I don't own Home Alone

A/N: Another movie reference in here, though not the John Hughes kind.

Enjoy!


Ensuring the welcoming stay of guests were not as easy as it seemed. As for Mr. Hector, he had years of experience in the hospitality industry and every year that he had gained, he felt that he had become qualified for whatever challenge came his way. After all, every hotel guest was different but the goal always remained the same. To make guests feel welcomed. However, never in his line of work had he ever seen two young children checking into the hotel by themselves. To him, it seemed suspicious that these children had no escort with them but Hester Stone had detailed him in on the situation. Still, it was quite suspicious to Mr. Hector that a father would let their children, in New York out of all places, grab a taxi and check into their hotel room.

He turned his eyes over at an opened door and saw Cedric walking out. The young man looked as pale as a ghost. Digging into the bellhops personal problems was not Hector's priority at the moment. "Cedric," he said to the bellhop who placed the phone back on the table and turned to look at the concierge. "What is it that you found about our two young guests?" It seemed that there was something else on Cedric's mind. Hector could tell form the frantic look in his eyes. "Do you need to sit down?" he asked him.

"No, no," Cedric shook his head, "I am fine sir." Cedric didn't mean to dramatize the whole issue but there was just some things that were difficult to contain. He recalled back on the name tag that he saw on the backpack. "Peter McCallister was the name on the backpack's tag and along with an address located in Winnetka, Illinois."

Hector gave Cedric a nod of his head, taking in this small information that he had given him. If he was correct, Winnetka was one of the wealthiest places of Chicago but that did not explain why these two youngsters checked in alone in the hotel. "Anything else?" he asked the bellhop who shook his head followed by a 'no sir.' "Nothing else of concern?"

"No sir," Cedric replied. "I will relieve Samuel of my duties and get back to work." Lots of work to do and tips to collect Cedric thought and headed over to the main floor of the hotel. As he walked away from Hector, he could feel that concierge's eyes burning at the back of his head but he was used to it. The man was tough at the job that he did it, but Cedric thought that he took it too seriously at times.


Kevin was growing restless as he watched the time on the clock tick away. He wanted to take advantage of everything that the hotel had to offer and he was just wasting it, waiting for his sister to awaken from her nap. He wanted to head down to the hotel pool but then he would get an earful from Becky that he didn't wait for her. Whilst his sister rested, he flicked through the television channels and listened to the late afternoon news. There was nothing that caught his interest, other than the occasional Christmas carols that were hosted every now and then.

Becky stretched underneath the bed covers and fluttered her eyes open. At first, she thought that she was home but when she felt that she was in a different atmosphere, the memory of getting on the wrong airplane and winding up in this beautiful hotel came back to her. She turned her head and smiled when she noticed Kevin right next to her. "Hey Kevin," she greeted him.

Kevin looked over at his sister. "It's about time you got up," Kevin said to her. "It's four in the afternoon."

Yikes Becky thought. "And you've been patient all this time."

"Trying to," Kevin said, "I was thinking of dumping water on you to wake you up."

Becky threw the covers off of her and got to her feet. "You do that and you'll definitely be alone in New York." She let out a laugh, knowing that she would never do anything like that to her little brother. "What are you thinking of doing?" she asked.

"Well," Kevin began as he threw his legs on the side of the bed and jumped off, "I was thinking of going down to the pool for a bit. Then we can come up here and watch a movie."

To Becky, that didn't sound like a bad plan but she didn't recall packing a bathing suit with her. Whatever, I can just soak my feet in the water she though with a shrug of her shoulders. She didn't plan on going into the water when they were at the beach anyway. "Alright, where is your bathing suit?" she asked him.

"About that," Kevin said, "I don't have one, but while you were sleeping I was checking out the room and there is a bathing suit already packed in one of the closets." He walked over to the bedroom closet and pulled out a pair of flip-flops and a blue swimming trunk. "It should be fine right?" he asked her.

