Fic: Family Vacation (Leverage, PG)
Title: Family Vacation
Characters/Pairing: Team, slight Nate/Sophie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1113
Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, Eliot would be shirtless a lot.
Spoilers/Warnings: None.
Summary: Sophie decide the team needs to take a vacation away from the con.
Author’s Note: Written for the vacationthon exchange for krilymcc.
“Nate, you promised.”
Startled by the unexpected voice, Nate looked up from the client file he’d stashed inside a Sudoku magazine and found himself staring into the stern eyes of Sophie Devereaux. She was standing by the arm of the sofa clad in a fluffy white robe with her arms folded across her chest. Nate gazed at her for several seconds, then defeated, he let out a breath and tossed the book and file onto the coffee table in front of him. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I figured that since you were in the shower and the others were still in town, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.”
Sophie tightened the belt on her robe, then sat down on the sofa next to Nate. “We agreed that we would put work out of our minds for at least a week. We all need some time away from the job to relax and reenergize.”
For a moment, Nate considered arguing that work did relax him, but he thought better of it and simply nodded. “I will try to be the laziest team leader on the planet.” He leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Honest.”
“Well, just remember why we’re doing this. The five of us need some time together… as a family.”
A smile ghosted across Nate’s face as he looped his arm around Sophie’s shoulder. “As a family. Well, dear. Maybe we should’ve taken the kids to Disneyworld.”
“Be serious,” Sophie said, giving him a smack on the knee. “It’ll do us good.”
A few days earlier, Sophie had gotten it into her head that the team needed to take a family vacation away from the con. Usually when they took brief respites from their job, they tended to scatter and pursue individual interests. This time, though, Sophie insisted that they do something together as a group. It would strengthen their bond with each other, she had argued. And it would give them something to look back on later besides a long series of cons.
Nate figured that the bond the five of them shared was rock solid, vacation or no vacation. Still, even he had to concede that the stresses of their job-both physical and emotional-could take their toll after a while. Eliot, especially, experienced more wear and tear on an average job than most people did in a lifetime. And a few good memories of time spent together couldn’t hurt.
So after considerable thought on the matter, Nate had rented a cabin in the mountains and had agreed to forgo research, client meetings, and anything else pertaining to their job. The cabin was private, the air was clean and crisp, there was a small town nearby, and there was a fireplace that was perfect for snuggling in front of during the evening hours. Eliot would be able to fish and hike to his heart’s content, and Parker wouldn’t be able to get into too much trouble. But the cabin still had enough amenities that Sophie and Hardison would feel relatively comfortable.
Lifting his feet onto the coffee table that sat in front of them, Nate pulled Sophie closer. “You know, I may complain, but this was a good idea. As a matter of fact, it’s probably my first real family vacation.”
She lifted her head to look at him. “Really? That’s kind of sad.”
“Yeah, well. Jimmy Ford wasn’t the kind dad to pack of a car and head to the beach with his loved ones.”
The one exception Nate could remember was when he was nine years old, and he, his dad, and his mom had headed to New Jersey to visit his mother’s sister. It turned out that the only reason Jimmy had agreed to the trip was because the Irish mob had wanted him to do a job for them in Atlantic City. Nate had spent the ride home listening to his mother give his father the silent treatment.
Once he had a family of his own, Nate had promised himself that he was going to be different. He was going to take Maggie and Sam somewhere special every year, so Sam would grow up with happy memories of a family that spent time together out of love and choice. Despite his best intentions, though, work had kept him away from his family more often than he wanted, and Maggie had been left to take Sam off to visit relatives on her own.
And then Sam was gone, and Nate was left to wallow in regret and lost opportunities. It had taken him a long time to really let Sophie and the others breach the defenses he’d built around his heart. Little by little, though, he’d come to see the team as more than a band of thieves he’d gathered together for a job. They’d become his quirky, non-traditional, patchwork family, and he knew how lucky he was to have them.
As Nate was lost in his thoughts, the door to the cabin flew open, and Eliot and Parker breezed in with an armful of groceries. Hardison trailed after them, furiously rubbing his arms. “Man,” he whined. “I have poison ivy all on me now. Eliot, I think you need to take me to a doctor. I’m breaking out.”
Eliot shot him a look over his shoulder. “It’s not poison ivy. It’s grass, and you’re fine.”
Hardison continued to scratch. “Well, it feels weird. I think I’m getting blotchy.”
After placing her bags onto the counter, Parker patted Hardison on the arm. “Maybe your body is allergic to nature,” she said. “We might have to put you in a bubble.”
Nate flashed a grin at Sophie, and they stood up to join the others in the kitchen. “So what’s for dinner?”
Eliot pulled a bag of marshmallows, a package of chocolate, and a box of graham crackers out of one of the bags he’d been carrying. “Well,” he said. “I’ll fry up some of that fish Parker and I caught today, and then I figured we’d do smores.”
Parker arched an eyebrow. “What’s a smore?”
“Seriously? You’ve never had a smore.”
“I can’t say that I have either,” Sophie said.
Hardison forgot about his itchy arms and shook his head. “That is just sad. You’re gonna love ‘em.”
As the others continued to chat, Nate learned against the wall and just watched them. At that moment, he felt like one of the luckiest people in the world. Despite all the loss he’d experienced up to this point, life was good again, and he knew that at the end of the day, he had a family waiting to make memories with him.
