Chapter two is up. This story will focus on team interactions after the Second David Job. As the team grows closer, they will have to deal with new problems and old enemies.

Thanks to every one who has read so far and please review, so I know whether this story is something worth continuing. And of course I don't own Leverage.

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In the end, it didn't take long for the Leverage team to decide on a new city to relocate to – in fact, with the help of Hardison's advanced search engines, it was as simple as each member of the team inputing what attributes they were looking for in their new home.

For Sophie, it was shopping. She was interested in living in a city that had a rich shopping district – which became a necessity for her, she told Nate, after Hardison blew up a large collection of her shoes that she kept stored in her original office. She was also interested in a metropolis with a thriving theater scene and was anxious to renew her acting career in a new and unbiased environment.

Parker was happy as long as the city was, in her own words, tall and shiny. She was interested in their being plenty of skyscrapers and museums, despite the fact that Nate told her that they would be remaining low-key in their city of operations.

Hardison simply wanted to be in a city that on the cutting-edge of technology. As long as he didn't end up having to attempt to work with a dial-up modem or deal with too much nature in their new home then he was as happy as a clam.

Nate wanted a change. After taking down Blackpoole and coming clean to Maggie, Nate wanted to try to move on and see if he could find peace in a new city. Though a city with a healthy appreciation for alcohol was a factor of consideration for him.

Eliot's opinion on the matter surprised the group, by being the least concerned. In truth, it didn't matter to Eliot where they ended up. He was used to having to relocate and leave everything behind when jobs went south. For Eliot it was just change in the already uncertain lifestyle of a retrieval specialist. All cities were the same, the only thing that was different about this one would be the people that would be in it.

Hardison's computer gave several possible cities that would have accommodated the Leverage team, but it was Eliot that narrowed it down to Portland, Oregon. He simply asked the team which of the cities on the list had they never been to. It came down to the fact that none of the team had ever been to Portland, so that's where they ended up. It seemed to Eliot that it would a good place to make a fresh start for the team.

So here they were, sitting in the new office for Leverage Consulting Inc. The headquarters was similar to their old one – it took up the entire top floor of its building and had Hardison's impressive computer array configured within an almost identical conference room, but distinct changes could be seen. Since the entire team was involved in forming the office this time, personal touches from all of the thieves had found their ways into the design of the headquarters.

Sophie was in charge of the decor. She chose to forgo the basic office setup that embodied the last location and created an environment that felt more like a home. The interior had a welcoming feel to it - complete with dark mahogany staining and stylish and elegant pieces of artwork.

The only area of the new space besides the individual offices that Sophie wasn't allowed to touch was the kitchen. Eliot took responsibility for turning what they originally found to be a mess of broken and rusting appliances into a modern and fully stocked kitchen, complete with an industrial fridge, that was now nearly filled with Jone's Orange Soda compliments of Hardison, a state-of-the-art oven and stove, and several sets of glistening knives. Unbeknownst to the rest of the team, Eliot had also taken to updating the security measures for the Leverage headquarters. Despite the fact that Hardison claimed his new system would give them more protection against intruders, Eliot felt it prudent to add his own touches to the security. That is why there were suddenly weapons hidden covertly around the office – knives were hidden in bookcases and taped under tables, while riot batons were slipped into hollow curtain rods and cans of mace were kept within potted plants. Call him paranoid, but Eliot didn't plan on letting himself be caught unprepared again.

The team took about a month off to settle in to their new offices and their new city. During that time, Eliot noticed definite changes within the dynamics of the group. Apparently, the thought of nearly losing each other had forced Nate and Sophie to actually sit down and confront the growing tension between them. Maybe it was Sophie seeing Nate back together with his ex-wife that had forced Sophie to finally make the first move. Whatever the reason, the two were now officially together and Eliot wished Nate all the best of luck. God help him if he ever mixes up Paris with Tuscany again.

At least those two had been direct about it. It seems that Parker and Hardison still hadn't managed to gather the courage to admit that they like each other. Instead they chose to circle around each other for weeks and drive Eliot to the brink of madness with their obvious and pathetically awkward flirting. It came to a point about three weeks after moving to Portland when Hardison actually approached Eliot about it.

"Yo Eliot, can I talk about something with you for a moment?" Hardison asked while popping his head into Eliot's office.

"That depends on what you want to talk about," Was Eliot's response.

"Parker."

'Oh lord save me,' Eliot groaned internally as he heard Hardison speak the lithe thief's name. He had been hoping to avoid that conversation with Hardison, but that was no longer an option.

Hardison could tell that Eliot wasn't in the best of moods, 'Like always,' thought Hardison, so he attempted to get to the point of the discussion before Eliot lost his patience and decided to end it physically.

"You may have noticed that I kind of, you know, have a thing for Parker... and I was wondering if you could help me," Hardison quickly stated, practically tripping over his tongue in an attempt to say what was on his mind before he lost his nerve.

Eliot sighed, "For the love of Gawd... Parker!" He yelled out the blond's name at the end of his ramblings.

Parker bounded into the room in her own peppy way, but stopped dead once she noticed that Hardison was in Eliot's office. Hardison was his part was torn between looking furious at Eliot and looking at Parker like a deer caught in the headlights. It was all Eliot could do not to slap them both upside the head for acting so stupid.

"Alright now listen to me the two of you," Eliot told them sternly, while glaring at both of them, "Parker, you like Hardison," even as Parker opened her mouth to deny this Eliot continued on, "And Hardison, you like Parker," Hardison went as white as a sheet when he heard this, "So will the two of you stop dancing around each other and do something about it before I beat some sense into you!"

Having said this, Eliot pushed the two shocked thieves out of his office and shut the door behind them. As he was stalking back to his desk he could hear Parker asking Hardison if he wanted to have sex with her in her office. Eliot groaned and made a mental note to soundproof his office as soon as possible.

As the next weeks passed without incident, the new couples began to solidify their relationships. Eliot was happy for them, but he noticed that as they spent more time together, they spent less time in the office. Before, when the group had first started, Eliot would have welcomed the loneliness as an opportunity to find peace and quiet away from the group; however, now he actually seemed to feel lonely without the group pestering him. He began to notice that the others would be talking about personal events that he knew nothing about, or that they would all share inside jokes with each other that he didn't understand.

His response was to fall back to his old habits, and he began to withdraw within himself. As the others became closer, he held back. The others would go out to dinner nights when they weren't running a con, but Eliot would always find some excuse to hang back, not wanting to be a third wheel. The others didn't seem to notice, they were too wrapped up in their new relationships to pay attention to the quiet and withdrawn specialist. He had always been the most secretive and enigmatic member of a group of thieves and grifters, so it didn't seem out of the ordinary when Eliot chose not to join them.

As Eliot listened to the others leave for the night in celebration of a successfully completed con, he couldn't help but sigh at the annoyingly persistent feeling of rejection that wormed its way into the pit of his stomach. Attempting to shake these new and unwanted feelings out of him, Eliot sat down at the conference table with a six-pack of beer and tried to distract himself by watching two teams of testosterone charged men beating the hell out of each other. As he cracked open his first beer, he thought about what the others were up to at that moment. Drowning half of the beer in one gulp, he decided it didn't matter. They were probably better off without him.

He couldn't have been more wrong.