Hey guys! So here's the next chapter, sorry it's kind of short (one scene) and probably not the greatest but I didn't want to leave you guys waiting any longer. I promise the next one will be better. Anyways thanks to everyone whos still reading it means a lot. I really love your reviews too. And sorry it keeps taking so long to update.
Only Callen and friends are mine.
Chapter 21: The Art of Planning
"Should we really have left Abbey alone with your dad?" Luc asks later that afternoon.
"Trust me, she'll be just fine. Besides they'll get more done with us out of the house" I reply.
After this morning's treasure hunt turned out to be a total bust, I called everybody so we could make some progress on our heist. Dad needed something to take his mind off Kate for a bit, so he's currently helping Abbey with her forging skills (of course, he doesn't know that), while the rest of us went to our hang out spot at Baskin Robin. Mozzie took the twins to the Park since they were really good this morning, and Elizabeth called saying that she would drop Braden off for dinner which dad said my friends could stay for as well. So basically other than the whole Kate essentially telling off us off thing, it's shaping up to be a pretty good day.
"Yeah I'm sure Abbs is loving getting to spend some one on one time with Neal" Pete says wiggling his eyebrows.
I punch him in the arm hard enough to bruise and give him a death glare, "Don't even".
He throws his hands up in mock surrender as him and Luc continue laughing. Boys can be so immature sometimes. "Hey knuckleheads, knock it off unless you both want to visit the Dentist."
Pete immediately pales at that and I flash him a smile. Luc on the other hand is still laughing, "The dentist, what kind of threat is that."
"Dude, don't" Pete says looking seriously at Luc, "do not joke about that."
"Why?" Luc says suddenly looking very scared.
"You don't want to know" Pete says shuddering.
Now I'm the one who's laughing, "Okay boys let's get back to work now that I know you'll both behave."
"Right, so what do we do first" Luc asks biting into his ice cream.
"Well first off, we're gonna need a projected date as to when this can happen" Pete says, "of course that'll all depend on how long it takes Abbey to paint the replica."
"Knowing my dad, it shouldn't be that long. I say we give them about three weeks, four tops. Abbey's already pretty good so it's just the finishing touches we need to worry about" I respond digging into the banana split me and Pete are sharing.
"That should work" he says pulling out some pamphlets from his bag, "The gallery's hosting a showcase for one of their new exhibits the first week of November so that gives about three and a half weeks."
"That's perfect" I say grabbing the paper from him, "this way all the focus will be on the exhibit and that area leaving the rest pretty vulnerable."
"What do you want me to do?" Luc asks then.
"We're gonna need you to figure out the number of guards on duty that night, a way to hack the camera's guarding the painting, and if there's any electronic security around it" Pete tells him.
"Sure, the program I just wrote should be able to hack into their database relatively easily" Luc says confidently.
"Great" Pete says clapping him on the back. "So if he takes care of that, then all we need is a way in" he says looking at me.
I think for a minute, "Alright the way I see it, we have three options. We could run a milk man."
"Too risky, the security checks for anything incoming would be too high" he says thinking.
"A Little Orphan Annie"
"We might be too old for that now, but let's keep it in mind. I think we might be able to use it for some recon if we use Gabby."
"Gabby might be too young, but what if we used Jessie?"
"Who's Jessie?" Luc says cutting in, but goes completely ignored by the both of us.
"Actually, both of them would probably be the best option. But either way, it won't work for the actually entry."
"So that leaves us with a Royal Flush" I say seriously.
Pete's face automatically lights up, "Now we're talking Ally Cat, that's perfect."
"We'll need a forger though" I say seriously.
"What's a Royal Flush?" Luc says cutting in again, but we still aren't listening to him because the two of us have entered a completely different world.
"What about Devlin?"
"After what happened between him and Mozzie in the Spanish Harlem job; no way"
"Could we use Tori then?"
"She hates my dad, there's no way she'd do us a favor."
"Call everyone hates your dad, he works with the fed's."
"Well then we're kind of at a road block Pete cause we need id's."
"I'm not a Caffrey, I'm sure I can get someone to do it."
"You're a Caffrey by trade, trust me you wouldn't get any further than I would" I tell him slightly upset that everyone I can think of is no good, when an idea suddenly hits me "Theo."
"You mean the eleven year old whose dad owns the copy place?"
I nod, "He'd do them for us easily, plus you're practically his role model."
Pete rolls his eyes at me. He's not too fond of Theo, although I don't really see why. See, Theo's this cute little kid who's sort of socially awkward so he doesn't have that many friends, but he's super smart and idolizes Pete. We met him last year at the park and we got to talking to him and the kid kind of stuck to us. I think we might be his only actual contact with people aside from his video game buddies. I don't mind though and Braden really likes the kid, Pete however I think just finds all the questions Theo asks him incredibly annoying.
"Fine, but you owe me for this" he says caving.
"Good. Oh and I think we need a third man" I say stuffing a big scoop of ice cream in my mouth.
"No way" Pete all but yells making some people turn and look at us. I elbow him to make him be quiet.
"Call, we're already splitting this four ways plus the fence" he whispers.
