San Francisco, Friday Morning
Maggie Lawson
Maggie wasn't quite sure what she was doing, calling Nate's friends in on ... well, on a kid. They were good people, in their ways, but she wasn't confident how well in their ways would mesh with the favor she had to ask.
But she loved the Niehauses, and it sounded like they really needed someone they could trust on the island where Cosima was determined to finish high school. And she knew how hard it was to have a kid you had to worry about a little more than average. So she sucked it up and made a call.
Hardison
After a relaxing week in the Keys--even the con had been kind of relaxing, good choice Parker--Hardison was happy to be back in the apartment above the diner, hard at work on the coding for his new class.
Okay, well, the code was compiling, so he was actually playing with the radio-controlled airplane he'd bought and modified. With old Warner Brothers cartoons blaring from the screens mounted on the wall. And his favorite Hall and Oates tunes (Re: most of them) queued up on his ipod.
Look, after all that peace and quiet and communing with nature that Eliot had inflicted on him, Hardison had to readjust to civilization properly, all right?
But even with the cacophony surrounding him and his attention divided in multiple directions, he heard his phone ring. Not any of the multiple random phones he kept around for various purposes and personas, but his phone, the one whose number he gave out to a very few people--only folks he considered family or damn near close to it. The ringtone gave away the caller's identity even before he could check the caller ID. "Hello?" he said, a touch of a button bringing instant silence to the rest of the apartment. "Maggie? It's Hardison. You a'ight?"
Look, she didn't call him often. He had every right to be concerned.
Maggie
"I'm great," Maggie assured him -- and it was nice to know he worried about her, since she figured Nate's team was family by extension for her, too. (Okay, so these were technically Nate's friends from a different universe, but if she thought about that too long her head was going to explode. Hardison sounded like Hardison, either way.)
"Believe it or not, I'm not calling about me. Or about Nate. I have some friends who -- well, their daughter is planning to transfer to the school on your island."
It was rather terribly obvious there would be more to the story.
Hardison
"Small world," Hardison said. "Or multiverse. Or--somethin'. Hang on? I'mma get Parker an' Eliot here, okay?"
Neither of them were far away, but he didn't feel like yelling in Maggie's ear, so he fired off a quick Maggie on line 1, not urgent but come here text. Yes another reason to have multiple phones handy. "They'll be here in a sec," he assured her. "I'mma turn this into a video call an' put you up on the screens, okay?"
The cartoons vanished and Maggie's face appeared, splashed over a whole wall. "Hey Maggie," he said, giving her a wave.
Eliot
Eliot had been down in the office of the diner, hiding from avoiding Hardison's noise. It took him only about a minute to jog up the stairs. He nodded and smiled at the screen. "Maggie. What's goin' on?"
Parker
"Maggie!" Parker appeared as if from nowhere, beaming. "Did Nate do something dumb again?"
Maggie
"How did you --"
Maggie decided she didn't want to know. "Hey, Parker. Eliot. Nate's fine." As far as she knew, anyhow. "But I know somebody whose kid is headed to the island, and I wanted to check if you're up for a little ... is it still babysitting if she's 16 with a tattoo?"
Hardison
It wasn't noise, it was the sounds of civilization. God, Eliot.
"Probably the kind of babysitting we're most qualified for," Hardison admitted with a small grin. "But...why? Ain't sixteen a little old to have a minder? This is a school an' all. Ain't that what teachers are for?"
Which, technically, they all were. Hmm.
"What's up?"
If this kid's parents were hoping to send them to the island to straighten up and fly right, having a group of thieves watch over them was probably not the best way to do it. To say nothing of the island in general.
Eliot
It was noise, Hardison. And it was terrible.
"This kid in some kind of trouble?" Eliot guessed, straightening his shoulders. "Like . . . Leverage, Inc. kind of trouble?"
He was pretty much already invested, yeah.
Maggie
"Not exactly, thank god," Maggie reassured them. "It's a long story. The short version is ... I appraised some art for the Niehauses about, oh, maybe ten years ago. Their daughter Cosima was only a few years younger than Sam, and we got to talking about what it was like to have a kid who ... maybe had a couple extra issues."
