I posted this story to the Leverage comms on LJ last week, but I forgot about pimping it on Dreamwidth! Please forgive me if you've already seen this.

Title: Age(s) of the Geek, part 1 of 5.
Author: mermaid.
Fandoms: Leverage / Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Rating: PG for mild, non-graphic horror themes.
Genre: gen crossover, with brief mentions of canonical Buffy relationships.
Length: 5,600 words.
Spoilers: major spoilers for seasons 1-4 of Buffy. Set many years pre-canon for Leverage, so no spoilers except for Hardison's background.
Summary: what if Willow Rosenberg was the one who taught Alec Hardison how to hack?

Author's note: the working title for this series of Leverage crossover fics was "Five times that Alec Hardison crossed paths with other geeks", and that pretty much sums it up! The stories cover Hardison from age 14 to age 30, suggesting that he met fellow computer geniuses (from Buffy, Veronica Mars, Doctor Who, Heroes and Supernatural) along the way.

You can read this story at my Livejournal or at AO3. Feedback is welcome at either site :)