A/N: Here's chapter 24. We'll probably see one final chapter after this one. Sorry I've been slower than normal getting this posted.

I don't own Leverage or any of the characters, and make no profit.

Thanks so much for the readers who have been so loyal to this story, and also for those who have been so good about reviewing. The reviews make me very happy, and help me improve my writing. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 24

"After the team disappeared down the back steps, the smoke started to clear sufficiently to see the people in the room better. Eliot had been hit hard, and hit the wall even harder, and so, he was still out. Because of that, I was mopping up by myself. I tied Conrad and his men up, getting ready to deliver them to some friends, and I don't know how Conrad did it, but he had backup teams swarming the building before I was finished tying up Conrad's last man. They were fighting me pretty hard, and I was taking a beating. Mitchell came up the back stairs and joined in the fray. We were holding our own for awhile, but we were starting to reach our limits. They might have won had they not forgotten about Eliot. All of us can fight more than one person, and generally more than two or three—they were expecting that, but they weren't expecting Eliot to wake up and rejoin the party. Between us, we had turned the tables again, and it was all over in less than ten minutes. Eliot and I got everyone tied up, while Mitchell set the mystery explosives."

"Mystery explosives?" Doc asked, curious.

"The explosives that just appeared in the room at the time we needed them?" Eliot smirked.

Vance stopped and looked sideways at Eliot, who laughed weakly at his expression.

"Suffice it to say, after the team had to blow up our first office in L.A., I keep explosives on-hand at all times, in case they are needed."

Another look flashed across Vance's face, and Eliot said, "What? They're stable."

Choosing to ignore his friend, Vance continued the story. "With the injuries we had, we barely made it out of the building before it blew, and then we knew we had to get somewhere off the grid and hole up so we could get everyone's injuries treated. We also had to move two or three times to avoid being discovered. I wasn't coming out to your place until I knew we wouldn't be followed."

(0o0)

Shelley began to stir again, and Doc rose and moved over next to his cot. Taking his hand in hers, she started speaking softly to him and wiping his face with a warm, damp cloth. When he opened his eyes once again, she smiled.

"Mister Shelley? Can you see me?" He nodded, and she silently breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad to have you back with us. How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been run over by a cement truck."

"Better than feeling nothing, like before." She helped him sit up, and a few moments later, walk. Moments after that, she sent him to the attached bathroom for a hot shower. It would help with the stiffness.

(0o0)

Now that the team was safe once again, and those on the team who were injured were now on the mend, they each felt the need to escape the closed in places in which they had been cooped up for the past number of days, to feel sunshine on their faces and share private thoughts outside of the hearing of others. Since Doc's safe place had a good amount of land attached to it, it provided them the opportunity to do just that, while keeping them close enough to satisfy her.

Nate and Sophie were the first to venture out. Sophie still wasn't walking well, so they moved only as far as the little wooden porch on the other side of the barn, where Doc kept a small, one-bedroom apartment. Hardison was next, getting antsy after having gone so long without being able to get online. He planned to find the highest hill on Doc's property, and see if he could bounce a signal off a passing satellite, He wanted Parker to go with him, but she was with Doc, having her stitches removed. Vance, Shelley, and Mitchell had moved to one of the open air storage stalls and were lost in conversation, making plans to tie up loose ends.

When Doc finished removing Parker's stitches, she skipped out the door to catch up to Hardison. Eliot looked at Doc and said, "We have some loose ends of our own to tie up, don't we?"

"We do. Are you wanting to do that here, now?"

Eliot knew what she was really asking. Did he want to do it in a place where members of his team might walk back in in the middle of it.?

"I thought we might take a walk of our own."

"Are you up for that?"

"More than. I haven't really been outdoors in weeks. Not for any length of time, anyway."

"All right. Are you up for a hike to the summit of Little Blackfoot Mountain? My land backs up to it." Eliot thought for a moment, then smiled his consent. It was strenuous enough to get their blood pumping, but it wasn't very strenuous at all. It was perfect.

"Sounds great. As much as I'd love to take camping equipment and stay out there overnight, I think, for the team's peace of mind, we should try to be back before dark."

"I agree. I don't think you're up for staying overnight right now, anyway."

For the next hour, they walked up the moderately steep incline until they reached the summit of the small mountain known as Little Blackfoot Mountain. It was so named because it was right next to the larger, steeper, Blackfoot Mountain. From the top, they could see for miles. What looked like stone seats were carved into the side of the mountain, positioned in such a way that when a person was sitting in one of them, they couldn't see any of the other seats or anyone sitting in them, and legend had it that the Native Americans who walked the land before the arrival of the first European settlers came had carved them for tribal elders. There was no way to access them anymore, perhaps because of the natural erosion.

Eliot sat down on one of the larger rocks on the trail's terminus, and started rooting through the knapsack he had brought with him. Doc sat a short distance away, watching him. If she wasn't mistaken, Eliot was nervous. He never moved without purpose, except that that was exactly what he was doing right now.

"Eliot? Are you ready to get started?"

"No, but let's get started anyway."

"All right. Close your eyes."

He closed them, and she started speaking softly. He went under again quickly.

(0o0)

Parker hadn't been able to find Hardison, so she started looking for something tall from which to repel. She was starting to feel out of practice. She didn't have her climbing gear with her, though she might look later to see if she had a spare in Hardison's van. For now, she settled for jumping from tree limb to tree limb to practice. Sometimes, she was jumping on one tree, sometimes she was going from tree to tree. Parker was caught up in what she was doing, and having a blast.

She jumped the last few branches on one tree, and sat in the top, resting. When she heard the voices below her, curiosity got the better of her, and she stretched her body out until she was lying across the fork of a large branch, high in the tree. It was then that she realized the voices she was hearing belonged to Doc and Eliot. She started to get down, knowing Eliot likely wouldn't appreciate company while this was going on. As she reached the ground, preparing to move away before anyone saw her, she heard a murmured word from Doc and then a violent growl from Eliot. She spun around to find Eliot advancing menacingly on Doc.

"Eliot! No!" she screamed, horrified at the man she saw before her. This was not her Eliot. She ran over to Doc and Eliot, and with a roar, Eliot's arm shot out and closed around Parker's throat, lifting her off the ground and pinning her to a tree. She was struggling to breathe, and her eyes were terrified.

"Eliot, the word potato has no meaning to you, other than food." She could see that her words were having little effect, and she suddenly knew what she would have to do. Reaching into her bag, she took out a syringe, and with no time to waste, plunged it into the side of Eliot's thigh. With a growl, he turned, causing him to let go to Parker, who slid to the ground, and then he took two steps toward Doc and fell face first on the ground, out cold. Doc moved to check on Parker, but the little blonde thief had already risen shakily to her feet, and without stopping to think too much about what she was doing, she disappeared into the trees.