"Yeah, if you're as tall as dad is," Becky chuckled knowing that those articles of clothing would be far too big on her little brother. "But we'll go with what we have." She reached over to her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Even if she didn't have a swimsuit she had a book with her that she could busy herself with.

Kevin folded the swim trunks and hung them on his arm and carried the flip-flops on his other hand. To him, it certainly didn't matter about the clothes but the fact that he was going to have a good time on this vacation.

Before they headed out the door, Becky took a hold of the room key and put it in her bag and the two siblings headed to the elevator to take them down to the pool room. Once the elevator doors opened for them, Kevin peeked out and looked from the left to the right hoping that none of the hotel staff saw them. "Coast is clear, hurry," he said to Becky and the two of them quickly hurried into the pool room.

Becky couldn't help contain her giggle. "Kevin no one is after us. You don't have to act like we're on the run."

Kevin shook his head. Sometimes his sister didn't understand that you could never be too careful these days, especially when you were alone in New York. It was better to always be prepared than to be caught off guard. It was only a matter of time when their story would backfire on them but Kevin hoped that it wouldn't happen soon. "I'm gonna go and change, you grab an empty seat," he said to his sister and headed over to the changing room.

Becky let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. Her little brother giving her orders as if he was older than her, though she knew how much Kevin liked having the 'bossy' role. She searched the area for an empty seat and she was able to find one over by the pool area. She lied down on the chaise lounge and was surprised at how comfortable the seat was. I could fall asleep right here she thought but I won't! I need to watch Kevin. As if on cue, Becky heard a pair of flip-flops flapping against the floor and she looked at her brother who was standing as straight as a pole. She placed hand over her mouth to contain her laughter. Yes, those swim trunks were a little too big for him. She watched as he placed his flip-flops to the side and got ready to jump into the pool.

As Kevin was preparing to cannonball in the pool, he stopped when he noticed a pair of eyes watching him. He caught himself and looked at the pair of elders that were sitting in another pool opposite to where he was. This wasn't the type of outdoor pool where kids would go but one in a most fancy hotel. "Would it bother anyone if I worked on my cannonballs?" he asked.

"No," one of the elders replied.

"Thanks," Kevin said before walking behind the pool and then taking off into a run and cannonballing into the pool.

The water splashed everywhere and onto Becky as she felt the water hit her face. "That's what I get for sitting so close," she said as she took a towel and wiped her face from the water. Now that Kevin was swimming along and enjoying his time, she took her book in her hands and began to dive into her reading. However, her reading didn't last long when she heard her brother yelling 'yikes' followed by a small splash in the water. I don't wanna know she thought to herself as her eyes were stuck on the page that she was reading.


As the day was winding down, Cedric saw the decrease in the number of the hotel guests as they were getting ready to retire for the night. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was almost eight in the evening and his uncle would probably be by the bar where they promised they would meet. Cedric stripped out of his uniform and into his original clothes. Finally he thought. Even though his uniform was a perfect fit, he couldn't help but think that it was suffocating him no matter how much he moved in it.

He hated having to feel so nervous but his uncle coming here was out of his control. He entered the bar area and scanned the room until his eyes lied on a familiar man. Even though it had been a while since Cedric last saw him, his uncle had this strong intuition from when anyone entered the room. He watched as his uncle turned his eyes to where he was, with a cigarette in his lips. Taking a deep breath, Cedric took a step forward as his uncle's eyes never left his, reminding Cedric of that scene at the bar where Jimmy Conway was contemplating about killing Morrie.

Robert's features turned from a wolfish-stare to a delighted uncle who was meeting a family member for the first time. "Good to see you kid," he said to Cedric as he held out his arms towards him.

Cedric hesitated and was glad that a barstool stood between them. He heard his uncle sigh as his arms fell to the side and he situated himself on the barstool. "It's been a long day Robert," Cedric said as he looked at the alcoholic drink that his uncle had ordered, "and I need to get back home. What is it that you wanted to meet me for?"

