Fic: Staking Out the Future
Title: Staking Out the Future
Author: telaryn
Fandom: Leverage/BTVS
Rating: PG
Characters: Faith, Nate Ford
Summary: In the days before The Long Goodbye Job, Faith's father shares his secrets with her and she marvels at how wonderfully normal her life has become
Warnings: Spoilers for the Leverage episode "The Long Goodbye Job"
Author notes: This is a story in The Ties That Bind Job 'Verse, wherein Faith discovers she is the illegitimate daughter of Leverage team Mastermind Nathan Ford.
Faith had once believed that Cleveland, Ohio was the strangest place she’d ever called home. Not that the city itself was particularly strange, although the presence of a Hellmouth certainly kept life interesting, but the fact that it was just about the last major city in the country where she could picture herself putting down roots.
And then she’d followed her wonderfully non-traditional new family to Portland. Portland, Oregon - the city so quirky IFC had green-lit a television series about it. Instead of a Hellmouth, Faith found a vampire population that was largely trying to blend in with their human counterparts. They weren’t “out” per se, but they weren’t really hunting either, and after a few weeks of patrols where the most interesting thing that happened was she and Eliot forgetting to isolate their comm channels from the rest of the group, Faith had begun cutting back on her nightly wanderings. (Luckily they’d attracted Hardison’s attention before anything truly embarrassing had been said on the record.) “They know I’m in town,” was her reasoning when Eliot pointed it out. “If I’m needed, trouble will find me.”
As far as her dealings with other Slayers went, even though she’d never officially retired the world of supernatural threats and responses largely went on without her. She’d even fallen out of regular touch with Giles; although she was grateful to her former Watcher and partner for his help in breaking Nate’s deal with the demon Crowley, he’d been making choices and presumptions lately that she couldn’t risk being associated with.
Without all the extra demands on her time, Faith’s life was turning surprisingly normal. Eliot had asked her to move in with him when the team relocated to Portland, and she’d only hesitated with her answer long enough to verify that it wasn’t going to wind Nate up too much. The team wasn’t taking on as many jobs as they had before the move, which left room for all kinds of couple related activities, and time for Faith to understand that in his own way Eliot really did love her for herself.
And even more surprising and wonderful, that she loved him back.
The one group activity that had carried over from Boston - and even previously from what Eliot had told her - was the men’s love of football games played out on Hardison’s idea of an audio-visual, home-theater experience. Now that she and Hardison were officially “dating”, Parker had seemed to embrace the whole “chips, dip, beer and yelling at the ref” thing. Sophie still wanted nothing to do with it. Faith tried, but usually wandered downstairs at some point to take advantage of the heavy bag Hardison had installed in a corner of the new offices for she and Eliot to use.
She’d managed to work up a good sweat the night of the Patriots/Colts game, before she realized she had an audience. “Half-time already?” she asked her father, grabbing a towel to wipe the sheen of sweat from her face and neck.
Nate Ford nodded; smiling the same half-smile that always seemed to be on his lips whenever he watched her doing something. “I don’t know if I’ve ever asked,” he said, gesturing at the bag. “How much of that is your Slayer powers, and how much is you?”
Faith snorted softly. “Pretty much all me,” she admitted. Picking up her squeeze bottle, she took a long drink of water. “I know Hardison’s some kind of genius and I’m sure he did the math to make it so I couldn’t tear it out of the ceiling, but…” She let her voice trail off meaningfully.
“But you could tear it out of the ceiling,” Nate finished for her. “Got it.”
“You’ve got to remember,” Faith told him, “I’ve been in training pretty much since I was sixteen. The Slayer stuff at this point is just a boost to what I can largely do on my own.” She went to one side of the counter they all sat at while being briefed for a job and leaned her elbows on it. “So - got to be a boring game, if you’ve come down to watch me kick the shit out of something?”
It was an invitation, and her father recognized it as such. They’d only really known each other for a few short years, but Faith figured she didn’t have to be as smart as Nate to recognize that he had something he wanted to talk to her about.
And a moment later he pulled something out of his pocket, walked to the counter opposite where she stood, and set a small velvet box between them. Faith felt her eyes widen and a pleased grin spreading across her face. “You haven’t asked her yet, have you?” she said, looking up to meet her father’s all-too-serious gaze.
His expression softened slightly. “You’re so sure what it is?”
Faith laughed. “Oh please. If it’s not, I know three people that are going to be very disappointed in you.” She snapped open the box to confirm that it contained the expected diamond engagement ring, then grinned up at him again. “Yep. You’re going to make Eliot a hundred dollars richer when you lay this on her, you know.”
Nate groaned, rolling his eyes. “You kids are betting on my proposing to Sophie?”
“Not me.” Faith snapped the box shut and slid it back to him. “They wouldn’t let me into the pool; said I had an insider track and it wouldn’t be fair.” She paused. “So - what’s the hold-up?”
