The Hitter's Club

It was a shock to everyone to walk into the bar and find it full of mostly unfamiliar people. But the ones they did recognize were the worst part.

Mikel, just as dark and beautifully terrifying as ever sat at a corner table, holding out a large, razor sharp knife to the woman seated across from her, who had a similarly muscular build.

Over at the bar, Shelly was knocking back a long line of drinks to equal two other men, one who was 6'4" and almost managing to pass as a professional business man in a nice suit, while the second was scarred with greying hair, just under six feet and wearing what looked like a special ops outfit in non-reflective black.

Meanwhile, Eliot was standing beside Quinn, both focused on one of the pub's dart boards and making impossible shots, a ten dollar bill being traded easily back and forth with each absurd throw.

Scattered throughout the rest of the bar were men and women of all shapes and sizes and nationalities, with one distinctly similar quality about them: a dangerous edge.

Based on the three people who they knew, and the overall feeling the assemblage all gave off, the team could easily suppose that McRory's was officially crawling with hitters.

As if that weren't enough, the moment Eliot saw them, he sent them a wide, unusually open and happy grin, before waving away Quinn and heading over to meet them.

"Heya. Sorry 'bout this, I probably shoulda said something earlier, but it was kinda last minute. Turn's out a whole bunch of us were in the area, and we figured, what the hell? They all promised to count the bar as neutral territory from now on, so we at least got somethin' outta this," he explained quickly. The way his words were fast and seemed to almost stumble over one another made Nate think of the time Sam had been trying to convince his father that renting out the zoo for a birthday party was a reasonable idea - eager to have someone agree and acknowledge the plan as worthwhile.

Sophie, however, wasn't lost in reminiscing and stared at her colleague in disbelief. "You invited twenty-odd hitters to our base of operations? How could you possibly believe this was a good idea?"

But he was already gone, herding Parker and Hardison across the room with a pleased expression, introducing the pair around to the crowd.

Retrieval specialists, black ops, assassins, wet work team leaders, thugs, most with the types of pasts that would make a normal person cringe or run screaming, and they were gathered under one roof. A roof that housed the Leverage crew.

And despite Nate and Sophie both wanting nothing so much as to throw every last one of these intruders out, then move to another state, they saw how Eliot was smiling, really smiling, and eagerly bringing Hardison and Parker around to meet each of his "guests".

So they didn't say a word, simply standing back and letting the impromptu get-together continue.

… …

a/n Hitters you may recognize:

Mikel from The Two Crew Job.

Shelly from The Boy's Night Out Job.

Colonel Vance - described as wearing a business suit - from a cameo in The (Very) Big Bird Job, and The Rundown Job.

And Quinn from The First David Job and The Last Dam Job. (LOVE HIM.)

I also borrowed a character. The guy with all the scars in the non-reflective black is Agent 250, from the awesome series of Niels comics off of DeviantArt by Humon.