The Ocean's Job
I wrote this ages ago and figured I might as well post it here as well.
Title: The Oceans Job
Fandom: Ocean's 11 X The Italian Job
Pairings: Stella/Charlie
Summary: Set mid-Ocean's 12, It's funny how much a phone call can change.
Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.
The Phone Call-
Rusty knew he was going to enjoy this, the kid was damn gullible fooling him would be no problem. Rusty looked at Matsui across the table, in the dingy bar, and made sure he could keep a straight face.
“A doctor who specialises in skin disease will dream he has fallen asleep in front of the television.” Rusty had just finished his sentence when a mobile let out a sharp ring, Rusty’s eyes darted to Linus as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, a look of surprise crossed Linus’s face as he looked at the screen, and without a word he jumped up and headed for the door.
Rusty exchanged a look with Danny, he seemed as confused by the kid’s behaviour as Rusty was.
“What was that about?” Matsui mumbled leaning back in his chair, not leaving the other two time to answer he slapped his hands down on the table. “Doesn’t matter, he seems to be falling for it. Anyway we’ll pick up when he gets back. Moving on to real business…”
For the next fifteen minutes they discussed the job, Rusty felt irritated, and he knew Danny did as well, these jobs probably wouldn’t make enough money in the time they had, but it was better than nothing.
Matsui lent back in his chair and looked towards the door as if expecting Linus to come through the doors any minute now, “When’ll he be back?” Matsui looked at Danny as if expecting him to know the answer. Danny shook his head and picked up his coat. Following Danny’s lead Rusty and Matsui headed for the door.
The European air chilled them as they left the overly heated bar and looked around for Linus. They couldn’t see him anywhere.
“Guess he must have gone back to the hotel,” Danny said in a confused voice. Matsui looked disappointed, and Rusty knew it was because he had missed out on a chance to make a complete fool out of a newbie.
Sighing Matsui turned to Danny and Rusty shaking his head, “Oh well, I’m gonna go, call me when you’ve got it.” Waving he moved forward and disappeared into the crowd.
Danny took one last look around for Linus before turning his gaze to Rusty, “Any ideas?”
Rusty shrugged “Guess it was an important call.” He answered “Anyway, he can look after himself.”
“I think Reuben would disagree there,”
“Probably”
“We have to talk to LeMarc”
Nodding Rusty went with Danny to hail down a taxi.
________________________________________
As they walked up the drive to LeMarc’s house Rusty could see that the door was open. After knocking a few times Danny opened the door and led the way inside and though to the back of the house. They had only been here a few times but LeMarc had always liked being out the back, where he could look at the ocean while they talked.
As Rusty went through the house he admired the art, it was all old, and mostly originals, he supposed LeMarc had stolen it himself. LeMarc was the best and it was unfortunate that Toulour had been taught by him, that fact alone would make him a challenging accomplice. However Rusty felt pretty confident, they had a good team (the best), they had inspiration, and now they had a plan (not the best one perhaps but it was something).
Rusty remembered when they had first met LeMarc, it was about 2 years before Danny married Tess. They were doing a job with Bobby and Reuben in Florence, Bobby and Reuben had more or less been trained together before branching out on their own, and one of their teachers had been LeMarc. Bobby thought it would be good if they met him since they were copying a job that he had pulled 20 years prior to that, a rendition of a Helena’s hand basket with a bit of a bakers dozen thrown in. Rusty hadn’t really liked the guy at first, respected him yes, but he was definitely not one of Rusty’s favourite people.
As they reached the back porch they could hear voices.
“But, I thought they were on vacation,”
Rusty looked at Danny who seemed just as confused as he was, that sounded like Linus. Why was he here? Did he know they were coming? And, how did he know LeMarc in the first place? Of course the third question was easiest to answer, Bobby must have introduced them at sometime, which was also odd as until Vegas himself and Danny hadn’t even known that Bobby had a son.
Another voice broke though their confused haze, this one older, and more ‘rusty’ sounding, definitely LeMarc, “Well, from what I hear it started as a vacation, but Charlie needed some help, so he called Bobby, it was an easy job.”
Sure enough as Rusty stepped outside he could see LeMarc sitting at a small table looking towards the kid with a worried and somewhat sad look on his face, the kid was by the pool he had his back to them and Rusty couldn’t see his face.
