Disclaimer: Not mine. Not any of it.
AN: I know America is like 10 hours behind from where I am, but it's almost 9 AM on this sunny Saturday here so I'm just going post it now.
*o0O0o*
* Three Days Later at a Brewpub in Portland *
*o0O0o*
Eliot's standing behind the bar of the brewpub cleaning the glasses around ten minutes before closing when an Air Force general steps through the front door, - he's not in uniform and doesn't really walk like a general, but the rank is obvious, the female officer's respectful stance beside him distinctive and unmistakable, - the officer stays by the entrance while the general walks inside. Eliot looks down to Hardison's monitors hidden behind the counter and sure enough, there are two more male officers also in civvies outside and a government issue vehicle waiting by the sidewalk.
The pub's almost empty, he sent the employees home almost fifteen minutes ago. The only people left is him and two customers in the back.
He thinks about alerting Parker and Hardison to the developing situation by turning the label of the fake bottle towards him - Hardison couldn't resist and Eliot couldn't fault the paranoia, - but for the moment decides to wait and see what this is about.
The General sits down a few chairs down from where Eliot's standing and sends him a close mouthed smile paired with a tiny eyebrow wiggle - the kind he's seen Nate do when playing one of his obnoxious personas, except this man conveys humor instead of sleaze with his. Other than that though, the silver-haired man ignores him.
Taking the hint Eliot turns his attention to the customers, a married couple in the back that have been talking in whispers and absorbed in each other the entire night. He sighs, loathe to interrupt the two women and their anniversary date, but this looks important and though it doesn't look like it'll turn ugly at the moment, it's still better to get the civilians out of any potential lines of fire.
He throws the towel over his shoulder, puts down the glass and walks around the counter toward the back.
Then he puts on his most charming smile and draws the women's attention.
"I'm sorry, but we're about to close."
The women blink up at him like they'd completely forgotten how late it's gotten. Then the sweet-faced blonde woman further from him lights up her phone and smiles back an embarrassed sort of smile when she sees the time.
Her dark-haired somewhat familiar looking wife though is looking at him suspiciously, her eyes moving from him to the general.
Eliot's smile doesn't waver.
"An old friend." He explains in a dry tone and then rolls his eyes for good measure. The woman relaxes, though not all the way.
"How much do we owe you?" The embarrassed one asks.
"On the house. I hope you enjoyed your anniversary here." He says and reminds himself to put a twenty in the tip jar for Monty, the women have been sitting at one of the kid's tables.
"How did-?" The suspicious one starts and then glares lightly at her wife for the playful arm pinch she'd just gotten.
"Be nice Ashley!"
"I'm totally nice." Ashley hisses back, but he sees the corners of her mouth pulling up, Eliot for the moment forgotten.
"I know the signs. And you remind me of two friends of mine." He's not even lying, the way they've been looking at each other the entire night have all the hallmarks of Nate and Sophie.
"Do you want me to call you two a cab?"
"No, thank you. We haven't really been drinking." Eliot nods, knowing it to be true, then leads them to the door when they grab their stuff, - they send curious but not alarmed looks at the officer they walk past on their way out, - and he waits, keeping the door open until he sees them get into their car safely before letting it close.
Normally this would be when he'd lock behind him, but he knows that no officer worth their salt would allow a general to be locked inside a building with someone that might prove to be a threat and only one person for backup. He leaves the door alone and goes back to his spot behind the counter.
"What's this about General-"
"O'Neill. But call me Jack."
Shit. He starts cursing inside his head. He hasn't had anything to do with Stargate program in years, but though he's never met this man before he knows the name. Everyone in the program knows the name.
"I don't do freelance for you guys anymore."
"We're hoping you'll make an exception for this. It's a matter of homeworld security."
Eliot grinds his teeth in frustration. He knows he can't say no to that, and the general probably knows it too if the sparkle of humor in his eyes is any indication.
