i can’t watch the pilot EVER i keep having new thoughts the
“You’re running.” from Nate at Dubenich and then Eliots of course i am of course i’m running you got a better idea?
because that’s what he DOES now he runs instead of fights he runs and runs and runs and he can still never get far enough away because the man who owns owned owns him is always looking in the background
and so when he finally stops running and turns to fight under the direction of another man. another clever, darkly smiling, charming when he needs to be, scary as hell when you look past it, older man… with broad shoulders and black hair… he has to be so, so careful that he doesnt just replace one owner with another
what the hell even is the difference between loyalty and stupidity anyway? how is he supposed to tell anymore? that’s why he runs, because how can he fight if he can’t even tell between Danger and Safety? That’s the kind of shit that gets you killed.
This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)
a change of pace by idkimoutofideas - Rated G
“Why would Dubenich lie to us?” Hardison asked.
“Because you’re thieves.” Eliot was getting real tired of the way Nate kept saying “you”. As if he hadn’t been a part of the team that stole the information from Pierson.
Eliot worked alone for a long time. Why would he change that now?
cut and glue by lobsterthermidor - Rated G
cutscene from the nigerian job, whilst getting sophie.
or -- nathan ford got three kids and was like. alright. lets get mom now. he literally FOUND the family.
The Trusting a Shifter Job by AlannaofRoses - Rated G
Nate Ford knows a Shifter when he sees one. Eliot Spencer sets off all his warning bells. Can Nate learn to trust a Shifter, or will his first job on the wrong side of the law fall apart?
This is a bit of a rambly, almost stream-of-consciousness retelling of the Nigerian Job from Nate's POV as he decides whether Eliot Spencer is someone he wants on his team. Not my best work ever, but I really want to play in this AU and I needed to jump start my creative brain with all the mess going on right now. Hope you still enjoy if Shifter!Eliot is your cup of tea.
We'll Always Have Paris by elysiumwaits - Rated G
He told her about his family, and what was left of her heart broke a little.
Sophie is a lot of things. In fact, the list of what she isn't is a lot shorter than the list of what she is. But on that shorter list in her mind, at the very top, it states that she is not a homewrecker. Not really.
Nate is a good man. An honest man. He should stay that way.
-
Episode Coda for The Nigerian Job, with a little bit of backstory between Sophie and Nate.
Nigerian Job by treefrogie84 - Rated G
The Nigerian Job from Eliot's PoV
Lets Begin With Nigerians by storywriter8 - Rated T
What happens when you try and blow up a sporadic psychic mastermind, a electro-wizard hacker, a wind elemental thief and a werewolf hitter?
Revenge.
Before the Beginning by PseudoLeigha - Not Rated
When Victor Dubenich showed up in that hotel bar, he had already hired Eliot, Hardison and Parker for his little "retrieval" job. Now a 5-part series explaining how such a situation may have occurred.
Everytime I watch a remember why Parker was immediately my favourite. Parkers insane. Parker stole had to steal her own teddy back and then blew up her house.
I forgot about Elliots glasses in the pilot! He should have kept them.
Hardison is so cocky but likeable. It's really just a show of people being so good at their job.
rewatching the leverage pilot, again, and noticed another fun detail. doubt it was intentional but i think it works for endgame regardless.
they show parker jumping off the roof before the count ends which is a great way of illustration that this pilot episode "i only work alone" Parker is a loose cannon, completely unreliable. "five pounds of crazy in a ten pound bag." but Nate restarted the count
Nate starts a count down and restarts it because Hardison and Eliot were arguing over top of him on the coms. the show routinely shows that Parker is most likely to follow her first given direction and sometimes fixates on it to the point of answering a question minutes after it's been asked. (her figuring out the math of how far the car would have gone in the runway job, for example)
so parker hears the count start, keeps the tempo of it in her own head, while she gets more and more excited about her jump. the jump is parker's favorite part, she loves jumping off of buildings almost more than she likes stealing. of course she misses the count start over, i guarantee she stopped listening the second the boys started arguing over nothing.
like parker is amazing at timing when she wants to be, that's why she's the new mastermind (or she's who season 5 sets up as the mastermind anyway). parker is the best among them at figuring out all the moving pieces and keeping track of the time ticking down. she jumps when the original count would have hit one. intentional or not, it's a great character detail
I do like how they don't trust or know each other. That first job, they're so quick to try to abandon each other, 'every man for himself' when there escape is scuppered. And they would have found ways out by themselves but I think for Hardison especially that was the first time he ever had someone who could help him. No wonder he was like 'that was fun!'.
The double cross! That whole warehouse scene is so good, the anger, the gun bit, the laughing realisation of what it is, the run out where they help each other, the explosion. *chefs kiss*
Then...
What in it for me? Payback, and if it goes right a lot of money.
And me? A lot of money, and if it goes right payback. 😊
P.S. Eliot stopping to help Hardison up when he trips running out of the warehouse, and talking to Nate about his son’s death - in episode 1, he’s already in the protector role of being invested in the team and emotionally sensitive to them. Considering the “I work alone” element they emphasize for each of the team members, I think the switch for Eliot would be most profound: Parker is still stealing when she’s doing it with other people, Hardison is still hacking and wise-cracking and being one with technology whether he’s by himself or not, but when he teams up with these people, Eliot goes from using his training for violence to acquire things or scare someone off to using it as a shield for this group, being a barrier between them and anyone who wants to get to them. Eliot is often the one most annoyed by Parker and Hardison, especially in the earlier seasons, but he has a lot of emotional awareness about himself and I think it carries over to the others on the team (and is also one of the reasons he ends up being a decent grifter).
Anyway, I really love Eliot, although his pilot hair is Messed Up.
“All right. Let’s go get Sophie.” - Nate
“What the hell’s a Sophie?” - Eliot
“She’s very awful.” - Hardison
“Is she injured? In the head?” - Parker
“Seriously, man. This is the worst actress I’ve ever seen.” - Eliot
“This is... not her stage.” - Nate