“Well…” Nate fidgeted slightly, and Faith tensed - realizing that whatever was coming next her father was actually nervous about discussing it with her. “I figured I needed to check with you, first, and make sure you were okay with it?”
Her first impulse was to laugh off the half-a-question, half-a statement, but before she could Faith realized this was what normal families did in a situation like this. Her opinion - her blessing - mattered to Nate. “I know you and Sophie haven’t always gotten along smoothly,” he added when she didn’t immediately answer him. “And believe me I don’t think I’d be considering this if you and Eliot hadn’t…”
“I hope that’s not true,” she said hastily, reaching out and grabbing his hand in hers. “I hope you don’t think for one second that I’d stop you from pursuing whatever kind of relationship makes you happy.”
“Sophie makes me happy,” Nate admitted. “And now that I’m finally free to think about having a future with her I don’t know if I’ve thought about anything else. But Faith - you’re my daughter. Nothing is ever going to be more important to me than that.”
Their eyes met, and Faith was overwhelmed by the depth of emotion she saw looking out at her. “You know, when you say something like that I occasionally have to remember I’m not dreaming.” How had this become her life? The girl nobody had wanted, the Slayer who hadn’t mattered, and she had a home, a family, a man who loved her - and a father who would have put his future and his happiness on hold at one word from her.
“You’re not dreaming,” Nate laughed. “But it does touch on a fairly valid point - even though we’ve been working overtime to make up for lost years Faith, it’s only been three years since we found each other. If you need me to wait on this thing with Sophie…”
“I need you to listen to what you’ve been telling me,” she interjected, cutting him off. “I’ve got the rest of my life to be your daughter, and you’ve got the rest of your life to be my father. What you need to be looking at is that against all odds you’ve got a future again. You need to be grabbing some of that miracle for yourself.” She smiled at him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“About that…” he began. “I know you’re not going anywhere, and I do trust that we have the rest of our lives together, but the proposal isn’t the only change I’ve been considering.” Stunned, Faith listened as Nate laid out a plan he’d been working on ever since they’d relocated to Portland. “Originally I was trying to make sure you all were taken care of when Crowley called in his marker, but I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t want to be doing this for however many years I do end up having left.”
It was a bold, insane, brilliant plan. It was the elusive “big score” they all talked about, and as Faith listened to Nate explain the rest of his strategy, she realized that just setting this in motion was going to potentially change everything for all of them, in ways a proposal and a wedding never could.
Author: telaryn
Fandom: Leverage/BTVS
Rating: PG
Characters: Faith, Nate Ford
Summary: In the days before The Long Goodbye Job, Faith's father shares his secrets with her and she marvels at how wonderfully normal her life has become
Warnings: Spoilers for the Leverage episode "The Long Goodbye Job"
Author notes: This is a story in The Ties That Bind Job 'Verse, wherein Faith discovers she is the illegitimate daughter of Leverage team Mastermind Nathan Ford.
Faith had once believed that Cleveland, Ohio was the strangest place she’d ever called home. Not that the city itself was particularly strange, although the presence of a Hellmouth certainly kept life interesting, but the fact that it was just about the last major city in the country where she could picture herself putting down roots.
And then she’d followed her wonderfully non-traditional new family to Portland. Portland, Oregon - the city so quirky IFC had green-lit a television series about it. Instead of a Hellmouth, Faith found a vampire population that was largely trying to blend in with their human counterparts. They weren’t “out” per se, but they weren’t really hunting either, and after a few weeks of patrols where the most interesting thing that happened was she and Eliot forgetting to isolate their comm channels from the rest of the group, Faith had begun cutting back on her nightly wanderings. (Luckily they’d attracted Hardison’s attention before anything truly embarrassing had been said on the record.) “They know I’m in town,” was her reasoning when Eliot pointed it out. “If I’m needed, trouble will find me.”
As far as her dealings with other Slayers went, even though she’d never officially retired the world of supernatural threats and responses largely went on without her. She’d even fallen out of regular touch with Giles; although she was grateful to her former Watcher and partner for his help in breaking Nate’s deal with the demon Crowley, he’d been making choices and presumptions lately that she couldn’t risk being associated with.
Without all the extra demands on her time, Faith’s life was turning surprisingly normal. Eliot had asked her to move in with him when the team relocated to Portland, and she’d only hesitated with her answer long enough to verify that it wasn’t going to wind Nate up too much. The team wasn’t taking on as many jobs as they had before the move, which left room for all kinds of couple related activities, and time for Faith to understand that in his own way Eliot really did love her for herself.
And even more surprising and wonderful, that she loved him back.
