This chapter takes place between seasons three and four.
The Librarians, their Guardian, and Jenkins are researching a new mission, simple and easy compared to Apep and DOSA. Eliot has the button cam on, like always, but he knows Hardison isn't watching the footage. Leverage International has their own job to do in New York, so they're only connected to Eliot through comms.
Soft thumps from Parker climbing through the vents, the swish of her bangs against her ear; the rapid tap-tap-tap of Hardison's fingers on his keyboard; the bang of Lucille the Sixth's doors swinging open; the screech of the vent floor collapsing beneath the weight of the thief; the startled yelps from both of Eliot's partners; their voices calling his name before they suddenly fall silent, replaced by the sound of tasers: the comms pick up it all.
They hadn't contacted Quinn, or Miranda, or Shelley, or any of the other hitters they know. They didn't think they needed to. It was supposed to be an easy job, in and out, something they could do in their sleep. Now something has gone wrong, and Eliot is on the other side of the country, and he needs to be there, he needs to be there, "I need to be there," he growls. In the seconds that have passed since he heard everything over the comms, he's traveled across the Annex to start dialling up the Back Door. He can sense everyone else's astonished gazes on his back, but he ignores them. They aren't important right now.
"Stone?" Cassie asks cautiously, and he grunts in response, but continues to focus on the Door. Cassie and Ezekiel will understand, they have to. He's told them about his partners before.
"Parker," he tells them, ignoring that he probably sounds as helpless as he feels. "Hardison. I need to be there, I need to be with them, they need my help and they need it now. I'm going."
"You heard them on comms?" Ezekiel asks, and Eliot turns enough to nod in response that he sees the thief straighten. He's moving into serious-mode, and Eliot knows it's because he understands the amount of trouble they could be in. He's been where they are, and he also knows Eliot Spencer's reputation.
The Back Door glows, and Eliot wrenches it open.
"Where are we going?" Ezekiel asks, and it causes the hitter to pause for the first time since hearing tasers.
"You're coming?"
"Of course we are," Cassie smiles softly.
Eliot pauses, looking between them. It could be dangerous, but… but he needs all the help he can get on such short notice. "New York City, Wall Street."
The three of them move towards the Door, only for Flynn to step between it and them. "Wait, where are you going?" the elder Librarian asks, incredulous. "We have a missi-"
"I'm leaving," Eliot growls, baring his teeth, posturing, threatening; he's not Jacob Stone right now. They may be his family, but Parker and Hardison are his partners, his lovers, his darlings. If saving them means cutting ties with the Library, then that's what he'll do.
Baird knows it, her hardened expression tells him that. "We're coming with you," she says.
"We're what?" Flynn cries. "Eve, the mission -"
"This is important to Stone," their Guardian says evenly, keeping eye contact with Eliot. "We're family; we help each other."
"Wonderfully said, Colonel," Jenkins agrees, stepping forward. "Onward unto the breach, Stone. We'll follow your lead."
Baird joins the Caretaker, and Flynn grumbles but does the same.
Eliot nods, turns, and steps through the Door.
They emerge onto Wall Street. Eliot can see the building Parker broke into from here, but across the street from them is Lucille the Sixth, usually parked by their NYC headquarters. Her doors are shut and nothing appears wrong to a normal person. Eliot isn't a normal person, though, so he knows the two men sharing a smoke under the awning behind her are guarding Hardison's precious van. They won't be for much longer, if he has anything to say about it.
Eliot crosses the street, strolls right up to the men, and pulls them into the shadows of an alley. They barely have time to react before they hit the ground, out cold. The hitter snags car keys from the lead man's pocket, turns back around, and unlocks Lucille the Sixth. "Let's go!" he called to the rest of the Library, still standing on the sidewalk gaping at him. "Lucille will be our base for this job, but the mark knows her which means we have to move quickly. Everyone in, now."
They obey, and Eliot tears off towards the mark's building while speaking rapid fire, "Our goal is plain and simple, rescue. Hardison and Parker," he opens the glove box, pulls out the photo he knows his hacker keeps there, and passes it to Cassie, "were here on a separate job that we won't worry about; we'll pass it on to someone else once they're safe. There's no more police around here than usual, so the mark, Jules Anthony, hasn't called the police. That means he'll be holding them somewhere secure in his own building. It's probably the guards' centre, and we'll hopefully have confirmation soon. For now, Cassie, pull up Hardison's notes on the building and Anthony, Jones, you're on Parker's plan. Search for anything significant. Any questions?"
There's silence for a moment, and Eliot takes that chance to observe the high number of guards in the building's lobby. Then the van explodes with noise.
"The guard centre is on the tenth floor, in the exact middle of the building -"
"Who are Parker and Hardison, and how do you know them -"
"Parker went in from the top to get to the main office, but we can go in from the bottom -"
"Why were your friends breaking and entering, and what do you mean by mark -"
"Where did you learn how to fight like -"
"EVERYBODY QUIET," Cassie bellows, quite a large sound coming from such a small woman. Eliot would be surprised, but he's used to it thanks to Parker. "Jones, go. How do we get to the tenth floor?"
"Parker went in from the top, so that's where the guards are watching. We need to get in from the bottom. Give me a minute to snatch a key card. Then the only problem is getting into the station itself."
"Leave that to me and Baird," Eliot says. "Go steal two cards, ok? I'll pull Lucille back around in a minute."
Ezekiel nods and, when the hitter pulls to a stop, darts out the back door.
Baird isn't as compliant. "Stone, what exactly are we doing? You -"
"Eliot?" Parker whispers, and the hitter jolts, putting a finger to his ear as though he can reach through the comm and pull her into the safety of Lucille.
"I'm here, Parker. We're all here. We have Lucille and we're circling the building now. Is Hardison with you? Where are you?"
