(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 6

The team were in position and the con was on at the Hyperion Hotel. It had taken a little time for Hardison to rustle up identities for himself and Sophie. Meanwhile, Marissa had been shockingly convincing when calling her fiancé to get his room number out of him. Nate wasn't sure whether to be proud or worried that his niece could lie so well, playing the part of besotted wife-to-be, wanting to know everything about her man's latest exciting business trip. She made excuses for wanting to know so much, from prompts Sophie helped her with, citing the hotel as a place they might stay sometime, asking what floor he was on and she hoped he wasn't over-doing it running up so many stairs. Her caring attitude got him to 'sing like a canary' as she had said when she got off the phone. Uncle Nate had gently pointed out that they were thieves, not old-style cops, so she didn't need to talk that way.

Eliot and Parker had snuck in the hotel around back, dressed as staff, and gone straight up to room 106 in which Bryan was staying. The man himself was safely in the main hall, attending the next conference, with Sophie and Hardison watching him from a distance. He seemed to be attached to the buffet table and his cell phone right now, which worked for the grift since his attention ought to be easily diverted.

"Okay, Nate," said Sophie into the comms. "We're going in," she told him as she and Hardison began walking in the general direction of the buffet table, trying to look natural as they did so.

"It's quite simple, Mr Reynolds," she said to the hacker, both of them now in character. "Television is the way forward in advertising, the British are now watching almost as much as the Americans. A two minute ad in the right place, the whole country will be crying out for your product," she enthused, slightly more loudly than was necessary as they approached Bryan Winters.

"And you can provide this for me, Miss Windsor?" said 'Mr Reynolds' played with aplomb by Alec Hardison.

"Please, call me Carolyn," replied Sophie, batting her eyes, "and but of course! My corporation have been in business for almost as long as there has been television advertising," she explained, making sure Bryan heard every word loud and clear. "You can rely on us to make you the most well-known dog food manufacturer in the world, and for a fraction of the price some of those other companies will quote you."

They had Winters attention now, Sophie was certain of it. She could practically feel his eyes burning into her back and yet did not flinch at all as she shifted around to put her glass of wine on the table, the moment Hardison asked exactly what price he might be quoted. She reached for a napkin and turned to Bryan himself then, asking if he had a pen she might borrow. Immediately he was handing over his own writing implement, which 'Miss Windsor' graciously thanked him for.

"I think you'll find this quite acceptable, Mr Reynolds," she smiled at Hardison as she jotted down a figure in large enough print and at such an angle that there was no way Bryan hadn't seen it clear as day.

"Okay," said Nate in both their ears. "Good work, guys. Now hopefully just as soon as Hardison walks away we'll have Bryan hooked."

"I can't believe this," gasped Marissa from her place sat at the desk, watching her uncle pace the floor as he co-ordinated his latest job.

He quickly shushed her as Hardison could be heard making his exit from the scene and Bryan was immediately asking Sophie how she could possibly cut such a cheap deal as he just saw her do.

"Sophie, don't tell him it's a scam," Nate reminded her. "Just give him a hint, let him put it together for himself."

"You guys make this all seem so easy," said Marissa seriously. "I couldn't just lie like that."

"It's not lying, not exactly," Nate told her, mindful of Sophie taking his niece's words the wrong way when it came to her career as professional grifter and thief. "And Missy, don't forget while you can hear the entire team, they can also hear you," he advised, gesturing to his own ear as a reminder of the workings of her own comms device that Hardison had furnished her with before leaving.

She nodded silently then, almost forgetting that part of the equation. She was astounded by the technology, by the way Sophie and Hardison could act so well, becoming entirely different people in an instant, and how everyone was able to concentrate with a bunch of voices constantly in their head. It made her feel as if her own basic administrator's job was severely lacking in excitement and skill as well, but then if everybody was capable of the things this team could do, they wouldn't be half so special. Of course, this con might be a lot more fun to be a part of if her own fiancé wasn't the mark, but then that was why she was really here and a necessary evil.

"Er, Eliot? Parker? How're you guys doing at the room?" asked Nate, his eyes going to Marissa and away again just as soon as he said the hitter's name.

Marissa rolled her eyes, unable to believe her uncle's inability to let things go. Of course, at some point she would like to explain to Eliot that she wasn't the slut he probably thought she was right now, given she was engaged, throwing herself on him, and flirting with her locksmith til he taught her tricks. To think she once had a good reputation when it came to guys!

"Parker just tripped the lock," said Eliot through the earbuds then. "You guys know this is the honeymoon suite, right?" he checked, at which Marissa's jaw visibly dropped.

"That's not really the point right now," said Nate, shaking his head at his niece when she opened her mouth to speak, knowing she was about to lose it big style and also knowing it was a bad idea over the comms. "See what you can find in there. Let us know if anything suspicious comes up."

"Always do," confirmed Parker as they started their search.

"You okay, Missy?" asked her uncle as he walked over and put a hand to her shoulder.

