Title: A Man Short (Leverage/Psych crossover) 2/?
Rating: PG for now
Summary: The team is a man short for a job, luckily Eliot has someone he can call, even if he doesn't like it. His cousin, psychic detective Shawn Spencer
Spoilers: None yet.
Author's Note: Takes place after my previous fic "The One That Got Away" – not necessary to read that first but I think it's a pretty good little fic and you should give it a chance. Originally written for the comment_fic prompt: Leverage, teamfic, "You think we need one more? You think we need one more. Alright, we'll get one more." (Ocean's 11).
Back at Leverage Headquarters the team was busy getting ready for the con now that they had their extra man on the way. After running through some of the specifics for the plan with Hardison, Nate found Eliot in his office practically screaming into his phone.
"Why did you say you knew how to get here if you don't know your way around LA?"
Eliot spotted Nate in the doorway and gave him the 'one second' hand motion, "Shawn, that show wasn't even set in LA."
After shaking his head at whatever response he had gotten, Eliot caved, "Where are you? Okay, just stay there, I'll come meet you … Shawn, I don't care if you think Val Kilmer just drove by, stay put!"
Eliot shut his phone with a growl causing Nate to quirk his eyebrow, "Are you sure we can trust this guy?"
"I trust him," Eliot replied without hesitation. "He just frustrates me. Family'll do that, you know."
"Family?" Nate questioned, having left the room earlier before learning who their new member was.
"Yeah, he's my cousin. Runs a steady con down in Santa Barbara pretending to be psychic," Eliot explained as he grabbed his leather jacket.
"Are you sure it's wise to bring family into this?" Nate asked quietly, remembering how personally Eliot had taken the Horse Job.
"Hey, you said to get one more, I got you one more. He'll be fine … if I can find him. Be back soon," Eliot promised and disappeared out the door. Nate watched him go and tried not to shake his head.
An hour later the rest of the team was waiting in the conference room. Eliot had just called to say they were almost there and the others were eager to meet their new teammate, but no one was as excited as Parker.
"When are they going to be here?" she asked in a dramatic whine as she flopped her head down on the table.
"We've only been waiting like five minutes," Hardison told her.
"Hey, how many chances in my life am I going to get to meet a male version of myself?" Parker pointed out, then crinkled her forehead. "Do you think he'll be blond?"
"I don't think Eliot meant he would look like you," Sophie interjected. "I think he meant you both might have the same … energetic enthusiasm."
"Oh," Parker sulked, a little disappointed. Then she heard the office door opening and jumped up from the table towards the lobby. "They're here!"
Eliot came in first, talking to the man behind him, "Just leave your stuff here, we'll take it back to my place later."
"Cool," Shawn answered but stopped short when Parker skidded down the hallway and stopped just a few inches in front of him, examining him closely.
"Hellooo," Shawn greeted her cautiously.
Parker seemed deep in thought as she looked him up and down, carefully inspecting his appearance and reactions, "You're not blond."
"And you're not a dinosaur," Shawn answered. Parker thought that over for a moment, tilted her head decided she liked it and smiled brightly then ruffled Shawn's hair.
"True. Okay, we can keep him," she said cheerfully to Eliot then skipped back to the conference room.
When she was gone Shawn turned to his cousin, "Uh, dude?"
"That's Parker. You'll learn," was all Eliot would say as he led the way down the hall. They found the team sitting in the conference room but they all stood when the two entered. "Hey guys, this is Shawn, my cousin."
"Nice to meet you Shawn," Nate greeted him with a handshake. "Thanks for coming in for us. I'm Nate. That's Sophie, Parker most likely sniffed you in the hallway and I'm told you already know Hardison."
Shawn nodded at the hacker in recognition and then held up his hand in a V, "Hey, live long and prosper dude."
"Seriously? I don't … what do you tell people about me?" Hardison demanded of Eliot upon receiving the extremely stereotypical geek greeting.
"Nothing that ain't true," Eliot shrugged, sitting at the table.
"Can I see your elf costume later?" Shawn asked in an excited whisper as he sat on Hardison's other side.
Hardison didn't respond, just slowly glared at Eliot, "That's low. You wanna see geeky? Good luck next time you try to open your email because no SPAM blocker on the planet is gonna save you."
Eliot took such a casual swig of his water bottle after his threat that Hardison became worried that Eliot never checked his email anyway.
"All right, well, since Shawn seems to be fitting in so nicely why don't you run it for him Hardison, let him know what he's getting into," Nate suggested, gesturing towards the display screen.
