scintilla10 - Fic - The Five Pieces of Eight Job, Part One
Title: The Five Pieces Of Eight Job (1/3)
Author: tygermama
Beta: winks7985
Giftee” scintilla10 Word Count: Part One: 2,400, Part Two: 3,957, Part Three: 3,617
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: PG, gen
Pairing: none, there’s some shippy hints and a little teasing, but no overt pairings
Warnings: umm, abuse of the word “ARRR!” and mentions of lesbian pirates?
Spoilers: none, if you’ve seen the season two finale, this fic is set after the finale but before the season three premiere
Summary: Eliot and Sophie decide to test the team’s new waters with a simple little job to save a plantation from an unscrupulous developer
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the intellectual properties used herein and am not making a profit.
Author's Notes: Written for the leveragexchange and scintilla10 , who gave me five great prompts that I managed to squeeze into this fic. I hope she enjoys it as much as I liked writing it.
I want to thank winks7985 for the beta and encouraging words, havocthecat for her cheerleading and our mod, fleurlb who graciously granted me an extension.
A word on the legend in the story. I made it up. The lady pirates are loosely based on Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I changed the names to protect the infamous.
Eliot Spencer stretched out his legs on the seat of the booth in one of his favorite greasy-spoon diners.
He took a sip of his coffee and opened the first of his newspapers. He habitually read papers from all over, keeping up with current events, critically analyzing editorials for shifts in opinion, and reading the personals for coded messages and the laughs. First up this morning, “The Galveston County Daily News”.
Buried on page six was an article that made him scowl. “Local Landmark Under Threat Of Foreclosure.” He threw a twenty on the table to cover his bill and left, leaving his papers behind.
*** *** ***
Sophie Devereaux had not expected Eliot at this time of day. It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet, so she was still mussed and bleary from bed when she opened the door and blurted out the first thing that occurred to her.
“Oh, my god! Is everyone alright? Parker? Did she hurt herself?” She moved to the side to let Eliot in, two shopping bags in his hands.
“No, Sophie. Everyone’s fine. Sorry I scared you. I think I may have found us a case and wanted to run it by you right away. It’s time sensitive; we’ll need to get going on this as soon as possible.” Eliot said as he went into the kitchen.
“You woke me up for this? Eliot…” Sophie narrowed her eyes.
Eliot turned around, held up a jar of Devon cream and smirked, “I’ll make you tea and fresh scones while you shower.”
Sophie smiled, shook her head and headed for the shower. “You do know how to tempt a woman, don’t you, Spencer?”
Eliot smiled as he pulled out a mixing bowl for scones.
“My favorite tea is in the canister on the counter,” she called out as she shut the bathroom door.
* * * * *
“Okay, let me see if I have this right? You want us to save the Gatineau plantation from this developer, Mark Rucks. Who’s the client?” Sophie asked, delicately spreading strawberry jam on her scone.
Eliot finished the last of the dishes and shrugged, “The client is… the common
good, historical interest and the desire not to see anymore of those overpriced, faux Mediterranean condos blighting the landscape?”
Sophie put her scone down and looked at Eliot appraisingly. “This is personal, isn’t it?”
Eliot smiled faintly, “Yeah. Umm, it’s stupid. I’ve been there. I have good memories of this place. I don’t want to see it turned into a convention center and a bunch of fast food joints or something. The plantation is an important part of local history and it employs a lot of people. It deserves to be protected.”
Sophie watched Eliot as he paced around her kitchen, twisting the tea towel in his hands. He was nervous, off-balance. They all were. Nate was in prison and they were still trying to figure out how to work without him.
Eliot especially was not used to asking for anything, much less outlining all the reasons why the team should get involved in saving this plantation. Usually, if he wanted something done, he just went and did it. Convincing, persuading the others wasn’t something he was used to yet.
