Title: Walk before you can crawl
Author: otherhawk
Disclaimer: As should be patently obvious, I don't even own the title
Rating: T
Pairing: none
Characters: Danny, Rusty and a surprise guest appearance
Warning: I feel very strongly that this fic should have a warning. I'm not, however entirely certain what it should be. So . . . beware.
"We're talking about Chicago." Danny said thoughtfully. He hadn't quite decided how much of a problem that really was.
Rusty shook his head noncommittally. "There have to be easier ways."
They were leaning against the corridor wall, watching the world go by, only talking when they were absolutely certain no-one was in earshot. Just an average day.
"Of course there are easier ways." Danny shrugged. "If we had contacts . . . " (And if either of them was remotely old enough to be taken seriously by said contacts . . . )"But right now the best we have is Teddy Norman."
Rusty sighed and drummed his heels against the wall. "What, exactly, did Jeff say?" he asked eventually.
Danny looked sideways at him. "Well, leaving out the bits where he said that he wanted nothing to do with any of it, and to never mention his name to anyone in connection with anything, he basically said that his cousin Teddy's roommate had gone to prison, and Teddy was looking to unload his stuff. Including - "
" - a set of lock picks." Rusty didn't look happy. "He's selling his roommate's stuff?"
"Yeah." He hadn't been too impressed with that either. But he really didn't want to have to buy hair grips ever again.
Rusty sighed again and looked away as a couple of girls from Danny's class wandered past. Wandered very slowly past. Giggling. For reasons that Danny had never quite understood, every girl in school seemed to find his friendship with Rusty 'too cute for words'.
"So why can't he just mail them to us?" Rusty asked quietly, once the girls had disappeared round the corner.
Shrugging, Danny answered "Apparently he's about as twitchy as Jeff. Thinks that the FBI's intercepting his mail, or something."
Rusty nodded. "But he can't just throw them away – "
" – because he wants the money. Exactly." Danny finished.
They shared a slight grin. It was always nice to know you could rely on a person's greed.
"So how much is he after anyway?" Rusty asked.
Danny smiled easily; this was the good bit. "Twenty dollars." he said casually.
He felt the full weight of Rusty's incredulous stare and watched as his friend leaned his head back against the wall and laughed quietly. Twenty dollars.
"Still." Rusty said slowly. "Chicago."
"Look at it this way." He paused for dramatic effect. "Life's better with lock picks."
Rusty didn't seem too impressed. "Going to put that on a t-shirt?"
"Anyway, the bus fare shouldn't be too hard to scrape together," he pointed out. "And we still have Attwood's cheques from that time. Creepy bastard should be good for a hotel room at least – you still have his signature down, right?" Of course, no hotel in its right mind would let a fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old stay unaccompanied, but he had every confidence that they'd find their way round that small point.
Rusty was rubbing at the corner of his mouth. Damn.
"What?" he asked, irritated that he'd missed something.
"Don't you think that your mom would mind if you just vanished for the weekend?" Rusty pointed out.
Shit. She would. And she never let him stay with Rusty, and if he said he was with anyone else, she'd call their parents to check.
"You're not going on your own." he said firmly. That was just a little too horrifying to contemplate.
Rusty blinked, and for a fraction of a second he looked a little scared. Good. "I hadn't thought of that." he said, rather quickly to Danny's mind. "No, we need some unobjectionable reason for you to go to Chicago. Then we can meet up and do the thing."
Danny thought for a long moment. It would require a certain amount of sacrifice, but; "The final for that debate club thing is in Chicago." he said slowly.
Rusty looked sideways at him. "The debate club?"
He shrugged. "It's perfect." he said, almost convincingly. "Except that they already have a full team."
"Well," Rusty said casually. "We might be able to do something about that."
"Yeah." he paused. "Wanna go eat?"
Rusty just looked at him.
"Right. Stupid question" Danny agreed.
They sauntered slowly down the corridor.
"What's Teddy's roommate in the clink for anyway?" Rusty asked randomly.
Danny turned his head slowly. " . . . Did you just say 'clink'?"
"Yes." Rusty said immediately.
" . . . right." He frowned. "Semi-armed robbery."
Rusty looked at him. "Semi-armed?"
"Apparently he had the bullets but no gun." He laughed and shook his head.
Rusty scowled thoughtfully. "Sometimes I worry about the modern criminal."
