Title: Alone Together
Fandom: Leverage
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Eliot/Maria, Breanna, Hardison/Parker, Nate/Sophie
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Breanna has questions she hopes the other single member of the team can answer.
Word Count: 1439
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 472. Sign. Also fills Fandom #70 for the author's 100FandomHell collection and #65. Spice for 100Ships.
Date Written: 9 March 2025
Warnings: Leverage: Redemption Spoilers
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.







"Do you ever regret it?"

Eliot blinks, startled out of his silent reverie. He'd watched Hardison and Parker leave the room, all lovey dovey, and witnessed Sophie almost melt into her own glass of wine. She's gone now, and somehow, he's been left alone with the kid. "Huh? What?" he asks, finding himself suddenly wishing his own drink was stronger. He threw back the rest of his beer, its touch of spice burning his throat in a very welcome way, before reaching for the next longneck.

Breanna grins at him, as though they're sharing some kind of secret to which he is actually not privvy at all. "Come on, big guy. You can be honest with me. Do you ever regret it? Leaving Maria behind? Losing out on Parker to Hardison or Sophie or -- ?"

He stops her with a soft, almost-growl. He has to remind himself that she may be a juvvie fool, but she is still his friend and a loyal and dedicated member of the team he's come to not only call but truthfully regard as a family. "One, I didn't 'lose out' on Sophie or Parker." Maybe it's a sign that he's been hanging out with Hardison too much again, but he actually uses the air quotes, jerking his calloused fingers angrily through the air. "Second, Nate was a damn good man. I miss him too. And I actually helped your brother score Parker. And I didn't leave Maria behind! She didn't exactly give me a choice!"

"Wait. Back up a minute." Breanna holds a hand up in the air. She knows he's getting angry, which had not at all been her intentions, but she supposed she could have chosen her words better. Nonetheless, she'd watch how he'd looked longingly after her brother and his girlfriend as they'd left, arms wrapped around each other and voices burrowed into a beehive of tender whispers and secret jokes as though they were the only two people in existence. She'd seen, too, how crestfallen he'd looked when he'd turned away from the couple to see Sophie trying to drink her grief away another night.

She could have chosen her words better, she decides. She should have. But right now, truthfully, there's only one thing that she really wants to know. "You helped Alec get Parker? Dude, hook a sister up!"

The sound he responds with is somewhere between a snort and an actual chuckle. Neither of them are actually certain to which it leans more, but when he speaks again, there's a sparkle in his brown eyes. "Yeah, I helped him. Dude didn't have a move in the book. But there was this one mission we went on in our first year together. Had a whole bunch of orphans. We were gonna leave 'em, didn't have a better answer truthfully at the time, but Parker wasn't having it. We had to go in after her, and well, I rigged this big whole explosion. You should have seen their faces! But I let Hardison push the button, and honestly, you should've seen the way Parker looked at him when he did. Like he was a hero -- "

"He is a hero."

Eliot nods, not denying that fact. He's proud of how much Hardison has grown. He's proud of how much they have all, even himself in his own ways, grown since those early days. He sips his beer, beginning again to relax. "You should've seen it," he says, eyes sparkling. "It took them a while to get together, but I really think that's when she started falling for him."

Breanna stares at him, clearly amazed. "So if not for you, my brother would still be a lonely los--"

"Hey, Hardison's not a loser, and, I dunno," he answers, a rough edge of warning returning to his voice. "He's saved all our asses more times than I can count. And nah," he continues, waving his bottle in the air. "I think he still would've gotten her eventually. Just look at 'em. They're meant to be together." They are the perfect combination, just as he'd thought he and Maria had been.

She nods, eyeing him and his beer in a quiet moment.

His hand curls around his last longneck. "Get your own," he growls. "Wait a minute, though. Aren't you too young to drink?"

She doesn't answer. She ventures instead, "I'm sorry if I came off sounding harsh. It wasn't my intention. It's just -- You know, other than Sophie, who clearly loved Nate for a long time, we're the only ones left alone, and sometimes -- "

"Sometimes you wonder if you're ever going to find the one who's right for you," he tips his beer at her, "the one who's meant for you, to be the Parker to your Hardison, to be the one..." He forces the remaining words through the tight ball forming deep in his throat, "to be the one who stays." He swallows his remaining beer in a single gulp as a bevy of women and men too, not just Maria, sweep through his mind. He has known so many he thought would stay, though none had seemed as perfect a fit as the Marshall, and none, in the end, had stayed.

He shakes his head, as his boots hit the floor. "I'm sorry, kid. I'm not really the one to ask. But hey, look, even if you find the one, and they want to stay, it still doesn't mean you'll get what you want. Maria chose her life's work over us being together. I don't like it, but I don't begrudge it either. I still miss her. If our paths were different -- " He shakes his head. "But they weren't and she did what was best for her. I more than understand it. I applaud for it."

"You do?" Breanna asks, clearly puzzled.

He nods. "It takes a strong person to accept that being alone is better for them than trying to make a relationship work when it's not going to. We might could've made it work for a couple months more." He smirks. "I'd be kidding myself if I thought it could have lasted even a whole year." Though he had. In times of weakness and loneliness, he had often dreamed of her being the one to stay and come to work beside him not just for months but for years. But that never would have been fair to her. "But in the end, it wouldn't've worked. It couldn't. A grunt for hire and a Federal Marshall?"

"You're more than just a grunt for hire."

He nods and lifts his beer before remembering it's empty. "I am now. Thanks to Nate."

"Thanks to you."

He shakes his head. "Thanks to Nate," he insists. "He touched us all, improved us all, made us all improve on ourselves. Inspired us all to be more than this world ever left us thinking we could be. He's what made this team, what brought us together, what kept us together and made us a family." He really needs another beer. "Sophie's not the only one who misses him, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. Sometimes, no matter how good the people or the pairing, you don't get your wish. You don't get to stay, or you don't get the one you love and who loves you to stay."

"Maria did what was best for her, and she'll be a lot better for it in the end. She'll be a lot happier with her full dream career than I ever could've made her." He shakes his head. "No matter how hard I might've tried. What we had... was a temporary dream. But the career she had, that had been her lifelong dream. Does that make sense, kid?"

She nods slowly, her curls bouncing. "I... guess it does. You're saying even if I don't get a girlfriend, or a wife, if I never get my own Parker, I'll still be a lot happier if I keep doing my work. If I keep helping the world the way we've been doing. Even if I end up alone."

"Yep, or something like that anyway." He pushes his chair back and stands. He definitely needs more beer. He tosses the emptied longnecks into the nearest trash can. "I'm going for more beer." He heads out, but her voice trails behind him.

"Can I come?"

"You're too young to drink!"

"So? I can get a soda!"

He rolls his eyes. "Fine," he snaps back, "but hurry up!" He doesn't let her see his grin as they head out into the night together.



The End