(Untitled)

[the_lure]

In all honesty, Stacie's not entirely sure how she winds up below Meredith's tree house. It's because there's nowhere else she can think of to go, maybe, or just that it's where her feet take her; everything's still moving too fast, enough to make her head feel like it's spinning. She hardly managed to grab clothes on her way out of the hut, but

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[the_lure]

"Well, this part isn't so bad," Stacie cuts in quickly with a slight toss of her head. "Not for me, anyway." That said, though, she can't stall this anymore. Best to just get it out. "My name is Stacie Monroe, and I'm a con artist. I was the third of my team to arrive here, and, given the lack of economy and therefore marks, we -- they did, really, having already been here -- decided that the only way to continue doing what we do best was to become other people."

She pauses to bite her lower lip, but she's looking straight ahead, a calm expression on her face. "Which is where you came into play. We don't pick and choose who we con here, since it's the entire island, but...who I was, this time, wasn't too far off the truth, in a lot of cases. The man who was my husband, for example is, of course, another member of the crew, but we are, in fact, together." At the mention of Danny, she sighs. It's hard to think about him now, with those things showing up and the way she left, but he's a big part of all this. "And that...almost leads to what's going on."

[drownondryland]

Meredith's brow furrowed as she stared at Sarah - Stacie - at Stacie, trying to wrap her thoughts around what she'd just been told, and simply shaking her head instead. "What?" She sat back, hands falling against her thighs. "Wait, you're not - So you're not Sarah Redford, you're a con artist? You're a con artist on an island, conning people in a place where we don't have any money." Her hands slipped down on either side of her, bolstering her up against the floor. "What?"

[the_lure]

For a moment, Stacie presses her tongue to her upper teeth in thought. She's not used to telling people, not ones who hadn't already figured it out (and there are so few of those), that she doesn't really know what else to expect. It could be worse, though, she thinks, so she nods. "It sounds worse than it is," she says, her voice lilting up into a question. "And...it sounds insane, I'm sure, but it's all we know. The police work for the IPD, the doctors in the clinic, and we do what we do." With that, she pauses. "And since I'm sure you're wondering, we don't - cheat honest people. It's all calculated, we choose carefully, but...in just playing a part, we can't be ourselves around some people and not around others. It doesn't work that way. But, I thought about it, and thought you ought to know."

Tipping her head back, she takes a long, slow drink from her bottle. She figures she's going to need it.

[drownondryland]

Stacie Monroe. Things had been weird enough, just being on the island and all of that -- not even the dinosaurs or the change in climate or the elephant outside her door, just the island itself. That had been weird enough and now people weren't who they were, which had been strange, really strange, when it was that Izzy kid who looked like Izzie. This, though, was something else altogether and Meredith didn't even know what. "Being someone else isn't cheating somehow?" she asked, still bewildered, reaching for a drink as well. There was something touching about being told, but that was buried beneath the layers of bizarre.

[the_lure]

"There's no payoff," Stacie reasons evenly, "and no one's really getting hurt by it. We aren't doing it to gain anything, just...like practise, almost. "Danny -- Danny Blue, the one who's playing my husband -- wants us to stop, but the other member of the crew who's here doesn't, and there's been all sorts of tension anyway since Danny and I started sleeping together." That's besides the point now, though, and so she sighs. "And that's all just the backstory to what's going on now."

[drownondryland]

In a way, Meredith thought she ought to be angry about all of it, what with how Stacie had been lying to her for months. Mostly she was just confused, though. Nothing here was what it was anyway. "So what's going on?" she asked. If that was all prelude, she wasn't sure what Stacie could possibly have left.

[the_lure]

This is the real hard part, Stacie thinks, even though it's second nature by now, exhaling slowly as she looks across at Meredith. "Back home," she begins, "a long time ago, I was married once. To a short con artist named Jake Henry -- he's the one who got me into the life." As soon as she's talking about him, maintaining eye contact is suddenly too difficult, and she glances to the floor. "And then one day, he left. Just disappeared, no word, leaving me with virtually nothing -- no house, no money, just a cactus, a piece of cheese, and a Phil Collins CD." She has to let out a dry laugh at that; it's still absurd, even after they made him pay for it. "That was when I joined the team I'm with. Mickey, the leader, he took me in, and we -"

She shrugs. Thinking about that, about them, when things are so serious with Danny (if they even still are) isn't even an option, not when she's not sure she'll ever see him again. "No matter. That's what showed up, the things Jake left." There's a good deal more to the story than that, but with all the information she's already given, it's probably best, she thinks, to give it in pieces.

