An honest politician, it seemed like an oxymoron. There was no way the man sitting before Nathan Ford was actually telling the truth. Even so Nate was used to keeping a poker face and maintaining eye contact with the best of the worst, so he listened to Johnathan Baker's tale of woe and misery. He waited patiently as Congressman Barker told him about his campaign manager Shoshanna Gray, a woman of style, grace, and expensive tastes. Mr. Barker produced photographs of Ms. Gray, a tall willowy red head in a designer suit and heels that Sophie would die for, every picture showed her shopping, getting out of a luxury automobile, or having lunch dates with various men in some of the most exclusive restaurants in the bay area. Shoshanna was not beautiful, but she had a certain allure about her. Power was an aphrodisiac and so was sophistication and the woman knew how to package and work with the feminine whiles that God had given her. She also seemed to have a taste for attractive men, each and every one of them was well built, and handsome. All of them were well clothed, tailored suits or perfectly fitted jeans. They ranged from rugged to polished, but all of them were stunning in their own rights.

"So, she likes to take handsome men to lunch and dinner dates. I'm assuming she can afford to do so on her salary."

Nate swirled his scotch in the glass sitting on the table before him. He had been sipping it through out the meeting, it helped him keep from sounding too dismissive of Mr. Barker as a potential client.

"A few yes, but these were all taken over the last couple of weeks. She seems to have a new friend every day and she doesn't just feed them, she clothes them, she pays for tanning and hair cuts...all on my credit. She has been drawing on campaign funds to support her boy toys and even though I can prove she is making the charges and I am not no one wants to listen the rumors are enough for my opponents to capitalize on. They don't need solid fact that just need...tabloid sleaze."

"Mr. Baker, leave the photos with me...I'll show them to my team and we'll see what we can dig up on Ms. Gray. I can't promise you anything, but we can at least look into it and I will be in touch."

Yes, it was exactly what Nathan Ford told the people that came to him when he didn't plan to take their cases. Mr. Baker knew it was true as well, so all he did was nod as he rose and offered Nate a hand to shake before he left McRory's.

Nate refilled his glass and headed upstairs where the team was waiting for him to finish the meeting. All five of them, Nate included, had been chomping at the bit lately in need of a job, some action, anything. Ever since Eliot had been hurt they'd been forced to take time off. They could have hired another hitter to cover for him while he healed, but it would have been an insult to Eliot and a disservice to themselves. Not to mention the fact that Parker was steadfast in her insistence that she wouldn't work a team job without Eliot. Truth was none of them wanted to go out there without 'their' hitter, it wasn't just a matter of the fact that they had THE Eliot Spencer and very few others could even come close to doing his job as well as he did. It was also a fact that they were a family, and they would never dream of working without him. They were loyal to one another. Even if Hardison was still quieter around the couple than he ever had been before. Even though the unspoken issues between the trio sometimes saw one or two of them leave a room rather than add to the tension. Eliot and Parker were doing their best to respect and be sensitive to Alec's feelings, and Alec was doing his best to be respectful of the two of them, and not to let his personal feelings for Parker ruin the happiness they had found together. But sometimes it was very difficult to let go.

Eliot and Parker were on the couch watching basketball on the flat screen when Nate entered. Eliot was trying to explain the various positions to Parker, and while Parker was nodding she wasn't really paying attention. When it came to sports they had a bit of a rift between them, Parker understood tackling and had in fact proven herself very skilled at that aspect of playing football. Thankfully Eliot was also very good at taking a hit, and didn't much mind being 'pinned' under a squirming and pleased with herself Parker. Tossing the ball around in the grass at Daisy Field, and chasing one another around had helped the hitter regain his speed and stamina after being off his feet for a couple months. He'd worked the kinks out of his injured knee and retrained his reflexes; while Parker had enjoyed the exercise and the atypically warm weather and his company.

She had also very much enjoyed having a hard muscled and slightly sweaty Eliot underneath her after another successful tackle.

Parker liked football...basketball was another story thus far. While she was certain she would enjoy herself 'shooting hoops' with the hitter, watching the game on television just wasn't visceral enough for her. But if it kept her in popcorn and it made Eliot happy she would get more than enough out of it to make the effort worth her while.

Eliot was emphatically trying to make Parker understand why the last call the ref had made was such a bad one. If he yelled any louder the ref would be aware of his opinion as well. Parker just allowed that smirk to curve her lips while she told Eliot he was absolutely right, even though she had no real idea what the heck he was talking about. Every so often she would reach down and stall the motion of his hand before he threw the small rubber balloon filled with silicone beads at the television screen. Parker had dubbed the ball Eliot's 'stress grape', in truth it was a physical therapy ball designed to strengthen and exercise his healing hands and fingers after they had finally removed the casts. At first he had barely been able to grip the damn thing, but now; well actually this was his third one as he had popped the other two.

He didn't need it anymore but mauling the thing while he watched television or read a book had become a habit. A restless habit, one that would probably fade into nothingness once the team got back to work.

Hardison was playing Warcraft, he had discovered a passion for transmogrification during their down time. His level eighty-five Hoardie was all decked out now. Sophie showed some appreciation for his efforts, but the most he got out of Eliot was a quizzical sideways glance. While the hitter had been down Hardison had really tried to teach him some respect for the game, the real game, the big game. But Eliot just hadn't learned to appreciate, although Parker had made a little blood elf warlock and had Alec run her through dungeons for good loot and drops. For Parker it was always about the loot. In addition to mastering the World of Warcraft Hardison had also upgraded their earbuds for added range and clarity as well as strengthening and streamlining their security systems after having worked too closely with Chaos for his own comfort.

