Title: Old Friends, New Enemies 3/?
Rating: PG-13 for violence and swearing
Disclaimer: I do not profit from this fic in any way, unless pure enjoyment is a measurable expense now. I do not own Leverage or the team, though they are nifty!
Setting: Season 1, any time before the First David Job.
Summary: A simple job becomes complicated when an old mark recognizes one of the team at a party and decides to settle an old score.
The moment of stunned silence was broken by an inappropriate giggle and all eyes turned to Parker who quickly set her face back to a neutral expression.
"Sorry," she said unapologetically. "Don't meet a whole lot of bad guys named Timothy."
"Monty Python," Hardison whispered to give an example, enjoying mocking the man even if it was probably a dumb idea. "He reminds me more of the rabbit though."
Unwilling to be taken in by their banter, Timothy just shook his head, "These are the people you now surround yourself with Isabella - fools, thieves and brutes. These are truly the people you care about now? You had so much more when you were with me."
Shaking away her shock Sophie forced herself into acting mode, hating that she had let herself get flustered, "Care about them? They're the hired help Timothy. I decided a long time ago that I'd rather be alone than a prisoner of someone's affections, especially yours."
Timothy smiled in amusement, clearly unaffected by Sophie's ploys.
"And this one?" He pointed towards Eliot. Two men grabbed the hitter by his shoulders and hauled him up on his knees, ignoring his grunts of pain and pulling his head back by his hair to present him to their boss. "Rarely have I seen 'hired help' fight so valiantly. He was fighting for something, for something very dear to him."
Again, Timothy's moment of creepiness was broken by Parker as she exclaimed, "It was probably his truck, he loves that thing."
"Not now Parker," Nate hissed, needing to divert all his attention to the situation at hand which could very easily spiral out of control.
Power was talking again, his eyes narrowed as he spoke with Sophie as though figuring something out, "I saw you together last night, posing as siblings. Your new partner perhaps, or lover. If so you truly have degraded yourself."
"Yeah, cause you're a real prize, aren't you sport," Eliot muttered as he spit out blood, finally gaining enough oxygen and coherence to join the conversation.
A look from Power was all it took to signal Marcus, who gleefully pulled back and punched Eliot hard across the jaw. The men holding Eliot up released him with the hit and he slammed painfully into the floor.
"Hey, that was totally unnecessary!" Hardison shouted in indignation, hating to sit there while Eliot was beaten in front of him. He even tried to rise to his feet again but was held back by one of the armed intruders.
"Timothy, stop this," Sophie demanded with a hard edge. Unlike the others she was not restrained so she pushed through the men guarding the hitter and knelt by Eliot's side to check on him. "Eliot, are you all right?"
She knew it was risky to show that she did in fact care about her teammates but she knew she may only have one chance to do this.
Eliot was blinking to clear his head as she helped him up onto his knees again. He also thought it was stupid of her to check on him, that was until he felt the thin piece of metal that could only be a lockpick being slipped into his hand. Not responding to the item except to slip it between his fingers, Eliot nodded to her slowly, "I'm fine Sophie, guy punches like a girl."
"Sophie? Is that what you go by now? Sophie," Timothy repeated slowly, as though tasting the name. "It suits you."
"Enough about me Timothy, what do you think you are doing, attacking us like this? What do you want?" Sophie asked, standing slowly once Eliot was securely on his knees.
The powerful man laughed, "I imagine you are conceited enough to think that it is you, that I have come to take you back or turn you in for what you've done."
"The thought had crossed my mind," Sophie admitted.
"It's been twelve years Isabella, my foolish longing for you has long since passed and having you sent to jail gains me nothing," he remarked. "After all, what you stole was so small compared to what I have."
Sophie sighed, "So again, what do you want Timothy?"
Timothy nodded, willing to get down to business, "I have an offer for all of you. You are thieves and conmen, are you not? I saw you last night at Wellington's party, I can only imagine you are planning on robbing him."
"Does that concern you?" Nate asked.
"No, not at all, in fact I encourage it. You see Wellington has a certain item that I have wanted for years for my own collection, the Baoteng Sabre," Timothy began.
"Napolean's sword," Sophie said in surprise – they hadn't known their mark had that particular item – it was exceedingly rare and valuable.
