A/N: For my readers who are enjoying this interpretation of Ocean's 8 (SQ style) here is another update! :) I will be spending my day working on more, and getting to work on a new Christmas ff to post once December hits, so stay tuned for that. I hope you love this update and enjoy it as much as I did. Happy reading!
Cruella held an iPad before her, sitting on the couch of Emma and Regina's home, observing a picture that you could easily google of Zelena West.
"Hm. She seems a little tense." She observed, her glasses down to the tip of her nose.
"Could be," Emma nodded, sitting nearby against the armrest of a chair, while Regina sat calmly beside the designer.
"Good body. Good boobs. Huge features. Eyes like Bambi, except blue. Very blue." She nodded, "Yes, she could take quite a lot."
Regina looked over at Emma, a tiny smirk to her.
"Maybe we could give her… Maybe…"
"Maybe we could give her…" Regina's hand swiped across the screen, scrolling over to a picture of a diamond necklace. "This."
"God, no. Not chic." Cruella shook her head, "We can do better than that."
Emma stood from her chair, her hands on her hips as she faced Cruella. "It's called the Tussaint," she explained. "Named for Jeanne Tussaint, Cartier's director of jewelry from '33 to '68."
"It's over six pounds of diamonds." Cruella turned to Regina after hearing the sound of her voice.
Emma welcomed herself to a seat in front of Cruella, her voice smooth. "After she died, they sold it back to Cartier and they've kept it in their vault ever since. They've never let it out."
Regina hummed, nodding in agreement.
"Right," Cruella arched a brow. "So, then how are we going to get it out?"
"Well, they might let it out," Regina swiped her hand over the ipad screen, switching to Zelena's picture. "For her."
Emma leaned closer to Cruella, seeing the lost look on her face which pushed her to explain even further. "The theme for this year's ball is European royalty-" she continued even through the woman's gasp, "Of which the crown jewels are a featured element. So, if you were to insist on the Toussaint," she swiped her hand across the screen, showing the picture of the necklace- "On behalf of Zelena West," she swiped the picture back to Zelena and waited.
"It must be worth quite a lot," Cruella whispered, realizing the plan. And of course, she was all in.
"Yeah," Regina smirked, her eyes falling on Emma who's brow arched in satisfaction. She knew Cruella would be of great help.
After Cruella's departure, Regina began to flip through a few pages of a few resumes of some good hackers. None to her satisfaction.
"These are all Russian," she noted, flipping through more pages in frustration.
"They're hackers," Emma said, working on her paper plane as she sat before the brunette.
"Are there no hackers who aren't Russian?" The brunette asked.
"No, there's barely any Russian's who aren't hackers."
Regina slammed the stacks of pages on the table. "Just keep looking, please."
"Sure," Emma tossed her paper plane right at the brunette, who swatted it away with her hand.
Emma was such a child sometimes, but Regina loved that about her. Even if she wouldn't tell her directly.
A young woman held onto her monocular loupe against her right eye, observing and taking in the diamonds that had come into her mother's store. These were a piece of shit, she has seen better cut diamonds than this. These weren't even the real deal. Why her mother insisted on selling these was beyond her.
"Jasmine!" Her mother shouted, startling her, "Why must you inspect these? Just sell them."
"These diamonds are the color of piss. You can't possibly think about selling these." She replied.
"Why do you have to be so vulgar? See, this is why you don't have a husband." Jasmine sighed at her already memorized motherly speech. "I swear, one of these days you are going to kill me. Why can't you be more like your sister?"
Jasmine turned to a frame that was mounted on the wall, displaying her sister's proudest moment of the day she got married. It wasn't that she didn't want to get married, but she didn't want to follow her family's traditions. She wanted her own. She wanted a life better than this. With her knowledge on jewels, she could be making a lot more.
Taking her loupe in hand, she placed it against her eye to get a better look outside the shop window, surprised to see Regina right across the street, grinning over at her wearing her sunglasses and trench coat.
