Relationship Matters by InSilva
Disclaimer: don't own, don't own.
Chapter Eight: Discovery
Danny had volunteered to let Maria know there would be no one around to eat dinner. She wasn't behind the bar and he wandered out the back looking for her. He found her struggling with a heavy crate.
"Here. Let me." Danny swung it up on the shelf with ease and she gave him a cool nod of thanks that had "I am not a helpless woman" behind it.
"We're all going out," Danny went on as they walked back through to the bar. "I just wanted to tell you. And to thank you, by the way. The chilli last night was terrific and well, you're really looking after us."
Maria gave a slight smile. "S'alright. Long as I don't lose part of the wall again."
It was cryptic up until the point where Danny remembered. Explosions. Right. And intriguing though that was, Danny parked the thought because there was something else he needed to ask because she had handled Rusty's arrival with them all in tow and the need to provide shelter and food as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.
"Do you mind me asking why?" Smile and gentle and unthreatening.
Maria looked at him, cool and considering.
"Saul knew my father," she said eventually. "When Poppa died, Saul made sure the bar came to me."
More cryptic. Danny stared at her. "And who's Saul?"
She didn't answer for a moment and when she did, it wasn't directly. "Saul used to stay over sometimes. Sometimes he brought Rusty and Mitch."
"Saul's Rusty's dad?" It sounded like that. The way she said it. Saul sounded like family.
She considered for a moment and shrugged. "Kind of, I guess."
Rusty's father. And because family was important, because family mattered, the next question came immediately and without a second thought.
"And where's Saul now?"
"Saul's dead."
"What about Mitch?"
"Guess he's dead too."
And her eyes told him there was more to tell and that she was not about to tell it.
Rusty stuck his head round the door.
"Ed? You got a minute?"
Eduardo joined him as he was busy pulling on the dirty overalls over the top of the black turtleneck and ski pants.
"You want me to tell you whether or not you look good in those?"
Rusty grinned. "Actually, I just want to make sure you're set for tonight."
"Yes, I'm fine. Rick and I are going to follow Alisha back to her place and then hopefully there'll be an Anton or if not, then at least Rick's got a point to start digging."
"You had a good day?" Rusty wanted to check while Ed was on his own.
"Told you. I had a great day."
Rusty nodded, satisfied. "Good."
"I see you're breaking Danny in," Eduardo smiled. "Got him carrying dessert for you." There was the slightest of pauses. "He seems nice."
"He does seem nice," Rusty agreed. "I like the way he thinks and I like the way he operates. He's very professional."
Ed's eyes were wondering around another question that he would never ask. Rusty answered it anyway.
"And I also get the feeling he's very conventional."
Eduardo flushed and started to stammer out something and Rusty took pity on him.
"Do me a favour, Ed, just go grab me a beer, would you?"
Eduardo disappeared and Rusty's thoughts turned briefly to Danny. Nice really wasn't the word. Nice was about the surface and society. Nice was what Danny might show to the world but there was more going on here. Rusty thought about dark eyes standing up to him and about ideas and approaches and about charm and smile being deployed: Rusty felt he had been right about deep waters.
He studied his reflection critically in the mirror. Not quite Peter Venkman. He pulled the cap on and thought briefly about the life of the man who might wear the overalls and who might be doing this job. Mike Garrett, maybe. He could be a Mike. Married to Tina, three kids and another on the way. Not a moment's peace at home and working at a job that he didn't particularly enjoy but at least it got him out of the house. Earned enough to put bread on the table and kept a little back to go out at night and drink with the boys. Friday night card games were the highlight of his week even though he usually lost more times than he won.
Rusty looked at the surly face in the mirror and nodded. He could be a Mike.
As Ed disappeared into Rusty's room with a beer, Danny was sat on the couch, dressed and ready to go and on the phone to Teresa.
"You had a happy day? Good. Good."
Rick was almost certain that he knew what that was about. Who that was about. He recognised the tone. He bit his lip and waited.
"Alright, sweetheart. I do too. Yes, I know. Not soon. Little while longer. Yes, he is. Hold on. Love you."
Danny passed the phone over to Rick and Rick listened to chatter and excitement and questions and a question and he handled it all and hung up.
"Felicity called round," Danny said and Rick nodded. Felicity Hudson. Neighbour and self-appointed guardian. He'd guessed correctly. "Teresa said they baked."
Rick's gaze travelled to behind Danny where Rusty was stood, beer in hand and curiosity nowhere near his face.
They had packed up the bags and they had walked downstairs to an audience of Maria and a handful of customers who had drifted in. The customers hadn't been that interested and Maria's eyes had been watchful but she'd said nothing. Still Danny felt a little self-conscious.
"Do you think we should be in disguise or something?" he asked Rusty as they hit the street.
"We are in disguise."
"I mean maybe we should have beards or moustaches or..." he tailed off. "Or something."
Rusty was silent and studied Danny's face. "No," he said firmly. "No anything."
Danny didn't want to let it go.
"But wouldn't it help? Disguises help, right?"
"Usually."
"Well, then." Danny felt stubborn on this point.
"You're not very…" Rusty sighed. "OK. Disguise."
Rusty dropped down and scooped up some dirt. He smeared it across Danny's cheek in one broad stroke.
"There you go. People will see the smudge. Not you."
Danny pursed his lips. "Not what I had in mind."
"I know," Rusty grinned.
