lmx_v3point3

Fic: This New Reality

Author: LMX
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Eliot/Nate
Rating: PG-13 for language
Spoilers: The Big Bang Job
Warnings: Language
Notes: Prompted by sheryden on the nate_eliot promptfest. Written for the leverageland Minibang.

-

Nate staggered into his apartment last, and he could see the moment when the rest of the team realised that Eliot wasn't going to follow him through that door. They deflated as one, Parker bringing an icepack to her jaw and Hardison scrolling through camera angles as Sophie came over to check that he was alright.

Nate slumped into a chair, ignoring Sophie's fussing. When a whiskey turned up at his elbow he didn't even blink before slamming it down.

"He has to have been planning this for years, Nate." Sophie's voice was rough and uneven. Broken. "He's talked to me about this heist so many times it feels like it was my idea in the first place. Eliot *never* suggests heists... I should have known..."

"He's been teaching me the sequence of moves I'd need," Parker broke in suddenly. "To get away from that one guy. Exactly the sequence. He knew who it would be and he trained me to know what to do."

"And he made me teach him the hack he'd need for that door code," Alec added. "He took my equipment and he left the earbud where he knew only I'd find it, even when the police searched."

"So he didn't want us hurt or in trouble..." Sophie started. "He just wanted the prize for himself. Or for his client, who by extension now wants us dead."

Alec's expression hardened. "Either way, he's betrayed us, and he's been planning it for a while."

"He knew the men who turned up," Parker dropped the icepack on the table and stared at it. "And he didn't tense up like he was thinking of fighting. He just..."

Nate couldn't bring himself to move, or speak or even think. That last moment, when Eliot had turned to face him for a moment before ducking out of that door and setting off the alarm with his own team inside the building... There had been some kind of gleeful satisfaction in his expression.

The Eliot Spencer he had known... he had loved... well it was starting to look an awful lot like he never existed.

-

The new reality was cold and stark. They trusted teach other to the given limits of their careers. They trusted Parker to do everything they needed her to do for the con, but not to walk away from anything valuable or to leave their wallets in their pockets. They trusted Sophie to guide them and advise them and to be whoever they needed her to be, but they always assumed she had her own motives. Hardison could be trusted to guide them and keep them safe digitally, and to always have an escape plan, but would always go a step too far in the con.

Nate would always be there to run the con and get them out of a tough spot, and he'd make the hard decisions so that they would never have to bear that weight... and he knew they got more wary the more impassioned he became.

But Eliot... Eliot was the one who kept them safe. Eliot they just trusted, no exceptions. Granted, sometimes Nate didn't listen as close as he should have, but...

Eliot was the sharp voice of reason when things started to overwhelm him. When Parker was distracted he was the coaxing, guiding friend. When Sophie got caught up in a tangent Eliot was a measured reminder and when Hardison started spinning out of control, Eliot was the growling threat at his shoulder. And if there was ever any thought, or hint or suggestion that any of them was about to get hurt, he was there without hesitation, throwing himself in the path of danger.

If Eliot couldn't be depended upon. Steady, reassuring, reliable Eliot... Could any of them trust the other?

The shock was slowly wearing off, and Nate was suddenly raging. Sophie reached out to touch him every time he walked past her, but he wasn't going to let her get her hands on him. He didn't want to calm down. He could feel the anger boiling in his gut and all he really wanted to think about was revenge. But they had a client out there, and the target of all this hate... had been in his bed less than an day ago.

So he paced, and circled, and kept his schemes to himself.

-

It was perhaps most terrifying that Parker was the voice of reason in the end.

"Eliot protects us from danger," she pointed out, her hand fisted in Nate's collar holding him still. "He wouldn't have put us in danger if he didn't think we were going to be in more danger if he didn't put us in danger first." Parker paused, presumably to let that whole thing settle in. "So... Eliot's the one in big danger, we've got to find him. Make sure he's alright."

It was Sophie who stepped up first, which was a relief for Nate as he had worried Parker was expecting him to be able to process all that. "Parker, Eliot planned this whole thing. He's known this was going to happen for months, maybe even years..."

"So he's known he was in danger." Parker shrugged expressively. "It must have been more dangerous for him to tell us than to not." She didn't let go of Nate's collar - she had one hell of a grip - but she let him sit down.

"Parker... it sounds like you're reachin'," Hardison put forward, uncharacteristically tentatively.

"Eliot protects us from danger," she repeated, her tone getting sharp and exasperated. "It's who Eliot is... Anything else and he wouldn't be Eliot."

"Maybe he wasn't ever..." Nate started, putting voice for the first time to the thing that was souring his gut.

Alec interrupted him, "Oh... woah now, wait. It was like with Moreau." At the assorted confused stares, he shook his head. "Y'all didn't see him when he went to meet Moreau, he knew he was walking into... a fucking deathtrap... but he wasn't..." Alec pulled a face. "He didn't tense up, like he was expecting a fight. He was all... loose. I didn't even associate it 'til just now but... he was like that back there."

"Moreau's still in San Lorenzo," Sophie corrected, but she looked more hopeful than she had all day.

"Come on, guys," Alec snorted dismissively. "We all know Moreau ain't the only war lord boss in Eliot's closet."

"So... who?" Nate finally managed.

"Guess we won't find out until we get him back." Sophie gently coaxed Nate's collar free from Parker's grip and hustled her with Hardison back towards all the computer equipment. She came back a couple of minutes later with a tumbler of whiskey and sat close by. "Steel yourself, Nate," she said, squeezing his shoulder as she handed over the drink. "This one could get complicated. But we'll bring him home."