Sophie got up and took the towel out of his hands, “I think this could be the perfect job for us right now. Something small and simple, so we can get used to… How things at the moment.” Sophie shook out the towel and hung it over the oven handle.
Sophie heard Eliot softly exhale behind her. “I’ll call Hardison, get him researching the situation. See if there’s an in we can use.” Eliot said, sitting down and pouring himself a cup of tea.
Sophie smiled fondly at him. “Since I’m up, do you want any milk?”
Eliot looked up at her, aghast, “Milk? In Earl Grey?”
*** ***
Hardison looked up from his computer briefly when Eliot and Sophie walked into Nate’s apartment that afternoon. “About time you two showed up. I got started on the research you wanted. This Rucks guy is dirty. He hasn’t been caught, but he’s definitely dirty. Has a history of buying up ‘distressed properties’, but it seems some of those properties weren’t all that distressed before Rucks took an interest in them. I’m still nailing down all the details.”
Eliot sat down on the couch and watched as Hardison pulled up pictures, newspaper articles and the Rucks Developments website on the bank of video screens. “Where’s Parker?” he asked, looking around.
“She said she’d be by soon. I’m still putting the presentation together. The Gatineau Plantation has a pretty decent website. History, reservations, event planning… Did you know that a couple of years ago, after the hurricane, they started growing organic produce and have their own farmer’s market? Made me hungry just looking at it.” Hardison said absent-mindedly, still bringing up more data.
“About time you got more vegetables in your diet, Hardison,” Eliot muttered as he got up to grab a beer.
Hardison didn’t look up from his laptop, “What are you talking about? ‘My diet’?”
Sophie shook her head as she put the kettle on, “Why don’t you tell me about the plantation while we wait for Parker, Hardison?”
“Okay, okay. Here it is. The lovely city of Galveston, or what would become Galveston, was first settled in 1816 by a pirate named Louis-Michel Aury…”
“Pirates? Nobody said anything about pirates. I would have gotten here sooner. I love pirates.” Parker said as she dropped from somewhere in the ceiling.
Eliot just glared at her as he sat down and finished swallowing his beer. “Should have known you’d be a pirate freak.” He muttered.
Parker just huffed as she sat down beside him and whispered, “Arrr.”
“Huh, suddenly it all makes sense,” Hardison said, smiling widely. “It’s no wonder you two don’t get along. You’re natural enemies! Ninja versus Pirate, right here in our living room!”
“I am not a ninja, Hardison!” Eliot said, frowning.
Parker snorted, “Of course you’d say that. Everyone knows ninjas are shrouded in secrecy and never admit what they are. Can you do a ninja vanish with the smoke? Will you show me how to throw shuriken?”
“More importantly, do you know the Turtles?” Hardison said solemnly, leaning forward in his chair, hands clasped, “It’s okay. You can tell us.”
“Oh, right. What the hell do turtles have to do with ninjas? Don’t tell me!” Eliot pointed at Hardison, practically punching the air. He turned to Parker and nudged her with the hand holding the beer bottle, “And you’re just going to sit there and say you’re a pirate, Parker?”
Parker crossed her arms and assumed a lofty expression, “Yes. I take what I want and give nothing back.” She leaned toward Eliot and squinted at him, “Arrrrr!”
Sophie stifled a giggle at Eliot’s affronted expression, “Children! Please! Let’s get back on task, shall we?”
Hardison cleared his throat as he began again, “Okay, so in 1817, Aury came home to find that his colony had been occupied by Jean Lafitte…”
“Skip ahead, Hardison.” Eliot said.
“Oh, fine. Well, Galveston became the capital of the Republic of Texas in 1836. A dude named Michel Branamour Menard and some ‘associates’ bought 4,605 acres of land to found the town that would become modern day Galveston.”
Hardison pushed a button and the view centered on an ornate stone building with a red tiled roof. “Phillipe Gatineau was one of Menard’s buddies. He later bought up a chunk of land down the coast and started his plantation. This here’s the main house. Nice, huh?”
