I do not own TNT, Leverage, or any of the original characters.

Without any further yada yada yada...

Chapter 2.

When the crew arrives, Eliot already left. After the kids wiped their 'bye we're going to miss you so much' faces off, they watch the crew enter. Hardison and Parker already made good friends with them, so Ty produces a new lock and he and Parker runoff, and Hardison and Rye pull out their phones and start going over something. Raechel walks up to Nate and Sophie.

"Living room's yours." She walks away with the dog at her heels.


Nate and Sophie find the living room covered in air mattresses.

"Well, you said it was going to be fun," Nate says.


Nate told the kids to go outside and play. An hour later, he and Sophie heard the commotion.

"Parker and Hardison are out there, nothing should be wrong," Sophie points out.

"That's exactly what's wrong," Nate mumbles. They look outside and see Ty and Chuck frantically trying to pants each other while not getting themselves pantsed. Parker and Hardison watch with the older kids, who are all sitting in the lofty oak tree.


After the pantsing episode, Nate looks at Eliot's calendar. Where the hitter's calendar would be very simple, taking on 5 kids leaves the calendar pretty crowded. Nate takes a good look, memorizing it for later.


"Lunchtime!" Quincy yells, breaking up a fight between a couple of the siblings. All the kids, and Hardison and Parker, hustle to the table.

"What's for lunch?" Chuck asks.

"We have to make it," Raechel says. The kids all shuffle to the fridge. Raechel starts pulling out leftovers. "We have lasagna, mac and cheese, hot dogs-" Rye grabs the hot dogs and starts to heat them up in the microwave. "Ok, we also got soup, and- that's it." The kids all grab what they want to eat, and the crew does too. Then they sit down to eat, and the conversation starts.

"So, Rye, you have a dentist appointment tomorrow," Nate starts. Rye nods, and bites into a hot dog.

"Do you talk?" Parker asks. When Sophie gives her a look, Parker explains. "I've never heard you talk."

"Yeah, Rye wasn't born with vocal chords," Raechel says, putting her hand on Rye's shoulder. Rye shrugs the hand off.

"That's cool," Parker says. Sophie decides to change the subject.

"How many of you have to work this week?" She asks. All the kids raise their hands.

"You all work?" Hardison asks.

"We run a landscaping business," Chuck says.

"Yeah. We mulch, mow lawns, and trim shrubbery. We got 9 clients this week." Ty says.

"10." Quincy corrects him.

"Ok, do you guys need anything to do that?" Nate asks.

"No, Quincy drives the van, and we have all the equipment," Raechel says. Nate nods.


The 1st week passes relatively quickly. The kids disappear every once in awhile to landscape, and they disappeared once, but Hardison found them at the gym, all benching 50+ lbs. So, it's 3:39 on a Friday morning, when the whole crew is woken up to rap, mixed in with screamo, with some loose electric guitar chords in the background.

Sophie, Nate, Hardison, and Parker peek into the basement. It's a cement floor, but the kids hang out down there, and this morning, the crew sees Quincy, lying on the floor, Ty lying on his hands and Chuck on top of Ty. Quincy lowers his hands, and presses them back up again. The rap music is coming from several different bluetooth speakers. The screamo is coming from Chuck, who is screaming. The dog lies on the floor, perfectly relaxed.

"C'MON QUINCY! YOU CAN BENCH BOTH OF US AT THE SAME TIME!"

The loose notes are coming from Rye's bright red electric guitar. She lightly strums, but the amp is turned up so it's loud anyway. Raechel is doing chin ups on the pull up bar hung over a doorway.

"What is going on down here?" Hardison asks, and the rap music comes to a screeching halt. Chuck stops screaming, Quincy stops benching, and Ty and Chuck fall onto him. Rye picks out some minor notes, making the event even more hilarious. Raechel jumps down from the pull up bar.

"We're doing HUT." Ty says.

"We're working out." Raechel explains.

"And you guys normally do this?" Sophie asks. Rye nods. "And Eliot is ok with it?" Sophie asks.

"Eliot doesn't have to care. We're working out. He works out." Quincy points out.

"Well then, we'll leave you to it," Nate says, pulling the crew out. Once they get back up the stairs, the rap music resumes. Nate pulls out his phone and dials Eliot's number.


"So, you're telling me it's normal for these kids to wake up before 4 and blast music?" Nate asks. Eliot sighs. He's been on the phone with Nate for almost 10 minutes. He can hear the kid's rap music in the background.

"It's this thing called HUT. They get up at 3, workout, blast music, play music, whatever. They usually do it on Friday mornings. I sorta, forgot to tell you guys about it," Eliot explains. He really needs to get back to the task at hand.

"Ok. Remind me what day you're coming back?" Nate asks.

"Oh, Nate's tired of watching kids. Hardison and Parker are clearly having a blast. I'll be back Wednesday, ok?" Eliot says.

"Yep," Nate hangs up. He walks back down into the basement, this time alone. The music stops again. "Ok, kids, listen up. You've got until 7 to do whatever you all want down here, but all of you have doctor's appointments today, so, after 7, I want showers taken, teeth brushed, beds made, and I want all of you dressed." Nate explains. All the kids nod, Nate heads back upstairs, and the music continues.


The crew got to know the kids better throughout the week.

Quincy is the leader. He's in charge, at the wheel, and always there. He makes the plan, and the others execute it. He's also the ride, pretty much everywhere. Nate noticed the landscaping van, the GMC Savanna, and the Chevrolet Suburban parked in the garage. No doubt Quincy drives each one.


Raechel is the one that looks out for all of them. She watches each kid, and she knows when something is off with one of them. She reads their faces and fixes the problem. Sophie notices how closely Raechel studies each of them at the dinner table. When there's been a fight, Raechel discerns who was in the fight, and keeps them away from each other for awhile.


Mariah, more commonly known as Rye, is the middle child. She lets Quincy and Raechel know when they're too bossy, and she lets Ty and Chuck know when they're not listening enough. Hardison notices how the other kids let her run the show when it come to electronics. She's definitely the techie of the group.


Tyrone, a.k.a. Ty, is always up to something. He takes notes down on certain things the kids do. Parker watches him. Ty watches his siblings like he's performing an operation, like he's trying to crack the code the older kids understand.


Chuck is pure comic relief. He makes a joke out of everything. Eliot watches him very closely. Chuck, being the youngest, took their parents' death the hardest. Sometimes Eliot can hear him sniffling at night, and the other kids trying to console him. All of the kids changed, but Chuck stayed the same, trying to keep the same old going.


Hardison looks through his cooler. He could've sworn he had more than 28 bottles of Squeeze! Orange soda left. Just then, he hears something in the kitchen. Quincy, Raechel, and Rye all went to landscape, leaving the younger 2 with the crew. Hardison steps into the kitchen, eyes widening. Chuck and Ty are both sipping orange soda, and the hacker sees the empty bottles in the recycle bin.

"You drank all that?" Hardison asks. The kids nod. "All that caffeine?" Hardison facepalms. Sophie's gonna kill him.


10 HOURS LATER

The caffeine still hasn't worn off. Chuck and Ty are fighting like crazy. The older kids got home, but they just sat down and watched the show.

"Don't worry," Raechel consoles Hardison. "They go on sugar rush for 12 hours, then sleep the next 12 off." Rye makes a couple signs in sign language. "Oh, and in those 12 hours, we'll play video games, watch our shows, and just hang out," Raechel translates.

They watch for the next 2 hours, then the kids fall asleep. Quincy grins and Hardison pulls out some video games.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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