Fic: The Boat Job (Prologue)
Title: The Boat Job
Chapter: Prologue - In Deep Water (part 1/?)
Author: LittleFairy
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: T. There will be some bad language and violence
Spoilers: No specific episode spoilers so far, but generally the first season is fair game.
Genre: Teamfic, Gen, no pairing. Suspense, a little angst, some hurt/comfort
Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage. No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made with this story.
Summary: A job like most others - a con against the bad guys, a party on a yacht as a distraction, the chance to get to the bad guys' money in the meantime. But then drugs get involved, and things go to hell in a handbasket. And in this particular case, hell is a boat on its way to international waters.
Author's Note: A huge thank you has to go out to windscryer, who helped me out with all nautical and boat-related questions for this story. All remaining inconsistencies and mistakes are solely mine.
Prologue - In Deep Water
The sounds in Nate's earpiece were distorted and laced with static. Reception had been an issue at the docks, but so far they had managed to hold contact throughout the entire job. And Nate knew that it wasn't the crappy reception that was causing most of the distortions this time.
No, it was rapid movement on the other end of this connection, panted breaths and small grunts that carried over the link and into Nate's ear. He knew that the person on the other end had no time to talk right now, no thought to spare to give him some sort of status report, but Nate felt his insides clench with anticipation and the fervent wish to know what was going on.
But they had no eyes in the room, only ears, so all he could do was listen as what had seemed like an average to easy job at a time went downhill at a rapid speed. The sound of rapid but controlled breathing was the only constant he heard amidst the chaos of other sounds - flesh striking flesh, rapid commands and wordless shouts in the background, grunts and sounds of pain that Nate could not attribute to a certain person with any certainty.
It was the soundtrack of a fight Nate found himself listening to, and without visual confirmation he had no idea who was winning. Hell, he didn't even know how many opponents his men were facing right now.
Of course there was Nate's underlying faith in Eliot's skills. If there was anybody he trusted to get out of this unexpected trouble, it was him. But still, Nate couldn't help it each and every time something like this happened on a job. That knot in his stomach wasn't going to dissolve until the sounds of fighting ended and Eliot told him that the situation was under control.
Nate was longing for a drink right now, but even if something had been readily available he wouldn't have been able to tear any of his attention away from listening to what was coming over his earpiece right now.
Later.
After he knew that the job was back on track and nobody had gotten hurt.
Then suddenly, there was a loud smack of flesh hitting flesh, a pained grunt, and the link fell silent.
Automatically, Nate's hand went up to his ear, as if checking whether the small earpiece had fallen out. But it was still in place, it was only the sounds of the connection that had stopped. For a moment, Nate feared that the bad reception at the docks had finally cut off their connection, right at a point when it was vital for him to know what was going on. Only, the connection wasn't dead. Nate could still hear rapid breathing in his ear. The only thing that had changed was that the fighting sounds had ended.
Just as Nate was about to ask Eliot for his status, another voice spoke up.
"I think it's time for you to surrender."
And though the unknown voice had a hard edge to it, the confidence of a man who was sure of the outcome, a confidence that came with a gun pointed at your opponent's head, Nate wanted to laugh.
Asking Eliot to surrender was asking for the impossible. Eliot wasn't made to surrender, and Nate seriously wondered at times whether the word was even a part of the man's vocabulary.
So even if the guy who had spoken had a gun trained on their enforcer, that for sure wasn't enough to make Eliot surrender. Right now, he was probably waging his options, thinking up a strategy on how to continue this fight. And it wouldn't take long until the sounds of fighting were going to pick up again, Nate was sure of that.
But nothing happened but more silence, interrupted only by Eliot's rapid breathing.
Nate tried to picture the scene in his head, the stalemate, but found that he couldn't. And it didn't matter much, because it wasn't going to last long. Eliot wasn't going to surrender, and in a couple of moments those guys wouldn't know what had hit them.
But the silence continued to stretch, long and nerve-wracking. Nate found himself holding his breath as he waited for something - anything really - to put an end to the silence.
And then it did. A metallic click echoed through the silence, a sound Nate couldn't place. Before he had the chance to even try to figure out what that sound had been, the impossible happened.
Nate thought he knew Eliot as well as the other man allowed someone to know him. And over the months of working together with him, he thought he had formed a clear picture of what he could expect and what he couldn't expect from the other man.
If there was one thing Nate had been sure he would never hear coming out of Eliot's mouth, then it were the next words he heard. Eliot's voice was tight and controlled, slightly out of breath from the fight, but firm and definite.
The voice left no doubt that Eliot was coherent, and that he knew what he was doing.
It were the words that made no sense and had Nate reeling. If he had needed any confirmation that this job had gone straight to hell a few minutes ago, then it were those words, because it weren't words Nate had ever thought he'd hear coming out of Eliot Spencer's mouth.
