FFN is going down so here's whatever

Hey besties so this site is going down? Fuckin wild to think this was the first place I made an account on 10 years ago. I just checked my profile and I joined in July of 2012. What?

Anyway. I started writing this story like, 8 or 9 years ago, and had all this stuff planned for it, then obviously drifted away from Cars after a few years so this kinda collected dust on and off. I was kinda torn for a while whether or not I wanted to finish it, especially since, like, this is kind of a ghost town, lmao.

So here's the last full written chapter I have. Well, "full," it's not finished but close enough lmao. (There's a lot of like, stage direction in brackets bc I couldn't figure out what was going on lol)

And then I'll just post the rest of the like out-of-context wips in a chapter on their own. Cool? Cool. Just in case anyone is still here :)

Stacy's POV

"And… There we go."

I could hear the smile in Holley's voice as she announced she was finished. I glanced over into the mirror on the wall.

"Wow," I said, fighting a smile on my face, as well. "It looks amazing."

Holley's smile widened, putting her straightener down.

"I've never seen my hair so… Shiny," I said, as Holley picked up a necklace from the table behind her and clasped it around my neck.

"Finn? Siddeley?" Holley called, and Siddeley poked his head around the doorframe, Finn behind him.

"What's up? All finished?" Sid asked.

"All finished." Holley grinned. "What do you think? Is she ready?"

I turned in my chair to face the two men.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Stand up!" Holley cheerfully urged.

A bit cautious of the heels Holley had put me in, I slowly rose to my feet. Free from the chair, the long skirt of the dress dropped to flow around my ankles.

"Wow." Siddeley blinked. "I hardly recognize you."

Finn smiled. "Excellent work, Ms. Shiftwell."

I looked off to the side. I couldn't explain why, but it was hard to look into Finn's eyes for too long.

"So, what's your name?" Holley asked, giving me a hand-held purse that held some "backup items," as she had called them.

"Amelia Young," I replied, earning approving nods from my new colleagues. "My father is Michael Young—he sent me over because he's interested in what Racquel Fontaine has planned for her political career."

"And what does your father do?" Siddeley asked.

"He founded an organization back in America—it's called Cloverfield."

"And if someone says they're unfamiliar?" Holley asked.

"The name was recently changed, right?" I asked, looking over at her for confirmation. "They make computers."

"You're right. Now—" she put her hands on her hips. "Show us your best ambassador smile."

I gave it my best shot.

Siddeley sucked a sympathetic breath in through his teeth. "Oof… So that needs some work."

I looked over at Siddeley, who was rubbing the back of his neck. "No offense," he quickly added after his initial comment.

"Here—" Holley guided me so that we were both looking in the mirror on the wall. "Imagine… Imagine… Uh, Siddeley, help me out, here."

"On it!" He practically shoved Holley out of the way and took her place to grin in the mirror next to me. "Imagine you just nailed a hard rap verse while navigating through heavy traffic in a thunderstorm!"

That was the last thing I expected Siddeley to say, so I burst out laughing.

"There!" He pointed a finger at my reflection. "That's the smile you want when you introduce yourself."

Holley, understandably, shoved Sid out of her way to take back her place next to me.

"Ack!" he squeaked, tumbling to the floor. Finn sighed and shook his head.

"I think we're just about ready," he announced from behind us.

Holley nodded at him before turning back to me. "Now. Siddeley is going to drop you off. I'll be hacking into the Palais's security cameras shortly. Finn and I will be watching from close by."

She put a gentle hand on my shoulder. "We're counting on you," she softly told me with a grin.

"And remember—we'll be with you every step of the way." Finn put a hand on my other shoulder.

Behind me, Siddeley placed a hand atop my head with a few supporting pats. "You've got this, mate."

They were simple gestures, all of them, but I felt my heart constrict in my chest.

I stared back at their smiling faces in the mirror.

"I won't let you down."

"Okay, I'm in."

Holley's voice came through my earpiece loud and clear.

