A/N: Okay, time to wrap this baby up! This has been my first full-length Leverage fic and I have so enjoyed it - to think it was supposed to be just a one-shot in the beginning! Thanx so much for all the supportive reviews throughout, and please excuse any possible corny-ness in this chapter, it just had to be done ;-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

When the team was around, Nate could deal. When they were running game on some scummy business man or whatever, when plans were being formed and characters rehearsed, Nate could cope with his life, just because he didn't have to think too much about things. What he had, what he'd lost; what he needed, and bridges he'd burned. The mastermind could use never having to think of any of this stuff too much, not least right now, and yet he was the one to tell the team to leave him alone, and today of all days they actually listened!

Grieving for a guy that had been like a brother for so many years made sense, it wasn't as if he could be expected to just let John McRory's death go by unchecked, unnoticed, and without effect. Still, he was mindful of what being alone and dwelling was going to do to him. It wasn't right to compare this to losing Sam, nobody could ever truly get over the loss of a child, not really. Of course that didn't mean the same temptations weren't lurking all around Nate right now. Just one drink, a toast to a dear friend now gone from this world, it would make sense for anybody else, but not him. Nathan Ford was an alcoholic and he knew it, now more than ever. If he went downstairs and ordered a scotch, he would never stop at just one, and if his team were here, if Sophie were here, she would tell him so, be the Jiminy Cricket he sometimes forgot to have for himself when she wasn't around.

"I need you here, Sophie" he said softly to nobody in particular since he was in fact alone and she presumably a million miles away.

His face in his hands, wishing the world away and yet a loved one closer to him at the same time, Nate almost missed the light knocking on his door. Even when he noticed it, he genuinely considered leaving the door unanswered, but in the end curiosity got the better of him. Besides, it might be Cora checking in on him and he didn't want to worry her by not opening the door.

"Hello, Nate" said the woman just the moment she caught sight of him, not John McRory's daughter as he might've expected, but the one person he had been praying would come back before long.

"Sophie" he gasped, a little shaken at the realisation that wishes really did come true sometimes, and when you least expected, "What are you...? I didn't think you'd..."

"I'm sorry" she cut in as she stepped into the apartment and immediately wrapped her arms around him, "Nate, I'm so sorry, for everything" she swore as she held on tight, as if her life depended on it.

The mastermind was appropriately stunned, but none the less thrilled to have Sophie, his precious Sophie, here in his arms. He hugged her back, comforted and soothed by just her presence after too many weeks had rolled by without her. He missed her so much, more than he ever thought he could and now here she was, just exactly when he needed her most.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you" he said when they pulled apart a moment later.

"Oh, yes, I do" she smiled though tears were evident in her eyes as she faced him, "Tara called me, she told me about John McRory" she explained, wiping away one stray droplet that escaped down her cheek then, "And then she was talking about Eliot and Parker... Oh, Nate, how could we be so stupid?" she asked, losing him entirely in her presumably internal monologue that came spilling out in a stream of consciousness he hadn't a clue how to follow.

"We're stupid?" he checked with a frown that proved he was confused by her skipping from one topic to the other twice in as many seconds.

"Well, I am" Sophie confirmed, "No, actually, we both are... but that's beside the point" she decided with a shake of her head and a wave of her hand that dismissed all the less important points as she walked by Nate and into the living area, tossing her coat and purse onto the couch without a care then turning back to face him once again, "Nate, you know I went away to figure out for myself who I really was" she began to explain as he stared dumbly at her from a few feet away, "but these past few weeks, all I've done is think about you. About the day we met, and the times we've had. About the team and our work and the times when we're not working. I've gone over and over everything in my head so many times I get dizzy just trying to remember" she sighed, a hand going to her forehead as if even talking of all this was giving her pain, "I just... I can't figure out why we're still playing this game"

"What game?" asked Nate, apparently genuinely baffled, and to a certain extent still reeling from the fact Sophie was really here and so suddenly back in his life.

"This!" she said with emphasis, waving a hand between the two of them, "Us just pretending like we can cope with only being work colleagues and pseudo-friends. I can't, Nate. I just can't do it anymore" she told him, perhaps too loudly, "Eliot and Parker spent weeks tip-toeing around each other, frustrating the hell out of everybody including themselves" she explained, though of course this much Nate already knew, "And now, Parker is as giddy as a school girl, and Tara told me that she's seen Eliot smile more in the past couple of days than in the whole rest of the time she's known him put together"

"That's probably true" the mastermind agreed with a nod as he walked in closer to Sophie now, "but I don't see... Soph, you know it's not as simple as that with... with us" he said, mindful of even using a word that connected them so completely, though unfortunately his reluctance seemed only to infuriate the grifter further as she made a noise of frustration in her throat.