As Danny stepped onto the patio LeMarc turned to look at them, and nodded slightly in greeting. “I think I can guess what brought you two out here.” LeMarc motioned with his hand for them to take a seat.
Casting a confused look at Linus who had made no sign that he was aware they were there Rusty followed Danny towards the table.
LeMarc glanced at Linus once more before turning to Danny and Rusty. “Has Toulour approached you yet?”
“No, we were planning to see him tomorrow.” Danny answered smoothly, being sure to keep eye contact with LeMarc.
“Fair enough,” LeMarc answered “However I would suggest that Danny goes on his own this time, I have a feeling it’s personal.”
“Why would you think that?” Danny asked, none of the confusion Rusty knew he was feeling showing in his face or voice.
“A few weeks ago I believe he got upset about a conversation he overheard.” Rusty’s eyes had been switching between LeMarc and Linus, who still had not shown any sign he knew they were there. Noticing this LeMarc gave him a small sympathetic smile and said “Don’t worry about Linus, he’s just letting it all sink in.”
This just confused Danny and Rusty more, it had been four days if Linus was only letting it sink in now he’d be no help to them when the time came to actually pull the job.
Exchanging a confused look with Danny, Rusty leant forward in his chair and lowered his voice as he spoke to LeMarc in hopes that Linus couldn’t hear him. “It’s been four days,” he said quietly, “how has it not sunken in yet?”
Rusty and Danny watched as the expression on LeMarc’s face switched between, confusion, amazement and sympathy before leaning back with a look of awe on his face, his voice was quiet and amazed as he asked. “Haven’t you heard yet?”
That seemed to get the kid’s attention and his whole body went rigid. He gave a cold laugh and said “And here I was thinking you seemed to know everything.”
Rusty knew Danny was as surprised by this as he was, the sentence just didn’t seem to fit Linus, the kid hadn’t even seem annoyed or angry at Benedict, and his voice had been cold, dead almost. Rusty looked at Danny who looked back at him, his face was passive, a poker face, but Rusty knew him better than anyone, he could see the confusion, and worry behind the façade. Not that Rusty was surprised by that, he was as confused as Danny by this point, and Rusty knew that of all the kid’s they had tried to help out Linus was Danny’s favourite, hell he was Rusty’s favourite as well. Not that it was to hard for him to be, none of the other kids had been worth a thing, a few had been unable to go through with their first jobs which were far smaller than Vegas, and the others had made a mess of them, needless to say none of them had been invited back. Linus was different to them though, obviously he was better then all the others, and even if he was quiet he was more comfortable around other thieves then any of the other recruits had been, though that was almost certainly because he had grown up in a house full of them. Linus was also far less confident than the others, he didn’t input ideas when they were all planning their heists, Rusty knew he had them, but insecurity, and something that seemed like respect held him back from putting them into words.
Rusty snapped back into attention as Danny asked “What don’t we know?” his voice was calm, flat, and showed no confusion about what was happening.
LeMarc laughed slightly and whilst not cold like Linus’s laugh had been there was no happiness or amusement in the sound “You both seem lost.”
Finally Linus turned to face them, Rusty was taken back by his appearance at first, whilst his face looked as if he had aged 5 yrs in the past 3 hours, his eyes seemed younger, scared, and somehow even more innocent and lost than they had when they were talking to Matsui “Now you know how I felt during the ‘lost in translation’.” Ok, so maybe the kid hadn’t been so lost, but still something was obvious going on.
Danny was as shocked by Linus’s appearance (and the fact that he knew about the lost in translation) as Rusty was. “What’s going on?” he tried again, hoping it wasn’t as awful as these two were bringing it up to be.
Linus sighed and looked as though he was about to answer, but LeMarc cut him off. “Did you hear about the job Charlie was pulling in Venice?”
“Charlie Croker?” Rusty asked, his eyes shifted to Linus who had once again turned his back on them and was looking out over the pool.
LeMarc nodded, “Do you know him?”
Rusty shook his head “Only through the grapevine.” He said wearily, wishing one of them would just get to the point.
