Hello everyone! I've been an awful updater! I apologize! I have a job, an internship, and university classes. The spare time I have is usually split up as follows: studying, eating, sleeping, and writing. I hope you all can forgive me.
Thank you for your patience! You will be rewarded!
PS: I didn't proof read it as well as I should have. I was in a rush to get it posted so forgive me for grammar mistakes!
Chapter 2: Just Take This Photo from My Hands
Darien shook his head as he wondered what he was doing. He was waiting in the giant foyer of Serena's mansion. It was a room that could be filed as a house to be quite honest. He swiped his fingers along the mahogany table and then bent over to sniff the freshly picked white and pink roses that were exploding out of a vase. Footsteps could be heard off in the distance, but he ignored it, knowing that she would approach him. Sure enough, the tall, slender blonde entered the foyer and gestured for him to follow her into the even larger living room with floor-to-ceiling windows that brought in the spring sunlight. He sat down on the white leather couch and gazed up at the huge flat screen television that was showing a guided tour of the United Kingdom.
"So…" he started.
"Do you have your things packed?" she asked as she reached over for her cup of coffee.
"No," he answered. "I haven't even met with the team yet, let alone start thinking of packing. I said I'm in which means I need all the information and I need to know the first steps."
"Ladies!" Serena shouted over her shoulder.
Within the next minute or so came Lita from the kitchen, Ami from her personal den, and Rei from her meditation room. They all sat on the couch with Darien and Serena, ready for their discussion.
"Ami, go! Explain!" Serena commanded, snapping her fingers at the blue haired girl.
"We're going to fly across the pond to England where we will stay with our fellow colleague and mentor—"
"Claus?" he interrupted. "We're going to see Claus? You're joking?"
Claus was the man who had basically taken Darien in and taught him everything he knew. When he was a young boy in New York City, he would often ditch his prep school classes and just go strolling around Central Park. That's where he met the older man. He was dressed up as a hobo playing chess for money, betting anyone that they couldn't beat him. Darien, learning how to cheat at an early age, was able to beat Claus in ten minutes flat. When the elder man found out about the cheating afterwards, he commended Darien. Ever since, he had taken him under his wing and trained him to be the best thief he could possibly be.
"Anyways, we'll meet with Claus, stay with him and explain our plan to him," she continued.
"Which I'm betting he will shoot down," Lita quipped.
"Why do you say that?" Darien asked.
"Because it's not well thought out," she answered.
"Yes it is!" Ami argued.
"Please! I've seen better plans in Mission Impossible movies!" she scoffed.
"What's the plan?" he pressed on.
"Well, there's a certain time that we can get into the room without looking like tourists and that's when the queen starts off parliament for its new term. A few weeks before, there's a man who goes into the chamber, retrieves the jewels and has them polished, cleaned, and makes sure it fits the royal woman," Rei explained. "Ami wants us to use Claus to dress up like this specific man to retrieve the crown and remove the jewels from it. The crown that the queen uses doesn't have the Kohinoor diamond; the crown that does is considered retired. It was apart of a brooch originally worn by Queen Victoria given to her by Prince Albert. After her death it was placed in a diamond crown for Queen Alexandra. The crown was used for coronations up until Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. It was then placed on her coffin."
"Is it still there?" Darien asked.
"No," she continued, "it's in the Tower of London in a case that can only be opened by a certain key which is held by the man that Ami wants Claus to dress up as."
"Why is everyone so unsure of this plan? We have the best technology to complete this assignment!" Ami exclaimed.
"Because it'll probably get us arrested … at best," Serena murmured behind her cup of coffee.
"Once we get to England and meet with Claus, we can figure out whether or not this is a horrible idea," Lita said as she leaned her temple against her closed fist.
"Alright, you guys are dismissed," Serena stated as she stood up to her feet and strolled idly into the kitchen.
Lita followed her only to find that the soufflé she was making had overflowed and was now filling up the oven like a giant blob monster. She sighed and turned the burner off with a lazy hand. Crossing her arms over her chest she turned around to face Serena.
