustained, nothing too serious, but simply inconvenient and uncomfortable. But with Eliot's help they had all healed just a little faster, because the Hitter had always known what to do to make them feel better without being too obvious about it. This realization had been another blow and they had all noticed how involved they had really been with each other and how much they had hurt Eliot without really meaning to.
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But it wasn't only that they missed what Eliot did for them... no, they just missed Eliot, missed his dry humor and his snarky remarks and just that sense of security he had always given them. Hardison missed the bickering between them, but he also missed how Eliot always had his back, no matter what. Parker missed the Hitter's grumbling and she missed his unique way of making her feel more normal and his way of making her accept herself, helped her to feel more human in a totally different way than Hardison could. Sophie missed the long discussions about so many topics she had never thought Eliot would know about and she missed how he always made her tea when she needed it. And Nate... Nate missed his second in command, the man who he trusted with his life and who wasn't afraid to call him on something he did wrong... and he missed the man that had played chess or pool with him to distract him from drinking again, no matter what time of day it was.
To sum it up, it felt like they were missing a big part of the team and a big part of themselves. And so they had of course continued looking for Eliot, even though on a professional level they were okay with the substitutes, but on a personal level they sure as hell weren't. For a while they had even feared that one day they might find Eliot dead, but then again, Eliot knew how to take care of himself, so they had pushed that fear aside.
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After Eliot had left, Nate, Hardison, Parker and Sophie had thought that with their combined skills it would be easy to find where Eliot was hiding, or better what he was doing, because they were sure he would continue working, even if not with them. But they had only met dead end after dead end. But now the Leverage crew had finally found him... but it was a complete coincidence. An old friend of Sophie's had come and visited her, much to Sophie's delight, since she hadn't seen Lucy, who had been sort of an older Aunt to her, in years. At first it had been a normal visit and they had talked about things happening in the years they hadn't seen each other, well Sophie left out a few parts, but then things had changed. Lucy had started to talk animatedly about the nice, young man, who had bought her deceased father's farm a year ago and had been busy renovating it since then. Sophie hadn't thought much of it and had only nodded politely, well, until Lucy had showed her a picture of her niece, who had been visiting the ranch to see the horses with her school class. The little girl was grinning happily amidst a group of kids. But that wasn't what had caught Sophie's attention as soon as she had seen the picture. No... in the middle of the kids stood their missing Hitter, smiling brightly, looking so happy and carefree, as she had never seen before, a small child held securely on his hip.
Sophie had immediately gotten all the details she could from Lucy without being too suspicious and then she had informed the team that they could finally get Eliot back.
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That was how the team found themselves in a small town in the middle of nowhere, for the moment holed up in their hotel room, trying to make a battle plan. Sure, in the two years they had been looking for Eliot, Nate, Sophie, Parker and Hardison had often discussed what they were going to say to Eliot and how they were going to get him back. Their plans had ranged from trying to apologize, Sophie's idea, even though she really wasn't good at it, to Nate's plan to simply give enough reasons until Eliot could only come back to the plan to simply knock him out, kidnap him, drag him back to the headquarters and implant a tracking device into his arm so they could find him wherever he went, the combined idea of Parker and Hardison.
But now that they had actually found Eliot, it was a bit harder to actually work out how to go about this. The people in town weren't very helpful either. It was a small town with a strong community and apparently Eliot, or Lindsey, as he called himself now, was already a big part of said community, so the people hadn't told the team much about him, except that they were glad that he was here and that he had done so much for the town. But they hadn't gotten anything too helpful.
And Nate had stopped Hardison from planting cameras. They wanted Eliot to trust them and if he ever found out that they had tried to spy on him, and Nate was pretty sure that he would find out, then he would be mad at them and it would be even harder to get him back.
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"So, what are we going to do now?" Hardison questioned. He sat on the couch, a laptop perched on his knees. Parker sat by his side while Nate and Sophie sat on the bed opposite of the couch.
"I still vote for the kidnapping idea. My taser is fully loaded," Parker piped up and Hardison only rolled his eyes at the girlfriend, but he really wasn't totally against it, since he wanted Eliot back.
Nate sighed and scratched the back of his head in thought.