"Is Stacy almost inside?" she asked. "I have eyes on the venue."

"Just dropping her off now," Siddeley replied from the driver's seat beside me. After exiting the car, I looked back at him one last time. He shot me an encouraging thumbs up.

I couldn't help but smile back.

I took a deep breath. The front doors might say "welcome" on them but that didn't calm my nerves much.

Once inside, I took a moment to stare up in awe at the stained-glass windows.

"Ah, there you are," Finn announced. "We've got eyes on you."

"So, theoretically," I began. "On a scale from one to ten… How bad would it be if I tripped?"

"Just… Do your best not to," Holley suggested.

"Great," I murmured.

"Holy shit!" Siddeley's outburst made me jump a bit.

"What? What is it?" Holley asked.

"There's a restaurant down the street called L'tacos!"

"Siddeley!" Holley scolded.

"Stay sharp, Stacy. Holley, can you confirm the identities of the men over by the concession stand?" Finn asked.

I casually made my way over to look at the spread of food over where Finn mentioned, trying to eavesdrop while I heard keys clacking over my headset.

"Grem and Acer. By now I shouldn't be surprised, and yet…" Holley said with a sigh.

"How am I supposed to know?" One man murmured to the other, clearly irritated. "Just try it if you're so curious."

"I'm not gonna eat something without knowing what it is!" The other hissed back. "Rich French people are fuckin' weird!"

"Gentlemen," a man said, getting their attention. "You can get a snack another time."

My eyes widened. It was my target, Andrew Dufort.

"Don't worry about it, Ace," the first man said, nudging his blond associate in the side with an elbow as the group started to walk away. "I think Alex spotted a taco place down the street. We can always head there afterwards."

I quickly located a waiter with a tray of champagne, and grabbed one as an excuse to follow the men.

"For real?" The man I assumed to be Acer blinked at the other man—who I suppose by process of elimination was Grem. "He wasn't messing with you?"

"If he was, he's gonna be losing some teeth later."

"Gentlemen," Dufort urged once again. "Please stay focused."

"Did you get any of that, Stacy?" Finn asked as the Lemons made their way across the venue, leaving Dufort standing alone.

"Mmhm," I hummed in response, not wanting to draw too much attention to myself as I brought the glass of champagne up to my lips in case anyone was watching. "I think it's safe to say that Dufort is working with those two. Do you see any more around here?"

"Holley?" I heard Finn ask.

"Working on it," Holley replied as I heard her typing away once again.

"A few," she confirmed. "Don't worry about them, Stacy. For now, just focus on Dufort."

I took a deep breath and started making my way over to him, rehearsing in my head how I would introduce myself.

Amelia Young. Amelia Young. America. Cloverfield. Computers. Fontaine. Amelia Young. America. Cloverfield. Computers. Fontaine.

At the last second, my heel got caught on the edge of my dress, and to my horror, launched me straight into the man I was approaching.

I heard Finn take in a sharp breath through his teeth. "Damn it," he murmured.

"O-oh! Seigneur! Êtes-vous bien mademoiselle?"

My face flushed. Oh god, I fucked up.

"Don't panic, Stacy—we can work with this. Quickly, apologize!"

"D-désolé, monsieur," I stuttered out. "Je vais bien. Je suis vraiment désolé."

"Ah, an American?" he asked, seemingly interested in me.

"Good, good!" I heard Holley say with a clap of her hands. "We're perfectly fine. Keep going as planned."

"Yes, monsieur," I said with a nod. "M-my name is Amelia Young."

"Mademoiselle Young, eh?" he smiled down at me. "I feel badly, mademoiselle. You may be fine, but your dress is not."

I glanced down at my dress, noticing I had spilled my champagne over myself. I cringed.

"You don't know of anywhere I can get cleaned up, do you?" I asked, looking nervously off to the side. "I can't imagine making a good impression for my father's company looking like this…"

"Excellent. You're a natural," I heard Finn's voice say in my ear.