"Indeed my dear, as knowledgeable as ever. It is stolen so Richmond does not flaunt its existence but I have seen it – he keeps it in a locked safe, inside the vault. I don't know what you were planning on stealing, but you are now going to steal that, for me. Upon receipt of the sword you are all free to go, no police, no authorities and we never cross paths again," Power said simply as though offering a business opportunity and not negotiating a hostage situation.
"That's it?" Nate asked in disbelief. It couldn't be that easy.
"It's a reasonable offer, we all get what we want … well, almost all," Power responded, eyes taking in Sophie suggestively. "You of course are welcome to refuse and I can drop you all off at the nearest police station."
"It is reasonable," Nate agreed. "Much more reasonable than your welcoming committee here. If that's all you wanted these theatrics and brute force were hardly necessary!"
Nate's anger was shared by all of them – they had been threatened at gunpoint, tied up, Hardison's shoulder was killing him and Eliot was barely conscious – and all this guy wanted was a simple trade off.
"We're thieves for hire," Parker added. "You could have just asked."
"I have no interest in hiring or paying you, blackmail I am fine with though. As for my men, well, you are criminals, I couldn't predict your reactions or your security measures," Power replied. Throwing a disdainful look Eliot's way he added, "They were pathetic to say the least."
Eliot growled and the team thought he might try to attack, but Eliot was barely staying upright as it was, he didn't have the strength to do anything except breathe past the pain pulsating through every limb and stay conscious.
"Timothy," Sophie said slowly with suspicion. "You're a powerful man. If you truly want this item why haven't you taken it already? You surely have the resources."
"That I do, but unfortunately so does Richmond. As much as I want the sword I have been unwilling to risk starting a war with Richmond over it, which would happen if its theft was connected to me in anyway. You will steal the sword, deliver it to me and disappear, all of you and nothing is ever traced back to me," Timothy explained quite reasonably.
"Well Mr. Power, since none of us want to go to jail, we accept your offer," Nate announced, though he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "So if your men want to untie us, we can get to work."
"It'll take us a few days to finish up our plans though, this changes things a bit," Sophie added quickly, hoping it would buy them time to skip town and get away from Timothy before something worse happened.
Timothy nodded as though having expected as much, "Of course, but don't take too long my dear. Your long-haired friend with the bruises will be staying with me until you deliver the sword, and he might get lonely."
"What?" Sophie exclaimed.
"You can't do that," Nate added, his stomach dropping even though he had been expecting some kind of twist on Power's part.
"He's our hitter, get your own!" Parker yelled at the same time Hardison shouted, "No way, not happening!"
"Like hell," Eliot growled, immediately trying to break free, but in his state a knee to the stomach was all it took to send him back to the ground again, gasping as broken ribs grinded together.
"Timothy, you can't," Sophie repeated forcefully, trying not to sound desperate.
"Really my dear," Timothy started with a shake of his head. "I need some collateral to ensure you are not going to run out on me as I know you tend to do. Besides, out of all of you I mostly want to know where this one is at all times. Once I have the sword you can have him back, or whatever's left of him."
"That's kidnapping, you son of a bitch!" Nate yelled desperately, hating that he was not able to come up with any way out of this situation.
Power sneered, "Then call the police."
"We need him, to do the job. We can't get the sword for you without him," Sophie said, trying a different tactic that wasn't even a lie.
"You're a resourceful girl, I'm sure you'll find a way," Timothy replied smugly. He was clearly a man who loved abusing power over others, and this situation pleased him greatly. "Boys, put our guest in the car, we're leaving and I'm sure his friends have a lot of work to do."
The team fell into shocked silence for a moment after that. None of them had ever felt as helpless as they did as they watched Eliot, barely able to keep his feet under himself, being dragged roughly out of the cabin by two huge men.
"No, put him down! Right now!" Parker demanded almost petulantly as she watched with big eyes and was steadfastly ignored by everyone
"Nate, we can't let them do this," Hardison whispered to their leader, his mind blank on solutions.
"We gotta stop them," Parker added softly to her teammates. "What do we do?"
Nate clenched his jaw hard and shook his head, "There's nothing we can do. For now we have to let him take Eliot, then we'll come up with a plan once they're gone."