It had proved surprisingly easy to dislodge one of the original debate team members. As it turned out Steve Marsh had really wanted to be in the school play all along, and the offer of a spot as chief understudy and prompter was enough to make him defect. Lucky for them Mike was a good guy and still owed them from when he'd staged 'And Then There Were None' and they'd 'acquired' all the props he needed. (And that whole slog would have been easier if they'd had a set of lock picks, for a start.)
After that, it was a simple matter of Danny fast-talking his way into the empty spot – especially easy as Mr. Wishaw, the supervisor, loved him. Something to do with an essay on 'Catch 22' and an argument about sledding. Danny couldn't help it if he was brilliant.
The other guys on the team were still a little suspicious of his motives. Reasonably enough, Danny had to admit. Even now, while they were backstage being fussed over by their doting parents, he was aware of being watched. Apparently they were all just a little too smart to believe he was in the club just for kicks. As Julian Meadows shot him a particularly vindictive glance, Danny stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered out into the corridor in search of a more relaxing atmosphere.
So far things were going off without a hitch. He was pretty confident that they'd win – the team had been practicing constantly for three weeks now, and he and Rusty had been spending so much time in the library doing research that Danny was actually beginning to like the place. They couldn't possibly be more prepared – and rather more to the point Rusty had stolen a copy of the opposing team's arguments earlier that day.
"Daniel." He turned round slowly to see his mom bearing down on him. Well, no lucky streak lasted forever. "Oh, for heaven's sake. You haven't even tied your tie yet."
He batted her hands out of the way and stepped back. "I'll do it later, mom."
She looked at him for a long moment, lips pursed. "Just be sure that you do. I won't have people saying my son looks scruffy."
Huh. He had been described as a lot of things. Scruffy had never been one of them. "I said I will."
She smiled at him suddenly and hugged him tightly. "Oh, Daniel. I'm so glad that you're finally spending your time constructively instead of hanging around with that Ryan boy." Danny tensed and did his best not to pull away. "Now, I know you're fond of Robert - "
"His name is Rusty." he said quietly.
She ignored him as she had any number of times in the past. " – But you need to think about your future." Finally she stood back and smiled at him. She didn't seem to notice that his smile was fake.
"Now, I'm going to go and take my seat. So you go out there and win, and maybe I'll finally have something to be proud of."
He watched as she bustled off. "You can come out now." he said, dryly.
Rusty materialised at his shoulder. He had a split lip and a bag of cookies. "I thought she wasn't going to come?"
"Yeah, well, she heard that my dad and Emma were planning on being here, so - " he shrugged, " – suddenly it was time for the supportive-mother bit."
Rusty raised an eyebrow. "Your dad's here too?"
"Nah, he had to work late." 'Again.' he didn't say.
Rusty said nothing but offered him a cookie.
Peanut butter flavoured. And home-baked. Very nice, actually.
"Alice Munroe gave them to me." Rusty said in response to the unspoken question. Then he frowned. "I'm not sure why."
Danny paused in mid-bite and turned to stare, but Rusty appeared to be serious. OK. That might be a conversation for another time.
"Well, well." Great. Julian Meadows had just managed to sneak up on them. "Ocean. Feeling relaxed, are we?"
"Julian." Danny nodded politely. "I am, as it happens."
Julian walked up, his gaze sweeping over them. He seemed to dismiss Rusty as being beneath notice. Not the only one to make that mistake. Danny forced himself to remember that Julian wasn't actually a mark. "It seems to me that the only result of all of this that could possibly be of interest to a degenerate like you is the trip to Chicago, am I correct?"
Danny smiled lazily. Not much point in denying that. "You're very perceptive." he murmured.
Julian stood a little taller. "I'm not like those idiots you normally deal with." he boasted. "Now, I'm willing to make a deal." His eyes took on an unnatural light. "This is my last year to win this competition. I'm going to take that trophy home, do you understand?"
Danny nodded. He was aware of Rusty, grinning beside him. Good thing someone was amused, because it didn't seem like Julian had much of a sense of humour.
"I know you're going to give it your best tonight because we don't win, you don't get your little trip. But here's the thing. You work just as hard when we get to Chicago, and we'll cover for whatever sordid business you've got planned. Do we have an agreement?"
Not that much of a hardship. He'd planned on doing his best in the final anyway – he might not have much in the way of morals, but he had his ethics. "Fine by me." He held his hand out and after a moment, Julian shook it.
"Good." Julian said briskly. "Now I'm going to get ready. I suggest you do the same. And for pity's sake, sort your tie."
They watched him walk off.
"Well." Rusty said eventually. "He seemed – "
" – oh, yeah." Danny groaned.
