*Disclaimer, I do not own Leverage all of that belongs to TNT, I however own Blair and her little story line

Season 1, Episode 3, The two-horse Job ~ Pt. 3

Though the team was successful in fooling Foss, the sudden appearance of the Sterling's was not as helpful. It seemed that James Sterling managed to get his hands on the camera from the two Chinese tourists that Hardison had nicked from the airport and all but confronted Nate at his 'office' at the stables. However there wasn't much of an argument but that didn't mean there wasn't any threatening. Which was now how the team were back in the paddock. Blair was praying that this con would be over so she wouldn't have to wear a dress or heels ever again, as she leaned on Parker as her feet hurt, as some form of comfort to the teen Parker was playing with her hair.

"There is no way to take the numbers on that chip" Hardison informed them,

"You faked it before" Nate said, but Hardison shook his head.

"no, no, no." Hardison told Nate with a shake of his finger causing Blair to smirk a little as she watched the scene play out, "I fakes the information on the database. Okay, now, when Foss scans that chip, if its not the same number that showed up before—"

"Oh, we're screwed!" Parker finally decided to stop the ramble of tech they all knew was about to come out of Hardison's mouth, however she didn't look up from the intricate hair style she was making in Blair's hair.

"Basically." Hardison nodded towards the two girls, Blair noticing his stressed expression softening a little as he looked at the two girls before he turned back to her dad, "Now, either we cut the chip out of the horse and insert it into another one –"

"Or we deliver Kentucky Thunder" Sophie interrupted. Talking for the first time since they had all entered the office room in the stables.

"No, we're not a library. We cant just take in horses in and out as we like" Nate sighed, resting his neck on his hands as he lent on the office table. Blair couldn't help but think he looked rather comfortable behind the desk, but before she could say anything the door was opened and Elliot and Aimee walked in. The look between Sophie, Blair and Parker was missed by all the men in the room, but from the way Aimee fidgeted as Elliot spoke Blair knew she saw what the girls all were thinking. However that was not important, the information coming from the cowboy's mouth was,

"Kentucky Thunder is gone."

"What!" Blair and Nate spoke in unison, their heads wiping towards the man at the door.

"Racing?" Sophie couldn't help but ask the first thought to them all.

"Worse." Aimee spoke up softy for the first time, looking around the room of people who was helping her and her father, "stud farm."

"Oh." Was all Nate could say, causing Blair to shoot him an annoyed glance as Hardison started to pace and have more of an appropriate reaction to that information,

"No, no, no, no, no"

"All right," Nate said after glancing in Blair's direction, taking in the annoyed gaze from his blood. "We're not gonna get Foss to write as $12 million check for an empty horse trailer. This doesn't work without Kentucky Thunder, so we are gonna stall."

"No." Elliot said instantly, causing Nate and Blair to turn their heads towards him. Both of them with her eyebrows raised in shock.

"What do you mean, no?" Nate asked for both of them.

"The Sterlings are gonna catch on." Elliot stated crossing his arms as he looked around the room at them all. Blair looking to Sophie and a silent conversation happening between them as the man kept talking. "Foss is gonna get cold feet, man. No. we have chance. We got to get this horse."

As he finished Blair had gotten to her feet and had pulled Aimee from the room, Parker on her heels. She knew the look on her dads face and she didn't think the girl deserved to deal with that anger from the man. "Aimee, as a daughter of someone who owns horses what would I know?" she asked as an excuse and allowed the woman to smile at her before leading her to a stall to tell her all about the beautiful beast inside.

Blair didn't think she would be so happy to be sat inside of the Truck as she was in that moment, but being in the small truck with Parker, Hardison, Elliot and Aimee was not the enjoyable thing. No, the reason she was so happy was for the first time since starting the stupid horse con Blair was finally allowed to wear trousers, trainers, her normal make up and a pony tail. She felt herself again, bar the t-shirt that claimed she was a handler for the same stables as Aimee and Elliot but she would take that cover if it meant no more heels. She leaned back and placed her feet in Elliot's lap, her head on her hands as she watched Elliot and Aimee refuse to make eye contact. She knew she could tease the man but not yet, she wasn't sure her limits with him just yet.

"Can you hack it?" Parker asked, as she looked at Kentucky Thunders stable via Hardison's Laptop causing the man to raise his eyebrows at her.

"Hack a lock?" this comment caused a bubble of a giggle burst from Blair, causing the first smile to appear on Elliot's face, "You still really don't understand what I do, do you?" he asked the blonde, who shrugged.

"Parker, you are gonna have to go through the air duct, drop down and let us in." Elliot said finally, knowing this was the only plan.

"But the horses are in there." Parker whispered fearfully. Blair's heart broke a little for the girl, but she didn't know how to pick locks so she couldn't do this for her.

