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Bring on the Wonder	By : Azuriel Category: G through L > Leverage Views: 498 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I am in no way connected to the Leverage series. I own nothing in that universe. Therefore I cannot and am not making any money off of this story.

Chapter List
- 7
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Nate, Elliot, and Will were sitting with a young woman who had come to them after a record producer she and her brother were working with had smashed her brother's hands. Her hands were shaking as she tried to lift the cup of coffee they'd given her. “I'm sorry. I'm still a bit shook up.”

“That's all right,” Nate assured her. “So, your brother, now, will he ever play again?”

“Doctors say he'll be lucky to move his fingers again. Music was his life. What Kirkwood did was more than wrong. It was...”

“It was cruel,” Elliot finished the sentence.

“Now, this guy Kirkwood, you said he has a reputation for doing these kinds of things. So why would you work for him?”

“Well, he owns a record label, Mr. Ford.”

“So?”

“He was your shot at stardom,” Elliot guessed. While Nate seemed a little cold sometimes, both Elliot and Will knew he was digging for as much information as possible. They needed to know everything to know how to go after someone.

“Right,” Kaye Lynn nodded. “He hired us to write songs for other artists, his more established artists. It was good money, plus royalties, and we thought we'd hit the jackpot, but when it came time to pay...”

“He showed you the fine print,” Nate guessed as he was getting a better picture of things.

“Exactly. He charged us rent to park in his lot. He charged us for the pens we used. He owns our publishing. And our songs were good and they did well. And before you knew it, he owed us hundreds of thousands in royalties.”

“You ever confront him?”

“Instead of paying us, he offered to record our own album in his studio, no charge, and he said he was gonna get us a spot in Saddles & Spurs.”

“What's that?”

“A big music festival in Memphis.”

“So, what happened?”

“When he heard the album, he decided it was too good to waste on a couple of unknowns. So he stole it! The devil may have gone down to Georgia, Mr. Ford, but he lives in Memphis.”

Nate sat back in his chair. He'd heard enough. “Alright, well, we'll discuss it, and get back to you.”

Nate had Hardison look further into the producer before they all gathered at headquarters to talk it over. “Mitchell Kirkwood. Record producer and CEO of Kirkwood Records. Now, here's a fun fact. He started off his career as an artist. Does anybody remember this?” Hardison played an old music video of Kirkwood singing.

“I say we take him down for that alone,” Sophie commented.

“Yeah, that's.... Not good,” Will agreed.

“Critics agreed,” Hardison told them. “It's probably why he never released another single. He took all the money he made and funneled it into his record company, and judging by the number of lawsuits filed, and dropped within days, I'd say it's not his first time forcing somebody to settle out of court.”

“Does he have a criminal record?” Elliot asked.

Hardison shook his head. “None. He carved out a nice little kingdom in the country music world.”

“Yeah, well, he stole Kaye Lynn's music. He stole her money, he took over their publishing.”

“Which means he's good at covering his tracks, like all the other dirt bags we've dealt with,” Will pointed out.

“True,” Nate agreed. “And we're gonna get it all back for her, like we have dozens of times before.”

“I understand how to steal money, but how do you steal music?” Sophie asked.

“Oh, it's called a digital master,” Hardison tried to explain. “It's high quality, multi-channel, studio recorded, mixed, and engineered. Price to produce hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions. Now, this building right here, this is Kirkwood Records, Memphis, Tennessee. Now, inside this building is a hidden safe that contains these digital masters, one of which has Kaye Lynn's music on it.”

“So it's a smash and grab,” Parker expected it to be simple.

Nate shook his head. “Not exactly. We have to make sure she gets back the money.”

“And a little extra for hospital bills,” Sophie added. “Making sure that he can't come after them, well, that wouldn't hurt.”

“A fiddle game,” Nate and Sophie said at the exact same time.

“Ah, that one,” Will nodded. “I know what that one is, I think.”

Parker raised an eyebrow. “Uh, I don't know how to play the fiddle.”

