A/N: I have absolutely no sense of time anymore, it appears. I could have sworn I posted the teaser two weeks ago…apparently it's only been a week…o.O

One

Gormon Peake arrives two weeks later with his team.

"My screenwriter, Hyle Hunt," he says, his expression as sour as if he were introducing the man who had stolen his car. He gestures to his other companions and says, "Glendon Ball, our special effects director, and my wife, Margot Lannister-Peake, who is also our set designer."

"Lannister?" Brienne says sharply.

Margot nods. "I'm distantly related to Lord Tytos of Casterly Rock. We're also great friends since I grew up in Lannisport and saw him often." She smiles at Jaime. "Tytos and I have been trying to place you in the family tree...?"

Brienne flushes as Jaime airily waves his hand. "My branch is easily lost in the tangle, thanks to a number of black sheep and rogues who fell out with the family from time to time." He leans closer and lowers his voice to a conspiratorial rumble as he says, "There's also some question about the legitimacy of my great-great-grandfather."

Margot's eyes widen while Brienne closes hers and hides a groan.

Jaime nods with a teasing smirk. "Oh, he's definitely a Lannister, but family legend has it that his mother gave him the Lannister name out of spite after his father and his family refused to believe the babe was his. Quite the spitfire, my three-times-great-grandmother."

Margot's eyebrows rise. "Intriguing," she murmurs.

"Yes," Brienne hastily says, "but not getting any work done. Please, follow me to the boardroom."

*/*/*/*/*

As they work with their new clients, Brienne has to grudgingly admit the assignment is interesting enough. Each person takes a turn explaining the premise and plot of the movie, and their role in making the movie come to life. Jaime sits and listens with a wide-eyed, excited innocence that makes Brienne melt until she sternly reminds herself she's still angry with him, even now, four weeks after the Jon Arryn case.

She's not jealous of his relationship with Cersei, only angry with his decision to rekindle their affair while Cersei was a suspect in a murder investigation. Brienne still sees red when she thinks of how he put the reputation of the agency at risk. The fact Cersei Baratheon is considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world is beside the point.

As is the fact that the man calling himself Jaime Lannister has been in love with Cersei Baratheon his entire life and she, Brienne, had almost begun to hope—

Brienne brutally stops that train of thought in its tracks.

Despite his beauty and the hormone rush he still gives her when she's not careful, it's not like there was ever going to be...well...anything happening between them. She doesn't even know his real name, for the gods' sakes! Besides, he flirts with everyone and anything he says can't be taken seriously.

No, no, she's upset with him because of the precarious position the agency is now in as a result of his choices...and that's the only reason.

"Brienne?"

She blinks and returns to the boardroom and the people intently watching her.

"I—I'm sorry?"

"We're wondering what kinds of security measures might be in place to guard such an important landmark as Casterly Rock. It houses all the gold reserves for Westeros, after all," Hyle Hunt says.

He's an ordinary looking man with calculating eyes, and Brienne frowns as she notices he seems to be looking at her like she's a safe and he's trying to figure out the combination.

She gives him a polite smile. "Well, certainly all the usual security precautions: motion detectors, heat detectors, cameras, time locks, and, of course, the human element: multiple armed guards."

"In your movie, the guards can be bribed," Jaime says, "or, with enough time and planning, swapped out with the villain's own people. The trick is to make sure the substitute guards don't all leave at once after the job's done."

Hyle is busily typing on his laptop. "Would you swap them all out, or just one or two?"

Jaime shrugs. "Depends on whether you want to kill anyone."

Margot says, "Well, it's a Jeor Bond movie; people are going to die."

Jaime says, "Then for maximum drama, only swap out one or two because whoever is the inside person will need to kill all the other guards." He scowls thoughtfully into the distance. "Makes it difficult to not be suspected afterwards, of course."

"It's a Jeor Bond movie," Brienne says drily, "he's going to stop them before they can get far anyway."