“Are there going to be any more pirates in this story?” Parker asked, shifting impatiently.
“Yes, now hush.” Hardison said, “Now, the plantation has always had an ‘interesting’ history. Piracy, smuggling, stuff like that. There were even rumors that the plantation was a high-end house of prostitution for a while, but all the shenanigans ended in ’57, when the Texas Rangers moved in to clean up the area. The current owner is a Lily Gatineau. She runs the plantation and plays in poker tournaments. Pretty good at it too. The plantation ran into some hard times after Hurricane Ike hit and she’s been supporting it with her winnings.”
Hardison pulled up a picture of a dark haired, smiling woman holding up a large cheque for $15,000 from the World Series of Poker.
“Now, Lily has been trying to get the plantation on the National Register of Historic Places but it’s been slow going. Then Rucks showed up. Then the nomination process comes to a standstill, her bank starts making noises about calling in the loans on the property and you know the drill.”
“What does Rucks want this plantation for? Surely there are other distressed properties he could buy up without all the fuss?” Sophie asked, sitting down with her mug.
“He has been buying up everything he can get his hands on.” Hardison replied. The screens changed again, showing a man about Eliot’s height, with blond hair and a wide smile in a professionally posed ‘casual’ shot on a beach.
“Ick.” Parker said, shuddering, “Dentally perfect people creep me out.”
Eliot looked like he was going to argue with her but then shrugged thoughtfully and said, “Can’t argue with that. Okay, is there anything about Rucks we can use?”
“Yes, I think so. From what I’ve dug up, he’s strapped for cash. The economic crunch hit him too and he’s desperate for liquid assets. All the poor boy has on hand is about $20 for lattes. And the reason he’s been so free with his hard earned benjamins is because of this.”
Hardison punched a series of keys with a flourish and the screens changed again, showing black and white legal documents. “You have no idea how hard it was to find these. The local government buried them deep. I guess they figure there would be a public protest or something if word got out too soon.”
Everyone stared at Hardison.
“What? Can’t you all read? They are proposing building a new cruise ship terminal at the other end of the island! Right about where the plantation is! It’s got the largest amount of coastline of any property in the area! Rucks has bought up all the property surrounding the Gatineau, but he still needs this particular piece of property, or he’s got nothing.”
Eliot frowned, “A new cruise ship terminal would mean millions in construction, no wonder Rucks wants the place so bad.”
Parker made a disgusted noise, “I thought you said this story had more pirates in it.”
“There’s a legend that there’s pirate treasure buried somewhere on the property. Phillipe apparently caught some Spanish pirates on his land. Two of them were women.” Hardison said, waggling his eyebrows.
Parker looked vaguely impressed, “I didn’t know there were lady pirates. What did they steal?”
“Legend doesn’t say. What it does say is that Phillipe fell in love with one of the lady pirates, Jacquotte Alvarez, and offered to save her from being hung.” Hardison said.
Eliot snorted, “Provided she told him where the treasure was, right?”
Hardison laughed, “Well, yeah. But the real interesting part was that she turned him down stone cold. Turns out, she was in love with one of the other pirates and wasn’t going to turn on her. Grace du Berry, I think her name was. According to the legend anyways.”
“Wait, wait! Turn on her? Are you saying this is a legend about lesbian pirates?” Eliot was leaning forward, an incredulous smile on his face.
“I thought you didn’t like lesbians,” Parker asked, “You know, after the thing with your face.”
Eliot stared at Parker, mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out. Sophie laughed. Hardison wisely turned back to the computer and bit his lip.
“Alright, this is all very amusing but I fail to see how this is going to help us save the plantation. All we have so far is that Rucks needs cash.” Sophie said, setting down her mug and resting her chin on her hand.
“So was the treasure ever found? I’ve never found pirate treasure before!” Parker asked, eagerly bouncing.