“Well, actually we're not gonna play a fiddle,” Nate explained. “We're gonna sell one. For a hell of a lot more than it's worth.”

A few days later they were in Memphis, Tennessee in the saloon Kirkwood owned. Hardison had hacked the system to make it look like Kirkwood wasn't coming, and Sophie made sure to take his designated booth to get his attention.

When the man came in he was rather upset about the mix up. The hostess promised to get another table for him right away. “Kirkwood's on his way over,” Hardison alerted Nate who was waiting for the man at the bar.

Nate struck up a friendly conversation with Kirkwood over a few drinks while Hardison made his way to the sound booth. “You good to go, Will?” he asked.

“Just tell me what performer I'm getting the tickets for,” Will replied.

Hardison pulled up the sound manager's playlist. “I need tickets for Brooks & Dunn. You got that?”

“Got it. I'll have them for you in about five minutes.”

Once Will had everything sent from his contact he handed the tickets over to Parker and they both headed inside.

The technician came in before Parker was able to get there. “Uh, you're not supposed to be in here.”

“Tell me about it, buddy. Why are you here?” Hardison pretended to be annoyed.

“I work here.”

“Flippin fantastical. They call me on my night off and gone and double book it.”

The technician picked up the phone. “Better call the main office, find out what's going on here.”

“Please do, Skipper, because if I got to work tonight, then I need to find somebody to take this Brooks & Dunn ticket off my hands.”

The technician quickly hung up the phone. “You know what? I am starting to remember something about having the night off.”

“Don't you think you should go on and double check that, butter britches?”

“Naw. I definitely remember now.”

“Really? All right, now. Think you can find somebody to take this ticket off my hands?”

“I think I can find somebody.”

“Let me...” Hardison started searching his pockets like he was looking for the tickets. Parker slid them under the door. “Damn. Look. There it goes, right there. I must have dropped them. Been there the whole time.” He picked them up and handed them over.

“All right, well, thanks,” the guy said as he quickly left.

“So far so good,” Hardison started setting up. “I guess next time I want tickets to something I know who to ask.”

“Or not,” Will replied. “I think there's a limit to how much I can use family resources since I'm technically not in the family anymore.”

Nate kept the conversation pretty casual at first, then he mentioned some new talent he'd discovered. That got Kirkwood's attention. Nate pointed Sophie out and said she was some European producer making a small offer on his talent. Kirkwood generously offered to go have a chat with her about it. “Let the fiddle games begin.”

“Yeah. Um, I'm still a little unclear. Where, exactly, is this fiddle?” Parker asked.

“It just walked through the door,” Nate said as Elliot came in and headed backstage.

Elliot had gone up to the balcony overlooking the crowd. “What are you looking at?” Parker asked when she bumped into him.

“Don't!” Elliot jumped a little.

“What's wrong?”

“I'm... Nothing's wrong.”

“Probably stage fright,” Will commented as he joined them.

“I thought you said you could sing,” Parker didn't see the problem.

“I can sing. I just... I didn't realize there was gonna be this many people.”

“Well, you've got about fifteen minutes or so to get over that,” Will said as he put a hand on Elliot's shoulder.

“Very comforting,” Elliot grumbled.

“I try.”

“Relax, man. I told you. I got you. Say something,” Hardison joined the conversation as they headed backstage.

“I don't speak on command, Hardison,” Elliot snapped at him.

“Perfect. Now, I rigged my laptop to record your comm. Now, this means that I can alter your pitch from anywhere to make you sound like Darth Eliot,” Hardison said as he played Elliot's voice back in a very deep pitch. “To Spencer Smurf,” he played the same recording at a high pitch.

“Hardison?”

“Don't ever do the Smurf thing again?”

“Right.”

“Hardison, make me a copy of that,” Will requested. Elliot of course turned to glare daggers at him. “You don't scare me, old man.”

“I know where you sleep.”

“And I know where you sleep.”

“So this software, what's it do?” Nate asked to break up the back and forth.