"When do you need me?" He's going to have to come up with a pretty good excuse for vanishing, especially if he doesn't want Hardison to start snooping.
The humor leaks from General O'Neill's eyes leaving him looking grave and just a little bit apologetic.
"Yeah, 'bout that." O'Neill stops and hums under his breath for a moment. "We kinda need that whole gang of yours here. There's this… thing."
"No!" Eliot says immediately. He's not bringing his family into this. Protecting them from goons with guns is one thing, he can do that, he knows he'll be able to take the hit if it ever comes to that. He can't guarantee their safety if they get read into this. There would be too many variables. Too much could go wrong. And he made a promise.
For a moment he thinks about vaulting over the counter and throwing the man out on his ass.
The guileless look drops from the general's eyes for a short second, replaced by a sharpness that speaks of O'Neill's very long list of commendations and the ways he'd earned them. The man might be in his mid-sixties now, but he is not a helpless mark.
Eliot's eyes skim to the doorway and he reminds himself that the officer there would probably shoot him before he was even halfway to the general too.
"I'm sorry Spencer, I really am, but we need you all. And if this goes wrong your team is going to be dead either way. And the rest of the Earth with it."
"There are other-"
"There are other criminals, but criminals that fight on this side of the line? You guys are a rare species, Spencer, there's no one else as good as you that isn't in it for the money. And trusting mercenaries with this would be as smart as expecting an Ancient to give you a straight answer. You know we can't take that chance."
He almost doesn't care. Unfortunately, he still has Nate's voice in his head on occasions like this, urging him to do the right thing. Of course, there are always still traces of Moreau's lessons too, and those whisper at him to tell O'Neill to fuck off. He could grab Alec and Parker, get Sophie and Nate from their third attempt at retirement - previous experience tells him they're maybe gonna last a month or so longer before giving up again, - and steal a ship to abandon the place before whatever's coming gets here.
Unfortunately, he's long since decided to never listen to the lessons left by Moreau. And other than Parker none of his people would go anyways - maybe not even Parker, her instinct for survival might be stronger than the rest of theirs, but he remembers Parker in that cave on that snowy mountain, she would want to do the right thing here too. And she wouldn't leave Alec.
And Hardison would want to fight.
So save for rendering his entire family unconscious and taking the choice out of their hands entirely, Eliot doesn't have any kind of choice at all.
"Fuck you!" He says anyway, trying to ignore the voice of the soldier at the back of his head flinching, horrified at the lack of respect shown toward the high ranking Air Force General.
O'Neill just grins. Apparently used to the reaction.
Eliot stuffs a twenty in the jar by the cash register and then reluctantly sends a text to Hardison and Parker, finally alerting them to the situation. Well, he tells them that they have a new client. The details will have to wait until they get here.
—
Jack pushes two thick non-disclosure agreements towards the Green Beret's friends. Since Walter's suggestion he's read both their files and isn't surprised to receive back an aggressive glare from the thief who goes by Parker; nor a raised eyebrow from the hacker Alec Hardison, the kid isn't bothering to hide amused scorn at signing a document for government secrets when he's so much more used to just digging up those secrets himself.
Instead of reaching for the folders the black man continues playing with his phone.
They need thieves. Good ones. And Vala's right, she alone wouldn't be enough for this one, especially since she's in the same boat as the rest of them where recognizable faces are to be considered.
The crew working under the cover of Leverage International is their best shot - and if Walter's files are right, these people are just what they need to deal with their latest galactic FUBAR. And the fact that Eliot Spencer had already worked for them before as a retrieval specialist just clinches the choice.
Speaking of, the man is standing in the corner of the room eyes on his team, face blank, but Jack can read the stress in his posture. These people are family to him, the same way Carter, Teal'c and Daniel will always be family to Jack, no matter how far and wide they've scattered in the last decade. It's plain to see how much Spencer doesn't like this.