Rick and Eduardo took up position in the park opposite with newspapers and coffees and waited for 5pm.
"You got a good idea on visual?"
Eduardo nodded. Doug had been very descriptive if not particularly detailed. "Skin like...and hair. Dark hair...and lips..." Rusty had helped fill in the gaps.
The service elevator had proved as unproblematic as Danny had imagined. Rusty and he had arrived at the roof and were currently contemplating the window cleaning cradle.
"Don't suppose you've ever…"
"Nah." Rusty was studying the lockdown mechanism intently, a small wrap of thin tapered metallic tools spread out in front of him.
"But it's only a lock, right?"
Rusty selected one of the tools and deftly applied it until there was a satisfying click.
"Right," he agreed.
Manoeuvring the cradle was a little hit and miss but Danny eventually mastered the controls and swung them into position at the back of the building. He looked over the side at the street below. They weren't that high. It was hardly the Empire State. They were still high enough though and he dropped back down, grateful for the metal sides that offered some sort of illusion of four walls. Of course the wind gently blowing through his hair and the fact that there was no ceiling was less comforting. He looked over at Rusty, sitting opposite, eyes closed, looking for all the world as if he were leaning up against any wall. Danny swallowed and closed his own eyes and wished he had Rick with him. Rick would be talking and cracking jokes and Danny wouldn't be thinking about cables and sidewalks and drops and whether you could actually scream as you plummeted to your certain death because awnings wouldn't slow you up much and unless you happened to be the love interest of a superhero, no one was going to save-
Something was pushed into his hand and his fingers closed around what felt like a bar of Hershey's. He opened his eyes and checked. It was. Rusty already had the wrapper peeled on his bar and was two bites in.
"Thanks," Danny said and tore into it, the chocolate offering up reality and normal and something solid.
Rusty was giving him a thoughtful look. "You should have said."
Danny shrugged it off. "Nothing to say. I can handle it."
"Had you down as more Cary Grant than Jimmy Stewart."
Danny chuckled. "You can be Jimmy. Then we just need to find Katharine Hepburn."
Tailing Alisha had been straightforward enough. She had emerged from Larner's with a couple of colleagues and had excused herself from their company. As they had disappeared towards the bar on the corner, she had headed in the other direction.
"Looks like Little Miss Gold Digger's got another appointment."
"Let's hope it's a date with Anton."
They tracked her through the crowds and the subway and the streets to the ground floor apartment. Now, it was just a waiting game.
Another waiting game was going on several feet above New York as the sunset blazed. The conversation had roamed happily through movies and at some point, Rusty had come back to himself enough to be able to study Danny's face objectively. The fear which had been well-disguised in the first place was buried deep inside again. And there was light and animation and charisma…huh.
"Penny for them?"
Rusty grinned. "Just thinking about you in action today. Alisha looked very taken."
There was a flash of something - guilt? Why guilt? - and then the easy smile was back on Danny's face. "I could say the same for Alex."
"Yeah..." Rusty shifted a bit and grimaced. Alex seemed altogether too interested.
"Eduardo," Danny said softly and Rusty stared at him.
"Ed?"
"Doesn't feel right, does it?" Danny's gaze had dropped to his hands, knitted together in his lap.
Rusty realised and opened his mouth to correct that assumption and then closed it again. Danny wasn't talking about Rusty anymore. And since he'd meant what he'd said to Eduardo about Danny's preferences, he seriously doubted Danny was thinking of Rick.
"Even if...I mean I'm not planning on sleeping with her...it still feels like-"
"-cheating." Rusty finished and Danny lifted dark eyes edged with pain and nodded. Some girl. Some place.
"Rick doesn't...I don't think he gets it. But then he's...well, he hasn't got..."
"Rhythm?"
Danny laughed. "That's true."
"You gotta use what you're given in life," Rusty said more seriously. "I do."
Danny nodded again. "And there's a line. I do know that there's a line."
Rusty's gaze flickered and then he studied the sky. "Not long now."
The curtains were back and Rick and Eduardo were rewarded for the long wait by the arrival of a man who was buzzed in to the apartment and who had Alisha's arms thrown round him and who looked like a dead ringer for Anton. Even though Doug's description had been vague, there was enough there to match.
The couple weren't planning a night in. They emerged and disappeared down the street towards a nearby restaurant.
"You want to buy me dinner?" Eduardo asked and Rick glared at him.
"Fuck," he muttered. "Come on."
The sky was silver and blue one side of them and faint traces of orange on the other: it would soon be showtime. They had abandoned their overalls and Rusty was busy delving into one of the bags, digging out the glass cutter and the pads.
"You have any idea who recommended you to Doug?" Danny asked suddenly.
"Not sure," Rusty shrugged. "Don't work much in the States. Ed and I've only been over a couple of times." He looked up. "You know who suggested you and Rick?"
Danny thought about time away and people who might think about time before and reputation.
"Think it might have been a guy called Reuben. He runs a place out in Vegas and we've done some work for him."
The shadow of Belize rose up in the back of his mind and he pushed it away.
"Reuben Tishkoff?"
Danny squinted through the gathering darkness at Rusty who shrugged.
"Met him in the summer in Monte Carlo. He's quite a character."
Reuben...flamboyant and funny and outrageous and dramatic and trusting and full of belief and how he'd hated letting Reuben down.
"He's certainly that."
Rusty pulled the circuit breaker out and tossed it to Danny.
"Let's go."