"Sure, yeah," she forced a smile, looking much less chipper than she was trying to be. "Why wouldn't I be? Nothing's been proved yet, right?" she shrugged.

Nate opened his mouth to confirm that was true, only to hear a conversation in his head that said otherwise.

Sophie was still on the grift and had just insinuated her business was less than legitimate, causing Bryan to chuckle in her ear.

"You might just be my kind of woman, Miss Windsor," he told her, at which Marissa started. "To do business with, that is," her fiancé deftly amended without any particular encouragement.

Nate smiled as his niece visibly relaxed, especially when the conversation went on in a positive way in their ears then.

"Only business?" Sophie checked in such a tone as to melt any man, and yet Bryan seemed unmoved.

"Yes, indeed," he replied. "I used to operate on a similar system to yourself," he told her, pausing a moment, sipping his wine though the others could not see it of course. "These days I'm a little more on the straight and narrow."

"Really?" checked Sophie. "And why would that be? Don't tell me you got bored of getting rich?"

"What can I say," he sighed. "The love of a good woman changes a man, brings a different kind of wealth."

Marissa was grinning, actively giggling even at the sound of those words, a sound rarely heard over the Leverage team comms, but none the less pleasant.

"Aaw, isn't he the sweetest!" she cooed, apparently having forgotten this whole con was for her, to find out if her fiancé was the lying cheating scum she suspected he might be.

Eliot resisted the urge of say Bryan's words were such a bad line, though Parker made a snorting noise that proved she wasn't buying it. Unfortunately, the rest of the team realised that Marissa would have heard that sound and probably not appreciated it.

"What's up with you?" Eliot snapped, mindful of having a woman he liked upset by his thief-friend's craziness.

"Nothing," Parker shrugged, as she continued to rifle through the paperwork she had found in the nightstand. "Just if she's so in love with this sweet guy, why's she making goo-goo eyes at you?"

"That's enough, Parker," Nate snapped. "Can we concentrate on the job, please?"

"Oh my God!" Marissa gasped. "Does everybody know that me and Eliot made out?" she asked in shock, putting her face in her hands despite the fact nobody but her uncle could see her.

"Er, they do now," said Hardison as carefully as he could. "Earbuds, Marissa. Remember?"

"Damn!" she was heard to curse through everybody's head, though not all of them were listening.

Eliot didn't understand or appreciate the way Parker was looking at him right now. When he thought on it, it shouldn't matter much that Marissa just told the whole team what happened between them, since all but the little thief already knew, and yet the look in her eyes when she glared at him suggested it mattered a whole lot more than it should to Parker. Brushing that thought aside, Eliot turned away and spoke to Nate.

"Okay, well, there's nothing here," he told him, "and given what Bryan's been sayin' to Sophie…"

"Yeah, time to call it a day," the mastermind agreed, not least because of how mortified his niece was looking right now as he glanced at her. "Guys, all head back to base and…"

"Hang on a second," Parker interrupted, getting Eliot's attention more than anyone else's as he swung around to see what she had found. "Who's Annette Fuller?" she asked.

Nate looked to Marissa for her input but she just shook her head.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Why?" she pointed her question down the earbud mostly at Parker since it was the thief that had brought up the name that was completely foreign to her.

Still, it was Eliot who answered as he peered over Parker's shoulder at the item she now held in her hands.

"Because sweet Bryan has a bag with a luggage tag on that says that name," he explained with a sigh.

It certainly seemed as if the guy's secret was less dodgy business dealings and more an affair, just as Sophie and the others had suspected in the first place.

"Maybe he picked up the wrong bag at the airport?" said Hardison with a shrug, though even he didn't really believe such a thing.

Far as he could tell, Nate's niece was good people, maybe even better than the mastermind himself could claim. She didn't deserve to be treated so badly by this scummy fiancé of hers. Of course, if he was doing anything wrong, the team were going to find out about it and deal. It was what they did.

"There's one way to find out," whispered Sophie, turning herself away from Bryan and setting off her own cell so it appeared to ring in her hand.

The team listened as she faked a phone call to some nameless person who would be on Miss Windsor's staff. She named-dropped Annette Fuller, and Hardison kept an eye on their Mr Winters as he hovered at Sophie's back. He visibly reacted to the name, as they ought to have known he would, and the hacker told the rest of the team the situation.

"Oh God," Marissa whispered, as Nate moved to put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close.

He hated to see her suffer like this and was starting to genuinely regret agreeing to investigate her fiancé in the first place. This wasn't the best way for her to find out her possible future-husband was a cheat, either in business or in his relationship with her. Unfortunately, it was a little too late to turn back now and he watched her eyes grow wider as Sophie and Bryan spoke to each other, every word coming loud and clear through the earbuds.

"I'm sorry, did I just hear you say Annette Fuller? You work for her?"

"Not for her so much as with her. Do you know her?"