Jack doesn't like it either. He doesn't want to bring in civilians into the mess that is the rest of the galaxy, he'd love to leave them to their illegal do-gooding, but he needs them so he tries not to let himself notice how young these two kids really are.
Younger than Carter and Danny were when SG-1 went on their first mission, if not by much. Not much older than Charlie would have been now.
Too young.
"You sure we can trust him?" Parker asks Spencer never taking her angry eyes off Jack. Vala Mal Doran has that same kind of eyes, so does some others he knows, himself included, he doesn't want to guess why this girl has a look like the one he knows gets earned by people who have held a snake in their heads, a look that means they know what it's like to not be in control of what happens to them or what they do.
Under her aggression though is a calculation that rather reminds Jack of himself a great deal. She's plotting.
"Yeah," Spencer growls from his corner. "They're the good guys."
"Good guys with ten kinds of protection on their mountain." The hacker mutters never looking up from his phone.
Jack feels his own eyebrow raise in reaction, is the hacker seriously-
"Dammit, Hardison! You don't hack a military outpost in front of a four-star general, what is wrong with you?" Eliot rushes forward and grabs the phone out of the other man's hands.
"Hey!" The hacker yells indignantly. And Jack has an uncomfortable flashback of the dozen times he's grabbed one of Danny's books from out of his hands when he started looking too much like an insomniac. "Give that back."
"Not until after the people that can arrest us for treason leave." Spencer grounds out between his teeth, Jack hopes the man has a good dentist.
"They're not going to arrest us." Parker answers, she hasn't looked away from Jack since they got here.
"Not as long as you sign those papers, no." Jack answers and then very carefully does not wince at the implied ultimatum.
Because… it's kind of true. This is a gamble, a rather risky one, and if this goes bad he might have to arrest them after all.
But he'd rather not, he's starting to almost like them.
Parker's head tilts sideways, the way a cat's might. And her aggressive look goes sharp and seeking, then she reaches for the papers and starts flipping through them.
Damn. They're gonna read the whole thing first, aren't they?
He slumps back in his chair and sends a wide smile to Spencer. "You wouldn't happen to have some beer while we wait?"
Eliot smiles back, for the first time this night entirely pleasantly. Jack grows suspicious immediately.
"Sure. You can have a taste of Hardison's newest experimental masterpiece."
Jack looks from Spencer's grin to the quickly hidden mildly offended look on Alec Hardison's face,
Still, he shrugs. Why not? How bad could it be?
—
Alec is pointedly not looking at either Eliot, - stealing one of his babies, the nerve, - or this General Jack O'Neill who had taken one sip of the brew of the gods, - 'the gods, I say', - and promptly started choking.
No appreciation for good taste.
And his fingers are already itching to go back to trying those firewalls. All he managed to dig up since being introduced to this general was that he's working on some covert shit at Pentagon and Cheyenne Mountain. His records are clean only until his promotion to Colonel, - though there are some clear signs of black ops before too, - every promotion after however has a 'classified' sticker to it. Right up until he gets transferred to Pentagon as a general, but all his work continues to be blank.
And then he becomes a four-star general, which is curious because Hardison knows all the current four-stars, - it pays to keep away from them, - and a General Jack O'Neill isn't on the list.
It's enough to get a guy curious.
He has a feeling all the answers lie behind the firewalls of that mountain complex. Unfortunately, those firewalls are… well if they weren't standing in his way he'd call them beautiful. As is, he hasn't had such a challenge since he was just starting out.
And Eliot's holding his cell hostage.
Which is just rude, especially considering he already seems to know whatever it is they're supposed to sign the dotted line for to find out, - and the line is actually dotted, what century are these government folks even from?
And oh yeah, don't think Alec hasn't noticed how there are only two confidentiality agreements here.
It rather feels a bit like cheating to just sign for military secrets. But if his man Eliot is saying they have to, well he guesses he can make an exception this once.
Even if this whole thing is starting to piss him off a bit.
He follows Parker's lead and grabs the papers for a throughout read.