Rusty frowned. "And also kind of – "
"Completely." He'd had three weeks to observe the guy in close proximity after all.
There was a pause. "I should get back out front." Rusty said suddenly.
Danny nodded. "What did you come back here for anyway?" he asked, curious.
Rusty looked vaguely uncomfortable. "I just wanted . . . " he trailed off.
Now Danny was definitely intrigued. "What?"
Rusty was staring at his sneakers. "I just wanted to say 'good luck'." he mumbled, sounding embarrassed.
"Oh." Danny blinked. They stood awkwardly in silence for a few seconds.
Then Rusty looked up and smiled dazzlingly, straight at him. "Good luck, Danny," he said softly and stepped forwards and fixed Danny's tie.
Danny grinned to himself. Almost show time.
It was definitely colder in Chicago. Even accepting that it was getting close to winter; well, it just hadn't been this cold back home. He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and hoped that Rusty's bus would be on time. Hanging round bus stations wasn't his idea of a good time. In any weather.
Not to mention that if he was going to be one hundred percent honest with himself (a dangerous precedent, but what could you do?) he was a little worried. Obviously he trusted Rusty – more than anyone else in the world if it came to it – but when he'd casually asked if this would be his first time out of the state, Rusty had given him a look and said it would be his first time out of town.
There was a very small voice at the back of Danny's mind that kept yelling that every single part of this plan was insane.
People started pushing their way through the doors towards him. He breathed a sigh of relief; that should be the bus in. He knew that Rusty could look after himself, but he was always going to worry. So many things that could happen. And he didn't like splitting up.
"Fred! Cousin Fred!" And that sounded like Rusty. Though why he was suddenly Fred was a bit of a mystery.
He turned and saw Rusty running towards him, closely followed by a sweet-looking old lady. Great. Just . . . great.
To Danny's surprise Rusty threw his arms around him and it took a stunned moment for him to return the hug warmly. Just for appearances, of course, for the sake of whatever Rusty was pulling.
"She was sitting next to me. Wasn't going to leave until she knew someone was here to meet me." Rusty whispered.
Well that was that explained.
Rusty skipped back and started babbling happily. He looked a lot younger than usual. Neat trick, really. "Fred! Guess what! I'm on the soccer team! And Tony said that I was really good, 'cause I scored three goals and he only got one!"
"That's great, kiddo." Hopefully the slight pause when he fell over the name was unnoticeable. He nodded politely to the woman standing behind Rusty. "I hope he didn't cause any trouble." He noted sardonically that the candy wrappers falling out of Rusty's pockets matched the large bag of candy he could see peeking out of the woman's bag. And to think he'd been worried.
"Oh no," she reached out and ruffled Rusty's hair in a way that Danny knew he hated. "Jamie was just adorable. I only wish my grandsons were half as polite."
Danny bit the inside of his mouth. He really had to work at not giggling. "Well, thank you." He turned to Rusty and just managed to resist the temptation to ruffle his hair himself. "Now come on Jamie, we're meeting mom at the café. She said I should buy you a hot chocolate."
"That'll be nice I'm sure. Now, Jamie," She put a hand on Rusty's shoulder, and Danny stopped laughing inside; he knew that Rusty was struggling not to flinch. "You take care of yourself, do you hear me? Oh, and take these." She pulled the sack of candy out of her bag and held it out. Danny watched in amusement as Rusty murmured polite refusals before the bag vanished inside his rucksack. "Since you liked them so."
And then, with a steady stream of "Goodbyes", backward glances and little waves, she was gone.
Rusty immediately started eating the candy.
Danny shook his head in amusement. "The whole 'Stranger Danger' thing just passed right over your head, didn't it?"
"She was nice." Rusty protested.
"Next time, take a book." Danny advised. "Don't just lie to your fellow passengers."
Rusty turned his head to one side. "Are you really going to buy me a hot chocolate?"
"Buy your own, Jamie."
Grinning, Rusty started looking round. "Have you seen the ticket desk?"
"We don't need to get a bus right now." Danny pointed out. "The hotel is only six blocks away."
Rusty looked at him like he was an idiot. "They'll be able to tell us what buses we can get to Woodlawn tomorrow."
"Oh. Right." He hadn't really planned that far ahead.
"That's why you keep me around." One of the reasons, anyway.
It was as they stepped out of the bus station that Danny noticed Rusty shivering.
"Should have worn a coat." he pointed out smugly.
Rusty shrugged awkwardly, and Danny suddenly found himself trying to remember the last time he'd seen Rusty wearing his coat. It had been last winter. And the sleeves had been getting short then.
