A/N: To my followers: Hey look, I'm not dead! To everyone else: Welcome!
So I started this one as a Choose Your Own Adventure story on Archive of Our Own that (as of the publishing date of this story) is currently ongoing. The reason why it's not on here is because interactive stories (like CYOAs or anything in the second person) are not allowed on this website. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you can look for it at AO3, it's under the same title and I use the same pen name. It's currently twenty-seven chapters in and updated on a regular basis.
With this version, I took the story out of the second person and into the third person and I made the protagonist an actual character rather than the reader's surrogate. I also fixed the writing so that it flows better (I admit, having to adhere to a schedule impacts my writing in a negative way). And also, I merged several chapters together in a way that makes sense. All in all, I consider this version of Out and About to be the definitive version.
Disclaimer: I do not own Uncharted or any of its characters. I was assisted with the writing of this story by the story's followers on Archive of Our Own through the use of polls and I would like to take this time to thank them for their assistance. Hey, this disclaimer has an actual purpose now.
Out and About
Chapter 1
Nina was in a rut, there was no doubt about it anymore. She had not gotten any work for over a month. Her days consisted of waking up, heating up frozen waffles and bacon for breakfast, streaming random movies on Netflix until lunch, which usually consisted of microwave food, then exercising until she got tired, eating dinner then going back to Netflix.
One day, she had finally decided that enough is enough, she needed to get out of this rut. She had to find another job one way or another…
…because her last rent payment emptied her bank account.
The usual job postings site had not been yielding any results, so she decided to try another. The first job posting she had seen on this new website piqued her interest.
Job Opening for Personal Assistant
Duties Include:
Organizing files
Checking email
Taking notes
Performing errands
Requirements:
Willing to travel
Sense of adventure
Accepting of smoking
An open mind
The vagueness and the wording of the ad struck Nina as odd-especially the "open mind" requirement-but everything else about it seemed professional enough. In fact, she applied to more professional-looking job openings only to find that it was a scam. She sent a cover letter to the email provided and hoped that she was not applying to be cast in a porn video…
…again.
Two days later she found out that she had been called in for a job interview for this job. After making sure that the address was legitimate, she put on her most professional outfit and headed out.
Upon arriving at the address, she was almost put off by a sketchy-looking man stepping out for a smoke break. At first, she thought that this is who would be interviewing her, a chain-smoking career criminal. The man did not frighten her, in fact, it was quite the opposite: he attracted her. Though, it was in a way that frightened her, as harsh memories of her last boyfriend rushed back to her. However, she got a grip over herself relatively quickly; Nina Pinheiro was not the type to be dissuaded by some guy looking like some escaped convict. Besides, if he were the one interviewing her, he would be waiting for her inside.
She ignored him and entered the the building. In the lobby was a security guard sitting at his desk who was more interested in his phone than his job. After several attempts, she finally got his attention; he was more annoyed than anything. She explained to him that she had a job interview at this address but did not know which office to go to. With a heavy sigh, he opened an appointment book on his desk, had her sign next to the appointment for her interview and directed her to the office. When she thanked him, he rudely shrugged it off and went back to his phone. She wondered how much money they actually put into security for this building.
When Nina got to the door, she knocked on it and announced herself.
"Come on in, it's open!" a voice welcomed her.
She opened the door and found a medium-sized office with two desks and papers and files everywhere in a disorganized mess. She quickly realized why the job posting was so vague: there was a lot of work to be done here. Sitting at one of the desks was a man who looked like he was approaching his sixties, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and an impressive mustache.
Nina knew exactly who he was: Victor Sullivan, professional smuggler and purveyor of stolen goods. She had never dealt with him personally, but plenty of her previous employers did business with him. Despite her lack of interaction with him, he still seemed to recognize her.
"Well, well, well, I never expected someone like you to answer an ad for a PA," he said.
She shrugged in embarrassment as she realized just how low she had hit-this was one of the other reasons why she was so uneasy about seeing the shady man outside. A year ago, she had been considered one of the best art thieves in the world; but, here she was, applying for menial labor for minimum wage. This moment definitely qualified as one of the most embarrassing moments in her life.
Part of her to run off and have nothing to do with Sullivan, but the rest of her knew that she needed this job-especially now that she had a connection back to the business.
He stuck out his hand for her to shake, "Pinheiro, isn't it?"
She uneasily took it, "I prefer Nina, Mr. Sullivan."
"Well Nina, take a seat so we can start this interview," he offered Nina the chair opposite him. She sat down and regained her composure, mentally preparing herself for the questions he would be asking. "Now, normally, I would be asking all the usual job interview questions, but I think a different line of questioning is in order." She nodded, bracing herself for the inevitable question: "Why would you apply for a plain old PA job?"
"Because no one else will hire me," Nina blurted out. She might as well get it over with quick.
"Now why is that?" he pressed, mostly out of curiosity.
"I…messed up," she explained slowly. "I left a mark on the forgery to replace the painting on my last job. They knew the painting was stolen the next day."
"So, the painting became hot," Sullivan concluded.