Jaime's smile is blinding. "I have taught you well, my child."

She snorts and rolls her eyes. "Please. My dad's been watching those movies since before I was born. Everyone knows Bond always saves the day."

Peake's half-smile is fleeting. "Always pleased to meet a fan," he says, although his sour expression says otherwise.

"Still," Hyle says, "is all of that going to be dramatic enough for the franchise?"

"Well," Jaime says thoughtfully, "all of those security measures have been shown being breached before. Die Hard, Euron's Eleven, Karstark's Heroes, Mission Impossible—the list goes on and on. What we need is something new that hasn't really been seen before in film."

"How about biometrics?" Brienne says.

Jaime nods. "Retinal scans and fingerprints."

"DNA."

"Facial recognition software."

"Add in a laser grid criss-crossing the vault door."

"Invisible, of course," Jaime says. "Pressure sensors immediately in front of the vault door."

"Noise detectors sensitive enough to pick up someone's breathing."

"Automatic release of tear gas."

"Deafening klaxons."

"Guard dogs."

"Although they would be impacted by the tear gas."

"True; they would have to be guarding the outside perimeter."

"Stop, stop, stop," Hyle says, throwing up his hands in defeat. "I can't type that fast!"

"Besides," Peake says, "we also have three fully fleshed out security systems for you to review and critique. We can use one of these as the basic design and add in other elements to increase the dramatic tension."

He hands them several pages of descriptions and rough drawings and Jaime and Brienne study them in thoughtful silence. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Jaime's eyebrows go up as he reviews the second schematic. He glances up and catches her questioning gaze. He frowns a little as he shakes his head, then turns his attention back to the information in front of him.

Brienne does the same and when they're finished, she looks once again at Jaime. He lifts up one of his pages and she nods.

She turns to their clients and says, "The second one would be the best," she says, "at least in terms of a robust, real-world security system."

Peake nods and says, "Then that's the one we'll start from."

Hyle rubs his hands together and says, "Now all we need to do is to figure out what bells and whistles to add, and the most dramatic ways to circumvent it all."

*/*/*/*/*

The next several hours is filled with spirited arguments as Brienne and Jaime bounce ideas off each other and Hyle does his best to write everything down, interspersed with Glendon Ball's questions and Margot's quickly sketched storyboards to illustrate the action.

When they finally take a break, Hyle sidles up next to Brienne as she refills her cup with coffee. She gives him a polite smile and lifts the coffee pot in question. He nods and she fills his cup as well.

"Tarth," he says, his eyes thoughtful as she hands him his cup. "Are you related to the Evenstar?"

"Distantly," Brienne says.

Hyle's eyes light up then narrow. "How distantly?"

"I have no idea," Brienne says and hopes he doesn't notice her flushed cheeks. She glances up and catches Jaime watching them with an interested look on his handsome face and her flush deepens.

"The Evenstar has no children of his own," Hyle says, "and Tarth is not that common a name."

Brienne's smile is fleeting. "Don't let the name fool you," she says. "There has always been a tendency towards girls on the Tarth side. And, as I'm sure you remember from your high school history classes, when a woman becomes the Evenstar, she takes the Tarth name as do her children, as decreed by Queen Brienne I. Archaic now, I suppose, but you can't say the Westerosi don't like their traditions."

Hyle hums thoughtfully. "Still...you must have some stake in the Isle of Tarth?"

"My father owns a small plot of land on the western coast, yes," Brienne says carefully, then gives him a tight-lipped smile. "We should get back to work."

*/*/*/*/*

Jaime and Brienne regularly meet with Gormon Peake and his team over the next two weeks, and Brienne finds herself practically cornered by Hyle at every opportunity. He's pleasant enough, she supposes, and he seems to be genuinely interested in learning more about her, even though the conversation invariably turns back to Tarth and the Evenstar's lack of an heir.

Finally, she says, "Look, I am nowhere near inheriting the Isle of Tarth!"