“It takes the frequency of your voice, and it matches it to the key of the song, then uses a Fourier transform to correct the pitch, and sends the tuned audio out through the bar's speakers,” Hardison explained.

“What does that mean?” Parker asked.

“That means that, for tonight, Eliot has perfect pitch. You ever wonder how Britney Spears sounds so good on her tracks? Well, this is it, except mine's is in real time, baby.”

While Sophie took her turn with Kirkwood Elliot and Will went backstage where Kaye Lynn was waiting so Elliot could practice. “You seem just as nervous as him,” Will commented when Kaye Lynn started pacing.

“That song he's going out there to sing. That's the only thing my brother and I have left that Kirkwood hasn't stolen or destroyed, and if I lose it...”

“You're not gonna lose it, all right? We're gonna get you your money, we're gonna get you your music back. I promise you,” Elliot assured her.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because this is what we do.” He started playing and messed up.

“You still having trouble with that bridge?” Kaye Lynn asked.

“No, I think...”

“And that's your whole problem,” Will interrupted. “Give that here.” Elliot reluctantly handed over the guitar. “Watch closely.” Will studied the music sheet for a minute, then played the bridge.

“You kept taking lessons?” Elliot was surprised by that.

“Yeah,” Will gave him a soft smile. “Great distraction. Now here.” He got behind Elliot and guided him through it. “Remember what you once taught me about fighting? If you think, you're dead. Performing is kind of the same thing, only you need to feel your way through it. So, I'm gonna go check with the stage manager and make sure we're good.”

When Will had left the room Kaye Lynn turned to Elliot. “He's right, if he said what I think he said. You ever been in love?”

Elliot paused and got a far away look in his eye. “Once.”

“How'd it end?”

“I made her a promise that if she ever needed me that I'd be there for her.”

“And what's wrong with that?”

“Because I made the same promise to the United States government, and I found out you can't make that promise to more than one person.”

“Well, hold on to that feeling, and the feeling you get when he's near you.”

“Excuse me?” Elliot's eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Maybe you haven't realized it yet, or don't want to, but I saw the way you looked at Will; the body language when you were close.”

Elliot let out a nervous laugh and shook his head. “No, that's just... We have some shared history, and now we depend on each other, so....”

“Uh huh,” Kaye Lynn didn't look like she believed him.

“Showtime,” Will popped his head back in.

“Okay, Hardison. How are we doing?” Nate asked.

“Ready when Eliot is,” Hardison replied.

Elliot walked out onto the stage and introduced himself as Kennith Crane. Then he sat on the stool in the spotlight and started performing. “Nate, something's wrong,” Hardison was a little worried about what he was seeing on his screen.

“What?” Nate asked.

“The system's not working. Something's wrong.”

“No, it's fine.”

“No, it's not fine. I'm looking at it right now. It is not correcting his voice.”

“That's because Elliot's voice doesn't need correcting,” Will commented. “Which I could've told you, but no one ever listens to me.”

When Elliot finished the song the crowd gave him a standing ovation. “How'd I do?” Elliot asked Kaye Lynn and Will when he returned to the backstage room.

“That was amazing!” Kaye Lynn hugged him.

“Not bad,” Will gave Elliot a teasing smirk. “Maybe you're not past your prime after all.”

Elliot shook his head and moved forward to pin Will against the wall. “You are an ass.” They didn't even notice Kaye Lynn slip out.

“Tell me something I don't know,” Will said as he gazed right into Elliot's eyes.

Elliot leaned in to tenderly kiss Will before pulling back for a moment. “I wouldn't want you any other way.” He went back in for a deeper more heated kiss, and neither of them heard what was going on outside the room at first.

“He doesn't waste any time,” Will said as they were started by the sound of two goons ruffing Nate up.

“Nate!” Elliot panicked a little. “I'm on my way!” He noticed the shadow of someone standing at the door, so he yanked it open and grabbed a young woman by the throat. “Who do you work for?”

“Forever 21! Don't hit me!” she shouted, a terrified look on her face.