The one group activity that had carried over from Boston - and even previously from what Eliot had told her - was the men’s love of football games played out on Hardison’s idea of an audio-visual, home-theater experience. Now that she and Hardison were officially “dating”, Parker had seemed to embrace the whole “chips, dip, beer and yelling at the ref” thing. Sophie still wanted nothing to do with it. Faith tried, but usually wandered downstairs at some point to take advantage of the heavy bag Hardison had installed in a corner of the new offices for she and Eliot to use.
She’d managed to work up a good sweat the night of the Patriots/Colts game, before she realized she had an audience. “Half-time already?” she asked her father, grabbing a towel to wipe the sheen of sweat from her face and neck.
Nate Ford nodded; smiling the same half-smile that always seemed to be on his lips whenever he watched her doing something. “I don’t know if I’ve ever asked,” he said, gesturing at the bag. “How much of that is your Slayer powers, and how much is you?”
Faith snorted softly. “Pretty much all me,” she admitted. Picking up her squeeze bottle, she took a long drink of water. “I know Hardison’s some kind of genius and I’m sure he did the math to make it so I couldn’t tear it out of the ceiling, but…” She let her voice trail off meaningfully.
“But you could tear it out of the ceiling,” Nate finished for her. “Got it.”
“You’ve got to remember,” Faith told him, “I’ve been in training pretty much since I was sixteen. The Slayer stuff at this point is just a boost to what I can largely do on my own.” She went to one side of the counter they all sat at while being briefed for a job and leaned her elbows on it. “So - got to be a boring game, if you’ve come down to watch me kick the shit out of something?”
It was an invitation, and her father recognized it as such. They’d only really known each other for a few short years, but Faith figured she didn’t have to be as smart as Nate to recognize that he had something he wanted to talk to her about.
And a moment later he pulled something out of his pocket, walked to the counter opposite where she stood, and set a small velvet box between them. Faith felt her eyes widen and a pleased grin spreading across her face. “You haven’t asked her yet, have you?” she said, looking up to meet her father’s all-too-serious gaze.
His expression softened slightly. “You’re so sure what it is?”
Faith laughed. “Oh please. If it’s not, I know three people that are going to be very disappointed in you.” She snapped open the box to confirm that it contained the expected diamond engagement ring, then grinned up at him again. “Yep. You’re going to make Eliot a hundred dollars richer when you lay this on her, you know.”
Nate groaned, rolling his eyes. “You kids are betting on my proposing to Sophie?”
“Not me.” Faith snapped the box shut and slid it back to him. “They wouldn’t let me into the pool; said I had an insider track and it wouldn’t be fair.” She paused. “So - what’s the hold-up?”
“Well…” Nate fidgeted slightly, and Faith tensed - realizing that whatever was coming next her father was actually nervous about discussing it with her. “I figured I needed to check with you, first, and make sure you were okay with it?”
Her first impulse was to laugh off the half-a-question, half-a statement, but before she could Faith realized this was what normal families did in a situation like this. Her opinion - her blessing - mattered to Nate. “I know you and Sophie haven’t always gotten along smoothly,” he added when she didn’t immediately answer him. “And believe me I don’t think I’d be considering this if you and Eliot hadn’t…”
“I hope that’s not true,” she said hastily, reaching out and grabbing his hand in hers. “I hope you don’t think for one second that I’d stop you from pursuing whatever kind of relationship makes you happy.”
“Sophie makes me happy,” Nate admitted. “And now that I’m finally free to think about having a future with her I don’t know if I’ve thought about anything else. But Faith - you’re my daughter. Nothing is ever going to be more important to me than that.”
Their eyes met, and Faith was overwhelmed by the depth of emotion she saw looking out at her. “You know, when you say something like that I occasionally have to remember I’m not dreaming.” How had this become her life? The girl nobody had wanted, the Slayer who hadn’t mattered, and she had a home, a family, a man who loved her - and a father who would have put his future and his happiness on hold at one word from her.
“You’re not dreaming,” Nate laughed. “But it does touch on a fairly valid point - even though we’ve been working overtime to make up for lost years Faith, it’s only been three years since we found each other. If you need me to wait on this thing with Sophie…”
“I need you to listen to what you’ve been telling me,” she interjected, cutting him off. “I’ve got the rest of my life to be your daughter, and you’ve got the rest of your life to be my father. What you need to be looking at is that against all odds you’ve got a future again. You need to be grabbing some of that miracle for yourself.” She smiled at him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“About that…” he began. “I know you’re not going anywhere, and I do trust that we have the rest of our lives together, but the proposal isn’t the only change I’ve been considering.” Stunned, Faith listened as Nate laid out a plan he’d been working on ever since they’d relocated to Portland. “Originally I was trying to make sure you all were taken care of when Crowley called in his marker, but I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t want to be doing this for however many years I do end up having left.”
It was a bold, insane, brilliant plan. It was the elusive “big score” they all talked about, and as Faith listened to Nate explain the rest of his strategy, she realized that just setting this in motion was going to potentially change everything for all of them, in ways a proposal and a wedding never could.