Disclaimer – Leverage is owned by Electric Entertainment and TNT. If I owned it, we'd have more episodes, and Eliot would have a lot more screen time!

Comments and feedback to Ralkana47@yahoo.com would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Author's Note – A missing scene from The Wedding Job.

Rated light R for adult language.

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"Okay, so the first thing you need to do is open Photoshop," Hardison said. His tone was overly slow and patient, and Eliot would have been offended by it if he had any idea what the hell he was doing.

His hand hovered uncertainly over the touchpad. "Click on the picture, right?"

"Yeah, double click on the one that says 'Photoshop' underneath it."

Eliot did, barely hiding his relief when the program opened without the damn machine making any angry beeps or other sounds at him.

"All right, now we need a picture of you that we can paste over the picture on the ID Parker snags." Hardison leaned over, tapping keys, and before Eliot registered what was going on, several windows opened and closed on the screen.

Eliot blinked as a picture of his face popped up in the photo editing program.

"Hardison," he said warily, "Why do you have my picture on your computer?"

Hardison rolled his eyes. "Relax, man. I don't. This is from Nate's files."

Eliot's scowl deepened. "Why does Nate -- "

He broke off.

"It's Nate," they said together.

Eliot studied the picture. It wasn't one of his favorites. "So you just went into Nate's files, right now, and found my picture in what, five seconds?"

Hardison shrugged. "Cakewalk, man. He really needs better encryption on his files. Gotta talk to him about that."

Eliot sat back in his chair, blowing out his breath in frustration. "Shit, I can barely open the damn program."

Hardison shrugged again. "You hit. I hack. Okay, when we do this, I'll leave this picture open in the program, so you don't have to worry about opening it. You'll just have to resize it, open the new one, and copy/paste."

"Whatever you say, man." Eliot took a swig of his beer.

"So now, we get rid of the background on your picture here so we can paste it cleanly on the ID..." Hardison leaned over again and tapped and clicked and dragged, moving closer with each motion, until Eliot bad-temperedly shouldered him away.

"Hey, man, you want it back? You're the one who told me to sit here!"

"Nah... almost done with this part... and then we'll get to your part... clearing out the background can be tricky, especially with all your damn hair."

"What's wrong with my hair?"

"Nothin's wrong with it, man, it's just everywhere, and it's a pain in the ass when you're trying to make this look natural! Almost done... Thankfully, this picture has a simple background – "

"Mugshots usually do," Eliot said dryly.

Hardison's hand paused on the touchpad. "Oh. Yeah. Okay, I see it now." He laughed.

"Somethin' funny?" Eliot growled.

"We're using a mugshot as an FBI ID photo. Come on, man, that's funny!"

Eliot hid his grin as he took another drink. "Whatever, Hardison. what's next?"

"Okay, I'm going to save all my hard work here, and now, I'll show you how to resize it so it'll fit over whatever ID we get, and then we'll copy it and paste it."

Eliot stared at him. "You want me to do all that?"

"Yeah."

"Without you talking me through it?"

"It's easy."

"For you, maybe! I don't know this shit!" Eliot gestured angrily at the laptop.

Hardison set his soda down on the table with a thunk. "You saying my work's shit?"

Eliot ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "No. Hardison, that's not what I'm saying. It's important, all right? But it's not what I do!"

"Look, Eliot – "

"Why isn't Sophie doing this? Or Nate? Or better yet, you!"

Hardison sat back in his chair and grabbed some popcorn. "'Cause I need to be in the van to check on their surveillance setup. Sophie doesn't want to do it, and Nate told me to show you. See me showing you. Trying, anyway."

"Hardison, I am not the computer guy! I don't know how – "

"That's why I'm teaching you!" Hardison snapped. "I know you don't know it, but just listen, man!"

"I'll never remember – "

"Yes, you will! If you try!"

"I hit people. That's what I do. I get hit, and I hit back. All this – "

"You're not stupid, Eliot!"

Eliot's mouth shut with a snap. Before he could figure out whether to get pissed, Hardison sighed and went on.

"I know you think we all think you're just the muscle, but we're not stupid either. We see what you do, man. I've seen you figure out some goon's weakness and take him out before I even notice the guy's there! I bet you could tell me, right now, the pros and cons, security-wise, of every entrance and exit in this office – hell, in this building! And every time I see you, you've got a different book in your gear bag. So don't try to tell me you're stupid."

Eliot stared at him, nonplussed, and Hardison looked away first, back at the screen, suddenly embarrassed by his outburst.

"Besides," he said when Eliot still said nothing, "You never know when I'm going to be out there busting heads and I'm gonna need you to back me up somehow on the computer."

He glanced back up to see Eliot smirking. Hardison grinned back as the tension broke.

"You really think I can do this?" Eliot asked him.

"If I didn't, I would have told Nate we needed a Plan D. Or G. Or whatever the hell letter he's on."

Eliot held his gaze, gauging his sincerity. After a moment, he nodded. "All right. Show me. On one condition."

Hardison raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked warily.

"Next time we both have a couple of hours free, you meet me in the gym."

"You want me to work out with you?"

"No. I'm going to teach you how to bust some heads."

Hardison grinned. "Deal. All right, this is what you're going to do..."

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