The Two Sons Job 2/9
Title: The Two Sons Job: Ghosts Are Gaining On Me
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen, referenced past Eliot/Amie, Eliot/Dean
Verse: Steal The Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural, White Collar
Summary: Concering old friends, past history, father-son relationships, and the Burke Seven.
Notes: For the Confession in a Desperate Situation square on my H/c bingo card.
This is the Steal the Sky version of The Two Horse Job and will, suprise suprise, focus mostly on Eliot's history.
Chapter One
Warning: Refferenced Dub-con and Non-con. These references may actually become depictions depending on how the story goes but I'll change the warnings to refflect that if it happens.
Eliot was pretty good at focusing on the present.
The past didn’t normally bear remembering and the future was too uncertain for considering beyond the rest of the job and the vague idea that somewhere not too far down the line he’d be able to lay his tired body down and never have to get back up.
But sometimes.
He paused halfway up the scaffolding to reach the lounge and conference area where he could feel Nate drinking himself closer to Oblivion. He wasn’t there yet, wouldn’t be for long enough that Eliot couldn’t justify putting this off until morning. He had to do this. And he might as well do this when Nate was alone.
The mastermind would drag the story out of him. He didn’t want to have to do it in front of the others.
He…
It was the past. One he left behind him eight long years ago.
“Eliot” The voice on the wave was calling him by his first name. If it weren’t for the fact he knew Mozzie would never have tried to contact him otherwise that the little con man was actually using his first name would have told him all he needed to know about the gravity of the call.
“Mozzie.” Eliot answered in a whisper, retreating into the hallway to not wake the others up. He didn’t bother asking how he knew Eliot wasn’t dead. Or how he got Eliot’s number. The man had escaped Olympus as an eight year old. “What is it?”
“It’s The Suit.”Eliot didn’t respond. He knew Mozz had a tendency for nicknames but it was going on nine years since they’d spent more than a spattering of days at a time in the same system. He hadn’t met ‘The Suit’. Mozz sighed. “A mutual friend with a preference for hats and fine art has run into some family problems. An old friend of yours is fighting to keep him from being pulled back into it but the puppet theatre and the gods themselves are trying to take my friend home an-“
“Mozz. Slow down. This line is safe.” Eliot thanked Hardison mentally. “Neal’s in trouble?”
“Yes!” Mozzie half shouted, clearly upset. “He’s been looking into Kate’s death and the music box and we got close enough to spook someone and Peter’s under investigation.”
Eliot resisted the urge to just say he would be there. He was officially dead and it was dangerous enough running jobs on core worlds. This had so many ways of going badly. “I’ve been legally dead for less than a year Mozzie, coming back would put my whole crew at risk.”
“They’re talking about stripping Peter of his Handler license.” Mozzie said, softer. “Sending Neal back to Olympus.”
Eliot knew if that happened Peter would throw what was left of his career away trying to get the boy back.
Or if there was an official investigation…
“I have to run it by my Captain, see if he’ll take the job.”He let out a sigh. “And if he won’t I’ll be there as soon as I can find my own passage.” He mentally checked their position. “At least where not more than a couple day’s hard burn from your location.”
He’d meant it. If he had to break ties with Leverage and everyone on board he would.
He just really hoped he didn’t.
He climbed the last of the scaffolding and made his way into the conference room, sitting down across the table from Nate.
“I have a job for us.” Nate watched him for a long moment before nodding. “Peter Burke. An investigative agent from the White Collar Division of the DoD based off Manhattan. Eight years ago he was working to bust a large Ponzi scheme and was granted the use of an agent from Olympus. The Handler was killed in the course of the mission but it was too time sensitive to wait for a second handler to be sent. Burke acted as his agent’s handler and was granted a Resident Handler’s License, enabling him to maintain a field agent for his unit. Eventually his original agent, a Low Tech who’d been serving primarily as a body guard and doing some under-cover work was replaced by an agent named Neal Caffrey, an All-Tech Infiltration agent with the designations required for undercover work. They worked together for just under a year before a member of Caffrey’s clan went AWOL. By rule every agent was called back to Olympus and kept there for four years of re-education. Afterwards Caffrey was sent back to Burke. They’ve been together for a little less than two years.”
Nate didn’t say anything throughout all of this, his expression unreadable. When Eliot paused, trying to think of the best way to continue, Nate asked. “Peter Burke, he’s the Handler you mentioned was so good to his agent back in the first job, isn’t he?”
