The Ocean's Job

Disclaimer: I do not own Oceans 11 or 12 or the Italian Job or any characters or plot lines relating to them.

Darkdestiney:- Thanks for reviewing, glad you liked it

Jocelyn Towers:- Thanks for reviewing, yeah I'd have to agree that it's getting a little slow, but I'm going to start writing about the heist next chapter. Also I'm not that big (or good) at love scenes, but the story is Stella/Charlie, I imagine Linus and Stella to have a more brother/sisterly relationship.

Linus entered the mausoleum, the light from the moon didn't carry through to the inside and he wondered how he had forgotten to grab the torch his dad always kept in the car. Walking further in he put his hands in front of himself to make sure he didn't walk into anything. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light he looked around himself. The crypt was very old and held generations of family from his mother's side. He could almost make out some of the names that lined the back wall. Walking along he bent down, the last name was his grandmothers, she wasn't born into the family, but that didn't really matter. Linus looked to his right. There was enough space for about 10 more people. Happy that there would be enough room Linus stood up and left, closing the door after himself. He was about to head back to the car when Stella's voice interrupted him.

"Clair?"

Crap. He hadn't even thought of Clair, he paused wanting to tell Stella the truth, but at the same time knowing he couldn't. Clair would kill him. Nodding he turned and followed Stella further into the cemetery. Linus winced as he accidentally stepped on a small pile of dry leaves, making them crumble under his shoe. Whilst Stella didn't turn Linus found the sound so loud he was almost surprised he couldn't see lights turning on in the small houses that surrounded the cemetery. Grandpa had always thought him to walk quietly, never to make more noise than absolutely necessary, 'the smallest wrong move could draw attention.' Majority of people would probably just say 'well duh!' but most people wouldn't know what a wrong move could include. Fixing your hat at the wrong time, biting your lip, and as far as being a pickpocket went making any noise when walking was definitely a wrong move.

Stella stopped walking and bent down in front of a white marble grave. In the dim light Linus could almost make out the face of a 15 year old girl. Walking further along Linus read the two graves next to Clair's, her parents. Her father, Greg, had worked with his dad and John, well that might be bending the truth a little. Linus didn't think Greg had ever done a job with another person in his life. But he was still friends with John and Bobby, which is how Stella and Linus met Clair. They were 7 at the time. Greg, Sue and Clair moved to Chicago and Linus, Stella and Clair were all in the same class at school. They had all been close, but Linus always thought of Clair differently to Stella. Whilst Stella was like his sister, Clair had more in common with him. She was thief, born into it, like he was, even if she never acted on it. Stella could crack a safe like no man's business, there was no doubt about that, but she never had it. Not that Linus was too sure what 'it' was, he supposed 'it' was like the 'X factor'.

Continuing to walk along the line of graves Linus stopped in front of the 3rd. Susanne White-Cowan, Linus doubted she really knew what she was getting herself into when she agreed to marry Greg. Sure she knew he was a thief, but does anyone who wasn't raised in this world really understand? Sure Sue knew Greg stole things, she knew he was good at it, and she knew that whilst it hadn't happened at the time there was a good chance he would be set to jail sometime for a stupid mistake. But did she know that she would be the one to get a bullet through her heart?

Linus didn't think so.

It wasn't like the Cowan's where the first family to be attacked, they were the last, that Linus knew of anyway. But they had been a big one. Not because the assassin shot a 15 year old girl, but because no one really knew why it happened.

Turning back to face Stella, who had now risen to her feet but was still looking at the photo of Clair as though she believed it would come to life and Clair would talk to her one more time, Linus remembered how angry she had been with him for agreeing to go to Vegas. He had spoken to her before he left, and she had been absolutely furious with him. Not that she was mad, just scared, same as she was with her dad and Charlie. He guessed she believed he would understand. Don't get involved, you'll get hurt. And as someone had threatened to kill him for his first job he'd have to agree that she was right. Linus didn't regret Vegas though. Never had, not even when he spotted Benedict watching him smoking a cigar on the edge of the street, Linus had to admit that as much as he had learnt about 'the game' when the Cowans died he really hadn't seen that coming. However compared to some of the others his shock was about nothing, Linus thought the Malloy's had taken it the worst. They were in it for fun and money, not that he wasn't, but they had spent their 'careers' working with guys like Danny and Rusty, guys who could put on the act of being so confident they had everyone, including themselves, convinced that nothing could go wrong. They were wrong.

Finally Stella's eyes rise to meet his, and then silently she turns and starts walking back down the path towards the car.

As they hit the highway Stella saw an all night fast food shop and realises just how hungry she is, "do you want to stop for a bite?" she asked.

Linus doesn't show any sign of hearing her for a second before responding "I'm not really hungry, but sure if you want."

Stella watches him for a moment as he turns the jag into the car park. His face is as expressionless as his voice was, which scared her a little. Most people probably wouldn't find that very strange, but she knew Lenny, he was the kind of person you could read like a book. However right now she had no idea what he was thinking. She knew what her dad, Charlie and the others thought, they thought he was taking the death surprisingly well. Her dad had assumed that after the Cowan's Linus had more or less prepared himself in case something like that happened to his parents. Stella knew better. Linus was taking it awfully, but it hadn't hit him yet. He knew they were gone, but he didn't really understand. And he was waiting to let himself understand, Stella figured that when the funeral was over and the thing with Benedict died down he would come to terms with it, and begin to accept what had happened. However until that time she was going to live up to something Annie had jokingly made her promise when she was 9, she was going to look after him, and no matter how annoyed with her he got, he would just have to deal with it.