"Oh, what does it take?" she yelled to the heavens as she dragged both hands back through her hair, "I love you, Nate!" she exclaimed as she looked to him, so suddenly and with such a volume, she might've knocked him off his feet with the shock, "You hear me, you stupid man? I love you and I can't keep pretending that I don't" she told him, apparently then waiting for his response as she stared across the space between them, just a couple of feet and yet it might as well have been miles in that moment.

Nate wanted to speak, wanted to answer her, would like nothing more than to admit he loved her too and shoot for a happily ever after like all good fairytales had. Unfortunately, he was more of a realist than that. He couldn't believe in everything working out so perfectly, because he had lived in this world too long and knew first hand that it just wasn't the way it worked. The good guys don't always win, those in love can't always last forever, and the world seemed to tend more towards darkness than light, especially Nate's own little corner of it.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Sophie" he told her with a shake of his head, eyes going to the floor because he knew how much this must be hurting her, simply because he felt it too, "I'm not... I can't give you anything. I'd love to, believe me. I'd love to promise you Utopia and more, everything you ever wanted, but this is all there is" he said, arms spread wide to show her, "Just a broken man"

"Newsflash, Nate! We're all broken!" she exclaimed, tears streaming down her face unchecked by now, "You and me, and Eliot and Parker, and Hardison, and Tara... every one of us is broken. Why do you think we do what we do?" she reminded him, swallowing the emotion that was thick in her throat and willing herself to finish what she had started here today, "I don't want the world from you, Nate" she promised as she cleared the space between them, putting a hand to his face when he tried to look away, "I'm not asking for anything, except an honest answer to a simple question" she told him as he met her eyes at last, "Do you love me?"

It was an easy enough question, to which Nate knew he didn't even have a choice of two answers. There was only one, and he could do nothing but give it now and hope for the best.

"Yes" he told her honestly, "Sophie, yes, you know I do" he promised her.

It was all the grifter needed to hear, all she had ever needed to hear, truth be told, a point she proved as she pulled Nate closer and kissed his lips.

She didn't expect a fairytale ending, not even close, but she couldn't live this life anymore, pretending she felt nothing when in fact she felt everything when it came to Nathan Ford. Admitting to needing anyone was hard enough, especially in their line of work. Sophie Deveraux always thought she was safer not needing anyone, not wanting to need them, but life had a habit of turning out very differently to what she expected lately. So much time spent trying to 'find herself', or more so perhaps to find where she belonged. She ought to have known from the very beginning that it was right here in the arms of the man she loved most, and she just wasn't willing to pretend otherwise anymore.

Parker felt strange. It was a good kind of strange, but still, she wasn't sure how to really feel about it. The last week or so, an awful lot had changed, and yet for once in her life, all the things that had sprung up at her out of the blue were good. First she and Eliot formed this odd relationship that they had now, and she had come to realise that the only thing that made really great sex even better was caring enough about the other person that you wanted to stay after. She loved this, being curled up in bed in the arms of her lover, knowing he would always keep her safe and never harm her. Parker never had that before and she was so desperate to hold onto it now for as long as she could.

The second change happened just yesterday when Sophie came home to the team, and the third thing was a result of that, she and Nate were finally together. It was kind of a miracle that the pair of them had finally got over themselves enough to admit how they really felt and just be together. Parker, Eliot, and Hardison had all known from Day One that their grifter and mastermind were meant to be, even if the history that existed between them was fuzzy at best, and both had more issues individually than many couples would have between two of them.

Everything was happy, to a point where Parker was genuinely fearful that this was some kind of dream or trick, and that all too soon it would all be shattered and gone. She was used to pain and loss and tragedy, and yet it never got any easier to live through. She could put on a brave face and say it didn't matter, but her heart was still capable of breaking, and the happy times she was finding at every turn concerned her, because surely they had to end before long.

"That's a helluva frown, darlin'" said Eliot as he glanced down and spotted her worried expression, "You okay?"

"Yeah" she nodded once, looking up at him, "I'm... too okay" she admitted, "I guess I'm just waiting for everything to turn bad. It's too good right now" she shrugged her shoulders, subconsciously pushing her body closer to his, as if maybe holding on tighter might keep her in this happy bubble she had found a little longer somehow.