He's not stupid, he ain't signing anything he hasn't read first.
And he hopes they all know that he isn't giving up on that mountain either, the code he saw in those split few seconds he managed to slip through the outermost layers of protection was completely alien to him, he has to invite it for another dance.
—
Parker has a bad feeling about this. Eliot is acting like a cornered tiger, not pacing around the room only because it would reveal too much, but still coiled tighter than a compressed spring.
He's not acting like he would if their new 'client' had threatened them, more like he's feeling like he won't be able to guard them against whatever this is all about. Eliot needs to be able to know that he can protect them from any threat that shows its face, Parker knows that. It's the same way Parker needs to know that she'll always be able to create a way of escape for them. The same way Hardison needs to know that he knows every possible thing that might come back to bite them so that he can create a way to deal with it before it's even an issue.
She knows there are versions of those same needs in Sophie and Nate too.
And the fact Eliot is acting like that certainty is being pulled from under his feet is making Parker twitchy.
She's gotten to the last few pages of the papers, and though everything looks to be on the up and up, she's not sure if she actually wants to sign it if it's making Eliot be so off his game.
She starts going through the mental steps of breaking into a Class III bank vault, timed to the count of her heartbeats to calm herself down before she does something stupid, like stick a fork in the general.
Luckily by the time she's finished with the file she's regained her equilibrium. She closes the document and looks sideways to share a look with Hardison, there's a worried frown on his face too, but he shakes his head signaling that he didn't see anything wrong with the papers either.
She looks back at the silver-haired general.
"We need a minute to talk this over. You can wait here till we come back." Parker says barely covering up the snapping tone that wants to come out.
She and Alec stand up as one and walk into the back room. She doesn't need to look to know Eliot's following.
They close the door behind them and as soon as it clicks shut Hardison looses his feigned cool. Parker can't really blame him, she's not much more composed at the moment.
"What the hell is going on Eliot?"
"I can't tell you."
"That's bull man. We've been a team for how long now? Ten years? I'm pretty sure we're way past all the trust issues by this point." Hardison's starting to really look angry so Parker reaches for his shoulder to remind him not to say something they might all regret.
"No, I mean I can't tell you. This isn't about trust, I signed one of those NDAs years ago, I'm not allowed to reveal that information to anyone who doesn't already know." Now Eliot is wearing his stubborn face.
"If they're doing something hinky-"
"That's my point, they're not. They are doing good work, and they're keeping it secret for very good reasons."
"Then why do you look like you want to grab us and run away?" Parker asks, finally fully identifying the looks he's been sending them.
"Because I do," Eliot admits. "But you'd never forgive me if I did after you find out what this is about."
Parker nods to herself and then looks Eliot square in the eyes.
"Should we sign those papers?"
Eliot looks like he's in pain at her question, she sees him clenching his fists before letting go with a long exhale as if he's giving up something. "Yes."
She looks at Hardison and finds him already nodding to her, so she guesses that's that then.
"Give me Hardison's cell," Parker says reaching forward and motioning with her fingers for it. Eliot slowly extends it with a question on his face that she ignores for the moment.
She turns it on, quickly typing in Alec's password and then scrolls through the contacts for Amy.
She feels a bit bad, it's past 1 AM by this point, but this wouldn't be the first time they've had to call her this late.
She puts the phone to her ear and waits.
Amy's sleepy and annoyed "What?!" is the first thing Parker hears through the line, followed by some sheets rustling as Amy probably tries to extract herself from the bed without waking her partner.
"Hey, Amy. Sorry if I woke you up, can you take care of the brewpub for us for the next few days?-" Eliot shakes his head at that and mouths 'weeks', Parker grimaces but corrects herself "-or weeks. An unexpected job's come up."
"Uhh… sure." Amy mutters still sleepy but obviously more alert. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah." Parker answers and hopes she isn't lying. "The client just came out of nowhere."
"Anything we need to know?"