With this challenge in mind Stella told him in her most knowing tone, "Yes you are."

Linus should have been surprised, he should have given her an extremely confused look (because Linus couldn't handle the partly confused look). But instead he kept his eyes on the road, and simply said "excuse me?"

"You're hungry." Stella answered

"Why do you think I'm hungry?" he asked as he parked the car and finally turned to face her.

"Because you haven't eaten in days, and it is therefore physically impossible for you to not be hungry." She informed him, a look in her eyes as if daring him to challenge her.

Knowing she was telling the truth Linus shock his head and got out of the car. "I've been busy," he snuck a look at her to see if she was going to back down, "planning a funeral is surprisingly hard work."

Stella just glared at him in response, "you could have eaten any time last night."

"I was sleeping"

"No you weren't, you were watching TV." Linus gave her a look, wondering how she could have known that, so she continued. "Rob said he joined you around 4."

Linus didn't say anything, knowing there really wasn't anyway to argue with Stella or she would go into a rant about every little thing he had done wrong in his life, and unfortunately she knew a lot of them. Going inside he ordered Stella a burger and chips, and sat down across from her. As Stella glared at him, "I'll eat some of your chips." He assured her, even though they both knew he had no intention of doing that.

Stella ate silently as Linus watched the street, the number of cars was slowly increasing as it got closer to dawn, and he could see the sky turning orange. He watched as the huge hands of a clock in the window of the pawn shop across the street slowly made their way around the face.

John smiled up at Rosa as she placed breakfast and coffee in front of him on the table. He knew that if the guys weren't up soon he'd have to wake them, they'd told Lenny that they would pick Ocean and his guys up from the airport and the plane arrived in an hour.

As he ate he wondered why Stella wasn't up yet, she had never been one to sleep in. When he came into the kitchen that morning he had been surprised to find Rosa was the only other occupant, she had quickly greeted him and shown him to the dinning room explaining that Bobby had let all the help off for the week and she had only found out what happened when she got in this morning. After apologising for his loss Rosa had insisted on making breakfast, and wouldn't be stopped no matter how often John told her himself, Stella the guys would be fine with toast or cereal.

As he finished his meal it occurred to John that he hadn't seen Linus since waking up. All the times that Bobby and himself had been working late and he slept in a guest bedroom Linus was always the first one he saw in the morning. The kid never seemed to need his sleep, and given the recent event John had figured he would be sleeping even less. Getting up John walked down the hall towards the TV room, he assumed that Linus would be in there as it was where he spent the night before, according to Rob. Opening the large door he was slightly disheartened, and a little worried to find it empty.

John figured there was a good chance Stella had seen him, they had always been lose and as she had lived here she knew the house better than he did. John walked towards the East-Wing, where he knew Stella and Linus's rooms where, slowly to admire the many paintings that graced the walls as he went.

John knocked on Stella's door, hearing no reply he opened the door slowly and was surprised to see that whilst the bed looked messy and had clearly been slept in Stella wasn't there. Wondering where she could be John walked through the living room area, big enough to be used as a common room in a boarding school, to where Linus's bedroom was. John didn't bother knocking this time, knowing well what he would find on the other side. Opening the door he was not at all surprised to find the room empty with a made bed that had clearly not been slept in.

Taking a glance at his watch John realised he had to wake up the guys. Deciding he would worry about where the kids got off to later, John turned and went to wake up Charlie.

Turk stared dully out the window of the back seat as Rob drove. After arriving in Chicago they had met the other guys, who Turk assumed they would be doing the LA job with, and split up into cars. Turk was sitting in the back seat whilst Rob drove, Livingston was across from him and Frank was riding in the front. Somehow the car ride seemed even more boring than the 12 hours on a plane. Probably because he was use to driving, sitting in the back seat staring pointlessly out at the street whilst Frank and Rob talked about god knows what in the front was not his thing.

Turk lent back in his seat as they turned off the highway, he dully noted as the surroundings turned from the 'big city' type streets to a rural area. The houses where gradually getting bigger and Turk realised Linus must have grown up somewhere around here, they were after all going to his parents house.

The car started ascending a small hill and Turk noticed that there were no houses anymore just a very green lawn surrounding the flat, clean road. Turk sat up with more interest as they drove through some large open gates, looking forwards up the hill he could see a large house at the top of it. House seemed to be a bit of a stretch, this place was huge, a mansion, maybe even a castle.

As the group walked into the foyer it was obvious that Turk was not the only one who had been surprised about the house the kid had been raised in. Reuben had been here before, but only once and that was around 20 years ago, however he was also surprised at how he had underestimated this place. Annie came from old money, he had always known that, but he had kind of forgotten about it until now.

"Good you're here, let's go." Everyone spun around as Linus walked into the room, followed by Stella, and headed straight for the front door.

"We just got back." John told him, surprise evident in his voice.

"Well you should have driven faster." Everyone in the room was surprised to hear him say that, the kid didn't speak much (not in large groups anyway) and he definitely didn't argue.

"We were driving at speed limit." Rob informed him.

"Well, I'll bet there were cars lined up behind you for miles," Linus turned and continued for the door. "Now I really don't care if you come," he told then "but if you are leave now or you'll be late." With that Linus turned and led the way out the door.