Drive – Chapter 1

She was doing it again. That damn right foot was propped up on her knee and was bouncing up and down like a pogo stick. She was shaking the whole couch. Eliot gritted his teeth and tried to focus on what Nate was saying, as he stood in front of the large screens detailing the next client.

"Now, this many mechanical failures on cars that had been steadily winning is just not normal," Nate was saying. "These are club events, so there's no governing body to investigate these events as a pattern. All the client has to go on is the word of mouth among the drivers that overlap races."

The client was a race car driver, one who'd had their car break down a few too many times after they'd started winning races. Rally car racing. Eliot liked the sport, thought it was more challenging, and more interesting than Nascar. After all, driving in a circle, versus driving on dirt and tarmak and gravel and around corners and over hills, all at top speeds… yeah. He'd take a rally any day. You saw some drivers with real chops at those events.

Parker was jiggling her foot a little more rapidly, like she was getting excited. Eliot was starting to consider picking her bodily up and setting her down on the floor. It was irritating.

"So what's the con?" Sophie was asking. "Shouldn't this be something a mechanic could figure out?"

Hardison shook his head. "No people in the position of authority to make it happen," he said. "There's a governing body for the pro rally circuit, but these are amateur events, and they pull people from all over. Too hard to monitor, if you're not looking for it."

"Right," Nate said. "So here's the plan." He turned and pointed to Eliot. Eliot grinned, knowing what was coming. "Eliot," he said, "You'll be going in as a driver."

Awesome. He numbered driving among his many talents. After all, a retrieval specialist did occasionally need to make a quick getaway.

"Parker, you're his co-driver, Sophie, you're a sponsor of the car, and Hardison, you're in the van."

Parker was practically bouncing like a top now.

"Ok, seriously?" Eliot had finally had it. "You sit still or I'll make you."

He was, of course, ignored. "I should be the driver!" Parker burst out.

Nate gave her a look. "Parker, we need Eliot to drive, the con requires us to win some of these races, or at least do well…"

"Hardison, look up Parker Jones on the amateur circuit, European," Parker chattered, her voice quick and eager and bubbly. Hardison blinked but started typing. "I love to drive," she exclaimed. "It's almost as good as rappelling, not quite, of course, but you can go so fast!"

Eliot, and the others all stared at what popped up on the screen. There was a grainy British newspaper photo, with a younger and clearly beaming Parker standing next to a beat-up and dirty car. "Holy hell," Eliot said blankly.

"Parker, you were a driver?" Sophie said in shock. "A real rally car driver?"

"Yep," Parker said blithely. "I love to drive."

"You won? Like, races?" Hardison said, disbelieving. He scrolled through the screens, articles and stats and other blurs of numbers popping up. "Damn, girl. You, like, WON races."

"I like to go fast," Parker said.

Nate cleared his throat. "Well. Ok. That changes things." He looked at Eliot, and Eliot, still somewhat befuddled by the notion that their crazy blonde thief had actually had a hobby that resulted in her interacting with other people and not just to lift their wallets, looked back. He shrugged.

"Parker will be the driver, and Eliot'll be your co-driver," Nate said. Nate looked again at the screen and shook his head. "Huh. This'll be interesting."

Parker was bouncing again, and Eliot heaved a sigh. One way or another, he was going to be trapped in a car with a slightly psychotic blonde. And she was going to be driving.

Eliot Spencer was a retrieval specialist. He went in, got the package, got out. Delivered the package. At least, that was what he used to do. Now he was a hitter for the Leverage team, and most days he preferred his current occupation. After all, he'd not only gotten to start being the 'good guy', he also managed to get himself a truly talent team. And one that had started to really mean something to him.

There was Nate. Sure, the guy had a drinking problem, but who was Eliot to judge? Nate didn't let it interfere with their work, and it usually didn't get in the way of their down time, either. The few times it had, Eliot had forgiven him. Eventually. Nate was… Nate. His mind worked in ways and on levels that Eliot had never been able to fathom. He was also one of the few guys that Eliot truly trusted in the world; he was willing to allow him a few quirks.