“I'm not gonna...” Elliot sighed as he let her go and backed off. “What are you doing here?”

“I just want your autograph.” Elliot shrugged and obliged.

“Nate, do exactly as I say,” Will started telling Nate how to get the goons to turn on each other.

Once Nate was safe and had gotten some money from Kirkwood they decided to all head back to the hotel. In the car Will turned to Elliot. “I think we need to have a talk.”

“I know we do, but it's not one I'm ready to have yet,” Elliot answered, not taking his eyes off the road.

“Not to push, but does it have to do with my gender or our history?”

“Those are parts of it. It's not like I've never... I mean... You... Like I said, not ready for that conversation just yet. You'll be the first to know when I am.”

“Good to know.”

“Are you okay with keeping things as is until then?”

“Yeah. It's not a bad arrangement.”

“Now, that is how you run a fiddle game,” Nate said when they were all back in the room and he handed Kaye Lynn the money.

Kaye Lynn was stunned. “I don't even know how to begin to thank you.”

“And that's just ten percent of it. Now, tomorrow, he's taking Eliot into the studio, and we'll get you the other ninety.”

“And while Eliot's in the studio, Parker will get into the safe and grab the masters,” Sophie explained.

“Oh! Eliot's the fiddle!” they heard Parker from the bathroom.

“What's she doing back there?” Hardison asked.

“She's trying on her costume,” Sophie answered.

“We sold Eliot to Kirkwood. I totally get this,” Parker continued to voice her thoughts.

As they left to go to their own rooms for the night Nate pulled Will aside. “That whole turning guards against each other, you've done that before,” he said as a statement rather than a question.

Will put on his best innocent face. “Maybe, though I officially admit to nothing.”

Nate turned to Sophie. “I'm starting to think your son is an evil genius.”

Sophie smiled at that. “The genius part he gets from me. I guess it's a good thing he's on our side. Well, my side anyway. Until he gets enough experience under his belt I don't think you have anything to worry about.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Nate asked as Sophie left without another word.

The next day they sent Hardison and Parker to the recording studio first, with Parker dressed as a very eccentric pop star. They hoped that would give her the ability to move around freely. “Hey, yo, Eliot, you got an ETA?” Hardison asked once their part was done.

“Yeah. I'm almost there,” Elliot responded. “We had to get a little creative because I was being followed.”

“What happened to this is what I do?”

“Yeah, I don't think that's gonna work this time.”

“It's not generally a good idea to beat up on a mob of fan girls,” Will added.

“I been meaning to tell you, this Kenneth Crane? He is blowing up on Twitter. He's got a fan page and everything. It's a pretty good picture, too,” Hardison said as he took another look at the page.

“That's the problem. I can't have my picture out there like that,” Elliot grumbled.

“Well, contrary to what y'all may believe, I do not control everything that happens on the internet.”

“There's a price on my head. In three different countries, and I'm fairly certain a fatwa was issued!”

“You are so vain, man. Boom. There. Fan site nuked. But you know what? When you get back, we gonna have us a serious conversation about the difference between caution and paranoia.”

“Trust me, he's not being paranoid,” Will argued. “And that's all I'll say about that.”

“Car!” Elliot shouted.

The tires squealed a little as Will swerved through the intersection. “I saw it. Chill, as they say.”

“This is why I don't let you drive! I should've brought an extra pair of pants.”

A woman was waiting for them at the studio to take Elliot into the recording booth. “Are you all right?” she asked when she saw Elliot.

“Yeah,” Elliot took a deep breath. “My ride thinks stop lights are suggestions, but it's all good. I just need a moment to get settled.”

“You got here in one piece, stop being so whiny,” Will mumbled as they followed the woman.

Elliot went into the recording booth and Will was directed into the studio on the other side of the glass. Hardison joined him shortly. “Parker's on the loose, but there are a lot of unfriendlies,” Hardison said as he sat down at the controls.

“Yeah, which is exactly why we have cover stories. How's Eliot?” Nate asked.

