A/N: Okay, here's the thing. My life has gotten seriously hectic and busy and crammed full of family issues, school stuff and job crap (hehe adjetives) so I'm going to try really hard to respond to reviews, but don't sit up nights waiting for them, okay? And I really want to list everyone who reviewed by name because you guys are seriously the most rockin' awesome people every, but I just can't right now. I'm doing good to update my (three? four?) WIP fics in any kind of a timely fashion. Sorry! Please know I love you all and I love reading what you think (in quick snatches stolen from far stupider but somehow 'more important' things) so don't hesitate to throw me a review-bone, okay? Thanks! luvya lots. Oh! and much love to fluerlb who beta'd this for me! Enjoy! -pj
By the next day no one had heard from Eliot, and Hardison and Parker were practically kinetic with worry. Sophie had taken to biting her manicured nails clean off, and Nate was on his second beer of the morning.
"Alright," he snapped, and looked up at Parker, who had sat herself in the middle of his dining room table, hands in her lap, staring at him until he said the words she'd been waiting to hear. Sophie looked over from the movie she wasn't really watching.
"Hardison."
The hacker looked up, "Yeah?"
Nate sighed and looked from Sophie to Parker, who was already grinning.
"Find him."
"I don't get it. What's in Montana?" Parker asked, tossing her one duffel bag full of belongings beside Sophie's three suitcases in the cargo hold of Nate's plane. Hardison shook his head as he tossed in his own suitcase and slung his laptop bag across his shoulders.
"As far as I can tell? A whole lot of nothin'."
"Montana is the fourth largest state and home to Custer's last stand at Little Big Horn as well as the largest open pit copper mine in the country."
They both looked at Nate and the older man shrugged. "You pick stuff up."
"Yeah, well, as fascinating as that is, I seriously doubt Eliot went to Montana to see the big copper hole in the ground," Hardison said slowly, exchanging a wary glance with Parker, who shrugged and led the way onto the plane.
"C'mon guys," Sophie shouted from the door opening, "let's get this show on the road."
Parker stopped short and Nate and Hardison gave her curious looks as they passed.
The theif's eyes widened with horror, "Sophie's going to perform?"
"Washington, Montana. Population: 467," Sophie read off the sign as they drove into town, or what passed for town. A gas station, a liquor store, a pharmacy and a diner made up the main stretch, and extended on both sides with small boutiques and family-run businesses.
Parker blew the bangs off her forehead, crowded into the small backseat of the rented sedan with Hardison. She pressed her forehead against the window as she stared outside.
"You're sure this is where Eliot ended up, Hardison?" Sophie asked from the passenger's seat, frowning around at the scenery. 'One horse town' would have been stretching it.
Hardison gave her a 'are you kidding me' look. "Sophie, look, this is what I do. I know how to track someone, okay? He's not Parker. Dude wasn't exactly trying to hide his tracks. Used known aliases and cards to pay for everything, okay? He's here, alright? He's here."
"Okay, okay," Sophie raised her hands in surrender. "It was just a question is all."
They drove at a crawling pace, getting the full view of the town. There wasn't much to look at.
"Yeah, yeah, okay." They all looked over to see Nate nodding, smiling in the driver's seat. "I get it."
Hardison waited a minute and then, "What?"
"Hm? What?" Nate glanced around to see the other three all staring at them. "Oh I just, uh," he waved his hand vaguly, gesturing at the dusty, wornout-looking town. A couple of kids sat on the curb eating ice cream in the stifling heat of midday. A beat up Chevy truck pulled away from the hardware store with a load of boxes in the bed. "It suits him."
"Eliot?" Parker wrinked her nose and looked around. "This is a little bit…little. Even for him."
Nate nodded vigorously, turning into the parking lot at the diner, "That's my point."
The others would have asked what he meant, but Nate had already turned off the car and gotten out, and they were left with no choice but to follow.
Sophie pulled off her oversized sunglasses when she walked into the dimly lit diner. She was a bit overdressed for the establishment in brown Gucci cowboy boots, black leggings and a purple paisley shirt but with Hardison and Nate both dressed in plain jeans and t-shirt ensembles, it evened out.
Inside it looked like 'the diner that time forgot', with the white counters and red barstools of the fifties. A vintage and still working classic jukebox stood in the corner softly playing 'Ring of Fire' and they half expected the chalk menu on the wall above the counter to advertise burgers for 50 cents.
The sole patrons were a pair of older men in plaid and suspenders who were sharing the sports section of the newspaper in the corner booth and a young man in a black shirt and boots at the counter.
Parker stood beside Sophie in skinny jeans, red converse, an oversized flannel and a messy ponytail. "I think you're right Nate. This place even smells like Eliot."
Nate spotted a young girl, about seventeen, standing at the end of the counter near the cash register playing with her split ends, the stick of a sucker poking out of her mouth.
Her eyes brightened when she saw them, "Hey there, never seen you 'round here before. Can I help ya'?" she drawled, an accent much too thick and southern to have been from those parts.
"Um, yes, we're looking for a friend of ours that we think may be staying in town." Sophie said with a sweet smile.