"Which you have yet to provide me with" I remind him.
"Point is" he says dragging it out, "is that we don't need another person. It's a four man job Call, which we have now turned into six if you count Theo and a fence, I'm not making it seven."
"First off" I say staring him in the eyes, "You aren't paying Theo, and second we don't have a four man team. Abbey's not going to help with the actually grab and I'm not letting Lucas in there either. We can deal if something goes wrong, but he's not experienced enough to help. No offense" I say directing the last part at Lucas.
"None taken" he says, although he looks incredibly confused right now.
I shoot him a reassuring smile before turning back to Pete. "I want to use Connor."
Pete starts choking on his ice cream and has to take a long drink of water before answering, "Absolutely not."
"Why do you have such a problem with him?" I ask accusingly.
"He's not family Call" Pete says giving me a glare.
"Neither are Lucas and Abbey" I shoot back.
"Yeah but they're friends and I trust them" he shoves right back.
"You only trust them because they're clean" I say harshly at him and then shooting Luc an apologetic look. "Besides, Connor is a friend."
Pete shakes his head, "No Connor's a street kid and a petty pick pocket."
"Pete, I'm a street kid and if it weren't for your grandparents you would be too" I whisper yell at him.
Me and Pete barely fight with one another, so it hurts even more when we actually do. Usually it's over something dumb, never a job. We always work well together when it comes to cons and other things like that, but ever since I met Connor he's been more on edge and I don't understand why. Connor makes a great addition to the team and he's a big help. Before we were using Brady, but he's little and no matter how good of a thief my brother is, there are some things I'd rather he not be a part of. So that's where Connor would come in. He really is a good kid and has great talent, he just a bad hand in life. His entire family was killed in a fire two years ago, with him being the only survivor. The poor kid lost both his parents and three little sisters. He's been living on the street ever since because he refused to go into foster care and ran away. I still don't understand Pete's dislike of him.
"Why do you have such a problem with him?" I ask again, "And don't give me some half-truth answer Pete."
He sighs and I notice the angry literally drain from his face. "Because this is our thing Callen. You and me, always has been. Were partners Callen and I'm fine with us needing a crew because well we do. But this is our thing, just like it was Ben and your dad's thing. This, this is like Kate all over again."
And just like that, I get it. I hated when dad brought Kate into our world, because it was our world. Eventually I got over it, but clearly I still hold a grudge over her. When Mozzie joined dad and Ben's little team, it was okay because it was Mozzie. But when Kate came, me, Pete, and Ben were all apprehensive of her, especially Ben.
"Pete" I say grabbing his hand in order to reassure him, "You're still my best friend. You will always be my best friend. Connor, he's just a nice kid who I think can be very beneficial to our schemes, but they will always be our schemes. Pete this is not at all like the Kate incident. You will always be more important to me than anyone else. Trust me if we're comparing you, Connor and me to dad, Ben and Kate, than you are definitely Kate, Ben and even Mozzie. Somerfield, you and me will always be partners in crime, co-conspirators, and if we ever get arrested we will totally be cell mates."
"I don't think they allow that" he says smiling at me finally.
"So we're cool" I say relieved that this won't turn into some huge argument.
"Always Ally Cat" he says releasing my hand and then holding it out in a fist for our handshake like he used to when we were little.
I roll my eyes and bump fists with him to participate in our childhood tradition. "So Connor?"
"Yeah Call, Connor's cool too" he says smiling.
"Great, now that you two are all done doing whatever, can somebody please explain to me what the heck just happened?" Luc shouts at the two of us.
"Sorry dude" Pete says slapping him on the back, "didn't mean to ignore you."
"Yeah well, if I'm going to help I'd like to know what's happening" he says trying not to sound too annoyed.
"Basically Abbs does the painting, you do the tech stuff we mentioned earlier, and also you need to get me and Pete on the guest list for the party…"
"And Connor"
"And Connor, but only after we get our buddy Theo to get us new id's" I finish smiling at Pete for finally including Connor in the group.
"So Connor's a friend of Callen's, Theo's an eleven year old id making kid who thinks Pete's the coolest person ever, and you guys want to use Callen's siblings and some kid named Jessie to do something" Luc says for clarification.
"When me and Call were little we used to do this thing where we got information by pretending to be orphans and getting adults to take pity on us so we could get into restricted areas. We're too old for that now, but the twins aren't so they can do it for us" Pete explains.
"And Jessie is…" Luc probes.
"She's a really cute seven year old orphan, who we try to take care of the best we can. That's it really" I say shrugging.
That really is it. Jessie lived in the apartment next door to us for the longest time, and then her aunt got cancer and passed away so she was put in the system and yeah, not really much left to tell. She's a sweet kid though and I feel the need to look out for her; street kids stick together no matter what.
"So that's the whole story" Luc asks double checking to make sure he didn't miss anything, not that I blame him considering all the info we just threw at him.
"That's it bro" Pete confirms as we shoot him matching smiles.
Luc takes a big breath, "Thank goodness, because I'm not sure I could take anymore."
"Oh Lucas sweetie were just getting started" I think smiling.