"No, no, no," it seemed Aimee felt for the girl too as she muttered about a back room they could use, but was stopped as Elliot placed a hand on her arm.

His gaze was on Parkers as he said, "We need you to do this. I need you to do this. Please." Blair saw Parker look back at the laptop screen and visibly gulp in fear.

It was a total of 20 minutes later before Parker finally was in the air dent, muttering bitterly the whole time, which it seemed only Blair was finding the humour in as everyone else was too bothered about how serious the situation was. "Looks like Parker's gonna have to crawl through the air duct again. God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to freakin' crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people."

"Parker, you realise that we can still hear you?" Elliot told the girl over his own com and the silence that followed caused Blair to burst out laughing. She could see Parker in her minds eye pause her crawl and scowl having forgotten that the team could hear her.

"P, you know I would crawl through there but I don't know how to pick the lock. I'd just be stuck in there with a horse that's why you had to go" She told the girl as she wiped the tears from her eyes, not looking Hardison in the eye knowing he was smirking at Parker and Blair's reaction to the whole thing.

"Oh. Well... I guess that's fine." Was all parker could say before they heard a thump sound and they all assumed Parker had found her way into the back room, "Aimee... I've found Kentucky Thunder. He's a really, really big horse." The smiles that appeared on everyone's faces at the young girl's laughter turned into serious expressions.

The blonde next to Elliot swore as she shook her head, "Oh, I'm so sorry. Sometimes they keep him in there before he gets teased."

"I don't want to be in a stall with a horse that's about to be teased!" Parker hissed and that's all it took for Blair to all but leap over Elliot and run from the van. She hadn't been seen in this outfit, she knew she was blending some-what with the other stable hands and honestly that was the least of her worries as she barged from the truck. All she could think about was they had just put Parker in a position were she was left in a small room with an animal she was scared off. An animal that could easily break a bone of the girls if kicked wrong.

"Blair!" she heard Elliot shout as the trio she had left got up to follow after her, "we're running out of time Parker," Elliot told the woman over com's as they ran after Blair.

"Oh my god!" Parker muttered softly, and Blair ran into the stable Aisle, groaning as she realised the storage room was about as far away as possible.

"I'm coming P!" Blair muttered, sprinting to the end. Pushing off the wooden bar on the front of the door she knew Parker and Kentucky Thunder were in just as the Blonde woman opened the door.

Both Parker and Blair looked at one another before Blair launched herself at Parker, "I'm so glad you are okay." She whispered, feeling Parker tap her back and probably give Hardison, Elliot and Aimee an odd look as she tried to figure out why the teenager was hugging her.

"You're not dead, good." Hardison said to Parker as Aimee and Elliot moved past the girls to get the horse ready for travel.

"Don't be silly. Horses are much less murderous than I originally thought." Parker told the two causing Blair to roll her eyes smiling. Oh how she loved how odd her daily life was now.

Blair sat on a chair in her dad's 'office' her feet on the desk, Blair biting she concentrated on the origami lily she was making, they both were waiting for their part in the con. As the other's had put Kentucky Thunder into a trailer to travel with him, Hardison had thrown the keys to their old faithful truck and Blair had made sure to move it from sight. Nate had a smirk on his face as he looked over his daughter, clearly happy to be out of dresses and heels. He hadn't seen her concentrating on the paper art form in a few years and couldn't help but ask, "What's with the lily?"

Blair looked up at him with a smirk, "inside joke." Was all she said, knowing Nate wouldn't be happy with that answer but tough, a girl was allowed some secrets in her life. Her dad had his own Sterling to deal with, she knew Zach Sterling would know exactly what the lily meant when he found it.

Nate sighed and leant back in the chair he sat. His daughter was as stubborn as he was, there was no point trying to get the information from her until she was ready to tell him. Thankfully a distraction came in the form of Sophie who sauntered into the office, smiling when she saw Blair sat in front of her. "Blair, I didn't know you arrived already."

"Hey Sophie, I saw you with Foss after I hid the truck so I thought better than mucking up the con by saying hi."

The woman nodded and turned to look at Nate who instantly asked, "Did you get him turned around enough?"

"I think so. He doesn't seem that familiar with the stables."

"Okay," with that Nate tapped on his com's to talk to the group at large, "Foss is in place. Where are you?"

"We're close any minute now." Elliot came from inside their heads.

"Listen," Nate said seriously, his chin resting on his fingers, "the haulers gonna be here in five minutes. If youre not here, Foss is gonna open up an empty stall and there'll be no lost heir."

"I said we'll be there!"

"God he is grumpy," Blair muttered, forgetting she was on com's. "He needs to get laid, badly."