Sophie, she was… something. Their talented grifter who couldn't act to save her life. She was smooth and sexy and had the ability to tie men into worst kind of knots. Eliot had seen her string men along until the poor saps didn't even know their own names. And yet, she was the 'mother' of their ragged family of thieves. Sophie always seemed to know when one of them needed a pat on the back or a smack upside the head. Nate, he wasn't always tuned into if Eliot was having a bad morning, or if Parker was more tightly strung than usual, or if Hardison was being particularly nerdy.

Hardison, he was a nerd. Frankly, Eliot was a little surprised the guy didn't wear suspenders and glasses with tape on the bridge. But the guy had magic hands, Eliot would admit to that. There didn't seem to be any place he couldn't get into. Give him a computer and an internet connection and their jobs went so much more smoothly. Eliot wasn't such an egotist that he couldn't admit he liked not having to crack heads at every single door. Overriding the security and just walking in was much simpler. Too bad the jobs never seemed to end that way, but at least they always seemed to start easy. Hardison was, he'd privately admit, a buddy. A friend. And while the guy made him nuts on a regular basis, well… you forgave friends for that. Usually.

And then there was Parker.

Parker… was crazy. Crazy talented, that was for sure, Eliot had never seen someone crack safes as fast as she did. Crazy fit, she pulled some rather impressive acrobatics on a regular basis. Parker and lasers… that was something to see. And then there was crazy… just crazy. She threw herself off buildings for fun, for Christsake. And there was no filter on her mouth, everything she thought came shooting straight out. At least it did, lately she seemed to finally be getting some of Sophie's teachings about behavior down. And she made a good partner, when she wasn't being crazy-crazy. She'd bullied Eliot into teaching her some more fighting skills, and given the fact that she was crazy-fit and so agile, she was pretty good. Eliot wasn't worried about loosing his place on the team, but it was nice to know that Parker could cover his back while he took care of business.

But Parker driving! He'd ridden in a car with her before. She was crazy. And he meant that, in every sense of the word.

Eliot tried to contemplate Parker racing. And his mind just kinda when kablooey.

He was dicing an onion for the chili he was fixing for dinner, and Parker wandered in. And by wandered, he meant sort of hopped, flipped and then slid until she was sitting on a stool. All without making a sound and being quiet enough that he wouldn't have noticed her if he hadn't been watching.

Parker leaned her chin on her hands, and watched his knife. Eliot studied her for a second. "So you can really drive," he said, scooping up some of the diced onion on his blade and tossing it in the skillet.

"Yep," Parker said. "I love to go fast."

Eliot snorted. "Yeah, I know." He finished the onion, and checked the heat of the skillet.

Parker cocked her head. "Why are you so surprised?" she asked.

Eliot stirred the onions in the sizzling butter lightly. "It just… doesn't seem like something you'd do," he said. "Lotta people around. Lots of people who are going to want to talk and take pictures and not have forks stabbed into them." He slid a sly glance at her.

Parker rolled her eyes and huffed a sigh. "At least I didn't use a knife," she muttered. And then pouted. "I can do people." Eliot didn't look at her but just raised an eyebrow. "I can," she insisted. "I've done people on cons." She paused. "Ok, wait, that doesn't sound right."

Eliot snorted a laugh. Then cleared his throat. "I get what you mean," he said.

"Besides, I need to know how to drive," Parker said, starting to twist back and forth on the stool. "Gotta make a getaway, you know."

Eliot smirked and reached for the ground beef. "Yeah, that's how I learned to drive," he said. "Got to stay ahead of the cops."

"Or Nate," Parker said cheerfully.

"Or Nate what?" said the man in question, stopping at the sound of his name.

Parker twisted around and twirled her feet on the rungs of the stool. "I drove away from you once," she said.

Nate swallowed his mouthful of whatever he was drinking a little hard. "You did?" he said. "I didn't think I'd gotten that close to you."

"You did," Parker said, "You just didn't know it. Because I drove away really fast."

Sophie chuckled from the couch. "That would do it."

Eliot was still mulling Parker driving. "I want to see you drive," he said. Parker swiveled back to face him. Meat sizzled and wafted fragrant up at him from the skillet. "I want to see you drive before I let you drive for the con," he clarified.

Nate frowned. "Eliot, she's got the perfect cover…" he started.

"Yeah, but I'm the one who has to ride with her," Eliot interrupted. "So I want to see how she drives first."

Parker grinned. "I won't kill you, Sparkey. Promise."

Eliot looked at her sideways again. He wasn't so sure about that.