"All right, you win. I give up."
...TBC...
Chapter: Prologue - In Deep Water (part 1/?)
Author: LittleFairy
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: T. There will be some bad language and violence
Spoilers: No specific episode spoilers so far, but generally the first season is fair game.
Genre: Teamfic, Gen, no pairing. Suspense, a little angst, some hurt/comfort
Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage. No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made with this story.
Summary: A job like most others - a con against the bad guys, a party on a yacht as a distraction, the chance to get to the bad guys' money in the meantime. But then drugs get involved, and things go to hell in a handbasket. And in this particular case, hell is a boat on its way to international waters.
Author's Note: A huge thank you has to go out to windscryer, who helped me out with all nautical and boat-related questions for this story. All remaining inconsistencies and mistakes are solely mine.
Prologue - In Deep Water
The sounds in Nate's earpiece were distorted and laced with static. Reception had been an issue at the docks, but so far they had managed to hold contact throughout the entire job. And Nate knew that it wasn't the crappy reception that was causing most of the distortions this time.
No, it was rapid movement on the other end of this connection, panted breaths and small grunts that carried over the link and into Nate's ear. He knew that the person on the other end had no time to talk right now, no thought to spare to give him some sort of status report, but Nate felt his insides clench with anticipation and the fervent wish to know what was going on.
But they had no eyes in the room, only ears, so all he could do was listen as what had seemed like an average to easy job at a time went downhill at a rapid speed. The sound of rapid but controlled breathing was the only constant he heard amidst the chaos of other sounds - flesh striking flesh, rapid commands and wordless shouts in the background, grunts and sounds of pain that Nate could not attribute to a certain person with any certainty.
It was the soundtrack of a fight Nate found himself listening to, and without visual confirmation he had no idea who was winning. Hell, he didn't even know how many opponents his men were facing right now.
Of course there was Nate's underlying faith in Eliot's skills. If there was anybody he trusted to get out of this unexpected trouble, it was him. But still, Nate couldn't help it each and every time something like this happened on a job. That knot in his stomach wasn't going to dissolve until the sounds of fighting ended and Eliot told him that the situation was under control.
Nate was longing for a drink right now, but even if something had been readily available he wouldn't have been able to tear any of his attention away from listening to what was coming over his earpiece right now.
Later.
After he knew that the job was back on track and nobody had gotten hurt.
Then suddenly, there was a loud smack of flesh hitting flesh, a pained grunt, and the link fell silent.
Automatically, Nate's hand went up to his ear, as if checking whether the small earpiece had fallen out. But it was still in place, it was only the sounds of the connection that had stopped. For a moment, Nate feared that the bad reception at the docks had finally cut off their connection, right at a point when it was vital for him to know what was going on. Only, the connection wasn't dead. Nate could still hear rapid breathing in his ear. The only thing that had changed was that the fighting sounds had ended.
Just as Nate was about to ask Eliot for his status, another voice spoke up.
"I think it's time for you to surrender."
And though the unknown voice had a hard edge to it, the confidence of a man who was sure of the outcome, a confidence that came with a gun pointed at your opponent's head, Nate wanted to laugh.
Asking Eliot to surrender was asking for the impossible. Eliot wasn't made to surrender, and Nate seriously wondered at times whether the word was even a part of the man's vocabulary.
So even if the guy who had spoken had a gun trained on their enforcer, that for sure wasn't enough to make Eliot surrender. Right now, he was probably waging his options, thinking up a strategy on how to continue this fight. And it wouldn't take long until the sounds of fighting were going to pick up again, Nate was sure of that.
But nothing happened but more silence, interrupted only by Eliot's rapid breathing.
Nate tried to picture the scene in his head, the stalemate, but found that he couldn't. And it didn't matter much, because it wasn't going to last long. Eliot wasn't going to surrender, and in a couple of moments those guys wouldn't know what had hit them.
But the silence continued to stretch, long and nerve-wracking. Nate found himself holding his breath as he waited for something - anything really - to put an end to the silence.
And then it did. A metallic click echoed through the silence, a sound Nate couldn't place. Before he had the chance to even try to figure out what that sound had been, the impossible happened.
Nate thought he knew Eliot as well as the other man allowed someone to know him. And over the months of working together with him, he thought he had formed a clear picture of what he could expect and what he couldn't expect from the other man.
If there was one thing Nate had been sure he would never hear coming out of Eliot's mouth, then it were the next words he heard. Eliot's voice was tight and controlled, slightly out of breath from the fight, but firm and definite.
The voice left no doubt that Eliot was coherent, and that he knew what he was doing.
It were the words that made no sense and had Nate reeling. If he had needed any confirmation that this job had gone straight to hell a few minutes ago, then it were those words, because it weren't words Nate had ever thought he'd hear coming out of Eliot Spencer's mouth.
"All right, you win. I give up."
...TBC...