The girl pulled the sucker out of her mouth, revealing a blue tongue and teeth.
"Well who is it? It's a small town so, if I don't know 'em I can probably point you toward someone who does." She winked at the boy at the counter, and he grinned back a dazzling dimpled smile before turning an openly curious look onto the visitors.
"Well that would be wonderful," Sophie smiled. "His name is Eliot Spencer."
The girls' eyes snapped over to her and all flirtation dropped away as the boy at the counter stiffened.
Parker frowned, noting the change. "What? What's the matter?"
The girl gave them all careful looks before turning around to shout through the opening in the wall into the kitchen.
"Uncle Mike! You better get out here."
The girl turned back around, almost glaring at team, and crossed her arms.
"What is it, Becks?" A large, round, bald man emerged from the back in a stained white t-shirt and apron, wiping his hands on a dish towel.
"These people say they're looking for Eliot Spencer."
Mike didn't even blink. "Never heard of him."
The team frowned. The man lied smoothly but being of the profession they were, they knew it was exactly that. A lie.
"No, no, I don't think you understand," Sophie motioned to herself and the others, "we're friends of his, he'd taken ill a few days ago and we traced him here and we'd um, well, we'd just like to check on him and be sure he's alright."
Mike shook his head again, crossing his trunk- like arms over his chest. "Sorry. Can't help you."
Sophie visibly deflated and looked helplessly at Nate.
"Look, uh, my name's Nate Ford and I-"
"You're Nate Ford," the girl exclaimed, but quieted immediately at the sharp look her uncle gave her.
"Wait wait-" Nate held up his hands, seeing his name had gotten a reaction, "does that mean something to you guys?"
The man stayed quiet, and the boy at the counter had suddenly gotten very interested in his slice of pie.
Becks turned to Mike with an urgent look, "Uncle Mike," she whispered, but it was easy enough for them all to hear, "you remember what El said about Nate Ford."
"What? What did he say?" Hardison piped up.
The girl sighed. "He said we could trust him."
"Becks!" Mike exclaimed.
"No, he's right, you can," Sophie insisted. "We're friends of his, we work with Nate. I'm Sophie. This is Parker and that's Hardison."
Mike gave them long, assessing looks. "What is it you all do, again?"
Nate gave a small smile. "We provide Leverage."
"This is far as I dare go." Mike got out of his pick up and rounded to the back where the team was spilling out of their sedan. Becks rolled down the window of the door and sat on it, arms folded on the hood.
"El was very specific when he said not to enter the property when he was on it."
Parker nodded and smiled in a way that came off as condescending. "I think we can handle it."
"What she means is 'thank you'," Sophie stepped in quickly, smiling at the two people, "for everything."
The man shrugged one shoulder. "You better be who you say you are. If you're not, it's not me you'll have to deal with."
With that he got back in his car and drove off in a cloud of dust.
"Man, Eliot sure knows how to pick 'em," Hardison peered through his sunglasses and turned 360 degrees to see the surroundings. A dirt road extended toward the horizon in either direction, a corn field to the rear and in front of them, a log cabin house with a tin roof and brick chiminy was the lone structure as far as the eye could see.
Parker and Sophie started toward the door with a single-minded focus on getting to Eliot that would likely get them killed, so Nate called out to stop them.
"Hold on guys," Nate said, pushing his sunglasses up on his nose, "let's think about this a minute."
Sophie frowned and crossed her arms. "What? Why?"
Nate kept up scanning the outside of the seemingly benign house.
"It's a safe house, Sophie," he said meaningfully, "a hitter's safe house. You saw how the townies reacted to us." Nate saw that the team was still not quite on the same page as him. And they wouldn't be, would they? They hadn't spent the better part of eight months tracking the wary, paranoid, surprisingly bright young hitter across Tanzania.
"Imagine all of your safe houses," he began, looking them each in the face. Nate made sure they had a few safe houses meant for the team or clients that needed protection, but he wasn't so deluded as to think each member of the team didn't have their own safe houses on the side. He waited until they had nodded.
"Alright, now imagine your safe houses if Eliot were in charge of designing them." He raised his eyebrows meaningfully and watched as understanding dawned on Sophie and Hardison's faces. Parker grinned.
"Yeah, you're right," Hardison nodded, opening his laptop on the trunk of the car, "let me scan for power output or any kind of motion sensors and video monitors."
"I'll check for booby traps," Parker announced, slinking toward the edges of the property.
Nate nodded and looked at Sophie , who was fidgeting a few feet away in the shade of a tall oak tree, having removed her big hat and sunglasses, staring worriedly at the small, worn-looking structure. She chewed the ends of her sunglasses worriedly.
He sidled up to her, hands stuffed in his pockets.
"I don't like it Nate," she said without looking at him. "He had to have known we would help him."
Nate sighed, shrugging, "Ah, you know Eliot, Sophie. Doesn't trust anybody enough to let them see him hurt. Not even us."
She sighed, dropping her hands to her side, "I know. Stubborn ass."
TBC - more will be up as soon as humanly possible...in one of these verses. lol. Who's bright idea was it to have so many fics in the works at one time anyway?...oh yeah...