Eliot nodded. “Yeah. Doesn’t abuse him, lets him have his own home, talk to anyone he wants, do things and go places. He’s still required to stay in a certain radius but it’s as close to freedom as anyone on Olympus dares dream about most days.” Nate nodded and took another drink. “They’re close too. Hell, Peter treats Caffrey like a wayward son most days.”
Something in Nate’s eyes shifted, a hint of a smile, Eliot wondered what he’d given away.
“But Burke’s in trouble. Caffrey’s been sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong and he caught the wrong sort of attention. They’re trying to take Caffrey away from Burke, and other things. He could use some Leverage.”
Nate put his glass down slowly and met Eliot’s eyes. “What did he do?”
Eliot blinked. “Nothing. Nothing bad at least. That’s the reason why I’m asking.”
Nate shook his head. “No. What did Peter Burke do for you?” Eliot felt his mouth go dry, answers fighting for freedom and secrets digging deeper into his gut. “You nearly tore my head off the first time I took our crew into a core world. Now you’re asking me to lead us straight into the Lion’s Den. You owe Burke. Enough you’re ready to endanger the crew to pay him back.”
Eliot looked away, he could feel heat and sticky on his skin, hear a cry in the night ripping through his chest.
Eight years. Almost nine really. He wondered...
Eliot let out a long slow breath and laid his hands flat on the table, staring at it. “I woulda sent you all on your way the moment I thought you were at risk.”
“We’ll do this job,” Nate said. “But first tell me why.”
Eliot looked up, seeing eyes watching him steadily, so very…
“I was the Low Tech agent sent to work with Burke eight years ago,” He stated, dropping his eyes to the table again. “It was my first deployment after my father found out I’d been sleeping with a girl in my clan without permission. It’s a serious crime on Olympus but we were young and stupid and thought no one would care what a couple of Low-Techs got up to.” He gripped the table’s edge, trying to ground himself in the present. “But we got caught and they sent us to Tarturus, Olympus’ detention center. By the time we got out…” He looked back up to Nate, not willing to share all the hell, not willing to speak the secrets that haunted him and Amie both, but knowing… He wouldn’t hide from this much. “When I met Peter Burke I was falling. He and his wife caught me.”
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen, referenced past Eliot/Amie, Eliot/Dean
Verse: Steal The Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural, White Collar
Summary: Concering old friends, past history, father-son relationships, and the Burke Seven.
Notes: For the Confession in a Desperate Situation square on my H/c bingo card.
This is the Steal the Sky version of The Two Horse Job and will, suprise suprise, focus mostly on Eliot's history.
Chapter One
Warning: Refferenced Dub-con and Non-con. These references may actually become depictions depending on how the story goes but I'll change the warnings to refflect that if it happens.
Eliot was pretty good at focusing on the present.
The past didn’t normally bear remembering and the future was too uncertain for considering beyond the rest of the job and the vague idea that somewhere not too far down the line he’d be able to lay his tired body down and never have to get back up.
But sometimes.
He paused halfway up the scaffolding to reach the lounge and conference area where he could feel Nate drinking himself closer to Oblivion. He wasn’t there yet, wouldn’t be for long enough that Eliot couldn’t justify putting this off until morning. He had to do this. And he might as well do this when Nate was alone.
The mastermind would drag the story out of him. He didn’t want to have to do it in front of the others.
He…
It was the past. One he left behind him eight long years ago.
“Eliot” The voice on the wave was calling him by his first name. If it weren’t for the fact he knew Mozzie would never have tried to contact him otherwise that the little con man was actually using his first name would have told him all he needed to know about the gravity of the call.
“Mozzie.” Eliot answered in a whisper, retreating into the hallway to not wake the others up. He didn’t bother asking how he knew Eliot wasn’t dead. Or how he got Eliot’s number. The man had escaped Olympus as an eight year old. “What is it?”
“It’s The Suit.”Eliot didn’t respond. He knew Mozz had a tendency for nicknames but it was going on nine years since they’d spent more than a spattering of days at a time in the same system. He hadn’t met ‘The Suit’. Mozz sighed. “A mutual friend with a preference for hats and fine art has run into some family problems. An old friend of yours is fighting to keep him from being pulled back into it but the puppet theatre and the gods themselves are trying to take my friend home an-“
“Mozz. Slow down. This line is safe.” Eliot thanked Hardison mentally. “Neal’s in trouble?”