"I have a feeling that our mission is going to end up like this soufflé," she said.
"Overwhelming?" Serena asked.
"No; a disaster," she answered.
Darien entered the kitchen and shoved his hands into his pockets as he said, "Well I'm going home. I should start packing. You were so insistent on leaving immediately…"
"I still am," Serena retorted. "Don't think that just because you have all of the information now that we'll wait for your brain to catch up with your feet. I want to leave the moment you're done getting your things together."
"Since when do I take order from you?"
"Since you agreed to this mission."
"I'll return when I have all of my things in order. This includes me speaking to my fiancée. She has a right to know where I am."
"In that case I'm going with you to pack," she declared.
"What?" he exclaimed.
"You heard me. You're going to need someone to back you up when you give some outlandish excuse to your fiancée. You're an awful liar Darien and thinking on your toes has never been your strong suit," she grinned malevolently.
"You haven't worked with me for quite some time. I could have very well changed especially with this large lie of a life," he replied.
"I don't even believe you now…"
Much to his dismay, Serena didn't give up easily and ended up driving with him to his penthouse. He was annoyed the whole cab ride there, walk into the building, and elevator trip up. His left eye kept twitching incessantly as he thought about everything that could possibly go wrong. He took a deep breath before they entered into his penthouse cautiously. Darien exhaled with relief, but almost too soon; there was a rustling noise in the back bathroom. This was the cherry to this god-awful sundae – his fiancée was home. Shit.
"Hi honey!" she greeted happily with her brown eyes flashing toward Serena defensively as she breezed out of the room.
Adrianna was short in comparison to Darien, but then again who wasn't – the man was over six feet tall. She was slender, fit, and almost sickly in how perfect she looked. Her smile glowed that terrible white color that looked unnatural in the sunlight. Her auburn hair was tied up in French twist that clearly hadn't been done by her, but by a set of professional hands. She had high cheek bones that had been injected with butt fat, her tight forehead that had been stabbed repeatedly with poison to remove wrinkles, and her skin had been painted with a thick layer of make-up. Whatever attracted Darien to this weird little Upper Eastside Barbie doll must have been completely superficial. Serena was determined to figure out what it was.
"Who's your friend?" Adrianna asked sweetly … too sweetly; like the corner piece of cake with too much of that fake white icing – it's not even butter cream frosting!
"This is my old friend Serena," he smiled.
"Oh! The one who worked with you in India?" she beamed, holding her perfectly manicured hand out. Adrianna was strategic in how she handled herself toward another woman; she was sure to extend her left hand adorned with her engagement ring. She was claiming her territory like a cat … or a skunk.
Serena did her best to hide her disgust behind a well-acted smile and shook her hand, "Yes I am! It's such a pleasure to meet you Adrianna. I've read a lot about you in the letters he's sent."
"Letters?" she inquired, her face flickering for a split-second with distress as she turned slightly toward Darien.
"Oh yes! I have been sending letters back and forth to Serena to make sure that everything is running smoothly at the hospital," he smiled. "There's never a stable enough internet connection there so writing letters is the best way possible to get the word out."
"I see," she sighed, her body relaxing. She glanced back her competition, "So what brings you here?"
"I'm afraid she's here to whisk me away my love!" Darien exclaimed with a strange tone in his voice that Serena only slightly recognized. She continued to listen to him in order to understand why his register had changed considerably, "I must go back to India and help build another hospital. They need me on this committee. They'll be completely useless without me."
That's when Serena caught it; he used that tone to sound like he was a rich snob back in the old heist days. It usually got most of the high up people at parties to be on his side. When he used this façade, he was never questioned, bullied, or seen a suspect. Serena knew Darien was always able to distract them; she was just never around to see it in action. Watching it right in front of her at that moment made her stomach turn to knots. She was beginning to feel queasy.
"We need to hurry up Darien," Serena announced. "Our flight leaves soon."
"Right," he nodded. He looked over at Adrianna and asked, "Would you like to help me pack?"