Parker hesitates for a moment, "No, not at the moment anyway."
"Alright, I'm done with my latest commissions anyway, I can take over for a bit."
"Thanks. Goodnight, Amy."
"G'night." Amy murmurs obviously halfway asleep again.
Amy's been a good friend to them for the past few years. Almost but not quite part of the team, definitely part of the family, like Maggie - and hooking up the artist and the art expert was still one of Parker's better ideas if she does say so herself.
They bring her in on a job now and then when they need an additional person for a grift, but they've mostly kept her clean(-ish). And they never bring her for anything that might be dangerous. So it's probably better not to drag her into this, especially if it's as bad as Eliot's attitude makes it seem.
That taken care of she turns back to the room they left the general in, her arm's going for the handle when Hardison's voice stops her.
"Parker?" he whispers softly.
She looks up at him and the fear she reads in his eyes stops her breath for a moment. She pulls him in for a kiss in a blink and then wraps her arms around him, her cheek pressed against his warm shoulder.
"For luck?" He laughs shakily. She holds him more tightly as his arms encircle her in return.
"I'm not losing you. And you're not losing me. And we're not losing Eliot."
"I can't promise-" Eliot disagrees quietly from behind them.
"You can!" She opens her eyes and turns her head to glare at him. "None of us is allowed to die. You included."
"Listen to Parker, man, she's the boss." Hardison backs her up and then grabs Eliot to pull him into the hug too. Parker can't help rolling her eyes at the noise of fake protest Eliot lets out, like they can't see the tiny smile he's trying to hide from them.
—
The only time Jack's ever seen anyone write with the petulant insult of these Robin Hoods signing their NDAs, has been when he's at home relaxing on his couch - a nice cold drinkable beer in hand - and watching Bart Simpson in front of his old friend, The Chalkboard.
It's in the way Alec Hardison seems to lean back from the document as he writes and then drops the pen as soon as he's done with the signature. And then of course Jack hears him mutter something that sounds an awful lot like 'troglodytes' too.
The thief Parker is more subtle, but not by much, she scrawls something that looks vaguely signature-like all the while glaring down in a way that makes Jack feel surprised the papers haven't caught fire yet.
He's so busy looking for potential smoke it takes him a moment to notice that his pen has vanished. How in the hell? He knows she's good but he hadn't actually looked away from her hands.
For one glorious moment he wishes he'd had a chance to set these people on Ba'al, what he wouldn't have done for a front row seat of that, popcorn included.
Oh well, a daydream will have to do.
He shakes off the traces of the road his mind had wandered off on and starts grinning. Now he gets to have some fun.
He loves this part.
"Welcome to SGC. Great to have you with us," Jack stands up not losing his grin and starts riffling through the pocket of his brown leather jacket for the satellite phone. "You will get a full debrief when we reach Cheyenne Mountain innnn…" he stretches out the 'n' as he brings the sat-phone up to his face and turns it on "…just a moment. Beam us up, Scotty!"
Normally they'd have just taken a plane to Colorado Springs, but they really are on a bit of a timetable, plus Jack finds it useful to find out how a person reacts to having their entire worldview shattered in one fell swoop.
There's a bright light that's so familiar as to be almost everyday by this point, the last thing he sees before Asgard beaming technology scoops them up is the hacker letting out a startled yelp, the former army spec-ops soldier spitting out one final curse word and the thief… actually the woman doesn't seem to be impressed at all.
If Jack had time to feel disappointed he would be. As is that'll have to wait until they get to their destination.
*o0O0o*
AN2: Oh Jack, you just couldn't help yourself.
Also I'm aware there's no way a four-star general would actually personally show up to recruit someone (especially if the people in question are uhm... well thieves and con artists), but I wanted it to be Jack, so lets just say that he really wanted to do it (maybe to look them in the eye, the guy's very intuitive he'd have probably been able to tell if they were the sort of people who'd use this for personal gain).
So, thoughts?