She laughs softly. "We're both in the guards centre. Hardison's fine; he slipped right from unconsciousness to sleep. He's drooling, El. The job's a bust and we've been captured, and he's drooling."
"Dammit, Hardison," Eliot laughs. "Are you alone? Can you wake him up?"
"There's four guards outside the door, but none in here. I could reach Hardison if I busted out of my bonds, but they've been keeping an eye on me. I don't want to alert them before you get here."
Eliot comes to a stop at the front of the building long enough for Ezekiel to climb in, and then they're moving again. "I'm coming for you, Parker," he swears, and then turns back to the others. "Right, Parker's confirmed they're in the guard centre, so here's the plan. Flynn and Ezekiel, you cause a distraction for the lobby guards so they don't realise Baird and I don't match our badge pictures. Baird, you and I walk in like we belong and take the elevator to the tenth floor. Knock out the four guards. Pick up Parker and Hardison. Get to - Cassie, is there a service entrance, some kind of back door?"
A moment, then - "Yes! For smoking, it looks like. Opens into the alley in back."
"Great. We'll get there. You and Jenkins meet us with Lucille, and then we swing around to pick up Flynn and Ezekiel. Simple rescue. To make it even easier, everyone take a comm from that box on the desk. We'll be able to communicate."
"Comms…" Baird says slowly as she picks one up and looks it over, then looks to Eliot. "That's how you knew they were in trouble. Ezekiel said, but it slipped my mind in light of everything else. You're in constant communication with this 'Parker' and 'Hardison', even while on Library business?"
Eliot nods, and Flynn and Jenkins' faces both contort in disbelief. The hitter isn't surprised - the Library has survived this long because of all the secrecy, after all, and this is a major breach - but he also doesn't care. It's go time, and he tells them such by climbing out of the van and beginning to walk back to Anthony's building.
Everything, remarkably, goes to plan. The way Hardison's eyes lit up when he woke to see Eliot standing over him is a bonus, as are the words he says when the hitter rebukes him for falling asleep while captured: "I didn't need to worry; I knew you would rescue us." After that, it's a simple matter of changing Lucille the Sixth's plates and parking her in her usual spot. Then, they all go through the Back Door back to the Annex - including Parker and Hardison. That's when the hard part starts.
They all sit around the room. Eliot wraps an arm around both his partners, each on either side of him in their own chairs, supportive though obviously curious about the place they've only seen on camera before. Ezekiel and Cassie take the stairs, Jenkins elects to stand, and Baird and Flynn sit together on the opposite side of the table.
"Start from the beginning," the Caretaker advises. "That's always the best place."
His fellow young Librarians nod in support, and Eliot takes a deep breath before beginning. It's easier, somehow, to start now than it was a year ago. "My name isn't Jacob Stone. It's Eliot Spencer. Besides being a Librarian, I'm a hitter and a conman. Parker and Hardison are my partners, both in business and in life. We help people when the law isn't enough, which is why I stuck around the Library instead of leaving. Over the years, you all have become another family for me. For that reason, if you ask me to leave I will do so."
They don't ask him to leave. Flynn is in shock he didn't see it before, Baird claps him on the shoulder before knocking their forearms together, and Jenkins tells him the Library never makes a mistake - not even with con artists. It may take them longer to truly get used to it or trust him again, but they've been through so many things together, saved each other's lives countless times… it's a good place to start, and for the first time in three years, Eliot feels free.
Eliot had seen the looks both Baird and Cassie gave Parker when they saw her picture for the first time, and he saw them again, heightened, when they met in person. Surprise, wonder, fear: every possible emotion, it seemed, had been there. Both ignored whatever the problem was during the rescue mission, for which Eliot was thankful. After his confession, though, Baird pulls his thief aside with a hard look, and Cassie practically sprints across the room to join them. Eliot starts towards them, hackles rising, but Parker intercepts him with a single look. I got this, it says. I promise I won't get stabbed… or stab anyone. No stabbing. The hitter trusts his thief, and so he steps into a separate corner where he can observe from a distance.
Flynn left the room, likely to settle himself - he may have accepted and forgiven Eliot, but the hitter knows a bruised ego and emotional hurt when he sees it - and Ezekiel and Hardison are geeking out together in another corner. Jenkins, on the other hand, steps up beside Eliot. He doesn't block his view, and it's not the first time that Eliot is glad the Caretaker is a fellow soldier.
"I imagine," Jenkins begins, "that the Colonel and Cassandra are both off put by your lover's remarkable resemblance to the Lady of the Lake. Indeed, if I knew the Lady never left her Lake, even I would think they were the same person."
Eliot starts and takes an eye of Parker to glance at the Caretaker. He's relaxed against the wall, calmly observing the interrogation across the way, same as the hitter. "Lady of the Lake?"
"Yes. There are several, and I knew them all, once upon a time. They assisted Merlin when he asked. As Galahad, I often accompanied him to the Lake, and bore witness to more than one of their conversations. The last I saw of them, they retreated into their Lake, where they stayed to safeguard Excalibur for centuries. Their leader could be your Parker's twin, and considering both the Colonel and Cassandra have met her, well… I imagine it was quite a shock."
As Jenkins says all of this, Parker shakes her head multiple times, speaking vehemently. Whatever she says - Eliot imagines it's something along the lines of absolutely not being the Lady, there's rarely anything good to steal at the bottom of a Lake - it convinces her interrogators, who both subside. Baird steps out of his thief's way, and she practically skips her way over to Hardison, smiling satisfactorily at the awestruck expression Ezekiel gains. Eliot gives a nod of thanks to Jenkins, and goes to join them.
The first time Eliot reveals that, unlike Stone, he can cook, Flynn and Baird practically burst into tears of joy.