"I'm afraid I don't have the time darling. I have a mani-pedi-botox appointment today. I need to look ravishing for that charity ball tonight," she beamed, flashing her fake white teeth.
"What's the charity for?" Serena asked.
"Children?" she shrugged. "I can't recall. I'm on the committee for so many of these damn things."
"That's my fiancée! Always giving back," Darien smiled as he wrapped his arm around Adrianna's torso and kissed her forehead. She winced at the show of affection that wasn't in her control, but she made sure to keep her lips curved in a positive position; upward. Serena could tell that Adrianna wanted so badly to hold the reigns in this relationship. It was rather sad that she had no idea that this relationship was a complete sham.
After an awkward silence, Darien cleared his throat and then pulled away from his fake fiancée. He led the way to the master bedroom with Serena following him. He started to pack a duffle bag filled with clothes he would be wearing on the trip.
Serena leaned over to his ear and whispered, "Aren't you going to pack other necessities? You know … rope, guns, knives … bandages?"
"First off, you know how high security is in the states now; I'll never be able to get away with that. And second, what makes you think I still own that stuff?" he hissed.
Serena stepped back and listened for the front door to shut. Once she heard it, she spun around on the ball of her foot and trotted over to the large, walk-in closet. She strolled over to Darien's side of the room and pushed back the rack of shirts. She examined the wall behind his hung up clothing and sure enough found an old, tattered Nirvana poster that he had used countless times to cover up his hiding spots. She took it down gently and discovered a square opening that he had carved out in the wall. Pushing past the cobwebs that had developed, Serena pulled out and tossed back over to Darien a thick nylon rope, a handgun, a dagger given to him by his mentor Claus, another pearl and opal dagger that she had given him, and … well this was strange. She pulled out a frayed Polaroid picture that had been taken just over a year ago after one of their highest grossing heists; it was a candid picture of Darien holding Serena and staring into her eyes as though he was going to kiss her right then. This was their last job together…
She turned around with the picture still in hand and her eyes glued to it, "No bandages, huh?"
Darien's face grew red with embarrassment and he took one single stride across the room to snatch the photo out of her hand. She gasped at the sudden movement and suddenly felt like she had encroached on a part of his life that she shouldn't have. Would this make things awkward between them?
"This is the only bandage I've needed," he said, gesturing to the picture in his hand. "Are you done nitpicking?"
"Yes," she replied solemnly.
"Good. Now put these back," he ordered, pointing to the gun, daggers, and rope on the ground.
"No," she argued. "We have a private jet. You won't be bothered by security. So please put those weapons away. All of them." She walked out of the room in a huff as she stated over her shoulder, "I'll be waiting for you downstairs."
Darien flinched when he heard the front door slam and then he leaned against the wall of his closet, sliding down the carpeted ground. His eyes drifted down to the mangled photo in his hand. He remembered that exact moment. Serena had been so excited that they had completed this unimaginable, impossible mission. She popped open a bottle of champagne, sprayed everyone with the foam, and proceeded to kiss everyone on the cheek, leaving dripping red marks on their skin. When she approached Darien though, he was grinning too much for her to place a proper kiss on his cheek; it would have creased thanks to his cute dimples. She ended up cupping his face and staring into his eyes for a good thirty seconds. It was during that time that Claus had taken a picture of the whole group. Right after the photo was snapped loudly, Darien had been brought back down to earth and pulled away from Serena … for good.
Or so he thought. Here he was, in his closet packing away for another mission that he had been talked into. Would he ever get away from this addiction? From this haunting? His eyes narrowed at the picture in his hand and he was tempted to burn it into ashes, but he resisted. It was the only memory of being close to something real.
Thus, he got up off the ground and started to shove clothing, toiletries, and his weapons into his duffle bag. Once Darien was all packed, he took one final look at the loving photo and then placed it gently into a side compartment on the inner lining of his bag; that way it would be safe and he would be able to find it anytime he wanted. Not that he needed to…. The memory would forever be burned into his mind.
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