A/N: Hokay,since lezzles asked so very nicely (it was! Very, very nicely!), I decided to finally get back to publishing chapters for this one (when I came back to the document after 78101031 years, it turned out that the entire thing is 100 pages long, and not even finished, holy shit), so... have the first four new chapters today :)


Seven

So that's what soldiers look like in real life, is his first thought when the door closes after the trio Eliot just brought home with him. And the second: not really impressive. Hadn't he known that one of them is – or used to be, whatever – some hot shot pilot, one is a middle management big shot destined to go places in the DOD and the third is some explosives whiz, he'd never pegged them for their respective professions.

The pilot is rather short, dark-haired and probably what women would call attractive but he's lacking the overconfident stride and the whole 'This is my show, go take the backseat' attitude he always thought a pilot should have. Or maybe that's just to blame on a temporary overindulgence of Top Gun in his youth. But hey, at least he's got this air of authority around him, like he's used to people listening to his orders and obeying them.

Their client looks wary. And contrite? He tries to find out if it's true what Nate told them: that you can recognize an officer out of uniform from a mile away just from, well, Eliot called it 'a very distinctive look'. But no, he doesn't really get it. The Major sure does look uncomfortable but that's all he gets.

And last but not least, the Captain. She really does look a lot like Aimée, only she kinda… carries herself differently. He can't pinpoint it but there's something about her that makes it clear that she certainly is not a girl from some horse farm in the deep south. Still, it makes Eliot uncomfortable and he can't help feeling a little gleeful about that. There really aren't many things that make Eliot uncomfortable, so you should enjoy every one of them.

However, Nate seems to have realized that someone needs to say something here so he does the great MC and says with a sweeping gesture, "Well then, Majors, Captain… welcome to the current Leverage headquarters."

It earns him a frown from both Hot Shots and Boom Girl but true to his usual self, he obviously chose to ignore it, even when Hot Shots replies, "Could someone please explain to us what the hell this is all about?"

Ah, guy likes to be in charge, after all. He wonders if that is because they don't get anything to do at 'deep space telemetry' or if – and that's much more possible – there's plenty to do there which has nothing to do with sitting on your asses and doing calculations the entire day.

He looks back at his screen… and wonders if he should say something yet. His little crawlers just dug up some very interesting things about that Homeworld Security thing he'd really love to share with the class but right now the soldiers – most of all Hot Shots and Boom Girl but also Desk Jockey to a certain degree – radiate so much tension it feels like something might explode if there's just a bit of a spark.

So he keeps on letting Nate do the talking. "Well, you see, Major, your brother-in-law hired us to help him with certain… irregularities he discovered in some of his paperwork."

Hot Shots now looks at Desk Jockey who looks… ashamed? Huh. "Irregularities in your paperwork, Charlie?" Is it just him or is there a dangerous undertone to Hot Shots' voice? He tries to catch Parker's eyes to see what she thinks but she seems absolutely fascinated by the military trio. So instead he looks at Sophie who still looks like she thinks this whole thing is a very bad idea. As in 'I got a very bad feeling about this' bad. And that usually ended with someone getting fried in space or stabbed by a light saber.

"Well, Evan, you see, a couple of weeks ago, I found some… stuff on my desk and…" Hot Shots just narrows his eyes and that almost makes Desk Jockey squirm. Well, at least he thinks so.

"What does that have to do with us? Because, you know, I'm not stupid. I did notice that those people know who we are." Huh. Hot Shots is really far from being happy, and Boom Girl seems to be unable to decide between being worried and amused.

Instead of Desk Jockey, though, Nate answers, "Sorry to interrupt you, uh, but I asked Major Williamson if he could give us some help since we always need a way in, you see, and he told us that you and your wife could probably be helpful."

That… didn't really assure the soldiers. Well, he could have told Nate that. Their personnel records and paychecks were harder to obtain than the latest love chatter between the Vice President's irregular daughter and her secret tattoo parlor biker boyfriend. In fact, the number of firewalls he'd had to crack had even outnumbered those he'd needed to crack to read some of the e-mail buzz of the Pentagon last year. Of course they wouldn't be exactly happy about someone mentioning them to a bunch of people that probably looked highly suspicious from their point of view.

Hot Shots repeatedly shakes his head and even needs one or two attempts before he can speak again. "A way in? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Easy. A con doesn't work without a way in." That was Parker and suddenly everyone is looking at her and… oh, Boom Girl seems to have remembered something.

"You! I just bet you know where my purse and my phones went." A grin lights up Parker's face as she almost beams at the Captain and like always it lets his heartbeat quicken just a little bit but it's really not the right place for that now.

Also, Hot Shots feels the need to talk again. He shakes his head, looks at Desk Jockey again and then back at some spot a few feet away from him. "I can't believe my brother-in-law fell in with a bunch of thieves."

No, he really didn't like the amount of disdain in Hot Shots' voice and neither seems Eliot because he growls, "Again, which part of retrieval didn't you get?"

Without missing a beat, Hot Shots shoots back, "Well then what are you retrieving here?"

Now, though, he feels his honor – yes, he does know that concept, thank you very much – insulted and before Eliot can reply, he barges in, "Ah, yeah, no, for me hacker would be more appropriate." Seriously, no one calls him a thief. Well, not anymore, anyway. He does it all for charity nowadays and he really likes that to be recognized.

Sophie, it seems, does so as well because she throws Hot Shots a stern look and even adds a little ice to her voice, when she corrects him, "I prefer the term grifter for my profession."

Nate, for his part, simply raises his hand and throws in a nonchalant, "I do the planning, not the stealing."

Then, suddenly, everyone – including himself – is looking at Parker again but she just gives them an irritated look and says in a tone just as irritated as her look, "What? I am a thief." And then… did he just catch her muttering, "At least I'm honest about it. Unlike the rest of you," under her breath? Nah, he must be mistaken.

Right now, it's more interesting what Hot Shots has to say to all of that, anyway. For a moment, he's quiet. But then he turns to Desk Jockey again and this time his voice is very controlled and level when he says, "You and me, Charlie. In a separate room. Right fucking now."

In that moment, it occurs to him that Sophie might be right. From one second to the next Hot Shots turned from a pissed off soldier into a dangerously pissed off soldier and he just decided he really doesn't want to be in Desk Jockey's place right now. Just too close to being blown to smithereens for him.

Maybe this thing is too big for them… and maybe now would be a good moment to tell the team that the security wards of the Homeworld Security servers would have fried his system if he hadn't literally pulled the plug just a second ago. The only thing he had been able to catch before he'd shut off his laptop had been words like "extraterrestrial" and "Pegasus" and "F-302" but he hadn't been able to save any of that because he values his laptop too much to let it go up in flames, and not just figuratively.

Or maybe it would be a good moment if there wasn't this deathly silence in the room for another moment and then Desk Jockey nodding grudgingly. Nate, apparently also having seen the seriousness of the situation, only points to the door to Parker's room because it's closest and without another word, Hot Shots walks over to the room, Desk Jockey at his heels.

After they closed the door behind them, there's another moment of silence and then Boom Girl suddenly clears her throat and says with an almost apologetic undertone, "Right, uh, guess I'll better go and make sure they don't kill each other. Evan really… doesn't take lightly to someone breaking OPSEC, brother-in-law or not."

With that, she has disappeared into the room as well. Okay, now that those three are out of the picture for a moment, "Ah, Nate, could we probably… rethink this whole thing? I might have found… some stuff that could back up Sophie's suggestion to pull out."