A/N: This is an episode addition for 'The Mile High Job', set at the end of the episode, but before the final scene back in the Leverage offices. I'm assuming the gang didn't immediately hop back on a plane to leave the Caymans!

A/N 2: I've edited this since first posting it, to correct that fact that the Leverage offices are based in LA, not Chicago, as I thought when I originally wrote it. Oops! *g*

Happy Families

by Lilly Pilly

Lazily, Sophie drew patterns in the sand, feeling the soft, fine grains slipping between her fingers. The sand, it stretched away smooth and white as far as she could see, curving away in the distance, dotted here and there by other guests making use of the hotel's private beach. She didn't pay them any mind, closing her eyes behind her sunglasses and thinking about nothing but how good the sun felt on her skin.

She realised she hadn't felt so relaxed in weeks -- months.

Raising her arms over her head she stretched luxuriously, hands sweeping through the warm sand above the edge of the towel she was lying on. She wanted this perfect, peaceful feeling to never end.

This was, naturally, precisely when a shadow fell across her face, blocking out her sun.

"Sophie."

She did not open her eyes. She knew the voice; that was enough.

There was a sigh. "Sophie, we've been here over a day."

"Have we?" she murmured. "Not much of a holiday."

"We have to be on the plane in two hours."

She lifted her sunglasses and squinted up at him. "We're always rushing about lately. Have you noticed that?"

"Sophie -"

"Nate."

Looking resigned, he came closer to her level, squatting beside her. She rolled over on her stomach, propped herself up on her forearms, and looked over at him. She almost laughed -- Nathan Ford was not a beach person, that much was obvious, but he could have at least made some concession to the climate. Even Eliot had been wearing flip flops when she saw him at breakfast that morning.

Really, who walked across a beach in dress shoes?

"Sophie," Nate tried again after a pause, "while it's great you're enjoying yourself -"

"I hate LA."

"I - what?"

"Los Angeles," she repeated. She drew her fingers idly in the sand. "I hate it."

"You hate LA."

"Well, I mean it's all right to visit - Hollywood, obviously, I should feel right at home. The arts scene isn't bad." She shrugged. "I'll admit, the place has its charms. You wouldn't want to live there, though. It's polluted, it's overcrowded, it's impossible to get around. Oh, except that now I do, I live in LA, of all places."

"You come from London."

"Yeah. Well I got out of there as soon as I could, remember? Like I said, nice place to visit -"

"Two hours!" Nate, frustrated, started waving his hands around. "I can't - I can't change standard of living in an entire city to suit you, Sophie."

Lazily, she shifted onto her side, head in her palm. "No," she agreed, "but you could stop blocking my sun."

"Uuugh," he groaned, rubbing his hands over his face. "You can take a holiday," he told her. "Anytime you want. But this is not a holiday, remember? We have to get Marissa Devens back to the states. We have clients waiting to hear from us!"

She sighed, looking past him along the beach. Down at the water's edge there was a couple holding hands as they wandered along. "Business as usual," she murmured.

There was an echoing sigh from Nate. "Sophie -" he began.

"It almost slipped my mind," she said, more directly. She reached for his hand then, and he took it automatically, helping her stand up.

"What did?"

"That I'm still cross with you."

This was a lie, of course. She was not the one who went around forgetting things.

Leaning down she began to pick up her things; the emerald green caftan, her towel and sandals. The novel she hadn't even opened.

"Yeah, I uh - I... Uh..."

She straightened back up to find a man who had completely lost his train of thought. While he stood there not talking, she simply deposited everything else in his arms and raised her arms to slip the caftan on over her head.

"Uh," Nate tried again, and finally finished vaguely, "yeah. Sorry. You know, about that."

She wasn't sure whether he was referring to his recent lapses in memory, or the staring just now.

No, she didn't need eyes in the back of her head to know when a man was watching her bend over. Especially not while wearing a bikini. And certainly not when she meant him to.

"Nate," she said, "I was in a really good mood."

Extra emphasis on the past tense. She set off across the sand in the direction of the hotel.

Turning back briefly she found him trailing along more slowly. "Don't we have a plane to catch?" she said, just to see the familiar Look-with-a-capital-L he gave her before throwing the towel over his shoulder and moving to catch up.

She took back her sandals as they reached the path and held his shoulder for balance as she put them on.

"So," he said mildly, as she concentrated on a twisted strap, "you ever going to take that ring off?"

She froze, just for a split second, but it might as well have been an hour. She straightened up, tossing her hair back, and found him smiling in a way that a man who couldn't even remember a simple date had no right to.

"Does it matter?" she asked, starting off down the path with him falling into step with her. "It's fake, anyway."

"It's two carat."

She was thinking about how he had slid it on her finger, a silly moment. She'd enjoyed it, anyway. "I wasn't talking about the diamond," she said.

With a quick, deliberate movement she removed the ring and tossed it over her shoulder at him, causing him to almost trip and drop her things as he fumbled to catch it. She smiled to herself as she listened to him swear.

"There," she called without looking back. "Now we can pretend we're divorced."

Somehow, she thought they'd be much better at it.

fin.

Thanks for reading!