Chapter 15. This is now officially my second longest story. This is the last chapter because as I am sure we all know, Leverage returns tomorrow. So here is the last big hurrah…or something. Anyway. Here is the last chapter and I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Spoilers: Really quite honestly I don't think so…

Sophie looked at him for a long moment. She had dreamed about hearing those words come out of his mouth literally for years. She had come up with a dozen different ways to react when and if they did. She just sat there and looked at him without doing anything. Then as if waking from a trance, Sophie spoke. "I love you, too."

Before they could do anything else, there was an excited scream. They both whirled around to face the other people who had entered the room. Eliot, Parker, Hardison, and Tara were all standing there. Hardison looked embarrassed. Parker looked excited. Eliot and Tara were amused. Sophie turned deep pink.

Parker turned to face the other three. "Pay up," she told the gleefully. Hardison, Eliot, and Tara all grudgingly took out their wallets and handed Parker decent sums of money.

"You had a bet on us," Sophie half accused and half asked.

"Oh like you don't know that there are at least three other bets in play," Tara replied.

"Four if you count the one on whether or not you were going to kill Nate," Parker told Tara.

Tara glared around at the other five. "Who started that one?" she asked.

"I did," Sophie replied.

"Let me get this straight," Nate started, "You guys have been running secret bets about the team for how long?"

"Since we started the team," Eliot replied.

"And you had a bet on whether Sophie and I would…what exactly?" Nate asked.

"It was more a bet on when than a bet on if," Eliot explained.

"On when you two would stop dancing around it and just admit you love each other," Parker said happily.

Nate and Sophie looked at each other. Neither one knew exactly what to say to this. After a moment Sophie shrugged and Nate nodded. Their basic stand was that they had no clue what was going on, they were probably happier that way. It was safer to just change the subject.

"We need a game plan," Sophie said as Nate opened his mouth. He looked at her a little strangely, while the others sat down and tried not to laugh. "Right."

"Go ahead," Nate told her, "You actually know what is going on right now." Sophie smiled at him a little flirtatiously causing Tara to roll her eyes.

"Alright we need a to decide a couple of things," Sophie told the team, "First are we going to keep doing what we are doing?"

"If you mean helping people who have no where to turn," Eliot said, "Then the answer is yes." The others all nodded in agreement.

"Then we need a new city," Sophie told them.

Nate paled. "What is wrong with Boston?" he asked.

"We are wanted fugitives," Tara reminded him.

"What about Atlanta?" Eliot suggested, "I'm sure there are plenty of people to help here. It is a big city and no where close to Boston or LA." The team looked around seeing if anyone had any objections to plan or the city. No one did.

"Atlanta it is," Sophie told them. There was one more question that she had to ask but really did not want to. Thankfully Nate knew what it was and asked for her.

"What do you plan to do now?" he asked the blonde grifter.

Tara opened her mouth to answer but closed it again because she did not know what to say. She had always thought that it would be easy to break away from the team because it had been easy to break away from every group before. She worked really hard not to get attached to people and this job had seemed just like any other. She knew she could not stay because things in her past that would catch up with her if she stayed and so that left her with one choice. She did not like it but she played her cards long ago. Now she had to live with the consequences.

"I'm going out on my own," Tara told them. She spoke to all of them but she looked at Sophie because Sophie was the only other person who knew what Tara's motivation was.

"If you ever want to come back," Sophie told her friend, "you are more than welcome."

"Thank you," Tara replied, "If you guys want to stay here you can."

"Thank you," Nate told her, "we will miss your contributions to the team." Tara smiled at this knowing perfectly well that she had always been their second choice to Sophie but she was okay with that.

The others started to have a conversation with Tara about where she was going and what she would do, while Nate turned to Sophie. "Soph," he told her, "I have to go back to Boston at least for a little while. There is something I need to get."

Sophie smiled at him. "Would it by any chance be this?" Sophie reached into the interior pocket on her jacket and pulled out a battered piece of paper. Nate took it from her and unfolded it to find the drawing his son had done all those years ago.

He looked at Sophie, "How?"

"I know you Nate," she said taking his hand in hers, "I got it from your apartment before we left Boston."

Nate smiled down at the picture in his left hand and then up at the woman holding his right hand. The picture represent to him a time that was now several years in the past. The life he had lived with Sam and Maggie seemed to have been forever ago and yet he still held it dear. He did not know what his relationship status was with Sophie but he knew that he loved her and she loved him. That was all he had ever really needed to know. He may have broken his first family a long time ago, but he was not alone. These people had cared enough to risk everything including their lives to save him. That meant the world to him.

They were all starting a new page in Atlanta as they had in Los Angeles and as they had in Boston. Each time they moved they left almost everything behind and yet they still had what mattered most. They still had each other. None of them knew what adventures lay in wait for them in this city and none of them knew what was going to happen but that was okay. As long as they stayed together as a team they would be just fine…

So there it is. I hope you liked it. It would be awesome if you review it. If anyone wants one more chapter I did a little story called The Things That We Do. It is Tara's look on things and it could follow this or stand alone.

(fanfiction).net/s/6048482/1/The_Things_That_We_Do

Anyway I hoped you like this story.