“Yes!” Mozzie half shouted, clearly upset. “He’s been looking into Kate’s death and the music box and we got close enough to spook someone and Peter’s under investigation.”
Eliot resisted the urge to just say he would be there. He was officially dead and it was dangerous enough running jobs on core worlds. This had so many ways of going badly. “I’ve been legally dead for less than a year Mozzie, coming back would put my whole crew at risk.”
“They’re talking about stripping Peter of his Handler license.” Mozzie said, softer. “Sending Neal back to Olympus.”
Eliot knew if that happened Peter would throw what was left of his career away trying to get the boy back.
Or if there was an official investigation…
“I have to run it by my Captain, see if he’ll take the job.”He let out a sigh. “And if he won’t I’ll be there as soon as I can find my own passage.” He mentally checked their position. “At least where not more than a couple day’s hard burn from your location.”
He’d meant it. If he had to break ties with Leverage and everyone on board he would.
He just really hoped he didn’t.
He climbed the last of the scaffolding and made his way into the conference room, sitting down across the table from Nate.
“I have a job for us.” Nate watched him for a long moment before nodding. “Peter Burke. An investigative agent from the White Collar Division of the DoD based off Manhattan. Eight years ago he was working to bust a large Ponzi scheme and was granted the use of an agent from Olympus. The Handler was killed in the course of the mission but it was too time sensitive to wait for a second handler to be sent. Burke acted as his agent’s handler and was granted a Resident Handler’s License, enabling him to maintain a field agent for his unit. Eventually his original agent, a Low Tech who’d been serving primarily as a body guard and doing some under-cover work was replaced by an agent named Neal Caffrey, an All-Tech Infiltration agent with the designations required for undercover work. They worked together for just under a year before a member of Caffrey’s clan went AWOL. By rule every agent was called back to Olympus and kept there for four years of re-education. Afterwards Caffrey was sent back to Burke. They’ve been together for a little less than two years.”
Nate didn’t say anything throughout all of this, his expression unreadable. When Eliot paused, trying to think of the best way to continue, Nate asked. “Peter Burke, he’s the Handler you mentioned was so good to his agent back in the first job, isn’t he?”
Eliot nodded. “Yeah. Doesn’t abuse him, lets him have his own home, talk to anyone he wants, do things and go places. He’s still required to stay in a certain radius but it’s as close to freedom as anyone on Olympus dares dream about most days.” Nate nodded and took another drink. “They’re close too. Hell, Peter treats Caffrey like a wayward son most days.”
Something in Nate’s eyes shifted, a hint of a smile, Eliot wondered what he’d given away.
“But Burke’s in trouble. Caffrey’s been sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong and he caught the wrong sort of attention. They’re trying to take Caffrey away from Burke, and other things. He could use some Leverage.”
Nate put his glass down slowly and met Eliot’s eyes. “What did he do?”
Eliot blinked. “Nothing. Nothing bad at least. That’s the reason why I’m asking.”
Nate shook his head. “No. What did Peter Burke do for you?” Eliot felt his mouth go dry, answers fighting for freedom and secrets digging deeper into his gut. “You nearly tore my head off the first time I took our crew into a core world. Now you’re asking me to lead us straight into the Lion’s Den. You owe Burke. Enough you’re ready to endanger the crew to pay him back.”
Eliot looked away, he could feel heat and sticky on his skin, hear a cry in the night ripping through his chest.
Eight years. Almost nine really. He wondered...
Eliot let out a long slow breath and laid his hands flat on the table, staring at it. “I woulda sent you all on your way the moment I thought you were at risk.”
“We’ll do this job,” Nate said. “But first tell me why.”
Eliot looked up, seeing eyes watching him steadily, so very…
“I was the Low Tech agent sent to work with Burke eight years ago,” He stated, dropping his eyes to the table again. “It was my first deployment after my father found out I’d been sleeping with a girl in my clan without permission. It’s a serious crime on Olympus but we were young and stupid and thought no one would care what a couple of Low-Techs got up to.” He gripped the table’s edge, trying to ground himself in the present. “But we got caught and they sent us to Tarturus, Olympus’ detention center. By the time we got out…” He looked back up to Nate, not willing to share all the hell, not willing to speak the secrets that haunted him and Amie both, but knowing… He wouldn’t hide from this much. “When I met Peter Burke I was falling. He and his wife caught me.”