“At the last minute he realised they would need an extra person, John remembered that Bobby and Annie were in Venice for a vacation, and he suggested they call Bobby.” LeMarc paused in his story a look of dread on his face.
“Were they arrested?” Danny asked. Rusty thought that if they were it must have been bad, 15-20 years perhaps because these days it was getting far to easy to just spring friends from jail. He still thought it was unlikely though as Charlie Croker and John Bridger were part of a team almost as well thought of as their own, and Bobby in himself was a legend.
LeMarc shook his head slowly and sent a quick glance across at Linus, who once again seemed to have forgotten their existence. “Bobby agreed to do it of course,” LeMarc laughed sourly “Anything to keep him on his toes. The job went off without a hitch and the group, plus Annie, were taking a mini van to Florence.” LeMarc paused again and looked over Linus before sighing and looking back at them. “They were crossing a bridge when a van came on from the other side in front of them, another one stopped behind them. It turned out one of the guys, Steve, had decided that a cut of the money wasn’t enough for him, he wanted all of it.” LeMarc stoped speaking and looked over at Linus, who was now sitting down on the side of the pool, his head on one of his knees, while the other leg was hanging in the pool, Rusty wondered mildly how he couldn’t be cold.
Turning back to them LeMarc continued to speak “He had hired some goons, they came out of their vans, guns in hands, and threatened to kill anyone who showed any resistance, but you know Bobby, tried to talk Steve out of it.” LeMarc paused, and Rusty could feel his face drain from what he thought he was about to hear. “Steve shot him,” LeMarc continued slowly “straight through the eyes. They unloaded the gold, and sent the van with the others straight into the lake.” LeMarc took a deep breath before continuing to speak, slightly faster this time, “they tried to get everyone out of the van, but Annie had already been in hysterics when it went under, she swallowed to much water… the guys couldn’t revive her.” LeMarc stopped speaking.
From by the pool Linus spoke up, his voice was small, and weak, but oddly stable. “John called Stella, to give her the brief details, when they got back to civilisation. He wanted to tell me in person, but Stella had been hysterical and called me straight away, so when I got here LeMarc called John and we got the whole story.”
Linus and the others fell into silence as Danny and Rusty let what they had just heard crash over them.
Title: The Oceans Job
Fandom: Ocean's 11 X The Italian Job
Pairings: Stella/Charlie
Summary: Set mid-Ocean's 12, It's funny how much a phone call can change.
Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.
The Phone Call-
Rusty knew he was going to enjoy this, the kid was damn gullible fooling him would be no problem. Rusty looked at Matsui across the table, in the dingy bar, and made sure he could keep a straight face.
“A doctor who specialises in skin disease will dream he has fallen asleep in front of the television.” Rusty had just finished his sentence when a mobile let out a sharp ring, Rusty’s eyes darted to Linus as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, a look of surprise crossed Linus’s face as he looked at the screen, and without a word he jumped up and headed for the door.
Rusty exchanged a look with Danny, he seemed as confused by the kid’s behaviour as Rusty was.
“What was that about?” Matsui mumbled leaning back in his chair, not leaving the other two time to answer he slapped his hands down on the table. “Doesn’t matter, he seems to be falling for it. Anyway we’ll pick up when he gets back. Moving on to real business…”
For the next fifteen minutes they discussed the job, Rusty felt irritated, and he knew Danny did as well, these jobs probably wouldn’t make enough money in the time they had, but it was better than nothing.
Matsui lent back in his chair and looked towards the door as if expecting Linus to come through the doors any minute now, “When’ll he be back?” Matsui looked at Danny as if expecting him to know the answer. Danny shook his head and picked up his coat. Following Danny’s lead Rusty and Matsui headed for the door.
The European air chilled them as they left the overly heated bar and looked around for Linus. They couldn’t see him anywhere.
“Guess he must have gone back to the hotel,” Danny said in a confused voice. Matsui looked disappointed, and Rusty knew it was because he had missed out on a chance to make a complete fool out of a newbie.
Sighing Matsui turned to Danny and Rusty shaking his head, “Oh well, I’m gonna go, call me when you’ve got it.” Waving he moved forward and disappeared into the crowd.
Danny took one last look around for Linus before turning his gaze to Rusty, “Any ideas?”