He sighed. "Well. At least it proves that you've finally grown."
Rusty looked at him. "I'm tall for my age." he remarked, casually.
"But short for your height."
They walked in thoughtful silence for a few steps.
"That made no sense." Rusty said, at the exact same moment as Danny sighed; "I know."
Dismissing the issue, Danny shook his head. "We need to get you a coat."
"It can wait." Rusty said quickly. Pretty obvious that he was worried about money. So was Danny for that matter. It was already going to be tight.
That really, really wasn't the point though. "If you freeze to death, I'll have no-one to talk to."
"Well, as long as you're being selfish about it." Rusty said understandingly.
"So, shall we hit the shops?"
Rusty considered it. "Nah. We should get cash first."
Made sense – they didn't know the security arrangements in the shops here, but getting cash was the same all over.
He looked round carefully but his gaze finally settled on a tall man in a business suit. Perfect.
Rusty caught his eye and smiled slightly. "So she said – " he began loudly, stepping sideways as though ready to go round the man.
"That's right." Danny agreed absently, dodging to the other side. Looked like there was something in the guy's back pocket and inside his jacket.
"And did you tell her?" Danny just saw Rusty make the lift, but only because he'd been looking. At the same time his own hand slipped into the guy's back pocket and grinned mentally as his hand brushed a leather wallet.
It was over in rather less than a second, and when they were well away, Danny leaned in close to Rusty. "Tell her what?" he asked curiously.
"Like I was listening." Rusty paused mid-step and produced a packet of cigarettes. Ah. So that was what the guy kept in his jacket.
"Now those will stunt your growth." he said, mildly disapprovingly, as he watched Rusty light up.
"After spending hours on that bus, I need one." Rusty answered simply.
Danny could sympathise. After the trip up with the debate club he'd had to vanish for a quick smoke himself. Fortunately the travel sick excuse not only got him out of the afternoon's excursion to the Chicago Cultural Centre, it had also given him an excuse to disappear at every rest stop along the way.
Rusty lit a second cigarette and passed it over. "What did you get?"
Danny took a long drag before producing the wallet.
"Ah." Rusty said intelligently.
Leafing through it, Danny raised an eyebrow. "There's got to be a hundred and fifty dollars here. That'll get you a new coat."
"And keep us fed for a week and more." Rusty was grinning happily.
There was a cough behind them. Danny spun round and found himself face to face with the owner of the wallet, who reached out and grabbed the pair of them by the collars.
Well. This was a new experience.
"Boys. You are in serious trouble."
Danny was too busy squirming to pay attention to the man's quiet voice. He twisted, half trying to break free and half-trying to see how Rusty was doing.
Shit. Rusty wasn't even trying to get free. For a moment Danny thought that he'd simply frozen, but then he saw the blankness in Rusty's eyes. And he was still clutching the lit cigarette and he was staring at the hand on his shoulder and Danny couldn't see a single way in which that could end well.
"Let go of him. Now." Danny demanded, with hell of a lot more assurance than he felt.
To his complete astonishment the guy let both of them go, with an approving look at Danny and a concerned glance at Rusty. Damn. Normally people weren't that perceptive.
Thinking quickly, Danny faked a stumble and reached a hand out to Rusty to steady himself. He squeezed Rusty's left forearm gently, hoping desperately that Rusty would understand his silent question; 'Are you with me?'
He was relieved when Rusty stood up straight, and calmly said "So I suppose you want your wallet back, huh?"
The man looked amused. "For a start."
Danny handed it over; wishing that he'd thought to take the cash out immediately.
"Thanks." the guy said dryly. He stood staring at them for a few moments and Danny wished he could think of something to do. If they ran now, one of them would probably be able to get away, but there was the problem right there.
"So what now?" he asked. "Are we all going out for pizza or what?"
The guy looked somewhat amused. "My name's Robert Caldwell. You can call me Bobby." He waited, expectantly.
Something told Danny that this wasn't a good time to spin a line. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rusty nod almost imperceptibly. "I'm Danny Ocean and this is Rusty Ryan."
"Well, Danny – Rusty – " he nodded at them in turn, "I have some things I'd like to discuss with you."
"We were always told never to talk to strangers." Rusty said cheerfully. Danny took a moment out from worrying to shoot him a glare.
"Don't worry, I'm a father myself." That wasn't all that reassuring, but the way that Bobby's eyes lit up as he continued was. "Got a new son. Three weeks old. Want to see a picture?"