"Well, I don't think that this will work to our satisfaction, Parker," he said neutrally and when he saw the thief's face fall, he added: "But we'll keep the plan in mind as our last resort."
Parker's smile was back and Nate was glad for that, he didn't want to see her unhappy. Then he looked at his team.
"I guess our best course of action is to just drive out to the ranch, talk to him and hope that he will actually listen and not kick us out. Then we can figure out the rest," he suggested and Sophie, Parker and Hardison agreed with that plan. So the four of them piled into Lucille and drove out to the ranch. They were all anxious and also curious to see their Hitter, but they also worried how Eliot would react to them.
Would he be disappointed that they had taken so long to find him? Would he even want to see them?
After that video call they had had with Eliot before he had gone away, they had all wondered why exactly Eliot had left. And it had taken them embarrassingly long to figure it out completely. Well, at least they hoped that they had figure it out. But that hadn't made things easier for them and they weren't really sure how to put their feelings into words, since none of them was particular good at talking feelings.
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So the fifteen minute drive out to the ranch was spent in silence because all members of team Leverage lost in their own thoughts until Hardison finally stopped Lucille in front of the huge main house of the ranch. They had driven down a long, sandy path, flanked by huge paddocks where many horses were running around. It was a peaceful atmosphere and Nate didn't doubt for one second that Eliot felt right at home here.
"Remember, he is Lindsey to the people here, so we need to call him that," he informed and when Sophie, Parker and Hardison nodded, they finally exited the car and looked around.
Nate took a deep breath and looked around the area. It really was beautiful out here and you felt right at home without even having to set one foot into the main house. And it was evident that Eliot had spent a lot of time and money on this, so it had to be a pretty important project to the Hitter. And Nate feared that the fact that this meant something to Eliot would make things even more complicated.
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The door to the main house bursting open, a group of kids running out of the house, dragged Nate's attention from his thoughts and he focused on the children. There were about ten to twelve children and they were between eight and ten years old. A young man and an elderly woman followed them, trying to calm them. They were teachers or social workers, Nate guessed. The kids all had happy smiles on their faces and were on the way to the stable that sat a little back from the main house. A ranch hand, at least judging from the shirt with the logo on it, which was the same as on the stable doors, was waiting for them. The group vanished into the stable.
Nate watched them go and suddenly this whole set-up made even more sense to him than it had done before. All the children had worn old, used clothes so they probably didn't have the money to allow them to go riding in normal stables. And Eliot let them enjoy themselves here, most likely without wanting to be paid.
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A small smile graced Nate's lips and he turned to Parker, Sophie and Hardison, who were looking at him for a sign what to do next.
"Let's go and find Eliot," he stated, which earned him a disapproving glare from Parker.
"I thought we were supposed to call him Lindsey," she complained and Nate only sighed.
"Let's go and find Lindsey," he corrected himself. Then he marched towards the stable, confident that they would find Eliot there, or at least someone who could tell them where Eliot was. And when they finally found Eliot, well, then they could really decide what exactly to do and what exactly they needed to do. Parker, Hardison and Sophie just followed Nate without question, the three of them eager to see Eliot.
When they had almost reached the stables, they could hear the giggling of the children and a slightly stressed female voice chided: "Calm, down, kids. In a few minutes you can ride the horse, but first Shelly needs to saddle it. Why don't you go out back and keep Lindsey and little Sammy company, but remember to be quiet, because Sammy needs his sleep."
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Nate's eyebrow rose higher and he finally entered the stable and saw the children crowded outside a stall, watched by the two adults they had also seen earlier. Inside the stall the young man, Shelly, was busy saddling a beautiful paint. The stallion was whinnying softly and almost impatiently as if it knew what was coming and was eager to get to the children.
Nate coughed a little to get the attention of the people and the children, who had been about to follow the order they had been given, stopped in their tracks and immediately fell silent and stared the four adults they had never seen before.
Shelly, who couldn't really see team Leverage from his place behind the horse, was a little confused at the sudden change of behavior of the kids and stepped out of the stall and looked at the newcomers.
Before Nate, Sophie, Hardison or Parker could say anything to introduce themselves, Shelly stiffened and Nathan saw something akin to recognition flicker in the other man's eyes for a second.