Robert took a swig of his drink and set that glass down on the table. He reached inside his jacket's pocket and pulled out a beautiful pearl necklace. "This," he said to Cedric as he reached over and placed it in his nephew's hands. "I was over in Winnetka almost a year ago. We were able to track down Lime until the idiot got himself arrested for stealing houses."

Cedric slowly shook his head at this. "I...I don't think I need to know about this," he said.

"No, but Elliot needs to," Robert said as he pointed at Cedric with his fingers that held the cigarette, "now let me finish. It was hard trying to get a hold of that rat when people get in your way."

What people? Cedric thought but he didn't even want to ask.

"You look confused. I'm surprised if you weren't," Robert said to him as he put out the cigarette on the ashtray. "Let me tell you. Beck in the day, when my brother decided to keep all the money to himself, I already had two friends who were delinquents in their youths who I thought were going to help me in getting that money. We went a long way back, those details are not important. I was foolish to believe that stealing my sister-in-law's jewels and trade them for money would be enough for all three of us. That is until one of them decided to run away with it. Funny thing is that after all this time, he thought that we wouldn't be able to find him but we did...along with a wife."

"Don't tell me that you-" Cedric jumped in but Robert interrupted him with a shake of his head.

"That woman had no idea, she was innocent. My other friend though, kept getting in the way. He had temperamental issues and would make the situation worse. Had to step in a couple of times before he killed the woman."

Now Cedric couldn't keep his curiosity at bay. "And what happened?" he asked his uncle.

"Let's just say that Ray won't be getting in the way now," Robert said, which was enough for Cedric to understand what he meant with that sentence let alone seeing that gleam in his eye. "But Lime is still on the loose and I need to find him what he did with that damn money. Now I can't get those jewels back but I can make up for it with the money."

"How do you know that he is here?" Cedric asked.

"That's where this whole thing started," Robert said to Cedric, "I have a feeling that money is around here and I'm gonna do anything I can to get it back."

There was that gleam in his eye again and Cedric averted his gaze and looked down at his hands that cupped the pearl necklace. "And what do you want me to do with this?"

"Give it to Elliot when you see him," Robert said, "I ransacked the Lime's apartment before I left and was able to find that fine piece in the wife's jewelry box. I know it belongs to Elliot's wife because I remember how fascinated Lime was when he saw it." He let out a light laugh and shook his head, "probably gave it to his wife without her knowing what she was getting herself into. That's why, it's important to know the person before going off to elope with them."

Cedric made a face at that remark as if Robert was giving him an important life lesson. Marriage was out of the question for him, at the moment. Once he got himself situated and had a decent job that paid well, then he might consider. "Fine," he nodded his head, "but it won't be easy getting a hold of Elliot, he's very-"

"Busy, I know," Robert interrupted and rolled his eyes. "But he ought to know it's from me. I'm trying to make this right. I don't care how small he thinks it is, I'm trying."

Cedric knew how tough his other uncle was, especially when it came to money. It was going to take a whole lot of convincing to make him change his mind about Robert, but at least he was taking a step in the right direction. "Alright," Cedric said, "I will try to give him a call tomorrow about this."

A small smile appeared on Robert's lips and he gave Cedric a nod of his head. "Appreciate it, kid," he said to him as he got up from the barstool and threw a couple of bills on the table. "I'll meet up with you when I can. Gotta lay low for now. Catch you later, kid."

With those words, Cedric watched as his uncle walked out of the bar room and into the hotel lobby. He let out a sigh of relief after their meeting was over. At least it had gone better than he had expected, but now he had to face another obstacle that he didn't want to think about. However the result would be, he would at least have a job and he would let his uncles deal with the rest. He clenched tightly on the necklace and placed it in the inside pocket of his jacket before he headed out of the hotel. His only mission now was to catch some rest, knowing that he had a busy morning ahead of him.