Hardison shook his head, “No. From what I’ve found experts aren’t even sure there is a treasure to begin with. But the plantation does hold an annual gay pride day, in their honour or something.”
“That’s our in.” Eliot said, staring off into space. His expression was scarily similar to Nate when he was deep in planning their cons.
“The gay pride day?” Hardison asked skeptically.
Parker frowned, “No, it’s the lesbian pirates. Well, it’s probably just the lesbians. Eliot’s weird about girls.”
“No. Well, kinda.” Eliot said, still thinking, “It’s the treasure.”
“The treasure?” Sophie asked.
“Rucks needs cash. Let’s see what he’s willing to do to get his hands on some pirate gold.” Eliot said. He smirked and looked at Sophie, “Sophie, darlin’, you ever been a treasure hunter?”
Sophie smiled back, “I’ve always been a treasure hunter of one sort or another.”
Eliot nodded, satisfied. “Okay, then. We’ll hook this Rucks with a fake treasure hunt and get him to expose himself. Well, you all go home and pack. We have a job to do. Hardison, four tickets to Galveston, please. Call us with the time.” Eliot stood up and started to walk out the door. He stopped when he noticed the others staring at him.
“What?” He said.
Parker made a face and shifted uncomfortably, “Well. That’s not how you’re supposed to say it.”
Eliot raised an eyebrow at her.
“What I think Parker is trying to say, is that, you know. You’re supposed to say something like ‘Let’s go steal…’” Hardison trailed off and waved his hand in a ‘come on now, you know what to do’ gesture.
“Oh!” Eliot said. “I get it. Come on. I think we all know there’s only one person who can say stuff like that without sounding like a complete idiot. If I really stood here and said something like… I don’t know… “Let’s go steal ourselves a planetarium!” would any of you take me seriously?”
Hardison looked at Parker. Parker looked at Sophie. Sophie covered her mouth as she started giggling. The other two soon followed.
Eliot growled under his breath at them. “See! I told you! Know everybody get a move on! We got a job to do!”
Go to Part Two
Author: tygermama
Beta: winks7985
Giftee” scintilla10 Word Count: Part One: 2,400, Part Two: 3,957, Part Three: 3,617
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: PG, gen
Pairing: none, there’s some shippy hints and a little teasing, but no overt pairings
Warnings: umm, abuse of the word “ARRR!” and mentions of lesbian pirates?
Spoilers: none, if you’ve seen the season two finale, this fic is set after the finale but before the season three premiere
Summary: Eliot and Sophie decide to test the team’s new waters with a simple little job to save a plantation from an unscrupulous developer
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the intellectual properties used herein and am not making a profit.
Author's Notes: Written for the leveragexchange and scintilla10 , who gave me five great prompts that I managed to squeeze into this fic. I hope she enjoys it as much as I liked writing it.
I want to thank winks7985 for the beta and encouraging words, havocthecat for her cheerleading and our mod, fleurlb who graciously granted me an extension.
A word on the legend in the story. I made it up. The lady pirates are loosely based on Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I changed the names to protect the infamous.
Eliot Spencer stretched out his legs on the seat of the booth in one of his favorite greasy-spoon diners.
He took a sip of his coffee and opened the first of his newspapers. He habitually read papers from all over, keeping up with current events, critically analyzing editorials for shifts in opinion, and reading the personals for coded messages and the laughs. First up this morning, “The Galveston County Daily News”.
Buried on page six was an article that made him scowl. “Local Landmark Under Threat Of Foreclosure.” He threw a twenty on the table to cover his bill and left, leaving his papers behind.
*** *** ***
Sophie Devereaux had not expected Eliot at this time of day. It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet, so she was still mussed and bleary from bed when she opened the door and blurted out the first thing that occurred to her.
“Oh, my god! Is everyone alright? Parker? Did she hurt herself?” She moved to the side to let Eliot in, two shopping bags in his hands.