"Parker, you can't live worrying about what might go wrong all the time" he told her with a smile he couldn't help, "I mean, yeah, you gotta be ready for danger and all" he considered, knowing in their line of work it was particularly important to know all the angles and anticipate all outcomes, be they good or bad, "but when things are going good, you gotta just let 'em be and hope they last. You keep waiting for the hammer to fall, babe, and you're not enjoying the good times while you got 'em" he pointed out, clearly the voice of experience, as usual.

The couple shared a sweet kiss, and Parker's head dropped onto Eliot's shoulder as she snuggled in close. How he managed to always make her feel better about stuff, she still hadn't quite figured out. Eliot Spencer was the one and only person she ever felt this way about. She cared for the whole team, of course she did, they were the closest thing she had to family, but it was different to what she had with the hitter. He was the only guy she ever had in her life that made her want to stick around after sex. He was the one person she always trusted to be there when she needed him, whether to physically catch her or just tell her what she needed to hear, keep her in check. When he held her, she never once felt restricted or smothered, only safe and... loved.

"I love you" the words fell out her mouth unchecked as she came to a sudden and shocking realisation, her head coming up so fast from Eliot's shoulder she nearly clocked him in the chin and bust his jaw.

"You... what?" he checked, sure he had to have misheard the words she had mumbled into his chest a moment before, but then the look on her face, all full of confusion and panic, meant maybe he really had heard those three magic words.

"I... I think, I love you" she stumbled over the unfamiliar words with a frown that soon faded as she bust up laughing in such a way, Eliot would almost have been insulted if he wasn't so shocked, "I'm sorry" she chuckled, "I just never said that before and it sounded so weird" she admitted, feeling strange at how right it had felt just the moment those words left her lips, "Eliot, I love you" she said again just as soon as she could manage to be serious, "Is that okay?" she checked when he was silent too long.

It was his turn to laugh then, not at her at all, because he would never do that, but at himself for being such a fool. In some ways, Eliot thought maybe he'd known from the beginning that he cared for Parker, that he could indeed love her. Lately it had become clearer every day, though he had never once summoned the courage to say the words. Maybe he feared her reaction, maybe he was just worried it would screw things by making them more complicated than they really needed to be, or perhaps the only problem was he was judging this relationship on the downfall of his last real one.

"Of course it's okay, Parker" he promised her, putting a hand to her face, and pulling her into a long deep kiss, "because if you hadn't noticed, I love you too" he told her honestly.

She wasn't quite sure what to do with that, and the feeling like she wanted to laugh again stirred within her but it was only a fleeting thing. Maybe it wasn't so funny, this being in love thing. Parker just never thought it would happen to her, she figured that after all these years and all the people she had known in her life, it was so unlikely that she would ever meet one she could love or that could love her like this. Now here she was, with a real live boyfriend that didn't just want to sleep with her and walk away, didn't just want to use her to help him with a crime and then disappear into the night with the prize. Nope, Eliot was here for keeps and he loved her, and what was even more odd to Parker was that she knew for certain she loved him too - she wasn't sure she could imagine ever stopping now she'd started.

"Wow" she said aloud, rolling herself over on top of him with a grin on her face that he found infectious, "I so didn't see this coming. I mean, we didn't even like each other much when we met"

"Kinda crazy" Eliot had to agree when he thought back to those first days in Chicago, soon forgetting to think about anything as Parker kissed a trail down the side of his neck.

"I'm good with crazy" she said, bringing her head up to look down at him, a smirk on her lips that he more than understood - he was the one who always liked to remind her she was indeed crazy, but it didn't change the fact he loved her, in fact it was quite possible it was one of the very reasons why.

"Well, then, we'll just be crazy together" he said, running his fingers through her hair, "for as long as we can stand each other" he told her, seemingly moving in for a kiss but then flipping the pair of them over at the last moment.

"Might be a long time" Parker told him, a little breathless from the surprise of the movement as well as the intensity in his eyes as he stared down at her, "I'm kinda getting used to this whole couple thing" she admitted.

"Me too" Eliot agreed as he moved in to kiss her long and hard on the lips.

So much in their lives was fake, all the cover stories and the secret identities, con after con, and grift over grift. This was the most real thing either of them had ever experienced. Every touch, every kiss, every word of love, was as genuine as anything ever could be. Heaven only knew how long it would last, but Eliot and Parker were going to make the most of it, for as long as they could.

The End