There was a face she thought she'd never see again.
Without even alerting her mother, Jasmine exited the shop and rushed across the street, keeping up with the same pace as Regina's as they walked along the crowd and small shops.
"Jasmine," Regina acknowledged. "It's great to see you again."
"When did you get out?" Jasmine asked, walking alongside her.
"Just a few days ago." Regina breathed in the crisp air, "You're looking well."
"Thanks," Jasmine brushed away a strand of hair from her face. "So are you, for a woman that's been locked up for five years. I'm sure that must have been a real treat for Emma, having you back."
Regina smiled and quickly frowned, "I'm sorry about your father."
"I'm sorry about yours." Jasmine frowned. "So, what are you doing here?"
"I may have something for you. A job."
"You wanna run some things through the store?" Jasmine's brow raised.
"No, thank you," Regina chuckled. "It's a little more than that." She waited a beat, "Tell me, how long would it take you to make seven pieces of jewelry if the stones were already cut?"
"Probably… Five to six hours." Jasmine answered, shrugging.
Regina turned on her heels to face the woman. "How long if I told you, you didn't have to live with your mother anymore?"
"Less. What did you have in mind?" Her brow cocked, watching the smirk on Regina's lips stretch out.
Of course after Regina explained the entire job to her, Jasmine was all in. That's what Regina loved about her, she knew she could always count on her to get a job well done. And truth be told, Jasmine missed going into some good money, and she loved the idea of not having to live at home with her mother. And with this job, she would get to do exactly that.
Once Regina arrived home rambling on about how horrible taking the subway was for her, she came to an abrupt halt at the sight of Emma, sitting on her couch, looking over the shoulder of a brunette girl, fairly young, with tight-ripped blue jeans, boots, a red blouse, black leather jacket and a red streak to her hair, looking over at the screen of her laptop.
"She's in," Emma beckoned the brunette.
"She is in where?" Regina's brow furrowed as she moved over to join them, dropping her trench coat on the couch.
"Is this what you're talking about? A bunch of vases." Said the girl, looking into the security cameras of the museum.
"Yeah, that's it. That's the Egyptian wing." Emma smirked, impressed.
"She's in the Met?" Regina asked.
"Security cameras." Emma murmured.
"There's a lot of 'em." The girl murmured, looking up at the brunette who held out her hand to her.
"My name's Regina."
"Little Red." Replied the girl, chewing through her gum.
"What's your real name?" Regina asked, taking her hand back.
"Riding Hood."
"We use real names around here." Regina frowned, no longer impressed or amused.
The corner of the girl's lips tilted into a tiny smirk.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Emma grabbed onto Regina's arm, taking her just behind the wall of the other room.
"I asked you to get me a hacker." Regina whispered, her eyes glaring.
"She's one of the best hackers on the East Coast." Emma whispered.
"Oh, I'm honored, but-"
"She has clients, they don't know what her real name is either. She likes it that way-"
"I'm sorry. Other clients?" Her brows hit her hairline.
"Yeah," Emma nods.
"Did you tell her what her cut was?"
"Yeah," Emma's brows hit her hairline.
"And?"
Emma shrugged, indicating to Regina that the girl was all in. Suddenly, Regina picked up on a smell that couldn't be mistaken for a cigarette. She leaned her head far enough out the door to see that this so-called 'best hacker' was helping herself to a joint.
"Look, she's smoking," Regina did the gesture with her hand, whispering it over to Emma who gave her a look as in saying, no one's perfect.
"She's the best, trust me. Unless, you want me to contact a Russian." Emma fought back.
Regina rolled her eyes, defeated before walking back into the room with Emma, her eyes on the girl. "So, Little Red…" Her eyes narrow. "Do I call you Little Red or… Riding Hood?"
"Or Red." Red exhaled smoke smoothly from her lips, a smirk to her.
"Red?" Regina nodded, looking over at Emma who shrugged. "Fair enough. So, Red-"
"You do know your footprint is a disaster, right?" Red asked, looking down at her computer screen.