Characters/Pairing: Team, slight Nate/Sophie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1113
Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, Eliot would be shirtless a lot.
Spoilers/Warnings: None.
Summary: Sophie decide the team needs to take a vacation away from the con.
Author’s Note: Written for the vacationthon exchange for krilymcc.
“Nate, you promised.”
Startled by the unexpected voice, Nate looked up from the client file he’d stashed inside a Sudoku magazine and found himself staring into the stern eyes of Sophie Devereaux. She was standing by the arm of the sofa clad in a fluffy white robe with her arms folded across her chest. Nate gazed at her for several seconds, then defeated, he let out a breath and tossed the book and file onto the coffee table in front of him. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “I figured that since you were in the shower and the others were still in town, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.”
Sophie tightened the belt on her robe, then sat down on the sofa next to Nate. “We agreed that we would put work out of our minds for at least a week. We all need some time away from the job to relax and reenergize.”
For a moment, Nate considered arguing that work did relax him, but he thought better of it and simply nodded. “I will try to be the laziest team leader on the planet.” He leaned forward and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Honest.”
“Well, just remember why we’re doing this. The five of us need some time together… as a family.”
A smile ghosted across Nate’s face as he looped his arm around Sophie’s shoulder. “As a family. Well, dear. Maybe we should’ve taken the kids to Disneyworld.”
“Be serious,” Sophie said, giving him a smack on the knee. “It’ll do us good.”
A few days earlier, Sophie had gotten it into her head that the team needed to take a family vacation away from the con. Usually when they took brief respites from their job, they tended to scatter and pursue individual interests. This time, though, Sophie insisted that they do something together as a group. It would strengthen their bond with each other, she had argued. And it would give them something to look back on later besides a long series of cons.
Nate figured that the bond the five of them shared was rock solid, vacation or no vacation. Still, even he had to concede that the stresses of their job-both physical and emotional-could take their toll after a while. Eliot, especially, experienced more wear and tear on an average job than most people did in a lifetime. And a few good memories of time spent together couldn’t hurt.
So after considerable thought on the matter, Nate had rented a cabin in the mountains and had agreed to forgo research, client meetings, and anything else pertaining to their job. The cabin was private, the air was clean and crisp, there was a small town nearby, and there was a fireplace that was perfect for snuggling in front of during the evening hours. Eliot would be able to fish and hike to his heart’s content, and Parker wouldn’t be able to get into too much trouble. But the cabin still had enough amenities that Sophie and Hardison would feel relatively comfortable.
Lifting his feet onto the coffee table that sat in front of them, Nate pulled Sophie closer. “You know, I may complain, but this was a good idea. As a matter of fact, it’s probably my first real family vacation.”
She lifted her head to look at him. “Really? That’s kind of sad.”
“Yeah, well. Jimmy Ford wasn’t the kind dad to pack of a car and head to the beach with his loved ones.”
The one exception Nate could remember was when he was nine years old, and he, his dad, and his mom had headed to New Jersey to visit his mother’s sister. It turned out that the only reason Jimmy had agreed to the trip was because the Irish mob had wanted him to do a job for them in Atlantic City. Nate had spent the ride home listening to his mother give his father the silent treatment.
Once he had a family of his own, Nate had promised himself that he was going to be different. He was going to take Maggie and Sam somewhere special every year, so Sam would grow up with happy memories of a family that spent time together out of love and choice. Despite his best intentions, though, work had kept him away from his family more often than he wanted, and Maggie had been left to take Sam off to visit relatives on her own.
And then Sam was gone, and Nate was left to wallow in regret and lost opportunities. It had taken him a long time to really let Sophie and the others breach the defenses he’d built around his heart. Little by little, though, he’d come to see the team as more than a band of thieves he’d gathered together for a job. They’d become his quirky, non-traditional, patchwork family, and he knew how lucky he was to have them.
As Nate was lost in his thoughts, the door to the cabin flew open, and Eliot and Parker breezed in with an armful of groceries. Hardison trailed after them, furiously rubbing his arms. “Man,” he whined. “I have poison ivy all on me now. Eliot, I think you need to take me to a doctor. I’m breaking out.”
Eliot shot him a look over his shoulder. “It’s not poison ivy. It’s grass, and you’re fine.”
Hardison continued to scratch. “Well, it feels weird. I think I’m getting blotchy.”
After placing her bags onto the counter, Parker patted Hardison on the arm. “Maybe your body is allergic to nature,” she said. “We might have to put you in a bubble.”
Nate flashed a grin at Sophie, and they stood up to join the others in the kitchen. “So what’s for dinner?”
Eliot pulled a bag of marshmallows, a package of chocolate, and a box of graham crackers out of one of the bags he’d been carrying. “Well,” he said. “I’ll fry up some of that fish Parker and I caught today, and then I figured we’d do smores.”
Parker arched an eyebrow. “What’s a smore?”
“Seriously? You’ve never had a smore.”
“I can’t say that I have either,” Sophie said.
Hardison forgot about his itchy arms and shook his head. “That is just sad. You’re gonna love ‘em.”
As the others continued to chat, Nate learned against the wall and just watched them. At that moment, he felt like one of the luckiest people in the world. Despite all the loss he’d experienced up to this point, life was good again, and he knew that at the end of the day, he had a family waiting to make memories with him.