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Entry tags:
Hangin', Leverage, gen
Title: Hangin'
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine
Notes/Warnings: Originally for the prompt Alec Hardison, stuck in an elevator at the Awesome People of Color Are Awesome comment-a-thon, now cleaned up a bit.
Also posted to AOOO, here.
It was okay, fine, no problem. Alec said that into the commlink, repeated it to himself once or twice, and settled down, back to the wall, legs stretched out in front of him. If it had been Nate stuck in the damn elevator, or Eliot, Alec would have had them out in no time, but they didn't have the same skill set, so Alec knew it might take a while. He was okay with that.
Mostly.
He could hear mutterings and furious whispers half-shaded from the ear buds, and once, way in the background, Eliot snarled I fucking know that; I'm working on it, but Alec was doing okay, doing just fine, not thinking about how he was stuck between the 77th and 78th floors or how high that really was or whether he'd hit terminal velocity--which actually could be cool--before he hit the ground. Which would be deeply, deeply not cool, and there was nothing he could do, he just had to sit there in the dark and wait, and not think about the tensile strength of elevator cables and how everybody knew that building inspections were crap, that they paid off the inspectors and it could have been years since the whole thing had actually been safe and--
Fine. He was fine.
"How're you doing, Alec?" Sophie sounded calm and unruffled. Then again, that was her job, selling impossible situations to chumps and--
"Fine and dandy," Alec said, because there was no way Alec Hardison was admitting that he maybe had a thing about small, enclosed spaces that were hanging 77 floors off the sweet, sweet Earth by nothing more than a two-inch cable.
"Good," Sophie said. "Eliot swears he's almost got it sorted out--Oh, dear, what do you mean, there's a little snag--" The comm went quiet then, as though somebody had killed the feed, but before Alec could psych himself out of freaking over that, there was a thud on the roof of the elevator and he was definitely entitled to lose it.
"Guys?" Alec said. "Hey, hey, guys--Sophie? Eliot? Nate?" Tell me what you're seeing and let me handle this was what was going to say, but then there was more scraping up top and Alec might have given up on living and started in on figuring out what he was going to tell his Nana so she wouldn't whup his behind up one side of the afterlife and down the other.
The scraping got louder and Alec braced himself for freefall, which was why he was a little slow in recognizing Parker as she dropped head-first through the emergency hatch in the roof to dangle right in front of him, the flashlight clipped to her harness nearly blinding him in the process.
"Hi," she chirped, and held out a cold and sweaty 20-ounce bottle of pure heaven in the form of Orange Crush. "I thought you might be getting thirsty."
"Parker, what are you--" Alec took the bottle automatically, but his brain was still a little slow, at least until the sugar and yellow dye #6 hit his system. "You know what? Never mind. Just give me your ear bud; they shut mine off."
Parker nodded and fumbled with the watchcap she had pulled down over her ears. "Sophie said you probably didn't need to hear Nate and Eliot fussing at each other."
"I don't," Alec said, getting situated. "I was being nice, letting them get in some practice at the electronics, little cross-training, taking to heart Nate's talk about how us being all silo'ed into our specialties isn't good for the team, but enough is just about damn enough."
He tapped the earbud once, making sure it was settled, and then opened the lameass laptop he was carrying--this would be the last time he let Nate talk him into carrying something that a civilian might carry, undercover or not--and tethered it to the wifi on his phone so he could connect to the building's network.
"All better?" Parker asked.
"You know it," Alec answered, handing her his earbud. "You better get yourself on out of here, before I cross-connect the power and get me the hell off this joyride."
"Aye-firmative." Parker smacked the auto-reel on her harness and whizzed on back up where she'd come from before Alec could even acknowledge the quote from Aliens, which was too bad. Positive reinforcement was the key to learning, Nana had always said.
"Eliot," he said instead. "Turn my commlink back on; Parker's wearing it now. No, do not argue with me, just step away from the keyboard and let me..."
Re-routing the power took a little longer than Alec would like to admit, but still less than 10 seconds, and these were very trying circumstances, so he was going to give himself a break. The lights flickered and then stayed on, right about the time Parker called her all clear. Alec stood up and carefully punched the button for the lobby and the van parked on the street outside. He appreciated the effort, but the thought of Eliot and Nate messing with his primary system was a bit more than he could handle and, seriously? If they had gotten anywhere near his torrent client and screwed over the download of the new Dr. Who, there was going to be hell.to.pay.