Danny and Rusty exchanged an incredulous glance. "Uh, sure." Danny said hesitantly.
Bobby pulled a stack of photos out of his wallet. "See?" he proclaimed proudly.
They looked. To Danny all the pictures seemed to show was a baby from a variety of angles. "He's cute." he said, sincerity dripping from every word. It was the sort of thing he'd heard his mom say to his cousin last month.
"He has your jaw." Rusty commented. Danny looked at him sharply then studied the pictures closer. Huh. He could just about see that, actually.
"His name's Linus." Bobby was actually smiling now, and it was difficult to see how he'd ever looked remotely intimidating.
"Good name." Danny said with a disarming grin.
"We thought so." Bobby put away the photos and his expression turned serious. "Now. I wanted to talk to you about that little lift you just made."
This conversation was seeming less and less likely to end up with 'So we're going to the police.' "What about it?" he asked.
"Don't get me wrong. You're good. You've got a lot of potential. But you aren't quite as good as you think you are."
Danny blinked; this conversation was definitely heading in a weird direction.
"You're a thief." Rusty stated, and Danny found himself nodding. It was the only thing that made sense.
"Among other things." Bobby said, slightly evasively.
"So," Danny took a deep breath. "How did you spot us?"
"First of all, your double-team bit is good. You must have been working it for a while."
"Few years." Rusty said casually.
"But you," he turned to Danny, "Need to work on not watching your partner's hands when he makes the lift, and you," he turned to Rusty, "Need to stop telegraphing with your shoulder. You turn your whole body just before you reach. And both of you need to learn to be more subtle when you're sizing up your mark."
Danny took a moment to consider. Made a lot of sense, really. "So what can we do about it?"
"You need practice. If you got a couple of hours, I'd be willing to give you a few tips."
Sounded good to Danny, but he turned to Rusty, just in case. "So what - ?"
Rusty nodded. "Could be – "
"On the other hand – " Danny frowned, but Rusty quickly shook his head.
"Don't think so."
OK, then. He turned back to Bobby. "We're in."
Bobby looked from one to the other, seeming confused. "Do you two always do that?"
"Do what?" they asked in unison.
Bobby shook his head. "Never mind."
They spent the next couple of hours practicing picking pockets; first on Bobby and on each other, and then – once Bobby gave his approval - on unsuspecting members of the public. Afterwards, Bobby actually did take them out for pizza. It was all a little strange.
"So, you got a place to stay?" Bobby asked, as they'd been preparing to leave.
"Yeah." Danny nodded. Technically, they weren't sure if the plan for Rusty to check into the hotel was going to work, but no matter how nice Bobby had been so far, well, it was a little early to be trusting him.
"And it's safe?" Bobby was staring at them intently.
Danny suddenly realised that Bobby didn't necessarily know that they weren't in Chicago permanently. They'd kept all conversation purposefully vague. Fortunately Rusty saved him the trouble of answering. "It's good."
"Good." Bobby seemed to relax. He reached into his wallet. "Here. Take these." He handed them a business card each. "You ever need me for anything, call me. I mean that. Anything at all." He looked at them sternly and Danny suddenly found himself envying Bobby's kid.
He nodded quickly. "Thank you." he managed.
Bobby looked at his watch and swore. "Sorry. Molly's going to kill me. Now, you two take care. And I will see you around."
"We will." Danny promised.
"And thanks." Rusty added.
They walked to the hotel in silence. On the whole, it was shaping up to be an interesting sort of day.
Just outside the door Rusty froze, his hand in the pocket of his new coat. "Huh."
Danny looked round; that had sounded serious. "What?"
Rusty pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket. "I'd say about a hundred and fifty dollars."
Bobby's one hundred and fifty dollars. "Huh. And you didn't - ?"
" - Of course not." Rusty interrupted indignantly. Danny hadn't seriously thought it for a second.
"We had money." he pointed out. "He watched us getting money."
He watched Rusty's jaw clench. "I don't like – "
"- I know." Come to that, he wasn't too happy about it either. On the other hand; "We were happy enough to steal it in the first place."
Rusty looked at him like he was insane. "So we should just – "
" – Can you think of anything else we can do?" he demanded.
Sighing heavily, Rusty shook his head. "I don't like it."
Well. They were pretty much going to have to put up with it. "Shall we?" he asked, gesturing at the hotel.
Rusty nodded, and ducked inside. Danny counted to thirty in his head, then followed.