Still annoyed Hardison hit a few keys to start the slideshow that was now strictly for Shawn's benefit since they all knew what was going on.
"Oh pictures! This is good, I'm a visual sort of learner."
"All right, this is Rene Fenez," Nate began when a picture of a well-dressed man in his fifties appeared on-screen. He was well built for his age and had eyes that spoke of alertness and intelligence. "All around sleazebag and head of a major drug-running con ring. He is a client of my former employer's IYS Insurance which is how I got the intel on him. Now he 'technically' makes all his money through laundered investments and fake business fronts but the actual cash comes from these people."
A click of a button and the screen changed to show six new people, some shady looking, others seemingly professional.
"Fenez bankrolls all these guys in a pyramid scheme of con artists who sell 'miracle cure' drugs to desperate, terminally ill patients. They have a couple different sales pitches, they'll say it's a new drug from Sweden, not approved for the States yet or it's something they're getting in a trial run not available to the public. Whatever they have to, to hook these people and their families on the idea that it's a cure so rare that they're going to have to cough up some serious cash to get it, when they're actually just selling steroids and pep pills. They'll make you feel better for a couple of days, maybe a week and then you're worse off than when you started and out of money."
"And people usually can't go to the cops afterwards because they bought the drugs illegally anyway," Eliot remarked, pre-empting Shawn's question about telling the police.
"Our clients, the Anthony family," Hardison introduced the new people on the screen. "William Anthony, twelve year old son of Patricia and Thomas Anthony, has Sickle Cell Anemia. It's usually fatal after a couple of years and there's no surefire cure, but they mortgaged their car and home to pay for one that they thought they were getting from Fenez's drug pushers. Kid seemed like he was getting better, now he's worse, needs a bone marrow transplant that they can't afford."
Shawn was starting to look mildly devastated by all this, the fun outing he had planned not seeming that way at all, but Sophie sensed this and reassured him.
"We're currently paying for William's treatment, along with a few other of Fenez's victims, don't worry. William's on a waiting list but they're hopeful," Sophie assured him. "Right now we're concentrating on putting Fenez away."
"You guys can just afford to pay for a bunch of people's medical bills?" Shawn asked. Sure, their office was very nice but terminal diseases were insanely expensive to treat.
Eliot cleared his throat, realizing that everyone was waiting for him to tell Shawn, "We're uh, we got money, don't worry."
"How much money?"
"A lot!" Parker announced happily, hugging herself. "So much pretty money. I keep some in the bath tub."
"We each contributed a couple million to a team fund to use whenever we need to help out any of our clients and to bankroll our con jobs," Hardison explained in more detail.
Shawn's eyes widened as he looked from Hardison to Eliot, "Million? Millions? With an 's'? You're a millionaire? Dude, can I borrow twenty bucks? Or twenty-thousand bucks?"
"You done?" Eliot asked, indicating the slide show wasn't over.
"No. I just found out I have a cousin who is a millionaire, yet he dresses like he just went for an audition for Wolverine and didn't get the part because his hair's too long," Shawn ranted.
"And because Hugh Jackman's the man," Hardison mumbled.
"Agreed," Shawn shot back.
"Boys, eyes on the screen," Nate demanded, sharing a brief look with Sophie that said 'what are we getting ourselves into?'.
"All right, so, even if we went to the cops we don't have any evidence to link Rene Fenez to his generals selling the drugs on the street, that's what we need to get," Nate continued, bringing up a picture of Fenez's home. "Fenez is having a party in two days at his very well guarded home. The evidence we need will either be on Fenez's computer or they'll be hard copies in his safe."
"So you need me to rob his office?" Shawn questioned.
"No, that's Parker's job," Nate replied with a dismissive wave. The blond grinned at Shawn impishly and stuck her tongue out at him like she had beat him at something. He glared back playfully but then paid attention. "What you'll be doing is helping Sophie. We need her close to Fenez to get access to his keycards and passwords but he's paranoid and needs an in so you will be posing as a millionaire playboy and Sophie is your investment advisor. She doesn't work for you exclusively but she's supposedly made you a lot of money which you will make sure Fenez knows. First we're going to set you up to run into the man tomorrow, talk to him for awhile and establish enough of a relationship that it won't seem off when you show up at his party the next night with Sophie."
"So, let me get this straight, I'm not robbing anyone? Or stealing anything? I'm just talking to a guy?" Shawn questioned. Nate nodded and Shawn crossed his arm petulantly. "This sucks. You guys are internationally wanted thieves, I wanted to do something cool."