Sophie was brewing a cup of tea at the kitchen counter, perched on a stool wearing a pair of black skinny pants and a silvery draped cashmere sweater her boot heel was hanging on the rung of the stool and her manicured nails were gently tapping the granite while she flipped through a fashion magazine that had just been sent to her by Tara. Tara had obviously been in Milan recently. When she saw Nate she held up a photo of an anorexic model in a black and white haute couture dress that looked like a short version of something they had seen on the academy awards the other night.

"Nate, what do you think. Too Audrey Hepburn? Well, other than the hemline of course."

Nate had long since learned that when it came to fashion he could not get away with lip service to Sophie Deveraux. If he didn't really look and give an honest opinion she would know it and you'd pay for it long term. So when she held up the photo Nate crossed the room and moved to her side to look at the ensemble.

"No, no...the trailing bow in the back is very dramatic and it will look terrific with those patterned stockings you've been wearing."

Sophie beamed, it was always nice to know that the man you were involved with noticed things like the kind of stockings you'd been favoring lately. Of course Nate could rarely keep his eyes off the brunette's exceptionally long legs for any length of time and with nothing on the books lately to occupy their time they had spent the last few quiet months rather closely together.

"Now that her pressing fashion concern had been addressed Sophie looked up to Nate and asked him about the meeting.

"So, do we have a job? What did you think of Mr. Barker?"

Nate shook his head no and set the handful of photos of Shoshanna Gray down on the counter next to Sophie's magazine. The grifter picked them up and started flipping through them one by one, taking note of the locations, the fashions, the atmosphere, and the people in them as well.

"I'm not impressed. For starters we usually work to uncover crooked politicians, not to repair the reputations of honest ones."

He said the word honest with a slight laugh and looked up to see the other three members of the team looking back at him with eager expressions on their faces.

"An honest politician? That would be a first."

Eliot piped in first, agreeing with the team leader, Parker turned on the couch, careful not to knock over the bowl of popcorn and planted her elbows on the back of the sofa. Her curvy backside thrust out as she knelt caught Eliot's attention and he smirked and gave the stress grape a white knuckled squeeze.

Hardison was already tapping away on the keys, and within second he had photo's of Congressman Baker and Shoshanna Gray up on the screen. He also had access to the man's bank files and personal accounts as was working on the same for Ms. Gray as he spoke.

"His family isn't wealthy, he comes from a long line of public servants actually. Policemen, fire fighters, good Boston blood..."

"Hardison, cross reference Mr. Baker's business accounts with Aujourd'hui...Terramia...and Grille 23."

"Bing...Bing...and Ba Dah Bing...all three in the last month. And the bar tabs are...wow they are astronomical. Baker likes to wine and dine them, that's for sure."

"Not Baker." Sophie replied. "Shoshanna Gray...right here in the photos. That's what he is claiming right Nate, that she is the one abusing his political privileges. Raping his expense accounts."

"Uhm...yeah...yes he is. You think he's telling the truth?"

"I'd say so from the looks of these and the matching charges. She's found a way to access his expense accounts."

"Why doesn't he just fire her?"

Parker asked the question everyone was wondering and four pairs of eyes turned to her and then to Nate for the answer.

"According to Mr. Barker she has threatened to start a sex scandal, she told him if he didn't keep her on until the end of his term and her full contract that she'd go to the press and claim they have been having an affair. You don't need proof to start a scandal and with his finances already in question it would be the nail in his coffin."

Nate took a seat next to Sophie and looked over to the photos again, he wasn't crazy about this job but it was what they had and it didn't seem to risky. Not another Damien Moreau or Sterling. It would be a good way to get Eliot's feet wet again.

He stared at the images on the screen, as Hardison brought up new photos as well as other documents of varying importance.

"Hardison, what was that...just there, no back one more...that one the confirmation from..."

"Black Mountain Ski Resort...just outside of Jackson, New Hampshire. Looks like someone made a reservation for this weekend...staying a week."

Hardison starting tapping away and within moments they had a full schedule of events at Black Mountain for the next month.

"Tele Skiing, looks like they are having some kind of Tele Skiing event, a precursor to the big Festival in Bear Valley."

Sophie piped in again then, she had gleaned a wealth of information from the photo's and was ready to share more of the details so that Hardison could cross reference them and they could fill in some more of the blanks concerning Shoshanna Gray.

"This man here..." She showed Nate the one she meant, handing over the photo as she turned to the next one now that she was on a roll. "He's..I think he is a baseball player...and this one looks like..a surfer, professional surfer...God I don't know their names."

Nate handed the photos to Hardison and he took them over to the scanner and ran them through his state of the art facial recognition software suite. If either of the men had been in any kind of trade publication, magazine, newspaper, had a legal photo identification card made in the last ten years, or had a criminal record they would find him.

"Your right Soph...your absolutely right. Ms. Gray has a thing for athletes."

At that announcement all eyes turned to their hitter. After all he had a fairly successful minor league baseball career with the stats and Japanese energy drink commercials to prove it. Local baseball fans had been sorry to hear that Roy had been traded to Tallahassee but his sandwich still sold well and occasionally Eliot was mistaken for the catcher.

"Eliot, how's the knee feeling?"

Nate asked with a smile already knowing the answer he'd be getting.

"Fine."

"Good. Good...let's go steal us a snow bunny."

Only Parker seemed to be confused, and Eliot was glad of that because he would rather explain that he was going to go seduce the crooked campaign manager in a secure environment than here where Parker was capable of breaking some pretty high tech and difficult to replace equipment.