Hyle gives her a look like she just kicked his puppy. "I'm interested in you," he says in wounded tones, "and I'm just trying to think of something to talk about."

She frowns. "And Tarth and the Evenstar are all you can come up with?"

His ordinary face creases with a charming smile. "Well, you could come out to dinner with me so we can find more...personal topics to discuss."

"Sounds wonderful," Jaime says as he strolls up to them, "but right now we're working." His smile is as charming as ever although his eyes are cool. He turns to Hyle. "Plus you're leaving bright and early in the morning for Lannisport. Don't want to stay up too late tonight and miss your plane."

Hyle's own smile falters a little then rallies. "I'm sure I can manage," he says and turns to Brienne with a hopeful air.

She blinks and says, "Unfortunately, I'm not available tonight." She glances at Jaime's raised eyebrow then quickly turns her attention back to Hyle. "Mayhaps when you return."

Hyle's grin is wide as he digs out a business card and hands it to her. "Call me anytime," he says.

Jaime and Brienne watch in silence as Hyle strolls back to the boardroom.

"You didn't blush," Jaime murmurs.

Brienne scowls at him. "What?"

"When you told him you were busy; you didn't blush. Are you holding out on me? Do you have a date tonight, Brienne?"

She glares. "Not that it's any of your business," she growls, "but it's my regular Girl's Night with Bronna. We don't break that date unless we absolutely have to."

"She wouldn't understand?"

"She would understand completely; doesn't make it right."

Jaime falls into step with her as they, too, head back to the boardroom. "True. I don't blame you for turning him down, even if you weren't busy."

"He's seems nice enough," Brienne says and Jaime laughs.

"High praise indeed," he says, lightly mocking. "I just think you can do better."

"Well," she says with a tight smile as she brushes past him through the boardroom doorway, "at least he's not married."

*/*/*/*/*

They wrap up their meeting and Gormon Peake shakes their hands and says, "Your assistance has been invaluable in this first phase. We're leaving for Lannisport in the morning, and as promised, I'd like you to join us on location when filming starts next week. Besides finding it interesting, you can help us work out any last minute kinks in the sequence once we start filming it."

Jaime's eyes light up like he's receiving his first ever nameday gift.

"I'm not sure..." Brienne begins, but Jaime wraps his hand round her upper arm.

"May I confer with my associate for a moment?" he says, his voice silky smooth.

She scowls as Jaime all but drags her from the boardroom and into his office.

"Why are you balking at this?" he demands as soon as the door is closed behind them. "It's perfect! A trip to Lannisport and Casterly Rock, all paid for, and really, how much work are we talking about? Plus we get to watch the actual production of a movie! Think of how much fun that will be!"

Brienne snorts. "It may not be as fun as you think," she mutters, "real life seldom is. Besides, another case came in this morning, remember?"

Jaime rolls his eyes. "Another insurance claim to investigate. Big deal."

"Those cases are our—"

"Bread and mead, yes, yes, yes! But you don't need the Great Detective Jaime Lannister himself for this one, do you? Besides, I know you usually just rope me in so I have something to do."

She raises an eyebrow. "More like so I can keep an eye on you. I also didn't know I could convince you to stay out of the cases."

"All I'm suggesting is, if you're not interested, then I can go alone."

Brienne's eyes widen. "With all the gold in Casterly Rock tempting you to make a try for it?"

He waves her words away. "Been there, done that. I've never been on movie set, though."

"Been th—you know, what? I don't want to know." Her eyes narrow as she suspiciously considers his smirk and the teasing gleam in his eyes. "Can I trust you to behave the way the Great Detective Jaime Lannister would behave?"

He rubs his gold hand in glee. "If there's one thing I can do, Brienne, it's get through a security system."

She rolls her eyes. "That's not what I mean, and you know it."

He laughs then sobers. "I won't let you down. I promise."

*/*/*/*/*