"I think we might be in the same line of work after all."

That was all it took for Marissa as she reached to pull the comms from her ear. She couldn't listen to any more. It was bad enough knowing her man might be guilty of fraud or adultery, listening to him schmoozing with Sophie was too much, especially with so many panicked ideas running through her mind.

Nate was mindful of what he was saying to her with the whole team listening, but reluctant to take out his own earbud when the con was still in play. The job was important, but since it was all being done for Marissa, her needing her uncle right now was more vital.

"Okay, guys," he told the team. "We're done for now. We'll meet back here in the morning to go over what we know."

There was a vague argument between Parker and Eliot over why they couldn't go back to Nate's now, his understanding it was late and the need for Nate and Marissa to talk things over privately, whilst she didn't get it at all. Sophie found an excuse to end her conversation with Bryan and get away, and Hardison offered to drive her home, just before Nate disconnected comms with the rest of the team. He turned around to find Marissa had headed into the kitchen and was just now done searching all his cupboards, a bottle of scotch in her hand.

"You're going to drink that?" asked her uncle as he approached her and sat down on a stool by the counter.

"Why not?" his niece shrugged before turning to face him, planting two shot glasses down between them. "This is what you do," she reminded him, with a nasty edge to her voice. "Things get tough, lose yourself in a bottle," she went on as she poured two healthy measures and pushed one across the counter top, which Nate just caught before it went too far and flew onto the floor.

"That's not… untrue," he changed what he was going to say in reply when he realised telling her she was being unfair would be incorrect and wrong.

There was a silent salute between uncle and niece before they both downed a shot each, him with ease, and her with a gasping cough as the fiery alcohol took her breath away. She wasn't much of a drinker, a few glasses of wine at a celebration or after a rough day at work maybe, but that was all. Still, she meant what she said. This was how Uncle Nate always coped with his problems, and she was here in his home. There was no reason she could see why this was a bad way to clear her head and heart of the pain it was suffering.

"You're not going to tell me to stop?" she checked once she had got her breath back, pouring another healthy measure of scotch into her glass and gesturing with the bottle for Nate to put his own glass in reach for a refill.

"You're a grown woman now, Missy," he told her, allowing her to fill his glass too. "If you want to get drunk, go ahead," he advised as she nodded as if to agree that's exactly what she wanted and swallowed another shot, "but you should remember that when the booze wears off, y'know, all of your problems, they'll still be there. Bryan will still be the same man, having made the same mistakes…"

"Mistakes?" she echoed crossly. "How do you mistakenly screw people over in business?" she asked pointedly. "How do you mistakenly have an affair?" she added more sadly, refilling her glass a third time now.

"We don't have any proof of anything yet," Nate shook his head, putting his hand over his own glass so it could not be filled this time. "You know when you were younger, remember when Maggie and me would have you to stay?" he smiled at the memory. "You were always so curious, always wanting to know how everything worked, why things were how they were."

"In other words, I was a nosey brat" she huffed, already feeling the effects of the booze apparently as she sloppily rounded the counter and sat down with a thud on the stool beside her uncle.

"No, no, I wouldn't say nosey, you were… inquisitive," he smiled fondly at her, easing the bottle out of her hand when she wasn't paying too much attention. "You were such a little truth-seeker, and I loved that because I knew you were never going to take crap from anybody."

"And I don't," said Marissa definitely, slurring just a little already. "I'm not. Bryan can go and… he can just go," she ended lamely, picking up her glass to drink and realising it was empty now.

"Well, if that's your decision, that's fine," Nate told her, getting her to look at him. "But Missy, don't do what I did. Don't turn into some bitter alcoholic that nobody wants to deal with, because in the end, only you suffer in that," he advised. "If Bryan has done these things, then let's prove it. Let's get you some revenge before he even knows what hit him."

Marissa couldn't deny the idea appealed. She wanted the team to prove her fiancé's innocence if she were honest, so she could go back to her simple happy little life. Now the going was getting tough and she wanted to just blot it all out with booze, turning into the person she hated her uncle just a little bit for becoming after Sam's death, however selfish that might be.

"I missed you, Uncle Nate," she told him with a watery smile.

The mixture of not being used to the scotch and a few too many emotions caused tears in her eyes as she leant forward to hug him.

"I missed you too, Missy," he assured her, holding her tight. "I'm so sorry we lost touch. I'm sorry I let it happen."

The mastermind meant every word of what he said, though perhaps it had taken Marissa walking back into his life to make him realise just how much he did miss his old life. Sam was taken away, Maggie he drove away, but the rest of his family and friends, he had simply walked away from.

Perhaps the others didn't matter so much, but he and Marissa, his sweet little Missy, they always had such a good relationship. Now she was here and he really was pleased to see her, in spite of the less than pleasant circumstances in which she had arrived. If he could help her now, then he was damn well going to. Nobody was going to treat his niece this way and get away with it, not a chance.

To Be Continued...