"I'm sorry, my what?" Regina looked over at Emma, her brow furrowed.
"Your footprint." Red pronounced the word slowly.
Emma's brow furrowed, mouthing the word as Regina said it out loud. "My footprint?"
Red nodded, showing off her computer screen to Emma and Regina, which was a layout of the apartment building and all of their electrical currents, "Yes, ma'am. If you're planning on stealing shit then you definitely have to clean this up because right now even my girlfriend could hack you."
"Well, we did have this guy-" Emma's voice came to a halt, her eyes looking over their place as suddenly the power was gone.
Red's index finger stroke on a key of her keyboard, a proud smirk stretched out on her lips as she caused the power to come back on after turning it off. She winked, proving her point just how easy it would be to hack their system if they weren't more careful.
"Right," Emma murmured, nodding.
"We'll clean that up," Regina murmured.
Later that day, Regina and Emma went along with Cruella to one of New York's finest restaurants. They had come up with the plan that a way to gather Zelena West's interest was to make her jealous with a much younger, much vibrant celebrity who seemed interested in wanting Cruella's designs as well. Because everyone knew, Zelena West craved better of what other celebrities had.
"Could you tell me where we're going, exactly?" Cruella asked, not being placed in the loop of the entire plan. Last thing they wanted was for her to act nervous and blow their plan before it even began.
"You'll see soon enough," Said Regina, sitting to Cruella's left inside the cab.
"Are we meeting Selena West?" Asked Cruella, turning to Emma next.
"Zelena," Emma pronounced the Z loud and clear.
"Zelena, right," Cruella murmured.
"We are meeting someone even more famous," said Regina.
"Someone that makes Zelena West jealous." Said Emma.
"Jealous?" Cruella exited the car after Regina, while Emma exited through the other side as they made their way into the restaurant and took a seat at one of the far booths.
"Now, here's what's going to happen," Regina explained, keeping dead-eye contact with Cruella. "In a minute we're going to stand up, she's going to sit down. You'll recognize her, just keep your cool."
"Aloof." Said Emma.
"But not too kind." Said Regina, seeing the nerves on Cruella.
"You're sweating," Emma pointed out.
"Yeah, well, I sweat when I'm nervous-"
"Don't."
Cruella's hands fidgeted underneath the table.
"On her left hand, she has a tattoo. I want you to notice it, admire it, make physical contact and that's when we'll get it." Regina got up from the table along with Emma, leaving Cruella completely clueless and alone.
"It? What's it?" She asked, her eyes looking at both women walking away. As exciting as this was, she was a wreck of nerves. She had never robbed before- well, not really. Nothing like this. The last thing she wanted to do was blow it.
Keep your cool. You can do this. Tattoo. Notice, admire, physical contact. She reminded herself over and over again, her eyes soon falling on a young brunette woman as she approached her. Her figure was slender and elegant, vibrantly young, hair was shoulder length and jet black. She had an angelic face to her but also could very much come off as the kick your ass type if she wanted.
"Hi. Wow," The actress, who Cruella soon recognized as Ivy Belfrey smiled, taking a seat beside the designer.
"I know you!" Cruella beamed, shaking the young girl's hand. "Yes, I know you. I've seen you in things. You are fantastic!"
"Thank you," Ivy smiled quite sweetly. "I also wanted to personally thank you."
"Thank me?" Cruella's head tilted.
"For helping us with the feline rescue project."
"Oh, well," Cruella brushed her off, her eyes falling on the young girl's tattoo, just as Regina said she would have. "My, that's a unique tattoo. May I?" She reached for the girl's hand, admiring it.
"I had it done when I was sixteen."
"Sixteen?" Cruella smiled, still holding onto her hand. "Those rebellious teen years. To be young again!"
Ivy smiled innocently, while Regina pulled out her digital camera and snapped the perfect picture. This would get Zelena West fuming with jealousy and push her to contact Cruella after reading about this in tomorrow's morning paper.