He joined the queue at the front desk immediately behind Rusty, who once again was looking very young, and was staring constantly at the door as though waiting for someone, the cheque clutched in his outstretched hand. Oh, he was good.
As Rusty reached the desk, Danny contrived to look like he wasn't eavesdropping. Not exactly difficult.
"Can I help you, son?"
Rusty appeared to stare desperately at the door one last time. "Uh, my dad, he uh, asked me to give you this." He handed the cheque to the amused-looking concierge. "And to say . . . uh, to say . . ." Danny could just picture his face – wide-eyed, biting his lip, clearly panicked. "To-say-that-we-gotta-reservation-under-Attwood." he finished in a rush.
"A reservation under Attwood?" She looked at the book in front of her. "Yes, I've got that here, and there's no problem with the cheque, but I really need to speak to your father."
There was a slight pause. "He's outside arguing with the driver. He asked me to . . . he'll be real mad at me." That voice was so small that it broke Danny's heart. And he knew that Rusty was an unprincipled, unscrupulous liar.
The concierge had no such defence. "Well, all right. Just this once. Here's the key. Give it to your father and tell him that he'll need to come and sign the book."
"Thank you, thank you." Rusty chirped happily. Then he turned and ran towards the door, as if he'd seen someone. "Dad!"
Danny stepped up to the desk, before the concierge could realise that there was no-one there. "Excuse me," he smiled. "I wonder if you could help me. I'm in room 618, and the phone doesn't seem to be working." Which, of course, was because calling-out had been disabled at Mr. Wishaw's request, and he was about to endure yet another lecture on the subject, but that wasn't the point.
The point was, that they'd just successfully scammed their way into a hotel. Now there was something to be proud of.
Sleep was difficult. And not just because Timothy was snoring at roughly the same volume and pitch as a chainsaw, though that definitely didn't help. The unfamiliar surroundings – the unfamiliar people – were unnerving. It wasn't just that he wasn't used to sharing a room with three – relative – strangers, though every time anyone moved, or a bed squeaked, he spent five minutes trying to figure out exactly who it was, and if they were awake, or if they were sneaking out of bed. It was actually pretty exhausting. And still he was awake, staring at the ceiling, and pondering exactly how many things could go wrong tomorrow.
It was after he caught himself wondering what would happen if it turned out that Teddy Norman really was under surveillance by the FBI that he finally figured that enough was enough. He grabbed his coat, shuffled into a pair of shoes and headed towards the door.
"Danny?" he froze; that was clearly Roger's voice, even if it was just a whisper. "Where are you going?"
Turning round, he could just make out Roger sitting up in bed. "Just stepping outside. I'll be back before morning." he whispered back. "Don't worry; I'm not leaving the hotel."
Roger nodded in the near-darkness, and lay back down. Well, that was surprisingly easy. He slipped out of the door and padded downstairs to Rusty's room.
Feeling somewhat silly, he knocked on the door and waited. It was a couple of minutes until it opened a crack.
"Yeah?" Rusty's voice.
"'S me."
The door swung open completely, just in time for him to see Rusty walking back into the room. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked, over his shoulder.
"Timothy snores." he answered, closing the door behind him. The room looked about the same size as his, but there were only two beds, and a TV was blaring out some sitcom that Danny didn't recognise. "Hey, there's no TV upstairs."
Rusty shrugged, and flopped onto one of the beds. "You get what you pay for."
"We're not paying for anything." Danny pointed out. He was about to lie down on the other bed, when he noticed that the blanket was all twisted up, the mattress was crooked, and half the pillows were on the floor. Turning to Rusty, he raised an eyebrow.
"Figured that both beds should look slept in." Rusty answered, without looking at Danny.
Danny picked up the pillows and said nothing.
"I might have got a little carried away." Rusty admitted after a minute.
Danny shook his head, made himself comfortable on the bed, and settled in to watch TV.
"Want some M&Ms?" Rusty offered, after ten minutes or so of silence. "Got them out the mini bar."
That bore closer investigation. He glanced inside the mini bar. As he might have predicted, nearly everything except the alcohol had gone. (And that was something of a relief. No matter how little the age gap might mean to them, well, twelve seemed a little too young to be drinking to Danny.) "Isn't all that stuff really expensive?"
Rusty sat up, looking a little surprised. "There was no price list . . . "
"I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that prices in hotel mini bars are daylight robbery."
"Well, I guess we weren't planning on paying anyway." Rusty pointed out, lying back down.
Fair point. Danny grabbed the last can of Dr. Pepper and a Snickers bar and returned to the bed and TV watching.