[drownondryland]

It took an especially cruel mind to leave someone a cactus, a piece of cheese and a Phil Collins CD. "He sounds like a really nice guy," Meredith said, frowning. "So these things just popped up out of nowhere?" It was almost enough to make her forget the whole part where Stacie had basically made up everything she had said to her for the last three months. She'd heard about stuff just appearing, but it was still strange and it hadn't happened to her yet.

[the_lure]

"Out of nowhere," Stacie confirms, sighing again. "And it would be one thing if everything wasn't already so bloody complicated, but with the way things are now..." She wrings her hands together in the skirt of her dress, returning Meredith's frown. "Before we showed up here, Danny was...incessantly trying to get me to sleep with him," she says, almost as if that serves as an explanation by itself. "Because of Jake, I'd decided a long time before never to sleep with anyone I worked with. And it - it seems strange to say now, but there was so much tension, with him, and with Mickey...but we wound up here, without Mickey, and...well, we weren't exactly working, you know? So things sort of...went from there, I suppose."

[drownondryland]

It felt like she was missing something there. Meredith's brow furrowed and she chewed on the nail of her thumb, her elbow propped against her elbow as she considered that. "So you and this Mickey guy weren't... He ran things? And now he doesn't because he's not here." She was an undoubtedly bright woman, despite her many flaws and mistakes, but con artists weren't exactly her line of expertise.

[the_lure]

"We weren't - not after I joined the team," Stacie clarifies, taking another swig from her bottle. "And, yes, he was the leader, until we all wound up here without him." She runs a hand back through her hair, wide eyes turning up to the ceiling almost in exasperation. "It's Danny that's the problem now. You know, I never - I never thought it would be like this between us, and now..." Even at just the though of what has to follow, she grimaces. "Now, I've bloody fallen for him."

[drownondryland]

Something occurred to Meredith then and she sat up straighter, holding the bottle against her. "So Valentine's Day, when your... Danny was off with someone else," she said, "or you thought he was... So what's going on now? Is there a problem?" It sounded like there was a problem. Well, or another problem.

[the_lure]

"What I said then was the truth," Stacie says, and God, but it feels surprisingly good to be speaking in facts instead of in character. "About knowing his past with women, and thinking he was with someone else, when really he'd fallen victim to the island's latest trick." Clutching her own bottle tightly, she shakes her head. "It's not as if we fought, or anything," she continues. "But...seeing those things again, I'm not even sure what to do, or if getting together with him was a mistake or not."

[drownondryland]

"But what does Jake have to do with being with Danny?" Meredith paused, then tried a different tack. "How does Danny feel?" It reminded her, in some strange, distant way, of college, sitting up at night with girls on the hall, listening to their complaints about boyfriends and relationships she'd though beneath them. She'd been content then to mess around, never settling long enough to be serious. More and more, she suspected she'd been right about that all along.

[the_lure]

"About this? I don't know how he feels," Stacie admits, looking embarassed for it. "It isn't as if I stuck around to talk about it, I just...left." Which wasn't the best idea, the more she thinks about it, but there's nothing she can do about that now. "And for what they have to do with each other, nothing, really, but...the way I feel about him now," she continues, the last coming out in one quick breath. "I didn't think -- I didn't want it to happen again, after Jake."

[drownondryland]

That much, Meredith understood loud and clear. After Derek and all that had happened with him, she was pretty sure she'd be happy if she never saw the inside of a relationship again. Sex and mockery seemed like a good rule to stick to with all men, and no more crossing the line, no, they would actually hold to the rules this time, tiny island or not. Sex and mockery, that was it. "Maybe you just need some time away to think about it."