"Bien sûr, this way." I felt his hand drift to my lower back as he began leading me out of the reception hall.

"Merci beaucoup," I said with a sigh. Despite the circumstances, I was relieved to leave the hall—there were far too many people for my liking.

[Stacy follows Dufort to a small room blocked off from the public. They talk a bit about Cloverfield, how her father is interested in Fontaine's career, he promises to put in a good word for her]

[together, they run into the Lemons, and he introduces her. She tries to get some information out of them, they get suspicious responses]

[something bad happens…. But I haven't decided what yet? Do they get suspicious of Stacy? Does something violent happen? Something has to interrupt Stacy almost getting important information.]

[zundapp shows up and blocks the comms, locks spies out of the cameras. Stacy is on her own]

[Zundapp probes about her father, seems interested. Z wants to set up a meeting—Dufort suggests a location and the conversation gets interrupted by Fontaine starting a speech, when she is almost shot at and chaos breaks out. Lemons don't seem phased, like they knew this was going to happen]

[Police begin herding people out. Once alone, Sid accidentally scares the shit out of her. Both soaked by the rain, they get back to the hotel]

"Thank god. When your comm went dead we feared the worst." Holley wrapping her arms around me in a hug caught me off guard—and I jumped before she pulled away.

"What happened after we lost visuals?" Finn asked.

"I'm sure Siddeley can fill us in. Right?" Holley turned to look at the pilot, who nodded. "We feel bad that you got caught in the rain. Why don't you take a shower?" she asked.

I reluctantly nodded, and made my way over to the room I had slept in the night before, taking my bag with me into the bathroom.

I looked at my reflection. No wonder Holley suggested I get cleaned up—the rain had turned her masterpiece of hair and makeup into a mess. I turned on the shower and peeled the wet gown off.

When I was all finished, I went back out into the shared space. When I opened the door, Finn and Holley were quietly bickering about something. Worried that I had done something wrong, I tried to make out what they were saying.

"It does not!" Holley was saying in a hushed voice. "You can't just change the rules in the middle of a bet, that's not how it works."

"I didn't change them, that's what they've always been."

"They have not! I am not sharing a room with Siddeley two nights in a row."

The knot in my stomach eased when I realized they weren't talking about me. I flipped my wet hair over my shoulder. "Do you want me to?" I asked.

Holley jumped, and Finn turned to look at me.

"Ah, we didn't hear you come in," Finn announced.

"Would you? I'll owe you one," Holley said, hurrying over to me.

"S-sure, I don't mind."

She broke out in a big smile while Finn rolled his eyes.

"Does he really snore that loud?" I asked.

Holley sighed. "No, but everything else he does in his sleep is. I can tolerate Finn's snoring—"

"Hey," Finn quietly interjected.

"—but Sid manages to wake me up at least once every night with something else."

Sounds like an average night for me, anyway, I thought. I looked around. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Oh, he ran out to get something for dinner. He'll be back soon." Holley took a seat in the same spot on the couch she was sitting this morning.

As if on cue, the door to the hotel room opened to reveal Siddeley, holding bags of takeout in his arms.

"Guess who went to L'tacos!" he cheerfully announced.

"You can't be serious." Finn blinked at him.

"Don't worry, they had other stuff." Siddeley set the bags down on the coffee table. "Take your pick! I think there's crepes in there somewhere…"

"Anyway…" Holley shook her head. "Siddeley told us about the meeting the Professor was interested in. Did you really get a location from Dufort?"

"Kinda?" I dug around in one of the bags of food. "He was sort of interrupted."

"By the gunshots," Siddeley added, mouth already full of food.

"Yes, you told us that, already." Finn shot an unimpressed look back at Sid.

He swallowed the food in his mouth. "Just making sure."

"We might have to investigate around for it, but I think we should have enough to locate it."

Finn finally sat down, himself. "Now that we know for sure that he's working with the Lemons, I'd say the odds of finding something at that location are fairly high."