She drew a breath. "Cosima's healthy, mostly, but her mom mentioned they had to do fertility treatments to get her. I didn't think too much about it at the time. Anyhow, it turns out the IVF was part of ... sort of a long-term research project? And that's where you might come in."
Parker
Parker frowned at the screen and said, "Mostly healthy?" Then added, "How can we help?"
Because yeah, if Maggie asked, they were so there.
Hardison
"Long-term research project?" Hardison said at the exact same time. "What's up with that?"
"...I mean, yeah, of course we'll help."
But, no, research project?
Maggie
"You need to ask her mom and dad for the details," Maggie admitted. "I wanted to feel you out on it before some stranger called you out of the blue. From what her mom told me, the research isn't anything too disruptive. Mostly they keep in touch with the clinic about how she's doing and check in when she's sick. Cosima's been lucky so far, but some of the children born through this method have asthma, bad immune systems, stuff like that. They want to keep an eye on all of them just in case. But her parents always wanted Cosima to feel like a normal kid, so she ... doesn't exactly know about the research."
She paused there, sighed, and added wryly, "Anyhow, so she hates her school, and her parents told her she could pick a new one. They figured she'd find one in San Francisco. Turns out she has her heart set on Fandom. And that would be why I'm calling you."
Eliot
Eliot frowned. "So . . . they want eyes on the ground." For a teenager. "The kid going to know they've got people watching out for her?"
He was used to 'need to know', but it was a little weird when it involved a kid
Parker
"It is Fandom," Parker pointed out. "Do they know what this place can be like? 'Cause we look out for all the kids here."
Maggie
"She'll know you're friends of friends," Maggie answered with a shrug. "From what I've gathered, she's used to her parents being sort of paranoid, so it doesn't sound like she'll freak about being asked to say hi. And ... what is that place like? Should I tell her folks not to let her go?"
Hardison
Hardison rolled his eyes. "Nah, it ain't like...however you're thinkin'. Believe me on that one."
No matter what she was thinking, it wasn't like that.
"It's just...weird. Good place to learn self-sufficiency if nothin' else. How to roll with punches. Stuff like that."
He--wasn't saying it wasn't dangerous. Because that would be a lie and he wasn't going to lie to Maggie. Hopefully she wouldn't think to ask. Most schools won't after all.
...Hopefully she wouldn't ask about the academic rigor, either.
Eliot
"'Sides," Eliot said, smirking faintly. "She's a teenager. Tellin' her she can't come'll just make her want to more."
Parker
"That's... super-true." Parker was beginning to feel like she understood teenagers better after a few months of dealing with them in classes and around the Island. "I don't see a problem with keeping an eye on her, if you guys don't. How sneaky do you think her parents want us to be?"
Maggie
"I'm not sure," Maggie said thoughtfully. "You'd have to ask them, but they don't strike me as helicopter parents. They're sort of nice, rich hippies. As long as you don't use the words 'lab rat' or sneak into her dorm room to watch her sleep, it should be fine."
She smiled, pleased she could help her friends. "So ... can I tell them to give you a call?"
Hardison
"Yeah, you got no worries on that account," Hardison said, laughing. "We can like...keep an ear out. Let her know we're friendly an' inclined to listen if she's got any problems. Maybe introduce her to the kids that like hangin' around Eliot an' Parker."
Possibly recruit her for the second generation of Leverage, Inc. You know, the usual.
"I don't see no problem with this. Call her folks, let 'em know she'll have folks lookin' out for her."
Honestly, of all the things Maggie could have asked of them that they'd agree to, this was probably the most innocuous.
Eliot
"Just wait," Eliot said. "You'll get your own groupies soon enough." He looked back up at Maggie, tilting his head towards Hardison. "Wish him luck, he's startin' teaching next week."
Parker
"He is not prepared," Parker told Maggie in tones of Doom. Then she cackled.
"Just have the Niehauses call us, and give us the details. And we'll look out for Cosima."
[OOC: Preplayed with whoisalicewhite, vdistinctive and age_of_the_geek, who were awesome enough to take on the monitor thing. NFB, NFI, OOC is love.]