She nodded, "My client lost a lot of money and made sure I wouldn't get hired again."
"Now that's a damn shame," he sympathized. "But how do you leave a mark on the painting?"
She shrugs, "I must've brushed too hard when putting the forgery in the frame."
"You smudged it."
She nods again, not knowing what else to say as hot shame crawled down her back.
"You know, I'm no art expert, but a good painting wouldn't smudge so easily. It sounds to me like you client was too cheap to afford a good forgery and blamed you for the mess."
Nina was surprised to hear that Sullivan is on her side. She had been so used to being turned away and blamed for the incident that she did not expect anyone to hear her out.
"Besides, it seems like you could use a break," he continued, " So I'll tell you what, you're my last interview for this job, and frankly the only one who's cut out for this line of work. So what do you say we start tomorrow morning?"
Her eyes sparkled, "I got the job?"
"You got the job," he smiled. He got up and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, "Come on, I'll show you out."
Sullivan took a cigar out of his jacket pocket and began toying with it. As the two of them walked out of the office the office, they run into the shady-looking man from downstairs.
Sullivan stopped him, "Sam, allow me into introduce our new PA, Nina Pinheiro."
"Is she any different from the last ten girls you interviewed?" the man asked.
She gave the man a coy look, "I like to think I'm different from the other girls."
It was almost an involuntary response; she was attracted to the man after all, despite her past experiences with such men being negative.
He chuckled with good nature as he flirted back, "We'll just have to see, won't we?"
The man introduced himself as Samuel Drake, Sullivan's partner. Sam was a historian and treasure hunter-just what Nina had expected from someone in this line of work. Nina could tell that he loves what he does by the way he spoke about it. She found it admirable for someone to be that enthusiastic about their line of work. To her, Sam definitely seemed like someone she could get to know better.
Then, Nina recalls hearing about Sullivan's partner before-except that his name was Nathan Drake, and that he was married. She decided to ask for clarification later, as saying "But I thought your name was Nathan," would definitely ruin the banter that they have going on.
Sullivan cleared his throat to remind the two that he is still there. He explained her background to Sam, who was surprised.
"You don't think you're overqualified?" he asked.
"Maybe I'm more than a personal assistant," she winked.
At this point, it seemed to Nina that Sullivan was very annoyed by the flirting. She wondered if Sam had flirted with all of the other applicants for the job, or perhaps Sullivan was jealous of the attention.
"Sam, I'll tell you more about her later," Sullivan told him, "I'll see you in the office."
Sam nodded and looked back to her, "I'll be seeing you tomorrow then."
"Of course," she smiled at him and accompanied Sullivan downstairs. When the two of them get outside, he lights the cigar almost immediately.
"I've been waiting all day to smoke one of these," he explained. "The landlord is picky when it comes to smoking in his building. He does random inspections to make sure no one does it. Sam and I almost got evicted when our office reeked of tobacco. You see, we had to find a new place quickly. We were interviewing for a PA in our old office, when Sam flat out told one of the girls that we were criminals. She called the cops faster than you could say 'evicted'." He took a drag from his cigar, "Of course, we weren't breaking any laws, so we weren't arrested, but we did have to leave before we had any real attention on us. This was the first place that accepted us."
"So, was Sam doing the interviews before?" Nina asked.
"Yeah, he wasn't making any progress," Sullivan told her, "Kept flirting with the girls. I had to step in so we could actually hire someone."
She understood why he was so eager to get away from Sam. "No wonder you were so salty, I thought maybe that you were jealous of all the attention."
Sullivan laughed at this, "Sweetheart, I don't need to be jealous of Sam." He took a drag from his cigar, "No offense, but none of the girls that we interviewed were…worth the trouble."
She was curious, "In what way?"
"For one thing, they were…a bit lacking in the intelligence department," he explained.
"Well, to be honest, the job posting was suspicious," she said. Then she realized that she was one of the people who answered it, "Wow, what does that say about me?"
"You were desperate," he told her in an attempt to make her feel better. "Believe me, that's a few steps above 'stupid'."
To Nina's surprise, she did feel a little better-it was true after all.
"Anyway Nina," he stuck his hand out for her to shake once more. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow, bright and early at ten o'clock."
She smiled and took his hand, confidently this time. "Thank you Mr. Sullivan."
"Please, my friends call me Sully," he insisted, "Since you have me calling you by your first name, you might as well."
"Okay, thank you Sully." Nina boded him farewell and headed home.
When she got home, she got started on dinner. However, instead of booting up Netflix, she decided to do something different. Thinking about Sam and his enthusiasm about history and treasure hunting and made her want to impress him. She set up her computer to do research on various archeological websites. She also hoped that she would get involved in any jobs the men came across; after all, Nina was an experienced art thief, her skills would definitely come in handy on any job.
When she went to bed, she found herself actually excited for what this new job would bring for her.
A/N: Okay, unlike the AO3 version of this story, I won't be updating this version regularly. If you like where this is going, feel free to check out the story on AO3. Thanks for reading!