Rusty shrugged “Guess it was an important call.” He answered “Anyway, he can look after himself.”
“I think Reuben would disagree there,”
“Probably”
“We have to talk to LeMarc”
Nodding Rusty went with Danny to hail down a taxi.
________________________________________
As they walked up the drive to LeMarc’s house Rusty could see that the door was open. After knocking a few times Danny opened the door and led the way inside and though to the back of the house. They had only been here a few times but LeMarc had always liked being out the back, where he could look at the ocean while they talked.
As Rusty went through the house he admired the art, it was all old, and mostly originals, he supposed LeMarc had stolen it himself. LeMarc was the best and it was unfortunate that Toulour had been taught by him, that fact alone would make him a challenging accomplice. However Rusty felt pretty confident, they had a good team (the best), they had inspiration, and now they had a plan (not the best one perhaps but it was something).
Rusty remembered when they had first met LeMarc, it was about 2 years before Danny married Tess. They were doing a job with Bobby and Reuben in Florence, Bobby and Reuben had more or less been trained together before branching out on their own, and one of their teachers had been LeMarc. Bobby thought it would be good if they met him since they were copying a job that he had pulled 20 years prior to that, a rendition of a Helena’s hand basket with a bit of a bakers dozen thrown in. Rusty hadn’t really liked the guy at first, respected him yes, but he was definitely not one of Rusty’s favourite people.
As they reached the back porch they could hear voices.
“But, I thought they were on vacation,”
Rusty looked at Danny who seemed just as confused as he was, that sounded like Linus. Why was he here? Did he know they were coming? And, how did he know LeMarc in the first place? Of course the third question was easiest to answer, Bobby must have introduced them at sometime, which was also odd as until Vegas himself and Danny hadn’t even known that Bobby had a son.
Another voice broke though their confused haze, this one older, and more ‘rusty’ sounding, definitely LeMarc, “Well, from what I hear it started as a vacation, but Charlie needed some help, so he called Bobby, it was an easy job.”
Sure enough as Rusty stepped outside he could see LeMarc sitting at a small table looking towards the kid with a worried and somewhat sad look on his face, the kid was by the pool he had his back to them and Rusty couldn’t see his face.
As Danny stepped onto the patio LeMarc turned to look at them, and nodded slightly in greeting. “I think I can guess what brought you two out here.” LeMarc motioned with his hand for them to take a seat.
Casting a confused look at Linus who had made no sign that he was aware they were there Rusty followed Danny towards the table.
LeMarc glanced at Linus once more before turning to Danny and Rusty. “Has Toulour approached you yet?”
“No, we were planning to see him tomorrow.” Danny answered smoothly, being sure to keep eye contact with LeMarc.
“Fair enough,” LeMarc answered “However I would suggest that Danny goes on his own this time, I have a feeling it’s personal.”
“Why would you think that?” Danny asked, none of the confusion Rusty knew he was feeling showing in his face or voice.
“A few weeks ago I believe he got upset about a conversation he overheard.” Rusty’s eyes had been switching between LeMarc and Linus, who still had not shown any sign he knew they were there. Noticing this LeMarc gave him a small sympathetic smile and said “Don’t worry about Linus, he’s just letting it all sink in.”
This just confused Danny and Rusty more, it had been four days if Linus was only letting it sink in now he’d be no help to them when the time came to actually pull the job.
Exchanging a confused look with Danny, Rusty leant forward in his chair and lowered his voice as he spoke to LeMarc in hopes that Linus couldn’t hear him. “It’s been four days,” he said quietly, “how has it not sunken in yet?”
Rusty and Danny watched as the expression on LeMarc’s face switched between, confusion, amazement and sympathy before leaning back with a look of awe on his face, his voice was quiet and amazed as he asked. “Haven’t you heard yet?”
That seemed to get the kid’s attention and his whole body went rigid. He gave a cold laugh and said “And here I was thinking you seemed to know everything.”