"Mind if I turn it off?" Rusty yawned, when the program was done.
"Sure." Danny could barely keep his eyes open. Seemed likely that sleep would be a lot easier to come by now.
Sneaking out of the thing had been surprisingly easy. It was being held in a school, so all he had to do was wait until Mr. Wishaw was distracted by one of the stalls, and duck out of another door. He could rely on the debate team swearing blind all day that they'd seen him just a moment ago, and that he'd run off to look at the presentation on Old English, or whatever. Provided of course, that he showed up at the last-minute rehearsal at five. Otherwise, he was toast.
Getting back into town was also pretty simple – thanks mainly to Rusty having taken the time to write down half the bus timetables in Chicago.
And finding Rusty had been really easy, as he was exactly where he'd said he'd be – in the window booth of the café next to the hotel, sitting behind a giant mug of . . . well, it appeared to be a giant mug of whipped cream and marshmallows, but Danny was prepared to believe that there was some hot chocolate or something buried underneath it. Probably.
No, the difficult bit had come after they got off the bus in Woodlawn and discovered that their map didn't quite seem to match up with the streets.
"Maybe down that way?" Danny suggested, after around half an hour of fruitless wandering.
"We've been down there already." Rusty didn't take his eyes off the map.
Danny squinted thoughtfully. "You sure?" It didn't look that familiar. But then, nothing did.
"We came up it, then we went down there," he pointed at a different street, "then we came up there – "
" – And now we're lost."
"More temporarily misplaced."
"Lost." Danny said firmly.
Rusty handed the map over. "Want a shot?"
"Sure." At this stage it couldn't do any harm. He stared at the map for several minutes, but couldn't make any more sense of it than Rusty. He sighed. "I think we might need to swallow our pride and ask for directions."
"Yeah."
After looking round, Danny stepped out in front of a woman pushing a stroller. "Excuse me." He began politely.
"Yes, dear?"
"Do you know where Marquette Street is?" Rusty asked with a smile.
"Let me think, now." They waited. "Oh yes, it's just down there." She pointed down the street that Danny had indicated in the first place.
"Thank you ma'am." She smiled vaguely at them and walked off.
Danny turned to Rusty with a smirk. "You know – "
"Yep." Rusty said flatly.
"I'm just saying – " He tried again, but Rusty cut him off.
"We had been down there before. We must just have missed it."
Yeah, that was probably true. But all the same; "I told you so."
After that, finding the place was pretty easy and they waited on the door while Teddy Norman tried to figure out if they were a threat or not.
"Come inside." he said finally. "Quickly."
The hall was cramped and smelt of damp. Teddy didn't seem inclined to invite them any further into the house. "Are you sure you weren't followed."
"We were careful." Danny replied seriously.
Teddy looked them over sharply. "I was expecting somebody older." he said suspiciously. "Who's behind you?"
"Nobody." Danny was caught off guard.
"We're an independent operation." Rusty put in.
That seemed to satisfy Teddy for the moment. "Have you got the money?"
"Have you got the lock picks?" Danny countered.
"Whoah, whoah!" Teddy yelled, unexpectedly. "Are you crazy? Don't ever say that. Merchandise. Ask about merchandise."
Danny resisted the urge to meet Rusty's eyes. Keeping a straight face was already hard enough. "OK. Have you got the merchandise?"
"Just a minute." Teddy vanished into one of the other rooms, and Danny bit his lip and looked at Rusty, who gave a half-shrug. Yeah. That was pretty much Danny's opinion too.
"Here they are." Teddy reappeared, clutching a small leather case, which he opened to show a gleaming set of lock picks. Beautiful. "Now. You got the money?"
Rusty pulled a couple of notes out of his pocket. "Twenty dollars, as agreed."
Teddy's eyes narrowed. "I'm changing the agreement. Fifty."
The little shit. Fifty dollars was still less than they'd be willing to pay, but there was a principle involved here. "Twenty-two." he offered.
"Forty-five." Great. If the asshole was going down in fives, that would make it easier.
"Twenty-four fifty." Rusty cut in. Brilliantly, in Danny's opinion.
Teddy blinked. "Forty?" He was sounding a little confused. Probably expected them to haggle in round numbers.
"Twenty-seven dollars and thirty eight cents." Danny countered.
"Thirty." Hah!
They both said "Done." just before Teddy realised his mistake and said "No, wait thirty-five."
"Nice doing business with you." Rusty said casually as he added another note to the pile and handed it over to the glowering Teddy. Danny was examining the lock picks carefully. This was going make life easier. And much more fun.