This caused a round of laughter from Hardison and Parker as well as a grumpy grumble from Elliot. Blair looked up and went bright red as she realised she spoken out loud. Thankfully her dad was too busy barking out more instructions to comment, "Hardison, show me what you're looking at."

Blair groaned as her phone started ringing, a facetime from Hardison, and she passed over her phone to her father as she got to her feet. "I'll go look busy." Was all she said as she twirled the Origami lily in her fingers before leaving, having her own plan in mind. she rushed from the office, and moved to the stall nearest the entrance door to the stables, she had to look busy while she waited. Thankfully the stall didn't have a horse in it, so she started to work to make it look like she was prepping the stall for a horse, trying not to laugh at the comments Hardison and Parker were making about them going to Jail. From the sounds of things there had been some kind of blockage on the road and Elliot had saddled up the horse and decided to just ride him back to the stables.

Blair looked up as she heard the gallop of a horse, and rushed out to let Elliot into the stables just as the Hauler pulled up in his car. Elliot winked at Blair as she started to act like a handler at the stable, "Pony express is never late boss" Elliot told Nate who frowned a little.

"okay, we're back on" was all he said as Blair lead Kentucky Thunder towards the Stable Yard with Elliot on his back.

Sophie, Foss and the Hauler were already there when the two approached. "Mr. Foss," Elliot spoke as he dismounted, "I got something you might want to take a look at."

"Yeah, I figured you would." He told Elliot as he handed the man a scanner, Blair kept busy calming the horse and trying not to look Foss in the eye, "you might as well double-check before my insurance investigator and his son takes a look. You know, you wouldn't want anything to go wrong, right?"

At the mention of insurance investigator and his son Blair smirked, a similar smirk to Nate when something had gone his way causing Sophie to fear a little for the duo arriving. Foss however missed it as Elliot handed back the scanner showing the same numbers as before.

"So, ready to make this official?" Sophie asked, placing the documents on the hood of the car, as Elliot took over from Blair who knew this was their way of dismissing her. She shot him a mischievous smile and ran off. She had to finish their plan as well as initiate her own. The moment she got into the stables she switched the plates from where Kentucky thunder was going to be placed and Baltimore, with that she stood by the motorbike her and Elliot were using to get back to Willie's stables. Half an hour later the cowboy came from the stables, "Ready to go Mini Ford," he called, looking happier than Blair had seen him the whole time they had been running the con. She couldn't help but return the smile, "what did you do?" he asked as he threw her a helmet and she laughed,

"Well let's just say, Zach is going to learn that our game is back on again." She told the cowboy with an air of mystery. Elliot had learned to let Blair do what she needed to do as sometimes it was better not to ask. So instead he revved the engine to life and the two shot off back to Willies.

Blair mused over her little gift she had left Zach in his jacket pocket as Elliot and her father left to tell Willie he was now the proud owner of a horse, she had decided to wander up and down his stables and look at the horses than see the man himself even though she knew she was the reason her dad had accepted the job in the first place. When they were childen Zach and Blair had come up with a way to communicate without their fathers noticing, at first it was a fun secret between friends but when that friendship died it became a symbol they both used to gloat. If Blair wanted Zach to know she had been somewhere, pulled one over on him or just wanted his attention (the boy had always been able to read the subtext of the gifts) she left him a origami lily. Pretty to anyone who didn't know their meaning. She turned put her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she looked at the horses, frowning as felt something inside the right one. As she pulled out the object she couldn't help but smirk, there in her hand sat a origami Crain, the symbol Zach used for her, nestled inside it was an old golden locket. She knew this was him congratulating her in his own sort of way, as the locket was something else from their years long ago as friends. She smirked, she didn't realise how nice it was to have her own sterling to outwit and gloat over.

"Next horse I get, I'm naming him Mr. Ford." Announced Willie, her father, Elliot and Aimee as they left the office. Causing Blair to stuff the object back into her pockets and turn to look at them all.

"Mr. Ford. Well, I look forward to putting money on Mr. Ford" Nate chuckled before turning to look at Elliot, "ready to go?"

"eh-could you give me, uh?" Was all the cowboy could stutter, but Nate nodded, turning on his heel and walking up to Blair, putting an arm round her so she too could give Elliot some privacy with the pretty blonde.

Blair got told everything she needed to know though as Elliot clambered back into te car. The moment he saw her smirk he groaned and muttered 'shut up' causing Blair to laugh and shake her head. As her father backed out the stables, she pulled out the necklace and the Crain again. She knew this was a symbol of the game being on between the two, and that excited her immensely. Zach was the batman to her Cat woman, she would say Joker but she wasn't mad enough to be him just yet. If the two were anything like their fathers this would be a very long and very interesting game of chess starting up between the two.

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Sazzacubz 13 xx

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