“No, Sophie. Everyone’s fine. Sorry I scared you. I think I may have found us a case and wanted to run it by you right away. It’s time sensitive; we’ll need to get going on this as soon as possible.” Eliot said as he went into the kitchen.
“You woke me up for this? Eliot…” Sophie narrowed her eyes.
Eliot turned around, held up a jar of Devon cream and smirked, “I’ll make you tea and fresh scones while you shower.”
Sophie smiled, shook her head and headed for the shower. “You do know how to tempt a woman, don’t you, Spencer?”
Eliot smiled as he pulled out a mixing bowl for scones.
“My favorite tea is in the canister on the counter,” she called out as she shut the bathroom door.
* * * * *
“Okay, let me see if I have this right? You want us to save the Gatineau plantation from this developer, Mark Rucks. Who’s the client?” Sophie asked, delicately spreading strawberry jam on her scone.
Eliot finished the last of the dishes and shrugged, “The client is… the common
good, historical interest and the desire not to see anymore of those overpriced, faux Mediterranean condos blighting the landscape?”
Sophie put her scone down and looked at Eliot appraisingly. “This is personal, isn’t it?”
Eliot smiled faintly, “Yeah. Umm, it’s stupid. I’ve been there. I have good memories of this place. I don’t want to see it turned into a convention center and a bunch of fast food joints or something. The plantation is an important part of local history and it employs a lot of people. It deserves to be protected.”
Sophie watched Eliot as he paced around her kitchen, twisting the tea towel in his hands. He was nervous, off-balance. They all were. Nate was in prison and they were still trying to figure out how to work without him.
Eliot especially was not used to asking for anything, much less outlining all the reasons why the team should get involved in saving this plantation. Usually, if he wanted something done, he just went and did it. Convincing, persuading the others wasn’t something he was used to yet.
Sophie got up and took the towel out of his hands, “I think this could be the perfect job for us right now. Something small and simple, so we can get used to… How things at the moment.” Sophie shook out the towel and hung it over the oven handle.
Sophie heard Eliot softly exhale behind her. “I’ll call Hardison, get him researching the situation. See if there’s an in we can use.” Eliot said, sitting down and pouring himself a cup of tea.
Sophie smiled fondly at him. “Since I’m up, do you want any milk?”
Eliot looked up at her, aghast, “Milk? In Earl Grey?”
*** ***
Hardison looked up from his computer briefly when Eliot and Sophie walked into Nate’s apartment that afternoon. “About time you two showed up. I got started on the research you wanted. This Rucks guy is dirty. He hasn’t been caught, but he’s definitely dirty. Has a history of buying up ‘distressed properties’, but it seems some of those properties weren’t all that distressed before Rucks took an interest in them. I’m still nailing down all the details.”
Eliot sat down on the couch and watched as Hardison pulled up pictures, newspaper articles and the Rucks Developments website on the bank of video screens. “Where’s Parker?” he asked, looking around.
“She said she’d be by soon. I’m still putting the presentation together. The Gatineau Plantation has a pretty decent website. History, reservations, event planning… Did you know that a couple of years ago, after the hurricane, they started growing organic produce and have their own farmer’s market? Made me hungry just looking at it.” Hardison said absent-mindedly, still bringing up more data.
“About time you got more vegetables in your diet, Hardison,” Eliot muttered as he got up to grab a beer.
Hardison didn’t look up from his laptop, “What are you talking about? ‘My diet’?”
Sophie shook her head as she put the kettle on, “Why don’t you tell me about the plantation while we wait for Parker, Hardison?”
“Okay, okay. Here it is. The lovely city of Galveston, or what would become Galveston, was first settled in 1816 by a pirate named Louis-Michel Aury…”
“Pirates? Nobody said anything about pirates. I would have gotten here sooner. I love pirates.” Parker said as she dropped from somewhere in the ceiling.