After they got outside, Rusty turned to him with a knowing smirk. "So," he began. "You should be getting back to the thing, right?"
He probably should. There was always the chance, however unlikely, that Mr. Wishaw would figure out he was gone. Still. He smiled. "We've got time to see the sights."
To his amusement, Rusty pulled a guidebook out of his pocket. "That's what I figured."
He honestly just couldn't resist. It was an astonishingly bad idea – he had no idea what he'd say if he was caught – but picking the door to Rusty's hotel room seemed so much cooler than just knocking.
This time he hadn't even tried to sleep; he'd just waited until the other three had dozed off before he snuck downstairs. They hadn't discussed it; but in all probability Rusty was expecting him.
Or not, he thought, as the lock finally 'clicked' and the door swung open. The TV was on full-blast again, and Rusty was bouncing on the bed. He was facing the wall, so he hadn't seen Danny yet.
Choking back a laugh, and keeping his face blank, Danny coughed politely. He had to admit, he was a little amused as Rusty spun round – in mid-air, no less – lost his footing and fell to the floor between the beds, out of Danny's view.
Danny stepped into the room and closed the door firmly behind him. "You just fell off the bed." he stated, unnecessarily.
"I noticed, thanks." Rusty's muffled voice came from floor-level, a second before he stood up and dusted himself off, self-consciously. "The lock picks work fine, then."
"Best thirty dollars we ever spent." Danny grinned.
There was a knock at the door. That wasn't good.
He glanced at Rusty. "Room service?" he asked quietly.
Rusty shook his head. "Too risky." Yeah, they probably would have noticed that there was no-one in the room but Rusty.
The knocking came again. "Ocean. I know you're there. Open the door.
Rusty frowned "Isn't that – "
"Julian Meadows. Yeah." Really not good.
Not seeing much of a choice, Danny opened the door. "Yeah?"
To Danny's slight surprise, Julian wasn't still clutching his trophy – the guy had barely let go of it all evening. He stepped aside and let Julian push his way into the room, where he immediately stopped and stared, open-mouthed at Rusty.
"Julian." Danny prompted, figuring that the best thing to do was to act like nothing was wrong. "What do you want?"
"He's here." Julian turned back to Danny.
"Yeah." Danny waited for something more.
"He can't be here. What the hell are you thinking, Ocean? I mean, Jesus! You can't just drag your little sidekick to Chicago! Do his parents even know where he is?"
Sidekick. Right. Danny made a mental note to screw Julian over the next chance he got. "What did you want, Julian?" he asked again.
Julian shook his head slowly. "Look, I've been thinking – and this only makes me more certain. I need to tell someone what you've been doing."
Shit. "We had a deal." he said, far calmer than he felt.
"I know." To his credit, Julian did look slightly ashamed. "But I should never have agreed. You can't go wandering around a strange city without supervision. And you certainly can't leave a child to stay by himself. Anything could happen. Can't you see that?"
Danny opened his mouth to point out that – whatever their actual age – neither of them were children, but Rusty stepped forward.
"You're pretty into all this debate team stuff, aren't you Julian." Rusty said, lazily. "It is all right if I call you Julian, isn't it?"
Julian nodded stiffly, apparently waiting to see where Rusty was going with this. Danny was pretty curious himself.
"Now, by my understanding, your participation is dependent on academic results, right? So, if – just for example – it was found out that someone had copied their English exam off of Unity Freeman, well, that would be a problem, wouldn't it?"
Oh, this was good. "They'd flunk English. Be booted off the team." he put in, ostensibly talking to Rusty.
"Do you think they'd have to give their nice, shiny trophy back?" Rusty asked thoughtfully.
Danny smiled – or at least showed his teeth – staring at Julian. "Anything's possible."
"This is blackmail." Julian whispered hoarsely.
"Right." Danny agreed. "Is it working?"
Julian glared at the floor. "I don't have a choice. I'll keep my mouth shut." To Danny, he seemed to be telling the truth, but he glanced at Rusty for a second opinion. An infinitesimal smile. Right. They were probably safe then.
"I'll see you in the morning, Julian." Danny said, firmly sweeping the other boy to the door. He left without any more fuss.
Once the door closed, they both collapsed on the nearest bed.
"Still." Rusty began, after a couple of minutes. "It's been fun, right?"
Danny closed his eyes and smiled. "We should do it again sometime."
"I've always wanted to go to Disneyland." Rusty said thoughtfully.
Why not?
Wasn't that long? If you don't mind, please review.