Holley sighed. "That's something to worry about tomorrow. Let's just take tonight to be thankful that the infiltration went according to… Well, didn't stray too far from the plan."

"Fontaine was shot at," I reminded her dryly.

"Your cover wasn't blown, and no one is dead." She shrugged with a smile. "That counts as a success."

"I'm scared to see what counts as a failure." I blinked.

Siddeley piped up, but none of us could understand what he said through all the food in his mouth.

"I'm going to assume that wasn't anything important." Finn produced a sandwich out of one of the bags.

"Mm," Holley suddenly said, swallowing the food in her mouth. "A toast to our agent on the inside." She beamed at me, holding out her sandwich.

I smiled against my will. "A toast… Because of the sandwiches?"

Siddeley burst out laughing while Finn groaned.

"I think this is a panini. No matter—" she shook her sandwich a bit, urging me to lift up my own. "C'mon! Toast!"

Smiling, I tapped my sandwich against hers.

She beamed once again. "Welcome to the team."

"Whatcha playing?" Siddeley's voice made me jump.

He laughed sympathetically. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

In no hurry to get to sleep, I was seated on top of the covers of my bed, playing a game to take my mind off things. Siddeley had walked up beside me without me noticing.

"To the Moon. It's more of an interactive story than a game, to be honest… But it's got some puzzles."

"Is it good?" he asked.

"Yeah. I mean, I really like it, anyway. The soundtrack is pretty."

Over my shoulder, he continued to watch the pixels explore around the screen.

"So, Indiana Jones, huh?"

"What?"

"Your shirt."

I looked down at the faded t-shirt that I slept in. "Oh. It… Used to be my mom's."

Siddeley sat himself down on the edge of the bed that Finn had slept the night before. "I get it. I have a bunch of random stuff of my parents' lying around my apartment, too. Just feels wrong to throw them away, you know?"

I sighed. "Exactly. I have this old gross Star Trek mug that used to be my dad's that just… sits in my cabinet. I've never even seen Star Trek."

Siddeley laughed. "Finally, someone gets it. Finn doesn't feel the same way—all he's kept are a few pictures and some old books."

I glanced down at the pajama pants he was wearing when I didn't have any more to say, but didn't necessarily want the conversation to end.

"So, you… Really like planes, huh?" They were covered in little cartoon planes and clouds.

"I guess?" He grinned, titling his head.

"Your pants," I clarified.

"Oh!" He laughed. "They were a gift from my sister."

"You have a sister?" I asked.

"Her name is Cammie. We lost our parents when she was just a baby, so she lives in America with some distant relatives of ours."

I tilted my head to the side. "How old is she?"

"Let's see, her birthday is in January, so… She's going to be nineteen."

"For real?" I gawked. "That's a big age gap."

He grinned. "It was kinda weird having a baby sister at 18, but yeah. Babysitting was fu—" His smile suddenly dropped and he stopped talking.

"Well. I only babysat her the one time before she went to live overseas."

I was curious about what happened to his parents, but I knew better than to push the subject.

I hated talking about what happened to mine.

"What kinds of games do you like?" He changed the subject. "Finn always says video games are a waste of time."

"Mostly ones with a story," I admitted. "Not too good at first person shooters or anything."

He smiled once more. "So that's why you're a desk agent?"

I laughed. "I guess. The Last of Us was kind of a nightmare, even on easy mode."

"Ugh, I wanted to get that game so bad! I was too busy when it first came out. Is it any good?"

"Oh, it totally made me cry. It was great." I grinned.

"You've gotta let me borrow it sometime!"

Let him borrow a game? As in… After this mission is over?

Is this… Are we… Friends?

"Heh… Sure."

"Welp," he announced, walking over to the other side of the room to put away the book he had been reading. "I guess we should probably get to bed. Those two have probably got another long day planned for you."

"…right."

Even though I was still reluctant to sleep, tonight felt a little less lonely than the last.

Reading through this makes me really melancholy that this is the last time I'll be working on this, lol