"But …" Parker started to protest but Nate cut her off.
"Nobody likes it Parker but we don't have a choice!"
By the front door Sophie could see the anger in Eliot's eyes as he was forced out of the cabin against his will, too exhausted to even try to fight back. Just before he was dragged out the door he turned his head to check over the team slowly as if taking a final look at them all, and then at the last second the hitter turned to Sophie, made eye contact and mouthed the word "run".
Her heart constricted – Eliot wanted them to leave him behind.
"Timothy, please don't do this," she begged a final time. "We'll get you the sword, you don't have to do it this way. He hasn't done anything to you."
Timothy's smile was more cruel this time, indignation lighting his eyes, "And still you want me to believe he means nothing to you. Don't lie to me Isabella, it will not work out well for your friend. Call me when you have the sword."
He handed her a business card with a phone number on it and then followed his men out of the cabin.
As the men left Parker, Hardison and Nate were released but not cut free. Ignoring their bound hands the three rushed to the door standing with Sophie as they watched Eliot forced into the backseat of one of the four cars outside.
Shaking his head slowly, Hardison muttered, "This isn't right."
"No, it isn't, but we'll make it right," Nate assured them, then turned and wiggled his fingers. "Sophie, could you untie us, maybe."
"What?" Sophie was more than distracted as she watched Timothy's car disappear down their long driveway with their teammate held hostage inside. "Oh."
Grabbing a pair of scissors off the layout table she quickly cut them all free while apologizing, "I'm so sorry, all of you. This is my fault, I had no idea Timothy was still in Nepal, in fact I'd practically forgotten about him to be honest. He must have been at the party last night and saw me."
"You can tell us more about him later," Nate said, needing to get straight to work. "Hardison, I'm pretty sure Eliot had his earpiece in, can you activate it remotely and track him so we can find out where he is?"
"Yeah, I can if he's wearing it, give me a minute," the hacker requested as he raced to get his laptop, as eager as the rest of them to get Eliot back.
Parker remained in the doorway for a moment, rubbing her wrists and staring at the spot the cars and Eliot had been seconds before. She looked at Sophie as she asked quite seriously, "What will he do with him?"
Sophie's eyes watered and she shook her head, "I don't know. I haven't seen him in twelve years – he's a different man now."
Parker nodded at this while Nate fumed with frustration, "Hardison, come on, we need to know where he is, now!"
"I'm working on it Nate, the computer's gotta, you know, turn on first," Hardison pointed out as the main screen was still loading.
Nate's pacing was interrupted by Sophie's soft announcement, "He said we should run."
All eyes turned to her and she elaborated, "Just now, before they took him, Eliot wants us to run."
"Well that's not gonna happen," Nate replied strongly. "Eliot's always come back for us. We're a team and we're going to get him back."
"I know that," Sophie said. "I didn't mean that we should run or that any of us wanted to. I just meant that Eliot has escaped captivity before, he might have a plan of his own and just wants us to be ready to run."
"You did slip him that lockpick," Parker pointed out, her keen eyes having easily spotted the pass off. "He might be planning on getting free himself."
"I have no doubt that Eliot is planning his own escape even as we speak but he had been worked over pretty good so let's not plan on him getting away on his own just yet," Nate suggested.
"Okay, I got it, he's wearing his comm. They're about a mile away already," Hardison announced. "You want to talk to him?"
Nate shook his head, "Not yet, we might startle him if something is happening. We don't want to give away that he's wearing it. Can we listen in without Eliot hearing us?"
"Yeah, I can do that," Hardison assured them as they all pressed a hand to their own earpieces to hear what was happening to their friend.
The feed clicked in for them all simultaneously. The noises were confusing at first, there was heavy breathing and movement that was immediately followed by the sound of something sizzling and then a sudden grunted moan. Immediately after that there was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a shout of pain.
The four thieves shared similar looks of scared concern. These were not the sounds of an escape, these were the sounds of torture and Eliot was getting further and further away.
TBC
Eep! Hope I surprised a few of you with this chapter and I hope you all like h/c because I'm a terrible, terrible person ... to Eliot. Grrr, season 2 come on already!!!!!!!!! Later!!!