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine
Notes/Warnings: Originally for the prompt Alec Hardison, stuck in an elevator at the Awesome People of Color Are Awesome comment-a-thon, now cleaned up a bit.
Also posted to AOOO, here.
It was okay, fine, no problem. Alec said that into the commlink, repeated it to himself once or twice, and settled down, back to the wall, legs stretched out in front of him. If it had been Nate stuck in the damn elevator, or Eliot, Alec would have had them out in no time, but they didn't have the same skill set, so Alec knew it might take a while. He was okay with that.
Mostly.
He could hear mutterings and furious whispers half-shaded from the ear buds, and once, way in the background, Eliot snarled I fucking know that; I'm working on it, but Alec was doing okay, doing just fine, not thinking about how he was stuck between the 77th and 78th floors or how high that really was or whether he'd hit terminal velocity--which actually could be cool--before he hit the ground. Which would be deeply, deeply not cool, and there was nothing he could do, he just had to sit there in the dark and wait, and not think about the tensile strength of elevator cables and how everybody knew that building inspections were crap, that they paid off the inspectors and it could have been years since the whole thing had actually been safe and--
Fine. He was fine.
"How're you doing, Alec?" Sophie sounded calm and unruffled. Then again, that was her job, selling impossible situations to chumps and--
"Fine and dandy," Alec said, because there was no way Alec Hardison was admitting that he maybe had a thing about small, enclosed spaces that were hanging 77 floors off the sweet, sweet Earth by nothing more than a two-inch cable.
"Good," Sophie said. "Eliot swears he's almost got it sorted out--Oh, dear, what do you mean, there's a little snag--" The comm went quiet then, as though somebody had killed the feed, but before Alec could psych himself out of freaking over that, there was a thud on the roof of the elevator and he was definitely entitled to lose it.
"Guys?" Alec said. "Hey, hey, guys--Sophie? Eliot? Nate?" Tell me what you're seeing and let me handle this was what was going to say, but then there was more scraping up top and Alec might have given up on living and started in on figuring out what he was going to tell his Nana so she wouldn't whup his behind up one side of the afterlife and down the other.
The scraping got louder and Alec braced himself for freefall, which was why he was a little slow in recognizing Parker as she dropped head-first through the emergency hatch in the roof to dangle right in front of him, the flashlight clipped to her harness nearly blinding him in the process.
"Hi," she chirped, and held out a cold and sweaty 20-ounce bottle of pure heaven in the form of Orange Crush. "I thought you might be getting thirsty."
"Parker, what are you--" Alec took the bottle automatically, but his brain was still a little slow, at least until the sugar and yellow dye #6 hit his system. "You know what? Never mind. Just give me your ear bud; they shut mine off."
Parker nodded and fumbled with the watchcap she had pulled down over her ears. "Sophie said you probably didn't need to hear Nate and Eliot fussing at each other."
"I don't," Alec said, getting situated. "I was being nice, letting them get in some practice at the electronics, little cross-training, taking to heart Nate's talk about how us being all silo'ed into our specialties isn't good for the team, but enough is just about damn enough."
He tapped the earbud once, making sure it was settled, and then opened the lameass laptop he was carrying--this would be the last time he let Nate talk him into carrying something that a civilian might carry, undercover or not--and tethered it to the wifi on his phone so he could connect to the building's network.
"All better?" Parker asked.
"You know it," Alec answered, handing her his earbud. "You better get yourself on out of here, before I cross-connect the power and get me the hell off this joyride."
"Aye-firmative." Parker smacked the auto-reel on her harness and whizzed on back up where she'd come from before Alec could even acknowledge the quote from Aliens, which was too bad. Positive reinforcement was the key to learning, Nana had always said.
"Eliot," he said instead. "Turn my commlink back on; Parker's wearing it now. No, do not argue with me, just step away from the keyboard and let me..."
Re-routing the power took a little longer than Alec would like to admit, but still less than 10 seconds, and these were very trying circumstances, so he was going to give himself a break. The lights flickered and then stayed on, right about the time Parker called her all clear. Alec stood up and carefully punched the button for the lobby and the van parked on the street outside. He appreciated the effort, but the thought of Eliot and Nate messing with his primary system was a bit more than he could handle and, seriously? If they had gotten anywhere near his torrent client and screwed over the download of the new Dr. Who, there was going to be hell.to.pay.
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