“Some fans were tailing him, so he let Will drive.”

“Gotcha. Is he good?”

“Hey!” Will protested. “I lost the tail and only ran over one curb. Let he who has a perfect driving record cast the first stone.”

“Elliot's taking it better than I would,” Hardison ignored the comment. “He's about to record so he took his comm out.”

Elliot started recording as soon as everything was good to go. Hardison stopped him when he got to the chorus. “Hold up, man. It's... It's a little pitchy.”

Elliot rolled his eyes and started over. Hardison continued to interrupt him with the same criticism, which was only irritating Elliot more and more. “I know you're trying to buy Parker time, but could you let him get through the song once?” Will suggested. “Because he knows where you sleep.”

“How's it going, Parker?” Nate checked in.

“I don't think I'm being weird enough,” she answered.

“Somehow I doubt that.”

Hardison kept interrupting Elliot. “Say pitchy one more time and see what happens. I don't even think that word means what you think it means,” Elliot growled.

“It means pitchy,” was all Hardison would say.

“Define it.”

“You define it.”

“I don't have to define it! I'm not saying it every five seconds!”

“I think you're just mad that he didn't need your pitch correcting program,” Will interjected.

“I don't need you two ganging up on me!”

Will shrugged. “I call it like I see it.”

Parker had finally made it up into the studio office. “Maybe the safe is off site. I've looked everywhere.” She paused for a minute. “Isn't the recording studio supposed to be soundproof?”

“Uh, yeah. Completely,” Nate confirmed.

Sophie had been discussing things with Kirkwood. “Okay, Nate. We have a little problem,” she said when she was finished.

“What kind of problem?” Nate asked.

“The guy who's buying our fiddle? He thinks he is the fiddle.”

Parker came into the recording studio after she found and cracked the safe. “You're not done yet?”

“I think Hardison is enjoying himself a little too much,” Will said as he moved to inspect what Parker found. “Hey, look. This is that song Kirkwood did,” his eyes narrowed as he picked up one of the tapes.

Parker leaned over to look at it. “This is the original master. Why is the artist's name blacked out?”

Hardison put the master in a player. “Okay. So, this is the original recording of the song that made Kirkwood famous,” he played the opening verse. “And this is the recording he released to the video.” Hardison played the same verse from the video.

“It's not the same,” Parker pointed out.

“Which one is Kirkwood?” Nate asked.

Hardison played with both files. “That's just it. Neither. It's the same song, just with a pitch adjustment.”

“Well, then, who's singing the song?” Parker asked.

“I am matching a voice print right now,” Hardison started typing. “Got it. Boom. Jesse Jenkins. All right.”

“That's why Kirkwood never recorded a second song. He didn't record the first one,” Nate pulled it all together.

“Kirkwood paid him off?” Sophie wondered.

“Guess again,” Will said as he ran out of the room. He burst into the recording studio only to have to dodge a bullet.

Elliot took advantage of the distraction and took Kirkwood's assistant Jesse down hard. Jesse tried to get back up, but Will stepped on his neck and choked him out. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Elliot nodded. “Let's get out of here.”

They headed back to Nate's room and Parker dumped all of the tapes on the table. “I do love it when a plan comes together,” Nate rubbed his hands together before looking through the tapes. “Yeah, where's her tape?” he asked when he didn't see it.

Hardison let his head hang. “I think I may have left her tape in the deck.”

“You did,” Will said as he pulled it out of his pocket. “Constantly complaining about me, and yet, what would you do without me?”

“Be screwed,” Elliot answered the question.

“But we may have another problem,” Will pointed out.

Kaye Lynn called just then sounding very upset. “The festival director just called. Kirkwood took my spot in the showcase. He's gonna sing my brother's song. And you told me you were gonna get our money and our songs back, but all you did was lose the only thing I had left!”

“Yeah, as I was about to say,” Will continued. “He still has a lot of pull, and it looks like he already made his version with the pitch adjustment.”

“What's the plan?” Elliot looked to Nate.

