Someone else was good at people watching and lurking and she was sitting at a table that gave her a good vantage point to see who was coming and going at the cafe.
Kate, looked like she was typing on her iPad while she drank her coffee, but the truth was, she had an ear bud in and she was typing information to Henry.
He notices the beautiful lady in the table next to his and lifts his mug of coffee in greeting. And adds to it that smile reserved for beautiful women.
Kate might be feeding Henry information but she's also paying attention to people around her. Specifically handsome men with an edge of bad boy and danger. She raised her mug in response to his.
"Hey." There is a slight hint of Chicago West side in her voice.
"Hey, yourself," Eliot answered, laying on thick his southern Oklahoman drawl. His glance caught briefly on the empty chair beside her and an eyebrow raised in question.
Kate knew that Henry would get pissy because of what she was about to do, but Henry could bite her. She let her eyes flick from him to the empty seat then, gave him a hint of a smirk as if saying it's yours if you want it.
Not one to turn down a lady's invitation, Eliot grinned and shifted himself from his table to hers. As he sat, he positioned the chair slightly on an off angle from the table so it still gave him a good view of the area, just a slight bit less from his original seat. He could live with that loss for an in at this table. "Fine mornin'." His eyebrows arched again at her iPad. "Am I interruptin' anything?"
Kate noticed where he positioned the chair but didn't say anything nor did her expression give her observations away. It was something that she would have done and she admired it.
"Naw, just catching up on work so I don't have so much paperwork when I get back." She lied easily and with a smile, but Kate did set the iPad away. Kate also ignored Will's smart ass comments in her ear.
"Eliot," he answered with a charming smile of his own. "What slave drivers do you work for who endorses work on a nice Sunday morning?"
Thankfully, the Leverage team isn't run by a slave master and these mornings were his own, otherwise no doubt Eliot will have a similar running commentary in his ear.
It wasn't a secret who Kate worked for, Helen was high profile as were the people that worked with her. Kate might be the muscle of the team (not counting the Big Guy) but she was still known.
"A place that offers Sanctuary to people who need it." She said in a bit of round about way. It was the truth. It was just that the people were Abnormals like werewolves, Bigfoot and mermaids rather than 'usual' humans. "Mondays are our busy intake days so Sunday is catch up on paperwork before more come in." That was pure lie and said without a trace or inflection that it was.
They were there to watch a private 'collector' who was rumored to have an Abnormal for sale.
Eliot read between lines often enough to recognize that she didn't mean the immigration and customs department, but figured their first coffee date might not be good grounds for questioning her occupation.
So he smiled and accepted the answer with a sympathetic lowering of his eyelids. "I hope that means you still get your days off. You should be paid overtime for sacrificin' your time." He placed an arm on the table by his coffee and leaned back against his chair.
"Oh hell yeah. All work and no play." She smirked in response. "I'm not even close to being one of those." That was said honestly because Kate played as hard as she worked. "I don't get overtime but I do get comp time."
Or comp benefits like spending Magnus' money for a new flat screen or a new weapon out on the market.
"What about you? Here on business or do you live here?"
"Comp time?" His face drew together in a weird expression. The first comp that came to mind was the shortened lingo that Hardison liked using sometimes. Eliot didn't think Kate had that geeky hacker feel, but it did make him look again.
"Oh, I'm passin' through." He wouldn't be in the same city tomorrow. This was just down time after a job well done that didn't require them hightailing out of the city fearing retaliation.
"Compensation time." Kate smiled at Eliot. "It means I might not get paid for my time but I can take off early or duck out of doing paper work for the same amount of time I 'donated'."
Which in Kate's world it meant that she could put off doing the boring ass filing as long as possible because she was doing shit like this.
"For a passing through city, it's not bad." Her smile held a hint of mischief. "A hell of a lot better than some I've been in." Kate was a big city girl to her bones.
"Born in Mumbai, India, grew up in the West side of Chicago, traveled a lot after I hit my late teens mostly around the US and Canada, then ended up in Old City." Kate had been muscle for hire since she was seventeen so she'd traveled where ever the jobs and monies were. Highest bidder won her loyalty until she'd run into Magnus and the Sanctuary Network.
Kate had stopped running and stopped being a mercenary.
He sat with his coffee in a nice tactical corner and just soaked in the atmosphere.
People watch. Hang. Lurk.
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Kate, looked like she was typing on her iPad while she drank her coffee, but the truth was, she had an ear bud in and she was typing information to Henry.
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"Hey." There is a slight hint of Chicago West side in her voice.
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"Naw, just catching up on work so I don't have so much paperwork when I get back." She lied easily and with a smile, but Kate did set the iPad away. Kate also ignored Will's smart ass comments in her ear.
She held out her hand, "I'm Kate."
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Thankfully, the Leverage team isn't run by a slave master and these mornings were his own, otherwise no doubt Eliot will have a similar running commentary in his ear.
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"A place that offers Sanctuary to people who need it." She said in a bit of round about way. It was the truth. It was just that the people were Abnormals like werewolves, Bigfoot and mermaids rather than 'usual' humans. "Mondays are our busy intake days so Sunday is catch up on paperwork before more come in." That was pure lie and said without a trace or inflection that it was.
They were there to watch a private 'collector' who was rumored to have an Abnormal for sale.
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So he smiled and accepted the answer with a sympathetic lowering of his eyelids. "I hope that means you still get your days off. You should be paid overtime for sacrificin' your time." He placed an arm on the table by his coffee and leaned back against his chair.
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Or comp benefits like spending Magnus' money for a new flat screen or a new weapon out on the market.
"What about you? Here on business or do you live here?"
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"Oh, I'm passin' through." He wouldn't be in the same city tomorrow. This was just down time after a job well done that didn't require them hightailing out of the city fearing retaliation.
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Which in Kate's world it meant that she could put off doing the boring ass filing as long as possible because she was doing shit like this.
"For a passing through city, it's not bad." Her smile held a hint of mischief. "A hell of a lot better than some I've been in." Kate was a big city girl to her bones.
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"You've been to a lot of places?" Eliot asked, taking the statement as an opening to understand his coffee companion more.
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Kate had stopped running and stopped being a mercenary.
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