Title: Colette's Search (Chapter 4)
Author: WistfulGuy
Fandom: Pan Am
Rating: PG
Cast: Colette Valois
Disclaimer: I do not own Pan Am the company or the TV series. I am not associated with ABC TV in any way. I am just a huge fan of the show and like to write. Also, please don't sue me…I don't do well in jail and I have no money. Void where prohibited.
***Note: while Colette Valois is fluent in French, I am not. I have chosen to display all her dialogue in English, rather than use an English-French translation utility and risk making her sound like a 3rd grader speaking in broken French. I think you fans can appreciate that ***
Colette walked into her apartment and sat down on the couch. It had been quite a busy day so far: contacting the orphanage that kept her and her brother, finding her brother's name and the next clue in solving the mystery of his whereabouts, having a splendid lunch with the wonderful man who made this search possible at all.
She was happy to have a two day break from work. This would give her the chance to call the boarding school in Paris the following morning. With the time difference, she figured her chances of having someone answer an office phone would not be great at this time of day.
As luck would have it, Majestic was scheduled to fly to Paris when she returned to work. Quite serendipitous, she thought. She recalled Dean's comment, "Sometimes the stars align." Smiling, she said aloud, "It certainly seems to be happening in this case."
Now that she had closure with Omar, she was able to focus on her future. Finding her brother was, of course, a top priority. She also knew she wanted to have Dean be a part of that, and more. There were things to work through, but she wanted to work through them with Dean.
They still had to be careful about who knew about them. Of course, the girls and Ted could be counted on to keep things quiet. Laura and Ted had as much to be concerned with for themselves, anyway. Colette figured she could use her time in Paris on her flights there to continue her search. She had to figure a way to have Dean accompany her without it appearing too suspicious - if she continually appeared entering and exiting Pan Am flights in the company of a fellow employee, it would not bode well. She wanted to continue with Pan Am for the time being, and didn't want Dean's troubles to extend beyond his current suspension.
Perhaps she could meet with Dean at that Jake's nightclub to see his thoughts about how to handle this, she thought. She removed her high heels and sat down on her sofa. Reaching for the phone, she dialed Dean's number. After a few rings, he answered, "Hello?"
"Dean, it's Colette."
"Well hello again...I could get used to this, you know?"
"Yes, I think I do. Okay, I've been thinking about how to go about searching for my brother and how you can help me. First things first: I need to get a better idea of his location. The orphanage gave me the name of a boarding school where they believe my brother may have been sent. I'm hoping this school has halfway decent records, enough to give us more of a lead."
"You certainly have nothing to lose in contacting them. What can I do to help?"
"I have a feeling the trail is going to get a bit murky at the point I get leads on where my brother may have gone afterwards. In normal times, you can't guess where a person's life will take them. We certainly can't guess what happens to people's lives after a war has ended."
"Good point. Well, I am at your disposal!"
"Thank you, Dean. That means a lot to me. How about we continue this over a meal at Jake's this evening?"
"Now you're talking! What time should I pick you up?"
"How about seven?"
"Sounds good, Miss Valois...departure for 7pm it is!"
Colette laughed softly as they ended their call. Dean's country boy charms toward her made her feel desired and adored. She had a few hours before meeting Dean so she decided to have a cup of tea. While boiling the water she had a thought about some guidebooks to Paris she had collected over the years. Since her start with Pan Am, she wanted to be as well versed on the tourist hot spots and dining establishments in Paris as possible. After all, she wanted to show off her home country to all Pan Am passengers visiting it.
As the teapot began to heat up, she went to a bookshelf that held the Paris guidebooks she'd collected. Pulling one of the more recent ones out, she began flipping through the pages of the historical landmarks. She slowly paged through the pictures of stately buildings and edifices, the buildings seeming to look back at her with an air of importance. She noticed that a few of the locations happened to be educational institutions. One of these was a boarding school: "L'école Evangeline".
Colette stared at the name of this school and the picture of its building as the teapot in her kitchen began to whistle softly. Thinking back to her conversation with the nun at the orphanage, she recalled her speaking of the school.
"Yes, Miss Valois, that's the name of the school...L'école Evangeline. Pierre Martinique was the headmaster at the time, but I obviously can't confirm that is still the case."
Feeling another small triumph of seeing the location of the school, Colette took the guidebook with her to the kitchen. Setting it down, she poured the boiling water into a cup to have some tea. Sipping slowly, she looked at the guidebook, still opened to the page with the L'école Evangeline school on it.
"It looks as though I'll be doing some more digging tomorrow," she said happily to herself.