“Hit him hard in a couple of days,” Nate answered after thinking about it for a moment.

“No. Kirkwood's getting ready to sing this song in front of the Who's Who of country music.”

“Listen, it's too late to stop him tonight.”

“I hacked into his truck's navigation system. He's on the move. It's game over,” Hardison added.

“No, it's not,” Elliot said as he tossed Will his keys. “God, can't believe I'm doing this again. Get us there before Kirkwood gets on stage!”

“I can do that,” Will nodded as he headed out to the car.

“Sometimes you don't get a second chance to get it right,” Sophie said with a sad expression.

“Why not?” Parker asked.

“Rules of life.”

“But that's exactly what we do. We change the rules,” Nate seemed inspired. “Okay, let's see if we can delay Kirkwood. I think Will might've been a stunt driver or something in a past life, so we won't need to buy them all that much time.”

“Alright, let me see what I can do,” Hardison said as he got onto his computer. “Eliot, I used your fans to stall Kirkwood. I bought you like two minutes.”

“We'll be there in one,” Elliot responded. “That's the sidewalk!”

“You asked me to get you there as fast as I can,” Will snapped back as he narrowly missed a truck. “So I don't wanna hear it.”

Elliot was waiting for Kirkwood in the backroom. “Hey. Surprised to see me?”

“Why would you say that?” Kirkwood played innocent.

“Well, you tried to kill me. Same way you killed Jesse Jenkins.”

“You're unstable, Kenneth. And I'd really like to help you, if you'd let me.” He punched Elliot in the stomach, and Elliot stayed bent over while Kirkwood pushed away a nearby microphone and leaned in to whisper. “You think I'm gonna confess to a murder in a room full of microphones? If I was that stupid I never would have gotten away with it.”

Kirkwood made his way to the stage and started to lip sync to Elliot's recording. But after the first verse his sound was cut off and a spotlight moved to shine on Kaye Lynn as she took over singing the song. Kirkwood tried to hide his shock and anger as the crowd gave her a standing ovation. “How about it? Oh! She's wonderful! Isn't she?”

The color drained from his face when the conversation he'd just had with Elliot played over the speaker system. “That was a joke, ladies and gentlemen. Very funny joke. I'll be right back. How about that, huh? Give it up for her.”

Elliot was again waiting for him. “Let me explain something to you, Kirkwood. Next time you hit somebody in the stomach and you want them to stay down, you gotta hit him in the solar plexus!” He punched Kirkwood in the stomach and knocked him over. “See the difference?”

A police officer came to cuff Kirkwood, and Elliot approached Kaye Lynn, who was surrounded by producers. “There's a lot of A & R's who want to meet with me. Thank you. For my brother, too,” she gave him a big smile.

“For what? It was all you.”

“Thank you for keeping your promise.” She spotted Will talking to a Middle Eastern looking man. “Who is that?”

Elliot shook his head. “I'm not even gonna ask. With him, sometimes the less I know the better. But you were right.”

“It's pretty plain to see when you two are together. The ones that drive you crazy are usually the ones worth keeping. Kinda too bad though. If you weren't already... I would've asked you to come with me.”

“And it would've been a tempting offer, but I don't think it would've happened. I'd be worse off than I am if I wasn't already...”

“It's good that you have that. Well, see you around.”

“Yeah, take care.” Elliot caught up with the rest of the team and grabbed his keys from Will. “Having my life flash before my eyes twice in one day is enough, thanks.”

“Do we want to know who you were talking to over there a minute ago?” Nate asked curiously.

“Let's just say the authorities are going to discover that not only is Kirkwood a thief and a murderer, but he's been working with a Colombian drug cartel to push drugs through his little club here. Two birds, one stone as you say.”

Hardison raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you wanted to limit how much you used family resources.”

“This one was mutually beneficial. They needed a fall guy, I gave them a deserving one on a silver platter.”

“You're still in contact with them?” Sophie seemed a little worried about that.

“With my brother. I know he... It's complicated.”
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