Eliot just glared at her as he sat down and finished swallowing his beer. “Should have known you’d be a pirate freak.” He muttered.
Parker just huffed as she sat down beside him and whispered, “Arrr.”
“Huh, suddenly it all makes sense,” Hardison said, smiling widely. “It’s no wonder you two don’t get along. You’re natural enemies! Ninja versus Pirate, right here in our living room!”
“I am not a ninja, Hardison!” Eliot said, frowning.
Parker snorted, “Of course you’d say that. Everyone knows ninjas are shrouded in secrecy and never admit what they are. Can you do a ninja vanish with the smoke? Will you show me how to throw shuriken?”
“More importantly, do you know the Turtles?” Hardison said solemnly, leaning forward in his chair, hands clasped, “It’s okay. You can tell us.”
“Oh, right. What the hell do turtles have to do with ninjas? Don’t tell me!” Eliot pointed at Hardison, practically punching the air. He turned to Parker and nudged her with the hand holding the beer bottle, “And you’re just going to sit there and say you’re a pirate, Parker?”
Parker crossed her arms and assumed a lofty expression, “Yes. I take what I want and give nothing back.” She leaned toward Eliot and squinted at him, “Arrrrr!”
Sophie stifled a giggle at Eliot’s affronted expression, “Children! Please! Let’s get back on task, shall we?”
Hardison cleared his throat as he began again, “Okay, so in 1817, Aury came home to find that his colony had been occupied by Jean Lafitte…”
“Skip ahead, Hardison.” Eliot said.
“Oh, fine. Well, Galveston became the capital of the Republic of Texas in 1836. A dude named Michel Branamour Menard and some ‘associates’ bought 4,605 acres of land to found the town that would become modern day Galveston.”
Hardison pushed a button and the view centered on an ornate stone building with a red tiled roof. “Phillipe Gatineau was one of Menard’s buddies. He later bought up a chunk of land down the coast and started his plantation. This here’s the main house. Nice, huh?”
“Are there going to be any more pirates in this story?” Parker asked, shifting impatiently.
“Yes, now hush.” Hardison said, “Now, the plantation has always had an ‘interesting’ history. Piracy, smuggling, stuff like that. There were even rumors that the plantation was a high-end house of prostitution for a while, but all the shenanigans ended in ’57, when the Texas Rangers moved in to clean up the area. The current owner is a Lily Gatineau. She runs the plantation and plays in poker tournaments. Pretty good at it too. The plantation ran into some hard times after Hurricane Ike hit and she’s been supporting it with her winnings.”
Hardison pulled up a picture of a dark haired, smiling woman holding up a large cheque for $15,000 from the World Series of Poker.
“Now, Lily has been trying to get the plantation on the National Register of Historic Places but it’s been slow going. Then Rucks showed up. Then the nomination process comes to a standstill, her bank starts making noises about calling in the loans on the property and you know the drill.”
“What does Rucks want this plantation for? Surely there are other distressed properties he could buy up without all the fuss?” Sophie asked, sitting down with her mug.
“He has been buying up everything he can get his hands on.” Hardison replied. The screens changed again, showing a man about Eliot’s height, with blond hair and a wide smile in a professionally posed ‘casual’ shot on a beach.
“Ick.” Parker said, shuddering, “Dentally perfect people creep me out.”
Eliot looked like he was going to argue with her but then shrugged thoughtfully and said, “Can’t argue with that. Okay, is there anything about Rucks we can use?”
“Yes, I think so. From what I’ve dug up, he’s strapped for cash. The economic crunch hit him too and he’s desperate for liquid assets. All the poor boy has on hand is about $20 for lattes. And the reason he’s been so free with his hard earned benjamins is because of this.”
Hardison punched a series of keys with a flourish and the screens changed again, showing black and white legal documents. “You have no idea how hard it was to find these. The local government buried them deep. I guess they figure there would be a public protest or something if word got out too soon.”
Everyone stared at Hardison.
