Once again, I own nothing aside from Sasha and her aliases. Marissa belongs to Rosabelle. And I am grateful every day that Leverage belongs to TNT and Electric Entertainment.

"Nate, I'd like you to meet Sasha Allisa Hilbrand, formerly Spencer. She's my big sister."

Eliot turned back to the woman Nate and Sophie still thought of as Allisa with a smile and a laugh. The laugh was cut short, however, by Allisa's hand cracking across Eliot's face. Her eyes were stormy with anger, but Sophie noticed tears gathering.

"You drop off the face of the Earth for ten years, and you've been in Boston this whole time? Frank and I live fifteen minutes from here, and you've never called? God! I can't believe you!" She pushed past him and headed for the door.

"Sasha-"

"Oh, no. I forgot," She whipped around to face him. "That's what you always do." She unconsciously rubbed her scar again, then turned to Nate and Sophie. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ford, Ms. Devereaux. I don't think things are going to work out. Thank you for the coffee." She stormed out the door and up the stairs. The bar was silent for about a minute before things went back to normal. Eliot still stood at the table, staring at the door. Nate and Sophie looked at each other, worried, until he spoke.

"Yep," he said, finally sitting down. "That's my sister all right." He looked at the two across from him. "So how are we gonna help her?"

.0.o.0.o.0.

The entire crew gathered in Nate's apartment. Parker was getting a bowl of cereal, Nate, Sophie, and Hardison all stood behind the computer table, and Eliot stood at one end. Parker walked over to her spot between Alec and Eliot, and Nate nodded to Hardison.

"Ok, this case is gonna be interesting." He gestured to the screens with his remote and a driver's license with a picture of the blonde Allisa popped onto the screens. "First time Nate ever wanted me to look into a client harder than a mark. But I found something hinky." Eliot glared at Nate as Hardison changed the screens again. "What I found doesn't make sense. Allisa Hilbrand, 42, married to a Detective Frank Hilbrand, 44, in the Massachusetts State Police. Two kids: Erin, 8, and Jesse, 6. But it's what I didn't find that's more interesting." He clicked again, and everything disappeared. "Prior to 2001, there is nothing. She's a ghost."

Eliot was still glaring at Nate. The hitter broke eye contact first, sighed, then spoke up. "Try Sasha."

Hardison looked at him, but Parker spoke up before he could question this development, waving her spoon in the air. "Ooo! Is she like me? Just one name?"

Eliot hung his head, letting his hair fall forward over his face. He muttered, "No. Try Sasha Spencer." Hardison and Parker stared at Eliot, then Nate, who motioned Alec to go ahead. Hardison looked skeptical but did it anyway.

"Okay, there's not much more on her here, but – Whoa." About five documents jumped up on the screen, all of them in different languages, all marked 'top secret.' Eliot shook his hair out of his face and started speaking.

"Sasha's my big sister, and she taught me most of what I know." He crossed his arms. "Woman practically raised me while she was in high school. Got me into sports, cooking, everything. Took care of me when I got the crap beat out of me, helped get me enlisted in the military, even though that pissed her off to no end. When I left she told me she'd always have an ear out for me if I ever decided to leave the straight and narrow." He shook his head over the memories. "When I finally did, she was always the one with the plan, always the one to watch our backs. Sash and I worked together for years before…" He winced and stopped talking.

Hardison picked up, bringing a photo up on the screens. It was Allisa, but with brown hair and a distinct lack of scarring on her face. "Before this happened?" The woman had a black eye, and she was handcuffed, being led down the steps of a courthouse. The caption said it was taken in Russia. "In 2001, she was arrested for, well, just about anything you can imagine. According to the papers, she-"

"Tried to kidnap the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation's daughter." Everyone stared back at Eliot. He was staring at the picture. He nodded towards it. "Zoom in, upper right corner, in the shadows on the stairs." Hardison did, and Sophie gasped as a much younger Eliot came into view, wire-rimmed glasses half off his face. "We were hired by someone to do it, and she wouldn't tell me who, wouldn't tell me why." He looked pensive for a moment. "She probably still won't, come to think of it." Eliot shrugged. "We got caught coming onto the grounds of the Chairman's estate. Someone had tipped off the guards, and they were ready for us. Sasha was the first in, felt that something was off, and motioned me to stay back. They caught her, I got away. Sasha took the full fall of it." He sighed, shaking his head again. "Always protecting her little brother. I broke her out the next week, with some help from our old friend Damien Moreau. That's how I stared working for him. I owed him." Eliot uncrossed his arms, shoving away from the table. "Sasha was in real bad shape when we left. Never told me exactly what happened, but she was covered in bruises, and that scar on her right cheek? Along her jaw? Stitched that up myself." He snorted softly, shaking his head. "That's why I worked alone." He rapped the light table with his finger, looking everyone in the eye. "No one close to me can get hurt if I'm the only one taking the punishment." He stalked out the door and slammed it shut.

Everyone else was silent, looking at the door, or the table, or the picture still on the screen. Hardison clicked the screen clear, and it started everyone else moving again. Nate cleared his throat.

"Alright. Hardison, find everything you can on the heads of the security company Premium. Parker, I need you and Sophie to get inside the main offices." He headed for the front door.

Sophie spoke up, "Nate what are you going to do?"

He paused. "I'm going to facilitate another Spencer family reunion." He started walking, then turned again. "Hardison, as a side thing, keep running Sasha Spencer.

"Don't tell Eliot."