A/N: Hello! This is a shorter chapter, just to help me get back on my feet after the ordeal of the last two.

Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage.


~Sport~

"No."

"But Nate! He doesn't have anywhere else to go!"

"I said: no." Nate turned and stalked to the kitchen.

Parker looked toward Sophie with a pout. Sophie gave her a reproving look, but followed Nate. She walked up to the kitchen's bar as he was pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Nate…" she started.

"No."

"But Parker's right, he doesn't have anywhere else. Do you just want us to leave him where he is?"

Nate nodded and took a sip of his coffee. "Yes, that's exactly what I want. We leave him alone, he leaves us alone, problem solved"

"But he's practically in jail!" Sophie protested. "How would you just like to be left in jail when there are people who could help you?" Nate raised an eyebrow at her and took another sip of his drink. Sophie rolled her eyes. "Ok, bad example. We know how you react to that. But this isn't about that. He hasn't done anything wrong!"

"First off, he's not in jail," Nate reasoned as he walked past her back into the living area. "Second, he's protected, warm, and fed. What else do we have to do?"

"Come on, Nate! Just for a little while," Parker wheedled as Nate came to sit down on the couch again. "How can you say no to that face?" she asked, and pulled up a picture on her phone, shoving it right in Nate's face so he would have to glance at the dark-colored maw staring back at him. Nate pushed the phone out of his face with a grunt.

"We are not adopting a dog, Parker, and that's final."

Parker rolled her eyes, "Well, duh. Of course not. But why can't we just keep him until we find a home for him? It's not his fault his previous owner was a corrupt billionaire. Please, Nate! Pleeeease! Please, pleaseplease! Please. Please. Please, pleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeee-"

"Alright!" Nate, who had been doing his best to ignore Parker, promptly exploded, if for no other reason than to get her to shut up. "You can keep the dog, but-" Before Nate could even begin his terms and conditions, Parker vaulted over the couch with a squeal of triumph and raced to the door. She opened it and called down the hallway while Nate was still trying to ascertain if her high-volume outbreak had damaged his ears. Quick as lightning, a black and brown bolt shot into the apartment and came right up to Nate, forcing it's muzzle into his face and spilling his coffee.

"Gah!" Nate stood up abruptly to avoid another attack, but the dog was already moving on to other parts of the room, sniffing everywhere. "Parker! Get this thing out of here!"

"But, Nate!" Parker sounded offended. "You said we could keep him!"

"No," the mastermind corrected, "I said you could keep it." The dog had circled all the way around the room, and was now sniffing at Sophie and drooling all over her $900 shoes.

Sophie realized this and gave a startled noise, but to Nate's surprise, she simply patted the German Shepard on the head lightly and said, "Parker, if you wouldn't mind-"

"Oh! Sure," Parker agreed. "Sport! Come here Sport!" Parker called and patted her knees. The big canine abandoned Sophie and dashed to Parker, bowling her over in the process, and Parker lay there on the ground laughing while the dog licked her face.

At this point Hardison and Eliot came in after finishing up some loose ends from the job, and saw Nate looking ruefully at his coffee-stained shirt, Sophie attempting to mop the drool off of her shoes with a paper towel, and Parker rolling around on the floor with a seventy-five pound dog.

"You got Nate to let us keep him?" Hardison asked incredulously. Parker answered: "Yeah!" at the same time Nate said: "No she did not!" Eliot grumbled something about "here we go again" and went to the kitchen, whistling for the dog to follow him.

"Hey!" Parker protested as her playmate left, but quickly turned her attention to Nate. "But you said yes!"

"You never let me finish what I was going to say after I said yes! Now, can I talk?" Parker finally let Nate speak, but crossed her arms and squinted at him skeptically. "You can keep the dog temporarily," Parker's eyes lit up, "but! Only on two conditions. One, I never have to take care of it, and, two, it never stays in my apartment."

"He," Parker muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"He! His name is Sport!"

"You named him?"

"He already had a name!"

"Well, fine!" Nate huffed. "But he is being removed from my apartment right now, and is not coming back."

-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-0o0-

Nate turned the page of his newspaper and ignored the whine that came from near his elbow. He was attempting the cold-shoulder tactic, but so far it was proving unsuccessful.

"Go away," he said, still hiding his face behind the leaves of newsprint. There was another whine, and the sound of a tail thumping against the floor. It quieted after a moment and Nate hazarded a glance to his side, but when his blue eyes met deep brown ones, he hid behind his papery shield again. He heard the dog trot off, and for a second he thought that maybe it had given up, but then the dog came back and he felt something round – and wet – being set on the arm of the chair. Almost afraid to see what it was, Nate looked over and saw a green tennis ball sitting next to him, dripping with drool. Nate's face contorted in disgust, and he rolled up the newspaper so he could push the ball off the chair without having to actually touch it.

As soon as he shoved the ball onto the floor he knew he had made a mistake, as the great beast shot after the it, prancing around it even as it rolled the few feet to a stop.

Uh oh. Nate thought. Now that something had happened, the dog was completely uncontrollable. It danced around the apartment, barking, jumping, and knocking into things. Startled, Nate watched, helpless, for a moment as Sport bumped into the bookshelf and very nearly brought it down. Thinking quickly, Nate grabbed the leash from the counter and called to the ecstatic creature.

"Sport!" he called. "Come here Sport!" He didn't like using the dog's name, usually opting to call him something less personal, but this was an emergency. Hearing his name and seeing the leash, Sport galloped over to Nate and held still just long enough for Nate to clip the leash on, then pulled towards the door with all his might. Nate just managed to snag his keys and phone from the counter before he was pulled out of reach. Once they were across the room, Sport stopped with his pointed nose to the door, quivering with excitement as his heavy tail smacked against Nate's leg. Nate took the opportunity to grab his coat and pull it on before he opened the door and was launched out into the hallway.

Once they were actually outside, Sport was a tiny bit more sedate, but he still pulled Nate along the sidewalk at a considerable pace, nose to the ground, jerking to a stop at every signpost and fire-hydrant. By the time they made it to the park, Nate felt like his arm was about to fall off. Other than that it was going well. The farther they got the calmer Sport was, and soon they were walking along at a reasonable pace. Nate finally had the chance to button his coat against the brisk autumn wind, and he was just pulling out his phone to text Sophie when there was a terrific yank on his arm that nearly pulled him off his feet. His phone popped out of his hand, and he pulled on the leash, trying to get the huge German Shepard to slow down.

"Sport, stop!"

What Nate wasn't expecting was for the dog to obey, and obey so quickly. Sport stopped immediately in front of Nate's legs, which launched the man over the dog's back, and head-first into the body of water in front of him. Ducks scattered everywhere with much wing flapping and dismayed quacking, and Nate came up sputtering, somehow still clinging Sport's leash.

"Thanks," Nate coughed, his teeth beginning to chatter from the chilly water. Sport merely smiled at him, tongue lolling, and barked.

And that's the story of how Nathan Ford, Mastermind, found himself treading water in a duck pond in the middle of October.


A/N: Thank you for reading, and please review!

Next up: Bunny