“What? Can’t you all read? They are proposing building a new cruise ship terminal at the other end of the island! Right about where the plantation is! It’s got the largest amount of coastline of any property in the area! Rucks has bought up all the property surrounding the Gatineau, but he still needs this particular piece of property, or he’s got nothing.”
Eliot frowned, “A new cruise ship terminal would mean millions in construction, no wonder Rucks wants the place so bad.”
Parker made a disgusted noise, “I thought you said this story had more pirates in it.”
“There’s a legend that there’s pirate treasure buried somewhere on the property. Phillipe apparently caught some Spanish pirates on his land. Two of them were women.” Hardison said, waggling his eyebrows.
Parker looked vaguely impressed, “I didn’t know there were lady pirates. What did they steal?”
“Legend doesn’t say. What it does say is that Phillipe fell in love with one of the lady pirates, Jacquotte Alvarez, and offered to save her from being hung.” Hardison said.
Eliot snorted, “Provided she told him where the treasure was, right?”
Hardison laughed, “Well, yeah. But the real interesting part was that she turned him down stone cold. Turns out, she was in love with one of the other pirates and wasn’t going to turn on her. Grace du Berry, I think her name was. According to the legend anyways.”
“Wait, wait! Turn on her? Are you saying this is a legend about lesbian pirates?” Eliot was leaning forward, an incredulous smile on his face.
“I thought you didn’t like lesbians,” Parker asked, “You know, after the thing with your face.”
Eliot stared at Parker, mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out. Sophie laughed. Hardison wisely turned back to the computer and bit his lip.
“Alright, this is all very amusing but I fail to see how this is going to help us save the plantation. All we have so far is that Rucks needs cash.” Sophie said, setting down her mug and resting her chin on her hand.
“So was the treasure ever found? I’ve never found pirate treasure before!” Parker asked, eagerly bouncing.
Hardison shook his head, “No. From what I’ve found experts aren’t even sure there is a treasure to begin with. But the plantation does hold an annual gay pride day, in their honour or something.”
“That’s our in.” Eliot said, staring off into space. His expression was scarily similar to Nate when he was deep in planning their cons.
“The gay pride day?” Hardison asked skeptically.
Parker frowned, “No, it’s the lesbian pirates. Well, it’s probably just the lesbians. Eliot’s weird about girls.”
“No. Well, kinda.” Eliot said, still thinking, “It’s the treasure.”
“The treasure?” Sophie asked.
“Rucks needs cash. Let’s see what he’s willing to do to get his hands on some pirate gold.” Eliot said. He smirked and looked at Sophie, “Sophie, darlin’, you ever been a treasure hunter?”
Sophie smiled back, “I’ve always been a treasure hunter of one sort or another.”
Eliot nodded, satisfied. “Okay, then. We’ll hook this Rucks with a fake treasure hunt and get him to expose himself. Well, you all go home and pack. We have a job to do. Hardison, four tickets to Galveston, please. Call us with the time.” Eliot stood up and started to walk out the door. He stopped when he noticed the others staring at him.
“What?” He said.
Parker made a face and shifted uncomfortably, “Well. That’s not how you’re supposed to say it.”
Eliot raised an eyebrow at her.
“What I think Parker is trying to say, is that, you know. You’re supposed to say something like ‘Let’s go steal…’” Hardison trailed off and waved his hand in a ‘come on now, you know what to do’ gesture.
“Oh!” Eliot said. “I get it. Come on. I think we all know there’s only one person who can say stuff like that without sounding like a complete idiot. If I really stood here and said something like… I don’t know… “Let’s go steal ourselves a planetarium!” would any of you take me seriously?”
Hardison looked at Parker. Parker looked at Sophie. Sophie covered her mouth as she started giggling. The other two soon followed.
Eliot growled under his breath at them. “See! I told you! Know everybody get a move on! We got a job to do!”
Go to Part Two