"It's still illegal," Eliot assured him but Shawn just shrugged.
"It's not the same."
"Shawn, this is serious and dangerous. Do you think you can get this guy to talk to you?" Nate asked.
Shawn looked up, the picture of the kid, William, was back on the screen.
"Yeah, I can do it."
"All right, Hardison get his identity set up. You didn't happen to bring a suit did you?"
"No, I must have left it on my other motorcycle," Shawn quipped, but then Sophie perked up.
"No problem, I can take him shopping," Sophie assured them. It didn't escape Shawn's notice when everyone else cringed and took a step back at the suggestion. "I know the perfect place, give me ten minutes. I need a new pair of shoes for tomorrow anyway."
As she disappeared down the hall the rest of the group collectively sighed, then looked slightly amused.
"What?" Shawn asked.
"You're going shopping with Sophie," Eliot remarked simply with an amused grin.
"Hope you're stronger than you look," Parker added. "You're going to be carrying a lot of bags."
"My upper body strength is considerable, thank you. And I only need one suit," Shawn pointed out hopefully.
"Yes, but Sophie doesn't need just one pair of shoes," Nate commented, then slapped him on the back before he left the room. "Welcome to the team."
Shawn looked slightly worried but Hardison pulled him out of it, "Come on, I need to take your picture for your new ID."
"Thought you were just gonna haul one off the DMV site from his license or something," Eliot remarked.
Looking mildly frustrated, Hardison tapped some keys on his laptop, "Yeah, that didn't really pan out."
The conference room screen changed to show the DMV website. Parker laughed as Shawn's picture popped up showing the fake psychic grinning widely with fake vampire teeth in his mouth.
"What are you twelve?" Eliot asked, shaking his head.
"I was going through a phase. I had just seen Twilight. What can I say, Robert Pattinson is just super dreamy," Shawn deadpanned. Hardison stared at him uncertainly while Parker cringed.
"I may have misjudged you," she mumbled unhappily and also left the room.
Shawn looked to Eliot again, finding himself completely unable to read most of these people he had just introduced him to.
"She doesn't do well with sarcasm," Eliot explained.
"Come on, I don't get a picture I'm gonna have to put 'Vlad' down on your ID," Hardison reminded him, ushering him to his office where the camera was.
"Oh, can I pick my fake name? It's kind of my specialty! How about Abe Frohman?" Shawn suggested excitedly.
"You mean the Sausage King of Chicago?" Hardison replied with a grin. "Ferris Bueller, really?"
"Fine. Tom Kazansky," Shawn tried, his voice tight.
"No, that's Val Kilmer in Top Gun," Hardison parried, enjoying the game.
Shawn grit his teeth, accepting the unspoken pop culture competition gauntlet that had been laid down.
"John Bender."
"Breakfast club," Hardison replied.
"Johnny Utah."
"Keanu Reeves, Point Break."
"Axel Foley."
"Beverly Hills Cop. And you're not black."
"Peter Venkman."
"Ghostbusters."
Shawn squared his shoulders, ready to pull out the big guns, "Randall Peltzer."
Hardison stood up, un-intimidated, "The kid in Gremlins."
Shawn's eyes widened, "Daniel Larusso."
"The Karate Kid."
"Ren McCormack."
"Kevin Bacon, Footloose."
Shawn actually felt himself hesitate and he grasped at anything, "John Connor?"
"Don't insult me."
"Stop it!" Eliot demanded, causing them both to jump. "I've got geek OD going on over here. Shawn, you're Daniel Connor, live with it. Hardison, just take the picture. Now I gotta go hurt somebody, unless either of you want to volunteer."
"No, please go," Shawn replied, lips closed tight as he backed away.
Eliot stormed out and Shawn looked to the equally scared Hardison, "It's always nice when I get a chance to visit."
"Well, at least now I know he doesn't treat me any differently than his own family. It's kind of touching in a terrifying way," Hardison replied, smiling easily as they now recognized each other as kindred spirits in the way of pop culture, although Shawn seemed more fixated on the 80's than the current stuff. "All right, we better take this picture or Eliot will pound us when he gets back. And Sophie will be ready soon."
Shawn cringed, remembering how everyone had reacted to the idea of shopping with Sophie, "Hey man, any chance you could come along with me for that?"
Hardison laughed and shook his head, "Nah man, sorry, I don't like you that much yet. Good luck though."
Shawn sighed, "Thanks."
TBC
More with Shawn and the team next time. Hope you enjoyed!