"Sandy, Peter, why don't you take the children to see the foals," he suggested and Sandy obviously picked up on the strange tone in Shelly's voice, because she gathered the children close.
"Come on, kids. It's going to take a little while longer and I know you wanted to see the foals anyway," she said, giving Peter a meaningful look over the again laughing kids' heads. The man now caught on too and the two of them herded the children past the Leverage team and out of the stable to wherever the foals were. They were barely sparing the four a glance.
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Nate also kept his gaze locked on this Shelly guy, who had closed the stall and now stood directly in their path, arms crossed in front of his chest, legs slightly spread apart, muscles tense. It reminded Nate of Eliot when the other man was fully aware of any danger around him and ready to attack any given second. The look on the man's face didn't exactly say "Welcome".
"You're here to see Eliot, aren't you?" he questioned, the voice not nearly as friendly as it had been with Sandy, Peter and the children.
Parker, Sophie and Hardison looked at Nate again, looking for guidance on how to deal with this situation. This was something they hadn't really expected to find and they had immediately realized too, that this man in front of them was dangerous.
"You're a Hitter," Parker suddenly piped up and took a cautious step closer to the other man.
Shelly just shrugged.
"Ex-Hitter, but I'm curious how you know," he said, his voice a tad warmer than before. Parker just grinned at him.
"It's a very distinctive stance," she said, her voice as deep as she could manage in a bad imitation of Eliot. And Shelly actually chuckled for a second, before his face hardened again.
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Hardison was getting impatient and he tapped his foot, before asking: "That is all great, but can we go and see Eliot now?"
A sharp elbow to his ribs made him wince in pain and he looked at Parker with a confused look on his face.
"What the hell, woman?" he asked his girlfriend. Parker only gave him a dark look.
"We're supposed to call him Lindsey, remember?" she hissed, trying to be quiet. Shelly, who had still heard her, chuckled again and his tense stance loosened a little.
"No need to pretend with me and with the other man, who's going to definitely stand in your way to see Eliot if you say as much as one wrong word," he told them, before adding: "But I'll advise you to pretend with the kids around or Eliot will have your head."
The crew stared at Shelly, still not exactly sure what to say to what was happening here. Whoever this Shelly was, he was protective of Eliot and if he was half as good a Hitter as Eliot was, then they wouldn't stand much of a chance against him.
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Nate, who was already working on a plan, was about to signal Sophie to try and charm the guy, when another figure appeared behind Shelly at the other end of the stable and the whole team gasped, because this man they recognized and it weren't really fond memories that came to mind.
"Shelly, stop scaring them. You know that El wants to see them," the man said and again Nate, Sophie, Parker and Hardison were rendered speechless when they heard the man speak like that and calling Eliot "El", a nickname not even team Leverage had been allowed to call him.
Shelly stepped aside and turned to the newcomer.
"Just looking out for your boy, Q, but I'll leave them to you now. I need to take care of the kids now anyway. You know how important routine is for them."
"Okay, take them to the back paddock, so they won't interrupt," the man suggested and Shelly nodded, quickly opened the stall and took the reins of the horse and lead him out of the stable, leaving Nate, Sophie, Hardison and Parker alone with the other man.
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"Follow me," the man said, but Nate quickly shook his head.
"Wait, last time we see you, you tried to kill Eliot, but suddenly you want us to believe he's your best buddy. Sorry, but I'm not about to walk into some kind of trap," he said sternly.
The man shrugged and turned away from them.
"Then stay here for all I care. I only have El's best interests at heart and nothing more, so do what you want, but I thought you wanted to talk to him," the man said and started to walk into the opposite direction of Shelly and the kids.
The team hesitated for a moment, but they were all anxious to see Eliot. Parker was the first to follow the man, Hardison and Sophie were next. And Nate finally followed too, even though he still found it a hard concept to grasp to see Quinn, Hitter extraordinaire, who had tried to kill Eliot the last time they had seen him, here on Eliot's ranch, acting as if he belonged nowhere else.
But all those thoughts immediately vanished when the team exited the stable and they finally got to see Eliot for the first time in two years... and when they suddenly realized how much their Hitter had changed...
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to be continued, if you're interested...
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So, there it is *smiles* I really hope you liked it... and as I said, comments would be most appreciated *smiles again*