Rusty knew Danny was as surprised by this as he was, the sentence just didn’t seem to fit Linus, the kid hadn’t even seem annoyed or angry at Benedict, and his voice had been cold, dead almost. Rusty looked at Danny who looked back at him, his face was passive, a poker face, but Rusty knew him better than anyone, he could see the confusion, and worry behind the façade. Not that Rusty was surprised by that, he was as confused as Danny by this point, and Rusty knew that of all the kid’s they had tried to help out Linus was Danny’s favourite, hell he was Rusty’s favourite as well. Not that it was to hard for him to be, none of the other kids had been worth a thing, a few had been unable to go through with their first jobs which were far smaller than Vegas, and the others had made a mess of them, needless to say none of them had been invited back. Linus was different to them though, obviously he was better then all the others, and even if he was quiet he was more comfortable around other thieves then any of the other recruits had been, though that was almost certainly because he had grown up in a house full of them. Linus was also far less confident than the others, he didn’t input ideas when they were all planning their heists, Rusty knew he had them, but insecurity, and something that seemed like respect held him back from putting them into words.
Rusty snapped back into attention as Danny asked “What don’t we know?” his voice was calm, flat, and showed no confusion about what was happening.
LeMarc laughed slightly and whilst not cold like Linus’s laugh had been there was no happiness or amusement in the sound “You both seem lost.”
Finally Linus turned to face them, Rusty was taken back by his appearance at first, whilst his face looked as if he had aged 5 yrs in the past 3 hours, his eyes seemed younger, scared, and somehow even more innocent and lost than they had when they were talking to Matsui “Now you know how I felt during the ‘lost in translation’.” Ok, so maybe the kid hadn’t been so lost, but still something was obvious going on.
Danny was as shocked by Linus’s appearance (and the fact that he knew about the lost in translation) as Rusty was. “What’s going on?” he tried again, hoping it wasn’t as awful as these two were bringing it up to be.
Linus sighed and looked as though he was about to answer, but LeMarc cut him off. “Did you hear about the job Charlie was pulling in Venice?”
“Charlie Croker?” Rusty asked, his eyes shifted to Linus who had once again turned his back on them and was looking out over the pool.
LeMarc nodded, “Do you know him?”
Rusty shook his head “Only through the grapevine.” He said wearily, wishing one of them would just get to the point.
“At the last minute he realised they would need an extra person, John remembered that Bobby and Annie were in Venice for a vacation, and he suggested they call Bobby.” LeMarc paused in his story a look of dread on his face.
“Were they arrested?” Danny asked. Rusty thought that if they were it must have been bad, 15-20 years perhaps because these days it was getting far to easy to just spring friends from jail. He still thought it was unlikely though as Charlie Croker and John Bridger were part of a team almost as well thought of as their own, and Bobby in himself was a legend.
LeMarc shook his head slowly and sent a quick glance across at Linus, who once again seemed to have forgotten their existence. “Bobby agreed to do it of course,” LeMarc laughed sourly “Anything to keep him on his toes. The job went off without a hitch and the group, plus Annie, were taking a mini van to Florence.” LeMarc paused again and looked over Linus before sighing and looking back at them. “They were crossing a bridge when a van came on from the other side in front of them, another one stopped behind them. It turned out one of the guys, Steve, had decided that a cut of the money wasn’t enough for him, he wanted all of it.” LeMarc stoped speaking and looked over at Linus, who was now sitting down on the side of the pool, his head on one of his knees, while the other leg was hanging in the pool, Rusty wondered mildly how he couldn’t be cold.
Turning back to them LeMarc continued to speak “He had hired some goons, they came out of their vans, guns in hands, and threatened to kill anyone who showed any resistance, but you know Bobby, tried to talk Steve out of it.” LeMarc paused, and Rusty could feel his face drain from what he thought he was about to hear. “Steve shot him,” LeMarc continued slowly “straight through the eyes. They unloaded the gold, and sent the van with the others straight into the lake.” LeMarc took a deep breath before continuing to speak, slightly faster this time, “they tried to get everyone out of the van, but Annie had already been in hysterics when it went under, she swallowed to much water… the guys couldn’t revive her.” LeMarc stopped speaking.
From by the pool Linus spoke up, his voice was small, and weak, but oddly stable. “John called Stella, to give her the brief details, when they got back to civilisation. He wanted to tell me in person, but Stella had been hysterical and called me straight away, so when I got here LeMarc called John and we got the whole story.”
Linus and the others fell into silence as Danny and Rusty let what they had just heard crash over them.