I do not own Leverage or White Collar.

I updated the previous three chapters so that they would make more sense. I would recommend rereading them but you don't have to as I just added some details, the overall plot is the same.

Sara Ellis POV

I sat on my bed in a state of shock, I had no idea that there was a hit on me, but I would not let this stop me. I would fight for my life and even if I was killed, I would haunt the person who killed me until they were put in jail for the rest of their miserable life.

I finally replied to "Jimmy Black" (as if that was his real name) and decided that I would answer him honestly. "I have no active threats at the moment but this is currently not the first time someone has tried to kill me," I told him. I found it strange that he had put on a Bluetooth earpiece in the middle of an assassination attempt but whatever works for him, I guess.

He nodded and then spoke, not to me but to whoever was connected to the earpiece, "Hey Nate, I seem to be attracting all sorts of trouble these days. I was apparently hired as an assassin without anyone telling me. I don't want to kill her, so help me fine-tune this idea to fake her death."

He and "Nate" spoke for several minutes, including to a few other people as I heard other names also like "Hardison," "Parker," or "Sophie."

He then turned to me and said, "How would you like to fake your own death?" I nodded in agreement and he explained his plan. It was just crazy enough that it would work, at least short term, that was for sure.

I gathered a few things that could not be replaced and snuck out through the back door. I climbed the fence into a neighbors yard and then got into the taxi that was waiting for me a street over. It would take me to a hotel where "Jimmy Black" would meet me as soon as possible. I tried not to think about the fact that the house would be blowing up in a few seconds and all the things I would lose. I was happy I was alive and hoped to stay that way for a long time coming.

Peter's POV

I sat in my office, working my way through the paperwork from the stakeout last night. We had waited over 3 hours at the construction site but no car arrived to pick up Neal. It was a bust. Now we needed to figure out a new way in order to break open this case but nothing came to mind quickly.

I glanced at the clock and was surprised by the time it read. It was already 10 am. Sara was supposed to be here one hour ago in order to discuss the case. She had to check into a few things at the office before she could come in but she should have been here by now. I had a worrying thought about her but pushed it away and glanced into the bullpen to see if she had arrived and was talking to someone else. No such luck. I was about to go back to the paperwork when a commotion arose in the bullpen.

Before I could get past my desk, Jones was in my office. "Boss, Caffery tried to call Sara Ellis as he thought it was weird that she was not here yet. Someone picked it up but it was not her. It was an investigator. Her house had a gas problem and the line exploded. They can not tell if she was killed in the blast and evaporated or if she got out in time."

I was shocked but I pushed my feelings down, trying to focus on something else. "Do you think that this had something to do with the Japanese Bearer Bonds that Sara was looking for or even our friend Mr. Black?" I asked, trying to remain calm and reasonable. From the looks that Jones was shooting me, it didn't quite work the way I wanted it to.

"I don't know but Diana is calling the Canada Customs Officials in order to see if it could have been Mr. Black or not. Neal is reaching out to a few of his contacts to see if they have heard any chatter about Mr. Black that we may have missed originally. After we finish talking, I am going to see if any more of the messages between Halbridge and Mr. Black. Maybe he was more than a courier."

I waved him off and he went back to his desk to make the call. I saw Diana make some notes as she talked to someone on the phone. I wondered if she was having any luck. I decided I would look into the finances of Halbridge to see if he had made any large transfers lately that I could track back the source in order to find the identity of the person. I was knee-deep into the accounts when Diana knocked on the door to my office. I glanced up and waved her in, putting the papers into neat stacks so that I could pick up where I left off if needed.

Diana spoke as soon as she noticed that she had my full attention, "According to the Canadians, there were two Mr. Blacks on the flight. The one, a Mr. Jimmy Black, was cooperative and answered all questions, even so far as giving a witness to confirm his plans. The other Mr. Black refused to answer any questions. They released the first one and he arrived on the flight as scheduled. He left the airport quickly, only stopping at the community board. According to the cameras, he left the airport doing some quick stretches as he moved. Then, he took off on what I assumed was a fast jog. We tried to follow the route with cameras but he stayed in areas where there was a low number of cameras. I have someone trying to locate him but it may take time."

"Okay, good job Diana. Look into this other Mr. Black and have Jones check into the investigation on the explosion at the house of Sara Ellis when he gets off the phone. I want to know what they know as soon as possible"

I watched as Diana approached Jones as he hung up the phone. He did not come up so I assumed that he found no new information was available yet. I continued to look through the fiances, pulling up the most recent versions of the reports off the computer to see if they changed at all. No dice.

As I was trying to think of where to work next, Neal knocked at the door frame. I looked up at him and waited for him to speak. He waited a moment and then spoke, "None of my contacts have much information on Mr. Black. I think he was pretty good at covering his tracks. There is a rumor that an assassin was coming to town. Maybe it was him?"

I thought about what Neal said for a few minutes before I replied, "I think you are right. Mr. Black is more than he seems. Both of them seem to be full of mysteries"

"There's two of them now?" Neal asked.

"Yes, and one of them is our best suspect" I replied, heading down into the Bullpen to see where Jones and Diana had gotten.

AN1: Hi, so it has been at least four years but I was looking around my fanfiction account and decided to edit this story to see if any inspiration came back. It did and I was able to write this chapter. Suggestions and comments are always welcome but please no flames. Thanks for reading after all this time ~jenn008

AN2: Minor edits were completed. A new chapter should be up soon.